Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Georgia Judge SMACKS DOWN Trump’s Desperate Filing in SCATHING Ruling

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Michael Popok of Legal AF reports on breaking news where Judge McBurney of Fulton County Georgia has DENIED Trump’s latest attempt to have the special purpose grand jury’s 7 months of work and witness testimony tossed out, and to have the Judge and DA fani Willis disqualified. 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

It's Michael Poeback, legal AF, Judge McBernie, Fulton County, just issued an order today, and I have it here in my hot little hands. I'm gonna cover it in my hot take, developments breaking in Fawni Willis's Fulton County, criminal prosecution of Donald Trump. Split screen here for a moment. Third week of the grand jury is meeting

four Fawni Willis who has promised people as recently as an interview she gave yesterday to a local television station, that she's gonna be bringing her indictment against Donald Trump by the end of August. Fast forward, or roll the time machine backwards, Donald Trump has hated the special purpose grand jury and Fannie Willis' work from the beginning.

And he's tried to throw sand in the gears of anything they've tried to do, including the use of the special purpose grand jury, the seven months of their work, the 75 witnesses that they listened to, the evidence that they produced, and the exhibits that were used, and he's wanted to not only quash that,

which is what it sounds like, through a motion for quash all, but he's also trying to get rid of Fony Willis and McBernie, the judge, if he can. And so they've done multiple things at the same time, and I'm gonna talk about the one that happened today in Fulton County, Georgia, putting it in context.

Context is Donald Trump filed a motion with Judge McBernie in March to try to quash the special purpose, grand jury work and report, to deny Fony Willis the ability to use it when she went across the street to the regular grand jury to present for an indictment and have to start all over again and not get the benefit of her seven months of work

with the special purpose grand jury. Disqualified Fony Willis for some sort of bias or misconduct that's never been properly identified and throw out McBernie while they're at it and also never let the special purpose grand jury report itself see the light of day. Remember, we didn't hear the actual recommendations from the report. We only heard from the four person who took to the airwaves to talk about the fact that

nobody will be surprised by what's in the report, but the report's been under lock and key so far. Those are the three issues that Judge McBurney's been sitting on since March. Donald Trump's gotten frustrated at the special that the regular grand jury got started three weeks ago. So he filed some crazy petition to the Georgia Supreme Court, all Republican appointed people. And in a 90 vote two weeks ago, they rejected and denied Donald Trump's effort to interfere pre-indipement with a criminal investigation and said, wrong court, go down below, deal with it in Fulton County. Maybe we'll see you on an appeal, but not now. And they rejected almost the same relief, Quasual of the Special Purpose Grandjury, removal of McBernie, removal

of Fony Willis. So now McBernie's sitting there patiently, said, well, I've got a motion sitting here. I can rule on. Let me get to it. And he denied today the motion brought by Donald Trump, joined by Kathy Latham, a who's going to be indicted by by Fony Willis. She's the coffee county Republican leader who let in, open the door, and let in third parties,

including the cyber ninjas to image voter data, right? Take it with them, copy it, take it with them, and use it in their attempt to overthrow the election results. So she joined with Donald Trump and a B2. Yeah, I wanna get rid of that special purpose grand jury thing too. So here's the, I'm gonna read you the highlights of the order, including the Rumpel Skillskin,

kind of haven't heard that word since I was a child, spun gold out of nothing reference because if Nick Bernie was gonna write this, he was gonna take special delight in tormenting Donald Trump, including reminding him of all of his losses so far in front of at least federal judges about pre-endipement interference.

And that's what Donald Trump's trying to do. He's trying before he's even indicted, throw over the apple cart, which is not allowed. And the way that judges handle that is to say, you don't have standing, which means you don't have a recognizable, cognizable injury that gives you the ability, the ticket into court to ask a judge to exercise jurisdiction to stop an investigation in its tracks pre-indipement. Post-indipement, a federal or state criminal defendant has a whole host of ways to attack an indictment, post indictment, a federal, a federal or state criminal defendant has a whole host of ways to attack an indictment.

And that's what the judge tells Donald Trump and his lawyers, as if they didn't know, in this order from today. But not now, not pre indictment. The whole thing turns on pre indictment just as Donald Trump tried to do when he threw a sand in the gears and he got a young and experienced federal judge in the Southern District of Florida. Judge Cannon last summer to interfere with the criminal predipement criminal investigation of Jack Smith at Mar-a-Lago. And the 11th Circuit, the appellate court at her bosses in two opinions, one quoted by

McBerney in this order today, said, you can't exercise equitable jurisdiction to interfere as a judge with an ongoing criminal prosecution and investigation pre-endipment. It's just unheard of and it's not done. And it's not done in state court either. And that's what McBerney's main position is. Here's McBerney from his order today. On 20 March 2023, former President Trump filed a motion to quash the special purpose grand juries report to preclude any state prosecuting agency from using any evidence

derived from their work and to disqualify the Fulton County DA's office, which which would mean Fawni Willis from further investigation and or prosecution of a legend or appearance with a 2020 general election. Right? First pot shot he takes is he tells Donald Trump in the first sentence. There's a way to disqualify me as a judge and you didn't follow the right protocol. And I'm not disqualifying me and put a pin in that for a minute because before the hot takes over, I'll tell you what Donald Trump's doing because he filed something else to disqualify McBernie and Fawni Willis, but the judge hasn't been disqualified as of yet, so he's able to enter these rulings. The judge went on to say that having reviewed the pleadings, which are the main documents

of the parties, the court now finds that neither Trump nor Latham, that's the woman that joined in from the small county in Georgia, who has her own indictment problem, neither of them enjoys standing to mount a challenge at this pre-indipement phase of the proceedings to the continued investigation and prosecution into criminal interference. The movements asserted injuries,

because you need injury, cognizable injury, recognizable injury to have standing to have your ticket into a courtroom that would open the door to the courthouse to their claims are either insufficient or else speculative and unrealized. They are insufficient because while being the subject or even a target of a highly publicized

criminal investigation is likely an unwelcome and unpleasant experience, no court ever has ever has held that the status alone provides a basis for the courts to interfere with or halt the investigation pre-intitement. That's Judge McBerney, and then my favorite footnote, footnote 3, will put on the board. And for some, this is Judge McBernie and then my favorite footnote, footnote three, will put on the board. And for some, this is Judge McBernie. Being the subject of a criminal investigation can, Allah rumple still skin. Be turned into golden political capital, making it seem more providential than problematic.

Regardless, simply because the subject or target of an investigation does not yield standing to bring a claim to halt the investigation in court, guess whose rump will still skin in that analogy. Donald Trump, who uses indictment and pre-indipement to raise money. It's actually, and that's why the judge said, it's providential. It's a good thing, not problematic to somebody like Donald Trump calling him out. Now, my favorite, my second favorite place in the order is where the judge takes a shot at Judge Cannon at the Mar-a-Lago case and Donald Trump as well. Because in the next line, he says, and I'm quoting from the order, Trump knew this, and

now Latham does too, quote, and now quoting from the case against Judge Cannon at the 11th Circuit, quote, no doubt the threat of prosecution can weigh heavily on the mind of anyone under investigation. But without diminishing the seriousness of the burden, the ordinary experience cannot support extraordinary jurisdiction to interfere pre-indipement with a case. Sighting, Trump versus United States, the 11th Circuit case I just told you about, in which Judge Cannon got slapped because she tried to interfere with a criminal investigation before indictment.

So I love that. It took special delight in that as well. The judge went on that Trump and Latham presently theorize that evidence derived from the special purpose grand jury will be used to secure whatever indictment may be imminent. Little pot shot at Fannie Willis too, for her saying the indictments were imminent. They further suppose that they will be named in one or more charging documents.

That's an indictment. And the judge said, perhaps, and perhaps, alone, that possibility is not enough to create a controversy, cause an injury, or confer standing. And then the judge went on to remind both Latham and Trump that neither of them testified to the special purpose grand jury. So in footnotes, seven, the judge said, it is further important to note in considering injury and standing and lack thereof, that neither Trump nor Latham appeared before the special purpose grand jury. Thus, the litany of procedural and constitutional shortcomings that they alleged infected the special purpose grand jury's work are all applicable to someone not named Trump or Latham.

And you can see where the judge has a very strong grasp of legal doctrine, jurisprudence, and a good sense of humor. The judge went on in the order, and I think it's so important that you actually hear how a judge interprets the law, right? The judge is being, along with lawyers, that barrier to populist overthrow of our government. Here's what Judge McBerney went on to say. Arguments like those being made by Trump and Latham prematurely in the pending motions can be more effectively and reasonably presented

and ruled upon when the full picture of who is being charged with what has been painted. And here's a great quote. Guessing at what that picture might look like before the investigative dots are connected, maybe a popular game for the media and blogosphere, but it's not a proper role for the courts and formal legal argumentation.

The judge goes on, there will be a time and a forum in which Trump and Latham can raise their concerns about the constitutionality of the Special Purpose Grand Jury Statutes about the performance of this particular Special Purpose Grand Jury and the judge supervising it, meaning him, and about the propriety of allowing the Fulton County District Attorney to remain involved with whatever criminal prosecution, if any, results from the work of this special

purpose grand jury. That time, this is Judge McBurney, is not now, and that forum is not here, only happens after there is an indictment. Where both of these parties quoting Judge McBurney can raise all these issues, as they undoubtedly will, before the judge who is actually confronted with a case in controversy, whether that judge be here in the superior court of Fulton County or in the Northern District of Florida. Now, that's interesting. That's again the judge demonstrating that he's been following closely all the other cases. What he's referring to there is that even though the district attorney

will stay phony willis and the law will be the law of Georgia in criminal court, it is possible that Donald Trump, because all of these acts and actions took place while he was a federal officer, at least arguably, that he will try justice he did in New York, Donald Trump. To transfer and remove the case from State Court to Federal Court, like he tried with the Stormy Daniels case, that the judge is saying here, I know you're going to try to remove this case from Fulton County State Court judges to the Northern District of Georgia, which sits over Atlanta, Federal, and he cites the actual removal statute. This is the same removal statute that Judge Hellerstein in New York just used a week ago

to deny Donald Trump the ability to bring, to transfer the case away from Judge Mershawne State Court to a federal judge Hellerstein because he didn't satisfy the removal statute. Now, there's a little bit different because the actions there were about Stormy Daniels almost only when Donald Trump was running for office and not a president. Here, all of these bad acts are while Donald Trump is also the then president of the United States. So, we're not pre-judging his ability to bring this or suggesting that he will. But this is a tip of the hat to me, to Judge McBernie, that he's saying, I don't know what

court's going to be in. Could be a federal court. You've tried it once before. Try it again, if you like, but you're not going to lose district attorney, Fawni Willis, and you're not going to lose Georgia law being applied just because the new judge in courthouse is going to be the federal courthouse potentially. And then the judge went on in his last two parts of the order. He said, I'm not going to make a decision yet on whether the Special Purpose Grand jury

report in its entirety, including its recommendations, are going to be released to the public. I've been client to do it, but I'm going to wait to see if there's an indictment first. If there's an indictment, I'm going to release the whole Special Purpose Grand Jury report. Now, some people might be thinking, don't we already know what their recommendations are? I sort of remember that. What you're remembering is that the four person

of the Special Purpose Grand Jury took to the airwaves and gave her 15 minute of fame interviews in which he said nobody's going to be surprised by the recommendations but didn't reveal what those were. This will get our hands based on what McBerney just ruled today on the Special Purpose Grand Jury report as soon as it's issued but not before there is an indictment. Then finally, for now the second judge wearing a black robe, nine judges wearing black robe for the George Supreme Court refused to disqualify Fawney Willis two weeks ago. Now Judge McBerney who supervised all of our activities refused to do it again.

And I'll talk about where that goes next. He said, there's two ways to disqualify a district attorney, Mr. Trump, and you know it. One is you argue there's a conflict of interest. She used to be in the defense side and private practice. She represented the same party. She's now prosecuting. That doesn't apply. Or you argue some sort of misconduct in Georgia, they call it forensic misconduct.

And for that, you look at social media and statements made to the papers and the press, and you try to figure out whether there's just animus and bias by the prosecutor against the defendant where he can't get a fair shake and therefore it's some sort of misconduct. And the judge is pretty even handed. And we've reported on past hot takes and on our legal AF podcast on YouTube that this judge has chastised and wrapped the knuckles of Fony Willis on at least two occasions.

He's told her in the past to pipe down on the interviews and the comments that it's not helping her. And he disqualified her from prosecuting the lieutenant, the then lieutenant governor of the state who got wrapped up in the fake electric scandal because she contributed to his opponent who was running against him. And the judge said, I don't like the way that looks. You're just qualified on that. But that's where it is.

And even here, the judge said there's no ethical conflict and as the prosecutorial misconduct, and the judge went out of his way to say that, I just want to make the following comment, and this is a quote right from the order today. The judge said, as for forensic misconduct, while both sides, Trump and the prosecutor, have done enough talking, posting, tweeting, and then in parentheses, he put X-ing in light of the name change by Elon Musk and press conferencing to have hit and perhaps stretched the bounds of Georgia rules of

professional conduct. Neither move it has pointed, however, to arguments from the district attorney or her team. Expressing a belief that Trump or Latham are guilty or have committed this or that offense. Instead the judge went on to say, put differently, quoting Judge McBernie. The District Attorney's Office has been doing a fairly routine and legally unobjectionable job of public relations in a case that has anything but routine. None of what move in sight rise the level of justifying disqualification and all of it collectively falls short of what prompted the district attorney's disqualification for the investigation of the lieutenant governor.

Continuing, the prosecutor is not a neutral party and does not need to pretend to be. She has a cause. She has sworn to pursue and in that pursuit of justice, she is necessarily quoting a partisan in the case if she were compelled to proceed with the same circumspection as the judge and jury There would be an end to the conviction of criminals citing a Georgia case state versus Sutherland for these reasons Trump and lathems motions to disqualify the district attorney are also denied There's one open issue some people will will be saying, good, we're done with that.

No more attacks on Fony Willis by Donald Trump. No more attacks on Mick Bernie and no more attacks on the Quasal of the Special Purpose Grand Jury work. Not so fast. Just to manage expectations. And to promote future hot takes, I'll be doing One, based on this ruling, now Donald Trump has the right to an appeal. And he will likely try another appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing he had standing and he's allowed to argue pre-indipement things and McBernie is against them and whatever else can argue. That's one. Two, Donald Trump has already in the last two weeks filed a new amended petition to try to disqualify directly McBernie and Fony Willis.

And because he's moved to disqualify McBernie, the chief judge now of Fulton County has effectively recused or disqualified all sitting Fulton County judges from hearing it, because he doesn't want the appearance of impropriety. So the matter of that motion of disqualifying McBernie is now sitting in another county in Georgia to be ruled on with another judge outside of Atlanta. Doesn't mean that McBernie was powerless to enter his order today. See, there's a signature he entered his order today. Okay, it just means that he is now the subject subject's promotion to disqualify that will be heard over the summer or early fall. I doubt it's going to be heard before the indictment comes out by the end of the month. Maybe it will. And then that's not going to change the ability to get the indictment. And we shouldn't be concerned

that ultimately Mcburnie is going to be disqualified because frankly, he's done nothing wrong that any of us has seen. And I think the Georgia Supreme Court has already indicated that they're not inclined at all, even when it comes back up to them on an appeal to disqualify either McBernie or Fawni Willis. So it's full steam ahead for Fawni Willis. McBernie will not be the criminal judge assigned to the case, unless somehow he's randomly assigned to the case when the wheel spins in Fulton County after indictment, I find that hard to believe. And if he is assigned to the case, you know within two weeks or less, Donald Trump's going to file a notice of removal to try to take the case to the Northern District of Georgia, which is about split between federal judges appointed by Republicans

and those appointed by Democrats. So it'll be a little bit of a crap shoot to see which judge he gets. But one last thing to hold on to, even if somehow it moves the federal court, okay? It stays with the state prosecutor and it stays with the state laws. It just goes and gets tried in a new courtthouse with a new judge and a new jury. I'm going to follow it on hot takes just like this one. You can see it's complicated, but we make it fun, I hope, in this type of exploder hot take.

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