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On Friday, the most consequential Supreme Court decision in decades came down, a 6-3 ruling overturning Roe v Wade. For nearly half a century women have had a Constitutional right to abortion, now they don't. Because, as Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion, Roe was, "egregiously wrong from the start." Informed by what he called, "exceptionally weak reasoning." The new ruling from the court ditching what seemed like well settled precedent is certainly to inflame passion. And as Biden insisted, the fight is not over. His administration, with the backing of virtually every Demacrat in Congress, will seek to pass a Federal Law codifying the right to an abortion. But even if such legislation could overcome a near certain filibuster from Senate Republicans and actually pass, would that supersede the actions of more than a dozen State legislatures that now seemed poised to ban abortion outright? Veteran Supreme Court watcher and author David Kaplan as well as former Deputy Attorney General Donald Ayer, a former Supreme Court Clerk himself, join to discuss this alongside the extraordinary testimony in front of the January 6th Committee this week. GUESTS: David Kaplan, (@dkaplan007), Author, Adjunct NYU Professor, Fmr. Newsweek Legal Affairs Editor Donald Ayer, (@DonaldAyer6), US Deputy Attorney General under President George H. W. Bush HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Yahoo News' story on SCOTUS overturning Roe v Wade - Here.Yahoo News' story on the reactions to overturning Roe v Wade - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Do you know what it feels like to have the President of the United States target you?" Those were the haunting words of Ruby Freeman, an election worker in Fulton County Georgia describing to the January 6th Committee what it was like when Donald Trump and his allies spread grotesque lies about Freeman and her daughter Wandrea Shaye Moss, accusing them of illegally dredging up suitcases of Biden ballots late at night to throw the 2020 election. None of it was true of course. The FBI, the US Attorney's office in Atlanta, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, they all reviewed the video of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea Moss counting ballots on election night. And concluded none of it showed anything improper. Just two humble election workers doing their job under difficult circumstances. It was yet more powerful testimony of the chaos that Donald Trump unleashed upon the country. But are the hearings breaking through? Are they penetrating the public pre-occupied with soaring gas prices, punishing inflation, and scorching summer heatwaves? Julie Pace, Executive Editor of the AP and Stephen Engelberg Editor of ProPublica join live from the Collision Conference in Toronto Canada to discuss. GUESTS: Julie Pace, (@JuliePace), Executive Editor, The Associated PressSol Wisenberg, (@SteveEngelberg), Editor in Chief, ProPublica HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Yahoo News' story on Trump's pressure put on state election officials - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An excerpt from the video taped testimony of Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann revealed this past Thursday described a phone call he got from John Eastman the day after Jan 6th in which the supposed constitutional scholar was unrepentant. Still clinging to the idea somehow some way, the results of the 2020 election could still be overturned. It was a remarkable moment that. was too much for Heerschmann, telling Eastman that he was out of "f'ing mind." And he needed a great criminal defense lawyer because he was going to need it. Words that Eastman, as we learned during Thursday's January 6th hearing, apparently took to heart, reaching out just days later to Rudy Giuliani in search of a presidential pardon. The testimony at the Thursday hearing was powerful as the committee laid out in excruciating detail a relentless pressure campaign by Trump himself, aided every step of the way, by John Eastman to get Vice President Mike Pence to unilaterally reject the certified election results. An authority he demonstrably did not have. In some ways it may have been the most significant presentation yet. Laying out elements that Eastman well knew that what he was doing was potentially illegal and unconstitutional. Has the committee finally made its case that Trump and Eastman had made prosecutable crimes? And what more does the panel have in store? Hugo Lowell of The Guardian, who's been all over the January 6th story from the start, joins to discuss. GUESTS: Hugo Lowell, (@hugolowell), Congressional reporter for @Guardian HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News RESOURCES: Key Takeaways from Day 3 of Jan 6th Congressional Hearings - Here.The outline of Trump's pressure campaign on Pence - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

An excerpt from one of the video clips played at Monday's January 6th Committee Hearing in which Donald Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, recounts the debate that went on within the White House on election night. Stepien and other top campaign aides were telling Trump to hold off on declaring victory that night, that there were still lots more votes to be counted. And that his slender but steadily slipping margins were starting to fade away. But Trump would have none of it and listen instead to his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, "obviously intoxicated," according to his campaign aide Jason Miller, who told the President to claim he was the rightful winner in an election marked by rampant voter fraud. It was a critical moment when Trump's bogus claims of fraud, pushed in turn by his drunk lawyer, became amplified to the whole country resulting ultimately in the tragic events of January 6th. Is the committee building an air-tight case against the former President? We get perspectives from two veteran legal observers - Matt Miller, the former Chief of Public Affairs for the Justice Department during the Obama Administration and Sol Wisenberg, a criminal defense lawyer and a former top Deputy to Whitewater independent council Ken Starr. GUESTS: Matthew Miller, (@matthewamiller), Partner at Vianovo. MSNBC analystSol Wisenberg, (@WisenbergSol), White Collar Defense Atty. Fox News Contributor HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Yahoo News' key takeaways from the Jan. 6th Hearings Day 2 (@CEDickson) - Here.Isikoff's story about debunked allegations over voter fraud in Georgia during 2020 election - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

“Stay the hell out of it!” Those were the key words from the so-called smoking gun tape, the conversation between Richard Nixon and his Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman about how to get the FBI to back off its investigation into the Watergate break-in that occurred fifty years ago this week, June 17th, 1972. The plan they came up with in the days after the burglary was to get the CIA and its powerful director Richard Helms to tell the then head of the FBI, L. Patrick Gray to back off, to stay the hell out of it, to drop the probe into the financing of the break-in unless dark agency secrets would be revealed. It was a lie of course, the Watergate break-in had been bankrolled by Nixon campaign donors and not the agency spooks at Langley. But as Jefferson Morley writes in his new book, Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate, Helms was prepared to do what Nixon wanted, at least first. He drafted a memo instructing two deputies that the agency needed to instruct the bureau to quote, “Confine themselves to the personalities already arrested.” And “desist from expanding this investigation into other areas.” Helms may have later gotten cold feet, but as Morley reminds us it was just one of many examples of the exceedingly strange and still mysterious relationship between Nixon and the Spy Master, a dynamic in which each man seemed to have abundant blackmail material against each other. As the country prepares to commemorate the half-century anniversary of Watergate, we’ll look back at the events of that era and get a fascinating new take on why they matter more than ever as Morley joins us. GUESTS: Eric Holder, (@jeffersonmorley), Author, Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Pick up Morley's book Scorpions Dance: The President, The Spymaster and Watergate - Here.Recent story on Watergate - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney Thursday night laid out the case that Donald Trump orchestrated an attempted coup to block the peaceful transfer of power. And then sat back and watched in apparent approval while his supporters ransacked the US Capitol. It was the opening night of six public hearings on the January 6th attack that committee members will hope galvanize the public to what they believe is an on-going threat to American democracy. The hearing was marked by a compelling new video, illustrating the role that the extremest Proud Boys played in the attack and how Trump's own words inspired them. A Capitol Police officer told of slipping on the blood of her colleagues while trying to defend the Capitol that day. But did Cheney make the case that Trump was criminally responsible for what transpired. We're joined by the former Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder, author of the new book Our Unfinished March, to discuss that and more. GUESTS: Eric Holder, (@ericholder), Fmr. Attorney General of the US, Author of Our Unfinished March HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Pick up Eric Holder's book Our Unfinished March - Here.Yahoo News article about Trump's reaction to Jan. 6 Hearing - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

They may be the most anticipated and consequential of congressional hearings in decades. After eleven months of work and over one thousand interviews the committee investigating the January 6th 2021 attack on the US Capitol will premiere this week in primetime on Thursday at 8pm. With all the TV networks except for Fox News of course planning full coverage. The committee is touting evidence of what its members are calling a criminal conspiracy led by Donald Trump to subvert the will of the people and overturn the results of the 2020 election. But as Washington gears up for the extravaganza and outside groups plan watch parties with free ice cream, there are still questions about just how strong the committee’s evidence is. And perhaps more importantly whether a public pre-occupied with soaring gas prices, mass shootings, and shortages of baby formula, will tune in. We’ll talk to Yahoo News’ Tom LoBianco about what to expect from the hearings. And then we’ll hear from Norm Eisen of the Brookings Institution on why they matter.   GUESTS: Norm Eisen, (@NormEisen), Senior Fellow @brookingsgov, Chair @statesunited, Legal Analyst @cnnTom LoBianco (@tomlobianco), Politics reporter @yahoonews HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Yahoo News' "What You Need To Know" about the Jan. 6th Hearings - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Uniquely Nasty, a Yahoo News documentary from 2015, explored the little known story of the US Government’s relentless persecution of gays in the Cold War era, focusing in part on how the FBI under Hoover’s direction, tracked the names of tens of thousands of suspected gays and lesbians working for the Federal Government. And then took steps to have them fired. It was just one piece of a so-called lavender scare that left in its wake a trail of fear, paranoia, and destroyed lives. The full story of the US Government’s jihad against gay America is now being told in a landmark book, The Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington, by journalist James Kirchick. Kirchick’s book brings to life the largely invisible stories of senior government officials at the State Department, the White House, and in Congress, who lived in fear that their secret lives would become publicly known. And how their careers were shattered when their homosexuality was exposed, often for political or bureaucratic advantage. It’s a shocking story that is a reminder of how much about America’s dark past of persecution has been obscured yet remains highly relevant to themes in our current politics. Kirchick joins to discuss the excruciating agony that denizens of the secret city experienced. And why it is a crucial chapter in American history.  GUESTS: James Kirchick, (@jkirchick), Author of the book Gunfight. HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Pick up James Kirchick's book The Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington - Here.Watch the groundbreaking Yahoo News documentary "Uniquely Nasty: The U.S. Government's War on Gays - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy addressed the Senate on Tuesday afternoon after the gut-wrenching news out of Texas. Another school massacre in which twenty-two people were killed, nineteen of them young children. Murphy could barely control himself. It was in his state where ten years ago there had been another slaughter at Sandy Hook Elementary School where twenty-six people were killed, twenty of them school children. Yet no matter how many of these senseless tragedies, the congress of the United States remains hopelessly deadlocked when it comes to passing sensible gun control measures that might, at least might, make even a small difference. Is there nothing that could change the iron-grip of the gun lobby on the United States Congress? We're joined by Ryan Busse, who once worked in the gun industry himself and is now the author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America. GUESTS: Ryan Busse, (@ryandbusse), Author of the book Gunfight. HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Yahoo News story on the victims of the Uvalde School Shooting in TX - Here.You can read Busse's book - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger spoke to a small group of supporters Tuesday night explaining how he pulled off his surprise victory for re-election over a Donald Trump backed opponent. It was a truly extraordinary comeback for Raffensperger, barley a year ago his chances were viewed as hopeless. After refusing Trump's entreaties to find just enough votes to flip Georgia's electoral tally, Raffensperger was denounced by the ex President as an enemy of the people. And he got death threats from Trump's supporters. But Raffensperger stood his ground, and as he put it, refused to buckle under the pressure. Even while, at the same time, he quietly and methodically courted conservative voters with talk about protecting election integrity in the future. The result, combined with Brian Kemp's landslide victory in the governor's race, was a stinging rebuke to Trump. What does all this say about Trump's standing in the Republican Party and how to assess the high-stakes battles in the general election? Not just in Raffensperger's race but in the big contest for governor, Kemp vs Stacy Abrams, and US Senate, Warnock vs Hershel Walker. We are joined by two savvy Georgia political consultants, Republican strategist Brian Robinson and Democratic strategist Chris Huttman. GUESTS: Brian Robinson, (@LordTinsdale), President of Robinson RepublicChris Huttman, Research Director at Canal Partners Media HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: Isikoff's story on Raffensperger's victory over Trump-backed opponent - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The new podcast series Will Be Wild focuses on the run up to and the aftermath of the January 6th assault on the US Capitol. It's a deeply reported and at time astonishing series that explores the violent undercurrents that were circulating amongst far-right circles in the years leading up to the attack. The encouragement that those activists got from Donald Trump, and the catastrophic failure of law enforcement and intelligence officials to connect the dots and protect the US Congress from a mob hellbent on trying to overthrow the results of an American Presidential election. As we get closer to next month's long awaited hearings from the January 6th Committee, the Will Be Wild podcast offers an alarming preview of what the country maybe about to hear. Andrea Bernstein and Ilya Marritz, the hosts of the aforementioned podcast, join to discuss. GUESTS: Andrea Bernstein (@AndreaBNYC), Investigative journalist, author, co-host of the podcast WILL BE WILDIlya Marritz (@ilyamarritz), co-host of Will Be Wild podcast & covering Trump legal for @npr HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: You can listen to the Will Be Wild podcast - Here.Yahoo News' reporting on the January 6th Committee issuing subpoenas to 5 House Republicans - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Recent tapes of Senator Lindsay Graham talking to New York Times reporter Jonathan Martin on the afternoon of Jan. 6th, 2021 have now been released. It reaffirms what many Republicans were thinking that day about the riot that Donald Trump had just unleashed upon the US Capitol. And expressed hope that the new Democratic President, Joe Biden, could lower the temperature and bring the country together. But as Martin and his Times colleague Alex Burns document in their new book, This Too Shall Pass, that sentiment amongst most GOP lawmakers, Graham prominent among them, didn't last long. And Graham's prognosis that the trauma of Jan. 6th would lead to great national unity couldn't have been more wrong. The United States according to Martin and Burns is facing a political emergency with two parties, who authors write, are not merely advisories but enemies in a domestic cold war that had started to run hot. How hot can it get? And is there any way at this point to cool things down? Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns join to discuss. GUESTS: Jonathan Martin (@alexburnsNYT), New York Times Reporter and authorAlex Burns (@jmartNYT), New York Times Reporter and author HOSTS: Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo NewsDaniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo NewsVictoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host) RESOURCES: You can pick up Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns' new book This Too Shall Pass - Here.The Lindsay Graham Jan. 6th tapes - Here. Follow us on Twitter: @SkullduggeryPod Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Email us with feedback, questions or tips: [email protected]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.