After Party with Emily Jashinsky: “Inside the Anti-Trump Dragnet, Bill Gates’ Global Strategy, and Jan 6 Pipe Bomb Secrets” — with Mike Benz

Podcast: After Party with Emily Jashinsky (MK Media)
Date: November 11, 2025
Guest: Mike Benz, Executive Director, Foundation for Freedom Online

Main Theme and Episode Overview

This episode zeroes in on revelations about government surveillance targeting Republican politicians and civil society figures aligned with the Trump movement, with insights from Mike Benz, a former State Department official and expert in information operations. Emily and Mike unpack the unfolding "Arctic Frost" scandal, discuss global efforts to suppress populist movements (especially right-wing), examine the role of major NGOs/foundations in shaping governance and civil society, and scrutinize new reports regarding the January 6 pipe bomb investigation. The show explores parallels between US interventions abroad and similar “plug-and-play” mechanisms now operating domestically, raising alarm about the depth and scale of unelected institutional power.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Arctic Frost Whistleblower and the Anti-Trump Dragnet

• Validation of Suspicions:
  Mike Benz underscores that the revelations about the "Arctic Frost" operation confirm longstanding suspicions — the use of DOJ machinery to target the core of Trump-supporting GOP networks, not just in the political sphere, but throughout civil society.

  “There was a full scale effort by the Biden Justice Department to completely destroy any aspect of the Republican Party that had some perceived allegiance or support network access around President Trump and his movement.” (04:14, Mike Benz)

• Scale of Surveillance:
  The DOJ under Biden subpoenaed phone and electronic communications for about 430 influential GOP figures—including 20% of Senate Republicans.

  “They spied on... basically got the phone communications, texts, emails on 430 major GOP figures... also in Congress. I think Ted Cruz said 20% of Senate Republicans ended up having their phones secretly subpoenaed...” (04:54, Mike Benz)

• Concealment from Oversight:
  Judge Boasberg compelled telecom companies to conceal surveillance from the targets—some of whom were sitting Senators—compromising the separation of powers and Congressional oversight itself.

• Politically Selective Prosecutions:
  Despite Democrats engaging in similar or more blatant alternate electors “war games,” only pro-Trump circles were targeted.

  “They didn’t target any of the Republicans who were perceived to be never Trump... they needed a broad sweeping apparatus to spy on the campaign and put pressure on every node in the MAGA affinity network...” (08:05, Mike Benz)

2. US Regime Change Playbook Goes Domestic

• Foreign Tactics Brought Home:
  Emily draws a parallel between the Arctic Frost operation and classic US State Department/CIA strategies used abroad—plug-and-play interference in foreign civil society, now aimed at US citizens.

  “It’s almost a plug and play domestically?” (09:42, Emily Jashinsky)

  “Jack Smith himself is a plug and play. Jack Smith was a prosecutor at the Hague and was involved in these USAID rule of law programs in Kosovo...” (10:01, Mike Benz)

• USAID & NGOs as Soft Power Tools:
  NGOs such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) are called out as “CIA cutouts,” working at the behest of US or allied interests to “subsidize the groups that the CIA wants to, but doesn’t want to get in trouble for funding.”

  “The CIA gets a copy of every single NED grant to this day. And this is a straight up CIA cutout...” (12:41, Mike Benz)

• Exported Playbook Illustrated in Poland:
  Example: Explicit instructions given to Poland’s new government to jail opposition and cripple right-wing networks, matching language and tactics seen in “lawfare” employed against Trump circles.

3. Accountability, Lawfare, and the New Trump Administration’s Response

• Limited Progress:
  While Trump 2.0’s DOJ has made some moves to clean house, Mike expresses skepticism about the scale and seriousness of reforms, emphasizing the entrenched nature of these networks—particularly within the legal and judiciary establishment.

  “I don’t know that it’s humming the way that it needs to be... There’s a lot of strategizing about... you need to be ready for basically pro bono infinity mega lawyers on the other side to find every technicality, every jurisdictional loophole...” (15:50, Mike Benz)

• The American Bar Association as a Power Node:
  Mike unpacks the American Bar Association’s central role both in credentialing lawyers and leading the legal charge against Trump, calling out the structural advantages of legacy, government-linked organizations.

4. The Global “Blob” Network—Suppressing Populism Worldwide

• Largest Scandal Outpaces Watergate:
  Arctic Frost reflects a full-scale speech and security police state, far surpassing the abuses of Watergate.

  “If you actually look back at the facts of Watergate, it’s completely tame compared to what was done under the Biden administration. All gloves were off...” (28:18, Mike Benz)

• Nationalism Versus the Liberal Order:
  Mike lays out why right-wing populism (and, situationally, left-wing populism) is suppressed by the “liberal rules-based international order”—both present threats to elite internationalism.

  “Both [fascism and communism] are nationalist nodes that rebut internationalist meddling...” (30:52, Mike Benz)

• Populism’s Challenge to Western Interests:
  From Brexit to Poland’s PiS party, populist parties threatened not just ideological but lucrative business arrangements (e.g., energy deals, migration policy).

• Same Tactics, Just New Target:
  The government apparatus, which formerly targeted left-wing movements, now fixates on right-wing populism using the very same global networks, legal predicates, NGOs, and playbooks.

5. Hidden Hands: Gates, Soros, Foundations and Corporate-Blob Revolving Doors

• Bill Gates’ $200 Billion Pledge as Private USAID:
  Gates Foundation, with billions pledged, is set to substitute for shrinking government foreign aid—effectively “outsourcing” global influence to a single private entity.

  “Bill Gates basically stepped in and said...I will be giving $200 billion to the Gates Foundation to... offset the... downturn on US international aid given out through USAID...” (46:53, Mike Benz)

• Microsoft’s Hidden Role:
  Microsoft, closely partnered with use of government funds, stands to financially benefit from “democracy promotion” contracts—illustrating alignment between US geopolitical objectives and corporate profit.

• Universities as Staging Grounds:
  Institutions such as Harvard not only serve as financial hubs (e.g., driving investment into Ukraine’s reconstruction) but also as ideological training grounds for future government and elite participants.

  “Harvard is the same. The university system is exactly as tainted as the union system... what do you think Harvard University is teaching its kids in its poli sci department... about Orange Man? Bad.” (52:31, Mike Benz)

• Entrenched Advantage:
  Legacy institutions like the ABA and teachers unions continue to receive more government grant money than actual member fees, making competition nearly impossible for any alternate organizations.

6. The January 6 Pipe Bomb—Blaze Report and Suppression of Evidence

• Potential Inside Job:
  The Blaze alleges a Secret Service (now CIA) agent as a forensic “gait” match to the pipe bomb suspect. Mike is cautious about extraordinary claims, but points to the pattern of evidence suppression and previous false flag tactics.

  “It takes about two seconds to realize oh they shut down the investigation right away. They effectively they didn’t update. They collected 39,000 video files. They only uploaded four of them...” (61:00, Mike Benz)

• Federal Involvement Pattern:
  Cites prior FBI entrapment in the Whitmer “fednapping” case, noting how the same officials (e.g., Steven D’Antuono) were promoted to DC right before January 6.

  “So, the Whitmer fednapping arrest happened in October. Two months later, he’s made... the head of the D.C. FBI office when the pipe bomb is planted.” (64:24, Mike Benz)

• Demand for Full Disclosure:
  Mike urges wholesale public release of investigation files, as the “ongoing investigation” excuse is disingenuous at this point.

  “There should be no daylight between what the FBI sees as it’s conducting this investigation and what we see as the outside, crowdsourced investigatory arm, because you guys offered us $500,000 as a reward for catching them. So it would help to see what you guys have seen.” (68:23, Mike Benz)

7. Memorable Quotes & Highlighted Moments

About the Arctic Frost Dragnet:

• “The Senate Oversight Committee has to be able to conduct oversight of the FBI when they’re being spied on by the FBI.“
  (06:21, Mike Benz)

• “This was basically a conspiracy with Jack Smith and Judge Boasberg. Frankly, Judge Boasberg should not just be impeached, she should be indicted on those grounds.”
  (07:23, Mike Benz)

On “Plug-and-Play” Regime Change:

• “This is a CIA manual to the Ministry of Justice of a foreign country about who they need to arrest. And…propose that in the cases where it’d be difficult to get a conviction, they should still bring the case anyway and try to be creative about getting people to squeal…”
  (13:20, Mike Benz)

On US Foreign Policy Establishment:

• “The American Bar Association led the crusade to indict Trump... This is the group partisanly crusading to indict for the first time in US history, the US president...”
  (17:13, Mike Benz)

On the New Watergate:

• “Imagine if Richard Nixon had arrested the Democrat political opposition, arrested his accountants, arrested his lawyers, arrested his ballet, arrested his media allies... This was a complete police state...”
  (27:48, Mike Benz)

On How International Tactics Come Home:

• “Every structure of American society… is wrapped up in this apparatus. To understand why those institutional players made the moves they did, we need transparency at every level.”
  (38:26, Mike Benz)

On Bill Gates’ “Global Strategy” and NGO Leviathans:

• “The Gates Foundation is stepping up to be the kind of Gates private empire version of USAID. I mean…USAID’s budget is $45 billion a year. So…that’s 20% of USAID almost right there.”
  (46:53, Mike Benz)

On Universities as Blob, Incubators:

• “Harvard University is teaching its kids in its poli sci department…about Orange Man? Bad... because they had help from the US Government in these soft power relationships, in these funding relationships built up over decades.”
  (52:31, Mike Benz)

On the Pipe Bomb and FBI Suppression:

• “You’re telling me they learned so little from Watergate that they used a security camera system from the 1980s? The average 7-Eleven is a 30 frame per second camera.”
  (61:51, Mike Benz)

• “Just pay—put, give us the pipe bomb file. There should be no daylight between what the FBI sees as it’s conducting this investigation and what we see as the outside, crowdsourced investigatory arm…”
  (68:23, Mike Benz)

Notable Timestamps for Major Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 03:10 | Emily introduces Mike Benz and frames the episode’s investigative focus | | 04:14 | Benz explains the scale and intent of the Arctic Frost dragnet | | 09:07–10:01 | Discussion of US regime change playbook “plug and play” domestically | | 12:39–13:55 | Mike details NED as a “CIA cutout” and Poland regime change case | | 15:50–20:16 | Assessment of Trump 2.0’s efforts and the challenges of reform | | 27:19–29:18 | Watergate comparison: Why Arctic Frost “dwarfs” it | | 30:03–36:57 | How the “liberal rules-based order” targets populist nationalism | | 38:26–46:26 | Scope of the “blob” network: teachers unions, universities, etc. | | 46:26–55:46 | Bill Gates, Soros, Microsoft—foundations and global influence | | 58:58–69:19 | The Jan 6 pipe bomb—forensic match, FBI suppression, call for transparency |

Final Reflections and Advice Segment

Emily closes with a critique of insularity and intolerance in political discourse (especially as related to post-2016 social divides), highlighting a viral clip of Jimmy Kimmel's wife on political polarization in families. She offers practical, good-humored advice for depersonalizing disagreements and engaging respectfully—especially relevant as listeners approach Thanksgiving and family gatherings.

“If you can’t have a conversation with somebody you love, who’s one of those personality types, then you’re probably lacking in some compassion. [...] Just ask people why. That’s really interesting. Why do you think that?” (75:13+, Emily Jashinsky)

Summary Takeaways

• The “Arctic Frost” revelations point to a vast, systematic effort to surveil and neutralize the Trump-aligned wing of US politics, mirroring regime change operations once reserved for adversarial states.
• Legacy institutions—from the American Bar Association and major unions to top universities—are revealed as deeply intertwined with both the US state and international “blob” networks, making genuine change extremely difficult.
• The same playbook the US government employed abroad is now replicating itself at home; the line between “foreign interference” and domestic control is blurring.
• Major private actors like Gates and Soros are positioned to step in as both drivers and funders of “democracy promotion,” blurring lines between state, corporate, and NGO interests.
• The January 6 pipe bomb case exemplifies both the opacity and the dangers of intelligence/investigative overreach, with calls for radical transparency.
• The episode concludes by urging open, nonjudgmental conversations in polarized times—a note of humility and humor.

For listeners who missed the episode:
You’ll find a sweeping, whistle-blowing look at how US intelligence, legal, NGO, and foundation ecosystems interlock to suppress populist movements, both at home and abroad. The discussions are richly detailed, but ultimately circle back to foundational questions about power, accountability, and what’s needed to restore political balance and public trust in American institutions.