Today on Sekulow, we have an update out of New York as DA Alvin Bragg files to keep the Trump conviction. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.
We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Alright, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls.
1-800-684-3110. I have a feeling you may want to talk about this one. So Alvin Bragg, he makes his filing in New York. We talked about that was due after the Trump team had filed a motion to dismiss. Now state court charges and these local charges are different than federal.
DOJ, like Jack Smith, dropped all those charges. None of those are moving forward. They will never move forward again. But when it comes to the state, it has never been fully addressed. The arguments have been made to the Supreme Court and they do understand the fact that these two to three thousand partisan DAs that hold a different political party's view than you do as a President, going out there and being able to prosecute you, as we argued in our case that we had to argue to the Supreme Court out of this room, that that again makes a huge impediment to being the President of the United States. It could actually prevent you from the ability to govern. So how does Alvin Bragg, how would he like to see this go?
Well, maybe just stay it. Now remember, this case was already stayed and we call it tolling in the law where basically the clock stops right on the edge. I think he was running out of time and that's why he came up with that notion of adding a felony that they could not really determine what the felony was that was a federal crime to the state crime so that they could do these felony charges against President Trump. So they would like to interstay and that would handle the competing interest. I think he's saying that while there's times in office where we're respecting the rule of law and the President of the United States, but once they are no longer President, there's no legal barrier to sentencing them. So I think that's unlikely, but usually that's all you'd hear from them, really, is that kind of an argument.
Basically, keep it stayed and they'd hope and pray. The second argument is one, Will, that we have found, and this is a unique one because it's not an argument that New York utilizes at all. And in fact, New York utilizes a law that is actually the opposite of this law. This is the so-called Alabama rule, Will.
I'd love for you to tell people as an Alabaman, what is the Alabama rule? Because you know what, we know a lot of law at the ACLJ, but I'm not barred in all 50 states, and certainly this is the first time for me seeing the Alabama law certainly cited in a New York DA's case. So what the district attorney here is arguing before the court is that they should follow a procedure that happens when a defendant dies before final judgment is entered through the appeals process. So what happens in most states, including New York, is abatement ab initio, and that rule states that the judgment of conviction is vacated and the indictment is dismissed on the ground that the defendant's death makes any further appeal impossible. So effectively, if you die and can't continue the legal process of appeal, then they just dismiss the case and it goes away. What he's arguing is something different, which is called the Alabama rule.
It's very novel to Alabama. And it's that after a defendant dies and he is found guilty, but before the conviction comes through final appellate process, the court places in the record of the case a notation to the effect that the conviction removed the presumption of innocence, but was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal because the defendant died. Effectively, he wants to keep that convicted felon title for President Trump through a notation in the court, but it would then close the case and take away President Trump's ability to appeal it further, essentially saying that by becoming President, he's in lines with someone who has died in the course of the appeals process.
It's wild. I've read a lot, not as much as you in legal briefs, but I've never seen something like this proposed. You know, you realize it so they can just continue to call him someone who was convicted of 34 felonies. And by the way, that is on appeal as well. And this idea again to try and damage President Trump.
We'll be right back on Secular. If you were just joining us just to break it down for you quickly in three ways, Alvin Bragg, the DA had till today to file the response from the DA's office to President Trump's team about dismissing the case that Alvin Bragg brought this 34 felonies all related to a law that's federal that had all these issues on appeal already about whether or not this was even an appropriate. Charge to bring. Could you actually attach a federal law as a DA that does not usually they do not go into court and represent federal laws. They use state laws, local laws, but they don't they don't have the ability to then add federal charges that would be usually done in a separate federal case, which here those federal cases, anything related to that was never brought. And then on the other federal cases are gone because he's President incoming President of the United States.
But Alvin Bragg wants to have it both ways. So he realizes the judges under normal kind of practice in New York would be the dismissal. You haven't had time to go on appeal.
You have not really you know, you are again, this case is you haven't seen the full plethora of justice, if you will. So how it stay if you were appealing it, if things were dropped. But some charges weren't like the like misdemeanors. And what would that mean for potential sentencing and these issues? So here's how he does it quickly.
He says one is you could just stay this until the end. Now, the problem with that is that that does affect Presidential immunity, even though Presidential immunity isn't in effect 100 percent when you're out of office. We found from the Supreme Court and other cases that there are there is Presidential immunity that exists and certainly executive privilege, I'd say, under that immunity. So it makes it that much more difficult to bring some former President to trial because so much of his work and so much of his conversations he has with people who you're trying to force to testify or even filing against and bringing charges against in hope that they will testify for lesser charge or to drop the charges.
And those cases fell apart, too. So they look at both not just your time as President, but also while you're President. If you know that there's a, you know, a jail sentence hanging over your head that that still is probably has a decent effect on the idea of Presidential immunity and your ability to think clearly because, you know, or don't know exactly whether or not the day you're out of office, if you will be, you know, a week or two away from entering into some kind of prison or prison. So Alvin Bragg's next decision as our option for the judge in this case, he goes to Alabama.
It's not used in New York at all. But Lord, nothing in this case was normal because a DA was trying to attach federal charges to supposed misdemeanors on mishandling business expenses, these kind of things. The Alabama rule, it states that when a defendant dies, so in this case, Donald Trump would have been claimed to have died because he would no longer have been subject to the jurisdiction of the court. So it's even taking the Alabama rule and it's furthering it. And this could be very abusive, as you can understand, to people's rights in court, because what it does in Alabama is that if someone dies before you're found guilty or after you're found guilty, but before your conviction becomes final through the appellate process, the court places a record of the case notation to the effect that the conviction removed the presumption of innocence, but was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal because the defendant died. So you're not guilty, but they do acknowledge that you might be found not guilty if you hadn't, quote, died.
Now, of course, President Trump is not dying by being President of the United States. I'm not even sure if he would accept this and wouldn't want to appeal this himself. Maybe he'd just shrug his shoulders and say, crazy New York case done, finally over, goodbye, if they want to go to this Alabama rule. But you can also see a way where you think about it and go, you know what, no, I'm not going to let you change this. It doesn't seem right for court systems to be able to randomly change their normal practice where they have to go out and find some rule in Alabama that gets to say that you were found guilty, but you just weren't ever sentenced and you never got your appeals on that.
So 1-800-684-3110. Trump derangement syndrome is still so, I mean, it is just flowing through the veins, if you will, and the minds of these prosecutors and this anti-Trump movement. They don't know what to do.
At first, they were very down on their luck. Then you have California saying, we're going to fight everything. You'll have political moves, of course. But you also see that the country is pretty calm. What the Democrats predicted did not occur. There's not mass protest.
There's not huge issues and concerns about who the next President is. In fact, there's been this coalition brought together that's never been as broad before. But I just put this forward so that you understand why when we talk about the work that needs to be done over these just next four years is so critical. It is going to be very difficult work to get the bureaucracy in Washington under control and to get our court systems back to living in a reality where they aren't going to say, well, we'll hold you as dead but convicted so that at least we keep that conviction.
Their other option was to say, you do basically the same thing as the first one and a little mix of the second one, and you just say, but you'll never face jail because this was mostly misdemeanors and you've never been charged with a felony before. So that concern would not hang over the President's head and thus affect Presidential immunity, which goes into place while the President is in office and trying to make decisions about the future and thinking, wow, I've got this potential sentence hanging over my head. I think, again, Alvin Bragg just throwing the whole kitchen sink out there, Will, hoping and probably praying that he gets something to stick against President Trump that he can put up on his wall.
That's right. And in the context of this being filed, obviously, this is an 82 page brief. There was a lot of research to come up with this Alabama rule to be used in this situation.
So I don't think they came up with this on Monday. But in the light of his loss in court with the Daniel Penny trial, which was a big high profile case out of the Manhattan DA's office, there's a loss there in the public spotlight. We talked about yesterday even about the New York councilwoman calling for a federal DOJ Civil Rights Division investigation into the Manhattan DA's office. It's clear that Alvin Bragg thinks the judge may even side with the President and just get it out of his court.
So he's trying, as you said, throwing everything at the wall to try and see what sticks. And when you read from this, this is on page 32 of his filing where he admitted that New York doesn't follow this Alabama rule. But he says, you know, in this way, the Alabama rule abates the criminal proceedings without vacating the underlying conviction or dismissing the indictment and says it makes sense to borrow from the manner in which courts address abatement. Because many of the defendant's arguments here parallel the arguments made in favor of dismissal and vacature upon a defendant's death. So he's trying to put that in the judge's mind that what they're arguing about him becoming President and not being able to continue the appeals or other processes in court because he's sitting President, they're arguing a parallel argument to the death of a defendant. It's just wild to see him even put in writing, while New York follows this, you should try this new thing. I don't typically think judges like to be the one that tries out the novel theory unless they really just want to make a name for themselves. But Judge Mershawn has already had so much pressure and spotlight on him during this trying to take this novel path.
I hope he doesn't choose that. I think what the right thing to do is just say, get this out of here, make this go away. But we'll see what happens.
It is ultimately up to the judge in this case, and we'll see what happens there. Yeah, I think honestly, folks, what we have to do here is follow it closely, see what potentially may need to be done in the future, because this is bad precedent setting. And just as a reminder that President Trump is coming into, again, yet a hostile bureaucracy at the federal and local and state level, and that to fight this fight, to cut government, to cut the size of government, all of that, we have to really have his back and the members of Congress who are doing it. They're back because they are going to face that same whirlwind that Chuck Schumer talked about when you attempt to really affect how the Washington machine works.
Because then you can have traditionally even like Republican companies that do most of their business through Republican lobbying, things like that are more likely to do better under Republican governments and executive branches getting nasty, as well as on the left. And this is a time for prayer. So we've put together something interesting for you. You know, we've been releasing quarterly those ACLJ prayer guides. Well, here we have once printed its hardback and it's actually signed by us.
And it's because we're so grateful to all of you who have generously supported us in our mission to fight and also defend faith. And we're now proud to offer this very special gift to those members who are able to make a tax deductible gift of $200 or more today. You'll get your own. This is limited edition. They are signed and printed copies by us.
Been doing them in the room. Maybe we'll post a picture so people really see us signing them of the ACLJ's prayer guide book delivered to your door. You donate today that $200 and it will be doubled if you donate at ACLJ.org slash prayer book. And it'll get you the beautifully bats, 151 page book by Christmas. So ACLJ.org slash prayer book, $200 donation will be doubled as part of our faith and freedom year in drive. And you'll have this book, this prayer book to follow through the year before Christmas so it can make a great gift as well. We'll be right back on Secular.
All right. There's a lot going on in the world. We've been spending time each episode trying to bring in folks to get you up to speed, whether it's from our office in Israel and former members of the cabinet. We're bringing in a former secretary of state, our senior counsel for global affairs, secretary Mike Pompeo.
Secretary Pompeo, let me go right to this. We know that Israel has launched and now they've said at least 480 airstrikes into Syria, trying to target its air force and defense systems. What is your take, the fact that Israel's strategy is to cripple basically Syria's on demand military at this point. So as these rebels that are taking over this coalition of groups that is taking over that, whether they're saying nice things now or not, that they will not have access to some of the more dangerous abilities to use against Israel when, as they consolidate power.
Jordan, I think that's exactly right. I think the Israelis are taking this opportunity to fly with near impunity and take out all this risk that's been sitting on top of them for a long time. It's the Syrian Navy, it's the Syrian air force, but it was backed, funded by Iran with Russian support for the last years and put real risk on Israel and limited their degrees of freedom.
And now that's no longer the case. They're certainly concerned about what these new leaders will do. They're saying some things that are great, but we make no mistake about it.
We all know who they are. Their history is terrorism. Their history is being part of Al Qaeda.
The chance that they've turned over a new leap in a significant way is extremely low. And so Israel is going to take down that risk. And I think this further also degrades Iran. A lot of that weaponry would have been funded by them. So in the same way, they took out massive weapons from Hezbollah and massive weapon systems from Hamas. They're now doing it on their eastern northern eastern border. And I'm convinced we'll continue to do it in Yemen, so we will come out of this barbarity and tragedy of October 7th with significantly less power sitting in Tehran and significantly less weaponry threatening Israel. How do you think the collapse of Assad's regime in Syria set the table, not just for Israel, but for the incoming Trump administration?
I mean, it's another kind of question mark on the map. Certainly you could see it coming. It was being reported, not maybe as much as it should have been in the United States because of everything else going on in the world. But certainly the Israelis had, I think, gone back early when this began and told Assad, listen, this is not going to end well for you.
This is going to end with you fleeing, and it has. So how does this, do you think, affect if you're the incoming Trump administration and you know that you're dealing with one hot war already and now a revolution led by who are calling themselves kind of former al Qaeda? They've left al Qaeda.
They've said women can wear what they want and that different religious groups will be treated with dignity and fairness. And it looks like they're at least playing to try to get sanctions lifted that are currently on the group by the United States. And there's talk the Biden administration might even do that. Seems to me, again, if you're the Trump administration coming in, you might want to put those sanctions back on and see what this group is actually like for a few months or even a year.
Yeah, Jordan, this is going to be proof in the pudding stuff. These are bad actors for sure. Assad was a horrific actor. We took action against Assad after he had used chemical weapons on his own citizens. You'll remember Barack Obama created some of the tragedy in Syria when he walked away from his red line.
President Trump didn't do that. President Trump said, we said, if you use chemical weapons, we're going to come after him. We launched Tomahawk missiles at some of their most strategic infrastructure. I do think that the Trump administration now has not only a complexity and challenge that it didn't face, but you'll recall it was Syria when we took over as well. ISIS controlled half or three quarters of all of Syria when we took him.
We wiped him out. I promise you the leadership now, the guys who think they're running Syria now remember that, too. And so they know the Trump administration will be serious.
It's also an opportunity. Iran is at about as weak a point, not because of President Biden, but frankly, in spite of him. The Biden administration won't even talk to the Israeli foreign minister, but they'll seem to be prepared to talk to these guys taking over in Damascus.
The Israelis did this against a red stop sign from the United States. They've now achieved enormous success. And the next administration in America has a chance to continue this effort to put Iran on its back foot and keep Americans safe in so doing. You know, then we turn to what the Biden administration is still doing, and they are just days left in their administration. But two days after the election, we just learned that they renewed a waiver to make another $10 billion available to Iran. Now, this is before we saw what happened in Syria, but yet Iran's still getting $10 billion from the Biden administration. I always tell people these transition times, a lot of dangerous things can happen that don't get as much attention, and then you realize how much more difficult it is for the incoming administration because of these things that were done in these final couple of months. And in this case, two days after the election, hey, let's send Iran another $10 billion. Look, they have allowed the Iranians to grow their economy faster than President Biden grew the American economy for these last four years.
I mean, this is just nuts. And to continue to allow them to have access to assets that had been previously frozen. During the Trump administration, we didn't let them have it.
We had them almost broke by the time we left Jordan. Now the hard work for the Trump administration will be even more difficult. They're going to have to go find a way to get this all back.
I'm convinced it can still be done. But an Iran with more money is a more dangerous Iran threatening the American people. You know, they threatened the President of the United States.
They're still trying to chase me and some others. But more broadly, their leverage will only increase with money because it will allow them to get closer to a nuclear capability, something that neither we nor the Israelis can tolerate nor nor can the Gulf Arab states tolerate. And so I hope President Trump will come back and put real pressure on Iran and we can begin to reestablish a model that it created more peace and more prosperity.
The Abraham Accords and less risk for all of us. Mr. Secretary, one final question for you today. I saw your tweet that you were grateful that the New York City jurors rejected the political prosecution of Daniel Penny from a Soros prosecutor. And you said it was a victory for the rule of law.
We've even seen Senator Fetterman call the D.A. Bragg's prosecution of President Trump there a political trial. We're hopefully looking at a new era of American judicial restraint against these political prosecutions. But what was your take on that out of New York with the jurors returning that not guilty verdict? Joy and relief.
Joy and relief for him, for his family, for everyone around him. He's a hero. He saved lives that day.
We all, if we were riding the subway, would be counting on someone like him to keep us protected and safe as well. The fact that they chose to prosecute him is just so deeply disturbing. And so good news. A lot of pain, a lot of agony for him and his family to go through the trial and get as far as they did. But now free from that, I hope the civil suits will go away as well.
It's all crap. And your point, the larger point is this. I hope that President Trump can restore this normative idea of the justice system, treating everyone equally and fairly. No politics, not Republican politics, not Democrat politics, but just decency, the rule of law and fairness.
And if we can get back to that, you'll see better outcomes and you'll see fewer prosecutions of folks like this former Marine who was just trying to do a good deed. Secretary Pobhayo, as always, we appreciate your insight on these issues, both internationally and nationally as well. Thanks for being with us and part of the team. Folks, we put this together for you.
It's a very special way. It's a hardback. ACLJ prayer guide starts for this January.
We'll go through some of it in the second half of the broadcast for you as well. But if you go to ACLJ.org slash prayer book and donate $200, you will receive this hardback signed by us in a big thank you. And you'll get it before Christmas. If you do that today, you make that $200 donation at ACLJ.org slash prayer book. Because again, this is the time of year we're putting that budget together.
So we thought, hey, we can give something back and still prepare our budget for 2025 to know what we have to do all the work you are already hearing about us having to do. So go there today. If you can make that $200 contribution, you'll get that signed hard copy of our prayer book before Christmas.
ACLJ.org slash prayer book. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Alright, welcome back to Sekulow.
We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. If you want to weigh in on the way DA Bragg would like to keep this going against President Trump or at least have it on him in perpetuity and say basically, well, we'll choose the one state that sometimes applies a rule called the Alabama rule, which we don't even know really looking at if that's even always done there. I think it's just an option that's done there. It may be like some truly heinous cases where then you have someone who passes away and it says they were convicted. It does say there that they didn't have the ability to appeal because they are dead.
But of course, Donald Trump is alive. But what the problem is, it's not that Alvin Bragg wants to declare Donald Trump dead from becoming President of the United States, so thus taking him out of their jurisdiction. It's that Alvin Bragg's cases against Donald Trump are dead. And they were bad, dead cases before he even got a conviction from a jury, which would not be difficult where this trial was held. And it was already getting serious questioning on appeal about how he tried to put those federal charges along with the state misdemeanors and falsifying business records, which I really don't want to keep talking about. But I do like to underscore to you that they will not let it go unless they are going to be forced by a court to let it go. They want this to stick on President Trump and really that's so they can then use it for their own political purposes in the future because as they say, you know, then President Trump won't be affected by this at all. But of course, the left would love to still call him a convicted felon. So I'm not sure that that wouldn't affect him.
And I think it does. And so the fact that you've got that at play raises then the executive privilege issues because he will be going back in as President, Presidential immunity, and then you've got to deal with other countries. And what they're supposed to be looking at you as someone who is convicted of 34 felonies that the channels, as long as MSNBC is still on the air in its current form, will continue to repeat over and over and over again. Let's go to the phones though, Will. Got the calls coming in on that. If you've got questions and calls, this is the time to get them in.
1-800-684-3110. We're going to be talking economy too because Joe Biden says he hopes and prays that Donald Trump inherits his economy. You mean if you're just talking about the economy since the world found out Donald Trump got elected, sure, but that ain't Joe Biden's economy.
That's Donald Trump's effect on the economy, just his election effect, not even his policies, just the effect of his election. But let's go to the phones. Let's go to Pat calling from New Hampshire on Line 1. Pat, you're on Sekulow.
Thank you. Could Donald Trump pardon himself from the federal charges that they used to bootstrap onto the misdemeanors to get him into trouble and into jail? You know, the feds didn't join the case or take the case away from Alvin Bragg. So unless it's a federal trial, that's what you can pardon yourself from is the federal court system. What Alvin Bragg was trying to do is to utilize parts of federal criminal law, election law, and say when you do this plus you do this in the state of New York as businesses, it rises to the level of a felony.
But you're not in federal court, and so I do not believe that pardon power, though we've talked about how broad it can be, this is one of the areas where it's not broad and the courts are still trying to figure out exactly what to do with cases. Typically, ones that were brought before where the timing then does not allow the President to get the full appeal and go through the full due process of the legal process. At the end of the day, these cases should be coming to a close, and that should be it. And that might be done even without Alvin Bragg's filing in this case because of the appeals court in New York. We will continue to follow it, but there's a lot more to talk about as well.
On the economy, are you starting to feel yet that Trump bounce that has occurred even before, of course he's actually in office, but just the idea that he will be back in office, someone that is pro-America that wants to get more dollars into the hands of Americans. And listen, what we need to be doing right now during these battles is be engaged in prayer. And our ACLJ prayer guide, it's awesome. So we've compiled this one for you.
It's 151 pages, a hardback book. This is special. We've signed these. You can see right here. There's my signature if you're showing.
There we are. We've signed these for those of you who donate $200 today at ACLJ.org slash prayer book, and you will have the hardback prayer book signed before Christmas. If you donate today, do it and we'll double that. Welcome back to Secular. We are taking your calls 1-800-684-3110.
That's 1-800-684-3110. Now, I want to play this sound from President Biden on the economy. We brought in Harry Hutchison to our director of policy here at the ACLJ. Let's hear from President Biden on to the economy in these final days of his administration. Next month, my administration will end and a new administration will begin. Most economists agree the new administration is going to inherit a fairly strong economy, at least at the moment. An economy going through fundamental transformation has laid out a stronger foundation and a sustainable, broad-based, highly productive growth.
That is my profound hope that the new administration will preserve and build on this progress. Inflation has gone up. It's continued to go up.
I think it went up again 2.7% in November as people are trying to prepare for the Christmas holidays. We know that wages are lagging way behind inflation, and while there were some moments in the Biden economy because of what the government decided to put into the economy, putting us more into debt, the only big positives that we've seen, certainly for people's 401Ks and more looking to the future, is that when it was clear President Trump would be the next President of the United States and there were going to be economic policy changes that he did, even out of his first term and may even go further his second term, and so you saw the markets react continually, very favorably to that, and looking at cutting out some of the government waste, markets look favorable at that. So the real benefit that we've seen so far has just been the Trump election benefit.
It's not the Trump in office benefit. It's just he got elected and people are more excited about where the economy could go. I think you're precisely correct, and so I think the American people believe that there is now going to be an adult in the White House, someone who understands economics, someone who understands that the cost of living in the United States has been eating alive many Americans. Keep in mind that the latest report with respect to inflation shows that core inflation has risen at 3.3 percent, and that is an extremely high rate vis-a-vis individuals' income. So the real question for the American people is whether or not inflation is still rising at a more rapid rate than their income, and that I think is unfortunately the answer.
But many Americans believe that with Donald Trump's ascendancy to the presidency, we will restore some fiscal restraint, the economy will begin to grow at a faster rate than the rate of inflation, and I think that's good news for the American people. At the end of the day, they recognized that Joe Biden did not understand economics, and they understood that Kamala Harris understood the economy even worse. Well, and Professor Hutchison, even when you look at the proposals of the incoming Trump administration, things like the Department of the Government efficiency and ways to rein in government spending, which has led to a lot of inflation as well under the Biden administration.
I think there's that side as well you have to look at. When he says these positive moves that they've done, they've done a lot of wasteful spending. You've seen the Department of Defense fail seven audits in a row, other government agencies as well unable to really account for where their spending fully went. I think that even that in and of itself, if President Biden is wanting that trend to continue, fortunately for the American people, that isn't the agenda item nor the mandate that was given to President Trump in that resounding victory.
I think that's precisely correct. And one thing that Doge will focus on is the fact that only 6% of government workers actually show up for work on a regular basis, and most of those individuals that show up for work on a regular basis are security personnel or janitorial personnel. And so one of the ways of cutting waste, fraud, and abuse is first ensuring that government workers show up, and if they can't show up, then perhaps they should not be employed. The other proposal that Doge has made is to move offices, government offices, closer to where the people live.
So for instance, perhaps move the agricultural department to Iowa or Nebraska, move the transportation department to Detroit or Ohio. All of those things I think would be helpful in encouraging excess workers to perhaps change their career. The other possibility, of course, is to cut the number of government contractors, and I can speak from experience. I have worked as a government contractor. I did brilliant work, but most of it wound up in the waste bin.
Why? Because they couldn't decide what they wanted at the outset. And so, of course, they paid me. Of course, I gave a presentation. And of course, at the end of the day, it was utterly worthless. I think Professor Hutcheson just admitted to being a part of the deep state on the broadcast as a government contractor, but we'll let it slide.
You do good work here as well. Yeah, I mean, again, I think ultimately when it comes to these issues of the economy and issues of inflation, I mean, there's two issues at play. People love to see the stock market go up because you feel better about the economy. That means big companies and investors are feeling better about the companies. But also, Professor Hutcheson and Harry, we talked to you about inflation.
That's what's killing Americans. They may see, that's great that my 401K is going up. It better go up because if inflation stays like this, it needs to so I can retire at some point in my life and maybe have enough to retire on for a few years.
Because people are looking at saying not at this rate. What moves can be taken quickly by President Trump to get this inflation down? Well, first and foremost, let's focus on energy independence. If you increase energy independence, this will have a knock-on effect on virtually every avenue of American life. So energy costs go into everything from medical care to medical products, food, you name it.
So one of the things we need to focus on is energy independence. In addition, we need to focus on reining in our international spending, including foreign aid, the amount of money that we're shipping to Ukraine. President Biden just announced that he's sending another perhaps $20 billion to Ukraine. Why aren't those funds being spent in the United States?
Why aren't those funds being used to increase employment in the United States to improve perhaps government productivity? So there are lots of things that we can do and I think President Trump is going to hit the ground running. One of the advantages that he has with respect to this particular term versus his first term in 2016 is that he has experience. He recognizes that there will be opposition and obstacles and he's trying to do a fantastic job in terms of appointing nominees to head cabinet offices and other offices that are going to be very, very important going forward. Well, I mean, I know we've talked about two of the cases as well, this idea of the Donald Trump, the Alabama rule cases as well. That's right.
Yeah. So I want to get your take on this, Professor Hutchison, this filing in the motion to dismiss by Alvin Bragg, the DA of New York, trying to push this novel Alabama rule on Judge Mershon when New York actually does the opposite in their cases when a defendant dies before the appeals process is played out. What are your thoughts on this? Well, my thoughts are number one, Alvin Bragg might make a very interesting and even brilliant law professor, but he is not equipped to ensure that justice is done. So what he has offered is a breathtakingly bizarre plan to keep the Trump campaign finance conviction alive and well during Trump's presidency. Why does he want to do this? Because he wants to impeach Donald Trump in the court of public opinion.
So he wants to keep this abatement by death concept, which he has pulled from the files of Alabama, and he's trying to introduce them into New York, even though there is absolutely zero precedent in New York for accepting this particular rule. And I think Judge Mershon should reject it. And if not, Donald Trump and his legal team should make sure they appeal this approach.
I don't think that is acceptable. And folks, listen, this is the reason why you come together at the end of the year and you begin praying for, one, we have new leaders coming in, in the Senate going into Republican hands, President Trump back in office, but bringing in new folks as well. And it's a time to pray because there's going to be a lot of battles ahead. Now, for those of you who can't donate $200, you can still be part of our Life and Liberty Challenge right now. That $20 donation is still $40 to the ACLJ.
So you're still making a huge impact. If you can't even donate right now, sharing this with your friends and family is important. But if you're the kind of donor that said, you know what, I'd like to make a larger donation to the ACLJ. Well, today, if you make a $200 donation to the ACLJ today, you'll get this hardback ACLJ prayer guide book.
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Get the book if you can. All right, I want to go right to the phones. If you have questions for us, this is the time to call. You have questions about Alvin Bragg, you got questions about the economy, you got questions about, again, what is going on in Syria, anything that we've talked about today. Get them in now.
1-800-684-3110 as lawfare continues against President Trump as he prepares to take, for the second time, the oath of office and become our commander in chief. Let's go to Jeanette in South Carolina. Jeanette, welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Thank you so much. I am a supporter and I constantly watch your program and I love it.
Thank you so much. My question is, I've heard it said by another conservative commentator that President Trump's lawyers could possibly jump over New York City and their prosecutors and judges and take an emergency straight to the Supreme Court to adjudicate and get this out of the way before Trump is taking his office. I think, listen, right now, let's see if you can win this with these ridiculous arguments that Alvin Bragg has put forward. Now, you're up against a judge with Sean. This is not a judge who was happy this got taken away from him. He really was hoping well to be able to sentence Donald Trump, but even he knows the reality of law that this case basically is dead.
The question is, will he go by this weird DA argument that, hey, we don't have to follow New York precedent, which clears someone who even was convicted if they died. It says that it's like it never started with the case because they didn't have any chances to appeal, even if they were convicted in the first sense. So their due process was not fully recognized.
So it's not going to hang over them in their family's heads. And that's what most states follow, something similar to that. In this case, Alvin Bragg said, well, you could do a little bit of that, but say the thing is it's going to hang over you, but you'll never get prison time.
You might get financial penalties for a misdemeanor, but you won't get prison time. Or we'll just call you dead for purposes of the law and we'll use this Alabama rule to keep you convicted so that you'll always have the conviction. It will note that you didn't get the chance to appeal, but again, where is this being noted in the fact that, you know, he is not dead. He is President of the United States.
He's the most powerful person in the country, not someone who is no longer with us. And I feel like the, if Judge Marshawn were to take that on, that on their resume, that you realize how disgusting that is politically. Bragg just wants to be able to say, I prosecuted and convicted Donald Trump. That is the only reason he looked for the Alabama rule.
I bet if he was looking at this straightforward, he'd think the Alabama rule was a violation of the Constitution. It's why we've never even heard about it before. Well, and it's why New York doesn't use it, I'm sure, is that they widely use it. It's probably just an option.
Right. And so you look at all this and then you have to take into account, not only would it be unusual saying, hey, let's do something that is procedurally different than what we normally do here in New York. So let's go against the established procedures here. But then you also take into account if he were to do that and enter that judgment in that, you know, it is closed in the sense that there will no be more further appeals.
And but we're notating he didn't have that chance. But he is no there's no sentencing, but he was convicted by a jury. Doesn't that violate constitutional protections for rights of due process and the rights to appeal for a living person by saying, hey, we're just going to stop the entire process here. We're not going to give you the penalty, but we're still going to be able to call you a convicted felon and not let you take the appeals process to try and clear your name for it anymore. I feel like that would raise very dire constitutional questions about a judge at a lower court level being able to just cut off for the future to almost smear your name if you have that opportunity to seek those remedies through the appeals process in the court all the way up State Supreme Court and then on to the U.S. Supreme Court as a court of last resort there.
I just don't understand how even D.A. Bragg could try to square that with the many protections afforded to someone who is being charged with crimes under the U.S. Constitution. You are innocent until proven guilty. And then even after your guilt, you are afforded an appeals process in the United States. It just seems very bizarre that they would try to short circuit our judicial system by saying, let's just pretend he's dead and move forward with it that way.
It's just very, very bizarre. You know, one thing I'd like you to do today is go to ACLJ.org and on our petitions right there is sign that petition to confirm Tulsi Gabbard to defeat the deep state. She is going to be key in that role as director of national intelligence. So sign that petition. Also, you know, we've been talking about the $200 donation.
I'll talk about that in a minute. But you can sign those petitions. It doesn't cost a thing. Not only do we make sure those are delivered by hand to those Senate offices and they will be by our government affairs team at the ACLJ in Washington, D.C. at our headquarters there right on Capitol Hill. So we make sure, again, these members know that how many people in their states have signed. So it's very important to get your friends and family on it as well. And again, that doesn't cost a thing.
You could share it with others. Just in the first 24 hours, 48 hours of launching this, we have over, actually it's 24 hours, over 12,000 signatures already on this petition. We've talked about it once on the air and we, of course, had a couple emails out it. So we want to get it to at least 50,000 by the time her hearing begins. And so we want to get on this early. This is someone from the ACLJ team now up for director of national intelligence. So let's stand with Tulsi Gabbard.
And that doesn't cost you a thing. It's a way to take significant action and let our government affairs team utilize that to help. We'll do it.
We'll be doing more. But to help make sure members of Congress know, especially those on the right, that the ACLJ and our members stand with Tulsi and Donald Trump on this nomination. And to remind them that she's worked with us here. And that'll be very important to a lot of those senators who may not know Tulsi as well, but have worked with us for a long time and their staff have worked for us a long time. So as they're preparing the senator on Tulsi's nomination, they need to note that in there that she's been working with us.
And again, I think that that will even allay some additional concerns Republicans may have against a former Democrat who they didn't maybe get as much time to spend with because she's been out on the campaign trail really for the last two years and working with organizations like ours. Now, if you can take the next step for us today to ensure that you receive this before Christmas, this is the printed, limited edition ACLJ prayer guide. So I'm holding it in my hands now.
Why am I holding it in my hands? Because the ones you'll be getting, if they are the hardback and you make that $200 donation today at ACLJ.org slash prayer book, they are signed. I'm showing that to people here.
You can see real signatures, not always perfect, but signed. You'll see, again, God bless. You'll see my name.
You'll see Logan's name as well. And then it starts with the new year in January and walking through a prayer guide for our nation, for our team here at the ACLJ. I mean, I love the fact that when you go into January, it's that new life in Christ and that we've got this kind of a new breath, a new air, new life to begin the fight.
So again, it takes you through the full year. You will receive this before Christmas. If you go to ACLJ.org slash prayer book today, make that $200 contribution, at least $200. And by the way, $200 or more, you're going to get the prayer book before Christmas. And that donation is still going to be doubled during our faith and freedom drive. Now, if you can't afford making a $200 contribution right now, I understand that 100%.
So you know what? Don't forget those $10 donations and $20 donations are just important. And we have ways for you to access the prayer guide online so you can still get the content at ACLJ.org. But donate that $200 today. Get the guide if you can.
