15 Burst results for "Joseph Tacopina"
THE NEWS with Anthony Davis
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on THE NEWS with Anthony Davis
"Coming up on 5 minute news. Jury finds Trump liable for sexual abuse with costs of $5 million. New York congressman George Santos charged by federal prosecutors. And Biden and McCarthy divided over debt ceiling in first talks. It's Wednesday, May 10. I'm Anthony Davis. A jury found Donald Trump liable on Tuesday for sexually abusing advice columnist E Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $5 million in a judgment that could haunt the former president as he campaigns to retake The White House. The verdict was split jurors rejected Carol's claim that she was raped, finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. The judgment adds to Trump's legal woes and offers vindication to Carol, whose allegations had been mocked and dismissed by Trump for years. She nodded as the verdict was announced in a New York City federal courtroom only three hours after deliberations had begun, then hugged supporters and smiled through tears. Jurors also found Trump liable for defaming Carol over her allegations. Trump did not attend the civil trial and was absent when the verdict was read. Trump immediately lashed out on his social media site claiming he does not know Carol and referring to the verdict as a disgrace and a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time. He promised to appeal. Trump's lawyer Joseph tacopina shook hands with Carol and hugged her lawyer Roberta Kaplan after the verdict was announced. Outside the courthouse, he told reporters the jury's rejection of the rape claim while finding Trump responsible for sexual abuse was perplexing and strange. In a written statement, Kaplan said the verdict proves nobody is above the law, not even the president of the United States. Carol in her own statement said she sued Trump to clear my name and to get my life back. Today the world finally knows the truth, this victory is not just for me, but for every woman who has suffered because she was not believed. U.S. representative George Santos, who faced outrage and mockery over a litany of lies about his heritage, education and professional pedigree has been charged with federal criminal offenses. The charges against Santos filed in the eastern district of New York remain under seal. Santos is expected to turn himself into authorities at the federal court in Brooklyn as soon as this morning. There he will likely make an initial appearance at an arraignment where the specific charges against him are expected to be released. The news of the indictment appears to have come as a surprise to Santos, who was informed about the charges on Tuesday, hours before they were widely reported. For months, the U.S. attorney's office for the eastern district of New York and the FBI have been pursuing several lines of inquiry over Santos federal campaign filings as part of a criminal investigation into whether he lawfully used funds for non election related purposes. Santos has resisted calls to resign, and recently announced he was running for reelection. He said his lies about his life story, which included telling people he had jobs at several global financial firms and a lavish real estate portfolio were harmless embellishments of his resume. Pressure on him to quit, though, has been intense, reporters and members of the public hounded him. He was mocked on social media in late night television, fellow New York Republicans demanded he resign, saying he had betrayed voters and his own party with his lies. President Joe Biden and top lawmakers agreed on Tuesday to further talks aimed at breaking a deadlock over raising the $31.4 trillion U.S. debt limit with just three weeks before the country may be forced into an unprecedented default. After about an hour of talks in the Oval Office, Biden and House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy committed their aides to daily discussions about areas of possible agreement as a default looms as soon as June 1st. Biden called the talks productive and appeared to offer Republicans some possible compromises, including taking a hard look for the first time at chlorine back unspent coronavirus relief funds to reduce government spending. Could he repeated that Republicans must take the threat of default off the table, and he did not rule out eventually invoking the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, an untested approach that would seek to declare the debt limit unconstitutional, doing so would require litigation, he said, but it is an option he may study in the future. Biden is calling on lawmakers to raise the federal government's self imposed borrowing limit without conditions as all previous congresses have done before, including three times during the Donald Trump presidency. McCarthy, whose Republican Party has a slim majority in the House, has said his chamber will not approve any deal that doesn't dramatically cut spending to address a growing budget deficit and signaled he doesn't see a short term fix. Past debt ceiling fights have typically ended with a hastily arranged agreement in the final hours of negotiation, thus avoiding a default. In 2011, scramble prompted an historic downgrade of the country's top notch credit rating. Veterans of that battle warn the current situation is riskier because political division has widened. You can subscribe to the 5 minute news Patreon for bonus videos, commentary and more go to Patreon dot com slash 5 minute news. Hello. This is Gary shehan. Welcoming you to check out the French history podcast. Our main show covers the history of France from the first humans until present. If you liked Mike Duncan's the history of Rome and wanted a similar program covering the land of beauty, culture and love, we are exactly that. We also host world renowned scholars who have delivered guest episodes on their specialties, including 18th century pirates, revolutionary booksellers in 20th.
WTOP
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on WTOP
"By this woman. I have no idea who she is. It's ridiculous. During the trial, Carol gave graphic testimony. She told jurors, I'm here because Donald Trump raped me. And when I wrote about it, he said it didn't happen. He shattered my reputation. CBS News correspondent Elaine quijano. Meantime, Trump's lawyer, Joseph tacopina, criticized the jury selection process. He called the trial a circus atmosphere. Having an honor of story even kept from the lawyers, I don't think was fair or was right. It's sort of prevents a thorough jury selection, and we couldn't challenge people who we didn't know what the backgrounds were. CBS News legal Analyst Day in Rosenbaum is telling WTO tonight. The jury's decision to rule in Donald Trump's favor on the rape claim, but still find him responsible for sexual assault, may open the room for a successful appeal from the Trump legal team. Migrants are coming to the southern border in large numbers as title 42 comes to an end this week. The pandemic era immigration policy allowed the U.S. government to quickly expel migrants to slow the spread of COVID. The Biden administration is working on solutions to stop the flow of migrants moving toward the border. CBS News correspondent Nicole di Antonio with more from The White House. The White House says President Biden wrapped up a call with his Mexican counterpart as the two sides discuss how to move forward with title 42 coming to an end. We have put plans in place and processes in place to deal with this very moment. The first of 1500 U.S. soldiers in marines are set to arrive in El Paso soon. They'll be there in support of customs and border patrol. They will not be conducting any type of law enforcement activities. Border patrol officers conducted a roundup of undocumented migrants in El Paso today, those detained will go through an expedited process. It could result in a quick deportation before title 42 expires in two days. And knew this evening on WTO and battled New York Republican congressman George Santos now faces federal criminal charges. He's expected to appear in federal court in New York as soon as tomorrow. The charges have been filed there under seal. The FBI and Justice Department have been investigating Santos and allegations that he made false statements and campaign finance filings. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson. We could be looking maybe at banking fraud at tax fraud because we think there are financial issues at the heart of this criminal indictment, all of those are potentially on the table. Jessica, Levinson with Loyola law school, Santos has already admitted to lying about major parts of his resume as he ran for office. Some of his colleagues in Congress have called on Santos to resign because of his dishonesty. No comments so far from Santos or his lawyers. To
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Hey guys, I'm Luz dye with Mia Andrew Torres, and this is opening arguments episode 7 38. Hey, Linda, how are you doing? I'm good. How are you? I am great. I am at 9 fantastic. I had a great trip and I'm very, very excited to be doing the show with you as always. Well, that's exciting. Did you watch the coronation? The coronation? King Charles? Oh, is that a thing? Okay. Well, they teasing you 'cause I know it's not your thing. It was also not my thing. I have to say, you know, do we have that Simpsons like I've said it before and I'll say it again, democracy just doesn't work. Monarchy is looking pretty tempting after the Trump years. Well, obviously you have not watched any of the coverage because that guy does not look tempting. Okay. Okay, but on this side of the water, there are a whole bunch of moving pieces in the cases we are following. Yeah, yeah, maybe we should call this episode Liz's pacer alerts. I mean, not like if we want anybody to listen to it. But yes, yes. You underestimate our listeners. They love your pacer alerts, Liz. Okay, well, we already have at least one interview scheduled for this week. And possibly two, depending on whether the E Jean Carroll jury comes back. So this episode is going to be kind of a lightning round to talk about three issues which are ongoing three cases. Because it looks like this summer is just going to be bonkers on our beat. Indeed, it will. And it will be a lightning round in the true Andrew sense of the work. Spider-Man wasn't attacking the city. He was trying to save it. That's slander. It is not. I resent that. Slander is spoken in print. It's libel. Okay, so let's start with the E Jean Carroll defamation and battery trial that's going on in federal court in New York. We've talked about it a lot on the show concentrating mostly on the antics of Trump's razzmatazz legal team led by attorney Joseph tacopina. This is so strange to me because Trump added an experienced former prosecutor to his team 5 weeks ago, right? Todd blanche resigned his position at the coat factory firm cadwalader, right? And entered his appearances for Trump in various cases. And I want to take a wild ass guess that he got that same upfront 7 figure payment from Trump's pack, right? That former Florida solicitor general Chris Kai's got when he quit his job at similar coat factory firm Foley & Lardner to go, you know, be alena haba's second fiddle in the New York attorney general civil prosecution. He almost got sanctioned on that one too. Yeah, it should be, right? You know, buddy covers a lot of sids, but you know, I don't know about that one. Anyway, it does not seem as though blanche did anything in the 18 Carroll case of all right. Like I don't know that he cross examined a single witness. Yeah, and neither have the two female lawyers spoken at this trial. Which left tacos alone to try and discredit Carol and the two other women who testified about having been sexually assaulted by Trump, which was an odd choice to have. It's not a gentle figure. Our pal, Mitchell epner, a former sex crimes prosecutor and practicing litigator in New York, has been writing up detailed daily summaries at The Daily Beast. And we expect to have him on to talk about the jury verdict. But do check out his coverage because it's really excellent. And one thing he noted was how devastating it was to play for the jury, not just the access Hollywood tape, but also video of Trump's depositions. Because obviously he's a gross pig, like who the hell volunteers in deposition that he would want to have sex with the opposing side's lawyers. What in the world? Yeah. That was in the context of being asked, what Trump meant when he said he couldn't have raped Carol because she was in his type. I mean, like, I read the transcripts months ago, but the video of that deposition was released this weekend and watching him turn to the lawyer and say, you wouldn't be my first choice either. There is just, it's just a whole nother thing. Yes, that was a first for me. In an actual deposition. I will go out on a limb and I'm curious, you know, whatever has to say about this. But I think when they interview the jurors after the verdict comes in, it would not surprise me if this particular moment winds up being decisive in their verdict. And it's illustrative of what makes for good trial practice and sort of understanding what you have when you have it. So side note, before we get to it, this is pretty basic, but I think it's worth emphasizing, right? Jurors know that we have an adversarial legal system, right? They expect each side to introduce bad stuff about the other side, and their job is to make judgments about which witnesses they think are telling the truth. Trump, as you teed up, has said over and over again that aging Carol is too ugly to rape, right? That's obviously beyond gross to start with. But the jurors also have to puzzle out whether he's making that up, right? And showing them this is what I thought was the decisive moment of just accidental honesty that comes through where he looks at a picture of E Jean Carroll and mistakes her for his second wife Marla Maples. You know, the woman he left Ivana Trump for while Alina haba is like trying to kick him under the table and undo the damage by going, no, that's Carol. That's Carol. That was in watching that as smoking gun a moment as I have ever seen. That's super interesting. And indeed, it's basically unrebutted, right? Trump said, either he or his one expert witness this guy named doctor Edward Edgar neys were going to appear. Those were the only two defense witnesses. Nace noped out citing an illness, which means that the defense will not be presenting a case and both sides rested on Thursday, or did they, or did they? Have to leave Ireland, and I
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"I have nothing but contempt for this court. Okay. Before we get to our main story, Andrew. Let me ask you a question. As a litigator, do you feel like your clients should tweet about a case during the trial or should not? Oh, tough question. I mean, you know, take legal advice from a podcast or anything, but here's my take, right? If you're involved in a lawsuit at all, you should probably shut the hell up about it on social media. Yeah, I've heard stuff like that. But what if the tweets are about evidence the court has already excluded in the case? Should you be talking about that online? You would have to be literally the dumbest person on earth. If you think you're going to outsmart a court's order in lemonade by having say, you know, your client or his kids share it out on social media instead. Yeah, well, hold on to your butts here 'cause Donald Trump has been burping up a storm over on truth social about this trial, the Eugene Carroll defamation case, which is an ongoing this week. And judge Kaplan, judge Lewis Kaplan in the southern district of New York, was already really mad at Trump and his lawyers going into the first full day in front of the jury because of the proceeding three years in which they acted like jackasses. But the social media posts about the already evidence did not help. I'm just going to read it a little bit of it. So first Trump burped, I know that it's like theoretically called something. You just can not make me say that he truths something that's not going to happen here, okay? So George Orwell rotated in his grave, you know, hydroelectric, not hydroelectric, like what's the rotational thing anyway? Yeah, we could hook that up to a battery and have unlimited free energy. Anyway. Right, right. So here's the burp. The E Jean Carroll case, miss bergdorf Goodman, is a made up scam, her lawyer is a political operative financed by a big political donor that they said didn't exist only to get caught lying about that. Just look at her CNN interview before and after the commercial break, like a different person. She said there was a dress using the old Monica Lewinsky stuff that she didn't want to produce it. The dress should be allowed to be part of the case. This is a fraudulent and false story witch hunt. That would be reference to evidence the court has already excluded. We talked about it before on the show. Carol did not get caught doing anything. She testified to the best of her recollection and when it appeared that she may have misspoken her lawyers immediately disclosed it. The court ruled that it was irrelevant and anyway Trump waved the issue of litigation funding because he himself didn't want to disclose it his own legal bills are being entirely funded by his pack. Right. As for the dress, Trump refused for three straight years to submit a DNA sample and only offered to do it on the eve of trial when discovery was already closed. Yeah, that was very clearly a stunt and eaching Carol's lawyer saw through that and like you know, that's not how any of this works. Right. Okay, so this morning, then Trump put out another burp in which he implied that Carol was not only too unattractive, which is what he said before, but also too old for him to have sexually assaulted. Sure. He said, they got caught lying. The miss bergdorf Goodman case is financed by a big political donor that they tried to hide. Once again, that's not true. Does anybody believe that I would take a then almost 60 year old woman that I didn't know from the front door of a very crowded department store with me being very well known to put it mildly into a tiny dressing room and her she didn't scream there are no witnesses nobody saw this. She never made a police complaint. If I was seen there with a woman, big press, scam. He is file. Okay, and look, I hesitate to point this out because it doesn't actually matter, right? But Carol was 52 at the time, not 60. And so beautiful. I mean, she's beautiful now and she was just dropped dead gorgeous. This is ridiculous. And it doesn't matter, right? Right. Anyway, judge Kaplan was pissed when he found out about the social media posts. And he yelled at Trump's lawyer Joseph tacopina before the jury even came in. He said, your client is basically endeavoring, certainly, to speak to his quote unquote public, but more troubling the jury in this case, about stuff that he has no business speaking about. And he warned that Trump quote may or may not be tampering with a new source of potential liability. Not what you want to hear. And then after lunch, when it emerged that Eric Trump was also tweeting out the excluded evidence about the nonprofit, which is covering some of Carol's legal expenses, judge Kaplan was clearly making serious threats. He was dead. He said, if I were in your shoes, I would be having a conversation with your client. There are some relevant United States statutes here and somebody on your side ought to be thinking about them. Ouch. So we're going to give you a head start on some terms you're likely to be hearing in the news in the next few days because this is not going to stop, right? I mean, tacos can't rein in Trump and I don't think he's trying. Well, to be fair, Eric Trump did delete the tweet. So good boy kid. Yeah, right. Anyway, starts with contempt of court, right? So like the
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Story, let's talk a little bit about the E Jean Carroll lawsuit against Donald Trump, which is scheduled to go to trial next week after almost four years of foot dragging and delay. That asshole did everything he could to get out of having to face this woman in court. He ducked the process server. He claimed as a state of New York had no personal jurisdiction over him. He tried to substitute the federal government is defendant under the theory that he was acting in his official capacity when he said he couldn't have raped her because she wasn't his type. And for years, he more or less refused to participate in discovery. Just in the past week, he filed two motions to postpone the trial, one based on false allegations that Carol and her lawyers had failed to tell the truth and discovery. You and I talked about that on a show the other day. In one, because he claimed he needed a cooling off period after the brag indictment to ensure an unbiased jury. I seriously that argument was, why don't we wait until May when, you know, no one will be ever talking about Donald Trump anymore, which, you know, is funny generally, and also amazing, given that the general purpose grand jury will be convened in Fulton county, Georgia in May. So we'll be talking about Trump in a case that is much, much worse for him. Oh God, I hope so. Anyway, so all of that was hilarious with the postponements. As was a response by judge Lewis Kaplan to Trump's lawyer, Joseph tacopina, who's, you know, we've talked about him here a whole bunch. And so talk a penis has been kind of rattling the cage on the subject of jury selection. The court ruled that even the lawyers here weren't going to get the potential jurors names or even the actual jurors names. And taka Pena kind of pushed back on that. Yeah, well look, his client dip you know, send his howler monkeys after the jury four person in the Roger Stone case, so like there's a pretty good reason why judge Kaplan isn't having any of this. Yeah, yeah, he's not hardly having any of it. Judge Kaplan wrote yesterday quote, I take what I understand to be material inaccuracies in his letter to be misunderstandings attributable to the fact that mister taco was not present at the meeting attended by the deputy clerk, mister Mohan and other council. Yeah. I can feel the shade from here. All right, do you remember when taka pita entered his appearance in February after alita haba spent years pissing off judge Kaplan and he promised that it was all going to be totally fine and super professional going forward? I absolutely remember that. And I am betting that judge Kaplan also remembers. Anyway, all that was a warm up for this slapstick comedy of errors of Trump's response to in April 10th order by the court for the parties to inform the judge if they plan to attend the trial and on which days. Yeah, and let's be clear that order is totally fair, right? Like that's not that's not a reflection of bias on Kaplan's part. This is going to be a massive public event and accommodating Trump's Secret Service detail is no joke. Right. We're going to come to that. Fine. Before that. So on April 18th, that's two days before the court's April 20 deadline, which is today as we are typing this. Carol's lawyers informed the court that she will be present throughout the trial. So far so good. Then yesterday, taka Pena requested that the judge instruct the jury that his client was quote excused from attending the trial because his security team would be a burden on the court. I'm going to read you some of this letter because it's awesome. Taka Pena says, although defendant Trump wishes to appear at trial. In order to avoid the burdens outlined above, if he does not do so, we respectfully request that the court issue to the jury the following preliminary instruction. While no litigant is required to appear at a civil trial, the absence of the defendant in this matter by design avoids the logistical burdens that his presence as the former president would cause the courthouse in New York City. Accordingly, his presence is excused unless and until he is called by either party to testify. Okay. This is a sneaky one, right? So because you asked me to take a look at this and on first plush, like this is not obviously ridiculous, right? But I think it's on first question. No idea this is another one. This could be the Andrew was wrong in Liz was right show, right? Like let's unpack it because the more you peel back the layers of the onion, the more you get to the rotten core beneath her. I'm losing track of this metaphor. Anyway. In a civil case, you as a defendant are entitled to attend the trial if you want. And conversely, if you're not going to testify on your own behalf and you're not subpoenaed as a witness by the plaintiff to testify, then you don't have to show up. Or you can mix and match you can chop sometimes, but not others, and the worst example. I mean, what will be taught in law school textbooks for years to come will be the Alex Jones trials, right? Where helicopter in occasionally hang around until he got bored for an hour or so and then wander off to go through a tantrum on the courthouse steps, right? Oh wait, do you remember when he would get about three times in the Texas trial? He was chewing gum in court and got chewed out by judge gamble. Oh, that was awesome. That was among the many awesome things. In that case, look, here's the point. The jury is not instructed
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Hey, Liz, how are you doing? Hi, I'm okay. How are you? I am fantastic in terms of doing the show. You know, we have been tracking in particular the stone case all week. It's we've had middle of the night rulings. There's going to be some ugly stuff, but I am very, very excited to bring this show out to our listeners. I think that we've got two stories where just about everybody else is getting it wrong or omitting key pieces and I really feel like we're going to be a value add in terms of understanding what you're reading about these cases. I agree. It's wild. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that nothing else drops while we're recording because it dropped on the way in for where we were going into the studio. Yeah, literally odd by walk to the studio, which is two minutes. We got another ruling. So I've given up hoping that nothing else will drop. So before we get into those stories, I do need to do a shout out to a Hall of Fame patron and how appropriate is this to vasectomies prevent abortions, apparently we neglected to mention them in our monthly Hall of Fame shout out. I'm so sorry, so here's your extra shout out right here. And that's an Andrew was wrong on that one. Okay. And then we also have a little bit, I think we teased on Tuesday that we were going to talk about Donald Trump's lawsuit against Michael Cohen, you know, classic OA lawsuit point and laugh. Yeah, maybe it was yesterday we talked about it because I think it just dropped yesterday because I know that I stayed up all night tweeting about it because it was so goddamn funny. Yeah. You did, that was huge. We're going to have to cover that over the weekend because there is more breaking news. It won't stop. And Trump's lawsuit didn't go in anywhere until Michael Cohen moves to dismiss, which he will very soon do. It's not going anywhere anyway. You know, it is hot garbage. And I can't wait to talk about it. But you're right. We do have other stuff we have to talk about today. So that one's going to have to get pushed off to a Sunday, although with the Supreme Court, God only knows. Yeah, yeah. But rest assured we will be breaking that down. We will be pointing and laughing, and that will be more fun than the past couple of episodes. I am, however, excited to bring you the a story, which continues to involve E Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit in New York against Donald Trump. And you, I think, more than anyone else have been deeply embedded into the story working on all of the updates and let's talk about what just happened. Right, okay, so just to give everybody a little bit of background, E Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, alleged in 2019 that Donald Trump had raped her in the dressing room of a department store in New York in the mid 90s. Trump denied it, which was his right. But then he made all kinds of disparaging comments about her and called her a liar and so that she was in cahoots with Democrats and part of a hoax. She sued him for defamation at first in state court in 2020, but actually she stood in a state court in 2019. We're going to come back to that. It was moved to federal court in 2020. And then she filed a second lawsuit in 2022. That one's captioned generally is referred to as Carol two. And that was because Donald Trump repeated the things that he'd said as president. Again, so there was a second defamation count. And the state of New York passed the adult survivors act, which gave a year for people who had been sexually assaulted or otherwise abused as adults to file tort claims against their accusers. That law went into effect on Thanksgiving of 2022 at which point like about 5 minutes later, Carol docketed the second lawsuit. So it had that defamation claim and it had a battery claim. Right. The first lawsuit is on hold, kind of. Pending. That's a tease for drop a pin in that if you're a Patreon. Pending certification from the D.C. Court of Appeals because the second circuit said D.C. Court of Appeals was Donald Trump acting within the scope of his employment when he said all that nasty stuff about Eugene Carroll. And the D.C. circuit came back with a kind of and we'll talk about that later. Yes. But today we're going to talk about what has just happened in the second lawsuit, the defamation from October of 2022 and the battery claim. And in which Donald Trump is represented by Alina haba. And Joseph tacopina, whom we've also talked about at length, who goes on television and says all that crazy shit all the time. And that narrows it down quite a bit. I know. But you'll have to remember tacos. Anyway, so Alina haba and tacos are playing the mainstream media like a drum and they are totally falling for it. So we'd like to set their record straight here. So first, let's understand what's being reported because it's at CNN today the headline was. Trump asks to delay Carol trial after learning she was funded by a donor to Democrats. Well, you know, that sounds bad. It does indeed. And here are the first three paragraphs, which is all most people are going to read, and they sound worse than the headline. It says former president Donald Trump is asking a judge to delay a columnist's assault and defamation trial set to begin later this month after learning that a billionaire who has donated donated to democratic causes has paid for some of the accusers legal fees.
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"I have nothing but contempt for this court. Okay, enough foreplay. You're here to talk about today's indictment of Donald Trump and the statement of facts that came along with it. And we are here to give it to you. Absolutely. So we're going to get through, we're going to go through line by line, count by count at sort of the top level, right? Let's talk about both things that came out because I don't know if Trump's lawyers were unprepared for this, but there was this unbelievably weird moment in which his defense team was first out of the box, right out of the courthouse. And the lines they decided to go with were number one. There are no legal charges in this indictment that we weren't expecting. It's true, right? I mean, could be, yeah. Okay. In the sense that, well, we'll get to it. And then, to your buddy, Joseph tacopina kept saying over and over again, this indictment doesn't have any facts in it. It doesn't say, you know, what the underlying crimes are. It doesn't say and he was just like frothing at the mouth about it. And I was like, buddy, there's gonna be a statement of facts, right? And so there are two documents. We will link both in the show notes. The indictment is kind of like, think about when you've read complaints before, right? The indictment are the counts, right? And that is in legalese it specifies the minimum necessary elements to meet the pleading requirements under New York State law and tells you what pursuant to what statute the charges have been brought. That's the way it indictment works. The statement of facts, states the facts that I don't know what he's on about. He has not been a particularly effective communicator. There was a very funny article in Rolling Stone this week where the other lawyers were shit talking him the way they should talk Alina haba and they were like saying that he's dumb and loud mouth and like some girl same. But it's not clear to me because he's a pretty experienced lawyer. I don't know why he's acting like such a lunatic. I mean, I'm not mad about it, but he appears to have been replaced as first chair on this case. He said he was going to be there in the room. And he was there in the room. I'll give him that. But this attorney named Todd blanche, who left cadwell ladder wickersham and I think that's the name of the author. Yeah, he left. He left a coat factory firm, yeah. But like a really nice firm at wish he was a partner. And everybody makes this joke now. They always make it on Twitter like, well, he's not going to get paid and he is going to get paid. I believe that Trump. No, but now that Trump knows that he can pay with funny money, he could just use PAC money. I mean, he raised $4 million in the 24 hours after they announced last week that he was going to get indicted. He has plenty of cash. Can you wrap a trail for a second on Trump raising money off of this? Oh my God, I know there was a great thing because I'm on his mailing list because my job. I cover it for my job. And so I get all of my I hope you're like Windows antiviral, you're a Mac user, but I hope your anti virus software is up to date. I'm not opening any links or anything. But he said, he sent a gazillion fundraising appeals and his kids, they email you once a day. And they're like, my father, like, our father who aren't in heaven. It's a Mar-a-Lago. Anyway, today he sent this ridiculous picture. You could or this come on that you could buy a T-shirt or something like if you send us $48, we'll send you a free T-shirt with like the Trump mugshot on it. And it had this picture of him, you know, like with what he purports to think it's like a steely eyed stare. And it was supposed to be a mugshot. It clearly wasn't a mugshot. And it had him. But it had him at 6 foot 5, which I feel like a lie, but I think you're 5 ten if he's 6 5. Oh yeah, I'm 5 ten. Definitely. But I'm a 140 pounds. So there we go. I don't think he actually wound up getting the mugshot. No, I think. What's he going to get it? Was he not going to get it? And I don't know. Do you think it matters? I kind of think, I kind of think it does matter. What do you think? Oh, yeah. So tell me why you haven't climbed the other way. Tell me why you think it matters. Because I think that everybody else gets a mug shot. He's a criminal defendant, and whether or not they publish it or not, you know, I think that it's kind of not fun. And I don't, you know, you're not above the law. If every other criminal defendant is going to get mug shotted and fingerprinted and handcuffed and perp walked in like, let's be clear. In New York, who pioneered that perp walk, that was Rudy Giuliani. Yep. Yep. Yep. And so, you know, I've broken windows. Yeah, right. So I think you should have been, I mean, I don't think it's that big a deal and whatever. I'm not going to lose sleep on it, particularly if he gets indicted. You know, if he gets convicted, or indicted anywhere else. But, you know, you're not above the law. No, that's my initial reaction withdrawn. And I would say, I think that photograph has taken place, right? Like I think you need to for documentary purposes, right? No, they're saying that it didn't happen. Oh, interesting. So yeah, we don't know, but I will say I defer to your judgment there. I think you've persuaded me on that. Good show, let's call it a break. Yeah. We'll return with more thoughts after this ad break. And we're back. So I should add in addition to we've talked about the Trump lawyer. Taco Pete I got asked about that. On the steps of the courthouse. And you know, it just, I guess a part of me does want to push back against the falling into the playbook of treating this like a reality TV show, which was obviously Trump's plan for his entire presidency. I mean, okay. If you want to talk about who was there and we could do that before we get into the indictment, that's not a terrible idea. Talk apina was there as was his lawyer Susan necklace. And she was a really good lawyer. She was at his right hand and did most of the talking, as far as I could tell. Yeah, she's a really good lawyer. Boris Epstein was there, and I'm not, I'm not going to move in the same bucket as Susan necklace. Jason Miller was there. But Boris Epstein is kind of he's like this he's just always there. He's like Forrest Gump, but like not in a good way. He was involved in the fake elector's scheme. There's been extensive reporting that special counsel Jack Smith is very interested in him in both grand juries, which is impressive. Because he was because of this fake elector scheme, he was put on the witness stand in Georgia by Fulton county, district attorney, Fannie Willis before that special purpose grand jury. And he's been kind of people have said that he, the special counsel is trying to figure out if he was trying to kind of engineer a joint defense agreement to keep them all in attorney client privilege circle so that nobody could testify against anybody else. It's not very clear at all, though, that he is acting as an attorney for Trump. I mean, he is an attorney, but it's not clear that he's acting as an attorney, particularly because he's raising like upwards of a $1 million a year, consulting for political candidates, and there's some scare quotes around that consulting for political candidates. And if he is acting as Trump's attorney, he is simultaneously perhaps peddling access to him, which these two things are not compatible. So it's not clear to me that he acts as Trump's attorney. And it's also not clear to me that he's not, say, in a heap of shit. But find out, won't we? We were both surprised to see Boris present to also see that Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg apparently did not object to his presence in the courtroom because. I mean, I certainly would have, right?
AP News Radio
Donald Trump indicted; expected to surrender next week
"Former president Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. The charges in the indictment against Donald Trump remain under seal, but stem from the investigation into hush money pay to porn actor stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Manhattan district attorney's office says prosecutors have reached out to coordinate a surrender, while defense attorney Joseph tacopina, says Trump is likely to turn himself in on Tuesday, nima Romani is a former federal prosecutor. He's going to be fingerprinted and have this mugshot taken, but Secret Service will escort him to New York court, while he'll make his first appearance. His attorneys will plead not guilty, and he will be released on his own recognizance. Sources told The Associated Press, Trump's lawyers claim the Secret Service needs more time to make security preparations. Reaction to the indictment came swiftly on social media Trump said corrupt Democrat prosecutors from Democrat run cities are not going to choose the Republican nominee or the next president. Jennifer King, Washington
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"But contempt for this court. So Andrew, is there anything new from the grand jury in Manhattan investigating Trump for hiding that hush money payoff to stormy Daniels in the Trump organization's records as a retainer to Michael Cohen? I have gained such respect for this grand jury and perhaps even the grand jury system as a whole. The evidence is so overwhelming in my favor. I can't do, I can't do the Trump accent that I kissed definitely can not read this in all caps the whole way up. Anyway, the evidence is so overwhelming in my favor and so ridiculously bad for the highly partisan and hateful district attorney that the grand jury is saying, hold on, we are not a rubber stamp, which most grand juries are branded as being. I like a Trump can't follow the plot either. We are not going to vote against a preponderance of evidence or against large numbers of legal scholars all saying there is no case here, drop this sick witch hunt now. Yeah, okay, weirdo. I mean, he has insight into the minds of the grand jurors, right? Anyway, I mean, I suppose this is marginally less offensive than last week when he called district attorney Alvin Bragg an animal under the control of George Soros, but still. Yeah, that was really, really gross, and you can't call that a dog whistle that was a regular whistle to racist. But in any event, this is not a victory lap and Trump knows it. That's why he has to exhort that drop this sick witch hunt bit at the end. Yeah. Okay, well, obviously, in case you guys didn't figure it out, that would be an update from the former couch tweeter in chief. And we joked on Twitter that we could just read that and be done with today's show. But we ultimately decided that you'd probably rather we broke down some of the developments with respect to the grand jury, which DA Bragg is impaneled. Since it's been rumored for a long time to be on the cusp of indicting Trump any day now. And then we can take a junket to D.C. and talk about Mike Pence cosplaying as a senator to get out of testifying to the grand jury investigating January 6th. I'm sorry, I'm just imagining. I have been to a Star Trek convention. I have been to several trains. Yeah, this is shocking. You know, I'm confiding in you here, Liz. You're supposed to take your supposed to back me up on this, but I'm just picturing, you know, Mike Pence dressed as you know, metal hawk or so. Anyway, all right, never mind. Look, there's a whole lot seriously talking about the law now. There's a whole lot going on between testimony by witnesses, including the former publisher of the national inquirer, right? To reports that Bragg's jury is in recess until May, that's, I think, what Trump was responding to in that all cap screech post that I tried to read. Fake tweets. I'll agree. We'll let you handle that. Your skill level greatly exceeds mine. Anyway, other things that indicate that this is not a done deal is that House Republicans are losing their damn minds over this whole thing. So, you know, plenty of things to talk about in Trump land right now. Right. So obviously, Trump announced on his dollar store Twitter account a couple of weeks ago that he was about to be indicted in New York the following day, which clearly didn't happen. But let's listen to our friend Joseph tacopina, explain that one to chuck Todd on meet the press. Start with a simple question, why did your client mister Trump make that claim that turned out not to be true? Did he make it up? No, he didn't make it up. He was reacting towards a lot of leaks coming out of the district attorney's office. There have been a leak chuck that Monday the day before that Tuesday, there was a law enforcement meeting, including Secret Service and NYPD. That was going to go through the logistics of the arraignment. And then there was, of course, a lot of rumors regarding the agreement being the next day. So he just, I think he just assumed based on those leaks that that what was going to happen. Has anybody about making it up and certainly he doesn't want to be arrested? Okay, so he wasn't lying, he was guessing totally different. Yeah, and so on the one hand, right? We all thought an indictment was coming. And not just because Trump was losing his mind about it, right? We saw those reports about the DA meeting with law enforcement to plan security measures. We saw the Jersey wall get hauled out. And made a rational guess. Most of us didn't send out a calendar invite to our pals to protest, though. Yeah, and in retrospect, the security buildup is just as likely to have been a response to the daily barrage of bomb scares that have been called in on that courthouse. Plus, Bragg's office did get an envelope full of white powder last week. And all of it was harmless in the end, but you can understand why they've been ramping up security measures quite apart from whatever they might be wanting to do to bring Trump in. Yeah, but remember it's antifa that are the violent ones. Anyway, right now, it looks like an indictment may not be imminent at all if new reporting from Politico is correct. Reporter Erica Orton says that the grand jury will be taking off something like a month for Passover and Easter and isn't expected to reconvene until late April. Yeah, I don't know how long it takes to die eggs because you know, J team. But I can confirm that cleaning for Passover and then trying to digest 7 days worth of matzo can take a while. I'm not sure about a full month, but your mileage may vary. You know, been a very, very long time since we've done the egg thing 'cause, you know, my son is almost 21 now, but anyway, Trump has interpreted this delay as a sign that the grand jury is dragging its feet on indicting it. I mean, hope springs eternal. It's speaking of spring.
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Mia's Andrew Torres, and this is opening arguments episode 7 12. Hey, Liz, how you doing? I'm good. How are you? I am good. We have been, you know, obsessively refreshing court dockets today and watching the news and everything else. It's been it's been a busy time, but those are fun times. A lot of pace or alerts. You were so good at that. All right, for the listeners, this is our third episode in a row. We could give you a break tomorrow unless, of course, we're not. But these are third episode. In a series on how Donald Trump might go to prison, right? So let's kind of, you know, you've got to do previously on opening arguments, right? Let's recap episode 7 ten from Monday. As of this recording, which is taking place Wednesday evening. The grand jury under Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg. Still had not indicted the former president. Well, okay. To be fair, the times said that the grand jurors weren't in the courthouse today. So probably the soonest this is going to happen is tomorrow. Yeah, that's right. So assuming that this is really happening, we anticipate that that indictment will be for falsifying business records at the Trump organization. Remember, Michael Cohen fronted a $130,000 in October of 2016 from his home equity line to keep stormy Daniels quiet about a sexual encounter she had with Donald Trump back in 2006. And then Trump reimbursed him for that payment and the tax liability and a little sweetener in a series of $35,000 checks. Trump called that money illegal retainer and not, you know, a payoff to silence an embarrassing story before it made me not the president. And that is a crime under article one 75 of the New York criminal code. But as we previously flagged on episode 7 ten, there are two issues here with prosecuting that crime against Trump. The first is the 5 year catchall statute of limitations for the prosecution of any other felony. That is New York CPL 30.10 to B and the second is the requisite criminal mens Rea under article one 75, which requires an intent to defraud someone, not just an intent to conceal. Right. Okay, so as promised, Trump dispatched attorney Robert Costello to tell the grand jurors what a lying sack of crap Michael Cohen is. Remember, Trump had a right to send a rebuttal witness and that's what he did. You can argue that it's kind of unethical for Costello to shit talk his former client since he represented Cohen for a brief period during the Mueller investigation into that very hush money payout. Yeah, that's because it is unethical and no attorney would do this. Yeah, well, apparently one. And we are talking about a guy who dangled a pardon to Cohen to keep him from flipping on Trump. And he helped disseminate Hunter Biden stole a dick pic. So, you know, par for the unethical Costello course. Yeah. So Costello's mission here was to dirty up Cohen so that the grand jurors would discount his testimony at particularly in light of the fact that it other times Cohen has said publicly or even under oath, I believe that the whole thing was his idea and he never told Trump about it. Yeah. And look, leave aside that it will be trivially easy for prosecutors to introduce at trial that Trump had a standing catch and kill deal with the national inquirer that he entered into the hush money agreement to keep stormy Daniels quiet and then he tried to enforce it. We are talking about falsifying a business record. And you know, Trump signed at least one of those retainer checks at a time in which he knew Cohen was not doing any legal work for him and Rudy Giuliani said so in public. Right. I mean, look, this is silly. No one would file a case based solely on Cohen's testimony. The bring receipts part with Cohen is baked in. I mean, that's a guy who went to jail for lying to Congress. I don't understand why Trump's team is convinced that Cohen is the linchpin of Bragg's case, and if they just make Cohen look bad, the whole thing's going to disappear. It's silly. And look, you don't have to take my word for it. You can just trust Trump's lawyer, Joseph tacopina. So yes, if there's an issue with that payment to stormy Daniels being that it was made on behalf of the candidate. And it was not declared. That's fair game, unfortunately. If that's the case, and quite frankly, Michael Cohen, again, has made statements that would give rise to suspicion for any prosecutor to say, that doesn't make sense that a lawyer took out a home equity loan with his own money, paid somebody that he didn't even know on behalf of a client who, by the way, had to wear with all the money to afford a $130,000. And by the way, he didn't tell the client about the settlement agreement. It's an illegal agreement. It's a fraud. If that's in fact the case. All right, but you know, to be fair to tacos, he said that back in 2018, before he'd been hired by Donald Trump to defend him in this case. Yeah, well, it turns out tacos also admitted on air that he consulted with stormy Daniels about this and formed an attorney client relationship with our, although he walks back this week. He's made he walked that back. So now CNN says that Bragg has gotten the texts between taka pina and Daniel, so actually maybe Trump will have to find someone else to represent him if the DA moves to exclude taka Pena for conflicts.
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"We'll let you turn yourself in. And let's point out here there was a New York Times story noting that Trump flipped his shit when watching Trump organization CFO Allen weisselberg get perp walked. So we know he really, really doesn't want to be on camera, looking like a criminal. More than he usually does. Yeah, well, I'll be there. I would say that is a permanent condition, but let me add that as a criminal defendant, voluntary surrender or not. Trump will get photographed. He will get fingerprinted, so, you know, he is not going to be able to evade having a media moment that he'd rather not have. Yeah. Okay. But what about the Secret Service? Yeah, so this really surprised me. This sent me down a huge rapid trail and oh, I love that shit. Yeah. But there isn't anything in the statute that creates and defines the powers of the Secret Service. There isn't anything in the code of federal regulations. There isn't anything in the DoJ manual that gives any guidance on arresting someone who has a Secret Service detail. And okay, like you could say, oh, that's because we've never had to arrest a president before. But a, it was certainly a possibility with Richard Nixon back in 1974 before Gerald Ford pardoned him, right? And B the Secret Service protects a lot of people who are not presidents, right? And so that statute, 18 USC three zero 5 6 includes not just the president and vice president. Their immediate families, former presidents and their spouses, their minor children, other distinguished foreign visitors and and so on. So I fight it hard to believe that no one ever thought I wonder if Billy Carter might get arrested someday. You know, but here we are. Well, on a plus side, when they come to arrest Don Junior, when he's got the Secret Service detail, Lisa had the playbook worked out. Yeah. Great. Why is this crime family still? Anyway, I also want to note that subsection a three of 18 USC three zero 5 6 is what extends Secret Service protection to former presidents like Trump, and I said, I said spouses, right? It actually in the statute says quote their spouses for their lifetimes except that protection of a spouse shall terminate in the event of remarriage. So be careful there, Melania. And anyone, and this is the relevant part. The statute also provides that anyone except the current president and vice president has the right to refuse Secret Service protection. If your president, you know, if you saw the movie, Dave, you have to just outwit the Secret Service, right? But anyone else who is voluntarily protected can say, no, you guys can leave, right? So I would think that one of the conditions of Trump's voluntary surrender, you know, would be asking him to decline his Secret Service detail. I did not see the movie Dave, you will be astonished. But I still don't think he's going to decline the Secret Service detail. But okay, I have been watching Trump's lawyer Joseph taka Pena go all over television. And I noticed that he told the New York Daily News that there won't be a standoff at Mar-a-Lago with Secret Service and the Manhattan DA's office, which okay. He said that Trump would turn himself in and not act like a crazy person, famous last words. And taka Pena said, most people would collapse under the weight of this. He seems to turn everything into a positive and everything into a boost for his campaign, so I'm sure this will just join the long things that people think no one could overcome, but he will. So make of it what you will that tacopina says Trump's going to be totally normal and not like for some kind of ruby ridge situation. And speaking of Taco Bell oh, you know what? Let's not put a pin in this one. I want to talk about your article over above the law on Friday because, you know, taco seems to have a little bit of problem here. Oh my God, isn't that wild? So, okay, over adjust security, editor Ryan Goodman posted a transcript on Twitter of taka pina, admitting on air in 2018 to CNN's Don lemon, the he had met with Stormi Daniels about the hush money agreement that she signed with Trump and then she did not hire him instead she hired Michael avenatti. So lemon said, stormy approached you about representation. Did you get any impression that she might have signed her NDA under duress and was she afraid for her physical safety? To which taka Pena responded, yes, of course, and I can't really. Yeah, well, that was a problem. Yes, of course, and I can't really talk about my impressions or any conversations we had because there is an attorney client privilege that attaches even to a consultation. Yeah, how do you do a good idea bad idea here, right? So taco penis correct that attorney client privilege attaches to a consultation even if the client that the potential client goes in another direction and to our lawyer listeners like may you not run second to Michael avenatti. So yes, it would apply to his conversations to taka penis conversations with Stormi. But if that's the case, the way in which you answer Tom lemon's question is by striking that, yes, of course, and from the beginning of that sentence. Literally, taco bean adjust violated rule 1.6 of the model rules of professional responsibility by disclosing here's the standard information related to the representation without his client's informed consent. And we'll have more on that after the outbreak. And we're back. All right, so taka penis conflict issues are even worse than accidentally spilling attorney client privilege issues to Don lemon. Just last week, takino went on Good Morning America and called stormy Daniels an extortionist, he said, this was a plain extortion and I don't know since when we've decided to start prosecuting extortion victims. He's vehemently denied this affair that is Trump denied it. He had to pay the money because there was going to be an allegation that was going to be publicly embarrassing to him regardless of the campaign. So in episode 7 O 8, we explained that this is absolutely not extortion stormy Daniels behavior was totally appropriate and normal here. But it is never a good thing when your former lawyer decides to go on the air and call you an extortionist. So if you're wondering, yes, if Alvin Bragg indicts Donald Trump and Trump continues to retain Joseph tacopina as his lawyer as all appears to be the case, then I would, I'm just going to say I would anticipate, we'll talk about that. Alvin Bragg would have the right to move to disqualify tacopina as Trump's council forced him to get another lawyer. And that case is a case called techni plex versus minor and lambdas. It's 1996 New York Supreme Court case. It sets out the three things you have to prove in order to move to disqualify counsel for conflict of interest. Bragg would have to prove one, the existence of a prior attorney client relationship. Well, that's conceded, right? Don lemon got that. Two, he would have to prove that the batter is involved in both representations are substantially related. That's obvious. And three, he would have to prove that the interests of the present client and the former client are materially adverse. So I could have seen an argument on that last one, right? You would say, all right, you know, it's not necessarily adverse to having represented stormy Daniels to not want Donald Trump to go to prison, right? But it's hard to imagine more adversity than calling your former clients an extortionist. So yeah. Right, so I'm not sure Bragg would move to disqualify tachypnea because taka penis behaved in behaving sort of erratically lately. I mean, we talked about this last week. He went on Ari melber show on Wednesday and admitted that Trump lied about the payment to Daniels. He said, so is it the truth? Of course it's not the truth. Was he supposed to tell the truth? He would be in violation of the agreement if he told the truth. So by him doing that, he was abiding by not only his rights, but by stormy Daniels. He's not, he's not behaving too normally, and by the way, he's going to be tied up next month in the E Jean Carroll trial, which he's going to be representing Trump there too. So maybe if you're bragged, you want a lawyer like that representing Trump, particularly since he's going to have one hand tied behind his back. Although I suppose if you disqualify it, talk a pina, maybe you get a Lena haba, which could be better or it could be worse, depending. It doesn't have a great stable of lawyers waiting and waiting to represent him. So we will see.
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Fraud by saying, hey, we're going to go after you and for the stuff you did to your kids. And weisselberg, who has been climbing for Trump for two centuries, was like, oh, I'm not going to flip, right? He went to Rikers rather than do that. And so brag, yeah. He's got one another 7 minutes. Sorry, I'm still mad. Well, because look, like Bragg cut that chicken ship deal and said, you know, you will essentially get time served, right? Okay, a couple of additional months, but he was lined up to prosecute weisselberg for tax for a criminal tax fraud and 7 years in prison. And that deal did not even require weisselberg to render future cooperation, which okay, I get it, right? Like that guy's not cooperating anyway, but yeah, if he's not gonna cooperate, put him away. Anyway, Bragg killed off that investigation, left it to New York attorney general letitia James to bring civil complaint, but what she did. Now, which she did, I have no bad words to say about this James, right? So yeah, absolutely. And so now the hush money payout is back in the news, and apparently Alvin Bragg has been running to a grand jury to interview witnesses about that $130,000 payment to stormy Daniels. So, you know, that's interesting. It is. And the grand jury has interviewed basically everyone who was involved with the original deal that, including Cohen, pecker, Howard, stormy Daniels original lawyer Keith Davidson. And even Kelly Ann Conway, who apparently confirmed the details with Cohen after the deal was done, which is interesting on a couple of levels, one because girl, you have been working on campaigns for a long time and you know better. And also, because Trump and his current lawyer have insisted that this payment had nothing to do with the election, which was only a few weeks away. And if Cohen was coordinating with Kellyanne Conway, it rather undercuts that claim. So put a pin in that one. This week, brag finally invited Trump to testify. Yeah, and look, I'm not a criminal lawyer, but even I know that's a real bad sign, right? Because when they get down to the top of the pyramid and invite you to testify before the grand jury and you decline, that means they are very, very close to an indictment. And it's worse than that. At The Daily Beast, Jose paglieri reports that Bragg made the offer to testify to the grand jury, but only if Trump would waive immunity. So like New York has its own specific laws. And if you are a witness before the grand jury in New York, you get automatic immunity for your testimony. So you can come in and confess to all the crimes and prosecutors can not use that testimony to indict you. But they don't give that deal to the target of an investigation. And Trump's lawyer, Joseph tacopina, told pagliari that Trump's invitation was for the bad kind of party, the kind where the prosecutor says, hey, you want to come over and subject yourself to unrestricted questioning by the grand jury without any immunity because we're about to file charges so maybe you want to take a flyer, huh? And I wish he'd said yes, because that's essentially an invitation to come in and incriminate yourself. I mean, look, if nothing else, there's no way Trump could make it 20 minutes before a grand jury without committing perjury. So I'm going to guess that tacos advised Trump to say no thanks. And we'll find
WTOP
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on WTOP
"Companies like Etsy and D.C. based compass coffee. Baristas at the Georgetown location confirmed their paychecks were late. The company tells Fox business it's since changed providers. How much time does it take to open up an account and move the money? It's 15 minutes. That's new. That's why this is happening. The portability of cash is so quick. That didn't exist during the financial crisis didn't exist during The Great Depression. Lastman says assurances made over the weekend mean there's no need to move your money. Meghan cloherty WTO P news. For more on what this bank failure might mean to you, listen to this week's upcoming DMV download podcast episode out Wednesday. WTO two 34, we are following the unfolding developments out of Maryland where the one time top aid to former Maryland governor Larry Hogan is now facing an arrest warrant. Former Hogan chief of staff Roy McGrath failed to appear in federal court in Baltimore this morning where the start of his trial on fraud and embezzlement charges his lawyer says he tried texting both McGrath and his wife, but didn't get a response. McGrath has accused of lying to get a severance payment of more than $230,000 from the government owned nonprofit Maryland environmental service where he worked before joining the Hogan administration. He's also accused of personally enriching himself by siphoning off the agency's funds for personal use. In other news, Donald Trump's former lawyer is expected to testify today before a Manhattan grand jury looking into alleged hush money paid to women who claim they'd had affairs with the former president. Two people familiar with the matter say former president Trump's one time lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen will appear today before the panel. It's investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on the former president's behalf. Cohen's testimony comes at a critical time the Manhattan DA's office is nearing a decision on whether to seek charges against Donald Trump, prosecutors appear to be looking at whether he committed crimes in how the payments were made or how they were accounted for internally at the Trump organization. Trump lawyer Joseph tacopina said this morning it's unlikely the former president will testify before the grand jury prosecutors say he can if he wants to. I'm Rita foley. The U.S. has begun an aggressive new push to inflict pain on Russia's economy over the invasion of Ukraine. This time the target is the oligarchs, officials say efforts will now focus on lawfully liquidating the property of Russian billionaires and expanding financial penalties to those who help them escape sanctions. The task force that enforces the economic restrictions will also look to close loopholes in the law that allow oligarchs to move through the U.S. financial system through shell companies. Hate crimes are searching here in the U.S. new statistics show hate crimes were up more than 11% in 2021 from the year before. The most frequent are fueled by racial and ethnic bias. The Justice Department has expanded its efforts to track these crimes and prosecutors have stepped up criminal investigations. At CBS News correspondent kami McCormick coming up in money news after trafficking weather. Another D.C. food hall. This one by indoor pickleball courts. I'm Jeff label. Then one win and one loss for environmentalists
WTOP
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on WTOP
"Breaking news on WTO we're following the developments out of Maryland where a one time top aide to former Maryland governor Larry Hogan is now facing an arrest warrant former Hogan chief staff Roy McGrath failed to appear in a federal courtroom in Baltimore this morning for a rearrangement hearing on fraud charges. His lawyer says he tried texting both McGrath and his wife had received no response. McGrath has accused of lying to get a severance payment of more than $230,000 from the government owned nonprofit Maryland environmental service, where he worked before joining the Hogan administration, state with WTO for the latest. Our other big story of the afternoon, President Biden is trying to assure the nation that there will not be a taxpayer fallout following the collapse of Silicon Valley bank and California and signature bank in New York. He says the customers at those banks will get their money. The president insists the U.S. banking system is safe. Every American should feel confident of their deposits will be there if and when they need them. Mister Biden says none of the losses to protect depositors at the two failed banks will be borne by taxpayers, but instead by other banks which fund FDIC insurance. I'm going to ask Congress and the banking regulators to strengthen the rules for banks to make it less likely this kind of bank failure would happen again. But to reassure Americans worried now, he also made this promise. We will not stop at this. We'll do whatever is needed. Stephen portnoy, CBS News, Washington. And speaking of Congress members of Congress have been getting briefed on the banking failures and the Biden administration's response here, more from WTO piece Mitchell Miller today on the hill. Lawmakers, including those on the Senate banking committee, have been getting updates. South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott says Americans need to know exactly what happened and why the banks have failed. Some Democrats say banking regulations lifted during the Trump administration should be restored. Virginia democratic senator Mark Warner voted to roll back legislation in 2018 and speaking on ABC says he doesn't regret that vote. I do think these mid sized banks needed some regulatory relief. The Senate subcommittee on consumer protection has begun putting together plans for an investigation into the Silicon Valley bank failure. On capital hill, Mitchell Miller WTO news. In other news, former president Donald Trump's former lawyer is expected to testify today before a Manhattan grand jury looking into alleged hush money paid to women who claim they had affairs with the former president. Two people familiar with the matter say former president Trump's one time lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen will appear today before the panel. It's investigating hush money payments he arranged and made on the former president's behalf. Cohen's testimony comes at a critical time the Manhattan DA's office is nearing a decision on whether to seek charges against Donald Trump, prosecutors appear to be looking at whether he committed crimes in how the payments were made or how they were accounted for internally at the Trump organization. Trump lawyer Joseph tacopina said this morning it's unlikely the former president will testify before the grand jury prosecutors say he can if he wants to. I'm Rita foley. It is 1234. The U.S. has begun an aggressive new push to inflict pain on Russia's economy over its invasion of Ukraine. This time the target is the oligarchs. Officials say efforts will now focus on lawfully liquidating the property of Russian billionaires and expanding financial penalties who help them escape sanctions. The task force that enforces economic restrictions will also look too close a loophole in the law that allows oligarchs to move through the U.S. financial system through shell companies. Now to your travel spring break, almost here for families. That can mean some major headaches of the airport, but your days of having to pay extra to sit next to your kid on the plane is coming to an end. American frontier Alaska and United Airlines are now making traveling with your kids a little bit easier by guaranteeing families can sit together at no extra charge. It's not that airlines were necessarily hard on families. But they just were not thinking. Travel expert Katie nastro says she expects the other airlines to fall in line with this shift in policy, especially after President Biden called for airlines to reduce unnecessary fees for their customers. It would be a PR nightmare for them not to address this directly. Shy and corinne, WTO news. Omni ride buses at sir Prince William county and other parts of Northern Virginia are rolling again. This as the month long strike involving drivers of Omni ride buses comes to an end and this will include a metro express, local and east west express lines. Transportation commission says that drivers are returning to work after their union and transit operator, keolis agreed to a new contract. Coming up on WTO after traffic and weather. National harbor gets another big beefy restaurant. I'm Jeff cable. Then, nafta money news, what do working women want and need on the job that story coming up? 1236. Hi. I'm rich for esco, president
Opening Arguments
"joseph tacopina" Discussed on Opening Arguments
"Okay, let's get started with a story which would fall under the category of stupid lawyer tricks if it weren't actually tragic. A Brazilian lawyer died last week after failing to tell the MRI technicians that he was carrying a gun and ignoring the warning to remove all metal objects before climbing into the machine. The magnetic field then pulled the weapon out of his waistband and caused it to shoot him in the stomach. The lawyer was apparently a popular program voice on TikTok. So in case you think gun humping is a uniquely American phenomenon, think again. I mean, you know, gun plus craziest equation that almost always ends with you SA, but you know, props on you for finding the international version. Right. Like pretend for a second that having a gun made it less likely you would die from gun violence, which is not true. States with higher rates of gun ownership have higher rates of gun homicide. But okay, fine. For the sake of argument. But for pity's sake, is this poor guy worried there's going to be a bad guy with a gun inside the MRI machine? Well, you know, the only way to stop that would be a good guy with a gun inside the MRI machine. Or like not. Fair enough. Okay, so I know we covered the Eugene Cara lawsuits against Trump last week, but some crazy shit went down this weekend, and since it's one of the things I covered above the law, I thought I'd give the OA listeners an update. I've been writing about this since Carol filed her original deformation claim in New York State court in 2019. And at that time, she produced a dress, she said she wore that day in the mid 90s when she was sexually assaulted in the bergdorf Goodman's dressing room by the future president. Lab testing found unidentified male DNA on the dress and Carol demanded that Trump submit to a cheek swab and oh my God, history does rhyme, doesn't it? It certainly seemed to terrify Trump at the time. And I just want to give a shout out. I don't know that anybody has been covering this case more closely than you have. And it's part of why I'm really happy that you were bringing that in depth research here to opening arguments. Well, thank you. Anyway, Trump did literally everything he could to get out from under that case. He ducked the process server. He claimed absolute immunity from civil suit because he was the president. He argued that he was beyond jurisdiction in the New York State courts as a Florida resident. He tried all of it, and it was clear that he was terrified of having to give up his DNA. In fact, when the New York State court told him to begin discovery and submit biological materials, he flipped his shit and had AG bar removed the case to federal court on the theory that he'd been acting within the scope of his presidential duties when he said he couldn't possibly have ranked Carol because she was in his, quote, type. Okay. In the event, he never did submit to that cheek swab. In fact, according to a recent filing by Carol's lawyer Roberta Kaplan, Trump continued to object to the DNA test through August of 2022 when his lawyer Elena haba wrote that there was quote no reasonable basis for such an intrusive request that it was quote highly present prejudicial given chain of custody concerns and that it violated Trump's privacy rights which are especially sensitive given that he is a former president. I love this woman. I do. She really does make my day every time I write about it. I mean, every one of her arguments boils down to like, how dare you? Do you even know who my client is? I am with you. We are making fun of Alina haba that there's no shortage of that on the show. But she raises a point that I want you to put a pin in, which is that chain of custody concerns thing because that might be relevant. As we continue to talk about the story. Correct. Okay. So for two years, Trump said NF W was he submitting his DNA. How about even promised that, quote, in the event the plaintiff files a motion to compel, we will adamantly oppose it and seek a protective order to prevent its enforcement. And so Carol knew she wasn't going to get it. She built her case without it. And as her lawyer wrote this week, she had a choice. She could engage in a protracted fight over an unprecedented request to obtain a former president's DNA, a request that Trump had repeatedly resisted, vowed to continue resisting and would inevitably turn into a substantial issue in this court or in any subsequent or interlock editorial appeal, or she could pivot, take Trump's deposition and work toward the trial date that the court had already set, armed with the overwhelming evidence available to her. So she chose the second. But the whole time that dress just hung out there like Chekhov's gun waiting to go off and can I say, I knew to stay with me. I knew it. So all right, I want to drill down on that. First, you know, it's worth pointing out we have only seen a few of the partially unsealed transcripts of that Trump deposition, but that looks to be about the most ideal deposition that you can take in a civil suit. It seems to have been a good strategic choice for her. She's represented by Roberta Kaplan, who is literally the very best lawyer at these sorts of cases. And yeah, so it seems like smart strategy, but I've got to know what you saw coming. All right, so I just knew that this dress wasn't. I mean, it was like such a big thing in the state case, and then it kind of disappeared. My working assumption this whole time has been that they were unlikely to get a DNA match off of what they had. I mean, it's been 25 years the dress has cat hair on it, and Carol did manage to fight Trump off pretty quickly, according to her own testimony. So there probably wasn't going to be any semen. And then she wore that dress for a photo shoot. So who the hell knows who touched it? It could be anybody's DNA on there. But Alina haba being a fairly young lawyer without a lot of experience in this kind of law, like it appeared to me that she wasn't taking any chances because, you know, whatever, for whatever reason. Because remember, she's pinned down with her client's public testimony, right? I don't know this woman. I wasn't there. Right, right. I mean, if his DNA is on the dress, that's kind of the end of the case for her, so she fought tooth and nail. But now Trump has a new guy. Joseph tacopina, and he's significantly more sophisticated and experienced than haba. And on Carol two, they appear to be rolling the dice that no matter what happened in that dressing room, there won't be a DNA match on that dress. I mean, papa's still there. She's still making trouble. But taka Pena has only entered his appearance in the second Carol case. Now remember, there are two separate cases here. The 2022 case, which involves a battery claim under the newly enacted New York adult survivors act, as well as a second defamation count for the gross shit Trump said about it when he was out of office. And then there's the defamation suit from 2019 that started out in state court and which will disappear if the D.C.