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The Daily Beans
Refried Beans | The Lawfare Frontlines (feat. Mark Zaid) | 5/13/2026
00:50:29
Tuesday, May 13th, 2025 The US accepts the first planeload of white Afrikaners while still somehow unable to get the people back from El Salvador; the ICE detention facility in Newark has been served with violations by the city after the mayor’s arrest; Andrew Cuomo loses $622,000 over concerns of improper super PAC coordination; Republicans in the Senate push back against Trump’s takeover of the Library of Congress; the fight to save Medicaid heats up after House Republicans release their bill that cuts taxes for the rich; the Trump administration halts research to help babies with heart defects; and Governor Polis signs the Colorado Voting Rights Act into law; and Allison and Dana deliver your Good News.
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A
MSW Media. Hey, everybody, it's Ag. And welcome to Refried Beans, where we play an episode of the Daily Beans podcast from the same week either one, two, or three years ago, so we can see how far we've come. So please enjoy this episode from days gone by and note the date in the intro.
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B
Refried beans. I like refried beans.
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A
That's why I want to try fried
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B
beans, because maybe they're just as good and we're wasting time with swearing. Jelly beans. Jelly beans. Jelly beans.
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A
Hello, and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, May 13, 2025. Today, the U.S. accepts the first plane load of white Africaners while still somehow unable to get the people back from El Salvador. The ICE detention facility in Newark has been served with violations by the city after the mayor's arrest. Andrew Cuomo has lost $622,000 over concerns of improper super PAC coordination. Republicans in the Senate push back against Trump's takeover of the Library of Congress. The fight to save Medicaid heats up after House Republicans release their bill that cuts taxes for the rich. The Trump administration halts research to help babies with heart defects, and Governor Polis signs the Colorado Voting Rights act into law. I'm Allison Gill.
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B
And I'm Dana Goldberg.
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A
You know, every day there's some headline where I'm just like, what? Cuts funding for heart defects for babies? Like, what? What is going on?
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B
Like, well, I can tell you what I think it is. He just wants the quote, unquote, strong to survive.
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A
He's.
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B
He's a gene. He's obsessed. He's obsessed with the strongest, the racehorses, the genes, purity, the blood of our country. And maybe he sees that babies that are born with heart defects. I think. Didn't he say once about people with special needs, that they just let him go? Why invest in them?
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A
Right? It's that it's eugenics. And also he just wants to keep that money for him and his rich friends. Gross. Yeah, just things you'd never thought you would read. It's one of those things where, you know, you're like, you're in it so much. You're in the trenches so much, and then sometimes. Sometimes you just back up and look at the whole thing and you're like, what?
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B
Yeah, it's. It's disgusting. I mean, everything that's happening that. The news that we've gotten over the weekend, just gross. The plane from Qatar, like, it's all just disgusting.
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A
It. Yeah, it's pretty horrible. But welcome back.
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B
Thank you.
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A
Glad you get to walk into that Headline.
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B
Yeah, I had a lovely weekend at home and took my mom to a doo Wop. Listen, if the doo Wop project is ever in your city, and I'm not going to bat for them because they asked me to, it's, they're really good. It's like five guys in a band behind them and most of them are in Jersey Boys on Broadway. They're all really great singers. And the music director is a Tony Award winning music director. My mom, I mean, she's, you know, she's in her 80s. She got up and. Well, I shouldn't say in her 80s. She's barely in her 80s. Cause I know she listens to this podcast.
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A
Yeah, don't get a call like I got from her.
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B
Barely. I'm gonna get a text message for sure. But she was up doing the twist. I love watching my mom dance. It's one of my favorite things. And just to see the joy, I did find out if the doo wop music is slow and acapella, I get sleepy in a duck theater.
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A
Nice. Well, that's wonderful. I'm glad you had a good Mother's Day.
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B
Thank you for covering me. I appreciate it. Core Memory made.
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A
Excellent. Wonderful. That is really, really great news. Also good news. I'm going to be talking to Mark Zade later in the show. You mostly know him from, I mean, he's been, he's represented tons of guests that we've had on the Daily Beans. And now finally, he's, he's become a guest. He' founding legal partner of Whistleblower Aid and he's suing Trump right now for, because, you know, Trump yanked his security clearance. He's a, he's a national security lawyer and that security clearance is important to him. So we're going to talk to him, but later in the show.
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B
All right.
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A
But before we do that, we have a lot of news that we have to get to. So let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. First up from NPR, a group of 59 white Africaners who had been given refugee status by Trump arrived at dulles Airport outside D.C. on Monday on a charter flight paid for by the US Government. And in a related story, in a striking move that ends nearly four decades of a relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees because they have a moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by Donald Trump. So someone please answer me this. If South Africa, a sovereign Nation is, I mean, like, you know, they have sovereignty. Which is, by the way, Trump's defense as to why he can't bring home people from sea code is because El Salvador is a sovereign nation. But if South Africa is a sovereign nation, how are we able to send our own planes we paid for to transport a bunch of white people to the United States, but simultaneously unable to send a plane to return Abrego Garcia and Andre Hernandez Romero and Franco Reyes Mota and the rest of the over 200 disappeared to El Salvador?
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B
Great question and this bullshit reason, and correct me if I'm wrong, cuz I might be wrong. I am often on this podcast. But didn't Trump use the term it was something in reference to like reverse racism for these white people in South Africa. That's what they're saying, the hardship.
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A
Yeah. Well, that's what Harmeet Dhillon is doing at the doj. She's turned the Civil Rights division into a civil rights for white people. Yeah.
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B
So, yeah, it's pretty disgusting. And, you know, it's no surprise that Elon Musk happens to be from that country. So who knows what the connections are there and who they're actually bringing in based on all of this.
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A
Yeah.
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B
All right, Ag, this one's from the Times. Former Governor Andrew Cuomo. He was denied more than $600,000 in public matching funds on Monday after the New York City Campaign Finance Board, they found out he most likely engaged in illicit coordination with the super PAC supporting his campaign for mayor. Oh, yeah, Mr. Cuomo. First, I hate that we're even using the word aroused in a story about Mr. Cuomo, because I think that's what he got in trouble for before he left office. He roused suspicion when he posted on his campaign website that looked to be a set of detailed spending instructions for anyone hoping to help the super pac. It's called Fix the City, began airing an ad just days later that appeared to align with some of those requests echoing themes and data points. Yep. Now, the tactic in question, and this is called red boxing because of the frequent use of red bordered boxes to highlight the instructions, has become common in federal races as a way to circumvent anti coordination rules in plain sight. But the New York City Campaign Finance Board has explicitly warned against it. Mr. Cuomo still received 1.5 million in public match funds. He has theoretically qualified for 2.1 million. But the board decided to withhold that $622,056. That's the amount, by the way, that the super PAC paid for the Ad because it said there was, quote, reason to believe that the television commercial was, quote, not independent of Cuomo campaign. Why can't New York City get. We could have had Wiley.
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A
What's going on, New York?
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B
I don't. I don't get it. I don't. It's such an incredible state. I have a. I mean, New Yorkers don't fuck around either. Like, all this stuff. They're not going to let him into office. I would be shocked.
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A
He's like 18 points ahead of Eric Adams in the latest poll. I don't. I don't know.
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B
Maybe they will let him back in. I don't know.
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A
Yeah, that he lost quite a bit of match funding from the party because of this illicit coordination with a super pac. Well, we. I felt like I wanted to get that news out there. It's probably going under the radar a lot with everything else that's going on.
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B
This.
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A
This one's from NewJersey.com New York City officials were back in front of Delaney hall on Monday morning to serve the owners of the privately owned immigrant Detention center with violation notices. This is a few days after Mayor Ross Baraka was arrested outside the facility in a dramatic scene with federal officials. On Friday, the Democratic mayor and three Democratic members of Congress from New Jersey, that's Rob Menendez Lamonica McIver and Bonnie Watson Coleman, went to the facility for an oversight visit, and a scuffle with law enforcement took place. And we should say the scuffle was all on the law enforcement side. Baraka, who is also a Democratic candidate for governor, was charged with criminal trespassing, a charge he intends to dispute. And we go over that incident in a lot more detail on tomorrow's cleanup on aisle 45 podcast.
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B
All right, thanks, Ag. This one's NBC for James Ntaki. Okay. A biomedical engineering professor at Cornell University. The $6.7 million government grant that meant babies would be saved. Awarded by the Department of defense on March 30. It would allow his team at Cornell to ramp up production and testing of Pediaflow. That's a device that boosts blood flow in infants with heart defects. Well, unfortunately, a week later, that's all changed. The Defense Department sent Ntaki a stop work order on April 8, informing him that his team wouldn't get the money intended to be distributed over four years. These three decades of research are now at risk. And Ntaki said he has no idea why the government is cutting funding from him. And I quote, I feel that it's my calling in life to complete this project, he said Friday in his first news interview since losing funding. He said, once a week I go through this mental process of getting is it time to give up? But it's not my prerogative to give up now. Neither did Defense Department nor the White House could have any time to respond requests for comments because they are too busy accepting lavish gifts from countries that are funding Hamas. Back to you, Alison.
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A
Thank you. All right, and now in sports. No, I'm sorry. Whenever, whenever it gets thrown back to me, I feel like I have to give a sports update. The Padres defeated the Colorado Rockies 21 to nothing the other night. Anyway, that's just an aside. My friend actually texted me that night and said, hey, your Padres won by three touchdowns.
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B
Oh, my God. That's pretty funny.
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A
All right, next up from Politico, top congressional leaders are pushing back against President Trump's attempt to replace two Library of Congress leaders with the dispute over presidential powers over the institution, leaving its future in question Monday. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a brief interview that congressional leaders, quote, want to make sure we're following precedent and procedure in naming a replacement for Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress who Trump dismissed Thursday. Trump on Monday appointed Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch as acting Librarian of Congress, but the official now holding that post, Robert Randolph Newland, didn't immediately recognize the appointment as valid. And that's according to an email Newland sent to library employees. The clash included a brief standoff Monday at the Library of Congress in which Justice Department officials arriving there they claimed to be newly in charge of the agency. That's what a person familiar with the interaction told NBC. After library officials resisted the doj, officials departed without resolving the conflict.
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C
Good.
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B
Kicked them out.
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A
Nice job. Library Congress Capitol police officers were called to the scene, but told by library staff that they were not needed. And that's according to another person. Thune's comments indicate that the dispute has reached the highest levels of congressional leadership, which is currently in the hands of Republican majorities. He said, quote, we want to make sure congressional equities are respected and protected in this process. Well, then why'd you vote for that continuing resolution, you giant pile?
- [12:13]
B
Also, with all the that's going on, the Library of Congress is.
- [12:17]
A
That's my other thing. That's my other thing. I put that out on Blue sky was like, it's really interesting to learn what the red lines in this Republican Senate are. The, the, the plane from Qatar. Fine, fine. $400 billion plane. Gutting the federal government, calling it a risk Rad. Go for it. Gutting Medicaid. Well, even Josh Hawley doesn't want that. But we'll talk about that in a minute. But, like, that's your red line. That. I mean, I'm glad that you're standing up, but this is the thing, not the insurrection. No, like, this is the thing. A spokesperson for Mike Johnson didn't immediately return a request for comment. Any Republican objections to Blanch's appointment would represent rare pushback to Trump presidential authority. So far in his second term, Republicans have by and large let Trump have his way in slashing government spending and levying foreign tariffs, both areas where Congress hold clear constitutional powers. Yeah, it's just Dana, like, this is the thing. Like, as a comedian, you're on stage, you're telling jokes, you tell kind of a risky joke and you kind of get an ooh and you're like, okay, that's your line. That's where we've crossed the line. Okay, now I know this is how for Republican Congress. It's the Library of Congress.
- [13:33]
B
It's so bizarre. I had a gig in the Library of Congress with the Gill Foundation. It's a stunning building. And I remember it was after the insurrection, I made a joke that this building is obviously safe from the insurrectionists because this is where they keep the books. Like, there's no reason they would come here. And now they're trying to. It's just weird.
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A
It's a weird red line. I'll take it.
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B
Sure. I mean, we'll take the baby ones where we can get them, I guess.
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A
But I mean, can you also be against the tariffs?
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B
Yeah. Or can you be against disappearing people without due process? That would be nice.
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A
That'd be cool.
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B
That'd be cool. All right, well, back to House Republicans. This is from NBC. They released legislative text Sunday evening of a key portion of their party line agenda bill that includes cuts and other changes to Medicaid. Like you just answered. And one of the most contentious issues they face is trying to advance President Donald Trump's agenda in one sweeping package. The legislation released by the.
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A
I feel really bad for them, by the way. I'm so sad.
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B
So sad. The legislation released by the Energy and Commerce Committee, it heads to markup Tuesday afternoon. It includes 160 page section covering health care and Medicaid. The bill would make a slew of Medicaid spending cuts. Democrats circulated a letter from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office with a preliminary analysis finding that the health care portion of that bill, it would cut spending by a 715 billion with a B dollars and would, quote, reduce the number of people with health insurance by at least 8.6 million in 2034. Now, the bill does not include some of the most aggressive provisions that had been considered by GOP leaders and caused intraparty tension, such as the per capita limits on Medicaid spending and increasing the state burden for covering the Medicaid expansion population under the Affordable Care Act. But while the exclusion of those provisions is aimed at winning the votes of centrists and politically vulnerable Republicans, it also risks alienating conservatives who want far reaching changes. So Rep. Chip Roy, we know he's that Republican from Texas, said the Medicaid policies were insufficient and potentially ominous sign for winning over GOP hardliners who have insisted on $2 trillion in overall savings to win their votes.
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A
Hmm. So some Republicans are pushing back on the bill not because it would kick folks off Medicaid.
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B
Nope.
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A
But because it doesn't kick enough folks off Medicaid.
- [15:58]
B
Unbelievable.
- [15:59]
A
But it is different in the Senate. As I mentioned earlier, the Medicaid question has caused an intraparty rift as some Republicans warn their colleagues against messing with the program at all. So now you've got the people who say it doesn't go far enough. You got the centrists in the middle who want to only cut $715 billion and only kick 8.6 million people off. And then you've got people who are like, don't touch it at all in the Republican Party. So now there's three factions warring in the Republican Party and that includes Senator Josh Hawley, who published an op ed in the New York Times on Monday saying if Congress cuts funding for Medicaid benefits, Missouri workers and their children will lose their health care and hospitals will close. It's that simple. And that pattern will replicate in states across the country.
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B
Who the fuck thought Josh Hawley would be the voice of reason in a Medicaid argument?
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A
And you know, I've said this is, this is what I think it is for a long time. I've said there will come a day of reckoning when members of Congress who actually have to get elected again.
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B
Yep.
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A
Come to loggerheads with Donald Trump, who doesn't give a shit and doesn't have to be elected again whether he stays in control by a coup or never leaves the White House or actually does, you know, serve out a second term and leave. Whatever the situation is. He's not trying to get votes. Donald Trump isn't trying to get votes. But Josh Hawley has to.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And I think we're starting to see some cracks between the Trump administration, the Trump regime, and some Republicans in Congress who are just, you know, Josh Hawley. Why would he do this? Because he wants to hold on to power. Yeah. And continue to make all the money that he makes by being a senator. And he can't do that if, you know, I think 40% of Missourians are on Medicaid. So, like, you know, like, a huge percentage of people in Missouri are going to lose their benefits. And so, you know, obviously, he's like, well, when it comes between pleasing Trump and pleasing my constituents, I gotta go for my constituents. If I want to hold on to
- [17:48]
B
power, it's about time. I mean, I guess anytime is a good time to try and stand up for something.
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A
Yeah.
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B
All right. I'm so happy I can actually deliver some good news before we hit the good news. This one's from local Fox affiliate in Colorado. Coloradans, they can. They're concerned. If you're concerned about discrimination at the ballot box, they're going to be excited about the passing of a bill a local nonprofit group said is designed to ensure, quote, all eligible voters have the right to be heard. Common Cause Colorado, which championed what is known as the Colorado Voting Rights act, and I hope there's other states taking note of this, said Monday that Gov. Jared Polis signed the new law, which will give 1.37 million Coloradans access to multilingual ballots and create specific protections for LGBTQ voters and voters in county jails. So the Colorado Voting Rights act, it's going to include this. Strengthening voter protection, safeguard Colorado's election systems, advance equity and fair representation representation. It's going to break down language barriers with multilingual ballots, empower voters with disabilities, create a strong legal framework in state courts, and it's going to create a statewide database for election information. This is a big deal. It is a wonderful thing that they're doing it, and they're going to do everything they can to protect these elections. So I love to see it.
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A
Yeah, me, too. Congratulations. Good job, Governor Polis. Colorado is just always on the forefront of making it easier to vote. We, we here in California, we sort of fashioned our vote by mail system on Colorado's vote by mail system.
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B
I did not know that. Thank you for teaching me new things
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A
because they are so good at it. Anyway, thanks. Appreciate that. Good news story. And before we get to the Mark Zaden review and the good news, we have some good trouble.
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B
What are you guys doing?
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A
All right, everybody, this is it. It. It's time to fire up your five Calls app and make sure that you call and write your representatives in the House and the Senate and tell them to save Medicaid. Save Medicaid. Regardless of the tricky language Republicans use to try to make it less bad, like disguising the cuts as work requirements, fact remains that almost 10 million people will lose coverage. So let your representatives know that if they touch Medicaid, they'll be filing for unemployment after the next election and they may have work requirements to qualify for unemployment if they aren't careful. So make sure you download that 5 calls app if you haven't already, and make these calls as often as you can take. Take 10 minutes a day. Schedule it on your calendar to just make these calls and tell them, do not hands off Medicaid. I think it's really important. All right, everybody. Yeah, do it. We'll be right back with National Security Attorney, founding legal partner of Whistleblower Aid, Mark Zade. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I'm honored to be joined today by National Security Attorney, founding legal partner of Whistleblower Aid and now plaintiff against the Trump administration. And full disclosure, he represents our good friend and my co host on cleanup on all 45, Harry Dunn and several other people that you probably know. Please welcome Mark Zaid. Hi, Mark.
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C
Hey, Alison. Great to be here.
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A
It's so good to meet you kind of face to face. I know it's virtual, but I know we've exchanged many on email. And so it's wonderful to get to speak to you because you are suing the Trump administration for yanking your security clearance. Can you talk a little bit about why a security clearance is so important in the work that you do?
- [21:28]
C
So there are very few private lawyers who hold a security clearance in the way that I did for over a quarter century. Most the lawyers who do are either working sort of in the defense sector, right, representing a big defense contractor, Boeing, Booz Allen, whatever, and they're representing their client for that purpose. It's and it's commercial relations with the president. You know, not the president, but the, the U.S. government. Others have it because they are rotating in and out of federal service and so their clearance eligibility remains. Still others might have it because on the side they're a member of the National Guard unit locally or maybe in the military reserves. I have always been in this somewhat unique position where because of the clientele I represent in personnel actions, employment actions, security clearance cases, disciplinary actions, investigations where I'm representing covert spies of the United States government, and I need to know that they work at the CIA, because how else am I supposed to respond to something at the CIA if I'm not allowed to talk to the CIA about it? So either through litigation, which I've handled many times over the year, that's classified, or investigations, inspector general matters, things like that. I have been approved by the US Government. Right. Not something you apply for. The US Government decides that it is in the national security interest and the best interests of its people, its employees, for a private lawyer to have classified access in order to represent the individual. And I have to go through a background investigation, and I'm deemed trustworthy, Supposedly.
- [23:22]
A
Yeah. And let's talk about the arguments here, because, I mean, this is the core of this, is the constitutionality of being afforded legal counsel. And if you are somehow not able to represent a client, then aren't we stripping folks of their ability to have competent counsel?
- [23:41]
C
Yeah, and it could be. Every once in a while, I handle criminal matters. Not often, but sometimes. Most of what I'm doing is civil or administrative, but they still have rights to counsel. In fact, they're told they have that ability now. They have to have a lawyer who is cleared and who. Who runs through the same requirements of being approved, which I always was. And it's an individualized determination, so that if someone was married to a foreign spouse, okay, that's a potential disqualifying factor. You have to try and mitigate it. Or if there was drug use or over excessive alcohol use, you have to mitigate those issues. So these would be all sorts of things, none of which I have for any of that, that would be looked at. And if the lawyer meets the standards of the adjudicative guidelines that are applied across the board and every agency to every federal employee, military and contractor, then the individual lawyer would be approved for access, as I was multiple times until this administration.
- [24:53]
A
Now, has this administration done anything else to you aside from taking your security clearance away, making it virtually impossible for you to represent certain clients? Have they taken anything else away from you? Like, you know, some of the big law firms in his executive order, they're like, you aren't allowed into federal buildings, which. Which makes it impossible to go into a federal courthouse. What else are you facing in this particular action?
- [25:14]
C
My action was both better and worse than the law firms that got targeted. It was better in the sense that I was only. I wouldn't say banned. I was only limited to escorted access in secure facilities, but I would always have to be escorted in secure facilities anyway, every once in a while, because I had a clearance, I could wander around aimlessly looking for the office door I'm supposed to meet at, but normally I'd always be escorted. So that did nothing. And as you described, you're right. I mean, they went far beyond that against the firms of not only banning them from federal buildings, which makes it difficult for a lawyer to practice law in federal court, but also interfering with their relationships with their clients by targeting their clients. Now, my situation was worse, ostensibly in that my clearance was revoked, while the law firm's lawyers had their clearances suspended, ostensibly pending some investigation that likely was never going to happen. I usually actually characterize the suspensions as worse than the revocations because you can be in limbo for a long period of time. You're at the mercy of the US Government. But in that sense, the distinction was, I was revoked even though the memo that President Trump issued says the revocation is supposed to be consistent with existing law. Well, existing law says for revocations, this goes back six decades, that I receive procedural and substantive due process. What's the reason that I'm losing my clearance? Give me detailed explanations. Give me an opportunity to respond in writing and in person. Give me an opportunity to have a lawyer that could defend me in that action. Of course, none of that happened.
- [27:12]
A
Yeah, and let's talk about that limbo, because I'm curious as to how the outcome of your case could impact some other law firms and lawyers who have been adversely treated by. By this administration. Or is this just kind of a because of the difference between a revocation and a suspension? Does this only really apply to people who've had their licenses or their clearances revoked?
- [27:33]
C
Well, it will depend, obviously, Judge Howell in the District of Columbia, her decision in the Perkins Coie case is going to have a significant impact on the other pending litigation, which, for the first time did address the clearance provisions of those executive orders. The earlier TROs, temporary restraining orders had stayed away from the clearance aspect because of the deferential nature between the judiciary and the executive branch on clearances. But Judge Howell's order permanently enjoined the administration and from enforcing any aspect of the executive order. My challenge, were it to be successful, would no doubt impact a whole slew of dozens of people. It would certainly impact the law firms, without a doubt because it goes a little step further, but it would impact the 51 signatories to the Hunter Biden laptop letter, eight of whom are my clients. As well, who were the subject of the first executive order on security clearances on the night of inauguration, stripping them of their clearance without due process. Now, the vast majority of them frankly did not have security clearances, so really didn't have any impact, but nonetheless. And then the people who got their clearances revoked with me also, most of whom did not actually have a security clearance. I mean, I was within a really austere group of people. I mean, in some ways it's very, I'm honored, right, to be among presidents, vice presidents, secretaries of state, deputy attorney generals, members of Congress. And then who else was there? Me, a lawyer, you know, who's, who's been practicing with like two lawyers for the last 20 plus years now. No one else is sued. But if, if I were to prevail and any of them needed their clearance, like Lisa Monaco, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States, she's on the list with me. I imagine Lisa probably would still be using her clearance in some capacity for clients in whatever law firm she has gone to. Maybe not, I don't know if, or blink, I don't know if any of them needed it, but certainly if I prevail as a matter of law, then I imagine, you know, they would too. But I doubt Hillary Clinton is going to sue, you know, or Hunter Biden, you know, kid or so, or whatever are going to sue either if they, none of them even had clearances. So.
- [30:10]
A
Yeah. But let's talk about, before I let you go, the importance of lawyers in the greater picture of the judicial branch and, and why these lawsuits are so very important to the rule of law.
- [30:23]
C
Well, the notion that a President of the United States, or if it, if it was an agency of the United States, which is usually where these actions happen. I mean, I've been threatened by the CIA multiple times over my career that they were going to revoke my security clearance, that I was doing bad things and things like that, which of course then never happened. It's rare. I mean, I've never seen it in 30 plus years of law practice that a President of the United States gets involved with any security clearance decision other than, I suppose in the first Trump administration, the rumors were, I don't know if it was ever proven, you know, that he, Trump, acted on sort of shutting down some clearance investigations within the White House for, you know, family members and other inner circle folks, which is entirely his prerogative, but that was to grant access to classified information. We may not like it, but that's totally within the power of the President of the United States to revoke someone's clearance. We have never seen a President of the United States do that. And to do it for political retaliatory reasons, because that's all that this was. I mean, there's no, again, individualized statements. I have been said to have been targeted because I represented the intelligence community whistleblower in the first Trump administration. I. E. I did my job as a lawyer representing someone to make sure they didn't break the law. As a, as a whistleblower, where that information went after and what happened to it in the sense of leading to impeachment, not my job, not my role. I had nothing to do with that. That's Congress. That's why he went after, obviously, you know, Schiff and the others. But. And my colleague and lawyer, Norm Isaac, the other lawyer, a real lawyer on, or as far as practicing lawyer on the list. But to do that, to just strip us of our clearances, because as it says in the memo, it's in the national interest, not the national security interest, which is what the adjudicative guidelines talk to when we are afforded the privilege of a clearance. The national interest. So basically, he wants Greenland. So he's going to take it because that's in the national interest, even though that's crazy and no one before him ever thought about that. But, hey, he's the president, he can determine the national interest.
- [32:58]
B
Right.
- [32:59]
C
I'm going to try and lower the price of eggs. That's a good national interest. But whether I have a clearance that's not in the national interest or not, it's whether or not the national security interest of the United States demonstrates that I'm entitled or should be afforded the privilege of a security clearance. And again, it has always been in Democrat and Republican administrations, the determination that it was in the national security interest that I have a clearance, I'll finish with saying, in the first Trump administration, even though what they say I did wrong, which happened in 2019 when I represented this individual, the following year when I represented the highest ranking whistleblower we have ever seen at the Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration increased my access level to the highest top secret SCI TSSCI in order to represent that individual. Yet somehow, now, going back in time, I'm not, I don't deserve a clearance any longer. I mean, it doesn't make any sense.
- [34:08]
A
No, it doesn't. And it's interesting. I think there wasn't there. I think there was recently a judge who, who had had a hearing about a lawyer who used to work for a law firm. And it might have been Perkins Coey several years ago that was part of the Mueller investigation. And the judge is like, so you're telling me that you're reasoning for this, targeting this lawyer is because they used to work for a law firm six years ago? It was. Maybe it was Judge Bates, I can't remember. But it was. It was incredulously ridiculous.
- [34:38]
C
Most so for the executive orders against the firms. At some times, in some of them, they identified some specific lawyers. Most of those lawyers were no longer at those law firms any longer. Folks like Mark Elias, he's not at the law firm that was targeted any longer. And in fact, because the executive orders impacted every employee at the firm, not just the lawyers, the paralegals, the secretaries, a number of those employees in those groups, they had security clearances because they were in the military. Wasn't even because they were lawyers as well. They were serving their country, potentially at risk of their safety and security. Right. They could be killed if they're sent into combat or in an accident at a base. And yet somehow they're not trustworthy any longer because they happen to. To work at a law firm. In fact, one of the lawyers at Perkins Coie, I understand, had been favorably adjudicated as trustworthy something like three weeks before the executive order occurred. So something happened in three weeks, apparently, that they're no longer trustworthy.
- [35:52]
A
Yeah, it just. It shows that they have, like, literally no argument. Well, we appreciate your time. Thank you so much for coming and talking to us, and thank you for the work that you're doing. Can you tell everybody how they can support this litigation and other litigation that you're involved in, especially. I know that, you know, we kind of work together a little bit on some of the federal workforce litigation and things like that, But I'd like everybody to know how they can help.
- [36:14]
C
No, that's fantastic. And thank you for having me on, Alison. So the easiest way, go to whistlebloweraid.org and donate. It's a 501. We provide legal representation pro bono for free to whistleblowers. I handle most of the national security ones as well as others. And also if you go to GoFundMe and you search, I think under my name, there will be several GoFundMes that are there. Those are all to help us fund litigation, usually in defense, some in a prosecution standpoint, in the sense of being the plaintiff, prosecuting it that way. For cases that I am handling, representing federal employees who have been targeted by the Trump administration. And I I do not feel comfortable with taking money from any of them. So I do it pro bono for them. But you know, there's only so much pro bono work I can do. I still have bills to pay, so this is helping me provide free representation to any of them. So, you know, even if someone gives 10, 15, $25, $25,000 if you can. But hey, $25 really does go a long way because it enables me to handle these cases at no cost to the client.
- [37:33]
A
Well, thank you for the services you provide and thanks for joining us today. We'll be following this case. We'd love to have you back on in the future to discuss any, any big developments anytime. Appreciate your time. All right, everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news.
- [37:50]
B
Everybody.
- [37:51]
A
Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone.
- [37:55]
C
Then good news, everyone.
- [38:02]
B
Good news.
- [38:02]
A
And if you have any good news confessions corrections. You want to give a shout out to a loved one yourself. I love self shout outs. Dana loves self shout outs. I do indeed.
- [38:11]
B
They're some of my faves.
- [38:12]
A
Toot your own horn if you have a shout out to a small business in your area or your small business or shout out to a government program that's helped you or a loved one, especially Medicaid. We want to hear your great Medicaid stories right now. Medicare, Social Security, Affordable Care Act, SNAP, WIC, Section 8. Great VA health care you've received, great student debt forgiveness stories. Send it all to us and just have your stuff read on the air. All you got to do is pay your pod pet tax, which means attach a photo of your pet. And if you don't have a pet, you can attach an adoptable pet in your area. We'll see if we can find him a home. We also accept bird watching photos, which can be a bird, or you and your family and friends flipping the bird to trump and Musk Properties. We also accept any animal photo. Just grab one off the Internet. We really like pandas, red or black and white. We like otters, frogs. I like secretary birds and pygmy marmosets. Oh my God, they're so cute. And if you don't have any of that, you can send your baby photos. Actually, you should just send your baby photos anyway. Send it to dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact. First up from Alyssa Pronouns she and her I'd like to offer a proactive correction for the name of our president's new ride. Its designation is Kater Force One. I will also be using the name as part of my personal good troublemaking no kings. Here's a bird watching photo of a visiting Muppet. My birder friends tell me that it's a green heron. Oh, my God, he's so cool. Look at him. His, like, neck and he's a very
- [39:41]
B
cool looking bird, right?
- [39:43]
A
It's like, yeah, that's. That's a cool. That's a cool looking bird. Thank you for sending in that bird watching photo.
- [39:49]
B
All right, we have Diane sue, pronoun. She and her says please below in a British accent.
- [39:54]
A
Hello.
- [39:55]
B
Bop its. I'm coming to you from. I'm coming to you from the great stage best Virginia.
- [40:03]
A
Oh, I think you only need to do the aloe puppets.
- [40:06]
B
Hey, I know what I need to do. Was it that bad?
- [40:09]
A
No. Continue if you'd like.
- [40:12]
B
No, I knew it was coming out wrong anyway.
- [40:13]
A
Okay.
- [40:14]
B
I'm coming to you from the great state of best Virginia. Except our people voted 70% forking red last November.
- [40:21]
A
Boo.
- [40:22]
B
I'm here to gently correct you as the pronunciation of the name of the organization is niosh.
- [40:29]
A
Niosh. Okay? Not niosh. Got it.
- [40:32]
B
The I is long Niosh. So say it like this. Niosh. NIOSH is the workplace safety agency that works to keep coal miners from getting black lung disease. They also try to keep firefighters from getting cancer. They do stuff like this in all kinds of industries. In other words, it's a super important agency that should not have been flushed down that golden toilet. I'm sharing a photo of niosh. It's a beautiful building, but now it's empty. When I drove by last week, the grass was knee high. The firing of its 200 employees devastated our community. My God, that building is beautiful.
- [41:09]
A
I'm so sorry, Diane Susk. This is such.
- [41:11]
B
I really. I mean, the disdain I have for everyone in this fucking administration.
- [41:17]
A
Yeah, stopping lung screenings for West Virginian coal miners.
- [41:23]
B
Yep. Just what the.
- [41:26]
A
Anyway, thank you for that and thank you for the pronunciation correction. Next up, Lori. Pronouns she and her hi, AG and dg. I'd like to give a shout out to all teachers. I have always said they do not get paid enough. And after chaperoning my son's first grade zoo field trip last week, I stand by that statement and more teachers deserve a million d gazillion d dollars a month. These wonderful humans make miracles out of nothing and bring so much joy to our children. They are people who definitely had a call and followed it. My son has grown so much this year, and I know it's in large part to his teachers for Example. Recently, on a Monday after a Sunday night of storms and tornado sirens, my son came home and told me all about how tornadoes form at a first grade level. Of course, and I am confident in saying that this wasn't the original lesson plan for that day, but his teacher pivoted and made that somewhat scary night into a teaching experience that's the hallmark of an amazing teacher. So please don't wait until Teacher Appreciation Week, the holidays, or the last week of school to give your child's teacher a little thank you for what they do. It's the least we can do for the people who are teaching our future. For my POD pet tariff, I'm sending a baby photo. You're welcome dg.
- [42:33]
B
Thank you.
- [42:34]
A
Of my now first grader and a picture of our Brutus dog. You should be able to tell the main breed by the picture without seeing the rest of him or his tongue. I doubt you'll be able to figure out the mix. He's a loud. Oh, it's right here in the thing lab, Sharpe. He's terrified of water, but he pretty much has one brain cell that's floating around looking for a companion brain cell with little luck. But he's the sweetest dog. Thank you for the news with swearing and keeping us informed.
- [43:01]
B
Look at this baby.
- [43:04]
A
Oh, Green Bay Packer. Sunglasses on the doge.
- [43:08]
B
Oh my gosh. So perfect.
- [43:09]
A
Very, very cute. Yeah, let's all do that if you've got a kid in school. So just set a reminder for yourself once every two weeks to do something nice. A nice thank you totally for one of their teachers. We should really just be always reaching out to our community teachers and telling them how awesome they are.
- [43:27]
B
I agree. All right, this is from Cafe T Pronoun, she and her. Your story on the punk band Drowning out the Far Right rally in San Francisco adds to something I've been pondering. Protest music was a large and influential part of the 1970s. Anti War and pro social justices. Rall. So what is the resistance music of today? I especially love tunes to play, sing at rallies, or even to motivate me and drive to rallies. I suggest you put out calls to the Leguminati to share music that inspires their resistance, preferably current tunes and perhaps even feature a few clips on your show. I'm sharing a picture of my Mother's Day card from my two cats, Boing Boing and Finley. Cute, Cute.
- [44:12]
A
Look at this. Oh, thanks for putting up with my crap. And it's a cat in a litter box. I love it.
- [44:18]
B
Love it.
- [44:19]
A
I like. So the cats got you the card, but, like, who got you the card? Did you get it? I love it. I love this so much. And yeah, if you. If you have any, like, really great resistance songs current, send them to us. We'd love to. We'd love to share them, definitely. All right, next up from Scott. Pronouns, he and him. Hi, AG and dg. I've been listening to your podcast daily since the election. Despite the shocking results and subsequent turmoil, they're enlightening, uplifting, and educational. By the inauguration, I became a patron. I even attended my first protest in early April. Your encouragement to make our voices heard found me. Oh, man, Scott, hugs. Yeah, my pod pet tariff is Norm.
- [45:07]
B
Norm.
- [45:07]
A
He was a stray puppy we took in and loved. Although generally sweet, I never found him too bright. I feel like everyone should send in their, like, super dumb pets.
- [45:18]
B
I feel like everyone does send in their super dumb pets. Do we have any listeners that have smart, ugly animals? My God.
- [45:25]
A
Another member of the household strenuously disagreed with me and thought he was quite smart. So I arranged for Norm to get admission materials in the mail from Stanford University. Somehow, I was the only person who saw the humor in this. Scott, you have my dad's sense of humor, and I have to appreciate this. I have two shout outs. One is to the Affordable Care Act's extension of Medicaid that's helped me in recent years when I needed health care. The other shout out is to a personal project as I've become more politically active. I recently created a website for T shirts, bumper stickers, etcetera, to show how furious we are becoming. But often with humor, it can be found@furiouscitizen.com I'm fairly certain I'm not the only furious citizen listening to the daily beans for hope and encouragement. Keep up the great work, Scott. Welcome to the laguminati. And look at this puppy. He's beautiful.
- [46:14]
B
Sweet.
- [46:15]
A
That's like a show dog right there, right? The beautiful ones are always kind of dumb. Like my very beautiful cat. Just.
- [46:23]
B
I dated her for a while.
- [46:24]
A
Yeah, I dated her. So he said. Yeah, I called him Travis Kelsey because
- [46:30]
B
just, you know, oh, my God, that's funny.
- [46:32]
A
Beautiful. But hey, so now, recently, he's just been ham sandwich or hammy Sammy. He's just. He's searching for that one brain cell, too.
- [46:42]
B
All right, thank you. This is from Riri. No pronouns given for riri. Hi, beans Queens. I'm so upset about the stupid parade that Trump wants to have. It's so Russian and North Korean, but Not American. So for good trouble, can we contact all of our representatives and demand that our tax money not be spent on a ridiculous parade? I'm sharing a picture of one of my 16 grandchildren.
- [47:05]
A
Riri, you have so many baby photos. Where have you been?
- [47:08]
B
I know, right? Wow. Who just loves dogs. Unfortunately, he has allergies, so he just loves to hug. Scooby Doo. That is adorable. This poor dog. They're like, here's a porcelain one.
- [47:24]
A
What a sweet baby. Yeah. Riri, you're gonna start having to send all your 16 grandkids baby pictures into us. Just one, once a week. It'd be great. Just be like, hey, riri, here's grandchild number two. That's all you gotta say.
- [47:37]
B
That's the submission. That's it.
- [47:39]
A
We're totally happy with that. Yeah, I think, you know, when you, when you call up your, your representatives to tell them to, you know, don't touch Medicaid, you should also tell them
- [47:50]
B
no parade seems like a good ask.
- [47:53]
A
June 14th. And did you know what funny. Well, funny peculiar, not funny.
- [47:58]
B
Haha.
- [47:59]
A
Is that the parade route goes all the way down Constitution Avenue. So Trump will literally be rolling over the Constitution.
- [48:05]
B
Oh my God. Not surprising. He's gonna shut down the entire city for this bullshit. God.
- [48:11]
A
And all the police. And then he'll complain about crime.
- [48:13]
B
That also means they have to literally lock down so much. My God, what a waste. An absolute waste.
- [48:23]
A
But you know, we got to cut 1.1 billion in funding to the city. Yeah.
- [48:27]
B
Oh, and you know, funding for medical for babies that have heart defects.
- [48:30]
A
Right. That has to go. That's in fact, baby heart defects. That's how we're going to pay for the parade.
- [48:36]
B
That's exactly right.
- [48:37]
A
Yep. By not doing that. Disgusting. Anyway, thank you for the good. I always like, like we need to end on the good news. I need to stop talking about at the end because it's. I don't know, he just always. I just always hits a nerve, I guess. But thank you so much for the good news. It really did lift my spirits on this Tuesday, so appreciate it. Send it all to us dailybeanspot.com click on contact. Thanks to Mark Zade for joining us. What a great guy. Definitely doing all this work pro bono for, for all the people who need a good lawyer, a good national security attorney. So hats off to him. We really do appreciate you. And you can check out whistleblower aid.org if you want to help out. Do you have any final thoughts today, my friend?
- [49:21]
B
No. Do not.
- [49:23]
A
No. Okay. Well, we'll be back in your ears tomorrow. And also tomorrow, new episode of cleanup on L45. Check that out. And if you haven't checked out yesterday's or day before yesterday's Unjustified podcast, definitely check it out, because we talk with CEO and president of Democracy Forward, who's winning all kinds of cases, mopping up the fucking street with Donald Trump with Democracy Forward. And we talked to her on Unjustified.
- [49:48]
B
Right on.
- [49:49]
A
All right, everybody, we'll see you tomorrow. Until then, please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of your mental health, and take care of your family.
- [49:55]
B
I've been AG and I've been dg
- [49:57]
A
and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and justice. For more information, Please visit msw media.com msw media.