Jack - The Full Mueller (feat. Glenn Kirschner)

Episode Date: April 5, 2020

This week on MSW, we have news on the FISA - the court that granted the warrants on Carter Page, we have news about more shakeups with inspectors general in the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s impeachment and the oversight of the $500B treasury coronavirus corporate relief fund. Support our show at patreon.com/muellershewrote!

Welcome to Teacher Quit Talk, I'm Miss Redacted, and I'm Mrs. Frazzled. Every week we explore the teacher exodus to find out what if anything could get these educators back in the classroom. We've all had our moments where we thought, what the hell am I doing here? From burnout to bureaucracy to soul-secing stressors and creative dead ends, from recognizing when it was time to go, to navigating feelings of guilt and regret afterwards, we're here to cut off a gaslighting and get real about what it means to leave teaching. We've got insights from former teachers from all over the country who have seen it all.

So get ready to be disturbed. Join us on teacher quit talk to laugh through the pain of the US education system. We'll see you there. Thanks to Beta Brand for supporting Mola She wrote, do you have a to do list that never seems to end, running from a flight straight to a meeting? Still have to cook dinner for yourself. Beta Brand's dress pant yoga pants are the perfect for the office, home, and anywhere your day takes you.

Right now our listeners can get 20% off their first order when you go to betabrand.com slash AG. And thanks to best fiends for supporting Mueller, she wrote, best fiends is a unique and exciting puzzle experience unlike other puzzle games out there. Best fiends updates the game monthly with new levels and events so it never gets old. Download free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. 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 he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what the opposition is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time, a two, in that campaign. And I didn't have, and I 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 Mollershi Road. I'm your host, A.G.

Today we have news on the FISA, the Fisk, the foreign intelligence surveillance court. That's the court that granted the warrants on Carter Page, remember those? And we have news about more shakeups with inspectors general, specifically Atkinson from the Ukraine's scandal fame that led to Trump's impeachment, and the oversight inspector general of the $500 billion Treasury coronavirus corporate-release fund, corporate welfare fund, I should call it. I'll be joined later by Glenn Kirschner, 30-year

former federal prosecutor, worked 24 years I think at the DC-US attorney's office, and he and I are going to discuss the big news for in the Mueller world this week, the release of the unre-dacted Mueller report to Judge Reggie Walton, and we'll have Jordan Coburn join us remotely for hot notes. And so that's sort of what we're doing today. Obviously I'm here sheltering in place at a stay-at-home order. We've been doing this in California for a couple weeks now. I think I'm getting used to it, but I can't tell because I also might be going mildly insane. So anyway, that being said, I just wanted everyone to understand that we are isolating and that's why

wanted to everyone to understand that we are isolating and that's why we are going to be taking Jordan's hot notes separately. She's not here in the room with me and we're doing that because it's the right thing to do for all of our healthcare workers, frontline workers, essential workers, thinking about them. And so you should do. And I know that you are because if you're listening to this, you're awesome. We do have a lot of news today, but before we get to it, let's go over some corrections, shall we? It's time to stay. It's time for me to say I'm sorry. Oh, I made a mistake.

All right, so thank you for sending in these corrections. We'd like to try to get everything right here. As you know, we're not lawyers or doctors. Well, I'm a doctor, but like a Ross doctor from Friends, not an MD. And you know, as comedians, I just want to make sure we're getting the news right since we're comedians delving into the news world and from Kristen S. She says, good day from Australia. Medical equipment like ventilators is electrically checked when it is received by a health department, but often function isn't checked until it is used.

Minimal functions are checked by technicians yearly, but all breaks and repairs are usually detected by nurses when they're being used as the equipment breaks. Also, by the way, you are my sanity. I'm a nurse and my responsibility is to maintain stock levels and keep equipment. Oh, good lord, grom. So I feel for you. And it's her responsibility to maintain stock levels and keep equipment running. Nothing is proactive. Everything is reactive. It was difficult during the before times and it's impossible now. If you want more clarification on this whole process, feel free to contact me. Only so much I can say in 500 characters. Thank you very much for everything that you're doing, Kristen. I appreciate that. I know everyone does. From Meredith J, thank you for all you're reporting during this really difficult time. You had a good news story earlier this

week about stay about a stay on the COVID related abortion ban in Texas. Well, sadly that ban has been reinstated and similar bans are being tied by pro-life governments in others tried by pro-life governments in other states Access to safe abortion is essential. It's essential health care and a human right. Sorry for the bummer You guys rock. All right. Thank you for that correction. That's a sad one Under his eye. Okay from Allison and Sally and Gina. I am a road islander, Governor Cuomo's assertion that Rhode Island has repealed the practice of pulling over cars with New York plates as false. It's just been expanding to cover all travelers from out of state. Contrary to the rumors, New Yorkers are not being turned away or rounded up and arrested,

but their info is being taken down and they're being ordered to self-quarantine for 14 days wherever they're staying in Rhode Island. The legality of this is suspect, yes, but we haven't yet descended all the way into fascism. Also, Friday's cocktail hour was a blast. We definitely, we're definitely a little stir crazy, so being able to stream a live event and interact gave us something to be excited about. We look forward to this bright spot next Friday as well. Thank you. I had a blast too.

She's referring to our Friday pajamaajama Jam, Q&A, quarantine, cocktail hour, Bonanza. I think is what I called it. And we're doing that every Friday now at 4 p.m. Pacific time. It's for patrons. And if you're not a patron, you should become one. And if you can't totally understand, these are tough times, but we appreciate all the support. And those are a lot of fun. We had over 500 people interacting, asking questions. It was pretty amazing. It's like a live show, but remote. From Elizabeth, hello fabulous women.

I appreciate all your work in your recent pivot to things less molar. You're welcome. I am a Rhode Island native who's currently hosting a family from New York City. The current situation is that all out of state folks coming in to Rhode Island must register with the State's Department of Health

and Self-Corentine for two weeks. Initially, the Rhode Island governor targeted New Yorkers specifically and then broadened to all out of state people. Be safe, stay sane, keep your sense of humor. Thank you, I will try. Appreciate that, that was from Elizabeth. From Daniel. You're also nice.

I'm just hearing you all first thing every morning makes my day better. Not a correction, but a suggestion to keep things in perspective about COVID-19. 9-11 was a touchstone for the pre-gen Z folks. It cost approximately 3,000 lives initially with another 25,000 injured. It's grim, but I've been calculating deaths in my head as how many 9-11s it is, 10 at the time I write this worldwide. This may help to explain to older, more conservative people that often reference 9-11 to justify her renders policies. Thank you for that. Daniel, we did that on the Daily Beans. We talked about how for the next couple weeks weeks, it's gonna be a 9-11 every day.

And I wish we had a better government to cope with it and deal with it and mitigate it, but we don't. So we're relying on our governors, the here in California, do not rely on the governors and the 14 states that opened up Palm Sunday services or the guy, Peter Wells, I think his name is, he's been arrested already actually for violating stay-at-home orders.

Bussing in eight busloads of people to do an eight-hour Palm Sunday service. It's bananas, and I'm sorry if you don't have a governor that believes in science. That's got to be tough. Please reach out to us if you need to vent or talk. We're at MullershiRoute on Twitter. And you can also just email us at hello at MullershiRoute or click contact on mullershiRoute.com. Just let us know how it's going. We don't only take good news stories.

We would love to be an outlet for you to get some stuff off your chest. So those are corrections. If you have one for us, head to mullersheyrope.com, click contact, select corrections from the drop-down menu and build us a compliment sandwich, we'll get it right eventually. And with those out of the way, let's get to the news with just the facts.

All right, with everything going on, a lot can get lost in the news. So here's some things that either flew under the radar or that Trump actually deliberately tried to hide. Intelligence community inspector General Atkinson, who famously transmitted the Ukraine whistleblower report to Congress, which led to the impeachment of Donald Trump, who was impeached forever, by the way, was fired late Friday night, under the darkness of night, by the administration, this administration, as part of their efforts to purge the government of all non-loyalists. We've been seeing this happen for a while now.

From Peter Baker at the New York Times, quote, Mr. Trump made no effort at a news briefing on Saturday to pretend that the dismissal was anything other than retribution for Mr. Atkinson's action under a law requiring such complaints be disclosed to lawmakers." Quote, I thought he did a terrible job, absolutely terrible, Mr. Trump said. He took a fake report and he brought it to Congress. That's according to Trump at one of the daily, the coronavirus task force briefings, by the way. And this is capping along angry denunciation of the impeachment. He said, Trump said, the man is a disgrace to iG's.

He's a total disgrace. But Department of Justice Inspector General Horowitz released a statement on Department of Justice Letterhead, official statement on the firing of Atkinson. And it reads, quote, Inspector General Atkinson is known throughout the Inspector General community for his integrity, professionalism, and commitment to the rule of law and independent oversight. That includes his actions in handling the Ukraine-Wistleblower complaint, which the then-acting

director of national intelligence stated in congressional testimony was done by the book and consistent with the law. The Inspector General Community will continue to conduct aggressive, independent oversight of the agencies that we oversee. This includes CIGIE's pandemic, pandemic response, accountability committee, and its efforts on behalf of American taxpayers, families, businesses, patients, and healthcare providers to ensure that over $2 trillion in emergency federal spending is being used consistently with the laws mandate. That is a bold statement

from Horowitz who might not be around much longer. I tweeted February 8th after Vindamann and his brother and Gordon Sondland were removed unceremoniously. I February 8th, I said, Atkinson is next. And here we are. It took almost two months, but he is gone now. And now with this statement, I don't see horror what's hanging on for much longer either. And from the New York Times, Mr. Trump's hunt for informers and turncoats proceeds, even while most Americans are focused on the coronavirus outbreak that has killed thousands and shut down most of

the country. The president's determination to wipe out perceived treachery underscores his intense distrust of the government that he oversees at a time when he is relying on career, public health, and emergency management officials to help guide him through one of the most dangerous periods in modern American history, really excellent writing from New York Times. And it is briefing on Saturday, Mr. Trump likewise endorsed the firing of Captain Crosher of the Navy, the Roosevelt who was removed from command of the aircraft carrier, the Theodore Roosevelt, after sending his superiors a letter pleading for help

for his virus-stricken crew. Quote, he shouldn't be talking that way in a letter, Trump said. I thought it was terrible what he did. And just today, we learned from the New York Times in a separate story that Captain Crozier has tested positive for COVID-19. And Trump has announced his intent to nominate a White House lawyer, named Brian Miller is the Inspector General of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. If confirmed by the Republican Majority Senate,

Miller would become the Special Inspector General for Pandemic Recovery for the Treasury. Miller is a special assistant to Trump and senior counsel of the Office of the White House Council, and he played a key role in the White House's response to the recent impeachment of the president, who was impeached forever. So, he's installing people. Now we know Rick Grinnell is at D&I. Atkinson is gone, and Horowitz was probably soon to follow, put some beans on that. And of course, now we've got Brian Miller as the inspector general. This is the oversight inspector general for the pandemic response stimulus package or

rescue package. And of course, the Democrats fought to put this provision in that there needs to be oversight. And then this is who Trump is nominating. And in Russia-related news, the reporter for one American network was voted out of White House briefings. Just this past week, I thought everybody might appreciate that. And the White House Correspondents Association sent a letter saying, dear colleagues, as you are aware, the WHOCA issued a policy last month restricting seating in the James S. Brady Press briefing room to comply with CDC guidelines on social distancing. Under this policy, we've asked reporters who do not have a seat.

If you don't have a ticket, do not attend the press briefings. We appreciate your cooperation as we do our part to ensure the safety of the White House press corps and White House staff during this difficult time. We're writing to inform you that the WHOC board is voted this evening to remove a news outlet from the rotation for a seat in the briefing room. We did this because a reporter for this outlet twice attended press briefings in contravention of this policy. We do not take this action lightly. This is a matter of public safety and that's the WHOC board.

And yeah, apparently the OAM lady was asked to leave. She's there three days in a row and she didn't have a ticket. And she was asked to leave. And she's like, now I'm here. She actually said, I'm here at the special invitation of Stephanie Grisham. So we'll touch you. Maybe go out for cocktails after. We'll be right back with hot notes with Jordan and I'll discuss some issues with the foreign intelligence surveillance court that's going on right now with the aforementioned Department of Justice Inspector General Horowitz. He's just put out a memo. It's pretty interesting, so stay with us.

Hey everybody, it's A.G. in this episode. A muller she wrote is brought to you by Beta Brand, getting ready for work and deciding if today is a stylish day or a comfortable Hey everybody, it's A.G. in this episode, a muller she wrote, is brought to you by Beta Brand. Getting ready for work and deciding if today is a stylish day or a comfortable day, now you don't have to compromise. Thanks to Beta Brand's DressPant Yoga Pants. It's all the same thing. Beta Brand's DressPant Yoga Pants are so flexible, they're versatile, they're perfect for the office, home, gym, or anywhere else your day takes you, although your days are probably

just taking you home right now. But with all those Zoom meetings, you want to be comfy, feel like you're in your jammies without being in your jammies, and that's where Beta Brand comes into play. You never have to sacrifice comfort or function for style. Beta Brand's dress pant yoga pants are very comfy, perfectly stretchy, and they stay wrinkle free, no matter what. They have all the style of dress pants with the stretch fit and feel of yoga pants. You can actually do yoga in these pants, I have. And whatever your style, Beta Brand has the pants to match with dozens of colors,

patterns, cuts, and styles. They have boot cut, straight legs, skinny cropped, and more. They even have a pair with eight pockets. I have three, I have four pairs now. The cropped straight leg, and I have two pairs of the eight pockets pants because I love them so much. I can leave my purse at home. And when I travel, which I am not right now, but when I do, they don't wrinkle. But when I do Zoom meetings and I wear these, they do not wrinkle. So it's awesome. They pack and travel beautifully. And I can't say enough good things about these pants. And the people, the customer service there is incredible. I got to travel to San Francisco on tour last year

we met at their offices. We had a meet and greet there. Absolutely fantastic people, incredible customer service and just a wonderful group of folks. And now they offer premium denim with the same flexibility and comfort as yoga pants. You can wear jeans, but they're not jeans. So I highly recommend trying out beta brand if you want the most comfortable great looking versatile pants ever in the history of your life. Right now our listeners can get 20% off their first order when you go to betabrand.com slash AG. That's 20% off your first order at betabrand.com slash AG.

Millions of women agree. These are the most comfortable pants you'll ever wear to work. Go to betabrand.com slash AG for 20% off now. Hot notes. Hello, everybody. This is Jordan's Hot notes. Hello everybody. This is Jordan's Hot Note. From the kitchen, always from the kitchen. These are the kitchen times here.

I am going to be covering a piece by Washington Post. This piece gives us more insight in how exactly the US fucked up the response to COVID-19 so badly. And essentially what happens, you know, if you could boil it down, is the alarms were sounded and the shrimp failed to heat the warnings. And because of that, there's an inadequate response on multiple levels throughout pretty much every step of this process. And it's left us in this place now where we were a country that typically you would

expect everybody to be looking to us to handle something like this with preparedness and efficiency and we didn't. And because of that, more people have died. And it's shameful. It's shameful. There's no other way to put it really. Washington Post does a great job in this article, drawing upon anecdotes and stories and direct conversations with people that have direct knowledge of the matter and their sources are very intertwined and all of this so you can take

them as credible. But I'm just gonna get into detailing some of how this all got so fucked up. So trigger, trigger warning in terms of this not being a super positive note, but it is good in terms of knowing what happened, and I encourage everybody to read the article if that suits your fancy, if that helps you sort of wrap your head around things, kind of knowing exactly where things went wrong. I know it helps me. It's frustrating, beyond belief. Frustrating is a, that word is insufficient to explain all of this, but I did find that

reading all of this at least, you know, I didn't find myself as much being left with the confoundedness of just wondering how we fuck this up so bad. So let's just start from from pretty much the beginning. January 3rd was the first formal notice that Trump got of the virus. And then in the coming days, experts were attempting to convey how serious it was, but 70 days would pass before he started taking this seriously. Right. And not only did it take him that long to begin conveying how serious this was to the American public, but during that time period during those 70 days, he was actively downplaying it as we will remember and as we will never forget. The most consequential failure involved a breakdown in efforts to develop a diagnostic test that could be mass-produced and distributed across the United States,

enabling agencies to map early outbreaks of the disease and impose quarantine measures to contain them. That's Washington Post's words. At one point, a FDA official apparently laid into the CDC saying that the lapses and protocol that they had were so bad that the FDA said that they would have shut them down They would have shut the CDC down if they were a commercial rather than government entity That is how not on top of their shit. They were that is insane On top of that simultaneously you have Trump downplaying the severity of this You have Trump downplaying the severity of this. We all remember it. I don't, again, we will never, ever forget it. The fact that he is now trying to rebrand himself

is a sort of like, you know, person that takes this seriously is a complete joke. There's a poll that showed that more Republicans and Democrats were being influenced by Trump's words. Proof, you know, that comes in the form of a huge number of Republicans refusing to change travel plans, refusing to follow social distancing guidelines, stalking up on supplies, or otherwise taking the coronavirus threat seriously. This is a quote from Gregory F. Treverton.

He's former chairman of the National Intelligence Council. He said, this has been a real blow to the sense that America was competent. Gregory stepped down from the NIC in January 2017. He's now a teacher professor at USC. He goes on to say that was part of our global role. Traditional friends and allies look to us because they thought we could be competently called upon to work with them in a crisis. This has been the opposite of that." So it's embarrassing. It's incredibly embarrassing and not only is it embarrassing,

but it's deadly. And there were so many points where he could have turned it around and the leadership just didn't do it. Azhar, he is HHS head, he apparently when he tried to convey the severity of the Trump, Trump wasn't listening. Azhar told several associates that Trump believed Azhar was a alarmist, that's a quote, alarmist. And Azar had a really, really hard time keeping Trump's attention on the issue. And this is, when this is all transpiring, you know, impeachment was kind of at the tail end. And there are just so many reports of him being unable to think, talk, do anything other than just ranting incessantly about impeachment. So just completely choosing to not focus on the imminent threat of what he is, you know, now claiming equates to wartime and he's calling himself a wartime president. It's like, well, okay, cool.

So you saw a war coming. People told you a war was coming and you did nothing about it. And that's exactly what's being confirmed by so many different accounts throughout this article. He, as are his approach, he instructed subordinates to work really quickly to establish a nationwide surveillance system to track the spread of the coronavirus. to establish a nationwide surveillance system to track the spread of the coronavirus. This is basically just like a version of what the CDC does every year to monitor new strains of the ordinary flu on steroids, but the issue is that doing so would just require so many resources that US officials couldn't get their shit together to do. For example, a diagnostic test that could actually, accurately identify who's infected,

and that was such a huge flop. It was so poorly executed and poorly done. If you'll remember, they were doing stuff where like, they were, the CDC was stuff where like they they were, you know, the CDC was supposed to be developing the test and then they there would be test results, but they like weren't trustworthy enough. So they had to send the actual test results into the CDC for like a second confirmation, basically, just so so incredibly inefficient The other thing that they were up against as our as ours team also had a massive

Issue with Producing them in a mass scale the CDC is just like not equipped to do that. That's not not what they do So they couldn't they can do it well And then also China was refusing to share the viral samples that they had collected and were using to develop their own tests. So that's another obstacle that they were up against. And while China was refusing to share that information, Trump was continuously praising President of China, right?

This is just like, he always manages to praise people at the worst times. It's like he tries to find when we would need some sort of, like his misplaced solidarity just baffles me. I don't understand it. And I really don't understand it in the context of his followers that are so nationalistic. And the fact that he like sides with leaders of other nations that are actively doing something to undermine our country. It's like that's when he'll choose to support the person publicly. It's so it makes no fucking sense. And he was doing this. He was doing this with President G. And despite the growing evidence that Beijing

was concealing their numbers of their outbreak, and putting roadblocks on cooperation on so many fronts, it took forever to finally get a viral of sample that from them. So then we moved to January 22nd, looking at when Trump received his first question about coronavirus within an interview on CNBC. And he asked whether he was worried about a potential pandemic. Trump said, no, not at all. And we have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China.

It's going to be just fine. So January 22nd, that's weeks after he was initially made aware of this problem and the severity of the problem. And January, that early January day, that's like the official day that he got an official warning. There was still talks that were happening before that too. So he at this point has known coming up on a month, right? And he's still saying that they have it totally under control. But instead of the US working to secure things, you know, like ventilators, like PPE,

like testing, like the things that are actually going to tackle the virus once it hits the US. Instead of focusing on that, US officials were apparently more, not even apparently, they were absolutely verifiably more concerned and preoccupied with logistical problems, including how to evacuate Americans from China. But by that point, 300,000 people had come into the United States from China over the previous month. So it was made very clear that the State Department had their agenda that just perfectly fits into Trump's very nationalistic, put the borders up, don't let anybody come inside sort of points on his agenda. And they're driving home, they're driving home that part when it's like, it's already

spread. It's already here. We need a plan and an executable plan that we can do immediately. That's gonna start addressing the fact that this virus is going to start killing Americans. And they were not focusing on that. They were flopping every step of the way. Late January, early February,

leaders at HHS sent two letters to the White House Office of Management and Budget asking to use its transfer authority to shift 136 million dollars of department funds into pools that could be tapped for combating the corona virus Azar and his aides also began raising the need for a multi-billion dollar supplemental budget request to send to Congress. But at this time, those budget hawks in the White House, right, they argued that appropriating too much money at once when they were only a few US cases would be viewed as alarmist. So when it was the time to allocate resources in a way that would actually be effective

They knowingly did not do that They made the choice to not do that because it would be viewed as alarmist Which would have been an appropriate View by the way the alarms should be sounded. They were already sounded. They had been being sounded. It was time to be alarmed. It had been time. And they wouldn't do this because they didn't want to come off as alarmist. It's one of those things that I don't think the country will ever forgive Trump for, but it's to the point where it doesn't even matter. matter, you know, the damage that's been done so far passes anything that relates to

his reputation who gives a fuck. The real existential threat of this at this point is that people are dying because of them. When they did this, they missed a narrow window to stockpile ventilators masks and other PPE before the administration was bidding against many other desperat nations. And state officials fed up with federal failures, began scouring for supplies themselves. So this is exactly the situation that New York State finds himself in, for example. The fact that they have to bid against other states for this equipment. And then FEMA is coming in and bidding as if they're their own state entity. And the individual states are bidding against FEMA when really FEMA should have just come in and done their own

bid, gotten all the gear that was required under one like massive, you know, procurement and then divvied it up to everybody else. Instead, they're on the same pool of buyers as the states are. It makes no fucking sense. And that's Trump's fault. 100% that is Trump's fault. Another thing, uh, top health officials had erroneously concluded that the outbreak would probably be limited in scale inside the United States. Apparently, that's based off of that having been the case with other infections, and they were going off of models of the past. That just were not relevant to what's happening now. And they based off of those old models too.

They thought the CDC could be trusted on its own to develop a coronavirus diagnostic test. But like I said previously, the CDC is not meant or built to mass produce those tests. It's during this time though, Azar seemed really committed to his plan and pursued the plan that he was going to secure tests from the CDC and then build a national coronavirus surveillance

system by relying on an existing network of labs used to track the ordinary flu. So that's really what Azar was trying to do. He was trying to tap into the CDC's resources that they used for the ordinary flu. And just even though it was going to be rocky, you know, just stick to this idea, let's try to just adhere to this roadmap that already sort of exists with the CDC and, you know, try to give them the resources that they need. That's the sense I'm getting from this at least. Try to give them the resources that they need and hope that they can just scale

this up to the level that it needs to be. But they couldn't and that effort collapsed when the CDC failed its basic assignment to create a working test and the task force rejected a SARS plan. After that ineffective testing, you know, that requires you to send the results into the CDC eventually, the FDA gave private labs to go ahead to start developing their test. And that kind of brings us to where we're at right now. I was sort of confused about how that transition happened.

You know, I was like, wait, I thought the CDC was supposed to be doing this. And then you start seeing random companies popping up. I forget, I was like, wait, I thought the CDC was supposed to be doing this. And then you start seeing random random companies popping up. I forgets Everly well, I think is any one of the companies that could just be a random capitalist company floating around in my brain. But I think that's the name of the company that does a bunch of different at home testing. I saw that they're like coming up with one and other. Yeah, so there's always private ones coming out and trying to do it. And I have done it successfully. And this is, you know, what I just covered is only, it's a lot of the major problems, but there are so, so many other issues and things that were just mismanaged along every

step of the way. So not only were they not preparing, not only were they not heating the warnings that this was coming, not only were they refusing to convey the fact that it was coming to the American people. They were just, I mean, the list goes on, list goes on and on forever. It's like the worst response on the federal level.

It's fucking embarrassing and they failed everybody. They failed, like hardcore failed everybody. And now the states are trying to do this more or less on their own. I know Cuomo's, you know, he throws bones to Trump and I hope. And would like to believe that Trump is actually doing things that are helpful right now. I can, like I said, I said this in one of our other episodes. If Cuomo's saying that Trump is helpful, I'm just going to take that as a win. But ultimately, they fucked up, Trump and them fucked up, so hardcore.

And it's the most predictable fuck up. You have a person that has a distinct, a complete distinct for facts, institutions, longstanding institutions, and leadership. He hates all of those things. He's not a leader, he's not a truth teller, he's a fucking worst, and this just sucks. I'm like mourning, I'm mourning so much the fact that this would have been so different if we had a competent leader. It's like, it's not even, it's completely past politics. I don't I don't care that he's a fucking Republican whenever he's not even a Republican. It's complete

disgusting psychopath chameleon, but if we had someone in there that had any sort of remote amount of respect for facts in the lives, he doesn't he does not care that people are dying. He literally does not care. You see it when he talks about himself. He's fucking in his own press conferences. He's making jokes about like models and like hooking up with models and shit. He's inserting narcissistic comments like sex jokes into his fucking briefings about this to the American people. He is the fucking worst. He is so bad. There is no, if he gets reelected in 2020, I have no, but I, I mean, the fact that he got elected in 2016, I felt like I at least the fact that he got elected in 2016, I felt like I at least could justify that in my head

sort of just because of this information campaigns. And just the rise of racism and white nationalism and all of these, at least that sort of makes sense. Like stuff adds up kind of. Like there's a lot of America that does suck and there's a lot of forces that are coming in and trying to manipulate those people and capitalize off of them to get someone

that extra sucks into the presidency. And that's what happened in 2016, but in 2020, if this has happened and people are people are dying People you can't you cannot dispute the facts and the numbers are higher than they are even being reported right now Obviously, right? We know that that's like only logical that they're not counting everybody That's actually testing positive or actually dying because of COVID-19. We just saw people are dying, not getting marked down as COVID-19 deaths, even though they probably are. When you have all of those facts, and it is so unarguable that they did a shitty job and that people, so many people, so many more people

died because of this, because of them. This is a completely apolitical thing. The fact that there's a possibility he's going to get reelected in 2020 just, I truly cannot wrap my head around that. I really hope that doesn't happen. But we look to leadership in the States and in Congress now, Maggie does only hope that it's gonna get better as this goes on.

So, sorry that that was kind of ranty. How does fucking, how do these like, how does Rush Limbaugh do this? Just sitting front of his microphone and just fucking rant. It's exhausting. It's truly exhausting. And I've been staring at the same speckle on the wall this entire time. And it feels lonely and sad. I hope you all are doing okay. Um, thank you for, for listening to my Kydren Hotnet. And I will see you all next week. Quick plug for myself.

Make sure to check out the new podcast I disagree. It's on iTunes, Spotify, everywhere you listen. We talk about, you know, I have a friend that I disagree with and we talk about politics and other things on there. And it's a little bit more lighthearted if you're looking for a nice decompression. Listen, other than that, my final thoughts. Yeah, that's about it.

Thanks, everybody. Please, please be well, be safe, stay home. All right, have a good day. Bye. Thank you, Jordan, for sending in that update. I would like to talk about the Russia investigation for a minute. If you're a listener of Mola Shiroit, you know we sort of maybe focused a little bit on what was going on with the Trump and Russia. First of all, as we know, one of the Republican rallying cries of disinformation

regarding the Russian investigation in 2016 is that the Obama administration wiretapped the Trump campaign by using the Foni-Steel Dossier to obtain a FISA warrant on Carter Page. And that claim, while totally untrue, by the way, was bolstered by the Inspector General finding that there were 17 errors in the process to obtain the warrant on Carter Page, which, of course, Trump and his sick of fans jumped on as proof that the deep state is real and Russia is hoax. As we know, the Russian investigation was not based on the steel dossier. It was based on Alexander Downer from Australia contacting us and saying, hey, your boy, Papadopoulos, is telling everybody,

including our guy, Alexander Downer, that he has dirt on Hillary in the form of Russian emails and is working with a guy named Misfsood. And so that whole steel dossier does not what started the investigation. And the whole steel dossier by the way, none of which has been disproven. And we also know that the page the Carter Page FISA was not based entirely on the dossier. It was one tiny part of like an 800-page application. And Carter Page and his Padres Floppy Hat Night Hat has long since been fired from the Trump campaign when Trump's Department of Justice approved the Pfizer application. Those were all signed, the renewal was signed by Rod Rosenstein. Not to mention, Page wasn't charged with anything

obtained under the Pfizer that was used under the FISA that was used. None of the information was used. Well, the same inspector general that issued the report on the 17 errors in the Carter Page FISA application process, that is the Department of Justice Inspector General Horowitz, who we just talked about a little bit earlier, who was defending the intelligence community Inspector General Atkinson for being fired in what everyone's right now referring to as the next Friday night massacre, just one in a series of many.

Horowitz issued a management advisory memo to Chris Ray. That's the director of the FBI subject line reading, quote, audit of the FBI's execution of its woods procedures for applications filed with the foreign intelligence surveillance court relating to US persons, unquote, in which this memo, Horowitz told Ray, it appeared that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had not been following a policy that

requires law enforcement to compile extensive documentation for its surveillance applications. Those are known as the Woods Procedures. And this is not just for page, but it seems like it's just for about anyone who gets a FISA tap put on them. Horowitz did a review of 29 sample cases and found that Woods files were absent for four of the applications and an average of 20 errors per application for the rest. So the 17 errors found with the page FISA is actually better than average for Trump's

FBI. In the surveillance court, or in the surveillance court's order on Friday, it told the FBI to turn over the target names and docket numbers of each of the 29 applications. The court also ordered the FBI to assess whether the errors were significant and, quote, whether any such material,

missed statements and emissions render invalid in whole or in part, authorizations granted by the court, the court, forstatements, and emissions render invalid in whole or in part, authorizations granted by the court, the court for the court that target in the reviewed docket or other dockets. Basically saying, you need to look at these tellers of any of these warrants were actually unfounded. Now, DOJIG Horowitz determined that the Carter page FISA warrant, even despite the 17 errors, was founded and it wasn't done with any bias, which kind of poked a bunch of holes in the deep state argument, along with all the other facts in the case.

So now, this surveillance court is ordering the FBI to hand over and assess and do all this stuff. So that's really, really interesting considering the outcry from the right about the terrible FISA court. If we've I've taken issue with the Fisk for a while, and this shows that on average 20 errors in all 29 sample cases, four were completely missing the woods files. So there you have it, and just keep, you know, not that it matters because the Carter Page Fies had nothing to do with the opening of the Russian investigation or any of the prosecution that followed all of the bunch of people who went to prison had nothing to do with Rod Rosenstein, by the way, approving

had nothing to do with Rod Rosenstein, by the way, approving the renewals for this wire tap on Carter Page, despite his awesome floppy hats. So that is my hot note. Thank you again to Jordan for sending years in. We'll be right back with a discussion with 30-year former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner about the big molar news of the week. You don't want to miss it, so stick around. Hey, everybody, it's A.G. One thing I found while doing research for Mollershi wrote is the deeper you news of the week. You don't want to miss it, so stick around. Hey everybody, it's A.G. One thing I found while doing research

from Mola Shiroot is the deeper you dig, the more layers you uncover. That's part of what I love about the puzzle game, best fiends, but without all the correct corruption and confidence and treason, although there are slimy snails, slugs, actually. Best fiends is a awesome distraction. It's so soothing,

and the colors are beautiful, and the design is incredible. And when I need a break from the insane politics and news today and any day, I love to play. Either I just play best fiends. And the more you play, the more fun and exciting it gets because you get to level up your characters, you reach each new level. It's like you're uncovering a new layer in the story. And once you do this, you get to be part of it though. So it's really awesome. It's incredibly relaxing. It's an amazingly fun game app that's free to download. It's a five-star rated game with bright, vibrant designs and fun characters. It combines an exciting story, but with challenging puzzles to engage your brain. It keeps me sharp in these muddy lockdown days. But it's a casual game. Anyone can play. I'm not a gamer, but I totally love this game.

You collect tons of characters and you need them to strategically use for each level. I'm over level 100 now, which is incredible. Hashtag me at Hashtag Best Fiends at Amalashirot. Let me know what level you're on. And so it's just so much fun, and you can share your progress via social media as well. Engage your brain with fun puzzles and collect tons of cute characters at the same time. It has thousands of levels already. With new levels of events and characters added every month, it's hours of fun right at

your fingertips and you can play offline if your internet's not working. It doesn't require the internet. With over 100 million downloads and tons of five star reviews, best fiends is a must-play. Download best fiends free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That's friends without the R best fiends as a must play. Download best fiends free on the Apple App Store or Google Play. That's friends without the R best fiends. Hey everybody, welcome back. Joining us today is NBC News and MSNBC Legal Analyst, former 30 year federal prosecutor with the US Attorney's Office

in DC, DC Chief of Homicide and Army Veteran Jag. Hey, Glenn Kirschner, how are you? I'm good, how are you? Good. I'm glad to speak to you. How is it going over there in your neck of the woods? You know, we're all sheltered in place here in northern Virginia. I'm right outside of Washington, D.C. And you know, it could be worse. Everybody here for the most part is healthy and safe, and we've got groceries. So, you know, we'll try to wet it this storm. How about you?

Uh, same, same. I think, uh, I think everybody's doing everything they can where we live and it's nice to see everybody pulling together and doing the right thing, despite whatever's coming out of those White House task force press briefings. Yeah. Um, what I wanted to talk to you about today, and this is big news, and I'm glad you came on Mullershey wrote for this because this is sort of one of the things we've been waiting

for for a while. A while back, Judge Reggie Walton, I believe he's a Bush appointee, and he was very concerned about the characterization, mischaracterization of William Barr's, you know, memo that he released about the findings of the Mueller report. And he was also concerned, he expressed concern in his court about under, you know, in a FOIA lawsuit for the unredacted Mueller report about the appropriateness of the redactions and maybe having to review them, himself, to see if they're appropriate. And as a response to that, he demanded, he ordered, I should say, that the Department of Justice hand over the full unredacted Mueller report to him and they gave the Department of Justice

until March 30th to do so, and whoa, on March they did they handed it over to him and so this is very very big news Tell us what you think you know what are your top your top line Thoughts on this are and how this could impact you know the entire molar investigation Yeah, so I agree with you. It's very good news because now somebody uh... i agree with you it's very good news because now somebody uh... that frankly i personally trust one million percent judge reggie walton and i'll tell you why i trust him in a minute he now has his hands on the unredacted muller report and you know i have the muller report in front of me have muller report will

travel and you know it is so heavily redacted that there is so much information in there that I think the public deserves to know and frankly will inform our opinion about who committed what crimes because there were a whole rack of crimes being committed by Trump and company that made their way into the Mueller report. We just don't know about it all yet. Now, when you say that Reggie Walton, first of all, let me talk about him for a minute. He was not only a Bush appointee,

but when we go back through the history of Judge Reggie Walton, he started out as a federal prosecutor in my former office, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia many years ago. Then in 1981, he was appointed by Ronald Reagan to be a superior court judge in Washington, DC. In 91, he was reappointed as a judge in that same court by George H. W. Bush. In 2001, he was appointed by George W. Bush to be a federal court judge in Washington, DC.

And then a few years later, Chief Justice Roberts designated him as one of the fives of court judges I mean the man I will tell you is a lion of federal criminal justice circles. I used to handle cases before him when he was trying murder cases in superior court as a judge in the 90s and I mean the man is just plain old truth justice in the American way. He is going to do the right thing by the American people when he takes his time. He goes through the unredacted Mueller report and he decides what should be released, pursuant to this FOIA litigation,

Freedom of Information Act litigation, brought by a couple of organizations that one named Epic, which stands for the Electronic Privacy Information Center and then Buzzfeed also joined it. And you know, when you look at the FOIA law, I think enacted back in 1966, it really is all about government transparency. I mean, we are supposed to see what's going on inside of the federal government that quite frankly

we as taxpayers fund and the whole purpose of the FOIA laws is to basically inform the electorate so that they can kind of keep an eye on our government, on our democracy. So we are hopefully about to see a whole lot of what Bill Barr tried to redact out of the Mueller report. Yeah, and that's specifically why I wanted to talk to you about this. I had a feeling you had some experience with this particular judge, and we've been following this case very closely on the Mueller She wrote podcast for a while now, wondering where this was going to go.

It's just been very interesting to hear what he has to say from the bench about the mischaracterizations forth by Bill Barr. And I think importantly, because you're right, a lot of this is redacted. And he now has it. Of course, he's postponed his review of it until April 20th because of coronavirus considerations. I personally would probably just take it home with me,

read it by the fire. It was kind of like when Judge Jackson got her hands on the unredacted portions of the Roger Stone Mueller report parts. And I'm like, oh, she knows everything now. But what's interesting to me and what strikes me first on this is if you remember Appendix D, there were 14 cases, or 14 cases handed off to other agencies. Two were public that we knew about.

12 were redacted. Judge Walton knows what cases now were handed off and we'll be able to scrutinize the disposition of those cases based on what he knows as far as where they are in the courts or if they've been shuttered or if they've been whatever's going on with them. He knows what those cases are. So I think that that's gonna be very interesting

to see what he feels if anything the public should know about those. Yeah, and I remember appendix D talked about 14 cases and investigations. And I think when we teased it out, like you said, there were a couple of cases that were already brought. So we kind of knew what those cases were, but that left a dozen investigations that had been referred out by Bob Mueller to other US Attorney's offices, the Southern District of Virginia, the DC US Attorney's Office,

to name three that likely received some of those investigations. And I have to believe those investigations have been worked over the course of the past year. Now, could they have been down by Bill Barr? I suppose they could have been. If you tried to shut them down in a way that those local U.S. attorneys' offices disagreed with

or had a concern about. I suspect some of that might have bubbled up and we might have heard about some of it. So I am hopeful that this sort of long quiet period with respect to the Mueller report is not a sign that all of those cases are dead, but a sign that they're all being actively worked and they will be brought when the time is right. I'll play it if I'm a prosecutor. I am probably not going to drop charges when I mean drop. I am not going to ask grand juries to vote indictments on people who I believe President

Trump will pardon. I will wait until the minute after he leaves office in January 2021, assuming he will be defeated and I can't imagine. He won't be defeated. That, as a prosecutor, is when I'm going to drop charges on, when I say drop, I'm going to indict cases on the dawn juniors of the world. And anybody else that Donald Trump might otherwise want to part because the minute he leads the Oval Office, he can't pardon people anymore. Hmm. So you're saying we could see all the indictments that we thought we were going to see.

We could see those after Trump leaves office. Yeah. Why go through the hollow, hollow exercise of having those indictments brought at a time that Trump can just issue pardons to everybody. Yeah, and another thing too, I think that it would be interesting to know, and I don't know if this is something that this judge would consider important enough for the public to have a right to know, but these these investigations that were handed off, it seems like we in the beginning, we all thought Rod Rosenstein was this guy who was standing up for Mueller

and preventing him from being curtailed, and et cetera, et cetera. Things sort of went on after a while, we found out he said he told Trump he would land the plane, and we all know that he had limited the scope of what Mueller was doing, although Mueller came out and said, I was never told not to investigate something. But I don't know whether investigation is what he means by investigation or investigate

something means to hand it off to somebody else. So we might get a glimpse into why these cases were investigations were handed off to other US attorneys office, other agencies, because of the limited scope of the Mueller report, for example, the financial stuff. Like, we know that the Cohen financial stuff, Trump organization stuff was handed off, and then that went dark, and then, you know, Sy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, picked it up after a judge forced the Department of Justice to close their case, right? So how many other times did this happen? And why? Yeah, and here's the problem. We're all very excited now because we know that at least one honest

broker of the truth, Judge Reggie Walton, has the unredacted mother report in his hands. However, we have to keep in mind that Judge Walton will still be making some decisions about what can and what should not be disclosed at this moment in time. There are eight or nine exceptions to the FOIA law that allows judges and allows the government to not disclose matters within the executive branch, national security, trade, secrets, personal medical information, law enforcement exception, mapping functions, and a few others. And here's the problem. If, as we just discussed, a number of these cases that had been referred out courtesy

of appendix D to other US attorney's offices for continued investigation to be brought as charges when the time is right. Well, then Judge Walton may very well say the time is not yet right for me to disclose information about those investigations that are still pending. So it's not like it's an all or nothing proposition in Judge Jackson will say it's time to give it all over to the public. So I think we may still experience some incremental frustration when maybe we think Reggie Jackson doesn't give us,

or Reggie Jackson, Reggie Walton doesn't give us everything we would like to see right now if he holds back certain materials, I trust that he's doing it for the right reasons. Well, exactly. As you said, like if you said if you were a prosecutor, you'd be waiting until January 21, 2021 to bring these charges. And if these are open and ongoing investigations that could be compromised, if they were made public. He's not going to make those, he's not going to make them public. That would compromise any ongoing investigation

that is happening in any of these U.S. attorney's offices, etc. Right? I mean, that's, would be one major reason not to not to put anything out. Absolutely. I agree, but what we also know is that Reggie Walton will not pull his punches because as we saw in that 20 something page order that I have sitting on my lap right now when he said things like and I quote Bill Bar do beestly handled the release of the Mueller report bill bar attempts to spin the findings and conclusions of the Mueller report bill bars characterization of the Mueller report has been directly contradicted by the Mueller report and then he goes on to say bill bar lax candor I mean this is not Harvey Weinstein he's talking about or or Bernie made off this is the attorney general of the United States that you know judge Reggie Walton a lion of the DC criminal justice circles you know, Judge Reggie Walton, a lion of the DC criminal justice circles, you know, is calling Bill Barr out for what he is. I mean, that is pretty darn dramatic.

Yeah, I think it's lost on some people how amazing that is. Kind of like how it was lost on some people when Mueller went to paper. After Barr came out, did his characterization. Mueller put it on paper that he was mischaracterizing his thing and wrote a letter and a bunch of people, oh, he wrote a letter, big deal. It is an extremely big fucking deal for Mueller to go to paper like that. And so- It's a huge deal for somebody like Bob Mueller, who was my homicide chief. He taught me how to be a federal homicide prosecutor.

And, you know, there were two things that I think were probably wrestling inside of Bob Mueller. One was you do not criticize your boss, the attorney general of the United States, and unfortunately, because he was operating under the special counsel statute and not the old independent counsel statute. Bill Barr remained his boss. That's something we're going to have to revisit moving forward, moving back to the independent council statute, because now we've learned of the damage that can be done by the combination of a corrupt president and the corrupt attorney general. But, you know, I'm sure Bob Mueller was like, on the one hand, I am a soldier. I do not criticize my superior. On the other hand, Bob Mueller is a soldier,

and as soldiers, we are taught that you must disobey an unlawful order. And when Bob Mueller earned the Attorney General lying about his findings and conclusions, Mueller's findings and conclusions, I think that instinct kicked in. And that's why, as you say, he went to paper and he criticized Bill Barr for,

let's call it, what it is, lying about the findings and conclusions of his report. Yeah, and that was a big, I couldn't impart upon people what a big deal that was at the time. And I don't even fully probably understand what a big deal that is because I haven't worked with Bob Mueller like you have, but I think I really do think that this unredacted Mueller report in the hands of this judge is a wonderful thing for democracy and justice. And it's a lot bigger deal than the Supreme Court case right now where we're trying to get the Mueller grand jury materials to the house because we'll never see any of that, you know, maybe not. We didn't see the Jaworsky grand jury materials

until two years ago from Watergate. So this, I think, is our best, these journalists with their freedom of information act requests and these judges who are beholden to justice, I think, are our best and last hope for some truth and for some transparency. Yeah, I agree. And the good news is whatever was most important in those grand jury transcripts, which I agree were never likely to see, will be included in the mother report, at least the summary of it. So hopefully we'll be getting the good stuff.

Yeah, well, that's probably what's behind all those redaction buyers, you know. Yeah. Yeah, well, that's probably what's behind all those redaction bars, you know? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, Glenn, thank you very much. NBC, MSNBC legal analyst, 30-year veteran, a federal prosecutor. You've worked with Bob Mueller. You've worked with Judge Reggie Walton. I really appreciate you coming on, shutting some light on some of the things that we can expect from this. I appreciate it. Yeah, happy to be with you, thanks. All right, everybody. That is our show. That is Mola Shiroit for Sunday. What is it, April 5th? Poems Sunday.

I kind of remember what that is being a Catholic. It's been a while. It's been a while. Stay home. There's no need to go to church in these times. Or for me, I think anytime, but, you know, especially right now. Thank you, everyone, for contributing to this show.

Thanks to Glenn Kirschner for coming on and talking to me about the unredacted Mueller report. I'm so excited if I were Judge Walton, I'd be at home right now. Just, I don't know, smoke a J reading the report. You probably can't, though, as a federal judge. It's probably for the best. Anyway, it's, thank you to Jordan for sending in your hot note. And thanks to Mandy Reader for sending in the corrections,

corralling all the corrections and sending them today. Again, if you have any corrections, head to mullershierote.com. Thank you, again, patrons and subscribers alike. We appreciate all of your support, helping us get through these times. And if there's anything we can do for you, hit us up a hello at Muller She wrote. And we'll see what we can do. If you want to remain anonymous, make sure you say that.

Otherwise, we're just going to shout your name out to everybody. Anyway, please take care of yourselves and take care of each other. I've been AG, and this is Muller She wrote. Muller She wrote is executive produced and directed by A.G. 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 a research by A.G., 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 mullershirope.com.

Hi, I'm Dan Dunn, host of What We're Drinking with Dan Dunn, the most wildly entertaining adult beverage-themed podcast in the history of the medium. That's right. The boozy best of the best, baby! And we have the cool celebrity promos to prove it. Check this out. Hi, I'm Allison Janney and you're here with me on What We're Drinking with Dan Dunn. the best baby and we have the cool celebrity promos to prove it. Check this out. Hi I'm Allison Janney and you're here with me on what we're drinking with Dan Dunn. And that's my sexy voice. Boom. Boom is right Academy Award winner Allison Janney.

As you can see celebrity's just love this show. How cool is that? Hey this is Scottie Bippin and you're listening to the Dan Dunn Show, and wait, hold on. The name of the show is what? Alright, sure. Scottie Pippin momentarily forgot the show's name, but there's a first time for everything. Hey everyone, this is Scoot McNary. I'm here with Dan Dunn on What Are You Drinking? What's calling it?

Fine, twice. But famous people really do love this show. Hi, this is Will Forte, and you're, for some reason, listening to what we're drinking with Dan Dunn. Now, what do you mean for some reason, Will Forte? What's going on? Hi, this is Kurt Russell. Listen, I escaped from New York, but I couldn't get the hell out of Dan Dunn's happy hour.

Please send help. Send help. Oh, come on Kurt Russell. Can somebody out there please help me? I'm Deed of Antease and you're listening to what we're drinking with Dan Dunn. Let me try one more time. Come on.

Is it right? What we're drinking? It's amazing. Is it right? Ah, that's better. So be like Deed of Antease friends and listen to what we're drinking with Dan Dunn, available wherever you get your podcasts.