The David Pakman Show - 9/29/22: Embassy Says Leave Russia, DeSantis Needs Hurricane Cash

Episode Date: September 29, 2022

-- On the Show: -- Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney, joins David to discuss his newest book, "Revenge: How Donald Trump Weaponized the US Department of Justice Against His Critics," out on October 11th. Get the book: https://amzn.to/3Riiw4d -- The US embassy in Russia warns Americans to leave Russia amid the expectation of increasing hostilities from Vladimir Putin -- Two more raped pregnant minors reportedly were denied abortions in Ohio -- Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is suddenly praising Joe Biden as Florida now needs federal hurricane relief funds, despite DeSantis' previously voting against funds for Hurricane Sandy -- Ron DeSantis appointee Jeffrey Moore resigns after a picture of him in a KKK uniform goes public -- Republican Pennsylvania Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano calls for 40 days of prayer and fasting to try to save his failing campaign against Democrat Josh Shapiro -- Donald Trump begs for money in a humiliating new fundraising video -- Voicemail caller says that until David has a PhD, he should not speak on financial matters -- On the Bonus Show: Biden warns oil industry about price gouging over Hurricane Ian, Biden seeks additional funding for Ukraine, Trump seeks to end rape accuser's lawsuit, much more... 👕 Rhone: Code PAKMAN saves you 20% at https://www.rhone.com/PAKMAN 💪 Athletic Greens is offering FREE year-supply of Vitamin D at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman 🛌 Get up to $350 OFF a Helix Sleep mattress + 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🎠 Busy Box Child: Save 10% with code PAKMAN at https://busyboxchild.com 👍 Quit smoking with Fum! Use code PAKMAN for 10% OFF at https://breathefum.com/pakman -- Become a Supporter: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership -- Subscribe on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thedavidpakmanshow -- Subscribe to Pakman Live: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanlive -- Subscribe to Pakman Finance: https://www.youtube.com/pakmanfinance -- Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/davidpakmanshow -- Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave us a message at The David Pakman Show Voicemail Line (219)-2DAVIDP

Things are very rapidly escalating in Russia. We've been waiting and wondering, well, what is Putin's eventual move here? What was expected by some to be an extremely rapid total defeat of Ukraine, of course, did not happen. And over the last couple of weeks, we have seen Russian forces actually repelled and retreating. And the question amid continued concerns about Vladimir Putin's health has been what is the end game? How is he going to ultimately get out of this or is he ultimately going to get out of this? The U.S. embassy is now warning Americans to get out of Russia. This is the clearest declaration and the most comprehensive of you just have to get out. Now, many of you might be saying,

why are there Americans still in Russia? There are so many different reasons why there are Americans still in Russia. And we're going to talk about that in a moment. CNN reporting the U.S. embassy in Moscow issued a security alert overnight that again urged U.S. citizens to leave Russia immediately while there are still options for departing the country. The alert comes in the wake of Russian President Putin's order for partial mobilization of Russian men to fight in his war in Ukraine. Quote, Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals, U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia and conscript dual nationals for military service. That is a really scary statement,

which we will talk about. The embassy has consistently warned Americans not to travel to Russia and to depart the country immediately if they're the embassy alert urged U.S. citizens to, quote, avoid all political or social protests. Do not photograph security personnel at these events, noting that the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are not guaranteed in Russia. Very different situation that Americans in Russia have to understand. Leaving is a very good idea at this point. But at the same time, there are people who simply didn't research the situation properly who are there. Now, one of the things that's important to understand about the dual citizenship thing, if you are in a country in which you hold citizenship and you hold an additional citizenship,

meaning you are an American citizen and you are a Russian citizen and you are in Russia, it is often the case that in that country you are only viewed through the lens of that citizenship. If you were a French American dual citizen and you were in Russia, this is not an issue. If you are an American Russian dual citizen and you were in Russia, the American citizenship isn't particularly relevant, at least not as far as Russia cares. If you are a Russian American dual citizen and you're in Russia and Russia says, hey, you know what? We are we are

conscripting individuals to fight in the military. And you go, oh, no, I need help from the American embassy because I'm also an American citizen. It is very common that that will be denied to you. Now, the American authorities might say, well, we can still try to help, but you will often be denied consular services because at the end of the day, you are a Russian citizen. And this is something that I've talked about and thought about in other terms with regard to my Argentinian dual citizenship, where there have been discussions of what if X, Y or Z happened while in Argentina? This is obviously much more serious and much more significant. Now, some reactions I've read are more or less like, shouldn't these Americans have

already left? I'm actually I'm sympathetic to the people that are there and that are also American citizens. It is really difficult to uproot your life. There are lots of people whose entire lives, despite being American Russian dual citizens, their entire lives are in Russia. They were born in the U.S. to Russian parents and went to Russia at age three. OK, that's that's an American citizen, not nominally, whose entire life is arguably in

Russia. And so the idea of we'll just get out. What are you doing there? It's a more complicated statement than than might appear. The other thing about this is that not everybody has the money or financial resources to get out and to come back to the United States. It may not be obvious how they would make a living in the United States if you are working in Russia. And this is often something that comes up when we talk about undocumented immigration to the United States. And this is often something that comes up when we talk about undocumented immigration to the United States. And many on the right love to pretend that people

that come to the United States illegally kind of doing it on a whim, kind of doing it for fun, for entertainment, almost like some kind of tourism of some sense. And what's often missing from that conversation is that these are people's lives and uprooting or moving your life to a different country is a really, really big deal. And so even when you are coming to the United States undocumented from Central South America looking for work, as is this typical situation that we talk about, that's a massive decision that no one makes lightly. And it's often missing total lack of empathy when we talk about and think about what it is that these folks are doing here, not related to, hey, Americans, it's time to get

out of Russia. But that also is going on. But these folks are not on vacation is the important thing to understand. And this now gets us back to what is Putin willing to do? How far is Putin willing to go? What is he potentially considering? And is Putin sick? Is Putin erratic? Is Putin not thinking clearly? And the answers to all of these questions may well be yes. So there are some very non trivial decisions to be made by Americans in Russia. And the next four to six weeks of what Putin does or doesn't do could be extremely important in terms of the entire course that this war is going to take. Scary moment. And yes, all other caveats aside, people have lives.

People are all these things that we've talked about for people living in Russia. The recommendation is to get out. My preference would be not to end up potentially conscripted into the Russian army. Now, of course, I am not a Russian dual citizen and I have no connections to Russia, so it's easy for me to say we are seeing more of these abortion denials for pregnant minors in the state of Ohio. This is the expected outcome of what Republicans are doing, no matter what they say about this is regrettable or this was not our intent. This was the predictable and expected outcome of the states that are going hard against

abortion. Now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned by the Supreme Court. We had a story like this about six weeks ago, and now we have at least two more. Cincinnati dot com from the Ohio Capital Journal reporting two more pregnant minors who were raped were denied Ohio abortions. These are disgusting and sickening circumstances. The article reads at least two more minors made pregnant by sexual assault were forced to leave Ohio to avoid having their rapists babies, according to sworn affidavits filed by abortion providers. The affidavits were filed in Cincinnati as part of a lawsuit aimed at stopping the enforcement of Ohio's strict new abortion law originally paused for two weeks.

The enforcement delay will be extended until at least October 12th, if true. And remember, I don't sometimes say affidavits aren't evidence. Affidavits aren't evidence, but they should be looked at and evaluated. If true, the affidavits show that a 10 year old from Columbus, Ohio, was not the only child or teen rape victim forced to leave the state. They also describe more than two dozen other instances in which the abortion law put women under extreme duress. The description includes those of three women who threatened suicide, and they include two women with cancer who could not terminate their pregnancies and also couldn't get cancer treatment while they were pregnant. That is a disgusting double edged sword.

And remember, we talked about how this develops. Two things. They can't get the abortion because of Ohio abortion law and they can't get the cancer treatment because the cancer doctors are scared that the cancer treatment could cause a miscarriage and that they could be they being the doctors could be charged for facilitating an abortion. Think of that. It doesn't sound like what the United States in 2022 is supposed to be. But unfortunately, we are now getting more and more of these stories. Another three examples were of women whose fetuses had severe abnormalities or other conditions

that made a successful pregnancy impossible, even so they couldn't get abortions in Ohio. You know, one of the things that's often said. In opposition to abortion being legal in most cases is these mothers shouldn't be allowed to play God with people's lives. Who are other people to make decisions about other people's lives? And, you know, the truth is that decisions about other people's lives are made all the time and are often made at the end of life. And at the end of life, when it is identified that there is no brain activity and no possibility for the recovery of brain activity, quote, other people make decisions about those lives. And yet when you have fetuses where there is no brain activity, they will not develop normally. These Republicans say the mothers shouldn't be allowed to make decisions in those cases. It's absolutely horrifying. So you've got

situation where you've got the potential for dead moms and then orphans if even the mom survives long enough to give birth, if even the fetus survives. And you've got moms being forced to, quote, give birth, although to call it that is a bit of an exaggeration or a misnomer to dead fetuses. And this is truly just the tip of the iceberg. Many of these stories will never even become known. And we have to ask who benefits, who is it good for for women to be forced to stop cancer treatments, to travel out of state, to get an abortion and then to come back and continue

cancer treatment? Who benefits from that? Who benefits from that? And remember, they would talk about the Obamacare death panels. These are the real death panels. You know, you had Sarah Palin going around death panel, this death panel that didn't exist. And by the way, by the way, it is actually the denial of health care services altogether that could be argued to be the real death panels. This is by design. Now, I know Republicans will say it is not by design. We're not trying to create these situations, but it is predictable. It is predictable that this would happen when you overturn Roe v. Wade and then states pass these horrifyingly strict abortion

laws. What's the end game here? That's my question to you. What is truly the end game for Republicans? Is it just to continue having situations like this or is it that they believe these types of situations will get people to rethink their behavior in some way? I don't I don't actually know what the end game is, but what we do know is that banning abortion doesn't eliminate abortion. That has been widely studied and we know that. So find me on Twitter at the Pacman and answer me the question, what is the end game here? I have a really tough time finding dress shirts I like. They're either uncomfortable or they're tight or they're loose or hot or itchy. And that's why it's

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vitamin D and five free travel packs. That's athletic greens dot com slash Pacman for a one year supply of vitamin D. The link is in the podcast notes. The David Pakman show is primarily funded by our audience, by you, by people who watch a YouTube clip or listen to the podcast or watch us maybe on free speech TV or listen on the radio. This happens through the membership program. You can sign up easily, quickly. I promise you painlessly at join Pacman dot com and you'll get the daily bonus show as well as commercial free audio and video streams of the show and so many other great things. Hurricane Ian is bearing down on the state of Florida after ravaging Cuba. We've talked about it to some degree. As of this moment, two and a half million Floridians are without power.

And we are told that fatalities are in the hundreds. The federal government should do what it can to help Florida. That is my position. It has been the case with hurricanes in other states and tornadoes and whatever else. I am consistent on that issue. But many Republicans are not. We've seen so many Republicans vote against federal funding for disasters in other states, but then go and beg the federal government for help when the disaster is in their state. That gets us to Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

Ron DeSantis, who has been one of the wildest critics of President Joe Biden, is now all of a sudden being very nice because he needs Joe Biden's help. He needs the federal government's help. What happened to Florida being a big boy, patriotic, self-sufficient state who doesn't need anybody's help and they have all the freedom in the world. Well, all of a sudden they're issuing mandatory evacuation orders, which I agree with, but they're not exactly the freedom that Ron DeSantis has touted. All of a sudden, DeSantis wants federal cash for disaster relief, even though DeSantis in 2013 voted no for Superstorm Sandy relief funding for New York and New Jersey. Is he a hypocrite?

Of course he is. But it's been really funny watching him try to equivocate, equivocate when being interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News, which we're going to get to in a moment. Newsweek article DeSantis praises Biden as Florida governor changes tone before Hurricane Ian. What a surprise. What a surprise. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has expressed gratitude towards President Joe Biden for his cooperation as Hurricane Ian is due to hit the state. Let's take a look at the video clip, which you will find is DeSantis singing a very different tone about Joe Biden. Let's talk about you had a

conversation with the president today. Earlier in the day, there had been talk that the president spoke with mayors, but not you. But apparently the president reached out to you tonight. Can you tell us about that conversation? And in the aftermath of the storm, what what support Floridians can expect from the federal government? Well, Sean, you know what I said today is, you know, my phone lines open when people's lives and their property are at risk like this. You know, we all need to work together. Right. When people's lives are at risk, we need to work together.

Otherwise, I'm going to tell horrible, corrosive lies. Our list of party lines. The Biden administration has approved our request for a pre-landfall declaration and did that very quickly. So we're thankful for that. You know, obviously, as this the impacts are known, there's going to be more requests, particularly for individual assistance for Floridians that may have been displaced. You know, and it's my sense that the administration, you know, wants to help. I think they realize that this is a really significant storm. And there's a lot of people that we're working with the locals. We work very well with them, of course, at the state level. But we really

need everyone working together to make sure people have their needs tended to. This is about a bunch of different things. So let's see if we can go through it. First of all, is DeSantis a hypocrite on this issue of federal funding? Of course he is. And so many Republicans are. You had members, elected officials from the Midwest who were begging for money for tornado recovery, who had voted against money for New York and New Jersey for Superstorm Sandy recovery back in 2013. And I could go on. The list is so long. And the earthquakes, the Rand Paul, Kentucky, all these different they're they're all hypocrites. OK, so that's one layer. And DeSantis is, of course, a hypocrite. Second thing, when DeSantis talks about this is not the time for pettiness,

this is not the time for political division,. This is not the time for political division, et cetera. He's agreeing that much of what he does is simply petty. And when it's inconvenient or whether he believes that people's lives are actually on the line, he didn't seem to believe it with COVID. But now with the hurricane, he seems to all of a sudden he goes, no, this isn't the time for any of that. Now we're just going to behave like normal people and we're actually going to work together because we actually need need something here. So that's the second thing is he's essentially admitting a lot of his his nonsense is completely petty and merely political. But then there's a third aspect, which is that Ron DeSantis is on the gubernatorial

ballot in what is it, five weeks, five and a half weeks or something like that. He will either be reelected the governor of Florida, potentially booing him into running for president in twenty twenty four or he will lose to Charlie Chris. Now, the polling looks fine for DeSantis right now, for the most part, save one recent poll. But DeSantis is also acting this way out of self-preservation because he realizes much like Trump's covid response destroyed Trump's reelection and much like bado in Texas. DeSantis realizes that the timing of this hurricane, if there were to be a bad response, would be really bad for his reelection. So that's what's happening. Oh, and then there's a fourth aspect to this as well. The Trump narcissistic style. Is extraordinarily transactional. And so to some degree, this is also DeSantis thinking to himself, if I'm nicer to Biden on TV, the federal government might give us more money. And of course,

Biden knows that this is what DeSantis is doing. But to praise Biden, quite frankly, Biden doesn't care. Biden realizes that it's his job to say yes when Americans need something. Americans in Florida need something right now. So Biden's going to get them the money. Biden's not perfect. There's no doubt about it. But on this, there is a really sharp contrast between Biden and Trump. Trump, even in situations of disaster relief, is extraordinarily petty and narcissistic and political. Biden's just going to send the money. Biden doesn't really care whether Ron DeSantis is being nice to him on TV or not. So there's DeSantis all of a sudden saying, no, I mean, things are going fine with Biden. And we know all the reasons why four different layers as to why this is what's going on.

Speaking of Ron DeSantis, this is a sort of like if the shoe fits type moment, a Ron DeSantis appointee wore a Ku Klux Klan. They're calling it a costume, but I think it's really a uniform. You can't really get that as a costume and has now resigned. This is an interesting story that is not like a major shock to many of us. Huffington Post reports Ron DeSantis appointee resigns after alleged KKK photo surfaces. The picture reportedly shows Jeffrey Moore at a Halloween party wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. A Florida Republican has left his job after a photo of him allegedly in a KKK costume made the rounds online. This is Gadsden County Commissioner Jeffrey Moore. He's a Republican. He was handpicked by Ron DeSantis in July. He is resigned from the

board of commissioners per the Tallahassee Democrat. The photo, I love these words, reportedly shows Moore at a Halloween party wearing a KKK hood and robe. And then you see the image here. And it has not been disputed that this is more. And he did resign after all, seemingly conceding that indeed it is him in the picture. More is the one white person on the board with four black commissioners. Oh, boy. Lives in a county where 55 percent of the residents are black, according to U.S. census data. You know, one of the things I was wondering is, is there such a thing as a KKK costume? Like what I mean by that is when I Googled KKK costume, you know how on Amazon and from, I don't know, Target and Walmart, you can get like a honeybee costume. You can get a, you know, Peter Pan costume. I didn't find anybody selling

KKK costumes. What I found were listings on eBay for actual bona fide KKK uniforms. And the idea of a costume seems to make it more benign than it really is. We just have to come to terms with reality. These are the types of people in this political movement. These are the types of people that are circulating in Florida Republican politics. And at what point do we say these aren't that rare of exceptions? Yes, it's not predominant. It would be silly and it would be inaccurate to say the majority of the Republican Party is KKK members

or would be KKK members or people fantasizing about being in the KKK. No, of course not. Of course not. But it's also not that rare. My surprise is that the guy ended up resigning because very often, you know, the move in the Trump era is you just double down. You never admit anything. You double down. You say they're trying to cancel me. It's cancel culture. And all that would you know what happened to jokes? What happened to speech? This is my speech or whatever else. And you don't apologize and you just stick with it. And oftentimes it works. Trump did it and it got him elected president. Many times we said in 2015, 2016, this has to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. This has to be the end of Trump. And then it's not. So the surprise to me is that this ended up with

a resignation. That's what it is. If you're wondering what this looks like and whether this is only purportedly a KKK uniform, we will have the picture on our Instagram, which you can find at David Pakman show. Quick break and we will be right back. sleeping on a Helix mattress for years, and I always recommend it to friends. You'd simply take this Helix sleep quiz. It asks you about your body type, your sleep position, whether you have back pain, and then Helix will match you up with the mattress that is personalized to your needs and they ship it to you for free. Another reason I went with Helix is that unlike a lot of mattress companies out there, every single Helix mattress

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in the podcast notes. It's great to have back on the program today. Michael Cohen, former personal attorney to Donald Trump, also host of the Mayakulpa podcast and author of the forthcoming book, Revenge, How Donald Trump Weaponized the the Mayakulpa podcast and author of the forthcoming book, Revenge, How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics. It's out on October 11th and you can preorder it already on Amazon. Michael, great having you on. I appreciate it. Good to see you, David. So, I mean, I don't really. By the way, just to let you know, you can actually preorder a signed copy, a limited edition signed copy.

If you go to revenge hyphen, the book dot com revenge hyphen, the book dot com for signed copies. Beautiful. There are at least four investigations right now into the former president. You've got the New York finance investigation, the Mar-a-Lago document scandal. You've got January 6th and then you have the Georgia election results. Given your knowledge of Donald Trump, is he genuinely rattled by this stuff or does he think he's just sort of, you know, invulnerable?

Well, there's unfortunately I can't give you the answer to that one because Donald is a narcissistic sociopath. So how he expresses himself as it relates to any one specific issue, it's very hard to get into his head. From his body language, I can tell you that this Mar-a-Lago raid really got to him. But so did the Tish James lawsuit that is now confronting him, because that attacks his ego. It attacks what basically he's lived for his whole life, which is to be able to impress upon others how rich he is. And this two hundred and twenty page indictment. It negates all of that by simply showing that he's really nothing more than just a petty

con man. You explain during your testimony under oath years ago, I don't even remember now exactly when it was. It's all kind of been a blur. But you explained this strategy of claiming that an asset is worth more if you want to use it as collateral for a loan, but claiming that the very same asset is worth less if you're trying to reduce your property taxes that that you owe. How explicit was that strategy when you were Trump's personal attorney? Was it openly discussed? So as I explained, and I think you're referring to the 2018 testimony before the House Oversight Committee with the late, great Elijah Cummings.

God rest his soul. Every year. Alan Weisselberg and I would be called into donald's office at which point in time donald would say after looking through the personal financial statement of the year before how much more money he believes that he is worth and how he wants the personal financial statement to reflect that. Now, one of the things was the reason why he was doing it. And the initial reason was for Forbes magazine. He is obsessed with being on that Forbes 400 list, but he didn't want to just be on the list. He, of course, wanted to be as high on the list as he possibly could. And so, for example, in 2012, like he would say, I, you know,

I'm not worth, as in 2011, $4 billion. I'm actually worth six and a half. And then the year after, he would say, I'm worth eight. No, in fact, I'm worth nine. And then it would go on and on like this. And these are random numbers that Donald would just create in his head simply because he would say the real estate market is good this year, meaning that my assets are worth more. Well, again, one of the things that he testified to in the Tim O'Brien case was that appraisals to him don't really mean anything. It's all what he believes the value of the price to be. It's selective pricing, so to speak. And so what's interesting about that is if he is just sort of deluded about what these properties at work are worth, it's less overtly criminal in a sense.

Right. Because he's not saying I don't believe that this is the value he's deluded into thinking that it is. I don't think so. What happens is that he may be he may be deluded into the total net worth, but as we would sit there, for example, the famous case of his triplex apartment, I don't care how deluded you are in your mind. You know that your house, in this case, the triplex apartment, is not 33,000 square feet.

How do you know such a crazy thing? Because you live there. Not only in his case does he live there, he actually built it. So imagine you're building a house in whatever city, state, you know, that you live in. And somebody comes over and they said, oh, did you just build a house? Yeah, I just built it. And then you tell them it's 33,000 square feet, when in fact, it's 10,800 and change. Clearly, it's a lie. Then on top of that, not only as the developer, not only as the owner, not only as the person whose name is on the building, you know that no property has ever traded, not just in that building, but anywhere in New York City for that price per square foot coming up with what a three hundred and seventy million dollar

valuation on his apartment. That's not delusional, right? That's a liar. That's fair. That's fair. One of the things. Thank you for saying that, David. One of the things that that Donald Trump mentioned after the pictures were released from the search warrant that was served at Mar-a-Lago was, you know, the pictures make it look like my office is a mess and my office is not really a mess. However, there are older pictures of Trump's office where there are, you know, books and papers stacked all over the place. And it does sort of seem like a mess.

Was it typical that the offices were a mess? No. In fact, his office was extremely it was extremely clean and organized. There were times that his desk would have papers cluttered on it. But remember something, I'm talking about Trump Tower on the 26th floor. What he would do is he would have stacks of magazines and papers in the front of the desk, whereby, of course, your chair, if you were in a meeting with him, would be there. And those magazines would have covers of him on it or articles of him. And if you were, let's say

David Pakman comes into Donald Trump, for whatever the reason might be, you could sometimes end up leaving with a little bag full of magazines and newspaper clippings and a little piece of a silver or a gold Trump chocolate bar, things like that. I mean, you walk out there, you think that this was some sort of a carnival, that people are handing things or a job fair. That's really what it would look like. But for the most part, his desk was rather organized. Now, when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago, what you're looking at is the office, which is above the catering hall. And all of these documents are on the floor. I believe that they were placed on the floor by the FBI so that they could photograph it. Yeah. When the FBI raided my hotel room, it was funny. My wife had several thousand dollars that she had collected for, you know, from the

real real on items that she had sold and she would do it so that she wouldn't have to tell me to buy it. And it was in the safe with her money. And in fact, on the envelope, it said real, real money. So she would know what she was getting. They fanned it out. It was something like $6,000 or something like that. They fanned it out like they just raided and found Escobar's billions. And this is what they do. But I do have to say that when they came in, they were professional. They were respectful. They did not destroy the place. They did their job and they did it the right way. And I suspect

that they did the same thing at Mar-a-Lago. Now, why'd they lay it out on the floor again? Maybe it was just so that they could take the picture. But we have to thank them for taking those pictures. And the reason I say that is we see that there of them for Mar-a-Lago, you know, for their lunches and dinners. There must have been documents in there. And we know some of those documents were really top secret eyes only on the person who wrote it. Nuclear secrets about whether it's our adversary and our ally. So we have to really thank them for doing their job professionally. I'm sure it wasn't easy to go in and raid the home of the former president of the United States, but they they did what they needed to do. Without a doubt, without a doubt. Speaking of representation in that matter and the others, what do you make of the lawyers that show up on TV as Trump's lawyer like Alina Haba and Christina Bob, for example? This is a very different cadre of lawyers than the folks that were photographed showing up in court the other day. Is it just that Trump says, hey, I like the way that these women look, let's hire them and make them more like a PR type people that talk for me on TV, but they're not actually representing me

before a court? Is it as simple as that? Well, that's not true, by the way. So the answer is the visuals for him are extremely important. And he believes that it also gives him a sense of strength, masculinity. He's a very complex individual. Alina Haba does go to court. Oh, she does. In fact, she's representing Donald in a lawsuit that I currently have against the United States government, against the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Bill Barr for the unconstitutional remand of me back to Otisville because I refused to waive my First Amendment constitutional rights.

So maybe what she meant, Michael, just to clarify, is she was not representing him in court in the particular matter she was being interviewed about. Maybe that's what she meant. That's that's correct. She just makes she just makes her statements. I find her to be as unqualified in court as she is on television. And the same thing goes with Bob, who I think is somewhat brighter than Alina in the fact that she doesn't always open up her mouth and say what Donald wants her to say. That's a real problem. However, what Bob did is she signed a document that the government, of course, is in possession of that claimed that Donald is not in possession and that she has must have made some sort of a thorough check. But based upon the statements of her client, she signed an affidavit that no additional documents exist in the possession of Trump or at Mar-a-Lago. And that's clearly a lie.

So is she in trouble for it? She certainly could be. I mean, it's a perjury charge. But look at what Donald does. It's who's going to be the next fool? Who's going to be the next Michael Cohen fool to fall on the sword for this orange-crusted Mandarin Mussolini, who doesn't care about anyone? And so you begin to see these various lawyers, especially the competent ones, walk away. And they walk away for two reasons, because Trump's strategy only benefits Trump,

even if it hurts the lawyer. And worse than that, he doesn't tell them the truth. Let me make a third one. He also doesn't pay. Yeah. Other than this recent one who took the money up front and good for him. Yeah. Save America PAC reportedly paid something like three point eight million to a West Palm Beach firm in the last couple of months. So it seems like now lawyers are demanding money up front, which seems very, very smart. Michael, if you had to handicap all of the different investigations going on right now, which is the most likely to actually lead to charges? Well, we already know that the Tish James case is the one that is

the most active and the most upfront. Next up, this is like a ballgame, right? Next up is the district attorney's case here in New York, whereby Allen Weisselberg has already pled guilty to various criminal charges, but they have intelligently held off on the sentencing of his case post his testimony against the Trump organization. Now, let me just reiterate for your listeners that the Tish James case is a civil case. This is the case that will ultimately wipe him out financially. And again, in the 220 plus page document, one of the things that Tish James puts in there is that her baseline number was 250 million. And I want to draw people's attention to the word baseline. That is not the cap. That is the baseline. Knowing the documents that they used and knowing the case

as well as I do, I suspect the number will be closer to 750 million to a billion. That's what I think she will ultimately go after. Now, the district attorney, the case that was originally brought by Cyrus Vance Jr., now inherited by Alvin Bragg, that's a criminal matter. And that criminal matter is, as Weisselberg would like you to believe, is against the Trump organization. How do you separate Donald Trump out from the Trump organization, his eponymous company? You cannot. Let me just say one last thing. Tish James has already referred certain parts of that 20 page document on tax evasion to the IRS and to the DOJ. So everything is beginning to come full circle. I mean, I know that we always say that the wheels of justice, unless you're Michael Cohen, that's a 48 hour ordeal. Yeah, that was quick.

Turn slowly. But ultimately, it does come full circle. In the book you write about, I mean, as the as the the full title of the book suggests, the use of the Department of Justice essentially as a as a tool, as an intimidation tool and as a weapon against those who criticized Donald Trump. How much further did he want the DOJ to go And the DOJ was unwilling to do it because he made way more requests than they actually agreed to, didn't they? Yes, they did. Now, in my specific case, Jeffrey Berman just came out with a book. And again, I have no regard for him or his book. So I want to be clear about that. I think Jeffrey Berman,

his actions are either one of two things, unethical or illegal. Donald Trump, through Bill Barr, placed pressure on the Southern District of New York, the Department of Justice, to expunge his name from anything related to the actions, the claims that were brought against me initially that I ultimately pled guilty to. And my book, Revenge, right, how Donald Trump weaponized the United States Department of Justice against his critics, it really takes a deep dive into everything. And Jeffrey Berman is, of course, named in my book as well. But what it does, what Jeffrey Berman's book does is it validates everything that I say in my book. It shows that Donald Trump's goal was to use the Department of Justice as his own private law

firm, as his own private hit squad, to go against people that he didn't like myself, people like James Comey and, you know, and others. The book is an extraordinary expose of more, as you say, the inner workings of how all this was done. The book is out on October 11th, but it is available for preorder now, as well as signed preorder. We've been speaking with Michael Cohen, the book's author. And again, the book is Revenge, How Donald Trump Weaponized the U.S. Department of Justice Against His Critics. Michael, always great having you on and best of luck with the book release. Thanks, David. I will speak to you soon. I've seen several people in my life try to quit smoking or vaping and quitting has so

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This you have to see. And I have to admit this. This gives me great pleasure. Doug Mastriano is this big lie proponent who was at the Capitol on January 6th, and he is the Republican nominee for being the governor of the state of Pennsylvania. It would be a disaster if Doug Mastriano were to become the governor of Pennsylvania. But the good news is his campaign isn't doing very well, apparently desperate to try to fix it. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Doug Mastriano is now planning 40 days of fasting and prayer

to try to save his campaign. I love this for two reasons. Number one, he's losing and he's desperate. And that's great. And it's good news for the people of Pennsylvania. But also fasting and prayer aren't going to change the polls for him. It's not actually going to do anything. So I say do 80 days of fasting and prayer. Of course, there's not 80 days left before the before the election. The article writes the Republican gubernatorial candidate is losing some support among Republican allies as his cash strapped campaign turns to Twitter memes and apparently divine intervention.

These people are a joke. It was billed as a blockbuster, but it ended up a flop. If Doug Mastriano's big rally last weekend were a movie, its Rotten Tomatoes score would be in the single digits. Only a few dozen supporters joined the Republican state senator on the steps of the Capitol building in Harrisburg, some of them members of a militia group. The photos looked bad because it was bad and the press coverage was brutal. So what is he doing now? By the way, here's a picture of the rally I'm showing. It's like there's almost no one. It looks like it's just intern orientation day at the Capitol. Now, with the election 41 days away, the head of a conservative group airing anti Shapiro ads. Remember, Shapiro is the Democrat who we should all just vote for if you live in Pennsylvania because he's a completely

uncontroversial, reasonable candidate is questioning Mastriano's tactics, particularly his insistence on campaigning within an echo chamber, et cetera, et cetera. So what is it that is going on now? On Monday night, Mastriano's campaign posted on Facebook a photo of two hands under the words 40 days of fasting and prayer with the dates September 29 through November 8 Election Day interceding for our elections, our state and our nation, it stated, along with a verse from the book of Isaiah. Mastriano wrote in The Post starting in a few days, it'll be my honor to fast with you. Now, as the article points out, it's unclear who Mastriano expects to start fasting on Thursday, but this is all part of this Christian nationalist ideology. Now, of course, this isn't going to do anything for him. And so my message is do it. Do it. The message to the voters is don't assume

that we have this in the bag. No risks can be taken. Here's the way that the polling is looking right now. Mastriano versus Josh Shapiro. On average, on average, Shapiro is leading by nine point three, almost a double digit lead. This is a major, major deal because the risk if Mastriano became the governor is that Democrats lose the White House in 2024. I know that some of you might find that hyperbolic. It is not hyperbolic. Pennsylvania is a state on which presidential elections can hinge. Presidential elections not going to hinge on Rhode Island. It's not going to hinge on South Dakota. We know how those are going to go. Many scenarios have presidential elections depending on Pennsylvania. Rhode Island. It's not going to hinge on South Dakota. We know how those are going to go.

Many scenarios have presidential elections depending on Pennsylvania. If Doug Mastriano wins in November and then in twenty twenty four, a Democrat narrowly wins the presidential election in Pennsylvania, be it Joe Biden or whoever is the nominee, Mastriano will try to steal Pennsylvania for Republicans. And so the consequences are absolutely massive. So it is so great that Shapiro is up nearly double digits. But. Do not assume we have this in the bag. The risk is too great. This one is just so, so important that no risks can be taken. Now, as far as Josh Shapiro and we're going to have coverage of the Mastriano versus Shapiro debate, let me remind myself when that is. Let's see. I'm checking out my calendar. It is I don't know what it is. Is it tomorrow? No, we're I'll let you know when that debate is.

OK, we're going to have the debate. Josh Shapiro is not a Democrat that Pennsylvanians have to kind of turn their nose up and say, well, I'm reluctantly voting for Josh Shapiro. He's not the most progressive Democratic candidate, but he's super smart. He's reasonable. He's common sense. He's completely uncontroversial. He's actually a fine choice for governor of Pennsylvania. So it's all laughable.

The prayer is not going to get Mastriano to catch up the 10 point deficit. The fasting certainly is not. Let them do it. Encourage them to do it. But let's not assume that this is in the bag because it is so important a race and we don't want to give them any opportunity. I am going to play for you today one of the most pathetic Donald Trump videos that I have ever seen of Donald Trump begging for money, mentioning one of these completely imaginary fundraising deadlines that are of no meaning or value whatsoever. This guy is desperate. This guy is desperate and it's pathetic. Listen to Trump's voice here.

Speaker 4 We have a major fundraising deadline coming up. Speaker 1 No, you don't know you do. This is the biggest scam. We have a major fundraising deadline coming up. No you don't know you. This is the biggest scam. We have a deadline. It's a self-imposed deadline. We've got to get 5000 new donors by midnight tonight. No you don't. You're just desperate, dude.

Speaker 5 And there's never been a time like this. Our country has never been so disrespected. Our country has never been so low, certainly in the minds of others and especially the leaders of other countries all over the world. Yeah, we have to change it. We have to bring our country back. We made. Remember, opinion of the United States around the world has dramatically improved since Donald Trump left office. Every single poll proves that. American great. And now we're going to have to make America great again. Yeah. So I say whatever you can do, help out. We have to meet the deadline. The midterms are coming up. It's going to be one of the most important elections in the history

of our country. That's true only because of the effect it may have on 2024. So I hope you can help out and help out. We really appreciate it. And good luck. Yeah. Can I translate this video clip for you? This message? Here's the translation. I might actually have to pay my lawyers this time. OK, that's the real message that Donald Trump is espousing here. And look at how disastrously humiliating fundraising has been. This is an article on Yahoo News from The Independent. Trump's super PAC raised just forty dollars in August. OK, that's not a typo. That's not 40 million. It's not four million. It's not four hundred thousand. OK, Trump super PAC raised forty dollars in August.

Former President Donald Trump super PAC raised only forty dollars in the month of August in a sign that his name doesn't have the fundraising poll that it once did. Along with the low August numbers, the Make America Great Again Again Super PAC only raised three hundred and fifty one thousand dollars in July, nothing in June. By comparison, in the final fundraising quarter of last year, the very same super PAC raised between four and five million dollars. Even in April and May, it raised eight hundred and sixty four million dollars. Among some of the merchandise that is being made available are Jared Kushner's memoir. Trump wine glasses and a rally speech signed by Trump, as well as the opportunity to get your name engraved on a donor wall.

Now, as I mentioned, this is really about legal fees. And the article says the numbers come as Save America PAC foots the bill for Trump's legal fees. Last month, it spent three point eight million dollars on legal fees, the most spent on such fees the entire 22 2022 cycle with three million dollars going to Critton, Luttier and Coleman, which is a law firm based in West Palm Beach, Florida. Remember, MAGA means making attorneys get attorneys. And MAGA also is extremely lucrative for lawyers.

That's for damn sure. As you know, Trump is going to have legal fees because of the Letitia James criminal referral lawsuit. And we've got what's happening in Georgia and we've got the Florida situation with the Mar-a-Lago raid. This guy is going to have legal fees up the wazoo. So when Trump shows up and he's in his informal wear right right, no, no, no necktie and says we've got to meet this fundraising deadline.

What he means is I might have to pay my lawyers. I might have to pay my lawyers. It is pathetic and it is humiliating. He raised forty dollars, guys, forty dollars. Let's hope that he raises even less. We have a voicemail number. That number is two one nine two David P. Here's something kind of funny. So we launched the David Pakman show finance channel. And I I've mentioned this before. You can find it at YouTube dot com slash Pakman finance.

It's no politics. It's just basic personal finance, education and advice. And it's not specific advice. It's just general concepts that are important to understand. We're already almost at 10,000 subscribers. It is seems to be striking a nerve. Last week, I showed a message from a viewer who said, what are my credentials to even talk about this? And I said, well, I have an MBA specializing in financial planning. Those are my credentials. And it's not like a humble brag. It's just someone said, what are your credentials? Those are my credentials. And here is a caller who says, no, no, no, no, no, that's not enough. Hey, David, you know, I recently watched your video on your main YouTube channel talking about how exactly you're qualified to talk on financial matters.

And you said because you had an MBA, you're qualified to talk on financial matters. Well, David, let me get something straight, dude. An MBA does not make you qualified to talk on financial matters. Come back when you have a PhD or something like really special. OK, David, I mean, get a freaking grip, dude. Just because you have an MBA doesn't mean you're qualified to speak on financial matters. In fact, I think the most prudent financial advice comes from Dave Ramsey, David. You know what Dave Ramsey has? Not an MBA, bitch. Yeah, well, Dave Ramsey does have a bachelor's degree, so that is something. Yeah.

Listen, to be totally honest. There's people who know a ton about personal finance and don't have any degree in it. It's actually it was sort of like a joke. It reminds me of some discussion we were looking at where someone said to an economist, what qualifies you to give economic analysis anyway? And the guy's like, well, I have a Ph.D. in economics. It's you know, we've talked about the appeal to authority and the appeal to expertise is potential cognitive biases or logical fallacies, rather not cognitive biases. And the truth is, I don't even really subscribe to what I said, which is like I know about this stuff because of my degree, because quite frankly, most of the stuff you learn by doing and you learn by by individual research and learning. But anyway, I encourage you check out the finance channel, subscribe for free.

Totally different thing. The way I describe it is it's like Dave Ramsey without the right wing nuttery, without the Christian messaging and without the anti-vax. That's the idea of the Pacman Finance channel, YouTube dot com slash Pacman Finance. We've got a great bonus show for you today. Joe Biden is warning oil industry companies as Hurricane Ian has made landfall in Florida. And Joe Biden is saying, do not gouge the American people on gas. We will see if they will heed his warning. Joe Biden has also approved an

additional billion plus dollars in security assistance to Ukraine. Are Republicans in favor of or against this? Because remember, it was Biden didn't do enough for Ukraine. And also, there's too much money going there. Wait, so how could it be both? And Donald Trump is seeking to end his rape accusers defamation lawsuit. Is this finally going to be the end of the road for that lawsuit or not? All of those stories and more on today's bonus show. Sign up at join Pacman dot com. Use the coupon code indict to get yourself a discount.

And we will see you then when I am joined by producer Pat. By the way. A lot of people writing in and saying, David, what is up with that bruise on producer Pat's nose? He explains it on the bonus show this week. He explains what happened to his nose. So please tune in. Join Pacman dot com. We'll see you on the bonus show this week. He explains what happened to his notes. So please tune in. Join Pat and dot com.

We'll see you on the show.