The MeidasTouch Podcast - Federal Judge Issues NIGHTMARE Ruling for GOP Congressman

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the ruling by Federal Judge Jeb Boasberg ordering that most of the documents that Republican Congressman Scott Perry has been trying to withhold from the DOJ pursuant to their search warrant be turned over immediately.  Thanks to Co-Pilot! Head to go.mycopilot.com/meidas to get a free 14-day trial and 20% off your first month! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. MAGA Republican Congress member Scott Perry can run, but he can't hide from justice. A Washington D.C. federal judge has just ordered that MAGA Republican Congress member Scott Perry turn over 1,650 emails to the Department of Justice in connection with a search warrant executed on his phone over a year ago. Scott Perry's been challenging the attempt to get these phone records for a very long period of time.

He's been citing what's called the speech or debate clause immunity under the United States Constitution, and he's been resisting. He was previously ordered to turn over these emails and text messages by the prior presiding federal judge in Washington, D.C., Judge Beryl Howell. Judge Beryl Howell was reversed in part by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was a bit of an obnoxious order by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which was a bit of an obnoxious order by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, if I'm being honest here. They said, look, Judge Beryl Howell, you got the analysis right on what the speech or debate clause immunity is, which MAGA Republican Congress member Scott Perry was asserting

to avoid turning over his emails and text messages. But what the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said is, Judge Howell, you were grouping these categories of text messages that were sent by MAGA Republican Congressmember Scott Perry into these kind of overarching categories, you know, categories including, you know, communications within the House of Representatives, communications outside the House of Representatives, communications outside the House of Representatives, and then kind of communications with kind of just non-parties in general outside of the executive branch. And they were like, what you should have done,

federal judge Barrelhow, this is what the D.C. Circuit said is, you got to go document by document and apply the speech or debate clause to each text message and each email that MAGA Republican Scott Perry was trying to withhold from the Department of Justice in connection with their search warrant. So Judge Beryl Howell's term as the presiding judge in the Washington, D.C. federal court expired. So then the next presiding judge, I mean, she's still a judge in Washington, D.C. I mean, she was the judge, for example, in the Giuliani case. She's just not the presiding

judge anymore. The presiding judge is an important distinction because the presiding judge presides over all of the disputes relating to criminal search warrants and grand jury procedures. That's why Judge Beryl Howell was involved in that. So then the new presiding judge, Judge Jeb Boasberg, he took over. He got that D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which says you got to apply a speech or debate clause immunity analysis to each document, to each text message, to each email to determine if what MAGA Republican Scott Perry was sending constitutes legitimate legislative activity or whether it was outside the scope of legitimate legislative activity and thus not subject to the speech or debate clause immunity, a testimonial privilege, if you will, a privilege from prosecution, a privilege

from having to turn over records if it constitutes legitimate legislative activity. So Jeb Boasberg applied that to MAGA Republican Scott Perry's emails and text messages and said, look, Scott Perry, the Department of Justice, through their search warrant, obtained 2,055 messages. 1,650 of these messages need to be turned over now forthwith to the Department of Justice. You are improperly withholding these documents on the grounds of speech or debate clause immunity. of speech or debate clause immunity. The speech or debate clause immunity does not apply to these categories. And this order by the new presiding judge, Judge Boasberg, was a painstaking, detailed

analysis going document by document and saying, look, MAGA Republican Scott Perry, your communications about trying to prevent the former vice president Mike Pence from performing his functions of certifying the election, that has nothing to do with legitimate legislative activity. Look, Scott Perry, your communications with third parties about how Donald Trump can try to take power or seize power or come up with phony explanations about election fraud where there was no election fraud, that's not legitimate legislative activity. Your conduct that involved assisting the Trump campaign and the Trump political operation, that's not legitimate legislative activity. You going and doing these, you know, press events and other things to try to undermine confidence in the 2020 election, that's not legitimate legislative activity. Your communications with third parties in general spreading these

deranged conspiracy theories. Well, the judge didn't use those exact words, but you having communications with these third parties about your purported view of election fraud. That's just so you know how Judge Boasberg framed it. That does not constitute legitimate legislative activity. There are some categories where you're having inter House of Representative Communications. Sure, those are subject to the privilege, but by and large, most of these records are not. Now, this is a big win for special counsel Jack Smith because Scott Perry was one of

the kind of key figures in organizing and coordinating both the fake elector scheme, the objections to the election results of 2020. Scott Perry was one of the people who introduced Jeff Clark, who's under criminal prosecution right now in Fulton County. Remember Jeff Clark, that rogue Department of Justice official who wanted to send the memo to all of the states and Donald Trump was trying to appoint that Jeff Clark guy to become the attorney general or the acting attorney general and wanted him to send a letter to tell the states to overturn the results of the free and fair election and lying and saying that there was election fraud and therefore Donald Trump becomes the winner in those states. And then remember all of the Department of Justice officials

basically said that they would quit if Jeff Clark became the Attorney General. And then ultimately Donald Trump did not appoint Jeff Clark acting Attorney General, but Jeff Clark was promoted to a very high position within the Department of Justice. Scott Perry, this MAGA Republican Congress member from Pennsylvania, was one of the key people who brought Jeff Clark into the orbit, into this leadership position, and was part of that whole plot as well. You know, I know a lot of you have been asking, we want to see justice as it relates to the members of Congress. What's going on there? One of the things I've always said, I said, look, Midas Touch Network, we are objective reporting here. I can tell you my feels. I can tell you my feeling. Do I think, do I feel that Marjorie

Taylor Greene and the Scott Perrys and the Lauren Boeberts and all of them who were tweeting out revolutionary type statements about overthrowing the United States government and who participated in this plot, do I think that they should ultimately be criminally prosecuted? I feel they should. The problem, the challenge is the speech or debate clause immunity as it's been interpreted by the Supreme Court with a case called U.S. v. Gravel, for example, that says anything that can be construed as legitimate legislative in nature, If these MAGA Republicans try to frame what they're doing as exploratory fact-finding, as part of their mission as members of Congress, and the entire Republican Party now has gone full MAGA and turned their party into this insurrectionist party.

So their whole messaging is cloaked as insurrectionist activity as part of legitimate legislative activity which it is not but that's what makes it ultimately challenging because the united states constitution affords this immunity and the purpose of affording this immunity was to recognize the uh that the fact that there are different branches of government and to respect the separation of powers, right? Copilot is a personalized fitness solution. Every individual is unique, so your fitness journey should be too. Copilot's app links you with an affordable, real-life fitness coach who customizes workouts tailored to your individual needs and goals. No fitness fads here. Work out anywhere,

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like total criminals and calling that conduct legitimate legislative activity. Just take a look at this order right here. I summarized it in fairly good detail right here, but just take a look at it. Here's the memorandum of opinion. It talks about how the Department of Justice executed the search warrant, obtained these records. There's about 2,000 plus records of text messages and emails that were obtained by Scott Perry in connection with the search warrant that was executed. It talks about how the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals partially overturned the

holding of Judge Beryl Howell, made Judge Jeb Boasberg do this document-by-document analysis. Judge Boasberg goes document-by-document and says, okay, here's this communication, here's that communication, here's this communication. And I summarized it, you know, just fine before. I'll save you going through each specific one. And then Jeb Boasberg basically says for the foregoing reasons, this court will grant in part and deny in part representative Scott Perry's motion for non-disclosure. Perry must disclose the government's 1000 to the government 1659 2,055 records still at issue. He may withhold the other 396 under the

Speech or Debate Clause immunity. But as I was saying before, if there's any member of Congress who I think potentially faces criminal exposure, it's going to be Scott Perry for all of the reasons I listed at the outset. And the fact that Scott Perry now had to turn over these records, Fulton County District Attorney Fawnie Willis, if she could get her hands on this, that will be valuable to her. If Special Counsel Jack Smith is considering additional indictments here, I think that Scott Perry could be on the top of that list for his conduct. And now the smoke and gun evidence is in special counsel Jack Smith's hands. So we'll keep you posted on it. But a very bad day for MAGA Republican Congress member

Scott Perry. A good day for justice. I'm Ben Micellis. This is the Midas Touch Network. Have a great day. Hey, Midas Mighty. Love this report? Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram, at Midas Touch, to keep up with the most important news of the day. What are you waiting for? Follow us now.