April 17, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
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INTEL Roundtable w/ Johnson / McGovern & Scott Ritter - Weekly Wrap 17-April
Judge Andrew Napolitano hosts Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, and Scott Ritter on April 17, 2026, to debunk President Trump's claims of a ceasefire and Strait of Hormuz opening. Ritter exposes Iran's continued control over traffic and denies direct Israel-Hezbollah negotiations, while Johnson cites Netanyahu's destruction of 90% of Hezbollah missiles. The panel critiques sanctions reimposed by the U.S. Treasury, implicates JD Vance and Jared Kushner as Mossad assets, and condemns Pete Hegseth's "Sandy One" prayer for violating military professionalism. Ultimately, the roundtable reveals deep contradictions in U.S. policy, suggesting current diplomatic assertions mask ongoing regional instability and compromised neutrality. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Undeclared Wars and Aggression00:15:08
Undeclared wars are commonplace.
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes, to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Welcome to this special edition of the Intelligence Community Roundtable.
Today is Friday, April 17th, 2026.
You know my regular guests, Ray McGovern, Larry Johnson, and we're joined by Scott Ritter.
Guys, thank you very much.
This is double duty for all of you, and it's deeply and profoundly appreciated.
The events keep happening as fast as we can keep up with them.
Scott, to you first.
Did the impossible actually happen?
In the past 48 hours, did Israel and Hezbollah enter into some sort of a ceasefire as President Trump has claimed?
No, the impossible hasn't happened.
Look, I've said the last time I was on your show, I made it quite clear that when we are assessing the situation in the Persian Gulf today, do not think in terms of standard geopolitical analysis, don't think in terms of power structures, etc.
This is about American domestic politics.
This is all that is going on right now.
And I made it clear that Donald Trump is going to be spinning things so that he can successfully sell to an American audience the notion that the United States has emerged victorious in this conflict.
I see it in the comments and elsewhere.
I mean, Scott Ritter and Ray McGovern are wrong.
Trump has opened up the Strait of Hormuz, dude.
Trump hasn't opened up anything.
Iran has control, traffic flows through as Iran dictates, not as Trump dictates.
Trump can sit there and say whatever he wants.
There has been no face to face negotiation between Israel and Hezbollah.
There was face to face negotiation between Israel and the Lebanese government in which a ceasefire was worked out.
The Iranians have put pressure on Hezbollah to adhere to a temporary cessation of hostilities, but that's not a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
And the United States certainly didn't play any direct role in this.
And as Trump has clearly stated the Israeli Hezbollah issue is separate 100% from the United States Iran issue.
There's a temporary cessation while the United States and Iran work out the final details of whatever this peace agreement will look like.
And I do believe we're going to get a peace agreement, even though Donald Trump appears to be on a self destructive bent, saying things that are clearly contradictory to reality.
But we can't afford to continue this war.
Again, for all the people out there, just so you know, we lost this war.
You can spend it any way you want to.
None of our objectives were met.
All of Iran's objectives were met.
Iran holds all the cards.
And Trump right now is just trying to create a politically acceptable way of acknowledging defeat.
Larry, what are your military contacts telling you we should expect next?
What do you say or believe we should expect next?
Well, I woke up this morning, a friend who's involved in one of the op centers sent me his three letter acronym, WTF.
We all know what that means.
Yeah, in response to Trump's treat social post, whatever you want to call it, that, oh, this thing's all settled and it's all done, except we're going to, yeah, that one right there.
All right, let me read it for those who are taking the show audio only.
This is from President Trump this morning.
The USA will get all nuclear dust, in quote, created by our great B 2 bombers.
No money will exchange hands in any way, shape, or form.
This deal is in no way subject to Lebanon either, but the USA will separately work with Lebanon and deal with the Hezbollah misspelled situation in an appropriate manner.
Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer.
They are prohibited from doing so by the USA.
Enough is enough.
Thank you, President DJT.
This is what your friend in active duty in the Middle East saw and responded to.
Yeah, that was one of them.
You know, look, the original deal for the ceasefire, and there has been a ceasefire that Iran insisted on, was that there had to be a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Not just Lebanon, but Hezbollah involved as well.
According to Iranian sources, they were prepared to start launching missiles last night at 8 p.m. Eastern time if there wasn't that ceasefire.
Somehow, I don't know who at the White House got it done, but they finally agreed to ceasefire that's going to maybe last for 10 days.
That said, part of that original deal was if they got that ceasefire, then Iran would allow.
Traffic to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. claims that there is a blockade.
It is a lie.
It's a complete facade.
It's false.
We don't have enough ships in the area, number one, to do it.
Number two, they don't dare get close to the coast of Iran.
They're staying like 400, 500 miles away because Iran's got coastal defense cruise missiles.
They got short range ballistic missiles.
They got underwater, on the water, and above the water drones.
So everything that Donald Trump has said, and he said that now that, uh, Iran's going to give up its nuclear enrichment material.
Trump is lying across the board.
Lying.
It's not true.
Ray, I asked Scott at the outset if the impossible had happened, that there was actually an agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.
And of course, he gave us his usual articulate and well grounded answer.
Let me ask you if the impossible has happened.
Has Trump restrained Netanyahu?
What did he mean by enough is enough?
Well, he says right here, Judge, I have instructed Israel to halt its attacks on Lebanon.
They are prohibited from doing so by the USA.
Enough is enough.
Well, we're going to see.
We who are skeptics or have been in this, seen this movie before, we're going to see if that holds.
What else did Trump claim?
Oh, yeah, that the Iranians have agreed to.
Open the Strait of Hormuz in sequela sequelorum forever and ever.
Amen.
It took the Iranians one half hour to disavow that.
So he's still saying things that are very hard to believe.
I'm thinking about Alison in Wonderland when she protested to the Queen of Hearts.
You know, there are lots of things I just can't believe in the Queen of Hearts, and you don't practice enough.
I practice before breakfast, and I can persuade myself to.
Believe six impossible things before breakfast.
I can't believe those impossible things.
Scott, we know that the truth is not in him, but did, as far as you know and your sources can reveal to you, Trump do anything to restrain the hand of Netanyahu and the IDF?
Now, read this statement very carefully.
Chris, put it up again, please.
It's Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer.
Understand, That Israel expanded the scope and scale of its military actions against Hezbollah to include Lebanese targets, starting to strike targets in Beirut, et cetera, that had nothing to do with Hezbollah.
It was part of their collective punishment approach to get the Lebanese government to start to take action against Hezbollah.
So Israel will not be bombing Lebanon any longer.
That means that Israel will not be bombing Beirut any longer.
Israel will not be bombing targets that are considered to be Lebanon.
Israel.
Has indicated that it is going to occupy southern Lebanon up to a certain line.
Israel views Hezbollah's continued presence in this territory that Israel has earmarked for occupation as illegitimate.
We need to be careful here.
Israel would never agree to be prohibited from striking Hezbollah targets operating in that environment.
Israeli national security won't allow it.
Now, Israel may.
Cease at this juncture striking Hezbollah for political reasons.
But the notion that the president of the United States told Israel that they can't strike Hezbollah targets on the direct line of contact with Israeli forces is absurd in the extreme.
The language is very careful.
We'll not be bombing Lebanon anymore.
That means no more collective punishment against Beirut or other Lebanese targets.
Here's Benjamin Netanyahu on this subject, Chris.
People ask me, what did we do in the north?
And my answer is, we achieved tremendous accomplishments.
We faced two threats from Lebanon a close threat and a distant threat.
The close threat was the infiltration of thousands of terrorists into our territory and anti tank fire at our communities, and the distant threat was the one Nasrallah built up over years the firing of 150,000 missiles and rockets intended to destroy the cities of Israel.
We have eliminated both of these threats.
Now look at what we have done.
For the first time, we have created a long security zone along the entire northern border.
Not just from Lebanon, not just here.
At Rosh Hanakra, as you can see, this is the northern border, not just here.
Along the entire Lebanon border, up to Mount Hermon, through the Golan Heights, and all the way to the Yarmouk.
They wanted to surround us with a ring of fire.
We created a security ring.
This zone completely removes the immediate threat of invasion and anti-tank missile fire, and the IDF is stationed there along the yellow line to continue defending against the immediate threat.
And regarding the distant threat, we destroyed close to 90% of the missile and rocket stockpiles that Nasrallah built.
We eliminated Nasrallah himself, confused them with beepers, and eliminated thousands of terrorists.
Hezbollah today is a shadow of what it was during Nasrallah's prime.
But I say honestly, we still have not finished the job.
Scott, is this true or is this also domestic politics?
In this case, Israeli domestic politics.
I mean, there's a yellow line on a map.
I'm sure.
Netanyahu believes that everything south of that yellow line belongs to Israel.
You understand that all that yellow color is Lebanese territory, and that the whole reason Hezbollah exists is to liberate Lebanon from Israeli occupation, and that all Netanyahu has done is guarantee that Hezbollah will continue to survive as a viable resistance movement.
He can call them terrorists all they want.
It's not Hezbollah occupying Israeli territory, it's Israel occupying.
Lebanese territory.
And on a daily basis, a daily basis, Hezbollah launches anti tank rockets into northern Israel to take out Israeli tanks.
They launch FPV drones.
This is Netanyahu spinning things.
There is active combat taking place in that yellow zone.
There are tunnel networks that Israel doesn't control.
Israeli troops are being slaughtered on a daily basis.
But as you said, this is for domestic Israeli consumption.
Larry, what.
Did the United States Treasury announce recently, which would have a profound effect on the relationship between Iran and the United States?
Well, in fact, yesterday, as they were announcing the ceasefire, and this was in response to the 10 point document that Iran had presented a week ago in Islamabad for having negotiations.
And one of those 10 points was no, all sanctions have to be removed.
No more sanctions.
So, what Scott Besson did yesterday, as soon as this so called ceasefire was announced, is he imposed Stricter sanctions on Iran.
Also, lifted, they had lifted sanctions for both Russia and Iran with respect to oil, reimposed those sanctions, and then also threatened China in the process to the point that China now is outraged, enraged at what the United States did.
So, the bottom line is until those sanctions are removed, there will not be another round of negotiations.
There will not be a meeting in person.
And this war will continue.
I think it'll get restarted next week.
And, you know, Trump is in a delusional world.
He is completely detached from reality with what he's saying.
Because, on the one hand, they're saying they're going to continue to blockade Iran.
Well, okay, wait a second.
If you destroyed all their army, if you destroyed all their navy, if you destroyed all their air force and destroyed all their air defense, what's the need for a blockade?
Trump's Delusional World View00:09:17
Because Iran reportedly can't do anything.
And I'll just note, My final remark on this is that non existent Iranian air defense, it shot down a $250 million, let me repeat that, $250 million drone called the Triton that was flying out there.
So, you know, those Iranians must be good at throwing rocks or sticks or something.
How is this Ray McGovern playing in Beijing and in Moscow?
Are they taking the view that If your enemy is shooting himself in the foot, you don't stop him?
Or are they not very happy that there's an interference in the economic equilibrium to which they were accustomed?
Well, the Chinese are very concerned, but they're very slow to anger.
They're very slow to react when, as they see their virtual ally, Iran, winning.
Now, the Russians, it's a little different.
Their virtual ally is right on their soft belly.
They're really concerned what happens.
Happens to Iran, and neither Moscow nor Beijing is willing to let Iran lose this.
This is a big new factor.
It has to do with the new balance of power in the world.
Now, the Russians were careful yesterday.
No, no, it was two days ago.
The National Security Council issued a proclamation, and they said, Look, you know, beware, everyone.
These talks that are going on may be just a grand deception once again.
Look at what.
Trump says, but what he does, 50,000 ground troops and lots of aircraft that are going into, don't fall for this again.
A National Security Council statement.
So the Russians are from Missouri, as we say here.
Show me, don't show me Trump's talks.
Show me what his armed forces are doing.
And I think that speaks volumes because neither Beijing nor Moscow trusts Netanyahu, or certainly not Zelikow, and not Zelikow, but Witkoff and Kushner and.
Right, Scotty.
What are the ground troops there for?
First of all, we say 50,000.
They're not all trigger pullers.
All right.
So we're not talking about, you know, putting 50,000, you know, 100 killers on the ground to do some stuff.
You know, we're talking about 50,000 troops, the vast majority of whom are noncombatant support troops, you know, there to, you know, provide logistics, there to provide communication support, to provide intelligence support, you know, but they're not trigger pullers.
So this isn't serious.
I'm just, I'm just going to throw that out there.
We are incapable of carrying out any ground based operation against Iran other than limited raids.
And as we showed with the failed raid on Isfahan, we can't even execute that using the best troops possible.
I mean, using tier one forces from the Air Force, Army, Navy, we couldn't pull it off.
You know, the Marine Corps is pretty good, but you can't give them a mission impossible.
Karg Island will not fall.
What is the 82nd Airborne going to do with a brigade?
Die?
They jump in and die.
You know, so this is just a show.
This is, you know, Trump has to be in a position where he is seen as putting pressure on Iran so that Iran can be told that there will be consequences if these talks fail.
But the Iranians are smart.
They've played this out.
They know that the United States lacks the capacity to carry out any serious ground based operation.
Against them.
Where are we going to go?
What?
Seize Chabahar?
And then what?
Advance inland with 50,000 troops?
It doesn't work.
The math doesn't work.
They won't get five kilometers in when their logistics run out.
Then they'll start taking casualties and they'll have to withdraw and then it'll be a Dunkirk all over again.
So the buildup is purely political posturing.
There's no serious mental or military capacity being accumulated by the United States.
Larry, our mutual friend, Professor Mohammed Mirandi, who was there in Islamabad with the Iranian delegation, told us that Vice President Vance seemed nervous and ill at ease and couldn't answer simple questions that were capable of a yes or a no answer without getting on the phone.
Why, and of course, we know the Iranians can't stand and don't trust, and understandably so, Whitcoff and Kushner.
Why would the Iranians meet with Vance again, taking directive from Benjamin Netanyahu?
And why would they have anything to do with Whitcoff and Kushner?
Well, they will only meet with Vance or Eunice negotiators if all 10 items that were on their list, that paper, their so called 10 points that they submitted.
And those two, there they are.
It's very, very clear.
You know, all the secondary sanctions have to be lifted.
All the money has to be unfrozen.
There has to be a ceasefire in Lebanon.
And that includes Hezbollah, that Israel's no longer attacking them.
So these are not items for negotiation from Iran's standpoint.
Is this the list that Trump at one point, perhaps not having read it, said, we agree, and that is the linchpin to the.
To the ceasefire, and then somebody whispered in his ear, Wait, we can't agree to this until we talk to Netanyahu first.
Well, no, what happened was JD Vance got JD Vance was the primary point of contact on this.
He signed off on it, briefed Trump on it.
Trump, you know, with a short attention span, you know, and because Vance wasn't dressed as a Fox News anchor, Trump probably didn't pay that close attention.
But then, when it was announced, I mean, the Zionist crowd went nuts.
And Trump started getting phone calls.
And within, you know, eight hours, boom, he committed his complete backflip, walked away from that agreement, what had been agreed to.
Anyway, Vance went ahead to Islamabad, but they sent minders, Witkoff and Kushner.
And, you know, as the British diplomat said, those two are Mossad assets, that they are working for the Israelis, not working for America first.
But Israel first.
So, this Iran is willing, you know, they were under, they were getting, let's call it some polite pressure from China.
And that's why Pakistan then stepped in as that intermediary to say, let's get a negotiated way out.
But based upon what Besant did yesterday and his attack on China, I think the Chinese are going to say to the Iranians, you're right, those Americans, they're crazy as hell.
Go beat them up.
Ray, what is the army chief or prime minister of Pakistan probably saying to the foreign minister of Iran, almost literally as we speak?
Well, I think the Pakistanis have actually sent some troops into Iran.
It looks like the Pakistanis are not on our side anymore.
My God, what has happened?
What interests me even more in this connection with respect to the 10 points, Lebanon was one of them.
What does that tell me?
That tells me this Israeli Zionist objective of a greater Israel has been finally met.
And stemmed.
What that tells me is that there is an arc of not evil, an arc of resistance.
And that the Iranians, in my view, to their credit, were also insisting that Lebanon be included here, as eventually Palestine will also have to be included.
So the Iranian regime, if you will, the Iranian government has put itself on the line not only for Iran, but for the Lebanese who are being attacked.
By Israel, for the others that are being attacked by Israel.
That's almost sort of idealistic.
It's not very narrowly focused.
And I think that's to their credit.
And so we have to really think about an arc of resistance rather than of terrorists.
And you have to make sure you realize that Iran is not the chief terrorist sponsor in the world and that Iran was not working on a nuclear weapon still.
Hegseth as Christian Crusader00:03:32
And that was clear, but the head of national intelligence.
Refused to say it this year after having said it since 2007.
Right.
Before we go, a little bit of humor, particularly for Larry, who's such a movie buff.
We did not create this, it's side splitting.
It's Pete Hegseth, courtesy of Harvey Weinstein.
Chris?
The path of the downed aviator, the path of the righteous man, is beset on all sides.
And it's beset.
On all sides.
By the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
By the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.
And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger.
Great vengeance and furious anger.
Those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother.
Those who attempt to poison and destroy my brother.
And you will know my call sign.
And you will know my name is Sandy One.
Is the Lord.
When I lay my vengeance, when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
So, Pete Hegseth's prayer that he claimed came from the Old Testament was written by Quentin Tarantino, Larry.
Yeah, I think, man, I think Quentin's going to file a trademark or copyright violation case against Hagseth for, you know, butchering his great prose.
But yeah, look, what a joke.
You know, Pope fiction is probably an accurate characterization of the entire Trump administration.
Scotty, I'll give you the last word.
How does the military view somebody like Hegseth?
Well, I don't know how about today's military views that I can tell you that Hegseth would be run out of Washington, D.C. back in the 1980s.
If you get some sort of fake Christian posture up there to pull that stunt, he wouldn't survive.
People would have stood up, generals would have come to him and said, Get off the stage, sir.
You're humiliating us.
The president would have received a phone call and fired him on the spot.
I mean, the idea of Hegseth, first of all, posturing as some sort of Christian crusader.
That's not what we do in the military.
That's not the posture we take.
There was a General Boykin, former Delta Force commander, who, after 9 11, made such a claim as, you know, we're crusaders going off against the Muslim terrorists.
And he was chastised because that's not what we do.
We're apolitical, we separate church and state.
Here we have Hegseth just posturing as a modern day crusader.
This is the antithesis of everything that we're supposed to stand for in the military.
And then to cheapen Christianity further, By quoting, it's not even Christianity, Old Testament.
But I mean, you know, Quentin Tarantino wrote a brilliant screenplay.
And that passage from Samuel Jackson will go down in film history as one of the finest moments in film.
But Hegseth tried to make it reality and putting it on a pilot.
And this is disqualifying stuff.
This is the stuff that should require Hegseth to be run out of office immediately, fired immediately.
Instead, as Larry said, This entire administration is full of cartoon characters, and Heg said just fits in amongst them.
Hey, Judge, could I?
Marine Ship Ration Failure00:01:31
A quick question for Scott.
Have you seen the social postings about the chow that's on those marine ships?
What do you make of that?
Because it looks to me like that's a failure of command.
If that is true, and that's the ration, this is disgusting.
I have a suspicion that it's not true because chow is one of the most important things.
I mean, we.
You'd have Marines.
No, this is what are we talking about, Scotty?
Half rations, empty trays, crap food for the Marines on the USS Tripoli.
The Tripoli just sailed.
You know, it should have full stores.
You know, and if it didn't, then there's ships that will come out and resupply it.
I can't believe for a moment that the Marine commanders would have the Navy commander of the ship strung up and dead.
We would.
Actually, barbecue him and serve him to the Marines before we allow this kind of thing to happen.
Guys, thank you very much.
What a pleasure to be with the three of you.
Thank you for the double duty to all of you.
It's been a joy.
And thank you for watching, everybody.
As usual, you'll see Larry and Ray and Alistair Crook on Monday and maybe Scotty Monday afternoon if we can find him.