Ryan Riley
Appearances
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
Yeah, no, you got it right. But one thing that's been a little bit of a new development is the EPA investigation that they are launching here, sort of been able to figure out what some of that related to. And it all actually comes back, apparently, this is according to the press release that was put out by the EPA administrator that linked to a video that was filmed by Project Veritas.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
So that's James O'Keefe's former outlet. That's the video, it appears to be at question at the center of this, that was passed along. But What's interesting is that Ms.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
Chung, Denise Chung, was so steeped, I think, in Justice Department traditions that when you read through that letter, there's no direct reference to who they were actually talking about here, because that's very much in keeping with Justice Department protocol, keeping within the four corners of the document you're filing.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
You're not referencing someone who is not alleged to have committed any criminal activity in that paperwork. And she knew probably that that letter would get more widely distributed. And so she even followed those protocols there.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
So, you know, that's something that, having been for 24 years at the Justice Department, is obviously very important to her and sort of a core part of who she is as a person.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
Yes, precisely. I mean, the shorter version of it was at first she was asked to launch this investigation, and they were like, ah, well, we don't actually care about all that that much. The important part is freezing the assets. But the problem is that you need that first part in order to have that second part, right? You don't talk about freezing someone's assets unless there's probable cause.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
And what you have here is the government, what she was requested to do was send a letter from the FBI or from the U.S. Attorney's Office in that case that if the FBI refused to do so, ordering a bank, that's the key part, ordering a bank to freeze these assets when she knew upon reviewing the evidence that there was not probable cause that a crime had been committed.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
This was always going to be a little bit of a stretch of an investigation, and especially with Ed Martin at the helm, who's shown himself to be somewhat of a concierge, a prosecutorial concierge service for Elon Musk or whoever Donald Trump ask him to sort of go after. I think that that's what she was sort of concerned about, ultimately, here, that this was another one of these orders.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
You know, Ed Martin just hasn't gained the respect of the office. You know, there was even an email a few weeks ago in which he had left his gloves sitting around the office at some point. And there was one of these inter-office emails saying, who left their gloves here? And it turned out to be Ed Martin.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
But that's, you know, he's gone after time and time again and shown he's willing to go after sort of the president's enemies, including on late Friday when he posted on his official account, which he set up separately from his main ex-account, saying that to save their papers, speaking about Jack Smith, as well as a private law firm that had offered him pro bono legal services during his tenure as special counsel.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump agenda stymied by principled federal workers as protest resignations mount
So what you're talking about here is someone who's really... targeting directly individuals who have sort of come onto Donald Trump's radar, Rachel.