1979 in 1979 now it's pervasive and i can't wait to hear her views on this and finally thomas jefferson williams who is also a fellow with me at the american enterprise institute and for harper's magazine and "the new york times" magazine. he has influenced quite a bit of my thinking and his memoir self-portrait black-and-white created at least three two-hour seminars and i thank you for that. such aou provocative, wonderful piece of work and including the best american essays. in his philosophy from georgetown. i want to step back and say for a minute thank you for joining us here at aei. in social media about aei and universities we care and are iebringing in people we disagree with. i am none of those things. socialists,so no way. whether i agree with you or not, your book and your ideas are so important. your insights are so important and at aei, what a university should be and like the wonderful letter that you helped to spearhead that i will talk more that later this is what this is about, bringing people together with different views and ways of seeing the world. we disagree, but i admire

history the fbi raided the office of a member of congress, former representative william jefferson, athe fbi suspected that he was using his official position to solicit bribes. agents raided his office and carted off documents and computer hard drives. that's not all they found. >> well, democratic congressman william jefferson of new orleans is under investigation for corruption and possible bribery charges. in brand-new court documents the fbi says it has videotape of jefferson accepting $100,000 bribe which was later stashed in his freezer. >> it's an ice box where his money used to be. jefferson was later convicted and ultimately sentenced to 13 years in prison. the longest sentence ever handed down to a member of congress. just last january the home of democratic congressman henry cuellar was searched by the fbi no less than two months before a march primary which he eventually won. cuellar denied any wrongdoing, and last year federal investigators executed a search warrant at the home of rudy giuliani seizing cell phones and computers and probably some hair gel. joining me now

my mind flashes back to jefferson and these young men following his advice, and i really going to be leaving them so soon? and about how william short wrote the letter to jefferson from bordeaux. consider carefully, jefferson councils in a return letter, he'd be sorry to lose short as a secretary but the young man had to find his own path to durable happiness. it won't be easy, it will certainly involve hard work. this is not a world in which heaven rains riches into any hand that will open itself, jefferson wrote. whichever of these courses you adopt, delay is loss of time. the sooner the race has begun, the sooner the prize will be obtained. i feel an almost electric jolt right through me, i'm not ready to abandon this race, this prize, this pursuit of happiness. without a word, lianna and i rush forward, revolutionary storming the barricades. we put pain out of mind. we charge up the hill, sweeping past the sweepers. on a runners high, blisters and heat forgotten, we clock are fast as-kilometer as the grand river comes into sight. jerome my cape flies crisp in the wind, our hearts pounded unison, our minds dry are exhausted

we've seen it before with william jefferson, a new orleans congress than when they searched his residence a few years ago and his work space in congress. but we're seeing again that these are all -- all these items, all these types of searches on political figures are deliberate, they are thought out and there has been numerous types of oversight from not only lawyers in the department of justice but a federal magistrate that is appointed. >> peter, thank you so much. >>> let's turn now to michael zeldin, a former federal prosecutor. again i'll use the word that brian stelter did, a thunder clap in the legal and political worlds here. what is your take away here what we saw yesterday and what it is that the fbi is looking for or may be looking for? >> those are two great questions. as to which we don't have facts to give us answers. so we're speculating and we have to be very carefully when we're speculating. >> of course. >> because in this situation, what the national archives appears to be looking for is documents that the president -- former president has taken to mar-a-lago as to whi

reminded that when you were attorney general that there was the search of democratic congressman william jeffersonis home and i believe his congressional office, and this was something that was deemed unusual. so you have overseen or been involved in investigations that were controversial during your time. what did you learn and how do you think to this point merrick garland has handled trying to walk this line? >> well, you're right. what was controversial was the fact that we conducted a search on capitol hill. that had never been done before, and i was advised by my senior team, by the deputy attorney general and by the head of office of legal counsel, by our solicitor general, by the fbi director that this was necessary and lawful. in the end the search was thrown out by the d.c. circuit. so the lesson there is sometimes you get it wrong despite all the advice, despite your best judgment. the search was thrown out because of the speech and debate clause. the fact that even though we had a team that came in and looked at the information, nonetheless it was a member of the executive branch havin

jefferson. he sends his kids, not his kids but to columbia rather than to william & mary. he becomes a trojan horse in the middle of virginia in some sense. that is that. the other thing is the west. you know, i think john was mentioning that first farewell address the circular letter of 1783, that is his most lyrical statement of all-time in terms of his vision for the republic. theyou can see it implied in te farewell address but you would have to know about it beforehand. that is, america's future is not with europe but to the west. lafayette says, come with me and we will do a grand tour. we will do paris, rome, we will do berlin. i don't think we'll do london. [laughs] he says, now, you come with me we will do detroit, we will do new orleans, we will do savannah. that is the future. that is the future out there. as a young man in the seven years he knows about what that is out there more than most other political leaders at the time. when you get to the louisiana purchase, it is funny because they think dinosaurs are out there, you know? mammoth and all that kind of t

maybe it's not was the search warrant that was executed on louisiana congressman by the name of william jefferson's house in louisiana where he was accused of essentially taking bribes and paying bribes. that was a back in 2005. for a sitting president, we've only had 46 in our history, i can't recall this. now, you know that we haven't even had something like this, the federal records act, until 1950. prior to that, presidents were allowed to dispose of, destroy, or keep their own records. in 1950 that changed and obviously in 1974 in the aftermath of watergate, congress came up with the preservation act that required presidents to maintain these things. for this not to have been negotiated between president trump's lawyers and members of the national archive is shocking to me. something like this, for them to execute a search warrant means to me, as i read the judicial tea leaves here, that they suspected things might have been destroyed if they were trying to negotiate for that. again, unprecedented and i'm still -- i remain in a stunned state. dagen: if that was their suspicion, president trump

not only think about why jefferson would have been so opposed to having a university the primaries primarily taught religion as william and mary had done. um, but why why he killed so much religion in general and when i talk about this with my students one of the things i emphasizes that the church the church of england which jefferson grew up with in. the head of that church was the king of england and every church service and in fact every meeting of the house of burgesses would have involved oaths of allegiance, you know, undying allegiance to hereditary monarchs. and this of course became a real issue with the revolution and also teachings of paso obedience or embedded the book of common prayer. um and and yet i mean to me it sort of at the heart of two kinds of issues one of them and i'm and i just was thinking maybe you could explain this a little bit. that is purpose for the university but one of them is that having universities of focus so much on religion aren't in fact compatible with teaching freedom or teaching independence or consent. potentially. the second of them is a question of governance. so well, y

folks last week the cafe that paul carr tennessee take care from the jefferson starship hung out the cafe are the famous poet lawrence william getty and jack herb man go hung out. >> they work worked at a play with the god fathers and photos he had his typewriter i wish i were here back there it there's a lot of moving parts the meeting spot rich in culture and artists and musicians epic people would talk with you and you'd get >> manufacturing in cities creates this perfect platform for people to earn livelihoods and for people to create more economic prosperity. i'm kate sosa. i'm cofounder and ceo of sf made. sf made is a public private partnership in the city of san francisco to help manufacturers start, grow, and stay right here in san francisco. sf made really provides wraparound resources for manufacturers that sets us apart from other small business support organizations who provide more generalized support. everything we do has really been developed over time by listening and thinking about what manufacturer needs grow. for example, it would be traditional things like helping them find capital, provide assistance lo

i think jefferson repeats it, he sends his kids they're not his kids to columbia rather than william and mary. he becomes a kind of trojan horse in the middle of virginia the other thing is the west. the first farewell address the americas and future is not in europe but it is to the west. i don't think we will do london. we will do detroit will do new orleans will do savannah, that is the future. that is the future out there. he knows what that is out there than other leaders of the time when you get to the louisiana purchase mammoths and all of that kind of thing we begin with the largest trust fund that any has ever enjoyed. mostly concerned with the atlantic. maybe john and lindsay can disagree with meat we can play this out as an argument, washington's definition of american exceptionalism is exactly the opposite of what most contemporary things think american exceptionalism is. in the contemporary view we saw after he won the war us the russians are gone we can make the world a safer democracy because we have the model that works everywhere. washington said our motto was distin

william cushing. i think the winds were so horrible, and everybody agreed. the quote about jefferson the rats peering out, it is so on point. the problem is, i can't find anything that substantiates it earlier than 1896, when the guy wrote this article. his name was lucas proctor. he manufacture this amazing story between jefferson and hamilton -- of course. they are in hamilton. of course, that's who you would use. even then, he says they are sending letters back and forth and having this dialogue. there is no evidence of any of it. i think it is made up. [laughs] >> going along those lines, there is also a question about -- do you think that the movement to the black robe had to do with party transitions? >> party transitions? political? >> from a federal court to -- >> write. at this point, i don't think that is the case. if we move this date forward to the 1798 or 1799, there is a lot of growing tension. but the federalists are still mostly in charge. ellsworth comes in as chief justice. he's a federalist, one of the senators was drafting the judiciary acts, stuff like that. chas

william cushing. so, i think the wigs were actually so horrible, everyone agreed. the court about jeffersonit's so on point, the problem is, i can't find anything that substantiates earlier than 1896 when the guy wrote this article. his name was lewis proctor, he manufacture this amazing story between jefferson and hamilton and aaron burr, of course, you know, there in hamilton, of course that's who you would use. but, you know, even then, he says they're sending letters back and forth, they're having this dialogue, you know, there is no evidence of any of it. so, i think it's made up. >> going along those lines, there is also the question about do you think that the movement to the black robe had to do with -- transitions? >> party transitions? >> we from a federal court -- >> right, so, at this point i don't think that's the case if we move this date for just 1798 or 1799. there is a lot of growing tension, but, the feathers are still mostly in charge. comes in as chief justice, he's a federalist, one of the senators that was drafting the judiciary acts, stuff like that. it's a staunch fe

folks last week the cafe that paul carr tennessee take care from the jefferson starship hung out the cafe are the famous poet lawrence william and jack herb man go hung out. >> they work worked at a play with the god fathers and photos he had his typewriter i wish i were here back there it there's a lot of moving parts the meeting spot rich in culture and artists and musicians epic people would talk with you and you'd get >> how i really started my advocacy was through my own personal experiences with discrimination as a trans person. and when i came out as trans, you know, i experienced discrimination in the workplace. they refused to let me use the women's bathroom and fired me. there were so many barriers that other trans folks had in the workplace. and so when i finished college, i moved out to san francisco in the hopes of finding a safer community. >> and also, i want to recognize our amazing trans advisory committee who advises our office as well as the mayor, so our transadvisory community members, if they could raise their hands and you could give a little love to them. [applause] >> thank you so much for your help.