On this week’s episode of the Insider podcast, Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance discuss:
– The agreement between the D.C. government and the Trump administration, facilitated by a federal judge, preserving the local government’s authority over its police force after Trump sought to take control of the department;
– A federal appellate court’s decision allowing the Trump administration to continue to withhold billions of dollars in foreign aid; and
– The voter fraud charges brought against a group of Latino Democratic political leaders in Texas for so-called “ballot harvesting.”
Programming Note: Preet and Joyce will be back after Labor Day with a new episode of the Insider podcast.
A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER
Jake Kaplan is the Supervising Producer at Stay Tuned with Preet.
If a president can stretch the law to take over the D.C. police without a real emergency, what’s to stop him from going further in a true crisis?
In a new episode of the Insider podcast, Preet and Joyce discuss the first court hearing in a lawsuit filed by the D.C. Attorney General challenging President Trump’s takeover of the Metropolitan police. Judge Ana Reyes has already signaled that the Trump administration overstepped its authority, but rather than issue a ruling, she facilitated an agreement between the parties. The local government will retain control over the police department, but the Trump administration could call on officers to assist in enforcing its immigration agenda.
Judge Reyes did not address whether Trump’s takeover met the law’s “emergency” requirement. As Preet and Joyce note, allowing the President to federalize a local police force under these circumstances—Trump’s alleged crime emergency—risks setting a dangerous precedent.
Preet: “What’s going to happen when we have a true emergency? What’s going to happen if we have another 9/11-style attack? What’s going to happen if we have another pandemic or disease issue? How many steps further is the president going to go? And isn’t he going to justify taking much more extreme steps?”
Joyce: “A lot of people are … trying to figure out what this means for the upcoming elections, whether we might not see troops in American cities, perhaps engaging in intimidation tactics at polling places, which would, of course, violate the Voting Rights Act.”
Listen to the episode, and comment below if you have any thoughts or questions. Thank you for being a member of our community here on Substack. If you’re not yet a paying subscriber, you can now listen to a free excerpt from the show. For access to the full analysis, upgrade your subscription.
Stay Informed,
Jake
