Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets NEW TARGET LETTER as Jack TURNS UP THE HEAT
Episode Date: July 23, 2023Anchored by Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok, the top-rated podcast -- Legal AF -- is back for another hard-hitting look at the most consequential developments at the intersection of law and politics. O...n this weekend’s edition the anchors discuss: 1. Special Counsel Jack Smith serving Trump with a new “criminal target” letter as a precursor to impending DC indictment for Jan6 crimes, as his team continues having witnesses come into the grand jury for testimony against Trump and others; 2. Judge Cannon presiding over the Mar a Lago Florida federal criminal case sets a trial date right in the middle of the Republican primary season, as she considers when to issue her required protective order over the classified documents to be used; 3. Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis completing a week of grand jury work in her criminal investigation of Trump ad others without interruption, as the future charges she will bring come into focus; 4. Trump’s federal and state court epic losing streak continuing and backfiring on him, as he loses: (a) his motion to have his “Stormy Daniels” cover up Manhattan criminal case set for trial in March 2024 removed to federal court; (b) his motion get a new trial and reduce the damages award in the E Jean Carroll defamation and battery case; and (c) his petition to have the all Republican-appointed Georgia Supreme Court stop Fani Willis’ grand jury process, stop her from using already developed evidence and witness testimony and have her disqualified from the case, and so much more. DEALS FROM OUR SPONSORS! ROCKET MONEY: Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/legalaf EIGHT SLEEP: Go to https://eightsleep.com/legalaf and save $150 on the Pod Cover! SUPPORT THE SHOW: Shop LEGAL AF Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch 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 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 Burn the Boats: https://pod.link/1485464343 Majority 54: https://pod.link/1309354521 Political Beatdown: https://pod.link/1669634407 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://pod.link/1676844320 MAGA Uncovered: https://pod.link/1690214260 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Special counsel, Jack Smith sent a target letter to Donald Trump indicating that an indictment
for 2020 election interference by Trump is imminent and Trump reacted about as deranged
as you would expect.
And this past week, special counsel, Jack Smith, and addition to sending that target letter,
he was hard at work.
He even told Donald Trump he wanna show up on Thursday
and testify before the grand jury,
Donald Trump didn't take him up on that offer,
but special counsel, Jack Smith did get the testimony
of former Trump aid and current Trump campaign staff
or will rustle, and allegedly questions were asked
about Donald Trump's intent also
in the federal criminal case against Donald Trump for the willful retention of national defense
information obstruction of justice and other crimes that took place at that crime scene known as
Mara Lago who a federal judge of course know, or Judge Eileen Cannon set a new trial
date. Let's discuss that new trial date, what it means for the case, and where this current trial
date by Judge Eileen Cannon fits in with all of the other trial dates that Donald Trump is going
to have to contend with turning to Georgia. We've learned more about Fulton County District Attorney
Fawni Willis's plans before the grand jury
that was recently in panel there where Pope Akinai
expect an indictment against Donald Trump
in the coming weeks will discuss that.
Also, a week of major court losses for Donald Trump,
what's new, three major court losses for Donald Trump.
This week, Trump's attempt to remove the Manhattan District Attorney felony case in State
Court to federal court was denied. Donald Trump's request for a new trial in the E. Jean
Carroll federal case that he lost that a judgment entered against him for $5 million was denied and Trump's petition
to the Georgia Supreme Court to try to derail Fulton County District Attorney Fony Willisys.
Criminal investigation was, yeah, you guessed it, denied. But also, in addition to being denied,
these orders were scathing. Three scathing orders will break them down. And some
breaking news from earlier in the day. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp confirmed to
different media outlets that special counsel. Jack Smith's team has been in
contact with his office. The governor wouldn't say anything more than that. But
again, showing that special counsel, Jack Smith is going right
to the top there, speaking with the secretaries of state, speaking to the governor, speaking
to top people who are ultimately, I believe, going to be witnesses when this indictment
drops against Donald Trump. Michael Popak, how are you today? You see how I packed that into
a little bit more of a small nugget right there for you.
And I love that. I love denied. I like that pronunciation. And something that we did on a hot
take earlier this week, I'm going to resurrect here. It triggered me when you said all the calendar.
And since we are at the intersection of law and politics, because we talk about politically
charge litigation matters on this show, what I try to do on this Popak port report, which is going to tie right through everything we're going to do
on this segment, is, and we're going to flash it up here, is go over where the
primaries in the Republican Party are given the various trial dates for Donald
Trump. I call it Trump trials. So for those that are listening and not
watching, we have October 2nd, 2023, the New York
Attorney General $250 million fraud case is going forward in a state house, state courthouse
in New York.
That's October.
This is all, this is two months away.
Then we have the Iowa caucus on January 15th of 2024, same day as the second E. Jean Carol defamation case, where she's seeking
$10 million in punitive damage, just because he keeps defaming her. And we're going to talk about E. Jean
Carol on the show today and the motion that was denied by the judge. 14 days later, we've got a
federal case, another federal case in New York against Donald
Trump and all the kids and others in a class action fraud case related to a multi-level
marketing scheme that he operated.
Then we have a little bit of a break as we go into super Tuesdays in the Republican Party,
March 5th, March 12th, two sets of super Tuesdays, and then just 20 days later, we've got the Stormy Daniels,
criminal case, New York State Court again,
that's gonna go off in front of Judge Mershon
for the hush money cover-up business record fraud affair.
And then just a month and a half later,
we have the Mar-a-Lago trial we're gonna talk about today
that's been set for May.
And then finally, the Republican National Committee
meets to nominate their
candidate in Milwaukee on July the 15th. That is a, and we haven't even put in Fony
Willis nor the second or third Jack Smith indictment. I love the Pope, Pocchi and board. We may
need a graphics department and to that end, everybody watching, we think we definitely need a graphics
department. Although I like your, I like your board. For everybody watching on YouTube,
you're probably seeing those Karen Friedman Agni fellow emojis in the chat, throw up those
KFA emojis joining the Michael Popeyes emojis. And the way you can access those emojis is by coming a member
of our YouTube page.
You just hit that dollar sign on the bottom right.
Become a member.
You can gift others, memberships.
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We don't have outside investors here at the Midas Touch Network.
Perhaps not the greatest business model, but one of the ways you could support this network
and help us grow and perhaps even get a graphics department.
One day is by those memberships.
And again, we have fun with it with those
Karen Friedman Agdifilo-Moji's, Popok emojis.
And others, let's get right into it.
Special counsel, Jack Smith sending a target letter
to Donald Trump.
We believe that target letter was actually sent on Sunday night.
I like that Jack Smith sends it on Sunday night.
And what we've seen as a tradition
for Special Counsel Jack Smith,
after he sends these target letters
and prepares the indictment,
I don't know why I'm so obsessed with this popok,
but the two times we've seen Special Counsel Jack Smith,
he's left the subway shop with a subway sandwich in his hand.
And so it's in such perfect contrast to Donald Trump's posts in response to all of this,
where Donald Trump will be like, war, hunk, deranged, vile, crackhead, this is a travesty
world war three.
And it's like, and then Jack Smith's like, yeah, I'm just going to eat a subway sandwich.
Just chill right now.
It's the perfect.
I interpret that troll. I know you've done it on your hot take. Mine is, he's just a lunch
pale guy going about his business, chopping wood, eating a sandwich, ordinary Joe.
Yeah. But what was your interpretation of the hot.
My interpretation is the same thing that he's cool, come collected.
He's got this under control.
He's going to go grab a sandwich with, you know, his colleagues, you know, probably not
even talk about the case, probably talk about the Washington Nationals game or something.
That's the vibe that it gives.
Donald Trump responded about the way he'd expect, you know, one of his screeds of paragraphs
of all caps that begins with wow exclamation
point.
I'm not even going to read it because it's so utterly deranged.
But we learned that one of Donald Trump's go-to moves that he's always been doing now
every time he gets in criminal jeopardy because he is a criminal and a traitor.
He reaches out to his criminal traitor friends, the Maga Republicans in the House of Representatives
and asks basically them to defend them.
Forget about co-equal branches of government, the Maga Republicans have turned the House
of Representatives into a taxpayer-funded defense of a fascist who's trying to destroy our
democracy.
I think the American people get what is going down here,
you know, and it's just so despicable. That Donald Trump coordinates this with at least
DeFonic and Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan and all of that mega-republic in Ilk. But we did learn
some new data, Michael Popok, about some of the things that were included in this target letter
and a new criminal statute that we not only have not heard
about, but that you covered in depth in a hot take,
this 18 USC section, two, four, one, Michael Popeye, what's up?
Yeah, what's up with that two, four, one?
What's up with that two, four, one?
Yeah, I have a mention to one of your brothers,
I was like, this, because they put on the thumbnail
for the hot take, 18 USC brothers, I was like, this because they put on the thumbnail for the hot take, uh, 18 USC section 241 ago, that's for all the 241 of Fosh,
Efficient Auto's out there. But it is doing fine. Let's talk.
Find like a fine wine. It is a fine wine. Yes, the 241 team is back.
Let's talk about that because while kidding aside, um,
that because it all kidding aside, we've been trying to shadow box a bit and guess what the Jack Smith indictment is going to be, not what, not if it will be, but what it will
be. And we try to piece that together on shows like this one, Ben, you and me and Karen,
particularly in things like what the Jan 6th committee had recommended in their
final report about the potential crimes, organizations like Just Security, which is headed by a friend
of the pod, Daniel Perry, former prosecutor, Norm Eisen, who works with Karen Freeman,
like Nifalo on certain things.
And we sort of put together, and we guest, you know,
pretty accurately two of the interference obstruction with official proceeding type
claims, criminal charges that will be brought. The one that threw us for a loop, but frankly,
I don't think should have now that I've gone back with 2020 hindsight and looked it up
in the Department of Justice manual. And in one of their handouts about election and voter
fraud is 18 USC 241. Why are we talking about that here? And why are we talking about it on my
hot take that's up on YouTube channel? Because it's in the target letter. We know it's in the target
letter, not necessarily from anything that Jack Smith's team has leaked, although it's been
confirmed that within the
target letter were three federal statutes that were listed, one of the two of which we
had anticipated that we talked about interference and obstruction within official proceeding.
And the other was this 18 USC 241, 241 was brought forward by Congress after one of the darkest chapters in our nation's history,
the Civil War, how African-Americans were treated as freed slaves, and their voting rights,
and their constitutional rights. And it's right after that when organizations like the KKK
were intimidating voters that were black, who they did not want to exercise constitutional
rights to vote.
And so this law was passed to make sure that people in that class were protected from the
exercise of their constitutional rights.
And the way that statute has been used since then is it goes after voter fraud, ballot
stuffing, which is what it sounds like, electronic or otherwise.
You take a bunch of voting ballots,
you shove it into the box,
or the electronic tally for the vote.
You use fraudulent voting, fraudulent ballots.
You do intimidation against election officials
or voters themselves to try to depress,
or suppress the vote, all of that.
And when you think about it, it is so perfect because it's elastic.
It can wrap around all of the criminal co-conspirators along with Trump
and pick up all the elements of the conspiracy in one neat package.
And if you look at the Department of Justice's own federal guidelines, pam pamphlet that I found it's listed right there as something for prosecutors to use around the country.
So what is the intimidation slash forgery or or or ballad stuffing. It has to be centered around the fake slate of electors, the fake electors because isn't that the ultimate disenfranchisement
for people and their voting? I vote popular vote, right? I go in, you go in, Ben goes into
a voting booth, like I did when I first started voting or some sort of electronic platform
and I click, click and that's my vote and it gets cast. But then that ultimately gets converted based on the state's rules into a slate of electors
being then given over to one presidential candidate
or the other.
Some states allow for a couple of electoral votes
to go not the entire slate to go to the winner,
some goes to the loser.
But in general, the ultimate disenfranchisement is
I vote and I'm entitled, as Thurgood Marshall said, in a case, in a US Supreme Court case,
in the 1960s, everyone, everyone, including Trumpers, MAGA, Red, Blue, Purple, Independent,
whatever, everybody is entitled to have their vote honestly counted to an honest count.
Everybody.
This isn't just a democratic thing or a progressive thing.
This is a voting election integrity thing.
If my vote is disenfranchised because the fake electors step in and try to steal the electoral
vote by having fake certificates, that is a 241 crime as Jack Smith is presenting it. Plus, so it's
it's those bands in seven in seven battleground states of fake electors that are all being prosecuted by their local prosecutors by their attorney generals. That is that's one part of it. The other is the interference and the pressure campaign that Donald Trump and his henchmen,
like Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sydney Powell and others put on election officials, right?
To flip votes, to throw out votes, to throw out mail and to throw an absentee, a pressure
campaigns on secretaries of state, on local election officials, on state
health, state house, legislators, and senators by having phony hearings, by having, by filing
lawsuits that all were O and 70 were all losses, but tried to throw sand in the works to try
to put pressure to convert votes that were Biden's legitimately and turn them into Trump votes to
steal them.
And so that's why the 241 listed in the target letter so that we've been told.
One other thing on that, Ben, before I turn it back to you, is that just to be clear,
just because you don't get a target letter doesn't mean you're not going to be prosecuted
by Jack Smith.
Everybody stepped to the podium after Donald Trump got his last Sunday, you know, this past Sunday, and said, oh,
originally, I didn't get one. Oh, Eastman, Johnny's, I didn't get one. That doesn't mean
a darn thing. Okay, that and $5.50 gets you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. There's no
requirement in the DOJ manual or in constitutional law that you get a target
letter before you're indicted.
Sometimes you don't know you're indicted to you, wake up in your pajamas and there's an
FBI agent at your front door.
That's how you know you've been indicted and you're being brought down for an arrangement
where an indictment is unsealed, okay?
You don't need that target letter.
So I don't want everybody to say, oh crap, they're not going to indict Rudy Giuliani.
We don't know that yet or Eastman. We don't know that yet. Or Eastman.
We don't know who's cooperating exactly besides Mark Meadows and all of that.
That's one.
And secondly, just because the crime is not listed in the target letter doesn't mean it's
not going to be part of the indictment.
He's not limited.
This is not a limiting document.
There's no, there's no basis to dismiss an indictment because the target letter was narrower than the
breadth of the indictment.
So don't worry about that.
It's not just these three claims.
We're going to see hundreds of claims on maybe a dozen sets of statutes.
There's no facts in there.
And the timing of it last Sunday was because they knew they were going to the court on Tuesday
in Florida with Judge Cannon.
And I think that gambit work too to signal
to her, you're not the only federal judge. It's going to be dealing with a defended
Donald Trump in the next week, judge. So do the right thing on the trial date. And we'll
talk about that next.
Popak the section 241, Samille, hey, think about it, Popak right there. Very well done. Popak
in the skills right there. And I think yeah,
obstruction of official proceeding section 241, various conspiracy counts. I think we'll see money
laundering. I think we'll see wire fraud. I think those Donald Trump packs are going to be the
subject of a future criminal case, but we will see. But special counsel Jack Smith was busy,
even though Donald Trump did not take up the invite
to testify before the grand jury.
But one of Donald Trump's former staffers
and current aides did, someone by the name of William Russell.
William Russell was with Donald Trump on January 6.
There's photos of him in that tent
where you had Kimberly Gargoyle
doing her, you know, dance that she was doing and they were all celebrating as
the insurrectionist storm, the Capitol building. That's Will Russell right there
on the right. That's Will Russell after Donald Trump left office with one of
those boxes with lots of documents in his hand. I wonder if special counsel
Jack Smith's going to ask him about those documents in his hand. I wonder if special counsel Jack Smith's going to ask him
about those documents in his hands.
But one of the things we learned is that Jack Smith's
questioning or Jack Smith's team's questioning
was very much focused on state of mind and intent
and the types of things that Donald Trump was saying
on January 6th itself and thereafter.
And because Will Russell was, again,
one of the many quote unquote, body men
that Donald Trump surrounded himself with,
people basically who would just hang out with him
and tell him how great he was and carry his stuff
and get him sodas.
These people though were around him
and heard his conversations.
And so that was a major focus of the questioning
there, but we will keep you posted as we learn more as other witnesses testify. And then of course,
as I mentioned at the outset, that breaking news that you had Governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp
testifying or speaking with Jack Smith, not yet testifying, but speaking with special counsel, Jack Smith.
So a lot going on there.
One more thing to, Ben.
One more thing to, Ben.
Um, we're going to cover McFadden.
Yeah.
I mean, we, we should cover McFadden because it does intersect there.
Um, a Trump appointed judge Trevor McFadden, uh, who sits in the federal courthouse in Washington,
DC, was hearing a bench trial of an insurrectionist who actually worked in the State Department for
Donald Trump, somebody Fred Rico Klein.
And then during that, something very unusual happened.
Fred Rico Klein's lawyer was late. Frerrico Cline's lawyer is Stanley Woodward,
and Stanley Woodward is also the lawyer
who Donald Trump's pack basically pays
to represent everybody in Donald Trump's orbit,
including here William Russell.
So Stanley Woodward was apparently standing
in the hallway while William Russell, his client,
who again works for Trump, would represent all the Trumpers, was in the grand jury room
and the pretext, if you will, that Stanley Woodward, this lawyer claims that he was waiting
in the hallway, said there was issues regarding executive privilege, which Pope Occupy, you
and I both know, and all the legal efforts efforts know what a frivolous claim that is. I mean, first and foremost, the
lawyer is not allowed to even be in the grand jury room in the first place.
Number one, based on grand jury secrecy, only the, in this case, the, you know,
the DA or here, the United States attorney or here, special counsel Jack Smith's
team is in there with the grand jury and with the witness. And all of these executive privilege claims
have gone before the DC, the DC federal courts, the DC circuit court of appeals.
Trump can assert executive privilege. It's not a valid objection.
So for Stanley Woodward to say that was his concern preserving executive
privilege. When I think we've talked about it a hundred times on legal AF,
that Trump doesn't have executive privilege. He can't make the claim. and private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private private Executive privilege. So you have Stanley Woodward late and then the judge this Trevor McFadden young judge 45 years old
Appointed by Trump just kind of being a total jerk first, you know, says where Stanley Woodward? He's 20 minutes late
Then they call Stanley Woodward and Stanley Woodward goes well the reason judge that I was late was because of Jack Smith's team
It was Jack Smith's fault. And then this Trump appointed judge,
Judge Trevor McFadden, who's been giving very light sentences
to all these insurrectionists,
sends the US marshals to search,
you could just make a phone call,
to send US marshals to go after Jack Smith's team
to walk them and basically give them a perp walk to McFadden's courtroom
so that McFadden could yell at Special Counsel Jack Smith's team and scold them for making
Stanley Woodward late.
It was a bizarre scene.
One other fact to point out about Stanley Woodward, he's also the lawyer, of course, as
I mentioned, he represents lots of people who work for Donald Trump.
He is the lawyer for Walt Nauta, Donald Trump's co-defendant in the next case that we are about
to talk about, which is the trial date set by Judge Eileen Cannon and Popak. Breakdown, what went
down in federal court. This was a supposed to be a SEPA hearing, classified information procedures act
has certain specialized procedures
like a specialized classified information security officer,
a CISO, there are different filing procedures
that takes place when we're talking
about classified information.
But Judge Eileen Cannon leading up
to this big hearing that took place this last week,
told the parties, all right, Jack Smith,
you want a December trial date,
Donald Trump and Waltine, now to you've said
you want a trial date, never I guess,
you wanna talk about trial after the November, 2024 election,
but you haven't even proposed a trial date.
I wanna have this hearing be utilized
to talk about the trial date about a two hour hearing. Lots were discussed. Popoac breakdown,
what went down at this hearing. Well, to give people some bit of confidence,
Ken, and as the people the court watchers reported, was equally harsh on both the DOJs team and Donald Trump's
lawyers on the setting of the Speedy Trial Act trial date.
The good part is she acknowledged that she had a set of trial dates, so she did not take
the bait that Donald Trump's lawyers set for her, the trap, which would be, don't set a
date at all.
How about never judge, as you said, Ben, never would be don't set a date at all. How about never judge?
As you said, Ben, never would be good with us or at least after some motion
practice or let's just keep kicking the can down the road.
Now are we ever going to pick a jury that's fair and impartial during primary
season, which I outlined at the beginning of the podcast today?
And the judges are like, okay, let's start from where I'm at one.
Your argument about you will never be able to pick a fair
and impartial jury in the Southern District of Florida
or anywhere else during the election season.
I'm not buying that.
That's not a prejudice.
Whereas that a factor for me to consider in speedy trial act.
Let me hear you articulate specifically what the prejudice
is to me setting a trial date that somewhere along the lines of the continuum
between the August date that I originally set the December date that I think is too soon for the government, but your November
election day date, which is way out there. And I want to hear it when Blanche started to talk to her and
ramble on about something,
she cut them off apparently,
according to court watchers,
that said, you're not answering my question.
Listen to my question.
And by the time she was done to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln,
she created a compromised date,
really splitting the difference,
that left both sides kind of equally a little bit unhappy.
And that means it's probably the right compromise
to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln. She split the difference. It's five months later than the
Department of Justice wanted, but it's six months earlier than Todd Blanche and Kice for Trump wanted.
So she picked May, we're going to trial May the 20th, 2024 in Fort Pierce, Florida,
at that courthouse there on the screen. There's going to be a calendar call,
a last meeting on the 14th of May, but they are going to trial. And she set a very,
we have it here, a very specific timeline milestones that she wants laying out briefing for the protective
order to time out for the middle of August, where she's going to make her decision, the
production of final classified documents in September.
Other motion practice about SEPA, and then she left a footnote that said, and we'll talk
about the jury selection process and what that's going to look like at a later time.
So she took full command, right?
This was her con and she took control of it at the hearing.
Now, that's the good news.
Even though I know people in the chat and when we did our hot take recently,
are not necessarily pleased with it because it took to, it's taking too long.
But in the grand scheme of things,
this is a supremely, as we as Ben you and I talked about
from being trial court and federal court practitioners.
This is an extremely accelerated track
for a case like this.
And it really is.
It's nine months, he got Jack Smith from the appointment
to the indictment in nine months, to the trial in additional nine months. He got Jack Smith from from the appointment to the indictment in nine months to the trial and additional eight months. Yes, it's 28 months since Jan 6th, but that puts it right where it really should be. And if you use any historical precedent, like our last dark chapter of an out of control presidency.
Watergate and Nixon, it was about two to three years before people
went to trial there before people like his attorney general went to jail. So it's, I know
people are upset. And Merrick Garland waited too long to appoint. But Merrick Garland's group
was also prosecuting over 200 people in less than a year at the, at the insurrectionist level
as they built their case.
And I think if anybody's picked up anything
from being regular watchers and listeners to our show
for two and a half years,
and the two years we've been covering these events,
is that there is a development of investigation
that needs to happen, that's still happening,
witnesses that are still being brought in
to the grand jury, you know, stripping away
of attorney-client privilege away from a former president
is not easy, but they did it.
It's like cold fusion.
It's really hard, but Jack Smith's team did it.
Ripping away executive privilege, as you said, Ben,
from people like the vice-former
of vice-president of the United States,
really, really hard, you know, calculus.
He did it, but it takes time.
And then you get more witnesses and then you get cooperators who are staring down the
barrel of indictment.
And you may not even get them to like today or this month or last month, you know,
meadows just flipped, you know, a month ago, Giuliani just gave testimony two weeks ago, you know, he's
already sent target letters to another maintenance worker, Jack Smith at Mar-a-Lago. So this is,
I know people are frustrated because they want this trial already and nobody wants it more
than you and me for many, many reasons, for many, many reasons. But we also don't blow smoke
or sunshine on this show and I am sorry, my opinion.
And I said it last Wednesday, I thought she was going to pick a date that sandwiched the March 24th, New York trial.
I said she was either going to do before February or she was going to do after sometime in April.
And she did may because she had a slot.
We've seen the board.
She had a slot slaughter somewhere in there. I think I'm sorry. I know people wanted three months earlier, but he's going to
go to justice in May with one caveat that I want you to talk about, which is her ability to continue
the trial again. Yeah, I'll hit on that. But when people look at the board and say, okay, is Trump being held accountable?
We expect there to be another indictment this summer from Special Counsel Jack Smith in
connection with Trump's selection interference as well as from Fulton County District Attorney
Fawney-Willis, and then we get into Trump trial season and the trial calendar where Trump is either a civil defendant or a
criminal defendant in massive cases of massive import are bigger than the docket of many
law firms, large law firms, right?
Peter the mind.
So he's got a trial in October, as you point out, from the New York Attorney General.
He's got two civil, massive, civil trials in January.
Got the civil trial October, two massive civil trials in January.
He's got the DA criminal trial in March, and now he's got this trial that was just set
by Judge Eileen Cannon in May.
And, you know, one of the things I think though too,
and I mentioned this, I don't believe
Special Counsel Jack Smith ever believed Judge Eileen Cannon
was gonna set the trial date in December.
But he very smartly has been studying her.
And I think he recognized that if you put that date in December,
Trump was probably gonna ask for a date in 2025.
Trump's lawyers, I think, made a big blunder by not picking a date at all.
They would have been better off, and I'm not trying to give them advice because it's already over,
to say, hey, we can do it December of 2024, you know, and just pick a date.
But instead, they basically were like,
come on, Ken, and let's be corrupt with us. Like, let's, like, let, let, let, let, let,
let, you know what we're looking for here. And she couldn't do it because that would have
been reversible error by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. And she probably would have been
removed from the case. And then again, this is where in the comments, you know, I know it's like this
is not moving fast enough. All Michael Popeye and I can do is share with you our experiences,
having litigated in federal court. My firm that I spent most of my career, essentially
all of my career practicing has a criminal law department and they represent people in the most high profile criminal defense cases.
And I've never seen a case go from indictment to trial in a nine month period or a 10 month
period.
So if it did go in May, that would be quick.
My concern though is I don't trust Judge Eileen Cannon.
I'm not padding around
the back here. You know, the same way when she set the August trial date, that was pursuant
to the quote unquote speedy trial act, which interprets the 6th Amendment, that was a placeholder
date, right? And so the question is, will may be a real date or when we get to February or March, well then,
Jaylene Ganon say, you know what? There's a lot of disputes between the parties.
There's a lot of motions taking place. You know, Donald Trump's going to appeal
everything and file every type of motion that exists regardless of how
frivolous it is. So do you get to some point in January or February of 2024
and then a motion for continuance is filed
that she grants and then she kicks this thing to 2025?
And I've seen non-Trump federal criminal cases
go two years, three years, you know, longer,
even if your name is not Trump as a defendant, but
you know, that may trial date if it stands would be a quick trial.
Pope, I know you want to make one more observation.
Yeah, I just want to make one more observation about Judge Cannon and refer people over to
a New York Times article that came out yesterday by Rob Draper that I thought was very, very
good.
People that follow the show know that I practice in Florida. I practice in South Florida and in Miami for over 20 years,
and I still have an office there. And I learned a lot more about Canon in his reporting that I didn't
know. And I'm not saying it gave me any kind of comfort, but it does give us a fuller picture of
who she was and why she was picked for that particular job.
And for those of you who think she's an idiot, I'm not sure that's exactly where it's
at based on her background and her life.
The reporting that he did, which I think is great, is that mother was an exile from Cuba
actually came over with the Pedro Pan group of exiles that came over in 1960 after Castro took power.
Mother's family owned an advertising agency that represented Fortune 500 companies.
Father, her father, worked at the advertising agency and met her mother. A grandfather was
killed by a family member when she was a toddler. She grew up in Miami, went to a very well-known private school
in Coconut Grove, Florida where a lot of my partner's kids went,
so I know the school pretty well.
She is a typical, as all reporting has it.
Cuban American woman of a certain age, she's 39,
and they trend very conservative,
more Reagan Republican than Trump Republican, but they are a conservative group by nature. She went to Duke University
Undergrads, she went to the University of Michigan where she did very well at a very fine law school where she was magnet come loud
She worked for a very good law firm in Washington DC
She went and became a US attorney and assistant US attorney, where she, you know,
practiced for a few years, she clerked
for a very conservative federal judge in the eighth circuit.
And the one of the reasons she got the job
is that she was almost a ghost.
She wrote nothing, she did not have any published journals.
She wasn't controversial, she was a Cuban American woman,
young, conservative, reliable,
and she happened to live in Virgo Beach, which is very close to the Fort Pierce location.
And that was the job that was open that Marco Rubio, the senator from Florida, was trying
to fill because Robin Rosenberg, who I knew was a friend of mine, was the judge who was assigned
to Fort Pierce.
So she was already in Viro, 39, not that controversial.
That's how she got there for those that think she's MAGA.
She's not MAGA.
She's Rubio appointed to fill a spot and ticked all the boxes for where she wasn't got confirmed
with a very high number at there.
And the last point that the article made, which I thought was a very good one, is that
people that are former federal judges and others think she really was chastised and took
it to heart when the 11th Circuit slapped her back twice, especially as a new judge
in a very high profile matter.
And you're right. Department of Justice is watching her with a magnifying glass.
One false move, they know where to go
and they've got a willing audience up at the 11th.
And I'm not, I didn't present that kind of rundown
of the article as a way to, to say,
oh, and therefore, I trust Eileen Cannon.
But I wanted to give a fuller picture
because sometimes we make a straw person out of somebody
Make, in villainizing them and yes, the jury's still out to see if she does the right thing, but I want people to have that full
Complexion of her which I thought the New York Times did a nice job.
I appreciate that, but I think she made a straw person out of herself.
She, I do.
I, you know, I appreciate you giving that the feedback of what the New York Times article said, but she
villainized herself.
She all of the condemnation that she's received, she brought it on herself.
She may have had this background where she was more of a Reagan-style Republican, whatever
that even means, but she showed herself as a Maga Trader based on how she ruled before. So people don't trust her, I don't trust her.
The 11th Circuit appropriately admonished her.
She shouldn't even be on this case, frankly.
She should have recused herself,
which she already didn't do.
If she wants to try to rehabilitate herself
by being a law and order judge, well,
as they say on legal left, the jury is still out.
We have a lot more to discuss.
Let's take a quick break.
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Rico Rico Rico.
I heard someone refer to Donald Trump as Rico Suave.
I don't like the Suave part.
I like the Rico part, but we've talked about it here.
How Fulton County District Attorney, Fony Willis, is preparing this sprawling RICO indictment
against Donald Trump.
Now that the grand jury is in paneled, we are learning more about the type of evidence
that she is presenting.
And the Georgia RICO statute about what constitutes a criminal enterprise is also, I guess, easier to plead than in other states or even the
federal Rico statute about how you demonstrate this common plan and scheme, you know, but
when you think about it, if Trump's at the top of this enterprise, and you have, you
know, agents like Giuliani and Sidney and Johnny Smith and others who were then having
like people that they hire, meet with like a MAGA ally, for example in Georgia, like in coffee
county in Georgia where basically this MAGA who's like the co-chair of the coffee county, GOP,
like would let people in the election offices over there,
and then give them election data,
and then they would post election data of people online to manipulate the data.
Just a clear crime, stealing election data from campaign offices,
or from election offices.
But like that, there's a way in Fulton County under the Georgia
Rico statue that even though it happened in coffee county,
because a lot of the crimes were also directed at Fulton County
for that to become part of the overall Rico enterprise that took place in
Fulton County itself. Same thing about Trump's crimes in other states
paired with the crimes in Fulton County.
And so you've got things like the threats
to Brad reference burger, find me the 11,780 votes
or else Brad bad things are going to happen to you.
You know, you have all of the extortion,
you have the lies over and over and over again.
But Popo, let us know what, what have we learned about this grand jury that's been
empaneled about two weeks ago at this point.
It's officially started hearing evidence this past week.
And now we're learning some more information about what Fulton County DA is doing with
this grand jury.
Yeah, I like to call Fannie Willis Fawni Willis, Fawni, Fulton steam ahead Willis, because nothing
stopped her.
We'll talk in a bit about the Georgia Supreme Court not stopping her from doing her job
didn't stop the empaneled 26 Fultonian members of the grand jury on Tuesday.
They have been working hard.
And now we have reporting. You go
lol did a nice job for the guardian. I think he's just living in Atlanta because all his reporting
says from Atlanta. And he has a confirmation, good reporter to confirm corroborating witnesses,
who have told him that what's going on in that grand jury room, which frankly is secret. It includes a computer, a computer, a sabotage
interference claim. We'll talk about that, which you just did dealing with coffee county,
a county 240 miles south from Atlanta. And also this pressure campaign that was placed on Brad Raffinsberger,
on other elected officials and other election officials
by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Cindy Palney, others.
The one that we heard about this,
and we reported on it on a legal AF,
you and I did hot takes on it, is that coffee county thing,
which is just completely crazy.
So the coffee county, which went 70% Trump, so why they're jerking around with trying to
find Trump votes in a place that already went 70%.
You can't get any redder than coffee county was, but you had a MAGA, a GOP election official
for the county who got into bed with Sidney Powell, a cyber ninjas
again out of Florida, but really was the group in Arizona doing that ridiculous fraud on
it that found more votes for Biden when it was all said and done then for Trump.
But not only did she open the door and let them in to the election offices, she let them into the election offices just days before just days after the runoff election
with Ossoff and Warnoch and let them let them image
download and image all of the hard drives and all the computers
containing voter data for everybody. So everybody's voter data was compromised.
It was then uploaded to a website
that was password protected and only given access
to other MAGA right-wing crazy lawyer things
for evidence in their cases about who knows what.
So you can see the multiple crimes
that were committed here.
So and Cindy Palpatte, $30,000 to which I guess you got reimbursed to a forensic computer company to go in there
and do the imaging. And when they went in, the state went in to find out what the heck happened
in Koffee County when they went into the server room. There was a business card next to
one of the servers for cyber ninjas
and its founder.
And a bail bondsman, I mean, if you and I were pitching this to Netflix, there would be
like, stop, this is a terrible story.
We're not making the show.
But this is the truth.
A bail bondsman from Atlanta made a phone call in which he revealed that he was involved
with the conspiracy to
download illegally all of this voter information and turn it over.
That's a crime.
It sounds like a crime because it is.
And apparently that's one of the focuses of the inditing grand jury that Fawney Willis
is presenting already this week, along with the interference phone calls
that you outlined where they phone to try to flip
absentee ballots and other ballots from Biden to Trump.
Now, on the issue that we're gonna talk about next,
I'll just frame it and then we'll get there in due course.
But remember, in seven months,
Fawi Willis spent a hell of a lot of time
with a special purpose grand jury interviewing
in front of them, 75 witnesses,
and all of the terabytes of information
that was presented to that special purpose grand jury.
She is using that right now at her discretion
in front of the inditing grand jury whenever she wants.
She can have a transcript read from a prior testimony
that's been preserved.
She can show them a document
because Georgia unlike states like New York allows hearsay,
and you'll talk about that when we get
to the Georgia Supreme Court ruling,
allows hearsay to come in, you don't need the actual live witness to do it over again.
They already did it in front of the special purpose grand jury and she can use all the
fruits of that work there and she's doing that.
And that's what she's been doing some so she's something might be saying, how is she going
to get an indictment so quick because she's standing on the shoulders of the body of work she's already developed in seven months with a special purpose grand jury.
So she can do this on a compressed expedited basis to get her indictment by the end of this
month beginning of August, which is when we're going to see it. So it's, yes, it sounds like it's
three weeks, but it's three weeks plus seven months of work. And so it's good that we're starting to hear.
And I also think it's sort of signaling.
I made a comment in one of my tweets
that it was like a legal guitar hero
between Fawni Willis and Jack Smith.
You know, he's like, this is what I'm doing.
And she's like, yeah, really?
This is what I'm doing.
And they're having this little competition.
The winner of the competition is justice and us,
because she's going to indict.
He's going to indict.
And then they're going to have to fight it out
over which indictment state or federal
is going to go first.
If she can thread the needle and stay in Georgia,
she might be able to have hers not get big-footed
by Jack Smith in terms of
timing. If she does it and she makes it more sprawling, he makes step in and say, you
know what, I got the fake electric thing. Let me handle that aspect of it. I'm inditing
on that next week. You take everything else. So the question is, is she going to be able
to find a lane that's her own, you know, and kind of be able to run free open field,
or is she gonna get, is Jack Smith gonna go,
eh, you know what, I got this,
you do your trial next year.
We'll see, but what did you think about the reporting,
and let you, if you wanna flip it over
to what Trump did, a balfoney,
well, it's to the Georgia Supreme Court.
I wanna zero right in on Justice Guitar Heroes right there.
But, damn, damn, damn, but I'm, but I'm, so Justice Guitar Heroes, I guess, is the remedy for what
I referred to on the Midas Touch Brothers podcast as fascist Furby Talk.
So my whole theory is that when these Maga Republicans talk to each other, you almost have no clue
what they're saying.
It's like, Mr. Potato Head is bad.
The Barbie movie is this. It's like, okay, what issues are that? What
what? Bud Light. Don't know. It's like, we hate bathrooms. It's like, okay, what
are we talking about? So I called all that Republican nonsense fascist
Furbies like those Furby toys that used to call, you wouldn't understand it
but like in Maga Republican, when they take their fascist Furby talk into, they take their fascist Furby talk into the committee hearings and like
Marjorie Taylor Crain starts questioning the witnesses and you're like, whoa, this is
a crazy person and you could kind of see it, but I like that rock and roll and justice guitar here. Bob, what are you going to do?
On your Furby.
We've said, because you and I go back and forth in text messages.
And with the others, you know, the other part of our podcast and with our producer a lot.
And we're usually on the same page and you'll do a shorthand or your brothers will do a shorthand
of me on something. Sometimes it's so shorthand. I have no idea what you're talking about. All right. In fact, what is that one?
Yeah.
Do we have a road? One day we'll save all of those. We'll publish a book outing. But I just
like that, you know, you come for legal analysis and we give you a deep legal analysis that
you don't get anywhere. But Popeye just goes, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then and then
Jack Smith is like, boom, boom, boom, bam. And then Jack Smith is like, bam, bam, bam, bam.
And then Fawney Willis.
And then then Manhattan and D.A.
comes in with the drums.
Bap, bap, bap, bap.
So there you have it, folks.
That is basically what they teach you in law school, right?
They're, OK, let's talk about the three major court
losses that Donald Trump experienced this past week
because that'll also shed light on one of those losses
in Georgia as well and the
interplay there between the various special purpose grand jury proceeding that took place the grand
jury proceeding Donald Trump filed with the Supreme Court, Donald Trump filed a petition with the
Superior Court. He files everything every day you have to keep track of it all because he just tries to paper everybody to delay it.
But let's talk about some big Trump losses and let's actually dig in to some of these
legal filings because the orders themselves are particularly scathing, you know, two scathing
rulings in federal court, one from Judge
Hellerstein, federal judge in the Southern District of New York,
and another from Judge Louis Kaplan,
a different federal judge in the Southern District of New York.
Now, if a federal judge said this about any other person
running, it would be disqualification.
But for Maga Republicans, this is honorific. This is, this is what they value. And it is
disgusting. And I'm going to read it for you in just a moment, just the frame it for you.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brings the felony criminal case against Donald Trump in
Manhattan in state court, because it is a state court criminal case. And this is for the
hush money payments made to stormy Daniels.
That Donald Trump falsified business records claimed it was legal reimbursements
to Michael Cohen, but they were hush money payments.
Donald Trump wanted the case to go to federal court and claim that because he was
in office during the time he wrote some of the checks to reimburse Michael Cohen that
that was in furtherance of the interests of the United States.
It was like within the course and scope of his duties in office as a federal officer
like making hush money payments to a porn star is something that we ex that was the argument
that Trump was making.
And also that some of the defenses he intended to assert were immunities
that he believed he was entitled to under federal law. And their Judge Hellerstein just said
absolutely not. Here's the order, the conclusion says, Trump has failed to show that the conduct
charge by the indictment is for or relating to any act performed by or for the president under color of the
official acts of a president.
I mean, Trump was saying his hush money payments to a porn star were official acts of
a president.
Just just think about that.
And then the judge said Trump also failed to show that he is a colorable federal defense
to the indictment for either or both of these reasons, the people's emotion to remand the case is granted.
The clerk shall remand the case file to the New York Supreme Court.
So all that basically means a remand just means Donald Trump removed it to federal court
and then the federal judge sent it back to state court.
But Judge Hellerstein already told the state court judge Judge Juan Mishon, do not let
this delay what you're doing. Set your trial date. I'll be able to handle this regardless. So Trump wasn't able
to delay anything here. But also in the order, federal judge, hellerstein basically says,
yeah, Trump committed the crime. So Trump on this jurisdictional motion ended up going in front
of a federal judge who basically said, yeah, I hold that Trump
failed to meet the burden for showing that the prosecution filed by the people in New
York for or relates to acts taken under color of a federal office.
But here, this is where hellerstein basically says there was like that Trump did the act
that he's being accused of because the people have put forth evidence strongly supporting their allegations
that the money paid to Cohen was reimbursement for hush money payment.
Just think about that.
A federal judge issued a formal order saying that Donald that there's strong evidence that
Trump was making hush money, my hush money payments.
We all know that's what took place, right?
But you have a federal
order saying that now. Donald Trump also filed a motion for new trial regarding the E gene
Carol case. And Donald Trump was basically saying that, and this is like extra disgusting,
that Donald Trump was basically like, the jury got it wrong in
awarding the damages because they vindicated me. Trump was saying, I basically won in front
of the jury because they didn't find me liable for the rape. And judge Lewis Kaplan's like,
you are disgusting. And I just want to read for you what Judge Lewis Kaplan wrote right here because this is powerful
and this is sickening that this is the conduct of someone who is the leader of the Republican
Party. This is in a federal judge's order denying the motion for new trial. The jury
did not award Miss Carol more than $2 million for groping her breasts through her clothing,
wrongful as that might have been. There was no evidence
at all of such behavior. Instead, the proof convincingly established and the jury implicitly found
that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Miss Carol's vagina with his fingers,
causing immediate pain and long-lasting emotional and psychological harm.
emotional and psychological harm. Mr. Trump's argument therefore ignores the bulk of evidence at trial, misinterpret the jury's verdict, and mistakenly focuses on the New York Penal Law definition of
rape to the exclusion of the meaning of that word as it is often used in everyday life and of the
evidence of what actually occurred between Miss. Carol and Mr. Trump.
How powerful and disgusting is that?
That is the conduct by Donald Trump and that's what's being ruled on by a federal judge.
And then finally, then Pope Acala, do you give your summary or your response to these
three major losses?
We go to Georgia.
We talked about it in the last legal AF, Donald Trump filed
this original petition to the Georgia Supreme Court, basically asking them to disqualify
Fulton County District Attorney Fony Willis and to not allow any of the evidence developed
before the special purpose grand jury, including the special purpose grand jury's report and recommendations be used
now in front of the impenaled grand jury. And as we explained on legal AF, we knew Trump was
going to lose specifically for jurisdictional reasons as well. You can't just go to the
Supreme Court to go, Hey, Hey, Supreme Court, I got something for you. I'm more important
than everybody else. You can't do that. Original petitions with the Supreme Court, I got something for you. I'm more important than everybody else. You can't do that.
Original petitions with the Supreme Court are so rare
in the past 40 years in Georgia.
I don't think there's ever even been one
and this certainly doesn't rise to the level of that.
So the Georgia Supreme Court was basically like,
no wrong court for procedural reasons denied,
but the Georgia Supreme Court went a step further
and they did analyze the merits of Donald Trump's attempt to disqualify Von Ullis and to try to
remove the special purpose grand jury evidence. And this is where Donald Trump filing everywhere,
kind of backfired because one of the things Donald Trump also did,
in addition to filing in the Georgia Supreme Court, he filed another petition before the
Fulton County Superior Court, which had to recuse all of the judges now because the action
was phrased as Donald Trump, the phony willis and the Robert McBurnie, McBurnie is the superior
court judge who presided over the special purpose grand jury.
So under the ethics opinions in Georgia, the entire district, this is the fifth district
of Georgia, had to recuse and turn it over to the seventh district of Georgia, who will
now hear Donald Trump's petition, which largely mirrors what
was just rejected by the Supreme Court.
The only difference is it's disqualifying Judge Robert McBernie, but I don't even believe
McBernie would be the judge on a criminal case.
So there's that issue too.
But because the Supreme Court addressed the merits, now Fulton County District Attorney
Fony Willis, in her opposition to Trump's petition, which is now before the seventh district, which is slightly more favorable to Trump in
the sense that it's northwest Georgia with more Republican-leaning counties in that seventh
district.
Now Fony Willis goes, look what the Supreme Court just said.
And she said, and this is what the Supreme Court said, even if the petition were procedurally
appropriate, petitioner has not shown that he would be entitled to the relief he seeks.
And then it says, have the cases Donald Trump cited in support of trying to quash or
remove the special purpose grand jury does not even apply to the facts here.
In those cases, they address situations and it goes on to basically say where a grand jury
had information that it was basically publishing against people who really weren't ultimately
indicted at all or a special purpose grand jury that published information about people who
weren't even criminally charged or convicted. So it was quashing it so that the people's reputations could be repaired because they
were talked about in a grand jury report where they ultimately weren't indicted and weren't
convicted. So the Supreme Court says that's very different. And then the Supreme Court
goes on to point out that in the grand jury process, admissibility of evidence really
isn't the standard there. And Donald Trump's constitutional rights would not be violated, even if there was some
infirmity in the special purpose grand jury process, which there isn't.
And the special purpose grand jury was relied on by a grand jury.
Here the Georgia Supreme Court says that really doesn't matter.
You know, Donald Trump's remedy would be when the all of the evidence goes before the criminal,
in a criminal proceeding after the indictment, then you can file a motion or or do it then,
but you can't quash the, you know, the special purpose grand jury. And they say there's not
grounds to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fony Willis based on the record before it.
So Trump losing big three times, but popok, if
anything else you want to add to that, let me, let me see your lightning round right now.
Here comes my lightning round. All right. Let me start with Georgia. Then I'll go E.
Jean Carroll. Then I'll go back to Judge Hellerstein. We'll do it in that order. And I love
the way you framed it all, which is three big time losses.
In a series of losses by Donald Trump at federal and state and appellate court level, I mean, we could spend, we've spent an entire podcast since its foundation, since it's founding,
talking about the losses of Donald Trump, the wins, or you can count on one,
Donald Trump. The winds, or you can count on one half of one finger of one hand. The losses are legion. So let's start with Georgia. This is another example of complete back firing.
This is like the circular firing squad. Every time he files something, Donald Trump, not
only does he lose, but it forces the court to tell him in excruciating detail why the
evidence is against him, why the facts are against him, and why the law is against him.
So for the public, including future jurors, they know that Donald Trump is full of you
know what, and his lawyers are too before they even go into the courtroom.
This is why you don't file things like this.
One is a lawyer, take it from a lawyer perspective. You don't want to lose your reservoir of credibility
that you're supposed to have with the public, with the judicial system, and as an officer of the court.
That's usually why you don't file, file things like that. For a criminal defendant, you don't want
to do it because you don't want to negatively impact your right to get an impartial jury that hasn't heard anything about the case.
In every one of the things that you just outlined, Ben, we have examples in Georgia and in New York twice of potential jurors
hearing from judges wearing black robes that Donald Trump is either guilty, liable, or files frivolous things.
That's not a great thing to have going into the courtroom, but he continues to do it because
he thinks the advantage of some sort of delay, although none of these things have really
delayed these matters at all.
All of these matters have progressed.
The grand jury met on Tuesday in Georgia and it is continuing.
E. Jean Carroll's second case is already scheduled to start on January 15th of 2024.
The criminal case is going forward in March in New York without delay.
All it gave were these judges, the opportunities slap Donald Trump. Georgia
90, 90 against Donald Trump. All nine were Republican, appointed by the Georgia Republican
governors at the time onto the Supreme Court. And basically they said, wrong court.
Okay. We only come to us in very limited circumstances. Otherwise, we're a court
of review. We're in a pellet court. Go down to Fulton County or wherever you end up. And if you
got a problem with with Judge McBernie, because you think he's sitting on a motion to disqualify
Fawni Willis and you don't like how long he's sitting on it, then go take it up with him. If you
don't like him and you want it to qualify him, then file a motion below at the trial court level
and do that there.
As to trying to do an end run around procedurally,
all the things you're supposed to do first,
which is trial court level, then intermediate,
a pellet court level, then Georgia Supreme Court level,
we're not letting you do that.
You're not cutting any corners.
And so go develop your record below and go do what you got to do. And it looks like you
already did it. The Georgia Supreme Court said, you already seem to have filed something at the
superior court level of Fulton County. Why are you bothering us? You didn't even bother giving
us a copy of it. This is the footnote for the Georgia Supreme Court, but you told us you did
it. So go do that. So they lost there.
They said, we're looking at what you're telling us
about Fawney Willis.
And the fact that she, you think she did some sort
of fundraising or she's got some sort of bias against you
for what you have put in your file meetings,
we don't see that.
So, but you got to develop a better record.
So now they've gone off,
the lawyers drew fendling and Jen little,
fendling and little have gone off
and also parallel filed in Fulton County,
a motion to get rid of Fawni Willis
because they don't like the fact
that I'm not making this up,
that she retweeted a reasonably innocuous tweet
by, who is it by Adam, by
them, uh, par-shamenco, you're a manco, right? Who's just, uh, who's just
the Democrat who just on his own private, uh, tweet said, Hey, let's
support Fony Willis and get her more followers, you know, and maybe
raise money for one day. And she jumped on and said, I'm blessed that you would follow me. And thank you. I mean, that was it. And to that, that
gave Drew Finling the ability to try to argue in a court of law that that's an example
of Fawli Willis on the backs of this case trying to raise money. I mean, this is beyond a stretch.
That's going to be a loser, whether
it's in Fulton County or now that the chief judge in Fulton County has said, you know what,
you're going after one of the judges here. I'm going to recuse the, I'm going to disqualify
the entire Fulton County bench and we're going to send this off to another county 200 miles
southeast of Atlanta. Let them go handle it Because when you attack one of the judges for disqualification, not only can't he hear
it, but usually because he's got close relationships.
Big Bernie was the chief judge before this chief judge when he was handling all these
matters.
So they were like, you know what, the former chief judge, why don't we go do that somewhere
else?
Ultimately, it will be appealed to a first level court of appeal and then the Georgia
Supreme Court.
But the Georgia Supreme Court has told Drew Finley and Trump's lawyers, if this is all
you got on Fony Willis and McBernie, no.
And they're attempts to throw out the special purpose grand jury work, the entire bathwater,
throw out all seven months of her hard work, Fawney
Willis' hard work, her 75 witnesses that were developed, all her evidence and
make her start from scratch or somebody start from scratch in the grand jury,
they've already said, we've got more than a John DeStyle about your ability to
do that given the special purpose as grand jury's role and her ability to use
hearsay evidence in a room.
So they're going to in a grand jury room.
So that's that's that.
Hellerstein.
Listen, I love Hellerstein for many, many reasons in his decision to put that make sure that
the case of that picture that make sure that the federal, the state court case Manhattan
DA case against Donald Trump for the Stormy Daniels,
Hush money cover up a fair and the business record fraud and 34 count felonies that resulted
from that.
He said there are three things you got to do to take this case to federal court.
If you think anything about this indictment happened while you were president, one, you
got to show me that you were a federal officer
at the time, two, you gotta show me that the acts
that you're being accused of, the misconduct
happened under the color of your office, and three,
you gotta show me, you gotta federal defense
for any of those things.
And hellerstein went, this is like,
this is like family feud.
First one, yes, show me the survey, yes,
I'll give you federal officer.
Second one, color of office, X, third one,
federal defenses, X, therefore you do not get
to go to federal court, and I'm not gonna protect you
because you were like the former president at the time.
And he has that great line that you that you quoted from, which is this, this was
nothing more than an attempt at a cover up of an embarrassing event by Trump period and
an eight federal, an eight federal, there's no federal defense to that. They put on evidence
in front of him. And you, like you said, Ben, we now
have another in a series of federal judge that says that Donald Trump committed crimes.
We had the guy in the central district of California who said it was more likely than
not the Donald Trump committed a crime with John Eastman. We had the judge, the chief judge
of the grand jury, all things grand jury, the District of Columbia, Barrel Howell,
who said it was more likely
than not that Donald Trump committed a crime
with Evan Corcoran in Mar-a-Lago.
And now we've got Judge Hellerstein
who says there is compelling evidence
that he committed the crimes that he's charged with
in the Manhattan D.A.'s office.
Good job, Donald Trump, and the rest of you.
You're doing great on these filings.
And then lastly, in the most despicable one,
and you had just the right level of,
you know, just sort of disgust about the filing,
is the fact that he had, he filed a paper
with a federal judge in which he wanted to be vindicated
because he was only found to be a sexual abuser
and not a rapist.
And has gone on television and at rallies and all these other things saying, yay, I'm
not a rapist.
And the first thing, the first thing that Judge Kaplan did in the E. Jean Carroll decision
in denying the new trial for the defamation and battery, sexual battery case that was already tried,
which she got $5 million.
First thing he did was to say, well, let me pull out the dictionary.
You're a rapist because in every state except for the hyper technical definition in New
York criminal law, what you did and what the jury found that you did would be and is
rape.
So you're and he then went on to say,
you know why I have to mention that? Because you're arguing that it was maybe the jury thought
you only groped her and therefore why did they award two million dollars? And sir, you're
raped her, digitally raped her, but raped her. And therefore the jury award is appropriate. I'm
not reducing the jury award.
I'm not going to find that it was inappropriate
and do what's called remittor towards it.
And I'm not going to give you a new trial.
And the last thing about this pen is that it,
although it would be a signal for a normal human being,
like any other carbon-based human would take that order
and say, you know what?
I should withdraw my case against E. Jean Carroll for defaming me because she said I'm a
rapist and not a sexual abuser because the federal judge just said I'm a rapist.
I think I should withdraw that, you know, discretion being the better part of valor.
But Trump's not going to do that.
And you know what Kaplan is going to do because he's already said this filing was frivolous, which is hint, hint, note to Robbie Kaplan
representing E. Jean Carroll, file your motion for sanctions, because I'm going to grant it.
But it's also going to be the motion for sanctions related to his attempt to sue E. Jean Carroll,
right? Related to defamation because the judge just said,
there's nothing you weren't defamed
because you are in a nutshell,
in the vernacular, a rapist.
So another series of,
some of these are head scratchers.
You and I always say, well, it's delay, delay, delay,
but I don't get these because all it does
is gives federal and state judges 50 pages of ink to talk about how
guilty Donald Trump is before his trials.
So it is delay, delay, delay, but also market, market, market, promote, promote, and sometimes
the promotion and the marketing and the campaigning is not very frequently,
is actually in conflict with the delay strategy also.
So it kind of contorts that all
into a kind of one massive cluster
of kind of corruption that we see exposed in the court.
So it has those both paths, sometimes the delay
and the promotion work hand in hand. And sometimes they conflict. And, but look, the importance
of an evidentiary-based system where facts matter is so critical. And that is why we show the
rulings. That's why we show the evidence. That's why we talk about this, not in sound bites or with talking heads who yell at each
other.
It's like, let's just very kind of calmly.
We could have fun with some of this material.
But let's go over it in a way that we all collectively as a community can understand this so that
we can access this information and share the information and the data with people and
We could combat the fact that there's just so much disinformation out there and there's so many
people with agendas to try to harm our
Democracy and fact-based
evidentiary style system, which is why we created this show Legal AF.
And that's why this Legal AF community is so important.
And so from the bottom of both of our hearts, Michael Popak and mine, thank you because
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