Siren! Trump DOJ goes 'all in' on revenge cases despite court losses, heat on FBI's Patel grows

[0:00] Turning now to new reports of chaos at Donald Trump's Department of Justice, new today. [0:05] Politico reporting on a legal loophole, which would allow acting attorney general Todd Blanche [0:10] to stay in the role for months without Senate confirmation, citing a federal statute that [0:15] authorizes the president to keep an acting AG in place for 210 days, meaning Blanche's clock [0:22] runs out just days before the midterm elections. Politico also noting the job appears to be [0:27] Blanche's to lose, quoting one senior White House official who reportedly told them Blanche [0:33] is, quote, racking up wins. This, as many in Trump's cabinet are looking over their shoulders. [0:39] A top White House official telling Politico that FBI Director Kash Patel is likely next, [0:45] saying Trump is fed up with the negative stories about him. The FBI is declining to comment on all [0:50] that. This all following an explosive report from The Atlantic, which states, quote, Patel has [0:55] alarmed colleagues with episodes of excessive drinking and unexplained absences. Patel is [1:01] suing The Atlantic for defamation, but the magazine says they stand by their reporting. [1:07] Joining me now on all of this is Maya Wiley, former SDNY civil prosecutor and CEO of the Leadership [1:12] Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Oh, I want your big thoughts on the state of Trump's Justice [1:19] Department, but also just a sort of like legality check on what's happening with Todd Blanche here. [1:25] Is it really fine for him to stay in this interim acting position for the next 200 or so days? [1:32] You know, there's really two ways to look at the Todd Blanche question. I mean, one is we have [1:37] competing statutes and some legal experts will say, no, Trump can't do this because there's a [1:44] statute that has a limit on time. And then others will say, well, no, but there's another statute that [1:49] doesn't have a time limit. So you have a competing statute problem. Even legal experts have differing [1:55] views. This is a contested area. But the other way to look at it as what changes, whether he's interim [2:02] or not interim. The demand from Donald Trump is a department that serves him, not the people of this [2:09] country. The audition that that Todd Blanche is engaged in is one that is about proving that he [2:16] will continue to be Donald Trump's lawyer rather than the lawyer of the people. Where do you see [2:21] the evidence for that? What tells you he's auditioning right now? Besides? Well, let's look at what the [2:27] Politico article itself said from someone unnamed from the White House. You put the quote in there. [2:35] Todd Blanche's quote unquote winning, winning because he is bringing indictments against [2:42] organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, which full disclosure is a member organization of [2:47] Leadership Conference, a longstanding civil rights organization, one that has called Trump allies [2:55] like the Proud Boys, people he has pardoned, hate groups and extremists like we also know that [3:02] they're fighting for fair maps in Southern states when Donald Trump is fighting for gerrymandering. [3:09] So what's the big win here? Because there's an indictment of a civil rights organization [3:14] that does lawful advocacy work on behalf of people who are poor, people who are black, [3:19] people who are brown. And when a Todd Blanche is actually, we already has a demonstrated record [3:26] of being a Trump loyalist and being willing to use the position in the number two slot, [3:30] like what we saw with the Epstein files and his meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell and her now ending [3:38] up in a Kushier situation. There is a really a long list and we don't even have time to go through it [3:42] all. But I would say the White House person who was interviewed themselves made it plain. If he's [3:50] going after people Trump wants persecuted. And that is success. That is success because it's not even [3:57] winning the persecution, by the way. The very act of using the power of government to try to silence [4:03] people who are disagreeing with Donald Trump, people who are using the rights that we have [4:08] under this Constitution to protect people. That's what's at stake. And that's what Todd Blanche is [4:15] willing to do. So then why do you think FBI Director Kash Patel isn't on more solid ground? [4:18] I mean, he has done his very best to push anyone he thinks is a perceived enemy of the president out [4:25] of the FBI, even though we've had expert after analysts, after former FBI official on this air [4:31] describing how dangerous all that is for the American public, the risks, the domestic and [4:36] international risks that could bring for all of us. Sure, there have been the headlines of him [4:41] drinking with, you know, Olympians and all of that. But it seems like he gave it his best shot. [4:46] That is the rubric. He gave it his best shot. Oh, well, so did Pam Bondi under that rubric or [4:51] Kristi Noem. I mean, a lot of the people he's pushed out went hard for him. It wasn't whether [4:56] they went hard for him. It's that they also bring blowback. You know, and I think it's one of the [5:00] strengths of the advocacy and the protest and so much of the work we're seeing with normal folks [5:06] just saying, you know what, this is a problem. It's a problem if Kristi Noem doesn't care if citizens [5:13] are getting killed by ICE. It's a problem if Kash Patel is getting his girlfriend not only security [5:22] detail, is, you know, going after journalists for being journalists, but also the drinking. I mean, [5:28] I don't know. Kash Patel got an oversight letter from Representative Jamie Raskin, which was the first [5:35] time I've ever seen a member of Congress essentially ask for a breathalyzer from an appointed. And some of [5:41] the reporting on that was that they don't like the distractions. In other words, it takes away from [5:47] the fear they're trying to drive when the very people they want to drive the fear are under attack.