Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence, joined me live from a blacked-out Kyiv on day 1,397 of the war. We last spoke on Halloween 2024, days before the election.
Frank says DHS is hiring so fast that vetting is not being completed, that leaders are waiving polygraph requirements, and that what he sees from ICE is 'intentional aggression,' not a training failure. We cover constitutional sheriffs and the midterms, resignations in the Minnesota US Attorney's office and FBI Minneapolis, and the disbanding of the FBI's Foreign Influence Task Force.
We also get into the pre-9/11 warnings Frank describes in his book The FBI Way, Starlink being cut off to Russian forces, Grok in the Pentagon, Norway and intelligence sharing with allies, the new National Security Strategy, and Jeff Bezos's layoffs at the Washington Post.
Chapters
0:00 Opening from a Kyiv blackout, next week's guests
3:51 How Chris and Frank met, Halloween 2024
7:03 Frank joins: the past year
9:20 Who is behind the ICE masks
12:17 Weaponized law enforcement and intentional aggression
14:29 Constitutional sheriffs and the midterms
16:21 Prosecutors and FBI agents resigning
19:05 The Jack Smith hearing and counterintelligence
22:55 Most vulnerable since 9/11
27:32 Talking to MAGA neighbors about foreign meddling
32:26 Crypto collapse, Musk and the Starlink cutoff
35:09 Grok in the Pentagon
37:05 Trump, allies and intelligence sharing
41:16 Trump and Putin calls before strikes on Ukraine
42:16 The new National Security Strategy
44:20 Benghazi arrest and the value of foreign partners
46:09 Bezos layoffs and going direct to audiences
53:05 News as nutrition, The Bulwark and Lincoln Square
55:52 Frank's books and closing
Watch on YouTube: Frank Figliuzzi on ICE, Constitutional Sheriffs and Counterintelligence Under Trump
