Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF 7/15/2026

Episode Date: July 16, 2026

The award-winning Legal AF podcast, and its hosts Popok and KFA, are joined by special guest Senator Corey Booker (D-NJ) fresh off today’s grilling of Todd Blanche during his Attorney General Confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The hosts also cover in real time breaking news that ties back to Blanche and his lack of fitness for office including Court action concerning the Epstein coverup and the Jan6 “super pardon” and “slush fund” scandals. Armra: Head to https://tryarmra.com/legalaf or enter promo code: LEGALAF to receive 15% off your first order! Delete Me: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. Sundays for Dogs: Get 50% OFF your first order of Sundays. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/LEGALAF50 or use code: LEGALAF50 at checkout. Veracity: For up to 65% off your order, head to https://VeracityHealth.co and use promo code: LEGALAF Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgZJZZbnLFPr5GJdCuIwpA/join Learn more about the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com Subscribe to Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/subscribe?coupon=c0fc8f5c 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 Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Volvo is leaving the chaos of rush hour outside. Start by settling into your saddle-stitched Napa leather seats. Notice the open space around you, uncluttered, elegant, intentional, warm ambient light, and natural wood details to ground you. This is Volvo's Scandinavian sanctuary for every journey. Learn more at VolvoCars.caps.cault optional features mentioned. The Hulu original series Furious is coming to Disney Plus. Starring Emmy Rossum, Furious follows FBI agent Alice Black on the hunt for a mysterious and calculating serial killer.

Both walk their own paths toward justice, and as their lives start to intertwine, the line between right and wrong begins to blur. Don't miss the three-episode premiere of the Hulu original series Furious on July 27th, only on Hulu on Disney Plus. name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This July, we're faced with a threat. That could be anyone. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker.

I'm just a neighbor, a friendly neighbor. But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing. That's my responsibility. Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand new day in theaters July 31st.

Growing businesses deal with the same problem. tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing or service, Odo gives you one place to manage your business. Visit O-D-O-D-com to book a demo. It's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-D-com. Legal AF at the midweek is back, and we just completed day one of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing

and moving on to day two, 150,000 people watched it on LegalAF YouTube. And, you know, in kicking this around with Karen, there's other things to cover. There's a couple of other stories that are interesting. But what is more interesting to our audience than what at least 12 Democratic senators and a couple of Republican senators did in the Judiciary Committee today about one of the highest positions in law enforcement in the country. I mean, Donald Trump considers himself to be at the top of that apex. But, you know, the Attorney General matters,

and especially when the Attorney General is the former criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump. And we are so fortunate to have Senator Cory Booker joining us in about 10 or 15 minutes, hang in there. not only one of the 12 Democrats, but was so insightful and so unrelenting in his questioning of Todd Blanche. And at one point, Todd Blanche literally gasped for error and said, you don't even let me answer, man. You know, some of these questions, we don't need the answers to because we're making a broader point about the unfitness of Todd Blanche. And so we're so fortunate to have Cory Booker join us here. Let's bring in Karen Friedman Ignifflin.

Hi, Karen. Hi, Popak. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm all energized by what went down today. Let's talk about the stakes. Right now, it's 12-12, an evenly divided Senate Judiciary Committee. That'll be fixed when the Senate Republicans get around to filling Lindsey Graham's seat.

They didn't let that delay the hearing. So Democrats went and the Republicans went. Most of them wasted our time and threw softballs or try to make Todd Blanche laugh about going after Jack Smith or whatever MAGA thinks is funny or go after Joe Biden. That's always a good one. No one, though, replaced the gravitas, the lion that was Lindsey Graham on the Republican side. I thought Ted Cruz would take a shot at it, But no, he was busy doing other things like talking about Joe Biden. Day two is tomorrow. That will be up on LegalAF YouTube, a live tab as well.

I'll do the morning introduction at about 845 Eastern time. And then we go right gavel to gavel. And that's going to be time for witnesses. The Senate Democrats have announced they're going to have Danny Benske, who's an Epstein survivor and leader. I've interviewed Danny before. In fact, she's coming on with me next week. and Liz Oyer, the pardon lawyer, Liz Oyer, who's also going to be testifying. We don't know,

it's amazing, we don't know these things. We don't know who the Republicans are going to be putting on on behalf of Todd Blanche. So, Karen, I know you're a voracious consumer of all things confirmation hearings. What was your sort of, what was your big picture? What was your personal takeaway by what you observed on with Blanche, the Democrats, and the Republicans? Yeah, with Blanche, look, it seems. seemed pretty clear that he's going to be confirmed. He on paper is eminently more qualified than so many other cabinet members, right? You know, he's a former member of the Southern District of New York. By all accounts, he was a well-respected prosecutor back in the day.

And the Republicans made sure to really kind of tout that background and to really prop him up. And some Republicans were just thanking him for his service and going on about all the great things he's done. And every time a Democrat would question him and start to get somewhere by asking some really important and hard questions that weren't just performative, right? They were actual questions that people want to know about, in particular, his independence, right? His independence from the president and doing the right thing for the right reasons. And at one point there was a slip up. And, you know, he said when I think it was Senator Kennedy, who was a Republican, asked him a friendly question, you know, and tried to say, oh, are you, are you friends with Donald Trump?

We have the clip. Why don't we play the clip? Yeah, go ahead. Let's play the clip. Are you in President Trump, France? I'm his lawyer, was his lawyer, and now I'm the deputy attorney general. So I met him as his criminal defense attorney. Well, that's a Freudian slip.

Yeah, it was a Freudian slip. But it's really one of the major points of this hearing is the problem is not, you know, were you a great prosecutor once? But are you going to be able to be independent and make the right calls here? And I think that slip up was a little bit of a window into really the truth, which is you can't, even if you wanted to be independent, you can't be under this administration. And, you know, but it was it was a little performative just generally because every time he'd get some hard questioning, Senator Grassley would then, when the questioning was over, but, you know, I'm going to read into the record now, you know,

like Cory Booker, Senator Booker, who we're so lucky is going to be here tonight and talk to us is from the state of New Jersey. After he finished questioning, Senator Grassley has a letter from all the Newark, New Jersey police officers. and he reads it into the record about how great Todd Blanche is and how great he is for law enforcement. And they would have these letters that they would read into the record every single time there was any kind of difficult questioning. And so it just felt very like it wasn't a real hearing to try to get some real answers,

especially the Republicans, because they were really trying to, I think, make sure that this sailed through no matter what. Yeah, look, on the, let's talk about the math. Blanche does not have the luxury of losing any votes. He loses one vote in that 13 to 12 when Lindsay Graham's seat is filled. I don't mean his seat for the Senate. That's his sister.

Got that. I mean the seat on the judiciary committee. If he loses Cornyn, Texan, who still says he has grave doubts about Todd Blanche after hearing his testimony and meeting with him separately, that's the guy that Donald Trump went out. after as a rhino as a republican in name only and and backed ken paxton in texas and he's not coming back to the senate so he's got nothing left to lose tom tillis it's hard to tell with tom tillis tom tell us said oh election denier is never going to be um you know my nominee and he has big concerns about

the jan 6th anti-weaponization fund but you're not quite he's not coming back to the senate either after this term you're not quite sure where where they're going to fit either but you got to start picking off somebody. And that's what people like Corey, Senator Booker, Senator Blumenthal, Senator White House, Senator Klobuchar, you know, Senator Coons, they're working the refs. They're working their Republican colleagues to try to make them pay a price if they, if they support Todd Blanche. That and set up Todd Blanche for future impeachment proceedings when he lies under oath about something today. I think those who are the twin goals of the Democrats, try to get, try to manufacture a vote that that peels away from the Republican caucus and votes

with the Democrats, just one, they just need one. In fact, I like the way that Senator a Booker from my home state of New Jersey used it like a can opener to like get at Todd Blanche and talk about character, which which was for me a defining moment. I've always people know me, I have some very strong feelings about character and what it means. Let's play the clip of Senator Booker talking about character with Todd Lynch. You know, Lincoln, it was said about him that if you want to see the true character of a man, don't view him in adversity, give him power. I believe you've had a lot of power. And so we don't have to speculate about what has been revealed with your time in that office. We don't need to worry about what kind of attorney general.

you've already had that power. This isn't a job interview like usually. You've sat before this committee before. You've made promises time and time again before. You got the job, actually, to be the number two and the acting director. So this isn't a confirmation hearing. This is more of a performance review. And clearly, when it comes to the treatment of Epstein victims,

when it comes to politically motivated prosecutions, when it comes from avoiding appearance of impropriety with corporations, you failed. You're asking this body for a promotion. And you've spent today making a lot of promises, promises to follow the law, promises to be independent, promises to serve the American people and not the president. But we don't need your promises. We have your record. We have watched you exercise one of the greatest powers entrusted to any public servant. And what have you shown us? 1,200 victims waiting for justice. What have you shown us? There's two prosecutions. While the people involved, the victims are waiting for action, one of the people prosecuted gets the most cushy arrangement possible after you visit with her. Again and again, you seem to be favoring the interest of a president and the powerful. You've chosen Trump over truth. You've chosen corporations over the Constitution.

And you fail to meet the test. Yeah, I mean, that sort of frames the issue of are you going to vote for this guy, given his body of work, what Chuck Schumer referred to as a rap sheet? And let's not talk about empty promises. Let's talk about your performance over the last 19 months, effectively in running the Department of Justice. The Deputy Attorney General runs the day-to-day operation of the Department of Justice. And when it came to Epstein, Pam Bondi already said, he was responsible for everything related to Epstein. So why shouldn't we judge you on your record? Yeah, it was,

it was really frustrating, you know, the things that he wasn't really pushed on, I thought, things like, you know, he took such credit for crime going down across the country. But really most of that, those numbers and those crimes, that's prosecuted by state and local police, not necessarily the federal government. And so for him to take credit as if he's sort of tough on crime. They didn't really talk about the fact, for example, that cases are getting dismissed at a higher rate, that cases aren't getting indicted the way they used to. The fact that judges no longer trust this Department of Justice, how many times have judges dismissed cases or said in decisions that they no longer are giving them the Department of Justice the benefit of the doubt and

trusting their word because they're not trustworthy? Things like that that have been happening. And he also kept going on and on about prosecuting fraud, but no one talked about what about all the people that Donald Trump pardoned about that committed white collar crimes and that all you have to do is, you know, pay money to Trump and get a pardon. At least that's the allegation. And just find out more about that sort of thing. And so I just really think that there was a lot more questioning that could have happened. And, and, I think the record of this Department of Justice is really not great. And unfortunately, that didn't come out loud and clear from this hearing, as I had hoped. And I also thought Senator Tillis, who was on the fence and is a lame duck, therefore isn't beholden to Donald Trump. I think he signaled that he's going to support Todd Blanche. That was the impression I got. Well, let's bring in Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who cannot be faulted. for not doing a cross-examination of a lifetime against Todd Blanche.

You had him gasping literally for air, Senator Booker. At one point, he said, you don't even let me answer, man. He called me, man, I like that. I was like, Senator Man to you. Yeah, yeah. Right. I hate, unfortunately, I hate to, I was listening to the conversation. I hate to conclude with you about Tillis, to agree with you about Tillis.

I just saw them both. Cornyn was at least a little tougher on him, but the feeling I got from Tillis is that he's more inclined to vote for him. In fact, I saw when he walked in, the two of them looked at each other, and I saw smiles and nods, not like he was getting prepared to ask him tough questions. And did he ask him? He said earlier about other candidates,

if they're election deniers, I'm not going to support him. I mean, what do you call Todd Blanche, if not an election denier, an enabler? But it's worse than that. If any of us really effed up at our jobs, you know, we would not get to keep them. This is a guy who clearly is doing his job when he betrays the survivors of Epstein and releases their phone numbers and their pictures, releases their home addresses. That should be a major F-up that should have people on the other side of the aisle up in arms.

But no, let's overlook that, that they were retramatized and targeted with hate attacks and more. He's a guy that has consistently in his very short time in that office shown himself to do the things that often they posture and say they're against, like the weaponization of the department. But they're not willing to stand up for it because you're weaponizing the department against people we don't like. So Comey is a best example. There is not a serious Republican I know in the legal profession that thinks there's any merit to that case. and yet you are expending taxpayer resources, resources that should be protecting us from sex traffickers, drug traffickers, white collar crime. No, you're spending it going after Donald Trump's enemy. So this guy, there's no justification, no moral justification to allow him to keep his job or to get this promotion.

And Senator Booker, if I want to ask you about the multiple audiences that you were addressing with your cross-examination, And one of them being your fellow Republicans to see if you can get work the Republicans and see if you can get one vote to peel away. But you mentioned the Epstein survivors, 10 of which were in the room there, not for performative reasons, but to continue to demand justice. And there they are. One of them in particular, Danny Vinsky, is going to be testifying, I believe, tomorrow. I've had the honor and pleasure of interviewing Danny a couple of times.

on our show. Let me play for our audience, who maybe didn't have an opportunity to watch any part of this and they're learning about the confirmation hearing tonight from us. Let me play a couple of clips of you on Blanche about Epstein Matters. Let's play the first one. Now, I was stunned earlier by your conversation with one of my colleagues that you wouldn't even commit to meeting with the survivors, but you did meet with Galane Maxwell. Your claim that you can't meet with these victims because they're represented by counsel is utter nonsense. Counsel can be present or a client can waive their right to have counsel, but you're a lawyer. You know this.

That was not truthful what you said to my colleague. You said that they should meet with the FBI. All of these women have reported their crimes decades ago, but yet you won't meet with them. What you will do is meet with Gleine Maxx. well. I mean, one of the things we've brought out to our audience is that and gotten from survivors like Danny Bensky, out of the 14 or 1,500 survivors, only 25 have come forward. This is their choice. The rest are, you know, in the shadows because they decided they want to be heard if they're going to get justice done and there's going to be a real and true investigation. But in terms of

being public and coming into Congress, there's only 25 of them who cannot come close. to telling the entire story. Most of the evidence is not in the Epstein files, which we need. It's in the minds and hearts of the Epstein survivors that have never been interviewed by the FBI. I mean, again, I ran a city. It was very close to not only the Newark Police Department, which I was overseeing and running,

but I work with multiple layers of law enforcement. I know what an investigation looks like. I know what the work it takes to build a case. This is a Department of Justice led by someone right now who has no interest in the truth whatsoever. And more than that, they are sending signals that are dangerous. You already have survivors watching Donald, what is done to E. Jean Carroll? And the hell that she's had to go through trying to pursue justice, even after a jury said that he was liable for sexual assault, that the President of the United States raped that woman.

And so it is a horrible signal that's being sent out to survivors everywhere. And that's why these women who are so courageous, some of them who just came forward after their information was unjustly leaked, I stood with some of them in a press conference I had trying to get them justice and restitution for what they've gone through since their information has been leaked. And so, again, God bless the courage of these women. I'm so grateful for the testimony we're going to hear tomorrow, but this should enrage people that this is a president

and a acting attorney general who are showing that, yeah, some people are above the law, some people are out of reach. Some people, if you're wealthy and connected, get pardons. Some people get immunity from this Justice Department who are unworthy. If you're really, really rich, you can get your mergers approved. in so many ways this Justice Department is showing is on the side of the elected, the connected, and the wealthy, and against people who have been survivors or victims of crime. Before I turn it over to Karen, let me play Danny Benson, because I asked her about the confirmation

hearing, and if she thought justice would ever be done by this Department of Justice in Todd Blanche, let's play the clip. The DOJ. And so when you have somebody like Todd Blanche at the home of the DOJ, it's hugely problematic, right? Like, he has the president's best interest. He does not have the American people's best interest at heart. And he's proven that. He was in that situation room. He needs to be called in and questioned. He needs to be in front of the oversight committee now to answer, you know, how, like we also know that he was responsible for so many botched redactions and how

this rollout even happened. And botched is like an understatement, by the way. But he's responsible for a lot of this. Bondie, I'm not letting her off the hook. She definitely had something to do with this, but we know that Todd Blanche had a lot to do with this, and he moved Gila and Maxwell. So, like, there are so many things here that come back to Blanche, and now he is the nomination. And that's, like, he's so unfit to be the acting attorney general of our country. I don't, I can't even, my words fail me. Yeah. Let me turn it over to Karen. Thank you. Yeah. I thought it was, um, for the first.

First of all, thank you so much for being on the show, Senator. And I really enjoyed watching you question Todd Blanche today. I thought your questions were really incisive and clearly got under his skin, frankly. And I thought what you, sort of the contrast in the Epstein case, that you showed how you're not willing to meet with the victims, but you personally met with Gilae Maxwell. And right afterwards, she gets transferred to this cushy prison, you know, to a much lower security to a camp, basically, than she was before. And, you know, I just thought that was a really powerful moment in the hearing that really pointed that out. But pivoting to the January 6th Slush Fund and that whole line of questioning, I thought it was really great that Todd was asked that Mr. Blan was asked about the Federal Tort Claims Act and whether or not, you know, kept saying the Flusch fund, the weaponization fund, whatever you want to call it, is dead. It's not going anywhere. But it was pointed out, right, that there's still this federal tort claims act. So I was wondering

if you could talk a little bit about that and explain that to our audience because I thought that was such an important, really important thing that people really need to understand. Well, look, stepping back for a second to what this is all about so your viewers really understand, and really what the federal judge in this case said is there is an inherent conflict of interest when you bring a case solely trying to create a case in controversy, not for sincere reasons, but you bring a case forward simply because you want to create the opportunity to create a settlement. So it wasn't a legitimate case. They knew that the judge was going to decide against them.

They brought forward this case to create the opportunity to settle with themselves. There were no conflicting parties. They settled with themselves to create and present an opportunity for them to get to the conclusion they wanted, which was to create an unjust slush fund to pay out to people who are political partners of theirs and whatever nefarious means. and to get a liability shield from any tax law as possible. So I'm not sure exactly what point one of my colleagues made about the tort claims, but the fact that he was unwilling to commit to in any way the fact that he did not have a liability shield, to me is one of the most disturbing takeaways.

Yeah, that's one of the things, Senator Booker. Here's my theory. Donald Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about the anti-weaponization fund because they could always pay these people through the back door of the Federal Tort Claims Act. What he cared about was the next day amendment created by Todd Blanche unilaterally with a signature, which created what Jamie Raskin is referred to as the Super Pardon, where Judge Williams is referred to as the release of Donald Trump, his family, and affiliates and associates of tax and audit liability and criminal liability. That's all Donald Trump. And you see already, not here, but you see how much your colleagues only focused on the anti-weaponization fund creation and the settlement agreement and did not focus on the thing that Donald Trump,

I believe, really covets, which is that release. In other words, it's the ultimate of the sort of a bait and switch. Right. Let's get everybody riled up about a fund. But the value for his children and for him. to be able to escape liability for the things that they are doing. I am confident that what we know about, the corruption we know about is the tip of the iceberg.

How many companies now are they consulting with or that they got on the board with that then turn around and get contracts? What are they doing with these ill-gotten gains that they're getting? Do they in any way, in fact, New York, times already, I think they got a polter for the prize of tracing all tax crimes of this family already. Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had expired. So I agree with you, if that's the point you're making about, that they have other remedies in terms of the torturous claims

that they can make. But the reality is, the big kuhuna here is to get that shield from for tax liability. Absolutely. Let me play the clip for our audience of you taking on Blanche appropriately without Kulayne Maxwell, a five-time convicted child sex trafficker. How low Donald Trump must have stumped that he needed a convicted child sex trafficker to vouch for him. Let's play the clip. Well, just one week after your meeting, Ms. Maxwell was transferred from a low security

federal institution to a minimum security prison camp, were you involved with that transfer? When, as I've talked about before, in the time leading up to me going down to meet with her, we learned that she was receiving threats. The turned out, when we were there? I'm going to interrupt you for a matter of time because. Okay, well, it's not a question I can answer apparently in the time you're giving me. I'm going to tell you this because I deal with the issues of criminal justice. when people are under threats in a Bureau of Prison facility,

they're put into solitary confinement or protective. They're not moved to a camp. That's not always true. It is what is true is someone that is accused of child sex trafficking under the Bureau of Prison's own policies is not put in a facility like this that seems clearly like a reward. There's a, I don't even know if this is true, but there's a rumor out there.

she has a puppy. Okay, but this is the thing that really bothers me. Going back to where you all started, which I'm so, God bless you, for keeping this centered on the victims. Here's the absurdity. He's telling me, I am concerned about Gleine Maxwell's safety. I'm concerned about her well-being. God, I put her in a place that the Bureau of Prisons policy say I should never put her in, but I'm doing, I'm going this extra mile to protect a five-time convicted sex offender. But, oh, oh, I am not going to do Jack. I am not going to even meet with the victims to get them the justice they deserve. It is so profoundly offensive that you would bend over backwards and break DOJ and BOP policy for your saying for the safety of a sex offender.

but you care nothing about the women whose pictures and phone numbers and addresses and privacy you violated. It is so offensive and disqualifying for this man to have sat there today and said that to me. Yeah. I mean, your colleague Dick Durbin said, will you commit right now? Well, I have another person. I have a sex crimes person. I couldn't meet because how could I meet? They might have lawyers. Like, are you effing, I mean, you took them on. Are you effing kidding me? You meet with lawyers and clients all the time as prosecutors. Karen's a former number two in the Manhattan DA's office. How many times you meet with clients along with their lawyers, Karen? Yeah, no, of course. I mean, that happens all the time. And now as a defense attorney or as a private

practice attorney, I also go in with people sometimes to meet with prosecutors. I mean, that is not at all, that's not a reason to not meet with him, but he just didn't want to meet with any of the survivors. And he didn't talk about any of the other investigations or perpetrators, right? He didn't talk about any open investigations or that they have this, that they're looking into other perpetrators. And they have those files. I mean, that's what I don't understand is no one has ever suggested that Jeffrey Ebson, was the only person who violated these women, right? Or these girls.

There are other perpetrators. Like, where are those investigations? 1,200 people. 12, we know the numbers, the amount of people. And you're telling me you cannot build a case against anyone but these two people. It is stunning to me. It is stunning. And it should be disqualifying for this individual.

So Senator Booker, I know you're so generous. Before you, I just want to say something because the clip you played of the Survivor, where she was talking, I think I want your viewers to know when she said the situation room. Remember, just a reminder, it's really important that we now know that they had these strategy sessions where they pulled people in, including to put together a strategy to shield the president from any possible implications in these files. I mean, that tells us all that this was a panicked White House that was taking extraordinary steps to try to protect someone who is in the Epstein file hundreds if not thousands of times. And so now we know what our attorney general, acting attorney general, was really focused on.

It is this ideal, this metaphor, that that attorney general is not the highest law enforcement in the land for the 340 million Americans. He's there to provide a shield to the president and a sword for the president to go after people in unjust persecution and unjust prosecution. But for our audience, there's a very good reason that we're trying to get the Democrats to get control of the Senate because there should be more than one day of a, of the cross-examination. Do you all know that they constantly were chipping away? I was told we have 13 minutes for questioning. Then they came down to 10. Now, 10 minute questioning for confirmation to the highest law enforcement in the land has never been done before. It is unprecedented.

It is the shortest amount of questioning time that any nominee for that office has had in modern history because they were so afraid to give us a chance to ask him the full battery of tough questions. And to answer the question from our audience, you can't get another day. No. No, we won it over two days. And we obviously wanted a substantive amount of time, especially given the legitimate questioning that is being done by conservatives, Democrats, people across the political spectrum about his performance over his time as Deputy Attorney General and now is acting Attorney General. You're a book of tomorrow's Republican witnesses are? I know it's, is it Ashcroft, guys?

Is that right? No, I know it's not Ashcroft. I know it's the, I know one person they're having is a survivor of criminal violence against by an undocumented immigrant. I know that's one of them. They're going to try to drive home. What's that? Do you guys say it?

Warrior? I don't mean to stump you. I'm sorry. I did have, I have the list of witnesses somewhere in my brief. I didn't think it was announced yet, but okay, that I figured. Well, I have the list. I have the list somewhere. Forgive me.

I have a lot of reading to do tonight. That you do. I'm so proud of you. I'm a lifelong resident of New Jersey, grew up next to Asbury Park, exit 105 in the Garden State, and I really appreciate you being our senior senator from New Jersey, and more importantly, the work that you do on the Senate Judiciary Committee, so important. And hopefully the Democrats get the gavel,

and we won't ever see this mockery, this sham type of confirmation hearing ever again. I know my audience is very concerned about future Supreme Court nominees, and certainly want the Democrats to have the cabal then. Can I just give you a wet your whistle? I hope you'll invite me back on to talk about this. If the Democratic Party gets controlled the House to Senate, the White House and does not reform the Supreme Court, you do not need a constitutional amendment to put term limits on Supreme Court members.

We have jurisdictional, we have oversight. We have the right to curtail the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, dictate the jurisdiction in the Supreme Court. So we need to put the highest court in the land, should have the highest ethics law, it's not the lowest, and we should have term limits. I hope you and I can talk about that. Oh, oh, I would love that. Thank you for that. Thank you for allowing an outlet for nerds like me everywhere to have a great show that we can that we can listen to. So to all your audience and listeners, thank you for your

nerdiest, festidious attention to the details of how our nation's legal systems work. Our legal a.F audience nerds out with you. Don't worry. Senator Corey Booker of New Jersey on the Senate Judiciary Committee, good luck tomorrow. Thank you very much. Thank you, very much. Senator, thank you for being here. So my pleasure. Thank you. And thank you to our audience for being here. You're on LegalAF, the podcast.

This is the midweek, so many different ways to help us. One of them is to download the audio of this show. That helps. It certainly does. So we gave you a little reminder on how to do that. Legal AF, the YouTube channel that I curate. We put about 10 or 12 videos up every day. We're trying to really build and strengthen our audience.

Free membership over the summer. as we turn into November and the midterm, so important to have the largest audience possible at the intersection of law and politics. Legal AF substack, where I do a live report every day, sometimes with guests, sometimes on my own, and then another 10 or 12 pieces of content that I think you'll appreciate, including all of the filings, all of the orders. We talk about Judge Williams' order in Miami. It's there for your reading pleasure, so many different ways to support what we do. And we got sponsors, which have been with us, Some of them from the last six years.

Some of them have just newly joined. Jordy puts them together and Karen and I put our thumbs up. And here's a word from our sponsors. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers and scammers and hackers? But you're not sure what? Well, here's what you do. Go to www.w. org.com slash legal AF and enter code legal AF.

You'll get 20% off, Delete Me. Delete Me removes your personal information that's being sold on. I googled myself, and I was surprised to find just how much of my personal information was out there. Privacy is really important to me, especially with an active YouTube presence, so I like having a service that helps remove my personal information from hundreds of data broker websites instead of trying to do it myself. It's also reassuring that Delete Me was named the top pick for data removal services by wirecutter. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me.

Now, with a special discount for our listeners, get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join deleteme.com slash legal AF and use promo code legal AF at checkout. Now, the only way to get 20% off is to go to www. www. JoinDeleteMe.com slash legal AF and enter code legal AF at checkout. One more time, www. Join DeleteMe.com slash legal AF code legal AFF. Feeling sluggish, bloated.

Not like yourself. Life bombards us with silent threats. Process foods, artificial light and modern stressors disrupt your gut and drain your energy and weaken your immune health. Your body isn't broken. It just needs the right inputs. That's why I've been using arm rock colostrum. I've noticed less bloating, steadier energy, and overall, I just feel more like myself. Arm rock colostrum is nature's original blueprint for health. Colostrum is packed with over four, 100 bioactive nutrients that fortified gut health, fuel fitness recovery, and strength and immune health supporting your best performance every day. Take back control of your health. We've worked out a special offer from my audience. Receive 30% off your first subscription order. Go to armr.com slash legal a.f or enter legal a.f to get 30% off your first subscription order. That's A-R-M-R-A.com slash legal A. There are so many things I love about being on the Midas Touch network and universe.

And one of them is Aeson, who is our clip artist, has already posted not one, but two clips of Cory Booker in the world of social media. It's they're already going viral. And they just happened. Like I just saw them like, wow, they're up already. I mean, so, so crazy. How delightful was it to have choreolatives? So delightful.

First of all, he was a great questioner today. I can't say the same for everybody. But asking questions, in fairness, is a hard thing to do, you know, as trial lawyers and as people who cross-examined people all the time. It is a hard thing to do. And to only have 10 minutes, I didn't realize they only had 10 minutes per questioner. But he's really smart. He's really thoughtful. and he really asked really important questions that didn't feel like he was just making speeches and

performing. He really was asking incisive questions. And then to have him on the show and that he is so delightful and lovely, I'm a big fan for president. I like Corey. I'm a big fan. I mean, when he's not rescuing people from, you know, motor vehicle accidents or giving filibusters that go on for days like Mr. Smith goes to Washington. He's just an all you know when you watch him he's he's a guy in person you want to share a beer with went to Yale law school he did a hunger strike in order to get um to bring attention to um urban development and other things in Newark New Jersey ran for mayor all that and and then of course he's now the senior senator after Bob Menendez stole all those gold bars in bribery he's the senior

senator from New Jersey at the age of 57 um he really is a gift a treasure for America he really he really is And we're so lucky that he's on our show. I don't know what's happening to the light. Right your arms are right. Yeah, I'm going to have to turn some lights on over here. By the way, I'm only laughing. Karen moved into a brand new office and she's and she was really, really psyched about it. But people that know, there we go, people that know me, they've, I once had the sun go down.

I remember. I was stuck in an alley of an old law firm that I was with. It was the only place I had an extension court. We started the show and the sun literally went down on me as the show continued. So listen, it's live TV, everybody. Exactly. In fact, put in comments, questions. We're going to answer a few of them in a moment as we turn to this kind of all-confirmation

hearing episode, including the Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, who got tripped up with a third graders question. Let me just go through some of the questions here. Karen, that you and I can answer. Brian Carter says, how can a senator, even a Republican senator, justify voting to confirm a nominee for AG, someone who engaged in fraud on a court and participated in a sham collusive lawsuit, referring to Trump versus the Internal Revenue Service and Judge Williams' 56-page order. One programming note, I had an interview today with Judge Michael Ludig, friend of Karen and minds,

and of our show, Judge Michael Ludick, who led the 35 judges who supported Judge Williams and filed their motion to get her to render this 56-page decision, ultimately. He's got some amazing things to say. I'm going to leave it at that as a little bit of a teaser. He'll be up at 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time on Legal AFU-2. What do you think about that question, Karen? Yeah, I mean, you know, it's, it's, you answer it, you answer it. I mean, I think it's a rhetorical question. No, I mean, under any other era,

Todd Blanche has more than a dozen black marks against him. Epstein, Jan 6, Weaponization Fund, vindictive prosecution, dismissals, grand jury abuse, the dismissal of indictments by the Department of Justice because they've had to admit to fraud and forgery and false testimony being suborned. everything about Epstein. Epstein files, the Epstein cover up, the cover up of the cover up. Any one of these black marks, one, a whiff of one, would be enough in any other era. But when you have the maga cult-like grip that Donald Trump continues to have on the Republicans, even the ones who shouldn't give a shit because they're going to be going to retirement homes next year when they leave,

And yet the siren call of Donald Trump pulls them in. And this is once again, so no, the answer is no. In the week leading up to just the week leading up to Todd Blanche is sitting in that seat. You had one judge, Judge Williams, say he committed fraud on the court and was deceptive and sent him for a bar discipline. Which he wouldn't even admit, by the way. I know. Yes, you've been referred. And there's a bar complaint against him anyway.

by 101 judges that filed a bar complaint. In fact, I'm having one of the leaders of that organization on with me tomorrow for an interview because it got cited by Judge Williams. It's all very circular here, very incestuous here. Judge Williams said, and you're already, there's a bar review, bar complaints at these different jurisdictions. So any one of these things would be a disqualifier. And this is, again, a reminder to our audience is why it's so important that this is a participatory democracy. see, it's a contact sport.

You got to get off the sidelines. You can't just say, I hate both of them. Fuck it. I'm not going to vote because you see what happens. Even if you don't like the candidate, and I don't even know who the candidate's going to be for the Democrats yet, and it's the midterm. It's person by person, right?

It's the entire House and half the Senate. You have to hold your nose and vote for the rule of law and vote for checks and balances and vote to control and out of control president. That's what you're voting for. And we can do it. The power, we, yes, we can, to paraphrase Barack Obama, yes, we can. If you give the Senate gavel over to the Democrats,

if you give the House gavel over to the Democrats in the midterms, good things, better things will come out of it, right, Karen? Yeah, including reforms to the Supreme Court, according to Senator Booker. I just, you know, it's funny. I texted his comms director first as we were doing it. I said, I'm taking Senator Booker up on that offer. She said, oh, he'd love that. And she already liked the fact that two clips are up in the world about him. Let me see if there's one more question here. Aside from Trump and Blanche, who has the power to send Maxwell back to hard prison?

Well, the Bureau of Prisons is under the Department of Justice. Plain and simple. By the way, typically the Bureau of Prisons is who decides where a person is house. It's not the judge. It's not the prosecutor. And I know this because. we go through this all the time as a defense attorney or as a prosecutor, you have no control over where someone goes. That is completely up to the Bureau of Prisons. But so the fact that Todd Blanche put his thumb on the scale, because the Bureau of Prisons didn't think to put Gilaine Maxwell into a camp, right? They hadn't, they just, they didn't decide to do that. This is something Todd Blanche as the head of the Department of Justice decided to do. I think she has a puppy. I read that she has a puppy.

or they bring puppies in. This is a convicted child sex trafficker. I mean, I wouldn't, I have a new puppy. I wouldn't put my puppy anywhere near her, you know, let alone the actual quid pro quo. The problem is, I'll just say it now that Senator Booker's gone. Other than Senator Booker, Senator Blumenthal, and a couple of other ones like Senator White House, the questioning got really bogged down, you know. But let me play you, for example, an extraordinary exchange with Senator White House,

who's been on with me before, who was a former U.S. attorney in Rhode Island, Sheldon White House, about Cash Patel. Cash Patel, when Lindsay Graham died, there were two reactions by Todd Blanche and Cash Patel. They were very different. Todd Blanche went, holy shit, I just lost the guy that was going to shepherd me through the process. and Cash Patel was like, because I was getting called into the White House that weekend to probably get fired. And yet there is Todd Blanche defending Cash Patel. Let's play the Sheldon White House, Senator White House clip.

How long do you intend to put up with that Cash Patel character? Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he's not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends? Are you sure he knows what you? he's doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee? That's an extraordinarily obnoxious question, Senator. And I have full faith in Director Patel and the work that he's doing every day. Great. You get to own that.

You get to own that. You don't even need the answers to these questions. It's not an obnoxious question. It's a setup for a, I thought it was great. And I applauded Senator White House. As people know I've joke, but this is true. Before he, I did an interview with him a week or so ago, I said, listen, you got to come out with hurting bombs against Splanch. Are you guys ready? Like, forget about the effin niceties. And I played him a clip from Rocky Balboa. Rocky's getting coached about how he, how he, at 60 years old, how he can defeat this much younger boxer. And it all comes down to you got to drop hurting bombs. You got to, you got to rock him until his ancestor shake. And Sheldon laughed. And then,

I thought he was powerful. But to answer the question that's come up in the chat, Popak and KFA, do you think Blanche gets confirmed? I'm back to where Karen started and where Senator Booker ended, which is I can't find the vote. If it's not court and it's not tell us, then it'll come out of committee. And if it comes out of committee, the Republicans have enough votes to get him confirmed. Yeah, it seems like that that's where this is headed.

And the scary thing is on paper, he's qualified, right? He's not like some of the other people that this administration has put up for nomination that are not qualified. On paper, he is, which makes him a little more dangerous, frankly, because he does know how to do things and he does know how the department runs and he knows what levers to pull. and the fact that he that he couldn't affirmatively or definitively say that he is going to not be Donald Trump's kind of attack dog and go after his personal enemies and work for the

American people. That was the thing that was most disturbing to me. And, you know, there weren't a lot of hard questions about some of the prosecutions that have been brought, you know, like the James Comey 8647 case. No one would ever bring that case. That's a ridiculous case for the Department of Justice. But his Department of Justice brought that case. Why was Marine Comey fired? Could have been a question that was asked. She, by all accounts, is an excellent, extraordinary prosecutor. In fact, she is the one who convicted Gilane Maxwell at trial. And so, like, there was just so many other questions that I think were left on

the table. It makes me wonder, given that they, and let me start by saying, it's hard to ask. questions, it's hard to cross-examine. And it's easy for to sit here and say, well, you didn't ask this. You didn't ask this. And so I have a lot of respect for the people who asked the questions, especially ones like Senator Booker. But I wonder why, given that they were only given 10 minutes each, why the Democrats didn't get together and divide and conquer and say, okay, I'm going to use, I'm going to use my 10 minutes and I'm going to focus on this topic. And that way I can get to the bottom of it because imagine only having 10 minutes to do your whole cross-examination of a witness you could never do it so you'd pick like a topic or an area and and and kind of divide it up like that so you can

really ask those extra questions and take it across the finish line like why don't we do that while you were while you were talking i wrote on my paper 140 which represents the 14 democrats and 10 minutes a piece, 140 minutes. And I was going to say, why didn't they and their staff come up with the hundred questions that they wanted to ask, assemble them, and then divvy them out for each person's 10 minutes so that they were cohesion and coherence. And they didn't, I mean, sometimes you have to not, look, you and I have done cross, right? There's the cross you walk up there with at the podium. And then there's the cross you actually do because you have to follow. And then there's the third cross, the one you wish you had done.

I wish you had done. Sometimes they line up. Sometimes they line up. But you can only go up with a rough outline because you have to go where the witness takes you. I mean, when you said it's hard to do cross, I'm sure you also love doing cross because that's my, that's the favorite part for a skilled trial lawyer is the crossing. Direct is interesting. Cross examination is where it's at, everybody. That's why we got into this business. So you and I, right, that's what they, but they don't. I think it's, I don't know why they don't. The next time we have Senator Booker on, we'll talk about that. So everybody kind of restarts and everybody wants to ask an Epstein question. Everybody wants to ask, as you said, a Galangor, an FBI question. And they should, they should coordinate more. But let's be

honest, they're all sort of, you know, big senators and they don't want to coordinate in that way. But they should. It would be better for the process and really, really extraordinary stuff. Let me. I want to just say one other thing that surprised me about this hearing. I was surprised with how much time the Republicans spent on Miffa Preston, the abortion drug. And because it just, the fact that they're talking about it in the context of a criminal, of criminal conduct, like having an abortion is criminal. It was so surprising to me that that was not, for example, being spoken at the health confirmation, right, of like Robert F. Kennedy, that this was talked about multiple times

at Blanche's confirmation, I thought was really surprising. They want to criminalize and punish people for accessing Mithoprestone in the mail. And they kept talking about, you know, one or two cases of someone being slipped this drug in, you know, by somebody, you know, slipped it in their drink or something. And they didn't know it and how terrible that is. But that's not that, that was the story that they used to kind of frame the issue. And when it wasn't that, it was Joe Biden, as one of our commenters said. We're back to Joe Biden again. I'm like, this is how you're going to, because most of the Republicans did not want to use their time at all to try to do anything to undermine Todd Blanche.

I mean, when John Kennedy from Louisiana asked the question, are you friends with him? He didn't expect the guy would slip up and say, I'm his personal lawyer. I'm his lawyer. That is not what he thought was going to happen. But the rest of them were like, how can we waste time? Oh, let's do Miffa Press Stone. Let's do Joe Biden. Oh, let's do.

Jack Smith. Let's go after Jack Smith. Why not? Anytime anyone asked about the slush fund and the, you know, the weaponization, the anti-weaponization fund, the 1776 fund, it would turn it around and say, well, well, Jack Smith started it. The Biden administration started it. Jack Smith invented the weaponization of going up here. I almost vomited. I was vomited listening to Josh Hawley.

Right? The guy that ran out of the back, you know, like got out the back and saved his skin during Jan 6 talking about, oh, my text messages. Oh, but you don't even know, he didn't even understand that's a subpoena that was against him. You know, oh, my metadata, oh, my text messages. I'm like, will you shut the F-I? Yeah, they were so, they, just for those who did, who didn't watch it, the Republican senators were more upset that they, that their telephone records and that their telephone records. were subpoenaed than they were about Epstein victims. 1,000 percent, right. And it wasn't even, I said text messages because I bought into their bullshit. It's not even text messages.

It was, it was like what you used to get on your own telephone bill. Remember when you used to look at your telephone bill? It said this, this call to this number for this many minutes and seconds, that's all you got. You didn't get who was on the other end, what the subject of the call was, why it was made. that's all they're there and they only did that because if they found a some sort of 20 minute phone call you know between this person and this person then they would go through the process but only then of doing a full investigation the um i thought senator blumenthal who we've had on the show before also did a very very good job and he at least brought up judge williams 56 page decision that just came out the other thing

that came out just an hour or just on the eve of this hearing was katy fang our colleague and public integrity projects, motion for contempt against Todd Blanche because of his mishandling of the Epstein files and him effectively telling Judge Sullivan in D.C. to go pound sand. I just had Brendan Ballou. It's a video that's up on legal AF YouTube today, the first video, I think, talking about those issues. So they had a lot, there was a lot of court rulings and observations to talk about. Let's play Senator Blumenthal. judge in Florida referred your misconduct. She concluded that there was misconduct and misrepresentation an improper purpose in that legal action to the bar of New York for potential discipline, including

losing your law license. I know you disagree with the result of the ruling. Has that kind of referral ever happened by a federal judge for an attorney general of the United States? I don't know, but I'll tell you something. That judge never asked us to respond. She never gave us an opportunity to respond to anything. And she didn't refer me. She just asked that a copy of the order be provided the New York Bar, because there are several activist groups that have filed complaints against me. So, so listen, I, as I said earlier, I think anybody on this committee, especially the lawyers that have practiced can read that opinion and reach their own conclusions, but I very much disagree with the judge's insinuations about me, and we're going to do what we can

to make that right. One last. He lied, let's just go over the lies. It's not activist groups. It's groups for good government and good lawyering that got together, including 101 former federal and state judges that filed a bar complaint where you and I are licensed, the Appellate Division First Department in New York against Todd Blanche, which was recited by the judge in her ruling. That's one. Two, knowing the case well, because I practice in Miami, and I know Judge Williams, they were given every opportunity to file or to intervene in the case. She said that the only parties in the case were Donald Trump and Trump's private lawyers,

even though the agreement they were using was also there on behalf of the Department of Justice and the IRS. At any time, in order to defeat her. order to show cause about whether fraud had been committed on her court, at any time, and we expected it, the Department of Justice should have filed an affidavit, along with Donald Trump's private lawyer, refuting those allegations or appearing to testify. But Todd Blanche has a dirty little habit. He refuses to testify in federal court. He barely wants to testify in confirmation hearings, but he certainly hasn't been testifying in federal courts, even if it means that the Department

of Justice is on the losing end of a court. decision. He didn't testify when he should have, and he was required to in order to come close to defeating the motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution, the Kilmer Obrigo-Garcia case in the Middle District of Tennessee. The judge effectively begged him

to testify, and he refused to do it. The Department of Justice lost. You and I could spend an entire show talking about all the times Todd Blanche should have appeared and or filed an affidavit. For him to say, we didn't have an operative, he's lying again, and the judge called, I hit the wrong, I hit my keyboard,

got so excited. The judge called him out and said, you are disingenuous to say that the court had no role in approving the settlement because I was standing by at any time for the Department of Justice to submit for my review the settlement agreement, which you did not do. This is a nasty little trick and habit of Todd Blanche. And the problem is you got Senate Democrats who have 10 minutes to try to do what I just did in three minutes. Yeah, that's why we have to get them to divide and conquer. Yeah, if you and I can accomplish that, it would be like the POPC, it would be the KFA POPU Rule. Just eight 140 minutes and divide up the hundred questions. Do that. Exactly, exactly. Right?

So when we come back from our next break, I want to talk about the, another confirmation hearing going on for the director of national intelligence, which is Jay Clayton, you and I know. Jay Clayton reasonably well from his time in New York at various stints, Southern District of New York prosecutor and SEC Commissioner or Chairman and all of that. But first, if you like this kind of content, which we do on Legal A.F. On a branded podcast every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time here on the Midas Dutch Network, you can help us by downloading the audio, even if you're a YouTuber like we are. You can go to the audio. It helps.

I won't go into the details, but the algorithms love the audio downloads. It's very analog. And so if you go there, use that. We made it easy for you. Scan the QR code in the top right and do that. Become a subscriber to Midas Dutch. Become a subscriber. It's for free to Legal A.F.

The YouTube channel would try it hard. We're huffin and puffin to try to get to 2 million subscribers by the midterm. I think we can do it with your help. Come over there. You might be thinking I'm subscribed. I assure you you you're not. If everybody was subscribed, he told me they were subscribed, we'd be at two million already. And it's important to the show.

It gets us great guests like Corey Booker and Judge Ludig and Danny Benske. You know, people don't turn us down because of the street cred we have. And because of the ethics and integrity that my co-host, Karen Freeman, Dignifalo, or my co-founder, Ben Myssalis, I think people understand we don't blow smoke or sunshine. And we tell the truth. And that's our commentary. You may not agree with it, but that is our best educated analysis. And we get to the root of the issue. We don't just do the top line of a story and then move on because it's, you know, because of the news cycle. We don't believe in new cycles. We create our own new cycles. And so substack, another place for deep dives into law and politics.

We're probably the number one law and politics substack out there with your help, become a member there as well. all the reading that you want to do, but other videos and new videos and new lives are there as well. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors in collaboration with Midas Touch. And let's take a break for them now. Everybody's talking about GLP-1s these days. But if you're looking for a natural alternative, check out our sponsor, Veracity. If your goal is weight loss, you need to try metabolism ignite. The number one recommended GLP-1 booster in GLP-1 alternative.

It has sold out 10 times for a reason. It's a natural safe plant-based aid with no allergens that's clinically proven to reduce hunger by 85% and help people lose on average 9 pounds in 90 days. Veracity is revolutionizing health by tackling the root cause, metabolism, with drug-free, clinically proven, doctor-formulated solutions. Veracity founder and CEO Ali Egan is a certified hormonal health coach. metabolism ignite contains lemon verbena and hibiscus extracts green coffee bean extract and magnesium it's safe to take alongside g lp1 medications and because it's made from 100% natural caffeine-free ingredients clinical trials showed no negative side effects so before metabolism ignite sells out again make the switch to g lp1's the natural way head to veracity health dot c o and you use code legal AF for up to 65% off your order. Once again, that's V-E-R-A-C-I-T-Y-Halth.C-O for up to 65% off. And make sure you use my promo code LegalA-F so they know I sent you. Have you ever actually looked at the ingredient list on your dog's food? After the first ingredient,

well, good luck. You see, Kibble is made using extreme high heat to keep its shelf stable and inexpensive. So brands have to add back synthetic vitamins and minerals in the form of strange chemicals whose names you don't understand and you definitely cannot pronounce. Is that really what you want your dog eating? Sundays for dogs is different. They start with more than 80% all natural meats and then finish with superfoods like kale and ginger and blueberries and gently air dries them instead of using high heat. Sundays doesn't look or smell like dog food. It looks like high quality, human-grade jerky, no fillers, no nutritional blends, no chemicals, just simple, complete nutrition. Founded by Dr. Torrey Waxman, Sundays was created to meet her high

standards as a veterinarian and as a dog parent. And the best part, Sundays requires no fridge, no freezer, no prep, no mess. You get the quality of a home-cooked meal with a scoop and serve ease of kibble. It's what dog food should have been all along. Over 100,000 dogs are eating Sundays, including mine, and the reviews speak for themselves, especially from owners of picky eaters who had never seen their dog get this excited about meal time before. Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to Sundays for Dogs.com slash legal AF50 and get 50% off your first order, or you can use code legal AF50 at checkout. That's 50% off your first order at Sundays for Dogs.com slash legal AF50. Sundays for

dogs.com slash legal a.f50 or use code legal AF50 at checkout. And we are back. Thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. One thing, Karen, we're not done with Judge Williams because Donald Trump's Department of Justice jumped up and down and said, oh ha, the settlement release that Todd Blanche entered into, the one that had the tail that Waggs the dog that we talked about with Senator Booker, which gives a release, a pardon, if you will, to Trump and his family and his affiliates for tax and audit liability, criminal liability, right? They jumped up and down and said, aha, she didn't say that was invalid because they're misconstruing one paragraph out of 56 pages and one footnote out of 56 pages where she said,

the issue of whether a Department of Justice can privately settle without the benefit of of a lawsuit and spend taxpayer dollars and give this level of immunity to a president and his family was not before me. What was before me is whether you can use, use a federal court and the legitimacy of a federal court to put a phony imprimatur on it. That's what was before me. So, you know, this is like dumb and dumber. You're saying there's a chance. And I had a local, a really well-known Miami lawyer, Andrus Rivera, on with me today with Judge Ludick to do the interview because he's local counsel in that case. And he said, they're not reading all the footnotes. And one of the footnote, the judge invited yet another motion to consider that issue as a continued

fraud on the court. So they, again, this is the gang that can't shoot straight in the Department of Justice. They're just going to fall into the mouth of Judge Williams all over again. They want an announcement that that settlement agreement is also invalid, she's willing to do it and is invited the judges to file a new motion. Yeah, it's amazing how footnotes is where you often get the most interesting points in a decision, right? Absolutely. So today, confirmation day, Jay Clayton, let's switch gears here, go to Jay Clayton. Jay Clayton, you and I know well from in and around New York, golf buddy of Donald Trump and Howard Lutnik.

I know that for a fact. head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. That was his dream job in Trump One. Never wanted to be the attorney general, which he was rumored to be in the first Trump administration, and at various times when there were openings. Never wanted that. He's a corporate transactional lawyer. He's not like a litigator. He's not a civil rights type. At least Todd Blanche, as you said by his resume, at least he was a prosecutor. At least he was ahead of a division, I think, at one time. But Jake Clayton is just, you know, good old golf country club Republican, actional guy and he didn't want to be attorney general. So he gets that job and does the job,

whatever Trump wanted him to do in the first administration. Then Trump's got so many problems in, especially in New York, in the Southern District of New York after they, over the Mayor Adams, dismissal of his indictment and the complete shredding of the entire leadership that walked out the door because of what Emil Bovi working under Todd Blanche did to destroy that office and the, and the reputation of that office, they had to shove Jay Clayton in to be the acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, which after the attorney general, what do you think, Karen, in terms of that before Trump, that position to be the Southern District of New York, U.S. attorney. Where did that fall in the hierarchy after being like the Attorney General?

Well, look, let's just say there's, I think, around 90 United States attorneys around the country. And among those 90 United States attorneys, the Southern District of New York is in the top three or four most prestigious, along with, right, along with the Eastern District of Virginia, Washington, D.C., maybe the Eastern District of New York. And those are really, but the Southern District is, is, they often joke that they're actually called the Sovereign District of New York because they're so kind of in a league. of their own, partly because Manhattan is their jurisdiction, and Manhattan is the financial capital of the United States and some would say even the world. And so their jurisdiction is all financial crimes that occur. And so that's partly why they've made this great... You've worked with them when you were at the Manhattan DA's office. Yes. Right? Yes. I've worked with them. They have an incredible reputation. And frankly, Jake Clayton had a

really good reputation. He's a really well-respected lawyer in New York, like Todd Blanche was, is. But it's like something happens to people when they go into the Trump orbit. It's so strange. I mean, this confirmation hearing today, I hope we're going to play a clip. He couldn't, let's play it. Let's just play the. Let me know. Senator Ostoff asking, Yes. Fourth grader social studies question. Just play it. To Jay Clayton.

Yes. Who won the 2020 election? You know, I'm not going to do this with you. This is a job interview. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes, you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes. Who won the 2020 election?

Like I said, I'm not going to get into that with you. But you do have. an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright? Yes, you're not being honest or forthright. Who won the 20-20 election? I think I've answered the question. We can keep doing this.

Well, we're going to keep doing it because you're not being honest and forthright with the committee. I'm not going to engage in the theater. It's a simple question, Mr. Clayton. And I've answered. Who won the 2020 presidential election? I've answered it. You're here asking for the support of senators. senators to lead America's intelligence community. We've established that you have an obligation

to be honest and forthright with this committee and with the American public, but you refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020 election. Is that right? No, that's not right. Then answer the question. Who won the 2020 election? I have answered the question. Answer it. What is your answer? I've given you my answer. What is your answer? You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's intelligence community? Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it? I think I gave you the answer.

are you aware that director gabber that was masterful that was that was that was that was masterful i love that i love that i love awesome look to get him on the show he's fantastic we will we'll reach out if anybody on this show is any of his handlers or bookers no give us a ring what i love about it is um it stands also in not in contrast because the same thing was happening you know dick durbin in asking Todd Blanche the same question. He said, this is a question that every third grader, if not younger, knows the answer to. And yet, there is just, you're in this orbit, as you put it, Karen, of Donald Trump and fealty to him where you feel you can't answer the question. And why it relates to the Director of National Intelligence, it wouldn't normally. The Director of National Intelligence,

to which 14 or 15 different intelligence entities, military and civilian, including the CIA, ultimately report. It was created after 9-11 because of lapses and coordination of intelligence. And so they made a director who sits over it all. It's normally outward-facing. The intelligence community shouldn't be spying on Americans, but it should be protecting the homeland through intelligence gathering. It doesn't normally have a role in U.S. elections, except the last DNI, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, which is a she had nothing else to do after they took away her remit and turned it over to the CIA director, she started showing up cloak and dagger.

Remember her with her Christy Nome action figure costume, you know, with the black hat and the pulled Fulton County, Georgia to make sure that voting equipment from 2020 was successfully seized and all this other thing. Isn't she the one that put the president on the phone with the agents who were seizing the machines right there? Yeah. So normally the DNI does not have a role in midterm elections, but we see in our audience is very concerned about all the different ways

that the Trump administration in Civil Rights Division, the Department of Justice, these are questions that didn't get asked today. Of Todd Blanche are going after voters, election workers, election equipment, the midterms, trying to federalize everything, database creation, and the rest. And so there is not in a normal world, but in a Trump world, there is a role for Jay Clayton, you know, being misused by Trump and him having to follow what are unconstitutional,

illegal orders. And all Asoff wants to know before he gets into the heart of the questioning is, can you at least show independence of thought and tell me who won the election? And rather than just say, I'm just, you know, they had to be prepared they were going to be asked this and just say, you know, President Biden was certified the winner of the election and move on. Oh, no. He had to come out looking like a total douchebag and demonstrate, Oswald did it so masterfully and demonstrate that this guy is as captured and a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump as Todd Blanche is,

as Scott Bessett, the Treasury Secretary is, as Howard Lutnik, the Commerce Secretary is, right? It was stunning to me, absolutely stunning. I couldn't believe it. Like you said, there's an artful answer that he could give that, that, you know, doesn't really answer it, but kind of answers it. But instead, he just looked, just, I don't know. I don't know how he looked, but it was not, it was not a good look. It was not a good look for a guy as you laid out.

You know, every sort of everybody likes and, you know, and oh, Jay Clayton. And the reason they trotted him out and they took him out of the job at this U.S. attorney's office is they thought, well, he'll be a good face for Donald Trump for DNI after Tulsi Gabbard made a shambles of it. And Bill Pulte, right? And Bill Pulte, the temporary part-time, you know, a political hack that's been running around trying to fire people. Now, the only person, I want to get your opinion about this, this is insider prosecutor stuff. So they nominate Jamie McDonald from Sullivan and Cromwell. Do you know Jamie?

No. To be the U.S. attorney. At least he's a real guy. I mean, he was a U.S. attorney. He was an assistant U.S. attorney. He's very well respected. You know, he served in an administration, a long time ago. Like, everybody likes Jamie.

And so it's so weird that Trump picked him because you think he'd pick another, you know, loser like he did in the Northern District of New York, John Sarkoni, or somebody else that has never been a prosecutor. But it's interesting that for the Southern District of New York, which is Donald Trump's backyard. He picked another legitimate guy. But as you said, that guy could be converted like that into some crazy zombie that follows Donald Trump and does unethical things.

It's surprising. Yeah. I don't know anything about him. So I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. Well, in your private practice, you may. Exactly. With all of that. So listen, this is a great show.

we made a decision that we curated it just to focus on the all important confirmation hearing. Programming notes for tomorrow, day two of the confirmation hearing, including friend of the show, Danny Benson, we're big supporters of her. She'll be testifying there, and Danny will be on with me next week on some version of legal AF as well, along with Liz Oyer, will be testifying. But Todd Blanche sitting in the hot seat is over, folks. But join us for the live stream tomorrow, 150,000. people joined us on Legal IF for today's day one coverage tomorrow the first video up on

legal a.F, the YouTube channel will be my interview with Judge Michael Ludig and Andres Rivera about their big win in front of Judge Williams, the 56 pages tear down of Todd Blanche, which will live on beyond this confirmation hearing, I assure you, as well. And then some other things that are in the Hopper, but so many different ways, Karen, for the audience to support what we do. Download. See that big thing up there, the QR code? Hit the download. That's audio downloads. Doesn't cost you a penny, but helps the show out immensely. Become a legal AF YouTube subscriber. Help us build a two million by the midterms. We will, with your help. It is the gas in the tank. It is the, it is what moves us and moves our engine and gets us amazing guests like Senator.

or Cory Booker, who came on the show today. And of course, we got Legal AF Substack as well, where you can see 10 or 12 great pieces of content, including a live feed that I do every day, sometimes with guests, sometimes without, all different ways to support what we do here on LegalAF. Karen Freeman, Ignifalo, looking spiffy in her new offices in Manhattan. If you want to know, do ethical, ethical, and a genius,

lawyers still exist in New York, they do in the embodiment of Karen Friedrichipelo. Give us your final thoughts here about what we observed. I just am so in awe that we got Senator Booker on the day that he had time after his confirmation hearing of the Attorney General of the United States of America and that he came on legal AF. I mean, it's just, it really is a testament to, and the fact that he listens to us, he said he kind of nerds out to us. And that just meant a lot, actually, that he listens to our show, that he thinks enough about our show to come on.

And he's such a just wonderful public servant. And really what I wish I had said to him was thank you for your service, Senator. So if you are listening to this, thank you, Senator. It was a true pleasure having you on the show. And I'm just kind of giddy. I'm just so happy he was here. Yeah, that's so great. And glad that our audience is here. Not everybody has to love Cory Booker. not have to love all of our guests or Karen or me, but, but, you know, there is power in our union and our being together here on LegalAF and the Midas Touch Network. So Saturday, tune in to LegalAF, the podcast with Ben Myceles and me, and then, of course, back again, midweek with Karen Friedmanick Nifalo. Thank you for being in here. Thank you for being so generous

with your time and with your support and sometimes with your money. If you do paid subscriptions, we appreciate all of it. So for Karen Freeman, Igniflo, Michael, Popak. Thank you for being here on Legal AF, the podcast. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.