The Global Freedom Report with Brent Johnson
The Global Freedom Report with Brent Johnson Accountability Against the Administrative State: Brent Johnson with Guests, Ann Vandersteel and Chris Burns on DOJA, CPS, and Parental Rights Brent Johnson Opens The Global Freedom Report In this episode of The Global Freedom Report, host Brent Johnson opens with his usual focus on liberty, government power, and the question of whether a functional free society can exist in today’s globalist world. Before bringing on his guests, Brent comments on California politics, election laws, ballot harvesting, Los Angeles mayoral politics, and the state’s broader government problems. He then turns the program toward the main subject: the work of the Department of Government Accountability, or DOJA, and its efforts to expose corruption inside government agencies. Ann Vandersteel and Chris Burns Join the Program Brent welcomes Ann Vandersteel and Chris Burns of the Department of Government Accountability. Ann is introduced as an investigative journalist, constitutional advocate, public speaker, and author of The CPS Pipeline: State-Sanctioned Kidnapping. Chris is introduced as an attorney with more than 20 years of experience in family law, criminal defense, personal injury, estate planning, and corporate law. Brent frames both guests as people working to expose government overreach and restore accountability where agencies have abused families, parents, and citizens. DOJA’s Mission and the Fight Against Agency Power Ann explains that DOJA is a citizen-led accountability initiative connected with American Made Action and American Made Foundation. Its mission is to document misconduct, support whistleblowers, organize legal action, use media exposure, and apply public pressure against officials who violate constitutional rights. She says the work has been difficult because agency government is deeply entrenched, often behaves as if it does not answer to the people, and protects itself through bureaucracy, funding structures, and institutional inertia. Child Protective Services and Title IV-E Funding A major focus of the episode is Child Protective Services and the federal funding incentives that Ann and Chris say encourage family separation. Ann argues that many children are removed without meeting the proper legal threshold and that Title IV-E and related funding streams reward foster placement more than family reunification. She says DOJA’s strategy is to reduce wrongful intake by raising the legal threshold for removal, thereby cutting off the financial incentive for agencies to take children unnecessarily. Proposed Legislation to Strengthen Due Process Ann describes proposed legislation designed to restore stronger due-process protections for parents in child welfare cases. The bill would limit removals to cases involving serious imminent risk, require rapid judicial review, require stronger evidence before removal or continued separation, and force courts to consider less restrictive alternatives such as in-home safety plans, family support, or kinship placement before foster care. She also says the proposed legislation would create a right to a six-person unanimous jury trial in dependency and termination-of-parental-rights cases. Chris Burns on the Legal Reality for Parents Chris explains how child protective cases often work in practice. He says the state may accuse a parent of abuse or neglect, initiate court proceedings, and place the parent into a process where the burden of proof can be surprisingly low despite parental rights being fundamental rights. He describes the system as difficult to challenge because parents often want the fastest path to getting their children back, while systemic appeals and constitutional challenges can take longer than the case timeline itself. Chris says this makes it hard to find cases that can fully challenge the structure of the system. Administrative Courts, Judicial Rights, and Systemic Corruption Brent and the guests discuss the difference between ordinary judicial protections and administrative proceedings. Brent argues that administrative courts can short-circuit constitutional protections, while Chris and Ann describe agency power as one of the major barriers to justice. They also discuss the Loper Bright decision and the broader question of whether agencies should be allowed to interpret, enforce, and effectively adjudicate rules that affect people’s rights. The episode repeatedly returns to the idea that government agencies must be forced back under constitutional limits. Chris Burns’ Own Legal Pressure and Burnout in Family Law The conversation also touches on Chris Burns’ personal experience as an attorney working against child welfare abuses. Chris says attorneys who handle abuse, neglect, and family-law cases often burn out quickly because the cases are emotionally heavy, poorly paid when court-appointed, and difficult to win against the state. He also discusses professional pressure placed on him, including the suspension of his license, and says that while he may temporarily step back from giving direct legal advice, other attorneys have offered to help continue the work. Whistleblower Protection and Public Exposure Near the end of the interview, Brent asks Ann about whistleblower protection. Ann explains that DOJA works with attorneys who specialize in protecting whistleblowers because people inside government systems often face retaliation when they speak out. She says people frequently contact her with documentation but are afraid to go public themselves, so media exposure, legal protection, and public pressure all become part of the accountability strategy. Ann presents whistleblowers as essential to exposing misconduct that would otherwise stay hidden. Closing Message: Citizen Action and Accountability The interview closes with Ann directing listeners toward American Made Foundation and American Made Action, while Brent promises to include contact information for both Ann and Chris on the show page. Brent praises their commitment to truth and justice and says he is encouraged that people are actively working to counterbalance corrupt systems. The episode’s larger message is that accountability will require citizen action, legal challenges, legislative reform, whistleblower protection, and continued public exposure of government abuses.
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