Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Jack Smith Sounds POWERFUL MESSAGE to Scared Trump

Episode Date: April 16, 2024

Heard the one about Trump and his lawyers trying to delay things in his criminal matters? Yep, he’s at it again and Special Counsel Jack Smith is shoving back in the Mar a Lago criminal case, and telling federal judge Cannon enough is enough about Trump pointing to his NY trial as a basis for delay, in a new filing. Michael Popok examines and explains the Special Counsel’s demand that the judge hold fast with the required deadlines and disclosures that need to be done ASAP to get the trial set already. Head to https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/collections/sale?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=legalaf right now to get 15% off your entire order with code LegalAF! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on 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 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So whether you're going for a run or just running late, do what life throws your way and smell like you didn't. Find secret at your nearest Walmart or Shoppers Drug Mart today. This is Michael Popak with Illegal AF Hot Take. Hey, have you heard the one about Donald Trump and his lawyers trying to delay something in one of their criminal cases?

Oh, they're at it again. This time, they're basically asking for a motion for reconsideration down in the Mar-a-Lago case, trying to point the judge to the fact that they start trial, same lawyers, same defendant, up in New York in the Stormy Daniels election interference business record fraud case. We gotta come up with a shorter name for that case.

And they're saying, judge, we're in trial. We can't do anything that relates to Mar-a-Lago. We're only a two-man operation. Trump has the right to look over documents, to which the U.S. Attorney's Office, or in this case, Special Counsel's Office, responded with a filing today, late tonight. We like these late night filings. In which they said, we heard all of this before. Donald Trump acts like Judge Cannon, you don't know that he's in another trial. They have mentioned it no less than six times in six different filings in this case. You know it, you knew it, Your Honor, and they're reminding her in the papers, I'll read from them in a minute, you know, Your

Honor, because they raised it at the April 10th and April 13th hearings in the case, and you already considered that they were going to be on trial, that Todd Blanch and Chris Keiss overlap, same lawyers, same, you know, in different jurisdictions, and they'd be very hard pressed to get everything done in time. All those arguments were made already. And the judge says, yeah, all right. So May 9th, which is very late in the game, by the way, May 9th, there's going to be a major event in the case and this is my order. Now that everybody's leaning forward in my hot take, what's the major event, popok? We all know that Mar-a-Lago is about Donald Trump, sticky finger Trump taking and stealing and secreting documents that belong to you and me, national

defense information and national security documents, top secret information, and taking them as some sort of private memento back to Mar-a-Lago. That means the case instantly, automatically, naturally implicates the Classified Information and Procedures Act, the SIPA for short. And SIPA has some very specific rules and regulations and timetables that you got to use in a case that implicates SIPA. I can't think of a case that has implicated SIPA more than a former president, now a criminal defendant, who's accused

of stealing hundreds of classified documents and taking him with him to his personal residence. That is classic. You just write right down the middle, a heart of the matter, heartland of cases, Classified Information Procedures Act. There's two things that have to happen and relatively quickly,

except when you're a Judge Cannon's courtroom, in a SIPA case. One of them is called the Section 5A notice, and the other is called the Section 6A hearing. Relatively straightforward. Section 5A, and I'll read it to you in a minute, Section 5A basically says that at the deadline set by the court, or no less than 30 days before trial,

the defendant in a SIPA case has to identify which documents of the 7,000 pages of documents that the government has produced to them already. Of that 7,000 pages of documents, which documents that are classified are you planning to use at trial? Which ones? And if it's not on that list, you'll have to tell us that. So from now, just to be clear, Trump and his lawyers

have had access to all of the documents that Donald Trump hid, secreted, tried to destroy that were picked up in the search warrant. They have copies of all that. They've had to go search them in a classified SIPA facility, a hardened facility, which has a lot of security measures and related to that, but they know the universe of documents that the government contends is classified. So the SIPA Section 5 notice has to be, you can see where this is going, has to be given to the

government so that they can conduct a hearing along with the judge to determine the procedures around which these documents are going to be used at trial. It's not to deny Donald Trump the right to use the documents. If he feels he has to use them to make some sort of argument to the jury in his defense, he feels they're exculpatory, they'll help him get away from being convicted, great, you can use them, but there has to be procedures around them so that our friends and foes on the public docket and the media covering the trial doesn't leak out the classified information. This case is

about stealing classified information. So yes, Donald Trump, I'm sure knowing him, will try to use classified information in his defense and this Section 5A notice starts the ball rolling, right? It lights the fuse for all the other procedures under SIPA. Notice from the defendant. And the judge already heard back on April the 10th at a hearing, already heard all the arguments about why Donald Trump didn't want to do that work with his lawyers to identify the classified documents under a Section 5A notice any sooner than he had to. They bled it about, oh, we're in trial, Your Honor.

We're up in New York, same lawyers. We can't go to a classified facility and go look at documents now. We're busy. Why don't we adjourn all of these hearing dates? And the judge says, no, May 9th. I know you have the same lawyers. That's your problem. May 9th, give me the notice. And there's going to be expert disclosure at the same time. You want to use an expert for the jury in some way, you got to identify your experts. Now, the government has already produced over, let me get the number right here,

they did 6,043 records or classified documents have already been produced. And then another 6,000 records were produced on the 25th of March. So we're talking about, let's just call it an even 12,000. There's 12,000 documents. It's not that big of a document intensive case. That's the universe that Donald Trump has to get around to reviewing and identifying which of those he wants to use and identify as expert. You can't set a SIPA trial until you have a Section 5A notice from the defendant.

That's what's been hanging us all up here. That's why we've been wringing our hands here waiting for Judge Cannon to get off the pot, Fisher cut bait, and set that section 5A notice deadline. And she did. But Donald Trump doesn't like it. So he wants to remind the judge, but did you hear us, judge? We're in trial this week, you know, coming up. How are we going to do all this?

And the government fired back in their writings tonight and said, these are the exact same arguments you made a month ago. This is the seventh time that Donald Trump has tried to delay these matters, Your Honor. And you already knew about the New York trial. I mean, you'd have to be under a rock not to know there's a New York trial going on. It's not our fault they're using some of the same lawyers, but not all of the same lawyers.

I mean, Jack Smith's telling the judge, he's got local counsel in Florida that isn't in trial with him up in New York. They can go to the Hardin facility and go look through the documents. Just because Mr. Keis and or Mr. Blanche have to sit all day in a courtroom. By the way, I'm not even sure Chris Keis has to sit all day in a courtroom. He's not an attorney of record in the case as far as I can see. Chris Keis was the lead lawyer for Donald Trump in the New York Attorney General case, the civil fraud case.

Todd Blanche and Susan Necklis are his lawyers, his lead lawyers in the New York criminal case. So for Kise and or Blanche to say that there's a complete overlap of lawyers and they're busy right now, Judge, can we get back to you? Never is completely inappropriate. For them to argue there's some sort of constitutional implication to process right that's being violated.

No, there isn't. Donald Trump didn't have to pick Todd Blanch to do all his criminal cases. He could have picked different lawyers for different cases. They've got local counsel. Let me read for you for a minute so that we can stay on track here with what is the 5A requirement under SIPA that I'm all hot and bothered about under the collar and what is the 6A hearing. Do you know fast growing trees is the biggest online nursery in the US with more than 10,000 different kinds of plants and over 2 million happy customers in the US? They have everything

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in any manner in connection with any trial or pretrial proceeding involving the criminal prosecution of such defendant, the defendant shall within the time specified by the court, or if no time is specified, no later than 30 days prior to trial, notify the US attorney, this case the special counsel, and the court in writing with a brief description of the classified information, right?

And then that kicks, so you got to get that. You can't go into trial and trial prep for the government, not knowing which classified documents are going to be put up in front of a jury that have to be protected from the media, redacted, made sealed or private or whatever. Then you go to 6A of the same SIPA rules, and 6a says, within the time period specified by the court, the United States may request the court to conduct a hearing to make all determinations concerning the use, relevance, or admissibility of classified information that would otherwise be made during the trial or pretrial proceeding,

and then upon request, the judge shall conduct such a hearing, right? Shall be in camera, meaning the judge should review the classified information and it shall not be on the public docket. As to each item of classified information, the court shall set forth in writing the basis for its determination about how it's gonna be used at trial.

So you got 5A and 6A, all implicated. You can't do a SIPA trial, espionage, obstruction of justice, whatever you're going to call it against Donald Trump without it. And so we continue to delay. And now the government has had it. They've told the judge in this recent filing, I'll start reading parts of it to you,

that this is all a transparent effort to delay. And that's all we're watching. So in the filing, which is styled, the government's response to defendants motion for an adjournment of the deadlines for the defendant's rule 16 expert disclosure, that means naming your expert, and the SEPA section 5A notice, which I just gave you.

They say on page one, the government says on page one, following their pattern, the defendants responded to the court's deadline by seeking another postponement. And they cited the five other times that they have sought a postponement in this case. They go on on page two to say, this court set the May 9th deadline for the Section 5A SEPA notice the May 9th deadline for the Section 5A SEPA notice and for the expert disclosure fully apprised of defendant Trump's New York trial. Although the defendant's motion reads as though the court were unaware of Trump's other case and as if the defendants had no forewarning that a Section 5 deadline for SEPA would be set, those premises are plainly wrong. The defendants have had ample notice that these deadlines would be scheduled and have already had months

to complete the work. But what Donald Trump wants is basically an open-ended postponement. He said, well, we're on trial for six weeks, so give us six weeks plus another three weeks after it's over. So let's just call it nine weeks. Sure, let's just burn through all the way until July 1 before you do a SIPA notice, which again is burning down the candle and allowing the court to properly set a trial in this case and then the eventual appeals that will ensue that could also delay things. They go on to say after laying out how many, almost 12,000 pages of documents, and that the expert for the government has already been disclosed to the other side and they've known it all this time, they say it's not our fault.

On page two, they say Trump elected to engage the same counsel of record in multiple serious criminal matters and his counsel agreed to the multiple engagements. He also has, as they say later on, the defendants have capable local counsel who can contribute to the work who are not on trial up in New York. They continue. They said we wanted an earlier date. The dates for the SIPA disclosure section 5 should have been back in November. So they've had plenty of time. They thought they were going to have to make a November deadline. Why are they just getting around now in April or six or three weeks after their New York trial ends to go do what they should have done back in November? So then they say on page four,

this is the government again, at the March 1 scheduling conference when the court inquired what the government's immediate scheduling priorities were, the government emphasized the need for a SEPA Section 5 notice. We need Trump's notice. What are the classified documents? He's going to try to use a trial so that we can either oppose their use or make sure that they're used appropriately without harming our national security. And then they go on to say the Trump's counsel back on March 1 argued exactly what he's arguing

now that he should not have to meet any SIPA deadlines until the completion of the trial in New York and then three weeks beyond that. This is just another transparent effort to re-argue the same thing that the judge has already set. And asking that the court deny their request on page five, the government continues. The defendants claim that they need the entire duration of the Trump New York trial and then three additional weeks to prepare the SIPA Section 5 notice, again, just going through 12,000 documents and identifying which ones you're going to use, and an expert witness disclosure that they should have already had strains credulity

and belies their true objective delay. They go on to say, and remind the court on bottom of page 6, defendant Trump has local counsel in Florida who are familiar with the case and who have obtained all the necessary security clearances who are not participating in the New York trial. Let them handle the remaining work on the submissions. I've been involved with cases where the judge has said, something exactly like that. You have local counsel, let your local counsel do it.

And that is the, it's signed by Jay Bratt. I want to remind people who Jay Bratt is on behalf of the special counsel. Jay Bratt is not just one of the trial lawyers who's going to try the case and list it as counselor to the special counsel. Jay Bratt is the person who Donald Trump's then lawyer, Evan Corcoran, now retired from being a lawyer for Donald Trump, interacted with and effectively, inadvertently or on purpose lied to about the scope of his, Evan Corcoran's due diligence to look for documents in Mar-a-Lago. He was meeting with Jay Bratt. He delivered to Jay Bratt that now infamous folder that Evan Corcoran taped up and had Christina Bob sign to say,

these are the only 38 documents I could find in my – he didn't mention this at the time, but we know it now – his 20 minutes of review of a staged room that Donald Trump's edited before he got there. That Jay Bratt. Jay Bratt was the one who was negotiating, is too strong of a term, interacting with Donald Trump's main lawyer, Evan Corcoran, and Christina Bob and Jennifer Little to try to get the return. It was like a hostage situation. It's like a kidnapping. Get the return of all our national defense information documents without the need to

have to go to a magistrate and execute on a search warrant. So Jay Brad is a very interesting cat in all of this, and I wanted to bring that to your attention as well. Now with Judge Cannon, with the briefing will be done soon. We're going to have to hold our breath to see what happens. She's got a bunch of motions that are in front of her right now that give me a lot. I'm white-knuck, waiting for all their results. She's got a motion to dismiss brought by the maintenance

worker, co-conspirator De Olvera. I think that's going to fail, and his indictment's not going to get dismissed. Under most circumstances, I'd be very secure in that assessment. Not so sure with Judge Cannon. Walt Nauta, the butler, also moved for an indictment dismissal. I think based on reporting about the hearing on that, I think that loses. But again, this is Judge Cannon. And now she's got to decide once and for all whether she's going to continue

to delay the thing that lies at the heart of this entire case. It's the engine for the entire case, which is the Classified Information Procedures Act, Section 5A notice, something that should have been done months ago. I shouldn't even be doing this hot take right now as of April whatever. This should have been something we should have been doing back in like November of last year. But here we are. Here we are.

And here you are on my hot take. I really appreciate the comments and the thumbs up. You can follow me here. Go over to Playlist under the MidasTouch YouTube channel. Look for Michael Popak under Contributors or Playlist. You'll find, I don't know, 1,200 or 1,300 of hot takes like this. And then I do that podcast. We like to call Legal AF. We do it on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern Time on this YouTube channel for Midas Touch. Join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Find out why we call it Legal AF and then on audio podcast platforms of your choice. 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. Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Join us at patreon.com legalaf.com.