BREAKING: Big Trouble for Eric Swalwell

We got breaking news. Eric Swalwell sends a cease and desist. to the FBI. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.

We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow. It is a packed show today.

I'm not going to lie to you. We got Will Haynes in the studio. We got Jordan Sekulow in the studio. A little bit later, Rick Rinnell's joining us. And then later on after that, we have attorney Bob Tyler joining us about that Calvary Chapel case you know about as we've been taking on Gavin Newsome in the state of California.

So it's going to be packed. If you do want to be on the air today, I encourage you to call early.

So 1-800-684-3110 because we're only able to take calls really in this first half hour and really only in a couple segments.

So 1-800-684-3110. We're going to get to the breaking news item that you're not going to want to miss here. Of course, it involves Eric Swalwell, everyone's favorite. But before that I did want to say You know, we were down. $29,000 yesterday from our budget for the day.

And I issued that challenge: if you could help us make up. that deficit. And Prayerfully, and thanks to you. And thanks to the answers of the ACLJ team and the people who listened to this show or watch this show. We exceeded that.

We ended up hitting $31,000 additional dollars yesterday based on this broadcast.

So I have to say, number one, a huge thank you. And with that, today is the last day of the W Your Impact Drive. Midnight deadline tonight.

So, if you haven't done it, this is the time to do it. Your donations are doubled. We'll set a goal a little bit later as well in the broadcast. But if you can be a part of that, that would be great. But I did want to just say first a big thank you to everyone who did show up yesterday, a lot of our longtime regulars who watch this show.

It really proves even that it is worth doing this each and every day, that you appreciate, you respect, and you understand the importance of the work of the ACLJ. And of course, Do you enjoy this broadcast? Which we have to keep going. We got to pay for if we want to keep doing it every day. That being said, Will, I'll let you set this up a little bit.

Again, this has to do with Eric Swalwell. Who always seems to be getting into some kind of heat. That's right.

So we now know that Eric Swalwell, who's a candidate for governor of California, also a member of Congress, a longtime antagonist of the President, has now sent a cease and desist letter to the FBI. One, The fact that he's like, you know, I think we can just tell him to stop, send to cease and desist is pretty brazen. I think a lot of people may try this tactic if he's successful in the future. But this comes as there's news that the director of the FBI, Cash Batel, as many other people in the team, are looking at releasing the investigative docs around the Chinese spy that had infiltrated his campaign and his office. This is Eric Squalwell.

Everyone remembers this story, Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, that ended up being a spy, a Chinese government spy that had gotten very close to the congressman and was able to infiltrate his office.

Now The congressman is trying to say this is election interference, putting out information about me that could be negative. This is going to really hurt my political campaign. I did nothing wrong. This is the same person who bought into the Russia collusion hoax and would leak, was actually investigated for leaking. In the first Trump administration, information, investigative things about the Russia collusion hoax.

He was so certain that it was President Trump colluding with Russia. He is also the one that will play sound too about how adamant he is that you have to get all of the documents out for transparency about things like Jeffrey Epstein. But all of a sudden, when it's hitting close to home, He's sending a cease and desist from his attorney saying, Hey, there's going to be legal trouble for you, Cash Patel, if you release my documents. And we've got some fun audio to play in the next segment, you know, flashing back just a couple months ago. Where Eric Swalwell was calling for full transparency, full sunlight.

To make sure that conservatives and liberals were being held accountable, but of course, when that sunlight is turned towards you. How quickly you crumble. I want to hear from you, 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. To have your voice heard on the air today, be a part of the show. And of course, again, you're going to hear it a lot today because it is the last day.

of the Double Your Impact Drive. Have your donation matched dollar for dollar. at aclj.org today. Again, The ACLJ champion or ACLJ member is ready to unlock a pledge only if you donate today at aclj.org. Welcome back to Sekulow.

We do got some lines open: 1-800-684-3110. Really, you'll be able to take your calls in this segment and maybe one other at the very end of the show.

So, if you do want to call in, this is the time to do it. Because in the next segment, we're gonna be joined by Rick Grinnell later on in the broadcast. We're gonna give you an update from one of the attorneys involved in the case against California, representing Calvary Chapel. I'll give you a big broader scope of the work that's going on there with ACLJ and ACLJ partners.

So, it's gonna be fun to listen into that. That being said, if you want to call in, now's the time to do it. Will, I think we need to reset. Maybe you and Jordan can kick this around here because this is an interesting moment. You have Eric Swalwell once again making himself known.

I think we should play this to set everything up.

So, this is Eric Swalwell. Before you hear everything, back on. This is from CNN. This is from December. 22nd.

Everyone's getting ready for Christmas. Doesn't feel like that long ago. Less than four months ago. Let's take a listen. to Eric Swallow.

I see it as the best disinfectant is sunlight, but sunlight will not work when all the names have been blocked out.

So release the files. We have a lot that we can do if Republicans want to join us. Trust that the Americans are mature enough to handle it. We can handle the truth regardless of who's in it, Republican or Democrat. And obviously, that is about the Epstein files.

But meanwhile, the letter from his attorney to Cash Patel says this: the congressman has never been accused of wrongdoing in that matter, and your attempt to release the file is a transparent attempt to smear him and undermine his campaign for governor of California, the letter said. Your actions threaten to expose you and others at the FBI and the FBI itself to significant legal liability.

Meanwhile, these are documents we have been seeking at the FBI, at the FBI, at the ACLJ, for five years or more. Our first lawsuit of the Biden administration was a FOIA lawsuit trying to get the agencies to respond. Because of all of this information that came out, Christine Fang had been able to, over a long period of time, embed herself within his entire camp.

So, we knew that she was close to Eric Swalwell. He was on the House Intelligence Committee. He had access to very sensitive documents that a Chinese spy would be interested in. And we wanted to know at the ACLJ how damaging that was to U.S. national security.

And Jordan, now, like, he's trying to brush it off. Like, this was 10 years ago when she was in my office. No, but nothing to see here. I did nothing wrong. So, therefore, you shouldn't see this.

And actually, this is a violation of my rights, FBI, if you release these documents. This is ridiculous. If he had, if a spy successfully infiltrated his office and he did nothing wrong, why would you not want the information out so that other offices like yours, and if you're running for governor of the largest state in the country, that you want to make sure as well that that kind of infiltration doesn't happen at the state level, which obviously we know the Chinese have these influence campaigns in the United States, and they were targeting California politicians. Remember. I was at Feinstein who had the driver for over a decade.

who came out to and was known as a Chinese spy. It doesn't necessarily mean That they did something illegal. It could have been bad judgment at a certain point to say, you know what? Maybe, why is this person hanging around? Why are we getting so close to this person?

There's some personal allegations here, I think, as well. But the idea is that if you want everything out about Donald Trump, And you want him accountable for everything and everybody associated with him, then everything should come out about you when it actually does make sense. I mean, this isn't just like we randomly want to release stuff on Eric Swallow because he's running for governor of California. No, there's a Cal there's a Chinese influence campaign of spies that these that have been targeting California elected officials and other politicians. I don't care if they're Republican or Democrat.

At a certain point, I think the information is able to be shared with the American people without giving up the intelligence so it's not harming an ongoing investigation so that others know because we have new members of Congress elected all the time, like he was in an unexpected victory, who come in with very young staff. And then people are say, hey, I'll work for you. And they're low salaries. And we need to know what to look for as problems all over Washington, D.C., especially against the country that we know is actively got a campaign to put these Chinese spies inside American elected officials' offices.

Well, and once again, Jordan, when you think about the absurdity that he's saying, you're just trying to interfere with my election. That is what he and Adam Schiff did for years. You had to go through an impeachment hearing and trial on the Senate. He was actually part of the impeachment team. President Trump wasn't President anymore.

He tried to impeach a President who wasn't in office.

So, again, you kind of reap what you sow to some extent. He always kind of, I think, was playing too close to the fire because these allegations were always coming out at the same time. And it was kind of very much a double standard. On the one hand, we know that there's a Chinese spy close to him. And that doesn't mean, again, that he did anything illegal.

He hasn't been charged with a crime. But. That also doesn't shield the information. From the American people, because it could be helpful. And I even look past like political campaigns.

Think about the kind of corporate interests, not even just huge companies. But let's say you are a chemical company, a small chemical company in Kansas. Right? How did they, you know, what to look for? When people show up who, again, they fit the bill, it looks like they would be good for the job.

But then you start kind of looking into the background that you do in a normal background check, especially if you're handling anything sensitive, like a congressional office where someone who was on the Intel Committee would be. You say, you know what? We might need to slow this down. Not a racial matter. It's not an ethnicity matter.

It's just a, we know there's an issue with China. Let's get more information before we let these people close to a sitting U.S. Congressman. And remember, they had to shut down a consulate in the United States. Yes, it's a business.

Because it was just a spry outpost. This is not a cruise station in New York. Like these, this isn't so outside the realm of possibility, but also we know that she was within his office. And the fact that, as a public servant, as someone who was a member of Congress representing people of California and now wanting to be a governor of the state, the fact that they wouldn't say, yeah, let's release it all. Let's let them see everything to see.

How this is going on because you know what I care about? I care about national security. He could even spin this and try to say, Well, you know, we don't have Department of Homeland Security because the Republicans, even though we know that their spin there is false, but he could try to spin it and say, Well, we're at a very dangerous time. We need to get more sunlight on these things. No, instead, they're sending a cease and desist and threatening legal action, saying, You're violating my First Amendment rights because you're targeting me because I'm of a different party.

That's their argument here, Jordan. Is that the fact that he was the one that had a spy within the office? This isn't as though it is something brand new that no one has cared about. We've been fighting this for five years, trying to get information. If it can come out this way, because they are going through, redacting, making sure that top secret information or things of that nature isn't included, doing it carefully, and then releasing it.

I am very proud of the FBI for being transparent. We have seen that since President Trump was re-elected. Elected. And since there's been a new guard at the FBI of getting this type of stuff out, and the fact that he is sitting here after years of leaking information that he got on his committee and Adam Schiff got on their committees, leaking it out to damage their political opponents, that he would try to cry foul now. I think he should just be like, you know, I've done similar things.

I guess this is where we're at. But no, he's going to try to make this like he's the victim here and try to actually use it to gain votes in California and hide it and say, no, no, I was not infiltrated by a Chinese spy when we know he was. Honestly, I don't even know if this really hurts him in California. I mean, because he can play the politics of it that he wants to. And obviously, if he's the leading candidate, that tells you where kind of California politics is to this day.

At the same time, again, It shouldn't be about him. It should be that this is information that the whole country was concerned about. The fact is that it doesn't matter if you're infiltrating these fundraisers who are putting interns in people's offices by Democrats or Republicans. It's not about necessarily that the member of Congress violated the law. It's what should they and their staffs be on the lookout for.

After he was briefed by the FBI, he cut the relationship off. She was no longer around, no longer did any fundraising for him.

So he obviously knows that there was enough information there. He didn't like fight back and say, no, no, this is someone who's helped my campaigns. I'm going to still let them help my campaigns. No, he got the information. It was Kevin McCarthy who said after the FBI briefing.

You wouldn't want Eric Swawel on any of your committees. And that's not just the Intel committee, on any committees, after what the FBI told him in a closed-door hearing about that situation. And of course, his leaking that we also know was a huge issue with him and Adam Schiff's office. When you're dealing on Intel committees, that's the one thing you're not supposed to be doing, you know, is leaking intelligence information for political purposes only. Which damaged not just your political opponent, but the United States of America and our intelligence community.

When we get back, Rick Rinnell is going to be joining us, and I have a feeling he is going to have a lot to say about this situation. Of course, it is in his home state of California, number one. Number two, we know he and Eric Swaw well, been good buddies over the years, Will, I'm sure. But that being said, very close allies. Phone lines are open: 1-800-684-3110.

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Let me know where you're watching from. I'll be reading those during the break. Welcome back to Sekulow. Is Rick Rinnell connected with us? I'm sure we checked to see we got him okay.

Rick is joining us right now. Rick, obviously, and maybe I'll kick his wheel again. Our whole conversation today has been about this news from Eric Swawell saying, you know what? I believe there should be sunlight on everything. They should be telling everyone the truth.

All of the controversy should be out there in the public to see whatever it could be. Unless it's about me. Rick, I think this is a case study in political hypocrisy when things like leaking about a Russia collusion hoax is fine. And also forcing as much sunlight on Epstein files is fine. But as soon as it becomes a scandal within your own political office, you're going to send a cease and assist to the FBI.

What are your take on Eric Swalwell's inability to be transparent with the public about the spy that was embedded within his office?

Well, I think you hit it right here. It's total hypocrisy because what we've known for years is that Eric Swawell has said that this narrative that he had an affair with a Chinese spy was wrong. He would say things like, you're misinterpreting what was done. He would say things like, this is half-truths. And so now we've got the opportunity to see the whole file, and he's running scared.

He's really nervous that the public is going to get to compare the truth to what he's been telling us for years. This is the same thing that happened with Adam Schiff. When Adam Schiff was exposed, when I declassified and unredacted all of the information that he had been saying, you know, I get to see it, you don't, you don't understand the full file.

Well, when we released the full file, it was proven that Adam Schiff had been lying on CNN and MSNBC for years. This is now in Eric Swallwell's lap. He doesn't want this to come out because he's running for office. He is a manipulator of the truth. And when the truth is about to come out, he gets very nervous.

Yeah, Rick. One of the questions I have also is: you know, when we talk about Gavin Newsom looking to run for President. And how he is received even within his home state, but has been able to create this sort of narrative around the country. Obviously, Eric Swalwell is starting to move in a similar direction now for governor. I was just curious what it feels like on the ground in terms of even support for someone like him, because it does feel like they're cut from similar cloth, if you will.

Yeah, I think, look, in our society, there are a lot of people who are just partisan Trump haters. They just want to support anyone who hates Trump. They don't know why they're supporting someone. They don't understand the policies behind it. If you're in California, you see Eric Swalwell every day attacking President Trump.

And his entire campaign for governor is just attacking President Trump. This is going to be a disaster for California, for California taxpayers, for California businesses, anyone who's interested in common sense. This is a train wreck that's coming because Eric Swalwell doesn't know anything about business. He doesn't know anything about common sense reforms. All he knows, all he does in Washington is bash Republicans and bash Donald Trump.

And so that's not a campaign for governor. You can't run the largest state in the country simply by hating on Donald Trump. We need somebody who is going to reform California. The policies of a one party ruled Sacramento are disastrous. And that's why California is losing power and losing people.

I also think it's curious when they try to say this is just election interference by the President because he's scared of me. That's the line they're trying to use. When in reality, first, this isn't the first person that has FBI files or national security files that this administration is releasing. There has been transparency across the board, whether it comes to the Russia collusion hoax or many other things that have been of public interest, other FBI investigations into President Trump, showing what actually took place, showing how things were hidden from the public, trying to be transparent. And they're all for that.

when it doesn't hurt them. But as soon as this is someone that's running for office, which if you're a congressman, you're always running for office every two years. He just happens to be running for governor now. But trying to say that it's a smear campaign, it's trying to undermine his campaign. That was his playbook.

That was literally what he and Adam Schiff did for years trying to go after the President, using, weaponizing their positions within Congress to try and put things out there to create, inform, and narrative. All of a sudden, when this is actually what the FBI has been doing to everyone, just releasing things, trying to be transparent, he tries to frame it as something like, this is what they're doing to me. You always say when a Democrat is saying something and saying, this is bad, look over here. It's normally what they're themselves doing. Is this another example of that?

Well, look, Eric Flawell has been in office the entire time that Donald Trump has been in office. And Donald Trump is not afraid of them. We've seen Eric Swalwell throw temper tantrums, do press conferences, try to attack. And it is nothing new. No one is afraid of Eric.

Eric has tried everything that he can. And look, if he had anything up his sleeve, he would have already done it in the first Trump term when he was literally losing his head every single day about Donald Trump. And so no one's afraid of him. We've seen all of his tricks. I think it's now Judgment Day.

All of the lies that he has been telling and the media have been covering up for him. I've never seen so many Washington Post reporters and New York Times reporters rushing to ask the government to not release information. It's really another signal that journalism is dead when you have reporters calling for secrets. It's quite shocking. Absolutely, Rick.

Thank you so much for joining us today. Really appreciate your guidance and your thoughts always. And look, we couldn't have people like Rick without you. And I have been saying I'm going to talk about it. I'm going to talk about it.

I got two minutes left in this segment. Then we're going to take a bunch of calls, by the way, if you want to call in. We got some lines open: 1-800-68-430-110. And then give you a big update on that case. Again, taking you to California.

It seems like a day we are spending in California today in our fight for Calvary Chapel against who? The government of California, Gavin Newsom, and all his best trying to find the millions of dollars or over a million dollars to find this church. ACLJ is involved, and we got one of our uh great members Who's going to be calling in and being a part of the show a little bit later? Who's been involved in this case? You're not going to miss its big update.

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So have your gift double today at aclj.org back in less than a minute. Um Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now, your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow.

Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-68-430-110. I want you to be on the air with us today, and you only got about two segments to do so. Of course, we are still talking about this Eric Salwell situation, but we are. Also in the last day of our double your impact drive. I'm going to keep talking about it, folks.

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So, do it today at aclj.org. Should we reset and talk about this? You want to talk about California? Everything's California today. Yes.

Because we're spending time on the West Coast. What we started this broadcast with is this cease and desist letter by attorneys for Eric Swalwell to Cash Patel and the FBI saying, Hey, We understand that you're potentially going to release files that are related to a spy from China that was in my office for a long time, helped with fundraising and all sorts of other things while I was on the House Intelligence Committee and things of that nature. But if you release that, we're coming after you. They said the congressman has called for the FBI to agree within three days not to release the files, saying that any further action to release them could prompt him to take legal action. I wonder if maybe we could get a law, release the Swalwell files in the House of Representatives.

Would he be okay with that? Because I know that he was a big proponent of releasing the Epstein files through legislation. This whole thing goes to show the hypocrisy of those on the left. And I think we should play again what Eric Swalwell said in just a few months ago, December 22nd of 2025, around this whole debate over Epstein files, which the left didn't care about until they found a way to make it a negative for Donald Trump. They had four years where they had the House, the Senate, they had Joe Biden.

They could have done it then. They didn't care about it until they found a way to make it a political bludgeon. But here's what he had to say about that in release. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Byte eight.

I see it as the best disinfectant is sunlight, but sunlight will not work when all the names have been blacked out.

So release the files. We have a lot that we can do if Republicans want to join us. Trust that the Americans are mature enough to handle it. We can handle the truth regardless of who's in it, Republican or Democrat. You know what?

I agree with them. I think that Americans are mature enough, and I would say Californians are mature enough. To read the files, even if there's salacious things in there about how close you were with this individual, that we can handle that, to understand what happened, how a spy from the Communist Party of China was able to get within your operation so closely and was undetected for so long. American people can handle that. We're mature enough to read through this.

And you were calling for no names redacted. I understand it. That the reason these aren't out yet is that the FBI is going through and redacting things to make sure to protect people. But no, you don't want the truth there because it's an embarrassment to you. No one is saying that you broke the law with this.

The FBI isn't saying we are going to throw him in jail after we release these files. But I think it's important for the American people to understand when our national security is compromised. By a foreign adversary. How it's done, and how we can protect that from not happening again. And if you want to be the executive of the largest state economy in the country.

Then I think you should be pretty transparent with who's able to get that high up in your political operation, Mr. Swalwell. Yeah. What he said. When we get back, there's a big update.

in the world of the ACLJ. And I don't want you to miss this. Look, we have had some big successes recently. Obviously, when you're dealing with court systems in states like California, sometimes there's steps forward, steps backwards, and our team continues to fight. You're not going to miss this big update, and really, just a full circle of what's going on here in the work of the ACLJ.

But specifically in that case for the state of California. He's trying to go after Cavalry Chapel. To get $1.2 million in fines collected.

Something that means nothing to California, but can mean everything to this church. You get back, you're not going to want to miss this. Get on hold, though, if you want to be on the show. 1-800-68-4-31-10. We'll take calls at the end.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We're now joined by Robert Tyler, who's President and chief counsel of Advocates for Faith and Freedom. This is an organization that does great work as well, that actually had the Calvary Chapel case from the very beginning and is co-counsel with the ACLJ. And so we are happy to have you on, Robert, to also talk about how long you have been fighting this.

Now we are fighting together at the Supreme Court, both our organizations. But this is something that you have been in a lot longer than the ACLJ and our audience has heard about. Go ahead and give some of how you got involved with this early on and the fight that you've had for years now. Hey, thanks, Will. Love to do that.

If I could say. I am honored to partner with ACLJ. We have been. Working with ACLJ, I think the first case I had. Uh was back in Uh 1997, when we had a trial in Riverside County, California.

And so it's been, we've worked on many cases together, and I'm. Greatly honored to continue that work with you guys. Calvary Chapel San Jose contacted me in early 2020 as a result of the restrictions. It's important to note that In San Jose, California, this is where it all started. This is the Silicon Valley.

This is where the lockdowns were invented in the United States. And this was the first county in the country. To issue a lockdown order, and then from there it went to the state of California, and then after that, there became a national. uh lockdown so to speak And so there's Silicon Valley made tons of money as a result of COVID. Because of the technology companies up there with Netflix and everybody staying home watching TV and or excuse me, watching these programs on their phones and things like that.

Um, uh, this is a big deal, and this is where it all started. And it's going to end up here in the Supreme Court with your partnership. We started in. uh may of 2020 when we filed our our first suit that was a federal lawsuit And then the county sued. Uh, the church to put a stop to them and say, you know, you can't meet.

And, you know, there it was just ridiculous, the restrictions. And so we have been working on this case Since uh May of 2010 20. And so, what's that take us to? I mean, that's almost six years now. Yeah, Bob, this is Jordan's second one.

That's something I wanted to underscore because we talk about a lot on the show. But with groups like yours, and again, to learn more about Bob's group and what they're doing in California, go to faith-freedom.com and you can support them too. I mean, support them financially at faith-freedom.com because it's important, especially in states as large as California, to have those groups, have partners like Bob that we work with at the ACLJ who've set up their own organizations who can do that work to make sure, you know, going back six years.

So, Bob, we talked about that a lot because oftentimes on this broadcast, by the time we're talking about something, it's already pending at the Supreme Court. It may have already been heard at the Supreme Court, and our audience has gotten used to it. But it's kind of a good reminder to know that most of the time we saw these kind of a time period because of COVID where we saw a lot of emergency actions on appeal, and the Supreme Court was kind of taking cases, especially the Trump cases, and we were involved in those too, where. They were taking them, you know, a month after two weeks, you know, these, but most of the time. You know, taking a case to the Supreme Court is just under a decade.

It's a lot of work, it's a lot of attorney hours, a lot of legal hours. And it takes the client as well, the church as well, who's willing to fight it all the way.

So I just tell people about that because sometimes on our broadcast, we're already jumping to that point, but you know, along the way, that battle. Yeah. You know, it is when we go back and we track our hours on how many hours we've put into this case. We have close to 2,500 hours in time. Had we been a for-profit law firm billing clients, Uh, we would be, you know, well in excess of, you know, three million dollars easy at this point, four million dollars in fees.

And we do that pro bono, and we've done it because it's a calling God's put on our heart, and we believe it's necessary for our future generations to protect our religious liberty. And so, you know, that depositions, many, many depositions, lots of investigation, lots of. discovery, which is just the grueling grunt work of litigation when You know, you're staying up late nights, writing responses, writing demands. Uh, it just uh, there's so much work that goes into it that frankly, people don't see it. They often look at lawyers and say, Oh, such a kind of glamorous job.

Associate of mine. We were laughing yesterday because he said, you know, they talk about this being a glamorous job, but they don't see us staying up late at night in our pajamas, trying, you know, having to just trying to stay awake to keep working to get the things done that we need to get done. It's tough, and there's a lot of work that goes into it.

Well, and I also want to bring up that fact, and it's something we talk to our audience here: is that being able to do this work for people, protecting their constitutional rights, but also their God-given rights, that it doesn't come from the government. The Constitution helps enshrine them and protect them, but it comes from God, not from the government. Being able to do that for these cases, where we talked about this one in particular, over $1.2 million fine plus six years of litigation. That would bankrupt most churches, most organizations, just being able to stand up. for your religious freedom.

And that is why it's so important. Groups like Advocates for Faith and Freedom, as well as the ACLJ, are able to do this because of those that support us. To help protect for every other church, every other person of faith. That just wants to live out and practice the rights that God gives them. When these governments come after them and try to do it in a way, That would make them go away, try to shut them down, make it so burdensome that no one can afford to do what we are doing here except for the supporters that join us and stand alongside us.

Yeah, you've got that right. I mean, if it's. I've often said that You know, our Free exercise of religion, our free speech, our First Amendment rights are only as good. It's just written on paper. Right?

But it's only as good as and strong as the people who are willing to stand up to protect it. And that's where a lot of people just give up on their religious liberty, their free speech. They get trampled on and they just walk away. But it takes clients. that are willing to To stand up with courage, like Pastor Mike McClure in Calvary Chapel San Jose.

I've said that so many times, to stand in courage. In the middle of the Silicon Valley, where he's scorned by them. And then it takes lawyers that are willing to. Instead of make millions of dollars like we could be in some private law practice that we're billing all of our hours, I actually don't actually make a living doing this kind of work. I make a living in a private law practice.

I donate my time to this generally. And so, you know, we put our time into this and we do everything we can because it's a calling by God. And I want to say one thing. I became a lawyer back in 1996. Because in 1991, I read Jay Sekolo's book.

I had a calling, and I felt like it was something God wanted me to do. And I read Jay Sekolo's book way back then, and I thought, You know, I really feel like this is what God's calling me to do. And it's been such an honor to be able to work for so many years with ACLJ. and to be able to work with someone who inspired me to go to law school. We hear those stories.

From so many folks who have now put themselves in influential positions like you have, you know, taking on these cases. Attorney Generals, I was at a meeting with some state attorney generals. I heard it from a couple of them who said, you know, their entire legal careers were started that way. I remember when I was younger hearing that kind of thing. But when older, you hear it and you realize there had to be something there that said, hey, you know, I want to go into this field where it's going to be those late hours.

It's going to be weekends working. We always say, like, our legal team is not ever really on vacation. No one's really ever not on call. And it's not that we're trying to take people away from their family time or their time with their faith, but that this is their calling, as you said, you're a calling that they're committed to. And again, people can support advocates for faith and freedom by going to faith-freedom.com.

You can make a donation there. And we encourage you to do that, faith-freedom.com. Bob, we're going to have you on more as we hear from the Supreme Court. Again, we hope we get to take that case all the way there. And again, To make sure that if this we ever end up, and I hope we're not in those kind of situations again.

That our First Amendment liberties won't be trampled upon. And if cities, governments try to trample upon them, we will have Supreme Court precedent to fight back. Bob, thank you for joining us in California, and thank you for fighting alongside us for most of our existence too at the ACLJ. Yeah, Jordan, thanks so much. It's an honor to be with you.

Thanks, Bob. All right, thank you, Bob. Appreciate you calling in and being part of the show today, and obviously, all of the work that you've done. With the ACLJ. It's always appreciated.

Again. This is why the organization exists on such a broad scale. Again, from individual cases, individual people to churches in the country to the worldwide work the ACLJ does. And it's our last day. Of a double your impact drive.

So, again, ends at midnight tonight. I'm encouraging you to make your donation if you can. Hey, last call, four calls. We do have some lines open. Plenty of you watching right now, but maybe not a lot of questions or comments.

Call me if you've got a question or comment right now. Good chance you'll make it on the air. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. We want to get your feedback as well.

Welcome back to Sekulow. I am going to try to take as many calls as I can this segment. A few of you have called in. A couple lines open: 1-800-68-430-110. In about nine minutes, we'll see how many calls we can get to.

Let's start off with Michael, who is calling from the state of Florida, watching on Rumble. Go ahead, Michael. I uh I kind of think the Saying for mister Swalwell, Um would be Methinks Thou protestest too much. I know that karma doesn't usually play into my mindset too much, but For him, I think it applies. You reap what you sell.

Exactly. And especially when you're looking at how much, one, how much they were kind of a tool of the deep state, both he and Adam Schiff, the way they leaked things. They were the ones that said, you know, there is no doubt in my mind that President Trump colluded with Russia. We have the evidence. They could never actually get the real evidence out there because it didn't exist.

But all of a sudden, as you say, obviously the Shakespearean quote that he doth protest too much. That When anyone else Transparency, good. Sunlight, good. Let's let everyone see everything, and you make up your own mind. When it comes to having a spy from China, the fact that we say it we're not shocked by it as much anymore because we've been dealing with this for so long, but.

He was on the House Intelligence Committee. and was able to be infiltrated by The Chinese Communist Party. Through a spy. And that he's like, you know, FBI, you're going to be violating my First Amendment rights. I'd like to know how he feels about his own state, and he wants to run for governor violating the First Amendment rights of Calvary Chapel.

But, Jordan, I don't think that he'll weigh in on that because it may hurt his election chances there. No, if he did weigh in on him, he'd say, you know, they deserve to pay that fine. I mean, this is, again, what we've seen is that California won't drop this. They could. Along the way, they could have said.

It just filed in court. We're no longer trying to, you know, there's other cases out there where these fines have been held to be unconstitutional or wrong. You know, this was done six years ago in this haphazard way. We were wrong, done. And it would be over.

But they have fought. Remember, we talked about it with Bob Tyler just a minute that we've been fighting for six years. He's been fighting for six years to get this case and a victory for Calvary Chapel. The state of California. decided to take on this battle.

Entered the case. They decided. as a state to enter the case. And take on this battle to enforce a $1.2 million fine, which to the state of California is nothing. Right.

But to Calvary Chapel San Jose, it could be catastrophic.

Well, and also to that point. And also, that hanging over your head for six years, that alone is a punishment, which unfortunately. Supreme Court victories, even if you do right. I mean, so in a sense, you've already lost what you can't get back, which is the pain and suffering. emotional stress Uh financial stress.

To your membership, to your leadership team, of this financial penalty, which is a seven-figure financial penalty hanging over your head for nearly more than half a decade.

Well, it also shows the mindset of the state because it's not free for the state to fight this in court. No, no, you're talking about they've spent more than a million dollars, they have spent more than they would be getting in the five a private law firm like like what Bob was talking about. Uh, if you didn't have groups like uh ACLJ, you didn't have faith in like his advocates for faith and freedom, it would not be cost-effective. It'd be better to pay the fine, figure out how to pay the fine. And if you didn't have California, Committed to using its state taxpayer dollars because they fought it three ways.

You know, if you have used entire bureaucracy to do this, They've been spending millions of taxpayer dollars, state taxpayer dollars. To go after and try and find this church $1.2 million because they don't like how they conducted themselves with their COVID-19 policies, policies which were later found to be unconstitutional by courts. And look, the work of the ACLJ, as George just said, it is a years-long battle. I mean, we just heard six years. of just getting this case to this point.

in the state of California.

Some of them, though, of course, do move faster. We don't want to act like this is always the case. But if you're talking about something that's going to get itself to the Supreme Court, that's why we look. When we do these kind of fundraising drives, we know sometimes it can be frustrating. Because you'll hear about these cases and you're like, it feels like it never ends.

And trust me, I'm sure for our legal team, it also feels like it never ends. But we have to be able to continue to fight on. We have to continue to raise awareness and bring that to the front of your mind because we know this isn't going to be necessarily always the stories that are going to be top news. But When you're a supporter of the ACLJ, you're doing all of that. Also, you're doing it so when you need help.

Like many of you that go and reach out every day. that you have an ACLJ attorney ready to work with you. When your constitutional rights are attacked, when your religious freedom rights are attacked, if it is within the scope of the work we do, you know it's at no cost to you because people are standing up and supporting the work. And by that, they're becoming members of the ACLJ, they're becoming champions of the ACLJ. And we also always have to be prepared that a case that we take on, Jordan, could end up at the United States Supreme Court.

That's the type of issues we deal with.

Sometimes you think they're settled law, but even when you look at like the case in Texas, where the teacher was told you can't pray anywhere that a student can see you, we think that that's settled out of the Supreme Court because of the case with the football coach, right, that was able to be seen praying on the football field. Yet they're taking it to the they lose and they're still trying to appeal it. They may be trying to fight this the whole way. And if they keep filing appeals, we have to be there to fight that. And once again, it may seem like something that is an issue that we can get resolved quickly with even a demand letter that still costs man hours, that still costs.

Legal work that, if you were to go to a private firm, would cost thousands of dollars. But when you also know that the ACLJ is prepared to take whatever case it is, if we have to, all the way to the Supreme Court, that is what makes the people that stand with us so valuable. This is why the donors, the dollars are so important.

Okay, because see, what we can tell you is that what states, counties, and governments realize when they want to impose these fines on the American people and restrict your constitutional rights, even when they know it's likely they could lose in court. They know. That a lot of people won't be able to find an organization. that can take their case on. And remember.

Remember when you're talking about taking the case on, that law firms would say, sure, but it's going to cost this much. It will cost more, it could cost more than the fine. That you are trying to fight back against. And this is why the donors become so important. you're able to set up organizations.

That can stand in the way to preserve the rights of the American people that would otherwise not be preserved because it wouldn't be financially feasible. For the injured person? The person whose constitutional rights were violated? Or the attorneys having to represent them, who may not have an organization set up with donors and supporters, to actually take on that work.

So it's because of your donations? That constitutional rights are preserved for you and generations to come from government overreach, states. Counties, the federal government, school boards, local school districts, we see it as city councils. It's never going to end. They're urged for more power.

And to do it under times of stress, like pandemics or any other kind of situation, wartime, terror, acts of terrorism.

So we have to be ready to stand for your constitutional rights and our constitutional rights all of the time. And that's again, I think it just explains why are donors so important for organizations like this. And this case, you know, six years on, costing millions of dollars to actually do. Is exactly what it's all about. That's right.

Let's put up that QR code right now, okay, for the next 35 seconds as we're still on the air during this double your impact drive. Scan it. Go toaclj.org. Do it right now. We're short of our goal and we only have a few hours to make up the difference.

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