My special guest today is my good friend, Lev Parnas. Lev is a Soviet-born businessman who along with Rudy Giuliani and Igor Fruman played a central role in the campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals…including the Biden’s. Parnas then worked with federal prosecutors to bring down both Giuliani and Trump. And ended up serving a 20-month sentence for crimes related. Lev’s written several books, including TRUMP FIRST: How the President and His Associates Turned Their B...
Mar 29, 2024•1 hr 23 min
We welcome to the show for the first-time, journalist and political commentator, John Avlon. Avlon is a senior political analyst and anchor at CNN and was the editor-in-chief and managing director of The Daily Beast from 2013 to 2018. Avlon is also a Democrat running for a House Seat in New York’s 1st Congressional District, and he’s here to talk about the issues surrounding the 2024 election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Mar 25, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Today we welcome back to our show, Bakari Sellers, a CNN political commentator who made history as the youngest-ever member of the South Carolina State Legislature at just 22. Sellers has been named one of the nation's most influential African Americans and became a New York Times best-selling author with his memoir, “My Vanishing Country”. Sellers is known for his sharp political and social analysis informed by his first-hand experience both inside the Democratic Party and as a practicing lawye...
Mar 22, 2024•1 hr 20 min
Our guest today is our good friend and legal expert, Harry Litman. Harry is law professor and political commentator on MSNBC, CNN and CBS News. He’s also the senior legal affairs columnist for the LA Times. Litman is a former U.S. Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General. Be sure to catch his excellent show, “Talking Feds” wherever you get your podcasts. Today Harry is going to help explain the good, bad, and ugly rulings in Trump’s multiple court battles. Learn more about your ad choices....
Mar 18, 2024•1 hr 13 min
We welcome to our show for the first time, Dave Aronberg, the State Attorney for Palm Beach County, Florida, AKA “the Florida Lawman”. Aronberg is a former member of the Florida Senate. He was elected in 2002 as the Senate’s youngest member and served for eight years. In his role as the Florida Attorney General’s “Drug Czar,” Aronberg led an anti-pill mill initiative that helped clean up the pain clinic industry and reduce the number of deaths from oxycodone abuse. Aronberg frequently appears on...
Mar 15, 2024•1 hr 20 min
We welcome back to the show, our good friend Joe Trippi. The New Republic heralded him as the man who “reinvented campaigning,” Trippi pioneered bringing politics into the digital age and has added his expertise to the Lincoln Project arsenal. Trippi has worked for Democrats for over four decades. He has served as an on-air political analyst for MSNBC/NBC, CBS Evening News, FOX News, and CNN. His weekly podcast is “That Trippi Show”. Today we will speak with Joe about the upcoming election and h...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 23 min
We welcome back our great friend, Norm Eisen. Eisen is a CNN Legal Analyst and the founder and executive chair of “States United Democracy Center”, a nonpartisan organization advancing free, fair, and secure elections. His articles for the Brookings Institute and elsewhere have made the case for why Trump and his band of criminal conspiracists represented a clear and present danger to democracy. He’s also the former Obama Ethics Czar and Ambassador to the Czech Republic. I’m looking forward to N...
Mar 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Our guest this week is legal expert, Renato Mariotti. Mariotti is an accomplished trial attorney and former federal prosecutor. He is also a legal analyst and commentator on CNN and he appears regularly on MSNBC, WGN, CNBC, ABC News, and PBS. He is the Legal Affairs Columnist for POLITICO Magazine and has written for publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Time magazine to name a few. Today, Mariotti is here to help us make sense of Trump’s complex legal issue. Learn mo...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Mea Culpa welcomes Donny Deutsch, he’s a branding and marketing specialist and popular television personality on all the major networks. But look for him daily on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. Deutsch is the former Chairman of the advertising firm Deutsch Inc. He has penned two business motivation books, “Often Wrong, Never in Doubt” and “THE BIG IDEA: How to Make Your Entrepreneurial Dreams Come True. Today we will be getting Donny’s take on MAGA politics and what’s left of the Trump brand. Thanks to...
Mar 01, 2024•1 hr 19 min
Mea Culpa welcomes another mighty Meidas Touch team member, Michael Popok, host of Legal AF. He is the Executive Managing Partner of the New York City Office of the firm Zumpano Patricios & Popok. His national litigation, white collar and trial practice is based in New York and South Florida. Michael has over 30 years of experience as an accomplished trial attorney strategist. Most recently serving as a Managing Director and Deputy General Counsel of a Wall Street global financial services f...
Feb 26, 2024•1 hr 25 min
Mea Culpa welcomes back our good friend Elie Honig, acclaimed author of the National Bestsellers “Untouchable, How Powerful People Get Away With It”. And “Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr broke the prosecutor's code and corrupted the Justice Department”. You might also know Honig from his popular podcasts, “Up Against the Mob” and “Cafe Brief”. Honig is a CNN Senior Legal Analyst and a former federal and state prosecutor, here to talk about the latest developments in Trump’s various trials and more. L...
Feb 23, 2024•1 hr 24 min
Mea Culpa welcomes back to the show one of our most fascinating guests… Malcolm Nance is a career US Navy terrorism intelligence collector, code breaker, and interrogator with wide-ranging field and combat experience in the Middle East and elsewhere around the world. Nance is a counterterrorism analyst for MSNBC. And the author of numerous books including his latest, “They Want to Kill Americans: The Militias, Terrorists, and Deranged Ideology of the Trump Insurgency”. Today we are going to util...
Feb 19, 2024•1 hr 25 min
We welcome my good friend, Fred Guttenberg back to our show. Fred became an anti-gun violence activist when his beautiful 14-year-old daughter Jaime was murdered in a mass shooting at Parkland High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 14, 2018. His son, Jesse, also a student at the school survived. And since Fred has become one of the strongest voices for gun safety in the country. He has sued gun manufacturers, worked with members of Congress on legislation, and advocated against the ...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 20 min
Mea Culpa welcomes back Rick Wilson, longtime Republican political strategist turned Lincoln Project co-founder and zealous anti-Trump activist. You can find his weekly editorials in The Daily Beast. Wilson has also been published in The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, and Rolling Stone to name a few, He makes regular appearances on CNN and MSNBC Also, Wilson’s #1 New York Times, best-seller, “Everything Trump Touches Dies” literally defined the Trump era. Today, Wilson will discuss everyth...
Feb 12, 2024•1 hr 22 min
It’s a great honor to host our next guest: You may know Elliot Williams as a legal analyst on CNN. And as a host on SiriusXM’s nonpartisan talk radio network. But Williams has worked at the highest levels of government and was counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He has served in both Democratic and Republican-led administrations. And has also been a career federal prosecutor. His impressive list of accomplishments in the legal field is too long to list here, but his experience working in ...
Feb 09, 2024•1 hr 22 min
This is a really special interview, Mea Culpa is pleased to welcome Pam Hemphill to our show, the one-time “MAGA Grandma” from Idaho who stormed the Capitol on J6. She later turned herself in and went to prison for 60 days while battling cancer. Along the way, Hemphill woke up and rejected Trump and the MAGA movement. Realizing it was a cult and that she had been brainwashed. Pam even told Trump to stop using her story as a fundraising tool. And has since become an outspoken advocate for Democra...
Feb 05, 2024•1 hr 24 min
It’s a great honor to have my busy friend, George Conway on the show. Conway, a brilliant lawyer, writer, and political commentator is now a fixture on news programs, on MSNBC, NBC, and CNN. He’s also one of the founders of the Lincoln Project, a conservative who crossed over for the good of the country, Conway has been a very effective thorn in the former president’s side. George is here to talk about Trump’s legal challenges and why the truth matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...
Feb 02, 2024•1 hr 19 min
One of our favorite guests is on today, Scott Dworkin, Dworkin an intrepid journalist with a long history of standing up to corrupt leaders. He co-founded the Democratic Coalition and is the host of the Dworkin Report and The Dworkin Daily podcast. Dworkin has worked with 100’s of political campaigns and progressive organizations and he’s here today to share his insights as we head into the early days of the 2024 election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jan 29, 2024•1 hr 21 min
Michael LaRosa was Press Secretary to the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and Special Assistant to the President until 2022. LaRosa is a frequent commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and ABC… providing analysis of Congress, campaigns, and elections. Michael is also a Partner at Ballard, referred to as "the most powerful" Strategic Services, Governmental, and Public Affairs firm in Washington, DC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jan 26, 2024•1 hr 23 min
Mea Culpa welcomes Victor Shi, the youngest elected Delegate for Joe Biden in 2020, he is a former White House Intern, and the co-host of the iGen Politics Podcast with the distinguished Jill Wine-Banks. Shi is also a writer, speaker, organizer, activist, and a junior at UCLA, majoring in American Literature and Culture. His on-air commentary and interviews have been seen on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, PBS Newshour, ABC, the Daily Herald, and the Chicago Tribune. His op-eds have been published in Newsweek,...
Jan 22, 2024•1 hr 22 min
Today we welcome to the show, Professor Ray Brescia, the Associate Dean for Research and Intellectual Life at Albany Law School. He has been featured on the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the Hill to name a few. His profile in The New York Times was entitled; Big Cases, Small Pay, and a Lawyer Happy with Both. Brescia is the author of The Future of Change: How Technology Shapes Social Revolutions and several other fascinating titles, including his latest, “Lawyer Nation, the Past, Present an...
Jan 19, 2024•1 hr 29 min
We are really glad to bring our old friend Harry Litman back on the show. Litman is the former US Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General. And is currently the legal affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a professor of Constitutional Law at UCLA and UCSD. Harry can be seen as a legal and political commentator on CBS, NPR MSNBC, and CNN. Litman is also the creator and host of the Talking Feds Podcast. You’d be smart to subscribe to the “Talking Feds” YouTube channel. New episodes...
Jan 15, 2024•1 hr 20 min
Today we welcome back our good friend Tara Setmayer from the Lincoln Project. Setmayer is a former CNN political commentator, a contributor to ABC News, and a former GOP Communications Director on Capitol Hill. Tara has appeared on ABC's The View, Good Morning America, and HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. In 2020, she joined The Lincoln Project as a senior advisor and now hosts the live show "The Breakdown" alongside co-founder Rick Wilson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...
Jan 12, 2024•1 hr 22 min
We welcome back to the show, Tony Schwartz. A former columnist for The New York Post, and associate editor at Newsweek, he was also a reporter for The New York Times and a staff writer at New York Magazine and Esquire. In 1985, Schwartz began interviewing Donald Trump to ghostwrite Trump: “The Art of the Deal” for which he was given co-author credit. Art of the Deal was published in 1987; some say it sold Trump to the public as a successful businessman. Today, Tony will help us understand more f...
Jan 08, 2024•1 hr 18 min
My guest today is historian and cultural critic, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. She is the author of the acclaimed book, “ Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present and the focus of her work has been on Authoritarianism, Propaganda, and how to protect Democracy. Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University. And a regular contributor on CNN, The Washington Post and MSNBC. Check out her newsletter, entitled, LUCID where she reports on the threats to democracy around the world. Le...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 20 min
Here with an end-of-year wrap-up is our good friend, Norm Eisen. Eisen is a CNN Legal Analyst and the founder and executive chair of “States Unite Democracy Center”, a nonpartisan organization advancing free, fair, and secure elections. His articles for the Brookings Institute and elsewhere have made the case for why Trump and his band of criminal conspiracists represented a clear and present danger to democracy. He’s also the former Obama Ethics Czar and Ambassador to the Czech Republic. Listen...
Jan 01, 2024•1 hr 22 min
Mea Culpa welcomes my friend, Lev Parnas to the show. Lev is a Soviet-born businessman who along with Rudy Giuliani and Igor Fruman played a central role in the campaign to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s political rivals…including Hunter Biden. Parnas was thrown into Trump's first impeachment drama, but he ended up working with federal prosecutors against Giuliani and the former president. Parnas served a 20-month sentence for Campaign Finance, Wire Fraud, And False Statements Offenses....
Dec 29, 2023•1 hr 20 min
This holiday we are bringing you something different, over the last few years I’ve had the great pleasure of interviewing three different Congressmen, the Constitutional scholar, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Tennessee’s first Jewish Congressman, Steve Cohen, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, the first Indian American Congressmen to represent Illinois. These three brilliant Democrats represent the exceptional diversity not just in the party, but in our great nation. We hope you enjoy these insightful segment...
Dec 25, 2023•1 hr 22 min
Our guest today is our old friend Frank Figliuzzi. Frank is a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, where he served for 25 years as a special agent and directed all espionage investigations across the entire government. Frank is a regular contributor for NBC News and MSNBC, and also the author of the national bestseller “The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence.” Frank’s here with insights into what the MAGA American terrorists might do if Trump is kicked off t...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 20 min
Today we are bringing you something special. This is part two of a live show with guest Katie Phang, recorded on December 9th at the City Winery in New York City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dec 20, 2023•56 min
