Speaker 1: This is Dan Caplis and welcome to today's online podcast
Speaker 1: edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
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Speaker 1: and to subscribe, download, and listen to the show every
Speaker 1: single day on your favorite podcast platform. Se Yeah, we
Speaker 1: want a whole lot of that justice. I don't think
Speaker 1: Mayor Mike Johnston does three O.
Speaker 2: Three seven one three eight two five five the number
Speaker 2: text d A N five seven seven three nine And
Speaker 2: no matter where you live in America, let alone Colorado,
Speaker 2: this story about Mayor Mike Johnston is extraordinarily important and
Speaker 2: revealing because what just happened is the mayor of Denver
Speaker 2: who voluntarily accepted an invitation to appear before a House
Speaker 2: committee and talk about, you know, Denver's sanctuary city status.
Speaker 2: And I believe clearly Denver my opinion is the sanctuary city.
Speaker 2: He denies it. But that's what the hearings all about.
Speaker 2: Now it's been revealed, I'll play the story for you.
Speaker 2: Part of the story that Johnston now is going to
Speaker 2: spend two million dollars at least of Denver taxpayer money
Speaker 2: on a high powered Washington d C. Lawyer to counsel
Speaker 2: him before this hearing. Well, let's listen to the story.
Speaker 2: And by the way, as you listen to the story,
Speaker 2: keep this in mind. According to the Denver Right, the
Speaker 2: city is to be represented by Dana Remas. Now, Dana remis,
Speaker 2: according to what I've read since his story, Broke is
Speaker 2: former White House counsel to Joe Biden. She's Michelle Obama's
Speaker 2: former attorney. So when Diamond Mike, when Diamond Mike wants
Speaker 2: a lawyer, he goes first class, right, I mean, with
Speaker 2: your money thousand bucks an hour.
Speaker 3: Fire up that story, please, Ryan.
Speaker 4: The city of Denver is bracing for a fight in Washington,
Speaker 4: and to prepare, the mayor City council approved a two
Speaker 4: million dollar contract with an elite law firm, Colvington and Burling, LLP.
Speaker 4: Says they will perform services for the city at a
Speaker 4: discounted rate of one thousand dollars per hour, including preparation
Speaker 4: in advance of the hearing and initial work related to
Speaker 4: document and review. March fifth, Mayor Mike Johnston is being
Speaker 4: asked to go to DC to defend Denver's immigration policies
Speaker 4: by the US House Committee on Government Reform. City policies
Speaker 4: that were adopted back in twenty sixteen under then Mayor
Speaker 4: Michael Hancock. Council members approved the funding in a block
Speaker 4: vote along with other bills last night. The only council
Speaker 4: member to comment was Sarah Parity. She spoke about the
Speaker 4: possible need to expand support of the Denver Immigrant Legal
Speaker 4: Services Fund really.
Speaker 5: For reasons that are at their heart similar to why
Speaker 5: we're approving this legal bill for this DC law firm today,
Speaker 5: which is that we're going to continue to defend our
Speaker 5: entirely legal local policies, not to do the dirty work
Speaker 5: of deportation for the federal government, and not to ignore
Speaker 5: the overarching international human rights law that says that when
Speaker 5: people are fleeing really of bysmal circumstances, they have a
Speaker 5: right to claim asylum.
Speaker 4: Part of the contract between the law firm and the
Speaker 4: city states quote, the parties mutually agree that investigative activity
Speaker 4: is likely to continue following this hearing, and that City
Speaker 4: Council may be asked to approve war funding beyond the
Speaker 4: two million dollars already.
Speaker 2: Approvedad question, there wait a second, So they're trying to
Speaker 2: peddle this.
Speaker 3: The City's trying to pedal.
Speaker 2: This to us as two million dollars of DC attorney
Speaker 2: time to prepare Mike Johnston for this hearing.
Speaker 3: When's this hearing in two years?
Speaker 2: I thought it was March fifth. I mean, let me
Speaker 2: look at my calendar and do a little math here.
Speaker 2: So they think people are stupid enough to accept that
Speaker 2: it's two million dollars, which is what two thousand hours
Speaker 2: of attorney time between in the next.
Speaker 3: Couple of weeks.
Speaker 2: Give me a break, right, I mean here, I'll give
Speaker 2: Mike Johnston the best advice he can get, and I'll
Speaker 2: give it for free right now. Rather than spend two
Speaker 2: million dollars of precious Denver taxpayer money, two million dollars
Speaker 2: that could go to nine to one one so that
Speaker 2: when people call they don't get a recording, save that
Speaker 2: two million dollars. Here's the advice. Don't go to the hearing.
Speaker 2: You're not under subpoena. The hearing's optional. Why is Mike
Speaker 2: Johnston even going to this hearing?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: So, you're gonna spend two million dollars at Denver taxpayer
Speaker 2: money so that he can go to a hearing he
Speaker 2: doesn't have to go to. Now, Don't get me wrong,
Speaker 2: I'm really looking forward to it. I had Congressman gave
Speaker 2: Evans on he's on the committee or no, he's he's
Speaker 2: being allowed to drop into the committee. Congressman Bobert's on
Speaker 2: the committee. I can't wait for this questioning. But don't
Speaker 2: fall for a second for this idea that they're spending
Speaker 2: two million dollars of Denver taxpayer money to prepare him
Speaker 2: for this hearing. No, they're spending two million dollars as
Speaker 2: a starter because he must believe he is in crimin
Speaker 2: old jeopardy. That's why they're spending the money. In my opinion,
Speaker 2: I don't know if he committed a crime or not.
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's in the course of committing crimes.
Speaker 2: And when I talk about that, I'm narrowing this obviously
Speaker 2: to immigration law related crimes. I don't have any reason
Speaker 2: to believe he's committed any other crimes, and I don't
Speaker 2: know whether he's committed these crimes. All I'm saying is
Speaker 2: he must be concerned that he may have to be
Speaker 2: taking this step spending millions in Denver taxpayer money to
Speaker 2: bring in Joe Biden's former attorney to prepare him for
Speaker 2: this hearing. And I put that in quotes because I
Speaker 2: believe he's really bringing them in to help protect him
Speaker 2: against criminal exposure.
Speaker 3: So wow, And I know.
Speaker 2: What you may be thinking, which would be right, which is, Hey,
Speaker 2: you think Mike Johnston cares about two million or five
Speaker 2: or ten million of Denver taxpayer money. No, I don't
Speaker 2: think he does. But I do think he cares about
Speaker 2: these kind of headlines. And I think he cares about
Speaker 2: the political fallout of this, because, as I've been saying
Speaker 2: for a long time, I absolutely believe he's been running
Speaker 2: for governor since before he was running for mayor, while
Speaker 2: he was running for mayor, while he's serving for mayor,
Speaker 2: So he knows stories like this are not good for him.
Speaker 2: So I don't think he goes there. I don't think
Speaker 2: he takes two million dollars of Denver taxpayer money to
Speaker 2: hire Joe Biden's lawyer to advise him, unless he thinks
Speaker 2: he has some real exposure, And we'll find out together
Speaker 2: whether he does or not. But Ryan, I think this
Speaker 2: is an extraordinarily important story. Yes, and they talk about
Speaker 2: I mean in the agreement right that there's more likely
Speaker 2: to come, which I think just confirms this money has
Speaker 2: very little to do with the hearing and it has
Speaker 2: to do with the bigger issue of is he criminally exposed?
Speaker 6: It has to be that, Dan, because you look, you
Speaker 6: try to unpack this right as to why would he
Speaker 6: need two million dollars of this level of legal preparation
Speaker 6: for testimony before Congress? As the story points out, that's voluntary,
Speaker 6: it's optional. He was not subpoena to testify a m
Speaker 6: I get to that step, but it hasn't yet. So
Speaker 6: you have to connect those dots like you just did, Dan, Like, Okay,
Speaker 6: what explains this? Why did they have to go to
Speaker 6: defcon one here with the legal representation?
Speaker 7: Your explanation is the only one that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and think about it.
Speaker 2: I mean, we talk about the two million bucks because
Speaker 2: that's sexy, but we should be talking about the two
Speaker 2: thousand hours because lawyers this good, and this is a
Speaker 2: very good law firm, and a lawyer this good, you know,
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's former White House counsel, Michelle Obama's former lawyer.
Speaker 2: Lawyers this good don't need two thousand hours to figure
Speaker 2: out whether Mike Johnston has violated the law or not.
Speaker 2: They probably already know that. So when you're talking about
Speaker 2: two thousand hours, I think it has.
Speaker 3: Very little to do with this hearing.
Speaker 2: I'm sure they'll do some prep for the hearing, but
Speaker 2: prep along the lines of, hey, if you have criminal exposure,
Speaker 2: here's what you need to be real careful about in
Speaker 2: this hearing.
Speaker 3: But no, I think this is all about all about.
Speaker 2: A concern that he has criminal exposure and expecting expecting
Speaker 2: this administration to take action.
Speaker 3: That That's what this signals to me.
Speaker 2: Three or three someone three eight two five five text
Speaker 2: d An five seven seven three nine. Again, I don't
Speaker 2: know if he's committed a crime or not. All I
Speaker 2: can say is he must be worried that he has. Yeah,
Speaker 2: let's go to Adam and Severance. Here on the Dan
Speaker 2: Kaplis show.
Speaker 3: Welcome.
Speaker 8: Hey Dan, how are you doing?
Speaker 3: I am living the dream, my friend. How about you?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 8: Just the same. I got to say, though, I'm glad
Speaker 8: I live in Severance, but still just hearing about this
Speaker 8: Mike Johnson thing is just insane. I was looking at
Speaker 8: your numbers, and that's eighty three days of straight working
Speaker 8: around the clock for that lawyer, and then on top
Speaker 8: of that break that down to an eight hour day.
Speaker 8: That's two hundred and fifty days worth of work, and
Speaker 8: then to the whole safety of Benburg. That place is
Speaker 8: a is a absolute death trapping mark. The average salary
Speaker 8: for a starting officer is eighty thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 8: That pays for twenty five new officers on the streets
Speaker 8: making sure people will get their next cut on sixteenth
Speaker 8: Street the mall.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, very interesting and thank you for making
Speaker 2: the important point about the number of hours for this attorney.
Speaker 2: I think the way a great firm quote.
Speaker 6: It seems like we lost Dan there just a moment.
Speaker 6: He is remote today and we're warned about this. Ryan
Speaker 6: shiling with you. We'll take a quick time out, we'll
Speaker 6: come back with Dan. It's a good time for a
Speaker 6: break here in the Dan Campus Show.
Speaker 7: And now back to the Dan Kaplis Show podcast.
Speaker 4: The city of Denver is bracing for a fight in Washington,
Speaker 4: and to prepare, the mayor City Council approved a two
Speaker 4: million dollar contract with an elite law firm, Colvington and Burling, LLP.
Speaker 4: Says they will perform services for the city at a
Speaker 4: discounted rate of one thousand dollars per hour, including preparation
Speaker 4: and advance of the hearing.
Speaker 3: It.
Speaker 2: Thank you, ran I think this is one of the
Speaker 2: most important and revealing stories in a long time in Colorado,
Speaker 2: and it is important to people all over the country,
Speaker 2: but certainly in our state because what this tells me,
Speaker 2: my constitutionally protected opinion, is that this two thousand hours of.
Speaker 3: High powered attorney time.
Speaker 2: According to the Denver Right, the lawyer Mike Johnson hired
Speaker 2: with your money if you live in Denver.
Speaker 3: The lawyer they hired is Joe.
Speaker 2: Biden's former White House counsel, Dana Remus, who was also
Speaker 2: Michelle Obama's lawyer. Now, we got a lot of great lawyers,
Speaker 2: a lot of great criminal lawyers, a lot of great
Speaker 2: government lawyers in Denver, but he has to go to
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's former White House council. What kind of trouble
Speaker 2: do you think he's in. I mean, I'm not saying
Speaker 2: he's violated any laws. I don't know if he has
Speaker 2: or not. But when you go beyond Denver, with all
Speaker 2: the political fallout of story like this causes, and you
Speaker 2: hire a high powered lawyer like that, you know the
Speaker 2: message to people is going to be you think you're
Speaker 2: in big trouble. And anybody thinks these two thousand hours
Speaker 2: are for this hearing, please think again. I'm sure there
Speaker 2: will be hearing prep. But I think this is about
Speaker 2: a much bigger concern that Lawless Mike, as I branded
Speaker 2: him a long time ago, has, And that's based on
Speaker 2: not a conclusion he's committed crimes, but him coming out
Speaker 2: and saying that, oh yeah, use Denver police to stop
Speaker 2: federal law enforcement at the county line and wanting people
Speaker 2: in the streets like Tieneman Square against our own brothers
Speaker 2: and sisters, our own federal law enforcement. That's why I
Speaker 2: label him lawless Mike. But now that he's spending two
Speaker 2: million to start of taxpayer money on a high powered
Speaker 2: lawyer for him, maybe he thinks there are other lawlessness
Speaker 2: issues out there now. Adam had called just before the breaking,
Speaker 2: sorry for that technical glitch, Ryan, Is it snowing down
Speaker 2: there yet? Yeah, I just started pretty much because I'm
Speaker 2: in my trial prep cabin up the mountains and it's
Speaker 2: snowing like a bear up here right now, and so
Speaker 2: we had a little technical glitch there. We may have
Speaker 2: another one or two before the end of the show,
Speaker 2: hopefully not. But Adam, thank you for staying and you
Speaker 2: had this good point you were making before the break
Speaker 2: you were saying, Hey, this former White House Council, that
Speaker 2: would be X number of days of her time.
Speaker 3: My belief, Adam, is.
Speaker 2: That there will likely be a very big team of
Speaker 2: high powered attorneys working on this, led by that one attorney.
Speaker 2: So yeah, you you may have three five lawyers all
Speaker 2: working round the clock between now and the hearing try
Speaker 2: to prepare Diamond Mike. But then the question is sure why.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's a hearing that's optional. He's not subpointed.
Speaker 2: A friend of mine, Steve, texted and said, yeah, you know,
Speaker 2: he wants the National Spade Stage, National spotlight, and Denver
Speaker 2: taxpayers can put the bill to get him prepared. And
Speaker 2: I have no doubt he wants that, and he knows
Speaker 2: he can manipulate that forum because there's no real chance
Speaker 2: to pin him down in that kind of forum.
Speaker 8: Well, and I think you hit the nail on the head.
Speaker 8: He thinks there's something else going on there, and the
Speaker 8: fact that he's going to go for that kind of
Speaker 8: money that says everything I need to know about it
Speaker 8: in my personal, humble opinion. But more so, I just
Speaker 8: want to point out that he's going and wasting that
Speaker 8: kind of the Denver people's money when the streets.
Speaker 3: Are so dangerous.
Speaker 8: There there's yeah, rampant homelessness, there's people being murdered on
Speaker 8: sixties Street Mall. I won't bring my children down there,
Speaker 8: let alone my wife. And here he is dumping millions
Speaker 8: of dollars into something that seems frankly frivolous.
Speaker 3: Well, Adam, thank you for your call and for your points.
Speaker 2: As I've talked about in many different context on this show,
Speaker 2: I think the evidence is overwhelming that Mike Johnston just
Speaker 2: doesn't care that much about most people in Denver. He
Speaker 2: cares about Mike Johnston. And so I think we've seen
Speaker 2: that on display. I mean, one of the most recent examples,
Speaker 2: after the horrific spree stabbings on the mall, including the
Speaker 2: flight attendant having her throat slit and dying in our street,
Speaker 2: he goes down to almost the very spot where those
Speaker 2: bodies dropped to essentially declare victory the next night and
Speaker 2: talk about how much safer Denver is.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Mike Johnston, I think, is concerned about Mike Johnston,
Speaker 2: and he'll spend as much of your money as he
Speaker 2: has to on the very best lawyer he can find,
Speaker 2: Joe Biden's former lawyer, to make sure that if he
Speaker 2: has criminal exposure, he's protect eight five five. Where's your
Speaker 2: five d A two five five text d An five
Speaker 2: seven seven three nine.
Speaker 3: Hey, let's go to Brian and Arvada. You're on the
Speaker 3: Dane Kaplis Show.
Speaker 8: Hey, Dan, how's it going tonight?
Speaker 3: I'm living the dream, my friend. How about you?
Speaker 8: Well, I'm gonna come at a different angle. This is
Speaker 8: just a last attempt for their You know, we know
Speaker 8: there's been laundering money. Okay, everybody in government. Mike Johnson's
Speaker 8: doing it. Come on, two million dollars for lawyers. Come on,
Speaker 8: he's getting a kickback. It's you know, they're all sucking
Speaker 8: at the Trump because they know they know what's going
Speaker 8: to dry up pretty soon. It has nothing to do
Speaker 8: with he needs protection, this, that, and the other. It's
Speaker 8: him taking care of his buddies, and that's what we're
Speaker 8: all sick of.
Speaker 2: Let me understand the accusation you're making, because I don't
Speaker 2: agree with it. Your accusation is that he is paying
Speaker 2: this money to the law firm so he can personally
Speaker 2: get a kickback of some of that money.
Speaker 3: Because I don't believe that.
Speaker 8: There's two million dollar dollars to go. Dan, We got
Speaker 8: to think about this logically.
Speaker 9: Okay, we know.
Speaker 8: What they've been doing. I mean we see doeys, you know,
Speaker 8: And this is the best argument you could ever have
Speaker 8: for having nothing but a consumer tax. We're all getting scammed.
Speaker 8: They got a book that's like the Harry Potter series,
Speaker 8: that's your tax code, and they expect you to comply
Speaker 8: to them. But yet they're supposed to represent us, that
Speaker 8: we're supposed to be their boss. A scam just keeps
Speaker 8: going and going. Brian's got interrupt as much money as
Speaker 8: they can.
Speaker 3: Don't mean to be rude.
Speaker 2: Got interrupt for one second because you're just one hundred
Speaker 2: percent wrong when you say that the play here is
Speaker 2: for Johnston to get some of this two million back.
Speaker 2: Zero chance of that that there's no corruption here. The
Speaker 2: law firm is not funneling money back.
Speaker 3: To Johns Democrat.
Speaker 8: They're Democrat lawyers. They're looking for cash. They know that
Speaker 8: he's going to draw up my brother wandering scheme.
Speaker 2: Briant, you're so full of crap. No, I put him
Speaker 2: on pause for a second. Okay, he is so full
Speaker 2: of crap on this, and I enjoy his calls. He
Speaker 2: doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. These lawyers.
Speaker 2: This law firm has people lined up across the globe
Speaker 2: to hire them.
Speaker 3: They don't need Mike Johnston's money.
Speaker 2: Mike Johnston needs them, so that's just garbage. Listen, this
Speaker 2: is a big story. This really matters. I think it
Speaker 2: means Mike Johnston believes he has criminal exposure, whether he
Speaker 2: committed a crime or not. Don't go down some stupid
Speaker 2: ass rabbit hole like that. What is he thinking? See
Speaker 2: this for what it is. Mike Johnston is willing to
Speaker 2: spend an awful lot of taxpayer money to protect Mike
Speaker 2: Johnston and he thinks he has criminal exposure. Right now,
Speaker 2: that's mike constitutionally protected opinion. But what is that nonsense?
Speaker 2: We just heard Ryan.
Speaker 6: Well, I mean you pretty much nipped it in the
Speaker 6: bud right there. This is not a law firm that's
Speaker 6: like better call.
Speaker 3: Saul or something. No, no, no, no, no, this.
Speaker 2: I I'm sorry, but calls like that infuriate me because listen,
Speaker 2: Mike Johnston, he hurts Denver in lots of ways, and
Speaker 2: we call him out on lots of bands stuff.
Speaker 3: He does, But don't make up crazy garbage like that.
Speaker 2: Hey, John Kellner, former DA in a repo and my
Speaker 2: love partner, I'm proud to say after the break and
Speaker 2: a very important piece, he wrote, you're on the Dan
Speaker 2: Kapla Show.
Speaker 6: You're listening to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast. I think
Speaker 6: I know where I'm gonna go real turning, but nobody knows.
Speaker 3: Yes, Chris Berman says, we're all day to day they
Speaker 3: sort the vote of.
Speaker 2: Confidence, saying no Bert Ryan and I were talking during
Speaker 2: the break. I have this cabin that I go up
Speaker 2: to and hide away in for long stretches.
Speaker 3: When I'm preparing for trial. And I'm up here now
Speaker 3: and in one of.
Speaker 2: Those phases, so going to come out maybe with a
Speaker 2: beard like down to my wat or something.
Speaker 3: But yeah, we're in a driving.
Speaker 2: Snowstorm up here, so I don't know how much the
Speaker 2: front range is going to get out of this. But hey,
Speaker 2: and I hope I wasn't too rough on that last caller,
Speaker 2: because you know, it's not like me, and it's not
Speaker 2: like me to use bad language. But one of the
Speaker 2: great gifts my mom gave me. Anything good about me
Speaker 2: comes to my mom and dad. Anything bad, that's all
Speaker 2: on me. But man, She gave me this strong sense
Speaker 2: of justice and right and wrong. And you know, yeah,
Speaker 2: I think Mayor Johnston is a terrible mayor for Denver,
Speaker 2: and I think he's done a lot of terrible things.
Speaker 2: But when the last caller starts accusing him of financial
Speaker 2: corruption total bs allegation just ticks me off. Even if
Speaker 2: I don't like the guy he's falsely accusing, it ticks
Speaker 2: me off.
Speaker 3: But we'll get back to that whole story. It's a
Speaker 3: big one too.
Speaker 2: Mike Johnston now spending a couple of million bucks a
Speaker 2: taxpayer money for starters on Joe Biden's former lawyer to
Speaker 2: prepare him for the upcoming hearing.
Speaker 3: No, I think it's about much more than that. Hey.
Speaker 3: In the meantime, really.
Speaker 2: Important piece don and published in the gazette over the
Speaker 2: weekend by John Kellner, the former DA in the eighteenth
Speaker 2: and now very happy to say, John and I practice
Speaker 2: law together. He's the managing partner of our firm. But
Speaker 2: the piece is really important, I think to you, and
Speaker 2: it's something you're not hearing much about, and so I
Speaker 2: wanted to see if John had join us and.
Speaker 3: Kick that around a little bit. Hey, John, welcome back
Speaker 3: to the show.
Speaker 9: Thanks Dan, always a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody back there, Glad. I'm up at the cabin
Speaker 2: growing a beard.
Speaker 9: Well, you know how it is when you're away and
Speaker 9: everything kind of goes a little crazy. But I'm trying
Speaker 9: to hold down the foard for you.
Speaker 3: I'm sure. I'm sure you are.
Speaker 2: But I had no idea that what you wrote about
Speaker 2: was going on, and it's infuriating. So if you would
Speaker 2: tell folks about it and then tell them where they
Speaker 2: can find the.
Speaker 9: Piece, Yeah, Well, thanks again for having me on. And
Speaker 9: you know, I ended my term as District Attorney a
Speaker 9: little over a month ago and then joined your firm
Speaker 9: as a managing partner and kind of thought I'd be
Speaker 9: blissfully unaware of what was happening at the Capitol because
Speaker 9: as the DA, you know, I was hyper focused on
Speaker 9: what sort of nonsense might be coming down from under
Speaker 9: the Gold Dome. What is the governor going to sign
Speaker 9: that's going to make our jobs as prosecutors more difficult,
Speaker 9: what's going to make our communities less safe? And I
Speaker 9: thought maybe i'd put that behind me, but I just
Speaker 9: couldn't resist. So I kind of looked in at the
Speaker 9: quarter pole Mark here. You know, we're a quarter of
Speaker 9: the way into the legislative session, and I was curious
Speaker 9: where do things stand from a public safety perspective, because
Speaker 9: as your listeners, I'm sure know they're smart, they're well informed.
Speaker 9: You know, we're ranked number three in the country as
Speaker 9: the least safe, most dangerous, you know state out there
Speaker 9: by the US News and World Report, which is a
Speaker 9: crazy thing to have. You know, we've got national gangs
Speaker 9: like trender Agua trying to put down roots in our state.
Speaker 9: You know, we've got people of stabbing folks on Sixteenth
Speaker 9: Street Mall. There's just a lot that's going wrong. So
Speaker 9: I figure with Polis always saying that, hey, we want
Speaker 9: to be a tuck ten state to state that public
Speaker 9: safety has got to be at the forefront of any
Speaker 9: sort of legislative agenda. So I look on the the
Speaker 9: website starts seeing, you know, one of the many hundreds
Speaker 9: of bills that have been introduced so far the Sledge
Speaker 9: Safe session, and I got to tell you it's it's
Speaker 9: almost worse than you would expect when it comes to
Speaker 9: public safety. We've got a bill that was recently introduced.
Speaker 9: It's House built twenty five to twelve over six I
Speaker 9: wrote about it my piece. This is a bill that
Speaker 9: would make it a classified felony for one of these
Speaker 9: would be mass murderers. Think Club Q shooting, King Supers massacre,
Speaker 9: the Aroar Theater shooting which happened in my judicial district
Speaker 9: in the eighteenth Every person that that would be killer,
Speaker 9: you know, shot at but missed. We charge them right
Speaker 9: now with attempted extreme indifference, first degree murder, and that
Speaker 9: adds a significant penalty when they get sentenced, up to
Speaker 9: forty eight years for each instance of that. This is
Speaker 9: a bill which again makes no sense whatsoever, but reduces
Speaker 9: that penalty by about eighty three percent and makes it
Speaker 9: something around two to a maximum of eight years.
Speaker 2: Well, it'll be the warning at John, And why would
Speaker 2: they do it?
Speaker 9: It makes no sense whatsoever. It literally rewards the worst
Speaker 9: of the worst in our society for being bad shots.
Speaker 9: And you know, thankfully right that they don't kill all
Speaker 9: these people they intend to, but for the sake of deterrence,
Speaker 9: and any sane society is going to say we throw
Speaker 9: the book at people like that. We lock them up
Speaker 9: for pretty much forever, if not for the rest of
Speaker 9: their natural lives. Since we don't have a death penalty
Speaker 9: in the state of Colorado anymore. But that's just one.
Speaker 9: I mean, that's cruising through right now, Dan, We've got
Speaker 9: some other things going on where you've got rampant retail
Speaker 9: theft in our state. And I'm sure all of your
Speaker 9: listeners have seen these videos of people on social media
Speaker 9: just loading up something at King Sooper is a cart
Speaker 9: going into a store just walking out. I mean, there's
Speaker 9: almost no intervention, right, and nobody wants to go viral
Speaker 9: for the wrong reasons of trying to apprehend these folks,
Speaker 9: and a lot of corporate entities are saying, we don't
Speaker 9: want you to intervene, but that's causing the cost of
Speaker 9: goods to go up for all of us law abiding citizens. Right.
Speaker 9: We flipped the bill for people who do this sort
Speaker 9: of rampant shop lifting. So a couple of years ago,
Speaker 9: Government Polis signed a law that made it a petty offense,
Speaker 9: so basically maximum jail sentence of ten days and most
Speaker 9: likely fine as the outcome if you steal three hundred
Speaker 9: dollars or under and it's still misdemeanor minds you for
Speaker 9: stealing up to two thousand dollars, But we see it
Speaker 9: in municipalities like Aurora, dan saying, hey, we've had enough
Speaker 9: of this. We think we can do better to protect
Speaker 9: our citizens and protect our businesses. So they passed city
Speaker 9: ordinances that say, look, if you steal in the city
Speaker 9: of Aurora, that's going to be a mandatory minimum jail
Speaker 9: sense of three days. If you do it a second time,
Speaker 9: you're looking at a mandatory minimum of forty five days.
Speaker 9: So we got a new bill out there, brought by
Speaker 9: some Democrats in the legislature House built twenty five eleven
Speaker 9: forty seven that says, you know what, municipal courts, like
Speaker 9: in Aurora and other places across the state cannot have
Speaker 9: tougher sentences then they have legislated under the state capital
Speaker 9: cannot have situations where they have mandatory penalties, but the
Speaker 9: state does not. So Aurora's efforts to deter, you know,
Speaker 9: retail theft, to make sure that they don't lose box
Speaker 9: stores that hold communities together, groceries, pharmacists like Walgreens, forget
Speaker 9: about that. That's going out the window. If this thing passes.
Speaker 3: They're not even trying to hide the pro criminal thing anymore.
Speaker 9: It doesn't make any sense to me because I think
Speaker 9: every legislature, legislator gets five bills to sort of buy
Speaker 9: right to put forward. And for the life of me,
Speaker 9: I just don't understand who is clamoring for some of
Speaker 9: these things, because I don't think it's a big group.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's probably not a Colorado group.
Speaker 2: My guess is it's uber big money on the left
Speaker 2: that just wants all this crazy far left stuff. But John,
Speaker 2: your piece, I know breaks down. I've read it, breaks
Speaker 2: it down in great detail. That's in the gazette. But
Speaker 2: folks can find it on our website as well. John
Speaker 2: and I practicing law together now, Johnson managing partner of
Speaker 2: our firm, and you can find that Dan Capitalist Law,
Speaker 2: and it's in the blog post under the about us section.
Speaker 2: So Dan Caplis Law about us, go to the blog post.
Speaker 3: John.
Speaker 2: I'm glad you wrote the piece because I didn't know
Speaker 2: any of that garbage was going on, and people need
Speaker 2: to know it if we're going to be able to
Speaker 2: stop it.
Speaker 9: Yeah, there's so much going on in the capital that
Speaker 9: gets a lot of attention. I know, there's a big fight,
Speaker 9: you know, when it comes to some automatic weapons and
Speaker 9: gun grabbing bills and things like that, and that's getting
Speaker 9: so much of the press. But while that's happening, a
Speaker 9: lot of other things that are going to make us
Speaker 9: less safe and farther from our actual goal of being
Speaker 9: a top ten save the state. That's a flyine of
Speaker 9: the radar right now.
Speaker 2: Well, and let's get you on a bunch to talk
Speaker 2: about that. I know that mattered a lot to you.
Speaker 2: His da and you were all over that. But let's
Speaker 2: keep people up on this and maybe if there's some
Speaker 2: hope they can pressure poll listen to some vetos though.
Speaker 3: We'll find out together so that piece you can see it.
Speaker 2: Dan caplis Law in the blog post section and also
Speaker 2: Denver Gazette. Hey appreciate the time. Stay safe and warm
Speaker 2: down there, you ks. Thanks man Cia. That is John Kellner,
Speaker 2: and I've been saying for years, long before he obviously
Speaker 2: just came to work for us with me. He's not
Speaker 2: working for anybody except our clients. John is our managing
Speaker 2: partner and he is the future. I look forward to
Speaker 2: trying cases with him for the next ten or twenty years.
Speaker 3: But he is the future.
Speaker 2: He is an elite talent and a great guy, and
Speaker 2: it's just awesome.
Speaker 3: To be able to go try cases with him.
Speaker 2: When we come back, big story out of Denver Mayor
Speaker 2: Mike Johnston spending to start with two million dollars of
Speaker 2: taxpayer money on Joe Biden's former attorney. How much trouble
Speaker 2: do you think Johnston believes he's in and is he
Speaker 2: You're on the Dan Caplis Show.
Speaker 7: And now back to the Dan Kapla Show podcast.
Speaker 3: Wow what a day.
Speaker 2: First, we started the show with a courageous woman, Heather McCormick,
Speaker 2: who is telling the story on behalf of the family
Speaker 2: of this horrific circumstance has described at Columbine where according
Speaker 2: to the story, you had a top administrator and others
Speaker 2: get together to help declare a student homeless who actually
Speaker 2: had a home, and then that student ends up getting
Speaker 2: estrange from her parents and from everything I can see,
Speaker 2: no fault to the parents, and then moving away with
Speaker 2: a teacher who had texted her twenty thousand times according
Speaker 2: to the story. So very important story. We'll continue to
Speaker 2: follow it. George Brockler joined us on that as well.
Speaker 2: And then one of the most important stories in years
Speaker 2: I think on the political scene this coming out of
Speaker 2: Denver that Denversity Council has approved two million dollars to
Speaker 2: hire a DC law firm to advise Mayor Mike Johnston
Speaker 2: prior to his appearance before Congress in a few weeks,
Speaker 2: two thousand hours of attorney time from top attorneys at
Speaker 2: one thousand bucks an hour, and raising the very real
Speaker 2: question what kind of trouble does Mayor Johnston think he's in?
Speaker 2: Because really, does anybody buy that he's getting two million
Speaker 2: dollars worth of advice just on how to testify at
Speaker 2: a hearing where any idiot and he's no idiot. He
Speaker 2: does a lot of crazy things in my opinion, but
Speaker 2: he's no idiot. Any idiot could get through that hearing
Speaker 2: unscathed just by filibustering because there's no judge. There's no
Speaker 2: judge to order you to answer a question or hold
Speaker 2: you in contempt. So he's just going to preen before
Speaker 2: the national cameras. And so, so, yeah, what is this
Speaker 2: two million dollars and more really for? Because these are
Speaker 2: big time lawyers. This is Michelle Obama's formal lawyer, this
Speaker 2: is Joe Biden's former White House counsel. So does Mike
Speaker 2: Johnston think he's in big trouble? Potentially criminally on this
Speaker 2: immigration business.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think.
Speaker 2: He's taking the downsides of this kind of story unless
Speaker 2: he thinks he needs an awful lot of protection. So
Speaker 2: I don't know if he's committed any crimes or not
Speaker 2: presumed innocent, But this is a lot of taxpayer money
Speaker 2: to be spending on DC lawyers. And by the way,
Speaker 2: there are a lot of great criminal lawyers in Denver,
Speaker 2: a lot of great government lawyers in Denver. So to
Speaker 2: go right to Joe Biden's former White House counsel tells me.
Speaker 2: The way I take it is he thinks he's potentially
Speaker 2: in big trouble.
Speaker 3: Dan.
Speaker 2: New bills go light on criminals and heart on law
Speaker 2: abiding citizens. Restricting gun rights SB twenty four three, we
Speaker 2: are going the opposite way of safety.
Speaker 3: Boy, that is so true. My law partner, John Kellner.
Speaker 2: Just joined us, a former DA in the twenty thirty
Speaker 2: has a great new piece that details bill's going through
Speaker 2: the legislature that will make you less safe and profound ways.
Speaker 2: So check that out. You can read his piece either
Speaker 2: on the gazette or through our website. Dan Kaplis's Law
Speaker 2: at the blog post Dan. When you're called to d
Speaker 2: C by the House or Senate. As with the FBI,
Speaker 2: it's best to have a DC lawyer as a Colorado resident.
Speaker 2: I don't appreciate his use of city funds to cover
Speaker 2: his you know what they're Wait a second, when you're
Speaker 2: called a DC by the House or Senate.
Speaker 3: No, he was invited. It's optional. He doesn't even have
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 2: He's going because he knows this will be easy for him.
Speaker 2: He will get a lot of national attention. That's what
Speaker 2: he craves as he runs for higher office. So he's
Speaker 2: going for his own reasons. If he was walking into
Speaker 2: a courtroom to be cross examined by me or any
Speaker 2: good attorney, yeah, he'd need lawyers, and he'd have to
Speaker 2: be very worried because there there's a judge to order
Speaker 2: and answer questions, etc. Truly, any idiot could skate through
Speaker 2: one of these DC hearings, and that's no reflection on
Speaker 2: the good people who'll be questioning him. Gabe Evans will
Speaker 2: do a great job within the limits of the process.
Speaker 2: You know, so will everybody else who questions him, including
Speaker 2: Congressoman Bobert. But it's a very limited process. So no,
Speaker 2: my own personal belief is that all of these millions
Speaker 2: to advise Mayor Johnston have very little to do with
Speaker 2: that hearing. I think it has to do with his
Speaker 2: concerns that prosecution may be coming, and his concerns about
Speaker 2: whether what he's done in the past and what he's
Speaker 2: doing right now may violate federal law. Again, I'm not
Speaker 2: saying he's violating federal law or committing any crimes, but
Speaker 2: I think he has concerns about criminal exposure. That's what
Speaker 2: I personally believe is going on here.
Speaker 8: Dan.
Speaker 2: It's not Mike Johnston's money, it's taxpayer's money. Johnston and
Speaker 2: the city Council are not good stewards of taxpayer money.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's any breaking news.
Speaker 2: There, my friend, Dan, if my calculations are corrects, as
Speaker 2: a Texter, two million for testimony prep over the next
Speaker 2: eight days would require ten lawyers working twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: I'm with you on that, Texter. I think this money.
Speaker 2: I think this money has far more to do with this.
Speaker 2: What Johnston is concerned is a coming battle with the
Speaker 2: administration over again. The administration has made it clear if
Speaker 2: they think somebody is breaking federal law, interfering with efforts
Speaker 2: to enforce the immigration laws of this country, they're going
Speaker 2: to seek prosecution.
Speaker 3: I don't know whether he has broken federal law. I
Speaker 3: just know he's spending a.
Speaker 2: Lot of taxpayer money right now to get a lot
Speaker 2: of good legal advice. Thank you, Ryan Kelly join us tomorrow, please,