Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Federal Judges BREAK SILENCE and CRUSH Trump

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Federal Judges, following in the footsteps of our clergy leaders and foreign politicians, have broken their silence and rebuked Trump and MAGA’ s attempts to whitewash what happened on Jan6th, by castigating Trump’s pardons and telling the truth about what the evidence proved in their courtrooms, as they refuse to quietly dismiss pending cases. Michael Popok explains the power of a federal judge to oppose Trump’s pardons in their own ways, including leaving open the door to have them re-indicted by a Democratic DOJ in the future. Miracle Made: Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3-PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. 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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their grand jury proceedings, their sentencing, watching thousands and thousands of hours of video and hearing testimony. They have broken their silence and are firing back at Donald Trump one at a time, but in a loud and clear voice they will not let Jan 6th be rewritten as being anything other than the attack on our democracy that it was. The three that have stepped forward courageously so far, so far, are the former Chief Judge Barrell Howell, Judge Tanya Chutkin, who presided over Donald Trump's own D.C. election interference case,

and Senior Judge Kolar Kitele, all of them telling the the prosecutors who have now sort of sheepishly gone into court talking about the Jan 6 defendants who have not yet been sentenced or those that have not yet gone to trial, they're not going to dismiss the cases against these defendants with prejudice and they want the Department of Justice to justify the reason they're being dismissed at all so it's saved for posterity. I'm going to give you what each of the judges said in their most powerful direct rebuke of Donald Trump, and I'll do it right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Beryl Howell had the occasion because just after the pardons she was asked to have the case dismissed against by

the new Department of Justice, Nicholas DiCarlo and Nicholas Ochs who threw smoke bombs for instance into the Capitol during the attack. And let's just say she said I'm not going to dismiss this case with prejudice, I'm going to do it without prejudice. That's in my purview. See, that's the battle here, right? Donald Trump had the power through pardon to open the jailhouse cells and let out the Stuart Rhodes of the world who's already gone to Capitol Hill and met with lawmakers and to let out Enrique Tarrio, two of the most heinous leaders of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers respectively. They're already out. Now we're talking about the ones that are still in the criminal justice system,

haven't yet been sentenced, haven't yet been brought to trial, and they, it's a little murkier, and they still have federal judges that have their own responsibility, and they're making their voice heard. Here's what, let me just tell you individually what each of them said so powerfully in their orders,

in their cases in front of them. Tanya Chutkin, let's start with her, presided over all of Donald Trump's DC election interference case through the immunity decision. She used probably the most graphic language. She said in dismissing a case without prejudice that the dismissal of the case required by President Trump's pardon cannot quote whitewash the blood, feces, and terror that the mob left in its wake, and it cannot repair the jagged breach in America's sacred tradition

of peacefully transitioning power. Donald Trump in his executive order said he was writing a grave injustice, national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people to start a process of national reconciliation. That language triggered Judge Beryl Howell, who was for the majority of the Jan 6 investigations, the greatest investigation in the history of the FBI and the Department of Justice. She was the presiding judge over all grand jury proceedings, including those involving Donald Trump.

She's the one that made the orders that stripped most of Donald Trump's lawyers of their attorney client privilege and Donald Trump of his attorney client privilege, finding that they were more likely than not to have been participating in a crime or fraud, including the President of the United States. She was involved, of course, with the Mar-a-Lago case, the D.C. election interference case, in her capacity. She also tried hundreds and hundreds of other cases involving Jan 6 defendants, heard all the evidence, saw all the evidence, and here's what she had to say.

In response to the, I need to start a national process of reconciliation by giving these pardons, she said in, I quote, no process of national reconciliation can begin when poor losers, that's you Trump, whose preferred candidate loses an election are glorified for disrupting a constitutionally mandated proceeding in Congress and doing so with impunity. No quote national injustice, again, using the words of the president's pardon or pardon statement, occurred here, just as no outcome-determinative election fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential

election. That merely raises, Judge Howell continued, the dangerous specter of future lawless conduct by other poor losers and undermines the rule of law. poor losers and undermines the rule of law. And both Chutkin and Howell refused to grant the Trump Justice Department's request for dismissal with prejudice for three capital riot defendants, including a Proud Boy extremist group chapter leader. They said, we're going to do it without prejudice, meaning the case is open for future prosecutors, meaning the Democrats, to bring charges before statute of limitations have run.

No double jeopardy to answer us one question because we never got to first jeopardy. We never got to a jury being seated for the case. So these people, pre-sentencing, pre-trial, there's no double jeopardy argument. I wanted to address that right now. Judge Chutkin wrote in her decisions, continue with Judge Chutkin, in hundreds of cases like this one over the last four years, Judge Chutkin wrote, judges in this

district have administered justice without fear or favor. The historical record established by those proceedings must stand unmoved by political winds as a testament and as a warning. And now let me turn to Judge Kohler-Kotelli, a senior judge. She noted that the federal courts, under their Article 3 power of the Constitution, can require the Article 2 Department of Justice to submit a statement of the reasons why the judge should dismiss the case so that it's preserved in amber, trapped in amber for posterity. She also said, this is her quote now, pardons after convictions and commutations of sentences. Kohler-Kitelli wrote, will not change the truth of what happened on January 6th.

Thousands of contemporaneous videos, transcripts of trials, jury verdicts, and judicial opinions analyzing and recounting the evidence through a neutral lens. Those records, she wrote, are immutable and represent the truth, no matter how the events of January 6th are described by those charged or their allies, what role law enforcement played that day, and the heroism of each officer who responded also cannot be altered or ignored. She continued, standing with bear spray streaming down their faces, those officers carried out their duty to protect. And She noted that there were five

different police forces that tried to protect the Capitol that day. Now, of course, MAGA doesn't want to hear any of this. Marco Rubio, the new Secretary of State, when asked during an interview on a national news program said, I'm not here to talk about domestic policy. I don't know if you notice, I'm the Secretary of State. I can only talk about foreign policy. That was his out about not having to answer for the sins of his president. And the rest, of course, are like Mike Johnson are saying, there was a weaponization of events, it was a terrible time and a terrible chapter in American history. The president made his decision,

I don't second guess that, it's kind of my ethos, my worldview. We believe in redemption, and now he's giving me his Christian point of view. Let me read to you from some other, let me read to you from some other reporting here of statements that were made. Your nighttime bedroom temperature has a huge impact

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and crapped in the building and crapped on our democracy. I am so glad that they have finally proudly stepped forward and set it away from a pulpit up on high as the federal judges sit and talk about it. Let me talk about more. Coler Cotelli took a lot of time to talk about law enforcement in a way that is in stark contrast to Donald Trump, who crapped on the memory of law enforcement, who stole their valor the day that he decided to commute the sentences of all 1600, including the worst and most heinous people who beat and attacked police officers. I mean, you're already seeing the press conferences where Donald Trump is asked during a press conference just today,

do you think it's okay? Do you believe that law enforcement shouldn't be beaten? Do you believe law enforcement shouldn't be violently attacked? And Trump said, yes, yes, yes, I do. Well, then how do you justify? And then they went off and read some of the Jan 6 defendants and what they were charged, not charged, convicted of beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. And there is no answer for it. Here's how Judge Kohler-Kotelli put it. Grossly outnumbered, those law enforcement officers acted valiantly to protect the members of Congress, their staff, the vice president and his family, the integrity of the Capitol grounds and the Capitol building, our symbol of liberty and symbol of democratic rule around the world.

For hours, those officers were aggressively confronted and violently assaulted. More than 140 officers were injured. Others tragically passed away as a result of the events of that day. But law enforcement did not falter. She closed her order stating bluntly, all of what I've described has been recorded for

posterity, ensuring that which transpired on January 6th can be judged accurately in the future. Now, she also raised the issue of the fact that at least one of the Gen 6 defendants had an obstruction charge well after Gen 6 and questioned whether the pardon applied to those actions as well. What we're watching is Article 3 judges doing their job. Donald Trump thinks he's got a job to do, thinks he's got a pardon power, which he does under the Constitution.

Under his Article 2 powers, let's watch the Article III judges at work. I've said it before, watch for the federal judges in places like the District of Columbia, up and down the East Coast, in California. Those are going to be the places that are going to be the battleground for democracy moving forward with all the new lawsuits. We're up to almost 10 new lawsuits filed against Donald Trump in these areas. New Hampshire, Massachusetts, California, Washington, District of Columbia.

And appellate court judges at the first, the second, the ninth, the DC Court of Appeals. That is the battleground. That is where we're going to be filing our lawsuits the way they try their Texas two-step of Texas circuit court judge or federal judge up to the Fifth Circuit Supreme Court. We got to go this route. And now we're watching all in sequence, all seriatim. The world is responding to Donald Trump and dressing him down on the public stage from bully pulpits in the National Cathedral,

with the right Reverend Archbishop Budd to the lawmaker in Denmark, in the EU, the European Union Parliament, telling Donald Trump to F off literally about his claims against Greenland. And now federal judges are doing their part in writing and standing up to Donald Trump. You know, I think in listening to all of this, I'll tell you what the Democrats and moderates and fair thinking people should put together. In addition to the Joe Biden presidential library, and fair thinking people should put together, in addition to the Joe Biden Presidential Library,

we need a memorial. We need a museum dedicated to Jan 6th for posterity to pick up with Judge Kohler-Kitelli. Needs to be built with progressives and Democrats and others and put in the right and appropriate place. But just like we have a 9-11 memorial with a a Holocaust memorial, there needs to be a Jan 6 memorial. I want on video loop the thousands of hours of video of the attack on the Western terrace and inside and starting with the ellipse. I want the timeline. I want the social media posts. I want the GoPro

cameras. I want the audio of the police calling for help that they couldn't hold the line. I want the photos showing members of Congress and other supporters of Donald Trump all attacking. I want the aftermath, the photos in the dining room while Donald Trump sat in dereliction of duty. in the dining room while Donald Trump sat in dereliction of duty. I want the testimony at the Jan six committee of people in and around Donald Trump's life who testified against them, all Republican. Right. I want the Jan six report. I want Jack Smith's volume one.

I want it all. I want it all in room after room after room, a time capsule, a message, a signal to the future that you can't whitewash what happened. You can't change and revise history just because you want an election. And we need to have up on plaques these quotes by Judge Barrow Howell, Judge Tanya Chutkin, Judge Colleen Kohler-Katelli. And we're going to see more of it, including Trump-appointed judges, because they're not happy either.

Carl Nichols, who was a Trump-appointed judge, when he heard about the pardons after the election said he would be disgusted by it. Whether they say it in private or they say it publicly, the federal judges who are right-minded are not happy about this. I posited during PO-POK Live, a new podcast here on the Midas Touch Network, that I don't think the Supreme Court even, the majority of the Supreme Court is happy about the pardons being exercised here. And the way Donald Trump has done it, since he's got elected, since the inauguration,

he's called prosecutors and the FBI scum. Yeah, scum in granting a pardon to a convicted heroin and cocaine dealer on the internet. He pardoned people, including a large group of Jan 6 defendants, who violently attacked law enforcement. How can he ever, how can MAGA ever look law enforcement in the eye and vice versa and tell them they have their back? They support the blue. They don't. Democrats would never do what just happened. By sharp contrast, you've got Joe Biden on the way out, right?

Pardoning the Gen 6 committee to protect them from the retribution of Donald Trump. Federal judges are going to stand up against Donald Trump. They're getting their voice clergy, just as they did during the Civil Rights Movement and the pulpits on Sunday, on Saturday, on Friday, whatever your religious day, are going and have started to step up led by the right Reverend Bud. Secular leaders of interest groups like the NAACP, like the ACLU, like new groups formed by Norm Eisen, groups led by Court Accountability Action,

our partners on the Legal AF network or channel, supported by an audience that calls itself Midas Mighty and Legal AFers, we are bringing this together as world leaders and circle us, right, to rebuke Donald Trump on a national stage. And all of this is important to kind of box in Donald Trump and his administration and MAGA.

I mean, under this mask of MAGA remains for me the beating heart of democracy. We just need to clear it away and unshackle it. And it starts with judges like Beryl Howell, Tanya Chutkin, and Colleen Coler-Cattelli. I'm going to continue to follow it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and where else? You can probably complete my thought and my sentence by now. The Legal AF YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN, it's going to be 500,000 by its half birthday and that's all a compliment to you. We're humbled by it. We stand on the shoulders of Midas Touch, of Legal AF, five years in the making, and now the Legal AF podcast. And on Tuesdays, PO-POK Live right here, Tuesday nights, 8 p.m. Eastern time, a new podcast that I'm doing on YouTube,

and then we'll have the audio podcast feeds as well. And until my next contribution of all things Legal AF, I am Michael Popok. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.