Background Briefing: October 8, 2025
The James Comey Show Trial by Trump and Bondi Gets Underway
We begin with today’s court appearance by James Comey, the former director of the FBI who pleaded not guilty to making false statements to lawmakers and obstructing a congressional proceeding. Before a trial date set for 5 January, Comey’s lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald said he would have the case dismissed on the grounds his client, a critic of President Donald Trump, was being targeted and they planned to file motions to dismiss the case, arguing the prosecution was vindictive and that a US attorney was unlawfully appointed to take over the case. Joining us is Lawrence Douglas, the James Grosfeld Chair in Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought at Amherst College and a contributing opinion writer for The Guardian. We discuss his latest article at The Guardian, “James Comey’s real ‘crime’? Daring to put the law before loyalty to Trump.”
Trump’s “War Within” is Underway and It Will Be a Long One
Then with Trump apparently determined to provoke a “war within” as he sends troops from Texas to the streets of Chicago and calls for the arrest of the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago, we speak with Robert Pape, a Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago specializing in political violence and international security affairs. He is the author of Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop It, Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, and Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War. He had an op-ed in the New York Times back in June, “We May Be on the Brink of an Extremely Violent Era in American Politics.”
America’s Sea Change of Views on Israel Two Years After October 7
Then finally we speak with Lincoln Mitchell, who teaches in the School of International and Public Affairs and the Department of Political Science at Columbia University. He has written numerous books and articles about international affairs, American politics and baseball and is the author of the popular Substack Kibitzing with Lincoln where his latest article we discuss is, “Two Years after October 7.”