Jack - The Nixon Tapes of Stupid Watergate (ft. Andrew Torrez)

Episode Date: September 30, 2019

This week on Mueller, She Wrote, we're talking all things Impeachment and dive in deep on what this whistleblower complaint means, who is implicated and our beans on what happens next. Follow us on Twitter @muellershewrote or support our show at patreon.com/muellershewrote. 

Hey, it's Kimberly Host of The Start Me Up Podcast. If you like your politics with some loose talk and salty language, you're going to love my show. I interview the coolest people like Mary Trump, Kathy Griffin, and DNC Chair Jamie Harrison. The Start Me Up Podcast has an easy-going, casual style and a strong emphasis on left-leaning politics. We also have Frank discussions about sex

and more than a few spirited rants. Just visit patreon.com slash start me up or wherever you get your podcast and start listening today. Thanks to third love for supporting Mueller, she wrote third love knows there's a perfect bra for everyone So right now they're offering our listeners 15% off their first order. Go to third love comm slash a g to find yours today And thanks to policy genius for supporting Mueller, she wrote policy genius is the easy way to shop for life insurance online. In just two minutes, you can compare quotes from top insurers to find your best price at policy genius.com. And thanks to Beta Brand for supporting Miller She wrote, Beta Brand has the pants to match your style. They

have boot cuts straight like skinny cropped premium denim six button and wide leg pants in dozens of colors patterns and cuts. So go to beta brand.com slash AG and get 20% off your dress yoga pants. This is Jack betabrand.com slash AG and get 20% off your dress yoga pants. This is Jack Bryan, the co-writer and director of Active Measures and you are listening to Mother Shiro, Lucky You. 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, and I have communications at the Russians. What do I have to get involved with? Food and Fire? I have nothing to do with food. 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 Wrote. I'm your host A.G. and with me today, or Jelisa Johnson. Hello. And Jordan Coburn. Hello. What an incredible week. We went from zero to 60 in one phone call. And there doesn't seem to be an end to these stories about what corruption the president and his lawyers are trying to hide We aren't used to things happening this fast. We cover the Mueller investigation That was really slow and methodical and no leaks Everything we got was from public reporting and we put it all together over the course of two years

And then when the Mueller report came out it turned out to just be all that in one giant report of two years and then when the Mueller report came out it turned out to just be all that in one giant report. This whistleblower scandal is traveling at the speed of light. I mean if you think about it, we only got the whistleblower complaint Thursday. Crazy. Since then the DNI has testified Giuliani through Pompeo under the bus, Trump through Giuliani and Pence under the bus, and the United States of America. We have subpoena's issued. The special envoy to Ukraine resigned. He scheduled to testify in three committees starting this week. We went from 138 Democrats supporting impeachment to 224 representatives.

A formal impeachment inquiry has been announced, and three former officials drop news about more calls and more meetings being hidden by the president. So we're gonna have a packed show today. Jordan, you're gonna be covering what's going on with the NRA. They're background. They're back in the on with the NRA. They're background. They're back in the news with another little squid pro crow.

And Jelisa, you have a story about a White House communications official for the Army at Mar-a-Lago that's been sentenced to three years probation. Yeah, major gross beans, for sure. Gross beans coming up for that. I'll be covering new information about the Oval Office meeting with Lavrov and Kissley Act that came out over the weekend and how that ties to Mueller. And for the interview, we have real-life lawyer and a Andrew Torres from the opening arguments podcast.

So that's a nice chunky interview at the end of this show. We do have a live show in Boston at City Winery, coming up November 7th, so grab tickets to that. And we have a new super space beans design on Mugs, tanks and t-shirts and toasts. Yeah, it's really neat. It's retro 60s. And we have a new super space beans design on Mugs, tanks and T-shirts and toasts. Yeah, it's really neat, it's retro 60s, she's out in space, it's great. And right now, if you sign up as a Patreon

at the $10 level, we'll send you a free super space beans mug as a thank you gift. And as a patron, you'll get all the bonus content, pre-sale tickets to live events, invitations to private meet and greet events, our weekly newsletter, which includes my personal research notes, and ad-free episodes of our daily morning news podcast called The Daily Beans. We'll also be setting up video in the studio soon, and you'll have access to our online

community of amazing listeners. So for all that, head to patreon.com slash muller she wrote. And we have a lot of news, but before we get to it, it's time for my favorite segment, corrections. And we have a lot of news, but before we get to it, it's time for my favorite segment, Corrections. It's time to start. It's time for me to say I'm sorry. Oh, I made a mistake. All right, so we've got a lot of emails about the pronunciation of Greta's last name.

It's Tuneberg. Oh, cool. Not Thernberg or Thunberg. Thurneberg. Thurneberg. Different resort. Well, she's not a resort. Different place.

Yeah, but she does remind me of Eliza Thurneberry, who is one of my heroes growing up. Yeah. She reminds me of my goddaughter. She looks just like Liliana. Oh, my goddaughter. Shout out. So thanks to the many people who pointed that out,

including Donna Fifke. Rowan Katow says, or Katow says, in the Daily Beans episode, Trump Refrigerator Poetry, AG jokes that she just copyrighted that phrase. However, names and brands are trademarked. Copyright is different. All right, so trademark it. And then he says,

sorry, this is such a lawyerly correction, but you guys take tongue in, she corrects you and sometimes, so it was worth a shot. I'm also not even a lawyer. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so at all, at Aulia in 1971 regarding the release of the Pentagon papers. This case was jointly decided with New York Times company V. United States, which basically was the exact same thing. The key difference is Washington Post kept publishing while there was an injunction on the New York Times,

and they were stuck going through the courts. Hell yeah. So that's why they published and New York Times did not, even though the sources were the same. Presumably, but they were. Jewels Lewis, you have a math correction saying prime numbers, and we got there with composites, but when AG was asking about Julius' birthday and said 1 plus 9 is 10 and 1 plus 0 is 1, which is prime, unfortunately, 1 is not a prime number.

A prime is a positive integer greater than 1 that cannot be formed by multiplying two smaller natural numbers. Blast. And interestingly, one is neither a prime nor a composite. All right. All right, so thank you. We got prime numbers and primary colors now. I'll sort it out on this podcast. I'm completely sorry.

We're hitting the hard issues. Interestingly, Andrew Clay wants us to know in the Daily Beans episode, Trump refrigerator poetry around the 20-minute market, it was said New York State court case could move to scotus after being heard in New York State Supreme Court. New York State Supreme Court is the original jurisdiction court for civil and some criminal cases, the court of highest authority in New York State is the Court of Appeals in Albany. And I made this mistake in the first couple weeks of school this year, he says, eventually a professor

caught me on it and it felt like the cold call scene from the paper chase. Right, paper chase references. Along those same lines, Lorie Owen says, a case criminal or civil that begins in state court does and can be appealed to the highest court in the state, but from there it can also be appealed to the Supreme Court Supreme Court in the United States does not have to take the case

But a litigant is allowed to appeal to that court. All right. Thanks Lori Owen Arizona attorney Natalie Bellmaire says hi ladies on the damp dollar bills on a closed line episode You said that the 140 million dollar payment was mysterious, but those payments were always a part of the package to help fund Russia said that the $140 million payment was mysterious, but those payments were always a part of the package to help Fendrussia, Fendrussia coming from the State Department and were for maritime security, NATO, interoperability, and various initiatives to help Ukraine's military. And now from Kate McCollock, or our first correction on a correction. Oh, no. She says, you should do some fact checking on your correction segment.

We leave that up to you guys. The correction is about the FBI bringing the terrorist phone into a store, and that's patently false. Not only did Apple employees sit with the FBI personnel, but I also worked in CT during that time. Tim Cook was playing purely a purely PR game. If FBI could have taken a phone to a store to you seriously, I think they would have paid one million to an outside group, please be careful

Also, the FBI does conduct drug tests. I think we corrected that right after we yeah, yeah, but fair point. I appreciate it. Yeah I don't even remember what the first correction we said was I don't either but apparently Somebody told us that they took it into an Apple store and cracked it for him. Oh could have or something like that We say a lot of things. I believe it. That was a and cracked it for them, or could have, or something like that. We say a lot of things, I believe it. That was a correction that we got, though.

Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we just read your corrections, but yeah, we could research them, I suppose. And here's my favorite, but then we wouldn't get more corrections. I accidentally called Keith Schiller, Trump's bodyguard Kurt Schilling, the Boston Red Sox picture with the infamous bloody sock

in the 2000 World Series 2007 World Series You may not know this about me, but I am a sports fan and I knew that and for all the corrections this week This one shames me the most so I do apologize for calling him Kurt Schilling. What I can do is foot Just bleeding I can't remember bleeding foot. Yeah, I don't know. He bleeding I had that one's him. I should really stone to my that. That doesn't sound good at all. I don't know how he bleeding. I got his butt. I had that once, yeah. I should really stone to my foot. It's really hot. Oh, yeah.

What does that call again? Like, Nero. Paranoia. Paranoia. Sorry. You're talking about some totally different, right? Yeah. No, it's not.

I don't know. Like something that, like, diabetics get, I get it too when I'm having like a panic attack sometimes. Like the butt of my foot just gets really hot. Yeah. We call anger toes. Anger toes. Oh, okay. It's cute. I got the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box.

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I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the box. I like the All right, just last Sunday in the last Mueller she read episode we were talking about this whistleblower who's complaint never made it to Congress What we knew then looking at my notes at the time was that there was a whistleblower complaint and that it might actually involve Trump

extorting the Ukraine or excuse me Ukraine to investigate his political rival under the threat of withholding military aid to Ukraine and we thought perhaps there would be Other egregious national security issues deemed credible by the intelligence community inspector general. On Monday, Trump admitted to withholding the military aid and began denying a quid pro quo at the same time while pushing a corruption narrative, telling the press and the public that he's always said that withholding funds was about corruption. But then he changed his story again. On Monday, we had 137 Democrats in favor of opening an impeachment inquiry.

And then Tuesday, Pelosi announced a formal impeachment based on reports of Trump's call with the Ukrainian president. Wednesday, Trump released the transcript of the call thinking he could get out ahead of it. But that ended up being a huge mistake. And we learned later that Pompeo did not want Trump to release the transcript,

but McConnell actually encouraged it. And the transcript shows clear quid pro quo. And it corroborates the whistleblower complaint. Then Wednesday night members of the intelligence committees in the House and the Senate got to read the actual whistleblower complaint. And Republicans emerged with no comment, though everyone looked pretty disturbed. And then Thursday morning, the White House released the whistleblower complaint just before the acting director of National Intelligence, McGuire testified before the hip-sea or the House permanent select committee on intelligence to try to explain why he didn't hand the complaint over to Congress within seven days as required by law

and instead went to the White House and then the Department of Justice. Yeah, I kind of lean with, I believe he did do the right thing, considering like he said it was unprecedented. Like of course, naturally you wouldn't want to go to the person that is in charge, but every other case before this has been some regular employee who did this and you would go to the top person first.

Now the top person is doing it. Trump, you know, he's the first. I don't know if you would go to the White House stuff, it was another person. I believe that's the protocol. Yeah, yeah, you go to like the person that's highest up, right? Or like that wasn't argument at least. But it's not the protocol in the law though.

Who would you go to then? It says it has to go directly to Congress within seven days. Oh, shit. That's what it says. And it says, shall not. His testimony just like, to me, he seems like, okay, he could either one be someone who's turning at the last minute, you know? Or he actually is a good guy who thought he was doing the

right thing at least he was like hey I've never been in this position before but I've been you know doing these kind of jobs for a long time so cut me some slack. Yeah he doesn't seem like a dick to me yeah totally. I think he did exercise poor judgment by not obeying the law. I agree. Yeah, I think so too, because if it was about something else, unless it was another person that was super high up or whatever, like you said, I don't think you would have any reason really to go directly to the White House about it. Yeah, and it kind of comes back to that whole question

we've been asking about the counterintelligence stuff. Maddo asked James Baker and asked Andy McCabe like, hey, if you have a bunch of stuff that implicates the president and the counterintelligence investigation, you normally, if you have stuff that implicates anybody and the counterintelligence investigation, you would alert the executive branch, you would alert the president, you would alert the department of justice, you would alert Congress. And so she's like, what do we do in this situation? And we've been asking this, too, who do you tell?

And because if you can tell the gang of eight, but new nez is on there and that's going to get back to Trump. And so, but in this law, it's specifically lays out that you go directly to Congress, do not pass code and not collect $200. So, you know, I'm hoping that considering that he says he's not in part to say, I don't even know what he would, you know, register as I think that he could have been hopefully playing the long game. And he's like, I'll go to Trump first because I know Trump's going to try to cover this up. And I will have not look like I was just working against Trump like I was just trying to, you know, like I don't think he has friends necessarily on Trump's team, but just to be as nonpartisan as possible, right?

Because he knows Trump is going to dig his own hole. He's like, hey, by the way, I found this shady shit on you. What should I do? You know, like, I hope his heart was in the right place the whole time. Because it seems like he still did a good deed, at least testifying, right? Yeah, and I don't think we'll ever know what's in his heart, but we can hope.

Yeah, we can hope. But the information did eventually get, Trump himself, the White House himself released the whistleblower complaint and their version of the conversation that Trump had withalensky on July 25th, and the Congress eventually did get the whistleblower report and was able to read it. And so that was kind of his argument, like I only delayed it by seven days. That came out Thursday, but if the ICIG hadn't alerted Congress to the fact that the complaint exists,

would it have ever gotten to Congress? Right. Take question. And now we know that they've been pulling these conversations and storing them in a classified security system all along, basically. And the fact that the DNI doesn't know that that's something that Trump is doing, that's bad. The director of national intelligence should probably know that they're storing stuff that is not classified intelligence in those systems But of course he doesn't know that because it's sketch is fuck and they may not have told him I mean right because coats new Gordon new they're gone and

This acting D&I for six weeks the trump might have said we're not gonna tell him about our little secret Trust and they knew who they could trust, yeah. Yeah, and Trump is saying he's doing that to protect from leaks. Yeah. If, you know, most transparent president ever, whatever. Just imagine like a little hole in the tree in the backyard. I run out too, but every time, tiptoe.

And in case you missed it, the whistleblower complaint matched the call transcript exactly. And basically says, hey, I'm in the IC. I talked to about half a dozen people in the White House and the NSC who all told me the president pressured Zalenski to investigate Biden, which we all feel is an abuse of power. Oh, and the president has been hiding his politically sensitive call transcripts in a classified system meant for secret

ops. And the White House admits to this practice, they admitted to this practice last week, going back to 2017 saying as I was telling you a minute ago it prevents leaks. Also Giuliani and Bill Barr are mentioned in this complaint, as well as some folks from the State Department, namely Volker and Sandberg, Special Envoy to Ukraine and Ambassador to Ukraine. Oh and Pence knows too, just a really damning document with no clear answers as to why the DNI broke the law by not handing the complaint over to Congress when we heard

his reasons. He had seven days to do it and he did not, but he did say, Julie, so like you were saying, this is unprecedented and the president is above the DNI and he has privileges. Yeah, what would be a fun little of the ring reference here? Like, you're going to die in seven days. Like, I'm trying to think of something. Maybe the fans will tweet us. Like, they're funny. They're comedians. But yeah, maybe once you read the whistleblower complaint. Yeah, you're gonna get fired in seven days I don't know. We'll figure it out guys together. Yeah, we know all the jokes. We get fired in one scare emoji Anyway, just very poor judgment by D&I to McGuire I believe but I like I said I agree with you Julie I don't think he's a bad guy.

I don't think he's part of a cover up. He was pressured, probably. We don't know. We'll find out more. We'll find out more. We'll find out more. Then we learned from the DNI that he and the ICIG made a criminal referral to the Department of Justice

about the content of the call. They found it so credible and urgent. They made a criminal referral. But the Department of Justice and Bill Bar decided not to even investigate it, which had the added effect of shutting down any IG investigation. The ICIG, therefore, couldn't investigate the matter. So now we have the whistleblower complaint

known to the criminals who are the subject of the complaint, not being investigated by anyone and being literally held back by the DNI. So we're at not like I said, for the ICIG informing Congress the existence of the complaint, they may never have gotten it. I don't know that they would have. I don't know that the DNI would have done the right thing

at that point. But, you know, if he would have just kept holding it back. But during the DNI testimony, Trump spoke to a US mission to a UN group with no press in the room, but someone recorded it. Where Trump says he wants to know who ratted him out because people like that used to be killed.

Oh my God. I didn't hear the killed part. Well, he said, whacked, but you know, for Trump, everything's a piece of mezzan. Yeah. And he was and we used to treat him differently. Yeah, yeah. Totally. Yeah.

Quote. He said, who informed the whistleblower because that person is close to a spy and we used to treat spies very differently in this country Yeah, it's it's like he's physically incapable of not witness tampering. Yeah He has the right to remain silent but not the ability and so my favorite quotes circulates totally totally and then Julie Ony lost his mind Yeah, he threw the State Department under the bus he went on Fox News and showed a bunch of tweets from Volker saying Volker in the State Department or the ones who under the bus. He went on Fox News and showed a bunch of tweets from Volker saying Volker in the State Department are the ones who instructed him to go to Ukraine. But that was only after

Trump threw Pence and Giuliani under the bus. And then bar through Trump under the bus by saying he's mad that he was connected to this. Just a bunch of criminals standing in a circle with their guns drawn is what this feels like. Yeah. Did you see it? Did you see it Saturday night live? No, I missed it. But I've been waiting to watch the cold open. Okay, cool. Yeah.

There's an amazing came and came and obviously it is Giuliani. And it is so funny. She's so good. She gets the mouth just right. Yeah. She's like talking on the phone to him and she's like saying all this shit that you know, you'd only say in like a private phone call and then it pans back and you see like And I'm on TV right now

I hadn't seen any of you either but I've heard great things Twitter is very happy about the Kamala Camilla or not cameo actually Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's cool. She did show up and like actually do like they hill everything and play alongside her Yeah, yeah, that'd be fun. That was a good episode. Yeah, that was a good episode. Yeah, yeah, it was a great premiere I thought yeah, so yeah here So here we have this credible and urgent whistleblower complaint corroborated by the DNI testimony and the call transcript released by the White House The evidence is clear and by the end of the week over 218 representatives supported impeachment and they have a goal to vote on articles of impeachment by Thanksgiving.

Pelosi wants to focus only on the Ukraine call, but I'm not sure how you're going to leave out the other aspects of the whistleblower complaint. The totality of obstruction of justice by this president, because as we know in the Mueller report, ten instances of obstruction of justice, five at least that meet all three criteria for criminal obstruction of justice. And Mueller says, when you're looking at patterns of covering stuff up and obstructing justice, you have to look at the totality of the evidence. So, I don't know how she was going to leave that out of there, but who knows what else

we might find in the classified server, Trump's been using to hide his politically embarrassing conversations and meetings. So that code protected classified server is there to protect national security, not to hide damning transcripts that undermine national security for personal political protection. That's a flagrant abuse of power. So while I appreciate Pelosi's desire to keep the impeachment limited to just the Ukraine call for simplicity, wait until you hear what happened Friday. And we'll go over that just right after this break. Hey, it's A.G. and I want to tell you about third love.

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15% off your first order. So go to thirdlove.com slash AG, now to find your perfect fitting bra and get 15% off your first purchase. That's thirdlove.com slash AG for 15% off today. You'll be glad you did. All right, welcome back. Let's see if we can get all the Friday news. So we recorded it Thursday at night and then the show dropped Friday morning and then all day

Friday. It was just the hit just the hits after the hits after the hits. We learned Friday that Trump and the Department of Justice got the whistleblower complaint info before it was even formally filed. The Justice Department National Security folks were informed about the complaint at least a week before the formal referral. The General Counsel for one of the intelligence agencies, I'm guessing the CIA, alerted the Natsack Division at main justice on August 14th. And in another Washington Post bomb last night, we found out that even though a State Department official has said that this is not politically motivated, they're ramping up the Hillary email investigation again. It began right after the Department of Justice found out about the whistleblower complaint.

In the weeks since August 14, about 130 Clinton officials have been contacted by the State Department investigators who at some point emailed all these people, some point emailed Hillary, and they've been told emails they sent years ago have been retroactively classified and now constitute a potential security violation. And in virtually every case, the now recategorized as classified emails were sent to Clinton's unsecure server. So funny, the guy who overrides security concerns for clearances for Kushner and 30 others, and the guy who leaked Israeli intel to Russia in the Oval Office, and the guy who had classified

documents out at Mar-a-Lago the night we bombed Syria and allowed strangers to take photos of it or hold their phones over it with their flashlights. And the family that use their own private servers multiple times to send and store classified information are pushing this. They're still on Hillary's emails. One official contacted about his emails being retroactively classified said the investigators are very apologetic and realize how absurd it is that they're being forced to do this. They're being pressured from the outside, they say. It's a again, flagrant abuse of power

and it's sucked up millions of taxpayer dollars. My God. Wow. They're saying that to the people as they're telling them if they need to ask them things. Yeah, they're like, hey, sorry, this is stupid, but. Oh, God. We're doing the email investigation and, you know,

it's still. Just fucking quit. Yeah, this is ridiculous. It's so dumb. And also Trump should quit. I can't believe that he has the audacity to say America for like 100% can believe it knowing who he is, but just on the outside, this is so much controversy. It is at the point where they can't legislate. Congress can't do anything. Trump can't do anything. No interest in him. Everything that fucking sucks and isn't such horrible gridlock. If you care so much about the country, resign.

Yeah, that's what Nixon did. Yeah. He resigned. Oh, God. Because a Republican Senator Goldwater took a trip over there and said, look, man, you got to go. Yeah, we can't do anything. You're going to get impeached and we're going to have a trial in the Senate and you're probably going to be removed from office.

So in order to preserve the dignity of the office of the presidency, you got to go. Yeah. And Nixon was like, you're right. So also Friday, Kurt Volker, who could end up being the John Dean of stupid watergate, resigned his position. And we're told he resigned so that he could be out from under the administration to freely testify to the matter. Without pressure, you know, from the administration. Volker is a McCain-type guy. Maybe we're just a McCain institute. Anti-Russian, you know, war, you know, kind of like a Cold War Hawkk and could have a, like

very important information about the conduct of Rudy Giuliani because, you know, Giuliani showed the vulgar texts on Fox News to Laura Ingram and whether or not the president directed him to direct Giuliani to help Ukraine get dirt on Biden or if the State Department directed him as Giuliani insists. Or if Giuliani went rogue or was otherwise directed by Trump himself. Volker, along with Saundberg, mentioned in the whistleblower complaint, and Volker is now scheduled to testify before three house committees, including on October 3rd. He'll be deposed by the House Intelligence Committee.

I do not know which, if any of these hearings, will be publicly facing. Hopefully, all of them. That'd be nice. Yeah, I mean, if we got McGuire's to be public, I didn't think that was going to be public. Yeah. So these are depositions. They're usually recorded on video and they'll be asked by counsel, not by the members. So I don't know if those videos will be released. If transcripts of the videos will be released after being declassified or if, you know, what, what happens with those? Do you know if McGuire got to post in the same way?

No, they just went straight to this whole testimony before the members. Yeah, I now wonder why they didn't do that with him. He did testify behind closed doors of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and I don't know if lawyers questioned him there, if he was deposed, if he was videotaped, meaning that, or if it was just like the House Intel Committee,

but just we didn't see it. Right. Well, I hope it's public eventually. If not, it could leak. There's a lot of people right now who want to keep start sharing all this stuff. Yes, especially if it's all happening in the house. Yeah.

I hate to say that like, I know. I know, but that's just how it is at this point. But the whole point of an impeachment inquiry is to get the public to back you Also Friday the whistleblower complaint was corroborated again as we learned from former US officials that at least two other calls Were scurled away in the code word classified server including a call with Putin and a call with Muhammad bin Salman or MBS Who we call Muhammad Bonsa, because he directed the CIA found, and with high confidence, he directed his people to murder and dismember Washington Post reporter and US resident Jamal Kashoggi.

Kashoggi had been exiled by the Crown Prince for his reporting about Trump and the Crown, and he was considered a traitor to the Crown. The call between Trump and MBS, that Trump decided was too politically explosive to allow, no more than a handful of top white house officials to see it, could quite possibly contain very damning information about what Trump and the crown prince knew about Koshoggi. And the Putin call could contain any number of favors Trump has done for Putin over the past three years, including keeping sanctions off or lifting sanctions, the Derapaska stuff, pulling aid from the NATO

program that helps Ukraine protect itself from Russia and diverting those funds to his wall, getting Ukraine to pull back troops in the Eastern Provinces of Donbass with drawing troops from Syria, with which Putin publicly praised, with holding military aid from Ukraine. I mean, it's hard to know, but I'd be willing to bet there's more than one Putin conversation hidden in that system, or notes about meetings, for example, the G20, etc. But where you be putting that poop material, but these sources are saying no one knows for sure. Also in that server, explosive new revelations about what went on in the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Lavrov

and Kislyak, and I'll go over that in hot notes. And to me, this is the big story of the week, next to Dums opening an official impeachment inquiry, which we had a whole cocktail party about during Wednesday morning Wednesday morning's daily beans episode. So check that out if you want daily episodes and updates on all the news with swearing. Also Friday, Republican representative Amodai came out in favor of impeachment. I think he's from Utah. Favor of an impeachment inquiry, but he wants you to know that after the RNC probably

yelled at him, he said he's not publicly for actually impeaching him, just the inquiry part. So that's a step, baby steps. And Fox News is cracking too, with Wallace and Shepp reporting that the whistleblower complaint corroborated by the White House's own release of the memo of the call transcript from July 25th is a damning abuse of power. Though many guests are still on the Biden conspiracy thing that has been debunked a million times. It's really pathetic.

Lindsey Graham was on face the nation this morning and said he's perfectly fine with the phone call. There was no quid pro quo. He says in order for there to be full on squid pro crow, you have to say the words, I will give you $400 million if you investigate Biden. And every single criminal prosecutor knows that's not how shit works. So Graham is compromised. I think he has been ever since that golf game where he did an about face on Trump. And then also Friday, shift jam three subpoenas up Pompeo's ass for his failure to hand over documents related to the whistleblower complain And I love this subpoena if you get a chance to read it

Because he gave either gave him till Friday of this week to comply and he added not complying is obstruction of Congress Mm-hmm. Yeah, if you got a freaking explicitly laid out like that, there you go. I guess so. Yeah, especially if you're Lindsey Graham. You have to spell it out. Nah, he's a Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham crackers. Also, Friday shifts in a letter to Mike Pompeo with a deposition schedule in it, and it includes ambassador Yvonnevich on October 2nd. Yvonnevich was the ambassador that Trump fired for not play in ball, I guess. Kurt Volker, who took over when Yvonnevich was fired, and he talks to them October 3rd, this is the House Intel.

Deputy Assistant Secretary George Cant is October 7th, State Department lawyer named T. Ulrich Brebou, is scheduled October 8th, and then ambassador Saundlen is October 10th. And breaking Sunday, Schiff has reached an agreement with the whistleblower to testify. So puts in means on Congress issuing a subpoena for the classified server. I think that will be the nicks and tapes of stupid watergate. Yeah, so this is like going down, like it's scheduled. Mm-hmm, holy shit. The whistleblower.

Yeah, that's huge. I mean, we haven't seen this person yet, right? This will be the first time or is it behind closed doors? Don't know yet. Okay. Okay. But I think I really do think they're gonna issue a subpoena for what's in that classified server Trump will refuse to hand it over I think put beans on that and then scotus will have to order him to and I think once They have that Republicans in Congress who have already said they'd privately vote to impeach Trump at least 25 of them Have said that apparently. I think the numbers more like 12

But if we can get if what's on that server, or if Trump destroyed it, or defies a court order to hand it over, I don't think some Republicans will hold. I don't see how they can. Yeah, I don't think so. Because that's the rhetoric I'm hearing. I'm hearing two things from GOP people that are talking to the media right now. The first one is the is all ridiculous obviously. And it's an overextension and it's a witch hunt and whatever and this would never happen to anyone else. And then the other thing I'm here next. Yeah. The other also Republican.

But then the other thing that I'm hearing people say is just do it. Just do it so we can just get it out and just go through it. Let's just do this. And these are the naive thing that I'm hearing people say is just do it. Just do it so we can just get it out and just go through it. Let's just do this. And these are the naive people that probably know they could scowing anywhere. That's great. Mm-hmm. Cool. I'm with you. Yep. And a great tweet from Tom Nichols. That's Radio Free Tom on Twitter reads, there is a kind of karmic hilarity to the fact that in order to protect Trump, his staff centralized the materials that could doom him in a highly classified system that cannot be erased or manipulated without a record of access by a very small number of people. I didn't know that, that's funny.

Isn't that amazing? It's all there. In an effort to hide it from us, they've preserved it perfectly. Yeah, and then I don't know if you were going to get into this, but the Hillary parallels. I mean, they come up every week. It's uncanny how the whole big deal was her emails and she can't be trusted and she's reckless with secret information and here we are. Yeah, that's crazy to me. That's how strong this sexism is in our country that people actually like fell for that

when they were faced with Trump. And I'm not saying everyone did, but the people that voted for him, definitely. Yeah, and I think he's egregiously violated national security on several levels. And as far as this hideyhole goes for the politically explosive stuff,

that is less of a threat to leaking national security intelligence, which is what he was kind of complaining about Hillary for, and more of a threatening national security by having these conversations and then abusing the use of this system to hide them from people. Yeah, still shady, but actually.

Pelosi said it's a cover-up of a cover-up. Wow. She says that's what we're facing. Yeah, like it's not the book you read. It's the book it leads you to. Yeah. Yeah. And throw the book out from because they can't read. Throw paper towels and books at him. And Lanny Davis says his client, Michael Cohen, who is in prison, has some Ukraine information. Oh, shit. Yeah, I bet you do, buddy. Why didn't you profit this all up with your meeting at the Manhattan DA or Mueller or

Sun District in New York Yeah, where's that been? Oh, I remember this now. I mean what is he just oh? I mean what you crane stuff what do you have from the time period that he was super active though? Probably just communications with I would assume communications with Trump about it. Yeah If anything maybe stuff that can debunk this right wing conspiracy theory. Oh, about the crowd strikes over. Maybe something like that. Maybe something about the orchestration of that conspiracy theory. Yeah, and it's weird because we're learning that Trump keeps pushing the crowd strike conspiracy theory. He's pushing not hard, but apparently it's Giuliani that keeps convincing the president that that's real. And Trump is just dumb enough

to believe it. Yeah. This all springs from the failed Seth Rich conspiracy. And that the Seth Rich conspiracy was that when the DNC, DEE, Triple C and Podesta's emails and Hillary Clinton's associates emails were hacked by Russia and they were indicted for that by Mueller and Trump's Department of Justice, you know, okay, that indictment, that it wasn't the Russians at all. It was in fact, Seth Rich who leaked all this, and now that the Seth Rich thing has been debunked so like you're like, you're been saying on that, now Giuliani stuck on that it was Ukraine.

And they have the server, and CrowdStrike knows about it. And we saw this in Roger Stone trying to get the government to give him redacted Crowdstrike reports, but the government's like, there are no redacted Crowdstrike reports. You have it all. It's in the Mueller report, and it's in the 26 indictments of Russians who hacked and disseminated information. It's in there.

So it's just, it's the dumbest denial. It's just, it's just so ridiculous. But I found that there, people are saying that it's Giuliani that's pushing dumbest denial. It's just so ridiculous. But I found that people are saying that it's Giuliani that's pushing that conspiracy theory. Yeah, I've heard people coming out, you're just being like, did stop putting this bug in his ear. I read something that I forget who it was. I can pull it up in a second, but he was basically just saying,

the more you say stuff, the more it's just going to stick in his head. And it's a repetition problem. And for Giuliani, it's a repetition solution. So it's just constantly. And just today, on Sunday, we learned top former White House aide Tom Bossert has said the crowd strike DNC Ukraine conspiracy theory is totally false. And he and other actually that guy. Yeah. Bossert, he and others have tried to tell Trump. This is not real, but Trump keeps listening to Giuliani. Yeah. Yeah, Giuliani was on Stefanopolis, right, today.

Yeah. Yeah, I think that's where I read it. That's a story that I was reading, too. Yeah. Yeah. I thought Saturday and Sunday might be relatively quiet, but they weren't. We had so much come out.

But Friday was insane. So now we are where we're at. And it's unbelievable that we've gotten here in three days. Did you see I saw a clip of Giuliani as a talking head in a panel of four people or so and I forget what channel it was on. I think it was actually on Fox News and they probably had someone on that was like I don't know, countering what he was saying, but he started acting like a third grade bully and he was like shut up, stop it.

I didn't see it but I heard it on a couple of podcasts and I was like is that really? Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I shut up, stop it. Did you see it? I didn't see it, but I heard it on a couple of podcasts and I was like, is that real? Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I almost couldn't believe it. I need to find it again and I'm sure whoever's listening will know exactly what it is. Shut up, you idiot.

Sounded so cruel and hateful. Look, a kid. Yeah. Seriously, again, I'm telling you, these regressed mother fuckers. Did you see him trying to make fun of Al Gore? Yeah, he was saying that uh, who was he calling the Al Gore or a Republican party? Um, remit Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney. And he did this impersonation of Al Gore slash Mitt Romney, where he like hiked his shoulders up to his neck and like, even higher than usual. Yeah.

orders up to his neck and like even higher than usual. Yeah, and like he was no neck Joe from Mike and spikes twisted in a rage. Yeah, head and shoulders. Oh, yeah. And I was like, oh my God, what are you doing? Yeah, you're insane. Yes. And his body language is terrifying. It's actually signs of dementia.

And it's been said that it gets worse at night. So when Giuliani comes out at night. So he's not a bad, I guess. That solves that old mystery. He functioned better at night. He should be nocturnal if Sunshine helps you with dementia. That would be counterintuitive and repetitive.

Oh my God. So crazy. Yeah, and I'm excited about hot notes today because, Giuliani, so the story you have about this X Army kind of. So crazy. Yeah, and I'm excited about hot notes today, because Julie, so the story you have about this ex-Army Communications official from Mar-a-Lago, first of all, I don't know why there's an army communications official at Mar-a-Lago. And yeah, what? I have theories, but yeah, I'm with you. I guess in theory. I guess now we know why there might be one, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, let's go get people to stay at our resorts.

But, and then Jordan, you've get people to stay at our resorts. And then Jordan, you've got a couple of stories that dropped on the NRA this week. And they're just going down. I'm excited about it. So I'm going to talk about that expolosive Kislyak Lavrov meeting, which was already terrible. And now it's 10 times worse. And we'll be right back with that with hot notes and the fantasy indictment league. Hey, everybody.

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Okay, so today for hot notes. Jordan, you have some news about the Anoreba first, Jolissa. What is the Miami Herald reporting this week? Yeah, so in this week's edition of a little segment I like to call Trumpshire knows a lot of pedophiles. We learn that the military officer who was in charge of all White House communications for the Army base at Mar-a-Lago has been sentenced to three years probation, just probation, for lying during a child pornography case against him. That he's guilty in, by the way. So the guy's name is Richard Cicarella or Cicarella, either way, it's a really weird name to have in this case. He's no Prince

Charming. And specifically, he's in trouble for uploading photos of a young girl to a Russian website in 2017 and 2018 while working at Mar-a-Lago at the Navy or the Army base. So according to court documents, he uploaded the pictures under the username Rich25N, whatever that means. And in one of the photos, the girl is only wearing her underwear. And the only reason he got caught is because he logged into the website with an email address that was connected to his work phone. It's like his own glass slipper, you know. He's a log off before Nick. Yeah, no, really.

It's a great example of that. That should be the segment. So it's really fucked up. I didn't know that, but thank you for talking. That made my day. Thank you. Yeah. The worst part is though that a sister Ella is still in the military and although he could still be discharged according to his lawyer, but for now prosecutors did not conclude that the

pictures were child pornography. I don't know how that's the case, but that's why he got off easy. No pun intended. And basically, this is just another story of a disgusting Trump associate doing shady shit that makes them vulnerable targets for espionage But that's a really long title for segments. So we'll stick with the Republicans can take that's what this officially is renamed for now and I yield my time Thank you I'll reclaim that time Double Jeopardy

Why is he too many has here? I know I know Double Jeopardy is not you are not subject to double double jeopardy in uniform code military military justice under law so he can be tried for the exact same crime rising up rising from the exact same circumstances in the military courts and he should be effect the case that like i still don't know how michael flin it hasn't been tried for lined a congress in the uniform co under the uniform code military justice seems like that would be a crime definitely

uh... in the military but you know how do i know um... i was only in it under the uniform code of military justice. Seems like that would be a crime. Definitely. In the military. But hey, what do I know? I was only in it. So Jordan, okay, Jordan, one. Jordan. Yes. What is up with the NRA?

Yeah, so on Friday, it was revealed that a Senate Finance Committee investigation that was led by the DEMS found that the NRA was more of a foreign asset to Russia leading up to the 2016 election than we previously knew. Yeah, I called that report. Here's a report from Senator No shit, Mcobvious. Yes, exactly.

Yeah, it kind of is though, seriously, it just sort of goes more into details about the gravity of everything, but the report looks at the extensive political efforts CNRA made to help boot an un-tortion, as well as organize the trip to Moscow by NRA leaders, specifically, which they still are trying to distance themselves from. The report states that the NRA Vice President at a time, Pete Brownal, was persuaded to make the trip by Russia when they offered business opportunities, basically in direct exchange for whatever connections politically they were going to make. And the report also outlines how much the NRA helped fund the trip. And the main point here is that this could all ultimately contribute to the growing case against the NRA's tax exempt status

because nonprofits are not allowed to use their funds for personal benefits or for actions that are way outside the boundaries of their main mission. And it seems like that trip to Moscow is something that would fall under both of those categories in some way. Republicans say that the report is dramatic and overstated. The majority statement about the report reads, to the extent NRA funds were used improperly in any facts discussed in the Democratic report led by Whiten. It appears to have been minor, hardly a rounding error for an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year, and nothing that cannot be corrected with minor who have been minor, hardly a rounding error for an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue each year, and nothing that cannot be corrected with minor intermediate

sanctions. So the fact that they're even dropping sanctions to me is a huge indication that something bad happens. The Republicans are like, we could sanction them. Just give them a little sank. We'll sank in the bank. Yeah, exactly. I can't imagine that they would say that at all unless something really bad happened.

Because that's their whole thing, especially in freaking, I mean, yeah, when they're all in bold and Senate committees, but even though the NRA keeps saying it was not an official trip, there are records of Brownal paying $16,000 in trip expenses personally and then getting reimbursed $16,000 by the NRA in June 2016. Then when concerns were raised about that reimbursement, he gave $17,000 back to the NRA. So it's pretty obvious. Like $1,000 bonus for being a dip. Right. Or to make it, I don't know, to try to throw off the scent of the $1,000 bonus for being a dip. Right, or to make it, I don't know,

to try to throw off the scent of the $16,000 paper trail, but it's like, dude, if you're doing that, it's worth the investment. Make it 20, I don't know, something. 17 is one away from 16, $16,000. Yeah, it's like, we're still on the trail, bro. That's honestly, odd numbers are more conspicuous. Almost tricked us.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um, but it makes sense that he was trying to cover it up because he is the head of a entirely separate fire arm supplier. So the, oh, yeah. So the idea that he did not stand a significantly benefit personally from that trip is, and those connections

is pretty ridiculous. And he also is on the record Saying that he was like that he was aware that that's what the intense and tensions were for the trip basically so wow Yeah, so and then the NRA just keeps trying to back pedal and no one's on the same page as a fucking mess So that's one story and another story on Friday the NRA'Wayne La Pierre met with Trump at the White House, and this meeting was mostly about what the NRA's continued supportive Trump through 2020 is going to look like and what could affect that support moving forward. So La Pierre apparently told Trump to, quote, stop the games, unquote, over legislation. So basically, I think you can boil this down to stop saying anything about

expanded background checks, anything about any sort of regulations on guns, or we're not going to back you as much in 2020. Yeah, and they also tied it in, I think reports came out later, they were tying it into legal defense fees for his impeachment. Trump needed, and I already told him pay his legal defense. Yes, you're going to get there. No, no, no, no, sorry. I was just pointing saying yes. Yes. Yes, yes. No, totally.

There's like, there were a few different topics that were discussed, just all basically boiling down to help for his reelection campaign in one way or another. So give me money to help me personally using a tax exempt nonprofit 501c4 organization in exchange for legislative policy. That is a federal crime. Yeah. It's called bribing a public official. Yep.

And to me, honestly, I don't see how lobbying is kind of any different ever at all. That's kind of a lot of people in the game with you. Yeah, like they've been getting away with doing that this entire time to draw the line here, though. like they would yell like they've been getting away with doing that this entire time to draw the line here though I think is important and a line should be drawn way further back in NRA's law being history because it is just super sketchy Quid Pro Quotet like that all the time. I heard an interesting quote today I listened to a podcast by a name very Gary Vaynerchuk and he talked about how when he's entrepreneur's or young They're like all for the rules and you know know, being in the game of hustling.

But when they get older, they use their power and money to influence the laws. Yeah. And it's like a cycle of just people who, you know, get powerful through the system and then when I tweak the system because they don't want to play the hustle anymore. Totally.

Or it's new hustle, I guess. Yeah, they're like, this is why I got to this level in the first place. So I don't have to worry about all those old beats. Yeah, it's fucked up. It's too whatever the fuck I want. Yeah, it allows a lot of people to do that. Yeah, totally.

But the NRA is going against all these accounts of their meeting and they release the statement saying the NRA categorically denies any discussion occurred about special arrangements pertaining to the NRA's support of the president and vice versa, exactly. Categoricallyically that word is always interesting does that mean by a large amount or is it like neutral like what's category are you talking about yeah just like across the

category okay okay when we play scotagories at the White House yeah strange choice of word it is right yeah yeah um categorently. Category one or category patently. Yeah. Very competing. Yeah. Unequivically. Right, right. Yeah. You big-quiddously. Words are fun. Yeah.

Not too sweet. Indubitably. Yeah. Indubitably. But yeah, and then, I mean, the other thing is too, I don't even know if the Trump campaign, they're kind of like shopping on each other right now because the NRA is a failing organization at this point, honestly.

The failing in, right? Yeah, exactly, they really are. So I think there's also kind of this thing, this dance Trump and his campaign are probably doing in their brain, where they might legitimately be thinking, okay. So let's say that I talk about expanded background checks and the NRA doesn't give me money or whatever. I mean, the things that he could stand to gain

maybe by going against them and being more for expanded background checks could be worth his political gain, but I don't know. Probably. He already went back. He already switched and he's already gone back to saying, no, never mind, we have enough sufficient background checks in place. And it sucks that he's blaming the lack of gun legislation now on impeachment. Not his own cow telling to the NRA in exchange for this money. Yeah, he is. He was giving Pelosi shit saying that Pelosi doesn't care about getting any gun legislation done she wants. She just wants to go forward with impeachment in this witch hunt. And that's obviously absurd. And it's like, no, dude, of course, they would love

to be able to legislate right now, but they can't because you're such a child idiot criminal, they have to follow everything you do every day. And McConnell won't bring anything to the floor that Trump won't pre-approved. And there's, I think, over now 200 bills on his desk that are just sitting there, that the house has passed. So to say that the house isn't legislating

and they're not able to do their jobs because of this witch hunt is absolutely false. Yes, it is. Well, thank you guys, thank you for that. Oh yeah. What I think the big story of the week is comes from the Washington Post. Friday evening, it has to do with that meeting

in the Oval Office in 2017, infamous meeting by now, with Trump, Lavrov and Kislyak. We already know from the Mueller probe and from public reporting that Trump didn't allow American press in that meeting, and we learned about it from Russian state television, like we've learned about most of the Trump Putin calls and meetings, and then of course this meeting with Kislyak and Lavrov. In that meeting, we knew already, for a while now, that Trump revealed classified Israeli intelligence about ISIS in Syria to the Russians, which by the way may have been

fed to Trump for the purpose of leaking disinformation, which some US officials have warned Trump Israel was doing. And we learned that he told the Russians he fired Comey who was a nut job the day before and that helped lift the Russia pressure But that's all laid out in a muller report too, but in this new reporting according to three former officials with knowledge of the matter Which to me means three former officials who had access to that super secret code word protected classified database Trump told the two senior Russian officials he was Unconcerned about Moscow's interference in the 2016 election because the United States did the same thing in other countries.

Just like when he said we're all murderers, I'm like, speak for yourself. Yeah, that was his great moral equivalency tour. We get a 2017. Right, right. Followed up with the Louvre the Truth tour. And that assertion alarmed White House officials who then sought to limit the access of the remarks. These comments had not been previously reported before Friday. And the memo summarizing that meeting was limited to only a few officials with the highest

security clearances to prevent them from leaking. Washington Post says it's not exactly clear that the memo was placed in the same code word classified server that we've been talking about where the July 25th Ukraine call with Zelensky was hidden along with at least one other call with Putin and one call with Muhammad bin Salman and the White House began limiting records of Trump calls after his transcripts with Mexico and Australia were leaked. Now this meeting appeared in the Mueller report, like I said, however, it did not include this information, which leads me to believe that Mueller did not know about or have access to the code word classified system, whether it's this one or the one that the other meetings have been stashed in.

And that could have additional implications for anyone who failed to mention it, obstructed its being handed over or lied about things that they knew to be in there. And I'm not sure Congress will pursue that line of inquiry, but I think it's an important footnote here. But the context of what he said to the Russians and this new reporting, effectively admitting he knew that Russia interfered. And through America, under the bus,

by telling them we interfere in other elections too, which, by the way, has not been true since the Cold War, is just simply stunning to me. Harkens back, like you said to Jolissa, when Trump was asked about the assassination of journalists and Putin dissidents by Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, and he said, there's a lot of killers. You think our country is so innocent?

And another former senior official told Washington Post that Trump regularly defended Russia's actions, saying no country is pure. And that was all part of his, that streak of moral equivalency I was talking about, moral equivalency tour. So, I have beans on the MBS and Putin calls. We talked about what they could be a little bit earlier in the show. But I think it's important to know how Mueller fits into this and the Mueller report fits into this and that Mueller did not know about that

Server or the meetings or memos that were hidden within it whether it was one or two different servers. I'm not sure Totally but Mueller is like he but I forgot to call me. I bet he's hoping that no one's gonna come to him for like follow-ups Yeah, he's not a beach and hoi somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. He's gone, man But you're right. It's still super relevant now more than ever. That'd be great You text Mueller and then you get the dots, but nothing. Yeah, yeah, I just read. He probably just has a pager on his belly because he's wearing full-blown pants on a beach. Oh my god, what is the sandals? The jazzy sandals?

He's wearing his suit. He deserves a Muller. He's wearing his suit in his tie. I haven't. Haven't a virgin daquery. Right, right. It was Cassie O'Watch and the paper. But the pants are rolled up a little bit, you know?

Yeah. He's a cool guy. Just a little. Yeah, because you a pan to roll up a little bit, you know. Yeah. He's a cool guy. Just a little. Yeah, because you don't want to get a stand in the loafers. Um, anyway, I just think that that story made me really mad actually when I heard it. Because as a veteran, I even tweeted out, I'm like, you're a disgusting piece of shit. And I hate you for this. And for what you're, you, you just told Russia that America sucks

and you don't care what they did to our elections and I just fucking hate your face. I was really mad about that. Yeah. But anyway, those are hot notes today. And now are you ready for sabotage? Yes. Yes. So usually sabotages will lead up, usually.

Now it's weird, but Bobbi Brady, boys crack. Changes. Usually sabotages will lead up for the fantasy indictment league. Some story that pops up at the last minute that might affect the way that we draft our fantasy indictment picks. But because we're steeped in the Ukraine scandal and impeachment stuff, I have a bit of news today, a little sabotage that came out of the office of Mitch McConnell. So prior to Pelosi's announcement on impeachment, McConnell had said that any articles of impeachment

from the House would never see the light of day in the Senate. He wouldn't even consider it. But then after Nancy announced impeachment on Tuesday of this week for the three days Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and most of Friday, we heard nothing from Mitch McConnell. And I thought that was a very telling. A lot of people didn't make make a big noise about it, but I thought it was really interesting that he was, he's been silent all week since the whistleblower complained blew up. And we had positive that his silence was deafening, but McConnell has now said he's being reported that if the House votes for impeachment, the Senate quote has no choice but to hold a trial to decide whether to remove Trump from office.

That's what McConnell said. Yeah. So he has said that, I don't know if he's going to hold true to it, but that's going to put the Senate on the record. And Jeff Flake is saying, I think, 30 people, if the vote were private, 30 Republican senators would vote to impeach him, but it's not a private vote. You can't do that. You have to go on public record.

And it seems now that we will have that public record if the articles when impeachment are approved in the House, if it goes to the Senate for trial, we'll be able to hold the senators accountable for acquitting the president for what we already know to be an impeachable offense. So they're afraid of their Trump supporting constituents, right? That's gotta be a tough situation. Cause for one, I quickly wanna think like, oh, who would even wanna represent them? But they probably didn't even know how crazy this was when they decided to be a politician for that particular district.

Like I wanna think sometimes that all of those Republicans are just like shitty people that automatically should be like, you know, scorned. But I wonder if there's some of them that are close to the Republicans in the House or that the Democrats that had moderate constituents that were like, hey, we're gonna come out with it at a certain point, but I mean, they did come out with it though those people in the House. So I'm like, okay, maybe there's time. I know we're fighting a clock here, but maybe there's enough time for them to say, look, I tried to hold it down for my people, but I have to make a conscious decision. Yeah, I think it would be great. I think we can get, well, if we can get what's in that

code word classified server, or if Trump destroyed it, tampered with it, there would be evidence to show that because that's a highly classified thing you have to have like password access to get into. We have to know your code word and there's only eight of you. And I know Bob's code word is child pornography. And so I know you were in there, Bob. Right, there should be an opening for those

Republicans to say hey I still think that Trump is our guy but he messed up and this is a way that we all should be held accountable maybe that's a way that they can get around it because there's still some heavy Trump supporters out there they're not going to be happy with them if they get a public vote and you know obviously voted with their saying they would privately yeah but if that stuff on that server comes out or it's been tampered with in any way or scotus compels Trump to release it compels the white house to release it which I think they will I don't think the Republicans can hold and like you said I think it gives them a reason to say this is different to be on the pale yeah that's

what I'm hoping for we've been hoping for two years but you know hey it might just happen yep all right you ready to play the fantasy indictment league? Yes. Yes. I'm gonna be a candidate. No, it is gonna be okay. I'm gonna be a candidate. I'm gonna be a candidate. A candidate. I'm gonna be a candidate.

Hold it, I can't, it's gonna be okay. Just calm down. I can't calm down, I'm gonna be a candidate. All right, so impeachment is a political exercise, not a criminal one. So for the fantasy indictment league, we're gonna stick to criminal investigations and proceedings related to this administration. And today, at Jalise, you get to go first.

Oh, cool. And then Jordan and then myself. All right. I will go with... Barric, please. Oh, bitch. Sorry. Just showing there no loyalty. It's great. I love it. Okay. Sorry, Anna. Nice. I'm going to go for Nader.

Cool. I'll take Brody, please. Oh, good one. Nice. I'll do you a trumpet acrull. I'm going to do Wayne Loppy here. I will go with this. This is good.

I'm going to go with Nader. Cool. I'll take Brody, please. Yeah. I'm gonna do Wayne Loppy here. Oh. Mm. I will go with, this is good. Corsi. All right. Yeah, bring it back. I'll do.

Mm. May I, am I? May I, am I? Nice. I'm gonna go with the Gisley. Oh, I forgot about it. Yeah, very relevant. Yeah, yeah. I'm hoping some of the throwbacks will come back even the criminal one Life in the jizz lane. Yeah, but for the more recent ones. I'll take Igor. Igor. Yeah, so a rando ea

Rando rando Let's see I Guess I'll do pecker you've selected pecker. I'm gonna do the Trump organization. Nice. I will take Eric Prince, please. This is our fifth one. I think you guys are in your last ones, right? Okay. I'll do Mine was Eric Prince. Yeah. Nice. That's a good one. Yeah, it is. All right Nader Did it? Yeah, here's my first pick. Oh shit. Sorry I'm gonna hit Kalamari.

Cool. I also had Weiselberg, Tucker Howard, Keith Davis, and I'm gonna hit Kalamari. I'm gonna hit Kalamari. Cool. I also had Weiselberg, Tucker Howard, Keith Davidson, AMI. Oh yeah, Jordan, I bet.

Yeah, yeah, nice. All right, that's how we play the fantasy and diamond leg. We'll be right back with the interview, real life lawyer, wonderful guy named Andrew Torres from the opening arguments podcast, really, really brilliant podcast if you haven't listened to it. So stick around for that. Stylish, comfortable, work brilliant podcast if you haven't listened to it. So stick around for that. Stylish, comfortable, work attire.

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B-R-A-N-D dot com slash AG. You'll be glad you did. Alright, today for the interview, please welcome co-host of the opening arguments podcast and real-life lawyer Andrew Torres. Andrew, how are you? I am fantastic, AG. How are you? I'm so good. I haven't seen you since we almost sang karaoke

with Asha Rangaba. That is, there are only a handful of things that I will regret on my deathbed, but that is clearly one of them. That was such a great time after the live show in Philly. Yeah, me too. I thought about it since that like, you know, when younger people ask me for advice, I'm always like being their mentor, like, look, if you have a choice between not doing something and doing something, always do something because you'd rather regret

doing something than not doing something. And you're right. Not singing karaoke with Ajara and Kappa is number one on the list right now. So how were you? Did you survive yesterday? Yeah, I'm actually doing really well. I mean, high spirits. I feel like I'm finally, because I feel like Mueller edged us for like three years. And now it's all like, oh, yeah, now it's finally coming out. And it's not what I want it to be, but it's good enough. I, yeah, that's a, that is without a doubt the best analogy.

And anyone has ever given on this entire process. I want a Joey, but I got Chandler, and it's okay. Right. So I want to go over some of these legal questions that people are having about this whistleblower thing, impeachment, et cetera. And I want to ask specifically beyond the impeachable high crimes that Trump himself admitted to, that we knew before he released the whistleblower complaint, before we released the transcript

of the call, before the DNI testified, that things we already know he's... We've known since January of 2017. The thing we already know he's impeachable for, specifically the abuse of power in pressuring a foreign leader to investigate a political rival, but what about criminality here? And I mean, obviously we can't indict a sitting president, but there seems to be this thing on the right, especially, and with Trump supporters, where they feel like if he didn't commit by the book crime, he can't be indicted or I don't believe it. So first of all, why did the Department of Justice, we learned during that testimony with

McGuire, the acting DNA that he referred, he and the ICIG, the intelligence community inspector general referred, made a criminal referral to the FBI, but the Department of Justice specifically only looked at campaign finance violations. And can you, I thought there was one, but why is there not? So there definitely is. The only reason I can give for there not being a criminal referral here is Bill Barr is a dishonest hack who has, you know has positioned himself to body block anybody in between

himself and the president. And you know, that's the biggest whiff that I feel like I've made in the Trump presidency. In the Mueller report, in the Mueller report, Mueller specifically laid out with this June 9th, 2016 Trump Tower meeting that the Dirt on Hillary, they had a hard time assigning value to it. But isn't there a specific category of opposition research and political campaigns that the Hillary Dirt didn't fall under, but this would? So let me answer this in a couple of ways.

First, the relevant law, in my view, super clear, and also clear on the Oppo research, right? So I don't put, I view Mueller's statement in volume one with respect to Don Trump Jr. as kind of listing the one of a large number of reasons why they decided not to make a criminal referral of Don Jr. The largest one, I think, is the, we think he was just too stupid to meet the requisite intent. I mean, I don't mean that this is just like, right?

Yeah. I mean, I think that comes through loud and clear because there is the line in which, you know, he doesn't quite say it this way because Mueller doesn't quite say anything this way, but basically says, you know, look, if this had been Paul Manafort, we might have made a criminal referral, right? So, so I don't know that I share the characterization or that I would take away from the Mueller report that the Hillary op-o file is not a thing of value. the free op-o file is not a thing of value. The statutes 52 USC 301 21, it makes it illegal for any person to solicit except or receive a contribution from a foreign national, and that is a donation of money or other thing of value, or to make an express or implied promise to make a contribution or thing of value in connection with any election. I have talked to a number of election lawyers have had them on my show.

And they are uniform in saying that when you work in this area, when you advise political campaigns, that this does not have to be a sack of money with a dollar sign on, right? He sure. It's not like a like a plastic bag full of $10,000 with a box and glove in it. Are you sure? Yeah, you're right.

There are a number of cases that have held that intangible things nevertheless constitute a thing of value. Newspaper endorsements stories, right? You know, last time I was on and we were talking about AMI. Like it's clear, nobody is saying, for example, that killing, you know, a story involving stormy Daniels or killing a story, you know, involving other allegations

against Trump, that that's not a thing of value, right? Like so, so intangible stuff can be a thing of value. Okay, so it's not necessarily, it's not necessarily about the thing of value. It's more about the fact that, and specifically in the Don Jr. example, he didn't knowingly and willfully do this. Exactly. But now that we're in this situation,

because of Mueller, there's no way Trump could have not knowingly and willfully done this. Yeah, and let me pile on on that because of Mueller and because of the way Trump responded to Mueller, right? So in May, Trump looked at the report and said, what, I don't understand. Like, if a hostile foreign power had dirt on my 2020 opponent, I would go solicited. And it caused the chairman,

the chairwoman of the Federal Elections Commission, Ellen Weintraub. By the way, if you don't follow her on Twitter, she is a delight. Oh, I do. She's hilarious. And so she released the most AG-like statement that I have ever seen a lawyer release on the FEC website and it says let me make something 100% clear by that I'm not paraphrasing here I'm reading directly from the statement right to the American public and anyone running for public office it is illegal to for any person to solicit accept to receive anything of value from a foreign national. This is not a novel concept, right? That lawyers don't

typically talk that way, except me. And you're special. The chair of the FEC does not, has not ever talked that way as far as I know. So, you know, not only do we have the kind of post-modern, but we have the FEC sort of putting everyone on notice of, no, hey, look, like the things that Trump are saying here are nonsense. And if you get an offer or you know about an offer to give you anything from any foreign source, you quote, should report that offer to the federal Bureau of Investigation. And if quote, I love that everyone's out there trying to make sure that Trump knows that this is illegal. It just it seems it seems

like totally feasible to me that he you know with his interview with Stephanopoulos, well I would take it. Yeah. Or with his just complete ignorance or maybe his mental unfitness, he might be able to wiggle out and say, I really honestly didn't know you guys. I didn't know. So I'm a little worried about that. I also, I also wanted to ask you about a term, a legal term of art, racketeering, because there's rumors now that this could be racketeering this whole Ukraine thing. Can you explain what racketeering is and if you think it applies? So let me give you the answer first. I think racketeering would be not the appropriate way to go in connection with these allegations. And the reason has to do so that the RICO statute, it's 18 USA 1961, that is the Racketeering

and Racketeering Influence Corrupt Organizations Act. And I get why people are sort of superficially attracted to that. The reason that RICO was passed in the 1970s was in recognition that sort of modern organized crime. Like the mob boss isn't the guy who goes out and wax fat Tony, right? Like he's, he issues the directive which goes down the line to somebody else to go out and actually, you know, hire Joe Pesci to stab him with a pen or whatever. And so like, so the law makes total sense, but in order for the law to apply, so the law is basically, you know, anybody who's any part of the conspiracy is liable for all

the acts of the conspiracy. That's true in common law conspiracy as well. But one of the things that Rico makes a federal crime is you then have to be part of that corrupt organization. And the statute spells out like 35 separate activities that constitute racketeer. So it's gambling, murder, kidnapping, and among those it includes things like bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, you know, things that we may find that Trump has done.

My belief is it's far simpler. If you're talking about a criminal act for which Donald Trump could be arrested, you know, when he's out of office, it would be far simpler to sort of go for the underlying bribery than to try and sort of establish that there was a corrupt organization. And then the organization did the bribery and Trump was a part of the organization.

It, in my view, it's not a good fit. It would be a terrible fit in connection with impeachment because, you know, prosecutors, again, I'm a civil lawyer, so, you know, take this with a grain of salt. But when I talk to prosecutors, right, it's hard to prosecute Rico cases when you have, you know, the perverbing mole, you know, mob boss in front of it. So it would be really, really hard to do that in front of Mitch Connell in the Senate in two days. You know, yeah, fuck that guy. Yeah. But I do want to, I do want to note that the reason that Trump is able to be arrested when he leaves office and prosecuted, likely successfully provided he's not pardoned federally by Pence or whoever, is because Mueller didn't make a determination on whether or

not he committed obstruction of justice. Had he done that, he could taint future juries. And so I just want to let everybody know if you're mad about Mueller not saying that he committed obstruction of justice, there was a very, very good reason behind it. I also think I just want to bracket that. I have changed my view from where it was in 2017, in 2017. And again, I don't think just because we have a criminally insane game show host as president, but coming into the Trump administration, I would have said, you can't indict a sitting president period. I would have deferred to the OLC opinions. I am persuasive. Remember that OLC opinions are just letters that lawyers are hired by the president. Right. So, you

know, they don't have any independent force of law. They're just an opinion that a lawyer right? And so, you know, right? I mean, you know, John, you wrote a memo, right? I mean, like lots of lawyers, right? And so, you know, right, I mean, you know, John, you wrote a memo, right? I mean, like lots of lawyers write lots of stupid memo. Oh, the, I mean, Office of Legal Council under Bush and Cheney wrote a memo saying torture was awesome. Yeah, that was the U memo. That's exactly what I was referring to. Yeah. The office of legal counsel is there to make it okay for people like presidents to do shit that they don't want to do. We even have this low, like low down in the, in my civil service area of the get okay for people like presidents to do shit that they don't want to do. We even have

this low down in my civil service area of the government where we're like, hey, I need to put this memorandum together and we go, oh, we got to go to office of legal counsel and it's basically like, great, make this legal for me. Right, yeah, right, exactly. So the fact that that was the OLC determination, not a huge weight in my book, And I am persuaded, obviously, we don't have time to kind of go through the history in the case of law. I am persuaded that you could indict the president and and and stay the proceedings and that that would satisfy all of the separation of powers issues. I think so too. We were all about that.

We're like, why don't you just file some indictments under seal and walk away, go home, retire, and watch a movie. And so the fallback position on that is, as because this was, I think this was implicit in your question, or at least something that I wanna riff on a little bit. And it is, what if we find crimes and now they're outside the statute of limitations, right?

Because we find them out after Trump has been removed from office. Oh, well, that's easy. You just string them together with current crimes and then they're all one crime. That's, I think, I think that's a good approach. The B approaches, I would argue that they are equitably told during the time when the president is in office, right? And the position the OLC has taken is would then be sort of exhibit one to that, right? Like if everybody in law enforcement said that doesn't count.

Yeah, and nobody's ever tested that. Nobody's ever tested that. Nobody's ever tested that. Nobody's ever, we talked to, I think Renato Mariotti about this too. He says, I think you have a pretty good case to say that the statute of limitations was told during Trump's presidency because of the OLC memo. I think it's a pretty good case. However, the OLC memo is not a statute is what he said.

And so it's hard to apply the tolling idea to something that's not an actual law, but is rather just a memo. So we're kind of between a law and a memo, between a rock and a hard place, where if it were the law, we'd be able to easily say that we should be able to toll the statute of limitations.

But because it's just a fucking memo, I personally think we should be able to indict him and just test the memo, but nobody's going to do it. And, and, and that's how I would, I agree 100% with Renata's analysis there. And I would say what bridges the gap is that that memo has the force of law to an employee of the justice department, right? Yeah. And we have proof of that in the Mueller investigation.

So now there's kind of a precedent for it. Yeah, we have his testimony. Yeah. And speaking of like this whole idea of rat, you know, talking about racketeering and there's very specific things that you have to meet, you know, requirements you have to meet for it to be considered racketeering. And so that doesn't make much sense, especially not for impeachment. But what about a quid pro quo? Because Lindsey Graham has gone on the record saying, in order for this to be quid pro quo, the

call with Zelensky, you have to say the words, if you don't do this, I won't do this. Or if you do this, I will give you this. And every single prosecutor I've ever spoken to, and every sit like everyone I've heard, Mimi, Roca, and Joyce Vance, and all the talking feds that I see on TV are saying, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I've put away people for Quid Pro Quo

for less, like for way more vague language than this. But I think Trump thinks he can get away with it because Mueller let him get away with, well, not let him get away with, but didn't charge him with obstruction of justice for, for, you know, specifically not saying I fire the special counsel. Like he, I think he thinks that he can play these word games and get away with them. I think that's right. Let me, let me work backwards. So boy, dumbest thing Lindsey Graham has said in the past couple of years is that there

are a lot of things vying for first place on that list. But yes, that's those prosecutors, this will not surprise you. Those prosecutors are correct. We, we know. And there are literally hundreds of bribery cases in which it was held sufficient to go to a jury, right? Because that's really what we're talking about is can a jury draw the reasonable inference that there was a promise of something of value, right? And so, you know, yeah, are you going to, are you going to play ball? Are you gonna, are you gonna play ball?

And that's how, right, that's how mobsters talk. That's how the president talks. What, what usually, like the reason our bribery laws are broken, right? And this, this goes back to the Macdonald case that went up to the Supreme Court. It was nine, nothing, right? So, and so, and this is not just kind of political hackery. But like, we had a Republican governor Republican governor, Bob McDonald in Virginia, who was like a cartoon villain in terms of bribery. I mean, this, you know, these shady companies would like, they rented him a Ferrari, they gave his wife a fur coat, right?

I mean, like literally the kind of thing that if you wrote into a movie, you know, the script writers would look back and be like, okay, that's a little bit hack. Right, like it was, it was just ridiculous. Right, like I got you a fur coat. I let you sing it the lounge. What are you doing?

You know, it's, and he did it. And so he got all of this stuff for access, right? And the conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court. And so a lot of good government folks and they should be, you know, sort of rightfully outraged. We're like, okay, well, apparently you can bribe the hell out of governors and nothing can happen. But, but and that's basically true. But it's true on the second half of the quid pro quo, right? In other words, the problem was not establishing that there were things of value exchanged. The problem is that in bribery, what the politician has to give up is the performance of an official act, right? And so the Macdonald case said, hey,

just introducing your scumbag buddy who let you ride in his Ferrari around the legislature is not and, you you know sort of making it known. Hey, I'd like you to do this guy a favor. That's not quote an official act. Well, that is the easiest thing to satisfy here in connection with Ukraine, right? We have an official act, namely Donald Trump directing the Office of Management and Budget to withhold, Congressional issued funds, $250 million worth of aid to Ukraine.

So this, that part, the MacDonald case is not going to help Donald Trump here. I think this is an open and shut case of bribery. And I think the folks saying no collusion are... These two people. No collusion, right. The folks saying no quid pro quo are the equivalent of the folks saying no collusion are One step below the morons who are Nattering and going well, you know the whistleblower complaint is hearsay

Which which may be the stupidest thing coming out of Trump land because especially since Trump released the transcript of the call Especially because complaints aren't don't have to be tested, right? Like complaints are always here, say, and you have, and I really, I've been trying to get this out to as many democratic legislators as possible. But this is such a perfect own goal, because when, you know, Republican hack, reading the leak talking points that nevertheless, they still read anyway, he says, you know, Republican hack reading the leak talking points that nevertheless they still read anyway says, we know this whistleblower complain is just hearsay, you should turn and look at camera and say, that's right.

That's why in order to make it not hearsay, we need to not just talk to the whistleblower, but all of his sources. Thanks. I'm glad you agree with us on that, right? Like, because that's how you solve the hearsay problem. We do that with Kavanaugh all the time. People are like, oh, you know what? She, you know, she made that up or she didn't remember it. She didn't recall. I'm like, you know what? An investigation would clear this right up. And that's what Adam Schiff was getting at at the end of the DNI McGuire's testimony. He's like, don't you think somebody

should look into that? Like maybe somebody should investigate and talk to those people, right? Like who should do that? Who should investigate? Oh, us, us, okay. Yeah. It was just a little rough. Beautifully done.

I thought, Schiff coming out of the box with, so I just want to get this straight. You went to the subject of the complaint to ask him whether we should release the complaint, right? And McGuire kind of, you know, looked up at the, you know, looked up at the cameras, looked up at the chiff and was like, well, yeah, I guess I did that. But, you know, this is not like any other case. And she was like, you're damn right. It's not like any other case. Yeah. And if we are, if we aren't looking at, is quid pro quo under bribery laws,

that the law that that rests under? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be a thing of it. So quid pro quo under bribery laws? That the law that that rests under? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it has to be a thing of it. So quid pro quo is not in any of the statutes, right? But it's the, I think it's, I'm terrible at Latin. I think it's this for that. But right, like it, it is, the statute says, you have to exchange a thing of value in exchange for the performance for being influenced in the performance.

Right. You don't have to actually do something. Okay. So there's actually no law called quid pro quo. And this is probably just another one of those reflexive active measures techniques used by the administration to make you think that no collusion, no quid pro quo. Yeah, although in fairness, I mean, I don't want to be overly fair to the Trump administration,

but like lawyers do talk that way, right? So quid pro quo is sort of the shorthand. The law is 18 USC 201 and it says it's a crime for a public official to directly or indirectly demand, seek or receive, right? Or and then there's all bunch of other stuff, anything of value in return for being influenced in the performance of an official act. So that's what they're saying. And the really important part there that kind of goes beyond the quid pro quo is,

it's the asking that's the bad part, and it's the being influenced that's the bad part on the other hand, right? So even if you never get the info from Ukraine, right, doesn't matter. Even if Trump had not changed his position and not withheld the funds, it wouldn't matter. He did. But, right, so it is, you don't have to actually, right? It's not like, you know, you have to actually hand over the sack with the dollar sign on it for the bribery to take place, asking is the crime. Yeah, and you actually don't have to have a criminal act of bribery here to have it be a high crime and misdemeanor. Right.

To ask a foreign leader for help against your opponent. And we don't even know, you know, speaking of things of value, what that extra $140 million that was tacked on to the military aid was for. So I'm interested in that as well. You've me, me too. So, so let me add eight, eight seconds on, on kind of two, two more things on, on both of those. Number one, you do not need an underlying crime to have a high crime or misdemeanor. And the easy way to explain that to Uncle Frank or somebody, you know, Haku's repeating Fox News talking points is imagine that we had a president who you elected and he then immediately absconded and defected to, you know, to Russia,

right? And like you couldn't call him, you couldn't talk him, he didn't do anything in the preform, right? He just didn't answer his phone calls and just didn't do the job. Of course you would impeach him, right? Like,? Like, that's the reason there is an impeachment statute in the first place. But like, it's not illegal to just live in Russia, right? It's not illegal to, you know, go off into the woods, but it's still impeachable. That's still a high crime or misdemeanor for the office of presidency. So number one, and that's totally clear, right? Like, all of the articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon reiterate that it was failure

to uphold the oath of office and to take care to exercise that the laws are enforced. And you can fail to take care. Andrew, when Trump tried to pressure the Postmaster General to double the shipping rates on Amazon, I was like, what? This is what Nixon did with the IRS. We should impeach him now. And nobody seems to remember that one. We started because I got my first inquiry on my show of when is Trump going to be impeached,

when he appointed Jared Kushner to the White House staff, right? And like that's very clearly a violation of the anti-Nepotism laws. And he just didn't care and, you know, and... And gave him a security clearance. Overrode his security clearance. It's not, man. Yeah, it's not. So number one, you don't have to, just just remember, right? You don't have to have a crime like it would be a crime for you and I for it to be a high

crime and misdemeanor under the Constitution. And number two, the other thing, you're starting to see this bubble up on the right. They're saying, well, you know, this is a reiteration of the bill bar position on firing combi, right? That if it's within the presidential prerogative, it can't be a crime, right? That, well, if it's within the presidential prerogative, it can't be a crime, right? And the president, you know, has the prerogative to steer a to Ukraine or not. That's, that's true, but also stupid. No, there's a whole chapter. Yeah. There's a whole section in the Mueller report that explains it perfectly. Yep. Why the separation of powers clause, it doesn't apply when you're acting

correctly. And it's beautifully written out. It even explains why you can't fire Comey even though that's part of your article to powers. If it's done correctly, he does this beautiful logic chain. I really highly recommend everyone read the Mueller report if you haven't read it. I or or listen to it as as being read by your favorite podcast host, which is the next best thing. The way I explain that to folks particularly to Republicans because it gets under their skin is it's the blagoia of itch rule, right? There's nothing wrong with a governor appointing an interim senator to fill the role of a

Senate seat for somebody who's resigned. There is something wrong to filling that by auctioning it off to the highest bit. So you just sort of keep that in mind in terms of, it was no defense for Rod Blagojevich to be like, what, I'm the governor. I get to fill Barack Obama's Senate seat. But yeah, I mean, you don't get to say, I got this thing and it's fucking gold, and I'm not going to let it go away for nothing. And that's, to me, that's the lot.

Yeah. I agree. Well, Andrew, thanks so much for spending some time. This has been a wonderful conversation. I really appreciate you. Everybody of you haven't listened to the opening arguments podcast. You need to, oh, and by the way, what are you doing? November 7th. So November 7th, I will be in Italy. Yeah, I'll be overseas sadly. Otherwise, you know I'd be there. So I've already asked, yeah, because we're gonna be live in Boston. We're gonna have Greg Olyar there with us

and I was looking for another friend. So, but if you're gonna be in Italy, that's fine say how to pop a Doppler's form. I will, maybe Mangi out to you. I will, yeah, I'm doing a Mediterranean cruise. So, you know, wherever, wherever he's hiding. Oh good. Maybe you'll run into Dara Pasca's boat. Maybe Nasty Ripco will be there to be a good time. You could give him some polling data, you know, just

to hop on and be like, I have polling data. He'll just bring you right up. Sure. That's, that's the kind of thing that apparently it's okay to share with foreign oligarchs. So I'll, I'll keep that in mind. When are we get, When are we going to get you back on opening arguments? Oh, whenever you want. Let me know. October is pretty busy, but hey, the holiday season is the time for giving. So I think that would be a good time. Awesome.

All right. Well, thank you so much. Everybody, seriously, opening arguments podcast, Andertoris. Thanks again for being on Mollarshi Road. Oh, thanks for having me back. All right. That's our show. Big crazy week.

Again, if you have any corrections, send them to us mollershirope.com, click on Contact, select Corrections, let us know what you would like us to change. And if you want to remain anonymous, tell us because otherwise we'll shout-out. And that's all I have. Do you guys have any final thoughts? Yeah, just check out the Rachel Maddow show

where we're releasing a podcast. And I'm still working on the Rachel Maddow Show, where I've relased in a podcast and I'm still working on the Jolissa Johnson Show, but I got some good guests. So I'm excited about that. Probably October, late October. Okay. Yeah. Cool. I'm going to be in, well, I guess this comes out tonight. I'm going to Huntington tonight for a show, so that doesn't really mean anything. Oh, well, if you're in Huntington. It means a lot to me. Because it's coming out. This show comes about 630, well if you're in Huntington. It means a lot to me. Because it's coming.

This show comes about 6.30 so if you're in Huntington. Oh good. Yeah, where you at? Show starts at 8 o'clock. A rec room. Rec room. Nice. Yes.

If you can get there in half an hour. Then you can see me. And Jordan and I will be at Venice Underground Comedy October 23rd in Venice. That'll be a fun show. That'll be fun. With Tamer Katan, who is one that we've heard us talk about him a lot. He's got a really great podcast called They tried to bury us about American immigration stories. Absolutely

incredibly insanely funny guy winner of the World Series of Comedy. Check it out. He'll be there October 23rd as well. The Venice Underground. It's at the what's it the the townhouse on winward. In the basement. Free show. Free show. Also, keep calling your reps. I think that really makes a difference to them right now, especially.

Yes. It's been working. Yeah. I guarantee they're like, yeah, they're there must be just a huge database tracking all of the public engagement. Yeah. And that must be informing them in some way. And they can tell if you're a local caller too. So it means a lot of you're calling from your

actual district, opposed to doing it from the outside because they will prioritize. And if you are in the district, but your area code happens to be from somewhere else, but you live in that district, make sure you let them know. Yeah, they always ask me for my first and last name in Zib code to verify. Same. Yeah. Yeah. They're great. Get on that. And I mean, those seven freshmen, Congress people, five women that are all former military and CIA and then the two, the two gentlemen are all from Trump or Purple districts and

they came out, wrote that op-ed and said, we can't. This is a bridge too far. We have to support impeachment and querianness. So I think that you calling your reps might have had something to do with that. Hope so. And Pelosi had read that op-ed and it helped her. She had to call up and change her mind on that too. Yeah.

Did you see Tulsi Gabbard came out in the supportive impeachment? Yeah. What an idiot. If she's for it, like, whoa. Yeah, when I saw that, I was just like, that must have been such a hang your head, walk over to the other side moment for, I got all right.

Walk a shame. Fine. Okay, you win. Yeah, but it's just such so much corruption. And I think it's gonna just get worse and that pleases me. So, everybody please have a wonderful week. Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. I've been AG. I've been Julie Sejonsen. I've been Jordan Coburn. And this is Mullershi Road. Mullershi Road is produced and engineered by AG with editing and logo designed by

Jolissa Johnson. Our marketing consultant and social media manager is Sarah Lee Steiner and our subscriber and communications director is Jordan Coburn. Fact checking and research by AG and research assistants by Jolissa Johnson and Jordan Coburn. Our merchandising managers are Sarah Lee Steiner and Sarah Hershberger Valencia. Our web design and branding, our by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios, and our website is mullersheywrote.com. They might be giants that have been on the road for too long. Too long.

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