Editor’s Note:
Yesterday, All Rise News covered Trump’s criminal appeal inside a Manhattan federal court, and I will soon cover Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s detention hearing in Nashville, Tenn.
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One of the most remarkable aspects of Donald Trump’s criminal appeal yesterday was what did not happen in court — at least publicly.
During a Substack Live following Trump’s criminal appeal on Wednesday, former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann noted something unusual about the legal brief submitted by the Justice Department on Trump’s behalf. The docket did not seem to have any notice of recusal from Trump’s former criminal defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove.
Both of those attorneys represented Trump throughout his six-week criminal trial, sitting next to Trump every day at the defense table. Trump rewarded them with senior positions inside the Justice Department. Blanche is now Deputy Attorney General, and Bove currently serves as Blanche’s deputy.
“Those are really important positions,” Weissmann noted. “They’re not just personal counsel for Donald Trump as a criminal defendant, but they were personal counsel for Donald Trump as a criminal defendant in this very case that we’re talking about. So one of the things that you would expect is there should be something where they publicly say they have recused themselves from this case, and they may have done that internally, but I'm not aware of anything publicly.”
Weissmann noted that, in a reverse situation, a former defense attorney who prosecuted a client would face criminal penalties, and so he said more transparency is needed.
“Remember, these are public officials: They work for us, not vice versa, and so it is unusual in this situation that we don't know that there's been that recusal,” Weissmann said. “And that means that they would not have any role whatsoever in this case.”
Our wide-ranging conversation also analyzed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s lawsuit against Trump’s militarized response to the Los Angeles protests and Trump’s plans for a military parade on his birthday.
“This is not rocket science to view this as all precursor steps to disobeying the law and having a military junta,” Weissmann said, noting that his podcast “Main Justice” discussed how Trump’s order federalizing the National Guard had no geographic or time limitations.
A federal judge in California will hold a hearing today to decide whether to block Trump’s troop deployment in the Golden State.
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