The Daily Wrap Up

17 Feb. 2026

[Transcripts edited for clarity, length and flow]

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Hello everybody and welcome to this evening’s episode of Mary Trump Live. It is great to have you here. It is Tuesday.

According to the Associated Press, the Justice Department has issued new subpoenas in a Florida-based investigation involving Donald’s perceived political adversaries and the government’s response to Russian interference in the 2016 election. An initial round of subpoenas in November sought documents tied to the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment on Russian election interference and focused on records from around its release in January 2017. The latest subpoenas broaden that scope, seeking records from any years since the assessment was published.

The Justice Department declined to comment. Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan, who helped oversee the assessment and was called “crooked as hell” by Donald, say he has been told he is a target but has not been given any legally justifiable basis for the investigation.

Why would the Department of Justice need a legal basis for anything it does, especially when it is all in service to Donald and his retribution tour?

The intelligence assessment, released in the final days of the Obama administration in January 2017, concluded that Russia developed a clear preference for Donald in 2016 and that Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign aimed at undermining confidence in American democracy and harming Hillary Clinton’s chances of victory. There is no doubt this happened. Just as there is no doubt that individuals in the upper echelons of Donald’s 2016 campaign, including Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr., sought contact with Russians.

The problem is not the assessment. The problem is that Donald does not like being reminded that Russia preferred him and worked to help him. He knows he can only win by cheating, and to have that fact embedded in the historical record wounds him deeply. So instead of confronting what happened in 2016, he is going after the people who documented it.

At the same time, Republican lawmakers pushed back at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, accusing investigators of using overly invasive tactics in the probe into Donald’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election. Their focus was on how prosecutors obtained phone records from sitting members of Congress.

Telecommunications companies told lawmakers they were required by law to comply with subpoenas and court orders. Verizon’s top consumer legal officer said the company turned over the records because it had no choice under a valid legal demand. The records obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team showed the timing and duration of calls, but not their content. According to Chairman Chuck Grassley, subpoenas covered 20 current or former Republican members of Congress.

Democrats countered that the outrage was misplaced, saying the step was routine in criminal investigations and warranted given Donald’s outreach to lawmakers on January 6, 2021, as rioters stormed the Capitol, endangering everyone inside.

Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina made clear he intends to pursue legal action against the Justice Department and former Special Counsel Jack Smith. During a February 10 Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing, Graham said the following:

Lindsey Graham: If the shoe were on the other foot, it’d be front page news all over the world that Republicans went after sitting Democratic senators’ phone records… I just want to let you know I don’t think I deserve what happened to me.

The records were handed over because it was the law. Many Republicans in the House and Senate were implicated in some way in January 6 and Donald’s attempt to incite an insurrection. We know he was in touch with people that day. Jack Smith indicted him and was prepared to take him to trial.

Too many things went wrong. Merrick Garland started at the wrong end of the pyramid. As a result, we still have sitting members of Congress whose full involvement was never completely uncovered. January 6 should have united the country. Instead, it continues to divide us.

The partial government shutdown driven by a standoff over immigration policy also continues to loom. Republicans have refused to agree to proposed limits on ICE practices, including requiring judicial warrants before entering homes and requiring agents to display identification and not wear masks.

Minnesota Representative Tom Emmer attempted to draw a comparison between voter ID requirements and identifying ICE agents, saying this:

Tom Emmer: Now they want law enforcement agents to show IDs, but they don’t think people should show an ID to vote. There’s some type of intellectual disconnect.

There is no comparison. When lawmakers ask that ICE agents show identification, they mean something akin to a badge number and visible identification, not anonymity behind a mask. Law enforcement officers across the country do not wear masks while performing routine duties.

On the other hand, the so-called SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to vote, imposing what amounts to a poll tax. It would burden Americans who do not readily have access to birth certificates or passports and disproportionately affect women who have changed their names, among others. It is a solution in search of a problem, given the vanishingly small instances of voter fraud in the United States.

Georgia Representative Buddy Carter went further, arguing against warrant requirements:

Buddy Carter: We can’t have a warrant every time.

Yes, we can. The Constitution protects Americans against unlawful search and seizure. If law enforcement cannot obtain a warrant, it does not have the right to enter someone’s home.

Republicans are now openly arguing that Americans should have fewer rights than those guaranteed by the Constitution. They are defending anonymity for federal agents while seeking to impose new burdens on voters. They are attacking investigators for following lawful subpoenas while cheering investigations aimed at Donald’s perceived enemies.

We also learned that the Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, longtime civil rights leader and protégé of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., has died at the age of 84. His family confirmed his death. Jackson ran for president twice and spent decades advocating for civil and human rights, economic opportunity, and voting rights.

In 1984, at the Democratic National Convention, he said this:

Jesse L. Jackson: America’s not like a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth, the same color, the same texture, the same size. America’s more like a quilt, many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread… We are proven that we can survive without each other, but we have not proven that we can win and make progress without each other. We must come together.

His words still ring true. Even in a fractured state, all of us count. That reminder feels especially urgent now.

My condolences to Reverend Jackson’s wife, Jacqueline, their children, and the millions who admired him.

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