The Perpetual Conflict Over Executive Power and the Rise of Lawfare GUEST NAME: Professor Richard Epstein Professor Richard Epstein analyzes the perpetual clash between executive and congressional power, particularly regarding the Congressional Budget an
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 11 October 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Perpetual Conflict Over Executive Power and the Rise of Lawfare
GUEST NAME: Professor Richard Epstein
Professor Richard Epstein analyzes the perpetual clash between executive and congressional power, particularly regarding the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974. He notes the Roberts court generally protects executive power. The dispute over fund impoundment, seen in Department of State et al. versus AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, reflects deep polarization, hindering compromise. Epstein criticizes the use of lawfare, exemplified by the indictments of Letitia James and James Comey, stating it fails long-term and leads to cycles of violence and discord.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchew with Professor Richard Epstein commenting on the powers of the presidency and the partisanship of the presidency and the old-fashioned word payback. |
| 0:14.6 | We have a headline from New York, New York Attorney General Letitia James criminally indicted. |
| 0:22.6 | There are details here. |
| 0:29.0 | However, I connect this indictment with partisanship. You will recall that James Comey has been recently indicted. Before that, we had instance after instance of Mr. Trump being criminally indicted. |
| 0:36.8 | In other countries, we have, for example, the former |
| 0:39.4 | president of Brazil not only being indicted but convicted and sentenced to 27 years for his conduct while |
| 0:47.3 | in office. I could go on. It's generally understood as lawfare. Fine. However, the question I have for the professor is, |
| 0:55.7 | does it work? Professor, is there a conclusion? Because they certainly aren't holding back. |
| 1:01.2 | The Letitia James indictment has been denounced by the governor of New York and seems really |
| 1:07.1 | an avenue that isn't of interest to anyone, but I guess President Trump? |
| 1:14.6 | Well, I think the answer is warfare works when you win. |
| 1:19.0 | Lawfare does not work when you lose. |
| 1:21.5 | So the attack on Trump, my position was that every one of those law schools was not only wrong, |
| 1:34.1 | but nefarious, taking either silly transactions or innocuous transactions and making them something big. |
| 1:39.5 | The most serious thing I think that there did exist was the whole question of January 6th. |
| 1:44.6 | And my view, which is a minority position, but I still think the correct position is once you have a trial by way of impeachment, there can never be any other trial at the federal level because of the |
| 1:49.3 | protections against trouble jeopardy. And they went over all that stuff. The complaints got more |
| 1:54.9 | and more exotic. The claims were shot down. And what happened is that what was thought to be the fatal blow to Trump was |
| 2:03.0 | seen by the public as being so utterly preposterous that the losses probably compelled him into |
| 2:08.2 | often. The thing that Donald Trump should have done is to be gracious and not to return the favor. |
| 2:13.9 | That is simply against his nature. And so he has now gone and managed to invent various |
| 2:19.4 | kinds of claims on matters that's so utterly inconsequential that everybody on all sides of the |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from John Batchelor, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of John Batchelor and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.