Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Jack Smith quickly delivers REALITY CHECK to Judge Cannon

Episode Date: July 16, 2024

The Special Counsel—reminding Judge Cannon that he is actually EMPLOYED BY THE DOJ—just notified her that the Attorney General has authorized his IMMEDIATE APPEAL of her ruling dismissing the Mar a Lago case because it’s DEVIATES from all prior court decisions affirming the validity of the Special Counsel’s office and funding. Soul: Go to https://GetSoul.com and use code LEGALAF to get 30% OFF your order! 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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Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. It's Michael Popak, Legal AF, right on time and in breaking news, Jack Smith, special counsel. Yes, he's the special counsel. Properly appointed by the Department of Justice and by Merrick Garland is appealing. This breathtaking decision by Judge Aileen Cannon to once and for all rid herself of the Mar-a-Lago case that she hasn't liked from the moment it was

assigned to her by finding that the special counsel was illegitimate, invalid, improperly appointed, improperly funded, taking the cue from a bunch of MAGA right wing think tanks who wrote briefs that she accepted and made arguments in her courtroom that she accepted, even though they're not parties to the case. And then the final nail in the coffin for Judge Cannon is the love letter from Judge Clarence Thomas in the July 1st immunity decision

that looked like it was directed directly to her. It might as well have said, dear Judge Cannon, dear Aileen, you should challenge the special prosecutor's special counsel position and dismiss the entire indictment based on its illegitimacy. Well, Jack Smith is not taking it any longer. They've been waiting.

They've been chomping at the bit at the special counsel's office to get a substantive ruling out of Judge Cannon, not one of these little quarter page paperless orders that we've reported about ad nauseam here on the Midas Touch Network, but an actual living, breathing, good old fashioned 93 page decision that is replete with improper analysis. It's both pro licks her decision, 93 pages, and short on analysis,

improper legislative research and and citations. I don't know how you can be both 93, both heavy and light at the same time. It's just chock full of make weight without real substantive proper analysis. And she, with the back of her hand, she dispatches and makes short work of the analysis based on the statutes that actually authorize, pardon me, pardon me, the special counsel. So Jack Smith, as expected, waiting for this day for two years to find the third major reversible error mistake by Judge Cannon and argue for her reassignment off the case to the 11th Circuit has finally spoken.

Spokesperson for the Special Counsel's Office, I'll read it to you, Peter Carr, Special Counsel, Jack Smith's office, quote, the dismissal of the case deviates from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the Attorney General is statutorily authorized to appoint a Special Counsel. from the uniform conclusion of all previous courts to have considered the issue that the attorney general is statutorily authorized to appoint a special counsel. The justice department has authorized the special counsel to appeal the court's order. Think of those words alone.

Just that last sentence is a thumb in the eye back at Judge Cannon. Judge Cannon spent three pages, three whole pages in her decision, starting on page 24, telling the special counsel that he is invalid, saying that he's not an employee of the Department of Justice,

that he doesn't have any authority with the Department of Justice. He's not a special attorney under the Department of Justice. He's just a stranger to the case. And in a very succinct way, almost like a haiku from Jack Smith to Aileen Cannon, he said the following, the Justice Department has authorized the Special Counsel to appeal the court's orders because I take my orders, because I'm an employee, I am funded by the Special Counsel. That is already an exact response to her analysis.

This is what the briefing said on page 24. Alien Cannon said in her order that neither of the statutes relied upon by the Department of Justice of the special counsel to justify his existence work. Those two statutes approved by Congress are 28 USC section 510 and 515. On 510, let me read you the language of 510. 510 says the attorney general may from time to time make such provisions as he considers appropriate, authorizing the performance by any officer, employee, or agency of the Department of Justice of any function

of the Attorney General. What is the special counsel other than an employee or agency of the DOJ being given a function of the Attorney General? There's no doubt that Maine Justice, the Department of Justice could have prosecuted Donald Trump, but they did a good thing, not a bad thing, under Section 28, USC 510.

But this is how dismissive she is. She analyzes that in one paragraph out of 93 pages on page 24. And she says that after she says, special counsel Smith, as all agree and as required by the special counsel regulations, was selected from outside the United States government. What does that have to do with anything? He was selected from outside the United States government, but once selected, Judge Cannon, he became an officer, employee, or agent of the DOJ to fulfill a function of the attorney general. And then she's so self-satisfied with her analysis that she ends it after one paragraph in 93 pages. The most fundamental issue in the case

with saying no more discussion about 510 is necessary. Because she declares it so in an imperious way showing false bravado and misplaced bravado. Does the same thing about the other statute authorized by Congress that allows for the appointment of a special counsel, section 515. Here she says, and I'm going to read you to 515, little b as we say, each attorney specially retained under authority of the Department of Justice shall be commissioned as special assistant to the attorney general or special attorney and shall take the oath required by law. That all

happened here. I know she doesn't like to acknowledge it, but the special counsel was commissioned as a special assistant to the attorney general or as a special attorney. She says, well, that only refers to the U.S. attorneys in each district. No, that's not what it says. It rises and falls based on the express language, the literal language of the statute. And she then says under 515B, as she goes through the analysis on page 26 and 27, she concludes that he's not a special attorney because he's outside of the normal ranking hierarchy of the Department of Justice.

I mean, this is utter and complete nonsense. And to remind her of who her, his boss is, even though he is quote unquote special, he is not independent. Let me repeat that. Jack Smith is special counsel, not independent counsel. Yes, there is supervision by under the Department of Justice guidelines, there is supervision by the attorney general of the actions of the special counsel, and he acts to run the case to give a bit of distance or a wall between main justice.

It doesn't mean he's not employed. It doesn't mean when he gets his direct deposit every month from somewhere, it's not coming from Merrick Garland's personal bank account, the payment to Jack Smith to pay him his salary and those of everyone around him. I mean, Alien Count was all upset, oh he spent 14 million dollars. I mean a third of that is for security details to protect the special counsel from death threats created by Donald Trump's rhetoric. The rest is the sprawling investigation in two places, Mar-a-Lago and the Department of Justice case against him and DC election interference. And she says, oh, he spends a lot of money.

Right. And every time the Jay Bratt or Jeff or Pierce or any of the special councils working under Jack Smith get paid, if they were to look at their paycheck, it would say it's coming from the Department of Justice, the US Treasury. Where does he think the money's coming from? I mean, that's why he said, and the Department of Justice and the Attorney General has authorized me to appeal your butt.

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That's 30% off your order using code LegalAF. One last time, getSoul.com and code LegalAF for 30% off your order using code LegalAF. One last time, getsol.com and code LegalAF for 30% off. Here's what's going to happen now. Because Alien Cannon's decision is such an outlier, such a rogue, such a, so outside the mainstream, such fringe adoption of theories, zombie theories that have been floating around the right-wing mega conservative world forever.

Anything they could throw up against the wall, if they could just find a judge to accept it, they found a judge in Alien Canon. But fortunately, she's got bosses at the 11th Circuit. We know she's ignored, thank God for that. We know she's ignored her fellow senior lawyers, sorry, judges in the Southern District of Florida. There's already been reporting that Judge Cecilia Altenaga, who

I know well from when I practiced in Miami, who's now the chief judge in the Southern District, tried to counsel Aileen Cannon to step off the case. And I think Judge Middlebrooks did the exact same thing. She refused. Now we know why. Because who else was going to make this decision that she just made to dismiss an indictment finding that special counsel's office is improper after 20 or 30 years of its operation under more than one president including Donald Trump's own Attorney General Bill Barr. So thankfully it's going to the 11th Circuit. Now the 11th Circuit is filled

of former trial judges in Miami, and I know some of them well, in Alabama and in Georgia. William Pryor, a Georgia former judge, is the chief judge. But there's other lawyers, keep saying lawyers, there's other judges on the 11th Circuit that sits in Atlanta. Sometimes here's oral argument in different places in Alabama or in Florida. These judges are waiting, I believe, for her to have made this major step. And this isn't her stepping in a bucket. This is her stepping into a crevice

and disappearing into oblivion because they're going to reverse her at the 11th Circuit. The question is how quickly? How quickly is that briefing schedule going to be arranged? Now I'm a member of the 11th Circuit and I'm a member of the Southern District of Florida, and I've appeared in front of many of the judges in the Southern District of Florida, just not Aileen Cannon, although I have been in her courthouse up in Fort Pierce. And so I think what's going to happen is they're going to set a relatively quick briefing schedule

throughout the month of July into August, and they're gonna make it after oral argument, they're gonna make a ruling in August. And I think it's gonna be against Aileen Cannon, they're gonna order her to reopen the case, and they may even reassign it, because the 11th Circuit has a lemon law. Three strikes and you're out, and she's made three, this will be her third major reversible error decision

as a young, immature, inexperienced judge. Two to start the case about the documents and the search warrant, and one now. And if they reassign her, which they're allowed to do under another statute that you won't be able to challenge or misinterpret, they'll sign it to another senior judge in the Southern District of Florida.

Could be Judge Middlebrooks, who already had the Clinton Trump case. Could be Judge Altenaga. Anyone, anyone will do a better job than Judge Aileen Cannon. And that's the issue that the special counsel is now going to prosecute. And of course, as I've done another hot take, this opens the floodgates of attacks against the special counsel, not just this special counsel, prior special counsels. Come one, come all. If you were prosecuted and convicted by a special counsel, you've got a new case that you can wave around on your appeal and move to vacate your judgment or your verdict against you. Hunter Biden, doesn't matter that your

father and his lawyers run the Department of Justice, you can try to get your recent gun conviction overturned, maybe. And of Justice, you can try to get your recent gun conviction overturned. Maybe. And, of course, Donald Trump's going to file the same motion, citing back to Aileen Cannon in front of Judge Chutkin. I can't wait for that collision of intellects to happen. Aileen Cannon's decision, half-baked as it is, too smart by half as it is, going before Judge Chutkin in the D in the DC election interference case.

I think she makes short work of that motion to dismiss and then you've got the DC Court of Appeals probably affirming the same thing. Will it eventually end up with the United States Supreme Court? Yes. When will that be? Not this term. Term is over. Sometime in the next term, which means sometime between election day and the inauguration or after.

We'll follow it all like we always do here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Follow me, Michael Popak on all things social media, MSPOPAK, and I'm a contributor and a playlist over on this YouTube channel, look under Michael Popak. So until my next hot take, until 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.

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