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Cancel contact T Mobile Imaginary and unfounded. You could use those adjectives against a lot of the Trump administration, but in particular, Jack Smith is using those that vocabulary along with his lawyers to shove back against a ethics violation investigation being conducted by the Office of Special Counsel under Donald Trump. Because they're claiming that the investigations of crimes committed by Donald Trump, the prosecutions of those crimes, the resulting indictment was all done for political purposes. It was all done so that the voters wouldn't vote for Donald Trump. It was interfering with the elections. It was political campaigning, some political campaigning. It was a prosecutor doing his job and following the facts where they lead and following the law where it leads and bringing Donald Trump to justice and wanting the American people to at least know if they were voting thumbs up or thumbs down for a felon or not. Now he Donald Trump already got convicted of 34 felony counts, but he it was something that people should know when they go into the ballot box about Donald Trump. And they also knew that they had to hurry up and get these cases ready, ready and up and running, not because of interference, but so that he would get tried before he became president, if he became president again. And Jack Smith wasn't alone in the prosecutions. He had two federal judges, one named Eileen Cannon in Florida, the other one named Tanya Chutkin in D.C. so let's get down to this, this, this imaginary story that's been perpetrated and perpetuated by Senator Tom Cotton, who's a Trumper, who made a whistleblower report to the Office of Special Counsel being led right now by another Trumper, Jameson Greer. And the response that that Jack Smith has fired back through his lawyers, Lanny Brewer. We do it right here on the Midas Dutch network and illegal AF Hatch Act. Let's start with a teachable moment. What is it? First of all, it's not a crime to violate the Hatch Act. It's not even doesn't doesn't put you in jail. It's a fine, a monetary fine at best. And it says that if you're working for the taxpayer and you're being paid just generally federal employees, although employees, it sometimes can, it sometimes can apply to state employees, government employees. But while they're working and while they're, they're making money on the taxpayer dime, they're not to do political campaigning, political activities. And Trump knows this act well because like 30 people in his administration the last time around were found guilty of it, including as I said, Jared Kushner, his son in law and, and Kellyanne Conway and others, cuz they were all promoting Donald Trump's reelection campaign in 2020. That didn't work instead of doing their jobs. And so there's a 63 page office of Special Counsel report from back then about the Trump administration. So it's the, it almost makes you gag with the irony that Trump is using the Hatch act to go after Jack Smith. It just shows you how weak Trump is and how weak any cases against Jack Smith, that's all you got against them. So what is the Office of Special Counsel? My second teachable moment. It's not what you think. A special counsel or independent counsel is appointed by the Attorney General in a criminal context to prosecute a case separate and apart from the Department of Justice, usually because there's a conflict of interest or something like that. It comes from the power under the constitution of an Attorney General to point inferior officers and inferior attorneys that report to him. That's Jack Smith, that's Robert Mueller, that's, that's Durham, you know, John Durham, that's Ken Starr. If you want to go way back in time, that's the Watergate prosecutor, Jaworski, that's those people, Office of Special Counsel. They really should come up with a different name is the whistleblower office in the executive branch where, where somebody complains either a federal employee complains about something going wrong in their department or somebody complains about a federal employee. Until Trump, it was headed by very competent people. One of them is a friend of mine, somebody I knew well from law school days because his father was my law professor. Walter Dellinger, Hampton Dellinger. Hampton Dellinger famously got fired by Donald Trump as the head of the Special Counsel's office at the start of his 10 year term. They are supposed to be independent unless they're controlled by Donald Trump. They're supposed to do investigations and whistleblower complaints, make recommendations. They can bring suits against these people and the like. Now Donald Trump had a one partisan hack who was so bad. Just like a right wing podcaster friend with the white supremacist white white white supremacist endorser JAD 911 denier election denier Nick Fuentes, guy named Paul Ingracia. So bad, so unqualified that even Trump couldn't get him through a Senate confirmation. So the office is currently being headed by Jameson Greer Can I share a little secret with you?
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Tom Cotton A senator made a It wasn't even like a whistleblower complaint. It was like a a social media post. I assume he sent a letter as well. And so they open a file. How else is a federal prosecutor supposed to go after an elected official? Even up to the President of the United States if he's if there's also a political calendar going on at the same time. I mean, every judge that was responsible for something involving Donald Trump, from Judge Marshawn up in New York, the 34 felony count, Judge Chutkan, D.C. judge Cannon, Miami, all of them. Well, at least two out of the three Cannon, Chutkan and Bershon said out loud, we're not going to let the political calendar dictate due process, the right to a fair trial and speedy trial, all required here. We're not going to allow that. And they didn't. And the only thing that they have to try to attack Jack Smith on is that he was trying to get the trial up and running so it wouldn't interfere with the election. He was actually doing the opposite of the Hatch Act. He was trying to avoid interference. So let me just read to you from some of the notes, some of the comments made and how we got here. Well, Cotton said the race, the race to verdict and the race for trial obviously was a Hatch act violation. It should be investigated. That's basically what he said. Here's what Lanny Brewer, the lawyer for Jack Smith, had to say in response and what he's just filed. So there's no basis for an accusation that Mr. Smith violated the Hatch Act. The vial. The allegations are wholly without merit. Quote, Mr. Smith was fiercely committed to making prosecutorial decisions based solely on the evidence. He steadfastly followed applicable Department of Justice guidelines. I mean, you know, there's the DOJ manual, there's the principles of Federal Prosecution. You wouldn't know that watching Pam Bondi or Alina Haba or, you know, any of the Judge Pirro or any of these other people that are operating in the Department of Justice without any, any rule book at all, any ethics at all. But Jack Smith did, and the letter continues. And he did not let the pending election influence his investigative or prosecutorial decision making. The investigation Mr. Smith's attorneys wrote is premised on a partisan complaint from Cotton that suggests the ordinary operation of the criminal justice system should be disrupted by the whims of a political contest. But the notion that justice should yield to politics is antithetical to the rule of law. Moreover, the suggestion that the Hatch act can be violated by taking routine procedural steps to prosecute a case involving a candidate for public office is unprecedented. And risk interfering with the enforcement of our federal, our criminal laws. His actions were always consistent with the decisions of a prosecutor who has devoted his entire career to following the facts in the law without fear or favor and without regard for the political consequences, not because of them. Just ironic. Look at, look at what we're dealing with. Trump guts the Office of Special Counsel. He fires the only competent person around, Hampton Dellinger, who's independent and serving a 10 year term. He tries to put in a right wing podcaster who supports white supremacists and every MAGA conspiracy theory out there in Paul and Gracia so bad that he can't even get confirmed. So they yank his nomination. He, they take a Tom Cotton manufactured choreographed complaint about Jack Smith and turn it into a federal case. Right? Talk about a mountain and a molehill. And Jack Smith's fighting back and lawyers are supporting him to do that, and lawyers are rallying around him. And even though major law firms have all bent the knee to Donald Trump, there are thousands of other law firms, including brand new ones out there, that have just been born to protect people who, who are being victimized and targeted by the Trump administration. And we do the same thing here. You're on Midas Touch and Legal af. I'm Michael Popach. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button. We've got a brand new Legal AF sub stack I think everybody will enjoy. I do two live reports every day, one in the morning, one in the evening to kind of catch you up in real time at the minute. You know, it's a little different than these videos and these hot takes that we do on Midas. Touching on Legal af, I can really kind of rip it right off the printer, get it right off the reporting and bring everybody together in a two or three thousand person huddle and talk about these issues, hear from your comments and respond. Legal AF substack. Think about becoming a member. You'll get, you'll get access to all the videos and then a paid member to really support what we're doing there. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.
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Can't get your fill of Legal af.
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Me neither.
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That's why we form the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AO are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
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