Transcripts For FOXNEWSW Special Report With Bret Baier 2020

FOXNEWSW Special Report With Bret Baier June 24, 2020

Advisor Michael Flynn. That is considered a huge win for President Trump and his Justice Department. Details tonight outside the doj. Good evening, david. Good evening to you. Former National Security advisor Michael Flynn is one step closer to putting a three year legal saga behind him. He wants the case dropped from of the department of justice wants the case dropped, the original judge says not so fast but Michael Flynn is praising todays development. In a surprise call to the Rush Limbaugh show, Michael Flynn sounded relieved. Its a good thing for me, good thing for my family but its really a great boost of confidence for the American People and our Justice System. Flynn declined to discuss specifics just hours after the d. C. Circuit court of appeals ruled his case must be dropped. Karen henderson and naomi rall riding in part, if evidence comes to light calling into question, the executive branch must have the authority to decide that further prosecution is not in the interest of justice. Flynn pleaded guilty twice to lying to the fbi but withdrew his latest plea earlier this year, arguing misconduct on behalf of the Justice Department and fbi. Flynns legal team claims these heavily redacted notes were written by former fbi agent peter strzok and the notes point to a meeting between president obama, Vice President biden and fbi director james comey. According to the notes, president obama allegedly said, make sure your look over things that have the right people on it and is there anything i shouldnt be telling the Transition Team . Director comey apparently use the word legit. Biden was asked about the Flynn Investigation last month. I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn, number one. Number two, this is all about diversion. Seconds later he changed his answer, acknowledging he was aware of the investigation. Im sorry, i was aware that they asked for an investigation but thats all i know about it and i dont think anything else. Last month attorney general bill barr personally got involved to drop the flynn case. The judge overseeing the matter refused. Hiring his own attorney to argue why the case could potentially move forward to sentencing. He set a hearing for july 16th. Sullivan has yet to say if that hearing will still happen. Sullivan has hired an attorney, he can still appeal to the full Circuit Court if he wants to in this specific case. Meanwhile, attorney general bill barr, the top brass at the doj, praising this decision today, they are happy about it. The same story down pennsylvania avenue where john roberts picked up the sto story. In the oval office today, President Trump praised to the order from an Appellate Court to drop the case against his former National Security advisor Michael Flynn. Very happy i about general flynn, he was treated horribly, treated very, very horribly by a very bad people. The Obama Administration spied on the campaign, this is just the first one, hes been exonerated. At a rose garden news conference, President Trump weighing in on the democrats move to stop South Carolina senator tim scotts Police Reform bill some of the justice act, from moving forward. The democrats dont want to do it because they want to weaken our police and take away immunity. Protests, some of them violent and destructive continue across the country. In the response to mondays attempt president Andrew Jackson across the street from the white house, President Trump will sign an executive order providing stiff penalties for anyone defacing or damaging national monuments. We have the monuments act already which means ten years in jail but i think were going to consolidate various things and come out with a very strong executive order and i should have that by the end of the week which is fast approaching. Speak of the federal government also calling in the National Guard. Interior secretary David Bernhardt today asking the pentagon to dispatch 100 troops from the d. C. National guard to protect monuments in the nations capital. President dudas appearance in the white house, the first foreign leader in the white house since the coronavirus crisis. The meeting meant to show close ties is tantamount to election interference. President duda says it was simply a matter of timing. Realizing the interest of the country, we are looking for a win win situation. I dont think he needs my help. Im honored that this is a day thats just before your election, im honored but he will do very well. With or without us. President trump confirmed, some of those troops will be redeployed to poland, asked watson signaled that to russia, it sends a strong signal. The president went on to criticize the german chancellor Angela Merkel for buying russian oil and gas and expecting the United States to defend germany, saying it just doesnt work that way. Bret . Bret thanks, john. Thanks for being here. There are a lot of topics we want to talk about, i want to talk about the first foreign influence. The Justice Department recently indicted the professor at harvard for lying about his relationship with the chinese government. There are people who dont know about china and what theyre trying to do in the u. S. , how much is china doing, how much is china spying in the u. S. . There is no country that presents a broader, more comprehensive threat to americas innovation, to our Economic Security and our democratic ideas than china does, just to give you some context for that. Just as we are sitting here having this conversation. The fbi has over 2,000 active investigations. That trace back to the government of china. Bret 2,000 . In a little more context, thats about a 1300 increase in terms of economic espionage investigations with the chinese from about a decade ago. Bret how much is that economic espionage . Thats the thing a lot of people really dont understand about the chinese government. The chinese people, chinese americans, this is about the chinese government. They are pursuing a campaign of intellectual property theft, cyber intrusions that target businesses big and small all across the country. And our Academic Research institutions. And government officials which i certainly do. What we saw nontraditional collectors which could be business been, highlevel scientists, highlevel academics, people like that. All of whom are in different ways incentivized to steal American Innovation and confidential information and take you back to china. Bret in the 30s and debauchery 40s, the soviet union had more than 100 spies in the state department, is espionage a real problem in the u. S. . What is china doing on that . Traditional espionage, the old sort of spy versus spy thing is very much a phenomenon in todays world but we are much more focused in many ways on the economic espionage which targets american businesses and hurts american jobs and American Consumers and its everything from fortune 100 companies to startups and agriculture, its hightech, aviation, health care, as i said before, its our Academic Research. Bret are they taking interest in elections . They certainly have an interest in influencing our political thought, our policy is to try to shift them in a more friendly, prochina party direction. And sometimes that gets wrapped up in election issues. Bret is the fbi in charge of the investigation into the origins of the coronavirus . We certainly have a roll, in looking in the origins of the coronavirus. At this point theres nothing to add to what the Intelligence Community has already said publicly on that. There is still insufficient information to really know exactly how the virus emanated. Bret when you say that china is active, when there is a crisis, the protests after the george floyd killing, are you seeing foreign intervention to kind of stir up chaos inside the u. S. . Weve certainly seen in the past a variety of foreign adversaries looking to amplify controversy in this country and they use stage media, social media, some of that is through propaganda, some of that is through disinformation and some of it is through fake information. And we are looking carefully at the prospect of foreign influence, foreign interference in all the protest activities occurred over the last few weeks. Bret the president has talked and the administration has talked about antifa about what the Justice Department and you all have moved on is this boogaloo group, right wing, trying to stir up chaos to make it look like its leftwing. Are there any antifa investigations ongoing . The violence that occurred during the protest is driven by a variety of different motivations and ideologies, not the work of any single ideology movement or group, we certainly have a number of active ongoing investigations into violent anarchist extremists, some of whom selfidentify or otherwise linked to nt for movement but i think its a mistake to try to put a lot of this into a neat ideological buckets. We are really about the violence, not the ideology. Bret the letter you sent to your fbi family after the george floyd killings and what that means internally, what have you been doing to change the dynamic in the wake of all of this . I understand completely that there are a lot of people out there in this country who are hurting, who are angry and are upset, over instances of racism or where the Justice System has failed people of color in particular. I would also say, though, that Law Enforcement family is also hurting and there are lots and lots and lots of Police Officers out there putting their lives on the line every day who are unfairly tarred by the misconduct of a few so what we really need is for people to come together, to listen to each other and Work Together to try to figure out a better way forward. Bret when i talk to the attorney general he said there will be some kind of federal involvement setting clear standards. For police units across the country. I think theres a general agreement among Police Agencies that we need clearer standards, have to make sure those standards are and that there are systems are in place that hold officers accountable. Bret is not a federal effort . Does not become a federal training effort . I think we are going to need a strong federal participation in this effort. What is that look like . The fbis rule is if you different things, first in accountability, we pursue and have for some time civil rights, color of law investigations where Excessive Force violates federal law but we also participated in doing training and setting best practices for police departments, state and local around the country. Bret the president said about these monuments coming down we are looking at longterm jail sentences for these vandals and these hoodlums and these anarchists and agitators. They are bad people, they dont love our country and are not taking down our monuments. Equaled justins is essential but violence and destruction of federal property is not the way to get there and if there are appropriate bases for federal investigations we will push them. Bret what is the biggest threat you see . For a long time it was radical islamic terrorism. Whats the biggest threat you see is fbi . The biggest terrorist threat in the u. S. , in the homeland is what we would call homegrown violent extremists. These are people who are lone actors typically, motivated by a variety of different ideologies, some jihadists, some others who go very quickly from radicalization to attack, typically radicalized online and going after soft targets, schools, shopping malls. Easy to hit targets and using easily accessible weapons and those kinds of terrorists are much harder to detect and prevent in many ways. Bret whats the morale here at the fbi . I think the morale in the fbi is quite good, our attrition rate is down to 0. 4 . There are not a lot of organizations out there, public or private, that can say that. Bret the investigation into the pfizer abuse. There was false information provided to the fisa court. Bogus information about this from a rival president ial, the steele dossier, one of your top attorneys fabricated a to suggest carter page was a secret russian asset. There are a lot of people who look at what is come out and understanding the durum report is yet to come out, likely the summer. They wonder, will anybody be held accountable . Will anything come of this . Let me say this. I think that ig report describes conduct that i consider unacceptable and unrepresentative of who the fbi is as an institution and cannot be allowed to happen again and ive made that very clear. Ive put in place an entirely new Leadership Team and even though i wasnt director at the time of all of this, my team and i are fiercely committed to making sure we fix the problems in the past. We accepted every finding and recommendation in that ig repo report, above and beyond 40 corrected measures that enhance our training, strengthened our processes, more oversight and accountability. And have referred current employees or discipline. Having said that, the most senior people involved in this activity in this report are long gone. Either terminated, some during my tenure. Or resigned. Bret has the fbi disclosed any evidence during the durum inquiry . Weve cooperated fully. A lot of people dont know this, we have agents working on the durum investigation. Bret Congress Says theyve had a tough time getting documents and things from you. Senator grassley in particular about the Michael Flynn calls, are we responsible for holding back from some of that stuff . I think weve tried very hard to be transparent with all the relative congressional committees, all sorts of information, trying to lean forward. Bret why did it take so long for the material to come out . Publicly, 302 reports, seems like it took forever, why was that . If it wasnt court orders, and the ig efforts, we wouldnt know anything about it. Weve bent over backwards to be transparent and cooperated and he and his report talks about how fully cooperative and transparent we were with him. Bret the flynn defense attorneys, National Security advisor, they were not provided the exculpatory evidence that eventually came out. Who held that back . Decisions about producing documents in a criminal prosecution are handled by the prosecutors. I will say the Flynn Investigation which took place before i started and in the hands of the special counsels office is something that has in my view raised serious concerns and questions which is why ive ordered and an action review by our inspection division, take a look at whether or not the fbis policies and procedures need to be changed and if there are any current employees left to may bear any responsibility for misconduct. Bret this interview happened before the Appeals Court decision on the flynn case siding with the Justice Department but the fbi says, no matter how its decided, the afteraction review will continue. Bret the president gave an interview in which he said just the other day, what is to think about this whole process as we wait for the durum report and he characterized it as treason. Its treason, look. When i came out a long time ago, i said theyve been spying on my campaign. Turned out i was right. Bret what are you looking at what you think this is . On the crossfire hurricane hurricane matter, i think it describes conduct that is unacceptable, period. And cannot be allowed to happen and will not be allowed to happen. Bret but whether its criminal or not. Criminal decisions, charging decisions, prosecution decisions are not made by the fbi director, those are made by the Justice Department. Bret but somebody here altered that report and that would be a criminal defense. That would be an individual that works at the fbi. Bret are you worried about what the impact of that is going to be when it all comes out knowing what you know . I think allegations of misconduct need to be taken seriously, there are serious questions that have been raised here and whatever the impact is, the impact is. Bret have you ever one on one gone to the president in the oval office, this is what i know, this is what the fbi did and heres what it is. I have not met with the president oneonone. Bret the president has said the jury is still out about you. Lets see what happens with him. The jury is still out. Bret are you worried at all . About how the president thinks about you and the job . I think i have a very professional relationship with the president which is i think whatever he fbi director and every president should have. Ive certainly helped. Bret you are on senator grahams list to testi testify. I will see, i testified quite frequently in this role, seems to be a routine part of the job. The sheer volume of the threats that face this country is remarkable. Just to give you a flavor of it, in the past few months alone, our joint Terrorism Task forces have

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