Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s FEDERAL ARRAIGNMENT Transcript FINALLY Released

Episode Date: June 16, 2023

Legal AF Host and Former Prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo reports on the newly released transcripts from Trump’s federal indictment arraignment in Miami. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The transcripts are out. I'm Karen Friedman Agnifalo from Legal AF and we just got the transcripts from the Arraignment in Federal Court of Donald Trump in the Southern District of Florida. We heard lots of reporting from reporters who were in the room. Don't forget there were no cameras allowed, there was no recording allowed. So we did get lots of reporting from people who were in the room, but we finally got the transcripts. I got to read them myself. And so let's talk about exactly what happened in Donald Trump's federal arrangement in the Southern District of Florida. So he was arraigned by Judge Jonathan Goodman.

Jack Smith was also there. We were told by reporters. He wasn't sitting in the well, so he wasn't mentioned in the transcript anywhere, but we know he was there. The arrangements started at 2.55 pm and it ended at 3.44 pm and it was in courtroom 13-3. This was both the initial appearance

and the arrangement of both Donald Trump and Waltine, also known as Walt Nata. An initial appearance is the first time you go to court. The arrangement is when you are told what your charges are. They most of the time happen at the same time, but not always. So this was both the initial appearance and the arrangement of Donald Trump. It was only the initial appearance of Walt Nata. His arrangement has been put over a couple of weeks and I'll tell you why in a minute. The lawyers who were there, the prosecutors were Jay Bratt, David Harbock, and Julie Edelstein, and the lawyers for Donald Trump or Chris Kice and Todd Blanche,

and Stanley Woodward appeared for Walt Notta. Pre-Trial services was also there, and pre-trial services is a really important agency that works for the federal government, and they interview every single person who's arrested and they make a recommendation to the court about whether the person should be released, and if they, or should they be held,

in other words, should they be held in jail pre-trial or should bail be set, or are there conditions on their release? And pre-trial services will also monitor somebody who's released with conditions. So that's what pre-trial services is. I don't know whether or not they interviewed Donald Trump. I assume they did because that's part

of the standard arrest processing. And so we'll get to that in a minute Trump, I assume they did because that's part of the standard arrest processing. And so we'll get to that in a minute when we explain what the conditions are that the judge set. So the judge started by thanking everyone under the sun, including literally the entire law enforcement community. Court reporters, everybody just thanked everybody and then he reminded everybody that there's no photos or videos of anyone in the room, know, I'll have to use devices and that includes people in the spillover room

So what that told me is they had a spillover room. There was a room Which is very common to do if the courtroom's not big enough to hold all the people that there is you know When there's cases that have a lot of interest, they open up another room and they stream on video what's happening in the courtroom. And so the judge was speaking to both rooms, both the people in the courtroom as well as a spillover room, that there's no photos, no videos, no recording whatsoever. So the judge took the defendants, both Trump and NADA separately. In other words, he didn't do both at the same time.

He just did Donald Trump first. And he asked Donald Trump's lawyers, are they temporarily representing him or are they permanent? And that's important because sometimes attorneys appear for a raiment only and then a defendant goes and looks for a more permanent lawyer. You can also change lawyers at any time, but these lawyers, Todd Blanch and Chris Kice, indicated to the judge that they

were permanently representing Donald Trump. And so they might add new lawyers to the team. There was lots of reporting that they're interviewing other lawyers, but apparently these two lawyers are in for both the trial and the appeal. They said that on the record as well. The judge then said, you know, normally in this district, people wave the formal reading of the indictment because it's 44 pages long. If a defendant doesn't wave the formal reading of the indictment because it's 44 pages long. If a defendant doesn't wave the formal reading of the indictment,

they would have sat there and the judge or the clerk would have read every single thing that's in that 44 page indictment. However, Donald Trump's lawyers said, as is very common, we wave the formal reading of the indictment and enter a plea of not guilty, which is also was expected. That's obviously he's gonna enter a plea of not guilty and he demanded a jury trial. And that's a formality that you have to do. You demand a jury trial. And so that's noted on the record and he'll get a jury trial.

The judge then went on to explain what's typical in our district is how he put it. So he said, you know, it's so it sounded like he was he was educating both lawyers who don't necessarily practice there every day and Donald Trump, as well as everybody else who's reading these transcripts, knowing that we would read them. He wanted to make sure that he was educating everybody. So he would say things like, what typically happens in our district, the typical steps in our district, are that the defense would request a standing discover,

discovery order, is that what you're requesting, Mr. Blanche and Mr. Blanche would say, yes, you're honor. So a standing discovery order means that there's an order by the judge. Standing means it's in effect the whole time, the whole tendency of the case. In order means it's a court order. Only the court can order you to do anything in a criminal case. It's a discovery order, which means the government is under an obligation to provide discovery

at the appropriate time to the defense. Then the judge says, and I assume you want a Brady order. And he said, I assume that the prosecutors know their Brady obligation, but I'm doing a standard Brady order as well. And as to end, Brady is, comes from a very famous case, Brady versus Maryland, which is a Supreme Court case that's been around for decades. And it basically says if a prosecutor has any information in their possession that is exculpatory to the defense, they must turn it over. And they must turn it over right away. You can't hold on to it. You have to turn

it over at the as soon as possible practical time. And you have to say, I have this information in my possession that tends to excal pay you means it tends to show your innocence. Even if you think the person's lying as a prosecutor, it's not up to you to say, well, I think that person's lying, I have a witness who came forward and said, it wasn't him think that person's lying, I have a witness who came forward and said, it wasn't him, that's considered Brady, you have to turn it over.

So the judge issued a standard Brady order, again, standard. So then they get to the part, and this is the part that I found, frankly, somewhat disgraceful, because they get to the part about bail or bond, about release, because everyone was calling this arraignment perfunctory, you know, and I heard a lot of people say it's just perfunctory, it's just an arraignment. Well, you know, now I've been a prosecutor for a very long time and now I'm a defense attorney. There's nothing at all perfunctory about bail. I mean, about,

about an arraignment. You were formally told what your charges are. And, you know, I tell all my clients and frankly, you know, most as a prosecutor, you assume the same. I tell my clients, bring your toothbrush. You don't know that you can't, there is no way you can assume that you are not going to have bail set in a case or you could be remanded, which means no amount of money

will get you out. It means you are held and detained period, full stop, no bail. But oftentimes, if you do set bail, there are large amounts of money, especially in really serious cases. So I didn't, I'm probably the only person who didn't think this, but I didn't think.

It was going to be no conditions to Donald Trump in a case like this, but apparently that's what happened. So the judge asked the prosecutor, Mr. Harbock, I'm seeing that you are not recommending any dollar amount for bail here. And the prosecutor said that is correct, your honor. And you are recommending a personal reconnaissance release, which just means you get to walk out, that's it on your own. That's correct, your honor. And that is recommended by the United States, right? Right. And you don't want any conditions imposed

other than the, there's two standard conditions, number one and number five, which basically are like, come back to court and don't get arrested. That's it. Just don't commit any other crimes while you're out. But the other conditions that are standard conditions that everyone else has to abide by, they don't apply, right? You don't, you don't view him as a flight risk. Do you government? Government says no. So you're not asking for any special conditions. Nope. No financial component. Nope. And he says, you know, 18 USC 31 42 sub a sub one allows a defendant to be released on their own reconnaissance on an unsecured bond. If they're not a flight risk and the person won't endanger the safety

of another person or the community. And he said, basically, are you asking that he not surrender his passport port? Are you requesting that? That's standard. I've never had a client who hasn't had to surrender their passport in federal court.

That's outrageous, okay? Nope. No limitation on international travel. What about domestic travel? Is there any limitation on that? Because, you know, it's standard, a standard condition is no travel outside the southern district of Florida or whatever district you're in in a federal case. Again, all my clients can't leave the district that the case is in. That's a standard condition of release. Nope, your honor, we don't see that as necessary. Okay, then they get to, you know, they get to one that says, how about the standard condition of forbidding him

from possessing firearms government? What's your position on firearms, ammunition, and dangerous devices? Nope, no problem, he can do that too. And then the judge says, what about are you requesting that he avoid contact with the code defendants? And you know what they said? Nope, we're not requesting that either.

Judge, he works for, well, not a, works for Trump. So that would not be practicable. So nope, he can have contact with the code defendants. And the judge then said, are you requesting that Donald Trump report to pre-strial services? In any way, again, every one of my clients has to go to pre-trial services. And they said, no, they said, we're not asking for that at all. They're not asking for any special condition of release. And pre-trial services says the same thing.

They said, we're not requesting anything, either, Judge. And so the judge says, well, okay, and clearly this judge was surprised because this is so highly unusual. And Donald Trump is being treated differently than everybody else once again. The judge said, you know what? Despite the part, of course, the defense has no objection to that, right? Why as a defense attorney would you have any objection to these incredible terms and these incredible conditions?

Because Donald Trump, this doesn't matter. He can just go about living his life despite the fact that he has another open indictment and we know of two more open criminal cases, pending investigations, both January 6th with Jack Smith and Fulton County with Fannie Willis, but despite the fact that there's two indictments now and two other pending cases, no conditions judge.

And I bet if you looked in the entire country, you will not find another case involving a defendant who has two separate indictments and two separate jurisdictions and two other pending court, I mean, two other pending criminal investigations and they get this kind of a deal but he's Donald Trump and so here he he gets this but I think the judge was a little taken a back that that there was zero conditions and he is going to protect the integrity of the case because you know he's the judge that's all he really cares about is the integrity of the case. So he says, however, despite the party's recommendations to me, I am gonna take it upon myself to impose some additional special conditions.

Thank you, judge. Thank you for being the grown up in the room and saying that, you know what, guess what? Donald Trump is a criminal defendant and shouldn't be treated differently than everybody else. And he says, I'm gonna require that Donald Trump avoid all contact with witnesses and victims except through counsel. This will be effective once the defense attorney receives a written list of those witnesses

and victims from the prosecutor. The prosecution. This prohibition is only effective to those people who are written on the list. And he's also said, the second condition is he can't communicate with his co-defendant Waltonada about the case except through counsel. So in other words, he can have contact with Mr. Notta since he still works for Donald Trump, but they can't talk about the case unless they're with their lawyers. Now Todd Blanche, Trump's attorney, objected to these conditions.

He says this isn't practical. The witnesses include his protection detail and everyone who's around him every day. It's just like with NADA. This happened at his home in Mar-a-Lago. It also happened at his other home, Bedminster. These people work with him every day. And he says, then he says, and one witness

is the president's lawyer. Obviously, that doesn't work. That was surprising that I'm sure he means Evan Quarkerin. And so Evan Quarkerin is still his lawyer. And even though we know he's the one who is turned over his notes and is telling everybody what, telling the prosecutor what, exactly what happened and what Donald Trump did and said. So that was interesting. That Trump still considers Evan Quarker and his lawyer. And then the prosecutor says,

okay, you know what, let's just let me make a suggestion. Mr. Harbox says, let me make a suggestion, the government will come up with a list, not all the witnesses, but a list of people who this requirement is necessary for. And that will accommodate Mr. Blanche's requirement is necessary for. And that will accommodate Mr. Blanche's issue about incidental contact because Mr. Trump speaks to these people every day. So, and Mr. Blanche, Todd Blanche said, you know what, I'm not sure about this.

I don't want this. I don't want this requirement. But what Harbox says, the prosecutor says, you know what, Judge, let me and Mr. Blanche try and come up with something, a proposal for you, Judge, and we'll come to you with a list. And I think we can sort this out amongst ourselves. Clearly they were caught flat-footed and didn't realize this was going to happen, and they were totally unprepared. Because they spent the next, I'd say 10, 15 minutes going back and forth about this. We have two lists, one for no contact at all and others for

don't discuss the case and Blanche is upset about this and says, we can't do this. And then then Harbox says, we'll give us time to try to work it out and they're going back and forth and backing back and forth. And at one point, Blanche says, you know, why should there be any conditions? Everybody, all the witnesses have lawyers, you know. And then the court says, that's a really broad statement. In fact, every single witness has their own lawyer, but then of course he hems and haws and walks that back because he doesn't want to admit that yes, everyone has a lawyer. How do I know? Because Trump is paying for everyone's lawyers, but that's, everyone has a lawyer. How do I know? Because Trump is paying for everyone's lawyers, but that's neither here nor there.

That's what I think. He didn't mean to spill that can of beans. And so, they go back and forth on this for quite some time. And they ultimately land on the, because I think Todd Blanche realizes, realizes at a certain point going, wait a minute, because he says, is the court's requirement that the government

is gonna give us a full witness list? Because we'll take that. And so I think they realized, oh my God, you don't normally get a full witness list. In fact, some people are secret. You have no idea that they're cooperating and you don't want to let the defense know that they're cooperating because we know Donald Trump will then bully them, put their name out there and really intimidate them.

And, you know, like he has for every other person out there, call them names, you know, whatever. So Todd Blanche wakes up and realizes that this could be a gift. But the judge says, no, no, no, not so much. Looks just do this, OK? Looks just get a list of people from the government that will tell us that who it is that Trump should not speak about the facts of the case. That's it. And if the person's not on the list and he talks about the facts of the case, then he's not in violation of this order. Just people on the list. So the government's going

to have to go back and say they're probably they're going to probably say this is not a full witness list. These are just the people that we don't want Donald Trump to talk about the case with. So we'll see what they come up with. But that was a little bit of an ineligant back and forth that people did not expect. And there was a lot of time spent on that. But then they turned to the co-defendant Waltonata. Stanley Woodward appeared for him, but he's not admitted in the Southern District of Florida, which is a requirement to appear in court there. So the judge used his discretion and allowed Mr. Woodward to represent him and appear on the record for his initial appearance, but not for the arrangement. And so the initial appearance, he gave the same conditions on Mr. Notta that he did to Mr. Trump, which is nothing.

And so it's the exact same bond. And they put over his arrangement for June 27th at 9.45 AM before the chief magistrate Edwin Torres. But then he said, you know, there's a federal criminal procedure, 10B, that indicates Mr. Notta doesn't have to appear physically if he doesn't want to for a Raymond. If he follows the procedures of the rule, but the lawyer does have to appear, which I found very interesting because that is very different from New York State Court where a defendant has to appear for his Raymond. But I guess federally you don't have to.

So he may or may not appear. He may appear on video. He may appear in person or he might not appear at all. His bond has already set as exactly what Trump had. And then the judge ends it with the good news is when Mr. Notta appears, it will not be with me. It'll be the chief magistrate judge Ed Torres. My involvement in this case, I think, ends right about now. So he clearly didn't want to have anything to do with this. He just, you know, it was his day that he was signed up to be the duty judge, to handle any arrangements that came in, and that was that. So now, after Mr. Nada is arraigned, the entire matter will go before Judge Eileen Cannon,

who has been assigned this case through the wheel, which means it was a random just assignment that comes up on the wheel. When they got Eileen Cannon, Jack Smith basically was the opposite of winning the lotto. It was the worst possible hand you can draw, as she's already made some terrible rulings on this case in the past during the investigation and showed that she has bias against Trump. So we'll see where that goes. I'm sorry, she has bias for Trump, not against Trump. She has bias against the government for bringing this case. And so it was not a great, not a great draw. I think this, you know, a rainment was fairly outrageous because, you know,

I want to just draw your attention to a couple of other cases. Do you remember Ayrman Jack Tashera, who was arrested a while back in Massachusetts? He was a young kid with the Air National Guardsman. He's the one who posted classified documents about the word in Ukraine on social media. And he also sought to obstruct investigators. He also had a history of violent and racist remarks.

And he is also a target for hostile foreign power. This is a guy who worked on IT for classified computer systems. And you know what? He also possessed the documents and only showed them to a small group of people to brag, right? Just to kind of show off, look what I can get, look what I can do. Doesn't this sound familiar?

The entire set of facts, getting these documents and bragging to a small group of people and showing it to them, then obstructing investigators, when they try to retrieve this back and also having a history of violent and racist remarks, well guess where Jack DeShara is? He is in jail. Why?

Because he's dangerous and he's a flight risk. And this is a serious case. And so he's in jail awaiting his trial. Also compare it to Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, other cases of leaked documents. And it's just a very familiar that anyone else who does this is considered a threat to national security. But someone who foments a violent insurrection,

who spews racist, hateful, violent remarks, and who recklessly and willfully possesses and maintains and shows off classified documents that are our most secret materials, and who also has several criminal cases that are either pending or under investigation, somehow he is released with no conditions because he is once again treated differently than everybody else but not in the way he means. He gets away with everything that nobody else does because he thinks he is above the law and it is time now to hold him accountable. Thank you for joining. I'm Karen Friedman-Egnifalo from LegalAF.

You can catch me on Wednesdays with Michael Popock at 8 p.m. Eastern Live on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And you can also watch LegalAF on Saturdays with Ben Myzealous and Michael Popock also Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern. Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram. Ath Midas Touch to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.

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