Jack - Completely Deflated DOJ (Feat. Renato Mariotti)

Episode Date: February 10, 2020

Today, information on the McCabe firing documents, another dump of Mueller memos, and we’ll be joined by former US attorney and host of the On Topic podcast, Renato Mariotti, to discuss the legality of the firing of Lt. Col. Vindman and his brother, and perhaps the inspector general.

Hi, I'm Harry Lickman, host of Talking Feds. Around table, the brings together prominent figures from government law and journalism for a dynamic discussion of the most important topics of the day. Each Monday, I'm joined by a slate of Feds favorites and new voices to break down the headlines and give the insider's view of what's going on in Washington and beyond. Plus, Sidebar is explaining important legal concepts read by your favorite celebrities. Find Talking Fedswear, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks to Noom for supporting Mollershi Road. Getting in shape isn't about a number on the scale.

Noom helps you develop a new relationship with food, build healthier habits and feel better about yourself. Sign up for your trial today at Noom.com slash AG. And thanks to Worthy for supporting Mollershi Road. Worthy believes you deserve an easier way to sell your valuable jewelry. Go to Worthy.com slash A.G. to get started. That's Worthy.com slash A.G. And thanks to Third Love for supporting Muller Sheerot. Third Love knows there's a perfect broth for everyone. So right now they're offering our listeners 15% off their first order. So go to ThirdLove.com slash A.G. to find yours today. My name is Renato Marriotti. I'm the host of the On Topic Podcast, and you're listening to Mueller's She Wrote. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships

with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I didn't have, not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for?

I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So, it is political. You're a communist! No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession I'm a capitalist. Hello, and welcome to Muller She Road.

I'm your host, A.G., and I'm overly excited for some reason. I feel like that was just a little over the top. Hello, and welcome to Muller She Road. I'm your host, A.G., with me, James Jordan Coburn. Hello. We have a big show today, including information on the McCabe firing, another dump of Mueller

memos. Later in the show, we'll be joined by former US Attorney and host of the on top podcast, our good friend Renato Marriotti. He's going to discuss the legality of the firing of Lieutenant Colonel Vinman and his brother and perhaps maybe the Inspector General could be in trouble too, the ICIG. How are you? I'm great. How was your weekend?

It was pretty good. I did some shows at Madhouse. Nice. That was fun. Did you see Steve Martin and Chris Rock work the store this weekend? No, that's awesome. Running their Oscars. Oh, cool. Running their Oscars stuff. Very cool. Are they hosting? I think so. I mean, well, that's what they said. Okay. And the posts like Carmen Morales posted, a bunch of people were like, moolie shit. That's fucking awesome. Brought to Jones hosted on the main stage and then it said that Steve Martin, Chris Walker, running their shit,

I think in the belly room. Cool. I don't know, it's just, it's so fantastic. I play so magical. It really is. Any night, any given night, some shit like that could happen. You could have Steve Martin and Chris Rock come in

and run their Oscar shit. The other night, Shepel came in, I heard and did like three hours, he like took over the belly room. Just popped it into the belly room? Yeah. Okay, so the belly room is this little place upstairs that seats like 80 people. And then the OR is a much bigger room and then the main room is the huge one. So when you have like folks like Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Dave Shepel doing the belly room, you're like, oh, that's so intimate and tiny. It's like it's like seeing the Beatles at the tavern, you know. Yes, if my memories correct a little bit of sore history, the belly room was created so that

women could have a spot to go up and do comedy. Now it was where all the women's shows were, yeah. Yeah, to start. And now it's a nice co-ed space progress now we put all the men up there and we do the main stage see anyway we do have a lot of news to get to sorry a little comedy side road there but before we get to the news we do have a couple of corrections it's time to say I'm sorry. Oh, I made a mistake. Okay, so from Bernie Vantigham and also from Matt Baker, you folks rock, you keep me standing these crazy times. Thank you.

Referencing what Mandy said in a recent episode in Canada, you're actually not restricted to government stores for cannabis. In Canada, when the federal government announced legalization, they allowed the provinces to establish their individual regulations. Legislation for this is decentralized. There are many other things in the country, such as healthcare. Some provinces have government stores, but many do have private stores. Cannabis production is regulated to companies meeting requirements and are licensed, and each

province does allow home growing and online sale. Nice. All right, cool. Online sale, nice. Keep up the news format. It's the only source of Trump news. My PTSD, adult brain can take. Oh, thank you. That's from one PTSD, adult brain to another. High five. Producer note, Amanda says she's sorry, sorry, when she gets Canadian law wrong. She hasn't lived there in a decade, it's cool. Thank you. I'll tell her, don't be sorry. From Galen, taxi, love you guys, listen every day, help me get through this crisis, I really

appreciate the relief you bring. Jordan mentioned the National Prayer Breakfast. We talked about this briefly in tomorrow morning's episode or tonight, if you're a patron's episode of daily beans. But Jordan mentioned the National Prayer Breakfast was started by President Eisenhower, however, it was actually the shadowy Christian political group, the fellowship or the family, who really started it.

From Wikipedia, which I'm gonna just say right here, not my favorite source, but from Wikipedia, the fellowship holds one regular public event each year in the National Prayer Breakfast, which is in Washington, D.C., every sitting United States President since Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in at least one National Prayer Breakfast during their term. Jordan has mentioned this documentary before, but if folks haven't seen it, check it out.

The family, I believe Pompeo and Barr are members of this organization as well. Hope you guys come back to D.C. soon. We should. I think we're going to May 21st. Yes. Yeah, we're going to do a podcast panel. The asset nation is going to be there. We're going to host some stuff. That's going to be so fun. Yes. Yeah, we're going to do a podcast panel. The asset nation's going to be there. We're going to host some stuff.

That's going to be so fun. Yeah. But thank you for that correction. That is terrifying. Yes. The family is gross. Yes. From Lauren Murphy and Kristi Campbell,

during each show, you give me reason to smile or laugh. Thank you. Yeah, I get to send a correction. She's really excited. The World War I Museum is in Kansas City, Missouri. So my first instincts were correct. It happens to be across the street from where the chiefs parade ended Union Station on Wednesday It's a great museum. I'm glad you were able to get there

I know I loved it. It was so good and you can go down in the basement and check the archives And they have like find your family members records and stuff like that. Yeah, so the parade went from Sunday to Wednesday I think it just was just Wednesday four days of marching dude. Hey Sometimes it takes that long. You have made me more informed person when it comes to politics. It can current events. Thank you. You're welcome. From Daniel Rosenberg and Jose Panetti. Hello, love the show. The DNC only eliminated super delegates from the first ballot. So in a contested convention, where for example, Sanders gets 45% of the

normal delegates and Biden has 35 or something like that, there would be a second try where the super delegates, there's 750 of them, can still be the deciding votes for the establishment and go for Biden. Yeah. I think they put that rule back in when they realize there could be a contested convention. Yeah. Other correction, but thank you. Bummer correction, but thank you. From Elmo. Thank you for...

I think we've had a correction from Elmo. I think so too. I think, unless there are two Elmo. Elmo knows all. Yes. Thank you for informative show. Hello, your friendly neighbor to Archivist here. I take issue on your analysis of the National Archives. What is happening there is not the choice of the Archivist doing the day-to-day work of the agency.

As much sympathy as you have for federal workers at places like the VA. You don't extend that to federal archivists. Yes, I did. As you said about other federal workers, they have two choices. Do as they're directed or resigned. Keep that in mind. I thought I said that. Well, this is definitely directed towards me because that was my story. Yeah, but I thought we had had that discussion and I thought I made the point that, hey, these are the on-the-ground people and you have a choice to either do what your boss is tell you or have no job. And this is happening in all sorts of federal agencies. I'm sorry, I thought I made that pretty pretty clear. And then I thought we ended that discussion with, yeah,

that sucks. Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry that it came off that way. Definitely. Definitely don't blame the archivists. No, that story was, I think that a New York Times Story that came out and so that was like largely from their reporting I don't know at all where it happens exactly in that agency. I don't have any direct ties to it whatsoever So well, I'll know I promise we don't blame you. Yes. I also think My interpretation of everything was that it's the State Department really it's mostly their issue Which equals the Trump administration. Yeah, I think I think our I think where we landed was it's the State Department really, it's mostly their issue, which equals the Trump administration. Yeah, I think where we landed was it's coming down from the top. All right, well, those are corrections.

If you have any corrections, please head to mullershereoke.com, click contact, select corrections, build us a compliment sandwich, we'll get it right eventually, I promise. And thank you so much for all of your corrections there. Sorry, I didn't mean to get too too defensive about my stance on government employees. I am one, so I'm like, I did not see that.

Yeah, no, we definitely, or I have been throwing a lot of shade towards national archives over the last two stories that have come out, but I don't mean for it to be directed at the folks, hard-wringed folks that work there, and you not have any sort of control over what actually happens. There's one for you, Elmo. Is it archivists or archivistsists? Oh yes. I think I saw someone tweet us that it's archivists. Isn't it? I think so. Okay. Yeah. Elmo would know. Yes. Elmo would know. And we appreciate the archivists archivists. Thank you. Thank you very much. Sorry. Are you a little big bird for me? Yes, big bird. I just I just agreed with you. Yes, yes, I held on to Big Bird. And now why? Well, as a Sesame Street reference Elmo. Oh

I'm all is Big Bird an archivist I'm also very sorry if Elmo is not a name that is supposed to be playful and it is actually a real name in which case It is an awesome name in which case it is an awesome name. I think it's El Mo. Yes. Okay, I'm all- yeah, it's a little big bird. No. Ten from the news. I just went right along with that. Yes, Sanding. But we do have a lot of news to get to. So let's jump in with just the facts. All right, so here's some news. Eric Prince is back. And the Department of Justice says, finally reviewing the allegations that he misled Congress in his Russia probe testimony.

Lied. He lied. This is a 10-month-old allegation from House Intel Committee Chair Adam Schiff, who said that Prince repeatedly lied to lawmakers during the panel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Politico got a hold of a letter from Assistant Attorney General Boyd, Steven Boyd, to shift sent February 4th. So as I said five days ago, apologizing for the delay and responding to his April 2019

request that the Department of Justice look into Prince's line. Way back in April, shift sent Barra letter, who had been on the job just a couple of months at that point Expressing concern about a series of manifest and substantial falsehoods and cited six specific instances where Prince misled the Hipsy first and foremost Hipsy House permanent select council on intelligence. Sorry. I just Run through these acronyms like they're nothing first and foremost that the meeting with Demetri of a native in the Seychelles took place purely by chance. He also said he had no official role with the Trump campaign.

And he also said he had no formal communications or contacts with the campaign. All of those have been borne out to be lies through email communications and documents and whatnot. We will keep you posted on this investigation, quote, unquote, provided it even gets the attention it deserves with Bill Barr at the helm of the Department of Justice it probably will just get circular filed And we have news about B. Rad Parscale to

Brad Parscale I come to read he was He was the one that coordinated Tess Agmalania named him B. Rad He was the one that coordinated with Cambridge Analytica, Rand Trump's online campaign. Our friend Robert McGuire, who's been on the podcast. I had a nice lunch with him in DC, a while back, very, very cool guy.

He penned a piece for citizens of responsibility in ethics in Washington or crew that pro-Trump groups have paid a firm owned by Be-Rad significantly more than was previously known, including a new $1.7 million payment for media advocacy services from America First Policy, a pro-Trump pack that doesn't have to disclose its donors, I think it's a 501 C4. Last year we learned that America First Action, another pack for Trump, a related organization, run out of the same office

by the same people, by the way, drop $900,000 into par scale's firm, and an additional $675,000 to red state, which is another par scale joint, putting the combined payments nearly at $3.3 million, as we know by law, super PACs must operate independently from the campaigns they support. So this large flow of cash to, you know, to the guy who runs the campaign to firms that he owns, raises questions about the possibility of illegal coordination, right?

Like, because Pax aren't supposed to get with the campaign and say where money came from and help them spend it. Right, they're supposed to be separate, you know, totally separate entities. And now you've got Trump's campaign chair running two companies that have received just 3.3 million in the last couple of months. Didn't a similar issue come up when there were the two ads, the TV ads, McQueen, Acrimon, and something else? Yes. Like it was clear that they had like coordinated. Oh yeah.

Yeah. As though we're to believe that Pascal, who his campaign manager doesn't coordinate with the Trump campaign, or that these payments aren't for campaign work, right? All in all, firm zone by Pascal have brought in more than $40 million from Republican committees and pro Trump groups since 2016, with nearly 8 million coming from America First Packs.

The two America First groups have raised a combined 50.4 million in 2019. Of course, the question, if any of this amounts to illegal coordination, is probably moot, according to McGuire, since the Federal Election Commission only has three commissioners and is effectively ineffective without a quorum, so they can't authorize an investigation or levy any fines until Trump nominates new commissioners and Mitch McConnell confirms them in the Senate. Oh God. Good luck with that. I didn't know that's what had to happen for that to get done.

Like we say we just have to vote numbers too big to manipulate. Yeah, well that explains why it's gone unfilled this whole time. Oh yeah. I was just sitting here banging my head against the wall like why? How fucking hard is it? But now we know it's impossible. And Jane Windrobe, chair of the FEC is sitting there ripping her hair out.

Like, there's so much illegal shit going on and I can't do anything. And it's like, you have to get Trump to nominate the people and Mitch to push him through the Senate. Ah. I know, it sucks. I'm sorry. I wish I had better news after the break,

but it's important news. And we do have the interview with Renato coming up later, so stay with us. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, it's A.G. And if you're like me, you're interested in getting in better shape, but you don't want a drill sergeant forcing you to run starve and starve and run and run while starving. Getting in shape doesn't have to be about a number on a scale, or losing a specific amount of weight. It's about building healthier habits and feeling better about yourself, getting more energy. That's why I love this new habit changing program from NUM.

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They're based in a cognitive behavioral approach, and they use personalized courses to help you reach your specific goals. So not only do you have all the tools you need in one spot, you also get this really great cognitive behavioral help. You don't have to commit to a rigorous plan either, it's just 10 minutes a day and they make it really convenient with the new map. They don't use negative reinforcement, there's no shaming, there's no guilt, so if you go

off track, they just have tips to help you get back on track tomorrow, no bicks. It's the perfect time to make a step towards healthier habits, so sign up for your trial today at numnom.com slash a g. What do you have to lose? Visit num.com slash a g. Just start your trial today. That's numnom.com slash a g. You'll be glad you did. Okay everybody welcome back. This is actually kind of good news. I'm sorry I was sort of bleak before the break but as you know for a couple years now on this show in response to Trump saying over and over again He wants to be president forever wants a third term

Thanks because he was impeached he deserves another term or does that whole thing that he put that Twitter thing that he did with Him be present in 80,000. Yeah, and then he also retweeted that he retweeted himself saying this is so great Mm-hmm of that. Yeah. Just absolutely weird. I just just occurred to me, but he would be long dead before that year. Oh, yeah. Maybe he's also thinking he's taking me kept alive. God, I hope he's not listening.

I guess he more means the vibe of Trump should last forever. Yeah, or his kids and his kids and his kids. Oh, no. Oh my God. I didn't even think about that. That is probably what that means. That's what I kids and his kids. Oh, no, oh my god, I need to think about that. That is probably what that means. Yeah, that's what I took it to mean. Gross. So for this whole time, he's been saying that we've been saying we don't want a president forever. We don't want a permanent president. We want a permanent special counsel. We want somebody

who's there to continually investigate the administration and future administrations. And during the debates this week in New Hampshire the Democratic debates Elizabeth Warren actually floated the idea saying she had a plan to set up a task force in the Department of Justice to investigate not just Trump corruption although she will do that if she's elected president but ongoing to investigate administrative executive and congressional corruption and I love this idea I hope the other candidates consider it as well and like I said in earlier, if it's of note, Andrew Yang during that debate said he thought that in the spirit of unity, we should not investigate or go after Trump and his

corrupt family. We should move forward as a nation and added that he thinks Americans don't care. And that really bummed me out. Yeah. That was an unenforced error that he didn't need to make. And no. I personally think the fact that we didn't investigate Nixon and pardon him and we didn't investigate Bush, that Obama just went forward in the name of unity, I think that has a lot to do with why we're in the position that we're in now. And I think it's very important that whatever candidate gets elected or gets nominated has a plan to fight and to go after this and to hold them accountable because they shouldn't be above the law.

And if they do, then that's just going to mean for future generations. It's just going to be easier and easier to have more corrupt people in here. And I'm worried about a smart person coming in and trying to be a dictator. Right. Yeah, because right now, the lesson that I guess has sort of been demonstrated is you only have to get through a certain small time period of judgment and even remotely being held accountable and then you're pretty much just like off-free. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's sort of the, with this attorney general and all of his sick offense that he's put in place and all of the firing of FBI agents who were holding anybody to account, it's just gotten, it's gotten to a point where he's free and clear now. And I think if the next president elected Democrat doesn't hold him to account. There will be other new smarter, more jerky, like nefarious people who will come in and try to do what Trump is too stupid to do. Yeah, exactly. Seriously. That is terrifying thinking about what this would be. Like if he was as smart as Hitler, yeah, very scary. Yeah. Um, so good plan. I like that plan. I hope

other candidates look into that. Also this week's sender Chris Murphy has asked the government accountability office, the GAO, that those are the ones who came out with the, what did they say? They came out with a report saying that, um, I forget if it was blocking document or, yeah, wait, shit. Oh, with the withholding of the eight. Yes. That was illegal. It was a violation of the Empowerment Control Act. And so he's now Chris Murphy, the Democratic Center, think from Connecticut, he's asking, um, the GAO, whether Trump and bar are improperly or overclassifying documents provided to Congress. Murphy is a member of the Senate

Appropriations Committee. I'm sorry, I said Senate Finance and the other show. Send me the corrections. Senate Appropriations Committee. Appropriations is committee, you know, those are the ones who appropriate the money and that's why it's illegal and against the Appalmit Control Act to withhold it if you're the president.

But so now he's asking the GAO, the same organization who said that the Empowerment Control Act was violated by Trump when he withheld the aid. He wants them to see if if bar and the Justice Department or Trump or the Trump Administration are improperly redacting or overclassifying things. He said the classification of Mike Pence's September 18th call with President Zelensky poses extraordinary misclassification practices and said that that was the last straw. He said, quote, there was absolutely nothing in that document that should have been classified. Damn.

We already know Judge Reggie Walton presiding over the Buzzfeed Muller Memo-Foya case has expressed concern with main justices redaction practices. Judge Reggie Walton even said, I'll go through him one at a time to make sure that they've been redacted properly. They don't fuck with me. And of course, we know about the paraphrasing. We know about the placement of call readouts in the code word classified nice system at the White House to reduce the scope and reduce the number of eyes on the information because

it's politically embarrassing content or could be illegal. It is against the law to classify documents to cover crimes or politically embarrassing information, to misuse or malappropriate the classification system for your own personal political benefit or to cover up a crime. And so Murphy is asking the GIO also, if a member of Congress can question the appropriateness of the classification of a document or documents. Quote right now, the only thing we can do is declassify it ourselves, which I do not think

is a solution, but if this doesn't get better, then I do think we need to think about the process by which a third party can weigh in and decide to unclassify something that's just political embarrassment. I disagree with you. Murphy, I say you are a check on the executive branch. I think you should be able to declassify that shit yourself.

I don't see that there's a log against it. You know, send me your in. Tell me what you think about that. Everybody like send it to me. Hit me up. Do a go to go to our website, go to the moshirah.com. Go to our website, go to moshirot.com, look and see the contact page and let us know if you know if it's illegal for Congress, the Intelligence Committee, for example, San Adentile or House Permit Select Committee on Intelligence, is it illegal for them to just unilaterally declassify something? I wonder if it's not classified information. Right.

I mean, I imagine it would again just amount to a court battle, but I could see them declassifying in the DOJ going after them. Yeah, but at that point, so fucking what? Yeah, and also, I guess just the... I'm just thinking of the possible arguments against it, then also the precedent that that would set potentially for Republicans to do, whenever maybe Democrats want to hold something as classified. Cool. I'm kind of cool with it.

Really? Like, you're the Congress, you're the third party. You're protected by the speech and debate clause, by the way, you can't be arrested for it. So fuck it. Like if you can't arrest Rand Paul for throwing out the whistleblower's name on the son of Thor, I was just going to say that. They already started doing that.

So, like, yeah. Just fucking do it. Yeah. What a shitty, like, this is such a complete and well-established thought experiment of what happens when our constitution falls into the hands of the wrong person. Yep. That's very scary, wrong people. It is, and I'm hoping it holds.

Yeah, hold E2. And of course, this week, I think last week sabotage with that bar had replaced Jesse Liu, the AUSA attorney, U.S. attorney in DC with his sick of fan Timothy Shea. Well there's new stuff now. Bar is saying that if you want to, if anyone wants to, investigate a president or vice presidential candidate in the 2020 election, you have to write and ask permission to the Department of Justice and then you must in return get expressed written consent from William Bar himself to open that investigation.

And I just learned today, Lindsay Graham went on some of the Sunday morning shows and says he spoke with Bill Barr and Bill Barr has given Lindsay Graham. No, shit brain, asshole, Mayor of New York, Giuliani. A back channel to just hand all of his Biden dirt over to Bill Barr directly. That's happening. So if you, if Bill Barr is the one who can have, give, give this permission, of course,

the Biden, there's are going to be investigated. They'll open an investigation into anybody who's doing well in the Democratic primary while also probably disallowing maybe already current and ongoing investigations, certainly new investigations by the FBI, NSA, Southern District, New York, any of the US attorney's offices into Trump and foreign interference into this campaign to benefit Trump. It's already happening. And so now we've got this extra happening. And so now we've got this extra thermal layer of shit protecting Trump from oversight. And so with the Giuliani direct-to-bar stuff, that would be a direct transfer of that, you know, quote-unquote, damaging information as opposed to going through the actual channels of going in the FBI or some sort of intelligence agency and it working its way through the process of vetting that potential investigation.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, yeah. Gross, really, really, really gross. And there's no, I mean, I know we wouldn't know this right now and I'm sure someone will think about it, already has thought about it, but there's no like rules that say you're not allowed to do that as the attorney general.

You know, it just gets a cart blotch open up whatever investigations you want to. That's really hard to investigate the attorney general. Yeah. This is the attorney general. Yeah. But it's just interesting to me that this this disinformation paid for by the Cremlin, paid for by Fertosh, is getting a direct line to our attorney general through Giuliani, a private citizen who isn't working on policy according

to Seculow and Trump's own legal defense team in the Ukraine matter. It's just mind boggling that they would take anything that he has to say at all seriously. It's gross. Yeah. Giuliani really has quite the anti-hero story arc of his life, isn't he? I have to do a Broadway musical about him. That seems very appropriate in the lyrics, right? Yeah.

It's the, you know, the things started out all right, I guess. And then just the inside hero arc, but in reverse. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that guy's disgusting. It's like a breaking bad, but you're not even that cool. No, not at all. Not at all.

Someone, one of the probably biggest deltas of respect or losing it, that's ever existed in a person. Just like, he felt so person. He felt so hard. He felt so hard. Oh my God. I don't know. Maybe it's because my parents are like, well not my dad, but my mom is more

centrist on some issues. My conception of Giuliani, we're not that bad when I was a kid. No, they weren't as bad as I should have been. No. Right. Yeah. But when I found out like some of the shit he really did,

in, you know, in 9-11 as Mayor of New York. Because, you know, that age, you only have what the media presents to you and it was a different, it was a different Rudy. Yeah, my parents talk about how we like cleaned up the streets and stuff, but like obviously that comes with an amazing amount of racism. Yeah, the part they don't tell you in the news is, yeah, the whole stopping

frisk. Yeah. Also this week, we had our state of the union, which Nancy has renamed the state of Trump's mind. It was full of errors and lies. For example, I just learned this morning from the Philadelphia inquire, I think, local newspaper in Pennsylvania, the girl who he had awarded a scholarship to said, you can get out of that crappy government public school, government school. And I've got a full scholarship for you for one of those nice charter schools. Turns out that girl was already going to a charter school. So I guess he's just going to help her out.

I guess he just keep going down that out. I get it. Just keep going down that direction. So that was a big lie and using people as props. He also, go ahead. It just seems so like knocking on your own institutions because that wanted his government school saying that in like a derogatory way. It's your shit, dude. Yeah.

It's your shit pile. And it's like when Bar came out and said that the Department of Prisons is appalling, it's your fucking department. Exactly. Exactly. It's yours. Yeah, the VA is terrible.

We'll fix it. Yes. What do you think your job is? Mm-hmm. Orange fucking. By the way, that tweet with this orange face, it's worth it. When his hair's all blown back,

and it's like, yes, it looks like he's just been eating a giant ass. Oh my God. So many good memes going around about that. Yeah, it is very amazing. Did you see a weekend update on SNL? No, it was so good. I'm going to watch it right after the fire. Yeah, you have to watch it right after that. Also, what do you lie to he said during the state of the union that America became energy independent under him under his watch that is not true. It became an energy independent under Obama's watch. It was just a whole ton of, it was just a whole shit show. If you want, we covered it pretty extensively in Thursdays.

I think it was Thursdays daily beans after the state of the union, which was Wednesday, right? No. The vote was Wednesday. Tuesday was the State of the Union, so Wednesday's daily means. We went over all the lies and all the embarrassing things he did, like, give the medal of freedom to rush Limbaugh. Usually someone came up with an op-ed saying,

like, it was the LA Times. They came up with an op-ed saying that Limbaugh is not a bigot, he's a philanthropist who like deserves the award. What the frick is going on with the LA time? Right? They've gotten so much shier wrong in the last couple of months. Fuck them. I'm not doing their crossword anymore.

You should. Back to New York Times for me, even they can't do Saturday. Fine. We'll be right back with hot notes, and we have an interview with Renato and Mariotti. So stay with us. Hey, everybody, it's AG in this segment this segment of Mola Shiro is brought to you by Worthy. Diamonds are forever, they say, but sadly many marriages are not.

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all right welcome back hot notes all right everybody welcome back it is time for hot notes and we had two giant things dumped on our heads Today and we're gonna go over those first of all Jordan you have the Mueller the Mueller memo dump Yes, the Justice Department has released another bundle of mother documents to Buzzfeed and CNN as part of their FOIA request This dump includes 300 pages. I use it a bundle Like like like the hobo bundle. Oh, that's a stick that you tie a bandana of clothes to Like the like the hobo bundle. Oh, that's a stick that you tie a bandana of clothes to the bandana full of documents That'd be great. I hope that's not delivered. Yeah

That's not Giuliani would deliver it. Yeah There's some calligraphy on it or something. Oh my god crypt Um This dump includes 300 pages of notes for witness interviews otherwise known as three otis You've heard us say that before on a podcast 302s And we'll keep saying it because that's most of the stuff it seems the 302s involved Cover interviews of people like Jared Kushner, Andrew McCabe, Sean Spicer, Reince Prebus, Rick Gates, Michael Cohen and Steve Bannon

So there's a lot of very key players that are included in these. There's still a lot of redactions, however. So, and guess what? All the redactions happen to be on the interviews that are the people closest to Trump. Who would have guessed? Notes on Kushner, totaled five pages and the document is almost entirely redacted. Totally redacted.

And you know what freaks me out too? Because we thought, the guy thought, personally, maybe not y'all, thought that the Kushner interview was dumped in January and it was the 31 page redacted interview with the name redacted too. Turns out Kushner's is only five pages. So now I'm dying to know who that 31 page motherfucker is. Yeah.

But the stuff that was released in this round, it appears to topics that we're talked about were likely Michael Flynn, definitely Michael Flynn, and the campaign's efforts to reach out to four and leaders after the election. And then also talks about the Trump Tower meeting in December 2016 between Kushner Flynn and Kisleyak. The reason it's all redacted is because of the law that

allows the government to keep secret attorney, to keep secret attorney notes and executive branch deliberations from the public.'s a court in CNN. They're still awaiting unredacted notes on an interview with Kushner that they were supposed to get in January, but have still not received because the intelligence community was looking over it for what could be the reviewing. Yes, more. Exactly.

And so they just have really no one knows when that's actually going to come out. And in contrast with the memos of people close to Trump, the rest of the 302s are almost entirely unredacted. So it's very hard to not look at this dumb from the Justice Department and think that this is just more of the administration protecting itself and no one else. That's gross. Yeah, very gross. So what do you think?

Do you think, do you think, I mean, I'm trying to figure out how we can get these. Yeah, I mean, declassified. I mean, I don't think that a lot of this shit is classified. And I don't know, I mean, it is Judge Reggie Walton who's overseeing this case. And he has said in the courtroom, like, I don't think that he'll go through individually and stuff.

Yeah, I'll go through individually and stuff. I'll go through these line by line and make sure that these are redacted appropriately. Well, it is being reported that none of them, none of the language is redacted for issues of harm to an ongoing investigation. For example, they're all shut down. Yeah, right.

Seriously. But I guess the point just being that the only reasons that are left are them trying to protect themselves basically. Yeah, for like, yeah, like they're whatever internal attorney notes and stuff that the executive branch wants to keep secret and that's that's that's about all they think they need to give as reasoning. So I don't know I have no idea I don't know enough about how that sort of, you know, appeals like process looks really. I imagine Congress is not going to be satisfied with that or not. Well, I mean, I guess Congress, but CNN Buzzfeed their attorneys, people that are, you know,

having a huge leave vested interest in getting these unreducted materials file a motion to have the court review the reductions for appropriateness. That would probably be my next step. Yeah. I think this is bullshit. Totally. That makes sense. Yeah. I think Reggie Walton would be inclined to do it.

I, so how much do you know does Congress have of the unredacted materials of those 302s? None. They're in the same position then. Yeah, they're getting what Buzzfeed is getting because a Nadler file July 27th, coincidentally, when we were in Chicago with Ronaldo Marriotti, who's coming up later in the show, filed to get the Mueller underlying documents and interviews and they filed for that

and they're still in court. That's the one that's going to be heard by the Supreme Court argued March 31st with a decision out end of June. Awesome. Thank you. So they're truly operating off of the same information the public has at this point. Yeah.

Maybe. Unless there's some sort of super secret skiff that somebody people went into to read these documents and so they know what's in them, but they couldn't take notes or anything. But I doubt it. I don't think they would have handed that shit over. Yeah. All right, well, thank you. Yes. I want to talk about the McCabe documents.

So we got a giant dump of, finally, the McCabe stuff. So if you remember, the Department of Justice was trying to get McCabe indicted. They been panicked with grand jury for lack of candor to Inspector General and FBI agents. And the federal grand jury did not return an indictment. They didn't indict. And so Barr was like kept it open. And the judge in this case said, look, the federal judge goes, look, you either have to close this case because you didn't return an indictment or you have to drop all of the firing documents

that were asked for in these four year requests. Like all the documents surrounding the firing of McCabe. And the DOJ went, okay, okay, well, you know, we'll do it, We'll release the documents. We're not going to close the investigation for whatever reason, no reason. But, you know, they said that they released the documents. And so they, that was a while ago. And now they're starting to slowly release them. So we got this first dump. And what we got were the 302s with Lisa Page, McCabe and Komi. So first, Lisa Page interview.

This is 200 pages of stuff. I'm just going to give you what I thought stood out to me. Most of this, as listeners of Moleshoew, you already know, you already know from the McCabe interviews, you already know from Lisa Page and the Molly-John Fast interview, you know most of what what what is in these. What I didn't what I was surprised about was the ongoing like relentless questioning of all three of these folks to try to get someone to say that McCabe leaked to the press. And just over and over again, all three of them saying, McCabe can't leak to the press. He's the deputy director of the FBI.

He's authorized to talk to the press. And they would just over and over keep probing that, especially one specific agent whose name is redacted, by the way, in these documents. So first Lisa Page told investigators, no one had any concerns about McCabe going to the press because he had sole authorization to do so. Like I said, remember McCabe was being investigated for his lack of candor and speaking to the press about the Clinton email case back in 2016. And he said he told the inspector general, I didn't recall doing that, but then he amended

a statement to say, oh, I did, I did that. Sorry, I forgot to tell you I did that. And then Trump wanted to put him in jail for that. But the grand jury, like I said, wouldn't indict him. So this is the citizens for responsibility in ethics and Washington, FOIA case, and that's where we're getting all these documents. So then Lisa Page told investigators there were no discussions in the department about any leak from McCabe to her, nor would there have been, because Andy had total authority to talk to the press. Though after all this happened, she said they started changing the policy. That all information to the press had to go through public affairs, but that policy hadn't

been finalized yet, and most certainly wasn't an effect when Andy spoke to the Wall Street Journal. Paige also told investigators that Comey never came to her upset about it, and they went after her heart about that. Did Mr. Comey say anything to you? No, did Mr. Axelrod say anything to you? No, did anyone at the FBI express concerns to you? No, do you have any conversations with senior FBI managers

about the article after it was published? No, did you hear any FBI managers raise concerns about it? No, did you hear any department of justice senior managers complain about it? No, so nobody was trying to figure out who sent this to the press. No. I don't think this is really a thing. I don't think it drew any particular attention by anyone for any reason. She said.

And that goes on for pages. Just them. No one was concerned. No one. She's like, no, no, nobody fucking cared. No, he's allowed to talk to the press. He authorized me to talk to the press. I'm allowed to talk to the press. We're authorized to talk to the press. Sandy, fuck him, McCabe. So that goes on for pages, pretty ridiculous. Then there's Comey's interview. And it starts with McCabe, according to Comey,

McCabe emailing Comey saying, Hey, bad news. Wall Street Journal is publishing an article that my wife took election money from Hillary Clinton. I got an ethics okay on this. Sorry for adding to the drama. And based on that email, Komi took my cave off the decision to get a warrant to look at emails into the Weiner laptop, which according to Komi, upset Andy, but Komi insisted, saying there could be a perception of a conflict, so I don't want you to be

part of this. But then Ky walked that back and said, actually, I think it was Andy who came to me and took himself off the case. And then said he'd been thinking about it and he shouldn't be involved in the decision to open up a re-open the Clinton investigation into the Weiner laptop. Apparently, Rebicki, who was one of the original Comey 5,

and Lisa Page, were trying to tell Comey not to take Andy off the case because this is what Komi says, by the way, because the rank and file saw Andy McCabe as an elitist blue flame or climber. I don't know what blue flame remains. I mean, either. It turns out you're farting your head at the top when lightning. And if Komi took him off the case, it would undercut Andy's authority down the road to

the rank and file FBI. Komi said he didn't care and he didn't have time and his instincts were right. So, Robicki communicated that to Andy when it came in. So I guess Komi was like, I told him to get off the case. Well, no, I remember Robicki and Paige saying, don't take him off the case and me saying, I don't care, I'm right. And then Robicki told Andy that he was off the case and then Andy came in and said I'm taking myself off the case. It's just all weird. Like, didn't you take any contemporaneous

notes, homie? And so, Komi said over and over that he and the deputy director have the authority to speak to the press. He did say that over and over. This combined with Lisa pages assertion of the same policy. Very hard for the grand jury to indict McCabe for lacking candor about a leak to the press. It would be nearly impossible to prove corrupt intent when he has the authority to speak to the Wall Street Journal. Meaning if Bar wants to charge him with lying to the FBI about speaking to the press, does it make sense he would lie about speaking to the press if he has the authority to speak to the press? No, which makes sense and jives with his story of, I forgot, and then I went back and said,

oh, no, no, I did authorize that. So then we have McCabe's interview, which we know all about everything that he says from his public statements, from his book interviews, and his book talks, and everything after that, and everything he's told us is confirmed by what is in the interview There's nothing in the interview that's different from what he has said publicly. So That's I thought that was interesting. Yeah, and then I wanted to show him good candor

Yeah, I don't think he likes candor. I think he's got awesome candor Candor is magnificent my friend And I wanted to share with you an email I got from McCabe. He says, so good to hear from you. Been thinking of y'all as well. Hard to game out exactly what will happen with DC. Bar has to put someone in there. This is the US attorney in DC. Bar has to put someone in there and we don't really know much about Shay except that he's tight with Bar which is bad. It's certainly possible that he has been given an assignment to get McCabe but we'll have

to just wait and see. The impending acquittal of our president is pretty troubling, totally predictable but yet another depressing indicator of what we have become as a country. Now we will have to sit through hearing X number of Republicans saying, hearing X number of Republicans saying they think he was wrong, but it was not impeachable. And POTUS will continue to be even more emboldened by this process disaster. On that happy note, we're marching along.

George learned he will be going to Duke next year. That's his son and Maggie is loving high school. Jill is always is working harder than ever. She's getting her MBA all as well. Tell you. I hope you're happy despite our national disgrace. Be good to yourself, find the funny and everything and work for November when we have a chance to fix this mess. We will get through this time because we're better than this.

Best. Yes. Andy McCabe. So, very cool. So I could share that with you guys, so I wanted to. And so that's sort of where we're at right now that that bar has removed. Lou, she's the US Attorney in DC. I think we might see the we could see the indictment of Andy McCabe yet to also keep your eyes on page and struck as their lawsuits are working their way through the courts and they're

looking at Comey again. It's kind of just sort of a jerk. So I still don't think he did anything illegal. We'll see. We'll see. You know, I'm open to evidence. Yeah, wait who's a jerk? Comey. Oh, okay. Yeah So there's just a lot of shit going on. We don't know. Not only do we have bar replacing Jesse Liu But bars daughter works in the treasury over in Fin Sen, which oversees money laundering

Investigations one of his other relatives works in the Department of Justice. He's got Ben Kowski from Kirkland and Ellis there. Steve and Boyd, who's also a giant piece of shit. On top of all that, Trump is fired. Lieutenant Colonel Vinman, his twin brother, Gordon Sondland. We go over that story in detail in the Daily Beans. And so this is getting more and more dangerous as the days and weeks pass. It's imperative we vote.

Vote them all out in November, especially now that the Trump administration is openly talking about rewarding J. Secular with this is a Supreme Court nomination. Yeah, saw that. We can't let that happen. So no fuck register. Vote do your thing. Yes. Let R.B.G. retire. Yes. Oh my god, the lady retire. All right, are you ready for sabotage? Yep. All right, so the government's motion in the Flynn case is due to Sullivan noon Wednesday and that might shut a little more light on how the Justice Department might move forward. And whether or not they're going to just roll over and accept the sentencing from Sullivan or perhaps bring charges that Flynn escaped by cooperating now that he's trying to withdraw his guilty play. All good information to keep in mind as we play, the fantasy and diamond league. I'm going to be a diamond!

No, it is going to be okay. I'm going to be a diamond! And I'm going to be a diamond! I'm going to be a diamond! Before they can, it's going to be okay. Just calm down. I can't calm okay. I'm gonna cry, dick. It's gonna hurt. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. It's gonna be okay. Just calm down. I can't calm down. I'm gonna be dead.

So watching the Super Bowl on Fox. I just kept hearing, I'm gonna be a died. I kept hearing over and over again. I could not hear it. So if that happened to you as well, you're welcome. I get to go first, fantasy indictment, leave this week. I'm kind of, um, is that

because we have a completely deflated DOJ? It's it. It's could be all good guys. I'm gonna make him. Oh, oh, sad. I'm playing for the win. I'm doing Tom Barrett. Nice. I'm doing Tom Barrett. Nice. Guys, a dick. Yes he is. Um, Trump inaugural. Uh, Trump org.

T org. T org. Um, I'm gonna go with Jizz Lane Maxwell. I remember when we used to put like Ivanka Jarrod and DTJ on it all the time. Like week two. Remember like. Missed Place Hope. Really December 2017.

Like a cushioner could go down this week. I think it's cushioning. Yeah. Oh, that's because there's a lot of product of a moment to my guess. Um, okay. I will do a pecker. Pecker. Really holding out. All right. will do a pecker. Really hold now. All right, Dylan Howard in that case. Okay, for my own life. Okay, I will do super seating partners.

Good one. I'll go. I one left Flynn. You know what? I'm holding out hope. Yeah. Hold out hope. I think that makes sense. I will do super-seining for you. Fruit man, partisan fruit man show. All right, that is how we play the fantasy indictment league. If you want to play along, go to our close social media groups or patron, Patreon, and you can pick there. And the point structure is all listed there and everything super sorry about our just completely compromised department of justice.

We probably would have a lot more points at this point if we didn't have it that way. We'll be right back with the interview from the incomparable host of the on topic podcast in former US Attorney, Renato Mariotti. So stick around for that. We'll be right back. Hey everybody, it's AG. In this episode of Mollershi Road, interview from the incomparable host of the on topic podcast and former US attorney, Renato Mariotti. So stick around for that. We'll be right back.

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Renato, welcome back to Mollershi Road. Thank you, I was glad to be on the show. How are you? We haven't spoken and it feels like forever, but I think it was not that long ago. No doubt. No, I'll tell you, in today's world, a week or two can just feel like an entire lifetime. So I've been busy practicing law and doing my own podcast and all sorts of other things,

but definitely keep you busy. Good. And if our listeners have not listened to the on topic podcast, you really should check that out. It's really, check that out. It's really, really very informative. I really appreciate all the work that you're doing on that. So thank you for that.

And I wanted to have, the reason I have you here today is I wanted a legal expert to talk to us about this bombshell news that's come out over the weekend about the removal of lieutenant colonel vindamine and his brother uh... from the national security council and then of course gordon sonda and from uh... as ambassador of the e-mail i think they just dissolved that position has trump actually broken any laws here let's pretend he's not above the law actually has he actually broken any laws here

you have a great question you know it obviously think that i haven't which is why my initial reactions to eat up that this looks a lot like witness uh... retaliation which it is i think you know we saw donald trump jim which we did out essentially that that you know and he said something like shifts smoked out everyone that trump needed to fire that sort of thing so i think it's clear that the intent of this is to retaliate against people who are witnesses against trump and i also think

that it the on another part of the intent is essentially to discourage other people from ever coming forward in the future so is it does it break the law will let's start on the criminal side of things because that's what i think people are really focused on is this sort of witness tampering. So one problem with any kind of bringing in kind of criminal claim for this being a good form of witness tampering is that it's not clear that an impeachment proceeding is a legal proceeding for purposes of any of the federal statutes. So in other words, with clear that a court case would be, grand jury investigation would

be, but is impeachment an impeachment inquiry? Is it a proceeding for purposes of the statute? I don't—you know, that is an open question. No one knows for sure, but let's just assume that it is. Another problem is, of course, that all of the testimony already occurred. In other words, the proceeding is over, whatever it is, you know, the impeachment proceedings are over, and it's clear that he's not trying to influence any future testimony in that proceeding right so

that's why i'm sure that his advice from his lawyers was to wait until the impeachment was done to do that uh... because now the out you know will be one thing if in the middle of the impeachment inquiry fired uh... someone you know, you're dismissed on land or demoted, uh, vignement, or transfer of vignement, you know, he purposely waited until after, you know, it was over, uh, to do that. So I think the argument here, you know, really would be, uh, you know, that he's trying to you know essentially hurt witness it you know hurt or he's trying to discourage

witnesses are coming forward as to some future wrongdoing or some you know or or something like that but of course we don't know what that would be we don't know that future proceeding would be it's very uh... it's very uh... speculative so i don't i don't see this as

something that would be a prosecutor and actually charge is a practical matter it i mean do i think that there might be a clever person out there who could try to shoot or didn't do something i guess i i don't appear i get obviously uh... one to me and another issue i should just mention you know vineman didn't lose his job he's just moved to a new post within you know the army

and some ones in ambassador and they're sort of routinely you know they start with the pleasure of the president and so forth so it's not clear uh... it's not clear to me uh... you know what whether or not there's any i don't seem to me i would say that there's a criminal case now on the civil side uh... it's possible

i don't see someone having any kind of claim it's possible that vinmin might claim that he was uh... that he was hit you know it adverse action was taken against him for an employment matter for some sort of improper reason but you know i i'm not at you know one thing i'm not an expert in terms of the army code justice

you do you have a civil claim he may but it i don't think you know it's not clear what the impact will be in his career what the damages would be to him uh... and uh... saw you know aside from that i mean whether or not this is even technically a emotion or an average action anyway he was set to leave the NFC in six months anyway. Yeah, and truth be told, generally when you're doing a civil suit for an adverse action,

the remedy is to get your job back. And is that really a tenable situation for Vindman? My I would be more like his brother probably has a really solid claim uh... uh... you know civilly speaking uh... because what like his what is his brother have to do with it uh... and then is there you're in you but you're not thinking sundaughan is going to sue for his million dollars back yeah right i i i don't i don't think that someone is any right to do that

and it's brother It's sort of like you know The if the president is not firing you for it's not like you he's being you know These these guys aren't you know Sir Vinman and his brother aren't whistleblowers for purposes of any statute or regulation There you know Vinman is somebody who came forward once there was already uh... i think we're he is brother of course is just totally unrelated to that

you know typically speaking um... certainly employers can fire people for all in many in most dates for all any any reason whatsoever certainly in my state you know i i can't i don't know enough about the fact that the situation or all the potential applicable laws to know for sure whether they have a civil claim uh... but i i i it's there's no obvious claim uh... that's out there and now what about this of the vindman sunland and vindman's brother aside the

tenant colonel and his brother aside i mean to be because we know trump has a long history of firing those that oppose him going back to komi and jim baker and andy mccabe what we call the Komi-5, Bente. There were a ton of people at the FBI who were investigating Trump Russia, who got moved or put in HR or set behind a plant somewhere. But now there's reporting that Trump's got his eyes on firing the inspector general at Kinson. And that's I think maybe of greater concern than these sort of other moves. What do you make of that?

Yeah, I mean, the concern, I'm concerned about all of them, the concern with the other moves I agree with you that the other moves are essentially him sending a message to future people. Anybody who opposes me, there's consequences right now here essentially all the um... all the inspector general did was follow the law and protect the whistleblower who came forward and you know this is he's he's somebody who's not any sort of partisan or

anything like that he wasn't you know going out of his way to her trump he was just doing what his duty was and essentially what Trump saying is you key if you protect a whistleblower I'm going to take an action against you and I want people in there who aren't going to protect whistleblowers mean that is in fact the message so you know the senate uh... certainly should have something to say about that if you ever want to if he does that wants to replace that position but I once again I don't I don't see a way in which doing that you know is violate the law or statute in other words the un-stated message may be that he wants people who are loyal

to him or that he wants people to who don't enforce the law I mean that would itself be an abuse of power but as we've seen I mean I think Trump itself be an abuse of power, but as we've seen, I mean, I think Trump could do pretty much anything and not get removed from office for abusing his power. So I don't want to, I don't like to get people false hope that something's going to happen to Trump if that's the case. And so I don't want to do that. Yeah. Well, it hasn't happened before.

So why it would happen this last year of his presence? I'm not sure why anyone would think that. I mean, it's certainly justifies a little bit of outrage and it's completely corrupt and totally horrible. But again, if something is going to happen or not, I'm with you, probably not. I fear that our only recourse here is to talk about it widely. It's shine light on it, vote in November. But if we get the White House and the Senate hold the House, or yeah, do you think that maybe any of these laws could be changed to maybe

strengthen them? Do you see that as something that's feasible without actually, because you know, sometimes laws can go overboard. Do you see that as something that's feasible? Yeah, certainly. I mean, certainly you could strengthen, for example, protections for people who are witnesses against abuses in the executive branch. You know, you could certainly enhance whistleblower protections. You know, clearly there's inadequacies to the whistleblower statute which is which Republicans like Rand Paul and others have exploited a Donald Trump junior and so forth have exploited. But also you know there are also new statutes that could be enacted. I mean one lawmaker had asked my advice about a statute that would criminalize seeking for help.

You know for an in you know in-fueling an interference in an election more broadly. It's possible that there's issues, there's constitutional issues of crafting a statute like that, but it's possible to come up with a statute that could make it more difficult, very least, for people to engage in that sort of activity. Yeah, because it's kind of just the polar opposite of what Mueller did when Mueller refused to come out and say Trump committed a crime, because Mueller was afraid of tainting future prosecutions. But here we have a president who has absolutely no fear of tainting future witnesses that might come forward against him. So were we a little too, a lot of people

say Mueller was a little too conservative about that. But again, it's how loyal you are to the rule of law and what you're willing to do and not do in order to corrupt future witnesses or prosecutions. Yeah, I have to say our legal system is not really set up to deal with a president who is essentially going to maximally do whatever possible to increase his own personal power into weakened institutions that could potentially serve as a check on him. And I think the reality is that all of us now, between now and November, have to do whatever we can to organize and to mobilize and get votes out because the legal system is just not equipped to handle that.

Yeah. And speaking of weakening institutions, before I let you go, I was wondering what you thought about Bill Barr's new rule that any investigation by the Department of Justice into a presidential or vice presidential candidate for president must submit that in writing to him and get expressed written consent from bill bar in order to go forward. Does that actually, isn't that already a rule? Why would he need to come out and say, say this? Well, I don't, it's not exactly a rule.

It is certainly the practice of the justice department i think look at the practical matter any sort of investigation that would that would touch on at the candidacy of a of a uh... candidate for president would go uh... ordinarily through the attorney you know the attorney general would be aware of that uh... in real time they would be time you know that certainly they would go to chain of command at the justice department it's obviously a concern because Trump has shown that he is going to do

it again and I mean it's very hard to see that he's not going to try to you know have foreign interference in our election again or invite that and so the issue here is you know now bar is you know bar of course himself is you know it sure looks like a person who's going out of his way to do everything possible to help trump and sees as loyalty to trump and not to the Constitution and given that said you would be saying is put it in right you need to have my written authorization for doing anything that touches a political campaign and I think what it what it suggests is on the margin, and what I mean by on the margin is the economic term.

What I mean is on the sort of borderline cases of like, well, this person is kind of affiliated with the campaign, but they're not like the candidate or anyone really important. I think all of that is probably going to get funneled through bar out of an abundance of caution. And he is getting by requiring written authorization and essentially means that there can be no question. You know, can't just be that you slip it into a conversation or a briefing and that's enough.

Like, you've got to, you have to get him to in writing say this is authorized and you know, given who bar is, I think, it means that the only investigations may very well be of trans political opponents. Yeah, I can definitely see that happening. Considering I thought we had had reporting from New York times that the FBI hadn't announced a formal investigation into foreign interference into 2020,

but they were certainly looking at it, whether it was a full-blown investigation or not. And now I'm assuming maybe those kinds of things probably wouldn't be allowed to go forward. Exactly. Well, you know, hey, Chins up, right? I don't know what else to say other than, all right, high five for nothing. But thank you for clarifying as always though i mean this this it's important that we have these conversations about what's happened what can

be done about it if nothing we should know and then what we can do as the electorate going forward to try to help ensure that this doesn't happen with future president so former is attorney host of on topic the podcast check it out if you have not runato mar Marriotti, thank you for coming on Mullershi Road. Thank you very much. All right, everybody, that's our show. Thank you so much. Any final thoughts on your end over there? Love Renata Marriotti. Thank you for coming on again. He's so great.

He's so good. We have so many. I'm very thankful for the network of very intelligence, knowledgeable, career-based individuals that we've been able to like foster on here. We got very, very lucky in that we have such a great team around us. And that's why I look forward to going to DC and New York so often, is because we can run into and make plans and see all the folks that we've had on the show. Yeah, it's just very cool that these folks live incredibly professional lives, So often is because we can run into and make plans and see all the folks that we've had on the show. Yeah, it's just very cool that these folks live incredibly professional lives. And we are an independent podcast and they support journalism. And I know we each struggle sometimes with calling ourselves journalists, but you know, curatorial

journalism and they support that. And it's really cool that we get the same experts that are on CNN that you get to hear in a very organic setting Yeah, very cool. It's sometimes weird like sometimes I like I'm like what like I talk to how many former US attorneys this week Yeah, they're really generous with their time and I don't really appreciate it. Mm-hmm. We do. Thank you so much Renato and all of our totally of our previous guests It's been really really except for Rob Goldstone. You're a little weird. Oh my god Goldstone. I forgot about that shit. Also Michael Avenatti. Girls. Yeah.

Yeah. Avenatti was sick. Everyone else. Thank you so much for your support. And you guys, you listeners, y'all, thank you for your support. Head to patreon.com, so I'll show you a smaller she wrote, help us out, support women in podcasting. We're gonna get our video link up in here soon. You'll be able to see our faces on Patreon at any level, any level that you subscribe to the podcast at. And we're working on getting the mugs out to you. We had a little snafu with our outsourced printing company

because run by dudes, no I'm kidding, I don't know. This is making stuff up. Run by robots. Robot. Yeah, it's probably. And This is making stuff up. Round that robot. Robots. Yeah, it's probably. And we just had a tough time with that. We're fixing it.

We're going to send you some extra stuff. Hang in there, and we'll make sure that it happens. And thank you all so much for your support. It's been absolutely unwavering and astounding and humbling. And I can't thank you enough. So thank you so much. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. I've been AG. I'm Jordan Coburn.

And this is Mollershey Road. Mollershey Road is executive produced and directed by AG and Jordan Coburn with engineering and editing by Mackenzie Mazell and Starburn's industries. Our marketing manager, production and social media direction is by Amanda Reader, fact checking your research by AG, Jordan Coburn and Amanda Reader, and our knowledgeable listeners. Our web design and branding are by Joao Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is MullerSheRote.com.

Season 4 of How We Win Is Here For the past four years we've been making history in critical elections all over the country. And last year we made history again by expanding our majority in the Senate, eating election denying Republicans and crucial state house races, and fighting back a non-existent red wave. But the Maga Republicans who plotted and pardoned the attempted overthrow of our government now control the house. Thanks to gerrymandered maps and repressive anti-voter laws.

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