Trump’s Imperial Presidency: Bogus Charges and Foreign Wars
The Oath and The Office
Corey Brettschneider
4.9 • 591 Ratings
🗓️ 28 May 2026
⏱️ 63 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Oath and The Office, Corey Brettschneider and John Fugelsang start with the dismissal of human trafficking charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A federal judge found the prosecution vindictive and selective, a major rebuke to a Trump DOJ that tried to punish a man after he fought back against his unlawful deportation.
Then Corey and John turn to Mahmoud Khalil, where the Trump administration is pushing another dangerous claim: that noncitizens can be detained and deported for political speech. They also discuss new congressional pushback against Trump’s war in Iran and the DOJ indictment of Raúl Castro, as the administration invokes “law and order” while expanding American military power in Latin America.
Then filmmaker Andrew Glazer joins the show to discuss "Spring of the Vanishing", his investigative documentary on the American military’s alleged complicity in killings of innocent civilians by the Mexican military during the drug war. The conversation becomes a broader warning about how the war on drugs has been used to destroy civil liberties at home and abroad.
The theme running through all of it: Trump’s imperial presidency is not just a foreign policy problem. It is a threat to constitutional democracy here at home.
Subscribe to The Oath and The Office wherever you get your podcasts, and help us expose abuses of presidential power before they become the new normal.
Watch Spring of the Vanishing: https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0LAGR1QS4QZ2PIWOMLFK18KJ2K
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to another episode of The Oath in the Office podcast, starring Professor Corey Brechtnyder. |
| 0:15.0 | I am his obedient henchman, John Fuglesang, and it's a pleasure to have you with us. |
| 0:20.0 | Today on the show. |
| 0:20.9 | A fascinating conversation with filmmaker Andrew Glazer and folks for one brief shining |
| 0:26.3 | moment this week, the Constitution briefly cleared its throat and reminded all of us it is |
| 0:31.9 | still technically employed. |
| 0:33.2 | A federal judge looked at the Trump DOJ's treatment of Kilmara-Abrego Garcia and basically said, |
| 0:39.3 | you idiots can't deport a guy my mistake and then lie about it in court and then reopen a dead case |
| 0:45.3 | to punish the guy for noticing. And while all this is happening, courts are still wrestling with |
| 0:50.5 | whether non-citizens possess the radical socialist luxury known as free speech, |
| 0:56.0 | which used to be one of America's bigger selling points. Folks, please welcome the star of our show. |
| 1:00.0 | Constitutional Law Professor and author of The Oath and the Office, Professor Corey Brechtniter. |
| 1:05.0 | Hello, sir. |
| 1:06.0 | Thanks so much, John, and that's such a great frame. |
| 1:09.0 | I mean, we're talking every week about the |
| 1:11.0 | ongoing struggle between the attempt to protect our rights, to protect our democracy and the |
| 1:16.3 | assault on those rights by the Trump administration. We'll talk about what's happening here in the |
| 1:21.5 | United States. And we have a special treat, too, in that Andrew Glazer is going to talk about |
| 1:26.1 | his film, about the drug war and about |
| 1:28.5 | America's complicity and the violation of human rights abroad, particularly in Mexico. So it's an |
| 1:34.2 | amazing episode, both about our rights at home and our abuses abroad. And of course, those two things |
| 1:41.0 | are tied together through the office that we're focused on in this podcast, the office of the president of the United States. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 20 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Corey Brettschneider, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Corey Brettschneider and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.