Yo , what up ? It's your boy D-Night and you're listening to the Pardon the Interaction podcast . You've got yet another pocket pardon edition for you today . Carol has come down with a little something . We're assuming that it's not COVID , given that she tested negative . But of course you never know , pandemic never stops .
So , like Trump and crimes like there's just nothing you can point out to say , all right , it's finally over . But before we get started on the news , let's give a word to our sponsor , sheets and giggles . Colin McIntosh is an amazing gentleman . You could find him on Twitter and threads at Colin D McIntosh , I believe he's got some incredible sheets .
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And if that wasn't depressing enough , off to the news we go .
So Mark Meadows , in an attempt to sever his Rico case in Georgia , where he was indicted with Donald Trump , as well as 17 other co-defendants , is attempting to move his case to federal court , and in doing so , there were a few burdens that Mark Meadows needed to meet in order to get a positive ruling in his favor in that regard .
So first of all , he had to prove that at the time of the activity alleged in the indictment , that he was indeed a federal official . So of course he checks that off the list .
Number two , he has to prove that the activities that he was engaged in that were considered criminal conduct by the prosecutor that filed the indictment , that those activities were under the color of law or , in simpler terms , a part of his fucking federal job .
And finally , the third burden that he is required to meet is that he has to prove that he has a colorable federal defense in terms of the activities that he was charged and engaged in .
Now we won't get too deep off into the weeds of the particulars of the legal nuances here , but a couple of questions that you may want to ask yourself is why would Mark Meadows want to have his trial removed from Georgia State Court , instead placed in federal court ? Does it provide him some kind of advantage in terms of being eligible for a pardon ?
No , because even though these charges in this trial would be moved to federal court , the charges still remain state charges . Fonny Willis , the prosecutor , would continue to prosecute the case .
The only difference might be the federal rules of procedure versus the way Georgia handles things and the judge overseeing the case and possibly , depending on the circumstances , a slightly more favorable jury pool , given that it would be drawn from the general vicinity of Atlanta and not just Fulton County specifically , which is even somehow more black than Atlanta in
general . So if you're thinking in terms of a favorable jury , think , think slightly more white . In Mark Meadows case . That's one of the aims , though in this instance , I think the potential benefit is marginal . It best , at least in that regard . All right .
Also , the judge in Georgia is relatively inexperienced , fairly fairly young , newly appointed in the district , and , given the complex nature of the legal arguments that Mark Meadows presumptively wants to make , a more experienced judge might possibly lead to a more favorable outcome and the motions that Meadows and his attorneys would like to file .
I personally believe that a couple of things that Mark Meadows is looking for specifically Well , one in federal court , none of the proceedings are televised . In Georgia , it's quite the opposite . There's an extreme level of transparency .
Most of the hearings are allowed to be televised , as well as a trial , and Mark Meadows appears to want to do his best to stay out of the public spotlight at any cost .
One of the other things I believe he's looking for is to get the fuck away from Donald Trump , his crazy crackhead , cracking conspiracy theorist Eastman and cheese bro who concocted the entirety of the fake elector plot , the Goon Squad that was down in Georgia harassing election workers like Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss .
He wants to get away from those fuckers and he wants to say that hey , I didn't really have anything to do with all of that . I was just kind of you know , following orders . Trump told me do this , this and this , call these people do this . And I was just doing my job right .
And I also believe that he's well aware that Trump and others will throw him under the bus . I'm sure all of the other lawyers involved with the criminal plot point the finger at Mark Meadows and say you know , trump was giving us the orders .
Mark Meadows was basically directing traffic , dictating Trump's wishes through him , and they were just doing what they were told . And Mark Meadows and Trump would be the fall guy . So he needs to get away from that particular scenario because of course , that would be super damaging .
And finally , what I believe Mark Meadows is attempting to do by trying to have his case removed from state court and instead tried in federal court , is , once that procedure is underway , what he will do is make an argument to the federal judge that he is immune to these charges , based on the supremacy clause , which practically says that , according to federal law ,
any federal employee and dieted on state charges for simply exercising the legal authorities granted to them by their position as a part of their job that person is immune from state charges and the charges must be dismissed . Now there's a couple of problems with this , first of all . First of all , to even have his case removed from state court to federal court .
The burden falls on Mark Meadows to actively prove that he meets those three requirements . To do that , he would have to introduce evidence that the actions that he was taking that he's been indicted for were part of his job . There's really only a couple of ways to do this .
One is to have witnesses testify on his behalf that could state that the actions that Mark Meadows was taking were part of his official duties as the chief of staff to the federal court , the official duties of the chief of staff to the former president of the United States , donald Trump .
Think about people involved working in like legal counsel in the White House , like Pat Philbin and Pat Sippeloni , that could testify . Hey , you know , we were there at the time , we saw it Meadows doing this and this and this , and we advise him that these things were part of his official duties as chief of staff , and so on and so forth .
What I would imagine the issue with that is that it's likely that you know White House counsel as well as a number of other individuals employed in service of the president at the time , likely informed Trump , as well as meadows and others , that the shit they were doing was not legal and certainly , if that's the case , definitely not a part of the official duties
of a federal employee , in this case Mark Meadows and his role as chief of staff and even if meadows somehow could convince them to testify on his behalf . Well , here's the thing they have to testify truthfully , like the shit Trump does in the media , or in Trump as well as other Republicans , where they just spout endless lies .
I think that doesn't fly in court . They'd have to testify truthfully and if not , they risk potential consequences of being sanctioned by the court , if not charged with perjury , which you know typically doesn't happen in federal cases .
But I could see finding will is , in this particular instance , be willing to throw the book at anyone who tries to get these fuckers off the hook of lies . So consider that option a and option a is canceled . There's no way that that was going to happen .
Well , we have option B , which is really Mark Meadows only other choice If he wants to meet this burden in the attempt to have his case removed to federal court . This other option testifying , taking the stand , providing testimony and letting the chips fall where they may .
Well , that's the option he chose and I must say that I personally can't fucking believe he did it . I we hadn't even brought up the potential that Mark Meadows might testify on the podcast , because we will .
I personally assumed that it was fucking crazy and no one in their right mind would want to do that in his position , and , even more so , no lawyer with any fucking common sense would let their client in a position like this Get on the stand and talk . And Mark Meadows got on the stand and talked for hours . Oh my God , okay , all right .
So why might it be a big deal that Mark Meadows decided to testify ? Well , it's funny , you ask . Well , first of all , in all likelihood , everything that Mark Meadows testified about can be used by finding Willis at trial to attempt to convict Meadows . So you're opening yourself up to the trial .
You're opening yourself up to even further potential legal jeopardy Should you lose the motion to have the case removed .
Also , if you shared any information with Jack Smith's team , which presumably he has given the Jack Smith and died of Trump in DC and mentioned a number of unindicted co-conspirators , none of which appear to be Mark Meadows , though Mark Meadows was intricately involved in every aspect of the plot and we assume that in that case that means Mark Meadows , at some level
must have been cooperating Well with his extensive testimony in Georgia in an attempt to have his case removed . Smith's team can cross reference that testimony with any evidence that he may have shared with them and if things don't line up either way , they can hit him with a 1001 charge , which is lying to federal law enforcement officers .
And if they do do that and they do decide to call him as a witness and say the prosecution against Trump and others , well , his credibility as a witness , if he decides to plead guilty to the 1001 charge , will have taken a hit , meaning that his cooperation may not quite be as valuable as it potentially was otherwise .
Meaning he might get less of a sentence reduction because prosecutors might force him to plead guilty to other crimes as well .
Also , in all likelihood , by choosing to take the stand and testify , he has likely waived his right to his Fifth Amendment privilege to avoid self incrimination , meaning that should he testify at trial in Georgia , whether it be in state court or federal court , he will not be able to legally claim his Fifth Amendment right , so he'll be forced to either testify
truthfully and , more likely , if that testimony is damning , he will have to perjure himself . So , yes , all bad on all fronts with Mark Meadows right now . I personally believe that , given the circumstances and the moves that Mark Meadows is making , that he's throwing a Hail Mary here in an attempt to avoid trial altogether , no matter what .
So if he doesn't manage to pull this off and somehow get the federal court and have the case dismissed on grounds of immunity due to the supremacy clause , he's going to attempt to strike a deal with prosecutors and cooperate . The last thing he's going to do is go to trial because he's fucked , and we can clearly see that from the testimony itself .
So not only has he waived his Fifth Amendment rights , as part of his testimony , he practically admitted that the actions he was taking were on behalf of Trump in his reelection campaign . Boom , that kind of blows up everything right .
It couldn't have been part of his federal duties as chief staff when he was acting on behalf of the campaign in order to help Trump get reelected .
Fonnie Willis has already astutely pointed out that that would in fact , be a violation of the Hatch Act , which would make his campaign activities illegal if it were done as part of his federal duties , meaning that that's not an argument that he can make as a justifiable defense .
Also , if you think about it , the fact that he admitted that he was acting on behalf of the campaign blows up his entire argument for why the case should be removed from state court anyway . Because the conduct has to meet the burden of being part of his official duties . So he's doomed himself .
And there's also like a paper trail of evidence showing that he was in contact with cheese bro , with him explicitly stating that someone needed to direct the fake elector plot . Like what part of that is his fucking job ? No , part of that is his job .
Now the judge overseeing this motion to remove the case to remove the case has asked that what , if only one , of Mark Meadows acts is considered to be part of his official duties as chief of staff . We suggest a couple of things .
The judge does acknowledge that at least one act by Mark Meadows that's charged in the indictment does constitute an act that could be considered part of his official duties .
What it also suggests is the judge sees that most of the actions taken by Mark Meadows , as described in the indictment , to not be part of his job , and you can take this prediction with a grain of salt , but I believe that the judge will rule that , just because maybe one or two actions taken by Mark Meadows may constitute some small part of his official
duties , that largely he's not being charged for those he's being charged for generally joining in an illegal conspiracy to help Trump steal the 2020 election , and that he can't abuse his position as a federal official to engage in criminal activity and furtherance of a conspiracy in this case .
Now I think Meadows attempt to have this case removed is doomed and he's toast based on the fact that , while , yes , he was a federal official and apparently at least one act described in the indictment may have been part of his duties as a chief of staff to a president , what he didn't do is provide a plausible legal defense as to why his activities might not
be criminal . Didn't do it . Didn't do it at all . Plus , he got caught . Some lies . Now on to Kenneth cheese , bro John Eastman and , of course , sidney Powell , sidney Krakenhand Powell .
They've all moved to assert their rights to a speedy trial , which , in Georgia , for all practical purposes , means they want their trial to occur in a couple of months , and if it doesn't meet that particular deadline , the charges get dismissed .
And you can consider this an attempt to try and call Finding Willis' Bluff in the event that she might not be prepared to take things to trial , and this is a get out of jail free card in that event .
The gamble here is that Finding Willis notified us the charges were imminent and then took months of time in between before filing charges , and that could be presumably to prepare for this very likelihood that she might have to try all 19 defendants as soon as possible . So she had plenty of time to get fucking prepared .
And the other gamble that you take is that sure you want your speedy trial . All right , you got it . Are you prepared ? Oh , it doesn't matter . Doesn't matter how well prepares your defenses .
You could have potentially taken far more time to prepare an adequate legal defense , but you've waived that opportunity in service of exercising another competing right , the right to a speedy trial .
So these knuckleheads in an attempted user get out of jail free card could potentially be reducing the possibility of winning a trial because they don't have time to prepare a more complex and nuanced legal defense , and this move could bite them in the ass .
They've all also filed motions to sever , which means that none of them want to be tried with the other , and I can totally understand that .
And you know , it's a RICO conspiracy case , meaning that they would all be liable for the actions taken by others who agreed to enter into the conspiracy together , and if they are all tried together , one way that they would plausibly mount a defense is to point it to other people that say they did that shit . It wasn't me .
My name , bennett , and I ain't in it , each making the other look bad , which might bode poorly for them in the eyes of the jury .
If their cases are severed , however , and they're each tried separately , what they can do is say that yeah , all those other people engaged in that activity , but I didn't do any of that , and then the other defendants , the other co-conspirators , aren't there to rebut them .
The risk there , though , is that the prosecution has the time and energy to devote solely to hammering you to fucking death in the eyes of the jury , and you don't have the implicit complications of having numerous people on trial with you in multiple cross examination of witnesses and multiple statements , and making it as complex as possible , making it difficult for
the jury to kind of navigate the evidence . So you're kind of taking your chances either way . But again , yet another risk you take when filing for your speedy trial motion and your motion to sever is that the judge grants your speedy trial request , of course , but doesn't sever the cases , and then all you morons are to try together .
Now , of course , the one person who is not trying to get to trial anytime soon and who is , in fact , trying to delay the inevitable as long as possible , that would be ding , ding , ding . You guessed it former President Trump .
He has also filed a motion to sever his case from the other co-defendants because , well , first of all , he doesn't want to be tried with these idiots either .
He likely wants to throw them under the bus , but he also wants to lay the inevitable as long as possible in the slim chance that he somehow wins the presidency in 2024 and takes office in 2025 while he's out of appeal .
If he's convicted Now , I know you're saying he'd be convicted , and if he loses the appeal , even if he's in the White House , he goes to jail , right ?
Well , the question I would ask you to ponder is who the fuck would arrest him , because I'm absolutely sure the first thing he did on day one in office is fire everyone who's not totally loyal to him , above and beyond their loyalty to the United States and the Constitution .
He would assemble a team of Secret Service agents and FBI agents and military officials and make his own fucking private military guard in order to defend him against anyone who might attempt to arrest him and just hold himself up in the fucking White House and let chaos reign . If he somehow in the White House in January of 2025 , he ain't leaving .
I'm telling you now . He will drag this fucking White House in the Civil War if he has to to stay out of prison and destroy anything and anyone .
If he has to Trust me on this and I believe that to be the case even if he was somehow impeached and convicted by a majority in the super majority in the Senate I don't even think I've talked about this anywhere else , but I believe his first resort , if he does , somehow managed to win in 2024 .
But once he takes office , it's to somehow kill off Congress and in that way , there'd be literally no one to hold him fucking responsible . Hopefully that was terrifying enough to motivate you to get off your ass and try and convince everyone you possibly can to vote for Joe Biden in 2024 . And that concludes this episode of part of the interaction .