Is Trump Playing “Pardon, Marry, Kill” With Narcotraffickers?
Release Date: 12/05/2025
Is Trump Playing “Pardon, Marry, Kill” With Narcotraffickers?
Opening Arguments
OA1213 - Thomas is back for an action-packed Rapid Response Friday! This week: we compare the letter that just earned the former President of Honduras a pardon of his conviction for definitely being involved with narcotrafficking against the Trump administration’s excuses for murder on the high seas of Venezuelans suspected to be involved with narcotrafficking--and if House Speaker Mike Johnson actually has a point in blaming Barack Obama for all of this. Matt then takes a quick look at Steve Bannon’s petition for review of his conviction for contempt of Congress by the Supreme Court and...
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Trump hosts (and dozes through) absolutely unhinged Antifa Round Table
Opening Arguments
Today on Vapid Response Wednesday: weeks after designating “Antifa” a “domestic terror organization,” the White House hosted a panel of MAGA luminaries to update the President on the not-at-all-made-up threat to the nation posed by a thing which demonstrably does not exist. We begin with a short amuse douche, in which Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn is concerned about the extremely real Portland “Antifa hit list”--a thing which definitely exists exactly as described! Matt then explains why the war on “Antifa” is a threat to all of our civil liberties before we take a seat at...
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What Happens When an FBI Agent Investigates a Friend?
Opening Arguments
OA1212 - What’s a cop to do when he stumbles onto a crime, and the evidence points to someone he knows all too well? In today’s deep dive, friends become suspects, concerned parents become FBI agents, and laptops become lost jungle detritus. This criminal case out of the US District Court of the Northern Mariana Islands (a US territory in the Pacific) may not have reached the Supreme Court, or have any particularly important precedent, but what it lacks in prestige it makes up for with a fact pattern seemingly written by a law professor specifically to test your knowledge of criminal...
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Let’s Go Around the Law Office and Say What We’re Thankful For
Opening Arguments
OA1211 - For this special Thanksgiving episode, we take a break from the news for Matt to share his gratitude in short interviews with just a few of the staff, attorneys, and partners who make his Boston immigration law firm's work possible. Stop in to meet everyone from George the office emotional support dog to Matt's long-time friend and law partner Nicole as we discuss the daily work of deportation defense in 2025 and how everyone is looking out for their mental health throughout this unprecedented crisis. Finally in today's footnote: Matt's former student and current research assistant...
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The Tragedy of True Crime
Opening Arguments
OA1210 - This week we welcome journalist and author John J. Lennon, who is calling in from New York’s Sing Sing Correctional Facility where he is serving 25 years to life for murder. Lennon’s extraordinary new book The Tragedy of True Crime: Four Guilty Men and the Stories that Define Us tells his own story alongside that of three other men whose crimes were sensationalized by the media--including Manhattan “Preppy Killer” Robert Chambers--after they were convicted for murders which they unquestionably committed. It challenges us to consider what life is like for the subjects of these...
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SCOTUS Made Gerrymandering So Easy, You’d Have to Be a Texas Republican to F It Up
Opening Arguments
OA1209 - Are you done with legal doomerism? Us too. Take some time away from doomscrolling and join Matt and Jenessa for Rapid Response Friday as we consider four stories of legal corruption and authoritarianism failing in the face of honest federal judges, and a footnote about how one brave prison nurse exposed even more corruption in Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell’s special treatment by the Trump administration. , Northern Dist. of NY (7/9/25) in U.S. v. New York (8/4/25) Judge Mae D’Agostino’s in U.S. v. NY (11/17/25) , Eastern Dist. of VA (9/25/25) Judge...
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Epstein files reveal he was BFFs with Steve Bannon and offered him USE OF THE ISLAND. and his house.
Opening Arguments
VR14 - Part 2 of the Epstein files We continue our first look at some highlights from last week's massive release of more than 20,000 pages of material from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein released by the House Oversight Committee, including Steve Bannon and ASU professor Lawrence Krauss among others. We also consider Megyn Kelly's appalling response before leaving the last word where it belongs: with the women who have come forward to tell their stories on behalf of themselves and those who will never be able to. held outside the US Capitol (9/3/25) Check out the OA for all the...
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Emails reveal Larry Summers went to Epstein for advice on women. He STILL teaches at Harvard.
Opening Arguments
OA1208 - We go beyond the Trump-related content in the latest round of Epstein disclosures by the House Oversight Committee to explore what we can learn from the many people in Jeffrey Epstein's orbit who flattered, patronized, and enabled him. Part 1 of 2. Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect (7/13/2020) , Dahlia Lithwick & Susan Matthews, Slate (10/5/2018) , Yale Law Women Board (10/2020) Watch this episode on YouTube here: Check out the OA for all the places to go and things to do!
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Reminder to Congress: Impeachment Exists. And It's the Only Acceptable Response to the Epstein Cover-up
Opening Arguments
OA1207 - We record a late-breaking reaction to the recent massive round of documents released from Jeffrey Epstein's estate and discuss how Trump may have just reached his most impeachable moment so far. Matt then shares some incredible news about how the end of Chevron deference has allowed federal judges to frustrate the administration's detention and deportation policies, and Jenessa gets into a lawsuit which challenges RFK Jr's replacement of the CDC’s vaccine advisory board with people who don't advise vaccines. Finally, a footgoat [sic] on how one woman’s quest to keep an unusual pet...
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Kat Abughazaleh - Indicted by Trump's DoJ for Protesting ICE while running for Congress
Opening Arguments
Kat Abughazaleh spent years reporting on right-wing media and movements, and she is now running to represent Illinois's 9th District in Congress on an explicitly anti-authoritarian platform. Kat joins to talk about her uniquely candid platform and community-based campaign, the state of the Democratic Party, how ICE is terrorizing Chicago during the most intensive urban immigration enforcement operation in US history, and much more. at Media Matters for America
info_outlineOA1213 - Thomas is back for an action-packed Rapid Response Friday! This week: we compare the letter that just earned the former President of Honduras a pardon of his conviction for definitely being involved with narcotrafficking against the Trump administration’s excuses for murder on the high seas of Venezuelans suspected to be involved with narcotrafficking--and if House Speaker Mike Johnson actually has a point in blaming Barack Obama for all of this. Matt then takes a quick look at Steve Bannon’s petition for review of his conviction for contempt of Congress by the Supreme Court and explains how “safe third country” agreements now give ICE the power to deport asylum seekers to Central America without a hearing on their claims.
Finally in today’s footnote, Matt shares an incredible story from his week: an astonishing beyond-Kafkaesque legal argument the government has ordered his client to respond to that you will have to hear to believe.
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“Double-Tap Warfare: Should President Obama be Investigated for War Crimes?” Florida Law Review (Jan. 2017)
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Steve Bannon’s cert petition to the U.S. Supreme Court in Bannon v. US (10/15/2025)
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U.S. v. Helen Bryan, 339 U.S. 323 (1950)
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Matter of C-I-G-M & L-V-S-G-, 29 I&N Dec. 291, (BIA 10/31/2025)
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Asylum Cooperative Agreement with Honduras, Federal Register (7/8/2025)
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ACA with Guatemala, Federal Register (7/15/2025)
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“The Night Raids,” Lynzy Billing, ProPublica (12/15/2022)
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Juan Orlando Hernandez letter to Trump seeking pardon, New York Times (12/2/2025)
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