Judging Freedom - Aaron Maté : When Law Dies, Freedom Follows - MURDER in Minneapolis

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Aaron Maté : When Law Dies, Freedom Follows - MURDER in MinneapolisSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Undeclared wars are commonplace. Pragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression with no complaints from the American people. Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected. What if sometimes to love your country you had to alter or abolish the government? What if Jefferson was right? What if that government is best, which governs least? What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?

What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave? What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now? Hi, everyone, Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, January 8th, 2026. Aaron Mate joins us now telling you, before we started, I'm down in the dumps over what's been happening. And before we get to Freedom's Hour of Danger in Minneapolis, let's address the murders in Caracas, but what lawful authority did Trump kill 80 people, about half of whom, according to the Cuban government, were in their sleep in order to kidnap, decapitate the head

of the government of Venezuela? Well, the argument they make is that this was a law enforcement action because there's an indictment of Nicholas Maduro in a New York court. I mean, no one takes that seriously. This was an act of war. They took out Venezuelan air defenses. As you said, dozens of people killed, including Cuban operatives who were defending Maduro. But they didn't just bomb military targets. There also was a academic and scientific center that was bombed, as well as a facility that was storing some medical supplies that was just totally wiped out in this as part of the U.S. attack. And this was an act of war as part of a longer, broader war that's been going on in

Venezuela for more than two decades. Recall that this didn't start with the rate of Maduro under the Bush administration, but the George W. Bush administration, the U.S. backed a coup against Maduro's predecessor, Hugo Chavez. He was briefly overthrown. He was restored after a popular revolt and loyalist members of the military installed him. But that set off what's been happening ever since. Sanctions that made life really difficult in Venezuela, decimated its economy, caused millions of migrants, the same migrants that Trump now demonizes in his presidential campaigns, and has led us to where we are today and snatching the president, kidnapping him, flying him to New York, putting him through these ridiculous charges. I know you and Max Lenthal

went through the indictment the other day. It's absolutely ridiculous. The fact that they felt the need to indict the president of Venezuela for quote possession of machine guns even if you knew nothing even if you knew nothing else about this case it just shows how specious it is and how baseless it is

and unfortunately it's just beginning and it's only stands to get worse is not only hand over its resources especially its oil to U.S. control the interior minister said last night I didn't know this

Chris just told me that a hundred people died in the U.S. attack. So the number keeps going up. Why would they attack a scientific and academic institute, and why would they attack a medical facility? Did they want to make it impossible for people injured in the attack to be attended to medically, at 2 o'clock in the morning? I don't get it. I mean, apparently this medical facility that was attacked,

it stores supplies who are undergoing kidney operations. So about 9,000 kidney patients were reportedly impacted by this. Why commit an active terror like this? Just to send a message that we can do whatever we want. It's, you know, Donald Trump calls us the Don Roe doctrine. It's named after, you know, his first name. But really, it should be, it should be named after a mafia. on because this is mafia behavior, just using violence and the threat of violence to intimidate

people to give up their resources. And that's what Trump is trying to do here in Venezuela. It's just pure mafia tactics. I guess that's what the mastermind of all of this, Marco Rubio, is going to be doing in Denmark using mafia tactics to ask the government to surrender its sovereignty to the United States or what? We'll start building military bases and they'll show up everywhere and there'll be troops in the street. Oh, and by the way, with a trillion and a half dollar defense budget, which is what he indicated he's going to propose for next year, he'll have plenty of cash with

which to do that. Just as Trump lets health care subsidies expire for millions of people, he comes out and as you said, announces that he wants to boost the Pentagon budget to 1.5, trillion dollars the pentagon which can't even pass an audit it's failed multiple audits and which spends more on the military than so many other countries combined uh and from trump's uh voting based perspective this is not what he campaigned on when he was running for office he would criticize the neocons he would criticize little marco uh he would criticize the bush dynasty He would talk about the military industrial complex, how he wanted to reduce military spending. He would talk, of course, about ending regime change wars.

Just a few months ago, Tulsi Gabbard, his director of national intelligence, gave the speech saying that Trump will not be undertaking regime change and quote-unquote nation-building, although it's really nation-destroying anymore, completely walking away from all of that. And it's unfortunate because, you know, he capitalized on very real. distrust of government regime change operations and people being fed up with meddling in other countries and wanting to focus on problems at home. Rather than following through on that, he's carrying out the policies of the people he supposedly criticized back on the campaign trail. Here he is in November 2019. So he's still in the White House in his first term at this point. Chris, cut number two. We are finally putting America first. Our policy of never-ending war, regime change, and nation-building is being replaced by the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests.

I suppose you could argue, I'm being snarky here, stealing oil is in the clear-eyed pursuit of American interests of his billionaire buddies like Paul Singer. Oh, yes, literally. Anya Parnpil has written about this. Paul Singer, the billionaire backer of people like Marco Rubio, stands to make a lot of money out of all this because his company's put in a bid for Citgo, which is the U.S. subsidiary of Venezuela's oil company, which the U.S. stole as part of its coup attempt

against the Venezuelan government in Trump's first term. And so Paul Singer is set to acquire Citgo, basically, at a bargain price because of, of all the complicated legal maneuverings that happened to Stacey's Steele Sitko. It's Venezuela's most lucrative, most valuable foreign asset, literally stolen from Venezuela,

along with Venezuela's bank reserves, which were held in British banks, complete theft. All this is lost in all the discussion of all this. It's just, it's absolute piracy. And the one thing Trump can say that we can credit Trump for in this

is that at least he's honest. People around him are still talking about, you know, bringing democracy to Venezuela, drug trafficking, which even Trump is, I think, kind of drop. Now he mainly talks about the oil. We're going to take the oil, and that's what this is about. But just as in the previous regime change operations for oil that he claimed to criticize in the past, like in Iraq, this one is just as illegal and will be just as disastrous. Now, I don't think he wants to send troops into Venezuela, but what he will continue to do is as he keeps talking about is use U.S. leverage, which means putting it under siege and literally

stealing oil tankers that try to break the embargo as he's done. And he's even done to tankers flying the Russian flag, which stands to risk the threat of war. So all this on top of being flagrantly illegal, flagrantly immoral, and standing to increase the suffering of the people of Venezuela, because if Venezuela can't sell its oil, then it has no revenue to feed people And it's very dangerous. It's also going to increase the threat of geopolitical confrontation. Where are J.D. Vance and Tulsi Gabbard? J.D. Vance has been defending this saying that this is in the national interest and Trump was following through.

And Tulsi Gabbard put out a statement, you know, praising the operation saying that Trump was following through on his commitment to fight narco-trafficking. It's really sad to see Tulsi being involved in this. I mean, she was very, one of the few people willing to clearly challenge Trump's regime change attempt in his first term, whereas Democrats, some of them cheered it. You were like, recall that, for example, Juan Guaido, who Trump tried to install an office in his first term, he got a standing ovation in Congress, including from Nancy Pelosi. And Democrats were incredibly timid and basically supported Trump's policy. Tulsi Gabbard didn't. And she actually, while running for the presidency and the Democratic primary, she was very forceful in opposing this. But now she's going along with it.

And it's sad to see as someone who previously admired the stances that she took. And for anyone in the administration to claim that this is a part of a fight against narco trafficking, again, you read the indictment, and it's just not there. They even had to drop their claim that Maduro was heading this fictional cartel called Cartel de la Solis. And I know Max has talked to you a lot about this. Max's analysis of the indictment was the product of an educated, sophisticated legal mind. To the extent that cartel exists, as Max has tirelessly pointed out, they were working with the CIA 30 years ago. Yeah. They haven't existed since.

And meanwhile, of course, the contrast between bringing this, you know, baseless case while pardoning the ex-president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez. who was convicted in the same court of narco-trafficking, caught on tape, bragging about sending drugs, caught accepting a bribe. It's just an absolute joke. Let's go to Minneapolis. Of course, I raised a lot of feathers, or whatever the phrase is, ruffled a lot of feathers around here when I called for the criminal prosecution of the cop that committed manslaughter against the driver of this car. You can see in the pictures clearly that her wheels were turning away from him, and he had a very easy, very visible means of escape.

Now, Chris has slowed this down. This is slow motion, obviously. You can see a police officer approaching her car, telling her to roll down the window. We don't know exactly what else he said to her. The killer is not visible. You will soon see him visible. So she backs up while he foolishly hangs onto the car. The cop that kills her is in front of the car. She proceeds forward but turns her wheels hard right. You can see him there. He's not even in the path of the car when he kills her. to my eye it strikes me as a pretty unjustified use of force he's not under threat as you said she's trying to pull away and this will play out what i find distressing is that trump has already taken

to social media to basically declare the victim to be some extremist leftist who was attacking the officer and basically he's already exonerating the officer before even an investigation can play out. J.D. Vance has done the same. And that strikes me as as very dangerous. And it speaks to the impunity that these ICE officers have been given to go in and just terrorize people. My question is, I mean, why do we even need these ICE operations in the first place? These masked agents going around snatching people. You know, look, every country has its own immigration laws. Countries have the right to enforce them. But is this the way to do it? I think a deadly incident like this will continue to raise questions about why these operations are taking place to begin with and under what lawful authority.

And is this really the best way to enforce one's immigration laws? I know where this is going to lead to next. The president has used his typical hyperbole about her calling her a violent person condemning. her. Her husband is dead. She is the mother of three children. Now, those children have no parent. I don't know the age of the children. There was absolutely no basis under the law for her to be murdered like that. Now, Keith Ellison, who's the Attorney General of Minnesota, is a political guy and a tough guy. I don't know if he has the courage to indict this ICE agent under state law.

I think he should. It can raise whatever qualified immunity they want in the defense. But a jury seeing that tape will probably conclude under Minnesota law, he had a safe escape route, which was to take one step to his right. Judge, I didn't realize that she had three children. I thought you only had one child who lost his father and is now in an orphan. So that's news to me that she had three. So that just compounds the tragedy.

I know that she had just recently dropped off one of her children before she was murdered. And the fact that Trump, J.D. Vance, their supporters, can so easily just attack her now in death, it speaks to something really ugly going on in this society. And Trump's personality, the chauvinistic, arrogant. you know, uh, side of him is really, I really just,

just interacting on social media, I, with some of the supporters, I really see it taking hold as if this, this, this arrogance that he embodies is really, it has, it has a crowd,

like people are into it. It gives them some sort of, uh, meaning and, and they feel as if they're a part of something. And it's very, very, it's very ugly.

And, um, you know, the issue of immigration is very sensitive. And it's not something that I, I delve much into, but there just has to be a better way than sending masked armed agents to go and get to people. Why do they dress like ISIS? Yeah. Here's John Miller. My John is a colleague for many years on air, but he also was the number two person in the LAPD

for a number of years under Bill Broughton and worked in conjunction with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. He's on one of the networks. I don't remember which one, explaining DHS policy about shooting into a vehicle. Chris number three. If you're confronted by a moving vehicle that could be a threat to you, get out of the way of the vehicle and don't shoot at a car. Now, this is DHS policy. I'm reading to you from DHS policy. DHS law enforcement officers are prohibited from discharging firearms at the operator of a moving vehicle or other conveyance.

A law enforcement officer must take into consideration the hazards that may be posed to law enforcement and innocent bystanders by an out-of-control vehicle, which we just saw the result of that. The point is, unless the person is literally either using the vehicle to ram other people in a terrorist attack or has a car bomb or is chasing you with the vehicle in particular, getting out of the way and reducing the tactical exigency where you're not creating a situation where you're forced to fire the. shots is what most law enforcement agencies have adopted that that's the type of a testimony that if there if there is a criminal prosecution that a jury will hear uh even if there's a civil case for wrongful death uh that's the type of testimony uh that a jury uh will hear but to trump and gnome this is so repellent you know the last time i saw her max call it prison porn where she was dressed like uh provocative in a provocative way in front of half naked prisoners in el salvador but to be fair we'll play what she had to say this is and look like this is a member

of the president's cabinet but here is the head of uh homeland uh security, misstating the law, Chris, number nine. You know, people need to stop using their vehicles as weapons. This domestic act of terrorism to use your vehicle to try to kill law enforcement officers is going to stop. And I'm asking the Department of Justice to prosecute it as domestic terrorism because it's clear that it's being coordinated. People are being trained and told how to use their vehicles to impede law enforcement

operations and then to run over anybody who gets in their way while they go out there and try to disrupt peace and public safety and Americans deserve better. Well, I don't know who's talking about prosecuting. The lady's dead. The federal definition of domestic terrorism requires two separate acts of violence in order to characterize it as terrorism, which enhances the punishment. The defendant's behavior is the same, whether it's terrorism or ordinary assault. But this stuff's turning my stomach as to what the government is becoming.

Yeah. The notion that she was trying to run over the officer when just before you see her, you know, waving through other vehicles, like clearly she just wants to get out of there, but not in, not even so badly that she won't wait for other people to pass her first. I mean, and then you look at the direction in which her wheels returned. She clearly was trying to get out of the way. She's not trying to run over this officer. So the fact that Christy Noam and Trump and J.D. Vance can claim otherwise with such confidence, it's just, it's very ugly and it's very distressing, and it's going to galvanize even more protest and more division. And I guess there's something to be said here about, you know, when you export so much violence abroad, when we've all seen the genocide in Gaza unfolding for more than two years, among, you know, many acts of violence and aggression in this nation's history, it's going to be reflected at home, and that's what we're seeing, sadly, on display in Minneapolis. us. The murdered woman has three children, age six, age 12, age 15. What a monumental tragedy that the government is trying to defend. Aaron, we don't usually talk about domestic issues, but this has been tormenting me, and I know, because I read what you write and watch what you and Max say. I know it's been tormenting you guys as well. I appreciate very much your willingness to discuss it. I would say Happy New Year only because it's the first time we've

seen each other in the new year. There's nothing happy about any of this. No. But life goes on. Thank you, my dear friend. Thank you, Judge. Good to see you. Okay. And coming up later today, at 1 o'clock this afternoon from Brazil, the great Glenn Greenwald, at 2 o'clock, I don't where he is, the great Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. At four o'clock from Chicago, the great, pardon me, Professor John Mearsheimer, Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. You know, no.