Podcast appearances and mentions of Marcy Wheeler

It was another eventful week in this surreal world. The idiot-in-chief went to the Middle East, SCOTUS held a special hearing yesterday, and what was thought to be a very old copy of the Magna Carta housed at Harvard is discovered to be an authentic 7th original copy dating back to 1300! Marcy Wheeler thinks it's an auspicious sign, especially when the administration is talking about suspending habeas corpus. And, oh yeah, they're likely arresting a sitting member of Congress today. It's Emptywheel Friday, where Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins Nicole Sandler to discuss some of what happened this week.

It's Friday, so we made it to the end of another action-packed week. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I review some of the crap that Dump and his gang flung at us this week and try to make sense of it all.This week we got a new pope - one from the United States for the first time ever- and it seems he's "woke" and MAGAt heads are exploding. The tariff fiasco is ramping up in full swing, as some people are finally beginning to realize what this will mean for our economy, and Dump pretends he signed a great new trade deal with the UK (he didn't). SCOTUS lets Dump and Hegseth remove trans people from the military, but the North Carolina Supreme Court finally has to accept the election results and swear in the democrat who won the election six months ago(!).And the Dumpster fire says he doesn't know if he has to uphold the constitution or if all people deserve due process. Seriously...And finally, the federal judge in Vermont who presided over the bail hearing this morning orders that Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University grad student who was abducted by masked goons in Boston, be released from detention "immediately" and on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions. We'll see if they comply...

Every Friday we end the week by spending an hour (usually a bit more) with Marcy Wheeler, one of the best independent journalists working today. You can and should read her daily at emptywheel.net and follow her on BlueSky at emptywheel.bsky.social. And, of course, listen to our weekly round up of some of the Trump shit that hit the proverbial fan that week.Today there was much more to discuss than we had time for. But we did speak quite a bit about Due Process and Trump's disregard of it and efforts to erase it from our rights. We spoke about the fact that he is the most corrupt president in history and his continued assaults on our independent judiciary. As always, Marcy's depth of knowledge informs and educates us. I learn something new from her every time we talk.I also spent a couple of minutes at the beginning with sad news about an old friend of mine. Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule was killed in a house fire yesterday. I've known Jill for over 30 years. Much of my career was spent in music radio, and I was fortunate enough to work at a few stations who were adventurous enough to play her music. I'll dedicate a whole show to her next week, featuring some of our on air appearances together. But for today, I played a couple of her political songs -- a quick one at the beginning, and closed the show with a performance she gave at Netroots Nation in 2011 when my two radio worlds came together.  I miss her already.

We made it through another treacherous week in Trumpville.Every Friday, I get together with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net who helps me unpack much of what happened since we spoke the Friday before.This was another week that felt like a decade! From Hegseth melting down, to Trump's continual lies and tweets (Vladimir Stop!), his newest illegal grift, a few judicial victories for the good guys (us) and even today's arrest by the FBI of a judge in Wisconsin for "obstructing an ICE arrest" --- we cover a lot of ground. Strap in and get informed....

Each Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I get together to recap much of the important news from the week just ending. It's a daunting task, but necessary at this strange and fucked-up time in history. Today, we covered Trump's attempts to mess with immigration, his continued actions in shutting down the government, shutting down the global economy and the end of his BS attempt to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine. We talked about yesterday's ruling from Judge Harvie Wilkinson dealing with the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and the administration's disregard for due process. You can and should read the whole thing here. It's only 7 pages and more than worth your time!Today also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the night before the start of the American Revolution. Tomorrow and Saturday are also days that the magat faction likes... 4/19 is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and 4/20, Hitler's birthday and other nefarious occasions. (I'd prefer a peaceful day celebrating cannabis, but that's now what I'm worried about.) With another National Hands Off Day of protests planned for tomorrow, and rumors flying about the possibility of Trump using this occasion to invoke the Insurrection Act, we have some warnings about being safe and diligent if you join in the protests tomorrow.

Every Friday, I join with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net to recap much of what happened during the week. As has been the case every week since the inauguration, this week was a doozy. But as Marcy says, "gravity hit this week, in a big way."Trump had his "liberation day" tariff announcement, causing the stock market to crash. Then he "paused" it (but not really), causing the market to spike before it crashed again. The DumpsterCoaster is one nauseating ride.Things may be coming to a head in this administration's clash with the judiciary branch. The Supreme Court unanimously said yesterday that they must facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia who was deported illegally to El Salvadore. The DOJ missed the deadline for information they were supposed to submit this morning and apparently, in a hearing that was starting as we finished recording today's episode, they didn't comply with the orders for information then either.What happens next? We don't know, but I'd suggest you make sure you're fastened in. This is going to be a tumultuous ride.

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

We wrap up each week on the Friday show with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net.This week was a rollercoaster with Cory Booker stepping up to offer motivation and passion and, dare I say, hope. I don't think we've reached the bottom of the rollercoaster yet, as we're watching the Dow in free fall for the second day in a row, and the inflation that's sure to kick in from Trump's new tariffs haven't hit us yet...Strap in, it's a bumpy ride!

I've been plagued by computer problems all week. I'm still not out of the woods, but I was able to cobble something together to be able to record today's Emptywheel Friday episode with Marcy Wheeler. Good thing too, as this one another hell of a week!We learned about the Signal chat debacle (aka WhiskeyLeaks in honor of the drunken Secretary of Defense Hegseth) and much of the rest of the shitshow that's been playing out all week as I sat by without a working studio or computers.I hope to be back at full strength on Monday, but no promises. I'll keep you posted at nicolesandler.com and on Bluesky @nicolesandler.bsky.social.Donations to the computer repair fund are welcome at nicolesandler.com/donate-2

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

We made it to another Friday, and another end of the week recap with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. We keep noting that each week seems like an eternity, but this one seemed to have been even longer. I cannot keep up with all that's happening. I don't have the bandwidth, physically or emotionally to handle it. It's one of many reasons why I'm so grateful for Marcy Wheeler and her indefatigable work at emptywheel.net, and that she brings it to us here each Friday.

We wrap up each week on Fridays with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. We try to cover much of the important news from the week just ending. With the avalanche of shit raining down on us constantly, there's a lot of information to parse. Marcy is in Ireland, I'm in Arizona, so we record our Friday get-togethers at around noon Eastern. The show goes live at 5pm ET.There's a lot happening today, as the senate will vote on the "continuing resolution" offered by the magats. That may or may not happen by showtime. But as Marcy and I discuss, it's a lose-lose situation. There is no good outcome on this bill. Either way, whether the Democrats block it triggering a government shut-down or they vote for cloture allowing it to pass, we're screwed.Today we'll talk about why and how we continue to fight on... and yes, there are some reasons for cautious optimism, coming from the third branch of government -- the courts.

We reached another Friday and it was another week filled with more crap than we could cover in an hour-long discussion, which is what Marcy Wheeler and I try to do each Friday. This morning, Marcy put up a long, information-filled post at emptywheel.net titled "Attention Deficit and Defiance Division of Labor: There's Stuff Happening Where You're Not Looking" which provided a bit of a blueprint for today's conversation -- and lots of links you can click on while you follow along.Coming up next week -- in addition to our regulars Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com on Monday, Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny.com on Thursday and Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net on Friday --we have some great guests coming up. On Tuesday, we'll speak with one of my fellow Air America radio alums, Mike Papantonio! He hosted a show called Ring of Fire with Sam Seder and often with Bobby Kennedy Jr (before he lost his mind. He has a new novel just released this week, The Middleman: A Legal Thriller about a lawyer taking on Big Pharma. His publicist pitched him as a guest. I told him that I don't usually have novelists on, but the subject is interesting, and I'd love to ask him about RFK Jr. Pap's response was that he'll talk about anything I want to ask him about. So I will!I've also heard from a lot of listeners concerned about what Elon Trump will do to Social Security; there are tons of rumors flying about it. So I figured it was time to get Alex Larsen back... He'll be here Wednesday.

Today is Friday, when we get together with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net to recap much of what happened in the week leading up to our conversation. We record these shows on Friday mornings here in Arizona/Friday afternoons for Marcy in Ireland.Today, while we were recording, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelinskyy arrived at the White House to meet with Trump, ostensibly to sign a deal for Ukraine to compensate the US for our help in defending them against Russia. I had the tape-delayed coverage running on a computer screen off to my right. When Marcy and I finished taping, I turned up the volume in time to hear the US president and vice president attack Zelinskyy in an outrageous spectacle that should be the end of this administration.I watched that surreal scene unfold and then replay for the next couple of hours. We saw President Zelinskyy get in his car and leave the White House. I'm still in shock. Although Marcy and I had already recorded the show for today, I knew I couldn't just run it as usual without addressing this sickening, embarrassing moment that history will not look kindly on. I reached out to Marcy who agreed to jump back on the line to start the show live with me so we could address the situation.I have no idea what will happen next, I just know that it's not a great time to be alive.Slava Ukraini.

With the D'ump/Musk regime working at breakneck speed to destroy our democracy, it's hard to keep up with it all. That's one reason I'm so grateful that Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net sits down with us for an hour (or more) each Friday to help us understand what happened that week. Since Marcy is in Ireland and I'm in Arizona, we record these sessions right around noon ET. By the time it goes live at 5ET/2PT, some things may have already changed .. as is the case today.When we got around to discussing the case of NYC Mayor Eric Adams, we were still waiting on Judge Ho's ruling on the DoJ's order to drop the bribery and corruption charges against him. Shortly before 2pm ET, Judge Ho refused to immediately close the case. Instead, he appointed an outside lawyer -- Paul W. Clement, US solicitor general under Pres GW Bush - to advise the court on the matter.The Washington Post reporting that the "judge noted that 'there has been no adversarial testing' of the government's push to abandon the Adams prosecution — a controversial move that prompted the resignation of at least eight federal prosecutors, including Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.“Normally, courts are aided in their decision-masking through our system of adversarial testing, which can be particularly helpful in cases presenting unusual fact patterns or in cases of great public importance,” the judge wrote."This means that Judge Ho won't decide before mid-March whether to grant the dismissal of the case against Adams.As for the rest of what we covered on today's show... who knows?

Marcy Wheeler ties it all together. In this last bonus episode of Ball of Thread, Marcy explains how the confirmation of Ka$h Patel and the Trump administration's abandonment of Ukraine confirm the big ideas behind Ball of Thread.  Eight years ago, Kash Patel helped Trump turn a legitimate investigation into Trump's ties to Russia into a grievance narrative. Over and over, Kash added to the tale: with Ukraine, with January 6, with the stolen documents. And now, as Kash prepares to turn the FBI into an instrument of Trump's vengeance while gutting the agency's ability to counter Russian operations and crime, Trump has all but fully capitulated to Vladimir Putin. For eight years, Kash and Trump have worked together to turn every effort to hold Trump accountable into a grievance fantasy to sell, to slowly train Republicans to eschew rule of law. Along the way, Trump delivered everything Vladimir Putin might have sought in 2016: a divided America, the end of the Western Order, and a world bartering corruption. Ball of Thread hoped to help avoid the exact reality we now face. We failed, but we will persist.  Marcy carries on, as always, at emptywheel.net, where you can follow and support her work. Thanks to everyone who supported us in creating this document. Hopefully, we've shown that some of us were very, very aware of the risks our democracy faced from Donald Trump in real-time. May the lessons in these episodes help us defend our nation as we try to limit the misery of the biggest mistake this country's voters were ever lured into making.  

I try to follow what's happening closely, but there's only so much my mind and psyche can handle. I'm quite fortunate to have Marcy Wheeler as a friend who joins me every Friday to recap much of what happened in the week just ending. At least much of what we need to know. (We'd need much more than an hour to cover all the shit they throw at the wall in any given week!)Today we cover a lot of territory, but focus in on the "Thursday Afternoon Massacre" at the DoJ, as the Attorney General (sic) has ordered prosecutors to drop the criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams (bribery, corruption, you name it) so that he can help President D'ump do his vile and dirty deeds to immigrants.We record these Friday sessions before noon ET, so more unthinkable betrayals of the law and the trust of the American people may have happened since... Read Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel.net and follow her at emptywheel.bsky.social for the latest. (While you're there, I'm @ nicolesandler.bsky.social too.Get the full blog post at nicolesandler.com/2-14-25

Although it feels like a decade, we've reached the end of the third workweek of the D'ump 2.0 administration and it is the shit show we anticipated. But the Democrats in the House and Senate finally seem to get getting the hang of fighting back and protecting our democracy.Each Friday, I'm joined by one of the best independent journalists working to keep us informed, Marcy Wheeler. Emptywheel.net is her home base, and it should be on your daily reading list. As this week comes to an end, there's a lot to digest. Digestion is difficult when your stomach is in knots, but hopefully we can help get you through the nausea and into a more productive space. The alternative is unacceptable.

Every Friday, we check in with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net - one of the best journalists out there - to discuss what happened during the week. Given that this week we saw the senate confirmation hearings for the worst of D'ump's cabinet picks, it's no wonder that the shit show keeps getting even shittier. Not only did we have to hear from RFK Jr., Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, but this week brought another flurry of unconstitutional executive orders and pronouncements, firings of non-partisan career professionals, and an unprecedented mid-air collision between a Blackhawk Army helicopter and a passenger plane over Washington DC and an administration blaming it on DEI. I couldn't make this crap up if I tried. This administration doesn't even have to try. They just do it. And will keep doing it until we stop them.

Well, it's Day 5. We made it through the first working week of the Dump 2.0 reign, though it hasn't been easy. And it feels like a long year already. Thankfully, Marcy Wheeler is here from emptywheel.net each Friday to chat with me about what happened and make sure we know what we need to know. We cover a lot of territory today, and get some warnings about what to expect in the near future. It's all hands on deck time. I keep saying that you need to find the reliable sources of actual news that you can trust. Marcy is one of the best there is.  It was an ugly week one, but hopefully we can help put it in perspective for you.

There is understandable frustration at the failure to release volume 2 of the Smith Report dealing with the Mar-A-Lago documents case, but we are able to construct strong surmises about what is in that volume based on already available material. Harry checks in again with Marcy Wheeler, whose blog, emptywheel.net, consistently presents the most in-depth and comprehensive accounts of the public record. Through a methodical scrutiny of documents that have come to light in various ways – including a FOIA request from Donald Trump that produced 60 important emails and other documentary records – we can make a detailed sketch of much of the information that Smith likely passed along to Merrick Garland. Critically, some of the information bears on the qualifications for FBI director of Kash Patel, who asserted the 5th Amendment when called to testify about his claim that Trump had declassified the records he took away. Listeners' alert: some of the discussion is fairly microscopic but that's because some of the known information is quite detailed.Read Marcy's blog: https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/19/found-dozens-of-damning-documents-about-trumps-hoarding-of-classified-documents/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Every Friday I'm joined by Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net to discuss what happened in the week that's ending. This was a pretty eventful week, with Jack Smith's Jan 6 report released, the start of the Senate confirmation hearings for the convicted felon's cabinet picks, the fires in LA and a lot more. We recorded this episode on Thursday due to some medical issues and doctors appointments I have, but there was certainly no shortage of news and things we need Marcy's insight on. Peace out...

Well, the bad news is that I got a text from Jason Leopold at 3:30 this morning explaining that the situation near his home in LA has gotten much worse and that they have to leave. The good news is that they're evacuating and getting to safety, and we'll be able to reschedule Jason for when he's safe and sound, hopefully back home. It just so happens that there's a lot of news to cover today, so it'll just be us and a bunch of audio and video... The DoJ did release Jack Smith's report on The Convicted Felon's attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election just after midnight last night/this morning. The bottom line, according to Smith, is that Trump would have been convicted at trial. We'll get a better analysis on that from Marcy Wheeler on Friday, but we'll talk a bit about it. I spent four hours that I'll never get back this morning watching Pete Hegseth's Senate Armed Forces Commitee hearing on his confirmation to be Secretary of Defense. It's just so surreal. I'll share some of the more interesting exchanges. And Spocko will join me to add to the commentary!

Well, we made it to the end of the year. Or just about, anyway. Since I've been sick I've decided to do something I don't usually do which is take off and rest over the holidays. I've put together a great couple of weeks of shows to get us through January 3, and hope to return well-rested and ready to take on the challenges ahead. I did want to end with a final Emptywheel Friday episode and thankfully was able to record with Marcy Wheeler this morning. There's a lot we didn't get to (like the Matt Gaetz ethics report which should be out any time now). But we did spend the hour discussing the shit show that's already begun even before D'ump takes office again. Thanks for bearing with me through my health challenges the past few months. Here's to a better new year.

After Bill Barr buried the Mueller Report and went to work suffocating the remaining prosecutions in the Russia investigation, Donald Trump and his “lawyer,“ Rudy Giuliani, shifted their main narrative focus from Hillary Clinton to Hunter Biden—also with the help of Bill Barr. The first flailing attempts to smear Joe Biden with his son's connections to a corrupt Ukrainian business resulted in Donald Trump's impeachment and the arrests of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. But MAGA hit paydirt with the “discovery” of Hunter Biden's “laptop,” which first appeared mysteriously right around the time of Trump's first trial in the US Senate and then reappeared the following year, just in time to be the election year October Surprise. At first, the laptop, with its endless supply of digital proof of the depravity to which Hunter Biden had descended before he got sober the year before, didn't work out the way John Podesta's emails had. At first, journalists actually demanded proof the files were authentic and also tested whether they proved what Rudy Giuliani or NY Post claimed they did. But over the years, egged on by Fox News and enticed by the promise of easy sensation, they came to chase the dick pics because they were there, just as Murdoch's propagandists had done.  And the process by which icky dick pics came to stand in for unsubstantiated claims that Joe Biden was corrupt sucked all the air out of DC reporting for years … and laid the groundwork for Trump's reelection.  For the first time, Marcy Wheeler ties together the story of what is actually known about Hunter's laptop(s) and hard drives and the baffling characters who got their hands on them. She explains how the shameless leaking of the private data of the son of a former vice president and future president to his father's political opponents was never really treated as a crime. She also exposes how Trump's plot succeeded in sucking all the air out of Joe Biden's presidency and fueled problematic political prosecutions that haunt America and still twist our discourse today. This Ball of Thread also attempts to do what almost no one has. It shows how the press joined in an effort to dehumanize Joe Biden's kid and, in the process, abdicated their primary job.  

Jason Sattler (LOLGOP on social media platforms) talks about the phishing attack that is being perptrated on America, about progressivism as the mainstream culture, and about the need to start thinking about and buildng progressive everything. Jason strongly recommends the two podcasts he's producing: Marcy Wheeler's Ball of Thread and Andrea Pitzer's Next Comes What. The conversation touches on Franca Rame as the kind of folk hero we should be valorizing, the role of humor as anesthetic or weapon, whether there should be billionaires, and whether he should start a new podcast with David called There's Too Many Podcasts.

We're back. Marcy Wheeler again joins us from her home in Ireland for our end-of-the-week look back on what went down over the past few days. As usual, lots of shit thrown against the wall where, inevitably, some of it sticks. Today we talk about what's left of the D'ump indictments and prosecutions (not much), his nominations (lots of them), pardons and preemptive pardons (just listen) and more... We have a lot of work to do. Let's get to it. In the meantime, I'm compiling a list of credible, accurate, good journalists who we can trust to report the truth. Those are the ones we need to get our information from and support as much as we can. Please start with emptywheel. net and nicolesandler.com (and email me your picks too!).

What if the President of the United States was framed with the help of the Attorney General of the president he defeated, and nobody cared? In this Ball of Thread, Marcy Wheeler reveals how Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Guiliani, spent more than a year trying to trade access to or leniency from the Department of Justice for dirt on Hunter Biden. And while that disgraceful abuse of power eventually erupted into Trump's first impeachment, it essentially continued for another four years, only fading away after a key player in the conspiracy was indicted for feeding the FBI lies from Russian spies. It's a story that only Marcy has told and will now likely fade into history. But the abuse of the Department of Justice as a plaything for Donald Trump to deploy against his perceived enemies will continue for at least the next four years.  

Harry talks again w/ Marcy Wheeler, as tenacious a follower of the Trump cases as there is, about what Jack Smith might include in a report to Merrick Garland pursuant to the Special Counsel regulations that would supplement the historical record. The short answer is “plenty.” Marcy and Harry march through intriguing but incomplete details in the public record about uncharged conduct, declined federal crimes, and especially activity of still important members of the Trump circle such as Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, and Todd Blanche. This is a detailed guide to what we don't know but need to in the interests of both democratic transparency and history.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We're back! We did take a break last week because, well, I needed a break. But we're back. A bit of rest and mental diversions away from news and politics helped me a bit. Marcy Wheeler suggested taking some time out to go look at the ocean. Whatever form it takes, please carve out time for some self care. The next few years will not be easy. Let's all make sure we and our friends and families are ok. As for the news, it's important to stay informed-- and that means insuring that the sources your turn to are those you can trust. To that end, we'll start putting together capable, informed, and credible journalists and organizations to trust and support, and steering clear of those who don't meet the criteria. At the top of my list of trusted journalists is Marcy Wheeler who writes at emptywheel.net and helps me unpack the week each Friday. As for this past week? Just hit the play button!

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

We're still here. A bit battered and tattered and dejected, but we're grieving. We'll get through this. Today, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net has a bit of a reality check for us. There's no sugar coating it, it's bad. But not ALL of it is bad. And I'll share some small good news too. We could all use some more of that. Breathe....

Here we go... it's the last Emptywheel Friday episode before this election finally comes to a close. I've been struggling with awful anxiety for the last couple of weeks and have been off the air much of this week due to that. Another reason to be grateful for Marcy Wheeler's friendship and brilliance... Find and support Marcy's work at emptywheel.net. And you can always find me at nicolesandler.com

Another week is winding down and, as we do each Friday, Marcy Wheeler and I stick a fork in it with a freewheeling discussion of what happened. Today we begin with the release of Jack Smith's appendices to his filing that TFG fought but failed to prevent. Despite the corporate media's best efforts to prolong the horse race and their refusal to just report the facts and tell the truth, a few moments that could clarify actual truths were able to penetrate the barrage of right wing propaganda. The probing questions were asked by concerned citizens, not from members of the fourth estate who've been negligent in their duties... And yes, we will touch on the big news out of the horrific situation in the Middle East. Yesterday came confirmation that the Israeli Defense Forces had killed Hamas leader and 10/7 architect Yahya Sinwar. The question here is can this please be the thing that will garner the release of the remaining hostages and start the peace process? Please?

We are moved. Well, we're out of the old house and all our stuff is at the new place. Now we get to put it all together. My first task was rebuilding my studio. I somehow got it working well enough last Wednesday to interview Christopher Steele, and it crapped out on my on Friday while taping our Emptywheel Friday show with Marcy Wheeler. So, I rebuilt the whole thing over the weekend and as I'm prepping for today's show, it seems to be working correctly. Please let me know if gremlins invade so I can try to exterminate them, once and for all! Today is Indigenous Peoples Day. In some places, it's still referred to as Columbus Day, but we prefer to recognize the former... It's also Monday when we usually speak with Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com, but he's a bit under the weather today. So, we'll catch up...

Our move to a new home is almost complete, and things at the show should be back to our usual state of quasi-controlled chaos. Though I had the new studio somehow run smoothly for the Christopher Steele interview on Wednesday, the gremlins decided to make an appearance during today's taping with Marcy Wheeler. So... it starts out ok, albeit with awful lighting on my end. And when I couldn't leave well enough alone and tried to adjust the lighting about 10 minutes in, the video software decided to mess with me... so we regrouped and did the rest of the show audio only. That said, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I had another great conversation about the state of the election, the media malpractice especially coming from the NY Times, and the lies that GOP is tripling down on. Enjoy! One more thing. I don't do this often because I hate doing it. But between two trips to the ER last month (with a $2200 co-pay for each of them), moving expenses and more, I really need your help. If you enjoy the show and can spare a few bucks, I hope you'll support my work. Lots of ways to donate at https://nicolesandler.com/donate-2.

Want to know more? Join https://www.patreon.com/BallofThread for bonus episodes on breaking news and to ask your questions, which could be answered in a bonus episode. For as little as $1 a month, you can support us and help spread the word. Most people think of Bill Barr's interference in the Mueller Report in a very limited sense – a letter to Congress and a press conference.  But it was far deeper and more deliberate than that. Bill Barr turned out to be the ideal consumer for the spin Paul Manafort, Devin Nunes, and Fox News spewed to cloak Donald Trump's vast connections to Russia.  Armed with a passion for covering up Republican high crimes, an authoritarian worldview, and a view of executive power that resembles monarchy, Barr “reluctantly” returned to government with two goals. He wanted to kill the Mueller investigation. He then launched a counter-investigation that he hoped would reverse the special counsel's extensive record of convictions.  Those plans, which he withheld from Congress during his confirmation hearings, were exacerbated by Rudy Guliani. The president's lawyer led the effort to transform the backlash to the Russia investigation into a “harebrained” counter-scandal of his own, based on Russian disinformation and Donald Trump's opportunistic persecution fantasies.  In this Ball of Thread, Marcy Wheeler untangles the lies Bill Barr used to preempt a Congressional decision about the Trump conduct laid out in the Mueller Report, lies that freed Donald Trump up to continue his relationship with Vladimir Putin to this day.  

When Judge Tanya Chutkan abruptly unsealed Jack Smith's 165 page brief describing the evidence he proposes to use to convict Donald Trump of trying to steal the 2020 election, there was a mad dash of activity as we all scrambled to mine the best nuggets of information; and there were many of them. Read of the brief reveals a whole other series of insights that have been overlooked or under reported to date. Harry talks with the ever-tenacious and insightful Marcy Wheeler, a.k.a. the empty wheel, and in a detailed 45-minute conversation, the two exchange and analyze the most important outstanding revelations in the brief and bear down on what the additional key points reveal about Smith's case and the likely course of litigation ahead.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Moving a full house, even just seven miles, is a major undertaking. I'll tell you all about it when time permits. I'm back today for an important interview.... Christopher Steele will join me right at the top of the show. Yes, the man behind the infamous dossier has written a book. UNREDACTED: RUSSIA, TRUMP, AND THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY hit shelves yesterday. And he's here today. Since this is the maiden voyage of my newly-rebuilt studio, I urge the gremlins to give us a break and let everything work so we can get to the bottom of some burning questions including, but certainly not limited to, the "pee tape". Since we have one day left to get everything out of the old house and I still have a lot more work to do on this studio, I likely will not be on the air again tomorrow. (Maybe we'll re-run this show again tomorrow...), but I will be back Friday with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. That's one show I'll never miss unless there's absolutely no way around it... We'll make it work!

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins Nicole Sandler every Friday for a spirited and no-holds-barred discussion about our world and what happened in it throughout the week. Today, it's Jack Smith's brief explaining to the court why the former guy's actions on and around January 6 do not fall under the heading of "official presidential business" and that his case must be permitted to go to trial. Plus the VP debate, the complete disconnect between Trump world and the political and cultural norms under which we live, and more...

I've been off the air all week due to the housing hell we're in. Long story short -- the place we had lined up to move into on Monday was yanked out from under us Saturday evening for no reason (I'll share all when this is over), so we've been frantically looking all week. We have to be out of here next week, and I've been dealing with panic attacks due to the stress. So I was all the more grateful that today is Friday, and I get to find out what happened this week while I was otherwise unpleasantly distracted, and Marcy Wheeler is here to fill us all in. We talk about everything from Jack Smith's "book report" sealed filing to NYC Mayor Eric Adams' indictment and a lot more. I hope to be back live on Monday. Please keep your fingers crossed that we find a place to live!

One more piece of business before the weekend officially begins... our weekly get-together with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net during which we discuss much of what happened during the week. As usual, there was no shortage of insanity to talk about.

Every Friday I get to hang out with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net, discussing much of what happened during the week. Of course, this was the week we saw the brilliance of VP Kamala Harris as she destroyed TFG in what just might be their only debate of this race. But it gave us "they're eating the dogs" and other priceless gems

It's Friday! Although this was a short week, there was no shortage of news to discuss with Marcy Wheeler today... The fall season of the Trump Trials has begun. Trump was in court this morning to appeal the verdict in the first E. Jean Carroll case. Yesterday Judge Chutkan issued her scheduling order for the next developments in Trump's Jan 6 trial. And unfortunately, while we were recording (we tape on Friday mornings due to the fact that Marcy is in Ireland and I'm in Arizona), the news broke that Judge Merchan will delay the sentencing in the Manhattan criminal case for which he was convicted in May of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. The sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 18 will now happen on Nov. 26. In other news that we discuss on today's show, AG Merrick Garland announced new charges in a new case alleging Russian interference in the 2024 presidential election, Hunter Biden pleads guilty in the tax case that was set to begin yesterday in a California courtroom, Liz Cheney endorsed Kamala Harris, and there was yet another school shooting... Here we go....

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

We wrap up each week with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and a review of all that happened that week. Today it's Jack Smith's superseding indictment (predicted by Marcy last week), plus the big boring CNN interview, the Arlington Cemetery photo op debacle, RFk Jr & Tusli Gabbard and lots more...

Well, that was a convention for the history books! I apologize for the lack of an Emptywheel Friday show last week. I got really sick from a UTI that spawned an e Coli infection, something you do not ever want. Thankfully I was doing well enough this week to be able to share some highlights of the 2024 Democratic National Convention for the past few days, and today, was joined by Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel.net) for a complete postscript to the most entertaining and inspiring political convention I've ever watched. Strap in... we're not going back!

I spent the weekend resting and recuperating, slowly regaining my strength and planning to be back on the air today. But E Coli seems to have other plans. I am feeling much better, but far from normal (even for me, which is also far from normal).So it's lucky for me that the Democratic Convention gets underway today in Chicago. Unfortunately, the festivities and streaming don't begin until the show ends... Good thing I recorded an interview a couple of weeks ago with Jessica Goudeau who just released a new book, WE WERE ILLEGAL. She has a fascinating story to share, and the story is certainly timely as the MAGAt presidential candidate is threatening mass deportations should we screw up and allow him anywhere hear the oval office again. So, we'll hear that interview, I'll update you on my ordeal (minus the tears today, I hope), and somehow make it through the hour. A programming note... for the rest of the week, I'll share highlights from the previous nights' convention happenings. And I WILL be back to host Marcy Wheeler on Friday. I'm going through emptywheel withdrawals too!

Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com

OA1040 We begin in Florida with yet more of Judge Aileen Cannon's efforts to delay Donald Trump's federal case, including a demand for Jack Smith to be nicer to Trump's lawyers and her decision to allow non-parties to join the fun and make arguments in an upcoming hearing about whether Smith was properly appointed to prosecute Trump at all. Hunter Biden's federal trial began this week in Delaware on charges relating to his purchase and possession of a gun which he owned for 11 days in 2018. Matt breaks down the history of this investigation, the charges, and how this case ended up going to trial before a quick time jump in which we return to review what we know one week into these proceedings. How does this trial compare to the one which concluded a week earlier with the conviction of a former President Donald Trump--and would these charges ever have been brought against someone whose last name wasn't Biden?  11th Circuit order instructing the clerk's office to stop taking complaints about Judge Cannon Mar-A-Lago search warrant Jack Smith's Motion for Modification of Conditions of Release Quick Facts on 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) Firearms Offenses (US Sentencing Commission) Delaware indictment of Robert Hunter Biden (gun charges) “How to Think About the Hunter Biden “Laptop,” Marcy Wheeler (6/6/2024) If you'd like to support the show (and lose the ads!), please pledge at patreon.com/law!