Attorney Ryan Powers didn’t just lose his job for speaking up—he exposed a deeper crisis that should have everyone on alert. On today’s show, The Lincoln Project’s Jeff Timmer and Ryan dig into why the battle over free speech and the rule of law inside America’s top law firms is a frontline fight for our democracy itself.
If you think this is just an “inside baseball” story about lawyers, think again. The playbook is familiar: powerful interests, unchecked money, and political pressure working behind closed doors to shape the future of the country — while most of us are kept in the dark. When lawyers are punished for shining a light on these abuses, it’s not just their careers on the line — it’s the integrity of the whole system.
We’ve seen what happens when people stay silent: the rules get rewritten, dissent gets crushed, and democracy erodes from within. But Ryan’s story is proof that speaking out can spark the kind of urgent conversation we desperately need. His experience — and the outpouring of support that followed — shows that Americans are ready to demand more from the institutions that claim to serve them.
This isn’t about left or right. It’s about whether we’re willing to defend the basic principles that keep our democracy alive. If we let fear and complacency win, we’re handing over the keys to those who’d rather operate in the shadows. Watch, listen, and ask yourself: What are you willing to risk to protect the truth?
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