Rick's dear friend, Asha Rangappa -- who's an American lawyer, former FBI agent, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Senior Lecturer at Yale University's Jackson School of Global Affairs -- sits down with Rick to unpack all of the moving legal pieces between Trump and the courts. Invoking emergency powers when there isn't a real emergency, Trump continues to use presidential powers for nefarious reasons. Weaponizing the DOJ, Trump has placed people like Kash Patel and Pam Bondi in roles where they can do a lot of damage against people who oppose and/or speak out against Trump. In doing this, it's eroding the optics of the legal system and leveling the playing field between real criminals and Trump's enemies. When these folks say they will follow the Constitution, it's a version where the presidential branch has supremacy over the other two branches of government. The constitutional crisis here is Congress abdicating its role and refraining from exercising its constitutional power. Bending the knee only gives him more power. What happens when lawyers and legal institutions back down in a fight? What happens when Trump ignores court orders? Can judges force the president to comply with their rulings? Asha and Rick shed light on all of the "what-ifs."

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Follow Asha at @asharangappa.bsky.social on Bluesky and @asha.rangappa on Instagram, and subscribe to her Substack at asharangappa.substack.com

Follow Rick Wilson at @TheRickWilson on X and @therickwilson.bsky.social on Bluesky, and subscribe to his Substack at therickwilson.substack.com.

Join the fight with the Lincoln Project at www.lincolnproject.us and follow LP on X at @ProjectLincoln. If you'd like to help us continue our critical work, visit https://action.lincolnproject.us/helplp to make a difference.

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