Rep. Jamie Raskin
Appearances
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
Show us a warrant signed by a judge. You don't have a warrant.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
Delighted to be with you, Rachel.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
Well, I regard it very much within the prism of what we've been dealing with over the last month, which is an intense assault on judicial independence. They have been disobeying federal court orders systematically. They have... incurred criminal contempt findings in the courtroom of Judge Boasberg, a conservative Republican judge.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
They have been demanding the impeachment of judges who rule against the lawlessness of the Trump administration. There are now more than 90 preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders against the chaos that's been unleashed on the country by the Trump administration. And now they're arresting judges.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
And the first felony criminal charge brought against Judge Hannah Dugan in Wisconsin is interfering with a legal proceeding, which is essentially what they've been doing all along, what Judge Boasberg is
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
about to hold them in criminal contempt for and has found that there is probable cause for criminal contempt is that they deliberately ignored and defied his order not to take off in those airplanes headed for El Salvador and not turning the airplanes around. So on the logic of this arrest of Judge Dugan,
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
all of the people in the Trump administration who participated in defying that order by Judge Boasberg themselves could be arrested for interfering with a legal proceeding and perhaps other criminal charges like kidnapping, as you were suggesting before.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
Well, absolutely. I mean, everybody who aspires and attains to public office in America, regardless of which branch they're in, is just a servant of the people. And the people need to manifest their outrage about these assaults on judicial independence. The first branch of government, the legislative branch, Congress must do the same thing. We must reject
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
all of these attacks on individual judges, some of which have led online to violent threats and death threats. There was a bomb threat made against Justice Amy Coney Barrett's sister. And there have been lots of threats made against judges. But we've got to defend them against that, and we've got to defend them against impeachment.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
There have only been 15 federal judges impeached in our entire history, always for corruption charges like bribery or tax evasion, never because somebody in government disagrees with the content of their opinion. As Chief Justice Roberts said just a few weeks ago, the proper response to disagreement with district court's opinion is to appeal the opinion, not to impeach the judge.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
So there's this constant vilification and demonizing of the judges that we've got to turn around, and obviously arresting a county court judge in Wisconsin is a dramatic escalation of these tactics.
The Rachel Maddow Show
Trump gets reckless as his agenda tanks with the American public
I was just going to say the country is rediscovering the two most beautiful words in the English language, due process, because that's what separates us from being a free society with real rights from becoming a dictatorship.