The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 12.4 LEAKED AUDIO! They Tried To Kill This Story For $300k, Taylor Swift vs DeuxMoi, & Today's News

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

Start your free trial today: http://www.Squarespace.com/Phil  & enter offer code “Phil” to get 10% off your first purchase!  shhh this is a secret link: https://youtu.be/g1gOaaDvy1Q?si=CKxW2lA5TfvrZcpw  –✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ – 00:00 - AP Investigation Finds Mormon Church Coverup  03:42 - Trevor Jacob, YouTuber Who Crashed Plane, Sentenced  04:42 - Taylor Swift’s Publicist Slams DeuxMoi 07:38 - Sponsored by SquareSpace 08:24 - Police Charge Director of Miss Nicaragua For Rigging Pageant  09:56 - Florida GOP Thrown Into Disarray After Allegations Against Party Leader ——————————   Produced by: Cory Ray Edited by: James Girardier, Maxx Enright, Julie Goldberg, Christian Meeks Art Department: William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Lili Stenn, Maddie Crichton, Star Pralle, Chris Tolve  ———————————— #DeFranco #TaylorSwift #Deuxmoi ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, we're talking about the Mormon Church offering hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep you from hearing the audio I'm about to play for you. The business of rumors and gossip may be about to go nuclear with this Taylor Swift moi news. Leaders of Florida's Republican Party and Moms for Liberty are at the heart of a massive horrifying sex scandal. We're talking about all that and so much more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco show. You daily dive into the news to just hit that like button. Let's jump into it. Starting with the Mormon Church was willing to pay $300,000 in hush money for you to not hear this audio recording that I'm about to play. But first, I have to say, for the existence of this story,

we have to thank the very brave woman, Chelsea Goodrich. Because in 2015, when Chelsea was in grad school, some disturbing long buried memories began to resurface. When she was a child, allegedly her father and a Mormon bishop at the time, John Goodrich routinely sexually assaulted her. In fact, John admitted to at least one of these incidents in a recording that was obtained by the Associated Press. With him there blaming the devil for his decision to climb into bed with his daughter after hearing sexual activity in an adjoining hotel room. And so Chelsea confided in a friend whose father, Paul, happened to be the guy church members go to if they have abuse claims. And when she felt ready, Chelsea met with him over several months, recording their conversations with his knowledge and on the recommendation of her lawyer. So her father ends up getting arrested for his alleged abuse, and Chelsea wants to know if the church will allow a bishop with whom John gave a

confession to testify in the trial. Also, a key thing is that she told Paul that church officials have known about the abuse for years because of other confessions. So Paul replied the church leaders said they did not recall hearing any such confession. But also, here's the thing, while she assumed that he was only there to lend a sympathetic ear and help her find justice for the abuse committed against her, Hall was thinking about the church's interest because, you see, he's the head of its risk management division. So in one of their later meetings, they sat down, had a brief prayer, and then got down to business. First of all, I sent you a letter indicating that the church was prepared to assist up to $90,000. I've been back. And so I have authorization up to $300,000.

It's an exchange for that hefty six-figure sum. We both agree that we will not disclose that we've settled with you, and you will not disclose that you've settled with the church. You acknowledge that there's been some recordings made of all of our communications, and that you agree to destroy those recordings made of all of our communications and that you agree to destroy those recordings within 10 days of signing this. And then saying that the reason the church wants those recordings destroyed is to protect him from being clipped out of context by lawyers. Now with that, clearly, since you just listened to them, you know that the recordings

were not destroyed. That's because reportedly a now ex-church member who attended the meetings as Chelsea's advocate and recorded the audio was not bound by the confidentiality agreement, and so he gave them to the AP. But also, by the time they came out, so much had happened to John already. Where Chelsea's abuse trial inspired another woman to accuse him of having non-consensual sex with her after sedating her with a drug from his dental practice. And in recorded phone calls, he admitted to drugging her, apologized, and asked her to lie to the police. So things weren't looking great for John, but then a controversial Idaho law threw a wrench into everything. Because in the state of Idaho, clergy are actually legally exempt from having to divulge information about

sexual abuse gathered in a confession to authorities. And so then without the bishop's testimony, prosecutors dropped the charges, also telling Chelsea's mother that her impending divorce with John in the years that had passed since the alleged abuse might prejudice jurors. And so in the end, John only pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance, and a judge sentenced him to just 90 days in jail and three years of probation. And so while, yeah, he's also been excommunicated from the church, John's a free man now, still practicing dentistry in Idaho. And while this individual story on its own is horrifying and fucking infuriating,

it has also understandably brought Idaho's law protecting the confidentiality of spiritual confessions under fire, especially as sex abuse scandals have rocked the Mormon church. But there, you have defenders arguing that without it, people would be too afraid to confess their sins and their souls wouldn't be saved. Arguing that confession is supposed to be between your clergy and God, nobody else. Personally, I don't know. I'm on the side of not protecting abusers and monsters. I'd like to think that if a God exists, they would agree with that. And if they didn't, that's no God of mine. And then do you remember this video? That's Trevor Jacob. He's a YouTuber. You're seeing a plane crash and it turns out that he staged it and he posted this video that got him millions and millions of views, but it also prompted an

investigation by the FAA, the agency ordering him to preserve the wreckage. But then he lied saying he didn't know where the plane went down. As it turned out, he and his friend actually moved the plane, cut it up into smaller pieces and then dumped it at a small airport airport. With all that then resulting in him being stripped of his pilot's license, also pleading guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation, which notably, not a little thing. It carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. However, he had his sentencing today, and instead of 20 years, he got just six months. So really, he's kind of lucky because it could have been so much worse for him at the same time people going, hey, it's good that someone doing something dangerous like this is being held accountable.

But really, looking at the story, all I can say is don't be stupid. Stupid. There are far easier ways to get views online. The pursuit of fame and attention, it just makes people stupid. Or maybe it doesn't even make people stupid. It just exposes the stupid. And then let's talk about business and gossip. And in fact, it's the business of gossip. Because we're talking about today is Dumois and Taylor Swift.

And for those unfamiliar with Dumois, at the very least, it is a celebrity gossip Instagram account with 2 million followers. And once bio reads, this account does not claim information published is based. In fact, it has a huge, huge reach and anything it posts gets spread far and wide. And on top of that, it's all anonymous, right? So that's a big part of the fascination. So it really hasn't been surprising that DuMois has grown and evolved having a podcast, publishing a novel, that novel getting adapted into an HBO show.

Well, you know, people have long questioned if they cross lines with what they post. We now know that Taylor Swift's team is among their critics. Right, and that's because the account has repeatedly claimed that Taylor and her ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, were actually married or at least had a ceremony

even if it wasn't made legal. And in fact, DuMois shared that claim yet again last week, including the caption, I will die on this hill. Put it on my tombstone. I have no reason to lie. I could give a shit what she does. Which Taylor Swift's publicist, Sheree Payne, must have thought something along the lines of, you'll die on this hill while I'll meet you at the top with a knife. Writing in a post that the claim is not true and saying, enough is enough with these fabricated lies about Taylor from Dumois. There was never a marriage or ceremony of any kind. This is an insane thing to post.

It's time for you to be held accountable for the pain and trauma you cause with posts like these. You know, with a situation like this, a publicist's call-out is actually pretty rare. So when people saw those shots being fired, they took notice. Though there are others noting that while Taylor's publicist was responding directly to the marriage rumor, she may have been more upset about something else. Because on the same day, Dumas also posted a message from someone suggesting that Taylor's new song is about her having a miscarriage and that loss impacting her relationship at the time.

So you had people responding to that, saying this is another level of cruel, saying that's something you don't talk about, period, unless it is shared. You never speculate about that. Now with all this, for their part, Dumois hit back with a sort of combative response, saying, well, I make zero dollars from lying.

Can publicists say the same? Also, to relate something that is in reference to something that happened years ago, to pain and trauma after what just happened, seems like a poor choice of words. Either way, I apologize to Taylor. With people there saying that it seemed like Dumois was hinting at the recent death of a fan at one of Taylor's concerts, some saying that was below the belt, others calling out Dumois because between the podcast, book, show, and more, it definitely makes money off their kind of posts. So of course, all of this is playing out in the court of public opinion, which is also why you have some speculating, is Taylor's team getting ready for

more? With some speculating, using the words trauma and pain is so strategic because you can't sue unless there's measurable damages. Calling something trauma makes it a measurable damage. It's the first step of documentation before taking legal progression. Though again, that's just speculation. I think words like pain and trauma are used far more regularly in 2023. But for now, we'll have to see if and how things will play out. The only thing I know for sure, though, is whether it be Dumois or someone else, this will continue. This sort of thing, because gossip and the rumor mill, they haven't gone anywhere. They've just evolved over the years.

Whether it be more mainstream outlets that have existed for years and years, like TMZ. I remember coming up on YouTube and Perez Hilton being one of the biggest people on the internet. All these things exist and will continue to exist, and new things will pop up because there is an appetite for what they're serving. And I don't know if that will ever change because it feels like that's just the ugly side of fandom. What's your opinion, right? You have this story, some of my half-baked thoughts. I'd love to hear from you. And then, for any of you focused on getting your business off the ground, creating a place to share your homemade goods, or even a personal blog, I got a great solution for you. And it comes from, and I want to thank

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squarespace.com slash phil when you realize it's for you just make sure you enter an offer code phil to get 10 off your first purchase and, Miss Universe is part of a foreign plot and conspiracy to overthrow the government. While that may sound like it's too ridiculous to be true, and it is very probably too ridiculous to be true, that is what the actual Nicaraguan president is claiming right now. With all of this starting late last month when Miss Nicaragua became the first woman from her country to win the Miss Universe beauty pageant. And at first, authoritarian President Daniel Ortega thought this was a PR victory for his regime, calling her win a moment of legitimate joy and pride. But then, the next day, it came out that the newly crowned Miss Universe had actually posted photos of herself on Facebook,

participating in the mass anti-government protests back in 2018. Protests that, if you don't remember, were violently repressed, and human rights officials say that 355 people were killed by government forces. With the government also outlawing or closing more than 3,000 civic groups and NGOs, arresting and expelling opponents, stripping them of their citizenships, and confiscating their assets. And so then, when the regime's opponents discovered that the Miss Universe winner was apparently on their side, they took the opportunity to celebrate in the streets, waving with blue and white national flags rather than the regime's red and black banner. So now the government there has taken

quick steps to make sure this never happens again by going after the pageant's director. I'm alleging that she rigged the contest so that an anti-government beauty queen would win the pageant as part of a plot to overthrow the government. And it's not just words, right? The director, her husband, and her son are now facing charges of treason to the motherland. Though there, she apparently slipped through the hands of police after she was reportedly denied permission to enter the country a few days ago. And as for Miss Nicaragua, we'll see if anything happens to her. Because while she doesn't appear to be a particularly political figure, it's not like she used her platform at the pageant to denounce the regime. Instead, just speaking about mental health and the gender wage gap, authoritarians infamously do not like anyone that stands against

them at any time. So we'll have to wait and see. And then this scandal coming out of Florida about one of its most prominent and influential power couples is at the very least a case of massive, massive hypocrisy. And at most, which is what's being alleged here, a crime. is at the very least a case of massive, massive hypocrisy, and at most, which is what's being alleged here, a crime. And at the center of all this, you have Christian Ziegler, who is the chair of the state's Republican Party, and his wife, Bridget, who is an elected member of the Sarasota County School Board and a founder of the right-wing national group Moms for Liberty, right, which you've maybe seen pop up in the news because they work to elect school board members nationally who oppose curriculum about LGBTQ+, rights, gender,

and sexuality, race and discrimination, and all of that on top of fighting for banning books on those topics. In fact, it's been reported that Bridget played a huge role in designing and enacting Florida's infamous Don't Say Gay law. And so because of all that, they have quickly risen to become major figures in the conservative movement who are widely recognized for their pro-family Christian values. However, a lot of that's changing right now after a heavily redacted report from the Sarasota police revealed that Christian's currently under an active criminal investigation for a rape allegation by a woman who he and his wife had a three-way sexual encounter with. And since the initial report

was made public, media outlets have since obtained a search warrant affidavit that provides many more details. Like both Bridget and the woman confirmed to police that they had a three-way sexual encounter with Christian over a year before the alleged assault, which took place on October 2nd. The document also saying the woman had agreed to have another sexual encounter with Ziegler and his wife that day, but she changed her mind and canceled after she learned that Bridget wouldn't make it. They're telling Christian in a message, sorry, I was mostly in for her. But according to the affidavit, the woman told police that he still showed up at her apartment uninvited and raped her. And she reported the alleged rape to police two days

later and got a rape kit done at a local hospital. The affidavit also detailed messages between the woman and Ziegler after the incident, including one where she told him she wasn't okay with what happened, but he repeatedly told her she was his friend and tried to change the topic. Also there, in recorded phone calls between the two, Ziegler denied that he had sexually assaulted her. Also, some outlets obtained a reporting of the 911 call two days after the alleged assault, where a friend of the woman asked emergency responders to check on her apartment, telling police that the woman hadn't shown up to work for two days,

and when she called, she sounded drunk and told her friend that she had been raped and was scared to leave her house. Now, with all this, Christian Ziegler work for two days, and when she called, she sounded drunk and told her friend that she had been raped and was scared to leave her house. Now, with all this, Christian Ziegler, for his part, has told police that he and the woman had sex, but saying that it was consensual, and he actually recorded it on video and uploaded it to Google Drive. Although there, police said in the affidavit

that they weren't able to locate the video and have served Google with a search warrant. You'll see a lawyer for the Florida GOP head denying the allegations in a statement to reporters and adding, we are confident that once the police investigation is concluded, that no charges will be filed and Mr. Ziegler will be completely exonerated. But

even with that, the situation has drawn a ton of backlash even from Republicans in the state, including from DeSantis himself, who actually called for the party chair to step down and said, I don't see how he can continue with that investigation ongoing given the gravity of those situations and so I think he should step aside. And with that, he also went on to say he knows the couple well and he hopes the allegations are false, but still adding, he's innocent till proven guilty, but we just can't have a party chair that is under that type of scrutiny. It was also echoed by other Republican leaders who also accused the Zieglers of going against Christian conservative values that they claim to champion so loudly, with Republican State Representative Spencer Roach telling reporters, they have held themselves out to be paragons of the Christian conservative family values, a prototype.

And I think there's a very heavy sense of betrayal, certainly within the Republican Party. With them also adding that this has plunged the Florida GOP into absolute chaos, saying, I would describe this as just an absolute body blow to the Republican Party. Everyone that I've talked to about this is in an absolute tailspin, right? And again, because what we're talking about is one situation, but there are two things that are playing out, right? There's a very serious criminal accusation, and then there's just the general hypocrisy. And so that's why you've seen a lot of people specifically taking aim at Bridget Ziegler, calling her a hypocrite because she so fervently fought against LGBTQ plus rights, but apparently not for herself. People saying things to her like, we are very sorry that our gay marriage brings disrespect

on your sacred institution of bisexual swinging open marriage. And I'm so glad that the Florida Board of Education has approved for Florida school libraries, mommy and daddy and their very special friend. But with all that said, understand this is still developing. Now, as of recording, Christian Ziegler has refused to resign, saying in an email to members of the Florida Republican Party this weekend, we have a country to save and I am not going to let false allegations of a crime put that mission on the bench as I wait for this process to wrap up. Also claiming that he's just being targeted by liberal activists and that his wife is behind me 150%. But as far as how this is going to play out both in legal court and the court of public opinion, we'll have to wait and see. But that

is going to be the end of your daily dive into the news today. Don't worry, though, for more news you need to know, I got you covered right here. You can click or tap, or I got links in the description. And of course, as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love your faces, and I'll see you tomorrow.