Who's Bearing The Consequences?

The latest Main Justice podcast

Mary and I are often inundated with news out of the Justice Department, but one item that really caught our attention this week was the DOJ’s submission in the Supreme Court in support of tossing out Steve Bannon’s contempt of Congress criminal conviction. We begin here, highlighting Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s political and ironic tweet on his X account about the case. We discuss the law involved in DOJ’s motion to dismiss the case and what to watch out for.

Next, we turn to a reality that is hitting prosecutors and the courts hard, especially in states ICE is targeting like Minnesota: the push for mass detentions did not include any plan for the infrastructure needed to support the caseload in the courts or in U.S. Attorneys’ offices. And it’s pushing prosecutors to the brink. Mary and I talk about one of them, Julie Le, who was fired after expressing her exasperation in Minnesota— and that the real-life consequences are that people who should not have been arrested or should not be in jail, are being illegally imprisoned because of the actions and inactions of the Trump administration. We discuss the latest (2-1) 5th Circuit decision in this space and how and why it is wrong, and what to expect next.

We then discuss the latest in the Epstein saga, and what Congress can do about it. Congress was given limited access to the some of the Epstein files, but DOJ is still flatly defying the Congressional statute requiring disclosure of all files, among other things. Meanwhile, Ghislaine Maxwell pled the 5th in a congressional deposition. We discuss what Congress can do to require her to testify. I wrote a piece for Just Security on this topic and you can find a link to it below. It explains how Congress can immunize her and force her to testify, so all can judge her credibility (or lack thereof). There are lots of documents and photos to ask about; none of them were asked about in the two-day “interview” she had with Todd Blanche where she was given only softball questions.

And last up, a beat on the Georgia ballot seizure, as Fulton County sues for return of the ballots and a judge orders DOJ records to be unsealed in the case. As I explained elsewhere, what seems to be missing in the newly released FBI affidavit in support of the search is any Brady material — that is a Supreme Court case that requires the disclosure of material about the credibility and bias of any of the sources of information, and any known contrary evidence to the alleged facts (i.e. all the ways the claims in the affidavit have been repeatedly refuted by myriad investigations and reports). That gap, frankly, is shocking to me, as it is an obligation DOJ has to the court to provide such information (particularly since warrant applications have no defense presentation, it is just the judge and the prosecution). Kash Patel, when he was a Hill staffer, was critical of DOJ when it failed to include some Brady information in the Carter Page warrant application — well, how will he explain what appears to be the same (on steroids) here?

Stay engaged, now more than ever.

Andrew

• Here is my new piece in Just Security: How Congress Can Give Epstein Survivors the Investigation They Deserve, Starting with Compelling Maxwell to Testify https://www.justsecurity.org/131180/congress-epstein-survivors-investigation