ACLJ Unearths Secret Meetings With IRAN

This is Jay Sekulow. We've got breaking news.

The ACLJ unearths a secret meeting with Iran. 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, Jay Sekulow. Hey everybody, welcome to the broadcast. Let me just tell you right at the outset here, this is a buckle your seatbelts for this one folks. We have uncovered something here. In one sense, I'm shocked that we got the document because I'm shocked that the Department of State had the document. But one of the things we've been very concerned about for a long time is that during the Trump administration, there was an attempt to undercut our colleague, our now colleague, Mike Pompeo's efforts to curtail and contain Iran's threat.

They're the largest exporter of terrorism in the world. We have now learned, folks, and this is breaking news and it is big news. We have now learned through litigation, through a Freedom of Information Act request that we sent out, that in fact, after going to court, that Iran's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zarif, you've seen him on TV, Mohammad Zarif, the Minister of Foreign Affairs met with a, quote, off the record conversation with, ready for this, former U.S. ambassadors and policy analysts, and again, at an informal off the record meeting. I'm holding up, do we have it on the screen?

We'll put it up on the screen for our audience. This is the memo. During the Trump administration, people, the former U.S. ambassadors, we don't know who they are yet, we will, that will be part of what we find out, met with the current foreign minister who is also negotiating indirectly with the United States, who was being, a foreign policy being put forward by the Trump administration. And Zarif, in this memo, and it's about a seven page memo, says that the former President was needing a photo op for his vanity. This is what is in this meeting.

We don't, he says. Second problem is that he, this is Zarif speaking, he spoke to the North Korean foreign minister after agreement with the U.S., and he said, quote, Pompeo and Bolton can't get the peace declaration that Trump promised. Now this is going on while President Trump is in office, and our colleague Mike Pompeo was Secretary of State. The U.S. says no peace deal, and the U.S. will reimpose sanctions unless it's zero missiles, zero nuclear enrichment. This is what Bolton wants. This is in this conversation. And then Zarif says that he agrees with what Putin is saying, that the U.S. is excessively weaponizing the dollar. My read of Trump is that he will be a two term President, and Zarif then brags that I said Trump would be elected President in 2016. We're gonna get into more detail on this, but what you need to understand at the outset is this was while President Trump was in office. And I think a lot of people need to kind of have this story broken down for them.

We're gonna do it. Trust me, we've been in meetings trying to break it all down as the news is broken to make sure that you understand exactly the importance of this topic as, again, the ACLJ work. This is what happens. You unearth things that you never thought you would. And with the government, because of our FOIA campaigns, they have to respond to some things.

And when they do, sometimes documents come out that are unexpected. Andy, this, I'm really gonna minute here, but you always say it's finding a needle in a haystack. This was some needle we found.

Some haystack, some needle. That's exactly right, because we didn't ask for this document. It appears in a pile in a trench of documents that is given to us. I'll gladly take it, but it raises so many questions that as a litigator, I could spend days formulating questions about this document, who wrote it, where did it originate from, how did it get into the files of the State Department, et cetera, et cetera. But you know what?

I think it is responsive to what we asked for in this sense. We asked for conversations and memos that involve Zarif. The real question here is not how we got it, because we got it through litigation. The question is how did the State Department get this?

And when did they get this? That's the real question here. So I'm telling you, folks, we've got a lot to talk about. We're gonna break this down for you in the next segment of the broadcast. All right, we'll take your calls.

We know this is a heavy topic, and we're happy to answer them. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secula. We are discussing the unearthed document that the ACLJ obtained. Maybe, Dad, you need to kind of break down even what the process is for us to obtain these documents, to find out that there are secret meanings going on at this high level of government sort of... I mean, the foreign minister of Iran's meeting with former ambassadors in the United States who were not currently ambassadors during the Trump administration. So let me break down the process of even how we obtained this document, because it's not like we... This is not investigative journalism. It's not like this is a leaked document.

This is something that if you don't understand the Freedom of Information Act request, maybe they need to know. Let me break it down. On May 4th, this is gonna be the timeline here that I think will make sense. On May 4th, 2018, the Boston Globe reports...

So 2018. Yeah, 2018, John Kerry is quietly seeking to salvage the Iran deal he helped to craft. This is because the Trump administration had pulled out of it.

On May 8th, President Trump formally withdraws from the JCPOA. In September, during an appearance on a radio broadcast, John Kerry acknowledges that he had been meeting... Had several meetings with Iran's Foreign Minister Zarif. He said three or four times since leaving office.

Now, he just left office 18 months before. On October 4th, a newly discovered meeting notes, and this is what we've got, folks, notes from, quote, Iran and US, and put this on the screen, an off-the-record conversation with Foreign Minister Zarif. What's significant here is it says that this meeting took place with a group of former US ambassadors and policy analysts and an informal off-the-record meeting. So these news story breaks. On February 21st... 25th, rather, we sent out a FOIA request.

We'll put that on the screen. And let's go through, Cece, what that is. That is a request from our offices to the State Department for information regarding current government officials conducting shadow diplomacy with Iran while they were non-governmental officers, officials. So the Freedom of Information Act allows us to ask the government for official documents that are not classified, but that we get to see them and see what was going on. And so we made this request and we asked specifically for records and communications that have been reviewed or received by the Department of State in any regard with John Kerry, Robert Malley, or Ernest Moniz with Zarif. And so this was this document that we are talking about right now is in response to that. And it shows that there was a secret off-the-record meeting that happened between these formal officials and Zarif.

Of course, it's not so off the record. They've got a memo that ends up in the State Department file. Now, Andy, they didn't just give this to us. So we asked for it in the letter, as you're required to do under the statute. So we asked for it. They don't give it to us. We then filed suit.

Well, that's right. That's exactly how we do in FOIA litigation. They don't give it to us. We file suit.

Ultimately, the document is produced. But the question is, how did it get into the State Department files? I think the burning question here is that while the Trump administration is in power and is attempting to exercise its constitutional jurisdiction to deal in foreign affairs, we are having backchannel communications by a former ambassadors and officials of the Obama Biden administration with people who are our enemies, the Iranians, the big exploiters of terrorism, OK, and are talking behind our back the unmitigated arrogance of this elitist attitude to think that they can get away with doing these things while there is a current administration in office.

And they continue to meet with Zarif, the very polished, urbane foreign minister of Iran, and his residence in New York City, right under the nose of our incumbent officers in the secretary of state's office in Washington, D.C. This is abhorrent. So my question is, I see this question a lot. So why is this important now? And what does this mean?

What can actually happen from this? Personally, technically, there's a law on the books called the Logan Act. They went after General Flynn for this. When you have a government in power, like we did with President Trump or President Obama, as a private citizen, you cannot undercut and attempt to undercut the foreign policy of the United States.

That's number one. Number two, they were actively trying to undercut our foreign policy. We had pulled out of the JCPOA. We'd already pulled out of this Iran deal. And they were going in to have these off-the-record meetings discussing it, assuming – and again, this is an assumption – that they even get so far into looking at what Russia – how Russia is perceiving the United States in all of this. Right. And clearly, it's a runaround from the administration that is in power. And they're going back to former administrations that they – and this would be my assumption – that they perceive as allies or somebody that they can actually have a conversation with and get something done outside and around the current administration.

Yeah. What's interesting, though, in the memo itself, it's – Zarif says, according to the State Department's record – so they're saying this is Zarif's words. I mean, that we can only give you – this document's been – It's an official government document. It's an official government document. It's been unclassified, OK?

It says this. When Trump left the JCPOA, Iran had a meeting with EU officials and foreign ministers, and we were asked if we were talking behind their backs with the Americans. So the Iranians had a meeting with the EU officials saying, hey, are you going to the Americans behind our back?

We can't, is what Zarif said. There are no sunset clauses in the JCPOA because technically the JCPOA was already in effect. But that doesn't matter, as Iran will never seek an atomic weapon. Now, the problem with all of that, Andy, is they – it's already been proven that they were violating the JCPOA, and yet they were still bound by it because the Europeans were, quote, holding them to it.

That never became true either. That's exactly right, Jay. They said to us that they were abiding by the JCPOA, the simple one-page bullet point document, when in fact we know that they were enriching uranium and that they were preventing inspectors from coming in to look at what was going on in their facilities for uranium enrichment in Iran. President Trump pulls out of the agreement, and now instead of trying to support the United States policy, we've got officials, former ambassadors and officials of the United States, contrary to law, contrary to American law, purporting to negotiate and to have secret meetings outside of official channels of communication, to put in and to exercise their own diplomatic authority, which they don't have because they're not in power. I mean, reverse this for a moment, Logan, so people don't understand.

Reverse this. Could you imagine right now if Mike Pompeo was out doing this to the current administration what people would be saying? Well, we're here for him later, so maybe we'll – Well, he's going to be honest, and he – by the way, he's outraged by this. This was undercutting our position protecting Israel. This was undercutting the position of the United States to get out of this horrible deal in Iran.

It was ridiculous. It never was going to happen. It was a pathway to a nuclear weapon. And what it shows – the big question is, to me, and we're going to – this is ongoing litigation, folks. The big question to me is how did this document end up – of all documents, how did this document end up in the State Department when it's acknowledged – at least this is what it says on the face of the document, Cece. It says, MJZ – that's Zarif, the foreign minister of Iran – replies to questions posed by a group of U.S. former ambassadors and policy analysts at an informal off-the-record meeting at the Iranian ambassador's residence on October 4th, 2018. But yet it's in the possession – Of the State Department. Of the State Department.

Yes. This is the question that we will have to pursue. And when we do these FOIA requests, we have a purpose and a mission. And this is – like I think you said, it's finding a needle in a haystack because they respond and they give you tons of documentation, so you have to go through and read. And when we find something like this, we know that we're on the right track. And it's important then to follow up. Obviously, they know how they got this document. They know what – you know, the details that surround it.

And we're going to have to pursue to get that information now. I'm going to tell you this. I'm going to have everybody sit tight. We're going to have Mike Pompeo joining us next. We're going to have our panel stay on here.

I've got to say this. It took going to federal court – put on the screen for our television audience or people watching our social media platforms. I'll describe it for a radio audience. This is the complaint that we filed in a U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia. And that complaint – we'll get that up there in a moment – lists out the various causes of action and the failure of the government to reply to the FOIA request. There it is.

That's the complaint. The shocking part of this – and it is shocking – is that this document exists, that this meeting took place, Logan, and that this document then found its way into the now unclassified documents of the State Department. Yeah, who knows who did that, but it's an interesting part of the story.

Whoa. Yeah, that we've been able to, again, uncover this, unearth this, put in the right request. Really trying to undercut the President Trump administration, and specifically Mike Pompeo, who will be joining us in the next segment. Yeah, so we'll talk to him, and then maybe if you have questions or comments as well, you can give us a call at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. This is unbelievable. We need to probably break that down even more. And what we can do about it – I think there's a lot of questions about that. You obviously mentioned the Logan Act. I know that's something that people have brought up years after years after years.

Maybe we need to discuss what that actually could be when there is something that's this clear. We will do that. We will have Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, on with us in just the next segment, folks. Share this with your friends if you're on our social media platforms. Very important. This is an unbelievable find. Back with more in just a moment.

Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We've got – this is – I'm still in shock over what we have uncovered. And it took going to federal court to uncover it, and we're going to have to learn a lot more about it. But we've got a memo that was produced after litigation from the State Department. It says, notes from Iran in the U.S. and off-the-record conversation with Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif at the Iranian ambassador's residence on October 4, 2018. And Zarif – this is what the memo says – replies to questions posed by a group of U.S. former ambassadors and policy analysts at an informal off-the-record meeting. But this ended up in the State Department's records and became responsive to a FOIA demand that we have. Joining us on the phone right now is our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, but also the former Secretary of State of the United States during this period of time, Mike Pompeo. Mike, it's shocking because by name – I guess you're not – you're used to this – of course, you're mentioned in this memo by Zarif. And he's basically accusing the United States administration, then President Trump, you, and others of diplomacy that was photo op-based, that he agreed with Putin that this is – that you have – that the United States is excessively weaponizing the dollar.

It's leading to world pulling away from the dollar as a currency of choice. He's talking to them about the value of the JCPOA. And this is all going on while you wisely got us out of the JCPOA. Your reaction to this memo?

It's really something. I hadn't seen the memo before, Jay. The ACL, Jay, should be incredibly proud that they unearthed this and made this public so the American people can see what is pretty outrageous conduct and, frankly, not surprising. You have to remember who the characters in the room were, right? These are Foreign Ministers Zarif, one who that Senator Feinstein and John Kerry meeting with routinely, as if he was some Iranian moderate. He was someone we should listen to when, in fact, he was a thug that had been part of an organization that had killed so many Americans. Here they are meeting with him while there. These former ambassadors are not on watch. And, of course, we knew even when we were still in office that John Kerry had done the same kind of thing multiple times where he had met with Foreign Minister Zarif to basically tell him, don't worry, the cavalry's coming. The Trump team will be gone. Pompeo will be gone. These folks will pass along. And when they do, we'll rejoin the JCPOA, as it appears the Biden team is actually trying to fulfill the Kerry prophecy there and give you all the money that the Ayatollahs desperately want. To see this memo in living color is truly remarkable to watch former American State Department officials behave with a then-sitting Foreign Secretary of a theocratic, kleptocratic regime that is the world's largest state sponsor of terror.

You know, I'm trying to put myself if I was in your shoes here. And, look, I represented the President and I was, you know, there were leaks. We all knew that.

We all had to deal with that. Documents would get out that weren't supposed to. During the impeachment, stuff was being leaked by, to media.

I mean, that's normal. But here you are negotiating the United States' best interests. You're our Secretary of State. And then at the same time that you're, the very same time you're doing that, and you may have been, I don't know if you were in New York or if you were in Geneva or wherever you were, Zarif is meeting with former administration officials with the Obama-Biden, now the President Biden, but then Vice President Biden's administration officials, undercutting exactly what you're doing on foreign policy.

It's galling, it's dangerous, and it's un-American. And I've said that before with respect to Secretary Kerry's behavior. Look, I'm now the former Secretary of State. I, from time to time, meet with government officials from other nations. I always avoid anything that has to do with American policy because I'm not the Secretary of State anymore. I'll talk to them.

I'll be friendly. If they say something they want me to pass along, I will pass it along to Secretary Blinken or his team to make sure he knows precisely what was said. That is not how these folks behave. They were trying to cut our knees out from under us. They were trying to stop us from what we were doing. They never, in that sense, fully left office, Jay, and that's both un-American and dangerous.

Logan has a question for you. Yeah, as Secretary of State, you obviously spent a lot of time to sort of root out the deep state within the State Department, but we're getting these kind of documents. Can you describe to our audience sort of the challenge of what that is and how that worked and obviously how much work clearly is left to be done? Yes, Jordan. Unfinished business for sure at the State Department.

Look, there are good people there. There's folks who are trying to do the right thing, but large segments of the career bureaucracy at the State Department have an establishment view of foreign policy. This would be the Biden-Obama administration view of foreign policy, and for my thousand days as Secretary of State, we were working to deliver on what was a very different understanding of the world. We put America first, not a globalist idea first, and we were running into the internal resistance that State Department, Jay, talked about some of the things, leaks, undercutting us, working on Capitol Hill with Democrats to undermine our efforts. It was an extraordinarily difficult place to deliver on what the American people had asked when they elected President Trump, and there remains an awful lot of work to do there.

I have a theory on how we can fix this, but it's going to take another conservative President who's prepared to go do that hard work. Yeah, I sure want to hear that because one of the things that I'm concerned about here, and that is, and I experienced this, when you're at the highest levels of government as you were, and I was outside of it, but representing the highest level of government, you always had, there was always this undercutting that was going on, sometimes inside, sometimes outside, and you dealt with it. What is more difficult is when the government you're dealing with are knowingly, willfully, wantingly soliciting this kind of engagement from former US officials to undercut the very policy you're trying to put in place. And did you all, and I don't want you to disclose anything you can't disclose, but did you all just expect that that would be going on while you were in office? Yeah, Jay, I'll be a little careful here, but with respect to Iran, that particular document that you have now unearthed through amazing work, we knew this was taking place. We knew Kerry was doing this. We knew, we watched his travels. There's a fellow who was the Secretary of Energy under them named Ernest Moniz. He and Kerry were traveling to meet with the Iranian leadership, and we knew the storyline they were telling them. We talked about this when we were in. We said, these guys are out there trying to undermine what we're doing. They've told the Iranian leadership that this ship will pass, and if they're just patient, they can just hang on and continue to terrorize their own people and deny their own people their basic human rights, that life will return to normal when President Trump is ultimately gone.

So it is both indecent and un-American, Jay. We knew it was going on, but it wouldn't shock me to find that that's going on even in other places during our time in office as well, and we don't yet know about it. I hope the ACLJ will continue to do the hard work for you to get that information out.

The American people need to know that there are people inside of their government who leave government and then work against the interests of the duly elected leaders of this government. We have so much more to talk about. We're out of time, but Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much for your insight on this. We'll have more ahead.

This is, you're going to be with us in a couple of weeks in our studios. We're going to get into this in depth because I, you know, it's horrific in one sense, but not shocking in another. I mean, to put it that way.

I mean, that this kind of conscious, intentional act would go on. Having said that, this is one of 150 pages of documents we have to go through. So we're just going through this right now. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. All right, folks, we come back. We're going to reset. We're going to take your phone calls at 800-684-3110.

You support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice? That was a really good reason to do it. That FOIA request. Now, that was a tranche of documents we got, and there's 150 of them to go through. But this one, and there may be, we're trying to figure out, see, she raised the point.

What's we only have 30 seconds here. There's got to be something attached. There's something led to this being in the file. Right. There's more information that we possibly haven't been given yet. Or maybe we haven't seen yet. Kind of clarifies what this document is more about.

It didn't just show up in a file, folks. Not something this earth shaking. All right, we're going to be back. We'll take your calls at 800-684-3110.

Back with more in just a moment. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Maryland Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Hey, everybody.

Welcome back. All right, we're talking about a major find in our FOIA practice, Freedom of Information Act practice, against the State Department that had arisen out of a report that John Kerry was quietly seeking to salvage the Iran nuclear deal on May 4th, when on May 8th, just four days later, President Trump formally, with the discussions already going on, formally withdrew us from it. At the same time, and this is what's shocking, just five months later, at the Iranian ambassador's residence, there is a off-the-record, was not so off-the-record now, by the way, off-the-record conversation with Foreign Minister Zarif, who is still the Foreign Minister of Iran, with former U.S. ambassadors and policy analysts at this informal off-the-record meeting, where they undercut, where Zarif's notes, the notes from this are what Zarif said. He said that basically the Trump administration was conducting foreign policy by vanity for photo ops. We don't, is what he said about Iran. He said North Korean foreign ministers said the agreement with the U.S., he said that Pompeo can't get the peace declaration that Trump promised. We just had Mike Pompeo who was horrified about this. The U.S. says no peace deal and the U.S. will reimpose sanctions, but the condition is zero missiles, zero nuclear enrichment. This is what the administration wants.

They won't get it. He then, one of the other most shocking things to me, he states in this meeting, I agree with Putin, that the U.S. is excessively weaponizing the dollar and that it's leading to the world pulling away from the dollar's currency. It goes on and on and on about how it needs to stay in the JCPOA.

And of course he says that, don't worry, Iran's not going to develop a nuclear weapon anyways. We found this because we went to federal court. So Logan, I want people to understand what the process was and maybe I need to back it up to the level. Yeah, I think people need to be aware of how this works. They're not exactly, most people aren't sitting around making Freedom of Information Act requests.

So even just the terms, I think people need to understand how this comes about. This isn't using their tactics. This isn't a leaked document.

This isn't something that came out, you know, because someone was angry. CC and I can't figure out where Andy, how they got it, how they got into the files. But it was handed over to you by the government. Yeah.

So here's what we did. Why don't you explain CC for a moment with the Freedom of Information Act. Sure. So Freedom of Information Act is there to let the people feel like they can have some confidence in the government. Documents, any kind of official government documents, we have the right to request copies of those within, if they're not classified and there's no national interest at stake. We can get those documents and we do it through a Freedom of Information Act request, which we put into the State Department specifically asking for documents that would relate to these secret, off the record meetings that Obama-official era officials were having with Iranian officials. Because in the memo, Andy, which is, I mean, shocking to me, but in the memo they put that these are U.S., former U.S. ambassadors and policy analysts meeting with Zarif at his home. They're not hiding it. That's the kind of thing that just outrages me and horrifies me so much, Jay, is that former ambassadors and officials of the United States go to the residence of the foreign minister of Iran in New York City during the pendency of the Trump administration, okay, and have meetings about foreign policy issues resulting in this multi-page memorandum authored by someone, Zarif, who I don't know, and it somehow gets into the files of the Department of State and pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request comes into our hands and from then into the hands of our listeners and the public.

How in the world did this happen? We have a pretty interesting quote that maybe we get back from the next segment that you guys have to hear if you're listening right now that comes direct from Zarif, a pretty interesting comment, specifically tying it to- Are you teasing? I'm teasing it. Well, it's a lot of words and we only have 38 seconds. So you're going to want to stay tuned to the next segment. We're also going to take your phone calls. We have a few that are already there and a few up online. So if you do have a question or comment, we know this is a pretty heady topic, but it's important for you to know about it. Give us a call.

It's a huge find. 1-800-684-3110. Get your voice heard on the air. Ask the questions. Look, even if you do have this question, you have to come on here and sound like a genius.

Ask the question that the audience needs to hear. It's just true. We're all doing it. We're all asking those questions. We'll be back in just a moment.

Please visit ACLJ.org for more information. All right. We pulled up the sound bite really that came directly from the document. I mean, a sound bite, but it was a comment that was made very casually from Zarif talking to the United States. Just talking about his poll numbers, how he's doing.

This is from the document that we unearthed. I was as popular as Soleimani, but now I'm at 47%. He is up.

He is closer to 80%. The people of Iran once preferred engagement, now opted for resistance as the only reality. So sitting there complaining, once I was as popular as Soleimani, obviously we know the fate of Soleimani.

He's dead. Yeah. Maybe by the request of our previous guest that was on the show. So it is an interesting thing that they're having these casual poll discussions. It's unreal. It is really bizarre. People always talk deep state. They say those things.

It's been used now against a lot of people as a conspiracy theory or a buzzword, but these aren't conspiracies. This is a document coming straight from the government. Their own document. State Department gave it to us.

We're not sure why they gave it to us, but they gave it to us. General Jack Keane's reaction to having your foreign policy undercut was very clear. Take a listen to what he said on Fox News. Working with an adversary undermining US stated policy is really outrageous behavior.

And West Smith, Colonel West Smith is now joining us, our senior military analyst. The fact of the matter is we now know because of this FOIA litigation, that's exactly what happened. It is dangerous. That is not only irresponsible disloyal behavior. That is dangerous behavior because it impacts national security.

It gives a sworn enemy of the United States some hope that we're not serious about our policy. I'll tell you this. I'm going to go ahead and take a phone call, but I mean, there's more to this. I mean, I guess the great question that CCU have is there's this got there.

They gave it to us. There has to be more to the story. There has to be more to uncover. And obviously we will as we go through these documents. But if you just take this memo, clearly there have to be emails. There has to be an explanation of how this got to the State Department.

This doesn't just show up. Yeah. I mean, when you have Secretary Pompeo saying, I've never seen this and yet it's in State Department. And it was during his, when he was the Secretary of State.

Yes. And it's in State Department's possession. There's more to uncover, definitely. You know, I'm going to say this and then I'm going to take the calls, Logan.

I'm going to say this to Andy. If this was the only thing we got from all this FOIA litigation this year, this would have been worth it. It would have been, Jay, but that's what FOIA litigation is all about.

It's getting a nugget of information in a haystack of otherwise trashed or rejected information. But this really exposes what the Obama Biden administration was doing to the Trump administration. General Keene says he is horrified. I am trebly horrified that they would dare to engage in foreign policy discussions with an enemy of the United States while an incumbent presidency is in power. And they would go to meet with Zarif and have tea and coffee with him at his residence in New York City and talk foreign policy. Who do they think they are, these global elitists? No, they think that they could continue these conversations going and undercut the policy of the administration.

That's who they think they are. All right, we've got calls coming in 800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Yep, let's go to Laura in Kentucky on line three. Laura, you're on the air.

Hi, and thank you for taking my call. Well, honestly, I think John Kerry just laughed the whole time because they send the middle finger on everything that Trump did. So my question is, after all of this that's been known and said and discovered, is anything ever going to happen to these people? Anything? Well, probably not. I mean, if we're being honest, from that standpoint, from the standpoint of, will there be legal action taken against them? I have no idea.

I don't think so. But what does happen is when we say, it's what Logan said, when we say, folks, there is a deep state that worked to undercut the previous administration, all we're doing is proving that. So let me tell you, that's more important to me, that's more important than someone getting indicted on a Logan Act violation, is that we can establish through this litigation what was being done.

That's what I think, Logan, is the telltale on this. Yeah, absolutely. It's the work that's being done. You obviously get to see the work of the ACLJ as well. It's important to follow what we're doing and to see this kind of thing and again, this isn't some bad actor leaking a document to us. This isn't something like this. This is the actual legal work of the organization.

What is, we can put it on fast forward for a moment here, Wes. We know Biden was administering, trying to get a deal with, go back into it. Trump pulls out of it.

Remember this, folks. Obama signs it. They have this, well, not signs it, it's a meaningless one-page document. This joint comprehensive plan of action for no nuclear weapons for a period of time, which was almost about to run out anyways, with the Iranians. They breach it. We are pulling out anyways. President Trump said it's ridiculous. So it was a pathway to their getting a nuclear weapon. Biden comes into office.

He tries to get in it. War starts in Ukraine. Russia says, no, this isn't going to happen. Where are things now?

Yeah. The alarming thing is, Jay, is the negotiations are not over. They've been eclipsed by the war in Ukraine, the shortage of baby formula, the Southern border, inflation, gasoline. The negotiations are actually still going on. A week ago today, last Tuesday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, spoke to members of the European parliament.

And I read his remarks and they were really disconcerting. He said in his remarks, the Biden administration still wants to revive the Iran nuclear deal. Therefore the IAEA last week was sending representatives to, to Iran to try and iron out the wrinkles because we don't have any direct negotiations with Iran. And he also said that in the last few months, the IAEA has discovered traces of enriched uranium in sites that Iran heretofore has not declared, and also said that the Iranian government... Why would you go into a nuclear deal with them when you know they're violating it right before your eyes? Well, that's the other thing. Grossi in talking to the European parliament members also said, and this is, these are his words, the situation does not look good as Iran is still not being forthcoming in the information that the IAEA needs from them and that they continue to limit access to the declared sites.

Limiting access is a nice way of saying they're not letting the inspectors in. And yet his opening remark was the Biden administration still wants to revive the deal. So think about that for a moment. And that's why none of this makes sense. And that's why in this document, can you imagine right now what that's going on? And the Biden administration is trying to do these back channels through our foreign policy to get back in the deal. But we had former Trump administration officials undercutting that what the media would be saying, but when it's vice versa, it doesn't seem to matter. Oh, right.

Absolutely. Since this was Obama era, former administrative... They say it in the memo.

Then they get by with it, no problem. You know, even in this memo, he's even talking about prisoner exchanges. These are things that are, should be with the current administration, not with people from the former administration that you're trying to deal with and negotiate with.

That undermines and undercuts the current administration and they were blatant about it. All right, Logan, we're taking more calls. 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Bob in Missouri on line four. Bob, welcome. Hey, Bob.

Hi, thanks for taking my call. Shouldn't Israel be made aware of this document? I know it's probably a delicate situation, but I would think Israel should be made aware of this.

Yeah. I don't know if, well, we know that Mike Pompeo, the secretary of state wasn't made aware of it. So I can imagine probably the Israelis weren't made aware of it. And as Andy, as we know, Iran is the largest state sponsor of terror and Israel is one of the primary targets. And here we are back channel meeting with ambassadors and former policymakers of the United States with the greatest exporter of terrorism in the world. Here we are during the Trump administration meeting with them, talking about sensitive foreign policy issues. Are you appalled?

I am. Well, I think that's true. And you look at what the people are, what Zaref said, he said, the people of Iran once preferred engagement, now opted for resistance as the only reality and Israel needs to know that.

Yeah. Well, I think Israel knows it. I think the world knows it and I think Wes, the fact of the matter is they bind. So everybody knows this, that Iran is in a resistant mode and not complying yet Biden is committed to trying to get some deal to restore the glory of the Obama administration makes no sense.

Here's the bottom line. Iran does not want an agreement with the international community. Iran wants nuclear weapons. And the question is, what is the world going to do about that? And color me suspicious and jaded Jay. But my fear is that the Biden administration will quickly try to execute a deal with Iran in order to flood the market legally with Iran oil so that the gas prices will go down so that his poll numbers will go up.

And that is a real fear that I have. I'm telling you folks, we're going to talk about this in the last segment of the broadcast. We'll take your calls to at 800-684-3110. But this is why you support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice. This was a litigation, put that complaint right back on the screen. We started with a letter, didn't get the response we were entitled to.

We went to federal court, got a court order, started getting documents and then got one that shocked us. If you don't think there's a deep state, guess what? There it is. So when people say, what does this all mean at the end of the day?

That's what it means. The allegations that you got deep states entrenched within these bureaucracies, people trying to undercut the then current administration, the 45th President of the United States, was for real. And there's your memo showing it. Off the record meetings with Zarif.

I mean, think about that for a minute. We'll come back with your calls at 800-684-3110. We'll get comments in from our social media as well.

We're still diving into the document that we unearthed. We're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. We're going to take some of your comments, some of your calls.

I know people on social media have been posting. We'll take some of those. You can obviously give us a call as well. We opened up some lines.

1-800-684-3110. It's the last segment of the day. So if you want a question or comment, now's the time to put that in. But we also don't want to ignore it's an important day for elections across the country. Some of the primaries are happening right now in Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, and Minnesota. Some of these are historic red states who have maybe teetered on blue and maybe teetered on purple over the last few election seasons.

And one red state that ended up being pretty much all blue. Yeah. So there's a lot of things that are happening right now. We don't want to just ignore what's happening. As we know, people are headed to the polls. Yeah.

It's interesting. We'll start with Georgia. It's Andy's home state.

You've got Herschel Walker. Yeah. I see you're wearing your Atlanta. I'm wearing my Atlanta.

I mean, I can't vote in Georgia, but you know, I support everyone who goes and votes. Okay. Yeah. So Herschel Walker's running on the Republican side against a whole group. But I think, Andy, the consensus, I guess, from the media there in the poll is that Herschel Walker's going to run away with this, being a tailback. Herschel Walker. Herschel Walker is going to do what he did at the University of Georgia and run all the way with this. There's not going to be a runoff.

No. He is going to get in Georgia. You've got to have 50% plus one of the vote.

The predictions that I see that he's going to be in the 60% category, Jay. And then you've got this war between the sitting Republican governor, Kemp, and the challenger, David Perdue. Perdue.

Yep. So that's a fight right now, but it looks like on that one that, and it's interesting there, you've got Mike Pence has backed Kemp and President Trump backed Perdue. But it looks like from the polling data I'm seeing, Andy, you're there, but the polling data looks like Kemp's going to take that one too.

Yeah, I think you're right, Jay. Kemp is probably going to win that election. There's a lot of animosity, as you know, between Trump and Kemp over the election and what happened in 2020. But I think that David Perdue ran a lackluster race in the primary and Governor Kemp is probably going to win that. Also, there may be a runoff there, but I think Governor Kemp ultimately will win the Republican nomination for reelection as governor of Georgia. And I think today at five o'clock, Pennsylvania has to certify- Oh, finally they do? Is that correct?

Well, I think it is. I think it's five o'clock today, they have to certify the winner of the Senate. And then there'll be, it looks like it's going to be Dr. Oz by about a thousand votes. For Georgia, I think it's interesting though, to go back.

And I know people don't want to put too much stock into this, but it's absolutely true. As we see now in Alabama, you have a situation where, we usually have Tommy Tuberville, who's a Senator, obviously was a coach of Auburn. And then you have over in Georgia right now, you have Herschel Walker, obviously the biggest Georgia star practically of all time. And now you have Kemp and Purdue, Georgia Tech versus also a Georgia person. And it's weird to say, but Brian Kemp, very steeped in the University of Georgia crowd, grew up with the Munson family, grew up with the Dooley family. So you have this interesting sort of college football analogy that's happening all over the South.

And then you turn to Alabama. In Alabama, you have a pretty strong race, pretty evenly split between Katie Britt, Mike Durant, and Mo Brooks. And Mo Brooks originally had the endorsement of Trump, and then he withdrew it.

They withdrew it. And then you have Katie Britt, who was Alabama through and through. And her husband was the captain of the University of Alabama. So you have a lot of, and she's currently leading, you have a lot of college football connections that controls the Senate potentially in the South, which is, I think is fascinating. Are you going to be watching it?

Oh, I'll be watching all of them. I mean, Dr. Oz, what does he do? He hasn't played for a week. What would he play for? It doesn't matter.

I don't know. I don't think he even played. He's a doctor. He didn't play collegiate sports. You have an interesting, I just thought it was fascinating to me that you have- But that's Pennsylvania, not the South, right? I know.

Exactly. It's fascinating to me that you have Georgia and Alabama at this point- Not the SEC. That have these sort of major- Show your SEC bias, by the way. Well, I think it's interesting because it's not, it shows you how legitimate some of this stuff is steeped in. It proves that some of these people have been part of the state for so long. Wasn't it a concern in Alabama that Tuberville might not win because the University of Alabama people were going to say no? Oh, my family, my wife's family, I have quotes from them that were like, I would never have voted for Tommy Tuberville. I never thought I would, but you know what?

For this moment, it's fine. He's better for the state than the alternative because they're Alabama fans. So it is very steeped in tradition there. Wes, you spend a lot of time in Georgia.

What do you think's going to happen? We do love our football in the South. We really do. And I'm sort of like Logan, a big SEC fan too. Yeah, y'all showing your SEC bias.

Yeah. Part of what I think is going on though, and it's a bit tongue in cheek, but not totally, the people in Georgia and Alabama have decided that maybe athletic leaders will make better leaders than traditional political leaders. And so they're going for that. Yeah, they've seen proof. And maybe more loyal to the state, really, because it's that state pride that- Right. ... sports fans have. Well, I mean, that's become the whole thing in Georgia, Andy, with Stacey Abrams and with Herschel Walker.

Stacey Abrams made a pretty controversial statement the other day saying, worst place to live in, basically, the state that she's trying to become governor of. And it's going to be very close. I mean, it was very close last time. It'd be very close this time. Herschel Walker said, the people of Georgia have given me everything because his whole career was coming from the University of Georgia.

I played high school football and then going to the University of Georgia. So it's going to be interesting. All right, let's go back off the politics for a moment and go back to what we found. To reach state at the end of this broadcast, what we find, we filed a federal lawsuit against the State Department for allegations of shadow diplomacy that was taking place while President Trump and Mike Pompeo was serving as Secretary of State, and that basically John Kerry and his acolytes were conducting shadow diplomacy and foreign policy with Iran. And that was based on some articles that had come out and we filed a FOIA request. We didn't get the answers we wanted. We went to federal court.

We went to federal court. We got a document that has shocked everyone. And that is this document's called Notes from an Iran and US and Off the Record Conversation with Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif at the Iranian Ambassador's Residence in New York City on October 4, 2018, where the ambassador replies to questions posed by a group of US former ambassadors and policy analysts at an informal off the record meeting. And they're talking about US policy and engagement.

But Cece, you said you found something even deeper than what we're finding. So it wasn't just a general discussion about US policy, which is terrible and undermining and it's blatant and ridiculous. But literally in this document, Zarif says, my hope is to find a way to exchange the prisoners that we each have. So now they're talking about specifically prisoner exchange between the United States and Iran, which should be done exclusively. Well, it shouldn't be done.

We usually don't do prisoner exchange. But if it is, it's a discussion to be done with the administration that is in power, not with these former Obama era administration people. Yeah, that to me is a shocking thing on all of this. I think we have to start, you know, we only got a minute left, so we need to start wrapping up this show. But I think people hopefully will see a bit more of the work that we've been doing.

Yeah. We've got to go through this whole document, too. We've got to go through this document and then we've got 150 other documents to review. So the bottom line is the litigation here, Andy, mattered and we found that needle in the haystack, the nugget, as you call it.

Yeah, it does. FOIA matters. ACLJ files FOIA requests. ACLJ prevails.

And things that are uncovered are really shocking and abhorrent in this case. But it's something that we do and we do every day. I want to encourage people to support the work of the ACLJ as well.

That's right. You can do that directly at ACLJ.org. Don't only go there just to donate, though. Look at the incredible work, the blogs that are written by people like Wes, Cece, by yourself, by so many great people, Mike Pompeo, Rick Grinnell, great content that is posted each and every day to help kind of arm you with amazing information. That's at ACLJ.org and we'll be back tomorrow with another episode of Secular.