Jack - Tonight We’re Gonna Party Like it’s 1984 (feat. Scott Dworkin, Mike Levin, & Molly Jong Fast)

Episode Date: July 30, 2018

MAIN - This week, we have the triumphant return of the co-founder of the Dem Coalition & host of The Dworkin Report podcast, Scott Dworkin! We also have resister/author Molly Jong Fast and the candidate running as the Democrat in CA's 49th district, Mike Levin! Not to mention Jaleesa reports on the first Democratic victim of the 2018 Russian election hacking, Jordan has news on Tad Devine, and AG will be going over all things Cohen. Enjoy!

They might be giants that have been on the road for too long. Too long. And they might be giants aren't even sorry. Not even sorry. And audiences like the shows too much. Too much. And now they might be giants that are playing their breakthrough album, all of it. And they still have time for other songs.

They're fooling around. Who can stop? They might be giants and their liberal rocket gender. Who? No one. This happens to pay for it forward somebody else's money. Hello, Mueller junkies. This episode of Mueller She Wrote is brought to you

by the folks at Casper, a sleep brand that continues to revolutionize its line of products to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience one night at a time. With all the news coming at us these days, self-care and a good night sleep are more important than ever. And we've cooked up a special deal for fans of the pod, where you can get $50 off selected mattresses.

So just head over to Casper.com slash MSW and enter the promo code MSW when you check out and get some rest. We've all earned it. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. That's what I said. That's obviously what our position is. I'm not aware of any of those activities. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign and I

didn't have not have communications with the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for? I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So it political you're a communist no mr. Green communism is just a red hairing Like all members of the oldest profession. I'm a capitalist Hello, welcome to week 39 of Mueller. She wrote. I am your anonymous host AG Be an all anonymous and shit so I don't have to violate the hatch act I work for Trump's executive branch and he's purging non-loyalists right now, so I'm

also trying to keep a low profile. With me, as always, is Jolissa Johnson, and Jordan Coburn. And this week, we had some major news come out that got buried under some lame distractions, and I want to make sure you guys know what really went on, and to help us break it all down. This week, we have the triumphant return of the co-founder of the Dem Coalition and host of the Dork and Report podcast. You may know him as at-fundr on Twitter, Mr. Scott Dorkin. We also have resistor and author Molly Zhang fast, and we will be featuring an interview with the candidate running as the Democrat in California's

highly contested 49th District, Mr. Mike Levin. Darryl Isle almost lost that seat in 2016. It was like less than 2,000 votes. And now that he is retiring, we wanted to showcase the dem that won the primary in that swing district because the seat is up for grabs. Jolissa is gonna report on the first democratic victim of the Russian hacks in the midterm election. And Drew, yeah.

The first of many problems. Yeah, well, there were three, but one was named so far that we've found. And Jordan has some news on Tad Divine. That's one of Bernie's senior campaign advisors that got rolled up in the Manafort trial. I'll be going over all things Cohen, but first I wanted to thank you all for your overwhelming support of last week's mega-sode. The experts keep telling us that no one listens to podcasts longer than 45 minutes, but you guys proved them wrong and we thank you. Please head to Apple Podcast and give us a rating and subscribe. It really helps our exposure and our mission is to get the gospel of Mueller out to as many people as possible

and that's literally the best way to do it. I don't know why it's just how the world is set up. First we have some corrections from last week. And I believe, Jordan, you said something about Russia hacking Hillary's emails. Did you want to? Yes. So in my segment last week, I very quickly was reporting things in mispoke. I said that Hillary Clinton's emails were hacked when it was actually the hacking of the DNC emails. So when I reported on that, I was wrong. All right, so they did attempt to hack Hillary's emails, but I don't think they did it successfully. That was July 27th. Yeah, not the one that I was reporting on.

Oh, right. Yeah, that was Podesta DNC and the D-Triple C. Yep. Got it. Thank you for that correction. And I was incorrect when I said that Manafort made his wife watch orgies. The truth is he made his wife participate in orgies while he watched. Yes, far worse. Far worse. Anyhow, thank you to our fans for pointing out those corrections and we're going to just kind of fly right by that because I don't want to picture the orgies. If you have any corrections, please email them to mullershearoteatgmail.com. Alright, so as anticipated, we had another insane newsweek, so let's get into it with just the facts.

Over the weekend, we found out that Bhutina's financier was named in the Washington Post, and his name is Constantine Nicolayev, and it turns out that his kid actually worked for the Trump campaign, according to someone who heard Bhutina's testimony in the Senate Intelligence Committee back in April. I am frankly surprised she didn't leave the country after that testimony. I mean, she was questioned by the Senate and then just hung around for over three months before she was picked up. And later in the week on Wednesday, there was a hearing in the Bhutina case and the bottom line up front, as we say in the military, the prosecution

asked for the protection orders, basically governing the evidence that they're about to hand over to the defense, about 12 terabytes in all or 4 million documents, because the prosecution knows that the defense will go public with some of the information, which the prosecution says is sensitive, because a lot of it connects to other open and potential investigations. So there's still ongoing investigations, and there's still future investigations. The judge agreed but asked for the requests

in writing by September, so the court can determine what must be protected. A couple of other interesting things we learned from that hearing is that the defense was offended that the prosecution would characterize Bhutina's relationship with Paul Erickson, that's person one, as a ruse and demanded that they produce the evidence that shows Bhutina offered sex to someone else for a spot in a political organization. The judge said, that's a weird to ask for evidence for.

Like, what do you want to drop trial and have her show you what she can do? The judge said we have to wait to find out what the protective orders cover, right? The protective orders that are going to cover the evidence, though the prosecution pointed to Bettina's offer to testify on behalf of the prosecution in an FBI investigation into Erickson in South Dakota. So that kind of shows she doesn't really like them very much because she was willing to testify against him. In that, remember when we mentioned there was an open FBI investigation in South Dakota already on Erickson

She was gonna testify against him in that We also found out that Bhutina was on the payroll of the outdoor channel and that the president of that network Just so happened to be in Moscow in December 2015 that was during the time of the famous Flynn Putin Sheriff David Clark Jill Stein meeting at the RT dinner, Russian television dinner. What should we boycott? Do you know what they're on? What networks are on? The outdoor channel?

Or the, I guess it's their own network. That's what channel would, uh... It's probably on like, disk with the thousands of channels. It's probably an Amazon Prime with the NRA channel. I don't know, I really don't. It's, it was that, you know what it is? It was on NBC. It was that Tim Allen show

What was it outdoor man or last man standing or something? Yeah, anyway, it's that show. No, I'm kidding I don't know Yes, Tim Allen was in Russia in December 2017. Oh, no, excuse me for 2015 and this week in Minanigans that's Manafort shenanigans. I like that. That's good. Thank you. Judge Ellis granted immunity. He granted immunity to the five witnesses, which turned out to be accountants and bankers, including two dudes that worked for that little bank in Chicago that specializes in lending money to veterans, that ended up lending $16 million to Manifort the day he left the Trump campaign. And the head of that bank, a dude named Cawk,

member of Cawk, we've made fun of him a few times on our show. He wanted to be secretary of the army in the Trump administration. And they're trying to show that that was a squid pro crow. Yeah, two for ten. Yeah, he gives Man of Fort 16 million and he gets to be secretary of the army.

So he's one of those five immunity guys. Oh. Two, actually two of the guys who worked for Cocker and that immunity thing. And Ellis granted immunity and then argued against the prosecution that he was going to release the names. And prosecution was like, no, please don't. But Ellis did it anyway. He's like, no, it's all public. Don't care.

Ellis also delayed the trial to July 31st, which is tomorrow. Remember back when Manafort got all pissy and asked to delay the trial until November and Ellis said, no need, we'll just move you closer. That happened right around the time the prosecution dumped the Gates discovery on Manafort, right? And Mana fucked wine about it, whined about it, but the judge called his bluff and moved him. Well, in this hearing that happened this past week, Manafort asked again to delay until November. And this time he gave the real reason. He wanted more time to go over the gates documents

and his own accounting books, by the way, which his bookkeeper apparently was holding for ransom. He said, yeah, and he figured, oh, I'll save some money and wait till it comes out into discovery, so they give it to him in discovery and it's like a bazillion documents and he's like, oh, I need till November. Well,, Ellis gave him six days. So the trial starts July 31st. The key piece of news in this story is that Ellis said he expects the trial to last three weeks

and I guessed two to four, so I call that win for beans. Yeah. We're beans. He also... More beans. That's amazing though. Three weeks, Helia. That's also, yeah, more beans. That's amazing though. Three weeks, hell yeah. That's such instant gratification for us. I know. I know, I know. And I'm paleo now, so I can put beans on things.

I just can't eat them. Oh, just put them literally on. So anyway, he told the prosecutors he would make their witness list public by the end of the week, which is not common practice. And then Friday, jury selection began. So this trial is going forward whether Manafort is ready or not. Yeah, this is a jury that Manafort wants to be equally split. Yeah, for both of the kids and Democrats. Yeah, he even was like, can you, can we ask them who they voted for?

This is the second. Thank you. Then Trump announced he was going to rescind security clearance for six people, including Rice, Comey, McCay, Brennan, Clapper, and Hayden. And this is blatant, like, Orwellian political abuse of power. This serves no purpose. A few of those folks don't even have security clearance anymore. Comey's like, yeah, go ahead, take it away. I was read out. I don't have clearance anymore. This is using government power to punish political opponents because he doesn't like what they say about him because he's such a big strong man. His or Wellian shit was just off the charts this week you guys. Tuesday, he spoke to a group of

veterans in Kansas City and told them not to believe what they see or read. He said, what you're seeing of what you're reading is not what's happening. And if Trump supporters were readers, they might remember this line from the book 1984, quote, the party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final most essential command, unquote. Should have read that book in 10th grade. Finally, the scariest move he's made to date, in my opinion, happened Wednesday. When we found out he didn't just tell people to ignore evidence, he actually doctored official White House transcripts and official White House video to fit his narrative. The official White House video and transcript of the Putin Trump press conference at the

Helsinki Summit has been doctored. And Rachel Maddow pointed out Tuesday night on her show That there was an article in the Atlantic from July 17th that the official house transcript White House transcript didn't match what actually happened There was a question from Mason of Reuters who asked Putin quote Did you want Mr. Trump to win and did you direct anyone to help him do that to which Putin said yes? I did yes, I did the Russian state transcript has the entire question from Mason missing, and both the official White House transcript and the video have removed the first part of his question where he asks if Putin wanted Trump to win. The Washington Post came out the day after Matt outpointed all this out and said no, no

harm, no foul, we had the wrong transcript too, it's hard to hear. Bullshit, I call Bullshit. And Wednesday the White House came out and acknowledged the error, but they still hadn't corrected it. It's frightening considering the new tweet from Trump that says Russia will interfere in the 2018 elections to help the Democrats. Easy claim to make when you erase from the record a direct question to Putin as to whether or not he wanted Trump to win, right? So Trump also tweeted out a Russian-created doctorate tape of Hillary Clinton, originally posted by the Russian state television channel one, showing his new narrative that Hillary

is strong for Russia, backing up Trump's new assertion that Russia is pro-democratic. So that's Trump's new tack, the Russians are helping Democrats. That way he can blame the blue wave on Russia, and sadly his base will believe him despite video evidence to the contrary and as of Friday The White House did correct the transcript, but the video is still doctored. Oh, damn it. Get this fucker out of here. I know, right? So infuriating. It is.

It's... I don't know. I don't even know how to character it. Well, that's how you get, you know, how you erase the truth, right? It's like by slowly scrubbing it in little patches where people think it doesn't matter so much, but then over time, it's like, oh, wait, what happened again? We have no evidence anymore. The saddest reality is that it works.

Yeah, yeah. Monday night, Avonati ran into Cohen in a New York restaurant. Oh my God. And said, we should work together. To which Cohen told him, you better speak to my lawyers. This would be an interesting team. We're trying to get Avanade on the show, so tweet at him you guys. Tweet Avanade, tell him all of his wildest dreams will come true if he doesn't interview with us. If you vote for me, all of your wildest dreams will come true.

And remember to tag us in that tweet at Muller Shee Road, I want to see. I want to see those tweets. Remember last week when I warned everyone that because there was no other people in the room during the Putin summit, that meant Putin could say what every wanted about what happened in that meeting and our president is compromised. Exactly. Let's listen to that clip real quick. Problem with the secret meeting is Putin can now say Trump said anything and Trump will not

have any way to defend it. Putin likely recorded the meeting and that makes Trump compromise. That's what happened to Flynn. He had secret meetings with Russians that they recorded and then Russia had him buy the balls and that's why Sally Yates warned the White House that Flynn was likely compromised. Well guess what? Putin is starting to tell the world his version of what happened at that meeting and no one, not even Trump's national security team, have any details or evidence of what

took place in that meeting. Putin has told the press that he and Trump agreed on a plan in Syria. Then the general, the American general in charge of St. Com, that central command in the Middle East, said he heard nothing of the sort, and then Putin came out slamming him, saying he was defying his supreme president. So there's Russia successfully driving a wedge between the president and the United States and the general in charge of St. Com in the Middle East. Awesome. And then on Tuesday night, one of the Cohen Trump tapes leaked to CNN.

And I'm going to go over that a bit later. Just Lordy, I hope there are tapes. Wednesday, a lot of shit went down, as Wednesdays tend to do. Putin declined Trump's White House invitation. Showing him and the United States up once again, but then invited him back to Russia later in the week. Sarah Sanders replied that they'd talk about it after the first of the year because they knew that the fallout from the first treason summit was so bad that they don't want to

visit with Putin, the public master, right? Again, until after the election. Yeah, I was going to say I thought Trump already pulled back on his offer before that. Well, he offered Putin said, no, then Putin said, you come back here, you come to my house. And then he's summoning him again. And then Trump didn't say it, but Sarah Sanders said, maybe after the first of the year, this little last time was pretty bad for us. Yeah, I love it. Maybe I was going to say, Putin can say no to Trump, but Trump can't say no to Putin. It's so obvious. Yeah, it's truly obvious. Yeah, maybe they'll go over after Sarah Sanders,

so why hasn't she has enough to deal with it? Mm-hmm. They're like young lovers. You come over to my house. No, you come over to my house. No, you come over to my house. Yeah. They should not be meaning at all period. They're too young. Also late Wednesday night, Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows, GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee, filed articles of impeachment against Rod Rosenstein for high crimes and misdemeanors. We saw this coming, to be fair, Meadows has been walking around with that impeachment under his arm like a wooby for the past several weeks. The line is blinking. Yeah. But as soon as it happened, it was over. Most Republicans, including Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham, they all came out against impeachment

and Meadows tabled the impeachment and said he would switch it to contempt charges, but not until September after the summer recesses over. But would that be too late? Mueller is looking to wrap up a significant part of his investigation by the end of the summer. There are many signs that the probe is still active, including inferences in both the Manifort and Bhutina hearings, that there are still ongoing open and

potential investigations. But according to anonymous but credible sources, Mueller is starting to have those chats with his team about winding down. Much like you remember in a higher loyalty when Komi started chatting with his guys about ending the Hillary investigation and how we're gonna end it And how they wanted to proceed so the source also said Mueller views his role more of an as an investigator and not a prosecutor So I thought that was all interesting that that Rosenstein has handed over anything is incredible to me Justice has no duty to produce top secret material and an open and ongoing investigation to the leak fest of Congress full of potential subjects in the investigation. He's produced over 800,000 documents as ludicrous on its own, but Rosenstein knows he's the guardian

of the Mueller investigation, and he knows that the entire iceberg, not just the tippy-top that we've had the privilege of seeing. So he's releasing all these documents, he's redacting the shit out of them. Well, actually his team is redacting them, but like, you know, he's doing the best he can to appease them to not give Trump a pretext to fire him, but also protecting sources and methods. Unfortunately, article, not unfortunately,

I shouldn't say that, but article one, section six, clause one of the Constitution, states in part for any speech and debate in either house, senders and representatives, they shall not be questioned in any other place. The purpose of this clause is to prevent the arrest and prosecution of unpopular legislators based on their political views. So for GOP members of Congress to try to impeach Rosenstein and then hide behind the speech and debate clause is a

akin to like a pathetic chicken shit complicit wrestling coach that knows about the abuse of children, but stay silent like Jim Jordan. Or maybe it's more like a Weasley congressman who continued to pay his chief of staff who was forced to resign amid accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior like Mark Meadows. These are the two guys who filed the impeachment, by the way. It's just beyond pot and kettle to me. And all this on the heels of the indictment of 26 Russian spies and entities in an investigation

given up on by the committee Jordan and Meadows are part of in Congress. Maybe they're jealous of the job Mueller and Rosenstein are doing, but more likely they're just trying to cover their own asses. Even the racist possum, Jeff Beauregard sessions came out Thursday saying he has the highest confidence in Rosenstein. So, anyway, don't worry. This is all likely, as I said, just deployed to give Trump pretext to fire Rosenstein, so he can replace him with Benchkowski.

But as we have discussed many times on this show, there are multiple fail-saves. Mueller has in place, including his Deadman switch, which is a term that refers to a switch that's automatically thrown if the operator becomes incapacitated. Mueller's Deadman switch could be in the form of sealed indictment set to drop when or if his investigation is in jeopardy. There's also the special assistance to the special counsel that Muller set up. These are the little prosecutors on his team that he's given full authority to continue on without him. I call them mini-mullers. And then there's the handing off of many parts of this

investigation to US Attorney's offices and the department of justice directly, such as in the boutina case or the Cohen case. The Mueller investigation is Trump proof and all of his attempts to shut it down will just be added to the obstruction of justice pile. That's how I see it. That's intense. Speaking of obstruction of justice, Thursday, we learned that Mueller is actually looking at Trump's tweets, specifically his nasty tweets towards sessions in Komi. Intimidating witnesses and tamping down the investigation is what these tweets could help prove. Mueller wants to interview Trump about these tweets, but it's unlikely Trump is going to sit down with them. So we may or may not see a subpoena.

And the main reason Mueller could say only the president could provide this testimony is that multiple people have access to Trump's Twitter account, right? There's a lot of people we know that are tweeting for him. And Mueller will want to know if Trump actually wrote those tweets. Mueller may have already asked Caputo if he wrote the tweets and could easily catch Trump and alive if they sat down. And so the interesting part is Giuliani responded saying, quote, obstruction is something that

happens behind closed doors, not out in the open, which is the dumbest argument I've ever heard. Like somebody robs a bank in the broad daylight and they're like, well, we can't prosecute and most people, you know, rob banks at night or whatever. It's just the dumbest thing. You do that shouldn't be dark, man. Yeah. They really should push harder for an interview with him. Molar. Listen to me. I just don't get, I should more say, I don't understand why they're not pushing harder for it,

because then that's just such an easy way to trap him in a line. That's why they're pushing back so hard on doing it, and that's why he's been so evasive. But I'm surprised that they're not pushing harder on that, because it be such. You know, it's inevitable, and it's still frustrating us, you know, citizen.

Well, the more time that goes by, though, the more they get to craft this narrative and then, you know, loop the truth. And it's like and it's still frustrating us. You know, the more time that goes by, though, the more they get to craft this narrative and then, you know, do the truth. And it's like this whole time if we had an interview with him, then it'd be more evidence against him. Yeah. You think Mueller would be considering how important the public opinion is. So yeah, maybe he is fighting the clock and he knows it, but at the same time, I feel like

he's got to have a plan that's way ahead of ours. Like, and we're thinking this, he's probably thought this like a few months ago and he's like, you know what, I'm going to hold off because of this and that. Like, I, yeah, I would hope so. I hope so. I hope you're on my part. Yeah.

Yeah, it's, I, there's a lot of different things at work here. A subpoena could drag this out for a long time. And Mueller might not want to do that. Also we didn't, we do know Mueller is able to subpoena could drag this out for a long time. And Mueller might not want to do that. Also we do know Mueller is able to subpoena him because he floated that idea, I think back in February or March, and he wouldn't have done that unless he had the full backing of the Department of Justice, Rosenstein, and all of them. So he can. It's whether or not he thinks that it's the best way to go.

And also we have to remember that as people shift from subject to target, you no longer want to bring them in for questioning. Right. Or I mean, a lot it depends, but usually when you don't bring a target in for questioning. So that's kind of what I'm hoping is happening. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's just knocking a question him

until he's actually on the stand. Yeah, which would be- In which case, I don't know if that's going to happen, but yeah, yeah, that's the question sitting president Will he be on the stand I very find that very hard to believe more's already gone on record saying that he would follow the impeachment proceedings Yeah, yeah, so we recommend to take the Congress Yeah, well we'll find out because all these indictments are gonna drop pretty soon We also found out Thursday that the CFO of the Trump organization

Alan Weiselberg was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in the Cohen case. I'll be talking about this subpoena with Scott Dworkin later in hot notes. And we learned Thursday that Tad divine is cooperating with prosecution. Jordan is going to tell us about that later. Claire McCaskill is one of the first Democratic victims of Russian interference in the 2018 election. And Jalisa has that reporting for us in a bit. So Thursday was quite a day.

Then Thursday night, there was a bombshell report that Cohen says Donald Trump knew about the Trump tower meetings ahead of time. And I'll be covering that later as well with Scott Dworkin. Then Friday, Trump had a very important meeting about protecting our elections. There were about 30 high-level Intel people, national security people there in that meeting. 30 people, think about that. Trump made a statement that we have to defend against attacks from every foreign entity. He didn't say Russia.

And the meeting only lasted 30 minutes. Sounds like a super robust meeting. Yeah, that's a all-lives matter meeting. 30 people, 30 minutes. Sounds like the toddler and chief needed a nap and ended the important meeting early. We still have no plan to mitigate interference and he's still saying the hacks could be coming from anywhere. Kendalanian says, quote, the Trump administration has no central strategy for election security and no one's in charge. Couple that with the GOP ending funding for protecting our elections despite states begging for the funding and the fact that Trump hasn't hired a cyber security chief, our elections are vulnerable and I'm willing to bet he likes it that way. So get out and vote in November, no excuses.

Finally, someone snapped an epic photo at Reaganan Airport in Washington, D.C. at Gate 35X showing Muller reading in a seat just a few feet away as Don Jr. is standing in line on the phone. But the most important question for me is where is Muller going? Isn't he busy? Well, yeah, I'm sure he's probably spending a lot of time working, but if he gets a second to go somewhere else, I think he deserves a break. Maybe he's visiting family Well, what I lay for the weekend does he have a family? I think he's just a robot. I've seen his wife and months He's got that sister who works at laid man. He's got that sister who works at David Buster's He's gonna go to David Busterusters he's gonna play dance dance revolution Can I like loose a little bit he's working hard. Oh, yeah, he's like loose man

He had his first top button unbutton. Oh Crazy did he wear a blue shirt? White not damn it was white. Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's white super hot dude sit next to him I want to know who that guy is yeah, yeah, I had a really hard time locating Donald Trump Jr It was like oh of course the the douche in the Light boot polo. Totally. Well, here's my theory. Don Jr. is likely flying to New York, which means, and if it's on the same flight, Mueller is going to New York too. So maybe he's going there to meet with the Southern District of New York

prosecutors. Maybe they'll trade some info. Total conjecture, put beans on it if you want. I don't know, I'm paleo. Anyway, those are the facts guys, we'll be right back. Greetings, this is your host A.G. and I wanted to take a minute to tell you about Casper, where their heart of work revolutionizing their line of products designed to create an exceptionally comfortable sleep experience one night at a time. So after a long day of resisting and smashing the patriarchy, you can sleep well on one of their mattresses made of multiple supportive memory phones that provide just the right amount of sink and just the right amount of outs. And Casper is breathable,

so you can sleep cool, which is something I always look for in a mattress at least. Casper doesn't just offer mattresses, also. They have a wide range of products to help ensure you're getting the rest that you need to get out and fight the good fight. Best of all, Casper's mattresses are made in the United States, unlike Maga hats. So jump online and order one today. They ship it right to your house in a compact box and offer free returns in the United States and Canada. The best part is Casper has a risk-free one-hundred night in home trial. And considering we spend one-third of our lives on a mattress, it's important to truly sleep on a mattress before committing to it. And that's why Casper gives you 100 nights to try it out.

Get a $50 reward towards Select Matresses by visiting Casper.com slash MSW and use the promo code MSW when you check out Terms and Conditions Apply. That's $50 towards Select Matresses just by visiting Casper.com slash MSW and using the promo code MSW at checkout. A well-rested resistance is an effective one. All right, welcome back. Hot notes. All right, time for this week's Hot Notes. Jordan is going to be going over the Bernie campaign advisor, Tad Divine. I'll be covering Cohen with an interview with Scott Dworkin.

But first, Jaliza has an update for us on the attempted hack of Claremacascal. Yes, thank you. So on Thursday, an article came out by the Daily Beast called Russian Hacker's New Target, a vulnerable Democratic Senator, and the vulnerable Democratic Senator they're talking about is Claremacascal. She's become a top target for Republicans seeking to expand their slim Senate majority in the 2018 midterms and as it turns out, Russia's government hacking group Fancy Bear is going after her too. So you guys might remember that Fancy Bear is the same Russian intelligence agency that was behind the 2016 DNC hacks. So now they're targeting poor old Claire during her 2018 re-election campaign, which interestingly enough would mark behind the 2016 DNC hacks. So now they're targeting poor old Claire

during her 2018 re-election campaign, which interestingly enough would mark the first identified target of the Kremlin's 2018 election meddling campaign. It's like an annual event now. Yeah, they should get a tour t-shirt and on the back, it's all the names of the people they've hacked. I survived 2016 presidential hacking. I don't know.

McCaskillan was hacked in 2016, I don't like how this is the last issue. Oh my God. Can we do that? We can do whatever we want. Oh America. You still got that going for it. So McCaskill is a likely target considering her highly critical stands against Putin. Not to mention that in 2016 Trump won her home state of Missouri and the presidential election by almost 20 points. So initially in a statement, McCaskill said, I think we'll have something on it next week in regards to this recent hacking.

I'm not going to speak out about it right now. I can't confirm or do anything about it right now. But then she released a statement confirming the cyber attack was unsuccessful and she added, Russia continues to engage in cyber warfare against our democracy. I will continue to speak out and press to hold them accountable while this tech was not successful. It is outrageous that they think they can get away with this. I will not be intimidated. I've said it before and I will say it again. Putin is a thug and a bully. I like her. In August 20th, I do leave it to Democrats to refer to white people as thugs.

Yeah, I mean, honestly, I do appreciate that. So in August 2017, around the time that the hack was attempted on McCaskill, Trump traveled to Missouri and told the crowd to vote McCaskill out of office. But just last week on Twitter, he said that he's worried the Russians, like you said, AG will interfere in the 2018 midterms on behalf of Democrats. It's like he's gaslighting us, right? Like, that's what that is. And it makes you wonder if that wasn't another public

nudge and a wink to Russia to be like, at Claire McCaskill, just like the Russia if you're listening. Yeah, he's speaking on his whole list of that, but yeah, he's stupid codes. Like, I hope you'll let this go. The fact that he said that too is also proof that he's confident that a blue wave is going to happen, which is good news on one hand. On the other hand, we know the truth. It's pretty fair. Yeah, yeah. Even though we do have I think a lot of momentum, like a lot

of people are saying we're going to break records. We need to prepare for the fact that Russia is planning to shit on those records and just dismiss them. Yeah, they're just taking victories from us in every form possible. Absolutely. Even when we have a real victory, just claiming it was that. Yeah, totally. Totally. That's true, not Russia, but yeah.

Yeah, it's really sad. And this tweet about the Democrats being out by the Russian came out weeks after Mueller and died at 12 Russian grew officers for hacking 2016 US elections targeting the DNC. So it's almost like Trump is just trying to like confuse us. Like yeah, the facts are out there, but how about this random theory? Like it's so insulting. And just so you guys know, when we say grew officers,

that's our short hand for GRU. Absolutely. I always feel like we throw all these, you know, these acronyms at you and we don't tell you what they are. You're right, you're right. I'm trying to help you guys out with that, especially our new listeners.

We just got a ton this week. So welcome right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're right. You're their Microsoft Exchange password had expired, and the email instructed them to change their password. Oh, yeah, that's what happened to Podesta, right? They sent them a Gmail password expiration shit. It's so sad, because now that I think about it, I could have easily fallen for this in the last few years. We just didn't think about these things. And so if a target clicked on the link, they were taken to a replica of the US and its login page.

And in October, yeah, I know it was really similar. So October, Microsoft actually got control of one of the sp and its login page. And in October, I know it was like really similar. So October, Microsoft actually got control of one of the spoofed website addresses when a federal judge in Virginia issued a permanent injunction against the grew hackers. So they got some of these websites back, but they're popping up all the time. And McCaskell actually was caught up in the Podesta hacking,

which was revealed when WikiLeaks released the claim campaign chair's private emails. and the document dumb showed that McCaskill called Podesta to inform him that she had info about an individual working in the State's Department's Inspector General's Office, which at the time was investigating Clinton's private email server. So the info just ended up being that a top aid at the Inspector General's Office once worked for a public and Senator Chuck Grassley. But basically, it just shows that McCaskill's

criticism of WikiLeaks stretched all the way back to nearly a decade and and she's always called for prosecutions of individuals who sin classified information to WikiLeaks. So you know basically she's at the center of this because she's a huge critic of Putin and it makes total sense that he would go for her first but like you were saying, Aji, there's been two other people apparently so it's just the beginning and her response to all of this which And it makes total sense that he would go for her first, but like you were saying, A.G., there's been two other people apparently. So it's just the beginning. And her response to all of this was just, I hope we can find out where this is coming from

and go after them with the force of law. So that's my hope too, but I don't know. Yeah. And her, so it's, yeah, definitely her criticism of Putin and Wikileaks, but also it's a really vulnerable seat. She totally, Trump won that district 20 points right? Yeah, I said that. Anyway, thank you so much for that reporting. Thank you That is fantastic and now well, let's scary and horrible, but good reporting. Good reporting

Anyway, thank you, Julie. So Jordan you have some beans for us regarding Bernie Sanders senior campaign advisor What'd you find out? So this week we discovered that TAD divine who was a top advisor to the Bernie Sanders campaign has been summoned as a government witness in the case against Manafort in Virginia. This has been public information about TAD, but TAD worked with Manafort and Gates on Yanukovych's campaign in Ukraine,

which is a bummer for me personally to learn because it's like, Bernie, what are you doing hiring someone that worked for a campaign that was super pro Russia? Yeah. There's no excuse for that. So just to address that element of it first, the sketchy element of it, I will say number one, it has been released by the prosecutors that Tad is not a target of the investigation. He is being brought in purely as a government witness and they went on record saying that he has done nothing that is

unlawful. So there are people, of course, freaking out right now and Fox News and all around saying, see, see, he was an agent of Russia too. That's not true. I will say that yes, he did work on a campaign for Yannick Covage, which is shooting in itself, but their statement, the firm that he worked for when he was doing that work released a statement saying, after the administration, the Ukrainian administration, of the presidential candidate we had worked for arresting his political opponent, we quit. Then we declined additional offers to work on his later campaigns. So there's that, I guess, whatever. Still very annoying. So yeah, moving on. Basically, he's being called in as a government witness because of

the contacts he had with Maniford and Gates during that time period. Oh, and you know what? Tat Divine is not one of the five people who was granted partial immunity, use immunity, which means he did not do anything criminally culpable, I would think. Right, yeah, especially if they went on record saying that he did not do anything unlawful, I think you're right. Unless he did super criminal shit, and they're not giving it a immunity because they want to prosecute.

We don't even have laws written for what you did. Were you in those Manafort orgies? Oh God. Orgy law. But yes, so important to note, Tad Divine is being brought in as a witness in Virginia as it relates to Manafort's involvement with the Ukrainian campaign. And as that relates to Manafort's involvement with the Ukrainian campaign. And as that relates to Manafort's failing to report foreign bank accounts, his filing of false tax returns, and bank fraud. Really shitty man, that guy so fucked. And so fucked. Then charges were brought against Manafort just for context in a DC court regarding his failure to register as a foreign lobbyist for his work on behalf of Ukraine. So I'm sure Ted Devine's going to pop up again when that trial starts in DC in

September. Yeah. And him and him and Gates worked on behalf, they lobbyed on behalf of a foreign entity for seven years without registering. So I wonder if that's like seven separate counts or like a question. Like you get a year for every time you didn't do it. Like I wonder if you can be a foreign lobbyist and never register and it's just one count for however many years. I don't know how it works. We'll find out. Yeah. I mean, that's interesting. Probably, I would think probably because I think there'd be a fine associated with each time you don't do it. Right. And the government being the government, they would probably require you to re-up your registration every year. I wouldn't be surprised if you have to do that.

Like, if you work on case-traders of lobbyists and you're lobbying for Venezuela, you have to register every year as a foreign lobbyist. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So, they're already tag-divine and the firm that he worked with, they're already, it's called Divine Moldy in Longaba. Just so you know.

I'm sure we'll hear that name more. That's Slip and Chunk. Slip and Chunk, yeah. Just so you know, I'm sure we'll hear that name more slip and junk. It's slip and junk. Yeah They've already given prosecutors a bunch of documents. These all include emails to and from divine from Maniford This includes speech drafts for the candidate in Ukraine talking points strategy memos a draft for a TV ad and Discussion of compensation. That's gonna be sad if Tad divine wrote locker up I would be so sad. Oh, that'd be the saddest thing ever. Oh my god. Dude, Bernie's just gonna be sitting there like, no!

What is this? This is not good. Who hired this guy? I can't exactly. I can't believe that one of the top one tenth of one percent of my campaign wrote locker up. Yeah, that looks really bad for him. It does.

Regardless of the fact that he didn't do anything on lawful It's got to accept that responsibility for not betting him well enough Absolutely, and this is also shedding light on something that is becoming more obvious to me Which is that the people the puppet masters of politics have zero allegiance to any sort of ideology It seems how can you work for Bernie's campaign after having worked for a guy that's super pro Russia? It is that oppressive. They're seeking power. Well, apparently it's game. Yeah apparently to have divine quit when Yonakovych was Overthrowed by Taman Shenko, right, and he's like, oh fuck. I get this is bullshit, but like you didn't know about it before They didn't know he was a pro Russian separatist. Yeah, I'm all bullshit on that and I also I don't know

Maybe liberals are too bleeding hard for a campaign to be entirely Composed and they're like we gotta get a snake in here so we can But that's fucking sad. It's truly sad that you have to vet your campaign advisors to make sure they're not Russian Prosseparatists in this day and age we're at war where cyber warfare, so I think it sucks. Yeah, yeah, Bernie was probably like Why would I do that? It is the dumbest thing. We wouldn't have thought of it. Yeah, like regular people weren't thinking about either, you know? Yeah, and then the ultimate sadder reality is that Bernie was aware of this and still move forward with it, which on principle I believe this shitty even though again it is not illegal at all. There's a way Bernie did know he No, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, even if he did, even if there's no log against it. Yes, potentially if he did know

It's morally fucked even if there's no log against Oh, right. Like if he did vet him and found out that he did work for Yannacovic I'd be disappointing to know a pro Putin guy. Yeah, and Bernie went ahead with it. Yeah, that would be really That's why we need fresh faces. It's just because we got to get rid of this whole idea of It's just it's a new time. I mean really it's I love Bernie, but I also feel like um, it's just it's catchy It's very sketchy. I mean, the foundation of politics is flawed, similar to police because it's like, it's a power, it's a direct order.

Maybe there are no American campaign advisors that haven't worked for a Putin guy. Like maybe there just aren't any. Lastly, Putin would be smart to have done that. And really so that doubt in us. And if you guys want job security, maybe go to school and become a campaign advisor Yeah, never talked to anybody in Russia. Yeah, and then you'd be like you can sell yourself like no Russia here

Yeah, that's a very good point. Yeah, it's 2018 and forward. That's that's what you should do when you go to college Yeah, so just to wrap this up really quick. So on Thursday, it manifests lawyers. They after So on Thursday, Manifucked Lawyers, they, after Tad Divine and his team released all the documents that they were requested to give to the court, Manifucked Lawyers tried to come back and exclude more than 50 of those items from the list of documents that Divine and his consulting firm had given to prosecutors. Oh, so Manifort was even arguing against some of the documents divine gave over. Yeah, well, yeah, he was trying to say, you can't use this.

Yeah, and he's not fake. Lost, probably. Yeah, he loses every motion. He loses everything. Every, like if I see a dude hit, like failing to hit on a girl in a bar, I'm just gonna call it a Manifort motion. Oh, yeah, I like that.

Yeah, and now if anyone ever gives me the advice that failure is the only way that you can learn, I show you Manafort. May I present? All right, thanks, Jolissa and Jordan. Wonderful reporting. Thank you for the beans. I feel vindicated. I'm going to go over the Cohen news this week, and I spoke to one of our favorite guests about this. So let's have a listen

With us today is the co-founder of the Dem Coalition and host of the Dworkin report podcast Scott Dworkin Scott. Welcome to Muller. She wrote Thanks for having me again. We are so pleased that you're you're visiting us again. We're very happy about that so Michael Cohen was in the news a lot this week about that. So Michael Cohen was in the news a lot this week. First, there was a leak of the audio of one of his conversations with Trump that he recorded, which is not illegal in New York despite Trump's Twitter tantrum. And then we had the subpoena of Alan Weiselberg. Then the Washington Post reported prosecutors have more than 100 tapes they see from the Cohen raid. And finally, the leak that Cohen says Trump

knew about the Trump tower meeting ahead of time. So let's start with the leak of the audio tape, that first audio tape. What do you make of it? I think one of the scariest things that's clear from it is he presents the option of paying in cash to pay off somebody. In a way that he kind of is buying a loaf of bread, I guess, is the best way to put it.

You know, he said, oh, we're paying cash. Like, it's $150,000, you know? And he's talking about paying off somebody and he's so comfortable with it. I find that really, really disturbing from it. I also see, from our art standpoint we see the potential of uh... attorney general in in florida pambandi being the person that was on the phone with them uh... and then you have the involvement of

of the fact that michael kohen mentions al wisalberg's name by fall when they're all seniors you know at the company and he goes by alan so it it kind of like he knew you know it was he was taping and he did that intentionally to make sure it was clear what Alan it was to implicate him in the future. So there was a lot of a lot of sketchiness in it and I also think you see a true side of Donald Trump and how angry and mean and hostile he can really be and I think it really exposes him

for who he truly is which is you know pretty evil guy when it comes down to to it and uh... but i've found it that the whole thing is disturbing because you know uh... he he really is at ease and he's not really worried about it uh... you know he's he's talking about bearing you know his his wife's uh... the the separation agreement that they had the divorce papers right and they only had to do that for another couple of weeks right and it's like it's like these are big deals in most people's lives but he

just constantly thrives and off of these scandals and and seems to survive them just because you know he powers through them has no moral compass and no shame uh... and so that's that's the way he gets through it you know paying off people and keeping them quiet and uh... legal threats until you know eventually it came out now and i and i think uh... again i don't know who you know i i i i would assume that uh... colon really pushed to to get them out there uh... but they did that without letting you know the feds know and that probably is pushed to get them out there, but they did that without

letting the feds know, and that probably is going to piss them off. So I would see some more potential legal blowback due to that. And so the implications of this is clear that I actually, as you remember, I did not believe Cohen would flip or ever, unless it was written down in front of me, then I can believe it. This is now evidence where he doesn't really have many options left. Yeah, I thought it was interesting too that on that tape, you could hear Cohen say, Alan, we need to talk to Alan.

Like it was just one step short of, we need to talk to Alan Weiselberg, the treasurer of your organization and the CFO of your company since the 1970s mistal white wisel burk w i e i asset like he but he you could hear it in his voice that it was intentional that he got that name on the tape right right now he's been subpoena then and that's where we're at but it's really you know it and that's a learn you know that there's just so much more is it's just crazy because uh... the america can't afford this sort of liability this person that it doesn't matter if he's guilty or not guilty of anything at this point

it's the fact that he's a liability of this country and we cannot stand for this we have to have a person who can do work not somebody that's in broiled in scandal at a constant and can't be trusted by our allies and our friends and Americans themselves. It's really ridiculous. So I think this tape really puts truth to it. And it puts a, it squashes a lot of their conspiracy theories too. It makes it so that they can't, they're kind of cornered and isolated from each other more so now. And a lot of the games are going

to end because they're realizing, oh, well, we're a little bit more screwed than we ever thought we were. Yeah, that's true. And I mean, there's a lot of theories about there, out there about who leaked this tape. And the one that kind of made me, I don't know, sit up and take notice the most is the theory that the special master, Barbara Jones, had told the parties, Trump and Cohen, that she was going to release the tapes to the prosecutors under the crime fraud exception to attorney client privilege and to avoid that mess which is full on criminal liability. Maybe the Trump team leaked the audio, I don't know.

So maybe not people be admitted or they can muddy the waters or they can take the PR control like they know it's going to come out so they want to ruin any deal potential that Michael could make. I mean there's definitely he does that a lot you know he delivered his tax returns to david k jenston uh... a long time ago uh... only like a couple pages or whatever and that was to distract people and he does that all the time you know trying to distract people he doesn't mind throwing himself under the bus as long as it distracts especially from from any rush Russia-related scandal. But it really is crazy that, you know,

he recorded this, obviously he needs to never have a job in audio recording. You don't think he's a good producer? That is awful recording. Like man, he got a, I don't know what he's doing. It's kind of like he had a suit pocket, like in his shirt pocket. He kind of had it there and it's ruffling in between.

So, you know, he's lucky he actually got the audio. At the same time, you know, he sounded comfortable, a little bit nervous, but again, comfortable enough, like he had recorded a lot of people. And as you've mentioned, there's over 100 tapes. And then some are related, most of them are related to Trump. Some may have him on it.

So it's interesting to see what else is out there. But their games are going to end because, again, evidence being presented, that's just, that's just an end game for this conspiracy BS. And you know, like I said, man, this is just going to get worse. There is no better. He's not going to become a better person. And even if he were to, it'd be a front. And is no better. He's not going to become a better person and even if he were to, it'd be a front and then, oh, nothing's going to change from that. It's really, it really is just, it's going to end badly and it can either end quicker if he resigns or it can end the slower and the Republicans can ruin their party in the process and it can wait till January but right now it's just a it's in a really

bad spot for america and again a liability that we cannot afford whatsoever right now this is it's ludicrous and i just really drives me nuts uh... but thankfully we have this evidence uh... presented to the american people so we can decide you know as americans that the uh... you're whether or not we need this criminal still in the white house obviously a majority of americans now pulled over fifty one percent to believe that he should not be in office anymore

uh... so i think that number is going to go up and i think that uh... we're going to see a lot of lot of dominoes start to fall from the choices that he's made over the past year and a half yeah and you mentioned a hundred tapes there's a lot of different numbers out there. There was 12 tapes. Washington Post is reporting 100 tapes. We've got the one that we actually got the leaked audio for and it kind of makes me think

that maybe of all the tapes, there were a hundred of them and those hundred were actually deemed not privileged and sent to prosecutors. And usually you deem a tape not privileged because either it's not talking about anything legal or it's got some sort of a crime fraud issue in it or maybe just the 12 did. I don't know, but I feel like we'll figure it all out. Like it's gonna come out

and we just have to kind of wait for it. It seems more prudent than guessing. Yeah, it all kind of connects in the end. I think that's what's gonna happen is, you know, Mueller's put together this story and I think that story's gonna come out to the public and then that will be probably what pushes him out of office. That's my guess as a right now

that the evidence that Mueller has probably is irrefutable and enough to draw the dots for obstruction and to prove that they were covering up a crime on top of that. So extra obstruction of justice in top of the fact that he was conspiring with his son against the United States. He was conspiring with his staff against the United States. He was conspiring with Russia against the United States in Putin and the Russian government and the Russian military against the US military.

You see what I'm saying? And that's what's really real. Because when you talk about intelligence agencies, we always must remember that some of our intelligence agencies are in the army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Coast Guard, like everybody in the Marines, and they all agreed that Russia was the one who interfered not only that there's another report that said that they infiltrated our power systems with the ability to be able to shut them down and you know that and water um you know different parts of our infrastructure and you know think about if they have access to stoplights you know I

mean like this is the kind of thing that were that they've done in their own country where they shut off their own part of their their country's power you know i mean and and they do that maliciously if they do their own people will definitely do it to us and they have they don't know if it's actually happened either that's even scarier

uh... but what they keep on saying what i hear from everybody is that these are the same quote unquote blinking lights that they had before 9-11. This is the same kind of thing that you would do if you were opening it, opening us up for a physical attack. And so it's something that it's just, it's just nuts. It's going to get worse from here. And I hate to say that, but that's, that's the truth. It is. And the real danger, like you said, is that we've got a president who, you know, guilt here not, he's compromised. He can't act out toward Russia in the way that he should in order to protect us from any of those numerous attacks and potential attacks that you talked about.

For whatever reason, it's just even if he's unwittingly in this situation, everyone should realize that it's a problem. So you touched on Weiselberg He was mentioned on the tape. He was mentioned in that leaked audio tape and a lot of people think that this is bigger than any other part of the Cohen story So what are your thoughts on Trump's CFO and Treasurer cooperating with prosecutors? I mean the only person who could be worse for him would probably be his brother and You know if Robert Trump were to testify against him could be worse for him would probably be his brother and uh...

you know if robert trump were to testify against him uh... which i don't think would ever happen but uh... alan knows decades of everything where the money's at and and keep in mind uh... a lot of his money if not most of it uh... trumps money is not located here he has funds and banks that he sets up in other countries like an india where he he keeps his money isolated there and uh...

you know i think alan knows exactly where the that money's hidden and i also think that muller knows where that money said it because he worked with irs on top of working with the tax agencies of other countries throughout the world we had to have i see alan see Alan just being a devastating time bomb. Yeah. And Mueller wouldn't bring Weiselberg in unless he already had all the information he wanted to ask Weiselberg about, you know.

Right. And in an automatic subpoena was crazy. Like, I didn't expect it to move that quickly, but he may have already talked to him too. He may already be on top of this, you know, where they may have requested already i'm not sure the full extent of it uh... but just bringing him in it was supposed to be a red line remember and we've gone way past that because that i don't think trump really has an opportunity to fire more or at this

point uh... there's some kind of law involving that if he tried to fire him you know it could trigger an impeachment process but it also could trigger a muller to turn into a whistleblower and that's a nightmare because then the evidence could be right out in the house floor and that's just not something that Trump ever wants. Yeah and you mentioned the handing off to New York. I think it might it could have been muller's intent this whole time to hand this off to New York to get the Weiselberg subpoena.

That way he's not crossing any red line, Trump drew, not that Mueller would cow-tow to Trump's desires, but I think it gives Mueller a stronger case. Everything is still fully within his scope, and there's no even appearance of being outside of his scope. That's how motions like Manafort filing a motion to dismiss everything because Mueller's acting outside of his scope. They keep getting denied. I think it's part of his intent to build like this bulletproof case.

Right. Right. No, that's the only kind of case he would develop. And that's what's creepy about it for these guys. They can play all the PR games that they want and pull these PR stunts daily and try and fight that battle. But as you've seen last night with Giuliani, he went straight to the argument of lie. He's a liar.

And that's all they've got left. That is that dangerous territory because their credibility is almost completely shot now. And they wasted their energy on this PR thing. And now there's going to be evidence that contradicts everything that they're saying no one's going to take them credibly or they're going to be you know they open themselves up to these attacks which are rightful and and you know it's what we've been saying all the time but at the same time press hasn't been following that that lead now it seems like they're digging in and finally not taking you know any of their junk anymore but it's it really is

uh... it's kind of like it felt unsteady for a while but i think you're right he's gonna hand off case after case i think as he isolates these cases he's gonna hand it off into a different district or uh... to a different prosecutor's office and he's gonna keep on doing that methodically uh... with just the thought of i'm gonna do what what takes to protect America from this have a happening again and that includes the deterrence of it by prosecuting people to the fullest extent and making sure that we put them in prison or we get the information out so that we can prevent it from happening. But one of

the bigger things is to keep other people from doing it you have to put people in prison. They have to realize there's consequences of the actions and i think that the next thing that's gonna happen that we see which is going to be the most shocking of everything is the american co-conspirators which do exist in our part of the trump campaign uh... so that's that's gonna be the real big piece of the puzzle i don't know when that would drop uh... i'm guessing he would do something in tandem where he sweeps up you know and arrests a bunch of bunch of people. But I mean, even just with obstruction, even if there's no crime, what they were doing was obstructing the investigation. So they are obstructing

justice. So even if they had, he can claim, there was no crime, no collusion. So that means there was no obstruction. That actually, you know, legally makes no sense because you could obstruct justice without doing an original crime that you're, you know, trying to cover up. Exactly. Yeah, obstruction of justice does not require an underlying crime to have been committed. No, predicate for that. Yeah, so it doesn't, it doesn't depend on that. And so it, it's interesting, but he does his mind twisting arguments.

And my favorite example of that is collusion. Because collusion, it's somethingusion is something that you can get in like antitrust cases but it's not something that you can charge someone with. So if you're doing the general term definition of collusion, did he collude absolutely? Did he work with the, you know, Russian government to hurt America? Yes. But the definition of collusion is not, it's not something he'll be charged with it would be conspiracy against the united states so some other trump argument where it's like well collusion

yeah i guess he would wouldn't be charged by that and then he would take that quote of he wouldn't be charged i wouldn't be charged by collusion they would be conspiracy and that's that's the i can hear him like i have to do it's not collusion right right and it's like you already have people that are That are already charged with conspiracy against the United States and so you want to talk about collusion like that's fine But again, he may have burnt out that collusion angle because all that's gonna happen is people are gonna be like well Let's talk about it collusion is not what he can be charged with because it's not the legal term. And so they'll get it out there and bang it home, I think.

They're just waiting for that time. They're still using the term collusion because it's what Trump uses all the time, and it's his buzzword, his catchphrase, but it's nonsense, and it's another never-ending Trump argument because there's no end to it. It's just like, oh, I didn't collude. And it's like, well, yeah, I guess technically then we have to drone on with a 30 minute response of explaining that, you know, that it's not collusion. So I just say, yeah, you did collude because the definition of the word you absolutely did. And you would be charged with conspiring against the United States for doing it.

All right. Now, speaking of that, there's that leak that happened yesterday or was it I think it was yesterday last night that Cohen is willing to tell Mueller that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting or meetings ahead of time and I was wondering what you think the implications of that could be. Well, we found in 2013 I found I found photos from 2013 last year and it had Michael Cohen and Donald Trump in a photo with the Aguilar laras who are the people who set up trump tower masco uh... are sorry that they were once they were they were thinking about doing trump tower masco with and they were the ones who did miss universe masco they hosted it at their venue

and that he's also friends with putin award winner from putin or russian oligarch a billionaire and he is son is the pop star uh... also there were two people who were present in the Trump Tower meeting. In that 2013 Las Vegas meeting where they set up the Miss Me University Moscow, two of those members of that meeting were there. So there, Michael Cohen and Donald Trump both have at least a five-year-long relationship with two of the people that were inside of that Trump Tower Russian lawyer meeting with Manifold Kushner

and Don Jr. So you know, you have all these people that link together of that trump tower rush and lawyer meeting with manifold or kushner and don junior so you know you have all these people that link together i'd find it very unlikely uh... that donald trump did not know that people who he made money off of millions of dollars off of before you know three years earlier are in his building he's running a campaign in there in interfering in attacking american election he didn't know that they were there he probably knew better not to attend the meeting but i mean

come again like no other campaign in the right mind would have three senior officials from their campaign take a meeting that close to the election uh... with a foreign adversary unless they wanted to get dirt and so you know i i would guess that you know donald trump was obviously aware of it and there are other witnesses that that would attest to that including hope

hicks and other people who have left the administration since then because the one thing that they won't do uh... in this instance and that maybe this is a great signal to that is they won't lie about it and so if they're questioning people about this or they lied already then they've got them and they've got them for you know lying to the FBI now and so that i think it's gonna it i don't know who leaked it

it in a minute i don't think anybody does yet i'm not sure if that's been covered yet uh... but i i would assume that you know it's it's uh... it's something where colon wanted to get out in front of another scandal and he's kind of trying to clear the air because if he lies again, his credibility is shot and my guess

is Mueller is going to make an example out of him. Yeah, I agree and I think I'd rather just wait to see who leaked it. I'd rather wait for that to come out than try to make some sort of a conjecture because it could go either way. There's reasons that both sides would uh... and it would have had to come from either one of them and so i mean the implications are pretty huge to the means don junior lied to congress about the phone call that he made in between talking to uh... what

was it was in an agil are off i can't remember uh... we're not sure yet and but grassley did say that if you did like a congress is a crime did say that today but i i i it was uh... either trump or one of the agilirals uh... most likely a mean because he's got he's known to mean for at least seven years right and then there's also that statement trump made a couple of days before that that a bunch of they have big news on hillary on monday but then that he didn't make that announcement because there was really nothing given at

the meeting. And also the obstruction piece with the dictation of the adoption statement aboard Air Force One. I mean, the evidence is pretty strong. We've kind of known about this for a while just to have it leaked from somebody who says that they knew it, that was there is an interesting development. Yeah, and it must be a confirmed source as in somebody that they can back up because, you know, it was first released by, uncovered by CNN and then NBC News independently verified it as well.

And so I don't know if they're working in tandem a little bit or what, but it was very clear that the source was very real. It was confirmed and it was the fun fact about that. It's the fact that you mentioned that Michael Cohen is willing to testify against it and did not deny that fact. He has not said, I'm not willing to testify about that. And it's very interesting to me because that is an end of a presidency, that point, no matter who you are. Absolutely. And I'm told you have some new information on coen and i was wondering if you'd be willing to share that with us uh... sure we have a video of him and the taxi king and i think this is what

trump was mentioning it is sweet for some reason uh... we have a video between uh... trump and the taxi king are sorry coen and the taxi king talking about uh... their russian relationships and uh... it's pretty extensive and i'll make sure to send you that article when it's done but uh... the bottom line there is it's just more extensive russian ties and you know what i've seen is besides the stills the the short american ties that they have

kohen has more russian ties than a or else on top of ukrainian ties and uh... i just don't i don't see him not making money directly off of them we have at least a money trail of ten million dollars that coon's made uh... in the past off of russia himself personally but you know i think this is going to expand it to uh... his entire business

empire that he has his uh... himself you know in taxicabs, gas stations, and other places that are very cash-friendly. If you know what I mean, and very money laundering drawn. Mm-hmm, yeah, breaking bad car wash style. Great, great. He's got a lot of those. Got a lot of those.

But he would take these taxi medallions, he would invest into them, and then this kind of like an investment to a stock and it would accrue in value and uh... but he would put loans against it and then you know bankrupt the company with the loans or whatever it was just it was a little scam i think he got into legal trouble with it before may have been cleared of it uh... but he uh... the bottom line with that is he's the the kind of right he and man or

pizzer's partner that Cohen had. And so Cohen has his own deal because again, this is only regarding things that involve the Stormy Daniels case and it's not involving everything else. And so it's got to do with cover-up payments and things like that, but conspiracy against the United States and other things like that i don't think that this one even relates so this is the least of his legal troubles it looks right now uh... he has a long road ahead of him and it's going to be millions of dollars in legal fees

i just don't see him wanting to go down that road flipping and and making a deal is going to be his is easiest bet by far and save decades in prison. Yeah, and it seems like he's making that obvious. And maybe one of the reasons he went public with this information about the Trump Tower meeting was to signal to Mueller, not because, you know, his case is in New York, Southern District and New York, maybe just to signal to him, like, hey, I've got this info or, you know, who knows? That would all be conjecture anyway but

yeah when you get that video link us to the article will drop it in our newsletter i think that that would be awesome for us to have great no i appreciate that and we have more evidence that will uh... becoming out involving uh... maria patina uh... the russian spy and uh... kind of discrediting anything that Russia says about her being a civilian. And we have photos and video that prove it. Awesome.

Well, we look forward to getting that. It's been a pleasure to speak to you as always. Everyone please follow Scott on Twitter at Thunder. He's the co-founder of the Dem Coalition and host of the incredibly wonderful podcast, The Dworkin Report. And you can visit dorkinreport.com to donate and support his podcast. So Scott Dorkin, thank you so much for being with us today.

Thanks for having me, appreciate you have me on and thanks again for all your efforts that y'all are doing over there. Yeah, same to you, have a good one. You too. Hello, this is A.G., and I wanted to let you know we've released a bonus episode that sums up the entire molar investigation in less than 20 minutes. It's the perfect thing to send anyone you know who thinks there was no collusion.

It's also a great example of the kind of bonus content you'll have access to as a patron. You'll also get our newsletter, my research notes, access to the MSW Book Club, and membership in our closed friends of Justice Facebook group where you can participate in our fantasy indictment league. So head over to patreon.com slash mullershyroad and check out the bonus episode at bitley.com slash MSW bonus, all lowercase. And please click the link to subscribe to our podcast for free. You'll be glad you did. Welcome to the mullershey Road Fantasy Enditement League.

We didn't have any indictments this week, so we'll start again on Monday with a fresh post. I'll pin it to the Friends of Justice group. That'll be the official draft post on our page for patrons. If you want to play a sign up to become a patron at patreon.com slash muller she wrote, you'll also get all of the great things weekly newsletter show notes, access to all of our locked episodes, the book club, and we have all sorts of great gifts to send you to. Then you have to ask to join the Facebook group, Friends of Justice, and then look for the pinned post

about the Fantasy and Diapidate League, and then list your five picks. So for this week's Fantasy and Diapidate League, I had the honor of speaking to author and feminist and resistor Molly Zhang fast. Let's take a listen to that interview. So today we have a very special guest, one of my favorite authors, a feminist and resistor

that sits on the board of the arena, which is at Arena Summit on Twitter, and they're a group aimed at connecting and supporting the next generation of civic leaders, which as you know is hugely important to Mueller, she wrote, everyone please welcome Molly Zhang fast. Molly, welcome to Mueller, she wrote. Hi, thanks for having me. Thanks so much for being here. I wanted, I was hoping you could kick us off by telling our listeners a little bit about you and your thoughts on on this administration and everything that's kind of going on in the world right now with trump so i was like a normal

sort of right or not very interested in politics and you know i had you know i always voted but i wasn't involved one way or the other and one trump Super, involves one way or the other. And when Trump started running for office, I was like, this is really terrible. This guy is really dumb. He'll never become president, obviously, because I was in New York Times.

New York Times tells me there's no way he'll become president. So I'm, you know, an MBR says he won't become president. And this one in my husband said, it's statistically impossible that Donald Trump will become president. So I one in my husband said, it's statistically impossible that Donald Trump will become president. So I was like, okay, well, just in case, I said, I'm just gonna do everything I can, to help Hillary, because I just can't live

with not knowing that I did everything. So I went and I did some volunteering and I did some Canvas and it wasn't that easy, but I was, you know, I just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just

wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering, I was just wondering airplane. Like I literally, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I could and I cried every day and I'm like not a cry or I never cry. I never cry about things like this, but like I cried every day for a week. Like I was like I couldn't

believe it. And I felt so incredibly abandoned by white women. I just thought like it was so unfair that white women had done this. I had to think that I just felt like they had done such a bad thing for America. And for the world, I really couldn't, I just couldn't believe it. And so that was how I got involved. And after that, I started getting involved with raising money for candidates. I got involved with writing about it. I got involved in politics. So. Yeah, and it's interesting as all of this has been unfolding, particularly with the Russia investigation and obstruction with justice, and we're starting to find out things that

the Russians and the Internet Research agency in Russia were actually targeting these white women from red states, suburban women, and that was one of their considered, you know, they considered that one of their main audiences that they had to go after to try to, you know, disenfranchise Hillary voters. And I thought that that was pretty incredible with that voting demographic as you mentioned. So, as this whole corruption and Russia scandal has been unraveling, what have your thoughts been on that?

Well, I sort of thought, even before the election, I saw a lot of weird Twitter staff and weird internet stuff that didn't make any sense to me. Like, I would see these weird, like, these accounts. There was one, like, there are a bunch of these, like, big Twitter accounts. Some of them have been taken down now. That were conservative accounts that didn't look right to me. You know, there were certain things that didn't look right and certain Facebook things, there were a lot of things like where I was like, this is, ah, this doesn't seem right. And I thought that way but the election, do you, I mean, the thing I believe and this may get me into trouble but I'm there.

I think those three states were he won by such a small margin, but a big enough margin to avoid a recount, but a small enough margin to look like it wasn't a big deal, I'm still convinced that they changed the numbers there. I'm convinced. I mean, I just can't convince. I think I'm not, you know, I think I'm like, actually, as a left--person, like I definitely believe

they've taken advantage of us. I definitely believe they're in there doing a lot of stuff, but I tend to be more cynical and a certain way, because I'm very family with Rachel and also with Tom Nichols, and they're both very much like, they believe for sure, and it's rushed off, and they believe for sure in pollution. But they're less about the conspiracies

and more about the idea that the Trump world just did pajamas, he's the best thing. That it's more of an op-ins razor thing. That it's not quite, quite that's not so much like yes it's a conspiracy yes there's collusion but it's not necessarily as you know it's not as in it's not as as you i mean it's a look are a novel for sure but it's not it's not that complicated you know things are what they look like

right what's important to remember that when the intelligence community briefed Obama and Trump and then came out with their report, which the Senate Intel committee has backed in their findings, in their preliminary findings on the Russian investigation, they never said that they had proof either way or that they investigated whether or not the vote count was changed. That's never been disproven, much like nothing in the dossier has ever been contested. But yeah, they certainly, if there is evidence of that, we don't have it. It hasn't been made public.

But I do have faith if there is evidence in that that Mueller has it. Yeah, that's where we all hope. But yeah, we can't just hinge our hopes on the Mueller investigation though, right? We have to get involved on the ground like you did and push and flip this house and flip the Senate, right? Yes. I mean, a good thing to look at is Jason Kander. You know him.

He's an incredible politician. And he has a lead America vote. It's a charity. Check it out. There's a charity. Check it out. There's a lot of good stuff about voter stuff. I mean, I personally, my dream is that we have an opt-out voter registration, where you go in, you get your diversisand, and you register the vote when you get your diversisand.

That's my dream. I don't think we're anywhere that but um because really that is the most important thing is that we have you know we have a way for people to be able to vote i also wish we had elections on Saturday or Sunday yeah or had a national holiday for them yeah exactly our national holiday the Tuesday voting really punishes working people we don't. We don't need Columbus Day. We can get rid of Columbus Day. How do you even celebrate Columbus Day?

Like walk to the wrong house and murder everybody there? It makes no sense. Let's get rid of that and put in a national voting holiday. I'm with you on that. Or you could vote on Columbus Day. Exactly. I think that would be a much better idea. We don't have to add to the federal holiday list.

Well, Molly, I want to ask you really quick before I let you go here. First of all, I follow you on Twitter. Everybody should follow you on Twitter. So thank you so much. And so tell us your Twitter handle. What is your Twitter handle? It's Molly, John, like Kim John, J1J, fast, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST,AST, FAST,AST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST, FAST, FAST,AST, FAST,AST, JLNG, FAST, FAST, FAST, as in Speedy, and it's all one word. All right, great. And finally, before I let you go, in the Mueller She Wrote Fantasy indictment League, our listeners get to choose people that they think will be indicted this coming week.

And who would you recommend that they choose? Maybe like, throw out three names, give them some recommendations. Who do you think might be indicted this week? I mean, I think eventually, or I really believe, and but I don't know if it's gonna be this week, or my belief is that junior and Jared will eventually be indicted. Yeah, I agree with you there.

Yeah, I mean, I think junior and Jared, I think that's the closest of dad. I don't think like I think I'm sure Ivanka has done the failure stuff, but I don't think they'll get it. And I don't know if there's enough on Earth. But so, I mean, I guess would be like the, I think right now he's sort of on the outer,

the outer orbit, but he's definitely getting closer because Trump is getting more and more nervous. So it's hard to know who's next but I could see him like breaking out with like a crazy junior and diamond. Yeah, junior is actually he's getting pretty close to junior through through stone, Roger Stone and WikiLeaks and then all the recorded intercepted conversations that Jose Grinda from spain sent our fby that's in when he was like donald trump juniors in trouble so yeah i think those are good recommendations thank you

yeah no problem all right everybody please follow molly john fast on twitter at molly john fast and pick up her books wherever they're available we are so glad that you came to visit us today. And thank you so much again for everything that you do on the ground and on social media. We really appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. It's great. Thank you, Alton.

All right, have fun. Be safe. Thank you, Al. You too. Bye-bye. She's so great, you guys. I read all our mom's books in college, and I'm super honored.

She had time for us this year. It's awesome. Yeah. She's going to be this weekend. She's gonna be at DC. You know, that big loud protest that's going on in front of the, they called the Cremlin Annix, the White House. It's, and they're like having like brass bands and mariachi bands and they've been out there for two weeks. That sounds amazing. Yeah, I'm gonna be in DC August 6th through night. I'm gonna head out there and check it out. I'm staying right between DuPont Circle and the White House. So I'm totally checking that out.

When Trump leaves office, I hope they fumigate it. I'm staying down the gold curtains. Just a giant termite tent around it. That would be funny. Can somebody do that? Yeah, it was cleansed this please before we start again. Jesus Christ. Somebody Photoshop a termite tent around the White House.

Be great. All right, you guys ready for sabotage? Yes. Yes. Okay, remember earlier in the show when I said that Ellis was going to publish the witness list for the prosecution in the Manafort trial? Well he did it, he did it late Friday. It's got 35 names on it and they are mostly bankers, accountants, tax guys and luxury vendors.

So I have a quick breakdown for you. Obviously Rick Gates is on the list, right? Yeah. Along with the five people that got use immunity, that Mueller asked for, right? Two of those guys with immunity worked at the bank with Cawk that lent Man of Fort 16 million dollars in exchange for a job as Secretary of the Army. I just picture this guy like getting ready for it, playing with little green army guys. Like I'm going to be Secretary of the Army. Oh my goodness. Apparently he called up the Pentagon. He's like, yeah, I'm gonna be the new Secretary of the Army.

Can you send me some briefs and stuff? And people at the Pentagon were like, no. Yeah. No. And Manafort has left the campaign. That's just so weird. There's also Tad Divine, Jordan you talked about him earlier. Then there's a bunch of luxury vendors, including

Irfan'd Kurimka. Okay, that's Manafort's Yankees ticket hook up. Okay, doesn't sound mobby to me at all. There's a guy named Maximilian Katzman who sold Manafort expensive suits to the tune of $850,000. One suit suits. Oh, okay. Okay, apparently $850 suits.

No, I don't know what's good suit. Daniel Opsuit or Opsut, the guy who sold Manifort his Mercedes Benz, a landscaping company run by Michael Rogozalio that Manifort spent $164,000 with for landscaping. And a home automation company. That's like, you know, when you have the lights go on and you have an app and something stuff shit like that

Run by a guy named Joel Maxwell and Manafort spent $1.3 million with that guy. It's for that fireplace that sketchily turns halfway into his evil layer Again, you know that thing in the last crusade where they have that spinny fireplace with chairs where you can tie people up I need that I need secret passageways in the clue like the clue mansion. I need that set up. And then I need a weird creepy room where I have my orgies that I can turn the lights on and off with my voice and turn on Barry Manolo. Can I have that? I don't even think he has a decency to put on Barry Manolo.

You're right. That's insulting to Barry Manolo. I'm sorry. Rest in peace. There's also the director of Airbnb North America, Darren Fenson, likely because Manafort illegally listed one of his properties as an Airbnb fraudulently. He did that. Manafort's assistant is on there. Alex Trusco, he's one of, he's the guy who gave the FBI access to his storage locker and then Manafort filed a motion saying he didn't have permission to do that. And FBI and the judge just laughed him out of the room.

And then we can't forget the senior vice president of Bank of California, Gary Sepharion. That's the bank that Manafort's son-in-law worked at. And as we all know, his son-in-law was indicted in May and is cooperating with the feds in a separate case. We'll have a full list for patrons in this week's newsletter. We'll just have a link to the document that order with the 35 witnesses on it. So keep an eye out for that.

All right, are you guys ready to flip it blue? Yeah! I'm a very special guest. I would like to be a good guy, a good guy, a good guy, a good guy. Today, Muller Shee wrote, we have a very special guest. He's a congressional candidate running in the 49th District of California, Mike Levin. He is a fantastic and brilliant individual, and we have a lot of faith in him, so we're super happy to get to ask him some questions today. Thank you so much for having me, and I will try to live up to that very kind introduction.

Yeah, I've spent all day watching awesome interviews with you. I'm super fired up and ready to ask you some questions here. So just to start out, could you give us a quick background on you? Why you decided to run and some things you stand for? Well, sort of thing. My background is largely in Democratic politics. I've been involved with campaigns. Used to run the Democratic Party in Orange County, California.

And I also am a clean energy advocate and an environmental attorney. I've been focused for the last decade or so in my legal work and my work, on trying to move towards sustainability and produce the greenhouse gas emissions from both power generation and transportation. Founded the Clean Energy Related Trade Association in Orange County and also served on the board of one of the larger environmental and energy related nonprofits. And really was very content doing all that work, working on climate change mitigation and sustainability.

And then Donald Trump started running for president. And I just felt compelled to stand up and to try to do everything I could to prevent him from becoming president. I felt then as I still do that he really represented an existential threat to our democratic institutions. Our free press, our independent judiciary, and I did everything I could to try to help elect Hillary Clinton as our president, try to prevent Donald Trump from becoming our president. And when the unthinkable happened on election night and Trump was named president elect, I write that in their resolve to really look at running myself. I also had noticed that my member of Congress, Darryl Issa, who had been serving our reform about 17 years, 16 years back then, saw that

he had narrowly been reelected despite the fact that Secretary Clinton had won out district by about 25,000 votes. And the next thing I knew, I was talking to my wife about running. We went to the first women's march, and it was on the way home from that that my wife turned to me and said, we're all in. And the next thing I knew, we were running for Congress and it's been an incredible ride. We've had a great campaign. It was a very difficult, contested, expensive primary.

Your listeners may know that in California we have what's called the top two primary system where the top two vote getters regardless of their party make the general election ballot. In our case, there were 16 candidates for the primary and the race was complicated significantly when Darryl Isa decided to retire or an answer to retirement that he wouldn't seek reelection. That really opened an awful lot of candidates to jump in. I wound up as one of the top two, along with Theralis' hand picked successor, a woman named Diane Harky, who had served as a California assembly member, now is on our board of equalization.

So we're really fired up. I think one of the great things to happen in the primary on June 5th was that 51.5% of those who voted, voted Democratic. And if we can just continue that momentum on into the general election, we're going to flip the seat. And we need to flip this district if we're going to get to the 23 seats. We need to flip the house. Absolutely. Well, we love your origin story fueled by powerful women and a extreme desire to get Trump corrected or out of office.

Whatever has to happen, you know. But we, so your district is very interesting. We ourselves are in California, San Diego. We're a little bit south of where your district line is. Yeah. So you, yes. So Mike's district is Northern San Diego and Orange County region basically.

Would I be correct in describing it as such? Right. Right. So it goes, it's a big district. It starts up in Dana Point, if you know where that is, in South Orange County, and it includes San Juan Capastrano and San Clemente, and then you've got Camp Pendleton, of course, and then all of North County.

So you've got Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista, and Sanitas, Solana Beach, Delmar, all the way down to UCSD, a little bit of La Jolla, and then inland to ranch of Santa Fe and a little bit of that, more Republican area. But it's changing, even that area is changing. You know, we've got these meetings of the Ranch of Santa Fe Democratic Club that have two, three, four hundred people at them. So the entire region, I think, is ready for a change.

They're ready for a representative who's actually going to try to get things done for the community, not just for the special interests and for the top 1%. And I think we're just sick of dera-lisa for the last 18 years and ready for a change. I think the CIS trick is ready too. It's populated with a bunch of very intelligent and educated people. It's surprising to think that dera- Isa got reelected so many times, especially when you consider his track record with climate change, and that region is coming up with some of the most incredible sustainability tech, so that was just baffling. Absolutely, why?

I started, I don't know if you're aware of this, but I actually started our campaign by sending Darryl Isa the book, Climate Change for Begin It's a hundred and eighty page illustrated book written at about a fourth grade reading level. And I wrote him a cover letter that said, you know, congress member for the last sixteen years, you've denied the scientific consensus on climate. Why do you blindly support Donald Trump and his agenda to get the EPA and to get basic science? And not surprisingly, I did not get a response. So I actually brought a second copy of the book to Darryl Isis-Kown Hall.

It was actually the first town hall meeting that he had done in about eight years. And through absolute luck, I was able to ask that very question of Issa that I had asked in that letter and that wound up going viral on YouTube and social media. It was a great way to start our campaign by confronting a congress member Issa over his terrible record on climate change. Yeah, we saw that video. I'm glad you brought that up. I was going to ask you to tell that story. It's so funny. It's... It was bizarre. I, first of all, I couldn't believe that they actually let me in at all.

And well, I was, first of all, they let me buy a ticket, which was crazy. And then while I was waiting in line, I saw his district director. And I thought, well, surely they're going to kick me out. They're going to say you're a candidate. You can't, you can't get in here. But they didn't. They let me in and then the way that people got to ask questions was by virtue of a raffle everybody got a raffle number and they called our number and

I said this is this is unbelievable So when I stood up the people that were directly surrounding me kind of gasp, you know this audible gasp Oh my god, what's he my God, what's this candidate here going to say? And I said immediately started, you know, yelling out, this man is my political opponent, you know, trying to get the media to turn on me. But I just turned to the crowd and I said, do you want me to ask a question? And they said, yeah, I would want you to ask a question. So kind of that was the beginning of our campaign and it couldn't have been any better beginning than that.

Yeah, it sounds like a couple levels of their security may have failed there to the fact that they took a real trouble. You had quite a discussion with the staff after that. Yes, yeah, that was great. We'll have to, we do a newsletter for our patrons. We'll have to add that video into the newsletter. It's so satisfying to watch. So I wanted to ask some questions about your district specifically.

As I said, it's a great district. A lot of brilliant people there. What are some of the biggest issues that that district is facing? What are you going to tackle when you get elected? Well, we have 52 miles of coastline, and that makes us very unique in that we care a lot about clean air, clean water, a clean beach. That shouldn't be a Republican or a Democratic issue. That's just a, an issue that we all face. If we live near the ocean, we care very much about

a cleaner ocean. And we also have a decommissioning of a nuclear power plant happening with the San Anofre nuclear plant. And the issue of what to do with the permanent storage, or at least the longer term storage of the spent fuel at that plant is a huge issue. Right now it's being stored right along the coast, and that is clearly not a good long-term solution, given the threat of earthquake, seismic risk, sea level rise. So I look forward to working with the community and with thought leaders to figure out the best path forward

for our nuclear power problem and our nuclear waste problem at Santa Nofrey. Also, you know, the issue of what kind of development we want, what kind of land use policies we want. A lot of those are local concerns, of course, but we do need a federal representative that's going to work closely with the community to try to build coalitions and get positive outcomes. And unfortunately, ISA has been focused by and large, not completely. I can't give him 100% negative on this. He has tried particularly in the last couple of years when he's facing a tough re-election challenge to engage.

But we need somebody who's actually going to engage with the 10 mayors and city council members, different city councils in the district. We've got 10 great cities, and they really want to partner at the federal level, and I'm committed to working with all of them to get things done for our community. And you know, we've got an amazing district. It's a well-educated, largely affluent, this part. But it also has pockets of poverty and homelessness, and people right on the brink of homelessness. And that's especially, and unfortunately, true for our veterans, too many of whom are returning and not able to find the path forward. There's too much, particularly too many people falling through the cracks that are, you know,

addicted to substances or otherwise unable to find work. And we've got to do something for them. You know, we've got to serve them as well as they have served us. Also having, you know, a major military base in the district, we've got to be cognizant of the readiness and preparation of our troops that are there. And that includes the quality of life that they're able to lead. You know, I hear the horror stories of those who are serving, who have to attend a soup kitchen on the weekend

because they don't have enough money to make ends meet. And for me, if you're serving your country that should never be the case. We have a lot of folks and given that it's a very expensive place to live that are right on the brink of poverty or of homelessness and that shouldn't be the case. But my concern is that we've got economic policies right now coming from Washington that are benefiting only those at the top and that there's a greater disconnect between those at the top and everyone else. We've got some very vibrant growing industries, biotechnology, life sciences, clean energy, very vibrant tourism industry, but all too often those jobs are not benefiting everyone across the economic spectrum and that we need to do more to invest federal research and development dollars, infrastructure funds to really

make sure that we're growing the jobs of the future that benefit not just those at the top but everyone in the district. And ultimately it gets down to cost of living and housing. Healthcare is also huge. Too many stories out there that I hear, when I travel to neighborhoods, people that are one medical emergency away from losing everything or from being able to pay their bills.

We've also got a big problem with student loan debt and with the cost of education. And unfortunately, this administration has a secretary of education that doesn't believe in our public schools. So we've got a whole lot of work to do and we're not even getting into this president's other problems, which I think your podcast handles quite well from what I've heard. And that's obviously always lurking in the background, but just basic quality of life. This president, this administration are concerned only with

those at the very top. And we got to do better than that. We got to do better than that. Yeah, you touched on a lot of really great things there. You're a opponent, Diane Harkey. She's also apparently a staunch opponent of projects like the California high speed rail, which ties into exactly the sort of public works projects you were just talking about. It makes no sense to us why she'd be against that. There's a lot of, she has a just rattling off all of the negative things that we hear on more sure of think about her. She has a rating from an RARA, which now,

especially is very interesting to us, because as you know, we're covering the molar investigation and the NRA is looking like it is having closer and closer ties to potential crimes within that investigation. So this is a nice segue. And we would be remiss if we did not ask you about the molar investigation. When elected, what are you expecting the landscape

in congress to be in regards to that investigation and what is your what are your opinions about it as it stands now well you know the first member of congress to endorse me was adam ship and uh... i look at out of uh... as a friend as uh... as a role model in many ways uh... really trying to speak truth to power uh... and it's all a as a role model in many ways uh... really trying to speak truth to power uh... and it's all about protecting our institutions and protecting uh... the ability for our law enforcement professionals intelligence community be able to do their jobs

and i think uh... you know obviously we need to see where this evidence takes us but the more that we hear uh... doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this president is deeply corrupt, the extent, the depth and breadth of the corruption. We're learning on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis. And I can tell you that we need subpoena power. We need members of Congress who are going to not be afraid to hold

hearings and speak truth to power in a real way authentic way not in a devanena's way uh... but in a way that actually will make the american people proud again of their congress and uh... i have no doubt that if the democrats retake uh... control that uh... adam shifte as chair of the intel committee and others uh... that are actually

exercising our oversight responsibility, holding the hearings necessary, issuing the subpoena necessary to get to the truth. That will be a great service to the American people. And ultimately we need for Mr. Ballard to conduct his investigation free of political interference. And I'm hopeful that the American people recognize the importance of that happening, that the independence of his investigation and the ability for him and his team to get to the truth.

And the importance of truth itself, that our truth, our evidence, our facts that we come to learn through the investigation, those still matter. It can't be overridden by a tweet or by a statement from, again, President who is deeply corrupt. And I think who will go down as perhaps the most corrupt president in our nation's history perhaps the most corrupt president in our nation's history

and the least prepared president in our nation's history which are you know when you combine those two things it doesn't make for great outcomes and I think more and more I hope that Republicans that look objectively at this administration will try to distance themselves from the toxicity and the dishonesty that we're seeing. Unfortunately, Daryl Issa is not one of those people. Daryl Issa still likes to attack the FBI. He wants to defend Trump, probably jockeying for a position in the Trump administration. There was rumor that he may be the new head of the consumer financial protection bureau, which is a scary thought. It didn't happen, but even the thought is scary enough. But the reality is that these are different times, and the standards that have applied

to every modern president. Obviously Richard Nixon went through what in hindsight may turn out to be a great precursor to the events that are unfolding here. Obviously, we've got elections to win, we've got work to do, we've got doors to knock on, People to call. People to speak with. That's my priority over the next hundred and four days until election day. Leave no stone unturned. Don't let the other side out work us. But if we out hustle the other side and we're competitive, I think good things are going to happen across the country and that starts with California in our district. Well, speaking of on the ground work, Mike, where can our listeners volunteer, donate and help out your campaign and follow you? I would love if your listeners could

go to mic11.org that's m-i-k-e-l-e-d-i-n dot o-r-g or they can follow me on Twitter at mic11ca or go to our Facebook page which is 11 per congress. So that's spelled out F-O-R. And we're based in, we have three offices if you can believe it. We've got one kind of our headquarters in Oceanside. The thing you've got satellite offices in San Clemente in South Orange County, and then in Salonabeech as well. So I do hope that your listeners, if they're in the San Diego area or the Orange County area, they're interested in making a difference.

We'd love to have them. We're open. We're ready for business and ready to win. Absolutely. Mike, we're also very close. So you can see us swing by. And I've been looking to get in. I would love it. Yeah, I personally, and I'm sure my co-host would love to come up there and help out whenever we can. Because that's... We would love to be there. You have been such a joy to talk to. Thank you so much for being on.

We would love to in the future. If you got any time down the road, come on again. If you'd like to. All right, well, Mike, Levin, you have been fantastic to talk to. We wish you the best of luck. We have all the faith in the world that you have the ability to win this thing. And listeners, please, please, if you can come out, support, all the faith in the world that you have the ability to win this thing. And listeners please please if you can come out support if you're in the district or close to

the district come around do some grassroots work will come up with you and we'll work together and if you've got any of that cash to send along even if it's small amounts go ahead and give what you can because this is okay. That's how's how we win. We've had 100,000 over 100,000 donations, about 25 bucks average donation. So that's how we win. It is how we win. Yep, that's how Obama won. And we're, I think we can do it again and your race as well. So we will talk to you soon, my friend.

Thank you so much. And best of luck on the campaign, moving forward. Thank you all. Great to speak with you. I look forward to doing it again. Bye bye. Bye bye. All right, you guys. That's this week's show. I thought it went pretty well. Oh, yeah. It's it's it's a mini mega-sode. Mini mega-sode. Yeah, like it's been longer. Also quick note, we were serious about trying to get people together to go volunteer for my Clevver. So if you're in San Diego, hit us up, email us, tweet us, whatever.

Or Orange County, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so true. We're gonna make a trip out of it, yeah. And there's already some of you already doing stuff, and we're late to the game. Yeah, sorry about that. Let's get together and go do some stuff. Totally.

You guys, this has been awesome. I've been A.G. I've been Julie C. Johnson. I've been Jordan Coburn. And this is Muller She Wrote. She wrote. Mollershi wrote is produced and engineered by AG with editing and logo design by Jolissa Johnson, market consulting by Amanda Rita at Unicorn Creative. Our digital media director and subscriber managers are Jordan Coburn and Sarah Hirschberger

Valencia. Fact checking and research by AG is support from Jolissa Johnson and Jordan Coburn and Sarah Hershberger Valencia. Fact checking and research by AG the support from Jolissa Johnson and Jordan Coburn. Mollershi wrote staff includes AG, Jolissa Johnson, Jordan Coburn, Sarah Hershberger Valencia, Jessie Egan, and Sarah Lee Steiner. Our web design and branding are by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is mullershywrote.com. Music Music Music

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

Thanks to gerrymandered maps and repressive anti-voter laws. And the chaotic spectacle we've already seen shows us just how far they will go to seize power, dismantle our government, and take away our freedoms. So the official podcast of the persistence is back with season 4. There's so much more important work ahead of us to fight for equity, justice, and our very democracy itself. We'll take you behind the lines and inside the rooms where it happens, with strategy

and inspiration from progressive change makers all over the country. And we'll dig deep into the weekly news that matters most and what you can do about it, with messaging and communications expert co-founder of Way to Win and our new co-host, Jennifer Fernandez-Ancona. So join Steve and I every Wednesday for your weekly dose of inspiration, action and hope. I'm Steve Pearson. And I'm Jennifer Fernandez-Ancona. And this is How We Win.

And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. And this is How We Win. you.