Show Notes
Trump is turning DOJ into payback politics—and this week shows the playbook in action: pressure around the Gateway tunnel, a reporter’s home searched, the Clinton subpoena spectacle, and a growing recruiting crisis inside the department.
Then Preet Bharara on the warning we missed: Trump forcing the showdown that got Preet fired—an early preview of today’s collapse of prosecutorial independence. We break down political prosecutions (Comey, James), the hard edge cases where “law enforcement” gets murky, how the ethics of staying vs. resigning change in a corrupt regime, and where real hope comes from now.
More from The Oath and The Office
Can writing an article put you at risk of deportation? The Stanford Daily editor George Porteous joins Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang to explain how deportation fears are silencing student journalists—and why his newspaper took the Trump administration to court. After a major district-court victory, the administration is appealing. At stake: freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of noncitizens.
Congress has the power to impeach Trump. Will it use it?
Jack Smith turns the tables on his congressional questioners and doubles down on why he indicted Donald Trump. Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang break down the fiery hearing, the threats of prosecution against Smith, and what this battle over accountability reveals about the upcoming midterms. Plus: Can Democrats win in red states, and what would taking back Congress actually accomplish?
What if the government sends you to a country you've never known—where you fear persecution or torture—and you never get a real chance to challenge it?
Can a president shut out reporters because he doesn’t like their coverage? Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang take on Donald Trump’s sudden ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House. They explore the constitutional stakes of revoking press credentials, why press freedom protects the public as well as journalists, and whether federal courts will hold the line against a president determined to punish his critics.