Justice Matters with Glenn Kirschner

Bill Barr is on his reputation rehabilitation tour. In an interview with the Today Show's Savannah Guthrie, Barr talks about the evidence of Donald Trump's criminal intent in connection with trying to corruptly overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. There is no question but that the Department of Justice should subpoena Bill Barr to the grand jury in a criminal investigation of Do...

The Daily Beast reported that New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg is refusing to release the resignation letters submitted by the two top prosecutors - Pomerantz and Dunne - who had been assigned to the Trump Organization prosecution and the criminal investigation into Donald Trump himself. Reports are that the letters criticize DA Bragg for his refusal to focus on the case in a timely manner a...

The first criminal trial of a defendant charged with attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, kicked off in DC federal district court on Monday, February 28, 2022. The defendant, Guy Reffitt, is charged with five felonies, including obstructing an official congressional proceeding, carrying a firearm and obstruction justice by threatening his own child in an attempt to prevent them from turnin...

The Manhattan District Attorney's Officer had been steadily moving forward in its criminal investigation of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump. Indeed, that office indicted both the Trump Organization and Donald Trump's Chief Financial Officer Alan Weisselberg for charges including a 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud in the first degree. But with the arrival of the newly elected Distric...

In yet another display of overt criminality, former President Donald Trump issued a written statement acknowledging that he wanted Vice President Mike Pence to "overturn" the presidential election. This video discusses: 1. Why Trump likely made this admission 2. Why his claim that Pence had the authority to "overturn" the election's result is unconvincing and 3. What the Department of Justice shou...

Representative Bennie Thompson, the Chairman of the House select committee investigating the insurrection, disclosed yesterday that the committee has been speaking with former Attorney General Bill Barr. Importantly, there had ben no reporting - no leaks - of this fact prior to Rep. Thompson's disclosure. What lessons can we take away from the fact that a congressional committee can conduct a high...

Matt Gaetz is being investigated by the Department of Justice for possible sex trafficking and obstruction of justice offenses. CBS News has reported that an ex-girlfriend of Gaetz has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors and has testified before a grand jury. This spells real trouble for Gaetz. This video reviews how, when and why prosecutors grant immunity to witnesses and how things mig...

Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke directly and at length about the investigation into the attempted overthrow of our democracy on January 6. Garland pointedly said the Department of Justice will hold accountable all January 6 perpetrators "at any level", whether they were present at the Capitol" on January 6 or not. AG Garland also invoked the Watergate scandal and said that, on the accountab...

2021 started with Donald Trump, on January 6, directing his supporters to go to the US Capitol and "stop" the certification of the election's results. Of course, he told them to stop the "steal", which provides definitive proof that Trump was lying to inspire and incite the attack, as his own administration officials and agencies said the election was not stolen. But if 2021 was the year of The Bi...

Donald Trump is famous/infamous for using the courts for his own nefarious purposes - bringing baseless lawsuits to weaponize the delay in the court system and run out the clock. After losing in both the trial and appellate courts, Trump is now seeking to enlist the Supreme Court in his attempt to hide from the House select committee information in the possession of the National Archives regarding...

It seems like justice is suspended in amber these days, unable to move one way or the other. If we look at some of the timeframes we've been waiting for justice - 15 days, 53 days, 244 days - it's pretty apparent that the law presently has a perception problem. This video discusses how long the American people have been made to wait for justice and how the wait impacts the perception of the law. F...

Donald Trump recently announced that he intends to hold a press conference on January 6, the one-year anniversary of the deadly attack on the US Capitol by Trump's supporters. This, while the Department of Justice is prosecuting more than 700 Trump supporters who participated in the insurrection. Notably, many of the defendants have claimed both in and out of court that they acted as they did on J...

On December 13, 2021, the United States Supreme Court refused to accept for review the case of United States v. Steven Begani. Begani is a retired military officer who was restored to active duty and court-martialed. He appealed his conviction, ultimately to the US Supreme Court, arguing that it was not proper to court-martial a retired officer under the circumstances of his case. The Supreme Cour...

The New York Times reported that the House select committee is considering making criminal referrals to the Department of Justice of Donald Trump and others who may have criminal liability for the insurrection. Here is a review of what criminal referrals are, how DOJ has handled prior criminal referrals by Congress, and what it signals that the committee is contemplating referring Trump for a crim...

Roger Stone appeared before the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol to testify. But rather than testify, Roger Stone pled the 5th - he invoked his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination - and refused to testify. The question will now turn to the topic of immunity: should Congress immunize to Stone and force him to testify. Recall that Stone was convicted previ...

Congress just voted to hold Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress and refer him to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. This means today is day 1 of "Mark Meadows - Indictment Watch." It took DOJ 22 days to indict Steve Bannon for his crime of contempt of Congress. This video discusses the reasons why DOJ's decision whether to indict Meadows is an...

In a remarkably blunt, clear-eyed and forceful legal opinion, a unanimous three-judge panel of the DC Federal Court of Appeals rejected Trump's efforts to hide deeply damaging documents from the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. Judge Patricia Millett, writing for the panel, stated that there is "a direct linkage between the former president and the events of" January 6. Imp...

It was reported today that the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol has postponed the depositions of Mike Flynn and Trump aide Nicholas Luna. What, if anything, should be taken away from this decision to reschedule this testimony? The disgraced, traitorous Mike Flynn is a household name but Trump aide and "body man" Nicholas Luna is not. This video addresses: 1. who is...

Two big stories just broke on the legal front: according to reporting in the Guardian, Trump called his "lieutenants" at the Willard Hotel shortly before the attack on the Capitol, expressed his concern that Mike Pence was not coming through for him, and asked how else they could block the certification of Joe Biden's election win. This is yet additional evidence of Trump participation in a robust...

In recent days there has been reporting about attempts by Bannon's defense attorneys to convince a judge to allow them to distribute to the public the discovery given over by the prosecutors in Bannon's criminal case for contempt of Congress. This video discusses the common practice of courts to issue protective orders regarding discovery in criminal cases and what Steve Bannon is really trying to...

The Washington Post reported that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is now investigating Donald Trump's manipulation of property values, presumably to dodge tax liability. Recently released city property and tax records reveal that Trump claimed for one purpose that his building at 40 Wall Street was worth $527 million and then turned around and, for tax purposes, reported that the same bui...

A Wisconsin jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of all charges for shooting three individuals, killing two. This video discusses the possible reasons for the verdict and some of the lessons we should learn from the nature of self-defense laws and the dangers posed by our country's determination to worship at the altar on unrestricted gun access. Link below for my MSNBC Daily opinion piece on th...

On the exact same day Steve Bannon was criminally indicted for contempt of Congress, Mark Meadows refused to appear in violation of a congressional subpoena, thereby committing the crime of . . . contempt of Congress. Congress must now vote to hold Meadows in contempt and refer him for prosecution. This video reviews the way subpoenas work, how one goes about LAWFULLY asserting a privilege (spoile...

A federal grand jury indicted Steve Bannon on two criminal contempt of Congress charges. Here is what to expect moving forward, from Monday's presentment in court to possible plea nogotiaons with prosecutors to trial and sentencing. This video also discusses why it took 22 days for the DC US Attorney's Office to indict Bannon. Plus, with Mark Meadows committing the very same crime today by refusin...

Over the past 24 hours, the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol issued 14 subpoenas for Trump aids, assistants, loyalists, sycophants and a smattering of co-conspirators. Issuing subpoenas is easy, enforcing subpoenas has turned out to be hard. We are on day 19 of Steven Bannon indictment watch and no DOJ indictment in sight. Now more that ever, DOJ must act to hold B...