01/22/20 01/22/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! theesolution would turn trial process on its head. his resolution requires the house to prove his case without witnesses, without documents, and only after it is done will such questions be entertained with no guarantee that any witnesses or any documents will be allowed even then. that process makes no sense. amy: is the senate approves

rules for the impeachment trial of president trump, democrats are accusing republican leadership of orchestrating a cover-up. we will get the latest. then we go to another trial at guantanamo. 183. that i is the number of timesesa guantanamo prisoner was waterboarded. yesterday during a pretrial hearing, he sat near his torturer. dr. james mitchell. the ca contracted psychologist who helped create the torture program. we will get the latest. plus, we go to brazil where federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against pulitzer prize-winning journalist glenn greenwald in connection with the major investigation he spearheaded exposing misconductt among brazilian prosecutors and a former judge. >> we're going to defendnd the free press like we a aays have.. we are notot going to bee intimidated by the bolsonaro govevernment. we're working on our next series of stories. this is an attack on brazilian democracy.

all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on the opening day of just the third presidential impeachment trial inin u.s. history, the senate approved the rules for the trial of president trump in a partyline vote following a nearly 13 hour marathon session. republican senators rejected 11 amendments from democrats to subpoena documents and witnesses , including former national security advisor john bolton. democrats repeatedly accused the republican leadership of orchestrating a cover-up by blocking witnesses at this stage in the trial. this is house impeachment manager congressmember jerry nadler. >> ambassador bolton has made clear he is ready, willing, and able to testify about everything he witnessed, but president trump does not want you to hear from ambassador bolton. the reason has nothing to do

with executive privilege or this other nonsense. the reason has nothing to do with national security. if the president cared about national security, he would not have blocked military assistance to a vulnerable strategic ally in the attempt to secure a personal, political favor for himself. does not wantent you to hear from ambassador bolton because the president does not want the american people to hear firsthand testimony about the misconduct at the heart of this trial. amy: the senate trial comes a month after the housing president trump for pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden. since the house vote to impeach trump, more evidence has come to light about the trump administration's actions but it remains unclear if any of this evidence will be presented to the senate. just before midnight, the office of management and budget released nearly 200 pages of heavily redacted records related to the trump administration's handling of aid to ukraine.

president trump called climate activists "prophets of doom" in his keynote speech at the world economic forum in davos, switzerland. on the top of this year's agenda at davos is climimate change. teenage swedish climate activist greta thunberg, who is attending davos, responded to trump by saying, "in case you hadn't noticed come the world is currently on fire." spain's new leftist coalition government has declared a climate ememergency and says i t will senend ambitious s climate legislation to the parliament within 100 days. the legislation aimeatat oiding thehe most catastrorophic impacts of climate change will include achieving zezero carbon emissions in spain by 2050. in australia, uncontrollable fires are continuing to rage across the continent. officials are warning residents near the capital's suburbs to take shelter inside their homes today, as a massive fire approaoaches the cananberra air. in a addition to killing 29 peoe

and more than one billion animals, the unprecedented fires in australia have also released massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, which will even further fuel the climate crisis. in syriaia, russian-led airstris killed at least 40 people in the northwestern province of idlib tuesday as the russian-backed syrian government continues its offensive to take control of the last major syrian territory controlled by anti-government forces. residents s say at least eigight children were among the victims. lebanon has formed a new government amid months of massive anti-government demonstrations against corruption and economic inequality that forced former prime minister saad hariri to resigngn in october. on tuesday night, new prime minister hassan diab announced a cabinet of 20 ministers he said were independent. but the experts and protesters say the ministers represent lebanon's existing parties and entrenched political elites. this is protester rabih al zein.

>> this establishment, these leaders do not reflect us. we want the money that was stolen. we want health care, power supply, and early parliamentary elections. amy: in immigration news, a honduran mother and d her two young daughters have been deported to guatemala despite pleas from lawyers and advocates to halt the deportation because the two children had been ill and recently hospitalized. the family's attorney said the girls, aged 18 months and six years old, were in no condition to be deported, but a federal judge in mcallen, texas, upheld the removal on monday. immigration advocates had -- over 200 asylum seekers, including at least 50 children, from honduras and el salvador have been already been deported to guatemala under an agreement between the trump administration and the guatemalan government. meanwhile, the mexican national guard on monday attacked members of a caravan of asylum seekers at the guatemala-mexico border as the government of andres manuel lopez obrador seeks to prevent the asylum seekers from reaching t the united states border. troops with riot gear were filmed chasing and pushing

asylum seekers, who are mostly from honduras, tackling them to the ground and throwing what appears to be tear gas. former secretary of state hillary clinton has art controversy by slamming presidential candidate bernie sanders in a new documentary series and refusing to say whether she would support an iffy wins the presidential nomination. in an interview yesterday. i tuesday night, clinton backpedaled writing "the number one priority for our country and world is retiring trump and come as i always have, , i will do whatever i can to support our nominee."" on tuesday, the psychologist identified as the architect of the cia's torture program testified for the first time for the fifirst time to the work cot at guantanamo bay. dr. james mitchell was in the courtroom for a pretrial hearing for five 911 suspects who had been subject to torture, euphemistically called enhanced turkish and techniques. dr. mitchell and his partner d .

bruce jessen were paid $81 million to help design the cia's torture methods, including some of the most abusive tactics stop the pair had no prior experience in interrogation. in 2014, dr. james mitchchell confirmed he personally waterboarded khalid sheikh mohammed. we will have more on the guantanamo trial nader in the broadcast. the guardian reports jeff bezo'' cell phone was hacked by an infected video file sent by saudi crown prince mohammed bin salman. the hacking reported occurred in 2018 and included large amounts of data extracted from bezos's phone only hours after he received the video sent by the saudi crown prince. jeff bezos is the head of amazon and the owner of "the washington post," which reported extensively on the murder of its columnist jamal khashoggi. the cia says prince mohammed sayson ordered -- the cia prince mohammed simon ordered khashoggi's killing. the saudi embassy denies that the kingdom hacked bezos' phone. in boston, an iranian student attending northeastern

university was detained at the airport and then deported from the united s states, despite arriving to boston's logan international airport with a valid student visa sunday. 24-y-year-old mohammad shahab dehghani hossein was deported monday, even though a massachusetts district court judge granted him an emergency stay of removal. in response, the aclu of massachusetts said -- "given the trump administration's xenophobic policies and cbp's troubling practice at logan airport of sending students with valid visas back to iran, it is shameful that the government defied a federal court order and deported shahab without due process." in phoenix, arizona, the family of a 19-year-old black teen who was shot by police with a rubber bullet in the chest and tackled to the ground is demanding the officers be immediately fired. dion humphrey has a developmental disability. he is a sickle cell patient. he was attacked by police on january 10 when the officers allegedly confused him for his older half-brother who had an arrest warrant. the officers shot him with a

rubber bulullet, tackled h him, stepped on humphrey's back, denied him medical attention, and interrogated him for seven hours. this is dion humphrey speaking to the family spokesperson reverend gerrit melvin in the hospital. >> your here. you survived your r encounter wh popolice. how dodoes your body feel?l? like my y body is burning, the pain that i have right here is burning. it is hard for me to breathe. heavy.o >> and this is from the police beating you up? >> yes. brazil, the intercept published the secret brazil archive. the series offers new and damming insight into the

sweeping anticorruption campaign that brought down former grizzly president desilva and paved the way for the election of the right wing president jair bolsonaro. the move to file a criminal complaint against greenwald has part international -- has sparked international outrage.. we will go to brazil for the latest later in the broadcast. experts at the world health organization our meeting today to decide whether to declare global health emergency as the centers for disease control and prevention has confirmed the first u.s. case of coronavirus-- a new virus that emerged in wuhan, china, last month. the virus has already spread from china to at least four countries, including the united states, and has killed at leastt nine people in china. in more heath news, the fda -- that's the food and drug administration -- has issued a warning about sunscreen, saying seven chemicals can be absorbed into the bloodstream after only a single application. the levels of the chemicals absorbed exceed safetyty standas

and have not been fully y teste. the fda is callingng on ththe sunscreen industry to conduct further testing, but it is not telling people to stop using sunscreen. boeing has officially stopped production of the flawed 737 max airliner, which has been groundeded worldwide since m mah following the two fatal crashes in ethiopia and indonesia that killed all 346 people on boardr. rerecently releaeased internalal emails s show boeing employees talking about deceiving federal regulators and joking about potential safety flaws in the plane's design.. in california, the oakland city council has passed the fair chance access to housing chance access to housing ordinance, which will prohibit landlords from asking potential tenants about their criminal history. the new measure will also prohibit landlords from rejecting tenants for having a criminal record. the berkeley city council is expected to vote on a similar ordinance next month. and in new jersey, rutgers university has named its first

african-american president in the school's 253-year history. jonathan holloway is a historian, author, and expert in african-american studies, specializing in post-emancipation u.s. history. he previously served as the provost of northwestern university, and before that, as the dean of yale college. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. juan: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. on the opening day of just the third presidential impeachment trial in u.s. history, the senate approved the rules for the trial of president trump in a party-line vote. the vote came after a 13 hour marathon session. under the rules, each side will be given 24 hours over a three-day period for opening arguments. senators also agreed to automatically admit evidence from the house inquiry into the trial record.

the senate trial comes a month after the house impeached trump for pressuring ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden. since the house vote to impeach trump, more evidence has come to light about the trump administration's actions but it remains unclear if any of this evidence will be presented to the senate. just before midnight, the office of management and budget released nearly 200 pages of heavily redacted records related to the trump administration's handling of aid to ukraine. amy: during the opening day of the trial, republican senators rejected 11 amendments from democrats to subpoena documents and witnesses, including former national security advisor john bolton. senator minority leader chuck schumer spoke early on tuesday laying out the democratic case for impeachment.t. >> president trump is accused of coercing of foreign leader into interfering in our elections. himself.t himself

and then doing everything in his power to cover it up. if proved, the president's actions are crimes against democracy itself. it is hard to imagine a greater subversion of our democracy and for powers outside our borders to determine the elections from within. for a foreign country to attempt such a thing on its own is bad enough. for an american president to deliberately solicit such a thing, to blackmail a foreign country with military assistance to help him win an election, is unimaginably worse. i can't imagine any other president doing this. juan: democrats repeatedly accused the republican leadership of orchestrating a cover-up by blocking witnesses at this stage in the trial. this is democratic congressman jerry nadlerer, one of the house impeachment managers. >> ambassador bolton has made

clear he is ready, willing, able to testify about everything he witnessed. it president trump does not want you to hear from ambassador bolton. and the reason has nothing to do with executive privilege for this other nonsense. and the reason has nothing to do with national security. if the president cared about national security, he would not have blocked luke perry assistance to a vulnerable, strategic ally in an attempt to secure a personal, political favor for himself. no, the president does not want you to hear from ambassador bolton because the president does not want the american people to hear firsthand testimony about the misconduct at the heart of this trial. the question is whether the senate will be complicit in the president's crimes by covering them up. votes againsto ambassador bolton's testimony were in the relevant testimony shows he or she wants to be part of the cover-up. what other possible reason is

there to prohibit a relevant witness from testifying here? unfortunately, so far i've seen ever republican senator has shown they want to be part of the corrupt by voting against every cover-up by voting against every document proposed. amy: president trump's personal lawyer jayay sekulowoonn responded to house manager jerry congressmember nadler. >> mr. chief justice, members of the senate, chairman nadler a.m.d about -- about 12:10 january 22, the chairman of the judiciary committee at this body saide floor of this senate secular privilege and other nonsense. think about that for a moment. executive privilege and other nonsense. not nonsense. is

recognizedrivileges by the supreme court of the united states. and you shred the constitution , tohe floor of the senate serve what purpose? the senate is not on trial. the constitution does not allow what just took place. amy: after trump's lawyer and the house integer nadler went at it, chief justice john roberts admonished them saying, "those addressing the senate should remember where they are" " and talked about a word that was used a century ago in 1905 called "petty fogging." we thought we woululd go to historian manisha sinha, professor of american history at

the university of connecticut. johnson.ly followed she is the author of "the slave's cause: a history of abolition." in november she wrote an opinion piece for "the new york times" headlined "donald trump, meet your precursor." well, because this is only the third time in u.s. history that there has been a senate impeachment trial, it is really relevant, professor, to look at what you are talking about. compare -- tell us about andrew johnson and why you think president trump follows in his footsteps. johnson was aw lot like trump. he was known to rile up racial divisions. he was known too ignore the powers of congress. he was also known to use this toa of executivive privilege

an unprecedented degree, to interfere in the program of reconstruction in the south immediately after the civil war -- which would have given free people basic civil and political rights. so both in terms of thinking its the presidency allows occupants are pretty much do anything he wants, and also in terms of really endangering national ideals, national interests, and in flouting the rule of law, johnson was a lot like trump. juan: in terms of his actual trial, could you talk about the length of it and the whole issue of witnesses and evidence compared to this rush to verdict that the senate republicans wish to impose or are intending to impose on this trial? >> absolutely.

johnson's trial lasted a long time. witnesses were called. house managers, led by the wonderful daddy stevens, a leading radical republican in congress, and by jumping on, the amendmentthe 14th that guaranteed national birthright citizenship. and these men had enough time to lay out the case in detail. there were many more articles of impeachment against johnson -- 11 articles, to be exact. the first nine had to deal with his violation of the tenure of office act. the last two are quite similar to the articles against trump. they accused him of abuse of with anf interfering investigation in congress.

so in that sense, johnson actually went through a larger, more fair process, a process that involved evidence and witnesses. what is happening with trump's impeachment is actually quite unprecedented. even in the clinton impeachment evidence and witnesses. i think it is important to say this is not just a matter of form and civil discourse. this is also a matter of rule of law and justice in the republic. it is quite frightening to think that we are going through this in a very rushed manner when the precedent is being just president is being charged with having committed some serious crimes against the constitution and republic. amy: professor, if you can talk

about the context of when this .ook place after the civil war what we have e not talklked abot yet is the animus, the racial johnson,at motivated and the comparisons to trump. it lay out that period and how he was trying to continue the disenfranchisement of black people and of freed slaves. freed enslaved people. >> absolutely. there is a misconception advocated even by mike pence in a recent op-ed that johnson was simply c continuing president clinton's policies toward the south. what johnson did was basically in danger the result of the civil war, which was emancipation. he allowed seven state governments to pretty much issue black code that would put black state back to as close a of slavery as possible.

there was racial terrorism -- outrageous they called it then -- for free people throughout the south. people were being murdered. and one case, johnson personally intervened to make sure the man responsible for it would get off scott free. he kept interfering in their construction plans of congress. under president lincoln, the federal government had established the freedmen's bureau to oversee this transition from slavery to freedom in the south. when that bill to extend the life of the bureau came before johnson, he vetoed it. there was a civil rights, the first of a rights law ever passed in the u.s. history, to ensure the protection of the person and property of free people who were being attacked with impunity by forormer confederates and southern elites. both cases, johnson vetoed those laws. he was inn a way really guided y

this idea that the united states should remain what he called a white man's country. and that kind of very crude racism guided johnson. this notion that if you would extend some of even the most basic citizenship r rights to te formerly enslaved, that you are somehow taking away rights from whites. that is a very pernicious logic that has motivated racists in this country since then. and in that sense, i would say that if you look at the scene immediately after ththe civil wr and ththe south, the republicans in congress had no choice but to intervenene and to reign in johnson and is very sort of destructive way of completely undermining the result of a very hard-fought war -- which was basically emancipation and the end of slavery. juan: but ultimately, he was not

convicted by just one vote because the senate needed a two thirds majority to remove him, correct? > yes. johnson came very close to being convicted. seven republicans, moderates, who voted to electt johnson go scott free if he promised not to interfere in reconstruction again. they were given that assurance. but one of those votes belong to admin ross, senator from kansns, extremely corrupt,t, who had bought his way literally into the senate through bribery. unfortunately, he was put in john f. kennedy's book "profiles encourage" is a courageous man who voted his conscience. we know that book was probably ghost written but it went out

under jfk's name. i think part of it may be to have these dixiecrat at that time. but it has lent -- it has sort history.ated a view of especially the history of reconstruction. and personally, mike pence and that editorial in "the wall street journalal" that are referred to, picks up on the scene that admin ross was a profile in courage. we know now through the historians like david stewart who has written on the impeachment of johnson, that in fact admin ross was bribed for his vote. so he was not a profile in courage, he was a profile in corruption. for the republican party today to bring up both the defense of as ann and portray ross honorable person is astounding

for the party of l lincoln, for thaddeus stevens and republicans who led the charge for the impeachment of andrew johnson. amy: which takes us to donald trump's lawyer has a bologna speaking yesterday in the impeachment trial. he incorrectly stated that no president had ever been impeached in an election year. >> we're not here to steal one election, they are here to steal to elections. printburied in the small of the ridiculous articles of impeachment. they want to remove president trump from the ballot. they won't tell you that. they don't have the guts to say it directly, but that is exactly what they are here to do. they're asking the senate to attack one of the most sacred rights we have as americans -- the right to choose our president. .n an election y year it is nevever been done before.

amy: professorh, in fact, thahat is not true.e. talk about 1868. inso johnson is impeached 1868, the year of our presidential election. obviouslyollone was an accurate, to put it politely, when he made that statement. i will let constitutional lawyers talk about his lack of understanding of the constitutition because the impeachmenent is not meant to overthrow an election. it is meant as a check on a corrupt president and it is in the constitution. but historically, too, he is wrong. there was, like in the case of trump, a momentum growing to impeach johnson because of the ways in which he flouted the rule of law, the way in which he flouteted democratic governance and the separation of powers

between congress and the president. but it was his firing up lincoln's secretary of war edward stainton, who is overseeing reconstruction in the south, that finally led to his impeachment. that was the smoking gun. in that proceeding took place in 1868, a presidential election year. in fact, johnson is impeached in 1868. he is also tried in the senate in 1868. so mr. cipollone -- there were so many errors both of law and constitution, but as a historian, i was astounded that he could brazenly make that statement, which was completely wrong. amy: and of course, the president johnson went on to lose the november election to ulysses grant. manisha sinha, inc. you for ofng with us, professor

american history at the university of connecticut, author of "the slave's cause: a history of abolition." we will link to your piece for "the new york times" in november headlined "donald trump, meet your precursor." when we come back, more on impeachment. then we go to another trial, this one taking place on guantanamo. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. of just the opening day the third presidential impeachment trial in u.s. history come the senate approved the rules for the trial of president trump and a partyline vote. the vote came after nearly 13 hour marathon session. during the opening day of the trial, republican senator's rejected 11 mms from democrats to subpoena documents and witnesses, including former national security adviser john bolton. this is house impeachment mamanager adam schiff, the chair of the house intelligence committee. >> the american people want a fair tririal. they want to believe their

system of government is still capable of rising to the occasion. they want to believe we can rise above party and do what is best for the country, but a great many americans don't believe that will happen. let's prove them wrong. let's prove them wrong. how? by convicting the president? note. not by conviction alone. by convicting him if the house proves its case and only if the house proves its case. but by letting the house prove its case, by letting the house call witnesses, by letting the house obtain documents, by letting the house decide how to present its own case and not deciding it for us. sum, by agreeing to a fair trial. amy: we are joined by vince warren baher azmy and baher azmy .

vence, you were following this all through yesterday, ofmenting on television was the center is the center for constitutional rights. the significance of what took place with the rules that were laid out yesterday? clubs essentially that the senate voted for a cover-up. the issue that is here is whether therere is going to be n up information for the house to be able to prove its case. they are not manufacturing or creating arguments. this is the information they need to get. essentially, the senate voted to delay that decision. why that is important is because we have to remember the reason why the house doesn't have the informatioion that they need. they don't have the documents were the witnesses. it is largely because the e trup administration refused to allow them to get that information. adam schiff was making the case essentially that the president should not benefit twice. number one, he should not benefit by not giving

information that is necessary to find out what happened. number two, the senate should not allow ththat to move forward by refusing to make that information available when they very easily could. juan: and the whole issue of very few republicans breaking ranks with mitch m mcconnell in terms of any changes to the original proposed rules? voteses and partyline theyey are partytyline votes for reason. essentially, the repepublicans e in lockstep with the president. it is one thing to be lockstep with him policy-wise, which is problematic enough for my perspective, but they're also gaming the system to ensure there is no chance for the american public to understand in detail what actually happened and what this president did. essentially what they're doing is strangled in n the pil trial process, the impeachment process, by taking these partyline votes that refuse in every manner possible to generate information for the

american public and for us to look at to determine whether or not the president violated its constitutional oath. amy: let's talk about the schedule very quickly. baher azmy, that seems to be the extent of a little bit of a roiling some of the republicans, even the most conservative trump supporters. now they're going to do three days of the house managers presenting their case. of course, senate majority leader mcconnell got his way when yesterday the trial went until, what, 1:51 in the morning. who exactly was watching? they're also controlling the framing of this, the actual tv frame? c-span cannot go in. the networks cannot go in. the picture of who we are looking at is determined by the republican leadership. you have cbs, abc dropping out quickly. soon after the impeachment trial began, despite the fact this is historic. they felt it was not good tv.

you have the house managers for three days and they extended it -- mcconnell agreed to extend it from two. than trump's lawyers for three days? >> then there will be 16 hours of questioning. the deep problem with this performative thing that mcconnell has created, which is functionally a show trial on ,ehalf of mcconnell's clients the president of the united states, is there is no evidence available of the kind that you would have to have in a trial. i think the house managers made a very persuasive case that the senate's job is to try the president, having been impeached. and a trial includes the production of evidence, not just to adjudicate guilt were innocence -- were innocence in a particular case, but also to against accountability

a constitutional office of the president of the united states for an abuse of power and to learn what he intends to do possibly in the next election because part of the abuse of power is come as adam schiff put it, using his office to cheat and election. we need information not just about what he has done that abused his office, but what he intends to do. one customer reports are indicating behind the scenes he seven democrats are entertaining the idea of calling the republicans love on their own witnesses by allowing hunter biden to testify possibly in exchange for getting john bolton to actually appear and be questioned. >> i am sort of skeptical of the kind of moderate republican bluff that will ask for witnesses after. at this point, they're saying it is too soon to ask for witnesses.

and after the show trial will be over, ththey will say it is too late. i think this is just potentially click bait for fox news and the to suggest hunter biden is in anyway relevant to the question that is before the senate, with the president did, is absurd. i would hate to see any democrats agreeing to that proposition. >> i a agree. when he talked about problematic wowould grow close, that is a problematic quid pro quo. these are not relevant witnesses. we should not or they should not be in a negotiation with the defense team in order to be able to get the witness that they want. that the information they need is for the purposes of prosecuting this president. the defense can call whoever they like, but they should not be in this negotiation period creating false equivalencies between the two. amy: we're going to turn to another trial right now. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez.

on tuesday, the psychologist identified as the "architect" of the cia's torture program testified for the first time to the war court at guantanamo bay. james mitchell was in the courtroom for a pretrial hearing for five 9/11 suspects who had been subject to torture, euphemistically called enhanced interrogation techniques. mitchell and his partner, dr. bruce jessen, were paid $81 million to help design the cia's torture methods, including some of the most abusive tactics. the pair had no prior experience in interrogation. amy: so on tuesday, dr. mitchell reportedly told defense lawyers he only came to guantanamo to testify in person before the families of the 9/11 victims and, at one point, told the torture survivors -- i mean, he was sitting right next to the man he torture -- "you folks have been saying untrue and malicious things about me and dr. jessen for years." in 2014, james mitchell confirmed he personally

waterboarded khahalid sheikh mohammed, who is waterboarded 183 times in march 2003. mitchell told vice news -- "yes, i waterboarded ksm. i was part of a larger team that waterboarded a small number of detainees." dr. mitchell also reportedly waterboarded abu zubaydah at a secret cia black site in thailand. earlier this month, protesters marked the 18th anniversary of guantanamo by donning orange jumpsuits and lining up in front of the white housese. they later held a mock funeral at trump international hotel for those who died at the u.s. prison in guantanamo. for more, we're going back to legal director of the , center for constitutional rights. you have the torture and the men he tortured. >> at least in that way, this is a kind of soft form of accountability because the fundamental level, mitchell and his partner jessen have not

faced real accountability for the work crimes they generated. in another soft form of accountability was a civil lawsuit brought by victims of his program, and a lawsuit brought by the aclu that resulted in undisclosed damages. it is interesting we are talking about these two trials together. military commissions and the senate trial. they are innocence both show trials. the military commissions process was generated instead of a traditional article three criminal trial in order to suppress the truth, as is the senate version of the trial in order to repress accountability for work crimes. and in the senate trial, repress accountability for abuse of power. trial,, like the senate there are small possibilities, small windows to pull out

information. but more fundamentally, we have to ask her questions about the cia torture program and the fbi's involvemenent as well. juan: what are your hopes and dreams of information coming out of this trial and the aggressiveness of the prosecutors -- i mean, the defense attorneys and being able to get new information out? folks most concretely, the defense lawyers want to prevent their clients from being executed, which is the very purpose of these trials. then i think they seek to learn more information about how despite having been interrogated again by the fbi come the so-called clean teams since 2007 or 2009, their clients are still suffering the effects of torture -- and also to find more information about fbi ininvolvementt with cia interrogations prior. but there are other things that can be done. these individuals can be prosecuted for war crimes, mitchell and jessen.

there's a senate select report on torture that is yet to be declassified. piece of small accountability. but as i said before, much more needs to be done. amy: explained. this was such a major issue for years. the american psychological association -- the whole leadership was toppled because they were participating with the cia in this torture program and -- was a mitchell and psychologist who participated in this, what thehey call the enhanced interrogation technique , which was outright torture. >> indeed. he reversed engineered psychologicacal principles designed to help people. amy: explain whatsere was. >> a training program that u.s. officers were subjected to in order to resist torture.

he took concepts, psychological concepts like learn helplessness that were developed to understand the behavior of animals who were subject to repeated controlling and coercion. ,nd engineered them to induce in the cia's words, stability, despair, and dread in detainees so they became helpless upon their interrogators and would confess. in many cases, falsely. amy: and soldiers were trained in it. they reversed engineered to do this to prisoners. clubs yes, and sere was designed emerging out of the korean war because u.s. soldiers were subjected to severe forms of psychological and physical torture by their captors come the sort of chinese communists. these techniniques were designed to instill resistance in u.s.

soldiers, but the cia used these techniques not as training for defense, but to deploy them on human beings and destroy them. trial,he five men on they were screened from the rest of the courtroom, weren't they? is the possibility of information that they gave being deemed inadmissible because as a result of their torture? >> that is what they are seeking, both to exclude their so-called clean confessions that were done after cia torture because they are a product at the trauma from the original torture and also as a possibility to reduce their sentence and avoid the death penalty because there were subject to these horrendous work crimes systematically. amy: will they also be question on the black sites, including one in thailand, the particular secret prison for time that was run by the current cia director gina haspel?

>> that is correct. it remains to be seen how much this information -- the defense lawyers will be able to ask and how much of it will be permitted to be public as opposed to being kept classified. amy: president obama promised men like james mitchell would not be prosecuted. do you ever see them in the dock and questioned? -- being questioned? >> as we know from other countries, these sort of forms of accountability often take an incredibly long time and it ofuires pressure from a lot places, including transparency around the program and the releasase of the senate torture report. i think new leadership in the cia for sure and in the senate and house and in the white house. amy: i want to thank you baher , azmy, legal director of the center for constitutional rights. as well as vince warren the center for constitutional

rights. when we come back, we go to brazil. the pulitzer prize winning journalist glenn greenenwald has had a criminal complaint filed against him. will he be indicted? will he go to prison? stay with us. ♪ [music break]

at: jimmy heath, died sunday the age of 93. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we end today's show in brazil, where federal prosecutors have filed a criminal complaint against journalist and intercept co-founder glenn greenwald in connection to a major investigation he spearheaded exposing misconduct among federal prosecutors and a former judge. called "the secret brazil archive," the series of pieces published in the intercept and the intercept brasil used a trove of documents to offer new and damning insight into the sweeping anti-corruption campaign that brought down former president ignacio lula de silva and paved the way for the election o of right-wing presidt jair bolsonaro. the investigation used previouslyly undisclosed privave chats, audio recordings, v vides and other information n provided

by an anonymous source to expose the wrongdoing of top officials, including justice minister sergio moro,o, who oversaw the anti-corruption crusade known as "operation carwash." amamy: on tuesday, a justice minister filed a denunciation of claiming heald, "directly assisted, encouraged and guided" individuals who allegedly accessed online chats related to operation carwash. a judge will now decide whether to press charges againstglenn. the move has sparked international outrage at what many are condemning as an attack on the free press in brazil. in a statement, the intercept said -- "the bolsonaro government has repeatedly made it clear that it does not believe in basic press freedoms. glenn greenwald posted a brief video on twitter tuesday responding to the criminal complaint. >> a few facts about this crimiminal chaharge, first, as u probably k know, the bolsonaroro simply do not believe

in a a free press. they don't believe in press freedom. they don't even believe in democracy. the repeatedly and explicitly raise the military dictatorship that ruled the country till 1985 as a superior form of government. this is all about ushering in that level of o oppression. sesecondly, ththe prosecutor w o brought the chaharges just a couple of montnths ago unsuccessfully tried to bring similar chargeges against the hd of the brazilianan bar associatn mor whencize ministeter youo try to say it constituted a crime in brazil and was rejected by the courts. he is obviously somebody abusing his prosecutorial power to punch the political enemy from the bolsonaro government. third, the federal police conducted a conference of investigation of our r reporting of our sourceses and concluded n a report published just a cocoue of months agago that everything shows that i hadad never commitd any crime, most to the contrary, i always exercise what they called the highest level of

professionalism, caution, and responsibility ensuring that was doing my work as a journalist and never got anywhere near a crime. amy: well, for more we go to rio de janeiro, where we're joined by andrew fishman, managing editor of the intercept brasil and reporter for the intercept. welcome to democracy now! bolsonaro's congressman son tweeted -- "when greenwald always said he loved brazil and wanted to get no the country in depth. who knows, maybe he will even get to know prison." tell us how serious the situation is. what is a criminal complaint in brazil? >> well, this is obviously a very troubling situation. it is serious because this is a public history. this is not a joke that is happening here. the complaint is that glenn allegedly particicipated in a crimiminal hack of telephonenes, senior officials and the brazilian government and the public ministry. that is obviously not true. he acts as a journalist.

the alleged hack happened before anyone at the intercept had any knowledge of what was happening. we had a source that came to us, an anonymous source, and presented us with very important information. our team at the intercept brazil, which is 20 odd resilient journalists along with glenn and myself have spent eight months working on 95 original stories that have revealed very serious wrongdoing and abuses by then judge sergio moro, now the justice manager, and the team of prosecutors that ran operation carwash anticorruption investigation. it is very ironic we spent all of o our -- these last eight moh reporting on and exposing the public ministry was willing to bend the rules to go against the standards they needed to follow to follow their own political purposes and make prosecutions based on lack of evidence or

distorting the evidence. in response toto that, they have made a criminal complaint against glenn based on the distortion of the evidence for their own personal and political interests. it is very troubling, but the general response in brazilian society is overwhelmingly to condemn this action by the prosecutor. there has been an injunction by one of the supreme court ministers against any investigation into glenn. they claim they did not investigate, but they are still filing this complaint. so when he comes back -- with this minister comes back from vacation, it is very possible he may try to challenge it or bring this down. andit is up to a judge resilience to decide whether he will except the charges in which case will become officially --glenn will officially become a defendant in this case. want what about the federal police investigation that concluded in december and found

there had been no crime committed by glenn greenwald specifically? how can i prosecutors then move forward? there is already been investigation that reached a different conclusion. >> exactly. that is a key issue here. the federal police spent many months doing an investigation into the alleged hacking. they concluded in their statement which they released in december that they saw no indication of any crimes committed by glenn, and they went out of their way to say and fact he was very cautious and careful to distance himself from any criminal activity. that was the conclusion of the federal police investigation. then went to the prosecutor public of ministry who decided to ignore the conclusion. he evaluated the exact same evidence. there is no new evidence in this case. he looked at the exact same evidence and decided to go ahead and file these charges against glenn, which is exactly why you

can see that everyone is up in arms about the decision. there is no basis for it. it is complete distortion of the evidence. visit 1200 word conversation in which the alleged hackers are saying weo glenn and are not surure what to do h her. do we need -- you want us to go for more evidence? he says, i'm a journalist. i cannot direct you. i need to be clear about that. but we have everything saved here, so it is up to you to decide what you want to do, but i don't see any reason why you need to save the evidence. the reason why he says that, is because he has the thetitutional authority and professional responsibility to defend his sources, to protect his sources. that is all he was doing. that is what legal analysts have

looked at this chat and said that is exactly what he was doing. that is the conclusion of the federal police as well. the prosecutor decided to take things in his own hands. he is very reactionary. he has already been in trouble. the council within the public ministry is already looking into opening our prosecution -- investigation into the prosecutor. amy: when exposed operation carwash, it ultitimately led to the imprisonment of the operation carwash led to the impressment of the former president lula, who has since been released from prison and is imprisonment prevented him from running for president was not he was clelearly the front runner ahead of bolsonaro. bolsonaro very threatened by lula. if you could address the significance of this and also glenn is an american citizen. has the trump administration, close ally of bolsonaro -- bolsonaro is called the trump of

the amazon -- has trump and the white house weighed in? clubs and not seen anything from trump or the white house yet. this is very very serious. it is a clear indication the bolsonaro -- so much of what is happening so much of the united states. there is no longer any respect for the freedom of the press within the administration. many people are following his lead, just like in the united states. trump sets the tone and others follow suit. that is what is happening here as well. it is a very troubling situation. even if these accusation is to still -- it it is is a sign brazilian democracy is evermore fragile and it is something that all journalist need to be wary about because the next journrnalist to be subjected to this sort of intimidation maybe won't have the same fame an international

platform and resources that glenn has. that is a very important thing we need to pay attention to. amy: thank you for being with us, andrew fishman, managing editor of the intercept brasil