Objections: With Adam Klasfeld

When announcing an investigation last week into the relocation of 48 migrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar denounced "political posturing" at the expense of asylum-seekers. He also credited one immigration attorney in particular with shining a light on their plight: Rachel Self, who had been on the ground helping the migrants on the island.

On the latest episode of "Objections," Self reflects upon her conversation with the sheriff, her encounters with the immigrants, and the possible criminal liability of those who "victimized" them.

"They knew there would be no infrastructure, nor any organizational capacity on Martha's Vineyard to be able to help anyone," Self said in the interview, referring to those who sent the migrants there. "They knew that they wouldn't be able to leave easily. So it was either designed to be confusing, demoralizing and frightening for them, or maybe worse: It was designed without thinking how they would feel at all, because the people who pulled this stunt didn't think of them as people. And they can't conceive of anyone else thinking of them as people, either."

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When former President Donald Trump submitted candidates for a special master to review documents seized from Mar-a-Lago, one of his two choices was from the firm Jones Day, whose attorneys filled his administration. That nominee ultimately didn't make the cut, but make no mistake: the firm's fingerprints are still seen throughout Trump's circle.

The definitive account of how the firm became the former president's go-to legal shop — sometimes, to turmoil inside the firm — New York Times investigative reporter David Enrich's book Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice is much more than a chronicle of one firm's history with the MAGA movement. It shows how that firm's evolution from its origins in Cleveland to an international powerhouse reflects broader trends in the legal industry, reflecting on a time before the law was viewed as a business.

In a lengthy conversation reflecting the book's investigative, historical and philosophical journey, Enrich opens up about his findings on Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld." He also discussed the chapter of his book, "Trump's Stallion," about how the former president once tried pay a lawyer with a deed to a horse. The deal never went through, but Trump ultimately paid part of what he owed, Enrich reports.

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The former special master for the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund and Deepwater Horizon disaster made clear in an interview that he saw no need for a similar process to take place with respect to the highly classified documents found in former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property.

"I think that this is judicial overreach, especially in a case involving highly sensitive classified documents," prominent attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who has served as a special master in high-profile litigation and government appointments, says on the podcast. "The court should not be intervening in such a executive branch function, traditionally and historically."

A little more than a week ago, Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon did just that, finding judicial oversight justified by the "undeniably unprecedented" nature of an investigation of a former president. The government has appealed the order to the 11th Circuit, warning that the disclosure of the documents with "TOP SECRET" markings alone would cause "exceptionally grave damage" to U.S. national security.

Prosecutors did not seek a stay of the ruling as to the more than 11,000 government documents without classification markings that the FBI found inside Mar-a-Lago.

With a special master review imminent in at least some form, Feinberg answers questions about the process going ahead — starting with, what is a "special master," anyway? Though he disagrees with the judge's ruling and Trump's legal team, he also articulates what he believes their strongest arguments are.

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If federal prosecutors were to pursue charges against Donald Trump because of his handling of classified information, a top national security lawyer believes the former president would face an uphill battle at any trial.

"It would be a very complicated piece of litigation only because Trump would try to bog it down in pretrial motions, no doubt," attorney Bradley Moss says on the podcast. "But if a charge is brought — if the information is as we believe it is, at this point — I don't foresee a way he would avoid conviction." 

Moss, a leading expert on classification matters, answers all the questions you may have about the FBI's recent search off Mar-a-Lago, Trump's primary home. He explains what the search required, which statutes the DOJ may be considering, how high the sign-off on the raid likely went, and what federal authorities might do with information they may have found in the former president's safe and home.

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The day that the Supreme Court released its ruling for marriage quality, Jim Obergefell — the man behind the watershed decision — saw a sign of his impending victory on his admission slip.

"Every time I had been in the Supreme Court, the tickets were bright orange," Obergefell reflected on the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld."

"On Friday, June 26 — that day, it wasn't bright orange," he continued. "It was lavender, and when we realized that we all thought, 'Well, this has to be a sign. This has to be a positive sign. There's no reason for the ticket to have changed color, let alone being lavender.'"

In an extended interview, Obergefell moves beyond the cold record of that case to reflect upon how he and his late husband John Arthur began their legal battle over their marriage. He describes how he became ordained to officiate weddings after his Supreme Court victory — and came to read the closing lines of the ruling that bears his name at "every" ceremony.

He also discusses his ongoing political campaign for state office in Ohio and movement on Capitol Hill right now to preserve same-sex marriage with the Respect for Marriage Act.

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After finding himself inside the crosshairs of an investigation into attempts to overturn the 2020 election, Georgia state Sen. Burt Jones (R) successfully disqualified the prosecutor who announced that he was a "target." Jones may not have wide name recognition outside of Georgia, but he's currently running for lieutenant governor, the state's second highest executive branch post. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D), in what a Georgia judge described as a "What were you thinking" moment, attended the fundraiser of his rival. "This is not an invisible prosecution," Georgia appellate attorney Brandon Bullard — who is intimately familiar with the Peach State's laws and politics — noted . "Every step is going to be scrutinized and to think that this wasn't going to matter: It's a lapse — at least a lapse in awareness — if not a lapse of judgment." In the latest episode, Bullard helps unpack what's next for the Fulton County DA's investigation. He also explains that while this is a loss for the prosecutor, it may also be a blessing in disguise for the integrity of the case that she is building.

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As WNBA star Brittney Griner faces the possibility of 10 years in a Russian prison, that country's government reportedly hopes to swap her for a notorious arms trafficker locked up in a U.S. prison.

The latest episode of Law&Crime’s podcast “Objections: with Adam Klasfeld” looks into the global phenomenon of “hostage diplomacy” and the difficult choices governments face when an authoritarian regime detains one of their citizens.

“We don’t want to continue to put ourselves in situations where Americans are just taken at will so that Russians or other countries that have somewhat of a hostile relationship with the United States are able to negotiate for things that they want,” noted attorney Adrienne Lawrence, a TV host and the author of the book Staying in the Game: The Playbook for Beating Workplace Sexual Harassment.

The episode explores why Griner played the off-season in Russia, gender pay disparities in professional basketball, and the trade Russia reportedly wants to make for "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout.

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Following through on its legal threats, Twitter sued Elon Musk in Delaware in a lawsuit seeking to follow through on a $44 billion deal, and some experts have envisioned a worst-case scenario that would put a vital court for American business on a collision course with the richest man in the world.

In the latest episode of Law&Crime's podcast "Objections: with Adam Klasfeld," attorney David Lurie — a trial lawyer and frequent legal commentator — rejects the thought experiment that Musk might defy a ruling against him.

If a chancellor orders Musk to complete the deal, Lurie predicts, the billionaire simply has too much on the line to thumb his nose at the court.

"Keep in mind: Elon Musk is not a Russian oligarch," Lurie notes on the podcast. "He's a citizen of the United States. He's heavily invested in major companies that are established in Delaware and headquartered in the United States, with their assets in the United States. He has really no way to shield himself from the authority of a court."

Lurie provides analysis charting the likely course of litigation, the legal issues involved, and what the discourse surrounding it says about our national moment.

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After the U.K. formally approved the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, First Amendment groups in the United States expressed broad opposition to his prosecution. Does he deserve it?

Prosecutors accuse Assange of conduct that go well beyond traditional journalism, including conspiring to break into a U.S. military database, gaining unauthorized access to an Icelandic government computer, and picking targets for hacker collectives to breach. One of those targets was the New York Times, prosecutors say.

Still, Jameel Jaffer, the director of the prominent Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, calls Assange’s prosecution a “dagger to the throat of press freedom.”

In the latest episode of “Objections,” Jaffer fields questions about some of the toughest criticisms of Assange, from U.S. prosecutors and others, and says that in the end, the case is about more than him.

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Toward the end of its most recent public hearing, the Jan. 6 Committee released a roughly two-minute video laying out how former President Donald Trump and his allies raised $250 million off what they called the "big rip-off."