Trump’s Arraignment: What YOU Need to Know

This is Jay Sekulow.

Today, President Trump was arraigned in federal court on 37 charges. What you need to know. 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. Well, a historic day. I think a sad day for the country too.

And that is the first time in US history a former President of the United States is going to be indicted on federal criminal charges, 37 counts in the indictment against former President Trump. There's been a lot of question as to what's at stake here. And let me tell you this, you know, in a case like this, unlike the case in New York, and I think even like what Georgia will end up looking like, the fact of the matter is on this case, your liberties at risk.

What does that mean? Means, you know, if you lose, you can go to jail. Do I think that's the likely outcome here?

I don't. But I think that this is going to be a real, this is a real legal challenge for the former President. He is going to be arraigned in a couple of hours.

If you're watching us live, if you're watching us tape, the lady may have already been arranged and enter a plea of not guilty for 37 of the, for the 37 counts against him. Walt Nada, who also will be arranged, the alleged co-conspirator who was as valet was the chief steward in the, in the White House. You know, Andy, you and I worked with Walt. I might say worked with Walt.

He was, he would help us during the day for meals and that, you know, you were there all day in those days. And a very nice guy and very much a servant's heart, but he's now been charged with six counts as well. Let's talk about to everybody, first of all, I want your reaction to this. What is your reaction to the former President of the United States being arraigned on 37 charges on document retention, not dissemination?

The same things that we're looking at with Hillary Clinton, not dissemination, although she disseminated a number of these. This is a retention case. What's your reaction to this? 1-800-684-3110.

We want to hear from our audience from coast to coast, 800-684-3110. Andy, let's talk about what the arraignment is. What is going to happen?

Okay. An arraignment is simply a formal proceeding that occurs in this case and in almost all cases in federal court before a United States magistrate judge, not a district judge. Magistrate judges are appointed by district judges for terms of 14 years.

So this is a lower judicial officer than a Senate confirmed district judge. The magistrate will come into the courtroom. The President, former President will be there with his attorneys. The magistrate will simply say, he may even address him as Mr. President, Mr. Trump, you have been indicted by a federal grand jury in the Southern district of Florida in an indictment containing 37 counts charging you with, and then he may go through each of the accounts and say what the charges are, retention of documents, conspiracy to obstruct, withholding the documents, corruptly concealing. He will most likely not read verbatim the 37 counts of the indictment. And he will simply then ask him to the indictment that I have summarized to you and that has been returned by the grand jury. How do you plead to each and every count? And either Mr. Trump or his lawyers will say on his behalf, your honor, we plead to each and every count of this indictment, not guilty. That's an arraignment. That's simply what it is. There was no arrest warrant here.

There's been a lot of talk about that. There's no arrest warrant here. This is a summons. He's answering a summons.

What does that mean? That means he's been summoned to appear in the federal court to answer the charges. If you were going to arrest someone, Andy, you issue an arrest warrant. That's right. I've issued many arrest warrants and had people arrested, handcuffed, and brought in and put in the marshal's holding facility until they appear for their arraignment.

That's not the case here. This is a summons. In other words, he is summoned and told to appear and he voluntarily surrendered himself pursuant to the summons today. Now, technically it is an arrest in the sense that- It is an arrest. ... liberty is- Is restrained. ... is restrained for a short period of time.

When I say short period of time, like 20 minutes. It should be a non-event today in the sense of nothing major should be announced, and then there'll be a motion. But I want to get your reaction to this. How do you feel about this? 1-800-684-3110. What does it say about our country and the state of political affairs?

And is this a political lawsuit or a political indictment? Your view on this, 800-684-3110. We'll take your calls.

Rick Rinnells joining us next. Chinese spy bases in Cuba. Great policies of the Biden administration. We're going to talk about all of that. 1-800-684-3110. But I want to know, we want to know, what do you think about this indictment on the former President?

What do you think it means politically? 800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment. Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We're taking your calls, 800-684-3110. Rick Rinnells joining us. I want to take a call first, and then we'll get Rick's comment on what we've got a lot to talk about.

But also talking about your view, folks, on this indictment of the former President, 800-684-3110. Mika is calling from DC on Line 1. Mika, welcome to Broadcaster on the Air. Hi, good morning. How are you doing? Good afternoon.

How are you doing? Thanks for having me. What I think is, it's important to think that we should want policies and not necessarily a person. Obviously, we have King Jesus, and that's all we need. However, we're also called to obey the laws of the land and should be held accountable. Do I think that it could be possibly a witch hunt? Maybe.

Possibly. But we still have to obey the laws of the land. I disagree that you have to obey the laws of the land. We all, I think everybody on this broadcast would agree with that, including the former prosecutor sitting next to me in the studio. But let me tell you something about witch hunts, okay?

Let me just be clear, because there's two lawyers in the studio and one of our colleagues by remote that has been involved in this stuff for a long time. The Durham Report was too little too late in a very real way. But let me tell you one thing that was crystal clear. It was a ruse. Of course, we knew that six weeks into the representation that this was nonsense. The Russia hoax, the Russia infiltration of the Trump campaign and the collaboration of the campaign in the Russian government, none of that was true. And they knew it wasn't true from the beginning. So here's the problem, I'm gonna bring Rick right into this, and that is, Rick, the problem with any of this, assume for a moment, I'm just, I'm not saying this is true, the 37 points are accurate, and those are crimes. Let's assume that just for this argument. Here's the problem, everything leading up to this has been a false flag.

There's been nothing there every single time. Mueller, Ukraine, tax returns. I mean, and I know something about these, I handled all these cases, and you were a member of the cabinet. And none of this was true.

So this, it does take, we call it the fruit of the poisonous tree. Wong Sung was the case. Remember that? That's right, Wong Sung. Yeah, Wong Sung case. That's right.

And out of San Francisco. And the fruit of the poisonous tree, and that's the problem with a lot of this. Rick, your thoughts on this? Look, I've been watching as we've seen Donald Trump's numbers grow, more people are giving him money than ever before. I think the reality is, is that the American people are seeing this overplay from the Democrats. They are seeing that they keep picking fruit from this poisonous tree, and they keep trying to push it on the American people.

But I think there's a point when independents and really thoughtful people say, why are they going after Donald Trump so hard, so much, all of the time, indict, indict, indict, taxes, indict, indict, indict. And now they're seeing that they're just absolutely afraid. And they're also seeing that this is a distraction, because the Biden family corruption is coming to the forefront.

We now have documents and audio tapes. And what most Americans are seeing is that the DOJ and the FBI are not doing their job. And they're just coming after one political party and one political party leader.

Rick, it's not even just political parties. And this doesn't have anything per se to do with this, but I don't know if you caught our broadcast the last few days. We represent these two elderly guys, pro-lifers, in front of an abortion clinic, handing out literature, praying with people.

That was it. They've been doing this for decades. They get beat to a pulp. I mean, in the hospital, in shock trauma, one of the gentlemen. The individual is on the loose.

We now have pictures. We're working with the police. But I said this, Andy, where's the FBI on that? Where's the FBI?

Non-existent. I'd like to know where the FBI is. They're there if it's Planned Parenthood. They're there if it's for killers of babies. They're there if it's Donald Trump. And they're there if it's Donald Trump. They're there. They're there at Mar-a-Lago. They're doing their attacks on the President in terms of searching his house. But on pro-life issues, on the right side of the equation, they're noticeably absent and very violently absent, in my opinion, when they should be there. I cannot believe that the person without provocation attacked these two men, praying on the street in front of this clinic, cannot be found.

And this happened in May. I refuse to believe that someone has not found them. I find that absolutely incredible. We've got his picture. We know who he is by his mugshot.

Basically, they should find him. There is no reason not to. All right. Let me switch gears a little bit. We're going to be taking your calls, by the way, at 800-684-3110.

So hang in there. Rick, you were the director of national intelligence for President Trump and as member of the Cabinet. China has a spy base now in Cuba.

The Biden administration is confident they can protect U.S. secrets. That's what they're saying. But this was John Kirby, Admiral Kirby, not exactly a confidence builder, last week in front of the press on this issue. You're saying it's not accurate that they're planning this? I'm saying we've seen the report.

It's not accurate. We're focused on making sure that we can mitigate any threats from from China in the region. OK, that was last week. Now, this week, let's play it. We worked very, very hard as expeditiously as we could with the intelligence community to try to get some context downgraded so that we could provide it over the weekend. And we did that. But we were as forthcoming as we should have been, given the nature of this information. Sadly, not everybody seems to take it as seriously as we do, because clearly there's a source or sources out there that think it's somehow beneficial to put this kind of information in a public stream.

And it's absolutely not. OK, so, Rick, so obviously they got caught. We've got a spy operation in China from China, the Chinese Communist Party in Cuba, which may not be shocking to you.

You're the director of national intelligence. But it's pretty shocking to people in the United States. And then you have the denial from Admiral Kirby.

He is not a confidence builder. And then the whoops, yeah, we found out there is this. What's your assessment? And how serious would this situation be as it's unfolding here? Not just a cover up, the fact that the Chinese are actually doing this. Yeah, first of all, let's be very clear, the Chinese are spying on Americans and on American soil. We shut down the Houston consulate and we should be shutting down the San Francisco consulate.

This is just the reality. The Chinese are very aggressive. They're on our college campuses. They're in our intellectual institutions.

They're in local government. They have we've had to do defensive briefings for American politicians because they have been dealing with Chinese spies. So the fact that the Chinese are building up in Cuba, that shouldn't be a surprise to anybody in the intelligence community.

What was really painful and was obnoxious and offensive to see was the Biden administration. Rather than go after the Chinese, they went after the Trump administration and tried to spin this. Oh, it's been building up and they knew about it. It's so political. And the left politicizes intelligence and then points the finger at conservatives and says, you're politicizing intelligence. They get away with it because the media allows them to. You've got Natasha Verkrand at CNN who jumps on every single anonymous leak that comes out and pretends like this is a big deal. I could go on and on with the reporters covering the intelligence community. They're all partisans and that's got to stop.

That's got to stop immediately. So Rick, you know, I tell this to our ACLJ members out there that support the work of the ACLJ. I mean yesterday, and you'll hear from them again today as well. You heard from the former secretary of state who's our senior counsel for global affairs, Mike Pompeo. Today you're hearing from our colleague, a senior advisor to the ACLJ on international affairs and national security, Rick Rinnell.

Both of them cabinet members in the previous administration are part of the ACLJ team. So we take this for real. We think this Chinese threat is number one. I think it is the number one geopolitical threat we have because it impacts the Middle East. It impacts Africa.

It impacts the globe. And for a moment, like you just said, whether the Chinese had it open three months ago, three minutes ago, we know they're on college campuses everywhere. They're controlling cultural centers everywhere, youth orchestras everywhere. It's all infiltrated by the Chinese communist party at this point.

Rick. Well, this is the problem. And the Biden administration has already been able to signal to the Chinese that they are going to do everything they can to distract and pretend like Russia is the number one crisis.

I say it constantly. Russia is a problem, but China is a crisis. It's happening right now in our country. We need a bipartisan approach to get rid of the Chinese spies that are in America. We know where they are.

We know where they've infiltrated. And we've looked the other way because, frankly, the Chinese have given our universities a whole bunch of money. And you look at our universities. Education is so expensive. Tuition is so expensive. We're paying the Presidents of universities millions and millions of dollars, tenured professors who get to say whatever they want, and they never get fired. And this is all very expensive.

When you have 20 assistant Presidents for this and that, and you have way too much of a bloated administrative state within our universities, our kids suffer. We've got to clean it up. Rick, we appreciate it. As always, thanks for your insight on all of these issues. We appreciate it.

Rick Grinnell, of course, senior advisor to the ACLJ National Security and International Affairs. We've got a lot more ahead. I'm taking your phone calls as well. And this, folks, this is the support of the ACLJ is so critical.

Become part of our team. Because we're not just talking about these issues. We take action. Whether it's FOIA litigation, whether it's at the UN, wherever it might be, we're going to Congress. So support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

Now, we're going to be taking throughout this broadcast your phone calls. I want your reaction to the Trump indictment. What do you think it means politically? How do you feel about it? Is it political?

1-800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment. Welcome back to the broadcast. Former Presidents being indicted, the Chinese opening up spy operations in Cuba, which Rick says don't worry because they're already having spy operations right here in the United States. Rick Grinnell said close down the embassy in interesting in San Francisco.

They closed down the one in Texas. So we're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. We're going to be joined by Pat Mahoney in just a moment, talking about China and some of the work of the ACLJ and allowing protests against that government, that regime. But let's first go to Jerry in Rhode Island. We're taking your calls and reaction to the indictment of the former President. Jerry's on line one. If you want to talk to us, 800-684-3110.

Jerry, go ahead. Hello, team. After seven years of listening and watching all the witch hunt and the non-activity on bleached things up in Ms. Clinton's area and not pursuing one hunter, seven years. So even some of the independents and the liberals who are starting to be aware are starting to see this is just a timing attack against Trump because he's leading in the polls.

Most of us think like that. You know, it's interesting because Elie Honig on CNN yesterday said that, and this he's a former prosecutor and he's very opposed to Trump obviously, but he said something interesting. He said, how in the world could it take five years to get this hunter by an indictment done? I mean, how, Andy, is it, it's purportedly a tax case and maybe a foreign corrupt practices act. Five years? Yeah, that's crazy.

It's somebody has slow footed that thing. How many cases did you try or did you, were you involved in when you were a US attorney? My God, I mean, I mean, scores and scores of cases. We did one after the other. Did you win five years? Did you have a five year investigation? No, I've never had a case that investigated for five years, maybe five weeks, but not five years.

We get our stuff together and we proceed. We indict, we try the case and we go forward to the next one. But five years on a case, somebody is slow footing it and so obvious that that's exactly what's being done. All right, we're going to be taking your calls at 800-684-3110, but I want to go to our friend Pat Mahoney, Christian Defense Coalition, who has been doing work regarding China for a long time, especially speaking out for those individuals in China that can't speak out for themselves. Pat, as you'll recall, had a protest in February that met quite a heavy resistance.

He'd been doing it for years, decades. I got Pat on the phone. Pat, let's go back first to February 15th of this year. What happened? Where were you and what exactly happened?

Well, Jay, thank you so much for having me on. We went out specifically to protest the spy balloon. I think many of us remember that fiasco. So we were creative. We had these balloons.

We went out there. Jay, you have to realize in 31 years up here in D.C., I've probably had 300 peaceful demonstrations at the Chinese embassy. We got there and I was shocked to see seven Secret Service cars, 10 Secret Service agents.

Of course, the Secret Service is assigned to protect the embassies, foreign embassies here in America. And Jay, this next part, I couldn't believe. We always say, how can this happen?

How can it get any worse? The commanding officer on site at that time comes up to me and says, Reverend Mahoney, you are not allowed to go on that public sidewalk. I said, well, sir, I've been here so many times.

I intend to go. He goes, if you go there, we will arrest you. And I said, well, that changed. And they said that the Chinese embassy officials were very upset.

And I'm quoting exactly. And they told the Secret Service that this property in front of the embassy is Chinese property and you are not allowed to be on it. And if you will, you will be arrested. And of course, it wasn't Chinese government property. It was a public sidewalk. It is a public sidewalk. And public sidewalks are called, Andy, public forums. And public forums are areas where you can conduct free speech like protest activities.

That's exactly right. Traditional public forums. We've said this for years. Parks, sidewalks, public places, public squares, and so forth. We said this years ago, Jay, in the Jews for Jesus case in terms of a public area. And this is not something that you can irrigate unto yourself and say, this belongs to China.

That is not true. A sidewalk is a traditional public forum where this activity takes place. But the Secret Service tells Pat, you know, hey, this is now the Chinese are claiming this is their property. What do you want us to do? So we sent out a demand letter to the Secret Service saying, you know, first of all, A, he has the right to be there. Secondly, you're infringing on his free speech rights.

Third, it needs to stop. What has now happened, Pat? Well, Jay, this is incredible.

By the way, for the listeners, if you wonder, does the ACLJ respond? When I was threatened with arrest, I called Jay up right away and he was on the air, immediately got on it. On June 4th, Jay, we had a demonstration. It was the 34th Memorial of the Tiananmen Square Massacre. We were joining people around the world at our Hong Kong conference and we were doing something dramatic, peaceful but dramatic.

We had red fabric and we were laying it in front of the Chinese embassy on the public sidewalk to remind the world and the Chinese government officials of the violence and bloodshed against peaceful student demonstrators in 1989. And Jay, so I called Benjamin, I called the ACLJ beforehand. I thought there would be some problems.

I was concerned. I get there. This has never happened. There's no Secret Service there. None.

Zero. And so obviously your letter worked. That space is now a public sidewalk. The First Amendment is being honored in front of the Chinese embassy. But Jay, I have to tell you, a little bit embarrassed. I felt like maybe I wasn't that important anymore. Like, where are the Secret Service agents?

Maybe they realize that the Chinese government doesn't get to dictate what's a free speech zone in the United States of America. So we drew a line in the sand. Hey, yeah, yeah, right. Pat, if people want information about your organization, what's the website or Facebook? What's the best place to go? Just to go, I'm very active on Facebook and Twitter, just Reverend Patrick Mahoney.

That's the best place to get me. And I want to encourage every listener, do you think the work of the ACLJ matters and accomplishes? It opened up this sidewalk in front of the Chinese embassy for the First Amendment. So Jay, thank you so much and thankful for the team. Thanks, Pat. Thanks for calling in.

Thanks for letting us help you on this. Folks, I mean, you know, this is important stuff. When you've got areas closed off to free speech by the Chinese Communist Party, sending out a dictate saying, oh, we've reviewed this and we don't think this is appropriate for freedom of speech. And the Secret Service says, oh, Mr. Mahoney, if you do this, it's going to be a real problem. Yeah, I'm going to lock you up and arrest you for exercising your constitutional rights under the First Amendment.

Let's not let the Chinese dictate to us what our First Amendment is and where it can be exercised. Please don't do that. We're not doing that.

That's why we're fighting back at the ACLJ. Let me tell you what we're going to do. We're taking your calls. Now, a lot of you on the phone right now, 1-800-684-3110, we come back from the break. I'm going to grab phone calls during the first segment and second segment, maybe all the way through. Give us a call. We want your reaction to this.

Obviously the plea, entry of the plea and the arraignment will be this afternoon. We'll have a full breakdown on the broadcast tomorrow. But you need to understand exactly what this is. And we want to hear from you.

1-800-684-3110. But I want you to look at what we talked about today. We talked about what's happening on former President Trump's arraignment, what that means illegally. We've talked about what it does to the political process. We've talked about what the Chinese Communist Party is trying to do with spying in the United States. And we've had our expert, former director of national intelligence, Rick Rinnell, and member of the ACLJ team. Then we had Patrick Mahoney on just now, a client of the ACLJs who engaged in free speech activities in front of the Chinese embassy, and they tried to shut them down. And we went to work and we won.

That doesn't happen without your support. ACLJ.org. We're also filing a major case right now in our fight for protecting Christians under persecution.

This one's involving Nigeria. We've made a formal request now to intervene in a case at the United Nations. You're getting that email today. When you get it, not only sign the petition, which is very important, but support the work of the ACLJs, tax-deductible, ACLJ.org.

Do that at ACLJ.org. Become part of the team. I've got one phone line open, 800-684-3110. We're taking those calls as soon as we get back. Anthony, Julie, stay on the line. We're going to get to you next.

1-800-684-3110. Back with more in a moment. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow. Well, that was an active first 30 minutes of this broadcast, that's for sure. We had a lot to talk about.

We had Rick Rinnell. By the way, joining us coming up in this half hour is going to be our Senior Counsel for Government Affairs, Mike Pompeo. So you're not going to want to miss that. We're taking your calls on your reaction to the Trump indictment. And now that the arraignment is this afternoon. Again, very quickly, Andy, the arraignment means what will happen in short order? The arraignment is simply a time when the US magistrate judge, not the district judge, announces to the defendant, President Trump, former President Trump, that he's been indicted by a grand jury in the Southern District of Florida and tells him what the charges are. He waives the reading of the indictment. We don't read indictments anymore, 37, 40 pages of indictments, whatever it is. And asks him, tells him what the charges are, and asks him to enter his plea, not guilty or guilty.

The President, either through his counsel or himself, will enter a plea of not guilty to these charges. And then we will proceed with motions and so forth. All right, we're going right to the phones, 800-684-3110. Anthony is calling from Virginia on line five. Anthony, welcome to the broadcast.

You're on the air. Thank you very much for taking my call. Yeah, I personally think that they're trying to railroad Trump because he's so popular and because we need him as President. It's politically driven and I can't believe what's going on in this country.

Well, I will tell you this. You cannot divorce, in my view, you cannot divorce this indictment from the entire approach that the weaponized Federal Bureau of Investigation and these other agencies have had against the former President, even when he was candidate for President back in 2016. The Durham report came out and said it was no basis to start an investigation. That's when we then spent $40 million of our money on the Mueller nonsense. And it was nonsense. And I know it was nonsense.

So does Andy because we handled it for the President. Then we had the Ukraine impeachment, more nonsense. And then we had the fight over Congress and the tax returns with the DA. We went to the Supreme Court three times on that. Well, actually four times when you count all the sub appeals on that.

Nonsense. So then when this one comes out and there's some pretty serious allegations in here. I mean, let's say this be clear. I mean, there's serious allegations, but it's hard to divorce those serious allegations from everything else that has transpired. Well, I think, Jay, the fact that you're pointing out the succession of events that have occurred here is really important. You got Durham, you got Mueller, you got the Ukraine impeachment thing.

You got the fall. Remember the false impeachment. Let's not forget that one with, you know, Patrick Leahy presiding over the Senate and the chief justice didn't even show up. Then you got Alvin Bragg, the district attorney in New York, indicting over some paper stuff that you filed a false report with respect to the Trump organization. So what they are is just ganging up one after the other, the Democrats and the Biden administration on President Trump over and over and over and over again to try to derail them. Guess what? With this man, I know him, Jay knows him.

Derail ain't gonna happen. No, we're taking your calls 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. Julie's calling on line six from California. If you want to talk to us about this, I'm going to keep these phone lines open. 1-800-684-3110. Julie, go ahead.

You're on the air. Well, I just wanted to say I'm just absolutely ashamed of our country. I'm ashamed of our government.

President Trump has been treated like a criminal since 2015. And, you know, I really feel like we're living in a third world country. If it wasn't for you and President Trump, and thank goodness our holy Lord, I don't think I have much faith left in this country. Let me tell you this, Julie, we live in the greatest country in the world. Let's never forget that.

Okay, so we've got a historical bump, speed bump that we've hit. That's how you have to look at this in the course of our history. So you fight for the constitutional republic. And that's what we did for four years when we represented the former Presidents as we're doing now. You fight for the republic. You can't lose hope.

There's no other country you'd rather live in. Do we have flaws? Yes. Is this system perfect? No.

Have these agencies been weaponized? Yes. Can we fix it? You bet. And that's what the ACLJ exists for. Your support of the ACLJ makes all that happen at ACLJ.org.

I encourage you to do it today. You're gonna be getting an email about a case involving persecution of Christians in Nigeria. I want you to respond to that. ACLJ.org, go on to the UN on that.

We've already talked about these other cases. We're taking your calls. We're about to get a report from our office in Jerusalem. Folks, lot going on. Talk to us on air, 800-684-3110.

Back with more in a moment. Well, we're going coast to coast and around the world literally here at the ACLJ. We've been talking to our colleagues in other parts of the country. Now we're gonna talk to one of our colleagues in another part of the world. That is Jeff Alabom in our office in Jerusalem.

Jeff, you're there now. We've got, you know, we got a President, former President being arraigned today, first time in U.S. history, which I'd be very curious to hear what you're seeing overseas and you're in Jerusalem. The clients we work with, the people we work with, what the reaction to this going on in the United States. They're kind of used to it over there. Their leaders are constantly in court on... The joke is if you become a prime minister, prepare to be indicted because that's how it works in the Middle East or at least in Israel.

I think that's not good for their body politics, by the way, and I don't think it's good for the United States. But Jeff, what is the sense of how we're viewed right now? You've been in Israel, back in Israel in our office for a couple of weeks. What's your sense? Well, look, I think there's a sense of weakness. People see Joe Biden and he projects weakness, not strength on the one hand. On the other hand, he does not particularly present a true friend to Israel. I mean, Israel's gotten used to friends like Donald Trump, who resulted in things like the Abraham Accord, which is, you know, peace breaking out all over the Middle East. And all of a sudden we see Joe Biden walk in and things like money starts flowing back into the Palestinian Authority and terror starts getting ratcheted up.

So they're not seeing strong and they're not seeing wise. And in terms of what they're seeing that you're talking about, Jay, yes, unfortunately, Israel is used to it. And unfortunately, some of the same people behind it in America are behind it in Israel.

Yeah, we're going to talk about that. 1-800-684-3110, 800-684-3110. I want your reaction to this Trump indictment, how you think it affects the politics.

What do you think it's about and how does it affect us internationally? Let's go ahead and take Warren's call because this will tie into what you're starting to see now in Jerusalem or in Israel, Jeff, as well. And again, if you want to talk to us on air, 1-800-684-3110. Warren, go ahead. You're on the air. Hey, thanks for taking my call, guys.

We appreciate you. You know, and I'm telling you, it sickens me to see what they're doing to Trump. And it's the first time in my life that they actually consider Christian, Republican, conservatives the enemy. And they will stop at nothing to keep themselves in power and just destroy everything. And it's sickening to watch it happen in the United States. Yeah, and it's impacting not just the United States.

That's why I'm going to go to Jeff. So Jeff, you're in Israel and you're starting to see now, and this is pretty recent phenomenon, this by individuals we have to deal with in the United States and our offices in Strasbourg, France, George Soros and others, starting to wield influence in the Jewish state of Israel. What's going on there? Well, it's interesting that you mentioned George Soros. As you know, it's become typical in America when anyone criticizes Soros's entanglements, they are called anti-Semites. Well, in Israel, a country largely Jewish, they feel the same thing and they're not afraid to call George Soros's influence out by name. There's a lot of international money flowing in. We see it, I'm sure it's being seen all over America, all the kerfuffle over judicial reform here.

Let me put this in perspective, Jay. There is a huge overwhelming majority, both in the coalition and the opposition and their supporters that all agree and have for decades that Israel is in dire need of judicial reform to make it more like America where judges don't have so much totalitarian power. Well, when this government, the Netanyahu government, went to move domestically, as it has with peace internationally, to try and fix things, all of a sudden there's this crazy street violence and rioting and things that have never happened in Israel's history are happening.

And as of the last couple of weeks, reports are coming out proving, showing directly international influence, money flowing, some of it through the United States, into ginning up this same kind of violence that we saw in America's streets in the last few years. Let me take a call here. Now I am taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. I want to know what you think about this indictment because now Jeff's talking about it's affecting our world's stature, how we're viewed.

You're seeing the same groups that are going after that conservatives here are doing it now globally. Let's go to David in Colorado. And again, if you want to talk to us on air, 1-800-684-3110. David, go ahead. You're on the air. Oh yeah, thanks for taking my call.

I appreciate everything you guys do. And say, my question has to do with the records that they're finding at the Vice President Pence's house, Biden's house and Trump and Mar-a-Lago. So my understanding, they've got the records back, but is there any difference in these records that they say Trump has versus what the other guys have?

No. Well, no, that's not correct. They're saying, we don't know what documents, let's be clear. I want to be clear. I know what you're saying as far as they all had classified documents.

Right, correct. So the classifications, yes, they had classified documents. We do not know what those documents were. We do not know what those documents covered. And we really don't know the details of what's covered in the Trump indictment either, other than knowing they were classified and involved national security and military secrets. I don't know what was in the Biden documents. We don't know what's in the Pence documents. And we really don't know what's in the Trump documents yet. And are we going to ever know, Andy?

I hope so. You know, in discovering- If they're classified, they're not going to come out. If they're classified, they're not going to come out. And in a criminal case, you can't do that. Of course, the President will be arguing that due process gives him the right to expose what's in those documents so he can show that he's innocent of any of the charges.

Of course, the government has to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but you're correct. What I'm saying is they're treating similarly situated people dissimilarly. Biden, Pence, and Trump treated in a dissimilar way. Trump is the target. Biden is not. All the stuff we heard about Biden, the Corvette, the University of Pennsylvania, Chinatown, and so forth.

What about that? Why isn't the FBI doing something about that? Where's the special counsel in that case? Where's the indictment in that case?

Noticeably silent folks. All right. We're taking your calls. Eric is calling in New York.

I'm going to tie this into exactly what is going on overseas as well with Jeff. Eric, go ahead. You're on the air. How are you doing?

Thank you for taking my call. I was just inquiring, you know, what about if Donald Trump is found innocent, you know, what kind of repercussions are going to occur when all that happens? Well, if someone's found innocent, there's no repercussions. You're found innocent. I mean, that's it.

The charges are dismissed and dropped and you're innocent. So what we're seeing in the United States, you have seen in Israel. I mean, Benjamin Netanyahu has been under a criminal investigation for a decade now. Like, Jeff, what is the status of that and how are the Israelis viewing what's going on here right now? There's a tremendous amount of cynicism about what's going on here and what's going on there. And there is a sense that they're related.

This really extends beyond even. I'm going to move into another area recently because you've asked just today what I'm seeing and hearing here that's new is a number of people came to me with concerns that the same things we've been seeing, for example, via lips of tick tock and going on in America's schools are beginning to be exported now to Israel. And now they're happening here. There is there is there are people putting money into disrupting the societies, disrupting the businesses, and they are political. And it's happening in both countries and people see it very clearly. You know, it's not a mistake that Iran calls America the great Satan and Israel the little Satan.

The world sees both countries as very similar. They are Bible based morality and they're built an idea of freedom. And so the ones who hate those ideas are coming after both societies. What are you working on right now so that our ACLJ members understand exactly what we're doing? Well, we're working on a number of issues right now that are top of mind. First of all, even the questions you're asking, there are many people in Israel at the government level and media who want to understand exactly what's going on in America. They're trying to see parallels. They want to understand what's really going on.

Is this political more than it's legal? Then we have the social issues, one of which I just raised to you, which is, again, a whole bunch of social ills that have been pushed in America are being pushed here. And but I would say most specific to Israel is the issue of sovereignty, national sovereignty, which is the counter to the idea that there has to be a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. And right now, in Knesset, which is Israel's legislature, there are 120 members.

There's a caucus, the Land of Israel caucus, which has 67 members as of last count and growing, which means to say it's more than a majority or it's a majority that has both members of the coalition government and the opposition. And they all agree that the notion of a two state solution as being pushed in America is completely against the interests of peace and security in Israel. We know that sidelining the Palestinian Authority and that issue is what enabled the Abraham Accords and peace and security. And the concern is that the Biden administration and the Democrats are trying to twist their arms to keep alive this horrible idea, which is nothing but cause bloodshed for Arabs and Jews.

And so there's great concern that America is pushing them back into conflict and away from these peace and security, which they're which they've been growing over the last few years. It's interesting, Jeff, because I was thinking about this, you, me, Andy, we've handled very sophisticated negotiations, multi-government, multi-religious parties, multi-country in Israel and we understand that you got to play nine-dimensional chess. And the American Center for Law and Justice is there. As the American Center for Law and Justice, our office in Jerusalem is an office for the ACLJ because we think that as Americans and vital interests with our partner Israel is very important. Jeff is working that on a daily basis out of our offices in Jerusalem. I appreciate it.

Thanks for being on, Jeff. This is why you support the work of the ACLJ, folks. I can't give you a better reason. I mean, look what we've talked about today. China, Israel, the Middle East, indictments against former Presidents, due process of law.

I mean, all of this happens because of your support of the ACLJ. You're getting an email today, a very sad, tragic case out of Nigeria we're working on. We need your help. Our team is gonna be at the UN on this case.

So, you see how it's gonna be there. We've got a whole team going. People from our European Center for Law and Justice office will be there as well. Support the work of the ACLJ so we continue these efforts.

ACLJ.org. We will also take your phone calls when we come back from the break. So, Scott, Bill, and David, hang on. We'll take more calls as well. 1-800-68-43110. Mike Pompeo joining us next.

All right. We'll be taking your calls at 800-68-43110. Joining us now is our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, we just had, during our break, we were playing some video of this situation with Iran has now confirmed that the US, once again, holding indirect talks on the so-called nuclear deal. What I don't understand here is they've never abided by it, the Iranians.

The whole thing's a ruse. The Biden administration now, instead of realizing the foul that they've had in trying to do this, are going back into it. You pulled out of it these negotiations with the Iranians and we ended up having the greatest peace in the Middle East in our lifetime. What's your sense of where we are in this? Boy, they're like a dog with a bone with respect to this thing, chasing the Iranians, allowing the Iranians to make demands on the United States that are just absolutely inconsistent with American security and certainly putting our friend and ally, Israel, at risk as well.

Jay, we lived this, right? We took over when President Obama had entered into this silly thing that became known as the JCPOA, which had no chance of actually preventing Iran from getting the capability to build a nuclear weapon system. We withdrew and began to punish the regime, denying them the wealth to conduct terror around the world, to pay scientists to continue their nuclear program.

Then these guys came in and flipped the switch. Dangerous with respect to Iran and its nuclear weapons program, but you can also see when you play footsie, when America plays footsie with the Iranians, the Gulf States and Israel take note. And so if you're the leaders in leader of Kuwait or you're the leader in Bahrain or Saudi Arabia or the Emirates, and you see the Americans providing wealth and resources to the Ayatollah and to President Raisi in Iran, when you see that, you say, I got to hedge my bets. I no longer have confidence that the United States stands with me against this terrorist threat.

This is where we find ourselves today. America is less secure and so is our friend and partner and ally, Israel. You've been talking about this a long time in our broadcast. We've had conversations about this in depth, and that is we've seen this increase in Chinese influence in the Middle East during the administration, this administration. You get the sense that Iran feels more emboldened to hold a hard line now because they see that China is pretty much flexing its muscles and getting away with it in the Middle East.

Absolutely true. Certainly see this with some of our friends and allies and see it most clearly with this axis of bad actors, the Iranians, the Russians, and the Chinese. The Chinese are buying Iranian oil today.

They are paying in real currency. The Iranians are then using that to build drones and weapon systems they're providing to Russia to kill Ukrainians. I mean, it's bizarre to think that we're sitting at the table with the Iranians negotiating while they're working against us in Ukraine, helping our Russian adversary. The Chinese watch this and just they must think, oh my goodness, we could never have guessed we'd get so fortunate to have an American leadership that doesn't understand how these are all connected.

These theaters of conflict are all connected. And Xi Jinping desperately needs Vladimir Putin to be successful. And when we negotiate with Iran, we increase the chances Putin will be successful. So the ITOL says this week that if Iran wants a nuclear weapon, they're going to get it.

Do we have any of that sound even if it's in Persian? No. Okay. No one can stop them. So how does this administration think they can negotiate when the Supreme Leader's rhetoric is clear and that they're going to get a nuclear bomb and they're on the path to doing it? And as you said, it's destabilized the success of the Abraham Accords, at least started to destabilize that. I mean, who are we negotiating? We weren't negotiating in good faith.

You used the exact right word as you opened, Jay. This is a ruse to have the Americans, to have Brett McGurk run around saying, oh yeah, we'll talk to the Omanis. The Iranians have no more interest in actually striking a binding agreement to preclude them from building a nuclear weapon and indeed a nuclear weapons program. There's no intention of signing such an agreement to think that somehow this administration believes they can either delay or prohibit them from doing that by signing a piece of paper with the Ayatollah.

I mean, that's just, that's folly, that's naivete and it's dangerous, Jay. First question for you. We just had Jeff Balaban from our office in Jerusalem on. Israel has been under attack heavily by proxies of Iran.

There's a lot of proxy battles going on, especially in the last six months. Are you concerned with Israel's ongoing security? And the second part of this is Saudi Arabia was on the verge of either joining the Abraham Accords, but certainly was in cooperation with the Israelis and other partners in the region. Is that forever broken or what are we seeing here with that, with the situation with Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the other partners in the Middle East?

Well, two things, Jay. First, I think you're right with respect to Israel and their concerns about continued threats from Iran. During our time, it was very clear. We understood Israel had every right to defend itself and we always made sure we were clear whatever they needed to do to protect the rightful homeland of the Jewish people, we were going to support them in that effort. A second, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia wants to be part of a peaceful, stable Middle East.

There's no doubt about that. And when they see a zealot, religious theocracy, like what's happening in Iran, and they see the United States not prepared to defend them and help them against that, they try to find a way to hedge, to co-opt, to make sure that they aren't threatened by that regime. But it's widely known in the Middle East, the policy that the Obama administration and now the Biden administration have adopted puts them at risk. And so they're trying to figure their way through this. They very much would like to have peaceful coexistence with the nation of Israel. And I'm confident that we can get there.

It is not broken forever. But when your leader says that the crown prince is a pariah and won't even speak to them, boy, you have just made that nearly impossible for him to do while the Biden administration remains in office. Mike Pompeo is the Senior Counselor of Global Affairs for the ACLJ, but is also the Secretary of State and Director of National Intelligence, excuse me, Director of the CIA. And when you have a situation like this and you can rely on the expertise of Mike Pompeo, that's pretty good and your support of the ACLJ makes that happen. Thanks, Mike.

We appreciate your insight on that. I'm gonna go right back to the phones at 800-684-3110. Scott's calling from Texas.

He's online for Scott. Go ahead. You're on the air.

Good morning and thanks for having me on today. It's a real honor. I've been in business down in South Texas for 40 years and every time I've gotten sued, I immediately filed a grievance with the state bar. And let me tell you something, in South Texas, when you file agreements with the state bar, it gets their attention. And at the bottom of the grievance, it says, what action would you like us to take? And I immediately put on there to be disbarred to never be a practice law in the state of Texas again. My question is this, at what point is Donald Trump gonna say, enough is enough. Let's file for malicious prosecution wholly and individually. Yeah. Let me tell you this right now.

Here's the problem. He has been indicted in a federal court. This is not a bar complaint. He's in a federal court proceeding. It's an indictment. He's been charged with 37 counts of committing a felony. So he has to deal with this inside. He can't, he could say it's malicious prosecution, but that's a very, and maybe they'll make motions on that, but that's a very difficult defense in these kinds of cases.

Yeah. It's not really going to go and go very far to say the malicious prosecution when a grand jury has found probable cause to believe that these crimes have been committed. But we have to understand the grand jury is run by the United States attorney. And in this case, that's Merrick Garland. And in this case, that's Joe Biden and the Justice Department.

So you can draw your own conclusions from that. That is going to do it for the broadcast today. Now this afternoon, what is going to happen?

You may be hearing his tape delayed. So, you know, this may have already happened. There's going to be an arraignment. That arraignment will take probably 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Donald Trump, I'm sure is going to enter pleas of not guilty to all 37 counts. Walt Nada, who's also been indicted here will also, I'm sure his lawyers will do the same and then motions will start.

And then this case gets pretty quiet for a long time. I don't think it goes to trial before the election, but we're going to talk, we'll break this all down tomorrow on the broadcast. I have no doubt that the plea is going to be not guilty, but this is a fascinating time and I think a perilous time in our history on these kinds of things. I mean, that's why having Jeff Balaban on from Israel, where this is a constant refrain within their political system, indict the prime minister, this is a constant, is why there's so many problems. But again, we'll talk to you on the broadcast tomorrow, support the work of the ACLJ. You can do that at ACLJ.org and follow us on all of your social media at Jay Sekulow, at Jordan Sekulow, at Logan Sekulow at ACLJ. Talk to you tomorrow.