Opening Arguments

OA1089 - Trump's Staff Infection, part 3 plus T3BE48!

In this installment of Fashwatch’s continuing review of Trump’s incoming legal team, we take a closer look at what we know about the top spots in his DOJ and some of the other most important lawyers in any Presidential administration: White House counsel, Solicitor General, and the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. 

1. “How a Corporate Law Firm Led a Political Revolution,” David Enrich, The New York Times (8/25/22) 

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OA1088 - Trump's Staff Infection Vol. 2

With special guest Lydia Smith! Matt explains why only lawyers can truly destroy the rule of law before Lydia reviews what Project 2025 has planned for the Department of Justice. We then consider Donald Trump’s intention to make his favorite Florida (Congress)man our next Attorney General without or without Senate approval. Who is America’s Worst Matt, and could this weird loser really be the angel of Trump’s retribution? 

1. Mandate for Leadership, Project 2025

2. “Is Matt Gaetz an ‘Accomplished Attorney’?” Louis Jacobsen, Politifact (11/15/24)

3. Nayib Bukele on X: "US Congressmen visit CECOT (Center for the Confinement of Terrorism)

4. “Matt Gaetz’s 2008 DUI arrest resurfaces after jab at Hunter Biden’s substance abuse. Here’s what happened,” Tampa Bay Times (11/15/24) 

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OA1087 - We examine how the incoming President and his administration are already breaking the law with his transition team before taking on his announced intention to subvert the Constitution--and his own political party--through an unprecedented clown car of forced recess appointments. From the Defense Secretary the National Guard determined they couldn’t trust with a gun around Joe Biden to the Attorney General who just resigned from Congress to avoid the details of what he has been doing with high school students to the deputy chief of staff who is Stephen Miller, there are plenty of good reasons these freaks might not clear even a Republican Senate. Could this one weird Constitutional trick force them through? 

Finally, the world’s richest man wants to tell the federal government how to spend its money. What’s the deal with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency?

1. Harris-Walz Transition Team Ethics Plan

2. “Will Trump Pursue a Bonkers Plan to Adjourn Both Houses of Congress?,” Ed Whelan, National Review (11/13/2024)

3. House Ethics Rules (2024)

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OA1086 - We're modifying the schedule a little! Introducing fash-watch with Lydia. We're going to keep a very watchful eye on Trump's incoming government. We're starting this week with the EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and UN Ambassador Elise Stefanik.

But don't worry! After that, we're still on with Heather and the regularly scheduled bar exam failure! Make sure to find openargs on Bluesky and play T3BE there!

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OA1085 - Matt has put together a preliminary list of things Joe Biden can and should do in the lame duck period. Will he? Let's make him.

After that, we examine something that he should absolutely not do courtesy of the aspiring fascists of the National Review. As a little treat.

• Trump has made more than 100 threats to prosecute or punished perceived enemies," NPR News  (10/22/22)

• “Biden Should Pardon Trump,” Mark Antonio Wright, National Review (11/6/24)

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OA1083 - What does it mean to be a legal podcast at a time when the rule of law itself is in play? We reflect on this moment before answering a few patron questions and taking a closer look at the current state of each of the three criminal cases against Donald Trump as of this week.

• “A Sitting President’s Amenability to Indictment and Criminal Prosecution,” DOJ memo dated 10/16/2000. 

• Docket for Jack Smith’s appeal of Judge Cannon’s  11th Circuit

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Hey folks, this is more of an SIO, but I recorded a solo show because I have to debunk this myth about Kamala losing 10-15m Democratic votes. The truth is not at all that. I also have a million other thoughts that I really just want to get out there and that I hope will be helpful.

Matt and I will be back on Friday. Also, I'm not charging Patreon for this one since it's on SIO. Thanks.

Hey folks, it's bad. MAGA is on track to win everything. Matt and I got on for some unfiltered, unedited talk.

OA1083 - the last episode before the election! So Matt thought it would be a great time to give a final round up of the actual policy differences between Trump and Harris. Are these two candidates really any different?

Yes. Obviously yes. What a stupid question. First day on Earth or something?

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OA1082 - Donald Trump recently promised that he and House speaker Mike Johnson have a “little secret” about how they are going to win next week’s election. Is he just trolling, or have Republicans identified real vulnerabilities in our federal election system? We assess the legal realities surrounding one particularly doomerist prediction in The Nation to try to understand just how concerned we really should be.

The Washington Post has just revealed that Elon Musk has his own little secret: his numerous past violations of federal immigration law. How much does this matter, and what would happen if ICE received this information about someone who didn’t happen to be the world’s wealthiest person? 

Finally, for our dessert course Matt has the scoop on a tasty footnote from this week’s news about how the Librarian of Congress just helped to fix the ice cream machine at your local McDonald’s.

• “That “Little Secret” Between Trump and Johnson? Here’s What It Could Mean,” Elie Mistal  The Nation (10/29/2024)

• “Election certification under threat,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (8/12/2024)

• “Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally,” Maria Sachetti et al, The Washington Post (10/26/24)

• “Melania Trump modeled in US prior to getting work visa,” AP News (11/4/2016)

• “They Hacked McDonald’s Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War,” Andy Greenberg WIRED (4/20/2021)

• “Exemption to Prohibition on Circumvention of Copyright Protection Systems for Access Control Technologies,” U.S. Copyright Office Docket No. 2023-5 (10/28/2024)

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