Legal AF by MeidasTouch - BREAKING Legal News… Trump ATTACK on USA

Episode Date: February 2, 2025

Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok are back on the top rated Legal AF podcast and discuss the chaos that has engulfed the first 12 days of the Trump Administration, including the attempt to gut the US eco...nomy; the leadership of all federal agencies responsible for our safety and security and welfare; how attorneys general are winning on various of federal courts against Trump; how mainstream media is giving up on the First Amendment and just giving cash to Trump to avoid being fined and losing their licenses, as attorneys and judges fight to protect democracy, and so much more at the intersection of US law and politics. Support Our Sponsors: Laundry Sauce: For 20% off your order head to https://LaundrySauce.com/LEGALAF20 and use code LEGALAF20 Uplift: Elevate your workspace and energize your year with Uplift Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/legalaf for a special offer exclusive to our audience. Tushy: Over 2 million butts love TUSHY. Get 10% off Tushy with the code LEGALAF at https://hellotushy.com/LEGALAF! #tushypod Public Rec: Upgrade your wardrobe instantly and save 20% OFF at https://publicrec.com/LEGALAF when you use promo code: LEGALAF #publicrecpod Check out the NEW Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:30 Breaking news happens anywhere, anytime. Police have warned the protesters repeatedly, get back. CBC News brings the story to you, live. Hundreds of wildfires are burning. Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canada. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Stay in the know. Download the free CBC News app or visit cbcnews.ca. Clear your schedule for U-Time with a handcrafted espresso beverage from Starbucks. Savor the new small and mighty Cortado. Cozy up with the familiar flavors of pistachio. Or shake up your mood with an iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso.
Starting point is 00:01:17 Whatever you choose, your espresso will be handcrafted with care at Starbucks. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for total fund savings adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. A major court loss for Donald Trump in federal court.
Starting point is 00:01:47 A second federal judge has now ordered that the government freeze be stopped. This was a federal judge from Rhode Island and this was after Donald Trump purported to rescind the government freeze, but Donald Trump's press secretary Caroline Levitt quite literally as the federal court hearing was taking place said we are rescinding the memorandum but not the freeze so then the lawyers representing the various states across the country who brought this action brought that to the judges attention the judge says I'm not really sure what to make of this I can't cross examine the tweet, but this seems to very clearly suggest that the government freeze is Still on Caroline Levitt is a public official. This is her pronouncement that the freeze is taking place
Starting point is 00:02:36 So I'm going to issue a nationwide injection blocking the freeze and This issue is not moot. This issue is real and this is impacting lives. So order. We'll talk about what happened in that federal proceeding. We also are going to talk about the purge of FBI agents by Donald Trump, DOJ officials, who worked on January 6th related cases in Washington, D.C. A lot of FBI agents worked on these cases. A lot of DOJ officials worked on these January 6 cases who Donald Trump and MAGA refer to as heroes, as hostages.
Starting point is 00:03:15 These are some terrorists who they continue to invite to the Capitol building, some real bad people. So as Donald Trump is pardoning terrorists, January 6th insurrectionist, some of the worst of the worst people, he is firing law and order. He's firing the FBI. He's firing DOJ officials. The union that represents the FBI agents put out a strongly worded letter, but I seem to recall that that union was very supportive of the people who Donald Trump
Starting point is 00:03:44 picked to lead the FBI last week, who ended up firing them all. I want to cover that all. And I think we also need to reflect here on all of this law enforcement endorsement for a lawless presidency, a lawless person in Donald Trump. We'll talk about that. Also, there's the broader government purge and its implications across kind of all areas, whether we're learning about the head of the top acting official at the Treasury Department, an individual who's a nonpartisan guy who is responsible for the system that made the
Starting point is 00:04:19 trillions of dollars in payments, whether it's social security payments, medical payments, loans, anything coming from the government. This guy has access to all of the, and the system has access to all of kind of our private information. Apparently Elon Musk demanded access to it. This top treasury official wouldn't give Musk access to it. So this guy got pushed out. So Elon Musk and the
Starting point is 00:04:45 oligarchs can get all of our private information and personal information and have access to the trillions of dollars in payment systems. That's what Donald Trump's doing while egg prices continue to rise, grocery prices continue to rise. We're certainly far less safe than we were under President Biden than we are right now. I mean, that's for sure. We're going to talk about all of that. We should also talk about how with these two horrific plane crashes this week and the one plane crash over Washington, DC, where a Blackhawk helicopter
Starting point is 00:05:18 crashed into this airplane that was landing into DCA airport from Kansas, killing a total of 67 people, how two weeks ago, a week and a half ago, the FAA director was forced out and forced to leave, top safety committees were gutted, staffing issues in that control tower, that specific control tower and Trump trying to force on all federal employees including FAA employees this like bizarre what I think to be a very unlawful buyout of their of their given the seven six severance agreement we'll talk about that and also you've got Donald Trump using the FCC to go after CBS, PBS, and NPR.
Starting point is 00:06:08 We'll talk about that. While all of this is going on too, you've got these like Trumpers, all these cabinet officials who are like kind of just cosplaying their roles. The whole thing looks so weird. You've got like Kristi Noem, who's now the head of Homeland Security. She like dresses up in different Halloween costumes every day, you know, as like, you know, sometimes dresses up as like a ranger.
Starting point is 00:06:29 Sometimes she puts the vest on and she goes out. All this performative garbage crap and they can't just do their basic function, right, Popok? The basic function of government, just keep the people safe. Let's start there. And I mean, we're less safe. Let's start there. And I mean, we're, we're less safe. We're Americans are not safe. In a Trump America, the world is less safe and Americans are not safe in a Trump America.
Starting point is 00:06:53 That's the lesson of the week from a legal perspective. And just from a common sense perspective, good to talk to you too, Ben 12 days in this administration and it has read the entire Republican Party has rebranded itself as the party of chaos. That does that is not a that's not a winning strategy. That's not something that protects America. That's not a doctrine. That is an erratic set of behaviors where we're watching a president surrounded by people
Starting point is 00:07:19 who are his enablers, who has no executive function as part of being the executive. There's no thought process, there's no deep abiding understanding of how policy is made or what are the implications or consequences, unintended or otherwise, of your policy implications. It's just this bull in the china shop, sledgehammer to government, without worrying
Starting point is 00:07:46 that this is a government that is in progress. He's trying to hollow out leadership, civil servants who know what they're doing, budget cutting, sending the states into disarray because of the amount of money that federal government is withdrawing from the economy. Or as I've said, not even a joke, Donald Trump is hell bent on removing the US from the US economy, not understanding the fundamentals of the contribution of the US and funding to the humming of the economy. The chaotic nature of it.
Starting point is 00:08:22 I mean, if you didn't know better, if our audience didn't know better and you and I didn't know better for how closely we follow These things you'd think this guy had never been president before they spent an awful amount of time an awful lot amount of time Reminding us that he was the 45 and 47 president. He's both. He's 45 and 47 I made times they have to write that and in in prior filings and courts and now whenever they speak But you wouldn't you wouldn't know it by how he's handling matters. Every presidency is tested at the beginning of their presidency by matters outside their control. A natural disaster, a national disaster,
Starting point is 00:08:57 a war, a terrorist attack. We already just had one and you need to grade Donald Trump and his administration on how they reacted to that. Donald Trump got up at a podium instead of addressing the nation and consoling them for the loss of 70 people in a terrific collision, as you said, of an army helicopter and a plane carrying innocent civilians coming, some of them coming back from a figure skating competition in camp, and lawyers and doctors and firefighters and other people that are now in the Potomac or have been pulled out of the Potomac. Donald Trump takes to it what he should have done as the consular in chief.
Starting point is 00:09:35 Whether he did it inside the Oval Office by a fireside or something else is to consult people, is to talk about we're gonna get to the bottom of the issue of the crisis. We're gonna, I'm going to, I'm gonna announce a new space program to update the technology of the FAA that's stuck in the 1980s and 1990s. And I'm gonna make, and I'm gonna declare that right now that these people have not been lost in vain.
Starting point is 00:09:59 All right, no. Three minutes in, he starts using it as a cheap political hack point. While people have just started their grieving process, and America too, because it's their tragedy as well, he starts going after Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Obama, somebody hands him some screenshots from a website without telling him that that was the website his own Trump FAA also used, all right, to suggest that the reason,
Starting point is 00:10:28 before they even had the black box or the NTSB had done their job or the FAA had even started their job, before they even got their boots on, Donald Trump is standing in front of the American people and suggesting, no, declaring, that it was a black or brown handicapped disabled person running the air traffic control board
Starting point is 00:10:47 that crashed the helicopter into the plane. That is a lie, but it supports Donald Trump's false narrative about diversity, equity and inclusion. This is the exact same thing they did when the ship hit the bridge and led to a collapse of a bridge. Oh, DEI, you know, if we just had white, best and brightest people there, we would all be fine. And then they got the new guy who replaced Sean Duffy, who replaced Buttigieg as the transportation secretary. He said, thank you, Mr. President.
Starting point is 00:11:16 You're so right. It's all about the best and the brightest. And this is what I want our audience and by extension others that come to our show. You can leave it in comments for tonight. Does anybody think that Tulsi Gabbard to head 18 intelligence organizations for America is the best and brightest that Donald Trump could come up with? That Pete Hegseth to run the Pentagon from his Fox and Friends couch is the best and the brightest that Donald Trump could have come up with. That RFK Jr., to be our top health official,
Starting point is 00:11:51 is the best and the brightest. That Dr. Oz for Medicare and Medicaid, that Cash Patel for FBI, for Pam Bondi for attorney. This is the best and the brightest. He needs to be judged a report card for the first 12 days. he needs to be judged a report card for the first 12 days. We haven't even talked about the 10 cases in five courthouses and three temporary restraining orders that have already been entered in the first 12 days of the Trump administration. What is his report card, America?
Starting point is 00:12:20 What are you watching as we also move into the tariff wars against our allies and him standing, just to leave it on this bed, him standing in front of the American people and saying that he's going to tax Canada, which is the number one supplier in terms of what we import, of energy, of electricity, of minerals, of strategic elements that our own manufacturing sector needs in order to produce its own products. And we're going to take that relationship because quote unquote, we don't need trees from Canada, trees. Okay, this isn't about trees.
Starting point is 00:12:59 All right. So one of the things we're going to come away with, I think on this particular episode, the way you've outlined the topics for today, is that we're watching the party of chaos. We're watching the chaotic leader as they lurch, as we predicted, from one abuse of power and constitutional crisis to the next. That's all they're accomplishing right now. And when it matters most, when the rubber hits the road for our national security, keeping people safe, keeping people's economic kitchen table issues at the front of the frontal lobe of their brain, they have failed. I don't know what lower grade than F is for the first 12 days, but we need, this is the call to action part, we need to hold
Starting point is 00:13:43 the entirety of the Republican Party, municipal, local, state, federal, all the way up. Every election that happens from today forward, all the way to the midterms, has to be a resounding, crushing defeat of the chaos of the Republican Party led by Donald Trump. And if you give me, and I've said this before, if you give me back the House and the Senate, we will impeach and convict Donald Trump by the midterm. But it has to be because people are grading him on his performance that's happening right now in a national crisis. You know, the very concept though, Popak, of grading his presidency still almost kind of normalizes the framework within
Starting point is 00:14:27 which he is acting right now which is he's acting so unpresidential that he's like if we were to use the example of grades he's the kid who's intentionally trying to get expelled who shows up and acts so horribly, just starts basically cursing at the teacher all over and over again. It's hard to even view this two weeks. The most logical explanation is this one, either the most incompetent, reckless,
Starting point is 00:15:00 dumbest person imaginable, or this is someone who very specifically and intentionally is as actively doing the things that you would do point by point to destroy the country from within, whether it's literally internally breaking the federal government, removing people who provide for the safety. I mean, like if you had a playbook, what would you do? You would do these things. Then internationally destroying and ruining our alliances.
Starting point is 00:15:33 I mean, every aspect is so kind of tailored to inflicting harm. You know, and just the thing about, you know, this digital age or where everybody's got their phones, I do think that there are people who are either people who are complacent and didn't vote or even some Trump voters who are waking up. But because people are so living on their phones and they've created these, you know, kind of fake worlds around them created by right-wing media and propaganda, all of like the
Starting point is 00:16:12 terror and fear. They tried to act like what was happening when Biden was in office, which was not. We had a competent government. We were stronger internationally. Things function. People weren't afraid to get on an airplane to get to destination point A to destination point B. The stock market was up. So like outside of what your ecosystem was telling you, you had an objective data set
Starting point is 00:16:39 to say, is this really what's happening? And you would look at it and you would say, well, you know, actually the stock market's up. Actually, inflation's now come down. Actually, we've gotten out of the pandemic. Actually, there's 40,000 infrastructure projects taking place. Actually, you know, we're building the semiconductor industry here.
Starting point is 00:16:59 Actually, unions are thriving. Like, you could then compare. Now, you can look at things and it's like two plane crashes in a week. Everybody's being fired. There's like total chaos. Everybody's kind of you know living. No one knows is there gonna be a new tariff. Is there gonna be this? It literally is total and utter chaos and to see the propaganda media go into overdrive trying to sell us that somehow like like this is not like this is just this is you know our Republican
Starting point is 00:17:31 administration like this is like literally this is this is authoritarianism craziness you know call it whatever you know in Popeye we didn't even say we should just say right now the National Labor Relations Board was gutted this past week as well Donald Trump fired the first black female on the NLRB so that the NLRB couldn't make a quorum And therefore the NLRB is gonna be unable to recognize unions here grievances So who does this help the oligarchs? The oligarchs are gonna be the people who benefit from this. People like Bezos and Musk, who were enemies to unions, got everything they wanted. This is what they were arguing for before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals,
Starting point is 00:18:15 gut the NLRB. And Trump did that by firing one of the NLRB board members and firing the NLRB general counsel. Now they say they're gonna challenge you. On that note, just before you leave out, I want to forget it. When he talks about hollowing out and firing civil servants, that will fall. I want our audience to translate that, like Legal AF translator. That will fall disproportionately on black and brown women and minorities who are in our civil service as Donald Trump whitewashes the government. Because when he says things like the best and the brightest, regardless of color, it's
Starting point is 00:18:56 color blind, it's going to be merit, I'm going to get rid of these people, just convert that into, I am firing black and brown, disabled, gay, and women from government. And I am replacing them with 50 year old white men. You know, and so they've even removed from government websites, you know, LGBTQ, they now just go, you know, LG or LGB. They're not recognizing in the Department of Defense Holocaust Remembrance Day, Martin Luther King Day, you know, Juneteenth, you know, other
Starting point is 00:19:33 national holidays. I mean, just petty things like that, you know, where there are paintings on the walls and government buildings that say things like equality and freedom and fairness. They're literally, you know, painting over it with gray. With great America. It's mawa. It's make America white again. You know, it's fascism. I mean, it is fascism brought to our shores.
Starting point is 00:19:59 And in the 12, 14 days, Donald Trump has done everything to bring a Putin-esque government here and there are important signs of resisting theirs. I think that one, the people after a while aren't going to take it. I think you are seeing the fact that in the past 48 hours, we're talking about 22, 23 million people watching this network. 48 hours we're talking about 22, 23 million people watching this network. People are looking to stand up to Donald Trump and to this authoritarian regime. I think you're going to see international resistance join with resistance here in the United States against this European Union becoming stronger together.
Starting point is 00:20:41 Canada looking to Europe against the United States. becoming stronger together, Canada looking to Europe against the United States, France offering military to Denmark and other European nations, you know, doing that, Mexico standing up with President Claudia Scheinbaum. You know, one thing we know as we talk about this government freeze and I'll and I'll turn it over to you to talk about this case. Now, remember what Donald Trump said there as well. What was Donald Trump's lie when he was exposed on this government freeze?
Starting point is 00:21:12 Remember that first day? People's Medicaid portals were shut down. People who needed surgeries weren't sure if they were gonna be able to get it. It was total and absolute chaos, and it still frankly is a ton of chaos. So Donald Trump and his regime go out there and the same way like Putin would talk about denazification of Ukraine. What does Donald Trump say? It's like the most ridiculous thing because if you can get people to believe in absurdities, you can carry out some of the greatest atrocities.
Starting point is 00:21:46 I think that quote was attributable to Voltaire, I think. So what does Donald Trump say? He goes, well, what we uncovered, the reason we needed to do this was there were a condom bombs being given to Hamas by Biden. Condom bombs. We uncovered that condoms were being sent to Hamas by Biden, condom bombs. We uncovered that condoms were being sent to Hamas, they were being converted to bombs and they were being used in Gaza and they were being used in Israel.
Starting point is 00:22:12 There's zero truth to that. There was no, there was contraceptives that were sent to Gaza, Mozambique, not Gaza, Gaza. And you know, it was Mozambique. And there were no contraceptives even sent inside Gaza and the West Bank, the entire thing is false, but they go out there and go condom bombs. And then people believe that they go it's such a big lie. Maybe they're not condom bombs, but maybe
Starting point is 00:22:44 something's going on there. So that's what their PR facing thing is. But let's get into this case. Just one thing I do, because we're having a good thing here. Because I'm in a different place today. I'm down in Miami for the last few days. We'll talk about why in a minute.
Starting point is 00:22:57 But I've run into a lot of Midas Touch and Legal AF fans down here. Actually, I said to my wife, I have a lot of good dialogue and interaction with our fan and our audience base in New York when I'm on the streets. And I said, I wonder if that's gonna happen in Miami. And it did.
Starting point is 00:23:14 And one in particular I had a conversation with as part of the Cuban American communities in his 50s. And he told me that, and I believe this is part of the resistance that you're talking about, that those that voted for Trump now are having serious, serious regret about having done so. And they're very, to paraphrase this person, he told me they're very quiet watching this last 12 days.
Starting point is 00:23:36 They're not dumping their chests and coming out with the flags of the pickup trucks. He said they're almost embarrassed to watch because many of these people came out of fascist and communist regimes and they thought what they were voting for was the strong man for democracy at least, which is why they came to this country. And when he says he's going to take away the temporary protective status for 600,000 Venezuelans, do you know how many Venezuelans who are law-abiding, documented, hardworking people are that vote here in Miami that see their friends and neighbors being chased through schools, through churches, through workforce raids who have gone underground because of it?
Starting point is 00:24:17 Donald Trump's going to pay the price as a result. He has alienated, and you've done a great series of videos on Might As Touch about this, he's so alienated those that voted for him and they're having voter remorse that if we ran the election again today with the benefit of the hindsight of the last 12 days, I don't believe he would have won. Look, you've got Pete Hegsif, a Fox News host, running the Defense Department, the Defense Department, right? Just an actor like a TV showman.
Starting point is 00:24:47 You have Sean Duffy who's running the Department of Transportation who got famous from the real world and that the real world road rules challenge. You had Kristi Noem who killed her dog and who's doing this cosplay, you know, dress up game. You've got RFK who, RFK Jr., who spent a lot of his time on Russian television talking about how various pandemics were actually created. This is a total lie that he would say. They were created by the World Health Organization in order to kind of weaponize it, to create these bio weapons against America. And that's why we need to withdraw from the WHO, which by the way, America withdrew from
Starting point is 00:25:34 the World Health Organization on specious and ridiculous grounds like that, totally isolating us. I mean, someone like Cash Patel, and this is, you have former federal prosecutor now California, Senator Adam Schiff, who I had the privilege of interview was examining Cash Patel at Patel's confirmation hearing and he was asking Patel, hey, you were creating these songs with the January 6th insurrectionists, were you not? And Patel goes, I don't know, I don't know and then
Starting point is 00:26:06 Schiff would show transcripts like we would do at a trial. Well here you're saying mr. Patel We created the song. This is what you said on the Bannon show We created this song and we did this for the heroes and we did this for the January 6th hostages who are the real Patriots and we need to do everything we can to use our, you know, if we get back in power to destroy the deep state and we need to go after anybody who went after Donald Trump and went after these insurrections. We, we, we. So Senator Schiff goes to Cash Patel, you said that right? And then Cash Patel goes, well, I didn't say I did. And then Schiff goes, well, you said we, you said we.
Starting point is 00:26:46 And then Patel goes, exactly we. And then Schiff's like, you mean we doesn't include you, you are involved in that? No, we doesn't mean I. And so Adam Schiff's like, you mean to tell me when you're saying we referring to yourself, you didn't mean you. And, you know, going back to your example example Popak of like how are you grading these things you know you think about the student who just you know doesn't you know just doesn't even want to be there and doesn't even care these people aren't even trying right they're strutting in there not even learning like RFK jr. what the difference of Medicare a part a part B
Starting point is 00:27:24 part Z like he doesn't What the difference of Medicare part A, part B, part Z. Like he doesn't know the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. I don't know. I don't know. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to do.
Starting point is 00:27:37 And again, who wants, again, whether you're a red state, a blue state, a Democrat, an independent, a Republican, a giraffe, an elephant, a Republican, a giraffe, an elephant. I don't care. Who wants people who don't know the basic things of how to do it. And like who would want to step on a plane with the pilot who didn't have the pilot training?
Starting point is 00:28:01 Well, guess what? Now we have the people directing the agencies to direct the pilots who don't know what the hell they're doing. That's what we have right now. We have a lot to discuss. We touched on lots of legal issues, lots of facts, meandered through that first segment. We'll get back and we'll structure this for the second segment. But I know you've got a very big announcement, Michael Popak. You're actually starting your own law firm. You decided that you're going to go and start your own firm. You've been motivated by these times. Tell everybody about that. I've been in law firms before, of course, most of my career, except when I was in-house with a company in New York.
Starting point is 00:28:52 But ever since the election, you know, there were two things that I had a burning desire to do. One of them was to get the Legal AF YouTube channel up and running in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. And that's going great, as we know, because of our support of our audience, most of which overlaps with the Midas Touch audience, we're up to almost 450,000 there. Second thing was, what was I going to do with my career moving forward? And I made a commitment to you and the brothers that I was gonna be invested and basically full-time on Midas Touch and with Legal AF,
Starting point is 00:29:21 and that was gonna be my calling, especially after the results of the election. It became almost a no-brainer that I was gonna invest myself in that. Of course, my family was gonna back me and you and your brothers were gonna do that. So we had that. And then there was like this opening.
Starting point is 00:29:38 Like, what was I gonna do with 35 years of a law career? Was I just gonna focus only on doing legal analyst work and other commentary here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, or was I gonna also try as an extension of Legal AF, if you will, of the extension of our ethos or philosophy here that you developed with your brothers and then of course I joined. Is there a way to do a law firm for our audience
Starting point is 00:30:02 and for those in our orbit, in our environment, our ecosystem, that made sense that I could lead. And came up with the idea of, and this is going to be easy, the Popak firm. We're here already. We might as well use it. The Popak firm is now a firm dedicated to obtaining justice for those that have been injured or damaged, any kind of catastrophic event in your life, motor vehicle, an auto, a truck.
Starting point is 00:30:28 And these include people in and around your life. So if you've had a catastrophic injury there, constitutional law issues where a government entity has violated police brutality, things like that, employment law issues, anywhere where you need a top flight team of lawyers throughout the country. This is a very broad ambit, all 50 states and beyond, for the PO-POC firm. I already have, and I'll announce it here as well, a collaboration with an amazing team of lawyers, all top in their
Starting point is 00:31:02 field for recovery, where the highest dollar amounts mean justice, that's where you want these lawyers. I'm doing the collaboration with an entity called Big Auto Injury Attorneys. Big Auto Injury Attorneys is a network. There's Nick Edson, who's the CEO of Big Auto on my website. Big Auto is going to handle the onboarding of the clients, the vetting of the clients, and the case evaluation, and get it into the hands of the right top lawyer in the right jurisdiction.
Starting point is 00:31:30 Right, so if you got hurt in Alabama, or you got hurt in New Hampshire, you got hurt in a red state or a blue state, or in between the two of them, you're going to want a lawyer who knows the judges, the law, because law in this area is very local. And so my role is gonna be to manage this entire process and make sure in collaboration with Big Auto,
Starting point is 00:31:51 we get these cases into the right hands. And don't be fooled by the name, Big Auto is beyond just auto, it's one of their brands, of course. And I'll be involved on some of the cases, but on a day-to-day basis, it's really going to be these lawyers handling these matters for you in collaboration with me. So the Popok firm place, you can go for it, www.thepopokfirm.com, just the way it
Starting point is 00:32:16 sounds. We've got an amazing 1-800 number that you and I joked about, 1-877-POPOC-AF, 1877-POPOC-AF. A contact form will show up, a free case review form, there's a version of it. And if you phone the number or text the number, then one of the great screeners for Big Auto will take over and get that case up and running all for free. Nothing gets paid unless you win. Again, all for free at the Popok firm for justice here as a natural extension of course on my work with Midas Touch and Legal AF. Well Popok, I remember people don't know the origin story of us. I was on the opposite side of you on a case and I remember what a incredible lawyer you were. That's how we initially bonded. It's getting close to
Starting point is 00:33:04 over a decade ago, when right around a decade ago when we had that case together. So like, I know you're one of the best. For me, I'm gonna stick to my teaching as a law professor and doing all the stuff I do here at the Midas Dutch Network, but it's an incredible resource to everybody else that they're gonna get to utilize
Starting point is 00:33:22 everything that you're building. I'm wishing you the best, and of course you're going to crush it. I know you crush everything that you do. So everybody check it out, and I know you were saying, Popak, the consultation is free, the representation is free,
Starting point is 00:33:36 unless, you know, until there's a recovery, and you get Michael Popak. I'll run an ad. I'm gonna create an ad. I'm still on the road as people know. We just did the launch of the POPAC firm at an amazing event, the National Trial Lawyers Summit in Miami Beach surrounded by other plaintiff's lawyers.
Starting point is 00:33:53 And there's a great picture. I did an interview for Legal AF. It's gonna be up on Monday. I did a special live Legal AF on the spot there at the hotel. That's Omarosa. She's amazing. She just became a lawyer for the Johnny Cochran firm
Starting point is 00:34:07 where she's gonna go help mass tort victims and other people. And here's a little, I think we're gonna get a regular Omarosa who has her own views of Donald Trump on Legal AF, the channel, she could start doing some hot take work with us there as well. I like that.
Starting point is 00:34:23 All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. We'll be back. POPA, government freeze order. Let's talk about these terminations. Are we gonna see wrongful termination lawsuits being filed? And I think there's gonna be perhaps tens of thousands, millions of wrongful term lawsuits filed against the US government resulting
Starting point is 00:34:42 in billions of dollars in verdicts. There'll probably be a whole cottage industry right there and we'll talk about these terminations of these FBI officials and more. Let's take our first quick break of the show. Physio, chiropractic and massage therapy are all great resources for when you need them. But going to these appointments every few months does not give me the ultimate results I'm looking for when it comes to my well-being. It's taking daily, even hourly opportunities to move my body that makes the biggest difference.
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Starting point is 00:38:44 your first bidet order when you use code LegalAF at checkout. That's 10% off your first bidet order at HelloTushy.com with promo code LegalAF. All right. Welcome back to LegalAF. Thank you to those pro-democracy sponsors. We don't have outside investors here on Legal AF or the Midas Touch Network, so they help make this show possible. My younger brother, Jordy, negotiates the discount codes with them. So in the description below of this YouTube video or of the audio podcast, depending on where you get it, you'll see those discount codes. Try out any of those products and services. Great stuff right there. All right, Popa, tell us about what Judge McConnell in Rhode Island did.
Starting point is 00:39:29 Yeah, and let me put it in a quick context. Twelve days into the administration, we got ten lawsuits, split between birthright citizenship being denied by executive order, which is on a fast track ultimately to the Supreme Court, and a whole other handful about whether the freeze or what we'll call in the business the impoundment of federal funds by Donald Trump by executive order is constitutional or not. Got up just, and I want to talk about strategy here for a minute so that our audience has comfort that we're not the party of chaos, and the lawyers that are for public interest and for justice are not chaotic.
Starting point is 00:40:07 They are quite skilled, quite expert as tacticians and strategists, and they've been waiting for this moment, should it arrive, and it's now here. All the cases that you and I will talk about today and on Hot Takes, all of them that have been filed are in the following jurisdictions. We're in Washington and California, New Hampshire,
Starting point is 00:40:29 Massachusetts, the District of Columbia. And there's a reason why these jurisdictions were chosen, because they all have the better chance of having a judge. I'm not saying a non-Trump judge, but just a judge who is fair, balanced, nonpartisan, or at least was appointed by somebody like Biden, Obama, or even Clinton. And that's what's happened. So right, we're only 12 days into an administration, and we have three different judges who have
Starting point is 00:41:00 blocked Donald Trump's executive orders. Two, Judge Ali Khan down in DC and Judge McConnell now will talk about up in New, in Rhode Island related to this federal funding freeze to bring everybody up to speed. Donald Trump decided he's going to take the U.S. out of the U.S. economy. All the money, the trillions of dollars or at least hundreds of billions of dollars that the federal government gives to states to run programs that are important as a social safety net for seniors, for children, for health care, for construction, for crime, for safety, for security, and not-for-profits, for art,
Starting point is 00:41:45 and not-for-profits, for art, and everything else, right? And national disaster recovery, all of that, he just decided with a stroke of a pen that he was gonna put it on hold. With one day notice, sending all of the states into chaos, all of the recipients into a panic, it was so bad that the Medicare and Medicaid portal crashed. Not that RFK Jr. knows what either of those two things are, but it crashed because people were so concerned.
Starting point is 00:42:11 It created a stampede or a run on the government by people, which nobody was calm, speaking of lack of consular in chief, by an inexperienced Carolyn LeVette as press secretary, basically lying to the American people about what the freeze impacted in their lives and what it didn't. It's so bad that Judge McConnell, the chief judge in Rhode Island, in issuing the temporary restraining order against the Trump administration freeze order, cited particularly that he didn't believe Carolyn LeVette or the government that they had
Starting point is 00:42:47 temporarily withdrew the freeze. See, when they saw that the judge had jurisdiction, they thought they could deny the judge jurisdiction over the case because in order for a temporary restraining order to be in place, somebody has to show ongoing future harm. If you don't have future harm, you may have damages, money, but you don't have a restraining order or an injunction because there's no live controversy, or more importantly, there's no future bad event that needs to be prevented.
Starting point is 00:43:17 If all the events already happened and aren't planning to happen again, then the judge would say, sorry, I can't give you an injunction because you got to tell me what future events going to happen. So the Trump administration ran into court and said, sorry, I can't give you an injunction because you got to tell me what future events gonna happen. So the Trump administration ran into court and said, oh, it's all moot. We don't have to have
Starting point is 00:43:29 you make a ruling right now because we're not gonna do the freeze. The judge says, yeah, I don't believe you because at the same time that Carol LeVette said that the freeze was off, she then posted on social media that the freeze was back on and the Environmental Protection Agency sent a notice to recipients of federal money and said, don't spend the money, we're not sending you the money. This is in the moments around the hearing in front of the judge.
Starting point is 00:43:55 And the judge, of course, because the good lawyers are on the other side, got all the copies of these things and said, well, I got these tweets, I can't cross examine a tweet, but it sure looks like to me that there's chaos in the Trump administration and it looks like the freeze has not really been blocked. So no, I'm going to issue the temporary restraining order because it is more likely than not that you will prove at the end of this case, remember at a temporary restraining
Starting point is 00:44:21 order, the judge is at the very beginning of the case, in the life cycle of the case, has very little evidence in front of them at a first round of briefing, but has to make an immediate decision based on kind of peering under the hood about what's going to happen in the future. And the judge under this prong that we call likelihood of success of the merits said, it is very likely that you're going to win to prove that that attempt to F with federal funding and freeze it, that's a different F word, but to freeze it is unconstitutional, a violation of separation of powers, a violation of the of the Administrative Procedures Act, because Congress made the law and did not delegate to the president the right to block the funding that they already allocated. So you're gonna, so he's basically pointing to the lawyers
Starting point is 00:45:07 in the courtroom and on the state's side brought by the attorney's general, you guys are gonna likely win. Balance of equities is in your favor because of how dramatic and drastic this pulling out of federal funding at the last, with no notice. So you win on that one. And it's in the public interest that I restore the status quo.
Starting point is 00:45:31 Temporary restraining order is the first step towards a preliminary injunction. The judge set a preliminary injunction hearing for February, is holding the ring until then. And at the very same time, this is not the first, this is the second TRO. Because Judge Ali Khan and the District of Columbia on almost a similar set of arguments
Starting point is 00:45:49 raised by a different group of people, but on the same issues, on the same freeze, she also blocked it until February 3rd, which is just around the corner in two days, when she holds more further briefing on a preliminary injunction hearing. So to answer the question that often comes up in the chat, yes, different federal judges are on different tracks.
Starting point is 00:46:09 They don't defer to each other. They move forward with their own cases. They may know and acknowledge what another judge has recently done in the same exact area, but they're on their own timetables and they will issue decisions, each of which can be appealed separately to their respective
Starting point is 00:46:25 appellate courts. One would be Ali Khan to the DC Court of Appeals, this one to the First Circuit. And that's how we're going to ultimately get these fast tracks to the United States Supreme Court on emergency applications. And that's why I've said it, I'll say it again here. Follow closely, both here on MidasTouch and on Legal AF, what's gonna happen in the Supreme Court, because between now and the April end of the term, we're gonna see birthright citizenship up at the Supreme Court.
Starting point is 00:46:54 We're gonna see the federal freeze up at the United States Supreme Court, and then you and I are gonna be doing a whole show about what the Supreme Court just ruled. That's why we've been giving people the playbook and the framework for how these cases are gonna work their way up. I mean, remember last year, Pol Pak,
Starting point is 00:47:09 you were saying, look, these cases are ready to go. They're gonna go to all of these jurisdictions. They're gonna request national injunctions if and when Trump does these things. We're seeing that play out now. They're gonna go through the courts of appeals. They're going to go to the Supreme Court. And then ultimately the question becomes, and this is what we've been preparing our audience for,
Starting point is 00:47:32 is there now some realignment on the court where you have six kind of right-wing justices, that kind of six right-wing justices, three quote-unquote wing justices, three quote unquote liberal justices appointed by democratic administrations and with the Supreme Court ruling when Donald Trump was trying to block his sentencing where you had a new five to four alignment of the three liberal justices along with Chief Justice Roberts, a right wing justice appointed by George W. Bush and Amy Coney Bar right-wing justice appointed by George W Bush and Amy Coney Barrett a justice appointed by Donald Trump does that five to four develop as A way to check Donald Trump as Trump has taken the absolute immunity that the Supreme Court
Starting point is 00:48:20 Gave him during its last term and is doing everything the Supreme Court gave him during its last term and is doing everything the Supreme Court naively was saying that they didn't think he was going to do. Everybody remembers the Supreme Court's questioning where you had the liberal justices who were essentially saying in their questioning and they were saying, well, don't you think that if you provide an absolute immunity that someone like a Donald Trump would use it, abuse it, and try to be dictator on day one? The right-wing justices were saying, whoa, we don't think that'll ever happen.
Starting point is 00:48:56 What we're worried about is that if you don't give absolute immunity, you're going to somehow chill the executive function. You're gonna prevent the executive from doing the real serious work that needs to be done. We don't see any of these parade of horribles actually happening and then Trump's doing those things. So let's be very clear.
Starting point is 00:49:17 I mean, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Justice Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and Alito. Those four will be perfectly fine if Donald Trump just literally says, I'm a dictator everybody, and I declare America an imperial country. Like, let's be clear. Those four will do any single thing that he says, period, full stop. thing that he says. Period. Full stop. And look, I think Alito and Clarence Thomas probably resign in this term and I think that they'll probably have new justices appointed. We're gonna be younger, far right-wing, extreme people. Probably my prediction, Popak, is you'll have Judge Cannon as one of these
Starting point is 00:50:07 Supreme Court justices. We'll see, but I think that's what's going to happen and we'll see who else gets picked, but you're going to have younger, horrific versions of them. So assume you'll always have those four. The issue is you have to look for Roberts and Coney Barrett joining with Katanji Brown Jackson and joining with Judge Kagan and joining with Justice Sotomayor. So that's what we're gonna see. Let's take our last quick break of the show.
Starting point is 00:50:33 A reminder, Popak, where do people go for that? I gotta play, if you're starting something new, I'm obligated to plug it, Popak. What's the, even if I, what's it called? I don't know either. It's WWW, the Popak firm. It's the, even if I, what's it called? It's www.thepopokfirm.com. It's really easy to remember. The POPOC firm, that's the website, and the 1-800 number, 1-877-POPOC-AF. This is 35 years in the making.
Starting point is 00:50:59 Certainly five years in the making on the shoulders of Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network to help people who need justice. And of course, this is all free. We don't get paid. Nobody gets paid on the POBOK firm unless you get paid. And I'm here for it. I know you're here for it. Appreciate the support.
Starting point is 00:51:17 Absolutely. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Let's get into what Donald Trump is doing with the FCC and his own personal lawsuits and how he's trying to extract personal settlements by using the government in any other situation. One might have the opinion that that's what's called illegal, unlawful, impeachable.
Starting point is 00:51:41 We'll talk about that more. Let's take our last quick break of the show. This episode is sponsored by Laundry Sauce, which is an incredible new product that I am obsessed with. In fact, I gave it to everyone I know for the holidays, and I know people who are now ordering it and subscribing. It's really fantastic because everybody hates doing laundry. Let's be real. I don't like doing laundry.
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Starting point is 00:55:31 Thank you to those pro-democracy sponsors. Really appreciate them. Again, we don't have outside investors, so it's so helpful when we have outside sponsors who help and support this show. And thank you, by the way, to all of our moderators. They do such great work Thank you to all the legal a efforts out there Thank you to everybody who subscribed to Midas plus comm and gets our newsletter. Just thank you to everybody in general
Starting point is 00:55:58 We are so grateful for all of you. All right Pope. Why don't we talk about Trump using the FCC, right? Trump appointed his people to the FCC, his own chairman to the FCC, and these are people who we knew would just do Trump's bidding. So a few things are happening. So we knew end of last year,
Starting point is 00:56:19 Trump got ABC to pay him $15 million on that Stephanopoulos lawsuit, which was a ridiculous lawsuit where, um, you know, Stephanopoulos described the, uh, sexual assault verdict in, uh, New York a certain way. And Donald Trump said, yes, it was, it was only sexual assault with my finger and it was not rape. So therefore you defame me.
Starting point is 00:56:43 That was essentially the lawsuit that Donald Trump filed. Stephanopoulos and ABC caved. Specifically Disney, the parent company, wrote a $15 million check. Everybody was like, most normal legal observers were like, okay, that's the most ridiculous thing ever. That was not a strong, most legal observers felt that was like the weakest defamation case.
Starting point is 00:57:02 And what was Trump gonna say in his deposition? What were you going to do when you asked Donald Trump about the underlying conduct, what he was found liable for? I think Donald Trump would show up to that deposition and show up at trial. I think he wouldn't, but ridiculous. Then we learned that Donald Trump settled with Metta and Facebook, some lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against them back from 2021 for blocking him after the insurrection or muting him after the insurrection and Zuckerberg paid Donald Trump $25 million. I think it was like 22 to the library, 3 million in legal fees.
Starting point is 00:57:41 So now Donald Trump's next kind of target, if you will, is CBS. Donald Trump filed a lawsuit in Texas before a federal judge, Matthew Kazmeric, who's a very pro-MAGA judge. You know him from the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF because we cover all of those cases where he makes all of these like ridiculous rulings, whatever Trump basically wants, whatever MAGA wants, regardless of the law, he gives it to them. So all of the MAGA and Trump people try to find some basis, frivolous basis to get the court cases there.
Starting point is 00:58:13 It's where Elon Musk files his lawsuits. They all try to push it before this MAGA judge basically. Um, and he's their go-to guy. So Donald Trump filed what he called an unfair business practices case under Texas law. That's why he claims it was in Texas because he basically said 60 Minutes was mean to him, that they wanted to fact check him. So he didn't do the 60 Minutes interview, but then 60 Minutes interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris the same way 60 Minutes interviewed every presidential candidate over the past several decades,
Starting point is 00:58:47 pretty much as the existence of 60 Minutes becoming a very kind of popular show. And then Donald Trump said, you selectively edited a portion out in one of your promo versions of the show about certain questions about Gaza. And there was a full version of it that was up that anybody can see.
Starting point is 00:59:05 I think there was another version that was based on a certain timeline that had some things that weren't on the full version but anybody could go and watch the full version. It's what it's what networks do all the time. It wasn't like editing it out to collude with Kamala to be helpful. It was just what happens in like if that was the standard when Fox actually makes the edits to help Donald Trump and like brings in fake audiences, to me that's the concern. Not when to literally fit the time frame of like a 60 of 60 minutes of broadcast that literally not every single thing can be included, but 60 Minutes shows that there's a full broadcast
Starting point is 00:59:45 out there. They're not trying to hide anything, unlike Fox and the Trump propaganda networks that try to hide everything. So Donald Trump sued 60 CBS and Paramount in Texas, and now Trump wants to try to get them to settle. So a lot of these companies, Paramount run by oligarchs, the Sumner Redstone family. Sumner passed away, his daughter runs the company now.
Starting point is 01:00:11 It's the Redstone estate that basically runs it. I mean, you've got Facebook, which is run by Zuckerberg. You've got Disney, which by the way, one of the main shareholders in Disney, a lot of people know this, is actually Fox. But a lot of other oligarchs can have major shares in Disney as well. And so what Trump does is basically now weaponizes
Starting point is 01:00:33 the government, the DOJ, FCC, other things to basically say, look, big corporations, I'm gonna screw up your stock. I'm gonna screw up your, I'm gonna make it miserable for you. And I'm going to screw up your stock. I'm going to screw up your, I'm going to make it miserable for you. And I'm going to stop your mergers. I'm going to prevent you from having sales of things. So one of the things that Paramount is trying to do is they're trying to sell.
Starting point is 01:00:57 The Redstone family wants out. They're trying to get their billion dollar, for the next, I guess, 30 generations of the Reds, a hundred generations for the Redstone family forever. They want to sell this thing that's some of the Redstone, you know, built and, you know, and sell it. They're in a deal to do that. That requires approval by FCC, by DOJ.
Starting point is 01:01:22 So now what does Donald Trump do? He has his FCC open up an inquiry into CBS and Paramount demanding that they respond to a number of requests, turnover things. Then you have CBS and Trump in a personal lawsuit from Trump's personal lawsuit over the 60 minutes in Texas. They announced to the judge that they're in settlement discussions. Then the FCC sends that letter. lawsuit over the 60 minutes in Texas, they announced to the judge that they're in settlement discussions. Then the FCC sends that letter.
Starting point is 01:01:48 And now I think there's this situation, Popak, where Paramount, the owner of CBS, they're like, okay, all we have to do is just write Trump a check for, you know, personally give him money, give him, you know, give him 30 million, give him 40 million, and then maybe we can get our merger to go through. I think you have the 60 minutes folks who are proud journalists saying, we're journalists, we're 60 minutes, we have a proud tradition, we're not going along with this. I think you have the CBS execs probably more aligned, probably divided, but more aligned with their paramount overlords and their oligarchs who control it because those execs are making a lot of money.
Starting point is 01:02:30 So you've got all of that kind of tension taking place there. And by the way, in my opinion, let's pop up. I know I kind of cannibalized the topic. I'll give you the next one. This is exactly what the First Amendment, this is the most clear-cut First Amendment violation where the government's coming in, chilling the speech of the media, and you have an FCC commissioner, another FCC commissioner is saying right now, a whistleblower, but one of the people on that commission, the small commission saying, this is unlawful. What we're doing, what we're being forced to do is criminal, is not okay, is totally wrong. We should not be doing this at all. It's a violation of the first amendment.
Starting point is 01:03:15 And then you have Trump doing something similar with PBS and NPR at the same time and attacking them because he wants to shut them down. Yeah. You've got, I'll just do two lines on it. All of the things that you just outlined, they're going to find their way, most of them are going to find their way into the court system back to Legal AF for a minute. They are violations of various things like separation of, separation of powers, abuse of executive power, bribery in plain sight. There's one way to look at the $25 million that Metta is paying.
Starting point is 01:03:50 They're overpaying for purported injuries that they don't have to pay for, because as you said, they're covered by the First Amendment. So if you remove the phony dispute, then it's just cash transaction between media and Trump. We have a name for that. You've used it in another hot take, and I agree with you. When you're lining the pockets of somebody
Starting point is 01:04:16 in return for somebody, if something else, or for favor regulation, it's called, it has a B at the beginning of it. So all of that public interest groups I find very interesting. And when public interest groups and attorneys general find things interesting, that often leads to a lawsuit, meaning the courts and the favorable ones,
Starting point is 01:04:39 not the chasmatic courts, but the favorable ones to moderate thinking in the New England and the District of Columbia in the Pacific Northwest and California, reliable places to stop Donald Trump. We have no choice as an American people and lawyers to do what we're doing in the resistance. I've said, this is a line that I got from another contributor on Legal AF, we have to start talking truth to each other before we can talk truth to power. That's part of what we do here in our audience on Legal AF.
Starting point is 01:05:17 And the speaking truth to each other is we have to bring Donald Trump to justice civilly and his administration of justice in courthouses and courtrooms in America. Because we can't let history, as Judge Koffordor said when he blocked the birthright citizenship executive order denying constitutionally protected citizenship to those born on this soil. We can't be in a situation where future generations look back and say, where were the judges? Where were the lawyers? Right. Or, you know, when we talk about black stains on our history, like the Holocaust,
Starting point is 01:05:56 you know, when Jews, gypsies, Russians, and others, gay, lesbian community were being dragged off to concentration camps. Where were the Phil on the bike? Where was the court system? Where were the judges? And where were the lawyers to stand up to that? And to make sure that Donald Trump is reigned in from his reign of terror as much as possible. We have to continue to go there. I'll leave you on this statistic. And you and I can open this up as a time capsule in four years, okay?
Starting point is 01:06:27 Because we're gonna be here. And here's the time capsule moment. Right now, he's averaging, his administration is averaging about one lawsuit a day. Think about that. One lawsuit a day in these courts have been filed, resulting in three temporary restraining orders, and we're 12 days into his administration. I have said that by my math, a day and these courts have been filed, resulting in three temporary restraining orders
Starting point is 01:06:45 and we're 12 days into his administration. I have said that by my math, I believe that's going to double if not triple. There were 1000 lawsuits filed in the first administration against the first administration, 80% were successful, just to answer the question for people. I believe that number is going to double if not triple, meaning we're gonna see two to three lawsuits per day,
Starting point is 01:07:05 every day in the Trump administration from now until the end of his administration. And just to answer another query that often comes up, most cases do not end up at the United States Supreme Court. The final justice for the vast majority of cases, and I mean like 99% of the cases, stays at the district court level, the trial court level, or the court right above it, the court of appeals
Starting point is 01:07:31 for that particular territory. So I'll give you an example. I'll give you one example. Just since 2022, with the Supreme Court decision about the Second Amendment, there have been 1,600 cases about trying to apply their Second Amendment ruling about basically gutting all regulation against guns. 1,600 federal judges have had to deal with that issue.
Starting point is 01:08:01 Only about 60, six zero total cases end up at the United States Supreme Court on any one docket. So the tens of thousands of other cases that go on every day in federal courts that touch our lives are decided by federal judges, trial and appellate judges and not the United States Supreme Court. Yes, the ones the Supreme Court take, right, can change our lives and our rights and our privileges and our status in a heartbeat, in a flip of a coin. But justice is done at these other courts, and that's why we have to hold Donald Trump accountable when we tell a terrible tale, like what's going on with mainstream media, bending over because of their fear of being regulated and fined by the FCC and being put out of business, or they're going to lose government contracts. Because most of the tech
Starting point is 01:08:54 bros, the what do you call them, the brawling arcs, they also have government contracts. And it's not just Elon Musk. Amazon has billions in government contracts for computing, for cloud-based things and technology. They all have or want government contracts and they want to make money with this administration for quote unquote their shareholders, even if it means sacrificing the First Amendment. I think that's why we're here on Independent media doing independent analysis and commentary. Look, you talk about these one or two or three lawsuits a day. Those are the big like injunctive relief type cases. What I think you're really referring to the state, like the case that we talked about in Rhode Island, the big one that was that national injunction from this
Starting point is 01:09:42 week, uh, stopping the government freeze at around the same time that Trump claimed to rescind the freeze, but then Trump's press secretary, Caroline Levinson, we just rescinded the memo that called for the freeze, but not the freeze itself. That was brought by the state attorney, the state attorney generals and the states, but Popak, there are going to be tens of thousands,
Starting point is 01:10:06 hundreds of thousands, millions of lawsuits filed by the people who Donald Trump is wrongfully terminating within the federal government. I mean, think about if you are a FBI agent, you were just terminated for doing your job and stopping and trying to investigate criminal January 6th insurrectionist people who tried to kill the police and you were just fired. That quite literally fits the definition of a wrongful termination and violation of public policy perfectly. And Popak, I know that by the way, these are the types of cases that I know your firm is going to handle.
Starting point is 01:10:51 The type of cases that I handled when I was in private practice too, these wrongful termination cases. And by the way, there would be wrongful termination cases with one plaintiff who was, you know, forced out for trying to report violence in workplace, where I've seen verdicts for one person as high as $50 million, $75 million. They talk about someone who was violent at the workplace and then their job, they get
Starting point is 01:11:18 fired. I've seen juries award 50 to 75 million. Imagine the lawsuit that these FBI agents who were just pushed out, fired by Donald Trump are going to have, these DOJ officials are going to have, these career civil servants are going to have. You know, the Justice Department ordered this FBI purge. The FBI union, FBI agents union was like, we're shocked, shocked. I tell you, how did this happen? I mean, we told you this was going to happen.
Starting point is 01:11:51 Even if you read the statement by the FBI agents association, they go, if true, these outrageous actions by acting officials are fundamentally at odds with the law enforcement objectives outlined by President Trump and his support for FBI agents. What are you talking about? He doesn't support FBI agents. Dude hates FBI. He hates FBI agents. They were going after Christopher Wray, your previous head of the FBI, and saying the most horrific things. Their whole Republican campaign was based on hating the FBI so that the FBI goes,
Starting point is 01:12:22 whoa, this is at odds with what he said. It's actually not at odds. He says he hates the FBI goes, whoa, this is at odds with what he said. And it's actually not at odds. He says he hates the FBI. He does something that is hateful of the FBI. If he was actually, maybe this is the one thing he was consistent of here. So you have that, but just think about all of the DOJ officials that were fired, the FAA officials that were fired, you know, across all government, the USAID officials,
Starting point is 01:12:44 these people are gonna sue. The general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board was fired. I think that these people who in order to fire them, you have to hit certain steps. All of the inspector generals that he fired, the 17 inspector generals, the watchdogs, quite literally, you have to give 30 days notice of termination. You have to provide specific rounds. Trump didn't do that. These cases are admitted liability, wrongful termination cases, and I think you're going to see a tsunami of those lawsuits. And here's the thing, who defends the lawsuits?
Starting point is 01:13:26 When the government gets sued for now, I think it's gonna be billions, hundreds of billions, if you're gonna add up all of these lawsuits, who's gonna defend? Who? Alina Jaba? Who? Trump's lawyers?
Starting point is 01:13:42 Who's gonna take these cases? You fired everybody. What happens if the two million people who were offered, I think, these fake unlawful severance buyouts because, and notice they're like not calling it like full buyouts, they're calling it like a phased out plan, they're calling it a different name because you can't do a buyout per se like it and a buyout has to be prescribed by law and So they're trying to call it some other phase out. But what if everybody accepted it?
Starting point is 01:14:17 What if all two million people took what if everyone's like sure we're out you wouldn't have a federal government one boomerang on that Yes First of all the seven month furlough, which is not a furlough. He's never going to pay these people the firing against civil service laws and merit board laws that are going to lead to these thousands of lawsuits that you're talking about. Because some people might be thinking, wow, this is really weird. No president's ever done this before. No president's ever done it before because it's all illegal.
Starting point is 01:14:41 And now that now you and I as taxpayers are going gonna have to pay the freight for the lawsuits and the settlements and the class action settlements and the mass settlements that are gonna result from his actions. Leaving us, that's on the money and litigation side. Fortunately, there's a group in the resistance that are saying, we're not taking the buyouts. We're gonna stay and defend the constitution. That's why I'm not so thrilled with the treasury guy
Starting point is 01:15:03 you mentioned at the top, who is the keeper of all of my information and those of the American people going, F it, I'll just throw the keys to Elon Musk. I'm not going to be a participant in this. No, you should have stayed in your seat to make sure that Doge doesn't get access to this information at the very heart of our economy and Treasury. So I don't want people to quit like Christopher Wray. I want them to stay and get dragged out like Inspector General Fong from her post kicking and screaming. I want the world to see that Donald Trump is dragging inspector generals who are apolitical and independent watchdogs. He's dragging them out of the government for all the reasons that we just talked
Starting point is 01:15:44 about. But you're right, if all of these lawsuits are, that's why they're gonna be coming. So I think my time, I'm gonna win my time capsule bet. It's gonna be, it's gonna be five, ten, ten times that per day. I told Salty I wanted a meter, an odometer for Donald Trump's law, the suits against this administration. You know, but look, that's why we're here. We're here to sort through it all, curate it all for you, and bring it to you here on LegalEye after the Midas Touch Network.
Starting point is 01:16:10 The Department of Justice has a criminal division and a civil division, right? The criminal division prosecutes in theory crimes, or for Donald Trump now protects his crimes, or crimes with him. And then you have the civil division, which handles all of these lawsuits that get filed. Donald Trump now protects his crimes or crimes with him. And then you have the civil division, which handles all of these lawsuits that get filed.
Starting point is 01:16:29 There's lots of lawsuits that get filed against the government every day. So if you've gutted all of the career people and you don't have people working at the DOJ and you don't have smart people working at the DOJ, when all of these lawsuits hit, it's what happens if you have a control tower where the staff quits and what happens if you don't have, you know, and then they have to monitor the airplane traffic. What happens if you don't have people who are working, you know, to make
Starting point is 01:17:00 sure that your fruit is safe and your and that the railroads are safe. And that what if you don't have these people? The railroad goes off the rail. That's what happens. What happens when you don't have the proper air traffic safety people? What happens when you don't have the proper military people in place?
Starting point is 01:17:20 This is what we're going to see. And the final message I leave everybody with is kind of where we started. It's most basic core, that kind of concept of government. Like if you were to take government 101 is to try to keep safety. Like a modicum of safety, safety, safety, safety, safety. Safety, safety, safety, safety, safety. And if you ask yourself, are you more or less safe than you were 12, 13 days ago, you are by far less safe. And in Trump's America, it's at its core level
Starting point is 01:17:55 before even getting into the kind of hierarchy of needs, the safety box hasn't been checked. So when you're doing basic things, you have to think, wait a minute, is this strawberry going to hurt me? Are the labels correct? Has this even, is there gonna be an outbreak? I mean, a tuberculosis, like what is happening right now?
Starting point is 01:18:20 So if you're injured by the Trump administration and it's failed policies, where do you go? The PO-POC firm, the PO-POC firm.com. Well, there you have it. So Michael PO-POC, though, I'll leave it on that. PO-POC started his own firm. I'm wishing you all the best PO-POC in your endeavors. I know that it was always your dream to start your own law firm. And I think you're doing it at a time where people need good lawyers. And so where do they go to reach out to your firm?
Starting point is 01:18:50 Yeah, www.thepopakfirm.com. And if you want to call, have a case evaluated all for free, 1-877-POPOC-AF. What else? Thank you for your time. And I know that you know, you know catastrophic, you know, you know accidents, you know injuries car accidents wrongful terminations Sexual harassment and us, you know anything like that send it, you know send it. You know, I know that's what you're handling
Starting point is 01:19:17 All right. Thank you to our pro democracy sponsors. Thank you everybody for watching Everybody hit subscribe help us get to four million subscribers here on the On the Midas touch network. We're gonna hit that pretty quickly that four million subscriber point So hit subscribe subscribe to legal AF on audio as well. We'll be with you every step of the way Thanks for watching. Shout out legal AF'er, shout out Midas Mighty. King of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Roulette with our ever-growing library of digital slot games,
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