Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode - 10/18/2025

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

As Trump fires weapons over California No Kings Day protestors, Ben and Michael Popok on the Legal AF podcast do a deep dive concerning: 1) the court cases involving the National Guard and the new E...mergency Supreme Court filing; 2) Trump’s violation of federal orders; 3) appeals courts ruling against Trump’s abuse of power; 4) the DOJ’s implosion and its impact on the prosecutions of FBI Director Comey, NY AG Tish James and Ambassador Bolton; 5) what Trump’s attack on patriotic Americans protesting his lawlessness says about the Republican Party; 6) what Trump’s letting fraudster and deviant George Santos go free sees about the soullessness of the MAGA party; 7) how quickly The NY Times will be filing a new motion for sanctions about Trump’s latest meritless defamation suit; 8) Why Smartmatic’s indictment means that Trump is helping Rupert Murdoch and Fox; and so much more at the intersection of law and politics. 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. Harrys: Use our exclusive link, https://harrys.com/LEGALAF, for a $6 Trial Set. Cornbread Hemp: Head to https://CornbreadHemp.com/LEGALAF and use code: LEGALAF at checkout Delete Me: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join https://deleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. Subscribe to Legal AF Substack: https://substack.com/@legalaf Check out the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:57 We've got a lot to discuss today on Legal A.F. Michael Popak and I are both on the West Coast where missiles are being launched over our heads by the Trump regime. Donald Trump has placed his Navy ships in the Pacific Ocean where they're lobbying missiles over the I-5 highway, as the Midas Touch Network reported earlier this week that that was the plan. Then the Trump regime denied it. And then there were people who were saying, fact-check time. let's fact check Midas touch and Legal A.F. The Trump regime says they're not going to do it.
Starting point is 00:01:30 So fact check, this is rage bait. We're like, you think it's rage bait? With the military invasions taking place within the United States, with ICE agents disappearing human beings, you trust Trump's word? We'll talk about that and more. I guess this is a nice segue to George Santos getting his prison sentence commuted. Yeah, just get everybody while you're at it. George Santos, I think is the appetizer to Geelaine Maxwell, who Trump is going to be gearing up to
Starting point is 00:02:00 either pardon or commute. Just wait for that one coming down the pipeline. Yeah, George Santos, let out of prison, free to go. I want to be very clear about what he was actually charged with. The dude stole people's credit cards. He stole people's identities, and he would swipe it to buy himself like clothes, and he would then misreport what was going on on his financial reports. he literally ran a theftoring. He wasn't charged for being a serial liar, which is just freaking weird that he lied about
Starting point is 00:02:31 his parents in 9-11 and everywhere he went to school and volleyball team. His whole past was like he wasn't charged with that as a crime. He was charged with stealing people's credit cards and identities as part of the campaign and buying himself crap. Talk about that and more. So as that was taking place earlier this week, you had Donald Trump's former National Security Advisor, John Bolton was indicted. We'll try to break down what's in that indictment. We'll go to the Eastern District of Virginia where that James Comey case is already kind of falling apart there. The prosecutors
Starting point is 00:03:02 are losing every one of its motions where it's trying to delay, delay, delay. Comey's like, show me the dirt, show me the discovery. We're going to see some bombshell motions there filed early next week, I expect, because the motions to dismiss our due. Comey's got his discovery now, I believe, over the objections. of the Eastern District of Virginia. Speaking of Eastern District of Virginia, we'll talk about some of the fallout as lots of those prosecutors who did not want to bring charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who's also being tried in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Starting point is 00:03:37 More prosecutors being fired there. If we have time for it, we'll talk about the Smartmatic indictment as well. And briefly touched upon the New York Times defamation case, frivolous case by Trump, being refiled after the judge said this is the stupidest case. ever seen, frivolous, vexatious, et cetera. Let's bring in Michael Popak who's on the best coast, the West Coast. Big interviews today out there. Popak, great seeing you. Yeah, great seeing you. I had a great interview with Attorney General Rob Bono. We talked about the missiles flying over I-5. We talked about the cosplay counter-programming that Donald Trump is trying to do. They've got this all
Starting point is 00:04:14 choreograph. They've tried to make our followers and listeners and those that believe in democracy, trying to make them out to be anti-patriotic against America when all they're doing is expressing their First Amendment rights of free speech, freedom of association, and to demand a redress of their grievances to their government. We fight, I know we will win, but we have to stay engaged and active. Democracies die in the dark with neglect and with apathy. They thrive with engagement and participation and advocacy.
Starting point is 00:04:44 So we have to stay focused. And just remember three things are really important. Courts, crowds encourage. are where AGs and others are going to achieve justice and hold an unlawful president accountable and make sure we block unlawful actions. Crowds is what is happening today when people power is on full display. We're demanding of our leaders because we are their bosses, what they must do and rejecting what we will not accept. And then courage is important. It sounds obvious, but with all of the intimidation and the bullying and the targeting, literally the political persecutions and
Starting point is 00:05:16 political prosecutions, some people want to keep their head down and don't want to speak up and don't want to speak out and don't want to rise up. But it's important that we do, that we have the courage to fight for the founding principles of this nation, our democracy, our rule of law, rights and freedom, separation of powers, checks and balances, and no kings, no tyrants, no monarch. 61% of this country does not agree with Donald Trump and has rejected Trumpism and it's driving maga mad and instead they stand up with their their palm cards and their scripted cards and all if you just if we just had clip after clip after clip after clip starting with caroline levitt to the treasury secretary to the speaker of the house all saying that the democratic party we can't
Starting point is 00:06:01 we can't sit down for this anymore this attempt at rebranding this party a rebranding fair-minded people as being you know who's going to be on the streets those 10 million people on the streets today for no king's protest it's all Hamas terrorists it's all radical left marxists it's all illegal immigrants and try to say it's unpatriotic if that's the case then we got to start using that vocabulary to brand and rebrand as we do every day the republican maga party they are a party of sexual deviants they are a party of sexual predators they are a party of child sex molesters they are a party of sexual abusers. They are a party of fraudsters. They are a party of convicted felons. That is their party. And the fact that we're not willing, and I don't mean my distutch in legal
Starting point is 00:06:52 AF, the fact that we're not willing to use and engage in that dialogue to try to rebrand a failing political party, which is all that we're watching, you know, we have to start upping our game. And we have to start taking it to them and using things like a George Santos commutation of sentence and wiping out of $350,000 worth of restitution for a set of crimes, Ben, that he admitted, he confessed because he pled guilty. Some people are like, was there, I don't remember that trial. There was not a trial. He pled guilty to it. And to have everything we need to know about that. And as you said, the Galais Maxwell, what's going on in the streets in Illinois, in Oregon? This is all a reflection of a depraved, soul.
Starting point is 00:07:40 soulless party, and we have to hold them accountable. And I've had it. And that's why the interview today in real time, in real life, with Rob Bonda, the Attorney General for California, where we talked about the missiles over California and Camp Pendleton and shutting down of I-5 as a show of force about a video that they're not even producing until the middle of November. Did anybody think that this is just happenstance that on the day of No Kings Day, J.D. Vance and Hegstaff, they're doing a review of the troops and the Marines
Starting point is 00:08:14 and an amphibious assault presentation on the Day of No Kings. And this just emboldens our audience. You're fired up this morning today. I'm fired up today. And here we are. Absolutely, Michael Popock. And we'll get into all these cases, all the updates. You know, I'm not trying to be like whiny about like, well, why are people saying that Midas Touch was rage baiting when we reported on the fact that the I-5 was going to be closed and that the missiles were going to be shot over the cars. And when we reported this on Wednesday, we got a lot of grief from this reporting. And not from just the MAGA people, like from people who you would expect, you know, would be sympathetic to the message. Why would you rage bait? They're not going to
Starting point is 00:08:59 do that. And I said, they're going to do that. All my sourcing tells me they're going to do that. Yeah, but Trump and the Marines are saying, I'm like, how in that? this day and age in October 18th, 2025, are you saying Trump and the Marines said they lie about everything? There's military invasions of blue cities using the National Guard from red states. Like, what world are you living in? ISIS disappearing people off the street and throwing them into concentration camps. You look at alligator Alcatraz. What was the number? Like over 1,200 people or so were like missing? We don't know where they are. They could be dead. They may be deported. Who the hell knows? You've got people, we've got the war crimes taking place in plain
Starting point is 00:09:43 view as these fishing boats are just being blown up where a four-star admiral resigned one year into the three-year tenure as the head of Southern Command, which never happens because there's war crimes taking place in plain view. So perhaps rather than getting angry at the article and calling it rage bait you focus your rage on what's happening in the country to this country and who's the one doing it to the country as the expression goes don't shoot the messenger you know we're just trying to give you the right and accurate facts let's get into those right and accurate facts michael popock let's tie this to all together right from the outset because we could talk about what's going on in the united states supreme court and there the trump regime filed an
Starting point is 00:10:33 emergency stay application because it says that under Donald Trump's essentially plenary authority. It's basically the argument that's being made. Courts should not have the right to question if Donald Trump believes there's an insurrection or a rebellion or if there's the need to put National Guard and military into states. They've really kind of moved past the argument, Popak, that, yeah, we're just trying to guard federal buildings and we're being serving. about it. What they're saying in this stay request to the Supreme Court and the state of Illinois has to respond on Monday, right, is Trump saying courts do not have the right to question anything I do. And Supreme Court, you need to stay the decision by the district court in Illinois,
Starting point is 00:11:22 by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal where there were two GOP judges, one Trump appointed, one George H.W. Bush appointed and Obama, who all agreed, Chicago's not. not a war zone. Just because people are protesting, that does not make it into an insurrection. You can't make up your own facts. And Trump's argument, I'll toss it to you, Popak is, yes, I can. I can make up my own facts. And it's also in response to the ruling that we saw basically in Portland, Oregon, where the Trump appointed judge there said, you're making up fake facts. What you're saying is happening in Portland isn't. We have people in Portland who are dressing up like frogs mocking you at this point and other, you know, and furry animals, like mocking you
Starting point is 00:12:08 people are roller skating in circles. It's not a war zone. You can't just say war zone. And Trump's argument, I'll toss it to you, Popak, is I can. I can. My reality, Trump's argument, in the brief when you read it, my reality is the reality. And courts cannot come up with their own reality, which is the actual reality. That's dystopian, Popak. Talk about that. And then maybe you pivot there into talking a little bit about Santos. Can you weave that? Can you weave that? That's quite a weave, my friend.
Starting point is 00:12:40 That is a Afghan I'm not familiar with. All right, in 10 minutes, there we go. Let's start with what's going on, because I had a lot of information that I obtained today in the interview that we live stream. First live stream we ever did on Legal AF, the YouTube channel, a live stream while I'm here in California at an event. We had Rob Bonta, the Attorney General, talking about the National Guard and what's happening in, you know, we got three pieces here. We've got the Ninth Circuit, the Seventh Circuit.
Starting point is 00:13:13 We've got Oregon, California, in Illinois. And now we've got the emergency application, not from Oregon or California rulings against the Trump administration, but from the Seventh Circuit, Illinois ruling against the Trump administration. And what judges are struggling with is giving Donald Trump and the presidency a level of strong deference about certain aspects of his power, but not deference on facts. Deference because the Supreme Court has said it, because the Ninth Circuit has said it. And so other courts are mimicking it, which is, well, in the area of kind of this quasi-foreign policy, it's not, foreign policy you're on the streets of america uh this quasi military policy why is the commander in chief turning turning cannons towards his towards americans that's a posse comitatis act but they seem to get wrapped around their own axle the judges i mean uh federal trial judges up to
Starting point is 00:14:14 appellate judges about how much deference to give to the the power of the presidency in this area and where they where they struggle is how much deference they give them about facts on the ground in real life and is Donald Trump allowed to point to a guy and a frog in a chicken suit and say that's a rebellion or along a continuum when there was things going on let's say in Portland where cars were set on fire back in June but now you've got 30 people chanting in front of an ICE detention center and no impact on federal enforcement of the law is this a rebellion or domestic violence that's making it impossible for the president to exercise the federal law or not.
Starting point is 00:15:02 What's interfering with it? In fact, in the Seventh Circuit, they pointed to press releases from the Department of Homeland Security itself touting Operation Midway Blitz's success. Despite the protest, we're picking up thousands of people on the streets. And the judges said,
Starting point is 00:15:18 where is your inability to execute federal law when you're bragging about how well you're doing with the operation. Yes, there's peaceful protest on the streets. Yes, occasionally it turns violent, but that does not a rebellion make. And the R word, we're just Republican here, the R word of rebellion is a driver for whether a president can commandeer the state militia, the National Guard, whether he can federalize them, whether he can, they use the term mobilize, which is a little bit weird, mobilize them. And now where the Seventh Circuit and the Ninth Circuit have left it, is that you can mobilize, meaning you can take over the National Guard for now because
Starting point is 00:16:01 that's sort of the status quo because you did it already, but you can't deploy them. Stay in your barracks, keep them off the streets. Now, at the Ninth Circuit level, we're waiting on a ruling any minute now. That's not just to warn our audience, not going to be great because I listen to that oral argument. And, you know, what's the old joke? How many Trump judges does it take to screw up constitutional democracy, two. So two out of the three judges were Trumpers. And they gave a lot of grief to the Oregon position about, well, things might be better now, but they were terrible in June.
Starting point is 00:16:38 So why can't the president send them in now? I mean, it's just totally buying the Trump argument. So I think that's going to be a ruling in which they're going to allow, like in California, the actual deployment of troops in Portland to guard federal detention centers. facts on the ground matter and deference to those facts matter. In Illinois, all the judges that have looked at it have said, we do not have an outside invasion of another country, that as well hasn't come to Illinois. We don't have rebellion and we don't have your inability to execute with regular forces, the law of the state. In other words, blocking, it's not stopping them
Starting point is 00:17:15 from detaining, arresting, detaining, and processing people. So that John Sauer, Donald Trump's appellate lawyer didn't like. So they decided now is our chance on a administrative stay at the Seventh Circuit. We're going to take an emergency application up to the United States Supreme Court. Now, that was already a day ago. As of our tonight podcast, they have not yet, the Supreme Court has not yet blocked the Seventh Circuit and allowed for the deployment on the streets of Illinois the federal troops. Fast-moving story. Stay on Legal AF YouTube and LegalAF Substack Live, where I'll do updated reporting as we learn more, but as of now, that hasn't happened. Not saying it won't, but it is now the first time in two months or so that the Supreme Court
Starting point is 00:18:00 has at their doorstep this decision about Donald Trump's use of the National Guard to try to take over blue states and violate their state sovereignty. And yes, every time, as you said, Ben, in every case, regardless of the subject matter, Donald Trump starts off singing from the same page of the hymnal, which is, judges, I don't know why we're here. You can't review anything that I do. If I say it's a rebellion, it's a rebellion. If I say it's an enemy incursion, it's an enemy incursion.
Starting point is 00:18:29 If I say it's a war, it's a war. And you guys can't do anything about it. Are we done here? No, sit down. We're not done here. Every judge that's looked at it has said we get to do oversight. There's certain deference we have to give you. But even giving you, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh,
Starting point is 00:18:46 deference the strong deference you know we still have oversight as to whether this is being done in good faith or not and whether the facts really merit what you're saying and so that's like the first issue is whether judges and that's what the Supreme Court's going to have to take a stand on about whether judges have that right to interpret statutes which is what their job is or not so you know and this is what banta was great because we also talked about how things that Donald Trump is doing facts on the ground that he's doing in one state is helping their argument at the ninth circuit i mean in the we still have an appeal at the ninth circuit about california uh and in that one you know they said well we need all those troops we got to we got to take them away from all
Starting point is 00:19:31 of their their national guard duties we got to put them on the streets to protect federal property in california and then he took 200 of them and sent them up to oregon or into illinois so you know that was bant was like that's a gift that way we brought that now to the attention of the appellate courts there. So we're going to have to follow here. But this is all coming quickly, Ben, for our audience, to a head here about this use of the National Guard. Let me just put this in last perspective
Starting point is 00:19:57 before I do something with Santos. I'm going to spare me Santos. Spare me Santos, and maybe I'll take a little bit. All right, okay, fine. That's fine. Let me just make one comment. Everything that we're watching, I'll put this in historical and Longview perspective.
Starting point is 00:20:13 Everything we're watching, this phony national guard, rollout that's costing the American people billions of dollars. Just got new reports, for instance, that Christy Nome is spending $200 million to buy Gulfstream G5 jets so she can run around in luxury with other leaders of the Department of Homeland Security to go stand on top of buildings and look at chicken suits. That's what they're doing with your taxpayer dollars during a shutdown. The billions of dollars they are spending on this National Guard cosplay, $200 million.
Starting point is 00:20:46 at least in D.C. alone, to pick up litter, to stand in front of a building, and to do local law enforcement is nothing more than an attack on and trying to undermine and crush the second party in this country that's currently out of power, the Democrats, and undermine their brand. That's all we've been, when people are wondering, I wonder why we're seeing this, the indictments of Democratic leaders, the investigations of Democratic leaders, the attacks on the icons of our brand, going after the brand, recasting the brand as being made up of terrorists and pedophiles and the rest. This is all Donald Trump's effort, like any good dictator,
Starting point is 00:21:27 is to try to crush the other to have one party rule. And that's where he's going. That's why he's trying to embarrass Gavin Newsom, although it's backfiring, or J.B. Pritzker, it's backfiring, or Letitia James. This is what we're watching. And we need to call it out and train our fire on it. in order to regain the narrative and start making,
Starting point is 00:21:51 we now have to pivot as a group of people to start making our case to the American people for the midterms. And it starts now, not six months from now. It starts now. Take our first quick break of the show, a reminder. Michael Popock has started his own law firm, the Popock firm.
Starting point is 00:22:07 Check it out at thepophofirm.com. Or call 877 Popok AF for you, if anybody you know, has been injured in a car accident, a trucking accident, any type of negligence where you're the victim, wrongful death cases that, you know, people may be involved in sexual assault or sexual harassment cases. Go there. Popat's got a team of people. Pick up the phone. Live people will let you know what's going on. The consultation is free. The Popok's representing a ton of people from Legal AF.
Starting point is 00:22:31 So give them a call. If you think that there's a case, if you have a case, give them a call. Check out the LegalAF substack. And also check out the LegalAF on YouTube channel. Both are doing great. Make sure you subscribe to all of the Legal AF channels. First break, of the show. We'll come back. We'll talk about George Santos. We'll talk about John Bolton. We'll talk about New York Attorney General. Lettisha James. We're talking about more firing at the Eastern District of Virginia. In other words, we've got a lot to talk about. You think you can handle it Popock? Of course, he can. He's Michael Popock. Let's take up for a quick break of the show. Life's been, well, a little crazy lately. And one thing that helps people unwind, cornbread,
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Starting point is 00:25:29 Again, that's try miracle.com slash legal a.f to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle Made, for sponsoring this episode. Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all of our sponsors. All right, we got a lot to discuss Popak. Let's talk about George Santos having his sentence commuted. In other words, gets to leave prison. He was sentenced to 87 months. He pled guilty about about about about a year ago. And what he pled guilty to doing was some really bad crimes. I want to make the distinction here. Yes, he's a massive liar. He's lied about where he lived, where he was born, the job that he had, the schools he went to awards that he won, everything, his parents were in 9-11, like literally everything about the guy's life is a lot. That wasn't the crimes that he committed. Arguably, some of them may have been, but that wasn't what he was charged with. What he was charged with was part of his serial lying and theft and stealing was he would take his donor's credit cards and he would swipe them for his own personal well-being. He would literally do credit card theft and identity theft.
Starting point is 00:26:37 and he would take the person, let's say they were a donor, and he would steal their money. And then he would buy himself outfits and pay his rent. And he made a living off of literally robbing people. That's what he was criminally charged with. So I don't want people to get confused about, well, why is lying? Lying is bad, but that's not what he was actually charged and pled guilty to. And there was so much evidence there against him. He was charged in the federal courthouse in Long Island, Central Isolate.
Starting point is 00:27:08 These are real serious crimes. But, you know, he's this ultra-maga guy and he's saying, Donald, I love you, I'm going to do all of your bidding. And part of, I think, commuting the sentence of George Santos is also Donald Trump just saying, laws don't matter. It sends a broader message outside of Santos. It's Trump saying, I'm the law, I'll do whatever the hell I want. Look, I'll do George Santos. I'll do Gilane Maxwell. look christie noem can have a hundred and seventy two million dollar private jet it doesn't matter you the
Starting point is 00:27:37 american people i don't work for you okay you are basically you know you know eight not even a second you all are the pawns in all of this i'm going to focus on my triumphal arch and golden ballrooms and ufc fights in front of the white house and i don't care about you i don't care about the legal system I'm going to do things that show I, my level of disdain for the DOJ will be shown as, look what I just did for George Santos. Look what I did for the January 6th insurrectionist. Michael Popock, I'll bring you in right there with that intro right there. I don't think there's much more that needs to be covered on Santos because I don't want to give him that much attention. Well, you know, there's broader principles.
Starting point is 00:28:23 Yeah, I'm into the broader principles. This is a crucible of the depravity of the Trump administration. And you're so right. He lets it slip out all the time. And he was talking about his, get ready, folks, while he was pitching his, and if you listen closely, you're going to hear Ben's head explode. When he was talking about his ballroom that he's building off the White House and had all the donors there for it.
Starting point is 00:28:45 And he talked about the triumphal arch, like the arch in Washington Square Park or the Arc to Triumph, that he's going to build near the Lincoln Memorial with, I don't know whose money, I'm sure, in violation of some, law, he said, when they said at the end, because the architect for the triumphal arch said, this is a testament to all people and to unity and to justice, you know, because he understands as an architect, its placement would be so close to Lincoln Memorial. And they said, a reporter asked the question about that, about what the, what the designer of the arch and what his comments were. And he said, no, it's, Trump said, no, it's for me. I mean, he just,
Starting point is 00:29:28 just says out loud every and we can't we can't fault him for saying out loud as you said in the past exactly what he's going to do at any given moment and then does it we've said he's going to pardon galane maxwell is this the is this the starter kit for it probably um because he sees that there's no political fallout he thinks there's no political fallout for what he did what he does of course the polls take something quite differently and i think we're able to take the George Santos commutation of a sentence, which is another Ed Martin special. Ed Martin, the director of weaponization for the Department of Justice, who's leading the charge against Letitia James, who will update later, who's really the shadow attorney general.
Starting point is 00:30:13 He's the henchman in the trench coat who's doing all of Donald Trump's bidding. You want a political enemy gone after boss? I'm on it. You want to partner, commute the sentences for people like the Jan 6th insurrectionist or George Santos or Galane Maxwell. I'm on it. Keep an eye, as we will, on Ed Martin. Eagle Ed Martin. He's going to be the one the conduit through which Galane Maxwell is ultimately pardoned. And he just wiped out and then bragged about it on a social media post, Ed Martin, almost $350,000 or more of restitution to victims of Santos. And how did Santos get out? Because he's been writing these sobbing reports from prison for some Long Island newspaper. You're from Long Island. You ever hear of this South Shore Press? Some South Shore
Starting point is 00:31:03 Press decided to let him spill ink and spill tea about his time and solitary confinement. Lord knows how they get those articles out. And Donald Trump and Ed Martin read him. And he wrote a letter and said, human dignity, you know, the human dignity that's being deprived of people who are protesting on the streets, the human dignity that's being deprived of people who are migrants, who are entitled to due process rights. Human dignity demands that any human being that's in prison be given a certain about, and Donald Trump goes, you're right, and I have a way to get back of the Democrats. I'll tie it to Richard Blumenthal, a senator in Connecticut about his puffed-up Vietnam service or no, oh, you know, he's a rogue. And I love this. You hear it in
Starting point is 00:31:45 Don Jr., you hear it in J.D. Vance. You hear it with Donald Trump. You talk about grabbing a woman by her genitalia. It's harmless locker room talk. Young Republicans, which is a misnomer. It's people up to 40 years old who use racist, misogynists, use the N-word, you talk about exterminating Jews, celebrating Hitler, raping women, all show up in text messages. And J.D. Van says, boys will be boys. Boys? Well, first of all, they're 40-year-old men and women, including lawyers. And everything is just written off as, and Donald Trump calls George Santos in his social media posting. He's a rogue. Well, there's been a lot of rogues like Donald Trump. When you have a criminal, felon, fraudster, sexual abuser in chief, that's the output. You get the
Starting point is 00:32:42 George Santos and the and the Galane Maxwell's commuted. And this is what the messaging needs to be for the Democrats. Whenever they stand before cameras, whenever they stand, they get interviewed here on Legal A.F. This is the messaging. This is the party that people will be voting for with our next of their name from now until the midterms and special elections along the way. And it's time for the silent majority that makes up the 61% that don't like and hate Donald Trump that are with this year on legal AF, it might as touch. It is time for the silent majority to be silent no longer and to be heard. Michael Popock, I'm going to ask you to do a weave right now. You think you can handle a good old-fashioned Virginia weave?
Starting point is 00:33:28 I can. Let's do a good old-fashioned. A lot going on in Virginia, and then we'll take it in Maryland afterwards. But let's start with the good old-fashioned Virginia weave. The firings in Virginia relating to these indictments, particularly New York Attorney General Letitia James, but also tangentially related to the Comey case. You have the Comey case moving along on that rocket docket in federal court
Starting point is 00:33:52 in the Eastern District of Virginia. the prosecutors, I guess, who picked the short straw from the North Carolina federal district who are parachuted into Virginia. I'm not sure if they fully knew how bad that Comey case was going to be for them and their careers, but they've been begging the judge, could we have a delay? We don't want to turn over the discovery right now. We need some more time, Judge. The judge basically has been rejecting the Trump prosecutors over.
Starting point is 00:34:20 Now you filed this case. You get ready. And Comey's won most of those motions. So why don't you start by talking about the Comey motions? Why don't you talk about the firings related to New York Attorney General Letitia James? And then if you want to weave a little bit up north to Maryland, you can do that. You can do that and talk about what's going on with John Bolton there where he was charged in the Maryland federal court. They can handle it.
Starting point is 00:34:41 Take I-95 right from Virginia to Maryland or back. Let's start with. Unless missiles are being shot over it like in the West Coast. Trust me. I mean, I almost thought I was going to have to do this podcast tonight from a bomb shelter. You know, you're literally there where the missiles are being. Seriously, I'm in San Diego. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:58 Right near, right near Quantico. All right. So I'm weaving, I'm weaving. I'm weaving. Eastern District of Virginia, once proud member of the U.S. Attorney's Office, it was actually one of the first federal districts created in 1780 and 87 or 1789, and is now incompletely has been set aflame by Donald Trump, who is demolishing with a with a wrecking ball, the Department of Justice, its leadership.
Starting point is 00:35:25 He's installed synchofance and shadow attorney generals like Ed Martin. Lindsay Halligan has apparently decided that she's going to side with Ed Martin. There's a war that's broken out between Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche on one side and Cash Patel, Ed Martin, and Lindsay Halligan on the other. Lindsay Halligan has decided to take a wrecking ball to the Eastern District of Virginia being manipulated, I'm sure, by Ed Martin. And now we've got the sixth or seventh major leader in the Department of Justice's office. in the Eastern District of Virginia being fired,
Starting point is 00:35:56 including one that I predicted. I thought every time I recorded about Beth, you see the major crimes prosecutor who let it leak that she was not going to recommend a case against Letitia James because there wasn't a case against Letitia James. As soon as we saw that and 72 hours later, an indictment that was obtained by Lindsay Halligan, I said, whenever I started recording about Beth,
Starting point is 00:36:19 I said, I'm not sure she's still there. We might have to update this on Legal AAP Substack Live. And now she and her number two have been fired from that office. That's a badge of honor, by the way. And I applaud, Beth, Usi for taking a stand against the depraved, retaliatory conduct of Donald Trump to go after his political enemies and critics. Comey, on tomorrow. No, sorry, Monday.
Starting point is 00:36:46 You know, when I'm traveling between the time zones and the days, I forget where I'm at, on Monday, there will be at least two, if not more, motions that are going to be filed by James Comey. How do we know? Because he said it aloud in court, and he made a court filing to tell us about one. One is going to be, I am sure, about what we call prosecutorial abuse, which is vindictive prosecution and selective prosecution about this case should never have been brought. Many of the things that have been turned over and have had to be turned over to the Comey side, the former FBI director, U.S. attorney, includes, and has to include, the interview notes of people like John Durham, the special counsel who for four years investigated everything related to James Comey and said, there's no case, and told that to the career prosecutors in the Eastern District before
Starting point is 00:37:36 Lindsay Halligan arrived. All that stuff, all of those interview notes and witness notes and things, all of that goes into the exculpatory pile that the Comey uses to prove that he's innocent if he even goes to trial. In the meantime, he'll use it to support his vindictive prosecution motion to the extent, I think that's why the judge forced them. They were asking for the Trump administration, like, we need more time. We need another week, another week. He's like, no. Motions are due on Monday. Your discovery is due here. You turn over your documents there, and we're going to trial on Jan 5. That's Judge Nakmanoff. That's it. We're going to trial, whether you like it or not.
Starting point is 00:38:17 And that's certainly what the defense wants to have happen. The first motion, that is the one I just talked about. The second motion is going to be a motion to disqualify or declare illegally appointed Lindsey Halligan as a U.S. attorney who's the only person to sign the indictment, therefore the indictment must fail. This is similar to but not exactly like what was used against Alina Haba that's going to be heard this week, or I think it's coming. up this week before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals about whether she was illegally appointed,
Starting point is 00:38:50 slightly different because how they were appointed was slightly different. But under the way that we believe in the argument that I'm sure we're going to see on Monday, the way that we believe Lindsey Halligan was appointed as the interim U.S. attorney for Virginia or Eastern District of Virginia, it's a single use. You only get one appointment for that. And then it goes to the judges of that particular district to pick the U.S. attorney until there's one that's confirmed through the Senate. They already picked one. His name was Eric Seibert, or Siebert, a conservative Republican.
Starting point is 00:39:25 Trump fired him because he wouldn't indict Comey and Letitia James. That's it. That was the one pick by Pam Bondi. Second pick goes to the judges. So they've already given notice last week, the Kobe side, to the judge. Get ready. We're filing this on Monday. and you're likely, you're going to have to send this to another judge outside of the Eastern District of Virginia
Starting point is 00:39:47 because everybody's effectively disqualified because they're going to pick, if we're right, the new U.S. attorney. So that process has, I assume, has already begun. It means when they get the motion, Judge Nack-Manoff is going to have to send it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge, Judge Diaz, who sits over Virginia. He then picks another judge somewhere outside of the Eastern District. of Virginia. It could be in Virginia, just not on the Eastern District, or in places like North Carolina, and he assigns it to that judge. Similar to what happened to Alina Haba, when her New Jersey motion got sent to the Middle District of Pennsylvania to be ruled
Starting point is 00:40:26 by a judge there. So this is all going down. I mean, they're going for the knockout punch early Ben with Halligan. And I don't know about any other indictments that have been coming out of there besides Letitia James and Comey, but certainly this would apply to anybody else that gets indicted by her. And the reason she's by herself is because no career, first of all, there's no career prosecutor left. They've all been fired or resigned at the top leadership of that office. And so she's left by herself. Even Ed Martin isn't sitting next to her. We don't see Janine Piro or anybody from D.C. flying down, driving down to help her.
Starting point is 00:41:06 she's completely by herself. So that's on the Comey side. And Popak, I'm going to throw her right back to you. But what's interesting, too, is that kind of makes her a witness, you know, in this. So, and we see how horrible she is in court. I mean, people who have described her in court. Rocking back and forth. I mean, like, she doesn't know how to talk in a courtroom.
Starting point is 00:41:29 So she could be put on that witness stand and be grilled about what did you do, when did you sign up, did you know this? did you read this did you were you authorized she gonna be on the witness then i just want to make that point no that's a very he's an idiot that's also very good i call her an insta prosecutor she spent more time in hair and makeup than she's ever had in a federal court let alone as a federal prosecutor so now she's got her hands full with letitia james because if you thought the comie indictment which nobody can understand or make eyes or tail out of and was um and then you have the letitia james one which had typos over it uh and uh and uh
Starting point is 00:42:06 Um, you already have the new reporting coming out where, and I just want to make sure people understand this, but Tisha James was indicted because she's a political critic of Donald Trump. That's the reason. That's what Rob Bontas said to me today during our live stream with, uh, with the attorney, as the attorney general of California working closely with her. This is, this is Donald Trump trying to round up his political enemies and critics. Get ready, Ben. And put them in prison, you know, um, as, as, as, as, as, is.
Starting point is 00:42:36 any good dictator would do. That's all that we're watching. Because when you look at the 30-year prison sentence that she's staring at and you look at the facts, she bought a second home that the bank that gave her a hundred grand for this very modest second home in Virginia that apparently she bought for family members knew it was a second home because she's the New York Attorney General. She hasn't live in Virginia. And so there's no, of course, fraud there. And then somebody, not her, likely a niece with power of attorney, checked a box that said she wouldn't be renting it out. Okay. And she's not renting it out. Family members are staying there. And that's it, folks. We got a mortgage fraud of epic proportion over $18,000 because Letitia James is big-hearted
Starting point is 00:43:21 and is letting her family stay in a house she purchased for them in Virginia. Now you wonder why Beth UC quit or effectively got herself fired for not bringing this. this case look there's a difference between and we'll get to it the bolton indictment brought by career prosecutors in maryland uh who checked all the boxes to at least get a legitimate indictment out against against bolton a investigation that started under the biden administration this is a biden prosecution if you will not a trump one that's different that that's that's completely different than this frame job against Letitia James that nobody would sign on to
Starting point is 00:44:07 and still haven't signed on to other than Lindsay Halligan. There's an arraignment coming up this week, middle of the week for her, for Letitia James. She's going to plead not guilty. Her lawyer is Abby Lowell. You and I are going to be taught. We could have a drinking game. How many times we're going to be saying Abby Lowell's name?
Starting point is 00:44:25 Because he's like the lawyer of choice for many targets of Donald Trump. he's representing Lisa Cook, he's representing Letitia James, and I think he's representing Bolton, right? So he's got them all. You know, he's got a trifecta there. So Letitia James arraignment, she's not going to be perp walked. I just, they're not perp walking anymore. I guess that's fallen out of favor.
Starting point is 00:44:48 And the east, then I'm going to take the, I'm going to take the car up to the Maryland, whole different set of prosecutors. At least this was career prosecutors who looked. at it and made it clear we knew coming in that based on the raid of his house and the pickup of all of his electronic devices, we knew weeks ago what the argument was going to be, that he had been keeping diaries, not just in writing, but electronically, that contained top secret and classified information even after he no longer had that clearance and shared that information, according to the indictment, with members of his family as a lead-up or ramp up to a book that he was going to write in 2020 called the room where it happens.
Starting point is 00:45:33 And they also cut and pasted in some emails that they showed to the grand jury that demonstrated that John Bolton knew and the people that received it knew that this was confidential information and should have been encrypted and they didn't do it and all of that. That is, you know, with 12 or 15 examples of when he, they didn't list it, but 10, because it's, you know, that wouldn't be appropriate on the public. for right now, but of times when confidential, you know, classified, even human intelligence information was shared inappropriately. How do we know about all this?
Starting point is 00:46:09 Because in paragraph 14 of the indictment, it says that while America was hacking Iran, we saw in their servers AOL emails and diary entries that they had obtained from John Bolton because they hacked John Bolton. John Bolton had confessed that he had been hacked to the government, but didn't say that he had been keeping a diary of top secret information. And so because we had that that was allegedly the delay in the indictment, they had to tell the Iranians that we had been here. So we were willing to compromise of diplomatic relationships and or our surveillance operations in order to indict John Bolton. Now, look, that's the indictment. The guy pled not guilty.
Starting point is 00:46:55 He said, you know, his lawyer's already, you know, on the, you know, on the. on the trail talking about, look, he's done with every civil servant who's been at the highest level of national security for 40 years has ever done. He kept diaries. There's nothing, he hasn't done anything different than anybody else. And just as a side note, before I shove it back to you, Ben, you know who is a notary, no, no, that's the right one. You know who is a, a well-known diarist? Joe Biden. Joe Biden had volumes throughout his entire career up on his shelf of like leather-bound, handwritten diaries, even towards the very end,
Starting point is 00:47:29 that he kept about all the rooms that he was in where it happened, whether he was senator or vice president or president. I mean, just copious, copious note taker. And it looks like, and, you know, yes, he got caught up in a couple of boxes that were in his garage or in his center that should have been returned or not returned
Starting point is 00:47:47 and all of that with the special counsel at the time. But this may be different in that, Joe Biden didn't digitize these things and like send it to people as he was writing a book. So look, as I've said, if John Bolton did something wrong and compromised national security, even though he's also a political enemy and critic of Donald Trump, then we're going to let the chips fall where they are, although it is suspicious that now they've gotten around to trying to chill his speech. What do you think about it?
Starting point is 00:48:15 I just think this, John Bolton is George W. Bush's guy. Like, let's not forget who John Bolton, not some liberal hero. or like, this guy was Trump's national security visor. This guy's a Trump was a trumper guy who was there. And he's like, man, I could really deal with George W. Bush. But when it comes to Donald Trump, this guy's like a total fascist. And they had a falling out. Remember how Trump says, I pick the best guys.
Starting point is 00:48:44 Like, I don't want to conflate like who Bolton is. I'm glad that Bolton was outspoken against Donald Trump. And I think that we should always have an open door to people who expose the criminality and the fascism that exists. But like, let's, I don't want to like make Bolton out to be like some, you know, some crusader for, for my worldview or perspective. So let me just kind of, you know, put that number one. And it seems that lots of Donald Trump's enemies are the people who like work for him, you know, who see his behavior. So let's just put that out there. But then I just think this is one of those situations where it's not like the Comey case and the Letitia James case.
Starting point is 00:49:29 I can say these are the dumbest cases, the most frivolous, the most vexatious, nothing there, and the government's going to get absolutely embarrassed. That's obvious. On the Bolton one, my view is, you know, Bolton wrote a book on this. Bolton is, you know, relatively, I would be surprised if he truly was kind of that sloppy where he was giving away things that were national security information. Just because of his history in the national security apparatus, to me, the fights Popak here will be over parsing was this, the Trump regime saying, no, this was classified and confidential
Starting point is 00:50:11 while they're out there posting videos of like, you know, Donald Trump's in the Oval Office saying the CIA's in Venezuela right now, okay? We're doing covert operations in Venezuela. He's out there saying that. So to me, what the case ultimately comes down to, and this is going to be a confusing one for the jury, I think, you know, and why, you know, I think Bolton will have good arguments here is I think Bolton's going to say this stuff's not like class of this.
Starting point is 00:50:39 This is not national security. information. This is not highly classified stuff. This is the type of stuff that I put in my book. So if I put it in my book, I could share it with my family. This is not to that level. But we'll see. We'll talk about that, you know, and we'll follow the case. But I draw a slight distinction between Comey's case and Letitia James case and this bolted case. All right, when we come back, though, we pretty much covered a lot of it, Popock. We've got a few more topics that we're going to be discussing the Smartmatic, New York Times. Let's take our last quick break, a reminder,
Starting point is 00:51:14 the Popock firm.com, check it out, or call 877 Popok A-F. If you or anybody you know has a case, if you've been in a car accident, if you've been in a trucking accident, if you know someone who was killed in an accident, sexual harassment, sexual assault victim, whatever.
Starting point is 00:51:31 If you think you have a case, call Popak. He's got a team of people across the country. Consultation's free. When they represent you, it's on a contingency, meaning they only recover if you recover. Check it out. Subscribe to LegalAF YouTube. Subscribe to LegalAF Substack. Both are growing rapidly. Last quick break of the show, home stretch, Popok. Thanks, everybody. We'll be right back. Delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance
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Starting point is 00:54:22 Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Support our sponsors. They help make this show possible. Discount codes in the description below. Jordi works really hard with them to get you those discount codes. Let's get into it. Michael Popock. Donald Trump refock. filed that case against the New York Times where the federal judge before sua sponte on his own said this is like the most frivolous case. What was different about that case? Then let's talk about the smartmatic and then we'll round it up there. But talk about New York Times. What happened? Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah, New York Times. We've been waiting because the judge took one look at the 70 pages, which was really just as one judge referred to it, a political screed, masquerading
Starting point is 00:55:01 as a lawsuit, forcing the judge to wade through all sorts of irrelevant. narcissistic comments about Trump's ego and the size of his landslide victory against Kamala Harris and all the movies he's ever been in and the fact that he really was a bigger star on celebrity apprentice than people give him credit for and the fact that his carpets and his rugs at Trump Tower really don't stink. I mean, just ridiculous slop. And the judge looked at it and said, this violates, and I predicted this one, I said, this violates rule eight. This is not a short and concise statement of your of your case about defamation let me just put it up on the on the blackboard here for our ted talk meets law school class that we do twice a week here
Starting point is 00:55:47 on legal a f on the podcast defamation requires that somebody say something about you that is untrue that a reasonable person would find to ruin your reputation defame you in the local parlance and for which you were damaged. And if you're a public figure like Donald Trump, the Trump side, the defamed party side allegedly, has to prove that the party that did it also did it with what's called actual malice. That's a defined term, a term of art that the United States Supreme Court has said that the person saying it has to know that what they were saying was not true or recklessly disregarded whether it was true or false. So you have to make that out in your complaint. I mean, I've been litigating and pleading in course in cases for
Starting point is 00:56:40 35 years. You've got to get the elements of your, the basic elements of your case have to be present in order for you to survive a motion to dismiss. Pardon me. And this is about it. I'm not sure the judge gives him another chance after giving him this chance to file this new 40 pages, which is no better than the original because it doesn't hit the elements. It doesn't show what's untrue and why it's untrue. It doesn't show. And when it gets to actual malice, I'm like, okay, here's the actual malice part. Where is it? New York Times doesn't like me. New York Times never liked me. New York Times has a policy of not liking me. I mean, I'm barely sarcastically paraphrasing. And I'm like, that is not going to survive a motion to dismiss.
Starting point is 00:57:23 So while they got rid of the original introduction, which started with Donald Trump was the greatest president ever and you got the most electoral vote, it was a landslide. He beat up common law hours. I'm like, what does this have to do? Half the time I go through the complaint, even this new one, and I'm like, what does this have to do with the case? There's actually a section then, maybe we can put it up on the screen in the complaint where he not only lists all of his ridiculous guest appearances in Home Alone 2, movies you've never heard of, sex in the city, and then actually waste the judge's time by giving him the YouTube location so he can hyper like he could click it and go watch Home Alone too with Donald Trump
Starting point is 00:58:08 in it. What's completely missing in the section about Donald Trump's reputation, which is ultimately fatal to his case ultimately, is any reference to the fact that he is, he's been convicted of 34 felony counts of crimes in New York, a company of his, two companies of his were convicted of 19 felony counts in New York. that he's gone bankrupt five times. He's been a judge to be a sexual abuser by not one, but two federal juries in New York. All of that, all he's indicted in multiple places, including in Georgia, all of that, which goes into a person's reputation, is completely ignored and substituted for he was at home alone too. Okay. And then when you look at the 13 or so
Starting point is 00:59:01 allegedly defamatory statements he never takes the time to tell the court how they're defamatory in what way how are they untrue so he has he spends a considerable amount of time because he's upset about it this is what this is all about don't trump's upset so he's going to file a billions of dollars of damages claim against the new york times um to get some political uh mileage out of it and he actually has a section where he doesn't like the fact that when the crew of the apprentice went to Trump Tower, they were struck by the stench. This is their words, of the musty carpet and how dilapidated Trump Tower looked when they were thinking this was going to be this opulent, wealthy, you know, trappings of success.
Starting point is 00:59:50 And it was nothing of, he hated that, the stench, the stench carpet, no, but he didn't even write, that's not true, that couldn't happen. He just said, these are the statements I think are not true. They're not true. Here's my reputation. I'm leaving out all the parts where I'm a criminal or I'm a sexual predator or I've been or women have accused me of attacking them. But my reputation is pristine and I've been damaged.
Starting point is 01:00:12 Look, I don't think the judge, Judge Meridae, who's Republican in the Middle District of Florida, is going to dismiss this one on his own initiative, on his own dime. But now the New York Times rubs their hands in government. because this is now what they're shooting at. And they've got amazing First Amendment lawyers. You and I know them well, that they're the go-to law firm out of New York that handles libel and defamation cases,
Starting point is 01:00:40 along with local counsel that I know in Florida, Gunster Yokely, very, very good. And they're now going to go in front of Judge Meridae, and they're going to move to dismiss this complaint and ask for it to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning we don't ever see it again. And the judge, having already given him one opportunity, he might give him one more opportunity
Starting point is 01:00:59 if he thinks certain things can be fixed or he may not. It's a little bit of a gray area. He certainly doesn't have to give him three opportunities. There's a little bit of a gray area with courts. Like, is one enough or is, I really have to give him to. I think this is it. I think if he, having given him the opportunity
Starting point is 01:01:17 and given him the guidance, the judge on Trump's lawyers, on how to redo their complaint. And now seeing this as the output, But I think he will eventually, over the course of the next 60 days-ish, he will grant a motion to dismiss with prejudice putting this case and the rest of America out of its misery. One final note, I looked at the lawyers that were involved in the case. He's got Alejandro Bredo, some guy in Coral Gables, it keeps filing these things for him. But then he's got a guy who lists as his, this is a federal pleading for the President of the
Starting point is 01:01:55 United States, against the New York Times for billions of dollars, and the lawyer lists as his address and his signature to the judge, a weird address in Florida that I looked up on Google Maps. It is a postal center mailbox inside of an original pancake house shopping center on Glades Road in Boccaratone, Florida. That's his office for official business. It's Box 3A inside of like mailbox America. I'm like, are you this? What is happening here? Nothing says quality lawyering like a mailbox at the original pancake cow shopping center. Popak, here's what I think's going to happen. I think the judge is going to actually allow leave to amend with the warning that they're going to have rule 11 sanctions. I think that they'll say, I'll give you one
Starting point is 01:02:48 rule, but you didn't cure it the first time. I'm warning you now that there will be serious sanctions. if you don't cure this. So either dismiss this case on your own or there will be, you know, Rule 11 sanctions. And I think that New York Times will file a notice putting the Trump regime on notice of Rule 11 sanctions. And for those, what that means is under the federal rules, any lawyer who puts their name to a pleading
Starting point is 01:03:13 verifies that they're actually asserting legitimate claims. And I think when New York Times is going to see it. And under Rule 11, there's a safe harbor provision. where before you basically seek these massive sanctions, you give the other party an opportunity to dismiss the case. And I think New York Times, well, if they haven't already sent a Rule 11 letter, they'll be sending one very soon.
Starting point is 01:03:39 And then I think they move for Rule 11 sanctions. Let's not forget that in the Southern District of Florida, Trump previously with Alina Habas's personal lawyer, who's now the unlawfully, I don't even want to call her. She's the federal prosecutor in New Jersey who's like basically, what's the word called Popak
Starting point is 01:04:03 when you're when you live in someone's house and you don't leave and you're not supposed to be? What's it called? Trust pass. It looks like a trespasser. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say. But she's refusing to leave. She's like refusing to leave the home.
Starting point is 01:04:14 Squatter. Oh, she's squatter. Yeah, she's squatting. Squatting. Just think they're squat. Trump has multiple federal prosecutors who are squatting, and they're not allowed to be there. They're pretending it's like Halloween that they're federal prosecutors.
Starting point is 01:04:28 Anyway, Alina Habba and Trump were sanctioned a million dollars for bringing frivolous cases in this federal court. Finally, Popat, briefly, briefly, briefly, because I know you've got to run in San Diego. So try to do it in three minutes or less. Smartmatic. I got to dodge missiles in San Diego. It's terrible.
Starting point is 01:04:48 Smartmatic, there's really two pieces to it, but I'll do it in under three minutes. minutes. Smartmatic has a very slow-moving lawsuit in New York, which is similar to the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit in which they recovered almost $800 million for defamation against Fox News. There's another one in New York about Fox that was filed at the same time. It's just how slow New York state court cases work. For those, I practiced in New York for 35 years. To me, it's no shock that they're just getting to summary judgment maybe in the first of the year after they can. And whereas there's already been a settlement like two years ago in Delaware,
Starting point is 01:05:30 Delaware moves at one rate, sort of like the Eastern District of Virginia, New York, state court moves at its own pace, doesn't matter who the parties are. There's been a bunch of, much like Virginia, there's been a bunch of documents that have come out in that case that we now have in our hands that show that people employed by Fox believed, as we all did and do, that Fox News run by Rupert Murdoch has been a propaganda machine for the Trump administration, and this is all around the 2020 period, as all that was coming out in an obvious attempt to help Rupert Murdoch, even though there's a weird relationship with Donald Trump and Rupert Murdoch. He sues Rupert Murdoch in a case that's like going nowhere in Miami.
Starting point is 01:06:14 for defamation through the Wall Street Journal because it published the birthday book containing Donald Trump's obscene birthday card to Jeffrey Epstein before anybody else published it. I don't know. I mean, it's all part of the public record now. Congress published it. But there's that suit that's going nowhere down in Miami.
Starting point is 01:06:30 At the same time, there's reporting that Donald Trump allowed Rupert Murdoch and Fox to have an ownership interest in TikTok. At the same time, they sat next to each other at the Royal Dinner. And here, I think this is a helpout by Donald Trump having his Department of Justice in Miami bring a indictment against Smartmatic for bribe bribery back in 2016 in the Philippines.
Starting point is 01:06:58 Smartmatic is an election equipment company and software company. And that has now right exactly the way that the Trump administration wanted to, to curry favor with Fox and Rupert Murdoch helping them out in the New York case. The discovery magistrate or referee has said that SmartMatic now has to turn over the documents about the indictment because part of what they're suing for in that case is reputational harm. So back to what we just said, but the New York Times, I believe that Donald Trump is somebody who can't be, who literally legally cannot be defamed, that his reputation is so shitty that there are just some people. You can't defame Charlie Manson.
Starting point is 01:07:41 Like, you can't defame Adolf Hitler. And I don't think you can defame Donald Trump, and that has come up in filings. Similarly, though, reputation matters when it comes to defamation and the measure of damage. So you could just see some hand-rubbing glee over helping Rupert Murdoch in the Smartmatic case, which I think he likely loses much the way he lost down in Delaware. And I think this is just a freebie, a helpful hand by Donald Trump's Department of Justice to waste our time to go after Smartmatic. Now, look, the other reason I believe it's BS, just to wrap it up here, is Donald Trump mothballed through his Department of Justice and Pam Bondi, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
Starting point is 01:08:23 and anything related to bribery. He put it on ice. He basically said, we're getting out of the business of litigating and prosecuting over bribes. So now all of a sudden, the office is back open and the only target of it is smartmatic, which is in a fight for money against Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump's buddy in front of me. Come on. Michael Popock, you covered a lot in a little bit of time. We appreciate everybody who showed up at the No Kings. We're grateful for everybody here.
Starting point is 01:08:56 Thank you so much. Thank you, everybody. We will be, of course, covering all the No Kings protests, fallout, celebrations everything that went down will be covered here on the Midas Touch network as always thanks to all the organizers of that events y'all are the true heroes the grassroots organizers everybody from indivisible 50-51 move on all of the unions and all of the other groups the chapters within the groups there are so many who are involved that if I name it all will the show will go on forever so I just want to let and and the leaders of these organizations will tell
Starting point is 01:09:36 you to that they are a leaderless movement though and then it's about the people um and so everybody who showed up all the grassroots activists all the people who were there today um it's great seeing you and uh on legal a f we'll see you next time we appreciate you just get out the facts get out the truth i'm ben mycelis joined by michael popock this is legal a f hit subscribe let's get to six million subscribers here subscribe to the legal a f youtube channel subscribe to the legal a f substack And if you or anyone you know has been injured in an auto accident or a trucking accident or is a victim of sexual assault or harassment or you know somebody who is the victim of wrongful death or you know somebody who is injured and has a case.
Starting point is 01:10:19 Call the Popock firm. Michael Popock's law firm. Go to the Popock firm.com or call 877 Popak AF if people across the country willing to help and answer your calls and see if you got a case. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time on Legal AF. Shout out Legal AF for a shout out Midas Mighty. Thank you.

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