Trump administration now ramping up their obvious efforts, as we all know, to target political opponents and liberal leaning groups, this time by doing a major overhaul of the Internal Revenue Service they plan to install. You're not going to believe this Trump loyalists giving the president [00:00:16] even more power over who becomes the target of law enforcement and of course, of of tax enforcement. Before we get into that story, what's your first gut feeling about this? Yeah, so this is one of the worst ones, guys, [00:00:33] because once the person in power starts using the power of the tax collectors and, to go after people, it's good night, Irene, because then you could bankrupt almost all of your political opponents. You could say, oh, yeah, that was a nonprofit. Oh, we took the nonprofit status away. [00:00:50] Oh, you missed the line on your taxes. That's it. You're screwed. And you might even go to jail, right? So this is deeply, deeply troubling. But as usual, Somehow Israel gets into this story. What? Okay, well, I'll explain that a little bit later. [00:01:06] Okay. All right. Let's let's get into this a little bit. According to reporting out now by the Wall Street Journal, the sweeping changes in the Trump administration, that at the IRS, that they're about to make, that they're on the precipice of making would allow the agency [00:01:24] to pursue criminal inquiries of left leaning groups more easily, according to people familiar with the matter, the undertaking aims to install allies of President Trump at the IRS Criminal Investigative Division, or IRS CI, to exert firmer control over the unit and weaken the involvement of IRS [00:01:43] lawyers and criminal investigations. Officials said the proposed changes could open the door to politically motivated probes and are being driven by Gary Shapley, an adviser to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. So Shapley has now reportedly told people that he plans to replace Guy Ficco, [00:02:01] who has been the chief of the investigative unit there for for many years, for decades, actually. He's also pushing new rules that would speed up criminal probes and subject them to less oversight from his from the attorneys, from IRS attorneys. So who do they plan to target? [00:02:17] Well, you could probably write the rest of this yourself. You didn't need the Wall Street Journal, but listen to this. Shapley has been putting together a list of donors and groups he believes he believes IRS investigators should look at. Among those on the list are the billionaire Democratic donor George Soros and his affiliated groups, [00:02:34] according to a senior IRS official and another person briefed on the list, it couldn't be determined upon what grounds Shapley would seek to begin such an investigation. As we know, Donald Trump has had his sights set on George Soros, as he's held out there as kind of a boogeyman for a long time. [00:02:53] So Trump previously said on Truth Social that Soros and his son Alec Alex, should face federal charges under the Rico act and added in a separate interview that the elder Soros should be in jail without offering specific reasons. A senior Justice Department official recently urged several U.S. [00:03:09] Attorneys offices to investigate Soros Open Society Foundations. We talked earlier about how his campaign rallies were filled with this sort of vindictive talk. Well, George Soros locking him up was always something or was part of a refrain there. The IRS CIA overhaul is just one part of a larger Trump administration overhaul, [00:03:31] and an effort to investigate left leaning groups that Trump doesn't like. Trump has ordered Bessent as the acting IRS commissioner, to refer certain tax exempt organizations to the Justice Department for further investigation. Bessent has also been directed to use the Treasury's Terrorism [00:03:49] and Financial Intelligence Office to examine groups financial flows and try to trace any illicit funding streams. So no surprise here, my friend, right? I mean, this is what he said he was going to do. Who's in the target in the crosshairs here? [00:04:05] Not a surprise. Changing the people. So to make it easier. - What do you think, actually? - Nevertheless, I'm surprised by this one. - And and the reason is this is. - Can you still be surprised? No, no. When he says, hey, look, I want, both George Soros and his son Alex Soros [00:04:21] investigated under the Rico act. I want him targeted, and I want, the elder Soros to be arrested. That's not subtle. I didn't miss that. Okay, and then here they are looking after Soros and his foundations through the IRS. The part that I'm a little surprised by is this is really extreme. [00:04:40] Like this is even more beyond the pale than I would have thought that they would go. And maybe that's me being a little naive, like, and it's kind of a weird thing to say because I thought they would arrest their political opponents. So how is this more extreme? No. Once you take the IRS and say, we're not like the power of the IRS is massive. [00:05:00] It's not 2 or 3 political opponents that you do draw fake charges on. But remember, they're going to go through the courts and they're very, very, very likely to be found innocent. Right now, it's going to mess up their lives and cost them a lot of money and so disastrous in a thousand ways. [00:05:16] But once IRS starts doing this, they can target anyone. They can target all their opponents, and then they drain their finances, maybe put them in jail. And and then it's easier to get people on taxes because people like, [00:05:31] even if they're being super honest, can make mistakes that you could then go, you said this deduction was this, but it's actually this. Right. And so once you go politicize the IRS oh like you're on a fast track [00:05:47] to doom that, that you no longer have an honest government. And I mean, imagine if the Democrats were in charge again, if you're on the right wing or you're independent or you voted for Trump, right? Imagine Democrats go, no, no, it's good we're not targeting all conservatives by using the IRS. [00:06:02] I know that a lot of them think that that's what happened under Obama for like a minute about this one fake scandal. I know you don't think it's fake. We broke that down at the time on The Young Turks. They found out later. And this is what drives me crazy. And none of your right wing shows ever told you. [00:06:18] Oh, it turns out they actually targeted liberal groups even a smidge more than conservative groups. So it was not Partizan at all whether they should have done it or not. But again, even if you thought, no, I don't believe you, I think Obama was terrible and he did this and yeah, it was limited. And yes, they withdrew it and yes, they did whatever. [00:06:36] But I hated it. Good. I love that you hated it. You should also hate this. It's the same thing, but on steroids. Even if what Obama did was true. Right? Even if you're right about that, this is 100 times that. And even if it was just one times that, if you hate it under Obama, [00:06:53] you should hate it under Trump. So okay, now let's get to the details because these are so important. You can tell bad intent because of what Michael read you in the beginning. They're weakening the power of the lawyers within the IRS. Now why would you do that? [00:07:08] You do that because the lawyers tell you what is illegal and what you can't do, and they don't want to hear what they can't do and what is illegal. They want to do things that are illegal. So that's why they're saying lawyers get the hell out of the room and soon you'll all be fired. Okay. [00:07:23] And by the way, they did this also at the SEC and other places. In a way, they've done it at the IRS already by telling the IRS to reduce the number of audits they're doing, because they know that all the wealthy people that are in Trump world were being audited, or I shouldn't say, all of them. [00:07:38] Several people being audited were part of the Trump world by weakening the IRS. Now they're weakening the legal side of the IRS. And then they earlier they weakened the investigative side. So that's that's the same kind of politicization of the IRS, [00:07:54] just in a default kind of way. Think about that double whammy. So like, let's go talk about the IRS. So if you say, okay, guys, we're going to target, get get the stinking lawyers out of the room. That's my political opponent. That's my political opponent. [00:08:10] And by the way, I got 200 of them that are doing nonprofits or PACs or superPACs, etc. We're just going to rip them to shreds by using the IRS. But also we're going to tell the right wing or the Republicans or whoever's on our side go nuts. There's no more lawyers. [00:08:26] We're not going to look into you guys at all. So you could cheat. The hell it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. No one's going to prosecute you. Imagine the Trump administration prosecuting Republicans supporting Trump. Come on. You know that's never going to happen. Please be honest. Right. [00:08:42] So then, okay. So now you've now you've destroyed a political opposition, whether you like it or not. And you've empowered the others your side to cheat. What do you think is going to happen in the next election? They're going to spend a gazillion dollars. [00:08:57] You're not going to be able to spend any dollars. It's a form of cheating in the elections, let alone destroying the IRS and the honesty of our government. Okay, last two things that are super important. So that explains the Soros, Open Society Foundations. There's a second part of it, which I didn't know this until recently [00:09:16] because like people always say, oh, anti-Semitism is about Israel. ET cetera. ET cetera. I'm like, wait a minute. The right wing is constantly talking about George Soros, the Jewish billionaire secretly controlling everyone like puppets, etc. I mean, that's supposed to be an antisemitic trope. How come nobody ever pushes back against that? [00:09:33] Like, I understand the right wing doing it. If you go through the history, there's some there's a history of that, etc.. Right? But why is like ADL they do mild pushback on it. AIPAC, all these different parts of the establishment not pushing back on that through all these years. [00:09:49] It turns out Soros is sympathetic to the Palestinians, so his religion doesn't matter if you're anti or pro-Israel is what matters. Okay. And you think, okay, well, that's a bit much. Hold on. No, this is the part I was referring to. Wall Street Journal reporting the administration officials [00:10:05] sought to use the illegality doctrine, a rule that causes nonprofits to forfeit their status if they break the law and if they forfeit their status, that could destroy them. Right. Because then they can't take in money in the way that they did for a nonprofit, for example, they explained. [00:10:22] The administration officials at the IRS argued that campuses roiled by pro-Palestine protests should lose their status, arguing that allowing such demonstrations was a form of support for terrorism. [00:10:39] So you read you heard that right. Not if you're anti-Israel, not if you're anti-Semitic, but if you're just pro-Palestine. And you allowed that freedom of speech on a college campus. They're going to call you a terrorist, or they're going to call the university a terrorist. [00:10:55] Strip you of your nonprofit status and destroy the university entirely. I mean, if that's not an attack on freedom of speech, I don't know what is. That's insanity. And we're we're destroying people through the IRS for opposing a foreign government. [00:11:13] You see what I'm saying, guys? Be careful what you wish for. If you think, oh, it's okay. The IRS is on my side when it's cheating. Is it? Have you ever criticized Israel? Have you ever criticized someone you shouldn't have criticized? Well, the IRS can do similar things to you because once this starts, [00:11:31] it's super hard to stop. Yeah. That's true. Well, I'm in a good spot because I criticize you and they're definitely not going to come after me. - Well, yeah. - That's a good form of protection. Think about it. Oh, yeah, the internet did think about it. That's why the entire internet is criticizing me. [00:11:48] I do want to just go into this very briefly. So, you know, we've talked about all this targeting and targeting that's happening. It's not ending now. Just yesterday, the president was in front of his attorney general and the head of the FBI, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, respectively. And he was saying, I'm going after Jack Smith. [00:12:05] I'm not done. Listen. FBI director and Attorney general here today, Jim Jordan has asked Jack Smith to appear in front of the House judiciary. You mean deranged Jack? He's a deranged individual. He's asked him. Well, they should. I'm surprised it takes so long. [00:12:20] You know, we're talking about violent crime. What about the crime against a political opponent? That's what we have to talk about, too. I would like to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement. What do you think the committee will find out, Mr. Smith? [00:12:35] I think it was the worst weaponization of a political opponent in the history of the world, let alone this country. And I hope that everybody's you know, they're involved in it. I'm not. I'm the one that had to suffer through it and ultimately win. But what they did was criminal. [00:12:52] Deranged. Jack Smith, in my opinion, is a criminal. His opinion is a criminal. The president wasn't done. Let's listen to this because he's got a list and he's checking it twice. Here he is. Deranged. Jack Smith, in my opinion, is a criminal. [00:13:08] And I noticed his his interviewer was I think that was Weissman. And I hope they're going to look into Weissman to Weissman is a bad guy. And he had somebody in Lisa who was his puppet, worked in the office really as the top person. [00:13:24] And I think that she should be looked at very strongly. There was tremendous criminal activity having to do. If we don't have fair elections in this country, we're not going to have a country. I hope they're looking at Shifty Schiff. I hope they're looking at all these people, and I'm allowed to find out. [00:13:40] I'm allowed to, you know, I'm in theory, the chief law enforcement officer. But I have a very good, talented group. This is about something else, but I hope they're looking at political crime, because there's never been so much political crime against a political opponent as what I had to go through. [00:13:57] He's saying this in front of the director of the FBI and the attorney general, essentially emasculating the law enforcement branch of branches of our government. In doing that, he's talking about Andrew Weissmann, who was a prosecutor, an investigator on the Russia crisis, and Lisa Monaco, who was the deputy [00:14:15] attorney general under President Biden. Yeah. So, he says while they're sitting there now, Jack Smith and Andrew Weissmann and that Lisa chick, she should definitely be prosecuted, right, guys? Right. Guys like the attorney general and the head of the FBI, etc. [00:14:32] Are supposed to be looking at the law, not politics. They're supposed to see if there's a crime and then prosecute that crime. They're not supposed to say, oh, that is a political opponent. Let's see if we can dig up something on him because the president ordered us to. That is wildly illegal, wrong. Unconstitutional. [00:14:50] Everything. He's taking their autonomy away. Their autonomous autonomous departments. Yeah. And he's saying this is what we're going to do. And like you said, essentially saying it in front of these two people who are nodding along as they always do. Yeah. And I'm always amused by the irony of him saying he's deranged. [00:15:07] I mean, there is somebody acting deranged. I'm not sure that it's Jack Smith. So, okay, last thing is, guys, if you say now. No, you're being ridiculous. You think that they're just going to prosecute him because the president said he's their political opponents and didn't like him? [00:15:23] All right, let's see if they wind up doing it to Jack Smith and Andrew Weissmann and Lisa. Okay. Just like when he said John Bolton and they indicted John Bolton today, James Comey, Letitia James, he did the same exact thing with them. And they all got indicted on the most trumped up charges, [00:15:40] including where prosecutors, right wing prosecutors were like, I'm not doing this. This is the wrong illegal nonsense. I'm not prosecuting someone because you don't like them. And he's like, you're fired. I got my personal attorney who came, and. Okay, well, she's an expert. [00:15:55] No, she's never tried a single criminal case, but she's the only one that will listen to me. Yeah, because you're asking her to break the law, right? So that's the situation we're in, and that's a disaster. Look, it's at some point there has to be electoral consequences. Otherwise he's just going to keep on going until there is no democracy. [00:16:13] Yeah, I was on a subway with a friend of mine, and Lisa Monaco was on the subway. And I said to my friend, That's Lisa Monaco. And he said to me, you're a loser. - You know that Lisa lady, right? - She should be indicted very strongly. [00:16:32] - Did you go up and tell her that? - I told her, yeah. All right. It's all fun and games until she gets arrested. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.