S2 Ep161: Judge Nukes Trump DOJ’s “Vindictive” Prosecution (w/ Mary McCord) | Illegal News
The Illegal News with Sarah Longwell
The Bulwark
4.9 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 May 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Sarah Longwell welcomes Mary McCord—former DOJ prosecutor and co-host of the Main Justice podcast—to discuss a series of jaw-dropping legal scandals surrounding Trump’s Justice Department. They include the secretive $1.776 billion “slush fund” for January 6 defendants, a federal judge exposing shocking grand jury misconduct in the Broadview Six case, the collapse of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia prosecution, growing judicial distrust of DOJ lawyers, and what happens when prosecutors start acting like political operatives instead of officers of the court.
Ready to reach your goals? Visit https://forhers.com/illegalnews to get personalized, affordable care that gets you.
Listen to 'Main Justice' on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/main-justice/id1679657705
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The prosecutor excused grand jurors who disagreed with the government's case from the deliberations process. |
| 0:07.2 | If you say, oh, you disagree with me, you're excused. You've completely undermined that. |
| 0:12.4 | I mean, this is like jaw-dropping as a former prosecutor for 20 years. |
| 0:15.8 | Like, I just cannot fathom any prosecutor doing this. |
| 0:23.1 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to the illegal news. |
| 0:26.2 | I'm Sarah Longwell, publisher of the bulwark, and as everyone knows, I am not a lawyer. |
| 0:29.7 | So today I'm joined by the great and the good Mary McCord to help me break down all the legal |
| 0:35.6 | news. |
| 0:36.2 | You will know her for many things, because she was a |
| 0:39.6 | prosecutor in the DC U.S. Attorney's Office for nearly 20 years. She oversaw the National Security |
| 0:44.3 | Division at the Department of Justice. She's at Georgetown University. She co-hosts, and this is |
| 0:49.4 | the thing. She co-hosts the MS Now podcast, Maine Justice, with my buddy and yours, Andrew Weissman. |
| 0:58.2 | Do you, how has it been sharing, Andrew? |
| 1:02.1 | It's been okay. |
| 1:03.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:03.9 | We just, we just recorded this morning. |
| 1:05.8 | So I feel like I get Andrew and I get you today, Sarah. |
| 1:08.4 | So what could be better? |
| 1:09.7 | That is. |
| 1:10.2 | It's the best. I'm super excited you're here. I suspect you today, Sarah. So what could be better? It is. It's the best. I'm super excited |
| 1:12.4 | you're here. I suspect you're the superior of the duo. And so I'm the real law commentator. |
| 1:20.8 | And he's like the color. No, I'm kidding. Oh, well, speaking of which, this is my challenge to you, |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 17 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Bulwark, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Bulwark and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.