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So, in a scandal that has been largely
00:00:01
lost to contemporary memory, Israeli
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was
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alleged to have blackmailed then
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President Bill Clinton by revealing to
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him that Israel had collected tapes of
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phone sex calls between the 42nd
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president and White House intern Monica
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Lewinsky. The story is worth revisiting
00:00:18
amid allegations that Jeffrey Epstein
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was involved in a long-running Israeli
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blackmail operation of his own. So
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Clinton met with Netanyahu in the Oval
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Office in February 1997.
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Subsequently, according to testimony
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Lewinsky gave to the special counsel's
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office, Clinton Secretary Betty Curry
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reached out to Lewinsky to invite her to
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an Oval Office meeting, telling her
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Clinton quote had something important to
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tell her," unquote. It would turn out to
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be their final sexual encounter. But
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Clinton also used the opportunity to
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tell her that a quote foreign embassy
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had tapped his phone and recorded their
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conversation. Lewinsky said Clinton did
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not specify which embassy, though the
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meeting with Lewinsky came the month
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after his meeting with Netanyahu. The
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special prosecutor's report was far more
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concerned with Lewinsky's claim of the
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sexual encounter that day because it
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contradicted Clinton's claim that they
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had had only one encounter that year
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than they were with the fact that a
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foreign government was spying on the
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president and letting him know about it.
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The prosecutor was also interested in
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Clinton's response, namely that he
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proposed cover stories. These are cover
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stories that the two could employ if
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they were confronted with the tapes.
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Clinton suggested the pair say they knew
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they were under surveillance and the
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phone sex was a quote put on for whoever
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was listening. That's an awfully flimsy
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idea, but look, he was guilty. The man
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did not have much to work with. Now, in
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April, Netanyahu and Clinton met again
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for a quote private visit. on a
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Saturday. Then in May 1997, Clinton
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again had Curry invite Lewinsky to the
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White House. During that visit, he broke
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up with her. Lewinsky testified. The
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next fall, so this is fall of 1998,
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Clinton hosted Netanyahu and Palestinian
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leader Yaser Arafat for a summit at Y
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River, Maryland. Toward the end of the
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summit at 7 a.m. after a long night of
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final negotiations and handshakes,
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Netanyahu approached Clinton privately
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to demand the release of convicted
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Israeli spy Jonathan Pard, long a caused
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celeb of the Israeli farright. That's
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according to reporting at the time from
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the New York Times. Now, Netanyahu
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brought up the sex tapes in the context
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of the pard demand according to
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subsequent reporting by Washington
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Examiner editor Daniel Harper in his
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book Clinton Inc., the audacious
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rebuilding of a political machine. He
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writes, quote, not wanting to directly
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threaten the powerful American
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president, a crucial Israeli ally.
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Clinton was told that the Israeli
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government had thrown the tapes away,
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but the very mention of them was enough
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to constitute a form of blackmail.
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Halpern reported the talks almost broke
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down as CIA chief George Tennant told
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Clinton he would resign on the spot if
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Clinton agreed to the terms. So instead,
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Clinton agreed to quote, "Review Pard's
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case." He did not release him. Pard was
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eventually freed in 2015 under the Obama
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administration. Now, on the last day of
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his first term, Trump pardoned Pard's
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handler. Back in Israel, Pard is now an
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outspoken supporter of extremist
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national security minister Ben Gavir,
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Itamar Ben Gvere, and has called for the
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full ethnic cleansing of Gaza. I don't
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know, Emily. What do you think? What did
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Netanyahu tell Bill Clinton? I'm so
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curious.
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There's another foreign embassy that
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this could be.
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So, this is very casually in the book of
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Daniel Halper, right? Who's I mean, you
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probably
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tell us about him as a reporter.
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Well, I was even going to ask you. I
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mean, he's his sort of a right of center
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Bush era. I mean, I don't want to get
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this wrong, but that's my uh
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Yeah, he was doing a lot of these
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Clinton Inc. style. Yeah.
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Right. And then was covering foreign
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policy
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like during that time period. I I
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remember Daniel Herro a lot from the
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kind of blogging years, if that makes
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sense, like the Busher blogging years,
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but this is very casually in the book.
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And there was there was another book, I
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think it was called Gideon Spies in 98
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um published in the UK uh that reported
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the same thing.
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Yeah.
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That it was uh that there that Netanyahu
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that and that it was Israel that had
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gotten these
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um tapes cuz they basically what h like
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back then it was probably pretty lot
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maybe even easier than it is now. Mhm.
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A lot of people were learning about this
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affair.
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Yeah.
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Like it was like it was everywhere
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before it was reported
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by Drudge and then by Newsweek.
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It was the talk of like elite
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Washington.
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Um
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that's how like you know Linda Trip was
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telling
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Yeah.
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book agents and book publishers.
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Yeah. Lucian Goldberg.
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Yeah. Jonah Goldberg's mom. Exactly. and
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she's telling people and like um
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you know actually what's his name um
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George Conway
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right he like he was
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who's now the resistance Democrat guy um
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Kellyanne Conway's ex-husband
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um and and Coulter and like this whole
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right-wing world
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Brett Kavanaaugh was working with Ken
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Star George Conway was in that group
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Coulter was defending um Paula Jones
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right
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she was on the polit Oh, and the Paula
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Jones lawyers like learned about Monica
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way early
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and they So, in other words, a lot of
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people in Washington knew about the
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Monica affair
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while it was still ongoing.
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So, if you were a foreign embassy that
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that learned this and it would not have
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been hard for Israel and others, not
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just them,
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to learn about it. It would then not be
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hard for you to go and tap Monica
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Lewinsky's phone.
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You you don't even have to tap the White
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House at that point,
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right? you just get Monica's phone line,
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which is way easier, of course,
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right?
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Yeah.
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Um, and then you're boom, you're going
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to pick up uh all of these calls. That
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continued to happen. How do you like uh
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how do you like Bill Clinton's cover
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story? We knew that we were being
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surveiled by a foreign government and so
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we decided to uh do fake sex tapes with
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an intern. Um, I mean, I was going to
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say I think actually that that may so
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first of all I think it gives it more
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credibility that it's casually in the
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book and I think Daniel Halper um is
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like sort of broadly pretty pro-Israel.
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I'll have to go back and look, but I
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think that's like sort of uh baked into
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a lot of the coverage that Daniel Halper
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has done.
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U but I think the fact that this is is
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sort of casually just inserted into the
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narrative of of the book lends
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credibility to it and people aren't
00:06:39
challenging it. It's the same thing uh
00:06:42
with the Alex Acasta quote that Vicky
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Ward put in her story that like barely
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raised an eyebrow at the time and across
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the there weren't all other people from
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those meetings in the Senate coming out
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and saying this never happened,
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right? Um, so anyway, all that that's
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like a bit of a tangent, but it also
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makes you look differently on the way
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Clinton
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viferously denied the affair because
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it's possible that they were really
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serious about this defense uh for
00:07:12
foreign policy reasons, like that they
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were they had motives beyond just
00:07:18
protecting Clinton. um that they were
00:07:21
like also dealing with the potential
00:07:23
foreign policy consequences of this
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entire thing being known
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to an ally. It was crazy.
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Although by fall of 98 when the Y River
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thing is happening this Eastern Shore, I
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remember when that when that was
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happening um Eastern Shore of Maryland,
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um
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the world kind the public knew about all
00:07:44
of this. Mhm.
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So like the value the value of that
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blackmail by then was much diminished by
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the fact that it was it was everywhere
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already. And then you had you had the
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midterms where Democrats overperformed
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despite all of this stuff.
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Um
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right because when when did he when did
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it all break that he admitted it?
00:08:06
Trying to remember exactly when that
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was.
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Oh man, the like that he
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that's a good question. that that
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timeline is important in this context.
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But yeah, I mean the whole thing this is
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August. Oh, so he admitted in the grand
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jury testimony in August 1998,
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but we I don't think we knew that till
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99, did we?
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No, but then he knew it was going to
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leak. So they uh put it out immediately.
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Okay.
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Yeah. I mean,
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um, so by the time that Netanyahu at Y
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River is allegedly like, uh,
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blackmailing him with the tapes and
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telling him that, and he's, and it's an
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interesting phrasing that that he's
00:08:46
alleged to have used, which is, hey,
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those tapes I mentioned, like, don't
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worry, we destroyed them.
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This is so crazy.
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It's like, oh, sure you did. So, but
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it's a way of, you know, mention
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bringing them up and of course I'm not
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threatening you. This is crazy,
00:09:00
right? Right. I would I would never do
00:09:02
such a thing.
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Well, it's kind of like it's actually
00:09:04
kind of like the Epstein Bill Gates
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email, which reportedly was uh you know,
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it was about the woman that Bill Gates
00:09:12
had an affair with, like the
00:09:13
professional poker player. I think she's
00:09:14
professional poker player that Bill
00:09:15
Gates had an affair with. Um, and
00:09:18
Epstein basically sent Bill Gates an
00:09:20
email being like, "Hey, uh, I think he
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asked for like some type of payment
00:09:26
related to the not for like any sexual
00:09:29
stuff, but like um, just a scholarship,
00:09:32
something like that, just to let Bill
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Gates know he knew about this woman with
00:09:36
whom he had an affair."
00:09:37
Yes. Exactly.
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You can't And you know, you Is it a
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smoking gun? No, because it's not, hey,
00:09:42
I'm blackmailing you. I know you had an
00:09:44
affair. give me money for this or it was
00:09:47
like he had some charitable thing he
00:09:49
wanted money uh quote unquote charitable
00:09:51
thing he wanted Bill Gates to give money
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to. Um and so he's not saying blackmail
00:09:56
this is blackmail unless you give me
00:09:57
this money. Uh he's just saying hey I
00:09:59
know I know
00:10:00
yeah I know about this thing
00:10:02
many such cases.
00:10:03
Yeah
00:10:03
many such cases.
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Yeah. So, uh, and yeah, the part about
00:10:08
the CIA is interesting, too, like cuz
00:10:10
this was a bipartisan thing at the time
00:10:13
that the CIA and whether you're
00:10:16
Republican or Democrat were and it was I
00:10:18
think it was under Reagan that they
00:10:19
caught Pard actually, Jonathan Pard,
00:10:22
this spy, um,
00:10:25
they they were absolutely
00:10:28
uh committed to keeping him behind bars
00:10:31
and not not releasing him. Mhm.
00:10:33
Um and it was when when Obama let him
00:10:36
out in 2015, it was um
00:10:40
like you know it's more like parole like
00:10:41
you're he served like 30 years or
00:10:43
whatever. He served like an enormous
00:10:44
amount of the sentence. Yeah. He's still
00:10:46
very active in politics. He's even t
00:10:48
he's even like floated that he's going
00:10:50
to run for Knesset,
00:10:53
you know, under the Bengavir banner
00:10:55
basically. What the like it's just this
00:10:59
the it is so crazy how many
00:11:03
like you can play six degrees of Monica
00:11:05
Lewinsky with politics at any given
00:11:08
moment or six degrees of like Clinton
00:11:10
Lewinsky scandal at any given moment. I
00:11:12
mean it's just it's it still affects so
00:11:14
many different things in so many ways.
00:11:15
Absolutely wild.
00:11:17
Yeah. Really central moment. Yeah.
00:11:19
Crazy stuff.
00:11:20
Yes indeed.
00:11:21
All right. Next we're going to talk to
00:11:23
Carolyn Feinstein.
00:11:24
That's right. who was the wife of the
00:11:26
guy who made the ice blocker. She worked
00:11:28
for the uh basically the trustee office
00:11:32
inside the Department of Justice
00:11:33
overseeing bank like look basically as a
00:11:36
bankruptcy fraud staffer. Uh and she was
00:11:40
canned by the Department of Justice due
00:11:43
to her connection with her husband's Ice
00:11:45
Blocker app. Let's talk to her about
00:11:47
this.
00:11:48
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