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It's Complicated

Episode 94 | Did Jack Smith just DESTROY Trump's Legal Defense?

It's Complicated

Renato Mariotti

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.81K Ratings

🗓️ 7 October 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Can Jack Smith’s new filing secure a conviction of Donald Trump? Spoiler alert: it's complicated. In this all-new episode, legal experts Asha Rangappa and Renato Mariotti dive deep into the complexities of the latest unsealed filing in the Washington D.C. district federal court seeking to break through presidential immunity and put Donald Trump on criminal trial for crimes stemming from his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Subscribe to our Patreon here, where paid members will get access to exclusive portions of this show. patreon.com/reallyamericanmedia Our hosts take a comprehensive look at the strategic elements and rigorous arguments presented in the immunity brief, which serves as a roadmap for Jack Smith's bold new prosecution strategy based on a fairly recent, superseding indictment. And they’ll provide insights into how Smith is specifically challenging Trump’s claim of presidential immunity, asserting that his actions were in his capacity as a presidential candidate, rather than in an official capacity. You’ll hear about the extraordinary level of detail in the filing, which weaves together a variety of evidence to paint the picture of Trump’s alleged conspiracy and misconduct. Renato highlights Smith's strategic use of Trump's tweets, which provides a clear differentiation between his official and personal statements. Asha and Renato also break down the significant role of Trump's legal advisors like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, who not only provided legal cover for questionable activities, but may have also contributed to the smokescreen of legitimacy around claims of election fraud.  Lastly, Asha explains how the  committee also laid the groundwork for much of the evidence now seen in Jack Smith’s prosecution filing. Our hosts reveal the impact of the January 6th committee's findings on shaping public understanding of these events, and explore the potential defenses Trump will likely employ.  We hope you enjoy this episode. Be sure to join us next week as Asha and Renato continue to untangle the complexities of all of the most important legal drama in America’s history as a democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

So, Asha, is Jack Smith going to be able to introduce all the evidence he needs to convict Donald Trump?

0:07.0

Eh, it's complicated.

0:10.0

I'm Asisharangappa. I teach national security law at Yale University. I'm a former FBI special

0:20.0

agent and I'm a legal contributor for ABC News.

0:23.6

And I'm Renata Mariati.

0:25.2

I'm a former federal prosecutor, a practicing lawyer, and a legal analyst.

0:29.9

And we're here to help you understand topics that can't be boiled down into a soundbite or a tweet.

0:39.9

So I would say that this latest unsealed filing by Jack Smith can definitely not be boiled down into a

0:48.4

sound bite or a tweet.

0:51.0

Even though there have been a lot of sound bites in terms of like some of the, I guess shocking

0:55.9

revelations of some of the things that, you know, he knows that Trump said or did.

1:10.9

Yeah, I have to say, Asha, it was one of the longer legal filings that I've gone through in my career and that's saying something because I've been doing practicing law for over 20 years.

1:15.0

I was going through it. I'm in the middle of my jury trial and in between and reading parts of this filing and wow it is very extensive with all sorts of arguments and all sorts of

1:25.8

evidence yeah and I think he received special permission to file something this long he

1:31.3

actually had to ask the court.

1:33.4

But I think it makes sense, and frankly,

1:35.8

I think it's a very elegantly and elegantly

1:41.3

written brief that is also, my opinion very accessible to a lay reader and I would encourage anyone who's listening to this to really to go online and find it and read at least the facts

1:55.9

portion because what struck me is in some ways taking out the whole DOJ subplot, which that was the piece of the conspiracy where Trump was asking

2:09.4

his acting Attorney General Jeffrey Clark to send false letters to states to Georgia

2:14.8

saying that there was you know to falsely claim that there was election fraud

2:19.4

the Supreme Court ruled that that was official those were official acts. Those were absolutely

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