you're watching the legal breakdown Glenn we just saw a move by Donald Trump that may very well be evidence of his own extortion plot Can you explain what just happened here Yeah Brian let me start by explaining very briefly what extortion is and then let's turn to the new reporting So extortion under the laws of the District of Columbia involves the following It's a criminal offense in DC to obtain something of value or compel action through threats or coercion A pretty simple definition of the crime of extortion It's also interchangeably called blackmail sometimes but it
is obtaining something of value or compelling action through threats or coercion What did Donald Trump do Donald Trump issued an executive order designed to punish a law firm a law firm called Paul Weiss And it's a Democraticleaning law firm They've represented lots of Democrats I believe including Hillary Clinton and others And Donald Trump apparently wanted to punish them So he issued an executive order saying he's going to revoke their security clearances and they can't do business with government agencies etc etc Now this is big law This is a law firm that reportedly pulled in $2
billion in 2023 So you know it's a firm that is probably understandably concerned about their bottom line and their profit margin But instead of bringing a legal challenge a lawsuit to try to combat what seems pretty obviously like a violation of your first amendment rights to free speech and to represent the clients you see fit to represent other law firms are bringing suit against similar executive orders The the head of Paul Weiss I want to make sure I get his name right his name is Brad Karp He is the chairman of the firm whose full
name is Paul Weiss Rifken Garrison and Wharton made a pilgrimage to the Oval Office met with Donald Trump and according to the reporting and to a post by Donald Trump himself They offered Donald Trump $40 million in legal services for causes that will help Donald Trump's political priorities When they offered that $40 million guess what Donald Trump did He said "I am deciding not to punish your law firm." Brian let me just ask our viewers does that sound like Donald Trump obtained something of value um through threats or coercion It feels really extortion-y to me
but that is what just happened Now the reality is that if there were to be any legal action against this it would have to be taken by the entity that was harmed which would be Paul Weiss itself And it looks like Paul Weiss far from taking legal action against Trump are perfectly content to fully bend the knee to him Yeah this is now unless there are other parties that might have standing that might be harmed by this you know apparently ugly bargain that Paul Weiss and Donald Trump just struck If they're harmed they might have
standing to bring suit but I think it unlikely You're right It really is Paul Weiss that would have to bring a legal challenge against again what feels like extortion I mean if you kind of boil it down to its basics this is like if a you know a a a county building inspector came to your house and said "Yeah I I'll uh make sure your deck or the addition to your home passes inspection if you grease my palm with $500." or if the homeowner said to the inspector "Hey I'll grease your palm with $500 if
you you know pass my deck." The inspection that's what this is right This is something that um is a misuse of the power the authority of government the president and it is something that I am shocked quite frankly that a law firm like Paul Weiss would capitulate to What does their capitulation do to the broader effort for law firms to be able to stand up against Trump I think it will inspire and embolden Donald Trump to continue to do this to even more law firms because look at what he just landed courtesy of this act
You know saying I'm going to punish Paul Weiss He got himself $40 million in free legal services Why wouldn't he continue to go after other law firms looking for the same political payday from them Good I'm going to I'm going to ask a question that I asked before but in a little bit of a different way If you have somebody like the president of the United States attempting to extort a smaller entity some an entity that they would have a lot of control over over their finances over their business it doesn't exactly seem out of
the question outside the realm of logic that they would succumb to Trump's demands because of that power imbalance and because they are the victim of that of that extortion attempt And so how could it be that it's allowed to continue without any other entity stepping in and putting a stop to it This is almost like look I'm not excusing Paul Weiss because I think that they could have very well done what Perkins Kooie is doing and actually fought this but there is a part of me that that understands that they are still the victim of
an extortion attempt And so does it does it lend itself to reason that the only entity that would be able to bring suit against against Donald Trump or this administration would be the victim of the extortion attempt who who clearly has a lot more to lose if they were to take an aggressive hostile posture Yeah A couple of layers there So first of all yeah usually law enforcement tries to protect the victims even when the victims are unwilling or unable to protect themselves It looks like Paul Weiss you know assuming this would qualify under the
elements of the crime of extortion it looks like Paul Weiss was unwilling to buck the president Maybe they didn't want to get punished even more severely Maybe they were making a costbenefit analysis and they were protecting their profit margin Shame on them if they were because this continues to degrade our democracy giving in to an aspiring dictator But ordinarily Brian and let me use another very quick analogy I handled a lot of domestic violence cases including domestic violence murder cases often the victim of the domestic violence was unwilling or unable to stand up for themselves
So even if they didn't want to bring charges we brought charges as the prosecutors to protect the victim even when the victim didn't seem to be in a position to protect themselves and to protect the balance of society against the the perpetrator But so when the victims are unable or unwilling to protect themselves you know who's supposed to protect them law enforcement Who would that be in this instance Would it would it be the DOJ in this instance The FBI the federal prosecutors It would be the Department of Justice But do you really think Pam
Bondi Emil Bo Todd Blanch and those of their ilk Trump lawyers all are going to step up and put a stop to anything that Donald Trump is doing that might cross a legal line Not going to happen But can I shift my eye and my complaint for just a minute to mainstream media Brian Yeah Because when I saw this story reported out this morning I made the mistake of turning on cable news And I actually saw people saying things like well you know this is a really unconventional negotiation that Donald Trump is undertaking punishing a
law firm receiving $40 million in legal services and saying "Oh well then I won't punish you anymore." This is a really unconventional form of negotiation by a president Brian that would be like saying if Donald Trump was out on the White House lawn shooting and killing people if the media reported that as a really unconventional um form of population control no it would be murder It would be a crime And this as I say looks a lot like the crime of extortion when you drill down and look at the legal elements of extortion Well look
I mean that is that is the perfect encapsulation of the ways in which our media has normalized not just this event but so much of what Trump has done before So if I could take a quick moment to ask folks who are watching right now if you want to support the work that we do uh support independent media more broadly please make sure to subscribe to both of our channels Glenn is fast on his way to a million subscribers So if you haven't yet subscribed yet to his YouTube channel please go ahead and do that
Glenn what what message would you send then to the clients of Paul Weiss who look they they have autonomy They can choose where to give their business in light of the fact that Paul Weiss decided not to stand up in very much the same way that other law firms are standing up to this administration but to capitulate and make it more difficult for the law firms who are actually fighting this thing and embolden Trump even further to think hey what I'm doing is okay basically this brand new um legalized form of extortion by virtue of
the fact that his cronies in the DOJ are too chicken to do anything about it You know Brian Paul Weiss has done that firm has done a lot of great work Um they have I think a thousand or more lawyers across their several offices and I'm sure you know most of them are are excellent lawyers and ethical professionals you know the the problem becomes um what message are you sending to potential clients who are wondering if they want to retain your services to fight their battles particularly to fight their battles against the federal government that
every day is involved in abuse overreach corruption and outright criminality Um do those clients decide that they're going to throw in their legal lot with a Paul Weiss or they are they going to go to a Perkins Kuey or another firm that has opted to stand up uh against this kind of you know autocracy that Donald Trump is practicing I'm not going to say you know boycott this firm or boycott that firm Um but I think clients need to make informed decisions about what you know what kind of a law firm they want to plug
into Is it they want one that stands up to uh dictatorship autocracy and tyranny or one that lays down in the face of those things And you know Glenn I I think the most um the most telling part of all of this is that we're seeing Trump employ these practices not just as it relates to big law but also as it relates to the media We've obviously seen you know CBS uh ABC lay down in the face of Trump uh these tech billionaires Shu at Tik Tok Mark Zuckerberg at Meta I mean everybody who he
beckons over to the White House immediately crawls over there and and offers him whatever concessions they want We've seen it in the entertainment aspect of things with uh Amazon spending $40 million on on a on a Melania biopic that I'm sure people are falling over themselves to watch And in just arena after arena after arena Trump is showing that he is willing to extort every single entity that he comes across But almost worse than that is the fact that so many of these entities are willing to be extorted as opposed to recognizing the power that
they would hold by virtue of banding together basically And yet rather than do that which would not only make them stronger but also push back in the face of this overt tyranny that you just referenced they've opted to you know cow in the face of Trump instead Yeah I mean the question will be asked where were you when Trump came first for the immigrants came for the LGBTQ community came for big law came for big tech Where were you Were you standing up Were you laying down Were you on the sidelines not wanting to get
involved in the fight for a healthy indeed a viable American democracy Where were you I think people need to stand up and fight And that's why you know Brian not to toot our own horn you know we are independent media We don't have corporate sponsorship We don't have bosses giving us editorial direction about what we can say what we can't say what story we can cover and what story we shouldn't cover because it might anger somebody We're just calling it the way it is giving people accurate information that hopefully they can use to make decisions
in their own lives about what they want to do in the face of what Donald Trump is doing to so many He is hurting so many people And if we're not standing strong standing together and standing up to it well then we're all going to fall Perfectly put Again if you want to support the work that we're doing right now please make sure to subscribe The links to both of our channels right here on the screen I'm Brian Tyler Cohen And I'm Glenn Kersner You're watching the Legal Breakdown [Music]
