Join us for a dynamic discussion as President Trump responds to what some see as a veiled threat from James Comey. This episode dissects the implications of a seemingly innocuous social media post that has sparked nationwide debate. We hear from legal experts, engage with public opinions through call-ins, and scrutinize the complex relationship between free speech and political responsibility. Meanwhile, our team in Washington fights on another legal front, representing the interests of conservatives across the country in a pivotal Supreme Court case. Don’t miss this insightful look at law, politics, and the delicate balance of power.
SPEAKER 05 :
Today on Sekulow, President Trump responds to James Comey’s threatening social media post.
SPEAKER 13 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Great show. Let’s wrap up our week strong. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. We’re also going to play you some bits that we did in Washington, D.C. yesterday as our team was hard at work. My brother and some of the others over at the D.C. headquarters. You’re going to see some of that a little bit later. But of course, we’re all talking about that social media post from whoever you thought it would be. Mr. James Comey. That’s right. James Comey posted a nice seashell formation. There it is. Beautiful. And that seashell formation formed four numbers separated. What were those numbers? The first number is 86. And the second one, 47. Of course, for anyone, I don’t know, in America who is an adult or even a child for that matter, you would probably know 86 means to at minimum be At minimum, get rid of something. I told Will, I have always associated 86 with kill. Now, not necessarily always a literal kill, but when you have a president who has already had multiple assassination attempts, real attempts, not just, or attempts that happened, you know, not just foiled attempts. We kind of forget that. I feel like we kind of stopped talking about that. And you have someone like James Comey with such a vitriolic hate for President Trump, but also someone who probably has a lot of followers who could be, quote unquote, radicalized. It becomes a real threat. Of course, James Comey had to delete this post, apologize, said that he had no idea. that that’s what it meant. And then he never calls for violence. No violence against anyone. But I think we should hear first from President Trump as he just responded this morning. And this will be airing in a Fox News full-length interview, I believe, later today.
SPEAKER 08 :
He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination. And it says it loud and clear. Now, he wasn’t very competent. But he was competent enough to know what that meant. And he did it for a reason. And he was hit so hard because people like me and they like what’s happening with our country. Our country has become respected again and all this. And he’s calling for the assassination of the president.
SPEAKER 05 :
I mean, that’s pretty big words. I mean, the fact that he ends with he’s calling for the assassination of the president, that means the Trump administration, now, obviously, they’re going to take advantage of this moment because, you know, who has been one of the number one villains, I’d say, if you are a Trump supporter, has been James Comey over the last most of a decade. So if you have an opportunity to give him a little bit of a taste of his own medicine, if you will, in terms of investigations and that kind of thing, I have a feeling, not knowing the Trump administration all that well, But knowing the track record of President Trump, he I think he’s going to take an opportunity.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah. And I think that we need to remind people because we typically don’t want to talk about James Comey. But when he does come back up, we need to remind people of all the bad things he did during the first Trump administration. But he took the post down and he replied with this. I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind, so I took the post down. Listen, if you believe that he didn’t know what 86 meant, I’ve got a dossier to sell you, Logan.
SPEAKER 05 :
I don’t even understand how, what did he think it meant? If he didn’t think that it at least had some sort of a violent overtone or just an overtone of get rid of him, we got to stop. And as we were talking about this earlier, you may remember President Trump had this situation with James Comey over a number of years. I mean, this is not anything new. If you didn’t think that’s what it meant, if you didn’t think it wasn’t get rid of him, When he, again, can’t run again for president, as you said. So are you talking about impeach? He won’t get impeached right now because he has pretty much full control and support from his cabinet and from the House and the Senate. So what are we talking about here, James Comey? We at least have to have that conversation. I want to hear from you. What do you think about this when you hear from James Comey? 1-800-684-3110. Be kind and respectful to our phone screeners. And as always, support the work of the ACLJ when you can. We’re going to talk more about that coming up and some of the amazing work our team was doing yesterday in Washington, D.C. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open and I want to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. If you’re just tuning in, as I know a lot of people do over the first segment of the broadcast, you’ve got to restate what happened. That’s a James Comey, you know, man who can’t go away. Former FBI chief James Comey posted on social media a lovely image. He said he was walking down the beach.
SPEAKER 03 :
It says cool shell formation. Cool shell formation.
SPEAKER 05 :
He’s like, I did assume it was a political message, but I didn’t know what it meant. And it says 86-47. Of course, a lot of people said, hey, I think that that 86 part is actually a call to take out the president of the United States. And whatever you want to infer on that, President Trump believes he is calling for the assassination of President Trump. Now he’s taking it very seriously. He deleted that post. President Trump said that the team said that he’s going to be under investigation for a threat to the president of the United States. And of course, this comes at a time where it is a very, I guess you’d say it’s an opportunity for President Trump and for Trump administration. You know, we’re not for revenge here. We’re not for that. But when you take out these real messages, because you, again, are encouraging people who are unstable. who probably follow you, who probably have supported you, James Comey, to take radical action.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and I like to kind of play the benefit of the doubt sometimes. Actually, normally that’s your job. That’s me. I don’t know what you’re talking about. But in this one, when I first see the story and I first see the post and I hear also the calls and many people saying that this was the direct call for assassination or something like that, I like to think I go, okay. benefit of the doubt argument james comey thinks 86 just means get rid of right so i don’t buy it yelling it out which right someone canceled their hash browns order so 86 the hash browns canceled get rid of it so i think he’s not uh being genuine when he’s like i didn’t know it had any sort of bad connotation but uh let’s just say he’s thinking it means get rid of trump uh and then like get rid of him as president right as president like remove him from office do something of that nature that we know there in the first term he tried his hardest to make happen he uh used fire fisa warrants in an improper way without having the full story told to the court he sent in fbi agents to spy on mike flynn he relied on the dossier to start crossfire hurricane All of these things. He leaked his memos to get to the New York Times to try and get a special counsel. All of these things that James Comey did were trying to get rid of Trump from the office of presidency. They weren’t a call to violence. They were him trying to utilize his position in a very J. Edgar Hoover style to get rid of who was a political enemy of his, President Trump, that he thought was his existential threat. Now you have to think of it through this term of, well, he has put himself forward as this moral compass for America. He had that book that he released that was so ridiculous, as if he is the patron saint of democracy. And when you take that context, and that there is a post that says, or a shell message that says, get rid of Trump, even if he’s thinking it means politically… Then you have to think, okay, as you brought up, they’re not going to impeach him right now because there’s a House and Senate that are controlled by Republicans.
SPEAKER 05 :
It could change in just about a year.
SPEAKER 03 :
It could, but not at this time. That’s not an option. 25th Amendment, not going to be on the table. One, he hasn’t done anything that they could really use the 25th Amendment for, but the cabinet is loving their jobs right now. They aren’t trying to get rid of their boss. They are working very well and doing great things for the country. So if someone is the moral compass of America in their own mind, they have to think long and hard before putting a message up like that. Because the burden is on them to not put out rhetoric that could inflame things, have crazy people do things. The people that follow James Comey and look to him as a leader don’t like President Trump. He knows that two failed, fortunately, assassination attempts have already happened. He can’t just put this out there without thinking through it. If he wants to hold himself to this standard that I didn’t know what it meant and play dumb. He knew what it meant. And he wants President Trump to not be president. And that’s why he needs to be careful about what he posts and the words he says.
SPEAKER 05 :
there’s been a lot of responses from the trump team obviously from president trump himself we can play that again a little bit later we already played it but there was response from tulsi gabbard there was response from some others so we have actually a bite from tulsi that we can play so you have an idea of again she’s the director of national intelligence now you have an idea of how serious this team is taking this potential threat are you buying that the former fbi director didn’t know what 86 trump meant
SPEAKER 02 :
Absolutely not, Jesse. That is a ridiculous and insane statement to make, certainly within this context, but especially coming from a guy who’s the former director of the FBI, a guy who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of 86. Comey himself admitted in his follow-on message that he knew that this was a political statement. Well, the only reason he knew that, Jesse, was because a little over a month ago, a bunch of anti-Trump, anti-Elon Musk protesters were proliferating the use of this 86-47 slogan, which was a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes. Again, that’s from Tulsi Gabbard. And it kept going and they can push Tulsi and say, hey, do you think James Comey belongs in jail? Well, look, we’re free speech advocates here. I think there are lines, but you got to at least let you know, at least as the listener, what people like Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has to say. So take a listen.
SPEAKER 12 :
Do you believe Comey should be in jail?
SPEAKER 02 :
I do. any other person with the position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be, I’m very concerned for the president’s life. We’ve already seen assassination attempts. I’m very concerned for his life. And James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this.
SPEAKER 03 :
Strong words. Yeah, very strong words, but also to her point as well about him, she knows that he knows what this meant. This isn’t even a new slogan against President Trump. Gretchen Whitmer had a sticker that said 8645. So they’ve been using this as a protest statement for a long time. And even in that context, knowing what it meant then, to get rid of the president. And then four years after that, knowing what has happened to him while running for president again, You know that this is not a political climate where you can make these type of statements and not assume that people’s bad intentions could be played out because of your speech and seeing it as a call for something. Now, I know that the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Secret Service, are investigating this. In fact, Kash Patel tweeted that… that it is the jurisdiction of the Social Security, the Secret Service, to look into this. And Kristi Noem put disgrace. Former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of POTUS Trump. DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately. So we know they’re going to investigate it. Do I think that it will probably lead to an arrest of some sort? I highly doubt it. I actually do. I don’t think so. at least know they are taking it seriously and they are looking into it. And they’re going to probably send some FBI agents or Secret Service agents to go interview him, much like he liked to do to the former president’s team at the time. So he will get at least a little bit of an interrogation and a taste of his own medicine there.
SPEAKER 05 :
think anyone who’s making those kind of threats need to be uh taken seriously you need to have those conversations look if your friends are posting i think there is that concern of going what do you do when you have people who have who are again suffering from that i hate even using the trump derangement syndrome statement because i think it sounds so hacky and ridiculous but there’s really no way around it it’s just the reality the people are are taking up this uh This push. Now look, President Trump, not that he doesn’t occasionally inflame it, he went on an X or a Truth Social post today about Taylor Swift. Okay, so you know what? Sometimes President Trump brings it on himself in that way and tries to rally people up, tries to get people either on his side or against him. I don’t love that. I’ve talked about that many times, that that kind of positioning for the president of the United States I’ve never been a big fan of. But you also are responding to a former FBI director essentially doing the exact same thing, which was posting maybe not as pop culture, but posting something that they know is only going to inflame people one way or the other.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And we proudly support the First Amendment and free speech. But there is a line. that it’s not free speech when you are making a direct threat, especially towards the President of the United States. There are consequences to those. I think that is what the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security will be investigating is whether or not it did actually cross that line as far as they could bring a case. Because you also have to think about that as well. You have a First Amendment defense. The defense, if they were to charge James Comey, it’s not like they put him in jail immediately. There are… A court process that goes through the DOJ at that point would also have to make a decision of with if they think they could get a prosecution if they believe that it strayed into the criminal realm. Because I don’t think also supporters would like an acquittal of James Comey. It would be a waste of resources as well as a lot of egg on your face for trying to push something that maybe wasn’t there.
SPEAKER 05 :
There has been some good movements out of the FBI. As you have seen, Kash Patel responds to a real direct threat that was happening. And we’re going to discuss that and how that connects to the work of the ACLJ when we get back. Direct terrorism threat that was foiled, thankfully, due to our incredible team. Right now, I encourage you, though, go to ACLJ.org, support the work when you can. We’ll talk about more when we get back. Welcome back to Secular. There’s some phone lines open for you still at 1-800-684-3110. Again, 1-800-684-3110. I’d love for you to call in. Some have already called in. Some didn’t make it through, so there’s some lines open right now. Let’s actually kick that off with Bob, who’s calling online, too. Bob, you’re listening on the radio, and you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi. When you use the word get rid of, I’m not thinking of the rid part. I’m thinking of the get part, the use of the English language. The word get, go, attaches itself only to specifics. And that would mean they are not only doubling down when they try to say, oh, it’s not that bad. We’re just talking about get rid of. Get the president in that sense means by any means that anybody can think of. to accomplish the task. We’re not talking about throwing out old oil here.
SPEAKER 05 :
Bob, I do think that it certainly can inflame the wrong people. You know, do I think most people are going to read that comment or read that social media post and go, okay, he has given us a mission. We have to go do something about it. Probably not. But the problem is the dozen that may or the hundred or the one that may take it a little differently, may take it a little more serious. That’s what we saw happen twice over the last year.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and even if you were to take this as just highly, highly irresponsible, right? Just if you were to go there, I know people in the chat and the listeners are not going to just go there, but if you were to do that, you would have to ignore that James Comey skirts the rules to accomplish his goal and has done that against President Trump many times since the beginning.
SPEAKER 05 :
We’re not even at one year since the Trump assassination attempt. It feels like sometimes decades ago, but it happened last summer. Last what? July. Right. So we are still not even quite almost there, but here it should be fresh on people’s minds when they are posting on social media. In general, you shouldn’t be posting like this kind of thing about anyone for that matter, but someone who has already had not even uh foiled assassination attempts real assassination attempts where he was shot uh but they don’t take it seriously they moved on very quickly it’s what happened when they when they put in uh kamala harris to try to make you forget about what happened with uh joe biden and then also forget about the assassination attempt
SPEAKER 03 :
Right. And I want to remind people here, this is what he did at the very beginning of the first Trump administration, where he was going outside of norms, outside of protocol and using spies from the FBI to, to be subversive against the administration that had just been elected and just come into office through the inauguration. Let’s listen to this. It’s bite one. This was with Nicole Wallace talking to James Comey, uh, back in 2018. Take a listen.
SPEAKER 01 :
You look at this white house now, and it’s hard to imagine two FBI agents ending up in the same room. How did that happen?
SPEAKER 11 :
I sent them. Um, um, something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more organized investigation, a more organized administration, in the George W. Bush administration, for example, or the Obama administration. In both of those administrations, there was process. And so if the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official, you would work through the White House counsel and there’d be discussions and approvals and who would be there. And I thought it’s early enough. let’s just send a couple guys over.
SPEAKER 05 :
So already was taking it into his own hands already violating at minimum the standard.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right and while this may not be something that they can prosecute the 86-47 or maybe they can James Comey’s conduct has been that of someone trying to overthrow a sitting president And so it does bring up those questions when you think about all the things he did with Crossfire Hurricane. Sending in spies from the FBI to go and try to get information because they might not be ready. That’s not someone who is upholding his oath to the Constitution. He was rightfully fired by President Trump and then tried to get revenge by leaking memos in order to get a special counsel against the president. We have that bite too. But it is just showing you that he has a pattern. of bending the rules playing outside of norms to try and accomplish his goal and that is to get rid of president trump and that’s why at minimum it’s highly irresponsible because you heard these facts about there are so many in the democrat party who responded to a opinion poll and said you know there could be justifiable reasons for someone to take out the president that’s Not normally something you do an opinion poll on, but people are okay with saying that. This person is now amplifying a message which could be seen, especially by deranged individuals, as a call to violence.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, let’s go to Mike who’s calling in Missouri. He’s got an interesting point. Mike, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hi, guys. Nice to talk to you again. I just said the question, isn’t what Comey did basically the same thing that President Trump was prosecuted for on January 6th?
SPEAKER 05 :
absolutely not because president told them to go home yeah i’d say it’s almost the opposite which is you’re putting out a message but i understand your point mike that it’s like if you’re going to prosecute one you got to do the other uh but you have a post that has one direct message and look that direct message at a minimum is to take out or to get him out And look, as Will said, do I think this is going to end in an arrest? I know a lot of you want us to say, yes, of course it is. It’s going to happen. He’s going to be put behind bars. Look, maybe it does. I don’t think that’s going to happen for a social media post like this. I really don’t. So I’d hate to be the person who leads you down some path that you think that’s what’s going to happen. But do I think it’s going to be taken seriously and he’s going to be having to talk to? And hopefully this will inspire less people or inspire people to not have this kind of violent rhetoric. And I encourage President Trump to do the same, to also not encourage this kind of violent rhetoric when you have very intense times, when the president is all over the Middle East. and doing all of this this is the wrong time to be uh sending this kind of message and of course you have people from the team going out there talking about it tulsi gabbard and the team discussing specifically what they think do they think he’ll go to jail they said they they do or belongs in jail so you know what i’m not saying it can’t happen i would find it a little hard to believe but maybe uh maybe that’s just because i’m used to the way things used to run and that nobody really had to serve any time based on these kind of threats
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And in my opinion, the things that he did to this country in 2016 on… He meaning James Comey.
SPEAKER 05 :
Just clarifying.
SPEAKER 03 :
Were much worse than the social media post. And I think that’s why my mind, knowing what we lived through with him, knowing his leaking, the way he weaponized… the FBI as his own police force against the administration. And you think about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and Andy McCabe and all of these people. I think that’s why I think it’s shocking that he did decide to post that. But I’m like, the things he’s done to undermine the country are so much worse than his post. But I also understand the context post the assassination attempts. That if you can’t trust James Comey, especially to make decisions that are good for the country, then you can’t trust and take his word that I didn’t think that it had any sort of violent type rhetoric to it.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s right. All right. Hey, we only about 55 seconds left in this first half hour. I want to encourage if you don’t get us in the second half hour, find us live right now. ACLJ.org. Be a part of the team right now. Support the work. We have done so much work just in the last week. We’re going to discuss that when we get back. You’re going to hear some of the amazing and see some of the amazing work the ACLJ was doing in real time just yesterday. And, of course, our team is everywhere. Jordan was at the Supreme Court argument yesterday with the Attorney General of West Virginia. We’ll get you an update on that coming up. And I want you, though, to support the work of the ACLJ right now. You can make a donation, tax deductible, any kind, ACLJ.org, and you can become a champion. That’s someone that gives on a recurring basis. I know that really helps build a great baseline for us, not just for this show to give you the breaking news analysis, but to have our legal team ready to jump into action whenever they are called upon. And that is 24-7, 365. We’ll be right back with more on Sekulow.
SPEAKER 13 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 05 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. Second half hour coming up. We’re going to restate what we’re talking about, but also move on a little bit and talk about the work of the ACLJ and what’s happening right now. Some really interesting news. Of course, we’re talking about former FBI director James Comey as he made that threat against President Trump, posting on social media, 86-47. A fun seashell formation, he said he saw. But, Will, there’s also, and we were supposed to get this last segment, we didn’t get to it, Kash Patel has been working hard because the team at the current FBI, it’s kind of hard to connect the FBI to the FBI. The old FBI, the new FBI. The new FBI is actually there stopping terror threats.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And this is the job of the FBI, right? Not investigating the president or trying to send spies into Catholic churches. What the real job is, is to stop terrorism threats on the homeland, violent crime, organized crime. And that’s exactly what Kash Patel’s FBI is doing. And this is a big announcement that Director Patel put out last night that They have disrupted a mass shooting plot at a military base on behalf of ISIS. And we have seen some of these ISIS attacks ramp up even more recently. We think about that New Year’s Day before the playoff games that were happening. Yeah, in New Orleans. But this was a Michigan Army National Guard member who was arrested for allegedly planning a mass shooting near the Army’s Tank Automotive and Armaments Command, TACOM, center at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan. And I also wanted to connect this because, remember, we’ve been pushing back against the training that was being done at military bases like Fort Bragg that was trying to lump pro-life military sidewalk counselors, pregnancy resource centers, Operation Rescue. The people with the pro-life license plate.
SPEAKER 05 :
That alone was enough to label these groups terrorist groups you need to watch out for as they were educating our military service people. Of course, at the same time, though, real terrorism is taking place, as Will said, as ISIS has infiltrated and was starting to build up a mass shooting event in some of these same facilities.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. And that’s why we pushed back. That’s why we sent the letter to the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. It’s why we got all that information from FOIA and are still fighting to get more and find out how broadly this training was proliferated throughout the military, because if If they were doing terrorism awareness training at bases and they were not hyper focused on just the real threat of terror from groups like ISIS, we know that was in the training, but it waters it down. The real threat when you have false training on people that are pro-life as being terror threats. They need to stick to the mission and focus on that. Now, we are seeing change. We are seeing that the FBI doing the right thing, stopping what could have been a horrific tragedy at a military installation.
SPEAKER 05 :
Working with us also on getting more information about those slides and things that were presented to, again, service people to say that pro-lifers were a terrorist group. So it’s hard. You got to kind of refocus and recalibrate your brain because for the last, really, honestly, I’d say the last 12 years, Because even through, I’d say, the remnants of the past were pretty hard during the first Trump administration. That’s right. So you have to kind of rewire your brain to remember now it’s run by Kash Patel and Dan Pongino. You know, people who have been a little bit more friendly to the cause, if you will, and a little bit more friendly to conservatives, to pro-lifers, to Christians. This is very different. And look, you can see it. You can see it so directly when now you just flash to what is the former FBI director doing right now? Posting threats to the current president. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. We got some lines open. I’m going to take actually quite a few calls coming up in the next segment. So if you’re on hold already, stay on hold. But there are three lines open for you. 1-800-684-3110. Again, it’s been a week. We’ve had some big wins here at the ACLJ. The Trump administration, they launched an investigation. The HHS into the hospital is forcing our clients to participate in abortions because they read about it on our website. We got to be able to move forward in our Massachusetts case defending those prior life pregnancy resource centers. In Ohio, we had a big victory. You’re going to hear about that a little bit later as well. And so much more. Jordan was at the Supreme Court of the United States yesterday. Can’t do it without you. Go to ACLJ.org. Make a donation if you can right now. Welcome back to Sekulow. Again, continuing on our discussion about James Comey. But part of it is that President Trump has responded and responded actually in another clip that we just were able to get. So you will.
SPEAKER 03 :
Should we set that up? Yeah. So this is from this interview with Brett Baer, which will air tonight during his show. But they have released some of the clips and specifically on the. the questions related to Comey’s post. We played the one earlier where President Trump said he knew exactly what that meant and our country has become respected again and all this and he’s calling for the assassination of the president. But Brett Baier follows up with him talking about these issues that we’ve been talking about, whether or not there will be some sort of prosecution and things of that nature. Let’s go ahead and play Byte 8.
SPEAKER 08 :
Obviously he apologized and said he wasn’t calling for violence, but what do you want to see happen? I don’t want to take a position on it because that’s going to be up to Pam and all of the great people. But I will say this, I think it’s a terrible thing. And when you add his history to that, If he had a clean history, he doesn’t. He’s a dirty cop. He’s a dirty cop. And if he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency. But I’m going to let them make that decision.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, that’s when President Trump said they’re going to let them make a decision. We got a call related to that. Let’s go to that. Let’s go to Rhonda, who’s calling in North Carolina, watching on Salem News Channel, which, by the way, we are live on Salem News Channel television network. You can find it on Pluto. You can find out Samsung Plus, of course, on their website. Great lineup of people. We’re live on that network every day from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern time. Work your way back. Rhonda, you’re on the air.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yes, hi. I just wanted to hear the quote or hear or see what you’re talking about because I don’t believe Comey being who he is would have made any type of statement or made a post about said anything about doing things to Donald Trump. Donald Trump is a horrible man, but I can understand somebody getting upset and angry with him, even though I did vote for him the first time. I wouldn’t vote for him a second time. And even though Pastor David Jeremiah had said certain things as far as voting for Donald Trump, I would never vote for him again. And I pray that God will be
SPEAKER 05 :
I understand that your feedback look I’m not going to tell you who to vote for who not to vote for if you didn’t feel compelled to vote for President Trump that’s fine I’m glad you’re listening I’m glad you’re watching now to say you don’t believe that he did it he did he made the post whether he understood maybe the severity of what he was saying maybe you could tie that into what some of the anti-israel groups saying oh we didn’t know from the river to the sea meant genocide genocide and to the eradication of the jewish people and of course we thought that was just some uh fun little chant so maybe you could play devil’s advocate in that way and say that he didn’t mean to threaten the president. And look, I think you could at least say, as Will said, that you could lead that way and see that he didn’t mean a physical threat to the president. However. You have a pretty big responsibility as a public figure and a former FBI director to not encourage violence against anyone, specifically against the sitting president of the United States. I don’t know, one that just had two assassination attempts, one that was successful enough to shoot his ear less than a year ago. And people died in Butler, Pennsylvania. And people died. But we’re quick to forget that. It’s okay. It seems like it’s, you know, they always say politics is a blood sport. Well, you know what? Then we need to back that off a little bit. We don’t need that literally. And that’s where we’re at. And look, it was a highly rough time during all of the different elections with President Trump. Of course, he’s a controversial figure. Of course, he’s posting today about Taylor Swift and whether Taylor Swift is no longer popular because he doesn’t talk about her anymore. I don’t love the President of the United States does that. I don’t feel like it’s necessary. I certainly don’t feel like it’s necessary when you’re dealing with serious things that are going on right now. You’re overseas. You’re dealing with the Middle East. You’re trying to cause peace in the Middle East. Let’s stay on target here. Let’s actually focus on what’s going on. Let’s focus on that. But I also think to counterbalance that, you can’t have people like James Comey feeling like they can go out and make a statement that if anything is to rile up his audience… only that’s the only goal that’d be the lowest common denominator of that goal would be to just rile people up but of course everyone knows on social media there are a lot of people on there who are not well and we still don’t really know a whole lot of information about the people who did attack president trump but we can tell you at least these are people that were not well who had a lot of issues And you assume, if you’re James Comey, and I don’t know how many followers you have, but I have a feeling however many followers you have, most of them do not like the President of the United States. So some of them may take your words a little too seriously. And I think you have to be aware of that, specifically if you are James Comey. I mean, just on Instagram alone, I’m sure he has thousands and thousands. 134,000 followers. 134,000 followers. And again, almost all of those are going to be people who dislike the president.
SPEAKER 03 :
And he’s only using Instagram as a platform for him to speak. You know how many he follows? one so this is uh the kettering foundation i assume he probably works with them uh i don’t know but this is uh used for him as a media outlet not a not a social media not to interact but to get a message out and to the caller’s point uh I don’t think that he was trying to actually make a violent call, but he did know that it was an anti-Trump post and meant that you want to get beyond him, get rid of him, something like that. That in and of itself in this time, especially knowing he’s not going to be impeached, 25th Amendment’s not on the table. He has to have the responsibility to know that this could inflame people as well as how conniving he has been with sending agents in when they weren’t supposed to be doing all of these things that he did, leaking to try to get a special counsel. his track record isn’t just anti-Trump it’s manipulative and conniving against Trump and I do think that although it’s corny the Trump derangement syndrome to say there is something about that where people drop all pretension and just do things out of character like a judge
SPEAKER 05 :
uh like a judge who maybe will uh you know grab any someone who is here illegally who is currently up for i don’t know domestic assault if you will or attacking a woman and get them to run out of back door because you don’t want ice to come get them again trying to in their head thinking that they’re a hero will’s right it is a derangement syndrome and we know though will some tides have turned on that one as well. There’s been some interesting movements in that judge in Wisconsin. I think we should talk about that. Hey, by the way, before we do that, if you’re brand new to the show, cause I look at our numbers on YouTube right now and I know that a lot of you are, we always can tell about 50% of the people are not subsidized. subscribed and i’d say even 30 40 percent have never seen our faces before we do this show each and every day uh monday through friday and put a lot of great content up over the weekend so i’m gonna encourage you to hit that subscribe button know that we would appreciate it do it right now join the over 483 000 483 000 people but we’ll
SPEAKER 03 :
there’s been some movement on that judge that’s right so this judge has all entered a not guilty plea yesterday in her arraignment but they’ve also filed through her attorneys with the court a motion to dismiss we’ve been talking about motions to dismiss a lot on this broadcast with our case in massachusetts But the it’s very fascinating because I want to hear how the left is going to play this up or talk about this. But in her motion to dismiss, she is arguing. They cannot prosecute her for the crimes which were helping this migrant evade arrest and blocking that process because the problems with this prosecution are legion. But most immediately, the government cannot prosecute Judge Dugan because she is entitled to judicial immunity for her official acts. Immunity is not a defense to the prosecution to be determined later by a jury or court. It is an absolute bar to the prosecution at the outset. And they cite Trump v. United States. That was the case about presidential immunity. And they are saying that by her ushering him through the courtroom through non-public areas and clearing her docket for the day as it related to his case, those were official acts as a judge. And so therefore, she cannot be prosecuted because she was just using her normal job to say, nah, go out that door. You don’t have to be here today, even though the victims are here. No, no big deal. So it’s not even prosecutable. And so it’s going to be an interesting twist to see now this judge use the Trump defense and how she was helping an illegal migrant out the back door to try to evade arrest from ICE, who had a warrant.
SPEAKER 05 :
All right, we get back. We’re going to hear from you, but also we’re going to take you to Washington, D.C., As yesterday, our team, Jordan Sekulow, my brother, Executive Director here at the ACLJ, and J.B. McCuskey, West Virginia Attorney General, were at the Supreme Court of the United States. You’re going to get an update from them. I think it’s very important that you always see the work of the ACLJ as it’s happening in real time. That’s why we do this broadcast, but also why our team is mobilized at every corner to make sure we are covering and making sure that all of your beliefs, your values are represented in this country and around the world. And you can do that by supporting the work of the ACLJ. but also by checking out the great content, free content, not behind a paywall, so much not behind a paywall that the HHS was reading a comment and they said, we got to take action from one of our blogs. That is the power of you and the ACLJ. We’ll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. As I said, I wanted to make sure that you are not only staying up to date with what’s going on in the news. And of course, we were talking about James Comey. We’re talking about the post that happened. We were talking about the post you put up that said 86-47. Of course, calling for a threat to President Trump, whether you think that is for physical violence, whether you think that was to just get him out of office. Either way, it caused quite a stir, including members of the team like Tulsi Gabbard saying they think James Comey deserves to be in jail over this kind of rhetoric and this kind of post. You can determine whether you think that or not. But, hey, I wanted to take us to Washington, D.C. I wanted you to see the work that the ACLJ is doing before this show wrapped up. Because, look, the news is very important. We always want to make sure we’re talking about it, keep you updated on what’s happening in the world of politics, the world of news, how that connects with us. Of course, there’s a lot of different ways the FBI and the ACLJ have had an interesting relationship over the years. So, of course, we are going to keep you updated when something like this is to happen. Now, in Washington, D.C., just yesterday, there was a big Supreme Court hearing. My brother, Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the ACLJ, and as you know, our offices, our Washington, D.C. headquarters are just across the street from the Supreme Court of the United States. Next time you’re there, just go take a selfie in front of it. Let us know you’re there. It’s always fun to see people who see that. But again, people who support the work of the ACLJ, you need to know about what we’re doing here. And we were there on those steps of the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as with West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey. Will, before we do this, because I don’t know how much setup is in this video, because it just happened. We’ve not been able to even preview this. We’re going to see this when you see it. Set up why they were there.
SPEAKER 03 :
That’s right. So we represented the state of West Virginia, where J.B. McCuskey is the Attorney General, in this brief to the Supreme Court, which they were hearing argument yesterday on this issue of nationwide injunctions. It’s a very important issue. If you missed yesterday’s show, we were covering it because the hearing was still ongoing. We had Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel, on. We had Mike Pompeo, who gave a very fascinating take on… trying to govern in a place like the State Department or even at the CIA when nationwide injunctions are used as a form of lawfare against you to stop you governing. And then we had Jordan, who was able to jump on in the final segment right after the hearing. But this is a piece where JB and Jordan went back to the office, which is right across the street from the Supreme Court, and talked about the importance of this case and why we were there yesterday. Take a listen.
SPEAKER 04 :
We, again, together with the state of West Virginia, it’s an honor for the ACLJ and our members to be standing up for the citizens of West Virginia, filed together a brief at the U.S. Supreme Court today. And these cases involving district court judges issuing injunctions preventing the executive branch from being able to function. But we’ve gotten to a point in time where the courts have gotten very politicized. I’ve talked about this with you, JB, before, but I think just leaving that court case, What you can see is taking politics out of the law is becoming more and more difficult every day. And it’s not, again, it’s not just talking about President Trump, but from administration to administration. If we keep going down this road, it’s hard to see where it stops.
SPEAKER 09 :
Government overreach exists in the judicial branch as much as it does in the executive and the legislative branch. And West Virginia has been a leader in ensuring that administrative agencies don’t overreach their authority. Things like the EPA, things like Waters of the United States, where we were being regulated outside of what the congressionally available remedies were. And we said to the court, we said, hey, the EPA has overstepped its bounds here. The Constitution and the law allows them to do this. The courts have the same set of laws and the same set of rules, and district courts are only allowed to decide cases for the plaintiffs and the people that are in front of them. And I think the most salient factor here is that there is a remedy. The remedy is to file a case in the court where you certify a class of people so the court knows who they’re talking to. They got into that a lot today. And I think the fundamental issue that we’re talking about now is I think the court recognized that these are disfavored and that, that these, this cadre of nationwide injunctions is a dangerous road to hoe. I think the question is going to become whether or not they believe exception should exist in extraordinary circumstances. Um, they’re either going to say the rules matter in all circumstances, or they’re going to say, we need to start limiting the way that district courts can do this. Um, We’re very hopeful that they’re going to follow the historical rule of law and say that we don’t do nationwide injunctions in this country.
SPEAKER 04 :
When you look at this issue, too, and this is why you got involved and why the state of West Virginia is involved in this case, is because you’re not looking at it as just a temporary, you know, what’s going to happen the next first hundred days of a presidency. And yes. I could step back and say, from a political standpoint, this is a broader issue going on in this one case. Basically, every time this executive has tried to act, this is what’s being done. You find a court in Washington state that will say, you know what, if this district court judge said you could stop the interpretation of this citizenship grant, then I could stop whether the coal industry can produce more coal. And then, ultimately, we want to step out from the politics, But like you said, these are those kind of crossroads in the country.
SPEAKER 05 :
Again, that was Jordan Sekulow, Executive Director of the ACLJ and Attorney General of West Virginia, J.B. McCuskey, an ACLJ alumni and a good friend for many, many decades. So it’s nice to see them together again. They were at the Supreme Court of the United States just yesterday. And these are the big things that our team is doing. Again, it’s been a heck of a week. If you look at the accomplishments of our team, Let’s start with the media team, which, you know, you got to make sure people understand the media team. It’s just as important as the legal team because the media team, I don’t know, maybe we had a blog and a blog went up and members of the HHS saw that blog. And without that, without them seeing that these nurses were being forced to perform or not nurses, but medical professionals, ultrasound technicians forced to perform abortion procedures, be a part of it. And of course we fought back for them. And we won. And we wrote a victory blog on it. And guess who saw that? Members of the HHS. And now they’re doing a full investigation into this hospital to see why they were making nurses, medical professionals, ultrasound techs violate their conscience. That is because of our media team at the ACLJ. Sure, we got the victory. That’s the news. But they don’t see it without the website. They don’t see it without us not having to be behind a paywall like a lot of other organizations, a lot of other media organizations. You know, everything’s behind a paywall. You get like your first paragraph. I was trying to just read when Dwight Howard is going to be appearing in the big three basketball. And I couldn’t get through a paragraph without a pop up telling me you can’t read. We don’t do that here at the ACLJ. Our content needs to get into the right hands, and it does because of people like you. We also got a big win in Massachusetts. That big win, by the way, it’s just a very, I guess I say it’s a big win because it’s in Massachusetts and we’re able to continue on. It’s not a big win in terms of we got a victory. We just have the right to continue. And that’s amazing enough. Supporting our Pro-Life Pregnancy Resource Center friends. Of course, what our media team do that got that attention? We created our counter campaign, the Choice Begins Here campaign. In Ohio, you heard about the street preachers, the street witnesses who were there to help hopefully convince women to choose life in front of abortion clinics. They got a big win as well because our team thinks multidimensionally. You may have heard him on the show just a few days ago. You should go back and listen to that interview. It was great. And that is just the tip of the iceberg of what we’re doing here at the ACLJ. There’s so much more. We’ve already filed seven briefs in five federal courts. against the lawsuits they’re going after this administration. Because the ACLJ team, we’re creative, we’re interesting, we come up with different ways to take on these issues. It’s not always as cut and dry as you see. Sometimes you win from a technicality. So you’ve got to make sure you’re not going to be on the other side of that as well. And we want to make sure that we’re there as well for you. If you go to ACLJ.org slash help, you’re going to get assigned to a lawyer immediately. That’s what happened to our friends in Ohio. They signed up immediately. They said within hours, they had a lawyer assigned to them. That’s what happens here at the ACLJ. Be a part of that team. Not only can you do that by just making a donation. Of course, we appreciate that. But it’s come an ACLJ champion. That’s someone that gives on a monthly basis. And as we head into the weekend, pray for us. Pray for our team. You’ll be at church this weekend, possibly. Say a prayer for our ACLJ team, for the media team, for the legal team. And make sure you stand up for those that can’t stand up for themselves. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Talk to you next week.
