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--:-- Host (John Bickley): High-powered attorney Harmeet Dillon has been a key force in the Republican Party and an advocate for election integrity. She also became the subject of some controversy last week when she offered a traditional sick prayer at the Republican National Convention. In this episode, I speak with Harmeet about the debate concerning Republicans going big tent this year, the lawfare leveled at former President Trump and her long history with the Republican Party.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): I'm Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, July 27th, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. The following interview was conducted during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. Joining us now is Harmeet Dillon, founder of Dillon Law Group. Harmeet, thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Thanks for having me. It's fun to have you in person. We've talked a number of times virtually, but here you are in the studio.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So I wanted to start by asking you about a little controversy stirred up by your speech at the RNC on Monday. You recited the artist's prayer. First, tell us the significance of it and why you chose to incorporate that in your remarks.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Well, I actually did the Erdas prayer in 2016 as well on day two of the convention that time. And it is a daily prayer that observant Sikhs do and we do it at the end or depending on the context at least at the end of every sort of religious service but sometimes you also do it at the beginning of an auspicious or important undertaking like a trip like a purchase your new house your marriage so it's an important prayer and the full version of the prayer also recites the history of the Sikhs the oppression that we faced against Muslim invaders to India and it reminds us every day why we believe what we believe.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): But this was the short version that has some of the more fundamental principles. And I did that prayer because it is the prayer that I do in my home every day. And I'm welcome in this party. I'm a leader in this party. I represent 5 million California Republicans at the Republican National Committee. And I think it is important in this election to try to convince every possible voter that they should feel comfortable in the Republican Party voting for our candidate. And it has been a life's work for me. I've been a volunteer in the Republican Party for decades.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: And, you know, in California, many of our politicians are very sensitive to the issues of the Sikh community. They ask me my advice about how we can secure the Sikh vote. And California is a big state. So in California, Republicans are used to being interested in these issues. And at the national stage, I think it's important that Republicans understand that this is not a church. This is a political party and we win elections by a game of addition. So the addition of the math of politics requires us to bring in as many votes as we can.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): When the embrace of faith from the Republican side is very strong and very consistent, not perfectly consistent, but pretty consistent, broadly speaking, people of faith. What does define the Republican Party now?
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Well I would say definitely it has shifted towards more of a populist messaging But at the same time it is defined by core constitutional principles And we stand on a policy level for American security, American prosperity, American families, American integrity as a border. And these are sort of the modern themes of the party. They haven't changed. But I would say the populism, the putting of America first is not something that prior American leaders felt comfortable saying. They were more globalist in perspective. And we're seeing what globalism has done to our country.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): We're seeing what open borders are doing on a daily basis, not just in the border states, but thanks to the genius of some red state governors and others on the border. We're seeing it throughout the country. The people in New York are understanding what people in Los Angeles and San Francisco have been living with for years. And it is changing people's hearts and minds.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: And so the Republican Party that I joined as a kid, I've been a Republican since I was a teenager. My parents held fundraisers for Senator Jesse Helms in our home when I was a kid before I could vote. It's that party. But that party is now reacting to the current events. And the current events mean we have to get really tough on putting our country first, our citizens first. And also at the same time, not just looking to be reactionary, but I've been at a fundraiser with President Trump where he focused on AI and cryptocurrency, for example.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So these are some of the new technologies that are really important. And when I was younger, you know, there's a Republican Party, they had some policies, Democratic Party that had some policies, they were kind of in friendly fights with each other. Today, the left has become incredibly ruthless. They've weaponized billionaire dollars. They have suppressed our speech they have crushed dissent our governor in California just signed a bill that effectively allows weirdo teachers which is increasingly the majority of them to groom children and parents not be informed and that leads to death that leads to mutilation that leads to lifetime horror for these people.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: I represent three young women who have been mutilated by disgusting medical establishment, but that was the end point. The beginning point was social media, teachers, adults telling them this was okay and good. And now that's safe in California and California wants to be the next role, sort of leadership in the Democratic Party. That's what's at stake in this election.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): I'm glad you brought up California and I'd like to ask you exactly about that. So as a legal expert, it's hard to imagine that what was just passed into law is constitutional. Is this going to be challenged? Is this going to be overthrown? Or is this going to be the law of the land in California?
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: So first of all, it is definitely not constitutional. The United States Constitution, dating back for decades, has repeatedly ruled that parents have the ultimate right to direct their children's upbringing and their education. So this ruling is at odds with constitutional norms. This ruling comes in response to lawsuits that my law firm and my nonprofit, the Center for American Liberty, have been involved with, where we backed up school boards that wanted to have parental notification policies.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And we were, I think, winning those battles, quite frankly, because the law, Supreme Court precedent, is behind us. So the governor has chosen to try to checkmate us by passing this law that effectively takes the power from California courts away. Now, there is pending litigation. A nonprofit filed a lawsuit yesterday on this. I frankly question some aspects of that.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: But more importantly there's a class action that has been filed by my good friends Charles LaMandri and Paul Jonah they have already been representing a school board and some teachers who don't want to be forced to lie to parents So they have a class action that they filed If the class gets certified it include parents teachers kids It'll include everybody affected by this. And so we're praying and offering our support as lawyers to them in any way that we can.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And there may be some other litigation that comes. I'm talking to other constituents. I don't want to give away the hand, but there is a team of lawyers looking at this. Ultimately, this law will not stand. But in the meantime, tremendous misery will be wrought on American families. And that is the sad part.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Tragedy has to occur first a lot of times until somebody can actually bring a complaint. Until I heard the case of Jessica Conan, a mom whose daughter had been groomed as a middle schooler into believing she was bisexual and then trans. I would never have believed this is a widespread problem in America, but it is. And it is not just California. When I started litigating that case, which we won for that mom, we have heard from thousands of parents and grandparents all over the country.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): They've lost their children. They've lost their grandchildren. And the horror is, unlike most cases, when you are a surgical victim, you lose your statute of limitation when you turn 18. You know, you have to act very quickly. So a lot of these people are out of luck. They can't do anything. So it's incumbent on us adults to protect these children now and to empower parents to shut it down.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Well said. Stepping back and looking at the broader national landscape, we've had some major Supreme Court rulings lately, one of them directly affecting President Trump. There is a domino effect for this ruling, the immunity ruling. We've also seen a key ruling out of Florida with Judge Eileen Cannon. What is the state of the lawfare campaign against Trump at this point?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Well, the lawfare against President Trump is in complete disarray at this point. The immunity ruling was a really important one. And it affects the New York basically tax paperwork case that was completely ridiculous and never should have been filed. And even the prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, declined to file it first time around.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: So it's a political animal. But they overplayed their hand. They knew they had a stacked deck and they, with the help of a number three official from the United States Department of Justice, overplayed their hand. They injected decisions that President Trump made as president into their case in chief in that case. And so they got a conviction, totally flawed, is being appealed.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): But the United States Supreme Court ruling on immunity, which I'm handling a set of cases for President Trump as one of his lawyers. And those are civil cases that people like Eric Swalwell and Capitol Police have filed. Civil cases in D.C. There are seven cases and they're related. So I'm one of the lawyers in that case.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: And in that case, we made the argument to the D.C. Circuit that there should be a different analysis between acts that President Trump did with the hat of president, very broadly construed, and then a different analysis for candidate Trump and with the President Trump being the presumption, frankly, over-inclusively.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And the D.C. Circuit agreed with us in that ruling. And so that's the reasoning that was used by President Trump's lawyers in the Supreme Court case. We asked for the same rule to be applied to this criminal case and the court agreed. And so very skillful lawyering by the Supreme Court advocates in that case, but it flows from a set of cases that we've been litigating for three years already.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: And so the upshot of that is that the evidence that underlies the New York case should have been not allowed. And that makes the verdict infirm. And the case should be tossed out, quite frankly. Now will this judge be honest enough to do that I question that But I think the New York Court of Appeals will have to look at this and the decision is really compelled by the United States Supreme Court precedent Now Judge Cannon ruling is a completely different remedy but also constitutionally based.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And in that case, conservative justices and judges have long argued that the practice in D.C. of metastasizing administrative state, that includes, you know, Judicial Sentencing Commission, That's a case that I studied in law school, Morrison v. Olson. To this day, there's a lot of stuff that happens in D.C. that doesn't check the box of presidential nomination, Senate confirmation.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: The appointment of Jack Smith is exactly in that category. This argument has been made pretty much every time there's been an independent counsel or a special counsel. And judges haven't been willing to go there. It's a fundamental constitutional question. Judge Cannon squarely confronted it, and she ruled correctly on it. I would expect that if this case is able to reach this Supreme Court with these justices, it will be upheld because there will be a opposite ruling, I think, in the other case where Judge Judge where counsel Jack Smith is handling the sort of insurrection case, if you will, in D.C.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): And so that judge is not sympathetic to this argument and has rejected it in the past. And so ultimately, the Supreme Court doesn't typically take cases that aren't fully baked. And so they want to see a circuit split. I think they're going to get that here maybe, but they may not. But I think the chances of Judge Cannon's ruling being upheld ultimately by this court are high.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Now, in panic, you've seen President Biden and his last gasps of this presidency put together a package to gut the Supreme Court, completely change it, impose term limits and other stuff like that. So they are scared as hell that the Constitution will be followed in these cases.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Let's end with this. This has been a momentous week. We've had a lot of developments. We've had a major legal case we've discussed, but we also had the attempted assassination of President Trump. This RNC has a sense of history about it. What is your feeling about the significance of the last few days? Is the Republican Party in a more positive place than it was before, more united place than it was before?
--:-- Host (John Bickley): So I've been a delegate here at the RNC since 2016, member of the RNC, and 2016 was very different. The party was fractured. The never Trumpers felt very comfortable standing up and trying to just disrupt the rules and platform and everything. And some of the same people are giving speeches today and at this week. The party has never been more united. The energy on the floor, it's like a resonance of unity. Everything is united. People are hugging each other. People are tears in their eyes. It is emotional, but it is 100% aligned behind the party because I think everyone realizes that this is perhaps our last chance to save this country.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: What has happened with the open border? What has happened with the crime? What has happened with the degeneracy of our culture is at a crisis point. And I like to remind people, I'm a legal immigrant to this country, that the rest of the world views America as the gold standard of integrity and hope and openness. And if we fall to the dark left, the hopes of billions will be crushed. We have a momentous moral duty to win this election and to govern wisely. And President Trump's tone has shifted from combative and candidate to unity and leadership. And that is exactly right at this point in time. And we need that.
--:-- Host (John Bickley): Harmeet Dillon, thank you so much for joining us.
--:-- Harmeet Dillon: Thank you for having me.
