Justice Department launches criminal prosecution of E. Jean Carroll

Añadido: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]You're watching the legal breakdown.

[00:00:01]Glenn, I don't know that we can get a better example of the overt corruption of this administration, this vindictive administration, than what just happened with Eugene Carol. So, can you give some an overview here about the DOJ's latest action?

[00:00:14]>> Yeah, Brian, it it's corruption. It is the grossest form of prosetorial abuse of power, and it may very well be criminal. But what just happened was there was reporting that Donald Trump's Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into Eugene Carol, claiming that there, you know, there may be some indication that she lied in one or both of her trials against Donald Trump. to to say this is a gross abuse of prosecutorial discretion really doesn't do it justice Brian because you know I suspect just like the you know great sea shell caper James Comey and when they went after Leticia James and when they went after Jerome Powell and when they went after six members of Congress who spoke the truth the that military law provides that soldiers sailors airmen military members must disobey unlawful orders and they tried to prosecute those six members of Congress though they have committed no crime. Here we go again.

[00:01:23]And I don't want to be agist here, but they're going after an 82year-old woman that a jury found Donald Trump had first sexually assaulted and then defamed to the tune of a total of more than $80 million in damages. And those cases were long ago over. And now all of a sudden, Donald Trump's Department of Justice is opening a criminal investigation into her. This is beyond just weaponization of the rule of law. This is dictatorial This is the stuff of banana republics. You know, I don't know. This is going to sound hyperbolic, Brian, but I don't know that there is such a thing as hyperbole when you're trying to describe what Donald Trump might try to do next to his perceived enemies. I'm waiting for him to just order his Department of Justice to start rounding up and imprisoning his perceived enemies with no charges, no evidence, no indication that they'd committed a crime. Because, you know, right now all he's doing is abusing the process, the criminal justice system, the grand jury process. He's using that that process as a weapon to punish people, to make them get lawyers, to probably, you know, cause sleepless nights for them and their families. Ultimately, nothing will come of the Eugene Carol criminal investigation. But that really is not the point. You know, the process is the punishment. And that's what Trump's dirty, dirty DOJ leadership is doing right now to Eugene Carol, who, let's face it, mopped the floor with Donald Trump in trial after trial up in New York. Is there a world where Eugene Carol could counter sue in some way?

[00:03:12]Like I know that this is a criminal prosecution, so it's not the same as as a as a civil as a civil case where there's normally counter suits, but is there a world where Eugene Carol can get hers um by virtue of being the target of a vindictive prosecution?

[00:03:27]>> Well, first of all, this isn't Yeah, it's not a civil suit, so there really is no opportunity to counter sue.

[00:03:33]>> Yeah. I was going to ask like is there a world where she could s if if this is found to be a a vindictive prosecution?

[00:03:39]Could she sue in a civil suit after the fact by virtue of being the target of a vindictive prosecution? Yeah. And the answer is yes. Now the question is would that suit be successful? There are lots of roadblocks and hurdles that somebody has to overcome if they're going to successfully sue the United States government or officers of the United States government. It's difficult, but not impossible. And I think frankly, it's probably getting easier every day with how Donald Trump, Todd Blanch, and all of the DOJ leadership is so plainly and inarguably and in the harsh light of day weaponizing the rule of law. So, you know, it may very well be she'll have a suit for a conspiracy against rights because, you know, everybody in the United States has a due process, a fifth amendment constitutional due process right against the government criminally prosecuting us or selectively prosecuting us. Those are due process, constitutional rights we have. And it sure looks like those rights have been violated by what sure looks like a conspiracy to me. That just means multiple people have agreed to do it together. And you know, I think Comey and Leticia James and the members of Congress and Jerome Powell and now Eugene Carol and perhaps others have available to them that claim. Now, you know, I think my personal opinion is that Eugene Carol's best revenge might be to just continue to move forward in the courts and ultimately collect on her 83, I think $88 million in aggregate with both jury judgments added together, her $83 million that she won from Donald Trump because of his wrongful conduct.

[00:05:30]But the other thing she can do, and this might feel like an outlier, but you know, former CIA director John Brennan is also being pursued it looks like vindictively. And our viewers may remember that Donald Trump's dirty DOJ leadership actually tried to steer the investigation from DC, where it would most properly be conducted, down to Florida and maybe try to squeeze it into Ailen Cannon's uh courthouse. Um, and so what happened was, uh, John Brennan's lawyer sent a letter to the chief judge down in that district saying, "This is wrong. This is abusive. This can't be allowed to go on." But I think letters like that are more sort of, you know, atmospherically important than they are legally important. But they do paint a picture and they try to expose what the dirty Trump administration is doing here >> in terms of allowing this vindictive prosecution to go forward. Obviously Todd Blanch has to sign off on this or there's going to be some lying prosecutor, some sucker who has to put his name on it. Um, whoever does allow this thing to move forward, would they be a target for uh for for a bar review from their respective bar considering this is so overtly abusive that it should put their law license in jeopardy. a bar investigation from the state bar wherever the person or people are licensed who are involved in this, you know, corrupt mission, what sure seems like a corrupt mission to retaliate against Eugene Carol, they absolutely not only should, but I'm pretty confident will be referred to their state bar for an ethics investigation. And you know, we're talking about this, Brian, on the same day that a brand new complaint, and let me tell you, it is a compelling complaint was just filed with a Florida State Bar detailing and documenting all of Pam Bondi's unethical conduct while she was attorney general. It is, you know, it's important uh reading, I think, for folks. And the other thing that I I think I would hasten to add based on the reporting, they claim at the Department of Justice that Todd Blanch doesn't have his fingerprints anywhere on this sort of de facto assault on Eugene Carol, at least figuratively speaking. Why? Well, because he was representing Donald Trump in some of the appellet litigation in the Eene Carol case before he, you know, joined the Department of Justice. Um, and so he is absolutely conflicted out. So I do not believe Todd Blanch or the Department of Justice these days as far as I can throw him or it. But they say he's not involved in any of the decision-making in the Eugene Carol case. All that means, if that's true, is that whoever is involved in the decision-making process is the person or the people who will need to be referred to their state bars for ethics investigations.

[00:08:30]>> Is there a world where that has to be shouted from the rooftops to let these either prosecutors or even the higherups, the brass in the DOJ know uh what they risk by virtue of doing this?

[00:08:44]because I feel like there's this sense of impunity among these people that whatever Trump orders um these underlings are expected to just carry out his wishes no questions asked. If they don't they're going to be unceremoniously discarded in in very much the same way these other prosecutors have been discarded. And so there is this sense of like oh well I'm just following orders and I have to do it because the edict has come come down from on high. But but I feel like there's there's really not a sense of what the consequences for these people could be. And so should there should should this be the kind of thing where it's like, you know, people come out in advance of this stuff happening and say if you do this, if you engage in vindictive prosecution, especially vindictive prosecution that's so obvious that even a judge is willing to call it out, that what's immediately going to follow is going to be a bar investigation. And is there some some responsibility on the bar itself to say to to issue kind of an announcement, unprecedented though it may be, that anybody who abuses their law license, which was granted by each respective bar, that there are certain standards that have to be upheld otherwise you risk losing that law license. Yeah, Brian, let me try to take on the last question first because I've probably already forgotten the first two, but the last question. Shouldn't state bar ethics organizations uh make a preemptive announcement that hey, listen up everybody, you need to follow the ethical rules in our jurisdiction in our state or your law license may be at risk. You know, that's why we have a code of ethics in each of the states.

[00:10:19]So, you know, to say it's not necessary or it shouldn't be necessary for them to say, um, like we told you when you were sworn in as an attorney in our state, here are the ethical rules you have to follow. I guess I would say it couldn't hurt because those rules are being disregarded, violated, you know, it seems on a daily basis by some at the Department of Justice. Clearly, not all at the Department of Justice. How about another question you asked? Isn't there an obligation for people to speak out about this? Well, first of all, that's what we do, but we do it from the outside. I was on the inside of the federal government for about 30 years and six months before I retired. And I wouldn't stand for this inside government. Certainly, I wouldn't do it.

[00:11:01]I wouldn't stand for it from the federal prosecutors that I supervised at the DC US Attorney's Office. And frankly, I didn't see behavior like this in my 30 plus years as a federal prosecutor. Um, but I think we're screaming from the rooftops from the outside about this.

[00:11:18]But you know what, Brian? There are also people speaking out from the inside. I I trust our viewers will remember a DOJ attorney named Izz Ruini. Who was he? He was the one that walked into court in the Abrego Garcia case and told the truth even though he had essentially been urged to lie about what the government did to Abrego Garcia. He stood up. He said, "I will not compromise my ethics, my integrity." And of course, he was fired. Or it may be that he, you know, he self- selected and left before they had an opportunity to fire him. But there are people on the inside, there are people who stood up to Emil Boove, the then acting deputy attorney general, who, God help us, is now a federal court of appeals judge.

[00:12:02]Um, when he tried to dismiss the Eric Adams federal prosecution in New York, former New York City mayor. Why? Not for legal reasons, but for political reasons. So Adams could do favors for Donald Trump. There were lawyers on the inside that when uh Emil Bo said, "You know what? If judges tell us to do this, that or the other, we just may have to tell the judges, "F you." There were attorneys on the inside who stood up and were promptly fired or who resigned.

[00:12:31]There are people on the inside. What we're seeing right now from DOJ, this has been reported by the New York Times and other outlets recently. There's not only a brain drain from DOJ, there's an ethics drain because the people who are there will not do the dirty bidding of Donald Trump, Todd Blanch, and others.

[00:12:49]And people will say, well, shouldn't they hunker down and stay and try to be a bull work on the inside? I don't criticize anybody for leaving because I wouldn't want to work for that kind of corrupt leadership. But uh you know there are people screaming from the rooftops about these ethical travesties both outside government and inside government. Well, we will of course stay on top of this story and any other legal news. For those who are watching, if you'd like to follow along, best way to do that is to subscribe to both of our channels. I'm going to put those links right here on the screen and also in the post description of this video. I'm Brian Taylor Cohen >> and I'm Glenn Kersner.

[00:13:23]>> You're watching the Legal Breakdown.