BREAKING: Trump caught in bombshell EXTORTION attempt

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Legal Breakdown episode 490: @GlennKirschner2 discusses Trump's extortion attempt against law firms.  For more from Brian Tyler Cohen: Straight-news titled YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@briantylercohennews YouTube (español): https://www.youtube.com/@briantylercohenespanol Order my #1 NYT bestselling book: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/shameless Newsletter: https://plus.briantylercohen.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/briantylercohen Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36UvEHs Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0066rKCBIycIMI4os6Ec5V Twitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohen Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohen TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@briantylercohen Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/briantylercohen.bsky.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@briantylercohen

Transcript

00:00You're watching The Legal Breakdown.

00:01Glenn, we just saw a move by Donald Trump that may very well be evidence of his own

00:05extortion plot.

00:07Can you explain what just happened here?

00:08Yeah, Brian, let me start by explaining very briefly what extortion is, and then let's

00:14turn to the new reporting.

00:16So extortion, under the laws of the District of Columbia, involves the following.

00:22It's a criminal offense in D.C. to obtain something of value or compel action through

00:29threats or coercion.

00:31A pretty simple definition of the crime of extortion.

00:35It's also interchangeably called blackmail sometimes.

00:39But it is obtaining something of value or compelling action through threats or coercion.

00:45What did Donald Trump do?

00:47Donald Trump issued an executive order designed to punish a law firm, a law firm called Paul

00:54Weiss.

00:55And it's a Democratic-leaning law firm.

00:58They've represented lots of Democrats, I believe including Hillary Clinton and others.

01:04And Donald Trump apparently wanted to punish them, so he issued an executive order saying

01:09he's going to revoke their security clearances and they can't do business with government

01:13agencies, et cetera, et cetera.

01:15Now this is big law.

01:16This is a law firm that reportedly pulled in $2 billion in 2023.

01:22So you know, it's a firm that is probably understandably concerned about their bottom

01:27line and their profit margin.

01:29But instead of bringing a legal challenge, a lawsuit to try to combat what seems pretty

01:36obviously like a violation of your First Amendment rights to free speech and to represent the

01:42clients you see fit to represent, other law firms are bringing suit against similar executive

01:49orders.

01:50The head of Paul Weiss, I want to make sure I get his name right, his name is Brad Karp.

01:58He is the chairman of the firm whose full name is Paul Weiss Rifkin Garrison and Wharton

02:04made a pilgrimage to the Oval Office, met with Donald Trump, and according to the reporting

02:12and to a post by Donald Trump himself, they offered Donald Trump $40 million in legal

02:21services for causes that will help Donald Trump's political priorities.

02:27When they offered that $40 million, guess what Donald Trump did?

02:31He said, I am deciding not to punish your law firm.

02:36Brian, let me just ask our viewers, does that sound like Donald Trump obtained something

02:42of value through threats or coercion?

02:47It feels really extortion-y to me, but that is what just happened.

02:54Now the reality is that if there were to be any legal action against this, it would have

02:58to be taken by the entity that was harmed, which would be Paul Weiss itself.

03:04And it looks like Paul Weiss, far from taking legal action against Trump, are perfectly

03:08content to fully bend the knee to him.

03:11Yeah, this is now, unless there are other parties that might have standing that might

03:16be harmed by this apparently ugly bargain that Paul Weiss and Donald Trump just struck.

03:23If they're harmed, they might have standing to bring suit, but I think it unlikely.

03:27You're right.

03:28It really is Paul Weiss that would have to bring a legal challenge against, again, what

03:33feels like extortion.

03:35I mean, if you kind of boil it down to its basics, this is like if a county building

03:42inspector came to your house and said, yeah, I'll make sure your deck or the addition to

03:49your home passes inspection if you grease my palm with $500.

03:54Or if the homeowner said to the inspector, hey, I'll grease your palm with $500 if you

04:00pass my deck, the inspection.

04:03That's what this is, right?

04:05This is something that is a misuse of the power, the authority of government, the president.

04:13And it is something that I am shocked, quite frankly, that a law firm like Paul Weiss would

04:18capitulate to.

04:20What does their capitulation do to the broader effort for law firms to be able to stand up

04:25against Trump?

04:26I think it will inspire and embolden Donald Trump to continue to do this to even more

04:33law firms, because look at what he just landed courtesy of this act, you know, saying, I'm

04:39going to punish Paul Weiss.

04:42He got himself $40 million in free legal services.

04:46Why wouldn't he continue to go after other law firms looking for the same political payday

04:52from them?

04:53I'm going to ask a question that I asked before, but in a little bit of a different way.

04:57If you have somebody like the president of the United States attempting to extort a smaller

05:03entity, an entity that they would have a lot of control over, over their finances, over

05:07their business, it doesn't exactly seem out of the question, outside the realm of logic,

05:13that they would succumb to Trump's demands because of that power imbalance and because

05:17they are the victim of that extortion attempt.

05:20And so how could it be that it's allowed to continue without any other entity stepping

05:26in and putting a stop to it?

05:28This is almost like, look, I'm not excusing Paul Weiss because I think that they could

05:32have very well done what Perkins Cooey is doing and actually fought this.

05:35But there is a part of me that, that understands that they are still the victim of an extortion

05:39attempt.

05:40And so does it, does it lend itself to reason that the only entity that would be able to

05:44bring suit against, against Donald Trump or this administration would be the victim of

05:49the extortion attempt who, who clearly has a lot more to lose if they were to take an

05:53aggressive, hostile posture?

05:54Yeah, a couple of layers there.

05:56So first of all, yeah, usually law enforcement tries to protect the victims even when the

06:03victims are unwilling or unable to protect themselves.

06:07It looks like Paul Weiss, you know, assuming this would qualify under the elements of the

06:13crime of extortion, it looks like Paul Weiss was unwilling to buck the president.

06:19Maybe they didn't want to get punished even more severely.

06:22Maybe they were making a cost benefit analysis and they were protecting their profit margin.

06:28Shame on them if they were, because this continues to degrade our democracy, giving in to an

06:35aspiring dictator.

06:37But ordinarily, Brian, and let me use another very quick analogy.

06:40I handled a lot of domestic violence cases, including domestic violence murder cases.

06:45Often the victim of the domestic violence was unwilling or unable to stand up for themselves.

06:52So even if they didn't want to bring charges, we brought charges as the prosecutors to protect

06:57the victim, even when the victim didn't seem to be in a position to protect themselves

07:02and to protect the balance of society against the perpetrator.

07:07But so when the victims are unable or unwilling to protect themselves, you know who's supposed

07:13to protect them?

07:14Law enforcement.

07:15Who would that be in this instance?

07:17Would it be the DOJ in this instance?

07:19The FBI, the federal prosecutors.

07:21It would be the Department of Justice.

07:24But do you really think Pam Bondi, Emil Bove, Todd Blanche, and those of their ilk Trump

07:32lawyers all are going to step up and put a stop to anything that Donald Trump is doing

07:37that might cross a legal line?

07:41Not going to happen.

07:42But can I shift my ire and my complaint for just a minute to mainstream media, Brian?

07:49Because when I saw this story reported out this morning, I made the mistake of turning

07:54on cable news.

07:56And I actually saw people saying things like, well, you know, this is a really unconventional

08:03negotiation that Donald Trump is undertaking, punishing a law firm, receiving $40 million

08:10in legal services and saying, oh, well, then I won't punish you anymore.

08:14This is a really unconventional form of negotiation by a president.

08:19Brian, that would be like saying if Donald Trump was out on the White House lawn shooting

08:24and killing people, if the media reported that as a really unconventional form of population

08:31control.

08:32No, it would be murder.

08:34It would be a crime.

08:36And this, as I say, looks a lot like the crime of extortion when you drill down and look

08:42at the legal elements of extortion.

08:44Well, look, I mean, that is that is the perfect encapsulation of the ways in which our media

08:51has normalized not just this event, but so much of what Trump has done before.

08:55So if I could take a quick moment to ask folks who are watching right now, if you want to

08:59support the work that we do, support independent media more broadly, please make sure to subscribe

09:03to both of our channels.

09:04Glenn is fast on his way to a million subscribers.

09:07So if you haven't yet subscribed yet to his YouTube channel, please go ahead and do that.

09:12Glenn, what what message would you send then to the clients of Paul Weiss who look, they

09:18have autonomy, they can choose where to give their business in light of the fact that Paul

09:23Weiss decided not to stand up in very much the same way that other law firms are standing

09:28up to this administration, but to capitulate and make it more difficult for the law firms

09:34who are actually fighting this thing and embolden Trump even further to think, hey, what I'm

09:38doing is OK.

09:40It's basically this brand new legalized form of extortion by virtue of the fact that his

09:46cronies in the DOJ are too chicken shit to do anything about it.

09:49You know, Brian, Paul Weiss has done that firm has done a lot of great work.

09:54They have, I think, a thousand or more lawyers across their several offices.

09:59And I'm sure, you know, most of them are excellent lawyers and ethical professionals.

10:04You know, the problem becomes what message are you sending to potential clients who are

10:12wondering if they want to retain your services to fight their battles, particularly to fight

10:18their battles against the federal government that every day is involved in abuse, overreach,

10:24corruption and outright criminality?

10:28Do those clients decide that they're going to throw in their legal lot with a Paul Weiss

10:34or are they going to go to a Perkins Coie or another firm that has opted to stand up

10:40against this kind of, you know, autocracy that Donald Trump is practicing?

10:47I'm not going to say, you know, boycott this firm or boycott that firm.

10:52But I think clients need to make informed decisions about what, you know, what kind

10:56of a law firm they want to plug into.

10:59Is it they want one that stands up to dictatorship, autocracy and tyranny or one that lays down

11:05in the face of those things?

11:07And, you know, Glenn, I think the most the most telling part of all of this is that we're

11:12seeing Trump employ these practices, not just as it relates to big law, but also as it relates

11:18to the media.

11:19We've obviously seen, you know, CBS, ABC lay down in the face of Trump.

11:25These tech billionaires, Shu at TikTok, Mark Zuckerberg at Meta, I mean, everybody who

11:30he beckons over to the White House immediately crawls over there and offers him whatever

11:36concessions they want.

11:37We've seen it in the entertainment aspect of things with Amazon spending $40 million

11:42on a Melania biopic that I'm sure people are falling over themselves to watch.

11:49And in just arena after arena after arena, Trump is showing that he is willing to extort

11:55every single entity that he comes across.

11:58But almost worse than that is the fact that so many of these entities are willing to be

12:03extorted as opposed to recognizing the power that they would hold by virtue of banding

12:08together basically.

12:09And yet rather than do that, which would not only make them stronger, but also push back

12:14in the face of this overt tyranny that you just referenced, they've opted to, you know,

12:19cow in the face of Trump instead.

12:20Yeah.

12:21I mean, the question will be asked, where were you when Trump came first for the immigrants,

12:27came for the LGBTQ community, came for big law, came for big tech?

12:34Where were you?

12:35Were you standing up?

12:36Were you laying down?

12:37Were you on the sidelines, not wanting to get involved in the fight for a healthy, indeed

12:43a viable American democracy?

12:45Where were you?

12:46I think people need to stand up and fight.

12:49And that's why, you know, Brian, not to toot our own horn, you know, we are independent

12:53media.

12:54We don't have corporate sponsorship.

12:55We don't have bosses giving us editorial direction about what we can say, what we can't say,

13:01what story we can cover and what story we shouldn't cover because it might anger somebody.

13:06We're just calling it the way it is, giving people accurate information that hopefully

13:11they can use to make decisions in their own lives about what they want to do in the face

13:16of what Donald Trump is doing to so many.

13:19He is hurting so many people.

13:22And if we're not standing strong, standing together and standing up to it, well, then

13:27we're all going to fall.

13:28Perfectly put.

13:29Again, if you want to support the work that we're doing right now, please make sure to

13:32subscribe to the links to both of our channels right here on the screen.

13:34I'm Brian Taylor Cohen.

13:36And I'm Glenn Kirshner.

13:37You're watching The Legal Breakdown.

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