In 2009, a former U.S. senator told the Mormon Church's Quorum of the Twelve how he got 200 missionary visas approved with one phone call to a foreign ambassador. No one ever asked if it was legal.
Jess and Hannah trace what happened after that 2009 briefing: Gordon Smith's Senate staff called "church broke," the R-1 and EB-4 visa backlogs that leave ordinary missionaries waiting up to five years, and Sister Fanny Clain — a missionary injured in the 2016 Brussels airport bombing while stuck waiting on the exact visa Smith's phone call skipped entirely. In 2016, Mormon Leaks published video of the briefing. In 2017, two advocacy groups filed a formal Foreign Corrupt Practices Act complaint with the DOJ and State Department over Smith's dealings with then-Ambassador Ronen Sen. No investigation has ever been publicly reported. This only makes sense if you grew up Mormon — access has always had a shape, and nobody with the standing to say so out loud ever did.
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