The Califraudia Republic

This week, Nick Shirley visited the Califraudia (Shop the Califraudia Collection) Capitol in Sacramento to ask the senators behind AB 2624, also called ‘The Stop Nick Shirley Act,’ to explain their bill on camera. Most of them refused. Despite this, the Senate passed the bill on Tuesday by a 30 to 10 party-line vote, with all ten Republicans voting no. You can watch the full video below:

Nick showed the page to Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who wrote the bill and is married to Attorney General Rob Bonta, and asked her why she removed it. She replied that Californians know “when they’re receiving misinformation,” then walked away. We are not sure what misinformation she meant. Until this summer, AB 2624 clearly stated that its restrictions did not apply to anyone protected by Section 1070 of the Evidence Code, which is the state shield law for reporters. On July 2, the Senate removed that sentence.

The co-authors were not much more forthcoming. Senator Lena González, who presented the bill in the Senate, told Nick that the people it protects “have been kidnapped by ICE.” Senator Sasha Renée Pérez told him on camera that the bill was never meant to target him, and her office later said in writing that Nick “has attempted to rename this bill to be about him.” One senator admitted he had not read the bill but would vote for it anyway. Another, when asked why he supported a measure his own committee had flagged for First Amendment issues, stayed silent and walked away.

The senators who voted no spoke with Nick at length. One told him the bill is unconstitutional and said the governor should thank him instead of passing this legislation. On the Senate floor, Senator Tony Strickland told his colleagues that parts of the bill “go against the freedom of speech,” and highlighted the issue for investigative reporters.

We first reported on this bill in May, when the Assembly passed it by a 57 to 19 vote. Since then, supporters have argued that the bill has been narrowed, and they have a point. Now, liability depends on specific intent to cause serious harm or to make someone reasonably afraid, and the law will not take effect until October 1, 2027. Even though the bill was rewritten several times to address First Amendment concerns, it still removed the only clause that protected journalists by name, and none of the authors would explain why on camera.

The Stop Nick Shirley act is on its way to Governor Gavin Newsom, who then has until September 30 to sign or veto it. Nick will hold a rally at the Capitol in Sacramento on August 26 at 11:00 a.m to voice his opinions on the bill.

We want to hear your thoughts. Does removing the shield law from this bill change how you see the rest of it? Does it affect what you expect Nick to keep filming in California? Reply to this email and let us know.

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On Saturday, Congressman Thomas Massie told his followers not to take Nick Shirley seriously. He shared Nick’s investigation into adult daycare centers in Flushing and said he would not take Nick seriously until Nick started “calling out Johnson, Thune, and Trump for funding the daycare fraud.” In his investigation, Nick found that several adult daycare centers in Flushing billed for patients who never showed up, exposing a scheme that took millions of dollars in government funds.

Nick replied and took Massie’s comment as questioning why a 24-year-old had not fixed federal spending by himself, and told Massie, “You people in DC are a large part of the problem.”

Over the past year, Nick Shirley has exposed fraud to hundreds of millions of people. By his own count, his work has stopped hundreds of millions in funding, closed adult daycare centers, and led to several arrests and guilty pleas. Nick’s investigations have even reached President Trump and may have led to the creation of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud. Meanwhile, Massie watched these events and decided that Nick was the problem.

There is one big difference between Nick Shirley and Thomas Massie. Nick is not an elected official. He is a 24-year-old private citizen who works with only his iPhone. He has faced threats on the streets of New York and was chased with a knife in Ceuta because of his work. He cannot issue subpoenas, write laws, or vote on spending bills. When he wants to check if a daycare billing for eighty patients actually has that many, he drives to the address and asks.

Thomas Massie does not face these limitations. He has served in Congress since 2012, with a full staff, committee positions, and a vote on every dollar Congress spends. Instead of using these resources, he spent his weekend on X, criticizing the person doing the fieldwork rather than the colleagues who write the bills he blames. Massie lost his Republican primary on May 19 to Ed Gallrein, who was endorsed by Trump, by about nine points in the most expensive House primary ever.

Nick ended the exchange by asking Massie a question that no one in Washington has answered: What have you accomplished in the past year? What do you think the answer is?

Nick Shirley will speak at the All-In Summit in Los Angeles next month, from September 13 to 15, at The Shrine. The podcast also announced speakers like Jensen Huang from NVIDIA, Satya Nadella from Microsoft, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, Martin Shkreli, and Jake Paul.

Nick shared online that he will debut a new exclusive video exposé live on stage.

The summit is organized by the four hosts of the All-In Podcast: Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg. This is the fifth year for the event. Nick last joined the podcast seven months ago as a guest, where he talked about the empty Minnesota daycare centers he filmed in December. Since then, he has used the same approach in California, New York, and Spain, amassing hundreds of millions of views.

The exposé will remain under wraps until Nick premieres it in Los Angeles.

Are you a viewer of the All-In Podcast? Let us know if you’re excited to see Nick premiere his new exposé.