Join us for an engaging discussion on the intersection between entertainment and politics, ignited by the recent cancellation of The Late Show. We also provide updates on ongoing legal battles, including the implications of the Planned Parenthood case. Participate in the debate and share your thoughts on whether financial decisions are overshadowing public interest in media.
SPEAKER 10 :
Today on Seculo, we’re going to break down what CBS isn’t saying about the canceling of Stephen Colbert.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you today at 1-800-684-3110. It is a Friday. Jordan’s in studio with us as well. Will Haynes, of course. And we got a really interesting show today because it comes off of the heels last night with the announcement that CBS has decided to end The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. This is a moment not only… uh, because of, uh, ratings or because of the financial reasons. Cause look, Colbert is number one in late night. If you don’t include Gutfeld, I include Gutfeld. Some people don’t cause he’s not a network, uh, but he has dominated. He has been number one. Now there’s a lot going on that people don’t know about. Don’t know about this space. Don’t know how much money this costs, what it looks like, the changing landscape of media. And of course the political ramifications. Now CBS themselves are going out there and saying, look, uh, This has nothing to do with any sort of politics. This happens to do only with a financial decision because it’s not just Stephen Colbert is being replaced like they did with Jay Leno to Conan, Conan to Jimmy Fallon, all of those that have happened over the years or went from David Letterman to Stephen Colbert. They have decided to just end their late night programming. And this also includes the ending of what was the Late Late Show and now is At Midnight. Both of those are going away as well. CBS has just decided to walk away from the daily late night format. The times, they are changing, folks. I really feel like there are many different reasons for this. Of course, it doesn’t help that Stephen Colbert, just about a week ago, went on a pretty notorious rant that we’ll play calling the situation the settlement of between president trump and uh cbs paramount via com whatever you call it um he called it a bribe and he was very upset with his own network a network he’d been working for for many years even before this working um for comedy central which is a part of that family the mtv network of family Like I worked there for a little bit of time, so I have a little bit of insight here. Also worked in the late night space for quite some time as well. So I can give you some insights of what I was hearing, some of my sources that I can’t necessarily reveal what was going on there because you don’t go out and do a monologue attacking your network without some sort of assumption that either the writing was already on the wall and this show was coming to an end. Cause you don’t all of a sudden just get a call saying, Hey, sorry, uh, the show’s over. I mean, sometimes that does happen, but not when you’ve had a 10 year contract, when you’ve been running and you’re number one in ratings, that doesn’t happen that way. Uh, so I’m sure the rumors had started circulating. He’s trying to save himself. And I think there are a lot of places where Stephen Colbert is going to land. Um, look it doesn’t help that he had a show which has just been notoriously so divisive someone who has come out there and look I’m a fan of him in terms of I think he’s a really creative mind I think he’s got actually a pretty good faith backbone but when it comes to his politics he could never really keep it together and make a show that could be for everyone even with his own biases
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, in Logan last night, when he made this announcement, one of his guests was the senator from California, Adam Schiff. And Adam Schiff also tweeted this or posted on X after that announcement was made. Obviously, he knew earlier in the day because those shows are pre-taped. But he put this out, just finished taping with Stephen Colbert, who announced that his show was canceled. If Paramount and CBS ended the late show for political reasons, the public deserves to know and deserves better. The irony there coming from Adam Schiff about saying if something was done for political reasons cannot be lost, but in reality.
SPEAKER 10 :
The public needs to know why this late night comedy talk show is coming to an end. I’m pretty sure they said it’s a financial reason. So when you hear about some of the budgets, by the way, of these shows, I’m going to talk about that coming up. You realize that, yeah, we live in a very different time where this, by the way, also Stephen Colbert, also new host of New Generation Media. This is why you create your own thing, because no one can tell you that you’re done. But there is so much more to unpack here, and we’re going to do that. I want to hear from you as well. 1-800-684-3110. Of course, with the ratings being dominated by Greg Gutfeld, It’s no shock that late night landscape is going to change. Hey, whoa. Hey, guys, what’s happening here? What’s going on? I’m sorry. You just heard. I’m lip syncing, clearly. All right. We’ll be back in just a moment. Phone lines are open. It is our 35 years of Justice Drive right now. Double your donation today. We’ll be right back. just playing a clip and it said you know one of the staunchest critics of president trump will be leaving late night that was never the intention of that format that was never the intention of what it was supposed to be what you went to sleep with it was something funny maybe lightly political but we live in a world that’s so political now how about giving us a little bit of break have some fun what’s going on in the news but don’t be so politically disturbing and then on top of that we’re done. I’m sorry. I was in that world. I hosted a late night talk show for many years. The six minute interview that’s pre-planned, that’s been pretty much pre-recorded, all but pre-recorded because they’ve gone through all of this prep and they’ve gone through all of these screenings. We all see through it, we don’t want it anymore. But of course this does come on the heels of this settlement that happened between CBS’s parent company and President Trump. Now I want you to understand this, they’re saying it’s a financial decision. I don’t know the exact number of budget, I’m sure it’s out there probably, but just for an example, The show that came on before, we’re talking about the Late Late Show with James Corden, when I know that ended a few years ago, it was costing them $65 million to make that show. It only was making about $40 million. That was a show after him. I would assume, now move that to New York, move that to a much bigger theater, a studio you don’t own, the Ed Sullivan Theater. You’re talking about 200 union workers, at least, that are working on that show each and every day. The absurdity of that budget, I would assume it’s well over $100 million a year to fund that show. I’m sorry the times are changing when you can have a studio setup and do, we were watching an episode of a random YouTube series interview show that was doing double, triple the ratings. There were numbers, and by the way, they’re transparent numbers. They’re not fake numbers being held behind a Nielsen box.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and Logan, this, as you said, the company is saying it’s a financial decision, but they’re going to try to spend this. We already saw what Adam Schiff is saying, that America deserves better. But I want you to think, if you’re watching this at home, if you went into your job and used then a very large platform, right? and you said this about your bosses about the company yeah we’re gonna play bite four and this is referring to this is colbert on his show talking about his company uh and this settlement that they did with president trump over uh election editing of the kamala harris interview on 60 minutes here’s what he said what they are paying him to say about his own company bite four
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I believe this kind of complicated financial settlement with a sitting government official has a technical name in legal circles. It’s Big Fat Bribe, because this all comes as Paramount’s owners are trying to get the Trump administration to approve the sale of our network to a new owner, Skydance.
SPEAKER 07 :
I mean, these are publicly traded companies doing large financial transactions. And that, by the way, is a very small portion.
SPEAKER 10 :
He pushes it very hard. Says that they should have gone further. They could have won. But let’s hear about this.
SPEAKER 08 :
Okay, first of all, you’re selling your company. Right. So they could have. These are corporate decisions. They are not political decisions. So they were just thinking, you know what? We’ve got existing lawsuits. Which ones can we wrap up? that will not affect, that will make it easier for us to sell and finalize a deal. So they were already on the way out. So this idea that they’re all, that these companies are there to protect, you know, all of your, his right to get, you know, what, millions of dollars an episode so he could have his eight minutes that is forced broadcast into your home, like you were talking about with these ratings, instead of having people choose. Listen, with as big of a platform as he is, no one’s crying tears for Stephen Colbert. Out of those budgets, too, when you’re talking about $40 or $60 million a year, a lot of that budget is their salary. Yeah, a lot of it’s going to him. I bet Stephen Colbert had to be making over $20 million a year. I would assume so. With all the different… Or somewhere around there. And so if the show itself is only… Well, they’re all running in the red. They’re all self-promotional shows. I think that what we got back to is these people get put up on a pedestal. It’s made for Comedy Central kind of television. If that still exists. Either way, it’s kind of meant for me. I just don’t think television is… If you want to let Stephen Colbert do what Stephen Colbert is good at, which is kind of being a smart aleck liberal, put it online. There should be an audience for it. There should be a big audience. There will be. There’s millions of people who do watch his show. I don’t know that I need to watch him interviewing Jack Black about a movie for kids.
SPEAKER 10 :
Right. And I think that’s where we’ve lost it in the format side of it. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of them or that they can’t do their job. I think there’s a very good chance you see him stay with the company. If you look at his announcement yesterday, when he actually did finally make his announcements, all of a sudden CBS is his best friend. They’ve been a wonderful partner. I’m very sad, but they’ve been wonderful. Why? Because I have a feeling, if I was a prognosticator, that you would say there’s a good chance he still is within the company of CBS. They’re going to cause enough uproar. And where does he land? Back at Comedy Central, back at The Daily Show when Jon Stewart decides he’s done. That’s just my theory. That’s just, I think, where we’re headed. But I do think these budgets got out of control. And I think also when you are so, even if you’re number one, and look, we’ve seen this with Tucker on Fox News. Even if you’re number one, if they can’t sell ads…
SPEAKER 07 :
the show’s over yeah well and logan to that point as well uh let’s let’s say uh it wasn’t financial what adam schiff and and elizabeth warren i think is now jumping on this bandwagon trying to say we need answers we deserve better because it was the one place they could go Right, but let’s say, first of all, the fact that U.S. senators were going on late night tells you everything you need to know about that show at that point because that’s supposed to be entertaining and Adam Schiff’s not entertaining.
SPEAKER 08 :
How often, I mean, I would say during presidential elections, maybe you would see a lot more, you’d see a lot more politics. Of course, they always talked about current events. I don’t think it was so much politics, but current events. to put a lighthearted look on things that were usually tough moments. But if you look back at history, I wonder how many times senators and congresspeople who happen to be the most controversial on the left, that’s who they’re putting on as guests. It’s very bizarre. Who wants to see… I’m also thinking of both sides. At 11 o’clock at night is the last thing you want to see before going to bed. Adam Schiff telling you that Donald Trump is a Russian agent still and that he needs to be in prison. Not only is it not that entertaining, you can get that 24-7 all day. You can get as much Adam Schiff as you want. You can create a news network tomorrow and Adam Schiff will likely come talk to your microphone.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and let’s go down that rabbit trail a little bit further. Let’s say it was for the political reasons, not for the financial reasons, which you’ve laid out so well. Because they were the number one in the space in this format that is going away. But they’re number one in the space. You wouldn’t think they’d be the first to just completely cancel their entire format when they’re at least winning that at this point. Here’s what’s crazy to me is that what Stephen Colbert just did to all those employees that you mentioned, that there’s 200 union workers on this, there’s jobs and people’s livelihoods at stake because he decided to go out there and say his company was taking a bribe. He also said, I know you said after the fact, he was more speaking highly of them, but on his show, he said, I don’t think there’s anything CBS could do to restore my trust. And then made a joke, well, maybe $16 million as if he wasn’t making enough money. But that’s on him. They can say you’re a hero in that he’s exercising his free speech. He can say things. But when he’s using the show he’s being paid for to then bash his own company. You’d be all fired. They’re going to cancel the show.
SPEAKER 10 :
I want you to understand this too, though, because I have sources in late night because I’ve worked in that space many times and I don’t want to reveal anybody. but i was told stephen colbert was trying to get out of this deal he did not want to be doing the show anymore he’d be doing it for a decade and there’s probably some kind of auto renew clause because they want those same hosts forever uh this was also don’t put it past him that this is all marketing to make him like you said a hero force their hand to cancel the show i do think he thought they would replace him I don’t think he thought they were just going to say, you know what, we’re closing up shop. But look, that happened here. And look, I’ll be honest here. That happened here with TBN. They had the Mike Huckabee show. It was one of their biggest shows. You know what they decided? They decided that based on the current events and the way network television is running right now, that a late night style talk show is not where they should be investing their money. So they didn’t replace him. The same thing now has happened with Stephen Colbert. Is it sad? Sure. As someone that loves television history, it’s a bummer. That format is what it is. Hopefully the Tonight Show sticks around just purely because I care about the history of it. But that is not the case here. I think this was all planned. I think he wanted out and figured out the only way I can do that is to make myself essentially a martyr to the left. And by doing that, tick off a lot of people higher up. Because again, if any of you went and did that about your boss on any sort of public stage, much less their own show, That they’re funding. That they’re funding, you’re gone. And of course, that doesn’t help when the show’s losing money and bleeding money. And they have to have the Ed Sullivan Theater, which is a hundreds-year-old theater at this point. So you’ve got to keep that up. You’ve got to have hundreds of people that come in each and every day. But look, it’s also a brutal grind for the host and the guests. So do I, am I shocked that he, probably in his, what, mid-60s now? Early 60s? I think he’s probably early 60s. is saying you know what i’m exhausted because we’re doing five shows a week including two shows on thursdays yeah i can imagine it is a it’s a brutal grind to do a show that is kind of irrelevant right uh okay well that is that that’s sort of our take on that whole situation involving steven colbert look i think we’re going to see how it unfolds it’s a long time between now and may of next year let’s see where this goes i don’t think this story is over I think CBS is going to swerve you. I think Stephen Colbert is going to swerve everybody. because this is the first time any of us have talked about his show in how long? It’s like Shane Gillis at the ESPYs. When’s the last time you cared about the ESPYs? Or even knew that show existed. That even happened, okay? So they’re like, oh, it’s controversy. No, it’s views, okay? We live in a world of clicks and views here, so don’t always fall for it. Support the work of the ACLJ while you’re at it, though, because we’re fully independent, which is what I love. Guess who can’t throw us off the air? CBS. Guess who can’t throw us off the air? Anyone. So stick with us, ACLJ.org. Support this independent media broadcast right now. Welcome back to Secula. We do have some big news in the world of the ACLJ because we’ve been talking about… We’re going to move off of Stephen Colbert. I think we’ve said what we can say. But we also have some news with that Planned Parenthood case because this is an interesting kind of caveat that’s happening not only in Massachusetts but now in Maine.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. So for everyone watching, today is that hearing on the preliminary injunction in the defunding of Planned Parenthood case out of Massachusetts. And remember, that judge put in a temporary restraining order that blocked the implementation of the Big Beautiful Bill provision, which would defund Planned Parenthood for Planned Parenthood and all its members nationwide. But it doesn’t cover abortion clinics that receive Medicaid funds. that meet that revenue threshold of reimbursements that aren’t a Planned Parenthood clinic because they can’t issue nationwide injunctions anymore. So now the Maine Family Planning Center in Maine has filed as well with the district court in Maine, a similar type lawsuit against the government trying to block that provision of the Big Beautiful Bill, which defunds not just Planned Parenthood, but any abortion provider. that meets that certain threshold and receives Medicaid dollars. So this just happened on Wednesday. This suit was filed. We will be engaging it at the ACLJ through an amicus, much like we did in Massachusetts. Our brief was accepted by the court, and so we are in that case. A part of the record, the briefing, when they read over the briefs, the ACLJ is standing for you, making your voice heard in federal district court in Massachusetts saying uh one Planned Parenthood isn’t entitled to this you this is a duly passed piece of legislation signed by the president and Planned Parenthood is make trying to make it seem like it’s their constitutional right to receive your taxpayer dollars and that’s what we’re fighting back against not just in Massachusetts which hopefully we’ll have some news about on Monday after this preliminary injunction hearing
SPEAKER 10 :
For people that don’t understand and they say, okay, what’s today? What does that mean? Preliminary injunction. Jordan, maybe you can help in this as well. So the preliminary injunction, they’re having a hearing today. What’s the timeline?
SPEAKER 08 :
Injunctions are the bigger issue here. So a temporary restraining order, the TRO that was issued, those were only two weeks. That was just two weeks ago. And so this would be a much, this is what has been appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court so often by the Trump administration. We talk about those nationwide injunctions or universal injunctions. The idea that, again, a district court can enjoin, can prevent something from moving forward. So they say, listen, we’re not coming to a final decision. But we’re already making the – we’re already making one decision. We believe that the party who’s brought the lawsuit, so in this case Planned Parenthood or the abortion providers, that they’ve got the resources, that they have the likelihood of success. So you are kind of giving a tip. You’re not saying I believe 100%. We haven’t satisfied all the legal standards. But I do believe that there’s more likelihood than not that they’re going to win. So I’m going to prevent you from actually being able to go in place. Then you can appeal that. And that is ultimately mostly what we’ve seen at the U.S. Supreme Court has been on these have been on these preliminary injunctions. And so I imagine this one ends up there.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that’s what I actually the hearing on that preliminary injunction, because, as you mentioned, the TRO is temporary and they have briefs on issuing this preliminary injunction. The injunction has to have an order attached and a rationale. TRO is temporary restraining orders don’t. They can just put them in place. So when we see what comes out of this hearing, whether or not the judge puts a preliminary injunction on, which would last a lot longer, that’s what is being argued in a hearing today. But that’s what we filed a brief on trying to say, no, this does not need a preliminary injunction. This case does not need to go forward. This is a piece of legislation and Congress can do this. The president signed it. But we have a second venue for this fight now. It’s the same appeals district, the same circuit. So an appeal would go to the same court because it’s in the Northeast. But this is a new district level court. This is out of Maine. And this is not Planned Parenthood bringing the suit. So now this clinic, which would not be covered even by that preliminary injunction, even if the judge rules that Planned Parenthood receives this nationwide injunction for their business. Clinics like this one in Maine that aren’t a part of the Planned Parenthood family, they would be not covered and would still be defunded. So it’s going to be a multifaceted fight. And we’re going to have to keep fighting. And that’s why we need ACLJ members to stand with us now. That’s right.
SPEAKER 10 :
Because Planned Parenthood may be like the big dog. They may be the one where you look at and go, okay, this is the one that’s going to be difficult. And that’s the vast majority of the funding. But it’s not all of them. There are plenty of what you’d say, quote unquote, women’s health clinics that you see around certain areas of town that are not Planned Parenthoods. But you know exactly what they’re doing. Usually you can see some protesters out front, so you’ll know exactly what they actually are. And so it becomes a bit more nuanced. And the ACLJ supporters and champions need to get involved during these kind of months. Because summer months, it’s easy to get distracted. But we’re in court today. Today. Today. So be a part of it. Join with us right now because you can have your gift doubled through the end of this month during this 35 years of justice. And that’s talking about not just these current 35 years, but what it looks like in the future.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I think, again, don’t be distracted by summer to that extent that these battles aren’t ongoing and the issues aren’t ongoing. And I think that it could sometimes, listen, we all understand. I’ve got three kids at home right now. It’s a busy time the moment you walk in the door because it’s a different kind of day. It’s a different kind of busy. My kids are here at the studio running around, so you know what? I feel bad for all the crew out there, but deal with it. I get that it’s a different time. It can almost feel not as, you’re not in your same kind of schedule. Routine, yeah. Yes. But it’s a great, you have to remember the groups like the ACLJ, we don’t stop. And so we’re always working and our teams are always working, our attorneys, our legal teams, our government affairs teams, and they’re able to continue to do that work that they love to do. And they’re thankful to you that they get to do because of your financial support to the ACLJ. And so I never want you to forget that is that all these people here have decided, this is what I want to do with my life. This is where I want to put my, use my brain power, use my time during the day to not only work, but to work towards these goals. And that is all because of you that we’re able to do that work. And so I appreciate every one of those donations. But also remember that it’s not just us or this show, that it’s entire teams of people working really around the clock to fight for these issues that take these issues on big or small. And treat them all the same way. Treat them all with that same level of respect and that legal expertise.
SPEAKER 07 :
And you want to know, really, I mean, we know that Massachusetts, we said, was going to be the big battleground for this. But what’s another reason why they’re picking both Massachusetts and Maine? It’s because those district courts are in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. When you look at the makeup of the judges on the First Circuit Court of Appeals… it is four Biden appointees, one Obama appointee, two Clinton appointees, and I’m sorry, another two Obama appointees. There’s only two judges that were appointed by Republican presidents on this court. One, a senior judge that was appointed by George W. Bush, and one senior judge that was appointed by Richard Nixon. So the odds of you getting a draw of judges on a panel… Senior judge. He was born in 1927. Inactive, but still on the court. Oh, inactive. Okay. But you see that. He’s 99. You see that, though, that is still technically a senior judge on this court. Very senior. You’re probably not getting the Nixon appointee, but you are getting most likely a Democrat appointee. So they are seeing this as a way to continue this fight. And remember, it’s only for a year of defunding.
SPEAKER 10 :
Big, big update, I’m sure, next week, so you want to join us for that. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. Don’t go anywhere. We are going to take some phone calls, and you can also support the work of the ACLJ. As Will said, I could go through this script they have for me today, but you know what? You know what to do. You get your gifts doubled during this 35 years of Justice Drive. I’m going to ask you to do it right now. We’ve got a one-minute break. It is a perfect time. You can scan the QR code, use the app, go to ACLJ.org. Do it today. We really could use your support.
SPEAKER 06 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. We were just talking about the Planned Parenthood defunding and Stephen Colbert show coming to an end as the late show goes away. Of course, there’s a lot of debate whether that’s for politics, whether that’s for money. I think it’s probably somewhere in between some disgruntled people involved. Adam Schiff going on saying the American people need to know. That their late night talk show that 100,000 people within the demo were watching every night, they need to know. It’s their constitutional right to know why that’s going away. Give me a break. All right. Listen, just hours ago, we’ve been in court. We’ve been in court right now with all these situations with our pro-life battles. And I want you to know that during these big drive months, I know it can become monotonous. You’ve heard me say it over and over again. But you have no idea how important these months are to us. Not just for the media side, which of course we’ve been talking about all week. And the media side just as important as the legal side. You got to make sure we’re covering both bases here. You know why? Look what happened to Stephen Colbert. If you don’t have independent media, if everything’s controlled by big corporate, look what happens. They take their number one show. Let’s take away all the politics out of it. They take their number one show in late night. And quickly boot you off the air and say, we’re done here. Too much money. And we don’t really want this on there anymore. Thankfully, not only are we available for free, not with no paywalls because people like you support the work and support this show and support our legal work, but we’re also being able to put on all the different kinds of platforms. So sure, we’re on YouTube. Could YouTube one day decide we don’t want to deal with this? Sure. But then we got Rumble. Then we got ACLJ.org, our own platform. Then you got the ACLJ app. And then we’re on a few television networks here and there. And of course, we’re on thousands of terrestrial radio stations still. And of course, we’re on SiriusXM and the Salem News Channel. We are wherever we can be at no cost for you. Because it’s important to have fully independent media, even in Salem. I want to make sure that’s clear. Salem’s our good friend, our partner. We’re not a Salem broadcasting show. We own this show. When you see us, that’s coming from the world of the ACLJ. That’s coming from Seculo’s. It’s coming from Will Haines. It’s not coming from any big corporate overlord. And that is great that we exist. But we can’t do it without you. So I encourage you, this is the second half hour of the show. It is a Friday. And we have had an incredible… week on this show record-breaking for july and i you know that that’s shocking usually july it’s tough like jordan said you’re out of your routine you’re you’re into your summer it’s 100 degrees outside maybe you don’t want to go listen to a half hour or an hour of politics every day but you know what we found out is that a lot of you do a lot of you want to stay updated and man we are just so happy that you have joined us We are so happy that you’ve become ACLJ supporters and ACLJ champions. And, Will, coming up in this next half hour, we are going to go back in time a little bit over the last couple days because we had some amazing guests.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. I want you to see some of these on-course segments that we had earlier in the week because it was, like you said, it was a wonderful week. Some of you may have missed it because you’re out of your routine. So we’ve got John Solomon. We had him on earlier in the week. talking about this story that they broke at Just the News about this grand conspiracy investigation going on at the FBI. Had them on early in the week. I think it was Tuesday. So you’re going to get to hear that segment if you missed it earlier in the week, as well as then more discussion from Logan, myself, and Jordan that we had earlier in the week about some of these issues that are going on, about corruption at the DOJ, about the deep state, about all these things that you care about. If you missed it earlier in the week, it’s coming up. So stay tuned.
SPEAKER 10 :
All right, listen, Jordan, we got a minute. I want to let you take it to break.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, I just want you to encourage folks to use this matching challenge as an opportunity to donate to the ACLJ to continue the work that we do, but to always be able to expand that work. You know, one of the things that I always want to make clear to everybody out there is that whatever the case is, big or small, if we decide that’s a case that the ACLJ should take on, I never want to have… our attorneys to think, oh, this is going to be too expensive. We don’t want to operate like that kind of legal entity or that kind of the law firm business model. We always want to be able to say yes, whether it’s a very small client who couldn’t afford attorneys or whether it’s a very big client that’s going to take on, that’s going to mean we have to add additional attorneys and expertise we can do that because of your support donate today at aclj.org that’s aclj.org and again during these matching moments it’s such a critical time it’s such a critical month for us and i know it’s july and i know it’s it’s hot where a lot of places are i know that kids are running around and you’ve got lots of things to do but that doesn’t mean you can’t take this couple of minutes or less 30 seconds to donate at aclj.org we’ll be right back
SPEAKER 10 :
Welcome back to Secular. Like I said, we’ve got a jam-packed show and we’re going to jump straight to John Solomon from Just the News. John, yesterday we were reporting on your report because you had an exclusive breakdown of what was going on with this potential investigation coming from the FBI that could really kind of blow the doors down, it feels like, according to your sources, for a lot longer. of issues that could all be tied together in this sort of grand conspiracy as being said and of course even more has come out today uh from your site including uh this maybe lot box or this uh safe that was found that may even have more incriminating documents uh john i’ll let you take it from here and let us know what’s going on
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, look, I think this is a really big deal. The FBI opened up about three months ago what they call a grand conspiracy case, which looks at the last 10 years of weaponization as one ongoing criminal conspiracy. And it’s sort of a wash, rinse and repeat cycle. Democrat has a criminal or political problem. Hillary Clinton with emails, Hunter Biden with corruption emails. Joe Biden with classified documents. They get magically cleared, even though there’s evidence suggesting they shouldn’t be cleared. And then they project a similar problem on the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, for Russia collusion, which never existed. Donald Trump for Ukraine and interfering in Ukraine relations when there was a good reason to ask for an investigation. Donald Trump for documents at Mar-a-Lago after Joe Biden had this problem. You weaponize the judicial intelligence system against one party and you use it to protect the other party. That would be an ongoing criminal conspiracy. It allows prosecutors to go back and charge crimes that occurred in 16, 17 and 18. And more significantly, you wouldn’t have to necessarily bring this case in Washington, D.C., where a 90 percent Democratic candidate. jury poll doesn’t seem to have any interest in holding Democrats accountable. You could put it in a place like Florida, where Donald Trump’s home was raided by Jack Smith, who, as the court ultimately ruled, was improperly appointed. He wasn’t even a legitimate special counsel. And you can make that one of the overt acts, put the grand jury in Florida, where you have a much more centrist audience and perhaps get a fair hearing of this evidence. So that’s the excitement. I think the FBI has done its part. It opened the predicated case. It’s now up to Pam Bonney to assign a prosecutor and also to decide whether it would be better to do a special counsel since they would be investigating matters that their boss, Donald Trump, was a victim for. It would give a sense of credibility to maybe do special prosecutor and get that ball rolling.
SPEAKER 07 :
When you look at also this new revelation related to potentially the FBI having almost their own compartmentalized department for things related to things like Russiagate that wasn’t even really accessible to the FBI writ large that Kash Patel has talked about as well as Dan Bongino has talked about this. You look at this and it seems to, at least in the public narrative, paint this picture that could seem like there was a conspiracy within the DOJ and the FBI to pull this off and also that they didn’t want this information readily available to those that conduct oversight. What are you hearing out of Congress as these revelations come forward for those that are supposed to be doing oversight of these agencies that were being hidden things that they have the right to?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, that’s a great point. I had Senator Ron Johnson on. He and Senator Grousey were one of the early investigators of the Russia collusion caper. As it turned out to be a completely bogus investigation, they got us the early text messages between Pete Strzok and Lisa Page, the lovebirds. He said yesterday, listen, I always thought there was a criminal effort to keep us in the dark, and I think we’re beginning to see proof of it. And I think this discovery of this documents room where super sensitive stuff was, according to Kash Patel, kept away from Congress, kept from the American public, stored in a room. And when Kash Patel finds those documents, it’s right around the same time he opens up the conspiracy case. What does that tell you? What he read in that room made him think that this wasn’t just incompetence. It wasn’t just political meddling in election, that there was some criminal conspiracy. So he opens up the broader case. And now Attorney General Pam Bondi has an opportunity to do something, I think, quite historic.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and this is something that we’ve had you on this broadcast for years about these issues. As your reporting has followed things within the Russia collusion scandal and the hoax that followed from that and other issues, you’ve been on top of this. You’ve had great sources at Just the News throughout the years on this. But this… i think there’s some concern in the uh conservative base at this point when these cases we start to finally get a taste of accountability for those that it’s not like it was a secret to all of us that have followed it and you that have reported that this this whole scheme existed They clearly were moving in this way and all the public evidence seemed to point towards that. But there seems to be almost fatigue within the political base when it comes to announcing these big things or doing this big work if you can’t get it across the finish line. What are your thoughts and what are you hearing about if it is something that is able to be turned over to a grand jury, if that’s something they believe that they can take this case across the finish line?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, listen, I think you’ve identified a problem. Even the most fervent supporters of President Trump, the fervent supporters of returning to law and order, ending weaponization, they’ve been tired by the process because they got John Durham. John Durham brought some prosecutions and a D.C. jury vindicated people who probably engaged in wrongdoing. So the frustration from that experience, the frustration that occurred in the sort of mishandling of the rollout of the Jeffrey Epstein documents, it creates some distrust in the base. Everybody who heard about this story on Monday got excited about it, even grizzled old Russiagate investigators saying, hey, this is a good idea. And I think the difference here is that you’re not going to have to face a D.C. jury where your pool is 90 percent tainted in one direction, leaning in one direction for Democrats. That was John Durham’s problem and Bill Barr’s problem and maybe impaneling that grand jury in that city. and making that the venue. In this case, with Jack Smith’s activities in Florida, you can move it to a more centrist state, a state where you have common sense people outside the beltway looking at this, not looking for political excuses not to do something, but just looking at the evidence fairly. You probably can get it. You also rewind the statute of limitations, one of the biggest concerns of the base. We let all these crimes expire, and that’s true, except when you do a conspiracy case. So there’s a lot there. There are two pieces of evidence That Donald Trump would have to declassify. They’re not FBI or DOJ antiquities. They belong to the CIA, the NSA and other sensitive agencies. But I want to tell you what they are because they’re the ignition point for that wash rinse repeat cycle that I just laid out before. The first is a classified annex to the Justice Department Inspector General’s review of the FBI’s mishandling of the Hillary Clinton email case. That was the first scandal that started this. James Comey walks out and clears her and he has no legal authority to clear, but he does it. But what we now know from a description of that classified annex from Senator Chuck Grassley is that that annex includes proof that the FBI, just before it cleared Hillary Clinton, had gotten brand new secret intelligence suggesting there was criminality involved. And the FBI chose not to investigate. They turned a blind eye and just waved a magic wand and exonerated her. Getting that declassified, whatever that is, an intercept from the NSA or a human from CIA, going to be very important so that it can be presented to a grand jury. If it remains classified, you can’t give it to the grand jury. The second piece is around the same time, about a month or two later. So that intelligence comes in in May, and then Hillary Clinton on July 5th, 2016, is exonerated. Then that same day, July 5th, 2016, Christopher Steele walks his dossier into the FBI and In mid-July, the intelligence committee intercepted something else. Intelligence showing that Hillary Clinton had personally approved a plan to concoct a Russia collusion scandal against Trump. Not a real one, a fake one, and put it into the system. After getting that intelligence, after John Brennan even briefed the president, FBI opens up on that very allegation and that very evidence almost jaw-droppingly. The president would have to declassify that intelligence as well. Those two things being declassified would give a running start to a grand jury. It could be done in about a year. I think they could wrap up all the work in a year.
SPEAKER 10 :
John, we only got about a minute left. I just want to give you an opportunity. There’s a lot of people watching right now. There’s a lot of great comments coming in saying, I need to be following just the news. I need to be following what you’re doing. What’s the best way for people to do that? And of course, I’m sure as you have been uncovering a lot of this and your team has been, that this story is not going anywhere from your team.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, it’s not. We’ve got a whole team on it. My Jerry Dunleavy, Steve Richards, myself, just the news.com. My social media is Jay Solomon reports on all platforms. And I have the just the news, no noise television show on real America’s voice every night at six o’clock. Those are our best points of contact.
SPEAKER 10 :
Awesome. Thank you, Joe. John, it’s always great to have you on. Again, it’s always good to have people in the news who you can trust, have good sources. And John’s always one of those. When we’re looking at what we’re going to cover for the day, Just the News is one of the first places we go to to make sure that if something’s breaking, he’s got some really interesting content. I mean, this was broken by his team. It always does great stuff. And we have a packed show coming up. So I want to make sure you stay tuned. Because like I said, today, I really want to encourage you, if you like this show, and there’s so many of you watching right now, if you’ve never seen us before, which I know about half of you maybe haven’t, Hit that subscribe button if you’re watching on YouTube or you’re watching on Rumble. Join us each and every day, Monday through Friday, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time. We’ll catch us later on. You can watch the re-air. Most people do watch it, not live. But I encourage you to be part of the conversation live. You get to get chat. You can call in. Do that. Join us each and every day. If you’ve never done that before, hit that subscribe button. If you have been a longtime viewer and supporter, know that this show… And the ACLJ in general is not funded by major sponsors or even by major donors. It’s individual people like you that can give at one time or can give on a monthly basis. And during these special months like today, during our 35 years of Justice Drive, all donations are doubled. So if you give $10, it becomes effectively $20 because it unlocks another $10 pledge. I’m going to ask you to do that today in honor of this show, in honor of the media we provide to you each and every day. Let’s have a big day, a big day to support what we’re doing here. Of course, tax deductible. We’ll be right back. the room we have heard from my brother jordan seculo very loud music jordan seculo we’ve had will haynes we’ve heard from jeff balabot we’ve heard from some of you and now we’re going to turn our attention to our phone callers and so many of you calling in some about the epstein situation some about uh israel and new york and a lot of others we’re going to get to all of them anthony in florida and by the way you still got a couple minutes to get on hold 1-800-684-3110 anthony in florida you’ve been a hold for 45 minutes know that i appreciate that uh but go ahead
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, you know, I support you guys because you counter the anti-Constitution leftist union. So all kudos to you guys. My question is, a prominent attorney who defended Trump, who’s not a Republican, but he said that he saw the list. He saw the names on the list, but he can’t say who they are. My question to you guys is, It wasn’t a mystery what was happening on that island. Some people were, I would exclude some people from not being ignorant, but come on, guys. I mean, really, was that so much of a mystery, what this pervert was holding on that island? It’s bewildering.
SPEAKER 07 :
So fill me in, guys. I appreciate it. Thank you. actually do want to correct you on one thing anthony dershowitz actually said you’re talking about alan dershowitz he actually said epstein never created a client list so there is one thing where he has said he knows a lot more information he defended jeffrey epstein actually uh it was one of the attorneys but um but i do want to clarify that is that he actually told many people that epstein never created a client list he was referring and they could put together a Right. Now, that’s the other issue is that sometimes when the news that there’s become shorthand or these things like there is a list of clients. One is that that is just shorthand for if he was doing this as almost a business or a blackmail operation or these things that there would be that information somewhere. Right. But once again, there’s still a lot of unknown. And if once again, the FBI was only investigating Jeffrey Epstein and not other people, then their evidence would be limited to what they were investigating in theory, as well as If this isn’t something they had evidence of or they didn’t want there to be evidence of, it’s not surprising that it would not be in the DOJ. And that goes back to the poor PR rollout by the attorney general and everyone getting out there and saying, we’re going to release this info and even doing that binder facade and saying, here’s what we’ve got. But then it being kind of a nothing burger, because maybe it is a nothing burger as far as the evidence of the DOJ goes. then that’s what you’re here with. And that is why people are upset. And I understand that.
SPEAKER 08 :
Evidence is only criminal conduct that they can prosecute. When they don’t feel like there’s any more lane to go down on actually prosecuting an act, there’s nothing else for them to do. So they are there just to uncover mysteries. Now, could you order that they do a deeper dive into their investigation or into the evidence that came about? Sure, but that’s really not their job if there’s no more criminal prosecution.
SPEAKER 10 :
We got another call related to this. I’d like to jump to Debbie in South Carolina who is watching on our website on ACLJ.org, which is a great place if you’re like stumbling around trying to figure out where they broadcast. You can always go to ACLJ.org or the ACLJ app. The show’s there live and later on. Debbie, go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you. Okay, so I was listening to the dialogue on the Epstein case, and someone said, oh, well, this is just a political issue. No, it is not just a political issue. It’s not even just a legal issue. This is a moral issue. I have thousands of mega friends that I am on a podcast with, and the two things that we are most upset about is, number one, no one has been brought to justice yet. And number two, the victims, what about them? Don’t trivialize the victims.
SPEAKER 07 :
I will cut you off there because Jeffrey Epstein is dead and Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison. And the assumption is lost on people that Jeffrey Epstein was participating in this behavior. That’s why a lot of the evidence cannot be released is because it’s images and photos of him engaging in the behavior that he was about to go to trial for. And he’s dead. So I think there is some justice there because even the victims that came forward, they were abused by Jeffrey Epstein. So that also can’t be lost when people say, well, why was he on trial? Why is Ghislaine in prison? Because they were criminals and they were doing abhorrent, immoral things and should serve justice for that. And so I think that that shouldn’t be lost either, is that he’s no longer on this earth, and I think he has a lot worse punishment going on than an earthly prison would give him for his immoral behavior. And she is currently in jail.
SPEAKER 08 :
I think this is where it becomes a problem, though, when you call it a hoax. Because when we talked about the Russia investigation, we were talking about the entire thing was a hoax from the start. The entire hypothesis, the whole thesis of that was Donald Trump is a Russian agent. So you start from zero.
SPEAKER 10 :
Yeah, I think President Trump just throws out that hoax word and he thinks it means something to people that it maybe doesn’t.
SPEAKER 08 :
I take it more extreme. because when we were talking about things that were hoaxes, we were talking about from the start there was nothing there. And this is different because from the start there was criminal conduct.
SPEAKER 01 :
Definitely stuff there, yeah.
SPEAKER 08 :
And so you had a guy facing basically life in prison. She’s got a 20-year sentence. And of course, can they testify to others?
SPEAKER 10 :
I mean, he’s not here anymore. Let’s try to get to these two last calls. Alex is calling line one. You’re on the air.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi guys. Thanks for being there. I want to make my, make two points and make them very quickly. Okay. Um, in reference to, um, if you guys were president, if you guys were advisors to the president, how would you tell the president to quickly put this to death? And yes, the moral point is important, but, I’d really like to see us just get beyond this, and that’s not disrespect to the victims, okay? Those people need to be respected. They need justice.
SPEAKER 10 :
I’m only cutting you off because we’re running out of time. I think Jordan’s advice of saying, hey, it’s not over. There’s still investigations going on, would have probably been the easiest way to really not be the focus. It’s when you came out and said, it’s on my desk. It doesn’t exist. It was a PR blunder that kept going. And honestly, even with President Trump this morning, it still seems to be going. I want to take one more call, and then we’ll wrap it up for the day. This one is from Warren, who is talking about the New York elections and everything. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thanks for the call, guys. Real quick, most people don’t realize, and I’m not saying they all believe in global intifada, but with Mamdami, there’s so many small cities In the United States, they have Muslim mayors, and they’ve even posted, not them, but all over social media how they want to take over America and bring that here, and people need to wake up and realize what’s happening.
SPEAKER 10 :
Warren, thank you for calling. We appreciate your thoughts on that. I think with Mondami, you have a very interesting moment because you have a young, charismatic guy who’s going on and even getting a pushback from the Democrats, but winning pretty decisively. So we’ll see what happens going on. But I mean, it’s looking in his favor, but we’ll see. With that being said, we got 45 seconds left. This is the time. to support the work of the ACLJ. Jordan, I’ll let you do this pitch here as well because it’s 35 years we’ve been celebrating and we got to keep going.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, that’s right. We talked about today one of the issues involving protection of the unborn. And these issues, I can’t say enough that the resources can always be utilized. There’s always more battles we can fight in and we can engage in if we have the resources to do so. And so go to ACLJ.org, donate today. This is a great time to donate because of the match, so your donation gets doubled. But I’m just telling you, from the resource perspective, there’s always more we can do in these battles. Go to ACLJ.org and donate today.
