April 22, 2025 • 14 mins
He is a best-selling author and heads up the Government Accountability Institute, Peter Schweizer. Can't miss radio right here.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The man, the myth, the legend, Peter Schweitzer himself.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello, sir, Hey Preston, how you doing, my friend?
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, I'm doing well. I have wanted to have this
conversation since Doze got busy, because, Peter, anyone who follows
the work you've done for all these many years with
the all the best sellers know you saw this coming, right,
You saw what Doze is uncovering, and the waste and
(00:27):
the fraud and maybe maybe even the corruption that we're
going to learn about.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, I mean what I like in the to Preston
is you know, you go into a dark room and
you're trying to find something and you're feeling your way around,
and you know it's there, right, you can you lift
it up? You know, Okay, the weight is right, Yes,
it feels exactly right. You know what's going on with
Dose is basically done is turn on the lights and
(00:53):
expose it in a way that we or no outsider
really could because you know, they have the ability. They
you know, ultimately would have subpoena power to say, you know,
give us access to all your records. So yeah, it's
it's tremendously encouraging the resistance that you're seeing is certainly
not unexpected because you're talking about this sort of vast
(01:16):
uh maybe call it underground economy where you see, you know,
billions of dollars slashing around, not just for you know,
some scam artists who's trying to get some Social Security money,
but you know for very connected people politically who have
figured out a way to take for example, government grants
to nonprofits and turned it into huge profit centers for
(01:39):
themselves and their family members personally.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What book started this journey for you?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Uh, it was a book I wrote called throw Them
All Out the Bubble title right, and throw Them All
Out really looked at looked at two things. It looked
at insider trading on the stock market by members of
Congress and you know, executive branch officials. And the second
thing it looked at ish government grants and the shifts
(02:10):
in legislation to you know, to benefit people. So that
was kind of the beginning, and that really gave me
a sense of how you know, when you look at
a nonprofit organization, you think, okay, well it's a nonprofit.
You know, yeah, they got to pay their people's salaries.
But it's not like people are building up a business.
But then when you realize how you can structure it,
(02:31):
you know, you get let's say you set up a
nonprofit business, uh for you know, green Banking, for example,
which is what Stacy Abrams did, and you get the
federal government to transfer you two billion dollars. You know, Okay,
you can't pay yourself an outrageous salary because you'll be
called out for But here's what you can do, Preston.
(02:52):
You can set up a series of LLCs, limited liability companies,
and you can have the nonprofit hire those LLCs to
handle marketing, to handle communications, to handle fundraising, and so
in effect, you have set up a series of businesses
and you're using government grants to pay yourself or your
family members. And that's really what you're seeing with a
(03:15):
lot of these quote unquote nonprofits. They're enormously profitable. You
look at USAID, the US Agency for International Development. We
found this in Clinton Cash, the book I wrote in
twenty fifteen, there was a study done that said half
the money that USAID spent on grants to help the
(03:36):
people of Haiti after the earthquake, you know, we're supposed
to feed them and clothe them, more than half The
money never left Washington, d C. It went to consultants
that went to advisors that went to all these very
comfortable people that were getting paid big salaries and you know,
big consulting fees to quote unquote advised on how you
(03:57):
were supposed to feed the people of Haiti. So I
think what's going on with Jos is great. I think
there is more to come. We're going to see more squealing,
but that's okay because we got to bring this stuff
to light.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
New York Times bestseller head of the Government Accountability Institute.
But more important than all of that, our friend Peter
Schweitzer here this morning on the Morning Show. Peter, I
saved the post by Lara Logan where she connects some
dots reporting of Michael Schellenberger. And you mentioned USAID and
(04:34):
that there's even a money trail and connection between USAID
and the CIA, and that it was behind the first
impeachment trial of Trump, and it goes on and on,
and there's a suggestion here that there needs to be
an investigation of criminal charges against people involved in all
of that connecting back to this money being exposed. Would
(04:56):
it surprise you for us to see criminal referrals.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I think there absolutely should be criminal referrals, and I
hope they act on them. And here's why, Preston, I mean,
the problem is, as we all know, money is fungible. Right.
You have a you know, seventeen eighteen year old kid
and they say, oh, can you know, can I borrow
fifty bucks? And you give them fifty bucks. Well, they
could use that for just about anything, for something good
(05:19):
or for something bad, for the intended purpose, or for
what they really want to do. And the problem with
these government grants is nobody's really minding the store. And
so it should not be surprising that, you know, money
is flowing to an entity that says they're going to
use it for one thing, they you know, shift it
(05:39):
through a couple of LLCs or a couple of other
nonprofits and it comes out the other end doing something else.
And the problem is there are some legitimate I would
say it's pretty limited, but some pretty legitimate things that
government grants can go to. The only way, the only way, Preston,
you are going to deter people from manipulate lating the
(06:00):
system is that people that have manipulated engaged in illegal activity,
of which this would be go to jail and face
the penalty. See only to turn. If we know one
thing about Washington, DC, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, communist.
You know that in Washington, d C. If you allow
people to get away with something that's going to enrich
(06:22):
themselves or advance their agenda and they don't pay any
consequences for breaking the law, everybody's going to start doing it.
So that's why you've got to put your foot down
and deal with this or it's just going to get worse.
It's not going to get better.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Let me read a tail end of her post here,
because it references you and the work you've done, Muscot.
It connects the dots into the Clinton Foundation receiving USAID funds,
Clinton roll of sale of uranium stockpiles to the Russians,
US tech companies, partnerships with Russia, setting up Moscow's version
of Silicon Valley, and then all the FBI investigations into
(06:56):
Clinton never came to fruit despite a mountain of evidence
document by Peter Schweitzer the Government Accountability Institute in his
book Clinton Cash, and it goes on to say Special
Counsel Durham and his findings found the deputy FBI Director
McCabe restricted the FBI investigations in their Hillary Clinton. Will
we ever see that reopen?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Peter Well, I hope so. I mean, look, you've got
you've got cash berteled FBI, you've got the Attorney General
and Pam Bondi that you would think would not have
political reasons for not doing so. And look, it's a
similar thing with with with the Biden family. I mean,
you know, people say, oh, you know, let you know,
Biden's not in office anymore, the Clintons are long gone.
(07:38):
Let bygones be got bygones. The problem is, again, if
you allow people to engage in this and get away
with it, it's going to be imitated. So we need
to be doing this not because we need to quote
unquote get the Biden's or get the Clintons, but because
we have to ensure that this abuse is not going
to continue. And the only way you're going to get
(07:59):
that is PI taking it seriously as a criminal matter.
And I think certainly in the case of the Clinton's
there's questions probably about some of the deals in statute,
the limitations, But on the other hands, there's some that
there's no question. They should, There should be criminal referrals,
and they should be looking at ways in which, you know,
(08:22):
potential prosecutions could take forward. I'm not a lawyer, but
you know, don't let the excuse be, oh well, they're
out of office, it's no big deal. That is just
not going to cut it. And I don't think is
healthy for our country China.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
We're seeing this back and forth on tariffs. We know
that Biden's compromise with China, but he's kind of sort
of out of the way. In your mind, is China
have any cards to play in all of this or
as many suspect, really the cards are in the US hands.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, the cards are in the US hands. And I
think if you look at at many of the things
that Trump is doing, they are geared precisely around dealing
with the true China threat and the China challenge. I mean,
look at the Ukraine Russia War. What's happened with Ukraine
Russia War, in addition to the human tragedy, is it
has pushed Russia into the camp with China and made
(09:15):
them much closer than they have been really historically since
the times of the time of Stalin. By trying to
unwind the Russia Ukraine war. He is trying to pull
Russia away from China to further isolate China. If you
look at what's happening with the tariffs, the tariffs on
Mexico and on China and Canada, a lot of it
(09:35):
relates to the fentanyl trade. And as I laid out
in my book Blood Money, the Chinese control every link
in the chain to the fentanyl poisoning that's happening in America.
One hundred thousand people are dying every year. It's the
leading cause of death for people under the age of
forty five. And it's not a drug addiction in the
way we think of it. The people that are dying
(09:56):
of fentanyl overdoses don't even know they're taking fentanyl. Kid
who is studying for a test in college and takes
what he thinks is an adderall and it's laced with sentinels.
So it's a form of warfare that China is engaging
against the United States. So what Trump is doing with tariffs,
and yes it is a little bit chaotic, but what
(10:19):
Trump is doing with tariffs is really isolating China. He's
telling other countries come and make a deal with US,
and we are going to deal with China last, and
this is what China fears the most. So I am
been very encouraged in what I've been seeing with Trump
on this. You have really, for the first time since Reagan,
(10:39):
what I would call a grand strategy that's being employed
against our major adversary. And he's using tools and weapons
that are not going to lead to war. He's using
tools and weapons that are going to make it difficult
for China in terms of technology and the economy, which
is really ultimately where their achilles heelve.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It looks significant to me when Australia took the overture
from China and basically thumbed them off and said get lost.
China's efforts to try to find others to join them
is meeting with crickets.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yes exactly. I mean, look, when it comes to dealing
with China, the United States is kind of the older sibling.
Other countries, they'll grouse about their older brother, they'll they'll
they'll grouse about their older sister, but at the end
of the day, they often take their lead. And when
you had an administration under Joe Biden, but going back
Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton all very accommodating
(11:37):
towards China. The word of choice was quote unquote engagement.
We're going to engage with China, which meant giving them
access to our capital markets and technologies, where they just
got stronger and bigger and became a bigger threat. When
you have the new older sibling, which is Donald Trump,
coming in and say no, no, no, what we want to
do is isolate China because of what they're doing. The
(12:00):
younger siblings might grouse about it a little bit, but
they're definitely taking the lead. In Australia, I think is
a great example of that. You're even seeing it in
the UK and in France and in Europe. China has
clearly overplayed their hand. They think they're going to somehow
do an end around with the European Union. The European
Union knows at the end of the day, what China
(12:21):
wants to do is sell them goods. They do not
want europe to have broad access to their own markets,
so they know it's a dead end, and then they
know they need to do a deal with the United States.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Peter tell those that are listening that may not know
about it, that like me, could use a fix of
the intel that you and your team work on all
the time.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
About your podcast, Oh well, thank you. Yeah. So our
podcast is called The Drill Down. You can subscribe to
it on any platforms.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I mean, like like the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We need to have you do our ads, by the way,
they're much better than anything we've ever come up with. Sure, sure,
but you know, it's it's really twenty five minutes. It's
not one of these podcasts that goes on for a
long time. It's twenty five minutes that we pick a
very particular subject to focus on, and it comes out
once a week, and we really try to be ahead
(13:22):
of a curve and give you information that you're not
aware of. The one that we just did yesterday that's
out is about Trump and what he's doing with regards
to Harvard and higher education, and I think there's a
lot of interesting facts so people are aware of what's
really going on there. It's not just about you know,
the anti semitism and the things going on in college campuses,
(13:45):
although that's important, it's much more broad reaching. And again
that it's that follow that money model that we try
to take in everything that we do.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Good stuff, the Drill Down, which can be found on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. That's fine, Peter, perfect, Peter,
thank you as always for the time. You're always very
generous and I appreciate it very much. Best to you.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Thanks, brother, Take care.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Peter Schweitzer with me on The Morning Show with Prestin
Scott twenty seven minutes past the hour.
The man, the myth, the legend, Peter Schweitzer himself.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Hello, sir, Hey Preston, how you doing, my friend?
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, I'm doing well. I have wanted to have this
conversation since Doze got busy, because, Peter, anyone who follows
the work you've done for all these many years with
the all the best sellers know you saw this coming, right,
You saw what Doze is uncovering, and the waste and
(00:27):
the fraud and maybe maybe even the corruption that we're
going to learn about.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, I mean what I like in the to Preston
is you know, you go into a dark room and
you're trying to find something and you're feeling your way around,
and you know it's there, right, you can you lift
it up? You know, Okay, the weight is right, Yes,
it feels exactly right. You know what's going on with
Dose is basically done is turn on the lights and
(00:53):
expose it in a way that we or no outsider
really could because you know, they have the ability. They
you know, ultimately would have subpoena power to say, you know,
give us access to all your records. So yeah, it's
it's tremendously encouraging the resistance that you're seeing is certainly
not unexpected because you're talking about this sort of vast
(01:16):
uh maybe call it underground economy where you see, you know,
billions of dollars slashing around, not just for you know,
some scam artists who's trying to get some Social Security money,
but you know for very connected people politically who have
figured out a way to take for example, government grants
to nonprofits and turned it into huge profit centers for
(01:39):
themselves and their family members personally.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
What book started this journey for you?
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Uh, it was a book I wrote called throw Them
All Out the Bubble title right, and throw Them All
Out really looked at looked at two things. It looked
at insider trading on the stock market by members of
Congress and you know, executive branch officials. And the second
thing it looked at ish government grants and the shifts
(02:10):
in legislation to you know, to benefit people. So that
was kind of the beginning, and that really gave me
a sense of how you know, when you look at
a nonprofit organization, you think, okay, well it's a nonprofit.
You know, yeah, they got to pay their people's salaries.
But it's not like people are building up a business.
But then when you realize how you can structure it,
(02:31):
you know, you get let's say you set up a
nonprofit business, uh for you know, green Banking, for example,
which is what Stacy Abrams did, and you get the
federal government to transfer you two billion dollars. You know, Okay,
you can't pay yourself an outrageous salary because you'll be
called out for But here's what you can do, Preston.
(02:52):
You can set up a series of LLCs, limited liability companies,
and you can have the nonprofit hire those LLCs to
handle marketing, to handle communications, to handle fundraising, and so
in effect, you have set up a series of businesses
and you're using government grants to pay yourself or your
family members. And that's really what you're seeing with a
(03:15):
lot of these quote unquote nonprofits. They're enormously profitable. You
look at USAID, the US Agency for International Development. We
found this in Clinton Cash, the book I wrote in
twenty fifteen, there was a study done that said half
the money that USAID spent on grants to help the
(03:36):
people of Haiti after the earthquake, you know, we're supposed
to feed them and clothe them, more than half The
money never left Washington, d C. It went to consultants
that went to advisors that went to all these very
comfortable people that were getting paid big salaries and you know,
big consulting fees to quote unquote advised on how you
(03:57):
were supposed to feed the people of Haiti. So I
think what's going on with Jos is great. I think
there is more to come. We're going to see more squealing,
but that's okay because we got to bring this stuff
to light.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
New York Times bestseller head of the Government Accountability Institute.
But more important than all of that, our friend Peter
Schweitzer here this morning on the Morning Show. Peter, I
saved the post by Lara Logan where she connects some
dots reporting of Michael Schellenberger. And you mentioned USAID and
(04:34):
that there's even a money trail and connection between USAID
and the CIA, and that it was behind the first
impeachment trial of Trump, and it goes on and on,
and there's a suggestion here that there needs to be
an investigation of criminal charges against people involved in all
of that connecting back to this money being exposed. Would
(04:56):
it surprise you for us to see criminal referrals.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
I think there absolutely should be criminal referrals, and I
hope they act on them. And here's why, Preston, I mean,
the problem is, as we all know, money is fungible. Right.
You have a you know, seventeen eighteen year old kid
and they say, oh, can you know, can I borrow
fifty bucks? And you give them fifty bucks. Well, they
could use that for just about anything, for something good
(05:19):
or for something bad, for the intended purpose, or for
what they really want to do. And the problem with
these government grants is nobody's really minding the store. And
so it should not be surprising that, you know, money
is flowing to an entity that says they're going to
use it for one thing, they you know, shift it
(05:39):
through a couple of LLCs or a couple of other
nonprofits and it comes out the other end doing something else.
And the problem is there are some legitimate I would
say it's pretty limited, but some pretty legitimate things that
government grants can go to. The only way, the only way, Preston,
you are going to deter people from manipulate lating the
(06:00):
system is that people that have manipulated engaged in illegal activity,
of which this would be go to jail and face
the penalty. See only to turn. If we know one
thing about Washington, DC, I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, independent, communist.
You know that in Washington, d C. If you allow
people to get away with something that's going to enrich
(06:22):
themselves or advance their agenda and they don't pay any
consequences for breaking the law, everybody's going to start doing it.
So that's why you've got to put your foot down
and deal with this or it's just going to get worse.
It's not going to get better.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Let me read a tail end of her post here,
because it references you and the work you've done, Muscot.
It connects the dots into the Clinton Foundation receiving USAID funds,
Clinton roll of sale of uranium stockpiles to the Russians,
US tech companies, partnerships with Russia, setting up Moscow's version
of Silicon Valley, and then all the FBI investigations into
(06:56):
Clinton never came to fruit despite a mountain of evidence
document by Peter Schweitzer the Government Accountability Institute in his
book Clinton Cash, and it goes on to say Special
Counsel Durham and his findings found the deputy FBI Director
McCabe restricted the FBI investigations in their Hillary Clinton. Will
we ever see that reopen?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Peter Well, I hope so. I mean, look, you've got
you've got cash berteled FBI, you've got the Attorney General
and Pam Bondi that you would think would not have
political reasons for not doing so. And look, it's a
similar thing with with with the Biden family. I mean,
you know, people say, oh, you know, let you know,
Biden's not in office anymore, the Clintons are long gone.
(07:38):
Let bygones be got bygones. The problem is, again, if
you allow people to engage in this and get away
with it, it's going to be imitated. So we need
to be doing this not because we need to quote
unquote get the Biden's or get the Clintons, but because
we have to ensure that this abuse is not going
to continue. And the only way you're going to get
(07:59):
that is PI taking it seriously as a criminal matter.
And I think certainly in the case of the Clinton's
there's questions probably about some of the deals in statute,
the limitations, But on the other hands, there's some that
there's no question. They should, There should be criminal referrals,
and they should be looking at ways in which, you know,
(08:22):
potential prosecutions could take forward. I'm not a lawyer, but
you know, don't let the excuse be, oh well, they're
out of office, it's no big deal. That is just
not going to cut it. And I don't think is
healthy for our country China.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
We're seeing this back and forth on tariffs. We know
that Biden's compromise with China, but he's kind of sort
of out of the way. In your mind, is China
have any cards to play in all of this or
as many suspect, really the cards are in the US hands.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, the cards are in the US hands. And I
think if you look at at many of the things
that Trump is doing, they are geared precisely around dealing
with the true China threat and the China challenge. I mean,
look at the Ukraine Russia War. What's happened with Ukraine
Russia War, in addition to the human tragedy, is it
has pushed Russia into the camp with China and made
(09:15):
them much closer than they have been really historically since
the times of the time of Stalin. By trying to
unwind the Russia Ukraine war. He is trying to pull
Russia away from China to further isolate China. If you
look at what's happening with the tariffs, the tariffs on
Mexico and on China and Canada, a lot of it
(09:35):
relates to the fentanyl trade. And as I laid out
in my book Blood Money, the Chinese control every link
in the chain to the fentanyl poisoning that's happening in America.
One hundred thousand people are dying every year. It's the
leading cause of death for people under the age of
forty five. And it's not a drug addiction in the
way we think of it. The people that are dying
(09:56):
of fentanyl overdoses don't even know they're taking fentanyl. Kid
who is studying for a test in college and takes
what he thinks is an adderall and it's laced with sentinels.
So it's a form of warfare that China is engaging
against the United States. So what Trump is doing with tariffs,
and yes it is a little bit chaotic, but what
(10:19):
Trump is doing with tariffs is really isolating China. He's
telling other countries come and make a deal with US,
and we are going to deal with China last, and
this is what China fears the most. So I am
been very encouraged in what I've been seeing with Trump
on this. You have really, for the first time since Reagan,
(10:39):
what I would call a grand strategy that's being employed
against our major adversary. And he's using tools and weapons
that are not going to lead to war. He's using
tools and weapons that are going to make it difficult
for China in terms of technology and the economy, which
is really ultimately where their achilles heelve.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
It looks significant to me when Australia took the overture
from China and basically thumbed them off and said get lost.
China's efforts to try to find others to join them
is meeting with crickets.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Yes exactly. I mean, look, when it comes to dealing
with China, the United States is kind of the older sibling.
Other countries, they'll grouse about their older brother, they'll they'll
they'll grouse about their older sister, but at the end
of the day, they often take their lead. And when
you had an administration under Joe Biden, but going back
Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton all very accommodating
(11:37):
towards China. The word of choice was quote unquote engagement.
We're going to engage with China, which meant giving them
access to our capital markets and technologies, where they just
got stronger and bigger and became a bigger threat. When
you have the new older sibling, which is Donald Trump,
coming in and say no, no, no, what we want to
do is isolate China because of what they're doing. The
(12:00):
younger siblings might grouse about it a little bit, but
they're definitely taking the lead. In Australia, I think is
a great example of that. You're even seeing it in
the UK and in France and in Europe. China has
clearly overplayed their hand. They think they're going to somehow
do an end around with the European Union. The European
Union knows at the end of the day, what China
(12:21):
wants to do is sell them goods. They do not
want europe to have broad access to their own markets,
so they know it's a dead end, and then they
know they need to do a deal with the United States.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
Peter tell those that are listening that may not know
about it, that like me, could use a fix of
the intel that you and your team work on all
the time.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
About your podcast, Oh well, thank you. Yeah. So our
podcast is called The Drill Down. You can subscribe to
it on any platforms.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
I mean, like like the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
We need to have you do our ads, by the way,
they're much better than anything we've ever come up with. Sure, sure,
but you know, it's it's really twenty five minutes. It's
not one of these podcasts that goes on for a
long time. It's twenty five minutes that we pick a
very particular subject to focus on, and it comes out
once a week, and we really try to be ahead
(13:22):
of a curve and give you information that you're not
aware of. The one that we just did yesterday that's
out is about Trump and what he's doing with regards
to Harvard and higher education, and I think there's a
lot of interesting facts so people are aware of what's
really going on there. It's not just about you know,
the anti semitism and the things going on in college campuses,
(13:45):
although that's important, it's much more broad reaching. And again
that it's that follow that money model that we try
to take in everything that we do.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
Good stuff, the Drill Down, which can be found on
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. That's fine, Peter, perfect, Peter,
thank you as always for the time. You're always very
generous and I appreciate it very much. Best to you.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Thanks, brother, Take care.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Peter Schweitzer with me on The Morning Show with Prestin
Scott twenty seven minutes past the hour.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.