The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 9.22 Belle Delphine VS Ana de Armas, Tom Hardy, $250 Million Stolen From Starving Kids & Today's News

Starting point is 00:00:00 Sup, you beautiful bastards! Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show, and I gotta be honest with you right at the top, I have felt very off and eh this week, and so to make it up to you today, I decided to put out a fantastic and absolutely ginormous Thursday show for you today, so I hope you love it. This is the kind of show I wish I could put out every single day, so whether it's because you want me to punch you in the throat or you want to let me know, hey, Phil, I love them big. Hit that like button. And while you do that, I'm just going to jump into it. I want you to try to imagine a world where you learn martial arts. And not only do you learn it, you dedicate a decent chunk of your life to it. Let's say it's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and then you get really, really good. And then you want to compete against other people who also, you know, they learned and practiced and mastered Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. So you enter in, let's say, the 2022 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Open Championship in Milton Keynes, England. Wow, Phil, that's very specific. And then you show up to this event. You get to the matter, whatever the fuck it is. I don't know. I've never watched one of these tournaments.

Starting point is 00:00:58 And you look up and your opponent is Tom fucking Hardy. Bang. And your mind's trying to understand the situation. Did I take mushrooms? What's happening? Why am I about to fight Eddie Brock? Where's my totem? Am I in the dream realm? But you're not. This is real life.

Starting point is 00:01:12 And what's about to happen is either you're about to beat the star of Mad Max Fury Road or he's gonna beat you in front of your wife and kids. And while your wife's gonna lie about it, she's gonna be a little turned on by this. And the thing is, you're not gonna be the only one. Because apparently Tom Hardy's really good at this. Not only did he beat some people, he won golds.

Starting point is 00:01:31 No, Tom Hardy, red cards should not be allowed. You're already... things are going too well for you. How are you gonna be a movie star and just go to this random event and beat everyone at a thing that's not your main thing? It's too impressive and I hate you. I don't. Tom Hardy's awesome for a lot of reasons. And now one more. And then two things I wanted to quickly mention before I move forward. One, you're going to see my hair change several times in this video. Literally the only time I could get my haircut in the next two weeks was in the middle of the show. So that's why that happened. And two, this is your second to last friendly reminder

Starting point is 00:02:01 that you only have a few days left to get in on the beautiful bastard.com drop. Our drops, as you know, are exclusive. They're limited. Y'all have been scooping up this one at record rates you've got the keep going tie dyes the bringer of sadness world tour gear ghouls just want to have fun the beautiful bastard monkey tee and all of these posters two of them are signed four of them are unsigned it's it's really whatever you want but get it while you can and then do me a favor and you tell me, is the United States a Christian nation? And I don't just mean, like, are the majority of people Christian? That's a boring question currently. Yes, by 2070, it's expected the majority of people in America will no longer identify as Christian.

Starting point is 00:02:34 But rather, I mean, at our core, in our government, in who we are as a people, should we be a Christian nation? And I ask you because that question was asked in a new poll conducted last May to kind of gauge the rise of these sentiments What they found in this poll is somewhat shocking and also conflicting So 70% of Americans and in fact 57% of even Republicans said that it would be unconstitutional for the government to declare America a Christian nation But when all these people were asked whether they actually opposed declaring it a Christian nation The answers didn't seem to line up with 62% of Americans saying, yes, I do oppose it. That was 83% Democrats, but only 39% of Republicans. So 57% of Republicans say

Starting point is 00:03:10 it would be unconstitutional to do it, but 61% are all for it. And then specifically looking at Republicans, if you kicked out all those godless heathens out of this poll, right? You only included the evangelicals, a whopping eight out of 10 said the same. And all of this seeming to track

Starting point is 00:03:25 with the ever more radical rhetoric coming out of the next generation of conservative politicians, like Doug Mastriano, for example, the Republican nominee for governor in Pennsylvania. He argued that America is a Christian nation and that the separation of church and state is a myth. And by the way, he did this at a QAnon event.

Starting point is 00:03:39 You also had the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who said, we need to be the party of nationalism and I'm a Christian and I say it proudly, we should be Christian nationalists. With her then doing the most Christ-like thing she could, she put that on merch. And of course, this kind of thinking has been embraced by contenders for the presidency in 2024. You think DeSantis, you think Trump. But to be clear, on just a purely factual historical basis, America is not a Christian nation, right? While most of the founding fathers appear to be Christians of some kind, many, including John Adams, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, were also deists. But also, their individual beliefs are kind of irrelevant

Starting point is 00:04:12 because they expressly wrote the First Amendment to ensure that the government remained secular, so that not just all religions, but all denominations would be treated impartially, and that's the foundation of our country's pluralism and tolerance. Though, for tolerance historically in America, that's been kind of a pick and choose, let's call it. But also, maybe everything that we're talking about today, it's gonna change, because anything's possible when you're living through history. And then, let's talk about nudity. I'm a fan.

Starting point is 00:04:36 That's not, no, that's not the news. Rather, the news is about Ana de Armas, who plays Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming Netflix film Blonde, and she just talked about nude scenes and the sort of appropriation of them. And for some background, this film has received an NC-17 rating over sexual content. So we know that there are going to be explicit scenes in this. And actually, in an interview with Variety, she spoke about this.

Starting point is 00:04:55 And there, hitting on the potential for those scenes with her nude body in it to circulate online, right? For people to see it not in the context of, oh, I'm watching a movie, but rather just seeing clips of her on social media or porn sites. Where they're saying, I know it's going to go viral and it's disgusting. It's upsetting just to think about it.

Starting point is 00:05:09 I can't control it. You can't really control what they do and how they take things out of context. But adding, I don't think it gave me second thoughts. It just gave me a bad taste to think about the future of those clips. And really what she's talking about there enters this bigger conversation and debate around the intent of public nudity, right? This isn't nudity that someone did in private and then it was released publicly. There was always the intent for this to be available for public consumption after a purchase of some kind. But it's also not the exact same as someone like a Belle Delphine or Bad Baby or any of these women

Starting point is 00:05:36 that are on OnlyFans. The primary difference is the intent on OnlyFans. It's explicitly about, I want to see that nude person or that sexual act, and in a movie, it's just an aspect of that film. But, like Anna rightly pointed out, you don't get to choose how the audience consumes this. And that's true for any sort of entertainment or artistry. But also, Anna is far from the only person to get the ick thinking about people taking a nude or a sex scene from a movie and putting it onto porn sites. Right, you had actors from Bridgerton reportedly upset when sex scenes from the show showed up on porn sites, with a source noting they do not consent to being exploited in this way. I mean, you had Natalie Portman also previously speaking out against the same situation,

Starting point is 00:06:12 saying, I don't like misappropriation of stuff. It's meant to be a dramatic scene and part of a story that really makes me angry. With all that now said, the big question in my mind is, what do you think? Personally, I understand where these actresses and these actors are coming from, right? You say, I'm doing it in this one way, this specific context. I do not consent to it being used in a different way, but it's obviously a vastly different situation than someone taking nude photos or a nude video or something in private and then that being public rather than you doing public nudity or a public sex scene and then it's showing up in a way that you did not want. I sympathize with these people,

Starting point is 00:06:46 but I don't think that there's any action that can be taken to stop it. It feels like this is just kind of part of the equation when you're deciding if you're going to do this scene or not. But hey, that's me, not thee. You let me know. And then these absolute douchebags stole from children, and not like a little bit,

Starting point is 00:07:02 they stole $250 million from a federal program that specifically provided meals to low-income children. 48 of these disgusting motherfuckers have been charged in Minnesota with conspiracy and other counts. According to the prosecutors, they made these companies saying, hey, we're going to be offering food to so many kids, tens of thousands of children all across Minnesota. And hey, because we're doing such an important, good job, especially during the pandemic when people are at their most vulnerable. We don't know where a next meal is going to come. There's so much uncertainty. We just need to get reimbursement for those meals to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's food nutrition programs. But no, reportedly prosecutors

Starting point is 00:07:36 said few meals were actually served and the defendants used the money to buy luxury cars, property and jewelry. And here's one of the big things. The investigation is still ongoing. 250 million is the minimum. We're talking about the government being billed for more than 125 fake meals. This was done at a scale that the only way they could like make up these kids was they used an online random name generator. And so far, and hopefully it becomes more, the government's only recovered $50 million. And so I personally hope that all these frauding fucks, they get the book thrown at them and that book hits them in the mouth and it knocks out their teeth. And all of a sudden they start choking on their teeth. And this is, this is going, this is getting really weird and specific,

Starting point is 00:08:11 but the main thing I hope that they're punished and I hope they're punished to the fullest extent of the law, because not only are they fraudsters, not only did they essentially fuck every single American, because this money was meant to be like help the most vulnerable out there and you know that the money didn't just I mean well it came from nowhere but it existing it affects every single one of us we were under the assumption that it was helping kids instead of just you know patting these motherfuckers wallets and then from that I want to take a second to thank a sponsor of today's show keeps did you know that two out of three guys will experience some form of male pattern baldness by the time that the 35 maybe you have that friend or that family member that's dealing with hair loss

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Starting point is 00:09:10 and prevent hair loss go to keeps.com slash defranco or just click that link in the description to receive 50 off your first order and then we need to talk about true crime again right last week we talked about what it's like to be the family member or a loved one of a victim and then see that story the worst days of your life play out on a screen for people to watch, and how challenging that can be, how there can also be so many ethical lapses in the genre as a whole. But today, we're going to zoom out and talk something bigger picture when it comes to true crime, and that is why is it so big, and how should we think about our relationship to it? And so to try to get to the bottom of all that, we talked with Dr. Richard Lettieri,

Starting point is 00:09:42 a forensic neuropsychologist who says that there's a lot at play when it comes to our fascination with all these stories, but some of the answers may not be as obvious as you might think. Though, there are also a fair share of things you'd come to expect. For example, as expected, a lot of research shows that women are the primary audience for true crime. I mean, this is kind of an understood, it even gets kind of memed. And there's this large belief that they consume this media in hopes of learning how to protect themselves or avoid being in a situation where they're harmed. You've also got other studies suggesting that people watch it to

Starting point is 00:10:07 feel a sense of escapism, but Dr. Lethierry thinks there's something more to the story. In fact, he tied it back to a demonic nature in humans, though not demonic in the sense of monsters, but in a more philosophical sense. That demonic is a force in our nature for good and bad. It's like larger than reason. It's explosive, right? There's something deep that can go wrong that can also be beautiful. It's like what causes people to be artists, but it also can cause people to do very destructive things if it's not integrated well in terms of personality and able to deal with emotions. Dr. Lettieri also said that people have a desire to understand this part of human nature, integrated well in terms of personality and able to deal with emotions.

Starting point is 00:10:48 Dr. Lethierry also said that people have a desire to understand this part of human nature, not just to shape their perspective of the world at large, but also to better understand themselves. And he says that true crime actually allows people to do that. They're trying to address themselves. They're looking at something that's really, I think, probably that they recognize in themselves themselves that they want to understand more. And it's a vicarious way of doing it. It's a way of seeing it at a distance. So I think it's the true crime is an entree into the range of human experience that we all have internally that we don't really access or we're afraid to sort of even let it touch us. And as true crime has evolved, so have discussions about it.

Starting point is 00:11:28 I mean, one big topic we've talked about in the past is missing white woman syndrome, or the term used to describe how the media tends to focus on stories where white women are missing compared to victims of other races and gender identities. And it's something that's actually backed by data. I mean, one researcher, for example, did a study examining missing persons cases in 2013 and found that white women are much more likely to receive news coverage relative to their proportions among missing persons. And they're also more likely to receive intense coverage being talked about multiple times on the news, having their story reported on over and over. And Dr. Lethierry says this has to do with

Starting point is 00:11:55 a major bias that exists both in true crime as well as in other forms of media. I was as transfixed as anyone else by the Russian invasion to Ukraine and supporting the Ukrainians. But, you know, when I go to work, when I listen to Sirius FM, I fortunately have the BBC. I can listen to news that transcends just, you know, more of a parochial point of view. There's stuff going on in Africa like this. These Africans all the time. This is never covered here. How come?

Starting point is 00:12:29 Or South America. And following the death of Gabby Petito last year, it generated a ton of conversation. In fact, her family at one point even referenced this bias during a press conference with her father saying, I want to ask everyone to help all the people that are missing and need help. And like I said before, it's on all of you,

Starting point is 00:12:49 everyone that's in this room to do that. And if you don't do that for other people that are missing, that's a shame because it's not just Gabby that deserves that. And that Petito case dominated headlines for weeks and weeks and prompted a large conversation on the bridge between true crime storytelling and reality. I mean, on TikTok and other forms of social media, true crime fanatics began rapidly theorizing about what happened to her and trying to find clues. While you can and many have argued about whether or not this media attention actually helped investigators, many of those creators were ultimately coming up with

Starting point is 00:13:19 conspiracies about this tragic death of a real person at a point where no one had really any answers. Gabby's case wasn't the only one to receive this kind of treatment. I mean, you had a Connecticut TikToker who posts paranormal content recently getting 7 million views on a video where he claimed that he had found evidence related to a prominent presumed murder case in the area only for authorities to review his discovery and find that it had nothing to do with any criminal case. Also, you had the separate instance where TikTok users went down a rabbit hole after seeing a video posted by a woman named Sabrina Prater and began baselessly accusing her of being a kidnapper and murderer based on conspiracies they developed by watching her content. So there have been cases in the past where true crime fanatics or the people actually making the content have helped in situations.

Starting point is 00:13:56 A lot of the time we see a pattern of these creators deciding to see something when in fact nothing was really there. And while Letiri didn't touch on these cases specifically, he did note that online sleuths are entering a complicated territory. So you've always been picky about your produce, but now you find yourself checking every label to make sure it's Canadian. So be it. At Sobeys, we always pick guaranteed fresh Canadian produce first. Restrictions apply. See in-store or online for details. I guess it can go both ways. If somebody's missing and the police sometimes put out bulletins, they're looking for somebody. And, you know, all people start getting almost illogical, irrational what they can do. But people get, they kind of lose their sense of perspective. Which ultimately brings us to the final topic here, ethical consumption of true

Starting point is 00:14:58 crime. This is something that just like took over the comment section last Thursday, with many people sharing their favorite true crime creators who they say do it ethically. Although, unfortunately, there was a sprinkling of people saying like, I don't care how this impacts people. I'm here for the entertainment. Regarding doing this ethically, I mean, making sure the stories which are rooted in horror are told with both honesty and respect. And that's something that Dr. Lethierry says comes down to the quality of storytelling. With him adding that he does not feel that true crime at large glorifies murders, he can see how others perceive it to be doing so, especially since he noted that while some criminals might feel misunderstood if their story gets adapted to a film or a documentary,

Starting point is 00:15:32 many murderers are narcissists and could view the prospect as a secondary gain. I think that is something to monitor, something to be careful of, even with filmmaking, not to glorify someone who's done a horrendous act. And that's where, you know, one something to be careful of, even with filmmakers, not to glorify someone who's done a horrendous act. And that's where, you know, one has to be sensitive to the victims. But at the end of the day, Dr. Lethierry says that it falls on the filmmakers to tell these stories the right way.

Starting point is 00:15:57 It's up to the producers to be as sensitive but truthful as possible. And that's really up to the sensitivities, the sophistication of the makers of the film. But that's always a fine line to walk. You have to be truthful. With that, saying one of the ways to do that is to involve the families in the process, to prioritize that and the facts. But he also argued the audience

Starting point is 00:16:29 has their own responsibilities when consuming the media. One writer put it this way. So the value of a gift is not in the gift itself. It's what the receiver's ability to receive. So it's how you receive this. So after all of that, I now want to pass the microphone off to receive. So it's how you receive this. So after all of that, I now want to pass the microphone off to you. Not really. You type. I have the mic. But this has been a topic that I found very, very fascinating. And so I would love to know your thoughts on this whole conversation. Is it something that you think about as you watch true crime?

Starting point is 00:16:58 Or as these conversations come up more and more, is it something on your mind? And if so, what are you thinking? And then I want to take a second to thank a sponsor of today's show, ButcherBox. They're offering you beautiful bastards free chicken breasts for a year. So ButcherBox is a delicious premium meat delivery service for those that enjoy high quality meats at the utmost convenience. 100% grass fed beef, free range, organic chicken, wild caught seafood, and pork raised crate free, all at an affordable price. Our go-to is definitely the custom box. We can choose exactly what we want to get, especially since things change up, right?

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Starting point is 00:17:57 And then, Iran is on fire right now. And we're not talking about climate-induced wildfires, but I guess a different kind of climate change, and that is they are burning hijabs right now. With mass protests, they're absolutely exploding, and it involves something I mentioned for like 10 seconds yesterday. It was one of the last things I recorded, and I was like, fuck, I really need to give this more time. And so here we are. To bring you up to speed, this whole thing got kicked off last Friday because of the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman by the name of Masa Amini. She was detained by Iran's so-called morality police during a visit to the capital of Tehran for the ultimate crime of not covering her hair with her hijab. Also, when I say detained or you see headlines saying detained, understand, reports say that officers beat her head with a baton and banged it against their vehicle.

Starting point is 00:18:39 Because of these so-called morality police fucking garbage people, they hospitalized her with a coma for three days before she ended up passing away. Now the authorities have denied these allegations saying no she suffered a sudden heart failure but her family said she was perfectly healthy. And so now after a week protests have spread to over 80 cities and towns with both men and women joining in many torching their head scarves and some even cutting their hair in defiance. There are also right now multiple conflicting reports on the death toll from clashes between police and protesters. Some outlets say that nine people have died.

Starting point is 00:19:09 State television puts the number at 17. A human rights group has counted at least 31. And as these protests have grown, the demonstrations have transformed from merely an anti-hijab protest to a full-blown movement against the regime, with chants being shouted like, death to the dictator, referring to Iran's supreme leader.

Starting point is 00:19:24 I mean, this is the largest anti-government protest in years, and this comes right as the Islamic State is grasping for legitimacy amid a crumbling economy. And so what does the government there do? They block access to WhatsApp and Instagram, effectively imposing an internet blackout on the country, trying to make it harder for the people inside the country to communicate with one another, trying to make it so they can't get the truth out there to the world, but also as far as the rest of the world, right? We're seeing demonstrations of solidarity breaking out globally in countries like Lebanon,

Starting point is 00:19:51 Germany, Canada, and the United States. With protesters also specifically in New York rallying outside the United Nations headquarters as Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi addressed the General Assembly inside. Also, speaking of Raisi, 60 Minutes just published an interview with him, and if you didn't hate him already,

Starting point is 00:20:06 you didn't think about him before, you might after this viral moment. Do you believe the Holocaust happened? That six million Jews were slaughtered? Look, historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched.

Starting point is 00:20:34 Yeah. Ibrahim, my guy, what do you think people have been doing for the last 75 years? Just to be clear, the Holocaust happened. We know this. You don't get to just close your eyes and go, I mean, some people say, I guess maybe it happened. We know this. You don't get to just close your eyes and go, I mean, some people say, I guess maybe it happened. We know this. But back to the main topic at hand. I mean, the protests here are only bound to get more intense in the coming days or weeks. And I can kind of only hope for the safety of those protesters because they're doing the right thing. They're doing the brave thing, protesting there and protesting here, drastically

Starting point is 00:21:04 different things. And hopefully they can spark some change because once again, some people are on the side of the morality police. With the BBC actually interviewing one morality police officer who wished to remain anonymous and that person explaining, They told us the reason we are working for the morality police unit is to protect women. Because if they do not dress properly, then men could get provoked and harm them. Do you mean like the men who are morality police? My thoughts and well wishes to the protesters there. And then let's talk about the Trump triforce of deep legal shit he's in right now.

Starting point is 00:21:31 I feel like Diamond Dallas Page. There's so much going on. It can be hard to keep track of. But that's why you got me, motherfucker. So I'll start with yesterday. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a massive lawsuit alleging numerous instances of fraud against Trump, his three oldest children, Ivanka, Eric, and Don Jr., and the Trump Organization. Also, and this is just kind of a side thing that's bothered me, to the people going, oh my god, they're going after

Starting point is 00:21:52 Trump's kids. Stop making it sound like they're going after middle and high schoolers. They're in their late 30s and 40s. Also, they weren't included flippantly, like they were involved. But that said, the suit also names key executives in the Trump Organization, including its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, who just actually pled guilty to tax crimes, as well as Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney. And in public remarks yesterday, James said that Trump, with assistance from his three children and executives at his business, falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system. With this lawsuit coming after more than three years of investigation, I mean, it's absolutely huge. While I can't touch on everything, there are some key takeaways we need to talk about.

Starting point is 00:22:30 Right from the over 200-page complaint, we know that at the very top level, James Assood alleges that from 2011 to 2021, Trump and the Trump Organization made 200 false and misleading claims about the value of their assets on annual financial statements. Okay, so why does it matter? Why did they do that? Well, over the course of that decade, the former president and his business used those fake statements to, quote, repeatedly and persistently induce banks to lend money to the Trump Organization on more favorable terms than would otherwise be available to the company

Starting point is 00:22:57 to satisfy continuing loan covenants and to induce insurers to provide insurance coverage for higher limits and at lower premiums. With one of the most talked about alleged instances that James outlined being the Trump Tower Triplex. Trump and Co. said it was 30,000 square feet, so it got valued at 30,000 square feet, but it was actually only 11,000. And as a result, it was valued at $327 million in 2015, which James notes is absurd, because at that time, only one apartment in New York City had ever sold for even $100 million. And that was a much nicer and newer building than Trump's 30-year-old Trump Tower. And in fact, the record sale price in Trump Tower at that time was only $16.5 million,

Starting point is 00:23:34 which is a tiny fucking fraction of the $327 million that he was claiming. James also alleged that Trump claimed profits from real estate properties were included in his liquid assets, when in reality, they were actually being held by the real estate trust, Vornado Partnership Interests, which is a trust that Trump actually only held a 30% partnership in, meaning he literally didn't even have a majority stake in the money that he was claiming as his own personal cash, a move that significantly increased Trump's claimed liquidity. And in fact, in some years, those restricted funds accounted for almost one third of all the cash reported by Trump. Like I said, there's too many things to talk about. You had things like you got a cameo from Mar-a-Lago. You had James saying that Trump valued that at

Starting point is 00:24:07 $739 million when at the time the property was actually probably worth about a tenth of that, around $75 million. With the suit explaining the number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering, affecting most, if not all, the real estate holdings in any given year. With James arguing that because this was repeated, right, it wasn't a one-off, this can't be brushed aside or excused as merely the result of exaggeration or good faith estimation. Right, no one's off by that much. No one's out there like, yeah, I have a 20-inch dick, but they have a 2-inch dick. Or maybe there is someone out there, and it's probably Trump. And maybe most importantly here is that James has receipts of intent here.

Starting point is 00:24:40 With Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization CFO, saying that the former president wanted his net worth reflected on the statements to increase. Absolutely crucial here. This isn't something that Trump and the others can just like throw off on the accountants or others who handled the finances. According to the complaint, Trump and his business claim that nearly all of the financial statements were prepared in consultation with outside professionals, but no outside professionals were retained to prepare any of the asset valuations presented in the statements. And it being added, to the extent Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization received any advice from outside professionals that had any bearing on how to approach valuing the assets, they routinely ignored and contradicted such advice. With a suit pointing to an example where Trump falsely valued his property at 40 Wall Street at nearly double what a professional appraiser had determined. But still, he claimed that it was this double value

Starting point is 00:25:26 and attributed the false valuation to information from the appraiser. And James also alleging the statements blatantly violated standard accounting principles. This including falsely representing cash on hand, ignoring restrictions that would lower property values, including intangible items like brand premiums and asset valuation, and most significantly, changing valuation methodology from year to year without reason or notice, or even using vastly different methods to value different properties in the same year.

Starting point is 00:25:51 And this release explicitly notes that these false and misleading statements were personally certified as accurate by Mr. Trump or by one of his trustees. And so overall, James is seeking a $250 million judgment and to permanently ban Trump and his alleged fraud squad from serving as an officer or director in any New York corporation or similar business registered in the state, as well as a slew of other actions that would also limit their ability to do business

Starting point is 00:26:13 in the state of New York. And that was just one of the things. So you have all this with the civil suit, but the big question here is if this will have criminal implications moving forward. Though to that point, James has explicitly said that the conduct alleged in this complaint also violates federal criminal law. And as a result, she has referred the matter to the federal attorneys in Southern New York as well as the IRS for criminal investigation. Now, with all this, Trump and his children

Starting point is 00:26:34 have of course denied these allegations using some of the old classics, like this is just a witch hunt. Well, I won't even dive into the specifics of their denials because it's just all the same old bullshit and it's not worth giving that a platform. I do want to mention here what this means going forward because as many have noted, civil cases can take years to work through the legal process before it can even go to trial. And that's only if it's determined it can go to trial. So at least in the short term,

Starting point is 00:26:57 the biggest impact this case will likely have is how it relates to Trump's other legal problems, right? As we've talked about many times before for years now, the Manhattan District Attorney has been running an investigation into Trump and his business over similar issues. And while the Trump Organization and Weisselberg have been indicted on charges, Trump himself has not been charged for anything here. So it's gonna be interesting to watch

Starting point is 00:27:14 if James's recommendation moves the needle for that criminal investigation or if it sparks a separate probe from the IRS. But then beyond that, to finish off the Triforce, all of this is happening as Trump is also being criminally investigated for his involvement in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

Starting point is 00:27:29 And actually there's also the entirely separate criminal investigation into Trump's improper removal of the classified documents that he kept at Mar-a-Lago. Which actually regarding that, just today, a three judge appeals court panel ruled that the DOJ can continue its probe of those documents after a lower judge blocked them from doing so. Which by the way, is just so amazingly embarrassing for Trump and his team. I think they thought they had

Starting point is 00:27:48 a win when they were like, yes, the Trump-appointed judge said there needs to be a special master. Then the special master was like, what the fuck are you talking about? With some having described that hearing as worse than a train wreck. But yeah, ultimately, it leaves Trump-ty-wumpty with very few options on how to try and block the criminal probe. And we're gonna have to wait to see what happens next. There's so much. But that's always kind of the case with Trump, right? There's so many things that it's impossible

Starting point is 00:28:10 to keep track of everything, but I'm trying. But that is ultimately where that story and today's show ends. As always, thank you for watching, like, and subscribing, being a part of my daily dives into the news. If you somehow need more after all of that, I got you covered right here on those links down below. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco.

Starting point is 00:28:24 You've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow. Unless I'm a liar, we'll see.

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