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Join us on Sekulow as we delve into the unfolding legal challenges facing New York Attorney General Letitia James, including potential prison time and fines. We also explore her remarkable transformation from a politician promising to sue Donald Trump, to facing her own indictment on charges of bank fraud. What are the implications of this legal battle on her career and political landscape at large? Tune in to discover the depth of this story that goes far beyond the headlines.
SPEAKER 12 :
Breaking news today on Sekulow as New York Attorney General Letitia James faces 60 years in prison.
SPEAKER 14 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host,
SPEAKER 12 :
Hey, welcome to Sekulow. This is Jordan Sekulow. As you can see yet again, not in the studio, back in a home office, but we have important news to discuss today. Yesterday afternoon, you may have seen, may have heard, but maybe you don’t exactly know how to describe it to your friends of what happened with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was indicted by a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia on two different criminal charges that would combine, if she was found guilty on both, she could be serving 60 years in prison and over $2 million in fines. That’s if convicted on both. One is a fraud committed on a financial institution, another with a banking institution, and this has to do with how she purchased a second piece of real estate. And of course, it’s different if you’re going to, and you get different mortgage rates, different interest rates, even different down payments. If you plan on living there full-time, or making that your primary home at least, or as like a rental investment kind of property. And so we’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars ultimately. I think in this case it’s about $150,000, somewhere in that range, where she, again, checked the box that she would be living in Norfolk, even though she was a New York politician in Norfolk, Virginia. And then we ultimately— knew that she was being investigated on a 2023 transaction also in Norfolk. And during that investigation, they found a 2020 transaction where she had taken that similar step. Remember, this is also something they’re looking at with Senator Adam Schiff, another one of those checking the box on what is your primary home and then ultimately going to rental. Now, I want to remind you, this is the New York Attorney General who on the campaign trail, I don’t even know, I think we have time to play it right now for you, just to get you in the right mindset of Letitia James. She campaigned on suing Donald Trump, on getting, put that in quotes, Donald Trump. She didn’t campaign on, I will be a great attorney general for all the people of New York and all of the responsibilities I would have as president. their attorney general, and all the responsibilities that do come. We work with a lot of state attorney generals. It’s a lot of responsibility to say on your campaign trail, really vote for me so you can get someone who you disagree with politically, who’s done so much in the city of New York to help the city. When it needed revitalization, when hotel needed to be redone, Donald Trump was there. And yet New York decided through its elected political officers We don’t want him to feel like this is his home anymore. And she campaigned on that. I mean, she made it very clear. Let’s play it for everybody. This is Letitia James running for attorney general because I want to contrast it in the second segment. We have more time with her statement yesterday after she was indicted. Very interesting. But take a listen. This is Letitia James when she was running for office.
SPEAKER 05 :
That man in the White House. who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights. Yes, we need to focus on Donald Trump and his abuses. We need to follow his money. We need to find out where he’s laundered money. We need to find out whether or not he’s engaged in conspiracy. It’s important that everyone understand that the days of Donald Trump are coming to an end.
SPEAKER 04 :
to going into the office of Attorney General every day, suing him, defending your rights, and then going home.
SPEAKER 12 :
Again, folks, I just want to remind you, that is Letitia James, the candidate. Will you sue Donald Trump? This is before she’s Attorney General, before any investigation. If I win, we’re going to sue him a lot. She is declaring that she is going to get the President of the United States, Donald Trump, before she is even elected to the Office of Attorney General. But we’ve got more. You’ve got more to learn about this because her response yesterday, when you compare her tough talk then of basically, elect me and we’ll get Donald Trump, she’s not so happy when the judicial system finds out she may have committed a crime. We’ll be right back. Share it with your friends and family. Hey, welcome back to Sekulow. This is Jordan Sekulow. Again, if you’re just joining, and I encourage you especially to share the last segment of the broadcast, this segment of the broadcast. We’ll make sure, too, we have it clipped out like we did yesterday so you can share this with your friends and family and understand what’s going on when you hear the New York Attorney General Letitia James and many of her allies saying this is some kind of illegitimate crime. uh prosecution interesting because i guess it’s done by the illegitimate president as in her words calling donald trump an illegitimate president that she promised to sue before she was even elected attorney general of the state of new york she did all that on camera so if you’re watching you i want to play that again for folks but then i’ll be playing her statement yesterday because it shows the hypocrisy of the attorney general and of the left in And the Trump, I mean, it truly is that Trump derangement syndrome. As if Donald Trump needed more investigations to find out if there was any criminal activity or wrongdoing done by him or the Trump organization. I mean, by the time Letitia James got around, Mueller was through, impeachments were going on. A second impeachment was then going on, and yet she was going to be the one to get Donald Trump. Mar-a-Lago ends up getting raided. And what happens? Victory after victory, ultimately vindication for President Trump. Even when she got a guilty verdict, she really lost it on appeal because her and the judge allowing this giant penalty. And we can explain that for you in a minute on what she actually did go after Donald Trump for, because it’s not what you’re going to hear about in these soundbites. So take a listen. This is, again, if you just heard it, I want to make sure for people joining, they know who Letitia James is as the politician Letitia James before she was the attorney general Letitia James. Take a listen and watch.
SPEAKER 05 :
I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president when our fundamental rights are at stake. I believe that the president of these United States can be indicted for criminal offenses. That man in the White House. who can’t go a day without threatening our fundamental rights. Yes, we need to focus on Donald Trump and his abuses. We need to follow his money. We need to find out where he’s laundered money. We need to find out whether or not he’s engaged in conspiracy. It’s important that everyone understand that the days of Donald Trump are coming to an end.
SPEAKER 04 :
going into the office of Attorney General every day, suing him, defending your rights, and then going home.
SPEAKER 12 :
He’s illegitimate. He is a fraud. He’s committed fraud, conspiracy. Now, ultimately, before I play you what Letitia James and how she reacted to her indictment, we’ll go through that in just a minute. What did Letitia James get a conviction on with Donald Trump that eventually the penalty was zeroed out and they said, you’ve got to go back. This is not going to work. Then he was elected president. So that case is on hold. So the New York attorney general, did she go after him for any conspiracy charges? No. Did she go after him for any kind of criminal activity? Not exactly. It was a civil fine. An insane civil fine, so insane that it was overturned in New York State Court on appeal. So you can imagine New York State Court’s not necessarily real friendly to conservatives or someone like President Trump, but certainly they can look at penalties and say, you know what, if we start doing this to people based off this kind of bizarre… case, civil action, by the way, not criminal, civil. And what was the charge in the $500 million penalty? You remember that? It was that they overvalued their real estate to get loans. Now, it’s interesting, if you know anything about real estate, you know that at one day, you could be valued, your real estate could be valued, you know, at… 10 times what it is in just a year. And we see those fallouts. You see it in your own communities and neighborhoods. Areas get very… People start spending crazy amounts of money. Then there’s nowhere else to buy, so there’s not anything on the table. People go other places. The economy takes a hit. So at any moment you’re trying to value your entire commercial holdings or even your private holdings, there is, again… You really don’t know until the day you decide you’re going to sell it. You only have an estimate based off the current market. Well, she didn’t like the estimate that the Trump organization put forward to some of these banks to get loans. Now, did any of the banks complain? Did they say, you know what? They said that they were worth too much. We gave them this money and they didn’t have anything else. They couldn’t pay it back. No, all of the loans failed. were paid back on time or early. So there are no issues with actual banks. This is just the state of New York saying they didn’t want, as Attorney General James at the head, they didn’t want him to get those loan terms because they don’t believe his property is valued at that much. Remember, this is that judge in the case that thought that Mar-a-Lago was worth like a few million dollars or something like that instead of the, it’s almost priceless, but people don’t know if it could go up to hundreds of millions of dollars, even a billion dollars, if the market’s right. Now, if the market was to crash in the Palm Beach area, it’s still going to be worth more than $10 or $20 million when you’re talking about that size of a property. But again, Letitia James, real tough talker. Then she’s being investigated on real estate. Did she commit fraud? That was the question. And they were looking at 2023 deals. And then they saw a 2020 purchase in Norfolk where she marked that it would be, kind of confusingly for New York Attorney General, her primary residence. Now, that doesn’t mean it has to be the only property you own, but to say it’s your primary residence means that you get more favorable loan terms, lower down payments, lower interest rates. So it’s very different than if you’re buying a property. And many people out there know what I’m talking about, but those of you who may not be in that business, some people do it, you know, it’s kind of a side job. If you’re not an investor like that, again, you might not know that. But that’s how that works. And so… Was Norfolk going to be a primary home? Of course they investigated. No, it was being rented out. Sometimes rented out to family, sometimes rented out to others, and it goes back to 2020. So the Department of Justice convenes a grand jury in Eastern Virginia. Now, is that the most conservative place in the world? Absolutely not. That’s where the bureaucracy lives outside Washington, D.C. And she was indicted on two counts. Criminal counts, by the way. She went after Donald Trump on civil counts. She was indicted by a grand jury on criminal actions, two of them. But first, I want you to listen to this other Letitia James, now that she’s been indicted. Certainly not the tough talk of, I’m just going to sue him. I’m going to be a pain. He’s fraud. He is an illegitimate president. So elect me as your attorney general. So I spend all my time on one guy for the entire state of New York. And that case ends up, and even the financial fine, getting overturned. The case is now on hold. And it’s a civil case, not a criminal case like the one being brought against Letitia James and what she is alleged to have done. So take a listen after the indictment was announced.
SPEAKER 05 :
This is nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system. He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State Attorney General. These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties. His decision to fire a United States attorney who refused to bring charges against me and replace them with someone who is blindly loyal not to the law but to the president is antithetical to the bedrock principles of our country.
SPEAKER 12 :
Remember, This is the state attorney general when she was campaigning, and we just played it for you minutes ago, saying that when she got elected, she would sue Donald Trump. She didn’t know what for, but she would because he’s a fraud and he’s an illegitimate president. And ultimately, she came forward with a civil lawsuit. So you saw a very different Letitia James there. We will, again, keep you updated on this. I wanted to go through the legal issues. Again, what was she indicted by the grand jury on? Just to make it clear for everybody, I want you to know the facts. I’m going to read it straightforward. One count of bank fraud, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution. If convicted of both of those counts and is found guilty, could face up to 60 years in prison, 30 years on each count, and $2 million in fines. So we’ve updated you on Letitia and James. You know where that stands. Israel, Hamas, Gaza Strip, the world, and the Middle East. The ceasefire has gone into effect, which means the 72-hour clock for the hostages to be released by Hamas is now ticking. And so far, Israel is doing its steps that it has to do under the agreement. in the ceasefire, so it’s slowly starting to get pulled out of the IDF, pulling out of the Gaza Strip as an international force, which is really a regional force primarily made up of militaries from Arab nations, which is even better, I think, than having the IDF there because of the cultural similarities and also this idea that it’s all Israel dealing with the problem. If it wasn’t Israel there, there wouldn’t be these issues. We’ll see what this international group may face. but if it does move forward by monday we should see those hostages released so what do we need to do well of course we’ve got aclj jerusalem um our office there we’ve represented some of these families of hostages we represent one who is uh the two twin brothers israel believes are alive they believe there’s 20 hostages that are alive And so pray for them, pray that those families are reunited and pray for those who are going to be getting a body, not a live person. Support our work.
SPEAKER 13 :
Welcome back to Steculo. We are going to take your calls and comments on this because we had a lot of people calling in. Do you want to give an update on the Quiet Skies situation?
SPEAKER 12 :
We had our team, obviously, you know, we not only Tulsi Gabbard worked with us here before. Again, her job is DNI. And of course, we have Rick Grinnell, who was the former DNI. But we also represented her. as she was working at ACLJ with us as part of the time period when she was out of elected office and really kind of explaining to people her full move out of the Democrat Party, why she felt like she had no place left and kind of actually didn’t just feel like she needed to be independent, but felt like the Republican Party was her new home.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, it was two steps. She went independent, released the book, and then said, you know what?
SPEAKER 12 :
And then, of course, while that happens, she travels a lot. She’s fairly high profile, doing a lot of speaking and events. And she’s noticing she keeps getting that designation on her boarding pass. I’ve gotten it before. My wife has gotten it before. It’s supposed to be random. Random. And again, to get it over and over again, to have agents on the plane, and it was getting kind of personal too, like going through her personal belongings in front of people. So you would go through security, and then oftentimes she would have to do it again at the gate, and sometimes they would take her to a back room. But again, this is just, it’s personally, you feel like, listen, I didn’t do anything wrong, so nothing’s going to actually happen to me, but I’m being actively spied on. And then we find out three more Republican members of Congress only republican this was happening to also so you have the government using a power that is supposed to protect us from terrorists to surveil and kind of i think kind of i mean make life tougher just like you know kind of show them hey you’re we’re the ones in charge using power in the worst way because of people’s politics. And again, when the government ever faces any moves like this over politics, Logan, I mean, that’s the worst of the federal government. And so what I love about the hearing and the ACLJ’s work on this, and let me thank our donors again, because these are tough, complicated cases, especially we took it on in the administration that was in charge. And Rand Paul said, Senator Paul said, this was only uncovered because of Tulsi. And we uncovered it with her right here on this broadcast. And now that we uncover it, we fought back and represented her.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, absolutely. We actually have a bite from earlier this year. So this is from January this year of Tulsi Gabbard speaking about this, speaking about specifically the Quiet Skies program. When was this and where was this? Just so I know, so I can give people information. This was during her confirmation hearing. Okay, so let’s take a listen to Tulsi Gabbard.
SPEAKER 09 :
Biden, the FBI abused its power for political reasons to try to surveil Catholics who attend traditional Latin mass, labeling them as quote unquote radical traditionalist Catholics. Personally, just 24 hours after I criticized Kamala Harris and her nomination, I was placed on a secret domestic terror watch list called Quiet Skies. Sadly, there are more examples. The bottom line is this. This must end.
SPEAKER 13 :
Remember, this is what we were living through. I mean, I think it became very normal for all of us. And maybe you’re very quick to forget. You’re very quick to move on. It’s why, you know, we’ve always had to say the only thing difference is like when we start talking about the FBI now or the DNI and those kind of things. I have to reframe my mind to not immediately think of corruption and it’s like, what are we talking about? Because so much in so many years, I mean, really, even during the first Trump presidency, we were dealing with a lot of it’s just the beginning of draining the swamp.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah. I mean, so much of what, when you talk to Rick Grinnell, I mean, he was basically brought in as D&I after Ambassador to Germany to say, you know what, we’ve got to kick this off because even the first people put in place were not tough enough to fight the bureaucracy. What was already built in, yeah. And so it started with Rick and then now Tulsi, someone who has seen The abuse of this is is in charge. So they have a massive job of not only the main job of DNI, which is to keep us safe and to make sure our intelligence agencies are working together to keep us safe from terrorism, protect Americans, protect American troops. and using it in the most effective way. It’s also about not letting people use this for unconstitutional and illegal ways because of politics or because of views that you have. And so the fact that it was not just Tulsi, which we assumed it would not be, but because she was brave enough to come and speak out about it, we now know three other people, they said, wait, this was happening to me too. And again, that doesn’t mean that tomorrow if you fly and this is on your… No, it does happen. Randomly to people. But if after every flight, and if you start noting that there’s air marshals sitting next to you or behind you, yes.
SPEAKER 13 :
Go to our website. Go to aclj.org slash help. Especially if you’re someone who’s very active on social.
SPEAKER 12 :
That helps people. Like Tulsi, it helps the people inside the Trump administration. There’s thousands upon thousands of people here with this kind of power. So they want to route out the bad guys, the bad operators. Sometimes they’re able to do that on their own. But again, it always helps if you have people come and say, this is happening to me. And this is who’s doing it.
SPEAKER 13 :
Absolutely. We’re looking right now, if you’re watching any of the news, they’re showing live shots of the floor right now. I just want to say, tell me those people look like they’re panicking and it’s the end of the world. No, you got people giggling and laughing in the corner. All of your bureaucrats and your senators and congresspeople are all… Don’t feel like this is the end of the world the way they make it feel. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not great. But you can see the seriousness on there. Look at their faces. Their faces tell me it’s not, you know, is there anything they’re playing cards with you? They’re not playing cards with themselves. Let’s go ahead and take another phone call about this. Let’s do the government shutdown. We can talk more about Tulsi as well if you want to call in. Let’s go to Brian who’s calling in Virginia. Brian, go ahead.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, guys. I’m just so upset. just so upset about what’s going on with this government shutdown that i’m actually at the hospital now in the emergency room and i’m getting treated for government shutdown itis which is actually a real thing yeah i mean did they not they couldn’t there’s no one there to see you right that’s uh yeah well it wasn’t a government hospital i had to go to civilians so i’m good to go yeah i mean this is the thing from most americans
SPEAKER 12 :
Will not feel an impact. I’m not saying that no one will. Of course people will. They said 25% of the federal government. They will get back pay. Yeah, furloughed. So if they were supposed to get their paycheck next week and they were still shut down, that paycheck is coming. And they’ve been through it before if they’ve worked for the federal government in the last five years. So they know that the check is coming. Now, President Trump did say this. You want me to fire more people? Because the American people are about to see that we could probably keep all this going without at least 25%.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, I think that’s what happens. Look, it happened, sadly, a lot during COVID. I think a lot of people realized their businesses were bloated. Unfortunately, I mean, it costs a lot of people jobs, but you realized, oh, we have gotten a bit in an American culture where we are overstuffing a lot of our organizations. Obviously, the government has been for years. We don’t want to cause anyone to lose their jobs, but it becomes a little bit more of a reality.
SPEAKER 12 :
No, right. It’s not like the person who’s just a good civil servant should be punished here. At the same time, if your bureaucracy is so bloated that your debt and the spending is out of control, that that civil servant, even if they lose their job, ultimately that might be better for them financially and their family. In a few years, even, they might be recovering better because of what else happens if we don’t get the spending under control.
SPEAKER 13 :
First half hour flew by. We want you to continue being part of this conversation. We do have a second half hour of the broadcast coming up. It’s me and Jordan. We’re talking it all out, talking government shutdown.
SPEAKER 12 :
Ask any of those questions you want. to be able to answer to your friends too. Use this broadcast because we’re here. We’ve got the info. So 1-800-684-3110. And don’t feel bad about any question.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, we can walk you through the next.
SPEAKER 12 :
I’ve been walking through my mind saying, okay, which one does get, which one doesn’t, because I want to be very clear to you. So call us.
SPEAKER 13 :
And we’ll also walk through what the Democrats want and why, of course, it’s a non-starter for a lot of Republicans. We’ll talk about that coming up and so much more. But as always, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Catch the second half hour. If you don’t get it on your local station, on all our social platforms, ACLJ.org. And, of course, on YouTube and however you get your podcasts.
SPEAKER 14 :
Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110.
SPEAKER 12 :
And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. This is Jordan Sekulow. As you can tell, I am in a different office right now, not in the studio. But we thought we had to come to you today with the breaking news from yesterday evening. It was in a key meeting. President Trump was in a meeting unrelated to Israel and Hamas or Gaza. And this deal that we’ve been discussing, of course, on the broadcast about Israel withdrawing, the IDF withdrawing from Gaza. Hamas demilitarizing, giving up control of governance of Gaza and allowing a basically a team primarily of Arab nation peacekeepers to join in on the fight to do what the IDF was doing to secure Gaza for the Palestinian people that live there. And so instead of having the IDF do that. Well, yesterday in a meeting, there was this meeting and all of a sudden you see Secretary of State Marco Rubio. I think we have the photo we can put up on the screen for folks. You see Secretary of State Marco Rubio in the meeting. He whispers into the president’s ear. And what we now know is that the president was told, as he said, that we are very close to phase one of the peace deal being signed and agreed upon by both Hamas and the state of Israel, and that he’s got to be ready to go with a statement. And then not soon after that, President Trump did issue a statement on Truth Social about the deal itself. And in that statement, which we’re putting up on the screen, and I think it’s very key for all of us to, again, kind of, take this in for what it is and also realize it hasn’t happened yet. But the statement says that they have agreed to phase one. Phase one is the IDF withdrawal of Gaza. the new international force going in. And then of course, part of that deal is that all hostages, both the bodies of those who were killed by Hamas and those who are still living. Now, Israel estimates that they still believe there are 20 living hostages. Hamas has not totally confirmed that. They haven’t told in any statement said, no, it’s going to be less than that. What’s unique there too is that two of those 20 are individuals that we represented. We brought their brother. They are twins. We brought their brother to Washington, D.C., not long after the October 7th attacks, that winter, to meet with members of Congress and meet with our team. And I’ve got to thank Speaker Johnson again for setting up those meetings. They met with the top Democrats as well to bring attention to what happened on October 7th. And from, again, none of us wanted to be here two years later. for those twin brothers to return home. So there’s that hope that they do remain alive and that they will return home. The other two clients that we represented in that manner, unfortunately, their loved ones were killed by Hamas. and were executed by Hamas. So if that number is 20, it would be an unbelievable moment, obviously, for those families who have waited so long with so little information, and for the Middle East itself. So we’re going to talk about the ramifications of that. That’s why I came to you live today right from outside of our studio, kind of a grassroots-y way to make sure We broke down all the information for you so that you’re prepared for what may happen this weekend between Israel and Hamas and the Arab nations. But I just think about if this deal moves forward, this is the most significant, I think, peace effort in the Middle East that we’ve seen in decades and would solve a problem. what has been a problem, a serious problem for the state of Israel and its Arab neighbors as well, the Palestinian issue, if you want to call it that, for the first time to say that we’re going to move forward peacefully to negotiate what this looks like in the future with a governing body made up of a number of individuals, but not including Hamas. I mean, so it’s hard to even imagine getting there, you know, two months ago. So we are going to, my dad’s going to be joining us. We’re going to be breaking it down for you. Share this with your friends and family. Pray. because no one has been released yet, and the piece has only been in place for a few hours at this point, but it is historic if we get there, and that’s why we’re joining you today on Sec. Welcome back to Seculo, folks. We’re joined by my dad, Jay Seculo. This, again, as you see, I’m not in our normal studio, but I wanted to make sure you heard it from us directly, some analysis of what just broke yesterday evening between Israel, Hamas, the Arab world, the United States, which has been brokering this deal to, one, get to a ceasefire, between Israel and Hamas, second for Hamas to give up governance of the Gaza Strip, the return of the hostages. Israel believes 20 of those hostages are still living. Hamas hasn’t said exactly that that’s the number, but we hope and pray that it is that number and that they will ultimately return bodies as well. So this will be a first step. We’ll see from Hamas if they can meet what they have agreed to. And I want to make that clear. Hamas has agreed to this. Now, until any of that happens, again, we have to be praying that it does. We’ve represented these families. One of those families, the brother of the twin brothers that Israel believes are still alive. Again, you can understand how they’re feeling right now. One, that Israel has continued to confirm that they believe that they are living. And two, that they may be returned home over the weekend or at least early next week. I want to bring my dad right into the discussion, Jay Sekulow, our chief counsel. And dad, I mean, that’s kind of point one, is that this would be… ultimately maybe the most historic peace deal in history if it goes through, in the Middle East, if it goes through the way that it is planned to. But even if phase one works, I mean, we haven’t seen anything like this since the foundation of Israel. There’s been consistent fighting and terror attacks and war since 1948.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, this is very encouraging. First of all, it would bring regional stability, not just to Israel and including Gaza and the West Bank, but it would bring regional stability to the Middle East. And that’s very important for the rest of the world. You have to put this also in a context. Iran has been significantly degraded. over the last nine months because of President Trump’s orders directly in our US military degrading their nuclear capacity. So you have that also happening simultaneously. We had the introduction of the first phase, what I call it, of the Abraham Accords. I think you’re going to see this open up other countries to sign those accords in the very near future. You could already see that the regional players, including the Arab countries, are looking forward to this actually happening, because it will take pressure off of all of them. Of course, our initial and primary concern has been the hostages, because as lawyers, we were retained by those families, a number of the families, to represent their interests before international tribunals, which we did. You mentioned in the first segment, we did it in Washington, we’ve done it at the UN, we’ve done it at the European legislative chambers in Europe, including the European Parliament and the Council of Europe. So we have made an international effort here. And I think what you’re about to see, and look, it’s The details here are the key. It’s not now what’s been written. That’s been executed. It is the implementation of this. Will we actually see the release of the hostages? And Jordan, as you just pointed out, are there 20? Are there 30? Are there five? We don’t have a specific number. Israel’s intelligence thinks there’s upwards of 20. I hope and pray that’s the case. I hope and pray there’s more. But this is a very positive development, and I think you could see a radical change in the entire region.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I mean, we know we were with Leron Berman and his twin brothers, Gali and Ziv Berman, who Israel, throughout the conflict, throughout these two years, and their photos are on the screen now, and he joined us in Washington, D.C., Israel has believed and put it out the message they believe that those twin brothers are still alive. And that would be a miracle, but it would also be, I think, something that, again, people weren’t expecting this to even be the case anymore, that this could actually come to a close. The way that Prime Minister Netanyahu actually said that this will not be over and we will not stop until every hostage is returned. And with the decimation of Hamas, the decimation of much of the Gaza Strip, a lot of pressure on Israel because of their response. But, Dad, ultimately, if Hamas decides demilitarizes and returns the bodies and those living hostages, Israel did exactly what it said it would do. Well, that’s exactly right.
SPEAKER 03 :
And look, I mean, this has been a very trying time for the entire region. Gaza has been devastated. And, of course, the atrocities that Hamas did. And you’re negotiating with terrorists. So you’re signing deals with terrorists. We got to realize that. But there’s a long term play here of regional stability with the way that it’s envisioned that Gaza will be redeveloped. And I think that with the leadership of Hamas, it’s also been degraded and significantly eliminated that they had no choice here. If the military action of Israel had not been taken, this deal would never have happened. If the president was not a president, Trump did not successfully order the U.S. military to strike those Iran nuclear facilities. This would not have happened. So it took a culmination of months of efforts here to do this.
SPEAKER 12 :
you realize that hamas was cut off from its allies iran no longer had the capability after those attacks to keep supplying them weapons most of their leadership has been uh taken out even when they announced new leaders the same for hezbollah so hezbollah was not able to go in and assist hamas as they usually would and other radical groups i mean their leadership is just decimated we We’re not even sure who exactly is claiming to be the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip right now. Usually they’ve got their entire face covered when they do any kind of media reports. They have some other political leaders, but most of them also have been taken out as well during this conflict. And I think, you know, Dad, it could rewrite history because we were getting to a point where the world was saying, you know what? This is too much from Israel. This is too much destruction, too much war. But as you just said, If this didn’t all happen the way it happened, Israel would not be even thinking about right now any living hostages being returned, the bodies of those who were deceased, unfortunately, but those bodies being returned, and Hamas demilitarizing and allowing an international force, really a regional force of mostly Arab nation militaries to go in and secure the Gaza Strip instead of the Israelis having to do it. I mean… You think about that, hindsight’s 20-20, but then you put it all together and realize everything that Israel did, including weathering this criticism and storm and questions about, did they go too far? Was it too aggressive in their response? Like you said, they wouldn’t be here today, and they wouldn’t be here today if the U.S. hadn’t taken those aggressive steps on Iran as well. So we neutralized every single one of Hamas’s partners. We made it clear that if you are a leader of Hamas, and Israel made it clear, even outside the Gaza Strip, that you were not safe. And so Ismail Hanei is no more. And their leadership that was inside the Gaza Strip was totally taken out so they say you know that uh they’re willing to give up governance they’re willing to demilitarize and that i think if that does happen it’s because they basically already have given up they can’t govern anymore and they can’t uh they have they have very little military weaponry left i think their capacity as a both a paramilitary organization as and as uh
SPEAKER 03 :
functioning governments is gone. That has also been degraded and decimated. They don’t have the capacity to cover. So I want to say something to some of the naysayers out there that were questioning President Trump on this and including conservatives, by the way, and well-known ones. and also those that were taking this kind of anti-Israel stance and they were doing too much. We would not be here today, first of all, if Hamas didn’t start these atrocities, number one. Number two, we would not be here today unless the military action of the United States and the military action of Israel in the region had not taken place. So without those two, nothing happens. Now you’ve got Hamas coming to the table, giving up governance, which they’re not capable of doing because they have no choice. They’re not doing this because they want to. They’re doing this because they have no choice. So, you know, there’s vital American interests at play here in the Middle East. considering Iran was threatening to cut off the Strait of Hormuz, which would have removed, I think, 65 percent of the oil and gas transports in the region and also to the rest of the world. So this end result is very positive.
SPEAKER 12 :
Yeah, I just want to play this flashback really quick for folks. This is November 7th, a month after the October 7th attacks. We brought those families of the hostages we represented to Capitol Hill. This is Speaker of the House Mike Johnson two years ago.
SPEAKER 01 :
We want to thank these families again for their courage and their willingness to share your harrowing stories. And I will say again and reiterate once more, we will stand against these atrocities, and we will stand with Israel, and we’ll stand with each of you and your families. We’ll be praying for you, and we’ll be taking action because that’s what we’re going to do here. That’s what it’s called for. I know that your time is short and you have to leave. I want to thank Jay and Jordan Sekulow of the American Center for Law and Justice for helping facilitate the visit today. I know you have a tight itinerary, so we’ll allow you all to step off the stage, if you will.
SPEAKER 12 :
So folks, again, that just underscores how long at the ACLJ we’ve been working towards this kind of moment, knowing that it was an uphill battle anytime you’re dealing with a terrorist organization. But I think it’s a great reminder of why you support the work of the ACLJ. It’s not only the work that we do in the United States, but the work that we do around the world. As you know, Jeff Balaban runs the ACLJ Jerusalem office. We need your support. Donate today. at ACLJ.org.
SPEAKER 13 :
Welcome back to Secular. Phone lines are completely jammed. We’re going to do our best to get to as many of those as we can, specifically in the back half hour, but keep trying, keep calling. We’ll do our best to get to all of them we can. CeCe Howell is joining us in studio, senior attorney here at the ACLJ. I did want to pivot a little bit. We’re going to continue talking about Israel, and CeCe’s been to Israel more recently than any of us here, so she can comment as well as we are seeing this maybe historic moment. uh as uh bb net yahoo now i feel like you could have probably played this back uh episodes of this show over the last year and heard a very similar uh thing including talking points including the big deal points now these again i think they’re controversial i think when i see the comments coming in a lot of you are not thrilled with some of these plans I do think we need to lean a little bit on President Trump and lean a little bit on Bibi Netanyahu that they are doing what’s best for their people. And hopefully that is the case. But it is a bit concerning, some of them, for sure. I understand that. We’re going to address those. I did also want to talk… But some of the work of the ACLJ is we have been working on issues involving the persecution of Christians throughout the world, including in Nigeria and other places, for many years, for decades now. It has become part of really the DNA of the ACLJ. It has been our work internationally. As we know, Christian persecution. Now, look, we saw what happened over the weekend. in the LDS church, where you saw right here in our country, we saw many people murdered, church burnt down, all these horrible things that happened to Christians. So I don’t want, now I have to say that it feels like a rising tide that’s happening right now. But I think what we can do also is turn to what’s happening in other countries and go, we’re not there yet. We got to make sure we don’t get there as Americans. We got to make sure that we don’t start treating religious institutions the way that happens in other parts of the world. And it’s starting to bubble up on some mainstream news where you’re actually hearing people talk about it. This is a clip I want to play for you. This is from Bill Maher, a real time of Bill Maher. This just happened. He had Nancy Mace on. Again, you may go, Logan, you’re playing Bill Maher. Now, of course, we know Bill Maher has, he said he hasn’t moved politically, but the left has moved significantly from him. He has been someone that’s been fairly critical of of uh a lot of especially the the uh he’s been very critical on people who are supporting uh the palestinian uh situation the hamas situation over israel it’s very pro-israel uh but he also wants to make sure people are actually noticing what’s happening around the world in terms of persecution of people of faith let’s hear from bill maher can’t believe i’m saying that real time with bill maher from just over the weekend
SPEAKER 10 :
The fact that this issue has not gotten on people’s radar, it’s pretty amazing. If you don’t know what’s going on in Nigeria, your media sources, you are in a bubble. And again, I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. This is so much more. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt. than what is going on in Gaza. They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country. Where are the kids protesting this?
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you. No one will talk about it, so thank you. Absolutely.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s Africa, that’s why. No one’s talking about it, and they should be. You can’t read about it on mainstream media. It’s sad, so thank you for bringing it up.
SPEAKER 10 :
Well, because the Jews aren’t involved. That’s why. It’s the Christians and the Muslims. Who cares?
SPEAKER 11 :
It’s just… And Cece, this is an issue that we’ve talked about here for a long time. If you’ve watched this show for a long time, you’ve heard us bring this up. We fought to get Nigeria listed as a country of particular concern under the first Trump administration. And one of the first acts of Secretary of State Blinken under the Biden administration was to take them off that list. But it was because of this persecution. And as you know, you’re hearing truth from Bill Maher on this, not someone who’s normally like rah-rah for standing up for Christians, but it’s the truth and you’re not hearing about it. And just talk a little bit about that and the work that we do to raise this.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah, and first I’m going to say you’re hearing about it if you listen to the ACLJ. You’re hearing about it if you go to our website. You’re hearing about it if you listen to this radio show because we have talked about it since he says, you know, kind of started in 2009 escalating. And that’s true because since 2009, 12 million Christians have been displaced. But we talk about this constantly. I am at the UN constantly talking about Nigeria because as far as Christian persecution goes, more Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than all of the other countries combined. And in fact, this year, in 2025, the first 220 days, there have been over 7,000 Christians killed for their faith. That is phenomenal. 32, that’s an average of 32 Christians killed per day. And there’s over 8,000 people that have been abducted. That’s an average of 35 people a day abducted. Now, you think, just like they said, if there are 32 Christians being killed every single day because of their faith, you’d think we’d hear about that. Again, ACLJ talks about it all the time. We point to it all the time. But I’m thrilled that we do now have some mainstream media and people that are paying attention to this because this is a huge concern and it needs to be fixed. and you’re exactly right will we were on it because nigeria under the last trump administration was a country of particular concern and that is from the state department it’s a designation from the state department and it’s specifically for religious freedom violations so if there should be any country in the world that’s a cpc It should be Nigeria. And then there are punishments that come along with that. That’s why it’s critical that it is a CPC. And again, we won’t stop talking about this. And I’m thrilled that other media outlets are picking it up.
SPEAKER 13 :
It’s one of the things is completely independent media here at the ACLJ. What we do here on our media side is we are able to bring up stories that are not going to get the attention of the mainstream media. But one of the goals is obviously to break through to the mainstream media. is to make sure that our clients, that anything we’re supporting, makes it through. It’s not just on here. We can be the constant voice yelling, but we understand we are going to be a smaller percentage of people that maybe get their news from some of these mainstream outlets. However, that’s growing, that’s shifting, that’s changing, which is great. However, we couldn’t do that without your support because we’re able to do this. We’re able to go to court. We’re able to go to the UN. We’re able to do all of these things, take action as well as report. A lot of people can’t do that. So I want to encourage you, of course, to support the work of the ACLJ while you’re at it. But it’s true. We all live in sort of little bubbles. I send Will all the time because I’m very connected in sort of the, I guess you’d say the Israel Zionist side of this. I send Will news stories all the time where he’s like, this wasn’t even on my feed. It’s like, yeah, it’s not necessarily that you’re doing anything to keep it off your feed. It’s just, you have to get so plugged into such a niche audience. That sometimes these things that are big stories or are big portions of stories aren’t reported.
SPEAKER 11 :
Well, even that point that there was that madman that ran into a wedding at a country club in Connecticut and or New Hampshire, one of the two, and had a shooting. My feed was only headlines of mass shooting at wedding in New Hampshire. Yeah. Nowhere in the headlines that I was being fed was it that the gunman cried, free Palestine, before committing his murders. Right. Once again, the narrative changing before you, you are being manipulated. Yeah, you have to be really careful. And you’re being manipulated by a lot of people on the right right now when it comes to Israel.
SPEAKER 13 :
Yeah, absolutely. I think you’ve got to make sure you’re staying tuned in. Now, I’m very happy to report that it looks like a lot of our people are awake to it. You know what I think is good is that you’re seeing a lot of the people who have been the most trusted sources. for decades now, including even your senators. Those are the ones whose voices are loud and have been calling out some of this. And at least you are trusting some of these voices you’ve trusted for years. Now, that being said, there obviously is not. It’s the most I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. where the conservative audience, if you will, has not been supportive of Israel until the last couple months. But you know what? Maybe today things change as President Trump meets with Benjamin Netanyahu. Hey, we get back. We got a second half hour coming up. Support the work of the ACLJ. I need you to go to ACLJ.org right now. Whether it’s CeCe’s incredible work she’s doing at the UN, whether we’re supporting Christians in Nigeria that are being persecuted for their faith, or what we’re doing just around the world. The ACLJ doesn’t exist within the borders just of America. We’re doing work around the world. Go to ACLJ.org. We’ll talk to you next week.
