Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Lawyers in STOCK LAWSUITS Face BIG TROUBLE

Episode Date: August 31, 2024

Will Trump and his lawyers BE FOUND IN CONTEMPT in Delaware for their unethical tactics in a suit filed against Trump’s media company by its co-founders (and former apprentice contestants)? Michael Popok reports on a new court hearing that Trump was again on the losing end of as he refuses to comply with court orders subjecting him to future sanctions that go to the heart of his ownership of Truth Social. Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/legalaf 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

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Should Donald Trump and his lawyers be found in contempt and sanctioned for their conduct in Delaware Chancery Court involving Truth Social, Truth Media and Technology Group and what they are doing in a lawsuit that was brought by two apprentice contestants, Andy Latinsky and Wes Moss, who co-founded Truth Social with Donald Trump

and have a huge stake in the company, about an 8.6% stake. Now they already got a Delaware Chancery Court judge who basically is the word in Delaware. You have a Delaware Chancery judge assigned to your case, that's it. There's no jury. They're complete oversight. You piss off a Delaware Chancery Court Judge, which Donald Trump and his lawyers have already done. That stays with you as a stain on your reputation forever, ever more in Delaware.

Those five or six judges, Chancery Court judges, we call them chancellors in Delaware, they are the end-all be-all. They are the United States Supreme Court for any public company in Delaware and most public companies are in Delaware, including Donald Trump. What's the contempt issue? The contempt issue is that after Latitsky and Moss filed their suit to try to get their 8.6% and not have it diluted, in other words, not have it diminished and lowered below 8.6% by the issuance of new shares because they say as a founders and under their agreements, they are entitled to an undiluted stake in the company. I mean, it's dwindling given the stock price is crashing before our very eyes. It's down 50% in the last 30 days, but they still want their stake. There was a prior Chancery Court judge, a chancellor, who issued an order that nothing should happen to their stock.

Nothing should stay locked and secured while the suit is going on. That's common in Delaware Chancery Court. They deal with stock and shareholder issues all the time, stockholder issues all the time. This is their bread and butter. What did Donald Trump do? That's the subject of the motion for contempt hearing. He filed a suit down in Florida against the same two people, Itzinski and Moss, trying to divide the lawsuit in half. And there he's trying to cancel their actual stock shares and equity position, arguing that they committed some sort of misconduct. Oh, they didn't shop the company fast enough. They didn't find a buyer fast

enough. They didn't take it to public market fast enough. They didn't make enough money for the company. They didn't exploit its assets, whatever those are. Donald Trump, I guess, quick enough, all sorts of ridiculous, made up, make weight arguments filed in Florida. What I presume Donald Trump thinks is a friendly court in Florida. But you might be asking, well, that's what you can do. If you don't like your judge in Delaware, you just file basically the same suit to try to get the same relief. No, you file a counterclaim in the case that you're in

with the judge that you have. And so the question was, did they violate the judge's order, prior judge's order, before Morgan Zurn, the vice chancellor, inherited this case, in filing this separate suit in Florida to try to get leverage. The judge said she was very troubled by all of this. While she didn't fight it in contempt, she's also not happy about it and it's going to

stick to her ribs in this case forevermore. It is now a stain in the record against Donald Trump and his lawyers, which I'm sure will pay dividends when the lawyer for Latitsky and Moss move for other sanctions or other relief in this court. You piss off a judge, a vice chancellor in the Chancery Court in Delaware, you're done. You're dead. Elon Musk is having that problem right now. He's having an executive pay dispute where his pay is being supervised by one of these types of judges. He's already gotten sideways with at least one vice chancellor, which means when there's a

new suit against Musk or Twitter involving him, he's done. He's dead. They already have made their opinion. It's already baked. They already have their opinions about him. They're all negative. Here's what the judge said and then I'll tell you what the lawyers had to say during this hearing in a Delaware Chancery Court. The judge says, I'm not going to find him in contempt because technically it didn't violate the language of the order because they're going for cancellation of the stock, not something related to its restrictions. However, she did believe that it violated the spirit of the order.

And here's what she had to say to the lawyers where she dressed them down. What she said, what Trump and his lawyers and the company has done is deeply disappointing, less than forthright. And I will carry that disappointment and distrust with me as we proceed in this matter. There you have it. The judge just told them, you're screwed in this case. I will not get over what you just did. And it will now infect all of my decision-making in this process as it should. Feels like everything has a subscription these days. Food, streaming, phones, even dog food.

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Now, you know, our main problem was that the strategy or tactic by Donald Trump to run to Florida, in her view, violated, it didn't color within the lines and violated the spirit of the order. And therefore, the question is whether she was at the moment of contempt or she had to wait for some more bad conduct by Donald Trump, which we know is all coming. So here's what the lawyer for Donald Trump had to say. He said, this is Ted Ketilla of Howler and Farkas Ketilla. I practice a lot in Delaware. I never heard of this firm, but in any event, this is another lawyer for Donald Trump that nobody's ever heard of. He said, oh, that

the criticism stung him in court. He said, that hurts a great deal, Your Honor. I will always be disappointed when I disappoint this court. I don't know. This guy feels, it sounds like he's in sleepaway camp and he thinks he annoyed the counselor. This is a guy with a bar license in front of a judge who holds his clients' fortunes in her hands. To which the lawyer for the Latitsky and Moss, the former apprentice participants that have that founder's stake, he said,

and I love this because it picks up on all the Trump memes about throwing food up against the wall and ketchup. He said, this must have been around lunchtime too. You'll know what I mean in a minute. The lawyer for Against Donald Trump said that Trump had gone beyond just throwing pizza at the wall Somebody was hungry and forcing the court to clean up the mess. There are pizzas flying everywhere He said and there's no reason to think the former president will change course until he's hit with sanctions

In other words, this guy's done a lot of bad things in the case and this is one of many pizzas thrown up against the wall, Your Honor, that you now have to clean up. Sanction them now. And then he continued, the lawyer continued, we will continue if you want us to, Your Honor, to play whack-a-mole and try to defend this process. But I think we all know what's going to happen. Regrettably, I'm afraid we'll be back and they will be back. Now the next time, that's one strike and you only get two in Delaware effectively. I practiced there. I said in an earlier hot take on Legal AF, our podcast, that the worst mistake that Donald Trump and he will rue the day that he decided to try to go for the easy money, the sucker's bet to try to

take all the money from his suckers and sell stock because it was going to lead to a number of things that he wasn't going to like. One, he was now going to be regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. A Securities and Exchange Commission that at present is headed by somebody that Joe Biden put in place and is dominated by Democrats. And if Kamala Harris wins, we'll continue to be dominated by Democrats. And you don't want to get on the wrong side of the Securities and Exchange Commission. I know that for a fact, having represented a company that had some issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's one. They're all public, by the way. Two, it would open the door to you being regulated by the Delaware Chancery Court,

which doesn't take any guff, which is more important to the day-to-day life of a business than the United States Supreme Court. And now you're going to be regulated by a chancellor or vice chancellor of the Delaware Supreme Court. And three, that the plaintiff's bar, the plaintiff's bar in Delaware is treacherous. And I mean that in a good way, to compliment. They're going to pick Donald Trump's bones and take him for everything that he's worth in these lawsuits and now they've got a friend a more friendly Delaware Chancery Court because Donald Trump is going out of his way to disrespect the process and try to undermine another another justice system. And this time Delaware will continue to

follow what goes on. There's the signal. We'll continue to follow what goes on in the Delaware case and whether Donald Trump and his lawyers ultimately get sanctioned. And what happens in the Florida case, the competing case, and whether that continues to survive, because I think the lawyers in Delaware are going to run down to Florida and tell the judge there to dismiss the case, and that the case needs to be transferred back to Delaware, which I think is an appropriate procedure. We'll cover it all on, you know where, Legal AF. and that the case needs to be transferred back to Delaware, which I think is an appropriate procedure. We'll cover it all on, you know where, Legal AF. We sit at the intersection of law and politics Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

We curate the top four stories or so at that intersection. We bring it to you as practicing lawyers who know what we're talking about and we don't blow smoke or sunshine. We just give you analysis and our best educated analysis in a way that I don't think exists on the internet. I really don't. We've been doing this for four years. If you don't want to know why we call it Legal AF, join us. You'll find out. You can watch us record it live YouTube

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