Serious Trouble
Serious Trouble
Settlements and Separations
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Settlements and Separations

Trump fires the prosecutors who prosecuted him; Meta settles; Some of the pardoned January 6 rioters are already in trouble again; ex-Sen. Bob Menendez is in serious trouble indeed.

Dear listeners,

Just a week and a half back into the presidency, Donald Trump has seen to it that various federal prosecutors who were involved in prosecuting him have been fired. Can he do that? Maybe not; unlike US Attorneys, their underlings enjoy civil service protection against firings. But there are other things he surely could have done to these people, like reassign them into prosecutorial Siberia. Doing the rash thing that may get blocked by the courts instead of the similar, careful thing that would hold up — there’s something about this that’s classic Trump. But as Ken notes, the question is what Trump’s objective is: Does he want these guys fired (which might not work out), or does he want them to be seen to be fired (which he’s already achieved)?

The DOJ also continues to drop cases against defendants who enjoy Trump’s political favor. That has led other defendants and convicts to try to obtain his political favor: Eric Adams, Sam Bankman-Fried, ex-Sen. Bob Menendez, to name three. Unfortunately for those three men, they’re all Democrats — not necessarily a disqualifier for receiving improper favors from the president, but an impediment at the least. The New York Times even reports that Adams’ pitbull-of-a-lawyer, Alex Spiro (who also represents Elon Musk), issued a not-so-veiled threat to the Trump administration: that Adams “would not be inclined to cooperate with the president’s immigration crackdown if he remained under indictment.” Spiro emphatically denies having done this, and I certainly don’t think threatening Trump seems like a great idea for a federal criminal defendant at this juncture, but as Ken notes, it would be classic Alex Spiro.

Speaking of Menendez, he got sentenced to 11 years in prison, which is a lot, especially for a bribery scheme that didn’t even involve a Mercedes E-Class. His last strategy available is to convince Trump that he, too, is a victim of the political weaponization of the Justice Department, a message he has sought to convey by tagging the president in a tweet.

Plus, Meta has paid a large settlement to Trump — mostly going to his presidential library foundation — in what looks like a strategic payment to get back in the president’s good graces, since Trump’s underlying lawsuit against the company was quite bogus. This is different from the ABC-Disney settlement, which was suspiciously large but at least involved a non-frivolous action Trump had brought against the company. Is there a threshold at which these payments become illegal? We discuss. Plus, we look at Devin Nunes (remember him?) losing in court again, and at the question of whether there is even a federal payment freeze for the federal courts to stay anymore.

We hope you enjoy the episode,

Josh

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