Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judges Make Unprecedented Move to Address DOJ Lies

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Trump has so destroyed the DOJ’s reputation for candor and integrity that federal judges won’t handle their cases unless a court reporter takes down every word in a transcript to ensure that their words are not twisted out of all meaning. Michael Popok looks at new reporting that Trump’s former criminal lawyer Emil Bove is running amok at the DOJ, destroying its Public Integrity Unit and its Civil Rights Division to use the DOJ to intimidate students on college campuses and threaten them with deportation or worse to chill their First Amendment expression. Allermi: For 60% off your order, head to https://Allermi.com and use code LEGALAF. 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

Career federal prosecutors, federal judges and magistrates don't believe a word the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi, Emil Bové and Todd Blanch have to say and are taking extraordinary steps to protect the rule of law. This coming out of some new reporting in the New York Times and other places about how Emil Bové, who was once Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer, now the number three in the Department of Justice, he's the hench once Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer, now the number three in the Department of Justice, he's the henchman, he's the bad cop, he might be the homicidal cop to Todd Blanch's bad cop, found a way to go after and try to intimidate a student organization on Columbia and Barnard's campus under the guise of trying to get to the bottom of anti-Semitism on campus, ordering

prosecutors to do extraordinary and unethical things to try to intimidate the student group who has a First Amendment right to express whatever it is as long as it's not in support of terrorism. But that wasn't good enough for Beauvais. And when he lost an issue or had his lawyers, his lawyers lost an issue before a federal judge, a magistrate judge took an extraordinary step. She said, basically in effect,

I don't trust the Department of Justice. And when you go back to the federal judge that's responsible for this case, you take a transcript of everything that was said in my courtroom back to him, so there's an accurate record. Wow. Michael Popak, you're wow. You're on Legal AF and Midas Touch. Let's get into it. A lot of new reporting about how the Trump administration and its senior DOJ officials are using their bully pulpit to intimidate in a way we've never seen prosecutors

ever do before, maybe because there are ethical rules that say you cannot do that. And the DOJ guideline, which the DOJ officials for Trump seem to have only a passing interest in, only a passing acquaintance of, seem to be allergic to the DOJ manual, would not permit. And so when Bovet decided to go after the Columbia Apartheid Divest Group at Columbia University in a Barnard campus, he ordered his civil rights division. Again, this is Harmeet Dhillon's attempt to dismantle the civil rights division,

turn it upside down, and have it do things against its very DNA of being a Civil Rights Division, turning civil rights on its head, going after student groups. I'm not going to debate the content of what these students are saying. People know my background. People know I'm not necessarily supportive of their point of view, but I'll be damned if I'll let the government try to intimidate somebody from exercising the First Amendment rights and getting up on their chosen soapbox in the public square. So when Boves struck out and the prosecutors started to resist and having watched what he did already to dismantle the public integrity section of the Department of Justice, which is now down

to just a handful of people because there is no integrity to this Trump administration. The public integrity group, after much pressure and firing everybody that got in their way, dismissed the Mayor Adams indictment. Now Emil Boves moves on to the civil rights division, headed by somebody that's more in line with his thinking, Harmeet Dhillon, and they go after the student group. And then when they go to a judge who refers in federal judge Cattell, who refers the issue

over to magistrate Judge Netburn to decide whether there should be a search warrant issued, a search warrant to get to the student group's Instagram and try to create some sort of list, probably to set up future deportations. The judge said, Well, why don't you go to magistrate Judge Nettburn who works with me? And then she held a hearing and she decided there was no probable cause to issue a search warrant. That's a federal judge doing her job as a firewall

against what we're seeing is the fascist tendencies of the Trump administration. Well, that wasn't good enough for Emile Beauvais. So he went back because when you send something down from Article 3 federal judge down to magistrate judge, you can quote unquote appeal back to the federal judge and say, well, we don't like the ruling from your magistrate. Won't you intervene and reverse her, her report and recommendation? And the judge says, I'll send it back. I'll remand it back to Judge Netburn, Magistrate Netburn, with instructions to take a closer look.

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Need expert advice or a formula tweak? Just message your care team for help at any time. Upgrade your allergy relief with Alermi. Head to Alermi.com and use code LegalAF for 60% off your order. Once again, that's Alarmy.com and use code LegalAF for 60% off your order. Once again, that's Alarmy.com and use my promo code LegalAF for 60% off. Make sure you use my promo code LegalAF so they know I sent you. She not only took a closer look,

she also issued a new ruling that applies now to the federal government in this courtroom, including Judge Cattell. You ask for a search warrant, you come to me, you better get a transcript, and that transcript, that written word taken down by a court reporter, gets delivered back to the judge.

So there's no twisting my words or what happened in this courtroom. That is extraordinary. A federal judge, a magistrate judge, doesn't trust the Department of Justice or the words that are written on his pieces of paper because it has no integrity, it has no candor to the tribunal,

and it can't be trusted. We've said this is what's happened under Donald Trump. When you attack the rule of law, especially on Law Day, when you go after federal judges, when you disobey, when you do open defiance of federal orders, when you attack the Supreme Court, when you jail judges and you lie in court, or you send lawyers in who have implausible deniability, who are not given any information or facts by their client, the Department of Justice

or the Trump administration on purpose. So they're in the dark. You don't think federal judge see this? Just two and a half weeks ago, Judge Boasberg was this close to finding the Trump administration in criminal contempt. He already found probable cause that they were in criminal contempt. Judge Zinnis in Maryland is

about, she's at about 1130, the clock's about to strike midnight to find civil contempt or worse against the Trump administration in the Ibrego Garcia case. And you don't think this is having an effect? When the Department of Justice came into the courtroom before, the proud institution of the Department of Justice, and they looked the judge in the eye with candor, with honesty, and said, this is how the facts are, this is how the law was or is, you could rely on it. You can't anymore. Magistrate judges so don't trust, and federal judges so don't trust the Trump administration, they're not going to give, they're not going to do their judicial work without having a court

reporter present. Wow. Absolutely wow. So this is the debilitating impact of Donald Trump on the justice system. His own Department of Justice has fallen into such disfavor in the courtroom that judges won't trust them.

What's going to happen to this group? Well, as of right now, thank God, federal judges are protecting the students' group's First Amendment right. Somebody's got an issue with it. You want to sue them civilly? Go ahead. Yeah. But to threaten crim- and try to intimidate them, because now everybody knows, it's on the front page of the New York Times, that this Columbia Divest group is the target of an investigation, an intimidation campaign by the Trump administration led by Emil Beauvais and the Department of Justice. You don't think that's going to have a chilling effect on First Amendment rights?

Listen to me, Columbia University apartheid divest group, find a good lawyer, good lawyers out there, find this group. Bring a lawsuit. The chilling impact on First Amendment expression here is palpable. What Emile Boves has done in violating the ethics and the ethos of the Department of Justice, following in the steps of Trump, Bondi, Harmeet Dhillon, Civil Rights Division, Todd Blanch, second in command, yeah, is all unethical, is all disgusting and depraved. And I gotta talk about it on Law Day, the day since 1958 that we celebrate the rule of law

and the role of law in the public square. That's what we do on Legal AF, that's what we do on the Midas Dutch Network. We have for the last five years. Now is the time. We need you, honestly. Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN. Hit the subscribe button. We just rolled over to 600,000 subscribers. It's just since the election and we need your help to continue to bring this content to you in an unflinching way. Not blowing smoke or sunshine, only on the

Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. So until my next report here on the Legal AF podcast, on Legal AF, the YouTube channel, and a brand new Legal AF sub stack just got launched this week, be the first kid in your class, first kid on your block to join. This is Michael Popak and I'm reporting. 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.