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The Ezra Klein Show

Two Attorneys Rank the Severity of Trump’s Indictments

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion

Society & Culture, Government, News

4.611K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 55 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With four ongoing criminal investigations, Donald Trump is the most indicted president in U.S. history. After years of defying unwritten norms, he will now be subject to a criminal justice system defined by norms and precedents. What does due process look like for a former president? Ken White is a former federal prosecutor, a practicing criminal defense lawyer and a co-host of the podcast “Serious Trouble.” He writes the popular newsletter The Popehat Report, extensively covering the ins and outs of criminal trials. Among the many commentators on Trump’s unprecedented legal troubles, White stands out for his “lawsplainers,” which analyze the gap between what the law says and what it actually does. This conversation walks through each of the four major criminal cases against Trump. Our guest host David French asks White why he loathes the overuse of the RICO statute and whether it was appropriately used in the Georgia election interference indictment. They also discuss the Florida judge whose “functionally lawless” decision halted parts of the Mar-a-Lago investigation, White’s view that prosecutors can get away with much more in state court than in federal court, how the district attorney in the Georgia case is approaching this “circuslike” indictment, why Trump’s legal intent is both more and less complicated than the public discourse suggests and much more. This episode was hosted by David French, a columnist at The New York Times. Previously, he was a senior editor and co-founder of The Dispatch and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. This episode contains strong language. Book Recommendations: Pax by Tom Holland The Shadow Docket by Stephen Vladeck The Enchanters by James Ellroy Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected]. You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of “The Ezra Klein Show” at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs. This episode of “The Ezra Klein Show” was produced by Rollin Hu. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, with Kate Sinclair and Mary Marge Locker. Our senior engineer is Jeff Geld. Our senior editor is Annie-Rose Strasser. The show’s production team also includes Emefa Agawu and Kristin Lin. Original music by Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta. The executive producer of New York Times Opinion Audio is Annie-Rose Strasser. And special thanks to Sonia Herrero and Isaac Jones.

Transcript

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0:00.0

From New York Times' opinion, this is the Ezra Klein Show.

0:22.8

Hey it is Ezra.

0:24.1

I am on Bookleave, but our guest's week is my colleague at the Times' opinion columnist

0:28.3

David French, whose work I have learned a ton from, and whose just way of

0:32.8

comporting himself in public life I've often quite admired.

0:36.8

He began his career as a lawyer, he has deployed with the US military, he's the author

0:41.6

of many books, including Divide Did We Fall, America's Session Threat, and How to Restore

0:45.9

Our Nation.

0:46.9

And I'm excited to see what he does here behind the mic.

0:49.6

I hope you enjoyed too.

0:55.5

I met Ken White the first day of law school.

0:57.9

We bonded immediately, we were both Star Trek nerds, we were both already losing our

1:03.2

hair, and we were both fascinated by criminal and constitutional law.

1:08.2

Neither of us ever lost that fascination, and Ken went on to become one of the nation's

1:12.8

most respected legal voices, on both the criminal justice system and the First Amendment,

1:18.7

which is why I wanted to have him on the show today.

1:21.9

As much as I love to talk about free speech, this conversation is going to focus on criminal

1:25.8

justice, specifically the four cases against Donald Trump.

1:30.6

Most recently we've had the sweeping Georgia indictment regarding Trump's efforts to overturn

1:35.2

the election, before that we had the more narrow federal January 6 case, which also focused

1:41.7

not just on January 6, but Trump's efforts to overturn the election.

1:46.5

And before then we had the Florida case involving the handling of classified documents relating

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