Jack - Weak and Wispy (feat. Elie Honig)

Episode Date: February 17, 2020

Today on Mueller, She Wrote, we have an interview with CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig, plus info on more secret meetings between top US officials and Russians that we had t...o learn about from Russian state media, and the return of some ghosts of the white house past. Become a patron atpatreon.com/muellershewrote!

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Greg Oliar. Four years ago, I stopped writing novels to report on the crimes of Donald Trump and his associates. In 2018, I wrote a best-selling book about it, Dirty Rubles. In 2019, I launched Proveil, a biweekly column about Trump and Putin, spies and mobsters, and so many traders! Trump may be gone, but the damage he wrought will take years to fully understand. Join me, and a revolving crew of contributors and guests as we try to make sense of it all. This is Preveil. Thanks to Noemi for supporting Mollarshi Road.
Starting point is 00:00:31 Noemi designs and manufactures everything in-house and sells directly to consumers with a lifetime warranty and free shipping. Go to hellonoemi.com slash AG and get $50 off your first purchase with promo code AG. And thanks to Daily Harvest for supporting Mollershi Road. Daily Harvest makes it easy to eat more fruits and vegetables with thoughtfully sourced, chef-crafted foods that can be prepared in five minutes or less.
Starting point is 00:00:51 Go to dailyharvest.com and enter AG25 to get $25 off your first box. And thanks to third love for supporting Mollershi Road. Third love knows there's a perfect broth for everyone, so right now they're offering you 15% off your first order. Go to thirdlove.com slash AG to find yours today. This is Sarah Kenzier from Gaslit Nation, and your listening to Mueller She wrote. So to be clear, Mr. Trump has no financial relationships
Starting point is 00:01:22 with any Russian oligarchs. That's what he said. 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, a two, and that campaign, and I didn't have, not have communications at the Russians.
Starting point is 00:01:41 What do I have to get involved with Putin for having nothing to do with Putin? I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. at the Russians. What do I have to get involved with Putin for? I have nothing to do with Putin. I've never spoken to him. I don't know anything about a mother than he will respect me. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. So, it is political. You're a Communist!
Starting point is 00:02:00 No, Mr. Green. Communism is just a red herring. Like all members of the oldest profession, I'm a capitalist. Hello and welcome to Mollershi Road. I'm your host A.G. and with me today are Jordan Coburn. Hello. The Mandy Reader. Hello. How are you? Great. Great. Yep.
Starting point is 00:02:17 My cat brought me a mouse yesterday. Yikes. That video should definitely go on the main Mollershi Road Twitter if it hasn't already. Should I put it on the main Mollershi Road Twitter if it hasn't already. Should I put it on the main Mellershoe Road Twitter? Well, you know what maybe not. It's definitely the bleaker version of Tom and Jerry. Mouses were harmed in making this video, but not by me. Maybe a hundred thousand people don't want to see a dead mouse. No, but it is pretty funny. Poor guy. He was bringing me a present,
Starting point is 00:02:45 anyone with pod cats knows this is what happens. You get lizards, you get mice. Surprise, treat in the night. I got a baby squirrel one time. Oh my God. Yeah, I just like that he felt the need to wake you up for it. He did, I was in bed, man, man, and I just turned the video recorder on.
Starting point is 00:03:02 It was dark in the room because he was just making such funny sounds. And then it wouldn't stop. So I had to turn the light on to investigate. And he was like, Mom, I got a present for you. Eagamouse. We have a great show today with an interview with CNN Legal Analyst and former federal prosecutor Ellie Honegg. We have a lot of good news, a lot of good news about some long time Mueller cases and some not so good news
Starting point is 00:03:26 We have more secret meetings between top US officials and Russians that we have to learn about from Russian state media and the return of some ghosts of the White House past so I just wanted to Preppy you because this is gonna be like an old school Like a couple years ago Episode of Mollershi Road. I also haven't told you all this yet. I did bring this up on the daily beans, but we were offered quite a bit of money
Starting point is 00:03:54 to advertise for Bloomberg, we turned it down. So help us combat the boatload of money we turned down by heading to patreon.com slash Mollershi Road. And we would appreciate your support there. If you can support women in podcasting all goes towards like paying really high wages and getting health care for everybody on the team. So it really helps us out. So if you can, ever since we turned down that holy majole amount of money, if he comes back after a nominee has chosen, it wants to do more anti-Trump ads. I'll take that money all day.
Starting point is 00:04:30 But I just didn't want to, I was trying to stay neutral. But before we get to the news, which we have a lot of, let's do this segment of corrections. It's time to stay. It's time for me to say I'm sorry. Oh, I made a mistake. Okay, so from Kathleen Garner, I love hearing about Jordan's hippie nature shirts. She's wearing one now. She's wearing a wolf shirt.
Starting point is 00:05:03 Okay, we're going to have to put a picture of that in the newsletter. When we have to pass to make that happen. And I actually thought it said I love hearing about Jordan's hippie nature shit. I read it incorrectly. Shirts. I can't poop in the wild. Don't go to Woodstock. Also, I think she says could be wrong.
Starting point is 00:05:21 Estonia does country-wide elections on digital misinformation because Russia Producer note for Mandy it turns out many Baltic countries are educating citizens on Russian disinformation including Finland Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia Mm-hmm. Yeah, they do like they teach you have to sort out Russian disinformation on social media. Yeah, we need those I didn't know that cool. We need those lessons From anonymous. I like you guys not playing favorites too much with the primary. Thank you. You're welcome. You incorrectly claimed booted judges. Iowa, Iowa support was more clustered. In fact, the opposite is true He won more precincts and counties than anyone and was viable in more precincts and counties than anyone That's how he won the most SDE without winning the popular vote. Check the New York Times detailed map for visuals that will make it clearer.
Starting point is 00:06:06 Love y'all. Thank you, Anonymous. From Lisa Russo, longtime listener and patron, love what you do every day. You help me keep my sanity in these trying times. Just a clarification of a very common misconception regarding Jordan's comment on February 13th about not liking what Amazon does to small businesses. Fun fact, more than 50% of sellers on Amazon are actually third party small businesses, like mine. Amazon does a really good job of not making that clear,
Starting point is 00:06:30 but here we are. That's awesome. She says, I'm an artisan in Amazon's handmade division. That's hand made. Can we use a different word? Of Jeff, which is much like Etsy and made up of folks like me who create at home and simply use Amazon as a marketplace. That's awesome.
Starting point is 00:06:52 Thank you again and seriously no fault of Jordan. It's very common misconception. Yeah, it's very cool. I guess I was thinking brick and mortar. Right, right. Yeah. And I knew that too. I did.
Starting point is 00:07:02 Yeah. But like I didn't even think about it when you said it because I'm so used to that. From Eve Locke, amazing podcast, you clearly put so much love into this and it shows. Not exactly a correction, but on the subject of why space buns are called space buns. Think the top three reasons are Xenon, Sailor Moon, and Princess Leia. That makes so much sense, space buns. I get it now. Those are corrections. If you have a correction for us, head to mullishirout.com, click contact, select corrections and build
Starting point is 00:07:30 us a compliment sandwich. We'll get it right eventually. We do have a lot of news to get to this week, so let's kick it off with just the facts. All right, so we had a massive week in the corruption of the Justice Department since we spoke last. Let's begin with Roger Stone. As you know, probably early in the week, the four prosecutors that have been working on the Stone case for over a year now filed their sentencing recommendation with the court, and they followed the Trump administration's sentencing guidelines.
Starting point is 00:07:56 Trump came out with new guidelines since he took office. He changed them, and there are the new guidelines that all US federal prosecutors must follow, and rolled them back to Bush and Reagan guidelines, stating that a prosecutor, as a prosecutor, And there are the new guidelines that all US federal prosecutors must follow and Rolled them back to Bush and Reagan guidelines stating that a prosecutor as a prosecutor you must recommend The sentencing guidelines the maximum the high end of the sentencing guideline in all cases and that actually is a Trump thing that's he asked for that I think it was him in sessions at the time. That's his rule. So these four prosecutors did that in the stone case. They recommended the Mac sentence and
Starting point is 00:08:29 guideline and then added an eight point upward variance for physical threats in the witness intimidation charge as is outlined in the sentence and guidelines for upward variance. The reporting was that there was some deliberation among top officials at main justice about this little back and forth, but in the end, bars, new hand-picked U.S. attorney in the district of Columbia put his name on the sentencing memo, Timothy Shea, and it was filed with Judge Jackson. Well Tuesday night, Bill Barr decided to personally intervene in the case and told the judge to ignore the first sentencing recommendation the next day, and that he would be making
Starting point is 00:09:04 a new one for, quote, far less jail time. And Barr's new recommendation just happened to come after a tweet from Trump that the sentencing recommendation for his friend of 30 years was a, quote, miscarriage of justice. It was a disgrace. Within minutes of the news breaking wide, one after the other, with minute after minute, all four prosecutors working on this case filed filed motions to withdraw from the case, and one of them resigned from the DOJ altogether. Now, Barr says he made the decision before the Trump tweet was sent, and then went on ABC
Starting point is 00:09:36 in an interview, bombshell interview quote unquote, I think it was rigged, saying that he wished Trump would stop tweeting because it made his job, it made it impossible for him to do his job. Oddly, Trump wasn't upset about Barr's interview. Probably because Barr says he went to Trump and told him, gave him a heads up about the interview before it aired. In fact, I'm quite certain, now those are facts, here's the beans. I'm quite certain the entire fight between Trump and Barr is staged. No one flipped out when Barr did the same thing in the Flynn case. If you remember, the first sentencing recommendation in Flynn's case was zero to six months. Then there was a revised sentencing memo, adding probation would be appropriate because Flynn was in the army and people in the army are extra awesome and should be given leniency
Starting point is 00:10:19 when they commit federal fucking felonies. I think they should be held to a higher standard. But that's just me. When I was in the military, I was always quote, held to a higher standard. So maybe it was the titties. I don't know. I don't know.
Starting point is 00:10:34 Maybe it was the titties. New shirt. Maybe it was. Anyhow, we also learned this week that the guy who initially signed off on the 7 to 9 year sentence recommendation for Stone at main justice, who's the new U.S. attorney in the District of Columbia, that's the one that Barr hand picked, someone who served as one of his top advisors had replaced Jesse Liu. Jesse Liu had been overseeing multiple high-profile Mueller cases, including
Starting point is 00:10:59 Roger Stone, Mike Flynn, and Andrew McCabe. Last year, when the grand jury failed to return an indictment on Andy McCabe for lacking cand, when the grand jury failed to return an indictment on Andy McCabe for lacking candor, which is a term, is not a term of art and criminal law, Trump tried to move Lou out of her job as US attorney into the Justice Department. Hey, I got this great new job for you. Third and play at Third and Line of Justice Department,
Starting point is 00:11:18 Assistant Associate Deputy Attorney General to the Assistant or something. But she didn't leave. And we know the circumstances of that. But she did step aside this time. February 3rd to take a job as the under secretary of one of the undersecretaries at the Treasury Department. Now, usually, and I've talked to a few folks about this, when a US attorney leaves their post, which sometimes happen, because they're promoted to another agency or department, usually they don't leave the US attorney's office until they're confirmed
Starting point is 00:11:45 by the Senate. But in this case, bar told Jesse Liu, you have to go now. And then Trump after she resigned, yanked the nomination at the Treasury Department out from under her. So this was another unprecedented way of getting her out. So those are the facts. More super space beans here. The entire bar Trump fight a stage to possibly pave the way for bar to resign before he has to testify March 31st. Oh, that would be insane. In the House Judiciary Committee. Now, that is super tin foil.
Starting point is 00:12:15 That is a super space beans on that. But he actually agreed to testify after this entire scandal went down, but not until March 31st. And to me, that gives him enough time to sabotage Flynn and Stone, stage a fake fight with Trump, get a bunch of people to ask him to resign and then resign so he doesn't have to testify March 31st. I wouldn't put it past him at all. I mean, Trump is a reality TV guy, right? Yes.
Starting point is 00:12:37 He knows how to spend a narrative. Yes. And Trump didn't get mad when when Barr said he'd make my job hard. And that is something that Trump would totally get mad about. It does appear according to the Washington Post that right after the impeachment, the investigations into Rudy Giuliani were ramped up where we have thought they were fading. It'll be interesting to see if Rudy isn't the sacrificial lamb in the plot to make us think that bar isn't independent attorney general. They might throw Rudy under the bus and die them, and then Bar can say, look, casino hands, I'm not corrupt,
Starting point is 00:13:08 and then resign, not have to testify March 31st and everyone thinks he's a fucking hero. Yeah, that's similar thinking to the indictment's Prada against Pernos and Freeman to 100%. And there's some stories later on, we'll go over from CNN that came out a little bit later after this story came out, that Berman, who is the Southern District of New York Attorney General, has pushed back quite
Starting point is 00:13:29 a bit, although they use the word bristle, which to me just means, you know, that doesn't mean like, you know, push back, but he's pushed back quite a bit against bar, specifically interfering or trying to interfere with micromanage cases in the Southern District of New York. And we'll get to that. I feel like Trump would have a really tough time finding someone as good as bar for him. For him, yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:51 Roy Cohen's dead. Maybe they could just resurrect. Examine his body and tie strings to his arms. Paint eyes. Weekend of noise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:02 Hi. I'm Roy Cohen. Oh, Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha. Ha.emi. If you shopped for jewelry, you know how ridiculously expensive it can be. But Noemi believes that luxury jewelry doesn't have to be overpriced. So they cut out the middleman, so deliver exceptional, exceptionally fine jewelry without the traditional retail markups. Noemi designs and manufactures everything in-house, and they do such a wonderful job at it. Their designers are incredible, and they sell directly to consumers with a lifetime warranty and free shipping both ways. You can save an average of 50% compared to other luxury brands.
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Starting point is 00:15:56 for lacking candor during his Inspector General and FBI interviews in 2016. They got off the pot. They should have got off the pot. They finally got off the pot. Yeah, I would have been, they should have got off the pot. They finally got off the pot. So given everything that's going on at main justice with Bill Barr coming under immense mounting pressure to stop kissing Trump's ass, the timing is odd here. But we could have seen this coming because remember way back when we reported
Starting point is 00:16:18 that the judge in the case told the justice department it had to should have got off the pot, Fisher cut bait, either release all the firing documents related to the FOIA case, or it had to close the case. And we knew, because we're not stupid, that the Justice Department was just stringing this along hoping that a crime would fall out of the sky that they could charge Andy with. Andy. And now, with the new release of the hearing transcripts from the FOIA case, filed by the Citizens for responsibility and ethics in Washington, where I want to work when I grow up, that is exactly what the Justice Department did. I read all 81 pages of this release, and yes, some of the things are still redacted, but
Starting point is 00:16:55 what's clear is the pattern. First hearing in this release was July 9th of last year. There was an ex-parte discussion between the judge and camera, Reggie Walton is the judge, and the Justice Department in which the judge was to decide how long the plaintiffs' declaration, that's the bad guys, could remain under seal. The judge decided to keep that declaration under seal for 60 more days. He gave the Department a justice 60 more days. They met again September 9th. During that hearing, the Justice Department promised they'd only need a few more days. They met again September 9th. During that hearing, the Justice Department promised they'd only need a few more days. Literally, we'll have a decision literally within days.
Starting point is 00:17:29 And the judge gave them three weeks to be safe. And the judge put that order in. Next hearing with September 30th, the Justice Department said, hey, super sorry, we were wrong. We're going to need three more months. And Judge Walton bristled saying, I don't know why it's difficult for a decision to be made. Either you have a case or you don't. He went on to say, I spent a lot of time in that office. I had to make a lot of decisions as number three in the U.S. Attorney's Office. Sometimes you just got to make a call. I would hope the government would expeditiously move this matter along because obviously the plaintiffs have a right under the statute to receive whatever information they're entitled to receive. And it seems to me, from the standpoint of Mr. McCabe, he has the right to have the government
Starting point is 00:18:09 make a decision and not hold his life in limbo, pending a decision as to what's going to happen. How long was he in limbo for? Well, the first hearing was July 9th, and it was this week. Now it was going on earlier than that, too, when they opened the investigation. The judge continued, I don't think people like the fact that you got somebody at the top basically trying to dictate whether somebody should be prosecuted. I just think it's a banana republic when we go down that road and we have those types
Starting point is 00:18:36 of statements being made that are conceivably even if not influencing the ultimate decision. I think there are a lot of people on the outside who perceive that there is undue, inappropriate pressure being brought to bear. Walton said, fuck you, I'm not giving you three months and he gave him six weeks. And they met again November 15. In November, several filings were submitted to the DOJ. They continued to ask for more time. And these filings were submitted by a DOJ as to why the firing documents should not be released and why the initial declaration should remain under seal. Having gone through these filings, much of it's redacted and we still don't know what happened in the sealed declaration or in the X-part A hearings.
Starting point is 00:19:13 But the deadline was this week and it appears the DOJ could not find anything to indict McCabons so they told them they weren't going to file charges. I'm not sure if the deadline here is coincidence. It's set by the court or if this was timed to give bar the appearance of acting independently from the president in the midst of this week. Because once this came out, Trump was mad. The reports and I'll go over this a little bit in our other show and our sister podcast, The Daily Beans, but the reports are that people had to calm him down.
Starting point is 00:19:41 But it's clear in hearing, in hearing after hearing, they were simply leaving the case open again to try and desperation to find anything they could indict McCabe on to appease the president. In this case, should have been closed last summer. I hate imagining what calming him down looks like. I know, I've thought about this too. Like, what do you like get a...
Starting point is 00:20:00 And is that happening every five minutes? Yeah, it's just it's weird. Like when there's a head of a girls club, you know, and she's like freaking out or something and all of her chicks that are trying to be in her position one day are like, it's okay, Nikki, your eyebrows are perfect. It's like all kneeling down like, you don't need him. Yes.
Starting point is 00:20:18 I'm gonna bro you are Jordan chicks. I refer to myself as a chick, never call chicks broads. Okay. You it's only because I exclusively wore sweatsuits in high school I refer to myself as a chick, never call chicks broads. Okay. You age up because I exclusively wore sweatsuits in high school that I am jealous of Becky's trackie dacks. Nice. I learned that term.
Starting point is 00:20:35 Trackie dags. Play in D&D. I apparently that's what they call trackies in Australia. Really? It's what pants. They also call flip-flops thongs, like the ones that you put on your feet. We did that in Arizona. Really? So it's not too exotic. We did that in Arizona. Really?
Starting point is 00:20:45 Not too exotic. Yeah. Yeah. Arizona's weird too. I do have a listener. I do have a message. I spoke to Andy. I asked, where's the party?
Starting point is 00:20:54 He said, he and his wife are going on a nice vacation. And I asked if there is a message that you want to send to the listeners. And he has a message for you. So here it is. He says, you and the MSW Nation have been a total bright spot for us in a very dark time. Stand up for what you believe in even when it's hard and don't blink.
Starting point is 00:21:12 Nobody ever won a fight by giving up. Hell yeah. That's really powerful. So thanks. I don't remember that in 40 years. And when I did, I actually, I put that out on Twitter and then I said, hey, I have an idea because we got so many messages of support. And like reply below with a, if you have a message for Andy, and I've sent him the link to the feed. It's got, we've got over
Starting point is 00:21:34 500, like supportive comments and they're just really wonderful. So thank you all for responding to that. I bet Andy's going to be really mad that I tweeted it out and didn't say it on the podcast or he's going to just be be overwhelmed by all of the support that he probably doesn't know he has. Yeah, because he's not on Twitter. Right. And it's like folks like him are not really meant to be political celebrities really. You know, they go their whole lives just being more or less unsung heroes in a lot of ways. And now he's sort of been catapulted into this position that's in the limelight. And I think he's such a lovable person.
Starting point is 00:22:12 And you never get to see those, yeah, you just never get to see the faces of those people. So the support that he does have now, I imagine is like a new kind of support that he's getting. And I hope he takes it and enjoys it. That's a lot of us, President, who's brought a lot of heroes to our attention. Yeah, I was just gonna say there's so many people who you it and enjoys it. That was a lot of us present in his broad. A lot of heroes to our attention. Yeah, I was just gonna say there's so many people
Starting point is 00:22:28 who you're out of it. He would have otherwise served quietly who would have been thrust into the spotlight. Who could not? Exactly. They just wanted to search their country quietly. Struck. Mm-hmm.
Starting point is 00:22:39 Vindamins brother, who didn't really do anything, but be Vindamins brother. Yeah, right. I was like, why are you firing it? Just because he looks the same because like twins. I don't want to see your face. So you have to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to go to science science. Also, do we have the same thoughts? When you said that, I'm glad to be in here. That speech last week, the way he said, Vindman, Vindman, Vindman,
Starting point is 00:23:10 like to riffing with disdain. Yes. Vindman. Yeah. He's a great. Vindman. You know what? I hate myself with your intrepum pressions.
Starting point is 00:23:17 I'm going to stop now. That's OK. I live with it every day in myself. Also in the news. And this episode is so old school. I'm so excited. I mean, it's shitty news. Pompeo had a secret meeting with Sergei Lavrov
Starting point is 00:23:30 in Munich this week, Munich. And of course, we had to learn about it from Russian media because American press was not allowed in. The State Department made no announcement about the meeting and Pompeo's AIDS provided no readout of the meeting after it ended. Russian journalists, however, were aware of the meeting in advance.
Starting point is 00:23:44 They put it on Facebook. Despite the advance notice for everyone in Russia, the State Department is referring to the meeting as a pull aside. Why don't you just have it in the say-shells then? Pull aside. That sounds weird. One Russian journalist said the US side
Starting point is 00:24:02 had requested there be no press conference or joint statement, and the photographers were not invited to take pictures of the two shaking hands. Totally normal behavior. And here's the thing. If none of this shit went down in 2016 and none of it continued to go down, it would be totally normal for the Secretary of State to meet publicly with Sergey Lavrov, shake hands, maybe give him a stare down or something, and like have a readout of the meeting and have people take photos of it. That would be totally normal. This is consciousness of guilt. And it's homecoming week at the White House as Trump has rehired Sean Spicer and Ryan's pre-biss. What? What?
Starting point is 00:24:43 So you're the... Mo...mo... The two will each join the President's Commission on White House Fellowships. They'll be responsible for interviewing and recommending finalists for appointments to the fellowship program in the White House. Oh. But that's not all. Hope Hicks is returning to the White House to be Jared Kushner's special assistant, as is Johnny McIntee, who was expected to take over the office that oversees presidential
Starting point is 00:25:10 appointments. We reported that McIntee left the White House unceremoniously after being kicked out by John Kelly because the Department of Homeland Security was looking into serious financial crimes. So that guy is going to be in charge of presidential appointments. That reporting by the way on Macinty was, Mueller, she wrote episode 20, to give you a little bit of, that 20. Yeah. Give you a little bit of, like a frame of reference here, a little curatorial journalism when Macinty was kicked out. During that show, we reported Andy McCabe and
Starting point is 00:25:40 been fired by Jeff Sessions in a tweet. We reported the Cambridge Analytica had stolen Facebook data from 50 million users. The minority report was issued by the House Intelligence Committee on Russia, which was the basis for our fantasy indictment leak. Nastya Ripko was in a Thai prison. The Russians were blamed in the Skripal hit by the United Kingdom and Rex Tillerson had just been fired. That was one week's worth of news. So with a return of McInty, Hicks, Spicy, and the Mole,
Starting point is 00:26:05 it's the good old days. I'm surprised that the Mole's coming back. Yeah. I feel like at this point, because it seems like he was a source, 100% for a lot of these books that are coming out. At Russian Warfare, I know he was in that book a lot. Him and Rob Porter were, right, does that not bother them? I don't know.
Starting point is 00:26:25 And then you're going to kick out Vindman's brother. Yeah. But you're going to let back a guy that probably went and just like told all of your shit to all these different people. He doesn't have a lot of friends left. Yeah, I guess not. What the, that's so weird. Also, I think there's assistant.
Starting point is 00:26:44 What? I guess, I guess you kind of, you run out of people who are gonna be sick of Man's to you so you have to recycle people and After you saw them on the wrist maybe or maybe we're just gonna start seeing like a huge revolving door and all these different people are gonna start coming back Once they've gotten the corner for long enough mole mole mole somebody said Once they've gotten the corner for long enough, mole, mole, mole. Somebody said, uh, gas hope Hicks wasn't blonde enough for Fox News. Oh, Jesus. Did she try? Do you know? Yeah, she was, she was working at Fox.
Starting point is 00:27:10 She was hired by Fox, but I never saw her on there, but I don't know. I don't like, I don't watch it. I don't know. I bet Sarah, how could be Sanders is going to come back? Oh, yeah, probably. Mm-hmm. Cause I mean, Spicer's just in charge of the fellowship program. He's not taking over his best secretary or anything. I didn't even know that she was out. I can't keep up with
Starting point is 00:27:26 Grisham's a new one, but Grisham does a pretty When I say good job. I mean She hasn't held once one press conference yet, but that's true. That's very true But I think Sarah how could be Sanders was like relatively respected as far as you can be respected doing what the hell she was doing Both just turds. Yeah. Just turds and a punch bowl. Yeah. Turds and a punch bowl.
Starting point is 00:27:49 Oh, it's Sunday. Sunday, you guys, I'm feeling a little weird today. I think that required a jingle. Hey, you got it. As Pat Naswell said, you have to jock jam your life. Jock jam. Completely agree. What was it?
Starting point is 00:28:02 Sitting alone, eating saltine in my underwear, watching Carlito's way. Yeah. It's a patin' Oswald's on. If you haven't watched anything or heard anything by patin' Oswald, do it. Do it now and tell him I said hi. We'll be right back with hot notes.
Starting point is 00:28:17 We got a lot of hot notes, well, too, but there's a lot in them. So stick around, we'll be right back. Hey everybody, this segment of Mollarshi Road is brought to you by Daily Harvest. I find it a struggle to eat enough healthy foods. I've been doing this intermittent fasting thing, but sort of by accident because of depression. But as it turns out, I need more fruits and vegetables in my life.
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Starting point is 00:29:54 Also, make the wheatgrass banana cucumber smoothie a lot because it's, you know, I knew veggies. They have a wide variety of delicious nutritious foods. So you know, it can help you stick to those New Year's resolutions. So go to dailyharvest.com and enter promo code AG25 to get $25 off your first box. That is promo code AG25 for $25 off your first box at dailyharvest.com. That's dailyharvest.com. All right, welcome back. Hot notes.
Starting point is 00:30:24 Hello, welcome back Hot notes Hello welcome back. This is Jordan speaking and now we are doing hot notes and I never hit my life like that all the time Watching Carlisle Hello, welcome back to Jordan with the hot notes on there at my life like that. That would have been a great callback. Damn. Anyways. All right. That was a great callback that I did.
Starting point is 00:30:51 That's true. It was. I, okay. So my story is a story that we've heard before, sadly, just another iteration of it. Senate Republicans are back at their blocking election security bills shenanigans. Once again, Dems tried to pass three election security bills on Tuesday, and the Republicans just shut them down.
Starting point is 00:31:11 This is Mitch McConnell's dying wish, it seems, for an election security bill to never make it pass the Senate. He is so hell bent on that. But the bills would have made it so campaigns had to alert the FBI and FEC about offers from foreign entities to help in an election. Seems pretty mild. Seems like a very, very mild thing that they should have to do. And they didn't want that to happen. They also would have allocated more money to fund elections, and they would have banned
Starting point is 00:31:40 voting machines from being connected to the internet. Both things that seem very necessary and like good ideas, but Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn blocked a move for unanimous consent and accused Democrats of purposely, this is some fucking twisted psychological shit. So she blocks the move and then accuses Democrats of purposely trying to set Republicans up by putting bills on the table that Democrats know Republicans will Yes, not just because they want that bill to be passed. It can't just be as simple as that. It has to be a failure.
Starting point is 00:32:29 It has to be a failure, isn't it? Yes. And I mean, you think about it. I mean, Mitch took a healthy chunk of $7.35 million don't need a Republican party by Blavottnik. Mm-hmm. And Mark Arubio took some of that, Ted Cruz, Rick Scott. And then of course, Mitch has
Starting point is 00:32:45 his Kentucky, his aluminum plant, and his old Kentucky home, where the Buffalo Rome. And that's funded by all like Darapasca's joint. So he's sitting here like, you guys know that we aren't going to pass any bills because I'm bought by the Russians. We're not going to pass any pass any bills because I'm bought by the Russians. We're not going to pass any election security bills because I can't win without them and shame on you for that. That's a thing. That's what Marsha Blackburn was saying, but I imagine Mitch maintains the same thing. And now that puts a number 10 election security bills that have died in the Senate. It's so like I really don't't you know there are like a lot of things where
Starting point is 00:33:27 I can see their angle. I do not see their angle on this aside from the only option being that they just want to continue to cheat and do better because these rules don't exist. That's like the only like it's so hard. That's their angle either that's or they just don't want to let Democrats pass anything. They should be such a nonpartisan issue. Right. It's insane to me. And he also admitted this week there are 395 other bills on his desk that he won't pass. Jesus.
Starting point is 00:33:57 Because they came from Democrats. Yeah. The Maconalds, a national security threat. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. He's already let Russia get a foothold on our aluminum industry in this country. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:07 Yeah, they're trying to say their whole states rights gamut, right? They're saying that these bills take the power away from the states and then put too much of the power into the federal government. That's why they're saying they're not going to pass them. Oh, but they're going to send SWAT ICE teams into states. Yep. Exactly. States rights, when it matters. Mm ice teams in just states. Yep. Exactly. States rights when it matters.
Starting point is 00:34:26 Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, fuck you. Yep. Oh, that's annoying. Oh, that's so fucking annoying. It's very annoying. What do you think states get their money from? Mitch? Right.
Starting point is 00:34:37 And I also just wondered too, like what authority do states even have currently to combat these issues on their own? Like do they really have the resources? No, obviously not. Or else they would be doing it. Or else we'd have Iowa results. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:52 Yeah, and the article brings that up too, just in the wake of all of these issues. Didn't the head of the Iowa Democratic Party step down? Yes, he resigned. Yeah. Bye. God. Oopsie. Yeah, and now they're trying a new thing in Nevada for the first time. Uh, it's going to go great.
Starting point is 00:35:09 I'm excited for that. Which is early voting in the caucus. So you show up early voting because caucus, you have to be there for. But Nevada's caucus, they wanted to try early voting. So what you do is you go and you fill out the card and say, here's my first choice. This would be my second choice. This would be my third choice. So it's just kind of ranked choice voting or one two three voting.
Starting point is 00:35:27 It's as matter likes to call it. And so then they're going to use that and sort of compile those and then add them to the actual caucus numbers and then report those to the Nevada Democratic party. So they're not using the app, but we'll see how that goes. This is the first time they're trying it. And I can tell you this, if this gets fucked up, I think the caucuses are going to go away. I think they're going to have just primaries because this is getting, it's discriminatory towards the disabled. They're not ACA compliant. It's hard to be there all day or for hours. And showers? Yeah, and you know, it disenfranchises a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:36:09 And so with the debacle in Iowa, if this doubles up again and they fuck it up in Nevada, I think coccasers are done. At least I would be supportive of coccasers being done. Yeah, I wonder if they'll ever just move to a single day primary. Yeah, that's what they would do. But like everybody, like the whole country,
Starting point is 00:36:29 like the whole country. Like a super Tuesday, but for everyone. Why don't everyone just go out and vote on the same? Or we just have three super Tuesdays with 30 states at 30 states, excuse me, with about 2015, 17 states of peace and then do so suit that way. Yeah, just have three super Tuesdays
Starting point is 00:36:47 and have our friggin candidate by April. Have the convention in April. Yeah, yeah, it is very interesting just because it sort of, it's seemingly arbitrarily sets these markers up throughout the course of a campaign where people are still growing, you know, to like a bigger person than they're going to be in the race or the opposite. And so it's strange to just like let there be actual election or, you know,
Starting point is 00:37:17 election like, you're adding your adding layers of strategy instead of just right. Who won't who do you want to vote for? Exactly. Well, if I go here and there's over here and there's more black people here on Thursday, but if I go back over here on Tuesday where there's not as many and I have to worry about the Latinx, then how do I talk? What do I say? Where do I travel to? Yes.
Starting point is 00:37:38 It's a melding of campaigning and official elections over and over again, which is kind of like an uncomfortable thing. It is really uncomfortable also to hear the way that the media keeps talking to these candidates about how they have support from one group or another, rather than talking about actual issues. You know, like every time I see it, like, lately, every time I hear someone being interviewed,
Starting point is 00:37:58 it's about like their support with this group of people or this group of people. When I just wanna hear the candidates talk more about the issues. Though I will say that getting endorsements from those groups of people kind of gives you an idea of the issues that they care about. It is important. Like let's say teachers union backs, Bernie, culinary union backs, not Bernie, then you kind of know sort of where and why. So it is a little, a little, it's not a definitive of their platforms, but they do spend a lot of
Starting point is 00:38:26 time chasing endorsements, particularly from these larger groups, nurses unions, mostly in the Democratic Party, and then of course from newspapers around the country as well, depending on, because Warren got the Iowa Register and didn't, she finished fourth, third. She's the craziest one to me right now. How low she's doing. Yeah. Compared to where I thought she was gonna be.
Starting point is 00:38:49 Yeah. Well, again, two or two in. So we'll see how it goes. Lots more states to go. They have. Thank you for that. Yeah, thanks to an information about the turtle to catch.
Starting point is 00:39:00 So in raging that they won't pass any election security bills. Yeah. Oh, well, and then they won't like fully empanel the commission that can actually enforce things, too. The other thing, I think, is if Mitch passes any election security bills, that that would sort of indicate that we were meddled with in 2016, which Trump will not admit to ever because, small-time energy. And so, you know, because he carries that electoral map
Starting point is 00:39:28 around with him, you know, instead of pictures of his children. So he's, so I think that that's probably the number one issue that is, again, the cancer on this presidency is the weak and wispy ego of one man who can't possibly admit to the fact that Russia interfered in the elections because that means that he might, it challenges the legit power of his presidency. He would still fucking be president. I don't understand what is so insecure. We can wispy. Yeah. If you had pictures of his kids, I feel like he would just circle their traits and be like mine mine mine. This was mine
Starting point is 00:40:07 This but mine That bad nose to my mom is playing one of those bar video games You know where you have to find the differences between the two playboy models and all of a sudden I vodka comes up And he's like oh great. I know these That was gross. I'm sorry trigger warning reverse. I was just trying to think of what the equivalent of his electoral map, small dick energy, on photos of his kids would look like. Oh, hello. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:31 Okay. He sends dick, instead of dick pics, he sends electoral maps. Oh my god, he's so worst. Yes. All right, well, I am sad to say that Bill Barr isn't the only thing fucking up our trust in the Justice Department these days. According to the New York Times, Trump officials are investigating the government's response
Starting point is 00:40:47 to Russia's election interference in 2016, which we knew, but it appears they're hunting for a basis to accuse Obama, era, intelligence officials and law enforcement officers of hiding evidence or manipulating analyses about the Kremlin's covert operations. We know and have reported extensively on Trump's obsession, which defending the legitimacy of his elections in 2016, and he's gone to great lengths to protect it as we were just talking about, including having bar a point of former U.S. Attorney John Durham to examine
Starting point is 00:41:16 the actions of the Obama intelligence community as a pathway to proving a deep state conspiracy. Recent questions asked by John Durham indicate that he is suspicious of disagreements between analysts in different intelligence agencies over who could see each other's stuff, who could see each other's secrets. According to The New York Times, as told by a few sources familiar with the matter, it appears that Durham is pursuing a theory
Starting point is 00:41:39 that the CIA under John Brennan had a preconceived notion about Russia and was trying to get a particular result by nefariously trying to keep other agencies from seeing the full picture so they wouldn't interfere with that goal. The FBI and the NSA have told Durham that he's wrong. He's wrong. He's suspicion is stupid. It's based on a misunderstanding of how the intelligence community operates.
Starting point is 00:42:00 Bro, intelligence community officials are typically cautious about sharing Intel such as sources, even with other agencies. That's by design so they can remain independent and come to their own conclusions. You don't want groupthink among these three agencies when you're talking about national security. This wild goose chase that Durham is on will certainly add to the mounting pressure placed on the Department of Justice that Trump has weaponized them to give preferential treatment to his friends and go after his enemies. Specifically, this appears to be the cabal, this appears this particular thing appears to be a cabal to go after John Brennan for being an outspoken critic of Trump. Brennan responded to the article on Hardball Thursday evening by dismissing the line of
Starting point is 00:42:39 inquiry and portraying it as dangerous. He says, quote, there is there a criminal investigation now on analytic judgments and the activities of the CIA in terms of trying to protect our national security? Basically, are you investigating analysis of data? That's what you're investigating? He says, I'm certainly willing to talk to Mr. Durham or anyone else who has any questions about what he did, what we did during this period.
Starting point is 00:43:03 It clearly, I think, is another indication that Donald Trump is using the Department of Justice to go after his enemies anyway he can. What's interesting in that statement there, it's sort of subsumed in there, is Brendan is saying, Durham hasn't reached out to me to ask me anything about what went down. But he's asked, well, so I'll get into who he's talked to. But as we know, the Department of Justice Inspector General Horowitz released a report into aspects
Starting point is 00:43:30 of the FBI's Russian investigation, found no documentary or testimonial evidence that anyone engaged in a conspiracy to sabotage Trump. But Durham's recent questions have shed a little light on where he may be going with his inquiry. And we've reported before, Durham has been looking into emails between a small group of analysts from the FBI, CIA, and NSA regarding the motivations behind several instances in which some sought access to intelligence from other agencies
Starting point is 00:43:55 and were told initially they did not have access. In one instance, in particular, the identity of a CIA source inside the Kremlin was withheld by the CIA when the NSA wanted more information. But the CIA eventually handed over the information. Officials disagreed about how much weight to give the source. Brennan explained in his interview that because the CIA relies heavily on human or human intelligence, whereas the NSA does not, by the way, that's what led to the NSA to give their moderate confidence when everyone else gave high confidence that Russia interfered on behalf of Trump. And that
Starting point is 00:44:32 was in the January 2017 intelligence assessment ordered by President Obama. So he's trying to make that look like it was a bad thing. The human source was eventually moved out of the Kremlin and back to the US. We talked about that guy when, or lady, when they had to be removed because, and remember at first they didn't want to leave. They were like, I've almost got this information and eventually they had to pull them out. Well, this is why the CIA didn't want to tell the NSA, you know, you want to keep that, why, why add more moving parts to something so important, you know. Another incident that Durham is looking into centered on a certain data set, the nature
Starting point is 00:45:08 of the data set remains secret. We don't know what it means. But one person suggested that the fight was whether the NSA analyst could see the raw data or whether the CIA needed to filter it to mask names and other identifying details about Americans and American organizations. Officials also clashed over access to unclassified emails of Americans that the Russian government had previously hacked, including the White House and the State Department.
Starting point is 00:45:31 So while all this is par for the course, it appears Durham is trying to find some kind of wrongdoing linked to the disputes in the interagency intelligence sharing operations. And to me, it sounds like Durham doesn't know what the fuck he's talking about. And the intelligence agencies are all like, this is how we do. Everything's cool. We have a DNI now. That's why we have a DNI so that we can sort of coordinate these things and share more information. So he's coming in like he's never, he doesn't know what the fuck is happening saying. You should hand over all these things and you should hand over all these things. They're like, okay,
Starting point is 00:46:02 here's a giant 1,400 page manual on why we can't. And I'm not reading that. I just imagine it just, you know, like, and this happens to us a lot as women when you're an expert at something. And there's someone who is not an expert at something who is going to tell you how your job goes. This is what this is what that feeling is like. So I can sympathize with Brandon as to what he must be going through. Durham is interviewed, here's who he has talked to. FBI officials, CIA analysts, about half a dozen current and former officials and analysts at the NSA. But he has not spoken to Brennan McCabe or Comey, even though he has requested Brennan's
Starting point is 00:46:42 emails, call logs, and other documents from the CIA to learn what he told other officials, including Comey, about his and the CIA's views of the steel dossier. Keep in mind, I think that he's afraid to go to Brennan Comey and McKay because he's going to get not crimes, because they've all been cleared. So, and keep in mind, Barna has the authority to declassify anything he wants, and we should be prepared for a cherry-picked sprinkling of communications between the agencies
Starting point is 00:47:10 who worked on Crossfire Hurricane and Trump's ongoing push to create a deep-state narrative to protect his fragile 2016 electoral college victory. That's what it all boils down to. Well, then I guess we're just setting the precedent for the next president to go back and investigate everything that Trump did and continue to do that. Yep, that's exactly what you're exactly right. That's exactly what they're doing. And, and I hope they do. Right. Because Trump deserves it. Because he's actually a deserves it very much. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:47:41 And that's why I like the idea of having a permanent special counsel or this special task force at the Department of Justice that's always investigating the administration always and Congress. Sounds very American to me. I love it. And judges. Fucking watch them all. Yeah. I'm on you. All right, you ready for sabotage? Yes. Alright, this is from the New York Post, so grain of salt here, but apparently a man-hountain judge has taken the rarest step of allowing Jislayne Maxwell-Galene, Maxwell, to be served with a new lawsuit by email because apparently she's that hard to find. Lawyers for Annie Farmer and Epstein accuser complained to the judge that the judge, Deborah Freeman is the judge's name, that they've been trying
Starting point is 00:48:29 to locate Gilein to serve her with a complaint filed in November. So they asked if they could serve her by email and the judge granted the request saying they've done their due diligence and a service in person is impracticable. The judge also ruled that if Maxwell doesn't respond by March 6th, a default judgment will be placed against her. And if farmer is seeking an other's close amount of money and damages, because Gaelene provided her to Epstein who assaulted her. And so if she's suing for an X amount of money, Gaelene doesn't respond by March 6th. She gets X amount of money. There will be a judgment placed against Gaelene. But if you can't find her to serve her, I don't know how you're going to find her to get money on her.
Starting point is 00:49:06 Exactly. So we still don't know where she is. That's what it seems like. I guess so. There's still like a, yeah, wear in the world. Is there reports that she was in Israel? There's like differing reports coming out. Some people said that's like uncorroborated.
Starting point is 00:49:19 But. It's hard. It's hard and Israel. I think the whole thing, again, super space means. I think Epstein was working for Mossad, running a fake hedge fund collecting money from billionaires who were raping underage people. As dirt, compromised.
Starting point is 00:49:38 Yeah, gathered by Mossad, who is probably sharing it with the Kremlin. Everything's connected. Everything is pretty beautiful. Except that. Okay, alright. Alright, with that, as our sabotage, you ready to play fantasy indictment league? Yes.
Starting point is 00:49:58 I'm gonna be a dikit. No, it is gonna be okay. Dikit! I'm gonna be a dikit. I'm gonna be a dikit. Oh, they can't. It's gonna be okay. I'm crying, Dick. And I heard! I'm crying. I'm crying! Oh, they can't, it's gonna be okay. Just calm down. I can't calm down, I'm gonna be excited!
Starting point is 00:50:10 You're first this time, Jordan, you get to go first. All right, well, I'd be silly if I didn't pick Gillain. All right, there you go. They can find her. Uh, I'm gonna go with Flynn. Hmm, nice. Fuck that guy. Fucking.
Starting point is 00:50:24 Tom Bergick of course Julie Ahni for me. Yeah Super seating for women Pecker Cleedy O'Parnass Cleedy O'Parnass huh? All right, all right Tumor for you A.G. Poop Dylan Howard I'm gonna go with Mac and T. I think I coming back to the White House. I would love it. MC, ENT, E, I would love it if Berman in the Southern District of New York was like, oh, you're going to hire him back, um, um, indignment.
Starting point is 00:51:08 For his heavy financial crimes in the Department of Homeland Security, DHS was looking into, which is an odd agency to look into financial crimes, but maybe there are the ones who are responsible for the background checks, but no, because that's the FBI. I don't know. Is that it? Are we done? You're all done. Congratulations. Oh, yeah. I don't know. Is that it? Are we done?
Starting point is 00:51:25 Congratulations. We get to wait. Fantasy indictment leave. That was a fast one. It's been a while since you've gotten points. I know. I know. Everything got shut down.
Starting point is 00:51:34 Bar. Blast. All right, well, we will be right back with the interview. Again, we're talking to four more federal prosecutor, Ellie Honegg, so stay with us. Hey, everybody, it's A.G. and this segment of Mueller, she brought to you by Third Love. I am obsessed with Third Love. All my bras come from Third Love now.
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Starting point is 00:53:29 So joining us today for the interview is CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Ellie Honeig. Ellie, welcome back to Mollershiro. How are you? Good. Glad to be back. So are we considering a name change for the podcast, given the way the news has evolved? Like what? What would you call it?
Starting point is 00:53:47 Let's see, was Mueller's hero, right? I mean, if Ukraine is even in the past, like, Nedling's hero, it's not quite as catchy as Mueller's hero. It was like, Nedling's hero. I like it's Nedling and everything that's to do with DOJ. Yeah, because it's getting kind of crazy. And that's sort of what I wanted to talk to you about. Been a big week.
Starting point is 00:54:13 Pretty emotional for some prosecutors. I've spoken personally to Joyce Vance, Bar McQuay, a couple of other in Renato, Mariotti, a couple of the former federal prosecutors, U.S. attorneys. And I wanted to ask you about your reaction to the news that bill bar intervened personally uh... in the sentencing of roger stone in the impact that has not only on the department of justice but americans view of the department of justice yeah so i think that
Starting point is 00:54:40 the d o jay intervention in the stone case this week is really kind of a tipping point. I think we've been building up to this over the almost exactly one year that Bill Barr has now been attorney general in this administration. I just want to make sure the listeners understand how unusual this is, what went down. So it is virtually unheard of. I've never seen it happen, perhaps it has, but in the thousands of cases I've dealt with and supervised during my time at DOJ.
Starting point is 00:55:06 I never saw it happen that DOJ itself went on record, got the proper approvals for a guideline sentence, which in this case was seven to nine years, arguably a bit high, but that's the guideline. And then higher ranking people at DOJ pulled it back and said, no, we're wrong, we want to go lower. I just I've never seen that happen and then start with that premise and then add into the top of it what happened in the middle a tweet from Donald Trump about how unjust the prosecution of Roger Stonewell and not his first of course.
Starting point is 00:55:38 So I think the DOJ prosecutors are extremely logical sort of insightful people and i think when you see the object prosecutors by a large looking at that and saying this is this is meddling from political branches this is not what the object of the battle i think we sort of hit a critical mass of that this week yeah and i know that uh... maddo had uh... had talked about that quite a quite extensively to saying she spoke to two veteran prosecutors within the Department of Justice, and in their combined decades worth of experience, they had never once seen anything like that at all.
Starting point is 00:56:14 So, yeah, it's extremely rare. And then, of course, like you said, you add that tweet in the middle, and we've got some conspiracy soup. And let me just add to that, this is just coming a week or two after the same thing, essentially, happened on Michael Flynn. So, right, that DOJ was at one point asking for six up to six months, and then it came back and lowered their position to probation, meaning no jail time. So, twice in the course of a couple of weeks, and gee, what do Roger Stone and Michael Flynn have in common?
Starting point is 00:56:42 Let me see. Both Trump friends, allies, former officials or campaign consultants. So it's hard. You can't ignore that. Yeah, and then we have the news out just about 30 minutes ago from CNN that Bill Barr has been quietly looking into and reviewing the Flynn case. I mean, that's that's unnerving too. I mean, look, even if he he comes out i don't know where this is going to come out but even if it comes out says everything with handled right here's the message it then to your prosecutor the oj if you go after one of the president allies cronies whatever you want to call them you're going to be subject to
Starting point is 00:57:18 extra scrutiny not just the normal built-in healthy street needed this at the oj but then the a g himself is going to be peering over your shoulder second death that's terrible message yeah it's creepy and combine that with the fact that he's the only one now that can approve with with express written consent if there's any investigations opened into presidential vice presidential campaign anything let me just say what about that because it's important to people understand there's a long standing sort of soft policy at DOJ on written, but we used to call it the 60-day rule, meaning you're not going to drop a bomb in
Starting point is 00:57:52 terms of an indictment or something 60 days before an election. So for example, if you had a charge on someone very close to a presidential candidate, let's say hypothetically Rudy Giuliani, you wouldn't announce it in late September of 2020. You'd either do it before the 60 days or after the election. But this, what this does is put that policy sort of, not exactly that policy, but puts it in writing, but you said it's important. This policy now says, nobody can even open an investigation.
Starting point is 00:58:19 FBI cannot even start an investigation unless D.A.G. reviews it and signs up, and that is new. It used to be, look, you do your investigation whenever you have to, you try to do it as quickly as possible. You just hold off on any public announcement and arrest and indictments. But this is totally different. This says you can't even get the plane off the runway until bar says. Yeah, it's kind of frightening.
Starting point is 00:58:41 And this week I reached out to you Tuesday when this all went down with the stone stuff and we had the one, two, three, four withdraws from the case from four line prosecutors, one of them actually resigning from the DOJ altogether. And we were working on you and I were working out of time to talk. And I remember saying, better make it Friday because who knows what else could happen between now and then. And lo and behold, we get this interview with Bill Barr, who astonishingly, first of all, and everyone seems to be glossing over this, admits to intervening in the stone sentencing. But also, I have to say, lie to all of us because he was, you know, he said it was a totally normal thing for this to happen in as we went over in the earlier here in the interview
Starting point is 00:59:26 it's not at all a normal thing so what was your reaction to what bar had to say in that in that crazy interview so personal when bar says this is normal and and other defenders of the president are saying this is normal here's what here's what they're doing there they're flight of hand they're conflating to things what is normal is for there to be a thorough deliberation within d o j and sometimes
Starting point is 00:59:49 higher ranking people at the o j or all will over rule over ranking people i've had it done to me and i've as a supervisor i've done it to people in my bureau you sometimes don't agree and you work it out what here's what's unusual a for the age itself to be involved in a case like this and b to go on record to do that process to come out at a result and then have the bosses publicly
Starting point is 01:00:13 undermine you that is completely different um... so to don't don't buy into that spin by far well yeah because ellie and i don't i didn't have to hear but the the the new york times reported when you know when all this was going down When the first when the stone sentencing memo came out That it was seven and nine years and there was like an eight point upward variance and for this and this and they put spill it all out there They actually said that there were people within the Department of Justice who told reporters that there was bickering between some of the higher ups of justice who told reporters that there was bickering between some of the higher ups about whether this was going to go or not. But ultimately, Timothy Shea, who was bar's new
Starting point is 01:01:00 best friend, who he's put in there to replace Jesse Liu, who was unceremoniously offered a different job and then had that taken away from her. But Tim she put his name on this thing. But there was, like you said, that is normal to have that sort of disagreement and deliberation going before the whole thing comes out. But that had been done before bar stuck his nose into this. Right, exactly. That type of deliberation happens internally it healthy they did it how you get to sort of the best result they did that though they did it that you've got to be we signed it and submitted and then to be undermined publicly like that is
Starting point is 01:01:35 with him she put his name on it to him she had a great exactly bars the guy they just installed from bar's uh... right hand to do this so uh... it that makes it even more unusual regarding you know the interview that obviously the part that's called a lot of people's attention is bar saying that the president should not treat about the oj and judges and and i'm trying to balance my
Starting point is 01:01:56 cynical side with my uh... taking things at face value side at face value i'll say that bar said what he had to say it was important that he come out and say that both from a ral inside the oj and for let's try to establish some boundaries here now it some people sort of theorize this is uh... apply act and i think to some extent it is because uh... so here's a thing let's not mistake this for bill bar sort of
Starting point is 01:02:21 heroically declaring the the independence of the oj because he had had a years worth of his own action that completely undermined that so you don't get to under do a year worth of of distorting the muller report trying to keep the whistleblower complaints going to congress and undermining the flint sentence and the rest of the by just doing a quick interview with a bc and saying shouldn't we those things do not equal out i'll go with i'll go with the years worth of action over the one interview where the words star so
Starting point is 01:02:48 you start with that and what telling the president you'll need to tweet i mean i think far knows the playbook i don't i don't think you need to have orders barked in many more i mean i don't think you would you know there they're operating on on the on the sort of uh...
Starting point is 01:03:03 there's some pottoff I guess you would say. It's kind of like, I don't know, I'll try to think of the modern football reference. But like when I was a kid, it would jump Montana and Jerry Rice. Like they could just look at each other and know, you know, Montana knew exactly where Jerry Rice was going to go and he would just deliver the ball and Jerry Rice would feed it. They didn't have the call of play. So they're not to compare, it's a strange comparison to thinking of Donald Trump throwing
Starting point is 01:03:25 the bottom of William Barr like Montana and Rice, but for those of you 80s people, there you go. No, it makes sense. And I mean, you bring up morale, and that's interesting, though, because he didn't at all. One point, stick up for the four-line prosecutors, or give a word out for any of those and he didn't say you know he said you're these tweets make it impossible for me to do my job not for the department to do its job and well he yeah he did i was that was listening to that
Starting point is 01:03:54 he did say something about and and it makes it hard to be commenting on our on on our cases and our prosecutors and the judges and i think it's important that he said that i was gonna i was getting ready to rip into it far needs to stand up for the judges and i think it's important that you said that i was gonna i was getting ready to rip into it far needs to stand up for the judge and he's not exactly his role but it's absurd to have a double truck attacking judges and by the way we hit a new one this week
Starting point is 01:04:15 jurors dot truck is going after a job yeah in the stone case which is jurors are civilians they get that annoying piece of paper in the mail they show up and do the civic duty and they miss work and they have to find someone to
Starting point is 01:04:30 take care of their kids and doing the most basic civic duty and now he's attacking those people but the half step away from just knocking on people's door and saying do you like me or not yeah so uh... that to me is is is crazy and also needs to be called out
Starting point is 01:04:47 Yeah, it's pretty bizarre and then and then of course and I'm so glad to wait until Friday to speak We got the news today almost as if on cue that the Justice Department is dropping its case into Andy McCabe I was wondering what you make of the timing here seeing is I mean the grand jury failed to return in indictment under jesse elu months and months and months ago and now today when there's like a question about the uh... independence of the department of justice they're dropping this case into macaque i don't know if it seems a little weird exactly so let me say this so i'm not i don't know that it's known for sure
Starting point is 01:05:22 that the grand jury return declined to return indict a tight meet. There are some indicators out there that are consistent with that happening, but it's not, they're also are, it's also, it's also can sit, what happened is also consistent with the idea that they're still just sitting on it. But yeah, the timing is so telling because what they could have held this out, or it may be coinc, it may be coinc, but they could have helped us out over the cave right now but but i think what by
Starting point is 01:05:47 delivering this decision this week i think it was a reassurance from whoever whoever finalize this in dc that we've not yet become quite a total attack wing of donald trump because i'm something out there openly clamoring but it's one thing to use the object defensively to guard and protect your buddy that's really bad your stones your flins man report but to me it's ten times worse to use the object offensively to go after your perceived enemies and and
Starting point is 01:06:16 mccabe falls on that list of a trump perceived enemy yet by whoever whoever pushed for this to happen now uh... kudos to you first of all you shouldn't leave someone hanging out forever and i know andrew now mccabe now and i'm glad that he doesn't have to suffer with with the uncertainty anymore uh... and i think that the statement here is we've not gone down that road yet we're not yet carrying out uh...
Starting point is 01:06:41 metaphoric it's on don's enemies. Not yet. They are looking re-opening the Komi thing and... He wants bread in, yeah. Yeah, and that's why I wanted to ask you about the specific because I heard I think you had gone on CNN and said, you know, yeah, using it to get your friends and buddies off, you know, weaponizing the DOG in in that way but even worse is weaponizing it offensively and this that was what I think was going on with Andy McCabe and so I think a lot of people were were vocalizing a lot of former prosecutors writing letters and
Starting point is 01:07:15 things like that to you know and bill bar was very aware acutely aware that everyone was worried about the the DOJ being weaponized offensively like you said right and there's a big difference there i mean they're both really bad but uh... protecting people's one thing and and but going after people potentially imprisoning people at as a result of political uh... vendetta is is not the stuff of our democracy now and he's got a history of doing it too i mean all the way back to comey so well i don't have much question you would if you could and it's good that there are some checks and restraints in place. Yes, and I'm very, I mean like I said, I'm very happy for McCabe. I mean it's
Starting point is 01:07:53 on the one hand, it's very good news for him and his family who've really gone but just been suffering under this for years and you know, but at the same time I do have to question the timing of it. So Yeah, yeah, yeah, I agree. All right, well thank you so much, San Enlegal Analyst, former federal prosecutor, Ellie Honeig. Thanks again for coming on Mullershee Road. I really appreciate your time today. Yeah, thanks for having me, my pleasure.
Starting point is 01:08:14 Okay, everybody, thanks again to Ellie, what he's great to interview. He's so smart. I know. Truly, everyone that comes on her show is smart, but he's like extra smart. Yes, he's extra smart. So I'm very thankful that he made himself available
Starting point is 01:08:30 to come and speak to us about all that. And that is our show. Please, and thank you for listening. And subscribe if you haven't to Mola Shiro and the Daily Beans Pod, might as well get on that. We are very close to getting $20,000 on Twitter at Daily BeansPod, which means I got to fly with Jason somewhere and have dinner with somebody. We're going to pick one lucky winner. And this week we're going to start for patrons a video episode of
Starting point is 01:08:56 us answering your questions. So send your questions in. There's a post on Patreon where you can reply with your question. I will reshare that. And if you are not a patron and you want to become one, you can get the other, our sister podcast episode, episodes ad free and early, and then you get the video episodes and the questions and you get all the stuff, plus there's some free, cool gifts, so check it out at that's patreon.com slash
Starting point is 01:09:20 Mueller, she wrote any final thoughts? No, just take care of yourself this week everybody. Yeah, it's easier your final thought, but extra extra that. Yes, I have a question. Patreon.com slash the daily beans. Does that go the same place? Uh-huh. Oh, perfect. Yeah, because when I hosted, I said that and I was just like,
Starting point is 01:09:36 yeah, I think I'm not wrong. No, no, you're good. Patreon.com slash the daily beans and page out. dot com slash Mueller. She wrote are the same page. Great. Yeah. No, no.
Starting point is 01:09:44 Well, they're really welcome. Sweet. and She's very funny and if you're in San Diego you should come out and see her. Where we at, where we were. Comedy palace. Oh, palace. I've been there in a while. Yeah, it was fun. It was a Valentine's Day show. So there was just a lot of like good vibes. Mm-hmm. I drank a root beer and had some hummus.
Starting point is 01:10:16 Oh, hummus is good. Yeah, I like the food there. Their hummus is good. I like their chicken salad. They're dressing that they make in-house. It's very good. Yeah, they got great food. Comedy palace. You're like timing since I saw you a few months ago. It like their chicken salad. They're dressing that they make in house. It's really good. Yeah, they got grace. Comedy palace. You're like timing since I saw you a few months ago. It's gotten even better.
Starting point is 01:10:29 Thank you. You're welcome. I appreciate that. And that is the benefit of going up so often. Yes. Grind. Because there's nothing you can do to teach yourself that other than just put your feet on the stage. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Unless you need to sit, you know, but you need to sit. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:10:44 Totally. All right. Thank you. Yeah, totally. Thank you. Yeah. Love. Love. I hope everyone had a good Valentine's Day. Me too.
Starting point is 01:10:52 I got a mouse from my cat, so I'm all set. I had an amazing meal, although I couldn't, I want some new medication and I was really really like nauseous throughout the meal and my wife was like, do you want to leave? Are you enjoying it? And I was like, no, I'm having the best time. I was trying so hard to stay with it, but I enjoyed it. Can you take Pepto Bismol with it? Ah, probably maybe. Yeah, you can try it. You can try it. Pepto with anything. Yeah, I enjoyed the next day. Sofran, I think, is the prescription in a nauseous stuff. Yeah, that's what it is. Maybe you can ask your doctor about that.
Starting point is 01:11:22 There's a sweet little old Italian man who came around to every table and was like, hello, I'm the manager of the restaurant. Here's my card for special events. He was like shaking everyone's hand. It was adorable. Brilliant, fairie, smart business man. Love little family restaurants. I know it was Italian.
Starting point is 01:11:35 Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah, so cute. Oh, I love it. I love all the cards. So many cards. So many kawr. So many klinglini. Oh, that is what I had in my brain. Yeah, Joelle had lobster ravioli. Oh, see the other. I know. So many cling-leony. Oh, that is what I had in my brain.
Starting point is 01:11:45 Yeah. To all had lobster, Ravioli. Oh, see other thing I had. Oh, God dammit. So good. I'm going all of a sudden. I'm going all of a sudden. I was dreaming.
Starting point is 01:11:56 Oh, because that, okay. All right, you're fired. Um, but he has Pataliano. It's mostly just about bread and they give it to me in bulk. They do. It is bulk bread and it's not bad. Especially if you dip it in that Alfredo sauce. Oh, I've never been to Olive Garden. Yeah, never.
Starting point is 01:12:14 It's gonna be alright. It's gonna be alright. I would love that only so you can do it. But have, go for lunch and have soup salad and breadsticks. Yes, exactly. We'll get all the little dip in salad. Go crazy on bread. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:12:25 Get crazy what the cheese was. But then for like actual cheese. They don't have cheese. I'd love to knock out there. I've also never been to video times. Mm-hmm. There's some American experiences I haven't had yet. I've never been to medieval times.
Starting point is 01:12:35 You're okay. Really? Oh. Wait, does that the one in Vegas? No, the place where they do the jousting. Yes, they have it in Vegas, but they also have it, you know, in like a Irvine Spectrum Center area. Not missing anything.
Starting point is 01:12:47 I growing up, I grew up in Las Vegas and one of my good friends, Dad's, was like the creator and producer of that show. So we got to go and it's quite the experience. I don't know if it's like this, how many of you times would they give you an entire chicken? Like, and you just like, you know, it's over where no color is. No, no, no, no. And you just like eat it all, even throw the bones. Yeah, you throw the bones like on the dirt pit.
Starting point is 01:13:10 That's in front of you and it's like, yeah, and it's a very like, barbaric display. Yeah, I don't eat chicken anymore. Maybe they've updated with the times and they have like a vegan tofu, like a vegan tofu, like a non tofu-truffy leg. With some oat milk for you.
Starting point is 01:13:30 Yeah, let's come up with shishii medieval times. See how that goes over. I'll take some lacrosse and definitely need soy milk. And sushi, do you have sushi here at Medieval Times? Yes, no chopsticks though, we got it with your fingers. Is this ration gluten free? I'd be like, wait a second, there were chopsticks during Medieval Times, they came way before that shit.
Starting point is 01:13:55 And they'd be like, you're right, it's just two pieces of wood and I would win. You would. I would have sushi with chopsticks at Medieval Times. Okay, that is our show. Everything is interesting, ending, but we do love you. Thank you so much. Please take care of yourselves and take care of each other.
Starting point is 01:14:09 I've been AG. I'm in Jordan Coburn. Amanda Reader. You're almost... I do know my own name. I do know my own name. And this is Mollershi Road. Mollershi Road is executive produced and directed by A.G. and Jordan Coburn with engineering and
Starting point is 01:14:30 editing by Mackenzie Mazell and Starburn's industries. Our marketing manager, production and social media direction is by Amanda Reader, fact-checking your research by A.G., Jordan Coburn and Amanda Reader, and our knowledgeable listeners. Our web design and branding are by Joao Reader with Moxie Design Studios and our website is molochrope.com. Season 4 of How We Win is Here. For the past four years we've been making history in critical elections all over the country. And last year, we made history again by expanding our majority in the Senate, eating election denying Republicans and crucial state house races,
Starting point is 01:15:13 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
Starting point is 01:15:47 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 and Kona. 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 and Kcona, and this is how we win.

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