Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Issues VERY PECULIAR ORDER in Trump Criminal Case

Episode Date: December 4, 2024

Something 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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Starting point is 00:02:19 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
Starting point is 00:02:59 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,
Starting point is 00:03:18 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.
Starting point is 00:03:45 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,
Starting point is 00:04:06 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
Starting point is 00:04:29 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.
Starting point is 00:04:49 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
Starting point is 00:05:11 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
Starting point is 00:05:40 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
Starting point is 00:06:08 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. Forget everything you know about fasting.
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Starting point is 00:08:12 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,
Starting point is 00:08:31 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,
Starting point is 00:08:48 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.
Starting point is 00:09:05 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.
Starting point is 00:09:21 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
Starting point is 00:09:40 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?
Starting point is 00:10:00 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.
Starting point is 00:10:20 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?
Starting point is 00:10:34 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.
Starting point is 00:10:55 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.
Starting point is 00:11:21 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.
Starting point is 00:11:40 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.
Starting point is 00:11:58 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,
Starting point is 00:12:23 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. You're on the Midas Touch Network.
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Starting point is 00:13:01 And all things Legal AF, I'm Michael Popak and I am reporting.

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