BREAKING: MAJOR lawsuit ROCKS Trump White House

This is Democracy Watch. Mark, you and I. have spoken at length about the imminent. attacks that Donald Trump keeps. promising as it relates to the election. And oftentimes I ask you, is there. anything that we can do in advance. before just waiting for him to do these. things at the 11th hour? And by then, it's almost too late to like go to go to. the courts and go to judges and ask them. to stop things if it's going to. interfere in the election that's. happening right then and there. But we. may have a solution here in a new. lawsuit that was just put forward. Can. you explain what happened? Yeah, the Democratic National Committee.

sought records from the various parts of. the federal government that, you know, either control the military, in the case. of Department of Defense, or, you know, these sort of paramilitary operations, Department of Homeland Security, as well. as the the Department of Justice itself. for records related to any plan or or. planning to have armed. agents or armed soldiers or anyone at. the polls, at ballot boxes, or election. facilities. And they've been.

stonewalled. I mean, the fact is the the. Department of Justice and the DHS and. and DOD and all of them, they're they're. not saying, "Hey, we don't have any. records like that because, you know, we're not going to do that." They're. just sort of blowing off these requests. So the So the DNC, they filed a lawsuit. in federal court to say, "Hey, your. honor, we're entitled to these records. under the open records laws." And you. know, the question I have that I'm sure. many of you are asking is if the. Department of Defense is not planning on.

sending the military, if DHS is not. planning on sending armed paramilitary, if if the Department of Justice is not. planning for there to be, you know, militarized or paramilitary or or. people, you know, at the polls or at at. voting locations, why don't they just. write back and say there are no records? Right? Right? Why haven't they just. said, "No records this year." They. haven't done that. They've just. stonewalled. So, if the DNC's lawsuit is. successful and they're able to have any.

records, any communications disclosed. that would show the Trump administration. is indeed planning to send ICE agents or. military into polling places, specifically polling places in purple. districts or blue cities within red. states or whatever it may be, with that information, then would it be. possible to to put forward some lawsuit. to prevent it from happening now that. it's kind of like there's some. conspiracy underway? Like then would you. finally have some standing to block this. before it happens? Yeah, I think you put.

your finger on the legal term, uh. standing, right? Like at that point it. goes from being a hypothetical. >> Right. right to a concrete. >> WHICH WHICH WHICH HAS BEEN the problem. all along because I've asked you in. previous videos, like we know this is. going to happen, but you can't sue if. there's no standing, if nothing is. actually happening. You have to wait. until election day, but by election day. you're already screwed because then the. voter suppression is happening. Yeah, so. there are these dual. uh legal doctrines that are kind of. where a lot of our voting litigation.

takes place between these two narrow. doctrines. One is ripeness, which is. that there has to actually be a thing. happening. You can't say, "I think. something may happen or sometime in the. future may happen." It has to be. concrete enough to be ripe. And then on. the other side you have mootness, which. is "Well, it already happened, so. there's nothing you can do about it. because it's over, right?" So So like I. always I always, you know, joke that you. know, as far as states are concerned, our lawsuits are always either too early. or too late, right? Like it's either too.

early that it's not ripe or it's too. late and there's nothing to do about it. And so what the DNC very strategically. is doing here is they're saying, "Look, we want the records that shows where the. planning is. Like is there any planning? Is there any, you know, even laying the. groundwork to planning, right?" So So. like getting the records to show whether. this is even under consideration if so. what that timeline might look like will. allow then litigators whether at the DNC. or not at the DNC but allow folks to.

then kind of like say okay here is that. narrow time frame where according to you. know the planning going on or or the the. instructions or whatever it's going to. start on this date. and so we can go into court in advance. of that date or the DNC or other lawyers. can go in advance of that date you know. and say what it's concrete enough to. block. I want to note for everybody who's. watching right now before we get into. the next question here that as far as. protecting our elections are concerned.

there is no better fighter no better. champion for protecting democracy for. fighting the Republicans voter. suppression schemes in court than Mark. and his team. So a small step that. everybody can take right now to support. his work is to sign up for Democracy. Docket which is the news outlet that. focuses on everything voting and. elections that he founded. It's where I. read and learned about this exact. lawsuit. So if you are at all interested. in democracy in voting rights in. elections the best outlet you can. subscribe to right now is Democracy. Docket so that link is right here on the. screen. It's also in the post. description of this video.

Mark as this lawsuit moves forward what. do you anticipate might be any issues. with this whole process? Look I think that the Department of. Justice that's defending this is going. to stonewall and stonewall and stonewall. and so their plan. is to not give an inch. And the question is whether the courts. will rule on this on this lawsuit fast. enough. I I don't think there's any. question at least in my mind that the. DNC is right on the law. In other words.

they are entitled to the records. But. the question is how long does that. judicial process take? Because every day that goes by. it is one day closer to the election. >> Right. And if you know as you just think. about the mootness rightness around this. entire lawsuit right like it may not. become legally moot, but, you know, at some point getting the. information that the Department of. Justice or DHS or other branch of the. government are going to, you know, put. armed.

soldiers or armed National Guardsmen or. armed, you know, federal agents. at ballot drop boxes or early vote. sites, at some point like the lawsuit. itself. takes so long that you wind up seeing. the people at the sites before you get. the records that they say they're. planning it. So, urgency around this. lawsuit is going to be really important, and that's going to boil down to a. couple of things. A, how quickly does. the does does the DNC press this? I. suspect they're going to try to push. this on a really fast track. How.

effectively is the Department of Justice. at slow-walking this? And that, you. know, I think is going to be a question. And then the judges, like, you know, whether the judge Some of these judges. are really starting to hold the the the. DOJ's feet to the fire. Others continue. to give them the presumption of good. faith, the presumption of regularity. And what that means is that when the. Department of Justice lawyer shows up. and says, "Look, your honor, we got a thousand things going on right. now.". And this is like an open records. lawsuit. This can't take priority over. all of the other thousand things we got.

going on. Is the judge going to be like, "Okay, well, if DOJ says they have a thousand. things going on, then then they must. have a thousand things going." Or will. the judge look at that and say, "Look, you guys have been jerking us around on. on delay and delay and delay in. everything. And so, no, I'm not going to. let this issue, which involves the DNC's. right to have this information in. advance of the election, I'm not going. to let this drag on." So, you know, a. lot of that is just up to the individual. judge and how quickly they press things, how much the DNC presses, how hard the.

DOJ pushes back. Is there a world where. even if there's not necessarily. immediate standing that the courts can. recognize like the. um the extenuating circumstances at play. here and take into account um the. atmospherics of this thing, listening to. what Republicans have said, recognizing. the proclivity that the Republicans have. for voter suppression, hearing Donald. Trump's public comments, and and use. those in their decision of whether um to.

to rule in favor of the DNC, but also to. move with more urgency than they. normally would. Yeah, look, you you put your finger on. it. This is the great frustration that I. think I and many people have about the. courts beyond the merits. Like beyond. like not liking decisions from the. Supreme Court or from other courts. Just. like the big concern we have is that. there is a kind of procedural blindness. that has taken over our courts. In which. they are like, "We are the courts and we.

look at the pleadings in front of us and. we are otherwise we have blinders on.". And that just doesn't work in this era. Like judges need to open their eyes and. just acknowledge the thing that is just. as plain as day. I mean, Brian, in many. respects it's the same critique I have. of the legacy media, right? It's like. the legacy media is reporting that, you. know, the board of peace has had. setbacks. in as a result of the the Iran war. And.

it's like the board of peace was like a. bunch of to begin Right. Right, it was never actually about peace. But. like there's a part of the legacy media. that just like has to treat this Right. Like on its own terms. It's like it's kayfabe. Like in in in. wrestling, like professional wrestling, which I grew up watching, it is a. collective suspension of disbelief where. we all pretend like the thing that we. all know is make-believe isn't so that. we can enjoy the show. And and that's. what so many of these people are doing.

Like the Everybody knows the board of. peace is complete but but they. confer a degree of legitimacy, unearned. legitimacy, onto this thing just because. it comes it's born out of, you know, a. political zeitgeist that normally is. legitimate. It's the presumption of. regularity. And and here and you know, it's the it's the same thing. It's. presumption of regularity that isn't. isn't earned and isn't deserved. Right. And and so it that's exactly right. And. so courts engage in that same thing, that same suspension. Right? They assume.

that. what is described in the documents that. are filed with them. are the world. And they begin by. assuming that if the Department of. Justice describes the world a certain. way, that is probably the most accurate. description of the world. You know, it. reminds me of of episodes you and I did. back. when there were troops in Los Angeles. And you know, the courts, at least some. of them, were like, well, Donald Trump.

says that there is an emergency that. requires the National Guard. And like you were like pointing out like. anyone who's in LA knows that is not. true. Like like like no matter what. words the Department of Justice uses, it's just not true. And yet some of the. judges. were like, well, the Department of. Justice says that this is necessary, so. therefore it must be necessary. And and. like democracy is not going to survive. that. Right. Right. And look, I think.

that. the the major issue is that not enough. people are actually calling that out. Too many people are playing that game. and suspending their disbelief in. deference to this administration, whether it you know, be it for access or. just because that's how it is. It's just. the power of stasis. You don't do that. And Democracy Docket doesn't do that. So. again, for anybody looking to elevate. media that actually deserves to be. elevated, please sign up for Democracy. Docket. I'm going to put that link right. here on the screen and also in the post. description. And of course, to see more. episodes of Democracy Watch, the link to.

subscribe to this channel is on the. screen as well. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen. I'm Mark Elias. This is Democracy Watch. >> [music].