New Attorney General's First Moves & Jan 6th Rioters Sue for Damages

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1:51Here's how Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, newly minted as the nation's top law enforcement officer, explained the purging of attorneys at the Justice Department. You had prosecutors that were absolutely not doing the right thing. And so none of those prosecutors, I hope everybody agrees that they shouldn't work here if you're not doing the right thing. To Blanche, prosecutors not doing the right thing means they worked on the criminal investigations into President Trump. He failed to mention that most prosecutors work on the cases they're assigned to. I've been talking to Dave Ehrenberg, former Palm Beach County state attorney.

2:30Dave, I've seen different numbers, but thousands of prosecutors and FBI agents have been fired or resigned since Trump's second term began. So you have inexperienced attorneys appearing in federal court or attorneys who have experience in other areas. They have, for example, they have military lawyers going in and doing immigration cases. And it suffers because first you have judges who no longer give so much deference to the Department of Justice. That's a problem because these are really important cases. Federal prosecutors bring important cases. These are cases involving national security, terrorism.

3:07And if they start to lose credibility in the eyes of the bench, then Katie bar the door. So you have that. And then you have just the fact that when these young, inexperienced prosecutors who have now taken over from much more experienced prosecutors are at trial, they are facing on the other side some of the most experienced criminal defense lawyers because that's who practices in federal court. And that's going to jeopardize your conviction rates. And you just do not want guilty people to go free. The Justice Department is backtracking on assurances it made to career attorneys. They'd remain insulated from White House politics, and they're transferring white-collar prosecutors to this new division.

3:46What's going on is that this is another policy that comes out of the White House where they want to focus on the government fraud in blue states. This is the Minnesota public assistance scandal that is a real issue, by the way. There is real fraud there, and they want to lean into that by sending in more resources to root out the fraud and prosecute it. Okay, but they're doing so now by shifting people over from other parts of the DOJ. These are some of the most experienced white-collar fraud prosecutors who end up getting lots of money back for the government. These are people who go after these wealthy individuals who believe that they're above the law and they get a huge recovery.

4:30And instead of going after those elites who managed not to pay taxes or to find ways to go around the law, now they're going to focus on the poorest who are taking advantage of government assistance. But you should be able to do both at the same time. It's a shame if you have to shift people over from divisions that are working to help promote a political agenda, which is to go and double down on the public assistance fraud that has just become such a big issue on the right. So now, as far as the replacement for Bondi, Lee Zeldin, the head of the EPA, has been mentioned. And you talked about this before.

5:10It's a question of who can Trump get through the Senate? You had Matt Gaetz. That was a no-go, right? Zeldin has already been approved by the Senate for the EPA position. Do you think Trump would be satisfied with Zeldin? He's done what he wants at the EPA. Yeah, but being attorney general is different. At the EPA, you don't have grand juries. You don't have jurors. You don't have judges. You just make policy. And then you hope that they'll win in court. But those court cases take years. So right now, Lee Zeldin looks fine. He's doing Trump's bidding at the EPA. I don't think that Zeldin would satisfy Trump.

5:48I think Trump wants someone who will burn the house down. He wants a Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz won't get confirmed. He wants Sidney Powell. Sidney Powell won't get confirmed. He wants Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani won't get confirmed. So I think then he's got to find someone who he thinks will be loyal to him over everything else and can get confirmed. Maybe Alina Habba. Watch for her. Todd Blanch seriously wants this job, and he is making a big play for the job. But Trump right now seems unconvinced. I think Trump still thinks that Todd Blanch is too much on team normal, and he wants someone in the Roy Cohn mode.

6:24So Todd Blanch has 120 days before he has to either exit that office or be nominated. I think it's actually 210 days. Oh, 210 days. OK, I got it. I just transpose the numbers. So he has time to maybe try to prove himself. So do you think he would get through a Senate confirmation? Todd Blanch, I think, would very likely get through a Senate confirmation. But they're going to make sure if he's nominated or anyone, it's going to be before November because the Democrats could win control of the Senate. And then it's a game changer. So watch for that. I hadn't thought about that. Good point. Now let's turn to the world of Trump's private litigation.

7:01Trump is asking the New York state's highest court, which is the Court of Appeals, unlike most states, which is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the lowest court in New York. Yes, the Supreme Court, the appellate division, and then the Court of Appeals. So he's asking the Court of Appeals to vacate the judge's finding in that Letitia James case, where he was liable for inflating the value of his real estate. And they've already gotten the appellate division to strike down the$464 million fraud penalty, finding that it was unconstitutionally excessive, although it upheld the finding that he broke the law by inflating the value of assets, like Mar-a-Lago.

7:43But enter Michael Cohen, his former fixer, again. Well, Michael Cohen was an important witness in Letitia James' case against Donald Trump. And now Michael Cohen is saying that his testimony was coerced. So he's being accused politically of trying to get back into Trump world for whatever reason. And so that's a controversy and he's dealing with that. But aside from that, from a legal standpoint, he wasn't the reason in my mind that the judge and Goran made the decision he did, because the judge made it clear that there was a mountain of evidence and he based it on a lot of the paperwork. In fact, he gave summary judgment, meaning a ruled for the state early on in the case based on the papers, not based on Michael Cohen.

8:30So even if there was something untoward by the prosecutors, and we don't know if that's true, we haven't seen any evidence that other than Michael Cohen now saying it, you could say it's harmless error, that it's not what led to the verdict, and thus the court would not overturn a finding of liability. Right. And I remember when Michael Cohen was testifying, the discussion was, well, can he be believed because he's flip-flopped? And now he's flip-flopping again in this sub stack. You'd have to show corroboration. You have to show the internal records. And that's where the judges could say, the Chisha James produce all the internal communications between you and Michael Cohen.

9:14And that would show whether there was undue pressure there. I don't know. I don't know what to think about it. But I do know that Trump has already won because he was able to eliminate the entire massive penalty that was imposed. Now, the findings, the liability is still on the books. So this is just essentially picking the bones. This is just like Trump has already won and now he wants everything else to go his way, just overturn the entire ruling in the case. You know, this shows you about money in the justice system, because he has enough money to keep going back, you know, another bite at the apple, another bite at the apple.

9:54And we'll see what happens. And he's got really good lawyers to do it. He won at the Intermediate Court of Appeals because it overturned the massive judgment. And now he wants everything overturned. I don't know. I still think that's an uphill climb. He wants it overturned because the New York Attorney General's office wants the New York Court of Appeals to reinstate that nearly half billion dollar fraud verdict. So a win here by the Court of Appeals would be like a knockout punch, I guess. Dave, let's turn from Trump and the Justice Department for a minute and talk about the Supreme Court. This actually surprised me.

10:30One Supreme Court justice criticizing another. So during a talk at the University of Kansas Law School, Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And she didn't name him, but it was crystal clear who she was talking about. Quote, I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. Talking about the stops that ICE was doing to check immigration status. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh had written, they're typically brief and they'll promptly go free and they've been called now Kavanaugh stops. And Justice Sotomayor said, quote, this is from a man whose parents were professionals and probably doesn't really know any person who works by the hour.

11:14I mean, Supreme Court justices critique each other in their opinions, but you don't often hear a justice. In fact, I can't think of any other time where a justice has criticized another justice so openly and so personally. No, but we use the word unprecedented all the time now. It's our day and age where it is about speaking out and taking shots at people and getting likes and clicks and attention. And I think that takes its lead from the person at the top, Donald Trump. I mean, that's his style. And so you're seeing people from all walks of life, even Supreme Court justices emulate that, leaving no holds barred.

11:55And so I think that it is unusual for a different time. But today, should we really be that surprised? I mean, I wonder what happens at the next conference the justices have, whether there's tension in the air. Well, this is something very personal to Justice Sotomayor. I mean, she's the first Hispanic on the court, and she sees that Trump's immigration policies have targeted Hispanics. And in this one in particular, which allows ICE to go and question and detain people solely because of race, because of the language they're speaking. and she thought that this would be unconstitutional to do so because they don't have probable cause.

12:34They don't have any evidence that someone is undocumented other than the language they're speaking, where they're hanging out, and their race. And Justice Kavanaugh had a concurring opinion that offended not just Justice Sotomayor, but others, especially progressives who looked tone deaf, where Justice Kavanaugh was saying, well, these are just temporary stops, and all they have to do is just prove that they're not undocumented, and they're released, when in reality, it's a lot more than that. And that's why people on the left call them Kavanaugh stops to this day. So Justice Sotomayor is reflecting the sentiments, the outrage on the left.

13:09In 2024, she and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett would appear together. They made several joint appearances to try to show, you know, collegiality and civil disagreement and to promote public trust in the court. Amy Coney Barrett's key. The reason why you don't want to mess with Amy Coney Barrett because it's her court. This is a Barrett-Justice Roberts court because they're the two swing justices. See, Kavanaugh doesn't get that grace because he's not a swing justice. He is seen as in the can for Trump. And so Soymar is essentially saying, I'll take him on. I would bet that if it was Amy Coney Barrett who had that concurrence, she wouldn't be as quick to lash out at her.

13:50You make an interesting point, Dave. Thanks so much for joining me today. That's Dave Arenberg, former Palm Beach County state attorney. Coming up next on the Bloomberg Law Show, some members of the mob who stormed the Capitol on January 6th are suing the government for millions of dollars, claiming police officers who defended the Capitol that day were using excessive force. Remember, you can always get the latest legal news by listening to our Bloomberg Law Podcast. You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and at Bloomberg.com slash podcast slash law. I'm June Grosso, and you're listening to Bloomberg.

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15:49Not noise, proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business, IBM. Here's how Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, newly minted as the nation's top law enforcement officer, explained the purging of attorneys at the Justice Department. You had prosecutors that were absolutely not doing the right thing. OK, and so none of none of those prosecutors, I hope everybody agrees they shouldn't work here if you're not doing the right thing. To Blanche, prosecutors not doing the right thing means they worked on the criminal investigations into President Trump.

16:30He failed to mention that most prosecutors work on the cases they're assigned to. I've been talking to Dave Ehrenberg, former Palm Beach County state attorney. Dave, I've seen different numbers, but thousands of prosecutors and FBI agents have been fired or resigned since Trump's second term began. So you have inexperienced attorneys appearing in federal court or attorneys who have experience in other areas. They have, for example, they have military lawyers going in and doing immigration cases. And it suffers because first you have judges who no longer give so much deference to the Department of Justice.

17:09That's a problem because these are really important cases. Federal prosecutors bring important cases. These are cases involving national security, terrorism. And if they start to lose credibility in the eyes of the bench, then Katie bar the door. So you have that. And then you have just the fact that when these young, inexperienced prosecutors who have now taken over from much more experienced prosecutors are at trial, they are facing on the other side, some of the most experienced criminal defense lawyers, because that's who practices in federal court. And that's going to jeopardize your conviction rates.

17:41And you just do not want guilty people to go free. The Justice Department is backtracking on assurances it made to career attorneys, they'd remain insulated from White House politics. and they're transferring white collar prosecutors to this new division. What's going on is that this is another policy that comes out of the White House where they want to focus on the government fraud in blue states. This is the Minnesota public assistance scandal that is a real issue, by the way. There is real fraud there, and they want to lean into that by sending in more resources to root out the fraud and prosecute it.

18:19OK, but they're doing so now by shifting people over from other parts of the DOJ. These are some of the most experienced white collar fraud prosecutors who end up getting lots of money back for the government. These are people who go after these wealthy individuals who believe that they're above the law and they get a huge recovery. And instead of going after those elites who managed not to pay taxes or to find ways to go around the law, Now they're going to focus on the poorest who are taking advantage of government assistance. But you should be able to do both at the same time. It's a shame if you have to shift people over from divisions that are working to help promote a political agenda, which is to go and double down on the public assistance fraud.

19:07That has just become such a big issue on the right. So now, as far as the replacement for Bondi, Lee Zeldin, the head of the EPA, has been mentioned. And you talked about this before. It's a question of who can Trump get through the Senate? You had Matt Gaetz. That was a no-go, right? Zeldin has already been approved by the Senate for the EPA position. Do you think Trump would be satisfied with Zeldin? He's done what he wants at the EPA. Yeah, but being attorney general is different. At the EPA, you don't have grand juries. You don't have jurors. You don't have judges. You just make policy. And then you hope that they'll win in court.

19:50But those court cases take years. So right now, Lee Zeldin looks fine. He's doing Trump's bidding at the EPA. I don't think that Zeldin would satisfy Trump. I think Trump wants someone who will burn the house down. He wants a Matt Gaetz. Matt Gaetz won't get confirmed. He wants Sidney Powell. Sidney Powell won't get confirmed. He wants Rudy Giuliani. Rudy Giuliani won't get confirmed. So I think then he's got to find someone who he thinks will be loyal to him over everything else and can get confirmed. Maybe Alina Habba. Watch for her. Todd Blanchett seriously wants this job, and he is making a big play for the job.

20:24But Trump right now seems unconvinced. I think Trump still thinks that Todd Blanchett is too much on Team Normal, and he wants someone in the Roy Cohn mode. So Todd Blanch has 120 days before he has to either exit that office or be nominated. I think it's actually 210 days. Oh, 210 days. OK, I got it. I just transpose the numbers. So he has time to maybe try to prove himself. So do you think he would get through a Senate confirmation? Todd Blanch, I think, would very likely get through a Senate confirmation. But they're going to make sure if he's nominated or anyone, it's going to be before November because the Democrats could win control of the Senate.

21:02it. And then it's a game changer. So watch for that. I hadn't thought about that. Good point. Now let's turn to the world of Trump's private litigation. Trump is asking the New York State's highest court, which is the Court of Appeals, unlike most states, which is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is the lowest court in New York. Yes, the Supreme Court, the appellate division, and then the Court of Appeals. So he's asking the Court of Appeals to vacate the judge's finding in that Letitia James case where he was liable for inflating the value of his real estate. And they've already gotten the appellate division to strike down the$464 million fraud penalty, finding that it was unconstitutionally excessive, although it upheld the finding that he broke the law by inflating the value of assets like Mar-a-Lago.

21:53But enter Michael Cohen, his former fixer, again. Well, Michael Cohen was an important witness in Letitia James' case against Donald Trump. And now Michael Cohen is saying that his testimony was coerced. So he's being accused politically of trying to get back into Trump world for whatever reason. And so that's a controversy and he's dealing with that. But aside from that, from a legal standpoint, he wasn't the reason in my mind that the judge and Goran made the decision he did. Because the judge made it clear that there was a mountain of evidence and he based it on a lot of the paperwork. In fact, he gave summary judgment, meaning it ruled for the state early on in the case based on the papers, not based on Michael Cohen.

22:41So even if there was something untoward by the prosecutors, and we don't know if that's true. We haven't seen any evidence that other than Michael Cohen now saying it. You could say it's harmless error, that it's not what led to the verdict, and thus the court would not overturn a finding of liability. Right. And I remember when Michael Cohen was testifying, the discussion was, well, can he be believed because he's flip-flopped? Right. And now he's flip-flopping again in this substack. You'd have to show corroboration. You have to show the internal records. And that's where the judges could say the Chisha James produce all the internal communications between you and Michael Cohen.

23:24And that would show whether there was undue pressure there. I don't know. I don't know what to think about it. But I do know that Trump has already won because he was able to eliminate the entire massive penalty that was imposed. Now, the findings, the liability is still on the books. So this is just essentially picking the bones. This is just like Trump has already won and now he wants everything else to go his way, just overturn the entire ruling in the case. You know, this shows you about money in the justice system because he has enough money to keep going back, you know, another bite at the apple, another bite at the apple.

24:04And we'll see what happens. And he's got really good lawyers to do it. He won at the Intermediate Court of Appeals because it overturned the massive judgment. And now he wants everything overturned. I don't know. I still think that's an uphill climb. He wants it overturned because the New York Attorney General's office wants the New York Court of Appeals to reinstate that nearly half billion dollar fraud verdict. So a win here by the Court of Appeals would be like a knockout punch, I guess. Dave, let's turn from Trump and the Justice Department for a minute and talk about the Supreme Court. This actually surprised me.

24:40One Supreme Court justice criticizing another. So during a talk at the University of Kansas Law School, Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor criticized conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And she didn't name him, but it was crystal clear who she was talking about. Quote, I had a colleague in that case who wrote, you know, these are only temporary stops. Talking about the stops that ICE was doing to check immigration status. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh had written, they're typically brief and they'll promptly go free and they've been called now Kavanaugh stops. And Justice Sotomayor said, quote, this is from a man whose parents were professionals and probably doesn't really know any person who works by the hour.

25:24I mean, Supreme Court justices critique each other in their opinions, but you don't often hear a justice. In fact, I can't think of any other time where a justice has criticized another justice so openly and so personally. No, but we use the word unprecedented all the time now. It's our day and age where it is about speaking out and taking shots at people and getting likes and clicks and attention. And I think that takes its lead from the person at the top, Donald Trump. I mean, that's his style. And so you're seeing people from all walks of life, even Supreme Court justices emulate that, leaving no holds barred.

26:05And so I think that it is unusual for a different time. But today, should we really be that surprised? I mean, I wonder what happens at the next conference the justices have, whether there's tension in the air. Well, this is something very personal to Justice Sotomayor. I mean, she's the first Hispanic on the court, and she sees that Trump's immigration policies have targeted Hispanics. And in this one in particular, which allows ICE to go and question and detain people solely because of race, because of the language they're speaking. and she thought that this would be unconstitutional to do so because they don't have probable cause.