Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge REJECTS Trump Request, RELEASES File TO PUBLIC

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

Judge Chutkan presiding over the DC election interference criminal case against Donald Trump, just ruled for the American people, and ultimately against Donald Trump‘s efforts to hide the overwhelming mountain of evidence against him. Michael Popok dives into the complete 180 page “mini-trial” of a brief filed by the Special Counsel’s office against Donald Trump to prove their case to judge Chutkan, that the indictment should survive the Supreme Court immunity decision. VIIA: Try VIIA Hemp! https://bit.ly/viialegalaf and use code LEGALAF! 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

This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. Sit down, grab a cup of coffee. We have what we've been waiting for. It just got put on the docket by an order of Judge Chutkin. We've got a Jack Smith's 180 page brief of evidence against Donald Trump making his case, if you will, to the American people before November the 5th.

It's exactly the nightmare scenario that Donald Trump dreaded. It's now here. Judge Chutkin made a decision just about an hour ago in which she agreed with the Department of Justice that almost everything needed to go into the public domain. Nothing should be withheld from the public about the immunity decision,

the immunity application to the current superseding indictment and her ultimate decisions in that area, None. In fact, there's very little redaction. There is redaction. That's the black tape you see there throughout the 180 pages, but it's really to just protect certain people who are not yet been disclosed from having their identity revealed, although you can tell from their positions and their titles that and who they are. And we'll try to do that as I do this particular hot take. This is a mini trial presentation of the evidence to the American people.

It's not because there's a weaponization of the legal system against Donald Trump. It's because the United States Supreme Court and Chief Justice Roberts in its 6-3 decision on immunity back in July commanded this result, demanded this result, forced Judge Chutkin right now and not at some later time to go through the superseding indictment line by line and try to figure out how much of it using a fact analysis, an analysis of the supporting facts and evidence, forcing Jack Smith to carry his burden now, to overcome the presumption of immunity for official contact.

All that be done now. The only way to do that now is to submit a 180-page brief, list all the evidence, and then follow that up, which they already have with a tractor trailer full of physical evidence and citations and witness statements and testimony from the grand jury to support it because she has to do it now. Now, Donald Trump says, don't do it now, not before the election. That's exactly what they have to do. And Judge Chuckin, who I admire, made a great decision today. She ordered that the clerk post to the docket immediately, not giving Donald Trump any time to run for an appeal or a

stay or to stop it, she said immediately and the clerk took her direction and posted, and now we have a copy of it right here, all 180 pages. I'm going to tell you the parts that are important. What we have overall, taking the plane up 5,000 feet, is that we have the government laying out methodically, action by action, along a timeline of three major conspiracies, very similar to how the Jan six committee had outlined this very conspiracy,

criminal conspiracy led by Donald Trump. And then we then after the three conspiracies in the timeline, the third organizing principle of the new filing that we now can read is state by state in the seven battleground states. And what Donald Trump did with private actors and private lawyers as a campaigner, not as president, to try to influence and stop the outcome of

the election and peaceful transfer of power. So those are the three organizing principles of this particular brief. And then within it, you have things that I'll be able to read from kind of a couple of barriers in particular that I'm going to read from for you now so you can get a flavor for it. And then we'll be doing hot takes and Legal AF and Legal AF podcast and more hot takes as we digest more and more and more this cornucopia of evidence against Donald Trump. Let me start with the beginning. This could serve as the Department of Justice's opening statement to a future jury.

I'm just going to read it to you straight. Page three over to page four of the new brief. This is no redaction. This is just prose. When the defendant, that's always Donald Trump, lost the 2020 presidential election, he resorted to crimes to try to stay in office. This is a good start day after the vice presidential debate by the way. With private co-conspirators, the defendant launched a series of increasingly desperate plans to overturn the legitimate election results in seven states that he lost. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, now known as the targeted states. His efforts included lying to

state officials in order to induce them to ignore true vote counts. This is like a terrible criminal bingo board for Donald Trump. So if you had lying to state officials, manufacturing fraudulent electoral votes in the targeted states, attempting to enlist Pence in his role as president of the Senate to obstruct Congress's certification of the election by using false fraudulent electoral votes, and when all else failed directing an angry mob of supporters to the United States Capitol to obstruct the congressional certification, you won. The through line of these efforts, the brief continues, was deceit. That's the common

denominator. The defendants and co-conspirators knowingly false claim of election fraud. They used these lies in furtherance of three conspiracies. That's part of the organizing principle of this particular brief I told you about. One, a conspiracy to interfere with the federal government's function by which it collects and counts election results according to the Constitution and the Electoral Count Act. Two, a conspiracy to obstruct the official proceeding in which Congress certified those results. And three, and this is the one that's most devastating and disqualifying for me, for a person who's running again for the presidency.

A conspiracy against the rights of millions of Americans to vote and have their votes counted. Again, a powerful opening statement embedded within what effectively is a special counsel report and a compilation and a summary of all the evidence against Donald Trump. At its core, it continues on page four, the defendant's scheme was a private criminal effort in its capacity as a candidate, not as a president. The defendant used the seat to target every stage of the electoral process, which through

the constitution, the electoral count act and state laws includes the state's notification of the federal government of the selection of their representative electors by popular vote, the meeting of those electors to cast their vote, and Congress's counting of those electors' votes at a certification proceeding. He worked with private co-conspirators, again continuing the opening statement to a future jury. The brief continues, including private attorneys, and he's got five listed. I could think of a number of them. Ken Chesbro, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Boris Epstein, Jenna Ellis. You see where this is going? The defendant, Trump, also relied heavily

on private agents, such as his campaign employees and volunteers, like his campaign manager, his deputy campaign manager, his senior campaign advisor and campaign operative. Again, they're making the point this is private, private, private, because the Supreme Court has said if it's private, private, private, it's prosecutable. That's why they're spending so much time on it. The brief thing goes on to the formation of the conspiracies. Lots of interesting information and supporting evidence here that we will continue to cover

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Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Enhance your every day with Viya. Let me just turn to another fascinating page that I did not know before. If you go to page 50, here we go. On December 6th, the same day that unidentified person put the plan on paper, the defendant called the RNC chairwoman, I mean Huckabee, out of the blue. Huckabee did not know and the defendant introduced him by saying that he was a professor and

lawyer. This is John Eastman. And was the primary speaker at the convention. This one person told another that he and the defendant wanted the RNC to help the campaign assemble electors in the states where they had legal challenges or litigation ongoing. This is the beginning of the fake elector scheme. John Eastman, Ken Chesborough. On the same day from his personal email account, Eastman forwarded, well, they doesn't say Eastman, but we know it is, forwarded to a campaign staff member a memorandum he just wrote. We just need to have someone coordinating the electors for states. That became Mike Roman,

the Election Day coordinator for Donald Trump. I'm sure he is mentioned in here as an unindicted co-conspirator. Then it goes through state by state and what they did in Arizona and what they did in all the other targeted states to use the fake electors scheme. Now, why is the fake electors scheme so important? Because even the United States Supreme Court,

when it said that on two of the four counts against Donald Trump are for obstruction of an official proceeding, meaning Congress, but because of a prior case called Fisher that the United States Supreme Court decided before the immunity decision, in order to have that count stand, any Jan 6th co-conspirator, even Trump, they have to show the use of false or fraudulent evidence. Donald Trump was all over the fake elector certificates, which even under the Fisher decision for the United States Supreme Court should survive and those counts should stay. Because the other thing that Judge Chutkin has to evaluate as part of her remand from the Supreme Court is whether

all four of the counts in the superseding indictment, including the two for obstruction of justice, contain false evidence and therefore can survive a motion to dismiss or this immunity analysis. And that's what they're doing right now. Then they turn on page 59 to the pressure campaign on Mike Pence Now that one Donald Trump's all excited about he says oh Mike Pence anytime Donald Trump talked to Mike Pence that was Constitutional that was absolutely immune That was that was immunity without any exception or you can't overcome the presumption of immunity because they're they're constitutional officers talking Yeah, but they're not talking about constitutional officers stuff

They're talking about the campaign and how to get elected or not elected and that takes it out or should take it out of that realm Here's what they say on page 59 as Trump's various attempts to target the states failed and the January 6th congressional certification approached the defendant and the co-conspirators Turned their attention to Pence who as president of the Senate, presided over the certification proceeding. Again, the fake electors. In service of a new plan, here's the new plan, the new conspiracy, to enlist Pence to use his role to fraudulently alter the election results at the Jan 6 certification proceeding. Note to the undecided, are you okay with a candidate who's being

accused in an indictment with evidence to back it up that he tried to convince and corrupt his vice president to fraudulently alter the election results? Doesn't your vote matter? But I digress. Let's continue. The defendant first publicly turned his sights towards January 6th in the early mornings of December 19. This is after Donald Trump met with Ken Chesbrough, a lawyer in the White House. The defendant posted on Twitter a copy of a report falsely alleging fraud and wrote, and this is now the infamous tweet,

Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 election. Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild. He got that idea from Ken Chesbrough. The defendant, so when CC5, that's co-conspirator five, learned about the tweet, he sent a link about it to another of the Wisconsin attorneys who he had met with the defendant in the Oval Office and wrote, wow, based on three days ago I think we have unique understanding of this. That's Ken Chespero. That's Ken Chespero who was shepherded into that office by Rance Priebus of Wisconsin along with another Wisconsin lawyer and they convinced they got a worm inside of Donald Trump's ear and that's gonna be the evidence that's gonna come out

there. The defendant and his co-conspirators recognize that Pence, by virtue of his ministerial role presiding over the certification, would need to be a key part of their plan to obstruct the certification proceeding. They needed Mike Pence. Remember, Mike Pence cooperated with the special counsel and gave testimony. Mark Meadows cooperated with the special counsel and gave testimony. They have all of Mike Pence's emails. They have all of Mark Meadow's text messages, deadly for Donald Trump.

We're just seeing how deadly now that it's being partially revealed in this 180 page brief. They go on to talk about how the interaction between Donald Trump and Pence is a private affair. And the reason they got to continue to do this is that this brief has to, along with the supporting evidence, has to accomplish a couple of things at the same time. It has to show that it's either private conduct, and therefore prosecutable, even under the immunity decision, falls in that bucket.

Or even if it is official conduct of the president, stuff that presidents kind of sort of do as part of their job description, stretch to its outer boundaries, which is what the law requires, they can rebut that presumption by showing the government, by showing now evidence that this was not official conduct, but this was private. So that's what we're watching. This is what we're watching as this mongoose sort of wraps itself around Donald Trump and squeezes. This is what we're watching. I was going to say Cobra. It's that presentation of evidence. Everything that's in this brief, this 180 pages, is backed up by witness testimony, by documents, by emails, by text messages,

and by surveillance cameras, and or by audio and video recordings. Every one of it, or it wouldn't be in here. That's how strongly vetted this all is. We're going to know more because in about 10 days, another 200 pages, including evidence and transcripts redacted, are going to be available to the public again by this judge. I think by the 12th, 13th, or 14th, given how quickly she moved here. Certainly by the middle of October,

well before the election, we're gonna get the next batch. That's the one-two punch. That's the rock and a hard place, grinding Donald Trump that Donald Trump was worried about. He didn't want the government to have two briefs. He certainly didn't want any of this out in the public domain before November. But what it really shows is the amount, the sheer volume of evidence and corroborating evidence and witnesses that are be testifying against Donald Trump. Think of a trial just looking at this brief.

Just a week of former attorneys for Donald Trump testifying against them. A week of former elected officials, including Mike Pence, testifying in front of the jury. Right? A week of campaign staff members testifying against Donald Trump. A week of disbarred, disgraced attorneys for Donald Trump testifying before the grand jury. I keep saying the grand jury. I meant the jury. The jury is gonna be like, wow, I always wanted to know what these people look like in person. Their minds are gonna get blown by the high-level people that are gonna be, you know, these B-listers in politics that are gonna be dragged in and testify against Donald Trump. As I've said before, as a criminal

defense lawyer, as a lawyer practices in these kind of courtrooms, there isn't, from what I understand from the Jan 6 committee and from filings like this one, Jack Smith has enough evidence to try a case against 10 Donald Trumps and win and overcome his substantial burden of beyond a reasonable doubt. It's only because Donald Trump has part of the United States Supreme Court, the right wing MAGA part in his back pocket, that we still have to talk about these things. We're gonna continue to break it all down, this closing argument, mini trial in a can that's now been put into the public docket,

continue to analyze it and what it means at the intersection of law and politics right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. And our new channel, now you know why we formed it, Legal AF MTN in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. In our new channel, now you know why we formed it. Legal AF MTN in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. Go there. I'm curating it. I'm the executive producer.

We're putting on all the evidence that you love, the commentary and analysis like this at the intersection of law and politics, including breaking groundbreaking startling stories like what I'm reading inside of this 180 pages right here. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak and I'm reporting. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at LegalAFMTN.

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