On a special episode, Brad is joined by Dr. Thomas Lecaque to discuss the likelihood that Trump will face criminal charges for his role in the Insurrection. Brad begins by recounting the late breaking news that Trump is reportedly part of the DOJ investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. This news followed on the heels of Attorney General Merrick Garland's interview with Lester Holt, in which he said that anyone found to have broken the law will be prosecuted. Dr. Lecaque summarizes the last two J6 hearings in light of this news. Brad turns his attention to Georgia where Trump faces legal issues related to his phone call with the Georgia AG, in which he said he needed him to find votes. The episode finishes with analysis of the likelihood that Trump will someday face charges.
Subscribe for $5.99 a month to get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, access to the entire 500-episode archive, Discord access, and more: https://axismundi.supercast.com/
Order Brad's new book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next: https://www.amazon.com/Preparing-War-Extremist-Christian-Nationalism/dp/1506482163
To Donate: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BradleyOnishi
SWAJ Apparel is here! https://straight-white-american-jesus.creator-spring.com/listing/not-today-uncle-ron
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
I want to welcome you to Straight White American Jesus.
Just a couple announcements before we get going today.
One is our seminar with Sarah Mosliner is open for registration.
And so if you head over to straightwhiteamericanjesus.com, you can sign up.
It's going to be a great seminar on purity culture, race and embodiment.
We've done it in the past, and we're super excited to do it again.
The other announcement is that the Orange Wave is available.
Some of you are quite familiar with it, but if you don't know, I made a 10-part docuseries about the history of the religious right, and I center the story in Southern California, where I grew up and converted at an evangelical megachurch.
I cover everything from the politics and culture of the religious right all the way to the kind of present-day MAGA nation and the ways it has been adopted by some of the most conservative religious people in the country.
There's interviews with Kristin Kobes-Dumais and Gerardo Marti and Chrissy Stroop and a host of other great voices.
Check it out in the show notes.
I put my heart and soul into making it and I'm really proud of it.
We also have our ongoing series on Wednesdays, It's in the Code, and my book, Preparing for War, The Extremist History of Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next, is available for pre-order, and I'd love your support there.
Finally, we do this show three times a week, and it takes a lot of time and effort, as you can imagine.
It also means turning down other kinds of work and just basically As professors, not doing extra things to bring in money.
And so if you have any opportunity to contribute or donate or become a patron, it would help us out immensely.
Our PayPal information is at our website.
Our Patreon is StraightWhiteAmericanJesus.com.
And if you sign up for that, you get the orange wave for free.
So think about it.
We appreciate you.
Thanks for listening.
Here's our episode.
You're listening to an irreverent podcast.
Visit irreverent.fm for more content from our amazing lineup of creators.
Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.
My name is Brad Onishi, faculty at the University of San Francisco.
Our show is hosted in partnership with the Kapp Center at UCSB.
We have a special episode today.
I'll be honest, on Fridays we've talked about January 6th, we've talked about the J6 hearings, we've talked about Whether or not Merrick Garland is going to have the guts to bring a case against Trump.
And so I wanted to have more time to talk about that and saw my guest tweeting about it.
And I thought, all right, if you'll come on and we can just dig in for like half hour, 40 minutes, that would definitely be a good thing.
So I have with me a return guest, and that is Dr. Thomas Lecoq.
Thomas, thanks for joining me.
Thank you so very much for having me.
So you were here a little while ago.
I will be honest, some people talk about Hot Girl Summer.
I know right now, Thomas, you're like, what is Brad talking about?
So just give me a minute.
I feel like this might have been...
I don't know what the hashtag would be, but like the Thomas Summer?
You've written so many good pieces for The Bulwark and for Religion Dispatches and other places just on everything from Patriot Front and other fascist groups to what's happening with the right in general.
Anyway, I just want to say I feel like you've had a summer and it's gone really well.
Do you feel that way?
You know what?
Yes, there's nothing like having a book that you're procrastinating on to make you write other things.
Though I would just like to say Freya the Walrus is the one who's having the hot girl summer.
Someone has already claimed that title and bless her for doing her part to end climate change by sinking all of the Norwegian boats.
I retract my statement and I apologize to Freya the Walrus and please no emails and no No strongly worded voicemails, please.
I take it all back.
As long as you don't have a boat, Rad, I think you're probably okay.
Okay, good, good, good.
I do not have a boat.
I've sold both of my boats.
No, I've never had a boat.
Okay, you are a professor of history at Granville University.
You're a crusade historian by training.
Somebody who has quite an international background, born in France and lived all over the place.
But today we're going to talk about January 6th.
So here's what I want to do.
I, like I said, you know, we were able to dig into this on Friday sometimes, but just never for, in my view, long enough or in depth enough.
So we had some bombshell news last night and I'll just, I'll just break the news first.
I mean, not break the news, but I'll just sort of talk about that first and then Leave it to you, Thomas, to kind of talk about what it all means.
So basically, we learned last night that Merrick Garland was talking to Lester Holt, and he said that the Justice Department plans to prosecute anyone who is, quote, criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another.
Garland is sort of hinting here that if Trump is criminally liable, then he will be prosecuted.
He also says, quote, the Justice Department has been doing the most wide-ranging investigation in its history.
And the committee is doing an enormously wide-ranging investigation as well, talking about the J6 committee.
So again, he's sort of hinting here that this is a very, very big deal and that Trump is is not out of his line of sight.
Now, we got another breaking news late last night from WAPO that the Justice Department is investigating Donald Trump's actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, according to four people familiar with the matter.
So Garland hints at it in the Lester Holt interview.
And then WAPO publishes this bombshell that says the Justice Department is clearly and explicitly investigating Donald Trump's actions as part of the criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
So that is where we stand today.
That is confirmation of what people have kind of said, what is Merrick Garland waiting for?
Let's back up though.
You, and I want to say another thing that you've done this summer, which is you have read and examined so much content and material that none of us want to read ever.
Because, I mean, you've written about people and events that I hope people understand that sometimes doing that means you have to go through hundreds of hours of, like, articles and video in order to write about it.
That's what happens for this show.
You know, usually by Fridays my wife's like, hey, You in a bad mood there?
I'm like, yeah, I just digested about 50 stories that are the worst of humanity.
So, you went back, Thomas, and looked at the last two J6 hearings.
The one with Cassidy Hutchinson and the one we just had last week with Foreign Security Advisor and another aide.
Let's just examine those to start.
Like, what is the case in your mind?
Let's go back to the Cassidy Hutchinson J6 hearing.
What happened in that hearing and what kind of like criminal activity or criminal charges might come out of something related to the material from that hearing?
Thanks for listening to this free preview of our Swag episode.
In order to get access to the full episode and so much more, become a Straight White American Jesus Premium subscriber by clicking the link in the show notes.
It'll take you like two clicks, I promise.
In addition to getting access to this episode, you'll have access to the entire Swag Archive, over 550 episodes.
You'll also get an extra episode every month, ad-free listening, Discord access, and so much more.
All that for less than six bucks a month, and it helps us keep our flag up and continue to safeguard democracy from religious nationalism, extremism, and rising authoritarianism.
