Trump's Desperation is Showing!

0:00It's time for Justice Matters, with former federal prosecutor and legal analyst, Glenn Kerschner. Trump is becoming truly desperate. Glenn goes into some of the recent stories showing how, next on Justice Matters. These are difficult times, and if you believe in Justice, Progress, and Democracy, the news you read and listen to can be pretty depressing. And that's why there's a podcast called Good News for Lefties and America. Every day it features positive news stories for progressive listeners, because no matter how disturbing the headlines might be, there's always hope we can build on for a better tomorrow. Good news for lefties and America. Listen on this platform at GoodNews for Lefties.com or wherever podcasts are heard. Trump's desperation is showing. He is a man circling the drain.

1:02He's not confident when he has to come up with this bullshit about every adult in America, gets 5K. If the Republicans win the House and the Senate, I mean, come on, Sport. You know you're about to lose. Spectacularly, you're about to lose. Because if you were confident in the results of the midterm, midterm elections, you wouldn't have to bribe everybody. And let's call that what it is. It is a bribe. And I've heard lawyers on both sides of the issue. Some say it's illegal, some say it's legal. Let me read the law to you. It's very short. This is the federal law. I believe it also violates lots of state election laws. And I would urge attorneys general and prosecutors in all 50 states to assess the laws on their books and charge the motherfucker if he has violated your state law.

2:06Step up. Get in the fight. Look, as we all know, I've been wearing this all around Europe. Justice is a team sport. Right? We all need to be in the game, including state law enforcement authorities. But let me read the federal law to you because I am of the belief that it is a violation of federal law. Now let's be honest. It's an academic question or discussion we're about to have a short one on the federal election law. Because who is the top law enforcement authority, you know, charged with enforcing our nation's laws, that would be Todd John Mitchell Blanche. So we know the law will not be enforced, whether it's violated or not. He's not going to assess whether Donald Trump's bribe attempted bribe of the American voters is criminal. Of course, he won't.

3:09Let me just read the law. Very short federal statute prohibiting paying for votes. And if anybody is scoring at home, it's 18 United States Code section 597. And here's how it reads very short. Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote or to vote for or against any candidate violates this federal law. Pretty simple, right? Let's put it to the test. Trump said, I'll pay you $5,000 if the Republicans win. If you vote and the Republicans win, whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure, $5,000 would be considered an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote or to vote for or against any candidate violates the law.

4:10You know, let's just apply the plain meaning of that sentence and that statute. Seems like it violates the statute, doesn't it? I know there's a Supreme Court case that talks about first amendment free speech rights and candidates can say a lot of stuff that they ought not say, but it seems to violate that statute. There's a second provision of the statute and this is the part where Donald Trump turns all Americans into criminals. You ready? Whoever solicits, accepts or receives any such expenditure in consideration of his vote or the withholding of his vote also violates this law. So if anybody accepts the $5,000 for having voted Republican, you're also a felon. So he's trying to convert all Americans who accept money to vote a particular way into

5:17criminals, people who violate the federal law. So again, it's an academic discussion we're having, right? A theoretical discussion because Todd Blanche going to shit to even explore whether this bribery scheme that Donald Trump announced in the harsh light of day violates federal law. But I hope the state authorities step up and do precisely that. What else is Donald Trump done in recent days? He made his supporters dwindling in ranks though they are. We saw the half empty arena. You're not fooling anyone, Don. He urged his supporters. In fact, he administered a pledge to his supporters that they should do what? Cheat in the election and vote whether they're registered or not.

6:18Can't make that up. I'm sure you've all still saw it. He led them in a pledge to quote, cheap like hell, that's a quote in the election, whether they're registered or not. So the Supreme Court needs to stop ignoring the reality of who and what Donald Trump is an abject criminal president of the United States. And they need to adjust and rule accordingly. To the extent Donald Trump sends his piece of shit, hacks solicitor general, John Sauer, went to the Supreme Court to argue that all of this attempt to prevent mail-in voting, voting by mail is to preserve election integrity.

7:23The man just administered a pledge to his supporters that they should quote, cheap like hell and vote whether they're registered or not. Don't give me this bullshit about promoting election integrity with his unconstitutional attempt to prevent voting by mail. Stop divorcing yourselves from reality. We six Supreme Court justice, right wing, radical, ideological, hacks. Stop it. Stop destroying America. Stop destroying our elections. Stop destroying our democracy. Just effing stop. So yes, this gets us worked up. Justice pissed off, gets us angry and agitated, but it also needs to motivate us.

8:28It needs to motivate us. Donald Trump is desperate. We need to make him more desperate. And I don't care what else he throws at the polls. I don't care if he tries. I do care, obviously, but let him try to postpone the elections. Let him invoke the insurrection act. Let him declare some kind of martial law. Let him throw it all at us. We're going to march right the fuck through it to the polls and vote. You know, yeah, I'm anxious to get back home and get back into the fight full time. I've kind of been part time, I guess, working on it, but I'm ready to go. This is a vacation that I think was long overdue that neither one I needed, but you know, I'm it shouldn't get back into the fight full time. In fact, we return on Thursday and then Friday morning. I'll be speaking at a roll to the polls rally in Virginia because that is the first day

9:34of early voting in Virginia. And I am excited about it. And what I hope we can all do, I'm not done. I want to touch on one other legal development, which was pretty consequential. And it was a really good one for a lot of reasons. And it kind of flew under the radar more so than other, I think, legal issues in recent days. But you know, we have to make plans to get ourselves and everybody else we know to the polls and not rely on mail-in ballots if we can help it. Let's get to the polls in person. Let's get to the polls early. Let's make arrangements to have, you know, November 3rd, I think, is the day. I hope I'm not wrong about that. The day the midterms will be held proper. Let's have voting parties. Let's rally the, I don't want to say rally the troops, but rally the voters. And we're going to overwhelm everything Donald Trump throws at us and at our elections.

10:41We're going to overwhelm it all. We have to. Up next, Glenn addresses Trump's so-called grand conspiracy prosecutions. This is Justice Matters. When Donald Trump was inaugurated like all presidents, he swore no to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Instead, Donald Trump has decided to swerve, deflect, and upend the Constitution and treat it like it terms and conditions page. I'm Professor Cory Brecciider. And I'm deeply unqualified comedian John Fiegelstein. We'd like to invite you to listen to the oath in the office podcast where every week we interpret the Constitution and hold Trump accountable to his oath. It's a podcast that offers real insight on how to take action against tyranny and mayhem because despair is not a strategy. Well hold him to his pledge despite his threats to democracy and the law itself. It's a podcast that's all about hope for what a real democracy should look like from an

11:43esteemed respected constitutional scholar and a deeply neurotic comedian who thought the emoluments clause was a breakfast item. Subscribe to the oath in the office where every week we talk about how citizens can preserve our democracy and fight back against the threat to democracy. Subscribe to the oath in the office on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Now Glenn talks about Trump's grand conspiracy prosecutions and the sick of fancies trying to get to do them. One other legal development I really wanted to touch on. And you know, this is not, there's a little bit of insight baseball to this one for me and I'll share what that is in a minute. But let me call this up because I want to read a little bit of the reporting and it has to do with the grand conspiracy investigation.

12:43You all know what I'm talking about? The grand conspiracy because I guess if you give something a catchy name, then you don't need to worry about the facts or the law. You don't have to worry about whether somebody actually committed a crime. You just give it a fancy name, the grand conspiracy investigation. This is the one that goes something like this. You know, all of these dark forces in government conspired to bring Donald Trump down for something he didn't do. The Trump Russia investigation, right? And so what has Donald Trump done? He has tried to find all kinds of flunkies and lapdogs and sick of fans and yes, men to prosecute the criminally indict former CIA director John Brennan for being part of the grand conspiracy to bring Donald Trump down former FBI agent FBI director James Colme,

13:47right? The number one, it seems in Donald Trump's book because he prosecutes him early and often always unsuccessfully, but he's part of the target, you know, that he's one of the targets and the grand conspiracy investigation. Barack Obama is one of the targets in the grand conspiracy investigation and lots of I think clapper, lots and lots of people. The person who was originally heading up the grand conspiracy investigation, I love that, you know, that catchy name to kind of divert attention from the fact that there is no grand conspiracy. The first person whose name escapes me quit. First person that was heading it up quit. I don't think that person made a public statement about why he walked away from the grand conspiracy investigation, but I think we can read between the lines, right?

14:48He probably concluded it was bullshit. And you know, he's one of the rare Trump affiliated Trump associated lawyers who doesn't want to lose his bar license. So he quit. So what did what did Donald Trump do? He brought 82 year old Joe DeGeneva out of mouth balls and Joe DeGeneva is a real hump. Take it from me. I'll tell you why in a minute. But this is a guy who bought into the election denial as a mental kinds of garbage and crap and he's not a serious lawyer. And so Trump plucked them out of mouth balls and put him in charge of what? The grand conspiracy investigation. And listen, Joe DeGeneva is a tried and true lap dog, right? Yes man, sick a fan for Donald Trump.

15:48He's proven that anybody who buys into the bullshit claimed by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen from him is a lap dog, a flunky, a sick a fan, a yes man, right? And DeGeneva was one of those clowns. Now DeGeneva used to be in the position that Jeanine Piro is in now. The United States attorney for the district of Columbia, my beloved home for 24 years, of my 30 years as a federal prosecutor. I was there a whole lot longer than Joe DeGeneva was there as a US attorney. I was an assistant US attorney as our all prosecutors who are not the appointed, presently appointed US attorney. Everybody else is an assistant US attorney. And he was there before my time at the DC US attorney's office.

16:48But you know what? I have a lot of friends that predate me and that I then served with as they continued their service, even though they entered that office years before I did and retired before I did most of them. And they know him well. So I have talked to many of them. And you know, none of them are surprised at the trajectory of DeGeneva's time as a lawyer. And I am now, you know, showing a downward trajectory that kind of hit rock bottom when he was into his election denialism and supporting Donald Trump, the abjectly corrupt and criminal president. So you know, it looked like maybe he was the guy. He was the guy to head up the grand conspiracy and here come the indictments of Brennan and Komi for yet another bullshit crime and clapper and Barack Obama and maybe Joe Biden and

17:49maybe Hillary and maybe, you know, who knows who knows? But look like crusty old election denier Joe DeGeneva was the man. That's what you probably saw it, even though this didn't get the play that I think it deserved. Joe DeGeneva just quit. They just quit. And you know, at first he didn't tell us why he quit. But then it looked like he exploded. It looks like he blurred it out something that tells us all exactly why he quit. And this is so spectacular. This news, not only that he quit because if you can't get Joe DeGeneva to do your dirty bidding as Trump tried to get him to do, oh man, you're in trouble.

18:50You are it. Who else are you going to get? Maybe bring Matt Gaetz back. Let him head up the grand conspiracy investigation because if Joe DeGeneva won't do it. So listen to this. I love this. This is some follow up reporting after the initial news broke that Joe DeGeneva quit as the head of the grand conspiracy investigation. Now a pattern is emerging, right? The first guy that edited up quit. Why? Well, probably because he realized it was a bullshit investigation. The second guy, a Trump flunky, Joe DeGeneva just quit. We see the pattern emerging, right? Listen to what DeGeneva blurred it out in a perhaps moment of anger. That's the way this is kind of playing in the reporting. First of all, the headline, Joe DeGeneva resigns abruptly from the Department of Justice

19:52job investigating Trump foes, calling out quote ethical problems on his way out of the job, having quit. Sorry, you can see the reflection of I don't have everything I usually have my print out. So I'm just kind of reading off my laptop and it's reflecting in minutes more than we need to know, right? So here is what DeGeneva first said quote, I did resign today by letter to the attorney general. I said that it was a privilege and an honor to serve the president and the Department of Justice. And I was very grateful was the first statement the Jennifer made, but wait a minute. Then that was that was the bullshit, you know, I'm taking more time with my family. And that's the it's the same flavor when somebody leaves, you know, for reasons other than really wanting to take more time with their family, right? That's what they say.

20:52So listen to this asked by a reporter whether he had lost focus, right? Wasn't up to the task, I guess, you know, focusing on the grand conspiracy investigation because there were some sources, I think creeping out of DOJ, probably Todd Blanche, again, doing Trump's bidding to try to kind of cover up the true nature of why the second guy now was quitting as the head of the grand conspiracy investigation. Sources said the Jennifer had lost support from the Department of Justice leaders and the White House and the White House amid his grand conspiracy investigation with one source suggesting that the Jennifer was quote, slow rolling indictments and getting lost down rabbit holes. So that's the setup. You can see the White House and DOJ is starting to attack the Jennifer once they realize he's

21:58quitting, right? So they want to make him the bad guy. When the Jennifer was asked whether he had lost focus, he dismissed the accusation and shot back. Here comes the money line quote, if you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem. Close quote. He shot back in what sounds like kind of a fit of anger. He blurted out some truth. It sounds like you want indictments with no evidence. You have an ethical problem. In other words, let's translate that. There's no evidence of crime. So I'm not going to indict people because if you indict people with no evidence of crime, you have an ethical problem. Now who knew Joe DeGeneva cared about ethical problems?

23:00Apparently, maybe he does. He can still be an election denier, but he was unwilling. It sounds if I can read between the lines. It's not all that thinly veiled here what he just said there. He said, if there's no evidence of crime, then you can't indict. Am I quit? The reason that is such an important statement is not just that it provides further evidence that there is no grand conspiracy. There are no criminal charges to be brought against Brandon, or Colmy, or Clapper, or Obama, or Biden, or anybody else that Donald Trump believes is an enemy of his. But it probably puts a nail in the coffin of these investigations once and for all.

24:03Why do I say that? Because when the top prosecutor before he quit in a criminal investigation says plainly and directly in that statement, you can't indict somebody when there's no evidence they committed a crime. Because if you do, it's an ethical problem. In the event any of these people get charged now in the grand conspiracy matter. The first defense witness that would be called would be Joe DeGeneva to prove that it is an absolutely vindictive, baseless, evidence-free prosecution because the top prosecutor investigating the alleged grand conspiracy quit because there was no evidence of crime. So he wouldn't indict them because that would be an ethical problem.

25:04That's what we call Brady evidence. Brady evidence is ex-culpatory evidence. Evidence that helps the defendant. And this investigation is dead. Doesn't mean he won't, Trump won't find another flunky Todd Blanche won't find another lap dog to try to continue to go after innocent people. It's kind of what Todd Blanche's mission is, right? Pursue the innocent. At Donald Trump's command. And Todd Blanche is like a dog. And when you tell the dog to sit, play dead, roll over, act unethical, that's what the dog does because that dog wants the biscuit. That's all that Todd Blanche is. He's a lap dog. But this is actually a good development for all of Donald Trump's perceived enemies who

26:07he tries to put under the umbrella of the grand conspiracy to go after Donald Trump. So that was a story that I was really heartened by. When I saw one, the gen of a quit and two, he blurred it out in the fit of anger. You don't indict people if there's no evidence they committed a crime. Beautiful, beautiful. It's maybe the one good thing the gen of a has done in the many years since he was US attorney. And the people who worked for him said he was not worth working for. You can watch Glenn on his YouTube channel. Also find him on Substack, Lewsky, Instagram and Patreon. This is Justice Matters.