The Gangster Presidency

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick | Law, justice, and the courts

Slate Podcasts

News Commentary, Politics, Government, News

4.6 • 3.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On Monday, President Trump’s personal lawyer and Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered prosecutors to drop federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams had been courting President Trump for weeks, including with a pre-inauguration visit to Mar A Lago, but the shape of the deal struck between the accused Mayor and the incoming administration came into clear view with a flurry of Department of Justice resignations on Thursday. On this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick speaks to Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney, and host and executive producer of the podcast Talking Feds. Harry explains why the so-called “Thursday Night Massacre” is not the kind of scandal even this administration can shrug off while yelling something about the “deep state” and “weaponization”. Next, Dahlia turns to the chaotic, destructive and dangerous “spontaneous disassembly” of much of the federal government currently taking place at the hands of Elon Musk with guest Sam Bagenstos, former general counsel of the United States Department of Health and Human Services until December 2024, also former general counsel for the Office of Management and Budget from January 2021 until June 2022. Now a professor at the University of Michigan, Sam explains what happens when the federal government stops working, and why persistently asking whether or not we’re in a constitutional crisis is simply the wrong question. Want more Amicus? Join Slate Plus to unlock weekly bonus episodes with exclusive legal analysis. Plus, you’ll access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. You can subscribe directly from the Amicus show page on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Or, visit slate.com/amicusplus to get access wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here's the truth about AI. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. Service Now puts
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0:21.9	use right now. That's why the world works with ServiceNow. Visit ServiceNow.com
0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people. Hi, I'm Dahlia Lithwick. This is Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts,
0:36.9	the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court. This is Amicus Slate's podcast about the courts, the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
0:40.6	This is humongous beyond anything, I think, in DOJ's history.
0:49.3	What you're seeing right now is a fundamental disregard of basic constitutional principles.
1:00.6	It was a Thursday afternoon massacre in response to an utterly naked and corrupt quid pro quo,
1:09.6	a series of events and letters and resignations that would have sunk
1:13.5	any administration in the before times, and yet we are in the now times. On Thursday at 2 p.m.,
1:21.3	the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Danielle Sassoon, quit her job.
1:30.7	She was one of six lawyers on Thursday who resigned rather than dismissed corruption charges against New York mayor, Eric Adams, as directed
1:37.2	by the acting number two official at the Justice Department, Emil Beauvais. This is an earthquake
1:43.8	of courage and principle. On Friday, we are hearing
1:48.2	reports that 22 members of the public integrity section at the DOJ were pulled into a room and given
1:54.6	one hour to decide who among them would dismiss the Adams indictment or else they would all be
2:00.2	fired. Now, before we get started, I want to flag for listeners that we are taping the Who among them would dismiss the Adams indictment or else they would all be fired?
2:06.1	Now, before we get started, I want to flag for listeners that we are taping this early Friday afternoon.
2:12.5	Events are unfolding very quickly. So these are the facts as we know them right now as of this taping.
2:18.9	Joining us to discuss is Harry Lipman. He is the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Before that, he served as a deputy assistant attorney general at the DOJ, an assistant U.S. attorney, and a special assistant U.S. attorney.
	...

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