The MeidasTouch Podcast - Prosecute Trump with Tristan Snell who Prosecuted Trump

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

On today's episode, the brothers sit down with former Assistant Attorney General of New York State, Tristan Snell. Tristan’s work includes successes in some of the most high-profile litigation matters of the last 15 years -- leading the prosecution of Trump University, leading a trial team in the Broadcom/Qualcomm patent litigation, and negotiating landmark deals with everyone from Chase to Walmart. During the conversation, the group discusses everything from the latest updates involving Weisselberg & the Trump Organization to Tristan's background as one of the most prestigious legal minds in the world. The brothers then shift gears and discuss the latest situation around Tennessee's anti-vax agenda to the overall demented behavior from the lawless GQP. Finally, the brothers cover the bombshell comments made by General Mark Milley and discuss just how close we were to a full blown authoritarianism regime taking power. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe! Thank YOU for listening :) Learn more about Tristan's work at MainStreet.law Buy Meidas Merch only at store.meidastouch.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/meidastouch/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Exposed, the Russian plot to put a deranged and mentally unstable Donald Trump in the White House in 2016. Exposed. The chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff compared Donald Trump to Hitler. Exposed. News breaks that Liz Cheney put that fucking guy, to use her words, Matt Goetz, in his place. And of course, we will discuss the GQP states doing GQP things. We will cover this all and more on this Midas Touch podcast with our special guest, former New York Assistant Attorney General Tristan Snell, who prosecuted Donald Trump through Trump University, prosecuted Trump University in 2013. Fellas, what do you think about that new opening style? Was that a cock spot of an opening or what? I was going to say, did you say a cock spot? A cock spot of an opening. I don't think that's universal, man.

I don't think anyone knows what that even means. I think we're going to have to peel that back. We have so much serious news, but can you tell the story, Brett, of the cock spot Mycelis lore so that everybody knows what a cock spot is? Yeah, I'm also curious if anybody else calls what we're about to call a cock spot or if it's just something bizarre that our parents made up to tell to us so that we would, when we're unleashed in the world, just say bizarre things and people look at us like we have three heads. So in the Mycelis family, I'll say, I'll tell you guys how it, how it came up this weekend to me. So some of you may have followed the saga of Brett's broken phone. My phone broke this weekend. It was devastating. Honestly, my phone is my life. I run Midas off the phone. We do a lot from my phone. I was so heartbroken. So I break the phone. I go to the Apple store to try to get it fixed. And I pull into a parking spot that has a good vantage point of the Apple store.

And I said, man, got a really cock spot there. It's a good parking spot. It's a good parking spot. Which means you got a great parking spot. And then I had to think twice about why I called it a cock spot. And then I realized throughout our whole lives, our parents have called it a good parking spot at a location, a cock spot. I would be like, oh man, you got a cock spot there. And I don't even know if I want to put it through Google and try to see if I could. There's no such thing as a cock spot would be like, oh man, you got a cock spot there. And I don't even know if I want to put it through Google and try to see if I could. There's no such thing as a cock spot. Do not

Google cock spot. But this is all a thing, right? You would call that a cock spot as well. Not only that, and I got my entire, my fiance's whole family now calls good spots, cock spots. And it's growing. The movement is definitely, the cock spot movement is certainly growing. Ben, how about you, man? Our family sense of humor is kind of strange because the pranks that are pulled are so long term that nobody even tells you about the prank. You just discover it somewhere along the road of life. That's something you've been saying is completely ridiculous. And I remember, Brett, the moment for me was my junior year of high school while I was with another family and they

brought me to the beach. It was it was it was Tob. I still remember the moment. It was Tobay Beach and Long Island where we grew up, where we grew up. And it was very hard to get a good parking spot. But we went there and right there's a tunnel right where you walk in, where you go underneath the tunnel to go to the beach. And there's a very hard to get a good parking spot. But we went there and right. There's a tunnel right where you walk in, where you go underneath the tunnel to go to the beach. And there's a very hard to get a parking spot there. So we got a great parking spot. And I was like, that's a cock spot. And they were like, what?

What did you just say? I said, the spot, it's a cock. And they're like, what? We mean, the spot's a cock. I go like, it's a good spot. They're like, what are you talking about? No one says that. And I'm like, what do you mean the spot's a cock? I go, like, it's a good spot. They're like, what are you talking about? No one says that. And I'm like, what do you mean nobody says that? You don't call good parking spots cock? And they go, no, you mean like a dick? Like, what are you referring to?

Like, what is it that you mean? And it dawned on me right then and there that from the age of about four, since I first started speaking in coherent sentences, our parents played a prank on us, apparently, by calling parking spots just consistently. And they would say it very casually. They would be like, yeah, it's a good cock spot. Got a good cock spot. That's what I want to know, though. I want to peel back this layer and we might have to get our parents on the show at some point to discuss it, because I want to see, was this a prank played on us that hey like did did they get together and be like yeah so this is what we're gonna do i think you want to be very careful

about going back that way all the spot cock yeah yeah let us know if have you ever heard of anybody calling a good parking spot a cock spot or is this something devised by our parents when we were younger do people listening to this are gonna be like what the fuck because i don't even know what it means like what does it mean when you break it down it doesn't mean anything but as a phrase you don't kind of disassociate the two words like you're not like cock you're just like no i don't know absolutely not no it's just like a spot it's like a one one one one phrase so uh there you have it let us know if you know what what a cock spot is and uh and we'll go from there you know what what a cock spot is. And and we'll go from there.

You know what I was telling, though, there in the intro, I think this is the guy's name. His name is John McLaughlin. And I think he had a TV show. And whenever he would start it, it was like a roundtable show. I'm just drawing a blank on what the name of the of what the show is. But I think he would start the show and he would basically be like exposed. Donald Trump exposed. So that's that's, I guess, my new intro right there. Tell us what you think about that. Tell us what you think of a cock spot. And we'll tell you what we think about the news that broke from The Guardian. Sure, you've all heard. There's been just some great reporting all around lately. We've got The Guardian reporting. We have Carol Lenning, who was on our show, Washington Post writer with her great book with a ton of news that broke. We'll be covering those. But The Guardian reported that documents from the Kremlin have emerged basically showing that Vladimir Putin ordered that the compromise be taken out of Donald Trump. That's compromising

information in order to blackmail Donald Trump. These papers that were uncovered have Vladimir uncovered uh have vladimir pete tape referred to i i think we know that at this point i mean the the pete the pete tape put it this way though would not change a single mind of gqp members they would i don't i'm not even going to make the disgusting analogy i'll make the disgusting if they they would just start peeing on each other all the time if they saw the pee tape. They would pee on each other like Dear Leader. Yeah, they'd go, where's the pee party now? They used to be the tea party. Now they're the pee party.

The pee party. It'd be like how T-Bowing took off that one year. It would start the trend in the GQP that they all just start pissing on each other. It's like T-Bowing, planking, year. It would start the trend in the GQP that they all just start pissing on each other. It's like T-Bowing, planking, and they will have a literal pissing contest. Yeah, you would start watching TikToks and they would be like, what up, TikTok? We're about to own the libs. Come here, honey. Go pee on me.

That's what the GQP Twitter would look like. This is called trumping. Trumping is getting peed on on TikTok. We're not king shaming. I want to be clear. We're not king shaming. And I also want to be clear, you know, when they say when we when they say might as touch our trendsetters, that's that's exactly what we mean. This is a trend that I think is going to really take off amongst Republican circles. We get left and right on the show. So Vladimir Putin in these papers that The Guardian reports on referred to Trump as mentally unstable.

He refers to the fact that Trump has an inferiority complex and that by putting a mentally unstable individual like Trump into the White House, it would destabilize the United States. They ran a psychological assessment of Trump and uncovered it's not exactly like a sophisticated finding that this was a impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual is the exact quote. Yeah. What was that? What was that study like? We got to look into whether Donald Trump is mentally unstable. Yeah, no, he is. Oh, OK. Got it. Let's make that guy the president. But Americans are supposed to be smart and sophisticated and they wouldn't allow such a ridiculous, hateful, disgusting, stupid man become president. Well, we've got some data that actually suggests 30 percent of the country would literally swim in Donald Trump's peak. So what are you going to do with that data? Hashtag trumping. Hashtag trumping. And so that

story came out and that's like, you know, a probably asterisk in the news cycle that's just unfolded over the past 24 hours as well. And we've gotten a ton of news from the Carol Lenning book. The book is called I Alone Can Fix It, Donald Trump's Catastrophic Failure. It's by Carol Lenning and Philip Rucker. I can't wait to read the full book other than the excerpts and the reporting on the book, which is enough to truly make you appreciate justth. And but for the fact that Trump was completely incompetent, there's a real fear at the highest level, at the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff level, that our top military leaders who form the Joint Chiefs, who run their various entities, were planning how to resist and how to literally fight back if Donald Trump tried to turn the military completely against the American people and establish the United States as an authoritarian, Hitler-esque state. And I'm not just throwing out the name Hitler just to, you know, just to make a comparison. They use they being our top military leaders of the United States, the people who the GOP used to profess that we're supposed to look up to. And of course, we're supposed to look up

to our military leaders. Label this man a Hitler-like character, referred to what Trump was trying to take advantage of the turmoil in the United States as a Reichstag event, and referred to Trump as trying to do what Hitler did, and Trump's still trying to do it today, but what Hitler did in Nazi Germany, made Germany a Nazi country. I think it's also important to note what everybody

witnessed on January 6th. We've heard bits and pieces of this, but in Carol Lennig's book, she explains that on January 6th, while the riots were happening, while the coup attempt was going on, quote unquote, the president was riveted. His supporters had heeded his call to march on the Capitol with pride and boldness. For Trump, there was no more beautiful sight than thousands of energetic people waving Trump flags, wearing red MAGA caps and fighting to keep him in power. Make no mistake, guys, Trump loved the insurrection. The only thing he is upset about regarding January 6th is that the insurrection failed. And as you said, Ben, Milley viewed Trump as a classic authoritarian leader with was going on after the election, I think a lot of us were afraid of a January 6th type event and a coup attempt.

People were afraid that Trump would not want to leave power. And one of the things that was scared were you. I remember when who was it? I think it was Mike Pompeo. Just crazy to even have to call him the secretary of state. I remember when the election was over because I was driving back. I watched the results

in Big Bear. I didn't fully realize it was Trump country and I was trying to try to be in a safer area during the election. And like my next door neighbors were, I was like in this like little town with like two Trump houses. I think that's a great strategy right there. You're hiding in enemy territory.

Yeah, I was trying to. But anyway, I'm leaving and we're coming down from the mountains. And I just remember that there was a press conference like right after the results. And they asked Mike Pompeo something like, will you accept the results of the election? And Pompeo was like, what are you talking about? We won the election. This is our election. Donald Trump will be the president again. And that moment

was one of the scariest. I remember I was at a gas station. It was like the scariest thing I've ever, one of the scariest things I've ever heard somebody in the government say. Ben, I got the clip here. Let's just play it to remind our listeners. There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration. All right, we're ready. The world is watching what's taking place here. We're going to count all the votes. When the process is complete, there'll be electors selected. There's a process. The Constitution lays it out pretty clearly. And so, yeah. And he said that with a smile and a grin when he said that, which is really like the most anti-American statement you can make. But I remember thinking also, because there's a

lot of debate, what does the military think about all this? That's always a big thought, because in order to have a successful coup, you need the military on your side, right? You can't do it without the firepower of the military behind you. And what I love about hearing the story about General Milley is he explicitly said at the time, they may try, but they're not going to fucking succeed. That's what he told his deputies. And he explicitly stated, you can't do this without the military. You can't do this without the CIA and the FBI. We're the guys with the guns. And that gives me at least a little bit of comfort that if we got to that point and we got terrifyingly close to that point.

We got to the point. We got to the point. Mark Milley saved us. Let's just be clear what the implication of the news is, though, right, is that General Mark Milley saved the United States of America. If Trump had put his military leaders that he was putting in the Defense Department and Trump was putting those people in. You got to remember what was going on at the time. He was changing up the people who were up top at the Pentagon. He was putting in Trump lackeys at all these places.s or whatever, fly over all the protesters and stuff. And then Milley really, you know, introspectively looked at that moment of himself and he genuinely felt bad. Like, I believe that he felt bad about that moment and he understood what he needed to do in order to preserve our republic.

And look, at the end of the day, we are fortunate that Trump is an idiot, that Trump can't even run a social media account with any degree of success. I can't create a social media platform with any degree of success. Trump can't run things. And so operationally, he's a failure. But let's not forget what was happening here. Trump wanted to turn America into Nazi Germany and wanted to become the him, as the GQP's television platform, Fox News, starts attacking the military. Always on cue, man. Always on cue. On cue, right? Tell us about the Fox News thing yesterday. Well, the second these stories start breaking, Fox knows that a lot more is about to come, right? When it rains, it pours. And the second that they see a threat to their power, and in this case, seeing what General Milley said about Trump and his fears about Trump being a Hitler-type leader trying to take over the United States as a fascist dictator. What does Fox do? They run all night about how the military leadership's failures are increasing distrust. They just make

up news to try to make their stories reality because they want to discredit whoever is out there speaking badly about Trump and the Republican Party. And I just want to just go back a second just to reiterate what you said, Ben. This news comes out that, first of all, we've seen throughout this whole process that Trump is still trying to overthrow the results of the 2020 election and is still trying to orchestrate a coup. The insurrection is ongoing. We see that our top general has stated that he was scared of Trump being a Hitler-like figure who was going to take over this country. And what does the GOP do? Do they announce it and say, hey, he was our guy, but we support democracy above all and rhetoric like what we heard from the Trump administration has no place in America? Of course not.

That's not what they did. McCarthy ran straight to Bedminster to meet with Trump. And what are they possibly talking about? What are they possibly talking about? We need to understand that they could even be plotting another coup over here. It's not out of the realm of possibility. That's not hyperbole. I mean, when you see the chyrons on Fox, on all of their shows that beam in our democracy from an insurrection, that they defended our country from a dictator. Think about the great sacrifices our grandparents made fighting in World War II against fascism, against the Nazis, to create a better world for us here.

And to think about an anti-democracy network that's beaming Russia propaganda into my fucking television, into my computer, into my living room. Are you kidding me? You know what McCarthy and Trump are also most definitely talking about? They're getting their story straight. This January 6th commission's heating up. They're going to call on McCarthy to speak. And I disagree with you, Jordy. Come on. They have to be talking. I think I don't think they give up. At this point, McCarthy knows stories. At this point, McCarthy knows that he can't put anything in text messages or whatever because Trump's just going to eventually use it against

them. I think that's a big reason why he's flying out. In addition to potentially probably plotting another coup, but look, they have to get their story straight at one point and you can't communicate with Trump on anything digitally because the guy's so incompetent. I don't think they care about their story. I don't think they care about their story

straight because I think what they're genuinely trying to do is do I think they're plotting like an overt coup? Like of like, hey, how do we how do we get people to literally like go with tanks and go into the White House? I don't think that. I think they're talking about, though, the more subtle kind of coup nuances of how can we change voter laws? How do we arrest the Texas Democrats who are in D.C. right now and fly them back to Texas so that we can pass voter suppression laws in Texas. I think they're talking about how do we turn America and institutionalize an apartheid-like country in America so that the GQP can change the rules and then reinstall Donald Trump as a dictator. That's what they're talking about. I have no doubt. And I also want to be very clear about what I believe that Fox News is doing here. Because Ben, like you said, Fox News has become anti-military. But it's more specific than just anti-military. What they're doing is they are showing they're becoming

anti-military leadership. That's why they say military leadership's failures are increasing distrust. Fox News knows that they are, for whatever fucking reason, the main network that is beamed onto military bases around the world. So what they want to do is they want to drive a wedge between the leadership of our military and the troops in our military. That's their goal. They want to cause division and they want to tear our military apart from the inside by fomenting this division. It's what they do with the FBI. It's what they do with the CIA. It's what they do with the military. It's what they do with all of our institutions. They are trying to tear the very fabric of, Brett, of what's going on. And I thank you for framing it in that context, too, of the additional layer of sedition of trying to turn the military members against, you know, their own direct reports and their own and their own leaders to harm the safety of our country, you know, and ultimately going back to at the top of the show to do the bidding of Russia, to do the bidding of our enemies. And that's what makes me so frustrated here. But to get over my frustration, I want to call in our next guest. I want to call in Tristan Snell, who successfully prosecuted the Trump organization. There's a lot we can learn from that prosecution by Tristan Snell specifically

regarding how we can gather documents, how we can work with people like Weisselberg and turn them against Donald Trump to get at the truth. We will be right back after these messages with Tristan Snell. What's up, Midas Mighty? Ben Micellus here, joined by my younger brothers, Brett and Jordy Micellus. Have you got your Midas merch gear? If you haven't gotten your Midas merch gear, I don't know what's taking you so long. I got my gear. Most of the Midas Mighty got their gear.

We have some incredible stuff. Isn't that right, Brett? That's right. And with the new CDC guidelines that say you no longer have to wear masks indoors or outdoors if you've been vaccinated, a lot of people have been asking us, how do you let people know you've been vaccinated? How do you know if you're around other vaccinated people? A lot of people are concerned. But, you know, we already thought about this, guys. We got our Vaxxed and Relaxed merch merch line you could get it now if you still want to wear masks if you still feel comfortable wearing masks around indoors or outdoors we got the masks we got the tees we got the shirts we got it all and we got more on the

way so let people know you've been vaccinated shop at store.midastouch.com to get yours and that's not all we have we got the club democracy. We got the shout out to the Midas Mighty gear. We got it all. Go check it out. That's store.midastouch.com. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. We are joined by Tristan Snell. Of course, we know Tristan right now as the former assistant attorney general for New York State from 2011 to 2014, who led the investigation and prosecution of Trump University and the Trump organization resulting in the landmark settlement. In other words, Trump was the big loser of the case that prosecution took place in 2013. Tristan practices law now with Main Street Law, repping small and medium-sized businesses and may be one of the busiest men in the news or busiest people on the news right now, huh? Welcome to the Midashoots by Touch podcast, Tristan. Thanks, guys. Thanks so much for having me.

Really, really happy to be here. And I hope this will be the first of a number of appearances to come. Always happy to talk about all of the legal implications facing the former guy. So Tristan, you now are like the expert as the lawyer who knows how to successfully prosecute Trump. That's a pretty big distinction in these times and keeping you pretty busy, huh? Yeah, no, it's, you know, we were very proud of the work that we did.

There were a number of us who worked on the case. You know, part of it's just luck, like I was in the right place at the right time. Part of it was a lot of good hard work. And then part of it is, you know, some of the other people who could probably talk about this are still at the office so they can't uh so you know it's uh i i've had a chance to to be the one to talk about all of this and i've just been grateful for that you know it's so weird because you're a little less busy this week on tv because last week it was more of like the criminal prosecution of Trump. This week is like full on. Trump is a foreign asset working with the Kremlin to destroy.

So we bring on those this week's military experts. Right. Yeah. You bring in the military national security experts this week. I'm friends with Asha Rangappa, who is one of the national security people on CNN. And she she's on to talk about all of that stuff. So, yeah, like, yeah, it depends on the week. It's like, what laws did he break this week? Well, we'll have these people on. We'll have

those people on. So, you know. Well, talking about the laws that he broke that you prosecuted, I have to discuss that a little bit. You led the prosecution against Trump University and the Trump Organization in 2013. When you were doing that and you saw the documents, were you just thinking in your head like, like this guy, this am I the only person who's, who's going after, you know, who's prosecuted, what was going through your mind? And you don't have to embrace my language there. I'll say that. No, no, no, no. It's good. So, you know, the kicker is that, you know, I got handed that case on my second day at the AG's office. Welcome to the AG's office. Yeah. Welcome to the AG. It was very different though. At the time, it was basically, here's this case. We haven't really been able to work it up yet. We don't really

know what to do with it. We don't know if there's a case. Can you see if there's anything here? And the problem was that they had, so to rewind just a teeny bit, they took on that case as part of a broader initiative against, and we could have a whole episode about this, for-profit education, which is one of the biggest areas of scams and fraud in the entire American economy. It's heartbreaking what those institutions do and fleece people out of billions of dollars a year. We were going after a number of different entities in the for-profit ed space. Trump University was just one of them. The Trump people were stonewalling us. They weren't giving us any documents. The Trump people were stonewalling us. They weren't giving us any documents. So we really couldn't get a handle on exactly how bad all the fraud had been. A lot of my job was then to go figure that out. I interviewed 100 people that

had taken Trump University courses, all New Yorkers. And what I found was just staggering. People cried when they picked up the phone and I told them who I was and what I was asking about because they were just so happy slash overcome with emotion that someone and sad and angry and all the feels because they were just so overcome that somebody was finally looking into it. They thought that they had been fleeced and there was nothing they could do about it. They'd lost $35,000, put it on credit cards, blown through their life savings, had to sell their house, things like that. And someone was finally looking into it and finally saying, wow, we really actually might be able to get justice here. And it took us a long time. Those calls were in the fall of 2011. Those people didn't get their

money back until the spring of 2017. Sometimes these things take a while, but we did get it done. We got it done. And it's the biggest legal loss he's ever had. I forget, was he deposed in that action? So there were two actions. One of them was a civil action in a U.S. district court in San Diego. That was the whole thing where he was railing about the Mexican judge. You guys remember that? So that was a civil private class action out in a U.S. district court in San Diego.

Those were sort of our brothers in arms with all of that. They're the ones who ended up deposing Trump. We never did. We felt like we had them dead to rights with so many good documents that we didn't really feel like we needed to depose Trump and turn that get into that whole three ring circus. So we never did it. But they did. And so what would before that file dropped on your desk, Hey, can you work this up, Tristan? What were you doing before you went into the AG's office? I'm just interested. Yeah, sure. So I was in, I was in a couple of big firms earlier in my career, and then I'd spent a year clerking for a federal judge here in New York city and in

Brooklyn. And that was a great experience. That's a great, awesome training as a lawyer, got to work on some cool cases, got to see the inside scoop on how the justice system works and sometimes doesn't, but mostly works a lot better than we realize, given the severe lack of resources we give it. Law enforcement and the justice system are some of the most underfunded parts of our government. So if you want to talk as a progressive about where we need to actually make sure the infrastructure of our government is working, we really need to have more judges on the bench. We need to have more prosecutors doing their job, more public defenders doing

their job. But yeah, I was doing that. And then I had wanted to do government enforcement. And that's something I wanted to do and to do that public service. And I was in the Consumer Protection Bureau there at the AG's office. And the more we dug into that case, the worse it was. And yeah, we had to do a lot of convincing within the office that it was worth the headache of taking him on. He has gone on such a whole jihad saying that, oh, it's all these political prosecutors. Politics is not the reason why he gets prosecuted. He gets prosecuted in spite of politics. His profile makes him someone that prosecutors don't want to take on because it seems like a headache and a food fight. So you don't go after him. It is still to this day part of the calculus.

It's why we don't see the Biden administration's Justice Department with Merrick Garland going after Trump that hard because they don't want to look like they're going after him. So he gets off with a lot because he's such a damn blowhard. He's got a completely reversed. He has a reverse, but you hit on something there that I've never really thought of before, that part of what he does is he creates these conflicts of interest preemptively because he's a criminal by going after the potential people who may either preside over his case or who prosecute him. And you just tweeted about this. You said, dear Donald Trump, are you sure it's a good idea to blast Justice Kavanaugh like that?

You're probably going to need his vote at some point soon. Let's just say. But the more I think about it in the context of what you just said, he probably knows that. And he goes, oh, shit, I'm going to be criminally prosecuted. This may go to the Supreme Court. I got to start my efforts now by attacking all of them so I can say, pity me. I'm the victim. Everyone's all politically motivated against me. Yeah, but the kicker is that it's one thing to do that to a an AG or a DA who is not the Court, it's like, you've got a lifetime appointment. What is Justice Kavanaugh? It's just going to be like, screw you, buddy. You put me here.

Now you made your bed. Now you're going to sleep in it. Like, what's he going to do? You can't take that back. That's so true. Walk me through. So this July 3rd article you published in the Washington Post,

which got a ton of attention, the headline was, I've prosecuted Trump. Documents matter more than Weisselberg. It's fairly self-explanatory, but you believe and you expound in that article that the documents here, based on particularly drawing on your experience prosecuting Trump University, that's what's going to be the most important. That's why the AG's office and the district attorney were fighting for the tax records up to the Supreme Court. And you think this is a very document driven case, correct? Most white collar cases are. So, you know, if you've got a street crime case, people aren't emailing, you know, um, you know, they're, they're, people are texting increasingly.

So that actually has really helped, uh, in, in the prosecution of a lot of street crime cases, but it's not like you're going to have a bunch of spreadsheets when it's, you know, uh, uh, you know, a drug ring. Um, they're not putting their shit in a PowerPoint, you know, you have so many more documents in a white collar case. And it and often they're hanging themselves right there. They're putting stuff in email, just even things like they're so boring to think about, but they meet, they're going to make a big difference here. Versions of documents, if they had a version of a document on June 1, that showed a certain set of numbers, and another version of the same spreadsheet two weeks later on June 15th that shows another set of numbers like that speaks to intent like you didn't

accidentally fudge all those numbers like you have them in one way then you went and you made them another way and then there's metadata in those documents to show the changes that happened in them um you know that if you use a Google Doc, Google keeps track of every single change that you make, and it's accessible to everybody who has access to that document, just as an example. There's a lot of things that you can capture just through a good look at the documents. And then there's also a lot you can do with a witness, even if they're not cooperating, where you get them on cross-examination. If you know the answers to a bunch of these questions, and then you walk them through that in a good cross-examination, you can get a lot out of them that way. There's a lot that you can do short of actually having

cooperation. There's been a very vigorous debate about this among sort of the legal Twitter folks that have been following this case. Other people take a very sharply opposed side to this and say, if Weisselberg doesn't cooperate, Trump will never get convicted. I don't believe that. And there's some other folks that are on my side of that debate. I guess time will tell, but that's my take. Do you think Weisselberg is cooperating? I think he might be already. I think if he's not, he's thinking about it. The kicker is that when someone's cooperating, you don't necessarily, you don't know it right away. If they've done a good job, they're going to coach him. Don't stop going into work. You know,

there was that article in the Washington post a few weeks ago before the indictment of Weisselberg that said Weisselberg still going to the office. That was some good reporting. I'm glad that they trailed him and figured that out. But unfortunately, it doesn't say as much as they thought it did. It does not necessarily mean that he's not cooperating just because he's still going into the office. If someone's cooperating, you want them to keep up appearances. You want them to make it like everything is cool.

They also might be going back into the office so they can go collect more evidence. Right. So we don't know. The answer is we really don't know. But I think he could be or he's definitely been considering it. There's no doubt he's been considering it. He was very much in talks with them prior to the indictment. And I'm sure part of it is he's trying to get a better deal.

And if you're the prosecutors, you want a big fish like that to do at least some time, even if they cooperate, because you don't want them to just get away with it because it gets, it sends a bad message. They don't like that precedent. If he's the CFO, they want him doing at least some prison time. And he is probably trying for full immunity and also for his kids.

So we'll see. And Tristan, you sent a dire warning to Allen Weisselberg on your Twitter feed that went super viral. It's currently your pin tweet. You said, dear Allen Weisselberg, they are not bluffing. Seriously. Very truly yours. I love your sign off here. Very truly yours, Tristan Snell, former New York AAG who prosecuted Trump University. If you were going to talk to Weisselberg right now and elaborate on that statement, what would you tell them? What are they not bluffing about? You know, I think they see it now more from the indictment. The indictment was basically a coded

message because they referenced specific things. They were sending messages to certain people. Some of those messages were for Weisselberg. Some of them were probably for Ivanka and Don Jr. and Eric. There's a lot of like coded messages in there if you know what you're looking for. But they were basically making it clear, hey guys, we know you had two sets of books, at least.

We know that Trump had one of, had like the special ledger that was just for him. By the way, as far as anybody is able to tell, that was reviewed with Trump on a very regular basis. So it's not like Weisselberg went rogue and was doing all this on his own. Trump didn't let anything happen at the Trump organization without his say soso he's only let up on that uh in his sort of you know post uh post-presidency phase here where he's just sort of like gone off the deep end down in florida and like crashing people's bar mitzvahs and stuff um you know i'll tell you about the presidency it's so true it's so sad he's just going off but now he's letting

don and eric run the show which is like that's a whole other comic thing that we can get into um but look back to weisselberg like what they're not bluffing about like look we have the documents we have more than you realized uh there's also another coded message message in there unindicted co-conspirator number one uh journalists have officially reported uh based on sources but it's been officially reported that on an unindicted co-conspirator number one uh is jeff mcconnie mcconnie is the controller of trump organization he is weisselberg's number two he's Weisselberg's Weisselberg. And Makani testified before the grand jury, which also is known. The way that it tends to work in New

York, especially, but mostly anywhere, is that if you've got someone testify before a grand jury, and it's very clear they're in the fact pattern, and then they weren't indicted, they almost certainly got immunity. So no one has officially come out and reported that Makani is cooperating with the prosecutors, but he almost certainly is. So you're sitting there and which hasn't been reported nearly enough. Allen Weisselberg, you're sitting there. It's just like now, you know, for sure that indictment comes out and Makani is not named.

So that instantly tells if your lawyers are any good, Mr. Weisselberg, if I'm addressing him, it's like, if your lawyers are any good, they should have been able to tell you. This means your number two, your right-hand man for decades, ratted you out. He's working with them. So do you really want to let him take you down as opposed to like you need to switch teams and you need to switch teams now before it's too late? Because each day that goes by where you don't cut a deal, the deal you can get will get worse. Your prison sentence is going to go up and up and up. That's how it works. That's how the game is played.

The sooner you cut a deal, the better deal you'll get. Stop messing around and actually just cut the deal because the better deal you'll get. Stop messing around and actually just cut the deal because they've got you. That's the message to send to him. That's a bombshell to me. I mean, I don't think most of our listeners would know about Makani and him being an identified co-conspirator, number one. I don't think people have made that connection and that he might be cooperating. It didn't get reported enough. CNN reported it the day the indictments were unsealed, but there was such a flood of news that day and everybody was going nuts about it that I feel like it didn't get

enough attention. I think if that news item from CNN dropped right now, it would be headline news. Well, it's dropping from Midas Touch. It's dropping from Midas Touch. It's dropping from Midas Touch. That's why you listen to the Midas Touch podcast, everybody. And let's just see if Midas Touch is bigger than CNN. Let's see. There you go. I think you are. No offense to my CNN friends. You heard it here first from Tristan Snell.

Midas Touch, bigger than CNN. No offense to my CNN friends. They've been great to me. So, but yeah, let's see if we can make that trend i think mcconnie's cooperating so does pretty much everybody else who's been observing this case so uh like that's kind of like a known thing it just hasn't been reported enough wow but that's the kicker is that it's not like look who's the number one reporter for a lot of these matters has been david farenthold of the washington post he's one of pule and sir about

investigating trump uh i i've gotten a wonderful chance to be interviewed by him a lot of these matters has been David Farenthold of the Washington Post. He's one of Pulitzer about investigating Trump. I've gotten a wonderful chance to be interviewed by him a couple of times now. He's a great guy. I love him. You know, from the standards of what he has to report on, even the CNN people, no one else has said Makani is definitely cooperating. But all of the like former prosecutors in new york on twitter who have looked at this have all said oh yeah mcconnie's cooperating everybody like it's just like anybody who looks at this from a legal commentator perspective where you don't have to worry about the journalistic ethics of it uh at a big paper uh they're all saying like mcconnie's cooperating it's very obvious he's cooperating and not indicting mcconnie in that indictment was a clear message to alan weisselberg that it's like

dude your right hand man is ratting you out loud and clear and trust me i bet you yeah well look and uh so uh richard signorelli who i love who's also, he and I go back and forth on Twitter a lot. He was at the Southern District around the same time that I was at the AG's office. And he said that he knows Weisselberg's defense counsel and that they're actually like, you know, they're good lawyers. So look, his lawyers probably have been able to tell him, hey, guess what? This probably means that Makani might be cooperating. You know, I would take that a step further and say like, he is cut it out. Like when your right-hand man is talking and when your right-hand man is

singing to the prosecutors, just don't mess with it anymore. It's just like, you just gotta, you know, you just gotta make the jump. It's tough. He's walking away from his whole life. He spent his whole life at that company. It's his entire life that he's an old guy at this point. And he's an old guy, but 50 year career working for the Trumps. I pity the man in a lot of ways, you know, but, but at the same time, it's like, you know, like do it for your

family, do it for the country, do it for yourself. Like, you know, look, you probably going to, maybe you're going to do some time maybe, but like make that time as easy as possible. Maybe they'll let you out early, you know, make sure your sons don't get rung up too, because they also probably had some tax shenanigans there with the Trump org. You know, don't don't do that to yourself. Don't do it to your family. Just just just, you know, play ball. I would tell him, too, you could avoid getting farted on by Rudy Giuliani. I don't know who's going to call top bunk. So you're saying Rudy's calling top bunk and he's going to he's going to say it's the implication The implication of yes was that Rudy would have to talk about it. Rudy gets top bunk.

We're going to have to work that out. We're going to have to work that out. Yeah, no, I hate to be the one to burst that bubble. It's as fun as it is. No, Rudy's going down with the feds. So Rudy will be at the federal pen and Weisselberg would be at the state pen. Rudy's farts, though, Rudy's parts. They tore the country. And by the way, as an extra jab at CNN,

we're breaking news and we're talking about Giuliani's parts spreading across the landscape of the United States of America. Just don't get this everywhere, Tristan. You just don't get this everywhere. Jordy, can you top that? Are you going to even ask any questions, Jordy? I would love to if you guys would let me get a word in. I mean, this is crazy, Tristan. They do this every show, man. Tristan, I got two for you right now. And that's all the time

we have for the Midas. This is what I mean. This is an ongoing bit. I'm just kidding. Go on. Tristan, where is Trump in four years? Is he behind bars? Is he hiding out in another country? Or is he running for president? Or some combination of those things.

Sure. You know, in four years? So that's 2025. Three and a half years. Let's say, where is he in three years? Okay, so he's 2024. What's he doing? I think he's running for president.

Unless he's shuffled off this mortal coil, he is running for president. And then, now, is he doing it while under indictment? I think he might be. Is he a free man pending all of the court proceedings? That sounds right to me. Has he left the country, as much as it's fun to theorize about that, you know, I think that's probably less likely. But you never know. You never know. Maybe there's, you know, he gets like a speedboat

taking him to a Russian submarine. You know, you can invent a whole movie around that. But no, I'm going to vote just to actually answer the question. I say he's running for president while under indictment. He's actually out, you know, either on bail or on his own recognizance. His passport has been taken from him. And there's some court proceedings or appeals that are in that are in motion. But he is actually like, you know, he is actually still running around the country as a free man running for president while undergoing all of these criminal proceedings,

which will, by that point in 24, will not just be New York, but potentially could be Georgia, could be Arizona, could be January 6th, could be lots of things. A very specific answer. I really appreciate that, Tristan. And if you have time-

I would get more specific, Tr Tristan with poop in his pants. All right. All right. Tristan, you have time for a quick game of word association. Sure. All right. Here we go. I'm going to do a rapid fire. Ready? Rudy Giuliani. Imprisonment. Don Jr. Incompetence. Ivanka. Singing like a canary. Weisselberg. Singing like a canary. Eric Trump.

Clueless. Ben Miselvis. He's a handsome man. There we go smart man smart man dangerous game dangerous what are you doing jordy that's all you got that's it yeah that's all i got there we go. Game over. I guess we covered it all, Tristan. I mean, we've went on a journey.

We've explored the law. We've explored the future. And we appreciate you having you on the show. Tristan, I got to ask you a question, though. Would you ever consider running for political office down the line? You strike me as someone who would be kind of an incredible, an incredible candidate one day. I would definitely like to serve my country as much as I can. If that means elected office, then so be it. I'm not going to lie. I would really, you know, being the attorney general here in the great state of New York would be a dream come true. I loved working for that office. I'd love to lead it.

Am I going to do any of that anytime soon? Probably not. I've got a two and a half year old at home, you know, and we're hoping to have at least one more kid. So I don't think I want to be running for office while I've got kids that aren't even in school yet. If I had the opportunity to do something like that down the road, I definitely would be interested in doing it.

But I see what I'm doing now as hopefully being helpful and useful for folks. And I really enjoy what I'm doing now, getting to help a lot of great businesses and to help Main Street America get the same kind of legal representation that Wall Street and big companies have. So that's a big mission for me as well. But yeah, I would love to actually, you know, serve in some capacity somewhere at some point down the road. Follow Tristan Snell on Twitter at Tristan Snell. Check out his website, www. I sound like I'm like a boomer. www.mainstreet.law.

What were you going to say, Tristan? You can skip the www. You can just do mainstreet.law. Go to mainstreet.law. Check Tristan out at Tristan Snell. It's been really great having you as a guest. It's been a ton of fun. Thanks, guys.

We hope you come back. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks. Appreciate it. We'll be right back after these messages. What's up, Midas Mighty? Ben Mycelis here, joined by my brothers. One of the things I am most proud about over the recent weeks is the new improved and revamped Midas merch store. And the Midas merch is absolutely crushing it from hats to t-shirts to mugs to masks. You name it, we have it at the Midas merch shop and we appreciate the support. I mean, we're selling out of most of that gear almost instantaneous.

We got Saki bomb designs. We got Vaxxed and Relaxed, the fan favorite. We got Be Mighty. We got Club Democracy. You know what's funny about Club Democracy, guys? That one really set off Republicans, probably because democracy is a dirty word to them. So when they say, hey, democracy, they get really angry. But that's why I like to say, and it's half jokingly, honestly, Midas merch might be the best GQP repellent out there. Talk about not wanting anybody to think you're a Republican.

You rock the club democracy shirt. You wear a vaxxed and relaxed mask. No one's going to think you watch Tucker Carlson. That's all I'm saying. Absolutely. And you left out my favorite design, too. The shout out to the Midas Mighty. That's become a fan favorite catchphrase.

So, hey, if you're interested, if you want to get some merch, help support us, help support the brothers. Please check out store.midastouch.com. That's store.midastouch.com. And get your Midas Touch gear today. Welcome back to the Midas Touch podcast. Great guest. Tristan Stel, I'm Ben Micellis, joined by Brett and Jordy Micellis.

GQP states are going to GQP and we call them GQP states because they are run by GQP, and we call them GQP states because they are run by GQP governors, GQP-led legislatures, who, at the end of the day, that style of leadership mirrors the death cultish, incompetent, incomprehensible, stupid way that Trump ran America. And those states are suffering. Those states are reeling from a lot of this incompetence. And it just looks fucking crazy. Can we talk about just Tennessee for a second, where Tennessee Department of Health right now is now halting all vaccination outreach to children, not just for COVID-19, but for any diseases. They're just going in completely anti-vaccine.

The Tennessee news slogan is bring back polio. And it is just part of this pattern of anti-life. These GQPp hate the living there's no there's no other way i mean i described it on a tweet the other day of you know i always thought there was a plot gap when you deal with cartoon the quote-unquote bad guy because they seem to have no motivation other than to do bad but it's like well what are they what do they want to do? What are they trying to get? They're just trying to kill the good guy? I've been thinking about this, though, a lot. Because, okay, we're having another COVID spike right now.

The numbers are starting to go up in almost every state. And this is a different spike, though, than what we witnessed in the past. Because this spike is really purely via unvaccinated people. Those are the people who are bringing up the numbers for the first time. And they're getting the Delta variant, which is a highly contagious variant. And that's because Fox News, the Tennessee Department of Health and all other sort of GQP properties are pushing this anti-vax propaganda. So I was thinking about this a lot recently and I was like, so why would they do this? Are they just pro-death? Like, is that what they want? They just want to kill their because they're killing their own people at the end of the day.

At this point, they're killing, they're killing Republicans. And then I thought about it a little more and I thought, I think that's collateral damage for them. I think they're okay with that. I think they're okay with that. But I think what their main goal is, is I think this is once again, projection from what they would say about what Democrats were doing over the past year. They would constantly say that Democrats were pushing COVID lockdowns and COVID related policies because they wanted to hurt Trump's economy and hurt America so that President Biden could come in and fix it. So what I think they're doing right now is they see that President Biden has handled COVID incredibly. Vaccines are being

distributed to everybody who wants them. And everybody's getting back to normal. People are getting their jobs back. People are being prosperous again. People are getting these $300 child tax credits for every kid. People are finally able to live again. And so what they want to do is what they accused Democrats of doing, which Democrats weren't doing. Democrats were following health guidelines. But they want to do is they want to put a stake in the heart of the Biden economy. And they think the best way to do that is to get as many people as possible sick and then cause more lockdowns, more shutdowns, because they know inevitably if the rates get so high, we're going to have to go there eventually. I think that's their master plan. Look, that's definitely sharp. At the QAnon

CPAC rally the other day, they even openly admitted to that when they cheered on not getting vaccinated. The whole room was so proud of that. And Ben, you're spot on too that, look, the GQP hates the living. I think it gets even more specific. They hate children. The GQP, they let kids take on enormous amount of student loan debts. They let kids get sick with coronavirus. And also they let kids get gunned down in schools. They don't update any of these policies because they don't care about the kids. It's disgusting. And I was going to ask Brett, Jordy, I don't know where Brett finds all the time to be thinking like this. You're supposed to be editing the videos, Brett. I mean, those are, you've come up with some real truth bombs on this podcast.

Well, here's the thing. This is what happens when I break my phone and I'm unable to use it for a few hours. I actually have to think about life a little bit. I have to do some analysis. I have to do some introspection. So breaking my phone caused me to just, you know, like a philosopher, just tap my chin. Like Aristotle walked through the cage. Is that Aristotle or Plato? Am I going to get totally screamed at by some comment because I don't want to be mocked by the internet, but, um, but I, but your point is taken and, and no, I mean, but that's, that's really my, my theory on what this whole thing is. It's Plato. It's Biden's economy is incredibly strong. So we need to A, convince people that it's actually

doing poorly. And that's why they keep hyping up any sort of news here about prices and whatnot, which just has to do with supply and demand issues. Like literally the economy was shut down for an entire year. And now people are purchasing things again. Yes, things get more expensive when that happens. And it's to do as much damage to the economy as possible because America to them is not their priority. Getting power is their priority. And so they will destroy America to get reelected. That's what they're doing. They're destroying America to get reelected. Can we just talk just very briefly about Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle? I mean, I know this has nothing to do with anything, but these philosophers came right after each other. You have Socrates was the first, then came his student Plato, and after that came Aristotle,

who was the student at Plato's academy. Like, it's pretty impressive that for like a period of about 100 years, like three people who we always talk about just taught each other. Like, I just wanted to drop that truth bomb for people there. Like, I'm just going on a complete tangent. And Plato was the allegory. You know why, Ben? They didn't have iPhones. That's what I've learned.

There you go. They all broke have iPhones. That's what I've learned. There you go. They were able to walk through the cave and think like Brett Plato, my cellist. And then of course we have the GQP party in Texas. And I think the best analogy here is like, when we talk about the existence of the filibuster. The Democrats basically in Texas are not allowing a quorum to be formed in Texas in an area where Texas wants to unlawfully strip voters of voter rights because Texas knows that they're now purple and they will be turning blue shortly. So they want to pass very repressive voting rights laws. But if you want to know what the GQP strategy would be and we're like, what would the GQP do if they controlled the Senate right now in the federal level?

I'll tell you what they would do. Look what they're doing in Texas. They are put out a bounty to arrest all of the Texas Democrats and throw them in jail. That's what literally the Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick said today when he was on TV. Play that clip. Sir, welcome back here. Any sign of a resolution on this? Not immediately, but it will be resolved, Bill. Look, they can't hold out forever. They have families back home. They have jobs back home. And pretty soon their wives or husbands will start saying, hey, it's time to get back back home. And when they get home, if we're in a special session, they'll be arrested and brought to the Capitol and we will pass these bills. That is. A high level GQP politician is going to arrest every

Democrat because the Democrats are not allowing the Republicans to pass a voter rights bill that's going to strip voters particularly in black and brown communities of their right to vote. Yeah, it's outrageous. It's full-blown

fascism. And Texas and Florida right now really kind of seem like these little petri dishes of fascism. And the other thing that Texas was doing that is just absolutely horrifying is they are taking the enforcement of abortion away from the government, and they are trying to create a sort of neighborhood watch system in Texas, whereby they are putting a bounty on the heads of women who get abortions. And they are telling their citizens to report any of this quote unquote illegal activity, and they will be awarded $10,000 for each illegal abortion if they are successful. Now, I got to tell you, at the beginning of the pandemic, I was a big fan of The Handmaid's Tale.

I would watch every episode. I was very into it. But as the pandemic hit, as Trump got crazier and crazier, I had to stop watching the show because I felt America turning in that direction. And I felt like when I watch CNN, I'm watching The Handmaid's Tale. This is what America's becoming. And so watching this dramatized version of it is scary because that's what has happening to our country. And there's probably no other example of America becoming The Handmaid's tale than putting a $10,000 bounty on the head of women who try to get abortions in the state of Texas. This is just supremely fucked up, twisted behavior, anti-democratic fascism to its core. And here's the thing. The reason that you're seeing these efforts, they seem to be escalating.

As you listen to more Midas podcasts, what the GQP is doing seems to be like, wait a minute, they're doing more and more things. Yes, because they're desperate. They are doing it because they know that they face extinction and they look at history and they look across the world currently and they see places where crazy groups that represent small portions of the population because they engage in loud, obnoxious fascism and attack people who just want to go on with their lives, right? Most people, you know, before we started Midas Touch, you know, what we would be doing on instead of this podcast, maybe we go to the park, you know, maybe we'd be out for a walk. That's probably what we'd be doing if we weren't out podcast, we'd be working,

you know, on our day-to-day stuff. Watching The Handmaid's Tale for fun, not as a documentary. Exactly. Watching The Handmaid's Tale for fun. Most people don't want to have to fight against crazy shit. You just want to go on

with your day and just go to sleep and watch TV and be with your family and be comfortable. But that's not the time you're living in now. Our country, our people have been called upon to do great things at various times in our history. And we've been spoiled. We've been spoiled since World War II when that greatest generation made sacrifices, but we all now have to answer that call however we can. If you can podcast, podcast. If you do art,

do art. If you're a great speaker, speak. If you have digital talents, make videos. You are needed right now to expose the truth. We need your voice. We need the numbers. We need you to join what we are doing to make sure that these efforts in the GQP are looked back as a blip in history, as a stain, but not the definition of who we are as Americans. We don't attack our military leaders. We don't support our foreign adversaries. We fight for democracy in the United States of America. And we thank you for joining this fight with us each and every day. And by listening to this podcast, I'm Ben Myllus, joined by my brothers, Brett and Jordy Micellus.

We're grateful for your support and we're grateful for your fight. We'll see you on the next Midas Touch podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty!