Skullduggery

Many chilling images and voices were displayed by the January 6th Committee on Thursday Night including audio tapes of some of the rioters talking among themselves about hunting down and possibly even killing members of Congress. The Rioters wreaked havoc on the US Capitol, smashing windows, detonating smoke bombs, assaulting police officers, while President Trump sat watching Fox News in the White House dining room, indifferent and unmoved, rejecting repeated pleas from his top White House aides, the Republican Leader of the House, his friends at Fox News, and even members of his own family to speak out and call off the mob. We learned for the first time that members of Vice President Mike Pence's own security detail feared for their lives and were frantically calling home to their loved ones during the attack. And we heard for the first time from yet another incredibly strong young woman, White House Press Aide Sarah Matthews, describing how she was so repulsed by Trump's profound derelict of duty that she drafted and submitted her resignation that very day. How powerful was the committee's summertime finale? And perhaps more importantly, how will it be assessed at DOJ? We're joined by Mary McCord, Fmr. top National Security Official in the Department of Justice.

GUESTS:

Mary McCord, Fmr. Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division in the Department of Justice

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' article about the key takeaways from final summer Jan. 6 hearing - Here. Yahoo News article focusing on what Trump was doing during Jan. 6 riot - Here.

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"The point with Trump is he's in on the joke." So said South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham about his odd relationship with the 45th President as quoted by veteran journalist Mark Leibovich in his new book Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the price of admission.The idea that Trump's entire chaotic rollercoaster presidency was a giant joke and his army of Republican enablers were in on it all along is a continuing theme of Leibovich's book, as he charted how one after another top Republicans who privately had utter contempt for the occupant of the Oval Office, never the less fell loyally in line. Concluding, that it was all just some harmless charade that Trump himself was fully a part of. But what happens when the joke, including absurd claims about the results of a Presidential election leads to violence. Threatening the lives of even Trump's own Vice President. As the January 6th Committee plans to wrap up its summer hearings with a primetime special on Thursday night, we'll talk to Leibovich about his book and what happens when the big Washington joke stopped being funny.

GUESTS:

Mark Leibovich, (@MarkLeibovich), The Atlantic, (Fmr NYT), Author of Thank You For Your Servitude

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Pick up Mark Leibovich's book Thank You For Your Servitude - Here. Yahoo News Exclusive Target Letters to Fake Electors - Here.

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Liz Cheney dropped one more nugget at the end of Tuesday’s January 6th Committee hearing, new evidence that Donald Trump may be contacting witnesses who are being called to testify in an apparent effort to influence what they might say. If true, it’s a federal crime. And Cheney’s statement that the Department of Justice had been alerted immediately set off speculation about another possible avenue for Attorney General Merrick Garland’s prosecutors to pursue. As the committee moves to wrap up its extraordinary series of hearings next week in primetime, the path to a possible prosecution of Donald Trump only seems to be expanding. Not just in Washington, but in Atlanta where Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is accelerating her own investigation. We’ll talk to someone who has their own unique perspective on the Willis probe, Charlie Bailey, a former prosecutor who used to work for Willis, and is now running for Lieutenant Governor against a Republican lawmaker deeply involved in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

GUESTS:

Charlie Bailey, (@charlie4georgia), 2022 Democratic LG Nominee, Atty at Cook & Connelly, Fmr. Senior Assistant District Attorney

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

RESOURCES:

Isikoff and Klaidman's Fani Willis piece from June. - Here. David Knowles piece onGeorgia election officials debunking Trump claim - Here.

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"Nobody on planet earth was more horrified by the notion of Donald Trump as President." So writes Tim Miller in his new book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell.Miller was a longtime GOP operative, a spinmeister, a dirt disher, who worked for the McCain and Romney and Jeb Bush Presidential campaigns. And also served as a top spokesperson for the Republican National Committee. But his revulsion towards Trump knew no bounds and caused him to sever ties with virtually everybody he used to work with. Miller's book seems to answer an enduring question that persists to this day. Why did so many go along? "I felt like everything I ever knew and believed about my country, my career, my colleagues were a lie," he writes. The Americans I most despise had taken over the country I loved, bringing almost everyone I had once looked up to along with them. Miller joins us to discuss his book and more.

GUESTS:

Tim Miller, (@Timodc), Writer @bulwarkonline, Host “Not My Party” on Snap, @msnbc analyst, author

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@vbass), Senior Advisor at States United,Author of Electoral Dysfunction

RESOURCES:

You can pick up Tim Miller's new book Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell - Here. Yahoo News' latest on the key cases on the Supreme Court docket next term - Here.

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"We're going to get charged with every crime imaginable." So said the White House Counsel, Patrick Cipollone on January 6th to White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson. The 26 year old former Deputy to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Hutchinson presented some of the most jaw dropping testimony yet to the January 6th Committee. Recounting how Trump was informed that morning that supporters of his with guns had gathered for his rally but were being refused admission because the weapons would be picked up by the metal detectors, or MAGs as they were known, that are always present for an event with the President. Trump in turn demanded that the MAGs be removed saying, according to Hutchinson, "They're not here to hurt me." And when later informed that the rioters were shouting, "Hang Mike Pence," Trump purportedly said that Pence, "deserved it." Trump of course has denied Hutchinson's sworn testimony, calling her, "a total phony." And some parts of what she had to say is now being disputed by someone close to the Secret Service. Has her account strengthened the case for the prosecution of Trump? And what more does the committee have in store? We talk to one of the panel's witnesses, British documentarian Alex Holder.

GUESTS:

Alex Holder, (@alexjholder), Award-winning documentary filmmaker including the upcoming Docu-series Unprecedentedon Discovery+

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@vbass), Senior Advisor at States United,Author of Electoral Dysfunction

RESOURCES:

Details about Alex Holder's upcoming Docu-series Unprecedented - Here. Who is Cassidy Hutchinson - Here.

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On Friday, the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades came down, a 6-3 ruling overturning Roe v Wade. For nearly half a century women have had a Constitutional right to abortion, now they don't. Because, as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion, Roe was, "egregiously wrong from the start." Informed by what he called, "exceptionally weak reasoning." The new ruling from the court ditching what seemed like well settled precedent is certainly to inflame passion. And as Biden insisted, the fight is not over. His administration, with the backing of virtually every Demacrat in Congress, will seek to pass a Federal Law codifying the right to an abortion. But even if such legislation could overcome a near certain filibuster from Senate Republicans and actually pass, would that supersede the actions of more than a dozen State legislatures that now seemed poised to ban abortion outright? Veteran Supreme Court watcher and author David Kaplan as well as former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, a former Supreme Court Clerk himself, join to discuss this alongside the extraordinary testimony in front of the January 6th Committee this week.

GUESTS:

David Kaplan, (@dkaplan007), Author, Adjunct NYU Professor, Fmr. Newsweek Legal Affairs Editor Donald Ayer, (@DonaldAyer6), US Deputy Attorney General under President George H. W. Bush

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' story on SCOTUS overturning Roe v Wade - Here. Yahoo News' story on the reactions to overturning Roe v Wade - Here.

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"Do you know what it feels like to have the President of the United States target you?" Those were the haunting words of Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Fulton County Georgia describing to the January 6th Committee what it was like when Donald Trump and his allies spread grotesque lies about Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Shaye Moss, accusing them of illegally dredging up suitcases of Biden ballots late at night to throw the 2020 election. None of it was true of course. The FBI, the US Attorney's office in Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, they all reviewed the video of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss counting ballots on election night. And concluded none of it showed anything improper. Just two humble election workers doing their job under difficult circumstances. It was yet more powerful testimony of the chaos that Donald Trump unleashed upon the country. But are the hearings breaking through? Are they penetrating the public pre-occupied with soaring gas prices, punishing inflation, and scorching summer heatwaves? Julie Pace, Executive Editor of the AP and Stephen Engelberg Editor of ProPublica join live from the Collision Conference in Toronto Canada to discuss.

GUESTS:

Julie Pace, (@JuliePace), Executive Editor, The Associated Press Sol Wisenberg, (@SteveEngelberg), Editor in Chief, ProPublica

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' story on Trump's pressure put on state election officials - Here.

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An excerpt from the video taped testimony of Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann revealed this past Thursday described a phone call he got from John Eastman the day after Jan 6th in which the supposed constitutional scholar was unrepentant. Still clinging to the idea somehow some way, the results of the 2020 election could still be overturned. It was a remarkable moment that. was too much for Heerschmann, telling Eastman that he was out of "f'ing mind." And he needed a great criminal defense lawyer because he was going to need it. Words that Eastman, as we learned during Thursday's January 6th hearing, apparently took to heart, reaching out just days later to Rudy Giuliani in search of a presidential pardon. The testimony at the Thursday hearing was powerful as the committee laid out in excruciating detail a relentless pressure campaign by Trump himself, aided every step of the way, by John Eastman to get Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject the certified election results. An authority he demonstrably did not have. In some ways it may have been the most significant presentation yet. Laying out elements that Eastman well knew that what he was doing was potentially illegal and unconstitutional. Has the committee finally made its case that Trump and Eastman had made prosecutable crimes? And what more does the panel have in store? Hugo Lowell of The Guardian, who's been all over the January 6th story from the start, joins to discuss.

GUESTS:

Hugo Lowell, (@hugolowell), Congressional reporter for @Guardian

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

RESOURCES:

Key Takeaways from Day 3 of Jan 6th Congressional Hearings - Here. The outline of Trump's pressure campaign on Pence - Here.

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An excerpt from one of the video clips played at Monday's January 6th Committee Hearing in which Donald Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, recounts the debate that went on within the White House on election night. Stepien and other top campaign aides were telling Trump to hold off on declaring victory that night, that there were still lots more votes to be counted. And that his slender but steadily slipping margins were starting to fade away. But Trump would have none of it and listen instead to his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, "obviously intoxicated," according to his campaign aide Jason Miller, who told the President to claim he was the rightful winner in an election marked by rampant voter fraud. It was a critical moment when Trump's bogus claims of fraud, pushed in turn by his drunk lawyer, became amplified to the whole country resulting ultimately in the tragic events of January 6th. Is the committee building an air-tight case against the former President? We get perspectives from two veteran legal observers - Matt Miller, the former Chief of Public Affairs for the Justice Department during the Obama Administration and Sol Wisenberg, a criminal defense lawyer and a former top Deputy to Whitewater independent council Ken Starr.

GUESTS:

Matthew Miller, (@matthewamiller), Partner at Vianovo. MSNBC analyst Sol Wisenberg, (@WisenbergSol), White Collar Defense Atty. Fox News Contributor

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' key takeaways from the Jan. 6th Hearings Day 2 (@CEDickson) - Here. Isikoff's story about debunked allegations over voter fraud in Georgia during 2020 election - Here.

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“Stay the hell out of it!” Those were the key words from the so-called smoking gun tape, the conversation between Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman about how to get the FBI to back off its investigation into the Watergate break-in that occurred fifty years ago this week, June 17th, 1972. The plan they came up with in the days after the burglary was to get the CIA and its powerful director Richard Helms to tell the then head of the FBI, L. Patrick Gray to back off, to stay the hell out of it, to drop the probe into the financing of the break-in unless dark agency secrets would be revealed. It was a lie of course, the Watergate break-in had been bankrolled by Nixon campaign donors and not the agency spooks at Langley. But as Jefferson Morley writes in his new book, Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate, Helms was prepared to do what Nixon wanted, at least first. He drafted a memo instructing two deputies that the agency needed to instruct the bureau to quote, “Confine themselves to the personalities already arrested.” And “desist from expanding this investigation into other areas.” Helms may have later gotten cold feet, but as Morley reminds us it was just one of many examples of the exceedingly strange and still mysterious relationship between Nixon and the Spy Master, a dynamic in which each man seemed to have abundant blackmail material against each other. As the country prepares to commemorate the half-century anniversary of Watergate, we’ll look back at the events of that era and get a fascinating new take on why they matter more than ever as Morley joins us.

GUESTS:

Eric Holder, (@jeffersonmorley), Author, Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Pick up Morley's book Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate - Here. Recent story on Watergate - Here.

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Congresswoman Liz Cheney Thursday night laid out the case that Donald Trump orchestrated an attempted coup to block the peaceful transfer of power. And then sat back and watched in apparent approval while his supporters ransacked the US Capitol. It was the opening night of six public hearings on the January 6th attack that committee members will hope galvanize the public to what they believe is an on-going threat to American democracy. The hearing was marked by a compelling new video, illustrating the role that the extremest Proud Boys played in the attack and how Trump's own words inspired them. A Capitol Police officer told of slipping on the blood of her colleagues while trying to defend the Capitol that day. But did Cheney make the case that Trump was criminally responsible for what transpired. We're joined by the former Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder, author of the new book Our Unfinished March, to discuss that and more.

GUESTS:

Eric Holder, (@ericholder), Fmr. Attorney General of the US, Author of Our Unfinished March

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Pick up Eric Holder's book Our Unfinished March - Here. Yahoo News article about Trump's reaction to Jan. 6 Hearing - Here.

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They may be the most anticipated and consequential of congressional hearings in decades. After eleven months of work and over one thousand interviews the committee investigating the January 6th 2021 attack on the US Capitol will premiere this week in primetime on Thursday at 8pm. With all the TV networks except for Fox News of course planning full coverage. The committee is touting evidence of what its members are calling a criminal conspiracy led by Donald Trump to subvert the will of the people and overturn the results of the 2020 election. But as Washington gears up for the extravaganza and outside groups plan watch parties with free ice cream, there are still questions about just how strong the committee’s evidence is. And perhaps more importantly whether a public pre-occupied with soaring gas prices, mass shootings, and shortages of baby formula, will tune in. We’ll talk to Yahoo News’ Tom LoBianco about what to expect from the hearings. And then we’ll hear from Norm Eisen of the Brookings Institution on why they matter.  

GUESTS:

Norm Eisen, (@NormEisen), Senior Fellow @brookingsgov, Chair @statesunited, Legal Analyst @cnn Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco), Politics reporter @yahoonews

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' "What You Need To Know" about the Jan. 6th Hearings - Here.

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Uniquely Nasty, a Yahoo News documentary from 2015, explored the little known story of the US Government’s relentless persecution of gays in the Cold War era, focusing in part on how the FBI under Hoover’s direction, tracked the names of tens of thousands of suspected gays and lesbians working for the Federal Government. And then took steps to have them fired. It was just one piece of a so-called lavender scare that left in its wake a trail of fear, paranoia, and destroyed lives. The full story of the US Government’s jihad against gay America is now being told in a landmark book, The Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, by journalist James Kirchick. Kirchick’s book brings to life the largely invisible stories of senior government officials at the State Department, the White House, and in Congress, who lived in fear that their secret lives would become publicly known. And how their careers were shattered when their homosexuality was exposed, often for political or bureaucratic advantage. It’s a shocking story that is a reminder of how much about America’s dark past of persecution has been obscured yet remains highly relevant to themes in our current politics. Kirchick joins to discuss the excruciating agony that denizens of the secret city experienced. And why it is a crucial chapter in American history. 

GUESTS:

James Kirchick, (@jkirchick), Author of the book Gunfight.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Pick up James Kirchick's book The Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington - Here. Watch the groundbreaking Yahoo News documentary "Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government's War on Gays - Here.

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Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy addressed the Senate on Tuesday afternoon after the gut-wrenching news out of Texas. Another school massacre in which twenty-two people were killed, nineteen of them young children. Murphy could barely control himself. It was in his state where ten years ago there had been another slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School where twenty-six people were killed, twenty of them school children. Yet no matter how many of these senseless tragedies, the congress of the United States remains hopelessly deadlocked when it comes to passing sensible gun control measures that might, at least might, make even a small difference. Is there nothing that could change the iron-grip of the gun lobby on the United States Congress? We're joined by Ryan Busse, who once worked in the gun industry himself and is now the author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America.

GUESTS:

Ryan Busse, (@ryandbusse), Author of the book Gunfight.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News story on the victims of the Uvalde School Shooting in TX - Here. You can read Busse's book - Here.

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Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke to a small group of supporters Tuesday night explaining how he pulled off his surprise victory for re-election over a Donald Trump backed opponent. It was a truly extraordinary comeback for Raffensperger, barley a year ago his chances were viewed as hopeless. After refusing Trump's entreaties to find just enough votes to flip Georgia's electoral tally, Raffensperger was denounced by the ex President as an enemy of the people. And he got death threats from Trump's supporters. But Raffensperger stood his ground, and as he put it, refused to buckle under the pressure. Even while, at the same time, he quietly and methodically courted conservative voters with talk about protecting election integrity in the future. The result, combined with Brian Kemp's landslide victory in the governor's race, was a stinging rebuke to Trump. What does all this say about Trump's standing in the Republican Party and how to assess the high-stakes battles in the general election? Not just in Raffensperger's race but in the big contest for governor, Kemp vs Stacy Abrams, and US Senate, Warnock vs Hershel Walker. We are joined by two savvy Georgia political consultants, Republican strategist Brian Robinson and Democratic strategist Chris Huttman.

GUESTS:

Brian Robinson, (@LordTinsdale), President of Robinson Republic Chris Huttman, Research Director at Canal Partners Media

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Isikoff's story on Raffensperger's victory over Trump-backed opponent - Here.

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The new podcast series Will Be Wild focuses on the run up to and the aftermath of the January 6th assault on the US Capitol. It's a deeply reported and at time astonishing series that explores the violent undercurrents that were circulating amongst far-right circles in the years leading up to the attack. The encouragement that those activists got from Donald Trump, and the catastrophic failure of law enforcement and intelligence officials to connect the dots and protect the US Congress from a mob hellbent on trying to overthrow the results of an American Presidential election. As we get closer to next month's long awaited hearings from the January 6th Committee, the Will Be Wild podcast offers an alarming preview of what the country maybe about to hear. Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, the hosts of the aforementioned podcast, join to discuss.

GUESTS:

Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaBNYC), Investigative journalist, author, co-host of the podcast WILL BE WILD Ilya Marritz (@ilyamarritz), co-host of Will Be Wild podcast & covering Trump legal for @npr

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

You can listen to the Will Be Wild podcast - Here. Yahoo News' reporting on the January 6th Committee issuing subpoenas to 5 House Republicans - Here.

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Recent tapes of Senator Lindsay Graham talking to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin on the afternoon of Jan. 6th, 2021 have now been released. It reaffirms what many Republicans were thinking that day about the riot that Donald Trump had just unleashed upon the US Capitol. And expressed hope that the new Democratic President, Joe Biden, could lower the temperature and bring the country together. But as Martin and his Times colleague Alex Burns document in their new book, This Too Shall Pass, that sentiment amongst most GOP lawmakers, Graham prominent among them, didn't last long. And Graham's prognosis that the trauma of Jan. 6th would lead to great national unity couldn't have been more wrong. The United States according to Martin and Burns is facing a political emergency with two parties, who authors write, are not merely advisories but enemies in a domestic cold war that had started to run hot. How hot can it get? And is there any way at this point to cool things down? Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns join to discuss.

GUESTS:

Jonathan Martin (@alexburnsNYT), New York Times Reporter and author Alex Burns (@jmartNYT), New York Times Reporter and author

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

You can pick up Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns' new book This Too Shall Pass - Here. The Lindsay Graham Jan. 6th tapes - Here.

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Politico dropped a bombshell story that stung the political and legal world last week after obtaining a leaked draft opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would appear to be an overturning of Roe v Wade, the 1973 opinion that gave women the constitutional right to abortion. The story was astonishing on multiple levels. It showed that a majority of the court was in fact preparing to discard a core freedom that has been relied on by American women for nearly half a century. But it was also the first time anybody can remember when a draft opinion report had been leaked and published before the court had announced it, making POLITICO's story the mega-scoop of the year if not decade. Josh Gerstein, one of two POLITICO reporters who broke the story, joins to discuss. Then, Carolyn Shapiro, a former clerk to retiring Justice Stephen Breyer weighs in on how the court has operated and may operate differently in the future.

GUESTS:

Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein), Senior Legal Affairs Reporter, POLITICO Carolyn Shapiro (@cshaplaw), Law prof & co-director, @ISCOTUS @ChicagoKentLaw

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News/YouGov Poll on the current confidence of Supreme Court - Here. Yahoo News piece the day the leak was reported - Here.

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As hundreds of reports gather for this weekend's White House Correspondents Dinner, there's one burning issue that remains a lively topic of discussion and debate. Will Donald Trump finally be indicted for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election? To address that question, we assembled an All-Star panel to dissect the complicated legal and political issues facing federal and state prosecutors and ultimately Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department. Bob Woodward and Carol Leonnig of The Washington Post have both written books about Trump's efforts to cling to office, and New York litigator and longtime Republican George Conway has been one of Trump's most persistent legal critics. They spoke to us at a special taping before a live audience at Washington's Politics & Prose bookstore. It ended up being quite a lively conversion.

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JD Vance spoke recently at a Donald Trump rally in Delaware County Ohio last weekend. He was publicly boasting about the endorsement he had just gotten from "the big man," touting his newfound benefactor as the future 47th President of the United States. Trump's backing of Vance, author of the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy, was a head-spinning moment in the wild and woolly Ohio Republican primary. Just six years ago, when Trump was first running for President, Vance excoriated him, writing in one recently revealed text message to his former college roommate, "I go back and forth thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful or that he's America's Hitler." But that was then, and whatever Vance thought of Trump's politics at the time, he's abandoned those views of yesteryear seeing in a full embrace of Donald Trump the key to victory in the Senate race. Next month starts a wave of primaries in Ohio, Georgia, and Pennsylvania that will provide the strongest clues yet on just how much of a hold on Republican voters that Trump still has. Yahoo News' Tom LoBianco joins to discuss the recent Trump rally. Then Kyle Kondik, the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball Newsletter that tracks congressional elections.

GUEST:

Kyle Kondik (@kkondik), American elections commentator & analyst; Managing Editor, Sabato's Crystal Ball at UVA Center for Politics Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco), Politics reporter @yahoonews, Mike Pence biographer: “Piety & Power”

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

LoBianco's latest piece on the primaries in Ohio - Here. Trump holds rally in Ohio in support of Vance - Here.

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In March,1947 Harry Truman delivered to a joint session of Congress one of the most consequential foreign policy speeches ever given by a U.S. President. It was the speech in which Truman announced his plans to deliver aid to two embattled countries --Greece and Turkey-- threatened by instability and, as U.S. officials saw it, Communist subversion. Truman effectively was setting forth a new policy, committing the United States to assisting countries resisting aggression, or perceived threats of aggression, from Soviet Russia. It was dubbed the Truman Doctrine, and along with the Marshall plan, the creation of NATO and the Berlin Airlift, it created a global security architecture that is still very much with us and today 75 years later its shaping how Joe Biden is responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Jeffrey Frank, author of a new book The Trials of Harry Truman, joins to talk about how the the plain speaking president from Missouri came to roll out that policy – and the role it played then and continues to play today on this episode of Skullduggery’s Buried Treasure.

GUESTS:

Jeffrey Frank (@JeffreyAFrank), Author of The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

You can pick up Frank's book The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man - Here.

 

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The battle for Donbas has begun. This week fresh Russian troops poured into the eastern region of Ukraine in what is shaping up as a major offensive aimed at ceasing full control of a substantial slice of the embattled country. At the same time, Vladimir Putin's forces appear to be intensifying their bombardments throughout Ukraine killing civilians, choking off evacuation routes and committing what US officials say are war crimes. What is the Biden Administration doing in response? And is there any hope left for a diplomatic solution? State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, one of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's top advisors, joins to discuss.

GUESTS:

Derek Chollet (@derekchollet), Counselor of U.S. Dept. of State

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Alexander Nazaryan's piece on Donbas - Here.

 

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When former Hong Kong Minister Patrick Ho was flying in to New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport in November of 2017, he was arrested by the FBI for bribery and money laundering charges. The first call he made was to James Biden, brother of the then former Vice President and now President. James Biden later said the call was a mistake, that Ho was actually trying to reach his nephew, the President's son Hunter Biden. And for good reason, newly authenticated documents show that Hunter Biden had gotten a million dollar retainer from Ho, just one tranche of as much as five million dollars that flowed to both Hunter and James Biden from the former Hong Kong official and his boss Ye Jianming, a billionaire oil tycoon with past ties to a front for the people's liberation army. The details of the Biden's relationship with Chinese interests emerged in fits and starts. Much of it originally dismissed because they were found on an abandoned laptop that former US intelligence officials suggested may have been a product of Russian disinformation. No evidence of that has yet been found on the material and recent reporting on the subject has caused some former counterintelligence officials to raise an intriguing but important national security question. Were the Biden's a target of a Chinese influence operation that needs to be fully investigated by the FBI. Coming during the same week that new disclosures that Jared Kushner former President Trump's son-in-law had secured two billion dollars in Saudi money for his investment fund. We talk to former FBI counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi about the questionable dealings of Presidential family members and why they matter.

GUEST:

Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman), National Security Correspondent, @yahoonews Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1), FBI Assistant Director (ret); NBC News National Security Analyst, Author

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Michael Isikoff & Zach Dorfman's latest piece on Hunter Biden/Jared Kushner - Here.

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The horrors in Ukraine only get worse. Russian forces fired missiles at a train station where thousands of civilians had gathered to flee the fierce fighting in the eastern region of Dunbas. At least fifty people were killed including five children and around one hundred were injured. Coming during a week that Western leaders led by President Biden accused the Russians of war crimes and Ukrainian President Zelensky charged that the Russians were engaged in genocide. The rocket attack on a train station only underscored the most pressing issue at the moment. What more can the United States and its allies do to stop Putin's aggression? Few have more consistently called for the US to provide more weapons and military aid to Ukraine than Evelyn Farkas, a former top Pentagon official under President Obama. She joins us to discuss.

GUESTS:

Evelyn Farkas (@EvelynNFarkas), Fmr. Dep. Asst. Secretary @DeptofDefense, ExecDir, WMD Commission, senior Senate staffer, professor

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Train Station Bombing story - Here. The White House's response to the Ukrainian Train Station Bombing - Here.

 

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President Biden this past Monday doubled down on his charge that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. Biden referenced the grotesque images emerging from Bucha showing Ukrainian citizens, their hands tied behind their backs shot and killed by Russian soldiers, their bodies dumped on the streets. Eye-witnesses describe the discovery of mass graves and reports of looting, rape, and other atrocities. Coming on top of Russian missile strikes on a maternity ward and other residential areas. The latest evidence would seem to cry out for a full-scale investigation for war crimes. But how would a war crimes prosecution actually work? And is there any realistic chance that Putin himself would be held accountable? We talk to Stephen Rapp, who formally served at the State Department as US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes.

GUESTS:

Stephen Rapp, Fmr. United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford and Colin Campbell's article on Biden claiming Putin should face war crimes - Here. Yahoo News explainer: What is a War Crime? - Here.

 

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In the aftermath of the social protests inspired by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer, a wave of progressive prosecutors were elected across the country dedicated to rolling back the tough on crime lock-em-up policies that have defined criminal justice in this country for decades. None of those prosecutors have proven more controversial than Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón. From his first day in office, Gascón - a former street cop, issued sweeping directives to put an end to cash bail, the death penalty, life sentences without parole, and the prosecution of anyone younger than eighteen as an adult without exceptions. But today, as violent crime rates in Los Angeles and across California spike, Gascón's reforms have triggered a ferocious pushback. Including from his own prosecutors who sued him for his efforts to bi-pass California's so-called "three strikes and our out" law. Now, Gascón is facing a well funded recall campaign that has already raised over three million dollars. Will Gascón survive the effort to remove him from office? And if he doesn't, what message will that send to progressive prosecutors across the country. Gascón joins us to give us his take on what he still thinks he's gotten right as well as some of the admitted mistakes he's made.

GUESTS:

George Gascón (@GeorgeGascon), LA County District Attorney Andrew Romano (@AndrewRomano), National Correspondent, Yahoo News

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Isikoff & Romano's latest piece on DA Gascón - Here.

 

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A little more than two years ago, Pete Buttigieg rocketed to political stardom when he emerged from seemingly nowhere to become a leading Democratic candidate for President. He had to say the least an unusual resume. A combat vet who served in Afghanistan, openly gay, and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. A town with a population barely over one hundred thousand. Yet Buttigieg stunned the political world by winning the first out of the block Iowa caucus, at least in terms of delegates. Buttigieg didn't get the nomination of course but he was tapped by President Biden to serve as his Secretary of Transportation. A job that puts him in the middle of some of the country's most pressing issues from soaring gas prices to shoring up decaying infrastructure. He's also got some thoughts on the wave of anti-LGBTQ laws being passed by state legislatures across the country. He joins us to discuss these topics and more.

GUESTS:

Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete), US Secretary of Transportation

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments about Buttigieg on electric cars and bathrooms - Here.

 

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This past Saturday night during a political rally in Atlanta, GA railed against Brian Kemp. This is the latest example of his enduring grudge against the state's Republican Governor for the cardinal sin of failing to back his bogus claims that it was he, not Joe Biden, who won Georgia's electoral votes in the 2020 election. Trump's resentment of Kemp has prompted him to endorse the GOP challenger to the Governor, former Senator David Purdue which is shaping up to be a make or break primary that can well determine just how much sway the former President has over the Republican voters. If Perdue pulls out a primary win Trump will undoubtedly be viewed as the ultimate GOP kingmaker clearing the way for him to retake the Republican nomination for President in 2024. But if Kemp prevails, and at the moment he has a solid lead in the polls, it could well be a sign that Trump support is fading far more than Washington pundits have acknowledged. Which will it be? We talk to Greg Bluestein, the lead political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the author of the new book Flipped: How Georgia turned purple and broke the monopoly on Republican power.

GUESTS:

Greg Bluestein (@bluestein), @AJC politics, @nbcnews contributor, @politicallyga pod, Author of “Flipped”

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Pick up Bluestein's new book Flipped - Here. Read Klaidman's latest Yahoo News piece on the GA Trump Rally - Here.

 

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Until Volodymyr Zelensky came along, no one had stood up to Vladimir Putin more forcefully and courageously than Alexei Navalny. A longtime thorn in the Russian President's side, Navalny has mobilized opposition to Putin, denounced his policies, and released YouTube videos exposing his corruption, including his alleged connection to a giant billion dollar mega palace on the Black Sea. As a result, Navalny has suffered endless harassment, faced repeated criminal charges, and notoriously was poisoned in 2020 by a chemical agent widely suspected as being planted by the FSB. Last week, he spoke out in court against Putin's invasion of Ukraine, calling it crazy, and saying it's the duty of every person now to fight this war. On Tuesday, in that same courtroom he was convicted and sentenced to nine more years in a maximum security prison. We'll talk to Vladimir Ashurkov, one of Navalny's top aides and the executive director of the anti-corruption foundation Navalny founded.

GUESTS:

Vladimir Ashurkov (@vashurkov), Executive Director of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation @fbkinfo 

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Michael Isikoff's full-story on Vladimir Ashurkov - Here. The latest on Alexei Navalny's sentencing - Here.

 

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Marie Yovanovitch, former US Ambassador to Ukraine, testified before congress back in November of 2019 about the notorious phone call during which then President Trump trashed her to the new President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. He commented that she would, in Trump's words be "going through some things." It was the moment that the world first heard from Yovanovich, a veteran US Diplomat who had devoted her career to serving the former Soviet Republics, and in the process becoming one the country's leading experts on Ukraine only to be dumped as ambassador because she was not perceived as promoting the corrupt interests of the American President and his cronies. She's now written a book that imparts what she learned about Ukraine and about Vladimir Putin's Russia. Lessons that are all the more important in the wake of Russia's brutal invasion. As Ukraine remains under siege and millions of its citizens flee for safety, we'll talk to Yovanovich about what those lessons were and what Americans should know about them.

GUESTS:

Marie Yovanovitch, Fmr. US Ambassador to Ukraine

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Yovanovitch's reaction to Trump's Helsinki Press conference - Here. Putin's dictatorship will end in disaster, recent piece from Yahoo News UK - Here.

 

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Ukrainian President Zelensky delivered a powerful message to a joint session of U.S. Congress Wednesday morning. Zelensky invoked the memories of America's darkest moments. "Remember Pearl Harbor," he said, "Remember September 11th." Death from sky visited on Americans just as death from the sky is now being visited on the Ukrainian people. He showed a gut wrenching video showing charred bodies, fleeing refugees, and bombs, one after another destroying Ukrainian cities and killing civilians. He praised President Biden for the help he's provided so far but then implored him to do more. If not a "no fly zone" then more air defense systems, more planes, more weapons to fight the Russian aggressors. We discuss the takeaways from Zelensky's speech. We'll also listen to an excerpt from our talk with the former chief of the Ukrainian Air-force about what the Ukrainians really need. And finally, we'll listen to the comments of the former top C.I.A. official about Vladimir Putin's murderous past and what that can mean for the future of Ukraine.

GUESTS:

Dan Hoffman (@danielhoffmanDC), Ret. CIA Station Chief in Moscow

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Alexander Nazaryan's coverage of Zelensky's message to a joint session of the U.S. Congress - Here. Zelensky shows the joint session of the U.S. Congress graphic video "This is Murder" - Here.

 

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Face the Nation last Sunday gave the green light to a Polish proposal to send MiG fighter jets to Ukraine to help that country fight a relentless Russian invasion. But by the end of the week, the deal was off. President Biden vetoed the idea after US intelligence and Pentagon officials raised concerns that, among other factors, the introduction of the planes would provoke the Russians even further and lead to an escalation to the conflict. It was to be sure a bitter disappointment to the Ukrainian government who's president Volodymyr Zelensky has been literally pleading with the west for more firepower to save his country. We are joined by a man in the middle of the controversy and much else involving the Ukraine crisis, the new UN Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski.

GUEST:

Amb. Mark Brzezinski (@AmbassadogTeddy), UN Ambassador to Poland

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

RESOURCES:

Photos of Ukrainian Refugees fleeing their home - Here. Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford's latest piece on President Zelensky - Here.

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Journalist Andrei Soshnikoff, with the help of insider Lyudmila Savchuk, exposed the Internet Research Agency, a troll farm set up by a Russian Oligarch close to Putin. It was a new disturbing phenomenon in the global information wars. This was the moment American's came to know the concept of fake news and disinformation. This came to forefront thanks to the groundbreaking work of the aforementioned Russian investigative journalist Soshnikoff and whistleblower Savchuk. who was disgusted by the murder of Boris Nemtsov. But the ability of Russian journalists to cover the news has now been challenged as never before. In the wake of Putin's latest and more vicious assault on Ukraine, the Kremlin has launched a harsh new crackdown on the press. Threatening journalists with up to fifteen years in prison for spreading "false information" and banning them from even referring to the events in Ukraine as a war. Soshnikoff joins us to discuss the state of Russian media. And also, Maryan Zeblotskyy, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament joins to discuss the latest from Western Ukraine.

GUEST:

Maryan Zeblotzkyy, Member of Ukrainian Parliament Andrei Soshnikoff (@Soshnikoff), Current Time TV, former BBC journalist/Transparency International RU analyst

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Tom LoBianco's latest piece on Putin - Here. Yaoo News' Niamh Cavanagh's latest piece on Zelensky - Here.

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US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield declared that, "The international community must be unanimous in demanding Russia's forces stop their dangerous assault." This, after the aftermath of reports that Russian forces bombed a Ukrainian Nuclear Reactor. This was the latest sign of the ferocity of the Russian attack, an invasion that continues unabated including reports of cluster bombs and widespread attacks on civilians. Is there anything the United States and its western allies can actually do to stop the madness? Congressman Tom Malinowski, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a former top State Department Official under President Obama, who spent years trying to punish Russian misbehavior joins to discuss.

GUEST:

Rep. Tom Malinowski (@RepMalinowski), (D-NJ) - member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford's most recent piece along with Photo Staff about Ukraine - Here. Yahoo News' Jon Ward's most recent piece on hackers and disinformation about Ukraine/Russia war - Here.

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President Zelensky is having one powerful performance after another in defense of his country, Ukraine. He's refusing to back down even as Russian troops close in on his Capitol and the city's frightened residents huddle in air-raid shelters to escape the invaders bombs. The Ukrainians from all accounts are putting up a fierce resistance volunteering in droves to wage battle using aging guns, Molotov cocktails and in some cases their very bodies to slow the Russian advance. But how long can the Ukrainians hang on? And how far is Vladimir Putin prepared to go to crush them? Mark Savchuk, a coordinator for Ukrainian journalists joins us from Kyiv to talk about what's going on right now in the heart of the battle. Also, Dan Hoffman, a former CIA station chief in Moscow, joins to discuss what to make of Putin's bizarre erratic but unbelievably brutal behavior.

GUESTS:

Mark Savchuk (@SavchukMark), coordinator for Ukrainian journalists Dan Hoffman (@danielhoffmanDC), Ret. CIA Station Chief in Moscow

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

The latest from the war in Ukraine - Here. Ben Adler's latest Yahoo News piece involving Climate Activism and Ukraine/Russia - Here.

 

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Ukrainian President Zelensky on Saturday posted a video of himself bravely walking in the streets of the besieged capital city of Kyiv standing defiant as Russian forces close in bombarding the city and leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. Zelensky's refusal to back down in the face of Vladimir Putin's aggression is being seen throughout the world as an inspiring David vs. Goliath battle that may yet end tragically for him and his country. But much depends on what is conceivably going on inside the head of Goliath. Why is Putin doing this? What does he really want? And what, if anything, can the west do to stop him. We talk to two renowned experts on Putin's Russia and Zelensky's Ukraine - Catherine Belton, a special correspondent for Reuters and the author of the book, Putin's People- and also Nina Khrushcheva, a professor of international relations at the New School and the great-granddaughter of another Russian leader, the late Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

GUEST:

Catherine Belton (@CatherineBelton), Special correspondent for @Reuters, author of Putin's People Nina Khrushcheva (@ninakhrushcheva),

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Ukrainian President Zelensky's video "This is our land" - Here. Lastest Yahoo News article on Ukraine/Kyiv - Here. Pick. up Belton's book Putin's People -Here.

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President Biden this past Friday introduced his choice for the Supreme Court. And the nominee, DC Court of Appeals Ketanji Brown Jackson, introduced herself the country. It was a historic pick on multiple grounds. Jackson is the first African-American woman ever nominated for the court. If confirmed, she'll also be the first Supreme Court Justice who worked as a public defender bringing a new sensibility to how the criminal justice system impacts the world of real life defendants. But there is much more to her life story. A stellar student in high school, graduated from Harvard and Harvard Law School, with a family that includes a brother who was a Baltimore city cop and an uncle who was. Miami's Police Chief and yet another uncle who has been wrapped up in the drug trade. We'll talk to one of her oldest friends from High School - appellate lawyer Richard Rosenthal, about what we should know about Ketanji Brown Jackson and what her nomination will bring to the Supreme Court.

GUEST:

Richard Rosenthal, former law clerk to the Honorable Levin H. Campbell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and to the Honorable Edward B. Davis, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Christopher Wilson's most recent piece about Ketanji Brown Jackson - Here.

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While the Biden White House waits nervously to see if Russia invades Ukraine, perhaps in the next few days, the biggest political story this week that took place was as local as it gets. In San Francisco, where voters, by an overwhelming margin, recalled three school board members. Why? Incompetence and frustration to be sure over the board's decision to keep public schools shut down all last year over Covid even as schools elsewhere were opening. But perhaps even more the recall vote was a rejection of the board members progressive woke agenda. In the name of racial justice the board was looking to rename schools. Even those named after Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. It had ended merit based admission to one of the city's elite high schools because it lead to too many Asian-American students and not enough African-American and Hispanics getting in. That vote has been seen as a wake up call for Democrats when the eyes of some have too often embraced the progressive agenda that has alienated voters across the political spectrum. Washington Post columnist Matt Bai joins us to talk on why the woke agenda has alienated him and what the radical drift of both political parties could mean for the country's future.

GUEST:

Matt Bai (@mattbai), Contributing columnist focusing on politics at @washingtonpost

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Matt Bai's latest piece for @washingtonpost discussed on pod - Here. Yahoo News' Alex Nazaryan's piece on the San Francisco School Board situation - Here.

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Last week, State Department spokesperson Ned Price, fielded tough questions from AP reporter Matt Lee about the US Government's claims that Russian forces were planning to mount a phony false flag attack in order to provide a pre-text for an invasion of Ukraine. It was a classic moment in which a Biden Administrative Official was forced to answer that most fundamental of questions that should always be asked when the government makes bold assertions about the perfidy of a foreign power. What's the evidence? Price declined to do so leaving the press and much of the public leaving to wonder, does US intelligence really have the goods to back up its claims? Or was this just one more front in a much larger information warfare battle in which the Biden Whitehouse is trying to spook the Kremlin to forgo its plans to seize control of a neighboring country? As the world sits on edge of what Putin may or may not do, we talk to cyber security expert Dmitri Alperovitch about what we should expect over the next several weeks.

GUEST:

Dmitri Alperovitch (@DAlperovitch), Chairman, Silverado Policy Accelerator; Co-Founder & Former CTO @CrowdStrike

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Vindman lawsuit story and information - Here. Vindman's book Here, Right Matters for purchase - Here.

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Back in 2019, United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, testified about the notorious phone call between then President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky. The one where Trump pressured the new foreign leader to launch investigations into that would embarrass Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Vindman's plain spoken account was a pivotal and dramatic moment that ultimately led to Trump's first impeachment. But Vindman's closing words addressed to his father who brought his family from the old Soviet Union to the United States more than forty years ago has an eerie echo today. Despite his assurance to his Dad then, "Don't worry I'll be alright for telling the truth," Vindman last week filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani, and two other former White House Aides accusing them of running a coordinated intimidation and retaliation campaign against him. That he alleges has cost him significant financial emotional and reputational harm. Vindman joins us to discuss, and as a former Ukraine analyst on the National Security Council, we also talk to him about the current Russian threat to Ukraine.

GUEST:

Alexander Vindman (@AVindman), Retired United States Army Lieutenant Colonel, Author

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Vindman lawsuit story and information - Here. Vindman's book Here, Right Matters for purchase - Here.

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Last week former Vice President Mike Pence, in a speech to the Federalist Society, delivered his most forceful rebuke yet to the man he had faithfully served for four years - Donald Trump. It may as well have been Pence's finest hour. Not only did he tell Trump that he was flat out wrong in his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, but there was, "no idea more Un-American than Trump's persistent intreaties to him that he unilaterally toss out certified votes of electors on Jan. 6th so that Trump could stay in power. How extraordinary was Pence's speech? And why did he deliver it now? And how much impact will it have on the Republican Party? Yahoo News' Jon Ward joins to discuss. Then, Jim Pasco, the Executive Director at National Fraternal Order of Police joins to talk about the politics of crime.

GUEST:

Jon Ward (@jonward11), Chief National Correspondent @yahoonews, Author of "Camelot's End," Host of The Long Game Podcast Jim Pasco (@GLFOP), Executive Director at National Fraternal Order of Police

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Caitlin Dickson's piece on latest Pence speech saying "Trump is wrong." - Here. The Government & Media Affairs site from the Fraternal Order of Police - Here.

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Former President Trump in Texas last week threatened the prosecutors who are daring to investigate him with the biggest protests we have ever seen. It was an unnerving speech that. seemed to bring about the idea of another Jan. 6th. type event and triggered the Fulton County prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, to ask for an F.B.I. risk assessment of the county courthouse in downtown Atlanta citing safety concerns for those involved in the criminal investigation. Is this a sign that Trump is nervous? And how much does he have to worry about from what's to come of the Willis investigation? Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal Constitution joins to discuss.

GUEST:

Greg Bluestein (@bluestein), @AJC political reporter, author of the upcoming book Flipped.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Dylan Stableford's piece on Georgia prosecutor asking for FBI Protection post-Trump rally - Here. Pre-order Greg Bluestein's book Flipped - Here.

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Journalist Jonathan Allen on this podcast last March described the fateful moment when Joe Biden, with his campaign on the ropes during the South Carolina primary in 2020, agreed to name an African-American woman to the Supreme Court. It was a commitment made under intense political pressure by house majority WHIP James Clyburn. The most powerful black politician in the state. But it paid off big time. Biden made his pledge, Clyburn endorsed the next morning, and the former Vice-President won a resounding victory in South Carolina putting his campaign on a gliding path to the nomination. And now, Biden's nearly two year old campaign pledge has become newly relevant as Justice Stephen Breyer announced he will be stepping down. Who will Biden actually pick to replace him? And how much difference will it make? Two veteran Supreme Court watches, Dahlia Lithwick of Slate and Jess Bravin of The Wall Street Journal, join to discuss.

GUESTS:

Dahlia Lithwick (@Dahlialithwick), covers the court and law from Slate Jess Bravin (@JessBravin), Supreme Court correspondent for The Wall Street Journal

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Isikoff's piece on Biden's promise to select an African-American to Supreme Court - Here. Jonathan Allen's appearance on Skullduggery - Here.

 

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged this week that any move by Vladimir Putin on Ukraine will be met with clear, swift, and a united response from the United States and its NATO allies. It was one more sign of a looming crisis that has much of the world on edge. The Russians have amassed as many as 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border prompting the US to pull diplomats out of Kiev over fears for their safety. And now, the US has put as many as 8500 troops on alert for possible deployment in support of NATO. Seventy-Seven years after the end of World War II are we really on the verge of another ground war in Europe? Or does Putin have another game plan? Our guest John Sipher, retired from a 28-year career at the CIA with time spent in Moscow and also running the CIA’s Russia operations, gives us his insight as to what we are potentially dealing with.

GUEST:

John Sipher (@john_sipher), Former CIA Clandestine Service - Now @SpycraftEnt @AtlanticCouncil

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Andrew Romano's latest Yahoo News/YouGov story - Here. John Sipher's Bio on the Atlantic Council - Here.

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The World Economic Forum is something that takes place every year in Davos, Switzerland. Mark Benioff, Billionaire CEO of cloud computing company Salesforce who frequents this forum, is an evangelist for a concept known as stakeholder capitalism. The notion that corporate executors have an obligation to not just do what's best for its shareholders, the folks who bought the stocks and reaped the dividends, but for all its stakeholders including the company's workers, consumers, suppliers, and more broadly, society at large. It's positioned Benioff as that most admirable of characters at the annual retreat, a progressive CEO committed to ending climate change, promoting diversity, and otherwise making the world a better place. But according to our guest Peter S. Goodman of The New York Times, and author of the book Davos Man,it's all a charade.In addition, our hosts discuss the latest developments into Jan. 6th, the newly discovered Draft Executive Order for the Military to cease election machines, as well as the recent news out of Georgia in regards to the infamous Trump phone call to find him more votes.

GUEST:

Peter S. Goodman (@petersgoodman), @nytimes global econ corr. Author of DAVOS MAN: How the Billionaires Devoured the World

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Pick Up Goodman's book - Here. Watch Rutger Bregman Viral Clip from Davos - Here.

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Before Watergate brought Carl Bernstein well-deserved fame and fortune, he sharpened his journalistic chops as a copy boy and cub reporter for The Washington Star. It was the Capitol's afternoon newspaper until it was shut down forty-one years ago. And was also The Washington Post's fierce crosstown rival. Bernstein has now written a memoir about his formative days at The Star called Chasing History: A Kid In The Newsroom. It recounts how a kid, who barely graduated high school and never finished college learned how to conduct interviews and craft stories that mattered all while getting a front row seat at some of the biggest events of his time. From the Civil Rights Movement to the assassination of JFK. Bernstein joins to discuss his book and what lessons it has for journalists today.

GUEST:

Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein), Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Pick up Carl Bernstein's new book - Chasing History - Here.

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In Biden's recent address to the people of the United States, he appeared to leave open the door for Democrats to question the legitimacy of this year's congressional elections due to new voting laws being passed by Republican controlled state legislatures. The. comments came just as West Virginia State Senator Joe Manchin was on the floor of the Senate reaffirming that he would not go along with changing Senate filibuster rules thereby effectively dooming the President's call for sweeping new Federal laws that would override what GOP lawmakers are doing in the states. Another crushing defeat for Biden. How big of a defeat was this for Dems in general? And what will it mean for this fall's midterms? Michael Waldman, President of the Brennan Center for Justice and author of the newly reissued book The Fight To Vote, joins to discuss said questions and much more.

GUEST:

Michael Waldman (@mawaldman), Pres. @brennancenter at NYU Law. Author The Fight to Vote, Fmr. Bill Clinton speechwriter

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Pick up Waldman's book The Fight To Vote - Here

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On Steve Bannon's Podcast, War Room Pandemic, there's a common theme that the deep state is coming after you. The believe in the "big lie" is also common fodder and remains as powerful as ever. And just this week, DOJ brought new charges against leaders of the Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracies are only seen as further proof of the dastardly leftist plot to target patriotic Trump supporters and tighten its control over America. Tim Milleer of The Bulwark joins to discuss the bizzare-o world of Bannon's podcast and what impact it's having on the Republican Party. Then Erik Wemple, media columnist for The Washington Post, joins to talk about how the media should be covering this strange moment in American politics.

GUESTS:

Tim Miller (@Timodc), Writer-At-Large @bulwarkonline Erik Wemple (@ErikWemple), Washington Post media critic

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Tim Miller's latest piece about spending a week listening to Steve Bannon - Here. Erik Wemple's latest stories for The Washington Post - Here.

 

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Skullduggery's Buried Treasure returns as author Jonathan M. Katz joins to talk about his new book Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire. Tracing a path from the first wave of U.S. overseas expansionism to the rise of fascism in the 1930s to the crises of democracy in our own time, Katz's book tells an urgent story about a formative era most Americans have never learned about, including a Jan. 6th 2021 plot-like attempt to overthrow the US Government in the 1930s exposed by Smedley himself to Congress.

GUEST:

Jonathan M. Katz (@KatzOnEarth)

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News

 

RESOURCES:

Pre-Order Katz's book - Here

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In AG Merrick Garland's speech on the eve of Jan. 6th he "vowed to pursue the perpetrators of the violent attack “at any level,” and promised to “follow the facts wherever they lead.” The investigation into the event that took place just a year ago on the US Capitol is not limited to the more than seven hundred rioters who have already been charged with breaching the Capitol barricades, assaulting Capitol Police Officers, and threatening the lives of members of congress as well as the sitting Vice-President of the United States. And whether or not they were present that day. So, who does he mean? And does that mean potential charges against Donald Trump himself? Robert Costa of the Washington Post joins to talk about all the latest surrounding the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6th attack.

GUEST:

Robert Costa (@costareports)

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Get Robert Costa/Bob Woodward's latest best-selling book Peril - Here Yahoo News' Caitlin Dickson's latest story on AG Garland's speech about Jan. 6th - Here

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We are just days away from the one year anniversary of Jan. 6th, that now infamous dark day in the history of the US where our own people attack the US Capitol in order to stop the certification of Joe Biden as the next President. Leading up to that day, a vast amount of wild and ridiculous conspiracies about how the election was stolen and rigged, were spreading quickly without an ounce of evidence to support them. "Stop the Steal" had become the new catchphrase of Trump's supporters, serving as a spring board and call to action by those who had been convinced it was true. How far did it go? Where did those supporters take action? We all witnessed Jan. 6th on our televisions, but what most of us didn't see was what happened on the local level, state by state, county by county. Authors of the book, The Steal: The Attempt to Overturn the 2020 Election and the People Who Stopped It --Mark Bowden and Matthew Teague, join us to discuss the lead up to Jan. 6th as well as some of the wildest claims and conspiracies that millions of people still believe to this day.

GUESTS:

Mark Bowden (@MarkBowdenwrite), Journalist, author of The Finish, Black Hawk Down, Worm, Greatest Game ever Played Matthew Teague (@MatthewTeague), Nieman Fellow 2019; exec. producer of feature film Our Friend

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Buy The Steal by Bowden/Teague - Here. Yahoo News story debunking urinal/election fraud conspiracy - Here.

 

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The Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are now central to the investigations into the events of Jan. 6th. More than thirty Proud Boys have been indicted by the Justice Department for the attack on the US Capitol. And just this week, a Federal Judge overseeing many of those cases, upheld the department's position that the defendants can be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding. Meaning, they can be sentenced to lengthy prison terms of up to twenty years. As this situation intensifies, DC's AG Karl Racine is taking another route. He's filed a civil suit against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers over the events, calling the attack, "a coordinated attack of domestic terrorism." AG Racine joins us to discuss.

GUEST:

District of Columbia's AG Karl Racine (@AGKarlRacine)

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News Article on Racine's lawsuit filing against Proud Boys / Oath Keepers - Here

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Joe Manchin has been pushing back on the furious attacks from the White House and his fellow Democrats over his refusal to support President Biden's Build Back Better bill. Manchin's quote that he, "just can't get there to back the bill," was a crushing blow to the Biden administration and appeared to stun top officials and Democratic leaders. A bill that would in their view sharply reduce child poverty, help working parents by dramatically expanding child care, and take major steps to address climate change. And perhaps just as significant that the failure to pass the bill undermines Democratic arguments that they and Biden can actually get things done. Thereby seriously hurting the party's chances of retaining control of congress in next fall's midterm elections. Former NY Democratic Rep. from Staten Island - Max Rose - joins us to discuss the aforementioned in addition to why he himself is running again to win back the seat he lost just a year ago to Trump supporter Nicole Malliotakis.

GUEST:

Frm. Congressman Max Rose (@MaxRose4NY), Serving the people of Illinois. Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

The reaction from the Climate Community after Manchin kills BBB Bill - Here Max Rose seeks rematch to win back his house seat - Here

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Biden said this week that domestically, there is nothing more important than voting rights. And yet as with Build Back Better, his nearly two trillion social spending bill, there seems little prospect that a voting rights bill can pass before the end of the year. Not so long as two democrats Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin remain admittedly opposed to changing the Senate's filibuster rules that allow a minority that allow a minority of members to block passage of just about anything. Nobody has been in the middle of the fight for voting rights and much else on the democratic slate then Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois. He joins us to discuss the aforementioned bills and the prospects of anything getting down not only before Christmas, but next year as well.

GUEST:

Senator Dick Durbin (@SenatorDurbin), Serving the people of Illinois. Majority Whip and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Isikoff's story on Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin - Here

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This week, our Yahoo News colleague Jana Winter discovered the existence of a secret investigations unit inside the Department of Homeland Security. It was snooping into the private lives of journalists as well as congressional staff members and others. They were pulling phone records, travel records, personal contacts, and much else. All of this under the guise of cultivating them to help with the legitimate government investigation into, of all things, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This secret unit launched an initiative called Operation Whistle Pig that targeted journalists. Informally, it called itself W.O.L.F. - way out there in left field. Winter joins us to discuss as well as an ACLU lawyer, Hugh Handeyside, about why this is so alarming.

GUESTS:

Jana Winter (@janawinter), Investigative Correspondent @YahooNews Hugh Handeyside (@hhandeyside), Senior Staff Attorney, @ACLU National Security Project

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Jana Winter's Operation Whistle Pig story - Here. Rep. Bennie Thompson, House Homeland Security Chair's reaction to story - Here.

 

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The Mauritanian is a powerful film about a young man named Mohamedou Slahi who was held for fourteen years in GTMO. He was accused of being an Al-Qaeda operative who recruited the hi-jackers for the 9/11 attacks. He was once viewed as one of the most significant high-value detainees and under direct order of then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld he was subjected to special interrogation methods. He was beaten, kicked, and smashed across his face. Subjected to extreme cold and sexual humiliation by female interrogators. And also threatened with execution during a boat ride where he was force-fed sea water. Slahi himself joins us on this episode of Skullduggery to talk about his experience and his eventual release after wrongful prosecution. 

GUEST:

Mohamedou Slahi, fmr. detainee at Guantanamo Bay & best-selling author

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Slahi's best-selling book turned movie - Here Isikoff's story on Mohamedou Slahi - Here

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The death of Bob Dole this week at the age of 98 has reminded the country just how much Washington and the Republican Party has changed since the days he ruled the roost as Senate Majority Leader. Although a stalwart partisan who was once known as Richard Nixon's "hatchet man," Dole also believed firmly that politics and government had a purpose - to get things done, to pass legislation that actually made a difference in voters. Even if it meant reaching out to the other side, listening and respecting what they had to say and forging compromises. An approach that seems almost entirely foreign in politics these days. We're joined by veteran GOP strategist Scott Reed who managed Dole's 1996 campaign for President.

GUEST:

Scott Reed, top Republican political strategist and former executive director of the Republican National Committee

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Scott Reed's recent piece on Dole in The Dispatch - Here Yahoo News' piece on the passing of Bob Dole - Here

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Supreme Justice Sotomayor grilled the solicitor general of Mississippi on what it would mean for the court's legitimacy if it does what Mississippi wants it to, overturn Row v. Wade. "Will this institution survive the stench that this creates in the public perception that the constitution and its reading are just political acts." This revealed that the court is deeply divided. Is this a result of Trump getting to name three Supreme Court Justices? If overturned, what happens next on the state level? We discuss with Linda Greenhouse who has been covering said court for over forty years.

GUEST:

Linda Greenhosue (@GreenhouseLinda), covers The Supreme Court & Law for the @nytimes

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Linda Greenhouse's new book: Justice on the Brink - Here. Linda Greenhouse's New York Times Profile- Here.

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After Donald Trump was elected President, the CIA started briefing him on the threats facing the country and other developments the could affect national security interests. From the outset, there was a problem. Trump, while occasionally polite and willing to listen, was rarely impressed with what his briefers had to tell him. He didn’t want his briefing every day. And he wasn’t interested in getting a written brief either. “He doesn’t really read anything,” his chief CIA briefer explained. “In an hour’s discussion, there might only be eight or nine minutes of real intelligence,” said the director of national intelligence. What is remarkable about these comments is that they come from a new book written by a former CIA inspector general and released by the CIA itself. It’s called, Getting to know the President. What does it say about the CIA that it would put out a tome that discloses somewhat embarrassing details of a President it once served? We talk to David Priess, a former CIA briefer himself. 

GUEST:

David Priess (@DavidPriess), Lawfare Publisher/COO, cohost @ThatWasChatter pod, fmr. CIA

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Getting to know the President book - Here. David Priess' Podcast, Chatter- Here.

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Skullduggery presents an episode of The Climate Crisis Podcast hosted by Yahoo News Senior Editors David Knowles & Ben Adler. In this episode, Adler talks to longtime environmental activist and journalist Bill McKibben about his newest venture: Third Act, an organization intended to mobilize older Americans in the fight against climate change and in defense of voting rights. McKibben tells Adler his thoughts on the outcome of the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, why he is trying to engage Americans ages 60 and older, and how he thinks climate activism must turn towards the private sector.

GUEST:

Bill McKibben (@billmckibben), Author, Educator, Environmentalist and founder of http://350.org and http://ThirdAct.org

HOSTS:

Ben Adler (@badler), Senior Climate Editor @YahooNews, Host of @Climate_Podcast David Knowles (@writerknowles), Editorial Senior Manager at @YahooNews, Host of @Climate_Podcast

 

RESOURCES:

The Climate Crisis Podcast - Here.

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Climate change the scientists tell us is an existential threat to the future of the planet. But what do we do about it? And how much time do we actually have before we're completely engulfed by rising sea levels, melting ice caps, and ever more extreme weather events from out of control wildfires to floods, tsunamis, and other natural disasters? Fresh off COP26 in Glasgow, Yahoo News' Ben Adler and David Knowles join to discuss our path forward. Also, Yahoo News Reporter Caitlin Dickson joins to paint the picture post verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case.

GUESTS:

Ben Adler (@badler), Senior Climate Editor @YahooNews David Knowles (@writerknowles), Editorial Senior Manager at @YahooNews, Host of @Climate_Podcast Caitlin Dickson (@CEDickson), Senior Reporter @YahooNews

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

The Climate Crisis Podcast - Here. Dickson's Rittenhouse story post verdict - Here.

 

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We all heard the tape of the phone call eleven months ago. President Trump telling Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Secretary of State, he should overturn the election results and declare that he, not Joe Biden, won the Peach State in last year's election. "President Trump is using what he believes is the power of his position to threaten me if we don't do what he tells us to do Raffensperger writes about the phone call in his new book called Integrity Counts. Essentially accusing then President Trump of criminal conduct. Raffensperger could end up being a crucial witness in the still ongoing investigation of Trump's conduct by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Raffensperger joins to discuss said book as well as his upcoming hopes for re-election.

GUEST:

Georgia Sec. of State Brad Raffensperger (@GaSecofState)

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Trump's infamous phonecall to Raffensperger - Here.

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The new TV series, DOPESICK, showcases the big lie that a new opioid drug Purdue Pharma was pushing - oxycontin - was safe, effective, and most importantly not addictive. Well, it was. And the new drug had been blessed by an FDA official who later went on to work for, you guessed it, Purdue Pharma. This is the story of the billion dollar drug company run by the Sackler family and how they pushed this product out to the masses creating an addiction to a dangerous narcotic. Danny Strong, the director and writer of the DOPESICK series as well as the author of the book it's based on, Beth Macy, on this episode. Yahoo News' own Jon Ward joins as well to update us on Steve Bannon, who recently appeared in court after originally defying his subpoena.

GUESTS:

Danny Strong (@Dannystrong), Writer/Director/Actor/Producer Beth Macy (@papergirlmacy), Journalist, author of the award-winning, NYT-bestseller DOPESICK Jon Ward (@jonward11), Senior Political Correspondent for Yahoo News

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Buy DOPESICK book - Here. Jon Ward's latest Bannon story - Here.

 

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"His second term is going to start with a bang, that we can guarantee you." So spoke former White House Counselor Steve Bannon on his podcast Jan. 5th, seeming to foreshadow the horrific events of the next day at the US Capitol. The country, he told his listeners, was about to go through a constitutional crisis that would make the impeachment of Donald Trump look like a Sunday picnic. Did Bannon know what was going to happen on that dark day in US history? Did he encourage it? He was issued a subpoena to turn over documents, he denied. Now, he's been indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of congress. How will this all play out in court? And how long will it take? Evan Osnos also joins to discuss his new book Wildland: The Making of America's Fury.A book that charts how we got to Jan. 6th in the first place. A story in which Bannon plays a role.

GUEST:

Evan Osnos (@eosnos) - Journalist & Author, staff writer @NewYorker

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Buy Osnos' new book Wildland: The Making of America's Fury- Here.

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Fiona Hill was a member of Donald Trump's National Security Council. She was a key figure who coordinated policy toward Vladimir Putin's Russia. She had a bird's eye view of the strange dynamic that played out throughout the Trump years. The repeated and seemingly inexplicable sympathy that the US President had for the authoritarian Russian leader culminated in a disastrous press conference in Helsinki. This of course is where Trump sided with Putin as opposed to his own US agencies in regards to the Russian interference in the 2016 election. Hill contemplated faking a seizure and throwing herself into a row of people right behind her in order to stop the press conference dead in its tracks. This is one scene from Hill's new book - There is Nothing For You Here. She joins to discuss.

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For more than a century has had on the books a concealed carry law that permits individuals to carry a weapon only if they demonstrate they have a special need for one to protect themselves from a threat on their lives. This week, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge from that law from an NRA affiliated group arguing that such restrictions are an unconstitutional violation to a citizen’s right to bare arms. Gun control advocatesfear it’s something that could end up in the Supreme Court, which now has a solid 6-3 conservative majority. Two authors, both with a book out about the NRA and guns - Ryan Busse and Tim Mak - join to discuss where America is headed when it comes to guns, gun violence, and those that lobby for open carry.

GUESTS:

Ryan Busse (@ryandbusse), author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America Tim Mak (@timkmak), Author of Misfire: Inside the Downfall of the NRA

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Buy Busse's book - Here. Buy Tim Mak's book - Here.

 

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As the race for Governor in the State of Virginia comes down to its final few moments, an epic debate blunder from Terry Mcauliffe has been exploited in order for his rival Glenn Youngkin to have a potential shot at victory. On top of that, a Loudoun County sexual assault case has arisen front and center during the final days. Yahoo News' own Jon Ward joins to breakdown the story. Then former Virginia Congressman - Republican Tom Davis - weighs in on what the results will ultimately mean moving forward.

GUEST:

Fmr. Congressman Tom Davis of Virginia Yahoo News' Jon Ward (@jonward11)

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Latest on Loudoun Country sexual assault case dominating Election Race - Here.

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Rep. Jamie Raskin took to the House floor last week to lay out exactly what is at stake in the battle of Steve Bannon's refusal to testify before the Jan. 6th Select Committee. Few members have done more to get to the bottom of what happened that day than Raskin and punish those who were responsible. Before being elected to Congress, he was a Constitutional Law Professor. It was he who led the charge to impeach former President Trump over his role in inciting the attack. But even if Raskin, who's leading the charge once again gets Bannon to testify, what will they actually learn? And what do they believe the investigation might actually uncover? Raskin himself joins to discuss.

GUEST:

Rep. Jamie Raskin (@RepRaskin), Rep. from MD's 8th Congressional District, on @rulesdemocrats, @housejudiciary, @oversightdems, & @houseadm_dems

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Latest Yahoo News Article on Jan. 6th Subpoenas - Here. Raskin and Cheney get in fight with Taylor Green on House Floor - Here.

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In recent weeks, a television series has been airing called American Crime Story: Impeachment that explores the events leading up to the impeachment of then U.S. President Bill Clinton. The story, mostly told through the eyes of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, seemingly conflates and at times completely fabricates the truth to inflict maximum drama while depicting key role players involved with varying degrees of accuracy. Yet, at other times, completely nails exactly what was actually said and/or happened. One of those characters is Skullduggery's own Michael Isikoff who was the original reporter piecing together the landmark story that would change Clinton's Presidency forever. Our hosts, whom all three were involved - Isikoff and Klaidman both at Newsweek at the time, Bassetti who was in the room for Lewinsky's depositions - weigh in on what the show gets right and what it gets wrong.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

 

RESOURCES:

Michael Isikoff's 1999 book about the events - Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story - Here. Original Posting from the Drudge Report - Here. Isikoff's Original Story from 1998 for Newsweek - Diary of a Scandel - Here.

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