Skullduggery

Latest Episodes:

Schiff on Trump and the future of American Democracy (with Adam Schiff) Oct 19, 2021

Show notes

In late September of 2019, Congressman Adam Schiff, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, gathered with his staff to read a remarkable document just released by the Trump Whitehouse. It was the transcript to the phone call Trump had that July with Ukrainian President Zelensky stating, "I'd like you to do us a favor though..." then pressing Zelensky to launch an investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter. At this point, Schiff had muttered to himself, "Holy Shit." He thought in that moment that he had acquired the ultimate smoking gun. He then lead the charge in Trump's first impeachment. This is a scene he recounts in his brand new book, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. Flash forward to today. How have the effort of Schiff and others been trying to purge Trump from politics? And what lessons has he learned to help guide members of his fellow January 6th committee as they seek to get to the bottom of Trump's role in one the darkest days in American Democracy? Congressman Schiff joins to breakdown his book and weigh in on where we are and could be headed.

GUEST:

Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff), Rep. from CA's 28th Congressional District, Chairman of the House Intel Committee @HouseIntel

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Congressman Adam Schiff's new book - Here.
Yahoo News' latest story on Schiff - Here.

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The fight over executive privilege (with Norm Eisen) Oct 09, 2021

Show notes

On New Years Day 2021, Mark Meadows the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States emailed a YouTube video to the acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen. The video promoted a bizarre conspiracy theory known as Italy-Gate, asserting that a tech employee at an Italian Aerospace company had worked with the CIA to use US Military Satellites that flipped votes on election night from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. There wasn’t a shred of evidence to support this fantastical claim. Nevertheless, Meadows wanted Rosen to have the Department of Justice investigate the matter. Rosen forwarded the YouTube video to his deputy Richard Donahue who responded with two words - Pure insanity.

This new exchange is found in a new Senate Judiciary Committee report that documents how then President Donald Trump and his top aides repeatedly pressured the Justice Department to take steps to block the rightful winner of last year’s election and from becoming President and how it all connects to the riot that took place on the US Capitol on Jan. 6th. Will the public ever learn the full extent Trump took to stay in power? Norm Eisen, a former White House lawyer, and a special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee.

GUEST:

Norm Eisen (@NormEisen), Senior Fellow @brookingsgov, former White House lawyer, and a special counsel to the House Judiciary Committee

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Norm Eisen Bio for Brookings Institute - Here.
Norm Eisen's latest CNN Opinion piece on Sen. Judiciary Committee report - Here.
Reuters Article on new details of Trump's attempt to overturn the election - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Unpacking the Pandora Papers (with Greg Miller) Oct 07, 2021

Show notes

Billions hidden beyond reach. So the headline proclaimed in The Washington Post this week. The paper alongside more than one hundred partner news organizations around the world reported on a remarkable cache of documents exposing a secretive off-shore system that hides billions of dollars from tax authorities, creditors, criminal investigators, and the public. And who takes advantage of the system? World leaders, the rich, and the powerful worldwide.

Greg Miller, one of the reporters from The Washington Post who worked on the exposure of information contained in what has been dubbed the Pandora Papers, helps unpack what we know about where all this money is being hidden, and how.

GUEST:

Greg Miller (@gregpmiller), National Security Correspondent for The Washington Post

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News' Guide to nine years of finance leaks - Here.
Greg Miller's Bio Page at The Washington Post - Here.
Washington Post Reports answer your Pandora Papers - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Peril of Trump’s Final Days (with Bob Woodward & Robert Costa) Oct 01, 2021

Show notes

The final days of Trump's Presidency were filled with struggles, chaos, and an insurrection on the US Capitol. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's new book, Peril, gives us insight into what happened during this tumultuous time period that almost destroyed democracy from the inside out. The authors join to discuss the final days of Trump's time in office. What happened? And more importantly what could have happened had the efforts of a select few not stepped in to intervene.

GUESTS:

Bob Woodward (@realBobWoodward), Professor at the University of California – Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies
Robert Costa (@costareports), National Correspondent, Yahoo News. Former Newsweek/Daily Beast

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Peril - the new book from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa - Here.
Bob Woodward's Bio - Here.
Robert Costa's Bio - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks (with Zach Dorfman) Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

CIA Director Mike Pompeo back in April 2017 depicted Wikileaks as a grave threat to American national security. He also called it a Non-State Hostile Intelligence Service was a grabby rhetorical talking point

However, with some exclusive reporting from the Yahoo News Team - Zach Dorfman, Sean Naylor, & Michael Isikoff - Pompeo’s branding opened the door for the CIA to plan all sorts of extreme measures to dismantle the organization. Including a snatch operation to kidnap the group’s leader Julian Assange, then holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and possibly to even assassinate him.

This and so much more uncovered including a plan for a gun battle on the streets of London. Zach Dorfman joins to break it all down.

GUEST:

Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman), National Security Correspondent @yahoonews, Former Senior Staff Writer @aspencyber

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Yahoo News Article Inside the CIA's secret war plans against Wikileaks - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The Real Thiel (with Max Chafkin) Sep 24, 2021

Show notes

Just days before the Republican Convention in 2016, 150 Tech executives and investors published a stinging open letter condemning the man the party was about to nominate for President. Donald Trump’s candidacy the tech moguls wrote was fueled by “anger, bigotry, fear of new ideas, and a fundamental belief that American is weak and in decline.”

That was undoubtedly the view that most of the big players in Silicon Valley. But there was one who had a decidedly contrary view. Peter Thiel was the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and Palantir. And was the first outside investor in Facebook giving him instant entree and more than a little clout with the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg. And Thiel had gone all in for Trump. Speaking at the convention, donating more than one million dollars to a Trump Super PAC. And later serving on his transition team as he sought to place figures who share his unorthodox views of the world in high places in the US Government.

How much influence did Thiel have during the Trump era? And how much power does he yield today in the insular world of Silicon Valley. Max Chafkin, author of the new book about Thiel called The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power, joins to discuss.

GUEST:

Max Chafkin (@chafkin), Features Editor/Writer @BW, Author of The Contrarian

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Obtain The Contrarian - Here.
Yahoo News' David Knowles original piece on critics latest blasting of Facebook - Here.
Time Magazine's Who's Afraid of Peter Thiel? - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Botched Drone Strike (with Joe Cirincione) Sep 21, 2021

Show notes

US Central Command’s top general Kenneth McKenzie last week had to make one of the most painful mea culpas in the history of the US Government’s war on terror. A drone strike intended to save the lives of US soldiers had ended up taking the lives ten innocent Afghan civilians. Seven of them were children.

A rare acknowledgment that a tool the Pentagon and CIA have relied on for years to target terrorists was in this instance tragically botched thanks to sketchy intelligencethat confused a civilian aide worker with an ISIS suicide bomber. McKenzie came clean, only after reporters on the ground exposed the Pentagon’s mistake raising new questions about how many other civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen have also been killed in US drone strikes. And how does this affect the Biden administrations planned use of “over the horizon” drone strikes to prevent Al-Qaeda resurgence in the country we just abandoned?

Joe Cirincione joins to discuss the botched strike and where we go from here.

GUEST:

Joe Cirincione (@Cirincione), Analyst, Author, Distinguished Fellow @QuincyInst, Fmr. President @plough_shares, VP @amprog, Hill rat.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft - Here.
Yahoo News' Dylan Stableford and Chris Wilson's original piece on the bothced drone strike - Here.
Dan Klaidman's book Kill or Capture on focusing on drone strikes - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

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California Recall (with Dan Schnur and Andrew Romano) Sep 13, 2021

Show notes

It’s a legacy of the progressive era in American politics. Voters in California get to recall State office holders if they don’t like the job they’re doing without waiting for the next election. It’s facing one of its biggest tests this week when Gavin Newsome, the liberal democratic governor who was elected by a whopping twenty-four percent margin in 2018 will face a recall fueled by discontent. Yahoo News’ political correspondent Andrew Romano as well as former GOP strategist turned academic who’s studied the recall movement help sort out the confusing details of the said election.

GUESTS:

Dan Schnur (@danschnur), Professor at the University of California – Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies
Andrew Romano (@AndrewRomano), National Correspondent, Yahoo News. Former Newsweek/Daily Beast

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Dan Schnur's "Politics in the Time of Coronavirus." - Here.
Andrew Romano's Yahoo News articles - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with feedback, questions or tips: SkullduggeryPod@yahoo.com.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Lessons of 9/11 (with Kristen Breitweiser & Karen Greenberg) Sep 10, 2021

Show notes

On that gorgeous Tuesday morning twenty years ago, Kristen Breitweiser was one of thousands who’s lives were shattered forever. Her husband Ron, a Senior VP at a brokerage firm was working on the 94th floor of the World Trade Center South Tower when Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the plane that crashed into the building. The second wave of a terrorist attack that killed nearly three thousand. Breitweiser soon emerged as one of the most outspoke 9/11 family members, a trained lawyer that prodded lawmakers to create the national commission to investigate the attack. And ever since she’s embarked on a tireless campaign demanding accountability for the terrorists and for those in authority who allowed the attack to happen. As the country commemorates the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, we talked to Breitweiser about her own recollections of that terrible day and what still needs to be done. And then we talked to Karen Greenberg, Director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, and the author of a new book about how 9/11 transformed the country's politics.

GUESTS:

Kristen Breitweiser (@kdbreitweiser), 9/11 widow and activist, widely credited with forcing the creation of the 9/11 Commission
Karen Greenberg (@KarenGreenberg3), Director @CNSFordhamLaw, Author of new book Subtle Tools, Host @VI_PodcastCNS.

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Kristen Breitweiser's op-ed for The Intercept: My Husband Died on 9/11. I'm Still Waiting for a Trial of His Killers. Here.
Karen Greenberg's new book Subtle Tools. Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with feedback, questions or tips: SkullduggeryPod@yahoo.com.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Texas Abortion Ban takes hold Sep 02, 2021

Show notes

It has been the law of the land for forty-eight years, women have had the constitutional right to abortion. This was a decision made by the Supreme Court back in 1973. But this week, the court with no written opinion allowed to go into effect a harsh new Texas law that effectively eviscerates the landmark decision of Roe v Wade. The new law bans most abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant and makes no exception for rape or incest. And it deputizes private citizens to file lawsuits who aids or abets an abortion. Dahlia Lithwick joins to discuss. Then, outspoken Congresswoman Susan Wild of Pennsylvania weighs in on the Biden administrations handling of Afghanistan. A sign of some discontent within the Democratic Party.

GUESTS:

Dahlia Lithwick (@Dahlialithwick), writes about the courts and the law for Slate and hosts the podcast Amicus.
Congresswoman Susan Wild (@RepSusanWild), represents Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District

HOSTS:

Michael Isikoff (@Isikoff), Chief Investigative Correspondent, Yahoo News
Daniel Klaidman (@dklaidman), Editor in Chief, Yahoo News
Victoria Bassetti (@VBass), fellow, Brennan Center for Justice (contributing co-host)

RESOURCES:

Jon Ward's latest Yahoo News article on Jan. 6th committee and its requests - Here.
Mark Hosenball's article on FBI's findings in regards to insurrection being a coordinated attack. Here.
Kim Wehle's latest article on Trump's lawyers abuse of the court system for political gain. - Here.

Listen and subscribe to "Skullduggery" on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Email us with feedback, questions or tips: SkullduggeryPod@yahoo.com.

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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