Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Prosecutor STUNS Trump with REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

Michael Popok explains why in a new filing the Manhattan DA is not encouraging Judge Merchan to delay Trump’s felony sentencing scheduled for 9/18. Instead, the DA is reminding the Judge that Trump has threatened to file appeals before, that have all lost, and that he should just let the appellate court decide whether Trump should get a stay to prevent sentencing if and when Trump ever files an appeal of the court’s upcoming immunity decision on 9/16. Thank to DeleteMe! Go to https://JoinDeleteMe.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF for 20% off! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join the Legal AF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/LegalAF 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

Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF, reporting from New York. The Manhattan DA has taken a very smart position concerning the sentencing of Donald Trump

for the 34 counts of felonies on the 18th of September. It's nuanced, it's a good strategy, and I applaud it. And let me explain it to you right now. We know that Donald Trump has been trying to postpone indefinitely him getting sentenced related to those 34 felony counts by Judge Mershon. The rock and a hard place he's been up against is that Judge Mershon, rightfully so, as a

judge presiding over the case, administrating justice, has said he has to provide the sentence in due course and without unreasonable delay. That's the balance here. Donald Trump, fearful that the Manhattan DA's sentencing report recommending a tremendous sentence of incarceration, in addition to the Manhattan DA having the opportunity to list all of Donald Trump's wrongful conduct, both in the case and since he's been convicted, and during the trial itself, filed a request with the judge, a motion with the judge to delay.

We thought that the Manhattan DA would oppose it and we'd go right to the 18th of September, but they've taken a more nuanced position, which I like a lot. I'm going to explain it here. What they've said to the judge, and I'm going to read to you from the actual filing by the Manhattan DA in a moment, but let me boil it down for you. What they've said to the judges, it's your call. We don't believe there's any merit to the immunity appeal

that Donald Trump is threatening to take. We don't think he has any way to get to federal court or federal appellate court related to it and it's not even an immunity appeal because they said we agree with Donald Trump that if you were talking about whether he was immune from prosecution that issue goes on immediate appeal to the state and or federal appellate court but that's not the issue that Donald Trump has claimed exists as grounds for his appeal. It's not that he's immune from suit.

It's a more delicate, nuanced argument that certain of the evidence that was used during the trial against Donald Trump occurred during his time in the White House after the Stormy Daniels hush money cover-up bribery case. And that that evidence, as scant as it was, as minor as it was against a mountain of other evidence, that somehow was reversible error because the Supreme Court, United States, on July the 1st said in no uncertain terms that if it's official conduct involving the president as president, you can't use that evidence to try to convict him related to things that were not related to his presidency, things that were not immune.

So you can't use immune evidence to convict about things that aren't immune. Follow that? So there were a couple of things that happened during the trial, a couple of straight pieces of testimony. You had Hope Hicks, who was the White House press secretary for a short amount of time after this happened, and Madeleine Westerhout, who ran Donald Trump's schedule, his calendar, and they testified about certain events involving Michael Cohen and the bribery coverup affair that happened while Donald Trump was president.

That doesn't make them official conduct. But in any event, it doesn't make Donald Trump immune from prosecution. The only question for the appellate courts is going to be whether certain official conduct that is immune was used improperly against Donald Trump to obtain the conviction and whether it was outcome determinative. In other words, did the jury rely on those stray pieces of information in order to convict? Now here's what the Manhattan DA said about that. It says, as the people noted in our opposition, this is footnote one, to the defendant's pending

immunity motion, the evidence that he claims is affected by the Supreme Court's ruling constitutes only a sliver of the mountains of testimony and documentary proof that the jury considered in finding him guilty of all 34 felony charges beyond a reasonable doubt. That includes the testimony of everybody involved in the conspiracy including Michael Cohen and David Pecker of the National Enquirer who were part of, there's only three parts of the Trump Tower conspiracy, and two of those parts testified against Donald Trump, along with how all the money people within Donald Trump's organization who testified or fraudulently testified and went to jail

related to it, related to how the money flow went from Donald Trump to Michael Cohen and to Stormy Daniels, right? So that's the issue. So the smart thing here that I love that the Manhattan DA's office has done is to say to the judge, look, we understand you have an obligation not to delay sentencing under our criminal procedure law,

what we call in New York, the CPL. I get that. And Trump, don't worry, judge, Trump has, if he really takes an appeal, instead of threatening to take an appeal, if he really takes an appeal instead of threatening to take an appeal, if he really takes an appeal to the first department, appellate division here in New York, in Manhattan, or to the court of appeals, or to some federal court, they can issue an interim stay between the 16th and the 18th.

In other words, Donald Trump's main argument was if you're going to rule on immunity on the 16th judge, you're not giving us enough time to appeal if you're sentencing on the 18th, to which the Manhattan DA says, let the appellate court issue whatever stay they want to. Why does the trial court have to do it? They're giving the judge an entire menu of options and reminding the judge of the menu of options that could happen here to protect everybody. Judge, you could stay the 18th of September and let's see if Donald Trump takes the appeal. You could let him take the appeal

and let him get the stay from the appellate court and call his bluff, in other words, or you could just go forward on the 18th because the immunity issue that Donald Trump is raising doesn't divest the court of jurisdiction because it only deals with evidence and not with the actual prosecution itself. Ever wonder how much of your personal data

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constantly monitoring and removing the personal information you don't want on the internet. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now, what a special discount for our listeners. Today, get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash Legal AF and use promo code Legal AF at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to joindeleteme.com slash Legal AF and enter code Legal AF at checkout. That's joindeleteme.com slash LegalAF code LegalAF. So I love the way that's been laid out

by the Manhattan DA's office. And now we're gonna see, probably by the time we're done with this hot take, we're gonna see the judge's ruling on this. If I had to guess, I think the judge will go in one of two ways. I think the judge understanding go in one of two ways. I think the judge, understanding the, who understood these options

when he entered the original order, setting the 16th for the date he was gonna issue the immunity decision and the 18th for the sentencing, always presumed that Donald Trump, if he had a real legitimate appeal, would try to get his stay from the appellate court. And I believe that's what Judge Rishon is gonna do again.

Judge Rishon is gonna let the appellate court do their job and issue a stay if they think there's merit to the immunity decision so that he doesn't have to make that decision now. Because on the face of it, there is no merit to the immunity decision, which the Manhattan DA reminds Judge Mershon of, period. And so I think this is my PopAC prediction. We're going to see the judge say, thank you Manhattan DA for your neutral or neutrality agnostic position. But here's what I'm going to do. I knew when I wrote the order that there's only two days between the 16th of September and the 18th of September.

I know how to read a calendar. If you have a legitimate appeal, Mr. Trump, of whatever decision that I make that's adverse to you, you go take it to the appellate court and they can issue whatever interim relief you think you're entitled to if you prevail. And if you don't, because Donald Trump has lost about 10 different appeals and motions for stay along the way in various cases involving the same appellate court, and I know the judge knows the track record of Donald Trump, he's like, oh, and 10 at the appellate level, I think he lets that happen that way.

He issues his ruling on the 16th, finding that the immunity decision by the United States Supreme Court on July 1st does not adversely impact what happened thereafter with Donald Trump's, or there before, with Donald Trump's convictions. That those 34 felony counts of the jury stay in place, and that the evidence that touched on the White House

and his getting elected as part of the election interference of the Stormy Daniels cover-up is not outcome dispositive, not reversible error, more like harmless error given the mountains of other evidence and testimony against Donald Trump. And he sentences him on the 18th. Donald Trump doesn't like it. He can go take his appeal. He can try to take it in state court. He can try to take it in federal court and see if he gets a judge to pay attention in time.

Otherwise, he's going to get sentenced, I believe, on the 18th, including jail time. And they made another very good point in their filing, the Manhattan DA, is, well, he shouldn't worry about the sentencing memo because the sentencing memo where the Supreme Court, sorry, where the Manhattan DA is going to lay out all the bad things that Donald Trump did inside and outside the courtroom is sealed, meaning it's not on the public docket unless the judge unseals it. And the judge can say, I don't have any intention of unsealing the sentencing memos until after I sentence on the 18th. And so, and I'll keep that sealed. They can all, he can offer as a little bit of ice

in winter to Donald Trump. I'll keep them sealed while you take your appeal. How's that sound? But he's gonna sentence them, I believe, on the 18th. We'll continue to follow it all, break it down for you just like this on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Follow me, Michael Popok, on Legal AF

every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. It's a YouTube, we do a YouTube version of the podcast where we curate the top four or five stories. Wednesdays with Karen Friedman at Knifilow, Saturdays with Ben Misalas, and then hot takes like this about every hour at that same intersection of law and politics. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF,

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