Ryan Lucas
Appearances
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-27-2025 8PM EST
Oath Keepers founder and leader Stuart Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 and sentenced to 18 years in prison. President Trump, in one of his first acts back in office, commuted Rhodes' sentence to time served. On Friday, a judge barred Rhodes from visiting D.C., the U.S.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-27-2025 8PM EST
Capitol, or its grounds without the court's permission. The new Trump-appointed acting U.S. attorney pushed back, arguing that Rhodes and seven other Oathkeeper defendants were no longer subject to the court's supervision. Now, the judge has agreed that Trump's act of clemency does away with the defendant's supervised release and they are not bound by the travel restrictions.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-16-2024 7PM EST
At a hearing in federal court in Los Angeles, former FBI informant Alexander Smirnoff pleaded guilty to lying about bribes for the Bidens and to charges of tax evasion. According to a statement of facts that accompanied his plea deal, Smirnoff lied to his FBI handler, making up a story about a Ukrainian gas company paying millions of dollars in bribes to President Biden and his son Hunter.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 12-16-2024 7PM EST
That false claim later played a central role in the ultimately unsuccessful effort by House Republicans to impeach President Biden. Under Smirnoff's plea deal, prosecutors and his defense team have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for early January. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-23-2025 6PM EST
A person familiar with the situation told NPR the administration pulled the security protection for Pompeo and Hook on Wednesday. Mike Pompeo, Brian Hook, and John Bolton had received security details from the U.S. government because of threats from Iran. Iranian officials have publicly stated they want to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian general who was killed in a U.S.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-23-2025 6PM EST
drone strike during Trump's first term in office. The Justice Department charged an Iranian national in 2022 with plotting to kill Bolton. Iran also has plotted against Trump, and the Biden administration beefed up Trump's security this past summer in light of those threats. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-15-2025 8PM EST
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee say Pam Bondi is highly qualified to lead the Justice Department. They are touting her long career as a local prosecutor in Florida, as well as her eight-year stint as the state's attorney general. Democrats, however, have pressed Bondi on whether she will maintain the department's independence from the White House.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-15-2025 8PM EST
Under questioning, Bondi has said the department must act independently, but she argued, echoing committee Republicans, that the department unfairly targeted Donald Trump with two prosecutions, and she pledged that she will end what she called the weaponization of the department if she's confirmed as attorney general. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-17-2025 6PM EST
Court papers say the former CIA analyst took steps to cover his tracks, including deleting journal entries and destroying his cell phone and an Internet router, He used to send photos of classified documents. Rahman faces up to 10 years in prison for both counts. He's scheduled to be sentenced in May. Ryan Lucas, NPR News, Washington.
NPR News Now
NPR News: 01-17-2025 6PM EST
The 34-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Asif William Rachman leaked two top-secret documents that contained classified information about Israeli preparations to attack Iran. At the time of the leak, Israel's intention to conduct military strikes was well-known, and it did later hit Iran with airstrikes.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
And there are a lot of people, whether they be Democrats and also former national security officials, who have concerns about Patel, about his qualifications, about his experience, his temperament, and whether he's really the right man for this job.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
Well, there are a whole bunch of them. There's the fact that he's a very close ally of President Trump. There are concerns about whether he can be independent from the White House or whether he's somebody who's going to do exactly what President Trump wants him to do. Traditionally, the FBI is independent, and it's something that has been very important historically.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
There's also just the fact that he's made a lot of inflammatory comments over the years He's talked about wanting to root out the deep state. He's called public servants, law enforcement officials who investigated Trump gangsters. He says that people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, who fought with police, he says that they are political prisoners.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
That's, of course, echoing the sort of comments that we've heard from the president. And more broadly, he's just a very... fierce critic of the FBI itself. He has said on a bunch of podcast appearances that he wants to shut down FBI headquarters on day one. He wants to turn it into a museum to the deep state.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
Lawmakers, certainly Democrats, asked him about a lot of these things during his confirmation hearing. Patel tried to push back on them. He said that he would not politicize the FBI, that he wants to take politics out of the FBI. He wants to focus on traditional crime fighting. But those comments did little to assuage the concerns that Democrats have.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
And really one of the biggest concerns with Patel centers around things that he has said about wanting to go after his perceived enemies and Trump's perceived political enemies. And now you have Patel in charge of an organization, the FBI, which has these vast, vast investigative powers.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
And there are a lot of concerns that he will make good on those statements that he made when he was not at the FBI about wanting to go after perceived enemies.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
I will say that Patel takes over at the FBI at a tumultuous time for the organization. The new leadership at the Justice Department has pushed out at least eight senior leaders there, really top-level folks with a lot of experience. And more broadly, the new leadership at the Justice Department has demanded and now received a list of
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
thousands, around 5,000 or so FBI employees who worked on January 6th investigations. Remember, that was one of the largest investigations, if not the largest in Justice Department history, touched every state in the US. They've demanded a list of everyone who worked on that.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
And that has led to concerns at the FBI for a lot of these concerns from folks who worked there of potential mass firings there, essentially a purge. And so the The impact that something like that would have on the FBI's ability to do its job and to protect the American public is a significant concern.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
And how Patel is going to deal with that and how he's going to try to lead an organization as big and important as the FBI is something that we're just going to have to wait and see how that pans out.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
Thank you.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
I'm Ryan Lucas. I cover the Justice Department.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
No, it wasn't really in doubt. Republicans did, for the most part, kind of unite and lockstep behind it. But this vote came out to 51 to 49. There are two Republican senators who voted against confirming Patel. That would be Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski. And if you look at the three directors immediately before Patel, they all received at least 92 votes in favor.
The NPR Politics Podcast
Roundup: Kash Patel Confirmed As FBI Chief; China Sees Opportunity As USAID Gets Cut
So that gives you a sense of how controversial a nominee Patel is to lead the FBI, which, to remind people, is a really big job. The FBI is responsible for investigating counterterrorism, bank robberies, cybersecurity, all sorts of things across the spectrum. And there's a lot of crime going on. And a lot of this comes down to the FBI to fight. So this is a very big job.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Right. Five members of the USIP board filed this lawsuit overnight Tuesday. The court held a hearing on it Wednesday afternoon. So that gives you a sense of the urgency here. What the lawsuit argues is that the USIP board members were unlawfully removed from their positions by President Trump. They say that USIP is an independent nonprofit think tank created and funded by Congress.
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
So it's not a part of the executive branch, they say. The board members who are suing, they want to be reinstated. They want to stop the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the institute and its operations. Now, at this hearing, what they were asking the judge to do was to temporarily block Doge's takeover.
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
of USIP to get Doge out of the Institute and its systems and to get the board members back in. Yeah, and the judge denied that request. So what was her reasoning? Well, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said that there was confusion in this complaint itself, in the lawsuit. She also pointed out that a temporary restraining order
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
which is the specific ask that was being made yesterday, is really an extraordinary step. There are certain thresholds, legal thresholds, that have to be met for a court to agree to take that step. And what Howell said was that a couple of those thresholds just weren't met, including the likelihood of this lawsuit to succeed on the merits. So she declined to block Doge's takeover.
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
For now, Doge will be allowed to remain in control of the U.S. Institute of Peace for the time being as the court continues to consider this lawsuit. But still, Howell made very clear at this hearing that she had very serious concerns about Doge and how it had gone about gaining access to USIP.
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Is that what she was talking about? Yes, but it wasn't just that. Two FBI agents also made a house call to the head of USIP security over the weekend to question him. The lawsuit also alleges that FBI agents threatened a criminal investigation, that the D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office also threatened a criminal investigation. I'll say prosecutors didn't dispute that at yesterday's hearing.
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
And then you also have, as you said, armed D.C. police officers showing up at USIP and escorting senior staff from the building. That includes the head of the institute, who's a former ambassador who served
Up First from NPR
Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
In multiple administrations, both Democratic and Republican, Judge Howell said that she was, quote unquote here, very offended by how Doge has operated at USIP, by how it treated American citizens, as the judge said, just trying to do their job. She said that those actions were probably terrorizing for folks at USIP. And she asked, why act like that? Why? Was it just because Doge was in a rush?
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
That's right. There are a lot of cases out there right now challenging administration policies. Some of those cases are expected to end up at the Supreme Court. The president and his allies have been lashing out at judges who have ruled against the administration. They've called for judges to be impeached. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare statement this week pushing back on that.
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Fed Rates Pause, USIP Loses Case, Israel Restarts Gaza Ground Invasion
Now, judges always say that they rule on the facts in the law that are before them in a given case. And look, I was in court last week when Judge Howell blocked a Trump order targeting a law firm. And then yesterday, same judge, Judge Howell, looked at the facts and the law in the USIP case and declined to block Doge's actions at USIP. All right.
Up First from NPR
Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Right. Well, Jabbar was born in Texas. He grew up there. He served in the U.S. Army for many years as a human resource specialist as well as an IT guy. He also started a few businesses. Several of them appear to have had severe financial difficulties recently. He's been divorced several times.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Now, the FBI has said that Jabbar was inspired to carry out this attack by the Islamic State terrorist group. He uploaded several videos to the internet in the hours immediately leading up to the attack. Talking about this, here's the FBI's Christopher Rea.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Now, in addition to those videos, investigators also recovered an ISIS flag from the back of Jabbar's truck. Now, the FBI says Jabbar appears to have acted alone. And that's important because the bureau originally said he might have had help, accomplices. But after an initial investigation chasing down leads, it says it does not appear that Jabbar did have any accomplices.
Up First from NPR
Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Well, there's an important distinction here between an attack that is directed by a terrorist group and one that is inspired by a terrorist group. In a directed attack, a terrorist organization is in contact with a person or a cell of people, say, in the United States and directs them, for example, to attack a specific target.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
In an inspired attack, in contrast, there doesn't need to be any direct contact. An individual instead can say, well, watch or read ISIS propaganda online. come to sympathize with the group's ideology or its worldview, and then decide to carry out violence to act in the group's name on their own. And in the case of the Islamic State, of ISIS, it has pushed this idea in its online propaganda.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
It's urged people to use whatever tools they have on hand, including cars, to attack soft targets, things such as public celebration like New Year's Eve. The FBI director told Congress this past summer, in fact, that this is the kind of threat that it's seen from foreign terrorist organizations now. And those sorts of attacks, U.S.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
counterterrorism officials often say are incredibly hard to stop because there isn't a big operation that the FBI can penetrate beforehand to disrupt it.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Well, you're right. Terrorism is not a front page issue the way that it once was, certainly not like we saw after 9-11 and also not like a decade ago when the Islamic State was at its apex. But the Islamic State still has branches, affiliates around the world that are very much active.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
And as for the threat in the U.S., what I would say is that counterterrorism officials here have been saying for a while that the threat may not be at the level that it once was, but it also most definitely has not disappeared.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned about the danger posed in particular by what the FBI calls homegrown violent extremists, people who radicalize on their own and decide to carry out an attack here in the U.S. Wray has also said that the threat level more broadly has really spiked after the Hamas attack on Israel in October of 2023.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
And I should note that the Justice Department has recently foiled what it says were plots on behalf of ISIS just in the past year, including one in Oklahoma and another in New York.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Authorities say at this point in time, there is no evidence that those two incidents are linked in any way. Investigators have identified the driver of the Cybertruck as Matthew Leibelsberger. He was a master sergeant in the U.S. Army, a Green Beret, a decorated combat vet with multiple tours in Afghanistan.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Authorities say that Leibelsberger shot and killed himself in the Cybertruck right before it exploded. As for the question of why, the FBI says Leibelsberger bore no animosity toward Trump. So it wasn't about that. It says their investigation so far suggests that Leibelsberger was likely suffering from mental health issues and also had some other family issues.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Here's FBI Special Agent Spencer Evans.
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Latest On New Orleans Attack; New Congress Comes Into Session; Carter's Funeral
Investigators also released experts of Leibelsberger's writings in which he says America is headed toward collapse, that this is a wake-up call. And he also says in one that he needs to cleanse his mind of brothers that he lost and relieve himself of the burdens of lives that he took.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Well, sources tell me and our colleague Kerry Johnson that the acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., Ed Martin, demoted at least seven top prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office here. One of them is John Crabb. He was a supervisor in the office. He was involved in the cases against Trump allies Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro. He also oversaw January 6th cases.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Another prosecutor is Greg Rosen. He led the Capitol Siege Unit. That's the unit that prosecuted January 6th cases. And then two of the other attorneys who were demoted worked on two of the most high-profile cases to come out of the Capitol riot investigation. One of the attorneys helped lead the prosecution against Stuart Rhodes. He's the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Rhodes was convicted at trial of seditious conspiracy. One of the other attorneys helped spearhead the case against Enrique Tarrio, the former head of the Proud Boys extremist group. Tarrio as well was convicted of seditious conspiracy at trial.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
So the bottom line here is all of the attorneys who were demoted were senior prosecutors with a lot of experience, and now they're being reassigned to basically entry-level jobs.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Well, one source tells me that Martin notified these individuals by email. In at least one of the emails, Martin said that every U.S. attorney has to assess the needs of their office as set forth by the president and the attorney general and, in essence, their priorities. And therefore, these senior prosecutors were being reassigned, effective immediately.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
And at least one of the emails ended by saying, this change is not temporary. Now, I'm told that some of the senior prosecutors were assigned to misdemeanors, which is where brand new prosecutors in the office are usually assigned. Others were demoted to what's known as the intake section, which is also for junior folks in the office.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
One person I spoke with described these demotions as pure political retribution for working on cases that the Trump administration does not like. Now, I contacted the U.S. Attorney's Office about these actions for comment. It did not respond. But this is not the first time that Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney here, has taken what appear to be retaliatory action against the office he leads.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
He previously fired more than a dozen prosecutors in his office who were January 6 cases. So this is just the latest turmoil to hit the U.S. Attorney's Office here in D.C., which is one of the most important in the country.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Well, first off, these demotions and firings of career prosecutors for what appear to be retaliatory reasons are all being undertaken by an administration that says it is ending the politicization of the Justice Department. That's something that we hear quite often from Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
But Justice Department veterans say the DOJ under the Trump administration has cut breaks for Trump's political allies, for example, moving to drop the case against former Republican Congressman Jeff Fortenberry. You can also point to prosecutors withdrawing from an investigation against sitting Republican Congressman Andy Ogles.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
And then, of course, there's the department's decision to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams has pledged to cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration enforcement. The decision to drop that case set off an uproar. More than a half dozen veteran Justice Department prosecutors resigned in protest. That includes the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
who said that there was no good faith basis for dropping the Adams prosecution. So all of these things have really rattled the Justice Department and the career, that apolitical career folks who work there. So this is undoubtedly a very, very turbulent time for the Justice Department.
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Zelenskyy-Vance-Trump Blow Up, DOJ Demotions, Feds Plan for Bird Flu
Thank you, Scott.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
Good morning.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
It's a pretty rare thing. Biden never did it. Trump didn't do it in his first term. In fact, I could only find four occasions that it has happened since 2000. Twice President Obama did it. The first time was a speech about changes his administration was making to surveillance programs. The other time was at a farewell ceremony for his first attorney general.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
The other two instances were early in President George W. Bush's administration, one of them being a ceremony in 2001 to rename the department's headquarters after Robert F. Kennedy. So it is rare for a president to do this. Historically, presidents keep their distance from the Justice Department.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
There's been a norm for decades now, respected by both Republican and Democratic administrations, that the department should be independent and free from political interference. But President Trump has made clear that he has a very different idea about the relationship between the president and the Justice Department.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
Well, we heard a bit of it at the top. The White House says Trump is going to talk about restoring law and order, about removing violent criminals from communities and ending what the White House says is the weaponization of justice against Americans for their political leanings.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
And that last idea there is a central theme for Trump, his allies on the Hill, and for his new Justice Department leadership, Trump, of course, argues that he was unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors during the Biden administration. He has promised vengeance.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
The new Justice Department leadership talks a lot about ending the purported weaponization and politicization of the Justice Department in recent years. But at the same time, they have taken punitive action against nonpolitical career prosecutors and officials who worked on investigations or issues that Trump doesn't like.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
Well, for one, the new department leadership has fired prosecutors who worked on the special counsel investigations into Trump, saying that those folks couldn't be trusted to implement the president's agenda. They have fired prosecutors who worked on the January 6th Capitol riot cases. They've demoted senior career prosecutors who worked cases involving Trump allies.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
The Justice Department frames this as ending weaponization, but critics say that these actions appear to be retaliation against folks who work cases the president didn't like. Now, at the same time, the department has cut breaks for Trump allies. Critics point to the Justice Department's decision to dismiss corruption charges against the New York City mayor. Eric Adams.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
Adams has pledged to cooperate with Trump's immigration enforcement. More than a half dozen veteran Justice Department prosecutors resigned in protest. That includes the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan who said there was no good faith basis to drop the Adams case.
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Congress Budget Vote, Trump Speaks At DOJ, Federal Workers Reinstated
It's a good question. You know, it's no secret, as we've said, that Trump has been extremely critical of the Justice Department over the years. So it's going to be interesting to see what he has to say, how he says it as he lays out his vision for the department in the very building that he has been so critical of.