A Disastrous Day in Court for Trump
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
This is Andrew Ross Sorkin, the founder of Dealbook. Every year, I interview some of the world's most influential leaders across politics, culture, and business at the Dealbook Summit, a live event in New York City. On this year's podcast, you'll hear my unfiltered conversations with Gavin Newsom, the CEO of Palantir and Anthropic, and Erica Kirk, the widow of Charlie Kirk. Listen to Dealbook Summit wherever you get your podcasts.
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. On Monday afternoon, a federal judge threw out the criminal charges that the Trump administration brought against two of the president's biggest enemies — today, the unexpected technicality that doomed the cases, and what the ruling will mean for Trump's ambitious second-term campaign of retribution. It's Tuesday, November 25th. Devlin, thank you for, as you always do, dropping everything and coming into the studio on a breaking news night. Thanks for having me. It's old hat for you at this point. Always tired, never bored.
That's my life.
Amen. So I think it's fair to say that nothing embodied the progress that President Trump made. has been making in his campaign of retribution against his enemies so much as the indictments of James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the current attorney general of New York. And just a couple hours ago, a judge tossed out both of them in one fell swoop.
Right, because this retribution campaign by the president has delivered some incredible scalps for the president and what he wants. But it did so in a very legally risky way, a very – I think a lot of people would say factually risky way – And as important as these cases are and as alarming as it has been to some people to see the president publicly order prosecution of people he doesn't like... I think the unanswered question until Monday was, would the court system go along with this? Would judges go along with this? And the first cut, and it's not going to be the last cut, but the first answer to that question is an emphatic no.
And this may be the first cut, but it's a deep cut to the president when it comes to this idea of retribution.
It's a deep cut to the president and the administration in a couple of ways. First, in the sense that he has lost, for the time being at least, these two centerpiece cases of his drive for retribution. And it's also a deep cut to the degree that he is being told that the way he's running the Justice Department is not appropriate under the law, is not what the law says necessarily. you can do with the Justice Department. And another way to think about the significance of this moment is Trump has publicly declared time and again that people he doesn't like are criminals and that they should be prosecuted. A lot of times, the facts and the law of what he's talking about don't really stand up to scrutiny.
And one of, I think, the great tests of this moment for the legal system and for the administration is to what degree does Trump's version of reality impose its will on the court system? The courts are about establishing facts and the courts are about following the law.
Right. The court's reality here is that these cases were deeply flawed. So to that point, let's talk about how These two cases got to the point where they could be at the very front end of the system so easily tossed out and tossed out so quickly. We've got the Comey case and the James case. One involves leaking.
What legal charges were dismissed against Trump’s perceived enemies?
The other involves mortgages. Just briefly remind us about the legal basis for both these cases.
Right. So let's take a look at who each of these people are and what they're accused of. So when it comes to James Comey, he was obviously the FBI director when Trump became president the first time. And he oversaw the FBI as it investigated Russian election interference, as it investigated the Trump campaign.
Which made him enemy number one for Trump forever.
Right, exactly. I think it's safe to say that there's no one Trump despises more than James Comey. And if you fast forward now to 2025...
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–4:31
2
What legal charges were dismissed against Trump’s perceived enemies?
4:31–8:24
3
How did the judge's ruling impact Trump's campaign of retribution?
8:24–12:21
4
What are the details surrounding the cases against James Comey and Letitia James?
12:21–18:33
5
What arguments were made regarding the legality of Lindsay Halligan's appointment?
18:33–24:07