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.
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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.