New Bombshell in Cornell 7 Case Will Shock You; Lawyer Weighs In on Cover-Up
23m 20s
The transcript exposes widespread failures in the U.S. criminal justice system, where systemic impunity, racial bias, and political interference enable sexual assault and racial injustice to go unchecked. The Cornell rape case exemplifies how district attorneys neglect victims, fail to conduct basic investigations, and rely on minimal documentation—despite clear legal obligations—while the case only reopens due to media attention. Similarly, the death of Black teen Nolan Wells highlights racial disparities in investigations, with no water found in his body, a hidden head injury, and a combative, secretive response from authorities, suggesting a biased system. The narrative also critiques the exploitation of Black athletes by white institutions, particularly through the use of NFL imagery by the Department of Homeland Security to spread false anti-migrant propaganda. Additionally, the pressure on Florida prosecutors to pursue politically motivated charges against former officials represents a dangerous erosion of democratic accountability and judicial independence. These cases collectively reveal a justice system compromised by underfunding, racial prejudice, political manipulation, and the failure to uphold the rights of marginalized victims. The speaker calls for public vigilance, voter engagement, and independent media to counteract these abuses and restore integrity to democratic institutions.
When you live in a society that excuses or lets people off the hook for sexual assault, that trickles up, that impunity trickles up. That's why we have a president of the United States that is an adjudicated rapist. Because when these crimes start initially, a lot of cover is provided not to the victim of the sexual assault, but to the actual rapist. And here is a video of the district attorney who failed to pursue charges in the Cornell University gang rape case. Play the clip. And was at the very least assaulted, doesn't remember things that happened. Who knows if she was even conscious for all of it. I want to know more about what happened. And that's correct me if I'm wrong. Your job. My job, under the New York State Constitution, is to apply the penal law of New York State. We are constrained by that law. Whether you agree with it, whether you think someone's conduct is morally repugnant or vulgar or disgusting, I'm still constrained by the law. That is my- Josh, unpack this for us. Well, we see this level of incompetence in a criminal justice system day in and day out. Let's put this in context. So this young lady, Jane Doe, she reports basically a crime of sexual assault or rape against her. And she reports that to the Cornell Police Department, which is basically the campus cops. And she fills out a six-page affidavit or the officer prepares an affidavit based on her sworn statements and they give that to the district attorney. And think about that. So all he does is look at that affidavit determines that he's not going to file a charge. And this is in 2024. Doesn't think to interview Jane Doe, never reaches out to Jane Doe, never reaches out to the seven or eight alleged perpetrators of this rape, of this sex crime, and simply declines the charge. And there's a number of problems with that. If the college cops, you know, they're like malt cops. So they're not trained to take statements from victims of sexual assaults or any type of sexual abuse. They don't have that skill set. There are other jurisdictions that could have intervened here, the state prosecutor's office or the local law enforcement. But these are campus cops that are doing this. And this DA, and that's what Jake Tapper's getting at, is at a bare minimum when this got on your desk, it required you to do your job to ask questions to bring this young lady in to attempt to interview. It's just subpoena to these kids, ask for their cell phones, talk to them. And he did none of that. And then what's even more maddening is when he gets on an interview like that with Jake Tapper and takes this grand position that he did his job and sides the state constitution. It's it's utter nonsense. It really is. And it's incompetence. And I see that day in and day out with a lot of these state agencies because they're so underfunded, these Republican states and even some of the blue states, the local law enforcement is so underfunded that it's so incompetent. And so you're seeing that in this case. Well, obviously that is the, you know, official court, but the court of public opinion is weighing in. And justifiably, this is a crime that you hear about that shocks the conscience. And then you hear about the impunity in which these seven young men received. It's disgusting. It's insult to entry. But, you know, we live in it where the public town square can be really damning. And Cornell student accused of rape has now been fired from his job. Pop this up. TMZ reports that Diego, Sarabia, one of the Cornell students accused of sexual assault has been fired from his job at Wells Fargo as prosecutors reopen their investigation. So, Josh, the reopening of the investigation, it was prompted simply by Jane Doe filing a civil lawsuit against C7 or 8 boys and a lot of media of attention. And that's what prompted this thing to reopen. Nobody had an epiphany here that, hey, we need to do the right thing and investigate this. It wasn't until the temperature on this thing got turned up. The media got involved. And now they've reopened this. Just think about this. In 2024, this six-page affidavit lands on your desk. And you don't think to bring that young woman in and ask her questions or potentially reach out and issue a subpoena or a senate detective to go interview any of these young men, ask them any questions. How in the fuck does that happen? And you sit there and you get on TV and you defend it. It's insane. Well, and as I started the episode, I talked about this, this trickles upwards. When we do not act at any age, when a woman is sexually assaulted or raped or a child is sexually assaulted or raped or kids in the Catholic Church are sexually assaulted or raped and the instinct is to cover it up, provide impunity. And this is a thing that we see all throughout culture. And because we are not, we say, oh, we oppose rape. Oh, we oppose pedophilia. But when we try people in the court system, that doesn't match up if they even get tried in the court system. I mean, the only person who's been tried in the Epstein case is the woman, Gilae Maxwell, who is a convicted child sex trafficker. But this sort of impunity trickles up. And now we have a rapist, adjudicated rapist, president of the United States. And I want to shift gears here for a second. This is a story that I think all of us really is so upsetting. And this is the story of a young man in Mississippi named Nolan Wells. And Nolan Wells was on a boat with all of his friends. And they went to Horn Island. And Nolan's phone left the island. Nolan didn't. And Nolan turns up dead. There were reports that he drowned yet. I'm about to play for you the results of his autopsy. Nolan Wells, something very important to point out here, Nolan Wells is black. All of his friends are white. And I want you to think about when we when we start unpacking this Nolan Wells thing, I want you to think about Natalie Holloway, a white girl on an island that went missing. And think about how that was in the media and the demand for justice. And then juxtapose that with what's happening with Nolan Wells. Here are the results of Nolan's autopsy, play the clip. No fluid or debris is within the airways. GI tract, unremarkable, the stomach is empty. What this means is that there's no water in the stomach. There's no water in the lungs. And there's no water in the throat. And yet, the grand jury, if you read through that, especially at the end, what they want to determine is an accidental drowning. Josh, unpack this for us. Well, let me first just say too, that there's no doubt in my mind that because this young man is black, that they're treating this investigation differently. I mean, it's very secretive and somewhat combative. So the families had to go out and get their own lawyers to navigate this process. But think about this. Nobody can say how this young man died. How Nolan died? The state's own report says it was undetermined. And one of the things we didn't talk about, he had a fresh injury to the back of his head that nobody can explain. There's no water in his lungs, as she mentioned. And more or less, it's the tone from this prosecutor. I believe they've been somewhat combative in reference to Nolan Welles family had the phone, had his cell phone. And they hired a forensic expert to extract items on the phone. And they claimed that their items deleted on that cell phone. And they tried to reach an agreement with the district attorney's office to allow them to also get a copy of it. But you have to understand, they're afraid to give them that phone. That's a piece of evidence. And they don't trust that district attorney. And so those negotiations kind of fell apart. I tried to find out if it was available publicly, whether or not these three boys testified before the grand jury. And it's unclear. The media report states that they cooperated, but there's no proof of that other than that they met presumably with law enforcement. And so a lot of this, like everybody's entitled to a presumption of innocence. And I believe in that more than anything in the world. But again, the problem in these cases, it's the optics raised by the prosecutor's own actions, like this biased against them. And like the other clip that you just played, like the prosecutor was somewhat combative about helping a victim of crime. And it's the same thing here. I mean, this family, the wealth family lost their son. And there's no reason why this district attorney's office is not reaching out to help these people and find out the truth about what happened instead of being combative and fighting them on certain issues. There's no reason for it. And if this young man was white, you wouldn't see any of this bullshit. You wouldn't see any of it. We would
wouldn't be having this discussion. You would see a black kid with handcuffs on being led to jail with cameras on him. Period, in stop. And it's bullshit. And you don't see it until you have to see stories like this or your part of the system, day in and day out, I see it. So none of this shit surprises me. And it's amazing how all these people just get impacted by it. Simply because now it's brought to their attention or they have a loved one that have to go through it. But you've been through this with me. Like we see this day in and day out, now, victims are somewhat vilified if you're-- Especially black victims or women. Yeah, like victims or women. Like the two cases we just talked about. It's interesting because in the case of if no one wells were white and he went to Horn Island with a bunch of black kids, you would see that white district attorney advocating. We will find out what happened. We will turn over every single stone. But these boys immediately loyered up. One of the boys, stepmother, is a judge in the county. It's my understanding. And so this looks. It has the appearance of we are advocating for these white boys. This is Mississippi, a deeply still very much racist state that has Confederate flags and all that shit. And so we want to shine a light on this for no one and for his parents. I mean, we have a son, no one's age. And if this was flipped, you would probably have members of Congress calling for an investigation. If this was a white victim and a black boy accused of a crime, you would have members of Congress, you'd have Fox News all over this thing. It would be all the bell whistles in the rage bait and all the racism. It would be all that shit. And it's the sky, like these guys are just awful. All right, speaking of racism, I find Republicans' relationship with black athletes to be very reminiscent of ownership. The fact that NFL owners are called the owners, and the way they treated Colin Kaepernick. And all of these racists that I know in our home state of Oklahoma, also, our big University of Oklahoma, Boomer, Sooner football fans, and they're all big, Oklahoma City Thunder, NBA basketball fans. But when it comes to advocating for when the Black Lives Matter thing came out, they're like, you need to shut up and dribble. Well, I know this is rather nuanced, but it's important the way white people use and exploit black athletes. And the DHS, the Department of Homeland Security, under Donald Trump, is now using the NFL to push its scare tactics, pop this up. Breaking the NFL has asked Trump's Homeland Security to remove this video. They posted a former Eagles player, Brian Dawkins, pregame walkout, and hard hits to promote ISIS message about a purported migrant caravan. The leak has requested that DHS take down the video and NFL spokesperson said, Josh. Think about this. So you have the Department of Homeland Security. You've got their general counsel. This fucking clown. He posts this video of Brian Dawkins, who's a very well-known athlete to play for the Philadelphia Eagles. And he had this ritual before the games. And he posts that without any consent from the NFL, from Brian Dawkins, anyone, and just posts this. Now, who does that? And not only that, but he posts it to perpetuate this propaganda campaign against migrants crossing the border which is just a fucking lie. So they're using his image, his likeness, all the copyright infringements associated with that to perpetrate a fraud, basically, that there are migrants coming over and by God we're ready for them. I mean, so anyway, I'll let you take it from there. And so then the DHS responds, pop this up. DHS top lawyer responds with a bug's bunny meme to the NFL asking them to take down their ridiculous propaganda video using clips of former Eagles great, Brian Dawkins, hope the NFL sews these morons. So this guy posts a meme of bugs bunny shouting no. And I just think it's important to be an ally. And Josh and I feel this with every fiber of our bone. And this is a time where black people are exhausted. They are exhausted from this regime. They are exhausted from being exploited. And we have to stand up as allies to the bigots that love to consume NFL, that love to consume the NBA, that love college football. It's their whole fucking identity, if you will. Some white races, some of these people, their whole identity is being a fan of some particular team wherein 80% of the team is black. But then when these black players say, hey, we're going to put on our Jersey Black Lives Matter and on the court, calling Kaepernick's going to take a knee to say in my neighborhoods, we're overpoliced, over arrested, cops lie about it. Then they're told, shut the fuck up. And I think it's so disgusting. And I had a viral clip where I talk about white people. If you don't like multiculturalism and you want all these people deported then stop watching sports, stop it. But you don't get to be this duplicitous. Oh, we love, you know, we love the Eagles and we love the Oklahoma City Thunder. But black athletes shut the fuck up at all times. And this right here, this DHS thing to me just perfectly illustrates this white mindset that people have about the exploitation of athletes. If you're really into something, get beyond the surface level. Understand, like I think it's important that we understand what our fellow citizens go through. We still have predominantly black neighborhoods in the United States. Racism is ubiquitous and on the accelerant because of Donald Trump. And so if you're truly a fan, what you stand up to this regime for exploiting a black player who probably wants nothing to do with this dipshit racist pedophile administration. But oh, no, I mean, it's just, it's really, it disgusts me to the core of my being because in the state of Oklahoma, I know so many people whose entire identity is being a sports fan. And then when it comes time to listen to those athletes talk about problems in their communities, they say, shut up and dribble. And this trolling is coming from the general counsel for a federal agency. This isn't coming from a private citizen. So keep that in mind. The tone that's been set from these fucking clowns. Like it just, it takes every fiber that I have not to want to just smash my TV every day when I'm watching that shit. It's true. I've witnessed, I mean, it's just, it's insane. And I hate it because they set the tone from the top down, and you see this shit. And he knows how hard it is to bring some kind of a federal claim against an agency to have this taken down. Elon Musk runs X. So they're not going to take it down. This is what happens when you monopolize the table. I can do whatever the fact they want with no recourse. It's going to change. All right, last story I want to get your take on this. Another one of Trump's legal fights is falling apart, pop this up. Joyce Eileen reports, our Joyce White Vance reports. The reporting here is that the White House is pressuring, quote, grand conspiracy prosecutors in the Southern District, Florida for indictments before the election. If true, that would violate longstanding DOJ policy about taking overt steps so close to an election. And coincidentally, Florida is not looking good for the Republicans. Josh unpack for a salamon what this means. I think we're way past talking about DOJ violations and respect to joy, but we're way past that shit. This is gone just the opposite direction. So you had seven prosecutors down in Florida. They've drummed up this grand conspiracy case where they want to charge Brennan, they want to charge Obama. They want to charge all these people with a conspiracy to defraud the American public with some grand election count or violation. Who knows what the fuck it is? I mean, it's so insane. But just about a month or two ago, I think that Joseph DiGenova, I think he resigned from that. He was appointed. He's that Fox client that you see half the time. He and his wife, they were appointed down there and he left. And now you see that I think seven prosecutors are leaving. And why are they leaving? Because they're being asked to trump up charges for lack of a better word against these former government officials. And I can't tell you how significant this is for the Department of Justice. The fall from grace, from where we are that you've got Donald Trump basically threatening to fire prosecutors if they don't charge his criminal, if they don't charge his political opponents or political enemies. I mean, that is as undemocratic as it can possibly get. Like we are so far removed from being in a democracy when you have.
a president that has that kind of a power and wields it at will with no checks and balances. And so what happened here, seven prosecutors said, listen, I'm not going to go into court and lie my ass off for you. I'm sorry, I'm not going to do it. We don't have the proof here to proceed with this case and I'm not going to fade the heat because you've seen in other districts the same thing happen and other lawyers get in trouble and get chastised and get brought before the court and they get ethics complaints and so forth and they're just not doing it, not a blame them. All right, this is pretty upsetting stuff, but we do have autonomy and agency overvoting. It's looking abysmal to pulling for the Republicans and they know this. Stay locked in, stay engaged with independent media, both our channel and all of our friends that guest on our show. Make sure you subscribe, make sure you're registered to vote. The turnout must be too big, to rig, and we will be back later with more news.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Systemic impunity in sexual assault cases allows perpetrators to go unpunished, as seen in the Cornell University rape case where a district attorney failed to investigate or interview victims or suspects.
The absence of basic due process—such as interviewing survivors or subpoenaing accused individuals—highlights incompetence and underfunding in local criminal justice systems, especially in under-resourced states.
The reopening of the Cornell case was triggered solely by a civil lawsuit and media attention, not by an independent moral or legal obligation to pursue justice.
Racial disparities are evident in cases like Nolan Wells’ death, where a Black teenager’s death is underinvestigated, with no water found in his body and a combative, secretive response from authorities.
The treatment of Black victims and athletes reflects a broader pattern of racialized exploitation, where white institutions suppress Black voices and weaponize sports fandom to maintain power.
The Trump administration’s alleged pressure on Florida prosecutors to target political opponents violates democratic principles and DOJ policies, undermining accountability.
The U.S. criminal justice system consistently fails to protect victims, especially marginalized groups, due to institutional bias, underfunding, and political interference.
Public opinion increasingly holds power over justice outcomes, exposing cultural and systemic failures that allow impunity to persist across institutions.
Summary:
S. criminal justice system, where systemic impunity, racial bias, and political interference enable sexual assault and racial injustice to go unchecked. The Cornell rape case exemplifies how district attorneys neglect victims, fail to conduct basic investigations, and rely on minimal documentation—despite clear legal obligations—while the case only reopens due to media attention.
Similarly, the death of Black teen Nolan Wells highlights racial disparities in investigations, with no water found in his body, a hidden head injury, and a combative, secretive response from authorities, suggesting a biased system. The narrative also critiques the exploitation of Black athletes by white institutions, particularly through the use of NFL imagery by the Department of Homeland Security to spread false anti-migrant propaganda. Additionally, the pressure on Florida prosecutors to pursue politically motivated charges against former officials represents a dangerous erosion of democratic accountability and judicial independence.
These cases collectively reveal a justice system compromised by underfunding, racial prejudice, political manipulation, and the failure to uphold the rights of marginalized victims. The speaker calls for public vigilance, voter engagement, and independent media to counteract these abuses and restore integrity to democratic institutions.
FAQs
In the Cornell case, the district attorney declined to file charges despite a six-page affidavit from the victim. He never interviewed the victim or the accused, raising serious concerns about systemic incompetence and lack of due process.
The prosecutor argues they followed the law, but in practice, they failed to interview victims or accused individuals, which contradicts the constitutional duty to investigate and protect victims of sexual assault.
The case was reopened after Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit and media attention increased, showing that systemic inaction often only changes when public pressure grows.
Nolan Wells, a Black man, died under mysterious circumstances with no water in his body, and the investigation was secretive, combative, and delayed—contrasting with how white victims are treated in similar cases.
The district attorney claimed the phone data had been deleted and refused to allow access, raising concerns about withholding evidence and protecting a biased investigation.
White fans often express strong loyalty to teams with predominantly Black athletes, yet silence or condemn Black athletes when they speak about racial injustice, revealing a pattern of racial exploitation and hypocrisy.
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