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Lisa Booth
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Lisa Booth
Welcome to the Truth with Lisa Booth where we get to the heart of the issues that matter to you. Today. We're joined by Jonathan Gilliam. He's a former Navy seal, former FBI agent, air Marshal, and we're going to get his take on a lot of these political attacks, this political violence that we're seeing in the country, that shocking attack on an LDS church in Michigan to the sniper assault on an ICE facility in Dallas, and then, of course, the devastating assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah. We're going to unpack the tactical, the investigative and the societal layers of all these incidents. Do they have anything in common? How do we stop them? What's next for all of this? We'll get Jonathan's expertise on all of that. Also, we're going to explore the Department of War, Pete Hegseth's bold military reforms. We saw, you know, speeches from President Trump and Hegseth addressing admirals and generals from, you know, calling them all to Quantico from across the world. What do these changes mean for the military? We'll also dig into that indictment of James Comey. What does Jonathan think as a former FBI agent? So join us as Jonathan breaks down all these important events, what it means for our nation's security in the future. Well, Jonathan, it's great to have you on the show. A lot going on in your area of expertise. So looking forward to getting your insight on all this stuff. I wanted to start out, obviously, you know, you worked in the FBI. A federal grand jury recently indicted Comey on charges of making a false statement and obstructing a congressional hearing in connection to testimony he gave back in 2020. Now, Comey says he's innocent. What do you make of that? Where do you think this thing is going? And do you think they'll secure a conviction against Comey, the former FBI director?
Jonathan Gilliam
Well, that the big question is, will any kind of conviction come out of this? I mean, that's the hard part about going after Washington, D.C. insiders. And make no mistake about it, Comey, Mueller, Christopher Wray, all the previous FBI directors are all insiders of the Beltway. They were all DOJ attorneys before they became the directors of the FBI, which is. I have a problem with that because as we see, the DOJ is very liberal. That's not something that just happened. This is something that's been ongoing for years and years. And they're also very politically connected. That's why we don't get these convictions. So when you hand those people over to the bureau to lead the bureau, it's already a recipe for disaster of the justice system. So when, when we look at Comey and the reality of who this guy is, he's actually the same as Chris Foray and Robert Mueller. So that's why a conviction is important, but that's why it's also going to be just extremely difficult. I mean, I would say even more difficult than going after a politician, which, as we've seen, is virtually impossible. So. But here's the other thing, Lisa, is that I know that they're just initially charging these things, obstruction and lying. I think it was lying to Congress, lying under oath. I think that's what the two charges were. I don't think the lying part is difficult to show. The obstruction may not be either, because he has his own words out there saying he did this versus that. But I think that there's so many other charges that could be brought, such as falsifying evidence, authorizing an illegal case where literally they made up evidence. He authorized the evidence to go forward that had not been scrubbed. He allowed and authorized the spying on United States citizens. And for the cases to be built around President Trump and his associates. If I did any of those things as a supervisor in the FBI, I'd go to jail. So I don't. I just. I don't. I hope that they get this a charge because it will lead them to where they can do more investigations, a deeper investigation on Comey, but also on Mueller and Christopher Wray and anybody else that was involved. Peter Struck, McCabe, Lisa Page, all of them have shown that they were structured in. In their group. It showed that they were committing crimes in furtherance of their. Of their criminal enterprise, I guess you could call it. And. And I think they could go after them with RICO charges. So it's. I think it's critical that they get something.
Lisa Booth
Well, and it's also in a, you know, liberal part of the country in Northern Virginia, so surely the jury will reflect, you know, that as well. And, you know, Comey's obviously made no secret about sort of like, flouting the rules in regards to, you know, giving his friend information to, like, sensitive information to leak, and then, you know, bragging about kind of going after Flynn and sort of, you know, bypassing the rules to get him, and then sort of cheered on this persecution of Donald Trump, you know, so it's like he's clearly, you know, he's not a good guy. He's not a boy Scout, despite the fact he pretend like he was for a long time.
Jonathan Gilliam
That's the thing that's extremely egregious about Comey, is that Mueller, you could tell he didn't really care about the Bureau. You could just tell that. I mean, he. He institutionalized this terrible, terrible morale into the Bureau that was totally opposite of his predecessor. And he just did things that were. That. You could see that he wasn't Doing it to make it easier, making the job better for the agents. He was, you know, under Mueller, we, we, we had a new dialogue, which is our investigative bible, where they flat out told us that this was in 2008, I believe is when that was. They said that they were going to take the FBI from the premier law enforcement agency to the premier. And nobody said this. I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but I heard it from their lips. We went through 18 hours of training to the premier intelligent domestic intelligence agency. That's what they said they were going to do with the FBI. And we started seeing that our reporting, which would usually be shared with headquarters to further, to push out to other. Or we would just push it out to other divisions or other field offices that also had the, the areas that we were operating in. We now found that we were reporting the headquarters and that they would take specific information and send it back down. And we were often getting our own intelligence. Sit back down. To us. I was on kind of like a street crimes unit. And that was kind of the beginning of this. It was the beginning of this apologetic type of we're sorry. They literally apologize for 30 minutes about Hoover and how Hoover had, you know, gone after actors and people accused of communism and black activists and gay activists. And they were saying that he did all these things wrong. And it reflected. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself, isn't that who's destroying this country now? I mean, they could say whatever they want about Hoover, but he was going after people who were destroying this country. And he was doing it under the rules at that time. So this started with Mueller. It progressed when, when Comey came in, people thought he was the hero because Mueller was so bad, and he portrayed that. But he's an actor. He's, I believe he's a psychopathic narcissist when you look at the way he reacts to things.
Lisa Booth
Although it is a little worrisome in terms of like, I mean, obviously the left started it with going after Trump and, you know, going after pro life Catholics with the face act and things like that. But it does sort of feel like now we're entering sort of this new era of like whoever is in government is going to be targeting people in the opposite, you know, political party.
Jonathan Gilliam
Yeah, that's because they're, they're. That shows the ideology, at least it shows the ideology of who these people are. And, and the more of this that comes out, the better, because the more you can show that these individuals that it was More than just Comey that were involved, that there was a structure in this ideology and that they systematically used their offices to further their ideology or further their intent as a group. It gets bigger than Comey and I really hope that this is where this is going because just what Pete Hegseth is doing and I've given Pete Hegseth, I've given him a lot of criticism because I don't like him. Keshe Patel, Dan Bongino, Pam Body, Christy Noem. I don't like the social media aspect of, of how they run their offices. I don't believe that it's. That that is. What's the word that they use? That. That's transparency. I believe those are clicks and. But I do believe a little bit of insight here and there or using the public to find. To further their investigations. That's great. But I've been really hard on Pete Hexith because I feel like it's too much social media, it's too much grandstanding. But what he's doing with the generals, that I believe is exactly what Cash Patel and Pam Bondi and the DOJ should be doing with Christopher Wray and all of these other people. Pete, I believe what he's going to do is he's looking at these generals. He knows a lot more than he. Than they probably realize now after being in this job for this long. And he's going to systematically look at all of these people. And I believe that's what needs to happen with Christopher and, and they say Mueller sick now, but I would still. They need to look at them. They need to be brought in on this and, and Comey being brought in front of the American people needs to happen. We need to look at him. And just like Pete is going to look at the generals and you will see how creepy these people are. Lisa, they're creepy people.
Lisa Booth
Got to take a quick commercial break. More with Jonathan on the other side.
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Jonathan Gilliam
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Lisa Booth
You know. And speaking of Pete, so or the, you know, Secretary of Defense, I say Pete because I used to work with him. So it's, you know, it's like it's still. But you know, as you mentioned, he sort of summoned like generals and admirals, hundreds of generals and admirals from around the world. That kind of like sparked a little bit of concern initially because this doesn't really happen about, you know, like is there something about to go off or you know, around the world or like what's happening. But he got them all together in Quantico, Virginia and really sort of like resetting the priorities of, well, I guess not the Department of Defense anymore, the Department of War, but just sort of resetting like its purpose, direction and focus. You know, sort of what do you make of that meeting? And like did you like what you heard from both President Trump and from the, the secretary?
Jonathan Gilliam
I did. And listen, this is what. You cannot restructure these entities within the government. So the Department of War, which, listen, I don't want to take credit for that, Lisa, but I've been saying that for years, okay? I've been, I've been on Fox, I've been on Hannity show when I used to host that years ago, we're talking 10 years ago, saying that they needed to change the Department of Defense back to the Department of War, but also they need to take the, the eagle's face and turn it back towards or actually switch the arrows in the olive branches that the eagle is holding in its talons. It used to look at the. Towards the arrows and hold the olive branch in reserve. That way we projected force. But at the same time, it went from Department of War to Department of Defense. Back in the 40s, they also changed that and they said, let's project peace and hold the force in reserve. They literally changed that. It should be changed back. That was all progressive moves. So if Trump listens to this, I think that they should change that as well. But I do believe that what they're doing in the Department of War should be looked at closely by Cash Patel, by Kristi Noem has. I don't even know if she realizes how far left the people are within the dhs. All of these supervisors in all of these agencies, they've all been promoted based on what mafia was running the agency at that particular time. You have all kinds of mafias within these different agencies. You have, you know, the careerist mafias, where they're the most incompetent people, but they only put people around them that basically kiss up to them and help their career. You have the lesbian mafia, and this is no joke. You, you put a lesbian in a high rank and she's going to stack the ranks underneath her with the exact same ideologically minded people and literally kill people's careers. They're. They're the nastiest group that's in these agencies. You have the SWAT team mafia guys who are not real operators, but they went through two weeks of training and they're on the SWAT teams and they, if they get in a position of authority, they stack the ranks underneath with their lackeys and the people who look up to them. So all of these agencies need to go through a reorgan. It starts at the top. It starts at the top where Pete is going to look at these people. And I believe Trump is There as well. And they're going to look at these, these generals and they're going to take what they know about who they are or what they're doing and they're going to start reducing it. But also it's going to give them the opportunity to look at these people and say, is this person weird? And I know that, that you can't always look at somebody and say, oh, that guy's a weirdo. There's no way he'd be good at that job. There's lots of generals out there and admirals that if you looked at him, you'd say, there's no way that guy's a warrior, but he's a meat eating operator. You know, but if people show up and there's an awkwardness there and you look at them and you say, I would never have a beer with this person, then you're going to take an extra look at that person. If you know that they're in an area where there's a lot of this ideological push, like for instance, the military bands, the Navy band. I know somebody that's in there, they said it is like the Department of Education. They hate the President, they're far left and they really are a money vacuum. I believe it should be gone if that's the case. So I think it's going to give them an opportunity to look at these people from the top. At the same time, Pete is, I should say the Secretary of War is, I make the same mistake. He's changing the, the standards for recruitment and what people have to do that's changing the short term and long term outlook of the Department of War. The same thing needs to happen with the FBI and all these other agencies. They need to look at these people face to face and say, this is not right. There's something off here. And when they look into their background, they will, they'll find.
Lisa Booth
Is kind of funny because Sam Stein with msnbc. MSNBC tweeted that Hegseth called the generals in to fat shame because he, you know, he's obviously telling them all that they have to meet certain fitness standards regardless of rank. Do you think then, you know, obviously, you know, Secretary Hegseth was a very controversial choice, came under an immense and probably like the most scrutiny out of any of, maybe outside of RFK Jr. But definitely one of the most scrutinized cabinet picks from President Trump. Do you think looking at this then maybe it was, you know, a positive thing to bring someone from the outs, like if he had promoted like a general or Something would they be able to sort of make these changes and to sort of bring about this needed disruption?
Jonathan Gilliam
Well, I tell you it's interesting because we look in the Bible and we get examples of this all the time. You know, God takes some people who've had the most destruction in their lives and he uses them and molds them. And I think that when, when Pete was chosen based on rumors and facts, I didn't think he was the right person. But, but there's certain aspects that I believe he, he would have and is making a success out of his being appointed. And one of those things is he's prior service. He wasn't too high ranking in that service, which means that because once you get past the rank of 06, that's officer level six level. So in the Navy that would be a captain. Once you get above that level, it becomes very political because admirals is next after that. So I believe that would be a colonel in the, in the army. So once you get above that, then you are pulled up, you don't succeed up. And when you're pulled up, and I think that would be something that I would like to see. Pete changes. You need to have real successes in order to become a general or an admiral. At this point it's basically, you may have some good things that you did, but it's really, did you tie your knot to the right person and they're going to pull you up because just like I was talking about with the agencies, the general's game is the same. It's, it's a, a mafia of people, maybe not as far left, but as we've seen in the first administration with President Trump, it was filled with these people. And so they all got there because they either did whatever they were told or because they had the same ideology. And so they were pulled up by the, by the, the other generals and admirals. So I think it was good that Pete wasn't that high ranking. And, and look, I think Pete is the kind of guy that says, you know, screw it, I'm going to do what needs to be done. And that is despite whatever doubt I had, that is the one quality that we needed and we needed somebody that was going to say that I have the same vision as President Trump that this stuff is destroyed and we need to rid it of these cancers within. And Pete doesn't give a crap. He's going to do it. And you see what happened. This is what's crazy, Lisa. You see what happens when somebody does that, right? The system folds underneath them. And that's what Patel and Bondi and all these other agency leaders need to realize, is that if you play patty cakes with a lion, it's going to eat you. And that's what the left is in these agencies. They own these agencies, and if they play patty cakes with them, they're going to get. In three years, the left is still going to own these agencies. That's what Pete has not done. He's not playing patty cake. And look how. Look what happens. The. The. Do the Department of War, the Dow is now responding. Like, these people are afraid. And that's where you need to have that line. You know, if you want to boop a line on the face, you better make sure it's afraid and it's caged. And that's what. That's what I believe Pete has done.
Lisa Booth
You know, we're also seeing increased recruiting numbers, too, which is good, because we need guys like, you know, you former Navy se. Um, you know, we need these big, strong guys signing up to serve our military.
Jonathan Gilliam
And I agree.
Lisa Booth
You know, I. I imagine if you're, you know, having drag queens out there, that doesn't really, you know, encourage these fighters to want to sign up and. And serve that kind of military. You know, it doesn't really speak to them. So good thing we're seeing changes in that as well. You know, I wanted to ask you about sort of like this increased political violence we're seeing. You know, we saw the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk, which was just, you know, I'm still just hurting from that, as we all are. And then just most recently, this attack on an LDS church in Michigan, which seemed like a pretty sophisticated attack, you know, in terms of, like, the plowing into it with his car, the arson, the firing, I guess. What are you seeing in this political violence? Does this seem like an increase to you as someone who, you know, used to serve in the FBI or kind of like, what are your takeaways? And, you know, and then you also have the attack on the ICE facility in Dallas. So I guess what are you seeing right now in sort of the political environment in terms of violence?
Jonathan Gilliam
So for a long time, what we saw that. So there's been an evolution in this type of violence that we're seeing. So gang violence has been around for, I mean, 30, 40, 50 years where it's gotten to the point where the inner city is. Is that dangerous that you could be shot and killed? There was a defining moment, and I'm not sure when that was where that type of violence started. And that's really where the bulk of mass shootings occur, is in gang violence throughout the inner cities of the United States. A lot of it has to do with the way that D.C. is has gone downhill. And you see, as President Trump brought in the troops and all these agencies, it was very easy to clean a lot of that stuff up. Still being cleaned up, but very easy to make big changes. So we know that inner city mass shootings occurred because the left got into power. Not just the left, but mainly the left, but also politicians who don't really care to clean those things up. So you saw an evolution of it getting worse and worse. Well, now you see the same. If you step back and you look, you can see an evolution of leftist verbiage and then leftist grooming and indoctrination. And then after that, you started to see people that weren't saying, I'm a leftist, but they were saying I am confused about my gender or I got, you know, was bullied at school. And so they're going out and they're shooting up schools. Right. So that's an evolution because those people there, there just wasn't that many people who were confused about their gender. And there were always people who were bullied. But it wasn't the same type of bullying as it is now with social media and also with the Department of Education telling people that they are victims. You're either a victim of your gender or you're, or you're a victim of being bullied. And so they created and groomed a victim mentality into all these young people. So you started to see those people react because of their grooming. But now what you're starting to see are people that are taking up weapons and committing acts of violence based on the fact that they identify as a leftist, not as just somebody who's confused. It's always, they may be transgender, but they're also, they hate Trump or they hate the church. And so it follows along the same path as the first and second Intifada in Gaza, where Hamas was, did the same thing. They indoctrinate these people, they take over these locations, they groom them into, into verbal violence and then throwing rocks, and the next thing you know, they're carrying out massive terrorist attacks. That is what's happening here, but it's just going much quicker. And so I think we can clearly see that this ideology is, has pushed all of these non inner city violent people or people into becoming a coordinated, violent system of attacks. And I, I think also the other odd thing here is that many of these, these things that we've seen occurred, whether they're ideological or whether they are just individuals that are confused about life. We're seeing veterans shoot up and blow up things New Year's Day. Both of those individuals that carried out two different types of attacks were veterans. One was Special Forces and he just wanted to kill himself in a, you know, go out in a bang of glory for some weird delusional reason. So the other guy was associated with fundamental Islam. So now we're starting to see all these people who are transgender with specific engravings on their bullets, writings on their magazines and their guns. That's an evolutionary tactic of basically spreading fear and intimidation through their violence. And, and so I think we, we have, and I think the bureau has enough to start looking into. Where is this coming from? Where the military stuff is, is odd because these people are acting this stuff out. And I don't think the guy with the Mormon Church is probably going to be found to be a leftist. I don't know about the guy that was offshore. Both of those things sound like they had beefs with delusional or otherwise. They did not like that specific group and so they went after them. But still the act of multi pronged attacks or shooting up a restaurant, that is not something that veterans would ever do before. So there's something's changed there. But with the left and where that's concerned, I believe that there's enough evidence to start an investigation just to look into what type of grooming has happened and how it's occurred and who's carried it out. And I think if they did the investigation correctly, they would find that there's a link back to all of these people that we've talked about the beginning of this show, the, the Comeys, the Muellers, the Department of Education, all these judges. If you take a step back, Lisa, if I drew on 100 foot wall a big mural that showed all this stuff, but I only let you stand two inches away from the wall. You're not going to be able to see it. But when you start to step back, things become revealed and that's where we are now. We could look and see this huge mural of all these players. And I don't think it's any coincidence that the judges side with the left, that Mueller, Comey, Christie or Christopher Ray, they all side with the left, the shooter side with the left, the teacher side with the left, that groomed them. I think this is a system that needs to be investigated as a whole, I guess.
Lisa Booth
How do you stop it? Then, you know, because even laying out with like the, the church shooter and, you know, I mean, these are, you know, sort of different kinds of people, different goals and objectives. So it's like, how do you, how do you stop this? How do you stop that?
Jonathan Gilliam
That's a good question. And the main answer is, the one that nobody wants to hear is that it, in order to stop each individual attack that's going to come down to the people, the citizens, you're going to have to do threat assessments of your church. You're going to have to hire companies like mine. You know, I'm in, I'm in Central America right now with. Or South America with a client. And everywhere we go, every day I do a threat assessment before we go there, you know, and I know from an attacker's point of view, who would attack based on historical things that are happening, the avenue approach that they would, that they would use the type of attack, when would be the best time to do it and where would be the best place to carry it out? I do that every day. And all my other operators that work for me, they're on different entertainment tours and things, and they're doing those things every day. The past two years, we did over a thousand arenas where we did these threat assessments. And I know when I go in there, because I can look at the way that their security is laid out, that they have not done these threat assessments. I could go to any school right now and tell you that they, most likely I've actually had a school tell me they didn't want to spend the money that I was going to charge them, which wasn't an exuberant amount on. They weren't going to spend the money on a threat assessment to bring somebody in. They were going to spend it on building planters for beautification of the school. And then literally six months later, not that school, but about 50 miles away, a school had a shooting. So they're not interested in doing these threat assessments. And that's what needs to happen. Schools, churches, malls. Yeah, some people still go to malls, stadiums and arenas, all entertainment venues and, and targets that maybe have some type of political nature to them. People need to realize parades, for instance, that's what I was looking for. They, they need to start doing better threat assessments and, and realize you don't have to buy the latest and greatest security equipment. You can park cars in a certain place and people won't be able to drive a vehicle in there, for instance, and, and crash into a building and set it on fire. You can hire or not even hire. You can have volunteers from the church armed. Lots of churches have armed security that are there people that go to church there and they, they take former military or law enforcement or even people just get their concealed weapons carry and they go and they practice and come in there and they are their security. They while the sermon's happening, they're sitting out front looking for anything and that that has actually stopped some of these attacks. So in order to stop the individual attacks, it's we the people are going to have to step up to the plate if but in order to stop the movement that's going to be the government and and really the stopping the attacks is the easy part. Stopping the movement is the hard part. And that's where President Trump, his agency leaders and all these people who work for these agencies should start stepping forward and saying I disagree with this totally. You know that I can see that people are getting pushed forward because of their gender or because their sexuality. And I would be I would start making a fuss about it.
Lisa Booth
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There's a lot going on in Hollywood. How are you supposed to stay on top of it all? Variety has the solution. Take 20 minutes out of your day and listen to the new daily Variety podcast for breaking entertainment news and expert perspectives.
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Where do you see the business actually heading?
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Lisa Booth
Obviously it's challenging with like the snipers and stuff because, like, you know, ICE facilities are pretty fortified. Right. So. Or, you know, Charlie Kirk had security, you know, and so it's. But I mean, obviously.
Jonathan Gilliam
Can I say something about that?
Lisa Booth
Yeah.
Jonathan Gilliam
And I haven't said this before. Charlie Kirk's security failed and so did that police department. That was an utter failure. That Lisa, that guy got on the roof basically by walking through a parking lot or a parking deck, across a walkway and just step down onto the roof. And nobody secured that. He didn't access a door. That's from what I'm looking at based on the, the, the route that the shooter took to get there, walking that we've seen. There is a walkway that goes right over to the roof and then turns and goes down steps. All he had to do was just step over this wire fence and he could have been right on the roof. Charlie's security failed and they did not have a drone up. They didn't have anybody with binoculars looking and standing there and looking tough. And, And I, I knew I didn't know Charlie well, but I met him. And it's infuriating to me because, Lisa, if I had been in charge of that security, Charlie would still be alive because I simply would have either put somebody on that high area. Yeah. That could have seen those things happening, or I would have had a drone up. And security has to start looking at things differently. Again, I do this every day. I don't rely on the police department or the security at the venue to do my job. I do it and I make sure that if I can mitigate the circumstance, I will. But if I have to get my client out of there, I'm going To know why. And I'm going to get them out of there probably before the, the venue security or the police do.
Lisa Booth
And then before we go, you know, labeling antifa terrorist organization. Is that the path forward of, you know, labeling some of these, these groups as, you know, terrorist organizations and sort of expanding the. It is. Do you think that'll make a difference?
Jonathan Gilliam
I absolutely do. Because it labeling them. Well, this is what's going to make the difference. You can label a chicken a dog, but if you don't go investigate it and you don't start making arrests, it doesn't matter if they're clucking or barking, you know, nothing's going to happen. So you have to. The FBI has to go after these people. We should already be hearing about massive arrests of antifa. They have a headquarters in Austin. We know it's there. So why aren't that investigation. As soon as they are labeled that they should have a full squad looking at all the attacks that they have carried out, Whether it's hitting somebody with a lock or like when they chased Andy. No. Into a. Into a room and said they were going to kill him. All of these people, all of these groups are affiliated. They fly all over the place, they get funded. They have gear. I've seen them in, in Washington D.C. i've seen them all over the place where they have better gear than law enforcement sometimes and uniformed gear and their, their movements. I knew a guy that was protecting. I forget the guy's name, but he was in doing a speech at Berkeley and the violence got out of hand and so they were waiting to move him. And the guy who was special forces, he went up on the roof to see where they could see their route. And he said what he watched was uniformed and standardized by these antifa people and he had never seen that taught in the U. S military. So where are they getting their. Their standards? Where are they getting their tactics? And those are things that I think if the bureau and the intelligence services start digging into, we're going to see that there's nation states that are connected and we're going to see that there's big money people and politicians. This needs to go forward. I think antifa making them a terrorist, designating them to terrorist unit. This could lead to just like comey to great big huge cases and, and could really shift the way things are going in this nation.
Lisa Booth
Jonathan Gilliam, appreciate you joining the show. Thanks for making the time.
Jonathan Gilliam
You got it, Lisa. Thank you for having me.
Lisa Booth
That was Jonathan Gilliam. Appreciate him for making the time to come on the show. Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Tuesday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week. I want to thank John Casio, my producer, for putting the show together.
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Lisa Booth
This is an iHeart podcast.
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Host: Lisa Boothe (sub-show: The Truth with Lisa Boothe)
Guest: Jonathan T. Gilliam — former Navy SEAL, FBI agent, Air Marshal
Release Date: September 30, 2025
This episode dives into America’s growing crisis of political violence, accountability in federal agencies, and security reforms under President Trump’s administration. Lisa Boothe interviews security expert Jonathan Gilliam, touching on high-profile attacks (including the assassination of Charlie Kirk), the indictment of former FBI director James Comey, Antifa’s role in unrest, and sweeping changes at the newly-named Department of War. Gilliam brings both tactical and institutional insights, frequently critiquing the political and ideological capture of federal law enforcement and defense institutions.
[02:28 – 11:09]
Background: Former FBI Director James Comey indicted for making false statements and obstructing a congressional hearing (regarding 2020 testimony).
Gilliam’s View:
“That’s why we don’t get these convictions.” (Gilliam, 04:23)
Institutional Critique:
Lisa Boothe’s Take:
Gilliam’s Hope:
[11:09 – 26:02]
Large-Scale Military Shakeup:
Agency “Mafias” and Ideological Fiefdoms:
“All of these agencies need to go through a reorg. It starts at the top.” ([16:59])
Military Promotion Critique:
“At this point it’s basically… did you tie your knot to the right person and they’re going to pull you up… The general’s game is the same.” ([22:17])
Fitness Standards & “Fat Shaming” Outcry:
[26:02 – 33:49]
“[Now] people are… committing acts of violence based on the fact that they identify as a leftist…” ([27:15])
[33:49 – 41:32]
Community Threat Assessments:
Government Role in Stopping the Movement:
[39:45 – 41:32]
“Charlie Kirk’s security failed and so did that police department. That was an utter failure.” ([39:55])
“If I had been in charge of that security, Charlie would still be alive…” ([39:56])
[41:32 – 43:51]
“You can label a chicken a dog, but if you don’t go investigate it and you don’t start making arrests, it doesn’t matter if they’re clucking or barking…” ([41:47])
On the difficulty of convicting insiders:
“That’s the hard part about going after Washington, D.C. insiders… all previous FBI directors are all insiders of the Beltway.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [04:23]
On the FBI’s transformation:
“They said that they were going to take the FBI from the premier law enforcement agency to the premier… domestic intelligence agency.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [08:14]
On ideological corruption:
“All of these agencies need to go through a reorg. It starts at the top.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [16:59]
On promotion mafias:
“At this point it’s basically… did you tie your knot to the right person and they’re going to pull you up.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [22:17]
On the failure of Charlie Kirk’s security:
“Charlie Kirk’s security failed and so did that police department. That was an utter failure… If I had been in charge… Charlie would still be alive.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [39:55]
On Antifa investigations:
“You can label a chicken a dog, but if you don’t go investigate it… nothing’s going to happen.”
— Jonathan Gilliam [41:47]
Both Lisa and Gilliam use a direct, frankly combative style. Conversation is peppered with inside-baseball terminology from law enforcement and the military, occasional hyperbole (“psychopathic narcissist,” “lesbian mafia,” “utter failure”), and a persistent call for grassroots and top-down reform. The tone is urgent, despairing over entrenched bureaucracy but cautiously optimistic that with the right leadership — and citizen vigilance — the tide can be turned.
This episode delivers a blistering examination of political violence and administrative rot in America, blending specific analysis of recent attacks and indictments with wide-ranging institutional critique. Gilliam’s primary message: Real change requires rooting out ideological networks in government, returning to merit and accountability, and engaging citizens in active defense of their communities. Designations and reforms are meaningless without bold enforcement — across agencies, the military, and local life.