Why Are the Feds Scared to Death of a Skirt? | Federal Courtroom Audio — Transcript

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1. 0:00United States of America versus Matthew
2. 0:01Channon.
3. 0:03Let me ask the government, what are the
4. 0:04potential penalties in connection with
5. 0:06this case?
6. 0:07>> Yes, Your Honor. The potential penalties
7. 0:09are up to 1 years incarceration, not
8. 0:11more than 3 years supervised release, up
9. 0:13to a $250,000 fine, and a $100 special
10. 0:16penalty assessment.
11. 0:17>> Okay. Do you understand those potential
12. 0:19penalties?
13. 0:19>> Yes, Your Honor.
14. 0:20>> Okay. Um the government's position
15. 0:22regarding detention?
16. 0:23>> The government moves to detain, Your
17. 0:24Honor. And um and if the court will
18. 0:27allow me, I'm just going to um argue
19. 0:29that basis now. Um
20. 0:31under 18 USC 3142 F 2 A, um
21. 0:37the defendant presents a serious risk to
22. 0:39attempt to obstruct justice. First, the
23. 0:42current charge indicates that he
24. 0:43recently lied on a federal form in the
25. 0:45attempted acquisition of a firearm.
26. 0:47Second, he previously concealed his
27. 0:49identity by dressing as the opposite
28. 0:50gender and attempting to enter the
29. 0:52courthouse stating he wanted to get
30. 0:54sealed documents.
31. 0:55And this occurred the day after he
32. 0:56received an unfavorable order from this
33. 0:59court um in cause number 24 CD 1124,
34. 1:03which was on December 16th, 2025.
35. 1:06The very next day, he showed up at the
36. 1:08courthouse dressed as a woman and was
37. 1:09eventually turned away. I think we can
38. 1:12infer nefarious intent from this.
39. 1:14Um thirdly, the United States
40. 1:16understands that the Marshal Service has
41. 1:18been concerned about his mental
42. 1:19stability for some time to the point
43. 1:21that the court and security officers
44. 1:22have been alerted to watch for him in
45. 1:23case he attempts to enter the
46. 1:24courthouse.
47. 1:25>> I think at least for now um there's
48. 1:27sufficient grounds to uh keep you
49. 1:30detained until we have your detention
50. 1:32hearing.
51. 1:33>> They sent me to a private prison for 5
52. 1:35days.
53. 1:36Rosa Parks didn't even get 4 hours.
54. 1:39Now my son and I could lose our home,
55. 1:41too.
56. 1:42And that prosecutor had her facts wrong.
57. 1:44I showed up to the courthouse, gave them
58. 1:46my ID, did my business, and then on my
59. 1:49way out, the Marshals had a problem with
60. 1:50me
61. 1:51looking like this.
62. 1:53>> Hi, my name is Matthew Channon, and I am
63. 1:55in drag. I am in drag not for sexual
64. 1:58gratification purposes, I was in drag
65. 2:01today for showing up to the courthouse.
66. 2:04See what they would do if I was in drag.
67. 2:07I have an X as my gender marker on my
68. 2:10driver's license, so this is hardly, you
69. 2:12know, me being a particularly good
70. 2:14disguise.
71. 2:16Um, I,
72. 2:17you know, generally talk with a slightly
73. 2:19higher register when I'm talking to
74. 2:20actual people, but for some reason when
75. 2:22I'm on the camera, I want to use my male
76. 2:24voice.
77. 2:25Um,
78. 2:26I'm going to just walk and see if you
79. 2:28think that I look like a man trying to
80. 2:30look like a woman more or just like
81. 2:32somebody who's kind of pulling off the
82. 2:33woman thing.
83. 2:34I'm kind of curious myself because I've
84. 2:36never really filmed myself with kind of
85. 2:38quasi professional drag. So let's see
86. 2:41how I look.
87. 2:54Let me get somebody down my purse here.
88. 2:58So I went to the courthouse today, the
89. 3:00federal courthouse, the Pete Domenici
90. 3:02federal courthouse. On that day, I could
91. 3:04tell the marshals were pissed. They were
92. 3:07embarrassed. They had no justification
93. 3:09for keeping me out of the courthouse.
94. 3:11They didn't have any court order telling
95. 3:13me I couldn't come in there. They just
96. 3:15didn't want me in there. You see, for
97. 3:17years prior, I had had a stalker in the
98. 3:20United States Department of Justice, and
99. 3:22she had gotten especially bad this past
100. 3:24year.
101. 3:25We're talking illegal detentions,
102. 3:27bugging my house, bugging my truck, and
103. 3:30even messing with background checks. So
104. 3:31now background checks weren't even clear
105. 3:34on whether I had a felony or not. I knew
106. 3:36the marshals couldn't help themselves. I
107. 3:38couldn't see any reason they'd leave me
108. 3:40alone, and I couldn't afford to keep
109. 3:42living like this, not with my son
110. 3:44depending on me. I needed a way to make
111. 3:46the government answer a question it had
112. 3:49left hanging. I went to a gun store, but
113. 3:51I didn't want a gun. I wanted the
114. 3:54paperwork, so I wanted to fill out a
115. 3:56federal form to force the question. That
116. 3:58store had a 7-day wait. Other gun stores
117. 4:01didn't, so that was perfect because I
118. 4:03wasn't there for the gun. And $100 for
119. 4:06an official FBI NICS background check, I
120. 4:10previously spent more for worse.
121. 4:12Instead, they faked a denial,
122. 4:14intimidated me at my own front door on
123. 4:16the 7th and ambushed me out at breakfast
124. 4:19on the 9th. And afterward, the feds
125. 4:21ordered this background check with your
126. 4:23tax dollars. No felony listed. Maybe it
127. 4:26wasn't about a felony at all. If this
128. 4:28was just a genuine lie and try kind of
129. 4:31case, the ATF would have gotten word
130. 4:33from the FBI and then they would have
131. 4:35put together a case, usually a couple of
132. 4:37years later. That's not what happened
133. 4:39here. No, the marshals were on it. The
134. 4:42marshals knew about it before the ATF or
135. 4:44the FBI did. No FBI personnel are
136. 4:47involved in my charges, and the ATF
137. 4:50agent is just local PD deputized to
138. 4:53become an ATF task force officer by
139. 4:55guess who? The US Marshals. They're
140. 4:58behind this entire prosecution, and
141. 5:00they're not supposed to be cosplaying
142. 5:02ATF or FBI, and yet here we are.
143. 5:04>> This is just a talk, um and the rules
144. 5:08for the talk are you don't have to talk
145. 5:10to us, but
146. 5:11you can't lie to us because we're feds.
147. 5:14Tell me tell me how did that start from
148. 5:16your perspective?
149. 5:17>> He goes, is it a it's really $100? I
150. 5:19said, yeah. I said, would you like to
151. 5:20look at it? He goes, no, that's the one
152. 5:22I want. So I pulled it off the wall and
153. 5:24I got it and I was trying to give it to
154. 5:26him to show it to him. And he goes, no,
155. 5:28he goes, I don't want to handle it. I
156. 5:29said, do you have an ID?
157. 5:31And he gave me his driver's license. So
158. 5:33I went around um back in the vault and I
159. 5:36let uh one of my leads know. I said,
160. 5:39this is really weird. And they're like,
161. 5:41well, you didn't get any other more
162. 5:43vibes? I'm like, no, just that. And then
163. 5:45I looked at his ID and it had um an X
164. 5:50for the sex, and I had never experienced
165. 5:52that. That was the first time. So then I
166. 5:54said, well, look at his ID too. I said,
167. 5:55is this valid?
168. 5:58Cuz if it wasn't, then that was the way
169. 6:00I was going to get out of running the
170. 6:01background. One one the other people in
171. 6:03the vault said, that's New Mexico
172. 6:05changed it to where that's
173. 6:07the mark of nonbinary.
174. 6:09>> The bald fellow with the X on the gender
175. 6:11on his license plate says um they'll
176. 6:13just wait.
177. 6:14Every time a lawyer is thinking about uh
178. 6:17doing litigation in a case, they have to
179. 6:19decide like what is my theme for this
180. 6:21case? Like how what is my opening line
181. 6:23to the jury about this case? Cabella's
182. 6:25employee does everything right. Guy who
183. 6:27wasn't supposed to get a gun indeed does
184. 6:29not get it.
185. 6:30>> By the time this interview happened, the
186. 6:32court had found another way to turn our
187. 6:34world upside down.
188. 6:36>> Home detention essentially will kill his
189. 6:39employment. It
190. 6:40>> Well, he can go to work, too. I see
191. 6:43He's approved as an Uber driver. Your
192. 6:46background check it will terminate his
193. 6:48employment. Um
194. 6:50I think he's just going to need to find
195. 6:52another job in the meantime.
196. 6:54>> Well, that's will effectively make his
197. 6:55income zero. Um
198. 6:57>> Well, if he goes and gets another job
199. 6:59and so
200. 7:00I don't see why he couldn't get another
201. 7:02job.
202. 7:03Okay, so Ms. Cannon,
203. 7:05you look puzzled.
204. 7:06>> He has been trying to get another job
205. 7:09for the full 3 years that he's been
206. 7:11doing the Uber driving
207. 7:14and has not been able to obtain one and
208. 7:16I can't imagine how
209. 7:19um having to wear a monitor and um
210. 7:24finding a new job are going to be
211. 7:26compatible.
212. 7:28>> Well, I that's my ruling
213. 7:31um
214. 7:32that I don't want him out driving an
215. 7:35Uber.
216. 7:36I I just don't.
217. 7:38Okay.
218. 7:41All right.
219. 7:42>> Exactly 1 year before my arrest, my team
220. 7:45won 5 grand at a weekend hackathon. I
221. 7:48was already registered and I was
222. 7:50arrested that morning. I never got to
223. 7:51enter. Instead, I got a 5-day immersion
224. 7:54course on how to make toilet wine. I
225. 7:56also had an online scholarship through
226. 7:58Uber to Arizona State. I was going to do
227. 8:01another semester, but I had to do a few
228. 8:03more rides to qualify for that all
229. 8:05tuition paid scholarship. Then I
230. 8:07couldn't drive Uber anymore I lost the
231. 8:08scholarship and I had to drop out.
232. 8:11My 12-year-old son and I are on food
233. 8:13stamps. We're on Medicaid and my house
234. 8:15is in foreclosure. We're about to lose
235. 8:17our house.
236. 8:19years ago, a judge stopped the feds from
237. 8:21seizing my house. Now the feds are
238. 8:24twisting a drug forfeiture law to
239. 8:26sidestep the judge and seize what's left
240. 8:28of my home equity through foreclosure.
241. 8:30Take it first, explain it never. They're
242. 8:33not going to stop until I'm zeroed out
243. 8:35and homeless. I used to make six
244. 8:37figures. I used to commute to California
245. 8:39every week.
246. 8:41I am highly employable in theory and
247. 8:43just doesn't seem to happen for me. I
248. 8:45should be paying taxes to fund other
249. 8:47people's Medicaid and food stamps
250. 8:49instead of receiving them myself. But as
251. 8:51a dad, I have to make sure he gets taken
252. 8:53care of no matter what. You've heard the
253. 8:55government's own words. I never started
254. 8:57out wanting to be the trans Rosa Parks,
255. 9:00but if the high heel fits, so here's our
256. 9:02Montgomery bus boycott for the 21st
257. 9:05century. Look at this map. If you live
258. 9:07in one of the green states, one thing
259. 9:09you can do to help me and help this
260. 9:11movement of government out of my wallet
261. 9:14and out of my pants is going to your
262. 9:16DMV, paying the five bucks and saying,
263. 9:19I'm changing my gender marker from MRF
264. 9:22to X. X is short for none of the
265. 9:24government's business. This is a plastic
266. 9:27card designed to show any officer that I
267. 9:30have the ability and trust of the state
268. 9:32to operate a motor vehicle on public
269. 9:35roads. That's all it is.
270. 9:37This doesn't have to be a major life
271. 9:39change for anybody. You can keep your
272. 9:41old driver's license. It's still valid.
273. 9:44And if you ever have to go to some
274. 9:45repressive regime like Saudi Arabia or
275. 9:48Texas, just take your old one. They
276. 9:50don't need to know how you see yourself
277. 9:52in this world, what's in your pants, or
278. 9:55how you choose to dress or how you're
279. 9:56allowed to dress. It's not their
280. 9:59business. It's not their spot on the
281. 10:01card. That's your spot. X marks your
282. 10:05spot. Uncle Sam took it. He never had a
283. 10:07right to it, and he can't have it back.
284. 10:10My name is Matt Channon. I'm a
285. 10:1249-year-old engineer from Albuquerque,
286. 10:14New Mexico, and my pronouns are none of
287. 10:17your business and none of the
288. 10:18government's business.
289. 10:20>> Do you feel safe?