Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner

In this special January 6th Anniversary podcast - Glenn discusses the Supreme Court which has announced that it will decide whether insurrectionist Donald Trump is disqualified from holding office again under section 3 of the 14th Amendment, or whether someone who has been found after a trial to have engaged in an insurrection against the United States can nevertheless serve as president again. Th...

Donald Trump is as transparent as child when it comes to what he tries to accomplish with his lies, his disinformation, and his propaganda. For example, when he posts lies like, "the prosecutors are not coming after me, they're coming after you," it's a rallying cry designed to dupe his followers into feeling like they have a personal stake in the Trump prosecutions. Of course, the reality is that...

We've seen this movie before: some government official, some prosecutor, some law enforcement agent does something to hold Donald Trump accountable for his crimes, and Trump posts things about the person designed to inspire his supporters to threats and violence against that person. Most recently, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows followed Maine's elections laws and her oath of office, and d...

As the 50 states continue to decide the question of whether Donald Trump should be disqualified from state election ballots pursuant to the 14th Amendment because he engaged in insurrection against the United States, it looks like one conservative Supreme Court Justice ruled on that issue previously. In the ruling handed down by the Colorado Supreme Court disqualifying Trump from the presidential...

The States have been, well . . . all over the map (pun intended) on whether Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from being on the presidential ballot because he engaged in an insurrection. Glenn surveys the laws and the state of play in Colorado, Michigan, California, and Maine, regarding Trump's status as a presidential candidate. He also projects what he thinks the US Supreme Court mig...

Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed a Motion In Limine, seeking to have Judge Tanya Chutkan prohibit Trump's lawyers from making improper arguments to the jury during his criminal trial in DC. As The Washington Post reported, "Special counsel asks D.C. judge to bar Trump misinformation at trial." Glenn discusses the law that applies to such motions in limine, and reviews the laundry list of "don'...

The Michigan Supreme Court has refused to review a case that sought to ban Donald Trump from having his name placed on the Republican primary ballot in Michigan. This ruling is unsurprising given the unique election laws and procedures in Michigan. If the Michigan Republican Party wants to place a name on its presidential primary ballot, it can put any name it likes, including someone who may othe...

There is both concern and confusion over exactly what it means that the US Supreme Court refused to accept review - on an accelerated basis - of Donald Trump's (baseless) claim of absolute presidential immunity from prosecution. Glenn does a deep dive on what this Supreme Court decision means; what it doesn't mean; and the reasons he thinks the Supreme Court will ultimately reject Trump's claim th...

In part 3 of Glenn's interview with Frank Figliuzzi - they discuss Frank's written peace for MSNBC titled, "These strangers protecting MLK's birthplace have a lesson for all of us." Glenn says "It's time for us all to spring into action to fight for our democracy". They also take on some lighter subjects: favorite sports teams, favorite bands, and favorite drinks. Link for Frank's MSNBC piece: htt...

As a former career FBI agent and official who served as the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi is the preeminent national security and counterintelligence analyst on cable news. In part 2 of Glenn's interview, they discusses the progress of the many criminal prosecutions of Donald Trump. For information about a justice-themed cruise Frank and I are co-hostng this comin...

As a former career FBI agent and official who served as the FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence, Frank Figliuzzi is the preeminent national security and counterintelligence analyst on cable news. In part 1 of Glenn's three-part interview with Frank, he discusses Frank's book, "The FBI Way," his experience working at the Public Defender Service before deciding on a career in law enforcem...

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained and published letters of "apology" from some of Donald Trump's co-conspirators/co-defendants in his Georgia state RICO case, under the headline, "Exclusive: Apology letters surface in Fulton Trump case." The apology letters authored by defendants Sidney Powell and Keneth Chesebro are embarrassing in their lack of anything that approaches genuine remorse fo...

Judge Tanya Chutkan has ruled that presidents are not kings, presidents are not above the law, and Donald Trump CAN be prosecuted for the crimes he committed while in office. Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed motions seeking an expedited review of Judge Chutkan's ruling in two courts simultaneously: the D.C. federal circuit court of appeals AND the US Supreme Court. Glenn says this podcast is a...

In the event anyone thought Donald Trump's criminal defense attorneys would stop filing absurd court pleadings, here's the new headline from NBC News: "You're a mean one, Mr. Smith: Trump attorneys call special counsel the Grinch in court filing." Glenn says Trump's lawyers apparently think irreverence and insurrection go hand-in-hand. They're wrong. Then, A federal jury in Washington, DC returned...

Rudy Giuliani told vile, racist, dangerous, and defamatory lies about Georgia state election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman. Staggeringly, even after Giuliani admitted, in a court filing in the case, that he lied and defamed the two women, he went on to lie and defame them 20 more times, as the plaintiffs' lawyer highlighted to the jury during closing arguments. The jury decided Giuliani must...

Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed an unusual request - asking the Supreme Court to swiftly take up the issue of Donald Trump's claim that he can't be prosecuted for the crimes he committed while president. Smith wants to leapfrog the case over the DC federal circuit court of appeals and have the Supreme Court resolve the issue quickly so the case can proceed to trial on schedule by March 4th. (...

Donald Trump and his lawyers incessantly claimed that Donald Trump would take the stand in his own defense at his New York fraud trial. In fact, in recent days, Trump lawyer Alina Habba said Trump absolutely will testify because "he is not a coward." But Trump punked out, and decided not to testify in his own defense. Glenn says "I guess we know what that makes Trump in Habba's estimation." If you...

The Colorado Supreme Court has heard oral arguments on whether the 14th Amendment's disqualification clause means Trump will have his name taken off the presidential ballot. Glenn reviews some of the arguments made by the parties and highlights some of the absurd positions taken by Trump's lawyers. For example: they are claiming that the January 6th attack on the US Capitol wasn't really an insurr...

This time in our longform weekend podcast - Glenn runs down the legal stories of the week. First, Donald Trump said during Sean Hannity's interview - if he's elected - he'll be a dictator on day one. Even worse, he just put something in a new court filing in his criminal case in DC that indicates he also intends to act like a dictator in his criminal case - deciding legal issues himself rathe...

In a new court filing, Special Counsel Jack Smith reveals that one of Donald Trump's co-conspirators worked to initiate a riot in Detroit, Michigan, at a location where votes were being counted, when it looked like Joe Biden was pulling into the lead in the vote count. Glenn discusses the law of co-conspirator statements and why this evidence is directly and sharply incriminating of Donald Trump h...

Today it's a mixed bag for legal stories: 1. The New York appellate court reimposed the gag order Judge Engoron placed on Donald Trump in an effort to stop Trump from endangering the court staff. Glenn thinks the gag order should be broader. 2. Newly disclosed text messages between Rep. Scott "Pardon Me" Perry and Trump co-conspirator/co-defendant Jeffrey Clark reveal that Perry was in the thick o...

This extended Justice Matters podcast does a deep dive into the new ruling by Judge Tanya Chutkan rejecting Donald Trump's motion to dismiss his DC case, claiming he has "absolute presidential immunity" against being prosecuted for his crimes and that the double-jeopardy clause of the Constitution prohibits him from being prosecuted. Judge Chutkan's written opinion is important reading, and may he...

In our longform weekend podcast Glenn runs down his legal recap stories of the week. He begins with the new reporting that Jennifer Little, one of Donald Trump's current lawyers, told a grand jury overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith that within days of the DOJ issuing a subpoena last year for all the classified documents Trump had at his Florida home, she "very clearly" warned the former p...

As reported by The Guardian, "Georgia Prosecutors Oppose Plea Deals for Trump, Meadows and Giuliani." Glenn discusses why this is an important clue about how confident Fani Willis is and also why it's a necessary development. Notes and links for singer/songwriter Derek Jones: Canadian singer/songwriter Derek Jones has been passionate about writing and performing original music for most of his life...

Donald Trump has five trials pending against him. It's actually not that unusual for career criminals to have multiple cases pending against them simultaneously in multiple jurisdictions. But what happens when those trials overlap or are set so close together that they risk bumping into one another. Glenn takes on the issue of the many trials of Donald Trump and how they are likely to play out on...