Tangle - Jack Smith's new filing on Donald Trump.
Episode Date: October 8, 2024On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed special counsel Jack Smith’s latest filing in United States v. Donald Trump, concerning alleged criminal actions committed by ...the former president following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election. In the filing, Smith argues that Trump "resorted to crimes" to remain in power and was acting outside the scope of his official duties as president when he pressured state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his 2020 election loss.Ad-free podcasts are here!For the last few years, we've been publishing a daily podcast similar to our newsletter and bonus content exclusively for our podcast channel. Many listeners (who also read this newsletter) have been asking for an ad-free version that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it today. You can go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up and get 17% off during our launch week special!You can read today's podcast here, our “Under the Radar” story here and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.Check out our latest YouTube video on misinformation about North Carolina here.Check out Episode 6 of our podcast series, The Undecideds. You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Help share Tangle.I'm a firm believer that our politics would be a little bit better if everyone were reading balanced news that allows room for debate, disagreement, and multiple perspectives. If you can take 15 seconds to share Tangle with a few friends I'd really appreciate it. Email Tangle to a friend here, share Tangle on X/Twitter here, or share Tangle on Facebook here.Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year.
Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy
Award winner Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite
for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the
pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year,
garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike.
See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th.
Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home,
everybody has housing costs on their minds.
For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances,
visit Canada.ca slash it pays to know.
A message from the Government of Canada.
Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book, Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu,
a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown.
When he inadvertently becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web,
his family's buried history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight.
Interior Chinatown is streaming November 19th, only on Disney+.
From executive producer Isaac Saul, this is Tangle.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast,
the place we get views from across the political spectrum,
some independent thinking, and a little bit of my take. I'm your host, Isaac Saul. And on today's episode, we are talking about the latest Jack Smith filing. That's right. We are still living in 2020, 2021
and dealing with the aftermath of that election. But this is a pretty important story
for a number of reasons, maybe some you might not expect. So we're going to break down exactly what happened.
And as always, share some views from the left and the right.
And then my take.
Before we jump into a couple of quick notes.
First of all, for those of you who are frequent podcast listeners, I want to remind you that
this week you can subscribe to our new premium podcast offering.
That is our podcast that will be
without advertisements. And this will also unlock Friday edition podcasts as well as Sunday edition
podcasts. That's the one with me and Ari chopping it up about all the news we missed and playing
games every week. So going forward, we're going to start publishing some of these premium podcasts
that are behind a paywall and also are trying to give you guys an opportunity to get those ad-free
podcasts so many people have asked for. If you are not yet a subscriber, you can go to
tanglemedia.supercast.com. And this week only, this ends on Thursday, we're offering a discount
on those subscriptions. So you'll see
that, you know, you could subscribe for $5 a month instead of $6 a month, or you could subscribe with
a heavy discount for the year. And if you are already a newsletter subscriber, i.e. you're in
the door as a Tangle subscriber now, and you want to add the podcast subscription, you can do that at a heavy discount by checking your
email for a note from me that includes a discount code so people can effectively bundle their
podcast and newsletter subscriptions. Finally, on that note, I do want to give you a heads up
that we published a reader essay on Sunday in our Members Only Sunday newsletter. This was a really interesting piece from an
evangelical reader who made a potentially explosive comparison in a very measured and
even-handed way in which he compared evangelical Christianity and some of its views to the same
incentives that are radicalizing some Muslims in the Middle East. It was a really, really interesting piece
written in a very personal and firsthand perspective way.
And I found it thought-provoking
and of course, a little bit provocative.
You can find that piece by going to our website,
readtangle.com.
And of course, you'll have to subscribe
to read the whole thing,
but you should check out the free preview
and see if you enjoy it.
All right, with that out of the way, I'm going to pass it to John for the main pod, and I'll be back for my take. Thanks, Isaac, and welcome, everybody. Here are your quick hits
for today. First up, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state's six-week abortion ban,
overruling a decision from a trial court judge last week that found the law to be unconstitutional.
Number two, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to the Biden administration's 2022
regulation on untraceable firearms or ghost guns. Number three, New York City Deputy Mayor
Philip Banks and two other aides to Mayor Eric Adams resigned on Monday.
Banks is the sixth senior official to leave the Adams administration in the past month
as the mayor faces a five-count federal corruption indictment.
Number four, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on members of an international
fundraising network that it says is playing a key role in funding Hamas.
And number five, Ukraine's military says it
struck a large oil terminal used to support the Russian army.
In a sweeping new court filing, the special counsel is shedding new light on his 2020
election interference case against Donald Trump,
arguing the former president is not immune from prosecution because when he sought to overturn his 2020 loss,
he was fundamentally acting as a private candidate and resorted to crimes to try to stay in office.
One hundred and sixty five page report is split into four parts.
The 165-page report is split into four parts.
The evidence against Trump, the legal issues with presidential immunity,
how Smith's evidence is not protected by immunity,
and what the government is asking the court to do.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan unsealed Special Counsel Jack Smith's latest filing in United States v. Donald Trump
concerning alleged criminal
allegations committed by the former president following his defeat in the 2020 presidential
election. In the filing, Smith argues that Trump resorted to crimes to remain in power
and was acting outside the scope of his official duties as president when he pressured state
officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his 2020 election laws.
Pretrial hearings for the case have been scheduled up until October 29th, pushing off a trial
until after Election Day and likely making the 165-page filing the Justice Department's
last chance to detail their case against Trump to the public before November 5th.
The filing itself was controversial as prosecutors typically withhold their evidence before trial.
However, Judge Chuckkin allowed Smith to submit a lengthy filing laying out his case, even after calling
it procedurally irregular. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have
broad immunity for official acts as one of their core constitutional powers. You can read our
coverage of the case's progression with a link in today's episode description. In the new filing,
Smith's team argues that Trump's scheme was fundamentally a link in today's episode description. In the new filing, Smith's team argues
that Trump's scheme was fundamentally a private one, making it eligible for prosecution. The brief
was primarily composed of previously reported conduct made public through news articles and a
congressional investigation into January 6th. However, the special counsel's filing contained
some new details. In one passage, prosecutors allege that Trump responded to a White House aide
telling him that Vice President Mike Pence had been taken to a secure location during the Capitol
riots with, so what? Additionally, the brief details of White House staffer hearing Trump
tell family members on board Air Force One that it doesn't matter if you won or lost the election,
you still have to fight like hell. Prosecutors also allege that a private political advisor,
whose name is redacted
in the files, told a gathering of supporters before the election that Trump was planning to
declare victory before the night was over. Separately, Trump personally hounded Pence to
reject the certification of the election, allegedly telling him when there's fraud,
the rules get changed, and encouraging Pence to be bold. Finally, Smith and his team said they
unearthed emails showing campaign staffers acknowledging the team was spreading falsehoods about the election.
When our research and campaign legal team can't back up any of the claims made by our elite
strike force legal team, you can see why we're 0-32 on our cases, one campaign advisor said
in an email, according to Smith. I'll obviously hustle to help out on all fronts, but it's tough
to own any of this when it's all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
Stephen Chung, Trump's spokesperson, called the entire case a partisan, unconstitutional witch hunt that should be dismissed entirely,
together with all the remaining Democrat hoaxes, adding that the latest filing was riddled with falsehoods.
Today, we're going to break down some of the views from the right and the left about the new filing, and then Isaac's take. We'll be right back after this quick break.
From Searchlight Pictures comes A Real Pain, one of the most moving and funny films of the year.
Written and directed by Oscar-nominated Jesse Eisenberg and starring Eisenberg and Emmy Award winner Kieran Culkin,
A Real Pain is a comedy about mismatched cousins who reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother.
The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.
A Real Pain was one of the buzziest titles at Sundance Film Festival this year,
garnering rave reviews and acclaim from both critics and audiences alike.
See A Real Pain only in theaters November 15th.
Oh, that coffee smells good.
Can you pass me the sugar when you're finished?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing?
That's salt, not sugar.
Let's get you another coffee.
Feeling distracted? You're not alone.
Many Canadians are finding it hard to focus with mortgage payments on their minds.
If you're struggling with your payments, speak to your bank.
The earlier they understand your situation, the more options and relief measures could be available to you.
Learn more at Canada.ca slash ItPaysToKnow.
A message from the Government of Canada.
All right, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right suggests the filing is legally flawed and politically motivated. Some criticize the media's approach to covering the
case. Others say Smith's revised indictment is appropriate in light of the Supreme Court's immunity ruling. In National Review, Andrew C.
McCarthy wrote about Jack Smith's damning, political, and legally flawed J6 filing against Trump.
The submission is thorough and damning. No surprise there. Smith's indictment of Trump
in the so-called January 6th case was thorough and damning.
A prosecutor's case, like a football team's game plan, never looks better than it does on paper
before it experiences first contact with the opposing team, McCarthy said. If Smith's proffer
were a real legal exercise, Judge Tanya Chutkin might well have kept the evidence sealed.
Chutkin has not appended Smith's submission with any of those fundamental due process protections.
She's just released it to the press. the opposite of what a judge concerned about the
jury pool and the defendant's fair trial rights would do. The point of Smith's tome, and the
publication of it by the Obama-appointed Chutkin, is to get the J6 evidence, chapter and verse,
into the hands of the media Democrat complex and the Harris campaign. Waiting was not an option.
Smith's original plan, with
Chutkin's cooperation on timing, was to gift Democrats with a trial and conviction in the
campaign's stretch run. That became impossible, so the proffer is the best he can do.
In the Federalist, M.D. Kittle argued the filing is solely designated to generate headlines before
the election. As October surprises go, Wednesday's redacted release wasn't much of
a surprise. Smith's brief asserting that Trump as president was not entitled to immunity and
basic constitutional rights was highly anticipated by the vultures in corporate media and is, as
expected, loaded with dubious legal claims, Kittle said. But making it public on October 2nd, as
absentee ballots go out
across the country, was designed to maximize political damage to a Republican presidential
candidate who has survived everything, including a bullet, that the left has fired at him.
As expected, the accomplice media gobbled up Smith's motion for immunity determinations,
dutifully pushing the Democratic National Committee's talking points that Trump is a
threat to democracy, Kittle wrote. By releasing the political prosecution docs now, Democrats and
their friends in corporate media will have the next few weeks to further paint their anti-democracy
narrative that the Republican Party's presidential candidate should be in prison, not on the ballot.
In The Hill, Alan Charles Rawls said, Jack Smith is prosecuting candidate Trump, not President Trump.
In the case of the president, it can be challenging to draw the distinction because most of his or her activity will be mixed.
There will be a combination of official and political motives, Rall wrote.
The political category applies precisely to Trump's January 6th efforts to overturn the election.
The facts allege that the special counsel's superseding indictment concerned the former president's campaign to have himself deemed the country's
re-elected president by hook or crook. It was all quintessentially political because the goal of
the activity was to be declared the winner of an election. Judge Chutkin now, like the Supreme
Court in the census case, need not be naive. While the court's near-blanket immunity for
presidents was improvidently granted,
Jack Smith's indictment concerns entirely political conduct. It should easily pass
muster under the narrow legal accountability the court preserved for presidents, Raul said.
When a Chuckkin decision against Trump is ultimately appealed to the court,
one hopes the justices may avail themselves of the opportunity to rein in immunity and assure
a sterner dose of constitutional checks and balances to the most powerful person in the world, the U.S. president.
All right, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying.
The left mostly views the new filing as further proof of Trump's election interference.
Some push back on the right's claim that the indictment is a political maneuver.
Others say the timing of the filing's release is inappropriate.
The Washington Post editorial board said,
Jack Smith has dubious timing, but a good case.
The curious timing is yet another reminder that little about this case
has been typical. The charges, the defendant, the stakes for the country. Mr. Trump is unique
among defendants in that he could soon have the power to end his own prosecution by winning the
White House and ordering the Justice Department to terminate it, the board wrote. True, Judge
Chutkin had asked both Mr. Smith and Mr. Trump to submit arguments about the case's future
in light of the Supreme Court's ruling. Yet Mr. Smith's action also ensured Americans have more case materials
available to them shortly before they vote, a questionable call for a prosecutor to make,
even considering the case's unusual character. The record is more appalling than ever,
but because of the Supreme Court's ruling, Mr. Smith must argue that Mr. Trump took his actions on or around January 6th in his personal capacity as a citizen and a candidate, not in his public capacity as president.
The new brief suggests Mr. Smith can do so, the board said.
Voters will have to confront the unpleasant yet undeniable truths about Mr. Trump's record and character, revealed once again in black and white.
In MSNBC, Hayes Brown suggested Jack Smith's
immunity filing is no Comey letter. In October 2016, FBI Director James Comey threw a political
bombshell into the presidential election. When confronted with his own wrongdoing,
Trump instinctively attempts to claim that he is the victim of an identical transgression.
But it's still worth unpacking the ways Smith's 167-page
filing differs from Comey's one-page missive and the wildly different circumstances surrounding
the two, Brown wrote. Comey's letter was, at best, meant to protect him from scrutiny.
He previously testified that an investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's use
of a private email server while she was Secretary of State had been closed. Smith, whose filing is
in part an ongoing criminal case that is making its way to trial, had no control over the timing
of his decision to make his document public. That was Chutkin's choice, and the judges made it clear
that the election is of little concern to her as she attempts to get the case back on track after
months of delay, Brown said. Finally, we must all keep in mind that the timing of this is as we're only
this close to election day because of Trump's motions that delay things. If Smith had his
druthers, he'd have presented this case to a jury more than six months ago. In New York Magazine,
Eli Honig called the filing an October cheap shot. Judge Tanya Chutkin, who suddenly claims not to
care about the impending election despite her earlier efforts to expedite the case to get it in before the very same election,
which got her reversed and chastised by the Supreme Court,
duly complied with Smith's wishes, Honig wrote.
There are two headlines here.
The immediate takeaway lies in the revelations contained in Smith's oversized brief.
The larger, if less obvious, headline is that Smith has essentially abandoned any pretense.
He'll bend any rule, switch up on any practice, so long as he gets to chip away at Trump's
electoral prospects.
The way motions work, under the federal rules and consistent with common sense, is that
the prosecutor files an indictment, the defense makes motions.
Not here.
Not when there's an election right around the corner and dwindling opportunity to make
a dent.
So Smith turned the well-established, thoroughly uncontroversial rules of criminal
procedure on their head and asked Judge Chutkin for permission to file first, Honig said.
It's ironic. Smith has complained throughout the case that Trump's words might taint the jury pool.
Smith now uses grand jury testimony, which ordinarily remains secret at this stage,
and drafts up a tidy 165-page document
that contains all manner of damaging statements about a criminal defendant. All right, let's head
over to Isaac for his take. All right, that is it for it with the left and the right are saying, which brings us to my take.
So the last thing that you're going to find me doing is defending Donald Trump for his attempts
to overturn the 2020 election and his actions on January 6th. In my eyes, despite all the good and
bad from his presidency, those actions will always mark Trump with a scarlet letter in the history books. Even worse, he has convinced two-thirds of Republicans that the
election was stolen too, and some of those people are my readers and supporters whom I'm constantly
trying to convince are being misled. The election was not stolen, it was not rigged, it was not
fundamentally unfair, and all the claims of election fraud that I've investigated have turned out to be total bunk. And yes, that includes Dinesh D'Souza's cash grab at 2,000 mules,
which we did a very deep dive on a couple years ago. Worse still, Trump is once again preemptively
claiming this year's election is being stolen or is otherwise fraudulent. I think we can and should
expect him to refuse to
concede if he loses again, which is a mind-boggling and infuriating prospect that will only further
divide the country. I've also made it clear that I think the Supreme Court erred in ruling that
presidents have criminal immunity for all official acts, and I, along with a majority of Americans,
would have liked to see this case go to trial, so he could have gotten more information about what Trump did and didn't do,
as well as a definitive ruling on the legality of his actions.
All that said, it is also imperative to call out the dishonorable nature
of what Jack Smith, the special counsel, is doing right now.
In 2016, many political and legal pundits rightly called out FBI Director James
Comey for inserting himself into the election with an unusual announcement that an investigation
into Hillary Clinton had been reopened, only to attempt to clear her of criminal wrongdoing days
later. Some forecasters still believe Comey's actions cost Clinton the election, and the story
exemplified every political party's dreaded October surprise.
Now, Smith is trying to foist his own October surprise onto the country. I'm going to quote heavily from Eli Honig here, cited under what the left is saying, because he's a former federal
prosecutor who made a name for himself as a pundit regularly excoriating Trump's former
Attorney General Bill Barr. He wrote a whole book arguing that Barr abused his
power. Although we quoted Honig above, I want to give him more space here because it is important
for people with liberal biases to hear this from a well-credentialed pundit on the left.
The larger, if less obvious, headline is that Smith has essentially abandoned any pretense.
He'll bend any rule, switch up on any practice, so long as he
gets to chip away at Trump's electoral prospects. At this point, there's simply no defending Smith's
conduct on any sort of principled or institutional basis. But we need to know this stuff before we
vote is a nice bumper sticker, but it's neither a response to nor an excuse for Smith's unprincipled,
norm-breaking practice. It also overlooks the
fact that the Justice Department bears responsibility for taking two and a half years
to indict in the first place. End quote. This is a damning passage in Honig's entire piece where
he lays out how unusual and unethical what Smith has done is worth reading. And I think it's all
exactly right. Smith is now walking proof of
the worst suspicions conservative voters have about Biden's Justice Department and Judge Chutkan,
who allowed Smith to file a 180-page public brief almost four times longer than the normal maximum
and has damaged her own reputation in the name of landing a few punches weeks before an election.
She appears to be the liberal version of Judge Eileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge overseeing his classified documents case in Florida.
The entire affair is a troubling portrait of Smith and Chutkin, two people with immense power
who are playing pure political games. Of course, all of this is made worse by the fact that Smith's
and Chutkin's actions are distracting from what should be the story, which is Trump's behavior in the wake of the 2020 election. His disregard for the safety of his vice president,
his plans to claim he won on the night of the election before the race had been called,
his clear understanding that legal advisors like Sidney Powell were pushing crazy conspiracies,
the fact his advisors knew he was spreading nonsense but tried to publicly defend it anyway,
Advisors knew he was spreading nonsense but tried to publicly defend it anyway.
This is all worth rehashing, even four years later.
A former president attempted to use his power and office to pressure state and federal politicians to keep him in office after he lost an election.
Plenty of people on the left will note that we're only getting these details through this unusual brief
instead of through trial proceedings because the Supreme Court threw this case back to Chutkin
by granting Trump partial immunity. However, whether you like it or not, that's how the court
ruled. If Smith wanted to mitigate that risk, he could have brought these charges three years ago.
With this filing, Smith has reminded us that Trump is not the only one whose character is in question
here. Smith and the DOJ have made enough mistakes that they are now stooping to the very thing they
have promised over and over to avoid, which is old-fashioned politicking.
The special counsel wants his filing to be the final thing we remember about Trump before Election Day, but it could also be the final thing we remember about how he handled one of the most sensitive cases in U.S. history, and it does not reflect well on his record.
not reflect well on his record. We'll be right back after this quick break. Colombia, we believe that they can. Dr. Johanna Sam and her team are researching how both Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth cope with cyber aggression, working to bridge the diversity gap in child psychology research.
At UBC, our researchers are answering today's most pressing questions.
To learn how we're moving the world forward, visit ubc.ca forward happens here.
Whether renting, renewing a mortgage, or considering buying a home,
everybody has housing costs on their minds.
For free tools and resources to help you manage your home finances,
visit canada.ca slash it pays to know.
A message from the Government of Canada.
Based on Charles Yu's award-winning book,
Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu,
a background character trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character
trapped in a police procedural who dreams about a world beyond Chinatown. When he inadvertently
becomes a witness to a crime, Willis begins to unravel a criminal web, his family's buried
history, and what it feels like to be in the spotlight. Interior Chinatown is streaming
November 19th, only on Disney+. All right, that is it for my take,
which brings us to your questions answered.
This one's from Andrew in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Andrew says,
your editorial about misinformation being spread
during the Helene disaster
proves that you are no neutral party or moderate
that you always claim to be. You insult conservatives and conservative publications while praising the
current administration and incompetent FEMA for doing a good job, which is untrue, of course.
Plus, you also allowed a ridiculous claim about climate change being involved in this mess to be
perpetuated. How do you respond to this, and are you honest enough to admit that you're no moderate or neutral party? That was from Andrew in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. So listen,
thanks for the question. I mean, since our edition on the hurricane disaster relief came out,
I've been getting a version of this a lot, either through social media replies, direct emails,
or our question form. So I appreciate the direct challenge and for
giving me the opportunity to talk about my perspective a little bit more. First of all, I don't
play for a team in politics, and my whole role in the media ecosystem is to thoroughly read up on one
topic a day, present all the best arguments I can find, and then let you know what I think just as
one more voice. Sometimes that means I see merits in both sides, like today.
Sometimes I think they're both getting it wrong, like on the no tax on tips policy.
And other times I'm strongly opinionated about an issue, like the Hurricane Helene response.
I'm not promising to be neutral or opinionated. I'm promising to be transparent and honest about
my opinions as a political moderate. I get accused of being left or right
literally every single day, almost always by people accusing me of being the opposite of
whatever they are. Second, I don't think it's fair or accurate to say I was insulting conservatives
and praising the current administration. I pointed out that there were conservative pundits who were
spreading misinformation and lies, and I think I made that case pretty well. I told you exactly what they were saying, and then I told you exactly how I knew they were wrong.
If any of my criticisms were unfair or inaccurate, I'm still waiting for a single person to tell me
that. But if you want to jump to their defense just because they're conservatives, maybe that
doesn't say a whole lot about me. Interestingly, and I really can't emphasize this enough, the overwhelming response I got from
readers in North Carolina was thank you. Don't their voices matter more than online pundits?
And what about local North Carolina Republicans who are pleading with people to stop spreading
lies? How does my writing insult those conservatives? Third, I actually didn't mention
anything about climate change in my take, so this
is just wrong. We included that from left-leaning authors, but that's part of what we do every day.
That being said, it is certainly not a ridiculous thing to say. Warming oceans and coastal erosion
can create more destructive storms. This isn't something that is really up for dispute, and if
you want to read more about climate change, we wrote a big piece explaining the theory in a past edition that I'll link to in today's episode description. Finally, and as I
wrote, I'm not passing judgment on FEMA yet. My point was that FEMA was getting criticized before
they even had a chance to respond, especially considering local and state agencies are always
first on the scene in disasters. I'm all but certain FEMA could have done better, and we'll
learn details
about the federal response over time, but it's worth noting southern state governors, including
yours, are saying they've gotten everything they asked for from the Biden administration.
There are a lot of people in North Carolina still without food and water or help, and I've heard
from friends in Asheville who are very upset with the relief response. I'm not denying that.
My frustration was with preemptive claims that the federal government wasn't doing anything or didn't care if Republicans died, because that is simply nonsense.
All right, that is it for your questions answered.
I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the pod, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Have a good one.
Thanks, Isaac. Here's your under the radar story for today,
folks. Victor Bout, the convicted Russian arms dealer who was returned to Russia in a 2022 prisoner swap for American basketball player Brittany Grinner, is back in the weapons trade,
according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Since returning to Russia, Bout has joined a pro
Kremlin far-right party
and won a seat at a local assembly.
Then, in August, he reportedly met with members of Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militant group
to broker the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons.
Bout denies that he helped facilitate the deal,
but a European security official and other knowledgeable sources
told the Journal that Bout met with two Houthi emissaries
in Moscow and arranged at least two shipments of AK-74 rifles to the U.S.-designated terrorist
group. The Wall Street Journal has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.
All right, next up is our numbers section. The number of days since Special Counsel Jack
Smith's original indictment of former
President Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case is 434.
The number of days until the election is 27.
The number of times the word private appears in Smith's revised indictment is 18.
The number of times the word official appears in Smith's revised indictment is 59.
The percentage of Americans who say they are confident that the votes for president will
be accurately cast and counted in this year's election is 57%, according to a September
2024 Gallup poll.
The percentage of Americans who said they were confident that the votes for president
would be accurately cast and counted ahead of the 2016 election was 66%.
The percentage of Democrats who say they
are confident that the votes for president will be accurately cast and counted in the 2024 election
is 84%. And the percentage of Republicans who say they are confident that the votes for president
will be accurately cast and counted in the 2024 election is 28%.
All right, and last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story.
All right, and last but not least, our have a nice day story.
Levi, a student at Englehart Elementary School in Kentucky,
usually has a big smile on his face when he gets on the school bus each morning.
But one morning, as he sat on the ground with a jacket on his head,
his bright demeanor was dimmed.
Larry Farsh Jr., Levi's bus driver, learned that it was pajama day at school,
but Levi didn't have pajamas to wear.
After finishing his route, Farsh Jr. purchased pajamas for Levi and brought them to the school.
When he got me the pajamas, I did a happy cry, Levi said.
Today has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.
All right, everybody, that is it for today's episode. As always, if you'd like to support
our work, please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership. And remember that the last
days of our promotion for the premium podcast are upon us. So if you would like to get that
as a newsletter subscriber, you will get a very special deal of 50% off, which makes it a great
time to bundle both a newsletter subscription and a podcast subscription if you haven't signed up
for either.
We'll be right back here tomorrow. For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Wall signing off.
Have a great day, y'all. Peace.
Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall. The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will Kedak,
Bailey Saul, and Sean Brady. The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bacopa,
who is also our social media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet75.
If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to readtangle.com and check out our website.