On this episode of Around The Empire, Dan and Joanne interview journalist Kenneth Lipp about the sprawling national security and incarceration state President Donald Trump inherited when he took office.

Lipp has written extensively on the role that private firms play in assisting government surveillance programs and broke news on Project Hemisphere—a service offered by AT&T that allows law enforcement to access the communications giant’s massive database for theoretically lawful investigations.

Part of the agreement for law enforcement to use Hemisphere is non-disclosure, which arguably necessitates the need for parallel construction, or using illegal information to investigate a target, then using that information to construct a legal way that information could have been obtained.

If that sounds like a great tool for an authoritarian regime to destroy political dissidents with, that’s because it is.

Follow Ken on Twitter @KennethLipp