Objections: With Adam Klasfeld

Before he became Oath Keepers spokesperson, Jason Van Tatenhove had been an aspiring gonzo journalist with a sense of adventure. So, he set out to the Bundy ranch with hopes to embed with Stewart Rhodes in 2014. He says that journey ended when he overheard a disturbing conversation with members engaging in Holocaust denialism.

Van Tatenhove left the group long before the attack on the U.S. Capitol, but he shared his insights from his time there as a witness for the Jan. 6th Committee.

In this week's podcast, Van Tatenhove discusses his new book “The Perils of Extremism,” threats he faced after his congressional testimony, and how to win the "war of mythologies."

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Top Fox News executives, right up to Rupert Murdoch, were quoted deriding the same 2020 election conspiracy theories some in their network pushed, in an explosive new legal brief unsealed last week.

Those revelations could prove damaging to Fox in defending a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion, one of the two voting machine companies scapegoated to explain Donald Trump’s defeat in the last presidential race. 

On the latest episode, Professor Jeff Kosseff — a prominent First Amendment and cybersecurity scholar, and the author of the soon-to-be-released book “Liar in a Crowded Theater” — unpacks why the messages quoted in Dominion’s brief might be the stuff of "nightmares" for Fox. 

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For nearly half a decade, a battle to unseal the names of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged victims, witnesses and accomplices has been raging in federal courtrooms in Manhattan.

Now, attorneys for Ghislaine Maxwell and one of Epstein's most prominent survivors have created a list of more than 150 people whose names may be unsealed in that open records case. They are the "John and Jane Does" at issue in Virginia Giuffre's long-settled lawsuit against Maxwell, who weren't parties to the litigation but whose identities may become public.

In this week's episode, Law&Crime breaks down what information is likely to emerge. Two of the network's podcast hosts discuss, with Sidebar's Jesse Weber asking Objections host Adam Klasfeld about the developments.

Read more on Lawandcrime.com.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Some of the videos of the horrendous abuse suffered by the first victim of “cult” leader Larry Ray are horrific to describe, let alone to watch. One of them shows Ray striking writer Daniel Barban Levin in the gut with a hammer, pulling on his tongue with a set of pliers and, in the same video, threatening to get even "more severe."

In a lengthy sit-down interview for Law&Crime’s podcast “Objections: with Adam Klasfeld,” Levin emphasized that these were blackmail videos, which used to make him and his peers quake in silence.

“It was part of why I didn’t speak out for many years because I remembered the sound of that camera shutter when he photographed me during like this horrible, humiliating abuse, and I knew that he had these pictures and video,” Levin explained.

That was then.

“The incredible irony is that we were empowered to use this very same footage against him to put him in prison," he added.

In the interview, Levin explains why he now embraces those recordings he once feared, which have been disseminated far and wide in news articles, podcasts, documentaries and TV broadcasts. Law&Crime's podcast "Devil in the Dorm," now on Wondery+, mines thousands of pages of public record and numerous court exhibits to examine Larry Ray's crimes. Levin talks in the interview about his participation in Hulu's soon-to-be-released documentary "Stolen Youth," and why he wanted the most grisly footage of his humiliation in the final cut.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:

Court Junkie

Sidebar

They Walk Among America

Coptales and Cocktails

The Disturbing Truth

Speaking Freely

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The firearm enhancement statute laying a possible five-year prison sentence over actor Alec Baldwin's head was revised after the "Rust" shooting.

On the latest episode of "Objections," former prosecutor Mitch Epner explains why that matters: the ex post facto clause of the U.S. Constitution, handing the actor a powerful tool to eliminate by far the most stringent possible penalty against him.

In a wide-ranging interview, Epner reviews the documents released by prosecutors against Baldwin and his co-defendants and explains why he thinks the actor did himself no favors by agreeing to talk to ABC News.

"He believes himself to be very good at talking," Epner said, referring to Baldwin. "And what I try to explain to my clients is that no matter how good you are at talking, no matter how much money you've made at talking, the only reasonable thing to do when you are under criminal investigation is shut up."

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In late 2010, a middle-aged man moved into his daughter's college dorm and created what has all the hallmarks of a cult. Over the decade that followed, he extorted millions of dollars from vulnerable young adults through violence, psychological torture, and forced sex work. Actress and Director Elisabeth Rohm narrates Law&Crime's 6-part investigative series, which draws from thousands of pages of transcripts, exhibits, audio files, and video recordings from a federal trial and explores the actions and motives of Larry Ray. This is Law&Crime’s Devil in the Dorm. You can listen to Law&Crime’s Devil in the Dorm now exclusively on Wondery Plus. Find Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Georgia prosecutor investigating former President Donald Trump and others over attempts to overturn the 2020 election results told a judge that "decisions on imminent" on charges.

Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti analyzes what such a case could look like — and warns against Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) pursuing a case under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

"I think there's this belief that Trump is like a crime boss and kingpin — and this and that — and that essentially, all you need to do is just put it all out there, and that will be evident," Mariotti said. "What I would just say to the public is that white collar crimes can be very difficult to prove up."

Mariotti opines that racketeering allegations could needlessly complicate a case over Trump's wide-ranging efforts to subvert Georgia's election results through his "word salad" phone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and the fake-electors scheme.

On the podcast, Mariotti also chimes in a federal judge's nearly $1 million sanctions against Trump and his lawyer — and what the discovery of classified documents in the homes of President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence could mean for special counsel Jack Smith's probe.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

More than a century after the Tulsa race massacre decimated “Black Wall Street,” the survivors are still waiting for justice — and their attorney says that their courtroom opponents have adopted a grim strategy.

“Don’t make any mistake about it: Their strategy is for these people to die,” attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons declared on the podcast.

The lawyer explains why he believes that, the status of his clients’ case, and how the public’s understanding of the massacre changed since the litigation began. Solomon-Simmons, who grew up in the Tulsa neighborhood where the massacre occurred, also talks about his own journey toward learning about the history of what has been called one of the worst acts of racial terrorism in U.S. history. 

Read more here: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/their-strategy-is-for-these-people-to-die-tulsa-race-massacre-survivors-lawyer-accuses-city-of-brutal-bid-to-run-out-the-clock/

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It’s a quadruple homicide case out of Idaho that has captivated much of the nation.

Bryan Kohberger, a criminology student pursuing his Ph.D., stands accused of murdering four University of Idaho students, all between the ages of 20 and 21 years old. The students were found stabbed to death on the second and third floors of an off-campus house in the college town on Nov. 13, 2022.

The slayings brought an uncommon amount of national attention to Moscow, Idaho, a city of roughly 25,000 people in the state’s panhandle. 

In this week’s episode, Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber, who reported live on the ground there, provides the latest updates on that case — and interrogates why this criminal case unleashed a flood of online sleuths attempting to solve the crime. Weber also explains what happens when people’s expectations for criminal justice, from social media and crimes dramas, hits up against the system as it actually exist, and how this case provides an opportunity to educate the public on just how the justice system works.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Almost exactly one year ago, a federal jury convicted Ghislaine Maxwell for sex trafficking minors for Jeffrey Epstein’s predation. Maxwell received a 20-year sentence this past June, in a prosecution largely sparked by civil litigation by survivor Virginia Giuffre. 

In the year's final episode, Giuffre's lawyer Sigrid McCawley and the partner at her law firm Kenya Davis talk about what's next for the Epstein saga — and explain how New York's Adult Survivors Act has unleashed a flood of litigation that otherwise would have been barred by the statute of limitations.

Those include lawsuits accusing JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank of "complicity" in Epstein's crimes, slated for trial in 2023.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.