UNBIASED - May 21, 2024: Hush Money Trial Comes to a Close, Trump's 'Unified Reich' Controversy Explained, Calls for Justice Alito's Recusal Come After Upside-Down Flag Incident, and More.

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

1. Hush Money Trial Comes to a Close; Here's What Happens Now (0:32)2. Truth Social Post on Trump's Account About 'Unified Reich' Causes Controversy (4:23)3. Justice Alito's Upside-Down Flag in Front Yard Raises Questions (8:49)4. Quick Hitters: Rudy Giuliani and Others Plead Not Guilty in AZ, Chair of FDIC to Step Down, Biden Administration Releasing 1M Barrels of Oil (14:17)Watch this episode on YouTube.Follow Jordan on Instagram and TikTok.All sources for this episode can be found here.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Welcome back to Unbiased, your favorite source of unbiased news and legal analysis. Welcome back to Unbiased. Today is Tuesday, May 21st, and this is your daily news rundown. If you love the unbiased approach this episode provides and you feel more informed after listening, please go ahead and leave my show a review on whatever platform you listen. Be sure to share the show with your friends, and if you're watching on YouTube, please go ahead and hit that thumbs up button and subscribe to this channel. Without further ado, let's get into today's stories, starting with the finalization of Trump's hush money trial. And you know, I never thought that Tuesday would be an even slower day

than a Monday when it comes to the news cycle, but here we are. So we are just going to make the most of what we've got. The defense team rested its case today in Trump's hush money trial, following the testimony of Michael Costello. Michael Costello is a lawyer who advised Michael Cohen at one time. And the purpose of Costello's testimony was to show how difficult it could be to work with Michael Cohen. Following his testimony, the defense rested and the court took a quick lunch break. But following that lunch break, the lawyers from both sides met with the judge to talk about charging instructions. This is basically where each side argues for what they want and don't want to be included in the jury instructions, certain words, definitions, things like that. And those jury instructions ultimately happen before the jury deliberates.

Now, the jury won't be back until Tuesday, a week from today. So once the jury does come back, each side, the prosecution and the defense will present their closing arguments. This will be the last sort of information that the attorneys want the jury to take away from the case before the jurors start to deliberate. Then on Wednesday, the jurors will come back in and Judge Merchant will give the jury instructions, which will tell the jury, the legalese, as to how they should reach their decision, what they need to do to reach a verdict, the burden of proof, things like that. From there, the jury will head into the back and start deliberating. And depending on how long it takes the jury to reach a verdict, I would venture to guess that we do have a verdict by the end of next week. But if it ends up taking the jury longer than a couple of days, it may go into

the following week. Once the jury reaches a verdict, though, the verdict is announced immediately. And depending on what the verdict is, the case is either over or Trump gets sentenced at a sentencing hearing down the road. So if Trump is acquitted, he's free to go. He gets to go home. If he's found guilty, though, the judge will set a sentencing hearing and Trump will have to come back in to be sentenced. Now, the question I always get, do I think Trump will do jail time if he's found guilty? Here's the thing. It's possible that he's sentenced to jail, but I think it's highly improbable that he actually does jail time. And here's why. This is such a new issue. It's unprecedented. And I know that word is overused nowadays,

but it is. This is a very important issue. Whether a president or former president can go to jail, because you have to think about it like this. Whether a former or former president can go to jail. Because you have to think about it like this. Whether a former president or president can go to jail is one question. But because presidents and former presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives, that's a whole other question. Can you force Secret Service to do jail time, or is that a violation of their due process rights? I don't think there's a world in which this issue goes before the Supreme Court and the justices say that secret service can also go to jail. For what? They didn't commit a crime. And, you know, in that case, can the

president go to jail if secret service can't? Or maybe the question becomes, does the president lose secret service protection if he's convicted of a crime? But either way, whatever the question ends up being, if Trump were sentenced to jail, he would obviously appeal the sentence. And I just don't see a world in which the justices uphold such a sentence, especially for the crimes he's charged with in the hush money case. Their state charges, I mean, maybe it's a little bit different in a case like the classified documents case where those are federal charges or election interference. But when it comes to these charges specifically, I really don't see the Supreme Court justices finding that jail is warranted. So it's a long way of saying I don't think he'll do jail time.

But anyway, stay tuned for later in the week next week, because I would say we will have a verdict by then. In some other Trump related news, Trump found himself in the middle next week, because I would say we will have a verdict by then. In some other Trump-related news, Trump found himself in the middle of another controversy today after a post to his Truth Social account yesterday went viral. Apparently what happened is an aide posted this now-deleted pro-Trump video to Trump's Truth Social account while Trump was in court, and this video depicts a fake newspaper with a headline that says it's a landslide Trump wins. And then it sort of pans down this whole newspaper about the hypothetical scenario in which Trump wins the election. And there's more headlines and sub headlines that say things like what's next for the economy and economy booms, all of these sort

of headlines. And all the while there's voice recording over these headlines while the video pans throughout the newspaper. But then on the sideline of one of the newspaper pages is this visual of a sub headline that reads, quote, industrial strength significantly increased driven by the creation of a unified Reich, end quote. And I'll play a little clip of the video for you. And if you're not watching on YouTube, then you won't be able to see the controversial headline, but at least you can get a feel for what this video sounds like. What happens after Donald Trump wins? What's for America? The economy booms. American energy is unleashed and an end to crushing taxes.

The border is closed and the largest deportation in history is underway. No more wars as we focus on home. Law and order is restored. The American dream is back and the best is yet to come. Make America great again. So of course, the word Reich is a German word that translates to realm, empire, or kingdom in English, but it's largely associated with Hitler's Third Reich and German Nazis. Naturally, some people are giving Trump the benefit of the doubt, others aren't. Others are giving Trump the benefit of the doubt while also recognizing that it probably wasn't the right word to use. So let's talk about it.

On one side, you have people saying that this is yet another dictator-like slogan from Trump. And in the past, he's used words like bloodbath to describe what would happen to the auto industry, specifically if he loses the election. At a rally earlier this month, Trump said immigrants entering the country illegally are poisoning the blood of our country, which critics say also echoes Hitler. Trump has also come under fire in the past, specifically in 2022, for having dinner with Kanye West and Nicholas Fuentes, two people who have been deemed anti-Semites. But then on the flip side of that, Trump is a proud and vocal supporter of Israel.

He even moved the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem while he was in office. His son-in-law is Jewish. He's been vocal about his love and support for the Jewish people. So, you know, the people on the other side are saying this wasn't ill-intended. Here's what Trump's campaign press secretary had to say about it. She said, quote, this was not a campaign video. It was created by a random account online and reposted by a staffer who clearly did not see the word while the president was in court, end quote. Now, here's what we know. We know, number one, the video was created by a random account called Ramble underscore

Rance. And in a post since the publishing of the video, the user that created the video said that it was about American peace and prosperity and that the newspaper clippings in the video were pre-selected as part of this template showing historical headlines from a stock video company called Envato Elements. The other thing that we know is that the controversial headline seems to copy verbatim what a World War I Wikipedia page says about German industrial strength. So this Wikipedia page reads, quote, German industrial strength and production had significantly increased after 1871, driven by the creation of a unified Reich, end quote. Regardless, though, of the intent behind

the post, it's now been deleted. And pretty much across the board, whether it's supporters of Trump or those that dislike him, the general consensus is that the word has a very negative connotation, and that probably was not the right word to use. But that's the gist of what's going on with that controversy, just so you know all of the sort of points that surround it. Now let's talk about another controversy, because today was a slow day in the news, so I want to talk about a controversy from last week that I didn't get a chance to cover. And that is the controversy about this flag in Justice Alito's front yard. So last week, the news broke that Justice Samuel Alito flew an upside down American

flag outside of his home on January 17th, 2021. The story as it's being reported is that Alito's wife, Martha Ann Alito, is the one who flew the flag upside down after an argument with a neighbor about the neighbor's lawn sign that was up near a neighborhood bus stop that referred to Trump with expletives. Justice Alito himself says he had no part in the flying of the upside down flag and that his wife flew the flag in protest of the derogatory and vulgar signs in the neighbor's yard, not in solidarity with the Capitol protesters, as some have suggested, because the idea from the critics is that the reason that the Alito household was flying the flag upside down just 11 days after January 6th is because the Alitos also contested the 2020 election and the upside down flag was a sign

of support for Trump. Because as we'll talk about in a minute, some of the protesters at the Capitol on January 6th carried an upside down flag in protest. So first, what's the significance of an upside down flag? Let's go through a little bit of history. Depending on how far back you go, the earliest known upside down flag flying was on ships. And in the very early days, an upside down flag being flown on a ship was a sign of distress. But as the years went on, upside down flags signaled political protests, most notably during the Vietnam War. In fact, in 1974, the Supreme Court upheld the right of a student to display an upside down flag from his dorm room with a black

peace sign taped on it. This was a case called Spence v. Washington, and the flag was being flown as a sign of protest, but the Supreme Court said, this is fine, this is within our constitutional rights. Later in 1998, Congress enacted the United States Flag Code, which is part of Chapter 1 of Title 4 of the U.S. Code. It's not mandatory, it's not binding, there's no enforceability, but it sort of sets forth this respectful code of conduct when caring for the American flag. And specifically subsection A says, quote, the flag should never be displayed with the union down except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property. End quote. More recently in 2021,

protesters at the Capitol on January 6th carried upside-down flags in support of Trump and in opposition of the alleged election fraud. And in 2022, pro-choice advocates carried upside-down flags to protest the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Later that year in 2022, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted an upside-down American flag, and that tweet was in between two other posts regarding the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago. So the upside down flag has been a sign of protest from both the left and the right. Given that, what does the upside down flag at the Alito's house mean? Well, we don't know, right? It could be a sign of distrust in the government, given the

proximity to January 6th. It could be as simple as a sign of the State of the Union at the time, a very divisive time politically. It could also be what they said, a dispute with the neighbor and Justice Alito's wife's way of, you know, handling that dispute. However, the only two people that know exactly why that flag was hung upside down are Samuel and Martha and Alito. Speculation is all anyone else has. But now some are calling on Justice Alito to recuse himself from cases that deal with Trump, Trump's administration and January 6th. Similar to how some were calling on Justice Thomas to recuse himself from Trump related cases because Thomas's wife had attended a pro-Trump rally on January 6th. She's also close with Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff. And this is also similar to how

some have called for Judge Merchant in Trump's hush money case to recuse himself because he's donated to Democrats and his daughter is a Democratic Party consultant. But Judge Merchant and Justice Thomas both have declined to recuse themselves. But here's the thing with the Supreme Court specifically, and I've said this before, the justices have sole discretion over whether to recuse themselves. Sure, the court's code of conduct says that justices should recuse themselves in proceedings in which the justice's impartiality might reasonably be questioned. And some instances that the code of conduct lays out for when a justice's impartiality may be questioned

include situations involving a justice's spouse, specifically when a justice's spouse has a financial interest in the subject matter or an interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding. But notably, the list of examples set forth in the code of conduct does not include when a justice's spouse has a known point of view, right, politically. So that's been a big question, and that's why some lawmakers have called for Supreme Court ethics reform. But as of now, justices have sole discretion as to whether to recuse themselves from certain cases.

It's completely up to them. And if they decide not to do so, that's on them. So that's a little bit about what's going on with Alito's flag, the story on both sides, and what flying an upside down flag means. But let's finish today's episode with quick hitters, starting off with Rudy Giuliani and 10 others pleading not guilty today to charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election in Arizona. Also, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation says he'll be stepping down from his position once the Senate names a successor.

Martin Gruenberg has faced pressure for the last couple of weeks to resign from his position after a report revealed a toxic workplace environment within the agency that involved sexual harassment and discrimination. And finally, the Biden administration announced today that it will release 1 million barrels of gasoline from a Northeast reserve to lower gas prices at the pump this summer. The sale will be allocated in increments of 100,000 barrels at a time and is intended to create a competitive bidding process that ensures gas can be sold at competitive prices. According to AAA, the average price per gallon today is $3.60, which is up 6 cents from a year

ago. That is what I have for you today. Thank you for being here, especially on days when, you know, the news doesn't really have much to offer. Hopefully tomorrow's a better day in that sense. I'll have for you today. Thank you for being here, especially on days when, you know, the news doesn't really have much to offer. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day in that sense. I'll talk to you tomorrow.