Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge LOOSE Cannon SCREWS UP 40 Years of Precedent in AN INSTANT

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Judge Cannon refuses to understand 50 years of Supreme Court precedent that a special counsel or prosecutor is A VALID APPOINTMENT of the Attorney General, as she spars with Jack Smith’s office publicly over whether she will throw out THE WHOLE Mar a Lago criminal case against Trump. Michael Popok reports on a recent hearing in which Cannon demonstrates a profound misapprehension of the Special Counsel law AND the Nixon v US president from 1974. Get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to https://shopbeam.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF at checkout! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michael Popak, Legal AF. We got Aileen Cannon, the judge in Mar-a-Lago, troubles again because she can't figure out that the United States Supreme Court has already, 50 years ago, almost to the day, decided the question of whether the Department of Justice can appoint a special prosecutor, a special counsel to investigate things where there may be an appearance of conflict of interest with the Department of Justice. That decision has already been made. It's settled law in US versus Nixon, where the Supreme Court at the time in an eight-zero decision with the Chief Justice recusing himself at the time decided that the special prosecutor,

Leon Jaworski, assigned by the attorney general at the time under a special regulation, not authorized by Congress, but was a direct regulation that was created by the Department of Justice, would in effect prosecute Nixon. And the issue in US versus Nixon that Judge Cannon can't seem to get her mind around, or she refuses to get her mind around as demonstrated by the hearing this past week in her court that went on for five hours is that the United States Supreme Court has acknowledged the legitimacy of anyone holding the title of special prosecutor,

independent counsel, which I'll talk about separately, or special counsel, which is exactly what Jack Smith is. Let me back up for a minute. In US versus Nixon, there was a fight over the secret tapes that Richard Nixon had made in his office and recording other people as well, was a wiretapping, illegal wiretapping operation, and the special prosecutor who was prosecuting

all things Watergate in 1974, demanded after they learned of the existence, demanded the turnover by Nixon of these tapes. Nixon argued that there was executive privilege. Does this sound familiar? And it went up to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ordered that Nixon turn over the tapes to the special prosecutor Leon Jaworski, and that led to a series of convictions of people within the Nixon administration and the Nixon West Wing, including ultimately the attorney general at the time for Nixon, all going off to prison. Implicit, if not expressed in the opinion, US versus Nixon 1974 is that the Supreme Court recognized the legitimacy and the validity of the special prosecutor appointed by the

Department of Justice, not by Congress. Now, fast forward 50 years, almost to the day, because that special prosecutor for Nixon was appointed in July of 1974, Aileen Cannon has taken the bait of Richard Nixon, of Donald Trump's lawyers, to suggest that the special counsel was improperly and unconstitutionally appointed

by the Department of Justice. That is wrong. And the fact that she spent five hours, apparently, including grilling the special counsel's office, including its lead lawyer, James Pierce, who was arguing this week in the Fort Pierce division, in which she said, I want to know more about how closely Merrick Garland supervises this case. That is not a requirement.

It's actually the exact opposite of the code of federal regulation statute that created the special counsel's office says effectively that the Department of Justice will not have day to day supervisory powers over the special counsel. It's almost like he's as independent as possible for a reason, because if he wasn't going to be independent from the office, then why would the Department of Justice, on an appearance of impropriety or for other reasons, appoint the special counsel? They would just do it themselves through main justice. Again, a thickheadedness of Judge Cannon that this concept can't get through.

So she questioned exactly the wrong questions to ask to grill James Pierce because Emile Bové, the lawyer for Donald Trump, fresh off his 34-count felony conviction loss in New York. Emile Bové was one of the lead lawyers in New York working with Todd Blanche, his partner on that case. Emil Bové argued, it's a shadow government. It's a shadow government. It's the Department of Justice delegating inappropriately to another person who doesn't answer anybody. It wasn't confirmed by the Senate. It wasn't confirmed by Congress. Even the judge didn't think that was appropriate. The shadow government, that sounds very ominous, she said. What's your grounds for that?

In the middle of it, well, I don't know, he didn't say this, but, well, it's a good sound bite, Your Honor, I really don't have any support for it. That's what he should have said if he was being honest with the judge. But the judge is grilling inappropriately, and again, special counsel's office is caught a little bit flat-footed.

They're like, why are we being questioned about what the statute forming the special counsel's office is caught a little bit flat-footed. They're like, why are we being questioned about what the statute forming the special counsel's position requires, that we don't have day-to-day supervision? So the question, it's the wrong question to ask is my point. For the judge to ask, how closely is Merrick Garland coordinating with the special counsel's office? Not at all. And that's not required. If you go to 600, 600.1,

28th code of federal regulation, 600.1, which is where you go when you wanna find out about the special counsel's powers, it says the following. The attorney, this is 601, and this is as if she'd never read it. The attorney general will appoint a special counsel when he or she determines that criminal investigation

of a person or matter is warranted. And so it has to be a warranted prosecution. The investigation or prosecution of that person by a United States attorney's office or the Department of Justice would present a conflict of interest for the department or other extraordinary circumstances and that under the circumstances, it would be in the public interest to appoint outside special counsel to assume responsibility for the matter. Then the Department of Justice stays out of it. It doesn't micromanage the special

counsel. That's not what the special counsel law requires. Instead, there's a report that is delivered and regular updates whenever the attorney general wants them at a higher level are supplied to him. And if at the end he doesn't agree, in this case, Merrick Garland, with the findings and the report of the special counsel, He needs to inform the ranking members of the judiciary committee in the house and the Senate about it, thumbs up or thumbs down on the report. And if there is a report that he agrees with and he doesn't override, he can also decide

whether that's going to be released to the public or not. That's all right there, Judge Cannon, in 28 CFR 600.1 at SEC. Just look for it. And this replaced effectively the independent counsel rule. I wanna do a little Patreon explainer here. Through the 70s and 80s,

really up until we got past the Clinton special counsel prosecution of Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton by Ken Starr, every president has had some sort of special prosecutor, independent counsel, or special counsel appointed against them except Barack Obama. Every other president of the last six or seven have had some sort of this office appointed without having an alien canon raise their hand and say, I think there might be some merit to the argument that he was improperly appointed. And therefore all of his prosecution should be dismissed. And then he, and the way he's getting paid the budget, the budget's coming from the department of justice and authorization, ultimately

an appropriation through the Congress. That's how that's supposed to work. And so the independent counsel's office, let me just run through the timeline of special prosecutor, independent counsel, special counsel. They sound alike, slightly different, but all do basically the same thing. Same policy behind them. Proper sleep can increase focus, boost energy and improve your mood.

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get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to shopbeam.com slash Legal AF and use code Legal AF at checkout. That's shopbeam.com slash Legal AF and use code Legal AF for up to 40% off. Special prosecutor was appointed against Richard Nixon, 1974. His name was Leon Jaworski. He was going after everybody that was in the gang

of criminality around Richard Nixon, including Richard Nixon, who resigned off impeachment before conviction in the Senate, and was ultimately pardoned by his then vice president or now president, Ford. That special prosecutor was appointed because the attorney general at the time made a representation and a promise to the special committee of Congress, the Watergate committee that was bipartisan.

Remember those days when you could have bipartisanship to go after a potential criminal presidency? Yeah, 1974 was the last time we had that. And in a statement made to that committee, public statement, the then attorney general said he would appoint a special prosecutor to go after and investigate independent from the Department of Justice, which had taken a tremendous amount of heat, water, and a got a black eye because of corruption within the Department of Justice, leading to the attorney general for Nixon going to jail. And everybody agreed. It wasn't an appointment by Congress.

It wasn't confirmed by Congress. It wasn't like a cabinet member. It was a promise. And the special prosecutor became Leon Jaworski, and he went after Nixon and others. And when he hit a brick wall with Nixon's compliance with the subpoena to turn over the tapes, he had to go to the United States Supreme Court, hence the case of US versus Nixon, which by the way took about 54 days for the Supreme Court to resolve, not the 114 plus that were waiting on the immunity decision. That's for another hot take. But you've got there saying, yes, compelled, ordered,

the tapes shall be turned over to the special prosecutor. Well, it's interesting. The special prosecutor, is he properly appointed by the Department of Justice? No. Approved tacitly or otherwise by the Supreme Court. That's settled law going back 50 years. That's special prosecutor. We've had a number of other special prosecutors since. Until Congress got around in the 1980s in passing the independent council law. In the independent council law, that was a statue put on the books by Congress, and it had a lot of requirements about the position, the powers, Starr, both parties thought that the independent council had too much power and had gone too far. And so that statute, which needed to be reauthorized,

that position did not get reauthorized by Congress bipartisan, but bipartisanly, and it was allowed to languish. That doesn't mean there wasn't a need for special prosecutors. It's obvious that Congress believed that in the future, the Department of Justice would just do what it did before, appoint somebody like Leon Jaworski to be a special prosecutor. And so Congress and that department, that agency,

the Department of Justice has put in place since the 1980s into the 1990s, the special counsel rule. Robert Mueller, special counsel, not independent counsel, not special prosecutor, because there's now on the books under that code of federal regulation, which is ultimately passed by Congress, a special counsel law that I've read to you and given you the parameters of that Judge Alien Cannon obviously doesn't understand. And so the position is legitimate. It doesn't require a confirmation by Congress.

The affirmation and confirmation of the statute, the regulation is implicitly tacitly Congress's approval. And the Supreme Court has already approved the use of special prosecutors, whatever they're called, to go after public corruption, especially at vice presidents, presidents, and cabinet members. But Aileen Cannon find it interesting. So interesting, let's do a five-hour hearing. Let's have three different non-parties drive by participants who filed amicus, friends

of the court briefs, two of them pro-Trumpers, one of them supporting the normal thinking position that the special counsel's office is appropriately delegated and paid for by Congress. And therefore, don't throw out the prosecution because the prosecutor was wrongly appointed. And she allowed them to argue in court. I've never heard of this before in my entire 32 year career.

You know, well, I think it's interesting. Let's have the amicus also. I mean, occasionally the Supreme Court allows it if it's something highly technical, but not usually. That's what the lawyers in our adversarial process for the parties are supposed to do. The lawyers were Donald Trump. They were competent enough

and hadn't been on a losing streak of epic proportion. And the lawyers for Jack Smith's office. But to have her grill James Pierce for the Department of Justice is so unsavory and so, you know, I'm really offended as a member of the Southern District of Florida Bar for the last 20 years, 25 years, and having practiced there. And I'm not the only one that feels like she's gone off the rails and over her skis. Because we now have that new reporting that at least two judges of the Southern District of Florida,

including the Chief Judge Altenaga, who I know well from when she sat on the state court bench in Miami, reached out to her and said, maybe you don't want to take this case, Aileen. And one judge, Altenaga, said, it's a bad luck. You already got reversed twice by your bosses at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals for interfering with the criminal prosecution.

Now that the criminal prosecution has been sent back, why don't you recuse? And she refused, even though she'd only been on the bench for six months and she couldn't hold a candle to Judge Altenaga in her work experience, in her life experience, in her judgeship. This is an inexperienced person who even in private practice

where she only was there for a very short amount of time, never first tried a case for the Department of Justice when she worked there. She was an appellate lawyer at best. But she refused Judge Altenaga's strong suggestion violating basically the, let's say, custom and practice of the Southern District to respect the Chief Justice's recommendations. And another judge, as the reporting goes, also said to her in the Southern District,

you're not really experienced enough for this. Why don't you let a more experienced judge, and why don't we do it in Miami, where it makes a lot more sense, where we already have a hardened facility to review those materials that are classified that are at the heart of your case, rather than you don't have one up in Fort Pierce, this building, this hardened facility.

And no, no, Alien Cannon said, not only am I gonna keep it, I'm gonna force the taxpayers to pay millions of dollars to build a one-time facility up in Fort Pierce in order for Donald Trump's lawyers occasionally to look at some documents. Does anybody think that Aileen Cannon has decided that this is gonna be her moment in the sunshine?

That this will lead to either in a lucrative private practice when she leaves the bench and she's forced and disgraced to leave the bench or when she's appointed to higher position in the Department of Justice or God forbid, the Supreme Court by a president Donald Trump. This is her tryout and she's not giving it up, especially as a Federalist Society member

who frequently attends conventions of other Federalist Society members and donors and rubs elbows with them, including Supreme Court justices on the MAGA right. And that explains better what's going on in her courtroom right now. And so she's all got herself wrapped around her own axle about an issue that's not even an issue. The appropriate appointment of the special prosecutor, special counsel, independent counsel, whatever you call it,

and the power of the Department of Justice. There are checks and balances within that statute for the special counsel. Merrick Garland can go thumbs up or thumbs down on the report on where they wanna take the prosecution if he doesn't accept the recommendations of the special counsel about going for the indictment, about prosecuting the case, he can bigfoot the issue, stop the investigation of the prosecution,

and then report to the ranking members of the Judiciary Committee in Congress about it. That's the power of the oversight of the Department of Justice and the confirmed by the Senate oversight of the Department of Justice and the confirmed by the Senate cabinet member in the form of the attorney general, but not to Aileen Cannon. So we're going to continue to follow. We have no result yet. And she's got another two hearings, Monday, Tuesday, next week, during the week that we'll also report on. When we're not talking about an illegal AF, our podcast on Wednesdays and Saturdays at

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