Episode 4858: Arraignment Of John Bolton; Taking Down Leftist Terror Groups

episode

Bannon`s War Room 57 min 9 speakers 8 chapters transcribed

▲ 0

Transcript

jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcript

Transcript

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

What charges is John Bolton facing in his arraignment?

Steve Bannon 0:00

Bolton faces 18 counts related to the retention and transmission of national defense information. In short, this is a classified documents case. Back in August, the FBI searched Bolton's home and office. At the time, Trump made it all about him, saying, quote, my house was also raided. Trump is still fuming about the criminal investigation into the classified information he stored at Mar-a-Lago. So when he calls Bolton a, quote, bad person, we should note the hypocrisy. Trump was charged with very similar crimes. Of course, Trump never had to face those charges in court. Judge Eileen Cannon, who Trump appointed to the federal branch, threw them out. As for Bolton, he warned about this moment last year during the presidential campaign, writing in his book, quote, Trump really cares only about retribution for himself, and it will consume much of a second term.

How did Trump's classified documents case relate to Bolton's situation?

Stephen K. Bannon 0:58

I didn't know that you tell me for the first time, but I think he's a bad person. I think he's a. Bad guy, yeah, he's a bad guy. Too bad, but that's the way it goes. That's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes. Will I what?

Unknown 1:17

Have you reviewed the case against him?

Stephen K. Bannon 1:19

No, I haven't. I haven't.

What warnings did Bolton give about Trump's presidency?

Stephen K. Bannon 1:20

But I just think he's a bad person.

Unknown 1:22

We know now from what we've seen in the past couple of weeks that when Donald Trump makes these demands of charges against his perceived enemies, sometimes those charges follow. What is not clear at all, however, is what crimes these people may have committed. It seems that Donald Trump is interested solely in payback because these are people who presided over charges against him. So, you know, Jack Smith was the special counsel and Lisa Monaco was the deputy attorney general at the time. Andrew Weissman was just somebody who worked on Robert Mueller's team. And so there's no suggestion of any crimes. criminal conduct by any of these people. And so targeting individuals because they're bad people or because you want to seek payback is a really inappropriate use of the Justice Department.

Unknown 2:07

So I don't know that prosecutors are going to find any crimes that they can charge these people with. But if they do, I think they will be highly suspect along the lines of the Jim Comey and Letitia James indictments.

Peter Navarro 2:18

This is a very serious and detailed indictment. It says that John Bolton derived secrets from his time as national security advisor, assembled them because he was writing a book, sent them over unclassified email and messaging apps to his wife and daughter. We've identified the two people as his wife and daughter. And then that information was hacked by the government of Iran. At least one of those email accounts was hacked. And so the government of Iran obtained some of these state secrets, according to this indictment. And the indictment says that Bolton used language that made clear he knew he was talking about sensitive information. Things like the Intel briefer said or went in the situation room.

Peter Navarro 2:58

I learned.

What are the implications of Bolton's classified information handling?

Peter Navarro 3:00

So this is. And these charges, as you said, carry 10 years each. So he could spend the rest of his life in prison, in theory, if convicted on these charges. But let me tell you what the defense could be here. I should add that this case has been this case is being prosecuted by career prosecutors, respected people. Unlike the Comey and the James case, which was avoided by every career prosecutor in the department and pursued only by Donald Trump's political appointee. This one has gone through normal channels, as we understand it. But let me explain some potential mitigating circumstances here. Lots of people. who have jobs where they see classified information write books. And they send the manuscript through a publication review, for example, if you're a CIA officer.

Peter Navarro 3:47

And oftentimes, those reviewers will say, sorry, you can't say that. It was classified. We're keeping that out of the book. Well, that information was classified. It went over an unclassified email system. Those people don't get prosecuted for doing that. What's at issue here are not documents marked classified, which was the case in the Donald Trump indictment.