The one where we talk about the somewhat anticlimactic indictment of Donald Trump, Adam Nettina's violent threats, and some of the developments in Russia's War Of Choice in Ukraine.
Here are some of the sources and references that we used to create this episode:
Trump judge and his family receive threats after New York arrest
In the 24 hours since former President Donald Trump’s arraignment, the presiding judge and his family have received multiple threats, two sources familiar with the matter said.
One official said “dozens” of threats have recently been directed at Judge Juan Merchanand his chambers but did not give an exact time frame for them.
The other source said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other top officials in his office continue to receive threats. The threats have been in the form of calls, emails and letters.
Maryland man threatened to 'slaughter' LGBTQ+ people after Covenant School shooting, DOJ says
According to an affidavit, on the morning of March 28, Nettina left a threatening voice mail at the D.C. office of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization in the United States. The call came just one day after six people, including three children, were killed in a shooting at The Covenant School – a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Evan Gershkovich Loved Russia, the Country That Turned on Him.
Mr. Gershkovich, 31 years old, is the American son of Soviet-born Jewish exiles who had settled in New Jersey. He fell in love with Russia—its language, the people he chatted with for hours in regional capitals, the punk bands he hung out with at Moscow dive bars. Now, espionage charges leave him facing a possible prison sentence of up to 20 years.
His employer, colleagues and the Biden administration all deny Russia’s claimthat he was spying on behalf of the U.S., and have called for his immediate release. Diplomats and legal experts see little hope Mr. Gershkovich, a reporter accredited by the Russian foreign ministry, will immediately be freed, given that espionage trials in Russia are conducted in secret and almost always end in a conviction.
Finland joins NATO as 31st Ally
Finland became NATO’s newest member today (4 April 2023), upon depositing its instrument of accession to the North Atlantic Treaty with the United States at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. NATO Allies signed Finland’s Accession Protocol on 5 July 2022, after which all 30 national parliaments voted to ratify the country’s membership.
Speaking ahead of the ceremony, the Secretary General thanked President Niinistö for his outstanding leadership and for leading Finland into the most successful Alliance in history. “I am deeply proud to welcome Finland as a full-fledged member of our Alliance and I look forward to also welcoming Sweden as soon as possible,” he said. “Joining NATO is good for Finland, it is good for Nordic security and it is good for NATO as a whole,” he added. The Secretary General also noted that Finland’s accession shows the world that President Putin failed to “slam NATO’s door shut.” “Instead of less NATO, he has achieved the opposite; more NATO and our door remains firmly open,” he said.
Putin has gone crazy' says his defected security officer
Putin has 'gone crazy' according to one of highest ranking Russian security service officers who defected in 2022, Marc Bennetts tells Times Radio.
‘He’s a war criminal’: Elite Putin security officer defects
On Oct. 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He switched off his phone to shut out the crescendo of urgent, enraged messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm his fast-beating heart.
But this was no ordinary Russian defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secretive elite personal security service — one of the few Russians to flee and go public who have rank, as well as knowledge of intimate details of Putin’s life and potentially classified information.
Karakulov, who was responsible for secure communications, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his fear of dying there drove him to speak out, despite the risks to himself and his family. He said he hoped to inspire other Russians to speak out also.
“Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It is time to end this war and stop being silent.”
Former US President Bill Clinton said that he regrets pressuring Ukraine to give up its nuclear warheads in a high-stakes negotiation in 1994.
In an interview with Irish news service RTÉ released on Tuesday,Clinton said that he felt a "personal stake" in Ukraine's fragile territorial integrity. He said he believed that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2014, and in 2022, had the weapons still been in the country — a position that a Soviet historian echoed to Insider.
"I feel a personal stake because I got them [Ukraine] to agree to give up their nuclear weapons," Clinton said. "And none of them believe that Russia would have pulled this stunt if Ukraine still had their weapons."
This is our current events recap program, where we offer our takes on what’s going on at the bleeding edge of the information war. Feel free to let us know what you think, suggest topics, etc. at didnothingwrongpod@protonmail.com, or in our group chat using the Substack app.
Thanks for listening,
Jay and Griff
Episode 51 - Trump's indictment, right-wing threats, and latest from Russia & Ukraine