Jared Golden (7:35)

I have opposed efforts to ban deadly weapons of war like the assault rifle used to carry out this crime. The time has now come for me to take responsibility for this failure, which is why I now call on the United States Congress to ban assault rifles like the one used by the sick perpetrator of this mass killing in my hometown of Lewiston, Maine. For the good of my community, I will work with any colleague to get this done in the time that I have left in Congress. To the people of Lewiston, my constituents throughout the second District, to the families who lost loved ones, and to those who have been harmed, I ask for forgiveness and support as I seek to put an end to these terrible shootings. In the days to come, I will give everything I have to support this community's recovery. Thank you.

Alison Gill (8:30)

Now when asked if she would also support the ban, Senator Susan Collins furrowed her brow and dodged the question. Next up from CNN A federal judge on Thursday ordered Georgia to draw new congressional and state legislative maps, ruling the state legislators improperly diluted the political power of black voters in establishing those boundaries following the 2020 census. The ruling by U.S. district Judge Steve Jones could result in Democrats securing an additional seat in the U.S. house from Georgia. Republicans currently hold nine slots in the state's 14 member congressional delegation. The Peach State litigation is among several legal and political fights underway in nearly a dozen states that could determine whether the GOP retains its narrow majority in the House after next year's elections. In in his ruling, Jones said Georgia's Republican controlled legislature had violated the Voting Rights act, the nation's landmark civil rights law, in establishing these district lines. The court commends Georgia for the great strides it has made to increase the political opportunities of black voters in the 58 years since the passage of the Voting Rights act of 1965. Despite these great gains, the court determines that in certain areas of the state, the political process is not equally open to black voters. The judge noted that minorities accounted for all of the state's population growth in the past decade, but that the number of majority black congressional and legislative districts remained the same. Judge Jones, who set a Dec. 8 deadline for state lawmakers to craft new maps, ordered the Legislature to draw an additional majority black congressional district in the western part of the Atlanta metro area, along with creating two more state Senate districts and five additional state House districts with black majorities. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday called a Nov. 29 special session for lawmakers to work on the new maps and a handful of other issues. Democrats and voting rights groups immediately hailed Jones's decision. U.S. rep. Nekima Williams, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party of Georgia, called the ruling a resounding victory for democracy. Quote Republicans knew they couldn't win on their ideas, so they resorted to redrawing the maps in their favor instead. Today's decision confirms what Georgia Democrats already knew. Georgia Republicans attempt to hold on to power via voter suppression and racial gerrymandering will not stand. A big shout out to Mark Elias and Democracy Docket. Please support them. Subscribe to Democracy Docket. It's free. Y' all just do it right now. He needs all the support he can get and just subscribing really helps. And from my friend Robert McGuire at Crew the National Rifle association is bleeding money and members. According to financial audits obtained by CREW last year, the organization saw its worst fundraising totals in more than a decade, fueled by member dues that have fallen to lows not seen since the early 2000s. The fall has been so swift that the gun organization's income from its members has been halved in just six years, while its legal fees have remained stratospheric. Thoughts and prayers, right? According to the audit, which was filed with the Secretary of State's office in North Carolina, the NRA raised more than $213 million in 2022, with more than $83 million coming from dues paying members. The total marks a 52% drop in overall revenue and nearly 59% drop in membership dues since 2016. Adjusting for inflation, a CRU analysis of NRA dues going back to 2004 could not find a single year where dues went below 100 million in inflation adjusted terms. Compounding the NRA's dire financial situation is the organization's persistent legal battles that continue to cost millions of dollars. The audit shows a nearly $12.4 million settlement payment linked to the legal battle the NRA fought with its former PR firm. In all, the NRA spent nearly $44 million on administrative, legal, audit and taxes, which is down from nearly 46.8 million that it spent in 2021, but still far higher than the $4.3 million it spent on the same costs in 2017, when its overall revenue at that point was more than $319 million. Put another way, legal expenses went from about 1% of the NRA's overall spending to about 20%, while its total revenue dropped nearly 42% over the same period. And the gun rights organization legal troubles aren't over. It is still fighting a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Tish James in a case from 2020 alleging that senior leadership diverted millions of dollars away from the organization's core mission, using the funds for personal benefit and to give sweetheart contracts to colleagues and family. In another case, the NRA is fighting a 2018 suit against a New York official who pushed banks and insurers to cease business relations with the NRA. The case, which the NRA chief Wayne Lapierre told members in 2019 might lead to the organization shutting down very soon, was tossed by a federal Appeals court in 2022 in favor of the New York official. The NRA appealed the case to the Supreme Court this year. All of this takes place against a backdrop of intense internal turmoil at the organization. Some of the highest ranking officials have resigned or been suspended. Some face legal action. Meanwhile, staff has dwindled and core programs have been slashed. Yet, ironically, as the organization flounders, a conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court is handing the NRA more victories, thanks to three justices installed by the president that the NRA helped elect. Back when it was flush with cash, I'd like to say back when it was flush with Russian cash. And from Dan diamond at the Washington Post Republicans have delayed more than a billion dollars in funding for the president's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, better known as pepfar, the latest complication facing a life saving HIV program that has been ensnared in a broader political fight around abortion. Created by President George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR has been credited with saving more than 25 million lives around the world. The nearly $7 billion in annual initiative, which is managed by the State Department, has distributed millions of courses of medicine to treat hiv funding, testing and prevention services, and supported an array of other interventions. Dozens of foreign governments rely on PEPFAR as a key partner. The program has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support in Congress, which has reauthorized it every five years like clockwork. But lawmakers this fall failed to reauthorize Pepfar by the September 30 deadline amid claims from conservative advocacy groups that the program is inadvertently funding abortions overseas. Allegations that Biden officials, PEPFAR staff and public health leaders say are unfounded and threaten the program's mission. The GOP led House Foreign Affairs Committee in August began objecting to language in PEPFAR's country and regional Operational Plan, which offers guidance to partners around the globe about how to administer the aid program. Now the Republican funding delays and objections, which have not been previously reported, center on PEPFAR's use of terms relating to abortion, transgender people, sex workers and other areas, with the committee repeatedly demanding rewrites from the State Department. The negotiations have delayed the State Department from releasing more than a billion dollars in funding for pepfar, funding that the program is planning to use to buy medicines, pay for staff and support and other essential PEPFAR functions. Now PEPFAR officials have pushed back on some of the requested changes, including an attempt by House Republicans to change how terms such as human rights appear in the document. Human rights. They want to change that language. Lawmakers in both parties have discussed attempting to attach PEPFAR's reauthorization to a larger bill to fund the government at the end of this year. But congressional staffers and experts have said they remain cautious about its prospects. And I have a bit of an update for you about a story we covered earlier in the week. Remember the story about the guy Argote, who shot and killed a Maryland judge just hours after that judge had awarded custody of his four kids to his wife? Well, Argote was found dead in Williamsport, Maryland, around 11am on Thursday. There's no further details available at this time about how he died. They're not going to release that until after an autopsy is conducted, but I will keep you posted. All right. That's the news as I see it for this Friday. We still have the good news to get to, but after this break, I am going to discuss the latest in Fulton county with one of the best reporters on the beat, Anna Bauer. You don't want to miss it. Stick around. We'll be right back after these messages. We'll be right back. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. I'm happy today to be joined by a legal fellow and courts correspondent for lawfare, and you may have seen her on msnbc. Please welcome Anna Bauer. Hi, Anna.

Anna Bauer (16:57)

Hey, Allison. Thanks for having me.

Alison Gill (17:00)

It's great to see you since we last had you on cleanup on aisle 45. So I'm glad that you're here today.

Anna Bauer (17:05)

Happy to be here.

Alison Gill (17:06)

So I wanted to get you on because I wanted to talk a little bit about all the recent plea deals that have happened down in Fulton county and what your thoughts are on those plea deals because we've read a couple of stories from, I think, Rolling Stone and CNN saying that more plea deals have been offered, but notably, some people have been left out of those offers. I know somebody I think it was maybe Katie Fang just spoke to John Eastman's attorney, for example, and said he has yet to be offered a plea deal. I tend to think he probably won't be. But what are your thoughts on this?

Anna Bauer (17:40)

Yeah, I think that you're right that he probably won't be. You know, my general understanding of how this prosecution is approaching its strategy is the way that they've approached it in many other RICO cases. You know, Fani Willis has a lot of experience in bringing these very vast, sprawling RICO cases like The Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal that then turned into a RICO case. And in that case and in others, it's kind of the theory is you indict a wide range of people and then you kind of work on getting some plea deals for the so called smaller fish. And then, you know, you use those folks to testify or to provide evidence against the bigger fish. And in this case, I think that the people that the Fulton county prosecution would be happy to try and have even no one else go to trial, it's really centered around four people. Trump and Giuliani are kind of the two main folks. And then there's also Eastman and Meadows. And if you look Alison, at the indictment, the way that they do them with RICO prosecutions is usually like the, the biggest fish is kind of the, the lead person named on the indictment and then it kind of goes down in decre. So here I think it's Trump is number one and then Giuliani's two, Eastman's three, Meadows is four. And so those are the four people that they're going to be the most focused on. And they've already got some of these folks who are kind of at least medium sized fish to so called flip, although I'm not entirely sure that it's accurate to say that they've truly flipped to some extent. But you've got Ken Chesbrough, you've got Sidney Powell, you've got Jenna Ellis. And those are really significant victories for Fani Willis, especially the Chesbro and Powell, if only because of it being a procedural victory in the sense that she doesn't have to go to trial, she doesn't have to show her cards. And then substantively, I think maybe Jenna Ellis is a bigger victory in the sense that she is one of those people who has significant knowledge of what Trump was doing and saying she was Rudy Giuliani's right hand woman, so to speak. And so I think there, that's where they really maybe got someone who can actually testify a trial and be a more credible witness than someone like Chesbrough and Powell.

Alison Gill (20:22)

Yeah, I was going to actually ask you about Chesbrough and Powell because they seem like relatively big fish. But you know, I think you're right. I think getting that speedy trial off the books and precluding the rest of the defendants from seeing her prosecution strategy may have been a consideration in those plea deals as well. And talking about Meadows, he's up there like you said, and he was just recently. Well, we recently found out that earlier this year he was offered limited use immunity in the D.C. jack Smith case. And I think everybody was kind of under the false impression that he was granted like full immunity. And I think that that's a little misleading. I think he's still on the hook for some of the crimes that happened in D.C. and I think, and correct me if I'm wrong, because I think I heard Joyce Vance talking about this the other day. Even if you testify to some crimes under limited use immunity, it only means that what you say can't be used against you. Other things could still be used against you and you could be charged, correct?

Anna Bauer (21:27)

Yeah, that's right. So you could, as long as the government has some independent source of, you know, proving up whatever it is that they need to prove against you to indict you, then they can do that. Although, you know, of course, there's a kind of evidentiary burden there. There's a process usually that you would go through where the government kind of has to show that they really did have something independent of your own testimony that you offered under the cloak of immunity in a grand jury proceeding. So it's to say that Meadows is necessarily not going to be indicted or could not be indicted, although, of course, he has not been and he is not, as far as we're aware, one of the unindicted co conspirators who is listed in that January 6th DC indictment. But you're absolutely right, Allison, that getting limited use immunity does not necessarily mean that you're kind of getting off scot free and that you're not in any danger of criminal exposure.

Alison Gill (22:29)

Well, he does have one of the better lawyers in Trump world. He does.

Anna Bauer (22:33)

And I'm super curious. I'm actually really curious. And I'm sorry to turn the tables on you and ask you a question, but I'm just super curious about that story, you know, what the purpose of it was, because usually when you have someone talking about grand jury proceedings and something that specific, it's usually got to be the defense counsel as the source because, you know, DOJ doesn't talk. DOJ doesn't generally, DOJ doesn't talk. And then also they especially don't talk about grand jury proceedings because of course it's appropriate for a witness to go out and say, you know, whatever they testify to. But it would be against, you know, grand jury secrecy rules for a prosecutor to go and say, and this is what Mark Meadows testified to. So it's usually a defense. But I just really wonder what's going on here as to the why of it all, what the purpose of that story is. I still have. Have not totally decided for myself what the significance of it is and the why now of it all. But I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

Alison Gill (23:37)

Well, I've seen this happen a couple times where somebody in Trump world will tell the press about their grand jury testimony, and then Trump will use it in a filing to say that the Department of Justice has leaked this information. So I don't know if that's necessarily it, or maybe a trial balloon to see if he can get a deal cut down in Georgia. But I'm with you in that it didn't come from doj, and it didn't come from anybody in the grand jury, I would suspect. But, you know, because grand jury secrecy rules are pretty, you know, tight. So, you know, I'm not really, I'm not really sure the exact thing, but I've seen a pattern where Donald Trump will use that as a defense or some, or to just politically publicly attack the Department of Justice for leaking. So, I mean, who really knew? But that doesn't seem like. Meadows and Terwilliger don't seem like they play that kind of game. So it's really. It's hard to gauge. It's hard to suss out. You know, my initial thought was it was a trial balloon to see if Fani Willis might offer him a deal, because we know that, or we assume that, at least from some of the reporting, that those top folks in the food chain have not yet been offered a deal, much like all the lower rung people who lead up, you know, lead up the ladder. So I don't know. Well, we'll see what shakes out.

Anna Bauer (25:01)

Yeah, I'll be very interested to see what happens with Mr. Mark Meadows.

Alison Gill (25:05)

Yeah, he's kind of been a mystery. Let's shift gears a little bit. I want to talk about an order that came out today from Judge McAfee about all of the motions that are still outstanding here that basically Trump didn't file himself, but just sort of glommed onto, like, me, too. Ditto. Um, so he's having a motions hearing on December 1. Talk about some of those. Some of those motions. I mean, a lot of these have been denied for other defendants that Trump and. But Trump has signed onto them. So he's going to have those hearings, what, December 1st.

Anna Bauer (25:39)

Right, right, December 1st. And I, you know, I need to look more carefully at some of the particular ones because there's been so many motions in this case. But what I can say is that a lot of these, as you mentioned, are ones that he, Trump kind of adopted that other co defendants had made. And importantly, many of them are ones that Chesbrough and Powell had filed as a part of their own efforts ahead of their earlier trial that ultimately did not end up happening because they pleaded out, but those were already litigated by Powell and Chesbro. And of course, Judge McAfee has said, you know, I'm only making orders as to Chesbrough and Powell, and then, you know, I'll deal with the other motions for the late and larger group of co defendants at another time. But with that said, some of these motions are on pure questions of law. Like, it's things like, you know, is there a continuity requirement under Georgia's RICO statute? Does the statute require showing of, you know, pecuniary gain, things like that, which I think some of them we talked about on the cleanup episode that I was on. But those things are things that aren't really affected by, you know, the individual facts that are alleged in the indictment as between different co defendants. And so what that means is that because Judge McAfee has already denied those motions as to Chesbrough and Powell, it is very likely that, at least with respect to those motions, he's probably going to have a pretty easy time figuring out what he's gonna do with respect to Trump and then these other co defendants who have joined those motions. So, you know, I will see what happen happens at that hearing. There are a few, like I said, discrete motions that are a little bit different that were not joined or adopted by Chesbro and Powell. So he does have a few decisions to make. But I, you know, I also will say that I'm interested to hear what you think about the fact that he said it for December 1st. I've heard a lot of people being concerned about, you know, that being maybe a little bit too late to have a motions hearing. I personally don't think so, because the current schedule is that all pretrial motions, I believe, except motions in limine, which is a different type of pretrial motion. They're due the first week of January. And so McAfee has plenty of time to have this motions hearing. And then potentially, if he wanted to set the trial date for January, he could probably do that. Though I'm really uncertain at this point when he will set the trial date, because I think as a young state judge and someone who is very aware that there is a federal trial set for March, he might be quite concerned about setting a trial date for the RICO case in January, that would risk putting off that federal trial, depending on how long the case goes, which as of now, the prosecution has said it could take four to five months even without jury selection. So I'm really curious to see what McAfee does because he's. He's in a bit of a bind and deciding when to put this trial, but would be curious to hear what you think about that.

Alison Gill (29:15)

Yeah, I think regardless of whether he has these motion hearings in November or December, I don't think he would ever actually schedule a trial earlier than January. And I don't think it's too late for that reason and also because McAfee so far seems like the kind of guy who gives his decisions as he's having the hearings. He's not like a Eileen Cannon where he needs two and a half months to think about it and do a dance and light some sage and then, you know, wonder if she's really going to put a protective order over the discovery. He seems very comfortable on the bench. He seems like he can be like, look, I already dismissed this for these exact reasons. I'm dismissing these. He also seems like the kind of fellow who would sue Esponte, just pick a trial date. But yeah, the problem is, and will continue to be that Trump's dance card is pretty full. Even in January 16, he's got the civil damages trial in the Eugene Carroll case.

Anna Bauer (30:13)

I forgot about that.

Alison Gill (30:15)

And then in February, I believe at the end of January, starts the the Apprentice Pyramid Scheme civil trial. March is when Judge Chutkan is set to go and she has said, I'm not moving this trial date. Then May is when the documents case is supposed to be, but I think that that's going to be pushed back a little bit. So I could see him scheduling this in June, July, something like that. But none of us, at least when I say us, I mean the other folks I host podcasts with and the other lawyers that I've talked to expected this to even go before the election. So we'll see what ends up happening. But it can go sooner now because we don't have to put everything on hold for those speedies that, you know, that have been canceled out by the plea deals and Judge Chuck and also has a history of calling up other judges, like the judge in the Manhattan D.A. bragg's case.

Anna Bauer (31:08)

Yes.

Alison Gill (31:09)

To ask that judge and say, hey, I'm a do March K. And you know, and Bragg's like, cool. And the judge I think is like, you know, I think all People are sort of bowing out to the, to the March case, but we'll see how Judge McAfee decides to come down on that. Oddly enough, Trump has not started attacking Judge McAfee, and it might be because he's hoping for, you know, not to upset him before a trial date is set.

Anna Bauer (31:37)

Well, I mean, he has, he has had very little reason to attack Judge McAfee, because I think Judge McAfee. I mean, not that any. I mean, he has no reason to attack these other judges for just doing their job either. So I don't mean to imply that, but in the case of Judge McAfee, I think that he's been focused on making these other decisions that relate to the speedy trial defendants. So he hasn't really made any adverse decisions about Trump that are the kind of thing that would inflame his very short temper. So we will see how he reacts to Judge McAfee when some of his motions start getting denied. But, you know, I think that Judge McAfee has been a really good judge. He's been a very fair judge, in my view, in terms of, you know, really giving everyone on the defense an opportunity to be heard, being very fair to defense arguments, even when they are, you know, borderline frivolous. So, you know, he's. He's been a really fair judge, and he, I think, I think that Trump, of course, would be very wise to not start attacking him, but that has never stopped him with any other judge before.

Alison Gill (32:58)

Yeah, we'll see what happens after December 1, when all of Trump's motions are probably denied. Exactly. Could go from there. Well, thank you so much for taking time to speak to us today. Can you tell everybody where they can find and follow you?

Anna Bauer (33:12)

Yeah. So you can follow me at Twitter Anabauer also, same on threads. And then, of course, you can read my work@www.lawfairmedia.org.

Alison Gill (33:25)

Awesome. And those podcasts, by the way, are really great. I really recommend everybody check those out. I share them a lot on my Twitter feed, too. Legal fellow and courts correspondent for lawfare, thanks again for joining us, Anna Bauer, Everybody, stick around. We'll be right back with the good news after these messages. We'll be right back, everybody. Welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone, then. Good news, good news, good news. And if you have any good news, confessions, corrections. You want to play what the mutt, Find the cat, what the Hecwine. Where? I guess horse breeds. I can guess cow breeds now. I have a few more, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to remember them as well. I don't even think I can remember how to pronounce that one. I got a correction on from lady of the Farm. If you want to give a shout out to a loved one, your spouse, a partner, a family member, yourself. I love shout outs to yourself. Is it shout outs or shouts out? I wonder what the plural is. If you want to give a shout out to a small business in your area or your business if you don't have POD pet tax to pay, you can send us an adoptable pet in your area. Anything you want to send us at all, please do so@dailybeanspod.com and click on Contact. First up from Mike Pronouns he and him Hello Beans Queens. I'd like to give you a shout out to my son Bill, who was recently named superintendent of an Ohio school district. Remarkably, when he was in elementary school, we literally lived next door to his school and he was often late for class. It happened so often. His principal once stopped by to ask me why I didn't have an answer for her. So I just shrugged and said, kids, I'm so proud of him for not just becoming a superintendent, but also being a great dad to his three kids, a great husband to his wife Casey, and a great son. I've also enclosed two photos of the rescue cats that live with me. I say that because nobody owns cats. Oh that. That live with me. The cats that live with me. Dominic is the art critic. He was found in a bag tossed in a dumpster with four other kittens. I don't think I was a cat person, but after spending five years with them, I guess I am the art critic. Look at this moo cow kitty. So adorable. And hey, congratulations to Bill for being so rad. Thanks Mike. Next up from Todd. No pronouns Hello. And thanks for all your work. I listen to your podcast every night. I really enjoy it. I am the first all electric Uber driver in Seattle from over 10 years ago. I have now completed over 27,500 Uber trips without gasoline or oil. I'm an activist and an environmentalist. I also get some of my passengers registered to vote. Fuck yeah. Mobile voter registration. That's so cool. After Speaking to over 100,000 passengers, I have great news. 98% of people are actually good people and 2% are bad. I also do Uber pet rides for passengers that have pets and I post my Uber pets tonight on my Instagram. I've attached a sweet baby named Remedy. Excellent name. She was so adorable. My heart melted when they first got into the car. Uber pets are my favorite. Please keep up all your great work and your swearing when reporting the news. It's refreshing and exactly how I would report it. Thanks again, Todd. Thank you. Look at the baby puggins with the sweet pink bow named Remedy. It's a perfect name for this sweet, sweet baby. Thank you for that and thanks for your activism, Todd. That's incredible. Next up, Nick pronouns he and him. Hi AG and dg. I have some good news today about my community. A local organization called the Transformation Project is opening their new headquarters, which they've decided to call the Prism center rather than reinvent the wheel. On information about the Transformation Project and its cooperating organizations, I'll give you a slightly edited version of their press release. They're having a community open house this Friday the 27th from 5 to 7 and a ribbon cutting from 4:30 to 6 on November 8th. Pet tax pictures, our good news regular. Grr. Thank you, Nick, naturally. And our now late rat. Oh, Avalon. I miss Avalon and this weird little piece of fuzz with the face that I found on my bathroom floor. Hi. Grr. Hello. Grr. Yeah. And that is a weird piece of lint with a face. Thanks for sending that in, Nick. I love Gir's tie, by the way. Grr. And hi Avalon. Hi, sweet baby. Thank you for sending that in and congrats. Next up, Sparky in pdx. Just sending this delightful Halloween shout out to Sup Witches. A costume stand up paddle event that gives me joy. That's Sup Witches. A stand up paddle witches. By the way, S u p, a costume stand up paddle event that gives me joy just to know that it's happening. Try not to smile at the picture of our coven infested. Williamette. Is it Williamette or Willamette? Willamette River. I dare you. Thank you, Beans Regents, for helping me and so many others get through these ridiculous times. Your news is the best. And your swears make me say right on. Your love is contagious. This is fucking amazing. It's like 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, like 50 or 60 just in this frame. Witches on stand up paddleboards in the Willamette River. God, I fucking love Portland so much. Next up, Stephanie Pronoun. She and her thanks Beans Ladies, without you, I wouldn't be so well informed and interesting in informing others or interested in informing others. This is a shout out to myself. Excellent, Stephanie. I started a tiny little YouTube cooking channel during the pandemic and I very slowly watched it grow. One subscriber At a time I thought I'd never even get to 100 subscribers, but just this week I got to 3,000. Makes me so glad I didn't quit, even during some very difficult times, because it's one of the only things I've ever done with my life that's just for me. So if you're interested in colorful cooking videos narrated by someone with a very soothing voice, please stop by and see me at Gingersnap Kitchen. I'd love to appreciate a few more friends over there. Everybody get it? Everybody got that? YouTube Gingersnap Kitchen. Go look it up and subscribe. And let's kick those subscriber numbers up. It's free to subscribe to a YouTube channel. Let's do this. Let's help Stephanie out for tax. I'm sharing a photo of my best pal Oscar, who left me in 2021. He was the best at keeping my kitchen floor clean while I cooked. Those little vacuum cleaners are the best, Stephanie. Look at this sweet, sweet baby. So cute. Also, just so you guys know, Beans, Jack and cleanup on aisle 45 are on YouTube. And we'll be adding more MSW Media podcasts soon. And we would like some more subscribers too. So if you could, you know, look that up, that would be great. And follow us, subscribe there. Again, free to subscribe. Subscribe to Gingersnap Kitchen, subscribe to Jack the Beans and clean up on aisle 45. I think we might have an MSW Media channel. I'm not sure how our network director set that up, but I'm sure you'll find it and do the right thing. Thank you everybody so much for these incredible good news submissions all week. You really kept me going. It's, it's meant a lot to me. I, I, I wish I could do more than just say that, if that makes any sense. So again, thank you. Thank you so much. Again. Don't forget to stick around after the credits for a sneak peek of their first episode of Lawyers, Guns and Money. It's a new MSW Media podcast. It's an absolutely wild, limited new documentary series written and produced by Jack Bryan. Remember Jack Bryan, my friend? The guy who wrote and directed Active Measures the documentary? The guy who did Psyop the podcast? Well, he's teamed up with fucking Ducky. Okay, From Pretty in Pink. Jon Cryer, who narrates this thing. Ugh. It's fantastic. And we have a five minute clip for you. The series comes out on Sunday and I'll be talking to Jon Cryer on Monday. On the beans. You do not want to miss this. Thank you so much everybody again. I hope you had a wonderful week. I will see you this weekend. For the beans bonus episode I do the weekly wrap up which is all the headlines of the week. That's for patrons. That's an ad, free, just a bonus episode. It's unedited by the way. Totally raw, completely raw. And then also we'll have Jack podcast on Sunday and then Pete and I also recorded a bonus for cleanup for patrons there. So again, thank you, thank you, thank you everybody. Please take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health, take care of your family. Vote blue over Q, check your voter roll in Ohio, make sure you're still registered and bring everyone with you. I've been ag and them's the beans. Refried beans. I like refried beans.

Jack Bryan (42:08)

Hot, humid weather in Miami in August of 1985 is where I met Jesus Garcia.

John Mattis (42:17)

This is John Mattis, a newly sworn in Miami public defender who looks more like a young Robert Redford than anyone's idea of a typical public defender. Mattis very first felony defendant is Jesus Garcia, a Cuban American who's been charged with possessing a machine gun and a silencer. Now Jesus has arrived at Mattis office with a pile of documents in his hands to talk about the case. And what he says won't just change Mattis life, it'll also change the course of American history.

Jack Bryan (42:48)

Mr. Garcia showed up in those cramped offices of the federal defenders. So as a first time lawyer, I want to act like I know what I'm doing. And all I wanted to do was figure out what's the defense to having a machine gun and silencer. And he laid out to me that he believed he was shipping arms into Central America on behalf of, of the CIA. And I'm rolling my eyes, but there he has all these documents. He says, check it out yourself, check it out yourself. And the very first thing I did as he left, I see these papers and scribblings on notepads. Colonel Douglas Menarchik. So I call up Colonel Douglas Menarchik, whatever, whoever he was, the phone rings and it's answered. National Security Council, Menarchik's office. And I hung it up, I slammed it down. I was like, this is a bad joke. Who has a phone number to a private listing in the White House. And that was the start of a five year saga that drew me in to something I had no interest in getting involved in. But once I Got pulled in. I couldn't get out.

John Mattis (44:21)

My name is Jack Bryan. I'm a documentary filmmaker and television producer. Generally, my work focuses on the cross section between true crime, politics, and espionage. I first met John Madison in 2017 when I interviewed him about his work investigating the 2016 election. After the interview, he told me the story of the first time he got pulled into a political scandal. So when you do the work that I do, a big part of your job is talking to former spies and politicians and to researchers and journalists who cover corruption and international crime. So you end up hearing a bunch of really wild stories about overseas adventures and secret deals. And, you know, like anything, you just kind of get used to it after a while. But sitting there at lunch with Mattis, I knew this was the most amazing story I had ever heard. What I didn't realize was that in the years to come, knowing Mattis story would become essential in explaining the threats to American democracy today. So while I'll be back at the end of this episode, for now, I'd like to hand you off to my fellow producer and our narrator, Jon Cryer.

Jon Cryer (45:34)

Thanks, Jack. I'm Jon Cryer, and this is Lawyers, Guns, and Money. It's the early 1980s, and Miami is the United States biggest hub for narcotics transportation from Central and South America. 70% of all the marijuana and cocaine coming into America passes through South Florida. This is the era of the cocaine cowboys.

Alison Gill (45:59)

They call them the cocaine cowboys. Yesterday, they struck busy Dadeland shopping mall.

Anna Bauer (46:04)

Shortly after 2 spraying the parking lot with bullets.

Alison Gill (46:07)

The Miami Colombian connection is 80% of a $20 billion annual cocaine business.

Jon Cryer (46:13)

The drug trade touches every part of life, life in Miami.

Alison Gill (46:16)

Sam Smith was a Florida judge until the FBI caught him selling marijuana in Miami. One third of the Dade county homicide squad is under indictment for protecting a major drug dealer. And the state's top law enforcement officer is wondering who's running the state government or the drug smugglers.

Jon Cryer (46:34)

And as drug money pours in, Miami booms.

Alison Gill (46:38)

According to experts at the organized crime bureau of the Dade County Public Safety Department, drug smuggling through South Florida may well be the state's most profitable enterprise.

Jon Cryer (46:47)

And with the drugs come guns, making Miami the murder capital of America as well.

Alison Gill (46:53)

The murder rate has shot up 70%.

Jack Bryan (46:55)

The head of Miami's Police Benevolent association.

Alison Gill (46:58)

Has warned that the criminal justice system can no longer protect the public.

Jon Cryer (47:03)

Now, if you're looking for a rundown of what gangs and cartels were in power at what time, there are a bunch of really good documentaries, books, and films on this topic. Scarface is about Miami during this period, but this story is different. This is the story of what happens when that world of Scarface and cocaine and arms smuggling collides with the White House and almost takes down a presidency in the process.

Alison Gill (47:27)

MSW Media.