Report Shows Billionaires Are Showering Federal Judges With Lavish Gifts

Billionaires have decided that buying politicians isn’t enough, so they’ve started buying off judges. These wealthy donors are sending judges all over the globe to attend their “education” summits, but all the judges have learned is that they have to play ball and rule for corporations in order to keep getting these sweet rewards. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Billionaires have decided that buying politicians isn't enough. So they've started buying off judges. These wealthy donors are sending judges all over the globe to attend to their education. Well, judges have learned that they have to play ball sometimes in order to get these great trips. I got a couple of varied signs to the way this is developing because I'm in front of judges all the time. But give me your take on this. Okay.

Yeah. Again, another great report from the Lever here. And they went through and they analyzed the financial disclosures of these judges across the board. Left, right, center, doesn't matter what the judge was or who appointed the judge, these billionaire backed groups, it's not about a political agenda, it's about a corporate agenda. And they are sending them all over the world in some cases because they put on these continuing education seminars. Where you gotta do these courses as judges and what it is, is it's pro corporate propaganda, 100%. And they're in all these places where you wanna go. You want a vacation. They have you in for three hours, then you're free to play golf or do whatever.

Yeah. The places that are doing this, Duke University is a great example. They started, well, this was put together. What this story misses, I think to some degree, is big law firms are the money behind this. Okay. Your biggest defense firms that all they do is defend corporations, they'll call Duke and Duke bought into this big time. Duke is like a haven for conservative thought where it comes to the practice of law. They bring in all these defense lawyers, then they bring in judges and defense lawyers compared to claimants lawyers, are about 10 to one. So the judges are hearing for four days about how horrible things are out there. But it's the court. See, that's what this story kind of misses. And this is really a well done story, don't get me wrong.

But the whole push now is the economics of law. Okay. That's their big push with these really conservative judges. I would like to tell you that it's just conservative judges that are the problem. Some of the worst judges I have been in front of come from Democratic appointments. And we say, oh, well that's gotta be, Democrat appointment. We're gonna be. But no, it's not. But people don't understand why that is. The Democrat appointment, just like the Republican appointment has come up through the defense industry. Okay. All they've ever done is represented corporate interest against consumers. I can't go into the details about it, but the last awful, just ridiculous decision, overwhelming information that the corporation had done wrong. But when you looked at her analysis of things, it was all about the economics, you know? Well, yeah, we've killed some people. But sometimes that's just the cost of doing business. That is emanating not just from the Federalist Society, but from the biggest defense firms, Williams and Connolly types in this country that are, they're creating these havens. Duke is one of 'em. There's several more, aren't there?

Yeah. And of course, the usual suspects are the two. You've got the Koch network that is funding some of these junkets, the Federalist Society, as you mentioned. But really what this is, is this is almost a legal form of bribery. Right. There's no restrictions on this. There's nothing illegal being alleged at all. But these judges know, this is an expression I've heard you say before, you dance with who brought you.

Right.

And that is exactly what these judges do.