“Fatal blow!” Attorney General SINKS his OWN case ON AIR

0:00 You're watching the legal breakdown.

0:01 Glenn, it looks like the acting attorney general may have just dealt

0:04 a fatal blow to his own case before it even got started.

0:07 So, I'm going to throw to a clip right here and then we'll discuss.

0:10 Well, the image, excuse me, is part of what led to this indictment.

0:16 It is worth noting that on Amazon.com, we looked this up.

0:19 There are dozens of products with the same terminology.

0:22 We're showing it right here.

0:23 8647 being sold and purchased right now.

0:27 Should individuals selling or buying 8647 merchandise be concerned

0:32 that they're going to be prosecuted by the DOJ?

0:35 This is this isn't about a single incident, okay?

0:37 This isn't I mean, of course not.

0:39 That's posted constantly.

0:40 That phrase is used constantly.

0:42 There are constantly men and women who

0:44 choose to make threatening statements against President Trump.

0:47 Every one of those statements do not result in indictments.

0:50 Of course, there are facts, there are circumstances,

0:52 there are investigations that have to take place.

0:54 And we have charged dozens and dozens of men

0:57 and women this this year with threatening President Trump and others.

1:00 So this isn't a new charge we're bringing.

1:02 Just to be very clear, you are suggesting the seashells themselves are

1:07 not at the root of this indictment.

1:08 No, I am suggesting that every single

1:10 case depends on the investigation that's done.

1:13 And of course the seashells are part of that case.

1:16 I mean that's that's what the public sees.

1:18 But without a doubt, and it should be evident by the fact that it's

1:21 been 11 months since the posting and the indictment,

1:24 there is an investigation that takes place.

1:26 And that's the result.

1:27 The result of that investigation is the indictment that was returned last week.

1:31 So again, that was Todd Blanch saying basically that even as they

1:35 prosecute James Comey for his very dangerous 8647 sea shell picture,

1:41 that it's not worth prosecuting anybody

1:42 else because it's just not that important.

1:44 And the phrase is used, as he says, constantly.

1:47 So, how much of a blow is this to his own case?

1:51 You know, Brian, we just might see something

1:52 in the James Comey trial that we very rarely see.

1:56 James Comey might call as his first witness in his defense,

2:01 Attorney General Todd Blanch because he basically handed Comey

2:07 the defense of selective prosecution on a silver platter.

2:12 You know, Blanch is not very good at being Donald Trump's consiliary, you know,

2:17 the the mob lawyer to Donald Trump's mob boss figure because it's

2:22 like he just put his foot right in his mouth by saying,

2:26 "Okay, you know, 8647 is something we see all day, every day.

2:32 It's on the internet.

2:33 There are merch shops selling 8647 t-shirts.

2:38 People are displaying that what threat to assassinate the president

2:42 on their chest and we don't prosecute any of them except James Comey.

2:49 You know, you really don't have to be an attorney

2:52 or a prosecutor or a judge to to recognize

2:57 that when you're only prosecuting one of thousands and thousands

3:01 of people for displaying those four numbers in a row,

3:06 86 47, that would be a selective prosecution.

3:11 But, you know, let me uh let me crack out a prop here, Brian,

3:15 because for years I taught criminal justice,

3:18 arrest through appeal at George Washington University undergrad.

3:22 I actually dusted off my old textbook.

3:25 One of the things I taught was selective prosecution.

3:28 Let me read one sentence that lays out what the legal test is.

3:33 To win a claim of selective prosecution,

3:35 a defendant must show that the prosecutotorial policy or in this case

3:40 the decision was discriminatory both in its effect and its purpose.

3:47 Well, if there was ever a discriminatory selective prosecution,

3:53 it is when the only person to have displayed those four

3:58 numbers who is being prosecuted is one of Donald Trump's perceived enemies.

4:05 But you know, even beyond the defense of selective prosecution,

4:10 there is a separate legal defense of vindictive prosecution.

4:14 Now they are both due process violations.

4:17 What do I mean by that?

4:18 The Constitution protects us from our own government and the Supreme

4:24 Court has decided that the due process clause meaning

4:28 everybody gets due process of law means that your government

4:33 cannot selectively prosecute you and it cannot vindictively prosecute you.

4:40 Those two things dovetail for James Comey.

4:43 And this will probably be the marquee case in the entire recorded history

4:48 of the US courts of a selective end

4:52 vindictive prosecution that should be dismissed with prejudice.

4:56 And then frankly, I hope James Comey considers

5:00 bringing a civil suit for having his rights violated.

5:05 And I hope he sues the pants off of Todd Blanch and the Trump administration.

5:11 Glenn, this all raises the question, Todd Blanch is not a novice, right?

5:15 He's not green to the legal profession.

5:17 He's the acting attorney general of the United States.

5:19 Why would he go on television and undercut his own prosecution like this?

5:24 You know, Brian, just because he spent a few years

5:26 prosecuting at the Department of Justice doesn't make him a good,

5:31 thoughtful, accomplished, or even ethical prosecutor.

5:35 So, you know, he comes across as a real imbecile.

5:39 We know why he's doing it.

5:41 He is the one who said,

5:42 "If Donald Trump fired me as attorney general or or acting attorney general,

5:48 I would say yes, sir.

5:50 Thank you.

5:51 I love you." You know,

5:53 it's no secret that he is motivated by wanting to kiss Donald Trump's ass.

6:00 Um, now why he would go on and basically announce,

6:04 of course, this is a selective prosecution.

6:07 It's because the guy must be an imbecile.

6:09 He doesn't know what he's doing.

6:12 Better you say nothing and then try to come

6:15 up with some kind of a straightfaced prosecution in court.

6:18 But you know what?

6:19 He can't help himself.

6:21 I am assuming Donald Trump wanted him out, you know,

6:24 on the Sunday news shows to to run his mouth

6:27 about what a strong case this was against James Comey.

6:31 But, you know, Todd Blanch is just not a very good, thoughtful lawyer.

6:37 Do you think that what we had just heard

6:40 Todd Blanch say on national television is the single

6:45 biggest piece of evidence that Comey could use

6:48 to prove that this is indeed a vindictive prosecution?

6:51 Like, is this is this going to be the most damaging piece

6:53 of uh piece of information that the that uh Comey's team can put forward.

6:58 It will be an important piece of evidence and information.

7:03 But I think really the more probitative evidence,

7:05 the more compelling evidence will be the fact that he is the only person who is

7:12 being criminally prosecuted for displaying a picture

7:16 of those four numbers in succession and nobody else is.

7:21 That really is what proves the selective nature of this.

7:25 So Brian, this will be an important piece of evidence and really a damning

7:28 piece of evidence because it will not

7:30 only help James Comey selective prosecution defense.

7:34 It will expose the Department of Justice as being completely rudderless, inept,

7:41 incompetent on top of being sort of dirty

7:44 and nefarious and doing Donald Trump's unconstitutional bidding.

7:48 Glenn,

7:48 I want to go back into what you said before, something that caught my attention.

7:52 The prospect of a civil suit.

7:54 You and I always talk about the ways in which

7:57 Donald Trump is wielding the DOJ against his political opponents.

8:00 And oftentimes this is just something

8:02 that the targets of Trump's eye have to shoulder.

8:06 They have to pay for it uh financially,

8:08 mentally, emotionally, and there's really no recourse here.

8:12 And so I'm curious on the civil suit aspect of this.

8:15 Can you talk about what Comey might seek to do and how that might serve

8:19 as a blueprint for other folks who

8:22 are selectively or vindictively targeted by this administration?

8:25 Yeah, Brian, I see this as a conspiracy against rights,

8:29 specifically James Comey's Fifth Amendment due process rights.

8:33 The reason I call it a conspiracy is because you can't tell me that, you know,

8:38 Todd Blanch and Pam Bondi before him and Donald Trump are all

8:42 kind of in cahoots or in a criminal conspiracy to, you know,

8:47 misuse the rule of law, weaponize the power of the Department

8:50 of Justice to punish Donald Trump's perceived enemies.

8:54 And so I I think James Comey will have,

8:57 you know, not just a straightfaced lawsuit to pursue,

9:01 but potentially a winning lawsuit because ordinarily government

9:05 officials have a healthy dose of immunity against prosecution.

9:09 However, they only enjoy that immunity when they're doing their job honestly,

9:14 honorably, ethically.

9:16 They are acting within the scope of their official duties.

9:19 And there is something that is never within

9:22 the scope of the official duties of a prosecutor.

9:25 It's to bring baseless, evidence-free, unsupportable,

9:31 vindictive prosecutions because the president wants you to.

9:35 That is when you have abandoned

9:38 your official governmental duties as a prosecutor.

9:41 And that's why you will be open

9:43 to civil liability and a potentially successful civil suit.

9:47 So, I hope to heck James Comey, who has now been twice prosecuted.

9:53 Probably both cases will be dismissed long before they

9:56 ever see the inside of a of a jury courtroom.

10:00 And I think one of the ways to hold a a runaway

10:02 corrupt administration accountable is by suing them in their personal capacity.

10:08 So they have to pay a money judgment if one

10:10 is awarded by a jury out of their own pocket,

10:13 not out of the government's coffers which

10:16 are filled courtesy of our tax dollars.

10:19 You spoke about the prospect of of suing

10:21 these people in their personal capacity.

10:23 Is it also probable or likely or possible um

10:28 that these folks who are engaged in this process because this is

10:32 them abusing their official roles that they could be disbarred

10:35 as the result of bringing these actions against someone like James Comey?

10:39 Yeah, Brian, I don't see a path for Todd Blanch

10:41 to escape a bar council ethics investigation in New York,

10:47 I believe, where I think he is barred by by the New York State bar.

10:51 You know, this is like big ticket unethical conduct for a lawyer

10:56 and New York will have every reason to want to investigate and you know,

11:01 if they find he engaged in unethical conduct,

11:05 consider what sanctions should be appropriate.

11:07 I would say the only appropriate sanction for an acting attorney general who has

11:11 so abused both the rule of law

11:14 and the constitutional rights of others is disbarment.

11:18 That is a man who has no business holding a license to practice law.

11:23 Last question here, Glenn, on this point of of suing these people.

11:28 If we see uh that the administration has gone after everybody from James Comey,

11:33 Leticia James, Tim Walls, Jacob Fry, I mean, you name it.

11:36 The list is growing what feels like on a daily basis.

11:39 Is there a world in which all of these plaintiffs

11:43 or parties can come together and and engage

11:46 in a class action lawsuit against this administration

11:48 or because they've all been prosecuted for something different,

11:51 would they have to go at it alone?

11:53 Yeah.

11:53 So, I was never a civil litigator.

11:55 I've never tried to put a class together and have

11:58 a judge certify it pursuant to a class action lawsuit.

12:01 My sense is these would all be

12:03 individual plaintiffs who would bring their own lawsuits.

12:06 I don't think it's like an entire class as the um birthright citizenship

12:11 case lends itself to a class because what you have there was Donald

12:16 Trump trying to deny the constitutional

12:19 guarantee of birthright citizenship to literally every

12:23 child born in the United States on or after I believe it's February 20th,

12:29 2025 when his unlawful unconstitutional executive order

12:33 was to go into effect and a judge

12:36 certif ified that entire class of infants born and yet to be born.

12:42 So that is the kind of case that lends itself to a class action when you

12:46 have to sweep in lots and lots

12:48 and lots of people to participate in the litigation.

12:52 But I I don't see the vindictive prosecution,

12:55 selective prosecution um uh cases to really lend themselves to a class action.

13:03 I think it would be more appropriate for, you know,

13:06 whoever was impacted to bring a lawsuit in their own personal capacity.

13:11 Okay.

13:11 Well, look, as far as this ongoing saga

13:13 between the Trump administration and James Comey is concerned,

13:16 as well as any other vindictive prosecutions brought at the hands of this DOJ,

13:20 we will of course stay on top of them.

13:22 For those who are watching, if you'd like to follow along,

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13:38 I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and I'm Glenn Kersner.

13:41 You're watching the Legal Breakdown.