The Truth with Lisa Boothe: Maduro Captured, $9B Minnesota Welfare Fraud Exposed, and Trump's Foreign Policy

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show: The Truth with Lisa Boothe

Episode Date: January 13, 2026
Featured Guest: Paul Morrow (retired NYPD inspector, attorney, and Fox News legal analyst)
Host: Lisa Boothe
Main Topics: Maduro’s Capture, Minnesota Welfare Fraud Scandal, Trump’s Foreign Policy, and Uprisings in Iran

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Episode Overview

This episode dives into three major headlines with legal analyst and retired NYPD inspector Paul Morrow. Lisa Boothe and Morrow break down the historic capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, discuss the $9 billion Minnesota welfare fraud scandal, and explore shifts in U.S. foreign policy, especially under President Trump, including covert influence in Iran. Their conversation is candid, incisive, and blends insider expertise with humorous, no-nonsense commentary.

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Maduro’s Capture: Legality, Politics, and Precedent

Context and Public Reaction

• Democratic Dilemma: Both Boothe and Morrow highlight confusion and shifting narratives among Democrats, who previously called for Maduro’s removal but now dissect the legality of Trump’s methods.
• Political Irony:
  • Lisa Boothe: “Democrats wanted President Trump to go get Maduro… now that he’s gotten Maduro, it’s a problem in the way that he did it.” (05:00)

International Law & The "Police Action" Argument

• International Law Critique:
  • Paul Morrow: “International law is something of a canard. It really doesn’t exist… where it does, it’s unenforceable, because who’s going to enforce it? The UN?” (05:41)
• Law Enforcement, Not Military:
  • The operation is legally justified as a "police action" due to prior indictments—avoiding the complications of a military intervention.
  • U.S. precedent supports this action (see Noriega’s capture, 1990).
• Sovereign Immunity Questions:
  • Morrow explains that challenging Maduro’s immunity is weak since he isn’t widely recognized as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, including by the U.S. and even by Democrats themselves.

Notable Quote

• Morrow:

  “Of course you had to go grab him. There’s no other way to do it… It can be characterized as a police action under the auspices of not only the indictment. And the extraterritoriality of American law has been proven and tested a thousand times over.” (06:36)

Legal Challenges Ahead

• Possible defenses include:
  • Invoking international treaties and sovereign immunity.
  • Likely to fail based on precedent and Maduro’s lack of legitimacy.
• Why New York?
  • The case’s ties to New York: DEA involvement, longstanding investigations into Venezuelan criminal activity (03:36, 11:36).
  • Bureaucratic momentum keeps it there; moving would disrupt years of work and lose “institutional knowledge.”

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The Geopolitical Message: Trump’s Foreign Policy and the “Trump Corollary”

A Signal to the Hemisphere

• Boldness on the World Stage:
  • Lisa Boothe: “President Trump is demonstrating to the rest of the world that he’s got a big pair of stones on him.” (17:20)
  • Paul Morrow: “He comes across as shocking in his boldness because Roosevelt was quite a bold guy as well… this is very much an outgrowth of the Roosevelt Corollary. I think a better term for this is that it’s the Trump Corollary.” (17:54)
• Intended Effect:
  • Puts Latin American leaders on notice; prompts regional realignment toward U.S. interests.
  • Weakens anti-U.S. alliances—Cuba, Venezuela, and their relationships with Iran, China, and Russia.
• Morrow’s Predictions:
  • U.S. could see a “rightward shift” in Central and South America.
  • Jokingly (but pointedly) suggests Cuba could vote to become part of Florida in the next three years (19:40).
  • Suggests outreach to Cuba or even protectorate status with Greenland as an illustration of U.S. assertiveness.
• Weakening Rivals:
  • Maduro’s capture makes Cuban and Russian defenses look weak, disrupts the “axis” of Latin allies for China and Iran.
  • Venezuelan territory contains terrorist training camps connected to Hezbollah, further underlining the national security issue.

Notable Quotes

• Lisa Boothe: “They look weak… now he’s taken out a teammate, Venezuela, from Iran, China and Russia, which they’re all trying to creep into our backyard…” (23:05)
• Paul Morrow (on the significance of uncovering terrorist training camps):

  “Just the discovery of a Hezbollah training camp on Margarita Island… will go a long way to letting people know why we had to do what we did.” (24:44)

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Minnesota Welfare Fraud Scandal: Unpacking $9B in Corruption

The Allegations and Political Fallout

• Scope:
  • $9 billion in fraud across 14 Minnesota welfare programs.
  • Political figures implicated, including Governor Tim Walz (who has resigned) and Attorney General Keith Ellison.
• Ellison’s Legal Peril:
  • Alleged “quid pro quo” meeting with Somali fraudsters before their indictment.
  • Evidence includes audio tape of Ellison promising to “fix it for them” and subsequent campaign donations.
  • As Morrow frames it: “Getting campaign contributions within... a week or two of having a meeting like that… is getting very, very close to the line.” (27:30)
• Federal Investigations Underway:
  • At least 16 active federal investigations.
  • Political and legal exposure depends on flipping witnesses and tracing money flows.

Notable Moments

• Lisa Boothe on the extent of fraud:

  “The lack of effort… in even spelling it correctly just shows how rampant this fraud has been, that they didn’t even feel like they had to try.” (28:50)

• Paul Morrow:

  “Ellison needs to lawyer up.” (29:08)

Is Minnesota Unique?

• Pattern Across the U.S.:
  • Morrow: “No way… It happens everywhere. I can tell you here in New York, the bodegas are universally run by Yemenis… making a fortune… The money all goes… we were funding both sides of the Yemeni civil war from bodegas inside New York City.” (29:25–32:30)
  • He accuses the Democratic Party of creating a “nationwide RICO” (racketeering network) with government funds recycling into campaign donations via fraudulent NGOs.
  • Systemic problem, not isolated to one state.

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Iran: Protest Movements and Foreign Influence

Unrest on the Streets

• Social Media Reports:
  • Protests, supposed city takeovers—hard to verify due to government censorship.
• Class Divide:
  • Most Iranians are “pro-West” beneath the theocratic leadership.
  • Morrow: “Iran is a very, very sort of bifurcated place” (37:13)
• Historical Context:
  • Western-leaning, educated class exists under the thumb of clerical/military elites (Besiege, IRGC).
  • The regime has survived due to repression and control over key lower-class groups.

Covert Western Influence

• U.S./Israel Involvement:
  • “Covert. We’re definitely involved. I’m not telling you anything you haven’t intuited your way to anyway.” (37:13)
  • Past operations included smuggling Western media (e.g., Top Gun) into Iran to shape perceptions.
• Potential for Regime Collapse:
  • Khamenei reportedly prepping a “Plan B” for fleeing, with real cracks in the regime’s foundation.
• Big-Picture Implications:
  • A toppled Iranian regime, Venezuela and Cuba out of the “axis of evil,” means America faces fewer coordinated adversaries.
  • “What a difference a president makes, right?” (41:47)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Lisa Boothe: “President Trump is demonstrating to the rest of the world that he’s got a big pair of stones on him…” (17:20)
• Paul Morrow (on Democratic legal confusion): “They’re bumping into each other, trying to figure out how to play this one, because the numbers on it in terms of approval are very high.” (05:41)
• Paul Morrow (on U.S. assertiveness): “…We’re not here to be a piñata for every two-bit basket-case of a nation who wants to blame us for every rainy day.” (17:54)
• On systemic fraud: “The Democratic Party is morphing into a nationwide RICO… and it happens everywhere.” (31:10)
• On Iran’s future: “It was almost an accidental revolution… but the problem is, once these guys get in place, dislodging them is next to impossible… If you see the images of what Iran looked like before the Shah fell, it looks like New York.” (37:13–40:00)

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Key Timestamps for Important Segments

• [05:00]– Maduro’s capture, legal/foreign policy debate
• [06:36]– The international law “canard” & justification for the operation
• [11:36]– Why the trial is in New York
• [17:20]– Trump’s foreign policy: “Trump Corollary” and signaling hemispheric realignment
• [22:59]– Weakening foreign adversaries, reshaping Latin America alliances
• [24:45]– Hezbollah and terrorist connections in Venezuela
• [25:27]– Minnesota welfare scandal details and political consequences
• [29:25]– Fraud is a national problem, not just Minnesota
• [36:40]– Uprising in Iran, U.S./Israeli involvement, and prospects for regime change
• [41:47]– The impact of presidential leadership on international events

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Concluding Tone

The episode features forthright, sometimes darkly humorous, insider analysis—critical of the left’s inconsistencies and deeply skeptical of “international law” or the effectiveness of establishment institutions. The overarching message: assertive U.S. leadership is shaking up old power structures, both domestically (exposing welfare fraud) and internationally (dismantling adversarial regimes). Morrow and Boothe close by reflecting on how quickly world politics can shift under strong presidential resolve.

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This summary provides a comprehensive, time-stamped breakdown of the major discussions, positions, and memorable soundbites from the episode — perfect for those who want to get the heart of the debate without listening to the full recording.

Transcript

[Lisa Booth]

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[Lisa Booth]

Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth, where we cut through the noise to get to the heart of the issues that matter to you today. We're joined by Paul Morrow, my friend and colleague from Fox News. He's also retired NYPD inspector, attorney, and legal analyst. We're going to cover Maduro's capture, the Minnesota fraud scandal, and what's percolating in Iran right now, specifically exploring what role the United States and Israel might be playing in the uprisings happening there. But we'll dig into Maduro's capture, including what Democrats are talking about, all this international law stuff. Did President Trump follow the letter of the law? What is international law? Also on Minnesota, will we see people like the attorney General, Keith Ellison and handcuffs? I'll ask Paul Morrow. Stay tuned. Paul, it's great to have you back on the show. Always love being on with you, especially when we get to do Outnumbered together. So appreciate you coming on the podcast.

[Paul Morrow]

Thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.

[Lisa Booth]

You know, so, Paul, we were talking a little bit on the couch and we're, it's funny because it's like Democrats wanted President Trump to go get Maduro and then the Biden administration even up the ante on the bounty on Maduro's head to 25 million. But then now that he's gotten Maduro, it's a problem in the way that he did it. So it's, it's a little, little hard to keep trying. Oh, it's like, is it good? Is it bad? I think they're trying to figure out their angle. But a lot of them are saying, well, he didn't follow international law and what he did was illegal. Break down that angle for us. Like, is what he did illegal, legal? You know, kind of. What do you make of some of these arguments?

[Paul Morrow]

So international law is something of a canard. It really doesn't exist there. They put these, you know, these structures that supposedly are going to govern how nations deal with each other. And some of them are legit. There's a system called the MLAT system, Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty between nations. Those work because those are extradition treaties. But in terms of there being an overriding international law that governs the, you know, the criminal conduct of the earth, let's just be frank. It doesn't really exist. And where it does exist to any extent, it's unenforceable, because who's going enforce it? The un there's some of the primary culprits. So nobody goes to them for this kind of stuff. And it really is canard. So the Democrats don't seem to understand how to handle this. They're actually, apparently, what I'm hearing behind the scenes, bumping into each other, trying to figure out how to play this one, because the numbers on it in terms of approval are very high. And as you mentioned, they have owned this issue of Maduro in the past, talking about how bad a guy he is and putting out an award. Well, if the reward for this guy was $25 million, what did they think was going to happen? Somebody was going to extradite him, that he was going to self present at the US Embassy and say, okay, give the award. Of course you had to go grab him. There's no other way to do it. So what it comes down to, really the distinction is whether this was a military action or whether this was a law enforcement action. You can make that distinction. And from my perspective, and perspective of, I think most attorneys, because he was indicted twice over, because this was not a situation where we went in occupied Caracas, decided to take the country over with hundreds of thousands or 10,000 troops on the ground, and then grab him, because we went in, surgically, grabbed him and removed him. It can be characterized as a police action under the auspices of not only the indictment. And the extraterritoriality of American law has been proven and tested thousand times over. We grab people who are doing us harm from outside America all the time. Look at the war on terror. Look at some of the narco stuff that goes on south of our border where the guy's not a head of state. So this was a police action under law. That's all it is. What happens now, though, relative to Venezuela gets us into dicier territory. But because this was done the way it was done, surgically, we pulled him out, going to try him, you know, he's not in the military tribunal, he's going in the Southern District. That characterizes all of this as a law enforcement matter. And under Article 2, that is the President's auspices, you know, what sort of.

[Lisa Booth]

You know, you'll get some Supreme Court precedent like the capture of Norega in 1990. You know, what sort of legal justifications could the Trump administration use for this kind of abduction style operation? Or what kind of legal challenges do you think might come up?

[Paul Morrow]

Well, there's going to be a couple legal challenges. First of all, there's, as you just said, the international law angle. And they'll come up with various sort of promulgations that were put out by the UN that people signed on to maybe, you know, the Geneva Compact and things like that. That's all wind. The immunity, the sovereign immunity issue is almost certainly going to come up. And that is to say in the same way that Donald Trump claimed and achieved immunity relative to, let's say, the Alvin Bragg case, which has died on the Bidens has, the Jack Smith case, because as the president, he has immunity. They can claim the same thing for Maduro as the notional head of state in Venezuela. The problem there, the main problem is that he's not legitimate because he was twice elected under fraudulent circumstances and in fact, America did not recognize him as the legitimate ruler of Venezuela. And in fact, the Democrats are on board with that characterization. So it's going to be very hard politically to make the case that he should have enjoyed immunity. And it is going to be very hard to make that case legally. And even if you do accept the fact that he was the legitimate head of Venezuela, you know, it's funny how international law, when the left wants to invoke it, seems to only go one way. If we could rely on international law, then you would have to say, okay, well then where is the international law to enforce against the fact that president of Venezuela was the head of a narcotics cartel, was shipping not only vast amounts of narcotics to America and Europe, some of which is likely going to be deadly. Fentanyl, which is poison, right, because it's being put into other drugs. So those aren't overdoses, those are poison deaths. But then also he sent us all his gang members, a lot of people reportedly from his insane asylums and all that kind of stuff. All that would violate international law as well, but yet nobody says boo. International law only seems to be invoked against America. You'll hear about it in the case against Maduro inside the courtroom, unless this judge has real tds, which we do see here in New York, unfortunately, unless he really loses his bearings. The Noriega case actually ran a lot of the traps on this already. They can try to distinguish it. I don't think it's going to be successful. And at the end of the day, Noriega is going to get locked up unless he pleads and he's got some cards to play. But if he manages to cut a deal, that's the only way I see him avoiding dying in prison.

[Lisa Booth]

Why try this in New York instead of, like, Florida, for instance?

[Paul Morrow]

Yeah, that's a good question. So the DNA of this case goes back a number of years. People don't realize this isn't ongoing. You open these cases sometimes and they go on forever. Now, full disclosure. I had a window into the case about eight years ago, I would say roughly, maybe a little bit more, a little less, when it crossed over into the Hezbollah world, because Maduro was thick as thieves with Hezbollah. He had a vice President Chavez did, named Tarik Alassami. And then on the Maduro, he was, I think, the head of intel first. He definitely had that hat. And then he was the head of their oil industry. He ultimately ran afoul of Maduro. And the only way you could run afoul of Maduro is by stealing more than he does. So he must have been caught stealing from Maduro. Maduro locked him up. I figured he was dead. But if you've tweaked to the fact that Tariq Alassami is not exactly a Latin American name, you're right. He was their conduit to the Middle east and specifically to the Shia Middle east, which has all of the Hezbollah and Iran overtones to it. He was the guy that was providing Venezuelan passports to a lot of the narco traffickers. So the point is that that case has been going on for a long time. Out of New York, DEA case and continued to grow. When Chavez died and Maduro took over, the case didn't go away. It was all the same characters, it was just a different leader. Ultimately, that whole indictment came to fruition about five years ago in 2020, when Maduro was indicted by DEA and as were his nephews who are in custody. That was the initial indictment. The current indictment is actually a superseding indictment that is to say it's a follow on indictment to the original one from 2020 that captures now Maduro, his wife, his son and a couple of other pieces. So that case, because it always resided in New York, it's just one of those things where it's in the bureaucracy, it stays here. To move it is a real headache. You'd have to take all of these people who've been working on the case and say, hey, we're relocating you, DEA and prosecutors down to Florida. That's expensive. People can't move. And to just transfer the case, you lose all that institutional knowledge. You got to start over. They're not going to do that. So it's one of those things where it's in New York because it's been in New York. And that's where it looks like it's going to stay.

[Lisa Booth]

We've got more with Paul Morrow on the other side. Stay with us.

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[Lisa Booth]

So we've exercised your legal hat and your law enforcement hat. I want you to put your counterterrorism and foreign policy hat on for a minute. What message does this send to the rest of the world? Because to me, President Trump is demonstrating the rest of the world that he's got a big pair of stones on him because, like, he really does.

[Paul Morrow]

You said that yesterday on the couch, and I don't know if you caught it. I was suppressing a laugh because when you said that and then you said like that and I saw you catch yourself like, oh, can I say that? I was like, and I'm so funny, Lisa. I'm sitting there thinking to myself, I'm glad she said that and not me. But in any case, I knew you.

[Lisa Booth]

Would like that one.

[Paul Morrow]

Yeah, I did, I did. You're right. You're 100, right? So yeah, I mean, I think you're right over the target. To use an apt metaphor. I think that this is a message to a lot, certainly to the Caribbean basin and to South America, our hemisphere that you Know, we're tired of getting piled on. You know, we're not here to be a pinata for every two bit best case of the nation. Who wants to blame us for every rainy day. And I'm sorry to sound jingoistic, but that's, I think, the perspective of a lot of Americans these days. The leftist media, which is the media globally, has really created that narrative. And it's one of the real strengths of Donald Trump that he's willing to put his chin out and say, enough of this stuff. We're not the bad guy. We were the light of the world post war, World War II, and we remain so. And there's a reason there's a line thousands of miles long to get into this country and not to flee from it. So the message, I think, is the not. I know they're calling it the Don Row Doctrine, the Monroe Doctrine, but it's actually a more of a continuation of the Roosevelt Corollary from 1904 where Roosevelt said, okay, I get the Monroe Doctrine, but I'm going to strengthen it. If you are going to mess around in our hemisphere, we are going to take, and he used this term police action. So this is very much an outgrowth of the Roosevelt Corollary. I think a better term for this is that it's the Trump Corollary. And he's saying, I am going to revivify the. The Roosevelt Corollary. He's actually very Rooseveltian. Donald Trump. I think people miss that connection. But in any case, it was a different era. And I think that's why to some people, he comes across as shocking in his boldness because Roosevelt was quite a bold guy as well. But I think he's putting everybody on notice that we're no longer here to beat a pinata. And I think what you're going to see as a result is a re scrambling in South America and Central America, the Caribbean bases, to get on our side because they're waking up to the fact that we are not going to take this anymore and you're better off being with the winner. And so all of a sudden you see the Colombian president trying to talk in a more conciliatory way. You don't get a peep out of Cuba because they don't really have much of a functioning government. Lisa, forget flipping Cuba into a free nation again. I wouldn't be actually, it's never really been free, but maybe for the first time a free nation. But I wouldn't be shocked. And I hope you're sitting down. I wouldn't be shocked if Cuba ends up part of Florida sometime over the next three years. I'm not even kidding you, because I've spoken to Cubans, I have some pretty good sourcing in that area, and they tell me that if you put a referendum out to the Cubans and said you want to join America as a piece of Florida, it would overwhelmingly pass. Now, these are people who are inclined that way, so you got to take with a grain of salt. But either way, I think Cuba's on the table. Certainly you're seeing a rightward shift in places like Panama, Chile, really the whole bit. Bolivia for the first time in ages since Evo Morales, really, Mexico, Brazil, less so. They're still pretty much a friendly, even though what they did to Bolsonaro. But I think really the holdouts these days, it's really Mexico, Colombia, you know, Ecuador even, you know, they seem to be quieting down, really. It's Mexico is what you got to solve. And the problem there is that the cartels run the nation. So that's just our hemisphere. But I think you're going to see a lot of change here. All I would say is that I hope he adds more carrot to the stick. You know, it can't be all stick. It has to be carrot as well. I'd like to see some sort of common market, something involving the tariffs being lowered for this hemisphere and bring prosperity as opposed to just cracking the whip to get them in line. Because that would be a really, really powerful trading block when you consider all of the oil and natural resources that are scattered around and unexplored in a place, let's say, like Guyana, where the Chinese are, like, just digging roads and doing everything they can to get in there. Because those precious metals that we need to build our phones and all of that are in those jungles, as is oil. And they're starting to find that out. If I know that Trump knows that, and I think you're going to see.

[Lisa Booth]

Some of that, we might get Greenland, too.

[Paul Morrow]

I see he's making that noise. I got to tell you, there's a base there. I think a lot of people don't realize this. Rich Lowry has a story in today's post. I was gratified to see it because he's the first guy I've seen say it. We have a base in Greenland that we've had forever. You know, we don't have to militarily take it over, you know, apparently. I don't know if you heard that the Danish ambassador is asking for a meeting they want to talk for me. If it's me, I just say, you know what? Do it by mission creep. Every couple of months, take a few more miles of that base because it's nothing but wasteland up there. There's only like 10,000 people in the entire country or something. And make a deal with Denmark. I think we will de facto have Greenland without firing a shot. Even if it's not, you know, typically, traditionally part. It's not going to be a state. But I think you could see it ultimately being some sort of a protectorate that we have in conjunction with Denmark.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, I also love with the mission in Venezuela. And then we'll shift to Minnesota. Is that he. Cubans can't protect Maduro, so.

[Paul Morrow]

That's right.

[Lisa Booth]

They, they look weak. I mean, not like they were strong before, but, you know, regardless.

[Paul Morrow]

No, you're right. You're right.

[Lisa Booth]

The Russian air defenses are garbage and couldn't protect Maduro, so they look weak and pathetic. And then now he's taken out a teammate, Venezuela, from Iran, China and Russia, which they're all trying to creep into our backyard and then also use Venezuela for nefarious purposes and then also oil. So it's like we like in just one foul swoop, he's essentially like reshuffled all of that as well. So it's like, it's just, it's, you know, 100%.

[Paul Morrow]

Listen, I've been down there and there's an island off of Venezuela called Margarita Island. It's quite remote. It's very overlaid with jungle. And it's where they had this terrorist training camps there. Hezbollah is trained there. This is public. There are some other anti American groups, some of which are from America, that some at various points were training there. It is, you know, Venezuela is going to be tough to administer. I know Trump's saying we're going to take it over. You got remote jungle, but you also have the mountains in the west, the Andes, and it's just there, they're almost autonomous. They don't even feel like you're in Venezuela. And the architecture in many areas is Germanic. Looks like Germany. Looks like Bavaria, which I'll leave it to you to conjecture as to why. But it's a very varied terrain, not an easy place to hold together. Number of different languages, Spanish primarily, but there's a number of India languages and stuff. But you're 100% right. And I just hope that the Trump administration, as we do get in there, is transparent with the American people to tell us what they found, because it's really going to justify it. You know, just the discovery of a Hezbollah training camp in on Margarita island and the images of that will go a long way to letting people know why we had to do what we did.

[Lisa Booth]

You know, shifting gears to Minnesota. You know, obviously people are probably familiar with we've talked about on the show, but potential $9 billion worth of fraud. 14 at risk programs for welfare where they think there could be fraud written. Governor Tim Walls stepping down, clearly seeing the writing on the wall politically now that he's engulfed in all of this. But I guess my question to you is, do you think we'll see, you know, for instance, Keith Ellison, the attorney general, or even governor, Governor Waltz, do we, do you think we'll see any of these politicians or Elon Omar swept up in this legally and potentially facing criminal charges?

[Paul Morrow]

From the facts that are out, I think the person who's in most peril is Ellison. And here's why I interviewed God, I think it was yesterday, actually, on my podcast, the Ops Desk, a guy named Bill Glun. Now, Glenn was a assistant to Tim Pawlenty when Pawlenty was governor. He's now with a conservative think tank in Minnesota called the center for American the American Experiment. Excuse me. Here's why he matters, because first of all, because he's doing good work. But to this story, he matters because he's the only guy who pursued and got a hold of the audio tape of Ellison meeting with the fraudsters from defeating our future scam. I don't know why this is not a bigger story. So defeating our future scammers. The Somalis met with Ellison before they were indicted, and they complained that they had their money spigot slowed down by state auditors. And Ellison tells them this is piddly stuff. Waltz agrees with me. And we're gonna make sure that this gets resolved and fixes it for them. So aside from the egregiousness of that, that he's siding against his own state government, he then gets, depending on what, reporting $20,000 to $25,000 in donations between him and his son. His son was running for office in Minneapolis as well over the next two weeks from these people, from this group. So what you need if you're going to look criminally at these kinds of things is a real tit for tat. Getting people to vote for you. You could always argue, well, you know, that's American politics. I want to win their votes by doing things for them. Okay, that would be a potential defense. But getting campaign contributions within the penumbra a week or two of having a meeting like that, I think is getting very, very close to the line. And so you got to say to yourself, when they get in there and start pulling the communications and they're doing that, there are 16, last I heard, 16 federal investigations, some of which, to be fair, started under the Biden administration. When you look at that discovery and start getting emails and texts and paperwork and phone calls, and if you can flip somebody, remember those Somalis are in jail. If you grab one of those feeding our future guys and says, hey, look, we got some nefarious looking stuff here, would you testify for leniency against Ellison? I don't think they're going to hesitate. They don't care a lick about Ellison. And now you got a real case, you got a witness, you got some real atmospherics. You got the movement of money. I think a lot of feds will take that case. So just from the facts that I know now, these are just allegations. I want to be clear. But if I were Ellison, you notice he's been quite quiet. And he ultimately gave the money back, but he gave the money back only after these guys were indicted and arrested. It looks bad. And he also invoked waltz in the meeting. He said waltz is on board with this. You know, he thinks this is all piddly stuff as well. So I don't know where this is all going. Ilhan Omar may have other issues, but apparently she was involved in the precursor entity that occupied the leering center. You know, the leering center had been investigated previously and shut down, and then it just reopened, rebranded with a different owner that might have been family, it looks like. So she was apparently somehow or other, either involved or was a habitue of the previous location. So I'm sure they're looking at that. But from the facts I know, Ellison needs to lawyer up.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, that's like the thing with the leering center. Is it, like, just to me, the lack of effort and even spelling it correctly just shows how rampant this fraud has been, that they didn't even feel like they had to try or even put, like, a little bit of effort into it.

[Paul Morrow]

Amazing.

[Lisa Booth]

When we look around the country, do you think this level of fraud is specific to Minnesota, or we're just paying attention to Minnesota right now and this level of fraud is elsewhere or, like, is this a uniquely Minnesotan thing? Or, you know, no way.

[Paul Morrow]

It's. It's. First of all, recognize that in the feeding our future case in Minnesota, they tried to reach the jury. The defendants did, and they got ahold of a woman, they reached her and they offered her some ungodly amount of money. If you get a couple hundred thousand dollars to say, to essentially hang the jury. And they told her to say the following claim that this is all a racist witch hunt against immigrants. This is what the perps told her to say. To her credit, she went to the feds and said that they reached me. They're trying to get me to throw the case. And so they added those charges to the case. My point is that is the defense every place. When you start to look at this stuff, you are racist. You are hunting the poor after poor people who are just trying to make a living. And it becomes very circular because what happens, it is inevitably Democratic constituents. I really believe this because I've seen it in New York firsthand. These programs are just funded and funded and funded. You go up to the Bronx, every second storefront is some sort of community outreach project that does nothing. I'm sorry, but they don't. And they all donate to the Democrats. It's this whole NGO dark money morass. It's all funded, very often with federal money. And from where I sit, Lisa, you know you'll never make this case. And I'm sorry, sorry to be sort of hyperbolic, but from where I sit, the Democratic Party is morphing into a nationwide RICO because they just fund this crap. These people who received the money proselytize for the Dems. Anybody who attempts to stop it is a bad person, is a racist, is a sexist transphobe, whatever it is. And the money goes right back into the machine that is the Democratic coffers, because they're all big, big donors. The Somalis not only vote them, but donate them. All those daycares were giving money back to them organizations and them campaigns like Ellison. And the whole thing is circular, and it's funded by all of our money. And it happens everywhere. I can tell you here in New York, the bodegas are universally run by Yemenis. And then when they legalized marijuana, we got 1200 illegal marijuana storefronts, like literally in a week, all of them run by Yemenis. How did that happen? They know how to do it. I'm not saying all Yemenis are crooks. Of course not. But I gotta tell you, I brought at least four or five of those cases. And in some cases, we would take 18 perps. 12 perps, all of whom were doing massive EBT fraud. That's like SNAP Benefit kind of stuff. Running illegal cigarettes, running fake documents, selling K2 that is synthetic marijuana and making a fortune. And the money all goes. At one point we were able to ascertain that we were funding both sides of the Yemeni civil war from bodegas inside New York City. But they're hard cases to make. The prosecutors don't like them. They're not sexy. They don't make the front pages. The only reason mine made the pay and I called it mine, my people did it, you know, my detectives and my bosses. I was the, you know, supervisor who set it up and gets out of the way. But those cases were only even media worthy because they had the terrorism patina. Otherwise nobody would care. And it's at least at the level of the Somali stuff, probably bigger. And I shudder to think what goes on in California.

[Lisa Booth]

Well, it's also, you know, for importing people from places in the world where corruption is the norm.

[Paul Morrow]

That's right.

[Lisa Booth]

If they're engaging corruption here in the United States, because it's what, you know, it was the norm where they came from 100%. Got to take a quick break. If you like what you're hearing, please, on social media or send it to your family and friends.

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[Lisa Booth]

I've been following on X and on social media. What's been going on in Iran. It's really hard to separate fact from fiction.

[Paul Morrow]

Yeah, yeah.

[Lisa Booth]

Really happening on the ground. But we're seeing these uprisings, these protests, even reports at least online of protesters taking over cities in the country. One, sort of what do you think is real? And then two, what role do you think the United States and Israel are playing in sort of internally orchestrating those? Probably from like CIA or covert operations.

[Paul Morrow]

Covert. We're definitely involved. I'm not telling you anything that you haven't intuited your way to anyway. I can give you a quick Story. One of the reasons that the populace of Iran is actually still pretty pro west, despite what you hear about the mullahs, is because during the Reagan years, the agency, the CIA, flooded to the extent that they could, across the border, vcr, VCR machines into Iran. And then once they got them out there, much to the dismay of the, of the mullahs, they sent in American videotapes, movies. And the most popular movie nationwide in Iran was, wait for it, Top Gun. And that was very canny because it showed Americans as the good guys, as people who can do, but also militarily capable. And so even after, if you read the stories, and I have, I had to do this stuff for a long time and be very embedded in it. Even during the hostage crisis of the Carter years, the crazy students who were all riled up with revolutionary fervor took over the embassy. But the military in Iran was apologizing to the hostages. They were very sheepish about the whole thing. The point is, Iran is a very, very sort of bifurcated place. And what really it comes down to is you have this class of mullahs who run the place who did not expect, people don't realize this, did not expect to win when they revolted. When Khomeini came back from France, they really did not think they had any shot at it. The Shah was sick, and it remains a mystery to Iranian analysts. There's a good book out now I recommend to the audience called King of Kings. It's about the fall of the Shah and the revolution, the Khomeini revolution. Nobody can really ascertain why the Shah was so inactive. It was almost like he just gave up. He was tired of the whole thing. He decamped to America. He was sick and he ultimately died of cancer. But. But it was almost an accidental revolution. But the problem is, once these guys get in place, dislodging them is next to impossible. And everybody just goes along to get along. And they have weaponized a lot of the less educated classes. Let's say they have the religious enforcement troops, so to speak, their paramilitary called the Besiege. And those are kind of the shock troops that they have in the streets that if a woman's not wearing a veil, they start hitting her with a cane and all of that. And then they have the irgc, which is their elite. They make sure those people all are well fed and cared for so that they keep everybody else in line. And all you need is the cracks to start to form and it starts to teeter. We saw it under Obama, he didn't take advantage of it. We got a very different president now. I think there's a very good chance we can see this. The reporting of Khomeini looking to now, this is not Ayatollah Khomeini. This is his follow on Khomeini, who, believe it or not, I actually kind of met one time and there's a creepy cat, but that's another story. But during UN General Assembly. But the Khomeini apparently has plans in place to flee like Assad to Moscow if and when he is overthrown. Now, that might be, just to be fair here, that might be, you know, a agency or other, some other agency news story plant, because that happens. But it was in the New York Post, so I, I'm gonna trust it that it's vetted out. And that tells me there are real cracks forming. There's a real educated class that remains there. That's a real historic, great culture of the Persians. And they're very proud. And I don't think they're going to put up with this stuff much longer. And if you see the images of what Iran looked like before the Shah fell, it looks like New York women are walking around in skirts. They look very modern. This guy's going to work in suits. It was very much almost like a Maoist revolution, that is to say from the lower classes, peasant classes, and as a result, it remains, in my estimation, weak, fractured and rife for overthrow and God. Lisa, what a world of difference were we to wake up one day and to see a more modern Iran, Venezuela off the table, Cuba off the table. What's left of the axis of evil, really, North Korea, which is just a wild card by anybody's estimation. Russia, which has got all kinds of problems. And of course, our principal adversary, China.

[Lisa Booth]

What a difference a president makes, right?

[Paul Morrow]

Right.

[Lisa Booth]

Unbelievable. Whatever question. Paul Morrow, you're the best. Thank you so much for coming on and look forward to seeing you at Fox very soon.

[Paul Morrow]

That'd be great. Thank you, Lisa.

[Lisa Booth]

That was Paul Morrow. We appreciate him for making the time to come on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday. But you can listen throughout the week. I also want to thank my producer, John Cascio, for putting the show together. Until next time.

[Jacob Goldstein]

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[Lisa Booth]

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[Paul Morrow]

How many kids do a classroom?

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[Paul Morrow]

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[Lisa Booth]

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