Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Catches Trump in Cover-Up that can Take Entire DOJ Down

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

A federal magistrate judge just effectively called AG Pam Bondi and novice US Attorney Lindsey Halligan liars, suggesting that they either misled Judge Currie, who is deciding whether to fire Halligan... for being illegally appointed, or they lied to him in their filings.  Michael Popok unpacks the last-minute filing last week by Bondi/Halligan and how Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick used it against them in ordering that Former FBI Director James Comey be immediately given the secret grand jury transcripts to support his motions to dismiss the indictment.   Miracle Made: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGLAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Subscribe: @LegalAFMTN Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 It's not just a fundamental abuse of prosecutorial power that was found by Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick today in the Comey case against Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump, and Lindsay Halligan, his prosecutor in the Eastern District. It's not just that. It's that the judge also has effectively found that an affidavit that was filed in one case just last week by Halligan and Bondi, that that means. she's either lying to Judge Curry, who's trying to decide whether Lindsay Halligan was illegally appointed or not under a statute, or she's lying to magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick in his case.
Starting point is 00:00:40 He's trying to decide whether the defense should get the grand jury transcripts to see how badly and poorly and unconstitutionally presented the case was by Lindsay Halligan in front of the grand jury. Judge Curry looked at the grand jury materials to decide for herself whether Lindsay Halligan should stay on as a prosecutor or not, or she should be a bounced. And remember, Judge Curry, or I'll tell you now for the first time, Judge Curry last week questioned the two hours of missing grand jury proceedings. Lindsay Halligan decided to file a new affidavit after the hearing was over
Starting point is 00:01:13 to solve the mystery of the two-hour missing grand jury proceedings. She said there's nothing missing. It's when they were deliberating. But Judge Fitzpatrick, in his new opinion today, says that can't. be true. She either, because either they got information from the grand jury through contact, which they should not have had, and they have lied to Judge Curry, or they're lying to me here in this court. Leave it to Lindsay Halligan and Pam Bondi to prepare a document in one case that kills them in another case. Is that surprised anybody? I'm Michael Popock. You're here on
Starting point is 00:01:47 Legal AF and on the Midas Dutch Network. Let's take a moment to look and unpack what is in this 24-page Memorandum opinion by Judge Fitzpatrick. There's two major issues. I'm only going to cover one here. One has to do with how the government has run roughshod over the attorney-client-privileged relationship of James Comey and the way they used search warrant materials and the way they didn't use a proper search warrant, the way that they reviewed things, the way they presented that to the grand jury, all in violation of James Comey's attorney-client-privileged relationship.
Starting point is 00:02:18 That will be the grounds for a motion to dismiss the indictment, I assure you, now that the judge has ordered that the entirety of the grand jury material gets turned over to the defense. See, up until now, only judges have the grand jury material. Judge Curry in her case about whether Lindsay Halligan should be dismissed as an illegally appointed federal prosecutor, U.S. attorney, and the case in front of the respective judges about the Comey and Letitia James case, about whether the indictment should be dismissed for a vindictive prosecution or for infirmities and constitutional violations of rights during the grand jury process itself. Now, in the grand jury process itself, the judge, Judge Fitzpatrick found that Lindsay
Starting point is 00:03:02 Halligan made two fundamental errors of constitutional law that every novice prosecutor knows, but not somebody who's only been a prosecutor for like 25 hours when she decided to go in and get her indictments. Nobody even went with her, by the way. She was by herself. She practiced automobile insurance law before that in Florida. She was probably never in federal court and they don't send down Pam Bondi or Todd Blanche or Stan Woodward or Janine Piro or any of the people in the Department of Justice at a senior level, maybe a tried a case to go sit with her. I never let a young lawyer go in and handle their first anything without having a senior lawyer next to them and doing second chair. No, they sent her in by herself. So is it any surprise that she screwed it up?
Starting point is 00:03:46 and what's the screw up, she left the impression with the grand jury that James Comey had to testify on his own defense. And if he didn't, there could be an adverse inference, which is exactly the opposite. Under the Fifth Amendment privilege, you don't have to incriminate yourself. You don't have to testify. And the jury is instructed not to make an adverse inference based on that. But she said something that flipped it on its head. She also flipped the burden, which is a cardinal sin. The burden on proving the case and to convict somebody is beyond a reasonable doubt and the burden sits with the prosecution, not the defense. The defense doesn't have to testify. The defense doesn't have to put on a defense. If the prosecutors never meet their burden, the person walks free and he's
Starting point is 00:04:33 already presumed innocent. That's our system. No, she flipped it to suggest that he had to prove that the government's evidence was somehow not enough. That's just ridiculous, novice, prosecutor, amateur hour, of course, to Comey's benefit. Now here's the lie. And this is why, be careful when you file things in other courts, because it might come back and bite you in the backside in this particular one. If you recall, I reported last week that Lindsay Halligan filed after the hearing went terribly for her and her lawyers before Judge Curry, sitting by designation of South Carolina,
Starting point is 00:05:15 a federal judge about whether the, she was illegally appointed under what we call Section 546 vacancy reform act or not. She didn't like the way that hearing went. She didn't like when the judge said there was two hours missing of grand jury transcripts. So she tried to answer the question. And how this came up is the lawyer for the Department of Justice, Mr. Whitaker, said that Pam Bondi has ratified all that Lindsey Halligan did in the grand jury room. And, Judge Curry said, how could she possibly ratify? That means approve after the fact. How could she do that if she doesn't know what happened?
Starting point is 00:05:53 And he says he knew, and Whitaker said she knew what he, what she did in the room during and she said she couldn't have because there's a two-hour missing gap in the grand jury transcript prepared by a court reporter. Now they tried to fix it by saying, oh, judge got it wrong. She's been on the bench for 30 plus years. She's a senior status federal judge. She got it wrong. Okay, she's handled thousands of criminal cases.
Starting point is 00:06:17 Here's what they said. Lindsay Allegan files this declaration, which then kills her with Judge Fitzpatrick today. She writes, I, Lindsay Halligan, submit this declaration to confirm that the grand jury transcript accurately reflects the full extent of my appearance before the grand jury, and to explain that the period in question consisted solely of the grand jury's private deliberations, during which no prosecutor may be present. There are no missing minutes contrary to the suggestion raised by the court. Okay?
Starting point is 00:06:50 And she goes on. She was never in the room alone. She was never in the room again. It ended at 4.28 p.m. That was the ballgame. Except the indictments were not returned until 6.40 or 6.50 at night. And there was a major screw-up by her in her office where she presented to the magistrate judge, a different one, the indictments.
Starting point is 00:07:10 and the magistrate judge said, why do I have two indictments? Why are there two signed indictments? One with two counts and one with three. So to fix that, she had to bring the jury four person back and the prosecutor back, Halagan, to talk about it, right? But never reflected. Then Bondi compounds the error, the lie, by filing a new ratification the day after the hearing last week
Starting point is 00:07:36 in which he says, I now know everything that happened in that room, except for the two hours. and I ratify everything that she did. Here's how the judge addressed that. Ever wake up sweaty, freezing, or just plain uncomfortable? The temperature in your bedroom can make or break your sleep. That's why I switch to Miracle-made sheets.
Starting point is 00:07:55 They're inspired by NASA technology and use silver-infused temperature-regulating fabric to help you sleep perfectly all night long. With Miracle Made, you'll sleep at the perfect temperature. Whether you run hot or cold, these sheets, keep you in the comfort. from the moment you crawl in to the moment you wake up. And here's what I love.
Starting point is 00:08:17 They stay cleaner longer, thanks to their anti-bacterial, silver technology miracle-made sheets, stay fresh up to three times longer than regular sheets, meaning fewer odors, fewer wash cycles, and way less laundry. They're luxuriously comfortable, too, smooth, breathable, and soft like what you'd find in a five-star hotel, without the luxury price tag. So upgrade your sleep or give the gift of better rest.
Starting point is 00:08:46 Go to try miracle.com slash legal a.F to try miracle made cheatsheets today. You'll save over 40%. And when you use promo code legal AF, you'll get an extra 20% off, plus a free three-piece towel set. They make an amazing gift. And with a 30-day money-back guarantee, there's no risk. That's try miracle.com slash legal aF, code legal a.f at checkout. thanks to Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode.
Starting point is 00:09:13 And hoisted them on his own partart. He says on page 16, finally, the record is well established that the grand jury was originally presented with a three-count indictment signed by the prosecutor. The grand jury, however, rejected count one of the original indictment and found probable cause as to the two remaining.
Starting point is 00:09:33 At some point, the prosecutor, Lindsay Halligan, prepared and signed a second indictment that removed count one. At the return of the indictment, the government presented both the first and second indictments to the magistrate judge. The first indictment indicated that the grand jury failed to find probable cause.
Starting point is 00:09:51 The second indicated that they found probable cause. Both indictments are fully executed by the grand jury foreperson and the prosecutor. So now we've got two indictments that are inconsistent with each other. Presented with two facially inconsistent indictments, Magistrate Judge Fitzgerald says, the magistrate judge at the time
Starting point is 00:10:09 continued the grand jury questioned the grand jury for a person and the prosecutor to unwind this procedural not. The magistrate judge then accepted the return of the second indictment. The second indictment was a new indictment
Starting point is 00:10:24 and therefore the undersigned Judge Fitzpatrick concluded after reviewing the grand jury transcript that the prosecutor would have been present for the second indictment to present to present it to the grand jury, for consideration before it was returned in open court.
Starting point is 00:10:40 That's what he thought when he reviewed the grand jury transcript. It now appears that may not have happened because on November 14th last week, the prosecutor filed a declaration, which I just read to you, with the court attempting to address the issue of whether the transcript of the grand jury was full and complete. The prosecutor stated that after the grand jury was left to deliberate on the first indictment at 428, she had no further contact with the grand jury. She further stated that at approximately 640, she was notified by the then-first assistant U.S. attorney.
Starting point is 00:11:15 That's Maggie Cleary. She's been fired since then, by the way, that the grand jury returned a true bill on only two of the three counts. The prosecutor, according to her declaration, then proceeded to the courtroom for the return of the indictment. The hearing on the return of the indictment began at 6.47 p.m.
Starting point is 00:11:33 footnote 14 or 11, if the court is to read the prosecutor's declaration as suggesting that there was no contact between any government official and the grand jury after 4.28 p.m., that then it begs the question of how the then-the-first assistant learned that the grand jury had refused to indict on one count and how the first assistant knew which count have been rejected to the grand jury all before the indictment was returned in open court. In other words, how did Mad Maggie Cleary know to tell her, tell Halligan that the jury had not returned an indictment on one of them if she didn't have contact with the grand jury or that or by Maggie Cleary having contact with the grand jury. Where is the affidavit of Maggie Cleary? It's missing because they fired Maggie Cleary, making Lindsay Halligan's statement a lie. And that's what the judge is saying. So this is an example where, oh, what a tangled woman. web we weave. They filed an affidavit. One of these two things can't be true. Somebody's lying,
Starting point is 00:12:40 and it's likely Lindsey Allegan and Pam Bondi. Somebody lied to either Judge Curry or Judge Fitzpatrick. Because if Maggie Cleary, who's no longer here, I think they should call Maggie Cleary in, by the way, to be examined by the judge. If Maggie Cleary was the first assistant, which she's identified as being, how did she learn if she didn't learn it from the grand jury? And if no government official was ever with the grand jury, how did they learn about the fact that there were two indictments and one of them was wrong? Big problem. Here's with how the judge concluded. He made 11 findings as required by the federal judge, Nat Manoff. In the 11th finding, he has ordered, he says that the grand jury transcript is on page 22 and recording do not likely reflect the full
Starting point is 00:13:29 proceedings because, although it is clear that a second indictment was prepared and presented to the grand jury, the transcript and audio recordings of the proceedings do not reflect any further communications after the grand jury began deliberating on the first indictment. Where is the second indictment deliberations? That's what everybody wants to know. And where is Maggie Cleary? That's the other issue. So he's ordered the grand jury materials to be turned over to the defense so they can use it for their motion practice. He also made a series of findings that the attorney-client-privileged relationship was violated for James Comey, that there are infirmities in the way that that Lindsay Halligan presented her case to the grand jury, which can now be used by James Comey,
Starting point is 00:14:12 and then later on by Letitia James, because I'm sure the same things happened with her, to get their indictments dismissed. This is bombshell news. The indictment is on, beyond barely on life support against Comey, likely Letitia James, too. and Halligan, she should resign because she's going to get canned by Judge Curry. I have no doubt about that. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popock. Come over to LegalAF YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:14:39 Help us get to one million subscribers in the next two or three weeks. Until my next report, this is Michael. Can't get your fill of LegalAF. Me neither. That's why we form the LegalAF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or an oral argument, come over to the substack.
Starting point is 00:14:56 You'll find the court filing in the oral. oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, morning A.F. What else? All the other contributors from LegalAF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal A.F on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.