Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode - 7/19/2025

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

Join Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok on the top rated Legal AF podcast, as they take on: (1) the depravity and immorality of Trump and MAGA  House and Senate leadership as they continue to coverup the... Epstein Pedophile Criminal Case and Trump's links to Epstein; 2) why Rupert Murdoch chose now to stick the shiv in Trump by running a story about Trump's close friendship and secret language he used with Epstein; 3) why Trump will rue the day that he filed the "defamation" case against Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal; 4) how Trump creates a permission structure that allows other sexual abuse to go unreported and be "normalized,"  5) how the Supreme Court is out of touch with societal values and morals as it hands Trump another win to allow for the destruction of the Dept. of Education and so much more at the intersection and firewall that defends our democracy. Support Our Sponsors: 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. Sundays for Dogs: Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/LEGALAF or use code LEGALAF at checkout. IQ Bar: Get 20% off all IQBAR products. Text LEGALAF to 64000. (Message and data rates may apply) Uplift: Elevate your workspace and energize your year with Uplift Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/legalaf for a special offer exclusive to our audience. Check Out The Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com/ Subscribe to the NEW Legal AF Substack: https://substack.com/@legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFrills.ca. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino.
Starting point is 00:00:32 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. Nineteen plus to wager Ontario only.
Starting point is 00:00:55 Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor for you charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. The headline, Donald Trump sues Rupert Murdoch. Well, that's a first here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Never thought we'd be reporting that, but let's dig into what this lawsuit is all about. It's Trump versus Murdoch, Wall Street Journal, the writers of this article. A bombshell article came out from the Wall Street Journal this past week with
Starting point is 00:01:34 all of Donald Trump's dark past and connections with Jeffrey Epstein surfacing as Donald Trump covers up the Epstein files. The Wall Street Journal published this expose about a alleged birthday card that Donald Trump set to Jeffrey Epstein when Epstein turned 50 in 2003. According to the wall street journal, they said this was part of a leather bound book of other birthday letters from friends of Epstein. It was described as body. That's a new word in our lexicon body.
Starting point is 00:02:11 But when you look at it, knowing that Epstein was running a sex trafficking ring at this time period, you pull up what Donald Trump wrote in this card, which was described as Donald Trump doodling a naked girl, signing his name in the pubic region of it. And then in the body area in typed words was the following.
Starting point is 00:02:30 Let's pull it up. A voiceover says, there must be more to life than having everything. Yes, there is, Donald says, but I won't tell you what it is. Then Epstein goes, nor will I, since I also know what it is. To which Donald goes, we will I, since I also know what it is. To which Donald goes, we have certain things in common, Jeffrey. To which Epstein goes, yes, we do come to think about it.
Starting point is 00:02:52 To which Donald says, enigmas never age. Enigmas never age. Have you noticed that? To which Jeffrey says, as a matter of fact, it was clear to me the last time I saw you, to which Trump says, a pal is a wonderful thing. Happy birthday and may every day be another wonderful secret. Enigmas never age. May every day be another wonderful secret.
Starting point is 00:03:19 To be clear, as it was described by the Wall Street Journal, that was like the imaginary conversation that Donald Trump wrote that he and Epstein would have had together as part of this letter. And so Donald Trump's response to this Wall Street Journal article was, "'Couldn't be me, I couldn't have done it.'" Let's bring in Michael Popak.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Popak, he says, "'I couldn't have done it.'" I'm not an enigma. He goes, "'Let me tell you why I don't use done it. Let's bring in Michael Popak. Popak, he says, I couldn't have done it. I'm not an enigma. He goes, let me tell you, let me tell you, let me tell you why I don't use the word enigma. I don't know what it means. For real. That's what he goes. It's not a word that I use. OK, well, guess what we have here at the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF evidence. So you do use the word enigma. Let's play it.
Starting point is 00:04:00 Now, Carson's an enigma to me. I didn't say it Carson's an enigma Seem to like that word you do say that you grab women by the end Carson by the way who he eventually appointed in his administration He does say that he grabs women by their genitals without their consent because you're rich and you get away with it and you just start kissing them and grabbing them wherever if you're rich. Remember that's what he said. So play that clip. Did try and fuck her. She was married. No, no, Nancy. No, this was and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture.
Starting point is 00:04:41 I said, I'll show you where they have some nice furniture. I took her out for a trip. I moved in her like a bitch, but I couldn't get there. And she was married. And all of a sudden, I see her. She's now got the big phony tits and everything. She's totally changed her look. I gotta use some Tic Tacs just in case they start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful. I just start kissing them.
Starting point is 00:05:00 It's like a magnet. I just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab them by the pussy. I can do anything. Pull the hand. Hello. How are you? Hi. Well, and around the time that Donald Trump would have sent that birthday letter to Jeffrey Epstein, Mar-a-Lago was used as a location where underage girls would get jobs as towel girl with Virginia Jouffre, who was homeless. Elaine Maxwell and Epstein lived down the block. They'd walk over. They'd go to the towel girl, underage girl,
Starting point is 00:05:39 Hey, you're a towel girl at the Mar-a-Lago,. You like massages. How about I introduce you to Epstein, and then that's how Epstein would sex traffic. Virginia Jouffre, hear it in her own words. This is Virginia Jouffre. Let's play it. Virginia Roberts was working in the spa at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach when British socialite, Ghislaine Maxwell, introduced her to multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein.
Starting point is 00:06:02 The training started immediately. I mean, it was everything down to how to give a blowjob, how to be quiet, be subservient, give Jeffrey what he wants. A lot of this training came from Delanne herself. And being a woman, it kind of surprises you that a woman could actually let stuff like that happen, but not only let it happen, but to groom you into doing it. And then there's Jeffrey who's telling you, I want it this way, no, go slower and don't
Starting point is 00:06:31 do that and do this. But Donald Trump claims that he's been defamed Michael Popok in this $10 billion lawsuit, $10 billion lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch. He said his reputation has been harmed. Welcome to Legal AF there, Michael Popak. Let's start off with this lawsuit, then let's work our way back to how we got here. But what do you make of this lawsuit?
Starting point is 00:06:54 Well, first of all, I don't see it as the way the mainstream media is reporting it. Donald Trump makes good on threat to sue Wall Street Journal and sort of pants off of Rupert Murdoch. I see this as Rupert Murdoch taking on Donald Trump. Rupert Murdoch made a decision along with his family that they were going to publish that article.
Starting point is 00:07:13 And let me just walk you through having done First Amendment cases and represented media before that article got published, the one that you outlined so perfectly, and the facts that were alleged as fair reporting in that article that the reporters used, indicating that they had not only seen, not a discreet card that Donald Trump made, like a scrapbook album created by Jelaine Maxwell in order to give to her co-conspirator and boss and sometime boyfriend Epstein
Starting point is 00:07:55 on his 50th birthday that included pages and pages. Think of it like a scrapbook where they pasted in different custom-made cards and salutations to Jeffrey Epstein. Alan Dershowitz is in there. Of course, he's in there. And the sad part about we keep running as we should, Virginia Dufresne's documentary and clips,
Starting point is 00:08:22 she committed suicide about three months ago. Another victim of Epstein now in the ground. But in the scrapbook, there's lots of people in there. There's Alan Dershowitz, who's also alleged to have been part of the Epstein pedophile ring, although he's denied it. He had some comments in there, a fake Vanity Fair article comparing Jeffrey Epstein to Jack the Ripper when he was reached for comment. He said, well, I'm basically old and I can't remember that far back.
Starting point is 00:08:51 I'll put that down as a yes, you did it. But that's the difference here. This is pages. And one aspect of it is a homemade card that they believe based on their discussions with the FBI and Department of Justice that was involved with the Epstein and Maxwell prosecutions,
Starting point is 00:09:11 including Maureen Comey, potentially, potentially, who just got canned, about whether it's in the book. Yes, it is. What does it look like? Let's see it. They've seen it. They've corroborated it with people in the Department of Justice that weren't named,
Starting point is 00:09:25 they don't have to be named. They just need to be sufficiently corroborated to be credible, fair reporting about this issue under the First Amendment. And I assure you that before it got published, signed off by Rupert Murdoch and Lachlan Murdoch, there is a team of First Amendment lawyers that grilled the editor and the two reporters
Starting point is 00:09:48 about their sources. Let me see your notes. Let me see the actual scrapbook facsimile that you looked at. Who did you talk to? What did the interview notes look like? What are they going to say? And then they gave the green light to the publishing of that.
Starting point is 00:10:02 And that's why Dow Jones, which is the Wall Street Journal parent company owned by Murdoch, came out so strongly and said, we stand by the rigorousness of our reporting and we retract nothing. So the story headline should be Murdoch or revenge is a, to paraphrase Tony Soprano, the great philosopher, revenge is like cold cuts. Murdoch has been looking for a way to paraphrase Tony Soprano, the great philosopher, revenge is like cold cuts. Murdoch has been looking for a way to shiv Donald Trump since Jan 6th and since the $787 million dominion settlement that the Fox News and the Fox Corporation
Starting point is 00:10:39 were forced, had to settle because of all of the team crazies around Donald Trump taking to the air, being put unwillingly by Fox for ratings purposes, including through Tucker Carlson, Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs, to push the big lie of a conspiracy involving Dominion voting systems and Smartmatic and flipping votes from Trump to Biden. That led to a settlement in Delaware after all of those emails and text messages came pouring out into the public because they got filed as part of a summary judgment motion in Delaware. And everybody did poorly on the Murdoch family side in their depositions in those cases,
Starting point is 00:11:16 and those videos and those transcripts all came out. And people got fired, including Tucker Carlson, separated, all of that. That did not sit well with Rupert Murdoch, who said out loud and has not denied that he made the statement that when Jan 6th happened, he hoped this would completely put an end to Donald Trump's political career once and for all, or in his words, it is time to make Trump a non-person.
Starting point is 00:11:43 That's now two, three, four, five years old. That's where the revenge part is a dish best eaten cold comes in. Now you've got, they go to Murdoch and say, we want to run this article. He gives the green light. He's already calculated that he will win the war against Donald Trump. That whatever MAGA wanted to leave
Starting point is 00:12:05 has left Fox News already, that they have more money than Donald Trump does. And this is the final breach. What I love about the story is that apparently, no, factually, Murdoch was being hosted about a day or two earlier in that big FIFA soccer match bullshit up in New Jersey that Donald Trump tried to use for public adulation and ended up getting booed during.
Starting point is 00:12:32 Rupert Murdoch was up there with Trump. I'm sure he didn't whisper to him, hey, we're gonna run an article you may not like. Now the last piece before I turn it back to you on the lawsuit is that I'm not so sure that it's coincidental that within a day of Wall Street Journal contacting the Trump administration and its press secretary, Carol LeVette, and Donald Trump denying the story, that now all of a sudden, Maureen Comey, James Comey's daughter, who prosecuted Jelaine Maxwell,
Starting point is 00:13:08 gets fired before, and a day later, the story comes out. Now, I'm not saying I have credible evidence at the moment that Maureen Comey is the corroborator for the story. Of course, now she's out in the wind. So, but somebody involved with the prosecution, according to the Wall Street Journal, FBI DOJ, confirmed the scrapbook's existence. That page's existence sufficiently
Starting point is 00:13:35 that they didn't say alleged. They said in the headline, there was a birthday album for Epstein and Trump's card was in it. The fact that they went so balls out, continuing our blue streak here on the podcast, that that indicates to me that they know they've got the evidence and they'll survive.
Starting point is 00:13:54 You and I can get into over the course of this podcast, the different defenses, fair reporting, the truth, actual malice, that they will obviously bring up. And then I'll give you later, maybe after our first break, my own theory about why this was filed in Miami. Trump's defense to the article is like how a toddler tries to defend that they weren't the one who dropped the vase or the vase on the floor and cracked it,
Starting point is 00:14:22 and he comes up with, it couldn't have been me. I don't even, I can't even reach it. It's like, well, yes, it's like that, right? I mean, I've never done a drawing in my life. And it's like- Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. He actually, before you run the clip, he's, you've done a lot of great reporting
Starting point is 00:14:39 about the decline of Donald Trump's mental faculties and status. He said he never wrote a picture before. All right, even my toddler knows, and you and I have toddlers, even my toddler knows you don't write a picture, you draw a picture. All right, go ahead.
Starting point is 00:14:54 But then there's not a clip, it's just here's the photo of him drawing like the money tree. I think we have a photo of that. I mean, the guy doodles all the time and all these photos of buildings and he loves sending people doodles. Like that's, I think that's one of his things. And you're able to easily dig this up. So I showed you before he uses the word enigma a lot and he doodles a lot. So that's kind
Starting point is 00:15:18 of an odd defense, but let's just go back and just say, like, like, let's just assume for the sake of argument that the wall street journal, let's just assume they, they got it wrong. And let's just say, like, like, let's just assume for the sake of argument that the Wall Street Journal, let's just assume they got it wrong. And let's just say it was false. You mean, you make an argument for the sake of argument, just to just say, why would this even be defamatory as it relates to Donald Trump? Donald Trump's out there being quoted saying that Epstein is a great guy who likes women on the younger side, okay?
Starting point is 00:15:49 Donald Trump- One year before the card was sent. Exactly, Donald Trump, I'll show you this story from The Guardian, what's worse, okay, what I'm about to read you, or, and by the way, what I'm about to read you happened right around the way what I'm about to read you happened right around the time of that alleged letter being sent or a birthday letter saying enigma and our secrets enigma and secrets in the context of Epstein's
Starting point is 00:16:17 running a sex trafficking ring you know is like that's kind of a strange language to be using secrets and enigma at that time but but this is what happened at that time. So you had this guy named George Arani. He was a businessman whose American Dream calendar girl beauty contest was running in Vegas casinos since 1978. And he recalls encountering Epstein at Mar-a-Lago
Starting point is 00:16:39 in January, 1993. Arani says that Trump asked him to organize a party that month with some of his pageants finalists, promising to invite heads of modeling agencies and prospective sponsors for his competition. He had me fly in all these girls and gave me a thirty thousand dollar budget for airfares and limos to pick them up at the airport. The girls were all decked out expecting to meet all these VIPs. pick them up at the airport. The girls were all decked out,
Starting point is 00:17:02 expecting to meet all these VIPs. But after an hour at the party, Orrin, he says, there seemed to be only one other guest, Epstein. I was like, Donald, where are the other guys? What's going on here? And he said, well, this is it. Orrin, he says, he realized, this is basically just a Jeffrey Epstein party.
Starting point is 00:17:22 Or how about this, around the same time period? He would comment on their genitals Trump is accused of forcing models to walk on restaurant tables So he could stick his head up their skirt. What about Epstein's? Former girlfriend Kyler. She was just on CNN and she says I'm not Kyler Williams She was on the show with Kyler. Um, and she goes Epstein, they were bros. She goes, I was around Epstein. They were bros. Trump was, Trump was the wingman. Epstein was Trump's wingman. This is the girlfriend of Epstein and one of Epstein's former girlfriends here play this clip.
Starting point is 00:18:02 And how did Epstein talk about Trump? Sort was the quality of those anecdotes and how he described him? Well, there was a time when he mentioned he needed to check in on him because he was unwell and very upset about something that had happened. I remember because he was late to pick me up and he was explaining why he was late. They were just, you know, it was such a long time ago, but it was just part of that. That was his bro.
Starting point is 00:18:36 That was his wingman. It was clearly. I'd hear about Guilan and I'd hear about Jeffrey. And I met Guilan in his house. She would come wafting in and out, the home in New York. So he was clearly just someone that he talked about all the time. And again, I met Jeffrey the second time
Starting point is 00:18:55 when we started dating based on the reintroduction that happened at the Plaza Hotel at a Christmas party in 1992 that Donald Trump threw. And they were very, very close. Okay, so my broader point though is, like again, let's just say Wall Street Journal, even though I believe they had a rigorous standards for this, let's say they whiffed, okay?
Starting point is 00:19:23 All of the stuff that I just showed you is out there as undisputed facts that exists, you know, pretty much out there. So the question is, what are Trump saying a letter that says that is somehow a defamatory, is defamatory what you're saying that you weren't friends with Epstein during that period. I wanna analyze that, because I think it's an important element. Then I wanna analyze Popak, the discovery
Starting point is 00:19:52 that this opens up Pandora's box to Donald Trump's relationship with Epstein. It could factor Ghislaine Maxwell as a key witness, and she can speak her part right now. You can do depositions in prison. It's the dumbest lawsuit I've ever seen. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that.
Starting point is 00:20:07 I wanna remind everybody that Michael Popok has a law firm. A lot of our legal AFers had been saying to Popok, you gotta start your own firm. Popok started his own firm, and we've been getting a huge amount of calls from our audience and our listeners. So if you have been in an accident, if you're the victim of an accident, whether that's a bad car accident, a bad trucking accident, a medical malpractice,
Starting point is 00:20:36 if you know somebody who's been in a bad accident or been involved in a catastrophic injury or a wrongful death or been a victim of sexual assault, maybe at the workplace or somewhere else or sexual harassment or any case like that. Call a PO-POK. His firm will take the call, free consultations. When they represent you, it's on a contingency, meaning they only recover if you recover. PO-POK, where can they reach out to you? No, we made it very, very simple. Thanks, Ben, for that intro. It is a 1-800 number, if you recover. POPAC work and they reach out to you. Yeah, we made it very, very simple. Thanks Ben for that intro. It is a 1-800 number if you wanna talk to somebody directly. 1-877-POPAC, that's P-O-P-O-K-A-F,
Starting point is 00:21:16 made it easy for you and for me. And website, if you wanna go there and start the process through a free case evaluation contact form and read more about the firm and what we do, you can go to www.thehopakfirm.com. Everybody make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel
Starting point is 00:21:40 on their way to one million subscribers and make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF Substack and course, make sure you're subscribed here on the Midas Touch Network. All right. We will be right back after a quick break from our pro-democracy sponsors. 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. Miracle Maid sheets are inspired by NASA and use silver infused fabrics that are temperature regulating
Starting point is 00:22:10 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 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
Starting point is 00:22:32 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 legal AF to try Miracle made sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today, you can save over 40%. And if you use our
Starting point is 00:23:00 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. 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.
Starting point is 00:23:27 Again, that's trymiracle.com slash LegalAF to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Maid for sponsoring this episode. In this crazy upside down world that we're working to make sense of, I have no better judge of character than my lab boarder, Kali Lilly. And having given her her forever home, we take pride in making sure that we feed her healthy fresh dog food while making sure we don't break our back or the bank doing so.
Starting point is 00:23:51 And my family is thrilled to have found Sundays for Lily. Having tried other freezer box brands and we noticed the improved health of our dog almost right away. First, she loves the flavor and we love what it's done to her coat, eyes, and breath. And with her weight management, so much easier to manage her weight
Starting point is 00:24:09 with a scoop of Sundaes than any other product we tried. And this product is super easy for us to store and serve. It doesn't require refrigeration or the delivery of dozens of pounds of ice packs. Sundaes is fresh dog food made from a short list of human-grade ingredients. Sundaes contains fresh dog food made from a short list of human grade ingredients. Sundaes contains 100% all natural meat and superfoods and 0% synthetic nutrients or artificial ingredients.
Starting point is 00:24:32 Dog parents report noticeable health improvements in their pups, including softer fur, fresher breath, better poops and more energy after switching to Sundaes. Unlike other fresh dog foods, Sundaes does not require refrigeration or preparation because of their air drying process. Just pour and serve. Cancel or pause your subscription anytime with their 14-day money back guarantee. Every order ships right to your door so you'll never worry about running out of dog food again. Did I mention how easy and convenient it is
Starting point is 00:25:03 to store the bags? Insert big wife smile here. Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to Sundaysfordogs.com slash LegalAF or use code LegalAF at checkout. Welcome back to LegalAF. Thank you to our sponsors. They make this show possible without outside investors. That's how LegalAF and the Midas Touch Network grows. So thank you to all of them. Oh, and lots of people I saw were calling the Popak firm. So also in the description below, if you want to, you can click the website in the description below. All right, Popak, let's get into it. You described this as the stupidest lawsuit ever from a legal perspective. It's frivolous. It opens up Donald Trump to discovery. Trump's like, I'm gonna take Rupert's deposition.
Starting point is 00:25:47 You probably aren't. Rupert will get dismissed right away in this case. There's really no basis to sue Rupert Murdoch at all for this as an apex person in the organization. So good luck with that lawsuit, number one. Number two, they're gonna take your deposition. And Michael Cohen, I think really showed the path of how you deal with the Donald Trump lawsuit.
Starting point is 00:26:08 The way you deal with it is you right away, notice his deposition, call him out. It doesn't matter how many documents you need, just call his deposition, put him under oath, and then Trump folds. He breaks right away and runs away from his deposition. Now in other cases where he's tried to get out of his deposition, where he's had to take the deposition, one of them in New York,
Starting point is 00:26:31 he invoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination, you know, in, in case, in and let me show you right here though, the deposition in the E Jean Carroll case, um, which, which he sat for that deposition, and he finally was compelled and had to speak. Here's what went down. So he was describing why it was that he wouldn't have
Starting point is 00:26:57 sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll, and he said, she's not my type, not my type. And then he goes to the lawyer who's asking him the questions, Roberta Kaplan, and he goes, me, you's not my type, not my type. And then he goes to the lawyer who's asking him the questions, Roberta Kaplan, and he goes, you're not my type either. I wouldn't sexually assault you because you're not my type. Here's what he says. Here, let's play it.
Starting point is 00:27:14 When you said in that video that Ms. Leeds would not be your first choice, you were referring to her physical looks, correct? Just the overall, I look at her, I see her, I hear what she says, whatever. You wouldn't be a choice of mine either, to be honest with you, I hope you're not insulted. I would not, under any circumstances, have any interest in you.
Starting point is 00:27:37 I'm being, I'm honest when I say it. She, I would not have any interest in. The question was sexually, he's saying I wouldn't have sexually. He melds interest. Yeah, I won't rape you, Robbie. I want to be because you're not my type to the lawyer. And then earlier he goes regarding the Access Hollywood tapes that we played. He's like and he's like, well, it's true.
Starting point is 00:28:01 You know, that's what men say, you know, historically for millions of years, that's just the way it is. Fortunately or unfortunately, rich men grab women by their genitals without their consent. And fortunately or unfortunately, here's what he said at that deposition. And you say, and again, this has become very famous
Starting point is 00:28:21 in this video, I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet, just kiss, I don't even wait, and when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything, grab them by the pussy, you can do anything. That's what you said, correct? Well, historically that's true with stars. It's true with stars that they can grab women by the pussy? Well, that's what, it's, if you look over the last million years, I guess that's been largely true, not always, but largely true. Unfortunately, or fortunately. You consider yourself to be a star?
Starting point is 00:29:05 I think you can say that. Yeah. And so you see Michael Popak. He doesn't do well in depositions. Doesn't do well in depositions. This one will be about, in this case, against Murdoch. Murdoch will have the best lawyers out there. By the way, Roberta Kaplan's, you know, maybe he hires Roberta Kaplan, but he'll have the best lawyers out there, like Roberta Kaplan,
Starting point is 00:29:26 and they're gonna go into all the connections with Epstein. I mean, could you imagine what that deposition will look like? Trump can't get out of that deposition. He sued. Okay, let's go and I'll connect it right to the lawsuit filed in Miami. In the Roberta, he's so disgusting that there is reporting, including from Robby Kaplan herself, that at the end of that, I don't know if it was that day of the deposition or another day of the deposition, when he stood up, he called through a secret abbreviation that everybody knows, he called Robbie Kaplan the C-word on the way out.
Starting point is 00:30:00 He said to her on the way out, I'll see you next Tuesday, literally. And she was confused. And she reports that she asked her staff, we don't have anything on Tuesday. What is he talking about? And they had to tell her, he just called you the C word.
Starting point is 00:30:13 That's how Donald Trump goes into any relationship with a woman on the other side. It is, we all know by now his misogyny, his abuse of women, it's legion, it's not legendary, it's notorious. And you didn't show the clip, although we have shown it before on Midas Touch, where he stepped into, he was easily, a trap was easily laid for him in the deposition, which he stepped right into about that same issue about whether somebody was his type or not his type. He then screwed up because he was shown a photo by Robbie Kaplan of a picture of himself with E. Jean Carroll, his first wife, Ivana, and her husband, John Johnson, a reporter in New
Starting point is 00:31:07 York. And he said, well, yeah, there's me with Marla Maples. And she said, I mean, Robbie was not ready for that. She said, I'm sorry, what are you talking about? The person you're pointing to, you think that's Marla Maples? Obviously somebody that he did found to be his type. And he said, yeah, that's me and Marla Maples. And then Alina Haba had to bail him out and say, that's, that's E. Jean Carroll. That's Carroll, you know, because she had to help out daddy. And he said, Oh, wait, that's Carroll. So and that got played. And that was one of the major things that led to his losing an $83 million defamation case. The reason we're going on about this is Donald Trump is terrible in deposition. And the lawsuit that he filed,
Starting point is 00:31:50 not only does it republish the very thing that apparently he thinks is defamatory in excruciating detail within the body of the complaint, which he didn't have to do. I mean, he goes over every detail, the black Sharpie marker being used on the woman's genitalia for pubic hair and the obscene photo and the comment,
Starting point is 00:32:15 I mean, over and over again. Then he lists all the social media places that republished it. I was hoping Midas would be in there. I'd look closely, he skipped Midas would be in there. I looked closely. He skipped Midas on purpose, I'm sure, because I'm sure we're giving him, we're giving that story the biggest runway. But that gets filed. He files in Miami a short 18-page, relatively short complaint led by Alexander Brito, a Coral Gables lawyer near my office, who already sued, I guess you'd say successfully,
Starting point is 00:32:47 the Paramount and CBS throwing the Tiffany Network into the gutter along with 60 Minutes, which ultimately led to Stephen Colbert losing a 30-year career on television because he criticized publicly his parent company for settling with Donald Trump over a 60 minutes interview with Kamala Harris. And the same breed brought the case against ABC News
Starting point is 00:33:11 and Stephanopoulos, because Stephanopoulos, in an interview with Nancy Mace about E. Jean Carroll's case that we just talked about, said that he was a judge to be a rapist instead of a sexual abuser. And Donald Trump was going to sue for defamation for the difference in a jury's mind between rape and sexual abuse. Which the judge in that case already said
Starting point is 00:33:30 had been resolved that he was technically a rapist as a judge by the jury. So, but you had these settlements by these parent companies. Again, this is why you and I so focus our careers on independent commentary and journalism without corporate parenting and look to our supporters, our audience, for the support that we need.
Starting point is 00:33:51 So you've got that going on. The suit gets filed. I look carefully thinking, well, they're going to shoot for canon, right? File the case in the same division of the federal district, Southern District of Florida that I practice in, which runs from Fort Pierce down to Key West, file it in West Palm Beach over the bridge from Mar-a-Lago. Makes sense? You got a 50% chance of getting Cannon again?
Starting point is 00:34:17 Try it, why not? Cannon so helped them out in the Mar-a-Lago espionage, obstruction of justice case. I mean, who helped them out more than her? Declaring for the first time in 200 years that a special counsel can't be appointed without Senate confirmation by an attorney general. By the way, the Trump administration just did exactly that in trying to, and they're going to do it again in New Jersey, trying to do an end run around the interim attorney's,
Starting point is 00:34:42 the interim US attorney problem that they have. This is an administration that's six months in the making. They haven't gotten one federal judge through. They haven't gotten one US attorney confirmed. Well, that's for another day and another hot take on their podcast. So I'm thinking Cannon, right? Take the shot.
Starting point is 00:34:59 Maybe you get Rosenberg, maybe you get Middlebrooks, but you got a pretty good shot at getting Cannon. No, they clicked the box for Miami. Now they filed some other cases in Miami that didn't go well for them. So it's not like, yeah, we'll do well in Miami. Michael Cohen case in front of Judge Gale, terrible. For them, not for Michael.
Starting point is 00:35:16 Michael, great, terrible for them. Folded right when the deposition was about to be taken and other things. So no real great track record in Miami. So why Miami? So I have a working theory that I will develop and keep an eye on that they want to keep Cannon on the bench and they don't want the awkwardness of having a case in front of her in case Pamela Jo Bondi gets finally fed through the wood chipper completely by Laura Loomer and others and has to be removed
Starting point is 00:35:45 as attorney general because there was very good reporting at the time during it was never really denied by the Trump administration when he was president elect that they had a that there was a chart that had Aileen Cannon, Aileen Cannon as the attorney general, Todd Blanchett as the number two, not Pam Bondi. And now that Pam Bondi may be on the way out over the Epstein scandal, which it looks very likely, they may not want to, to me, I don't think they wanted the awkwardness of having
Starting point is 00:36:16 a case in front of her and then having her slide over to be made attorney general and have to get Senate confirmed. That's a theory. I'll keep an eye on it. The case that just got filed, I agree with you. I don't understand it. First of all, I don't know about motion to dismiss, certainly summary judgment, everybody likely gets out of this.
Starting point is 00:36:38 Truth is a defense, Donald Trump has to carry his burden of showing actual malice, a standard under the Supreme Court precedent, which is still standing, of Times v. Sullivan, which says that the paper has to run the article either knowing it's false, no way, or that they recklessly disregarded its truth or falsity. They have an insider, it's not the name, but the concept is in the article, inside the Department of Justice, who prosecuted Maxwell and gave them or showed them or confirmed for them all of that, the scrapbook with the page devoted to Donald Trump's entry.
Starting point is 00:37:15 So they have that. There's also the fair reporting defense, which papers get to use. And Donald Trump knows well, cause he tried to use the fair reporting privilege against E. Jean Carroll to continue this loop here on this segment, because he tried to say when he was denying E. Jean Carroll's charge of rape,
Starting point is 00:37:34 that he was just doing fair reporting and should be given that defense like a media outlet. That got rejected, but he understands fair reporting. But here you've got a document, whether it came out of the grand jury evidence toolbox, or it came out of the cutting room floor of other evidence and materials, Brady or other materials, collected by the government that was or was not used
Starting point is 00:37:55 against Jalaine Maxwell. It's something that the paper, having gotten a copy of it, needs to be able to report on it. That's the principles of free speech and First Amendment and freedom of the press. What were they supposed, what's in Donald Trump's world? They're supposed to ignore this? Once they get it, they just have to confirm
Starting point is 00:38:13 that it's authentic, that it's not a hoax, which they did, and that it's not fabricated. I mean, there have been stories in history, you and I would be remiss if we didn't talk about it. There have been papers that weren't really papers and diaries like Hitler's diary that wasn't really Hitler's diary and papers ran with those stories.
Starting point is 00:38:32 I get it, but not this story and not the Wall Street Journal and not Rupert Murdoch. This was done intentionally in order to draw out Donald Trump and see what his next move would be. And they figured out they can weather the storm with their, they assume they can weather the storm with their Fox News platform. But this is Murdoch in his final days,
Starting point is 00:38:54 because you know, guy's almost 100 years old, and Lachlan Murdoch saying, we're gonna take on Donald Trump and we don't care of the repercussions. The lawsuit has not yet, at least on our recording, our live, has not been yet assigned, but there's very few judges there that are gonna be favorable for Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:39:11 And he could pull somebody like Gales or one of the other judges like Williams who have had cases involving the Trump administration that have not gone the Trump administration's way already. The judge is gonna be important here. I'll report on that once it comes out. Process and procedure, the suit's way already. The judge is gonna be important here. I'll report on that once it comes out. Process and procedure, the suit's been filed. If it's been served, there's 20 days,
Starting point is 00:39:32 maybe 30 days in this case, depending on how it was served, for the Wall Street Journal and the rest to file their response to the case. It could be an early motion to dismiss, or it could be exactly what you proposed, Ben, which is, once you're in the 30 day mark, they can set the deposition whenever they want.
Starting point is 00:39:51 And you and I, in our cases, have set early depositions, catching the other side off guard with like, well, don't you want to get my documents? No, I don't need your documents. You already denied the existence of this thing. Sit in the box, get sworn in and let's go. And I've done that as strategy. I'm sure that's something they'll do there
Starting point is 00:40:09 to call Donald Trump's bluff. Donald Trump doesn't think he's gonna win this case. He thinks either, he didn't have to list the $80 billion number either in a pleading. Well, you have to say it's over the jurisdictional limit amount requirement, which it was for diversity jurisdiction, which is two different residents of two different states to get into federal court.
Starting point is 00:40:30 But he did for publicity standpoint, he doesn't care about this case. He doesn't think he's gonna win this case. He just needs a talking point to distract from what you've outlined and you and I have outlined on legal AF and Midas Dutch, which was a terrible, terrible Epstein week for Donald Trump. FBI caught scrubbing and searching for Donald Trump's names
Starting point is 00:40:50 in all of the files. His former chief of staff going on Al Jazeera to say that he's sure that there's information about Donald Trump in the Epstein files. All of MAGA world and leadership coming out against Donald Trump to release the files. And then Donald Trump says, release the files, but he doesn't really ask for the files to be released. It's a subset. We don't give a shit about the D. I care about the grand jury transcripts,
Starting point is 00:41:16 but once they're completely sanitized, I don't care about that. I want the evidence box. I want the search warrant results from the search warrant in the home in Florida and in the Upper East Side townhouse. I mean, Michael Wolfe, Michael Wolfe, the journalist who's been on Legal.io, been on Midas Touch, says, I interviewed for hours, Jeffrey Epstein, in 2014 for a book. He showed me the safe, I saw the photos, I saw the photos, this is Michael Wolff's testimony.
Starting point is 00:41:46 I saw the photos of Donald Trump with a young girl on his lap with a stain on Donald Trump's pants. That's Michael Wolff's journalism, right? That's his story, that's what he has said. You never hear a denial from Trump World on that. And so what happened to the safe? What happened to the materials in there? This is a pedophile.
Starting point is 00:42:06 I'm sure he kept artifacts of his depraved conduct somewhere in there. That's what we wanna see. Is there a client list? I don't know, but let's look through all of his papers, his documents, and his hard drive. Where is that? It's not the grand jury that we want.
Starting point is 00:42:22 That's a distractor again for Donald Trump, hoping that the media will run after that. But the lawsuit is the dumbest thing at this moment. It's literally pouring, it's like pouring kerosene onto a barbecue as it blows up in your face. He arms though his MAGA zombies with their talking point. He filed the lawsuit, $10 billion. He doesn't doodle. He doesn't use this language. Why would the information not already be out there
Starting point is 00:42:55 if Donald Trump was on it? It is out there. That's what I'm trying to tell you. 10% of the file has been released. Donald Trump's name appears more than almost anybody else's other than Epstein and Ghislaine. I mean, Donald Trump is on the flight logs, he's on the call logs, he's in the black book. We showed you Virginia Joufray talking about when she was an underage girl. She was recruited for the sex trafficking ring at Mar-a-Lago.
Starting point is 00:43:22 That's an undisputed fact. Trump saying Epstein's a great guy. All of these stories about Trump partying with Epstein, having what I read for you all, it's out, like it's actually out there. And I think some of my frustration being a journalist was I'm saying, hello, like, do you see what this guy's saying? You know, and how are you okay with that?
Starting point is 00:43:46 Like his language, and by the way, he's been found liable by a jury for sexual assault. He's been found liable in a civil case. What's his defamation? That a letter hurts his reputation more than a finding by a jury, that he sexually assaulted E.
Starting point is 00:44:05 Jean Carroll and that he's on tape bragging about it. I've shown clips before of Donald Trump at young Republican events recently, 2024 saying that he loved how he called, uh, sexually assaulting women on the access Hollywood tape. Locker room talk. He was speaking to high school kids. Locker room talk to kids. I mean, he's on video tape saying that. You know, I showed him in a high school in Iowa.
Starting point is 00:44:36 I'm not gonna play the clip because people get grossed out when I play it. When during a speech like Melania knows that I don't like golden showers. They say that I, I like to get peed on by hookers. Melania knows I would never do that. Like you're in a high school. Why, why are you bringing that up? And why is this society? Are we all just not like, this is outrageous. You know, there's a standard for intentional infliction of emotional distress. You know, there's a standard for intentional infliction of emotional distress. And the standard is like, would that just make you go outrageous?
Starting point is 00:45:08 Is that beyond the bounds of a civilized society? And truly Donald Trump's conduct always, in my view, met the standards of intentional infliction of emotional distress of the people. You know, because, but it was always like, well, Donald Trump gave a speech in Iowa today and the speech focused on bringing down the price of mortgages. And I'm like, no, he talked about getting peed on by a hooker.
Starting point is 00:45:35 Did you hear what he just said? What are you talking about? Why are you normalizing this? Is your brain mush? And that's always been like, and I think why Midas Touch has grown the way it has is that the rest of the human beings out there, by and large, other than this Maga mush crew are like, yeah, thank you. We heard him say it. And I'm like, yeah,'re leading the media now and leading cable news. It's like, at least for now, it's like people like, okay, I get it. Like this is an important issue to focus on because he doesn't have the it to me.
Starting point is 00:46:15 It deals with everything else. All of his other lies, whether it's about, you know, he's going to bring peace to Ukraine in 24 hours, whether he's going to make things more affordable. He now claims inflation is gone and he's fixed everything. He claims we're living in a golden age. He claims he's brought through 17 trill. He's brought in 17 trillion dollars and everything's amazing. And it's like guys, gals, this is a felon.
Starting point is 00:46:40 OK, this is a bad guy. This is a sexual abuser in a civil case. This is a bankruptor. This is a loser. This is a guy who hung out with Jeffrey Epstein and John Casablancas. This is who this guy is. Listen, this information that you're giving,
Starting point is 00:46:57 which is so important, is aimed at the independents, the moderates, and the Democrats, because the Republicans,, the moderates, and the Democrats, because the Republicans, the MAGA Republicans, and even the country club Republicans don't care. The polling has gone up for Donald Trump since the revelations about Epstein. 92% of Republicans now think Donald Trump is doing a great job,
Starting point is 00:47:21 up from 88%. So they are sticking with him and we have to stick it to them by using everything in our power on this network and on Legal AF to draw attention to it the way that you have, the way the brothers have, the way all contributors have, because we're fighting for the heart and soul
Starting point is 00:47:41 and the hearts and minds of not the Magagoo and the Republicans that believe we're attacking their fearless leader. And therefore they're going to stand with them. And the more we attack in some perverse upside down world, the more they're going to support him. They are a lost cause. We will never penetrate, no matter how much content and how many views we get, we're never gonna penetrate that self-created bubble that they have placed themselves in, of self-preservation apparently, to believe the mythology of Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:48:18 But fortunately, we don't have to convert everybody in this country. We just have to tell the truth, which we do, every hour, every day, to the people that can make the difference in the vote count come the midterms and the 2028 election and beyond to reclaim this country. It's not about making America great again. It's about reclaiming the democracy that is the promise of our constitution and ultimately our bill of rights. And so when we talk about, I want people to think that we're creating an echo chamber,
Starting point is 00:48:50 that we're immune, that we do live in a little bit of an alternate universe, but we have a lot of people here we're trying to continue to bring in. There's, I think the reason, as a flip side to that number I just gave, that more than 70% of independents have headed for the exits on this administration six months in, is because of the focus and the
Starting point is 00:49:13 reporting and the commentary on Midas Touch and on Legal IF. That is for sure. So we have to keep up that heavy revelation of our reporting to go for there. But I don't want, I know the comments have come up like, they'll never listen, who can, right, let them vote, but we need to outnumber them at the midterms and beyond. I wanna talk about, I have a perspective on that as well. That's similar, but slightly, I don't want to say different, but how I view it. But I will talk about that when we get back.
Starting point is 00:49:49 I want to remind everybody to check out the Legal AF YouTube channel. Let's get that channel a million subscribers. No reason, it shouldn't have a million right now. Just go and hit subscribe there. Secondly, subscribe to the Legal AF sub stack. And then as well, the PO-POK firm is crushing it. So many Legal AFers, listeners, subscribers
Starting point is 00:50:12 with their own legal cases have given a call. We've signed up so many clients. You've signed up so many clients. The types of cases, catastrophic injury, meaning if you're the victim of a bad car accident where you had to have surgeries, a trucking accident, where like surgeries were required. If you know people who were killed in an accident, unfortunately, wrongful death cases, sexual harassment and sexual assault cases, whether it's at the workplace or elsewhere, medical
Starting point is 00:50:39 malpractice cases, consultations free, the cases are handled on a contingency, meaning you're not paying hourly for lawyers. They only recover if you recover. POPOC, where can they reach up? Thanks, Ben. Easy. 1-877-POPOC-AF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. We have people standing by to talk about your case and evaluate it and all that good stuff. And then if you'd rather just go onto a website, I appreciate that, go to www.thepopakfirm.com. We've got an amazing group of national trial lawyers in every jurisdiction that are expert in what they do, that work with me.
Starting point is 00:51:21 In fact, I'm getting together with them in a conference in August in Chicago. But this has been such an honor and a blessing for me to be able to provide this kind of legal service off the back of everything that you and I do on Legal AF. When we come back, I want to talk about Jim Jordan had his deposition taken in the Ohio State University case involving a doctor on the wrestling team who was sexually assaulting the athletes and Jim Jordan covered up for that doctor. We're going to talk about that. I'm going to show everybody what we know about that. I've actually interviewed Michael DeSabato, one of the victims.
Starting point is 00:52:06 I'll be airing that interview tomorrow. He's given me an exclusive email with Jim Jordan that nobody's seen, that'll drop tomorrow. We'll talk about that, and we'll talk about a Supreme Court ruling when we get back as well. Let's take our last break. This episode is brought to you by IQ Bar,
Starting point is 00:52:22 our exclusive snack sponsor. IQ Bar is the better for you plant protein based snack made with brain boosting nutrients to refuel, nourish, and satisfy hunger without the sugar crash. Let me tell you, staying sharp and fueled during long days of legal and political analysis isn't always easy, but IQ Bar makes it a whole lot simpler. These bars are packed with clean plant-based protein
Starting point is 00:52:45 and nutrients that support both your body and your brain. And they're free of gluten, dairy, soy, GMOs, and artificial sweeteners, which means no crash, no guilt, just a smart snack that works as hard as you do. When I tried the sampler pack, I didn't expect to love lemon blueberry as much as I did. Bright, refreshing, and it powered me through a back to back to back recording day.
Starting point is 00:53:08 I keep one in my bag now, always. With over 20,000 five-star reviews, it's no surprise IQ Bar has become the go-to for folks who want to snack smarter with bars, hydration mixes, and even mushroom coffee. And right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners, 20% off all IQ Bar products,
Starting point is 00:53:27 plus get free shipping. To get your 20% off, text LegalAF to 64,000. Text LegalAF to 64,000. That's LegalAF to 64,000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Physio, chiropractic, and massage therapy are all great resources for when you need them.
Starting point is 00:53:49 But going to these appointments every few months does not give me the ultimate results I'm looking for when it comes to my well-being. It's taking daily, even hourly, opportunities to move my body that makes the biggest difference. This has only been made possible for me with this episode's sponsor, Uplift Desk. Uplift Desk is at the forefront of ergonomic solutions,
Starting point is 00:54:14 promoting better posture and health through adjustable standing desks, designed to help you live a healthier lifestyle. Plus they have all kinds of accessories to keep you moving throughout the day, even if you work for only a few hours at your desk. For me, I love the bamboo motion export. It makes me feel like snowboarding without waiting for the lift. Standing while I work gives me the room to move and helps me get the creative juices flowing. Moving throughout the day helps me focus
Starting point is 00:54:43 and stay productive. And I'm way more alert when I'm using my standing desk and I have more energy. A desk should fit the user, which is why Uplift Desk has a lot of customization options so you can build your perfect workspace. With more than 200,000 configurations, Uplift Desk allows you to tailor your workspace to perfectly suit your style and needs, empowering you to create an environment that inspires productivity and creativity. For me, I built the custom standing desk of my dreams from Uplift, from my pop-pock media offices where I make a lot of my hot takes and content for Legal AF, and so I went all out with a Heritage Oak Top
Starting point is 00:55:26 and their Advanced Angled Keypad for the lift part. Make this year yours by going to upliftdesk.com slash Legal AF and use our code LegalAF to get four free accessories, free same-day shipping, free returns, and an industry-leading 15-year warranty that covers your entire desk, and an extra discount off your entire order. That's U-P-L-I-F-T-D-E-S-K.com slash Legal AF for a special offer, and it's only available at our link. Start 2025 right, stand, move, thrive with Uplift Desk. Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all our pro-democracy sponsors. Support them in the description below. You'll see the discount codes. uplift desk. people who cover up for him cover up for everything. So, Donald Trump gives his marching orders,
Starting point is 00:56:25 Maggie Mike Johnson and Jim Jordan and the Republican just go, he couldn't have done it, it's a hoax, hoax. The Epstein hoax, do this and do that. And then Maggie Mike Johnson says, Trump could never have wrote that letter because he doesn't do drawings and he doesn't talk like that. Obviously you've seen he does and he doesn't talk like that. Obviously you've seen he does draw.
Starting point is 00:56:47 He does talk like that. He talks actually much worse than what we saw in the letter. But here just play Mag and Mike sirens on drugs because it's someone drew a in 2003 might have drawn a picture of a I don't know a body letter before the guy even you know, all the real before the guy even, you know, all the real info hadn't even been out at that point, I don't think, about this guy. The president and I talked about that ridiculous allegation this morning. He said it's patently absurd.
Starting point is 00:57:16 He's never drawn such a picture. He's never thought of drawing such a picture. And he said, did you see the language of this bogus supposed communication or card or something? I supposedly sent to Epstein. He said I don't talk like that. I don't think like that. They're literally making things up He's so frustrated by it and he's gonna wind up I think suing some of the media outlets that that had put all this out there because they informed them that it was totally Contrived so look the president is the most maligned and attacked political figure in the history of American politics. There's no question about it, but he's also the most resilient. And you see at the same time, his approval ratings.
Starting point is 00:57:52 And Popak, you make the point to me separately on our side chat that why is that even on CNBC? Well, because that one host is an ultra MAGA guy, and they've allowed their financial coverage to be co-opted by propaganda by the Trump regime and by other corporate interests that are collusive in nature and trying to screw over the regular folk. And speaking about screwing over the regular folk, I mean, you know, I agree, Popeye, this is an important issue for the midterms, but I've always, I always view it very separate, you know, you know, separate. And to me, this is where my wife always says, well, Ben, you do like politics. Stop saying you don't like politics.
Starting point is 00:58:34 And the reality is, maybe I do. I don't know. I don't like politicians, but I like human beings and people and I like speaking to people and trying to offer my legal background, which I utilized for 15 years before doing this to try to just to try to be helpful and navigate crazy and turbulent times and get to the truth. That's what I'm trying to be focused on. So to me, as I look at all of this, we know it's undisputed that Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were involved in a sex trafficking ring involving dozens, potentially hundreds, maybe even thousands of young girls who were sexually assaulted and abused and had their lives destroyed. We know some of them
Starting point is 00:59:27 through the cases. We don't know all of them. And we know that this sex trafficking ring involved rich men, decamillionaires and billionaires who preyed on young girls. And when Donald Trump and MAGA say this is all a hoax created by James Comey and Obama and Clinton, it is, I'm at a loss of words to describe what an awful thing that is. And I just think sometimes in a political environment, it does get gamified in the sense of here's the democratic position, here's now the MAGA position, here's where the independents are and let's bring on the talking heads. You saw on CNBC, you have the Trump supporters, they have their talking points.
Starting point is 01:00:32 Okay, now bring on a Democrat and a Republican and let's fight it out. Nah, F that. Like in my view, you're covering up for a sex trafficking ring of young girls that we know exists. When Trump says it's a hoax and not just shut down the investigation, not just don't produce the files, shut down the investigation, you're enabling the worst of the worst behavior imaginable out there. So, to me, I just think at a human level. And then when we see Donald Trump in these settings, you know, you know, in the Access Hollywood tape, you know, as he walks,
Starting point is 01:01:14 he's about to see a woman that he's about to have a business interaction with a professional interaction with. And he's saying all of these things about her body, how he grabs women by their genitals, he can't stop himself. He just does it. And then he talks about her chest there, you know, and then he goes out and he goes, and he goes, good to see you, good to see how are you after being in the bus like that. And we see that that's not, it's not a, it's, it's disgusting. It's disqualifying. It's vie, it's vile. And it seems to me that, that these vile people have all found each other. I mean, you have Maga Mike, you have Jim Jordan. He had his deposition taken on Friday. He was an assistant wrestling coach at the Ohio State University,
Starting point is 01:02:06 where there was this guy, Dr. Strauss, and Dr. Strauss would bring in the male athletes and sexually assault them by performing examinations is what he called them, but they weren't examinations. He would sexually assault the athletes. And when I speak to him, you'll see the interview I dropped tomorrow with Michael DeSabato. He's like, Jim Jordan was in the showers with us. Jim Jordan saw it.
Starting point is 01:02:30 Jim Jordan knew what was going on. We all knew what was going on. We just, we were men. We didn't know how to articulate what was happening to us. We were afraid of getting cut from the team or not being as part of the team. And so now knowing that, let me show you a few data points. First, a super cut that might as touch made
Starting point is 01:02:49 of Jim Jordan and his relationship to Dr. Strauss. Strauss has since died. But here, let me show you this, your play. Five, former Ohio State wrestlers accusing Republican Congressman Jim Jordan of knowing about a team doctor's alleged sexual misconduct. 43 men who say they were sexually assaulted, abused, molested or harassed by Dr. Richard Strauss.
Starting point is 01:03:12 Hundreds of sexual assault victims of Ohio State University Dr. Richard Strauss have never been closer to getting their day in court. The United States Supreme Court today rejecting OSU's bid to dismiss lawsuits brought against the university. Today the Supreme Court left in place a ruling to move forward with lawsuits against the late Dr. Richard Strauss. This allows more than 230 men to sue the Ohio State University over decades old sexual abuse by Strauss. And now here is Michael de Sabato's younger brother, Adam de Sabato, at a hearing in Ohio's legislature talking about how Jim Jordan called him, Adam, who's one of the victims, and said, you can't be with your brother anymore.
Starting point is 01:04:05 You can't help him. You can't come out with what happened with Dr. Strauss. Keep it quiet, please. And Adam DeSabato, who was on the same wrestling team, who was also a victim of Dr. Strauss, said that Jim Jordan called him crying, please, you're going to ruin me. Please, you're going to ruin me. Here, watch this.
Starting point is 01:04:27 This is disgusting you people have the power to do something well high estate is too arrogant they think it's going to go away jim jordan called me crying crying Jim Jordan called me crying Crying Gravelling On the 4th of July begging me to go against my brother Begging me Crying for a half hour.
Starting point is 01:05:07 That's the kind of cover-ups that's going on there. Now you guys can sit and act like it's not going on, but I got a lot of other stuff here. Emails that were taken out of my mailbox. That's a crime. Michael Popock. So finally, Jim Jordan has his deposition taken. I mean, just think about how long these lawsuits are because Ohio State had been fighting this lawsuit on statute of limitations, went all the way up to the Supreme Court and back down. Finally, Jim Jordan has his deposition taken. But we see so much of this, don't we, Pope Hucker?
Starting point is 01:05:49 Yeah, I mean, this is the ecosystem around Donald Trump that enables him. It's people who have equally have moral, immoral blind spots in their own lives. It's a joke that somebody like non-lawyer Jim Jordan heads things like the Judiciary Committee of the House when he himself is embroiled in his own sex scandal, that in any other world, in any other corporate environment, would lead to his downfall. But here, he is celebrated and rewarded and fails up because Donald Trump needs as many people who are as ethically and morally compromised as him
Starting point is 01:06:34 to surround him as possible. And so the tone is set from the top in any organization. The administration is an organization. The tone is set by Donald Trump. And that's why you and I are so upset on episodes like this because we have families, because we have daughters, that Donald Trump gives permission and creates a permission structure
Starting point is 01:06:59 and reinforces that permission structure to allow people in government and outside of government to abuse and sexually abuse men, women, and others in our society. And that is, we always, you know, the presidency until Trump, for me, as a child, as a young adult, as a college student, as a lawyer, and as a now legal and political commentator, was always prior to Trump, a person to look up to, to be admired within the country. And we usually rated a rank that way in polling. They think they stopped that polling after Trump. He is supposed to be the leader of the free world.
Starting point is 01:07:41 He's supposed to be the leader of the free world. He's supposed to be the moral center of the country. He's supposed to be the Consolar-in-Chief at times of crisis, Unifier-in-Chief at times of war and strife. And we not only don't have that in Donald Trump, but we have depraved people who are immoral and lack any type of ethics. I wouldn't leave my daughter with any of these people for an hour to go run and get a cup of coffee. I wouldn't let them run a bath, let alone run a government.
Starting point is 01:08:23 And yet, in the MAGA world and the Republican world, and I do agree with you, there's no daylight between our positions, that you just need to call out what is immutable facts that are disgusting and depraved and immoral, that don't have, there's no aisle to it. There's no left side, right side, middle side. It's just immoral. And this normalization that has happened, which every so often we're able to pierce it with testimony and the interview you're going to be, you got exclusively with victims. And it matters.
Starting point is 01:08:59 It matters. And the fact that we have a commander in chief, it's hard to believe, that has ordered his Department of Justice and his Civil Rights Division, for instance, to go into court and declare that human life, and especially that of colored people that are black or brown, Americans don't have any value is disgusting. Breonna Taylor, you know, the Justice Department now filed a brief for sentencing that said that the police officer that killed her
Starting point is 01:09:32 should only get a day, including the time served, because they've taken the Civil Rights Division and turned it on its head and are now going after people and promoting people who violate civil rights. This is the administration that you have because it rots from the head. And we need to be empowered with this information in order to continue to form the resistance
Starting point is 01:10:01 and the defiance that we have. I mean, we have, I'll just transition quickly, we have a Supreme Court that on the things that should matter and do matter to everyday Americans show that the Supreme Court is completely out of step with the morals and the values of America. They live in a different time. They live in a time, as one of my colleagues said,
Starting point is 01:10:25 that seems to be just a few years after the reconstruction period in America. They don't live in 2025. They don't share our values. And so they go out of their way to defend and support not just the presidency, although that is the outcome from the precedent that they've established. But they are rallying around and supporting this particular president, Donald Trump. And so in their most recent decision, which everybody should be up in arms about,
Starting point is 01:10:59 is the destruction of the Department of Education, created during, I believe, the Carter administration in a bipartisan way because of failing test scores and other major issues, including discrimination in public school and through higher education. And so the Department of Education was not an entity created to level society, to make us mediocre.
Starting point is 01:11:23 It was made to lift us up and to support public education in America. I don't want to live in a country that doesn't have a strong public education component to it. And the Republicans, of course, and MAGA don't support that. One of you just have to go to Project 2025 created by Russ Fott, now your head of Office of Management and Budget and others. And right there it says the Department of Education should be eliminated because they've seen it as a bane to their existence of having public money used for private institutions so they can send their kids to private school and private religious schools without having a Department of Education in their way.
Starting point is 01:12:06 They also don't like the Department of Education protecting mainly women on college campuses from sexual abuse. I've handled cases, so have you, involving just that thing. And the Department of Education has a tremendous role in our society or had until it was defunded and now allowed to be destroyed by the United States Supreme Court.
Starting point is 01:12:28 We are a lesser society by allowing and having allowed Donald Trump to destroy the Department of Education. Lynda McMahon defunded it. She reoriented or reoriented away from its mission to protect students, to protect women on campus, to protect equality on campus, to make sure that testing scores and testing materials and educational materials lift up students in public school to give them an ability to compete in society
Starting point is 01:13:00 and to put them on equal footing with the rich and the powerful that send their kids to 200 or 2000 private schools in America. That was created by Congress, it's now been destroyed by the United States Supreme Court. Now they'll tell you in private or even when they give their public speeches, we didn't make a final decision.
Starting point is 01:13:19 That's been all of their decisions, has been by administrative stay or procedural defect, but they hand Donald Trump on purpose, complicity, a win. And what they're saying is, sure, destroy the Department of Education, we'll figure out through the appeal whether that was right or wrong, there won't be a Department of Education at the end of a normal appeal a year from now or more. And that's the point. And that's why Katanji Brown Jackson and Sotomayor and Kagan have been writing for the history books
Starting point is 01:13:52 and for law students and for the hopefully the near future, the opposition briefs, the opposition position, which is the status quo, you should keep the Department of Education in place and fund it until the appeal is over because we can't unscramble that egg once Humpty Dumpty falls from the wall. But to this administration, their natural instinct is to allow Donald Trump through Doge and the wood chipper and defunding and everything else to hand him win after win after win. And you and I have to cover it along with the other contributors on Legal
Starting point is 01:14:31 Affidavit and Midas Touch in order for us to have an appropriate report card and scorecard to use against Donald Trump and the Republicans because they're the only ones at the midterms that are on the ballot. Biden's not on the ballot. Kamala's are on the ballot. Biden's not on the ballot. Kamala is not on the ballot. The only thing on the ballot is a pass fail for the Republican Party led by its fearless leader, Donald Trump. And we can't allow him to to we have to pin all of these depraved policies and events supported by the Supreme Court squarely where it belongs. pin all of these depraved policies and events
Starting point is 01:15:05 supported by the Supreme Court squarely where it belongs. On the back of the Republican Party, the Republican leadership, the Republican House, and the Senate, when they, in the middle of the night, rip away another $90 billion of aid and foreign aid to NPR and national public radio and public broadcasting and US aid abroad by doing another process after the reconciliation process on the bill. We need to hold them accountable, which I know Midas will do, Legal AF will do, so that
Starting point is 01:15:39 people know why they need to vote against anything from dogcatcher up to member of house or Senate at the midterms and why it's so important. And then lastly, it is working. I want people to understand that. I think you do a good job with that too when you do your hot takes. The resistance and the defiance is working.
Starting point is 01:16:04 I know there's a little bit of fatigue. Oh, another Supreme Court reversal of something that happened below. But we have to continue with the 400, soon to be 4,000 cases, the public interest groups, the attorney general's groups, the plaintiffs' groups, all of them joining together, filing almost daily, if not hourly, the lawsuits. That's one way. The resistance movement in the streets, the other way.
Starting point is 01:16:30 The town halls and our participation there in this participatory democracy. You have to lean forward, not back in this moment in history and then, and find community and fellowship on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Michael Popak well said. A difficult episode to talk about all of these things, but imperative that we do so fearlessly and lay it all out.
Starting point is 01:16:58 And I'm glad that we dedicated pretty much the full show to it because it's an issue that is that important. Everybody make sure you hit subscribe on our YouTube channel here, subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Legal AF YouTube channel is on its way to 1 million subscribers. I'd really wanna see that hit 1 million
Starting point is 01:17:18 by the end of this summer, let's go. Subscribe to the Legal AF sub stack. It's doing really good as well. And also if you or anybody you know has a civil case, if you've been involved in a catastrophic injury or you know someone who's been involved in a catastrophic injury or wrongful death type situation, whether it's a car accident, a trucking accident, some other type of negligence where you're the victim. You've been the victim of sexual harassment
Starting point is 01:17:46 or sexual assault at the workplace or anywhere else, frankly. If you've been the victim of medical malpractice or just have a case, reach out to the PO-POC firm. Consultation's free. They represent you at no cost unless there's a recovery. And then there's a contingency fee fee as it's called in the profession. And lots of people who have watched the show and watched this network have
Starting point is 01:18:13 reached out to POPAC. And you're representing, you know, you know, dozens and dozens of people right now. Where can they find you? Yeah. 1877 POPAC AF. And there'll be somebody on the other end of that phone call to help talk about your case. And then alternatively, although it ends up with a live person, no AI here, you go on our website, www.thepopocfirm.com. Read about the firm, read about me and the relationship I have with all the lawyers that
Starting point is 01:18:43 are working with me and under me related to these cases and the different practice areas, the different types of cases that we represent. And then of course, there's a multiple ways to fill out a form to end up talking to a human being. Thank you everybody for watching this week's episode of Legal AF. We appreciate you as always. Let's keep fighting. Let's keep staying true to the facts. And ultimately, I believe Let's keep staying true to the facts. And ultimately, I believe truth and democracy is gonna win, but we gotta stay in the fight together. Thanks everybody.
Starting point is 01:19:11 We'll see you next time on Legal AS.

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