Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Issues VERY PECULIAR ORDER in Trump Criminal Case
Episode Date: December 4, 2024Something very odd just happened in Georgia, with Fulton County DA missing a key deadline to oppose a suit filed by a MAGA trump supporter to try to obtain documents related to communications between ...her office and Jack Smith’s office and/or Jan 6 Committee. Michael Popok gets to the bottom of it and the default judgment entered against her. Head to https://ProlonLife.com/LEGALAF to get 15% off their 5-day nutrition program. 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 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Something odd is going on in Georgia State Court with Fonny
Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney, related
to records of communications between her and the Jan 6 Committee or her and Jack Smith's
Special Counsel's Office.
And I'm going to get to the bottom of it right here on this hot take on the Midas Touch Network
and Legal AF.
I started to scratch my head when I saw a new order just come out from Judge McBurney
against Fonny Willis on a default judgment. A default judgment is what you enter as a judge
if you find that the other side, in this case the Fulton County DA's office, has failed to properly
respond to a complaint that's been filed against them. Tom Fitton, who's a non-lawyer who operates
something called Judicial Watch, got it into his pea brain that there were
communications between Fonny Willis's office, Jack Smith's office, the special
counsel, and the Jan 6 committee, like they were coordinating with each other
against Donald Trump. Now the records custodian for the office of the Fulton County DA had already responded
when they got the records request.
Sometimes we call it a FOIA,
which is a federal version of it,
a Freedom of Information Act,
or in the state court,
it's called a public records request.
When you get a public records request,
the government must respond.
And the next day, the records custodian told Tom Fitton,
you know, didn't tell him to go AF themselves, but said,
none, we don't have those documents, they don't exist.
Well, Tom Fitton didn't want to take yes or no for an answer and decided he was going to file a complaint because he believed that they did.
Half the time Fitton doesn't know what he's talking about.
So I was in that shock by it.
But something bizarre happened and I don't know why.
Even if there were none, once you got sued,
the Fulton County DA needed to respond to that suit.
Fonny Willis can't ignore it and just go,
well, I don't really care.
I'll just let a default judge be entered against me.
But apparently the judge,
after learning that the suit had been filed
and thinking that it had not been properly served,
ordered Fitton's, the judicial watch,
to serve again for a second time Fulton County DA's office
because the DA's office never appeared in the case.
So it got served again.
So now it got served twice and they still didn't appear.
It gets weirder before I get to the default judgment
that just got entered against Fonny Willis.
There was also a 15 day grace period under Georgia law
because it happens.
I've had a couple of defaults get entered against clients.
I've had to come in and try to move to vacate the default
on good grounds and good cause.
Didn't get it, clerk lost it, dog ate it, whatever it is.
You have sufficient grounds
and the judge will generally in equity help you out.
But nobody appeared again.
It was like the third time for the Fulton County DA.
I don't know if they're just thumbing their nose
at McBurney, which is really weird
because they have to appear in front of him a lot.
And he has history here.
He was the presiding judge
over the special purpose grand jury against Donald Trump. So,
you know, he's generally sided with the office a number of times. And I don't think it's just
Fonny Willis getting upset and sort of, you know, taking her ball and going home. She won her
reelection on the 5th of November. I mean, the case has sort of got stuck against Donald Trump
in appeals, but I don't think she's doing it on purpose. Something happened in her office.
There's only way I can explain it.
Something got missed twice, maybe three times,
and the judge sort of had enough.
So the judge ordered on a default judgment
that within five days of today, Fonny Willis turn over and search
and search and turn over whatever they may have that falls into those two categories.
Communications back and forth, if there are any,
between Fonny's office and the Gen 6 committee
and Fonny's office and the special counsel's office.
Now, if it's still zero, they don't have an obligation
to forge them, artificially make them up,
but now she's gonna have to pay attorney's fees
because that statute in Georgia about public record says
attorney's fees will be rewarded for somebody
that has to go through the trouble of filing the complaint.
So now they're gonna have to pay Donald Trump's mouthpiece,
Tom Fitton, $10,000 or $20,000 for filing this complaint.
There wasn't a lot of litigation,
so it shouldn't be that much money,
but that's not taxpayer dollars well spent.
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So here's what I'm speculating.
I don't think it's a matter of Fonny Willis
just being in contempt of court
and allowing that default to happen.
Something at a lower level in that office got missed.
They either thought the clerk's office was sufficient
and saying there were none,
or they didn't have to respond.
But she could not have thought that taking a default
judgment was a proper strategy,
because it opened her up to attorney's fees.
And if there are none, you would just answer the complaint.
That's how you avoid a default.
You file an answer, that's what it's called,
got a complaint and an answer.
And the answer you say, none.
And then if they don't like it,
they can call for an evidentiary hearing,
or they can try to prove to the judge
what evidence they have that it's not none.
Like they got a piece of paper from the Jan six committee.
Because you know what he could have done, Fitton,
if he's really being smart,
is he would have subpoenaed Jack Smith's office,
but they won't provide anything
during an ongoing investigation. They would have subpoenaed the Jan's office, but they won't provide anything during an ongoing investigation.
They would have subpoenaed the Gen 6 committee,
which is out of business.
All those documents have been posted and asked for that.
And then have that to compare and contrast
against what they get from Fonny Willis's office.
And if she says she doesn't have any,
and they have one, like an email,
aha, an email, see, you didn't produce this.
Then you run into court and say,
she should be found in sanctions and for default and penalties
and punishments and all that stuff.
I don't think they have anything.
I think this is out of the fevered imagination of Tom
Fitton on behalf of Donald Trump.
But this procedural, just to nerd out for a minute,
how Fonny Willis could allow her office to allow a default
against them, I have no idea.
You know, even in a law firm, you have sort of checks and balances,
you have controls in place
to make sure that defaults don't happen.
Multiple calendaring on multiple parties,
multiple emails that get the correspondence from the court
or the notice of the filing,
and then you take action related to it, right?
They didn't appear to do any of those things.
So I'm a little bit upset on this hot take
because it's sort of an unforced error.
It's, you know, you just basically,
it's like an own goal in soccer.
You know, Foddy just kicked it into her own goal
and has to pay $20,000 in fees
in order to tell the court she doesn't have any.
And now she's on her back foot
because if she doesn't have any,
it's gonna be like, well, let's have a hearing then.
We want an affidavit and a declaration under oath
of all the steps you took to try to look for them.
Where'd you look?
What servers did you look at?
What were the records custodians?
How do you know that you search all your emails?
Let's see your emails.
It just opens the door for all sorts of mischief
by Tom Fitton, who's known for mischief.
We don't believe her, Judge.
Let's go forensically examine and image her servers to go look for them.
No.
Now, I saw the initial reaction was there's going to be an appeal.
I'm not so sure about that.
I mean, Fonny Willis had multiple opportunities in her office to fix this, to avoid the default. And I usually side with Fonny, but I think she's wrong here.
Unless I get a new piece of data, a new data point that tells me she did this on purpose.
And if she did it on purpose, I don't see the purpose.
That's what I'm trying to say.
I don't see the purpose.
If it's none, you reply none.
I don't have any documents.
And it ends there.
If he wants to take it fit into the next level, he tries it, you oppose it,
but you don't act like you never got it.
So I hope that's why people come to legal AF
and Midas Touch Network.
We don't blow up a smoke or sunshine.
I'm not here to say there's gotta be a reasonable
explanation for Fonny Willis to do that.
I don't see one.
So what's gonna happen now?
I mean, could she appeal?
I don't think this is appealable at this moment.
I don't think McBurney did anything wrong as a judge.
He had her served not once, but twice.
She got served her office, you know,
at least that's the assumption.
Now she can claim all sorts of things that happened and why,
and we fired the law clerk or the student that was working and opening the mail
in the mail room, it got lost, dog ate it, whatever it is,
but she's a little late now.
So now she's got an order against her.
She's got to move to vacate the judgment of default
and show, now she's got to show extraordinary costs
with a whole affidavit that's got to get filed,
you know, in lieu of responding in five days.
And the reality is, if she doesn't have anything,
which I don't think she does based on reporting,
then why are you screwing around with the process?
Don't.
I'll continue to follow it.
Great news.
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