On this week’s episode of the Insider podcast, Preet Bharara and Joyce Vance discuss:
– President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington, D.C. to seize control of the police and deploy the National Guard;
– A federal judge’s decision to reject the Trump administration’s request to unseal grand jury testimony from the Ghislaine Maxwell case; and
– The redistricting debate in Texas, as Democratic lawmakers have fled the state to block Republicans from redrawing the state’s congressional map to further strengthen GOP representation.
A NOTE FROM THE PRODUCER
Jake Kaplan is the Supervising Producer at Stay Tuned with Preet.
Does President Trump have the legal authority to put Washington, D.C.’s police under federal control?
In a new episode of the Insider podcast, Preet and Joyce discuss Trump’s executive order federalizing the Metropolitan Police Department and deploying the National Guard to the city’s streets. As Preet and Joyce explain on the show, Trump does have the authority to take over the local police temporarily—even if his rationale, a so-called “crime emergency” in the District, is on shaky ground. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser seems to agree with that analysis. At a press conference, she said she opposes Trump’s move but noted that the city has limited options to fight it in court, for now.
The debate over when to resist federal overreach has persisted throughout Trump’s time in office. States, localities, and organizations have had to pick their battles carefully. Trump, however, has taken the opposite legal approach with his political rivals, pursuing an aggressive legal strategy at nearly every turn.
Joyce Vance speaks about this dilemma on the podcast: “I have long held the view that you can’t save a democracy by destroying a democracy…I think you have to pick your battles very carefully. This battle would be a losing one [right now].”
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
Photo by Andrew Harnik via Getty Images
