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- [00:00]
User
I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, hey, find a keto friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a finger so I can get in more squats anywhere I can. 1, 2, 3.
- [00:15]
Ben
Will that be cash or credit?
- [00:17]
Karen Friedman Agnifolo
Credit.
- [00:17]
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- [00:30]
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- [00:45]
Ben
Karen Friedman, Agniphilo we gotta talk about Donald Trump. Just what at war with the sdny, the Southern District of New York prosecutors, the like, basically the top federal prosecutorial division, at least that's how they view themselves and how many prosecutors view them, you know, in the country. And they're fighting back. Trump's own picks are resigning. They're standing up to Donald Trump. Some of the acting picks. This follows Donald Trump ordering via Emil Bove or Emil Bove, his deputy attorney general, the dismissal of the charges of Mayor Eric Adams and what was obviously a quid pro quo for like $80 million to be taken from like FEMA accounts that were held in New York City, that were supposed to be directed to shelters and who knows what the other quid pro quos are. So Karen Friedman, Agnifolo, you know that department very well. You know those federal prosecutors there. Break down for our audience what is going on? How big of a deal is this? And then Emil Bobe sent another letter putting more people on administrative leap. It seems like a straight up like revolt taking place in the SDNY behind the scenes. The headlines I'm seeing aren't even doing it justice. How big of a deal is this, Karen, what's going on?
- [02:08]
Karen Friedman Agnifolo
Yeah, Ben, for the last four years, I'm sure all of our listeners have been tired of me issuing the following phrase, which is that prosecutors follow the facts and the law and apply it to no matter who the where the breadcrumbs lead without fear or favor. They're not political. They're not affiliated. It's they believe in justice and justice is blind. And I've said it over and over and over and over and over again and I sometimes get some eye rolls. But what's happening right now in New York is exactly what I've been saying and how prosecutors are and what prosecutors truly believe. So Danielle Sassoon is a MAGA right wing Federalist Society. That's how people, how she presented, frankly. And that's how she was appointed. She's a young 38 year old who Ivy League, went to Harvard and Yale and clerked for Justice Scalia and worked at the U.S. attorney's office, the Southern District of New York. And she was handpicked to be the acting United States attorney before the U.S. attorney that's going to be appointed by Trump, Jay Clayton. He has to go through the Senate confirmation process. That hasn't happened yet. So in the meantime, they appointed her as acting. She is young, but she clearly fits the mold, the Federalist Society, et cetera, of Donald Trump. Well, what happened and what's happening behind the scenes is you've got Mayor Adams. So Mayor Eric Adams is the mayor of New York City. He's the head of the police department. He's the top, you know, he's the mayor of New York City of all five boroughs. And he was famously and very kind of, you know, loudly arrested in the middle of the. When the UN General assembly was here in New York, they could have arrested him at any time. These crimes date back as far as 2009, all through 2021. This whole series of crimes is not just one. It's corruption dating back to when he was the Manhattan borough president and corruption all throughout the following decade. They could have picked any time to arrest him. They picked the time when we had prime ministers, presidents, heads of state, all visiting the island of Manhattan, I think to send a message to both Eric Adams and to the people around the world that we are not for sale. America's not for sale. You can't bribe our elected officials because the allegations here had to do with turkey bribing and giving kickbacks to the mayor who would then give favors to him. Those are the allegations. Now, those were shocking, surprising that he was indicted and he ran as a Democrat. He is a Democrat. And he started using Trump language. He started saying things like all the things Trump says, like, oh, this is a weaponization of government. This is a political persecution. They're not prosecuting me, they're prosecuting you. All the familiar language. And was talking to an audience of one, of course. And he went down to Mar a Lago and kissed the ring. And he hired. Who did he hire? He hired as his lawyer, Alex Spiro, who happens, coincidentally to be Elon Musk's personal attorney. Is that a coincidence that there's a direct line to Elon Musk, who's practically the president and holding press conferences in the Oval Office, that then this case gets directed to be dismissed by Emile Beauvais. Emile Beauvais is the lawyer, if you remember Ben, who represented Trump in his New York criminal prosecution. Emile Beauvais right now is the acting Attorney general, or the acting deputy Attorney General, I should say. And he wrote the letter. He wrote this letter basically directing Danielle Sassoon, who was the acting U.S. attorney, to request a Rule 48 dismissal. Now, Eric Adams is indicted. That means there's before court Judge Ho, who is a Biden appointee, and Judge Ho has the case. Now, once there's an indictment by a grand jury and it's filed with the court, prosecutors can't just dismiss the case. They have to file a motion and they have to file a motion and request that the court be dismissed. And so three days ago, there was this letter directing her to do it. And he basically gave two reasons why he thought the case should be dismissed. Number one, because he said it was going to interfere with Trump's ability to enforce immigration, Immigration policy, because New York, I think New York is proudly a sanctuary city. And it's clear that Trump is going to work with Adams to enforce his raids and his immigration policy. And the other reason is he said it also interferes with Adams ability to run for office. The primary, the Democratic primaries in June of 2025. The election is not till November of 2025, so it's almost a year away, but they said somehow it interferes with both of those things. Therefore, you have to dismiss it without prejudice, right? Not with prejudice. Without prejudice. What does that mean? It means they can bring the case anytime. What does that mean? It means they're dangling this over Adam's head to basically say, we could refile this at any time. You don't cooperate with our priorities. You don't do what I say. You don't let me arrest whoever I want to arrest or cooperate in my policies of the federal government. This is basically Trump's way of saying, I own you, Eric Adams. You have to do what I say, or else I could file this at any time. That's how he directed it, to be dismissed. So the whole world, or us New Yorkers were waiting. When is this case going to be dismissed? Checking the docket. Has something been filed? It's been noticeably silent today. Now we know why.
- [07:56]
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- [09:49]
Karen Friedman Agnifolo
Danielle Sassoon issued her letter of resignation. She refuses to dismiss the case. The case, in her opinion, clearly has prosecutorial merit. There was, in her view, there is probable cause to believe that a crime or multiple crimes were committed. The case has merit. There's a huge investigation and she's and this seemed political, I assume to her. And so she, rather than go forward and go against her ethics and do what she doesn't believe in, like a true prosecutor again, that's what I've always been saying. That's how prosecutors are. Prosecutors aren't political. And if they become political, or if politics ever enters justice and prosecution, it infects it, it should never happen. And so she could be a Republican Federalist Society, as right wing as you can imagine. She still believes in truth and justice and doing the right. So she resigned in protest. Well, Emile Beauvais wrote this incredible eight page letter that was just shocking and surprising that I could not believe where he basically writes, Dear Ms. Sassoon, in response to your refusal to comply with my instruction to dismiss the prosecution of Mayor Adams, I write to notify you of the following. So first, he accepts her resignation. Second, he puts the AUSAs and names them who worked on this case on paid administrative leave. And third, he says, under your leadership, the office has demonstrated itself to be incapable of fairly and impartially reviewing the circumstances of this prosecution. Therefore, the prosecution of Mayor Adams is transferred to the Justice Department, which will file a motion to dismiss the charges pursuant to Rule 48. So what, what they're basically saying is we're taking this case from the Southern District of New York and we're bringing it to Washington, and Washington is going to file a rule 48. So the question is, will Judge Ho accept this? And look, he can't force, you know, it's very hard for them to force the government to put on evidence. But, you know, he could say, I'm not accepting this dismissal. That could be one thing he does, another thing that could happen. Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has the power, has the power to actually remove Eric Adams. And yesterday, Governor Hochul, Pam Bondi, the new, the very brand new Attorney General of the United States, filed a civil complaint against Governor Hochul and Attorney General Letitia James of New York, basically calling into question and accusing them of violating the law because of our immigration policies. Well, well, Kathy Hochul very much could and should be considering removing Eric Adams to say clearly this is interfering with his ability to be mayor and this case should proceed. So to remove all of the concerns that Emile Beauvais outlined in his eight page letter, I think Kathy Hochul should seriously consider removing Eric Adams and appointing, calling a special election or putting in an interim mayor, because that's the only way that this is going to go forward. But it's just fascinating to me because I am hearing from people all throughout the Justice Department, the FBI and federal prosecutors that there are people who are resigning in protest, who are refusing to do political things, who are going following their moral compass. Who are. You take an oath as a prosecutor and you swear to uphold the Constitution. Not to, not to work for, not, not to follow what Donald Trump's wishes are if it's against the Constitution. So I am very proud of what is happening here. Look, Eric Adams is innocent until proven guilty, as is anyone who's charged with a crime. And so he does. He deserves a trial. That's what he deserves, to see whether or not it is true that this that this, the allegations in this case. But what's happening right before our very eyes is this war in the Justice Department. And if people resign en masse and in protest, I don't know what's going to happen because the federal government does a lot of very important work and prosecutes a lot of big cases.
- [14:10]
Ben
That's a great explanation, Karen. And I think just to reiterate, Donald Trump's Department of Justice just declared war on the Southern District of New York federal prosecutors and basically all federal prosecutors, regardless of perhaps even if they're Federalist Society right wing people, MAGA adjacent, I mean, you know, you still need to have competent federal prosecutors. And you know, when you go through law school, when you take your oath, you know, even some of these prosecutors who agreed to serve in this current administration or who did not resign, they're at least saying, you're not going to force us to break our oaths. You may be breaking your oaths. Get somebody else to be the oath breakers. We're not going to compromise our bar licenses and the next, you know, 30, 40 years, potentially or less of our legal careers for this dictatorship. And so we're seeing it there. We're seeing within the Public Integrity section in Washington, D.C. resignations there as well. John Keller, who was told that he would be taking off, and his boss, boss Kevin Driscoll, the senior most career official in that criminal division, they resigned as well. And so we can be seeing just the tip of the iceberg of these mass resignations. And then ultimately, who's going to be there to even prosecute anything at all and even respond to these orders? Is it going to be just Alina Haba and Pam Bondi? I don't know. I saw that Pam Bondi press conference and I was not all that impressed. The same way when she made the impeachment argument, it was pretty bad. But Karen Freeman, Agnifolo, thank you for everything you do. Your insight is critical during these moments. Everybody hit subscribe here. Let's keep on growing and growing. Thanks. Thanks everybody. Thanks, Karen. Love this video. Continue the conversation by following us on Instagram at Midas touched and helped US blow past 750,000 followers.
- [16:18]
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