Judging Freedom - Dr. Gilbert Doctorow : The Totalitarian EU.

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Dr. Gilbert Doctorow : The Totalitarian EU.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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And with Ollie's in-app on-demand health screenings, tap real experts whenever you need peace of mind. Visit ollie.com slash crossover and use code crossover for 60% off your first box. Thank you. Hello, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for judging freedom. Today is, what day is today? Today is Wednesday, December 24th, 2025, Christmas Eve in America and around the world. A professor Gilbert Doctro joins us now. Dr. Docterot, always a pleasure. My dear friend, thank you for accommodating my schedule. These are decidedly not Christmas stories that. we're going to discuss. There's no joy or cheerfulness in them, but we must analyze them. And I want to start with the Colonel Jacques Boe affair. Colonel Bo is retired Swiss military and intelligence who was sanctioned by the EU without any due process whatsoever. The sanction, as I understand it, you know this better than I and can weigh in in just a moment.

consists of restrictions on his travel and the freezing of his assets. Please give us your thoughts on this dreadful state of affairs. Well, it's very cruel, but frankly speaking, it's not unprecedented. And as I've written a day ago, the imposition of sanction on boat, which excludes, as you say, the use of his, of his, assets, his bank accounts, and frankly, his ability to handle any finance while he's resident in Belgium, as he is,

that is where he resides, although he's a Swiss national, which means that he's penniless. Now, this sounds horrible, but it's not unprecedented. Now, let's go back three and a half years to when this happened to other people, and we, at least I, and I think a lot of people I know, never thought twice about it.

What I'm speaking about is the confiscation of the assets of Russian oligarchs or Russian wealthy people in the West. The most prominent cases were in the UK, which was typically most vicious in imposing sanctions. And one name comes up in particular, Mr. Peter Avin, who was the co-founder and co-owner of Alpha Bank, one of the largest commercial and retail banks in Russia founded in the 1990s. Avon was no sweetie pie. He was a very unpleasant character. That's wholly irrelevant to what happened to him. Because he was the head of a bank, which has an important role in Russian society,

and therefore is one of the foundations of Mr. Putin's regime, and possibly was a friend of Mr. Putin, whatever that means. Really, it means nothing. He was sanctioned in the same way as voters. And we all read about it in Financial Times and other mainstream, that here he was, Mr. Avin, sitting in his 100 million, 200 million pound sterling, a townhouse in London. And he couldn't pay his buffer because all of his accounts were frozen. And so I don't think he went out to the street with a begging cup, but he was in very considerable difficulty, the same as bowage.

You can have your accounts abroad, but you can't take money out. You can't access that money while you're in the UK. Can you can Colonel Bo or these oligarchs in London even use a credit card? Can they use an American Express card? No, because they all go through a clearing in the country of where you're resident. And that net clearing will have instructions to freeze any more, any action. So effectively, you cannot take money in from outside. The point is that when you, that the rule of law either works for everyone or works for no one.

And if we do not take action and understand the seriousness, a violation of property rights, a violation of freedom or expression, and of extrajudicial punishment for crimes that are not crimes by law, but simply are opposition to current government policies, which is not illegal. If we don't do it everywhere it happens, then we can't do it anywhere. I fully agree with you. Some of us did condemn the seizure of the property of the Russian oligarchs. And you're right.

Some of these people had their property seized because they were, I'm going to do air quotes, friends of Vladimir Putin, whatever that means, and however that could possibly be a basis. But none of these people had due process rights. I would imagine those assets are still controlled by the governments that seized them or even disposed of. I'm not sure if it was you because you've been kind enough to

send me so many reading material lately. Maybe it was someone else. I think it was you. You talked about Prime Minister Starrmer on the floor of the House of Commons, threatening the owner of one of the more prominent British, what the Europeans call football, what we in America call soccer teams, basically saying we're going to take this money and give it to Ukraine? Yes.

Do you have that right? Did he actually make a threat like that on the floor of the House of Commons? And is there nothing comparable to the Fifth Amendment, right, to due process of law? in all a British law? This did, the threat was made, and I believe the threat was acted upon.

There's nothing to stop from executing that threat. And it had to do with the sale of this football club, the proceeds of sale were, of course, frozen in Britain. So I think the money has been transferred. This was his demonstration to the EU. You see, we can do it. They can take Russian assets and ship them to Kiev. That was demonstrative, and I'm fairly confident it's happened.

The point is that there has been a whole trail of defiance of international law and trampling on, not just trampling on human rights, but disregard, total disregard for property rights in countries that present themselves as the bastions of private property, as Britain has always done. And let's take it back to where I see it started. Well, being a historian, I know you can always pull the string and go farther back. But let's take it back to the most recent case that set a precedent for us, everything that's happened. And that was a U.S. case.

That was the poison chalice that Obama gave to Donald Trump in December 2016 after the elections when they seized, illegally seized, consular and embassy properties of the law. Russian Federation in the United States. They moved very quickly. They even barred the entry of the Russian personnel to what was their property, their residence, their summer faked their summer dachas in Long Island, and more serious properties. They were consular. They were seized. And let's take it back two ways. I say for every sadist, there's a masochist. The United States was the safest, and the Russians were the masochists. They did not react.

Mr. Putin did absolutely nothing. And that is a start of a trail that leads us through his turning the other cheek in during the course of the special military apparition. And I'd like to look at the other side of the equation. What happens if you don't turn the other cheek, and you actually stand up and stop the violator, the aggressor in his tracks? We had an example of that on the 19th of December when Mr. Bart de Weber stood up and said Nett to the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, and the Chancellor of Germany, Mr. Metz, who are by definition far more powerful people than the little prime minister of little Belgium. Well, he stopped the whole thing in his tracks.

So we all have an obligation to look closely when violations take place, to see the importance. for everybody, including ourselves, if human rights are trampled or if property rights are trampled. I understand that some Americans have been sanctioned as well. I never heard of this fellow, John Mark Dugan, D-O-U-G-A-N, a U.S. citizen who is a former deputy sheriff in Florida and fled to Moscow in 2016, is also among those who has been sanctioned. But let's go back, let's go back to Colonel Bo. Look, they stole money from the oligarchs because they have a lot of money and they wanted the money. Why are they freezing Colonel Bo? A, is he a man of substantial means, notwithstanding his career in intelligence and military?

Or, B, are they trying to stifle his speech or C, something else? I believe it's a type of his speech to make an example of him, to put the fear into all of us. I think his problem is that he was too professional and trying too hard to be neutral and above any charges of being pro-Russian. He tried too damn hard. And the fact that he comes from the Swiss intelligence and served in high position. in the United Nations was probably the most damning thing in his in his dossier because it is one of theirs that is this is from top government side who are defecting so to speak and taking positions which can be called critical of of the the government's policies and lines of propaganda he is more dangerous to them than you or I are insofar as we haven't had high government positions and do not look like defectors from the ruling class. Is he free to leave the EU, or is he effectively under house arrest?

No, he's not under house arrest, and I believe that he can leave the EU. The problem is he couldn't come back. And since he has his residence, I don't know how long. I don't think it was last week that he established residence in Brussels. It must be years ago. he would be leaving everything behind. So I don't think he finds that prospect very, very pleasant either. To go back to Switzerland where presumably he does not have a place to live at once,

but he has his money and his pension and so forth, or to stay here and be penniless and stay in the circumstances that he knows well. That's his choice. But the situation is really quite dying. Wow. And there's no mechanism for relief. There's no federal court to which you can go. I mean, if this happened here, one would immediately file a temporary restraining order in a federal court,

which would immediately be signed and the government would be forced to come into court immediately in attempt to justify its theft of property. and is there such a mechanism available to him? There isn't, and this brings up a very big issue, which has to be flagged. That is, the whole structure of the EU institutions. They were written by intellectuals, by very well-educated people,

by people, humanitarian, you can call them, people like Jacques DeLore, socialist-minded, no question about it, they're all leftists, but a lot leftists in the sense that Mr. Trump denounces them. No, no, they're simply well. educated and worldly people. They were, if you want to be most negative, you could say they were caviar socialists.

That they, they created the institutions that we know now as the EU, this particular from 192 on, in believing that people like themselves would succeed to the post of power and would equally be well-disposed to humanity, would be libertarians, would welcome the freedom of speech and other liberties that are so important to enlightened people. Well, I were wrong. The level of people who have taken these positions of power in the EU institutions is very low. and their respect for liberty is zero, that it wouldn't know democracy if they tripped on. Because they were so optimistic about human nature,

the founders of EU institutions did not look at the principles that the founders of the United States Constitution looked at. They lived in the 18th century, the age of lights, but to be a period, when men who knew politics, politics and new government, understood that man is not nice, and that men can be quite evil and can be selfish. And the objective of a constitution is to provide safety against abuse of power by checks and balances. There are no checks and balances in the EU institutions, none. And that is the real problem.

The whole purpose in America of an independent judiciary is to be, anti-democratic to preserve the rights of the individual from the tyranny of the majority exercised through the popular branches, whether it's the president or the Congress. And theoretically, it doesn't always work. I've been a harsh critic of how the Constitution has been watered down. Theoretically, it should work. One should be able to go into a federal court and get this and joined. Okay, one more question about this, and then I have to ask you about the Belgian

Prime Minister. Some of your colleagues on this show have advised that Americans should be reluctant. Americans who speak out as you and I and Scott Ritter, Larry Johnson, Douglas

McGregor, John Mearsheimer, Jeff Sachs, as people like us speak out on this, who speak out on this show, should be hesitant to travel to Europe. Do you share that hesitancy? Do you issue that warning as well? You're an American living in Belgium, and you are internationally known for expressing your opinions,

whether they please the authorities or not. Well, my most recent expressions must have pleased the Prime Minister of Belgium, since I've called him a hearing. Yes, yes, but he is worthy a phrase. We'll get to him in a moment. Look, I don't agree with Scott. estimation or the others. I just will say that I think the last people to be touched will be Americans because the Europeans now are desperate to keep Donald Trump on board. They even,

yes, a day ago, the Secretary General of NATO was saying how the American nuclear umbrella is of critical importance to the defense of Europe and we have to be able to count on it, do count on it. Well, all they have to do is start touching Americans and could buy a nuclear umbrella. They're not stupid. They're not going to be, well, maybe they are stupid, but they would take an act of rank stupid for them to antagonize J.D. Vance, antagonize Donald Trump by taking action against individual Americans for exercise and free speech. That would be total idiocy. All right. Because of the courage of the Prime Minister of Belgium and others, like Victor Orban, and I'll show you a wonderful clip from him in a minute, the dastardly efforts by von der Leyen, Mertz, Starrmer, and Macron to steal the Russian assets were stopped. This is a great line from Victor Orban. You'll get a kick out of this, Dr. Doctor, I want you to see it, and then I'm going to ask you a few more questions. Chris, cut number six. Guaranties for what? The whole idea is a stupid one. To take away the money of somebody. There are two countries which are in war, yeah? It's not European Union, Russia and Ukraine. And somebody, European Union, would like to take away the money of one of the warries party. And then to give it.

to another one. It's a marching into the war. So the Belgian prime minister is right. We should not do that. He's terrific. Now, the Belgian prime minister, along with his allies, one of whom was Victor Orban, prevented this from happening. Thanks be to God. In return, however, the EU has promised a hundred billion euros to Zelensky. Question, Dr. Dr. Dr. From what source are they going to get 100 billion euros? They will get, they will seek loans from commercial banks against the creditworthiness of the EU's budget, and they will get those loans. Mr. Deva, in his speech to Parliament on Friday morning, the 19th, before he went into... You're speaking of the Prime Minister of Belgium.

Yes. before he went to that European Council meeting in which he had a showdown with Fonte Ryan and Merritts, he spoke to the parliament, the whole Belgian parliament. That was put on YouTube.

Of course, it's difficult for a wide audience to appreciate it because he mostly spoken in Dutch and Flemish, and I don't see yet any English translation of that. But he used that opportunity to demonstrate that the whole

Belgian Parliament back to him. Now, when we say that he was brave, he was also extremely hardworking. I can assure you, it took enormous efforts to align both the right and the left, as well as the center, to support Mr. DeVavor in challenging the EU Commission. This was an extreme act of political delicacy that was handled very, very well. In Europe, I don't know how it is in Congress, whether anybody

the Senate goes across to the other side to shake hands occasionally, even to wish a happy New Year. But in Europe, from my long experience, the right and the left do not touch one of them. They don't shake hands.

When one gets up to speak, the other one walks out the door. For Mr. DeVeyer to have overcome this sharp resistance between political parties to agree on elemental issues of human liberty was a great act that took a lot of work. So it wasn't just his courage, but hard work preparing the way for this. And besides Orban, the real weight on his favor was Maloney. She, after all, Italy is the third largest economy in Europe. and she backed him all the way. Oh, good.

She backed him. Macron backed her. So that was it. Did Macron change his mind at the end? Yes. McCrone did not back Mertz. He walked out on Mertz. And that was dramatic.

Merz thought he had Macron in his pocket. He didn't. So the game was lost. It all started with one brave man, and who worked hard. And that's my point to speaking about both. Okay. Last question, and this is coming, may come out of left field to you.

The United States, even though it's Christmas Eve, is utterly embroiled in this Epstein scandal and what Donald Trump's involvement with this monster was or was not. Has this resonated at all in Europe? Oh, yes, of course. Look, Trump isn't the flavor of the day in Europe. And of course, they look for anything. That is the mainstream.

The newspapers of record. They will pick up anything, any dirt on Trump to make their point that he's an unworthy president and so forth. In Russia, this is, of course, a source of amusement. I can tell you with the Vladimir Salvio show last night, all two and a half powers of it is devoted to national. And yes, of course, what's going on in Venezuela and the golden ships and the golden dome and all the other nonsense. Well, you talk about stealing. Yeah. Well, I'll play this. I'll play this for you in just a minute. Watch this. Chris, cut number nine. What are we going to do with the oil that we have? Going to do with what? The oil.

that has been seized. The United States seized 1.9 million barrels of oil on December 10th. We're going to keep it. Are we going to sell it or put in the strategic oil? Maybe we'll sell it. Maybe we'll keep it. Maybe we'll use it in the strategic reserves. We're keeping

it. We're keeping the ships also. Same thing. Maybe even worse because this is an act of war. And in the case of the last ship, according to Pepe Escobar, our mutual friend, the oil was bought and paid for by China.

I think Trump's people are playing with fire. Playing with fire in more than one way. Look, there are a lot of things that go on that are not talked about. Because if they were talked about in the press, we'd have a war going right now. But I think now of what Russians are doing to support Venezuela and to support Iran. Now, I was reading the last several days that Iran has shot down two F-35s, two F-35s.

How could they do that? Well, I also heard a day ago that the S-500 detects F-35s. Could it be if the Russians have actually shipped S-500s to Iran? I wouldn't put it past them. Well, whose F-35s were shot down that we don't know about that? Israeli. These are planes manned by Israeli pilots? Yeah, that's what the report indicated, yes.

Wow. All right, Dr. Dr. Rowe, I have to tell you, you have an adorable little Christmas tree over your shoulder. The trees have gotten smaller and smaller as the prices have gone higher and higher. Well, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to you. I think you may know that last weekend, judging freedom, crossed the 100 million view mark for 2025. Thanks in no small measure to you,

to your regular, consistent, high-end conversations that we have. I'm deeply grateful for them. I'm grateful for our personal friendship that we've never met in person yet, as well as our professional collaboration. I thank you for it. We'll be off for 10 days, but we'll look forward to seeing you again,

any unusual time and place, the first full week in January. Well, thank you, and your success is well-ended. Thank you. Merry Christmas to you. And coming up later today at 9 o'clock this morning, it's our half day, it's our last day live for the year, but not our last day for the year.

Phil Giraldi at 9 at 10 o'clock, Professor John Mearsheimer at 11 o'clock, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson. Tomorrow Christmas day, at 10 o'clock in the morning, You can OD on Max Blumenthal. My producer, Chris, not my dog, Chris. It was just barking. My producer, Chris, has put together a max-a-thon,

eight hours of the best of Max Blumenthal, 10 a.m. Christmas Day here on Judging Freedom. We'll see you for our later shows earlier today. Phil Giraldi coming up at 9 o'clock. Judge Napolitano for Judging Freedom. Thank you.