Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode - 4/26/2025

Episode Date: April 27, 2025

Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok, the founders of Legal AF, are back on the latest edition of the podcast, drilling down on Trump’s failed immigration and deportation policies leading to mass voter d...efections in new polling; the hallowed out Trump DOJ and its new blooper real of screwups, including filing a secret attorney client memo with a court; and deporting a 2 year old US citizen without due process; even MAGA judges turning on Trump, a new lawsuit filed by his arch nemesis NY AG Leticia James against him cutting off school funding to the States, and so much more at the intersection of law and politics. Support Our Sponsors: Trust & Will: Get 10% off plus free shipping of your estate plan documents by visiting https://trustandwill.com/LEGALAF Moink: Keep American farming going by signing up at https://MoinkBox.com/LEGALAF RIGHT NOW and listeners of this show get FREE WINGS for LIFE! MD Hearing: To get our $297 when you buy a PAIR offer, including a free charger, head to https://ShopMDHearing.com and use code LEGALAF. Miracle Made: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 From early morning workouts that need a boost, to late night drives that need vibes, a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop. With the best playlists, you never miss a good song. With this card, you never miss out on getting the most points on everyday purchases. The PC Insider's World's Elite Mastercard. The Card for Living Unlimited.
Starting point is 00:00:26 Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Blackjack watches a dealer host your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The excitement doesn't stop there with over 3,000 games to choose from including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun and make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,
Starting point is 00:01:14 please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. for you to charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Desperation breeds desperate behavior and we're seeing a desperate Trump regime right now. Throwing judges in prison, raiding courtrooms of judges during their proceedings,
Starting point is 00:01:41 sending two-year-old United States citizens to foreign countries, sending United States citizen children with cancer to foreign countries, releasing memos from the DOJ saying that they're targeting the media and whistleblowers and the sources of the media. They're sending moms to foreign countries like Cuba and Venezuela while they're breastfeeding their babies and separating families. They're not releasing the Epstein files. They are posting internal work product to federal courts where the Trump administration
Starting point is 00:02:19 admits that they are pursuing litigation in bad faith and that they're going to lose the case and they file their internal memos saying that to federal judges and then say oopsies. So it's no wonder that federal judge after federal judge this past week has smacked the Trump regime down and Michael Popok, lots of Trump judges doing that. Trump appointed judges on a lot of these cases.
Starting point is 00:02:46 I guess is Trump gonna say, yeah, I appointed these leftist radical activist judges. They're looking at what's happening and they're saying, Donald, what the hell are you doing? We were gonna give you a little bit of a break here, but you are so obviously violating the constitution. We can't do anything here. Those are Trump judges. Let's bring in Michael Popak from Legal AF. We've got a lot to discuss this morning. Michael Popak, how are you doing, sir?
Starting point is 00:03:15 I'm doing great. Listen, I just said in a hot take, if this was a Broadway show based on the new polling numbers that just came out this week, the Trump administration would have already closed. I mean, the numbers for Trump, who consumes polls like they're McDonald's French fries. This is how he runs his administration. That's why it's so erratic. I mean, forget about what my accomplishments are in the first hundred days. Based on these, people want him out of office already. 29% he has an approval rating with independent spend of 29%. The vast majority, I'm talking about in the 60s of people think his think his administration so far has been chaotic. This is their words, scary. And then when you look at the what he's doing, in terms of the differential approval rating versus disapproval rating.
Starting point is 00:04:05 He's negative 12 points under on his job as president. No president in the history of America has ever had that in the first hundred days. On immigration, which is supposed to be his strong suit, we're going to talk a lot about immigration here on this podcast, he's underwater by four points. Managing the federal government, all that doge, you know, all that doge, you know, cost cutting and federal worker firing, eight points under. The economy, the thing that's supposed to, stupid, supposed to get him elected, is under by 12 points.
Starting point is 00:04:35 Trade with other countries, 11 points under. Foreign conflicts, you know, like Ukraine, 14 points under. The war in Russia and Ukraine, so bad as his policies that he had to pull up a folding chair in the Vatican during the Pope's funeral to Buttenhall Zelensky and then came away with, I don't think, I don't think Putin wants peace. Yeah, no shit.
Starting point is 00:05:03 He's 21 points under how he's handling Russia, Ukraine. And on Kilmer Abrego-Garcia, which we're going to talk about that and the progeny related to that particular case, the polling shows that he's 21 points under. 52% of America think he's not doing a great job there. And here's the stat that really stood out for me, Ben, besides he's lost completely the independent vote, completely, is that 16% of Republicans think he's doing a terrible job and hate the Trump administration.
Starting point is 00:05:35 And that's now, we know he consumes the polls. The only thing reining him in is how poorly the poll numbers. So when people ask us in chat, in a different comments, who cares about federal court rulings? He's not going to abide by them. Not so fast because the polling numbers are now showing up against him, that in the way the economy is working,
Starting point is 00:05:54 all the phone calls he's been getting, you know, Walmart on line one, Jamie Dimon on line one, and then he changes his whole economic policy, you know, this all bodes well for the Democrats last number for a stat here The people want the Democrats in charge of the House and Senate by at least seven points in new polling And that bodes well for the midterms Except it doesn't bode well Generally what Trump is doing for the country for our judicial system and you know my biggest
Starting point is 00:06:27 Fear when it comes to the economy is what is to come. I mean, the fact that the market, by the way, still perhaps the worst market relative to the markets of foreign countries and generations right now. But even when the market goes up some days, it to me is more reflective Michael Popak of market manipulation insider trading
Starting point is 00:06:48 The way meme coins kind of move that's not the way the United States economy is supposed to move So the way you know a Trump stock or a Trump meme coin based on a Trump announcement like he made this week Where he said the top? 220 holders of the Trump meme card in their crypto wallets gets to meet with me, right? It shoots up and has a good day. Then it has a bad day. Then it has a decent day. Then it has a horrible day. Then it has a decent day. Then it has a horrible day, but it's trending in one direction, right? From the inauguration Trump's meme coin was at like a hundred and now it's at like 11 or 12 or
Starting point is 00:07:24 13 or whatever it is in the day. It trends down and people have lost their life savings. So the market volatility, even when there's good days, what it's not reflective of, if you look at the ports, we're talking about blank salons right now, empty vessels, freight that is freight volumes down to levels that are worse than COVID, truck volumes down to levels that are worse than COVID. It's a lagging indicator because companies, a lot of them are still able to get their
Starting point is 00:07:58 supplies in advance of this, but they're running out of supplies. And so we're heading into a summer of scarcity. It's obvious when you look at the data and when you listen to what the business leaders and CEOs are saying, Trump is frozen. He's not taking action. And what's worse about all of this is like, you know, when Donald Trump was like saying
Starting point is 00:08:20 like a miracle COVID is all gonna go away like one big miracle, don't worry. It's never gonna hit our shores. The real stuff hasn't hit our shores yet. It's the receding water right before the tsunami. I see the tsunami coming because I'm listening to what the corporate CEOs are saying and what the business leaders are saying,
Starting point is 00:08:39 what the small businesses are saying. I know what it means when rare earth minerals are not being able to be shipped here into the United States because they're banned by China. I understand what a bar go on a $2 trillion trading relationship with China looks like the boycotts on tourism. If you just took the boycott on tourism alone from Canada to the US, that could have triggered a recession that on top of all of the tariffs and boycotts from Europe and Australia and elsewhere.
Starting point is 00:09:09 So that to me is a big issue. Now, Popak, when you go and look at this Time Magazine interview, it really reflected a demented individual in Donald Trump, a liar, someone who, I thought I was reading a transcript. If you were to tell like a five-year-old, you know play pretend You're the president you're gonna be asked a series of questions and you gave him some basic information That's how this actually reads to me
Starting point is 00:09:34 No offense to five-year-olds who would do a much better job because when Trump is asked about the Abrego Garcia case a reminder Abrego Garcia was the guy living in Maryland he had a work permit there was a withholding order you can't send him to El Salvador he would check in once a year to get the work permit the Trump administration first one gave him the work permit and this time they sent him to El Salvador against a withholding order saying you can't do that he has no criminal history on his record. And now everybody, MAGA Trump goes, he's a terrorist.
Starting point is 00:10:08 He's MS-13. He's the biggest scum ever. He's worse than Bin Laden. This guy who we gave a work permit to, who has no criminal history, who was working in Maryland, married to an American woman with three American children. What the worst human being imaginable
Starting point is 00:10:22 doesn't deserve due process. Migrants don't deserve due process There's nothing we can do with naive Boo Kelly. He's not returning him, right? So so he so Trump's asked about it popok in this time magazine interview So Donald are you committed to complying with all Supreme Court orders? Yeah question when you and I spoke last April you said you were still committed to complying with all the Supreme Court orders Is that the case now answer sure I believe in the court system Okay, Donald the Supreme Court ruled nine to zero that you have to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back
Starting point is 00:10:55 You haven't done so aren't you disobeying the Supreme Court answer well That's not what my people told me. They didn't say it was. They said it was the nine to nothing was something entirely different. By the way, you all know Stephen Miller was out there and Pam Bondi was saying, Donald, you won nine to zero. They said, you don't have to return him. When we were all saying the Supreme Court said,
Starting point is 00:11:19 you have to return him because the Supreme Court said you have to return him. So then the reporter goes, let me quote from the ruling. The order properly requires the government to facilitate a brego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador. Are you facilitating the release Donald? Then Trump throws his DOJ lawyers under the bus. I leave that to my lawyers.
Starting point is 00:11:40 I give them no instruction. They feel that the order said something very much different from what you're saying, but I leave that to my lawyers. If they want, and that would be the attorney general of the United States and the people that represent the country, I don't make that decision. Have you asked Boo Kelly to return him? I haven't. He said he wouldn't, but did you ask him?
Starting point is 00:12:01 But I haven't asked him positively, but he said he wouldn't. But if you haven't asked him, how are you facilitating his release? Well, because I haven't been asked by my attorneys to ask him. Nobody asked me to ask Boo Kelly. Nobody asked me that question except you. Popak Exhibit A sanctions against the lawyers, contempt against those. I can hear those lawyers right now
Starting point is 00:12:26 in that Maryland case, Donald Trump just put a contempt, bullseye, criminal contempt on the lawyers, throw the lawyers in jail. That's what he just did right there. Let me ask you a question. That time interview came out when? It came out on Friday,
Starting point is 00:12:40 but the interview was from Tuesday. All right, so it comes out on Friday. Let's continue. Judge Zinnis gets two filings sealed, that we don't know what they are, in that same case. She already had her foot firmly on the throat of the Trump administration for good reason, putting them on a requirement that they
Starting point is 00:12:59 have to give daily reports about what they are doing to facilitate the release of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador. every day for the last 10 days we've watched the Trump administration crap on Judge Senes and not tell her. And so finally we saw this weird order that came out right before this interview in which she said based on two filings that were made under seal by the ACLU on one side and Quinn Emanuel and the government on the other, she said, I'm gonna take away the requirement to tell me what's going on every day,
Starting point is 00:13:31 but you're not telling me anyway. And you had discovery depositions, all sorts of things that needed to be done and documents that need to be turned over on base to my new order, hold off on that as well. Let's revisit this all on the 30th of April. I'm gonna give you, I'm gonna put a cloak over this process that you're doing.
Starting point is 00:13:46 That coupled with what the Trump administration revealed, not in a public filing, but in a interrogatory response to the other side. They said they are working on diplomatic means to return Abrego Garcia. Now take that with Trump's admission that he hasn't done a darn thing to when he's had the opportunity to pick up the red phone and call the dictator, the petty dictator of El Salvador, Bukele, he hasn't done a darn thing. I put all that together. 30th, or as you just said, this is a major piece of evidence against the Trump administration and its lawyers with Judge Zinnis for contempt, which is what is hanging in the balance here.
Starting point is 00:14:34 And Donald Trump has slowly, even though publicly he's not doing it, because Stephen Miller, who's really writing the script for him, is not doing it. All these deportations of children and babies and chemotherapy people and breastfeeding people, this is all out of the fevered mind of Stephen Miller, the guy who separated people and put them in cages the first time around.
Starting point is 00:14:51 And he is the grim reaper. I'm not letting Donald Trump off the hook. I'm just telling you who's doing it on a day to day, who's the COO that's executing this policy. And now they're publicly, Bondi and Miller bashing away at Zinnis and everybody else. But privately, they're now scared of what is happening with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Wilkinson,
Starting point is 00:15:19 Rock Ribb Republican, nine-zero at the Supreme Court, seven-two at the Supreme Court. 7-2 at the Supreme Court. Now they have a losing record at the United States Supreme Court in the last couple of weeks, and this, I think, has rocked them to their core, and internally they're trying to recalibrate. And it may start showing up in positions taken at the courts. Not sure yet, I'm just telling you, the worm may have started to turn with these back-to-back rulings against the Trump administration
Starting point is 00:15:47 and Judge Zinnis, who's now been affirmed by two separate panels of the Fourth Circuit and a nine-zero panel of the United States Supreme Court. I mean, federal judges are already scary creatures in terms of their powers. I've been doing federal court work for 35 years, and you've done it for a long time, too. They don't need to be turbocharged,
Starting point is 00:16:04 but she's effing turbocharged. And if they pick the wrong two judges to mess with, in Boasberg and Zinnis, and I think we're starting to see the results. So hang in there, our audience. I know you get frustrated and beleaguered, and I'm not saying you're wrong. What does it matter? What does it matter?
Starting point is 00:16:21 He's not going to abide. Just watch. Because whether it's the polls or it's just the losses or the economy going down the drain, Donald Trump is starting to reel himself in a bit. And you can see it in interviews. Yeah. Look, you mentioned Judge Zinnis, you mentioned Judge Boasberg. Let's talk about some of these Trump appointed judges. There's a Trump appointed judge in Maryland. Judge Zinnis, not a Trump appointed judge, but Judge Stephanie Gallagher is a Maryland
Starting point is 00:16:51 based Trump appointed judge. She ruled this past week that the Trump regime needs to return another 20 year old Venezuelan man who was living in Maryland, who was sent to the concentration camp in violation of a settlement agreement that was previously reached with the government regarding his immigration status. The Trump regime tried to argue to this Maryland Trump-appointed federal judge that the invocation of the Aliens Enemy Act vitiated any any agreements at all with migrants that the moment alien enemies act, Trump could breach agreements. By the way, doesn't that sound familiar with Donald Trump's past dealings as a failed business person, always trying to find some way to
Starting point is 00:17:38 void his contracts? Remember how he tried to screw and did screw over all of those lenders who, by the way, screwing over now again with the way he's handling the economy, when he would claim that there's a force majeure when, uh, when economic times would go bad, he would say that's the equivalent of a act of God that destroyed the contract. So I'm not able to pay you back the money that you lent me anymore. So he, you know, so he's invoking the aliens enemies act pop pop like he used to went back and vote force majeure clauses
Starting point is 00:18:10 or other types of clauses in his contracts to not do the things. But this Trump appointed judge Stephanie Gallagher, Maryland based Trump judge says, Nope, facilitate the return of another Venezuelan migrant consistent with the Supreme Court's ruling there. Also, you have U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump-appointed judge. Don't gloss over that one. Trump, let's do that one. A Judge Terry Doughty, Trump-appointed judge, Louisiana. He called out Trump in the most harsh of terms saying, I don't believe you.
Starting point is 00:18:49 I think you just deported a US citizen, multiple, a two year old, a two year old US citizen to Honduras while the two year old's dad had been petitioning, invoking habeas petitions, and just any petition, my son's an American citizen. So the mom was a migrant, the dad is a citizen, the son is a citizen. And what the Trump regime is lying about is when they cruelly deported the mom they deported the son with the mom I think not Realizing that the son was had a dad who's an American citizen who or realizing it and wanted to torture this family and the Trump Appointed judge says what the hell did you do and now you're in my court lying And so I'll talk about that Pope I but be careful what you wish for here,
Starting point is 00:19:45 because the Trump regime tried to stop Boasberg from doing the class action type of stuff with all of these with all of these migrants in one case. So the result is not a win. As you and I told the legal efforts, the result was, even though the Trump regime was spiking the football like they won something from those ten yard line. Now you have cases being filed by these renowned immigration groups and the ACLU a hundred times a day in 50 states and
Starting point is 00:20:19 the Trump regime DOJ led by Pam Bondi. The Indian crew can keep up with this stuff. It's full court press. It would have been better for them to have it as a class action in one case and litigate the issues once. They don't think ahead. Up to the Supreme Court. You're right. There's nothing here. So Terry Dowdy, though, I want to focus on him for a minute. He's not just any Trump appointed judge. He is so MAGA that they, that they, he was besides judge Kazmeric in Texas. Terry Dowdy was the judge that MAGA and Trump and others filed purposely in his Western district of Louisiana, Monroe, Louisiana courtroom in order to
Starting point is 00:20:59 get him in order to tie down Joe Biden and his policies. You know, he came out against COVID and the commander-in-chief policies, all sorts of things that he was the go-to, he was like three of them, go-to federal judges. But now you have to bring him this terrible case with terrible facts of a two-year-old US citizen holding a born-in-New Orleans birth certificate whose mother apparently, she said in the hearing, I don't know if you caught this one, Ben, they said the immigration
Starting point is 00:21:30 officers said, well, the mother wrote a note in Spanish and said she wanted the kid deported. And he's like, how do I know that? How do I get her on the phone? Well, we released her from ICE custody. She's now somewhere in Honduras. And he's like, Are you kidding me? And, you know, of course, he couldn't help himself. At one point during the hearing, he said, The plane is over the Gulf of America. Yeah, the plane is over the Gulf of America, Judge. And they just deported because of the brain drain that we've now watched. You and I are going to do a couple of stories here in a
Starting point is 00:22:02 row on this podcast about what did they think are going to do a couple of stories here in a row on this podcast about what did they think was going to happen when they hollowed out the Department of Justice and career veteran, the starters, keep a baseball or sports analogy going, the starters all left and now the scrubs are underpaid, overworked, they can't handle all of these cases. The elite all left, the career independent prosecutors have all left the various offices, Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Main Justice, in the offices of the US Attorney's offices around the country, leaving this group behind, led as you said by a dimwit and an attorney general and Pam Bondi.
Starting point is 00:22:43 I mean, the more she speaks, she should speak less. The more she speaks, the less, the less confidence I think anybody can have in her abilities. She already got, by the way, on that note, she already got chastised by a federal judge in New York who told her to shut up about, about the, it was Luigi Mangione, about going after him in the, because all you're doing is violating ethics laws and polluting his ability to pick a jury. So this is our attorney general. People used to complain that Merrick Garland didn't talk enough, and now we got this.
Starting point is 00:23:16 She talks too much. So Terry Dowdy says, all the stuff you're telling me about this two-year-old US citizen with a US father and a mother who you deported is all hearsay. I need the evidence. So I'm gonna hold a hearing on the 16th of May. And by that time you better get your act together about what just happened to the deported two-year-old US citizen. Now to answer the question from the chats, because I've seen it started while we were doing this, she is a US, he or she, you said it was a son,
Starting point is 00:23:41 maybe it's a son, the two-year-old has rights that could be exercised, hopefully by a guardian, to come back to the United States because they are a U.S. citizen. So there may be a family law dispute going on here in child custody, sort of like Ileon Gonzalez, 25 years ago in Miami. You know, I don't know. But in any event, without due process, and the judge says, I have a strong suspicion, this was his words, that this child got deported as a US citizen without any due process whatsoever. I mean it's very hard to interview a two-year-old so you appoint a custodian or a guardian who represents the child's interests and reports back to the judge as an officer of the court but none of that was done.
Starting point is 00:24:23 This again is the series of screw ups. When you and I get after the break to the judge, Judge Dugan in Milwaukee, I'm going to talk about the screw ups there that I think almost in a way on purpose put the judge in a position, it's almost like entrapment, what they did with that particular judge, because they could have executed the warrant in a different way. We'll talk about all that after the break. Oh, they are, the Trump regime is gonna get absolutely
Starting point is 00:24:54 ripped to shreds, destroyed on that Judge Dugan case. Okay, okay Trump, you won your headline, right? The way you won your headline of 90 deals in 90 days bet, but now do it, okay? Now do it. You arrested a judge in her courtroom. Now go in front of a federal judge. Now bring that case to a grand jury.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Bring it to a federal judge, and then explain why it is that you raided a state court judge's courtroom during the proceedings where the state court judge was trying to impose justice on a person. Criminal justice. You obstructed the state court judge's proceedings and then you want to arrest the state court judge. With an administrative search warrant, arrest warrant, not even issued by a judge, and with a criminal complaint against her, not even a grand jury indictment.
Starting point is 00:25:50 They are so sloppy. They are dangerous. They are vile. But thank God, their dangerousness is matched by their stupidity and their incompetence. I guess it makes it better or worse, depending on how you see it. Everybody, Michael Popock has started his own law firm. They're doing great work at Pope box law firm. And if you have a case involving someone in your life or someone that you know, or even yourself that involves a catastrophic injury, bad car accident, a trucking accident, wrongful death, sexual assault or harassment, medical malpractice or
Starting point is 00:26:30 negligence. Michael Popak is handling these cases. We've always been asked by our legal AFers, hey I have this situation, I have that situation, so if you have a type of case that fits that profile, call POPAC right now or go to POPAC's website and tell them about what your case is about. POPAC, where can they go? Yeah, we made it easy, thanks Ben. Really, standing on the shoulders of Legal IF for this firm.
Starting point is 00:26:56 It's easy, www.thepopac.com. Instantly get to a contact form that'll put you in the hands of somebody to talk about your case and a free case evaluation. Or you can use a 1-800 number that we created special for this, 1-877-POPOC-AF. Also make sure you subscribe to Michael Popok's YouTube channel,
Starting point is 00:27:21 the Legal AF YouTube channel. It's absolutely crushing it. Legal AF YouTube channel. It's absolutely crushing it. Legal AF on YouTube. They've got multiple, multiple takes every day from every angle. If we miss it here on the Midas Touch Network, they're leading the way with it on Legal AF. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show.
Starting point is 00:27:39 Four companies control over 80% of the US meat industry. And China now controls the largest portion of US pork. And wait till you hear this, over 80% of the US meat industry. And China now controls the largest portion of US pork. And wait till you hear this, over 80% of the antibiotics in the US are fed to animals. So what can we do about this? Let me tell you about a company that's coming up swinging on behalf of American Family Farms and your family's food security, Moink.
Starting point is 00:27:59 The business is simple. Moink's meat comes from animals raised outdoors, where a pig is free to be a pig. Their farmers are given an honest day's pay for an honest day's work, and they deliver meat straight to your doorstep at prices you can actually afford. Support American Family Farms
Starting point is 00:28:16 and join the Moink movement today at moinkbox.com slash legal AF. Right now and get free wings for life. They're the best wings you'll ever taste for free, but for a limited time. Spelled M-O-I-N-K box.com slash legal AF. That's moinkbox.com slash legal AF. I recently started the Legal AF YouTube channel, but not after months, even years of thinking, planning, and finding just the right team to produce our content and help me manage the channel. I wanted to avoid what leads to channel failure, not the great idea or the better mousetrap,
Starting point is 00:28:51 the failure to execute and deliver day in and day out. Creating a trust and will is a very slow and time-consuming process, leaving you less time for more important tasks. Trust and Will makes creating your will easy and time efficient, meaning you can focus on other important tasks. Get 10% off at trustandwill.com slash legal AF. Estate planning may be the most important thing you do this week, but also the most anxiety producing thing. Where to start? Is it too late? Why didn't I start earlier? Well, as they say, the best time to have planted a tree was 30 years ago, but the second best time is right now. And that's where Trust and Will comes in. They have an amazingly intuitive and simple website that walks you down the road of creating your own trust and or will every step of the way.
Starting point is 00:29:42 And when you are done, you get instant peace of mind, knowing that your family is taken care of and your assets and wishes are secured. Keep your family prepared and protected by managing your will or trust online. Ensure that your family and loved ones avoid lengthy, expensive legal proceedings or the state deciding what happens to your assets. Their simple step-by-step process guides you from start to finish, one question at a time. Save loved ones time and stress by having all your documents in one place
Starting point is 00:30:18 with bank-level encryption. Live customer support is available through phone, chat, and email. Trust and Will has an overall rating of excellent and thousands of five-star reviews on TrustPilot. Uncomplicate the process with Trust and Will. Protect what matters most in minutes at trustandwill.com slash legal AF and get 10% off.
Starting point is 00:30:41 That's 10% off at trustandwill.com slash legal AF. Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to our pro democracy sponsors. This show does not exist without them. The discount codes for those pro democracy sponsors are in the description below. Check it out. Again, they're the fuel that helps this going,
Starting point is 00:31:03 helps us keep on going. All right, Popak, let's talk about what the Trump regime did with this judge, this Wisconsin County state court judge. She had an individual before her last week in court or this point, maybe two weeks ago in court because the arrest happened this past Friday. And it was an individual who was being charged with domestic violence. He was showing up in state court. She's a judge who administers justice over this individual's case. And he showed up to court. Right. There's a process right where you have an arraignment.
Starting point is 00:31:42 You have court dates that you show up to. And our system at the state court level and the federal court level relies on people showing up to their court dates. If you don't show up to your court dates, a bench warrant is issued. You get thrown in prison right away. Um, unless you're, I guess Donald Trump or, or a magnet person. Um, but I'm, I'm being facetious, but That's also true at the same time But in a situation like this you you have people show up to court
Starting point is 00:32:10 So the judge is going through the judge is going through the process the process so Ice and the FBI they want to do a raid of the judges courtroom while court is in session and the judge's courtroom while court is in session and they claim they have a warrant, but it's in the middle. There's a busy docket when you're a judge. You have maybe a hundred cases sometimes in a day, lots of people coming in. If you're a criminal court judge, you have, you know, lots of people who are accused of crimes lining up. It's busy, it's chaotic, but as a judge, you have to control your courtroom. It's not an easy job to do.
Starting point is 00:32:51 And throughout all of this, it would be unheard of. This has never taken place before ever in the United States. This is not normal. There's no protocol for this. For the feds to say, we want to show up in a judge's courtroom and do the raid in your courtroom to arrest an individual who we think is a migrant who's here unlawfully because we either want to send him to El Salvador or put him in an ICE
Starting point is 00:33:19 detention center and we need to do that in the courtroom. They did not need to do that in the courtroom. They could do it outside the courtroom. They could do it at the guy's house. They could do it at another place. If they need to do it at all in any specific circumstance. The judge here basically said that you're not doing this. You know, she gets this paperwork. What? What are you doing?
Starting point is 00:33:42 What? It's unheard of. It doesn't exist. And so the, and so the judge was like, you know, go away. You can coordinate with like court services because there's a whole administrator in every courthouse and every county court system. There's a presiding judge and then there's court administrators who help facilitate certain things because you know they're in a county there could be you know 500 judges, a thousand judges, two thousand judges, you know depending on the size of the county and you need to have administrations like go speak to
Starting point is 00:34:15 the administration we'll figure something out don't do this in my you're not going to do this in my courtroom. If you take the allegations as true from cash Patel is somehow the FBI director And Pam bondi at that point the judge basically allows The individual who the who ice wants to take you out lets him out through the door he walks out and then ice and FBI arrest him outside and said that she basically ICE and FBI arrest him outside and said that she basically helped him leave the courtroom and they had to chase him in order to get him. And then they go back and they arrest the judge in her courtroom on Friday. They make a public spectacle about it. They post on social media about it. Take it from there. Popak tell us about the judge. Yeah. Well, round. Tell us about
Starting point is 00:35:03 Judge Dugan doing her job. Always defending justice. Started out working the week of Pope Francis's death. One of my, one of my favorite popes is, um, and honored him is she worked for Catholic charity. She's always worked for the underprivileged. She worked for legal, legal aid. She ran for office and became a Milwaukee circuit court judge and doing it with, uh, with quite a great reputation. But there's a reason that we consider places
Starting point is 00:35:30 to be sacrosanct like funeral homes and schools and churches where we don't want immigration raids or people being picked up. And a state courthouse is certainly at the top of the list. Why? Because they're already administering justice and we don't want to put people, especially those in the criminal justice system of Wisconsin, deep underground where they avoid their criminal process, putting law enforcement at risk there
Starting point is 00:35:57 because they know if they end up back at a courthouse, they could be picked up by the feds and deported making them more desperate. So you don't want to do that. And what I found so striking, just to add a little bit of color around some of the facts that you laid out, is that ICE in Milwaukee knew that this guy was going to be in her courtroom at a date and time certain. They had that confirmation.
Starting point is 00:36:22 That's why six officers all showed up at the courthouse. All they had to do was set up outside. Okay? The guy goes through a metal detector, so we know he doesn't have weapons. He comes back out, and as soon as he's done, you look at your watch, there he is, you got his photo, and you pick him up on the courthouse steps or maybe a block away or whatever. What you don't do is you don't march into the courtroom, in the courthouse steps or maybe a block away or whatever. What you don't do is you don't march into the courtroom in the courthouse and try to disrupt the administration of justice in that courtroom. She had about, the reporting has been, she had about eight hearings going on.
Starting point is 00:36:56 This guy was probably in the middle of the pack. She heard from her deputies that they were trying to execute a warrant outside ICE to pick up somebody. And she's not a, it's not just, I know it's been reported as, she created a sanctuary city inside of a jury room. That's not what happened. She went out into the hallway, she confronted the officers, she said, what are you here on?
Starting point is 00:37:17 They said, we're here on an arrest warrant. She said, let me see it. And she said, is it a judge issued one? They said, no, it's an administrative one. Big difference. Administrative one comes out of like ICE. And it's not, there's no judge like her, her equivalent making sure the due process is done properly.
Starting point is 00:37:34 She said, come back when you have a proper arrest warrant. That's one. Secondly, you're not doing it in my courtroom. And this is outrageous. Go talk to the chief judge. As you said, there's a whole administration around a courthouse and the chief judge hadn't yet set policies about this.
Starting point is 00:37:52 And they went to the chief judge's office and while they were doing it, she took them and directed the lawyer and this guy who she just sentenced concerning domestic violence, assault and battery she took him out another door into another public hallway And they made their way out of the courtroom where they were then apprehended after a foot chase I mean, yeah, okay, maybe after a foot chase, but you didn't even have to do that whole thing Then they decided to make an example of her and as you said get the headline
Starting point is 00:38:23 So rather than go to a grand jury in Milwaukee, which I doubt is going to indict her, she's very popular there, and she's a state court judge, and there's a little bit of sovereignty and civic pride that goes into this. They got a criminal complaint issued by a prosecutor, that's different, so you got two weaker pieces of paper involved in this case. You got a criminal complaint and she can't,
Starting point is 00:38:49 even though she was arraigned on it, there has to be an indictment by way of, by way of ultimately, by way of a grand jury. Good luck on that and that happening. But they got their headline. But then they got all those little straight facts that we were confused yesterday, trying to sort out the story
Starting point is 00:39:03 before we did our various hot takes on it about, oh, what stashed him in a jurors room? What is it? And then we got it all confused with another guy, a former judge in New Mexico who hid a Trende Aragua guy. Like all the stories started complaining. But the reality is Judge Duga was right. This is not the place to execute a lower level arrest warrant. You know, and all they had to do, as I said before, is set up outside. And what I learned from reading the criminal complaint is that they, of course, they knew exactly where he was. And the way that Cash Patel in a now deleted social media post left it is that, you know, we wanted him to go through the metal detectors because, you know, it's better for law enforcement because they knew he wasn't armed.
Starting point is 00:39:47 We also know he's not armed when he's coming out of the courthouse. So that makes absolutely no sense. This is a bad series of facts for the Trump administration as his poll numbers sink. You know, you're deporting babies that are U.S. citizens. You're cutting off people from, you know, who are in the middle of chemotherapy and putting people in cages again. At the same time, you're falsely arresting federal judges. I mean, state judges, this is a bad look.
Starting point is 00:40:16 And if you think this is, if Stephen Miller and Trump thinks it's gonna help get the independent vote back in time for the midterms, he's almost acting, I wanna get your opinion on this, Ben. He's almost acting like he doesn't care about the midterms. Like, like he's going to do his maximum damage in the next, you know, whatever months, you know, two, you know, a year and three quarters. And then whatever happens to the midterms, he doesn't really care. And that's it, because he's not acting like a guy that cares about the electoral fortunes of anybody else in the Republican Party. I Don't think he thinks about anything
Starting point is 00:40:50 tomorrow in general The midterms or whatever I think he'll start thinking about it as it gets close But I think he thinks about every day How does he make the day about himself and he views a successful day as a day where he sucks all of the oxygen out of any other story and people for bad, for very bad, or for horrible, and very rarely for good talk about him. And maybe he gets the good headline for the day, 90 deals in 90 days, like that sounds pretty epic.
Starting point is 00:41:26 90 deals in 90 days, you're gonna do trade deals with the world, okay, well, then when it's day 16 and 17 and 18 and you're not making deals, and then the headlines start to come out where you say, well, we're gonna do a deal in principle, maybe with Japan, and then Japan's like, we don't know what he's talking about. And he keeps on talking about a bowling test where bowling balls are hitting the top of cars
Starting point is 00:41:52 and we need to eliminate a bowling ball test that doesn't exist. Like what the hell is he talking about? You know, you have trade deals with countries that have zero tariff relationships like South Korea, which should be the easiest trade deal to make. And you're hearing out of Seoul that they're saying, zero tariff relationships like South Korea, which would be the easiest trade deal to make. And you're hearing out of Seoul that they're saying we're not we're not ready until like
Starting point is 00:42:09 July. And these are people with existing trade deals that already exist that like, what are you even doing? You know, you have, you know, the European Union, you guys, I saw a minister from France saying that we're nowhere close to doing, you know, a deal. Why am I bringing up the trade deal? It's just, it's emblematic of everything, which is he got the headline and now he's got to deal with all of these things. You know, Trump can say all he wants. A brego Garcia, MS 13, MS 13, MS 13.
Starting point is 00:42:37 And don't get me wrong. People don't want MS 13 here. I don't want MS 13 here. I want strong borders. If they're someone who is a criminal involved in criminal conduct, I want to see them held accountable. But I think after you get over the headline of Donald Trump, you know, saying MS-13 and you break it down, you go, wait, wait a minute, wait.
Starting point is 00:42:58 But you gave him a work permit, Donald. So you're saying you gave the MS-13 leader who you were acting like is as bad as a work permit. And he's been he's been that doesn't really make much sense. It'd be like been lot in working in Maryland, and showing up to immigration services once a year to renew his status and worked in a in Bin Laden worked in a union what he was a union worker, he's married to an American woman. They lived in a house in Maryland. That doesn't
Starting point is 00:43:25 make much sense, Donald. You know, and then he has to do what so why I call it the rug pull Ponzi scheme presidency. He's got to mount the lie on top of the lie. And then eventually, because there's no attempt to actually fix it, it just lie over lie. Then what happens? It just blows up. And in Donald Trump's past dealings, that's why he's bankrupted thing after thing after thing because the lies compound, he gets cornered, he lies, and then he finds ways to, you know, get out of it for himself, but then he screws everybody else over. And I think we're seeing
Starting point is 00:44:03 that now. I think we're seeing that now at large. And that's why also it's not a coincidence that the DOJ issued that memo rescinding the Biden guidance and the prior guidance that existed, which is you can't target the media with kind of secret surveillance for working confidential sources and whistleblowers within the government.
Starting point is 00:44:29 There's also another memo that the DOJ released, which says that you don't really need warrants when targeting migrants at all. That was DOJ guidance. We don't think you need warrants to enter people's homes. So you are now seeing, I think, an acceleration of the fascist stuff, which existed before, as Trump gets more and more desperate, the memo saying they're targeting media and sources, especially, you know, as Hegseth and Homeland Security dog killer, Christine Noem, like, they're're like they're sitting their employees down, polygraphic them, imagine working in a company.
Starting point is 00:45:10 And they said, you can't. It's not funny, but they sit you down and polygraph you before you come into work. I mean, that's what it's like to work in in for the Homeland Security Department and the Department of Defense right now. So they're doing that. And then they're saying, you know, basically warrantless searches, which again is not constitutional at all. We're saying here folks, and I think the independents get it.
Starting point is 00:45:32 It's why Trump's approval amongst the independence is now in the twenties. And I think it's going to go lower than that is we have a constitution. Our constitution has due process. Due process moves slower, but it's a process. Due, due process. And we're not supposed to be Russia or North Korea, where they get to say, hey, you're this affiliation, you die. You die. Trump's tried that. That's the concentrate. That's
Starting point is 00:46:07 why we call it a concentration camp. People go to see caught to die. And as an American, I don't want to see that. I want to see that someone gets process and then the process has a accountability mechanism that matches if there is a crime. And if there's not a crime, there's not a crime. It's really that simple. When we come back, Popak, I want to talk about the sloppiness. I mean, you have in that MTA lawsuit where Trump's trying to attack the governor of New York and this. They filed their own memo, not the court filing. They filed their own internal memo, attorney client memo saying, we're going to lose this
Starting point is 00:46:56 case. We are violating the law. They filed it and then they had to send the judge a message saying oopsies, we didn't mean to send that. Can you remove that? Which raises a number of questions too, Will address because yes, attorney-client leakage normally should be returned, but what do you do now when you're a judge
Starting point is 00:47:18 and you know that someone's pursuing a case in bad faith, which is a violation of their ethical obligations as a lawyer. I wanna hear your take if that even violates the attorney-client privilege when you admit that you're not really acting as an attorney anymore. And the thing, when we get to it, the thing that was shocking for me is that the Trump administration's reaction to it
Starting point is 00:47:41 was to air the dirty laundry and have the Department of Transportation publicly flog and attack its own lawyers in the media. All right? They think this is a winning strategy? We'll talk more about it. Michael Popock, for everybody who wants to know about your law firm, you represent people
Starting point is 00:48:00 who are victims of catastrophic injuries, personal injuries, sexual assault and harassment, medical malpractice, negligence and more, you really handle like the catastrophic trucking accident cases that result in serious injuries and wrongful deaths and things like that. So if you all, if anybody knows someone like that or someone in your family or something that happened to you,
Starting point is 00:48:22 Popak, where do they reach you? Yeah, the reason we do that, just one last line on that is that, that is the intersection of life and the legal system is the catastrophic moments that unfortunately damaged or hurt or killed you or people in your life. And so that's why I dedicated the firm to that on the shoulders of Legal AF.
Starting point is 00:48:43 It's easy, go to www.thepopokfirm.com. Sometimes my name gets misspelled here, it's P-O-P-O-K for the middle there. And then the 1-800 number is 1-877-POPOC-AF. Everybody make sure you subscribe to Michael Popok's YouTube channel as well. The LegalAF channel, Legal AF search, legal AF on YouTube. Let's get that 1 million subscribers. All right. We'll take our last quick break of the show
Starting point is 00:49:10 and we come back. Let's talk about sloppy, sloppy Trump. It was great seeing my mother-in-law from abroad over the holidays and have her visit with our baby daughter. But it also reminded me that she's getting older and that she doesn't have access to affordable hearing aids in her own country. Millions of adults every year over the age of 65 start to lose their hearing. If you or your parent are one of them, you are not alone. This podcast is sponsored by MD Hearing. MD Hearing makes high quality, easy to use rechargeable hearing aids with exceptional sound quality that are personalized to your hearing profile and cost a fraction of what typical hearing aids cost.
Starting point is 00:49:56 MD Hearing's Neo model cost over 90% less than clinic hearing aids. The Neo fits inside your ear, so no one will even know it's there. Plus MD Hearing just launched the Neo XS, MD Hearing's smallest hearing aid ever. MD Hearing recently cut their price in half. That means you can get high quality,
Starting point is 00:50:16 rechargeable digital hearing aids for only $297 a pair. Since we gave my mother-in-law MD hearing aids on her last visit, her life is so much brighter and better, and now she can actually hear my baby daughter's first cooing and almost words, which are coming close to Babishka. MD Hearing was founded by an ENT surgeon who saw how many of his patients needed hearing aids but couldn't afford them. He made it his mission to develop a quality hearing aid that anyone could afford. MD Hearing has sold over two million hearing aids
Starting point is 00:50:49 and they offer a 45-day risk-free trial with 100% money back guarantee. So you can buy with confidence. Still on the fence about MD Hearing? They were just selected to be the hearing aid supplier for top Medicare Advantage plans, so they are a brand you can trust. Get the high-quality, affordable hearing aids you deserve with MD Hearing.
Starting point is 00:51:13 Go to ShopMDHearing.com and use promo code LegalAF to get a pair of hearing aids for just $297. Plus, they're adding a free extra charging case, $100 value just for listeners of LegalAF. That's shopMDHearing.com and use our promo code LegalAF and get a pair of hearing aids for just $297. The weather, it's heating up and your nighttime bedroom temperature has a huge impact on your sleep quality. If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maid's bed sheets.
Starting point is 00:51:45 Miracle Maid sheets are inspired by NASA and use silver infused fabrics that are temperature regulating so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. Using silver infused fabrics inspired by NASA, Miracle Maid sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature
Starting point is 00:52:03 all night long, no matter the weather. So you get better sleep every night. Miracle sheets are luxuriously comfortable without the high price tag of other luxury brands and feel as nice, if not nicer, than sheets used by some five-star hotels. Stop sleeping on bacteria. Bacteria can clog your pores, causing breakouts and acne. Sleep clean with Miracle. Upgrade your sleep as the weather heats up. Go to trymiracle.com slash Legal AF to try Miracle-Made Sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one,
Starting point is 00:52:38 if you order today, you can save over 40%. And if you use our promo Legal AF at checkout, you'll get a free three-piece towel set and save an 40%. And if you use our promo Legal AF at checkout, you'll get a free three piece towel set and save an extra 20%. Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund.
Starting point is 00:52:57 Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash Legal AF and use the code Legal AF to claim your free three-piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again that's trymiracle.com slash Legal AF to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to our Pro Democracy sponsors. We appreciate them. Discount codes are in the description below Oopsies po bak how many times have we heard oopsies? Did we just fire the Ebola?
Starting point is 00:53:36 Researchers. Oh didn't mean to do that oopsies. Did we fire the nuclear? Scientists who are protecting our nuclear secrets oopsies, did we just deport an individual by mistake to a concentration camp and now we say we can't bring them back up? OOPSies, did we just fire NIH employees that we didn't mean to buy? OOPSies, I mean, how many times have you heard this over and over again? These OOPSies cause people and cause Americans real suffering. It's the cruelty.
Starting point is 00:54:07 It's the incompetence. And we saw it on full display in this case in New York, where Trump's been strongly, powerfully going after the governor for the highway, the king of New York, a traffic congestion pricing, which you're in New York, I've actually heard a lot of people say it's actually been a helpful thing. It's working in New York, but Trump wants to attack anything that's working. He filed a lawsuit against New York for congestion pricing this and that. We'll also talk a little bit about after we talk about this topic
Starting point is 00:54:37 in attacking New York attorney general, Letitia James and their retaliation. You know, you know, there. But the Trump lawyers filed a memo saying that they're going to lose the case because they're violating the law. To the judge, Popaka let you take it from there. Thank you. Yeah, like all that serious whoopsies. They just recently, to continue that stream of thought,
Starting point is 00:55:03 they just recently doxed and outed the home address for Abrego Garcia's wife. She's had a go into hiding. Oops. They just, that's one. Deported the two-year-old. We talked about Abrego Garcia. This is what happens when you have dimwits and lowlights running your departments and all the career talent headed for the exit, or you force them out, and this is what's left. You can't shutter the Department of Justice, but you might as well have the way you're running it.
Starting point is 00:55:38 So I don't want to name them, even though it's been in the paper, but three beleaguered Department of Justice personnel that work for the Southern District of New York U.S. Attorney's Office, which covers Manhattan, which had until Donald Trump took over, a long history of being one of the elite offices in the U.S. Attorney's Office network of offices in the country.
Starting point is 00:56:00 Like when I was graduating, and even today, up until today, like that is the elite, that is the plum job. I mean there's people that if they didn't get into the Southern District of New York, they didn't want to be a U.S. attorney anywhere else. It just sets your life on a whole other trajectory. But now I'm watching what's happening with who's left there. So let me just say something. In 35 years of practice, I've not had a perfect practice. There have been times where, because the sheer number of documents that are involved in a case,
Starting point is 00:56:32 and even if you use AI and platforms and you do review, occasionally it's happened to everyone, including me, an attorney-client privileged document slips out and ends up in the other side's hands, not published in the public docket. And then the federal rules have a whole procedure for it because they understand we're dealing with like terabytes of information and it can happen.
Starting point is 00:56:54 And you can claw it back and there's a procedure for it and you kind of seal it away and it happens. And if somebody's out there that's a lawyer that says it's never happened to them, then they're not handling big enough or enough cases, because it does happen. So I kind of felt for these people, I've never done it on the public docket,
Starting point is 00:57:09 but it certainly has happened, unfortunately, in discovery. And then there's ways to deal with it and make sure the client isn't harmed. This group, I don't know if somebody's eye slipped or they got tired, but at nine o'clock at night, when they were supposed to load up docket entry number 65 of the public docket, pardon me, that was supposed to be just a plain vanilla letter to the judge about
Starting point is 00:57:32 a procedural issue, about the timing of certain document production. Instead, they uploaded an earlier internal memo that was also on letterhead that was sent from these lawyers to their counterpart at the Department of Transportation giving them advice and and cold-heart advice about the chance of success of their legal arguments in front of Judge Lyman. They literally said things like this isn't gonna fly with Judge Lyman, he's gonna reject this, but they did to their credit because it wasn't memo, they did give another path.
Starting point is 00:58:05 They said, the path we're on right now is about to hit a brick wall, and we're going to lose. However, we could switch gears, and we could argue this, this, and this. Good lawyers give alternatives. Besides doomsday, we're gonna lose. And that's what they did. And that would have been fine
Starting point is 00:58:20 if it was just an attorney-client communication to your client. But it got uploaded to the public docket and then everybody saw it. Our phones blew up. People around the Midas universe started posting it on their social media. I got a copy of it off the docket. And then they didn't realize it for about a, they didn't realize it immediately. They then called the other side and said, oh crap, we sent you our memo,
Starting point is 00:58:45 which as our case's dog do, please give it back to us. They called the clerk to get it sealed temporarily. Clerk said sure, but you gotta go back to Judge Lyman. They went back to Judge Lyman and they had to file this, we screwed up and we filed our secret attorney client memo that nobody should see. It's already been in the media, which the judge acknowledged in one of his orders,
Starting point is 00:59:08 but can we get it back please and have it sealed or removed? So that went on. Now that is one way to handle it, clean up behind the elephant. The way I wouldn't handle it is the way the Trump administration handled it, which is to call a civil war
Starting point is 00:59:23 between two parts of your own administration with the Department of Transportation run by Sean Duffy, formerly of the real world, and his own lawyers. So the spokespeople for the Department of Transportation come out with, this is professional malpractice. They either did it, they're incompetent or they did it on purpose as part of their resistance. Who does this out loud? I looked at their credentials. It's just two young department, you know, U.S. attorneys and one woman who's been there for about 20 years.
Starting point is 00:59:58 I mean, I don't know, I looked at her social media. Does she seem to side a little bit more of the democratic causes? Maybe. Do I think she jeopardized her law license and her professional ethics to accidentally on purpose post an internal legal memo? I don't. But that's not where the Trump administration went. It went, oh, here we go. I mean, to a hammer, everything's a nail. It's the only tool
Starting point is 01:00:18 they got in the bag is a hammer. Oh, boom, hammer our own lawyers. I'm thinking, what are you doing publicly? Now, what this case was about, we weren't even really following it on my list or on Legal AF. We're like, I don't know, it's sort of kind of ho-hum. You live in New York, it's interesting. You gotta pay $9 now if you come in below 60th Street for congestion pricing, which by the way,
Starting point is 01:00:42 has reduced traffic 13% and 6 million cars in New York That's a good thing between the ubers and the people that drive in and everybody's got to take their own car Nobody carpools. It's a mess. And so this was a good thing, but not the Donald Trump He's never gonna get votes in New York I don't know why he cares about New York in terms of the political expediency of it He just likes to he just likes to stick it to a Hokel. You know, like, oh, I'm gonna take over the development of Penn Station.
Starting point is 01:01:10 All right, we'll take, she said, all right, take it over. Then we're not gonna contribute our New York funds to it. You know, you wanna be a big shot and take over Penn Station redevelopment? The trades, go ahead. We're taking our 17 billion with us. You know, this is that thought process that you pointed out that's never,
Starting point is 01:01:27 you know, there's no executive function in the executive branch. That's what we're watching. So I'll end it this way. I feel a little bit sorry, although they stayed, they didn't go, for the three lawyers at the Department of Justice, who I don't think they or their paralegal,
Starting point is 01:01:41 I don't think they did it on purpose. They've now, the case has now been transferred to main justice in Washington. I'm not sure it's going to get any better directly under Pam Bondi, by the way. And now you've got Jay Clayton, who is Donald Trump's former Securities and Exchange Commission head, formerly a U.S. attorney there, and literally Howard Lutnick's and Donald Trump's golfing buddy, who's now the acting interim US attorney for the Southern District. So I guess they think they have to clean up. But have you ever seen? Could you
Starting point is 01:02:12 imagine the Biden Clinton Obama administration, a department bashing its own lawyers publicly? No, I mean, look, federal prosecutors, it's supposed to be a very esteemed role, stepping stone to maybe becoming a judge, a great career in and of itself. You're supposed to be able to pick cases following the law that you're confident you're going to win. You don't have to bring bad cases. You represent the US with limitless
Starting point is 01:02:45 resources. You should be winning cases and not looking like fools before the court. But the same way earlier, as I described, Donald Trump has turned our economy into looking like a Trump meme coin or a Trump company, which is bad. Trump has turned the DOJ into like a Trump legal team, like an Alina Habba-led legal team and she's a United States attorney interim in New Jersey. Bad. And they go in there fumbling, bumbling. And you know, as someone who is a law professor and PO-PAC, someone like you, who's, you know, had a 30 plus year career as a lawyer
Starting point is 01:03:25 we've taken this profession very very seriously and There's the dangerousness aspect of it there and that comes first But then to me when I just look at some of this stuff and I'm like, oh my god They're just so bad like like they're just not good and that's a big issue America was supposed to be talented and have talented people at top positions. And so when I see just bad lawyering and sloppiness and the judges see it too,
Starting point is 01:03:58 it's why like earlier in the show too, even these Trump appointed judges, at least from his first term, they came from top law school still, and they went through a system and a path that they were still, like, they cared about, like, grammar and, like, sentences and facts, at least at some point. And this Trump DOJ can't even get really past
Starting point is 01:04:23 the, like like sentences portion. Like you guys wanna talk in sentences and then maybe we can elevate legal arguments and then maybe we can elevate persuasion, but like they don't even get there. Popeye, just before we go, I wanna talk about this Letitia James briefly, briefly, briefly, because we were on New York anyway.
Starting point is 01:04:43 Yeah, you're talking about the 19th attorney generals led by her? Okay, so 19 states have filed, led by Letitia James, who basically brushed off any accusations that she was corrupt, which Donald Trump made in a political retribution, saying, she lied on mortgage forms, she didn't. She lied on a property she bought
Starting point is 01:05:02 with her father in Virginia. She didn't. And if they thought it was going to back her off, she is Freddie Krueger for Donald Trump. She lives in his nightmares. She occupies a considerable amount of real estate inside of whatever's left of Donald Trump's cranium. I really believe that. And so if they thought that was going to back her off,
Starting point is 01:05:20 quite the opposite. She's now filed along with 18 other states in Massachusetts. It's been assigned to a senior judge who's a, God, he's still around, a Reagan appointee, senior judge there. And it's all about their attempt to cut off tens of billions of dollars of school aid for special needs children, for children to learn English in schools, for the disadvantaged and fragile population, primarily, in school systems. When did that become a red versus blue thing, helping special needs children?
Starting point is 01:05:56 And what they said is, in their new filing, and seeking yet another injunction, which I'm sure is coming, is that this last minuteminute Department of Education, sending them a notice that if they don't cut diversity, equity, and inclusion out of their programming and they don't sign on the dotted line, they basically weaponize Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. And what their response in this lawsuit, I read through it on a new hot take on Legal AF is diversity
Starting point is 01:06:25 and equity inclusion is the lifeblood of the public school system. It's in the fabric of the very programs you're trying to cut. You can't tell us in three days we have to cut the heart out of our programs in order to get money. That violates the Administrative Procedures Act in about five different ways, including being arbitrary and capricious. It violates all the things about separation of powers. You wouldn't know it by the way this Congress
Starting point is 01:06:48 led by the Republicans is a doormat and a wet noodle, but it is Congress that's supposed to have spending power, appropriation power and all of that. Not you, you're supposed to executive branch, you're supposed to faithfully execute. You're not supposed to legislate, you're not supposed to kill funding. And so they have all these constitutional claims
Starting point is 01:07:08 there as well. He hasn't said a hearing yet. The judge up in Massachusetts. And just the last comment there, there's a good reason we've been filing these kind of cases in Massachusetts and in the New England states is because we're having tremendous success there through the First Circuit Court of Appeals and
Starting point is 01:07:25 then off to the United States Supreme Court. It's a perfect way to set up the case. You could do it in New York, but it's just a better place to be. Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, those kind of things. California, and Maryland, and D.C. That's why we're seeing that's the strike zone that the Democrats, the moderates, the ACLUs, the attorneys general are hitting over and over and over again, because it's working. In 90, they're batting 900 then, 90% success rate against this administration in all their cases. And whereas two weeks ago, I was like, well, Trump's strategy of doing everything by emergency
Starting point is 01:08:02 application to the Supreme Court seems to be working. Forget that. After two back-to-back losses at the United States Supreme Court, we're winning there in large numbers as well as I think Donald Trump is losing the votes he needs as the United States Supreme Court, who may finally have found something that they can do to help our Constitutional Republic, which is the stand up to a lawless president. You know, the amount of losing is really unprecedented for a federal government. You don't see loss after loss after loss like this, and they want to complain that these are activist judges. A lot of these judges, though, are actually, as we talked about earlier, Trump appointed
Starting point is 01:08:40 judges, George W. Bush appointed judges, even Reagan appointed judges. Yes, you have your Obama and Biden and Clinton judges, but it's a mixture of all of them and Trump's poll numbers unprecedented low. Trump losing in court, unprecedentedly high. The amount of losses that are mounting up. And, you know, as we are here, here April 26th we're heading into May we're still less than 100 days in this has been the worst presidency officially in the history of the United States of America that's what Donald Trump has demonstrated and Donald Trump thought that he was going to be able to, with Elon Musk, bulldoze the federal government,
Starting point is 01:09:26 destroy people's will to fight. And they may have wrecked the federal government. It's gonna need a lot of rebuilding, a lot of rebuilding in the future. But he has not destroyed our will. He has not destroyed the people's desire to fight. And as significant as a resistance was during the first Trump administration, I know people were worried that they didn't see that this
Starting point is 01:09:51 time around in Trump too. Here we are in April as we reflect on the fact that the resistance is stronger than it ever was before. The opposition is stronger than it ever was before and this time it seems to be even smarter more sophisticated and really keen on making sure Generationally that these mistakes don't happen again I want to thank all of the Midas mighty and legal a efforts for also helping the Midas touch podcast win the podcast of the year award on the Webbies Next year. We'll try to see if Legal AF can win. Legal AF back to back,
Starting point is 01:10:30 let's go for back to back. That's their top award for all podcasts in the world. And so we're honored that the Webbies gave us that award. And we'll keep on fighting every day. Popaka, people wanna reach out to your personal law firm, if they've got someone in their family that they know are themselves who suffered a catastrophic personal injury,
Starting point is 01:10:51 whether it's a car accident, a trucking accident, sexual assault, a case like that, and they want you to handle it, where can they contact you right now? Very easy, 1-877-POPOCH-AF, or go to the website, www.thepopocfirm.com. On the Legal AF YouTube channel, we're adding 80,000 subscribers a month.
Starting point is 01:11:15 That's all because of you and by doing that, you're allowing me, who's curating the channel, to bring on some amazing new contributors. We're up to a dozen now. We got a couple that are joining us in the next week that I'm gonna be announcing next week. And two after that, you're really gonna be impressed with the quality and the new points of view
Starting point is 01:11:33 that we're bringing onto League LAF, the YouTube channel. We do a collaboration with The Midas Touch. Yeah, we're working with a lot of groups as well. You may have seen, I did an interview with the ACLU this past week with Anthony Romero, their executive director, hoping to have more collaborations with the ACLU and groups like that as well on the Legal AF channel. They can talk about their cases firsthand, what they're doing when they're fighting these cases. And it's a great thing that we're building over there. And
Starting point is 01:12:03 it's thanks to you Legal AFers and Midas Mighty. So check out the Legal AF YouTube channel, subscribe on audio to the Legal AF podcast as well. Thank you, Midas Mighty. Thank you Legal AFers. Always a great time when we get to spend time together. Let's keep fighting for our democracy. Shout out Legal AFers and shout out Midas Mighty.

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