J6 Committee Audit & Free Speech Defense Fund

00:03: The January 6th House Committee allegedly misplaced numerous relevant documents, leaving an auditing congressman with questions.

00:11: So we need to get to the truths of what really happened.

00:14: How much more of this report is just made up narratives.

00:19: How much evidence is missing and did the committee break the law?

00:23: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley.

00:27: Thursday, August 10th, and this is Morning Wire.

00:35: The House Oversight Committee reveals more evidence tracking $20 million funneled to Hunter

00:40: Biden from foreign sources.

00:42: We're going to release more bike records that show more suspicious wires that we're going into the Biden family's back pockets.

00:50: What new information was revealed and does it successfully tie the case to the big guy?

00:56: Elon Musk announces a new legal effort to protect free speech.

01:00: What does it mean for X and the platform's users?

01:03: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.

01:05: Stay tuned.

01:06: We have the news you need to know.

01:11: Republican Congressman Barry Lautermilk says the House Select Committee that investigated

01:16: January 6 failed to save numerous relevant records before it disbanded.

01:21: Lautermilk is leading an audit of the Select Committee's findings but says the committee's

01:25: shoddy and likely illegal work has significant gaps.

01:29: Daily wire reporter Tim Pierce is here to discuss the missing at January 6th files.

01:34: So Tim, what is Congressman Lautermilk investigating here?

01:37: Lautermilk sits on the committee on House Administration and chairs its subcommittee on oversight.

01:42: He was tasked by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy with auditing the work done by the select committee

01:46: on January 6th. It's worth noting that the January 6th committee was a very partisan exercise.

01:51: it included no significant opposition since McCarthy declined to endorse it.

01:56: And its only Republican members were both vocal critics of former President Trump.

02:00: That would be former House representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.

02:04: So Lettermark was given this assignment to audit the committee's work and ensure a fair

02:07: account of what led to the riot at the Capitol.

02:10: Morning, our spokesman Lettermark, and here's what he said.

02:13: Basically, all they did after spending $18.5 million was coming out with a manifesto

02:19: against Trump trying to tie Donald Trump to the attack on the Capitol. And everything that

02:24: they did appears to be to just come up with that narrative.

02:29: Now, what's missing from the current files? Well, they don't know because they don't

02:33: have it. Congressman Benny Thompson, the former chair of the January 6th Committee, claims

02:37: he handed over four terabytes worth of data and records they collected over an 18-month

02:42: investigation. But Ladder Milk says he only received two and a half terabytes of information.

02:47: So what accounts for the massive discrepancy?

02:49: We don't know, but Ladder Milk knows some of what's missing.

02:53: For instance, defense attorney is working the cases of January 6th, defendants asked

02:57: Ladder Milk for tapes of people deposed by the committee when Ladder Milk went to retrieve them.

03:03: He didn't have them.

03:03: Then later, Ladder Milk came across a letter that Thompson had sent to the White House

03:07: and Department of Homeland Security as part of the J6 investigation and found out that

03:11: a copy of that letter wasn't in the J6 files either.

03:15: He's now asking the White House and DHS to produce all communications they have from the J6 committee.

03:20: And finally, latter milk says he's found little if any records related to capital security on January 6th.

03:27: It could be that they never generated any records.

03:29: I think there is something there that's more likely that the team found something that

03:33: somebody didn't want them to find out so they suppressed the records.

03:37: But there were videotapes of depositions and interviews.

03:41: video tapes were actually used in some of the televised hearings.

03:45: And so we know those exist.

03:48: So how did this happen?

03:49: Why are these files missing?

03:51: Thompson told LaDermoke and a letter that the missing files were left out because the

03:54: committee didn't have to archive, quote, temporary committee records that were not elevated

03:59: by the committee's actions, which means basically anything the committee didn't find useful.

04:04: But LaDermoke says that the J6 committee was required by law and house rules to turn over

04:09: all their records at the end of the term.

04:11: So what Thompson has argued is just not correct.

04:14: Now, this has been going on for months.

04:16: Has he found anything yet?

04:17: Yes, he has.

04:18: Ladermilk's investigation has turned up some pretty explosive evidence related to the

04:22: use of plain close officers at the Capitol.

04:25: Probably the most shocking is that we have verified that there were some plain closed law

04:31: enforcement officers who were not Capitol police who were encouraging people to go into the Capitol.

04:37: important about that is metropolitan police law enforcement from the executive branch

04:43: are not allowed to be on capital grounds unless they are specifically asked to be there or there's

04:49: a pre-existing agreement that is enacted and we do know that there were law enforcement agencies

04:56: that were non-capital police that were on capital grounds before any of the agreements were enacted

05:03: nor were they invited. So basically they were already on capital grounds and violation of our law.

05:08: So we need to find out why were they there at that point and what were they doing?

05:13: This could be a major revelation. Intelligence officials have refused to say anything definitive

05:18: about the use of plain close officers at the capital that day. And LiDermilk has a lot more evidence

05:23: to sort through. Well, it'll be interesting to see what LC finds. Tim, thanks for coming on.

05:27: Great to be on.

05:34: The House Oversight Committee has released bank records,

05:36: purporting to show that Hunter Biden and his associates received more than 20 million

05:41: dollars from foreign entities. This is the third such memo from Representative James

05:46: Comer's Committee and it furthers the House Republicans' narrative that the Biden family was

05:50: making a fortune off of access to Joe Biden. Here to discuss the revelation as daily wire

05:55: contributor, David Marcus. So what new information was contained in this memo?

05:59: Good morning. I think the top line item here is a bank record that shows Russian oligarch

06:05: and former First Lady of Moscow, Yelena Baterina, wiring millions of dollars to two shell companies

06:12: partly owned by Hunter Biden back in 2014. The memo also notes, as we saw again in Hunter

06:18: Biden, Associate Devon Archers testimony before Congress last week, that then Vice President

06:23: Joe Biden attended a dinner with Bad Arena and Hunter in roughly the same time period.

06:29: These are really the kinds of connections that the committee is seeking to and frankly succeeding in finding.

06:35: And there's no denying that this is all getting closer and closer to the president with an election looming within the year.

06:41: We also saw the familiar name Berisma in this memo.

06:45: What did Comers Committee present in regard to that Ukrainian energy company?

06:50: Yeah.

06:50: According to the records in the memo, and this isn't entirely new information, Hunter

06:55: Biden and Archer were receiving about 80,000 a month from Barisma between 2014 and 2015, totaling a staggering $3.3 million.

07:05: As Comer put it, quote, it appears no real services were provided other than access

07:10: to the Biden network, including Joe Biden.

07:14: The way Devon Archer described it was the Biden brand.

07:18: to Comer's credit, nobody from Biden world has offered any kind of innocent explanation

07:23: as to why Hunter and his buddy were getting these massive payouts.

07:27: If Archer is to be believed, it was almost entirely because Hunter was selling access

07:32: to and influence over his dad, whether Joe Biden was fully aware of it or not.

07:37: Why would Comer and the committee release this memo now?

07:40: There seems to be sort of an approach here of slowly doling out new evidence.

07:44: Is that the strategy?

07:46: Yes, it's politics on some level and not for nothing.

07:49: It has been the case of late that every time a Biden brand bombshell drops, there's

07:54: suddenly a new indictment of Donald Trump distracting from the story.

07:58: So yes, Comers understandably trying to keep this in the news cycle.

08:02: But frankly, he's also facing real recalcitrants from the Department of Justice in getting answers about the Biden case.

08:09: The DOJ keeps saying there's an ongoing investigation so they can't comply with his oversight requests.

08:15: the fall we'll see some testimony from attorney general, Marik Garland on all of this before

08:20: Congress. But for now, Comers, he's trying to keep the irons hot.

08:24: Yeah, makes sense.

08:25: Do we expect to hear from Hunter anytime soon? A few weeks ago, Joe Biden was making a lot

08:30: of appearances with him, including a trip to Dublin. But that seems to have dried up a bit here.

08:35: It does. And that's a great question. But bear in mind that until a few weeks ago, Joe

08:40: Biden and his allies were under the impression that this was all about to go away as Hunter's

08:45: plea deal was going into effect. Obviously that didn't happen. It's not yet. And so the

08:50: sky on of the 46th president, he might be laying low for a while. And ultimately this

08:56: question of what kind of lanks this scandal has hangs over all of this. Joe Biden did

09:02: an interview with the Weather Channel this week, the Weather Channel, mainly about the

09:07: climate crisis, but he can't duck the legitimate questions about his involvement in his son's

09:12: business deals forever, especially in an election season. The questions are coming. Whether

09:17: he has the answers to get him out of this mess, that remains to be seen.

09:21: Yeah, and meanwhile, the Republicans will keep pulling at this thread.

09:25: Dave, thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me.

09:31: On Wednesday, we learned that special counsel Jack Smith's team issued a search warrant for

09:35: former president Trump's Twitter account shortly after the platform was purchased by Elon Musk.

09:40: The news comes days after Musk vowed to fund legal bills for anyone punished by their employer

09:45: for posts on his platform. Here to discuss is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestige-Akamo.

09:51: So Amanda, what did special counsel Jack Smith request?

09:55: Well, a Smith team first obtained this warrant on January 17th. That was a couple of months after

10:00: Musk acquired Twitter and they wanted information related to Trump's Twitter account.

10:05: A court found probable cause to search the account for evidence of criminal offenses.

10:09: Additionally, the government was able to get a non-disclosure agreement which made it so

10:14: Twitter couldn't disclose the warrant.

10:16: The company said no, setting the first amendment, specifically in objection to that non-disclosure.

10:21: It seems Twitter wanted to at least let Trump know if they were being forced to hand over his account information.

10:26: was supposed to hand over the docs in January 27th, but refused.

10:31: 11 days later, the judge held the company in contempt and levied a $350,000 fine.

10:37: Twitter did not fully comply with the order until two days later on February 9th.

10:41: We still don't know anything about what they're looking for or what they've found.

10:45: Now, pivoting to some news from earlier this week, CEO of X, Elon Musk made an announcement

10:51: that he would pay the legal bills for anyone fired for speech and or activity on his

10:55: platform. What were the parameters for that offer? Musk said in a post on X that he will pay for

11:01: legal representation for anyone who was treated, quote, unfairly by their employer due to posting

11:07: or liking something on his platform. He also said there is no limit to the cash he'll put up.

11:12: Importantly, Musk took an extra step here saying that X would effectively wage a PR campaign

11:18: against companies that engage in viewpoint discrimination. Here's his direct language.

11:23: We won't just sue. It'll be extremely loud and we will go after the boards of directors of these companies too.

11:28: Do we know if anyone's actually taken him up on this offer yet?

11:31: Well, there's at least one case that Musk has shown interest in.

11:35: A woman named Carol Lynn says she was fired in January from limited run games allegedly over who she

11:40: followed on the platform and a year's old tweet that was critical of transgender ideology.

11:46: A transgender activist called Carol Lynn a quote,

11:49: Transphope who follows a bearable who's who of right-wing transphobic creeps and demanded

11:54: Carolyn be fired.

11:55: That same day, limited run games announced a termination, citing a commitment to, quote, supporting an inclusive culture.

12:03: Musk exchanged public messages with Carolyn on Sunday about pursuing her case.

12:08: It seems Musk is indicating here that he wants to represent people who might not have huge name recognition.

12:14: And that's the point Toby Young, founder of the British organization, Free Speech

12:18: Union, brought up with host Andrew Doyle.

12:21: Young's group helps everyday people who are fired for their political views and beliefs.

12:25: People focus on the JK Rowlings of this world, but actually it's lower down the scale.

12:29: We look off to bus drivers, train drivers, dinner ladies, care workers, those are the sorts

12:34: of people that are at risk of losing their livelihood, sipping for expressing what they think.

12:40: So, what are the chances of an employee actually succeeding in a case like this?

12:44: This would be a tough fight against the private employer, but I think that's why Musk added

12:48: this component of a bad PR campaign against such companies.

12:52: And Toby Young, whose job it is to help represent people who have been wrongly fired, he believes

12:57: the threat of litigation from the world's second richest man would be enough to change behavior.

13:02: If you can make the directors and the non-executive directors liable, then that would put a stop to it, I think, overnight.

13:08: I mean, just the fact that he said this, I think, will make a difference.

13:11: Well, I'm interested to see which case he takes up. Amanda, thanks for reporting.

13:15: Thanks for having me.

13:20: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back this afternoon

13:24: with more of the news you need to know.