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- [00:01]
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- [01:59]
Ben Meisellis
Donald Trump's press secretary Caroline Levitt just threw him under the bus and I don't even think she even realized it. And it's on some serious issues, potentially voiding Donald Trump's claim towards presidential immunity as it relates to his shady conduct relating to the dollar sign Trump meme coin. Let me explain what went down? Of course, you know by now, last night in Virginia, Donald Trump hosted the individuals or entities that had the most money invested in the Trump meme coin. In other words, the people who put the most money into Donald Trump's pocket bought private access with Donald Trump in Virginia. Now, Donald Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levitt, was asked about this massive grift because it kind of seems like it's illegal, duh. And what her response was is that this is what Donald Trump is doing on his personal time. She goes, that's his personal time. Because specifically, the individual who was asking Caroline Levitt at the press conference said, well, if y' all care about transparency, which you claim you do, which, by the way, we all know that they absolutely don't do, you plan to release the list of individuals Donald Trump is meeting with who own all of his meme coin, so we can see which foreign nationals may be trying to bribe the President of the United States who's giving Donald Trump money for this quid pro quo access. And she goes, well, we don't have to release the list because it's his personal time, not his presidential time. Now, that's an outrageous thing to say, but that's going to backfire in Donald Trump's face, because when you look at the United States Supreme Court ruling on the concept of absolute presidential immunity, the Supreme Court, as horrible as that ruling was, where they said Donald Trump was entitled to absolute presidential immunity for his official acts regarding the January 6th insurrection and his attempts to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, they did say that his private conduct, and conduct that is purely, quote, personal time, would not be subject to any absolute immunity, and the President can be sued and or have criminal charges brought against him for that conduct. Now, Tim Miller wrote the first post in response to Caroline Levitt's statement where he says, presidents don't get personal time. There's not like a magic su wear when you are doing official business, and one where you are just Donald from Queens. But our friend George Conway, a superstar lawyer, pointed out, actually, Tim, it's fine. If Trump is saying he's doing something on his personal time, then that obviously means he's not acting within what the Supreme Court calls the outer perimeter of his official responsibility, which in turn means he's not immune from criminal prosecution. Good work, Caroline. You just blew it. You threw Trump under the bus, and now he could be susceptible at some later time to criminal prosecution for his conduct, if indeed crimes are demonstrated. So why don't we take a look at these Supreme Court rulings. So you don't just hear me blabber and give my commentary. You know, I like to read the opinions. So here's what the Supreme Court said from its October term of 2023 in the case of Trump v. United States. Turn to page four. As for a president's unofficial acts, there is no immunity. Although presidential immunity is required for official acts to ensure that the President's decision making is not distorted by the threat of future litigation stemming from those actions, that concern does not support immunity for unofficial conduct. The separation of powers does not bar a prosecution predicated on the president's unofficial acts. The first step in deciding whether a former president is entitled to immunity from a particular prosecution is to distinguish the his official from unofficial actions. In this case, no court thus far has drawn that distinction in general or with respect to the conduct alleged in particular. It is therefore incumbent upon the court to be mindful that it is a court of final review and not first view Critical threshold issues in this case are how to differentiate between a president's official and unofficial actions and how to do so with respect to the indictments extensive and detailed allegations covering a broad range of conduct. The court offers guidance on those issues. And as you go to page 29, I guess here's some of that guidance. There may, however, be context in which the president, notwithstanding the prominence of his position, speaks in an unofficial capacity, perhaps as a candidate for office or party leader. To the extent that may be the case, objective analysis of quote, content, form and context will necessarily form the inquiry. But there is not always a clear line between the President's personal and official affairs. The analysis therefore, must be fact specific and may prove to be challenging. Well, it doesn't seem to be all that challenging here. And it seems that that Donald Trump was actually a little worried when when Caroline Levitt said this is his personal time. Because about an hour after she made those statements, Donald Trump made the following social media post Because I bet you a lawyer told him you could be absolutely screwed by what she said, so you should post something. So when Donald Trump posted this, my view was a lawyer told him to post this. So he posts heading to the crypto dinner in Virginia in a little while. The USA is dominating in crypto, Bitcoin, etc. And we're going to keep it that way. Exclamation point. Now we know that Trump's personal meeting on his personal time with personal or entity holders of the Trump meme coin of the Trump crypto has nothing to do with the United States of America. But you see here that he's trying to frame this as this is going to help the United States of America leading in crypto when this is all about Donald Trump's personal grift and or bribes. So why don't you judge the fact specific analysis for yourself? Why don't we conduct what a future hypothetical Supreme Court or federal court, how they would look at it? Shall we? So, as a lawyer, let me share with you the exhibits. So exhibit A is Caroline Levitt referring to Donald Trump doing this bitcoin or meme coin meeting with the top holders of his meme coin as personal time. Judge for yourself. If based on the Supreme Court ruling this is official or unofficial conduct, it seems pretty clear that this would be unofficial conduct. Let's play the clip.
- [09:10]
Caroline Levitt
Caroline, you guys are very proud of.
- [09:12]
Ben Meisellis
Your record on transparency. I have two transparency related questions for you.
- [09:16]
MAGA Mike
Sure.
- [09:16]
Ben Meisellis
On the President's dinner tonight, will the.
- [09:18]
Caroline Levitt
White House commit to making a list.
- [09:20]
Ben Meisellis
Of the attendees public so people can see who's paying for that kind of.
- [09:24]
Caroline Levitt
Access to the President?
- [09:25]
Ad Sponsor
Well, as you know, Gareth, this question has been raised with the President. I have also addressed the dinner tonight. The President is attending it in his personal time. It is not a White House dinner. It's not taking place here at the White House. But certainly I can raise that question and try to get you an answer for it.
- [09:41]
Ben Meisellis
Oh, you know, I had to do it. MO4 companies control over 80% of the US meat industry. China now controls the largest portion of US pork. These companies are using mobster like tactics to crush American family farms. And with the additives they're putting into our food, Americans are stuck with sketchy meat. So what can we do about it? Let me tell you about a company that's coming up swinging on behalf of American family farms and your family's food security. It's called Moink. I said at the beginning, Moink Boink. The business is simple. Moink's meat comes from animals raised outdoors where a pig is free to be a pig. Their farmers are given an honest day's pay for an honest day's work. And they deliver meat straight to your doorstep at prices that you can actually afford. Born, raised and harvested right here in the United States. Support American family farms and join the Moink movement today@moinkbox.com Midas Touch right now and get free wings for life. They're the best wings you'll ever taste for free. But for a limited time, here's how you spell it. M O I n k box.com/midas touch. That's moinkbox.com/midas touch. Well, now let's learn a little bit more about this meeting that Donald Trump did. Profits made, profits kept, as Carl Quintanilla said. Not promises made, promises kept, because Donald Trump has blown all of those, right? I mean, housing is less affordable. Groceries and prices in general are up, not down. There's no peace in Ukraine in 24 hours. Donald Trump has screwed our bond markets and has made the United States a laughing stock of the entire world. And the world is less safe with wars going on pretty much everywhere at this point. So you have Trump's crypto dinner cost over $1 million per seat on average. In total, 220 winners of the contest who are attending this dinner last night spent $394 million on Trump's official cryptocurrency. Now, there's other grifts as well, like Trump's Mar A Lago and Bedminster grift, which now costs $1 million a year in membership fees. Then Donald Trump claims that Mar a Lago is both his residence but not a personal property. So he pays the less property tax on it. So he says it's a club where he lives, and therefore it's not a personal residence. So that's the way Donald Trump tries to avoid paying taxes. You take a look right here what Donald Trump is also doing. He inked a crypto deal with Pakistan. Pakistan inked a deal with crypto company in which Trump's kin has a 60% stake. There's a another Trump entity that Pakistan government invested in. Remember what Donald Trump, though, said back on July of 2019 where he said, I'm not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activities. You don't say, Donald, because. Why don't we take a look at at who else is on your guest list? I'm interested. Is there a guy named Justin sun who's gonna be there? Yeah, that tracks Justin sun, whose digital currency network is popular with the crypto industries. Criminal underbelly is a top investor in Trump's meme coin. This is being reported by the Wall Street Journal. A crypto billionaire who feared arrest in the U.S. returns to the U.S. for dinner with its president, Donald Trump. Let's take a look at some more stories on Justin sun right here. The SEC charged him for market manipulation and fraud. The DOJ was investigating him. He invested in Trump backed crypto ventures. The SEC paused his case. And now last night, he was at the Trump Crypto dinner. As the top holder of Trump's mean coin, can you say quid pro quo? Do you know one way or the other? I'll let you use your judgment there and decide for yourself. Well, here's how Senator Chris Murphy put it. He goes, the Trump's meme coin is designed to facilitate corruption. You can pay Trump secretly, which gets you secret special access to the president. If Trump's dinner with the top coin buyers was legit, legit, he would release the list of attendees. But it's corrupt, so the list stays hidden. Here. Play this clip.
- [14:45]
Caroline Levitt
Tonight, Donald Trump will have a secret dinner and meeting with the 200 individuals who have spent the most money buying up his meme coin. Donald Trump's meme coin has no value in and of itself. Its only value is based upon how much demand exists for the meme coin. He creates demand by essentially opening a channel for bribery. If you buy his coin, the price goes up and he makes more money. If you buy his coin, you get secret access to the president to be able to plead your case, to be able to ask for preferential treatment. And the extra benefit is no one will ever know that you bought the coin or the you got the private access. And so it provides cover for the most corrupt, for the most compromised, for the worst of the worst, to channel money to Donald Trump in order to get their private audience with him in order to plead their case for favorable treatment from the federal government or for investment from the US Taxpayer.
- [15:59]
Ben Meisellis
Now, a group that's called Our Resolution, they were there protesting Donald Trump, Trump's arrival and the arrival of these other shady characters in Virginia. Here it is, our revolution. Greeting the grifter in chief and his crypto buyers as they were as they arrive at Trump National Golf Club this evening to purchase influence with the presidency. America is not for sale. Well, that's the hopeful statement, but it does appear that America is for sale under the Trump regime. Play this clip this. Now, let me also just remind you about this meme coin. Donald Trump released it right before inauguration. The price went up like crazy because what the hell's going on? The President of the United States is using his influence to pump a shitcoin. And a lot of insiders knew made a killing off it. Lots of people started buying it. About 55,000 wallets lost money. And I think it was only, you know, like a small fraction of that, somewhere between 20 and 100, I think that actually ended up making any money at all. So in other words, most of the people lost their money, got screwed, while the insiders and rich people ended up getting richer. So put all of that together and I want you to decide for yourself. Right here. Now. It's just interesting too, right, because MAGA Mike was asked if he has concerns about Trump's business dealings a few weeks back. Here's what he had to say. Play this clip. Speaker, you were very critical of President Biden and his family's foreign business dealings. You supported an impeachment, impeachment inquiry as a result of it. Are you equally concerned about President Trump's family's business dealings, especially given the fact that he is in a region now where his family has billions of dollars in investments in Doha, Saudi Arabia, and the fact that he has a crypto business now where he's auctioned off access to the White House for the highest.
- [18:17]
Ad Sponsor
Bidder in his meeting?
- [18:19]
MAGA Mike
Look, there are authorities that police executive branch ethics rules. I'm not an expert in that. My expertise is here in the House. Okay. I will say that our, the reason they, many people refer to the Bidens as the Biden crime family is because they were doing all this stuff behind curtains, but in the back rooms, they were trying to conceal it and they repeatedly lied about it and they set up shell companies and the family was all engaged in getting all on the dole. Whatever the President Trump is doing is out in the open. They're not trying to conceal anything.
- [18:48]
Ad Sponsor
Mr. Speaker, the investment in the mean.
- [18:50]
Ben Meisellis
Coin, those folks are not transparent. We do not know who those people are.
- [18:55]
MAGA Mike
I don't know anything about the meme coin thing. I don't, I don't know. I can just tell you that. I mean, President Trump has had nothing to hide. He's very upfront about it. And there are people who watch all the ethics of that. But, I mean, I've got to be concerned with running the House of Representatives and that's what I do.
- [19:09]
Ad Sponsor
Oversight, though, that's the congressional responsibility.
- [19:12]
MAGA Mike
Congress has oversight responsibility. But I think so far as I know, the ethics are all being followed. So, yes, sir.
- [19:18]
Ben Meisellis
Pretty, pretty pathetic, MAGA Mike. And I think we use that as the last clip here to contextualize this as the MAGA Republicans are passing a budget that's going to rip away The Medicaid of 14 million Americans, also rip away Medicare from many Americans. It's going to take away supplemental Nutrition assistance programs, SNAP or food stamps from people. It's going to hurt people who need rental assistance. Going to result in a lot of people losing homes or losing the places where they rent. You have magma also, it's attacking on women's reproductive rights. I can go on and on with this disastrous bill, but Maga Mike doesn't really care about what's going on in he goes in plain view. It's all happening. It's all out there. It's all transparent. No, it ain't. Maga Mike. Release the list. But it's personal time, folks. Remember that word, personal time. Never forget. I'm Ben Meisellis. This is the Midas Touch Network. Hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas plus substack for ad free articles, sports podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now at midasplus. Com.