Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Minnesota Fraud Whistleblowers Hunted, the Fight for the Future of College Athletics & Controversial DA Practices in PA Week In Review

Transcript

Minnesota Fraud Whistleblowers Hunted, the Fight for the Future of College Athletics & Controversial DA Practices in PA Week In Review · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome in a verdict with Ted Cruz, we can review
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Ben Ferguson with you, and happy fourth of July. Here
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: are the big stories that you may have missed that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: we talked about this past week. We have got a
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: shocking story coming out of Minnesota that the governor there
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: actually paid private investigators to spy and to intimidate government
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: employees who had whistle blown on the massive fraud that
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: was taking place. Also a bill that is actually moving
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: through Congress that is now quite possibly going to save
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: college sports forever. And lastly, an activist DA in Philadelphia
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: yet again letting criminals walk. Why is this happening and
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: who's behind it? We explain that for you. It's the
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: weekend review and it starts right now. All right, I
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: want to move on to this other incredible story center
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: coming out of Minnesota. And in life, especially in government work,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: you're told that if you're a whistleblower, that you have
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: protections and that if you're a whistleblower, you you should
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: not be afraid for your job or that someone's going
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: to come after you, certainly the government that you work for. Well,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: apparently that's not the case in Minnesota. And if you
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: want to know how the Somali fraud got so bad.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: It might actually be because the governor was coming after
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the whistleblower, not those that were committing the crimes in
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Minnesota with his new shocking report.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Well, that is inevitably number one the law, federal law
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: and typically state law that protects whistleblowers. That gives you
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: legal protection because you want whistleblowers to call attention to fraud.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: But number two, if a government official goes after the whistleblowers,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: attacks the whistleblowers, refuses to follow the law and whistleblowers,
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: that is powerful indication of a guilty mind that you're
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: covering something up. It's sort of like if someone is
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: murdered in Central Park and you catch a person burning
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: their clothes from that night and destroying the murder weapon,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: that is powerful, powerful evidence that they're the murderer.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: That that that that that that it is typically the
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: guilty who destroys evidence who tries to cover it up.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: That that that that if you're not guilty, you have
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: far less motivation, far less likelihood to try to silence whistleblowers.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: To try to destroy evidence. So here's the story that
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: broke in the Daily caller. The headline is Tim Waalts's
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: staff hired private investigators to silence fraud whistleblowers. Committee report
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: finds senior Minnesota state officials allegedly hired outside investigators to
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: silence whistleblowers in an attempt to cover up widespread state
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: social services fraud. A House committee report released Monday found
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: The two hundred page staff report by the House Committee
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: on Oversight and Government Reform found that Democrat Minnesota Governor
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Tim Waltz's state's administration intimidated and retaliated against state employees
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: who raised concerns about fraud, soliciting private investigators investigators to
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: reveal employees' personal details. Report titled the Cost of Doing Nothing,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: How Tim Waltson Keith Ellison Fueled Minnesota's fraud explosion, exposed
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: that senior state officials as high as allegedly Governor Waltz,
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: were aware of widespread fraud for years and neglected to
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: respond to reports. A Minnesota Department of Education official who
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: contacted the FBI told federal investigators she was pressured quote
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: at every turn by her superiors to stop raising fraud
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: concerns and was quote hand slapped when she continued to investigate.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: According to the report, the official also reported that she
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: was warned by state administrators to quote stop digging into things.
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: As it would appear that she was.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Quote targeting certain groups. This is DEI and fraud all
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: coming together along with corruption to elect Democrats, the article continues.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Dozens of other whistleblowers reported dozens that they were told
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: to stay silent about fraud concerns by the Minnesota Department
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: of Human Services because they would be labeled quote racist
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: or Islamophobic. DHS also told state employees that raising fraud
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: concerns would harm the.
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: State, the report said.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Whistleblowers reported the DHS conducted arbitrary investigations to photograph their
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: cars and houses, monitor their phones and computers, and asked
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: employees where their kids attended school. Now it's going to
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: get worse, then, Temporary Commissioner Sharene Gandhi. By the way,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: I'm going to give you some foreshadowing that miss Gandhi
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: did not behave like Gandhi. Instead, she confirmed, and a
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: testimony copied in the report that the state department used
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: outside entities to conduct these investigations of employees, but could
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: not confirm whether independent law firms were used. Gandhi also
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: confirmed in her testimony that DHS management would regularly meet
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: and quote check in on employees who had reported fraud concerns.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Gandhi continued to conduct these check ins on DHS whistleblower
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Fay Bernstein quote a year or two after her investigatory leave.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So they hunted them down and they stayed harassing them.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: Bernstein alleged that Gandhi quote shamed her in a meeting
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: after she raised concerns about fraud and quote excluded her
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: from further meetings on the topic. Whistleblowers also alleged that
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: former State Commissioner Jody Harpstead held a division wide meeting
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: and told attendees that quote, employees would be punished if
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: they reported concerns about fraud and DHS programs. According to
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: the report, DHS employee Emmanuel Nuala told colleagues that he
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: quote did intelligence research within the army and appears to
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: have threatened to provide IP addresses to former colleagues in
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: order to find the locations of whistleblowers' email addresses. An
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: email obtained through a public data request showed now it's
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: about to get even worse. The report also alleged that
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: DHS d anonymized an internal fraud hotline for employees in
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: an attempt to intimidate fraud reporters. After whistleblowers later created
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: an anonymous external email to report fraud, DHS's locked.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: The email address.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Whistleblowers reported that their fraud hotline tips were sent to
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: human resources and used against them. The hotline was originally anonymous,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: but was de anonymized under Gandhi's tenure as deputy Commissioner
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: of HR. Governor Waltz appointed Gandhi a's commissioner of DHS
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: in February twenty twenty six, but removed her in May
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: before her confirmation hearing amid scrutiny of her response to
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: fraud allegations. This is anyone who claims, gosh, the elected
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: officials of Minnesota, they were victims, they didn't know. They
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: wanted to go after the fraud, which, by the way,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: both Waltz and Ellison keep saying, oh, we wanted to
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: go after the fraud, we wanted to prosecute it. This demonstrates,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: I think powerfully they are lying. Not only did they
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: not want to go after the fraud, they were doing
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: everything they could do silence the whistleblowers and prevent anyone
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: from knowing about the fraud.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this goes back to the other question of accountability.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: If everything that we just mentioned turns out to be true,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: there's obviously now an open investigation into this. If you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: do these things, are you breaking the law? And if
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: it goes all the way the governor is he breaking
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: the law? And the people below them are they breaking
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the law? And is there any accountability for this or
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: is this just well, Walt isn't running for reelection, so
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter anymore, and we'll just move on.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we may continue to do things like this
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in the future without accountability.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Listen, the Department of Justice has created an entire new
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: division focused going after fraud. And I hope everyone who
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: made these decisions faces accountability if they committed criminal violations,
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: that they are prosecuted.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: I am hopeful.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: I can tell you I'm urging the Department of Justice
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: hold them accountable. That the way our constitutional system works,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: it's not the legislature. Look, I'm in the Senate. I
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: can't prosecute anybody. I don't have executive authority. I have
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: legislative authority. I can write legislation, which I have, but
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I can't the power to bring an indictment, the power
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: to go before a grand jury, to get an indictment,
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: to prosecute, that is exclusively within the executive branch, within
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: principally the US Department of Justice at the federal level.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: And so I can tell you this, I am urging
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the Attorney General and DJ prosecute every single person who
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: committed criminal acts, who covered up this fraud, who benefited
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: from it, who knew what they were doing. And this
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: is this is a real smoking gun.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And at the age I go back Ellison there, we
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: know his name well. If he's involved in this and
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: is using and weaponizing the government to go after those
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: that were not committing the fraud, those that were trying
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to whistle blow on the fraud fraud and they are harassed,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: is there any lane for the people that were being
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: harassed to somehow have, like, you know, restitution for what
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: they went through.
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: If you're being.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: Harassed for two years after you put in a tip,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: that's got to put a lot of stress in your life.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming it puts stress in your career. I'm assuming
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: it could have affected a lot of people getting promotions
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: that they deserved.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: Look, and I would assume we're going to see civil
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: litigation of people fire filing lawsuits and and seeking compensation
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: for this, and that litigation could well be successful. In
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: terms of criminal prosecution, this would not surprise me. I
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: don't know sitting here if Minnesota law makes makes doing
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: this a criminal violation in Minnesota. Now, of course, the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: federal government can't prosecute violations of Minnesota law. It would
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: take a Minnesota district attorney to bring that case. And
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I got to admit, I'm very skeptical that there are
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: any prosecutors in Minnesota willing to hold the corrupt Democrats
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: in charge of that state accountable.
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: If they're not, then there's not really a mechanism to
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: enforce Minnesota law, which means you would be left with
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: with federal law. And given that these are federal funds
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: that were effectively being stolen and fund funneled to Somali
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: fund funneled to Somalian fraudsters being sent, among other places,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: to al Shabab, and before on this podcast that the
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: single largest funder of al Shabab, which is the Catach
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: Islamic terrorist group that is in Somalia. Their number one
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: funder was the taxpayers of Minnesota, and those are also
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: federal tax payer money. So look, I expect the Apartment
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: of Justice. They've already prosecuted a number of the fraudsters
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: at the lower level, but I hope they go right
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: up right up the the ladder of accountability and any
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: politicians that are responsible. And to be clear, this happened
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: because it was in politicians' political interest for this to happen,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: because they were getting from campaign donations and they were
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: getting votes from allowing Somali and fraudsters to rob the
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: taxpayers of Minnesota and the American taxpayers. And look that
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: this has happened also in other states. It's happened in
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Maine under the Democrat governor there.
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: It's happened in.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: California, it's happened in Illinois. It's happened, I think, all
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: over the country, but predominantly in Democrat states where there
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: are Democrat politicians who are benefiting from turning the other
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: way to fraud. And I think everyone who committed a
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: criminal act should face prosecution and real consequences.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: Now, if you want to hear the rest of this conversation,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you can go back and listen to the full podcast
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: from earlier this week.
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: Now onto story number two.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: All right, so Center, let's move into this is something
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: you've been really working on. This is the most like
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: Jock bro I've ever seen you since i've known you,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: and it's really been fun for me because usually you're
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: geeking out over like Supreme Court stuff. I feel like
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: our friendship has moved to another level because now we've
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: got to talk sports in nil so much and the
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: College Sports Bill it is now reality. Let's walk us
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: through how this was done and what it means for
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: sports fans and saving many sports that we're getting canceled
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: around the country that were non money making sports.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: So this week was a very, very big week for
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: college sports because the Senate Commerce Committee, which I chair,
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: passed my legislation to protect college sports, and it passed
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: with a big bipartisan vote. The vote was nineteen to nine,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: so we got a bunch of Republicans, a bunch of Democrats.
• 13:37
  Speaker 2: We got more than two thirds of the committee voted
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: for it. That's really important. It has momentum now going
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: to the Senate floor. I think it's going to pass
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: on the Senate with a big bipartisan vote and it's
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: going to go to the House and President Trump is
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: eager to sign it. Now, what's going on in college sports? Listen,
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: College sports is in crisis right now. Every week you
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: see another story about a program being canceled, women's sports
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: being canceled, track and field being canceled, Olympic sports being canceled,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: non revenue sports, tennis being canceled.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: And what is happening.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Is is you've got total chaos with the transfer portal.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: You've got athletes transferring two, three, four, five times. You
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: have essentially no rules on eligibility. They're all being decided
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: by lawsuits. It got so ludicrisia. You had the Brendan
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: Soresby case where even though he was gambling on his
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: own games, you had a hometown judge say no, he
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: can still play anyway. Now, thankfully Texas Tech backed away
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: from that decision. I'm glad Tech made that decision to
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: back away. That was an indefensible decision, but it illustrated
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: the chaos we have. You have people that are twenty six,
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: twenty seven years old still playing college sports, and twenty
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: eight year olds playing against eighteen year olds, which is
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: not fair, not right, and athletic programs they're almost all
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: losing millions of dollars. Many of them are losing tens
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: of millions of dollars because the cost keeps spiraling out
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: of control. And then if Congress doesn't act, I think
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: five years from now there will be thirty to fifty
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: competitive college football programs, basically a mini NFL.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think it'll be a franchise. If you're
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: an SEC school, you'll own a franchise.
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah. And I think all of the other programs go under.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: And what that means, by the way, that's not just
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: college football going under. The way athletics works in colleges
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: is football pays for everything else. And so if football
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: goes under, it means those schools they lose women's sports,
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: they lose they lose their entire athletic program. It means
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: our Olympic athletes are just devastated, and the college programs
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: where they develop their skills right now go away. And
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: I think that would be a terrible outcome. And it
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: would also be a terrible outcome. Do you know right
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: now there are more than five hundred thousand college athletes
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: competing at Yeah, at any given time.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: If we allow this chaos to continue to play out,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands of those slots will disappear, those scholarships
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: will disappear. And sports has been an avenue by the
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: way the men and women to go to school.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: Well, let's be clear. The five hundred thousand you just mentioned.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: This is the part I want people to understand. The
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: majority of college athletes like nineties I think so I
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: saw study. You may know the number. I want to
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: say it was ninety eight or ninety nine percent of
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: college athletes do not play football or basketball. So if
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you think about college sports, it is all the other sports.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: The majority of them are not revenue making sports. Football
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: barely is on most cambriages sometimes and depending on what
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: school you're at, if you're at a basketball school, then
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that will be your revenue sport. Outside that, almost all
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: the others lose money.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: If you don't fix this, everything goes away. And then
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: many of those football programs at one percent of the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: student body, or basketball, which is I mean most basketball teams,
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: they have I think scholarships chores. I was it's nine
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: in D one, maybe it's eleven scholarships. I can't remember.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: They're always moving it around. But for men like that's
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: not many people. Folks. If you don't fix this, you
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: have a university. Now, how doesn't even have an identity
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: in sports?
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: Look look my philosophy at addressing this was was number one.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: I didn't worry too much about the powerhouse programs, the
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: big big programs listen in Texas, University of Texas and
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Texas A and M. I love them both. I go
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: to games every year. I cheer them on their incredible institutions.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: To be honest, UTNA and M they are gonna survive
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: and thrive regardless of what happens. Uh. They would survive
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: the Mini NFL and then continue to win national championships.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Uh.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: But I worried about all of the other programs. To
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: be honest, if we don't act, I'm not convinced any
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: other program in Texas survives. And if you can imagine
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: at Texas without SMU, without TC, without Baylor, without Texas Tech,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: without Rice, without University of Houston, that would be a
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: tragic outcome. And so my focus was on maintaining the
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: entire ecosystem. But secondly, my focus was not on the
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: superstar athletes. If you're Michael Jordan, if you're Arch Manning,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: you know what, you're gonna get millions of dollars. You're
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: gonna be on the wheaties box. You're gonna do great.
• 18:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Ninety nine percent of college athletes will never play in
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: the NFL, will never play in the NBA, but yet
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: athletics is their ticket to college. Look, it was for you.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: Playing tennis is how you went to Ole Miss.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: And I'll be honest with you, I'm not sure I
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: would have gone to college if it wasn't for having
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: the scholarship which came through tennis to pay for college.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: My family did not have a lot of means, and
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: my dad was the first to admit and it was like,
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: if you want to go to college, if you want
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: to go to good school, you're gonna have to get
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: there and earn it. Sports was my way in. It
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: wasn't going to be the academic road, and that's another
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: avenue you can go, but sports was, and for many
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: of my friends it was a savior to a better
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: life afterwards, a better member of society. By the way,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: we pay a lot more taxes when you're successful, so
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: it's a great reinvestment in the country from that standpoint
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: as well, you want your kids to go to college.
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: But for so many I had roommates, they would have
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: never gotten into college if it wasn't and gotten their family.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Many I had two different roommates, they were the first
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: kid in their families to ever go to college. It
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: completely changed the trajector of their family tree. And it
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: was because of athletics.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Well, and some people have said, well, why is Congress
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: getting involved in college sports? And the reason is it's
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: federal laws that Congress has passed that created this chaos.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: It's why all of the rules got thrown out because
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: they're being sued under existing federal law. And every rule
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: keeps getting thrown out. And so Congress created the problem,
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: which means only Congress can fix it, because only Congress
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: can can alter that federal law. And if we don't act,
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: we can see the crisis unfolding around us and for
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: millions of young men and women. Many college athletes are
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: coming from economically disadvantaged circumstances, many of them are African
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: American or Hispanic. Over years and decades, we're talking about
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: millions of young men and women who this may be
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: their only path to go to a going to college
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: and getting an education, but b learning the disciplines that
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: come from being in organized sports of teamwork and hard
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: work and discipline and sportsmanship. And look, I didn't have
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: the skills to play college sports. I would have loved to,
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: but I played high school sports and it was you know,
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: being on I played basketball and football and soccer, and
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: being on a team in high school. Those are really
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: important skills and it's amazing. I actually asked this at
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: our Senate Republican lunch. I said, all right, how many
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: people around this table played college sports?
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: And I would say about.
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: Twenty percent of the Republicans in the Senate raised their
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: hand and they were college athletes. I mean, that's true,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: and that's true. You find that with CEOs, you find
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: that the discipline and nobody in the Senate played professional sports,
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: but the discipline of and the skills you learn set
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: you up for success in life.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you one final question on this. Who
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: was behind this that surprised you the most? And Nick
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Saban was one that I was excited to see that
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the African American University of Memphis and my hometown football coach,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: he got behind this and had some great testimony there
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: in front of you, guys. I was proud of that
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: as well. But who shocked you that was behind this.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: So the support we've seen has been overwhelming. Twenty four
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: conferences have endorsed this bill. They represent Those conferences represent
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: over two hundred different colleges and universities are enthusiastically supporting
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: the bill. The NFL endorsed the bill, the NBA endorsed
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: the bill, Major League Baseball endorsed the bill. NFL Players
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: Association endorsed the bill, the NBA Players Association endorsed the bill.
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: The College Football Association endorse the bill. We've had Nick
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Saban has endorsed at John Klapari led over one hundred
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: college coaches who've endorsed the bill. The US Olympic Committee
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: endorse the bill. So we've seen just enormous support. And
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: I will say the primary opposition came from the leadership
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: of the Big Ten and the SEC. And look, the
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: SEC is really important in Texas. Obviously, UTA and m
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I think they're great. If Congress doesn't act, I believe
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: the SEC and Big Ten want to create a super
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: league where they're the only football that exists and everyone.
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: Else goes out of bill.
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Most billion dollar franchise organizations, that's what they would.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Have, and that is a terrible outcome. We explicitly prohibit
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: a super League in the bill because I want to
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: keep all the other programs alive.
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: That's where the resistance has come from.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I think we're going to end up having a big,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: big bipartisan vote on the Senate floor. My objective is
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: to do this, get it done, get it past the
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: President's eager to sign it, and do all of that
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: before school starts this fall.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: As before, if you want to hear the rest of
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: this conversation on this topic, you can go back and
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: dow the podcast from earlier this week to hear the
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: entire thing. I want to get back to the big
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: story number three of the week you may have missed.
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: I want to move on to another big issue. We've
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: got another activist DA that's been busted flat out lying center,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: this time in Philadelphia. You can you can say thank
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you to the Democratic Party, to the George Soroses for
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: allowing this to happen. And this day's story that needs
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: to be on your radar screen as well.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: It is, and let's let's talk about who this is.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: You know, we talked about Singhman and a left wing
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: billionaire spending money to do real damage to America. This
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: is a story about another left wing billionaire spending money
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: to do enormous damage to America, in this case George Soros.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: George Soros has spent billions of dollars. He is the
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: single most effective political giver I think in American history. Now,
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: effective is not a compliment. He is effective in being
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: unbelievably harmful. There are I believe, thousands of Americans who
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: are dead because George Soros has spent the money so effectively.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: So he's spent propaganda in support of open borders, and
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: you look at all of the people who have been
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: raped and killed by illegal immigrant violent criminals, all the
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: people that have been subject to terror attacks from illegal
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: immigrant violent criminals. But Soros also is creative in his destruction,
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: and he realized that that our democratic society has vulnerabilities
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: and vulnerabilities that he can target. So he doesn't just
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: target a presidential race that's an easy, big, sexy target.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: He really pioneered targeting district attorney races. Now, district attorney
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: races used to be sleepy little races, you'd have a
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: Democrat and Republican, but they both were prosecutors. They both
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: we're going to lock up criminals. If you were a murderer,
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: you'd lock up the murderer, you'd prosecute them. There didn't
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: used to be a massive difference between the two sides
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: on das. You'd have a little bit different priorities from
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: the one to the other, but everyone agreed violent criminals
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: will lock them up and throw.
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: The book at them.
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: That changed when Soros began flooding millions into DA races.
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: Now these races didn't used to have millions of dollars
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: in them, so this money just appeared out of nowhere,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: and he elected what are called Soros Dash and Soros
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: DA's are the prosecution side of the Abolished the Police campaign.
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: Look Soros funded the Abolished the Police campaign too. If
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: you want to destroy a society, I can think a
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: few more effective ways to do it, then eliminate law enforcement,
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: because the result is anarchy and chaos. It's more murders,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: more rapes, more children being abused. That is, I don't
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: like to ascribe ill tent to some one, but but
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Ben I will say quite seriously, I do not know
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: any other motivation for George Soros that makes any sense
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: to me other than that he wants to destroy America.
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: Because his action is perfectly calculated to destroy America.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, if you look at the and it's a it's
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: very calculated. It's prison reform, it's bail reform, it's defund
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the police. You do that trifecta, which is saying, well,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: we're gonna let people out of jail because we just
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: believe jail is somehow fundamentally wrong. You then say you
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: want to defund the police, so then you have no
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: law enforcement. And then you have bail reform, which says
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: we're gonna not put you in jail while we hold
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you for trial because you don't have a lot of money.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: So then you're letting rapists, murders literally back on the
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: street as fast as we catch them. That that that
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: you combine those three, this is a framework for total
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: anarchy and society, which is clearly what Soros wants.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, just ask yourself, the simple basic question, is
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: society better if there are more murderers on the street,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: more murderers in your community, more murderers living in your neighborhood.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: Any rational person would say no, I don't want more
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: murderers in my community. Soro says yes, and he spends
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: millions of dollars to elect DA's who agree with him.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: And so one of those Soros das is a guy
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: named Larry Krasner. He is the left wing Soros DA
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: in Philadelphia. And instead of going in with a mission
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: of I'm going to go lock up the bad guys,
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: his mission is quite literally, I'm going to release as
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: many bad guys as I can. Now, now you may
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: be saying, come on, that can't be true, that's so extreme.
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: All right, let me just give you the facts. So
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: just this week, a five to democrat court, So I'm
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: going to read you what judges who are democrats said
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: about Larry Krasner. They found that he is so quick
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: to falsely concede error in murder cases to try to
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: free can victed murderers that it is tasked the Pennsylvania
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: Attorney General with checking to make sure that the Soros
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: DA is not lying. Now, now let me give you
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: a little context of this, because legally this is astonishing.
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: I've never seen anything remotely like this. So a lawyer,
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: particularly a government lawyer, has the ability to do what's
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: called confess error, and confessing error is you go to
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: the court and you said, you say, we screwed up,
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: we made a mistake, we made a legal mistake, we
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: made a factual mistake, and we're confessing error. You should
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: take it from us. We were just wrong, And courts
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: generally give enormous weight to that because nobody, almost nobody
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: ever confesses error falsely. Like confessing error is against your interest.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: So if you've go saying you screwed up your job, right,
• 28:46
  Speaker 2: that's what you're saying. So it confessing error doesn't happen often,
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: and you usually believe it because it's against the interest
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: of the litigant. I want to read from an appellate
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: decision in one of these cases. In this case reviewed
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: under a King's Bench jurisdiction, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: on behalf of the Commonwealth, conceded that LeVar Brown, a
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: convicted murderer sentenced to death for a separate murder, was
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: entitled to a new trial based upon a facially untimely
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: claim under the PCRA. Upon careful review, we conclude this
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: concession was not reliable. More specifically, we find the District
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: Attorney's office conceited relief although none was warranted based on
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: the existing record, violated its duty of candor to the
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: PCRA court, withheld material evidence from the court, opposed efforts
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: by a MIKI to gain access to this evidence, submitted
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: a false stipulation of fact, misstated facts in its pleas meetings,
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: failed to conduct a reasonable investigation, and opposed a required
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: evidentiary hearing. The predictable result was an erroneous grant of
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: a new trial. These circumstances, troubling as they are, would
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: not warrant a remedy beyond reversal of the PCRA courts
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: order in this particular case, if they were confined to
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: one case. Unfortunately they aren't. Since twenty eighteen, the District
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: Attorney's office has conceded relief well over one hundred times.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: By the way, if that's your record, that would mean
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: that you're basically the worst attorney in the history of
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: the world.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: It's worse than that, But let me get back to it.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Let me finish reading it, and then I'm as conceited
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: relief well over one hundred times, mostly in murder cases
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: like this one.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Incredible.
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: There have been numerous instances of untrustworthy concessions, lack of candor,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: misrepresentations of fact, lack of adequate investigation, and avoidance of hearings,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: and the problems are poised to continue. There are apparently
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: more than one thousand cases yet to be reviewed by
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: the District Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Unit, and the District
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Attorney's Office vigorously defends its checkered concession program as a
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: necessary corrective to pass misdeeds by prior administrations. The District
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Attorney's Office active, ongoing and problematic concessions program requires broader
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: remedial action to promote just outcomes. Accordingly, in addition to
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: reversing the PCRA Court's grant of a new trial here,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: we also hold that in any pcr A case in
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: which the District Attorney's Office concedes relief, the PCRA Court
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: grant the Office of the Attorney General notice and the
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: right to intervene in the case before ruling on the concession,
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: regardless of the Attorney General's position on the concession. If
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: it chooses to intervene, it may well agree relief is warranted.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Its independent assessment and participation will enhance the reliability of
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: the proceedings and the PCRA Court's ultimate decision. Wow, I've
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: never seen that, and I've practiced law a long time.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Under so you said one hundred times, that means they're
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: terrible lawyers. It's actually worse than that. This is not
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: Larry Krasner saying I Larry Krasner screwed up one hundred times.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: What he's doing is he's looking at murderers who are
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: in jail right now that we're put there by his predecessors,
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: by previous district attorneys. And he's going and finding murderers
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: and saying, we should release you, we should release you,
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: we should release you. And then he's going in. He's
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: not just conceding error. He's conceding relief. Means what do
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: you get. He's saying, Nope, throw out your conviction. Altogether
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: over one hundred times, almost all with murderers, and he's lying. Look,
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: the only reason you do that go back to the
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: fundamental question that I asked at the beginning of this segment.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: Do you think America is better off if there are
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: more murderers walking the streets or fewer murderers walking the streets?
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: Do you want more murderers living in your neighborhood with
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: your family, or do you want fewer murderers living in
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: your neighborhood with your family, anyone who is rational, anyone
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: who loves America, anyone who is not trying to destroy
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: our nation. The obvious answer is, of course, we don't
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: want more murderers, and yet George Soros and Larry Krasner
• 33:45
  Speaker 2: both do, and by the way, Singham does too.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: As always, thank you for listening to Verdict with center,
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Ted Cruz Ben Ferguson with you don't forget to deal
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: with my podcast, and you can listen to my podcast
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: every other day you're not listening to Verdict or each
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: day when you listen to Verdict. Afterwards, I'd love to
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: have you as a listener to again the Ben Ferguson podcasts,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and we will see you back here on Monday morning.