CLAY: We begin where we have been all week long with the latest on the Trump investigation, the Trump raid, the unprecedented — I believe, frankly, unconstitutional in many ways — persecution of Donald Trump that we are seeing by his former opponent in the 2020 election, Joe Biden, and his the Department of Justice. Now, I’m gonna walk you through everything, because I know the timeline here has gotten somewhat confusing. I’m gonna walk you through everything, and then I’m gonna tell you why it matters to such a large extent and where I believe we are headed.
So let’s start here. Yesterday, as we finished Thursday’s show, we were waiting on Merrick Garland to come out and address the media. He actually appeared 40 minutes late for his own press conference. It was only a couple of minutes. There was not very much information that was provided. But I found the most significant aspect of that press conference to be — for the first time — Merrick Garland admitting that he had personally directed the warrants to be filed with the South Florida judge. Listen to Merrick Garland make that statement.
CLAY: All right. Let’s go ahead and cut it off there because we know that he’s gonna continue to say nothing of any substance there, and we continue to enforce upon you and encourage: Don’t do anything dumb. The FBI is looking for opportunities right now to make you look like a January 6th insurrectionist. And we’ve already seen some of this potentially occurring in Cincinnati. Don’t act out violently, period. Okay. Let’s start here. So Merrick Garland said he personally approved this raid. What does that mean, and why not important? I’m gonna tell you.
Let me also update you first with this timeline. So this is significant and I don’t believe it’s being discussed enough. Trump and his lawyers had been in discussions with the National Archives about alleged presidential documents for months. In fact, in June, representatives of the National Archives and the government came to Mar-a-Lago to see what documents Donald Trump had in his possession there. While they were there, Trump came down, said hi, and said, “Let me do whatever I can,” effectively, “to help you in this process.”
That was in June. There had been a very easygoing, conciliatory relationship between anyone in the government and Trump over these documents. Then we hear nothing for months. In fact, back in June they said, “Hey, can you padlock this door more? Can you provide greater security?” They did it at Mar-a-Lago. That was in June. Then we hear absolutely nothing, got a Trump people — and in August, we have all of these FBI agents on Monday storm the gates of Mar-a-Lago and spend nine hours inside of Mar-a-Lago.
They sent Trump’s attorneys outside to wait in the parking lot, outdoors. They insisted that they had complete run of the place to examine any and everything there, including going through Melania Trump’s clothes, according to reports. Nine hours that they spent. This is an unprecedented raid. Never in United States history has a situation like this occurred. Now there is a discussion — and maybe it’s going to happen during the course of today’s show, in which case we will break it down for you — over whether some of the details surrounding this warrant are going to be released.
Well, Merrick Garland said yesterday, “We’re fine with releasing some of these details.” The problem is that some of them will probably be crossed out and censored as a part of arguing that they still impact national security, but he said the government had no issue with doing that. Late last night, President Trump said that he was fine with this issue. Oh, by the way, Merrick Garland said they would have no comments whatsoever about this investigation into Donald Trump and the raid that he ordered that is off the charts, unprecedented legally.
Well, then the Washington Post within a couple of hours came out with a story saying that some of the documents there had to do with nuclear weapons and, as a result, they had to act with alacrity. Now, what’s interesting about that is the warrant was obtained on Friday. They didn’t go in until Monday. The Washington Post has been wrong. It cited two anonymous sources in this nuclear weapons report. They’ve been wrong about everything with Trump for basically seven years, especially when anonymous sources are involved, and so I am incredibly skeptical of the likelihood that this story is true.
Well, early this morning Trump fired back on TRUTH Social and said:
Okay. So that was Trump on TRUTH Social. That is basically the background of where we are right now. It’s possible that we will get more information about these warrants during the course of today’s show, and of course I will update you instantaneously if that information comes down, so you can always stay tuned to us to get those updates. That’s the background, and it’s rather complicated. But let me tell you now where we’re going and why this is so significant. And I want to start right here.
Merrick Garland said yesterday that he personally approved the raid that happened at Donald Trump’s residence. Why is that significant? I want you to think about this for a minute with me. In addition to the fact that we have never seen a raid like this on a former president, we are in banana republic, Third World country-level investigatory behavior right now because Merrick Garland is the top Justice Department official for Joe Biden.
The man who ran against Donald Trump in 2020 and at least thinks that he’s going to run against him in 2024. We’ve never seen this in our nation’s entire history. Do you trust the top competitor of Donald Trump to be investigating Donald Trump to determine whether or not he broke the law? Look. The idea that Merrick Garland is not recusing himself from this investigation and this entire process is a stain on our nation’s history.
And the fact that that I may be the only person pointing this out to you in all of media should have you questioning, “Wait a minute. Why in the world are we allowing the number one top because one of the official of Joe Biden to investigate his top political opponent?” Look, as lawyers, it’s not only impropriety that leads to recusal. It’s the appearance of impropriety. How in the world can anyone believe that Merrick Garland…?
Especially given the FBI’s already history with Donald Trump and the Department of Justice’s history with Donald Trump, how can anyone believe that he can conduct an impartial investigation of his employer’s — ’cause Joe Biden’s his employer, of his employer’s –top rival for the presidency? The fact that Merrick Garland is in any way involved — and he said yesterday, “I personally approved this warrant.” How is he allowed to lead an investigation into the top political rival of his boss?
This is next-level banana republic crazy. How in the world is no one else other than me almost in all the media saying, “Merrick Garland, regardless of what you think, Democrat, Republican, independent, he can’t conduct this investigation. He is too biased!” His entire job status depends on Joe Biden being president. If he wants to remain attorney general going into a next term, the only way he gets that job is if Joe Biden wins. The only way he continues to have the power and influence and authority that he wields right now is if Joe Biden takes down Donald Trump.
And we’re going to allow him — with a clear incentive structure on his own job predicated on Trump going down — to conduct this investigation? And that doesn’t even consider potentially his own motivations personally, which are, he may well have been radicalized by the fact that he didn’t get to sit on the Supreme Court, which was his lifelong dream, and then Donald Trump won the presidency and Merrick Garland’s nomination by Barack Obama was never acted upon.
Do you trust him to be an impartial observer of justice when his number one brass ring, the thing that he had spent his entire career striving for was to be on the Supreme Court and he didn’t get it? So, as a backup plan, he gets to be attorney general, and you think he’s gonna be fair to Republicans and to Donald Trump in investigations? We’ve never seen anything like this. That’s why the independent counsel exists. Ken Starr investigated Bill Clinton.
So how in the world is every Republican not beating the drum that Merrick Garland has to recuse himself here? How in the world does anyone with a functional brain who has a legal background — and I’d like to put myself in that category — not also recognizing this clear-and-present conflict which demands recusal from Merrick Garland, who is a biased, without precedent already — this investigation itself to raid a former president is unheard of.
But how in the world are we letting him personally approve any decisions made associated with this investigation? These are big questions that aren’t being asked and isn’t being discussed about anyone out there. And you should be asking yourself, “Why is that? Why are Republicans like Mitch McConnell leading the Senate not coming out and saying, ‘Hey, you know what?
“’Let’s go ahead and ask Merrick Garland at a minimum to recuse himself.’” Why is this not one of the top arguments right now in all of America? Why are you just hearing it right now from me? It’s crazy! It’s banana republic. It’s Third World dictator-level BS. We shouldn’t be standing for it. I’m gonna continue to break down more, tell you more significant details about this investigation, why it matters.
Berenson on the RFK Jr. nomination and whether he'd sign up to join him in…
Another day, another Trump cabinet choice that's making Washington heads explode.
When and how did Democrats become the party of conspiracy crackpots?
Clay meets two legends -- Elon Musk and Sylvester Stallone.
Clay and Tammy Bruce discussed Trump's flurry of nominations.