Democracy Now! 2026-05-27 Wednesday

Summary

Democracy Now! – May 27, 2026: Full Episode Summary

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Episode Overview

This episode of Democracy Now! centers on several explosive topics at the crossroads of U.S. democracy, power, and justice. Key themes include the mass hunger and labor strike among immigrants detained at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey; legal and political fallout from the January 6 insurrection and President Trump's controversial creation of an “anti-weaponization fund”; and a deep-dive interview on oligarchy and unchecked wealth in America with political scientist Jeffrey Winters.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Delaney Hall Hunger & Labor Strike (Newark, NJ) [00:30–31:58]

• Detained Immigrants Hunger Strike and Protests

  • Hundreds of immigrants at Delaney Hall, a for-profit ICE jail run by GEO Group, began a hunger/labor strike Friday to protest inhumane conditions and due process violations.

  • Despite this, Homeland Security denied any such strike; "border czar" Tom Homan threatened force-feeding (00:18–00:29, 13:31–13:45).

  • Outside, ICE agents pepper-sprayed protesters; three people (including NJ Senator Andy Kim) arrested, further increasing tension.

    “We’re not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike…if it gets bad enough, and in positions feel like they're putting themselves in extreme danger, then we'll force feed them.”
    — Tom Homan (via Brendan Ballew) [13:31]

• Family Impact and Organizing

  • Gabriela Soto, protest organizer and wife of detained Martine Soto, describes how ICE asked Martine to denounce her activism in exchange for release, then transferred him, allegedly using excessive force.
  • Gabriela and her family (two kids, pregnant with a third) struggle with emotional and legal consequences—including new criminal charges for Martine, which could jeopardize his citizenship process.

    “My husband in four months lost 30 pounds. He is really skinny right now. How can one person who is completely skinny and selfless and helpless assault so many people?”
    — Gabriela Soto [24:28]

• Facility Conditions and Exploitation

  • Lee Adorno of Movimiento Cosecha: Delaney Hall has seen abuse and even a recent death during intake; detainees are paid $1.50/day for labor; GEO Group’s profit incentive denounced by community and NJ Governor Sherrill.
  • Ongoing resistance targets both Delaney and the larger Roxbury facility ("a red flag": double-priced ICE purchase, even larger detention capacity).

    “Their demands are not to get better conditions. Their demands are to get freed and be heard. There are innocent people in there.”
    — Gabriela Soto [28:24]

• Broader Context

  • ICE and DHS threaten to cut off international flights into Newark if city’s sanctuary policies continue.
  • Massive group immigration court hearings underway; legal representation is scarce.

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2. Legal Fallout & the ‘Anti-Weaponization Fund’ for Capitol Rioters [35:26–46:35]

• January 6th Officers Sue over Trump’s $1.8B Slush Fund

  • Officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges—who defended the Capitol on 1/6—are suing to block the so-called “anti-weaponization fund,” which could pay those prosecuted for insurrection.
  • The fund, a result of a settlement between Trump and his own IRS in a $10B lawsuit over leaked tax returns, is criticized as a corruption vehicle that could further endanger targeted officers by empowering extremist groups.
  • Attorney Brendan Ballew: settlement is a sham ("no case or controversy"); fund not authorized by law; could distribute funds to Trump associates, family, and allies, entrenching violence and impunity.

    “This slush fund…is about more than just corruption. This is about the personal safety of these officers who defended the Capitol on January 6th.”
    — Brendan Ballew [36:54] “It is functionally the creation of a new department or agency…you can’t use the fiction of a settlement to create a new government agency.”
    — Ballew [42:41] “The risk…is that this slush fund is going to be used to pay the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, the very people that assaulted these officers and that continue to threaten them.”
    — Ballew [44:10]

• Testimony on 1/6 Trauma

  • Officer Dunn describes being surrounded, threatened with racist slurs; Officer Hodges recounts being crushed, nearly killed by the mob.

    “No one had ever, ever called me a [racial slur] while wearing the uniform…that streak ended on January 6th.”
    — Officer Harry Dunn [39:53]

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3. Oligarchy and Inequality: How the Super-Rich ‘Rob America Blind’ [47:39–58:19]

• In-Your-Face Oligarchy

  • Political scientist Jeffrey Winters argues ultra-wealthy power is no accident—democracies like the U.S. are more unequal than ancient empires due to institutional design and neutered tax systems.

    “We’re living in an era that I call ‘in your face oligarchy,’ where oligarchs are far more visible than anything we’ve seen since the robber barons.”
    — Jeffrey Winters [01:50, 49:09]

  • The richest 400 Americans now hold 140,000 times the wealth of the median U.S. citizen (vs. 16,000:1 in imperial Rome).

    “We are just dramatically, dramatically more unequal. Our wealth is far more concentrated in fewer hands than ever before…even more so than under feudalism or Roman slavery.”
    — Winters [52:49]

• Democracy By Design Permits Oligarchy

  • Founding U.S. system included safeguards for concentrated wealth, blending “participation power” (democracy) and “wealth power” (oligarchy); calls present system “participatory inequality.”

    “They wanted to make sure there were safeguards built into the system that would defend those with very concentrated wealth, the oligarchs of the day.”
    — Winters [53:21]

• IRS, Corporate Secrecy, and Policy Rollback

  • Oligarchic power undermines tax enforcement—e.g., the Corporate Transparency Act of 2021 gutted by Treasury, letting 99.9% of corps remain opaque.

    “That got power [but] in March 2025, the Treasury Department essentially gutted it…those battles are incredibly important, they’re doable, people have to be aware.”
    — Winters [57:34]

• AI’s Threat to Inequality

  • AI industry and capital dominated by handful of corporations; potential for mass unemployment and even greater economic concentration.

    “Competition is high. We are seeing concentration of capital in AI on an extraordinary level…if it plays out that way, it's a formula for extreme inequality and...potentially destabilizing to society.”
    — Winters [55:28]

• Hope in Policy Action

  • Winters outlines possible remedies—including transparency laws, tax reform, and citizen awareness.

    “People have to be aware and pay attention to these fundamental kinds of struggles. That’s just the beginning. There are many, many more things and I try to lay them out in the book.”
    — Winters [57:57]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "We're not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike...then we'll force feed them." —Tom Homan via Ballew [13:31–13:41]
• “I want my papa. I want my dad. I want to see my dad.” —Gabriela Soto’s 4-year-old [25:14]
• “He told me how they threw him in the van, how they threw him in the floor.” —Gabriela Soto [21:46]
• “Their demands are to get freed and be heard. There are innocent people in there.” —Gabriela Soto [28:24]
• “This isn't just a profoundly corrupt slush fund…it will physically endanger our clients and people like them.” —Brendan Ballew [44:10]
• “No one had ever, ever called me a [slur] while wearing the uniform…that streak ended on January 6th.” —Officer Harry Dunn [39:53]
• “Our wealth is far more concentrated in fewer hands than ever before…The framers also wanted to make sure that there were safeguards built into the system that would defend those with very concentrated wealth, the oligarchs of the day.” —Jeffrey Winters [52:49, 53:21]
• “What we have today is…participatory inequality. We have incredible inequality, but we participate in it.” —Winters [54:48]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Delaney Hall Hunger Strike & Family Impact: 00:30–31:58
• ICE Threats, Detention Conditions, Roxbury Facility: 13:31–31:58
• January 6th Lawsuit & Police Trauma: 35:26–46:35
• Brendan Ballew on Forced Arbitration: 45:16–46:35
• Oligarchy, Wealth Inequality, IRS Powerlessness: 47:39–58:19
• Jeffrey Winters: U.S. as ‘Participatory Oligarchy’: 49:09–54:48
• Hope & Policy Solutions: 57:07–58:19

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Additional Headline Highlights

• Global Flashpoints: U.S. strikes in the Pacific, Israeli bombings in Gaza and Lebanon, mass displacement and casualties.
• Redistricting Fight: Alabama congressional map blocked for racial discrimination, Texas AG Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in expensive runoff.
• Ebola Response: U.S. prepping Kenya quarantine site after major outbreak in DRC.
• Policy Watch: Trump administration expanding mass immigration hearings with little legal access; federal non-disclosure agreement targets whistleblowers.

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Conclusion

This episode is a sweeping expose of power—at the border, in the courts, and in the hands of oligarchs—with visceral firsthand accounts, sharp legal analysis, and urgent policy debate. From immigrant families fighting for dignity under ICE detention, to police officers battling a system that threatens to bankroll insurrectionists, to the structural failures that allow wealth to warp democracy—Democracy Now! spotlights both the abuses and those fighting back.

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Transcript

[Amy Goodman]

From New York. This is democracy now.

[Brendan Ballew]

We're not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike. As a matter of fact, if it gets bad enough and in positions feel like they're putting themselves in extreme danger,

[Amy Goodman]

medical danger, then we'll force feed them.

[Brendan Ballew]

We'll get a court order and force feed them.

[Amy Goodman]

Hunger strikes do not work. Even as the Department of Homeland Security denies a hunger strike is going on, so called border czar Tom Homan is threatening to force feed the hunger striking detained immigrants at the for profit jail in Newark Delaney Hall. We'll speak to Gabriela Soto, protest organizer and wife of detainee Martine Soto. Then two officers who were attacked on January 6th by Capitol rioters are suing to block President Trump's so called anti weaponization fund.

[Brendan Ballew]

Donald Trump has created a $1.8 billion slush fund that is going to go to pay the rioters and paramilitary organizations that attacked our clients on January 6, 2021, and whose supporters continue to threaten our client safety.

[Amy Goodman]

We'll speak to the attorney for injured police, Brendan Ballou. He's also a former federal prosecutor who Spen years prosecuting January 6th insurrectionists. And finally, tax me if you can. Oligarchs are robbing America blind and the IRS is powerless to stop them.

[Jeffrey Winters]

Oligarchy in America is not new, but we're living in an era that I call in your face oligarchy, where oligarchs are far more visible than anything we've seen since the robber barons of the Gilded Age.

[Amy Goodman]

We'll speak with Northwestern political scientist J. Jeffrey Winters, author of the Blind How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. President Trump Tuesday blasted US Media outlets saying on Truth Social if Iran surrenders, they would portray it as a, quote, masterful and brilliant victory over the United States, unquote. It comes as Iranian officials signal that negotiations to reach a ceasefire deal are ongoing. Tehran's top negotiator, Mohammad Ragher Khalibouf, the speaker of Iran's parliament, returned from Qatar on Tuesday. According to Iranian officials, his visit to Qatar aimed to secure the release of $24 billion. A quarter of Iranian funds frozen abro. This comes as Iranian authorities partially restored Internet access after a nationwide blackout that lasted for nearly three months. Israel said Wednesday it had killed Mohammad Odeh, Hamas's newly appointed armed wing chief, in an operation in Gaza on Tuesday. A family statement said he was killed along with his wife and son. Gaza health officials said six people including at least one woman were killed and more than 20 others wounded in the same Israeli strike which destroyed an upper floor of an apartment building in Gaza City. Since last October's so called U. S brokered ceasefire, Israel's killed some 900 Palestinians in Gaza. This is a resident of Gaza City describing Israel's airstrike Tuesday.

[Brendan Ballew]

There was a sudden airstrike by Israeli warplanes. It was a surprise. They hit a rooftop apartment in a building with three missiles and they weren't simple missiles, they were heavy ones. There is no ceasefire. Day and night there is shelling. The shelling is constant here. They say there is a ceasefire, but there is no ceasefire for this is the Eid atmosphere. As you can see, it is Eid now.

[Amy Goodman]

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon killed at least 31 people and wounded 40 on Tuesday. According to Lebanon's health Ministry. Israel launched more than 120 airstrikes Tuesday alone, one of the heaviest days of bombing in weeks. An Israeli military official confirmed troops had begun operating beyond the so called yellow line which is a boundary running roughly 10 kilometers inside Lebanon. The escalation comes despite a US brokered ceasefire in place since mid April. Since March 2nd over a million Lebanese have been forced to flee their home and more than 3,100 have been killed in Israeli attacks. This is a resident of Tyre.

[Jeffrey Winters]

Kids, women and elderly people all sitting here. Suddenly the Israelis send evacuation warnings and these people get thrown into chaos. They pick themselves up and leave. Half an hour 45 minutes later, look what happens.

[Amy Goodman]

The U.S. military carried out another strike Tuesday on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean killing one person, leaving two survivors. The Trump administration once again claimed the vessel was carrying drugs without providing any evidence. Video shared by the U.S. since September, the Pentagon says it has killed nearly 200 people in strikes on boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. The attacks have been widely condemned as illegal. Hundreds of immigrants detained at the ICE jail known as Delaney hall in Newark, New Jersey are continuing their hunger and labor strike to protest inhumane conditions and call for their release. Delaney hall is operated by the private prison company Geo Group. Outside the Thousand Bed jail, ICE agents clashed with protesters pepper spraying them. Three people have been arrested during the days long standoff even as Homeland Security and denies there's an ongoing hunger strike. So called border czar Tom Homan vowed to force feed the immigrants on hunger strike if the situation at Delaney hall quote gets bad enough, unquote. Newark is a sanctuary city. DHS Secretary Markwain Mullen has threatened to halt international flights and stop processing travelers to Newark International Airport and other major US Airports in sanctuary cities. We'll have more on this story after Headlines. The Trump administration is expediting the use of mass immigration hearings in order to issue more deportation orders. NPR reports. Immigrants are now being scheduled to appear in front of what's known as master calendar hearings with an unprecedented hundred or more people at a time. For many immigrants, this is the first time they would appear in immigration court to plead their case. Immigrants without legal representation have been disproportionately targeted for these new hearings. Lawyers told NPR the practice is already underway in cities like Chicago and Boston. The Supreme Court has sided with the Trump administration in blocking a free speech lawsuit involving federal immigration judges. The conservative majority justices overturned a lower court ruling that allowed the challenge to proceed. In 2020, a group of immigration judges filed a lawsuit over a federal government rule that limits their ability to speak out on public policy. The national association of Immig Judges said in a statement, quote, justice cannot endure when judges are intimidated into silence, nor can a nation remain free when the rule of law is subordinate to the whims of political ambition. Unquote. Mass protests have continued in Bolivia for nearly a month as thousands take to the streets demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Lawmakers this week moved to approve the possible deployment of armed forces to suppress the mobilizations. Farmers, teachers and others have joined the protests, calling on Paz's government to roll back austerity measures amid soaring living costs.

[Gabriela Soto]

We want the government to solve this problem, to fix it once and for all, and to do so wholeheartedly. The babies are starving. We can't afford to buy food. We seniors no longer have the money to buy food. And I have my granddaughters who are orphans. I'm asking for a solution.

[Amy Goodman]

The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to deploy public health officials to Kenya in an effort to quickly staff a potential quarantine center to send U.S. citizens who've been exposed to Ebola. That's according to the Wall Street Journal, which said some members of the U.S. public Health Service Commission Corps have received deployment notices to Kenya. The World Health Organization says there have been more than 900 suspected Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Over 200 suspected deaths in just under two weeks since the outbreak was first announced. This comes as healthcare workers gathered in the eastern DRC city of Bunya on Tuesday for the be burial of a doctor who died while treating Ebola patients. This is the president of the Ituri Medical Association.

[Jeffrey Winters]

We are indeed afraid. We're seriously afraid because all of us are supposed to take care for the sick. Today there are sick people coming in. Tomorrow there will be more sick people coming. We are afraid. We are really afraid. But we cannot abandon the sick because we are afraid. We have taken an oath. We will treat them. We will treat them. But while respecting the preventative measures, the

[Amy Goodman]

Trump administration is pushing a new non disclosure agreement that would apply to all federal workers. The Office of Personnel Management posted a draft to the Federal Register on Tuesday prohibiting workers from disclosing non public, confidential or proprietary information. It would also bar them from sharing sensitive internal materials not currently available to the public. The draft goes beyond standard, classified and unclassified categories of information. The new rule targets leaks to news outlets and would broaden non disclosure agreements already in place at the Pentagon and other federal agencies. Esha Bhandari, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech Privacy and Technology Project, said, quote, such broad gag orders would leave the public in the dark about how the government works, preventing the kind of informed debate that's critical to democratic accountability. The government cannot shroud itself in secrecy in a democracy, unquote. A federal court blocked Alabama from using its new congressional map in this year's midterm elections, ruling it intentionally discriminates against black voters. The three judge panel wrote in their ruling, quote, we cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race based discrimination. More than one in four residents of Alabama are black. Alabama's attorney general vowed to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court, which last month struck down Louisiana's majority black congressional districts. Meanwhile, in South Carolina, the state Senate wrapped up its session Tuesday without voting on a new congressional map that would have dismantled the state's only majority black district. South Carolina's lawmakers quietly defied pressure from President Trump and the GOP to join the ongoing redistricting battle ahead of the midterm elections. And in Texas, the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, backed by President Trump, defeated four term incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the Republican Senate primary runoff Tuesday. Paxton has previously been indicted on charges of felony securities fraud and was impeached from office on allegations of bribery, dereliction of duty, obstruction of justice and abuse of public trust, is the first primary challenger to defeat an incumbent U.S. senator from Texas since at least 1980. The Republican candidate spent nearly $130 million, making it the most expensive Senate primary in U.S. history. Paxton now faces Democratic nominee State Representative James Tallarico in the general election in November. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. We begin Today in Newark, New Jersey, where tensions remain high since about 300 prisoners at the ICE jail known as Delaney hall began a hunger and labor strike Friday to protest inhumane conditions and due process violations. Delaney hall is operated by the for profit prison company Geo Group Group. Federal immigration agents have repeatedly clashed with protesters and community organizers outside the jail. Three people have reportedly been arrested. The Department of Homeland Security denied there's a hunger strike at Delaney Hall. But on Tuesday, the so called border czar Tom Holman threatened to force feed the hunger strikers while speaking on Fox News.

[Brendan Ballew]

We're not going to change what we do because someone goes on a hunger strike.

[Amy Goodman]

As a matter of fact, if it

[Brendan Ballew]

gets bad enough and the positions feel like they're putting themselves in extreme danger,

[Amy Goodman]

medical danger, then we'll force feed them.

[Brendan Ballew]

We'll get a court order and force feed them. Hunger strikes do not work.

[Amy Goodman]

Meanwhile, DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen threatened to cut off international flights and customs processing to Newark Airport if Newark continues its sanctuary city policies. He threatened all airports and sanctuary cities. On Monday, New Jersey's Democratic Governor Mikey Sherrill was denied entrance to Delaney Hall. This is Governor Sherrill. I'll continue to work to go in, but at the same time, I think this really brings to light why the state has been fighting Roxbury so hard because this type of facility shows exactly why we should not have private mass detention facilities. Federal agents pepper sprayed protesters on Monday. Among those hit was New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim him as he tried to de escalate tensions between protesters and ICE agents. He had just completed a congressional tour of Delaney hall along with Congressmember Rob Menendez. They described filthy bathrooms, abusive guards, inadequate medical care, said prisoners were being threatened with deportation to Ebola stricken countries. Tensions escalated Sunday after ICE removed hunger strike participant Martine Soto, prompting protesters outside Delaney hall to block a van being used to transport him away. Masked ICE agents responded by firing tear gas and pushing people to the ground. Soto was ultimately transferred to an ICE jail in Elizabeth, New Jersey. On Monday, New Jersey Democratic Congressmember Rob Menendez went to the Elizabeth ICE jail after spending Sunday night outside Delaney Hall. He shared this video on social media. On Monday, I went in and said

[Jeffrey Winters]

I was there to conduct an unannounced oversight visit as I have the legal right to do.

[Brendan Ballew]

And over the next 18 hours was kept waiting, misled by ICE multiple times. But what I ultimately told Gabriella, Martine's wife, was that I would find him

[Jeffrey Winters]

and I would see him.

[Brendan Ballew]

And that's just what we got done doing here at the Elizabeth Detention center, where he's been transferred to.

[Amy Goodman]

On Tuesday, Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez and I interviewed Gabriela Soto, the hunger striker, Martin Soto, Soto's wife, and Le Adorno, an organizer with Movimiento Cosecia, the immigrant rights group leading the protests outside Delaney Hall. I began by asking Gabriela to describe when her husband Martine was first arrested by ICE and to walk us through what happened over Memorial Day weekend.

[Gabriela Soto]

He was detained in Kearney, New Jersey, in 1 February. He was out getting diapers for our son. He left around 5:30, 6 o', clock, and around 7. I, like, didn't hear from him, so I started calling his phone, but it was off then around 10:15, 10:30 at night is when. And he called me from a prison jail number. I got a call from a prison jail number. And at that moment, my heart just stopped because I already knew what that was. When I started this protest for Friday, I wanted press to come so that they can see what they're doing to destroying families and separating them. It was unfair that they targeted my husband because on that same Friday after the protest, like two hours after, they got him downstairs to the management office, and the first question that he was asked, if we release you now, will you tell your wife to stop this protest? The second question was, did you know your wife was organizing the protest outside? And the third question was, are you the. Are you the one organizing the strike inside? He said, no comment to all of those three questions that he wants to go to his cell. They took that literally and they locked him in his cell. I didn't hear from him for hours. On Saturday, when I did visit him, his name was already highlighted on the paper. All the detainees that came down for visiting hours, they came down. My husband was the only one that didn't come down. I went to the guard and I told him, why did my husband not come down? His name was highlighted on the paper. I saw the paper and the guard told me, oh, I wanted to talk to you. Before I brought him down, he took like 10 minutes asking me questions about why I'm spreading lies, why I am talking to the press, why I'm trying to bring light into what they're doing is unjust. He said, why are you telling people that we're feeding them worms? Why are you Telling people that we don't give them medical care. I said, because it's true. And he said, it's not true. You're just spreading lies. I stood back a little bit and I said, do you want me to get testimony from every detainee here? Do you want me to do that? He said, no, just stop spreading lies. And I said, bring me my husband. After I left, it was. I stayed out the night. It was Sunday now. I got a call from him at 3 saying if I'm gonna go in to see him. I said, yes. We were on the phone talking about that he was waking up, what he doing the day and everything. And then on a recorded monitor line, I heard agents tell my husband, release Martin Soto. Release. Release. Outside, outside America. America. Release. Release. Like you're getting released, like you're going out, like you're not getting deported, like you're. Like you're getting out. I have witnesses from the detainees inside of Unit two that they saw my husband sign the order of release. I was in the ramp on the visitation chapel ramp. I was looking at the door when they got released or when they get transferred. I saw him handcuffed and two agents. He was refusing to get in the van. Two agents grabbed him by his ankles and his arms or his wrists and threw him in the van. I saw him personally thrown into the van at that moment. I called inside. I said, sally, Steph. Like it's Martin. Like, that's him. I rushed out. I opened. I ran out. And the guards, the security people in the little house, in the little penthouse, they were laughing while I was. While I was running out. Everybody was blocking the van because they knew it was Martine. They knew it was my husband. He was banging on the windows, saying, gabby, where's my wife? Gabby. Help. Help. Right now, my husband is in Elizabeth Detention Center. But if you look up his name, he's not in an ICE location. He's not in the ICE locator. Like he's disappeared from the locator. And that is what his ICE is doing. They're separating people. They're disappearing, then innocent people.

[Amy Goodman]

Did you get to see your husband in Elizabeth, where he's being detained now?

[Gabriela Soto]

Yes.

[Amy Goodman]

And what did he say?

[Gabriela Soto]

When I saw him, he had his wrist bruised, his arm bruised. It was red, purple, black. He told me how they. How they threw him in the van, how they threw him in the floor. When they returned him back to Delaney, he. How they. How they threw him in the last car when they were trying to escort him out. Sorry. On Monday after midnight, when ICE agents showed up to Delaney around 2am the first three cars that were there were diversion because they knew protesters were there as soon as they were closing the barricade to not let any more cars through. One of the last cars, like the gray looking, the gray car speeding off, that was my husband in it. He told me that he saw every single moment. He saw ICE agents pepper spraying people.

[Brendan Ballew]

He saw.

[Gabriela Soto]

He saw people blocking the cars. He saw people trying to fight for him. People were trying to fight to not let that van, to not let those cars leave. He saw all of that, but he was restrained to the car.

[Amy Goodman]

And a GoFundMe page has been set up for you, Gabriela?

[Gabriela Soto]

Yes, because my husband, he's facing criminal charges from ICE because they are claiming that my husband assaulted him. Assaulted that. So I'm trying to find out on what more charges that they can charge him with. I'm trying to see if I can get associated with lawyers, whether it's pro bono or whether it's, you know, paid lawyers, anything, because I know that criminal charges, they're very, really bad. And because I did the i130 petition for him to give him citizenship because he's my husband and I'm legally married to him. And you're a US citizen and I'm a US citizen. So these criminal charges can actually hold back on his process. So I'm trying to find a lawyer willing to take on his case so that they can prove that he didn't assault ice. He's one person with five ICE agents. Five, six, seven ICE agents. So how can one person arrested, like handcuffed assault. So many people, so many ICE agents who are armed. They're armed. They have guns. They can use their hands. They're a lot bigger than him. My husband in four months lost 30 pounds. He is really skinny right now. How can one person who is completely skinny and selfless and helpless assault so many people?

[Amy Goodman]

So they've charged him when they were transferring him to the Elizabeth jail.

[Gabriela Soto]

Yes.

[Amy Goodman]

You have two children together with Martine and you're pregnant with your third. What are you telling. How old are your little ones?

[Gabriela Soto]

One and four.

[Amy Goodman]

What does your four year old understand?

[Gabriela Soto]

She thinks dad's at work. When we were at the protest, she was holding up the sign for her dad. She didn't know what was happening, but she said, I think, to like a reporter, Papa, I want my papa. Like, like, I want my dad. I want to see my dad. She cries every time we leave the visitation, which is why I Stopped trying to take her because she gets anxious, she gets heartbroken. She. We're trying to tell her that's at work, he's coming, he's gonna just. He's working because he has to buy you a little toy, a big toy, or because she really wants a puppy. So we tried to also tell her, dad is working to get you the puppy. And then she was like, puppy, no dad.

[Daniel Hodges]

Yes, I'd like to bring in Lee Adorno from Movimiento Cosecha. Lee, welcome to democracy. Now, can you talk about this detention facility? It's been in operation, the largest one in the New York metro area. It's been open over a year. How many incidents have occurred in that facility that you're aware of?

[Lee Adorno]

Yes, so the facility has been reopened for about a year now. You know, there was a lot of resistance in the community. We all said that it was going to be a bad idea for them to reopen it. There was already abuse reported prior to that. This year, unfortunately, we saw the first death at Delaney hall during intake. The person who was being put into the detention facility wasn't even there for a day. And when we asked for explanations, the only thing that Iwell Geo really said was that he had fallen in the staircase or in the stairs. But nobody dies from falling down, right? We have been demanding more transparency. This, what has started to happen here at the Laney hall in the past recent days that has gotten a lot of attention is actually the culmination of different letters that we have gotten from people who are detained describing the conditions.

[Amy Goodman]

If you can talk, Gabriela, about the demands of the people. Now it's two things, right? They're on hunger strike and on a work strike. This is a for profit company, GEO Group that runs this facility. It's very interesting that the governor, Governor Sherrill said that a private company should not be running a mass detention facility.

[Gabriela Soto]

The conditions in there are horrible. They get paid $1.50 a day for a whole day of work. That is why mainly the hospitality tent outside of Delaney Hall. We help families, families with getting to their commissary because it's never enough. And there's families that sometimes just can't pay all the time for like these things. For them, it's basic things, toothbrushes, food, essential things. Their demands are not to get better conditions. Their demands are to get freed and be hurt. There are innocent people in there.

[Amy Goodman]

And Gabriela, how are you communicating with people inside Delany and how aware are they of the protests outside?

[Gabriela Soto]

So we get phone Calls every day. Martin, my husband gave my number to his inmates, to his detainees, to contact me, if anything. I get phone calls. They are very much aware of what is happening outside. We made it very strong for them to know that they are not alone inside, that we're not letting anything happen to them. My husband personally told me to tell Unit two to pass along the message to every single person to continue with the hunger strike, to continue with the labor strike, and for me to not give up on these detainees.

[Amy Goodman]

How much danger do you face?

[Gabriela Soto]

I don't know personally, but I feel like I'm in a lot of danger because my name is out there everywhere. Personally, I am happy that I started this to protect these people. But at the same time, I also feel scared because if they were capable of doing damage to a Congresswoman LaMonica, LaMonica MacGyver facing criminal charges, a congresswoman, if they were capable enough to do harm to her, me being just a nobody, what could they do to me or my husband? Like, I'm scared for both of us. I'm scared for my kids.

[Amy Goodman]

We heard Governor Sherrill mention Roxbury. Can you explain what Roxbury is? Not Roxbury, Massachusetts, but Roxbury, New Jersey. This was a warehouse that was purchased by ICE for what, $130 million to warehouse people?

[Lee Adorno]

Yes. It was at sale for 60, but then ICE paid 120 something million dollars, like double the price of what it was worth. So we already started to see the red flags.

[Amy Goodman]

This was under Kristi Noem, who was fired by Trump.

[Lee Adorno]

I believe so, yes. But we're starting to see that flag of, like, why are they throwing money at these places, these warehouses, to convert them into detention centers, when we are clearly seeing that it's a bad idea from Delaney Hall. Right. What is very concerning about Roxbury is that it's even bigger than Delaney Hall. The last detention center that we.

[Amy Goodman]

Delaney could house Something like 1,000 people.

[Lee Adorno]

Yes. The new one would be able to house 1,500, like, at many, minimum, like, very easily.

[Amy Goodman]

That was community organizer Le Adorno with Movimiento Coseccia Harvest Movement and also Gabriela Soto. Gabriela has been organizing outside the Delaney hall immigration jail in Newark, New Jersey, while her husband, Martin Soto, was inside. He participated in the ongoing hunger and labor strike, but was moved to the Elizabeth jail over the weekend. Gabriela is a US Citizen. She and Martine have two kids, also four months pregnant. Special thanks to Amber Gagarian and Julie Cohen. Coming up, two police officers who were attacked on January 6, 2021, are suing President Trump. We'll speak with their attorney. Stay with. Never Again by La Santa Cecilia in our Democracy now studio. This is Democracy Now. Democracynow.org I'm Amy Goodman. Two officers who defended the Capitol January 6, 2021 have filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the creation of the nearly $1.8 billion so called anti Weaponization fund. Some are calling it a thug fund. The fund was announced by the Department of Justice earlier this month as part of a settlement with President Trump and his family. The president sued his own administration's IRS for $10 billion over the leaking of his tax returns by an employee of a federal contractor. The $1.776 billion fund is intended to make payments to Trump supporters who say they were wrongly investigated or prosecuted by previous administrations. Critics, which include some Republicans in Congress, have accused Trump of creating a slush fund for his allies, including insurrectionists who joined the January 6th riot at the US Capitol. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn and Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges are bringing the lawsuit because the fund could be used to compensate the Capitol rioters who attack them and put their lives at risk. Both officers say they've faced continuous credible threats ever since. On January 6, 2021, Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges was nearly crushed to death. In this tape, you hear Officer Hodges as he is pinned against a door by the mob. The so called Anti Weaponization Fund would be overseen by five commissioners. First, it was said, four of whom would be appointed by the Attorney General, though the Attorney General, Todd Blanche, said he'd appoint all five to serve at the pleasure of the president. For more, we're joined by Brendan Ballew, CEO of the Public Integrity Project, representing Officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodges, the police officer suing the Trump administration over the $1.8 billion fund to compensate Trump's ally. Brendan Belew is a former federal prosecutor who himself spent two years prosecuting January 6th Capitol rioters. His new book is titled When Companies Run the How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System. Welcome to democracy Now. Brendan, start off, I mean, that chilling moment where Hodges is being crushed in a door as he shouts, screams, moans. Talk about what this suit is.

[Brendan Ballew]

Yeah. So let's talk about Officers Dun and Hodges specifically. You know, you talk about that specific moment where Officer Hodges was being crushed in the door in the tunnel connecting the Capitol to the inaugural stage. He could have died there. Later, he almost had his eyes gouged out by another rioter. Officer Dunn was at one point surrounded by rioters who were hurling racial epithets at them. Them. Both of them could have died that day. And the scary thing is that the threat to these officers doesn't end on January 6, 2021, by the mere fact that they're continuing to speak out about January 6th to make sure that the history that day is not forgotten or erased. They continue to receive threats, credible threats of violence, credible death threats. And the real concern that we have with this slush fund that Donald Trump has created is that this is going to be a way to funnel $1.8 billion to supporters of the president who have previously enacted violence in his name and who may be the very ones threatening our clients. So, in a very real way, this slush fund is about more than just corruption. This is about the personal safety of these officers who defended the Capitol on January 6th.

[Amy Goodman]

So I want to turn now to. To July 2020. One months after the attack, the House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection of the Capitol held its first hearing, listening to testimony of four officers attacked by Trump supporters while defending the Capitol. This is one of the men that you're representing, Brendan. U.S. capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, describing that racist abuse he and other Black officers encountered Jan. 6.

[Harry Dunn]

More and more insurrectionists were pouring into the area by the Speaker's lobby near the Rotunda, and some wearing MAGA hats and shirts that said Trump 2020. I told them to just leave the Capitol, and in response, they yelled, no, man, this is our House. President Trump invited us here. We're here to stop the steal. Joe Biden is not the president. Nobody voted for Joe Biden. I'm a law enforcement officer, and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance, I responded, well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody? That prompted a torrent of racial epithet. One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, you hear that, guys? This voted for Joe Biden. Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, joined in screaming, boo. No one had ever, ever called me a while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police officer. In the days following the attempted insurrection, other black officers shared with me their own stories of racial abuse. On January 6, one officer told me he had never in his entire 40 years of life been called a to his face. And that streak ended on January 6th. Yet another black officer later told me he had been confronted by insurrectionists in the Capitol, who told him, put your gun down and we'll show you what kind of you really are.

[Amy Goodman]

That was Officer Harry Dunn testifying before the House Of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. And this is Officer Hodges.

[Daniel Hodges]

On my left was a man with a clear riot shield stolen during the assault. He slammed it against me, and with all the weight of the bodies pushing behind me, him trapped me. My arms were pinned and effectively useless, trapped against either the shield on my left or the door frame on my right. With my posture granting me no functional strength or freedom of movement, I was effectively defenseless and gradually sustaining injury from the increasing pressure of the mob directly in front of me. A man seized the opportunity of my vulnerability, grabbed the front of my gas mask and used it to beat my head against the door. He switched to pulling it off my head, the strap stretching against my skull and straining my neck. He never enter, uttered any words I recognized, but opted instead for guttural screams. I remember him foaming at the mouth. He also put his cell phone in his mouth so that he had both hands free to assault me. Eventually, he succeeded in stripping away my gas mask, and a new rush of exposure to CS and OC spray hit me.

[Gabriela Soto]

Me.

[Daniel Hodges]

The mob of terrorists were coordinating their efforts now, shouting heave ho. As they synchronized, pushing their weight forward, crushing me further against the metal door frame. The man in front of me grabbed my baton that I still held in my hands. And in my current state, I was unable to retain my weapon. He bashed me in the head and face with it, rupturing my lip and adding additional injury to my skull.

[Amy Goodman]

So that was Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges. So we just heard from Hodges and Dunn, Brendan Ballou, the two men that you represent, if you can talk about Todd Blanche, President Trump's former personal attorney, now the Attorney General, when he himself was questioned by Senator Von Holland and others, refused to say that they would even rule out those insurrectionists who attacked police. Talk about why you believe this fund is illegal. President Trump calls it an anti weaponization fund, Call it a thug fund.

[Brendan Ballew]

Yeah, absolutely. So let's start with what purportedly created this fund in the first place, which is the lawsuit that you mentioned by Donald Trump against his own irs. Now, to have an actual lawsuit in federal court, you need what lawyers call a case or controversy. The two sides actually need to be opposed to each other, and that just wasn't the case here. Donald Trump was on one side, and his own irs, which he controls, was on the side other, other. And that led to a sham settlement over this potential $10 billion lawsuit. So this isn't really even the kind of case that the Department of Justice could settle. But even if it could, the settlement that it purported to reach, this creation of this weaponization, this slush, this thug fund, whatever you want to call it, is not authorized by statute. And what I mean by that is it is functionally the creation of a new department or agency. And you know, you can't use use the fiction of a settlement to create a new government agency. You know, Republicans would be pretty mad, for instance, if Barack Obama used the fiction of a lawsuit to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, for instance. It's the same thing here. This is the creation of a new agency that the president functionally controls that he will get to decide how the money is spent and who the money goes to now.

[Amy Goodman]

And it could go to himself. Is that right? I mean, this is a settlement with him?

[Brendan Ballew]

Oh, absolutely. You know, and they've made clear as part of this broader settlement, you know, he is going to be completely immune from any further IRS investigations. And so it only makes sense that they would potentially try to send money to him or to his family members or to his associates. But for us, I want to make clear for your audience, you know, it's not just, you know, this isn't just a profoundly corrupt slush fund, although it absolutely is, that this is a slush fund that will physically endanger our clients and the people like them. Because you are very smart to play those quotes from officers at Hodges and Dunn testifying about the dangers that they faced on January 6, but they are continuing to face very real dangers by speaking out about January 6. Since then, the risk that we run is that this slush fund is going to be used to pay the proud boys, the Oath Keepers, the very people that assaulted, assaulted these officers and that continue to threaten them and increase the danger against them. Because it is going to give a presidential endorsement to these people saying that not only if they enact violence against theagainst the President's enemies will they be put beyond the reach of the law, but they will actually be financially rewarded for doing so.

[Amy Goodman]

Brendan Ballew, before we end, I was wondering if you can talk about the major things thesis of your new book, When Companies Run the Courts. How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System.

[Brendan Ballew]

You're kind to ask. So America has a secret justice system that surrounds us and yet we know almost nothing about it. It is an alternative to the public court system called forced arbitration. It's a system where instead of having a judge, you have a private arbitrator that is typically or often paid for by the very company that you are trying to sue. Proceedings happen in secret and can almost never be appealed. And so, unsurprisingly, these courts almost always rule for the companies rather than for the consumers or the employees. Now, this all matters because we are increasingly being pushed into this private justice system. And if it feels like companies are increasingly beyond the reach of the law, if you're getting scammed by companies, overcharged by companies, getting worse, customer service, getting discriminated against, hurt or even killed by companies, if that seems to be happening more than it used to, forced arbitration pushing cases outside of our court system and into the secret justice system that companies largely control can explain why companies are getting worse in so many ways.

[Amy Goodman]

Brendan Ballou, we want to thank you for being with us, CEO of the Public Integrity Project, representing officers Harry Dunn and Daniel Hodge, the police officer suing the Trump administration. Brendan's new book, when Companies Run the How Forced Arbitration Became America's Secret Justice System. Coming up, the Blind How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. We'll speak with Northwestern University political scientist Jeffrey Winters. Stay with us.

[Gabriela Soto]

Money talks, money shouts. Don't take much to hear. Like it or not, you need a lot if you're gonna make a life down here. Money talks, money spits, makes its presence felt.

[Amy Goodman]

The Money Song by Dick Walters. This is Democracy Now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show with a new book that looks at how the in your face power of the ultra rich and the Trump administration isn't just a floor, a flaw of our current political moment, but a foundational feature of our democratic system. As the world moves towards an ever deeper state of wealth inequality, the power of oligarchs is greater than ever. Northwestern University political scientist Jeffrey Winters argues democracy's failure to address wealth inequality is by design. His new book is called the How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. And he's just published an article in Mother Jones headlined Tax Me if youf Can. Oligarchs are robbing America blind. And the IRS is powerful to stop them, is powerless to stop them, in which Winters writes, quote, how did America's oligarchs grow so willing to openly rub their wealth power in our faces? Well, a big part of it has to do with their success in neutering perhaps the greatest threat to their dominance, the ability of the government to tax them and to hold those who cheat accountable. For more, we go to Chicago, where we're joined by Northwestern University professor Jeffrey Winters. Thanks so much for being with us. Lay out the thesis of both this piece in Mother Jones and your book,

[Jeffrey Winters]

the Blind Spot, well, it starts with something of a puzzle, which is the United States clearly is a country that has become more democratic over its history, far more inclusive, and yet the country has also become more unequal. And that sort of doesn't make sense. In fact, not only have we become more unequal, but liberal democracies around the world are now among the most unequal societies ever to have existed in human history. And this is a head scratcher for us, because if just the oligarchs or just the most powerful people in a dictatorship are completely in charge, we would expect that wealth would become more and more concentrated and the people down below would get very, very little. But in a democracy where there's power sharing, we would expect that inequality would be kept in check. In fact, the opposite is happening. And so that's sort of the starting point of the book, to try to disentangle, to try to look at the historical story of how it is that oligarchy, which is about wealth, power, is combined and fused with democracy, which we should think of as participation power. Both of them are operating in our system simultaneously.

[Amy Goodman]

Talk about what it means. I mean, when we see at President Trump's inauguration, the Tech Bros behind him, the billionaire supporters, not always supporters, but because he was becoming president, that brotherhood. Explain what it means when there is little regulation and how the IRS fits into all of this.

[Jeffrey Winters]

Sorry, the sound has gone out, but the question, most of it that I heard is about the Tech Bros. And, and I think what we need to understand about the household names now that all of us are aware of these very, very powerful and wealthy people, is that they are the most visible part of the oligarchs in our system today. But we also need to understand that they are just part of a much broader and deeper structural phenomenon. So we, on the one hand, these individuals are, because of their visibility, it's actually making the American population very aware of oligarchic power. We have to understand that 20 years ago, these were not the names that everyone knew. And 20 years from now the names are going to be different. So we personalize it, but we also need to understand it in a much deeper structural and historical way.

[Amy Goodman]

You talk about how right now there is a wider gap between the rich and poor than was even during European feudalism or in Imperial Rome's slave society. Talk about the significance of this, Professor Winters.

[Jeffrey Winters]

Well, all of us are pretty aware that if we think back to imperial Rome, we don't view it as an equal society. It certainly wasn't democratic. And if you take the gap between the wealthiest Roman senators and the average person in Imperial Rome who was either a slave or a small farmer, the ratio of their wealth was about 16,000 to 1. If we fast forward, sorry, if we fast forward to today in the United States and we take the average person in the Forbes 400 compared to the median person in the United States, that has exploded to 140,000 to 1. And so we are just dramatically, dramatically more unequal. Our wealth is far more concentrated in fewer hands than ever before. And that, if it were under authoritarianism, might not be an issue. But what we are seeing is that it's actually in a democracy that this is happening. And I don't argue in the book against the idea that the United States is a democracy, argue that it is very much a democracy. We have the right to vote, we have freedoms to speak. It is consent of the governed in so many ways. All of those things were very important to the framers to put in place. But the framers also, because there was an oligarchic democratic crisis at the time of the Constitutional Convention, they wanted to make sure that there were safeguards built into the system that would defend those with very concentrated wealth, the oligarchs of the day. And so that's how we get a system which is both democratic and oligarchic at the same time. Something which, by the way, never existed before in human history. We've always had a wealth pyramid, but it was always in the past sustained by force, fear, awe, intimidation of all kinds. What we have today is what I call participatory inequality. We have incredible inequality, but we participate in it.

[Amy Goodman]

How does AI exacerbate the wealth gap and the power gap, Professor Winters?

[Jeffrey Winters]

Well, AI is something that is evolving so rapidly and so few of us really understand where it's going and how it's going to play out. But one thing is clear. This apparently transformational technology is in the hands and being controlled by very, very few people. And they are determined that it is going to be a profit oriented endeavor. Competition is high. We are seeing concentration of capital in AI on an extraordinary level. And it is also, by many people's estimation, possibly going to unemploy people on an incredibly large scale. So if you put the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few corporations and the people who control them on the one hand, and what may be employment devastation going on in society on the other, if it plays out that way, it's a formula for extreme inequality and I would say potentially destabilizing to society.

[Amy Goodman]

We just have a minute to go. You say we are 50 years into a period of exploding inequality in the United States and globally, clearly tearing the fabric of society. Where do you find hope what can remedy this?

[Jeffrey Winters]

I think the hope is that there are policies that can be put in place already. I'll just mention quickly something called the Corporate Transparency act, which, which most people don't know about. It was passed in 2021 as part of the Defense authorization bill. And what it basically said was that all corporations, we would know the beneficial ownership of corporations. There would be a registry because you can set up a corporation in Delaware, Wyoming and elsewhere which is completely secret. And those kinds of entities are very important for oligarchs to evade taxes, to move their money around the world in very secret ways. That got power. It turns out in March 2025, the Treasury Department essentially gutted it by making 99.9% of all corporations exempt from it. Those battles are incredibly important. They're doable. People have to be aware and pay attention to these fundamental kinds of struggles. That's just the beginning. There are many, many more things and I try to lay them out in the book.

[Amy Goodman]

And the book is set of Ideas,

[Jeffrey Winters]

ideas about what to do about oligarchy.

[Amy Goodman]

The book is called the How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. Jeff Winters is professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. That does it for our show. I'll be at the IFC tonight at 6 o' clock for the showing of Steal A Story, Please about Democracy now with director Tia Carl, Tia Lesson and Chani Nicholas. Tomorrow in Great Barrington, Frank Friday in Tucson, Saturday in Phoenix and then next weekend in Tampa as well as in Miami and then on to Vermont. You can check our [e-mail] I'm Amy Goodman. Thank you so much for joining us.