SEKULOW

Voiceover: On today's show, President Obama's CIA director states he believes Iran more than he does President Trump. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. That is 1-800-684-3110. We are covering a lot of great content today, so make sure you stay tuned to the show. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. Like I said, phone lines are open and I want to hear from you.

You may have seen the title. We're going to get to that in just a second. We are in just day two of our Stop the Madness week, and we want you to be a part of that as well. If you give to the ACLJ right now, all of your donations are effectively doubled today. Go to ACLJ.org/Madness or scan the QR code that's on your screen. Someone else, another ACLJ member or ACLJ champion, is ready to match any donations pledged today.

Go ahead and do that at ACLJ.org. We're going to talk about some of our incredible legal battles, including this week, an update on our Chicago street preachers. We're going to have an update on that as well as a special video presentation you're not going to want to miss. There's been a Supreme Court ruling connected to street preachers, so you're going to want to stay tuned.

With that, though, I came into the studio today and Will said, "I've got something to play you. We've got to lead with this." This comes from our old friend, former CIA director under Obama, John Brennan.

Will Haynes: That's right. John Brennan. This is the "it rings true" guy when it came to the Steele dossier, someone who has proven himself not to be very trustworthy over the years. However, he was on MS-Now with Simone Sanders. There's this debate because they can't figure it out over at MS-Now because President Trump talked yesterday about having had discussions with Iranian officials and that he was putting that five-day pause on his plan to attack the power plants within Iran.

There was some reporting that Iran says they are not talking with them at all, but now there are reports that there may be an actual meeting between U.S. and Iranian officials in Pakistan. This is how, when Simone Sanders was trying to rationalize it, like, "Do I trust them when they're saying that nothing is going on?" this is how the former CIA director under President Obama, one of the key architects of the Russia collusion hoax, put it.

Simone Sanders: Iran is an authoritarian regime who's known to lie. But I'm confused. What is going on? Help me. Calm me down.

John Brennan: Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he could not acknowledge the truth even when it is slapped in the face with it repeatedly.

Will Haynes: There is more from that, but just that segment alone. Once again, we planned weeks ago to do Stop the Madness. It's a very timely thing with things going on in the world. But every day we're given something new like that, where the former CIA director is saying, "You know who I trust more than our president? Iran."

Logan Sekulow: That's the difference between saying, of course, the constant spin has always been that President Trump is a liar. They've been saying that for now the better part of a decade. So that's nothing new. But do you then have to double down on that and go, "But you know who I do trust? That Iranian totalitarian dictatorship that has been run for decades and is oppressing and murdering their own people. Those are the people that I trust."

You even hear Simone start it. She says they are an authoritarian regime who are known to lie, setting it up for him. And of course, he took the bait in some ways and said, "I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he couldn't acknowledge the truth even if it slapped him in the face with it repeatedly."

Again, that is from John Brennan, former CIA director. What do you think about that? Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110. It's the kind of rhetoric that starts to really only infiltrate the minds of the people watching, but in ways that become concerning. If you start putting your trust in the Iranian government, the current standing Iranian government, what is going to happen to the modern left?

This can't be even where they go. I know you may not want to protect him, but you can't let it go to the point where the horseshoe of the extreme right and extreme left all of a sudden is falling into Iranian control, which is what it seemingly is happening. 1-800-684-3110, I want to hear from you. Again, Stop the Madness week, day two. Be a part of it right now at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.

Jordan Sekulow: Right now, your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courts across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on.

Logan Sekulow: From protecting the rights of kids to pray and share their faith.

Guest (Male): The best thing you can do is take a stand. There's nothing too small. A kid who wants to start a Bible club is how the ACLJ got its first case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jordan Sekulow: And today we would take that case as long as we needed to. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions. This is your opportunity to double your impact, to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/Impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over.

The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded.

None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/Freedom.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We will be taking your calls and comments today, and I'd love to hear from you. With that, also, I know a lot of you are just joining us right now, so we have to restate the main topic of the day. This came in this morning as Will was briefing me on some of the topics we were going to discuss today.

The overwhelming concept is, of course, a lack of trust in the United States of America. But when it's infiltrated on social media through the news with now not just saying don't trust President Trump, they've been saying that for years. Whatever you want to say, they say he's a liar. I can get over the political split that's happened in America.

Will Haynes: Everyone calls every politician a liar. That's not normal, but that's almost where it can roll off your back. You're not even thinking about it.

Logan Sekulow: However, when you start saying, "I trust the Iranian regime more than I trust essentially the United States of America," that's a concern. It's a concern when we start to normalize extremism from other countries, other faith backgrounds, things that are happening to the point of extremism. We start saying that that is okay instead of what the current Republican Party looks like, where President Trump and his administration stand.

They would rather side essentially with Iran, or at best, they would trust the intel coming out of Iran or trust the words of the people coming out of Iran more than they would our entire United States government and administration right now. It gets concerning because it starts to creep. It starts to creep further and further. We've seen that, of course, with Israel. We've seen that with people's lack of support of this war that's happening right now on the right and the left.

Again, I think people feel like I said earlier, it's the horseshoe where the extremists on the right and the extremists on the left are meeting now to a point where they have oddly a lot in common. A lot of that in common seems to be not here in America. It seems to be focused on what's happening in the Middle East. This is from John Brennan. We'll play a first bit again, and then we actually have more to play. This is again, he was on MS-Now and Simone Sanders was questioning being able to trust the words of the Iranian government, saying essentially they're an authoritarian regime who lies.

How does President Trump even know with these conversations? I think that's an okay question to ask. We asked that question. They're not straight shooters, if you will. You're not going to be dealing necessarily with fact. Look at what we've had to deal with with Putin and Russia. Same kind of thing. They'll say one thing, and then the next day all bets are off. It's a very different world. This is again on MS-Now just yesterday. Simone Sanders talking to former CIA director John Brennan under Obama. Of course, as you know, he was one of the architects of trying to take down President Trump throughout his first term and, of course, before that. Let's hear from Simone.

Simone Sanders: Iran is an authoritarian regime who's known to lie. But I'm confused. What is going on? Help me. Calm me down.

John Brennan: Well, I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump, because he could not acknowledge the truth even when it is slapped in the face with it repeatedly.

Logan Sekulow: All right, so again, "I tend to believe Iran more than I do Donald Trump." Again, I'm used to politicians saying that the other party are liars. That's normal. But when you start saying, "Yes, and..." and that "Yes, and..." is also because the Iranian government is currently something more trustworthy than the American government, the descent that that starts creating within your own country is very concerning.

Will Haynes: What does concern me is you're seeing voices from both sides of the spectrum that are more focused on tearing down America and American institutions than they are of building up this country and adhering to our Constitution. John Brennan was someone who has a current criminal referral from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that was sent to the Department of Justice, signed by Chairman Jordan.

He told that committee, a very important committee in Congress, that the CIA didn't rely on the Steele dossier at all. It had nothing to do with putting it into the new Intelligence Community Assessment that President Obama ordered. He even said that the CIA opposed putting it in there when what we now know, those were all lies under oath before the committee. He was one of the ones when the CIA said, "We don't know if we should put this in here, this isn't the greatest work product, we don't think it's accurate," he said, "But doesn't it ring true?"

He was trying to completely fabricate this Russia collusion narrative in order to bring down a U.S. presidency. Meanwhile, he is one who has used the words like "treasonous" about President Trump when the very actions he did are a part of this treasonous conspiracy that Tulsi Gabbard talked about. Remember, we told you last week that the former FBI director, James Comey, had been subpoenaed to appear before that grand jury in Florida.

A lot of signals point to that one of the people that are a target of that investigation is John Brennan, because of this criminal referral, because of the lies he repeatedly told Congress, and how he weaponized the Central Intelligence Agency against a duly elected president of the United States.

Now, he has the audacity to go on media still, continue talking, and say things like, "You know what? I tend to believe the Iranians more." This is the man who was the CIA station chief in Saudi Arabia before 9/11 and failed to get the proper intelligence on the hijackers who were coming from that country, employed by Osama bin Laden to go on and attack the United States. That is not a trustworthy person. But yet, he's telling everyone to listen to the Iranians over the President of the United States.

Logan Sekulow: Let's go to the phones. We have a call coming in from ACLJ champion Warren, who's calling on line two. I appreciate all the ACLJ champions who listen and support. Those people that give on a monthly basis like a membership, you know that creates an incredible baseline for us to do our great work. Whether that is in the law, and you're going to hear about one of those coming up in the next segment. Of course, this is the start of Stop the Madness week, day two. But a lot of that's because people become ACLJ champions. If you start becoming a champion today, your first donation is still doubled. So opt in and become a champion. We appreciate it. Warren is calling. Go ahead, Warren.

Warren: Thanks for taking my call, guys. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you. I want to add a quick comment that I didn't tell him yesterday. I was listening to you, Logan, and it's the "Zaga" in Gonzaga, not "Zuga" or "Zagah."

Logan Sekulow: Oh, Gonzaga. Deep apologies. Deep apologies. I'm sorry.

Warren: That's okay. Listening to that thing with Brennan is so angering to hear him spout lies, but also the media is giving him a platform to do it and going along with it to somebody saying, "Trust them more and they are our sworn enemies saying destroy America, destroy Israel." I'm speechless and so angry with it.

Will Haynes: You know what, Warren? This is also part of the problem, too, because we're seeing it on the right as well. John Brennan, it's shocking to hear that a former CIA director would say that, but knowing his history, it's not unbelievable that he would say it. It's still shocking. But when you also have people on the right—a big clip that's been going around, we actually don't have time to really play it in this segment, we can get to it later—is Tucker Carlson advocating for and saying that societies that are based on Sharia law seem to be doing better. They're thriving.

He travels all over and in the Middle East and in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, or in Qatar, in Doha, he feels so safe and it's clean. He can tell someone, "You know, I'm a fan of Jesus." He makes up these hypothetical conversations that did not happen. But then he says, "And I can do that there. Then you look at the Western cities and they're a disaster. They're a nightmare."

I do agree with him on a little bit of this point. We have trouble in some of our Western cities, not because of our Judeo-Christian values and constitutional values here in America, but because of the Marxism that has flooded our American cities over decades and has created these bastions of liberalism that are causing those cities to not thrive the way that others do. But it's not that we should turn to Sharia law or Eastern philosophy to govern America.

It's that we need to return to the constitutional principles and Judeo-Christian values that make America great. What they don't like, they don't like calling it Judeo-Christian because that Judeo part they seem to all of a sudden have this big problem with. But in reality, that is what we have strayed from and is what has made these cities such a difficult place to turn around.

New York didn't just elect as a mayor someone who is principled in our constitutional republic and saying we've got to get back to this. No, they elected someone who says we're going to give free grocery stores, tax the rich. It's that Marxist value. They've lost the plot here. They're trying to all of a sudden say that Eastern philosophies are doing better than the Western values that this country was founded upon. But it's all wrong. It's all a lie. You're seeing it from both John Brennan and Tucker Carlson. It's that horseshoe we've talked about. People, don't believe it for a minute.

Logan Sekulow: What he said, stop the madness. There you go. Throw that up on the screen. It is Stop the Madness Day, day two. Stop the madness. Our double donation, double your impact moment. I want you to be a part of it right now. As we head to break, I also want you to support the work of the ACLJ as you can, whether that is financially, of course, during Stop the Madness where your donation is doubled, or think about praying for our team. You're going to see in the next segment how important our work is in the court. Of course, we are talking a bit about some of the ACLJ, and you're going to see a great video presentation that our team put together about the street preachers in Chicago that you see right now on your screen. Go to ACLJ.org. We'll be right back on Sekulow.

Logan Sekulow: We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world.

This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/Freedom.

Jordan Sekulow: Right now, your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courts across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on.

Logan Sekulow: From protecting the rights of kids to pray and share their faith.

Guest (Male): The best thing you can do is take a stand. There's nothing too small. A kid who wants to start a Bible club is how the ACLJ got its first case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Jordan Sekulow: And today we would take that case as long as we needed to. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions. This is your opportunity to double your impact, to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/Impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We're going to be taking your calls throughout the next half hour, so if you want to call in, great time to do it. 1-800-684-3110. It is Stop the Madness week. We do want to showcase the wild nature of some of the work the ACLJ has to get involved in throughout the world. Of course, we've had Global Impact Week, we have had Double Your Impact Month, but this one specifically obviously ties in a bit to what's going on here in the month of March. But with Stop the Madness, we decided we wanted to focus and show some incredible work the ACLJ was doing, sometimes work that you feel like shouldn't even be necessary. That's why we consider it to be madness. Of course, we are talking at this point about street preachers in Chicago.

Will Haynes: That's right. This is a case where we had three different street preachers arrested by the police of Chicago. We were victorious in being able to get those charges thrown out against these individuals for expressing their First Amendment rights in public. But we saw this pattern, and so we knew that it wasn't just random that we happened to get three street preachers that knew each other, but it felt like the Chicago Police Department was actually targeting street preachers and going after them specifically. So we filed a civil suit. We're going to play a little video for you here that showcases this case, but then we also have some really good news on the fight for people expressing their faith in public around the country that we were involved in. So we'll get to that as well. Take a look at this video about our case out of Chicago where we are defending people's right to proclaim the Gospel in public.

Jordan Sekulow: When the ACLJ looks at a case, what we're looking for is whether or not this is a good case, whether or not this is a righteous case. We want to defend people who are sharing the Gospel, who are exercising their God-given rights. Our Chicago case, a case that the ACLJ's been working on for years now, this all started with three street preachers who were criminally charged and prosecuted with violating a noise ordinance.

Guest (Male): Being here in America, I thought that it is our right to go out and share our faith.

Guest (Male): I was the one preaching on the mic when the police came. They came to me and said I should shut it down.

Guest (Male): You know, I genuinely believe that we are being targeted for what we are saying, not just because of noise. Because we're in Chicago, right? We're in Chicago. There are a lot of drummers. There are musicians that are out there with their guitars, amplification as well. They're never stopped. They're never told to leave. But the second we are out there, police come like 20, 30 minutes in and they tell us not to lower it, but to leave.

Jordan Sekulow: These were nonsense charges and the ACLJ went into court and managed to get all three of those young men's charges completely dismissed.

Guest (Male): Victory! I might be packing my bags soon to return to Chicago. Chicago, get ready to see me again.

Jordan Sekulow: But we didn't stop there. We turned around and we sued the city. Well, the first thing the city of Chicago did was they tried to completely dismiss our lawsuit. They called our lawsuit baseless. They said that it was unsupported by the facts and the law, and they asked the judge to throw the whole case out.

The judge slapped them down. The judge told the city of Chicago that our lawsuit absolutely had merit, that it could proceed to what's called discovery. That is the next stage of litigation, something that the ACLJ is very much prepared for and we're getting ready for. But it's not a short process. It's a long and onerous process. It involves things called depositions, sitting down with the officers, interviewing them, getting all the details out on paper.

We can also force the city to produce documents, to produce any communications they may have had. We're going to do all of this and continue to build our case so that our clients can see justice.

Guest (Male): At the end of the day, every time we step out into the street, we have to be ready to give our life. I believe that every single person has a voice for a reason, and so I believe that as Christians, that shouldn't be stopped.

Jordan Sekulow: There's no guarantee that the end of discovery or even a trial will be the end here, because as we so often know, these cases, cities like Chicago don't take them lying down. They don't take their losses well. They'll push to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, they'll push to the Supreme Court, and we have committed and we will be with them every step of the way. We'll win this case no matter what it takes, no matter where it takes us.

Will Haynes: That is just a little overview for everyone of that case and where we are at now with surviving that motion to dismiss. Many times, especially in a place like Chicago, you are in federal court, but a lot of times the judges may not be as adhering to the constitutional principles or have a different interpretation of them and therefore will just say motion to dismiss granted, we side with the city here. We survived that and we are able to now move into the discovery phase. As you heard in that video, it is long. Until the window, I think, is open until December. So depositions, really hard work. It's not just waiting around, but we continue forward.

Logan Sekulow: But there's also this update. I wanted to get to this because, look, there are these kind of moments where we obviously are following a specific case, our specific clients, but then there are overreaching and overarching moments that also affect people throughout the country. We want to make sure that we give you updates on those as well. Sometimes they do tie in.

Will Haynes: When you see that this is happening all over the country, not just Chicago, we have so many clients right now that are being targeted for sharing the Gospel, for exercising their First Amendment rights. There was a case that made it all the way to the Supreme Court about a street preacher. Most people did not hear about this. But the decision just came out last Friday, and this was in court. It was Olivier versus the City of Brandon, Mississippi. We filed an amicus brief because it so closely tracks with so many of our cases.

Here, this individual was a street preacher in Brandon, Mississippi, that they had set up a protest zone, and he was sharing the Gospel outside of this protest zone. He got charged. He pled no contest and paid the fine, so essentially didn't admit guilt or say innocence but just paid the fine because it was a small misdemeanor matter. He then tried to challenge the city's ordinance, saying it's unconstitutional. The city fought in court that because he had paid his fine, he effectively admitted wrongdoing and could not challenge the law that he was found guilty under that he got the fine.

This made it all the way to the Supreme Court where he was losing at the district court in a conservative part of America, at the appeals court, made it all the way to the Supreme Court. Nine to nothing, he is vindicated and allowed to continue his suit against the city to get this unconstitutional ordinance removed. He didn't have to lay down his rights in his opportunity to change what was an unconstitutional ordinance and that will continue now because he paid a fine.

He didn't challenge that and wait for it. He paid the fine and then challenged the ordinance. You know who wrote this opinion? Nine to nothing? Justice Kagan. We filed an amicus in it. This is a huge victory for free speech and for many of the type of clients we represent, that even if they at the time didn't know their options to come to an ACLJ where they could get free legal assistance in this and they're like, "You know what, I'm going to pay the fine. It's $100 or whatever because I don't have the ability to fight this in court. I don't have that money."

But then later they find a group like the ACLJ or many of the others out there that do this and say, "Oh, I had options. This is unconstitutional. I want to fight it." They can still do that because of what Justice Kagan wrote the opinion for and we filed a brief in. So that's a big victory for free speech and the exercise of the First Amendment in this country.

Logan Sekulow: Yep, what he said. Stop the madness. There you go, throw that up on the screen. It is Stop the Madness Day, day two. Stop the madness, our double donation, double your impact moment. I want you to be a part of it right now. As we head to break, I also want you to support the work of the ACLJ as you can, whether that is financially, of course, during Stop the Madness where your donation is doubled, or think about becoming an ACLJ supporter right now.

It is Stop the Madness week, day two. It's great about during these special weeks is we're able to offer the opportunity where if you give right now, your donation is doubled. There's another ACLJ champion or ACLJ supporter ready to unlock their pledge at any level, $5, $5,000, wherever you can. It's a great way to do it. If you're brand new, though, you're not ready to give, I understand. Easy way to do it: support the work by subscribing on YouTube or on Rumble. We got a second half hour coming up. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. We're live.

Logan Sekulow: We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over.

The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/Freedom.

Jordan Sekulow: Right now, your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courts across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions. This is your opportunity to double your impact, to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/Impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled today.