Skullduggery

Latest Episodes:

Will Trump help Ohio's Vance Advance? (w/ Tom LoBianco and Kyle Kondik) Apr 25, 2022

Show notes

JD Vance spoke recently at a Donald Trump rally in Delaware County Ohio last weekend. He was publicly boasting about the endorsement he had just gotten from "the big man," touting his newfound benefactor as the future 47th President of the United States. Trump's backing of Vance, author of the best-selling Hillbilly Elegy, was a head-spinning moment in the wild and woolly Ohio Republican primary. Just six years ago, when Trump was first running for President, Vance excoriated him, writing in one recently revealed text message to his former college roommate, "I go back and forth thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn't be that bad and might even prove useful or that he's America's Hitler." But that was then, and whatever Vance thought of Trump's politics at the time, he's abandoned those views of yesteryear seeing in a full embrace of Donald Trump the key to victory in the Senate race. Next month starts a wave of primaries in Ohio, Georgia, and Pennsylvania that will provide the strongest clues yet on just how much of a hold on Republican voters that Trump still has. Yahoo News' Tom LoBianco joins to discuss the recent Trump rally. Then Kyle Kondik, the Managing Editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball Newsletter that tracks congressional elections.

GUEST:

Kyle Kondik (@kkondik), American elections commentator & analyst; Managing Editor, Sabato's Crystal Ball at UVA Center for Politics
Tom LoBianco (@tomlobianco), Politics reporter @yahoonews, Mike Pence biographer: “Piety & Power”

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:

LoBianco's latest piece on the primaries in Ohio - Here.
Trump holds rally in Ohio in support of Vance - Here.

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Buried Treasure: The Trials of Harry Truman (w/ Jeffrey Frank) Apr 22, 2022

Show notes

In March,1947 Harry Truman delivered to a joint session of Congress one of the most consequential foreign policy speeches ever given by a U.S. President. It was the speech in which Truman announced his plans to deliver aid to two embattled countries --Greece and Turkey-- threatened by instability and, as U.S. officials saw it, Communist subversion. Truman effectively was setting forth a new policy, committing the United States to assisting countries resisting aggression, or perceived threats of aggression, from Soviet Russia. It was dubbed the Truman Doctrine, and along with the Marshall plan, the creation of NATO and the Berlin Airlift, it created a global security architecture that is still very much with us and today 75 years later its shaping how Joe Biden is responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Jeffrey Frank, author of a new book The Trials of Harry Truman, joins to talk about how the the plain speaking president from Missouri came to roll out that policy – and the role it played then and continues to play today on this episode of Skullduggery’s Buried Treasure.

GUESTS:

Jeffrey Frank (@JeffreyAFrank), Author of The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man

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:

You can pick up Frank's book The Trials of Harry S. Truman: The Extraordinary Presidency of An Ordinary Man - Here.

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Does the US have a Ukraine Endgame? (w/ Derek Chollet) Apr 19, 2022

Show notes

The battle for Donbas has begun. This week fresh Russian troops poured into the eastern region of Ukraine in what is shaping up as a major offensive aimed at ceasing full control of a substantial slice of the embattled country. At the same time, Vladimir Putin's forces appear to be intensifying their bombardments throughout Ukraine killing civilians, choking off evacuation routes and committing what US officials say are war crimes. What is the Biden Administration doing in response? And is there any hope left for a diplomatic solution? State Department Counselor Derek Chollet, one of Secretary of State Antony Blinken's top advisors, joins to discuss.

GUESTS:

Derek Chollet (@derekchollet), Counselor of U.S. Dept. of State

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' Alexander Nazaryan's piece on Donbas - Here.

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

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The Hunter Biden - Jared Kushner Payoff (w/ Zach Dorfman & Frank Figliuzzi) Apr 15, 2022

Show notes

When former Hong Kong Minister Patrick Ho was flying in to New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport in November of 2017, he was arrested by the FBI for bribery and money laundering charges. The first call he made was to James Biden, brother of the then former Vice President and now President. James Biden later said the call was a mistake, that Ho was actually trying to reach his nephew, the President's son Hunter Biden. And for good reason, newly authenticated documents show that Hunter Biden had gotten a million dollar retainer from Ho, just one tranche of as much as five million dollars that flowed to both Hunter and James Biden from the former Hong Kong official and his boss Ye Jianming, a billionaire oil tycoon with past ties to a front for the people's liberation army. The details of the Biden's relationship with Chinese interests emerged in fits and starts. Much of it originally dismissed because they were found on an abandoned laptop that former US intelligence officials suggested may have been a product of Russian disinformation. No evidence of that has yet been found on the material and recent reporting on the subject has caused some former counterintelligence officials to raise an intriguing but important national security question. Were the Biden's a target of a Chinese influence operation that needs to be fully investigated by the FBI. Coming during the same week that new disclosures that Jared Kushner former President Trump's son-in-law had secured two billion dollars in Saudi money for his investment fund. We talk to former FBI counterintelligence chief Frank Figliuzzi about the questionable dealings of Presidential family members and why they matter.

GUEST:

Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman), National Security Correspondent, @yahoonews
Frank Figliuzzi (@FrankFigliuzzi1), FBI Assistant Director (ret); NBC News National Security Analyst, Author

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:

Michael Isikoff & Zach Dorfman's latest piece on Hunter Biden/Jared Kushner - Here.

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Train Station Horror (w/ Evelyn Farkas) Apr 09, 2022

Show notes

The horrors in Ukraine only get worse. Russian forces fired missiles at a train station where thousands of civilians had gathered to flee the fierce fighting in the eastern region of Dunbas. At least fifty people were killed including five children and around one hundred were injured. Coming during a week that Western leaders led by President Biden accused the Russians of war crimes and Ukrainian President Zelensky charged that the Russians were engaged in genocide. The rocket attack on a train station only underscored the most pressing issue at the moment. What more can the United States and its allies do to stop Putin's aggression? Few have more consistently called for the US to provide more weapons and military aid to Ukraine than Evelyn Farkas, a former top Pentagon official under President Obama. She joins us to discuss.

GUESTS:

Evelyn Farkas (@EvelynNFarkas), Fmr. Dep. Asst. Secretary @DeptofDefense, ExecDir, WMD Commission, senior Senate staffer, professor

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' Train Station Bombing story - Here.
The White House's response to the Ukrainian Train Station Bombing - Here.

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

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War Crimes (w/ AMB Stephen Rapp) Apr 06, 2022

Show notes

President Biden this past Monday doubled down on his charge that Vladimir Putin's Russian forces were committing war crimes in Ukraine. Biden referenced the grotesque images emerging from Bucha showing Ukrainian citizens, their hands tied behind their backs shot and killed by Russian soldiers, their bodies dumped on the streets. Eye-witnesses describe the discovery of mass graves and reports of looting, rape, and other atrocities. Coming on top of Russian missile strikes on a maternity ward and other residential areas. The latest evidence would seem to cry out for a full-scale investigation for war crimes. But how would a war crimes prosecution actually work? And is there any realistic chance that Putin himself would be held accountable? We talk to Stephen Rapp, who formally served at the State Department as US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes.

GUESTS:

Stephen Rapp, Fmr. United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues in the Office of Global Criminal Justice

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' Dylan Stableford and Colin Campbell's article on Biden claiming Putin should face war crimes - Here.
Yahoo News explainer: What is a War Crime? - Here.

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

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Will the country’s most progressive prosecutor survive? (w/ DA George Gascón) Apr 01, 2022

Show notes

In the aftermath of the social protests inspired by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police Officer, a wave of progressive prosecutors were elected across the country dedicated to rolling back the tough on crime lock-em-up policies that have defined criminal justice in this country for decades. None of those prosecutors have proven more controversial than Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón. From his first day in office, Gascón - a former street cop, issued sweeping directives to put an end to cash bail, the death penalty, life sentences without parole, and the prosecution of anyone younger than eighteen as an adult without exceptions. But today, as violent crime rates in Los Angeles and across California spike, Gascón's reforms have triggered a ferocious pushback. Including from his own prosecutors who sued him for his efforts to bi-pass California's so-called "three strikes and our out" law. Now, Gascón is facing a well funded recall campaign that has already raised over three million dollars. Will Gascón survive the effort to remove him from office? And if he doesn't, what message will that send to progressive prosecutors across the country. Gascón joins us to give us his take on what he still thinks he's gotten right as well as some of the admitted mistakes he's made.

GUESTS:

George Gascón (@GeorgeGascon), LA County District Attorney
Andrew Romano (@AndrewRomano), National Correspondent, Yahoo News

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:

Isikoff & Romano's latest piece on DA Gascón - Here.

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

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Pete Buttigieg: The Trillion Dollar Man (w/ Sec. Buttigieg) Mar 29, 2022

Show notes

A little more than two years ago, Pete Buttigieg rocketed to political stardom when he emerged from seemingly nowhere to become a leading Democratic candidate for President. He had to say the least an unusual resume. A combat vet who served in Afghanistan, openly gay, and Mayor of South Bend, Indiana. A town with a population barely over one hundred thousand. Yet Buttigieg stunned the political world by winning the first out of the block Iowa caucus, at least in terms of delegates. Buttigieg didn't get the nomination of course but he was tapped by President Biden to serve as his Secretary of Transportation. A job that puts him in the middle of some of the country's most pressing issues from soaring gas prices to shoring up decaying infrastructure. He's also got some thoughts on the wave of anti-LGBTQ laws being passed by state legislatures across the country. He joins us to discuss these topics and more.

GUESTS:

Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete), US Secretary of Transportation

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:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments about Buttigieg on electric cars and bathrooms - Here.

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

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Trump's Georgia Test (w/ Greg Bluestein) Mar 28, 2022

Show notes

This past Saturday night during a political rally in Atlanta, GA railed against Brian Kemp. This is the latest example of his enduring grudge against the state's Republican Governor for the cardinal sin of failing to back his bogus claims that it was he, not Joe Biden, who won Georgia's electoral votes in the 2020 election. Trump's resentment of Kemp has prompted him to endorse the GOP challenger to the Governor, former Senator David Purdue which is shaping up to be a make or break primary that can well determine just how much sway the former President has over the Republican voters. If Perdue pulls out a primary win Trump will undoubtedly be viewed as the ultimate GOP kingmaker clearing the way for him to retake the Republican nomination for President in 2024. But if Kemp prevails, and at the moment he has a solid lead in the polls, it could well be a sign that Trump support is fading far more than Washington pundits have acknowledged. Which will it be? We talk to Greg Bluestein, the lead political reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and the author of the new book Flipped: How Georgia turned purple and broke the monopoly on Republican power.

GUESTS:

Greg Bluestein (@bluestein), @AJC politics, @nbcnews contributor, @politicallyga pod, Author of “Flipped”

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:

Pick up Bluestein's new book Flipped - Here.
Read Klaidman's latest Yahoo News piece on the GA Trump Rally - Here.

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

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Navalny vs The "Insane Little Tsar" (w/ Vladimir Ashurkov) Mar 22, 2022

Show notes

Until Volodymyr Zelensky came along, no one had stood up to Vladimir Putin more forcefully and courageously than Alexei Navalny. A longtime thorn in the Russian President's side, Navalny has mobilized opposition to Putin, denounced his policies, and released YouTube videos exposing his corruption, including his alleged connection to a giant billion dollar mega palace on the Black Sea. As a result, Navalny has suffered endless harassment, faced repeated criminal charges, and notoriously was poisoned in 2020 by a chemical agent widely suspected as being planted by the FSB. Last week, he spoke out in court against Putin's invasion of Ukraine, calling it crazy, and saying it's the duty of every person now to fight this war. On Tuesday, in that same courtroom he was convicted and sentenced to nine more years in a maximum security prison. We'll talk to Vladimir Ashurkov, one of Navalny's top aides and the executive director of the anti-corruption foundation Navalny founded.

GUESTS:

Vladimir Ashurkov (@vashurkov), Executive Director of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation @fbkinfo

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: