Glenn Greenwald
Politics • Culture • Writing
Adam Schiff's Endless Petulance Over Removal from House Intel. Committee
Plus: Matt Stoller on DOJ v. Google
January 27, 2023
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Note From Glenn Greenwald: The following is the full show transcript, for subscribers only, of a recent episode of our System Update program, broadcast live on Rumble on Thursday, January 26, 2023. Going forward, every new transcript will be sent out by email and posted to our Locals page, where you'll find the transcripts for previous shows. 


Watch System Update Episode #29 Here on Rumble.

Good evening. It's Thursday, January 26. Welcome to a new episode of System Update, our new nightly show that airs every Monday through Friday at 7 p.m. EST, exclusively here on Rumble, the free speech alternative to YouTube. 

Tonight, Adam Schiff is by a good distance the most casual and destructive pathological liar in Congress – and that is not an easy title to win given the intense competition. Often overlooked, though, by those who focus on his compulsive lying is that he's also almost certainly the most authoritarian member of Congress as well, seeking to censor his critics, smear journalists who question him, and various other cases of abuses of power. The decision of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to remove him from his perch on the House Intelligence Committee, where he abused his power in multiple ways, is long overdue. It would require a multi-series Netflix show to document all of Schiff's lies and authoritarian conduct, but we will highlight some of the worst in order to examine the implications of removing him from that committee and to take account of all of the damage he has genuinely done. 

For our interview segment, we'll speak to Matt Stoller, one of the country's most knowledgeable antitrust experts, about the lawsuit we reported on last night filed by the Biden DOJ against Google to break up parts of Google on antitrust grounds, one similar to the lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 by the Trump DOJ. We'll talk to Stoller about the political dynamic in Washington, as well as what it portends for the ability of the virtually unlimited power of Big Tech to finally be reined in. 


Monologue:

So before delving into our topics of the night, I just want to share with you something we did today that I'm really genuinely excited by. Earlier this afternoon, I spent an hour interviewing the German politician and member of the German parliament, Sahra Wagenknecht. She's a fascinating figure, easily one of the four or five most famous politicians in that country. She was long regarded as the heroine of the German left, its best chance to take power one day. But then something rather odd and interesting and increasingly common began to happen to her. Over the last several years her popularity began to skyrocket among many on the German right, many of those who have been voting for German right-wing political parties, especially the alternative for Deutschland, that Western media outlets are fond of calling a far-right populist or even fascist party. 

There are many reasons for Wagenknecht’s growing popularity with the German right, even as she remains popular among many on the German left. She has become one of the nation's most vocal and convincing opponents of growing involvement by Germany in the war in Ukraine, warning that when Germany and Russia find themselves in an antagonistic position over war, nothing good generally happens. Beyond that, she opposed COVID vaccine mandates; she opposes mass immigration on the longstanding left-wing ground that it's a plot by neoliberal international institutions to drive down wages for German workers; and she is particularly critical, scathingly so, of how the left has abandoned ordinary Germans and German workers in favor of becoming a party largely composed of highly educated cosmopolitan elites. It’s a problem she blames in part on the left's abandonment of class politics in favor of elite cultural agendas that are either irrelevant or hostile to the lives and value systems of ordinary Germans, especially those who are religious. 

I found this interview one of the most interesting I've ever conducted in all the years I've been doing journalism. The political dynamics she describes are clearly present in all Western democracies, including the U.S. The crossroads at which she sets is one of the primary focal points of this show and my journalism. Her analysis of the German-Russian relationship and Germany's relationship double needle in the war in Ukraine is extremely thoughtful and well-informed. This interview was conducted with a German translator and will be ready early next week. I believe you will find the interview as compelling and illuminating as I did, so please watch for it either on Monday or Tuesday, right here on our show. 

Now for tonight's topic. As a journalist, it is sometimes important, even while doing one's best to do reporting as stoically and neutrally as possible, to be honest about one's emotions. After all, journalists are people too, at least most, or some of us are. In that spirit, I want to start with a confession. I have really not been sleeping well at night over the last couple of weeks. My guess is that this is a sensation all of you have had at various points in your life and for those who have, you'll know that it is often difficult to know exactly what the source of your sleep problem is. And that was true for me. 

I've been struggling to understand what was causing this, and only within the last 24 hours, by a stroke of luck, was I able to identify the day that my sleep disturbances began. It was the day that I learned that Congressman Adam Schiff, the California Democrat, would no longer be a member of the House Intelligence Committee, the oversight body over which he has presided since 2019. For the four years prior to that, the last time Republicans were in the majority, Schiff was the ranking member of that committee, which meant he was part of the glorious Gang of Eight, the special members of Congress who received the most sensitive classified briefings from the CIA and the rest of the intelligence community.  Yet, now, the new House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has announced that he is not only removing Adam Schiff from his leadership position on that committee but stripping him of his membership entirely. And that means that Schiff's access to classified information and, with it, his ability to keep our nation safe, no longer exists. 

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I just gotta say, Glenn is really shining lately! I mean, he’s always good, but the last system update? WOW! I just saw Useful Idiots this morning. Aaron Maté had Briana Joy Gray as a cohost. (I LOVE both of them.) Aaron was skeptical of Epstein’s serious involvement with Musaad after referencing another Hero, Michael Tracy. Glenn’s show today put everything in the best, most appropriate perspective. Moreover, he ended with the principled difference between evidence and proof. Glenn did a fantastic job of saying: there’s no conclusive proof of Intelligence ties, but let’s not be naive enough to just drop it! And this after Tucker went out on a limb at Turning Point USA. I LOVE their 1-2 punch! Glenn, you’re not just principled, you are a friend with substance for Tucker.

I recall this judge being livid at Acosta ruling. Judge Loretta Preska: In late 2023, Judge Preska ordered the unsealing of numerous court documents related to a civil lawsuit filed against Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. According to ABC News, these documents identify scores of Epstein's associates and were unsealed in early 2024.
Judge Esther Salas: In a separate case involving Deutsche Bank and its dealings with Epstein, Judge Salas was assigned to oversee the lawsuit just days before her son was killed and her husband was critically injured in a shooting at their home in July 2020. The motive for the shooting remains unclear, according to Fortune.

Another day, another revelation of Israeli war crimes.

"However, S. testified that aside from one person found with a knife and a single encounter with armed fighters, the scores of others killed — an average of one per day in his battalion’s combat zone — were unarmed. According to him, the drone strikes were carried out with the intent to kill, despite the majority of victims being located at such a distance from the soldiers that they could not have posed any threat.

“'It was clear that they were trying to return to their homes — there’s no question,' he explained. 'None of them were armed, and nothing was ever found near their bodies. We never fired warning shots. Not at any point.'”
https://www.972mag.com/drones-grenades-gaza-chinese-autel/

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Game of Thrones Actor Liam Cunningham on Gaza Activism and UK Censorship; Journalist Zaid Jilani on Mamdani, Epstein, the State of the Dems and More
System Update #484

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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There are times when we cannot cover everything that is going on that we think deserves attention, and one of the ways we try to rectify that is to bring on guests who we believe are highly informed, engaging and provocative. We have two guests tonight for you who are most certainly all of those things. 

The first is Liam Cunningham, who is the long-time working Irish actor likely best known for his central role as Davod Seaworth in the HBO hit series, Game of Thrones; but for our purposes he is also a very passionate political activist and analyst who has spent decades involved in political activism, in the last two years focused like many people, on the Israeli destruction of Gaza. 

Right after that, we’ll talk to the very independent, heterodox and cantankerous journalist – which I mean in the most flattering way – Zaid Jilani. He was my colleague for years at the Intercept until he left for all the right reasons. We're going to talk about a wide range of topics with him, including the fallout from the DOJ's announcement that it's closing the Epstein investigation with no further disclosures, the state of the race for New York City mayor, where Zohran Mamdani's primary win has sent a lot of people, especially the city's richest, into full meltdown mode. 

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The Interview: Liam Cunningham 

Liam Cunningham is an award-winning Irish actor, as I said, best known for his role in HBO's series Game of Thrones. Various outlets, including The Irish Times, have called him one of Ireland's greatest actors. He's been a political activist for decades, but recently he helped to organize and became a spokesperson for the "Freedom Flotilla,” in which Greta Thunberg and other colleagues were arrested and deported by the Israeli government for attempting to deliver aid to the people of Gaza when the IDF was blockading it. I've followed his work for some time, especially his political work and we are delighted to have him for his debut appearance. Hope it's not the last on the show. 

G. Greenwald: Liam, it's great to see you. I know it's so late in Dublin. I really appreciate your staying up to talk with us. 

Liam Cunningham: No, that's fine. It's way past my bedtime, but an absolute yes. For you, sir, anything. 

G. Greenwald: I appreciate that. All right. So, let's begin with what I just mentioned, which is the role that you played in kind of helping to organize and becoming a very well-known spokesperson for the boat that was intended to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza as a way of circumventing the IDF's blockade of food, water, medicine and the like.

I think a lot of people didn't realize at the time what an actually dangerous and courageous mission it was. I remember in 2011, a very similar flotilla attempted essentially the same thing to deliver food to the people of Gaza when there was a blockade there and the IDF actually attacked that ship and killed 10 people on board. You had Nobel Prize winners, holocaust survivors and the IDF just didn't care. They violently attacked it. What was the impetus for your involvement in this particular action, even knowing how dangerous and provocative it might be?

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Trump Mocks Concerns About Epstein; Trump Continues Biden's Policy of Arming Ukraine; Trump and Lula Exchange Barbs Over Brazil
System Update #483

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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 Much of the MAGA world was in turmoil, confusion and anger yesterday –understandably so – after the Trump DOJ announced it was closing the Epstein files and its investigation with no further disclosures of any kind. After all this happened, some attempt was made to try and pin the blame or isolate the blame for all of this on Attorney General Pam Bondi. Yet, Donald Trump himself, today, when asked about all of this, went much further than anyone else when meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the White House again: President Trump actually mocked and angrily dismissed any concerns over the Epstein matter and how it was handled. 

On our second segment, one of the uniting views of Trump supporters over the last four years has been opposition to the Biden administration's policy of arming, funding, and fueling Ukraine in its war against Russia. Yesterday, however, at the same meeting with Netanyahu, Trump announced that he would continue the Biden policy that he had spent so many years criticizing by now providing defensive arms at least to Ukraine, and he did so based on the longstanding neocon/liberal view that Putin is completely untrustworthy and therefore Russia must be thought because of Putin. That's what Trump himself said. 

Then, we’ll comment on Trump’s lengthy tweet attacking Brazil for its ongoing prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, during the BRICS Summit being held in Rio de Janeiro. This was something we were going to cover last night and didn't have time to, but we will tonight. Brazil's President Lula da Silva quickly responded, very defiantly, by basically telling Trump to mind his own business. 

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Last night, we covered quite extensively the decision by the Trump Justice Department, not even six months into the administration, to completely shut down and close and stop all investigations into Jeffrey Epstein, as well as announcing that there will be no further disclosures of any documents of any kind, that whatever they've released so far, which has basically been nothing – not basically, has been nothing – is all you're going to get. 

This is a blatant betrayal of multiple promises made by key Trump officials over the last four years, before they were in the White House, but was also a complete 180 in terms of what key Trump influencers and pundits had been saying, including several pundits who are now running the FBI, such as Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, as well as the Justice Department, including Pam Bondi. 

We even showed you an interview that Alina Habba, the Trump attorney who is now the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, appointed by Donald Trump, did with Pierce Morgan while she was in the government, just in February, where she claimed they have a whole bunch of very incriminating lists with shocking names. She said there's video and there are all kinds of documents that are shocking, in her words, and she said they're going to be released over time because we've gone long enough where people who do these sorts of things, including are involved in the Epstein scandal, have no accountability. She said that is ending with the Trump administration. There's going to be accountability. 

Yesterday, the Trump Justice Department said, “No, there's nothing here. We looked. There's no such thing as a client list.” We know we've been promising and that JD Vance repeatedly said, “Where's the client list?” Donald Trump Jr. said, “Anyone hiding the client lists is a scumbag.” Dan Bongino, Kash Patel, Pam Bondi accused Biden officials of basically covering up predatory pedophilia by refusing to release the Jeffrey Epstein client list. Now, they're saying there's no client list, that thing we've been talking about and accusing Biden officials of hiding and promising to disclose, that doesn't exist. 

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Trump DOJ: There's Nothing to the Epstein Story; State Dept: Syria's Al-Qaeda are No Longer "Terrorists"
System Update #482

The following is an abridged transcript from System Update’s most recent episode. You can watch the full episode on Rumble or listen to it in podcast form on Apple, Spotify, or any other major podcast provider.  

System Update is an independent show free to all viewers and listeners, but that wouldn’t be possible without our loyal supporters. To keep the show free for everyone, please consider joining our Locals, where we host our members-only aftershow, publish exclusive articles, release these transcripts, and so much more!

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One of the most significant scandals among MAGA pundits and operatives within pro-Trump discourse generally over the last four years has been the one involving Jeffrey Epstein. 

Now, in less than five months, the DOJ announced today, the one under Pam Bondi, that they are closing the investigation, given the certainty that they say they have that Epstein had no client list. There's no such thing as an Epstein client list, he never tried to blackmail anyone and no powerful people were involved whatsoever with his sexual abuse of minors. They also say that he undoubtedly killed himself: there's no question about that. 

All of this is such a blatant betrayal of what was promised all of these years, such that all but the most blindly loyal Trump followers – like the real cult numbers, a lot of them almost certainly paid to be that – are reacting with understandable confusion and anger over what happened today and over the last several months. We'll delve into all of this and what this means. 

Then, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced today that the group that al-Golani once led, long known as al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, is no longer officially a designated terrorist group. This is al-Qaeda. We'll explore what all of this shows about the utterly vacant and manipulated propaganda terms, terrorist and terrorism. 

As a note, we did not have enough time, so we’ll talk about President Trump’s tweet attacking Brazil and its government, on the day of the BRICS Summit in Rio de Janeiro, some other time soon.

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Earlier today, the Justice Department issued a statement, essentially announcing that they no longer consider any of the questions surrounding what had long been the Epstein scandal to be worthwhile investigation; that essentially all of these questions have been answered, that there's really nothing to look into. 

You can read the Justice Department's statement here.

They're saying this client list that most Trump supporters, I would say, have been accusing the U.S. government, of hiding to protect all the powerful people on this list, now, that they're in power – people like Pam Bondi, Dan Bongino and Kash Patel, now they're in charge – they're saying, no, actually there is no client list at all. There's at least no incriminating client list, whatever that means. 

I don't know if there is a client list or not, but according to them, there's no incriminating client list. I don't know how you can have a client list that's not incriminating: to be a client of Jeffrey Epstein seems inherently incriminating. They seem to have said what the White House briefing said today when asked about this, because as we'll show you, Pam Bondi went on Fox News and was asked, “Are you going to release the client list?” And she said, “It's sitting on my desk for review.” 

Trump had strongly suggested he would order it released. Now they're saying, “You know what? There is no client list.” 

So, all these claims that Jeffrey Epstein had recordings of prominent individuals who he invited to his island, who had sex with minors, evidently, there's no incriminating material of any kind that would implicate any powerful person. Just not there, they checked. They checked the storage closets, they looked under the beds, just couldn't find anything. All the stuff they had been claiming was there for years, screaming and pounding the table on podcasts, making a lot of money over it, too, accusing Biden officials of hiding this all for corrupt ends, just not there. They looked, couldn't find it. 

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