Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / The Smirk Heard Around the World: Dems Celebrate & We Break Down Why Trump Verdict WILL Be Reversed
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome.
- 0:00Speaker 2: It is verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with
- 0:04Speaker 2: you and Senator we now know the White House. They
- 0:07Speaker 2: know how to celebrate when it comes to Donald Trump
- 0:10Speaker 2: being convicted.
- 0:11Speaker 3: Well, that's exactly right. We have seen now the smirk
- 0:15Speaker 3: heard around the world, Joe Biden, jubilant, gleeful, celebrating and
- 0:21Speaker 3: spiking the football in the end zone at this political prosecution.
- 0:25Speaker 3: And it's not just a prosecution. It is a persecution
- 0:29Speaker 3: which Democrats believe will yield dividends. In November, we're going
- 0:33Speaker 3: to break down the fallout from the convictions in New
- 0:37Speaker 3: York and we're going to go into detail about precisely
- 0:41Speaker 3: why this was an abuse of power, the jury instructions
- 0:45Speaker 3: that were given in this trial, how this was rigged,
- 0:49Speaker 3: and the Democrats do not want anyone to acknowledge how
- 0:53Speaker 3: it was rigged. Well, we're going to give you the facts.
- 0:54Speaker 3: We're going to break it down.
- 0:56Speaker 2: It was shocking to see how gleeful the President of
- 0:58Speaker 2: the United States of America was at knowing that his
- 1:01Speaker 2: political opponent is now an official political prisoner.
- 1:05Speaker 3: Well, look, it is sad watching Joe Biden utterly gleeful
- 1:10Speaker 3: and not even pretending to hide it. You know, I
- 1:12Speaker 3: have to say, if you're going to do a kangaroo trial,
- 1:15Speaker 3: if you're going to go after your political opponents and
- 1:18Speaker 3: try to attack them and abuse the justice system, usually
- 1:22Speaker 3: people pretend they're not doing that. Well, not with Joe Biden.
- 1:26Speaker 3: Take a look at how we reacted when he was asked.
- 1:27Speaker 4: About it, mister president. Can you tell us, sir, Donald
- 1:32Speaker 4: Trump prefers to himself as a political prisoner and blames
- 1:35Speaker 4: you directly. What's your response to that, sir? Do you
- 1:40Speaker 4: think the condition will have an impact on the campaign.
- 1:45Speaker 4: We'd love to hear.
- 1:45Speaker 3: Your thoughts, sir. Should you be on the ballot? Sir?
- 1:50Speaker 1: That's damning. I mean it's obvious he's saying, yeah, and
- 1:53Speaker 1: I did that.
- 1:55Speaker 3: Look it is disgusting. And I will say for those
- 1:57Speaker 3: of you all listening to the audio, as you know,
- 1:59Speaker 3: in this podcast, we do three shows a week that
- 2:02Speaker 3: are on audio. One of them typically is on video.
- 2:04Speaker 3: This is one of the video shows. So if you're
- 2:06Speaker 3: on audio, i'd encourage you go over to YouTube and
- 2:08Speaker 3: watch the video because you actually need to see see
- 2:12Speaker 3: the expression on his face. He's gleeful, He's not hiding it.
- 2:17Speaker 3: He is spiking the football and just shameless it is.
- 2:22Speaker 3: I'm abusing power. I'm reminded of of mel Brooks history
- 2:26Speaker 3: of the world. It's good to be the king. That's
- 2:29Speaker 3: actually what I thought. I could almost hear Biden saying,
- 2:33Speaker 3: I'm abusing my power, damn it, and I'm proud of it.
- 2:37Speaker 3: I will say this, the Trump campaign saw that and
- 2:41Speaker 3: immediately turned it around. They put together an ad. I
- 2:44Speaker 3: got to say, it's a heck of a powerful ad.
- 2:46Speaker 3: It's the same thing you've seen, you just saw, but
- 2:49Speaker 3: with a little bit of music, a little bit of context.
- 2:51Speaker 3: Take a look at this Trump ad.
- 2:53Speaker 5: Just was done. Guy.
- 2:54Speaker 6: The Biden administration order a boon or an opponent to
- 2:59Speaker 6: political appone, mister.
- 3:01Speaker 4: President, can you tell us, sir, Donald Trump prefers himself
- 3:05Speaker 4: as a political prisoner and blames you directly. What's your
- 3:08Speaker 4: response to that, sir?
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- 5:07Speaker 1: Senator, that ad was a brilliant ad. Y.
- 5:10Speaker 2: I also think we can see that America saw that
- 5:13Speaker 2: smirk for what it was, a threat to our freedom
- 5:16Speaker 2: and democracy and our way of life in this country,
- 5:19Speaker 2: trying to imprison your political opponents. But even more than that,
- 5:24Speaker 2: people went to donate to Trump like never before. They're angry.
- 5:28Speaker 3: Fifty three million dollars in the first twenty four hours.
- 5:32Speaker 3: It was stunning. And by the way, I will say,
- 5:36Speaker 3: I think Republicans across the board saw that. I can
- 5:39Speaker 3: tell you in terms of my campaign website, we saw
- 5:41Speaker 3: a surge of donations there as well. I assume others
- 5:44Speaker 3: did as well. I think people saw what happened in
- 5:47Speaker 3: the campaign and they were pissed off, and they were
- 5:49Speaker 3: pissed off, and they had the reaction They're like, this
- 5:53Speaker 3: is wrong. We need to stand up and fight back.
- 5:56Speaker 3: You know, I got to say, watching that smirk, it's
- 5:59Speaker 3: in furiating. But it was a moment when the mask slipped.
- 6:05Speaker 3: And so the Democrats are playing a game. This political
- 6:09Speaker 3: prosecution was all about calling Trump a convicted felon. They
- 6:15Speaker 3: can now do that. They're going to do that every
- 6:17Speaker 3: single day until election day. Now, there's kind of a
- 6:21Speaker 3: script that you play when you're doing a kangaroo court.
- 6:25Speaker 3: When the court is over, what you say is is
- 6:29Speaker 3: all right to quote south Park, respect my authority. That's
- 6:33Speaker 3: supposed to be the line. Well Joe Biden managed when
- 6:38Speaker 3: he wasn't caught smirking through giving his genuine reaction to
- 6:43Speaker 3: read the script and say, we now have the verdict,
- 6:46Speaker 3: we must respect the authority. Give a listen to this
- 6:49Speaker 3: press conference of Joe Biden telling everyone shut up and
- 6:53Speaker 3: accept the results. Trump is a bad guy.
- 6:58Speaker 5: Just checking this afternoon, good afternoon. Before I began, Mary Marx,
- 7:05Speaker 5: I just wanted to say a few words about what
- 7:08Speaker 5: happened yesterday in New York City. The American principle that
- 7:13Speaker 5: no one is above the law was reaffirmed. Donald Trump
- 7:18Speaker 5: was given every opportunity to defend himself. It was a
- 7:21Speaker 5: state case not a federal case, and it was heard
- 7:25Speaker 5: by a jury of twelve citizens, twelve Americans, twelve people
- 7:30Speaker 5: like you, Like millions of Americans who served on jurys.
- 7:35Speaker 5: This jury is chosen the same way every jury in
- 7:38Speaker 5: America is chosen. It was the process that Donald Trump's attorney.
- 7:42Speaker 3: Was part of.
- 7:44Speaker 5: The jury heard five weeks of evidence, five weeks after
- 7:48Speaker 5: careful deliberation, the jury reached a unanimous verdict. They found
- 7:54Speaker 5: Donald Trump guilty on all thirty four felon accounts not
- 8:00Speaker 5: only be given the opportunity as he should to feel
- 8:03Speaker 5: that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity. That's
- 8:07Speaker 5: how the American system of justice works. And it's reckless,
- 8:12Speaker 5: it's dangerous. It's irresponsible for anyone to say this was
- 8:16Speaker 5: rigged just because they don't like the verdict. Our justice
- 8:21Speaker 5: system is endured for nearly two hundred and fifty years,
- 8:25Speaker 5: and it literally is a cornerstone of America. Our justice system,
- 8:30Speaker 5: the justicystem should be respected and we should never allow
- 8:34Speaker 5: anyone to tear it down. It's as simple as that.
- 8:37Speaker 5: That's America, that's who we are, and that's who will
- 8:42Speaker 5: always be. God will he.
- 8:44Speaker 2: He says, it's irresponsible to say that this verdict was rigged,
- 8:49Speaker 2: that this jury was rigged, that all of this was rigged.
- 8:52Speaker 2: But then he smirks, basically saying, yeah, it was rigged,
- 8:55Speaker 2: and you should respect the system that we just rigged.
- 8:58Speaker 3: Look, I got to say listening to that, watching that,
- 9:00Speaker 3: it is infuriating. It makes my blood boil. He says,
- 9:03Speaker 3: it's reckless to do this, and we need to not
- 9:06Speaker 3: tear down the justice system. Nobody has torn down our
- 9:09Speaker 3: justice system more than that man, Joseph Robin at Biden
- 9:13Speaker 3: jor he has presided over number one, politicizing the Department
- 9:16Speaker 3: of Justice in a way that is utterly shameful, that
- 9:20Speaker 3: targets his political enemies, that protects his own corruption, and
- 9:26Speaker 3: at the same time he says, well, we got to
- 9:27Speaker 3: respect this system. He ignores the fact that Alvin Bragg
- 9:31Speaker 3: is a viciously partisan prosecutor, a Democrat who campaigns saying
- 9:35Speaker 3: I'm the guy to get Donald Trump. I'm the one
- 9:37Speaker 3: to get Donald Trump. I know how to get Donald Trump.
- 9:39Speaker 3: I'm the one to get Donald Trump. Joe Biden doesn't
- 9:42Speaker 3: acknowledge any of that. He doesn't acknowledge the fact that
- 9:44Speaker 3: the number three person at his own Justice department, left
- 9:48Speaker 3: the Department of Justice to go join the prosecution. He
- 9:50Speaker 3: has a line in there. This was a state case,
- 9:53Speaker 3: not a federal case, except for the fact that one
- 9:55Speaker 3: of the lead lawyers was your number three lawyer at
- 9:58Speaker 3: the Department of Justice. He doesn't ignore knowledge the fact
- 10:00Speaker 3: that this judge was a joke, was a rabid partisan,
- 10:05Speaker 3: was a donor to Joe Biden. He's one of his donors.
- 10:08Speaker 3: And you know what he behaved. You know, the man
- 10:12Speaker 3: should have been he should have taken off his black
- 10:14Speaker 3: robe and he should have put on a Biden hat
- 10:17Speaker 3: because it was a campaign. You want to talk about
- 10:20Speaker 3: an unacknowledged campaign contribution, how about every day Judge Merchamp
- 10:25Speaker 3: showed up to work. That was a campaign contribution. And
- 10:28Speaker 3: by the way, under their theory, it was clearly intended
- 10:30Speaker 3: to influence the outcome of the election. Alvin Bragg every day.
- 10:34Speaker 3: Apparently Joe Biden needs to disclose Alvin Bragg's salary on
- 10:38Speaker 3: his campaign finance reports because this is entirely intended to
- 10:43Speaker 3: influence the outcome of an election. It is Look, the
- 10:47Speaker 3: rule of law matters. What happened this week. It's infuriating,
- 10:53Speaker 3: and it's disappointing.
- 10:56Speaker 1: He's also premeditated.
- 10:58Speaker 3: Yes, they knew what they were doing by the smirk.
- 11:01Speaker 3: The smirk was the honesty that whole riff was. The
- 11:05Speaker 3: planned defense, by the way, was planned at the beginning.
- 11:07Speaker 3: They knew what they were going to say. It was
- 11:09Speaker 3: all about we do a kangaroo court. It's all over. Now.
- 11:12Speaker 3: Listen to the court. Listen to the court. No, no, no,
- 11:14Speaker 3: you can't call it a kangaroo court. Never mind the
- 11:17Speaker 3: kangaroo jumping up and down, ignore the facts, ignore the law.
- 11:21Speaker 3: We have someone who is wearing a robe who says
- 11:24Speaker 3: him bad. Okay, you got to keep us in power.
- 11:26Speaker 3: And by the way, that's all we care about that
- 11:29Speaker 3: Democrats stay in power.
- 11:30Speaker 2: They pre planned this and you can literally go back
- 11:32Speaker 2: years to see it. One of the Soros family members,
- 11:36Speaker 2: and I want to pull this tweet up because I
- 11:38Speaker 2: think it's an important point that you just made.
- 11:40Speaker 1: This was all orchestrated by design.
- 11:42Speaker 2: George Soros went out there and said, I want to
- 11:44Speaker 2: find people that are friendly to me. I'm going to
- 11:47Speaker 2: get them elected around the country. I'm going to weaponize
- 11:49Speaker 2: the court system, and then I'm going to get the
- 11:51Speaker 2: outcomes from weaponizing the court system. Alvin Bragg was the
- 11:55Speaker 2: first part of this master plan. You had to have
- 11:57Speaker 2: a prosecutor that was willing to say, I'm not going
- 11:59Speaker 2: to follow the law all and I'm going to do
- 12:01Speaker 2: egregious acts of partisanship to get us to a point
- 12:05Speaker 2: where we might be able to get to a court
- 12:07Speaker 2: And look at the tweet from Soros's son explaining that
- 12:12Speaker 2: we have won.
- 12:13Speaker 1: We are successful.
- 12:14Speaker 2: Quote Democrats to refer to Trump as a convicted felon
- 12:17Speaker 2: at every opportunity. Repetition is the key to a successful message.
- 12:23Speaker 2: And we want people to wrestle with a notion of
- 12:27Speaker 2: hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in
- 12:32Speaker 2: the country. And then the New York Times headline Trump
- 12:35Speaker 2: guilty on all counts. They plan this, yes, and it
- 12:39Speaker 2: was years in the making that.
- 12:42Speaker 3: They're all on the same team. Now. Alex Soros is
- 12:44Speaker 3: George Soros's son. By many reports, George Soros is he's
- 12:50Speaker 3: he's very elderly, and apparently he has diminished significantly, much
- 12:54Speaker 3: like Joe Biden, and so it is widely reported that
- 12:58Speaker 3: Alex Soros is running things now. Alex Soros is the
- 13:01Speaker 3: young hard leftist who is distributing billions of dollars funding
- 13:06Speaker 3: it all. And so how did Alvin Bragg get elected
- 13:09Speaker 3: with money from Soros? Massive money from Soros. By the way,
- 13:13Speaker 3: Soros is doing this all across the country, investing millions
- 13:16Speaker 3: and millions of dollars in electing left wing DA's who
- 13:20Speaker 3: let criminals out of jail, who won't prosecute murderers, And
- 13:24Speaker 3: it really is striking. They're not hiding it. No, look
- 13:30Speaker 3: at this tweet. Democrats should refer to Trump as a
- 13:32Speaker 3: convicted felon at every opportunity. As we said on Friday's pod,
- 13:36Speaker 3: the entire purpose of this was for them to be
- 13:39Speaker 3: able to call him a convicted felon. Repetition is the
- 13:43Speaker 3: key to a successful message. This is all about message.
- 13:47Speaker 3: This is all about politics. They're not hiding it. It's
- 13:50Speaker 3: why Joe Biden's smirking, which is our political plan, worked.
- 13:54Speaker 3: Although I'm not convinced it worked. I actually think it
- 13:57Speaker 3: think it may well backfire. They think people are stupid.
- 14:02Speaker 3: They think repetition is the key. If we say it
- 14:04Speaker 3: a lot, people will be stupid and just believe it.
- 14:07Speaker 3: I think people have some real common sense. I think
- 14:09Speaker 3: people understand this was a sham.
- 14:13Speaker 2: You look at the sham and you see the media respond.
- 14:17Speaker 2: We could play fifty clips the media. Most people that
- 14:19Speaker 2: are listening, they know what was said. But there's also
- 14:23Speaker 2: this psychotic gleefulness over the idea now that they're saying,
- 14:27Speaker 2: not only we're gonna call him a convicted felon, but Donald
- 14:29Speaker 2: Trump can't travel outside the country to many other countries.
- 14:33Speaker 2: Do you really want that got to be your president?
- 14:35Speaker 2: I mean this is they obviously knew what they were
- 14:37Speaker 2: gonna say long before he was convicted, and play it
- 14:41Speaker 2: out for this campaign, knowing that the appeal wouldn't happen
- 14:44Speaker 2: in time.
- 14:46Speaker 3: Look, this is all about politics. The appeal will succeed,
- 14:50Speaker 3: this will be reversed on appeal, But this is all
- 14:53Speaker 3: about attacking Trump. And I will say this. Trump came
- 14:56Speaker 3: out and gave a press conference, and I want you
- 14:58Speaker 3: to listen to the point he made. This is very brief,
- 15:00Speaker 3: but it is a fundamental point that ought to scare
- 15:03Speaker 3: the hell out of everybody.
- 15:05Speaker 6: Give a listen a case where if they can do
- 15:08Speaker 6: this to me, they can do this to anyone.
- 15:11Speaker 2: I think that's incredibly powerful reminder. If the Democrats line
- 15:15Speaker 2: is remind him and say it over and over again.
- 15:17Speaker 2: He's a convicted felon. Donald Trump's line should be over
- 15:21Speaker 2: and over again. If they can do this to me,
- 15:23Speaker 2: a former president United States of America, they can do
- 15:25Speaker 2: it to any one of you.
- 15:26Speaker 3: And let's let's use an example. Ben. You're you're an
- 15:28Speaker 3: influential guy. You're well known, You've got a very popular podcast.
- 15:34Speaker 3: You are on the radio. You've been on the radio
- 15:36Speaker 3: since you were twelve years old. Who long time? Let
- 15:39Speaker 3: me ask you something. Are you a billionaire? No? Do
- 15:41Speaker 3: you have a billion dollars in the bank.
- 15:42Speaker 4: No?
- 15:43Speaker 3: Do you have a team of lawyers on retainer?
- 15:44Speaker 4: No?
- 15:45Speaker 3: Were you president of the United States?
- 15:46Speaker 4: No?
- 15:47Speaker 3: Do you have universal name idea across the globe?
- 15:49Speaker 6: No?
- 15:50Speaker 3: Do you have a jet with your name on the
- 15:52Speaker 3: side of it. If they can do it to him,
- 15:56Speaker 3: it's a hell of a lot easier to squash he
- 15:59Speaker 3: Ben Fergus than it is a Donald J.
- 16:01Speaker 4: Trump.
- 16:03Speaker 3: If they can do it to him, whoever is listening,
- 16:05Speaker 3: there's nobody listening. They could do it to me. They
- 16:07Speaker 3: could do it to you. They can do it to anybody.
- 16:11Speaker 3: They are grinning. We can destroy you and we don't care.
- 16:16Speaker 3: It is all about power. Look We talk a lot
- 16:19Speaker 3: on this podcast about Marxism, and as you know, I
- 16:22Speaker 3: wrote a whole book, my last book, Unwoke, how to
- 16:25Speaker 3: defeat cultural Marxism in America. For me, Marxism is very
- 16:28Speaker 3: real because my family has suffered and been imprisoned and
- 16:32Speaker 3: tortured by Marxists. They care about power, the same thugs
- 16:38Speaker 3: that will throw you in prison. They're trying to do
- 16:41Speaker 3: the same thing to Donald Trump right now because all
- 16:44Speaker 3: they care about is power.
- 16:47Speaker 2: Let's talk about the step forward for Trump and using
- 16:52Speaker 2: not just a smirk, but also using this court case
- 16:56Speaker 2: to explain the American people just how rigged it is.
- 16:58Speaker 2: I think that's an important point for him. He's gonna
- 17:01Speaker 2: have to go out there and explain this is how
- 17:03Speaker 2: all this went down, this is how corrupt it was.
- 17:06Speaker 1: How much into the weeds does he need to go
- 17:08Speaker 1: into that?
- 17:09Speaker 3: I don't think he needs to get into the weeds
- 17:11Speaker 3: a lot. I think think we're going to provide details
- 17:13Speaker 3: in just a few minutes that will give you give
- 17:15Speaker 3: you some backup on that. But look, I think people
- 17:19Speaker 3: know you look at this. Everyone involved in this is
- 17:22Speaker 3: obviously a partisan. It's why I get so angry at
- 17:26Speaker 3: Joe Biden saying it's reckless to tear down our justice
- 17:28Speaker 3: system because he's the one tearing down the justice system.
- 17:31Speaker 3: I watched that that press conference, and it reminds me
- 17:35Speaker 3: of like an arsonist holding cans of gasoline with with
- 17:39Speaker 3: matches in his hands, saying, stop complaining about me lighting
- 17:43Speaker 3: buildings on fire. He's the one burning our justice system
- 17:47Speaker 3: to the ground, and their real consequences to it. There
- 17:50Speaker 3: are real consequences to people losing faith. What he actually
- 17:54Speaker 3: said about our system of justice is a cornerstone of America.
- 17:57Speaker 3: That is correct. Look, if you contrast America to Banana republics,
- 18:02Speaker 3: the difference is you have the rule of law. The
- 18:05Speaker 3: difference is you don't do this. And these democrats they
- 18:08Speaker 3: hate Trump so much they don't care. They're willing to
- 18:11Speaker 3: destroy it. And all right, let let's get to Alvin Bragg.
- 18:15Speaker 3: Alvin Bragg minds you, he's suddenly tough on crime. Yeah,
- 18:18Speaker 3: this is a guy who if you murder people, if
- 18:21Speaker 3: you rate people, you walk down the street and you
- 18:24Speaker 3: punch a little old lady in the face, Alvin Bragg
- 18:26Speaker 3: will let you go.
- 18:27Speaker 2: Three the illegal immigrants attacked a police officer on camera.
- 18:30Speaker 1: Let him walk out.
- 18:31Speaker 3: The same day, the same day, the same day. Let
- 18:33Speaker 3: him go. This is a man who was elected to
- 18:37Speaker 3: let violent criminals go. That's what Soros wanted. Let violent
- 18:41Speaker 3: criminals go. New York will be better with more murderers
- 18:44Speaker 3: on the street. New York will be better with more
- 18:46Speaker 3: rapists on the street. That is their view. Now I
- 18:49Speaker 3: want you to listen to what Donald Trump said, because
- 18:51Speaker 3: he made a very powerful point on exactly this.
- 18:54Speaker 6: We had a DA who is a failed DA. Crime
- 18:59Speaker 6: is ramped into New York. Violent crime, that's what he's
- 19:01Speaker 6: really supposed to be looking at. Crime is ramp into
- 19:05Speaker 6: New York. Yesterday and McDonald's you had a man hitting
- 19:10Speaker 6: him up with machetes a machete. Whoever can imagine even
- 19:17Speaker 6: a machete being wielded in a store in a place
- 19:21Speaker 6: where they're eating and they's going rampant, and Bragg is
- 19:24Speaker 6: down watching a trial on what they call.
- 19:30Speaker 3: Crimes crimes.
- 19:32Speaker 1: He's got a great point.
- 19:34Speaker 2: This guy shouldn't be in this court with Donald Trump
- 19:36Speaker 2: when this is what he's dealing with, machete wielding individuals
- 19:39Speaker 2: in New York.
- 19:40Speaker 3: So literally, on the day of the trial, there was
- 19:44Speaker 3: a lunatic with a machete in a McDonald's threatening people.
- 19:47Speaker 3: Now you would think, what is a district attorney supposed
- 19:50Speaker 3: to be doing? I would think pretty high on the
- 19:52Speaker 3: list is protecting me from machetes. Like if some guy
- 19:54Speaker 3: brings out a machete and is trying to hurt people,
- 19:57Speaker 3: the DA ought to arrest him and prosecute him. But no,
- 20:01Speaker 3: you know, what's a decapitated person or two. When you're
- 20:04Speaker 3: talking about Democrats, they're willing to look the other way
- 20:07Speaker 3: at that. What was Alvin Bragg doing? He had a
- 20:09Speaker 3: political objective to be in that courtroom because he's trying
- 20:14Speaker 3: to bloody Donald Trump, he's trying to reelect Joe Biden,
- 20:17Speaker 3: he's trying to stay in power. And I want to
- 20:20Speaker 3: break down some of the materials so that There's a
- 20:22Speaker 3: very interesting article that was written in The Intelligencer, and
- 20:25Speaker 3: it's by Elie Honik, who is a CNN legal commentator,
- 20:28Speaker 3: not a conservative, but he is a real lawyer, and
- 20:31Speaker 3: he analyzes and and breaks down a lot of the
- 20:36Speaker 3: enormous legal problems with what happened in this trial. Let
- 20:39Speaker 3: me read read briefly what he said. He said the
- 20:42Speaker 3: District Attorney's press office and its flax often proclaim that
- 20:46Speaker 3: falsification of business records charges, which is what they went
- 20:49Speaker 3: after Trump on, are quote commonplace, and indeed the office
- 20:54Speaker 3: is quote bread and butter. That's true only if you
- 20:58Speaker 3: draw definitional lines so broad is to render them meaningless.
- 21:02Speaker 3: Of course, the DA charges falsification quite frequently. Virtually any
- 21:06Speaker 3: fraud case involves some sort of fake documentation, so it's
- 21:10Speaker 3: often an add on to some other case. It's one
- 21:12Speaker 3: of the additional crimes that's committed. But let me continue
- 21:17Speaker 3: from elihonik. But when you impose meaningful search parameters, the
- 21:22Speaker 3: truth emerges. The charges against Trump are obscure and nearly
- 21:30Speaker 3: entirely unprecedented. Now listen to this next sentence. In fact,
- 21:36Speaker 3: no state prosecutor in New York or Wyoming or anywhere
- 21:43Speaker 3: has ever listened to that word, ever charged federal election
- 21:50Speaker 3: laws as a direct or predicate state crime against anyone
- 21:57Speaker 3: for anything, none ever, Even putting aside the specifics of
- 22:06Speaker 3: election law, The Manhattan DA itself almost never brings any
- 22:12Speaker 3: case in which falsification of business records is the only charge,
- 22:17Speaker 3: so that starts off of the front end. This is unusual.
- 22:20Speaker 3: They had to get incredibly creative.
- 22:22Speaker 1: Not just unusual, never been done before.
- 22:25Speaker 3: Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I mean we.
- 22:27Speaker 2: Literally said, no one's been super enough to do it.
- 22:29Speaker 2: But we packed this court. We got the judge we want,
- 22:32Speaker 2: We got the da we want. We got a guy
- 22:34Speaker 2: that the majority of the people in this area actually hate.
- 22:37Speaker 2: They knew this. You couldn't have planned this any better.
- 22:39Speaker 2: And it goes back to the George Soros money. We
- 22:41Speaker 2: got the money to get the guy we want elected.
- 22:43Speaker 2: We got the judge. He gave money to Joe Biden.
- 22:45Speaker 2: We've set up this kangaroo court from beginning to end
- 22:49Speaker 2: exactly how you'd have to do it to get this
- 22:51Speaker 2: to happen.
- 22:52Speaker 3: That's right now. One of the things that we have
- 22:54Speaker 3: today that we did not have we did the last
- 22:56Speaker 3: podcast is we actually have the jury instruction. So I've
- 22:58Speaker 3: gotten written jury instructions, been able to read them before.
- 23:01Speaker 3: I was relying on news reports of what the judge said,
- 23:04Speaker 3: but I didn't actually have them in front of me.
- 23:06Speaker 3: So understand that the sort of Rube Goldberg machine that
- 23:10Speaker 3: they invented to try to get anything to get Trump
- 23:13Speaker 3: the cl The crime is falsifying business records. That's a misdemeanor.
- 23:18Speaker 3: By the way, a misdemeanor. Do you know the definition
- 23:20Speaker 3: of a misdemeanor with the different differences between a misdemeanor
- 23:22Speaker 3: and a felony. A misdemeanor is a crime that is
- 23:25Speaker 3: punishable by less than a year in jail. The definition
- 23:27Speaker 3: of a felony is a crime that is punishable by
- 23:29Speaker 3: a year or more in jail, So that's the cutoff. Felonies,
- 23:33Speaker 3: understandably are more serious.
- 23:36Speaker 2: Speeding ticket, parking ticket all misdemeanors because you don't go
- 23:39Speaker 2: to jail for over a year.
- 23:40Speaker 3: Fright jaywalking, those are misdemeanors. Murder is a felony. Rape
- 23:44Speaker 3: is a felony. Burglary is a felony. Crimes that are serious,
- 23:48Speaker 3: so falsification of business record, it is a misdemeanor. It's
- 23:51Speaker 3: punishable by less than a year, and it has a
- 23:53Speaker 3: two year statute of limitations, which means the prosecutor has
- 23:56Speaker 3: two years to bring the case. All of this happened
- 23:59Speaker 3: years go back in twenty sixteen, so the statute of
- 24:01Speaker 3: limitations expired years ago. So every one of the charges
- 24:05Speaker 3: that Alvin Bragg brought you can't bring now under the
- 24:09Speaker 3: plain text because two years is passed. So New York has, however,
- 24:15Speaker 3: a mechanism to elevate that crime to a felony if
- 24:20Speaker 3: the falsification of business record is done with the intent
- 24:24Speaker 3: to conceal another crime. And so I want to break
- 24:26Speaker 3: down these jury instructions because it's going to show just
- 24:29Speaker 3: how absurd this was. One thing linked upon another, linked
- 24:32Speaker 3: upon another. So page twenty nine of the jury instructions
- 24:36Speaker 3: herees what the judge told the jury intent to commit
- 24:39Speaker 3: or conceal another crime for the crime of falsifying business
- 24:42Speaker 3: records in the first degree, the intent to defraud must
- 24:45Speaker 3: include an intent to commit another crime or to aid
- 24:49Speaker 3: or conceal the commission thereof. Under our law, though the
- 24:52Speaker 3: people must prove an intent to commit another crime or
- 24:55Speaker 3: to aid or conceal the commission thereof, they need not
- 24:59Speaker 3: prove that the other crime was in fact committed, aided
- 25:05Speaker 3: or concealed. So understand this other crime, which is the
- 25:11Speaker 3: magic ticket that elevates these these misdemeanors to felonies and
- 25:14Speaker 3: extends the statutal limitationcy you can suddenly prosecute them. The
- 25:19Speaker 3: prosecutor quote need not prove that the other crime was
- 25:23Speaker 3: in fact committed, aided or concealed. So it's a crime
- 25:28Speaker 3: that doesn't have to have happened, all right, So let's
- 25:31Speaker 3: read some more New York election Law section seventeen one
- 25:35Speaker 3: to fifty two predicate. Here's what the judge instructed the jury.
- 25:39Speaker 3: The people alleged that the other crime the defendant intended
- 25:41Speaker 3: to commit aid or conceal is a violation of New
- 25:45Speaker 3: York election Law section seventeen one fifty two. Okay, that's
- 25:48Speaker 3: some clarity that we didn't have through much of the trial.
- 25:50Speaker 3: But the judge actually specifies, all right, this is the
- 25:52Speaker 3: quote other crime. What is section seventeen one to fifty
- 25:56Speaker 3: two of New York election law provides, Well, it provides
- 25:58Speaker 3: that quote, any two or more persons who conspire to
- 26:02Speaker 3: promote or prevent the election of any person to a
- 26:06Speaker 3: public office by unlawful means, and which conspiracy is acted
- 26:11Speaker 3: upon by one or more parties, there too, shall be
- 26:12Speaker 3: guilty of conspiracy to promote or prevent on election. And
- 26:17Speaker 3: so the keywords there are unlawful means, two or more
- 26:23Speaker 3: persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of
- 26:28Speaker 3: any person to a public office by unlawful means. So
- 26:32Speaker 3: those two words unlawful means are the entire foundation on
- 26:36Speaker 3: which this whole case is built. Now, what does unlawful
- 26:42Speaker 3: means mean? And this is the most important jury instruction.
- 26:46Speaker 3: This will be the basis for reversal when this case
- 26:49Speaker 3: is appealed, it will be There are lots of reasons
- 26:52Speaker 3: to reverse it, but this is the easiest and clearest.
- 26:54Speaker 3: Here's what unlawful means means. And it's just two paragrass
- 26:57Speaker 3: It's very short quote. Although you must conclude unanimously that
- 27:03Speaker 3: the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of
- 27:08Speaker 3: any person to a public office by unlawful means, you
- 27:13Speaker 3: need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.
- 27:20Speaker 3: In determining whether the defendant conspired to promote or prevent
- 27:23Speaker 3: the election of any person to a public office by
- 27:26Speaker 3: unlawful means, you may consider the following one violations of
- 27:31Speaker 3: the Federal Election Campaign Act otherwise known as FICA, two
- 27:36Speaker 3: the falsification of other business records, or three violation of
- 27:42Speaker 3: tax laws. So we've talked about how the US Supreme
- 27:48Speaker 3: Court has long made clear in order to convict someone
- 27:51Speaker 3: of a crime, you must prove beyond a reasonable doubt
- 27:54Speaker 3: every element of the crime, and the jury must found
- 27:56Speaker 3: find unanimously that you are guilty. You have committed every
- 27:59Speaker 3: element of the crime. What the judge just said, there
- 28:02Speaker 3: is no no number one. This unlawful means means anything unlawful,
- 28:07Speaker 3: like whatever, like. We're not going to define it, but
- 28:09Speaker 3: I'm going to give you three jurors choice, your pick.
- 28:12Speaker 3: It's like mix and match, choose your own adventure. A
- 28:15Speaker 3: couple people say, I think it was federal campaign finance law.
- 28:18Speaker 3: Someone else. You know, it was violation of the tax laws.
- 28:21Speaker 3: By the way, they don't specify what about the tax laws?
- 28:23Speaker 3: Did you violate the tax laws?
- 28:24Speaker 4: Yep?
- 28:25Speaker 3: Okay. Then suddenly this is a felony. Then suddenly the
- 28:28Speaker 3: statute of limitations is extended. Then suddenly, instead of less
- 28:31Speaker 3: than a year, you can sentence Donald Trump to over
- 28:34Speaker 3: one hundred years.
- 28:36Speaker 2: Is it fair to say that the judge basically gave
- 28:38Speaker 2: instructions to the jury that almost put them in a
- 28:40Speaker 2: position where there's no way to not find them guilty
- 28:42Speaker 2: because there's such ambiguity.
- 28:44Speaker 3: The way they define this. The judge knew damn well
- 28:48Speaker 3: it was all but forcing the jury to render a
- 28:52Speaker 3: guilty verdict now, I still think a juror should have
- 28:55Speaker 3: said no. And by the way, there is a long
- 28:58Speaker 3: tradition in our juris prudence of what's called jury nullification,
- 29:02Speaker 3: which is there are times when this has happened repeatedly
- 29:05Speaker 3: where a juror says, you know what, you may give
- 29:08Speaker 3: me instructions that I've got to do X, Y and Z,
- 29:10Speaker 3: but this is garbage, this is bs no, this is
- 29:14Speaker 3: a miscarriage of justice. And that's part of the reason
- 29:19Speaker 3: our system has a jury system, is to have twelve
- 29:23Speaker 3: ordinary people as a check on the prosecution and on
- 29:27Speaker 3: the justice system. It's why I held out hope for
- 29:31Speaker 3: a hung jury that someone would say this is so
- 29:34Speaker 3: obviously garbage. I won't play a part, but I will
- 29:37Speaker 3: say I feel some sympathy for the jurors because reading this.
- 29:42Speaker 3: Here's the instruction that the judge gave about the Federal
- 29:45Speaker 3: Election Campaign Act. The terms contribution and expenditure include anything
- 29:50Speaker 3: of value, including any purchase, payment, loan, or advance, made
- 29:53Speaker 3: by any person, for the purpose of influencing any election
- 29:56Speaker 3: for federal office. Under federal law, a third party's payment
- 29:59Speaker 3: of candidate's expenses is deemed to be a contribution to
- 30:02Speaker 3: the candidate unless the payment would have been made irrespective
- 30:06Speaker 3: of the candidacy. So in this instance, the focus was
- 30:10Speaker 3: on the money that Michael Cohen paid to Stormy Daniels,
- 30:14Speaker 3: the so called hush money to keep her quiet about
- 30:17Speaker 3: the alleged affair. Now, under this instruction, the judge is
- 30:20Speaker 3: basically told the jury that is a campaign finance violation.
- 30:27Speaker 3: He says any payment, any payment of candidate's expenses is
- 30:31Speaker 3: deemed to be a contribution unless the payment would have
- 30:33Speaker 3: been made irrespective of the candidacy. Now, the judge did
- 30:38Speaker 3: not allow Brad Smith, the chairman former chairman of the
- 30:41Speaker 3: Federal Elections Commission, to testify, and that instruction on federal
- 30:48Speaker 3: campaign finance law is woefully incomplete. So Brad Smith put
- 30:52Speaker 3: out a tweet thread that actually explained federal campaign finance law.
- 30:57Speaker 3: I want to read it and walk through that because
- 30:59Speaker 3: it will show why the judges jury instructions were so deficient.
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- 32:27Speaker 2: first order centata. I want you to go over what
- 32:29Speaker 2: you were just describing, because it's amazing that the guy
- 32:32Speaker 2: that should have been able to go before the court
- 32:34Speaker 2: and explain these laws and how they work to the
- 32:36Speaker 2: jury was barred from testifying, and that's why apparently he
- 32:40Speaker 2: decided to put out this long tweet.
- 32:42Speaker 3: Now, so this is this is a tweet thread. I'm
- 32:44Speaker 3: just gonna read it. Let's take a stab. False Falsefying
- 32:48Speaker 3: business records under New York law is a misdemeanor unless
- 32:51Speaker 3: it is done to hide a crime. Bragg says that
- 32:54Speaker 3: crime was a violation of Federal Election Campaign Act FIICA,
- 32:57Speaker 3: or of a New York statute making it illegal to
- 32:59Speaker 3: inflight LUNs an election by unlawful means. But if the latter,
- 33:04Speaker 3: what is the quote unlawful means? That's what we were talking
- 33:07Speaker 3: about a minute ago, an alleged violation of FICA. So
- 33:10Speaker 3: it comes down to FICA. There are two potential violations here.
- 33:14Speaker 3: One is the acceptance of an unlawful contribution by the campaign.
- 33:18Speaker 3: The other is incorrect reporting of a contribution by the campaign.
- 33:24Speaker 3: Either way, we have to have a campaign contribution that
- 33:28Speaker 3: allegedly occurred when Cohen advanced money to pay the Stormy
- 33:30Speaker 3: Daniel settlement. FIKA defines a contribution as a payment made
- 33:34Speaker 3: quote for the purpose of influencing an election. The twenty
- 33:38Speaker 3: sixteen max legal contribution was twenty seven hundred dollars. This
- 33:42Speaker 3: looks bad for Trump. It's pretty easy to conclude the
- 33:45Speaker 3: payment was made to influence an election by buying Daniel's silence, right,
- 33:49Speaker 3: and Cohen paid Daniels one hundred and thirty thousand dollars,
- 33:52Speaker 3: way over the limit. Well, it's not so simple. First,
- 33:57Speaker 3: let's clear something up. Cohen just loaned them, he was
- 34:01Speaker 3: paid back, and then some So where some ask is
- 34:03Speaker 3: the contribution. But this is not a winner for Trump.
- 34:08Speaker 3: Under the law, a contribution includes a loan unless made
- 34:11Speaker 3: in the ordinary course of business EGA bank. So that's
- 34:14Speaker 3: not a good argument. But for context, note that there
- 34:19Speaker 3: is no limit on how much Trump can pay can
- 34:21Speaker 3: contribute to his own campaign. By October twenty seventh, when
- 34:25Speaker 3: Daniels was paid, Trump had already spent over sixty million
- 34:28Speaker 3: dollars of his own money on the campaign. It would
- 34:30Speaker 3: have been easy for him to toss in another one
- 34:32Speaker 3: hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Now back to the definition
- 34:36Speaker 3: of contribution. If they bought Daniels's silence to quote influence
- 34:41Speaker 3: an election, what the prosecution is alleged. Isn't that a
- 34:45Speaker 3: contribution and also a campaign expenditure which mirrors the contribution definition.
- 34:51Speaker 3: First common sense, we know that a campaign expense is
- 34:55Speaker 3: not literally any payment made quote for purpose of influencing
- 34:59Speaker 3: an election, and reading the statute that way would be
- 35:03Speaker 3: way too broad. For example, in nineteen ninety nine, Bill
- 35:07Speaker 3: and Hillary Clinton bought a house in New York. One
- 35:11Speaker 3: reason they did so was so that Hillary could run
- 35:13Speaker 3: for US Senate from New York. In other words, the
- 35:15Speaker 3: expenditure was clearly done in part quote for the purpose
- 35:20Speaker 3: of influencing an election. Is it a campaign expenditure underfeaka?
- 35:25Speaker 3: Of course not common sense. How about if a would
- 35:30Speaker 3: be candidate pays a lawyer to seal old divorce records
- 35:34Speaker 3: because he's afraid that, if revealed, they would be damaging
- 35:37Speaker 3: to his candidacy campaign expense, No, clearly not, even though
- 35:42Speaker 3: done quote for the purpose of influencing an election. Or
- 35:45Speaker 3: suppose a business owner wants to settle pending lawsuits against
- 35:49Speaker 3: his businesses before running for Congress. He thinks the lawsuits
- 35:53Speaker 3: are bs, but he's afraid the press will make a
- 35:55Speaker 3: big deal of the allegations. Can he pay the settlements
- 35:58Speaker 3: with campaign funds? The answer obviously is no, even though
- 36:03Speaker 3: there is no legal obligation to pay them, and the
- 36:05Speaker 3: settlements would be paid specifically quote to influence an election.
- 36:11Speaker 3: In fact, in each of these examples, it would be
- 36:14Speaker 3: unlawful to make the payments with campaign funds. I'm gonna
- 36:18Speaker 3: take a pause here. Understand what Alvin Bragg's argument is.
- 36:24Speaker 3: He's saying Trump had to use campaign funds to pay
- 36:28Speaker 3: off Stormy Daniels. That's an idiotic rule. And by the way,
- 36:32Speaker 3: it's a rule that says every candidate for public office,
- 36:35Speaker 3: if you're paying to settle a lawsuit dealing with whether
- 36:38Speaker 3: you had an affair, you must use your campaign funds
- 36:41Speaker 3: to do so. That's absurd. And what Brad Smith is
- 36:43Speaker 3: saying is if you did that, the Federal Election Commission
- 36:47Speaker 3: would go after you. Let me go back to what
- 36:48Speaker 3: Brad Smith, because he explains it a little bit more.
- 36:51Speaker 3: This is because and this is the part that the
- 36:55Speaker 3: judge left out of the jury instruction didn't tell the jury,
- 36:58Speaker 3: so they didn't know this. There's another part of that.
- 37:00Speaker 3: The judge just said, ignore this part because it shows
- 37:03Speaker 3: that Trump hasn't violated the law. Rat Smith, former chairman
- 37:06Speaker 3: of the FEC charged with enforcing this law. Quote. This
- 37:10Speaker 3: is because FIICA also prohibits using campaign funds for quote
- 37:15Speaker 3: personal use. So you got to ask is it personal use?
- 37:18Speaker 3: If yes, you can't use campaign funds aka Hillary Clinton
- 37:22Speaker 3: buying a house right in New York? Exactly what is
- 37:26Speaker 3: quote personal use? Under Federal Election Commission regulations, and the
- 37:30Speaker 3: FEC has primary authority for interpreting the law. It is
- 37:34Speaker 3: any obligation that would exist irrespective of the candidacy. Indeed,
- 37:40Speaker 3: the FEC regulations make clear that a mixed motive doesn't
- 37:43Speaker 3: make something a campaign expense. If the obligation would exist
- 37:48Speaker 3: irrespective of the campaign, paying it with campaign funds is
- 37:52Speaker 3: personal use and therefore illegal. Certainly, Daniels used the campaign
- 37:59Speaker 3: to push or Trump and for the most money she could.
- 38:03Speaker 3: The timing affected the value of the allegations, but the
- 38:07Speaker 3: obligation didn't exist because Trump was a candidate. It predated
- 38:13Speaker 3: his candidacy, and it was not created by his being
- 38:15Speaker 3: a candidate. She could have shut him, shook him down
- 38:18Speaker 3: for hush money at any point, whether or not he
- 38:21Speaker 3: was running for president. Brad didn't say that. I said that.
- 38:25Speaker 3: Brad continues, Let's use common sense. Is it a campaign
- 38:30Speaker 3: expense to pay a non disclosure agreement for something arising
- 38:34Speaker 3: out of events ten years earlier and not caused by
- 38:38Speaker 3: the act of being a candidate. Is paying hush money
- 38:43Speaker 3: a campaign expense? Duh, No, And we wouldn't want it
- 38:49Speaker 3: to be. This is really important. We wouldn't want it
- 38:51Speaker 3: to be. We don't want candidates using campaign funds to
- 38:54Speaker 3: pay personal expenses, whether new clothes, a weight loss program,
- 38:59Speaker 3: or a gym member purchase, to help the candidate look better.
- 39:02Speaker 3: And therefore, quote for the purpose of influencing an election,
- 39:06Speaker 3: you can't use campaign finance funds for that.
- 39:08Speaker 2: So when you're running for office, just to be very
- 39:10Speaker 2: clear on his point, you can't say I'm going to
- 39:12Speaker 2: take a fifty thousand dollars wardrobe for all these campaign
- 39:15Speaker 2: events because it's still technically closed for you personally.
- 39:18Speaker 3: Yeah, you can't do that at all. You can't buy
- 39:19Speaker 3: your clothes using cap I.
- 39:21Speaker 1: Need a haircut or and I'm gonna get one every day.
- 39:24Speaker 3: You can't do any of that. You can cannot do,
- 39:27Speaker 3: and they'll go after you for it. If you do it,
- 39:30Speaker 3: they will go after you for personal use. Let me
- 39:32Speaker 3: finish what he said. He only had a couple more
- 39:34Speaker 3: and certainly not to pay non disclosure agreements to keep
- 39:38Speaker 3: embarrassing info hidden In summary, for the purpose of influencing
- 39:44Speaker 3: an election is an objective standard. The motive of the
- 39:46Speaker 3: donor of the spender doesn't matter. So what are expenditures?
- 39:51Speaker 3: Paying campaign staff? Are expenditures? Are a campaign expenditure? Buying
- 39:56Speaker 3: ads for the candidate, paying fundraising costs, paying a cant
- 40:00Speaker 3: paign accountant, paying for polling, travel to campaign events. Basically
- 40:05Speaker 3: all the obligations you incuraged solely because you were running
- 40:09Speaker 3: for office. The FEC's approach is consistent with the US
- 40:13Speaker 3: Supreme Court, which is consistently held in every case in
- 40:16Speaker 3: Speaker was passed fifty years ago that its definition of
- 40:20Speaker 3: contribution and expenditure must be objective, not subjective, to avoid
- 40:25Speaker 3: being unconstitutionally vague. None of that went to the jury,
- 40:29Speaker 3: so the jury was just told, well, if it could
- 40:32Speaker 3: influence the election, you got to find it's a violation
- 40:34Speaker 3: of law that has flat out false, and they were
- 40:37Speaker 3: not told. If Trump had done what Alvin Bragg said
- 40:42Speaker 3: he needed to do, the FEC would have charged him
- 40:46Speaker 3: with a personal use violation with using campaign funds illegally.
- 40:51Speaker 3: The jury didn't know that because the judge didn't want
- 40:54Speaker 3: him to know.
- 40:54Speaker 2: That, and that's why they said you can't come and testify.
- 40:58Speaker 3: Yes, and he also vented the lawyers from arguing this.
- 41:02Speaker 3: But by the way, so that was one ground. The
- 41:05Speaker 3: other two grounds that could be unlawful means. And you
- 41:08Speaker 3: could have three jurors on one and five on another,
- 41:10Speaker 3: and four other like they could mix and match the
- 41:12Speaker 3: other ground.
- 41:13Speaker 1: Have you ever heard of a jury where that was it? Okay,
- 41:16Speaker 1: this thing, you understand.
- 41:17Speaker 2: It's weird that Usually it's you either got to be
- 41:20Speaker 2: all in lockstep, yeah, or you're not. So it's either
- 41:24Speaker 2: your innocent or guilty because a twelve agree, and or
- 41:26Speaker 2: if they disagree, one of them disagrees.
- 41:28Speaker 1: Were done.
- 41:28Speaker 3: Find the elements of the crime.
- 41:30Speaker 1: He said, find your own path too.
- 41:33Speaker 3: Guilty, Yeah, whatever you want. The objective is guilty. You
- 41:36Speaker 3: come up with however you want to get there, all right,
- 41:38Speaker 3: So one was the Federal campaign Finance on his instructions
- 41:42Speaker 3: are wonefully deficient. He only includes part of the rule.
- 41:45Speaker 3: He leaves out the other half, which is explains why
- 41:48Speaker 3: Trump shouldn't have done so. And it would have been
- 41:50Speaker 3: a mistake to do it the way the prosecutor wanted
- 41:53Speaker 3: him to do, and he would have been charged with it.
- 41:54Speaker 3: I mean it would have been he would have been
- 41:56Speaker 3: violating the law to do what Alvin Bragg is saying
- 42:00Speaker 3: he should have done. Another supposed basis of unlawful means
- 42:05Speaker 3: was falsification of other business records. The second of the
- 42:11Speaker 3: people's theories. This is from the jury instruction. The second
- 42:14Speaker 3: of the people's theories of unlawful means, which I will
- 42:16Speaker 3: define for you now, is the falsification of other business
- 42:18Speaker 3: records for purposes of determining whether falsifizing business to records,
- 42:23Speaker 3: and the second degree was an unlawful means used by
- 42:25Speaker 3: a conspiracy to promote or prevent election. Here you may
- 42:29Speaker 3: consider the bank records associated with Michael Cohen's account formation,
- 42:32Speaker 3: the bank records association with Michael Cohens wired to Keith Davidson,
- 42:35Speaker 3: the invoice from Investor Advisory Services, and the ten ninety
- 42:39Speaker 3: nine MISK form of the Trumpet Organization issued to Michael Cohenes. So,
- 42:41Speaker 3: in other words, they're thirty four counts of false business records.
- 42:48Speaker 3: They're all the identical charge. They just occur thirty four
- 42:53Speaker 3: different times, thirty four different entries in the bookmarks. What
- 42:56Speaker 3: he's saying is, you know what, every one of these
- 42:59Speaker 3: is a misdemeanor. But if you say you made one
- 43:02Speaker 3: of these entries to assist in another of these entries,
- 43:05Speaker 3: then they're all felonies. Wow, Like it is the most
- 43:10Speaker 3: circular reasoning that just makes no sense. And by the way,
- 43:17Speaker 3: let's go to the third one, because the third one
- 43:19Speaker 3: just makes me laugh out loud. The people's third theory
- 43:23Speaker 3: of unlawful means, which I will define for you now,
- 43:26Speaker 3: is a violation of tax laws. Under New York State
- 43:29Speaker 3: and New York City law, it is unlawful to knowingly
- 43:31Speaker 3: supply or submit materially false or fraudulent information in connection
- 43:34Speaker 3: with any tax return. Likewise, under federal law, it is
- 43:37Speaker 3: unlawful for a person to willfully make any tax return, statement,
- 43:40Speaker 3: or other document that is fraudulent or false as at
- 43:43Speaker 3: any material matter, or that the person does not believe
- 43:46Speaker 3: to be true and correctest to every material matter. I
- 43:49Speaker 3: listened to this last sentence. Under these federal, state, and
- 43:53Speaker 3: local laws, such conduct is unlawful even if it does
- 43:57Speaker 3: not result in the underpayment of taxes. So, in other words,
- 44:01Speaker 3: he told the jury, by the way, you can find
- 44:03Speaker 3: a violation of tax laws even if you paid you
- 44:07Speaker 3: didn't pay any less taxes, even if you didn't defraud anyone,
- 44:10Speaker 3: even if you're not using it to cheat on your taxes,
- 44:12Speaker 3: if you think there's something in the tax laws. And
- 44:15Speaker 3: by the way, there is no person on planet Earth
- 44:17Speaker 3: who understands all of the tax laws. You know, there
- 44:19Speaker 3: was a book that was written years ago called three
- 44:21Speaker 3: Felonies a Day, and it argues that all of us
- 44:24Speaker 3: living in this complex world commit three felonies a day
- 44:28Speaker 3: between tax laws and environmental laws. There's just so much regulations.
- 44:32Speaker 3: If you are doing anything, if you're filling out a
- 44:34Speaker 3: credit card application, an aggressive prosecutor can find three felonies
- 44:38Speaker 3: a day that Ben Ferguson has committed in this instance.
- 44:41Speaker 3: That jury instruction says, well, if you can figure out
- 44:45Speaker 3: if you think there was any.
- 44:47Speaker 1: Lime up with your own theory, basically.
- 44:48Speaker 3: Come up with your own theory. And by the way,
- 44:51Speaker 3: the violation of tax law, doesn't have to have taken
- 44:54Speaker 3: a penny of taxes from New York City, New York
- 44:57Speaker 3: State of the federal government. And if you think there
- 45:01Speaker 3: was some amorphous violation of tax law that didn't result
- 45:05Speaker 3: in any underpayment of taxes, suddenly, presto chanjoh. These misdemeanors
- 45:11Speaker 3: that we can't prosecute the statute of limitations that extended.
- 45:14Speaker 3: They're now felonies, and we can sentence Donald Trump to
- 45:17Speaker 3: one hundred years in jail. One hundred and thirty four
- 45:19Speaker 3: years in jail.
- 45:20Speaker 2: In other words, orange man bad, find your way to
- 45:22Speaker 2: figure out how to say he's guilty.
- 45:25Speaker 3: That's exactly what this was all about. This is politics.
- 45:30Speaker 3: It'll get reversed on appeal, but the judge doesn't care.
- 45:34Speaker 3: He knows that The purpose is what Alex Soro said.
- 45:39Speaker 3: The purpose is what Joe Biden said. The purpose is
- 45:43Speaker 3: all the Democrats at all the media get to call
- 45:45Speaker 3: him a felon over and over and over again between
- 45:49Speaker 3: now an election day. This is a five month battle.
- 45:51Speaker 3: It's not a five year battle. The purpose is not
- 45:54Speaker 3: to put Donald Trump in jail. They know that's not
- 45:57Speaker 3: gonna happen.
- 45:57Speaker 1: Cost the election.
- 45:59Speaker 3: They are trying to win. This is about keeping Joe
- 46:02Speaker 3: Biden to the Democrats in power because it's all they
- 46:05Speaker 3: care about, and they're willing to burn the justice system
- 46:09Speaker 3: to the ground to keep the Democrats in power.
- 46:12Speaker 2: One more question I want to ask of you, and
- 46:14Speaker 2: it deals with what's next for Trump. But before we
- 46:16Speaker 2: do that, I want to say thank you to so
- 46:18Speaker 2: many of you that are listeners and watchers of this
- 46:22Speaker 2: podcast for getting involved with the International Fellowship of Christians
- 46:27Speaker 2: and Jews. Since a tear attack on October seventh, anti
- 46:30Speaker 2: Semitism has been on the rise, not just in Israel
- 46:33Speaker 2: but here at home, in the US and around the world.
- 46:35Speaker 2: And that is why I've partnered with the International Fellowship
- 46:38Speaker 2: of Christians and Jews to make a difference for the
- 46:41Speaker 2: needs of those in Israel right now. They are asking
- 46:46Speaker 2: for help when it comes to actually giving and putting
- 46:49Speaker 2: up bomb shelters as well as the supplies you need
- 46:53Speaker 2: while you were in that bomb shelter. For the month
- 46:56Speaker 2: of June. We're asking Christians to sign this pledge will
- 47:00Speaker 2: deliver to the President of Israel to show that Christians
- 47:04Speaker 2: in America are not only standing in solidarity, but they
- 47:07Speaker 2: are speaking up as well. So let's take a stand
- 47:10Speaker 2: today with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and
- 47:14Speaker 2: let the Jewish people know that they are not alone.
- 47:17Speaker 2: They need your help. And if you're ready to pledge
- 47:20Speaker 2: to stand side by side with your Jewish brothers and
- 47:23Speaker 2: sisters to never be silent, to show the Jewish people
- 47:27Speaker 2: that they're not alone, that they have God and Christians
- 47:31Speaker 2: standing by their side. To sign the pledge, Go to
- 47:35Speaker 2: SUPPORTIFCJ dot org. That is support IFCJ dot org to
- 47:41Speaker 2: take a stand today. Help the people in Israel again.
- 47:46Speaker 2: Sign the pledge and stand with our brothers and sisters
- 47:49Speaker 2: in Israel. Go to support if CJ dot org. That's
- 47:53Speaker 2: support if CJ dot org to take a stand today.
- 47:58Speaker 2: Send her final question for you, and this goes back
- 48:01Speaker 2: to the last podcast. You were conflicted on what Trump's
- 48:06Speaker 2: plan should be Next. Do you go to the Supreme Court?
- 48:09Speaker 2: Do you try to get there quickly? Or is there
- 48:12Speaker 2: a way to force this case moving forward? Now knowing
- 48:16Speaker 2: the jury instructions and what they were given and most importantly,
- 48:20Speaker 2: what they had admitted from them, does this open up
- 48:25Speaker 2: any different legal pathway for the Trump team to say, Okay,
- 48:28Speaker 2: we need to get this scene even quicker. So it
- 48:31Speaker 2: isn't Hey, we got what we wanted. We get to
- 48:33Speaker 2: say you're a convicted felon all the way through election day.
- 48:36Speaker 2: Can this speed up the process?
- 48:37Speaker 1: Or no?
- 48:38Speaker 3: So let me answer that. But let me answer that
- 48:41Speaker 3: in connection to a question that people ask quite a bit,
- 48:44Speaker 3: which is what's the sentence going to be? We've got
- 48:45Speaker 3: the sentence, we know that is just a few days
- 48:47Speaker 3: before the Republican Convention, and a lot of folks are asking,
- 48:51Speaker 3: is the judge going to sentence Trump to jail time?
- 48:54Speaker 3: I think there's a very real chance the judge sentence
- 48:56Speaker 3: Trump to jail time. I think this is a vicious partisan.
- 49:00Speaker 3: I think he hates Donald Trump. I think he's willing
- 49:02Speaker 3: to abuse his power. But I will wager large sums
- 49:05Speaker 3: of money regardless of what he sentences him to jail
- 49:08Speaker 3: time or something else, that if there is incarceration, he
- 49:14Speaker 3: will suspend it pending appeal. I think that I could
- 49:17Speaker 3: see the judge at sentencing saying I sentence you to
- 49:20Speaker 3: four years in jail or no, No, I don't think
- 49:24Speaker 3: he would. I do think you've got four years for
- 49:26Speaker 3: each of these thirty four counts. Is the maximum amount
- 49:31Speaker 3: typically they would run concurrently, which means they would all
- 49:34Speaker 3: run at the same time. You could run him consecutively,
- 49:36Speaker 3: which is how you get over one hundred years in
- 49:39Speaker 3: any ordinary circumstance. Number One, a judge of Trump's age
- 49:42Speaker 3: that does not have any prior offenses in New York
- 49:44Speaker 3: would never serve a day of jail time in any
- 49:46Speaker 3: other case. I mean, look, you can physically assault someone,
- 49:50Speaker 3: you can repeatedly violently beat people up, you can engage
- 49:54Speaker 3: in all sorts of crimes and not serve jail time
- 49:57Speaker 3: in New York. That being said, I think it's that's
- 50:00Speaker 3: entirely possible. This judge is enough of a partisan to say,
- 50:04Speaker 3: you're the president, what you did mattered, I'm sentencing you
- 50:08Speaker 3: to four years in jail. I could see him. He
- 50:10Speaker 3: would love that. That would be the crowning moment of
- 50:13Speaker 3: his life to utter those words.
- 50:15Speaker 2: It also be useful politically, because then not only can
- 50:18Speaker 2: you say he's convicted felon, but then you say, do
- 50:21Speaker 2: you want a guy going to the White House, it's
- 50:22Speaker 2: about to go to jail.
- 50:23Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 50:24Speaker 3: So what I do not think he will do is
- 50:28Speaker 3: sentenced him to jail and say take him into custody.
- 50:31Speaker 3: And put him there right now. He could, but I
- 50:33Speaker 3: think if he did that, it would prompt an immediate
- 50:36Speaker 3: emergency appeal and he would get reversed. I assume this
- 50:40Speaker 3: guy is smart enough to know that he doesn't want
- 50:43Speaker 3: to get reversed, and he especially does not want to
- 50:47Speaker 3: get reversed before election day. He's engaged in politics, so
- 50:51Speaker 3: he's not going to do something I think that will
- 50:54Speaker 3: prompt an immediate reversal because that undermines the political value
- 50:58Speaker 3: of the charai that he's conducting. So if the sentences
- 51:05Speaker 3: in prisonment or it could be home confinement. If the
- 51:09Speaker 3: sentence is something like that, I think he'll suspend it
- 51:12Speaker 3: pending the resolution of the appeal. In that case, I
- 51:15Speaker 3: think the odds are quite high. This appeal will have
- 51:18Speaker 3: to go through the New York state system. First. We
- 51:22Speaker 3: talked about in Friday's pod, and by the way, you
- 51:24Speaker 3: should go back and listen to Friday's pod. We did
- 51:26Speaker 3: Friday's pod late Thursday night. We did it on the
- 51:29Speaker 3: road as I was driving from Dallas to Houston. It
- 51:32Speaker 3: was right after the verdict came down, and it was
- 51:35Speaker 3: analyzing the next steps and in much greater detail than
- 51:38Speaker 3: we have in this pod, and so you ought to
- 51:40Speaker 3: listen to the two pods together. But the ordinary course
- 51:45Speaker 3: of appeal would be to appeal from the trial court
- 51:47Speaker 3: to the intermediate appellate court in New York in the
- 51:49Speaker 3: state court system, and then if you lose in the
- 51:52Speaker 3: intermediate appellate court, to appeal to the top appellate court
- 51:56Speaker 3: in New York called the New York Court of Appeals.
- 51:59Speaker 3: And then finally, if you lose there, then you could
- 52:01Speaker 3: appeal to the U. S. Supreme Court. That's normally how
- 52:04Speaker 3: a criminal case would proceed. It is possible you can
- 52:08Speaker 3: file an extraordinary writ to ask the US Supreme Court
- 52:13Speaker 3: to intervene right now, but it is very very very rare.
- 52:18Speaker 3: There is a chance, and I'm sure the Trump legal
- 52:20Speaker 3: team is debating this right now. There's a chance the
- 52:23Speaker 3: court would say yes. But I think it's probably unlikely.
- 52:27Speaker 3: I think the court's instinct, particularly if a sentence is suspended,
- 52:33Speaker 3: if the judge order Trump put in jail, the Supreme
- 52:35Speaker 3: Court would say yes. It would force the court to
- 52:38Speaker 3: say yes. So if the sentence is suspended and Trump
- 52:43Speaker 3: is free to campaign, fore to debate, for you to
- 52:45Speaker 3: go to the convention, I think the justice's instincts will
- 52:49Speaker 3: be you know what, The New York state courts might
- 52:52Speaker 3: correct this. The Court of Appeals might reverse this, The
- 52:54Speaker 3: Intermediate Court of Appeals might reverse this. They might get
- 52:57Speaker 3: it right. And there's a long ethos that the Court,
- 53:00Speaker 3: which is, if we don't need to act, we don't
- 53:03Speaker 3: need to act. If someone else can fix this, if
- 53:05Speaker 3: another level of the justice system can fix this, the
- 53:08Speaker 3: US Supreme Court doesn't need to step in. That's their
- 53:10Speaker 3: general approach. If they were to deny the extraordinary writ
- 53:15Speaker 3: I suspect you would have some justices right and say
- 53:19Speaker 3: something like there are lots of reasons to be concerned here,
- 53:22Speaker 3: but right now the sentence is suspended. The verdicts can
- 53:25Speaker 3: be overturned on appeal, and so will allow the state
- 53:29Speaker 3: proceedings to go forward. If there was an order of
- 53:33Speaker 3: immediate incarceration, it would force their hands. I think the
- 53:38Speaker 3: whole game here from the DA and from the judge
- 53:42Speaker 3: is the political advantage not actually sending Trump to jail.
- 53:46Speaker 3: They know these jury instructions will never survive an appeal.
- 53:51Speaker 3: If you had anything resembling fairness in the judicial system,
- 53:55Speaker 3: the New York Court's Appeals should reverse it. I got
- 53:58Speaker 3: to say, based on the absolute disgrace we just saw
- 54:01Speaker 3: play out, I have no confidence of that. The New
- 54:04Speaker 3: York justice system is I suspect forever a global laughing stock.
- 54:09Speaker 3: And you put this on top of the prior civil
- 54:11Speaker 3: case where they took a half billion dollars that they're
- 54:13Speaker 3: trying to take a half billion dollars from Trump. The combination.
- 54:16Speaker 3: The message New York has said is if we don't
- 54:19Speaker 3: like you, if you are politically disfavored, welcome to communist Cuba.
- 54:23Speaker 3: We will treat you the same and you have the
- 54:25Speaker 3: same rights as you would have locked into Gulac.
- 54:30Speaker 2: This is gonna be interesting that it plays out. It's
- 54:32Speaker 2: gonna be interesting to see what the poll numbers say
- 54:33Speaker 2: this week. We're gonna cover it all. Don't forget we
- 54:36Speaker 2: did this show Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Hit that subscribe or
- 54:39Speaker 2: auto download button, and on those in between days there's
- 54:41Speaker 2: a lot of breaking news. Grab my podcast as well,
- 54:43Speaker 2: the Ben Ferguson podcasts, and I will keep you up
- 54:45Speaker 2: to date on those in between days. Make sure if
- 54:48Speaker 2: you didn't get to watch this on YouTube, watch it
- 54:51Speaker 2: on YouTube. You'll get to see those clips and this
- 54:53Speaker 2: famous smirk of Joe Biden and the Senate, and I
- 54:55Speaker 2: will see you back here in a couple of days.