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Tim Miller
Hey, everybody, Tim Miller from the Bulwark here. We had one of these fucking disgusting news items of one of these insurrectionists who was shouting about killing the cops. Having a role now at the Department of Justice, the Weaponization Working Group, which we'll get into, whatever that is. It's a guy named Jared Wise. And I want to talk about this with somebody. And so I called my man Michael Finon. I thought he might have a few choice words. How you doing, man?
Michael Fanon
I'm good, man. Thanks for having me on.
Tim Miller
So this fucking asshole Jared Wise was from Bend, Oregon, I guess he was a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 04 till 2017. You know, event, I guess 2017, you just thought Donald Trump was so great, he was so inspired by him that he needed to leave the Bureau and become like a Trump vigilante. And fast forward a couple years, there he is on January 6th. And, well, I guess before we play the video, like, what, what do you make of it? I mean, what do you make of this? Like, the idea that these guys are now, like, roaming around the doj?
Michael Fanon
I mean, it makes perfect sense to me because this is what this administration has always been all about, ever since Donald Trump announced his candidacy from Waco, Texas, the scene of, you know, a bloody battle between American law enforcement officers and members of the far right militant group, like what we saw there. And so, yeah, I, I, and then, you know, assigning him to the Weaponization Working Group, I guess if you're talking about weaponizing the government against the American people, then yeah, there's a perfect place for them. So I, you know, is it outrageous? If you're a normal person, yes. If you're somebody that believes that the Constitution is a good thing, then yes. But if you're a maggot, then, you know, this is, this is great news.
Tim Miller
Well, let's take a look. With this guy's behavior on January 6th, obviously, I know you have to kind of suffer through these videos all the time, so I apologize for that. But I think it's important to see, for people to see that we're not exaggerating here. Here is new Department of Justice official Jared Wise on January 6th.
C
You guys are disgusting. Former law enforcement. You're disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the gestopper. You can't see it because you're chasing your pension, right? Pinching your retirement, right? That's what runs your life. You're retired.
Tim Miller
The sad thing is they're not even going to get their pension because it's going to Be. So there it is, bro. Kill him. You guys are disgusting. You are the Nazi. You're the Gestapo. Shame on you. Shame on you. Kill him. Kill him. I mean that's pretty cut and dry.
Michael Fanon
Yeah, yeah. I mean it's again, it speaks to this administration that they would that that guy now holds a DOJ taxpayer funded job.
Tim Miller
What do you think you guys think about this? I just, you know, look, I, I understand the sentiment behind the back, the blue. I really do. Like, I get it. Like you got, you had a tough job and a lot of times cops like get on and don't get respect. And so I understand, I do, I, I, you know, as a troublemaking youth comps weren't really my favorite. But I do, I understand the sentiment and I like how do people that hold that view look at something like this and think anything besides like they're being made a fool of. The fact that like somebody that would yell kill them, kill them repeatedly at, at you and your colleagues who are doing your job protecting the Capitol now gets a job in this administration. Like how do they square that in their heads if they're a cop supporting Republican, do you think?
Michael Fanon
Well, I think that you know, from having spoken with a lot of law enforcement officers that they're cops outside of the beltway, so to speak. You know, you've got a lot of cops are very apolitical. I mean there's a, there are a lot of police officers that just, they don't care. They have absolutely want nothing to do with American politics and they just show up for work every day, you know, trying to do their job the best they can. But I mean there really are a lot of police officers who are in the, the MAGA camp. And so, you know, for those officers, the things that, that this former special agent now DOJ official said, kill them. They're the Gestapo, they're the Nazis. Make perfect sense. And, and they're actually, you know, I mean you look at how many law enforcement officers, former law enforcement officers, were there on January 6th and not helping the, the police officers like myself that day. They were there as part of, you know, Trump's personal, you know, brown shirt Army.
Tim Miller
I mean I hate doing this like game because it's kind of so stupid at this point, but it's just like, and had Barack Obama appointed a Black Lives Matter protester who was shouting kill him, kill him about the cops. And you would never stop hearing about this. Like you would never stop hearing about this on fox. And so it just is this total cognitive dissonance. Like this is the one instance where somebody can yell, kill them at the cops and be rewarded, I guess.
Michael Fanon
Yeah. I mean, other than, you know, the hundreds of individuals that were committed acts of violence against police officers that day and then were pardoned by the President, you know that there seemed to have been some limited outrage within the Republican Party in the immediate aftermath, but, you know, the silence was deafening.
Tim Miller
Yeah, well, on this fucking working group, just so people know what we're talking about here, Bondi is ag, launched this, these, the, the task here. This former agent will be looking into the politicized actions of officials who investigated Donald Trump. The point person on this now is Eagle Ed Martin, who is going to be the U.S. attorney for D.C. but this is how fucking bad Eagle Ed Martin is. He could not be confirmed for the job that Janine Pirro ended up getting like that. Like, that's how bad this dude is. That's how, like, embarrassing his resume was and his track record that Republican senators were like, he's a step too far. We're going to put Judge Box of wine in there instead. So Ed Martin is organizing this group with, with Jared Wise. They're supposed to be reviewing these actions. And I don't, I don't have any reporting on this. I don't have any details on this. But, like, tie this to the other big story of the day, which is the last time I did a video on this, there were two. Now there are three FBI agents who've been fired, pushed out of the bureau. You know, a couple who didn't do anything. Like they were, they were part of the investigations against the J6ers. In two cases. In one case, he refused to fire people who were part of these investigations. And so, like, to me, it's like you have a guy now that was shouting kill him at you. All that gets to be a rat inside the administration to rat out anybody that he thinks is, is, does wrong thing. I mean, you know, sometimes I think that the parallels to past autocratic governments get a little bit too overdone. But what else would you call this?
Michael Fanon
I don't. I think that those, you know, to calling, calling out the fact that this looks a whole hell of a lot like 1930s Germany is completely appropriate. I can't look at it any other way. You know, Ed Martin is a disgusting human. He also coincidentally referred to me as a fake police officer.
Tim Miller
You're an actor in his theory or what was his theory?
Michael Fanon
Correct. Now he just said that I was a fake cop, that I was not a real Police officer, despite the fact that I'm sure he knows quite well that. That I was a D.C. police officer for 20 years. But feeding into the conspiratorial nature of, you know, who these, what these guys really are, are all about, and it's. It's insane.
Tim Miller
I wouldn't mind for you to bump into Ed Martin at a watering hole. I think you probably have different thing to say about, about your resume. Probably if you met him in person, I would guess. Yeah, man, I don't know. I just like, again, it. To me, that's the thing that I struggle with. I mean, a. It's just morally repugnant to this guy's in there after what he did. But it also just goes against the ethos of everything. Like these guys have become the feds that they bitched about. Like, they literally have a spy in their midst. Like, they said that there's this deep state against them. It's like now it's like we got this group and their job is to rat people out that are working in FBI, working at Capital, working in these agencies at doj.
Michael Fanon
Yeah, no, I mean, I. When you talked about the FBI agents, like, I knew that recently there were three career federal prosecutors that were dismissed, that were fired, you know, in an incredibly disrespectful fashion. You know, 15 minutes, get the hell out of the building, escorted out of the building and whatnot. And their, Their. Their crime that they committed was having prosecuted individuals who participated in the January 6th insurrection. That's it. Nothing other than that was, you know, they, they were prosecutors that, that did their jobs. And so, yeah, it's terrifying to me. And it's also, you know, what, how do you, how do you write that ship? You know, let's say in, in however many years, you know, we. We get a sane person back in the White House. You know, this, this idea that we had this deep state, which I believe is. But we do now. You know, we certainly do now. And then how do you purge these people from the ranks of these organizations and rebuild trust with the American people? You know, what took six months to destroy? I don't, you know, I don't think I would ever trust the Department of Justice in my lifetime again, having gone from being colleagues with this organization and these individuals to being in an adversarial role for doing nothing other than speaking the truth about what I experienced as a police officer.
Tim Miller
And it's just great. I mean, you're right about the rebuilding and the flushing out and replacing the people that have worked there. And this is what's happening. People, as you point out, people that were just doing their jobs, trying to protect the country are getting fired and smeared, and dude yelling kill him. At the cops with his MAGA hat on. You know, it's getting. Is getting brought in. I mean, I think it's pretty alarming state of personnel there. So I don't know. Do you have any other final thoughts on this for now before I let you go?
Michael Fanon
No, I mean, I. You know, listen, I'm sure we'll be back talking about something else in the not so distant future, so.
Tim Miller
Sounds good, brother. I appreciate it. You got a substack, right?
Michael Fanon
I do. I got a substack, and I just launched a YouTube show, which, in two weeks, we. We surpassed a quarter of a million followers.
Tim Miller
Amazing. We'll put the link on here. I've got to check that out. I saw your sub stack. I. Look at me. I was on. I'm on a. I'm on holiday for one week. Next thing you know, Fanon's coming for me in the YouTube space. So we'll put the link down here. I appreciate it, man. Appreciate your service. We'll be talking to you soon.
Michael Fanon
All right, thanks, buddy.
Bulwark Takes: From "Kill the Cops" to DOJ Paycheck (w/ Mike Fanone) – Detailed Summary
Release Date: August 8, 2025
Host: Tim Miller
Guest: Michael Fanone
In this episode of Bulwark Takes, host Tim Miller engages in a candid and impassioned discussion with former police officer and activist Michael Fanone. The conversation centers around the troubling appointment of Jared Wise to the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Weaponization Working Group, shedding light on broader issues of politicization within federal law enforcement agencies.
Tim Miller initiates the conversation by expressing outrage over the appointment of Jared Wise, a former FBI special agent with a history of extremist rhetoric, to a significant role within the DOJ.
Michael Fanone responds by contextualizing this appointment within the broader pattern of the current administration's approach towards law enforcement and governance.
The dialogue delves into the implications of having individuals like Jared Wise within the DOJ, highlighting concerns about the erosion of trust and the potential for government officials to act against their own law enforcement personnel.
Tim Miller [02:43]: "Kill him. You guys are disgusting. You are the Nazi. You are the Gestapo... Kill him. Kill him."
Michael Fanone [08:03]: "Calling out the fact that this looks a whole hell of a lot like 1930s Germany is completely appropriate."
Tim Miller discusses the leadership of Ed Martin within the Weaponization Working Group, criticizing his qualifications and the decision-making process that led to his appointment.
Michael Fanone echoes these sentiments, adding personal anecdotes about Ed Martin's dismissive attitude towards his credentials.
The conversation shifts to recent dismissals of FBI agents who were involved in the investigations of the January 6th insurrection, emphasizing the administration's retaliatory stance against those enforcing the law.
Michael Fanone [05:57]: "Three career federal prosecutors... their crime... prosecuting individuals who participated in the January 6th insurrection."
Michael Fanone [09:34]: "Rebuilding trust with the American people... I don't think I would ever trust the Department of Justice in my lifetime."
Both hosts draw alarming parallels between current DOJ actions and historical autocratic regimes, suggesting the emergence of a "deep state" intent on undermining democratic institutions.
Michael Fanone [08:03]: "We certainly do now... how do you purge these people from the ranks... rebuild trust."
Tim Miller [08:54]: "They literally have a spy in their midst. They said that there's this deep state against them."
The discussion underscores a profound distrust in the DOJ, stemming from perceived internal corruption and politicization that compromise the agency's integrity and mission.
Michael Fanone [09:34]: "Rebuilding trust with the American people... adversarial role for doing nothing other than speaking the truth."
Tim Miller [11:19]: "People that were just doing their jobs... getting fired and smeared... it's getting... pretty alarming state of personnel there."
As the episode concludes, Tim Miller and Michael Fanone reflect on the challenges ahead, emphasizing the need for accountability and systemic reform within federal law enforcement to restore public trust and uphold democratic principles.
Tim Miller [12:23]: "Sounds good, brother. I appreciate it. We’ll be talking to you soon."
Michael Fanone [12:08]: "We surpassed a quarter of a million followers... Appreciated your service."
Tim Miller [00:00]: "We had one of these fucking disgusting news items of one of these insurrectionists who was shouting about killing the cops."
Michael Fanone [01:09]: "If you're somebody that believes that the Constitution is a good thing, then yes."
Michael Fanone [08:03]: "Calling out the fact that this looks a whole hell of a lot like 1930s Germany is completely appropriate."
Michael Fanone [09:34]: "I don't think I would ever trust the Department of Justice in my lifetime."
This episode of Bulwark Takes offers a critical examination of the current state of the Department of Justice, highlighting the dangers of politicization and the undermining of law enforcement credibility. Through the insights of Michael Fanone, the conversation sheds light on the systemic issues threatening democratic institutions and the imperative for meaningful reforms to restore trust and uphold the rule of law.