Trump Has His Own Entire Genre of Law Now
Added 2025-01-10 09:53:41 +0000 UTCOA1110 - For the first time in US history, an American President (both former and future) is facing criminal sentencing. We review Judge Juan Merchan’s most recent ruling on Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss his conviction for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and the difficult balance that Merchan has struck in trying to weigh the jury’s verdict and the rule of law itself against the fact that the defendant will be ten days away from regaining the nuclear codes as of the time of his scheduled hearing.
We also review Aileen Cannon’s recent probably-illegal desperate order to try to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s report on Trump’s many federal crimes from going public before trying to understand why Democrats would even consider signing on an extremely hard-right immigration bill which can only help to fuel Trump’s mass deportation machine. How will the Laken Riley Act allow undocumented people to get away with nearly any theft offense, and give state AGs broad power over national immigration policy? Matt then drops a quick footnote on the questionable state of Rudy Giuliani’s physical, mental, and legal health as two different federal judges consider just how contemptuous he has become before we circle back for some late-breaking updates in both of this episode’s Trump stories.
Trump’s application for a stay of sentencing to the US Supreme Court (1/7/25)
SCOTUS ruling on Trump’s application for stay of sentencing (1/9/25)
Full text of the Laken Riley Act, H.R. 29 (introduced 1/5/25)
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Comments
Why are they trying to prevent the release? If they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear, right, Republicans?
Unlikable Internet Goblin
2025-01-18 16:15:26 +0000 UTCI am a fan of Thomas yelling, it’s nice to hear someone covering outrageous news with reasonable outrage.
Not that millionaire
2025-01-14 00:06:44 +0000 UTCWhy would Merchan bother denying all of Trump's motions to cancel or delay sentencing only to hand down the most pointless, toothless sentence possible?
Jason Valasek
2025-01-13 18:48:29 +0000 UTCIf Remy were yelling in the form of cogent political rants, or... cogent ANYTHING, or... EVEN JUST WORDS RATHER THAN THE SOUND OF A FIRE ALARM I would gladly take it, lol
Opening Arguments
2025-01-13 09:44:15 +0000 UTCI'm a long time OA listener and I've been thinking a lot about how can we break through the widespread cynicism about politics. We could change that if we base our campaigns around building community instead of being just ‘talk’. What if we, as progressives, visibly invest in community centers and litter cleanup as the core of every political campaign. Instead of showing up only for votes, we could engage with communities consistently—listening to concerns and actively addressing them.
Emily
2025-01-12 22:32:00 +0000 UTCI propose a compromise: any time you say attorneys general, you say it in comic sans.
Greenland for $1, Bob
2025-01-12 04:03:54 +0000 UTCHey now, my father held that seat before Sinema.
Austin Flake
2025-01-11 21:15:54 +0000 UTCThank you for the segment on the Laken Riley Act. I live in AZ and I have written to Gallego and Kelly about this. I will be giving their offices a phone call on Monday.
Dan Roskey
2025-01-11 03:06:38 +0000 UTCWow. Adding that to the "John Fetterman sucks" pile, along with this: https://triblive.com/news/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-sen-john-fetterman-to-meet-with-trump-at-mar-a-lago/
I am now 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything' years old
2025-01-10 20:11:51 +0000 UTCoh wow--that is a killer detail that I am going to have to mention sometime soon! That language about admissions is fairly standard across the board throughout the INA but this is a really good point about how it could be used here
Matt Cameron
2025-01-10 19:15:12 +0000 UTCGavel Gavel was scooped by Judge Merchan and CNN! I heard actual voices of people in the trial, Steinglass does not sound like Lydia, while Blanche and Merchan suddenly have different voices?! In all seriousness, I felt incredibly prepared for this given the dozens of hours of readings and analysis. Of course it infuriates me even more to listen as the Defendant in Chief rants about unfairness, while the process could not have deferred to him more. To me, any other defendant, even rich white collar, gets pulled through that video screen and put into jail for his remorseless denials and totally made-up accusations directed at the court. I was further upset by CNN’s anchors going on to talk about how the short 6 minutes of Trump was much more restrained than normal. HE SOUNDED LIKE A CRAZY PERSON! We still have no idea how to deal with this guy. Ok, cooling down. Time to take a walk outside and relax a little, gonna be a long 4 years.
Colbin Erdahl
2025-01-10 18:46:54 +0000 UTCI live about a mile and i walk and hike on the trail where Laken was killed- it gave me chills but not for one second after hearing the facts did I think i need to be scared of immigrants- yes always be scared of men. Also, white men are a MUCH bigger threat in Athens , statistically and experientially.
Reese
2025-01-10 18:35:36 +0000 UTCSo, since we're talking about the Laken Riley Act, let's remind everyone that John Fetterman is a co-sponsor on the bill in the Senate. And this isn't just my normal 'John Fetterman sucks' schpiel. Oh, no, this is *way* worse. Because one of the provisions that Matt didn't mention in the act is that an individual merely has to admit to 'committing acts which constitute the essential elements of any burglary, theft, larceny, or shoplifting offense'. Now you may ask, 'how is this relevant?' Well, my dear fellows, John Fetterman's wife, Gisele, is a Brazilian immigrant who was undocumented for approximately 15 years by her own estimates. Not only that, she's mentioned numerous times that she had to dumpster dive during that period just to survive. Depending on which dumpsters she's picked through (in what I believe was the Queens borough of NYC) she could be admitting to have committed theft. Now, thankfully, Gisele is a completely naturalized citizen since 2009, so of course this won't actually harm her, but the simple fact is Fetterman is cosponsoring an act that could have been used against his own wife. If that isn't some 'ladder pulling up behind yourself' bullsh*t, I don't know what is.
Mr. Wilt
2025-01-10 17:04:28 +0000 UTCyeah, ultimately the 11th just ignored it and made their own decision but I have talked this out with three different people now and no one knows why they would defer to her 3-day post-order stay rather than simply vacating it for lack of jurisdiction
Matt Cameron
2025-01-10 16:21:31 +0000 UTClol I always feel like such a pretentious academic when I say it correctly, to the point that I mostly make a point of just saying AGs
Matt Cameron
2025-01-10 16:20:35 +0000 UTCWhy is anybody respecting her order on this when she has nothing to do with it? I don’t understand. It’s as if Thomas had written a memo to block it and they’re respecting that. What am I missing here?
Oso Hermoso
2025-01-10 16:00:30 +0000 UTCMight want to bleep out the offensive language just after 47:00, specifically "attorney generals".
Greenland for $1, Bob
2025-01-10 15:48:31 +0000 UTCThomas I'm fine with you yelling every episode. Though my favorite Thomas Yelling So Loudly He Has To Walk Away From The Microphone moment was talking about Remi constantly screaming. Wonder where he gets that from?
Vehicular Man's Laughter slipping on icy roads BUT as DADS listeners know, you just steer into the slide and grrr-rip into it
2025-01-10 14:03:02 +0000 UTC
