Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF EMERGENCY PODCAST: DOJ BOMBSHELL Filing on the Trump Mar-a-Lago Search
Episode Date: September 1, 2022On this special, “emergency” edition of LegalAF Midweek, the top-rated legal news podcast by MeidasTouch, Anchors Ben Meiselas (sitting in for Karen Friedman Agnifilo) and Michael Popok discuss la...st night’s DOJ 50+ page filing addressed to the Mar-a-Lago national security-related document search warrant, including photos, to convince the Florida Federal judge to deny Trump’s motion for a “special master,” and convince her of the strength of the criminal case against Trump while they are at it. Ben and Popok end the show with an update on the Fulton County (Atlanta) special grand jury, including the prosecutor’s arguments against Senator Graham’s refusal to testify, and the Chief Judge’s ruling concerning Governor Kemp and his testimony and timing. GET MEIDAS MERCH: https://store.meidastouch.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
The Department of Justice makes it move and responds with a bombshell filing to Donald
Trump's made up motion for judicial oversight and additional relief in connection with the
search warrant executed at Mar-a-Lago.
You got Ben Myceles and Michael Popock because we got to bring you this emergency podcast to break down truly
bombshell stuff that was in this department of justice filing and we'll also bring you a brief
update on what's going on in Georgia in funny willises investigation out of the Fulton County special
grand jury that's been in paneled for some time there Ben My Myceles, Michael Popock, together on this midweek, Karen and Nifalo,
is doing well, don't worry everybody,
she just asked Ben, can you fill in for me?
And I said, when there's some bombshell legal news,
count me in, Michael Popock.
Can I count you in?
You can count me in.
This is exactly what we hope for. This is exactly what we predicted and it's all
Backfiring and I can't think of anybody who's more worthy of something backfiring in his face than Donald Trump and his legal team
Right, so if you rewind popo the search warrant was actually signed by a magistrate judge
Judge Reinhart on August 5th. It was executed on August 8th. All of the proper procedures were filed.
There was a probable cause determination made by the magistrate judge in the Southern district
of Florida. The search was conducted. We of course know they found what they were looking for.
They found the fruits of the crime top secret sensitive compartmental information, Donald Trump and his legal team do nothing
for two weeks. If there's an emergency, what do we do as lawyers, Popoq, we file things
immediately. So nothing they filed before Judge Reinhardt, they wait two weeks and then they file
this motion for judicial oversight in another courtroom before a federal court in the Southern
District of Florida. They happen to draw a Trump appointee from 2020, Judge Eileen Cannon.
Um, and Judge Eileen Cannon first, Ash Trump, hey, can you respond on that? Really sure what this
motion is? Are you asking for a special master? Are you asking for an injunction? Because normally,
when there's an injunction, there's affidavits, there's declarations, you have to show irreparable harm and a probability of success on the merits,
like the standards Trump responded over the weekend to the surprise of most legal observers,
you and me included. Judge Cannon goes, I'm inclined to a point a special master and we're like,
what do you mean you're inclined to point a special master? But it's probably not even going to matter because we're now three weeks past the situation
but after the search warrant and the government likely reviewed all these records right away.
Of course, that is what they did.
The government asked for a to file an oversized brief of 40 pages, not the 20 page kind of
standard page limit. And did they deliver pop up a 36
page take down with exhibits a through F exhibit F is a photograph of just some of the top secret
sensitive compartmented information. They're redacted, but you see the colored covers that show these
markings. And this is some of the most top secret stuff, Popoq, like all of the intelligence officials
I spoke to said, look, if you want to review that type of document, you need to be in a
sensitive, compartmented facility with someone observing no cell phones, no nothing, have
the highest level of clearance.
And if you were to take that anywhere, you'd be like arrested immediately.
And these documents were scattered all across
Mara Lago. And so what this briefing, what this brief that was filed by the Department
of Justice did and laid out the facts in ways that are far more detailed than we learned
before. We know that there were hundreds of records that they received on August 8
in connection with the search warrant. We've learned more information about the affirmations under penalty of her jury that Trump's custodian
of records and lawyer made on June 3rd saying that they had turned over all of the records,
which they of course didn't because they were found on August 8th.
And what I've said on Twitter is you could literally copy and paste the facts, put that into an indictment
and it's a slam dunk of a case against Donald Trump because you have all of the elements.
I mean, he concealed it, he hit it, he obstructed it, they lay out.
And by the way, all the time Trump goes to social media, he's basically admitting to it.
He's saying why is the FBI and DOJ taking these records and just taking photographs of my documents?
And as the DOJ points out in their filing, these are in your documents, you have no privilege.
You're not the president anymore. You have no possessory interest to get these documents
back. You don't own these documents. They're not yours. They're national secrets of this country. And that was their main legal
arguments against the special master against the injunction with the overall point being
standing, which is people who don't own the records can't ask for the records back.
You can't ask popaki. I can say, Hey, I would like that house behind you, Michael POPOC. Can I have
it? No, it's not mine. And it's the same thing. Donald Trump can't ask for documents that
not that aren't as so that's my big takeaways. POPOC, what are some of your big takeaways
from this motion that was mild?
Exactly what you and I predicted. Abstruction is the major focus of the investigation, which
solves a lot of the Department of Justice's problems
before the judge, because if the obstruction
is what the focus of the criminal investigation is,
and all of the statutes that,
criminal statutes that are implicated by obstruction,
then whenever Trump says something like,
they're classified, they're, they're,
they're executive privilege documents or attorney client privilege documents. No, they're not.
And even if they were, they're the fruits of crime. They're the evidence of a crime that we're
investigating, and we need them back. So they, they outthought, not a hard thing to do. They outthought
the half-baked gestures of the lawyers around Trump. Let me
talk about that for a minute. Seasoned attorneys who practice federal criminal defense would
not be making the mistakes and errors that this patched together, a band of merry lawyers
are doing for Trump. It's no surprise because nobody worth their salt wants to represent him.
Even the federal former federal prosecutors don't have the experience required to know
that when they implement a strategy, like let's demand that the entire affidavit be released,
which you and I said was a terrible idea for Trump, because it was only going to
strengthen the Department of Justice's hands by revealing more information to the public,
to future judges, and to future jurors about the goods that they had on Donald Trump.
We thought that was a terrible idea, and it is, and it was.
We also said in prior podcast, we just said it last week, and it is a terrible idea to
file this bomb, what he called, it's going to be a big motion.
I'm going to file.
Okay.
It's a terrible half baked, it's not even baked.
It's batter theory that if they charge into court asking for a special master, the tide
is going to turn for them and give them
enough time while they scramble to fight try to find a defense to what they know is occurred here,
which is Donald Trump having taken and retained and mishandled documents that don't belong to him
that belong to the US government and that are national defense documents. So they're scrambling
to buy time, but in the worst way possible because you and I both said that by filing this motion,
all it's going to do is either have a judge have to have to reveal information or the special
master that we're ultimately pointed about what exactly catalogued was classified national
defense material and what wasn't, which is not a good day for Donald Trump. Or in this case, it was going to lead to the Department of Justice saying, great, you
want us to give you more, we'll give you in total 54 pages more of detail so that to
justify our why we did the search warrant and why we did the knock and no announce raid, and I'm calling it a raid.
I don't care at Mar-a-Lago to grab those documents.
When I saw Ben exhibit F, which we jumped about at the top of the podcast, it looked like a classic
drug bust prosecution where they lay out on the table all the kilos of illegal drugs and take
pictures of it. This is what
happened. And this is what we know now happened in the sequence of events, which is all terrible
for Donald Trump. It lays out, as you said, the criminal case against him. They turned
over, you know, not, not voluntarily, but the Trump organization turned over in January
15 boxes and basically said, we're done. That's all the information that we have.
That's all the boxes that we took with us. That's all the presidential records that the
national archive is required. The FBI in the Department of Justice knew better from cooperating
witnesses that there were still boxes and documents sitting somewhere in Mar-a-Lago and that Trump had told an untruth,
and told a lie when he delivered the 15 boxes in January. We now fast forward to the Department
of Justice using a grand jury's subpoena, which we don't talk about as much, to try to get all
classified information from Donald Trump. So there was exit ramped, number two for Donald Trump,
to avoid criminal prosecution
All he had to do in response to the subpoena grand jury subpoena was turn over the classified information and he'd be done
Well, he turned over through Christina Bob his lawyer and other lawyers. He he
Eric Corcoran he turned over
Documents that he claimed represented the complete universe
of all classified information that he had.
They put it in a big, what we call in the business, a big red folder.
They taped it up on all four sides.
They marked it up and they handed it to the head of counterintelligence for the Department
of Justice and said, we're done.
We did our diligent search and here's what we found. We found these 50 documents and we've
sealed them and we're handing them to you. Yes, it will sign a receipt. So Christina Bob,
who's not mentioned by name, she's, they, they, they kindly redacted her name in the recent filing,
but we know it's her from other reporting. She signs, she signs at affidavit that says they,
they completed their, their due diligence, that everything was located in this storage room, whatever that is at Mar-a-Lago, which
the FBI and the Department of Justice knew about along with the national archives from
prior negotiations.
Don't worry, we went into the storage room.
We found these 50 pages of documents.
We've sealed them and turned them over and we're certifying it. What they didn't know, what the Trump lawyers didn't know is that at that very moment,
the Department of Justice and the FBI already had cooperating witnesses that had told
them that the affidavit of the certificate by Christina Bob was a lie, that there was documents
that were in other parts of the house.
This is the reason the subpoena scope
included the Pine Hall, the office of 45 and other places
because that was a lie.
And the FBI already had other witnesses
that confirmed that confidential information
was in other places in Mar-a-Lago,
including in the personal office,
even in the desk drawer of Donald Trump.
So listen, you're lying to the federal government.
That's also a crime.
So that was the go moment you and I talked about for them to go into the federal match straight
and say, we've been lied to.
We've been told that there's been a complete search of a storage room, a storage room,
by the way, in the recent filing by the Department of Justice, they say that the president's
lawyers refuse to allow the FBI to go into confirm that that was the extent of the classified
information or even look in the boxes that they claim that they had looked at, which also,
of course, put up a big red flag for the FBI that they're
being denied that ability to confirm.
So they went to the magistrate.
Now what they have determined from the August 8th, Mar-a-Lago search warrant execution, is
that there were three times as many classified documents, some of which are seen in exhibit
F. Salty, our producer, will put it up on the screen.
Some of it coming from three
of those documents stuffed into the desk drawer of Donald Trump himself, which answers the
question, why did they take the passports? Because there's a concept in search and seizure
law that says that if there is material that is not subject to the search warrant, that
is commingled with with information or data that they're looking for to the search warrant, that is commingled with information or
data that they're looking for by the search warrant, they can take that on a reasonable
good faith basis as well.
So these passports were sitting on or near the confidential information that was shoved
into Donald Trump's desk drawer.
So we now have in 36 pages of briefing and another 18 pages of attachments.
We now have the full opportunity, the Department of Justice must be pouting themselves on the back,
they think that Trump's lawyers, as incompetent as they are, the gang that can't shoot straight,
has opened the door and allowed them to make this basically presentation of everything that they have
right now, both to judge canon and more importantly to the American public independent voters,
future jurors and judges.
So I thought it was a remarkable gift that the inexperienced Trump lawyers have provided
to the Department of Justice who is more than willing to take it. And one last thing then, I do not believe it will help Trump a
wit because he just hired governor to Santis' former or current attorney general to join
the team or to be the lead lawyer Chris, Chris Kice. Chris Kice is a well-known guy in
Florida. He sits in Tallahassee, a well-known guy in Florida. He sits
in Tallahassee, the seat of the government in Florida. He's primarily an administrative
law guy, not a federal criminal law guy. It's like doctors, you don't go to your heart
surgeon when you have an orthopedic shoulder problem. And you don't go, nobody goes to
Chris Kice because they're staring down the barrel
of a sophisticated federal criminal prosecution.
So it's again, it's just window dressing, you know, changing lawyers like he changes his underwear
that Trump's trying to do to shuffle the deck here.
But the reality is this lawyers in a pickle now, rightly so, because of the actions of all
the other prior lawyers, including
Christine of Bob, who I think could also be prosecuted related to the lie that she
told in the affidavit that she filed or gave to the FBI about the, the diligent search.
They found three times as much classified information once they did the search without being
obstructed by Trump and his lawyers, as was provided to them in June.
A few finer points I want to put on what you said, Pope,
first, with respect to the combingling of top secret documents and the past sports and
other personal belongings, the reason that you have that concept of the search and seizure
encompassing all of those documents is because that shows intent. It shows concealment. It shows that
the individual had issue who wasn't supposed to have the property stole it because why else would
you put it with your own personal property? So that's why that is irrelevant, that is relevant
as a factor. The next point is any person who would be advising Trump competently or just any person in a position defending someone
charged with serious crimes at the stage would tell him, you know,
that right to remain silent.
There's a reason for that right.
And take that right, a value yourself of the right because the more
you say, Ken and will be used against you.
And this is just a prime example of that.
And I'm glad in this case, it is being used against him,
but he's out there making statements, frankly,
two courts about this property saying things
like these were documents created at the time
he was the president or documents
that involve presidential records,
which in many ways are admissions
because he acts
like he's a king. He acts like he's an emperor. And he's admitting that he took the documents
in the filings themselves, which is utterly preposterous and absurd. You know, the other point
Popeyec you make is that there's a clear case of obstruction, right? But we need to peel a back a
second and go, well, why do criminals obstruct?
It's not just that criminals obstruct because they don't like to comply.
It's because they're trying to hide something and conceal another crime.
And oftentimes the obstruction prevents the government from identifying the other crime.
But guess what?
That's why the obstruction penalty is 20 years because you're not allowed to obstruct
the other crimes.
So a lot of the other things that we, I think, will be finding out as well as throughout
all of these efforts, Trump wouldn't give up certain subsets of documents that he stole
and didn't belong to him.
You know, we're hearing some reports that there could be compromise on like the president
of France.
We're hearing that there are other top secret documents
that could involve our troops abroad and movements
and a lot of other stuff that could affect national security.
There's been a lot of reporters who have went back
to some of these reports earlier when the CIA was worried
about a lot of spies and agents for America
abroad who were getting killed.
And they haven't specifically made that
link there, but you have to wonder what's in these documents that he was taking he wasn't parting
with that didn't belong to him. And he has a history and a tendency of misusing and misappropriating
documents or bad things. Let me, that's you're exactly right. And let's take a one step further.
The director of national intelligence has already gone on record this past week, along
with the Senate Intelligence Committee that have ordered her to review everything that
was obtained and wrongfully stored and held at Mar-a-Lago and review it from a
national intelligence assessment to determine how or if our national intelligence, our national
defense has been compromised by having these documents in an unsecured place with this
president of this former president of the United States. And she is undergoing as we speak, just as we said last week, that we were sure and we
were right that the Department of Justice and the FBI were done with their search, their
review of all the documents.
Now, the director of national intelligence for the United States is now have to provide
an assessment, a confidential assessment, as to whether she thinks there's been a compromise
of our national
defense. If there's been a compromise of clandestine operations, putting lives in harm's
way, as you as you said, this could get people killed that are cooperating, you know, human
assets that are cooperating, foreign surveillance assets that are helping the United States, even
with its allies, which is part of that process.
So that is going on right now.
As you said, it could be obstruction related to a other crime.
It could certainly be what they're focused on here as well, which is obstruction related
to not turning over these documents and hiding the fact that they had that he had not turned
over all of these documents.
Sometimes it's not the crime.
It's the cover up and the cover up here is he slow played turning over documents and lied to the FBI's face
about that. He had turned over all the documents when they knew from cooperating witnesses
who I assume a one day be identified if it ever goes to trial or through the grand jury
process who cooperated the FBI and said, no, the boss has a menist desk,
the boss has them in other rooms other than the storage room, looking pine haul, looking
as bedroom, looking as safe. That's where other documents are. And once the FBI had that
information, that was enough for them to go in. The fourth amendment arguments, I think
fail, this DOJ is going to have to teach this very young federal judge who did
not have an elaborate federal white collar practice at all before she took the bench under
Trump.
They're going to have to school her and teach her about the Fourth Amendment and the jurisdiction
that she does or does not have related to the Fourth Amendment search and seizure arguments
that Trump has raised.
They've already told her you don't have
the jurisdiction to determine these things at this moment.
This is a application of a search warrant, and that's left for another day.
That's the first thing they're telling her.
As the executive privilege, they have told her in the briefing so far that the application
up, let's remember, the Department of Justice is part of the executive
branch.
Some people forget that because it says, oh, they're involved with the law must be in the
judiciary side.
They're on the executive side and a former president trying to assert executive privilege
against another component of the, of the same side of the branch of government, the executive
branch.
Does it fly? Does it fly? Right? I know you're laughing, but that's what he's trying to do of the branch of government, the executive branch, doesn't fly, doesn't fly,
right? I know you're laughing, but that's what he's trying to do in the Department of Justice
called him out on it and they're filing and also said, and if you had any issues with this judge,
it's been resolved in the 1970s by Nixon versus the GSA. And so that's the, that case is already
said executive to executive. You can't't assert executive privilege and certainly former F. Otis can't assert executive privilege. So this is his worst nightmare.
He'll be whistling in the graveyard with his tweets and his while he doesn't tweet anymore.
His social truths that you said rightly so he should be quiet. But his lawyers can't
control him. He doesn't hire lawyers that he respects that will take their advice about get off a social media.
It's not helping you.
You're in harm's way.
You're eriling yourself.
You're jeopardizing yourself from a criminal standpoint.
He won't listen to them, which is a gift again
to the prosecutors at every level.
So the Department of Justice must have at one moment
been salivating when he filed this motion
because they knew and even when the judge issued basically what you in California call a tentative
ruling where she said, well, I've read their papers and I'm sort of leaning in their direction,
which is actually in retrospect, may not have been a bad thing because it allowed the Department
of Justice to get more pages to file and a really elaborate, you know, they
said, we got to really blow her off the ball.
We got a really come in heavy here against, against Donald Trump and put it all on the
table as much as we can right now.
Now is our opportunity with a hearing on September 1st tomorrow, which of course, we'll end
up reporting on the weekend edition.
Absolutely.
And two other things I want to point out. So before the filing by the Department of Justice, to your point of trying to educate this
young judge who doesn't have a white collar practice, she wasn't even a partner at the
law firm that she was associated with, which was a very good law firm, a group of bipartisan
former federal prosecutors submitted an amicus puree, a friend of the court brief, which we normally
see to the Supreme Court. I haven't really seen many of them, although you see sometimes
in very, in very significant district court cases, but the fact that this group of prosecutors
literally tried to teach her what the law is to say, what are you doing? There is no grounds at all for a special master here.
Including two former Republican governors, Christine Todd Whitman and Bill Well, that
a Massachusetts. Right. So that was filed first. And then finally, on the point of the special master,
one of the things that was pointed out by the DOJ is that the Department of Justice and the FBI
have already reviewed all of the
records. So all of these issues are moved. There was a filter team that was put in place
pursuant to the protocol set forth in the search warrant, which were not objected to by Trump.
One of the things the DOJ pointed out was actually the search warrant of Michael Cohen,
where they said, look, Cohen went into court
immediately and asked for a special master on day two or day three.
Trump waited weeks and weeks and weeks, which only any two and he has an opportunity to
use that there's, which shows that there's no irreparable harm.
And one of the other things the government says is, so we don't need a special master.
The filter team's done their work already.
And it's done.
And also the appointment of a special master is something that's done in equity. And to be equitable,
you have to follow the law. So Donald Trump's stealing records and then going to the court and
invoking equitable jurisdiction is beyond foolish. The DOJ. So on so on that one on that on that one point because I don't know
I'm not sure we talked about this in eighty eight podcasts. So I'll do it in one minute.
Courts used to be divided into courts of law and courts of equity. Some courts in the
country still are Delaware being one of the rare exceptions. But back in the day, there
were you would run to courts of law if you wanted money damages, you would run to courts of equity. If you wanted something short of money damages,
like an injunction, a special master being appointed, that kind of thing. They've all been merged
together. Most courts today, federal and state are both, the judge is both a judge of equity and a
judge of law. But as to your point, what you just said is right, point a judge of equity,
you're going to ask for equity, you've got to come to the court with what's called unclean
hand. Sorry, with clean hands with clean hands, you can't have unclean hands. And who has
more unclean and bloody hands than Donald Trump. So equity should be denied him a request
for a special master. But I'm not sure it gets that far. I think you and I are going to
be watching the results of this hearing on on September 1st. I'll make a prediction. I want
to hear yours, even though she's an experience, even though she was appointed by Trump, I think
given the array of parties and amicus briefs, the Department of Justice best work, the, the
the mound of law and evidence has now been provided to her.
I think even she is going to find that this whatever the relief is the Trump is asking for
that she will deny it. What do you think? Oh, I think that she will probably deny it as
moot in any event. The relief being sought by Trump is irrelevant at the stage.
She may throw them a bone because there's a separate set of documents that were potentially
privileged as attorney-client privilege, which there would be a valid claim to do a privilege
review of those records.
But the Department of Justice set out the protocol where Trump's lawyers can deal with those
privileged documents. So as it relates to those small group of records, I think there may be some new on there,
but it has no impact on anything at all.
I want to talk briefly about what's going on in Georgia, pop up before we wrap up this
shorter edition of legal AF, but wanted to make sure we had this emergency addition
to address that bomb shell filing. I want to tell everyone
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Finally, Michael Popeye, give us a brief breakdown of what's going on with Governor Brian
Kemp, Lindsey Graham, the Fony Willis special grand jury that's investigating Donald Trump's
election interference in Georgia. What's the update there? All right. Thanks, Ben. So just a recall,
Lindsey Graham, there is no dispute that Lindsey Graham in December after the election
made a series of phone calls to Brad Raffinsburg or the Secretary of State of Georgia and others
there where he and this is according to Raffaffins burger having already testified both of the Jan 6th
committee and with Bonnie Willis a special grand jury that he
said to Raffins burger about mail-in ballots in Georgia. Can't
they be thrown out? Can't they be disqualified, which would help
president, then president Trump be elected? No question about
from the Raffins burger side of the phone elected. No question about from the Raffensburgers side of the phone conversation.
No question about what was what was said on the phone call. Graham hasn't really publicly denied
the phone call, but has claimed that he cannot be questioned by way of a special grand jury or
otherwise, because he's completely immune from such questioning under the speech and debate
clause of the US Constitution, which
only applies to legislative acts generally on the House or Senate floor, not fact-finding
phone calls or attempts to interfere with elections, especially in a state that you're not the
Senator from, which in this case is Georgia.
So that's the issue, the original, the judge, the trial judge in the issue after,
after Graham ran to federal court judge, May, a Obama appointee said in her ruling,
I don't see the application of speech and debate clause. The questions that'll be asked of you
are about your phone call, which are allegedly are the interference with Georgia election process.
And you're attempt to throw out mail-in ballots. I can't see how speech and debate would protect your phone call, which are allegedly are the interference with Georgia election process,
and you're attempt to throw out mail-in ballots.
I can't see how speech and debate would protect you from that.
Answer the questions.
He ran then to the 11th Circuit, which sits over Georgia, and he got the appellate court,
not to rule in his favor, per se, but to throw it back to Judge May with instructions that
she's to conduct further hearings or briefing on the
issue of whether any aspect of what he's being asked would implicate the speech into Bay
clause. They didn't think that in her transcript of her hearing, she had sufficiently sussed
out the if there were, if there were going to be any opportunities for him to apply the
speech into Bay clause. So Graham took the opportunity and another brief
to basically go all in and say to the judge, May, there's nothing that I can be asked
by the special grand jury, even about phone calls that I made that wouldn't be covered by speech
and debate wouldn't be legislative. So Fawni Willis got to file on Tuesday and her office got
to file on Tuesday, an elaborate brief that basically called it, called
Brinds, Lindsey Graham's position, a charade, that it was just a repeat of his prior arguments
that, that did not prevail and that he had provided no further law or facts that would
indicate that his phone call to the Raffinsburgers of the world would be covered by speech and
debate protection.
And they went further.
They said it is obvious from his public statements and from his history that's in the media
that Lindsey Graham has a political entanglement.
That's the words Ben that the funny Willis's office used a political entanglement with Donald
Trump.
And all he's trying to do now is do political things to
curry favor with Donald Trump, having nothing to do with legislative process when he's a
when he's a senator sitting in the Senate chamber. So they and pointed out that he had offered
nothing new in his briefing that would suggest that that the speech speech and debate
clause would cover him. So now that's back in front of
judge May, I expect your ruling, I expect Lindsey Graham to try to appeal it again back to the 11th circuit and that eventually and probably after the midterms, Lindsey Graham is ultimately going to
be testifying about those phone calls. Similarly, we talked in the past about this supervising chief judge of Fulton County,
Judge McBerney, who sits above Fawni Willis, and to whom when you have a problem with the
grand jury process, you are to first go to rather than a federal judge.
And McBerney had in front of him a objection to the current governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, who's up for reelection in November.
He objected to testifying about the phone calls that he had with Lindsey Graham, Donald
Trump, and people in Trump's inner circle about the election, again, election interference
under the parlance of the prosecution.
He did not want to testify to that, citing all sorts of other privileges. And
McBerney true to form because he's already been on record three times as saying, I am not
going to let the special grand jury impact the upcoming election. He said last week that
it is likely that the report that is that comes out of the special grand jury, even if it's
ready on the eve of November,
it's not going to be, he's not going to allow it to be in October or November surprise.
He's going to roll it over until after the election.
So we're not going to know the result of the special, the special grand jury.
And having already ruled that way, now McBerney has said, there's no harm, no foul then,
to have camp testify.
He ordered him to testify.
But after his election
cycle in November. So we're so, so camp is going to testify the governor, but it's going to be
after he's either reelected or he loses the Stacey Abrams, which is of course our choice,
our hope. But that's going to happen after that. So that's where we are with Lindsey Graham,
and that's where we are with the current state of affairs in in fault county. Michael Popack, what a great update and it's great
doing this midweek legal AF with you. I'm excited to share more updates as we get them
for the weekend edition, but this is bombshell as it gets people. It's been such an honor being able to
provide these updates since the beginning of legal aethan. You go back and you follow what we've
been doing on the show that led up to this moment and what we'll be continuing into the future.
which will be continuing into the future, the tapestry, the intelligence, you know, there's this art and, you know, and beauty in our justice system when it works.
And when it's used and the machinery of it is turned against us, as Trump has used it
for those four years where he disgraced our nation, you see how problematic it can be,
but how powerful of a tool it is.
And that's why despots and dictators, they see that power and they want to use it for
bad, but we'll keep everybody updated on what's going on.
Popeye great spending this midweek edition with you. Everybody check out store.
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