Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Trump Faces Succession of Legal Losses Amid Scrutiny Over Financial Conflict

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Trump Faces Succession of Legal Losses Amid Scrutiny Over Financial Conflict · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The Trump administration says it will appeal after a federal
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: judge dismissed the Department of Justice's effort to block Alaska's
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: certification of its U.S. Senate race if Republican incumbent Senator
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Dan Sullivan loses. The DOJ had argued that a retired
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: school teacher with the same name, Dan J. Sullivan, would
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  Speaker 1: cause voter confusion with the incumbent, Dan S. Sullivan, despite
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  Speaker 1: being clearly distinguished on the ballot. Alaska's state Supreme Court
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  Speaker 1: had previously ruled allowing both names on the ballot.
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  Speaker 2: Yesterday, a U.S.
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  Speaker 1: District judge tossed the DOJ's case at the request of
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  Speaker 1: the state. stating Alaska can proceed to administer its elections
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  Speaker 1: consistent with state and federal law. Of course, its former congressman,
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  Speaker 1: Mary Peltola, is running as the Democrat in the race
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  Speaker 1: for a seat perceived as vital to.
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  Speaker 2: Her party looking to take back control of the Senate.
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  Speaker 1: Last week, The New York Times reported that Peltola's team
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  Speaker 1: worked to recruit the retired schoolteacher, Dan J.
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  Speaker 2: Sullivan, as a spoiler candidate. a claim that Peltola has
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  Speaker 2: repeatedly denied.
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  Speaker 1: So Ari, let's get your take here on the ruling
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  Speaker 1: and what avenues the Trump administration may still have.
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  Speaker 3: Well, this is important because there's a lot of interest
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  Speaker 3: in what's going to happen tomorrow and whether the results
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  Speaker 3: will be faithfully followed or somehow attacked, as they infamously
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  Speaker 3: were when Donald Trump lost in 2020. He's gotten his
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  Speaker 3: DOJ to go farther than last time, but he's not
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  Speaker 3: getting any farther in the courts.
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  Speaker 4: So as you mentioned here, you have.
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  Speaker 3: Already a state court in Alaska all the way to
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  Speaker 3: the top had rejected this whole theory that there's a
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  Speaker 3: problem with the ballot that should strike a candidate. And
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  Speaker 3: that is, by the way, mostly Republican appointees there. So
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  Speaker 3: this was already done. This was a Hail Mary at
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  Speaker 3: the end, maybe to sow confusion or distrust.
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  Speaker 4: But now this Trump effort is lost as well.
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  Speaker 3: Writ large beyond Alaska, the Trump DOJ's position seems to
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  Speaker 3: be when it comes to Trump and Republicans running heads,
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  Speaker 3: I win tails.
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  Speaker 4: You cheated.
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  Speaker 3: And that was this partisan effort here. They were going
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  Speaker 3: to say only if they lost that they have a
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  Speaker 3: problem here. And that's been shut down. They have the
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  Speaker 3: right to appeal it, obviously. But this one is basically
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  Speaker 3: dead in the water. What we're going to be watching
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  Speaker 3: for tomorrow is whether any of these efforts actually try
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  Speaker 3: to physically do something. Are they actually trying to get
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  Speaker 3: out and get a hold of ballots or do something
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  Speaker 3: that could have real world immediate consequences rather than just
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  Speaker 3: file angry appeals, perhaps just to please the president?
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  Speaker 1: So Ari, beyond Alaska, where are some other legal avenues,
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  Speaker 1: storylines you'll be following tomorrow on Election Day?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we're definitely going to watch how the Friday ruling
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  Speaker 3: that was also positive for democracy and protecting the vote,
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  Speaker 3: which said, hey, no more games and angry letters and
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  Speaker 3: potential intimidation of election workers and others carrying.
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  Speaker 4: Out the election.
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  Speaker 3: That, by the way, folks are keeping track is because
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  Speaker 3: we have something called the Voting Rights Act in this country.
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  Speaker 3: It was, by the way, narrowed by the Supreme Court
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  Speaker 3: with regard to.
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  Speaker 4: To racial discrimination and oversight in the South.
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  Speaker 3: But it still has other parts of the law that
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  Speaker 3: stop exactly this, a federal government or a politician in
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  Speaker 3: power trying to undermine the rights of voters.
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  Speaker 4: So that says no intimidation. Well, that's a national order.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to be watching tomorrow, whether in small or
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  Speaker 3: larger ways, anyone affiliated with the federal government, the DOJ,
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  Speaker 3: potentially ICE, somehow is in violation of that or showing
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  Speaker 3: up at places. Again, I want to remind people, Some
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  Speaker 3: of this looks more like propaganda and trying to scare
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  Speaker 3: people away from coming to the polls than a likely outcome.
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  Speaker 4: We haven't seen evidence over.
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  Speaker 3: The weekend or today that there's some federal force amassing.
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  Speaker 4: But I think that's number one. Number two is anything that.
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  Speaker 3: That tries to go at this voter fraud or unregistered
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  Speaker 3: sort of. topic, which is what some of the earlier
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  Speaker 3: cases have tried to do. The DOJ has filed and
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  Speaker 3: they have the right.
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  Speaker 4: They can file things that lose. Right. They can do that.
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  Speaker 3: But they filed cases in California elsewhere that have been
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  Speaker 3: stopped that have said, oh, well, maybe the DOJ wants
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  Speaker 3: to get early involved in putting aside or picking ballots
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  Speaker 3: to remind everyone.
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  Speaker 4: And you don't need to be a lawyer to know this.
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  Speaker 3: The politicians running for office are not the ones who
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  Speaker 3: get to put aside the ballots that decide whether they
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  Speaker 3: or their allies stay in office.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, really important point there. So, David, you're out with
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  Speaker 2: a new piece for MS.
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  Speaker 1: Now highlighting the subpoena power that Democrats will regain should
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  Speaker 1: they win control of Congress, specifically regarding information about how
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  Speaker 1: President Trump's personal wealth, personal wealth has grown and frankly
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  Speaker 1: grown exponentially in his second term.
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  Speaker 2: Tell us about it. Yeah, we just wanted to put
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  Speaker 2: down a marker.
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  Speaker 5: Lily Becker and I have done a series of stories
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  Speaker 5: about golden rings he's gotten and never explained. And so
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  Speaker 5: It's just to highlight his personal wealth has increased by
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  Speaker 5: two point seven billion dollars since he was reelected. He's
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  Speaker 5: now worth an estimated seven billion dollars. And through the
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  Speaker 5: you know, these last two years, judges have asked for
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  Speaker 5: basic information on him. Watchdog groups and obviously Democrats in Congress.
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  Speaker 5: There was three hundred and thirty three million dollars donated
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  Speaker 5: for the ballroom.
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  Speaker 4: Who gave that money?
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  Speaker 2: We don't know.
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  Speaker 5: There's reports of up to three billion dollars in Pentagon
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  Speaker 5: contracts going to companies that have ties to his sons.
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  Speaker 5: We don't have an answer to that. He had a
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  Speaker 5: private dinner for the 220 biggest buyers of his meme coin.
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  Speaker 5: We don't have information about how all that has worked.
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  Speaker 5: Twenty million in money that went to the Trump Foundation
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  Speaker 5: for his library. Also, it's unexplained where that money went.
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  Speaker 5: And so it's there's question after question. These are eight
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  Speaker 5: of the biggest there on the screen for viewers to see.
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  Speaker 5: And yes, now there will be subpoena power if the
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  Speaker 5: Democrats win one House of Congress.
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  Speaker 2: Don't forget, J.D.
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  Speaker 6: Vance, on the record twice, said he sees absolutely no evidence.
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  Speaker 6: of self-enrichment or how the president has made any money
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  Speaker 6: since he won the second.
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  Speaker 1: So, Steph, obviously no one follows the economy or closer
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  Speaker 1: than you, but I think it's twin. The economy, how
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  Speaker 1: people are feeling about the economy is linked to what
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  Speaker 1: David's writing about.
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  Speaker 6: One hundred percent, because when everybody is doing well, you
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  Speaker 6: actually don't notice the corruption as much. But the fact
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  Speaker 6: that people are struggling in almost every element of their
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  Speaker 6: economic life and they're watching this president. One of the
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  Speaker 6: reasons he's able to say we don't have an affordability crisis,
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  Speaker 6: that's a made up hoax, is because they can see
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  Speaker 6: he's operating in a gilded cage where he's making an
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  Speaker 6: enormous amount of money and he's surrounded by people who
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  Speaker 6: are doing just the same.
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  Speaker 1: So, Ari, we also President Trump suffered another legal setback
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  Speaker 1: in his war against the media case. A lawsuit against
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  Speaker 1: The Wall Street Journal dismissed or against Journal Andrew Murdoch
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  Speaker 1: over the paper's reporting on Trump's ties to convicted sex
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  Speaker 1: offender Jeffrey Epstein. The judge tossed a suit on Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: saying the president failed to prove the journal had.
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  Speaker 2: Quote, acted with actual malice.
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  Speaker 1: This, of course, was about the birthday card that was
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  Speaker 1: Trump reportedly sent to Epstein.
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  Speaker 2: Give us your your take here.
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  Speaker 3: Look, huge loss for Donald Trump, who has, of course,
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  Speaker 3: used the threat of lawsuits and the kind of hassle
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  Speaker 3: of them to get settlements, not victories. Many entities in
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  Speaker 3: tech and media companies and elsewhere have settled.
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  Speaker 4: It might ring a bell for everyone. It's like the.
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  Speaker 3: Early period of the first year of the first of
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  Speaker 3: the second term and not the recent era where we've
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  Speaker 3: seen so many setbacks.
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  Speaker 4: But that was a playbook. This is Rupert Murdoch, who,
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  Speaker 4: of course, also owns Fox News. They fought.
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  Speaker 3: They stood by their reporters and they've now won this
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  Speaker 3: case again. And so I think it's really striking to
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  Speaker 3: see someone whose media properties are at times more favorable
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  Speaker 3: to Trump and the Republican Party still draw that line, which,
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  Speaker 3: by the way, we all remember many law firms and
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  Speaker 3: others didn't. So there's both the in-court thing, which is, yeah.
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  Speaker 4: You can't just sue people for stories you don't like.
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  Speaker 3: This had credible, documented links from from Trump to Epstein,
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  Speaker 3: which since then they've had even more come out.
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  Speaker 4: That's the reporting part.
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  Speaker 3: And then the wider the wider litigation choice in this
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  Speaker 3: case was to actually fight. And that beat back an
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  Speaker 3: effort to, at best we can tell, attack a news
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  Speaker 3: outlet for reporting news.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Rachel.
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• 8:32
  Speaker 4: Thanks.