#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Fani Willis' Father Testifies, Trump's $370M Judgement, Acorn Prompts Florida Cop Shootout

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

2.16.2024 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Fani Willis' Father Testifies, Trump's $370M Judgement, Acorn Prompts Florida Cop Shootout It was day two of the Georgia motion hearing to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney from the election subversion case. Today, former Governor Roy Barnes,  Fani Willis' father and Nathan Wade's former divorce attorney testified today. We'll take a look at what was said with Monique Pressley.  Donald Trump was hit with a $370 million judgment in his New York civil fraud case. An acorn hitting a vehicle sets off a Florida deputy to fire several rounds into his vehicle with a suspect inside. Wait until you see the bodycam footage! Two juveniles are charged with shooting up the Kanas City chief celebratory parade that left one dead and over 20 injured.  Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastain. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

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Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Friday, February 16, 2024, and I'm Candace Kelly sitting in for Roland Martin. Here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Day two of the Georgia motion hearing to disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney from the election subversion case. Today, former Governor Roy Barnes, Fannie Willis' father, and Nathan Wade's former divorce attorney all testified. We'll take a look at what was said with Monique Presley. Donald Trump was hit with a $370 million judgment in his New York civil fraud case.

An acorn hitting a vehicle sets off a Florida deputy who fired several rounds into his vehicle with a suspect inside. Wait until you see the Biden camp footage. And two juveniles are charged with shooting up the Kansas City Chief Celebratory Parade that left one dead and over 20 injured. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Let's go. Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks He's rolling It's Uncle Roro, y'all

It's Roland Martin Rolling with Roland now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Roland Martin All right. So it's day two of the hearing to have Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fannie Willis. It ended in explosive testimony today. First of all, Nathan Wade's former divorce attorney and law partner, Terrence Bradley, they were called back to the stand for impeachment purposes, but ended up getting exposed as to why he was no longer a law partner. Meanwhile, Fannie Willis' father, John Clifford Floyd III, explained why his daughter kept

cash in their home. And former Governor Roy Barnes explained why he did not want to be the special prosecutor in the case. Were you approached by the district attorney of Fulton County Fonnie Willis about being a special prosecutor I was I don't do I don't recall the exact date but I know it was sometime in 2021 and she asked me to come down and I met with her and Nathan. There were several others in the meeting. She asked me, since they were beginning this investigation,

and she asked me if I'd be interested in being special prosecutor, to which I replied that I had mouths to feed at a law office and that I could not, I would not do that. And also, I just had a bad, well, I won't say bad because it happens from time to time, but I just had the FBI to report making threats against me. And because I was, I thought it was because of the flag, but I asked him and he said, no, it was because I was too close to the Jews, quote, unquote. And I told the— Ultimately, you turned down.

Yes. Yeah, I told her. I said, I'm not interested. But it's a black thing, okay? You know, I was trained, and most black folks, they hide cash or they keep cash. And I was, no, I was trained, you always keep some cash. Because I've been places, and just because of the color of my skin, for example, I took a fellowship at Harvard when my daughter was just, if I might, Your

Honor, when I was just, she was just, you know, maybe three years old. And I remember going to a restaurant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I had a American Express credit card and maybe a visa or whatever. And I had a lot of what they call traveler's checks. I don't even know if they still have traveler's checks, but traveler's checks. And there was a sign that said, you know, with the credit card, for whatever reasons, the man would not take my American Express credit card. So I pulled out my Visa card. For whatever reasons, the man would not take my American Express credit card. So I pulled out my Visa card, and he wouldn't take my Visa card. So then I pulled out my traveler's checks. He said, we don't take checks. Now, these were traveler's checks. This was money. I had a

$10 bill. I'll never forget this as long as I live. And he said, the bill for my wife at the time, Fonny's mother, Fonny, and myself was like $9.95, and I had a $10 bill. I always remember that. But even before that, I've always kept cash. And I've told my daughter, you keep six months' worth of cash always. For example, I had three safes in my house. I put some of my clients' stuff there, too, things I didn't want other lawyers to be. I mean, because you're always in a firm, and I knew that there were special conditions. So some of my clients' things I would bring home, put them in the safe.

But I've always kept safes. And as a matter of fact, I gave my daughter her first cash box and told her, always keep some cash. So joining me to dissect all of this is Monique Presley. You know something, Monique, I look at this father and I say, you know, that really is a dad being a dad. He told his story. He took his time. And another thing is that he really knows the law. What do you make, first of all, about the testimony from Fannie Willis's father? Well, I thought he was the best example of stereotypes being dispelled. I love it when that happens. I love it when it's very obvious that what people

were expecting from her daddy, her daddy, her daddy that she kept talking about yesterday and always keep cash was not the brilliant, distinguished, elegant, thoughtful, experienced, legal mind of a man that we met today. So I was pleased that we got to meet this international trial lawyer who has raised an exceptional daughter. And I understood her a lot better after I heard his testimony today. Yeah, I think that he made some things clear, especially about the cash that he trained his daughter to have in the house. That made a lot more sense when she was talking. He really was clear and very, very pointed and that his daughter was not going to be out there and be left to dry. She was always going to have money. And I think that made a big difference because the question

that people are asking is why does she have in cash? Is there something underhanded going on here? But that was training from her dad. Well, I mean, it's a black thing. You know, it's a culture thing. I tweeted or whatever they call tweets now that the name is X that that others may just need to get a copy of culture codes or some similar game to help them understand things like grandma and them always had cash under the mattress or some other similar place that women, when they were going traveling, you know, they reach down is tied up on the, on the brassiere. I mean, these are just things that are known things that in our culture are done and in other cultures, not just in ours. Uh, and so she wasn't talking things that were foreign to many of us, though, those things may have sounded strange, uh, at the end of his, his testimony, though, he said candidly that it was discussed between him and the state's attorney's office and that he was prepped and that he did watch what happened. It would be hard not to watch.

He's a person who pays attention to the news. But he was also clear that he wasn't under subpoena and he wasn't a planned witness. So there wasn't any requirement that he knew of that he was supposed to be sequestering himself as some of these who are who were on the witness list for this evidentiary hearing. So I think that the judge decided that that didn't mean that his testimony would be eliminated, that that would go to weight, that would go to credibility, it wouldn't go to admissibility. But I think that there were other things that he helped on that they really didn't want to be highlighted because they tried to make it look like, oh, she didn't have to leave her home. Maybe the security issues weren't that

bad. And, you know, there's a certain sector of our population that in this political climate never wants to admit that those things are as bad as they are. But he went into detail about the fact that after she won her election, their house was swarmed, that they had to have detail around the clock, that she was simply not safe there and no one else was going to be safe as long as she was there, that she had to leave and that she's had to move multiple times and how much he has been concerned for and worried about her safety and all the ways that it has affected their relationships. So for those on the side of President Trump and the co-defendants, I think it was made clear. One, this is the state of the way she has to live and has had to live, not just since taking on this case, but since winning the election, because that is the way race is in America right now, but especially so after taking on this case.

I think that Roy Barnes, that he really buttressed his point in that this is a dangerous case, so much so that, I mean, you don't get paid that much for it when you take on this role, but it's also very, very dangerous. Fani's father talked about how he only saw her about 13 times over the past year or two. He could count them, you know, and it really, really distressed him. So I think what it really brought to light was the danger that she has been in for so, so, so many years. And that convoluted a lot of things in terms of where these locations were. Was, you know, was Wade, Nathan Wade, someone who came to this house or that house? Well, it all depended on so many moving parts. I think at one point, though, I was wondering,

you know, we are into the weeds here. And not that I was lost, but it just wasn't information that pertained to the case. But I think that this was the strategy of those who were asking Fannie and her father questions just to get people thinking about something other than Trump. Well, listen, Candace, you can appreciate as just a counselor yourself. The witnesses had important things to share, but the people who were responsible for pulling out those important things, especially on the side of the defendants, were not doing a skilled job of it. They had the father up there through an entire attorney's questioning, and it never mentioned the cash what the the miss merchant she got up and sat down and never even asked the dad about the cash and even though that was obviously one subject

that he could share information on that i would think were i in her position i would be interested in asking about but i'm glad you mentioned the testimony of the governor, the former governor, Roy Eugene Barnes. Wasn't he a piece of work? But that was important. That highlighted, which I thought was necessary, the fact thatannie Willis was not snagging a job for the purpose of giving him a gig to give him money, that if she had had her druthers, she would have picked a former governor who had significant experience in this area doing high profile cases, etc. But, you know, that dog would not. As they say, that neck of the woods and in my neck of the woods.

He was not interested. That's right. Really not interested. Not interested in that particular job. Listen, we're going to keep you here. We're going to talk about this more on the other side of the Brave. More with Monique Presley on Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network. Stay with us.

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hair on a next a balanced life with me dr. Jackie what does it mean to actually have balance in your life why is it important and how do you get there a masterclass on the art of balance. It could change your life. Find the harmony of your life. And so what beat can you maintain at a good pace? What cadence can keep you running that marathon? Because we know we're going to have, you know, high levels. We're going to have low levels. But where can you find that flow, that harmonious pace?

That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. Hey, what's up, y'all? I'm Devon Frank. I'm Dr. Robin B., pharmacist and fitness coach, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And you and Mr. Wade, I think you described your relationship in a lot of details earlier about specific circumstances. You were business partners up until the time you left in summer 2022, correct? That is correct. You were business partners up until that time?

Yes, I said yes, that is correct. Okay. And while you didn't socialize together frequently, you considered yourself a friend of Mr. Wade at that time? Yes, we were friends at that time, yes. All right. You are no longer business partners? That is correct.

You are no longer friends? I mean, if he's saying that we're not friends, then I want to know what you think, Mr. Bradley. Do you consider yourself a friend of Mr. Wade? I would consider. That goes to potential bias. Would I consider myself a friend of Mr. Wade? I would. You were asked questions, Mr. Bradley, about the circumstances under which you left the firm. Do you recall those questions? I do.

All right. And you left the firm. The firm remained the same as far as other employees, Mr. Wade and Mr. Campbell, as the main partners of the firm. You were the one who left, correct? That is correct. And you termed it as a disagreement. Do you recall answering questions as though you left due to a disagreement? Yes? Yes.

And that disagreement was that there was an allegation of sexual assault by an employee made against you correct that is incorrect there was not an allegation that you assaulted us that you sexually assaulted one of the employees in the firm that is incorrect, but... Yes. Yes. Yes, there was an allegation that you sexually assaulted a member of the firm, correct? Yes, there was an allegation, yes. And as a result of that allegation, you left?

I did. And you are no longer business partners with Mr. Wade? That is correct. The firm remained intact, and in fact, the employee involved remained with the firm, correct? I'm not certain of that. They did leave the building, of course, and I don't know. Some employees did leave. Mr. Bradley, you in fact paid that employee $20,000, correct?

That is incorrect as far as what was... Honor about the time that you left the firm and honor about the time that the allegation of sexual assault was made against you. Did you pay the person who had named the allegation of sexual assault any amount of money? There was money left in an escrow that belonged to me. I don't know what that amount was. And did that money that was left in the escrow that belonged to you, was that paid to the employee who said that you said I never I never signed any I never gave any money I never I left the money in the escrow account what happened to that money um my kid I don't know what happened to him for what purpose did you

leave the money in the escrow account when you left the firm I left the money in the escrow account when you left the firm? I left the money in the escrow account. For what purpose, sir? There was no purpose. You just left the money in the escrow account? Yes. If there's no connection to the money you left in the escrow account and the allegations of sexual assault that an employee of your firm made against you, why was it that you brought to my attention,

why did you respond the way you did about money in an escrow account when my question was, did you pay this employee any money? I didn't hand any money. It was money from my escrow account, to my knowledge. To your knowledge, where did the money in the escrow account go? To the employee. To that employee. All right, Monique. So that was Nathan Wade's former divorce attorney and law partner,

Terrence Bradley. What's you make of his testimony? It took him a little while to get to this whole sexual assault issue. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

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But how do you think all of that actually affected this particular hearing? The hearing? Net zero. I mean, I don't, I don't, I got to be honest with you. That was perplexing to me in many ways. I saw it coming. I've been going back and forth as I've been watching, the opposing counsel, that he has been discussing personal and professional business of his former partner and former client with this woman and reviewing motions and discussing ways that she could get affidavits. I mean, this is what we're hearing. He's not answering because he can't answer because his former client, Mr. Wade,

holds the privilege. And so Mr. Wade's lawyer is in there objecting. And so he can't answer one way or the other. And so he's looking squirmish. He's looking skittish. But one of my colleagues said, well, at least now we know why he fought so hard to testify, you know, these text messages. And I'm like, no, we don't know yet. We don't know because the answer that he didn't want to give was very obvious when one of the people said to him, why did you leave? You left because there were accusations. And he said, no. And the lawyer said, I'm not saying to you whether you were accusing Wade or Wade was accusing you or who was accusing whom.

And he said, we left because of a disagreement. And I left because i wanted to go out on my own now that was a lie so now we've got this this this young man attorney who has put his bar license and his liberty in the crosshairs of a judge while he is under oath when the other side is the freaking prosecutors i i don't at all understand how especially as a lawyer knowing for himself even if nobody else knew even if he didn't know fanny willis knows about this. Wade knows about this. That means that whole side of the aisle that I'm going to testify about, they all know about this. These other folks over here, they probably know about it. I don't understand how he didn't have a lawyer for himself as he was testifying today.

Why there wasn't an evidentiary hearing beforehand in which his lawyer was moving to preclude from evidence this very damaging facts of these allegations, whether true or not true, that they shouldn't have been able to bring it up, not even for the purposes of impeachment. Everyone should have gotten ferreted out beforehand because he walked and talked himself. Pardon? Yeah, this is really off the path that we're actually originally supposed to be on when we are talking about why he was let go at a law firm that you said was privileged information anyway. How are we even there? No, I don't know that it was privileged and I don't believe that it was off the beaten path. I think when you sit your behind in a witness chair and you are a black man in America and you have had allegations of sexual misconduct against you, you better believe that these white folks don't find the path.

And that is exactly what happened. So anytime you were in that position, yeah, you try not to get in the chair. But if you are going to get in the chair, you're going to get in the chair with somebody there protecting you. You're going to get in the chair knowing that all of this has been decided and that you either will or will not have to testify about it. And if it was privilege, if that was the story he was going with, then he should have stuck to that damn story. I'm sorry, I'm cussing, but I just, I would be lost. No, I understand. Listen, listen. A lot of people have been hot over this, especially those who actually sat down during this hearing.

I want to bring in the panel Michael Implotech, host of the African History Network show. He comes to us from Detroit, Michigan. Matt Manning, he's a civil rights attorney out of Corpus Christi, Texas. And Kelly Bathia, she is a communications strategist out of Washington, D.C. Thank you, all of you, for being here. Listen, there are so many things to be discussed. I just want to open up the floor first while we have Monique to talk about what you thought, Michael, about today's hearings and questions that you might have for Monique. All right. Great to see everybody today. I'm the only non-attorney on here. I guess I got my law degree from Trump University.

But so I watched coverage of the hearing on Thursday and watched some of the coverage today. I've read numerous articles with this and also read the original indictment out of Fulton County, Georgia, as well. And I still haven't heard any evidence that would—the charges against Michael Roman, the charges against the co-defendants, the 161 overt acts that Fannie Willis lays out in the indictment, I haven't heard any evidence that undermines any of that. OK. And, you know, this is to me, this sounds like a fishing expedition. OK. They're just trying to find something that will stick. But, you know, her father today was excellent.

I watched some of the coverage, some of the testimony from Terrence Bradley as well. So we'll see how this turns out. But she surprised, Fonny Willis surprised the attorney for Michael Roman on Thursday when she unexpectedly testified. And I think she blew everybody away with their testimony also. So this is what happens when you mess with a black woman. I'm just I'm just to put this out here. This is what happens when you mess with a black woman. I'm just, I'm just gonna put this out here. This is what happens when you mess with a black woman. It blows up in your face like wildy coyote. So, um, Monique, uh, so based upon, I saw, uh, I think you were on yesterday as well

on Roland Martin and Filter. Um, what are your feelings about the end result so far, what we've seen over the two days, the end result, what Judge McAfee has to determine. Would any of this disqualify Fannie Willis as well as Mr. Wade? So I'll answer you two ways. All things being fair and the judge doing the job that he should do in this case, then it's clear that the burden has not been met. There has to be a determination that based on whatever the relationship was and whenever the relationship occurred, that the prejudice to the other side is such that they could not get a fair trial. That's what the conflict would have to result in. And there hasn't even been enough evidence to show that there is a conflict. So there's much less to show that there would be a conflict such that there would not be a fair trial.

I think this judge has done a good job of calling balls and strikes for the most part. He has not necessarily done the job I would have preferred in terms of keeping things out that are not solid evidence or not based in fact. He lets witnesses guess and assume and opine. And maybe that's because it's an evidentiary hearing and there's no jury there. He holds the ranks tighter when there is a jury present. But my belief is that that would be the right thing to do. And my hope is that this conservative judge does the right thing. Right. All right, Matt, question for Monique. Well, first, I want y'all to know that I texted the producer and say, y'all got to let me know when Candace and Monique are going to be on. I would have made different choices today. All my heroes on. But at any rate, my question is kind of along the lines of that, Monique. I mean, were there any limiting

instructions or anything on this? Because usually when judges are in this circumstance, they want things to be as compact as possible, and they don't want it to get unwieldy in terms of disparaging remarks that are really extraneous to the central question. So did the judge issue any limiting instructions or anything about the evidence? Because it seems to me we're pretty far afield of the question of the conflict, which is what you normally see in these disqualification proceedings. He hasn't issued any limiting instructions. The one thing I think he did that was helpful is he made asked and answered apply to all of the defendants. So if one defendants counsel got up and asked a question and it got answered, everybody else didn't get their shot at the same question, even though they tried. He would say that was already answered

during previous examination with a previous witness. But frankly, Matt, and you're one of my heroes too, I don't know that today really ended up that far afield. Impeachment is what it is. You open your mouth and say something, you're going to end up getting somebody saying something back to you if you're lying, if you're not on there being credible, if you're hedging. And like I said, that leads me back to my principal concern, not just as a career defense attorney who hated seeing that today, even though Bruce snitched on his friends and his clients, and none of us who are on this panel are that type of lawyer. I think that's disgusting in and of itself, no matter how mad you get or what happened to you. There's a reason we are secret keepers,

and that privilege is supposed to be held in violet a reason we are secret keepers and that that privilege is supposed to be held in violet. It is obvious he did not do that. The text messages show he did not do that. And I think that that is shameful. But even in that circumstance, I hated seeing all of these allegations, which did not result in a criminal case, end up being plastered all across the world. This has negatively infected his life for a good long time. And as I said, now the judge ended it saying he's going to bring him in camera and figure out if he knows what privilege is at all. So this did not go well. And that is to me a cautionary tale. Black man in America, don't jaywalk. And if you do jaywalk right after you jaywalk, call your lawyer

just in case. And I think procedurally, this just isn't the case that you show a law school class to say, this is how it's done. There was a lot of shortcomings, I think, in terms of some of the attorneys who call themselves doing their job. Kelly, what do you have for Monique? So what, and I say this with the thickest of sarcasm, my favorite class in law school was professional responsibility. And y'all got the joke, but it was a bad joke. My bad. bad anyway how much of this could have been avoided had fonny willis just disclosed the dynamic between her and nathan wade because i preface this by saying you know it's like it's a very simple answer i do know that but I want to preface this by saying all of this is because she had relations with the lead prosecutor.

When either A, she could have just recused herself, let somebody else on her staff take over this case, or disclosed that she once upon a time or at the time had relations with this man and it is not going to affect because of a b and c correct me if i'm wrong but i feel like all of this could have been resolved or not have happened at all had she not had so much hubris and ego regarding this matter. Right. I mean, Kelly. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up.

So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. Got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette.

MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I will correct you because I do believe you're wrong. not outside of our professional responsibility obligations, are not outside of our abilities as bosses who can hire and fire,

are not outside of whatever it is we are required to do under the law. She meets all of those elements. Would it have been easier, perhaps, to move through some of these things if she had disclosed it? Maybe, but it doesn't mean we wouldn't have ended up here because they would have found another way for us to end up here. Because the reason why we're here is because this black woman is in charge of this case and this country is filled with racists and the leaders of that racist sect of our country are being represented by the attorneys on the other side. If there was going to be anything, this isn't the only thing they've tried. This isn't the first, the last, the middle of them trying to disqualify her. This is just the best reason they came up with so far. And it's not

her obligation to live her life such that a racist can't be a racist. It's her obligation to do her job to the best of her abilities. And I try my best not to second guess what that looks like. I think that people are people. I think that people live in human skin, which is what I said last night. That means we make mistakes. That means we differ in the judgment calls that we would make at any given period of time. That means we have feelings, we have emotions, we have all of those things. And it means that we get to be humans and still do our jobs. Thankfully, the law protects us such that we get to do that. So if she didn't do anything that violated the professional canons of ethics and she didn't do anything that violated the law, then I'm not going to put the blame at her feet for this.

I don't think it was her hubris, as you say, that landed us in this position. I think if it was not this, it would be something else. And I think that after we get out of this, it will be something else, because that is the stakes of the job that she is in right now and the people that she's opposing. I took what her father said to heart. And I've been praying for D.A. Willis, for County Attorney Kim Fox, for all of the people, Monique Willey, the people who have these very hard jobs and are under constant attack. Letitia James, God help her, especially after today and that huge win today.

I know y'all probably talk about it later in the show and I'll be gone, but I just want to say, come on, Bisons, rise up. I see y'all everywhere, especially the women, just saying. But I took what her father said to heart. She is in danger every day. Her life, that of her family is in danger every day. Her life, that of her family is in danger every day. So though I am analyst and I can't observe, what I try not to be is a critic of the human spirit because we all be

messing up sometimes. Well, Kasey, I will say this. I'm going to piggyback off of what Kelly said. And that is, yes, she could have made the decision to say, I have a conflict of interest. And because she knew the stakes as a Black woman, which she has spoken about so illustratively, then she, could she have made a better decision? And why was not that a little more obvious to her? Because she was in such a high position where she knew that people were magnifying her more than the next person. I do see Kelly's point. Right. But I think they're about to find she did not have a conflict of interest.

So she shouldn't say she has a conflict when she doesn't, is my point. That's the point that I'm making. I believe that in the state of the law in Georgia is that if her husband was the best person for the job, he could have gotten the job. I believe that the state of the law in Georgia allows for people who work in the same government in varying positions of authority can be in relationships and not be a violation. So it's not the same as what the federal government standards are. And sometimes that's what people look at. But I don't think that she had those limitations. I think that there has to be a question of fairness to the defendants and their ability to get up their trial and that that has not been met. So I think we're bound by the canons of crazy-ass Georgia law. But right now, the person who knows the law

better than all of us on this panel, I dare say, is DA Fannie Taifa Willis. All right. We're going to take a little break. And on the other side of it, I wanted to talk about whether or not,

and you touched upon it a little bit, but let's say that she is removed. What are the next steps? Because there are certainly a number of people who just do not want to touch this case at all. Stay with us. Monique Presley is going to stay with us. Also, you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered here on the Black Star Network.

And we'll be back after a break. When you talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting. You get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us. We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it.

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Trudy Proud on the Proud Family. Hi, I'm Tommy Davidson. I play Oscar on Proud Family, Louder and Prouder. Hi, I'm Jo Marie Payton, voice of Sugar Oscar on proud family, louder and proud. I am Jo Marie Payton, voice of sugar mama on Disney's louder and prouder Disney plus. And I'm with Roland Martin on unfiltered. All right. I want to open this back up to the panel, but I want to start with you, Matt. As a practicing attorney, what were your thoughts about what you saw today and what have your thoughts been so far? And Monique, everybody, we can jump in on this conversation. I know we all have a lot to say because there's

so much to cover, but Matt, let me start with you. So I didn't get to watch much of the testimony beyond what you played here and a little bit before that, but I've actually been the first assistant of a DA's office where they were trying to remove the DA for different reasons. But I'll say that this is a climate now where they are attacking DAs of all colors, especially progressive DAs, when they don't like that they're doing their job, that they're, you know, statutorily sworn and given authority to do. So I say that to say a lot of this is subterfuge insofar as, you know, theyutorily sworn and given authority to do. So, I say that to say a lot of this is subterfuge insofar as, you know, they're going to do whatever they can to attack Fannie Willis.

I do think that there is a credible question about whether there is a conflict. However, the question about whether there is a conflict is not tantamount to there actually being a conflict. And I think a lot of Monique's points are valid here. And I think, you know, especially with Mr. Trump and this being related to Trump, it doesn't surprise me that they're going to try to pull out all the stops to attack Fannie Willis. But I will say that, you know, this is also a thing I've seen other attorneys, meaning the DA, handle differently, where there are some people where there's even the remote appearance of impropriety, they completely step away and step down. But I think in this case, they couldn't really do that,

because the gravity of this case is just so much greater than your normal case. And she spent so much time assembling a team and putting together an indictment and all of that, that it would be a waste and really a violation of the public trust to step away if you know there's not a bona fide conflict. So based on what I've seen so far, I don't know that they've met the burden, even if people feel like it may be a best practice in this situation for her to step away. Monique, what are your thoughts about, let's say she is removed, the idea that you won't be able to find somebody for a long time to even take this case? We heard from the former governor who said this wasn't in his wheelhouse. I would imagine that other people might have a problem with it and that if she is removed,

it will be tough to move this along. Is that something you would agree with? I don't know if it's going to be tough or not. I think that's where the politics is probably going to come into play. In 2022 in Georgia, I want to just read what this executive body is called. When a district attorney is disqualified, they decided that the case is referred to an executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia. And that executive director is tasked with finding a replacement. So the first effect that it would have if there was a disqualification is the case is going to come to a screeching halt because DA Willis and everyone who works under her would not be able to work on this case. So where this case is concerned, they've got to find a special prosecutor and it's got to be somebody who's uniquely qualified

to be able to handle this case. So you're looking at this type of expertise and RICO and criminal defense and multiple defendants being tried at the same time, all the things. And so other district attorneys, other counties perhaps could be appointed. I think that they said that another DA can't refuse it, but maybe you don't want another DA. Maybe you want some high profile somebody to be willing to take on the case that has the office and the structure to be able to grab it. Or maybe if you're a conservative GOP-appointed executive director, you want somebody who's going to scuttle the case and look at the charges and decide that certain defendants no longer have to go forward. All of those things would be up for grabs. Michael and Kelly, jump in here. Do you think, Michael, that Trump's looked at these two hearings, which I'm sure he did

if he had time between his other cases, and said to himself, this is a good day for me when it comes to this particular Fannie Willis situation? I don't think this was a—I don't think he would look—especially on Thursday, he would look at that and say this was a good day for me. But I'm telling you, today, he's reeling and he's infuriated. And Letitia James just grabbed him by the wallet for the tune of $355 million. So I'm telling you right now, he's pissed off. He's pissed off to the highest of pissivity. But my question for Attorney Monique Presley is, so, the premise of the convoluted argument that Michael Roman's attorneys are making is that Fannie Willis hired Nathan Wade to

run the—to oversee the prosecution of Trump and the 18 co-defendants. And she benefited by trips that he took her on and dinners he took her on. And this was an investigation that lasted approximately two years. But she then paid back—paid them back in cash for the trips and the dinners. Am I getting this correct? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it didn't make any sense to me either, but okay. All right.

I mean, it's a sad state of affairs. I'm just making sure I got the facts straight, but yeah, it didn't make any sense to me when I heard it the first, second, third, fourth, fifth time, but okay. Go ahead. Well, no. They're saying that she has a money benefit

in the hiring, and the best that they can come up with is that she benefited because of a cruise with his mama and an Aruba trip and going to Tennessee and California. So they're going to have to take two years to go on a couple of trips, two or three trips, and then be taken out

to dinner a few times. Okay. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is when you know they're desperate. This is when you know they're desperate. That's the interesting part that I find about Special Prosecutor Wade and about DA Bonnie Willis. You know, they keep saying, why did nobody know? Why was it so private?

And I'm kind of like, well, I mean, look at what they're dealing with. It's kind of obvious why they leave private lives, because this is what is possible. Yeah, death threats she was already getting. So you don't want people to know who you're involved with, because they can become a target as well. Yes. And so many people that I spoke to today said, well, oh, I certainly learned a lot about a potential Hollywood deal her father had and her dating philosophy and what they think about money, how she grew up a little bit, relationship with her father. We learned a lot, but getting to the core of what they were actually asking questions about, not a lot of meat on that bone there. Kelly, jump in. Do you have a question for Monique? No question at the moment. But I will say that the reason why

they kept it so private, aside from the obvious, her being high profile and him now being high profile as lead prosecutor, is the fact that technically speaking, he was still a married man. This was infidelity that they were hiding. So I'm not trying to, you know, disparage another Black woman, certainly not trying to make it look, you know, worse than it is. But the fact of the matter remains is that a large reason why this was secret isn't because of protection of each other's jobs, but protection of each other's marital status. You know, and I think that is a large, like that is the propaganda of this all. Like this is what is painting her in a bad light, not just the fact that she had relations with this man,

but the fact that he was a married man and she still had relations with him. And granted the fact that he was a married man and she still had relations with him. And granted, there's a lot of murky water when it comes to people who are on the precipice of divorce. I am not by any means judging her for that. I know plenty of people

who, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like, this is not a off case here. Like, there's gray everywhere here. But the fact of the matter, this is why I was so adamant about her needing to disclose this. But also I see why she did not. Because this was a messy situation taking out the Trump case. This was a messy situation for her to be in. She decided,

you know, on a humane level, romantic level, whatever, to engage in this behavior. And this is what it's costing her. That's why I'm so disappointed. Yeah, yes. Monique, I want you to wrap up. What are your final thoughts about where we're going with this hearing and what you think the probability will be of this hearing in terms of the outcome? judge should do the right thing because the evidence has not been presented in the case by the co-defendants for them to come anywhere close to reaching their burden in order to be able to disqualify the sitting district attorney. And my other closing remark, like last night, I'm going to say again, it's Black History Month. And this is the first black woman to have that position in Colton County, Georgia. And I believe strongly that nobody really knows what goes on when somebody's marriage ends.

There had been a divorce filing in this particular case. And as Wade said, and she said, they weren't hiding. They went on trips. They went on a cruise with his own mama. But I stand for Black women having the right to lead private lives. And whether the reason is there are constant death threats and any partner that they have could end up being front page news or it's because the partner that they've chosen is in the final stages of ending the marriage that have been technically ended years before but is now legally at the edges of ending and the divorce is contentious. So they need to be private because of that. Whatever the reason is, I think the thought is something that I pray that all women who are in power would have an opportunity to have the privacy of their decisions while still being public servants and leading very public lives. I personally have been through it too many times in my own public-facing cases with pictures

of my children with barely blurred images of their faces put in newspapers and rag magazines, being personally pursued, people showing up at my home, death threats, all of the things. And I cannot say more strongly how much I support the right of privacy, even in public facing individuals, for the manner in which they conduct their own personal lives. And the real shame of what these co-defendants are being allowed to do is that it has, it drags the good names of so many people who are doing work that we all need them to do, critically important work. The real shame is that they are being given an opportunity to do

that. So I pray for the best for all of the parties on our side of the aisle who are involved in this proceeding. All right, Monique Presley, a lot of personal insight. We thank you for sharing that with us. As always, good to see you and have your analysis. All right. And I'm sure that we're going to have you back because this continues. All right. When we come back after a break, we will be talking about that judgment that Trump has said that he will have to pay. Stay with us on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. Grow your business or career with Grow with Google's wide range of online courses, digital training, and tools. Gain in-demand job skills with flexible online training programs designed to put you on the fast track to jobs in high growth fields. No experience is necessary.

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available. Grow with Google and J-Hood and Associates. Be job ready. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Business We'll see you next time. learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Caramouch. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Qualify for in-demand jobs. Hi everybody, I'm Kim Colson. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. Yo, it's your man, Deon Cole, from Black-ish, and you're watching... Roland Martin, unfiltered. Today, justice has been served.

Today, we prove that no one is above the law. No matter how rich, powerful, or politically connected you are, everyone must play by the same rules. We have a responsibility to protect the integrity of the marketplace. And for years, Donald Trump engaged in deceptive business practices and tremendous fraud. Donald Trump falsely, knowingly inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, his family, and to cheat the system. Donald Trump may have authored the art of the deal, but he perfected the art of the steal. This long-running fraud was intentional, egregious, illegal. And he did all of this with the help of the other defendants, his two adult sons and senior executives at the Trump Organization.

And so, after 11 weeks of trial, we showed the staggering extent of his fraud and exactly how Donald Trump and the other defendants deceived banks, insurance companies, and other financial institutions for their own personal gain. We proved just how much Donald Trump, his family, and his company unjustly benefited from his fraud. Today, the court once again ruled in our favor and in favor of every hardworking American who plays by the rules. Donald Trump and the other defendants

were ordered to pay $463.9 million. That represents $363.9 million in disgorgement, plus $100 million in interest, which will continue to increase every single day until it is paid. Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, and the former controller of the Trump Organization, Jeffrey McConney, are each banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York company for three years. Mr. Weisselberg and Mr. McConney are also banned for life from serving in a financial management role in any New York company. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are banned from serving as an officer or director of any New York company for two years. And Donald Trump and his companies are banned from applying for loans from any New York bank or financial institution for three years. A new independent director of compliance will be created at the Trump Organization

to ensure the company establishes internal protocols and meets financial reporting obligations. And the current independent external monitor will continue to oversee the company's financial dealings and ensure this fraud cannot continue. I want to be clear. White-collar financial fraud is not a victimless crime. When the powerful break the law and take more than their fair share, there are fewer resources available for working people, small businesses and families. And everyday Americans cannot lie to a bank about how much money they have in order to get a mortgage to buy a home or a loan to keep

their business afloat or to send their child to college. And if they did, our government would throw the book at them. I want to thank the entire incredible and hardworking team in my office that tried this case. Because the scale and the scope of Donald Trump's fraud is staggering. And so too is his ego and his belief that the rules do not apply to him. Today, we are holding Donald Trump accountable. We are holding him accountable for lying, cheating, and a lack of contrition, and for flouting the rules that all of us must play by. Because there cannot be different rules for different people in this country, and former presidents are no exception. This decision is a massive victory for every American who believes in that simple but

fundamental pillar of our democracy, that the rule of law applies to all of us, equally, fairly, and justly. All right. Some powerful words from Attorney General Letitia James, who talked about the former President Donald Trump practicing not the art of the deal, but the art of the steal. Not only will he be penalized, but his sons are penalized, each paying $4 million apiece. Adam Weisenberg, too, he's going to be fined $1 million. So we have a lot of moving parts here.

But she was firm and she was deliberate and she was intent in making sure that people knew that Donald Trump cannot defraud anyone, especially not in New York. Matt, what do you think about, first of all, this particular amount of money that Trump is supposed to be paying? We know he's going to appeal it, but that is the charge and that was the sum today. Well, I think it's a staggering amount of money, but one of the things, if you'll indulge me, that I really wanted to break down for the viewers is something I was confused about. And I actually talked to my law partner before I came on the show and I said, you know, Trump's

team is crazy. Why did they go to have a trial in front of just the judge, a bench trial, rather than a jury? And the reason I ask that is because usually you want to have more people who are looking at the facts and have the possibility of having them not reach the threshold to render liability or, in a criminal case, unanimity. But here's the brilliance about all of this that I didn't even realize until today, until I read the judge's order. Letitia James and her team are brilliant, because what they brought is a case not seeking monetary damages. They brought a case seeking equitable relief, so disgorgement.

And what that means is that Trump and his cadre of businesses have to pay back ill-gotten gains, not necessarily paying on a monetary judgment. The reason that's brilliant is in New York—I didn't know this—but the law that they prosecuted this case under, from a civil standpoint, does not allow for jury trials. Because it's equitable relief, they get to present that in a trial to just the judge. What the judge, I think, did here that was absolutely brilliant is he issued a 92-page opinion where he did his findings of fact and

conclusions of law. And what those are is where a judge says, these are the facts that I found, and here's what that means legally. He issued that for every witness. So he literally said, here's what I got from this witness. Here's what this proved here. Here's what this proved there. And the reason all of that is important in the overall scope is this will undoubtedly be appealed. But when it's appealed at the next level, the judges at the next level will look to see whether he abused his discretion. And they will basically—generally, the way it works is they give him deference for the decisions that he made based on his findings of fact and conclusions of law. So, you know, as much as we talk about the brilliance of these two black women, Fannie Willis and Tish James, this is brilliant. The legal strategy here is genius to me, because the way they brought it took away his ability to have a jury trial. It goes just in front of a judge. And then here,

once the judge, if he makes the decision that he's liable, that judge gets to determine, based on another judge being involved as kind of an independent monitor, what he thinks the disgorgement amount is. So this amount is what the Trump companies and the individual defendants have to pay back for the ill-gotten gains with the fraud. And I think the legal strategy just all around was brilliant in how they approached this. And I think it is a watershed moment and one that shows that, you know, if the right person is in office and they investigate it the right way and they conceptualize the case the right way, there's really a chance to hold somebody accountable where you can prove to a finder of fact that, in fact, there has been

a breaking of the law, as they did here. And you make a very valid point in that, on appeal, they're not arguing the facts of the case. But when you look at the facts themselves, they're going to see it really—you're looking at the numbers. You're looking at the actual numbers, and that's what this translates to, and that's how they actually got these particular numbers that can't be refuted based upon their own testimony is what you're saying. Exactly. And I think the judge protected that against the appeal. I mean, that's not to say that the appellate court could not disagree with his findings of fact and conclusions of law. But, you know, it's going to be very hard

to paint this as erroneous, his decision as not being based in, you know, his independent qualification of the facts and evaluation of the facts, especially because he delineated all of that in a nearly 100-page order. So I think on both sides, this is going to be very strong. It doesn't mean there won't be some part of it that may come back down on appeal. But this was brilliant in terms of the strategy and how it was argued and even the judge in terms of how he rendered his order. Kelly, what also came out of this case is that there's going to be a monitor that will continue monitoring.

This is someone who already has been monitoring, someone who Trump has said messed up a number of business deals by the tune of millions. What are your thoughts, Kelly, about this monitor and what that really means and translates into when we talk about Trump and the way that, well, he really can't do a lot of business, but just in terms of the business itself, in terms of the Trump organization and how it can even exist? It feels like this might be the first time in Trump's life, certainly his business life, where he's basically being forced to be held accountable for his actions. A large reason as to why this case even came to be is because he was able to lie. He was able to inflate and conflate and manipulate the numbers so that

he looks like he has more money than he has, or he's more good for the money that he's trying to borrow than he is. And with this judgment, not only is he not able to do that anymore, there are now powers that be that are responsible for making sure that he's not even able to do that anymore. So for me, this is refreshing. And I hope that, you know, this is a kind of a cornerstone case for other millionaires and billionaires and businessmen who are doing white collar crimes like this to be put on notice that at least in New York, you're not going to get away with it. Because like she said, white crimes are real crimes, too, and they are not victimless.

They affect arguably even more people than, say, blue collar crime or crimes that we see on TV that have been televised and, frankly, glorified. And Michael, we're not just looking at Trump. We're looking at Allen Weisenberg. And then we are looking at his sons. They are penalized in the amount of $4 million apiece. They can't run the firm. What do you think this means essentially for—

That's right, for two years. What do you think this essentially means for the Trump Organization and whether or not it can really thrive? Well, the Trump Organization is in deep, deep trouble. And if we just go back to 2015, 2016, when Trump was running, I told people when I was on 9, 10 a.m., Superstation WFDF as a radio show host, I told them week after week, the only people that think Donald Trump is a successful businessman are people who don't understand business and poor people, because people who understand business knew he was a fraud.

We knew he was a fraud back in 2015, 2016. We knew he was a fraud back in when The Apprentice was on, this TV game show, OK? He's never been a successful businessman. And when we look at what broke this, what really led us to this point today—now, also, keep in mind, he was held accountable in the Trump University civil lawsuit. We had to pay $24 million, OK? And that was right before he became—well, right when he won the presidency through the Electoral College, he agreed to pay that.

He said he was going to fight it, but he agreed to pay that. So we saw that accountability when he—right before he was president, OK? This is an avalanche. But what led us to this was the testimony in 2019 before the House Oversight Committee by Michael Cohen, his former attorney for 10 years. This was right before Michael Cohen went to prison. And Michael Cohen knew where all the bodies were buried, and he brought evidence. He brought checks. He brought evidence to prove what he was talking about.

And what he testified to was that when Donald Trump applies for loans, he inflates the value of his properties just out of thin air. But then when he—when it's time to pay taxes on those properties, he deflates the value of those properties, he deflates the value of those properties, OK? So if we just look at one property here, Seven Springs, was appraised at $30 million, but Trump's value was $261 million to $291 million. When we look at Mar-a-Lago, Mar-a-Lago was appraised at $18 million to $27.6 million. Donald Trump said the value was $426 million to $612 million.

So he belongs in prison. I'm telling you, this is straight-up fraud. And in business school, we have to take a class called business ethics. This is required to graduate, at least when I was in business school 30 years ago. You take business ethics. This is criminal, okay? Now, this was a civil trial, but this is criminal. So there's more to come. And Alvin Bragg, that trial starts March 25th, okay? The trial in Manhattan, that starts March 25th. What brought us to all this was Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels, because Michael Cohen was the one who orchestrated the payoff of Stormy Daniels, $130,000. And I was the one who broke the story right here in Detroit on 910 AM WFDF when the story first came out about Stormy Daniels.

OK, it was a story I saw on RawStory.com and I was on the air with Cliff Russell, who's passed away since then. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Which is one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Business Week.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything

that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English.

I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams,

NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote.

Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. On commercial break, it comes across my news feed. I say, Cliff, take a look at this. We come back from the break. We talk about this. I said, this sounds like campaign finance law violation. Sure enough, that's what it looks like it is. So we'll see how this turns out. This is not going to be a hot boy summer for Donald Trump. I'm telling you right now, this is going to be the worst summer of his life. You know, Matt, you talked about strategy earlier. Now, some people might say, yeah, there's a lot of snow here, but not the full avalanche.

I mean, his sons can get back in the game in a couple of years. Donald Trump, he can't do business in New York for a certain period of time, but it doesn't preclude him from getting loans from other states. say about the fact that this was not just a full cabache on the Trump Organization and Trump not being able to do anything anywhere in perpetuity? Well, that's an interesting question. And I think part of it is, you know, businesses very often don't even incorporate in the states where they do business. They might incorporate in Delaware. So, you know, he's got a team of lawyers that will surely figure out a way for him to be

involved in the Trump Organization with its doing business. But to pivot a little bit, what I think is very interesting about this—and I've been thinking about with his future criminal cases, particularly the case that DA Bragg will be prosecuting—there's a principle in the rules of evidence in pretty much every state and in the federal rules that says extraneous evidence or evidence outside of the case you're on trial for can sometimes come in to show motive or opportunity or intent or other things like that, right? And I think here, this could be a watershed moment in that trial, because the premise of

DA Bragg's trial is the idea that he falsified some records, right, which would be another way of saying fraud. So it stands to reason that the prosecutors there are very happy about this ruling today, because at least if I were a prosecutor, I would argue this shows MO. This shows the modus operandi, right? Like, what they do is engage in fraud. He's now been found to be liable of this fraud in a civil trial. And I think with the appropriate limiting instructions, it might come in in a way that doesn't take away his constitutional rights on the criminal end. So I'm really interested in seeing what interplay this has with criminal cases, particularly those where he's accused of some kind of fraud or what we call moral turpitude, which is dishonesty in the law.

I think there's a very good chance that Jack Smith and also D.A. Bragg and the other prosecutors are very excited about this ruling and trying to find a way to include it to buttress their own criminal cases against Mr. Trump. Agreed. I was thinking that. In fact, Kelly, let me pull you in here. A good day for Alvin Bragg, too, and someone who is preparing for March 25th to look at

a way to connect these dots and really allow people to see a full picture. I think that this is something that is working in Bragg's favor. I mean, for sure. I think that as far as these cases are concerned, I think us lawyers, us political nerds, everybody, we're really excited about it. But the American people really just want a president that's not Donald Trump. I think that's really what we're getting at here. I just want, at least that's what's on my heart to share today. I want this to be kind of wrapped up, or at the very least, going, so that by the time the election is, like, really underway,

like, we're seeing the ads left and right, past primaries, all these things, that it's going to look like crap. Absolute crap. If this man is even close to winning the election, there needs to be something, like, in the atmosphere that is just, like, two plus two equals four. Trump should not be president. He cannot be president.

Anything but him. That's where I'm at with it. Alvin Breck, God bless you. You know, take this, run with it. But anything except this man in the Oval Office for four more years. And Kelly, I want to stay with you for a moment. Do you think that the sting of the Stormy Daniels fraud case, and then it also goes into tax fraud because of the way that she was paid, do you think that the sting of that is still as hurtful? We have been talking about that case for years. And it just seems to me when I speak to people that they don't really think, especially in comparison to some of these other things, that it's actually that big of a deal anymore.

And I think that's the issue, because let's just think about what has happened between 2016 and 2020, before Biden was in office. So much was happening as far as corruption and improprieties and, look, I'm saying the word wrong, but just wrong things were happening in this administration such that it was just one thing after another after another, both on its personal end and on the political end. And it was so overwhelming that for something big to happen, such as Stormy Daniels, it was like a mustard seed in this mountain of pine needles that was happening with this administration. As far as morals and things that presidents should aspire to be or should be for us to aspire to, the bar has been set below Satan's sphincter as far as what is

standard anymore. Right? Absolutely. It's changed. I'm sorry? I said a lot has changed. Yeah, a lot has changed. Should the Stormy Daniels

thing be a big deal? Yes. In a world prior to 2016, this would have been beyond the Monica Lewinsky scandal, right? But frankly, we elected a president who already said he's going to grab him by the pussy, right? And I don't mean to sound vulgar, but that's what he said. And if that wasn't enough to not have him in office, anything else, frankly, is up for grabs and good to go, as evidence as what we are seeing now in 2024 regarding this man. Between the lawsuits and the scandals and the corruptions and the secret partnerships and all of these things. Like I said, the bar is beneath hell when it comes to what is acceptable anymore. Stormy Daniels should not be acceptable.

But unfortunately, in the grand scheme of things, it is. Yeah. You know, I'm going to piggyback off of what Matt said as before we go to break. And that is there's one thing that you really cannot refute, though. Yeah. You know, I'm going to piggyback off of what Matt said as before we go to break. And that is there's one thing that you really cannot refute, though, and that is the numbers, the numbers that he inflated in terms of the cost and the values of all of his properties and the numbers and the money that was gained on his end. Two plus two was always four. All right. We're going to talk a little bit more about Trump on the other side of this because he is allegedly talking about abortion. So stay with us. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, and we'll be back after a short break. Next on The Frequency with me, Dee Barnes, the amazing Drew Dixon. She gives us the details behind the HBO documentary that shed light on the alleged sexual assault by Russell Simmons.

And we're talking about the Netflix documentary Ladies First right here on The Fre light on the alleged sexual assaults by Russell Simmons. And we're talking about the Netflix documentary, Ladies First, right here on The Frequency on the Black Star Network. On the next Get Wealthy, did you know that the majority of households headed by African-American women don't own a single share of stock? No wonder the wealth gap continues to widen. Next on Get Wealthy, you're going to hear from a woman who decided to change that. I have been blessed with good positions, good pay, but it wasn't until probably in the last couple of years that I really invested in myself to get knowledge about what I should be doing

with that money and how to productively use it. Right here on Get Wealthy on Blackstar Network. Hey, it's John Murray, the executive producer of the new Sherri Shepherd Talk Show. This is your boy, Herb Quay. And you're tuned in to... Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right. In another story, Trump is talking about abortion.

Well, the New York Times is reporting that he likes the idea of a national ban on abortion past 16 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and the saving the life of a mother. Now, Trump has veered away from taking a firm stance on abortion during his presidential campaign, though he has taken credit for the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade,

since he appointed three justices who took part in that decision. He's also suggested that Republicans who take extreme stances on abortion lose elections. All right. I want to start with you, Michael. You know, he is talking perhaps behind closed doors about this abortion issue. It sounds like he really doesn't want to take a chance to really come full throttle, not during the campaigning, because it is such a hot-button issue. What are your thoughts on him perhaps talking behind closed doors about how he sees abortion and how it should play out? JOHN MCWHORTER, Former U.S. Attorney General for the United States, Donald Trump can't

keep Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley straight. He's taken credit for overturning Roe vs. Wade. When he ran for president in 2016, he said he will only nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade. The evangelicals held their nose and voted for this criminal because they knew that he would overturn Roe v. Wade. And, in fact, I watched—I covered this story dealing with the 2016 election week after week after week when I was on 9, 10 a.m. WFDF, okay? And I was on the morning show on Thursdays, wake up with Steve Hood, and I had my show,

the AppCaseU Network show Sundays. I watched about 100 campaign speeches that Donald Trump gave. I also watched numerous focus groups and watched numerous interviews with Trump supporters. They overwhelmingly said this election is about the Supreme Court. They said it's about the Supreme Court, and they said it's about the federal bench, because they had a better understanding of all this. So now, because all this is backfiring on them, the Republican Party is the dog that caught the car, OK? Now that they've got Roe v. Wade overturned and now it's costing them in these special elections, in these primaries, now he wants to say, oh, now support a 16-week abortion ban, OK? Now, the trick here is when they say they support to save the life of the mother and they support these exceptions, How hard is it or how easy is it to get these exceptions accepted?

Because oftentimes they say we have these exceptions, but it's so hard or the law is so vague, you have doctors who don't want to be sued if they do the wrong thing. So in essence, you have exceptions, but you really don't in many cases. So this is why this traitor has to be stopped at the ballot box, period. The only person that can stop him is Joe Biden. OK, takes 270 electoral college votes. Biden got 306. Biden got 81 million popular votes, period.

That's it. OK, so this is what we have to wrap our heads around and do the work and make sure we stop this threat in this totalitarian slide into dictatorship, which is Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Matt, what are your thoughts about Trump bringing this up potentially, but not really full throttle out in the public? You know, I think a little bit like future, we got to take the mask off, because I think a presidential candidate, not—yeah, you know, I had to reach—who's not a judicial—a person in a judicial capacity, I wonder how much of this is actually a true policy point and how much of it is the GOP wanting to bring in votes of people that they think may not be energized to vote because of the ruling in Roe v. Wade.

Because for, what, 50 years, the Republican Party made abortion its seminal issue, or one of its seminal issues in its platform. So now that the issue is theoretically settled, I wonder how much of this is them trying to drum it back up or put it back in people's minds to leverage fear-mongering to say, you know, you need this policy position on this, because otherwise the Democrats or the left or the whomever are going to come and try to reinstitute this. Because particularly what's interesting about Mr. Trump is, as we know, I mean, he very often trumpets whatever he feels, right, sometimes to the chagrin of his advisors. So for this to be something that's not out there, I wonder how much of it is kind of

more dipping their toe in the water to see how they leverage that from a voter perspective, a get-out-the-vote perspective, more so than a true policy point. And that's really kind of my opinion on it. I think it might be more about driving votes than it is about really being tied to any one policy. And, Kelly, it seems certainly like a strategy on his part, been hush-hush for a little bit, making a difference in his campaign trail. What are your thoughts?

I think that this man is a thug, like he's a crook. And crooks tend to basically do whatever it takes in order to get to what they want. I don't think that—I personally do not think that Trump has actual policy in mind. I think he goes where he thinks he's going to win. I wholeheartedly believe that if he thought that getting on a Democratic ticket and touting those talking points would get him into the White House, I think he'd do it. And we would have this same situation over on the Democrat side. So when it comes to this abortion issue, frankly, I don't think he cares. I think he just wants to win. It is just unfortunate that women's bodies, women's health

has been so tokenized and politicized such that it is a talking point and a voting matter such that if you think one way or the other about it, that's basically how the vote is going to go for whichever candidate is on that side. All right. Well, we will see if he comes out of the dark into the light on this issue, something certainly that we'll be following. All right. Stay with us. We're going to take a little bit of a short break. When we come back, we will have more from our panel, some other wonderful. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways.

Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up. So now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business,

taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley

comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Tman trophy winner it's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves music stars marcus king john osborne for brothers osborne we have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug fans. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the I heart

radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And to hear episodes one week early and ad free with exclusive content, subscribe to lava for good. Plus on Apple podcast. Guess you are watching the black star network on roland martin unfiltered stay with us for the last 15 or maybe 16 or 18 years i'll say since i when i moved to la i hadn't had a break

i hadn't had a vacation probably a week vacation here today right this year after i got finished doing queenshade and we wrapped it up. Because I knew I had two TV shows coming on at the same time. So I'm taking a break. So I've been on break for the first time

and I can afford it. Praise God. You know what I'm saying? Right. So I can afford it. I can sit back and ain't got nothing to worry about, man.

But this was the first time in almost two decades that I've actually had time to sit down and smell the roses. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, what does it mean to actually have balance in your life? Why is it important and how do you get there?

A masterclass on the art of balance. It could change your life. Find the harmony of your life. And so what beat can you maintain at a good pace? What cadence can keep you running that marathon? Because we know we're going to have, you know, high levels. We're going to have low levels. But where can you find that flow, that harmonious pace?

That's all next on A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. What's up, everybody? It's your girl Latasha from the A. And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Following the 2017 death of Freddie Gray, the first national publicly run registry database that has information gathered from citizen complaints against law enforcement officers was created. Missing Peace Founders Crystal Sills and Dr. Giovanni Felton say this database is the change that the country needs. They join us now from Baltimore, Maryland. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Thank you very kindly for having us. Thank you. Oh, absolutely. Crystal, let me start with you. This database so far, how has it been going in terms of collecting complaints from people? Are people responding to it? Well, we're just on the beginning stages of it and introducing it. And what's your goal? What are your hopes for it? Our hopes are that cities and municipalities embrace it and use it as a way of creating transparency and accountability for their law enforcement agencies. And we also want it available across the nation so that citizens can upload their complaints. And it's creating transparency, creating accountability, helping the law enforcement agencies to either weed out that 10 percent, because it's only 10 percent that actually caused 90 percent of the misconduct complaints.

So to weed out the bad apples and to help them do some training. So this isn't anti-police, but this is an effort to help them bridge the gap between the citizens and law enforcement and public officials, create transparency and increase the training, the professionalism of the agencies. And Dr. Felton, I know that one of the reasons that this database was started is because, as you said on your website, that the reports sometimes don't tell the truth. The police often don't tell the truth. And so this is a really different way for you and your team to get to the truth.

And that is the ultimate goal here. Absolutely. What we want is transparency. And what happened in Baltimore in 2015 with Brother Freddie Gray was just not right. And we found out that the police who had engaged with this corrupt situation had prior charges against them, and they should never have been, honestly, on the force at that time. So if missing peace was available back then, maybe this travesty could have been prevented, such as today. That's why we want the states, we want the cities, we want the citizens to be able to use it for transparency, use it for hiring practices, and as a state-of-the-art practice for all human resources to, as Ms. Sills said, to weed out bad officers and to promote healthy communication between communities and police. And so, Dr. Felton, I want to stick with you.

How does this work practically in terms of do you go to your site, upload your complaint there, and then take me just step-by-step about how information that we might have in the public can help your cause? Absolutely. And what I'm going to do is actually let Ms. Sills answer that because she's our head of our data personnel. So she can answer that a little better than I can. So I'm going to let her answer that if I can.

Thank you. Oh, sure. All right, Crystal.-I-N-P-E-A-C-E-S dot com. And you register like you would register for any other website and you get a login. And as a citizen, then you go in and you register your complaint. complaint that you actually went to the agency and filed because we will require that you upload that for verification reasons just to ensure that this is a legitimate complaint. And the other part is if you don't file, the agency always has the excuse, we didn't know. Nobody told us. So now you, once you log in, you put in the information, your name, the officer's name, what actually happened. And a lot of these are just click boxes. What type of complaint was it? Was it police brutality? Was it just harassment? Whatever you can think of. We have every agency in there.

So was it your local officer? Was it a federal officer? Was it a railroad? Was it Fish and Wharton? So every type of officer you can think of is in this database. And what is key about this database is not only do you upload the police misconduct complaint, but you can upload video. We all know the only reason cases have been going to court is because somebody had video. This has been happening for years, but because we didn't have video, there was no proof and people could discount it.

So you can upload video. You can upload any kind of supporting documentation you have. There was no proof and people could discount it. So you could upload video. You could upload any kind of supporting documentation you have. And then what it generates on the back end is a report that can be searched by city, by state, by agency type, by the officer's name. So if we can get everybody to put their complaints in, then we can start to track these officers because what happens is they bounce from locality to locality. So we know that happened with the officers with Breonna Taylor. They left that agency and now they are in other agencies close by. So the behavior has- This is the way to track.

Right, yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the other thing I may say is we have the ability for security of anyone who uses Missing Peace. Their information is not known to other organizations or facilities or things of that nature. Your personal information is secure with missing piece. We've gone through various scrutinizing ways to ensure that people's information is protected because we know that that is a big part of why people don't report police officers and things of that nature. So we have ensured that their information is kept

private. The other thing, if you want to talk about, is the three different facets of missing peace. So as a data person, I'm going to let Crystal speak on that, please. And I also want to say there's no police misconduct complaint too old. Okay. So you can go as far, you know, you can go five years ago, you put it in, as you said, that you're building up this database. And as you said, you're not only building up the database, but hopefully information that would allow you to further train police officers, fill in some missing blanks there. So remember, if the person was a police officer 10 years ago, they may be a captain now, which means they're training younger officers in bad behavior. So that's why no complaint is too old.

And there may be a pattern of them going across the country or different states. So we need to know that information. Now there are three, as he said, there are three different types of log on. There's the citizen log on, that's the regular log on. It's free to use use to upload these complaints. Then there's one that's an administrative.

So if a state implemented this or a city implemented this, there would be an administrative logon so that they could kind of tailor it to their city, such as the welcoming address, the welcoming email or whatever. That can be tailored. Then there's also a third email, which is the researcher logon. And what that does is allow activists, interested parties, the human resource department, to actually go in and query the report to see what type of behavior is prominent. Does the Northwest sector have a lot of cases with police brutality? So that is what we're trying to get to, that it actually becomes usable information

for activists, for human resources, for the public officials. Absolutely. Mayor, Governor. Well, for the public officials. Absolutely. Mayor. All right. Well, as we go to a break, I want to thank you. But before we leave, say your website one more time, because people can actually go on there tonight, right, if they wanted to have an old complaint and upload it. So it's missing, M-I-S-S-I-N-P-E-A-C-E-S dot com. All right.

Crystal Sills and Dr. Giovanni Felton, thank you so much for being with us. Great information that you share. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very kindly. We appreciate it. All right. Missingpeace.com.

All right. Stay with us. You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We're going to be back after a break. Next on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. We look at one of the most influential and prominent Black Americans of the 20th century. His work literally changed the world. Among other things, he played a major role in creating the United Nations.

He was the first African American and first person of color to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And yet today, he is hardly a household name. We're talking, of course, about Ralph J. Bunch. A new book refers to him as the absolutely indispensable man. His lifelong interest and passion in racial justice, specifically in the form of colonialism. And he saw his work as an activist,

an advocate for the Black community here in the United States, as just the other side of the coin of his work trying to roll back European empire in Africa. Author Cal Rastiala will join us to share his incredible story. That's on the next Black Table here on the Black Star Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers.

I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning into... Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right. So a Florida Sheriff's Office released body cam video of an officer-involved shooting from November. It shows the deputy firing his weapon multiple times at a suspect inside a patrol car after he thought he'd been shot. This body cam footage shows Deputy Jesse Hernandez walking to his patrol car when an acorn is

seen falling on the roof, causing Hernandez to hit the ground, yelling and firing continuously. Let's I'm hit. I'm hit. What? I'm hit. I hit the car. I was shot. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of

Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Get in the car! Oh! Oh, I'm good. I feel weird, but I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. I don't know. Get back.

I might have hit my vest. Oh, no. Get back. Get back. Get back. Get back. best stay inside your house stay inside your house Stop right there. Stop right there. I don't want anybody to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. Don't let any vehicles drive down the green acres.

You've got no movement. It's all right. Marquis! Marquis! Don't stop us, though! Don't stop us! It might have hit my vest. I don't know.

I'm not. I don't know. I felt like it. Jesse, move over to me. I got you. Move over to me. Jesse, come back. Mark the vehicle right there. Dude, am I hit?

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on,

come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, All right, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, all this calls by a nut. And I do mean the acorn that fell. What do you think about this? So far, no charges have been made. But this is a particular officer that actually resigned from the sheriff's office. But don't you think that some charges should and would be forthcoming and that he fired at someone who didn't have any firearms there in his patrol car? Not only—there's so many thoughts running through my head. Not only was this person unarmed, my understanding is that this person was in custody. He was handcuffed.

He was virtually immobilized in the back of this car. What made you think that this person could have possibly had any kind of weapon on his person after you patted him down, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of your car. That, the stupidity of this police officer knows no bounds. Because on top of all of that, where does an acorn ever sound like a gunshot? When does that happen? Oh, gosh. In the world of acorns.

You are correct. You know, I am imagining it hit his car pretty hard. That is the only sense that I could make of it, but still with the same- From a projectile tree? Sure. Does the tree have a cannon in it to shoot the acorn onto the car

to make a sound that remotely reflects a gunshot? I mean, how stupid, how dumb, how negligent and reckless can you be as a police officer? Matt, I want you to jump in here now. Just dumb. Yeah, some charges coming? I don't think there will be any charges coming. You know, often when we're on the show, I like to watch our brothers and sisters on YouTube to see what they think.

And at least two people mentioned something I didn't even consider. This might be PTSD. And as comical as it is, this is frightening because something like an acorn, you know, him mistaking that to be a gunshot and then shooting 17 shots in conformity with that is absolutely terrifying. Oh, absolutely. I mean, I see some infliction of emotional distress charges. I think that this could be made into something. Michael, what and they actually highlighted the acorn falling, and it bounces maybe two, maybe three times, something like that. So apparently there was a sound of the acorn falling, hitting something hard, but still

to translate that into a gunshot and you're being shot at, as opposed to maybe thinking, hey, it's a car that's backfiring or something like that. And then you're going to fire 17 shots into your patrol car. Now, on Instagram, on NBC News page, when they posted this video, I saw one comment from somebody saying that they think he suffers from PTSD. If he say hypothetically he does, this is another reason why you have to have better screening for a lot of these police officers. Because I mean, this is- Right, right. Matt was saying that about the PTSD.

Yeah. This is just ridiculous here. Now, luckily, nobody was shot, okay? Marquise Jackson was in the backseat handcuffed of the car. He was not hit. Luckily, nobody was hit. Somebody could have really been killed, okay, with this very easily. And you hear someone screaming, calling out Marquise's name. So there are other people probably potentially who were traumatized by this incident. That was his mom. Yeah, huh? That was his mom. Yeah, yeah. So his

mother traumatized by this incident, even though he was not hit. So this is, some people should just not be police officers. And this is why mental health, there's such a need for mental health in this country. Yeah, and ironically, you're talking about someone who potentially has PTSD and then cause a lot of distress and will cause probably PTSD for Marquis and his mother in the process. And Kelly, I think that that's where the charge really lies, in that you've caused a lot of havoc and problems that weren't there before you thought this acorn was an actual gunshot. I'm still just stuck on the fact that this man was a cop. Right. Like is a cop, was a cop. Like the fact that he resigned to me says that he could possibly get a job in the county over because no

nothing's on his record or anything like that to my understanding so i just wish that people just made better decisions and i i i empathize with ptsd symptoms and and. But if that is the case, you shouldn't be a cop. Specifically a cop with a gun and has the power to take lives off of that. Like, I just, you know, in a vacuum, it would be comical. But we're talking about lives here. Like, I really have no words for the absurdity of it all. I'm just glad that the victim is okay, that the young man who was in the back of that car, he is alive.

In fact, I found out about this through his Instagram post that went viral on the issue. So the fact that he's able to articulate this and is alive and well to say, like, apparently he has no injuries to him regarding gunshot wounds. So like, that's a miracle in and of itself. And I just take solace in that. But whatever. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding.

But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone,

sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to

one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives.

This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill.

NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Repercussions come out of this. Throw the book at them because this is ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, yes. I don't think that we have heard the end of this. Throw the book at them because this is ridiculous. It is absolutely ridiculous. Yes, yes. I don't think that we have heard the end of this. And in fact, this is one of those cases that Missing Peace is talking about. You mentioned, Kelly, that this is an officer that

might move to another location. This is why Missing Peace exists, actually. So perhaps that may not happen. All right. More after a break. When we come back, we're going to be finishing up. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Stay with us. A new year for a new you. Curl Prep Natural Hair Solutions at curlprep.com is an amazing organic line for curls, locks, braids, twists, and even those wigs and extensions. Women, men, and children are loving this line. Look at this video and you be the judge. People line up to see this product in action at hair shows,

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Give me that bass. Give me that beat. Hit it on your tongue. I can feel it next to me. What's good, y'all? This is Doug E. Freshener watching my brother Roland Martin underpiloted as we go a little something like this.

Hit it. It's real. Destiny Proctor has missing from her Mahwah, New Jersey home since January 16th, 2024. The 17-year-old is 5 feet 1 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about Destiny Proctor is urged to call the Mahwah, New Jersey Police Department All right. An Ohio judge declares a mistrial in the murder trial of a former deputy who killed a black man at the door of his grandmother's house in 2020. This morning, Franklin Court of Common Pleas Judge David Young declared a mistrial after multiple questions from the jury on whether they could

reach a verdict on one charge but be hung on another, and whether justification applied to one or all of the counts. The judge rescinded the mistrial minutes later and asked the jury to continue deliberating. Hours later, the jury informed the judge they could not reach a verdict. Young again declared a mistrial and excused the jury. A new date has not been set. Former Franklin County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Meade is charged on two counts of murder and one count of reckless homicide for the December 2020 death of Casey Goodson Jr. Meade says he shot Goodson in self-defense. He says he saw Goodson wave a gun while driving and feared for his life when

Goodson pointed that gun at him while standing in the threshold of his grandmother's house. Matt, I want to start with you about this mistrial and the not mistrial, going back and forth with these juries and deliberations. I mean, there are often a lot of jury instructions. What do you think is going on here? MATTHEW MCDONALD, Well, having not seen the evidence, I'm not sure, but it's exactly what I suspected, at least what you said, that the jury sent out a number of notes indicating they couldn't reach a verdict.

And for the viewers out there, what happens in that circumstance is the judge decides to issue what's called an Allen charge, where he or she says, OK, jury, I want you to go back and do your absolute best to reach a verdict on this case. And if they still can't reach a verdict, then a mistrial is declared because the jury is, as we call it, hung, meaning there's no unanimity in one direction either way, either for guilt or for innocence. So, that, to me, indicates that the jury—there's at least one holdout on the jury who doesn't think he's guilty or doesn't think he's not guilty, meaning that that's the verdict

that they would vote for. And that's what happens in this case. Now, I've never had the circumstance where a judge has declared a mistrial and then rescinded it. So, that's a pretty strange thing, because usually by the time they declared a mistrial and then rescinded it. So that's a pretty strange thing. Usually by the time they declare a mistrial, it's exceedingly clear that the jury can't reach a verdict. So that's pretty peculiar. But what is not peculiar is in a case like this, having, you know, juries that are finding difficulty in finding clear, you know, guilt or innocence.

Because as it goes back to the last case we were talking about with the officer in the acorn, the reason I don't think he'll be charged in that case is because police officer prosecutions are difficult more so than private citizens because they actually have statutory authority that gives them the authority to use force in certain circumstances, right? So that's what makes these cases more difficult than a private citizen who isn't given statutory authority to use force. And to that end, I think that what you probably have here is a jury, or at least some members of the jury, who are struggling on determining whether he did in fact commit murder or whether

he was justified in his use of force, which is an issue we talk about here all the time. But having a mistrial declared and then rescinded is a pretty peculiar thing. I've never seen that before. Kelly, let me wrap this story up with you. I mean, this is actually strange. You have a mistrial and then minutes later, there's not a mistrial. I mean, as Matt said, when you declare a mistrial, it seems like there's some finality to it. You have evidence that supports your decisions. So for him to go back, that is strange. It is strange. And I honestly haven't heard anything like this before. But it also, to me, indicates just how difficult it was to decide on this case for the jurors as well as the judge regarding to determine whether, like Matt said, whether the judge

felt comfortable enough to basically mandate that the jury keep going. And by looking at the article I have pulled up, the jurors seemed exhausted on both ends of this. Apparently, some of them were even crying. Basically, the emotions behind this case are were palpable and really intense. So I haven't been following this case as closely, but it is clear that emotions were running high for everybody involved, and maybe even with the judge, considering that he kind of sort of reneged on the mistrial, then re-declared it. But I think, correct me if I'm wrong, if there is a mistrial, there's potential for it to be retried. This isn't a final judgment, so I do take comfort in the fact that they can relitigate this

and hopefully there'll be an actual final verdict in the victim's favor. All right, let's go over to Kansas now, where two juveniles have been charged in connection with the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade that left one person dead and 22 others injured. Now, the pair is being held at a juvenile detention center on gun-related and resisting arrest charges. Additional charges are expected as the police investigation continues. The shooting happened Wednesday afternoon in downtown Kansas City, Missouri, next to

Union Station, where the parade had ended. Authorities say it was a dispute among several people that ended in gunfire. I mean, Michael, this is something that, I mean, it's a shame for a number of reasons, but two juveniles, they're taking in and then certainly ruining, killing someone, injuring so many people, yet another shooting that we have to discuss in the middle of such a celebratory event. Yeah, you know, this just sounds like just something just stupid. You have a dispute.

You have a ton of people there. You have a woman who's a DJ who's killed. You have more than two dozen who are injured. And I don't know how much time they're going to get. I know they're juveniles. I don't know if they're going to be charged as adults or what. We'll see how this plays out. But, you know, a lot of times with disputes, more times than not, it's better just to walk away. Okay? Just walk away. If they

had just walked away from the dispute, I don't know the nature of the dispute, but if they had just walked away, probably they would not be in the situation they're in right now. So, you know, this is, we have to have conversations with our teenagers, with our young people, things like this. Don't do stupid things. Don't hang around stupid people and learn how to walk away. Matt, we have about 20 seconds. I'm going to leave the final thought to you, your take on this situation. I mean, I think it says a lot about guns, gun laws. We're talking about juveniles here at the end of the day. Yeah, the United States needs to have this reckoning years ago with guns and our gun laws and being realistic on how we regulate guns.

And it's just a sad reality, particularly because these are juveniles and and the juvenile system is intended to be rehabilitative rather than punishment-oriented. And I think that makes it harder, because my understanding is the vast majority of these victims were children. So, where you might want to be even more draconian than normal, of course, they can be certified as adults. You have juveniles who have inflicted the pain, which is a different approach from a prosecution standpoint, which I think will make it harder because people want to see somebody visibly held accountable in this circumstance.

And with juvenile laws, they have certain privacy rights that adults don't. So I think that'll make it even more difficult because a lot of it will happen in the shadows rather than out in the public forum. All right. I want to thank my guests tonight. Matt, Michael, Kelly, it's always good seeing you. Fun to talk to you. You're always so engaging. And I want to thank the audience tonight. Good to see you and talk to you once again. You have been watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Thank you. A lot of times, big economic forces show up in our lives in small ways. Four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one.

Small but important ways. From tech billionaires to the bond market to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports. This kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We met them at their homes. We met them at their homes.

We met them at their recording studios. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. I know a lot of cops.

They get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.