Background Briefing (5am)

Dennis Aftergut / Gareth Gore

What May Be the Only Chance We Have to See Jack Smith’s Case Against Trump for January 6

We begin with the 165-page filing by Jack Smith in the January 6 case that could be the only time we see the case against Donald Trump for inciting the insurrection and putting a target on his own Vice President’s back by denouncing Mike Pence to the mob who called for his hanging. (When told that Pence was in danger, Trump replied “so what.”) Joining us to assess Jack Smith’s case against Trump and how it complies with the Supreme Court’s broad immunity given to Trump — in terms of whether the former president was engaged in “official acts” — is Dennis Aftergut, a former federal prosecutor and Chief Assistant City Attorney in San Francisco who has won cases of significance in the United States Supreme Court and the California Supreme Court. He currently serves as counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy.

A Deep Investigation of the Far-Right Cult Opus Dei and Its Infiltration of American Politics at the Highest Level

Then we investigate the role of the secretive far-right Catholic sect Opus Dei in infiltrating American politics at the highest level, having stacked the Supreme Court and the Federal Judiciary with far-right justices, while placing cult members in the Trump White House as well as influencing J.D. Vance, who wrote the foreword to a new book by Opus Dei’s Kevin Roberts, the head of Project 2025. Joining us from the UK is Gareth Gore, a financial journalist and editor with close to two decades of experience, who has reported from over twenty-five countries and covered some of the biggest financial stories. His writing has been published by Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, and International Financing Review. He is the host of The Syndicate, which tells the behind-the-scenes stories of the biggest financial deals in history. His new book, just out, is OPUS: The Cult of Dark Money, Human Trafficking, and Right-Wing Conspiracy inside the Catholic Church.