rant · moment 8 of 10
Debating the FBI Cover-Up and Judicial Corruption
from Thoughtless Animal · #42
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
7 minAfter the call, Tim and Ray dissect McPhee's claims, question whether federal judges are complicit in rubber-stamping national security cover-ups, bring up Michael Hastings' suspicious death, and Tim jokes about his own qualifications as a self-styled paralegal legal genius.
- 38:08Three FBI agents in a hotel room with a suspect described as extremely tough — the logistics of how they restrained him without him killing one of them seems questionable.
- 38:41The suspect died in custody and allegedly had information that could unravel the FBI's entire story.
- 38:56Tim compares the situation to Michael Hastings, who said he was being bugged and followed, then drove into a tree — a weird week of escalating paranoia before death.
- 40:03The reporter can't make wild claims, but Tim and his co-host have no corporate structure, so they can say things she cannot.
- 40:27Friends of the suspect received two to three-year prison sentences based on FBI testimony about the case.
- 40:38Her argument: the FBI should not conduct operations without public accountability, and the way they cultivate informants needs government oversight.
- 41:29Federal judges routinely allow national security orders to seal court proceedings and prevent press investigation.
- 42:00How do judges get appointed to the bench? They have to play ball politically, which raises the question of independence.
- 42:35The Felix Sater case involved an FBI injunction preventing Congress from being informed about sensitive operations.
- 43:16Tim jokes about his paralegal background and imagines himself as a judge standing up to a runaway FBI.
- 44:11Co-host suggests the FBI would only need to give Tim ripple wine and send him into a crowded street, then photograph him asleep in the gutter.
Michael HastingsRuss BakerFelix SaterAnthony Wiener