Autopen Fan Fiction

Summary

UnJustified: "Autopen Fan Fiction"

Podcast: UnJustified
Host(s): Allison Gill, Andy McCabe (MSW Media)
Date: March 8, 2026
Theme:
In this episode, Allison Gill and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe document the alarming rollback of civil liberties, government accountability, and the rule of law under Trump’s Department of Justice (DoJ). The duo covers a news-packed and sobering week: war, incompetence at the highest levels, political investigations against enemies, the Epstein files scandal, and moves to erase law enforcement safeguards.

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Main Theme & Episode Purpose

• A deep dive into the systematic breakdown of legal and ethical guardrails within the U.S. government, with particular attention to how the Department of Justice is being weaponized and the practical effects of this on national security, civil rights, and public safety.
• Analysis of headline events: escalation into war, politicized prosecutions (and failures thereof), and the gutting of safeguards (e.g., no-knock warrant restrictions).
• Insight into the culture of incompetence and retribution infecting federal institutions.
• Engaging, irreverent banter alongside informed, often chilling, legal and political analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. America at War—Institutional Incompetence and Security Risk

Timestamps: 02:18 – 09:26

• Allison returns after a week off; she and Andy reflect on how rapidly the country has moved from relative calm into a new war, and why the state of national security feels so precarious.

• Systematic Dismantling of Security:

  • The administration is accused of gutting counterterrorism programs, joint terrorism task forces, and generally eroding the national security infrastructure.
  • Absurd appointments to key posts (e.g., Thomas Fugate), mass redeployment of FBI to handle mass deportations.
  • “A third of the FBI is working on mass deportation right now. I just don't feel very safe… I just don't feel like we have the counterterrorism infrastructure in place…” – Allison (03:34)

• Operational Security Failures:

  • Examples include “Signal gate,” and carelessness with classified material (e.g., Mar-a-Lago documents).
  • Recent deaths and losses are tied to careless communication:
    • “We've had three F15 shot out of the sky… How do we know that's not because they were using unsecure signal chats?” – Allison (04:52)
    • “Six of our soldiers killed in the drone strike on an operations center in Kuwait… That drone should not have gotten through the net.” – Andy (05:00)

• Political/Cultural Rot:

  • Leadership described as lacking seriousness (“like a guy playing Call of Duty online…”), “a parade of incompetence.”
  • Firing of Iran experts (07:01) right before hostilities—retaliation rather than strategy.

• Abandoned Americans:

  • Embassies unreachable/vacant, leaving Americans “stranded” abroad as war breaks out.

• Blistering Satire & Quote:

  • “You can watch Colin Jost's imitation of him on Saturday Night Live and then immediately watch the press conference. It's a lot closer than you would think.” – Andy (06:10)

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2. The Epstein Files—Missing Evidence & Political Infighting

Timestamps: 09:34 – 23:02

• House Committee Subpoenas:

  • House Oversight subpoenas AG Pam Bondi over the Epstein files; growing bipartisan outrage over documents being withheld, especially those implicating Trump.

• DOJ’s Lack of Transparency:

  • Over 40,000 files missing, including FBI notes (Form 302s) detailing sexual misconduct allegations against Trump and Epstein.
    • “Release all the files and then you don't have to worry about what you're re reviewing now.” – Allison (11:58)
  • Pattern of withholding records specifically concerning Trump—Allison shares personal investigations showing missing statements which reappear or are edited.

• Epstein Victims Compensation Fund:

  • Details about why some victims—particularly key accusers against Trump—were deemed ‘ineligible.’
  • Allison and Andy explain the intersection of settlements, legal standards, and eligibility.

• Statute of Limitations and Details of Allegations:

  • The murky status of statutes for sex trafficking and abuse claims, and the tragic discouragement and confusion felt by victims trying to come forward.

• Notable Exchange:

  • “Are they learning that the stove is hot and not to touch it again when you bring a garbage case to the grand jury?” – Allison (29:20)
  • “Improperly tagged with a sticky note that said do not release on penalty of firing.” – Andy (14:03)

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3. Political Prosecutions, the “Autopen” Case & DOJ Failures

Timestamps: 24:46 – 39:36

"Presumed Irregular" Segment: Naming DOJ Incompetence

• A tongue-in-cheek poll for naming the segment chronicling DOJ failures: “Presumed Irregular,” “DOJ is DOA,” “Failure to Launch.”

The Autopen “Investigation” against Biden

• Trump’s DOJ, under U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, quietly closes an investigation into Biden’s use of an autopen to sign documents after failing to find a crime.

• Prosecutors' skepticism from the outset—the probe is just one of many clearly politicized investigations that have fizzled without substance or evidence.

• Satirical Quotes:

  • “Don’t bring your auto pen into my town.” – Andy (28:53)
  • “I'll tell you where to stick that auto pen.” – Allison (29:04)

• DOJ’s increasing inability to act on Trump’s agenda—“Six in one day” grand juries issuing refusals, when previously such events were nearly unheard of (31:36).

Patterns of Retaliation and Selective Prosecution

• Multiplicity of failed or abandoned politicized cases against perceived enemies, while some (like John Bolton) predate Trump but are pursued for his benefit.
• Andy and Allison emphasize that these are show trials, retaliation, or fishing expeditions—not real priorities grounded in law.

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4. The Return of No-Knock Warrants

Timestamps: 40:37 – 47:57

• Deputy AG Todd Blanche rescinds the Garland/Biden-era restriction on no-knock warrants, broadening circumstances for raids under the pretense that “evidence could be destroyed.”

• Expert Criticism:

  • “You can make the destruction of evidence argument in almost any set of circumstances.” – Andy (43:29)
  • Former DOJ leadership decry the move as “a step backwards for policing,” undoing years of work on best practices after Breonna Taylor’s death.

• Context:

  • Loss of consent decrees, shutdown of Civil Rights units. Federal law enforcement is shifting further from accountability just as policing practices nationally had started to evolve.

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5. DOJ Employee Child Pornography Charges

Timestamps: 48:37 – 53:18

• A DOJ legal staffer, Timothy Parsons, is arrested and charged with receipt of child pornography; case emerges from a broader investigation into a child psychotherapist.

• DOJ issues boilerplate statements about “highest standards,” while details revealed about the scope and origin of the offenses prompt both disgust and reflection.

• Andy on Consequences:

  • “You just feel like people who are associated with the FBI and the Department of Justice hold themselves to a higher standard. And that standard sure as hell doesn't include this sort of activity.” (52:05)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On National Security Dysfunction:

  • “We put that 22 year old Thomas Fugate, farmer and grocer in charge of counterterrorism.” – Allison (03:00)
  • “It's just terrifying to watch.” – Andy, on current military and defense leadership (05:00)

• On Political Retaliation:

  • “You do not get to pick your cases, period, full stop, ever… So you're just punishing a bunch of people who did their jobs… That retaliation is now putting all of the rest of us at great risk.” – Andy (58:30)

• On No-Knock Warrants:

  • “They will hear this, that the deputy Attorney general has revoked this policy and now it's going to be like game on.” – Andy (43:57)
  • “To think that the Department of Justice, supposed to be the gold standard in monitoring the activities of law enforcement, is now proactively… pulling back from having any kind of role in opining on the best way to conduct law enforcement, it's just, it's frustrating… It's just tragic.” – Andy (47:14)

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Important Timestamps

• 02:18 – National security infrastructure failures
• 04:52 – F-15s shot down; operational incompetence
• 07:01 – Firing Iran/counterterrorism experts
• 09:34 – Subpoena of Pam Bondi
• 11:11 – 40,000 Epstein files missing from DOJ’s site
• 14:03 – Satirical “do not release on penalty of firing” sticky note
• 24:46 – Naming the “DOJ Incompetence” segment
• 27:50 – Suggestions for segment names ("DOJ is DOA," etc.)
• 29:20 – Why prosecutors abandoned the autopen case
• 31:36 – Grand juries refusing indictments at record rates
• 40:37 – Broadening of no-knock warrant use
• 43:29 – No-knock justifications can be made for nearly every case
• 48:37 – DOJ staffer child porn charges
• 58:30 – Retaliatory firing of Iran experts; “You do not get to pick your cases.”

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Listener Questions

Timestamps: 53:18 – End

• Living on Taxpayer Dime:

  • Can demoted officials still live on base? (Spoiler: They shouldn't have been able to in the first place.)

• FBI Readiness & Iran Threats:

  • Should we worry if counterintelligence resources are gutted just as a conflict with Iran begins? (Unanimous: Yes.)

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Tone & Language

• Tone: Direct, occasionally biting or sardonic, blending deeply informed legal assessment with exasperation and dark humor.
• Language: Candid and colloquial (e.g., “I’ll tell you where to stick that auto pen…”); never shy of naming names or stating the stakes.

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Conclusion

This episode delivers a comprehensive, sometimes bleak, but always incisive analysis of the ongoing erosion of democratic norms and rule of law. Gill and McCabe, with characteristic wit, lay out not only what is happening, but why it matters—and for whom.

Summary:
If you care about the state of American democracy, the DOJ, or simply want to understand the implications of a government run by grievance and retribution, this episode of UnJustified is essential listening.

Transcript

[Podcast Host (Rainy Day Rabbit Holes Intro)]

History is messy. It's weird, wild, and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, wait, is this real life? From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising, heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully. We've got naughty politicians, cultural chaos, and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining. Let's fall down the rabbit hole.

[Allison Gill]

MSW Media. MSW Media

[Andy McCabe]

the House oversight committee voted 24 to 19 to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi in their Epstein files investigation.

[Allison Gill]

The US Attorn for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, quietly closes an investigation into President Biden for use of the auto pen after failing to establish a case.

[Andy McCabe]

A longtime Justice Department employee has been arrested and charged in a child pornography case.

[Allison Gill]

And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch has rescinded former Attorney General Merrick Garland's restrictions on no knock warrants. This is unjust. Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 59 of Unjustified. It's Sunday. Or is it 58? Is it 59 already? My goodness. I think it is Sunday, March 8th, 2026. I'm Alison Gill. Hey, thank you for covering me for last week, Andy.

[Andy McCabe]

No problem at all. I mean, I say no problem. Maybe people think it was a problem, but it seemed great from my perspective. I just talked and talked and, you know, then it was over. Yeah, it's weird. It was weird doing without you. I'm not going to lie. I like having the back and forth. So very good to have you back. But, yeah, it was fun. And I'm very much hoping that you enjoyed your time off and got a little break.

[Allison Gill]

I very much did. And I'm gonna make you do it all again in probably a year from now.

[Andy McCabe]

So I'll start practicing.

[Allison Gill]

I've decided I'd like to do this once a year where I get a week without work. I've decided. I think it's a good plan.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, you should. You definitely should. You work so hard. You definitely need the break and deserve it and, yeah, it's a good thing to do. And like, you know, you went into quiet time like nothing really happened. Last weekend already. My God, this week we're at war. We are at war again. Yeah. I mean, what. What's your. What's your hot take on this one? What do you think?

[Allison Gill]

It's just incompetence up and down the cabinet. I mean, you know, Andy, I think one of the number one thing that I think about is something that you and I have kind of been talking about for a long time now, which has been the systematic dismantling of our counterterrorism efforts, our joint terrorism task force, our national security apparatus. Just the fact that he stored classified documents in a Mar A Lago bathroom or that Susie Wiles is wearing Apple watches inside of skiffs, it just really, it makes it so that none of our allies will share intelligence with us. And now Russia is sharing our intelligence with Iran. Like is Tulsi just handing it over? Like the fact that I even think that way is kind of really scary. But we put that 22 year old Thomas Fugate, farmer and grocer in charge of counterterrorism. I think he got pulled back and somebody else got put in charge. But third of the FBI is working on mass deportation right now. I just don't feel very safe, you know, aside from the, I think wrongful preemptive strike that was, you know, just decided without Congress, who is in the constit constitutionally supposed to be the one who decides to send our sons and daughters into harm's way? Aside from that, I just don't feel like we have the counterterrorism infrastructure in place to kill the Ayatollah Khomeini. I just don't.

[Andy McCabe]

You have no reason to feel good about any of those things. We have many reasons to feel worried and concerned about it, not the least of which is what you said. I mean, it's a parade of incompetence. And there's a thousand examples we could cite from, you know, a year or so ago. Signal gate. How about that? Like time and time again this crowd has indicated that they just don't care. They don't take things seriously like operational security and protecting sensitive information, things like that. And why should they? Because they work for the guy who as you said, stole all the stuff and took it to his golf club down in Florida.

[Allison Gill]

We've had three F15 shot out of the sky. How do we know that's not because they were using unsecure signal chats to talk about their missions?

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, or six, six of our soldiers killed in the drone strike on an operations center in Kuwait, which, you know, that drone should not have gotten through the net and been able to take out an entire operation center. Like was that operations center adequately protected? Why did the air defenses not work? Are we getting answers to any of these questions? Why did those six people have to die? So yeah, we're not hearing anything other than, you know, Pete Hegseth's blustering stupidity. I mean, this guy, I think he's hired, like, former action movie writers from the 1990s to write his speeches. It's offensive to hear him stand up there and talk. Like he's given the locker room pep talk to a high school football team. Like, he doesn't have the gravitas, the seriousness, the knowledge, the background, the comportment to stand there and lead the world's greatest military. It just. It's. It's terrifying to watch him, you know, watch, you know, watch Colin Jost's imitation of him on Saturday Night Live and then immediately watch the press conference. It's a lot closer than you would think.

[Allison Gill]

I mean, it's hard to make fun.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, he sounds. I was reading Tom Nichols, who I think is a great writer for the Atlantic. He referred to it as, like, he. He talks more like a guy playing Call of Duty online with his friends than the secret defense running the US Military in the middle of a war. It's just. Is really frightening.

[Allison Gill]

Right. And now we have Donald Trump telling Time magazine when they asked, you know, could we be vulnerable to attacks here at home now because of this? And he said, I guess, like, he hadn't even thought about it.

[Andy McCabe]

Oh, my gosh. You know? And Cash Patel, two days before the. The war kicks off, or three days before it kicks off, fires another 12 people from the FBI, half of whom come from the counterintelligence squad that's responsible for tracking threats from Iranians. I mean, these things are not coincidentally Iranians. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I don't know. It's really concerning. We. In the. Before the. Before we went to war with Iraq, the FBI spent weeks and weeks and weeks preparing, looking back at every case they'd ever had, identifying people who might have connections to the Iraqi government or to Iraqi terrorists groups, opening investigations, locating people, interviewing them, conducting assessment after assessment of potential threats. The week before this war kicked off, you know, the FBI director was chugging beers in the locker room at the U.S. hockey team.

[Allison Gill]

It's just firing all the Iran experts

[Andy McCabe]

and firing the Iran experts.

[Allison Gill]

That seems awfully coincidental.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

Like, whoa.

[Andy McCabe]

Well, and then let's not forget that the government essentially stranded Americans and US Embassy personnel overseas. And how about Mike Huckabee's post on social media? The Israeli embassy, The US Embassy to Israel in Tel Aviv is not in a position to assist Americans efforts to. To return to America. Like, you're not. What else are you doing? Because like, that's what you're supposed to do. That part of the, you know, that part of your organization, the State Department, called U.S. citizen Services, like, yeah, you're at war now. They're all stuck there. All the flights have been canceled. You need to help these people get out of harm's way.

[Allison Gill]

That's your whole job. And it's, you know, to go back to think of the hypocrisy of Benghazi or the criticism of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

[Andy McCabe]

Right.

[Allison Gill]

It's just pretty astounding, but par for the course, I think, with this administration. It's just going to keep getting worse. They're going to keep firing people. They fired Kristi Noem. They're replacing her with Mark Wayne Mullen. Somebody made the comment, wow, that actually simultaneously makes Trump's Cabinet smarter and the Senate smarter at the same time. So the dumbest senator is about to become the smartest Cabinet member, I think.

[Andy McCabe]

I don't know. Tommy Tuberville is not, not on his way to the Cabinet yet. So that might the. Maybe not the absolute dumbest, but it's close.

[Allison Gill]

True. And then we could see Pam Bondi get thrown under the bus. There's a lot of unfavorability with, with her. I'm sure Donald Trump liked her last visit to Congress and how she treated lawmakers on the Hill, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will save her job because of the Epstein files. And that's kind of our first story that we're covering today, Andy, is that on Wednesday, the House oversight committee voted 24 to 19 to subpoena her in their ongoing Epstein files investigation. A lot of MAGA people are very, very upset with Pam Bondi's handling of this. The ones that really want to see all the Epstein files. And five Republicans joined all the Democrats to vote yes on this motion. And then on Thursday, Robert Garcia posted on Twitter, he's a representative. One day after we won a vote in House Oversight with United Democratic members to subpoena Pam Bondi, the Department of justice announced they plan to release more Epstein files. So now we're releasing Epstein files, I guess, to distract from the war. I'm not sure. I can't keep up. But this is after they said there was nothing more to produce. And we are done. And we've, we've released everything, and everything we haven't released has been because of executive privilege, process privilege, work product privilege, deliberative process, whatever it is. You know, they just kind of made a blanket, a blanket statement about what they withheld and redacted, even though that wasn't what the law required them to do. But that's, that's where we're at right now. They're, they're going to be releasing more Epstein files.

[Andy McCabe]

It's, it's incredible.

[Allison Gill]

So.

[Andy McCabe]

The Wall Street Journal also reported this week that the Justice Department has withheld thousands of documents from the Epstein files, including FBI documents that detailed a woman's unverified allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump, according to a review by the Wall Street Journal. After a Journal analysis identified more than 40,000 files that appear to be missing from documents posted to the DOJ's website, a Justice Department spokesman said that 47,635 files were offline for further review and should be ready for reproduction by the end of the week. So do you take them at their word? Is there anything that we should believe? Should we believe anything they say at this point?

[Allison Gill]

You know what would save you the trouble of this review and re review would just be release all the files and then you don't have to worry about what you're re reviewing now. The withheld files include FBI notes documenting a series of interviews that women gave to agents in 2019. One woman, especially specifically here, mentioned in the Wall Street Journal where she alleged sexual misconduct by Trump and Epstein when she was a minor in the 80s. And that's according to copies of the documents reviewed by the Journal. Trump has denied wrongdoing and said the Epstein files totally exonerated him. Now, those documents are similar to many witness statements with unverified claims that were released by the government in January, raising questions about why they weren't included. With the millions of files made public, the Justice Department was required to release to the public such witness statements. Under the Epstein Files Transparency act, the

[Andy McCabe]

woman who claimed she was abused as a minor by Epstein was deemed ineligible for the Epstein Victims Compensation Program, which paid settlements to more than 130 Epstein victims. Her attorneys at the Bloom firm declined to comment. The Justice Department included a summary of the woman's allegations within the Epstein files in January and a so called Form 302. I have to pull back on that for a second because like to me it's just a 302. Right from my world you call them 302. So anyway, a so called 302 from the woman's first interview in which she alleged that Epstein abused her in South Carolina. It didn't release three other 302s including the interviews in which she discussed Donald Trump.

[Allison Gill]

Right now the Justice Department hasn't explained why the 302s weren't released. The department said last week it was conducting a review to see whether any materials were improperly tagged in its review process and if so, that it would release them. Yeah. Improperly tagged with Trump's name, which you had thousands of FBI agents doing in an Excel spreadsheet that I have FOIA from.

[Andy McCabe]

From the government. Improperly tagged with a sticky note that said do not release on penalty of firing.

[Martin Sheen]

Warning.

[Andy McCabe]

Warning does not get released is not an Epstein file. Go away.

[Allison Gill]

Right. Go away. Officials have said that they complied with the law and didn't withhold documents embarrassing to Trump. Yes, they have. I'd like to bring to everyone's attention that I did an interview about a month before this new reporting came out about these missing 302s, about some also missing 302s. I talked to a woman who made an initial call to the FBI, and it was one of the summaries that we saw in that Excel spreadsheet summary that was initially removed from the database and then restored several days later. It was the tip about the Trump Modeling Agency trafficking girls to Epstein and Maxwell. And I. I spoke to that person who made that tip, and she showed me proof that she's the one who called that tip in. And there was only 1302 where there should have been four or five. And the ones that were missing were the ones about Donald Trump. And then I spoke to Annie Farmer. Right. Who's Maria Farmer's sister, and Maria Farmer. Her 1996302 was released, and it was about Epstein stealing photos of Annie Farmer. Right. Nude photos that was finally published 30 years later. And this is from 1996. But she also had several other interviews with the FBI about Donald Trump, and those 302s were missing. So this has been going on a lot.

[Andy McCabe]

I'm not sure, and check me if I'm wrong on this, but I'm not sure that any of farmers 302s have come out, because what we saw from her was the FD71, which was the initial complaint form. That's like the intake form. Right. When she called in and said these things had happened. And then I think her complaint was that no one ever followed up on it. It. So I. There may. If she was interviewed later at some other time. I don't think we've ever actually seen a 302 from any farmer. But again, I. I'd have to go back and look.

[Allison Gill]

We.

[Andy McCabe]

We could. I could be wrong about that.

[Allison Gill]

I see. Right. Okay. Well, hey, what would cause, by the way, you had mentioned from this Wall Street Journal article that. That this survivor was deemed ineligible for the victim fund.

[Andy McCabe]

What.

[Allison Gill]

What deem. What makes someone ineligible for that?

[Andy McCabe]

That's a really good question. I can't say with perfect clarity because I haven't seen. You know what? I'm sure that there are documents filed, legal documents, which define what constitutes eligibility for receiving money from the fund. But it's certainly possible that if you have already. I would expect this is the case, but again, I can't confirm it. If you have already received some sort of compensation from Epstein or from his estate, like, let's say you filed your own separate lawsuit and you settled that lawsuit or went to trial and won some sort of a judgment, that money would be essentially compensating you for your injuries, your victimization, and so therefore, you wouldn't be eligible to get additional funds from the Epstein compensation fund. Does that make sense?

[Allison Gill]

Right. Yeah. In the government, we call that double dipping. And you. It's. It's usually illegal. Like, if you are a veteran and you've retired and you have disability, you can't have full. Both retirement and disability. It's. It's kind of a total max cap of. Of the two of them together. You know what I mean?

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah. Now, there may be also exclusionary language that says, I would expect you have to prove the fact that you were victimized by Epstein to some standard, and if you failed to do that, you're probably also not eligible to receive compensation.

[Allison Gill]

So I imagine if you're. If you're not a victim, then you. You don't get, of course, the victims. This, like, aside from that, it's. It's a good point. You bring up that if there was a settlement, if somebody paid somebody, like, I didn't. Andrew Montbotton, whatever. What, the former prince, didn't he pay a settlement with Virginia Giuffri or something like that? And would that then make her ineligible?

[Andy McCabe]

She filed a suit against him. He settled with her. Now, would that make her ineligible to receive compensation from the Epstein victims fund? Maybe not. Because she claimed she got paid by. By him, Mount Fountain, Windsor, whatever I've got. I'm not up. I'm not up on his. His new name. But so, like, obviously, the lawyers part these things out very carefully. So I don't think. But I don't think that receiving some sort of a settlement from him would necessarily make her ineligible to receive a settlement from essentially what is now Epstein's estate.

[Allison Gill]

Right. So if Donald Trump, for Example, had paid this woman to go away, that may or may not, for whatever reason, make that make her ineligible for the victim's fund from Epstein because it's Trump, but traveled by ex depp.

[Andy McCabe]

But let's say, and this is totally hypothetical, just to prove a point, right? Let's say a woman filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, and she was given a monetary settlement to dismiss that lawsuit. It is likely that the settlement agreement that she had to sign to get that monetary settlement essentially resolved all claims against both Trump and Epstein. That's how, like, a normal civil, you know, civil settlement would work. And so in that case, you would be ineligible to claim money from the Epstein compensation fund separately because you essentially had already received some money that represented the resolution of your claim against Epstein.

[Allison Gill]

Makes sense.

[Andy McCabe]

And that hypothetical also, Trump, by the

[Allison Gill]

very nature of Epstein being part of that lawsuit, it would cover those claims. Exactly. Ashton.

[Andy McCabe]

There you go. So in this case, though, the documents show that the woman, whose name is, of course, redacted, had four meetings with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2019 after Epstein was arrested and during Trump's first term in the White House. Now, she initially made allegations that Epstein sexually abused her, and she also told agents that she was reluctant to discuss Trump. And this is all we know. All this from the FBI's notes, from the interview, the. The sole notes and 302 that exists from apparently what was four or more interviews. In the interviews, the woman told the agents she was aware that because she was claiming abuse from years earlier, quote, the statutes of limitation of any viable federal violation may have run. She asked agents, quote, what's the point? According to the documents, agents reassured her that all victims of crime should have an opportunity to tell their stories.

[Allison Gill]

Had it run, though. I didn't think there was a statute of limitations for sex trafficking.

[Andy McCabe]

I think there is. I mean, statutes of limitations regarding all sorts of sexual offenses. Sexual abuse have been modified greatly in the last, certainly last 10 years.

[Allison Gill]

Oh, I see.

[Andy McCabe]

Back then, many have been extended, and some of those extensions are running out now. So I'm not. I'm not really sure what the current state of play or what the state of play for the sex trafficking statute of limitations would have been when she was interviewed in 19.

[Allison Gill]

Right, got it. All right, so in her meetings with the FBI, the documents show that the woman detailed her allegations from an encounter she claimed Epstein arranged with Trump in New York or New Jersey when she was about 13 to 15 years old, which haven't been verified. Now, she was, quote, introduced to someone with money. Money. It was Donald Trump, quote, according to the documents, she also claimed to have two additional interactions with Trump. And the woman joined a Jane doe lawsuit in 2019 against the Epstein estate, claiming Epstein sexually abused her around 1984 when she was about 13. The lawsuit said Epstein flew her to New York and trafficked her to, quote, prominent wealthy men. The lawsuit didn't name the men, but her suit was voluntarily dismissed in 2021. So that's the rest of what the Wall Street Journal has to report about this one. Victim's missing 302s, correct?

[Andy McCabe]

Yep.

[Allison Gill]

So, all right, we we've got a lot more news to get to, but we have to take a quick break. So everybody, we have a Janine Pirro story for you and we don't want you to miss it. So, so stick around. We'll be right back.

[Martin Sheen]

You can always count on Sunday to be the best day of the week. You can sleep in, go off your diet, spend the day in your pajamas and go on, have that second croissant. You know what else you can count on every Sunday? The Martin Sheen Podcast. Join me, your host, Martin Sheen, for beautifully crafted 20 minute programs filled with never before heard stories of my life, along with personal reflections and poetry that inspires. And season two begins Sunday, February 1st. The Martin Sheen Podcast is the perfect Sunday relaxing companion, a chance to put your feet up, take a deep breath and enjoy some stress free listening time from the comfort of your favorite easy chair and that second questalt that stays between us. There's no judgment here, so make my podcast your weekly moment of calm as we explore faith, hope, love, and what it means to be human. And rest assured, this journey is ever unfolding as I invite you to see what's next with me, Martin Sheen. So let's keep Sunday the best day of the week together and thank you for listening.

[Andy McCabe]

Welcome back. All right, everybody, here we go. We're diving back into something that we have done before and we're likely to do again and again and again. And that is the moment in the show where we start talking about the stumbles, the falls, the failures, as it were, of our formerly beloved Department of Justice. Now last week, ag, when you weren't here, I kind of launched something like right off the top of my head thinking, like, we would probably be doing these segments every week or pretty often. I thought, well, what we need is a name, like a little segment name that we can maybe put together with like a little, you know, audio hook or something, I don't know. So this was all really. I was just kind of flying, you know, off the seat of my pants. And oh, boy, did the listeners respond because we had some great names. It's going to take a little.

[Allison Gill]

I was wondering what you did, because I got a text from my lawyer at National Security Counselors. This is Kel McClell. He's the, by the way, the guy doing all the pro bono Freedom of Information act requests for MSW Media, like, the DOGE stuff, Elon's phone. Elon's phone number, the Jeffrey Epstein training videos and files, like, all of those. He's doing pro bono. So if you want to, like, by the way, support them, you can go to National Security Counselors.org donate but he. He wrote it. He just texted me out of the blue and said, your new segment should be called Presumption of Irregularity. And I was like, what are you talking about?

[Andy McCabe]

It should probably have given you some warning.

[Allison Gill]

He's like,

[Andy McCabe]

you know how it is when you're in the flow. It just got it. You just gotta ride it, baby.

[Allison Gill]

You gotta ride. But also, to be fair, Andy, there's a lot of stuff that I announced that I forget that I announced. So I assumed it was something that I did and that I had just forgotten it was.

[Andy McCabe]

Did I? I could have totally gotten away with that. I don't know what. I don't know what this is, Allison. You must have announced it, not told me.

[Allison Gill]

You would have gotten away with that, by the way.

[Andy McCabe]

So we have a lot of suggestions. I'll give you a couple. I like this one. It took me a second to figure it out. Dud oj which has kind of got a Beavis and Butthead feel to it, which is why I like it. Failure to Launch, which I don't know, that might be a little too close to, like, the Iran war, but we'll

[Allison Gill]

see that movie with Kevin bacon from the 80s. But also, I wanted to correct myself, Cal McClanahan's suggestion was presumed Irregular.

[Andy McCabe]

Ah, okay. Because we did get a few close ones to that. Presumption of Irregularity was one. We got Insane Justice. We got DOJ is doa, which is kind of sad, but also funny. So anyway, we're gonn keep sending them in and we are going to like, you know, really cut, really look through everything and. And come back with the. The best selection. So. But let's roll right on into this segment of, ah, whatever. We're going to call it.

[Allison Gill]

We're going to call it Presumed Irregular, brought to you by Depends. As somebody wrote in

[Andy McCabe]

so.

[Allison Gill]

DC US Attorney. Yeah, sorry, I had to make the joke. DC US Attorney Janine Pirro continues her losing streak this week, according to the New York Times. Justice Department. After calls by Trump to investigate Biden, former President Joseph Biden scrutinized whether Biden and his aides broke the law in using the auto pen to sign presidential documents, but was ultimately unable to move forward with making the case, according to three people briefed on the matter. Now, the department's failure to build a criminal case against Mr. Biden and his aides is just the latest example of its increasing inability to follow through on Mr. Trump's demands and bring indictments against those he wants to be criminally targeted. Some of those cases were rejected by grand juries, some were rejected by judges, and some in, like, the auto pen case were abandoned by prosecutors.

[Andy McCabe]

Oh, my God. I just can't. I'm like, in my mind, I'm just hearing echoes of Jeannie Pierrot's voice, like, okay, buddy, don't bring your auto pen into my town.

[Allison Gill]

I'll tell you where to stick that auto pen. Yeah, I can totally hear it right where the submarine sandwich is.

[Andy McCabe]

You know, we didn't get you this time, but next time, pal.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah, you better grow eyes in the back of your head.

[Andy McCabe]

That's right.

[Allison Gill]

What's interesting here, though, Andy, and we'll talk a little bit more about this, maybe, is that in this case, it was just abandoned by the prosecutors. Piro wouldn't even bring it to a grand jury. Are they learning that the stove is hot and not to touch it again when you bring a garbage case to the grand jury? Or were they just like, he's immune, we can't. Or, you know, it'll be interesting to. To. I would like to know why.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah. Well, the Times goes on to say, but the fact that prosecutors even pursued the matter to begin with reflects the degree to which Mr. Trump has sought to use the levers of government to undermine Mr. Biden's presidency by seizing on an unsubstantiated theory, that theory being that the pardons Mr. Biden issued in his final months in office were invalid because he did not have the mental capacity to consent to them. The auto pen investigation was led by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, which is run by a longtime Trump ally, Jeanine Pirro. The inquiry was quietly shelved in recent months, around the time that prosecutors under Ms. Pirro sought and failed to secure an indictment in a different case, one against six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video in the fall that enraged Mr. Trump by reminding active duty members of the military and intelligence community that they were obligated to refuse to follow illegal orders.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah, maybe, maybe Janine Pirro was like, I don't want to get two rejected grand jury things in a day. Or I don't, I, I, I don't know. I don't know.

[Andy McCabe]

Or maybe the prosecutors were like, okay, we gotta tell her that the grand jury rejected the video case. Let's just add the auto pen case to it, and then the whole thing washes out at once. So we get rid of 2. Kill two birds with one things we

[Allison Gill]

don't want to do. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But in, in that video case, a grand jury refused, as we know, to issue an indictment. A once incredibly rare action that the federal, in the federal court system, but one that has become more common as the Trump administration pushes the limits of the criminal justice system. I mean, I, the, when I looked at the numbers, it was six. No bills. Out of 70,000 cases, one, one year.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

And, and now she had six in one day.

[Andy McCabe]

Like, yeah, it's, it's all over.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. Now, in both the auto pen and the lawmakers video cases, veteran prosecutors were skeptical from the outset that there was anything close to sufficient evidence to justify criminal charges. And that's according to people familiar. Adam Klassfeld and I were just talking just this past Friday on the daily beans about the Abrego case and how Schrader left the middle district of Tennessee because he didn't feel comfortable bringing criminal charges for human smuggling against Abrego just to bring him back to the United States in order to, you know, close down that discovery of why he was kidnapped wrongly in the first place. And, and Maguire had to testify in a recent hearing about vindictive and selective prosecution. That's the new U.S. attorney there. And he said, well, you know, we just, he quit. He was a friend. He was a long time guy there, but, you know, we just didn't see eye to eye and, and I just wanted to bring the case all by myself. Nobody above me told me to do it. Like, it was just really embarrassing.

[Andy McCabe]

Wow. Unreal. In a department that is often subject to the whims of the President. It is unclear whether administration officials would seek to revive the investigation elsewhere or press US Attorney's office in Washington to try again. Technically, would it be trying again? Because they didn't really try the first time, but okay, never mind. A spokesman for Ms. Piro said her office would neither confirm nor deny the existence of criminal investigations. The Justice Department did not reply to a request for comment.

[Allison Gill]

That's BS because they confirm investigations all the time when they want to the ones they like.

[Andy McCabe]

Yes.

[Allison Gill]

Now, weeks after taking office, Trump and his allies in the conservative news media stoked claims that Biden had broken the law through his use of the auto pen. Focusing on pardons and commutations by Biden granted in the final days of his presidency, they suggest that his mental acuity had deteriorated to such a degree that he could not make such decisions. It's the pardons you're worried about. If the president's mental acuity has reached a degree where they can't make decisions, it's the pardons that you're worried about,

[Andy McCabe]

not.

[Allison Gill]

Okay, all right, okay. But Mr. Biden has forcefully denied those assertions also because they're. They're BS Calling Trump and his allies liars. I made every decision, he said. Mr. Biden said in an interview with the New York Times over the summer, adding that his staff had used an auto pen to replicate his signature. Because we're talking about a whole lot of people. Dude. Dude commuted or pardoned like thousands of people.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah. So he used it for the same reason that every other president since I think Dwight Eisenhower has used it. It's the same thing, administration after administration. But anyway, by April, Ed Martin and yes, Where's Ed now? Little Where's Waldo Going on with Ed. A Trump loyalist who was then the interim US attorney in Washington, was investigating whether Mr. Biden was competent enough to pardon his family members and others during his final days in office. As part of that inquiry, Mr. Martin sent letters to Mr. Biden's former aides demanding information about Mr. Biden's role in issuing the grants of clemency. Pretty bold request for a bunch of guys that are really hot to flout presidential privilege to stop any sort of request for information from actual Congress. But never mind. Mr. Trump increased the pressure on the Justice Department last June when he signed an order directing his White House counsel and Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate, investigate Mr. Biden's mental acuity and whether Mr. Biden's aides had illegally used the device.

[Allison Gill]

I can't believe we're dedicating this many words in an article in the Paper of record to the Autopen investigation. But the Autopen investigation continued after Mr. Martin, Ed Martin, the Wackadagpa, who's now just the PUH, was removed from the prosecutor's office and replaced by Ms. Pirro. But it suffered from several crucial problems, according to people familiar with the inquiry, speaking on the condition of anonymity, investigators were never quite clear what crime, if any, had been committed by the Biden administration's use of the auto patent.

[Andy McCabe]

That's a problem. That's a problem to an investigation. Yeah, yeah.

[Allison Gill]

If you don't know what crime it is. But he doesn't put crimes on his subpoenas or warrants, so.

[Martin Sheen]

Nope.

[Allison Gill]

You know.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

It was also unclear whether investigators should focus their attention on the actions of Mr. Biden's aides or Biden himself, given that the United States Supreme Court, in the landmark ruling in 2024, granted broad immunity to presidents for most acts undertaken as part of official duties. And, you know, that's. That seems. It makes. Just kind of drives home the point. Not knowing what crime you're even looking at, not putting which crimes you potentially violated on. On subpoenas, mass subpoenas sent out, for example, in the investigation into ex CIA Chief John Brennan, which I believe you're a part of. So you don't have to talk about this if you, if you are unable to. But it just seems like in, in at least other cases where they're not putting crimes and other people who've been subpoenaed where they don't. Don't even know what crime they're investigating, that they're just on fishing expeditions, they're looking for crimes, Maybe they'll find them if they are able to. Like if an officer just goes into somebody's house looking for crimes without, you know, without a warrant. That seems like what's going on here.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, I mean, it's just, again, it shows a repeated, very consistent, complete lack of respect for. Lack of understanding of the law. Right. Like, you just don't do these things. You can't just do whatever you want because you got elected president. You know, it's the, it's the old. No person is above the law, including the President, but he doesn't care about that. So no one he works for cares about that. The. The only thing they care about is his favor, his. That he looks favorably upon them. It is the only currency in this admin. And so they will do anything you can say to the Attorney General, I want you to investigate this and, you know, go after Joe Biden for use of an auto pen. And this Attorney general does not feel like she can say, I can't do that because there's nothing illegal about it. That's not within the scope of what I do or what my department does. You know, I am the last person on earth to Give Bill Barr any credit, but at least even Barr did that with the 2020 election. Said, sorry, there's nothing here for you, you know, but there's no one there now who will do anything even remotely like that.

[Allison Gill]

No, no. Correct.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

So, you know, we've got this Biden auto pen thing. They didn't, the prosecutors didn't even think they had enough to bring it to a grand jury. They weren't even sure what crime they were investigating. And this is like there are multitudes of failed inquiries that you kind of mentioned before. Right. We have the, the, the officials in Minnesota. Right. The attorney General and, and, and Governor Tim Walls. They're being investigated. We got the Brennan situation. I brought up. We have the investigation in Jerome Powell. Right. The Fed chair Trump doesn't like. We've got the Bolton thing where they actually got indictments there, and Bolton may be in trouble on that one, but that seems to be the only one that's stuck because the Comey one's gone. That Letitia James one is gone. The Adam Schiff one never came in to fruition. Neither did the Dan Goldman one, or.

[Andy McCabe]

Who is it from? The Fed. The woman from the Fed who's being Lisa Cook. Lisa Cook. Same thing. And, and what's different about Bolton is that that investigation started under Biden, right?

[Allison Gill]

Probably.

[Andy McCabe]

So, like, I mean, it was convenient for Trump, who hates Bolton, to take a shot at him that way, but that's not where it originates. So, yeah, that one's a little bit different.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. Well, makes sense. All right, we have more to get to. We've got a story coming up from Carol Lenning, but we have to take another quick break. Stick around. We'll be right back.

[Podcast Host (Rainy Day Rabbit Holes Intro)]

History is messy. It's weird, wild, and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, ask, wait, is this real life? From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising, heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully. We've got naughty politicians, cultural chaos, and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining. Let's fall down the rabbit hole.

[Allison Gill]

MSW Media,

[Andy McCabe]

Welcome back. Okay, our next story comes from Caroline at msnow. And she reports that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has rescinded the Biden Justice Department's policy that tightly restricted when law enforcement agents executing a search could take the exceptional step of bursting into a home without knocking first. The 2021 policy required that agents use only use, quote, no knock entries when they have good reason to believe that knocking could put them or others in imminent danger of physical harm. Top supervisors and the U.S. attorney in the area had to approve no knock entries for government searches that did not meet that requirement. Environment.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. A DOJ memo which was obtained by Ms. Now signed by Todd Blanche, issued to top supervisors and U. S Attorneys on Monday states no knock entries are now permissible for much broader. A broader set of searches, including not just when law enforcement fears for safety, but also when there's a risk that evidence could be destroyed. Blanche said he was eliminating unnecessary restrictions to no knock warrants. Quote, we must allow our brave men and women in law enforcement to carry out their duties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Law. That's what the memo said. Frankly, I'm surprised they want to use warrants at all for the federal agencies. They don't want dhs, they don't want ICE and CBP to have to use the. We can't possibly get a warrant for every time we want to go into somebody's house, said Bessant. I think like, my God, really, can we?

[Andy McCabe]

All right, I get it. No, we can't use no knock entries for these search warrants. How about when we don't have a warrant? Can we just no knock it then too?

[Allison Gill]

Right. It doesn't matter. Doesn't apply.

[Andy McCabe]

We're like, we're outside the policy at that point. Okay. Former prosecutors told Ms. Now that the argument of evidence being destroyed could be presented in nearly every search, making a no knock entry justifiable in many scenarios going forward. DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said the department is, quote, bringing back a common sense approach to law enforcement designed to ensure officer safety and to protect the integrity of criminal investigations. He added, quote, this policy fully accords with the parameters of the law and the protections of the Constitution, while reversing a Biden era policy that unduly hindered and unnecessarily endangered law enforcement agents. I guarantee you, if you collected a hundred law federal law enforcement officers, FBI, wherever, and you interviewed them and said is the is the necessity of getting special approval to do a no knock warrant slowing down your work or impeding your cases in any way, 99.9% of them would say no.

[Allison Gill]

No, right? Of course not.

[Andy McCabe]

It's not even really a thing. I mean, when I was, when I was executing search warrants as a agent, it was just known you couldn't do a no knock warrant unless you were in like incredibly dangerous circumstances. And those had to get approved by, you know, at higher levels above even your own supervisor in the field office. So this is just like, this is just like throwing red meat at the dogs.

[Allison Gill]

Right.

[Andy McCabe]

This is like they will hear this, that the deputy Attorney general has revoked this policy and now it's going to be like game on. Right. And, and as the prosecutors say, you can make the destruction of evidence argument in almost any set of circumstances. So you're going to see a lot of this in, in some neighborhoods.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. Well, they canceled all those consent things, but what were they called? Consent decrees.

[Andy McCabe]

Yep.

[Allison Gill]

They shut down the Civil Rights Unit. Right. They aren't even doing a civil, civil rights investigation into, into Renee Good's killing. So. I mean, come on. That. You're right. We're going to see a lot more of this Now. Caroline referred to this as a Biden era policy, but it's a Garland, it's a Merrick Garland policy. Back then we had a separation between the Department of Justice.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

And so I'm, I'm gonna just kind of, I'm not comfortable calling. I mean, it is a Biden era policy, but it's a Merrick Garland policy. Or maybe a Monaco, I think of Monaco was worked on this. But this was launched in the wake of the shooting and killing of Brianna Taylor. Okay. Louis V. Metro police officers fatally shot her during a botched late night drug raid that they even met, like lied to get the warrant for. In March of 2020, officers forced entry without a warning knock, prompting her boyfriend to fire a warning shot, believing it was a home invasion. Now, police entered the apartment shooting 32 rounds and struck Taylor six times. Benita Gupta former Associate Attorney General under Biden Biden called Blanche's rescinding the policy disturbing and said it was meant to protect police and public safety and adopt the best practices and for, for such searches.

[Andy McCabe]

Gupta, who had led the creation of the new policy with Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, said the restrictions placed on no knock entries after September 2021 were the product of an extensive year long review of best policing practices in which federal agents and state and local law enforcement weighed in and generally supported the changes. Quote, this is a step backwards for policing rather than forward when law enforcement has often prided itself on embracing best practices. Gupta told Ms. Now Gupta said she

[Allison Gill]

was concerned with the about face on searches of homes in the wake of how ICE has conducted their immigration raids recently in Minnesota. Quote, it's particularly significant given the ICE tactics we're seeing in the streets. So, so counter to the way policing has evolved and improved over the last several years. Yeah, agreed, Ms. Gupta.

[Andy McCabe]

No question whatsoever. I mean, people like Chuck Wexler and other folks associated with organizations like PERF and all these professional organizations around law enforcement, major city chiefs, major county sheriffs, all these different organizations that have spent literally years over the past decade and a half, maybe two decades, trying to refine and standardize identify best practices and then standardize them across The, I think 18,000 law enforcement agencies there are in this country right now. That's how you get to places where agency after agency, you start to outlaw or at least eliminate by policy things like chokeholds that actually can kill people unintentionally. Right. So to think that the Department of Justice, supposed to be the gold standard in monitoring the activities of law enforcement, is now proactively and very publicly pulling back from having any kind of role in opining on the best way to conduct law enforcement, it's just, it's frustrating. And for those of us have been there, we know what this looks like on the ground and what this will do to policing day to day. It's just tragic.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. Can't imagine. All right, well, we have one more story that we need to get to, by the way. Now, normally we talk about the DOJ writ large, but, you know, aside from, you know, when we speak about Jeanine Pirro or the wackadagpa, who's now just the puh, Ed Martin. And if you're, if this is, if this for some reason happens to be your first episode of Unjustified. Wackadagpa stood for weaponization Czar, Associate Deputy Attorney General, pardon attorney. He had three jobs at the Department of Justice. He was removed from two of those, and now he's just the pardon attorney. So that's when you, when you hear us refer to him as the Wackadagpa. Now, just the puh. That is what we mean.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, he lost his interim US Attorney gag and now he's lost his whack or wacka.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah, no more wack. Shame. But, yeah, real shame. I'm super sad for him. But he shouldn't even be the pardon attorney. Shouldn't be anywhere near the Department of Justice, even if it's not main Justice. But we have a, we have a story about another individual person in the Department of Justice. But we have to take this last quick break and then we'll get to listener questions. Stick around. We're back. Foreign, everybody. Welcome back. As I said, one more story before we get to Listener questions this week, and this one comes from cbs. A longtime Justice Department employee has been arrested and charged in a child pornography case. And that's according to multiple sources who spoke to CBS. Tim Parsons. Timothy Parsons, a legal staffer at the U.S. attorney's office in D.C. is facing federal criminal charges in Maryland, where he lives. According to three sources. And according to a court filing reviewed by cbs, an FBI task force searched Parsons home in Bethesda on Monday, looking for potential criminal material.

[Andy McCabe]

An FBI agent alleged Parsons answered questions from investigators and acknowledged receiving a message with child sex abuse material from another person in February 2019. A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement, the employee is on leave and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with standard procedures. While we cannot comment on personnel matters, we hold all of our employees to the highest standards of ethical conduct at all times. According to an FBI affidavit, Parsons received multiple videos and two images with child abuse material. The affidavit said Parsons told investigators that he had deleted those messages. The charging documents also allege Parsons responded to the images with sexually charged responses, including that is so hot.

[Allison Gill]

Oh, wow. Now, according to court filings and a review of court dockets by cbs, the Parsons case was uncovered by investigators who handled a 2025 investigation into Victor Blythe, a former child psychotherapist at Children's National Medical center in Washington. The court filings said images sent to Parsons were sent by a suspected child exploiter who. Whose. Whose case matches details of Blythe's 2025 criminal case. Wow.

[Andy McCabe]

Yikes. The affidavit also said on Monday, quote, the FBI executed the warrant at Parsons Bethesda residence and seized several devices belonging to Parsons, who lives there by himself and was alone in the residence when the FBI arrived. Investigators conducted an on site preview of Parsons devices and identified no child abuse material. A full forensic examination of the devices consistent with the search warrant is pending. Now, Parsons has not yet entered a plea in his case. He's scheduled to appear in court Friday in Greenbelt, Maryland. The court docket said Parsons has been appointed a federal public defender. Blythe has pleaded not guilty and has a court appearance in his federal criminal case scheduled for March 25th.

[Allison Gill]

Wow.

[Andy McCabe]

These stories are. Are horrible. Absolutely horrible.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah, so this was a wow. Started with a 2025 investigation and it scooped up a DOJ employee in the D.C. u.S. Attorney's office.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, terrible when these things happen. And I mean, good for them that they're making a case despite who is at the pointy end of it. This stuff is disgusting. It's about as low as you can go. Look, they're allegations. He has. Nothing's been proved yet, so he has an opportunity to defend himself. But you just feel like people who are associated with the FBI and the Department of Justice hold themselves to a higher standard. And that standard sure as hell doesn't include this sort of activity. But, you know, like I said, we'll have to see how it plays out. I. I will say, I mean, I, I can't possibly say enough good things about the men and women who do this work in the FBI, their DOJ counterparts, and people all over the country in law enforcement who do this work focusing on crimes against children. It is incredibly stressful and can be very, very hard to deal with to have to look at this stuff and deal with this material as much as they do. But it is truly amazing work that absolutely has to be done and we're lucky to have them doing it.

[Allison Gill]

It. Yeah, agreed. All right, it is time for listener questions, everybody. If you have a question, we have a link in the show notes of this episode where you can click and fill out a form and submit a question to us. What do we have? I think we got time for two questions, maybe. What do we got, Andy?

[Andy McCabe]

Excellent. So the first one comes to us from Ed from South Florida. And Ed says, greeting truth speakers now that Lice Barbie is demoted, can she still.

[Allison Gill]

Barbie?

[Andy McCabe]

I think that's what he meant. Maybe it's just a typo or maybe not, but that's what he typed. Lice Barbie is demoted, can she still live on a military base at the taxpayers cost? Thanks for the years of breaking down the insane bs. Well, Ed, I didn't think she could

[Allison Gill]

when she was the secretary, but.

[Martin Sheen]

Exactly.

[Andy McCabe]

You stole the words right out of my mouth. Like there's. There's no such thing as her being allowed to live there while she's the secretary. But yet she lived there and lived, well, I guess with a fleet of 737s or something that she was flying around with. But hey, good question, Ed. Will she be finally kicked out of that residence? I don't know. Maybe Mark Wayne Mullen wants it and he gets to move in now. So I just don't know how this administration does stuff like that because there's all kinds of regulations that control, like what you can pay for when you're a, you know, a particular government agency. I'll give you a good example which will be a segue into our next question when I was. When I became deputy, one of these first little things that I had to take care of, like an administrative thing, was the fact that the former Attorney General, Eric Holder, who was a wonderful Attorney General, in my view, and is a great person, he still had one security per. He was no longer the ag, and so he wasn't a DOJ employee, but he. He still had one security person helping him out in terms of managing his security profile as he goes about his business. And, you know, and that was because he had. He had received all kinds of threats and a huge number of threats, most of which were based on the fact that he was a black attorney general. I mean, let's call it for what it is. So. So we had reached. You know, there are regulations that limit how long you can. You can. The. The FBI or DOJ can provide that sort of service. Congress sets those limits about because it's money that. That the. That the agency is spending to protect a private citizen who's technically no longer eligible for that sort of detail. So, anyway, we worked it out and ended up spinning the whole thing down. But, like, Cash Patel's got a SWAT team protecting his. His girlfriend, who doesn't even live in D.C. like, she has more protection than the families of the FBI directors that I've worked for while they were FBI director. Right. Like, I mean, it's. I don't. You know, I see these things and I'm like, how do they get away with that? Like, does anyone even know that they're violating the law or care? I think the answer is probably no to both, but. Yeah, Ed, I don't know. I don't know the answer question. Because it never should have happened from the beginning. All right, next question. Chris writes in, if there are Iranian sleeper cells in America and Kash Patel has gone according with the FBI jet and personnel, should we worry?

[Allison Gill]

Yes.

[Andy McCabe]

Yes, Chris, you are right. And I'm not even going to give you my rant here. I'm just going to read what my colleagues at CNN just put out. They're saying just days before the United States launched a major military operation in Iran, FBI Director Kash Patel fired a dozen agents and staff members from a counterintelligence unit tasked with monitoring threats from Iran. Oh, look at that. According to two sources familiar with the matter, they were ousted for a simple reason. Each was involved in the investigation of President Donald Trump's alleged retention of classified documents at his Mar A Lago estate. Okay, do we still have to call it alleged retention? They actually seized all the stuff. It was all actually there. I'm gonna call it the actual retention.

[Allison Gill]

Good job.

[Andy McCabe]

Why not?

[Allison Gill]

Way to put your neck out on the line there. Heck, yeah.

[Andy McCabe]

Heck, yeah. I'm being a language weenie, I know it. But you know what? Standards matter, for gosh sake.

[Allison Gill]

They do.

[Andy McCabe]

They do anyway. Yes, Chris, you're right. You should be worried, because there's no indication that any of the things that should have been happening by the FBI on this very serious threat have happened prior to the initiation of, you know, war.

[Allison Gill]

Well, and remind us, Andy, like the people who worked on the Mar? A Lago case or the January 6th case or the Boston bomber case, you don't really. I mean, you can maybe raise your hand and volunteer, but you're mostly assigned to these cases. There could have been people who didn't want to work on the Mar? A Lago case, but got assigned to it. It. And they're Iran experts, and now they don't work for the FBI anymore.

[Andy McCabe]

That's absolutely right, 100%. You do not get to pick your cases, period, Full stop. Ever. On any squad. Whatever kind of work you're doing, you might bring in a case. Like if you had an informant who brought you a great case, and then that ends up being your case because you handle that informant. Okay, fine. But, you know, that's not how any of these cases started or. Or were ultimately given to groups of investigators. So you're just punishing a bunch of people who did their jobs, did them lawfully, did them properly. There's been no credible allegation that any misdeeds took place in these investigations. People don't deserve to be retaliated against. It's just absolutely outrageous. And that retaliation is now putting all of the rest of us at great risk. So well done, Director Patel.

[Allison Gill]

No, it would be like firing me because I was stationed in Orlando when I was in the military and you don't like Orlando? Like, I. Exactly. I didn't have any. I didn't get to pick that. Right. Like, they send me where you go. That's, you know, that's how it works.

[Andy McCabe]

Exactly.

[Allison Gill]

All right, well, great questions. Thank you so much for sending them in. Again, there's a link in the show notes if you want to send in any more questions. Do you have any final thoughts as we get out of here this week? I mean, the. The. The war. We're going to keep an eye on it. At first, it was supposed to be a week long when Donald Trump said, you know, we're going to be bombing for the next week. Until peace happens. He basically said the bombing will continue until peace improves.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah.

[Allison Gill]

And then it was a couple weeks, then it was five weeks, then it was till September, which is like six months. And now it's indefinite.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah, yeah.

[Allison Gill]

And he hasn't taken putting boots on the ground off the table. I mean just a nightmare.

[Andy McCabe]

I gotta feel like that Nobel Peace Prize is now finally out of reach.

[Allison Gill]

Well, FIFA is really upset, I'm sure about their prize that they issued. And then, but then we started, we did some military stuff with, in Ecuador. So now we've got Venezuela, Ecuador and then Stephen Miller wants to go from Mexico to the southern tip of North America. We've got the boat hits in the Caribbean. We've now, you know, now Iran. He also bombed Iran last June, don't forget, he's bombed Nigeria. He's bombed like nine countries. And now we're in a full on war.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah. And one in which it seems abundantly clear that we've spent approximately zero effort trying to figure out what we do with this country after the bombing stops. Which is if I'm correct in my remembrance of, of Iran, the Iraq war and basically every other war that came before that. It's the same mistake we've made every other time. So like. Yeah. Can you decimate Iran and turn it into basically Gaza and kill everyone that's ever been associated with Iranian lethal regime? I guess theoretically you could do that, but that's not. That is just creating a whole host of new problems. For instance. Instance, it'll become a magnet for terrorist organizations who are looking for ungoverned space where they can.

[Allison Gill]

There was a reason we were. People didn't want to take Saddam Hussein out.

[Andy McCabe]

Yeah. How did we get ISIS and Iraq? Well, Iraq was such a mess for so long that ISIS could basically move in and ultimately take over a massive chunk of territory in that. In that country. So this is not easy, you know, maybe fun for Pete Hegseth to watch the bombs drop. But this is going to be complicated. It's going to be long, it's going to be bloody. I have no, I shed no tears for the Iranian regime. I spent a good part of my life chasing the terrorists that they sponsor around the globe. So disrupting that activity is a near term good thing. But man, it is way more complicated than that.

[Allison Gill]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we'll keep an eye on it and talk about it here along with everything else going wrong with the doj. We'll think about that presumed irregular segment, whatever it's going to be. DOJ is DOA Ouch. Hurts. But we, you know, we'll think more about. Feel free to send them in. You can do that on the questions form too. So that's a good way to contact us. Again, that's a link in the show notes everybody. Thank you so much. We will see you next week. I'm Allison G. And I'm Andy McCabe. Unjustified is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and analysis by Andrew McCabe. Sound design and editing is by Molly Hockey with art and web design by Joelle Reader at Moxie Design Studios. The theme music for Unjustified is written and performed by Ben Folds and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned independent podcasts dedicated to news, politics, and justice. For more information, please visit mswmedia.com.