Hello and welcome to Background Briefing available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm Ian Masters,

and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with the dismissals of the revenge cases against James Comey and Letitia James

and assess what further vindictiveness Trump and Attorney General Bondi will pursue

and speak with Harry Lippman, a former United States Attorney and Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Justice

Department, a professor of constitutional law and national security law at the University

of California, San Diego, and the University of California, Los Angeles.

He's a senior fellow at the Annenberg Center at the University of Southern California

and the host of the Talking San Diego speaker series

and the executive producer and host of the Talking Fed's podcast, as well as author of the

Talking Fed's Substack.

He's a senior legal columnist at the New Republic.

His latest article at the Talking Fed Substack is, after the shipwreck, five questions in the wake

of the Comey and James dismissals. Then we'll examine Bolsonaro's botched escape, attempt, and

possible collusion with the Trump administration in aiding and abetting it, and speak with James

Green, Professor Emeritus of modern Latin American history and Portuguese and Brazilian Studies at Brown University, and the author or co-editor of 11 books on Brazil and Latin America.

The past president of the Brazilian Studies Association, he's now the president of the Washington Brazil office, and he's traveled

extensively throughout Latin America and lived eight years in Brazil, and he joins us from

the scene of the crime, Brazil's capital, Brasilia.

Then finally we'll investigate why Trump, Hegsef, and Vance are so freaked out over the

video by six Democratic senators and members of Congress,

who are veterans, reminding members of the military of their obligation not to obey an unlawful order,

...