--:-- John Bickley: The fallout escalates both domestically and abroad following one of the largest U.S. intelligence leaks in history. I have not heard anything that would affect our cooperation with allies and partners. We break down the latest on the exposed documents and what they claim about our allies and enemies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Monday, April 17th, and this is Morning Wire. Facing multiple foreign policy crises, the Biden administration scrambles to shore up U.S. influence abroad. What moves is the president making? And why is the secretary of state in talks with communist Vietnam?
--:-- John Bickley: And Dominion Voting System's much-anticipated lawsuit against Fox News finally gets underway this week. Their argument's going to be that they were just covering the news. People were making these allegations. They had an obligation to cover it.
--:-- Georgia Howe: We discuss what to expect and how much is on the line. Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- John Bickley: As we learn more about the 21-year-old Air National Guardsman behind one of the largest Pentagon leaks in modern history, the international fallout continues as allies and enemies alike express outrage at alleged American spying efforts abroad. Here are the latest on this historic leak and what it means for American foreign relations and national security is Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, on Thursday, federal agents arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman living in Massachusetts. He was working as a low-level IT specialist, but did have access to sensitive intelligence through a security clearance. According to officials, Teixeira leaked the documents into group chat on Discord, a social media and messaging app popular with online gamers and others.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Teixeira, known in the chat as the OG, began typing out information he claimed was classified. When users doubted that it was authentic, in January, he began printing off images and uploading those photos directly to the chat. Deschere claimed the documents proved the U.S. government was lying to the general public about their role in Ukraine and betraying our allies by illegally spying on them.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: The trove of documents he shared soon began circulating on other social media platforms before coming to the government's attention in March. What charges is he now facing? Deschere faces two charges under the Espionage Act for, quote, retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: If convicted, he faces up to 15 years behind bars, though it's worth noting there could be more charges coming as the investigation continues. Now, critics at Teixeira say that he should be punished severely for disclosing national secrets and undermining U.S. standing abroad. But there are supporters. They say he should be granted whistleblower protection for alerting the American people that our government appears to be lying about key aspects of the war in Ukraine.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So expect to hear more of that debate as the trial commences later this year. Yeah, I'm sure we will. There's also been a great deal of conversation about the media's role in uncovering the person behind these leaks.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, so soon after the story went public, legacy media outlets began working around the clock to uncover the identity of the leaker. Eventually the New York Times identified DeShera before authorities had arrested him. And it's worth noting their rush to identify him drew a great deal of criticism from those who viewed it as hypocritical.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Remember for years media outlets have published leaked information and then called for whistleblower protection for people who leaked that information. The New York Times has even won Pulitzer Prizes for publishing leaked material and then gone to court to keep the identity of leakers private.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: One New York Times reporter David Phillips addressed that apparent hypocrisy in a now-deleted tweet, saying, quote, that the New York Times worked feverishly to find the identity of the guy leaking top-secret docs on Discord. Ironically, if the same guy had leaked to the New York Times, we'd be working feverishly to conceal it.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there are also those on the right who say the media has not shown the same fervor in tracking down the individual who leaked the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe. They say it's yet another example of political bias from the media.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Before we let you go, let's get to some of the fallout from these leaks. We've already seen some international outrage. What's the latest there? Yeah, it is hard to overstate just how significant and far-reaching the consequences of these leaks are.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: While some other famous leaks in the past involved information that stretched back decades, this case is different because it involves current operations and gives a real-time peek into efforts from the Pentagon and our intelligence agencies.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Among other things, the documents show that we've been allegedly actively spying on top levels of government among our allies, like Israel, South Korea, and Egypt. They also show we've been secretly monitoring the private communications of high-ranking UN officials and other foreign leaders.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: And there's also information on the war in Ukraine. Yeah, that is the other big revelation. The documents appear to contradict US claims about the war in Ukraine. Specifically, they appear to show that we've been downplaying Ukrainian casualties while exaggerating the success of Ukrainian efforts in the region.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Documents also show the Pentagon believes Russia will achieve air superiority in Ukraine by early May due to rapidly depleting munitions on the Ukrainian side. And perhaps most importantly, the documents show an American military presence inside of Ukraine, which would totally contradict government claims about our direct role in the conflict.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: That small unit allegedly consists of dozens of British, French, American, and Latvian special forces, and would mean NATO troops are operating within Ukraine. According to Pentagon officials, the biggest fear in Washington is now that the leak will erode trust among allies and leave other countries less likely to share intelligence with the U.S. in the future.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, certainly a messy and, as you say, potentially very consequential situation here. Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- John Bickley: That's Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips. Coming up, the Biden administration faces a handful of foreign policy crises. According to a recent poll, almost two-thirds of Americans don't have a will. That's kind of like being afraid your house will burn down and not having homeowner's insurance. Don't put it off any longer.
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--:-- Tim Pierce: President Biden has returned from a diplomatic trip to Ireland as foreign policy crises pile up around the globe. Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to talk us through the challenges that Biden faces in Europe and Asia.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So, Tim, President Biden recently returned from a trip overseas to Ireland and the UK. What did he accomplish while he was there? That's hard to say. Biden's trip to Ireland, which his son Hunter also made a rare appearance on, was short on business. Mostly, Biden toured around the Emerald Isle making speeches, visiting the odd historical site or venue, and remarking on his ancestral ties to the area.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Politico summarized the trip in its flagship newsletter this way: It was light on deliverables and heavy on vibes. And there is some relevant business for Biden to attend in the UK. The UK is currently trying to negotiate a narrow trade agreement with the US so Britain's car manufacturers can stay competitive in the US auto market.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Britain needs the deal to avoid some of the measures of the Inflation Reduction Act that were crafted to hurt China but have caught the UK up as well. Biden met with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak during the trip, but both camps report that it was a social visit unrelated to the trade negotiations.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Now, regarding China, Biden is attempting to build a coalition against Beijing. How's that going? Well, Biden is trying to build inroads in Southeast Asia through Vietnam. Secretary of State Antony Blinken broke ground for a new U.S. embassy in the country on Saturday, and he said the U.S. would be transferring a third Coast Guard cutter to Hanoi very soon.
--:-- Tim Pierce: He stayed away from any comments on China, though. It's worth noting that Vietnam is a communist-run country and has historically been very close to China. But it's recently become a hot location for U.S. companies relocating their supply chains out of China.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So that is obviously creating something of a wedge between Vietnam and China. Right now, the trend in many places, from South America to Europe to the Middle East, favors Chinese interests. Brazil's President Lula da Silva wants to work with Beijing to, as he says, balance world geopolitics.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Part of that is working with other BRICS countries to create an alternative to the dollar as the world's reserve currency. Now, France specifically made some headlines last week when President Macron commented about not following the U.S. stance on Beijing.
--:-- Tim Pierce: What happened there? Right. French President Emmanuel Macron thinks that the European Union takes too many cues from the U.S. and he wants the EU to embrace strategic autonomy and stay out of the feud between Washington and Beijing.
--:-- Tim Pierce: And France is not the only European country that doesn't want to get involved in a feud with China. According to the Pentagon leaks, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called the U.S. a main adversary of his administration.
--:-- Tim Pierce: The U.S. appears to have lost the most ground in the Middle East. More from the leaks, Turkey is a potential source of arms for Russian mercenaries, and Egypt as well. One leaked document said Cairo made plans to ship 40,000 rockets to Russia.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Saudi Arabia, historically in the U.S. camp, is building closer ties with the Chinese. Iran is cutting deals with both Russia and China as it continues to build up its nuclear program. And a Chinese company recently struck a deal with the Taliban to drill for oil in the northern part of Afghanistan.
--:-- Tim Pierce: So all considered, the U.S. has a variety of challenges on basically every continent right now.
--:-- John Bickley: All right. Well, Tim, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Tim Pierce: Thanks for having me.
--:-- John Bickley: That was Daily Wire reporter Tim Pierce. In one of the most widely covered cases in recent years, Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for $1.6 billion for defamation over claims aired on the network that the voting tabulator was used to help steal the election. The case finally begins this week.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining us to discuss the significant case is Carson Holloway, a Washington fellow in the Claremont Institute's Center for the American Life and author of Rethinking Libel, Defamation, and Press Accountability.
--:-- Carson Holloway: Welcome. A major case here. First, what do you expect each side to argue? Well, Dominion is going to argue that Fox was promoting defamatory claims about them by allowing the president or his supporters to argue that Dominion voting systems had changed the outcomes of the elections in some ways.
--:-- Carson Holloway: They'll argue that this is false and they'll argue that it's defamatory. And it certainly is defamatory under ordinary standards of American law because it's generally considered damaging to someone's reputation if you say that they can't do their job correctly.
--:-- Carson Holloway: Right and Dominion makes money from providing voting systems to states so if their reputation was besmirched in such a way that people wanted to use their business anymore they would have a claim that they'd been defamed.
--:-- Carson Holloway: I think Fox is going to argue that they weren't making these claims themselves. They were just providing a platform where the critics could make them. And that's part of their job as a news organization to allow people to argue the things that they want to without necessarily backing them up.
--:-- Carson Holloway: Now, leading up to this week, there's been a great deal of focus on Fox's internal communications, highlighting doubts from Fox hosts about the legitimacy of some of the claims about Dominion.
--:-- Carson Holloway: Why is that so important here? This goes back to New York Times versus Sullivan, which the Supreme Court decided in 1964. And in that case, the court laid down the doctrine that public figures will be treated differently than ordinary litigants when they sue for libel.
--:-- Carson Holloway: So an ordinary litigant, an ordinary person, if they feel they've been defamed or libeled, they only have to show that the claims made about them were false and that the claims were defamatory, hurt their reputation, damaged them in some way.
--:-- Carson Holloway: The public figure has to show more. They have to meet a standard that the court calls actual malice. Now, this means they have to show not only that the claims made were false and not only that they were damaging to the reputation, but also that the person publishing the claims knew that they were false or acted with reckless disregard as to whether they were true or false.
--:-- Carson Holloway: So in a case like this, since Dominion will be treated as a public figure because of their role in helping to manage elections, there's a question as to whether the Fox people knew that what was being put out was false or not, or whether they acted with reckless disregard.
--:-- Carson Holloway: And that's why you get into looking at their internal communications, because the person suing has to be able to see those to see if there's evidence of their knowledge that they were promoting something that wasn't true.
--:-- Carson Holloway: If Fox were to lose this case, how much damage would this actually do to their bottom line? Well, you know, news organizations are insured for these kinds of lawsuits, so they're able to carry the risk.
--:-- Carson Holloway: One thing that I think should be pointed out, it's certain that they will appeal immediately if they lose. And because of the standards the Supreme Court has set, the actual malice standard, that's a very difficult standard to meet.
--:-- Carson Holloway: There have been numerous instances in the past where it's been pretty clear that something was said that was false and defamatory, but they still couldn't win because you couldn't show actual malice. The news organization was just acting maybe in a desire to put the stories out before other people put them out.
--:-- Carson Holloway: Maybe they acted in a way that was ordinarily careless, but that's not enough to show that. You have to show actual malice, again, knowledge that it was false or reckless disregard for truth or falsity.
--:-- John Bickley: Well, a politically fraught case that has a lot of implications for news reporting. Carson, thank you for coming on.
--:-- Carson Holloway: That was Claremont Institute fellow Carson Holloway, author of Rethinking Libel, Defamation, and Press Accountability.
--:-- John Bickley: Other stories we're tracking this week. Hundreds of teenagers caused a chaotic scene in downtown Chicago in what's being referred to by local news as another teen takeover. Crowds of teens smashed car windows and attacked bystanders, all under the sound of gunfire.
--:-- John Bickley: Police say two minors, one six years old and one 17 years old, were shot during the chaos. Both injuries were said to be non-life-threatening.
--:-- John Bickley: Hundreds of police officers assisted by SWAT teams escorted frightened tourists back to their cars and hotels as the city's Michigan Avenue was at a standstill.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon with more of the news you need to know.
