L.A. County D.A. Pushes for Governor to Give Menendez Brothers Clemency | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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Huge development for Erik and Lyle Menendez ... the L.A. County D.A. is pushing for a path to freedom that could set the brothers free in a matter of weeks.

Transcript

00:00Going out on a limb, right out of the gate.

00:02Menendez brothers will be freemen by the end of the year.

00:07I feel it, and I'll tell you why.

00:11I feel like maybe you're feeling the,

00:14clearly I understand and I feel it also,

00:16this public swell for it.

00:19But there's still a few hurdles, big ones.

00:23The public swell is exactly what should not be considered.

00:27I agree, and I feel like that's what you're feeling.

00:30No, it's not, it's not.

00:31What I'm feeling is what's going on legally.

00:34And what's going on legally is the district attorney

00:38of L.A. County, and that is the office

00:41that prosecuted the Menendez brothers,

00:43got them convicted, George Gascon.

00:45Now he wasn't the D.A., obviously.

00:47Wasn't the D.A., but he's the D.A. now.

00:49He has now come out, he's already come out

00:51and said he thinks that they should go

00:54before the parole board immediately.

00:56And he's essentially said, I want them out.

01:00And he said that because yesterday,

01:02he voiced strong support, that's a quote,

01:06strong support for clemency,

01:09which means that the governor has on his desk now,

01:12in fact, we broke this story,

01:14and even we had Mark Geragos,

01:16the Menendez brothers' lawyer on TMZ Live

01:18earlier in the week, saying they've gone to the governor

01:21and said, commute their sentence and set them free.

01:26And grant them clemency.

01:27Now, Gascon has said, I strongly support that.

01:33So both sides want clemency.

01:35But legally, what you have, you have, yes,

01:38the Menendez brothers' attorney,

01:40they've asked for clemency, I get that.

01:43You have the D.A. saying he strongly supports clemency.

01:47I get that, that makes sense.

01:49It's almost no duh to me because he's the one

01:52who started this whole rolling, right?

01:53But there's another element to this,

01:56and I think this is gonna come out,

01:57and I think it's gonna come out in the papers

01:59that Geragos has filed, that the Menendez brothers

02:03have been evaluated behind bars.

02:06They are considered model prisoners,

02:08they are rehabilitated,

02:10they don't pose a danger anymore to anyone.

02:14I know that sounds ironic because they killed

02:16the two people with whom they were having a problem.

02:19That's right.

02:20But the governor will have that before them.

02:24So essentially, the prison is saying they're fit

02:26for release, the D.A. is saying release them.

02:29Obviously, the Menendez brothers want them out.

02:32Well, Harvey, the most compelling thing here

02:33is the governor has the power.

02:35There's no more wild card.

02:36If the governor commutes their sentence,

02:37that is it, they leave prison.

02:39You don't need a judge to sign off on it.

02:41That is the power of a governor to do so.

02:43He has called it compelling evidence,

02:44and he's indicating that he's going to free them.

02:46That's the fastest path for them, the governor.

02:49But I don't think that that's necessarily

02:52the way Governor Gavin Newsom is gonna go with this.

02:55Here's what he said about this case on his podcast.

02:58Just last weekend.

02:59Yes, last weekend.

03:00I met with the team that put that series together

03:04about nine months ago, and they gave me a heads up.

03:06They said, watch, see what happens after this series

03:11is released, because it's gonna generate

03:12a lot more conversation around whether or not

03:14these guys should be released or resentenced.

03:16And here we are, fast track, not so many months later.

03:21But one thing is crystal clear.

03:23This is what I do for a living every week,

03:26including, no BS, literally today,

03:29we go through all the parole board recommendations.

03:31I was working on pardons independent

03:34of the Menendez brothers, and commutations today as well,

03:38particularly this time of year around Thanksgiving.

03:42This is obviously some new compelling evidence

03:44that was introduced, and so we'll see where the judge goes.

03:48Okay, he said a couple of really important things.

03:52One was, obviously, we'll see which way the judge goes.

03:56That sounds like he's kicking the can to the judge.

04:01So that was a sign of something.

04:04And we'll get into what the judge can do in a minute.

04:06The other thing that I find troubling

04:08is he said he met with Ryan Murphy's team nine months ago.

04:13Or they contacted him, I don't know if he met with them.

04:15He said, I met with the team.

04:17Why?

04:19I thought he said that they, anyway,

04:20he definitely was in contact with them.

04:22But it sounded like they came to him and said,

04:25pay attention to this, this is gonna.

04:27That's so wrong.

04:29I mean, if the production of that show went to him,

04:34it's like, that's not the way it should work.

04:36It's not about what the public wants.

04:38Then you all end up with a lynch mob on the other side

04:42if you start looking at what the public wants for justice.

04:45That's not the way things work.

04:47It shouldn't be, let's take a vote,

04:49so-and-so goes to prison, so-and-so gets out.

04:52That's not the way the justice system is supposed to work.

04:55It's supposed to work with judges, with the governor,

04:58not looking at how is the public feeling about this.

05:02I couldn't agree more.

05:03I actually read his comments pretty clearly.

05:06I think what he's saying is, we'll see what the judge does.

05:09If the judge looks at this compelling evidence

05:10and does the right thing, that's fine.

05:12If not, I'm another path.

05:13I have this stuff on my desk, and I'll do it myself.

05:16I read that absolutely clearly.

05:17I read that as political hot potato,

05:19and he's saying, Gavin Newsom is elected also,

05:22and we've said, we've noticed over the last few weeks,

05:26this is, there is a clear divide.

05:28This is not, most people want them out.

05:30I think it's maybe 50-50, right?

05:32At best. At best.

05:34So is Gavin Newsom gonna put his neck on the line?

05:37Gavin Newsom, who has presidential aspirations,

05:41can you see the presidential ad

05:43that however many years from now,

05:44he let the Menendez brothers out.

05:46He's not gonna do it.

05:48I'm not gonna argue with you.

05:49He is kicking it to the judge.

05:50And by the way, so now we know that,

05:54you're right, but here's the deal.

05:57There was a hearing on December 11th.

05:59Now it's very clear that the DA

06:02wants the Menendez brothers freed, period.

06:06Now, there's a rub here, and here's the rub.

06:10If the DA wants him freed,

06:13then you go to court and we know

06:15that the Menendez brothers' lawyers are gonna say,

06:17we don't want just resentencing.

06:19We want you to change the conviction.

06:21If they change it to manslaughter,

06:23they're out immediately.

06:24They could be out on December 11th.

06:25Here's the rub.

06:27And we haven't even talked about this.

06:28The rub is December 11th.

06:30The new DA gets sworn in, I believe, on December 2nd.

06:34That's right.

06:35And so if Gascon loses, the new DA,

06:38who we had on TMZ Live, he can rewire the whole thing.

06:43So December 11th is a problematic date.

06:47It is a problematic date.

06:49It is.

06:50We never talked about that.

06:50Yeah.

L.A. County D.A. Pushes for Governor to Give Menendez Brothers Clemency | TMZ Live

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