Epstein Files and Future Outlook

I think he got the job because he knows exactly who Trump is and he's giving him exactly what he wants, which is vigorously going after his enemies to a frankly shameful extent and just doing whatever Trump wants without much concern about what the law is or what the facts are. I'm Jane Koston and this is Way The show that is stunned to find itself agreeing with ESPN Stehven A. Smith and asking D President Donald Trump watch last night's NBI finals game With his eyes closed Go online, look at videos I'm not going to accuse him of snoring because I wasn't an earshot. But the brother wasn't awake. He wasn't awake. If it was that important for you to be there, why did you look like you were asleep? Didn't you call our former President Joe Biden sleepy Joe? O what should we call you? What should we call Trump Hired Trump, a REM cycle Republican. Let me know your thoughts in the comments On today's show, we talk to former federal prosecutor Ken White about Trump's nomine to serve as attttorney genereneral and beloved friend, Todd Blanche Before we get into All that. hereere's what we're following today Tuesday, june ninth report that an army helicopter went down in the straight. Can you give us an update on that? Are soldiers okay The pilots are fine. Yeah injured President Trump spoke to reporters in New York after the NBI finals about a U.S. Army helicopter downed near the Strait of Hormuz And this afternoon, Trump gave an update on that crash. He blamed Iran for shooting down the helicopter and said the U. S. must respond to the attack These federal judges are really giving us a hard time It's really crazy what's going on with the court system They are giving us a very, very hard time. And they shouldn't be doing it. They're hurting our country very badly Penza who you talk to. So stay tuned because we'll be talking more about federal judges in a few minutes But back to President Trump, who ended that press gaggle reacting to news that a federal judge struck down the administration's one hundred thousand dollars fee on new HMB visas The judge Monday sided with twenty states and ruled that the Trump administration exceeded its authority by raising the fee without congressional approval HMB visas are meant for high skilled jobs that are difficult to find American workers to fill. The administration announced the astronomical charge in September as a way of preventing foreign workers from taking American jobs Voters are headed to the polls for primaries today in North Dakota, South Carolina, Nevada, and Maine As we discussed on yesterday's show, oyster fararmer Graham Platner is all but certain to be the Democratic nominee against Senator Susan Collins South Carolina voters will choose nominees to succeed Republican Gvernor Henry McMaster, who was term limited after ten years in office. Trump's endorsement of Leutenant Governor Pamel Evette to succeed McMaster could be decisive And just weeks ago, longtime representative James Clelyburn, the dean of South Carolina Democrats, appeared to be facing the greatest threat to his political future But after GOP lawmakers rejected the changes to the state's congressional map, it looks like his nomination will be safe and sound A study commissioned by the Biden administration to investigate alcohol related health harms was released independently on Tuesday The study had faced pushback from the alcohol industry and a congressional committee One of the officials involved accused Trump's administration of sidelining the research. an allegation the Trump administration denies Gess watch. The findings were in line with what most of us already knew Health risks go up with just one drink a day and no level of alcohol has a protective effect on mortality. Sad I know. And that's the news. Let's talk about the Department of Justice. Trump made it official. Todd Blanch is his next nominee for attorney generer After firing Pam Bondie back in April, Trump chose his former defense attorney to lead more than ten thousand attorneys in the federal government To me, it seems pretty clear why Trump wants someone who will do what he wants prosecute his political enemies, or set up a one point seven seven six billion dollars Mga anti weaponization fund But in doing so, Blanche has made a lot of his own enemies. like Senate Republicans who screamed at him during a closed door meeting over the Ati weaponization Fund a few weeks ago And Judges who just don't trust DOJ attorneys anymore So what does that mean for Trump's legal agenda Find out I spoke to Ken White. He's a former federal prosecutor, partner at Brown, White and Osborne LLP, and co host of the podcast, Series Trouble. Ken, welcome back to What A Day. Well, thank you for having me back On Monday, President Trump formally nominated Aing attorney genereral Tod Banche take on the job full time. How exciting for him Blanche took over the AG role in April after Trump fired Pam Bondi RIP, we miss her What do we know about how Blanche has run the DOJ so far? Well, it looks like Blanche is running it the way Trump wanted, which is sort of consciously as Trump's personal lawyer and as you the person carrying out the Federalist society's unitary executive theory that all mechanisms of the government should be directly under the service of the president and there shouldn't be any sort of independence to the Department of Justice. So you know, when this nomination, which was expected came out Senator Dick Durbin said that Todd Blanche has been around and he apparently hasn't noticed that Trump is corrupt And I think that's exactly wrong. I think he got the job because he knows exactly who Trump is and he's giving him exactly what he wants, which is vigorously going after his enemies to a frankly shameful extent, like in the, you know the seashells case and things like that, and just doing whatever Trump wants without much concern about what the law is or what the facts are Yes, we all remember the adventures of James Comey. But I mean to your point Todd Blanche was literally Trump's former defense attorney Pam Bondi. served as attorney general of the state of Florida. At some point there had been the words atttorney general after her name doing something What about Tom Blanche? Like does I mean I know what I am asking, but does he actually have the bona fides for this position if he were not former defense attorne I mean, as much as anyone who recently has been up for the job does, considering the president was previously considering Matt Gates, I would say he's well qualified. He is a former assistant US attorney. who is a supervisor in the U.S atttorne's office. He understands how the Department of Justice works on some level. That's not to say he respects how it works or how it's supposed to work But he very clearly in his public statements of sort of cananine devotion to Trump has demonstrated that he's going to do whatever Trump wants that he loves him. And I I mean, he says that literally and openly. And that he sees his job as to be the president's lawyer, the president as Donald J. Trump, the individual, not as the office of the presidency So that has been his strategy that he will push the department to do things that attack personal enemies to use the Department of Justice as his personal law firm and to carry out his agenda items. without again, any sort of reference to whether they're legal Whether the things that are being said to federal judges are truthful, or whether they were within the lawful authority of the Department of Justice We'll get back to my conversation with Ken in a moment and we don't even need to check with a judge first If you like the show, make sure to subscribe, leave a five star review on Spotify and Ale podcasts, watch us on YouTube, and share with your friends. More to come after some ads What today is brought to you by Americans United for Separation of Church and State This hasn't gotten a lot of airtime But President Trump's releligious Liberty Commission has been meeting regularly, not to focus on religious liberty for all, but rather how to further a Christian nationalist agenda in the US Religious freedom is meant to protect individuals' rights to hold and practice their beliefs without interference, so long as they don't harm others, including children Pretty sure we can all agree on that That's exactly what has happened when taxpayer funded, adoption and foster care agencies deny kids a loving home that treats them with dignity Religion is also being used as a tool to discriminate and only allow people who are of the. write religion to serve as foster parents That's exactly what's happened to multiple of Americans United Gients Liz and Gabe Rutan Ram, a Jewish couple in Tennessee, were ready to foster to adopt a child until a state funded agency refused to work with them because they are Jewish. 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But if I needed it, I would absolutely get it Even living in an apartment, I've had some home repair disasters that I wish I could have called on Home sererve for like the burst pipe that took out an entire floor of our building Join the millions of customers who trust Homeeserve For fifty percent less your first year, go to homeom sererve d. com slash wad. That's home sererve dot com slash wad for fifty percent less Savings compared to renewal price, void in Florida Let's get back to my conversation with Ken White Trump has long wanted essentially a servile attorney general. It's interesting because he seems to believe Democrats have had that that Barack Obama had Eric Holder, and he believes that relationship to have been Eric Holder was Barack Obama's personal attorney even though that's not what happened. Right. What's funny is that Trump is getting what he wants in some parts, but he's losing a ton. So how has the DOJ been functioning with this more servile attorney general compared to Trump's first term? Not well. So they have been noticeably stretching more in all sorts of cases In other words, the first Trump administration, DOJ did some crazy things, but not as overtly and aggressively as they have during this term. And that has yielded bad results. They are down around twenty percent of their lawyers, which is a lot given how sought after and prestigious those jobs used to be. Theyve resorted to offering bounties to get people to come in and work for the Department of Justice, which is laughable. And their reputation with courts has taken a huge hit And you can see that not just in the results of judicial decisions, but in the tone of them Can I go back to one quick thing, bounties in what way? Like are they getting literally like, please come work for us here is a check? Yeah, they were offering money for people to come work as U.S. attorneys, asssistant U. S attorneys in these hubs that they're trying to set up do more immigration work and other Trump agenda items work and that's we wildess. I actually wild. Yeah. I mean, you would typically have, you know, fifty people trying to get the same one spot as an assistant U.S.. I've known people who have, you know, in previous times, like the people who went to like Harvard, Yale, Duke Law, all being like, I'm going to be an assistant U.S attorne. they've been gunning for that since they were in grade school and to need to write a check But you were you were talking about Judges and those losses, you can go on. I was stunned. So at the beginning of my career, I was you know super proud to say, I'm Ken White and I represent the United States of America. These days, it's increasingly becoming a resume stain, frankly, because the judges are showing increasingly overt disbelief and skepticism about the word of assistant U. S attorneys. They are calling out lies in a way and previously they would have presumed that was a mistake or an oversight or something like that. They're using scathing language in decisions. And these are all sorts of judges. These are not just, you know Biden appointees or Obama appointees. This includes Conservative judges appointed by Republicans, even Trump been this Traditionally, you've probably heard and use the phrase presumption of regularity. We're going to assume the Justice Department is basically trying to do what it's supposed to, trying to comply with the law. And there has been this deference and respect given by the judiciary to federal prosecutors and federal attorneys. And that has largely disappeared and it's shocking how fast it happened So Me now the current Ken White, who's been a defense attorney for twenty five years since is a good thing if the federal judiciary is no longer going to be automatically trusting and deferential federal prosecutors. but It is a gigantic blow to the prestige of the Justice Department and the ability of the Justice Department to get things done. becausecause a lot of things they could get done. they could get done because federal judges believed U.S. attorney wouldnt come into my court and lie to me. That is gone. That is completely gone Yeah, and it also seems as if if Trump wants to get the terrible things he wants then it's going to be a big problem that the judges whom he may have even nominated won't give it to him. So are judges going to be the biggest check on the president this term because of all of this they will be. and you know a lot of people have sort of given up on the judiciary largely because of the Supreme Court and its decisions and its', you know shadow docket or as I call it the separate but equal docket. But you know The truth is that District court judges are doing an enormous amount of important work and they are acting as a break on some of the biggest extremes of this administration The thing is what you see again and again in cases that the administration is losing at the trial court level, is a total lack of discipline or effort. planning. So a lot of the things they've done They could have gotten away with it if they put in effort and time and planning and discipline, but they have none of those things You know, they don't feel sounds about right. It sounds right. They don't feel like putting in the work or coming up with a plausible story Their sense is this is what we want, and we're the executives and so we get it. And that's how you get cases that are just facially ridiculous, like the James Comey prosecution for the seashells that every judge in America is going to laugh at the most dedicated you know, right wing legal analysts are embarrassed about and that has consequences. It has consequences in the credibility of the cases the Justice Department brings and the credibility every attorney from the Justice Department who shows up in court, including the decent ones So Here's my question. My It was paranoia, but now it just seems like a thing that might be happening. Even though they're losing and you said that you know, they're not even trying, does that because they feel as if they can just keep appealing and then the Supreme Court will give them what they want? Like are they complying with these rulings at all Or are they just basically saying at some point, the Conservative Supreme Court will let us have what we want anyway It's a mix on some things are counting on the Supreme Court to save them O others they're just moving on. So they're taking sort of the public relations and political win for having done this big flashy thing. And then they lose in court and they move on to the next big flashy thing. So the problem is that has lasting consequences for the credibility of the department. and it develops bodies of law that are not favorable to the department But the problem is that know, it's much harder to defend and preserve institutions than it is to corrupt and tear them down. So Trump ism wins if they corrupt the Justice Department, make it a corrupt instrument of Trump or if they completely destroy its independence and reputation. They win either way because that empowers the unitary executive of Trump You know, the federal society wins. peopleeople trying to defend the institution lose either if the Justice Department is taken over by corrupt people or if its reputation is permanently damaged, because then it can't accomplish the good things that it does accomplish So The Epstein files have haunted this DOJ since the very beginning It's their own fault We've talked about that And their botched release is likely a large part of why Pam Bombie lost her job, specifically because she could not get past this issue But last month, Bondi testified on Capitol Hill that it was actually Blanche who had overseen the department's release of the files Do you think that's going to impact his nomination To some extent, I think it will. and there's certainly some congressional Republicans, some people in the Senate who are more skeptical about Epstein issues than they are about other Trump issues. But I have not seen a lot of indication that they're willing to push back that hard against something this big And, you know, that nominating the AG is a big deal it' relatively rare historically from the Senate to successfully push back. and it really does seem as if the public has to some extent moved on. prediction, the cynical prediction of the Trump people that eventually everone to get tired of and move on to other stuff seems to be mostly true. I mean, it flares up now and then, but it has not been the consistent story It was you know, in the winter and just a few months ago even. And so, you know, now attention has successfully shifted to whatever is allegedly happening with Iran today and to other issues Ken, as always, thank you so much for joining me I'm the blueberird of happppiness, Jan, always have to be here for you That was my conversation with Ken White, partner at Brown, White and Osborne LLP, and former federal prosecutor. We'll link to his podcast, Serious Trouble in the Show Nes Before we go Wh does it seem like the Supreme Court always saves its worst decisions for June? Maybe the first gentle breezes of summer fill them with inexplicable rage But opinion season is officially here, and the Supreme Court is about to reshape some of the biggest issues in our lives Every week, constitutional law professors, Kate, Melissa and Leah break down the most consequential decisions and why they matter New episodes of strict scrutiny drop every Monday. Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review. Celebrate a woman who is swimming the entire length of the state of California and tell your friends to listen And if you're into reading, and not just about Catherine Breed, who next month will swim more than nine hundred miles, roughly five to eight hours a day. deealing with sharks, jellyfish and storms, like me Way is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at ck dot com slash subscribe I'm Jane Kiston, and if Frid succeeds, she would be the first person to ever swim the length of California. Not the first woman. person ever W T Day is a production of crook media. O show is produced by Kaiten Flummer, Emily F four, Eric Mrison, and Adrian Hill. Our team includes Hay Jones, Greg Walter, Matturg, Joseph Dutrra, Joannah Case, and Desmond Tayl. O music is by Kyle Murdock and Jordan Canter. We'd help today from the Associated Press. Our production staff isroudly unionized with the Wrerers Gild of America East