Trump ABANDONS HIS OWN as He CRUMBLES Under PRESSURE

What this episode is about

The content discusses Donald Trump's recent actions during a trip to Davos, where he left behind key ally Lindsay Halligan, who faced severe legal challenges and ultimately resigned. It highlights a pattern of Trump's appointed U.S. attorneys resigning or being removed due to legal issues, painting a picture of leadership instability and the consequences of political favoritism.

Key takeaways

• Trump took the classic 'diplomatic exit'—fleeing to Davos while Halligan faced the music alone.
• Lindsey Halligan's resignation is just another addition to Trump's revolving door of legal incompetence.
• Pam Bondi’s writing could confuse a clear-cut case; if words fail, so does justice.
• Halligan's appointment saga proves that cronyism doesn't eclipse the law—welcome to the ‘Trump University of Law’!
• With Trump’s team unraveling, is he afraid of courtroom battles or just afraid of losing?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Michael (Guest) · 15 min speaking
• Sky Perryman (Guest) · 4 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 3:00 – 6:00: Leticia James
2. 6:00 – 9:00: Leticia James, Dose
3. 9:00 – 12:00: Dose

Notable quotes from "Trump ABANDONS HIS OWN as He CRUMBLES Under PRESSURE"

• 120day interim US attorney under the statute. His name is Eric Cybert. He was a Republican. He didn't want to prosecute Leticia James or James Comey.

  about Leticia James · at 4:28

• Ready to give your liver that support it deserves? Head to dosedaily.co/legal AF or enter legal AF to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body, it does so much for you. Let's do something for it. That's d o s e d a i l y.co/legal.

  about Dose · at 9:16

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Leticia James — Person · Referenced prosecution target (as discussed in episode) · 4 mentions · first at 4:32
  Discussed as one of the high-profile figures Halligan allegedly rushed to indict; used as an example of politicized prosecution and as part of the legal challenge to Halligan’s authority.

Sponsors

• Dose — Product · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 8:33
  Promoted as a liver health supplement during an ad read in the podcast.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 Let's get behind the headlines of Donald Trump shortcircuiting literally on his Air Force One on the way to Davos and just getting out of the country because he's a coward old Yellow stain and leaving Lindseay Hallan to resign in disgrace after being slammed by backto back federal orders and the last 24 hours all against her to end her masquerading as one judge said her impersonating of a US attorney. Sure, you've heard she's resigned, but let's let's talk about the bigger picture and the broader picture. First of all, Donald Trump's a coward. Can we all agree on that? He leaves Lindseay Halligan twisting in the wind to resign in disgrace after these backto-back orders where she just barely avoids getting sanctioned by a federal judge to have her law license taken away. And Donald Trump, well, off to Davos. That's one. Also, Lindseay Hakan now joins a growing list of of Donald Trump's political hacks

0:57 that can't stay in the chair as US attorneys around the country and have had to resign or have been and or been fired. It's not just Lindseay Halligan. It's Alina Hoba set the template. She got blocked by the two senators who are Democrats in New Jersey. She'll never get she knew she was never going to get confirmed. A federal judge found much like they just found with Lindseay Halligan that she was improperly illegally appointed under the vacancy reform act. She resigned. Few days later, uh Julianne Murray, a political hack who used to be the Republican chairperson in Delaware, she resigned because she knew she was never going to get the job. Then you've got two others.

1:37 The one in Nevada, Seagal Chhatta, got bounced by a federal judge. It's up on appeal. She's going to lose. Bill Essley in Los Angeles, same thing. Fired. Guy from New Mexico, same thing. John Sarone III, he just got bounced three weeks ago by Judge Scoffield in the Southern District of New York. And um he's going to lose his appeal also. So that's the backdrop that you analyze what Lind happened with Lindseay Halligan right now. I also learned that Pam Bondi can't write a note to the public. I was four four fifths through her announcement. I had to read it twice to realize that Lindseay Halligan had been fired or andor had resigned. I when you're that poor of a writer, you know there's a problem. So like I'm reading just just to give you an example. So, I'm like reading through this um and here's here's what I come up with, right? Again, I have no idea from there's no topic sentences, you know, as

2:46 I was taught to write in middle school. During her 120day tenure as interim United States attorney, Lindseay Halligan served with the utmost distinction and unwavering commitment to the rule of law. So, I saw past tense. So, I figured maybe Lindsey Halligan's not going to make it by prosecuting. And then she goes on bragging about Lindsey Hallan. That Democratic senators weaponized the blue slip blue slip process and blocked her and that her and that her um term expired. I'll talk about that. Hold that point. Despite multiple unnecessary legal obstacles placed in her path, Lindsay stepped forward at this critical juncture. And then I get to the part finally when I realize Lindseay Halligan is no longer with the Department of Justice. While we will feel her absence keenly, we are confident that she will continue to serve her country in other ways.

3:40 Okay, she can't write a paragraph. Lindsay Hagan's gone to Donald Trump. He didn't even realize what had happened. So, back in November, a federal judge appointed by the chief judge of the fourth circuit, Judge Diaz, appointed Judge Curry from South Carolina to avoid any conflicts because if there's a vacancy, the judges of the Eastern District appoint the replacement. So they gave it to a South Carolina judge to make a decision for the entire district about whether Lindseay Halagan was legally or illegally appointed under the Constitution and under section 546, the Vacancy Reform Act. And she determined in a 25page opinion that Lindseay Halagan was illegally appointed, that there had already been one 120day interim US attorney under the statute. His name is Eric Cybert. He was a Republican. He didn't want to prosecute Leticia James or James Comey.

4:37 So, he got fired by Donald Trump. That's it. After that, the vacancy has to be filled either by the first assistant to that person who'd been in that seat before. So the first assistant to the US attorney or by some other Senate confirmed person in another department even outside of justice uh or the judges have to fill that position. That's it. But that's not what they did. They appointed Lindseay Hallan because Donald Trump instructed Pam Bondi to hire Lindseay Halligan who had been working for him in the White House as White House counsel. No experience. Seven years out of law school, she had been an insurance defense lawyer down in Florida. You know, Fender Bender lawyer in Florida, never a prosecutor. And now she's made instant prosecutor just to add water. And now she's instructed to go because they're running out of time.

5:33 17 days until the statute of limitations run to go after former FBI director James Comey for perjury and Leticia James, New York attorney general for mortgage fraud. And she gets the indictments. Lord knows how. Judges that looked at these issues said she violated the fourth amendment, the fifth amendment, the sixth amendment in her presentation to the grand jury, meaning the indictments were probably going to be dismissed anyway. But the lawyers for Comey uh uh Mr. Fitzpatrick uh sorry, Mr. Fitz Fitz uh Fitzgerald and uh the lawyer for Leticia James, Abby Lel, they file motions to dismiss the indictment and to and to find that Lindsay Haligan was illegally appointed and therefore her indictments are invalid. Judge Diaz, fourth circuit court of appeals, sends it to Judge Curry, McGawan Curry in South Carolina. She conducts a full hearing, briefing, evidence, looks at the grand jury transcripts, looks at

6:31 everything, issues her order November the 24th, creates a vacancy in the office, finding that Lindsay Halligan was illegally appointed from that day until yesterday. It's the 20th, the uh Department of Justice completely ignored Judge Curry's order, although she was given that responsibility by the chief judge, said we don't agree with it. Okay. and continue to parade Lindsey Hallagan around as the US attorney, pissing off all the judges of the Eastern District. They would comment on it in hearings to Department of Justice lawyers. Why is Lindsey Halagan still signing pleadings US attorney and the like. Okay.

7:13 My interpretation and any reasonable person's interpretation of the order by Judge Curry on November 24th is that a vacancy was created and that it could only be filled by the judges of the Eastern District. Yet none of the judges stepped forward. The judges conference didn't step forward to vote on a replacement. And I was wondering why. From November, we get into December, nothing. And and Donald Trump's abusing this issue, this quote unquote technicality to um keep her in her chair. In fact, here's Donald Trump back when Lindseay Halligan was bounced as the US attorney by uh Judge Kerr. Here's what he had to say about the technicality. Go. This week we saw those cases against James Comey and Leticia James tossed out, but do you still have faith in Lindsay Hall?

7:57 Oh, she's great. I think she's great. They got out on a technicality and you'll see what happens from here on. But if you look at the actual charges, uh I think anybody that looks at it very fairly would say, "Boy, are they guilty." So, let's see what happens over the next week. You know, they the court didn't say you couldn't bring the case, rebr case, or appeal the case. So they have a lot of options. They're going to call the shot. I'm not calling that shot.

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9:08 It's also backed by two double blind placeboc controlled studies showing positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Ready to give your liver that support it deserves? Head to dosedaily.co/legal AF or enter legal AF to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body, it does so much for you. Let's do something for it. That's d o s e d a i l y.co/legal. co/legal AAF for 35% off your first month subscription. Yeah, the Constitution is a technicality, right? But the judges never stepped forward and Judge Curry didn't clarify her order a after seeing what the Trump administration how they were interpreting it, which was oh, it's just a piece of paper we can ignore it. Now, the weird thing is they took an appeal of the Trump administration to the fourth circuit, but they didn't ask for a stay to stop the judge Curry's order about the vacancy creating probably because they didn't want to acknowledge

10:10 what the plain language of the order said. So, they didn't want to ask for the stay because they just they decided to ignore it. They didn't ask Judge Curry for a stay. They didn't ask the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia to put Lindseay Halligan in as interim, which they had the power to do. None of that. They just ran around. It finally came to a head about two weeks ago when Judge Novak, a Trump appointed judge, issued what I call an order to show cause to go to Lindseay H, an unrelated case. Had nothing to do with Lindsay Halligan to to an order to show cause that Lindseay Halligan put it in writing and sign it. why she's impersonating continuing to impersonate a US attorney after being taken out of the job by judge uh Judge Curry's order.

10:56 Why is she ignoring the order? And why aren't these ethical professional responsibility breaches that could lead to her being disciplined and lose her bar license? The government fought back hard, too hard, with vitriol, as Judge Novak wrote in his late order yesterday, attacking the judge, attacking the process, calling him a invalid um inquisitor. This was an inquisition, that he had no right to conduct, that uh they just didn't agree with Judge Curry's order, and it's up on appeal, and you know, she gets to be the interim in the meantime.

11:33 And the judge in a scathing order yesterday and this is what led this was the beginning to the end. This was the second to last domino. Two dominoes fell yesterday and the whole thing led to the resignation and disgrace by Lindseay Hagan while her patron was conveniently um out of the country out of his out of his mind. Here's uh besides saying that the charade of her masquerading as a uni a US attorney in defiance of court orders must end on page 17 of his order. He also said this about the department of justice and Lindseay Halligan and the rule of law says on page 11 as he goes through on page 10 all the things she could have done.

12:19 He said on page 10, "Miss Haligan had numerous legal options that could have potentially allowed her to validly identify herself as the US attorney while the Senate considers her nomination because if she was nominated on the 13th of June, which has now of course been withdrawn, to be confirmed by the Senate, she could have sought a stay from Judge Curry, from Judge Knackman, from Judge Walker or the Fourth Circuit. She could have petitioned the district judges to appoint her to the position. She could uh she could have filed a motion with the chief judge, allowing her to continue to use the moniker pending appeal or filed individual motions seeking to use it before each district court judge. She chose none of these legal avenues. Instead, Judge Novak wrote she elected to simply ignore valid court orders issued by Judge Curry. This court cannot tolerate such obstinence because doing so would undermine the

13:10 very essence of the rule of law. If the court were to allow Miss Halligan and the Department of Justice to pick and choose which orders they will follow, the same would have to be true for other litigants and our system of justice would crumble. He talked a lot about the rule of law which he put in capital letters. In fact, on page 17 in his conclusion, he wrote the following. And I think these are the final nails in the coffin for Lindseay Halligan which uh forced her to resign in disgrace. Despite coming she he said on page 17 that the Eastern District has long enjoyed the service of experienced prosecutors with unquestioned integrity from both political parties. Despite coming from different political backgrounds, very different ideological views. They all shared an unwavering commitment to the rule of law, putting the interests of the citizens before their own personal ambitions as true

14:05 public servants do. Unfortunately, it appears this ethos has come to an end. And a district judge acting at the direction of the chief judge of the fourth circuit has ruled on behalf of the district judges of this district that Miss Halligan was invalidly appointed. No matter all of her minations, Miss Halligan has no legal basis to represent to this court that she holds the position. Any such representation going forward can only be described as a false statement. That was the second shoe to drop that day. Judge uh Judge Lach, who's the chief judge of Eastern District, she had a whole different analysis, which frankly I don't agree with, that the vacancy just began on the 20th of January. The vacancy was created, as Judge Novak rightly points out, on November 24th. Now, maybe to avoid conflict with the Trump administration. She's a newly appointed chief judge. The chief judge said, "Well, there's one thing nobody can

15:07 disagree with. The 120 days under the statute is up today, so I'm going to go with that safer route." But she didn't even mention Judge Curry, which I thought was a slight and a dis on process. But in any event, those that that pincher movement by those two judges crushed Lindseay Hallan. And what is it proving to us? It proves to us that opposing the Trump administration rigorously on a daily basis, bringing the crowds, bringing the courage means that they're going to fold. They do it all the time. Sky Perryman just joined me last night for a live of my podcast, The Intersection, on Tuesday nights on the Midas Touch Network, just as the story broke. And here's how she puts it as the leader of democracy forward that has more than 400 matters against the Trump administration winning more than 90% of them. Here's Sky Perryman. That pressure matters. Pam Bondi has announced that Lindseay Hallan is out.

16:08 There you go. Not Not only is the Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor, US prosecutor, US attorney, but out of the Department of Justice completely.

16:18 There you go. So, I mean, does that not let me just read it, Sky, then I'll have you react on the fly to it. Here's Pam Bondi. Of course, she doesn't lead with she's out. During her 120day tenure as the interim US attorney for the Eastern District, Lindseay Alligan served with the utmost distinction, unwavering commitment to the rule of law. She worked tirelessly, what since October to protect the more than six million residents of the Eastern District. Despite multiple unnecessary legal obstacles placed in her path, she stepped forward at a critical juncture.

16:52 Her departure is a significant loss for the Department of Justice. This is a this is a person who was made a prosecutor in October for the first time in her life. It's a significant loss apparently to the Department of Justice. While we will feel her absence keenly, we will confident that she will continue to serve her country in other ways. That means Donald Trump's going to kick her over to some other organization that he controls. This uh the circumstances that led to this outcome are deeply misguided. Blah blah blah. All right.

17:20 Now look, this guy on the air, it totally proves your point, does it not? That every day we see this every single day.

17:28 They lost twice today as I as I joke. They lost twice today. But it's also about her. I mean,

17:35 yes. But it's also I mean, we see this every day in all these cases. And at the same time, we have to hold that reality that pressure works.

17:42 Oh, yeah. Courage is the new currency. You're not getting out of this moment uh without standing up and pushing back. But when you do, it often works.

17:51 So, this matters because we could have just looked the other way and said, "Oh, that's Donald Trump being Donald Trump violating the Constitution again." But no, we have to take a stand. We got to chop the wood. We got to chop down the tree every day, every way with focus, determination, courage, confidence that the rule of law is on our side. And as she pointed out, the Trump administration and the Department of Justice folds folds frequently. I'll continue to follow all of their folding here on the Midas Touch Network. Take a moment, become a paid subscriber on Legal AF YouTube channel, and of course, subscribe here on the Midas Touch Network. Until my next report, this is Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we form the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hottake, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the

18:47 court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from legal a are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump ABANDONS HIS OWN as He CRUMBLES Under PRESSURE"?

Michael (Guest), Sky Perryman (Guest).

What is "Trump ABANDONS HIS OWN as He CRUMBLES Under PRESSURE" about?

The content discusses Donald Trump's recent actions during a trip to Davos, where he left behind key ally Lindsay Halligan, who faced severe legal challenges and ultimately resigned. It highlights a pattern of Trump's appointed U.S. attorneys resigning or being removed due to legal issues, painting a picture of leadership instability and the consequences of political favoritism.

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

2 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Leticia James. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump ABANDONS HIS OWN as He CRUMBLES Under PRESSURE"?

The episode runs 19 min; the transcript is about 3,190 words in 28 timestamped sections.

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