In this episode of Seculo, we delve into the breaking news surrounding the grand jury investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan. Our host, Logan Seculo, takes calls and comments as we discuss the complexities of the Steele dossier and its implications in the intelligence community. As we approach the Christmas season, we also spotlight the ongoing battle against Christmas ornament restrictions in senior living communities, where the ACLJ is taking action.
SPEAKER 12 :
we have breaking news grand jury investigation into former cia director john brennan is confirmed 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
SPEAKER 07 :
And now your host, Logan Secula. Welcome to Secula. We are live. It is the day before Christmas Eve. You can tell we’ve lit it up, Will, in special honor of the Christmas season. We decided to change the setup a little bit. Go a little red and green. Hopefully everyone’s in a celebratory mood. Today, we are going to be taking your calls and comments live. We are available right now for your calls and comments at 1-800-684-3110. You can be sending us a Christmas message or you can be commenting on the top stories of the day. And of course, later on. We’re going to be talking about a lot of the ACLJ work. Still, some of those struggles. That war on Christmas continues on the small individual level. And it still is happening in the United States of America. We’re going to continue that. Again, we know the war on Christmas has been commercialized. People say it. They laugh at it. But it’s sadly… the truth of what’s going on we also are going to tell you about a couple of our new film projects that we’re working on and so much more as we take your calls and comments as well the big top story of the day though will is that there is more out of john brandon the steel dossier all the things that people have been talking about for years and years and now there is some acknowledgement
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. And this all goes back to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, when she released all this information earlier this year about the grand conspiracy that was conspired upon against President Trump in 2016 with the grand Russia hoax and the ways that intelligence was manipulated. And it went all the way to the top. President Obama tasking people with creating this new intelligence report, the summary of which was shifted around based off of things in the Steele dossier. And John Brennan, we had that famous line of, but doesn’t it just ring true when people in the CIA tried to push back on this? Now we know that there is a grand jury empaneled that is investigating John Brennan for his role in this. And how do we know this? In quite unusual move, through a letter from his lawyer to the chief judge in Florida, where this grand jury is impaneled, asking the chief judge to take some extraordinary steps to limit what the government can do and where they can use the grand jury. And with the stated goal of ensuring that Judge Eileen Cannon, who was the judge that was over the classified documents probe from special counsel Jack Smith, They want to ensure she is not the judge in this case. So, like I said, quite extraordinary seeing a letter admitting to the fact that there is a grand jury probe. Normally, there can be speculation. People can be like, oh, grand jury’s impaneled. This timing may seem like this. But we now know. from the attorney of John Brennan that a grand jury is investigating whether or not crimes were committed in this Russia collusion hoax that he perpetrated on the American people and President Trump. So that means he is under investigation by the DOJ for specific crimes related to that, which could lead to an indictment of John Brennan in this very matter.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s right. And again, we’re going to take your calls and comments on this at 1-800-684-3110. We’re going to discuss this a little bit more. You’re also going to hear some flashbacks to Tulsi Gabbard when she was discussing this earlier this year back in July. So we’ll play that as well as so much more, including, again, the demand letter we have just sent. In Nebraska this morning, that senior living center that said, hey, you got to take down your nativities. And while you’re at it, take down your angels. No angels at Christmas time. Not allowed in the decor. We’re not going to stand for that. We’ve done this before. We’re going to do it again. But only because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. We had a big day yesterday. Help us have a bigger day today. It’s the day for Christmas Eve. We know this is going to be, for a lot of you, the last show you listen to. before all your festivities begin, before you start spending time with your family. So if you think about it and praying about it, think about supporting the work of the ACLJ today. Scan that QR code. Go to ACLJ.org. Do it right now. Again, that’s at ACLJ.org. And all donations are doubled right now because great ACLJ champions are ready to unlock a pledge of any dollar amount. Help us whether it’s $5 or $500. Your support makes a tremendous impact, specifically right now during our year-end drive.
SPEAKER 16 :
Welcome back to Seculo.
SPEAKER 07 :
Again, phone lines are open for you. We’d love to hear from you. Of course, we are all in the Christmas spirit and celebrating, but that doesn’t mean the news stop, doesn’t mean our work doesn’t continue on. Of course it does, and it is part of our year-end drive right now. We’ll get into that a little bit later. I know a lot of you are just joining us right now. You want to know about the breaking news. Will, I think we can restate it. This is another moment. I think, look, let’s actually start with a flashback. Let’s go back to just July of this year. You’re going to hear Tulsi Gabbard, and we’ll follow up with what the breaking news is. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 02 :
The report we released today shows the ICA, the Intelligence Community Assessment, did not cite any report where Putin indicated helping Trump win was an objective. The opposite is true. With regards to the Steele dossier, we now know that one of the source documents that the Obama administration used in the creation of this intelligence assessment in January of 2017 was none other than the discredited, unverified Steele dossier. The House Intel report states, quote, contradicting public claims by then CIA Director Brennan that the dossier was not in any way incorporated into this intelligence assessment. The dossier was referenced in the intelligence assessment’s main body text and further detailed in a two-page assessment annex.
SPEAKER 13 :
When you hear what Director Gabbard is saying there, and she laid out a lot more this year as well, and we can get into some of that, is that the ICA, the Intelligence Community Assessment, that is one of the key launching points of the Russia collusion hoax. That is when the intelligence community had done many ICAs, Intelligence Community Assessments, leading up to the 2016 election. After President Trump won, Then President Obama ordered a new ICA. And what did John Brennan and James Clapper and Jim Comey do? They took their marching orders and they came up with a new ICA, which completely contradicted all the previous assessments of the intelligence community leading up to the election and included things that members of the CIA were pushing back against their director saying this should not be included. This is substandard. This is unverified. This is salacious. This we don’t even believe is good intelligence. But he said, you’re going to do it anyways because, quote, doesn’t it ring true? Because he was seeking confirmation bias. He knew what he wanted to believe and what he wanted the ICA to say and pushed the intelligence community to do just that. And that is what was the launching point. for the Russia collusion hoax, for the Bob Mueller investigation special counsel, for the years of turmoil and waste of taxpayer money that the American people saw. This was one of the chief architects of that, John Brennan, former director of the CIA. And years later, we’re seeing all the documentation that proves that they orchestrated this fraud and hoax on the American people.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, we all knew it all along in some ways. It’s something we talked about ad nauseum for years and years that this was a lot of, I mean, at best, very loose intelligence.
SPEAKER 13 :
And so now we have a new administration. We don’t have the shadow of the Mueller investigation, which kept so much from happening in the first Trump administration. And we now know that the DOJ has a grand jury investigation being conducted against John Brennan. This comes after Jim Jordan, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a criminal referral to the DOJ for him lying under Congress. We even have that sound where he said, no, the Steele dossier was not used by the CIA.
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s hear it. We got bite two back in 2017. Did the CIA rely on it?
SPEAKER 11 :
No. Why not? Because we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the intelligence community assessment that was done. It was not.
SPEAKER 13 :
I mean, that is so definitive. It’s not even the dodge of like, not to my knowledge. I don’t recall. It was no several times. We didn’t. It was not used in any way. It was not. Three times he denies using that. Heard that before. Right. Doesn’t end out well. So he denies it three times in that one statement. And we know it was a lie based off of his own writings and memorializations and memos within the CIA. So we know the DOJ now has a grand jury impaneled. How do we know that? From his own attorney. Yeah, they’ve confirmed it. Who is trying to push back. We have the 16-page letter from his attorney to Chief Judge Cecilia Altanaga. Yeah, TLDR, man. Trying to say, look… We’re gonna argue jurisdiction and venue later, but at very least, you gotta stop the DOJ doing what they’re calling judge shopping, trying to get it in front of Eileen Cannon. Yeah, I think some people have probably seen our thumbnail and go, why is Eileen Cannon on our thumbnail? Well, specifically because this letter. Remember, Eileen Cannon was the judge that was overseeing the special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the classified documents case. She ruled favorably for the defendant in that case, President Trump, in many instances and the ways that the special counsel was used. And because of that, They see her as persona non grata when it comes to maybe being overseeing their prosecution. They’re pushing back trying to get the judge to do something which would be ordinarily not happening. You don’t normally see a chief judge step in and block something like this early and they even admit to that in the letter but they are trying to make sure that it doesn’t end up in front of her. Now, we’ll see how all that plays out. But a lot of this is just extraordinary to even see the recognition by the attorneys in a letter to a chief judge in the Miami district, in the Southern District of Florida. that says, listen, we know this is happening. We know that there’s a grand jury impaneled and a second grand jury impaneled. We think this is abnormal. Therefore, you need to shut this down. And not even getting into the fact of almost conceding that there will be an indictment that they will have to fight later on. And then they’re going to fight the venue, the forum, all of those things. That’s not going to happen.
SPEAKER 07 :
be over anytime soon so it’s a big fight coming but right before christmas we have confirmation that the doj is actually seeking an indictment of john brennan good time to slide in any news right before christmas hey i did want to say as we are headed towards the christmas holiday first if you’re watching online and look i know a lot of you this is kind of where you find uh your community which i know is great and i appreciate you all so much let me know where you’re watching from in the chat i love to shout out some some locations some people out there because Look, it’s Christmas time. It’s important to make sure we celebrate all of our loved ones and all the people out there who have been supporting this show over the last number of years as it has grown and changed and evolved. I know that I so appreciate it. So whether you give or don’t give, I just appreciate all of you who watch. And I appreciate everyone who calls in. And the fact that it is December 23rd and thousands of you are watching right now live means a lot to us and is not lost on us. So again, I just want to thank you. We’re seeing Raleigh, North Carolina chime in. We’re seeing New York chime in. We’re seeing Redlands, California, Chicago, Florida. Southern California. Again, when you listen to this show, some of you may be listening on the radio and you think that we’re local to your market. Our show is not only nationwide, it is worldwide. Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was out in Denver just a couple days ago. Nebraska. I know you’re going to hear me just reading states. I’m not just going to do that to you for the rest of the show. But I just want you to understand the scale of what we’re reaching here. Pennsylvania, Washington, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Michigan. I mean, it is everywhere. There are people watching and tuning in from and chatting and getting involved in the work here at the ACLJ. And it is our year-end drive. If you do like this show and you do have a little extra, you can donate. Know that right now, this entire show, whether it’s this show or whether it’s our legal work, all of it happens because people like you support. We’ve got a champion coming in from San Diego, California, Pete Cole of Florida, representing so many great places. Go to ACLJ.org. Make a donation if you can. When we get back, we’re also going to talk about some of the great work the ACLJ is doing right now. It’s stuff that you may be able to see as a small moment, but it’s so important to the people. We are also almost to 550,000 YouTube subscribers. I think we’re at 548. For our team, that was their goal was to hit 550 this year. Can you help them get over that edge? If you are new here or you haven’t clicked that subscribe button, just do that right now. Know we appreciate it. We got Mark watching in Germany. Again, like I say, go flip on the news in Europe if you’re ever there and you’ll notice that usually the top stories are whatever’s happening in America. You got to understand. global impact of what goes on in american news politics and that whole world that’s why we cover it here as well as well as take on the important cases uh in no case is is too small here at the aclj if you ever need help it’s within our scope of the work we do here religious freedom free speech that kind of thing i encourage you always go to aclj.org help fill out that very simple form you’re attached to a lawyer immediately not some phone bank or at least one of our legal team they’re going to be part of this conversation with you immediately decide whether it’s something we can proceed with and of course when we do that we do that at no cost because people like you give we got orlando florida checking in we got jacksonville florida checking in a lot of florida checking in well makes sense will and i both spent many years in the orlando area so uh you know it’s good tennessee of course checking in hometown heroes right there and so many more of you thank you all for chiming in being part of this team And you can do so much right now because all donations are doubled right now at ACLJ.org. When you give, scan that QR code, go to ACLJ.org. Your donation’s doubled throughout the rest of the month. But we know for a lot of you, today’s going to be one of those last days of the month where you’re really going to be paying attention to what’s going on. We understand that. It’s a holiday. It’s Christmas. So go to ACLJ.org. We’re going to talk about more when we get back.
SPEAKER 16 :
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Secula. We do have some phone calls coming in. I want to make sure we get to those as well. But the lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. And I want to talk to you about the work of the ACLJ. It doesn’t stop us. We’ve said the whole time here during the government shutdown, we said we’re not shutting down during Christmas time. We try to give our team as much breaks as they can. Hopefully Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, they can take some time with their family. But sometimes last second cases come in. And this is what happened yesterday right before we went on air. We were reached out to by a group. who said, hey, we are in the senior living facility, senior living center. We’ve had Christmas decorations up, which included nativity, angels, and so on. And now, just a few days before Christmas, two days before Christmas, our management company said it is against the law for us to display a nativity scene, a baby Jesus. And to me, even the next step, an angel, You’re not talking about just having something that’s uniquely one-sided religious. Of course, we’re all talking about angels right now in terms of the birth of Christ. But angels are almost as synonymous with Christmas as any of the secular decorations, Santa Claus, Rudolph, and so on. However, here we are. we joke about it feels like now in this culture the idea of a war on christmas because you you walk around you see all the christmas lights and the decorations but for the most vulnerable which sometimes are people like this people that are in a senior living facility who don’t feel like they have any hope who don’t feel like they have people defending them a lot of times they will just take what’s being told and do nothing thankfully there’s some brave individuals a lot of you who listen to this show maybe you’re listening to this show right now or watching this show in a senior living facility maybe you’re in a 55 up a plus community And you knew to give us a call when that happened. So right now, there’s a demand letter hitting Nebraska this morning. They got till the end of the day to respond or we’re going to court.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. So as you see, we are attorneys, once again, a few days before Christmas, working very quickly to put this together. Fortunately, we are experts in this area of the law. But I saw earlier, Ken is watching from Omaha, Nebraska on YouTube. This is in your backyard, Ken. This is Omaha. And once again, this is a senior living center that… We have had to fight back against before where they stopped allowing Bible studies to happen in their facility that were resident run. It wasn’t like an official activity of the senior housing center, but we won a victory there. But what you’re seeing now is that we’ve had to send this letter dated December 22nd, went out yesterday afternoon, that said the purpose of this letter is twofold. First, to bring your attention to management’s violation of federal law. And two, to obtain written assurances that Millard Manor senior housing residents, including name redacted, our client, will be permitted to display their Christian holiday decorations without any special restrictions. So this happened, actually, it started earlier this month, back on December 8th, when residents noticed that angel tree toppers so very classic christmas decoration that people place either an angel or a star both religious references on top of christmas religious references but also have been corporatized right exactly that is just the traditional thing you place on the top of a christmas tree uh they the angels had been removed from all the Christmas tree toppers. No angels. And when a community meeting was… Well, first they asked, they’re like, why are these gone? The manager said that it’s a violation of HUD for them to have… angels effectively on top of the Christmas trees unless they recognize all religions so they can’t use Christian symbols, but Residents also said they had they had banners sing Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah Like look this is fine.
SPEAKER 07 :
There’s a they’re not complaining about about representation.
SPEAKER 13 :
So then they had a resident meeting and at first they put them back the decorations But then the next day, the maintenance employee put them back, and then five days later, management once again took them all down. But now there’s Santa Claus is up, there’s snowmen, there’s things that exist that are Christmas decorations, but it was specifically things that referenced anything that could be perceived as religiously Christmas, such as an angel on top of a tree were taken down. Now, they’re on the clock. This had to be quick because we’re a few days before Christmas. We’ve explained the law, and we’ve said what we demand. Basically, you’re on notice for violating the law, and we want written assurance that they can put these back up. They have to, around 5 o’clock Eastern Time, based off when this letter was delivered, to give us that. Or else, and I quote from our letter, The ACLJ will pursue any and all available legal remedies. So we should be hearing from today. As of right now, we have not heard from our attorneys that they have gotten a response. from this senior living center. But remember, as Jordan talked about yesterday, if you have family that’s in one of these around the country, it’s not even exclusive to the California Commercial Investment Group that owns this one in Nebraska. We showed yesterday they’re in all but 12 states, so 38 states. They own residences, not all senior living facilities, but this investment group owns a lot of property throughout the country. But even ones that aren’t owned by them, we have seen this as a trend where housing facilities for senior adults are going after some of the most, one, ridiculous thing to target. but also some of the most egregious violations of saying you can’t have a Bible study. We have another contact that came in that our attorneys are gathering the facts on now, and hopefully we’ll have some more information on that after the holiday. But where a resident of a senior living center, not this one, not related, told she cannot pray. Imagine that. Individuals pay to live in these places, and there’s this authoritarian streak that is going through many of these management companies where they are dictating what the residents can and cannot do in violation of their First Amendment rights and a host of other laws that protect residents. people in institutions and and uh residences and things of that nature and a lot of times these management companies try to say well you know some of our residents uh because of the way we’re structured we receive some federal funding and therefore we have to abide by this it would be a violation of the law saying that uh if we have any sort of religious thing That’s not true. And they’re violating the rights of their residents across the board here.
SPEAKER 07 :
And that’s why we have to keep fighting. And that’s why we’re going to take it to court if necessary. And they only got a few hours to find out whether that’s going to happen or not. But none of that happens. That team isn’t in place. We’re not getting, you know, putting in the best of the best without you. So right now, I encourage you only got 45 seconds left this half hour. I want you to go right now and make a donation and it will be doubled right now at ACLJ.org. Do it today. Know how important it is. You can scan the QR code that’s on your screen as well. It’s our year-end drive. Your donations are doubled. We do have a second half hour of the show coming up. We’re going to be sharing a lot more information about this and so much more. Some of our new film series that we’re working on, how you can get involved in that as well. We’ve got a back half that is packed, but we want to take your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. Of course, if you’re a champion, you get bumped up to the front of the line, 1-800-684-3110. If you don’t get us on your local station, find us broadcasting live right now on ACLJ.org, on YouTube, on Facebook, on Rumble. However you get your podcast, we are there. We’ll be right back in less than a minute.
SPEAKER 12 :
Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to Sekulow. It is Christmas. We are live, though, right now, if you’re watching right now. We’re here. We’re in studio. We’re going to take your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Last segment, we talked to you about ACLJ going to court, if necessary, today for a senior living facility where the people there, living there, they simply want to celebrate Christmas by, I don’t know, putting up a nativity scene, putting up an angel, But they were taken down. And we’re not going to stand for that. So we have given them just a few more hours to respond. And if they don’t respond, we’re going to court right now. Our team is in place. They’re ready to go. They’re fighting through Christmas to defend people like the residents of this senior living center. I want you to be a part of that team as well. We got a lot of news items we can talk about, but look, these are important times. It is Christmas. A lot of these people, this is how they celebrate. Maybe they don’t have family. Maybe they have family that can’t visit as regularly. We can stand up for them. We can be a part of that team. We can be there for them. And again, it is our year-end drive, and of course I’m promoting to give and support, make a tax-deductible donation, all of those things. But know that you need to pray for these families as well. And if you do have family that is in one of these facilities, understand that that could be not necessarily a facility. It could be a 55 and up community where they just happen to be living there. Give them a call. And not only give them a call, say a prayer for them. Make sure they’re having a good Christmas. A lot of times they’re spread out throughout the country. Families get kind of fractured and separated. If you know some of the people that are in these, check in on them. See if they’re one. You can also make sure this isn’t happening to them as well. They’re able to celebrate the holiday how they want to, whether that is with Santa Claus or whether that is and or with the birth of Jesus. and like they said this facility they got hanukkah displays they have christmas displays it’s not new year’s displays it’s not like they are saying we have to have one or the other they just want their representation to be there as well so be a part of that team right now at aclj.org because when you give specifically during this christmas time we know that what you’re giving for is stuff like this they sound little but they have global impact earlier in the show i asked people to tell me where they were watching from we had people from europe watching literally it felt like every state was checking in. Thousands of you are watching online right now. I know this is your community as well. For many of you, this is how you communicate with your friends. Even if it’s online friends each and every day through the chat and our broadcasts on YouTube or on rumble or Facebook or however you do it. And I love that. I love that we built a community here and that this show has been able to evolve over the last 30 years almost. 30 years almost we’ve been on the air in some form of fashion to now have built this online community that is strong. On YouTube alone, we are almost to 550,000 subscribers. All of that, you know, native people that came in and said, individual people said, I want to be a part of this. We know about half the people that watch every day have never seen us before. So welcome to all of you. And I encourage you to subscribe. That’s a great free way to get engaged in the content that we do here, whether it’s our legal work, whether it’s our media work, whether it’s giving you the news or whether it is covering really important matters around the world the ACLJ is involved in. Because remember, when you support the work of the ACLJ, yes, the majority of our work is in America, and that’s great. But we also have the ACLJ in Jerusalem, which obviously is our connection to Israel. We have the ECLJ, the European Center for Law and Justice, celebrating 25 years of ECLJ work, which I love that office. They’re doing amazing things. We’ve seen a change in Europe over the last few years that we can only pray for. So I encourage you right now, when you’re thinking about your year-end giving, and this feels like this has just been me monologuing. I’m sorry, Will. No, you’re fine. Because it’s important. We get these stories that come in. It kind of breaks my heart when you hear a senior living center has to take down their angels. And we shouldn’t be living through that still. That is settled ACLJ classic rules from 30 years ago. I can’t believe there are days where we still have to go back in time, it feels like, and fight for this. But we do, and we have to be there, because if you’re there, you’re not paying for big legal bills. It’s just not going to happen. But you don’t have to, because people like you step up. We don’t have this show without you. You’re hearing ads on your local station? It’s not going to us. It goes to the network. Often we’re paying to be on your local station. Why? We don’t want any corporate overlords or anyone telling us what we can or can’t say. This broadcast is fully independent. The work we do is fully independent. I’m very proud of that. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 16 :
Word of the Father Now in flesh you’re hearing Oh come Don’t let us
SPEAKER 07 :
Welcome back to secular. We are obviously celebrating Christmas here. It’s the day before Christmas Eve. We are live and it’s exciting to actually be live and to talk to thousands of you, millions of you around the world, thousands of you even live right now in our chats. And it’s great. You know, it’s also great to just see everyone coming together. I see some great sweet messages. A lot of you who chat every day, maybe don’t know each other in real life, but it’s very cool to see a little bit of a community we’ve built here. I do want to take a quick call off the top because it is related to our topic. And that’s always good. And then we’re going to get into some of the other work the ACLJ is doing, some of our new projects. Let’s go to Martin in North Carolina, who is also an ACLJ champion. When you’re a champion, a little perk I always say is I’ll bump you up to the front of the line if there is a line to be on the air. Martin, you’re up first.
SPEAKER 14 :
Morning and Merry Christmas. The statement and question I have, isn’t it funny that the left has all of a sudden worried about judge shopping with this lawyer sending a letter from Mr. Brandon down to Florida. But my question is, is there any legal or standard that Eileen Cannon cannot be over the grand jury because of conflict of interest for her work done previously in the Trump cases.
SPEAKER 13 :
So, Martin, that will be one up to the judge. I don’t know that there would necessarily be a law in place. However, the argument that is being brought forward by the attorney for Mr. Brennan is that The appearance of a conflict could be there. Therefore, the chief judge should step in. And then also, they bring up precedent against judge shopping, which they say that this is both legally and ethically troubling. And They’re also trying to make the case that this grand jury should probably be not even in Florida at all. Now, we don’t know what is being presented before a grand jury. This is a secret process and it should be and will remain that. But for some reason, the DOJ did pick. florida for this case to be brought instead of washington dc where the director of the cia would have been so that that already raises questions of why is it there that is something we are not privy to uh the the council may not even be privy to that as well but that is their best shot right now at pushing saying look this looks like it’s judge shopping and then where the grand jury was impaneled there’s only really one or two judges that could be this it looks like they’re trying to get it before judge cannon and therefore you should step in chief judge and make sure this doesn’t happen Now, I don’t think that there is a requirement by the chief judge to step in and make that happen. And then also there are filings that could happen if there was an indictment that could throw a wrench into the entire process as well. So this is a long process. I understand that the attorney here is trying to get ahead of all this, making it publicly known, probably trying to build some public support and getting some outcry. It is right before Christmas. Not sure how much it’s going to be covered in the news. We did see New York Times Associated Press wrote about this as well. But I think it will be curious to see what the chief judge does here in this case, because I don’t believe that she can force a recusal at this point. We will find out what goes on there while this continues. But it’s definitely getting ahead of this and making it publicly known that this grand jury has been impaneled and trying to to make what is probably likely some sort of indictment. Once it gets there, they clearly are concerned that that’s where it’s headed, that they will be able to craft this as best they can in their favor as early as possible. Yeah.
SPEAKER 07 :
And so much of this all ties back into one of the ACLJ’s core fundamental values. And of course, that is the freedom of speech. And that is something that we have been at the forefront of really for the last 35 years. And you may say, of course, Logan, freedom of speech, it’s something we talk about. But no, that’s even been the ways we’ve been able to reinterpret, really help shape the way people talk about religious views. It’s not just about the freedom of religion. It’s also about the freedom of speech, being able to speak your mind and talk about your faith openly, publicly. That has been a major sticking point of the ACLJ. With that being said, we have a brand new series. My team here at the ACLJ, the video team, the documentary team, film team, showed me some clips. We were talking about different ideas and they showed me some interviews they had conducted. and we’re coming up with ideas for new projects and one of them is a brand new series we’re going to roll out next year thanks to your support we’re going to be able to do this it is called the chilling effect the war on free speech uh it’s going to be a series you’re going to see some familiar faces in it of course team members from here at the aclj but uh some other uh heavy hitters if you will i’m gonna let this this sort of proof of concept video speak for itself i want you to see it and then i’m gonna give you an opportunity to support it So let’s go ahead and take a look. Here is a proof of concept preview of the chilling effect currently in production. Take a look.
SPEAKER 05 :
You look at the First Amendment, we have five liberties under the First Amendment. Your right to practice your faith, your right to assemble, your right to petition the government, free press, free speech, all critically important. The most important in my judgment is your right to talk.
SPEAKER 03 :
This is your baby girl or your baby boy. This is not a clump of cells. This is not a parasite. This is your baby.
SPEAKER 05 :
Today, while we have the time, call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul.
SPEAKER 04 :
If someone believes that government is going to punish them for exercising their First Amendment rights, they might choose not to express themselves at all.
SPEAKER 06 :
The FBI will crush you. This government will crush you if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing that are wrong.
SPEAKER 05 :
He’s allowed to come forward under the law and tell us things that he believes that are happening that aren’t supposed to. Being here in America, I thought that it is our right to go out and share our faith.
SPEAKER 17 :
We’re always a little bit fearful that he or I will be taken to jail.
SPEAKER 13 :
Is the government watching? Is there a chance I could face some kind of negative consequence now or down the road?
SPEAKER 05 :
I was the one preaching on the mic when the police came. They came to me and said I should shut it down. When God tells you what to do, you cannot hesitate.
SPEAKER 04 :
How many arrests will it take for you to stop? I can’t stop.
SPEAKER 07 :
And right now, you can support the work of the ACLJ, which supports series like this. Show your support. If you want to see this come to fruition, you actually want to see this series happen. Because look, the legal side and the media side, they go hand in hand. They work together. You see that now when you look at something like one of these series that we’re going to roll out, documentary series. If you want to see it happen, I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org right now. And we’ll track, you know, right now when this is happening. Show your support for the series. Do it right now. Again, you can raise your voice and have your donations doubled. We raised your voice a few weeks ago supporting specifically this cause. Had a great response. But I still would love to get more resources on this project because we think that we can take this to the next level. It doesn’t just have to exist as something that the ACLJ puts out. You guys all enjoy it. I think we can blast this out to so many people who need to see it. But that marketing dollar spend, all of that, that doesn’t happen without you. So I encourage you, your donations will still be doubled, and it’ll go to really seeing that these kind of projects are something you want the ACLJ to get involved in. So I encourage you to do that today at ACLJ.org. We are going to take your calls coming up in the next segment. I would love to hear from you also about this, whether it’s any of the topics we’ve talked about today, or whether you just have a Christmas message. For a lot of you, this will be the last time we talk to you until Christmas is over, maybe until next week. So call in, even if it’s just to wish our team a Merry Christmas or wish the world a Merry Christmas. As I said, this show is worldwide. Because of the birth of streaming and all the things that we can offer now, whether that is through free services like YouTube, Salem News Channel, wherever we can be, the ACLJ is. A lot of that costs a lot of money, and I’ll be honest, a lot is airtime. Thankfully, you have something like YouTube now, or Rumble, which does not cost us to be on, which is awesome. It does cost, obviously, to have this incredible crew work on it. But we’re not necessarily buying airtime and that kind of stuff. But the old model still is buying airtime at a lot of these stations to make sure that a lot of you can hear us and see us worldwide, nationwide. We want to make sure we have full coverage. And that doesn’t happen without your support. So even if you want to call in, you could just call in to say thank you. You could call in to say Merry Christmas. You could have a Merry Christmas message for the world. It doesn’t have to be for us. You can show your support for what we’re doing, our legal work or for the work in Israel or in Europe. I want to hear from you right now. Just give me a call. We’ll take all those coming up in the next segment. So just call in. And even if it’s just to say Merry Christmas and and and so on. So I’d love to hear from you at 1-800-SERVICE. Before we go to break, though, I do want to say we made a Christmas movie a couple years ago, Jingle Smells. It’s a holiday comedy. It has a great cast. John Schneider, Ben Davies, you may know from The Michael Knowles Show, James Storm, Victoria Jackson, Brad Stein, Jim Brewer, Dylan Postle. great cast of characters and it was written uh by bart and bart scott here at the aclj me will wrote some really great parts in it as well and will is is and bart are both in the movie that’s right i’m in a very brief moment of the movie you have to you know blink and you’ll miss me but it is available this year for free on youtube uh we’ve done a deal with the new distributor uh new distribution partner so if you want to watch it this christmas season You can watch it on YouTube or just go to jinglesmells.movie and it is available right there. It’ll take you to the YouTube link where you can watch it for free. It’s also available on most streaming services. So just check it out. Again, great Christmas movie for the family. Really fun. Loved making it. We’ll be right back.
SPEAKER 16 :
We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell.
SPEAKER 07 :
verse so people would learn it because i don’t think i even know that verse it’s an impressive verse if you know it you’re good for verse two or three and it’s deep deeper when your church service has they normally do the turn and burn they got to get people in and out they’re doing the 50 minute service they have time for third verse uh we don’t hear that a whole lot you know uh with that being said it is christmas season some of you are calling it i encourage you to still call in uh maybe you have just a christmas message let’s take one of those let’s go to michael in florida online one watching on youtube go ahead michael
SPEAKER 15 :
Good afternoon, my good gentlemen, and a Merry Christmas cheer to all. I just want to say that we need to remember that God made us a way. He made us a way in a manger.
SPEAKER 07 :
Michael, thank you so much. We obviously are all thinking about that right now. It has been a heavy year for a lot of people. And maybe you are turning onto this stage and looking for some kind of hope. And maybe we’ve spent a little bit too much time this year talking about what’s going on in the news and politics. It’s hard to not discuss what’s happening worldwide. But right now, I do encourage you. You know, if you can find a Christmas Eve service to go to tomorrow, if you can find some way, even just watch on TV to remember what connects us all. And of course, that is the birth of Jesus that we celebrate over this week. And of course, today and tomorrow and of course, Christmas following. Michael, thank you so much for calling. We appreciate it. And I’m very happy to hear all these great messages from people from all over the country, all over the world. Let’s go ahead and take another call. We’re just going to take these, so keep calling if you can. I’d love to do this to wrap up the show, just hear from all of you. So if you’re watching right now, thousands of you are watching. I can see them. Pick up your phone. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110, even if it’s just a 10-second Christmas message. That’s fine. Let’s go to Leonard, who is calling in Massachusetts, listening on the radio. Go ahead, Leonard.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi, this is Chris. I want to thank the ACLJ for all it’s doing to preserve our liberties in our country and around the world. I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as we continue the balance in 2026.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, Leonard, I appreciate that. Merry Christmas to you. And look, states like Massachusetts, I really love when we hear from. Because you don’t have a lot of representation. You have a zero representation often in politics. But we know… The great people of Massachusetts, the great people of New England, who are very many of you are traditional conservative Christians or Catholics who care about these values tremendously. And we have always been in those areas. That’s why we’re on the air, on the radio there. Someone’s got to be. We got to have those voices.
SPEAKER 13 :
And you’ll be hearing about the work in just a few weeks as we have an oral argument in Massachusetts fighting back another motion to dismiss from the Commonwealth trying to end our lawsuit where they were discriminating against pregnancy resource centers by running a taxpayer-funded ad campaign calling them fake clinics. And so, Leonard, stay tuned for that in the new year. Our attorneys are prepping right now to be in court just a few weeks into January.
SPEAKER 07 :
Speaking of ACLJ-related cases and calls, let’s go to Terry in California. Terry, go ahead. Hi.
SPEAKER 08 :
I’m a member of the Calvary Chapel in San Jose. All right. And I wanted to thank you for all the work you’ve been doing for us. And to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
SPEAKER 07 :
Thank you, Terry, so much. Let’s get people, if they don’t know what you’re referring to. We have been directly involved in the state of California with Calvary Chapel. And this has been a very important case for the ACLJ.
SPEAKER 13 :
That’s right. We have filed a cert petition. at the Supreme Court asking them to hear the case where this stems back to COVID fines that were placed on this church by the Gavin Newsom regime in California and as well the city and county were finding to the tune of 1.2 million dollars over what they said were COVID violations. Many of those violations were later ruled unconstitutional. These were also violations they decided to push against the church, even to this day, trying to collect $1.2 million of Terry and other members of Calvary Chapel San Jose, their tithes and offerings. That’s what Gavin Newsom and the state of California is trying to take from our caller that’s on the air right now. $1.2 million that goes to the work of the church, to the furtherance of God’s kingdom. The state’s like, we want some of that too. Meanwhile, they were giving so many exemptions left and right. and and saying basically you can do whatever you want over here but if you’re a church we’re going to take 1.2 million dollars of fines it was absurd but we’re asking the supreme court to hear it overturn it and put it into this nonsense and we just filed that cert petition a few days ago at the supreme court so terry will be fighting for you and the members of calvary chapel san jose as well as every person that attends church and faithfully gives their church in this new year
SPEAKER 07 :
Let’s go ahead and continue on. Let’s go to Jeff, who’s calling in North Carolina. Jeff, go ahead.
SPEAKER 01 :
How are you guys? I just wanted to wish you guys a very Merry Christ-filled Christmas. And guys, I praise God for all the hard work that y’all do for really not just the American people. But everybody in the world over, thank you so much and have a great Christmas.
SPEAKER 07 :
Jeff, thank you so much for calling representing North Carolina. No, we really appreciate it. Very Merry Christmas to you. Of course, none of that happens without people like you who listen, who watch, who support, whether that’s financially or just watch, you know, or just engage and know that it really is important either way. However you want to support the work of the ACLJ, we feel it. We feel your prayers. And I’m glad we actually did this segment because it gives me a nice little boost as we head into Christmas Eve. Let’s go to JL, who’s calling also representing North Carolina. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hey, guys. I hope everybody’s doing well and has a blessed holiday season. I hope everybody stays safe and they keep remembering what this season’s about. Appreciate all the work y’all do. And like I said, I hope everybody has a great, safe, and blessed holiday season and a new year.
SPEAKER 07 :
JL, thank you so much. It is a busy time here at the ACLJ. A lot of people, we had some friends over last night, and they’re like, hey, you guys closed for the rest of the year? It’s like, no, no, no. We’re not even closed through Christmas yet. We’re still open up. We’ll be back tomorrow, of course, as today. We’ll have new programming for you, by the way, that will run throughout the rest of these days. We are going to give our team a little bit of a breather, if they can, on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But we will have content for you. Don’t worry. We’re not going anywhere. But we’ll be back tomorrow. coming up on Monday, back at the shows. But you know what doesn’t ever stop is our legal work and other media work. Look, if something really huge breaks, we got staff and crew on call. So we can come back and do it if we need it. We’re not going out of town. So you never know. We try to give people off. People have said they hope we get the next two days off. Yes, we will be giving our team the next two days off. But if something happens, we’re here. The legal team, They don’t get to rest, I’ll be honest.
SPEAKER 13 :
How many years have our attorneys been doing revisions on Christmas Eve of briefs to the Supreme Court?
SPEAKER 07 :
Christmas night always feels like when everything starts to reopen for us. You know, it’s always like that. Let’s quickly take Jermaine, who’s calling from D.C. Jermaine, you’re on the air. Nope, you’re not on the air yet. Oh, he’s still on hold. Unfortunately, Jermaine, we’re not going to be able to get to you today, but thank you for representing Washington, D.C. You don’t have any representation either, so we’re happy we can be your representation. With that, a very Merry Christmas from all of us here at the ACLJ. When you’re considering your year-end giving, I would love for you to support the work of the ACLJ during our year-end Freedom Drive. Your donations are doubled. Yep, this is the end of the show. Hopefully you have a great Christmas Eve, a great Christmas. We’re praying for our team. Of course, we’ll be praying for you as well. We hope you have a great celebration. And again, a Merry Christmas from all of us here at the ACLJ, my family, Will’s family. I’m going to put that in words in your mouth, Will, but I assume your family’s okay with it. They’re fine. With that, a very Merry Christmas. We will talk to you very soon.
