The Great America Show - OUR CONSTITUTION AND OUR LEGAL SYSTEM ARE ON TRIAL—NOT DONALD TRUMP, SAYS NY ATTORNEY AMEER BENNO

00:00:00.000 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs, and this is The Great America Show. Welcome, and we're delighted

00:00:05.540 you're with us. The Marxist Dems made more history yesterday, defiling the rule of law,

00:00:12.240 dishonoring our Constitution, and once again, politically persecuting President Donald Trump,

00:00:18.480 this time with an unprecedented indictment of a president, an indictment alleging 34 counts of

00:00:25.360 violating New York state law by falsifying business records. Here is Trump attorney Joe

00:00:32.180 Takapina, his take on the case. Today's unsealing of this indictment shows that the rule of law died

00:00:38.560 in this country because while everyone is not above the law, no one's below it either, and if

00:00:44.020 this man's name was not Donald J. Trump, there is no scenario we'd all be here today. Please

00:00:48.700 understand that based on these charges. The indictment with no narrative, just 34 repetitious

00:00:54.440 charges of what are in New York misdemeanors, and somehow the DA thinks that amounts to a violation

00:01:01.440 of state, not federal, election laws, and somehow he thinks again the number of misdemeanors

00:01:08.180 magically convert to a felony. Amir Benno is not impressed with the DA's case. The former Manhattan

00:01:16.140 assistant district attorney says if the DA had a legitimate case, he would have put more information

00:01:22.360 into his indictment. When you see it, it's very skeletal. I mean, it doesn't need to have more

00:01:28.220 information legally speaking, but just you would think that he would include more information because

00:01:34.740 the public is hungry for that information. And the fact that he's keeping it out of the indictment,

00:01:41.360 you can't help but think that he did that intentionally in order to keep it from the public.

00:01:47.200 This indictment and the drama in New York is all on its face, pure nonsense cogitated up by a Marxist 0.95

00:01:54.200 district attorney who campaigned on his promise. 100 times he promised to indict President Trump.

00:02:03.440 He's a Trump hater, of course, so's the judge in the case, whose daughter reportedly worked in the

00:02:08.920 Kamala Harris campaign. As President Trump put it himself, he got only 1% of the vote in Manhattan,

00:02:15.460 so he'd like the trial to be moved to Staten Island. But the Manhattan Marxists have their hooks in the

00:02:21.700 case, and it is a long shot to win a change of venue. Even William Barr, President Trump's former

00:02:29.440 attorney general, who is now a Trump hater, says the indictment is an abomination. Pathetically weak.

00:02:37.020 Even Barr says that. Mr. Trump blasted Fox for putting Barr on the air, who he calls weak for

00:02:44.160 his refusal to investigate and prosecute what President Trump calls the massive election fraud

00:02:50.240 of 2020. President Trump is seriously angry with the Murdochs and the Fox News network.

00:02:57.540 That's why Trump chose Newsmax for his remarks to the country after returning to Mar-a-Lago.

00:03:03.640 And here he is.

00:03:05.680 The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who

00:03:11.320 seek to destroy it.

00:03:17.340 From the beginning, the Democrats spied on my campaign. Remember that? And now this massive

00:03:23.880 election interference at a scale never seen before in our country, beginning with the radical

00:03:29.660 left, George Soros-backed prosecutor, Alvin Bragg of New York, who campaigned on the fact

00:03:39.180 that he would get President Trump. I'm going to get him. I'm going to get him. This is a

00:03:45.860 guy campaigning.

00:03:46.660 As it turns out, virtually everybody that has looked at this case, including rhinos and even

00:03:52.200 hardcore Democrats, say there is no crime and that it should never have been brought.

00:04:01.800 But now they have really stepped up their efforts by indicting the 45th president.

00:04:09.660 Joining us now to put this historic and dark day in American history in context

00:04:14.500 is Amir Benno. Amir is an appellate and constitutional law attorney, recognized as one of the top

00:04:21.940 lawyers in New York and First Amendment and civil rights law. Amir, thanks for being with

00:04:27.300 us. Great to have you here. Your reaction to the day's events?

00:04:31.900 Well, it's great to be here. And I wish it was under different circumstances, but I concur with

00:04:37.100 you entirely. This is really a travesty. You know, Fielding Mellish would say a sham of a travesty

00:04:44.640 of two travesties of a sham of of of the judicial process. And I'm in agreement with you about the

00:04:53.720 fact that having this case be regardless of what you might think of Donald Trump or you might think

00:04:59.620 of the merits or demerits of any of these other matters in which accusations have been lodged against

00:05:05.360 him. For this case to be at the vanguard really, really is. I mean, it it it paints the others in

00:05:16.440 a light that you can't help but think that they're all just targeting Donald Trump for political reasons

00:05:25.000 and everybody would have good reason to have that kind of, you know, view of this. And so I have to

00:05:32.260 imagine that the Department of Justice and both the independent counsel or special counsel and

00:05:38.520 the case in Georgia, they must be livid about this, because I think he's really unfortunately

00:05:43.480 contaminated all of those cases. Well, as if the previous seven years hasn't, we have watched this

00:05:50.140 man coming in on a motorcade to go to the courthouse in Manhattan to be arraigned and to face these

00:05:59.500 charges on the part of, frankly, what I I'm going to say it this way, a two bit local prosecutor who

00:06:08.360 is obviously nothing more than a political hack. I mean, there's no other explanation for this,

00:06:14.360 because the who is the victim here? How did who who gained by the Constitution? The Constitution's

00:06:22.160 the victim, the the taxpayers, the citizens, Americans were all the victim in this. You're

00:06:28.380 entirely correct. He is too bad. This is this is penny ante stuff. I mean, to bring this there's not

00:06:34.160 even a crime here. And if you look at the indictment, it is it's laughable. There's no facts included in

00:06:41.580 it, which may in and of itself not be that unusual. But when you are bringing a case against a former

00:06:47.340 president and an announced declared candidate for the presidency, you better have the goods,

00:06:53.880 you really better have the goods. And there were it was nothing that Alvin Bragg showed today that

00:07:00.000 showed that he had any goods. He is relying on on gossamer on on almost threads to to to make the

00:07:09.260 argument that there's a case he's going to run into problems with the statute of limitations. He's

00:07:14.060 advancing untested legal theories about prosecuting under state law, a federal candidate and trying

00:07:23.140 to apply New York state campaign finance laws to that. He's relying on a convicted felon and a liar

00:07:29.920 in order to do it. And he's ignoring many defenses that Donald Trump has to this, not least of which

00:07:37.920 is that there's perfectly innocuous reasons why somebody would classify these kinds of payments

00:07:43.420 the way that Donald Trump did. And but again, all of this points towards the reality, which is this is

00:07:50.660 a political hack, like you said, who is there for one political objective. Maybe there's a local

00:07:55.380 objective. He he's he's pandering to his constituents in Manhattan, who overwhelmingly detest Donald Trump

00:08:04.100 and support the Democrat Party. And at a national level, he's angling to make Donald Trump the center of

00:08:12.540 the conversation and to divide the GOP and unify the the Democrats. At least that's his hope. I think

00:08:19.540 it's going to backfire spectacularly. Well, we have early occasions that it's backfiring because the

00:08:25.140 Republican Party, even rhinos are joining up in the polling that we're seeing in dismissing the very idea

00:08:34.400 of this prosecution for every reason from it's straightforwardly trying to interfere in a federal

00:08:40.800 election, trying to to shut down a man who is the presumptive Republican nominee for 2024, as well as

00:08:51.540 the former president of the United States against any president. There has never been an indictment filed

00:08:57.860 or sought. This is outrageous. And that I have you have seen lots of indictments. I've seen few. But

00:09:06.280 when I look down and I see 34 charges that are all basically the same language, the same, you know,

00:09:12.620 statement, I and it doesn't I not a single one of those to me seem like a crime, particularly when

00:09:21.100 there is no victim asserted. And and Donald Trump is on. It is just such a pathetic piece of it's a

00:09:30.480 pathetic document because it just doesn't say much. It just says too much. Thirty four times.

00:09:38.100 Yeah, I mean, it's it really it's quantity over quality. And, you know, if they're throwing in 34

00:09:44.920 counts, it's to create the impression that there must be something of substance there, because why else would

00:09:50.540 you charge somebody with 34 crimes unless there was really some merit to it? But really what this is,

00:09:56.420 it's like somebody shoplifting a bag of of M&Ms and a single bag and then the D.A. cutting it open and

00:10:04.660 saying, well, you know what? There's 75 M&Ms in this bag. We're going to charge 75 separate counts.

00:10:10.260 And that's what it comes down to. It is it it demonstrates the weakness of his case that he had to do

00:10:17.320 this. And look, if he had a legitimate case, he would have put more information into this indictment.

00:10:24.360 When you see it, it's very skeletal. I mean, it doesn't need to have more information, legally

00:10:29.160 speaking, but just you would think that he would include more information because the public is

00:10:35.620 hungry for that information. And the fact that he's keeping it out of the indictment,

00:10:41.180 you can't help but but but think that he did that intentionally in order to keep it from the public.

00:10:48.500 Well, and and Donald Trump is furious that the these 34 quote unquote charges were leaked.

00:10:56.420 That is on D.A. Bragg, isn't it?

00:11:00.780 Oh, 100 percent. I mean, only D.A. Bragg or somebody in the grand jury would have access to

00:11:08.600 this information or somebody in D.A. Bragg's office of one of his subordinates would have access to

00:11:14.760 this. And so and there's state law that makes it criminal to leak this information. But yet they've

00:11:22.600 done it. And what's what's galling about it is and we don't know what necessarily took place inside the

00:11:27.860 arraignment courtroom because there was no audio recording of it, although I'm sure we're going to

00:11:32.780 get we're going to get that information soon. But if the D.A. was pushing for some sort of gag order

00:11:40.000 on Donald Trump, while at the same time they are leaking information, I mean, this is the stuff that

00:11:45.520 you saw from Andy McCabe, you know, when he was fired for for leaking information from the federal

00:11:51.060 government. We're seeing it now on the state and local level. This is in order to kneecap your

00:11:57.040 political opponent. That is not what our criminal justice apparatus is intended to do.

00:12:04.320 Well, President Trump had to sit there and watch that judge who he knows, as he said this out loud

00:12:13.460 previous to the to the day, saying that the man is a Trump hater and documented his daughter

00:12:22.360 worked for Kamala Harris in her campaign. There's just there's just no room here for any conclusion

00:12:32.980 other than this is political from top to bottom through and through. And there's no defense against

00:12:41.000 the charge that I can say. I see no evidence of anything but politics, partisanship. And and somebody

00:12:48.780 wants to be a Bolshevik. I mean, this is the stuff of using the law, lawfare. This is a war on a man

00:12:57.680 by by people who really should not be holding the post they do, whether a judge or a district attorney,

00:13:04.180 in my opinion. Right. And, you know, this is exactly what Putin did to Alexander Navalny,

00:13:10.520 you know, taking throwing him in the gulag, essentially, because he was a political opponent.

00:13:15.160 This is like you correctly said, is Stalinist. It's Maoist. It's total communist. We expect this

00:13:22.060 in banana republics. And, you know, it should come as no surprise. Alvin Bragg has tried to subvert

00:13:27.940 the rule of law since day one. He released that day one memo where he says, look, we're not going

00:13:32.060 to prosecute for any variety of felony and misdemeanor offenses and decides that he's going to,

00:13:38.820 you know, go the opposite direction, though, when it comes to his political nemesis.

00:13:43.300 That should tell everybody all they need to know about who this person is.

00:13:48.960 It's it's it's really unfortunate. I think that there is no gag order. I'm seeing that there is

00:13:53.240 reporting that that the judge did not issue a gag order, which is good. So we will hear from Donald

00:13:58.620 Trump himself later today about this and about what happened. But boy, I'll tell you, they have really

00:14:06.940 targeted this man. And, you know, one thing's important. I want to point out, Lou, is that

00:14:11.020 one of the lawyers on his team, Todd Blanche, who's a newcomer to the team, he was a federal

00:14:17.680 prosecutor at the Southern District of New York. And then he went to work as a partner in the

00:14:23.360 white collar criminal defense side of Kid Wallet or Wickersham and Taft, which is a very prominent

00:14:28.580 New York law firm. He actually had to leave his firm. I don't know whether they pushed him out or he did

00:14:36.880 it on his own because he didn't want to cause any sort of negative publicity. But the fact that

00:14:41.160 representing the former president and potentially the the next president of the United States in this

00:14:48.080 kind of case would require you to step away from your firm tells you where we're at. The same thing

00:14:54.180 happened to Paul Clement, who argued the Bruin case, the Second Amendment case in this in the sec

00:14:59.160 in the Supreme Court. They sort of pushed him out of Kirkland and Ellis because he was going to bat 1.00

00:15:06.500 and arguing for constitutional rights. This is where we're at. Everything is turned on its head. You

00:15:10.980 take a position to to support and defend the Constitution and the Bolsheviks, whether they're 0.62

00:15:18.260 in law firms or in corporate industry or in government or in the media, are going to sick their dogs on you.

00:15:25.360 And and there are lawyers all over this country, some often the brightest and most capable attorneys

00:15:34.480 forced out of big law. The major firms making, I'm going to say, I think, securely millions of dollars

00:15:44.060 a year being forced out of firms because they made the mistake of supporting Donald Trump, supporting one

00:15:51.220 of the issues that is his agenda, supporting those who, frankly, are in MAGA. And the big firms can't

00:16:02.180 stand it because big, big corporations, the globalists mean mean to win the day. And they're all complicit.

00:16:10.740 There's no way to deny this. The big law, big multinationals, global multinationals. We used to

00:16:21.780 call them U.S. multinationals, but their their loyalties are much bigger than just poor little

00:16:28.160 America. We're watching a country right now in the throes of an awareness suddenly thrust upon us

00:16:37.780 because we see what this country really is. The legal system is corrupt. The judges are corrupt.

00:16:45.520 We talk about January 6th. My Lord, there's no American who cares about this country and this republic

00:16:52.580 and understands what's at stake. They cannot just be sickened at what we have seen federal judges do

00:17:00.500 in their over sentencing, in their dismissal of, frankly, due process. U.S. attorneys, I should say,

00:17:10.420 DOJ prosecutors pushing through ridiculous prosecutions. It is just it's just a sad moment in

00:17:20.120 time. And this to me, I don't know what your thoughts are, but this is just another example

00:17:25.520 of a of a of a country that is really going quickly in the wrong way.

00:17:31.140 I agree. And, you know, bringing up January 6th and the lack of due process for all of them. And by

00:17:37.380 the way, make no mistake, people were afraid to go out and to protest, which is their First Amendment

00:17:44.500 right to do it outside of the courthouse today in support of Donald Trump, because they're concerned

00:17:50.840 that they're going to be swept up in a dragnet, just like many of the January Sixers were, and that

00:17:56.820 they're going to have, you know, their phones subpoenaed and they're going to be, you know,

00:18:03.060 scooped up a year from now by by some federal authority and and and denied their due process.

00:18:09.620 And let's see what happens. You know, January 6th. Remember, the federal government went above and

00:18:16.240 beyond to pierce what is normally been the held sacrosanct, the attorney client privilege between

00:18:23.960 Donald Trump and whether it was Professor Eastman or his lawyers. And you've had multiple courts who

00:18:30.560 have said, you know, had to really do some legal gymnastics to say, no, that attorney client privilege

00:18:36.680 doesn't exist for Donald Trump, because his conversations with his lawyers fall into something

00:18:42.680 known as the crime fraud exception. And so even that that that necessary pillar of effective

00:18:52.320 assistance of counsel to be able to speak candidly to your lawyer and get advice with respect to Donald

00:18:59.000 Trump has been completely gutted. And is that going to happen in this case with Alvin Bragg? Is Joe

00:19:06.720 Takapina, Todd Blanche, are they going to find that their conversations with Donald Trump are going

00:19:13.240 to be subject to the same legal legal arguments as or Donald Trump's conversations with his lawyers on

00:19:20.600 the federal side of things? I mean, that is really an erosion of our civil liberties in our, you know,

00:19:26.040 what we've always sort of assumed is due process protections that we have. And so that's why today it's

00:19:31.560 it's not just Donald Trump who was arraigned today. I don't mean this in to wax poetic about it. But

00:19:36.680 really, the Constitution is on trial. In this case, it's on trial. And these people who are

00:19:45.520 shredding our Constitution are on trial, in my opinion, as well, because the American people are

00:19:52.060 not going to long tell or tolerate this. I should say won't tolerate it much longer. Seven years is way too

00:19:59.720 much to have tolerated it. We, you know, we can relitigate everything, we can talk about it. But the

00:20:06.040 fact is, seven years, two special counsel investigations now, two impeachments, four years of FBI

00:20:12.640 investigation, they couldn't find a single act of wrongdoing on this part of this president. And yet here he is

00:20:18.600 persecuted by the same partisan hacks, the Marxist Dems. And let me be clear, ladies and gentlemen, this is a

00:20:28.160 statement of absolute fact. The Democrat Party is no more. The Marxist Dems are driving this party 0.94

00:20:35.560 and orchestrating what they see as their ultimate goal, which is the destruction of everything about

00:20:42.280 this republic. Anything that you and I think of as American is is opposed and hated by the Marxist Dems

00:20:52.000 who mean to turn this country. Barack Obama talked about fundamental transformation through his two

00:20:58.680 terms. We're in what I believe is the third term of Barack Obama, and they seek nothing less than

00:21:05.180 fundamental transformation of this great republic. I want to turn to a couple. One thing that developed

00:21:10.960 today on this very day, ironically, an appellate court ruled that his top White House aides,

00:21:17.940 his top presidential aides, have to testify in a January 6th case, speaking of executive privilege,

00:21:26.720 attorney-client privilege, this man has no privilege whatsoever. I can't think of anything

00:21:34.520 that the courts have not been willing to strip him of. You're right. And, you know, this is part and

00:21:41.420 parcel of sort of the Democrats' playbook where they have been tearing down all sorts of important

00:21:48.760 structural protections, whether it's constitutional or otherwise. For instance, you can try to eliminate

00:21:55.920 the filibuster and then eliminating it and trying to make additional Puerto Rico, D.C. states to be able

00:22:04.840 to add senators who are, you know, of their political persuasion. Things of that nature where

00:22:13.320 they can't win in the marketplace of ideas that they are trying to now reshape the playing field and

00:22:21.220 move the goalposts in order to accomplish their objectives. And this is just another corruption of

00:22:29.060 of an institution, in this case, the judiciary, where they have eliminated, like we talked about,

00:22:33.900 attorney-client privilege, executive privilege. You know, Mike Pence is arguing on the speech and

00:22:39.120 debate clause, really just the constitution and separation of powers. And this is, you know,

00:22:45.700 packing the court. It's another one where they've tried to, they've threatened to destroy an

00:22:51.280 institution unless it caves to their, their desires. And so it is, it is, we are witnessing a very rapid

00:23:00.640 decline right now. And it's, it's, it's, it's frightening. I hope with this case, I mean, there's very capable

00:23:07.660 counsel representing Donald Trump. I think that, you know, they have very strong arguments. Obviously, there's the

00:23:14.920 statute of limitations argument here, which, you know, reaches back for these felony crimes.

00:23:20.900 Five years, these events, if you look at the indictment happened in 2017, which is six years

00:23:26.900 ago. And I have a feeling that what Alvin Bragg is going to rely on is the state of New York put a hold

00:23:35.040 on the statutes of limitations during the COVID-19 lockdown. So they lock down everybody, they destroy

00:23:41.220 the economy, and they help destroy the rule of law as well, allowing politically motivated prosecutors

00:23:48.280 like Bragg to be able to reach back and to bring cases that would, by all accounts, you know, be dead and gone.

00:23:58.500 And so that's, that's something I think that they're going to argue the DA and, and hopefully, hopefully you

00:24:03.200 mentioned this, this judge, this judge might very well be, you know, biased against Donald Trump. I hope that if, if

00:24:10.280 evidence comes out that he is, I know Donald Trump has said overtly that he, that he is, uh, that they'll

00:24:14.840 make a, they'll make a motion for recusal, but the chances of that being successful are, unfortunately,

00:24:20.280 probably remote.

00:24:22.620 Yeah.

00:24:22.700 Recusal, to me, seems to be straightforwardly in order, but we also know what the, the court system is. It won't happen.

00:24:31.500 Uh, there is every reason to change the venue. We also know that won't happen or will it counselor.

00:24:40.420 I, well, they'll definitely make the motion. I don't think it will happen. Um, you know, I think,

00:24:46.280 I just don't think it will happen. Uh, those are very hard motions to win. Um, but you know,

00:24:54.120 make no mistake. Alvin Bragg knows, uh, that Manhattan is overwhelmingly against Donald Trump.

00:24:59.680 And I think part of his motivation in doing this, aside from, uh, wanting to climb up the ladder

00:25:05.340 nationally in terms of, uh, name recognition and, uh, just being power hungry is, uh, locally,

00:25:13.000 he knows that, uh, his constituents, uh, will like what he's doing. And I have to assume that most people

00:25:20.060 who live in Manhattan are, are supportive of what Alvin Bragg is doing just because they detest Donald

00:25:26.780 Trump. And they couldn't care less about the fact that he's throwing the constitution to the curb and

00:25:30.940 he's destroying separation of powers. And he's bringing, um, he's bringing, uh, a Marxist

00:25:36.380 prosecution against a political opponent for no reason other than political opportunity.

00:25:41.480 They don't care about that. You know, they, they only see their, their mad desire to bring down

00:25:47.380 Donald Trump. And that has clouding their vision as to everything else. And that is really the

00:25:52.200 unfortunate thing. And we don't have, unfortunately, uh, much in the way of media, uh, mainstream media

00:25:57.220 to, to, to really highlight this. And so people are being fed lies and, uh, you know, unfortunately,

00:26:05.120 as long as you have, uh, the democratic, uh, party working with, uh, a lot of mainstream media,

00:26:12.540 it's just an extension of the democratic party. You, you, people are just not going to get the truth.

00:26:17.100 I would set us free. Uh, the saying goes, uh, truth is just being, just being run over by the

00:26:28.800 national corporate media and folks have to understand, uh, that media is corporate owned 95%

00:26:35.800 of it. Uh, they, their HR departments are totally committed to the Marxist, uh, themes of C R T E S G D E I,

00:26:44.420 uh, or if you like to invert it, I E D, uh, it's, it's, it's, it's just a sickening time because you 0.74

00:26:52.640 don't see the country even slightly, uh, resistant to it all. Uh, people are intimidated. I think for

00:27:02.780 the first time, and I, and I truly believe this for the first time, I truly believe Americans are

00:27:09.180 fearful, truly fearful. Uh, and it's partly because of January 6th. It's partly because of Antifa without

00:27:17.120 prosecution in the summer of love. I love the irony of these labels. Uh, what do you think?

00:27:24.080 Oh, there's no question about it. I mean, and you mentioned, uh, the diversity, equity, and inclusion

00:27:30.860 agenda, the ESG agenda, and all of those, and they, they are turning what the priorities, uh,

00:27:39.180 upside down. Uh, and, uh, you know, we're going back to a period of time where it's okay, uh, in the

00:27:47.420 corporate world, it's okay in government to be overtly racially discriminatory, as long as you're

00:27:53.720 discriminating against, um, say white people, or you can keep people out of college. Um, you know,

00:28:00.780 as, as long as you're not keeping, you know, they call it BIPOC, which the, the biracial indigenous

00:28:06.120 of people of color, um, you know, but they are, they think as long as you are racially

00:28:11.840 discriminatory against people who have the wrong skin color, that it's okay. And that is, uh, that 1.00

00:28:18.820 sort of, uh, recalibration of what people think is constitutional or permissible when it's clearly

00:28:26.340 not is, uh, is so problematic. And the problem is, is it's festering in schools and in colleges,

00:28:35.260 right. And all sorts of halls of academic, you know, what should be academic learning. And so

00:28:41.140 these, uh, youth are getting indoctrinated with these views and they believe that these are the

00:28:46.520 correct views to have. And they're, they just are not being taught basic civics. They're not being

00:28:51.440 taught the importance of the constitution or what the constitution even says. And so it's not surprising

00:28:56.340 that we're seeing, uh, you know, these agendas, not just take root, but blossom.

00:29:01.440 Um, and to, and to give the devil its due, uh, the Marxist Dems thought this out decades ago, 0.75

00:29:09.980 uh, when they started pushing, uh, the, uh, the indoctrination of education, uh, students,

00:29:16.900 uh, in colleges and universities around the country, then they pushed it, uh, farther, uh, into, uh,

00:29:23.000 the public school systems. Uh, they have now teachers who are, uh, indoctrinated Marxist

00:29:30.260 leftists. Uh, we saw a demonstration after demonstration of that reality during the, uh,

00:29:35.900 the pandemic, uh, and whose side were they on the students? No, they were on the side of

00:29:41.200 the unions, uh, and the Marxist left who wanted to shut down, uh, for political purposes, shut

00:29:48.340 down an economy and a society and they achieved it. Uh, it's one example after another. And to,

00:29:55.720 to, to think of all that has been destroyed in just the past two years, the border is wide open.

00:30:04.680 The, the Biden administration is for all practical purposes in effect, uh, aligned with the Marxist,

00:30:12.900 uh, narco, uh, uh, alliance between China and the, the, the cartels, uh, and they're distributing

00:30:22.360 death and Americans are dying by the hundreds of thousands. We have a president who's talking about

00:30:27.100 what is happening in Ukraine while there is a slaughter underway, uh, as fentanyl, uh, is being

00:30:34.160 pushed through every distribution system in this country. If there's no one is safe in this country

00:30:40.280 right now. That's part of the reason why Alvin Bragg is bringing this case, because if this is a great

00:30:48.700 distraction from the failings of the Biden administration, because we're not talking

00:30:55.020 about any of these things, uh, right now, most, most of the news is just captivated with this as,

00:31:00.440 as it should be. But the fact is, is, you know, make Donald Trump the center of the conversation.

00:31:05.520 He's their favorite boogeyman to distract from these, these colossal failings of the Biden

00:31:12.040 administration. Like you said, when it comes to the border, when it comes to national security,

00:31:15.900 I mean, look, we found out that in fact, the spy balloon, we also surmised it was a spy balloon.

00:31:21.660 Uh, but now we know it in fact was a spy balloon. We've got the Chinese buying up land next to military 0.94

00:31:27.260 installations across the country. Biden's doing nothing about it. We, uh, we have fentanyl,

00:31:33.700 uh, that like you correctly mentioned is, uh, killing our kids, uh, not just kids, uh, people

00:31:40.180 across all social and economic, uh, ranges. And he's doing nothing to shut down the border and to

00:31:47.100 make our country safer. The inflation is out of control. The economy is a disaster. And what can he

00:31:54.020 do, uh, to run? He can try to change the conversation and try to make it about Donald Trump.

00:31:59.420 And so of course, what Alvin Bragg is doing, uh, as a good leftist, uh, as a good Maoist soldier that

00:32:07.320 he is, is to help change that narrative. And that's exactly why, uh, Joe Biden is not speaking

00:32:14.500 out. Joe Biden's, the administration could have called up Alvin Bragg, could have called up the

00:32:19.080 DA's office and said, stand down. Don't do this. You're going to interfere with our January 6th

00:32:25.720 investigation, our Mar-a-Lago documents investigation, any of it. Um, but you know

00:32:31.660 what? It distracts from his failings. It distracts from Hunter Biden. Green light, go ahead and do it,

00:32:37.700 Alvin. That's exactly what Joe Biden is saying. And there's, there's some others who are frozen,

00:32:43.260 but out of cowardice. Uh, you talked about the Supreme court. Uh, there's also outright intimidation,

00:32:51.200 the administration and Merrick Garland's, uh, uh, attorney general office ordering, uh, no prosecution

00:33:01.280 of, uh, of demonstrators against those conservative justices, no prosecution. If they were arrested,

00:33:08.240 the insults go on and on the insults against both, uh, the, the lives of those justices and

00:33:15.420 the constitution, as you point out, it is a, it is a time of fear. And it is a time right now for the

00:33:24.760 American people to find out, uh, who's on their side and who, uh, are trying to destroy them. 0.89

00:33:30.840 And the latter group is led by the Marxist Dems, uh, who control this compromised and impaired president, 0.88

00:33:38.780 uh, uh, who is ostensibly leading the country at least, uh, and all that, uh, the federal government

00:33:46.640 is just tearing us under, uh, in the name of progressive policy. It's the farthest thing from

00:33:52.860 that. I I'd like to return to these, this case today, you said, uh, that, uh, there should have

00:34:00.500 been a call from the white house. There has obviously been interaction between the justice department,

00:34:06.220 Biden's justice department, and Alvin Bragg's, uh, district attorney office, uh, to the extent

00:34:12.840 people have been, uh, apparently lent, uh, to the office for the purpose of this in this indictment

00:34:19.960 today. How is that not a conflict of interest and how is that in any way appropriate? It's,

00:34:26.920 it's, I mean, it's not, there are times where people are cross designated from federal to state

00:34:31.680 and state to federal, but in this case, this is precisely why we have oversight. This is why

00:34:37.200 we have James Comer and Jim Jordan, uh, demanding that Alvin Bragg produce documents. And ultimately,

00:34:43.640 I think they're going to end up subpoenaing him, uh, to come down and to testify before them,

00:34:48.900 because he has to explain why is he, why is he, he took federal money. Uh, he admits in his letter

00:34:56.640 that a portion of that money went towards, uh, some of the investigations into the crimes that

00:35:02.040 he charged against Donald Trump. Uh, they're allowed to examine that. And what I think is going

00:35:08.600 to be interesting, the shoes on the other foot now is if Bragg, uh, decides to flout a subpoena,

00:35:14.000 which I think is going to be inevitable, uh, will he be referred? Will they vote out a referral for

00:35:19.960 contempt? Like they did Peter Navarro and, uh, Steve Bannon. And of course, we can't expect that

00:35:26.680 Merrick Garland's department of justice will do anything about it, but you know what? In 2024,

00:35:31.960 hopefully the administration will change and we'll still be within the statute of limitations.

00:35:36.280 I think there'll be a reckoning at that point for Alvin Bragg federally.

00:35:40.280 This is a question. I've asked a number of guests recently, but is it possible that we should

00:35:46.200 contemplate the possibility that this government is just not equipped to deal with this level

00:35:52.920 of political corruption throughout the federal government, throughout a court system, uh,

00:35:58.040 throughout, uh, our executive, uh, branch, uh, and try to come up with countervailing influences,

00:36:05.320 uh, because there's not much left if we can't do that, uh, other than, uh, civil disobedience, uh,

00:36:13.160 uh, and, and unthinkable and unacceptable, uh, alternatives you're thinking.

00:36:22.200 I don't, I don't know what you have in mind with that. Um, I do think that our government is equipped

00:36:28.840 to handle this. I think that if we hew closely to the constitution, uh, that that's the great roadmap

00:36:35.880 for, for how we should divide the powers between, uh, the federal and the state. I think we,

00:36:42.440 there are always going to be these tensions. It's, it's, how are we going to resolve them?

00:36:47.240 And, uh, I, I think our system is great when it works. I think we are at a point in our history,

00:36:54.760 however, where, um, for a variety of reasons, we've talked to touch on some of them, uh, a lot

00:37:00.920 having to do with indoctrination in the schools, uh, and the lack of basic civics, uh, education,

00:37:08.200 where, where people don't understand these, uh, our system or, or the importance of our constitution.

00:37:14.280 And so I do think we have to get back to, to, to those things. And I think that's where the

00:37:20.840 solution is and, uh, regulation possibly. Um, I guess, I guess we'll have to see. I mean,

00:37:26.760 I'm not one to regulate media generally because I love the first amendment. Uh, but, you know,

00:37:31.560 it's something to consider, you know, some of these section 230, uh, uh, proposals that, uh,

00:37:38.760 when it comes down to social media and, uh, the proliferation of some false information, uh,

00:37:44.280 that, that I think can be very, very damaging, of course, always consistent with the first amendment.

00:37:50.600 Yeah, I think, uh, is likewise a supporter of the first one. My, my answer is to make certain

00:37:57.960 there is no regulation, uh, of the first amendment, uh, of the first amendment, uh, and that, uh, where

00:38:04.520 we see any, uh, any force, uh, arrayed against, uh, free expression, uh, and freedom of speech assembly,

00:38:13.240 all of the first amendment that we, we stamp it out through our legal system. That isn't even possible

00:38:20.200 now because there's just no, uh, when you said that we've, that's the way we've always done it.

00:38:26.200 I think everybody senses that this is different. Uh, Amir, this is a different time. This is a

00:38:31.320 different moment. We don't have time as we did in world war two, for example, to prepare for war,

00:38:37.800 uh, that's a year and a half to two years away. We know for a fact we're under assault right now.

00:38:45.080 Psychological operations being run by our enemies, psyops operations also being run by the 0.59

00:38:51.000 Democrat party, the Marxist Dems against the American people. In fact, the government, 0.57

00:38:56.440 our federal government is the greatest source of disinformation, the greatest number of

00:39:01.800 disinformation campaigns against the American people, uh, out of all of those who are adversaries

00:39:08.040 or enemies of this country. Uh, it is a perilous time. And you asked, what did I have in mind as I

00:39:14.840 was talking about, uh, the alternate, uh, uh, possibilities here. We have always had within

00:39:21.880 our system, as you correctly point out the checks and balances countervailing forces at work that

00:39:29.320 have always kept us near the center, but we have, we have veered so far, uh, in, uh, in losing sight of

00:39:38.360 that, uh, possibility even let alone the, the institutional, uh, forces that work. The, the Marxist Dems are in control

00:39:46.280 of our entire federal government. There is just no doubt of it. Uh, there is no, there's no way to get a,

00:39:54.840 it seems a fair election in this country. Uh, and right now we have no choice about who we are bringing

00:40:01.160 in, uh, to the country because our Southern border is wide open. Uh, and that suits the Marxist Dems

00:40:07.480 perfectly, uh, for their agenda. Uh, it is, it is, uh, as I said, I think the most perilous time that

00:40:14.280 we've faced since the civil war. I can't disagree, uh, with any of what you said. And I, I completely

00:40:22.440 agree with you on more speech is always the way to combat, uh, never, never regulation. I wasn't

00:40:30.360 suggesting that we should clamp down on speech. I was saying that some of these protections, uh, that

00:40:36.360 have been bestowed on, on companies for, uh, spewing some of this Marxist, uh, nonsense, um,

00:40:44.760 you know, and they're entitled to protections from suit immunities, uh, you know, maybe, maybe those have

00:40:50.600 to be rethought, but, um, but I believe that we should open up the marketplace of ideas and have more and

00:40:57.800 more speech. Um, I, I think you're correct in noting that this is there, there are some real challenges

00:41:04.040 that lie ahead. I, I, I think that the answers are, uh, are hard. They're elusive to be sure. But I

00:41:12.600 think that, uh, we just need to keep energizing people, uh, informing them about, uh, the beauty

00:41:18.280 and the exceptionalism of our constitution and, uh, our system of separation of powers, uh, and of

00:41:25.320 federalism, uh, and of natural rights. And, you know, what else is really important, Lou, I think,

00:41:30.600 is there has been a, I think a very marked, um, it's true that there's been attacked by the left

00:41:38.360 on organized religion, on religion in general. And I think that that's done a huge disservice,

00:41:43.400 uh, to our country, um, because we believe that there are natural rights that are bestowed on us

00:41:50.440 by, uh, our creator. And that's why they can never be, they're not created by government. If they're

00:41:55.240 created by government, they can be taken away by government. They don't come from government. They

00:41:59.240 come from something greater than government. And when you eliminate religion, uh, from all aspects

00:42:06.200 of American life, or you somehow malign it as, uh, being a negative force, as opposed to a positive

00:42:12.840 one, you, uh, you lead to an amoral citizenry and you lead to a citizenry that's ready to just, uh,

00:42:21.560 throw overboard all of these rights that are in our bill of rights, uh, that are, are, that come from God.

00:42:28.120 And, uh, when you don't believe in God, it's easy to do that, but we don't,

00:42:32.040 we shouldn't be so quick to dispose them. So I think we need to find a way to reintroduce, uh,

00:42:37.400 faith and to, to not make it, uh, you know, a negative force, but a positive one, uh, in our society.

00:42:45.560 Well, I, I think that was perfectly said, uh, I, I, I'm going to tell you my view though,

00:42:52.920 and it runs somewhat counter and that is we right now are asking American families to tolerate media

00:43:00.840 that is absolutely toxic, uh, and viciously, uh, opposed to the American family, uh, to religion, 0.81

00:43:09.000 to a rule of law in point of fact, uh, and adoptive of what is Marxist ideology. Uh, and,

00:43:16.440 and, uh, and we really are asking too much of, I think the American people to withstand the,

00:43:22.600 the, the ferocity and the immense power of our national media. Uh, and then, uh, our schools

00:43:29.480 indoctrinated as well. Uh, they can't even, uh, send their school, their children off to school

00:43:34.920 without worrying about what a teacher is doing is saying, uh, and including, uh, genital mutilation,

00:43:43.400 uh, through, you know, gender trends, uh, transformation. It's just, it's extraordinary

00:43:50.520 what the parents are having to deal with. And I think that people have to understand there is no

00:43:55.640 hiding place. Now we have to assert our, our, our rights and we have to assert what kind of communities

00:44:03.080 want to, we want to live in. And you talk about natural rights. And as, you know, as a, you know,

00:44:10.200 as a young fellow, I was studying Locke and Rousseau, uh, like everybody else, but I have never found a

00:44:17.080 natural right. I have never found, uh, a, a right that God made universal. Uh, people talk about universal

00:44:26.840 rights, but there are none. Uh, in point of fact, the only rights in this country are rights

00:44:32.840 that have been won at the barrel of a gun, the sacrifice of the blood of patriots. Uh, and we,

00:44:41.480 we, we, we can't simply expect God to say to you, there are natural rights. Don't worry about it.

00:44:47.400 Or, or there to be universal rights are quote unquote human rights because they're in short supply

00:44:52.200 all around the world, except in this, this little nation we call America. Uh, it's, it's a very,

00:44:59.880 this is a time I think to confront what is the reality before us. Those universal rights are under

00:45:06.360 immense threat. And I, and I, and to that, let's turn to the indictment. Uh, where do you think we

00:45:13.320 go from here? Amir? Well, uh, on the indictment, I think we have, we're going to see a flurry of motion

00:45:21.720 practice. Uh, of course, we've talked about some of the bases for those motions to dismiss being

00:45:27.080 statute of limitations, uh, that there was no, uh, that, that the evidence in the grand jury

00:45:33.160 can't support these charges. Uh, and just so the listeners understand the, the charges here are

00:45:38.920 that there was, uh, that Donald Trump to himself or, or his subordinates ended up classifying entries

00:45:46.920 in his corporate records, his business records, I should say, um, in, in a false way with the intent

00:45:53.080 to defraud, uh, somebody. So that's a misdemeanor. What I just described is a misdemeanor. What elevates

00:45:58.800 it to a felony, and that's what they've charged is that the, the mislabeling or miscategorization

00:46:06.220 of these entries was done to conceal a crime. So the question is, is what is the crime that Donald

00:46:13.680 Trump is alleged to have concealed? The indictment does not specify, but what we understand through

00:46:18.520 the leaks and, um, through the little bit that the indictment does contain is that it is that Donald

00:46:26.560 Trump received illegal campaign contributions. He did not disclose those. So as he was required to,

00:46:35.120 to the FEC, he didn't want people to know about it. That's the allegation. And that's a crime to

00:46:39.960 receive an illegal campaign contribution. Why was it illegal? Because it was over the threshold amount

00:46:44.840 of what somebody is allowed to contribute to, because it came from corporate sources. Um,

00:46:50.300 though, that's why Alvin Bragg is saying that it's illegal, but these are, this is a very tenuous

00:46:56.720 argument. And I expect that the, there's going to be a motion to challenge the evidence in the grand

00:47:02.460 jury because Donald Trump was running for a federal office, obviously. And Alvin Bragg, we've all seemed

00:47:08.740 to think until today that Alvin Bragg was saying that the, this federal campaign finance violation is,

00:47:14.600 which is the crime that Donald Trump was allegedly concealing was a federal one, a federal crime he

00:47:20.000 was concealing. But in the indictment, it seems to indicate otherwise. He's saying that Donald Trump

00:47:24.840 was concealing a state campaign finance violation. It, it is just astonishing to me that somebody who is,

00:47:32.300 uh, running for federal office as the president, it can be subjected to New York state campaign

00:47:38.500 finance laws. And I think that's going to be subject to a challenge. Um, there's any number of other

00:47:44.360 challenges that he's going to bring, but this is going to delay the case for quite some time

00:47:48.340 litigating these. And maybe that's the Democrats objective to keep this case, you know, out there as

00:47:53.900 long as possible and not have it dismissed in a summary, summary fashion. We're going to turn to

00:48:01.320 you for, uh, your concluding thoughts as we always do. You always get the, our guests always get the last

00:48:06.400 word here, but I have one question on that. Why are, why is the idea of speedy justice? So, uh, such

00:48:15.720 anathema to federal judges, uh, state judges, uh, and attorneys. And I understand that people get paid

00:48:23.200 by the hour, uh, at least the attorneys, but why should this take until 2024 to be adjudicated?

00:48:30.360 It's on its face, a farce, uh, and a mendacious farce at that.

00:48:37.440 Well, some of it is built into our system, which is simply to allow the, the litigants time to be

00:48:44.300 able to advance these arguments, even if they have no hope of winning them at the trial level,

00:48:48.800 they need to preserve the arguments so that they can raise them on appeal. Uh, cause if you don't

00:48:53.860 raise them in the court of first instance, then you forfeit them. Uh, and so part of it is the,

00:49:00.840 the amount of time it takes to simply put in your arguments and the other side gets an opportunity

00:49:05.300 to respond and then the judge has to, to rule on it. Um, so that, that in and of itself does take

00:49:11.180 time. Um, and you know, delays, uh, also have to do with the saturation in our justice system and

00:49:18.380 the number of cases on the docket. Um, and, uh, you know, civilly speaking anyway, um, you know,

00:49:24.980 I would imagine in New York County, they're probably trying to decrease the number of cases

00:49:29.180 on the docket. That's what Alvin Bragg has been trying to do, which has been a real, uh, damaging,

00:49:34.220 um, damaging thing for, for those who live in Manhattan, uh, as violent crime is skyrocketing

00:49:43.060 crimes across all major categories is, is on the rise substantially. Um, so I, I don't know to answer

00:49:49.680 your question, whether it's, it's deliberate to drag things out in order to make somebody twist in

00:49:54.300 the wind or whether it is done in order to allow, uh, both sides their opportunity to, uh, litigate

00:50:00.660 the case in, in a fair and balanced fashion. I imagine it's a combination of both.

00:50:06.220 And with that, uh, Amir, I'd like to say, first of all, uh, that it's been terrific,

00:50:12.700 uh, listening to you, talking with you today. Uh, and as always, as I said, our guests get the last

00:50:18.420 word, uh, your concluding thoughts, if you will. Well, thank you. It has been an honor to be on

00:50:23.940 with you and to speak with you. And, uh, I mean, this to me is an inflection point, uh, today.

00:50:29.080 Right. And I hope that it is a, it's a moment that jars, uh, many Americans to see what is really

00:50:36.840 going on in this country. It's not just about a prosecution of, uh, the former and, and potential

00:50:45.160 next president. I mean, it is really the, the weaponization of our government to target political

00:50:53.820 opposition. And we saw that even when we were talking, getting back to the first amendment

00:50:57.980 issue with, with the Twitter files and the reporter Matt Taibbi had the IRS come to his house,

00:51:04.720 the one who had revealed much of, uh, of what Twitter was doing in terms of suppression

00:51:09.720 of information, having to do, uh, with the COVID vaccine and the election, uh, and all sorts

00:51:17.600 of different things. Um, we see this sort of thing happening, uh, and it hopefully today

00:51:24.660 was one of those moments where, and this is why they left, by the way, they didn't want

00:51:28.760 a mugshot. They didn't want an iconic image of Donald Trump that would circulate. They got

00:51:34.900 one of him sitting in a courtroom. And I imagine that is going to be, uh, as iconic as anything,

00:51:41.100 but, uh, they didn't want it. They, they want to, to, they, they want to have their, their

00:51:47.760 way and to suppress, uh, dissident ideas, their, their view, dissident ideas, but they don't

00:51:52.920 want people to, to wake up to the fact that they're doing it. And I hope that, that this case,

00:51:57.440 if for nothing else wakes people up to, like you said, the attack on, uh, our gov, on our way of

00:52:04.080 life, on the American way of life and our liberties, uh, because once those disappear,

00:52:08.700 we're no different than, than any third world or banana Republic. And America has always been 0.80

00:52:14.060 exceptional. And, uh, unless we push back in, in a peaceful, uh, but loud way, uh, you know,

00:52:21.080 we're going to continue this, this decline. Amir Benno, a great American. Thank you everybody

00:52:26.800 for being with us here tomorrow. Alan Dershowitz, an icon of American law, former Harvard law

00:52:33.280 professor. Please join us tomorrow. Till then. Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.

The Great America Show - April 05, 2023

OUR CONSTITUTION AND OUR LEGAL SYSTEM ARE ON TRIAL—NOT DONALD TRUMP, SAYS NY ATTORNEY AMEER BENNO

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