Trifecta: Fired Ukrainian Prosecutor Says "Joe Biden was BRIBED", Special Counsel Lawyer Secretly Meets w/ WH & DOJ Gives a Get-Out-of-Jail Free Pass on China Corruption

Summary

Podcast Summary: The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
Episode: "Trifecta: Fired Ukrainian Prosecutor Says 'Joe Biden was BRIBED', Special Counsel Lawyer Secretly Meets w/ WH & DOJ Gives a Get-Out-of-Jail Free Pass on China Corruption"
Release Date: August 28, 2023

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Introduction

In this pivotal episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson, host Ben Ferguson engages in a comprehensive discussion with Senator Ted Cruz. The conversation delves into recent allegations of corruption involving President Joe Biden, focusing on the dismissal of a Ukrainian prosecutor, interactions between Special Counsel lawyers and the White House, and the Department of Justice's (DOJ) handling of corruption charges related to China. The episode aims to shed light on what the hosts describe as unprecedented political misconduct and lack of media coverage on these critical issues.

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1. Fired Ukrainian Prosecutor Accuses Joe Biden of Bribery

Key Discussion Points:

• Viktor Shokin's Allegations: Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor fired while investigating Burisma Holdings, has publicly accused Joe Biden of receiving bribes. Shokin claims that Biden used his influence to terminate his investigation as part of a quid pro quo arrangement.

• Biden's Role in Shokin's Dismissal: Both Ferguson and Cruz highlight Biden's repeated visits to Ukraine, asserting that his persistence led to Shokin's removal. Cruz emphasizes, “The quid part of it, that Biden is responsible for firing Shokin, that's undisputed” (01:51).

• Shokin's Statements: In an exclusive Fox News interview, Shokin stated, “Not only the position of President Poroshenko, the office of President Poroshenko was humiliated, but the entire country of Ukraine was humiliated” (04:25). He further alleges that Biden acted in his personal interests, treating Ukraine like his “own backyard”.

• Financial Transactions Alleged: The conversation details alleged multimillion-dollar bribes from Ukrainian oligarchs to both Joe and Hunter Biden, referencing the FD 1023 report which claims, “the oligarch paid Hunter $5 million and the oligarch paid Joe $5 million” (01:51).

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cruz: “The central charge against Joe Biden is bribery, that he solicited and received multimillion dollar bribes from foreign nationals” (01:51).

• Viktor Shokin: “The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn't that alone a case of corruption.” (06:14).

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2. Special Counsel Lawyer's Secret Meetings with the White House

Key Discussion Points:

• Meetings with Jack Smith’s Aides: Ben and Cruz reveal that a lawyer from Special Counsel Jack Smith's team met with the White House and DOJ aides shortly before President Trump was indicted. These meetings occurred on March 31, 2023, with evidence from White House visitor logs.

• Contradictory Statements from Biden: Despite Joe Biden’s claim that he "never once, not one single time suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do," the recorded meetings suggest otherwise (17:24).

• Violations of DOJ Protocol: The hosts argue that such interactions violate DOJ protocols designed to prevent political interference in prosecutions. Cruz states, “Any Department of Justice with even a shred of integrity... that is corruption on its face” (23:45).

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Biden: “Look, you notice I have never once, not one single time suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do...” (17:24).

• Ted Cruz: “Any real prosecutor would say no to the hell no. Yeah, that's not gonna happen.” (26:32).

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3. DOJ’s Handling of China-Related Corruption Allegations

Key Discussion Points:

• Get-Out-of-Jail-Free Pass: Ferguson and Cruz discuss how the DOJ, under Special Counsel David Weiss, appears to be shielding the Biden family and their associates from corruption charges related to dealings with China.

• Whistleblower Claims: According to IRS whistleblowers cited in the podcast, the Biden DOJ forbade investigations into Joe Biden, effectively protecting him from scrutiny over alleged bribes from Chinese entities.

• Statute of Limitations Exploitation: The hosts highlight that critical evidence of corruption has recently fallen outside the statute of limitations, preventing prosecution. Cruz mentions, “Hunter's WhatsApp message happened on July 30, 2017. The statute of limitations for most of these violations is six years. That means the statute of limitations for a charge related to Hunter WhatsApp message expired just a few weeks ago” (41:10).

• Allegations Against Special Counsel David Weiss: The discussion accuses Weiss of knowingly allowing corruption charges to expire, effectively granting immunity to the Bidens and their Chinese associates.

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cruz: “David Weiss is directly responsible and with Merrick Garland's blessing.” (40:57).

• Ben Shapiro: “...we could have figured that out. That was easy. 100% could have figured that out.” (38:01).

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4. Potential Congressional Actions and Impeachment

Key Discussion Points:

• Impeachment as a Remedy: With criminal prosecution seemingly stalled due to expired statutes of limitations, Cruz suggests that impeachment remains a viable avenue to address alleged corruption. “Statutes of limitations don't apply to impeachment,” he states, advocating for impeachment based on the accumulated evidence (45:34).

• House Republicans' Strategy: The hosts discuss the likelihood of House Republicans, particularly figures like James Comer or Jim Jordan, invoking impeachable offenses against Biden to remove him from office.

• Media Neglect: A recurring theme is the lack of media coverage on these allegations. Both speakers criticize mainstream outlets for ignoring or dismissing significant evidence, thereby withholding crucial information from the public.

Notable Quotes:

• Ted Cruz: “If you want to get him out of the White House, is that maybe the best case scenario at this point?” (45:34).

• Ben Shapiro: “...the hacks and the media should be covering, but they're not.” (47:51).

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5. Concluding Remarks and Call to Action

In their closing remarks, Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz emphasize the urgency and seriousness of the allegations discussed. They urge listeners to share the podcast widely to ensure that these critical issues receive the attention they deserve. The hosts also highlight forthcoming investigations and potential evidence that could further substantiate their claims against President Biden.

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Notable Quotes Summary

• Ted Cruz on Biden’s Alleged Bribery:
  “The central charge against Joe Biden is bribery, that he solicited and received multimillion dollar bribes from foreign nationals.” (01:51)

• Viktor Shokin on Biden's Actions:
  “The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn't that alone a case of corruption.” (06:14)

• Joe Biden’s Contradiction:
  “Look, you notice I have never once, not one single time suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do...” (17:24)

• Ted Cruz on DOJ Corruption:
  “David Weiss is directly responsible and with Merrick Garland's blessing.” (40:57)

• Ted Cruz Advocating Impeachment:
  “Statutes of limitations don't apply to impeachment.” (45:34)

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Final Thoughts

This episode of The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson presents a series of serious allegations regarding President Joe Biden's involvement in international corruption, the inappropriate interactions between Special Counsel lawyers and the White House, and the DOJ's purported failure to address these issues adequately. Ben Ferguson and Senator Ted Cruz call for greater public awareness and legislative action to address what they describe as systemic corruption at the highest levels of government. Listeners are encouraged to share the podcast to amplify these concerns and prompt further investigation.

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Note: This summary is based on the provided transcript and reflects the discussions and viewpoints expressed by the podcast participants.

Transcript

[Ben Shapiro]

Senator, nice to be back with you in studio. And we have got so much to cover. This is going to be a really important show, one that I think people are going to want to make sure they share, especially the clips. That's why we're doing this one in video, because there's going to be a lot of clips that come out of this that people are going to want to let their family and their friends know. There was something very interesting that happened this week. And as I was watching it, as you were watching it, I think we're not surprised by, but we're also glad to see it come out. And that is the prosecutor who was fired in Ukraine that was investigating Burisma has now come out and said this is why it happened, and kind of gave the timeline of how the Biden influence came down on him and destroyed his career.

[Ted Cruz]

That's exactly right. There's been in this last week significant new evidence of Biden family corruption. And if you watch cnn, if you watch msnbc, you'll hear none of it because they don't actually cover news, they're propagandists. But starting off with this new interview that Viktor Shokin has given now, what is the relevance of this? The central charge against Joe Biden is bribery, that he solicited and received multimillion dollar bribes from foreign nationals, in particular Ukrainian oligarch. As you'll recall, the essence of bribery is quid pro quo. The Latin phrase is this for that. Now, the this, the quid is alleged to be the firing of Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor who was investigating the Ukrainian oligarch who owned Burisma. The quo was allegedly millions of dollars that that Ukrainian oligarch paid both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, we know that he paid a million dollars a year, $83,000 a month to Hunter Biden to be on the board.

[Ben Shapiro]

And to be clear, that was just part of funneling that money. They knew they couldn't send a whole check for the full amount. They had to make it look legitimate. And they said, okay, we'll put you on the board in essence, and we'll funnel it to you over an extended period of time and so that it won't look like we just flat out handed you 5 million bucks.

[Ted Cruz]

Right. And the allegation in the FD 1023, which is the report from the confidential human source that came into the FBI, is that the oligarch paid Hunter $5 million and the oligarch paid Joe $5 million and funneled it through multiple different sources. But to assess whether Biden is guilty of bribery, you gotta prove quid pro quo. Now, the quid part of it, that Biden is responsible for firing Shokin, that's undisputed. And let's go back to. Because Biden has bragged on air about getting Shokin fired. Here, take a listen.

[Joe Biden]

I went over, I guess the 12th, 13th time to Kiev, and I was supposed to announce that there was another billion dollar loan guarantee. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't. So they said they had. They were walking out to press conference, and I said, I'm not going to. We're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not the president. The president said. I said, call him. I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting a billion dollars. I said, you're not getting a billion. I'm going to be leaving here. And I think it was, what, six hours? I looked, I said, I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time, solid at.

[Ben Shapiro]

The time, solid for the Biden team.

[Ted Cruz]

So the Biden White House's defense to this is they say, well, the prosecutor, Victor Shokin, he was fired because he wasn't tough enough on burisma. And the Ukrainian oligarch, that's their claim, that they were really seeking rule of law. Now, mind you, the FD 1023 says that the Ukrainian oligarch specifically said, get this guy fired. The reason we hired Hunter Biden was to get this guy fired. But what is new now is that Shokin has come and done an exclusive interview with Fox News, and what he says is really striking because it is directly contrary to what Joe Biden and the Biden White House has said. Here, listen to the first part of that interview.

[Viktor Shokin]

Not only the position of President Poroshenko, the office of President Poroshenko was humiliated, but the entire country of Ukraine was humiliated. And I developed a very firm understanding of the fact that the vice president was only acting in his own interests. He, generally speaking, handled Ukraine like it was his own backyard. He would put people that were suitable for him. He would arrange for them to be put in certain positions.

[Ben Shapiro]

Somebody said the other day, by the way, and I thought this was a very interesting point, the billion dollar loan guarantee, if that would not have gone through in Ukraine, they said that was like almost a trillion dollars. In America, the amount of money, that.

[Ted Cruz]

Massive amount of money in Ukraine, in.

[Ben Shapiro]

Ukraine, I mean, a billion dollars could have wrecked parts of their economy if we wouldn't have fulfilled that promise. And that's putting a gun to the head of that country, saying, I'm getting on a plane. And I think sometimes people hear a billion, they think, oh, that's not that much money. I know people in America that are billionaires. This amount of money in Ukraine was enough to destroy things in their economy.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, and look what Shokin is saying there, that Biden treated Ukraine like his own personal playground, like he put people in place where he could control them. You know the clip we just played a second ago of Biden bragging that he said it was his 11th or 12th time going there. That is bizarre. Why is a vice president going 11 or 12 times to Ukraine? Like, it is weird for a vice.

[Ben Shapiro]

President to go that far, for a.

[Ted Cruz]

Vice president to go over and over and over again. And what Shokin is saying is the reason he's doing it is because he had corrupt business interests. And we know it was very profitable for Hunter here. Listen to what Shokin went on to say.

[Viktor Shokin]

I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. They were being bribed. The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn't that alone a case of corruption.

[Ben Shapiro]

He also said, and I want to make sure I have this right, he said that up until his firing, there were no complaints about his performance in the investigation. He said the only problem was that he was investigating Burisma, which means he was investigating the company which was funneling money to the big guy and to Hunter Biden, who was on the board. He said before that no one had even brought up that there could possibly be anything wrong.

[Ted Cruz]

Look, it really is striking that the Ukrainian prosecutor who Joe Biden got fired says that he believes Joe Biden was being bribed. I mean, that's an explicit allegation. By the way, did you see that on ABC News Tonight? No. Did you see that on NBC?

[Ben Shapiro]

No.

[Ted Cruz]

How about cnn?

[Ben Shapiro]

None of them.

[Ted Cruz]

They don't cover that. They don't cover that. A Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating a corrupt oligarch who Joe Biden bragged about getting fired and bragged about holding a billion dollars in U.S. loan guarantees hostage to get him fired says the reason Joe Biden did that is Joe Biden was being bribed.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

That's a big damn deal.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah. And by the way, it's exactly what Sokin said. Listen to this.

[Viktor Shokin]

There were no complaints whatsoever, no problems with how I was performing at my job. But because pressure was repeatedly put on President Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me.

[Ben Shapiro]

I read this guy as very believable. I read this guy as a guy that was hired to do a job, to investigate. And then all of a sudden he's like, wait, there's the President, Vice President of the United States of America's son on this board. You keep digging and all of a sudden you get a phone call, hey, you're fired. Cuz we need a billion dollars. One, I'm honestly surprised he's still alive, if this is how things work in that part of the world. And two, I'm shocked that he was willing to do this interview at this point.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. And let me say, look, I don't know if Shokin is someone who has integrity or not. And I'm certainly not vested in saying the guy was a paragon of virtue.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Ukraine is a country that has a long history of corruption.

[Ben Shapiro]

Many say it's worse than even Russia.

[Ted Cruz]

Yes. And it's been tragic, the corruption that's in Ukraine, but that makes it all the more questionable. Why does Joe Biden turn it into his playground? You know, if you go to a place that is infamous for corruption, you know what people do? Apparently they offer you millions of dollars. It's a pretty profitable place. If you're a senior government official, you go there over and over and over again. And by the way, you bring a billion dollars of U.S. taxpayer money with you. If you want to get corruption, having a billion dollars in your pocket that doesn't happen to be yours, but you can choose to give it or not, is an awfully good way to attract a ton of interest. Listen to what else Shokin says.

[Viktor Shokin]

I have no doubt that there were illegal activities engaged in by Burisma. As a matter of fact, the criminal case had been started before me it to expand. And Slochevsky, who at the time held the post of minister and was the founder and CEO of Burisma, started bringing in people who could provide protection for him. Hunter Biden was among them. And the corruption network expanded as a result. So, yes, to answer your question, there's no doubt in my mind that Burisma was engaged in illegal activities.

[Ben Shapiro]

There's a lot of people, including business partners of Hunter Biden, that have said that if Joe Biden wouldn't have gotten involved with Burisma, gotten Sokin fired. The investigation started before Socan got his job that this company would have gone under.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah, look, Zlochevsky is a billionaire. He's an oligarch. There were massive allegations of corruption. He was also a government minister. So it was very profitable. One of the ways Burisma made so much money is they had access to the government leases for natural gas. And gosh, when they were sold to himself, it made a whole lot of money. And this investigation from Shokin, Look, Shokin was going after Burisma. That's undisputed. The Biden folks say, well, we wanted him fired because he wasn't going after Toughnoff. Well, you know what? Once she Shokin was fired, the investigations on Burisma largely disappeared. So the objective that is alleged in the FD 1023, which is get rid of the prosecutor that is investigating the corrupt oligarch, that objective was accomplished and the Biden White House has really no defense. And here, listen to what else Jochen says.

[Viktor Shokin]

It is public knowledge, Everybody knows that it was because of Joe Biden's actions that Russia was able to claim Crimea without firing a single shot. Which of course eventually led to a full scale war that is currently underway.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's full circle in a sense, what we're now seeing. I mean, he's talking about not only Crimea, we're talking about the war now. We're talking about a weak policy that now, I mean, for a guy that was an expert on Ukraine and watching what's happened in Ukraine and and then now trying to send tons of money over to Ukraine.

[Ted Cruz]

Billions. Tens of billions. Yeah.

[Ben Shapiro]

And people are worried about that. Where's the money going? Follow the money. How much this money's actually going to the battlefield and how much is going to oligarchs who are in Warsaw and five star hotels, which is where they are. And a lot of their families are.

[Ted Cruz]

And are any of the oligarchs continuing to pay the Biden family? You know, one of the things about people who engage in bribery and corruption, they tend not to stop.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

And that the amount of money that Biden is shoveling towards Ukraine and remember, shoveling after Biden waived the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 on Russia and Putin, which caused the Ukraine war right now. And right now Biden is funding both sides of this war. He's sending billions to Ukraine, but he's also refusing to enforce oil sanctions on Iran. Iran is using the billions of dollars they're making to produce Drones that they're giving to Russia and the drones are killing Ukrainian soldiers. So Biden's funding both sides of, and by the way, war profiteers for a long time have funded both sides of war. And I'll tell you, if you have corrupt oligarchs, funding both sides of a war can be a very profitable way to pursue it. And so Shokin's allegations are very serious.

[Ben Shapiro]

Will Congress do anything with this intel, with this information? Is there a way that Congress could bring a guy like Shokin over and say we want you to testify after seeing this, would that be a smart move for House Republicans?

[Ted Cruz]

I think that's entirely possible. I would expect the House of Representatives to do it. I would expect either James Comer or Jim Jordan to do that. I'll tell you what I don't expect. I don't expect the Senate to do it. Cuz Senate Democrats don't want to know. Not a single Democrat has any interest in knowing whether Joe Biden has received millions of dollars of bribes from foreign nationals. They're never asked it. They don't ask any questions about it. They are ostriches with their head buried in the sand. They don't want to know. And, and much of the media, the New York Times, the Washington Post, they don't wanna know either because they have abandoned any pretense of being real journalists.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

Well, we know from the IRS whistleblowers that the Biden DOJ forbade any investigation into Joe Biden. Any questions about the big guy, any questions about what he did that was off limits. So no wonder the investigation doesn't cover whether Joe Biden has received bribes. The Biden DOJ ordered the investigators. You're not allowed to inquire whether Joe Biden received bribes. And I gotta say, it's effective because they still haven't even begun to examine it in any serious way.

[Ben Shapiro]

There's a second part of this story, obviously, just with the Bidens, and there is now Biden staffers, and I'm reading this because I want to make sure I get it right. Biden staffers, we now have confirmation, and this would be contradicting what the Biden White House has said and what Joe Biden has said. They met with Special Counsel Jack Smith's aides just weeks before Trump was indicted. Jack Smith, special counsel that brought the charges against President Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents. There's a guy by the name of Jay Bratt who joined the special counsel team in November of 2022. He took a meeting in the White House on March 31st of 2023 with Caroline Sabat, the Deputy Chief of Staff for the White House Counsel's office. Now, this is proven through White House visitor logs. They were joined in a 10am meeting, we're being told now, by an FBI agent in the Washington field office. This is nine weeks after meeting. On June 8, Trump was indicted by Smith's office. Interestingly enough, here is what Biden had to say on the exact day of Trump indictment about saying I've stayed out of this. Clearly, the White House logs these meetings prove that's a lie.

[Joe Biden]

Look, you notice I have never once, not one single time suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do, bringing a charge or not bringing a charge. I'm honest.

[Ben Shapiro]

He's not honest.

[Ted Cruz]

Okay, that is a flat out lie. He says he's never once suggested to the Justice Department what they should do or not do regarding Trump. That was in June. Let me read you a quote from the New York Times, hardly a right wing source, on April 2, 2022, quote, and while the President has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of January 6th. Now, listen, this is reminiscent of England's King Henry II, who said about Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170, who will rid me of this troublesome cleric, where he says it out loud and promptly his knights went and murdered Becket. Well, in this instance, Biden's defense is, I didn't directly tell Merrick Garland what to do. I just said, gosh, who will rid me of this troublesome ponderous judge and get him to act like a prosecutor and actually prosecute Trump? That's according to the New York Times. If the New York Times is telling the truth, then Joe Biden in the clip you just played was flat out lying. And then this breaking news. Look, the fact that Brat, one of the senior lawyers in the special counsel's office, met with the White House. With the White House counsel's office, not just the counsel's office, met with political. Senior political leaders in the White House. It is difficult to overstate what a massive breach protocol this is. Listen, line lawyers at DOJ don't meet with the White House. If you're an AUSA, an assistant U.S. attorney, you don't go meet with the White House.

[Ben Shapiro]

You're not taking that mean they wouldn't let you probably go there.

[Ted Cruz]

Are very rigid. I was at the Department of Justice. I was an Associate Deputy Attorney General under George W. Bush. There are strict rules that limit who from the Department of Justice can meet with the White House. And it is run through very narrowly circumscribed channels precisely to avoid political interference with prosecution. So a line prosecutor would pretty much never meet with senior officials at the White House. Now, brat's not just a line prosecutor. He is with the special counsel. So he is charged with which everyone Knows investigating Donald J. Trump, investigating the chief political opponent of the President. The idea that a senior lawyer for the special counsel is over at the White House, is in meetings with the White House just weeks before Trump is indicted, just weeks before Mar A Lago is raided. And by the way, brat was intimately involved in the Mar A Lago raid. There is no innocent explanation for it. Any Department of Justice with even a shred of integrity. If you were to suggest the special counsel, let's go meet with the White House. Any real prosecutor would say no to the hell no. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. But let's be clear. This brat guy, and I don't know him, but there are real evidences that this brat guy is deeply involved in corruption and cover up. And I'm gonna read from NBC A story June 8, 2023. The title of the story is Lawyer for Witness and Trump's docs probe alleges prosecutorial misconduct. Here's what NBC reported. The source said Woodward's allegation could raise questions about any prosecution of Nauta, a military valet in the Trump White House who went to work for the former president at Mar A Lago, adding that the Justice Department appears to be taking the allegation seriously and plans to respond to the judge. The source says that Woodward alleges that brat, same guy, same guy who was over at the White House meeting. Source says that Woodward alleges that brat had with him a folder of information related to Woodward's bid for a judgeship and told him, quote, I didn't take you for a Trump guy, quote. The implication was that the judge thing would go badly for him if his client didn't cooperate. The source said, now I want to break up what that means. So Woodward is a lawyer who's representing Nauta, who's Trump's valet. Nowta is one of the defendants.

[Ben Shapiro]

Yeah.

[Ted Cruz]

Woodward comes in to meet with DOJ to meet with Bratt, senior lawyer in the special counsel's office. Now, unrelated to this, Woodward had applied to be a judge, had an application to be a judge, and according to Woodward, brat shows up with a folder of here's your application.

[Ben Shapiro]

I know who you are, I know what your dreams are. I know what your life goals are, I know what you've applied for. And he's basically saying, I'm holding your life in this folder and your life's work in this folder, and I can either possibly make it happen or make sure it never happens and you never reach this goal. Is that not what he's doing?

[Ted Cruz]

There if this is true, it absolutely is. It's reminiscent of someone walking into an establishment going, nice little bar you have here. Shame. If something happened to it, that's a threat.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's almost a scene out of a movie.

[Ted Cruz]

It is a scene out of a movie. And to be clear, if this happened, and it's only an allegation, but if it happened, Brat would and should face serious legal discipline for threatening to tank someone's judicial application if that lawyer didn't get his client to cooperate with the prosecutors. That's not what a prosecutor is supposed to do. Those two are not supposed to be connected. That is something corrupt prosecutors do. That is something political prosecutors do. And can I ask you a question?

[Ben Shapiro]

You were at the doj and I just want people to understand how abnormal this would be. This is not opposition research. When you're a lawyer in this position, to even get your hands on that application to become a judge, you're not working in the best interest of the American people and justice. At that point, you're working for the Democratic Party or for Joe Biden and saying, go in there and you better tell this guy, give us something good on the president, give him up, the former President Trump, and we'll reward you with something if you do it.

[Ted Cruz]

And yes, and by the way, the natural follow up question is, who gave Brat that folder of the application to be a judge? Look, when he applied to be a judge, he didn't submit it to Brat. That folder would have been at one of two places in DOJ or in the White House. Probably in both places. So it's entirely possible in his meetings in the White House. The White House political operatives gave him that folder, said, here's something you can use to pressure the lawyer to get Trump's assistant to flip. I don't know that that happened, but Brat either got it from the White House or from doj. But to be clear, doj, the office that is in charge with reviewing that application, is not in the special Counsel's office. It's not the people prosecuting Trump.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's somebody else who said, hey, we got you something. You might want to take down there to meet with him.

[Ted Cruz]

We got some leverage on this lawyer and we got a political objective. We want to get Donald Trump. Look, I actually am stunned that they would do this meeting at the White House. I'm absolutely stunned. As I said, I cannot think of an instance where a line prosecutor ever meets with the White House, where an AUSA ever meets with the White House. Typically, White House meetings are done by senior officials. They're done by the Attorney General, they're done by the deputy attorney general, they're done by an assistant Attorney general. They might be done by a deputy assistant, an attorney general or an associate deputy Attorney general. Those are the. And they're pretty much always done with a leg affairs staffer from DOJ in there to make sure that the communications are appropriate. So you might get. If they're discussing some criminal justice legislation, you might have DOJ meeting with the White House and saying, okay, here's what we think in terms of this legislation. That would be something that would be appropriate. There are lots of issues that are policy based, that are appropriate. There are lots of issues. Doj, the national security prosecutors might be meeting with the White House to say, hey, we got some threats, we got some terrorists who are raising threats. That's an appropriate area. But it's senior people. It is political appointees.

[Ben Shapiro]

And if anyone below senior even goes into that meeting, that's with a significant amount of approval, like, hey, you're going to go take this meeting because we're working on this stuff, but give them an update maybe. That could be possible. But you don't just randomly get to go make a meeting at the White House on your own. Right?

[Ted Cruz]

Your boss is gonna tell you, I do not know of a single instance in which an ausa, an Assistant US Attorney, has ever had a White House meeting. I'm not saying it's never happened, but I don't know of it. But then take the whole thing and put it on steroids. This guy isn't just some random ausa. He's a senior lawyer in the special counsel's office. The whole point why do you appoint a special counsel? You appoint a special counsel because there's a conflict of interest with the White House. Because politically you need some separation from the White House for a lawyer from the special counsel's office to go meet with the White House. No one has articulated an innocent explanation and I don't think there can be one. This is corruption on its face. And apparently the meetings went well because contrary to Joe Biden's lie that he's never told people what to do. Right after the meeting, what did they do? They went and raided Mar A Lago. They went and indicted Donald Trump. They did exactly what the political operatives at the White House wanted to do. And I gotta say, the corruption on the face of it would make the Ukrainians blush.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

We also, by the way, that woman is not in the White House council. So typically if there's a meeting with doj, you meet with the White House counsel, you meet with the lawyers. He's meeting with an advisor to the White House chief of staff. That is bizarre.

[Ben Shapiro]

That doesn't happen normally.

[Ted Cruz]

That does not happen normally. And it, on the face of it, it stinks.

[Ben Shapiro]

We also know that apparently he was one of the guys that went down to Mar A Lago when they were negotiating on the records to see the secure room location where Trump was holding these documents. So how on earth being this intertwined, could you possibly serve on a special prosecutor as part of that team knowing that you were in all this before they'd even named him.

[Ted Cruz]

Look, because I think this entire thing is a sham and I think it's corrupt. I think the Biden DOJ is corrupt. I think they targeted Donald Trump from the beginning. I think these indictments are corrupt. I think this was designed to defeat their political enemy and to abuse the administration of justice to do so. I think that these clowns have done massive damage to the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI. And as an alumnus of the Department of Justice, that saddens me profoundly. Listen, David Weiss, who is the fake special counsel so Merrick Garland nominated, the guy who is accused of participating in obstruction of justice, of. Of blocking investigations into whether Joe Biden solicited and received bribes, has been now named the fake special counsel. The fake special counsel. The guy who Merrick Garland knows. And by the way, we talked about this in an earlier pod, it was illegal to name David Weiss a special counsel. Why? Because the DOJ guidelines say a special counsel must be someone from outside doj. Merrick Garland just ignored the law, said, nope, nope, I got my guy. I know he'll do it right. Why? Cuz he's been doing it right. He's already been willing to engage in.

[Ben Shapiro]

Corruption and remind people of this if they miss our past podcasts. You said the problem is the reason why Garland can get away with doing that is because if that protocol, that law is broken, who do you go to to whistleblow that the law is being broken? Merrick Garland.

[Ted Cruz]

Yeah. And the DOJ guidelines say that it's non justiciable. In other words, that you can't challenge it in court. So he violated the law, but he knows that no one will force him to follow the law and he knows the press will ignore the fact that it's illegal. Now, why is it that the DOJ guidelines say it should be someone from outside doj? Because you appoint a special counsel when there's a political conflict of interest. Let me tell you something David Weiss has done, which again, nobody in the media has reported on David Weiss in the last two weeks, has given Hunter Biden and Joe Biden and the Chinese Communist Party a get out of jail free pass on the mountains of evidence of corruption concerning China. And I want to walk through this in some detail because nobody's reporting on it and it's really important. Andy McCarthy at National Review has done a very good job of highlighting it, but almost nobody else is focused on it. All right, let's go back for a second to the WhatsApp text that Hunter Biden sent and I want to read it again. The WhatsApp text said, I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. And now means tonight. And Z, if I get a call or a text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person that he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction, I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father. That's five references to Papa Joe in one text. Now that was a message that was sent to Henry Zhao. Who is Henry Zhao? Henry Zhao is the CCP connected General Secretary of China's Harvest Fund, which was part owner, along with Hunter and others of Bohai Harvest RST Partners. And by the way, Hunter appears to have transferred his 10% stake in that venture to Kevin Morris. Now, who is Kevin Morris? Kevin Morris is the Hollywood lawyer who paid Hunter's millions in delinquent taxes. Now, the Zhang that Hunter mentions appears to be CEFC Executive Director Zhang Jinjun, who is a CCP heavyweight who accompanied President xi to a 2017 meeting with Vladimir Putin in Moscow as China sought a stake in Russia's state owned energy giant Rosneft. So these are high ranking Communist Party officials. Now, the chairman appears to refer to Yi Jingming, who is the CEFC chairman and a former Xi protege who began his business relationship with Hunter in 2015 while Joe Biden was vice president. And Yi gifted Hunter, what do you think you gave Hunter?

[Ben Shapiro]

I know now only too much because we've covered this, but it's either got to be. It's got to either be A, a car, B, a diamond, or C, an airplane. Let's just go with that.

[Ted Cruz]

All right. That's good. It's door number two. This particular one. It's hard to keep keep corruption. By the way, you forgot the watch.

[Ben Shapiro]

I forgot the watch. This is a nice watch, by the way.

[Ted Cruz]

This is not the watch. So ye gifted Hunter a 3.16 carat diamond worth $80,000 to seal the deal. Ben, you're a good looking guy. You're a charming guy. Has anyone ever given you a three carat diamond?

[Ben Shapiro]

No.

[Ted Cruz]

Why not?

[Ben Shapiro]

Probably because I'm not corrupt as hell. And probably because I don't take bribes well.

[Ted Cruz]

And you also don't have the ability to deliver favors from the Vice president of the United States. If you were selling favors from Daddy and Daddy happened to be vice president and perfectly willing to give favors, then maybe you'd get three carat diamonds from senior Communist officials.

[Ben Shapiro]

Side note, by the way, on the diamond thing, this is interesting to me. I had no ide. Apparently, about 15 years ago, I was told this from a diamond broker, a guy that's been doing this in New York City. He said out of nowhere, China got into diamonds big time. And they started coming in and out of the diamond district in New York. And they said it was because they realized it was the easiest way to funnel money on airplanes that you could not trace because you could take something that's three carats, and three carats is, you know, I mean, we're talking something.

[Ted Cruz]

Very small, the size of a dime or smaller.

[Ben Shapiro]

A lot easier than, A, when you're tracking money through bank accounts, right, with activity reports. B, you can bring a billion dollars in a little bag. And they said they noticed a massive influx of these diamonds coming in from shady characters. And they said what they figured out was you could hold in your hand hundreds of millions of dollars in diamonds and you could disperse them to people around the world that you needed to. And they were coming in, they said, like they'd never seen before because they understood this was a way to bribe people.

[Ted Cruz]

Well, you saw the money that came in. And by the way, the text, the WhatsApp text that Hunter sent that says, I'm sitting next to his father, we know from the IRS whistleblowers that the Biden DOJ forbade any examination and GPS data to determine if Joe Biden was in fact sitting next to him. But we also know from photographs on Hunter's laptop that the laptop that Hunter was at his father's home the day that message was sent. So he was physically at Daddy's home. What we just have not confirmed, and we haven't confirmed because Merrick Garland doesn't want us to confirm it, is whether Joe Biden was physically next to him or not.

[Ben Shapiro]

And we could have figured that out. That was easy. 100% could have figured that out. He said we don't want to know, because I think he knew the answer.

[Ted Cruz]

They didn't want to know. It's see no evil is their view. By the way, here's some other things Hunter said to Zhou. All too often, people mistake kindness for weakness. And all too often, I am standing over top of them saying, I warned you. From this moment until whenever he reaches me, it is 9:45am here, and I assume 9:45pm there. So his night is running out. Ask yourself, is that threatening? Okay, here's something. Zhao responded and told Hunter he would call him on WhatsApp. And here's Hunter's reply. Okay, my friend, I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father. I sure hope whatever it is you're doing is very, very, very important. That's what he's saying back and forth. And you know what? What was the response to these threatening emails? Getting ready to punish you. Well, the next day, Hunter got in touch with Gong Weng Kevin Dong, who has been described. And some of these names seem like something out of a John Hughes movie like Pretty in Pink. But set that aside. Kevin Dong has been described as his CEFC partner in the United States and an emissary of Chairman Yee. Three days later, an LLC known as Hudson West III began establishing checking accounts. What happened with the checking accounts? The following day, CEFC Infrastructure Investments llc, which is a US based CFC subsidiary that listed Gong Weng Dong as its director, sent Hunter Biden's Awasco firm a payment of $100,000. $100,000. That was a good text. 100 grand. Boom. That's worth more than your three carat diamond. That was only 80 grand. But you know what? 100 grand is? Chump change. Four days later, that same CEFC Infrastructure Investments LLC wired. How much you think they wired? Hudson West? It's got to be 100,000 plus $5,000,000.

[Ben Shapiro]

Wow.

[Ted Cruz]

$5,000,000. Over the next seven weeks, almost all of that $5,000,000 and specifically $4,790,375.25 was transferred from Hudson West III to Hunter's Owasco firm. By the way, if Owasco is familiar to you, remember OWASCO is one of the things that David Weiss wrote in the plea deal that says we will exempt everything and you will be forgiven from everything that wasco did. So the plea deal whitewashed all of this until the community, from everything we've.

[Ben Shapiro]

Ever looked at, anything on your laptop, all of it, you did it doesn't matter. And we're just gonna say sign your name on this piece of paper. Don't go to jail, don't do any jail time, don't worry about the gun problem that you've got, It'll all just go away.

[Ted Cruz]

And remember, we covered this in an earlier podcast. Also, the Biden DOJ didn't wanna prosecute any of this at all. Wanted no criminal charges, wanted no guilty plea, wanted to give a complete exoneration, but let Me tell you how they did give an exoneration. Today is August 28, 2023. Let's go back and look at the calendar because the dates are incredibly important. Hunter's WhatsApp message happened on July 30, 2017. Now, the statute of limitations for most of these violations is six years. That means the statute of limitations for a charge related to Hunter WhatsApp message Expired July 30, just a few weeks ago. The $100,000 payment that rolled in was on August 4, 2017. That means the statute of limitations expired on August 4 just a few weeks ago. The $5,000,000 payment that followed was on August 8, 2017. That means the Statute of Limitations expired 20 days ago. Now, David Weiss has known about all of this for years and he sat there and did nothing. Those texts are corrupt as hell. This money trail is corrupt as hell. And David Weiss is directly responsible and with Merrick Garland's blessing. And by the way, brat going to White House meeting after White House meeting after White House meeting said, look, all we gotta do is get six years beyond that. And it is now incredibly difficult to prosecute Hunter Biden or Joe Biden for their corruption with China. And that was a deliberate objective, I believe, of David Weiss, of Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice.

[Ben Shapiro]

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[Ted Cruz]

And by the way, is anyone covering this?

[Ben Shapiro]

No. No one?

[Ted Cruz]

Is Jake Tapper?

[Ben Shapiro]

No.

[Ted Cruz]

How come? Jake, you want to be a journalist, you pretend to be a journalist. How about on State of the Union on Sunday? You walk through that timeframe, you walk through the WhatsApp, you walk through the $100,000 payment, you walk through the $5 million payment, and then you make clear that David Weiss just let the statute of limitations expire in the last few weeks. That would be CNN actually covering news. And the chances that Jake does that, I think are 0.0%. Because if you're the apologist for the regime, you don't cover facts that are problematic. You don't cover facts like senior lawyers for the special counsel are going to the White House over and over and over again in a way that is obviously corrupt.

[Ben Shapiro]

Last thing on this, and that is Jim Jordan and James Comey have both said that they are going to have more banking records come out. We're now, I think north of 50 million that could have come into the Biden family. And we keep seeing the statute of limitations run out. If we find new money, is there anything that the House can do? Or is this going to just straight up be an election year issue where you say, hey, if you want this guy who we know is corrupt, we can prove he's corrupt. Who's been taking bribes, who has compromised at the highest levels of government from our adversaries. If you want to get him out of the White House, is that maybe the best case scenario at this point?

[Ted Cruz]

So look, statutes of limitations don't apply to impeachment. So one remedy that remains there is impeaching Joe Biden for bribery. And if the House demonstrates evidence of bribery, the House should impeach him and the Senate. If Senate Democrats had a shred of integrity, if it's proven that the President of the United States solicited and received millions of dollars of bribes from foreign nationals, he should be removed from office. Now, I'm not naive enough to think that there's even a single Democrat who cares. We could literally have video of Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs handing Joe Biden bags of cash or 3 carat diamonds or sports cars or watches. Watches. And that would not be enough to move a single Democrat vote. But impeachment is one remedy that's unquestionably there in terms of criminal prosecution. Listen, at some level it doesn't matter because Merrick Garland, I think, will never, ever, ever prosecute Joe Biden for the corruption that right now the evidence is really growing and growing on a daily basis. Merrick Garland sent his own integrity up the river, and it's sad because the guy used to be a respected federal judge and he's gonna go down in history, I believe, as the most partisan attorney general in U.S. history. Whether you could prosecute Hunter and Joe for all of this China activity depends. You can't prosecute it directly for something that is exceeding the statute of limitations. It is possible the DOJ could take a page out of Fanny Willis, the Georgia prosecutor is going after Trump and bring a RICO charge and a RICO charge of a criminal enterprise. If you demonstrate an ongoing RICO charge with conduct that falls within the statute of limitations, you might still be able to focus on it. But at a minimum, David Weiss, fulfilling his job as protector in chief of Joe Biden, has given a very strong legal shield to protect against any criminal charges for bribery and corruption between the Bidens and Communist China.

[Ben Shapiro]

It's gonna be a campaign issue for sure in this presidential it should be one, yes, and it's certainly one the hacks and the media should be covering, but they're not. So that's why you should share this podcast wherever you can. If you're seeing the video, make sure you share that. On social media, if you are listening to the audio only version, make sure you share it. Hit that follow button. If you're listening on Apple or subscriber auto download, it's always free. Wherever you're listening to this podcast and on the days that we don't publish, we publish Monday, Wednesday and Fridays. Make sure you check out my podcast as well. It's the Ben Ferguson Podcast and I'll keep you updated on the breaking news in the days in between this podcast. We'll see you back here in a couple of days.