January 13, 2023 • 34 mins
EPISODE 112: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN
A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Garland has to go - and NOT because he appointed a Special Counsel; that'll probably work to Biden's advantage. We have to have somebody there to protect the Trump Investigation and Merrick Garland has again shown he's not smart enough to be trusted with doing it.
Garland has to go because of a question nobody's asking: Who illegally leaked this confidential investigation to CBS News? How could it leak barely four days after the internal recommendation to name a Counsel? How could Garland have handed this case requiring ultimate secrecy to a Trump appointee? How could he NOW hand the case over to a DIFFERENT Trump appointee who used to clerk for Justice Rehnquist and has his own page as a "contributing expert" to The Federalist Society? We've all long had reasons to question Merrick Garland's intelligence and savviness, but these are the last straws. He's just no damn good at this, and right now we have no margin for error for a guy whose Department of Justice is a sieve, and doesn't understand the realities of the Trump cult.
B-Block (16:48) SPECIAL COMMENT No. 2: This is the third time I have suggested Garland must either act or resign. In September, as Trump tried to block the Mar-a-Lago investigation via the "Special Master" there was a way around the stall for Garland. And he just sat back and did nothing.
C-Block (25:30) SPECIAL COMMENT No. 3: And in October, Garland seemed to willfully ignore that week-long orgy of Trump's boastful confessions about the documents he stole. (40:45) It's so bad that there's even a James Thurber fable, the moral of which is the story of Merrick Garland. It's called "The Bear Who Let It Alone."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
The Attorney General of the United States of America must resign.
If he will not do so, President Biden must fire him,
(00:28):
not for appointing a special counsel to confirm the likely
inadvertence of documents found in Biden's storage. You can argue
that appointment either way. Long term, it will likely work
to Biden's advantage. Now, Merrick Garland must go because the
first of his employees at the Department of Justice to
whom he handed the keys to this case was a
(00:50):
Trump appointee, and yesterday the second of his employees at
the Department of Justice to whom he handed the keys
to this case was another Trump appointee who just happens
to also have his own page on the website of
the Federalist Society. And more important than either of those points,
(01:11):
Merrick Garland must be replaced immediately, because in the crazed
media stampede of the last five days, one extraordinarily important
development has been completely ignored. And because of that development,
we are left to wonder whether the prosecution of Donald Trump,
which is vital to the safety, security, and continuation of
(01:34):
the United States, of America. We are left to wonder
if the prosecution of Trump is at risk because Merrick
Garland does not know what he is doing. Where did
CBS News get the confidential information Monday about an investigation
(01:56):
involving the President of the United States, Just sixty eight
days after the case was first self reported by the
President's lawyers, just sixty one days after the FBI first
began merely to assess the documents, just fifty six days
after the Attorney General assigned a U. S Attorney to
conduct a preliminary investigation to see if a special council
(02:18):
might be necessary, And just four days after that special
council first reported back to the Attorney General. Who was
the source the one source per the CBS News report
from just this past Monday. Who was the source who
enabled CBS and then the rest of the networks and
the rest of the national news organizations to stampede in
(02:41):
behind CBS and to present this story literally hours after
the Republicans confirmed they had dedicated an investigative committee to
harassing the President and his family. Who is the source?
Forty eight hours later, when as the story began to flag,
somebody enabled NBC News to re ignite it with a
(03:04):
report of the discovery of another document or documents. In
point of fact, here the word who is misleading. I
have used it as shorthand. I really mean, from what
organization could confidential, preliminary, earliest stages details about what is
almost certainly a legally trivial matter, but is almost perfectly
(03:25):
designed for any American news organization to hype and inflate
and debate and promote and compare and contrast and repeat
and repeat and repeat. From what organization could such perfect
fodder for an American both sides? Is um, what aboutism?
Political orgy emerge? Who in the institutional sense, who would
(03:51):
know about the confidential and preliminary investigations touching on the
President of the United States by the Department of Justice. Well, sir,
I know I am going quite a ways out on
a limb here when I suggest it may be the
likeliest source of such a leak about the inner workings
of the Justice Department would be somebody in the Justice Department,
(04:15):
unless you wish to argue that one of President Biden's
attorneys leaked this to CBS News to a nondescript correspondent
and weekend anchor in the network's Chicago bureau named Adriana Diaz.
The literal who in who leaked this in violation of
all Department of Justice policy and several federal laws may
(04:38):
be especially relevant later, but for now we'll have to
hunt around in the dark and just evaluate everybody. Merritt
Garland handed the Nascent investigation too. And just to start
in chronological order, let's look at that United States attorney.
He did give it to you on November. His name
is John Lausch And again just looking at him first,
only because he was first, we find that he was
(05:00):
appointed as the U S Attorney in Chicago on November two,
two thousand seventeen, by President Trump. Well that's a coincidence.
And we see he clerked for a federal appeals judge
appointed by President Reagan, a judge praised as an originalist
(05:20):
by the former Congressman Louis Gomert of Texas. And then
we see that when the new administration came in, the
original plan was to replace U S Attorney laush is
part of the usual turnover, but there were personal appeals
made to the White House not to do so. And
then we see that this is a surprise. Having told
Attorney General Garland that a special Council was needed in
(05:42):
this case, which under the Special Council statutes he's supposed
to assess, he's not supposed to recommend. Having told him
a week ago yesterday, and the story having leaked to
CBS somewhere around ninety six hours later, all of a sudden,
this U S. Attorney lows she's leaving the department next
month or in early March, to go back into private
(06:03):
practice in Chicago. Now, obviously I'm doing the Republican version
of how this story would be covered. Journalism, which used
to once in a while peak through the clouds of
selling TV ads and newspapers, requires you to note that
just because the point man in the Justice Department, who
pretty much had this case to himself for fifty six
(06:26):
of its first sixty three days is from Chicago, and
was the U S Attorney for Chicago and lived in Chicago,
and the correspondent for CBS News who broke the story
is based in Chicago, well, until and unless proven otherwise,
that is a total coincidence. The point for even suggesting
the possibility that it's not a total coincidence takes us
(06:46):
back to my original note. The special counsel in the
Trump case has been appointed. The special counsel in the
Biden case has been appointed. There is no undoing these things,
and bluntly, there would be nothing to be gained by
even trying to undo them. There were arguments for and
against a Biden special council. Those arguments are gone now.
(07:07):
The point is, if two taught us anything, particularly from
the Supreme Court, for instance, it's that when something leaks,
we must now look to see who might have leaked
it in order to force the hand of themselves, or
their colleagues or their attorney general. Somebody, almost certainly somebody
(07:32):
from the Department of Justice, leaked the Biden story. Broke
Department of Justice regulations and federal law. Put this story
out the day the Republicans took over the House and
launched their Party of Inquisition. Put this story out just
as Trump Special counsel Jack Smith was broadening his investigation
to subporting perjury and witness tampering and the Trump post
(07:54):
election recount and lawsuit grift. Somebody saw the media playing
field and the change in power in the House and
chose that day to let somebody you never heard of
at CBS News Chicago cry havoc and let's slip the
dogs of both sides is hum might even have been
(08:14):
somebody favorable to Trump, somebody connected to Trump war perhaps
somebody appointed by Trump John lausch Well, No, Sir, I
meant Robert her whom Garland named yesterday as the special
counsel for the Biden storage story. The U s. Attorney
(08:34):
for Maryland appointed in Why this is another coincidence the
same month as Lash was appointed, November two thousand seventeen. Well,
look at this another coincidence, the same president as Laosh
appointed him Trump Robert Her, who was a law clerk
for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and a law clerk for
(08:57):
Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kazinski, just like Brett Kavanaugh was
a law clerk for Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kazinski. Judge
Kazinski is retired now after that little problem with the
fifteen women who accused him of misconduct ranging from harrassment
to assault. Judge Kazinski has retired, but happily he's still
involved in the law through his decades long membership in
(09:21):
the Federalist Society on Funny Dog On Things. Speaking of
the Federalist Society. You know who's got his own page
on the Federalist Society website. Why Robert Her, the new
Garland appointed special counsel in the Biden case. He has
co written at least two book reviews for the Federalist
Society magazine Hope your subscription is up to date, and
(09:46):
Robert Her is listed as a contributing expert to the
Federalist Society on the Federalist Society website. Bluntly, I don't
give a damn about Robert Her, and I don't give
a damn about John Lausch. And actually I don't give
a damn about what they find out or they do
not find out about these documents. What I care about,
(10:09):
what I give a damn about, what I give a
million damns about, is the prosecution of Donald Trump. For
two years now, I have been on the fence about
Merrick Garland, and frankly, this decides it for me. I
do not know what Merritt Garland wants. I do not
know if he's trying to run out the clock for
Trump or if he intends to put him in prison
(10:31):
for seventy seven lifetimes. What I do know now is
that setting aside everything to do with Trump. Merrick Garland
is a desperately terrible, incompetent Attorney General. The leak to
CBS and the resultant feeding frenzy did not come from
him personally, I think. But the first leak almost certainly
(10:55):
came from somebody who works for Merrick Garland. And the
second one too, decision on a Thursday, leaked the following Monday.
What the hell kind of sieve are you running over there?
Mr Attorney General? And even if long odds are defied
here and these leaks somehow originated elsewhere, it was still
(11:17):
Merrick Garland who first turned over the most confidential internal
information about the president of the United States to a
Trump appointee who made a recommendation he was not supposed
to make instead of the assessment he was supposed to make.
And it was then again Merrick Garland who just put
the investigation of the sitting president of the United States
into the hands of a colleague of Bret Kavanaugh and
(11:39):
an ex quirk of William Rehnquist, whom the Federalist Society
probably calls a contributing expert on his page on their website,
Mr Attorney General, resign whatever else you are or you
are not. You are incompetent and naive. Then Mr President,
(12:02):
if he will not quit, you must fire Merrick Garland.
It will look terrible, but it will look worse if
the disaster at the Department of Justice we are seeing
play out in real time right now also results in
the Trump case being buried or both sided to death
or judging by the last week over there at the
(12:22):
d o J crapshack simply botched. And if you don't
think that can happen, let me ask you this. When
you woke up Monday, Monday of this week, could you
have imagined that by Friday there would have been a
newsleak so loaded that people would actually seriously compare a
dozen or so returned documents to the classified nuclear secrets
(12:47):
that Trump stole. And then that there would have been
a Trump appointee deciding if there needed to be a
special counsel to investigate the president, and that then the
council would have been appointed. It would have been another
Trump appoint tea and his smiling face would have been
(13:07):
beaming up at you from his page on the website
of the Federalist Society. Still ahead, well, and this is
(13:30):
what I get for saying I was going to listen
to my doctor finally and baby my bronchial infection. This
is not the first time I have insisted Garland must
or at least should go. I'd like to apologize to
you now that I ever hesitated before. We'll review these
occasions next. This discountdown. Merrick Garland must go. You can
(14:04):
run the Department of Justice so badly that it leaks
the news of an inquiry into the sitting president of
the United States, You just can't. You also cannot run
the department so naively that the two people you put
in charge of that inquiry are beholden to Donald Trump,
who you are also investigating at the same time. You
(14:28):
cannot also run the department so fearfully. This is from
September six, two thousand twenty two. It is testament, I
suppose to the unshakable images burned into our heads of
(14:52):
things like Mr Smith goes to Washington, that any of
us thought for a moment that a reprehensible peon of
Trump World named Eileen Cannon was actually going to behave
vaguely like a federal judge instead of like a poorly
paid employee of the Donald Trump Organized Crime family last night.
(15:12):
As you know, Eileen Cannon lived down to all expectations.
She decided, based on her lack of legal knowledge or
of any of the restraints usually provided by conscience or
ethics or legalities, that she will not vacate her manipulation
of the law to break the law to protect her
man Trump, and that a special Master should decide whether
(15:35):
the top secret ultra classified documents that the nuclear kleptomaniac
stole really are top secret ultraclassified documents, and whether the
risk at which she now has personally put this nation
could really trigger international conflict or a shooting war or
a nuclear exchange, or if she the equivalent of a paralegal,
(15:57):
a paralegal temp knows better than the rest of us combined.
We know it would happen next. If a Republican were
sitting in the White House now and a Democrat were
under suspicion of stealing the nuclear crown jewels, the White
House would ignore Judge Cannon, and would ignore Special Master Deary,
(16:19):
and would ignore the district irrelevant Court of Southern Irrelevant Florida.
It would act and then tell everybody else to go
and try and stop it. Happily, there is a legal
means for President Biden an Attorney General Garland to proceed
in such a morally justifiable manner, cut through the red
(16:39):
tape and the people dispensing it. To borrow from a
three step plan offered by the editor in chief of
Crooked Media Brian Boittler one file and appeal to have
President Biden publicly issue a memo waiving all executive privilege
relating to the stolen documents, and reminding Judge Cannon and
(17:00):
the Appeals Court and Trump and everybody else that only
a seting president can assert presidential executive privilege in the
here and now. And then three use the materials already
seen and gasped at by the Department of Justice, and
as Boiler wrote, indict the m effort. Now I'll go
a little further, indicte the goddamned m effort and indict
(17:24):
him god damned immediately, because if you've somehow missed this
in the last few weeks, as he has threatened, revenged
and fully embraced Q and on and insisted upon an
immediate new election, and demanded he'd be installed right now
as president today, Donald Trump has deteriorated from a humanoid
(17:47):
but not human power mad creature with a Messiah complex
into an out of control nuclear reactor a chernobyl wearing
orange makeup. In an interview with a right wing pedant
named Hugh Hewitt, Trump has now threatened to destroy all
you this country. He has belched out seven different threats
(18:08):
of stochastic terrorism, seven threats by proxy, seven unmistakable calls
to violence and insurrection again, and he has enunciated these
seven blasphemies in just thirty seven seconds. I don't think
the people of the United States would stand for it.
And as you know, of a thing like that happened,
(18:30):
I would have no prohibition against running. You know that
I do, and that's what I wanted people to understand.
That would not take you out of the arena. It
would not. But I think if it happened, I think
you'd have problems in this country the likes of which
perhaps we've never seen before. I don't think the people
of the United States would stand for it. What kind
of problems, Mr President. I think they have big problems,
(18:52):
big problems. I just don't think they stand for it.
They will not, They will not sit still and stand
for this ultimate of hoaxes. It is the January sixth
speech all over again. It is the my Second Amendment
people tweet all over again, and this crazed his brain
does not work right phrasing. They will not sit still
(19:13):
and stand for this is simply the proud boys, stand
back and stand by, debate answer all over again. Donald
Trump is an immediate and lethal a threat to this
country and to the safety of everyone in it. As
if he were a terrorist holding a gun to the
head of a baby. The Biden administration, the Garland Department
(19:35):
of Justice have the means at hand right now to
save the baby and take the gun away from him
and contain or overcome whoever and whatever vermin he'd his
call to create big problems. But every day that those
means are not used, every day when formality and fear
(19:57):
and diletentism make us hesitate, the process of using those
means becomes more difficult and more disruptive and more weighted down.
But it is always true. The bully does not hit
you because you hit him first, or because you hit
(20:18):
him back. The bully hits you because he is a bully.
He understands only one thing. He defers to only one thing,
a kick to the crotch September six, two thousand twenty two,
(20:44):
and obviously it only got worse from there. Trump has
done everything except on ferral a banner in front of
Merrick Garland's window that reads, hey, I committed sedition. Indict
me now? And what did Garland do? Back to October?
In a moment? Again in real time? In these times
(21:17):
we are in, we lose detail. So much is happening
that we forget how often the same thing happens again
and again and again. Merrick Garland may or may not
mean well. I no longer care. After Yesterday, October two
thousand twenty two, this one was titled Mr Attorney General,
(21:38):
do your goddamned job. Last night Trump confessed he had
documents at Mari Lago. Last night, Trump boasted he had
(22:00):
documents at Mari Lago. Last night. Trump said they should
give it all back to him because it's all his,
thus contradicting his other claims that material was planted. He
is openly defying the law. He is all but daring
Merrick Garland to indict him and arrest him. He is
campaigning on breaking the law. He is campaigning on getting
(22:21):
away with breaking the law. He is campaigning to get
people elected who will protect him from the consequences of
breaking the law. He is campaigning on the Justice Departments
on written rule not to indict him while there is campaigning.
This can wait no longer. Arrest Trump today, Mr Attorney General.
(22:45):
This this is a god damned confession. I had a
small number of boxes and storage at Mara Lago guarded
by Secret Service and my people and everybody I mean
is safe. There is no crime. You know, there is
no crime. It's not a crime. And they should give
me immediately back everything that they've taken from because it's
(23:07):
mine's they took it from me. Trump last night at
his clan rally in Mesa, Arizona. For two months now,
Trump has been simultaneously boasting of committing crimes with impunity
while stalling in every way imaginable to prevent being prosecuted.
And at this point his primary accomplice in that is
(23:28):
Merrick Garland, Mr Attorney General, Do your job, and Mr President,
if he will not do his job, fire him and
put somebody in there who will. Because every day this
goes on Trump's sense of untouchability, his supporters sense of
untouchability grows, and it is now growing exponentially. And this
(23:51):
is not merely a question of putting in jail the
most dangerous criminal in the history of this country, the
man who has done more damage to our nation than
all the terrorists put together. This is about the survival
of the democracy. He confesses, he boasts, he defies, he lies,
he taunts, he talks out of both sides of his mouth,
and now we find out he bargains. The New York
(24:16):
Times reporting that when in one the National Archives began
to demand the return of its documents, our goddamn documents,
Trump told advisers that he would agree to return the
stolen documents provided that the National Archives would then give
him all the classified documents pertaining to the FBI investigation
(24:37):
of Trump's two thousand sixteen election interference conspiracy with Russia.
And we as a nation continue to treat this scumbag
with kid gloves because there's an election in a month
in which he's not running, because the real issue here
is just getting the documents back and secured. And prosecution
(24:58):
is incidental because there are institutional reluctances to prosecute a
former president, which translates as if you can prosecute a
former president, you sure as hell can prosecute a former
attorney general, right Mark, Because you fear the Republicans will
investigate the Department of Justice, or the Republicans will investigate
the White House, or you fear his supporters will riot
(25:22):
if given a congressional majority, the Republicans will do all that. Anyway,
They have given up trying to govern anymore. Outrage conspiracy
theory and the never fulfilled promise of the imminent bombshell
indictment just around a corner. That's all they are. And
remember the golden rule of real life. Just because you
(25:46):
do not hit the bully, that does not mean the
bully will not hit you. The bully hits you because
he is a bully. And still the Department of Justice
investigates and investigates and investigates. Trump confesses, he boasts, he defies,
he law, is he taunt sea bargains, and we investigate.
(26:08):
Rolling Stone reported Friday night something that confirmed my analysis
from Friday morning that the d o J is clearly
preparing for a search of Trump Tower in New York
or the Trump golf course and Discount Cemetery in New Jersey.
Whether it happens or not, they seem to be ready
for it, quoting federal investigators have asked multiple witnesses if
they knew whether Trump had stashed any highly sensitive government
(26:31):
documents at Trump Tower in Manhattan or at his private
club in ben Binster, New Jersey. As a person familiar
with the matter, and another source briefed on the situation,
Rolling Stone continues, the FBI, according to these sources, had
also asked in recent months whether the ex president had
a habit of transporting classified documents from his Florida estate,
(26:52):
Mari Lago to other Trump properties. The images of the
FBI blocking off Fifth Avenue and swarming through Trump Tower,
or going to Bedminster and asking, hey, what you got
in that box buried next to the first t these
are delightful images until you remember the context we seem
(27:17):
now to be investigating for the sake of investigating. The
August eighth search of Mari Lago two months two days
ago produced reports of missing documents as harrowing as Putin
or Zelensky or Biden invoking tactical nuclear weapon use in Ukraine.
The sheer volume of materials stolen was enough to make
(27:39):
all of us who have long known the worst about Trump.
Blanche that the compromise from the Department of Justice was
to say, just leave these one three documents to us,
and the Special Master can look at all the other documents,
and Trump can have back and anything else he wants.
Spoke to the extraordinary nature of those one hundred and
(28:01):
three documents and what has happened since Mari Lago was
ed under these circumstances. Trump has fundraised off it. Trump
has proclaimed himself the victim, the violated, the martyred off
of it. Trump has boasted off of it. Trump has defied,
Trump has lied, Trump has taunted, Trump has bargained, and
Trump has now confessed. And the Department of Justice, it
(28:26):
has contemplated, It has contemplated more searches instead of arresting
this creature and frog marching him out of one of
these fascist rallies, because now Trump is bringing to these
fascist rallies the kind of pure, unadulterated authoritarianism of people
like Jim Marchant, fresh from the conspiracies of q and
(28:50):
On and the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in
Nevada and the chairman of a coalition of vermin running
for secretary of State positions around the country whose goal,
if elected, is to destroy roy elections. So emboldened by
the last seven years, so emboldened by the failure to
(29:12):
act against Trump in any way, that at Trump's rally Saturday,
this scum merchant didn't even pretend anymore that what he
and the other conspirators were plotting where anything less than
the overthrow of the American electoral system. Last year, I
(29:33):
established a mega America first coalition of secretary of state
candidates around the country. If we get all of our
secretaries of state elected around the country like this, we
take our country back. By any means, we have the
power to act against Trump, and in so doing, to
(29:54):
send the merchants and his fellow travelers and his little
bullies scurrying back into the shadows from which they emerged.
And what are we doing with that power? We are
waiting Trump's candidate for governor of Arizona. This Carrie Lake
not only let them take a picture of her last
(30:16):
night vacuuming the red carpet in front of Trump's photo
op stand, but she let them tweet it. She could
not have more loudly screened. I am a subservient member
of a cult if she had had them tweet out
a photo of her with a ball gag in her mouth.
(30:39):
The clock is taking on our ability to save this democracy.
The time to act is one year and nine months ago.
The second best time to act is today, unless you
want Trump to confess. Oh wait, right, he just did again.
(31:08):
I do not think Merrick Garland should be fired because
somebody he trusted almost certainly leaked the news of the documents.
I do not think he should be fired because he
named a special prosecutor. I do not think he should
be fired because the two people he put in charge
of this were a point ease of Trump and therefore
beholden to him one way or the other. I think
Merrick Garland should be fired because he's an idiot, because
(31:31):
perhaps he tried too hard in a time when simplicity
actually would have worked better. I know this is an
odd thing to close with. I need the break, even
if you don't. There is actually a James thurber fable,
the moral of which applies here. I think it is
called the Bear who Let It Alone. In the woods
(31:53):
of the far West, there once lived a brown bear
who could take it or let it alone, he would
go into a bar where they sold need, a fermented
drink made of honey, and he would have just two drinks.
Then he would put some money on the bar and say,
see what the bears in the back room will have,
and he would go home. But finally he took to
(32:15):
drinking by himself most of the day. He would reel
home at night, kick over the umbrella stand, knocked down
the bridge lamps, and ram his elbows through the windows.
Then he would collapse on the floor and lie there
until he went to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed
and his children were very frightened. At length, the bear
(32:39):
saw the error of his ways and began to reform.
In the end, he became a famous teetotaler and a
persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to
his house about the awful effects of drink, and he
would boast about how strong and well he had become
since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this,
he would stand on his head and on his hands,
(33:01):
and he would turn cart wheels in the house, kicking
for the umbrella stand, knocking down the bridge lamps, and
ramming his elbows through the windows. Then he would lie
down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and
go to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed, and his children.
(33:25):
We're very frightened. Moral, you might as well fall flat
on your face as lean over too far backwards. M.
(33:48):
Good luck to us all. Thank you, good morning, good afternoon,
good night, and good luck. M. Countdown with Keith Alderman
(34:09):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Countdown with Keith Olderman is a production of I Heart Radio.
The Attorney General of the United States of America must resign.
If he will not do so, President Biden must fire him,
(00:28):
not for appointing a special counsel to confirm the likely
inadvertence of documents found in Biden's storage. You can argue
that appointment either way. Long term, it will likely work
to Biden's advantage. Now, Merrick Garland must go because the
first of his employees at the Department of Justice to
whom he handed the keys to this case was a
(00:50):
Trump appointee, and yesterday the second of his employees at
the Department of Justice to whom he handed the keys
to this case was another Trump appointee who just happens
to also have his own page on the website of
the Federalist Society. And more important than either of those points,
(01:11):
Merrick Garland must be replaced immediately, because in the crazed
media stampede of the last five days, one extraordinarily important
development has been completely ignored. And because of that development,
we are left to wonder whether the prosecution of Donald Trump,
which is vital to the safety, security, and continuation of
(01:34):
the United States, of America. We are left to wonder
if the prosecution of Trump is at risk because Merrick
Garland does not know what he is doing. Where did
CBS News get the confidential information Monday about an investigation
(01:56):
involving the President of the United States, Just sixty eight
days after the case was first self reported by the
President's lawyers, just sixty one days after the FBI first
began merely to assess the documents, just fifty six days
after the Attorney General assigned a U. S Attorney to
conduct a preliminary investigation to see if a special council
(02:18):
might be necessary, And just four days after that special
council first reported back to the Attorney General. Who was
the source the one source per the CBS News report
from just this past Monday. Who was the source who
enabled CBS and then the rest of the networks and
the rest of the national news organizations to stampede in
(02:41):
behind CBS and to present this story literally hours after
the Republicans confirmed they had dedicated an investigative committee to
harassing the President and his family. Who is the source?
Forty eight hours later, when as the story began to flag,
somebody enabled NBC News to re ignite it with a
(03:04):
report of the discovery of another document or documents. In
point of fact, here the word who is misleading. I
have used it as shorthand. I really mean, from what
organization could confidential, preliminary, earliest stages details about what is
almost certainly a legally trivial matter, but is almost perfectly
(03:25):
designed for any American news organization to hype and inflate
and debate and promote and compare and contrast and repeat
and repeat and repeat. From what organization could such perfect
fodder for an American both sides? Is um, what aboutism?
Political orgy emerge? Who in the institutional sense, who would
(03:51):
know about the confidential and preliminary investigations touching on the
President of the United States by the Department of Justice. Well, sir,
I know I am going quite a ways out on
a limb here when I suggest it may be the
likeliest source of such a leak about the inner workings
of the Justice Department would be somebody in the Justice Department,
(04:15):
unless you wish to argue that one of President Biden's
attorneys leaked this to CBS News to a nondescript correspondent
and weekend anchor in the network's Chicago bureau named Adriana Diaz.
The literal who in who leaked this in violation of
all Department of Justice policy and several federal laws may
(04:38):
be especially relevant later, but for now we'll have to
hunt around in the dark and just evaluate everybody. Merritt
Garland handed the Nascent investigation too. And just to start
in chronological order, let's look at that United States attorney.
He did give it to you on November. His name
is John Lausch And again just looking at him first,
only because he was first, we find that he was
(05:00):
appointed as the U S Attorney in Chicago on November two,
two thousand seventeen, by President Trump. Well that's a coincidence.
And we see he clerked for a federal appeals judge
appointed by President Reagan, a judge praised as an originalist
(05:20):
by the former Congressman Louis Gomert of Texas. And then
we see that when the new administration came in, the
original plan was to replace U S Attorney laush is
part of the usual turnover, but there were personal appeals
made to the White House not to do so. And
then we see that this is a surprise. Having told
Attorney General Garland that a special Council was needed in
(05:42):
this case, which under the Special Council statutes he's supposed
to assess, he's not supposed to recommend. Having told him
a week ago yesterday, and the story having leaked to
CBS somewhere around ninety six hours later, all of a sudden,
this U S. Attorney lows she's leaving the department next
month or in early March, to go back into private
(06:03):
practice in Chicago. Now, obviously I'm doing the Republican version
of how this story would be covered. Journalism, which used
to once in a while peak through the clouds of
selling TV ads and newspapers, requires you to note that
just because the point man in the Justice Department, who
pretty much had this case to himself for fifty six
(06:26):
of its first sixty three days is from Chicago, and
was the U S Attorney for Chicago and lived in Chicago,
and the correspondent for CBS News who broke the story
is based in Chicago, well, until and unless proven otherwise,
that is a total coincidence. The point for even suggesting
the possibility that it's not a total coincidence takes us
(06:46):
back to my original note. The special counsel in the
Trump case has been appointed. The special counsel in the
Biden case has been appointed. There is no undoing these things,
and bluntly, there would be nothing to be gained by
even trying to undo them. There were arguments for and
against a Biden special council. Those arguments are gone now.
(07:07):
The point is, if two taught us anything, particularly from
the Supreme Court, for instance, it's that when something leaks,
we must now look to see who might have leaked
it in order to force the hand of themselves, or
their colleagues or their attorney general. Somebody, almost certainly somebody
(07:32):
from the Department of Justice, leaked the Biden story. Broke
Department of Justice regulations and federal law. Put this story
out the day the Republicans took over the House and
launched their Party of Inquisition. Put this story out just
as Trump Special counsel Jack Smith was broadening his investigation
to subporting perjury and witness tampering and the Trump post
(07:54):
election recount and lawsuit grift. Somebody saw the media playing
field and the change in power in the House and
chose that day to let somebody you never heard of
at CBS News Chicago cry havoc and let's slip the
dogs of both sides is hum might even have been
(08:14):
somebody favorable to Trump, somebody connected to Trump war perhaps
somebody appointed by Trump John lausch Well, No, Sir, I
meant Robert her whom Garland named yesterday as the special
counsel for the Biden storage story. The U s. Attorney
(08:34):
for Maryland appointed in Why this is another coincidence the
same month as Lash was appointed, November two thousand seventeen. Well,
look at this another coincidence, the same president as Laosh
appointed him Trump Robert Her, who was a law clerk
for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and a law clerk for
(08:57):
Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kazinski, just like Brett Kavanaugh was
a law clerk for Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kazinski. Judge
Kazinski is retired now after that little problem with the
fifteen women who accused him of misconduct ranging from harrassment
to assault. Judge Kazinski has retired, but happily he's still
involved in the law through his decades long membership in
(09:21):
the Federalist Society on Funny Dog On Things. Speaking of
the Federalist Society. You know who's got his own page
on the Federalist Society website. Why Robert Her, the new
Garland appointed special counsel in the Biden case. He has
co written at least two book reviews for the Federalist
Society magazine Hope your subscription is up to date, and
(09:46):
Robert Her is listed as a contributing expert to the
Federalist Society on the Federalist Society website. Bluntly, I don't
give a damn about Robert Her, and I don't give
a damn about John Lausch. And actually I don't give
a damn about what they find out or they do
not find out about these documents. What I care about,
(10:09):
what I give a damn about, what I give a
million damns about, is the prosecution of Donald Trump. For
two years now, I have been on the fence about
Merrick Garland, and frankly, this decides it for me. I
do not know what Merritt Garland wants. I do not
know if he's trying to run out the clock for
Trump or if he intends to put him in prison
(10:31):
for seventy seven lifetimes. What I do know now is
that setting aside everything to do with Trump. Merrick Garland
is a desperately terrible, incompetent Attorney General. The leak to
CBS and the resultant feeding frenzy did not come from
him personally, I think. But the first leak almost certainly
(10:55):
came from somebody who works for Merrick Garland. And the
second one too, decision on a Thursday, leaked the following Monday.
What the hell kind of sieve are you running over there?
Mr Attorney General? And even if long odds are defied
here and these leaks somehow originated elsewhere, it was still
(11:17):
Merrick Garland who first turned over the most confidential internal
information about the president of the United States to a
Trump appointee who made a recommendation he was not supposed
to make instead of the assessment he was supposed to make.
And it was then again Merrick Garland who just put
the investigation of the sitting president of the United States
into the hands of a colleague of Bret Kavanaugh and
(11:39):
an ex quirk of William Rehnquist, whom the Federalist Society
probably calls a contributing expert on his page on their website,
Mr Attorney General, resign whatever else you are or you
are not. You are incompetent and naive. Then Mr President,
(12:02):
if he will not quit, you must fire Merrick Garland.
It will look terrible, but it will look worse if
the disaster at the Department of Justice we are seeing
play out in real time right now also results in
the Trump case being buried or both sided to death
or judging by the last week over there at the
(12:22):
d o J crapshack simply botched. And if you don't
think that can happen, let me ask you this. When
you woke up Monday, Monday of this week, could you
have imagined that by Friday there would have been a
newsleak so loaded that people would actually seriously compare a
dozen or so returned documents to the classified nuclear secrets
(12:47):
that Trump stole. And then that there would have been
a Trump appointee deciding if there needed to be a
special counsel to investigate the president, and that then the
council would have been appointed. It would have been another
Trump appoint tea and his smiling face would have been
(13:07):
beaming up at you from his page on the website
of the Federalist Society. Still ahead, well, and this is
(13:30):
what I get for saying I was going to listen
to my doctor finally and baby my bronchial infection. This
is not the first time I have insisted Garland must
or at least should go. I'd like to apologize to
you now that I ever hesitated before. We'll review these
occasions next. This discountdown. Merrick Garland must go. You can
(14:04):
run the Department of Justice so badly that it leaks
the news of an inquiry into the sitting president of
the United States, You just can't. You also cannot run
the department so naively that the two people you put
in charge of that inquiry are beholden to Donald Trump,
who you are also investigating at the same time. You
(14:28):
cannot also run the department so fearfully. This is from
September six, two thousand twenty two. It is testament, I
suppose to the unshakable images burned into our heads of
(14:52):
things like Mr Smith goes to Washington, that any of
us thought for a moment that a reprehensible peon of
Trump World named Eileen Cannon was actually going to behave
vaguely like a federal judge instead of like a poorly
paid employee of the Donald Trump Organized Crime family last night.
(15:12):
As you know, Eileen Cannon lived down to all expectations.
She decided, based on her lack of legal knowledge or
of any of the restraints usually provided by conscience or
ethics or legalities, that she will not vacate her manipulation
of the law to break the law to protect her
man Trump, and that a special Master should decide whether
(15:35):
the top secret ultra classified documents that the nuclear kleptomaniac
stole really are top secret ultraclassified documents, and whether the
risk at which she now has personally put this nation
could really trigger international conflict or a shooting war or
a nuclear exchange, or if she the equivalent of a paralegal,
(15:57):
a paralegal temp knows better than the rest of us combined.
We know it would happen next. If a Republican were
sitting in the White House now and a Democrat were
under suspicion of stealing the nuclear crown jewels, the White
House would ignore Judge Cannon, and would ignore Special Master Deary,
(16:19):
and would ignore the district irrelevant Court of Southern Irrelevant Florida.
It would act and then tell everybody else to go
and try and stop it. Happily, there is a legal
means for President Biden an Attorney General Garland to proceed
in such a morally justifiable manner, cut through the red
(16:39):
tape and the people dispensing it. To borrow from a
three step plan offered by the editor in chief of
Crooked Media Brian Boittler one file and appeal to have
President Biden publicly issue a memo waiving all executive privilege
relating to the stolen documents, and reminding Judge Cannon and
(17:00):
the Appeals Court and Trump and everybody else that only
a seting president can assert presidential executive privilege in the
here and now. And then three use the materials already
seen and gasped at by the Department of Justice, and
as Boiler wrote, indict the m effort. Now I'll go
a little further, indicte the goddamned m effort and indict
(17:24):
him god damned immediately, because if you've somehow missed this
in the last few weeks, as he has threatened, revenged
and fully embraced Q and on and insisted upon an
immediate new election, and demanded he'd be installed right now
as president today, Donald Trump has deteriorated from a humanoid
(17:47):
but not human power mad creature with a Messiah complex
into an out of control nuclear reactor a chernobyl wearing
orange makeup. In an interview with a right wing pedant
named Hugh Hewitt, Trump has now threatened to destroy all
you this country. He has belched out seven different threats
(18:08):
of stochastic terrorism, seven threats by proxy, seven unmistakable calls
to violence and insurrection again, and he has enunciated these
seven blasphemies in just thirty seven seconds. I don't think
the people of the United States would stand for it.
And as you know, of a thing like that happened,
(18:30):
I would have no prohibition against running. You know that
I do, and that's what I wanted people to understand.
That would not take you out of the arena. It
would not. But I think if it happened, I think
you'd have problems in this country the likes of which
perhaps we've never seen before. I don't think the people
of the United States would stand for it. What kind
of problems, Mr President. I think they have big problems,
(18:52):
big problems. I just don't think they stand for it.
They will not, They will not sit still and stand
for this ultimate of hoaxes. It is the January sixth
speech all over again. It is the my Second Amendment
people tweet all over again, and this crazed his brain
does not work right phrasing. They will not sit still
(19:13):
and stand for this is simply the proud boys, stand
back and stand by, debate answer all over again. Donald
Trump is an immediate and lethal a threat to this
country and to the safety of everyone in it. As
if he were a terrorist holding a gun to the
head of a baby. The Biden administration, the Garland Department
(19:35):
of Justice have the means at hand right now to
save the baby and take the gun away from him
and contain or overcome whoever and whatever vermin he'd his
call to create big problems. But every day that those
means are not used, every day when formality and fear
(19:57):
and diletentism make us hesitate, the process of using those
means becomes more difficult and more disruptive and more weighted down.
But it is always true. The bully does not hit
you because you hit him first, or because you hit
(20:18):
him back. The bully hits you because he is a bully.
He understands only one thing. He defers to only one thing,
a kick to the crotch September six, two thousand twenty two,
(20:44):
and obviously it only got worse from there. Trump has
done everything except on ferral a banner in front of
Merrick Garland's window that reads, hey, I committed sedition. Indict
me now? And what did Garland do? Back to October?
In a moment? Again in real time? In these times
(21:17):
we are in, we lose detail. So much is happening
that we forget how often the same thing happens again
and again and again. Merrick Garland may or may not
mean well. I no longer care. After Yesterday, October two
thousand twenty two, this one was titled Mr Attorney General,
(21:38):
do your goddamned job. Last night Trump confessed he had
documents at Mari Lago. Last night, Trump boasted he had
(22:00):
documents at Mari Lago. Last night. Trump said they should
give it all back to him because it's all his,
thus contradicting his other claims that material was planted. He
is openly defying the law. He is all but daring
Merrick Garland to indict him and arrest him. He is
campaigning on breaking the law. He is campaigning on getting
(22:21):
away with breaking the law. He is campaigning to get
people elected who will protect him from the consequences of
breaking the law. He is campaigning on the Justice Departments
on written rule not to indict him while there is campaigning.
This can wait no longer. Arrest Trump today, Mr Attorney General.
(22:45):
This this is a god damned confession. I had a
small number of boxes and storage at Mara Lago guarded
by Secret Service and my people and everybody I mean
is safe. There is no crime. You know, there is
no crime. It's not a crime. And they should give
me immediately back everything that they've taken from because it's
(23:07):
mine's they took it from me. Trump last night at
his clan rally in Mesa, Arizona. For two months now,
Trump has been simultaneously boasting of committing crimes with impunity
while stalling in every way imaginable to prevent being prosecuted.
And at this point his primary accomplice in that is
(23:28):
Merrick Garland, Mr Attorney General, Do your job, and Mr President,
if he will not do his job, fire him and
put somebody in there who will. Because every day this
goes on Trump's sense of untouchability, his supporters sense of
untouchability grows, and it is now growing exponentially. And this
(23:51):
is not merely a question of putting in jail the
most dangerous criminal in the history of this country, the
man who has done more damage to our nation than
all the terrorists put together. This is about the survival
of the democracy. He confesses, he boasts, he defies, he lies,
he taunts, he talks out of both sides of his mouth,
and now we find out he bargains. The New York
(24:16):
Times reporting that when in one the National Archives began
to demand the return of its documents, our goddamn documents,
Trump told advisers that he would agree to return the
stolen documents provided that the National Archives would then give
him all the classified documents pertaining to the FBI investigation
(24:37):
of Trump's two thousand sixteen election interference conspiracy with Russia.
And we as a nation continue to treat this scumbag
with kid gloves because there's an election in a month
in which he's not running, because the real issue here
is just getting the documents back and secured. And prosecution
(24:58):
is incidental because there are institutional reluctances to prosecute a
former president, which translates as if you can prosecute a
former president, you sure as hell can prosecute a former
attorney general, right Mark, Because you fear the Republicans will
investigate the Department of Justice, or the Republicans will investigate
the White House, or you fear his supporters will riot
(25:22):
if given a congressional majority, the Republicans will do all that. Anyway,
They have given up trying to govern anymore. Outrage conspiracy
theory and the never fulfilled promise of the imminent bombshell
indictment just around a corner. That's all they are. And
remember the golden rule of real life. Just because you
(25:46):
do not hit the bully, that does not mean the
bully will not hit you. The bully hits you because
he is a bully. And still the Department of Justice
investigates and investigates and investigates. Trump confesses, he boasts, he defies,
he law, is he taunt sea bargains, and we investigate.
(26:08):
Rolling Stone reported Friday night something that confirmed my analysis
from Friday morning that the d o J is clearly
preparing for a search of Trump Tower in New York
or the Trump golf course and Discount Cemetery in New Jersey.
Whether it happens or not, they seem to be ready
for it, quoting federal investigators have asked multiple witnesses if
they knew whether Trump had stashed any highly sensitive government
(26:31):
documents at Trump Tower in Manhattan or at his private
club in ben Binster, New Jersey. As a person familiar
with the matter, and another source briefed on the situation,
Rolling Stone continues, the FBI, according to these sources, had
also asked in recent months whether the ex president had
a habit of transporting classified documents from his Florida estate,
(26:52):
Mari Lago to other Trump properties. The images of the
FBI blocking off Fifth Avenue and swarming through Trump Tower,
or going to Bedminster and asking, hey, what you got
in that box buried next to the first t these
are delightful images until you remember the context we seem
(27:17):
now to be investigating for the sake of investigating. The
August eighth search of Mari Lago two months two days
ago produced reports of missing documents as harrowing as Putin
or Zelensky or Biden invoking tactical nuclear weapon use in Ukraine.
The sheer volume of materials stolen was enough to make
(27:39):
all of us who have long known the worst about Trump.
Blanche that the compromise from the Department of Justice was
to say, just leave these one three documents to us,
and the Special Master can look at all the other documents,
and Trump can have back and anything else he wants.
Spoke to the extraordinary nature of those one hundred and
(28:01):
three documents and what has happened since Mari Lago was
ed under these circumstances. Trump has fundraised off it. Trump
has proclaimed himself the victim, the violated, the martyred off
of it. Trump has boasted off of it. Trump has defied,
Trump has lied, Trump has taunted, Trump has bargained, and
Trump has now confessed. And the Department of Justice, it
(28:26):
has contemplated, It has contemplated more searches instead of arresting
this creature and frog marching him out of one of
these fascist rallies, because now Trump is bringing to these
fascist rallies the kind of pure, unadulterated authoritarianism of people
like Jim Marchant, fresh from the conspiracies of q and
(28:50):
On and the Republican candidate for Secretary of State in
Nevada and the chairman of a coalition of vermin running
for secretary of State positions around the country whose goal,
if elected, is to destroy roy elections. So emboldened by
the last seven years, so emboldened by the failure to
(29:12):
act against Trump in any way, that at Trump's rally Saturday,
this scum merchant didn't even pretend anymore that what he
and the other conspirators were plotting where anything less than
the overthrow of the American electoral system. Last year, I
(29:33):
established a mega America first coalition of secretary of state
candidates around the country. If we get all of our
secretaries of state elected around the country like this, we
take our country back. By any means, we have the
power to act against Trump, and in so doing, to
(29:54):
send the merchants and his fellow travelers and his little
bullies scurrying back into the shadows from which they emerged.
And what are we doing with that power? We are
waiting Trump's candidate for governor of Arizona. This Carrie Lake
not only let them take a picture of her last
(30:16):
night vacuuming the red carpet in front of Trump's photo
op stand, but she let them tweet it. She could
not have more loudly screened. I am a subservient member
of a cult if she had had them tweet out
a photo of her with a ball gag in her mouth.
(30:39):
The clock is taking on our ability to save this democracy.
The time to act is one year and nine months ago.
The second best time to act is today, unless you
want Trump to confess. Oh wait, right, he just did again.
(31:08):
I do not think Merrick Garland should be fired because
somebody he trusted almost certainly leaked the news of the documents.
I do not think he should be fired because he
named a special prosecutor. I do not think he should
be fired because the two people he put in charge
of this were a point ease of Trump and therefore
beholden to him one way or the other. I think
Merrick Garland should be fired because he's an idiot, because
(31:31):
perhaps he tried too hard in a time when simplicity
actually would have worked better. I know this is an
odd thing to close with. I need the break, even
if you don't. There is actually a James thurber fable,
the moral of which applies here. I think it is
called the Bear who Let It Alone. In the woods
(31:53):
of the far West, there once lived a brown bear
who could take it or let it alone, he would
go into a bar where they sold need, a fermented
drink made of honey, and he would have just two drinks.
Then he would put some money on the bar and say,
see what the bears in the back room will have,
and he would go home. But finally he took to
(32:15):
drinking by himself most of the day. He would reel
home at night, kick over the umbrella stand, knocked down
the bridge lamps, and ram his elbows through the windows.
Then he would collapse on the floor and lie there
until he went to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed
and his children were very frightened. At length, the bear
(32:39):
saw the error of his ways and began to reform.
In the end, he became a famous teetotaler and a
persistent temperance lecturer. He would tell everybody that came to
his house about the awful effects of drink, and he
would boast about how strong and well he had become
since he gave up touching the stuff. To demonstrate this,
he would stand on his head and on his hands,
(33:01):
and he would turn cart wheels in the house, kicking
for the umbrella stand, knocking down the bridge lamps, and
ramming his elbows through the windows. Then he would lie
down on the floor, tired by his healthful exercise, and
go to sleep. His wife was greatly distressed, and his children.
(33:25):
We're very frightened. Moral, you might as well fall flat
on your face as lean over too far backwards. M.
(33:48):
Good luck to us all. Thank you, good morning, good afternoon,
good night, and good luck. M. Countdown with Keith Alderman
(34:09):
is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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Host
Keith Olbermann
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