A group of anti-Trump cable news legal commentators reportedly meet for a weekly Zoom call to discuss the latest on former President Trump’s legal troubles,
The weekly meetings are scheduled for Fridays and are hosted by Norman Eisen, a CNN legal analyst and former Obama official, according to Politico Magazine.
“Do some of the people on the call align their positions as a result of their discussions? Yes, probably,” Politico’s Ankush Khardori wrote. “That can sound nefarious, but it is also the natural result of a group discussion that is working properly. People refine and clarify their positions. They find points of agreement that might surprise them. Their areas of disagreement become narrower, more precise.”
Anti-Trump GOP commentators Bill Kristol and George Conway, liberal Harvard professor Laurence Tribe, former Nixon White House counsel John Dean, MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann, and former CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin regularly attend the Zoom discussion, Politico reported.
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The call serves as a chance to discuss different legal arguments and, according to the outlet, helps to “to generate and shape content for Trump-hungry consumers.”
Conway, a contributor for The Atlantic, can also be seen weighing in on Trump’s cases on MSNBC, along with Weissman, who also hosts a podcast called, “Prosecuting Donald Trump.” Toobin, a former CNN legal analyst, has returned to CNN as a semi-regular guest, and recently argued Fulton County DA Fani Willis’ election interference case against Trump was “going nowhere.”
Politico reported liberal Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, CNN commentator Karen Agnifilo, Weissman’s podcast host Mary McCord, Harry Litman, Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance also frequently join the Zoom discussion.
“It feels almost like a seminar in law school,” one group participant told Politico. The weekly forum includes “deliberation, debate and discussion,” the person said, “with a distinct anti-Trump tilt to it.”
One of the legal minds told the outlet that the agenda usually covers what’s to come, and said he joins in on the calls for useful “behind the scenes information.”
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The outlet noted some discussion of skepticism among the legal commentators over the hush money case against Trump, which the former president is in court for in Manhattan. Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to alleged hush money payments he made to pornography actress Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election.
“Skepticism and some ambivalence about the merits of the case — and whether it should have been brought in the first place — has been something of a running theme across some of the calls,” the report read.
Trump returned to court on Tuesday as Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg alleged the presumptive GOP nominee violated a gag order that was imposed upon him, Fox News Digital reported.
Politico also spoke to another well-known legal voice with a TV contract, and said they were surprised to hear these weekly meetings were occurring.
“It runs the risk of creating the impression that there is an agreement or cooperation or conspiracy across mainstream media entities,” this person told the outlet. “And that could feed into some false and damaging perceptions, particularly on the right.”
