The MeidasTouch Podcast - Inside Merrick Garland's SPECIAL PROSECUTOR OF TRUMP CRIMES announcement

Episode Date: November 19, 2022

On this bonus episode, legal experts Ben Meiselas and Karen Friedman Agnifilo discuss Merrick Garland's appointment of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to handle the Trump criminal matters. As listeners of Legal AF podcast may know, Friedman Agnifilo is the former number 2 prosecutor at the entire Manhattan DA's office and worked directly with Jack Smith for years. Shop Meidas Merch at: https://store.meidastouch.com Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/meidastouch Remember to subscribe to ALL the Meidas Media Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://pod.link/1510240831 Legal AF: https://pod.link/1580828595 The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://pod.link/1595408601 The Influence Continuum: https://pod.link/1603773245 Kremlin File: https://pod.link/1575837599 Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://pod.link/1530639447 The Weekend Show: https://pod.link/1612691018 The Tony Michaels Podcast: https://pod.link/1561049560 American Psyop: https://pod.link/1652143101 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. Merrick Garland just announced the decision to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's potential crimes relating to January 6th and Trump's crimes for stealing government records, including top secret records, and obstructing that investigation. The special prosecutor Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed is someone by the name of Jack Smith, a career prosecutor with the Department of Justice. And before that, he worked at the Manhattan DA's office and most recently a war crimes prosecutor at The Hague. Yes, Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a war crimes prosecutor as the special

prosecutor to investigate Trump's potential crimes and make a final decision whether to charge Donald Trump. With us today is Karen Friedman Agnifilo, an attorney who worked at the Manhattan District Attorney's Office for almost 30 years. She was the number two deputy at the Manhattan DA's office, so she knows Jack Smith. She works with Jack Smith. And we will hear for the first time on the Midas Touch Network, you are not getting this anywhere else, direct information about who Jack Smith is, what type of prosecutor he is from someone who actually knows Jack Smith. Karen Friedman Agnifilo is also the host of Legal AF on the Midas Touch Network. Karen Friedman Agnifilo, welcome to this special edition.

Great to be here. So first, before getting into Jack Smith's background and what you know of Jack Smith, let's play the clip today where Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the decision to bring in a special prosecutor and why he would be bringing in a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's potential crimes. Play the clip. Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel. Such an appointment

underscores the department's commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters. It also allows prosecutors and agents to continue their work expeditiously and to make decisions indisputably guided only by the facts and the law. Then Attorney General Merrick Garland announced who would be the special prosecutor, Jack Smith, and then talked about Jack Smith's impeccable legal background. Let's play that clip. Today, I signed an order appointing Jack Smith to serve as special counsel. The order authorizes him to continue the ongoing investigation into both of the matters that I have just described and to prosecute any federal crimes that may arise from those investigations. Mr. Smith is a veteran career prosecutor. He began his prosecutorial career in

1994 as an assistant district attorney with the New York County DA's office. In 1999, he became an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where over the course of nine years, he prosecuted matters ranging from gang murders of police officers to civil rights violations. From 2008 to 2010, he served with the International Criminal Court, where he supervised war crimes investigations. In 2010, Mr. Smith returned to the Justice Department to serve as chief of the Public Integrity Section, where he led a team of more than 30 prosecutors who handled public corruption and election crimes cases across the United States in 2015 he agreed to serve as the first assistant US attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee later becoming the acting

United States Attorney most recently mr. Smith served as a chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague charged with investigating and adjudicating war crimes in Kosovo. Mr. Smith will begin his work as special counsel immediately and will be returning to the United States from The Hague. So two points I want to make before bringing Karen Friedman Agnifilo in here to talk about Jack Smith. First, whether you like Merrick Garland or don't like Merrick Garland, and I see a lot of comments saying Merrick Garland punted, fire Merrick Garland. Let's take that position for a second, Karen. If you don't like Merrick Garland, you should be happy about this decision because he's appointing a special prosecutor who's

not Merrick Garland. He's appointing a very successful and diligent war crimes prosecutor. So if you didn't like Merrick Garland, you should be high-fiving right now that we got someone else who's doing the prosecution, right? And if you like Merrick Garland, you would say this is typical Merrick Garland, which is why some people don't like it sometimes. It's the right legal call. He's not doing anything that would in any way kind of jeopardize the impartiality of the Department of Justice. He knows there is an able person in Jack Smith to engage in this investigative effort. Unfortunately, it's one of the strangest things in the world that you have a former guy, I don't even want to call him a former P word, but the former guy who's brought so much disgrace to this country, who continues to engage

in criminal conduct in open and obvious ways, who just announced in a humiliating press event that he held earlier in this week that he would be running for president again. And where you have the Department of Justice, which is an arm of the executive branch, Biden's executive branch, and Biden will be running, I think for the legacy of the Department of Justice, it was a hard decision for Merrick Garland to make, but he had to make that decision. But if you don't like Merrick Garland, it's great. We got Jack Smith. So that's the first point I want to make there. And then the second point I want to make is that, look, Merrick Garland has handled the investigations of Trump thus far before the appointment of this special prosecutor very diligently. And look, everybody here seems to be a fan of the January 6th committee. I am,

but take this as an example. During the January 6th committee, remember Pat Cipollone and some of these other witnesses who testified, they weren't able to answer certain questions because of executive privilege. Do you remember during the hearings, they would say, oh, I can't answer that. That's because the January 6th committee, based on their mandate and the timeframe, was not able to really file any motions to overcome an assertion by Trump, a BS assertion of executive privilege. But guess what? The Department of Justice has been fighting in secret. And you may say, oh, Ben, it's secret. Well, criminal grand juries take place in secret. So we don't get to see the work that Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice has done up until this point. But we do know there are two criminal

grand juries in Washington, DC that have been very busy where the department of justice just recently, like in the past month has gotten favorable rulings that Trump can't assert executive privilege. So for all the people who say, look, he should have prosecuted him three months ago or four months ago. I would have loved that to be the case. That'd be great, but let's play it out. So you call Pat Cipollone. You call Patrick Philbin. You call Mark Short, Vice President Pence's former chief of staff. You call Greg Jacobs, former Vice President Pence's former general counsel. You call the people to the stand. Your Honor, I'm calling Pat Cipollone. Cipollone takes the stand and then the prosecutor asks the

question, Mr. Cipollone, what did Donald Trump tell you? Please, Mr. Cipollone. And what does Cipollone say? I can't answer that executive privilege. And then the judge looks at the prosecutor and says, did you address this issue? No, we didn't because everybody on Twitter wanted us to file the lawsuit four months ago. I'm sorry, judge. We had to bring this to trial because everyone on social media was angry at Merrick Garland. No, you have to go through the steps.

And I hate that those steps exist. I wish I'm rooting for Trump to be prosecuted far sooner, but we have to go through the steps. And I hate that those steps exist. I'm rooting for Trump to be prosecuted far sooner, but we have to go through the steps. And the Department of Justice has filed the motions. They've gone through it in every step they're supposed to take. They've recently got favorable rulings and they've gotten testimony no one else has gotten, not Fulton County District Attorney Fonny Willis, not the January 6th Committee. The DOJ has that. And now they hand this over to Jack Smith. And Jack Smith, someone who investigates and prosecutes war crimes, most recently in Kosovo, is the person you want on this. And so that's how I view it, Karen. But you know Jack Smith,

so you know Jack. So tell us about Jack. So Jack and I started around the same time at the Manhattan DA's office. And the Manhattan DA's office is a big place and they group you in these small, we came up together, we were trained by the same people and we worked on cases together. And Jack, so I do know Jack and he is a prosecutor's prosecutor. Even back then in in the 90s, he had one of the reputations in the office of being a superstar and of being one of the best lawyers in the office. And he's also, by the way, just a great guy and a really nice person. But he has a reputation and I and I've known him for now for almost 30 years. He is somebody who is like I said, he's a he's a prosecutor's prosecutor. He is the guy who knows how to not just investigate a case, but to make a case. Garland was prosecuting Donald Trump and investigating and prosecuting Donald Trump

by asking Jack Smith to take over and to hand the reins over to him. I no longer have any doubt that Donald Trump will be prosecuted if there is a case to be made. Also, Jack Smith would not have taken this position. I don't have inside information, but just knowing him, he would not have taken this if this was not a serious investigation that could lead to prosecution if that's where the evidence leads. So this is a great signal and great sign for the cases because it means that there is a very significant, serious, nonpolitical, nonpartisan investigation going on because that's Jack Smith. Jack Smith, he's worked both in the Eastern District of New York at the U.S. Attorney's Office, where he was a supervisor and he led lots of trials and prosecutions there. He also worked for Maine Justice, where he investigated, supervised, and prosecuted some of the biggest

public corruption cases in the United States. And yes, he's also gone to the Hague and most recently Kosovo for war crimes. But his deep background in prosecution is public corruption, white collar crime, and crime in general. And he is the guy who will bring cases without fear or favor. He is the guy who will put politics aside. I don't even know what his politics are, because that's the kind of guy Jack is. He doesn't do things for political reasons. He follows the facts where they lead, and he has no problem bringing cases if a crime was committed. And so just both, like I said, the appointment of Jack Smith means Merrick Garland is serious, and that if there is a case to be made, they will make the

case. And the fact that Jack accepted this position, I think is a great sign for justice and a great sign that this will be investigated to its fullest and it will be prosecuted if that's where the facts lead. But, you know, one thing I just want to say about what you were saying, Ben, which is so important, which is when you are investigating a case, you do have to, it's like pulling threads, you know, and you have to pull every single thread. And that's clearly what Merrick Garland's department of justice has been doing up until this point. But, you know,

you can investigate something to death at a certain point, you have to also make a case and being able to, you know, there are some, there are some prosecutors who are great investigators, but they're not great case makers. Jack Smith is a great case maker. So he will do this case and he will do a great job on this case. And wherever it lands, I will feel confident that it was the right thing. And the only thing that, that thing that it could be done here.

Also, I want to just say that I give Mayor Garland a lot of credit for appointing a special prosecutor because it's so clear that Donald Trump, you know, the only reason he announced that he's running again is hoping that he won't be prosecuted. I think he can clearly see and feel the circle closing in around him. And he's hoping that he, by throwing his hat in, obviously, that, you know, he can say all the things he always says, you know, witch hunt, political, all this other stuff. So by, again, pointing someone who's just nonpartisan, prosecutors, prosecutors, special prosecutor like Jack Smith, that is one of the great decisions. And I really give Merrick Garland a lot of credit for that.

It's just a fantastic decision. You know, as I see some of the comments and some of the posts on social media that are very critical, would be putting it lightly, of Merrick Garland's decision here, people saying, Merrick Garland punted and why in the world do we now have this special prosecutor? I think a lot of people have Robert Mueller PTSD. And to your point, Karen, in Mueller, you had someone who marshaled all of these investigative resources, but ultimately was not a case maker and was kind of, this would be putting it nicely, too cute by half or too smart by half, try to like put in the footnotes a roadmap for later people to come along and say, hey, we should prosecute him for that, but really didn't

understand the assignment. But in stark contrast to a Robert Mueller, you have Jack Smith. And Jack Smith is someone, as you state, who builds cases for prosecutions and has done that his entire career. His entire career. And so for those people who think, oh, this is going to delay things, it's the opposite. He's going to go, I mean, this case is being investigated. He's going to come in and he's going to take everything that's been done and turn it into a case.

So to me, this is the opposite of delay. This is now we can go and we can make this case because it's not like the people who've been working on this case are going to stop working on this case. They'll be assigned to him, I'm sure. It's just that it won't be Merrick Garland as the ultimate prosecutor. It'll be Jack Smith, who's the special prosecutor in charge of directing the investigation, of telling people what to do next, where to go, making the decisions, for example, of who to immunize and who not to immunize and, you know, who to put in the grand jury, who to give a deal to and, you know, make tough decisions. And frankly, if it turns out that there is no case to be made, Jack Smith can make that kind of tough decision too. He will do the right thing

because that is who he is. And this, if anything, will make this go faster, not slower, because he is a rockstar case maker. So what do you think comes next, Karen? He's also a great trial lawyer. Jack Smith, you're going to say, is he a good trial lawyer? Yes. I was also going to say he's a great trial lawyer. So if this case goes to trial, he's fantastic. He can handle, he can go up against anybody and that's what you need. So walk us all through the process now of what happens next. So Merrick Garland acts decisively. You have Trump's humiliating announcement early in the week and Merrick Garland realized in that

kind of, I don't know if you can call it a cat and mouse game when Trump is a, okay, a cat and a rotten rat game, which is like the cat and mouse of move counter move. And all of Trump's moves always appear to be leading to just further incriminating himself. But Merrick Garland acted decisively. He makes this announcement today. And so, you know, he had been pondering the decision to appoint a special prosecutor before. Trump makes the announcement. He's got to call Jack Smith and say, hey, are you free? Can you come back from the Hague over here? Jack Smith agrees to do it.

They hold the press conference today. What happens next? Does Jack Smith show up in an office that's ready for him? Does he get a team? Does he start getting the files from the grand jury? Like what literally is going to actually take place over the next few weeks and months? Yeah, so exactly what you just said. He'll get a budget.

He'll get a team. He'll get some of the people who are already working on it. He'll get to review all of the files, all of the materials, and everything that's been done so far, all the secret information and secret materials that none of us have seen, you know, whether there's grand jury material, or stuff that they've received in search warrants or subpoenas, whether it's phone records, you know, whether there's been any sort of investigatory information that has been developed over time, he will have access to all of that. And he will also have access to resources to decide, okay, I want more, you know, go follow this lead down.

Okay, this one's a dead end. Don't do this anymore. We need more resources over here. You know, he'll have access to start making those decisions. I am sure there are a lot of decisions that need to be made that have been on hold because of the midterm elections and Donald Trump's announcement. So I'm sure one of the first things they're going to do after they catch him up is have him make whatever decisions have been on hold about the really tough decisions. I mean, we know the investigations have really been, you know, kind of climbing up the chain trying to get to the top. And so that's where the really tough decisions are, because now they're going to have to start deciding, okay, are we going to maybe flip somebody so that they will cooperate against somebody higher than them, which is how it's normally done.

And those are tough decisions because you're letting someone who committed a crime get away with it or at least get a lesser punishment for it in order to get someone, you know, get a bigger fish. You know, the way prosecutors have done since the beginning of time. You know, the people have always criticized, you know, Sammy the Bull, who got five years for 25 murders. I don't remember if that's exactly what it is, but something like that, you know, to get the top mafia boss. So, you know, and that's how you do it. And so he's going to have to make decisions about, you know, whether or not you flip some of the people that you talked about earlier, you know, the lawyers, you know, the Rudy Giuliani's and his crew, you know, those types of people, and the people who were in positions of authority to see or at least give them immunity, you know, to see if they would

cooperate and testify against him. So he's going to be making those types of difficult decisions, I think, because that that's where that's where we are. He'll also be making those types of difficult decisions, I think, because that's where we are. He'll also be making decisions about whether to prosecute some of these people, you know. So I suspect that we're going to be seeing a lot of activity, a flurry of activity in the coming weeks about both the Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation and the January 6th insurrection. And we're going to know a lot more about where they're headed based on activities that we will see publicly. And look, I am not an Attorney General Merrick Garland apologist, but I need to push back on some of the falsehoods that are just out there

about the Department of Justice's investigation. People act like Merrick Garland hasn't been doing anything, and all of a sudden he's just realizing, oh, do I need to do something with Donald Trump? That couldn't be further from the truth. There are at least two secret grand juries in Washington, D.C. that we know of that have been issuing subpoenas by the dozens, subpoenas and search warrants and getting phones and going through all of these records and all of this information. And then when you have to, you know, here's I'll rewind for one second and all of this information. And then when you have to, I'll rewind for one second and just say this too, because Donald Trump was a former president, even though his arguments about things like executive privilege are completely without merit, nonetheless, the awesome powers that our constitution has vested in the presidency

permits Trump to delay and make arguments that nobody else could possibly make. And that's why it is delayed longer. Like when Trump makes a claim, a bogus claim for executive privilege, the people who work for him, like Pat Cipollone, his former top lawyer, and Patrick Feldman, Cipollone's top deputy, and all the other people like Mark Short, former Vice President Pence's former chief of staff, and Greg Jacobs, the former general counsel to former VP Pence. All these people have to follow it. So what ends up happening is they get subpoenaed. They show up over the summer to have their testimony taken before a grand jury. They're compelled to invoke these privileges, which are bogus. The Department of Justice has to file motions. Those motions can't be heard overnight.

That's just not the way our legal system works. It's unfortunate, but there's a motion calendar. There's a schedule that gets heard. It gets heard before the judge who oversees the grand juries, Judge Beryl Howell. And Judge Beryl Howell rules in favor of the Department of Justice. Then the Department of Justice has to compel those same people to testify again before the grand jury, get the additional testimony, and they have to do that with each person. And so if you don't want the Department of Justice to do that, you will wind up in a scenario, like I said earlier in this recording, where the Department of Justice calls a witness and says, Your Honor, we got to get the show on the road here because social media wants us to get the show on the road. And we just know, we know Trump is guilty. Come on. We all know that. So what are

we even doing here, judge? So we're starting trial. We're ready to go. Okay, you're ready to go. Call your first witness. We call Pat Cipollone because we know Cipollone, Trump's lawyer, is going to give the blockbuster testimony that's going to show the intent element. So Cipollone takes the stand and the Department of Justice goes, so Mr. Cipollone, what did Trump say to you on January 6th? And Cipollone goes, executive privilege. But your honor, your honor, force him to answer. The judge will go, Department of Justice, did you file your executive privilege motions? No, no, no, we didn't do that. Well, why didn't you do that? Social media, social media said, we need to just get the show on the road right away. And that's why we did it. Look, I am frustrated that the process is taking slow, but objectively looking

at it, they are going through the necessary steps that they actually have to take to make sure that when a trial takes place, they have that evidence before them. And then I see people say sometimes, well, if this was anybody else other than Trump, we'd be indicted tomorrow. Of course you would be because you were not a former president of the United States who used the machinery of our Constitution against us because in 2016, a huge part of our population said, you know what? Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, whatever. Roll the dice. Let's just get the authoritarian and see how that works out. And so that is something that is important to reflect on, that when someone is

vested with awesome powers, as a former president is, they could make those objections and the work has been done to file all of these motions to get around it. So here is a question I want to pose to you, Karen. Do you believe, let's just react to some of the comments, too much pressure on Merrick Garland, he couldn't handle it. What do you say to that? I think that people don't understand how much politics, and I mean just people claiming that a investigation or prosecution is political, how much that can tarnish a criminal prosecution and investigation. People have to believe in the case. You have to believe that the case has integrity. And anytime that you have somebody that you're investigating who just

declared that they are running and they're from a different party, there at least is the appearance of impropriety or the appearance of a conflict of interest. And Donald Trump could make the argument that this is political because Merrick Garland was appointed by Joe Biden, obviously. And Joe Biden, potentially, at least his party, is going to run against Donald Trump. And so you just don't you both don't you don't want to back and forth constantly and investigate your predecessor. You just don't want to get into, you don't want to, to me, I've always said, you don't want to infect criminal prosecution with politics. It's just, they don't belong together. You know, prosecutions and investigation and prosecution of crimes really should be without fear or favor. And it should have nothing to do with what political party you are or who you are. And so I think Merrick Garland

had to do this and had to make this independent because you have to, if there is a prosecution, the whole country has to believe in it and it can't appear to be political. Even if it's not political, there is always that appearance. And so he had to do this. This has nothing to do with being afraid. What's there to be afraid of, by the way? You know, when you prosecute cases, you prosecute powerful big people all the time. So I don't know why he would be afraid to do this. So that to me doesn't seem to resonate at all. This is the right decision. And if there's a case to be made, Jack Smith is the guy who will do it. Karen, the next question I'll let you answer, even though it's directed at me.

Hey, Ben, instead of rambling on, can you please answer our questions? How long will it take Jack to get up to speed? And Karen, you believe that it's going to go faster because Jack Smith's involved now, huh? Getting up to speed is not that hard, especially if you're somebody who has supervised criminal investigations, you know, for their entire career. When I was the chief assistant at the Manhattan DA's office, I supervised, you know, thousands of cases every year. And people would come to you and ask you to make decisions. And I don't know the case the way they did. But I had the judgment because I've been prosecuting cases for decades, to know the questions I need

to ask and the information I need in order to make decisions. And so it's not going to take Jack more than a couple of weeks to get up to speed and know these facts as well as anybody else, but also to be able to make decisions during that time about what needs to happen, because he has a very, very deep knowledge and experience that will guide him and he will know exactly how to answer questions quickly. So that, again, I'm not worried at all. Karen, I want to remind all of our viewers and listeners out there that you worked at the Manhattan DA's office for almost 30 years. You were the number two ranking person in the Manhattan DA's office. You were the number two deputy in one of the most, if not the most distinguished prosecutorial

office in the country, and you worked with Jack Smith. And so this isn't Ben rambling, although maybe it's a little Ben rambling, but I brought Karen Friedman Agnifilo on who knows Jack, who knows Jack Smith, who worked with Jack Smith. So she knows Jack Smith, not just by reputation, but by his actual acumen as a prosecutor, the work he did in the Manhattan DA's office, in the community of lawyers in New York, and Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who oversees thousands and thousands of lawyers at the Manhattan DA's office. She also knows how these prosecutions work. And that's why it's not just me and someone just saying, hey, this is how we feel today. That's not what we do on the Midas Touch Network. We look at the objective data. We talk about where we're at.

We provide you with the facts, and these are look at the objective data. We talk about where we're at. We provide you with the facts, and these are just what the facts are. Karen, with that background, so all our new viewers know your background who don't know about your background, here's a question that someone asked, and they go, why is the attorney general so incompetent that they can't bring this home. Why do they have to pass this off? This whole social media argument you're making, Ben, is a straw man. What do you say to that, Karen? I think if Donald Trump hadn't announced that he was running the 15th, I don't think we would be here. But the minute Donald Trump, look, Donald Trump, I don't know if he actually is running or not, but it's so clear that the reason he declared his candidacy is so that he knows that Joe Biden's Justice Department would have at least an appearance of a conflict of interest if he declares his candidacy.

So that was his game that he's playing so that he doesn't get prosecuted because he sees that the circle is closing in on him. And so Merrick Garland had to do this. But Merrick Garland saw this game. It's like a game of chess. Everybody knew Trump was going to announce and Merrick Garland knew why he was doing this. And so Merrick Garland, we've been hearing about the potential for a special prosecutor for weeks now, knowing that this was coming because Merrick Garland knew that that is what has to be done given the, at least the potential or the appearance of a conflict of interest. And so he was prepared and I'm sure he's been talking, I'm sure he didn't just pick up the phone and call Jack today. I'm sure he's been, you know been interviewing people and talking to various people and trying to find who would be the best person for this job.

Because this is obviously this is a fraught with peril position. Right. This is you're going to he's going to be attacked by Donald Trump. He's going to be dragged through the mud by Donald Trump. They're going to make all these accusations about him. So they had to pick someone who's the real deal. I challenge people to find somebody who can say something negative about Jack Smith's professional abilities. He is a prosecutor's prosecutor. In addition to beginning and training and learning at the Manhattan DA's office,

he went on to absolute incredible career success that he earned himself. He worked for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York, where he supervised many, many, many cases. He made cases. He tried cases. I mean, he's done everything from violent crime to white collar crime to sex crimes. I mean, Jack's done everything. He also then worked for the ICC in The Hague, the International Criminal Court, where he prosecuted war crimes. He's also then came back and worked at the Department of Justice. And he was the supervisor for the entire United States of America for all the prosecutions of public corruption, including election fraud. So he has experience in both investigating and prosecuting and makingutions of public corruption, including election fraud. So he has experience in both investigating and prosecuting and making cases of public corruption. And that's exactly

what he needs to be able to do. And the insurrection is a violent crime. I mean, he has the whole experience, the white collar, the public corruption and the violent crime experience. And you've got all three of those here. And so in the end, you know, and now he's, I think, the chief of the Kosovo, you know, the international Kosovo prosecution. You know, so he's not just known in New York or respected in New York. He's respected in the entire United States and he's respected, frankly, in the entire world because he has supervised prosecutions in the international criminal court, the federal courts all across this country. He was also, I forgot, he was the acting United States attorney in Tennessee, and he was also a local prosecutor. So this guy, you know, I keep saying it over and over again, but he's a prosecutor's prosecutor. This is the real deal. He's the best one that they could find. And this to me is a

signal that a case, if a case can be made, it will be made and it will be made hopefully soon. So to use a trite sport analogy, we got essentially the LeBron James in his prime of prosecutors here who have been appointed. And as I've said, look, if you don't like Merrick Garland, if you think that Merrick Garland is weak and that Merrick Garland was not the right person to handle this, and that's how you feel about it, I think this should be welcome news for you because as Karen said, as a 30-year prosecutor, and Karen's someone who has run the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, she's the number two there, so she knows about how these cases work. There is not going to be any delay at all caused by this. This is a handing of the baton, and somebody like Jack Smith will be easily able to jump into this right away. So there's no delay. And that's

coming not from just me, that's coming from Karen Friedman Agnifilo, who actually did and does these things. So that's number one. And number two, if you don't like Merrick Garland, now you've replaced Merrick Garland with a prosecutor who builds cases successfully here and abroad against war criminals and has handled some of the top investigations and criminal prosecutions here. So I just think whether you are or aren't a Garland fan, this news isn't bad news. It's, an update and provides additional data on where these investigations are going. And Karen, after everything you've said about Jack Smith and the type of prosecutions that Jack Smith has in his career, Jack Smith seems to be the type of person you'd want right now in this situation. And you've said, based on all of your experience,

and by the way, Karen, for people who watch Legal AF, you've been critical of Merrick Garland. You haven't been like, this isn't for you. If you go back and watch lots of Legal AFs, you're one of the more critical voices out there about Merrick Garland. But you view this move with all of the criticisms you've had, you view this move from the lens of being a veteran prosecutor that you are. And you go, wow, this actually was the right move. And it seems like this is actually showing that they want to prosecute, that they're going in the right direction. Yeah, no, look, I shared many people's frustration. First of all, that there was that first year that it didn't seem like they were really serious about getting to the top people in the January 6th insurrection.

And, you know, of course, the 800 or so prosecutions of the lower, I would call them lower level people, although they are violent, horrible criminals and deserve to be prosecuted. But, you know, until the Congress did the Jan 6 hearings, it doesn't seem like the Justice Department really was taking the insurrection seriously. And so that was where most of my frustration came from, is I felt that there was, we lost some time and lost some ground. But the hearings definitely seem to have caused things to ramp up in the various investigations. And, you know, the frustration, though, that I was feeling is it's not that, you know, take whatever time you need. I agree that prosecutions and investigations take a lot of time. But, you know, at a certain point, you have to build a case. And at a certain point, you have to build a case and at a certain point, you have to you know, you have to pull the trigger.

And and I was just getting concerned that that not that it wasn't going fast him, that means that, frankly, I think there's a case to be made and that it's going to be made. And it's going to be made very quickly because that's but it's a huge, huge signal in a very positive direction that both that Jack Smith was asked to do this and that he agreed to do it. So any doubts I had about Merrick Garland and this investigation at this point now, I just can't wait to sit back and watch and see what happens. Because like I said, this is fantastic news. Karen Friedman Agnifilo, there's really no one out there who could be speaking to the media about today's announcement that I'd rather hear this from than you. And again, for all of those who have been watching and those who are just tuning in now, Karen Friedman Agniflo worked at the Manhattan DA's office for almost 30 years. Karen, most people don't believe that.

They believe that you would have to have started when you were five years old for that to be the case. I've seen a lot of comments like that, but it is true. Karen Friedman Agnifola worked at the Manhattan DA's office for almost 30 years. She was the number two deputy, essentially running the Manhattan DA's office while she was there. While she was there, she knows Jack Smith. She worked with Jack Smith. She can speak to his character and what he would likely do here. Karen Friedman Agnifilo has been skeptical of the Department of Justice's conduct up until this point. And when this announcement was made today by Merrick Garland, Karen called me up and she was like, Ben, and I thought Karen was going to say to me, all right, you know what, like Merrick Garland's just passing the buck or this was more delay, because Karen has been a

critic, rightfully so, and holding people accountable. It's what we do here too on the Midas Touch Network. But Karen said, no, Ben, Jack Smith, you don't get it. Jack Smith's the real deal right here. And this is actually showing me that Merrick Garland thinks there's a case because you don't bring in Jack Smith if you don't think there's a case because you wouldn't set Jack Smith up kind of even for a failure like that. You don't think there's a case, because you wouldn't set Jack Smith up kind of even for a failure like that, right? You don't bring in someone like that on a dud if you know it's just going to collapse. And Jack Smith, he wouldn't take a dud. Jack Smith wouldn't take a dud. Karen, before we go, final words. Jack Smith is just, you know, he's ethical, he's smart, he's a fantastic investigator, he's a case maker, and he's a prosecutor's prosecutor.

So this is a great choice on the part of Merrick Garland. I say sit back, everybody, and watch what he does. This is the best choice that could have been made for this case. Karen Friedman Agnifola, I want to remind all of our viewers and listeners, if you want to support independent media like this, you can check us out at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. Consider becoming a patron of the Midas Touch community. We are more than a network here. Wherever you are in the world, you could join our Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch. We here

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Agnifilo on today's show who worked at the Manhattan DA's office for 30 years, who worked with Jack Smith. She was the number two at the Manhattan DA's office. And we want to share that expertise with you. And so when you go to patreon.com slash Midas Touch, there's lots of exclusive content you could only get at our Patreon website. There's Q&As and behind the scenes footage and bonus podcasts. There's even a tier where you could become an honorary producer of the Midas Touch podcast and your name appears at the end of the weekly podcast I do with my younger brothers. And there are posters and postcards that you could get from some of the membership tiers and so much

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made in the USA and 100% union made. Karen Friedman Agnifilo, so great having you here for this special edition of the Midas Touch podcast. I'm Ben Micellis. Until next time, special shout out to the Midas Mighty.