Call with The Oregonian Reporter

On October 23, 2024, I spoke with a politics reporter with The Oregonian about military civil rights, a topic they have not treated as newsworthy.

Logan M. Isaac: Hey thanks for taking my call. I was I contacted a couple other reporters, I'm not sure if You need to know or care, but I figured I'd bring that up and full disclosure, but I'm There's an issue that I think is newsworthy and that I want reported out and it has a lot of implications

The Oregonian reporter: Okay, yeah, I'm all ears. 

Logan M. Isaac: So it's established that you'll be hearing from me again likely last Leg(islative) days in Salem in September, James Manning, who's the chair of the Senate committee that covers veterans said that I could have 15 minutes of time in December. Before the legislature enters its session again, because I have authored two bills that are being introduced, or have been introduced, or at least submitted, to legislative council through Senator Kim Thatcher and Representative James Hieb, both of which deal with military civil rights.

And if it, if I come off a little skeptical. It's because I've talked to journalists before and contrary to what I think is, common sense, they've decided not to report on this stuff. Yeah, I'll be doing this again, but I'm trying to give journalists and particularly Democrats some advanced warning because I want it in the press, and I think it's newsworthy, but also some of it can be damaging to Harris campaign for president.

Namely, I recently discovered that when Harris was AG, Attorney General in California, the California legislature passed a bill, Assembly Bill 556 in October of '13 that added military and veteran status to the protected classes under the jurisdiction of the California Civil Rights Department or CRD.

According to the state's constitution, California's constitution, the AG is required by law to implement these bills, right? I don't think that's a surprise, but it's a formal requirement of the AG. Despite adding military and veteran status to the largest civil rights department in the nation Harris' office ignored it.

Just a month prior, she had, she put out some press release and if you go on the California Attorney General website at the Department of Justice, it has all their press releases. And there was one that was released in September, there's one that was released in December, but nothing in October on AB 556, which is, all it did was add military and veteran status to the protected classes.

It was, it seemed to have been ignored. That might be disproven, but I'd like to see it. Then when she was in the Senate, and she was on the Senate Judiciary in 2019 when I was in Maryland working with Representative David Trone of Maryland's 6th District, I managed to strong arm him into drafting and sending a letter to the Department of Justice at the federal level asking them why they weren't enforcing civil rights for military families, and I'll get to that in just a moment. I mentioned Harris because she was on the judiciary. 

You still there? 

The Oregonian reporter: Yep. 

Logan M. Isaac: She was on the judiciary and would have had oversight over Donald Trump's Department of Justice. Trone's letter went, was addressed explicitly to A. G. Barr and FBI Director Wray, W-R-A-Y. Wray is still the FBI Director under Biden.

Despite Trone's letter being signed by six members of Congress, Wray and Barr ignored it. They are tacitly giving the Department of Justice cover for not enforcing military civil rights. The judiciary if Harris was a watchdog or an enforcer for the Democrats on the judiciary, It stands to reason that she should have had some knowledge of that and taken some action.

Trone is not very popular. I understand that. But, either these systems are credible and legitimate and are being paid attention to or they're not. We can't have it both ways. So when she nominated a an army artillery retiree that was disturbing to me because her record has not been good on civil rights when it has to do with military families.

I spent six years in the army. I deployed in 2004 to Iraq. And I was forced out of the military because I, when I came home, I applied to be a noncombatant conscientious objector and told them I wouldn't carry a weapon, but I'd be happy to stay in the service. That didn't happen. So Harris has this record and I've been trying to get in front of her campaign through the Oregon Democrats, through personal connections I have.

And then two days ago, maybe three days ago, I discovered that the guy who worked with me on the Trone letter in 2019 was hired by Harris's staff as vice president in September of 2023. A gentleman by the name of Andy Flick. Andy Flick was the Chief of Staff for Trone when I was working with him.

I have a handful of emails of he and I going back in detail about military civil rights, and not just the Trone letter, which went out in November of 19, but Andy also told me that Trone was trying to get a hearing on military civil rights. And in furtherance of that, he asked me for a set of questions that he could forward to the Congressional Research Service in D. C. I never got those answers back. I still haven't gotten any answers back. And now, Tron's office won't even confirm or deny that that Wray or Barr even responded. That is, that's the kernel of what's going on. That's the urgent thing. I don't have the luxury of being able to just decide weeks ahead of time who I'm going to vote for.

Because by nominating a military family, After having ignored that family's civil rights as the Attorney General of California, she's gonna inherit, she wants to inherit a Department of Justice that's been doing it for almost a decade and a half. That, to me, smells like a token veteran. A token minority that she can trounce around and say, Look, I love veterans, even though as AG she decided to ignore civil rights. And I've offered, I've shared this information with the state Republican party as well as the Democrats. But I don't think that it's fair that it doesn't matter what I think, frankly. That's the most pressing thing. As I said, I also will be testifying in front of the Senate committee in December.

I also have authored the two bills that Hieb and Thatcher will be introducing in January, or have introduced. Hieb is, he got primaried out, but the bill is introduced. So that's where we are. Where would you like me to go from here? 

The Oregonian reporter: Huh. I'm thinking. I'm thinking. This is definitely See, it seems to be of a wider scope than things that I normally cover. I'll say that just off the bat. And so because of that, I'm not really sure how I would go about reporting this. I, my, my first thought is any records or emails that you would be able to provide, I think, would probably be the best sort of entry point. I guess what I'm saying is I'm just looking for an entry point into this and I'm struggling to, to find one.

Logan M. Isaac: So if you go to gijustice. com, that's my website if you go to the blog, one of the most recent ones I outline Andy Flick, my involvement with him, including screenshots of my emails, and I don't know how you would verify them, but I'm happy to forward them to you if you like, and the one right before that is when I discovered Harris's record and that there was a connection.

So there's two blogs there that will give you some more context. I believe on that website as well. I have the Trone letter from 2019. You gotta scroll down for it. But one of the things that brings us into Oregon's scope is that Ron Wyden, the senior senator at the Congressional Senate he recently sent out a letter on October 4th, a couple weeks ago.

Now, I've had to, it wasn't as hard with Trone, as with Trone, they were much more supportive. But I also have noticed that Wyden has not put the letter on his social media. He hasn't released a press release. They forwarded me a, or they gave me a PDF. But I haven't been able to confirm with the Department of Justice that they received it.

And I trust politicians about as far as I can throw them. Trone, I'm sorry, Wyden has already made this a local issue and Wyden not publicizing it suggests to me that he knows, several of his staff have been working with me and have been hearing some of this stuff you can find some of the Zoom calls GI Justice website blog but I'm, they're smart people.

I don't doubt that they can put two and two together that there's a straight line between military civil rights and Kamala Harris record in California. And I grew up in California. That's why it's important to me. But I also have a complaint with the CRD in which I discovered that the CRD still had not even added military and veteran status to their complaint intake form.

So that's when I began wondering whether Harris implemented the law at all. I don't doubt that she knew about it, or I don't believe she knew about it and suppressed it. I believe she didn't pay attention. I think this is a blind spot. And that's why I have hope that should this be reported, that Harris could easily make a statement.

Walz is on her team, and of course she wouldn't do that, deliberately. But I'm sitting on 17 human lives every day that are going down the shitter because we don't know how to have conversations about human dignity for military families. So you can find the Wyden letter on there.

It, I don't know, it shouldn't, I should be able to verify it and I can't. But the date is on there. I've got a an image of the letter. You can probably verify it with them if you like. They might be more responsive to a journalist. But there are a lot of entry points. 

The Oregonian reporter: Okay. Okay, yeah, I'm looking through the blog right now. Yeah, I think I just need to very closely. Read through all of this, and then, yeah, go from there.

Okay, I think, yeah, I think I have a somewhat general understanding, and I think reading this will, is probably the next step that I should take. Yeah, I will go through this, and I will see what I find, or maybe points of investigation that I can start on. Yeah, thank you for bringing this up.

I will reach out if I have any other questions or anything. And feel free to send me an email or text me any other information you think would be good to know. 

Logan M. Isaac: I'm happy to do that. As I said earlier, I've had other journalists not see a connection or fill in the blank. Should I am, I should say me think. I want this reported on as quickly as possible, and as widely as possible. I also am old and tired, and I would prefer to have one person that I'm talking to about it. How long should I wait before reaching out to other journalists?

The Oregonian reporter: I think if you're, if what you want to prioritize is getting this done quickly, I think you should also start, I think you should reach out to other journalists because this is, like I'm mostly focused on elections right now.

There's a lot of coverage we're working on, so I wouldn't be able to dedicate a ton of time right now to this. 

Logan M. Isaac: Do you, can you see how that would be, that would sound duplicitous to me? That this is an election issue. I asked, I put on TikTok the night of the presidential debate A question like, does she care about my civil rights?

A lot of the other factual evidence has been on the books for years. Yeah I'm, not to say I know your job, I also wonder if or can see where I'm coming from, and how some, The words you're using make sense, but I don't understand how this would not be an election issue.

The Oregonian reporter: I I totally hear you. I think, how about this I'll bring it up. I'll send her some of the materials that I see here. Like I said, I think this is just something that I'm not saying it's not an important issue. 

Logan M. Isaac: I understand. 

The Oregonian reporter: I'm making valid points. I think what I'm trying to say is I think this might just be something for a different reporter. Like maybe someone who covered more national level stuff, 

Logan M. Isaac: okay.

I think I have your email but I've got a, I'm in Lincoln City, I'm going to be driving back towards Albany for a bit and I've got kids and stuff would you yeah, would you do me a favor and text me or check in with me this evening or tomorrow, whenever is convenient and give me just a, what information would be useful for you to have and whether or not Yeah if there's information that you want more from me and that will indicate to me whether or not there's some traction, 

The Oregonian reporter: yeah, definitely. Have you reached out to like national level reporters? 

Logan M. Isaac: I've been doing that for eight years. And when I have, as right now, the stories aren't always clear. I'm getting better at being concise, but yes, I have relation, or I've had contact with just about every major outlet that reports on military service, yeah, no it's quite frustrating.

Yes, I have. 

The Oregonian reporter: I see. Okay. Yeah I totally hear you. And, yeah, one, I want to reiterate that I'm not saying this is not a story. It sounds like there very much is a story here, it just seems like it might be something that I wouldn't cover. 

Logan M. Isaac: Okay, and if you could refer me to someone, or if you have connections with someone, that could also serve to vouch for me.

I know you don't know me very well at all, but that's the way this works. People can dismiss me as a conspiracy theorist. Until they hear someone else with credibility, and I may have that credibility after December and after I'm in front of the state house but to me, this, I can't decide my vote until November 5th, and I don't think that's exactly fair, I put 6 years of my fucking life on this, and everybody just keeps expecting me to, or military families in general, to just keep sucking it up and driving on it's, if you find that You may not be able to carry this story, your direct reference, or connection to someone that you think could, would be very valuable to me as well.

The Oregonian reporter: Okay, I hear you. I will, yeah, like I said, I'll bring stuff with my editor and see what they think. 

Logan M. Isaac: Okay, I'll look forward to hearing back from you, maybe this afternoon, or tomorrow or something. Is that 

The Oregonian reporter: Yeah, I'll let you know, I'll let you know in the next day. 

Logan M. Isaac: Okay, sounds good. Thank you for listening.

The Oregonian reporter: Yeah, thanks again for reaching out.