Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-07-31 Friday

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

Democracy Now! Friday, July 31, 2026

From New York, this is Democracy Now. We are not moving forward with the fund, period. The reasons for the fund, I think, remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche pledged to senators that the nearly $1.8 billion slush fund for Trump allies is dead. But he refuses to put it in right. Two Republican senators say they won't vote to advance his nomination until he does.

President Trump says he may withdraw the nomination. We'll be joined by California Congress Member Rokana on Blanche's record on the fund on Epstein survivors, his new bill, his detention by Israeli settlers, and more. Then a new investigation into domestic violence allegations against a sitting member of Congress. Congressman Max Miller faces allegations that he shoved his ex-wife, Emily Marino, that he held a gun to her head, that he threw scolding hot water at her. I came across her allegations in a police report investigating potential child abuse when their two-year-old broke her collarbone. Assault, misogyny, verbal threats, records detail new allegations against Representative Max Miller. That's the headline of the new Mother Jones piece.

We'll speak to the reporter. Then 36 Ecuadoran fishermen survived bombing at sea and say they were tortured by U.S. forces. At 1.30 in the morning, the guys started seeing drones approaching the ship, some from the bow and others from the stern. Then someone said to me, Captain, the drones are coming. It wasn't long before the explosion happened right there in the back. The Ecuador and prosecutor investigating the allegations against the U.S. was assassinated last month.

We'll speak to an investigative reporter in Ecuador who's received death threats for covering the case. And finally, a correction. A quote attributed to Naomi Klein and Sam Altman recently went viral online. We quoted it on Democracy Now. The problem, it was AI. Naomi Klein will join. Join us. All that and more coming out.

Welcome to Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the war and peace report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump announced Hamas and other armed groups have agreed to a roadmap to disarm. On Thursday, Trump wrote, quote, today the Board of peace reached a historic agreement for the complete disarmament of Hamas and all other armed groups in Gaza, unquote. As part of the deal, Trump said that Israel will also gradually withdraw from Gaza, but Israel has not publicly said its agreed to the plan. Meanwhile, Hamas officials said any weapon handover would only occur after Israel withdraws its forces, ceases its attacks, and allows humanitarian aid into the enclave. Displace residents in Gaza expressed doubt Israel would withdraw its troops.

I call on Mr. Trump, the president of the United States, to pressure Israel to withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip so that we can live a dignified life and return to our homes. and also in the reconstruction to speed up the reconstruction for the people, because we have been suffering for three years. We are living in tents. Israel's killed more than 1,200 people in Gaza since the so-called ceasefire went into effect 10 months ago. Earlier this week, Doctors Without Borders said, quote, this is not a ceasefire.

It's a continuation of the genocide calibrated to be violent enough to keep Palestinians suffering every day. yet silent enough to avoid stirring international outrage, Dr. South Borders said. On Capitol Hill, the Senate's voted down a war powers resolution to limit President Trump's authority to wage war against Iran. The vote was 50 to 49. Democratic Senator John Federman in Pennsylvania voted with Republicans to defeat the measure. Three Republicans joined the Democrats. Saudi Arabia is forming a new military alliance with 13 other countries to protect shipping in the Red Sea. This comes after Houthi forces in Yemen have targeted Saudi vessels in the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Iran's denied involvement in the recent drone attack

on Egypt's Damietta port. Iranian foreign minister of Basarachi said Israel might have carried out a false flag operation aiming to undermine regional peace. In business news, oil firms are reporting their highest quarterly profits in years due to rising gas prices caused by the the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran. Over the past three months, ExxonMobil made over $14.5 billion. Chevron made $12 billion, and Shell made nearly $10 billion. President Trump said Thursday he may temporarily withdraws nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General after two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis

of North Carolina, demanded Blanche provide written modifications to the controversial settlement reached between Trump and the IRS over Trump's unprecedented lawsuit against the agency. One part of the settlement gave Trump and his family and businesses brought immunity from IRS audits, potentially saving the family $100 million in penalties. The settlement also created a nearly $1.8 billion fund for Trump allies, including January 6th insurrectionists. Blanche has said the fund will not be formed, but has not put that in writing. Trump wrote, quote, I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name if they do not do the right thing and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office, Trump wrote. Parts of Europe are in the midst of another heat wave while firefighters battle blazes across the continent, including in France, Spain, Greece, Britain, and Germany.

Three firefighters died in Greece on Tuesday. The Guardian reports new figures show more than one million acres of land of burned this year, more than triple the recent historical average, a new report in Scientific Reports Journal has found climate change has sparked a, quote, major intensification, unquote, of fires. In Britain, a large fire broke out in Suffolk, just miles from a nuclear power station. This is Jude Bailey, who is forced to evacuate due to the fires. The devastation of this area, which is her natural beauty, and the wildlife is just awful. And I understand. that this area may take after this fire is decades to recover. And this is obviously going to be repeating a cycle with climate change the way it is.

In news from North Africa, at least 18 migrants drowned while trying to cross from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Sita. On Thursday, as many as 49,900 migrants, nearly 50,000 migrants cross that border by land or sea. Tuta is located on the North African coast and shares a five-mile border with Morocco in response to the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants, Spain's deployed military units to the area. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is expected to visit the enclave today as humanitarian groups have widely condemned Spain's lethal border crackdown on migrants in the region. In other news from Morocco, President Trump has thanked. Morocco's king for naming a 650-mile highway after President Trump.

Much of the highway runs along the coast of Western Sahara, which has been occupied by Morocco since 1975. Six years ago, Trump recognized Morocco's unilateral annexation of Western Sahara, making the United States the first country to do so. The U.S. State Department's apologized after the agency displayed a widely inaccurate map of Africa at a major AIDS conference. The map showed Nigeria to be a landlocked nation in the Sahara Desert. Mozambique was moved to the Horn of Africa, Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon, appeared on the other side of the continent.

Uganda and Malawi were also misplaced. Reuters reports the map was likely made using open AI technology. In sports news, opposition is growing to a proposal by FIFA president, Johnny Infantino, to sell stakes in the World Cup to a private equity group run by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Jared Kushner, whose President Trump's son-in-law. On Thursday, European Soccer Associations agreed to boycott the World Cup and other FIFA competitions if the deal goes through. Earlier today, a top FIFA advisor resigned in protest over the proposal. The FIFA plan is being pushed by Infantino, who is a close friend

of Donald Trump. Last year in Fantina created a new award, the FIFA Peace Prize, and gave it to President Trump. In Georgia, the father of an accused school shooter, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for giving his teenage son an AR-15-style rifle as a Christmas gift. Colin Gray was sentenced Thursday after being convicted of second-degree murder. Colin Gray's son, who was 14 at the time, is accused of using the gun to kill two students and two teachers at a high school in when you, Georgia in 2024. Prosecutors accused the father of ignoring his son's emotional problems, including his obsession with school shooters. In Britain, police arrested 117 protesters who'd gathered outside a London court to show support for Palestine action. Last year, the British

government declared the group to be a terrorist organization, making support for the group punishable by up to 14 years in prison. A victory for Palestine action. A victory for Palestine action. Britain's Supreme Court ruled Palestine Actions co-founder could challenge the ban against the group at the UK's highest court. And in Washington, Senator Chuck Schumer spoke at the National Press Club Thursday at an event focused on corruption. Journalist Sam Husani interrupted Schumer's remarks and called him a genocidal maniac for supporting Israel. You are put on notice and you back and you back to genocide for years on end. How dare you Paul of the talk about corruption.

How dare you talk about corruption? Thank you for your diatribe. Now, let's continue. Let's continue and let the people the people didn't come to hear you. You should be questioned about your diabolical record. It's amazing that you can show your genocidal face in public. Mr. Senator, Mr. Senator.

And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan. Hi, Amy, and welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world. President Trump said Thursday, he may temporarily withdraw his nomination of Todd Blanche for Attorney General. after two Republican senators, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Tillis of North Carolina, said they will not vote to advance Blanche's confirmation until they receive written assurances that he would limit some of the terms and the controversial deal reached between the Department of Justice and President Trump to settle his personal lawsuit against the IRS. Senators Cornyn and Tillis, who are both in their last months in the Senate, are seeking written assurances from Blanche that the Justice Department will not create the nearly $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund that could be used to provide payouts to Trump's allies, including January 6th insurrectionists.

The senators also want to scale back the agreement in the deal to exempt President Trump, his businesses, and his family. from future government audits. The deal could be worth $100 million in saved IRS penalties. Acting Attorney General Blanche, who used to be Trump's personal defense lawyer, has so far refused to make those commitments in writing. President Trump said on social media,

quote, I have no objection to temporarily withdrawing Todd's name if they do not do the right thing and putting him back after Cornyn and Tillis are out of office, unquote. Trump also took credit for ending the senator's political careers and said Blanche would remain acting attorney general regardless. Senator Cornyn responded online saying, quote, POTUS is mistaken. If he believes concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis, unquote. Senator Tillis had also made his vote condition on Blanche meeting with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. Following that meeting, more than two dozen survivors signed an open letter to the senators,

urging them not to vote for Blanche, characterizing his attitude at the meeting as, quote, an hour of deflection, interruption, and gaslighting, unquote. For more, we're joined by California Congressmember Roe Kana, joining us today from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Congressman Kana, thank you so much for being with us. First, if you can explain to everyone, what exactly is going on. You have Blanche in the Senate hearing, confirmation hearing, saying that the deal, the nearly $1.8 billion deal is dead, but refusing to put it in writing. And then also that other part of the deal, which would grant immunity to Trump, his allies, his family, his businesses. Can you explain what he's refusing to do right now? Well, he's refusing to make a clear,

commitment that American tax dollars aren't going to go to the rioters of January 6th. He's refusing to make a clear commitment that Trump's family could still be held liable for violating financial laws. And basically, these senators are saying you can't have two tiers of justice in America, make a commitment that you would hold Trump's family accountable. We know the Supreme Court has held that Donald Trump is immune. That doesn't mean that his family is immune, and they certainly aren't immune from liability on breaking tax law or financial loss. And Congressman, the president's made it clear that Blanche would continue as acting attorney general. What are your concerns about his tenure with the DOJ so far?

He has been the biggest obstacle to justice for Epstein survivors. He is in blatant violation of the law that Thomas Massey and I passed, the Epstein Files Transparency Act. He still has not released 3 million of those files, even though a federal judge has found that he is in violation of the act. And he has not undertaken a single investigation or prosecution of the men accused of sexual abuse, rape, and sexual trafficking. All over the world we have seen based on Mansy and. my law, former princes prosecuted, former prime ministers prosecuted, former ambassadors prosecuted. The survivors have given him name, saying desperately, please investigate these men, and yet he has not opened a single investigation.

And you've introduced Epstein Filed Transparency Act 2 into Congress. What would that bill do if it was passed? That would give state attorney generals the ability to prosecute these welfare. and powerful men who committed sexual abuse. It would allow them access to the files to build their cases and prosecute. And it would give survivors the opportunity to sue in federal court to get the files. In some cases, survivors do not know the details of what happened to them because their memory is faded and they still have not been able to get the files that the law requires to be released. One of the witnesses called by Democrats in the Senate Judiciary hearing earlier this month

on the nomination of Todd Blanche to be Attorney General was Danny Benski, a survivor of Epstein's abuse, who testified on the handling of the Epstein files under Todd Blanche. In that first release, I found my name in two pleases. In that next release in January, my name appeared again, but this time the reductions were so far worse. The files displayed not only my name, but my phone number, my former addresses, where I worked, and other identifying information. When my name appeared in the file, third file release, it became difficult to believe that this was not intentional. Despite my lawyer, repeatedly contacting the DOJ, seeking protection, my information continued to be exposed. And it's not just

my name. It's the identifying information. These documents contain disturbing, yet incomplete accounts of my abuse. They were available not only for the entire world to see, but my child, my students, my friends, my employers, my colleagues, and my family. It was humiliating. Worse, my FBI 302 exposed a Jane Doe, who had fought for decades to conceal her identity. It's been absolutely devastating. Outing survivors causes real and irrevocable harm. That's Epstein sexual assault survivor, Danny Vensky.

Congress member Rokane, I want to. I wanted to move on to the bill that you've just introduced with Florida Republican Congress member Luna. It's related. It is not the same thing. Can you explain? There have been serious sexual assault, sexual harassment allegations against elected officials and some campaigning for the House and the Senate. Representative Luna and I teamed up to say that a elected official or a candidate, cannot use their campaign funds to smear survivors, to smear victims, or to use it for their own legal defense against sexual assault and sexual harassment allegations. Any individual is entitled to their defense, they can use their own money.

They should not be using donor money to do that. And Congressman, in terms of other assault allegations, should the House Ethics Committee investigate Republican Congress member Max Miller? of Ohio over allegations that he assaulted his wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of the senator from Ohio, Benny Moreno? Yes, but it also probably should be a broader investigation. I mean, domestic violence is a criminal matter. It's not just a ethics matter. And I frankly don't understand how he's still in the House of Representatives. I mean, I had called for Swalwall and Gonzalez to resign when

serious allegations came up, and he shouldn't be in that. House of Representatives. And absolutely, there needs to be an ethics investigation, but there also needs to be a broader investigation. There should be zero tolerance for domestic violence or sexual assault in this country. And in a moment, we're going to talk with a mother Jones reporter who just published an important expasse on Congress member Max Miller. But as we begin to wrap up, I wanted to ask you, Congress member, Kana, earlier this month, nearly half, Half of all House Democrats voted to support a measure slashing military funding to Israel. 103 House Democrats voted to eliminate $3.3 billion in annual U.S. military assistance to Israel.

98 Democrats voted to preserve the funding, 10 abstained by voting present. The measure was ultimately defeated by House Republicans, along with the Democratic Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffreys, and the caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, who vowed to continue funding Israel. If you can talk about the significance of this vote, more than half the voting Democrats voted to end the military aid to Israel. But start off by talking about your experience in the West Bank earlier this month when you were detained by armed settlers who were then joined by four Israeli soldiers. I had gone to the West Bank to see the West Bank from the eyes of Palestinians.

I informed the American embassy and the Israeli embassy that I wanted to tour of the Palestinian West Bank from a perspective of Palestinian families, Palestinian guides. And I was in East Hebron, the Palestinian area, where I saw violent settlers who threw rocks and rotten tomatoes and acid and urine of the Palestinian shopkeepers. I was in Umalcare where I saw a family who had been violently attacked their home by settlers. And we were detained when we were at the Zunada village that was destroyed by Yanon Levy, who has also murdered a Palestinian in cold blood, Ottawa, a one-year anniversary. We were detained by his hoodlums. They parked their car in front of our van, not letting us go. They wanted to take our phones because we were recording what happened in Zunada. The IDF came, and they initially took the side of the extremist settlers.

And we had to call the American embassy, who got the Israeli police to let us out. But we were there almost 75 minutes. But all of this just shows the brutal apartheid occupation of the West Bank. It shows that we need a Palestinian state. It shows that we should not be giving a dime. to the Israeli government. It shows that we need to have accountability for the genocide in Gaza,

and we should not be providing them with military weapons that they're being used to kill Palestinians and, in my case, to detain American citizens. And Congressman, could you talk about the impact of this growing divide within the Democratic Party over U.S. policy toward Israel and what your hope is for what the party

will do in the future? I don't believe it's a divide among the voters. There's just some of the old-school politicians who haven't caught up. I've been all over Pennsylvania talking about bringing big manufacturing and new economic jobs. And at every stop, even in rural communities, I get asked, why are we giving aid to Israel? What are we doing to change our foreign policy? The next American president should recognize a Palestinian state. We should put a council in East Jerusalem and embassy in Ramallah. We should make it clear that we do not give aid to Israel. We should stop military sales that are being used to kill Palestinians. This is the emerging consensus, not just among Democrats. It also is the emerging consensus among independents and

Republicans under 50. We need to have a moral, foreign policy again. We need to be, as FDR said, good neighbors, voices for self-determination of people, voices for human rights, a friend to the world. And people understand that our foreign policy has betrayed our ideals. Congressmember O'Connor, Democratic Congress member from California, member of the House Committee and Oversight and Government for Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, joining us from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Coming up, assault, misogyny, verbal threats, Details detail new allegations against Congressmember Max Miller. That's the headline of a new Mother Jones piece.

We'll speak to the reporter. Oh, the water in the stream flowing through the centuries, through the canyons, through the trees. This be dear to me. And the breezes as they blow From cross the seas through your window Where they come from where they go This be dear to me Oh this be dear to me

This is what's worth fighting For the desert vast and white This be dear to me by American folk singer David Berkeley This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Democrats are calling for an ethics investigation into Republican Congressmember Max Miller of Ohio, who's facing allegations of domestic abuse as he runs for re-election. Miller's ex-wife, Emily Moreno, who is the daughter of Ohio's sitting Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, claims Miller burned her chest and stomach by throwing hot water at her, held a gun to her head,

and claims he fractured their two-year-old daughter's collarbone. A child protection specialist reviewing their daughter's February injury, found bruising resembling a handprint, and an investigative report says Moreno recounted her child saying, Daddy's house is scary, unquote. A court document quotes the daughter telling her mother, daddy, kill you. Mother Jones obtained some 2,000 pages of court filings and police reports pertaining to Miller through public records requests. Those records also include allegations dating back to high school. Politico had earlier reported Miller pushed a girl down a flight of stairs after he became enraged that she rejected his advances. Three people who are present corroborated the claim.

Congressmember Miller is also facing a defamation lawsuit from former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham, who alleges Miller abused her during their relationship before she married Emily Moreno. In 2021, Grisham wrote a Washington Post essay headlined, I told the Trump's my relationship with the White House staffer had turned abusive. they didn't seem to care, unquote. Miller reportedly pushed Grisham against a wall, slapped her in the face after she confronted him about alleged cheating. President Trump later endorsed Miller,

despite Grisham having raised her concerns with him directly. For more, we're joined in Washington, D.C. by Abby Vasulis, a national politics reporter at Mother Jones. Her recent article headlined, assault misogyny verbal threats, records detail new allegations against Rep Max Miller. And her latest piece is titled Democrats Call for Ethics Investigation into Congressman Max Miller. Abby Vassoulis, welcome to Democracy Now. Just lay out all that's known at this point about a sitting Congress member, Max Miller,

who's also the ex-son-in-law of the sitting Ohio senator, Bernie Moreno. Right. So Congressman Max Miller was married to Emily Moreno until 2024 when they got a divorce. And filing through their divorce paperwork and their child custody paperwork, Emily Moreno accused Congressman Miller of multiple things that you mentioned, shoving her against a wall, throwing hot water at her chest, holding a gun to her head. And also there are two-year-old. old child broke their collarbone. And that was investigated by DCFS. And while that investigation was ultimately unsubstantiated, meaning they couldn't prove abuse or neglect took place, Emily Moreno in her interviews with police, said that she couldn't rule out that Congressman Miller broke their daughter's collarbone because he had done these things to her. And Abby, you also know that the Filings also include evidence that Miller implicitly threatened his ex-father-in-law, Senator Moreno.

Could you talk about that as well? Yeah, of course. So in the legal filings over their custody disagreement, Emily Moreno filed for a civil protection order. And citing text messages from Congressman Miller, she included a screenshot in the filings of Senator of Congressman Miller saying something like, you better keep your lying daughter under control or everybody's going to find out more about you than your wife does. So to me, that seems like an implicit threat

that if Senator Marino could not rein his daughter in, that Congressman Miller was going to leak information about Senator Marino. And, you know, I tried reaching out to Senator Marino's office. They did not want to provide comment. Congressman Miller, through spokespeople, repeatedly declined request for comment and declined answering very detailed questions. But reading the text message about you better keep your lying daughter under control seemed like an implicit threat to me. Abby Basoulis, yesterday Emily Marino filed a new restraining order against Congress member Max Miller, her ex-husband. If you can talk about this and then talk about what we know about Stephanie.

Grycham, who said he violently attacked her. Right. So throughout my reporting, it was clear that the allegations weren't just coming from Emily Moreno. There is an established pattern of multiple women claiming that they were abused by Congressman Max Miller. You have Stephanie Grisham, who dated Miller when they were both working under the first Trump administration.

when she published a book excerpt about her novel, or sorry, her memoir about working in the Trump administration, she mentioned that she had been in a relationship with somebody that pushed her against a wall, slapped her. She published a book excerpt in the Washington Post. This is back in, I want to say, 2022. And Max Miller sued her for defamation. Now, the two of them came to a private settlement agreement, and Congressman Miller withdrew his lawsuit against her. Now, while the settlement agreement was private, it seems that their agreement was that neither could, you know, disparage the other in public.

But now, Congressman Miller, in trying to protect his reputation as he faces these claims of domestic violence from Emily Moreno, is bringing back up. things about Stephanie. And he published a recording of Emily Marino in which she says that, you know, I'm sorry Stephanie did to you what she did to you. Max Miller said on social media that he thinks that is proof that he did not hurt Stephanie Grisham. Now, Stephanie says that, number one, that's not proof that he didn't hurt her. It's just saying that Emily is sorry that what happened happened. But moreover, by posting that audio and making that kind of conclusion in public that Congressman Miller is violating the terms of their private settlement agreement. So now she is suing Congressman Miller about dragging her back into the public sphere over

this issue that was supposed to be settled. And meanwhile, as all of this information comes out, what's been the reaction of Republicans in Congress to these very serious allegations? Will any investigations happen? So Democrats, including the Democratic Women's Caucus, have called for a House ethics investigation. Importantly, we haven't heard anything from Republicans, including Senator Bernie Moreno, whose daughter is at the center of all this. he's told other outlets that this is a private matter, that he won't litigate things in the media, but of course he wants to protect his daughter and granddaughter, the granddaughter who suffered a broken collarbone.

So we haven't heard anything from Republicans. I also reached out to the House Ethics Committee. It's a bipartisan committee. I reached out to their bipartisan staff director who decided not to comment. So we don't know the status of whether an investigation is actually starting. We just know that Democrats have begun calling for one. And finally, the record, in one minute, if you can talk about from the allegation of pushing a girl down the scares in high school, and then one interaction with law enforcement after another, also property violence, sort of uncontrollable violence.

Yeah, so like I said, this is a pattern of allegations. There was an event in high school, an alleged event in high school in which Congressman Miller pushed a woman down the stairs. That was reported on by Politico in 2021, and three women or three people told Politico that they were there and they can confirm that that happened. I reached out to that woman, and while she understandably did not want to talk to the media about what she went through all those years ago, she told me that. that it remains one of the most traumatizing nights of her life. That incident was mentioned in the court filings that I was flipping through, as was another incident that Emily Moreno alleged that Congressman Miller had another violent incident involving a woman in college.

And again, I asked Congressman Miller about this, and he declined to answer my questions. In court documents, he objected to the question rather than affirming it happened or denying it happened. But this is also just another one of the allegations he faces. He had multiple encounters with law enforcement when he was in his early 20s in late 10 years, punching his hand through a glass window. He cut his wrist so bad he required surgery. There was another incident in which a police report says he punched a guy in the back of the head and then ran from police. Most of those incidents seem to he pleaded them down thanks to first-time offender programs, but those remain on his record as there were police encounters.

We want to thank you for being with us, Abby Vassoulis. We're going to link to your articles in Mother Jones, including assault, misogyny, verbal threats, records detail new allegations against Rep Max Miller and Democrats call for ethics investigation into Congress. Max Miller. Again, this is the investigation they're calling for into the sitting Ohio. Congress Member Max Miller, the ex-son-in-law of the sitting Ohio senator Bernie Moreno. Next up, we go to Ecuador where 36 fishermen say they survived U.S. bombing and were tortured then by U.S. forces. The investigating prosecutor was then murdered last month, this month, in Ecuador. Stay with us. I can be your

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Democracy Now studio. This is DemocracyNow, DemocracyNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.

We turn out to Ecuador where the recent killing of a prosecutor who was investigating

reports of tort by the survivors of U.S. strikes on three separate Ecuadoran fishing vessels has sparked intensifying calls for an independent probe into the Trump administration's military campaign in the region. Ecuadoran prosecutor, Alexandra Bravo, and her sister, were fatally shot June 14th by a hitman on a black motorcycle who opened fire on Bravo in the city of Manta, Ecuador. Bravo had been investigating U.S. strikes on three Ecuadoran boats in which 36 on board survived, many of them recounting alleged torture by U.S. gunmen in U.S. military uniforms aboard a U.S.

flagged patrol ship. In March, two of the fishing vessels came under attack in the eastern Pacific. A third boat disappeared January 20th, along with eight of its crew members. Captain Arnan Flores was fishing with his crew about 170 miles off the coast of Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, March 17th, when an unmanned drone crashed into the cabin of his boat, known as La Negra Francisco, exploding into flames. After being taken by alleged U.S. armed forces, Flores and his crew were then turned over to authorities in El Salvador. In this clip, shared with Democracy Now, Flores describes the day as fishing boat was attacked by drones. over our heads, but through the hoods there were some visibility, very faint.

I could just make out their beards. They had beards, white or yellowish, and their hair was combed back. They were speaking English, which we didn't understand, but there was one person who translated into Spanish. They made a mistake because if we had been carrying anything illicit, they would have found something, but they never found anything. Captain from El Salvador were actually surprised. He kept asking for proof of something, but they never provided any.

They simply said we were shipwrecked. That was Ernon Flores, captain of the Ecuador and fishing vessel known as La Negada Francisco. U.S. boat strikes across the Caribbean Eastern Pacific have killed at least 221 people since September. The Trump administrations provided no evidence linking the vessels or any of the passengers to drug trafficking. This all comes as a new report by Human Rights Watch raises alarm over abuses on civilians as part of a joint U.S. Ecuador military campaign under the government of the right-wing Ecuador and President Danielle Naboa. For more, we're joined by two guests. Camilla Lourdes-Galarza is an investigative journalist and labor organizer based in Quito Ecuador. Her latest piece for DropSight News headlined,

prosecutor investigating U.S. boat strikes and claims of torture was murdered in Ecuador. In April, she published an investigation with DropS. site, exposing the bombing and torture of 36 Ecuador and fishermen by U.S. forces. The expasse cited during a congressional interrogation of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. She's joining us now via Zoom audio from an undisclosed location for safety after receiving death threats in Ecuador. Thank you so much for being with us. Camilla, if you can start off by explaining what happened to the Ecuadoran prosecutor and her sister and what she was investigating. Absolutely.

Thank you for having me. So I would like to contextualize the assassination of prosecutor Alexandra Bravo and the allegations of U.S. boat strikes and torture. She was investigating that they are a reflection of the growing U.S.-backed military dictator. leadership in Ecuador, which was ushered in with former Blackwater mercenaries patrolling voting sites at gunpoint a year ago. And today rules through the unconstitutional rescheduling of elections, 22 martial law decrees, and the masturbation of prisoners, the suspension and dissolution of four major opposition parties, and the granting of diplomatic immunity to all U.S. troops deployed last December to Manta, the very civil and Linda were murdered, effectively allowing

these troops to operate with zero accountability to Ecuadorian civil and criminal law, despite an explicit constitutional ban on U.S. military bases, which was originally introduced 20 years ago precisely due to the history of U.S. military openly sinking fishing ships off the coast of Manta, and again ratified just eight months ago by 60 percent of Ecuadorian citizens who voted to uphold the U.S. military ban. Alexandra Bravo was the Manta prosecutor assigned to investigate the disappearance of these three boats. And as she pursued lines of questioning in response to the allegations of torture, of starvation, and abduction by these fishermen, she received immense pressure from her own superiors at the Attorney General's office to treat the cases exclusively as cases of disappearance.

And she told this and confided to this into my source at the Manta Police Department. In addition to this, she confided in a senior researcher at the Human Rights Watch that she was facing internal challenges, trying to coordinate with other agencies such as the Galapagos military base and the Port of Manta, which itself during my original investigation hung up the phone after we reached out and I identified myself as a journalist looking into these cases. The families of the still missing Fiorela crew members alleged that the Port of Manta literally shut the door in their face when they went searching for answers. And so Alexandra Bravo was unable to advance many answers in this investigation. And actually, in the days leading up to her assassination, she was relocated to a neighboring municipality, her entire. caseload changed and and she was no longer investigating these three boats. I reached out to the Attorney General's office in Manta several times. They were unwilling to speak to me.

Her replacement said that they were unable to speak to me and that the investigation is currently sealed and they cannot give any information on what they've found regarding her assassination. In April, you published an investigation with Dropsite News, the bombing and torture of 36 Ecuadoran fishermen allegedly by U.S. forces. Investigation was cited during a congressional interrogation recently of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth. This is a clip of Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating during the hearing with Hegsef and General Dan Kane, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before the House Armed Services Committee.

Let's look back a few weeks ago when a fishing crew ended a long day of hard fishing, scoring a full stock of albacore and swordfish on board. Without any warning or expectation, this small Ecuadorian fishing vessel, operating about 200 nautical miles off the Galapagos Islands, was militarily engaged by U.S. forces. It was hit once, then it was hit again. Not a warning shot, not an interdiction, two drone strikes. Survivors described chaos and severe injuries.

Our U.S. forces then handcuffed the crew at gunpoint, placed black hoods over their heads, seized and scrubbed their devices, and then held them for days. It's the most convoluted bullion I ever heard in my life. This should be public. This is our honor. This is what it makes American a difference maker. This is what we're out of an incredible array of false accusations. And I lealed back my time.

False accusation says, has says, has said, has, says, Seth, incredible. Camilla Lord's Galarza, your response. Camilla. Camilla, if you can respond, we seem to have lost Camilla. So we're going to move on to Juanito Gobertois, director of America's division at Human Rights Watch, which has just released a report, headlined a dangerous partnership, abuses, unanswered questions, and U.S. Ecuador's security cooperation. She's joining us from Colombia. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. Juan? Yes, Juanita, could you talk about the findings in your report and this bizarre story of the United States essentially kidnapping these fishermen and dumping them in El Salvador?

Sure. Amy Juan, thank you for having me. A pleasure to be with your audience. This is a new report in which we go into how the Trump administration has deepened U.S. security cooperation with Ecuador as a response to the surge in violence in the country, particularly due to the growth of organized crime groups. And this is happening, as for context, which I think is important, in a moment in which both governments have engaged in serious human rights violations fueled particularly because both governments are insisting in framing the confrontation with organized crime groups as a sort of war, a sort of armed conflict. None of the true governments have provided transparency, about the nature of their security cooperation,

the precise role of U.S. forces in these operations, nor on the human rights safeguards governing these operations. Our report touches on one land operation in the border between Ecuador and Colombia in a place called San Martim, that resulted in the arbitrated detention of four Colombian nationals and their torture. We corroborated through forensic evidence

and analysis of their medical records that their accounts of suffering beatings of being waterboarded, electro-shocked, of suffering a mock execution, of being threatened that if they did not confess to be a member of an organized crime group, their fingers would be caught, their nails would be put out.

And all of their testimonies and the the lessons that they suffered were corroborated through these forensic analysis. And then we also go in depth into the three vessel cases that, the colleague that was speaking before was mentioning, we were able to document in the three cases that took place between January and March this year

that there were consistent and very compelling accounts pointing to potential U.S. involvement. The different testimonies that we collected mentioned that they saw a black, sorry, a white and blue vessel that was following them doing surveillance that had a U.S. US flag. They mentioned being surveilled by drones. Two of the vessels reported being attacked by explosive drones. Four of the crew members on those two vessels were seriously injured. And again,

we documented their injuries and corroborated their testimonies with forensic expert analysis. And then as it was being mentioned, their approach by this vessel, which has the US flag, the people on board have khaki camouflage. The testimonies report them having U.S. insignia on their uniforms. They are arbitrarily detained, taken to the Salvadorian Coast Guard, and for context, El Salvador is very far away from Galapagos Islands. And they were taken to El Salvador, and only days later sent back to Ecuador. We checked the criminal records on all of these people, both on the land operation and on the vessel cases.

None of them had any judicial proceeding for violent or potentially violent crimes, nor for narcotrafficking or for any participation in organized crime group. And then the third vessel, the two surviving crew members were fishing outside of the boat. They report seeing a white column of smoke going out the vessel. They go back to their vessel and the vessel and the other eight crew members are missing. So we have been asking U.S. authorities for responses on these cases. they've told the guardian that regarding the vessels, there was neither a DOD nor Coast Guard participation,

but they have not mentioned if other U.S. agencies were involved and we're demanding the U.S. government and U.S. Congress to provide answers on these cases. In the case of the land operation in San Martin, both the U.S. and the Ecuadorian governments have claimed that it was a partnered operation and a successful one, regardless of the fact that is very clear that they striked places that had no...

relation to organized crime. I'd like to go back to Camila Lourdescalaza. Camila, President Navoa, who's born in Miami from a wealthy family, has a banana empire there. He's supposedly cracking down on drug trafficking and crime, but yet his own family shipping boats were caught trafficking $29 million of cocaine to Croatia? And could you talk about this, the role of the president? Also, he is one of the founders of the so-called shield of the Americas, this coalition of right-wing governments across Latin America that President Trump has put together. Absolutely. Yes, 26 million euros of cocaine were found aboard the private boats of Noboa's family shipping corporation, and none of these draconian measures that honor the

return of Operation Condor-style tactics nor the military curfews and checkpoints placed on 70% of the nation in recent months has made Ecuador any safer. In fact, a report from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft recently revealed that Ecuador is now the most violent nation in the Western Hemisphere. And it furthermore, as you point out, becomes increasingly difficult to view this as anything other than the intentional engineering of a cartel economy to manufacture consent for the Monroe Doctrine when President Novoa himself has been found to have ties to drug trafficking. He also appointed the personal attorney and corporate attorney of Nopoa trading who defended the drug traffickers caught in this raid as our Minister of Health.

We have since had several changes of ministers of health, but it shows that there's There is not a true interest in combating this, right? And that is further exemplified by U.S. Ecuadorian joint operations purporting to target drug traffickers, which are instead drone striking, waterboarding, and torturing, innocent farm workers. I believe that the colleague was just speaking to, you know, reporting that contrary to Pentagon intelligence, there was no evidence of drug trafficking on the farm that they bombed. And so we have not only seen a misapplication of the martial law regime that Ecuadorians have been living under for two years now,

but also allegations from Ecuador's infamous Los Tigeroes' cartel in which one of the heads of this cartel alleged that Novoa had struck a deal with the organized crime group to deliver votes for his campaign. So this is a stark contrast to the political jargon used to justify Operation Southern Spear and the drone striking of these three particular boats who, unlike Novoa's family ships,

were searched and cleared by Ecuadorian authorities prior to the bombing found to not be carrying any drugs. Camilla Lardes-Glarzo, I want to thank you for being with us. Investigative journalists and labor organizer based in Quito, Ecuador. We'll link to your drop site news articles. Please stay safe. And Juanito Goberta, Director of the America's Division of Human Rights Watch, speaking to us from Columbia. Thank you both for being with us.

This is Democracy Now, Democracy Now.org. The War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez. We end today's show with a correction on Thursday during a segment on the rise of AI. I read a quote that had gone viral of the acclaim writer and journalist Naomi Klein criticizing the AI industry. The quote said it was sort of addressing Sam Altman, who had said, were deploying responsibly developed AI to liberate humanity from menial labor, dot, dot, dot. And Naomi, I quoted, saying, you ingested the entire written output of human civilization without consent,

without compensation and without credit, to build a system whose primary commercial application is eliminating the jobs of the people whose work you consumed. You're not liberating human creativity. You're strip mining it and selling it back at a markup while calling the theft training data. That was the quote.

The only problem? It wasn't real. After the show we learned the quote was not, in fact, the words of Naomi Klein or Sam Altman, but rather AI-generated text accompanying an AI-generated image of Klein and Altman, the quote appearing in a widely circulated graphic. We're joined now by the real Naomi Klein.

She and Esther Taylor have written a new book that's coming out in September, which we'll talk about in September, end times fascism and the fight for the living world. But in this last minute we have together, Naomi, if you can talk about this quote, I mean, it had already gone viral before we, unfortunately, attributed it to you. What are your thoughts? Thank you for letting me clarify, Amy. It does feel like I'll never get this under control because it has gone so viral. You know, I've written about the fact that these companies are creating digital doppelgangers of us trying to monetize our identities.

And that's all this is. I mean, it wasn't malicious. And it was based on real things I said, but just, mixed and matched. Same with the photographs. It fooled a lot of my closest friends and colleagues. And frankly, when I first saw it, I thought I had said it because I had said things very similar. But when you think about it in the context of journalism, it really is very worrying because it creates a feedback loop, right? I did a search this morning using a term that I knew I had used quoting Astra, which is theft tech, but it fed me back, Gemini's A.I's

led me back to these other AIs as the sources for the wrong quote. So one wonders how we're ever going to get out of this House of Mirror unless companies are forced to label AI-generated work, which they should have to do. And as you said, people like Janice Varifakis has whole YouTube channels that are not actually him but are look like him. Yeah, I mean, because I wrote a book called doppelganger that looks. at how this predicted this very future. Janice reached out to me, and I interviewed him about this

absolutely uncanny phenomenon that he's dealing with that I think more and more people are going to be dealing with where there are all of these videos that seem to be honest responding to daily events do a good job of imitating his accident and so on. Naomi, we can't get them to go away. We're ending the show. I look forward to speaking to you and Esther Taylor in September on your new book, End Times, Fascism in the Fight for the Living World.

I'll be in Martha's Vineyard tonight for the screening of Steel the Please. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.