Transcription
As promised. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland. He's the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. He is a real legal nerd and the best possible way. So you were just telling me during the 92nd break, you've been kind of digging through to pass precedent of these kind of cases. Yeah. Tell me what you learned.
Well, he filed an administrative complaint. Understand? No judge, no courtroom. No lawsuit, no jury. This is all a backroom operation behind closed doors. He files.
The administrative.
Complaint, gets into office now, he appoints to the two department.
Of Justice.
Positions people who were his own personal lawyers, who are the ones who.
Are going to.
Be deciding this?
Todd Blanche being one of them.
Todd Blanche.
Being the.
Deputy Attorney General.
He's going.
To get.
To decide this. It's all.
Behind the scenes. Nobody is representing the people here, the taxpayers who have to pay for this thing. And then what's extraordinary is what is in there. And remember, he's suing for stuff like. They executed.
A judicial.
Search warrant.
At his house.
At.
Mar-a-Lago.
Yeah, that's what happens hundreds of thousands.
Of.
Times a year.
There are.
Legal search.
Warrants executed.
At people's house, and you can't bring a claim for $75 million for punitive.
Damages for something like that. First of all, the federal Tort Claims Act doesn't even allow for punitive damages. But he threw in $75 million in punitive damages. To punish.
The government.
For what?
For following.
The law. For getting judicial search warrant. And, you know, in a case like that. So he's asking for outlandish sums of money. One of the cases.
That.
Came up was. The Larry Nassar case. And of course. He had sexually abused and assaulted. Hundreds of student athletes at Michigan. Well, all of those people together got $100 million. Less than what Donald Trump is asking for in secret behind closed doors. So what he's doing to the White.
House this.
Week is what he's doing to.
The.
Constitution and the rule of law. It's an absolute bulldozer.
Now, on top of.
All that, it's unconstitutional. Why? Because Article.
Two.
Section one, clause seven of the Constitution. Says the President is entitled.
To his official salary and.
Not a dollar more.
And not.
A dollar less. Congress can't reduce his salary. Congress can't increase his salary. He can't take any other.
Money.
He can't get this money.
No, he can't take this money because it's coming from federal agencies and federal agencies and departments can't give him a dollar, nor can the states do it. But just like he blew right past the foreign emoluments clause and.
Is.
Still doing it, like with that $400 million airplane gift from Qatar, he thinks that he can just.
Take $230.
Million from the American taxpayers. So, you know, America has got to rise up on a bipartisan, transpartisan, nonpartisan.
Basis to.
Say no, this cuts against one of the central pillars of the Constitution, which is the presidency, is not a money-making operation for the guy who gets it in for his family.
It seems crazy that people wouldn't. It's almost like an unbelievable headline. I learned another thing from you yesterday or this morning. It's all running together. Just that this could be. And you referenced this confidential. I mean, that we wouldn't know if Todd, Blanche, his lackeys who represented him as criminal defense lawyers and are in position of making the decision if they decide, yeah, you can have $230 million. We wouldn't necessarily publicly know until the end of the year.
That's right.
That is crazy. We wouldn't know until we get some kind of accounting of their disbursements that also could be kept secret. And of course, we're dealing with a lawless administration, so they might sweep the entire thing under the rug. For all we know, they've already entered into this settlement. He's already gotten a payment. We don't.
Know what has happened here. Somebody obviously leaked the fact that he was trying to shake down the taxpayers for $230 million, and was so outraged by it, they went to the press with it. And, you know, it's one more outrage in a week of outrages against.
The.
Rule of law and against the Constitution. But the people have really got to blow the whistle on this.
I mean, we're dealing.
With a Marie Antoinette type situation. They're bulldozing the White House to.
Create a.
Ballroom for billionaires and CEOs and oligarchs while they're taking health care and nutrition away from families, throwing, you know, lots of people off their health insurance plans across the country. And then meantime, he decides he's also going to be shaking down the taxpayers for $230 million for punitive damages, which.
Aren't even.
Allowed under the statute that he.
Filed his little.
Administrative complaint with. By the way, they searched Mar-a-Lago because he was keeping classified documents in his gold-laden bathroom. So there's that also.
And we've.
Got pictures of. And we have pictures.
Let me ask you about the White House being bulldozed. It is I just it's like a gut punch. It's so horrifying to see and watch just on a human level. It's the people's house. I've been getting calls all day from. I can only imagine people just feel emotionally tied as they should. It feels crazy that this is legal. What, is it there? Is it legal?
There are so many things that have happened that never would have happened before, because the prior presidents have respected basic norms and values. Any major construction.
Or.
Renovation of the.
White House.
Has gone through a process, has gone through Congress. Of course, they blew right past that and decided they were just going to do it on their own. And lots of people are saying, well, isn't this illegal, what he's doing?
Isn't it criminal?
And we're still searching the statutes.
I mean, he is violating.
So many. Basic precepts and values of our Constitution and rule of law that we haven't even embodied them in statutes. I mean, that's the problem with the foreign government emoluments act. He got this $400 million airplane from the, you know, autocrats of Qatar. And people are saying, can he do that? Well, no, he can't do it. But we don't actually have a statutory system in place to enforce that constitutional command. Now, once the Democrats get the Congress back, we are going to legislate that so that any president who receives anything from any foreign prince, king, dictator or government will have to report it within 48 hours, and then Congress will have to rule on it within a week. No president has ever gone anywhere near what Donald Trump has done in terms of taking foreign gifts. You know, Abraham Lincoln got some elephant tusks from the King of Siam in the middle of.
The Civil.
War.
And he wanted to.
Keep it.
And he turned it over to Congress and.
Sent a letter saying, I.
Really love these elephant tusks. Can I keep them? And Congress said, you're doing a great job.
In the.
Civil War, Honest Abe. But no, you can't.
Keep.
No, give back the.
Elephant tusks. Meantime, we.
Got this.
Guy pocketing.
Hundreds of millions.
Of dollars from Saudi Arabia, from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Indonesia, you name it. And they are out there at home. They're talking America First. They're abroad taking all kinds of gifts.