WHOA: Trump-appointed judge DROPS HAMMER on Trump

You're watching the legal breakdown. Glenn, we have bad news for Trump at the. hands of one of his own judges who he. appointed. Can you explain what just. happened in this cataclysmic ruling? Yeah, Brian. blockbuster ruling is. really good news for the American people. and for the rule of law more broadly. because a Trump appointed judge named. William Ray down in Georgia just threw. out a mega grand jury subpoena issued by. Todd Blanch's dirty DOJ officials. seeking the personal private information.

of thousands and thousands of Georgia. state election workers. Judge William. Ray, appointed to the federal bench by. Trump back in 2018, just ruled that this. subpoena does not have a proper purpose. and it risks chilling participation in. the Georgia elections and he had some. choice words for the DOJ in deciding to.

abuse the power of the grand jury. But. let me give our viewers just a little. flavor of what Judge Ray said. I've got. the 28page ruling here and the breadth. of this subpoena in Judge Ray's. estimation is quote staggering. Why? Because what they tried to subpoena are. the names, the email addresses, the home. addresses, the private phone numbers of. the following people. all individuals.

involved in reviewing mail-in ballots in. Falton County, Georgia, assigned to the. voter review board, assigned to mobile. voting locations, assigned to transport. ballots, um assigned to the county board. of registration and elections, all. workers or volunteers who on election. day were involved in tabulating ballots. uh all volunteers who were involved in. any recounts, all people who served as.

precinct managers or assistant precinct. managers and on and on and on. Thousands. and thousands of Georgia state election. workers. They tried to subpoena the. private personal information, including. home addresses and private telephone. numbers of all of these people. Let me. just add a quick footnote here, Brian. Do you remember what another Trump. lawyer, an associate, did, Rudy. Giuliani, when he got a hold of. information about two Georgia state.

election workers, Sheamos and Ruby. Freeman? What do you think Donald. Trump's dirty DOJ leadership could have. done with all of this information? Here. is a little bit, just a little bit of. what Judge Ray said. He said, "The. breadth of this subpoena is quote. staggering." He said disclosure of this. information would chill participation in. future elections. He said everyone. everyone should be concerned about DOJ's. ability to utilize the power of the.

grand jury to appropriate your private. information without a legitimate. purpose. In other words, abusing the. grand jury power. And finally, he asked. the question and he answered it. piece. He asked, quote, "Is there anything. wrong with the DOJ using the grand jury. to subpoena these records from all of. these Fulton County election workers?". In the court's estimation, the answer is. yes. and he quashed, a fancy word for. threw out, invalidated this mega grand.

jury subpoena, which in essence was just. going to be used to threaten, harass, intimidate, and try to suppress the vote. in Fulton County, Georgia. Try to make. people just throw up their hands and. say, "You know what? If they're going to. get all of my private information. because I'm just a a poll worker or one. of thousands of others who try to. administer fairly Georgia state. elections, I'm out. I'm not. participating. And you know what? I may.

not even go to the polls and vote. And. like I say, Brian, a Trump appointed. judge just said, "Oh, hell no." And he. threw that subpoena out. Just a quick. note here to say that if you appreciate. my work, which is and always will be. 100% free, a small ask is if you could. please pre-order my new book, The Day. After, which explores how Democrats must. finally wield power if they're fortunate. enough to get it back. I'll also be on. tour in DC, New York, and LA mid July. You can grab tickets to the tour, and. you can pre-order the book at the same. link, which I'll put on the screen and.

in the post description of this video. You can also find them at. brianttylercoen.com/book. Again, I'll never pay wall a single. piece of content, but this is the one. time that I'll ask for some support for. a book that I really think meets this. moment. Thanks so much, Glenn. Does the. fact that we have a Trump appointed. judge who offered such a stinging rebuke. of this administration, does that have. any bearing on the inevitable appeal. that we're going to see at the hands of. the DOJ? >> Not directly. So listen, the court of.

appeals and. >> I guess even atmospherically I mean the. fact that this wasn't even that this was. a bridge too far even for somebody who. Trump himself appointed like does does. even atmospherically this you anticipate. this will have any impact? >> Brian, you're two steps ahead of me. You. know, the atmospheric part I actually. think is more important in the court of. public opinion, not in the Federal. Circuit Court of Appeals. But here's the. thing, they haven't appealed this yet. They might. It's early on. They usually. have 10 days to file a notice of appeal. But this is one where, and I know you.

and I have discussed this before, and I. know it's going to be one of your future. questions. It may be that they decline. to appeal this case. Why? Because if the. circuit court of appeals, a federal. appeals court affirms this ruling by. Judge Ray. Guess what? It becomes. precedent in all of the courts that. operate in that federal jurisdiction. So, you know, throwing out a grand jury. subpoena, in my experience, is a lot. like a magical unicorn. I'd never seen.

one in my 30 years as a federal. prosecutor. Why? Because we don't abuse. the power of the grand jury by issuing. subpoenas for an improper purpose. because dear leader in the Oval Office. is angry with somebody. Um, so that's. why I've never seen one thrown out. I'm. not saying it's never happened, but it. almost never happens. It really is like. a unicorn. You almost never see one. Um, but you know, Judge William Ray decided. to saw the legal wood in front of him,

called out the abuse of the grand jury. being perpetrated by Todd Blanch's dirty. Department of Justice leadership. And. we'll see if Donald Trump um appeals. this up to the Federal Circuit Court of. Appeals. If he does, based on what I. read in this 28page ruling, he will. lose. and then we will have precedent. that will make it even harder for Donald. Trump's dirty DOJ officials to abuse the. powers of the grand jury moving forward. >> Given the fact that if this is appealed. up to the circuit court and they lose,

then it becomes binding precedent. Do. you think that there's a high likelihood. that the Trump administration will kind. of play with fire in this sense given. that even a Trump appointed judge wasn't. willing to humor them here? >> I don't think they're going to play with. fire. My my bet, you know, I'm not a. betting man, not a a high roller. I'm. not a gambling man. $1 is my betting. limit. You know, I'm going to put about. 80 cents of my $1 max bet on the Trump. administration not being foolish enough. to, as you put it, play with fire so. they can develop more bad law that will.

only constrain them from acting. nefariously moving forward. And of. course, if they do and they lose in the. Circuit Court of Appeals, which I almost. certainly think they will, would they. try to bubble it up to the Supreme Court. and ask the Supreme Court to accept the. case for review? You know, they might. If they've already, you know, in for an. appellet penny, in for an appellet. pound, they might try to get it all the. way up to the Supreme Court. But I'll. tell you, if ever, Brian, there was not. a constitutional issue involved such.

that the Supreme Court should have no. interest in accepting review of a. subpoena issue, whether the the federal. government, the Department of Justice, the executive branch had a good faith. basis to subpoena these thousands of. people and get all their personal. information collected up when, and this. is not something I mentioned up front, but it was another part of Judge Ray's. ruling, even assuming arguendo, which. what is what we lawyers say when we want.

to make things sound more complicated. than they are, assuming for the sake of. argument that some election official. committed some crime back in 2020. Guess. what? It's beyond the statute of. limitations. And the judge said, even. hypothetically speaking, if a crime had. been committed, you don't have subpoena. power over that crime because it can't. be indicted. It can't be charged. It. can't be prosecuted because it has timed. out. The statute of limitations on any.

such crime would have expired. So that's. like a belt and suspenders ruling by. Judge Ray. That is another reason I. don't think this thing sees the appellet. light of day. and certainly not all the. way up to the Supreme Court. >> Why do you think the Trump. administration was so hellbent on trying. to get this information from pole. workers? What do you think that they. were trying to do with it? What could be. the worst case scenario here? And I. asked that because generally whatever. the most nefarious action this. administration could take is the action.

that they do take. >> I think what they were trying to. accomplish is intimidation, instilling. fear. You know, in a very real sense, this is a threat. We've got your private. information now. I know your name. I. didn't know it before. I know your home. address. I've got your private phone. number now, courtesy of this dirty. subpoena. So, what does that do? you. know, that fear could spread like. wildfire through the electorate, through. the entire infrastructure of the.

election system, and it could, as the. judge said, deter people from wanting to. participate either as, you know, election workers or as voters. So, um, but the other thing, let let's go an. extra nefarious step because this is. Trump and Todd Blanch we're talking. about. Maybe they bring the the the. country's largest criminal conspiracy. indictment ever and they indict 10,000. Georgia state election workers now that.

they have all their personal. information. A case that would be thrown. out if only on the statute of. limitations challenge, but also on the. evidentiary challenge because I can't. imagine thousands of Georgia election. workers got together to violate federal. law. But when has that ever stopped the. Trump administration from seeking. indictments against the innocent simply. because there was something else to be. gained like you know chilling. participation in elections uh moving. forward. So yeah that's probably the.

absolute worstc case scenario. they. bring a big old, you know, several. thousand strong conspiracy indictment. because now they have the information. about the people that um that they can. populate a federal indictment with. >> Glenn, it's it's worth asking here to. what extent does this relate to the fact. that the Trump administration seized all. of these ballots from Fulton County. Does this invalidate anything? Does this. um push Donald Trump's plans back? Can. you can you talk about the link here?

Yeah, Brian, I think this is where. atmospherics come into play because step. one was they snookered, this is my. opinion, they snookered a federal. magistrate judge, a low-level federal. judge into granting a search and seizure. warrant to actually seize to take from. Fulton County, Georgia, all of their. ballots. You know, the more evidence. that has come out about what was in that. affidavit supporting that search and. seizure warrant, it looks like the judge. got snookered because there was nothing.

in there that that um lent itself to a. determination there was probable cause. to believe a crime had been committed. and evidence of that crime would be. found in the Fulton County ballots. But. then they didn't stop there. Once they. got their hands on the ballots, they. started wanting to issue these dirty, lawless, improper subpoenas. Now that. the judge has shut shut that down, that. will put a real crimp in DOJ's ability. to continue to move forward in some kind. of a halfbaked criminal probe that they.

claim is warranted by whatever the hell. they found in the Fulton County ballots. If this subpoena is not uh lawful, is. not proper, and it was thrown out by the. court, well then it's hard to see where. the next step of a nefarious. investigation might go in, you know, their determination to support Donald. Trump's lies about the 2020 election. being stolen. So, this strikes a real. blow at any further investigative. efforts they may undertake.

>> All right. Well, we will of course stay. on top of this. For those who are. watching right now, if you'd like to. hear more about this news and all other. breaking legal news, 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. So, if you're. not yet subscribed, it's the best way to. support our work and independent media. more broadly. I'm Brian Taylor Cohen. >> and I'm Glenn Kersner. >> You're watching the Legal Breakdown. >> [music].