Hello, Trump Inc. listeners. It's Ilya Maritz. I am so excited to be talking to you now to tell you about episode two in a new audio series

Andrea Bernstein and I have been working on for ProPublica and on the media. It's called we don't talk about Leonard.

Ever since Trump was president and then wouldn't let go of power,

Andrea and I have been thinking and reporting about the stresses on our democracy.

About a year ago, we started to work with ProPublica in ravelling how one of the final backstops of our system, the courts, have been under pressure.

At the center of that effort, a conservative legal philosopher general named Leonard Lio.

You might know his name because he was Trump's judge whisperer. Lio was responsible for the nominations of Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett to the US Supreme Court.

But Lio is so so much more powerful than that.

As we found, his influence stretches to state Supreme courts and state attorneys general to the whole of American culture really.

To report the story, Andrea and I teamed up with ProPublica's Andy Croll, an investigative reporter who's been breaking stories on Lio and the three of us dug deep.

This is the second episode of a three part series. You can find episode one wherever you listen to podcasts. Andrea and I think you're really going to like we don't talk about Leonard. Thank you for listening.

I'm Brooke Gladstone. On this week's on the media, many of the rulings handed down by the Supreme Court, start with cases brought by the states.

And one influential conservative group is busy working those reps.

We're going to have a conversation this morning about state attorneys general and this is an issue of great importance to the Federalist Society.

I think the attorney general's office has gotten more interested in national issues in the last 30 years.

A number of them have gone on to judgeships have gone on to other high profile positions within the judiciary.

I was like, solicitor, that sounds like does he wear a wig? What is that?

For this wonderful conversation about being a state solicitor general, the tension, the conflicts, the fun, the tears, the joy, all of it.

Like if you're a solicitor general or you're working a solicitor general's office, you get to sort of have this national practice.

It's all coming up after this.

From WNYC in New York, this is on the media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And we're one week into the United States Supreme Court's new term.

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