New Trump coverup SURGES into national spotlight

0:01A new Trump cover-up surges into the national spotlight, and I have three interviews. Elizabeth Warren talks about the criminal prosecution of the Fed chair Jerome Powell. Hakeem Jeffries talks about getting ACA subsidies passed out of the House, despite Mike Johnson trying to block it. And Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan discusses the fallout for Republicans amid the ICE shooting. I'm Brian Taylor-Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. There is a major cover-up getting exposed right now, and this is in addition to the one regarding the Epstein files. So it turns out, in the aftermath of the ICE shooting in Minneapolis, that senior officials within the DOJ had ordered prosecutors to investigate not the agent, John Ross, who shot Renee Good in the face as she tried to drive away, but Renee Good's widow.

0:42Because as we all know, part of keeping up the con is to double down on this Trumpian talking point that Renee Good was a domestic terrorist as a way to retroactively justify her killing at the hands of a trigger-happy ICE agent. Well, that edict by the DOJ's senior leadership didn't go quite as planned since there was a mass resignation by six prosecutors. One of those prosecutors, Joseph Thompson, was actually second in command at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota. And importantly, he was overseeing the massive fraud investigation that's consumed so much media attention over the last couple of weeks, where some Somalis had defrauded safety net programs.

1:19And the fruits of those investigations have been a boon for Republicans. They've used them as a justification for ICE to go ramp up their presence in Minnesota in the first place. And yet now the DOJ has lost him as a prosecutor, lost a key fraud prosecutor in their ranks, because even as someone who did work that they benefit from legally and politically, he wasn't willing to be a complete hack for the bigwigs of the DOJ. According to the New York Times, Mr. Thompson strenuously objected to the decision not to investigate the shootings as a civil rights matter and was outraged by the demand to launch a criminal investigation into Becca Good, according to people familiar with the developments.

1:58Mr. Thompson had originally set out to investigate the shootings in partnership with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the state agency that reviews police shootings. Senior Justice Department officials overruled the decision to cooperate with the state agency. And by the way, that checks out in my interview just a few days back with the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Fry, that was on this podcast in the previous episode. he told me that the FBI was icing out the BCA, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, by preventing them access to all the evidence. No doubt because the BCA would want to investigate this in a legitimate fashion, while the FBI, as an appendage of Trump and Bondi and Harmeet Dillon, clearly wants to give blind cover to the murderous ICE agent and vilify the victim.

2:41And I've spoken quite a bit about the fact that I have mixed feelings when prosecutors resign in protest, which has been a recurring theme basically for the last year. Because on one hand, like, I get it. It draws attention to the injustice of the DOJ. It shows that good people aren't willing to do bad things. All of that I understand. But on the other hand, that attention usually just lasts a day. And then those vacancies at the DOJ are filled by bad people who are perfectly content to do Trump's bidding. And even ineffective prosecutors like Lindsey Halligan, for example, while embarrassing in the courtroom, they can still do a lot of damage just by virtue of the fact that they wield the power of the DOJ.

3:21But I think this instance is different because now you've got six prosecutors who want to investigate righteously what happened in Minneapolis. And guess what? There is a state agency that also wants to investigate what happened in Minneapolis. So I hope these prosecutors go work for either the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension or the Minneapolis PD or some other agency that isn't led by Harmeet Dillon or some other hack clown whose sole priority is dancing like a court jester for the God King. These people have the experience to do the right thing and the desire to do the right thing.

3:54And I really hope that doesn't get wasted, especially considering, yes, the feds are trying to have sole jurisdiction over this case by refusing to share evidence with the state. But remember, the state can still prosecute John Ross. That's the ICE agent, even if they have incomplete evidence. The evidentiary standard to get a grand jury indictment is probable cause. That's it. I mean, hell, you've got probable cause just with the public video footage alone. So a state prosecution can still happen. It should still happen, even despite efforts by the DOJ to prevent it. And now there are six newly unburdened prosecutors who can help make sure that the prosecution is successful.

4:32Oh, and it goes without saying, but presidential pardons don't work for state crimes. Something to think about. Next up are my interviews with Elizabeth Warren, Hakeem Jeffries, and Peggy Flanagan. No Lie is brought to you by Factor. A recurring theme in my life is that I desperately want to eat better, but there are literally not enough hours in the day. Factor doesn't ask you to meal prep or follow recipes. It just removes the entire problem. Two minutes, real food, done. So there was a time in my life where I actually cooked for myself. That time is long gone. I don't think I've touched the saucepan in 10 years.

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6:14I'm super careful about what goes in my body. I could not recommend Factor highly enough. I've eaten it every day this week. You absolutely should too. Head to factormeals.com slash BTC50OFF and use code BTC50OFF to get 50 % off your first Factor box plus free breakfast for a year. Offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with Factor. I'm joined now by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me. So we have some big news today as it relates to the Fed, monetary policy. Donald Trump, in an effort to punish Jerome Powell for failing to quickly enough reduce the interest rates, he's now opened up a criminal investigation of him.

6:57Of course, Donald Trump's DOJ was perfectly content to oblige. That's why someone like Jeanine Pirro is in the DOJ, is a U.S. attorney. So first and foremost, can I have your reaction to this news that Trump has yet again weaponized the government against a political opponent? So, look, we've been watching Trump use the government like it's his own personal security enforcement force to be able to follow through on every grievance that Trump has got. But this one is truly shocking beyond shocking. There's never been anything like it before, a president trying to do this to a Federal Reserve chair.

7:37And just back up for one sec. Remember, we have an independent Fed and have had for decades, Democratic administrations, Republican administrations. Why? Because we want confidence as much as possible that the Fed is making decisions about monetary policy, raising interest rates, lowering interest rates, controlling inflation, responding to unemployment based on the economic numbers and not on the fact of how many days out are we from the next election. There's a real concern that if the president of the United States gets his hands on the dial on interest rates, what will happen is every president will be tempted to juice the economy by lowering those interest rates just before an election.

8:27And you get this kind of rush of money into the economy, like a sugar high, something that may feel good in the short term. but even the medium term, much less the long term, really bad for the economy, potentially driving up both unemployment and inflation simultaneously. So we've done this for years. Donald Trump, basically from the day he got in office, has chafed under this and wanted to control the Fed. And he has tried, he's threatened to fire Jerome Powell. He's tried to fire another Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook. He has said publicly that he will not appoint anyone to run the Fed who will not do exactly what Donald Trump wants, who does not agree with Donald Trump 100 percent of the time.

9:17In other words, he wants a sock puppet over at the Fed. And so when Jerome Powell, very quietly, very soberly, won't roll over and play dead, Donald Trump now gets his Justice Department to attack him with some phonied up notion of a criminal indictment over trying to rehab an old historic Fed building. This really is. It's just a power play on Donald Trump's part. And Jerome Powell, to his credit, is saying, you're not going to push me around. Also, is there not some irony in the fact that Donald Trump thinks that what's disqualifying here is some issue related to a federal building? Like, while the guy has knocked down the entire East Wing of the White House with zero approval, zero authority to be able to do so?

10:17Isn't that a stunner? I mean, this guy talked about someone who has no self-reflection and is willing to spew it all out, but sure doesn't think about, wait a minute, what has he just been doing? He's the guy who's knocked down the east wing of the White House and keeps changing what he's going to build with no oversight. This is Donald Trump playing king, both in trying to control the Fed and in deciding what the White House, one of our major national treasures, is going to look like. Really stunning. Yeah, the projection here really is incredible. I mean, like, I wouldn't be surprised if next week we see an investigation opened into Jerome Powell for campaign finance violations related to an affair he had with with hush money payouts to porn stars and Playboy bunnies.

11:07You know, your Republican colleagues in the Senate, Tom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski, both announced that they would be blocking the confirmations of any nominee to the Fed, including the upcoming Fed chair nomination. While Donald Trump is engaged in this whole effort to basically eliminate the independence of the Fed, do you presume that there will be any more Republicans who are going to sign on to this effort? Because, you know, with only two Republicans right now, I mean, Lisa Murkowski is is one of, you know, two or three very moderate members of the Republican conference. Tom Tillis, of course, is retiring, which is too often when these Republicans finally discover their spines.

11:44But but with only two in a conference of 53, it leaves them twisting in the in the wind a little bit. Do you think that they're going to get some backup? You know, I genuinely don't know. But here's the thing. Placing a bet on Senate Republicans to show some spine and stand up to Donald Trump would have been a losing proposition about 99 out of 100 times over this past year. Republicans have just caved in repeatedly. Now, why might they jump up this time? because the independence of the Fed is something that is so essential to how our economy works and to America's position around the world. So you might get some more Republicans willing to stand up to Trump on this, but boy, I wouldn't bet the ranch on it.

12:39Well, you know, the interesting part of that is these people are all participants in the economy. These people all have stock portfolios and brokerage accounts and whatever it may be. And so they also have a vested interest in making sure that the economy doesn't run too hot just because Donald Trump wants to juice it five minutes before an election. And so this is the perfect instance of like, you don't want to help the guy crash the plane that you are also a passenger on. Yeah, you know, it's a good way to put it. But notice overall, this is just part of Trump's, he's going to take all power to himself.

13:15And then he's going to decide how to use it. You know, this morning I was just giving a speech, calling out how Donald Trump spent an entire year before the 2024 election, basically standing up and saying every single day that he, Donald Trump, would lower costs for American families on day one. Remember how many times he said that? And yet he's been president for a year. Cost of groceries are up. Cost of utilities are up. Cost of housing is up. Cost of health care is up. And all of those are up, not just by some natural physical law. They are up because of policies that Donald Trump and the Republicans have put in place.

13:59So Donald Trump wants to pull this power in. But notice, where does he want to use it? Well, he wants to use it to get Donald Trump reelected. He wants to use it to flatter himself with a new golden crusted ballroom. And he wants to use it to help out his billionaire buddies like the oil industry execs. But he's not using it to help the American people.

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15:26And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 for a live session based on over 1.7 million client reviews. BetterHelp makes it easy to get matched online with a qualified therapist. Sign up and get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash no lie. That's BetterHelp.com slash no lie. I'm joined now by Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Thanks so much for joining me. Great to be with you and happy birthday. Thanks. I appreciate it. But Leader Jeffries, you were able to score a big win in the House in terms of getting the ACA extension passed. This was over the protests of Mike Johnson and, of course, Donald Trump.

16:06And so now in terms of this thing passing through the Senate, I know that this isn't your jurisdiction, but I'm assuming that your focus is now on John Thune. Do you have any sense of the likelihood of its passage now that it goes to the Senate? Well, from the very beginning of this effort, we made clear that we were in this fight until we won this fight on behalf of the American people during the 43-day government shutdown. We repeatedly made clear that we would work with the other side of the aisle to try to find bipartisan common ground, to reopen the government in that context, to enact a spending bill that actually made life better for the American people, but that we were not going to gut the health care of the American people and that we needed to address the Republican health care crisis beginning by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.

16:53We've now done that successfully against all odds in the House of Representatives, but our work, of course, continues in the Senate. Now, in the Senate, this bill previously came up for a vote in December. All 47 Senate Democrats voted for it, joined by four Senate Republicans. So we know, Brian, the bill already has a majority of senators on that side of the Capitol. The only obstacle is John Thune. And we're going to keep the pressure on him to do his job. Even in the event that this thing does manage to pass the Senate, it would then have to contend with with Donald Trump's signature or a veto.

17:35I would presume, at least for right now, and this is notwithstanding the pressure that he's going to have to contend with, which will, I imagine, be quite great. But if there's a veto by Donald Trump, do you think that you'll have enough Republicans in the House to overcome his veto? Well, 17 Republicans joined us the first time around. it's challenging when it comes to getting additional support, given the cult-like behavior of Mike Johnson and the overwhelming majority of Republicans in the House. I think from our standpoint, if we get this successfully through the Senate and we have a real shot to do it, partnering with Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats, I think the pressure would be enormous on Donald Trump.

18:23In fact, I believe he was just asked about this and did not outright promise a veto. Yeah. Which means he knows that Republicans are in a very vulnerable position because they've been ripping health care away from the American people from the very beginning. And Democrats continue to press them on it. We know the American people are with us, both as it relates to the Affordable Care Act and on the broader struggle, including in connection with their vicious cuts against Medicaid, the largest cuts in American history. And they're going to have to do something before they face the voters in November.

19:01And our view is start by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of Americans. And also, we've seen that this administration is susceptible to pressure and the Republican Party more broadly is susceptible to pressure. The Epstein files passed, even despite the fact that Trump wants nothing more than to suppress them and is in fact working to suppress them, even though even despite the fact that he signed that bill into law. And also we have recent precedent that shows what happens when a Republican Party messes with health care in an election year. 2018 was the biggest.

19:32The Democrats won the House by the biggest margin in modern American history on the back of Republicans trying to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. So, you know, if past is prologue, Republicans understand what's what's coming down the pipe for them if they don't move as far as these ACA subsidies are concerned. But I want to switch over to a different topic here. This is obviously something that's consumed the entire country for the last week or so, and that is the issue of, you know, the lawlessness of ICE. And so from your vantage, is there anything that Congress or that congressional Democrats might be able to do to limit funding for ICE, so to kind of cut them off, you know, where it matters most, which is, you know, the funding source?

20:17Yeah, in the context of the upcoming Homeland Security bill, House appropriators on the Democratic side are pushing aggressive accountability measures to try to rein ICE in because they are completely and totally out of control. To date, Republicans have been resistant to imposing common sense measures that would get ICE under control so that they are compelled to behave like every other law enforcement agency within the federal government. And we're going to continue to press that case now. Now, part of the challenge that the Congress overall is going to have to deal with in this instance is that much of the funding for ICE was appropriated outside of the traditional process and came in the form of billions of dollars in the one big ugly bill that, of course, Republicans jammed down the throats of the American people and that Donald Trump signed into law.

21:15Every single House Democrat and every single Senate Democrat opposed that bill for a variety of different reasons, including the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, the massive cut to SNAP, the funding of the out -of-control extreme ICE behavior that we're now seeing, and of course the fact that that one big ugly bill included massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors. So there are two tracks here. There's the funding that should be repurposed, connected to the one big ugly bill to actually make life better for the American people in an environment where the cost of living is too high, housing costs too high, grocery costs too high, utility bills too high, child care costs too high, and health care costs too high.

22:02And then there's the separate track that we're working on, which relates to the appropriations process, where Democrats have put forward strong language in the context of what would become law, ironclad, undefeatable in a court of law. And Republicans to date continue to act like a wholly owned subsidiary of the Trump cartel. But we'll keep pressing our case. OK, two questions there. what would some laws be that would curb the behavior of ICE? Like what are some provisions within that law that you're trying to get passed? And the second is when does the One Big Beautiful Bill funding run out? And when is new funding up where you would then be able to kind of chip away at just the massive influx of funds that have allowed ICE to balloon into one of, you know, what would be the biggest standing armies in the world if it was, you know, just by a funding perspective?

22:57Yeah, from a funding standpoint, in terms of the one big ugly bill, that funding is available at least for the balance of the fiscal year. And Republicans may try to re-up it in the context of another reconciliation bill that they may attempt to jam down the throats of the American people that remains to be seen will fight them every step of the way. What was it? Was that able to be passed? And that was able to be passed via reconciliation. So presumably, but the same process that allowed them to pass that with a simple majority, the first go around would stay in place for the second time, right?

23:34Yeah, they were able to pass that via reconciliation. Of course, they believe that they were riding higher at that time than they are right now. You're seeing Republicans recognize that they've been on the losing side of both legislative battles now repeatedly on Epstein, on repealing the Trump executive order as it relates to ripping collective bargaining rights away from a million federal employees. We've defeated Trump in the House on that, and most recently in extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. One of the reasons why you're starting to see Republicans soften their cult-like allegiance to Donald Trump is because they know he's deeply unpopular, their policies have failed, and Democrats are winning elections all across the country because we're on the right side of the American people on the affordability issue, and we're pushing back strongly against their extremism.

24:27So I think it's going to be challenging for them to get another reconciliation bill done as long as Democrats remain strongly in opposition, which we will do. And then the second part of that question is what provisions are contained that would limit what ICE is able to do? What are you guys pushing for? Yeah. So one example amongst several that I think will continue to be put on the table, but this notion that was articulated by J.D. Vance, who's a complete and total disgrace, by the way. This guy says that this agent who killed without justification, it was depraved indifference to human life.

25:08Renee Nicole Good should be alive today with her children. But J.D. Vance claims that ICE has absolute immunity. We don't believe they have absolute immunity. In fact, every other law enforcement official has what's called qualified immunity at best. Yeah. But absolute immunity is completely and totally out of control. Now, to the extent that there's ambiguity as it relates to ICE agents actually being held accountable, that needs to be addressed because as long as these agents think that the president, the vice president, Christy Noem, who's terrible, and the notion that she would irresponsibly call Ms.

25:54Good a domestic terrorist insane, I mean, she's a stone-cold liar, Christy Noem, deeply unqualified. She needs to be thrown out of office. the thing is as long as these ICE agents believe that they will not be held accountable for their behavior either by this administration or by subsequent administrations because they've been given so-called absolute immunity then you're going to see the behavior continue but if they know that they will be held accountable by the Congress or by a court of law either by this administration or by subsequent administrations, because the statute of limitations does not run out before this administration is run out of town, then I think there's real opportunity to see a change in behavior.

26:47I want to switch gears here a little bit to what's happening today, and that is that Donald Trump has announced that the Department of Justice is opening up a criminal investigation into Jerome Powell. That's actually gotten some some pushback from even Republicans. Tom Tillis and Lisa Murkowski both announced that they would block any any nominees to the Fed while this is going on. Can you talk about what you're able to do from the House side in terms of preventing what seems to be just this this unbridled effort to politicize the Justice Department and wield it against any of his political opponents from Letitia James to Adam Schiff to James Comey, now to his own appointed Fed chair who should be, you know, overseeing an independent, completely independent entity in the Fed.

27:37You make a very important observation, Brian, which is Donald Trump appointed Jerome Powell. But because Chairman Powell is behaving in a manner consistent with the independent nature of the Federal Reserve, charged with the responsibility of overseeing the economy to ensure it works as best as possible for the American people, given Chairman Powell's independence, Donald Trump, looking for a scapegoat because his policies have been a total failure as it relates to the economy, is now weaponizing the Department of Justice. Again, all of these extremists, these sycophants, these political hacks who are operating right now as if they're never going to be held accountable within the Department of Justice, you're going to be held accountable by the Congress as soon as House Democrats take back the majority and eventually by the American people in a variety of different ways when this administration changes.