Legal AF by MeidasTouch - GOP House Leaders STEP IN PILE OF S*** with RESOLUTION

Episode Date: June 25, 2024

Michael Popok reports on the MAGA HOUSE up to its old, dirty tricks again, trying to pass a house resolution to encourage the United States Supreme Court and its mega right wing to overturn its own initiative the 34-count New York State criminal conviction of Trump. Head to https://Lumen.me/legalaf and use code: LEGALAF to get 15% off your lumen today! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! 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

Whether you're practicing your morning breath work, waiting for your favorite artists to come on stage, or running errands at the perfect pace, Liquid IV Powder helps you turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration, so you can live a more extraordinary life. Live more with Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier, available in refreshing lemon, lime, passion fruit, and strawberry flavors. Buy a stick in store at Costco, Walmart, Amazon and other Canadian retailers.

So Michael Popak, Legal AF, I'm going to report and analyze a multi-pronged attack and assault on our criminal justice system by MAGA in Congress, who now are trying to pass a resolution to ask the United States Supreme Court to intervene in the New York criminal conviction of Donald Trump by a jury there on 34 counts of business fraud crimes. What does Congress have to do with asking another branch of the co-equal branch of our government, the United States Supreme Court, to intervene in a state matter. This has jumped so many lines and so many sharks, I'm going to have to unpack it here. And this is not the only effort, this time by Representative Timmons, a Republican from South Carolina, major election denier and Jan 6th denier,

who has decided to do his cult leader's bidding by proposing this house resolution that I'm going to read to you, which may well pass the MAGA House because they got nothing better to do. Listen, if you're not gonna pass laws that help the average American or any American, you gotta fill your time with show trials and show impeachments and show resolutions,

and that's what we're watching here. Let me first give you the constitutional and legal principles as like we do on Legal AF, then I'll read you the resolution and tell you why it's DOA, dead on arrival, and has about as much impact on what the United States Supreme Court is going to do as if you and I took the resolution,

put it into a bottle and tossed it into the ocean. But it makes for great press. It makes for talking points. It makes for campaign rallying points for Donald Trump and that's the reason they've done it. So what they're trying to do is to try to argue that there is a writ, W-R-I-T, a type of writ, almost like a habeas corpus writ that the United States Supreme Court can use, even if they're not asked, to intervene in a conviction that's already happened in state court under state criminal laws

like business record fraud, having nothing to do with the Constitution or federal law. Stop right there. First of all, the United States Supreme Court is a court generally of appellate jurisdiction. Cases have to come up from a lower court, generally federal lower court, dealing with statutory or constitutional issues.

Federal constitutional, federal statutory issues about law, about actions of Congress, and the agencies around and departments and divisions around our federal government. What you sometimes hear is if there's a constitutional issue about criminal law, the Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial trial, something about the death penalty, something about the suppression of evidence, the use of search warrants. Those are proper for the United States Supreme Court to comment on because it goes to the constitutional right. There is no constitutional right of Donald Trump that was infringed because before he

became president, he decided to cover up a sex act he had with a former porn star in Stormy Daniels and violate election laws and tax laws and business record fraud laws in New York to do it. That's not a constitutional principle, nor is it something that should ever involve even this MAGA right-wing United States Supreme Court, who generally stands on the proposition

that on political questions and on other issues about the co-equal branches of government, they're not gonna get involved. So now you've got Congress asking another branch of government to intervene in a state court proceeding, not involving federal issues, federal predicate, any kind of federal jurisdictional hook. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Let me read to you from this resolution from Mr. Timmons, who I don't believe is a lawyer, and you can tell from how this was written. This is a house resolution, which is H-R-E-S, expressing the sense. So let's stop right there. This is a resolution expressing the sense. I mean, this is Kabuki theater at its finest. This is a show trial. This is performative art. This is value signaling. Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Supreme Court should use its powers under the All-Ritz Act, which is a total perversion of the All-Ritz Act, to protect its jurisdiction and bring the questions of federal and constitutional law and equity

before the court for resolution with all deliberate speed and possible urgency. There's another problem, right? In the first paragraph, there are no questions of federal and constitutional law in the prosecution and conviction of Donald Trump for garden variety, low-level criminality, tax fraud, and business record fraud.

Whereas the use of weaponized prosecution, lawfare, this is a word, lawfare, that was made up by MAGA right-wing in the last year, to describe criminal prosecution against their cult leader for his own bad acts. And they call it lawfare, like it's a four-letter word that's a bad thing, and they hope that it seeps into the water supply so that we start talking about it as if it just

spontaneously happened. Lawfare, that's not a thing, lawfare. That's a thing that's made up, and they hope if they repeat it enough and say it enough, like Beetlejuice, it'll happen. So they say, whereas the use of weaponized prosecutions, lawfare, political show trials Whereas the use of weaponized prosecutions, lawfare, political show trials, like this show resolution, two tier justice systems, let me stop there. There is a two tier justice system. It's people of color versus white people. It's rich versus poor.

It's not Donald Trump versus the rest of America. And targeted political prosecutions are hostile to the founding principles of the United States. It's not a political prosecution just because the prosecutors happen to be Democrats and the criminal happen to be a Republican former president. Whereas in the case of the people of the state of New York versus Donald Trump, a conviction on several counts was entered against former president and presumptive Republican nominee for president Donald Trump. Well, it wasn't entered yet.

There was a jury verdict returned. The judgment will be entered on July the 11th when there is the hearing on the sentencing. Sentencing and judgments of conviction go hand in hand, but I digress. Whereas this conviction was the result of a targeted, dogged, abusive, desperate, how many adjectives can we throw in here, and politically motivated prosecution by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Okay, let me clear something up here.

Alvin Bragg did not run on a campaign platform of going after Donald Trump. That was Letitia James, the New York Attorney General. But Alvin Bragg, and I was involved as much as I could be in the campaigns for people that were running for the Manhattan DA office position. I supported another candidate, but I was involved with it, went to the debates, listened to the debates. Alvin Bragg never, never said that he was going to prosecute Donald Trump. He said he would go where the facts would lie. He said he would follow the law,

he would follow the facts, but not that if you elect me, I'm going to nail Donald Trump and crucify him. That never came out of Alvin Bragg's mouth. It wasn't abusive, desperate and politically motivated. In what way is it desperate? Alvin Bragg got elected, Alvin Bragg is gonna get reelected as the Manhattan DA, not because of this particular case, because he's doing a great job as our district attorney here in New York. It was dogged, yes, it was a lot of perseverance here.

Targeted, yeah, it was targeted at the person that committed the crime. Abusive, not according to the courts of appeals of New York. Let's continue. Whereas District Attorney Alvin Bragg resurrected a zombie case. There's a phrase, declined by the federal prosecutors and previously declined by his own DA's office. Let me explain that. A zombie case is one that just won't die. And we did kind of refer to it shorthand in New York about the cases involving Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump and some other allegations about business record fraud

continued for many, many years without dying. And so they call that a zombie case as if that's another four letter word. It is true that Cy Vance, the predecessor to Alvin Bragg spent a couple of years and had a couple of special prosecutors who looked into it. And at the end, Cy Vance didn't reach a conclusion and the investigation was still ongoing. And he left it to, once he decided eight or nine months before the election that he was

not going to run for reelection, Cy Vance said, I'm going to leave it to my successor, whoever that is, to make the decision about the state of the investigation against Donald Trump, now about three years old, and whether he wants to continue it. Investigations, by the way, go on for a long time. I've been involved with investigations and the defense of investigations that go onwards of four and five and six years,

and they're not zombie cases as a result. It just takes a minute to do these investigations and to gather the evidence because they're using prosecutorial proper discretion. They don't bring prosecutions that they can't in good conscience, that they don't believe they have a beyond a reasonable doubt basis to convict. So that's not a zombie case,

just because it lasted a long time. And the delay was really between the handoff between Sy Vance and the newly elected Manhattan DA at the time, Alvin Bragg, who made his own decision about which cases to bring, and he's been right twice. He brought the 17-count case against Donald Trump's main companies for tax evasion and got 17 convictions two years ago. He brought 34 counts against Donald Trump for business record fraud in furtherance of another crime and he got 34 counts felony conviction. 51 counts of felony convictions across two juries, 24-0 and grand juries before them say that this is not a zombie

case. And it wasn't previously declined. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored advice to improve your nutrition, workouts, sleep, and even stress management.

All you have to do is breathe into your lumen first thing in the morning, and you'll know what's going on with your metabolism, whether you're burning mostly fats or carbs. Then, lumen gives you a personalized nutrition plan for that day based on your measurements. You could also breathe into it before and after workouts and meals.

So you know exactly what's going on in your body in real time. And Lumen will give you tips to keep you on top of your health game because your metabolism is at the center of everything your body does. Optimal metabolic health translates to a bunch of benefits,

including easier weight management, improved energy levels, better fitness results, better sleep, et cetera. It can also track your cycle and adjust your recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts, so you can keep up your energy and stave off cravings. So if you wanna take the next step at improving your health,

go to lumen.me slash LegalAF to get 15% off your Lumen. That's L-U-M-E-N dot M-E slash LegalAF for 15% off your purchase. Thank you Lumen for sponsoring this episode." Let me explain that because that's another eliding conflation of language. There is something called a declination of prosecution letter that you can get from the prosecutor on occasion that says he or she has evaluated the evidence and has declined to prosecute. They use the term decline to prosecute as if Cy

Vance issued a declination letter. He did not. He just said, I haven't reached my conclusions yet. I'm turning it over to the new guy. That's not declination. I don't know. I'm like six paragraphs into this and it's all just totally upside down and wrong. On purpose, it's not because they're ignorant, although they are, about the law in New York and how it operates, but it's just on purpose. As to the FBI and the Southern District of New York attorney, US attorneys not bringing this case, that's because it was under Donald Trump at the time and Bill Barr. So that wasn't happening. They brought a case against Michael Cohen as retribution and retaliation. So that's not a badge of honor for anybody that Donald Trump

didn't prosecute his own case. Whereas elected district attorney Alvin Bragg resurrected the zombie case to fulfill his electoral promise to hold him accountable. That's not in quotes, that's not what Alvin Bragg said. That's what Letitia James said. Whereas Alvin Bragg even went so far to staff his office with zealous activists like a former Biden department justice official, Matt Colangelo. You can say a lot about Matt Colangelo who worked in the DOJ, but an active political activist is not one of them. He's just as a prosecutor. And, you know, the Manhattan DA's office is not a step down from being a federal prosecutor. It's a step up or it's equivalent. Manhattan DA has always been considered the creme de la creme, the elite litigation and trial squad in New York among

prosecutors, even federal. That's why law and order, the 30-year TV show or whatever it is now and all those spinoffs is based on the Manhattan DA's office. Whereas the judge in the case, Juan Roshon, they don't even give him the honorific of Judge Murchon, I'll call him, Judge Murchon, hasn't had a clear conflict of interest in his case with his daughter's role as president of Authentic Campaigns, a firm known for representing and fundraising for democratic politicians. So what? He has a daughter that works. They're allowed to do that in America. And there's no link and there's been a number of judicial ethics boards that have looked into it.

No link between what Judge Mershon does in his relationship with his daughter and his daughter's efforts on behalf of Democrats and the case. But I continue. Whereas the New York State Commission on Judiciary Conduct privately cautioned Judge Mershon in July over his illegal and unethical political donations to Biden in 2020. All right, let me explain that. The New York State Commission gave the lowest level warning to Judge Mershon because he made a $15, $30 donation to Joe Biden in 2020,

well before this campaign. And he got a cautionary letter about, don't do it again. Other people, other judges did a lot worse and got real reprimands and censures. I wouldn't call this a reprimand. It is the lowest level thing you can get for your file. And it's because of a donation that was less than $100. Whereas members of this chamber have filed a complaint against Judge Mershon regarding these improprieties

with no standing whatsoever. A group of people in South Carolina are complaining about Judge Mershon, okay. But I continue. Whereas there are serious and substantial and dire questions of federal and constitutional law under the First Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth Amendment, and Fourteenth Amendment requiring disposition and resolution before this court and reversible and clear errors. That's why there's an appellate court in New York in the state system at the highest level called the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court of the United States doesn't step in for every state and become its overlord in its appellate court. And there are no First Amendment, Fifth Amendment, Sixth

Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment violations in this case. First of all, Fourteenth Amendment wouldn't apply. The Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial trial has happened. The 5th Amendment, Donald Trump didn't testify, so there are no 5th Amendment implications. He had the right to testify, but if he did, he'd be cross-examined about his bad acts as in every case. And there's no federal and constitutional law about a candidate for president paying off somebody he had sex with. And then they talk, oh, then they've got this one on page four.

Whereas the jury instructions in the case were constitutionally deficient and legally flawed by allowing for a non-unanimous or 444 verdict on the uncharged conduct. This is such crap. This is Donald Trump's talking point from his campaign speech. That is not the law in New York and that is a complete misstatement and mischaracterization on purpose of what the law in New York is. The law in New York is if you have a first crime,

in this case, the crime of business record fraud, right? If it's in furtherance of a second crime, we call that the predicate crime or the second crime. If it's in furtherance of a second crime, we call that the predicate crime or the second crime. If it's in furtherance of a second crime, it becomes a felony. The second crime is uncharged. It's okay that it's not a charged crime. It's an unindicted crime. And the jury can decide without consensus that it's in furtherance of general criminality and not settle on any one crime that it's in furtherance of. Soality and not settle on any one crime that it's in furtherance of. So what they say is, well, four, this is totally made up, four of the jurors could find that it was election interference crime, four could find that it was New York state election

interference crime, and four could find that it was tax fraud. Yeah, and by the way, that would be okay. All the instructions said is that there does not need to be a unanimous decision that one particular crime was committed, just that a crime was committed or in furtherance of a crime was committed. That's New York law, folks. That will withstand appellate review at the Court of Appeals. Whereas the verdict form did not even ask for specificity of jury findings, denying the former president his right to fair trial. That's not true. Whereas, the conviction was obtained in part through the testimony of a discredited witness

and admitted felon, disbarred attorney Michael Cohen. Michael Cohen spent hours, dozens and dozens of hours on the stand in front of this jury. The jury is the trier of fact and the only body that is allowed to evaluate the credibility of a witness and they credited Michael Cohen's testimony for what it was worth in their deliberations about whether a crime was committed, fair and square. The fact that Donald Trump eventually got nominated doesn't mean that this is a Supreme Court case. Then they cite to the All Writs Act under 28 U.S.C. 1651 to say that the Supreme Court

and all courts established by the Act of Congress may issue all writs necessary in aid of their jurisdiction and agreeable to the uses and principles of law that doesn't apply to the Supreme Court jumping the track to stick their hand and nose in to a state level prosecution about non-federal and non-constitutional crimes and acts. That has to be written by somebody who's never studied law, never practiced law, and at least hasn't been part of our legal AF community. Now this resolution, as you can tell from the very beginning, is nonsense. And they know it. When you start with that this resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives, you know it's a loser and they know it. But this is what we're

watching and I want you to focus on it, is this kabuki theater performative art that's going on, call and response between Donald Trump as cult leader and MAGA in Congress, who will do his bidding whenever he says, this is somebody on the campaign through Donald Trump, pushed a button and said, we need more resolutions. We need lawsuits brought by Congress to try to interfere with the New York state prosecutions and appeals, right? So we have that one going on.

Let's file a lawsuit against the state of New York, from another state, arguing that they don't like the criminal prosecutions under state law in New York, because it interferes with the voters in Missouri and their ability to pull the switch for who they want. Let's have a resolution that calls for Supreme Court to intervene. They love, they never will. What are they going to regroup over the summer for their summer vacations?

And this is a good idea. There has to be a proper application or writ. I assume they're going to try that. Donald Trump's lawyers are going to have to file some sort of request for a writ. You can't just have Congress ask for it. We continue to follow all of this bullshit that's coming out and calling it for what it is. No smoke or sunshine, uncensored, unplugged, unfiltered, occasionally unhinged right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. And I'll bring it to you in hot takes like this one, I don't know, about every hour at the intersection of law and politics. Join us Wednesday, Saturdays, 8 p.m. Eastern Time,

and then on the Midas Touch Network YouTube, and then on all major podcast platforms where you can pick up our full one hour or so curated law and politics podcast. So until my next hot take, till my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know and we discuss every day on Legal AF.

Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Join us at patreon.com slash Legal AF. That's patreon.com slash Legal AF.