The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump posts deranged statement after guilty verdict and attacks his own executive (Feat. Harry Litman)

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas is joined by former federal prosecutor and host of ‘Talking Feds’ podcast, Harry Litman, to breakdown the Trump Organization verdict and Trump’s fully deranged response. Subscribe to the Talking Feds YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_toJO3rT5L5U1CBRawV4Lw Subscribe to the Talking Feds Podcast here: https://www.talkingfeds.com/ Follow Harry Litman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/harrylitman 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

When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and

terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts

your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there. With over 3,000 games to choose from, including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz, and more. Make deposits instantly

to jump in on the fun and make same day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly.

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. I'm Ben Micellis from the Midas Touch Network, and I am joined by attorney Harry Littman, former top federal prosecutor and the host of my favorite legal podcast when I'm not listening to legal AF, it's called Talking Feds. And Harry himself has a great YouTube channel at Talking Feds that you can all check out. Harry, I want you to react to the statement that we just got from Donald Trump following the guilty conviction on 17 counts of the Trump organization.

First off, welcome to the show. As always, great to be here, Ben. I am an attorney, you are an attorney, and I like talking law with you and your sophisticated audience of Midas Mighty. Oh, the Midas Mighty all loves Harry Littman. And you did a previous video about what took place during the day earlier where the Trump organization was found guilty on 17 counts of felonies relating to all of this fraudulent conduct to improper benefits given to his executives. The Trump organization is now a felon. Let me read for you the statement that Donald Trump, this deranged statement that Trump put out. It's dated December 6th, 2022. Are you going to do a dramatic reading of it, I hope? We're going to do a dramatic reading. We're going to put up the statement on the screen.

It says, Manhattan witch hunt all in caps. And then it says, disappointed with the verdict in Manhattan, but will appeal after looking at millions of pages of documents over many years, much to the detriment of record setting murder and other forms of violent crime that are taking place in New York City. sentence. This case was about Allen Weisselberg committing tax fraud on his personal tax returns, et cetera, with he and every witness repeatedly testifying that President Trump and the Trump family knew nothing about his actions, which he admits were done solely for his own benefit and with no benefit to the two companies. Why would corporations which knew nothing about Weisselberg's personal tax returns be prosecuted for that person's conduct? There was reliance, all in caps by us, on a then highly respected and expensive accounting firm and law firm to do this work. The accounting firm also did his personal returns, which we are not even allowed to legally view.

This case is unprecedented and involved no monetary gain to these two corporations. It is a continuation of the greatest political witch hunt in the history of our country. New York City is a hard place to be, quote, Trump, as business and people flee our once great city. Exclamation point. Harry Littman, your response. Where to start? You know, it's got it all, right? It's got mendacity. There's lie after lie there about what the evidence was. It's got total chutzpah, right? This is Weisselberg, the guy who wouldn't give up on Trump was actually, you know, a guy in his mid-70s who stayed loyal, was loyal all the

way back to Fred. And now Trump, you know, having already thrown him under the bus is reversing back and forth. It's got grandiosity, the greatest ever, et cetera. And it's got the great Trump victim complex, you know, how he's the most victimized politician in the history of politicians. And I love the final element of how the mighty in New York have fallen. It's got the final Trump element of just nastiness toward the speaker, just insulting and basically saying New York has criminal problems, basically, because they think about me instead of going after rapists and murderers. And think about how Trump has fallen from the time when he was, I could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and they wouldn't indict me. Now, according to

him, he can do nothing and he's still found guilty. So there's a, you know, just a perfect kind of whole collection of Trump and, you know, Trumpism. And this final point that Trump is now no longer really a New Yorker. He's really persona non grata there. And that's going to matter because, as we talked about, Ben, before, it looks like the New York AG wants to look seriously at indicting him criminally for the very charge that he shied away from before involving the payments to Stormy Daniels. That happened a while ago. You might think there's a statute of limitation problem,

but there isn't because Trump no longer lives in New York. He took exile in Florida and under New York law, every day he spends outside there, the statute of limitations doesn't roll. So Mr. Big New York commercial real estate with the brand of Trump organization has taken it on the chin and sort of every other part of the body. But more generally on Trump. So first of all, it does strike me as a grandiose, lying, completely ridiculous, chutzpah tick, I think is the legal term, et cetera, Trump statement. But I think we should take a step back and see this, you know, as part and parcel of this sort of, on the one hand, kind of exquisite political problem, and on the other, just national problem that we all have based on Trump's continuing to hang around the party when he's well since worn

out his welcome. Because look, this will be one more step that will make party elders shy away. They already are completely flat-footed when they're asked now, what about Trump? Because they're scared of him, but they don't want him. More and more people are, I think now, of the view that he is a scoundrel, maybe a criminal, and that his day has passed and the country's better off without him. All that's true. But these statements by Trump, including the one earlier this week that basically said we now need to suspend the Constitution, are carefully calculated to rev up the only sort of asset he has remaining, which is the, what, 30% of the country, 25, 32 of his base that is rabid

and continues to eat this stuff up with a spoon. And as a result, he is a very dangerous customer for the party and the nation because he's still the front runner for the nomination. And depending on who else runs, you know, if there are enough people, he could, as he did in 2015, take people down. So he continues to look ridiculous. And I think most importantly, like a loser, the verdict of history is going definitively against him. The latest show of that, I thought, was the Oath Runners trial. And yet, he talks trash like this, and there is an audience to receive it. And it does, in fact, pose a political and sort of national problem for our broader politics. So there's comic relief here, but also highly sober

concern that even when getting completely and justifiably brought down by a verdict of 12 persons good and true, he still will react in his kind of pugnacious, outrageous, nasty way that more and more people are alienated by, but a cadre of folks still are really revved up by. And that is a worry, especially for the party, which, of course, you know, they brought it on themselves, but in a way for the nation. That's what I got for you, Ben, in my general reaction to this Trump commentary. I got follow-up for you. So first and foremost, I do like the nickname for the Oath Keepers as the Oath Runners because they're always running away. Did I say that? Yeah. Because they're always running away from the law. Yeah. Okay. Good. Two, you know, when you go through the disarranged statement that Trump made, you know, the actual elements of the crime before the jury are exactly what Trump is saying didn't occur. So the jury was asked the questions like, did it benefit the corporation?

And was Trump a managing agent? Was Trump a managing agent? Did he know about it? So literally the elements that the jury got, and the jury was very deliberate, right? They went, granted, they moved expeditiously in just under 10 hours. So about 30 minutes per each 17 of the counts. But they asked each of the elements to the judge in the various counts after they were read the counts the first time. And they were the exact opposite answers that the jury came out with that Trump is claiming here. Here's one point I want to make as well. Can I give you one on that though? It's a super nice point. And of course, Trump takes any statement against him as just a thing to rebut.

The more forceful against him, the more forcefully and directly to rebut it. But this is the law and a jury good and true. So now it's not even though his instinct is just to call anybody and everybody who insults them a liar. Pretty hard to do when 12 people have undertaken the process that we have to deciding who's telling the truth and who's lying at jury. Well, and you know what he could have done here and what frankly he could do or could have done in the New York Attorney General Letitia James special proceeding where he was called for a deposition and asked the most basic questions in the world. So for all his bravado and bluster, right? When New York Attorney General Letitia James, she showed up at the

deposition herself to ask the questions. And the questions were like, what is the value of Mar-a-Lago? What is the value of Trump Tower? What was the appraisal? What was your valuation for it? The most basic questions. And what did he do? I plead the fifth. I plead the fifth. And here in this criminal trial, he could have testified when the defense put on their case. The witness who was missing was cowardly Donald Trump, who could have showed up there and said, here is what was going on and spoke to the jury and looked them in the eyes. But he'd rather go Manhattan witch hunt exclamation points onto

his social media following than actually exist in the real world. And I think that shows just how cowardly he is. So what happens next, Harry? Where do we go from here? Ben, it's another great point. And I just want to say, make this legal point. He's the worst client in the world because he does these things instead. But as you and I know, when the day of reckoning comes, each and every one of these statements is going to be admissible against him. So he didn't say it in trial, but he says this crazy stuff.

Oh, really? So it's a witch hunt, you think? And you think, why is that? Why you say businesses and people flee our once great city? Everything he said, all the crazy things that have to make his succession of lawyers next to not getting paid and getting stiffed by him. The next reason is tearing their hair out can be used against him. All right. What happens to him next as a result of this? Yeah. What do you predict? Everyone wants to know what happens next.

There are these various prosecutions. Do you think the floodgates are open now? The Teflon Don, it's been pierced and people can see that this is, you know, that he's not immune from criminal prosecution. You know, I, so first, having started with thinking at different points, maybe back to Access Hollywood, oh, come on, the American people won't stand for it. I nevertheless will now, so I want to point out my poor track record will say, yes, I think in fact, there is already blood in the water and, you know, seven or eight sharks are swimming. And let's just start with the criminal thing, which is the most important. All, you know, it threatens liberty threat. And there are ways that it threatens his ability to be a candidate.

It threatens everything. There are now three sort of imminent potential prosecutions on the horizon. There's Fulton County. That's problematic for some reasons, but it's sure serious, and I think it will be more sort of piercing of the Teflon coating. Mar-a-Lago, which to my mind is the biggest threat and really coming at him like a freight train under the new special counsel, Jack Smith, who served an important round of subpoenas today. And now Bragg. Bragg, I think, has been faulted as being sort of finger to the wind and politically sensitive. If you credit that charge, it's bad for Trump because today, having won this scalp of a corporation, he, you know, I think is buoyed and has spring in his step for going after Trump himself.

And Ben, those are just the criminal prosecutions, each one of which could be devastating. But the civil one of Tish James is way down the line and is devastating potentially to his pocketbook and again to his brand. This one is devastating to his brand. Eugene Carroll has a really good defamation suit and is going to get a pretty penny from him. I don't, you know, to me now, he's just circling around and at every turn, you know, people are genuinely drawing blood already. So I think that, I think the Teflon has been pierced and I can't remember a figure that I've known my, you know, much less a sort of famous figure who's been in so much serious trouble from so many quarters. And of course, you know, it's all about a reckoning of conduct and kind of attitude that people have known since he's been around.

So, yeah, I think he's going to get indicted. Yeah, I think he's going to get convicted,. Yeah, I think he's going to get convicted, though not necessarily in Georgia, not necessarily in New York. And yeah, I think he's going to get separately ruined. And we are already seeing that process. There you have it. We will leave it at that. And Harry Littman, you've got a great YouTube page I want everybody to check out as well. Talking Feds, it's important that we grow these pro-democracy YouTube channels. You do such an incredible job here as a commentator, but I want to let everybody know that they can check out your hot takes there as well,

and to subscribe there. Let's help Harry grow his YouTube channel. You do great work, and I want to make sure we do everything we can here to amplify your work. Ben, so kind and menschy of you to say, and it's true, I put a lot of quick minutes and takes with different people there. So check us out. And as always, stick with Midas Mighty for the hot takes. I'm Ben Mycelis, joined by Harry Littman, your favorite former federal prosecutor and legal commentator out there. Until next time, thank you for watching the Midas Touch Network. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and check out our Patreon account at patreon.com slash Midas Touch. P-A-T-R-E-O-N dot com slash Midas Touch. Until next time.