Ex-DOJ National Security Leader: Combating ISIS Prepared Me to Take on U.S. Militias (Feat. Mary McCord)
Nearly 1,900 miles away from where leaders of the Oath Keepers have been standing an historic trial for seditious conspiracy in Washington, D.C., a watershed ruling combating so-called militia groups came down in a county courthouse in New Mexico. In that case, a Bernalillo County judge barred a little-known paramilitary organization known as the New Mexico Civil Guard from using "organized force" at protests or gatherings. Former Acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord — now the executive director for the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) at Georgetown Law — helped spearhead that fight. On the latest podcast episode, McCord details her legal strategy for bringing U.S. domestic extremists to heel — using statutes that have been on the books in most states for decades if not centuries. She views her current labors as a continuation of her work inside the Department of Justice, where she capped off her nearly 20-year tenure with a leadership role on national security. "This is when a foreign terrorist organization, ISIS, declared a caliphate and was taking up physically taking over territory in Syria and claiming to be its own sovereign state," McCord reflected, noting that many U.S. citizens traveled abroad to take up that fight. "The way that those who are adhering to extremist movements recruit — and spread and propagandize and monetize and plot and plan — is very similar to the way we see domestic extremists do similar recruitment," she noted. "They prey on people's vulnerabilities, their grievances. They create an 'us-versus-them.' You know, let's blame somebody else for our own problems, whether they're economic or what-have-you." This week's show features McCord's reflections on her career, her work against U.S. paramilitary groups, and her analysis of the ongoing Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy case. GUEST: Mary McCord SUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS: Court Junkie Sidebar They Walk Among America Coptales and Cocktails The Disturbing Truth Speaking Freely See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.