Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s Prosecutor Turns Against Him and Exposes Crimes

Episode Date: February 14, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas and Legal AF host Karen Friedman Agnifilo report on the federal prosecutor appointed by Trump who upheld her oath and refused to follow the orders she was given by her Trump DOJ bosses. For 35% off your order, head to https://RubbishHome.com and use code LEGALAF Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! 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/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Karen Friedman Agnifilo, we got to talk about Donald Trump just what? At war with the SDNY, the Southern District of New York prosecutors, basically the top federal prosecutorial division, at least that's how they view themselves and how many federal prosecutors view them in the country. And they're fighting back. Trump's own picks are resigning. They're standing up to Donald Trump, some of the acting picks. This follows Donald Trump ordering via Emil Bove or Emil Bov, his deputy attorney general,

the dismissal of the charges of Mayor Eric Adams and what was obviously a quid pro quo for like 80 million dollars to be taken from like FEMA accounts that were held in New York City that were supposed to be directed to shelters and who knows what the other quid pro quos are. So Karen Freeman Agnifilo, you know that department very well. You know those federal prosecutors there. Breakdown for our audience, what is going on? How big of a deal is this?

And then Emil Bob sent another letter putting more people on administrative leave. It seems like a straight up like revolt taking place in the SDNY behind the scenes. The headlines I'm seeing aren't even doing it justice. How big of a deal is this, Karen? What's going on? Yeah, Ben, for the last four years,

I'm sure all of our listeners have been tired of me issuing the following phrase, which is that prosecutors follow the facts and the law and apply it to no matter who, where the breadcrumbs lead without fear or favor. They're not political. They're not affiliated. They believe in justice and justice is blind.

I've said it over and over and over and over and over again. I sometimes get some eye rolls, but what's happening right now in New York is exactly what is what I've been saying and and how prosecutors are and how what? prosecutors truly believe so Danielle Sassoon is a MAGA right-wing Federalist Society, that's how people how how she? Presented frankly and that's how she was appointed. She's a young 38-year-old who Ivy League went to Harvard and Yale and clerked for Justice Scalia and worked at the US Attorney's Office,

the Southern District of New York, and she was handpicked to be the acting United States attorney before the US attorney that's going to be appointed by Trump, Jay Clayton, he has to go through the Senate confirmation process. That hasn't happened yet. So in the meantime, they appointed her as acting. She is young, but she's clearly fits the mold, the Federalist Society, etc. of Donald Trump. Well, what happened and what's happening behind the scenes is you've got Mayor Adams. So Mayor Eric Adams is the mayor of New York City. He's the head of the police department. He's the top, you know, he's the mayor of New York City of all five boroughs.

And he was famously and very kind of, you know, loudly arrested in the middle of the, when the UN General Assembly was here in New York. They could have arrested him at any time. These crimes date back as far as 2009, all through 2021. This whole series of crimes is not just one, it's corruption dating back to when he was the Manhattan borough president and corruption

all throughout the following decade. They could have picked any time to arrest him. They picked the time when we had prime ministers, presidents, heads of state, all visiting the island of Manhattan, I think, to send a message to both Eric Adams and to the people around the world that we are not for sale, America is not for sale, you can't bribe our elected officials because the allegations here had to do with Turkey bribing and giving kickbacks to the mayor who would then give favors to him. Those are the allegations. Now, those were shocking, surprising, who was indicted.

And he ran as a Democrat, he is a Democrat, and he started using Trump language. He started saying things like, all the things Trump says, like, oh, this is a weaponization of government. This is a political persecution. They're not prosecuting me, they're prosecuting you. All this all the familiar language. And he was talking to an audience of one, of course.

And he went down to Mar-a-Lago and kissed the ring. And he hired. Who did he hire? He hired as his lawyer, Alex Spyro, who happens coincidentally to be Elon Musk's personal attorney. Is that a coincidence that there's a direct line to Elon Musk who's practically the president and holding press conferences in the Oval Office that then this case gets directed to be dismissed by Emil Bové.

Emil Bové is the lawyer, if you remember Ben, who represented Trump in his New York criminal prosecution. Emil Bové right now is the acting attorney general Or the acting deputy attorney general I should say and uh, he wrote the letter. He wrote this letter basically directing Danielle sassoon who was the acting u.s attorney to request a rule 48 dismissal now Um now eric ad Adams is indicted. That means there's before court Judge Ho, who is a Biden appointee, and Judge Ho has the case.

Now, once there's an indictment by a grand jury and it's filed with the court, prosecutors can't just dismiss the case. They have to file a motion, and they have to file a motion and request that the court be dismissed. And so three days ago, there was this letter directing her to do it.

And he basically gave two reasons why he thought the case should be dismissed. Number one, because he said it was going to interfere with Trump's ability to enforce immigration policy, and because New York, I think, New York is proudly a sanctuary city, and it's clear that Trump is going to work with Adams

to enforce his raids and his immigration policy. And the other reason is he said it also interferes with Adams' ability to run for office, the primary, the Democratic primaries in June of 2025, the elections not till November of 2025. So it's almost a year away, but they said somehow it interferes with both of those things. Therefore, you have to dismiss it without prejudice, right? Not with prejudice, without prejudice. What does that mean? It means they can bring the case anytime. What does that mean? It means they're dangling this over Adam's head to basically say, we could refile this at any time. You don't cooperate with our priorities. You don't do what I say. You don't let me arrest whoever I want to arrest or cooperate in my policies of the federal government. This is basically Trump's way of saying, I own you, Eric Adams. you have to do what I say or else I could file

this at any time. That's how he directed it to be dismissed. So the whole world or us New Yorkers were waiting. When is this case going to be dismissed? Checking the docket? Has something been filed? It's been noticeably silent. Today, now we know why. As a busy new parent and podcaster, I don't need to run out to the store just to get garbage bags. I got enough going on. This podcast is sponsored by Rubbish. You take out the trash 8,000 times in your life.

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So Rubbish created them. Rubbish is running a 30% off sale, but you can get an extra 5% off by going to rubbishhome.com and using code LegalAF. That's an extra 5% off or a total of 35% off your order if you go to rubbishhome.com and use our code LegalAF. Danielle Sassoon issued her letter of resignation. She refuses to dismiss the case.

The case in her opinion clearly has prosecutorial merit. There was, in her opinion, clearly has prosecutorial merit. In her view, there is probable cause to believe that a crime or multiple crimes were committed. The case has merit. There's a huge investigation. And this seemed political, I assume, to her. And so she, rather than go forward and go against her ethics and do what she doesn't believe in like a true prosecutor. Again, that's what I've always been saying. That's how prosecutors are. Prosecutors aren't political. And if they become political or if politics ever enters justice and prosecution, it infects it. It should never happen. And so she could be a Republican, Federalist society, as right wing as you can imagine. She still believes in truth and

justice and doing the right thing. And so she resigned in protest. Well, Emile Beauvais wrote this incredible eight page letter that was just shocking and surprising that I could not believe, where he basically writes, Dear Ms. Sassoon, in response to your refusal to comply with my instruction to dismiss the prosecution of Mayor Adams, in response to your refusal to comply with my instruction to dismiss the prosecution of Mayor Adams, I write to notify you of the following. So first, he accepts her resignation. Second, he puts the AUSAs and names them who worked on this case on paid administrative leave. And third, he says, under your leadership, the has demonstrate demonstrated itself to be incapable of fairly and impartially reviewing the circumstances of this prosecution Therefore the prosecution of mayor Adams is transferred to the Justice Department

Which will file a motion to dismiss the charges pursuant to rule 48. So What what they're basically saying is we're taking this case from the Southern District of New York and we're bringing it to Washington And Washington is going to file a Rule 48. So the question is, will Judge Ho accept this? And look, he can't force, you know, it's very hard for them to force the government to put on evidence, but, you know, he could say, I'm not accepting this dismissal. That could be one thing he does. Another thing that could happen, Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has the power, has the power to actually remove Eric Adams. And yesterday, Governor Hochul, Pam Bondi, the new, the very brand new Attorney General of the United States filed a civil complaint against Governor Hochockel and Attorney General Letitia James of New

York, basically calling into question and accusing them of violating the law because of our immigration policies. Well, Kathy Hockel very much could and should be considering removing Eric Adams to say, and should be considering removing Eric Adams to say, clearly, this is interfering with his ability to be mayor. And this case should proceed. So to remove all of the concerns that Emile Beauvais outlined in his eight-page letter, if I think Kathy Hochul should seriously consider removing Eric Adams and appointing, calling a special election or putting in an interim mayor because that's the only way that this is going to go forward.

But it's just fascinating to me because I am hearing from people all throughout the Justice Department, the FBI and federal prosecutors that there are people who are resigning in protest who are refusing to do political things, who are following their moral compass, who are, you take an oath as a prosecutor and you swear to uphold the Constitution not to work for, not to follow what Donald Trump's wishes are if it's against the Constitution. So I'm very proud of what is happening here. Look, Eric Adams is innocent until proven guilty,

as is anyone who's charged with a crime. And so he deserves a trial. That's what he deserves, to see whether or not it is true that the allegations in this case. But what's happening right before our very eyes is this war in the Justice Department. And if people resign en masse and in protest, I don't know what's going to happen because the federal government does a lot of very important work and prosecutes a lot of big cases. That's a great explanation, Karen. And I think just to reiterate, Donald Trump's Department of Justice just declared war on the Southern District of New York federal

prosecutors and basically all federal prosecutors, regardless of perhaps even if they're a federalist society, right-wing people, MAGA adjacent. I mean, you still need to have competent federal prosecutors. When you go through law school, you take your oath you know even some of these prosecutors who agreed to serve in this current administration or who did not resign they're at least saying you're not going to force us to break our oaths you may be breaking your oaths get somebody else to be the oathbreakers. We're not going to compromise our bar licenses and the next 30, 40 years potentially or less

of our legal careers for this dictatorship. And so we're seeing it there. We're seeing within the public integrity section in Washington, DC, resignations there as well. John Keller, who was told that he would be taking off and his boss, boss, Kevin Driscoll, the senior most career official in that criminal division. They resigned as well. And so we can be seeing just the tip of the iceberg of these mass resignations.

And then ultimately who's going to be there to even prosecute anything at all and even respond to these orders? Is it going to be just Alina Abba and Pam Bondi? I don't know. I saw that Pam Bondi press conference and I was not all that impressed the same way when she made the impeachment argument. It was pretty bad. But Karen Freeman Agnifilo, thank you for everything you do.

Your insight is critical during these moments. Everybody hit subscribe here. Let's keep on growing and growing. Thanks, thanks everybody. Thanks Karen. Love this video? Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at MidasTouched and help us blow past 750,000 followers.