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Again, that's time you will never get back. Save time and money with stamps.com over 4 million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com join them to save up to 90% off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now. Print postage for certified mail, registered mail and packages in seconds. Then schedule a pickup right from your home or office for a limited time. Go to stamps.com and use code Podcast for a free welcome gift. Taxes and fees apply. Really happy to have you here. Today is June 22, which means yesterday was June 21, the summer solstice, which means these are the longest days of the year, the longest days and the shortest nights. And I know it's a coincidence, I know it's unrelated, but can I also tell you that there's like 10 different things to report to you tonight that are all good news stories and I know that is not how we usually lead things off on this show, but there really is a bunch of positive news to tell you. Just thing after thing after thing. Let's start, for example, with the courts. Today a federal judge, a Republican appointed federal judge, tossed out subpoenas that Trump's Justice Department had issued against Minnesota's Democratic Governor Tim Walz and the Minneapolis mayor. Also Democrat Jacob Fry and Minnesota's Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison and a whole bunch of other Minnesota officials. This goes back to Trump's big federal attack on Minnesota this winter with those thousands of federal agents in the Twin Cities. In between Trump's agents killing Renee Good and them killing Alex Preddy in the streets of Minneapolis. In between those two killings, Trump's Justice Department got subpoenas to basically raid the offices of of most of the major Democratic officials in the state of Minnesota and in the Twin Cities. Well, today a Republican appointed federal judge shot those down, saying in his ruling that there was, quote, no doubt those subpoenas were issued to, quote, harass Trump's political opponents. The ruling said, quote, on the one hand, the evidence that the challenged subpoenas were issued for unlawful reasons is overwhelming. On the other hand, the judge wrote, the Department of Justice has struggled without success to identify a single plausible investigatory justification for the subpoenas. And so those Trump administration Justice Department subpoenas were thrown out. Another federal judge today shut down Trump's attempt to raid the Social Security Administration and use its data as part of his efforts to mess with the midterm elections this year. The judge in that case ruled today, quote, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote. This court cannot stand idly by while that happens. So Trump is now blocked from using the Social Security Administration using that strategy to try to throw people off the voter rolls. Both that Minnesota ruling, quashing those subpoenas, shoving Trump back there, and the Social Security ruling also shoving Trump. Both of those federal court rulings happen today, as did this. We got news that the so called Alligator Alcatraz immigrant prison in Florida is now closed. They shut it down as of today. This is from the CBS affiliate in Miami. Quote, companies hired by the state of Florida to operate the immigration facility known as Alligator Alcatraz were notified Monday morning, notified this morning to begin a, quote, full demobilization of the facility, which quietly brings an ignominious close to a $1.2 billion experiment that had once been hailed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump as a model other states should pursue. The final few detainees left the facility last week. Federal and state officials at the time said it was due to safety concerns over the start of hurricane season. They even suggested the facility would remain ready to take on new detainees. But none of that is true. Now we know it is closed, closed for good. That performatively cruel moral and practical disaster. They have now had to close it. And as of today, it's gone. Alligator Alcatraz is gone. That news today comes on the heels of the news just a few days ago that the warehouse Trump prison camps they were trying to build all over the country, which would have been some of the biggest prison facilities in the world. That whole string of Trump warehouse prison camps, those are mostly being abandoned by the Trump administration as well. The New York Times reporting that at least seven of the facilities they already bought they paid cash for. They're either going to put those back up for sale or give them away for other government purposes. So the People who fought these facilities, the people who fought having a huge Trump prison camp in their town in Social Circle, Georgia, in Flowery Branch, Georgia, in Roxbury, New Jersey, in Romulus, Michigan, in Berks county and Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in Salt Lake City, Utah, all of the people who fought these Trump prison camps in those places, they have all just learned that the Trump administration is giving up and giving in. They're going to be giving away or selling back these warehouse facilities they bought in all of those places to try to build Trump prison camps. Those camps will not be built. The people who protested to stop those Trump prison camps, they won. Now, that leaves four more sites where they have also published, excuse me, they have also purchased warehouses. And we don't know what they're going to do at those four additional sites. That's the one in Hagerstown, Maryland, two sites in Texas, one in Socorro and one in San Antonio, and another in Surprise, Arizona. We don't know what's going to happen to those four warehouse facilities, even as the other seven are going to be given back or given away. But I will tell you, even in those four places, the fight against these things is still on. In Surprise, Arizona, specifically, you are going to think I'm making this up, but I am not making this up. The people in Surprise, Arizona, who are fighting the potential Trump prison camp they want to put there, those folks are so annoyed with their city council not helping them stop this thing that those local residents are now advancing an effort to literally dissolve the city of Surprise, Arizona, to unincorporate the city specifically, so there won't be a city council anymore, so the city council won't be in their way as they continue to fight the Trump prison camp, and therefore they can fight this thing harder. Even as the Trump administration caves now and gives in and gives up on trying to build most of these things. The few places remaining where they still haven't said that they're going to give back or sell back the warehouses, those places are still fighting. That news comes on the heels of the Trump administration also having to give in and give up on this inexplicable, bizarre plan they had to go down to the bottom of the ocean, the deep sea off the coast of Oregon, Washington State, Alaska, North Carolina, and in between Greenland and Iceland, to go send ships into water thousands feet deep to then retrieve and destroy expensive American deep sea instruments that we have maintained in those deep sea locations for a decade to do complex monitoring of ocean currents and other stuff, stuff that's Important not just for weather, but for fisheries and a lot of really other practical applications. This is a system again that's been in place for a decade. It's been working fine doing what it's supposed to do. It's supposed to last another 25 years. It cost us hundreds of millions of dollars build this system. For some reason, the Trump administration decided they would instead spend millions of your dollars to go out and disable and destroy this system to retrieve the instruments from the deep sea floor, haul them up to the surface and turn them into scrap. Why did they want to do that? I don't know. But they will now not be able to do that because the Senate passed a bipartisan bill blocking them from doing that. And rather than continue to fight to do it, the Trump admin. The administration releasing this statement update on Ocean Observatories initiative. Effective immediately, we will not proceed with further removal or de. Scoping of equipment. Yeah, we will not be doing that anymore. You pushed back. Okay, we won't. Okay, we give in. All these things are happening at once. Did you see what ABC did today as CBS News is humiliating itself, Right? CBS News in a state of total chaos as the billionaire oligarchic owners of CBS try to turn it into Trump tv. And they have thereby screwed up their evening news and they have inexplicably shut down their radio news altogether. And they fired Stephen Colbert when he had the best ratings in the business. And now they are royally screwing up 60 minutes, which is the most successful American news program of all time. They have just been careening from one humiliating disaster to another at Paramount and cbs. Well, today, in contrast, did you see what ABC did? ABC is taking a totally opposite approach. Abc, a big legacy corporate network and news organization, I guess taking a look at how CBS has humiliated and debased and injured itself for Donald Trump. And ABC has decided, you know what? We're not going to do that. Instead, we're going to fight. And crucially, ABC has also made the decision that not only are they going to fight, they're going to ask the public to help them fight. Look at this. Which is airing on ABC nationwide as of today. I had this idea for a show, Different Women, different points of View. The View has welcomed your favorite guests and covered the issues you care about for nearly 30 years. Now the FCC wants to control who is allowed to appear on the show. Viewers, use your voice scan this QR code. You have until July 6th. ABC airing that as of today, asking its viewers to join their fight against Trump, trying to take over the media. They're also airing spots like this one. This is from their local station in New York. They're airing spots like this all over the country, defending all of their local stations from the same kind of Trump administration attack. Every day we commit to inform, entertain and serve you. Now the FCC is questioning our commitment to the community. Show your Support for WABC TV by scanning this QR code today. You have until July 29th to tell the FCC to keep your trusted local station on the air. That's the one that's airing in the New York area, but they're airing spots like that in support of their local stations all over the country. And I know I said at the top that I had a. A litany of good news for you tonight. Obviously, I'm aware that it is bad news that we have an authoritarian president of the United States who is using all the power of the federal government to try to take over the media. So it's run by his friends and shills and it's all propaganda for him. But I gotta say, what ABC did today, what ABC started doing today, this is good news. Because here's a big important network with a big important American news division saying, we're not going to take this lying down. We're going to fight as a network and we want our viewers and the public to know we're fighting. And we are going to ask them to join us in this fight after the disaster we have seen at cbs. What we are seeing here, in contrast from ABC shows a healthy instinct, right? A good sign for a democracy that a big powerful entity like ABC is not just gonna cave like other similar entities have. It is a good sign, and it is good news. Because if there's one thing we know about fighting for your democracy, it's that you will lose every fight you choose not to wage. And when you do choose to fight, sometimes you do win. For example, all this weekend, I just marinated in these images coming out of Georgia from a few days ago as Democrats and black voters in Georgia won as they succeeded in getting Georgia Republicans to back off and abandon their plans to get rid of majority black congressional districts in Georgia. And this is Georgia State Senator Kenya Wicks celebrating that win. That's her with her hand raised there. Georgia Republicans, I mean, they convened this special session of the legislature specifically, and only to take black districts away in Georgia. But then the Georgia State Capitol, filled with people righteously protesting against it and against this, Georgia Republicans lost their nerve. They decided not to do it. They called it Off. And yes, again, I recognize it is terrible that Republicans have rushed to eliminate black districts in, you know, in Tennessee and in Alabama and Louisiana. But you know what? They wanted to do it in Georgia, too. And the people told them no peacefully and loudly, and direct action gets the goods. Shame worked, and they turned it back in Georgia. And that is worth not glossing over. That is worth paying attention to. I mean, to state the obvious, generally speaking, having a bad president is bad for a country, right? I mean, you don't wish that on any country anywhere. Most particularly, you don't wish it on a country that you love. Having somebody at the top of a political pyramid who is corrupt, who is incompetent, who seeks to stay in power even when he loses elections so he can build monuments to himself and basically loot the place. I mean, that's just not good. You. You wouldn't wish that on any country. You certainly would not wish it on your own. That said, what we are learning right now, what we are living through right now, is the fact that when you have a bad president, turns out he's also bad at pursuing the things that he wants for himself. And, you know, if you're up against someone with evil intent, the best you can hope for is that their intent will change. But if you can't get that, the next best thing you can hope for is that there'll be an incompetent buffoon who fails at everything he tries. And in the case of Donald Trump, what we are experiencing right now is his compounding failures, his blustering incompetence and his illiteracy kind of paying off for us as a country. In his failure and incompetence, he is right now lessening his own power, his own sway, even over his own party. And therefore, he is lessening his ability to effectuate more harm to our country. And so the huge prison camps he tried to build for himself will have to be sold back at a loss or given away. And his alligator Alcatraz has been emptied, and now it will be boarded up or bulldozed. And his subpoenas and indictments targeting his critics and his opponents are being thrown out as his failures and his incompetence not only fail to serve, but actively mess with even his own allies in Congress. Miracle of all miracles, now we've got Congress suddenly awake, saving that deep sea ocean monitoring system and passing aid to Ukraine and even passing union rights protections and telling him, no, you can't have your stupid ballroom. And I know it's not to say he's not doing incredible harm. Having a bad president is bad. I mean, here's the aerial view of the damage he's done, not just to the White House. Right. I mean, but to the whole area around the White House. The bulldozing he did for the stupid ballroom, the whole disaster that he has made there. He really has turned the reflecting pool into a disgusting chemistry experiment that now maybe kills ducks. At least three dead as of tonight, with a local animal rescue group saying they're gonna basically conduct autopsies on two of the dead ducks, and they hope to get the results in the next few days. Meanwhile, Trump's having his federal agents arrest anyone who touches the reflecting pool so he can try to blame other people for how much he's messed it up. And we really are gonna have a Fourth of July celebration of the nation's 250th anniversary. That's just gonn. Donald Trump holding a rally for himself in Washington, and he really did just lose a war. I mean, headline tonight in the Wall Street Journal, US Allows Iran to sell oil in dollars for first time in decades. Yeah, we have to, because they beat us in a war, and so now we have to pay them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran won a war against the United States. They retain their missile and drone systems and their nuclear program. They keep their radical theocratic regime in place. They may even get to charge fees for the first time for anybody transiting the Strait of Hormuz. And as of today, they get to start trading oil in dollars for the first time in decades because they won and Trump lost. And so Trump has to pay them, and he's now been forced to release them from sanctions. And so they're released from sanctions for the first time in decades. I mean, before Donald Trump, the United States used to at least be seen as the military power that ensured freedom of navigation all over the world, right in the seas and oceans of the world. Now, Iran, this backwater, supposed regional power, has proven that we can't do even that, even as it cost us all our missiles and interceptors to prove that we couldn't do it. So our deterrence factor, from having the largest and most expensive military in the world, that's kind of kaput. At least we have no allies left in the world. Thanks also to Donald Trump. Having a bad president is bad. We will talk tonight on this show about him bringing more bizarre and inflated criminal charges against people protesting against him. We're gonna talk in just a moment about the Washington Post's new reporting that Trump, in his infinite wisdom, appears to have put a cult member in charge of the nation's entire intelligence apparatus. The sect she belongs to is described by people who've gotten out of it as a secretive authoritarian relig cult. There's now evidence reported by the Washington Post, that her cult leader apparently has been giving her very detailed, very, very specific commands on what exactly to say and what to do as a public official. And she's been doing it to the letter. I mean, none of this is good. None of this is good. But Trump's failure is now obvious, inarguable, and consequential enough, and his behavior is bizarre and indefensible enough that his own power is in free fall. His perceived strength, and therefore his political sway is at a low ebb. I mean, in the last few days of reporting, we've learned that he's reportedly been seen super gluing gold gewgaws to the walls of the Oval Office, personally manning the superglue tube. He also couldn't manage hooking the simple clasp on a Medal of Honor, so he yanked and fiddled and tied the thing onto the man's neck like a shoelace with a bow. This happened at an actual Medal of Honor ceremony that really happened live and in person. I mean, he really has done this to the reflecting pool on the National Mall. And people have responded by declaring that they're Team algae and they're rooting for the green goo to win, even if it means Trump loses. Elected Republicans really have no way to explain away his disastrous loss to Iran. And so they're calling it things like, quote, the worst foreign policy blunder in decades, and saying things like, I think the President is receiving some very poor advice. But the Chicago protesters he tried to prosecute not only got all the charges against them dropped, now the Trump administration is going to have to pay all their legal bills, too. And now, in some of the Trumpiest places in the country, like California's Shasta County, Trump supporters are being voted out of the county government in recalls and primaries and general elections one right after the other. And in Iowa, Trump's gubernatorial candidate lost in the Republican primary. And in Georgia, Trump's gubernatorial candidate lost in the Republican primary. And in Oklahoma, Trump's gubernatorial candidate couldn't get it done and has to go to a runoff. Tonight, the A1 headline in the Washington Post is, democratic turnout is up. Even in Republican districts, Quote, more voters are casting ballots for Democrats compared with the numbers in previous midterms, fueling the party's hope for big wins in November. Right now, the opposition to President Donald Trump is ascendant. And Trump is flailing in ways that are obvious to everyone. He's a laughingstock and his policies are failing and being abandoned and his supporters are fleeing. And did I mention that the opposition to him is ascendant? Yes. The night is still coming and it's still dark. And we'll talk about a lot of that tonight here on this show. But right now, just look around. Be aware of where you are. These dark nights are short and the days are endlessly long right now. Don't waste them. This is the time.

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This message comes from the International Rescue Committee. Here's what you need to know about the crisis in the Middle east and how you can help. In Lebanon alone, violence has forced hundreds of thousands of families from their homes. IRC staff are on the ground delivering critical supplies, but they need to scale up support and quickly. All donations are matched to rush two times the emergency aid. Give now@rescue.org rebuild. You're more than just one thing. You're the boss. Hey Google, what time is my meeting with Tim today? The athlete that class wrecks me, the ringleader. And we're good. And always they're mom everyone in the all new Mazda CX5 more to move every side of you. Learn more at mazdausa.com Google is a trademark of Google LLC. Sequences shortened and simulated. The days are longer, the calendar is filling up and I want to feel as good as this beautiful summer weather. That's why I've been loving groons. It's one daily pack of gummies that covers my greens, vitamins, minerals and even has 6 grams of prebiotic fiber so I don't need to juggle a complicated wellness routine on top of everything else. They taste amazing, they're easy to toss in my bag on the go. Plus they're vegan, gluten free, and HSA FSA eligible for reimbursement. Save up to 52% off with code podcastruns co that's Code Podcastruns co

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Do you want to play the Imagine if Obama did it game for a second? Ask yourself what would have been the reaction if Barack Obama as president had put a person in charge of all the country's intelligence agencies who was a person who was a member of a secretive Hare Krishna offshoot religious sect that is considered by many of its former members to be an abusive cult? Imagine if that's who Barack Obama put in at the office of the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard until this past week, was Donald Trump's Director of National Intelligence. And she has insisted for years that any suggestion that she was somehow enthralled to or controlled by this offshoot Hare Krishna sect she belonged to, whose domineering leader she has called her guru. All those allegations she has insisted were just bigotry against her faith. Well, now, investigative reporter John Swain at the Washington Post has obtained hundreds of secret memos prepared for Gabbard over her years in Congress. Memos put together by members of the alleged cult. Memos that include thousands of pages of really specific directives to her on policy and politics. After careful analysis of thousands of these documents, John Swain determines that these likely came from Gabbard's secretive guru, a man who some former members of his sect have said made his devotees lie prostrate when he entered the room. He had them sprinkle bits of his nail clippings in their food. He had them eat spoonfuls of sand he had walked on. I should say these are allegations that he denies. But now there are these newly uncovered memos. The Washington Post reporting that throughout her nearly decade in Congress, starting in 2013, Tulsi Gabbard seems to have not just taken direction, but essentially dictation from these memos from this alleged cult leader, Mississippi now has not independently confirmed this reporting, but the Washington Post has brought some pretty compelling receipts. For instance, one of These memos in 2014 told Tulsi Gabbard that she should propose specific legislation. You have to excuse my language here for a moment, but this is what the memo said to Tulsi Gabbard. It said, quote, get it started in the morning. You need to be the leader in this regard. Quote, don't dick around. Tulsi Gabbard indeed released a statement on this legislation the very next day. Then a week later, she introduced a bill in the House exactly as she had been instructed to do. Another memo in 2014 instructed Tulsi Gabbard to push for a particular policy on veterans health care, quote, actually put forward legislation. Get it done. When Gabbard then endorsed a policy that was almost exactly what she'd been told to do, but with one slight change. Her guru's top assistant sent her a follow up email saying, quote, he was pissed. Presumably meaning the guru, he was pissed that she didn't do exactly what he had told her to do one month later, indeed, Gabbard introduced legislation fixing that apparent mistake and containing the exact policy her guru had demanded down to the letter. 2015, October 2015. After Gabbard was disinvited from a Democratic presidential debate. One of these memos to her suggested this language for an appearance she was going to make with Wolf Blitzer on cnn. In the memo, she was told to say, quote, it's not a boo hoo. I don't get to go to the party situation, Wolf. That's what she was told to say later on that same day. Indeed, she goes on CNN and this is what she says. The issue here is not about me saying boo hoo. I'm gonna miss the party. Want another one? After the bombing of a hospital In Afghanistan in October 2015, one of these memos to Gabbard contained this talking point, quote, it's a terrible tragedy and it needs to be thoroughly investigated to prevent something like that from happening again. That's all. Say Tulsi Gabbard then went on TV and said, this incident is a terrible tragedy. There's no other way to look at it. It's a terrible tragedy that must be investigated very carefully, objectively and thoroughly to make sure that nothing like this is ever allowed to happen again. That's really all I can say on it. She's literally told to say, that's all I can say. And she says, that's really all I can say. This was another directive sent to one of Tulsi Gabbard's personal email accounts in 2014. Subject line important to do, must tweet around 9am and then the email had a pre written tweet with a link to a video on the plight of Kurdish fighters in Syria. A top aide to Gabbard's guru wrote, quote, every word of the tweet language is approved. She added later that Gabbard should tag senior Obama administration officials in identical follow up posts. Sure enough, Tulsi Gabbard that day posted the approved tweet verbatim and then followed up with posts tagging senior Obama administration officials. Just as she had been specifically instructed. Gabbard then emailed back, quote, sent tweet. This is just a staggering story about Tulsi Gabbard. I mean, while she was in Congress. But among other things, this story might also explain why she just left office very suddenly as Director of National Intelligence. Reporter John Swain at the Washington Post says the news that Gabbard was leaving the DNI job came just two days after he told her office that he would be publishing this story. Most of all, though, I mean, keep the real picture here in mind. Most of all, this is a story about Donald Trump and Republicans, particularly Senate Republicans who did this, who let a nominee with this much baggage be put in charge of our nation's intelligence apparatus? I mean, when it came time to vote on Tulsi Gabbard's appointment to be the Director of national intelligence, 52 out of 53 Republican senators voted yes. And it's not like nobody could see that something like this might have been coming. I mean, there was plenty of reporting about this secretive cult or cult like organization she was part of. It was very obvious. It was a huge red flag for her on national security that she had these known, secretive, unexplained ties to this alleged cult. Well, now we have this reporting from the Washington Post, which appears to indicate that the cult has been dictating her behavior as a public official for years. This is who Donald Trump put in charge of America's intelligence agencies. Joining us now is John Swain, investigative reporter at The Washington Post. Mr. Swain, thank you very much for being here and being willing to talk to us about this. I really appreciate it.

C

Thanks.

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Let me just ask you if I got any of that wrong or if I got any of it the wrong way around or missed something important that I should have emphasized.

C

I think the most important thing to emphasize here is Chris Butler, the guru has been known for years to demand secrecy and obedience from his flock. And in keeping with that, these documents that I got hold of are strange in a way because they are unattributed. There's no label as to who's talking. No one says who's talking in the emails. When they are sent round this circle around Tulsi Gabbard, there are occasional references to he or him or someone in charge. And so this piece that we published goes through that, the process of us trying to work out is this Butler. Can we prove that it's Butler? Our source of these documents, a former Science of Identity foundation member who was a recipient of them and was working with this inner circle, is adamant that they are Butler. No one else could talk to Gabbard this way. She says the group disputes this. And they say that an advisor who is an associate of both Butler and Gabbard was behind some of them and her father was behind some of them. We found evidence that sort of just doesn't seem to match that. But I should stress, yes, that the group disputes that Butler is behind them. There is, however, a big weight of evidence that it's him.

B

Let me ask you about another element of your reporting which I haven't yet described, and that was what you appeared to have discovered that was like a network of fake social media accounts that also seems to have been controlled by the same cult like group, the same religious sect. This network was used to promote Tulsi Gabbard online and to specifically to push back on her critics. You seem to have found that that network at least, which again appears to be operated by the same group, is still active now even as she leaves the DNI job.

C

That's right. This is really the second half of the story. There's the political guidance and directives in these memos that appear to have been followed by Tulsi Gabbard. And then there was this, some call it astroturf social media campaign in which devotees of Chris Butler, in a very organized way that had monitoring shifts to watch the Internet for any mentions of Tulsi Gabbard. They had people assigned to respond to various newspaper websites, to Twitter, Reddit and other social media, basically championing Tulsi Gabbard and responding to her critics by saying, Tulsi's a warrior for peace. Tulsi has your interests at heart. Tulsi this and Tulsi that. And we see in these documents, I got hold of that. Again, someone in charge is calling the shots and sometimes dictating what comments they should be posting, sometimes raging at Gabbard herself for not being quick enough to get rid of critical comments on her Facebook page. Again, this person isn't named, but again, there are passing references deep within these thousands of documents to he, him and the nickname S, which is a nickname used by Butler within the group. And yes, as you said, this side of it, we have more sign or more sign that it's continued to the present day. In the recent weeks, when she announced that she was leaving the job of dni, accounts that our documents show were controlled by Science of Identity foundation members were posting very similar comments about how Tulsi is a patriot. She'll be missed. They did the same earlier this year when she was under pressure because of a whistleblower complaint. And so these accounts we have have chat logs of people in the group saying, this is me. They use different names. Sometimes they use very detailed legends about where they worked, where they were educated to give this sort of false sense of a groundswell of support for Tulsi Gabbard online.

B

It's remarkable reporting. It is the closest thing we've ever seen to a Manchurian Candidate type news story in American politics as opposed to just dystopian fiction. John Swain, I know this was very painstaking reporting that took a really long time. I commend you. I commend the Washington Post for having let you work on this story to the extent that you did and published such a long piece explaining your methodology. Thank you for helping us understand it. It's really, really important work.

C

Thanks for having me.

B

All right, more news ahead here tonight. Stay with us.

A

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Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end.

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This is very strange, Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com for seven months, felony charges loomed over the lives of these six people. Six people had been arrested in Illinois. Federal prosecutors had accused them of conspiracy in connection with a protest outside an ICE facility outside Chicago in Broadview, Illinois. People were calling them the Broadview Six, these six defendants. But then, seven months into that ordeal, the Trump administration's DOJ dropped the case. The judge demanded the grand jury transcripts. The transcripts showed obvious misconduct by the federal prosecutors in the case. And so the charges were dropped. The Broadview Six, those six defendants are now free of those looming charges. They're free of the case. They're actually asking the court to order a federal investigation of the prosecutor's office. And now we know the Trump administration is definitely going to have to pay their legal fees. The Justice Department isn't even contesting their demand that the government pay for the defense they had to mount against this benighted case that both went on forever and got absolutely nowhere. Well, Today that same U.S. attorney's office dropped yet another case. This time it was an arson case that dated back to 2018. And they had to drop it for the same reason because of more alleged wrongdoing by the U.S. attorney's office in the grand jury process.

C

Process.

B

The defense attorney in that case described the scale of the problem in Chicago's U.S. attorney's office by saying he felt like Chief Brody from jaws. He said, quote, we underestimated the problem. Now we're going to need a bigger boat. The misadventures for Trump's DOJ continued last week in Minnesota, where the U.S. attorney's office there also had to drop charges against a local man who'd been accused of assaulting federal officers. His name is Paul Johnson and he'd been following ICE vehicles back in January when Trump had launched that federal assault on the Twin Cities. He was surrounded by Trump's agents, forcibly removed from his van and beaten up. Johnson says the agents manufactured a pretext for his arrest. They assaulted him. Then, he says they kept him shackled to a hospital bed, incommunicado. They would not let him call either his wife or a lawyer or anyone else else. After the New York Times started looking into his case and they called DOJ for comment, last week, the department suddenly decided they wanted to dismiss the charges altogether. Although the department insists that timing was purely coincidental. Mr. Johnson's case joins the many, many federal prosecutions that have been begun but then dropped against protesters in Chicago, in la, in Minneapolis, all over the place. Well, now federal prosecutors are trying again with one of their biggest swings yet. This time they're trying to charge 15 people in Minnesota with conspiracy and assault, among other charges in an alleged antifa plot. Antifa stands for anti fascist, which frankly should be a badge of honor for any proud American, let alone a, let alone not a terrorist designation by this administration. DOJ officials have filed a 94 page indictment that includes damning details like one of the defendants possessing a bullhorn or another affiliating with the Democratic Socialists of America, or another wearing a sweatshirt that said on it, quote, I'm antifa. Last week, the newly accused defendants made their initial appearance in court. Protesters supporting them gathered outside. One local minister told Minnesota Public Radio, quote, it's scary to know that the federal government is turning on its own people, but it's not a reason to not show up. When we stop showing up, it's just going to happen more and more to more and more of us, and we need to share that risk. We're going to hear from a defense attorney in that case in just a moment. Stay with us. He says, quote, this is the type of stuff that gets prosecuted as misdemeanors in state court, not as federal felonies with a coordinated propaganda show by the U.S. attorney. Quote, this is not about law enforcement. This is an act of political repression. It's designed to punish and intimidate. The statements are from defense attorney Bruce Nestor, who is representing one of the 15 people now charged by Trump administration prosecutors in a new federal case in Minneapolis that accuses them of conspiracy and assault, among other things, for protesting against ICE during the surge of immigration agents this winter in the Twin Cities. Again and again, we've seen the Trump administration bring inflated, if not insane, federal charges against protesters and critics of the president, only to see them collapse in court. This new case in Minneapolis appears to be one of their biggest swings yet along those lines. Joining us now is defense attorney Bruce Nestor. Mr. Nestor, thanks very much for being with us tonight. I appreciate it.

D

Good evening. Thank you.

B

You have described these charges as an act of political retribution. You've described them as thought crimes. Can you help me understand what you mean by that in this case?

D

The new charges this week are really just the latest chapter in the Trump administration's attempt to intimidate, harass, and coerce anybody that disagrees with them into stopping their activism or staying silent. These charges are based upon, are brought against members of our community who are out helping their neighbors, along with thousands of other Minnesotans over the past six months. It's just the latest chapter. I say what we saw today was the chief judge for the district federal district court in Minnesota quashed subpoenas that were issued against the governor, the attorney general, and the mayors, finding that they were brought as part of a campaign of political retribution. You have to understand this federal district judge is someone who clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, a member of the Federalist Society. And in very clear terms, he talked about how the actions of the administration and the Department of Justice have repeatedly been targeting individuals without a legal basis and for the purpose, frankly, of political repression.

B

You know, whether or not they're able to prove these charges, whether or not they're able to get anywhere in court, being charged with a federal felony, having to Defend yourself both legally and publicly financing all of that. I think we all know that's pretty much a punishment in and of itself. How is your client doing along those lines? How are the co defendants doing along those lines?

D

I mean, people range from absolutely terrified to wanting to, you know, push back and fight back and organize right away. But I, it really is the process, the need to raise money to defend yourself, the doxing that occurs, the fact that many of these people have been organizing, doing labor organizing, putting on music shows, teaching with each other for years and are now have a court order that they can't communicate with each other during the course of their case as one of their conditions of pretrial release. So it's really difficult for our clients. What they know, though, is that they enjoy tremendous support from the community. And frankly, around the country, we've had calls coming in from labor unions, other organizations, other activists targeted in the Twin Cities, people who know that they're going to bethat the Trump administration's going to go after them for registering voters the same way they just did in Ohio. They're standing up and we have tremendous support. And with that, I'm confident that my client, all 15 of these defendants, are going to stand together and push back against these charges.

B

Bruce Nestor, lawyer from one of the defendants in this case in Minnesota, thank you very much for your time tonight. I know that you've got a lot of work ahead of you and this may take a long time. We'd love to have you back and stay apprised of how things are going. Sir. Thank you.

D

Thank you.

B

All right, we'll be right back. Stay with us. All right, that's going to do it for me for now. But I will see you Thursday night in Philadelphia at our big live event. I'm going to be talking with Sherrilyn Ifill at the big we the People America 250 event that we're doing in Philly. Jen Psaki is going to be there. Ali Velshi is going to be there. I'm going to be there. A whole bunch of us. I am told that there are just a few tickets left for that event Thursday night in Philly. If you want to come out, I think you could still get tickets. If so, you can do so by using that QR code on your screen. I would love to see you there.

C

Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires. I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end.

B

This is very strange. Angie the one you trust Define the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com.