Mike Benz

Anti-censorship advocate, former Trump State Department official

Mike Benz is a prominent figure in the realms of technology policy and digital freedom advocacy, known for his tenure as a U.S. State Department official during the Trump administration and his subsequent work in promoting an open internet.

During President Donald Trump's administration, Michael served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. In this role, he was responsible for overseeing international communications and information technology policy, focusing on cybersecurity and internet governance.

Benz's insights into digital freedom have gained significant attention, with his work being cited in congressional hearings and endorsed by high-profile figures such as Elon Musk. He has been a prominent critic of what he describes as the "censorship industrial complex," expressing concerns about government overreach in internet regulation and advocating for the restoration of what he terms the "golden age of the internet." Last month, he appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience in a now-viral exchange.

Today, Mike works as Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online (FFO), a free speech watchdog organization committed to restoring and protecting the principles of an open internet.

Why did we invite him on?

As a free speech show hosted online, internet censorship is one of our most significant concerns. But do we have reason to worry? We wanted to know, and Mike is one of the field’s leading experts.

But that’s not all Mike is outspoken about. He’s a fierce voice on the subject of government corruption and cover-ups, unabashed in his willingness to call out what he perceives

Under Trump, it looks like the American government might be moving towards a period of transparency in that realm, promising to release thousands of documents, hidden for decades from the American people.

We wanted to talk about that: Epstein, the CIA, the Kennedy Files - all of it.
We got it, and we got more.


What did we learn?

In January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the declassification of all remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

On March 17, 2025, the National Archives released approximately 2,200 unredacted files, totalling over 63,000 pages, concerning JFK's assassination. It was the same day we sat down with Mike, and there was a palpable tension of what may be held therein.

When we have mob boss Michael Franzese on the show, he assured us that the CIA had come to the mafia to sanction the hit on Kennedy - in his mind, they were at the very least complicit in it.

”There could be bombshells, it could be a nothing-burger … [Trump] is going to have to think long and hard about the degree to which [they] want to expose. It’s not just the US that sees this, it’s the world, and these get held up in the United Nations.”

But that’s not all we’ve been promised from Trump. A much more recent, arguably relevant, scandal has been pledged to be uncovered - the Epstein files. Who was connected to him? What did they do? Why did they cover it up?

Mike tells the story of Epstein, but what quickly becomes clear is how little anyone knows. What was he? How did he become so influential and well-regarded in his world of celebrity, so well-connected to the most powerful people on earth?