Photograph Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Each day Beast/Getty
The recognition of true-crime podcasts like Serial created an explosion of audio content material about murders and disappearances. However the true-crime increase has additionally elevated a variety of cranks. So Mary, a Baltimore podcast fan, was relieved final yr when she discovered a preferred true-crime podcast that truly has a declare to authority: The Prosecutors.
Launched in 2020 within the first months of the pandemic, The Prosecutors stars two precise prosecutors who go solely by the names “Brett and Alice.” On the present’s first episode, the 2 nameless hosts premised the podcast on the concept they might use their authorized backgrounds to supply distinctive takes on well-known real-life mysteries.
Mary loved The Prosecutors for a couple of month. In contrast to different podcast hosts within the true-crime trade, Brett and Alice truly appeared to know what they had been speaking about. That sense of credibility has turned The Prosecutors right into a true-crime phenomenon—it ranks round 100 on Apple’s rating of true-crime podcasts, a formidable place within the hyper-competitive style.
However Mary couldn’t shake her personal questions on why Brett and Alice didn’t use their full names. Their web site didn’t provide way more about their identities, with each hosts wanting away from the digital camera of their footage. Brett’s bio described him as a “southern gentleman.”
Mary determined to launch an investigation of her personal.
“When you don’t wish to connect your title to it, there’s a purpose why,” Mary, who requested to not use her final title for concern of on-line backlash, recalled pondering. “Let’s simply see about this dude.”
Mary didn’t like what she found. A fast on-line search related Mary with a thriving group of one-time followers of The Prosecutors who've since turned on the present after discovering that “Brett and Alice” are Brett Talley and Alice Lacour, well-connected members of the conservative authorized elite and former Trump administration officers.
Most of that fan ire has fallen on Talley, a one-time Trump nominee to the federal bench with a historical past of anti-abortion and pro-gun remarks. Talley’s nomination blew up in spectacular vogue in 2017, with the American Bar Affiliation taking the uncommon step of deeming him “not certified.” A Republican senator even known as his nomination an “embarrassment,” stating that Talley had on the time by no means tried a case in court docket.
For Mary, discovering remarks Talley made defending the founding father of the Ku Klux Klan and urging individuals to affix the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation within the aftermath of the Sandy Hook college capturing had been the ultimate straws. She stopped listening to The Prosecutors.
“I discover him truly repugnant,” Mary stated. “He has no integrity for my part. Listening to a podcast is leisure for me, and that’s simply not how I want to spend my time.”
Mary isn’t alone. Whereas rumors about Talley and Lacour’s identities have circulated on-line for a minimum of six months, they had been confirmed in Could when Apple’s podcasting app added Talley and Lacour’s full names to their podcast’s profile. Their unmasking set off a brand new spherical of criticism from their erstwhile listeners who felt betrayed that that they had spent so many hours listening to members of Trumpworld. As followers of The Prosecutors mull whether or not they can stick to the present, the controversy has raised questions on what podcast hosts owe their listeners and whether or not listeners can separate a hosts’ political opinions from their podcast.
On Reddit, a hub for novice sleuths, the principle true-crime subreddit has began routinely locking posts about The Prosecutors as a result of the debates grew too heated. On Apple’s podcast app, evaluations of the present have crammed up with one-star evaluations from followers disillusioned by the pair’s connection to Trump and accusing them of obscuring it with their anonymity.
“Heartbroken to know who Brett actually is,” one one-star assessment on Apple’s podcasting app made on Could 30 reads.
“When you’re a MAGA believer, a minimum of be actual and say who you might be,” one other reviewer wrote on Could 27. “It’s insidious to purposely attempt to conceal it.”
Each Lacour and Talley labored as lately as this spring as assistant U.S. attorneys in the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Center District of Alabama, based on court docket filings in federal instances the place they’re listed as legal professionals. The U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
“Our listeners are superb, and we recognize them a lot,” the hosts wrote in a Twitter direct message to The Each day Beast. “The present is concerning the instances and the victims, not politics.”
Lacour, who labored as a trial legal professional in Trump’s Justice Division, is married to Edmund Lacour, Alabama’s solicitor basic. Disgruntled followers of her podcast have identified that Edmund Lacour, who was additionally nominated to a federal judgeship by Trump however did not be confirmed earlier than Joe Biden took workplace, has used his place in Alabama to push for voting restrictions.
However the overwhelming majority of followers’ criticism has been reserved for Talley, whose botched nomination in 2017 grew to become a mini-scandal within the younger administration as even Republican senators turned on Talley’s bid to fill a lifetime federal judgeship in Alabama.
Talley, then 36, was dogged by accusations that he was too inexperienced to be a decide, with opponents steadily mentioning that he had by no means tried a case. Different critics pointed to his uncommon background as a ghost-hunter. Talley’s nomination hit an much more critical snag when he did not disclose throughout the nominating course of that he was married to then-White Home Counsel Donald McGahn’s chief of employees. Talley ultimately withdrew his personal nomination after being criticized by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the lead Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Followers of The Prosecutors have cited Talley’s failure to reveal his marriage as certainly one of their causes for turning on him.
“My subject with him is his full lack of integrity concerning his nomination to the federal judiciary,” one Reddit person wrote final yr.
“Brett is MAGA????” one other replied. “Are you kidding me?”
However Talley’s one-time listeners seem to have been most alienated by his historical past of controversial on-line remarks. Shortly after the Sandy Hook capturing, Talley wrote that his “answer could be to cease being a society of pansies and man up.” In a weblog submit within the wake of the capturing, Talley urged his readers to affix the NRA.
“I pray that within the coming battle for our rights, they are going to be victorious,” he wrote.
Mary, the previous listener to The Prosecutors who spoke to The Each day Beast, discovered Talley’s boosterism for the NRA after Sandy Hook particularly galling.
“Such a delicate time within the nation, after which for him to take up for the NRA proper on the heels of that, I discovered despicable,” she stated.
James Renner, a true-crime creator and podcaster who has lined among the similar instances as Lacour and Talley, praised their true-crime work in an interview with The Each day Beast. Renner stated he too was initially disillusioned by Talley’s political background, at first evaluating him to conservative musician Eric Clapton. However then Renner modified his thoughts, deciding as an alternative that Talley was some sort of renaissance man.
“He’s actually extra like Jack White,” Renner stated, referring to the White Stripes frontman. “He’s prolific, he’s a storyteller, he’s a polymath. He’s fascinated by every thing and he’s fascinating to speak to.”
Alongside together with his true-crime work and ghost-hunting, Talley has written a sequence of well-received horror novels.
“As they do deep dives into these instances, I feel it’s truly making them extra liberal as time goes by,” Renner stated.
However it seems that the various listeners of The Prosecutors who're unsubscribing from the present aren’t satisfied. In on-line discussions, they cite the truth that each Talley and Edmund Lacour are members of the Federalist Society, the anti-abortion rights conservative authorized group dependable conservatives all through the federal judiciary.
“This is not about intolerance,” wrote one Reddit person who compiled a listing of articles about Talley and Lacour’s politics. “It is about the truth that Brett and Alice's husband will 100% strive as arduous as they will to take away abortion rights and voting rights, if they're appointed as judges.”