On Wednesday, Mike Davis, Founder and President of the Article III Project, joined Pamela Brown on CNN Primetime for a wide-ranging and fiery discussion about Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s political prosecution of President Trump and conflicts of interest surrounding the judge in the case.
PAMELA BROWN: I would like to bring in Mike Davis, a Trump legal ally and former Gorsuch clerk. Mike, thanks for your time tonight. So you just heard Donald Trump. That was one of many attacks he made last night. Why target the judge like that in particular?
MIKE DAVIS: Well I think President Trump understands that this is a political prosecution against him by a George Soros-funded Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg.
BROWN: Ok let me just stop you right there. George Soros donated to a PAC that then donated to Alvin Bragg, go ahead.
DAVIS: Okay, so it was George Soros’ money that went to support Alvin Bragg’s campaign. The prior Manhattan DA declined to prosecute these charges at Alvin Bragg’s urging when Alvin Bragg worked for the Attorney General’s office. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute these charges. The Federal Election Commission declined to prosecute these charges, and Alvin Bragg himself declined to prosecute these charges until he started taking heat from the left. And so then Alvin Bragg recruited one of the top officials from the Biden Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo. He was in the number three office in the Biden Justice Department to come revive this dead case in the Manhattan DA’s office. They brought these bogus, political charges against President Trump, and then he finds out that this judge actually donated to Biden’s campaign, so that at least raises the appearance that this judge could not be impartial against President Trump.
BROWN: You threw out a lot there. Let me just go back and fact-check a few things. First of all, Cy Vance, who’s the former DA in Manhattan, he said that the federal prosecutors asked him to step away from this case. That was something they were looking at at the time. We’ve heard from Alvin Bragg saying that he developed new evidence, which is why this case was brought back. So those are a few aspects, but we’re talking about the judge in particular in this case. Trump went after this judge only hours after the judge warned him in that courtroom – do not engage in rhetoric that has the potential to cause harm to anyone, to incite violence. Was it wrong for former President Trump to target the judge only hours after that?
DAVIS: I’m not understanding what President Trump said there that could potentially incite violence. I find it very interesting that the same Democrats who are criticizing President Trump now because he’s getting railroaded in New York were awfully quiet when Democrats were running illegal obstruction of justice campaigns outside of Supreme Court justices’ homes for months, still running them, that led to a 1AM assassination attempt against Justice Kavanaugh, his wife Ashley, and their two teenage daughters.
BROWN: Okay, not sure about the Democratic conspiracy. That’s not even what I’m asking about, so let’s focus on exactly what we’re talking about. Trump called the judge Trump-hating. He said this was a Trump-hating judge and that his daughter was involved in Democratic politics, and the concern is that that could go against exactly what the judge asked for in the courtroom, because as you well know, the former president has a fervent, devout group of followers. You know that.
DAVIS: Well I mean are these the same followers who tried to kill Justice Kavanaugh in his home? I mean this is ridiculous.
BROWN: We’re focusing on this topic. But how much of this has to do with trying to get the judge off of this case in your view?
DAVIS: If the judge has the appearance of bias, which it looks like he does – he donated to Joe Biden’s campaign, he should get off this case, and this judge has a history with President Trump in prior cases. So maybe that’s what President Trump is referring to.
BROWN: This case is now moving into discovery. What kind of fight should we expect to see from the Trump team? Will lawyers try to delay as much as they can, pushing it toward the election?
DAVIS: I don’t understand why the lawyers would want to delay this case at all. It’s a dog of a case. Even The New York Times and The Washington Post have pretty much laughed at this case. It’s a joke of a legal theory that Alvin Bragg is pursuing. It’s clearly a political hit. He’s colluding with Matthew Colangelo from the Biden Justice Department to use lawfare to get Trump.
BROWN: We should note that one of Trump’s attorneys, Joe Tacopina, he openly says that the judge in this case is not biased. That is important to note here. What evidence do you have that they are colluding, and this conspiracy that this former DOJ employee under Biden, this colluding and this conspiracy against Trump, what evidence do you have? Because I’ve heard you in other interviews bring up that same exact thing.
DAVIS: Matthew Colangelo was the number two to the number three in the Biden Justice Department. And then in December, Alvin Bragg hired him to go work in the Manhattan DA’s office. Do you think that there were any conversations, or do you think Matthew Colangelo just quit his job in the Biden Justice Department and went and knocked on Alvin Bragg’s door in Manhattan? Clearly they had discussions, and I hope that the House Judiciary Committee Chairman subpoenas those records from the Biden Justice Department and the communications between Bragg and Colangelo.
BROWN: Do you think that this will end up going to trial?
DAVIS: It will probably go to trial because I don’t think Trump’s going to get a fair hearing in New York, when you have the Democrat Party machine picking these local Manhattan trial judges, and we haven’t had a Republican governor in New York in 17 years. So, there’s no chance he’s going to get a fair appeal. So yes, this is going to go to trial, and when you have a 95% jury pool that hates Donald Trump, you know, he’s not going to get a fair trial.
BROWN: What is your evidence that 95% hate Donald Trump? You’re throwing a lot of stuff out there, and I just am wondering what exactly you have specifically to back up your claims.
DAVIS: We know that the Manhattan DA took a million dollars in campaign support from two different PACs, not just one, two different PACs, to support his campaign. So, a million dollars from George Soros. We know that this case was dead. It got passed over a million times.
BROWN: Hold on, it wasn’t a million dollars. Hold on. George Soros gave a million dollars to a progressive PAC, and that progressive PAC gave half a million dollars to Alvin Bragg. None of it was earmarked for Bragg. George Soros’ reps say that they had never communicated; there was nothing of this sort. But go ahead.
DAVIS: That’s the first one. There’s also a second PAC, the New York PAC. There are two different PACs. So you should probably take a look at that when you’re fact-checking me. So you have this Soros-funded DA bringing these bogus political charges, and you have a judge on this case who donated to Trump’s political opponent, Joe Biden. So you tell me if that looks like a fair process.
BROWN: Then why did Joe Tacopina say that the judge wasn’t biased. He wasn’t concerned about that. Why did he say that? Are you saying he was wrong?
DAVIS: Well, I don’t know. I’m not Trump’s lawyer. I don’t have to go stand in front of this judge every day. Maybe Joe understands that this judge is not going to move the venue here. He’s not going to recuse from the case. He’s going to have to live with this judge who donated to Joe Biden’s campaign, so he doesn’t want to anger him. Recusal is not the standard; the standard is the appearance of bias. There is an appearance of bias when this judge donated to Joe Biden, President Trump’s political opponent.
BROWN: But do you think that justifies Trump to his millions of fervent, devout followers targeting the judge? I know we’re kind of circling back, and we do have to end this soon, but I’m just wondering, is that what you’re implying that that then justifies Trump targeting the judge publicly?
DAVIS: Justify speaking out? You don’t think Trump is allowed to speak out publicly?
BROWN: I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that. He said he was Trump-hating.
DAVIS: Well, I think you have to look at the history of this judge with Trump and prior lawsuits. I understand – wasn’t this the judge who sent President Trump’s 75-year-old accountant to Rikers Island? I mean, there’s a history here that Trump is referring to.
BROWN: And we should note that Michael Bloomberg, when he was a Republican, first appointed this judge, later on, a Democratic governor, and we’re actually going to speak to a retired judge later in the show to talk about all of this. But Mike Davis, really good to have you on and to hear your points in this case and defense of Donald Trump. We appreciate your time. Thank you so much.
DAVIS: Thank you.