John Cardillo marks Mueller’s one-year investigation, criticizing its fixation on retweets like Jason Sullivan’s automated pro-Trump strategies and the politically charged leak of Michael Cohen’s FinCEN SARs—$3M in suspicious transactions allegedly scrubbed by a biased "deep state" leaker. He disputes media distortions framing Trump’s 2018 "animals" remark as targeting all undocumented immigrants, instead linking it to MS-13’s execution-style murders and ICE’s blocked access to gang databases. The episode ties these controversies to systemic overreach, from FBI surveillance tactics in Crossfire Hurricane to California’s absurd popcorn regulations, arguing they reflect a broader pattern of weaponized bureaucracy against Trump’s allies while ignoring real threats like sanctuary policies. [Automatically generated summary]
Today on off the cuff declassified, the left is absolutely hysterical that Donald Trump insulted MS-13.
It's the one-year anniversary of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation, and he's investigating retweets, an egregious leak of sensitive information in the Michael Cohen case.
I'll tell you all about it.
And leftists in California are launching a new war on free popcorn.
The left is absolutely inconsolable that Donald Trump had the audacity to call MS-13 gang members, raping, murdering MS-13 gang members, animals.
Now, I personally prefer savages.
Graceful savages, disgusting savages, reprehensible savages, but animals work.
I don't use animals.
I have dogs and my dogs are really sweet and they jump up on my lap at night and they watch TV with me and I have horses and I go out and I see my horses at the farm where I board them and they come over to the fence and they put their head on yours and they're really, really sweet.
But in context, animals works too.
It's just my reference point, I prefer to call MS-13 savages.
But apparently, that is people like Andrea Mitchell, television personality Andrea Mitchell, very upset.
Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell is beside himself.
Conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin can't believe the president would call MS-13 savages.
I'm going to give you some cases, recent cases in which MS-13 exhibited what I consider beyond savagery.
But first, let's talk a little about the history of MS-13.
Now, I've brought you that on the show before.
We've spoken about the history of MS-13.
And just to recap, in case you didn't watch or you don't know, MS-13 stands for Mara Salvatrucha 13.
It's a Salvadoran gang.
They became MS-13 proper here in the U.S.
They had factions in El Salvador, but they really galvanized.
They really became cohesive as a criminal enterprise here in the U.S.
The interesting thing about MS-13 is that only in certain areas are they really their own little drug cartel.
In many other areas, they're very fragmented.
There's no real hierarchy.
They can just prop up, primarily Hispanic, typically Salvadoran immigrants.
They take some Hondurans, Nicaraguans, Guatemalans.
Not so much Mexicans, but when necessary, they will.
And their main purpose is really creating this family unit, a very evil one, to do violence for power in these bad neighborhoods.
These are brutal, brutal people.
So the way the gang started was they were the enforcers.
They were the escorts for drug shipments, cartel drug shipments coming up to the U.S.
And think about that for a minute.
The cartels are particularly brutal, right?
They're Sicarios, behead people.
They castrate while they're alive and awake.
They castrate their enemies if they're men.
They rape and mutilate and murder the enemies if they're women, the informants, anybody they deem is itching on them.
You've seen the videos from Mexico, the photos, headless bodies hung from overpasses and written in blood that if you remove those bodies, you'll wind up like those bodies.
I mean, these are brutal people.
And MS-13 was protecting them and their drug shipments.
It doesn't get worse.
I mean, these are the worst of the worst of the worst, right?
They're coming up to the United States and they're, you know, just doing what they do.
And it's a brutal, brutal criminal enterprise.
So, of course, liberals want to protect them.
I mean, they would be incensed.
And what they're doing is so disgraceful this time.
The president had a roundtable yesterday on California sanctuary cities.
And he was talking to several people.
The exchange that has the left hysterical came when he was talking to Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims, pretty conservative.
She really wants to work with the president on illegal immigration.
I'm going to read you their exchange in just a little bit.
First, I want to tell you how different media is covering this.
Now, the president's comments were about MS-13.
I'm going to read you the statements in context, his exchange with Sheriff Mims, you're going to see that.
But let's look at how different media outlets are covering this, depending on their political slant.
Vox, which, by the way, put the president's entire conversation with Sheriff Mims, a transcript, in the same article.
But they betrayed their own reporting with their headline.
Trump on deported immigrants.
They're not people.
They're animals.
Whether President Trump was referring to MS-13 gang members or all deportees is unclear, but he didn't exactly hasten to clarify, but he did.
The Washington Examiner, which leans right, it was MS-13 Trump called animals not undocumented immigrants.
And the New York Times knew, this is my favorite.
The New York Times, my favorite one.
The New York Times knew that Trump was talking about MS-13.
They couldn't bring themselves to admit it.
So their headline is, Trump called, this is great.
Trump calls some unauthorized immigrants animals in Iran.
Trump calls some unauthorized immigrants animals in Iran.
Some.
MS-13 is now some.
And illegal aliens are unauthorized immigrants.
I mean, can you sanitize it anymore?
I'm surprised there's not an ad for Clorox bleach all over this page.
They've sanitized this thing so much.
It's ridiculous.
So let's read the exchange between President Trump and Sheriff Mims, and you tell me what you think.
I'm going to read you the whole exchange.
Then we're going to go through some cases of MS-13 violence.
And we're going to talk about these people that the left feels are these wonderful dreamers.
They're dreamers.
Okay.
The exchange starts.
This is from the official White House transcript.
This is as it happened verbatim.
Sheriff Margaret Mims, Fresno County, California, quote: Now, ICE is the only law enforcement agency that cannot use our databases to find the bad guys.
They cannot come in and talk to people in our jail unless they reach a certain threshold, meaning a level of crime, or how many times they were there, or citizen defender status, things of that nature.
They can't do all kinds of things that other law enforcement agencies can do, and it really puts us in a very bad position.
And what Sheriff Mims means is that it's a long-standing protocol and policy for federal law enforcement agencies to be able to cooperate with state and local.
And so what she's saying is the FBI can come in and use their databases.
The ATF in a gun case, an explosives case, a contraband case can, the DEA in a drug case, Homeland Security investigations if contraband goods are coming into the U.S.
But Homeland Security Investigation HSI's brother agency, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Border Patrol, another brother-sister agency, can't.
It's ludicrous.
It's absolutely ludicrous.
The president says to Sheriff Mim, it's a disgrace, okay?
It's a disgrace.
And Sheriff Mims says it is a disgrace, the president.
President says, and we're suing on that, and we're working hard.
And I think it will all come together because people want it to come together.
They're suing the state of California and various entities, municipalities, localities, and counties in California who are prohibiting federal law enforcement from working with local authorities to share databases and information to get these violent gangbangers, these illegals out of our country.
Now, remember, these are the people who escort cartel drug shipments.
These are brutal, brutal people.
The worst of the worst.
MS-13 doesn't use firearms, not because they can't get them, but because their preferred weapons, machetes, baseball bats, chains, knives, spikes, they cause more terror.
They cause more pain.
It's a prolonged form of torture for their enemies, for those who are snitches.
These are brutal, brutal people.
They rape and mutilate women.
They mutilate men.
These are the worst of the worst.
And I've seen some pretty bad, bad guys during my time on the street.
These guys are the worst.
Okay, so the president was suing on that and working.
We're working hard.
I think it will all come together because people want it to come together.
It's so ridiculous.
The concept or even talking about this is ridiculous.
We'll take care of it.
Margaret will win.
Sheriff Mims to the president.
Thank you.
There could be an MS-13 gang member I know about.
And if they don't reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.
Think about that.
You've got the sheriff of a county.
She's elected.
She's tasked with protecting the residents of that county.
She has patrol deputies and she has a jail she runs.
And if her patrol deputies or another local law enforcement agency in her county, because typically the county runs the jail, so if her deputies or another local law enforcement agency in her county pick up an MS-13 gang member, and as the sheriff, she's notified of that.
Whether her deputies pick them up and they seize their report or another agency picks them up and this gangbanger goes to the jail, she's going to get the file on that to know who she has in her jail.
She now knows she has an MS-13 gangbanger.
Let's say it's a really bad guy, one of their street lieutenants, a killer, a drug dealer.
Somebody's hacked people up with machetes.
It's here illegally.
Right now, she's not allowed to tell immigration and customs enforcement about it.
So her comment was specific.
Sheriff Mims's comment was three sentences.
Let me read it to you again.
Thank you, period.
There could be an MS-13 member I know about.
If they don't reach a certain threshold, I cannot tell ICE about it.
Two sentences, actually.
She specifically references MS-13.
And the president, responding to her specific reference of MS-13, says, quote, we have people coming into the country or trying to come in and we're stopping a lot of them.
But we're taking people out of the country.
You wouldn't believe how bad these people are.
Clearly referring to MS-13.
These aren't people.
These are animals.
Clearly referring to MS-13.
The president goes on to say, and we're taking them out of the country at a level and at a rate that's never happened before.
And because of the weak laws, they come in fast.
We get them, we release them, we get them again, we bring them out.
It's crazy.
Clearly, in reference to MS-13.
The president is not talking about somebody who's picking lettuce on a farm in California or Florida.
He's talking about violent MS-13 gangbangers and the left, Andrea Mitchell and Eric Swalweld and other Democrats and other people in media and conservative Jennifer Rubin over at the WAPO.
They all seized on this to say, the president is calling illegal aliens animals.
It's so moronic.
So let's talk about MS-13.
Let's talk about these reamers.
I just pulled a few random stories.
Here's a story from February 15th of this year.
MS-13 from the New York Post.
MS-13 members sentenced for execution-style murder.
Milton Contreras, Oscar Wellman, Espinosa Marino, and Jose Osmi and Rubio are convicted of the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Sidney Valverde, who they beckoned to Long Island in 2014, pretending they needed him for gang business.
They shot him in the back of the head and dumped his body on a Suffolk County Beach, where his decomposing remains were discovered by a beach comer two weeks later.
Now, gangbangers killing gangbangers with a gun.
We'll start with that one.
That's about the most mild MS-13 murder I've read about in a while.
Let's go back to this story, March of 2018.
Alleged MS-13 gang member convicted in the 2001 rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl.
On June 28th, 2001, the naked body of Jacqueline Piazza was found in Elsian Park in Los Angeles.
She had been shot twice in the head.
Her murder remained unsolved for nearly a decade until the LAPD uncovered new information and presented it to the DA's office.
Four men were charged in the crime.
They kidnapped her.
They drove her to a park.
They gang raped her, and they killed her.
He was 13.
George Palacios, 39 now.
He was 21 when the attack happened.
The other attackers were Rogelio Contreras, Melvin Sandoval, and Santos Grimaldi.
All members of MS-13.
They abducted, gang-raped, tortured, and murdered a 13-year-old little child.
This is who Democrats are supporting.
I'm taking a depth because I'm infuriated.
I'm infuriated.
There's more.
This story from March 2nd, 2017.
Members of notorious MS-13 gang indicted in killings of teenaged best friends and five others.
This is on Long Island, New York.
We've become a hotbed of MS-13 gang activity.
The seven slayings covered by the indictments include the deaths of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas.
Donald Trump had their parents at the State of the Union, if you recall.
Teenage best friends whose bodies were found feet apart in Brentwood, that's an area of Long Island, New York, last year.
More than a dozen alleged MS-13 gang members are named in federal indictments charging them with murder and other crimes.
This is from News 4 New York, NBC New York, in connection with the gruesome slayings of seven people, including two teenage best friends in the crime-plagued town of Brentwood.
Crime plagued by MS-13.
The FBI and Suffolk County Police, the easternmost county on Long Island, carried out joint raids at multiple locations known to be connected to the notorious Salvadoran MS-13 gang and arrested four of the defendants.
A total of 10, a total of 13 defendants, 10 of whom are illegal aliens, face charges.
According to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Mickens' brutally beaten body was found on a tree-lined street a day before her 16th birthday.
A day later, the beaten body of her lifelong friend Cuevas was discovered in the wooded backyard of a nearby home.
Investigators felt the girls were victims of gang violence.
Indictment Controversies00:11:34
Horrible.
They said that four gang members, authorities said four gang members had been looking for a rival gang member to attack or kill when they spotted the girls.
They recognized them from a previous altercation with MS-13 gang members, called their leader, and got approval to kill them.
The girls died by being beaten to death and hacked to death with baseball bats and machetes.
10 of the perps in this MS-13 cell were illegal aliens.
This is who Democrats are protecting.
This is who Democrats are upset about Donald Trump calling animals.
I often say the left hates us.
They want us dead, those of us on the right.
And the left says you're crazy, you're a fear monger, you're a right-wing nutjob.
But think about this.
In a span of the last three days, the left has gone out of their way to aggressively defend Hamas terrorists trying to invade Israel and MS-13 gang members who rape and hack to death with machetes, little girls, invading this country.
If that's not hating us and wanting to see us dead, I don't know what is.
Today marks the one-year anniversary of Robert Mueller's special counsel investigation.
I didn't get him a cake.
I didn't get him anything.
I actually didn't even send him a card, not even an email, because I can't stand the guy.
I think this is a witch hunt.
I think he is an unethical, unprofessional actor.
It's ludicrous.
It's silly.
It should have been shut down a long time ago.
We've been through ad nauseum.
Why?
Well, new information.
He's told, Robert Mueller is apparently told, well, according to Rudy Giuliani, he's told Giuliani that they would not attempt to indict Donald Trump.
Well, if Mueller is now admitting that he can indict a sitting president, he won't indict Donald Trump.
There's no reason for Trump to talk to him.
There's no reason for Trump to write anything down to him.
It's all fruitless.
Nothing can come of it.
It would only be used in an impeachment trap.
That's it.
Or a perjury trap to smear the president.
Giuliani told CNN's Dana Bash, this is originally a CNN story, quote, they have to follow the Justice Department rules.
And the rules from a newsmax story in the U.S. Attorney's Manual, an internal Department of Justice document, which generally recommends against naming unindicted co-conspirators, though doing so is not generally prohibited by law or policy.
And meaning that Donald Trump won't even be named.
Nixon was not indicted.
This goes back to 1974.
President Nixon was named an unindicted co-conspirator in indictments from the Watergate investigation.
Now, of course, they want to try to do that to Donald Trump.
Giuliani's saying that they better not do it.
It recommends that DOJ is recommending they shouldn't do it.
I don't trust Mueller.
But the question now is, will they say that even though we can't indict Donald Trump, is he an unindicted co-conspirator?
The answer is going to be no, because they've still never proved Russia collusion.
So they'd have to allege that Donald Trump was working with a Russian bot farm.
I doubt that's the case.
They'd have to allege that he was involved in Paul Manafort's dubious financial dealings in 2006, alleged dubious financial dealings in 2006.
I mean, that's the case.
That he knew General Flynn was dishonest with investigators.
Well, we know that's not the case because the investigators didn't think General Flynn was dishonest with investigators.
And whether or not this Papadopoulos guy was as well, he was so far down the rung on the ladder.
I seriously doubt Papadopoulos and Donald Trump spoke about everything.
In other words, this is all absolute nonsense.
Giuliani said, quote, the Justice Department memos going back to before Nixon say that you cannot indict a sitting president.
You have to impeach him, end quote.
Quote by Giuliani.
Now, there was a little time in which there was some dispute about that, but they acknowledged to us orally that they understand that they cannot violate the Justice Department rules.
We think it's bigger than that, Giuliani said.
We think it's a constitutional rule, but I don't think you're ever going to confront that because nobody's ever going to indict a sitting president.
So what does that leave them with?
That leaves them with writing a report.
Giuliani said to Mueller, he said to Mueller, do you really need, or are you going to ask Mueller, do you really need an interview?
You've got all the facts.
You've got all the documents.
You've got all of the explanations.
We're happy to tell you they're not going to charge.
Meaning, Mueller is not going to charge Trump.
That ends it.
It's over now.
There was no collusion.
Trump's not going to be charged.
He didn't conspire on anything.
That should end it.
But it's not.
And I'm going to tell you in a minute what Mueller is doing to mark his one-year anniversary.
Now, the FBI is really at ground zero for all this because we're finding out that the FBI used a secret program to gather information on the Trump campaign without using warrants.
It went around warrants.
It went around judges.
This is a Daily Wire story by Ryan Savedri.
You've seen Ryan Savedri here on the show.
He's a great reporter, friend of mine.
A report released by the New York Times on Wednesday revealed that the FBI director, the FBI under Director James Comey's leadership, used a secret program that does not require the approval of a judge to gather phone records and other documents on Donald Trump's presidential campaign.
The report also revealed that a government informant met several times with Trump campaign officials, which validates a March 2018 report from the Washington Post.
Here's what the New York Times reported.
Quote, the FBI obtained phone records and other documents using national security letters, a secret type of subpoena, and at least one government informant.
Now, we know there was an informant.
Some names have been thrown around.
I haven't really been using the names because they're not confirmed.
And at least one government informant met several times with Mr. Page and Mr. Papadopoulos.
Byrne and former officials said, Carter Page has been convicted of, or rather charged with anything, let alone convicted.
It looks like, understand what this means.
Let me read the rest of it though.
Current informant, this has become a politically contentious point with Mr. Trump's allies questioning whether the FBI was spying on the Trump campaign or trying to entrap campaign officials.
And I believe they were.
This is, this should send a chill down the spine of every American.
This should send a chill down the spine of every Canadian watch, every Brit watch, every Australian who watches, anybody in the world who watches.
This should send a chill down your spine.
The premier law enforcement agency in the United States and arguably the world, the FBI, appears to have been weaponized against a political campaign on behalf of another.
Weaponized to the point where obscure national security rules were used, national security letters, that you could go around to FISA judge, a foreign intelligence surveillance act judge, FISA court judge, to eavesdrop, to wiretap the Trump campaign, surveil the Trump campaign.
But even worse, it looks like the government sent in agents of the government, not special agents, but those contracted by the government as informants.
And the term would be you're acting as an agent of the government, an operative of the government.
They sent them in what appears to be an entrapment scheme to bait the Trump campaign into doing something improper, illegal, against campaign finance rules.
This is disgraceful.
Now, let's talk about these national security letters.
Here's what the Intercept reported on them.
Quote, these are controversial in part because they carry the force of law, but are created entirely outside the judicial system.
To issue one, an FBI official just needs to attest that the information sought is relevant to a national security investigation.
We know that John Brennan, Andrew McCabe, Peter Stroke, Bruce, well, Weissman's on Mueller's team.
He plays with exculpatory evidence.
Bruce Orr, who else involved?
Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer, arguably Comey.
I mean, James Clapper.
The list goes on and on of these people that tried to subvert the Trump campaign.
Information relevant to a national security investigation.
The letters have been criticized because they are shrouded in secrecy.
Companies that receive them are, for the most part, forbidden from notifying their customers or the public.
The government has fought to keep even basic rules governing them secret.
Now, I'm sure these letters were created with the best of intentions to fight terror and organized crime.
But now you see what happens when things are done in secrecy.
They can easily be weaponized against political opponents.
But companies that receive these national security letters might not be legally required to hand over the information demanded by the FBI from that intercept store.
Quote, the FBI internal guidelines suggest the Bureau uses the letters to demand sensitive information on email transaction, even though the Justice Department has specifically advised the FBI that it does not have the authority to use the letters this way.
The documents also indicate that the FBI can use national security letters to surveil a community of interest by obtaining information from a business about a customer and every person the customer has contacted.
This is a controversial practice that the Bureau wants halted amid scrutiny.
Documents reveal that a secret unit that mines phone records can still initiate such requests.
We are being surveilled every day of our lives and we don't know it.
This is killing.
Now, this is really what's interesting.
The most recent national security letter policy was made public on January 31st, 2017, also by the Intercept, and reveals which FBI officials have the authority to sign national security letters.
The director has delegated the authority to sign national security letters and to certify the non-disclosure requirements to the following officials.
Now, think about who these people were.
January 31st of 2017.
Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.
Executive Assistant Director, one of McCabe's cronies.
Assistant Executive Assistant Director for the National Security Branch, somebody that McCabe hand-tapped.
The FBI's general counsel.
This is absolutely incredible.
This is absolutely incredible.
It reads like a who's who of people, of titles in McCabe's cabal.
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act lists four types of information that the FBI is allowed to obtain using national security letters as noted by the Intercept.
Name of the owner of an account, how long that person has owned it, their address, and toll billing records, which reveal phone numbers that are called and include the date, time, and length of each call.
Leaked Suspicious Activity Reports00:11:54
This is terrible.
And this is all part and parcel to an FBI investigation codenamed Crossfire Hurricane.
Now, the New York Times went overtime, worked overtime to try to make the FBI look good in this one, but it is as terrible as it gets.
It is as bad as it gets.
They surveilled the campaign of a political opponent of Hillary Clinton, and they used the most secretive tactics one's reserved for the worst terrorists and the worst organized criminals.
Now, Mueller knows he can't indict Donald Trump.
He also knows he's got nothing to indict Donald Trump on.
Trump did nothing wrong.
And I'm not saying that because I'm a Trump apologist or I'm a Trump cheerleader.
If I thought Trump colluded with Russia, I'd want him out of the White House.
I'm a patriot.
I'd put country over party or any one person.
Trump is disrupting the deep state.
He's breaking up their cabal.
They're hysterical.
So what is Robert Mueller doing now?
Well, Mueller issues grand jury subpoenas.
This is on his anniversary.
This is what he's doing on the anniversary of his of his first year anniversary of special cal Mueller issues grand jury subpoenas to Trump Advisors social media consultant.
This surrounds Roger Stone, a guy who can't get out of his own way with a GPS.
Poor Roger Stone is still wearing the same suit he wore in 1992 and is completely irrelevant, is persona non grada at the White House, doesn't talk to anybody in and around the campaign, anybody at the White House, inflated a lot of things to make himself look good and still look relevant.
The entire thing is simply silly.
Peters were delivered late last week to lawyers representing Jason Sullivan, a social media and Twitter specialist.
Stone hired to work for an independent, independent political action committee he set up to support Trump, Newt Johnson, a lawyer for Sullivan, told Reuters.
Now think about that.
That alone clears Trump.
PAC's political action committees are not legally allowed to coordinate with the actual campaign.
It's illegal.
The subpoenas suggest that Mueller, who is probing Russian meddling, this is from the Reuters story.
I'm reading the Reuters.
In the 2016 election, is focused on Roger Stone and whether he might have had advanced knowledge of WikiLeaks.
Here's the best part.
Here's the best part.
Okay.
For example, okay, let me tell you what Mueller's investigating here.
It's called, it welcome to the age of weaponized social media, quote unquote, said a strategy document.
This guy Sullivan prepared for Roger Stone and was seen by Reuters.
He described the system he devised for creating Twitter swarms as an army of sophisticated, hyper-targeted direct tweet automation systems driven by outcome-based strategies derived from real-time actionable insight.
For example, all sounds kind of intricate, but I'm going to break it down for you in about three words.
Four words, actually.
I've got those four words.
For example, at 6.43 a.m. local time on election day 2016, Trump tweeted, quote, today we make America great again, end quote.
Trump's message was soon retweeted more than 343,000 times in an interview last year.
Sullivan told Reuters that the swarm helped overcome a surge in pro-Clinton social media postings and boost voter turnout for Trump.
Robert Mueller, who has spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars, wasted a year of time, has operated unethically, unprofessionally, disgracefully, in my opinion.
Ready?
Here are the four words.
Mueller is investigating retweets.
There's five words.
Robert Mueller is investigating retweets.
That's what he's investigating.
Robert Mueller has launched an investigation and issued subpoenas because an automated algorithm retweeted Donald Trump more than it did Hillary Clinton.
A U.S.-based company working with computer code helped better market Donald Trump.
And Robert Mueller is now investigating that as a criminal matter.
I have never in my life seen anything this insane.
Robert Mueller is investigating retweets.
This is beyond ridiculous.
This is beyond a joke.
This is beyond comical.
It's tragic.
It is absolutely tragic.
And this nightmare, this nonsense, this tragedy, this joke needs to be shut down today on its first birthday.
A really disturbing story in the Michael Cohen case, one that was actually broken by Ronan Farrow at The New Yorker.
Now, Ronan Farrow's actually turning out some very good work.
He turned out some great work with regards to the Harvey Weinstein case.
And this one is entitled, Missing Files Motivated the Leak of Michael Cohen's Financial Records.
Now, Farrow isn't obviously a fan of Michael Cohen, but when you read the story, what you find out is that the way we all discovered the transactions in Michael Cohen's bank records is because a law enforcement source within the federal law enforcement infrastructure of the Southern District of New York leaked, leaked the information.
That person needs to go to jail.
And I suspect their motives were dubious.
Now, what they leaked were called suspicious activity reports, SARs, that are part and parcel to what's called FinCEN, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
And these are all entities that exist under entities and procedures that exist under the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
And so what Farrow's story essentially says is that, let me read you an excerpt from Farrow's story.
It says, the report also refers to two previous suspicious activity reports or SARS the bank had filed, which documented even larger flows of questionable money into Cohen's account.
These two reports detail more than $3 million in additional transactions, triple the amount in the report released last week.
Which individuals or corporations were involved remains a mystery.
But according to the official who leaked the report, these SARS, special activity, suspicious activity reports, were absent from the database maintained by the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, FinCEN, more commonly called.
The official who has spent a career in law enforcement told me, quote, I have never seen something pulled off the system.
That system is a safeguard for the bank.
It's a stockpile of information.
When something's not there that should be, I immediately became concerned.
That's why I came forward.
But you didn't come forward.
You leaked it like a rat.
Now, story goes on to say that other officials, seven officials, expressed varying levels of concerns about the missing reports.
In other words, the guy who leaked them, in my opinion, appears to be biased against Trump and people around Trump.
He leaked those reports to smear Michael Cohen and Donald Trump because when seven other officials who had worked alongside Treasury, worked with FinCEN, who were familiar with these SARS, were interviewed on background, they expressed varying levels of concern.
Some speculated that FinCEN may have restricted access to the reports due to the sensitivity of their content, which would make the leak even more egregious.
They said that it would be, which they said would be nearly unprecedented, but it's also unprecedented that the personal attorney of the president of the United States is being investigated.
So there would be a higher degree of sensitivity in the information.
One called the possibility explosive.
And a record retention policy on FinCEN's websites notes that false documents or those deemed highly sensitive and requiring strict limitations on access may be transferred out of its master file.
So again, this is the most critical and important part of this New Yorker piece.
A record retention policy on FinCEN's own website says, even though the move might be unprecedented, even though the move might be exceedingly rare, even though this might be the first time it was ever done, they had a contingency in place for it, and it was an acceptable move.
That the documents, the documents deemed highly sensitive and requiring strict limitations on access may be transferred out of the masterfile.
So a person rungs down the ladder who didn't understand how all this worked or did understand and was just infuriated that Michael Cohen and Donald Trump weren't being smeared fast enough.
That person took it upon themselves To release Michael Cohen's bank record and suspicious activity reports to the media to smear Cohen, to smear Trump.
Now, what they also say, it may be that someone reached out to FinCEN and asked them to limit their disclosure of certain SARS related to an investigation.
Whether it was the special counsel or the Southern District of New York, people don't know.
This is really, really troubling.
And this leaker, this criminal, really is trying to justify their motive, their move.
Why are just those two missing?
Now, that's ridiculous.
FinCEN said in a statement that it protects the confidentiality of SARS, suspicious activity reports, quote, in order to protect both filers and potentially named individuals.
FinCEN neither confirms nor denies the existence of the purported SARS.
No one commented on this.
And the reason FinCEN does that is because suspicious activity is not necessarily illegal activity.
It might have a legal purpose behind it.
And when FinCEN and Treasury review it, they say, okay, there you go.
There's the paper trail.
Everything's fine.
Thank you very much for coming in.
Thanks for the cooperation.
Have a great day.
Good luck.
But that wasn't enough for deep state bias investigators surrounding the investigation.
No, they couldn't let the investigation take its course.
They couldn't wait to find out whether or not those suspicious activity reports were properly removed from the master file for purposes of confidentiality or investigative purposes.
No.
They had to leak information on Michael Cohen because they need to destroy his life.
Cohen and the president are friendly.
He's the president's personal attorney.
Therefore, to the mainstream media, to the deep state actors, Michael Cohen's life must be destroyed.
His reputation must be destroyed.
His family must be destroyed.
His businesses must be destroyed.
And federal law enforcement will break the law to do it.
They will break the law to destroy anyone close to Donald Trump.
That's not speculation.
I'm not alleging they'll do that.
A law enforcement source leaked sensitive, restrictive information, broke the law for no other reason than to smear Michael Cohen.
This nonsense that they want to maintain the integrity of the investigation is no.
They were upset that Cohen was not being destroyed and smeared fast enough.
They're upset that Donald Trump is still president.
They needed to take matters into their own hands, much like Peter Stroke did, Andrew McCabe did, Lisa Page did, John Brennan did.
I believe Barack Obama did.
Hillary Clinton did through Fusion GPS, where she hid money through her law firm Perkins Coe.
They need to take out this president and everyone around him.
They need to destroy them.
Why Popcorn Matters00:08:12
And they will stop at nothing.
They have desecrated their oaths.
They have dishonored their profession.
And now they're going after people who might have done nothing wrong by releasing highly restricted information to do nothing other than to smear their reputations.
This is as bad as it gets.
We need a justice department.
We need an attorney general.
We need people who are going to investigate these crimes.
we need to publicly prosecute the leakers.
What I'm about to tell you is going to make you sleep much better tonight.
You're going to feel a little bit safer.
You might even, if you live in California, especially down around San Diego, you might even crack the window in your kid's bedroom if there's a nice breeze coming off the ocean because you're going to feel a lot safer.
You're going to feel a lot safer because of authorities in San Diego County.
They really have stepped up for you in terms of public safety on this one.
I mean, they're really looking out for you and your family.
They really are.
From the San Diego Tribune, pop goes a tradition.
The county cracks down on free popcorn in hardware stores.
They're letting those illegals come over the fence.
They're letting El Chapo's people still dig tunnels from Tijuana to San Diego.
But man, you don't have anything to worry about.
You are protected, San Diegoans, from the scourge of free popcorn and hardware stores.
What may look like a warm, welcoming treat, free popcorn is a threat to public health, say San Diego County officials.
Last month, health inspectors raided La Jolla's Meanly and Sun hardware, warning that its old-fashioned red popcorn machine is a journey outlaw.
They explained we didn't have the proper permits, said Bob Meanly, whose shop had handed out 30 to 40 bags of popcorn every day for 25 years.
I say lock Bob Meanly up and throw away the key.
Put this guy in Supermax.
Federally charge him with something.
Let's treat him like a Qato.
Why don't we just send this guy to Guantanamo?
I mean, I'm all for sending Bob Meanly to a black site for enhanced interrogation for extreme rendition.
I mean, how dare he give out free popcorn to kids and families in his business of 25 years without getting permission from government?
How dare he do that to comply with the 1984 California Uniform Retail Food Facility Law?
Meanly and Sun would need to install a three-basin sink to clean and sterilize the popcorn, also required regular inspections, just like a restaurant.
He declined and instead rolled out the offending machine into storage, thus ending a 25-year-old tradition.
He said, quote, I hate to take away something that our customers really like.
He also said, on the other hand, this whole thing has made me more aware of our reliability.
This is so ridiculous.
While closely associated from the San Diego Tribune with movie theaters, popcorn is also tightly linked to neighborhood purveyors of hammers and screwdrivers.
The connection is seen in shops from Cambridge, Massachusetts, Tags Ace Hardware, the Lakeside, Peyton's True Value Hardware.
Quote, the little kids get a kick out of it, said Diane Alhaj, co-owner of Peyton's Hardware, where the free treat has been a staple since 1997.
This woman has been a hardcore criminal for 21 years.
They should lock her up and throw away the key.
Quote, they come in for popcorn and dad comes in for the tools, end quote.
How dare they?
How dare these families do this?
And how dare these business owners?
How dare they conspire?
Now, in California, if this hardware store wanted to hire 15 illegal aliens, MS-13 gang members, then the state of California would be celebrating them and giving them a grant.
But how dare they give little kids free popcorn while dad is buying some tools on the weekend?
How dare they?
Criminals.
Criminals.
I feel sad, she said, that some of the old traditions have become so regulated.
He's a criminal.
Throw her in a cell, interrogate her.
And of course, the government goes on and on and on.
And they talk about how they're here to save you by taking away free popcorn.
Because there might be a germ on it.
One guy complained.
One person complained that somebody scooped the popcorn without gloves.
One person.
One moron complained.
And status in California moved in like a SWAT team.
Took away a tradition.
It's ridiculous.
People are very upset, said Kathy Jones, head cashier at Meanly and Sun Hardware.
Quote, even if they didn't eat the popcorn, they appreciated the aroma.
End quote.
I love popcorn.
I actually make popcorn all the time at home.
It's delicious.
Everybody loves popcorn.
You go to a store, you smell popcorn.
You go to a movie theater, you smell popcorn.
The left has to ruin everything.
They literally have to ruin in government, leftist-run government has to ruin everything.
They have to clamp down on something as innocent as popcorn, free popcorn to little kids in a hardware store.
Hardware alone, hardware stores alone, are hardware stores, are not alone in seeing the customer-pleasing potential of free popcorn.
When RoughDraft opened in Miramar, California in 2012, the brewery's owner sought and obtained official clearance.
I called the health department and said, hey, we'd like to serve popcorn, but we don't have a kitchen.
They said, well, we really don't consider popcorn food, so you're fine.
Oh.
Why is the hardware store getting harassed?
Why is the hardware store being harassed?
Why are any of these businesses being harassed for free effing popcorn?
This is so stupid.
This is really stupid.
Now, San Diego libraries offered free popcorn.
They haven't been contacted by anybody.
They said, hey, how about we have everybody sign a waiver?
And then said, oh, wait, that's a joke because they don't want to be penalized by government for joking around.
See, this is what, this is what liberals want America to become.
You own a business.
You work hard for 25 years.
You service the community.
You compete with Lowe's and Home Depot.
And your customer service is so good.
You're able to stay afloat and remain profitable because of the little things you do that they don't do.
Those little things you do that they don't do.
Giving free popcorn to kids.
But the kid says, hey, dad, I don't want to go to Home Depot.
I want to go to Meanly Hardware because they give me the popcorn.
And the dad goes, yeah, all right, you know, that's great.
Yeah, let's go there.
And when that happens over a thousand moms and dads, that mom and pop is able to stay open and thrive because of those little, little customer service offerings that the big guys don't give you.
And the government has to come in and crush it because they didn't pay the right fees, because they didn't put in the sink, because they didn't incur massive costs and pay light on infrastructure and pay licensing fees.
And now the government can't come in and regulate the free popcorn.
This is a perfect example of why government needs to stay out of the private sector.
Now, look, I'm not saying somebody should be able to run an unregulated restaurant with chicken laying on a prep table for days, Salmon LA coli and people getting sick, but this is popcorn.
We're looking full of salt.
Salt has been used as an antibacterial and a preservative for years, for thousands of years.
Nobody's getting sick off of the free popcorn.
It was being popped in oil that's like a thousand degrees, okay?
And then smothered in salt and butter.
Nobody's getting sick on free popcorn.
I don't think there's ever been a recorded case in history of somebody getting sick on free popcorn after the oil and salt hit it.
But that's not enough for California status.
They've got to step in and crack down.
They are not going to be happy.
The status will not be happy until they are able to regulate every single aspect of our lives.