WHOA: Fed up judge deals CRUSHING BLOW to Trump in court

We have a huge update here as far as one. of Donald Trump's more high-profile. vindictive prosecutions is concerned. It's somebody that's in the independent. media space. Glenn, can you explain what. the new update is as far as Don Lemon's. prosecutions concerned? >> Yeah, Brian, here we go again. A judge. just ordered the Department of Justice. to turn over all the grand jury evidence. and information for her to review to see. if there was prosetorial misconduct. before the grand jury. Where have we.

seen this movie before? Well, let's see. The case against the first prosecution. against James Comey was dismissed. because of improprieties in the grand. jury, as was the case against Leticia. James. As was the case against the. Broadview 6 protesters in Chicago, as. was the case against David Hearn in the, you know, infamous reflecting pool. caper. I mean, over and over and over. again, Donald Trump's dirty DOJ. officials are sending these ethicsfree.

prosecutors into the grand jury. Often, these are people who were just brought. to the Department of Justice. specifically to kind of be part of. Donald Trump and Todd Blanch's corrupt. cabal. people who are willing to do. Donald Trump's bidding to, you know, weaponize the Department of Justice to. go after Trump's perceived evidence even. though they committed no crime. You. know, Donald Trump and Todd Blanch. seemed to be of the opinion evidence. We're going to indict Donald Trump's.

perceived enemies. And they went after. Don Lemon, another independent. journalist out in Minneapolis, Georgia. Fort, and a couple of dozen others. Why? Well, because they learned that a pastor. at a particular church was involved in. ICE enforcement, specifically back. during that extreme immigration. enforcement operation in Minneapolis. You remember the one that produced the. deaths of Renee Good and Alex Prey. And.

we saw captured on uh cell phone cameras. over and over and over again ice running. rough shot over the constitutional. rights of the people who were protesting. this reckless immigration enforcement. operation. There was um an indication. that a pastor at a particular church was. sort of involved in those immigration. enforcement operations. So a series of. people got together and they decided to. mount a protest at that pastor's church. Now, here is what's most important for.

our viewers to know. Um, these. independent journalists, Don Lemon, former CNN, now an independent. journalist, and local Minneapolis. journalist Georgia Fort, they were. covering the protest. And what is most. absurd from this old prosecutor's. perspective is they indicted um not only. Don Lemon, Georgia Fort and many others. who were protesting at the church. church, they indicted Don Lemon for you. know blocking access of the.

parishioners, the worshippers to you. know worship in the church of their. choice under something called the Face. Act. And yet Don Lemon actually live. streamed his own conduct. Are we really. to believe that Don Lemon was live. streaming his own felonies as he was. committing them? Most importantly, we. hear him on the live stream saying, "Whoa, whoa. I'm covering this protest. I'm a journalist. I'm not with the.

protesters." And you know they went. ahead and they indicted Don Lemon, Georgia for it and a whole bunch of. other people in any event. But then you. know the the judge got wind that there. may have been some improprieties before. the grand jury and Don Lemon's lawyers. filed a motion arguing judge look at the. pattern of grand jury abu abuse that has. been perpetrated by Donald Trump's. Department of Justice. So, the judge. ultimately um ordered the DOJ to produce.

all of the grand jury materials, not. just the transcripts of witness. testimony, but all of the audio. recordings of every word that was said. in the grand jury, including what the. prosecutors said to the grand jurors, including the questions that the grand. jurors asked of the prosecutors and how. they answered those questions. And this. is the exact blueprint that led all of. those other cases to fall apart and be. dismissed. James Comey, Leticia James, the Broadview Six, the David Hearn.

prosecution. And here we go again. Now. we have to wait to see what the judge. finds in those grand jury transcripts to. see if she decides to dismiss all of. these cases that are presently pending. up in Minnesota. >> A quick note for those who are watching, if you appreciate our legal analysis, the best way to see more of it is to. subscribe to both of our channels. completely free to subscribe, but a. great way to show some support for the. work that we do. So, those links are. right in the post description of this. video. Glenn, worth asking here, what. was the impetus for the judge here to.

demand uh to demand any of the. information related to these. prosecutions? Was it apppropo of. nothing? Was it apppropo of previous. vindictive prosecutions? Or was there. something that actually happened that. felt that made the judge feel that it. was warranted to suddenly seek this. information? You know, I think it's it's. an aggregate of everything that we have. come to learn of Donald Trump's dirty. Department of Justice officials because. there is clearly a pattern that has. emerged over the uh the spectrum of.

cases that we that I just listed where, you know, it it's clear that Donald. Trump has managed to find an attorney. general and a number of United States. attorneys around the country who are. willing to abuse the grand jury process, who are engaged who are willing to. engage in prosecutorial overreach and. misconduct before the grand jurors. because there's a wellestablished record. in multiple cases of that. And I think I. haven't read all of the pleadings that. led up to this ultimate ruling by the.

judge. But I do think part of what goes. into it is but Brian I think a large. part of it is the following and this is. probably not intuitive to people. When. prosecutors go into grand juries, I did. it for literally decades as a federal. prosecutor. Um, we wear two hats. We are. the traditional prosecutor. What does. that look like? Well, we present the. incriminating evidence and information. to the grand jurors. That's witness. testimony. That's crime scene photos. It's police reports. It's the results of.

any forensic testing that was conducted. But we wear a second hat. We are also. the legal advisors to the grand jury. That's a term of art. What does that. mean? It means that we have to play it. straight with the grand jurors, not even. really be advocates, which is the. traditional role of the prosecutor. And. what we have to do is say, ladies and. gentlemen, we are asking you in this. case, for example, to vote out two. felony charges against Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, and the others, and let us.

list for you the elements of each of. those crimes. Each crime is made up of. several elements and the prosecutors. have to present evidence, admissible. evidence on each of those elements to. satisfy the jury that we actually have. probable cause to indict and we have a. reasonable likelihood of a conviction at. trial. That is the DOJ standard for a. prosecutor to go forward and request an. indictment even though probable cause is.

the legal standard for the grand jurors. to vote in favor of an indictment. And. we have to play it straight. We frankly. almost have to be judge-like because if. our evidence is lacking on a particular. element of a particular crime, we have. to raise that with the grand jury and. discuss it. If the defendant has a. defense to the crime, we have to address. that. You know, we're responsible for. providing not only incriminating. evidence to the grand jury, but what's. called exculpatory evidence. evidence.

that is helpful to the defendant that. might provide a defense to the charges. that we're looking to indict. And and. here is where the rubber meets the road, Brian. And I have a feeling this may be. a large part of what prompted the judge. to order the disclosure of all grand. jury materials to the judge privately, not giving it to the defense yet. Um, we. know that we know because we saw with. our own eyes Don Lemon's live stream. when Don Lemon said things that support.

the reality, the fact that he was. exercising his First Amendment rights of. freedom of the press when he was. covering that protest at the church. In. fact, he said so expressly, "Hey, I'm. covering this. I'm a journalist. I'm not. with the group." and to argue that he is. somehow complicit with what other people. may have done, which I'm not suggesting. was criminal. We'll hear more about that.

in the future, but is is contradicted. squarely by a contemporaneous audio. video recording of what Don Lemon was. doing. And if that's not enough to raise. a judge's concern that the um the second. hat that the prosecutors are required to. wear in the grand jury, legal adviser to. the grand jury, somehow the the. prosecutors may have, let's put it. generously, fallen down on their job as. legal advisers to the grand jury to talk. about that defense Don Lemon likely has.

to these criminal charges. You know, then I don't know what evidence would. satisfy the judge. So I think it was. probably in aggregate everything that we. have come to know not only in the. context of the evidence in this case but. of DOJ's habit practice proclivity to. abuse the grand jury to make sure that. dear leaders you know commands are are. obeyed and that they use the powers of. the department of justice to go after. Trump's perceived enemies. Is there a.

world where the judge can look at I. would say the evidence but the lack of. evidence and just dismiss this outright? Like would that be best case scenario. for Don Lemon and other folks? >> Well, that is exactly the world in which. the broad view six protesters in Chicago. found themselves because there was. evidence of irregularities before the. grand jury. The judge required ordered. DOJ to produce all of the grand jury. transcripts. And Brian, they they fought. mightily against it. And I won't catalog.

all of the arguments they made. as to why the judge shouldn't be. permitted to see what they did in the. grand jury. They went so far as. dismissing charges themselves to try to. thwart the judge's efforts to see what. the hell they did in the grand jury, but. they failed. And when the judge saw it. all, the judge dismissed all the cases. against the Broadview Six. But the judge. went a step further. I believe this was. Judge April Perry. And what she did was. she also ordered the Department of. Justice to pay for the defendant's legal.

fees. In fact, Brian, the Department of. Justice gave up the ghost and they said, "Judge, judge, we'll pay for their legal. fees." Boy, if that is not an admission. of wrongdoing by these hack DOJ lawyers, I don't know what is. >> All right. So then, last question here. Why does the administration recognizing. how um doomed this whole effort is, why. is it important for them to go through. this whole charade anyway? What benefit. do they derive by virtue of engaging in.

a process that's basically doomed to. fail? Well, they're probably all trying. to avoid having Donald Trump throw them. under the bus as he has so many of his. other cabinet officials or officers who. displease him because they don't carry. out his lawless demands to get after his. Trump's enemies. Right? We're seeing it. play out in real time with Janine Piro. She's not she's not successfully. prosecuting the innocent David Hearn. So, there is some reporting that she may.

be on the chopping block. Pam Bondi. didn't carry out Donald Trump's, you. know, campaign of vindictiveness, so she. got thrown under the bus. So why is DOJ. going through it? Probably because some. sort of cowardly US attorney out there. is not wanting to find himself as the. next one Donald Trump throws under the. bus. At least that's a reasonable. inference I think we can draw. >> Yeah. Well, we will of course stay on. top of this. Uh if for nothing else,

then we have uh some other folks in the. independent media space who deserve. attention just like every other person. who is the victim of a a uh a weaponized. Department of Justice does. So if you. want to follow along with what's. happening, the best way to do that is to. subscribe to both of our channels. I'm. going to put those links right here on. the screen and also in the post. description of this video. I'm Brian. Taylor Cohen. >> and I'm Glenn Kersner. >> You're watching the Legal Breakdown.