“BLOCKBUSTER!” Judge deals MAJOR LOSS to Trump in court

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, we have a. surprise rebuke from a judge against the. Trump administration as they have tried. to carry out one of their most insidious. plans yet as it relates to voting. Can. you explain what just happened at the. hands of one judge? >> Yeah, this is a blockbuster ruling out. of the District of Columbia Federal. Court where a federal judge has blocked. the Department of Homeland Security and. the federal government from using the. SAVE database. This is the database of. all of these individual.

records that the government has on. people including Social Security data. and the like. Well, remember Donald. Trump issued an executive order to use. this database to compare it to state. voter rolls for the purpose of kicking. people off the voter rolls. Well, the. federal judge said doing that violates. the Privacy Act, violates federal law, and the federal government needs to stop. doing it immediately. No more SAVE.

database being used to disenfranchise. voters, no more red states running their. voter files through this. And this will. have broad implications because remember. on a separate track, there have been. efforts by the Department of Justice to. to get access to essentially seize voter. data from non-cooperative states. 30-plus states that have refused to turn. this data over to the federal government. and they've been losing those cases as. well. So, in some sense, this is like. they're getting they're losing at the.

getting access to the data in the 31. states and now in this blockbuster. ruling, they are also losing access to. using the federal database as a way to. remove voters in in advance of the 2026. midterms. >> Now, it's not like the Trump. administration ever just listens to a. judge and says, "Oh, well, that's it. We. lost and so we're just going to take our. ball and go home." So, what other avenue. is the Trump administration now going to. look toward to continue to try and.

implement these exact policies? Like, for them, it's like, "Okay, we couldn't. go through this door, but there's nine. other doors and 16 windows that we can. try also." So, what do you expect comes. next? >> Yeah, so I think there's a three-pronged. strategy. Number one, they're going to appeal this. decision. Okay? And that's Look, that's. their right. They get to appeal uh. uh the decisions, and we'll see what the. DC Circuit says there, just as in these. other cases uh where my law firm and I. are undefeated against the Department of. Justice. We'll see what the courts of. appeal say there. So, that's kind of the.

legitimate path that they will take. But, we know that Donald Trump is never. going to limit himself to the legitimate. path. I mean, after all, remember I. litigated more than 60 cases in. defeating Donald Trump when he. challenged the outcome of the 2020. election. And after I and my team and. others beat him in court more than 60. times, he didn't give up, right? Instead, what we saw was a violent insurrection. instigated by him in the nation's. capital on January 6th. So, what are the.

other two steps? Second, I think we are. going to see Donald Trump try to. defy this order by essentially saying, "Well, we're not using the SAVE. database, we're using other federal. databases that will have the same. underlying data." Now, I think this. judge won't have any of it, but we've. seen this game of cat and mouse before. Uh I think it would be in contempt of. court. I think it would violate this. court's order. I think the judge would. be angry. All the things that we say all. the time about the Trump administration. So, I think we need to be like really uh.

cognizant and on the lookout for the. federal government somehow trying to. argue that they're not using the SAVE. database, they're using other databases. Maybe one that uh you know, uh Elon uh. Musk will come back to create. Who. knows? Uh who knows what other database. And then the third thing is there have. been rumblings and some reports that. Donald Trump is going to condition. federal aid. to the states. on complying with so far unspecified.

demands including removal of voters that. he doesn't like. And we may see him do. that not by using federal databases but. by trying to put influence either. through. interfaces with individual federal. agencies and those states or look, just. him in the White House in those states. to remove people from the rolls who he. does not want to vote. So, I think there. are a lot of further tactics that Donald. Trump is going to be up to.

I wouldn't be surprised if you see a. different executive order like I said. deputizing a different set of agencies. or a different database. But for now, this is a big win for the good guys as. are those voter file cases and right now. the clock is ticking. And Brian, we. always have to be mindful that every day. that goes by we get one day closer to. the election and it becomes harder and. harder and harder for Donald Trump to. pull this off. >> And by the way, in large part the reason. that it's becoming harder for Trump to. pull this off is because of the efforts.

of you and your team. You know, you are. you are right now litigating what I. think 31 cases as it relates to. preventing the Department of Justice. from getting access to the voter files. in a raft of different states. Is that. correct? 31 states? >> Yeah, that's that's that's that's part. of the overall 83 cases my law firm are. litigating around voting and election in. 43 states. But yes, we are litigating in. all of those cases. that you mentioned about this one set of. issues. >> So, the reason that our private.

information is not going to the federal. government so that they can just use. that information to determine who could. or couldn't vote in upcoming elections. or where USPS shouldn't allow you to. send mail-in ballots based on whatever, you know, dictat Donald Trump sends down. The. reason for that is because of the. efforts of you and your team. So, uh. just a quick note for anybody who's. watching right now, if you'd like to. show some support for the work that Mark. and his team are doing, a small step. that you could and should be taking. right now is to subscribe to Democracy. Docket, which is the news outlet Mark.

founded to focus on everything voting. elections. It's what I use on a daily. basis to follow all news as it relates. to voting rights or democracy. Um so, I'm going to put the link right here on. the screen and also in the post. description of this video. If you are. not yet subscribed, especially as we. head toward midterms, it's going to be. especially important. Please go ahead. and subscribe. >> And Brian, let me uh jump in here for a. second. Because I do hope everyone subscribes to. Democracy Docket because it's a great. way to stay informed. Another way to stay informed is to. pre-order Brian's book. Brian has.

written a new book, which is one of the. most important works on how we dig. ourselves out of this hole. Uh about. what comes after the Trump. administration, what Democrats need to. be fighting for. I had the privilege of. writing the forward uh for it. And I. particularly want to call out the fact. that you and your editor. and your publisher have agreed to donate. a portion of those proceeds to support. the very litigation that you're talking. about. So, you know, my law firm and I, we represent the voters and voting.

organizations in in a lot of these. cases. And the fund that we use to help. support that litigation is called the. free election fund. And you, Brian, have. generously behind the scenes, uh. without, you know, much ado, agreed that. you and your your publisher and your. editor will make a donation based on uh. book sales. So, I hope everyone, if they. were already on the fence about whether. to buy your book or not, and they. shouldn't have been because it's a great. book and an important book. But if you. But if you're not certain if this is the.

book for you, it is, and it will also. help support those litigation efforts. So, please, the link to purchase this. book is on the screen in front of you. It's also in in of this episode. >> I appreciate that. Um and uh as Mark. said, right here on the screen, also in. the post description, or you can go to. briantylercohen.com/book. to pre-order. Mark, you know. >> And can I just say, I I know this is. going to get me in trouble in some. quarters. Like, if you got to go to Amazon, go to. Amazon to buy the book. Like, if you got. to go to Barnes & Noble, go to Barnes &. Noble to buy the book. Uh better to do.

it from independent bookstores, or. better to do it by going to Brian Tyler. Cohen's website. But, I got to tell you, if the thing that's going to get you to. buy the book is that you just go to your. Amazon account, go to your Amazon. account and buy the book. The most. important thing is that you get your. hands on this book, cuz it is going to. give you the information you need. as we head towards the midterms, and. then importantly as we head towards. 2028. >> Mark, the fact that the Trump. administration from so many states. already has this information, is there. some worry? I know that you you said. that, you know, they can claim that they.

got it through Elon Musk, they can claim. that they got it here and there. Is. there some some worry that the states. themselves will kind of take these. edicts that were handed down by the. federal government, and if the federal. government can't do with that. information what they want, at least. they have. you know, willing. participants, these sycophants. You. know, Greg Greg Abbott will do whatever. Donald Trump wants him to do at the. federal level, at the state level. Ron DeSantis will do at the state level. whatever Trump would have done at the. federal level. You know, there are a lot.

of different officials across the. country, Republican officials, who will. say, "You know what, if you can't do it. at the federal level, just tell me what. to do, sir, and I'm happy to do it for. you, sir. Your wish is my command, sir.". And so, is there some worry that now. that they have this information, you. know, it's not so much like that was the. hard part. Like, getting the information. is the hard part. Now, it's up to the. states to figure out how they can abuse. it in the absence of the federal. government abusing it. >> Absolutely. Look, I'm very worried about. what Republican controlled states are. going to do.

I mean, Republican controlled states. are, as you say, they're just going to. do whatever Donald Trump tells them to. do. And what Donald Trump is currently. telling them to do is to kick a whole. bunch of people off the voter rolls. I. mean, what Donald Trump is telling them. to do is to set up a permission. structure if he doesn't like the outcome. for them to throw out the results and. and put in place new results. What. Donald Trump is is telling them to do is. to normalize the seizure of ballots and. the deployment of ICE in blue cities in. states that they control. And so I I'm.

worried about all of that. And people. who think that this is just me being. alarmist, look, I I've been living with. people saying that about me for years. And you know what? I was right in 2020. when I sounded the alarm and said that. Donald Trump wasn't going to go. peacefully and I'm right today. Like. this is what Donald Trump's going to do. and these Republican states are are are. doing his bidding. And Brian, the other. group that I worry about while we're. while we're talking worries are what are. the what's the Department of Justice. going to do in the criminal division, right? If it can't get its way in court. before judges, you know, where where you.

know, they're hearing these cases in. civil context, what are we what are we. going to get in the criminal context? What other search warrants will they. try? What subpoenas will they try? You. know, they announced in California the. US attorney in California announced. investigations. in LA based on nothing. I mean, literally based on nothing. Just on the. on the idea that there have to be. investigations because after all in in. Los Angeles. the Republican candidate didn't win. I. mean, if that's their threshold for.

announcing criminal investigations, you. can imagine what we're going to see this. November. >> Right. If if the threshold that is that. in a city that is 80% Democratic that a. that a Republican didn't win the mayoral. race, then then they're really not being. too discerning about where they deploy. their resources. Um finally, let's finish off with this. Mark, you know, your firm is is. pretty much the central bulwark that we. have in preventing Donald Trump from. being able to do what he wants with. regard to uh the voter rolls, do you.

have enough resources as we head toward. midterms as more and more cases continue. to sprout up as the administration. becomes increasingly desperate and. backed into a corner and lawless to. fight back all of these efforts by. Republicans? >> Yeah, so there's two ways to answer. that. I mean the first is do we have. have enough resources in the number of. lawyers? And look, we are a small firm. as you point out we are litigating more. than anyone else by far. We're 60. lawyers and we're litigating 83 cases in. 41 states. So that's a pretty heavy.

caseload now and that's going to grow. dramatically and all of the what I just. mentioned are voting and election cases. including some redistricting cases. The second question of resources is, you. know, do we have the the the monetary. resources? And that's why what you and. your editor and your publisher have. agreed to do in donating a portion of. the proceeds of the book to the free. election fund is so important because. that is the fund that supports this. exact litigation, right? It it it is. what prevents there from being voters.

that are at the victim or at the mercy. of the Trump administration and. Department of Justice in these civil. cases. It's what allows us to bring. proactive litigation against voter. suppression laws. It's what allows us to. make sure that, you know, voters are. protected under all kinds of. circumstances. So I want again thank you. for that and thank your editor and your. publisher for that. And the way you guys. out there are going to help Brian with. this is you're going to buy his book. because that will just increase the. amount that is given to the free. election fund.

>> Well, so I'm going to put the link to. pre-order the book right here on the. screen and also in the post description. Again, you can also visit. briantylercohen.com/book. and to directly support Mark's work and. elevate his voice in this ecosystem. especially as we head toward midterms, please subscribe to Docket. That link is. in the screen and in the post. description as well. I'm Brian Tyler. Cohen. >> I'm Marc Elias. >> This is Democracy Watch. >> [music].