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The Oath and The Office

DOJ Payback Politics (with Preet Bharara)

The Oath and The Office

Corey Brettschneider

Government, News, Politics

4.9 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trump is turning DOJ into payback politics—and this week shows the playbook in action: pressure around the Gateway tunnel, a reporter’s home searched, the Clinton subpoena spectacle, and a growing recruiting crisis inside the department.

Then Preet Bharara on the warning we missed: Trump forcing the showdown that got Preet fired—an early preview of today’s collapse of prosecutorial independence. We break down political prosecutions (Comey, James), the hard edge cases where “law enforcement” gets murky, how the ethics of staying vs. resigning change in a corrupt regime, and where real hope comes from now.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome once again to another episode of The Oath and the Office.

0:13.7

I am John Fiegel Sang, and right now we are witnessing a series of extraordinary clashes over

0:18.8

the rule of law, the separation of powers, fundamental

0:21.7

democratic norms, and from what's being described as an extortion demand over infrastructure

0:27.1

to full-on attacks on press freedom.

0:30.3

In Jersey and New York, a federal judge just blocked an effort to shut down the gateway tunnel

0:34.6

for a president's vanity.

0:36.3

The DOJ executed a search warrant at the home of a

0:38.9

Washington Post reporter. What do these events say about the health of American constitutional democracy?

0:44.5

I have no idea. I'm a dopey comedian. That's why I lean on the star of our show,

0:49.7

bestselling author and professor Corey Brett Schneider. Cory, it's good to see you. Welcome back.

0:55.2

It's always a pleasure, John. And as horrible as things get, I look forward to this conversation

0:59.6

every week. It gives me hope. And speaking of hope, we're going to have, after our discussion,

1:04.8

a discussion with Preparara. His podcast is called Stay Tuned. I hope you'll stay tuned for that.

1:10.3

And, you know, it's an in-depth conversation that we'll have with him about questions of integrity in the midst of such destruction. And so let's get to the destruction.

1:20.7

Let's do it. You and Pre-Tarara, one-on-one, is the, that's like porn for the angels, sir. That is just a brilliant conversation. But I want to, I want to let before we get to there, let's come.

1:31.3

Is that a quote from like somebody famous or you just came up with that?

1:34.3

That's something I made up. But like, before you get to your exalted conversation with Prit Barara, come down to the mud with me for a bit.

1:42.3

Let's begin this because these current headlines about the temporary restraining order

1:47.0

to stop the shutdown of the Gateway Tunnel Project, which affects millions between New Jersey and New York City,

1:53.0

in essence, blocking a political move to coerce state and local consent.

1:57.0

I mean, Donald Trump essentially came out and said, I will release the funds for this critical infrastructure project if you name Penn Station and Dulles Airport after me.

...

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