Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / Michael Steele - 'Hella high' bar for Kash Patel to prove defamation against The Atlantic

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Michael Steele - 'Hella high' bar for Kash Patel to prove defamation against The Atlantic · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: In Kurt conservative media world, the legend of Cash Mattel.
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  Speaker 1: How does that read?
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  Speaker 2: Look, I think there's going into this. Even before this,
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  Speaker 2: he was having some trouble because there's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: animosity directed toward him at the way that the Epstein
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  Speaker 2: situation was handled. They feel like he participated in a
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  Speaker 2: cover up. There's a frustration that he wasn't honest and
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  Speaker 2: forthright about the extent of the Epstein files that were available.
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  Speaker 2: When there were opportunities to disclose this information, he didn't.
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  Speaker 2: That's how they feel, and they feel but right fundamentally,
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  Speaker 2: and so they were willing to carry water for Patel
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  Speaker 2: for quite a while. That totally threw it off the rails,
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  Speaker 2: and he's never quite gotten back his place within the
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  Speaker 2: larger right wing ecosystem as he had going into this.
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  Speaker 2: There were a lot of high hopes that he was
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  Speaker 2: not going to come in there and just be a
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  Speaker 2: weapon for Donald Trump and the DJ but that what
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  Speaker 2: he was going to do was get them access to
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  Speaker 2: a whole bunch of this information that he said wasn't available.
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  Speaker 2: And not only did he not do it, but then
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  Speaker 2: he went out there and did that sort of video
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  Speaker 2: with Bongino about saying that Epstein AP's so he saw
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  Speaker 2: all the evidence and he absolutely didn't kill him, so
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  Speaker 2: that they absolutely killed himself. There was no really suspicious
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  Speaker 2: stuff there, Like there was moments where he really cut
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  Speaker 2: against their narrative. And for them, they's never gotten back
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  Speaker 2: their footing in the current moment though, what they do
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  Speaker 2: see him as a useful tool. He's still carrying out
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  Speaker 2: parts of what Trump needs and wants. At the DOJ.
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  Speaker 2: They still have some hope that he's willing to break
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  Speaker 2: norms and sort of you know, get pushed for accountability
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  Speaker 2: in places where they think is necessary around election work,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, they're willing to ignore, not weaponized, but
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  Speaker 2: ignore a lot of the reporting that has come up
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  Speaker 2: to this point, like the stories about how he's you know,
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  Speaker 2: used resources for his girlfriend and you know, some of
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  Speaker 2: the use of the jet and the hypocrisy there. So
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  Speaker 2: he is still wobbly in the larger right wing ecosystem,
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  Speaker 2: and that then puts into focus how his relationship with
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  Speaker 2: Trump is right now, which that if he doesn't have
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  Speaker 2: them backing him, then that's an important indicator for Trump.
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  Speaker 2: So he's sort of out there a little bit by himself,
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  Speaker 2: and he really is now speaking to an audience of one.
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  Speaker 3: He's still wobbly. But you know, as far as he's concerned,
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  Speaker 3: he's good because he ain't gone nowhere, and because he
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  Speaker 3: serves a purpose in that job that Donald Trump needs service.
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  Speaker 3: But here is the problem. Here's the problem.
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  Speaker 1: With this lawsuit.
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  Speaker 3: Michael. He is a public figure, has been a public
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  Speaker 3: figure for a while inga and the bar to alleged
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  Speaker 3: defamation and all of that as a public figure is
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  Speaker 3: hella high. So let's take a look at what that
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  Speaker 3: looks like. Public figures such as Cash Betel have a
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  Speaker 3: high legal bar in lawsuits that alleged defamation. The Supreme Court,
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  Speaker 3: in a landmark nineteen sixty four ruling in a case
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  Speaker 3: known as New York Times Company Versus Sullivan, said a
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  Speaker 3: public figure must show that the publisher acted with actual
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  Speaker 3: malice to prevail in a defamation claim. The Court in
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  Speaker 3: that opinion defined actual malice as making a statement that
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  Speaker 3: quote with knowledge that it was false or with reckless
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  Speaker 3: disregard of whether it was false.
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  Speaker 4: So there's an important caveat we have to add in
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  Speaker 4: whenever we talk about Sullivan by New York Times, and
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  Speaker 4: that is the number of the justices, most notably Clarence
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  Speaker 4: Thomas on the Supreme Court, have said that they feel
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  Speaker 4: that case and needs to be reconsidered. We are very
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  Speaker 4: much living in a world where the Supreme Court decades later,
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  Speaker 4: as they did with Roe v. Wade, for example, revises
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  Speaker 4: an earlier opinion, not because anything other.
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  Speaker 3: Than to save his behind, to save.
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  Speaker 4: His behind, or because the vibes have changed for lack
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  Speaker 4: of a.
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  Speaker 3: But that's not how the system works. I'm sorry. The
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  Speaker 3: vibes don't just change because Clarence Thomas now feels differently
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  Speaker 3: or it's felt a certain way about the law. I
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  Speaker 3: mean that.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, I don't think the vibes changed because the
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  Speaker 5: federal judge were Jack's Donald Trump's defamation suit against the
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  Speaker 5: Wall Street Journal, and all of a sudden, this fundamental
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  Speaker 5: question is in the ether more than it's ever been.
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  Speaker 5: I'm agreeing with you are because you have something we've
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  Speaker 5: never had before, which is a hyper litigious president who
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  Speaker 5: then also has all of his underlings operating out of
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  Speaker 5: the same playbook.
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  Speaker 3: And they're all coming to the table Michael looking for
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  Speaker 3: cash settlements, looking for the government to pay them so cash.
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  Speaker 3: Betel files this lawsuit and his expectation is, yes, I'll
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  Speaker 3: probably lose in a lower court, but we're going to
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  Speaker 3: work our way up to the Supreme Court. And to
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  Speaker 3: your point, you get you know, Alito and Thomas and Nigger.
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  Speaker 3: Oh no, we don't agree with this. And with that
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  Speaker 3: crazy super majority they've got, they turn the thing on
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  Speaker 3: his head. He walks out the door of two hundred
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  Speaker 3: and fifty million dollars of tax payer money and everybody's
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  Speaker 3: like a good day at the office.
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  Speaker 4: But there is one thing very much working against him,
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  Speaker 4: which is why I do not think this is going
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  Speaker 4: to make it to the Supreme Court. And that is
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  Speaker 4: the discovery process.
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  Speaker 3: Oh that's where I wanted to go. Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: What we know about Cash Pattel already through publicly publicly
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  Speaker 4: verified stories is not flattering to his character. And I
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  Speaker 4: would just say, if a reporter from an esteemed magazine
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  Speaker 4: like The Atlantic, this isn't a tabloid, this is a
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  Speaker 4: magazine that is over a century old, that they're built
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  Speaker 4: for this through they're built for this. And if a
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  Speaker 4: reporter there has, as she says, over two dozen sources,
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  Speaker 4: if I'm Cash Pattel, I really don't want everything she
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  Speaker 4: found coming out in public so just I would be
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  Speaker 4: slightly surprised if this actually moves forward.
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  Speaker 3: I think it goes nowhere. I think it goes nowhere.
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  Speaker 1: I mean it's also we should know Sera Fitzpatrick is
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  Speaker 1: a very accomplished reporter who's done groundbreaking work on uncovering
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  Speaker 1: things about the Epstein files far before other reporters started
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  Speaker 1: digging into it, and as a former sixty Minutes investigative producer.
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  Speaker 1: But let's actually just because it's not even about what
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  Speaker 1: is in the discovery process, right, it's the public record too.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go through some of these controversial headlines. Last eleven seventeen,
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  Speaker 1: Caspitel's girlfriend being protected by FBI SWAT agents as a
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  Speaker 1: security perk. House Democrats are investigating Cashpitol's use of an
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  Speaker 1: FBI jet. Trump told FBI director Cashpitel he didn't like
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  Speaker 1: his Olympics hijinks, and we also we have video of
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  Speaker 1: those hijinks as well. Let's watch that. How much does
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  Speaker 1: do things like this play into a court case.
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  Speaker 4: I think a jury could look at that video and
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  Speaker 4: believe that this is a plaint who occasionally engages an
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  Speaker 4: excessive drinking