Trump Panics as Deposition Trap Closes in...Last Moves Revealed

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3:17He was just doing his job, everybody. Remember on the ellipse, his speech, he was just being presidential. arguing that all these people that he knew were armed should whip themselves up into a frenzy, appointed them at the Capitol and said, now let's go down there and make Congress do its job. Well, that's not part of being the president. And if it's outside the presidential core, presidential functions of the constitution or powers stretched to their outer boundaries, you don't have civil damages immunity. Now, all the immunity conversations we've had in the past have been about criminal immunity.

3:57When can a president be prosecuted? And there are some very rare circumstances after the United States Supreme Court bailed out Donald Trump when he can be. But that doesn't mean civil damages in a lawsuit brought in this case by Met Police and Capitol Police and people that are inside the building, like legislators, all pending in a case since 2021 in front of Judge Mehta. that doesn't mean that those cases are over. So Donald Trump has had to reach into a new tool bag and a new filing and argue that he's got what's called Westfall immunity, meaning I'm a federal employee, batch number one. I was just doing my job as president when I gave that speech that got everybody all hot and bothered and pointed them at the Capitol.

4:41But what is that job? Because there is no election or certification of votes, electoral college role of the president. He's at that point just a kipitzer. He's just a campaigner in chief. He's just there as candidate Trump trying to convince everybody that he won the election. That's not a presidential function. And this fight about whether Westfall immunity named after a case applies or not. Because if you're a federal employee doing your federal job within the scope of your duties stretched to its outer boundaries, you know, given, in other words, giving you the benefit of the doubt, you may be immune, meaning the government steps in, in your place.

5:24The United States of America becomes the defendant. You can't sue the government without its permission. Case is dismissed. That's what Trump is trying for now. And in the new filing, even though two of the other defendants in the case are entities that don't have immunity, that are controlled by Donald Trump, a PAC, Make America Great Again PAC, and the Donald J. Trump for President Incorporated, right? They were sued because they have no immunity. They're not federal employees, and they're obviously trying to get Donald Trump elected. Donald Trump doesn't want to sit for a deposition. Who could blame him to talk about Jan 6th again and have documents and information exchanged in what we call discovery until the federal court, appellate courts, decide on his Westfall immunity request.

6:18But why should a judge deny justice for those inside the building who've been waiting more than six years? You know, why can't they have their documents? Why can't there be depositions of the Trump PAC and the President Donald J. Trump for President PAC? Why can't they sit and give over their documents and information? Why can't all of that happened while Donald Trump litigates about over and over his immunity. This is all about Donald Trump trying to rewrite history again. And when I show you and remind you of the clips of Donald Trump on Jan 6th on the Ellipse, I don't think there could be any dispute that he's outside his presidential authority, just as Judge Maida already ruled.

7:00I'll catch you up on the new filings and what it means for justice here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. I'm Michael Popak. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button, both places here and on Legal AF YouTube channel. Okay. These cases were consolidated. They're in front of Judge Maida, started by members of Congress, started by Metropolitan and Capitol Police all put together. Recently, in the last month, Judge Maida ruled, I'm not waiting around any longer for discovery. That's the next phase in the case. Could you believe this case has been sitting around for six years? And because of all the appeals by Donald Trump and delay tactics, they haven't done anything to progress the case forward?

7:36It's not even out of the starting blocks. And now it's time. And Judge Mata said it's time because justice delayed is justice denied. Time for people to swear and under oath. Time for people to give depositions. Time for documents to be exchanged and information to be exchanged to prepare this case for trial. Donald Trump doesn't want that. So he filed a notice to have the United States substitute in for him. It's called a Westfall notice. And what it says is the Department of Justice, controlled by Donald Trump, has looked over the allegations of the complaint. And they believe that Donald Trump was within the course and scope of his duties as president as a federal employee on Jan 6th.

8:19And we now want to come in for him and have the case dismissed outright. How convenient that Donald Trump's own Department of Justice, apparently no conflict, a guy by the name of Salvatore D 'Alessio, director of the torts branch, civil division, United States Department of Justice, has certified that he was acting within the course and scope of his duties when he was telling people to go storm the Capitol. Just to show you the continued conflict theme here, one of Donald Trump's own lawyers or law firms representing him and his PAC and his Trump for president incorporated is Jonathan Shaw of Dillon Law Group.

9:06Dillon Law Group. Sounds familiar, right? Yeah, because that's a firm that's owned and controlled, or at least was founded by Harmeet Dillon. She's the head of the Civil Rights Division for the Department of Justice. Oh, yes, she is. And her law firm is still out there taking MAGA causes. And there's no conflict. You would think somebody would say, isn't it wrong for a president to be using his current civil rights division head who's trying out to be the attorney general, using her law firm for his personal matters? Yeah, it sounds terrible. But yet it continues. Now, what's up right now with Judge Mehta is a new, that was just filed in the last day, joint motion to stay brought by Trump and all his little Trumpers.

9:56And what they're arguing is to the judge, while Donald Trump's issue about whether he has immunity from civil suit under the Westfall doctrine or not is pending, the whole case should just be trapped in amber. Nothing should happen. And I don't think that's the way, based on my experience in federal court, it should work. Judge Mehta has to recognize this has been a six-year odyssey for the plaintiffs. They're suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault and battery, civil conspiracy. It's time to move this part of the case forward into the next phase. If Donald Trump is successful, throw a round of appeals over the next year about proving that whatever he did and said, and I'll show you a clip in a minute, is okay.

10:46It gives him immunity. So be it. The case continues against the other two Trump entities. Let's get to it, Judge, in 2026. Oh, I'm very excited to tell you about the world's number one expanding guard hose and their brand new product, the Pocket Hose Ballistic. I used to have to buy a new hose every year due to kinks and tangles, but the Pocket Hose Ballistic is the upgrade I've been looking for my entire life. It's the toughest Pocket Hose ever built. Reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bulletproof vests, Pocket Hose is the number one expandable hose in the world. Super lightweight, easy to manage, easy to store.

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12:08And you be the judge, whether you think this is within some sort of article to power of a president. And if it is, tell me in the comments, which duty of the president is to ensure that Congress certifies an election on his behalf. Play the clips. Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we're going to walk down and I'll be there with you. We're going to walk down. We're going to walk down anyone you want. But I think right here we're going to walk down to the Capitol. And we're going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.

12:53and we're probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them because you'll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength and you have to be strong. We have come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country. Our country. Our country has been under siege for a long time, far longer than this four year period.

13:49We've said it on a much straighter course, a much, and we, I thought, you know, four more years, I thought it would be easy. Come to demand that Congress do the right thing and only count the electors who have been lawfully slated, lawfully slated. I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard. Today we will see whether Republicans stand strong for integrity of our elections, but whether or not they stand strong for our country. How do you know a pepper spray? F***ing heaven, f***ing thing.

14:43We're going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Pennsylvania Avenue. And we're going to the Capitol. And we're going to try and give. The Democrats are hopeless. They're never voting for anything. Not even one vote. But we're going to try and give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don't need any of our help. We're going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical left Democrats, which is what they're doing, and stolen by the fake news media.

15:27That's what they've done and what they're doing. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved. Now here's what's going to happen next. The lawyers representing the plaintiffs will file an opposition paper. The appellate courts will be making a ruling about Donald Trump's attempts to have his U.S. Department of Justice assert immunity on his behalf. And this stands in contrast, let me just do a teachable moment here, to the criminal immunity that is at the heart of the Trump versus U.S. or U.S. versus Trump appeal at the United States Supreme Court several years ago.

16:10There, they said that if a president is within his core constitutional duties and responsibilities, or his presidential duties stretch to its outer boundaries, you can't prosecute him for anything that happens within that world. Outer boundaries, core constitutional functions, doesn't matter what he does. That's why they got into the debate at the oral arguments about, well, what if while doing one of his core functions, he commits a crime? Like, well, I'm the commander in chief, so I'm going to command SEAL Team 6 to shoot Joe Biden. Is that OK? So there was those weird hypotheticals that all came out during that oral argument.

17:01The one narrow area that the Supreme Court is allowing even criminal prosecution is if it's purely for private gain or conduct, like a sex assault, a theft, stealing money, robbing a bank, murdering somebody outside of being the president. sex crimes. That seems to be outside, and even the president under this immunity doctrine could be prosecuted. The fallback we're talking about, the safety net for a president, is the Westfall immunity doctrine, which is a civil concept about when you get sued for damages, for money, not for a crime. And you're able to say, but I'm a federal employee, and I was doing my job and you can't, even if I did it wrong or negligently or I hurt you, it doesn't matter.

18:02I was doing my job and therefore I'm inside the course and scope and you can't sue me for it. Now, this all came up for Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case several years ago when he argued that when he was defaming her and saying that her allegations now proven of sex abuse were false. He was doing that as a president, except Joe Biden's administration said he wasn't. So he didn't get Westfall immunity because it has to be certified by the government. And he lost two separate civil trials with E. Gene Carroll, one for$5 million, one for$83 million, which are now up in various forms of appeal.

18:46I'm going to continue to follow it all All for you right here on Midas Touch. Hit the free subscribe button, Legal AF YouTube channel, the exact same thing. We're going to cross 1.2 million subscribers with your help, I think, before in the next week or so. And until my next report then, I'm Michael Pope. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there. including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF.

19:22What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. Craving the coffee flavor you love, but without the caffeine? Cachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all-in-one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor crafted from premium decaffeinated Brazilian beans with 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens, and so much more. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to cachava.com and use code NEWS.

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