The 9/11 Cover Up Nobody Talks About & The Lindsay Clancy Trump Pardon Panic Explained
PDS Published 09/08/2026
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Zoran Mamdani is releasing 170,000 pages of documents on 9/11 that exposed just how much the city actually knew. Potential copycat cases emerged after the Lindsay Clancy trial. A doctor who sued more than 700 patients, many of them new moms, is running for reelection. And Lindsay just got hit with a desperate BS ethics complaint from definitely an independent citizen that I think shows just how scared they are of her.
And honestly, you and the potential of losing a state House seat in Georgia that should be safe. And with that, the state House. So stick around for that.
Because we're talking about all of that and even more on today's brand new Philip DeFranco Show.
You daily dive into the news, starting with every time you think that the Lindsay Clancy case and situation can't get any more complicated or upsetting, it just does.
If you didn't see her case officially ended in a mistrial. But also, on that same day, you had an Illinois mom who was, quote, “very invested in the trial,” being charged with murdering her two-year-old son, in what many think is a copycat.
But actually, where we should start here is with the major updates on the Clancy case.
Because after five weeks of an incredibly intense trial that shed light on postpartum depression and sparked heated, divisive debates on TikTok, the case ended in that very unsatisfying way.
The jury was unable to come to an unanimous decision because one juror would not agree with the 11. That juror allegedly refused to follow the judge's instructions on reasonable doubt.
As we've talked about, you had Clancy being charged with strangling her three kids, Cora, Dawson, and Callan. And you had her defense arguing that she shouldn't be held criminally liable, given that she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis.
On the other side, the prosecution argued that she was well enough to intentionally plan and go through with these acts.
So with this mistrial, you have people on both sides going, “Okay, so are we not going to get any closure?”
Especially because if there is a retrial, people are saying it's going to be so incredibly difficult to find an impartial jury. Since everyone and their mother knows about this case and they seem to have a very strong opinion on it.
And actually, in a press conference after the mistrial was declared, Plymouth County District Attorney Tim Cruz was not ready to comment on a potential retrial, saying that the decision will be made at a future court hearing, stressing that it's been an emotional trial for everybody.
And then just this morning, you had Clancy's attorney, Kevin Reddington, stopping by Good Morning America to comment on the mistrial outcome and the future of the case.
They have a decision to make now. They could seek a retrial. They could seek a plea agreement. What are you expecting? What are you willing to do?
I'm willing to listen to Tim. I've known him for 30 years. He's a very tragic prosecutor. Conservative gentleman.
I hope, however, after sitting through this trial and seeing the evidence that was presented from the government as well as from the defense, that he would revisit that issue and hopefully would be able to work something out that would be acceptable to both sides.
Then also, in a surprising move, he asked President Trump to get involved.
President, I would hope that you would consider this young lady, the type of person she is, what she's been through, and consider a pardon.
Which, one, you could say is a creative idea, but also a very odd request, considering that the president actually has no power here.
Because the president can only pardon someone who's been convicted or accused of a federal crime, not a state or local crime.
I'll also say, when Trump commented on the mistrial outcome on Friday, he didn't exactly sound sympathetic toward her.
It's a terrible situation. Look, she did a horrible, horrible thing. Can't be worse. But you'll find out what the price to pay is.
There'll be a price. It's going to be a mental institution or jail or something. But I guess they're going to go through it.
So seemingly, for multiple reasons, a pardon from Trump isn't going to be the next step.
I will say there was another update from this morning. And that's because Lindsay's ex-husband, Patrick Clancy, released a pointed statement aimed at conspiracy theorists who believe that he was involved in his children's deaths.
You had his lawyer, Howard Cooper, saying on his behalf:
Patrick Clancy and his family have been subjected to a relentless, escalating, and destructive defamation campaign. This campaign of misinformation has been launched and promoted by minor celebrities, so-called influencers, and outright conspiracy theorists who appear intent on boosting their own social media profiles and potential profit by publishing what they know to be outright falsehoods.
That Patrick was somehow involved in the death of his young children and other vile claims.
With a warning that enough is enough, and that there will be consequences for people creating this kind of content.
And so we're going to have to wait to see how that plays out. But for now, you've got Clancy going back to Tewksbury Hospital in Massachusetts, where she'll continue being held without bail.
But then, with all of that, it brings us to this very disturbing potential copycat situation.
Because on Friday, you had a 40-year-old Illinois mom by the name of Corey Walsh getting charged with the murder of her two-year-old son, Barrett.
And she was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and is actually appearing in court as I'm recording this.
You had prosecutors saying that she was following the Clancy case closely and texting friends about it a few hours before her son was found.
And then also, in addition to apparently taking an interest in this case, there were some notable disturbing parallels.
Reportedly, a 17-year-old neighbor found Barrett hanging in the basement of Walsh's home. The teen called 911 and began CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the hospital.
Meanwhile, you had Walsh being found in a bathtub in an apparent suicide attempt.
Then, as far as who else was around, her husband was reportedly out of town, but there was an infant in the house and two school-aged children who got home shortly after the incident.
And then also, similarly, you had Walsh's attorney, Andrea Lyon, saying that Walsh was experiencing a psychotic episode.
Walsh reportedly told investigators that she killed her son because she believed that he was the devil and the Antichrist.
And so for now, we're going to have to wait to see how this plays out.
Though I will say, you already have legal experts saying that her texts about the plans are going to be a key piece of evidence for the prosecutors.
They'll be the first thing they say in an opening statement, the first piece of evidence they introduce, and the first and last thing they say in closing argument.
That's how important it is.
And whether or not Walsh was copying Clancy, I will say I still don't think we fully understand the enormous impact of the Clancy case.
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But then from that, we got to jump to this news where you have Zoran Mamdani releasing the files. And, well, they're not the Epstein files. They are the 9/11 files.
Because, according to administration officials, they discovered 68 boxes in a city office last year that have been kept from the public for the past quarter century.
And inside of them, you had more than 170,000 pages of air-quality reports, contamination records, and correspondence between city officials following the attacks of September 11th.
And so Mamdani, he's releasing all of them through an online portal. And just from the little bit that we've gotten so far, it's pretty explosive.
With the big headline right now being that for months after the towers came down, while you had the city reassuring people that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breathe, officials were still actually finding evidence of contamination as much as half a mile away.
Which is one incredibly fucked-up thing because thousands of people are estimated to have gotten sick and died from those pollutants, which is actually more than the death toll from the attack itself.
But also, these documents could help surviving victims and families get compensation and may even prompt new lawsuits.
Speaking of which, one of the most outspoken advocates for 9/11 victims and first responders over the years, Jon Stewart, just reacted to the revelations alongside Mamdani.
I want to be fair to the city. If you look at the Harding memo, they didn't find out. They didn't recognize that the air that everyone was breathing in downtown Manhattan was toxic until October of 2001.
So, to be fair to them, they only buried that information for 25 years.
What we all knew who lived in downtown Manhattan is that there was poison in the air and on the ground and in the windowsills, and in your air conditioners, and covering your pets and your clothes. And it stayed there for months.
Everyone, you've got all of this obviously timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of 9/11, which is coming up this Friday.
And, of course, the situation with this year's remembrance ceremony in Manhattan, it's going to be an extra big deal.
But then also, you have someone on the right saying that Mamdani actually shouldn't go.
In fact, there's an online petition calling on him not to go. That's gathered over 100,000 signatures so far.
And as far as why, they cited his alleged support or association with people who are dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies.
With this, you have two notable voices that are backing the petition.
The first you've got is New York's former Republican governor, George Pataki, who was in office when the attacks happened.
His reasoning being that Mamdani wouldn't distance himself from Hasan Piker or reject the phrase “globalize the intifada.”
And then the second one you've got is Trump's election-denying lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who went on the election-denying outlet Newsmax to say this:
Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he's going. If he had a little bit of a heart, even with his views, he wouldn't go because he would know he's disturbing the people who were the most important people at that celebration.
You've got to listen to the families. You've got to listen to them. And they don't want him there in the thousands because he's going to hurt them.
He stands in direct support of the movement that killed their loved ones.
Given the rate we're going, even with the great work of President Trump, I mean, this could happen again tomorrow.
This is not— they want to be just another religion. They want to dominate us.
Mamdani is a clear supporter of that. All of the Muslims he supports are murderers.
Right.
And so yesterday, with this, you had a reporter asking Mamdani about Giuliani's comments, and Mamdani was pretty much like, “I don't know what this dude's on about.”
What I want this week to be a focus on is the families whose loved ones were stolen from them 25 years ago in the horrific act of terror of September 11th.
A big reminder with this is that Mamdani, he's just attending. There's actually no speech from him. In fact, if anything, you could argue that if there is one person who—
The transcript continues in the next portion.
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Right.
But then let's jump from that to other news that's getting national attention.
And that's because you have this new report that uncovered a doctor who is suing more than 700 of his patients, and it actually resulted in 81 of them getting arrested.
And then also, this guy got elected to Congress.
Because we're talking about Roger Marshall from Kansas, Senator, who's up for reelection. He initially ran for office in 2016. Before that, he spent 25 years working as an OB-GYN.
And on the campaign trail, you had him spending a lot of time highlighting his work practicing medicine. Talk about being the only OB-GYN in the area, which was mostly rural.
And specifically, he mentioned his care for low-income patients and even told stories about women who would drive 100-plus miles to come see him because his office accepted Medicaid.
Except now you have some of those same patients that he talked about helping actually saying he colossally screwed them.
You have a recent investigation by The New York Times finding that his office routinely charged patients an 18% interest rate on unpaid balances, which is insane by itself.
But it gets so much worse because when those medical bills remained unpaid, he actually sued the patients.
So again, we're talking about more than 700 lawsuits against patients with outstanding bills, half of them filed under Marshall's name and half of them filed under Heartland Regional OB-GYN, which is the practice that he ran.
And the key thing here is that this wasn't about just major bills that were ignored for years.
We're talking about bills ranging anywhere from a little more than a hundred bucks to several thousand. And because we're talking about an OB-GYN here, some of those lawsuits were filed against new moms with outstanding bills for the deliveries or for their postpartum care.
People like Kelly Klutz, who was sued in 2015 over a $129 bill from a postpartum visit. And according to Kelly, the lawsuit came in when her baby was only nine months old. She told The Times she was recently divorced, trying to do everything on her own.
I told them I could make partial payments, but it seemed like no matter what I said, they wanted the full amount.
Eventually, the lawsuit resulted in Kelly's bank account getting garnished.
But that was also actually one of the better outcomes in more than 80 cases where patients were sued for unpaid bills to Marshall's practice.
They were also arrested, which is what happened to Joe Vasquez, who got sued for an unpaid bill for his wife's emergency hysterectomy in 2004.
Three years later, he and his wife were arrested in front of their grandchildren on Easter weekend and spent two days in jail before their son could borrow the money to bail them out.
They were arrested after they missed a court date for the lawsuit.
Except Joe says that they never received a summons and had no idea what was going on.
And interestingly, that's also what we saw from other patients, like Michael, who was also arrested for missing a court date related to an unpaid bill for a C-section in 2011.
And at the time, she had a two-year-old daughter and was eight months pregnant with her. She asked them quietly, “Can you not handcuff me in front of my daughter?”
I explained to my daughter I was going for a walk.
And her situation was made worse by Marshall's insane interest rates.
She managed to set up a payment plan, but with the interest, her bill reportedly went from $3,596 to more than $7,000.
She told The Times that even with the payment plan, there were many times she couldn't make ends meet, saying, “I had to choose whether I'd pay my electricity or pay $50 to a doctor who didn't need it.”
And Zimmerman was actually arrested three times for the unpaid bill, each time posting $200 bonds to get herself out, with that money reportedly going toward paying down her debt.
And these are just a couple of court examples.
There are others who fought their bills through the system, including one mom who lost her twins and argued that she couldn't be held liable for the $1,200 bill. She lost and ended up having to pay.
And then another hired a lawyer and fought back, protesting a $520 bill for a surgery to remove placenta that was left in the patient's uterus after childbirth.
And you had their lawyer say:
“The service of the plaintiff seeks payment for should have been part of the original birthing services for which the plaintiff has already been paid.”
And these types of lawsuits and arrests and garnishments on Marshall's patients, it went on for years.
And according to experts, it's very rare, actually, to see a doctor take this route.
Because doctors actually have a pretty wide discretion on how they handle unpaid bills.
They can involve debt collectors, file lawsuits, or drop the debt. But Barack Richmond, the co-director of the Health Law Program at George Washington University, noted that Marshall resorting to this level is definitely on the extreme.
However, at least according to Marshall and his legal team, he's not doing anything out of the ordinary.
With a spokesperson for Marshall saying that he spent decades caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay, and adding that judges issue warrants when people repeatedly miss court dates, not doctors.
Except the thing is, according to court records, Marshall's legal team repeatedly requested arrest warrants, saying that they were necessary because of the defendant's, quote, “refusal to obey court orders.”
Also, when Marshall's attorneys said that he was no different than any other client, that he just allowed a law firm to do what was necessary to pursue an outstanding bill, and if defendants were allowed to appear only when they wanted to without any consequences, the court would get no business.
And one of the craziest things is that this actually continued while Marshall was in Congress, with The Times finding that his collection work went all the way up to 2021, five years after he was elected to office.
Which also ends up being a little ironic, considering that just last year he introduced legislation that would prohibit hospitals from suing patients if they did not publicly post their medical prices.
Now, what you're saying is he's facing reelection, is that his office is doing its best to dismiss the whole situation as inconsequential.
And so you had a spokesperson saying, “Sixty days before an election, The New York Times has decided that a rural doctor keeping the hospital's lights on is some kind of scandal.”
Saying Kansans know.
And the thing is, it will ultimately come down to Kansas.
Obviously, this midterm election, things are leaning a little more Democratic. Does his Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton, have the juice to get across the line in this election?
And will Kansas voters not only take issue with what Republicans have been doing, but will they specifically take issue with a guy who's built his political identity around being a doctor who is helping the little guy, the little lady, when there is a scandal that comes out about what he is actually doing to that little lady when she can't pay or when life gets hard and the bills don't?
Time will tell.
And the midterms are pretty much just around the corner.
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But then jumping from that—oh my God, we have to talk about this. Elizabeth Holmes is back in the news.
That is because a trailer about a documentary that goes into Elizabeth Holmes's life, just about a month before she reported to prison, got dropped.
“I don't have anything to deceive you on. Of course I'm not deceiving you. I'm engaging with you as a human being.”
“Why would I deceive you? There's no reason for me to do that.”
I have to tell you, when I saw this trailer out in the wild, my initial reaction was, “Oh my God, who is this actress that's just nailing crazy who's playing Elizabeth Holmes?”
And then the realization that that was Elizabeth Holmes hit me like a ton of bricks.
And in case you've forgotten, Holmes got about 11 years behind bars for defrauding investors with her company, Theranos, which was a sham blood-testing situation.
Just by itself, it was a lot. It's very, very fascinating and interesting.
But also, there were a lot of things about Holmes herself that got a lot of attention, right? A lot of people found really off-putting, like the mannerisms that she'd use to cosplay a powerful CEO.
People saying she put on this fake deep voice. She talked really slowly. And she also spent a lot of time not blinking. It was a whole thing.
She hasn't really popped up in headlines since.
We then got the news about You Can See Everything, which was this top-secret world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.
That is when people found out that Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim started shooting it back in 2023 without anyone knowing.
That was the time that Holmes was keeping a pretty low profile, or I guess we thought she was keeping a low profile.
Because Fielder and Oppenheim reportedly got 36 days to film her and her partner, Billy Evans, in their home, getting access that no one's ever gotten.
Like, nothing off-limits.
You had earlier reports saying that they shot a lot of moments that people are going to consider too close for comfort.
There's apparently even a shower scene with Evans that leaves nothing to the imagination.
And actually, throughout the process, reports say that Fielder offered to cut the cameras multiple times, but I guess they were really ready to let it all hang out.
What's also very interesting is that, at least according to the reports, originally Fielder was going to be doing most of this from behind the camera.
The story is that as his interactions with them kept getting weirder, those conversations became a central part of the documentary.
So then the next thing you know, he's starring in the doc with her.
And by the end of it, Fielder was saying that even he was pretty shook, saying in a post-screening interview:
“I'm really struggling to this day to understand what I experienced.”
Adding that he's excited for people to see this so that the audience can actually help him figure it out.
So with all that, the documentary comes out next month. It's also reportedly just under three hours.
And so we will see shortly what a ride it was.
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Also in big international news, you've got Israel's government reportedly losing its mind right now after the UK, France, Canada, and nine other nations joined forces to slap sanctions on illegal settlements throughout the West Bank.
You had UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announcing a comprehensive import ban on all goods originating from West Bank settlements while speaking in Parliament.
You had him saying that extremist settlers are conducting ethnic cleansing and warned that the ongoing expansion is destroying any chance of a two-state solution.
France and Canada then quickly backed the coordinated crackdown, joined by countries like Sweden, Ireland, Spain, and Norway.
And so that means this is one of the largest joint international moves against settlement trade to date.
Israel's government not only responded almost immediately, but they were angry.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar blasted the claims as outrageous lies from a hostile government.
They also moved to shut down Britain's consulate in East Jerusalem, which handles diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.
And then on top of closing diplomatic channels, Israel terminated British training programs for Palestinian police forces, booted the UK out of the U.S.-led Gaza Coordination Mission, and announced bans for certain officials.
Which is a very big reaction when you consider that, in reality, these sanctions are largely symbolic, since very little is actually produced and exported from settlements.
The key standout from the situation is that the only country to back Israel up is the United States.
And actually, based on recent polling, I should note that the U.S. government is openly criticizing the move by the UK and a ton of other allies who were pushing the sanctions.
Which, of course, creates a clear division between America and many European countries over how to handle the West Bank.
Because it's supposed to be the future home for a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, something that the U.S. claims to be in support of, I guess before this administration.
Or is it supposed to be just a feeding ground for Israeli settlements?
Because it doesn't take a genius to see that constantly encroaching on Palestinian homes and territory, that's not a recipe for viable peace.
That is very likely a feature and not a bug for Netanyahu's policies toward Palestine.
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And then diving right back into the news. Oh boy, what a treat.
Do we have for you? I knew it was just a matter of time before they started getting nervous and getting as many of you as possible.
As many of you know and have been supportive of my fantastic, amazing wife, Lindsay DeFranco, she is running for office here in her home state of Georgia.
Specifically, she is running for a state House seat in District 47.
And she is a part of this fight to help turn the Georgia State House blue, things that I've talked about in past videos.
She is going against a non-incumbent in what should be a pretty strong red seat, except for the fact that Republican politicians have fucked up so badly.
And in my opinion, her opponent is a uniquely horrible, weak candidate.
And I think what is happening now comes from one of two things, maybe one.
I think some people out there might have some internal polling that has spooked them.
And two, they're freaked out by Lindsay's ability to raise money from actual people rather than billionaires.
And actually, you know what? Lindsay herself can explain the ridiculousness of what people are trying to pull right now.
Oh, hey, everyone. Me again.
I'm not here to ask you for money this time. I'm here to cover a story in which I am a big part of it.
On Friday, I got my very first ethics complaint, which I've been told is a good sign that your opponent is very scared of you.
So what does this mean?
It means that somebody filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission and asked them to investigate me for doing something improper, and I have 30 days to file a formal written response to these allegations.
But I don't want to sit back and do that. So we're just going to address them here.
So this whole process and this ethics board is in place to ensure that there's no financial funny business going on when people are running for office.
But it is also frequently weaponized by people who want to smear their opponent even when they've done nothing wrong.
And in this case, the complaint was filed by none other than someone named Orion Roy.
That name—before, when I saw it, I was like, that sounds familiar.
Orion lives in my district. He is a paid operative for Turning Point Action.
He is also vice chair of the Fulton County Republican Party, and he is also first vice chair for Georgia's Seventh Congressional District Republican Party.
Now hold on.
We can't just assume someone's intent based on the organizations that they're associated with or the fact that they grew up in the same area at the same time as my opponent.
We cannot use that context, especially because when you file these forms, you have to swear in front of a notary that you are filing them and doing this on your own, that you are not an agent, paid or otherwise, for anyone else, that you are doing this in your own interest.
And Orion signs that right here. You can see he signed it.
So to be very clear, I'm going to take him at his own word. Orion Roy is a private citizen who filed this complaint.
But you all know I'm a huge proponent of media literacy, and I feel like it's important to know the organizations that this person is involved with.
Before I continue—
But wait, why would anyone want to do this when there's not actually a big scandal that they are accusing you of?
Well, like I said, these forms can be weaponized to suppress dissenting voices.
Now, anyone who wants to can send out a mailer with my big, beautiful voice on it that says, “Lindsay DeFranco. Six ethics complaints.”
They filed the paperwork. It's been notarized. There's a case number and everything.
And a lot of people aren't going to stop and really look into what all of this paperwork says. They're just going to assume that it's true.
But what I need you to know is that the State Ethics Commission has not charged me with anything.
And the papers that I am about to show you, they were not written by the State Ethics Commission. These were written by Orion Roy himself.
He's made them look very official, very serious. He's even labeled them: Count one, count two, count three.
It's all very law and order, very much not “six violations that the state is alleging I committed.”
This weaponization of state bureaucracy is wasting tons of taxpayer time and money to investigate very little issues that mostly come down to paperwork.
They all pretty much stem from misunderstandings or small errors that are being blown up for my opponent's political gain.
There are hundreds of candidates at the state and local levels who have very similar or greater issues, but they're not being investigated because nobody has the motive or knowledge to file a complaint.
A very recent example is Representative Mitch Horner up in Coats County.
He had hundreds of discrepancies on his last financial disclosures for tens of thousands of dollars.
And they all went unnoticed until a local Democratic Party chair did some digging and figured it out.
That is what the State Ethics Commission is supposed to be for.
Let's get to it. And I'm going to tell you exactly what I'm being accused of.
Again, these are the papers written by Orion, but I'm pretty sure these are all AI anyway.
Count one: Improper transfer or recap of contributions from a campaign for a different elected office.
I first started running for school board, and when I was running for school board, my dad, his name is Roswell Doty, donated the max amount, which is $3,300.
But then when I decided to switch to the state House race when the incumbent retired, I said, “Dad, do you want your money back?”
And he said, “No, please keep it.”
And I said, “Great, thank you. With your permission, I'm going to transfer this money from my school board bank account to my state House bank account.”
And that's that.
Orion is claiming that that is not allowed.
He is wrong.
Moving on.
And also, some of the statutes he cites in here are not correct.
Just so we know, count two: Acceptance of contributions exceeding the maximum primary election contribution limit.
Wow, this one sounds serious.
Again, my dad—I stopped running for school board, started running for state House. In my opinion, this was a bigger deal.
So I decided to have what they call a launch party.
My dad bought a $100 ticket, which essentially put him $100 over the max amount that he was allowed to donate.
So when Orion says “acceptance of contributions exceeding the maximum primary election contribution limit,” it is $100 that my dad donated to my campaign so that he could support me at my launch party.
Anyway, if the answer is that I need to refund my dad that $100, I will do it. I will survive this financial hardship.
Next.
Now it gets kind of boring.
Counts three and four are paperwork.
Count three: Acceptance of general election contributions prior to the primary without filing an option to choose separate accounting.
So this count is about a form called CUSA.
And it basically is when you're collecting money, you need to let the state or whoever know that you are intending to collect donations for the primary and the general.
Now, when I was running in the primary, I was unopposed. Just keep that in your mind.
Orion claims we didn't file that. And he's right. We didn't.
We didn't file a separate form because we didn't think we would need it. We were running unopposed.
And now it's not really about filling out a form that's dated information.
You can really just check a specific box when you are forming your campaign committee, essentially like opening a bank account, that indicates that you are raising money for the primary and the general.
And we did that.
If he went back to look at our financial statements, you would see that we didn't even accept any outside donations that would have been covered under this form.
Anyway, next.
The counts make it sound so serious.
What a drama queen.
Count four: Failure to file required two-day business contribution reports before the May 19th, 2026 primary election.
In the period immediately before an election, there's a form that you need to fill out if you get a contribution of a certain size after the last filing deadline.
You essentially have to make a separate report within 48 hours of receiving that money.
And it's really most important to file these when you were in a contested election, which means you were running against somebody.
And most people who are running unopposed do not file these forms.
I was running unopposed. I did not realize how much support I was going to get from you guys.
So at the time, we didn't have a compliance staffer like we do now.
It's kind of like turning in a school assignment on time.
You have everything there that you need, but you forgot to email your teacher a copy.
That's what this is.
You still turned in the assignment. Your teacher still has all the information. You just didn't do the final administrative step.
I guess that's essentially what happened here.
We still disclosed all our donations like we were supposed to. We're not keeping anything secret.
The Ethics Commission asks us to go back and file these forms. We will, but I don't think they will.
Again, this is another thing where we did not conceal anything. This is a bureaucratic error being blown out of proportion.
Count five.
Five is my lucky number. I can't believe it's getting this far.
Inconsistent or incomplete personal financial disclosure of fiduciary positions sounds exciting and scandalous, doesn't it?
This one really confused me because Orion wrote a bunch of words, but did not give substantial information about what he was talking about.
So I went back and did his work for him.
He likely used AI to scan and look at all my stuff, and didn't double-check to make sure that his counts were not incomplete.
So I went back and I looked at my disclosures.
I only have one fiduciary position, and that is with this company.
When I filed my school board financial disclosure, I didn't put it on there.
My bad.
I'm not running for that race anymore. It is disclosed on my personal financial disclosure for this race.
So this was basically Orion saying, “Hey, I know you have a new job now, but I went back and looked at your application for your old job and you made a mistake on that application.”
So now you deserve to be in big trouble.
I'm sure they're going to weaponize it and make it sound like I am hiding financial interest in something, which is so dumb.
Next, here's the fun one: the pièce de résistance.
Am I using that right? Maybe. I did take French three two times. Where'd it go?
This one is the longest one and, literally, the dumbest.
Okay. Failure to report in-kind media, advertising, streaming, and promotional services.
All right.
“Video evidence indicates that The Philip DeFranco Show provided substantial media, streaming, and promotional services for the benefit of blah, blah, blah.”
All right.
The Philip DeFranco Show, the show that you're watching right now.
This is the one that I think got really investigated, because I don't know if this was included on accident.
I think it was probably included on accident, but he only provided one piece of actual evidence.
And remember, Orion is part of Turning Point, and he included this thumbnail of me.
This was the first time I spoke to you guys and asked you for support.
And look at what the title says: “The Erika Kirk situation is worse than you think.”
Yeah, that video did really well, and you guys were super supportive on that one. So thank you.
It says April 30th, approximately three-minute spot from intro.
I had a really good spray tan that day.
So I think this is what originally got our homeboy's attention.
So for anyone unfamiliar with my deeply secret relationship with this program, I'm Lindsay DeFranco. Philip DeFranco is my husband.
We've been together for about 20 years. The show has been around for about 20 years, and we have grown this company together.
I've appeared on the show before, and like I said, earlier this year, I went on here twice.
The first time was when I was just talking about my campaign, and then the second time I came on to talk to you about the buffoonery that is the new State Election Commission that they basically came up with during the special session this summer.
And both times I asked if you guys would be willing to donate, and you did.
And that was amazing, and I love you so much.
And then also, sometimes Phil included my donation link in the description of the video because he's my husband and he loves me.
Okay, jokes aside, the allegation is that because Rogue Rocket produces video—aka my husband and I sat down to film together—and Rogue Rocket distributed the video—aka it was uploaded to the internet—Orion is saying this counts as something called an in-kind donation.
And if you don't speak campaign finance, an in-kind donation is basically like somebody giving your campaign something that has monetary value.
But that is not money. You have to report those things.
For instance, if I had a campaign fundraiser and somebody brought a tray of chicken nuggets, a $500 tray of chicken nuggets, I would have to disclose that on my financial report, saying, “Mr. Jones provided food at this fundraiser and the monetary value was $500.”
Orion is basically saying that this show is the chicken nuggets.
That's the allegation.
An appearance on a media program does not mean that it is an in-kind contribution.
And we'll provide the necessary context in our response, because this is bullshit.
So those are the counts. The counts—the very serious counts—that, because this has now been filed, will be used on mailers and in ads against me.
And context is a funny thing, because when the State Ethics Commission receives a complaint like this, they don't have all the context.
They just look at the paperwork and they say, “It sounds legit. Let's send this to them and ask for a response.”
Again, these are not things that have been written by the state.
This is legally somebody who probably used AI to help them compile and submit it.
And those allegations leave out the fact that Roswell Doty is my dad, and he gave permission for me to move that money from the school board campaign to the state House campaign.
And it leaves out the part that that $100 has already been refunded, and that those two forms were essentially unnecessary in an uncontested race, and that I'm no longer running for school board.
And when it discusses my appearance on The Philip DeFranco Show, it leaves out the context that this show belongs to my husband and me. We've been on it before. You know the deal.
And as far as Orion Roy, private citizen, goes, the sworn complaint says that he is doing this on his own. He is not doing this on behalf of anyone else.
But there is important context, and that is that he is directly involved with at least three organizations that directly oppose my campaign.
And that is necessary context, too.
So when you inevitably see mailers that say, “Lindsay DeFranco, six counts of ethics complaints,” or whatever, or you see an ad, just know that this was complete weaponization of the system that is put in place to protect against real fraud.
Anyway, whatever you do, do not go to Lindsay for donations.
Don't you dare do it.
And at the end of the day, remember that the best disinfectant is sunlight.
So go get yourself some vitamin D.
But hey, my friends, you beautiful bastards, that brings us to the end of your Tuesday show.
Thank you for watching, hitting that Like button, subscribing to the channel for these daily dives into the news.
Also, I can't wait to see a bunch of y'all this weekend.
We're gonna be in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Denver this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as part of the Crashing Out tour.
If you're in or around or want to be in those areas, you can get tickets at CrashingOutTour.com.
But hey, whether we're taking things next level to IRL or we're keeping things remote, I'll see you right back here on this channel to dive into more news tomorrow.