Takes the Cake

Added: 2026-05-24

[00:00:00]MSW Media The Department of Justice has established a $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund after Trump dropped his lawsuit against the IRS.

[00:00:16]A former federal prosecutor has been indicted for sending herself copies of volume two of Jack Smith's final report disguised as cake recipes.

[00:00:25]A federal judge has dismissed the charges against Kilmar Brego Garcia on vindictive and selective prosecution grounds.

[00:00:33]And the Justice Department has dropped all remaining charges against the Broadview six after a grand jury transcript showed gross misconduct.

[00:00:41][music] This is unjustified.

[00:00:47]>> [music] >> Hey everybody, welcome to episode 70 of Unjustified. It's Sunday, May 24th, 2026. I'm Allison Gill. And I am Andy McCabe. And Allison, we're going to dive right in because we [laughter] got some miles to cover here today. Yeah.

[00:01:06]>> So, last week, you will recall we briefly mentioned a potential, then potential forthcoming $1.8 billion slush fund that the DOJ is calling a settlement between Trump, his sons, and the IRS. And we said last week that we'd wait until this week to see what unfolded. And a lot has happened. My god, the country's on fire over this as it should be. Yeah. So, it's a story that's been dominating the headlines all week. And of course, since we recorded our last episode, Donald Trump filed a notice to the court that he was dropping his $10 billion lawsuit. Now, he didn't need to ask for permission to do this because the IRS never answered his complaint.

[00:01:50]And so, that allowed him to unilaterally drop the case. He made no mention in in notice of any sort of a settlement.

[00:01:58]Yeah, and after that, the judge noticed that. She She closed the case, right?

[00:02:03]Right.

[00:02:03]>> But she made mention of the fact that there was zero mentions of any settlement, no terms of any settlement in the notice, and that there's no settlement of record. So, whatever the Department of Justice would do next would not be a settlement of that case that she just closed. That was her purpose in saying that.

[00:02:21]And then NBC reported that the Justice Department announced last Monday that it was in fact establishing a 1.776 billion-dollar anti-weaponization fund after Trump moved to dismiss a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over his leaked tax returns. And again, the article here says NBC says that Trump moved to dismiss his case, but he didn't. Moving requires permission.

[00:02:47]That's right. He just filed notice. He noticed the court.

[00:02:51]And so, a move He didn't move. That didn't happen here, but regardless, um they go on to say Justice Department officials announced that Trump and his co-plaintiffs would drop their IRS lawsuit as well as their other claims of damages, the one in connection with the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, his Florida home, and the one that he was filing for damages in the Russian collusion scandal, all that, you know, the hoax.

[00:03:16]Mhm. And he was dropping all those claims in exchange for creating the fund, which the Justice Department said set up a quote systematic process to hear and redress claims of others who suffered weaponization and lawfare.

[00:03:30]Yeah, so the 1.776 And if you If that number sounds familiar, yes, it is.

[00:03:38]picked for uh promotional value, I'm sure. $1.776 billion available for the fund was based upon the projected valuation of future claimants' claims, according to the Justice Department. Sure.

[00:03:52]>> Now, yeah, right. I'm I'd love to see the math. I want to see the the the the work. Show your work on the paper, you know, like in school. I want to see how they calculated that.

[00:04:01]>> Yeah, and Public Citizen has filed a Freedom of Information Act request for that for that very thing. Nice. Nice.

[00:04:08]Okay, Trump was um speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon and he said the fund was meant to reimburse, quote, people that were horribly treated, adding that he wasn't involved in the fund's creation.

[00:04:20]Yeah, I'm sure [clears throat] he didn't know anything about it. Mhm. Todd Blanche released the settlement document, but then amended it the following day, the Associated Press reports.

[00:04:29]On Tuesday, the Internal Revenue Service agreed to drop all pending probes of Trump over whether he's paid his fair share of taxes to settle a lawsuit brought by the president over a leak of his tax returns. That could include, assuming it was ongoing, a long-standing audit into a technique that Trump reportedly used to avoid paying taxes years ago that could have hit him with an estimated $100 million bill if the IRS found wrongdoing.

[00:04:58]Mhm. So, he kind of pardoned himself.

[00:05:02]Yep. Yep, he did. But, it doesn't end there, does it? No. No. But, tax experts, by the way, say that grant of immunity is shocking in the breadth of protection it offers the president and could undermine confidence in the fairness of the tax system. And by the way, nobody's bringing this up, but so I will. When John Gleeson filed his amicus brief against the $10 billion lawsuit, Mhm. he talked about, "Hey, if you're thinking of settling this, we need to make sure the DOJ intends to comply with regulatory requirements and to account for limitations on the relief. And and there's certain rules that you have to follow when you settle stuff, including 26 US Code 7217A that makes it unlawful, for executive officials, to request any officer or of the IRS to terminate an audit of any particular taxpayer with respect [laughter] to the tax liability of such taxpayer. Now, John Gleeson didn't say with respect to Trump and his audits, but I think he put that in there because he knew this was probably going to happen. I think it would fit. Yep. Yeah.

[00:06:04]So, here's a quote. This is an unprecedented remedy. That's former IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel noting that Trump should be treated like every other taxpaying American. Quote, people expect the same tax rules and enforcement framework to apply to everybody.

[00:06:17]But, that's not all. Like you said, the creation of this fund ruffled a lot of feathers in Congress on both sides of the aisle. In fact, Republicans were so mad about this that after a very contentious meeting on the hill with Todd Blanche in which at least 25 Senate Republicans yelled at Todd Blanche uh for setting up the fund without Congress.

[00:06:40]They all packed up and left town without funding ICE and Customs and Border Protection.

[00:06:44]>> [laughter] >> We're so mad, we're going on vacation.

[00:06:48]Yeah, they they couldn't get because because the you know, the their funding, their reconciliation bill to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection cuz Democrats refused to do so. Because it falls under the jurisdiction of the Senate Judiciary Committee, so does this weaponization fund. And a lot of people were wanting to put restrictions on it or write, you know, include laws about this fund in the budget reconciliation bill and they couldn't. They they were like, forget it. And they all just went home.

[00:07:18]>> [laughter] >> Oh, poo. Somebody get my driver and tell him to take me to the airport. I'm ready to go to Cabo. I mean, it's just hilarious to me. Like, this is what passes for a fight in Congress. Stomping your feet and shaking your fist as you walk out the door on vacation. Well done, gentlemen.

[00:07:33]>> Now, Ted Cruz, by the way, somebody just sent this to me.

[00:07:36]Apparently said on his podcast, quote, there were fireworks at an epic level.

[00:07:41]This is about that meeting. Uh-huh. And I got to say it's one of the roughest meetings I've seen in my entire time in the Senate. Fiery does not begin to cut it. They were screaming at the acting attorney general. These are Republicans.

[00:07:52]This was the Republican Senate Caucus.

[00:07:55]I mean, I'm glad, but wow. How What is it How many years has it been? And what has it taken to wake them up? This.

[00:08:04]Apparently, this is >> you belonged to some sort of legislative body that could pass a law to to block the >> fund. Mm-mm. Anyway, well, Okay, so this reporting comes from The Independent. President Donald Trump lashed out at his Republican colleagues in the Senate who left the hill this week without funding the president's signature immigration agenda after widespread opposition to his $1.8 billion slush fund.

[00:08:29]In a furious Friday Truth Social post, the president hit out at North Carolina Senator Tom Tillis, a soon-retiring Republican, who has broken from Trump on various matters, including the newly formed anti-weaponization fund.

[00:08:45]Referring to Tillis as a weak and ineffective senator, Trump accused Tillis of pushing back against him in retaliation for refusing to endorse him.

[00:08:54]>> [laughter] >> I don't think that's what it was about, Don. I don't think so. I think it was about the the graft and corruption, but that's just my guess. Our Beans Talk episode uh on Friday was called Stupid on Stilts, which is what Tom Tillis called this weaponization fund. Nice. Quote, "The media said how This is Trump. The media said how brave he was to take me on, but he wasn't brave. He was just the opposite. He was a quitter. Now he can have all the fun he wants for a few months with some of his Rhino friends screwing the Republican Party. In the end, it will only get bigger and better and stronger than ever before."

[00:09:29]All right. Lawmakers headed home early ahead of Memorial Day weekend after hitting an impasse over the Justice Department's newly created fund, which would allow people who believe they were unfairly prosecuted to obtain monetary relief from taxpayers.

[00:09:43]Many have raised concerns that the fund would give people, such as the January 6th rioters pardoned by Trump, the chance to seek money from the government despite once violently attacking the Capitol. Yes, that's them. That's the same people who tried to overturn the government. They're now going to be getting that money. But I was told it was a peaceful protest and that it was caused by a 26 FBI agents and liberals.

[00:10:05]So, how would they possibly get money for this?

[00:10:09]They were hugging the cops. It was a day of love. Mhm. No.

[00:10:14]Uh okay, so that includes Republicans such as Tillis, who called the fund stupid on stilts, Senator Mitch McConnell, who referred to it as utterly stupid, and Senator Bill Cassidy, who called it a slush fund.

[00:10:28]Imagine that a fund that is set up to compensate people who assaulted Capitol Police officers and other responding agencies, right? Tillis said on Wednesday. Yeah, right. Exactly. That's exactly it. Stupid on stilts. Now, there've been a few lawsuits filed, including one by former Capitol Police officer, our friend Harry Dunn, and Metropolitan Police Department officer, our friend Danny Hodges.

[00:10:50]Uh that lawsuit was filed by Brandon Balou in the District of Columbia, and I will be speaking with Harry Dunn and Brandon today on the breakdown over on the Midas Touch podcast at noon.

[00:11:00]>> Nice.

[00:11:01]Uh now, CREW has also filed a lawsuit to dissolve the fund. Common Cause has filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Virginia.

[00:11:08]Uh Jamie Raskin has introduced legislation to stop it. Multiple people have said they will file claims, including Mark Caputo and Michael Cohen.

[00:11:16]Uh Jim Acosta says he should be entitled to anti-weaponization money because Donald Trump yanked his press pass during his first term.

[00:11:24]And then there's this reporting from Ryan Riley at NBC, quote, progressive podcaster Allison Gill, a former Department of Veterans Affairs employee forced out of her job over her Mullah she wrote podcast said she filed a claim to Blanch this week. She's asking for 8.647 million dollars, a seeming reference to the 8647 seashells Instagram photo that the Trump administration used to charge former FBI director James Comey because the Trump administration asserts 8647 is a threat against Trump. Comey joked this week on CNN he he he guessed he'd be in line for a payout from the fund saying I hope I'll be ahead of those who savagely beat police officers and sacked the capital.

[00:12:04]And we'll keep an eye on all of this going forward. And I just want to say the much like Todd Blanch saying the 1776 is just a a valuation of potential claims. Right. My 8.647 million dollars is got nothing to do with anything other than those are that's my calculations on back pay, forward pay, future pay, and lost pension and wages and punitive.

[00:12:29]>> Right.

[00:12:31]I think I need to I need to start scraping together my my receipts to to slide slide in there with a claim of my own. Yeah, are you going to file or are you >> I I have already been talking to my lawyer about it. So I have not I have not done it yet, but stay tuned. Stay tuned everyone.

[00:12:47]>> And stay tuned. I will also be filing a lawsuit against this fund coming up this week and I'll keep you posted on that. So that's a little breaking news I can tell you. Excellent. Yeah.

[00:12:58]I um I don't know. I think there's a future in which Todd Blanch gets investigated for public corruption.

[00:13:05]I think if Todd particularly if he becomes the Attorney General of the United States, this Todd Blanch using his position of trust, his public position of trust as a public official receiving pecuniary gain for doing that.

[00:13:17]And how can you characterize this as anything other than a bribe to another public official that being the President of the United States. Uh maybe not one that goes directly in his pocket, but one that certainly is to his benefit.

[00:13:30]So, I don't know. Uh, you know, I'm just I'm just theorizing here. I'm just an investigator. That's what I do. So, uh, that's my that's my hope for the future.

[00:13:40]It's what we call a clue, uh, as as Could be.

[00:13:44]>> say in the business.

[00:13:45]>> But, you know, I mean, a a 1.776 billion-dollar bribe, uh, makes sense because Todd Blanche could be in deep trouble over our next story. Uh, and uh, we're going to talk about [music] that after this break. So, stick around.

[00:13:58]We'll be right back.

[00:14:07]All right, everybody, welcome back.

[00:14:08]Rarely, rarely do we have some amazing, great, and incredible news to report here [laughter] on the Unjustified Podcast, but we do today. Great news from CBS. A federal judge, Crenshaw in Tennessee, tossed out an indictment charging Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration last year, with human smuggling. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw granted Abrego Garcia's effort to dismiss the criminal charges on the ground that the Justice Department's prosecution was vindictive.

[00:14:37]This is extremely rare to win a vindictive and selective prosecution motion.

[00:14:44]Crenshaw had already ruled that the Salvadoran man demonstrated the prosecution may be vindictive, which left it up to the government to rebut that presumption.

[00:14:53]But, in his decision, the judge concluded that prosecutors failed to meet that burden, and this is all Todd Blanche's fault.

[00:15:01]Yes, ma'am.

[00:15:02]>> It's all his fault because that presumption of vindictiveness, that shifted the burden onto the government to prove they're not being vindictive, was because Todd Blanche went on Fox News and said, "Yeah, we charged him because that Maryland judge, Judge Senease, you know, wouldn't deport him."

[00:15:21]Well done, Mr. Blanche. Uh okay, so the the decision is a massive victory for Abrego Garcia, whose immigration case became a flash point in President Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown.

[00:15:33]Abrego Garcia was charged last year with two counts of human smuggling stemming from a November 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where he was pulled over by a state highway patrol and was found to have numerous people in his vehicle. He pleaded not guilty.

[00:15:48]And the indictment came after Abrego Garcia was removed from the United States in March of 2025 and flown to El Salvador. That was that middle of the night Judge Boasberg emergency hearing about the two planes that took off and he ordered the planes to be turned around.

[00:16:02]Abrego Garcia was on one of them, but an immigration judge had granted Abrego Garcia a legal status that forbade immigration authorities from deporting him to his home country. And a Trump administration official acknowledged his removal to El Salvador was a mistake.

[00:16:15]Abrego Garcia filed a civil lawsuit in Maryland challenging his deportation and a federal judge ordered the Trump administration in April of 2025 to facilitate his return back to the United States. The Department of Homeland Security, however, resisted doing so for months, but then returned him to the US only after they filed these criminal charges.

[00:16:34]He has since been intertwined in civil and criminal legal fights and held on uh separate occasions by federal authorities in Tennessee and immigration officials in Maryland.

[00:16:44]He's remained out of immigration custody for several months while his case has proceeded. Quote, "The court does not reach its conclusion lightly," Crenshaw wrote. "The objective evidence here shows that absent Abrego's successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.

[00:17:03]The executive branch closed its investigation on the November 2022 traffic stop. Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights, did the executive branch reopen that investigation."

[00:17:15]Yeah, and in the criminal case brought in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia and his attorneys argued that he was unfairly targeted by the federal government because of the civil lawsuit that successfully challenged his removal to El Salvador. And during the next during a nearly 6-hour hearing in February, members of Abrego Garcia's defense team questioned two government witnesses on when the Justice Department decided to move to indict him and whether anybody at the White House, Justice Department, or Department of Homeland Security were directly involved in those discussions.

[00:17:45]The US attorney who was then leading the prosecution, Robert Mueller, said he decided to bring charges years after the initial traffic stop because, quote, the evidence pointed to Abrego Garcia having committed a crime.

[00:17:58]Such a detailed and specific answer.

[00:18:01]Maguire also insisted it was his decision to prosecute Abrego Garcia and no one else's, adding that no one instructed him to do so or directed him to seek an indictment. Careful, perjury leaking around the corner there. Look out.

[00:18:15]>> [laughter] >> Abrego Garcia's legal team, however, showed internal emails from a high-level Justice Department official that suggested that there was significant interest in charging Abrego Garcia after he challenged his deportation, including one that referred to the case as a quote top priority. Oh, Mr. Maguire. Oh, yeah, and that was Mr. Singh who worked in Todd Blanche's office. Ah, look at that.

[00:18:39]Omar.

[00:18:41]>> [sighs] >> In his opinion, the truth will out, right? In his opinion, Crenshaw said he found insufficient evidence of actual vindictiveness, but concluded that the government has failed to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness.

[00:18:55]Again, this is all Todd Blanche's fault.

[00:18:57]>> [laughter] >> The record in the case, Crenshaw says, does not explain the government's change in position to remove Abrego and not prosecute him, then to then prosecute and not remove him, adding there is a retaliatory taint that kicked off the renowned investigation into Abrego Garcia.

[00:19:16]Yeah, the judge wrote that objective evidence comes close to showing that but for Abrego's lawsuit, the Justice Department would not have indicted him.

[00:19:25]Krentshaw wrote that statements by then Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and the involvement of Akash Singh, an Associate Deputy Attorney General, directly tie Maine Justice, that's a quote, directly tie Maine Justice to reopening of an investigation into the 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee in response to Abrego Garcia's successful challenge of his deportation. Blanche is now the acting Attorney General.

[00:19:54]Quote, the objective credible evidence shows that Maine Justice was involved in this investigation before Maguire, Krentshaw said, adding Singh's involvement in the case, quote, touched on everything from the timing of the indictment to the substance of potential charges. And let me just throw in here, Allison, very quickly. Remind us what this what vindictive prosecution requires. It's not just you proving that the government prosecuted you because they don't like you. That's not enough.

[00:20:24]You have to prove that the government prosecuted you to force you to do something else that the government wanted you to do, right?

[00:20:32]So, it's like if the government charges you with narcotics trafficking and you're like, I didn't do that. I'm going to go to trial. Then they come back and they charge you with another narcotics trafficking and wire fraud and like add 20 more charges on top of it, just like using the criminal justice system to like break you, to make you stop resisting, essentially.

[00:20:52]>> Mhm.

[00:20:53]Yeah.

[00:20:53]>> And that's exactly what happened here.

[00:20:55]Oh, it's totally what happened here. But I think it's interesting that there that the emails back and forth didn't rise to vindictive prosecution, but like I said, because Todd Blanche said that stuff on Fox News and there was a presumption of vindictiveness. The burden shifted from Abrego Garcia having to prove it was vindictive to the government having to prove it was not, and they failed. That is why these charges are being dismissed, and it's so rare, again, like I said, to get one of these uh rulings.

[00:21:23]Now, I spoke uh with Mr. Abrego's attorney. His name is Sean Hecker, and he submitted this statement to me. He said, "Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department. We are so pleased that he is a free man, justifiably so. As this administration continually chips away at our democracy, we remain grateful for an independent judiciary that will dispassionately apply binding precedent to the facts.

[00:21:49]So, Todd Blanche could, you know, uh he he might have needed to send over a $1.776 billion uh uh gift to Donald Trump after he got this case thrown out.

[00:22:04]Yeah, for sure. I mean, it is what it is. Todd Blanche is engaged in the highest, most visible act of uh trying out for a job in the history of this country. And he's going to do anything humanly possible to get himself that to get rid of the acting and become the the permanent Attorney General. The irony of all this is that the latest step, which we talked about the first part of the show, this the uh slush fund, might be the thing that actually kills the deal for him.

[00:22:34]Because he still has to get approved by the Senate. He's got to get confirmed if he's going to be the Attorney General.

[00:22:40]And this thing may have made him unconfirmable.

[00:22:44]That's a very good point. How do you vote for this guy if you're if you're screaming at him in a hearing and stopping him at the hill to go on vacation cuz he made you so mad? I don't I don't feel like that's the best preparation for getting those senators to confirm him, but we'll see. We'll see how it goes.

[00:23:00]>> Yeah, they they they tend to fall in line, but now that you've got Tillis, Cassidy who lost his primary after Trump went against him, and then you've got folks like Collins and McCa- Cassidy actually bucked his vote on a war powers resolution and voted with the Democrats.

[00:23:14]So, after eight tries, they finally got a war powers resolution through. And then when it went to the house, they couldn't get the votes to to stop it.

[00:23:22]So, they just They canceled the vote.

[00:23:24]We're closed. No soup for you. There's no more soup left today. Go home. He's like >> Go home. Go home. Go home. Go home. Go home. Go home. Jim McGovern was like, "What's going on? Why are we not having this vote?" And he's like, "You'll have to submit a parliamentary procedure." He's like, "Just tell me why we aren't having the" Click. Click. Gavel. Gavel. Gavel.

[00:23:41]Everybody leave. We're going home for vacation.

[00:23:43]>> [laughter] >> So, they weren't able to vote on a war powers resolution. They weren't in the Senate able to vote to fund ICE and Customs and Border Protection with their budget reconciliation bill.

[00:23:55]Uh so, yeah. We'll see what happens.

[00:23:57]While I think Republicans do fall in line a lot, there's at least a couple of senators uh that are now just going rogue because that's what happens.

[00:24:06]You grow a spine when you don't have to run for office again.

[00:24:09]>> taken out, when you've been Right. When you you've had you got the Joe Pesci treatment in the basement one day by Donald Trump, which is happening like all over the place. Yeah, that doesn't make friends, Mr. President. That doesn't doesn't secure allies whose votes you need on stuff. So, yeah, it's just it's incredible. It's kind of like in a weird way, it's kind of the domestic version of oh, I don't know, provoking a pointless war with Iran for the sole purpose of convincing them that they can now hold the entire world hostage with the ghosts with the Straits of Hormuz, but I digress. I don't want to get into Did you see that the plan was actually to put in Ahmadinejad? Did you see that story from the New York Times? I might My God, what? It was leaving Netanyahu and Donald Trump, but then they accidentally injured him, and he's like, "I'm out.

[00:24:57]I'm not part of your plan anymore."

[00:24:59]And so, they So, that that's when the Khomeini's son took over the regime.

[00:25:05]And they're like, "Oops. Oh, and the strait is closed, and we can't open it.

[00:25:09]Darn." Yeah.

[00:25:11]Just Oh my god, just incompetence from top to bottom.

[00:25:14]Unbelievable. Ahmadinejad. You know what? You know what? I'm sorry. It's totally believable. It's been believable all along. You're right. This next story that we're going to cover though is actually kind of unbelievable. I can't believe this happened, but we'll talk about that right after this quick break.

[00:25:29]Stick around. We'll be right back.

[00:25:37]>> [music] >> Welcome back. All right.

[00:25:41]This next one comes from Politico. I don't know what else to say about it.

[00:25:44]Let's just dive in.

[00:25:45]>> Wow. Just wow.

[00:25:46]>> This one I got to I got to I got to be honest. This one struck me out of the blue. As you know, I am far, far away this week. I'm I'm on the other side of the world, and and don't tell anyone.

[00:25:57]I'm in Sydney, Australia right now. It's super cool. But I read this, and I was like, "You got to be kidding me." Anyway, >> [clears throat and cough] >> a former Justice Department prosecutor has been charged with sending herself copies of an unreleased volume of, you got it, Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on his investigation into President Donald Trump.

[00:26:20]Name is Carmen Lineberger? Am I getting that right, Allison, or Linda?

[00:26:24]>> I haven't heard her name pronounced, so I assume it's Lineberger. Okay, Lineberger it is. 62 years old, entered a not guilty plea of four charges related to stealing and concealing government records in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida on Wednesday.

[00:26:40]She was released on her own recognizance, court records show.

[00:26:44]So, get this. The indictment says Lineberger, who was the managing assistant US attorney in Fort Pierce, Florida, received a copy of the restricted Smith report volume by email last year and then sent it and other internal DOJ messages to her personal Hotmail and Gmail accounts.

[00:27:03]>> [sighs] >> US District Judge Aileen Cannon has barred public release of that volume.

[00:27:07]Remember you can't send it outside of the Department of Justice. That's right.

[00:27:11]Which discusses his investigation, Jack Smith's investigation into the presence of classified documents.

[00:27:17]More than just the presence of classified documents, the retention and the obstruction of >> The mishandling, the yeah, all that. All those espionage acts, yes. Yes. Right, 42 counts, man.

[00:27:29]Now, an attorney for Lineberger, Tamma Cudman, did not respond to request for comment.

[00:27:35]The indictment returned Tuesday says Lineberger sought to cover her tracks by using the file names, quote, chocolate_cake_recipe.pdf and bunt_cake_recipe.pdf [laughter] for the internal government records she moved to her personal accounts.

[00:27:58]Every spy knows if you put cake in the file name, no one will ever know what's in there.

[00:28:05]Okay, however, the charges and a Justice Department press release don't make any claims about why Lineberger moved the documents to her private emails. The indictment also doesn't provide details of what, besides the report, was in the emails and documents she moved to personal accounts.

[00:28:24]Interesting. Interesting. You got to You got to prove intent, right? And we'll see what happens there.

[00:28:29]>> Maybe she comes back and says, "You know what? The DOJ systems are so bad, I just sent them to my personal Hotmail account, which is much better." That's more secure. So I can get my work done.

[00:28:38]Could could happen.

[00:28:40]Boy, it's not classified.

[00:28:43]Nope.

[00:28:44]Lineberger faces one felony count of obstruction of justice, before calling it cake.

[00:28:49]Uh one felony count of concealing government records, calling it bundt cake, and two misdemeanor counts, misdemeanor counts of stealing government property valued at under a thousand dollars.

[00:28:58]The maximum sentence, if convicted on all charges, is 25 years in prison.

[00:29:03]Although federal defendants typically receive significantly shorter terms under federal sentencing guidelines, especially first-time offenders with no criminal history.

[00:29:11]The case is being handled by prosecutors from the Northern District of Florida, likely because Lineberger's ties to people in the US Attorney's Office for Southern Florida could create a conflict of interest.

[00:29:21]Because they've all had her bundt cake.

[00:29:24]So, you know, they can't You can't sit in judgment of someone whose cake you've eaten. There's a hole in this cake.

[00:29:31]>> [laughter] >> Okay. Kash Patel Of course, any absurd story these days also includes that gentleman. Kash Patel posted on Twitter about it saying, quote, "This afternoon, a former managing assistant US Attorney who supported Jack Smith's politicized investigation of President Trump has been charged with stealing the confidential investigation documents.

[00:29:53]Carmen Lineberger allegedly emailed the confidential material to her own personal email, disguising them as dessert recipes to conceal them from record searches."

[00:30:04]Lineberger's charged with four felony counts in the indictment. This FBI will not hesitate to bring to account those who violated the trust of the American public in an investigation that should have should have never been brought to begin with. Mhm. Close quote.

[00:30:20]It's interesting. I wonder if Kash Patel has any interest in what's in volume two uh of that report, given that he's in volume two of Jack Smith's final report.

[00:30:31][laughter] Back in January of 2025, senators demanded information from volume two when they were considering the nomination of Kash Patel as as director.

[00:30:41]In a letter to the DOJ, they demanded Mr. Patel's grand jury testimony as part of the department's investigation of Trump and other defendants regarding the president's unlawful retention of classified documents and any and all sections of volume two of the final report of the special counsel's investigations and prosecutions submitted on January 7th, 2025 by count by special counsel Jack Smith to the Attorney General that referred to or pertain to Mr. Patel's testimony or actions.

[00:31:09]Special counsel Jack Smith's team issued subpoenas to Verizon Communications for Patel's communications at the time when they were investigating whether President Donald Trump had interfered with the 2020 election and had hidden classified documents at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. During the dispute over presidential records, Patel was designated by Trump to be his representative to NARA, that's the National Archives and Records uh administration.

[00:31:39]He publicly asserted that Trump had issued orders declassifying the materials at Mar-a-Lago, claiming he a claim he repeated during his 2022 grand jury testimony in the documents case, but a claim that was never ever proven or substantiated by a single shred of evidence. I'm adding that to the paragraph here, but claim or a you could call it a lie.

[00:32:02]Yeah, yeah.

[00:32:04]A lie based on mistruths is, you know, that's what a lie is. Yeah, and that one defense was never used. We talked about that when we when we saw the defenses that were put forth by Trump and Nauta and De Oliveira, like they they they weren't trying to say that he declassified these things. That was even too much for them. Mhm, yeah. But not for Patel. We know has indicted somebody who was a potential leak of these documents, but I will say this, I'm very pleased that there are copies out there besides like the one that is, you know, in a burn bag up in up [laughter] in Kash Patel's office.

[00:32:41]And the one that Judge Cannon has. So, we're still following the story too about uh the Knight Institute at Columbia University's request to release volume two of the report now that the charges have been dismissed against Nauta and De Oliveira, which were that was the reason, the justification that Aileen Cannon refused to allow the report to be released. Right. But anyway, I think it'd be very interesting to see what what this case how this case plays out. We'll definitely follow it because I think it's fascinating. Like you said, it just cowed a bolt bolt from the blue.

[00:33:15]Cake recipe lady. Stealing Jack Smith's volume two. Something like that happened.

[00:33:21]>> Something like this happens and you're like, "Oh my god, how close were we? Were Were we close? Could we have been the next email recipients? I get so many crazy emails from people. I would gladly take take one from Carol Lam Burger. Seems like a nice person. I went back through all my emails and signals to see if I'd gotten any bunt cake or chocolate cake recipes. I have not. So.

[00:33:44]That's so disappointing. I know. I know.

[00:33:47]Oh. We were that close. That close.

[00:33:49]>> That close.

[00:33:50]>> that report. Now, in a related story from Politico, a federal judge has ordered aides to Trump to continue to observe the requirements of the Presidential Records Act despite a Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion that found the law unconsti- tutional and how it it unconstitutionally intrudes on presidential power. Okay.

[00:34:10]In a ruling Wednesday, US District Judge John Bates concluded the 1978 statute is likely constitutional You think?

[00:34:16]>> and granted a preliminary injunction that essentially nullifies the opinion issued last month by the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel. So, that's good news.

[00:34:24]>> Quote. Yes, the original public meaning of the text of the Constitution, canons of interpretation, Supreme Court precedent, general principles of principles of property law, and almost 50 years of practice confirm that Congress has the enumerated power to regulate presidential records under the Constitution's property clause, Bates wrote. Just a couple of Just a couple of >> He covered the whole horizon there of possible buttresses to this uh statute. Bates, a George W. Bush appointee, faulted the OLC opinion for relying on a quote stark misreading of the Supreme Court precedent. That is nerdy lawyer speak for you effed up, boys. That is a pretty >> Yes. When a When a federal judge accuses your interpretation as a stark misreading, uh he also rejected the Justice Department's arguments that the law is unconstitutional because presidential papers were considered personal property of the president until the 1970s. Yeah, until the law. That's totally constitutional.

[00:35:29]>> changes that. [laughter] Oh, boy. But before that, it wasn't the law. Yeah.

[00:35:35]Isn't that crazy?

[00:35:36]>> used to be able to kill someone for stealing your horse. That's not allowed anymore either. I mean, I don't know what to tell you guys. Things change. It just, you know, over time we grow, we learn as human beings, we try to get a little bit better, and and things change. Uh anyways, My goodness. he also noted that the Trump administration observed the law without objection during his first term.

[00:36:01]Well. Yeah, why would you follow it for 4 years if it were so unconstitutional, right? Yeah. My goodness.

[00:36:08]All right, everybody. Um we have a pretty significant uh hit me in the head with a bat segment this week.

[00:36:15]It hearkens back to Do you remember when uh Comey was indicted the first time?

[00:36:21]And they were going through grand jury transcripts as part of a vindictive and selective prosecution claim.

[00:36:27]Uh found that apparently Lindsey Halligan who'd never appeared before a grand jury got a no true bill on three counts but then just erased the first one and then signed it like she got a true bill on the second two and didn't tell anybody.

[00:36:45]Yeah.

[00:36:46]Yeah.

[00:36:46]>> It's like that on steroids.

[00:36:50]What happened in this case and we're going to talk about it after this break.

[00:36:53]Stick around. [music] We'll be right back.

[00:37:02]>> Everybody welcome back. It's time for a little hit me in the head with a bat.

[00:37:05]>> in the head with a bat. Hit me in the head with a bat. Hit me in the head with a bat.

[00:37:09]>> [music] >> Hit me in the head with a bat.

[00:37:14]Which is our segment going going over the presumption of regularity. This one's a doozy Andy. It's from CBS.

[00:37:20]Federal prosecutors in Chicago have dismissed all remaining charges against the four remaining members of the so-called Broadview six, a group of protesters who were arrested outside a US ICE facility in Broadview, Chicago last fall.

[00:37:34]Defense attorneys and prosecutors were forced to drop the case because of significant errors in the grand jury process. Whoops. Yep.

[00:37:44]US attorney Andrew Boutros said during a Thursday afternoon hearing that the decision to dismiss charges was due to improper handling of the grand jury proceedings by the lead prosecutor in the case. A rare federal trial for misdemeanor charges that had been scheduled to begin next week was canceled after prosecutors agreed to dismiss the charges with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.

[00:38:09]Boutros announced the decision to dismiss the remaining charges in court following a closed-door meeting over redacted grand jury transcripts.

[00:38:19]He told the US District Judge April Perry he was unaware until recently of the alleged misconduct, including a prosecutor meeting with a grand juror outside of proceedings and other jurors who disagreed with the case being dismissed and prevented from participating. Oh my god.

[00:38:38]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:38:40]>> Boutrous did not dispute the allegations, saying the conduct was upsetting and the reason the case was being dismissed. Upsetting? Upsetting.

[00:38:49]Upsetting. Upsetting. I'm upset and I was not even in the case.

[00:38:53]>> [laughter] >> My god. I mean, like, what is going on here? Hit me in the head with bat right now. Yeah. That's why we call it hit me in the head with a bat.

[00:39:02]During a closed-door hearing on the redacted grand jury transcripts, Perry told federal prosecutors she was incredibly shocked. That is strong language for a judge. Mhm. Incredibly shocked by the redactions that were made, according to a transcript of the hearing that was made public Thursday evening. I have read hundreds, if not thousands, of grand jury transcripts involving prosecutors who are the most junior of prosecutors to several US attorneys who appeared before the grand jury. I have never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior before a grand jury that I saw in those transcripts.

[00:39:38]In that sealed hearing, Perry summarized several issues she said jumped out at her immediately and glaringly upon reading the full grand jury transcript.

[00:39:47]The first of those concerns, according to the judge, was improper prosecutorial vouching in which an assistant US attorney put her personal credibility and trustworthiness on the line in support of the charges, Perry said.

[00:40:03]That's so I guess that's like going in and saying, "Trust me, this is the worst thing you're ever going to see. You should indict it." Sort of thing.

[00:40:11]>> Kind of, yeah.

[00:40:13]The same prosecutor also apparently excused grand jurors, quote, "who disagreed with the government's case when presented with it during the first of three sessions asking them to quote not partake in the second hearing the judge said. So let's just get rid of the no votes and stack the room with just the yeses I guess. That's insane. Now Judge Perry said she understood from the transcripts that there had been improper prosecutorial communications of a substantive nature with the grand jurors outside the grand jury room.

[00:40:46]That's the prosecutor talking to the grand jurors outside the grand jury room substantive. Wow.

[00:40:54]Communications.

[00:40:56]Ultimately it took three grand jury sessions to get an indictment. The first sessions resulted in a no bill meaning grand jurors moved to not press charges.

[00:41:05]At the second according to the record of Thursday's closed door hearing ended abruptly in the middle of testimony from the US ICE agent at the center of the incident.

[00:41:15]Perry said it was problematic that it appeared prosecutors redacted the transcripts in an attempt to conceal what happened during the grand jury proceedings. Problematic?

[00:41:26]Say it's fire-worthy. I mean like wow. Quote mistakes happen. They happen to all of us. But as I tell my children you own it. You admit to it. You apologize for it and you move on. What you do not do is hide it. So that's the a quote from the judge.

[00:41:43]Defense counsel Parente said during the grand jury sessions prosecutors used vouching which he called a 101 no-no for any prosecutor.

[00:41:52]Kicked out grand jury members who disagreed with them. Did not disclose that a no true bill which indicates no indictment had been returned uh to either the defense or the public. Parente also said that after receiving the no true bill from one grand jury they represented their case after excluding grand jurors who disagreed with them.

[00:42:12]The grand jury then returned a true bill to indict the Broadview 6.

[00:42:17]Mhm. Parenti also said that while Judge Perry thought only 30 lines of the transcript had been redacted to hide all that, prosecutors actually left out entire pages and never informed her.

[00:42:28]Quote, we all took the government attorneys word on a great many things, Judge Perry said. I at the time was operating on a presumption of regular grand jury proceedings, which these were very clearly not. So, based upon what I've seen in the grand jury transcripts, the calculus has changed and it has changed considerably.

[00:42:46]Perry told prosecutors that the trust she normally extended to them has been broken by their previous redactions of the grand jury transcripts.

[00:42:56]Parenti said he will make a motion for sanctions for their client so they can get their legal fees covered.

[00:43:02]In any hearings over those sanctions, he expects prosecutors to testify in open court regarding their conduct and the defense will be able to cross-examine them.

[00:43:12]He also said they plan to file a claim with the Department of Justice's new anti-weaponization fund, the the 1776 fund, for financial relief for their clients.

[00:43:21]Uh so, as they say in this story, the transcripts of the closed-door hearing were released and here's another choice quote uh from the judge on that. She says to the defense, you're entitled to a briefing and perhaps a hearing on vindictive prosecution should you choose to raise it. And she also raised the possibility, fortunately and thankfully, of sanctions and possible ethics violations for prosecutorial misconduct.

[00:43:44]Man, I hope so. Like, where is the bar complaint against these attorneys? I mean, >> to just kick people out who voted against you, to have ex parte communications in the hallway with grand jurors outside the grand jury room, to bring to bring in new people to go vote three times on it, to to not tell anyone that you had a no true bill, when I believe there's a row, this is in DC. Boseberg says somebody has set up a rule saying you have to tell me of all of no true bills, remember?

[00:44:16]>> [clears throat] >> But this is Chicago. The Brad View 6 included a candidate congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh, right? 45th Ward guy and I like So, I'm very, very thankful. Congratulations to to Kat and the other defendants to have for have for having the rest of their misdemeanor charges dismissed cuz the original felony was dismissed because of this grand jury stuff, but the defense attorneys Parente were like, "Judge, I think that what happened in the grand jury room taints the whole case." And that's when Judge Perry asked for the unredacted transcripts.

[00:44:51]And had she not, we would not know any of this. Right. I mean, the fact that she they gave her, quote unquote, redacted transcripts, which were missing pages, that's not a redaction. That's just That's just a falsification of the of the grand jury process. Like, you know, you they didn't want to have to explain why additional entire pages were entirely blacked out, so they just like, "Well, leave those off the pile." I mean, unbelievable. And, you know, you think about if this had happened in the context of a civil lawsuit, like, let's say a civil suit went to a jury and one of the lawyers on one of the sides, you know, was having these improper conversations with jurors outside of the courtroom. Let's just say that.

[00:45:37]That would absolutely get the case dismissed and the lawyer would be brought up on bar charges.

[00:45:42]Here, we're talking about somebody who did that and other bad things in an effort to convict someone of a crime.

[00:45:50]It's so much more severe. It's so much more important. Yeah.

[00:45:54]>> I'm just done. Done This This is like this whole what we refer to as the hit me in the head with a bat segment is just exposing all of this craziness that's going on around the country. But this is like full-blown like bumping up against criminal activity, I believe.

[00:46:10]>> Yeah. And I thought Lindsey Halligan was bad in the Comey case, but uh this is >> Yeah.

[00:46:16]This is pretty unbelievable. I'm not believable. It is believable. It's totally believable, yeah. I will we will we will we will we'll keep an eye on some sanctions motions. I know that they're uh looking to file some uh and uh you know, also probably not a good idea to go after uh Cat Abugazale. Uh she's the uh girlfriend of the head of the onion.

[00:46:38]Uh >> [laughter] >> Oops.

[00:46:41]Uh keep an eye on on the onion in in the coming days. Massive headlines there.

[00:46:47]Yeah. Uh because I mean this just this is unbelievable.

[00:46:53]But also very believable conduct from from this particular Department of Justice. And and I I I I think it speaks to this was What did you say? This was only the second time this person had been in a grand jury room?

[00:47:05]So Yeah. It it speaks to the the massive brain drain at the Department of Justice uh that has been uh occurring and then them trying to, you know, put out ads on Craigslist for assistant US attorneys.

[00:47:17][laughter] And if if that's [clears throat] the explanation to this, there was no intent to do anything wrong, that it was just like the the worst form of rank incompetence we've ever seen from a DOJ lawyer, which I don't believe that's the case, but let's just say for the sake of argument, then that's on the US attorney. If the US attorney is putting lawyers in front of grand juries who are so incompetent that they are undermining the entire system, like that US attorney should be fired. Uh-huh. You can't, as the leader of an organization, you can't like fail to train, fail to guide, fail to instruct your employees, and then send them out to like wreak havoc around the world or in your backyard or whatever and not be held accountable for it. It's outrageous. Yeah, just for sure. And and the judge was like, well, glad I took a look. But but before anything could go down cuz the judge was like, we could be looking at vindictive and selective. You should definitely check that out. But that's when the prosecutors were like, no, no, no, we drop all the charges. We're dropping all the charges. Drop the charges. Drop the charges. We don't need to bring them with prejudice. It's cool. Back it slowly back away like Homer Simpson. Anyway.

[00:48:27]>> guy a fruit basket. It's all going to be fine. [laughter] Now >> Sorry about that. We didn't realize.

[00:48:32][clears throat] We didn't know. Had I known. Uh-huh. Okay.

[00:48:34]>> Yeah, right. All right. Well, everybody, it's time for some listener questions.

[00:48:38]If you have a question you'd like to send in to us, I think we have time for one today.

[00:48:42]You can do so by clicking on the link in the show notes and filling out the form and it'll send your questions to us.

[00:48:47]What do we have today, Andy? All right.

[00:48:49]So, the first one is just a little bit of a shout-out clearing up some business from last week. You know, last week had tons of tons of people wrote in wanting to know where they could access the list of the infamous Trump acronyms.

[00:49:01]Nacho, taco, nacho, and everything else.

[00:49:05]Many people wrote in today and pointed out some the source of that list, which is actually a Substack called Shades of Greaves. That And Greaves is g r e a v e s. It's on Substack.

[00:49:18]And his guy name I think his name is Carlos Greaves. He's a former electrical engineer and he's now become a writer and he wants to write comedy or something or something along those lines, but jump over to Shades of Greaves and he had a post on May 5th that has the entire list, which he basically wrote up. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, it's pretty funny. Throw him a subscribe while you're over there and and you can you can gorge yourself on all that taco and nacho stuff. Now I want tacos.

[00:49:48]Yep. Okay. So, lots of people wrote in questions about the the slush fund and we really covered that I think pretty extensively here. So, I opted to go with something that tags onto this last story that we just did and cuz it gives us an opportunity to show you like just how far this story is from normal. So, this one comes to us from CC. CC says, "Allison and Andy, thank you so much for everything you're doing. I have a lot of MAGA relatives and listening to your show with all the background data has really helped me push back on a lot of the narratives they are hearing. Hopeful that minds will be changed. My question, in the presidential immunity ruling, I think Alito made the comment that you can indict a ham sandwich. He did. I think he did. He definitely did not invent that. In the oral arguments, he said it, I think.

[00:50:36]That's right. That's right.

[00:50:38]So, with all the information coming out about the Broadway six, this appears to be somewhat true. I mean, if you rig the grand jury and then lie to them, it does appear that you can get an indictment. How often do you think this will be happening now? Well, let's remember If I if I got indicted by this administration, I'd be like, "We need to check the grand jury transcripts." Just based on Lindsey Halligan and based on Boutros.

[00:51:02]>> A real indictment.

[00:51:03]>> Broadway six. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, let's remember that in ye olden days that we like to refer to as normal times, even under totally lawful, appropriate um you know, circumstances, the grand jury still is is very, very much in the prosecutor's corner because the prosecutors can present whatever evidence they want and they can not present evidence that they that makes the case look weak. They can only, you know, they can put in handpicked just a few witnesses. Um there is no cross-examination of of witnesses.

[00:51:42]Um there's no attorney in the room who represents the target or or the soon-to-be defendant in the case. So, it's it's a It is a It is a system that greatly favors the prosecution. The burden for bringing back an indictment is very low. It is simply probable cause. So, and all that is how the how the system was designed and how it functions normally. What you're seeing now is a massive depart depart from that.

[00:52:09]Many US attorneys and assistant US attorneys are failing even though they are so advantaged in the in front of a grand jury. They're failing to get indictments in many of these cases that we talk about every week because the cases are so terrible. And many of them are based on poor if any evidence.

[00:52:26]Sometimes there's We have seen situations where agents have testified falsely or incorrectly, all kinds of things that are undermining even this incredible advantage that prosecutors have.

[00:52:39]So, all we have to do is get back to a time when assistant US attorneys are just doing their jobs the way they always did. They still had many of the you know, the better hand you know, the better cards in their hand and I you know, with a better US attorney and and a better attorney general and good recruiting and training and retention of quality assistant US attorneys across the country, you're going to see this kind of nonsense go away because that's the way it always was. That's what people who care about justice and care about the oath they've taken to the country and believe in the Department of Justice, that's what they will do. How do we know this? Cuz that's what they did until this administration.

[00:53:23]Yeah, people who can experience shame and embarrassment. Right. Who don't want to lose their licenses. Who don't want to have cases fail in front of the grand jury. That's that's the thing here, right? Is because the DOJ used to care about their conviction record.

[00:53:39]They used to care.

[00:53:41]They had there was there was a shame attached to losing a case. Right. Or to having a to getting a no true bill returned. And that shame is now gone. It is shameless now and it as evidenced by Jeanine Pirro, I don't care about I'll take a no true bill. I'll take a not guilty verdict. I'm going to bring all the crimes. You know, she just doesn't care.

[00:54:02]There's no shame in being a complete and total abject loser. And you know, I the only thing the only thing standing in the breach and and Attorney General Todd Blanchan former Attorney General acting Attorney General Todd Blanchan former Attorney General Pam Bondi knew this is that these lawyers want to keep their law licenses, which is why they filed this memo saying no the DOJ bar associations shouldn't be the DOJ can intervene into bar association. We could take care of ourselves. We could investigate our own. And and so they know that the only thing standing in between indicting a ham sandwich every day of the week is is that these folks they don't have shame, but they might want to keep their law license and so they're trying to get go get around that as well. Yeah, and let's be clear. This all comes back to Donald Trump. Yeah. Donald Trump. This is what happens when the executive the president and the executive branch the leader of the executive branch puts unremitting pressure on an agency in this case the Department of Justice not to not to follow the law not to follow the facts, but to to do what he wants for whatever reason.

[00:55:14]Eventually the agency will break and it will start complying with that pressure because it's it's it's inevitable. And that's where we where we are now.

[00:55:24]You know, the the administration wanted Kilmar Brego Garcia deported even though a federal judge had had issued an order years before months before whatever it was saying he could not be deported to his home country. They didn't care. The president doesn't care. The White House doesn't care. They just wanted it done.

[00:55:43]And so DOJ went along with it, and they let those planes go without demanding that they come back. They ignored the court order to turn him around. That's just one example. And now we have >> the Supreme Court order to to to return Nebriga Garcia uh or at least to tell the courts how we know what steps you've taken Yeah. to effectuate his return to the United States after being wrongfully deported.

[00:56:05]I worked with many many many US attorneys, assistant US attorneys on cases. And not one of them that I worked with, some of them I loved, others I didn't like, were you know, some of them some you get along with, some you don't, it's totally fine.

[00:56:18]Not one of them would I did I ever think would have brought a case in front of a grand jury that they didn't believe was a good solid sound case that could win.

[00:56:27]Because they had standards. And they would just look at you and say, "No, you don't you're not there yet. You're not ready yet. Go out and get me more evidence. You know, go out and flip another witness. Go out and >> a rule. Isn't that a rule in the books that you have to believe that you can you have to believe that you can obtain and then maintain a conviction >> That's right. That's the that's the policy in DOJ. And these are all super competitive, like very aggressive prosecutors. They want to make cases, too. But they don't they're not going to do them at the expense of the law, at the expense of the standard, at the expense of their own reputations. Yeah, cuz you want the win rate now.

[00:56:59]So that you could go out and hang a shingle and be like, "I didn't lose eight out of 10 cases when I was a US attorney or assistant in the USA."

[00:57:07]>> [snorts] >> But I'll take them. I don't care. She doesn't care. Of course she doesn't care. She just goes back to her Fox News job when she's done with I've got to make the president happy. I mean, good luck with that. See how that see how well that's gone for every other human being trying to accomplish that.

[00:57:24]Yeah.

[00:57:25]Anyway.

[00:57:26]>> for you under the bus, too, Jeanine.

[00:57:28]Heck yeah.

[00:57:29]Um another quick note before we get out of here, just got this, Tulsi Gabbard is resigning. Uh Yeah, I saw that. ODNI, don't have too much information on this yet about why. I've read somewhere that her husband has an illness and she's trying to to go be with him. I was assuming she was about to be fired anyway because of her poor performance on the hill under testimony and her she's anti war in Iran and probably you know, but we'll get more information and when we have more information we'll report it out to you on that. Yeah, that's what she put in her resignation letter to Trump which I read a couple hours ago.

[00:58:10]You know, and if that's the case like I wish her husband nothing but the best.

[00:58:14]It's she says he's been diagnosed with some extremely rare form of bone cancer and that's you know, nobody wants that for anyone. I am surprised that she's made it as long as she has because her tenure has been rocky to say the least, but anyway.

[00:58:30]That's that.

[00:58:32]All right everybody, again if you have a question you want to send it in to us, there's a link in the show notes for you to click on and then it'll take you to a form you can fill out to submit your questions to us. We really appreciate it. Send them all and we will see you next week and as we always say, who knows what could happen between now and then.

[00:58:48]But I guarantee you it'll be enough to fill an hour.

[00:58:51]>> [laughter] >> Oh hell yeah.

[00:58:53]It always is.

[00:58:54]Anyway, thank you so much everybody. I'm Allison Gill. And I'm Andy McCabe.

[00:58:59]Unjustified is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and analysis by Andrew McCabe.

[00:59:04]Sound design and editing is by Molly Hockey with art and web design by Joel Reader at Muxy Design Studios. The theme music for Unjustified is written and performed by Ben Folds and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned independent podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com.

[00:59:23]>> [music]