Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets NIGHTMARE Court Order OVER THE WEEKEND

Episode Date: August 2, 2024

Judge Chutkan is BACK and not a moment too soon, and she has ALREADY DENIED A TRUMP MOTION TO DISMISS AND set a new conference to discuss immunity, in a new Order. Michael Popok looks back and forward and explains how the Judge will put Trump’s feet to the fire starting next week. Start your new morning ritual & get up to 43% OFF your @MUDWTR by going to https://mudwtr.com/LEGALAF #mudwtrpod 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

What's 2FA security on Kraken? Let's say I'm captaining my soccer team, and we're up by a goal against, I don't know, the Burlington Bulldogs. Do we relax? No way. Time to create an extra line of defense and protect that lead. That's like 2FA on Kraken. A surefire way to keep what you already have safe and sound.

Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. No sweeter words have ever been spoken, perhaps in the English language in the following. The court has regained jurisdiction over this case. That's the words of Judge Tanya Chutkin, who just issued a ruling regaining control over the DC election interference case, now that it's been returned to her by the United States Supreme Court. And she's issued a new ruling, a new order, setting requirements for Donald Trump and the Department of Justice Special Counsel, Jack Smith.

She recognizes Jack Smith's validity and constitutional purpose in being a prosecutor, unlike Judge Aileen Cannon. She wants Judge Tonya Chutkitt, as we predicted on legal AF, just a week or so ago, is calling everybody involved in the case back to court. They will be required to attend a status conference on the 16th of August at 10 AM in her courtroom. Donald Trump doesn't need to attend by her order. And she wants a week before that on August 9th, just a few days away, a week or so away, she wants the parties, Donald Trump's lawyers on one side and the

special counsel's office on the other to meet and confer, have a conference offline and file a status report to propose how to get this case back on track. And in the interim, in the same breath, in just one page, not a paperless order like Aileen Cannon, but a real honest to God order, she also denied one of several motions to dismiss that have been pending on the books, but were stayed by the Supreme Court immunity case until they made their ruling. She ruled on an October 23rd, 2023 motion to dismiss on statutory grounds that Donald Trump had filed to argue that no part of the indictment properly stated a claim for the

four criminal counts against him. A 34 page brief filed way back then. A pin was placed in the decision making by the court until the immunity decision was finally rendered eight or nine months later. We now have that decision. 30 or so days went by, which is the requirement. It's back with Judge Chutkin.

She's announced that she's back. She's holding hearings. Let's break it all down on this particular hot take. All right, let's first start with what we thought was gonna happen has happened. The judge having reasserted jurisdiction over the matter, having been given it back from the United States Supreme Court, back from the DC Circuit Court,

which is her bosses. She's now back in control as the trial judge. It's been so long. Let's recap what this case is about. Four, criminal counts against Donald Trump. Two, for obstruction of an official proceeding. Two related to attempts to defraud the United States. And they have to do with the use of the false electors

and all of the other activities of Donald Trump to try to cling to power and stop the peaceful transfer of power. All listed in indictment, only against him, one defendant, four counts. Now she's got a backlog. We had said there's four or five motions that were in progress on the docket when the hammer went down by the United States Supreme Court and the stay was issued because immunity was being asserted. Now, she's trying to get rid of the backlog. Some of these issues like the one on the motion to dismiss on statutory grounds filed by Trump in

October of 2023, I'll talk about on this hot take, fully brief, ready to go, she's denied it. She's denied it without prejudice for now. She's going to allow a renewed motion after she deals with the elephant in the room, which is how she's going to apply the directions of the United States Supreme Court in the Maga right, six to three, which told her she's got to take the indictment from Jack Smith and she's got to apply their ruling and determine which of any of the counts and allegations and overt acts that are listed are going to survive their immunity decision. She's got a lot of work to do. Talk about cleaning the Aegean stables.

She's got a lot of work to do. She has two major things that she's got to do and she's asking the parties to give her a recommendation about how to brief these things and on what timetable. And then she'll talk about them all and make her final ruling off the August 16th status conference. The two major issues that have been left to her by the United States Supreme Court is how to map their decision onto the indictment. You have an indictment, goes on for 70 or 80 pages, and has dozens and dozens and dozens of allegations, overt acts, and different things that support the four counts. She now has to take their ruling,

two parts of their ruling. One, she has to decide if any of the actions or any of the crimes that have been alleged that came out of the grand jury and the indictment fall into the bucket of absolute immunity, meaning a rise out of core constitutional presidential power, rebuttable presumption immunity, meaning official conduct. Donald Trump, co-president, wearing the president hat, doing something about his official duties, stretched to the outer boundaries as is required by the case law, does anything fall into a rebuttable presumption immunity and has the prosecution overcome the immunity, which is now

their burden in the allegations that they've made? In other words, criminal conduct, willful conduct that overcomes the presumption of an immunity. Or is the conduct fall into the last category of private unofficial conduct for which there is no immunity? He does not enjoy immunity. She's got to do that. She's also got to decide if the two out of the four counts for obstruction of an official proceeding

survive a separate companion decision by the United States Supreme Court, which was that most Jan 6 defendants who were merely in their view, just trying to burn down the Capitol, didn't actually touch the electoral certificates that were being certified, didn't try to rip them up, didn't try to steal them, didn't try to use false certificates at that moment. All of those counts have been vacated. But Donald Trump is the leader of the gang that put together the fake elector certificates, which is at the heart of the indictment for Jack Smith. And even the decision on immunity by the Supreme Court,

which said that almost all the Jan 6 defendants are not going to be able to be charged with obstruction of an official proceeding. They said if there's false evidence involved, which means the fake electoral certificates, I would suggest, then that count will survive. I think those two counts against Donald Trump survive because of that carve out in the immunity decision

based on teachings of judge, then judge Sotomayor when she was on the Second Circuit before she was elevated to the Court of Appeals in a decision. I think they're gonna find false evidence equals fake electoral certificates equals those two counts survived for Donald Trump. She's gotta decide that.

Ever feel like your morning coffee is more like a roller coaster than a smooth ride? Today's sponsor is for the caffeine junkies who find themselves in an endless cycle of coffee highs and lows. Mudwater, M-U-D-W-T-R is a coffee alternative to get your energy fixed without your heart doing jazz hands every morning. Mudwater is like coffee's chill, yoga loving cousin

who went on a spiritual retreat and came back more zen without any of the jitters. Imagine being alert and calm at the same time while not having trouble falling asleep at night. Not only does Mudwater give you that morning boost you need, but it's also packed with adaptogens, antioxidants, and all those other fancy health words that make you feel superior to your coffee drinking friends.

I've been using mud water for a few weeks now. Hmm, I gotta say it's a game changer. The blend I received and used is the Masala Chai with Lion's Mane, Reishi, Turmeric, and Himalayan salt for a delicious iced refresher in the morning with just a hint of caffeine, or you can do it hot. My favorite part, no jitters and no crash. I felt focused and calm throughout the day

and didn't have any trouble sleeping at night. I even tried it iced like my usual cold brew and it was fantastic. Plus the free rechargeable frother they send makes mixing it up a breeze. For a limited time, our listeners get up to 43% off your entire order. Free shipping and a free rechargeable frother.

When you use our exclusive link, head to mudwater.com slash LegalAF and grab your starter kit. That's up to 43% off your order at mudwtr.com forward slash LegalAF. After you purchase, they ask you where you heard about us. Please support our show and tell them Legal AF sent you. Start your new morning ritual today.

And then Jack Smith's got decisions to make, which I assume he'll tell the court on August 9th or August 16th that he's going to stand on his indictment as is and let her take this filter that has been given to her by the Supreme Court and requirement and filter the indictment through it to see what survives or he's going to re-indict. If he re-indicts, he's got to get the grand jury back up and running. He's got to take several weeks.

It's going to be at least a month delay. And then that would set the case back in the clock back over a year because now you have a new indictment, defendants have rights to process rights about that new indictment and motion practice. I don't think he does that, but it's something they have to have thought about and rejected if they're going to say, no, our indictment as written will survive the requirements of the new Supreme Court decision, Trump versus US in the immunity decision, all to be litigated out in front of Judge Chutkin,

who according to her order just issued is back in charge. Let me end the hot take with what is it she just ruled. There are, as we've said before on Legal AF here on the Midas Touch Network, there are several motions to dismiss that were sort of sitting around mostly briefed on the docket at the time that Donald Trump brought his immunity motion or immunity argument that stopped the case in its tracks.

And now that the case has restarted with those beautiful words, I started the hot take with, the court has regained jurisdiction. She's back in charge, getting the wheels back on this wagon. She's now gone through and said, all right, what can I get rid of quickly? The motion that was raised in October by Donald Trump, which is technically docket number 114 for those that are playing at home, argued that none of the four criminal counts stated a proper claim and therefore should be dismissed on the face of the indictment. I mean, look, they say, well, for instance, for the fraud on the US government, there's no trickery or deceit, which is a

requirement of the crime. I would refer them to the fake elector certificates in the attempt to try to steal the election and steal votes around the country and have fake election certificates recognized as real election certificates. That sounds a lot like a trickery and deceit to me, but not to Donald Trump. He also doesn't like the arguments about the interference or obstruction of the official proceeding and says they should

be dismissed because and then they make the arguments that were actually made at the United States Supreme Court level by other Jan six defendants. So she she's like, listen, I'm going to deny this. I think the indictment, the indictment as it was written before the Supreme Court decision I think is fine. However, she does say in the new order, I'm going to deny it without prejudice, meaning you can refile after we sort, let's get through the thicket and the minefield

of the immunity decision and how I'm going to apply that. Because she's right. She's not sure what of the indictment is going to survive. And Trump should be aiming at the right indictment because this indictment may get shrunk down a bit. She's going to surgically go through with and really just fly speck line by line, allegation by allegation, with a red pen, a judicial red pen or or blue pencil and just, okay, this survives,

this doesn't survive, this survives, this doesn't survive. It's going to be like that. It's not going to be the exact same indictment as we saw two years ago. And what she's telling Trump is, just pop the brakes. You filed it before on the old indictment. Let's see what the new indictment, where the indictment amended or revised after I get done with it looks like. And then if you wanna renew your motion, you can renew your motion, but pump the brakes for now. And the same thing with everything else,

just let's get through the immunity decision that I've got to apply for the United States Supreme Court and map it onto this indictment and see what survives. Because she's not prejudging this case. I mean, Donald Trump is going to argue that he needs briefing to show why, on immunity, to show why the entire indictment should be dismissed under the Supreme Court's decision. And as expected, the special counsel is going to argue on their briefing that hasn't been submitted yet, that the entire indictment survives or most of the indictment survives.

And there's going to be that battle. And that's what she's asking the parties to do, propose a briefing schedule to me on immunity to guide me in what I need to do. She's not going to do it without briefing from the both parties under due process. And she's telling the parties that now. So they're going to propose a briefing schedule. We can expect that Donald Trump is going to propose a briefing schedule that times out for some time in 2026 or 2025. And the special counsel is going to say, how about two weeks?

Give us two weeks to do our brief, one week, thumbs up on that, one week for them to do their brief, a reply brief five days later, and let's get the whole thing briefed by August. Maybe the judge pushes it off till after Labor Day, but that's going to be the push-pull that we're going to see. Donald Trump saying, how about late 2025? Special counsel saying, how about late summer? And the judge having to make a decision. Given her track record, I would think she's going to give something into September for full briefing to be completed with oral argument in front of her and then she'll issue her ruling. Whoever's the loser of that ruling gets to take another appeal to the DC Court of Appeals first and then ultimately to

the United States Supreme Court, which means that case while back on track is going to sort of still be stayed for a while while she does some other things to see if this case and the indictment gets up through the United States Supreme Court. First stop on the train after the DC Court of Appeals were to rule would be Judge Roberts, who's the chief judge at justice and responsible for all things in the District of Columbia, ultimately.

But you see it's gonna be a long briefing schedule. So I'm managing expectations here. It's gonna be a briefing briefing schedule. It's going to take us over the election. May not, and it doesn't really matter at this point, especially at the surge that Kamala's making. She's going to be Madam President. And if that happens, we're just talking about, is this going to happen before? I think if Kamala, if and when Kamala wins, along with her running mate, we'll learn about soon. I think the pressure on people going, we gotta get this trial done before the election, I think sort of dissipates.

I think it's like we wanna see it. We certainly wanna see it sometime in 2024, 2025, but like the imperative to do it before the election, if we have Madam President, I think frankly drops a bit. But we'll see. I'm happy, I'm content that a bit, but we'll see. I'm happy. I'm content that Judge Chutkin is back in charge and this case is rolling again. And then we'll have the 11th Circuit appeal about what Judge Aileen Cannon did and the

mess that she made at Mar-a-Lago. And we'll have the appeals related to the 34 count felony conviction of Donald Trump in New York. And we'll have other Supreme Court actions and see Legal AF will be on the air for a cap felony conviction of Donald Trump in New York, and we'll have other Supreme Court actions and see Legal AF will be on the air for a long, long time, including all through 2024 and 2025 at least. 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 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 slash Legal AF. That's patreon.com slash Legal AF.