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Pirro appears to be currying favor with Trump on his revenge tour - Norm Eisen · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: With the scales of justice on the line, let's bring
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  Speaker 1: a Norm Eyesen, founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders.
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  Speaker 1: He also represents David Hearn, the Olympian at the center
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  Speaker 1: of the Reflecting poolcase that was previously dropped but.
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  Speaker 2: Now knows we're going to talk about that.
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  Speaker 1: Michael Feinberg is an ms NOW national security and intelligence
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  Speaker 1: analysts and former Assistant Special Agent in Charge for the FBI,
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  Speaker 1: and ms NOW is senior legal reporter Lisa Rubin. It
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  Speaker 1: is good to see you all. Nor My understanding is
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  Speaker 1: special grand juries are unique because, as I noted, they
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  Speaker 1: can release a report, they can name names at the
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  Speaker 1: end of an investigation, even if they don't find enough
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  Speaker 1: evidence to indict someone in the court of law.
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  Speaker 2: Is that the tell here in terms of what it
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  Speaker 2: is they are up to.
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  Speaker 3: Well, the thing we know, Alicia, is that regular grand
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  Speaker 3: juries and judges alike have rebuffed the Trump administration. It's
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  Speaker 3: happened again and again with ag Tish James, first time around,
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  Speaker 3: with former FBI Director Jim Comey, and most recently a
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  Speaker 3: judge in the DC Superior Court dismissed.
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  Speaker 2: The case against my client Davy Hearn.
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  Speaker 3: In part it's because of admissions that we forced out
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  Speaker 3: of the US Attorney's office. We filed no fewer than
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  Speaker 3: seven motions and other filings pointing out that Davy Hern
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  Speaker 3: was innocent. We compelled Jean Piro to admit that the
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  Speaker 3: reflecting pool damage was not the result of anything Davy did.
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  Speaker 3: It was, in her own words, a botched, rushed installation.
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  Speaker 3: So now, and what appears to be a desperation move,
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  Speaker 3: and we don't know what the special grand jury will
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  Speaker 3: be about. It could have nothing to do with the
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  Speaker 3: reflecting pool whatsoever. Jean Piro appears to be currying favor
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  Speaker 3: with the President on his revenge tour. But whether it's
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  Speaker 3: a regular or a special grand jury, or a petty
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  Speaker 3: jury or a judge jury of one's peers, the rule
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  Speaker 3: of law system is rejecting this, and myself, my colleagues
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  Speaker 3: at Democracy to Vender's Fund, we already have over three
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  Speaker 3: hundred legal cases and matters. We'll do as many as
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  Speaker 3: it takes to stop this kind of aututhoritarian pandering.
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  Speaker 1: I wonder when you sleep normalize, and perhaps you do not, Lisa.
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  Speaker 1: The Post reports that this is all being overseen by
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  Speaker 1: a man named Stephen vander Velden, who is minor. Saint
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  Speaker 1: Jeane Pierro has leaned on quite a bit during her
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  Speaker 1: time in this post.
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  Speaker 4: Tell us about him well, Mister Vandervelden is most notable
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  Speaker 4: for his thirty four years of service in the Westchester
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  Speaker 4: County and District Attorney's Office here in New York. That,
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  Speaker 4: of course, is where Jeanine Piro really cut her teeth
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  Speaker 4: as the election did Westchester County DA. What he is
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  Speaker 4: not is an experienced former federal prosecutor or a federal
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  Speaker 4: prosecutor at all. This is his first tour of duty
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  Speaker 4: and a federal prosecutorial office after leaving the Westchester County
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  Speaker 4: Day's Office. Mister Vandervelden also has some professional experience as
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  Speaker 4: a dance photographer. That's not to mock him, many of
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  Speaker 4: us contain multitude, but it is to point out that
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  Speaker 4: his resume doesn't contain the thing that you would want
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  Speaker 4: most for someone overseeing a special grand jury in the
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  Speaker 4: District of DC, a federal court with many experienced judges
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  Speaker 4: who themselves are former federal prosecutors. He's not somebody who
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  Speaker 4: historically has that DOJ experience you would want in a
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  Speaker 4: special grand jury context, and I want to point out
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  Speaker 4: something else Alicia, a special grand jury can issue a
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  Speaker 4: report by statute and by federal laws specifically, but it
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  Speaker 4: can only submit to the court a report in special circumstances.
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  Speaker 4: It's not in every case. And that's with respect to
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  Speaker 4: and I just want to read from the statute non
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  Speaker 4: criminal misconduct malfeasance or misfeasance in office involving organized criminal
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  Speaker 4: activity by someone who is currently a public officer or
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  Speaker 4: employee to the extent that you want to have a
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  Speaker 4: recommendation for the removal from office or a disciplinary action.
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  Speaker 4: That means that perhaps not necessarily, but perhaps the reason
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  Speaker 4: for impaneling a special grand jury here has something to
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  Speaker 4: do with the permitted subject matter of the report. If
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  Speaker 4: you're thinking backwards, why would Janine Perrou want a special
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  Speaker 4: grand jury? It might be in a circumstance where she
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  Speaker 4: can statutorily have that grand jury issue a report that
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  Speaker 4: might dirty somebody up that is otherwise unindictable, and you
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  Speaker 4: might want to look.
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  Speaker 1: At somebody would have to be a public person like
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  Speaker 1: a Jerome Powell.
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  Speaker 4: Or that person would have to have non criminal misconduct misfeasance,
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  Speaker 4: And it's not clear whether that malfeasance or non criminal
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  Speaker 4: misconduct has to be in office, or whether that phrase
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  Speaker 4: only respects misfeasance in office by someone. But again, the
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  Speaker 4: report can talk about something that someone has done that
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  Speaker 4: is less than meeting the threshold for criminality. And again,
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  Speaker 4: thinking about why would you want a special grand jury,
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  Speaker 4: It may be because you already understand that you're not
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  Speaker 4: going to be able to meet the threshold for indicting someone,
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  Speaker 4: but you want the public to know that that person
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  Speaker 4: has done something that we would consider in a broader
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  Speaker 4: sense wrong. I would argue to you that is not
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  Speaker 4: the proper purpose of a special grand jury. But I
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  Speaker 4: would also submit to you, based on evidence of how
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  Speaker 4: this Department of Justice has behaved, it's not beyond what
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  Speaker 4: they have done in prior situations or how they think necessarily.
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  Speaker 2: Michael Feinberg's again day three.
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  Speaker 1: Here get this push to go after Trump's enemies, protect
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  Speaker 1: him his allies at the same time only seems to
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  Speaker 1: be accelerating. I was reading a piece today by a
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  Speaker 1: historian that says, this is a form of autocracy where
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  Speaker 1: the rule of law is re engineered to protect the leader.
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  Speaker 2: What is the risk for all of us when that happens?
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  Speaker 5: The risk is functionally that individuals like Jim Comey or
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  Speaker 5: Lisa kuk or Letocia James, or Jerome pall or Don
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  Speaker 5: Lemon or the Broadview six can currently be experiencing something
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  Speaker 5: that is going to drip down to the general populace.
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  Speaker 5: And we've already seen this with Norm's client Davy Hurt.
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  Speaker 5: This is just a run of the mill, average Joe
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  Speaker 5: citizen who did nothing wrong except happened to be in
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  Speaker 5: the wrong place at the wrong time when the federal
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  Speaker 5: government needed a scapegoat in order to carry out the
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  Speaker 5: president's wishes. And normally there would be enough of an
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  Speaker 5: institutional culture or respect for democratic and constitutional norms at
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  Speaker 5: DOJ that that would get batted down almost instantly, even
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  Speaker 5: if not publicly. But so many good people have left,
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  Speaker 5: and how many bad people have replaced them. I will
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  Speaker 5: mock where Lisa would it, while I give her credit
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  Speaker 5: for being the first person, probably in history, to quote
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  Speaker 5: Whitman in defense of a Trump administration official. This guy
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  Speaker 5: could contain all the multitudes in the world, but he
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  Speaker 5: hasn't been a federal prosecutor before. He is not a
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  Speaker 5: regular employee of the DCUs Attorney's Office, and we have
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  Speaker 5: seen nothing to show that he is qualified to be
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  Speaker 5: embarking up on some of the things that a special
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  Speaker 5: grand jury can be doing. And as we've seen with
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  Speaker 5: Norm's client, it's no longer enough to be a public
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  Speaker 5: figure for Trump to go after you. He's willing to
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  Speaker 5: go after anybody. So if those boundaries don't exist preventing
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  Speaker 5: him from directing prosecutions, every citizen of America should be afraid.
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  Speaker 1: Let's talk normalizen about Davey Hearn. What is your understanding
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  Speaker 1: Have you heard anything from DOJ? Do you have an
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  Speaker 1: understanding of what it is they are considering.
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  Speaker 3: We're pursuing just what we are reading in the public reporting.
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  Speaker 3: I assume that individuals within DOJ who are alarmed at
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  Speaker 3: the abuse of the criminal justice system, and at the
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  Speaker 3: White House demanding that an innocent man who was exonerated
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  Speaker 3: by the Trump administration, Janine Piro, admitting what we had
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  Speaker 3: proved in motion after motion, Davy Hearn did not damage
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  Speaker 3: to the reflecting pool. It was the result of a botched,
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  Speaker 3: rushed installation. And now the White House reportedly demanding DOJ
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  Speaker 3: take another look. There's nothing to look at, And as
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  Speaker 3: Michael said, davy Hearn can be targeted this way, You
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  Speaker 3: or I or Michael or Lisa or any American who
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  Speaker 3: happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong
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  Speaker 3: time can be targeted.
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  Speaker 2: That is the danger with.
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  Speaker 3: An autocratic regime, and the safeguards have been torn down.
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  Speaker 3: And to have this unqualified individual that has been brought
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  Speaker 3: over from Westchester County to do this a special grand jury,
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  Speaker 3: it's wrong and every American should be alarmed about it.
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  Speaker 3: They will not bully Davy Hearn. He understands this is
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  Speaker 3: not just about him. It's about our democracy. And whether
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  Speaker 3: the special grand jury is about him or not, I
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  Speaker 3: tend to doubt it's about the reflecting pool, but whatever,
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  Speaker 3: it's about ourselves and the entire democracy movement and a
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  Speaker 3: mobilized nation are standing against this. We like democracy and
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  Speaker 3: the rule of law in this country, not authoritarianism.
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  Speaker 1: Now we're going to ask you, do you think the
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  Speaker 1: judge in this case made a mistake by not dismissing
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  Speaker 1: with prejudice? Like would we still be here talking about this?
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  Speaker 1: Couldn't this have been settled a few days ago?
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  Speaker 3: Well, the judge dismissed the case and has ordered briefing.
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  Speaker 3: Should it be with prejudice, which would mean the case
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  Speaker 3: can never be brought back. Certainly, everything we've seen, including
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  Speaker 3: the president's social media, goes to that question, because you're
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  Speaker 3: supposed to dismiss with prejudice when there's a risk of
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  Speaker 3: repeated harassment and bad faith. We're seeing that, so we're
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  Speaker 3: respectfully petitioning the court to dismiss with prejudice. He's ordered
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  Speaker 3: briefing on that, so that question is still open. We're
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  Speaker 3: hopeful that he will do it because every day brings
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  Speaker 3: more evidence of this abuse of the criminal justice system
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  Speaker 3: to target average Americans. It's harassment, it's wrong. Davy hern
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  Speaker 3: is innocent, and an innocent person should not have to
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  Speaker 3: be dragged through the process a second time. Alicia, you know,
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  Speaker 3: for this administration, it appears the process is the punishment,
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  Speaker 3: and that's just wrong. It's not America.