Transcript
Jessica Mendoza (0:00)
Hey, it's Jess and Ryan. Before we kick off today's episode, we have a fun announcement to make. We are doing a live show again.
Ryan (0:08)
We love doing our live show in New York so much that we decided to take it on the road this time. We'll be in Los Angeles at the El Rey theater on Tuesday, April 28.
Jessica Mendoza (0:18)
And just like last time, we're going to have special guests. And since we'll be in la, you can prepare for a night of money, business and power conversations about Hollywood. And after the show, Ryan and I will stick around to meet you.
Ryan (0:30)
All tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th at 10am Pacific. You can find the link in our show notes.
Jessica Mendoza (0:37)
And again, the show's gonna be at the El rey Theater in LA on Tuesday, April 28th. Tickets go on sale this Wednesday, March 25th. Hope to see you there. A word of warning. This episode contains strong language, including unbleep curse words. Please be advised. Can you introduce yourself and tell us what you cover?
Hannah Critchfield (1:02)
Sure. I'm Hannah Critchfield and I'm a reporter on the investigations desk here at the Journal.
Jessica Mendoza (1:09)
And at a very high level, Hannah, what have you been working on?
Hannah Critchfield (1:12)
Recently, I and a team of other reporters have been looking into claims that the government has made in the last year about an increase in assaults on federal officers. Oftentimes immigration officers. Government officials were talking about seeing a 300% increase in assaults, a 500% increase in assaults on officers.
Jessica Mendoza (1:36)
In the last year, federal immigration operations have increased across the country as part of President Trump's immigration crackdown. And claims of assault against federal officers have gone up as well. Now, Hannah and her team's investigation has found that American citizens have become a target. American citizens who are often bystanders and and demonstrators near those immigration operations.
Hannah Critchfield (2:03)
Our team analyzed more than 200 videos associated with these assault allegations, from police body camera footage to bystander recordings from social media. And many of them cast doubt on the federal government's claims that agents were assaulted. We also found that of the 181American citizens that the Trump administration accused of attacking federal officers, close to half were never charged with assaults and none had been convicted at trial.
