Trump BOILS OVER as Blanche Led DOJ Is FORCED to FOLD by a Federal Judge in Case against the Press!!

[00:00:00]and the Department of Justice and Todd Blanch fold again. This time in federal court and breaking news before Judge Supramanian in the Southern District of New York. The New York Times has won its fight to quash those two sets of subpoenas to its reporters about the Qatari Air Force One and their anonymous sourcing about their reporting. One set of subpoenas to force reporters to go to the grand jury and reveal their sources.

[00:00:28]the second to get their telephones and even have their mother's subpoenas.

[00:00:33]Well, a very hot Judge Sub Romanian, according to to people that are inside the courtroom like Adam Klasfeld, he came on, sat down, and then tore the Department of Justice and the Southern District of New York a new one. He effectively told them that if you don't withdraw the subpoenas because they violate the law because you can't go after reporters as a first instance, you have to go do your national security investigation another way. If you don't withdraw them, I'm going to consider sanctions. He particularly was harsh on a lawyer for the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York who he brought into the room. In other words, he was sitting out in the galley. He brought him into the well of the courtroom and and had him explain why he went to a second judge not named Judge Supermanian and then had that judge assign a for search warrants without telling the judge that there were reporters on the other side. That's a no no. It's called lying and not being candid with the tribunal. You can lose your bar license as a result. And this all comes down to Jay Clayton, who's currently the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Todd Blanch, who under oath during their respective confirmation hearings about this point, effectively lied to the Senate as well. And this on a day when the House Judiciary Committee wants to indict Jack Smith for lying to Congress.

[00:02:09]I'm Michael Popock. We're kicking off Friday morning with this breaking news.

[00:02:14]How do we get here?

[00:02:16]Donald Trump chose to fly in a Qatari Air Force One jet that really wasn't Air Force One, that didn't have any of the command and control structure, security, missile avoidance systems, um, communication systems to be a flying fortress or a flying situation room, endangering every life on board that plane as he flew it over to NATO and to Ankura, Turkey. And when the MS now and New York Times based on anonymous sourcing said that it's unsafe and the Secret Service has grounded the plane and you better get your ass back on the rights, uh, Air Force One, Donald Trump wanted to get to the bottom of it and he unleashed his FBI and Department of Justice and they decided, hey, we got an easy way. Let's just get the anonymous sources. We'll find the moles with the New York Times. Except the New York Times says you can't do that because rightly so, especially under second circuit and Supreme Court president.

[00:03:08]There's a multi-part test that has to be satisfied before you can go after a reporter's notebook. And of course, they didn't satisfy that. In fact, they not only served the reporters at their homes, they also served some of the reporters mothers. And Judge Supermanian didn't like that at all, showing a little bit of a sense of humor. I'm going to get to that next. you're here on Legal AF, hit that free subscribe button. It's so important to us as we continue to grow to two million subscribers because apparently the reporting's been that one of the reporters was home watching Sheep Detective. I don't even know what that is, but he was watching Sheep Detective and Judge Supermanian indicated that well, he read social media and he said, "You're not going to be serving anybody while they're watching Sheep Detective any longer, are you?" Now, the judge cornered the Department of Justice because at the beginning they weren't willing to uh to withdraw their um search their um subpoenas for these devices and for testimony and the judge after after ripping a new one into the right-hand person for Jay Clayton, the Southern District of New York um prosecutor for having lied to another judge about who was on the receiving end of those search warrants and those subpoenas. After that, he said he's going to strongly consider sanctions. He gave them one more opportunity about an hour into the hearing. And the opportunity was, you can withdraw this the the subpoenas and we'll call it a draw or we'll call it I don't call it even, but you can withdraw the subpoenas or I'm going to quash them, which is it. And of course, they don't want quashed subpoenas while Todd Blanch is trying to get confirmed as attorney general.

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[00:06:32]And so they ca, they huddled, they took a break, they made some phone calls, they got on some text messages. I'm sure Todd Blanch or Stan Woodward in Washington were involved and they withdrew the subpoenas. Doesn't mean they can't come back again if they properly satisfy the law, but it can't be the first stop on the train. Let's knock on the door of the of the reporters houses. Now, this came up in two confirmation hearings backtoback in Washington because Jay Clayton, Donald Trump's golf buddy, who's I'm not making that up, along with Howard Lutnik, commerce secretary, who sits in the chair as the Southern District of New York US attorney is being is being moved over to the to be the director of national intelligence. He has no experience in the intelligence community. No CIA, no FBI, no military, no national security agency, nothing.

[00:07:25]He's a corporate lawyer at best, but they're going to make him because it's Donald Trump's buddy and he needs a pliable asset to go beat up people during the during the midterm elections in voting. So, while he was there getting uh getting his ass kicked, not only couldn't he answer the question posed to him by Senator Osaf in Georgia about who won the 2020 election, but he also had to answer questions about subpoenas that his office uh as almost a parting gift gave to Donald Trump. Watch this exchange.

[00:07:58]>> Mr. Clayton. According to the press reports, the FBI director spent eight hours last Friday at the White House investigating journalists. My view is this is a flagrant attack journalist in the First Amendment under the direction apparently of the Trump administration.

[00:08:18]When were you directed to issue subpoenas to the journalists and by whom?

[00:08:24]Um, Senator, I I believe you're referring to um the reporting around the subpoenas relating to >> the subpoenas you sign.

[00:08:34]>> The subpoenas that I signed. Um, those subpoenas are in connection with an ongoing national security investigation. I'm happy to talk to you and this committee about our approach to the First Amendment and our efforts in all cases um to limit to the greatest extent possible any intrusion into the operation of the free press. I'm I'm absolutely committed to and respect our first amendment and the role of the press.

[00:09:07]>> So, let me ask you this. It's not even clear that the subpoenas that you signed followed the administration's policy, which requires the government to first make all reasonable attempts to obtain information from other sources. What specific actions did you take before you sign the subpoenas? I I can tell you that in all of these cases, we and not just one person, and this is the way I operate. I I I operate by asking my team what do you think any action in this regard you can be assured that it was a consultative exercise with the career prosecutors in my office.

[00:09:51]>> So that's what you did beforehand to satisfy yourself that this was important to do to send these journalists the subpoena and go to their house >> to to to issue the subpoenas. Um, but I let me say that this is I I don't want to get into this in in too great a detail because it's inappropriate. I don't want to get into details. I just want to find out what went on. We we followed the processes that we're required to follow.

[00:10:16]>> That's a lie. The law is not being followed. And similarly, Todd Blanch in his confirmation hearing was asked point blank about how is this consistent and how isn't this uh anything other than an assault on the First Amendment and freedom of the press? and Todd Blanch said the same thing. Again, this is inconsistent with the position taken in front of Judge Supermanian in the dismissal of those um subpoenas. Play the clip of Todd Lynch.

[00:10:43]>> Cash Battel. I do want to go back to my colleague Senator Weiss has some concern. I have concerns about him because of the reports about his drinking about the incredibly bad morale there. But I'm not going to ask you on that. You are a supervisor, so obviously you have some responsibility to be reviewing this behavior. I don't think he has any issues drinking. He has no issues with >> Let me here's what is very clear. He was at the White House for eight hours and this is after a report came out in the New York Times that talked about the $400 million Qatari plane that was Air Force One not having certain uh deceptive defensive capabilities and issued subpoenas to reporters demanding that they turn over their news sources. I happen to believe it's extremely important to protect the right of the press to have confidential sources in order to get out information that is absolutely in the public interest. Do you support Mr. Cel Mr. Patel's efforts uh to subpoena and and get reporters under the grill to disclose who their confidential sources are? The Department of Justice requires that I authorize it, which I did. And those reporters, we're not targeting reporters. They're material witnesses.

[00:12:02]Just like a reporter would be a material witness to a car crash, there are witnesses. And so, >> and the question you want to ask them is who were their sources? No, >> it goes to the heart of the first amendment. No, the question we want to ask them is who provided them with classified national security information which everybody in this body should want to protect. I would hope if they're so legal, if they're so lawful, if they're so based and consistent with the rule of law, then why did you uh withdraw them on your own rather than wait for the judge to quash them? The judge was going to quash them because they're illegal, because they're unconstitutional, because they're inconsistent with the jurist prudence about the First Amendment, freedom of the press, and and and anonymous sources, which are at the heart of reporting. Can you imagine? Could you imagine if the Nixon White House was able to subpoena Woodward and Bernstein about the leaks coming out of the White House about Watergate, put them on the stand, make them reveal their sources, it we would never have it never would have led to the downfall of the Nixon administration and people going to jail for corruption.

[00:13:20]The fourth estate, the fourth branch of government, if you will, is the free press. We will continue to defend their right to be free, our independent right to do commentary until the bitter end.

[00:13:34]And thankfully, we have judges like Judge Subramanian appointed by Joe Biden, Southern District of of New York because he's bright, because he's smart, because he's independent, and he made the right decision today.

[00:13:49]and cornered the southern cornered the US attorney's office from Manhattan.

[00:13:54]Cornered Todd Blanch and gave them a ultimate your else or else which only a federal judge can do. I'll continue to report on it and update this story as they try to I guess go back out and knock on the door during Sheep Detective again. Only on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button if you like this kind of content. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popac.

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