Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode 7/5/2025

Episode Date: July 6, 2025

Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok anchor the top-ranked law and politics podcast Legal AF, and cover this week's most important breaking news as they take on: 1) the importance of the Abrego Garcia case and the attempts by a Tennessee and Maryland federal judges to thwart Trump's abuse of power; 2) the Supreme Court flipping the script on due process rights of those facing deportation or removal; 3) CBS and Paramount bending the knee and proposing a settlement with Trump that guts the credibility of 60 Minutes in order to close a big business deal; 4) Trump nominating a white nationalist and 9-11 denier sympathizer for a top government job; 5) federal judges using different methods to reign in Trump after the Supreme Court ruled in their favor on nationwide injunctions and so much more at the intersection of law and politics. Support Our Sponsors: Sundays For Dogs: Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/LEGALAF or use code LEGALAF at checkout. Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 50% off your first order PLUS free shipping! Pacagen: Get 15% OFF your order plus a special gift at https://Pacagen.com/legalaf Liquid IV: Get 20% off when you go to https://Liquid-IV.com and use code LEGALAF at checkout! 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

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amends his complaint in the Maryland case to add additional allegations about the torture he experienced in Seacat, the concentration camp in El Salvador. We'll break down everything that's going on there. The Supreme Court strikes. Again, they issued an order regarding clarification on a prior order they really want to send these migrants to third countries like South Sudan we'll talk about what the Supreme Court did and how that's impacting a group of migrants who were stuck in Djibouti who are now going to South Sudan talk about the CBS settlement their parent company Paramount caved and settled with the Trump regime for $16 million.

Talk about the implications of this. We heard this idea of what's something called a mediate. We accepted the mediator's proposal. What does that mean? I'll give you a hint right now. It's a bunch of BS. We'll talk about the new head of the Office of Special Counsel, this guy Paul Ingracia and his background.

It is very, very, very scary to say the least. And then let's talk about some of these orders that are happening around the country where the Trump regime, even after that nationwide injunction order that we talked about by the Supreme Court saying that nationwide injunctions are limited, courts are still finding ways to grant class-wide relief. And so we saw a judge in Washington, D.C., blocking Donald Trump's attempt to basically deprive asylum seekers of their ability to get asylum and just turned it into basically a class action order

to get around what the Supreme Court said about nationwide injunctions. That and more on this episode of Legal AF. Great to see you. class action order to get around with the Supreme Court said about nationwide injunctions that and more on this episode of Legal AF. Great to see you. You can barely see me. Don't adjust your dial everybody. It looks like I'm in the dark, but I'm really traveling with my family and we're putting our one-year-old to sleep. So I've been relegated to an alcove with limited lighting, but with a strong signal. So glad to be here with you, Ben, and with the Midas Mighty and the Legal A.F.ers.

Well, great to see you. We've all been relegated to alcoves, it seems, when it comes to the constitutional alcoves that we're in as a result of what the Trump regime is doing. You still have this kind of push and pull taking place. Why don't I start with some good news or some productive news. We'll start with the Brego Garcia. And we'll talk about what's going on there. So Pam Bondi, the Trump regime, they've been just like defaming a Brego Garcia over and over again.

And they say things that are not in the indictment against the Brego Garcia, that are not in the criminal complaint that are not in the indictment against a Brego Garcia, that are not in the criminal complaint that they brought in Tennessee. So everybody knows a Brego was sent to El Salvador. There was an order back when Trump was in office in 2019 saying you can't send this guy to El Salvador. So what does the Trump regime this time do?

They send him to El Salvador. The Supreme Court says facilitate his return and restore him to the status quo as if he was not basically kidnapped and sent to El Salvador. So Trump regime returns him to Tennessee at their request that he be returned to Tennessee from El Salvador's dictator. And then they immediately charge him based on a traffic stop that happened in 2022, where

the Trump regime alleges that this traffic stop captures a brego in an SUV with a bunch of other people who look like migrants. They say, look, it looks like you were trafficking these people. I know trafficking has a lot of implications. What they were saying is you were driving people around to go to different job sites and to do work. So that's what they alleged in the criminal complaint. Even though

when they were when a break was pulled over in 2022, nothing came of it. He was living in Maryland. He has an American wife. He has American kids. He works in a union. He would show up every year to ice and just say, Hey, I'm here to check in. But then the Trump regime says, Nope, this guy is like a criminal mastermind, drugs and child trafficking and all of these things. And it's like, okay, well, none of that's actually in the underlying indictment. And they would go out and do this media campaign where they would just say that a brego was, you know, doing all of these things. I think we have some clips of Pam Bondi going out

and defaming him. I'll show those in just a moment. But a break goes like a break. Oh, he's got a great legal legal team and they're just like, you can't do this. Like this is unethical. Frankly, it's a violation of the rules of professional responsibility. You can get disbarred for doing stuff like, it's like 101. You can't just start doing these things. And they would say, look, you call them a gangster, or like basically accused them of being like a sex trafficker. You know, you said that he was a drug dealer. You said that he was a murderer, you know, and you would go on TV and say all of these things

and none of these things were true. Let me show you, we've got Pam Bondi saying a few things. Here, let's play this clip. I have two, one's on topic, one's on topic. Maybe I misunderstood you, but you were mentioning, you know, that he had some involvement in these in a murder, you know, or was connected to groups that had, you know, involved with this other smuggling ring, but to be clear, the only charges he's facing right now are the

like, you know, human smuggling charges. Just this, that's the one offense, but the other things that you have talked about are not actually in the indictment? No, co-conspirators allege that, and we were clear to say that he is charged with, it's not only very serious charges of alien smuggling. Okay, but before that, she was saying this here, play this other clip of mine. In that, she was saying this here. Play this other clip.

You know, human trafficking, not only in our country, but in our world, is very, very real. It's very dangerous. And as you saw recently in Virginia, the arrest we made of the MS-13 member unrelated to this, we learned at that press conference, that's where they bring young children into our country and they start grooming them at middle school age to become MS-13 full-fledged members commit violent crimes throughout our country. It is highly organized. It is very dangerous and they are living throughout our country but no more because they are being arrested they are being prosecuted and being convicted and deported when

appropriate that's all for today thank you yeah that's not what a brego is being accused of federal judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. She granted the motion by a break. Oh, that basically says, look, Trump DOJ, you can't be saying these things anymore. You got to stop this thing. So Pope, that's Tennessee. I want you to speak to that separately. You've got the Maryland person.

Just to remind people, right. That's before a judge named Judge Dennis. So, so people think you have Tennessee is the criminal case before Judge Crenshaw. That's where the Trump regime has indicted Abrego. But before that, Abrego's lawyers filed in Maryland before Judge Zinnis, who was assigned the case. She was the one who initially ordered return him

when he was sent to El Salvador. The Supreme Court ordered his return. The Trump regime argues in Maryland, well, it's moot now. He's back in the United States. So you have to dismiss the Maryland case. This is why a Brago's lawyer amended the complaint in Maryland to say, no, it's not. You should bring him from Tennessee to Maryland right now. So he could be near his family in a Maryland federal court. And then they amended the allegations to talk about all the horrible torture

that was going on in Seacat. So a lot happening there, but let me toss it to you. Yeah, no problem. So let me unpack some of it. First of all, they use it interchangeably, but they're not interchangeable. Human trafficking is not human smuggling. It was a point made by Magistrate Judge Holmes,

who was really running the day to day of the case in Tennessee. She answers to Judge Crenshaw, who's the Article III judge there, who's also ruled against the administration on a number of occasions. And if you're, it sounds, I know Pam Bondi with all of that hostage video blinking

that she always does during her press conferences, said it's a terrible... I'm not trying to minimize human smuggling, but the difference between smuggling and trafficking was pointed out by Judge Holmes, Magistrate Judge Holmes in her own ruling, which was one involves exploitation, which is trafficking, which suggests against your will. Smuggling is, there's a task, there's an agreement. I need to get across a border, you are gonna take me, I'm going to pay you, that's smuggling.

And the difference is also in the penalty for those crimes. Holmes in her own opinion from a week or so ago, she said, I did a survey in this district and it's a 12 month sentence, it's not nothing, but it's not enough to have somebody be a flight risk that wouldn't incentivize them to try to avoid a six-month and a halfway house year-in-a-day type sentence. And so that was the first thing I want to clear up. You had that little snippet in there where Pam Bondi looked the American people in the eye and said, because they need to conflate and they need to exaggerate and they need to

tar with a broad brush because their indictment is not sufficient for their political purposes. Or as the lawyers for Abrigo Garcia said, we're're having a this is an example of trial by newspaper which is why they went to judge homes and asked her to shut down the extra judicial comments that are being made that are not in the indictment but are being used to tarnish a brego garcia in the eyes of a future jury he is a criminal, this is their choice, the Trump administration, he is a criminal defendant in a case that she's helping to administer justice in, and she doesn't like all the extra judicial statements.

I think we're gonna get a longer version of an order, but she has, as you've touched on at the beginning of the segment, she has issued a gag order reminding the lawyers, especially those from outside of Tennessee, that they need to comply with the local rules about extra judicial statements. The comment that Pam Bondi made about him being a murderer, not in the indictment.

You'd think if they had the goods on murder, they would have added that to the indictment. Trafficking of a 15 year old, no. Judge Holmes took a look at the evidence and said, what's the evidence that a 15 year old was being smuggled? Oh, the cop during the state highway patrol, during the traffic stop from three years ago, which they released a Brego Garcia,

even though he had a suspended license, they didn't even write him a ticket. They took a roster, a handwritten roster. They made people in the car write down their birth dates. And that's what they brought into the judge, not the cop that stopped them, not the 15-year-old, now maybe 18-year-old, just a piece of paper that had a scribble on it that the judge couldn't make heads or tails of. Like, I can't tell if that he's 15 or he's 18, and that makes a difference. But in any event, this is not exploitive. So therefore, it's not involved, a minor is not involved in a crime like sex trafficking.

And therefore, I'm not going to hold him in jail. Just to kind of square the circle for our audience, last week or the week before, we were talking about, no, last week, we were talking about this extraordinary event where somebody who has been unconstitutionally detained for several months in El Salvador and now we know based on his allegations, tortured, literally tortured, beaten on his knees 24 hours, lights on, you know, no bathroom, no bathroom breaks and the rest which would violate the Convention Against Torture, that we know that from his allegations there,

the, he asked, and it was granted for effectively, there it is, there's a whole list, no mattresses, no lights. This is, we're not talking about Zero Dark 30, where we've offloaded a suspected terrorist in a black ops place all right this is this is a person who is in our immigration and criminal justice system that the Trump administration offloaded to a third world country a dict led by a petty dictator named Bukele and sent him to a

deadly supermax prison where people die. Several hundred, sorry, several hundred people die every year in El Salvador in prisons, including at SICA. Die. Okay. And so the, the, uh, uh, the, the reference to all of that, he then asked to have effectively protective custody to stay in federal detention on the U.S. Marshal side because of his fear that he'll be deported and removed back to El Salvador.

And why are his lawyers, which you commented are very good lawyers, they are, they used to be Donald Trump's lawyers, at least one part of them, Quinn Emanuel, they ran into court and said, look, the administration speaks with forked tongue. On one hand, they tell, they tell, Pam Bondi says at a press conference, he's going to be tried and convicted in Tennessee and then deported. But then lawyers in the court, including in Maryland, said, no, we're not gonna do the criminal case.

We're going to remove him through immigration process whenever we get the chance. So which is it? And so they ran into court and said, hide him. Will you please protect him from the Department of Justice? And something that I covered in one of my hot takes, the Department of Justice didn't even oppose it. They don't even trust themselves.

They're like, we could accidentally or on purpose remove somebody back to El Salvador again. So yes, we're okay with you keeping him in federal detention, protecting him from the Trump administration. Fast forward, and one last comment just to round it out. When Pam Bondi did a press conference clip that you showed, she mentioned an MS-13 leader that had also at the same time, they had picked up in Maryland. Okay, he was released and his indictment was dismissed. The last time we reported. So this is the Trump administration in action.

They'll say anything out loud, back a false and defamatory in order to make their political point, regardless of what happens to that person in our due process and his right to be presumed innocent. Lastly, we're now switch over to Judge Zinnis, not to be forgotten. Last but certainly not least, Judge Zinnis is the judge

who has jurisdiction over Abrego Garcia and the violation of his constitutional rights when he was sent illegally as the Supreme Court ruled 90 to El Salvador over a order of non-removal to El Salvador by an immigration judge. She now based on the lawyering that's going on with the same sets of lawyer we just talked about, she's now considering and has set up a briefing schedule at all, whether she's going to order a Brego Garcia once he's popped from federal detention to Maryland under her watchful eye and make decisions about that while, of course, one end of the Trump administration is arguing her entire

case and jurisdiction should be dismissed because we finally brought him home. And, you know, he's standing with an indictment. He's at Tennessee. While the lawyers for Brego Garcia have moved again for contempt and discovery sanctions in that case. So where do we sit right now as we end this segment? Abrego Garcia sits in Tennessee. Judge Holmes has issued a gag order about statements made there. He hasn't been released. Judge Zinnis is considering whether he's going to be released and into her custody, so to speak, in Maryland and whether she's going to find the Trump administration in contempt of court.

When we get to the next segment or one of the other segments about what happened with the eight people headed now to South Sudan, we'll also talk about the inconsist- internal inconsistencies of the United States Supreme Court when it comes to due process and deportation. I just want everybody to even take a step back and think about it this way. Brego Garcia is saying, I am safer in a federal penitentiary than I am outside based on what ICE is potentially going to do to me.

So please keep me in federal prison. I want to have a trial for these charges because I know I'm going to win. You brought these charges. I know they're false. Let's do it. You can keep me in jail for now because I'm worried that you're going to send me to South Sudan. You know, if it's not El Salvador, they probably send them to South Sudan, as we talked about,

you know, in the next segment or wherever. And the Trump regime is basically saying, no, we want you released, we want you released we want you out and what they're planning on doing is dismissing the federal case in Tennessee once they release him to then move him to South Sudan or move him to another area so they can declare a victory because they know that they're going to lose a federal trial so it's a interesting, I guess, just putting it lightly, situation where you have a criminal defendant is not the one saying dismiss it. You have the prosecutors basically saying,

let's dismiss it all because they don't wanna go through due process. And Abrego is saying, keep trying me, I'm ready to go to trial, let's do it. I'll be found not guilty, keep, keep trying me. I'm ready to go to trial. Let's do it. I'll be found not guilty. Keep me in jail. Keep me in prison because I rather that than go to South Sudan. So if you just think about it the way I described it, how inverted is that? And, and doesn't it seem now like the quote unquote good guys became the bad guys, right? Our justice department

doesn't want to use justice department doesn't wanna use justice department things. They wanna use the Gestapo tactics and the criminal defendant wants the justice department from the past tactics to do a prosecution. I think when you pull it back like that, you're like, whoa, I never heard it say like someone talk about it like that, but that's what's actually happening here.

All right, let's take our first quick break. I wanna remind everybody about Michael Popak's new law firm. Last week, we got a ton of inquiries to your law firm. So if you have a case, a catastrophic injury case where you've been injured in a truck accident or a car accident or sexual assault or negligence if you know somebody who that's happened to medical malpractice If you have a case wrongful death

Obviously if you know somebody who's died as a result of the negligence of somebody else reach out to popa You see him right here. You trust him. You know him and his firm will pick up the call right away They'll respond to your inquiries. They'll place you with a top attorney that's associated with the PO-POK firm. PO-POK, where can they find your firm? Yeah, thanks, Ben. We made it really easy. There's two ways to do it, whatever works for you. 1877-PO-POK-AF and then a website where you can go, which is www.thepopokfirm.com. Both lead you to the same place. You'll have a free case analysis evaluation form.

You'll fill it out and some, and a real live person, not AI, will talk to you and start evaluating your case. We'll do it for free. If we decide to take it, it's a contingency. We don't get paid unless you do. And everybody, PO-POK's YouTube channel, Legal AF, on its way to 700,000 subscribers

and then a million subscribers. So let's get that YouTube channel, one million subscribers, just search Legal AF on YouTube. Make sure you're subscribed and turning notifications on. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show. So I had an old buddy from law school came to crash at my place after we had moved to Florida. I hadn't seen him in years.

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with code LEGALAF at liquidiv.com. Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. You know, we don't have outside investors. One of the ways we grow is through those pro-democracy sponsors. My younger brother, Jordy, spends a long time negotiating those discount codes so that you can get great deals. So check him out. I should also mention the Legal AF Substack, which I forgot to mention before the

break. Everybody on Substack, go check out Legal AF. I want to talk about this Supreme Court ruling I want to talk about this Supreme Court ruling regarding the eight migrants who were kind of in this holding area in Djibouti and they were going to be sent to a concentration camp in South Sudan, which is kind of like the CICAT in El Salvador, but in South Sudan, this war torn area, one of the most dangerous and violent places in the world, the Trump regime saying, let's do a concentration camp there with the local officials there. And that's where we're gonna send migrants

as part of third country deportation. So we talked about, there's this judge in Massachusetts, federal judge Murphy, and judge Murphy had issued an injunction blocking the Trump regime from bringing the people from Djibouti, bringing the people from the United States to South Sudan without justifying that the process that they're supposed to go through was actually followed. Judge Murphy's order was actually narrower than I guess the headlines were.

Judge Murphy, and I agree with Judge Murphy here in the sense of this, deportations to third countries is indeed allowed, but you have to follow a process because it might violate not just laws here in the United States, but international law against human torture if you're taking human beings and you're putting them in war torn countries. And so the idea is that if someone is one, allowed to be deported, if you go through the steps of deportationation then the question is where and if they can't be sent for whatever reason back to their home country for lots of reasons then the quote then the next step is yes you can transfer them to other countries that they that they weren't born in or have no affiliation with but you have to like justify it you have to explain

why this country are they going to be safe in this country? Could they die in this country? Is this country able to accept them? And if you can go through those process through our immigration system, this has always been the case, because you're allowed to do it. This idea though of putting people in South Sudan and CICOT, that's not what it was really ever intended to be used for.

So all Judge Murphy said was, wow, you've all of a sudden shipped these eight people to South Sudan. When their lawyers came in and said, whoa, whoa, they're going to die in South Sudan. Then there was efforts to try to, you know, efforts to try to stop that and say, whoa, whoa, have they gone through the process? So all Judge Murphy did is that follow the normal process before you send people to third countries.

Then the Supreme Court, this was what? A week and a half ago or two weeks ago, we covered it here. They then issued an order on their shadow docket staying or pausing Judge Murphy's order. And so when you stayed in order, which stayed or blocked sending people to South Sudan, what that means is Trump can send people to South Sudan. And the Supreme Court was based, they didn't really provide any explanation, but they've always been saying that Trump and his regime will suffer irreparable harm if their executive orders and their actions as the executive branch are not followed. And

then it got kicked back to Judge Murphy after the Supreme Court basically said, we're staying your order. And Judge Murphy had issued two orders on two different dates. So then Judge Murphy said, OK, well, your stay was just of my original order, not my second order, which clarified my first order. And the second order was basically,

can you justify the process that you're using before you send people to South Sudan? So go through the actual process. My first order was the injunction blocking them from going to South Sudan. And then the Trump regime ran right back to the Supreme Court and said, whoa, Judge Murphy is saying that your order didn't address his second order. So he's still allowing these people in Djibouti to stay in Djibouti. We want them to South Sudan So we want clarification Supreme Court say that all of Judge Murphy's orders are subject to your main order Supreme Court and let's get these people to South Sudan immediately so they can die

It's basically what the Trump regime said. So it went to the Supreme Court and then the Supreme Court immediately, instantly, it's like a text, it's like Trump has text message service now with the right wing Supreme Court. They get it, there's no like briefing, there's no like oral argument, the Supreme Court gets it, they're like, oh, absolutely, we're granting this for Trump,

send them to South Sudan. Basically what the Supreme Court gets it. They're like, Oh, absolutely. We're granting this for Trump. Send him to South Sudan. Basically what the Supreme Court did. There was a scathing, scathing descent from Justice Sotomayor and Katanji Brown Jackson. And here's what they say. In a democracy, power implies responsibility. The greater the power that defies law, the less tolerant can this court be of defiance. As the nation's ultimate judicial tribunal, this court, beyond any other organ of society, is the trustee of law and charged with the duty of securing obedience to it. This court continues to invert those principles. Today's order clarifies only one thing. Other litigants must follow the rules, but the administration has the Supreme Court on

speed dial, respectively I descend. Popak, that was, you know, that statement, you are in what your job is. Sotomayor and Katanji Brown Jackson are saying, basically, the majority, you right wing majority, you are the criminals. You are the ones committing crimes against humanity right now. And you have Trump on speed dial, anytime he wants to commit crimes against humanity,

you take it and then you take his call and then you grant him whatever he wants to do to allow his authoritarian machinations to be instantly implemented before there's even proceedings and a trial. All anybody was saying here, all Judge Murphy was saying here was, whoa, before we send these eight people

to die in South Sudan, let's just go through a process. That's all. So pause it. If ultimately Trump regime, you're right, they should go there, fine. Just go through the process to which Trump goes, oh my God, a process causes me irreparable harm. That goes back, Popak, to what we were also talking about

in the first segment, due process. All we're saying is, like, I'm not, and you're not, defending Abrego. I'm not defending these eight people in Djibouti who are now going to South Sudan. All I'm defending is, is let them have their process. If ultimately you find they should go to South Sudan or Abrego, fine, that's the ruling

but what are we doing here when Trump just says it and then you issue a stay of Federal court orders that are just pausing it not because they're finding in favor of the migrants They're finding in favor of due process and the Supreme Court keeps overruling that Pope. I mean the American people should be Concerned and upset but they now reside in a country where the Supreme Court allows somebody's constitutional rights to do process and notice. That's all we're talking about to be run roughshod over by a president, a president that, or as so succinctly and pithily and pithy put by Kataji Brown Jackson, a president who lives in a law free zone. That's not okay. And as I've said same way that you said it during my hot takes,

I'm not a breakout Garcia's defense lawyer. I don't know what these eight people in the Djibouti Air Force base have done other than what's in the record. I'm not here to defend them. I'm here to defend with my last dying breath. than what's in the record. I'm not here to defend them. I'm here to defend with my last dying breath the process, just as you and I will defend until we're horse and or dead First Amendment rights of people to speak about things in the public square that we find uncomfortable because we find them to be uncomfortable. And that used to be democracy and that used to be the brand of democracy that we all could be proud of one way or the other.

But now you have, and I just did a hot take with Leah Lippman from, I was becoming semi-regular now with her strict scrutiny, a law professor at Michigan. And Leah and I talked about the power of the dissents that are being written. We talk about opposition, we talk about resistance here, because we all vibrate on the same frequency on Legal AF and on Minus Touch in our audience and on both sides of the camera. I asked her about the power of dissents

and why they're important. The ones we see written by Katanji Brown Jackson, the ones we see written by Sonia Sotomayor, a little bit by Kagan, but really by those two. And why do they matter? And you and I learned a lot in law school from dissents that eventually became the majority opinion, because dissents also influence public opinion,

and dissents influence students, law students and people, and give them hope. And they are speaking to history. I mean, we have a playlist on Legal.IF called Court of History led by Sydney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz. And because the highest court is not the Supreme Court, it's how history is going to judge the lawyers,

the judges, the Supreme Court, and us as citizens, no higher, there's no higher title in America, nor, you know, it should be that way, than citizen. And to watch this destruction and have Katanji Brown Jackson and Sotomayor call it out and call out as Sotomayor did that you touched on, the abuse of power, her words, the abuse of the inherent authority of the United States

Supreme Court's MAGA right-wing majority to benefit, to bend over backwards, to find irreparable harm because it touches on Article 3 powers, sorry, Article 2 powers of the president, and not care a whit about human beings, and their suffering, and their lack of due process. and not care a whit about human beings and their suffering and their lack of due process. Now, some people, I just did an odd take on it

for legal AF side. Some people might think, well, at the end of the day, after 72 hours, Trump got what he wanted because he ran back to court, just to give the timeline again, he gets a one paragraph ruling by the 63 majority that says Murphy, your order, keeping those eight people in the Djibouti Air Force base while due process and notice is being evaluated, we're blocking it. We're going to let the first circuit

do its thing on appeal, but we basically, we're okay with the president exercising his power to send people to third party, third world countries that don't share our values as a dumping ground. So, and that's where we got the Sotomayor dissent, which was 12, 14 pages in length. Then Murphy gets everybody together, as you pointed out, and says, well, I had two orders.

What was in April? And that was blocked. And you went into your shadow docket, you didn't wait for a final decision by me. You didn't wait. You did this not only interlocutory, earlier than a final judgment, but you did it on one of my orders.

There was another order in May, where I said, you violated my order in April, and I think you may be in contempt, and I made another order, and you didn't block that. And Sotomayor actually signaled to Murphy, she said, not all remedial orders have been blocked, and right on cue, he pulled everybody together the Monday after the Friday of the order,

and said, nothing's changed, nothing's changed. They are not to move, I'm still evaluating, I'm still getting to the bottom of it. And they ran back to court with this whiny motion for clarification. But as you said, it's like they have a WhatsApp direct line or text messaging to the Supreme Court, like bring it back, bring it back.

Now I had hoped that the window had closed. I did a report on this because they left for their term ended and they had ruled on it. It had been several days. Then, of course, Lowenbaugh, four days ago, they issue a one paragraph unsigned decision that yeah, yeah, yeah, motion to clarify. We're nothing Murphy, none of his rulings. They're all being blocked. none of them go forward. And so they got a win there.

So we're like, oh crap, those guys are going to South, they're going to South Sudan. The lawyers, you know, this is like last minute reprieve for somebody on death row, right? You're trying all the locks, all the doors. So they run to judge Moss, Randy Moss in DC, and bring what they claim to be a new petition on new evidence.

He looks at it and says, I'm gonna block it for a day, but I'm transferring it back to Judge Murphy. So he laterals it back to Murphy. In the meantime, he has another stay order. So it's like the governor reprieve, okay, all right. And then Murphy gets it back and says, look, let's have a hearing.

But what I think he accomplished at the hearing, although most people, including myself, don't think it's worth the paper it's written on, is a concession by the Department of Justice that they've spoken to the State Department. And the State Department has informed them that these people are not going to be detained, that they're going to be temporarily released

and go through a naturalization process in South Sudan. Let me remind everybody, or say it out loud for people who don't know, these people are not from South Sudan. That's the point. It's a third country, not their country of origin, nor one that they wanted to go to, or would agree to go to.

This is all another thing. This is like an El Salvadoran person, Mexican person, whatever, beings or denaturalized US citizen, God help us, being sent to South, think about this, South Sudan, okay? And dumped there and with like, with no passport, what's their passport?

They lost their passport, passport for another country? Now they're gonna go through a naturalization process in the middle of a war torn South Sudan? And does anybody really believe that when the Trump administration, DOJ told Murphy that when he said, look, what we don't wanna be is dumping people off in foreign lands where they get tortured and we act like it didn't happen.

And I will, and that's that we can't be in that world. And that's when the lawyer made all sorts of representations. But it's not in writing. And you see this Supreme Court as we've watched the evolution since April of this court. First few orders came out, we were like, okay, we sort of figure it out. They're not gonna go as far as to violate due process,

habeas corpus rights, or notice when it comes to deportation or removal, got it. And then another couple of orders came out, we're like, okay, I sort of understand that. And then this came out of nowhere, which is no. These people have no rights, we don't care, dump them off. And we're like, really, that's the pronouncement of the United States Supreme Court,

and that Article II power is preeminent about everything. And the problem, I'll just leave it on this bed, the problem with all of that, it's not about eight guys in the Jupiter Air Force Base. It's about the precedent and the body of law that's being developed by an emboldened Supreme Court led by Roberts and the rest. Now they have the numbers,

and have had it for a number of years, and now they're shoving this anti-democratic, anti-America way of life down our throat. I'll give one last example that you and I will keep an eye on. This is so bad that even my baby daughter is crying in the distance in the background. But in Texas, we've got a couple of guys

that are trying out for the United States Supreme Court. One of them is Judge Ho, the other one is Judge Oldham. They just, they held last week an oral argument that was sent back to them by the United States Supreme Court on immigration and removal issues related to the Alien Enemies Act. And when you hear the language, because they've been empowered by the Supreme Court,

Oldham said in his oral argument, and the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to disavow the president's decision to dis disagree with the president's determination under the Alien Enemies Act? We're like, oh, here we go.

So this kind of ruling and judges like Murphy willing to stand up for it is important, but we are watching, we now know better where the Supreme Court's going to go when it comes to Alien Enemies Act and where it comes to removal and deportation. A very narrow box of habeas corpus into process and removal rights only under certain statutes related to it. And if it's an emergency or it's a war or a predatory incursion, all bets are going to be off and the power of the presidency reigns supreme. And that is not only inconsistent with hundreds of years of precedent, but it just shows you as Judge Ludic, who's just been on our legal AF channel in the last couple of days said, this is about a Supreme Court that is bending

over backwards, not just to reinforce the power of the imperial presidency, it's about benefiting a guy named Donald Trump. And we should all be concerned about that, regardless of which side of the aisle or no aisle that you're on. So our legal AF audience would probably say, cause I know them very well, guys, but why aren't you showing me the Supreme Court ruling like you talked about the dissent you showed us

So to my or which we appreciate but why aren't you showing me the rulings or the or playing the oral arguments? You guys always do that. So are you hiding something from me? No, actually the Supreme Court is because as Popak said, this massive precedent is being set that's overturning our entire conception of the Constitution as we've known it. And the Supreme Court is not holding any oral arguments on these cases. The parties are not showing up and arguing these issues in front of the court. They're not submitting long briefs. You know how we talk about those amicus briefs,

which are like friends of the court briefs, where people talk about different groups, give their opinions, and then the Supreme Court sets these things like a year out, or six months out, or three months out, and all of those types of things? That's not happening. The Supreme Court is using what's called a shadow docket, months out and all of those types of things, that's not happening. The Supreme Court is using what's called a shadow docket because it's not happening in

the sunlight. That's why it's been kind of nicknamed the shadow docket. And they're making these rulings using procedural language that have the substantive impact of endorsing Trump's authoritarianism. So the Supreme Court isn't saying that we feel that Donald Trump violates the Constitution or that the Constitution supports what Trump is doing. They're not going there. What they're saying in all of these rulings is we're not going to even write an opinion. We're not going to have oral argument.

What we're just gonna do is we're gonna say we've agreed to stay or pause the district court's ruling so ordered. And by pausing the district court's ruling and the district court's cases, they have hearings. They have submissions. The district court has oral argument, has the people argue and submit evidence.

And that's why these district courts, whether you're Trump appointed or Obama appointed or Biden appointed or Bush or Reagan, they're finding against Donald Trump after the evidence is provided. They're not just like just doing it. They're going through process and they're saying, wait a minute, Trump, you're not showing us evidence. So we have to weigh and balance these things. So we're going through process. And they're saying, wait a minute, Trump, you're not showing us evidence, so we have to weigh in balance these things. So we're ruling against you.

But then the Supreme Court goes in and basically says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, to what Pope Box said. We're dealing with Article Two of the Constitution. That's the executive branch. If the executive branch says to us that the district court's orders are causing them irreparable harm, we as the judiciary, as Article 3, we have to step in for Article 2, the executive, and what we're going to do is we're going to pause the district court's order.

So it's this kind of cowardly move the Supreme Court's doing by not issuing the order so we could dissect it and say oh here's how they feel about these issues, here's how they balance the evidence, they're not doing it. And then the Supreme Court so cowardly they're hiding behind this idea whoa whoa whoa we didn't rule on the merits we're not saying that Trump was right we're not saying that he was wrong. We're not saying that he was wrong. All we're saying is, let's just let this thing progress for a few years through the judicial system. And then maybe it'll come to us in a few years.

Oh, really? You think those people in South Sudan, that they're gonna come back in a few years after they go to South Sudan? And the next wave of people who Trump sends, you that they're going to be able to do these things. You know, when there's other cases too, like the Supreme Court's been doing this as Donald Trump's been firing people without cause who are on the various independent agencies. And what they're saying is, Hey, the status quo is we're on the board.

Let's keep us on the board and then we can litigate our case and then we can see if Trump is right or we're right but then the Supreme Court steps in and goes no no no the status quo is Trump fired you so now that you're fired you'll be fired for the next few years go litigate your case and come back to me in 2029 or 2030 and then we'll deal with it. Do you see what I'm saying? How cowardly that and then Pope Hock and I and legal scholars, we can't even look to see, Oh, it looks like the Supreme Court's having this type of test or, Oh, they were strict constructionist or, Oh, I see how they view that statute.

No, they're not. They're not giving us any of that data. When we come back, I want to talk about a few other things. I want to talk about the CBS settlement. I want to talk about who Donald Trump is. When Donald Trump fires people, who is he replacing them with? We'll talk about the Office of Special Counsel and what's going on there. And maybe another topic. Reminder, if you have your own case, if you've been injured in an accident,

a trucking accident, a car accident, if you know somebody who's been injured, if you know someone who was the victim of wrongful death because of the negligence of others, I know you know and love Popak and trust him, reach out to him. He's got a law firm that was set up because you all requested that he set up the Popak firm and he set it up to be able to help you out in cases. So if you or someone you know has been injured, catastrophic injury types of cases, serious injury cases that require like surgeries, medical malpractice cases, wrongful death cases, sexual assault and harassment cases, PO-POC work and they find you.

Thanks. Pardon me. Thanks, Ben. All roads lead back to the exact same place. You can either use a 1-800 number, 1-877-POPOC-AF, or if you'd like to do it by the website, just go to thepopocfirm.com, and you'll end up talking not to AI,

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Turn your notifications on there and also the Legal AF Substack. Check that out as, well, all right, let's take our last quick break. We'll talk about CBS elements and a few other things. You know, sometimes the news is so wild these days, it makes me just want to crawl under a blanket with my cat. Honestly, there are so many similarities between Chanel and the news cycle. Unpredictable, a little chaotic, but somehow comforting. Now, while I can't fix all the craziness in the world, there's one thing I can absolutely control what I feed Chanel, and that's thanks to our sponsor Smalls. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. If you listen

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Did I mention how easy and convenient it is 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 Legal AF at checkout. Welcome back to legal AF. I'm here with Michael Popak. Thanks to those pro democracy sponsors. The discount codes are in the description below. Popak, let's talk about paramount folding

in this. My opinion, it was perhaps the most frivolous case I've seen and Trump has filed a lot of frivolous cases. He alleged that CBS in their 60 minute segment involving former Vice President Kamala Harris in October of 2024 made an edit or two, and that that caused him massive amounts of damage and emotional distress, he alleged. And he brought in Ronnie Jackson to be a cop plaintiff in the case because Ronnie Jackson is from Amarillo, Texas, and Trump wanted to file this before the federal judge, Judge Kazmeric, who's the only judge in Amarillo, Texas. So he has the Congress member from Amarillo join him and say that he was a consumer also

who watched this and suffered emotional damage to see former vice president Kamala Harris give this interview, which they said that CBS and 60 Minutes interviewed certain segments. First off, the edit that they made was kind of purely to keep the movement of it going. Like it was not a sub, it didn't change a yes to a no or a up to a down or, or anything, even of any significance.

They took out a few ums and ahs that she was saying, and it was a slower answer. Although the full interview was out there. The way the Trump people knew it is that in one of the other segments, whether it was on face the nation or how it was posted online, it looked a little bit different. From that one little segment, there was more ums and ahs. That was really it. Trump won the election, so what are his damages anyway? But he said that, then he amended the complaint in February

to say, oh, now his damages are $20 billion. What was really going on here is that Paramount, which is owned by the heir of, what do you say? The Redstone family. The Redstone family. It's owned by the daughter now, Sherry Redstone, who is Sumner's daughter. She wanted to sell her company to Skydance, a kind of private equity hedge fund that gobbles

up these companies. And Skydance is the son of the guy who runs Oracle. So you kind of had, you know, one heir wanting to buy a company from another heir, and then Trump was basically not approving, not giving it the FCC approvals that it needed until a personal settlement was reached with Donald Trump in his own case for emotional distress. And so when we looked at this case, I mean, if anybody filed this case, you would get what's called rule 11 sanctions, you would get laughed out of a federal court and you

would be treated as a vexatious litigant because it's just the most bizarre and deranged lawsuit, but they got the judge that they wanted, and then they kept on doing the delays every time the judge was about to make an order, because I think they even thought they might have lost with that judge. They would basically amend the complaint or ask for a delay, and in the background,

they were doing their gangster tactics and applying pressure to Paramount to settle this thing. They went in front of a mediator. I don't know the name of this mediator. Mediation is kind of non-binding, informal, like negotiations that takes place. And basically, the mediator's job is not to rule, oh, you're right or you're

wrong the mediator sole job is to try to make a deal that's that's their job and so the Trump regime was demanding 20 billion dollars and so the deal is a paramount you want your you want your approval to go through wink wink here's what you got to do here's what's gonna happen. Mediation is confidential, that's why they go and they do this mediation. And then they basically said, aha, we settled $16 million, we're gonna give it to a future presidential library,

and that's basically it, we're not making statements of apology, but we're just going to give $16 million. And then I guess that'll clear the way for the regulatory approval to take place. I mean, the Democrats say when they get power, they're going to investigate this as an unlawful bribe and a scheme. And the Democrats say, well, OK, well, you didn't.

We're going to investigate Paramount and Sky Dance later. But, you know, we saw some CBS hosts out there criticizing the decision from Paramount. But, you know, you can address it. And then and then and then I think it's helpful that you then address Paul, the Paul and Gracia guy. Yeah. In this analysis. But look, Popak, I it's sad to say, but corporate news is done.

They do good, they have some good reporters. There are some good reporters at CBS. There are some good reporters at Washington Post. There are some good reporters at New York Times. There are some great reporters out there who do good work. The issue is they're part of a corporate structure that will always sell out their work for the oligarch. Yeah, well look, I'll just continue with that

and then I'll wrap it into Paul Ingrasi. CBS was known as the Tiffany Network for a reason. It was run by Bill Paley, a lion of the industry back in the 50s, 60s and 70s. And 60 Minutes was the crown jewel of the Tiffany network. But to Paramount and the kids of Sumner Redstone, which is right out of succession last season, where this old line company with, you know, making buggy whips and television shows, you know, gets acquired by the new fangled Oracle, you know, air, you know, because this is their succession plan. They don't have a succession plan. Sunder died, Sherry Redstone took over. And in order to cash out,

they got to have a buyer. And Trump decided he was gonna take their testicles, corporate in nature, in his hands and squeeze until they paid him the way ABC paid him because George Stephanopoulos used one sex abuse term instead of another when he was asking a question. They shouldn't have settled either, but that set the precedent for CBS. And then you've got Brendan Carr, who is Donald Trump's

bootlicker, who's now in charge of the Federal Communications Commission. I see statements coming out of some of these places, and I think I'm in the Soviet Union circa 1970. It's just like the Politburo and it's propaganda. And you got the FCC guy or person saying things that are just totally political in nature, all to curry favor with Donald Trump. So they told they effectively told Cherry Redstone, we are not going to approve a merger that any day and twice on Sundays would be ultimately approved Because Paramount and Sky Dance, there's no antitrust issues ultimately. This should have been closed a long time ago But Donald Trump held it up using his lawsuit to extort

a bribe as you outlined it from Paramount and now Suddenly after the 16 million will eventually be paid, suddenly, there'll be regulatory approval. So there's many things that lawyers representing Donald Trump have violated their rules of professional responsibility by using these threats for an ulterior motive, and the regulators too.

And so that's something we'll have to keep an eye on. And you're right to open up that, not Pandora's box, but to open up that issue of when, not if, the Democrats take control of the House. And I don't mean that cavalierly. We have a lot of work to do. We have a lot of voting to do. We have a lot of voting registration to do.

But should we do all of that, then the House should be a blue tidal wave. That happens. It's going to be a considerable amount of time with real investigations, real articles of impeachment, and about these kind of things. I could see two-thirds of their time being taken up with those kind of things along with helping the American people. So according to the reporting, it looks like there's a former judge of some sort, state or federal, that was appointed to be the mediator. You and I have been involved with

mediators. What happens is they mediate the two parties, and the mediator does shuttle diplomacy back and forth, tries to use their own powers of influence and negotiation tactics in order to get the parties close. It looks like the parties weren't that close. And so the mediator, it's a technique in mediation. The mediator made a proposal, it's called, what else? A mediator proposal. And then they keep it open for a certain amount of times.

This is usually right at the end when there's an impasse and they're far enough apart, like from SAT, 100 million and CBS is at five. The mediator says something like 16 is my number. Who's going to meet me there? And they give a certain amount of time without telling either side who met them there. But if they both end up at 16,

agreeing to the mediator's proposal, the mediator will announce a deal. Like my number, he'll say to one side, my number 16. My number 16, are you there? And then they'll say, we're there or we're not there. And if they're not there, you'll know whether you accept it or not. So you know who screwed you.

But you'll never know. So that's what happened. CBS, which has now completely thrown the Crown Jewel and the Tiffany Network into the trash. I mean, if 60 Minutes was a major asset of this company, it has been completely undermined by what Paramount just did on the way out. Skydance should be like, oh shit,

I thought we were buying a credible news organization, CBS News and its flagship magazine that's been on the air for 50 years. Now it's not worth anything. As far as I'm concerned, if I were the buyer, I'd be really pissed off about this. Bill Whitaker was in literally, according to reporting, in tears.

He's the one that did the interview. And so was the other major player over there, who's the female that does a lot of their, it'll come to me in a minute, but they were, the reporters were just flummoxed by this settlement. And I've been watching 60 Minutes for a long time. And after, at the end of every segment,

they say a version of for the full interview without editing, go to 60minutes.com, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, that's what happened here. What the fact that it took, it took Kamala Harris a minute and a half to make her point and they shortened it to 30 seconds because it was a clip. But to Donald Trump, see, word salad. I would have, you would have what?

You won the seven battleground states. You won the popular vote. You won the election. It's like the suit against the pollster that's still alive in Iowa who said, oh, she's up by five points when he was really up by 13. Who gives a crap at this point?

But they do it to make a broader all political point. Donald Trump's trying to destroy mainstream media. He can't get control of us. He can't get control of things that are independent. So he has to go after the corporate owners of mainstream media. When we say mainstream media, we generally mean they're owned by corporations where this is an asset on their books. You know, and like Bezos owning Washington Post, the Asian business guy that owns the LA Times, You know, the only thing that's like independent

is our papers like the New York Times, which is least owned by one family. You know, it has been for 150 years, but that's what we're talking about. This is to their own by private equity and hedge and the rest. And so at the end of the day, the settlement they're trying to pat themselves on the back going the day, the settlement,

they're trying to pat themselves on the back going, yes, 16 million, we didn't have to apologize and we'll just put the full report out. But it is so scuttles any of their press or First Amendment integrity. And like I said, if I was Skydance, I'd be like, you just shit all over 60 minutes. And that was a major asset for us in the purchase.

So you've got that happening, I mean, which is completely and utterly outrageous. And then you've got Trump appointing people, you know, so he's taking in this money, and then he's pointing people like real whistle, people who have real cases, right? So these Trump cases, just phony baloney stuff, right? BS. Then you have people who have real cases, right? So these Trump cases, just phony baloney stuff, right? BS.

Then you have people who have real cases, whistleblowers, who are supposed to get whistleblower protection. Within the federal government, you have this Office of Special Counsel, which is usually led by, in PO-PAC, lawyers with real distinction, right? Who have either been civil rights lawyers, or these

are the types of people who were like, I can either become a judge, I can stay a partner at a firm where I'm earning seven figures, I could give back and provide real service to the federal government for a few years. And, you know, as a matter of service and protect whistleblowers within the federal government. Well like Hampton Dellinger the guy they can't the guy he can't who's a friend. So you have Hampton canned and who comes in? Okay so Hampton Dellinger who was Biden's who again this is the on Bud's person position for whistleblowers in the federal government to feel like they can go complain and drop their whistleblower complaint and not be retaliated against.

And it's like the ethics hotline, the whistleblower hotline for the federal government. It was created after Watergate. Donald Trump destroyed three major institutions in America almost at the same time. The National Labor Relations Board, the Merit Service Protection Board, and the Office of Special Counsel.

He did it like within days of each other. The Merit Service Protection Board and the Office of Special Counsel. He did it like within days of each other. The Merit Service Protection Board about federal workers being protected is effectively been trapped in amber and is on ice because he hasn't replaced the person he fired and the Supreme Court let him fire him. And so they don't have a quorum, so they can't act. National Labor Relations Board, same thing.

Protecting America's workers, all those unions that didn't support Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, what you get now? You got no place to go. You got no regulator, because it's all been put out of business by Donald Trump. And then lastly, was the Office of Special Counsel, which is not what it sounds like. Some people thought, oh, that's like where Jack Smith came from. I get it. But that's not what it is. It's just the title that they gave to this office. Hampton Dellinger, body of work, just unrivaled, just bipartisan, independent, a lawyer's lawyer, comes from a long line of lawyers, lawyers. His father, Walter Dellinger,

was my constitutional law professor, hung out at his house because we had a small class on a regular basis talking about con law, Solicitor General of the United States, short list for the US Supreme Court. That's Hampton Dellinger's family. Donald Trump, it's, and it's just, I'd say it's comic relief, but it's just tragedy. He shits all over the office.

I know I'm cursing so much on this trip. He craps all over the office by appointing a first year lawyer. I should stop right there. office by appointing a first year lawyer, I should stop right there, who is, because you're judged by the company you keep, especially on social media, he hangs around with, pals around with, and endorses the views of white nationalists like Nick Fuentes, Holocaust deniers,

9-11 deniers, supports Alex Jones and his comments about Sandy Hook massacre of children being an inside job or a false flag. Does the same for 9-11. Attention Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary, who lost 658 people of his employees on 9-11. You okay, rubbing elbows with the guy who's now the future head of the Office of Special Counsel,

who doesn't think that happened or thinks it was an inside job, who went after Nikki Haley as a political hatchet man for Donald Trump, calling her the B word, saying that she wasn't qualified to be president because her parents were from another country, okay? I could go on and you and I do it in our own optics. This is the guy who got fired from one job

already in the Trump administration. He was at the beginning, the liaison between the White House and the Department of Justice until he got sideways with Pam Bondi's right-hand chief of staff. He tried to get him fired. The chief of staff got Paul Ingracia fired. He got transferred to Homeland Security where he's been stashed away, and now nominated, wholly unqualified, obscenely unqualified for this position.

What is its signal? It just means that Donald Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about and wants to weaponize an office that's about weaponization, that's about retaliation of whistleblowers and protecting them. If I'm a whistleblower now in the government and this is the guy running the ethics hotline, I hang up. So that's what Trump wants.

He doesn't want whistleblowers. He doesn't want ethics charges. He just wants to put a joker in the spot because the other two two he figured out, well, if I just don't nominate anybody, they don't have a quorum, so they don't have to act, but I need to put somebody in the office of special counsel, but I'll just put this joker in.

And that guy was like, I'll do it, thank you, thank you, sir. So on, let me just fold it into one last point. I am very concerned, I just did my own hot tick on this, Let me just fold it into one last point. I am very concerned, I just did my own hot tick on this, about recess appointments by Donald Trump in August. And feeling emboldened and whatever by the bill being passed for the budget,

which we'll use against him for the midterms. You can just hear it now. He talked about recess appointments where he'll get a year and a half of somebody being appointed through a commission without Senate confirmation. He's got 15 or 20 people in government, including US attorneys like Alina Jaba,

including federal judges. It's never been done for a federal judge, but it could be like like Emil Bovi, to be on the Third Circuit. Give everybody a year and a half when the August recess happens, until they come back a year later, a year and a half later,

and then he worries about confirmation at that point. The more I hear about Donald Trump doing things that we weren't expecting, if that's even possible, like Alina Haba for permanent New Jersey US attorney, nominating this Senate, this person has to be Senate confirmed for this position. I now believe that he's gonna try to shove all this down our throat at a Senate recess appointment in August.

What do you think, Ben? I agree with you and I think that as you try you know, try to break this down in a way that's really simple to understand as well, you know, whether it's a Paul and Gracia or that 20 year old guy who they have leading counterterrorism at the Department of Homeland Security, right, who's now like the number one person who was before he was, he was like interning for Trump or something they made him the number one guy everything I try to say here no and this is why you know we agree you know you did that great piece with judge let the judge

ludic judge ludic's a pretty right wing judge you know in a traditional sense I mean he's a he's conservative in the traditional sense of conservative, where he and I and we align, even if you go back and look at his rulings where I would find disagreements, I'm sure I would find that his opinions were very thoughtful and logical. And we came out differently and had different agreements. But we use stats and data and logic. And we tried and we and we grappled with issues and and right now the the distinctions here to me are not like they shouldn't be oh that's a liberal view or that's a conservative view

that's the way it's kind of being treated by corporate news but go back to the first segment we did on Legal AF it was I'm not like an Abrego Garcia fan. I'm not a fan of the eight migrants in Djibouti. I'm not a fan. I don't know. All I care about is that they get actual process and they go through it. And if ultimately at the end of the day,

the process reaches a conclusion, then let's have whatever the outcome is when they are provided due process. That's what I'm a fan of. I'm a fan of the due process, right? I'm not a fan of someone using the executive branch to shake down media entities and corporations to settle frivolous lawsuits. I don't think that's like a liberal position, conservative position. I just think that's to me very logical. And I'm not for people being appointed who are not only not qualified, but who express views that I think are despicable. And I am biased against views that are discriminatory against human beings. And I am biased against people who are not qualified getting jobs that require real serious qualifications and experience.

I just, there's nothing that I'm saying there that to me feels, oh, well, that's like a hyper-partisan statement that you're making. I don't want people to get kicked off of Medicaid like this disastrous budget bill is going to do. I don't think people to get kicked off of Medicaid like this disastrous budget bill is going to do. I don't think that billionaires deserve like special treatment and that they we should go out of the way to give them the most tax cuts and the most benefits so they can buy extra jets. They should be treated fairly. I'm not against the idea that you could

potentially become a billionaire one day if you build a corporation. But I am against the idea of them not getting taxed fairly and then becoming billionaires by gaining unfair advantages and exploiting workers. So I just I'll leave it with this is that, you know, I want to approach all of this through a lens of common sense and logic. And I'll let you all who watch and listen to this decide where you stand on these issues. But a lot of this stuff is very simple to me

when you begin with values and principles like we do here at the Midas Touch Network and Illegal AF. Let me remind everybody, subscribe to the Illegal AF YouTube channel now. They're on their way to a million subscribers. Subscribe, help them get one million. They'll get 700,000 any minute now. They're on their way to a million subscribers. Subscribe, help them get one million. They'll get 700,000 any minute now and then let them get a million subscribers. Also, if you've been in an accident, whether it's a trucking accident or a car

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