Jack Smith and Brian Driscoll on the Weaponization of Justice
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the weekly show podcast. My name is Jon Stewart. It is Tuesday, July 7th. This will air Wednesday, July 8th. We're not going to talk about the 250th celebration. We're not going to talk about the U.S. men's soccer teams. Truly, just... disappointing performance in their game against Belgium. All those things worthy of episodes. Not going to be doing it because we have today an unusual opportunity. We have two gentlemen on the show who really should not be on the show. They have lawsuits pending against our federal government. One of them is seemingly in the crosshairs of the newly weaponized Trump Department of Justice under the auspices of Mr. Todd Blanche, who is, as you know, an independent observer of law and not, in fact,
The president's former lawyer who is just working on his behalf. Well, oops. Yes, he is. And I will just get to it. We are surprised and delighted to get an opportunity to speak with these two gentlemen. And we'll get to it right now. All right. So we're going to bring in our guests immediately. We've got Jack Smith, obviously the former special counsel on a classified documents case and the election interference case. We've got Brian Driscoll, who is a former FBI agent who in 2025 was serving as the acting director of the FBI until being let go by the administration. Brian, Jack. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for your service to the rule of law. Let me start with this. I am under the impression that you are, well, Jack, probably more than Brian, but under some legal peril in terms of what you are allowed to talk about, what you are not allowed to talk about.
Brian, I think you have a pending lawsuit. Jack, obviously the president has threatened you specifically. Why are you here? I'll start with Jack.
Yeah, sure. Well, first off, John, thanks very much for having us on your show. Brian and I are here because we want to talk about the attack on the rule of law and specifically how that attack has played out against public servants, the people that we spent decades working with. And the things that we're seeing over the last year and a half, you know, you can see the output of that, right? You can see people being targeted. I think Brian and I have a unique perspective and we understand what's being done to the people who enforce the rule of law. The rule of law in our country does not enforce itself. It takes people of character and integrity to do it. And to undermine it, you have to attack those people.
Why I wanted to be here today, John, was to talk about those people, how much we should be valuing them, how much we lose when people like that are targeted. And not just the people who've been fired, but also appreciating the sacrifice of the people who are still manning their posts, still doing their job. I feel like a lot of that is getting lost. And I think more of a discussion about that is part of the solution going forward.
And Brian, you obviously you're you're one of those people. You know, Jack was special counsel over at the DOJ. You were in the FBI. Give me a little bit about your your background real quick about being one of those individuals who's working for the rule of law and had never had a problem before, in fact, was moving up the chain.
Yeah, I mean, as far as my background is concerned, I started straight out of graduate school. I went into the Naval Criminal Investigative Service as an agent for about three years and came over to the FBI. And then I served for about close to 18 years with the FBI as a doer, you know, as a special agent.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–8:11
2
Who are Jack Smith and Brian Driscoll and why are they on the show?
8:11–18:45
3
What was Brian Driscoll’s FBI career path and how did he become acting director?
18:45–30:48
4
What compelled Jack Smith to become special counsel for the Trump-related investigations?
30:48–40:29
5
How did DOJ and FBI employees get targeted as part of weaponizing justice?
40:29–1:44:08
Speakers
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