U.S. Military Targets Cartels in Mexico plus DOJ Emails Reveal Biden’s Flawed Mass Pardons

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On January the twentieth of this year, President Trump signed
an Executive Order fourteen fifteen seven establishing a process to
designate international cartels as foreign terrorist organization also known as
ftos or specially designated global terrorists, recognizing them as national

(00:20):
security threats. One month later, on February the twentieth, the
US Department of State officially designated eight Latin American criminal groups,
including major Mexican cartels like the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel,
Northeast Cartel, United Cartel, to name a few, as terrorist organizations. Now,

(00:43):
these designations allow for intensified legal actions, including sanctions, asset freezes,
and broader enforcement under anti terrorism laws. This is something
that the President is saying he's going to start using
to his advantage. We are now getting reporting from Ken
Klippenstein that the military is preparing attacks on Mexican cartels.

(01:09):
In fact, he's claiming now they are secret orders that
are being worked up to directly target cartels as the
new terrorice frontier. His reporting says this Trump administration has
now directed the military to prepare for lethal strikes against
cartel targets inside Mexico. Three military sources are now confirming

(01:32):
to them. The top secret planning order issued in late spring,
they say, directs the Northern Command known as Northcom to
manage the attacks, which are to be ready by mid September.
The US Mexican military relations are broad and cooperative. Any
military action south of the border is considered extremely sensitive for

(01:54):
both Washington and the Mexican federal government and is rarely
discussed in public. Not only is Donald Trump uniquely focused
on transnational criminal organizations the official names for the cartels,
having designated them terrorists in one of his first executive orders,
but he has shown himself to be willing to take

(02:16):
unilateral action despite potentially negative political ramifications with Mexico. That
is what one senior intelligence official said for the report.
He and other sources say the military action could be unilateral,
that is, without the involvement or even the approval of
the Mexican government, and that would make sense because the

(02:39):
Mexican government is bought and paid for by the cartels
and is extremely extremely corrupt and infiltrated with cartel influence
everywhere the government goes. Now, the unprecedented order was discussed
apparently at a July meeting at NORTHCOM headquarters, in Colorado Springs.

(03:00):
The reporting is now saying that was led by Colby Jenkins,
the unconfirmed Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and
Low Intensity Conflict. Within days, the reporting now says General
Gregory Gullett, commander of Northcom, hosted the two highest ranking
Mexican military officials and made sure they knew what was

(03:22):
going on with our problems with the cartel, saying this today,
more than ever, the challenges we face demand a joint,
coordinated and adaptive response. That's what Morales said after the
Colorado visit, trying to impress upon Pentagon and military leaders
let any potential operation be conducted by two nations together.

(03:46):
Now again, why would this come from one of the
top officials in Mexico, Because they don't want America actually
going after the terrorists. To address extreme political sensitivities and
to honor, the report says Mexico sovereignty. Operations inside Mexico
have previously been conducted by the CIA and the Joint

(04:08):
Special Operations Command known as JAYSOK, the clandestine arm of
the US military that has been involved in targeting killings
in the Middle East. For example, The New York Times
has reported that the CIA has increased reconnaissance operations over
Mexico with its own drones, another indicator of increased preparations

(04:29):
for operations quote. NORTHCOM was previously sidelined in any Mexico planning.
The conventional special operations components mostly involved in joint training
whether Mexican counterparts on non lethal missions at sea and
also how to stop drug shipments, where they're now being
tasked with trying to figure out what they can do

(04:50):
in a much larger magnitude. That is what one senior
intelligence officialist said now. One reason is that prospective attacks
have also have to be court with intelligence communities at large,
for example, the FBI and various homeland security agencies such
as Border Patrol and ICE, who all now are focused

(05:11):
on Mexico instead of our wide open border that's been secured.
They can now go back to this job. We also
are being told that NORTHCOM is already involved in Mexico
in a host of ways, including combating the cartels. We
also have one general from Mexico alluding to this in
a recent testimony, saying that yes, there is cooperation with Mexico.

(05:34):
It is already closer than any point in history. Quote unquote,
so here we are, and that looks like the president
is moving forward, which brings me back to the CBS
reporting when Donald Trump and his administration labeled the Mexican
drug cartels as domestic terrorist organizations. Now you'll understand more
of the context.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Take a listen of an now to a monumental moment
and the war on drugs. The Trump administration has officially
designated Mexican drug cartels as domestic terrorist organizations. The Acting
Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration is voicing strong support
for the move, turning out a CBS News Department of
Justice correspondent, Scott MacFarland, Scott, thanks so much for being

(06:16):
with us. What else do are we hearing today from
the head of the DEA.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
His name is Derek Maltz, and he is making this
argument that this new designation that Latin American drug cartels
are terrorist organizations is going to help them marshal a
lot more resources and ability to stop or at least
slow some of the drug trade into America, into American
communities where fentanyl is killing users. It's killing innocent victims

(06:43):
who are nearby and exposed to the toxic chemicals of fentanyl.
Even killing babies and law enforcement officers who come near
the stop. So they're trying to get aggressive about this,
and some of this designation offers some new tools the
DEA hopes their effective tools. Critics say they could be counterproductive.
But among them is that foreign terrorist organizations are not

(07:07):
just targeted by the US government, but so to be
the people who provide support for terrorist organizations, people who
funnel the money. If you starve the money, some of
the money from terror groups, perhaps you cut them off
a bit. But there's concern, Liz, that if you make
it a crime to give money to a drug cartel,
you could be knocking down those who are victims of

(07:29):
the cartels, those who need the protection of cartels to
seek asylum in America, those who unknowingly send money to
families south of the border who they don't realize they're
associated with cartels. Is also the concern, Liz, that you
could dry up some of the sources America has on
the ground inside the drug networks.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
So now the big question is what will this look
like moving forward. Well, let me give you a couple
examples of what all is being thought about. Number One,
there is a real need to counter Chinese influence and
also investment in Mexico, thwarting Russian influence as well and
operations and stemming the flow of drugs, the precursor chemicals

(08:10):
and even weapons of mass destruction components that have also
moved through Mexico. And that's why Northcom has tasked its
subordinates Special Operations Command called SUCK North to undertake operational
preparation of the battle space inside Mexico to set the stage,
they say, for future military operations and to prepare cartel

(08:34):
related target packages for potential strikes and direct action attacks
on ground against high value individuals as well as compounds
and supply chain targets associated in particular, we're now being
told with a Cinela cartel direct attacks could also involve

(08:54):
air and drone strikes. We're also being told that direct
action is a term space special operations forces used to
describe small scale offensive operations that would be carried out
by Army green berets, Navy seals or marine raiders. Think
of the air strikes on Iran this summer as kind
of a direct action against a discrete target with a

(09:17):
strategic or national purpose. Now there is no doubt a
major difference when it comes to Mexico, the political sensitivities involved.
We share a border with them. Mexico is a very
different country than Iran, and you have to have a
US cooperation in many ways with Mexico. So here we are,

(09:38):
and the reality is Donald Trump has said it's time
to go after the cartels to keep Americans safe, and
it looks like the planning is well underway. We have
new breaking news and it deals with former President Joe Biden.
He ignored. We're now being told the Department of Justice's
warnings over legally fought autopen pardons. Senior Justice Department officials

(10:05):
were left scrambling to quote interpret the sweeping clemency orders
former President Joe Biden approved for thousands of federal convicts
in his final days and final hours in office, and
they chastised the White House for falsely portraying the releases
as limited to quote nonviolent offenders. This, according to internal emails,

(10:32):
have now been revealed. The records obtained by the Oversight
Project and reviewed by The Washington Examiner, now reveal that
former Associate Deputy Attorney General, the department's top career official
at the time, Bradley Weinsheimer, raised alarms immediately after, Biden

(10:52):
issued three autopin sign warrants on January seventeenth, covering only
two thousand, five hundred inmates were now learning. In a
January eighteenth message to the White House Council and the
Department of Justice Office of the Partner Attorney, Weinsheimer wrote

(11:16):
that one warrant granted clemency for offenses described to the
Department of Justice was so vague it could not be
lawfully even carried out quote unquote. He went on to
say at the time, I think the language is highly problematic,
adding that to interpret the document properly, we will need

(11:39):
a statement or direction from President Biden. He also suggested
that Biden provide quote a list as to each inmate
listing the offenses that are covered by the commutation, which
he described as the clearest and least problematic alternative. Moving forward,

(12:00):
Weinsheimer and Biden needed to clarify the meaning of the
warrant language quote unquote so the DOJ could implement it
in the manner intended they claim by President Joe Biden.
Here is an exact quote from the email. It said this,
Given the above, I think it is best that we

(12:21):
receive a direct statement on direction from President Biden as
to the meaning of the warrant language. This will then
allow us to give full effect to the commutation warrant
and the manner intended by the President. And the absence
of such a statement or direction, I am concerned Option
three above will be the interpretation that is given to

(12:43):
the warrant. While that is a logical construction, legally it
can't possibly be what the President intended, so I would
like to avoid that outcome. One other important note the
email says communication about the commutations, the White House has

(13:03):
described those who receive commutations as people convicted of nonviolent
drug offenses. I think you should stop saying that because
it is untrue or at least misleading. As you know,
even with the exceedingly limited review we were permitted to
do of the individuals we believe you might be considering

(13:26):
for commutation action, we initially identified nineteen that were quote
highly problematic. That was based only upon running our initial
priority list against the list of those who had submitted
clemency petitions, a small percentage of the overall total from
the White House. Even in that number, we identified violent offenders,

(13:53):
including those who committed acts of violence during the offense. Now,
this is a screen shot of a much longer email
exchange that came from Weinsheimer on January eighteenth. This email
was directly warning the Biden White House that its language
about clemency subjects was quote untrue or at least misleading.

(14:17):
Weinsheimer also warned the ambiguous order could unintentionally wipe away
convictions for many violent felons. He pushed back against the
White House messaging that the clemency recipients were only nonviolent
drug offenders. That's not true. Among them, for example, was

(14:37):
Russell McIntosh. Now, this is not someone you would ever
describe as a quote nonviolent drug offender. How do we
know this? Russell killed a woman and her two year
old child to protect his drug business. Stephen Fowler, whose
enforcer tortured an informant with a butty torch, and Plays Anderson,

(15:04):
a gangster's disciple member, was implicated in multiple murders and
multiple kidnappings. This according to a commutation's receipt page from
the Department of Justice. Now all of the people I
just named those are not nonviolent drug offenders as the
White House claimed. And despite these warnings, the White House

(15:26):
release a statement in Biden's name, touting the mass commutations
as relief for quote, non violent drug offenses and saying
it was the largest clemency action in US history that
we apparently were supposed to celebrate it well. In July,
in the interview with The New York Times, I want

(15:48):
to remind you, Biden insisted he personally made all clemency decisions,
calling Republican claims that AIDS misused the auto pen ridiculous
end quote false. Now, amid scrutiny of his aide's use
of the automated signature device to place his name on

(16:08):
the pardon documents, Biden said he approved broad categories of
inmates and left staff to apply those standards, defending using
an auto pen as a practical tool to process the
sheer volume of cases. However, the doj emails illustrated that

(16:30):
inside of Biden's administration, officials were at least at the
very least very uncertain about what Biden was actually ordering
them to do, and were forced to openly challenge the
accuracy of the White House's public explanation about what they
were executing. Now Weinsheimer, previously accused of loyalty to Biden,

(16:54):
administration he has had warnings, by the way, are notable.
Why because given his long reputation as quitte, a non
political DOJ official, a career ethics lawyer, he was previously accused,
in fact, by Republicans of playing it behind the scenes
role in shaping what critics derived as Hunter Biden's sweetheart

(17:18):
plea deal while his father was the President of the
United States of America. So you need to know that
to put it in perspective. In fact, according to multiple reports,
Weinsheimer met directly with the first son Hunter Biden's Defence
Council in twenty twenty three. This is a move that
raised questions about whether the DOJ's leadership was actually undermining

(17:43):
former US Attorney David Weiss's purported independence in that entire case. Now,
his career at the DOJ ended with a partisan dispute
in February, shortly after Donald Trump returned to office, the
administration reassigned him to a new sanctuary Cities task force.
Rather than accept the politically charged assignment, Weinsheimer accepted a

(18:07):
federal employee buyout, part of a broader wave of career
officials who resisted what they viewed as attempts they claim
to politicize the DOJ's work altogether. So if you look
at exactly what we now know, it is clear that
there were efforts that are happening right now to recover
additional records related to the Oversights Project's pursuit of the

(18:30):
internal DOJ emails to the White House, and that is ongoing.
And also the email exchange that we just mentioned it
was revealed on Tuesday, we now know was released by
the Office of Ed Martin, that is Trump's appointees serving
as the US part Attorney and head of the DOJ
Anti Weaponization Group. So yes, even more evidence is coming

(18:54):
out that not only did Joe Biden ignore his own
Department of Justice warnings over his legally fawed auto pen pardons,
but they just didn't care and they were giving them
out to people that were violent criminals, not non violent
offenders as the White House claimed in the final days
in office. All Right, I want to take a moment

(19:15):
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(21:29):
Metals Smarter Metal Investing starts with them. We all know
that Democrats are losing their minds over the redistricting that
just finally became official in Texas. But the real reason
behind the jerrymandering all over the country and democratic states
may become even clearer now because of the data we're
now seeing. There's a news study out that says that

(21:52):
Democrats are losing registration race in all thirty states attract
party affiliation. In fact, four point five million voter swing
now towards the GOP. And that's exactly why you're seeing
Gavin Newsom saying we're gonna gerrymander our entire state, the

(22:12):
Democratic Party is hemorrhaging support with no end in sight,
according to the shocking analysis of new voter registrations. Now
this is all being fueled by President Donald Trump's big
gains among men, younger voters, and Latinos. In twenty twenty four,
more new voters nationwide chose to be Republicans than Democrats

(22:36):
for the first time since twenty eighteen, according to a
report from The New York Times, which relies on voter
registration data compiled by L two, a non Parson data firm.
Perhaps more troubling for Democrats, the data suggests Democratic Party
activists can no longer rely on the party's tried and

(23:00):
true methods to reverse the trend, leaving panic party leaders
and pundits unsure how to well resurrect the party's electoral prospects,
and the numbers are staggering. Quote of the thirty states
the track voter registration by political party affiliation, Democrats lost

(23:22):
ground to Republicans in every single state between twenty twenty
and twenty twenty four elections, and often by a lot. Quote.

Speaker 1 (23:34):
That four year swing towards the Republicans added up to
four point five million voters a deep political hole that
could take years for Democrats to climb out from, which
goes back to why are Democrats doing what they're doing now? Well,
it's clear when they're this far behind, they need to

(23:54):
change something quickly. That could include counting illegal immigrants right
in these to help them with the election map. He
could also be giving them amnesty so that they could
vote quickly for them. And then there's the other problem
that Democrats have. Who is actually running the Democratic Party?
What do they stand for? And why are they so

(24:17):
against the American people and putting illegal immigrants ahead. These
are all questions that Joe Biden should have dealt with,
the Democratic Party should have dealt with, and what do
they do? They alienated Americans? And so the takeaway is this,
we now have the data that clearly Donald Trump was

(24:38):
a messenger that the American people wanted. He talked about
putting Americans first instead of illegal immigrants. He talked about
securing the border instead of having open borders. He talked
about law and order instead of having lawlessness. And that's
exactly why the Democrats right now are in so much

(24:59):
trouble with and even the New York Times admitting that
Donald Trump fundamentally changed the election map, quite possibly for
years to come. Don't forget share this podcast Please with
your family and your friends wherever they are, and I
will see you back here tomorrow

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}U.S. Military Targets Cartels in Mexico plus DOJ Emails Reveal Biden’s Flawed Mass Pardons