← Real America’s Voice
Real America’s Voice
Just the News No Noise with John Solomon and Amanda Head, November 7th, 2025
00:49:59
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Lauren Zell
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Joe Penland
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John Solomon
Hello America. Happy Friday. Welcome to the Latest edition, the weekend edition of Just the News. No Noise. I'm your host John Solomon, as always, reporting to you from the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. we have a little scoopy news to report to you. Just literally five seconds before that teleprompter started working, we got news that Bob Cheeley, one of the lawyers who worked for President Trump down in Georgia and other places to investigate whether there was any irregularities in the 2020 election that he's been granted a pardon, he said I mount set on air. The President said he wanted to pardon Bob Cheeley so no one could ever pursue him again or run up his legal bills again. We're checking to see if other figures in the January6 and January 2020 investigations are getting pardons today. We'll keep you up to speed on that, but that is some big news. Meanwhile, for those who were in the weaponization machinery previously, an ominous sign. As I mentioned to you last night at the end of the show, the FBI and the Justice Department under Pam Bondi cranking out some serious subpoenas about 30 have gone out in the last 48 hours. Some involve John Brennan and testimony he gave and whether it's accurate or not, other involve other players in various pursuits of Donald Trump from Russia, collusion all the way up to January 6th and beyond. We're going to keep on that all weekend long and give you a good update on that. And hopefully by the time you wake up on Monday morning, I think we'll have a good story about who uses the FBI plane and how often and whether some of the things you see on the Internet or in newspapers are accurate. We went and got the receipts. You're going to love what we have. We'll cover that for sure on Monday night. With that, I'm going to turn to my amazing co host Amanda Head because we've got some great guests, including the Chairman of the January 6th investigation, Barry Latimer, coming on. But Amanda's got a good feel on today's headlines. Amanda, what you working on?
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Amanda Head
Yes, first of all, I am very excited for that information to come out because I have seen up and down the Internet people complaining about FBI Director Cash Patel using that plane. And I am just looking forward to seeing a little bit of comparison.
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John Solomon
Oh, you'll be surprised by the statistics, that's all I'll tell you.
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Amanda Head
I bet I won't be, though, now.
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John Solomon
You won't be. You're exactly right.
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Amanda Head
All right, everybody. Well, there may finally be a crack in Washington's stalemate. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is signaling that Democrats might actually vote to end the government shutdown. But of course, there is a catch. He wants Republicans to agree to extend health care tax credits for one year and open up, quote, broader talks. Doesn't that sound a lot like DC Code for spend more, talk longer and fix less? And by the way, a year extension potentially puts Congress beyond the midterm elections when Republicans could lose the majority or have an even slimmer majority. Now, meanwhile, down at the southern border, ICE just hit a record high, 66,000 illegal aliens in custody. That is the highest number ever. And it shows just how overwhelmed our immigration system has become. Now, while Democrats in Congress fight over tax credits and handouts for insurance companies, our agents are drowning in the chaos that Joe Biden and his Democrat policies created. All right, up in New York, a major shakeup in state politics. GOP congresswoman and former conference chair Elise Stefanik is officially running for governor, taking on Democrat Kathy Hochul. Now, Stefanik's message is quite simple. Restore law and order, cut taxes and make New York safe again after Democrat Socialist Zoran Mamdani's election on Tuesday as the next mayor of New York City. I think that that whole state may be yearning very soon for someone with a very different set of goals and values. So while Washington argues and the border is slowly being fixed, at least one Republican is stepping up to bring common sense back to America's bluest states. John, I'm excited to see that for her. I think she would make a bang up governor in New York.
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John Solomon
As I'm sitting here, I'm reporting. And I am also able to confirm that Trump pardoned the former Tennessee House speaker who had been convicted a couple of years ago in a corruption case. I have a funny feeling it could be a Friday pardon night. We'll see. Or pardon me, Friday night. How about that? All right. I can't think of a better way to get tonight's investigations or discussion kicked off than to turn back to a man who has relentlessly pursued the truth when it comes to January 6th. The original stories we were given, a lot of them were just simply not true. And the more that Congressman Barry Loudermick, Chairman Barry Loudermick, I should say, digs into it, the more we get some incredible truths. And I have a sneaking suspicion, Amanda, he's got some new truths to deliver to us tonight. Joining us, the chairman of the House Judiciary special committee on January 6th, chairman Barry Lodomac. So good to have you on, John.
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Amanda, as always, it's a pleasure to be with you, especially during this timeframe when we have an administration that actually wants to get to the truth.
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John Solomon
It is amazing the amount of information that started flowing and the truth that we're starting to get that we were denied. Now, the last time we talked, you were hoping to go in and take a look at some of these informant reports with 26 FBI informants in the crowd. And it looks like they were informing quite a bit beforehand. Now, I know some of this is classified, so you can't give us specifics, but were those informants providing more stark information about the dangers that could have happened on January 6th, and was that not getting to the right people?
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Well, that is the question that we had when first of all, that I went and I looked at redacted copies of these confidential human sources reports. And then the FBI stepped up and allowed me to come over to the FBI building. It's actually been during the shutdown that I went over and was able to sit down. And if there's been any positive side of the shutdown, it's that I'VE actually had more time to spend on this investigation. So I spent a good part of the day at the FBI looking at the unredacted reports. And what we want to look for is what did the FBI know, when did they know it, and what did they do with the information? And what was the information? And I can tell you unequivocally, they had to know that there was something not only bad going to happen, but the reports coming from these confidential human sources, not just one, multiple sources from multiple organizations across multiple field offices across the nation, were reporting the same thing, that not only was there going to be violence in Washington D.C. at the Capitol on January 6, most of the reports were it was going to be a whole lot worse than what actually it turned out to be. And so I was. I suspected we would find information. I was surprised that we found this significant intelligence that was derived from these people embedded in these organizations. There is no way that at least the Washington field office or the FBI headquarters was not aware that there were ele. Not the entire crowd, there were elements of people coming to Washington D.C. with the intent of attacking the Capitol of the United States. What I also found out is that is really the only intelligence that we can see that the FBI relied upon. Because I've asked several times, what other intelligence did they derive? Did they get intelligence from other agencies like as Homeland Security, Department of Defense, the CIA, the intelligence community as a whole? And the answer I'm getting is no. And then my question was, what intelligence reports were sent out? And that's what we're looking for right now because we're really having a hard time finding really any tangible reports that were sent to the Capitol Police or other agencies. And so my question is, what did they know, when did they know it, and what did they do with the information? We do now know what they did know. The question is, what did they do with it?
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John Solomon
I want to just follow up quickly. Just from the reporting I've done the last couple of weeks, it seems to be that there might have been more suggestions that there could be armed resistance, armed insurgency, armed insurrection that these. These informants were hearing and telling the FBI. And two, I've also heard rumblings that maybe Antifa was a concern that the FBI had on that day. Could you shine any light without violating the confidences that you have to keep?
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Right. Because the main thing about the confidentiality here and the classification is protecting who the sources are.
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Bud Cummins
Right.
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
So the information. I think we're at liberty to share the information that they had and you're exactly right. There were elements, not every group that was there, but there were certain groups that were planning on an armed attack of the Capitol and even against law enforcement if they got in the way. And it's not just isolated. It was, again, from several different places across the United States and reported to several different field offices. And so that is true. That's why I was saying there was. Actually, there should have been even more security put in place. The National Guard should have been at the Capitol the first time. Chief of Police Stephen Sund requested it just based on that information. One of my concerns about this, and I'm just going to speak from my own self, and one of the things that I think we need to run down is if they would have passed along this level of intelligence, if they would have shared that level of intelligence, would it had changed the security posture to the extent where President Trump would not have come out and given his speech at the Ellipse, would it have significantly changed the security posture of Everybody in Washington, D.C. that's something else I want to look into. Was there a political motive by some to let some of this play out? And we've talked about this before in the past, so that's something else that I think we need to look at because we have to decouple the politics from our national security and the security of the American people when they're in Washington, D.C. the other question you ask about Antifa, the answer is yes. There was concerns that Antifa would be embedded within the crowds there. There were several references. Again, not just isolated to one, but several different, different field offices, different, different organizations that were reporting that they had heard that Antifa would be embedded within the crowd.
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John Solomon
Wow.
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Amanda Head
Goodness gracious. Mr. Chairman, I think there's probably a good chance that I ask you about this every time you're on here, but I guess I seem like a dog with a bone, but the footage and other materials and evidence that the previous January 6th committee had that they destroyed, I know at one point you had indicated that there was a chance of getting that back, refabricating it from hard drives or whatever the case may be. What's the status of that?
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
We're still working on that. We've sent out a trove of letters to even the production companies that helped with the filming. They're telling us they don't have any. They didn't keep any of it. They turned it over to the January 6th committee. So we're casting a broad net. So far, we haven't caught anything. And I'M talking about specifically the videos of all the depositions. I think that's the if we could get that, it would really turn the tide on things that have been happening with the select committee on January 6th. We're not stopping until we overturn every rock and every possibility in this information age that we're in. And I just have a hard time believing that every piece of that has been destroyed. Destroyed. I think there's probably some element of it somewhere. But I also think as we start uncovering more and we start putting the pieces of this incredibly big puzzle together, people are going to realize we're getting to the truth. And I think you may start seeing some people coming out of the shadows and helping us a little bit. And I think you may see some of that coming out pretty soon.
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Amanda Head
Just quickly, Mr. Chairman, we all know it's no, it's no dirty secret that congressional staffers, it's kind of like musical chairs. They just kind of rotate between members of Congress. I'm sure you've reached out to those former staffers of the former members of the former January 6th committee.
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Well, we have to the extent that we can. There is a barrier that's put around staff, let me say that to some extent, but we have had some that have been cooperative. We do have staff members that have point us in the right direction, let me say that. And this voluntary, they reach out to us. And so I think that's probably where a lot of information is. And I think as we uncover other elements, I explained to people this whole thing is like it's not a jigsaw puzzle is if you took 10,000 piece puzzles and you took all the pieces and you put them in one box for 10 different puzzles, shook them up and threw them on the table, and now you got to put all the pieces for ten different puzzles together. We've got some of those pieces starting to come together in one puzzle. And as we start putting that together, I think it helps other pieces to come together and other people will step up and help us. And as I said, I can't really divulge anything right now, but we are starting to have some of those reach out to us informants that have new information that we had not had privy to in the past. And I think it's because they see that we're putting other pieces of the puzzle together.
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John Solomon
It's amazing what happens when you start a truth ball. It starts creating an ambulance down the Hill and we've been denied so much truth. I want to ask one other question of you, I think some would have thought, well, those 26 informants were put in the crowd to create some mischief or unhinging. But it looks like just the opposite. These informants were doing what we ask informants to do, warn us. But the information they gave doesn't get to the right hands to prevent the tragedy that occurred that day. Is your sense that these informants were doing good work, not nefarious work? And it's the. Yeah, it's the failure to get the information up the chain that perhaps hurt us that day?
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Right, it is. And they were doing. And, you know, when I'm looking for it, I'm looking for certain things. Are you having somebody, just one person that's coming out with this rogue statement that isn't corroborated by anyone else? That's not the case. You're seeing the same story playing out in different versions across the entire country. And some. You can tell there's more violence threatened from certain areas, but yet that's replicated in other places. They are all reporting the same thing, and it's just not prior to January 6th. Some of them are reporting during January 6th and post reporting. And so that's what I found enlightening is they continued to report what was going on, which. Which increases their credibility, in my opinion, is that they were trying to do the right thing. But there's a couple of reports that I think we're going to hone into a little more and a little deeper, and they relate to what some groups were actually doing by going in the Capitol or being around the Capitol. That's different than what the Select Committee and the media has told us that they were actually there to do. Look, I've never been one of these that denied that there was violence. Yes, there was violence at the Capitol, but yet some of the reporting is that maybe some of these groups, their intent was different. They were actually trying to help the law enforcement hold back some of these people, but yet they still got convicted.
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John Solomon
Wow. That is some pretty powerful stuff, sir. You just are relentless in your pursuit of the truth. And I think the country owes a great debt of gratitude. We have learned so much because of your determination to get the American people the truth. It's a great honor to have you on the show today.
- [18:02]
Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Well, we appreciate you both being willing to get the truth out. That's just something that has also been a challenge that we faced. Is the news media that just either they won't cover it or they will cover it to push their own political agenda. But we Appreciate you getting the truth out.
- [18:19]
John Solomon
Yeah. Facts have no agenda and we're so grateful you've been able to help us get that out there, sir. Thank you so much for joining us. All right.
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Chairman Barry Loudermilk
Thank you. God bless.
- [18:27]
John Solomon
Yeah.
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Joe Penland
Wow.
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John Solomon
God bless you. Wow, what an amazing stuff. Amanda, the president's about to arrive and I think we're going to go to that footage in a second. It's obvious that that was a bombshell interview. There is some big stuff in him, much more serious warning that there was going to be an armed resistance at the Capitol that the FBI Washington field office, he said knew about. And does he get passed up the chain possibility that Antifa was going to be the crowd to cause mischief and then post January 6th intelligence as some of the people that went in to help the law enforcement but instead get there? Those are three extraordinary statements by a thing. And by the way, the reason I was able to ask these questions, I've been reporting on this for a couple days. The January 6th narrative, I think just took an extraordinary turn.
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Amanda Head
Absolutely. Well, and also the fact that it sounds like he's got some staffers who are willing to actually come forward. I would like to think that that's because truth will come to light. But I also think that no one wants to be left out in the cold when everyone else is fessing up to what happened behind closed doors.
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John Solomon
Yeah, yeah. Maybe there's less fear that you're going to be retributed against too, which I think is another issue. All right, the president's still in the landing phase. We're going to get to that when we come back. But first we'll get a quick commercial break on the other side of this, One of the great lawyers I love to talk to whenever I try to make sense of things, former U.S. attorney Bud Cummings right after the break.
- [19:49]
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- [20:49]
Amanda Head
What do you think makes the perfect snack?
- [20:51]
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- [20:55]
Amanda Head
Could you be more specific?
- [20:56]
AMPM Advertiser
When it's cray venient.
- [20:57]
John Solomon
Okay.
- [20:58]
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- [21:04]
Lauren Zell
Second at am, pm I'm seeing a pattern here.
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Amanda Head
Crave, which is anything from am, pm.
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- [21:27]
Amanda Head
Welcome back, everybody, to just the news. No noise. Big developments tonight in the ongoing Russiagate saga. A grand jury has issued new subpoenas as the criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey moves closer to trial. Now, prosecutors say that fresh evidence has come to light linking key players in what they are calling a coordinated effort to weaponize federal power against President Donald Trump. Now, as we have talked about, we've talked about this many times on the show, but before we bring in our guest, John, I know you've got a statement that you want to read.
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John Solomon
Yeah. The attorney, the judge attorney, I told you at the top of the show, got pardoned. He just sent me a statement confirming it, although I did not have any idea that a presidential pardon was even being considered. I want to thank President Trump for calling me and telling me so the president calls him and tells him he's pardon him that he was issuing a federal pardon for my efforts to conduct an audit of the absentee ballots of Fulton county in connection with the 2020 election. The only thing I ever wanted was transparency from Fulton County. If the county has nothing to hide, it should allow DOJ to examine these ballots. But there are some pardons dropping right now. We got two of them confirmed at the top of the show. But this statement from Bob Cheeley, really prominent and well respected lawyer in Georgia who was put through hell in the Fulton county episode. So more news to come.
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Amanda Head
Pardon Mike McMahon, whose wife, Martha McMahon we had on the show to talk about his. Right, that's another one. All right, so let's have a pardon talk with a former U.S. attorney as well as the person who actually alerted the FBI to the Hunter Biden bribery allegations. All the way back in 2018, one of our favorite lawyers to talk to, Bud Cummins. Bud, thanks so much for being here.
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Bud Cummins
Hello.
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John Solomon
Hello.
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Bud Cummins
Good to see you.
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Amanda Head
Good to have you on this Friday night. And a lot of folks who are delighted to hear that President Trump has pardoned them. I'm pretty sure that President Trump signed them by hand, though.
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Bud Cummins
Yeah, I don't think we're going to do any auto pen pardons with President Trump. I think he likes to be. He likes to have his fingerprints right on it.
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Amanda Head
Absolutely, sir. I want to dig into something that the magistrate judge in Alexandria levied against the Department of Justice with this trial happening for James Comey here. Comey, across the river in Northern Virginia. She repudiated the DoJ, said that they were indicting first and investigating later. She demanded any of those grand jury materials and evidence be turned over to Comey's team. I think it closed the business yesterday. Does it seem to you like, like that's true, that the DOJ really did sling charges out there and then investigated later? Because you would have to have a lot of material for a grand jury to even get the indictments in the first place, wouldn't you?
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Bud Cummins
Well, I don't want to come on too strong on this because I think that there is a possibility that they had not gathered all the information that was probably available to them and they got out front with an indictment. The indictment was pretty simple. He lied and he obstructed justice. And that evidence was pretty straightforward. It looks like that they're now gathering up other documents that'll, you know, kind of support the, the case. And, and the judge may, you know, may be onto something that they, that they are still investigating and still using the grand jury to investigate. There are limitations on that.
- [24:34]
John Solomon
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good point, sir. One of the things that we learned on Monday in that explosive court filing was that there is a crime they're looking at having potentially occurred in January of this year, long after Russiagate was done. And according to the electronic communication that the FBI opened that was attached to the court filing on Monday, FBI personnel were going in and out of a room, apparently trying to hide documents or put them in burn bags to be destroyed. And the US Government says in its own words, some of these documents had never before been seen or turned over to responsive agencies who had subpoenaed such information. Does that sound like years after Russiagate or these other things, there might have been a cover up going on?
- [25:19]
Bud Cummins
I think absolutely. You know, that some of the people that had Their fingerprints on, you know, this going back to 2016, 2017 and on are still in the building. And I'm sure there's still some, some sympathizers in the building. So it wouldn't shock me at all to learn that people have been trying to, to bury evidence.
- [25:41]
Amanda Head
What happens to those employees if they are still with the department? What happens to them? I mean, they get fired. Right. But charges for them?
- [25:49]
Bud Cummins
I would like to think that there is, but I'm not seeing even today FBI being very aggressive about internal investigations and punishment. So I think that there's a natural tendency to circle the wagons, even if you're Cash Patel. I mean, certainly we saw Chris Wray do it. Once you're in the, in the agency, I think to some extent there's a tendency to want to minimize controversy and maybe not go looking for trouble. So I'm not sure everybody's going to be held accountable in these agencies. And that's really sad because they've done such tremendous damage.
- [26:26]
John Solomon
Yeah, that would be a tremendous loss to the American people who are owed this accountability after 10 years of fake scandals and misuse of power. You are one of my favorite stories because I saw you as a U.S. attorney. You had impeccable credentials. You stood up in the face of other conduct in the government. You always came out on the side of doing the right thing. And in 2018, 19, you come forward because you have information from Ukraine that Hunter Biden may not have paid your, his taxes on some of the grifting money he got from the Ukrainian company. You bring it to federal prosecutors. You are a really well respected former U.S. attorney. They don't pursue it, but you later learned that you were retributed against and that you were actually targeted for doing the right thing. Tell us what you learned about the retribution that was going on behind your back.
- [27:19]
Bud Cummins
Well, some of the companies like Apple and Google, when they get a federal subpoena, they're, they're prohibited from telling the person that their information has been subpoenaed immediately, but they're allowed to after some period of time. So years down the road, I started getting notices that, that I'd been the subject of subpoenas out of the Southern District of New York, presumably related to me trying to offer the federal government information about Hunter Biden. I've always said I don't really have a problem with them trying to take a look at me and seeing who I'm talking to and what's motivating me to come forward with this extraordinary offer. Of evidence. I do have a problem with them ignoring the extraordinary offer of evidence completely, which is what they did, and then investigating me. But that's what happened. And beyond that, I don't know. I'm still waiting for my friends in the investigative journalism field to uncover all the details of what happened and why.
- [28:17]
John Solomon
All right, we're going to work on this because this is a big deal, and you find out, like, four or five years after the fact. Right. You're in the dark for five years that they were rifling. Yeah. That's just. It's insane. You're a former prosecutor. Was there anything that you did that would have given you as a prosecutor, grounds to go after yourself or to look at someone like you bringing information forward?
- [28:36]
Bud Cummins
Well, like I said, I mean, I think it would be. I would have been naturally want to know, well, you know, who gave this information to Bud and asked him, because obviously they had it in their mind. It was ripe throughout the agencies that there was some kind of conspiracy, Russian collusion, whatever you want to call it, you know, was, Was, was. Were the Russians paying me to come forward with some kind of fake allegations against Hunter Biden? I don't have a problem with them trying to verify my credibility, but the way they turned a blind eye to the offer of evidence is pretty. Pretty astounding.
- [29:13]
Amanda Head
Yeah. But over you, over your years in the law field and in working with the FBI, hand in hand. I want to ask you about something that you said a moment ago about not wanting to stir the pot and not wanting to bring about any type of scandal for the FBI. Before Cash Patel became the director, he made a joke, and he said afterwards that it was a joke, but he said that he wanted to gut the FBI building something to that effect, gut it and turn it into a museum, exposing the deep state. Again, he was joking, but he does seem to have this. This mentality that it is an agency that needs to be cleaned out. Does it surprise you that you haven't seen more of those internal investigations bring forth some of those scandals that maybe existed prior to his tenure?
- [30:01]
Bud Cummins
Yeah, and I don't blame him. They have had so much on their plate. I think it's kind of a product of the deep state, the bureaucracy underneath him. I think all those. There's a real culture problem in FBI. There's a real culture problem at doj, and that's what he, you know, when he makes his joke, that's what needs to be cleaned out. And it probably would. To be done correctly would take a pretty massive Overhaul of both DOJ and FBI. I don't know if, you know, he has the political capital and the time to actually do that. And I know he's trying to do his best, but, you know, we talked about this before, but I'm old enough to remember Watergate. And the most serious allegation against Richard Nixon was that he was on tape talking about asking CIA to help him politically. Ask him. Didn't get it. Asked it. And that was the straw that broke the Campbell's back. He had to resign the presidency. And two or three generations have been taught since that that was the worst political scandal of our time. Well, now we have hard evidence that FBI and CIA conspired to kneecap an incoming President of the United States and they successfully impeded his ability to govern for at least two years, if not the entire first term. Somebody needs to be held accountable for all that. And it's going to take intensive investigation. But it's not political retribution. If what Nixon did deserves to be in every high school history book and big letters is the worst scandal in political history, this certainly needs to be investigated and documented because it's so much worse and it's ruined the image and the reputation and the credibility of federal law enforcement.
- [31:59]
John Solomon
So we just got about 45 seconds left. Your allegation that you brought to them was that Hunter Biden was cheating on his taxes, specifically on payments he got from Burisma 3, four years later when the whistleblowers come forward and they confirm exactly what the information you brought to prosecutors was accurate, that they had also confirmed he had not paid taxes on his brisma money. What did you think?
- [32:24]
Bud Cummins
When I, when I offered the evidence, it was, I had no idea what it was or the background. I just knew that there was a high level individual in Ukraine that was offering to come tell the story and bring it and bring documentary evidence. It sounded plausible to me at the time. It was pretty, pretty bad. But it played out exactly like it was. It was presented to me in 2018.
- [32:51]
John Solomon
That's four years of time.
- [32:52]
Amanda Head
The sun, the moon and the truth eventually come out. Hopefully that a lot of these other untruths that we've been talking about come out in our lifetime. But you never know. Things take time. Bud Cummins, always a pleasure having you here. Thanks so much.
- [33:04]
Bud Cummins
Good to see you all. Bye bye.
- [33:06]
Amanda Head
Absolutely. All right, everybody, we're going to take a quick break and we'll be back on the other side.
- [33:13]
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- [34:36]
Joe Penland
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- [34:50]
John Solomon
Welcome back, America. Next week we're going to give you a really fun project we've been working on. Health care companies make lots of money from Obamacare subsidies. In fact, it's the driving source of their profits the last 10 years. And then they become increasingly more Democratic donors rewarding the party that gave them those subsidies. We got a similar story for you to tell you right now. Joining us to break it is the executive director of Protecting American Consumers Together. Lauren is out. Lauren, great to have you back on the show.
- [35:16]
Lauren Zell
Thank you so much for having me. It's great to be here.
- [35:19]
John Solomon
I always love when we capture one of these you scratch my back and I pad your wallet stories. Trial lawyers have a plan. They make some money on it. And what do they do? Tell us the story of lawfare against Trump and how it ends up in the Democratic coffers.
- [35:34]
Lauren Zell
Certainly. So we're seeing new reporting from Legal Newsline about how trial attorneys, specifically billboard attorneys, the ones that you see advertised on the highways and on your televisions in your home, are targeting President Trump with lawsuits. And what they do with this is they often end up turning around and donating the profits from those lawsuits to Democrat politicians. But how does it really work. You know, what we're seeing is some attorneys are advertising themselves as Trump golf course attorneys, or they're advertising a introductory kit on how to sue a Trump property. And they're, you know, they're really into this for the profit. And what they do then is they turn around and they donate it to Democrat politicians. I have some. Some stats for your audience. In 2024, $205 million was donated to Democrats by trial attorneys or billboard attorneys in particular, including $46.5 million specifically to the Kamala Harris campaign. So those are some pretty significant numbers. And Legal Newsline is also reporting that about 75% of billboard attorneys donated to Harris as opposed to President Trump in 2024. So it's a system that they've created almost from soup to nuts. Sue the president at one of his properties or at one of his businesses and turn around and put it in the pocket of Democrat politicians.
- [37:10]
Amanda Head
I mean, I believe if we categorize lawyers, these are the ambulance chasers of ambulance chasers. But when it comes to the money that this drains from the American economy, I mean, this is in the billions, and it affects everyday Americans, even people who are not involved in the suit.
- [37:25]
Lauren Zell
That's exactly right. Unfortunately, this is costing the average American family a lot of money. And in 2022, lawsuit abuse cost the average American family about $4,200 a year. There are some states in which it's higher that have more litigious environments. Delaware is a state like that. California is a state like that in New York as well. So, unfortunately, consumers that are living in these states are paying for these lawsuits, whether they realize it or not, because the amount of money that it's draining from businesses that have to pay for them and from our economy generally.
- [38:02]
John Solomon
Yeah, really remarkable. Lauren, I want to ask a little bit about how we begin to fix the system. It is clear that we've got weaponization problems inside the department. We've got lawfare departments outside of the law enforcement agencies. Now we seem to have concerns about leaking judges who are talking to the media in violation of their oaths and ruling on their political interests rather than on the constitutional grounds. How do we fix this system before we spiral into a sort of unprecedented territory, Banana republic territory?
- [38:35]
Lauren Zell
There are certainly some bright spots where fixing is happening in the system. We've seen lawsuit abuse reform pass in Florida in 2023 and then just earlier this year in Georgia in 2025. But there is an opportunity to tackle this problem at the federal level. There are several different pieces of legislation that would address lawsuit abuse and also the third party litigation finance system that funds it because oftentimes consumers will get pushed into predatory loans in order to pay for their lawsuits. And at protecting American consumers. Together, we want to make sure that people are aware of that and that they know that when they are signing up for the services of an attorney, hopefully a reputable one, and not one that they saw on a billboard.
- [39:22]
Amanda Head
Do you guys find that people agree with this practice? Because it certainly sounds like it's happening a lot where this money is getting funneled towards Democrats. People can't be supportive of it.
- [39:32]
Lauren Zell
Well, unfortunately, people just don't really understand there's not a lot of information out there about this practice. And because candidly, it's ballooned a lot in the last 30 years in our country. So this isn't a problem that has seen a lot of traction at the federal level yet, but we're starting to see it in the states specifically because it is getting so out of control. Unfortunately, lawsuit abuse is affecting every consumer. It's affecting every business, especially the small businesses. When a small business is forced to pay out from a fraudulent lawsuit, they often can't continue to stay in operation. So the more people learn about it, the less that they like it and the more reason that we have to correct the system.
- [40:18]
John Solomon
Real quickly before I let you go, Lauren, just because a lawyer uses a billboard isn't necessarily an indicator that this is bad. Sometimes, like with the tobacco settlements, they were required to do public display things. But is there a general inclination that the ones that are doing billboards are more deeply engaged in this lawfare and then moving on to money to the Democratic Party?
- [40:38]
Lauren Zell
Yes, absolutely. And unfortunately, what we're seeing a lot is the targeting of these advertisements are targeted to low income communities. So those people in low income communities are often signing up for lawsuits that they don't maybe understand. They're being forced to take out predatory loans, they're being forced into medical procedures that they don't need, all in the name of upping the amount of the settlement so that the attorneys can do whatever they choose with their profits from the settlement.
- [41:09]
Joe Penland
Wow.
- [41:10]
John Solomon
A system we have to get to the bottom of fixing really soon. Lauren Zell, what a great honor to have you on the show today. Thanks for joining us. Every time you come, you bring us an amazing story. Thank you.
- [41:20]
Lauren Zell
Thank you.
- [41:21]
John Solomon
All right, good stuff. All right, folks, quick commercial break. When we come back, more on the government shutdown, which is nearing 40 days biblical proportions. I think actually if you get the 40 days you're in Moses territory. All right, we'll be back right after these messages. Hey, America. As an investigative journalist, I built my career on facts. And I always do my homework before recommending anything to my audience. That's why I can confidently say amac, the association of Mature American Citizens, is the real deal. AMAC is a conservative alternative to aarp. They're fighting for faith, family and freedom in bringing their members real value discounts on travel, insurance and retail helpful resources that help you thrive in the excellent AMAC magazine, packed with information that actually matters to patriots like you and me. Now, right now, when you choose a five year membership, you'll save up to 33%. That's just a buck 20amonth to join a movement working to hold Washington accountable and preserve the values that we all care about. I vetted them. I trust them. You should, too. Visit AMAC US JustNews and become a member today. Just like me. That's AMAC. AM A C US JustNews AMAC Protecting America's Future, one member at a time.
- [42:41]
Amanda Head
Welcome back, everybody. We are now near 40 days. As John said, biblical proportions of a government shutdown and the ripple effects are being felt practically everywhere. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers remain furloughed or without pay, leaving everything from veterans benefits to national park services in limbo. So joining us now to discuss those major economic challenges and his proposition to overcome them, welcome to political writer and businessman Joe Penland. Joe, thanks so much for being here.
- [43:09]
Joe Penland
Thank you for having me on. I appreciate it.
- [43:12]
Amanda Head
We are happy to have you. And we reported at the top of the show. Democrats seem to be inching a little bit closer to the table, but they, of course, have conditions. This has got to end soon. And I know that you've got some ideas as to how to get our economy under control.
- [43:29]
Joe Penland
Well, obviously we have to end this. I mean, this is a fight that no American is going to win. That's sad to say, but, you know, usually when two people are fighting in a boxing ring, it's just those two. Usually the spectators don't get hurt. In this case, the Democrats and Republicans are fighting and the American people are the spectators. And they're getting hurt in no fault of their own. And we need to see this stop sooner than later.
- [43:55]
John Solomon
Joe, the history of these shutdowns is reopening the government after shutdown actually ends up costing more than it does to keep it shut down or keep it going during a shutdown. At what point do we break this cycle? And are the American people ready for the first, first time to say, pass a law to say no more shutdowns, please.
- [44:13]
Joe Penland
I think the American people are ready for that. You know, American people are sick and tired of sending people up to D.C. to represent them, and then they get there and they forget about the people back at home. You know, this is a fight for America, not for one side of the aisle or the other. We need to do what's right for the American people. And we'll iron this other stuff out. You know, our debt is completely out of control. That's a bipartisan problem. So we're not going to fix the debt on this cr. That's not going to happen. You know, we're not going to fix Social Security on this cr. That's not going to happen. What we need to do is put that behind us, make sure that America is still stable and we're working like we should each day, and then we'll get on with fixing the problems. But staying away is not fixing the problems, it's making it worse.
- [44:57]
Amanda Head
So I know that you are in the wonderful state of Texas, and New York could not be further from Texas in terms of political ideology. But we look at Zoran Mamdani about to become, about to be sworn in as New York City's mayor. Does it concern you that that type of liberalism can infect places, some of the bluer areas of Texas?
- [45:18]
Joe Penland
It certainly does. I mean, and what I'm afraid of, there'll be a lot more people move out of New York, come down here to Texas, and that's gonna. That may blue us a little more than we want to be. I hate that. But, you know, we welcome people coming to this great state. But what's happening is people are leaving the blue states, coming down here just to get away from what's crazy up there. And I think it's going to affect our, our voter that our mass of people going to the ballots. And I hate to see that come. But we need to get some sense back in America and go back to the old standards that we've had that's led this country for almost 250 years.
- [45:54]
John Solomon
Yeah. So, Joe, I know you think a lot about the macroeconomics behind deficits and policy and economics. Obviously, with the baby boomers retiring, we've got a growing labor shortage. What are some of the solutions, short of allowing illegal aliens to be illegal workers in this country?
- [46:13]
Joe Penland
Well, we're going to, you know, the only way we're going to grow our workforce, you know, unfortunately, is through legal immigration. You know, with the birth Rate what it is. We have a declining birth rate in this country and that's fine. That's a woman's choice and that's what it should be and that's okay. But we cannot continue to source out all our work around the world. The President wants to bring six or seven trillion dollars worth of work back to this country, but we have to have workers to be able to do that and capitalize on, you know what? We look back at Ellis island, what we've done then, and that brought millions of people, about 20 million people here to this country and they settled here and it made this country a little greater than we could have ever been on our own. We need a workforce, we need a solid workforce. But we need people that are law abiding and abide by our rules. And if we do that, we work ourself out of this problem. If we keep shipping jobs out of the country or not take advantage of the money that's ready to invest in this country. And the only way we're going to do that is we're going to have to use legal immigration. If every woman got pregnant today that could and have children, that workforce is 20 years plus out of. Yeah, out of cycle to help us. So we've got to do something in the short, short run and we can do this and we can actually capitalize on that and help some shortfall for the economy.
- [47:30]
Amanda Head
Joe, I want to ask you a question. Another dichotomy between New York and Texas. We were having a conversation with another Texan this week and we were talking about New York with respect to it being the capitalist capital of the world, the banking center of the world. But it seems like there are a lot of banking groups that are moving their way to Dallas. Does that seem right to you?
- [47:50]
Joe Penland
I had some meetings with some bank people this week. There's a lot of people coming to Dallas. There's a lot of people coming to Houston. You know, we have some good economy here. We have a lot of LNG plants, We have a lot of oil and gas here, a lot of refineries being built. We got a lot of deep waterways that is new that is absolutely essential to us being, being a net exporter and that's where we need to be. You know, we're shipping LNG gas now all over the world and that's great for our economy. So yeah, people are coming to Texas. You know, the taxes and everything are better here in Texas. We've got a little, little bit better weather, I think, than New York. I don't like the cold weather. When you're 75, you're always a little chilly. So Texas is good for me, but this is a great state and a great country and we just need all pull together and we'll get through this crisis that we're in.
- [48:38]
John Solomon
Joe, won't we soon have a stock exchange in Texas, too?
- [48:43]
Joe Penland
Yes, that's a fact. Isn't that great?
- [48:45]
John Solomon
How about that?
- [48:46]
Joe Penland
That's a fact.
- [48:46]
John Solomon
The new financial capital of the world and in a free state. How about that?
- [48:50]
Amanda Head
And Joe, I agree with you. You guys have good weather in Texas, but you got to find a way to make Texas unappealable to New Yorkers if you don't want all those votes flooding down to the Lone Star State. Joe Penland, always a pleasure having you here, sir. Thank you.
- [49:03]
Joe Penland
Thank you both. Have a great evening.
- [49:05]
Amanda Head
You too. All right, every everybody, we've got one more segment, so we will see you on the other side. Welcome back, everybody. I want to touch on a dire topic before we head into a few more fun things for the weekend. These seven plaintiffs who are suing ChatGPT, who have family members who died by suicide. These family members went on ChatGPT and they were just using it, general knowledge, help out with, you know, homework assignments and things like that, and ultimately ended up committing suicide. I think that this is going to be a major case and could set precedent for how ChatGPT operates in the future and their responsibility.
- [49:53]
John Solomon
Oh, yeah, no, this is going to be one of the epic social responsibility cases in a long time. And, you know, where does technology end and moral responsibility begin? And as we become more and more automated, these questions are going to come up a lot more. We're watching this one closely at just the news. It's an important story.
- [50:11]
Amanda Head
Okay, so this story came across my radar. So this week. Sorry, let me rewind. Two years ago, Robert De Niro's grandson, who's 19 years old, he died of a drug over overdose. Nothing substantial transpired in the case under Joe Biden's DOJ and his DEA. But now under Trump's DOJ, in coordination with a Trump appointed U.S. attorney, five individuals have been charged. So do you anticipate, John, that Robert De Niro is going to pick up the phone and thank President Trump for actually finding these folks?
- [50:46]
John Solomon
No, and I'm not sure President Trump would take the call either. But you know, listen, the good thing is no one should die from chemical warfare in our country. This has just been insane. China, cartels are a big part of this. And Joe Biden just enabled it for four years. And the toll goes. No, there was some reduction in fentanyl the last year because the public pressure had become so much. But no matter where Robert De Niro stands on his politics, no grandfather should have to bury their grandson and no American should fall prey. I think of these kids that pick up a pill on the ground, they're three years old and they die. That is not only un American, it is immoral. And I'm glad that this president and all of the great men and women in blue are doing more to crack down because they had their hands tied behind their back for four years.
- [51:35]
Amanda Head
Well, and as we've talked about, it's not just those who are seeking out illicit drug use. It can be some type of counterfeit pill for, you know, some other condition and really, really devastating. Speaking of that, three more Chinese scholars tied to that University of Michigan case with the biomaterial.
- [51:50]
John Solomon
And we let them in the country with one of those academic visas. That story we broke, you remember we talked about this and then a few weeks later, Brooke Rollins came out, said, I'm cracking down on this. Who the heck is letting Chinese researchers into pathogen programs? Michigan, apparently we know the answer. And the U.S. government. Yeah, these are HHS, NIH, USDA. Our government was facilitating this sort of stuff.
- [52:14]
Amanda Head
It's terrifying. So, John, I wrote a story for the weekend based off of some of Scott Rasmussen's, not only his polling, but some of his comments on the show last night. And I was doing kind of a dichotomy story between the fact that per his polling and really just anecdotally, we know that Americans don't feel like their wallets have gotten any more flush with cash, even though there are a ton of metrics that show that they have. So we, I was looking into the numbers as far as the Thanksgiving meals that are 25% cheaper. Gas, of course, at record lows under President Trump, egg prices and record lows, prescription drugs slowing down this week. If Tuesday is any warning shot to Republicans, it's that they're not messaging on that stuff well enough.
- [53:02]
John Solomon
That's what it is. That's exactly what it is. And the Democrats knew the Republicans wouldn't mess and dwell on it. That's why they sat down. The government took the risk as predictable as, well, government not passing a budget, which it's done for 25 years. All right, so at the top somewhere, I slipped in a biblical reference of 40 days. Jesus in the desert for 40 days, Moses, Noah's flood, 40 days. My grammar school teacher was watching on Real America's Voice. I'm proud of that. And said, I'm glad you remembered something from my lessons.
- [53:31]
Amanda Head
Aw. Did that come from her?
- [53:36]
John Solomon
I don't remember where I went. As I said, I was in the grammar school in the dark ages, so I don't know whether she was there, but she takes credit for it. And I'm not going to contradict her because I'm afraid she'll send me to detention.
- [53:47]
Amanda Head
All right, John, you always are so good at reading the tea leaves. Let's finish where we started off with Chairman Barry Loudermilk. What do you anticipate is going to be the next thing to break?
- [53:57]
John Solomon
I think we're going to find out who these new whistleblowers are. He hinted that someone is about to come forward with some big information. And I think that that's really important. People coming forward is what is going to give this the credibility it needs to get through the court system and bring accountability. So any American patriots, if you got information, come forward. That's all I can say.
- [54:16]
Joe Penland
Absolutely.
- [54:16]
Amanda Head
And whistleblowers have proven to be so, so valuable in so many of these cases.
- [54:22]
John Solomon
Never forget them.
- [54:23]
Amanda Head
All right, everybody, that's going to do it for us tonight. We appreciate you being here on this Friday. We will be back on Monday at 6pm Eastern. In the meantime, Grant Stfield is going to take you through the next hour. Have a great night.
- [54:34]
Lauren Zell
This is an iHeart podcast.