Former Aide Sparks Autopen Firestorm plus ICE Nabs 15 Iranians with Terror Ties

Summary

The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Episode: Former Aide Sparks Autopen Firestorm plus ICE Nabs 15 Iranians with Terror Ties
Release Date: June 28, 2025

Hosted by Ben Ferguson, a prominent national radio host and political commentator, The 47 Morning Update delves deep into the pressing political and security issues shaping America today. In this episode, Ferguson tackles three major stories: a controversial testimony by a former Biden aide regarding presidential auto pen signatures, a surge in ICE arrests of Iranian nationals with alleged terror affiliations, and revelations about Iran's nuclear program contrary to mainstream media narratives.

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1. Controversial Testimony on President Biden's Auto Pen Signatures

The episode opens with a bombshell revelation involving Neera Tanden, a former director of President Joe Biden's Domestic Policy Council. During a congressional hearing, Tanden testified under oath that she "does not know who ordered President Biden's auto pin signatures" ([00:31] - [05:10]). This admission has sparked significant debate and raised questions about the oversight and authorization processes within the White House.

Ferguson highlights discrepancies between Tanden's testimony and statements from her attorney. While Tanden claimed limited awareness of the final authorization of signatures, her attorney maintained that the auto pins were "used only after President Biden personally approved the decision" ([05:10]). This conflicting narrative has fueled speculation about the transparency and integrity of presidential decision-making processes.

A minority member of the Oversight Committee contested Tanden's characterization, citing a former White House staffer's assertion that "a written sign off from Biden on every executive action" was received, contradicting Tanden's under-oath statements. This ongoing dispute underscores the tension between political accountability and administrative procedures within the current administration.

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2. ICE Crackdown on Iranian Nationals with Terror Links

In a significant development regarding national security, Ferguson reports on the recent arrests of Iranian nationals by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), bringing the total to nearly 20 individuals with alleged ties to terrorism and Iran ([05:10] - [12:50]). This crackdown follows what officials describe as a "major security sweep" targeting individuals with criminal backgrounds and potential terrorist affiliations.

One of the arrested individuals, a former Iranian army sniper from Atlanta, Texas, was found in possession of an "Islamic Republic army identification card" and a loaded 9mm pistol ([08:08] - [12:50]). Ferguson details several other cases, including individuals convicted of drug crimes, assault, and even grand larceny, all highlighting the administration's intensified efforts to remove perceived threats from the country.

Ferguson emphasizes the administration's stance that these individuals represent "real threats to our national security," criticizing the previous administration for allegedly allowing "sleeper cells" to proliferate ([10:05]). He forecasts that ICE operations will escalate, advocating for continued support and advocacy for the agency's mission to secure the nation's borders.

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3. Reevaluation of Iran's Nuclear Program Amid Media Controversy

The final segment addresses claims from a former Biden official asserting that Iran's nuclear program has been "set back significantly," directly challenging media portrayals of the situation ([12:50] - [18:28]). According to Ferguson, a classified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report revealed that initial assessments of damage to Iran's nuclear sites were based on "faulty information from deceitful Iranian sources."

Former U.S. intelligence operatives, including seasoned national security insiders, have criticized the DIA's reliance on unreliable data, dubbing the agency the "Discount Intelligence Agency." This skepticism stems from evidence suggesting that Iran's military officials provided "false situation reports," undermining the credibility of the DIA's findings.

Ferguson references a statement by a longtime diplomat and former Biden senior adviser, who noted that Iran's nuclear capabilities have been disrupted, delaying their program by "an 18 month or two year delay" ([15:36]). The diplomat further criticized the media for propagating misinformation, asserting that the successful strikes on Iran's nuclear sites were "one of the most successful missions in modern military history" and not the failure portrayed by outlets aligned with Iranian propaganda.

This revelation calls into question the reliability of mainstream media reports and underscores the complex interplay between intelligence, military action, and media narratives in shaping public perception.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Ben Ferguson provides a comprehensive analysis of critical issues affecting national security and political integrity in the United States. From the opaque processes surrounding presidential executive actions to the rigorous efforts to counteract potential terrorist threats from Iranian nationals, and the contentious discourse surrounding Iran's nuclear ambitions, Ferguson delivers insightful commentary backed by detailed reports and expert testimonies. This episode serves as a pivotal resource for listeners seeking unfiltered and in-depth perspectives on the current political landscape.

Transcript

[Ben Ferguson]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guys like Schumer, our great Palestinian senator. This guy, no, he's changed.

[Unknown Speaker 1]

He used to like Jewish people. Now he's totally against Jewish people.

[Ben Ferguson]

It's the most incredible transformation I think I've ever seen. You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Good Saturday morning to you. Ben Ferguson with you. And these are some of the stories that you may have missed that we talked about this week on the 47 Morning Update.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

First, next up, in shocking testimony before Congress that the media is not reporting on, a former Biden aide says, quote, she does not know who ordered President Biden's auto pen signatures. We'll give you the details on what all she said to Congress and why this story is being hidden from you.

[Ben Ferguson]

And also another major story. At least five more Iranian nationals who were in the country illegally with additional criminal backgrounds have been arrested by ICE in recent days, days bringing the number now to almost 20 individuals who have been arrested, some of them with direct ties to terrorism and Iran. And finally, a former Biden official has.

[Unknown Speaker 3]

Now come out on TV saying that Iran's nuclear program was in fact set back significantly, again, the complete opposite of what the media has been trying to sell you on. We have the receipts and we'll play it for you. It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now.

[Ben Ferguson]

Story number one, there is a very.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Important story that is getting virtually no coverage right now. So I hope all of you will share this information wherever you can. And that is the shocking admission by a former Biden aide announcing that she does not know who ordered President Biden's auto pin signatures. Neera Tanden, a former top aide, President Joe Biden, told Congress under oath that she had authorization to direct auto pin signatures for the president but doesn't know who gave the final order. Tanden served as the director of Biden's Domestic Policy Council, and she told Congress during testimony that the president used an automatic signature tool allowing for aides to sign pardons, sign memos and other official documents. In the White House, Tandem said she did not know who authorized any of those signatures. During her interview before Congress, which lasted more than five hours, she told lawmakers that in her role as staff secretary and senior advisor to the former president between 2021 and 2023, that she was authorized to direct auto pin signatures on behalf of Biden. An oversight committee official has confirmed this now to FOX News Tenon, who reportedly said during her testimony that she had, quote, limited interactions with Biden in her role Even though she was a senior advisor. That, according to sources familiar with her testimony, described an approval process that left her at least partly in the dark about who specifically was giving final approval on the decisions to use the automatic signature tool, even though she'd simultaneously insisted, quote, Biden was in charge. Tannen reportedly testified that to get approval for the use of auto pin signatures, she would send decision memos to members of Biden's inner circle. Now, remember, these are people elected by no one. She added that she was not aware of what actions or what approvals took place between the time she sent the decision memo and the time she received it back with the necessary approval. According to sources familiar with what happened in this testimony, a minority member of the Oversight Committee called Tandem's characterization a lie with a statement from a former White House staffer saying that they received, quote, a written sign off from Biden on every executive action she presented with him. The only problem is she's under oath and saying that's not how it went down at all. Any other characterization is a distortion of the testimony. The Biden former Biden official stated, quote, to insinuate that Neera Tandem said President Biden did not approve every single presidential decision and sign off on every executive action coming out of the White House is a lie. Well, she's saying that it's the truth. Tandem's attorney agreed with a staffer, adding that the auto pins were used after Biden approved the decisions, saying this in a cleanup statement, the auto pin was used only. Only after President Biden personally approved the decision. Aids at no time signed these documents on President Biden's behalf. Again, that's not what her testimony was under oath. So just know this is the big story that we should be talking about. And also know that the media will not touch the fact that a former Biden aide does not know this is her testimony who ordered the President's auto pin signatures.

[Ben Ferguson]

Next story number two. At least five more Iranian nationals who are in this country illegally now off the streets as real threats to our national security. This coming after 11 were arrested over the weekend. And this is a real problem now as we're talking about Iranian sleeper cells being a threat to this country. More Iranians with major criminal histories being arrested and targeted by ice. And what the White House is referring to is a major security sweep are the worst of the worst among us. Now, officials are touting this as a full throttle go after anyone they can who is in this country that may be a known or suspected terrorist and have direct connections to Iran. That is what they're trying to do. I want you to hear more about what's happening in a report from Fox.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

Concern about our safety here at home in the wake of the strikes on Iran's nuclear sites. Breaking news today, Immigration and Customs agents announced they have arrested 15 illegal Iranian immigrants since Sunday. One of them admitted to ties to Hezbollah in Lebanon. A law enforcement source told Fox News the FBI is closely watching for any Iranian backed sleeper agents in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer. During the Biden administration, border agents arrested more than 1,500 Iranians who entered illegally at our southern border. They let nearly half of them go. President Trump on that this morning.

[Unknown Speaker 1]

Biden let a lot of and Biden was an incompetent president, had no idea what he was doing. He let a lot of supercells in, many from Iran. But hopefully we'll take care of them. What Biden did to this country should never be forgotten.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

Justice correspondent David Spunt is in Washington. David?

[Unknown Speaker 5]

Well, Harris, the news about the 15 Iranian nationals coming illegally into the US is no surprise to the people at the Justice Department, the FBI and of course the Department of Homeland Security. According to authorities, one of them has ties to Hezbollah. Another is an alleged former sniper Iranian army. At a budget hearing yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the number of Iranians illegally in the United States continues to grow.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

It's well over a thousand have entered our country and I can tell you we are on high alert and everyone is looking at that very closely.

[Unknown Speaker 5]

She says budget cuts won't affect the overall mission. DOJ and the FBI continue to focus on threats toward President Trump himself as a result of his ordering of the killing of this man, General Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020. Assassination plots originating in IR not only toward President Trump, but to U.S. residents who once lived in Iran. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, seen there yesterday, was asked about sleeper cells in the United States. Those are groups of people who live among us in the US Quietly until ordered to act.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

We've seen some from overseas and some that have been here, maybe gone overseas for a short period of time, become radicalized and come back or individuals that are right here in the United States.

[Unknown Speaker 5]

Noem held a conference call with some of the nation's governors over the weekend to pledge federal resources to help on the state level to combat any threats, whether federal or local. Attorney General Bondi back in front of lawmakers tomorrow to talk about the DOJ budget. But you could expect some of these topics also will likely come up if.

[Ben Ferguson]

You go back to the list of the individuals that have been arrested and what they've been arrested for. One of the ones I mentioned earlier was out of Atlanta, an individual that was arrested in Alabama. And this was a guy that served as an Iranian army sniper. Now, he didn't serve as an Iranian army sniper like 20 years ago. The individual served as an Iranian army sniper sniper from 2018 to 2021. And at the time of his arrest in America, he was in possession. He had a, a Islamic Republic army identification card on his person. All right, if you don't want to be involved in that, why would you have it on your person? You go to another example, ICE in Houston. They arrested another Iranian there. When they arrested him, he was carrying a loaded 9 millimeter pistol. They arrested him, by the way, in Harris county, that is Houston, Texas. The police arrest him for assaulting a family member and impeding breathing, meaning you're strangling someone. You also go to another person in Houston, another Iranian national. An immigration judge had ordered him removed nearly 20 years ago on August 4th of 2005. He's been twice convicted of drug crimes and once convicted driving on a suspended license. He's still in America. There's problems here. There's another example of this. A man in Arizona arrested again another Iranian. He had a final order of removal. He was convicted of threatening a law enforcement officer and being an alien in possession of a firearm. So these are, as the President would describe it, bad hombres, right? You have officials that arrested another man that was in the country illegally from Iran. The man threatened to open fire on ICE officials if they entered her home and then she would go outside and shoot ICE officers in the head, quote, unquote. So it's not just men, it's also so women. Yet another 22 year old in Mississippi, an Iranian national and former lawful permanent resident. Well, guess what? He lied on his original visa application and committed potential marriage fraud as well. This is a guy who, quote, is listed as a known or suspected terrorist. He's now in ICE custody pending removal. You have another man in Colorado, an individual after a judge had already ordered him to be removed. His criminal history includes state and federal convictions for drug crimes and arrests for assault and child abuse. No big deal, right? Totally fine. You got a man in St. Paul, a man that was 56 year old Iranian national. He's been convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm in Minneapolis. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison. He's also a former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard with admitted connections directly to Hezbollah. You got another guy In San Francisco, 62 year old Iranian national with a criminal history that includes a conviction for petty theft and a conviction of possession of a controlled substance for sale. He was sentenced to 10 years in state prison for drug conviction. And now he's in ICE custody or go to Buffalo. You've got another Iranian national there, a man convicted of grand larceny, schemes to defraud, criminal impersonation and practicing as an attorney. Another example of the people that they're taking off the streets. So when you look at what we are now witnessing, it is very clear that there are real people in this country that are trying to do harm to this country that were let in under the last administration. That is obvious. The last administration knew that these people were coming into this country and they just didn't care. They wanted to flood the country with as many illegal immigrants as they possibly could and they just didn't care who was coming in, how they were getting in this country. It didn't matter. And that's incredibly sad. Let me also say one other final thing here. I expect this to get worse before it gets better with a number of illegal immigrants that we're going to find that are a real threat to our national security. And we should do everything we can to support and advocate for ICE and this administration to find them wherever they have to in the country. And here is story number three.

[Unknown Speaker 3]

There is a new classified report that is suggesting that Iran's nuclear program, still intact, likely relied on faulty info. Iranian propaganda from Iranian sources. This is when the media decided to run with the story, knowing that their propaganda was literally coming from Iran. The top secret Defense Intelligence Agency known as the DIA assessment that claimed Iran's nuclear site suffered only moderate damage, likely relied on faulty information from deceitful Iranian sources that, according to several former U.S. intelligence officers, one of whom described the documents as so unreliable you can wipe your AWS with it. The classified DIA report ignited a media firestorm in the days after President Donald Trump. Trump authorized those precision strikes on Iran's top three nuclear sites. The findings, of course, were then leaked to CNN and the New York Times, which you heard about a moment ago. Then they presented them as facts as bombshell evidence that the US bombing run only set back Tehran's nuclear ambitions by, you know, a couple of months. The US Intelligence community deemed that initial assessment with, quote, low confidence, a fact CNN purposely omitted from its original story and based it solely on satellite imagery and intercepted communications known as signal intelligence from Iranian officials. Again, think about this. You have the Iranian government putting out propaganda and media companies in this country putting it out there as fact. Shortly after the assessment leaked Axios reported that communications intercepted by Israel suggested that Iran's military officials have been giving false situation reports to the country's political leadership, downplaying the extent of the damage. Such communications likely made their way into the DIA report. According to three former U.S. intelligence operatives, including a current U.S. official and other veteran national security insiders who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon both on and off the record. Some of them referred to the DIA as the Discount Intelligence Agency. It's basically messaging by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, messaging by Tehran. That is what a former intelligence officer with the US Central Command who operated in the Middle east for nearly 30 years said. In fact, CNN actually had to report on this. And here's what it sounded like when a former Biden official had this to say about Iran's nuclear program.

[Unknown Speaker 4]

A longtime diplomat who served as President Biden's senior adviser for energy and investment. And I think one question that regular people will have, you know, listening to what came out of that briefing today on Capitol Hill from Republicans, from Democrats, is what should they take away when there is such a divide between the politicians over what is the fate of rate of Iran's nuclear capacity and where that stands tonight? What do you think?

[Unknown Speaker 1]

Well, first, Caitlin, it's good to be with you. Look, I think the most important thing is to separate out what's politics and what is happening on the ground over the last year, year and a quarter. Last April, Iran launched a missile attack against Israel, which was 100 ballistic missiles accompanied by 200 or so UAVs. The United States military coordinated a response and defeated that attack. But that was really the first time that Iran had used its own territory to attack Israel. They did it again in October and again the United States supported Israel and with regional partners as well as European countries to defeat it. And now since then, Iran has lost most of its deterrence power. They had three things going for them. They had proxies, meaning terrorist organizations in Lebanon, in Syria and Iraq and Yemen that supported them. The second was the missiles. And the third was the threat of a nuclear a weaponization of their of their nuclear capabilities. Most of their proxies are either weakened to the point they can't respond or are choosing now to distance themselves from Iran. Their missile capability has been proven to be less effective because of the United States ability to defend the region. And now their, their nuclear capability is likely at least set back now the whole idea of obliterated or destroyed. These are political terms that are not really relevant. And I would urge Americans not to really pay attention to those words. What we do know, we know that as a result of the both the Israeli the American strikes, the nuclear program was set back significantly. How much we don't really know. Most Israeli military analysts and generals that I've spoken to over the last 2448 hours think this has gone from a six months breakout to timeframe to two years. So an 18 month or two year delay in their program. But here's the thing, they have also lost other capabilities. They've lost their command and control. They've lost military leaders, they've lost scientists and they lost their conversion. So they're clearly weakened. And lastly, Israel has proven that they have an intelligence capability inside Iran that if they try to reconstitute, we, the United States, Israel, other European allies will.

[Unknown Speaker 2]

Know about it yet again.

[Unknown Speaker 3]

More proof of the propaganda coming from the media trying to convince you that somehow one of the most successful missions in modern military history was a failure. All because Donald Trump is the one that said to do it.

[Ben Ferguson]

Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast and we will see you back here on Monday morning. This is an I Heart podcast.