The MeidasTouch Podcast - New York Attorney General Letitia James on Trump’s Disastrous Start

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas interviews New York Attorney General Letitia James on Trump’s disaster start to his presidency, whether her office is looking into market manipulation, and more. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Oh, Ben, that's not fair. Come on. Listen, it's well, I have to give him an A for coming in and renovating Penn Station. That's a good thing. And so I wish he would do more of that and then he and I would be on common ground. So yeah. More renovating, less violating due process. Definitely. Definitely. Now I'm not sure about renaming it after him, but certainly renovating it is a great idea to save money for taxpayers in the great state of New York. But at the same time, one, he should understand and someone this is a teaching moment. And so I want to teach him about due process, which is in our Constitution, the federal Constitution, and the state Constitution. And it entitles individuals to hearings before, in fact, they are convicted of any crimes, including but not limited to individuals who are about to be deported. They are entitled to a hearing before an administrative

judge or a judge of due course. So it's important, President Trump, that you understand and recognize that because we realize that obviously you want to follow the law, but you have to exercise due process. Tell us about the work by the Attorney General's office over the past 100 days. A lot of lawsuits and a lot of great work. We've been busy. This is not the outcome that we wanted, but this is the outcome that's before us. And so prior to election day, we decided to get ready. A number of Democratic attorneys general, we analyzed Project 2025 because that is his playbook, their playbook. We analyzed jurisdiction and venue and standing and causes of actions and claims and defenses and our constitution. And so on day one, the first EO regarding birthright citizenship, which as you know, is in the 14th amendment,

within 48 hours, we responded and we've responded ever since. As of right now, I have been involved in 15 lawsuits. We've led quite a few. We've also issued amicus briefs, amici briefs. We've also issued guidance letters. We've done a number of Know Your Rights training courses and classes. And we've responded to the fears and to the needs of New Yorkers, obviously, who are just concerned about all the chaos and confusion that they are witnessing, not only in New York, but across the state. Part of that chaos and confusion also is New York, a vibrant immigrant community. A lot of people have temporary protected status. They came here, they did it the right way. They were here lawfully. And they didn't think though, even though Trump was saying a lot of stuff during the campaign, that he was going to go

after people on TPS. And he's going after lots of immigrant communities, including immigrant communities who supported him. So what are you doing on that front? And so they came to this country seeking temporary protective status. And now that program, the president of the United States seeks to eliminate it, notwithstanding the fact that in Haiti, they are still in the midst of a civil war and countless number of individuals, unfortunately, are being subjected to violence. There are individuals, members of the LGBTQ community, Venezuelans and Asians, who are fleeing the country because they are being, you know, persecuted. There are individuals who have come to this country, obviously, fleeing violence, looking for a better opportunity and just want to be a part of the fabric of our country and want to contribute so much to our country. But unfortunately, right now, they're not going to school. They're not going to work. They're not going to our courthouses. Individuals who have witnessed crimes, individuals who are victims of domestic violence

are not going to our courts to get orders of protection because they are fearful, fearful that they will be deported to a country that they do not know, a country which unfortunately, individuals that are in the midst of violence and disarray, and there's no infrastructure whatsoever. And so it's really critically important that we put in place TPS. There are individuals who would fling gangs, who do not want to be a part of gangs, and who need the protection of these United States because what they want to do is just contribute to the fabric of this country, contribute to the economy, work each and every day, go to church each and every day, want the same thing that you and I want, and that is to live in a community where they can

uphold the law and respect all of the laws of this great country and our respective state. You know, we heard last week how Trump's FBI arrested a sitting Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge, a state court judge, inside of her courthouse as she was administering the law in her daily docket. They made a bunch of accusations against her. The very idea of running sting operations inside state courtrooms when people are showing up as part of the docket and a judge is assessing individuals showing up, and they may be migrants. I think you mentioned there too, that also has a, one, I want to get your thoughts on it, but two, doesn't that also have a chilling effect on people then not showing up to the courthouses to begin with in the first place and the exact opposite result of what Trump says he wants to

happen happening anyway. Yeah, it has a chilling effect on immigrants, again, who are witnesses to violent crimes, not only here in New York, but all across this country. It's also important to understand that if in fact they had an issue with how the judge handled the matter, they should have brought it up before the judicial committee that oversees the behavior, supervises the behavior of judges. There's a disciplinary committee that's responsible for judges. That's where it should have been handled, as opposed to arresting a judge who was basically engaging in, you know, administering her courtroom and making sure that there was no chaos and confusion in her courtroom. It's also important to note that as we see the facts that the ICE agents had an administrative warrant as opposed to a judicial warrant. And so this administrative warrant did not have the force of an arrest.

I believe they were just there to question the individual, perhaps take him into custody at some point in time. But there was no requirement that the judge immediately hand over that individual. And so to avoid chaos in her courtroom, she allowed the individual to exit. A side door where the ICE agents were, did affect an arrest of the individual. But again, if they had a problem with how the judge handled it, they should have filed a complaint with the appropriate authorities, as opposed to arresting a judge who has consistently and repeatedly followed the law. I often note the parallels between Donald Trump's business fraud when he was not in office and kind of what we're seeing now in office. I often refer to this presidency sometimes as a rug pull presidency, as a Ponzi scheme presidency, kind of mounting a lie on top of a lie until it all kind of explodes you successfully prosecuted in a civil case donald

trump for business fraud a verdict of about 444 million but who's counting um you see donald trump though doing some of the same stuff like i saw him you know holding this gold this trump gold card i'm gonna make you rich if we just sell this gold card everyone's gonna be everything's gonna be i'm gonna eliminate taxes for everyone. Don't you worry. Let me just show you this clip of this gold card thing that they want to sell to, I guess. He said he wanted to sell it to oligarchs. Just take a look.

I haven't seen you in a while. Five million. For $5 million, this could be yours. That was the first of the cards. You know what that card is? Gold card. It's the gold card. The Trump card, gold card.

He's the first buyer. Your case was about, you know, valuations and his value, you know, making up valuations. And it just seems that the way he deals with numbers, 200 negotiations, I've done 200 deals, I've done this, I've done that, I've done that. And it's just not tethered to reality. You have an intimate knowledge of that. Yeah, we secured a $454 million judgment against Donald Trump at all. And based on his exaggerated, overinflated assets for the purposes of securing favorable insurance and mortgage terms. And what we are witnessing in the White House is more grift. And it's unfortunate. And right now, you know, federal agencies that once had jurisdiction to investigate these types of offenses, those agencies right now have been hollowed out.

One of the cases that we have brought is against the federal government for terminating thousands and thousands of probationary workers. You also know that this administration has often offered buyouts to federal employees. So a number of these agencies are no longer following the mission of their agency, and a number of these agencies have basically been hollowed out. And it's unfortunate that the president of the United States is using the White House to basically engage in, to basically enrich himself and others. Lots of people are concerned about even potential market manipulation and whether these statements create, you know, artificial spikes and then decreases in the market. Is that something that

you're concerned about or looking at? I'm not sure what you can share or can't share, but is that something that concerns you? So, you know, obviously, you know, the office of the attorney general has jurisdiction over the Martin Act and we have jurisdiction over these pump and dump schemes, which happen frequently. And we do police Wall Street. And all that I can say is that we've been looking at a lot of this conduct at this point in time to determine whether or not it's actionable. You know, there's a lot of, I would say, more than a lot. Not a day goes by where Trump or someone in his administration doesn't attack you? It's every single day. I mean, how do you deal with that noise? And do you just tune it out? I'm just curious,

because literally it's every single day. It's every single day. Listen, he indicated that I was on his enemies list with others. And so all of these baseless allegations that have been refuted, it's nothing more than retribution. It's nothing more than the weaponization of the federal government. on our mission to enforce the law. The vast majority of my time here in this office is spent on consumer fraud, on landlord-tenant, on protecting tenants, protecting seniors, protecting children, passing legislation, protecting individuals from fraud on Wall Street, looking at monopolies and looking at scams and data breaches. The vast majority of my time is focused, again, on enforcing the laws in the state of New York. And it's true that most recently, we've had to make sure that due process is followed and the laws in our constitution and the state constitution are enforced here as a result of all of these executive orders that have been issued by this administration, which do not have the force of law

executive orders, which basically violate separation of power and violate Congress's power of the purse, and also violate Article 10 of the United States Constitution against anti-commandeering, basically directing New York State and other states to follow suit and to be in compliance with the federal government and their wishes. And we've been standing up saying that we are a sovereign state and we're going to enforce the law and we're going to protect marginalized and vulnerable populations and to let individuals know that his executive orders are oftentimes illegal. They're arbitrary. They're capricious, they constitute overreach, and they're seeking basically to concentrate the power of the executive in the hands of one very, very, very dangerous man. So finally, here we are 100 days in, just want to let you just deliver your message to the people

of the state of New York who are watching this and Americans in general, who also just admire the fact that you're not afraid to fight and stand up for due process in the Constitution? Yeah. So, you know, I can't be paralyzed by fear. I've got a job to do. I took an oath to the Constitution and to the rule of law. I made a commitment to New Yorkers that I would follow the law and I do that each and every day. And I walk into this great office of the attorney general of the New York state attorney general's office, which is staffed by hundreds of attorneys who are dedicated basically to the rule of law. And all that we do is respond to executive order orders, which are unlawful, unconstitutional,

which do not have the force of law. And, you know, and we would urge the president of these United States to work with Congress to ensure that the law is followed. We've taken action with respect to the dismantling of the Department of Education. We've taken action with regards to tariffs. We've taken action against immigrants. We've taken action in regards to standing up for the LGBTQ community and individuals who require gender-affirming care. We've taken action to protect your private information in the hands of Doge and Elon Musk, an unelected individual who has had access to your sensitive and private information. We've stood up and ensured that the Office of Management and Budget has not unfrozen funds,

funds that focus on our health care and on child care, on essential services, protecting our veterans, protecting the 9-11 Health Fund, protecting Head Start, and the list goes on and on and on, protecting seniors against the closing of Social Security offices and making sure that offices are fully staffed so that they could provide an address and respond to the needs of New Yorkers and Americans. Government is not the demon. Government is there to serve the public. And it's really critically important that unfortunately, this administration, the federal administration, has turned government on its head and made it an enemy of the state. It is not. I entered into public service because I

recognize the powers of government and that government should be there. And it is and has always been a force for good. And for those reasons, I am defending the United States government, defending them against these illegal and unlawful acts by this president. New York Attorney General Letitia James, we're 100 days into the Trump administration. We appreciate you fighting back for the people. Thank you and congratulations on your, you've got the, listen, the Webby Award. Absolutely amazing. Podcaster of the year. Go, Ben. Yay. There you have it. New York Attorney General Letitia James, we appreciate you. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers.

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