Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode - 8/13/2025
Episode Date: August 14, 2025While a federal judge reminds the public that Ghislaine Maxwell is a convicted child sex trafficker and abuser, Trump is allowing her to be let out on work release! Another federal judge is about to... rule whether a President has violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using the US Military against US civilians for the first time in 150 years; MAGA forces its way into American's bedrooms and private lives again, now trying to reverse the Supreme Court's same sex marriage ruling; E Jean Carroll is about to take Trump for $100 million dollars for sexually abusing and defaming her. All this and so much more on the top rated Legal AF podcast with Michael Popok and Karen Friedman Agnifilo. Support Our Sponsors: Americans United: Americans United will keep fighting for freedom without favor - equality without exception. Keep up with this issue at Https://au.org/legalaf Magic Spoon: Get this exclusive offer when you use promo code LEGALAF at https://MagicSpoon.com/LEGALAF Qualia: Head to https://qualialife.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 15% off your purchase! Armra: Head to https://tryarmra.com/legalaf or enter promo code: LEGALAF to receive 15% off your first order! 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)
Ready to level up, Chamba Casino is your playbook to fun.
It's free to play with no purchase necessary.
Enjoy hundreds of casino-style games like bingo, slots, and solitaire, anytime, anywhere,
with fresh releases every week.
Whether you're at home or on the go, let Chumba Casino bring the excitement to you.
Plus get free daily login bonuses and a free welcome bonus.
Join now for your chance to redeem some serious prizes.
Play Chumba Casino today.
No purchase necessary. VGW Group, Voidware prohibited by law, 18 plus TNCs apply.
You're on Legal A.F. The podcast, sure. It's got to be that.
Karen Freeman Ignifalo, Michael Poppock on a Wednesday. What else would it be?
We got a lot to talk about. Firstly, we've got a Trump trial. Yes, this is not an old episode.
We've got a Trump trial going on in San Francisco in front of a judge named Breyer.
Sounds like it's an old episode. This time, Charles Breyer, presiding over a three-day trial about whether Donald Trump and the Trump administration,
violated the Posse Comitatis Act.
God, I never thought I'd have to talk about that.
But we do.
And that would be violated if a judge finds that the Trump administration
has used the U.S. military, that awesome power of the U.S. military
on domestic soil for civilian domestic law enforcement.
And that happened in California.
And it's not just California where it matters.
It matters in every blue state and every blue municipality,
from D.C. to California and all, you know, from the,
from the Hudson to the Pacific and everything in between.
And that's why it's literally the case of Governor Gavin Newsom versus Trump in that case.
And we'll talk about it more with Karen Freeman McNiflo.
We just finished day two, day three is tomorrow.
Or actually, no, they just finished day three today.
Sorry, so we'll be able to give you the update related to that.
Then there's a lot of update and confusion in the Epstein world.
Did Galane Maxwell just get work release?
Is she going to be working at a Starbucks near you, hunting for her next prey, having been convicted of being a child sex offender and child sex trafficker?
Well, Alison Gill, Mueller, she wrote, just did some reporting, and I think there was a non-denial denial by Galane Maxwell's lawyer, David Oscar Marcus.
The fact that we're even talking about a convicted child sex trafficker who Donald Trump wants to vouch for his character, it says all, I think it says,
is all you need to hear. And the fact that we're even talking about the fact that she might be able
to get a work release. And the fact that she was sent to a minimum security prison filled with
other women and young women. Probably not a good thing, not the right thing under the Bureau of Prisons,
but we'll talk more about that. And then, you know, no rock left unturned by MAGA. They are going to
keep testing whether they've got the numbers at the United States Supreme Court to do really
immoral and underhanded things, in this case, overturning a longstanding precedent that
established the right to same-sex marriage. And I'm going to have actually tomorrow,
I think we'll post it the following day, Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer for E. Jean Carroll,
who, when she was at a big firm doing pro bono work, argued a lead case in the defense of
marriage act that led into the same-sex marriage ruling by the United States Supreme Court
and she'll have some great things to talk about.
But we'll break down the issue here, Karen and me.
And then we do, speaking to Robbie Kaplan,
E. Jean Carroll just got another win at the Second Circuit Court of Appeal
about her sexual abuse and defamation of punitive damage case
against Donald Trump.
And we'll talk about what happens next there.
Let's bring on Karen with much, do we have the balloon drop?
It's Karen's birthday tonight.
Yes, it is.
Let's leave it. Let's watch the all the comments.
I don't think I've ever had my birthday fall on a Wednesday, you lucky, lucky person.
What are you going to do for it?
I'm going to go out to dinner with my husband. I'm very excited.
Should be. Are the kids in town?
I just going to be with my husband, you know.
Date night. That's what I want to do.
Oh, there. Thank you, producer.
Thank you for the balloon.
We should end now. This is the highlight of the entire show.
So great.
This is the end of it.
Happy birthday to KFA.
The other thing I wanted to do was legal A-F with you.
You even said, do you want to pass?
It's your birthday.
I said, no way.
I want to be with this community, this amazing, these amazing people.
That's what I want to do.
I did give you the out.
You did.
I said, you really want to do this tonight with us?
And that just shows you her commitment to everything that we do here.
So let's dive in.
There's no segue off of a happy birthday.
Congratulations to you.
Certainly not the Posse Cometatis Act.
I will say it's not a big birthday yet.
That's all I'll say.
Okay.
I thought you're going to say something like, well, the possecombatitis act is older than me.
That's true.
That's also true.
It's also from the 1800s.
Thanks to one skin and all their amazing products, I look much better and younger.
I wonder if they're a sponsor today.
Well, we're going to, they are now.
We're going to tell Jordy.
It's true.
It's true.
Jordy's going to go collect.
So I've been doing a lot of reporting on it.
And so let me just do it see.
I can do the shorthand, then turn it over to you for the color commentary.
Judge Breyer, brother of retired Supreme Court Justice, Stephen Breyer, he's senior status himself.
And he issued a preliminary injunction against Trump administration after the takeover of California
and its National Guard by Trump.
And he ruled that it was unconstitutional, that it violated the 10th Amendment, which reserves
to the state's powers that's not given to the federal government,
and that his attempt under a unique statute
to federalize and commandeer the National Guard of California
was an abuse of power.
Goes up on it, but he doesn't touch the posse conventatus argument,
which was another secondary argument or another argument
of the state of California.
I just had, by the way, Rob Banta, the Attorney General for California,
on, he's up right now on LegalAF YouTube channel with an amazing interview, not to be missed.
The fact, it was so amazing, I led the video with a talking point or a soundbite from General Banta.
I think you'll like it a lot about this case.
So they bring Possecombatatus arguing that ever since our reconstruction period,
civil war, post-Civil War, in order to get the Confederacy to feel comfortable
and to cut a deal about a presidential election, boy, that sounds familiar.
they passed this act, which basically assured the South that Union soldiers or the federal
troops would not be in their states enforcing local law or domestic or domestic or
take over domestic disturbances. And that's the law. That's what we've been doing. Now, it does
say that a violation of it is a crime, although this is not a criminal case in San Francisco,
and subject to fines. It doesn't really talk about injunctions. We'll touch on that in a minute.
judge doesn't rule on that. That's not what goes to the appellate court because the appellate court
in a three-judge panel, one Trumper, one Bush, one Biden rule against the judge on the injunction
about the takeover of the National Guard. But they don't address because it wasn't addressed
by the trial court below the posse comitatis issue. And way back when we put a placeholder,
we said, and the judge is going to hold a trial in August about the posse comitatis. And we're here.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. He's held a trial. So let me turn it over to you, Karen,
about what you picked up and learned about the trial and how do you think this is going to turn
out for the Trump side. I don't think the Trump administration is going to be able to show
that it was necessary under the Posse Comitatis Act to be able to invoke the military and use
the military for local domestic law enforcement. You have to show an insurrection. You have to
show all sorts of things that absolutely did not exist in California when this was done.
It was sort of this manufactured situation that Trump said required this, but I don't think
he's going to meet his burden, and I think he's going to lose bigily, as he says, in California.
That's what I think.
And, you know, it's just we're talking generally about military being used and National Guard
being used in local law enforcement for local law enforcement purposes. And D.C. which we're going
to talk about next is in a very different position than California, because D.C. is not a state.
But I just want to make a general point, which is, you know, other than the fact that people in the
military and people in local law enforcement carry weapons and carry guns, there's almost no
similarity between the two jobs. To become a local law enforcement officer, the amount of specialized
training that goes into it, I have so much respect for both, actually, from the military and for
local law enforcement beyond. I mean, my father was a police officer in Los Angeles and served in the
military, and I've always just had the most tremendous respect for people who serve in both. But
there's virtually no similarities between the two roles. And the, the, the, the,
training is so different. And to be a local law enforcement officer and to enforce the local laws,
it's so dependent on being a part of the community, knowing the community, and being trained to
do things like de-escalate. And local law enforcement, only a very small percentage of what they do
is enforcing laws or making arrests, I should say. Local law enforcement, they do things like
when you call 911, if somebody passed away of natural causes in New York. The police,
will sit with you until the coroner comes, so you don't have to be alone with the person,
your loved one who just passed. Or crowd control, if you're having a parade, they will help
control the crowds. Or if there's, you know, a swarm of bees that have taken over a hydrant,
the local police officers come and there's a beekeeper that works for them and they help
move the bees. I mean, these are all like examples of, you know, they do help with search
and rescue. They help, you know, when there's, they help crowd control. If there's a fire,
they show up when there's an emergency like EMT is called. I mean, there's so many things that
they do. And making arrests is maybe 10% of what they do. And so, and the military is a completely
other thing, right? What they're trained to do. It's totally different, right? They're trained to
engage in war. And so just federalizing all these local places, it's such a different thing. And
And A, I worry a little bit about, I worry a little bit about the military or federal law enforcement.
Again, FBI, you're going to bring FBI, and they don't patrol.
That's not what they do.
They do long-term investigations that then sometimes end up in arrest.
But they don't do that kind of uniform patrol on the street function, which, again, is just very, very different.
So it's a big deal.
What Trump is trying to do, it reminds me of the handmaid's tale, you know, where you can't even drive around.
without these law, military checkpoints, everybody in uniform with guns.
You know, we're not there yet, but let me tell you, it's a little scary what he's trying
to do by bringing these federal forces into local law enforcement.
So I think California is right to fight this, and I think they're going to win.
Yeah.
And look what happened with Trump.
He wants to distract from the fact that there is a trial.
going on against his administration for violations of the Possecombatatus Act.
So that's why that and the fact he's got a teacher's pet named Big Balls,
that's why he tries to take over the D.C. National Guard or D.C. Police Department
at the exact same time as day one of the trial with a group of people up there.
It's just a distractor from Epstein and the Epstein scandal and his role in the cover-up
and the crimes related to it and the bad press about Colleen Maxwell and,
Shady Vance's failure to try to tamp down the Epstein story on the weekend on the Sunday morning
news shows, making it worse. So he pulls together this phony press conference about strong man,
Trump, you know, every time I talk about Trump, it's devolved into caveman. Me, Trump, me have
big club, me, me going to, me going to fix problem in D.C., which has worse crime rate than
Mexico City. I like his Russian, I like your Russian Trump accent.
I don't know what it is. It's like caveman Russian. It's wrong. It's not worse. It's 30% down over the year. This is just a facade because your, your pet, big balls that we used to work for Elon Musk is now rummaging around our social security records, got jumped by a bunch of 15-year-olds. Lord knows what he was doing. I'm not saying he invited the attack, but I mean, listen, well, I'll just leave it at that. So big balls gets jumped. And now we've got.
got to federalize the D.C. Police Department. I mean, like, D.C. is already federal. It's a federal district. Yes, the president has the right to do a lot of things there, but he can't take it on the road and do it in New York. But he does it right at the moment of this trial. In fact, evidence, we had Adam Classfeld just joined us on legal AF to be a contributor, and he's in the courtroom watching this trial on Zoom. And he said, it came in. The evidence, like they said, well, you're seeking an injunction. That means California. You need to show that there's a chance that this is going to happen again.
And they said, look at D.C.
There's a press conference going on right now.
So that kind of wafted its way right in in real time, as it often does in Donald Trump cases,
to become evidence against him.
But that whole, you know, I was reading a New York magazine article today that came in,
and it reminded me of, you know, it was a whole section about Donald Trump from childhood,
where he was a bully that used to, you know, pull pig tails and attack,
Little girls, his father had to send him off to military academy where it got worse.
Then he gets under the tutelage of Roy Cohen, Roy Cohn, the lawyer, the pugnacious lawyer.
And Roy taught him, you never apologize, you never defend, you only attack.
And that's always been Donald Trump, always attack.
And then, of course, the interview with, you know, the reporter Bob Woodward, in which he said,
power, this is Trump to Woodward, power is, what's the word I'm looking for? It's about fear. It's
about creating fear. That's all we're watching with Donald Trump. And we can't allow him
to make us fearful. That's why there's over 400 cases that have been filed in federal courts
around this country. And by and large, 90% of them have been successful, including injunctions.
That's why they matter. And we're also battened about 90% at appellate courts. Sure, there's a stray
appellate court here and there that makes a ruling like today. Oh, we can do this to the U.S.
aid or do that. But by and large, we are winning in the federal courts at the lower level.
There's cases that then drift up to the United States Supreme Court, eight or 10 or 12 of them.
And they are important. But main justice in this country gets done at the trial court level
and at the first level appeal court level. And there's plenty of examples of Trump, for instance,
chickening out, folding, taco moments,
walking away from cases, releasing funds.
See, they don't get the press that these other ones do.
But when you talk to the newsmakers who are in the courtroom like we do on Legal
AF, you know, Democracy Forward has a playlist on LegalAF YouTube channel,
where Sky Perryman comes on with me once a week and talks about her 80 cases that they are now handling
and all the success that they're having.
There's even cases where Donald Trump hasn't even bothered appealing.
So they were like, we always lose because it goes to the Supreme Court not so fast.
And that's not what the attorneys general, the 23 Democratic Attorneys General will tell you about their success record so far this term and not with the public interest groups like Democracy Forward and the ACLU.
And I'll just leave it on this, Karen.
Rob Bonta, the attorney general for California.
By the way, keep an eye on that person.
I mean, this is not his last stop as attorney general.
I don't know if it's governor of the state of California.
I don't know if it's running for president one day.
Quite an impressive fellow.
He was a vice mayor.
He was a representative in California.
He worked as a district attorney, then attorney general.
I mean, watch this guy's career.
Quite fascinating, quite amazing.
And he's, and why did I pick up Rob Bont?
Oh, we talked about all the cases that they filed.
because Rob Bonta said we, Trump may have learned in his first term.
And while he had a shadow government waiting to get reelected or elected, he might have
learned, but we learned also the lessons the first time around.
And we are ready, all gas, no break.
And I love hearing that.
And I think our audience will take quite a lot of comfort from hearing about the
attorneys general, the, you know, the Letitia James's and the Rob Bontas of the world,
and the other 21 of them, along with the ACLUs and the Democracy Fords,
and what they're doing every day as the firewall between Donald Trump and the American people.
Yeah, I agree with you.
And I also agree with you that the takeover of D.C., that he's, of the D.C. police department
that he's doing is a little smoke and mirrors because I think he sees the writing on the wall
that he's going to lose in California.
And D.C. is slightly different.
As you said, it's already federal.
And there's a statute that actually allows him to take over and federalize the metropolitan police, the police force in D.C.
If there's an emergency now, he's manufactured this emergency.
And frankly, I think is way, way overstating and lying about what the actual crime numbers are in D.C.
And of course, there is some violent crime and there are some problematic areas.
But there's no reason to think that local law enforcement there can't handle it on.
their own. In fact, they've been handling it, and crime has continued to go down violent crime
year after year the last two years in particular. And this is from stat – these are Department
of Justice statistics. These aren't – this is Trump administration's own statistics show that
crime is down. But he manufactures this emergency, which then triggers the statute that
allows him to place the D.C. police department under his control and deploy the National Guard in the
city. So, you know, declaring this emergency in the District of Columbia because, as you said,
big balls got jumped, I think it wouldn't pass muster, but I do think it's a loser in court,
unlike the California case, because of this DC code. I think it's 1-207-40, which basically
says emergency control of the police by the president when special conditions of an emergency nature
exists, they can direct the mayor to turnover control for 48 hours and then again for 30 days.
After 30 days, they need congressional permission. That's a lower bar or lower standard than the
Posse Comitatis Act that is required in every other state for this to happen. So I think that's
one of the reasons he did it timing-wise was so that he can get a win or have this happen and not
be, you know, because I think he knows he's going to lose in California. So that's what I think.
very good observation as usual. And we're going to talk about more observations here on
Legal A.F. We're going to talk about the Epstein developments. There's been so many of them since
the last time you and I got together. The Defense of Marriage Act and same-sex marriage now
is the next thing on this immoral checklist by MAGA. But we need to cover it. And then E. Gene
Carroll had a win, and that's a win for justice and for democracy. And I'll have Robbie
Kaplan's going to be meeting with, or interviewing with me tomorrow, and we're going to talk about
both E. Jean, Carol, her wing, because she represents E. Jean, and this new attempt to overturn
same-sex marriage in America. Just such a vindictive group of people that are running our government
right now. And we just have to cling together, be joined at the hip, and we shall overcome the
Trump administration. I mean, that's the best that I can put it. And it starts with telling truth to
each other. Mark Maren, the comic social observer, had a good line in his recent special. He said,
normally it's speaking truth to power. But for Donald Trump, it's speaking power to truth. And that's
what we're watching with the total revision of American history at the Smithsonian Institute,
rewriting the entire impeachment exhibit at the Smithsonian to write out literally Donald Trump,
the only two-time impeached president ever. I mean, it's just disgusting things.
that are going on in Washington for Donald Trump
to leave his mark.
And I think it just shows you how important it is
to support what we do here on the Midasthetouch Network
and on Legal AF.
People ask, how do you keep the lights on?
How do you pay the bills?
Because it's not just Karen and me,
it's Karen and me and an entire group that works behind the scenes.
It's a lean team, but it's an entire group
behind the scenes that works on the videos
and on the hot takes and on the lives
and on the podcasts.
And there's a lot going on.
And then the Legal AF YouTube channel, we've got a team there that does the editing and the producing and the content making and, you know, buys the microphones and things that we need to do the show.
And how does that get done?
It's very easy.
We don't have a paywall.
You know, if you want to make contributions, you make contributions.
But there's no paywall for our content.
Either here on the Midas Touch Network, hit the subscribe button.
Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, do the exact same thing.
Just that's the receipt we need to show us that you like the.
the content that we're curating on the LegalAF YouTube channel.
I got a dozen contributors to do work over there with me.
Adam Classfeld just joined from All Rise News.
We got our resident historians at Sydney Blumenthal and Sean Walent's amazing interviews
that they bring on as a group and others, which I don't want to bore everybody with the details.
Come over to LegalAft, the YouTube channel.
You'll see the playlists and all the podcasts that are there.
And all we ask for is you take a finger and hit the subscribe button.
That's really it.
Legal AF has a substack
and the way to support that
sure paid subscription
is great. It does help pay the bills
for people that are involved in this. But if you just
want to start it off with a free subscription
you'll get a lot of the content that's very very
interesting including the filings and the
orders and things coming right out of the
courtrooms you have to rely on Karen and me
or Ben telling you about what the 38 page order says
you can read it for yourself
as well and so that's on legal AF
substack
and then we've got
our, we've got sponsors. That's another part of the ecosystem that keeps the lights on,
keeps the printing press running, and we've got some amazing sponsors. Some of them have been with
us for five years. Some of them are brand new, but all have been vetted and curated by
Jordy Myceles and the brothers and that we look at them and we try them out. We like these.
And we pass on some that we don't like. And these are the ones that are very supportive of what
we do. And just to make a point, sometimes it comes up in the chat.
Google ads
ads by YouTube
we have no control over
so if they're placed there
someone's like Popok the
meme coin for Trump
and his gold watch is being sold
on one of your videos I have no control
over this at all
however the ads that we actually
run or do during a show
that we have complete control over
and they don't have any control over our content
at all they don't know what we're going to say
Karen doesn't we don't know what we don't know
what we're going to say to each other.
All right.
I just have a list like that.
There we go.
And that's it.
And if they don't like it,
they don't have to sponsor us.
And the first day that a sponsor
tells Karen or me or Ben
what to say or what not to say
is the last day we're going to have that sponsor
and or I'm going to be on the network.
So don't worry about any of that.
But if you got disposable income,
and that's shrinking,
I get it in this economy.
But these are some great products
and some great sponsors.
And now a word from them.
You guys know I love my late night snacks,
but not the sugar crash after.
That's why I'm obsessed with magic spoon.
It's the cereal and treats you remember
from your childhood, reinvented.
Each serving of their high protein cereal
has a wild 13 grams of protein,
zero sugar and only four grams of net carbs.
Perfect if you're carb conscious
or live in that low-carb lifestyle
and the flavor straight out of the Saturday morning cartoons.
Fruitie, cocoa, frosted,
nostalgic, fueling, and totally satisfying.
Now let's talk about their treats.
They're crispy, crunchy,
and packed with 12 grams
protein. I tossed them in my gym bag, my glove box, even my nightstand with flavors like
marshmallow, chocolate, peanut butter, and dark chocolate, you really can't go wrong. Get $5 off your next
order at magic spoon.com slash legal a.f or look for MagicSpoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery
store. That's magic spoon.com slash legal a.f for $5 off. So I went to my 40th high school
reunion recently. While many of my classmates were excited about retiring or have retired, well,
I brought my infant daughter to the reunion and I won the youngest child contest hands down.
But that means that when most people's working is winding down to match their body's energy levels,
I need to ramp up to keep up with my baby daughter.
I believe one of the best aging breakthroughs of the last decade is Qualicenolitic.
And here's why.
Qualicenolytic is at the frontier of what is currently possible in the science of human aging.
Cenolytics are a science field revolutionizing human aging.
A big culprit behind that middle-aged feeling can be senescent cells,
a.k.a. zombie cells that linger in your body after their useful function,
wasting your energy and resources. Let me break it down. The accumulation of zombie cells
can lead to less energy, slower workout recovery, joint discomfort, and basically, well,
feeling old. Qualicacetytic is a groundbreaking, clinically tested supplement,
With nine vegan plant-derived compounds that help your body naturally eliminate senescent cells,
helping you feel years younger in just months.
Here's how it works.
You take it just two days a month,
helping your body naturally eliminate zombie cells to age better at the cellular level.
And Qualia's breakthrough formulation is vegan.
Non-GMO and tested by leading scientists.
Since taking Qualia's senolytic, I felt like I've turned back the clock.
I got higher energy, less sort of.
after exercise and a big boost in productivity. It's made me feel more youthful and energized
as I have the energy level to nurture my baby daughter the right way. Experience the science of
feeling younger. Go to qualiaLife.com slash legal a.f for up to 50% off your purchase and use
code legal a.f for an additional 15%. That's qualialife.com slash legal a.f for an extra 15%
off your purchase your older self will thank you and thanks to qualia for sponsoring this episode welcome
back and thank you to our sponsors and and as i said keeps the lights on let's talk about uh what's going
on with the epstein case karen let me turn it over to you we've got some new reporting that from uh alison
gill muller she wrote but she's standing by that says that uh galane maxwell is eligible for work
release she's got out checked off next to her name on the bureau
prisons now that she's been reassigned to a low security, sorry, minimum security prison,
camp in Texas.
And why don't you catch the audience up on that, brief them on that.
And then, of course, the other, you know, I can pick up with, you know, J.D. Vance going on Sunday
news trying to blame the Biden administration for not releasing the files.
And we're still at, the files have not been released.
And then we've got Paul Engelmeyer, a federal judge in New York, who issued a row.
ruling about grand jury secrecy transcripts, but went even further in excoriating the Trump
administration and vindicating the rights of the victims. So we'll tie all that together in this
segment. You want to kick it off? Sure. So Galane Maxwell is, as you know, she went to trial
in her case after Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide a month after he was arrested. And she went to
trial. She was convicted of most of the charges of both facilitating sexual activity with
minors as well as participating in them herself. So she was resoundly convicted and sentenced to
20 years. And there are different places she could serve that time. And she was in a higher
level security facility. And as a result of talking to the Trump administration,
She suddenly is now transferred to a minimum security camp.
And when you get to go to a place like that, there's a lot you get to do there.
First of all, they call it a camp for a reason.
It's minimum security, a lot of freedom, a lot you can do.
And one of the things that you get to be, it's kind of ironic that Jared Kushner in Trump
one was instrumental in a lot of these prison reforms and sentencing reforms, things like the
First Step Act, et cetera, that allows people who have served a certain amount of time to have time
reduced off their sentence or to get to do things like work release. And that, it seems to be
where she's headed. And it's one of the reasons I'm sure why she was given this cushy role to
go to minimum security now so that she can avail herself of all of these things and
and start the process of getting out, frankly. So I think that's where she is and what's
happening. I don't know, maybe the Trump administration decided that a full pardon is a little
too distasteful, you know, and it's just interesting because through all of this, you know,
Although I followed Epstein and Maxwell at the time when this was all going on, now that this is all happening, I'm sort of refreshing my memory on all of what happened and came out in her trial.
And thankfully, Judge Engelmeyer, who's the judge in the Southern District, who denied this request from the Trump administration to release the grand jury minutes, he denied it in a 30-plus page decision.
This could have just been a one-page decision or a two-page decision, you know, or just a denied.
I mean, because it doesn't meet the legal standard even close.
But he took the time to really remind everybody of the treasure trove of information,
the amount of stuff that the Trump administration possesses and doesn't need the permission
of the judge to release.
What he basically said in this decision was, look, there was a trial.
Galane Maxwell had a trial, and lots of evidence came out in that trial, and nothing in this grand jury testimony amplifies upon that.
The grand jury is a bare-bones, probable cause standard, just enough to charge someone with the crime.
And then you have a trial where you have full evidence and cross-examination, et cetera.
This grand jury presentation was two different witnesses who testified, and neither
of them, there were summary witnesses. So they just summarized the evidence. Neither of them
testified at the trial. And there was nothing in there that illuminated anything. There was
nothing new or anything in their special that didn't come out at the trial. So he basically said,
look, I'm denying it because you didn't meet the standard. But I'm not, there's nothing in there.
And he previewed that for everybody. There's literally nothing in there. But there is a lot of
stuff that came out at the trial and is part of the investigation that the FBI and the Department
of Justice has when they investigated and prosecuted these cases, right? They executed search
warrants. They recovered a notebook, flight logs, all that kind of stuff. I was reading a CNN article
that talks about just the connection and how close. I don't know that people realize how close
Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were. They called themselves best friends. They were the best
of friends, the closest friends. He'd been on the plane. His children when they were little and
their nannies went on his plane. It's all in the flight logs and they put it in chronological order
and it's worth looking at because it's just shockingly, they were shockingly close. They weren't just
acquaintances who knew each other at parties. These were people who spent a lot of time together,
flew on each other's airplanes a lot together and literally called each other best friends.
And there was a, at one point Trump admitted that he knew that that Jeffrey
Epstein likes them young. I mean, you know, the, it's not a, it's not a far stretch given the
amount of women who have come forward and accused Donald Trump of forcibly, whether it's
raping them or kissing them or touching them. There are so many women who have come forward
to say that that's what happened. And that's what his friend Jeffrey Epstein did as well.
and so it's not a huge stretch and when you think about it and you see how close they were
and I think it's time for the Justice Department and the FBI to turn over the records that
they have in their possession that does not require the court or anybody else to release the
way these grand jury minutes that show nothing this is just they just want to be able to say
oh we were going to turn them over but the judge said no the judge said no there's nothing there
It's literally giving ice in winter.
There's nothing in those minutes.
And there never was going to be anything in those minutes.
I've never seen grand jury minutes that are substantive,
federal grand jury minutes that are substantive.
That's not how they do it.
They do it exactly this way for a reason.
So that's where we are.
And, you know, with all of this, sorry.
I kind of went off on a tangent there, but I get so upset.
So this topic really bothers me.
The podcast is a tangent.
I mean, you know, we said that.
I know, but I had, Ben, Ben, when he and I talk about, when we do Saturday,
something, he's like, we'll be talking about, all right, I'll, I'll do this part,
and then you do a Popok rant or Ben Rand.
I'm like, the rant, that's the, that's the juice, that's the podcast, the rant part.
So, yeah, Engelmeyer, I'll just touch on that part.
Judge Engelmeier issued a 35-page-plus decision.
What I liked about it, in a way that Judge Rothenberg, sorry, Rosenberg in my, in West Palm Beach,
when she was dealing with her grand jury transcript.
No, I'm not going to release the transcript issue.
She just did like a five-pageer like, well, rule six E of the federal rule of criminal procedure,
rule of secrecy, you haven't given me proper ground.
So no, that's not what Engelmeyer did.
What Engelmeyer had said is, I'm going to set the record straight.
First part of my order is going to be reminding people of the crimes that Galane Maxwell
committed.
The six or seven that she was indicted for, the five that she was convicted of, the five that she
was convicted of, her participation in sexual abuse of girls and women, the victims that
testified, because he's seeing, as we all are, an attempt to rehabilitate Galane Maxwell
by her lawyer, by Donald Trump, by the right-wing MAGA, by MAGA media, and the rest,
because they have to do that because Donald Trump wants to exonerate her, and so they have to
have it be muddied in the people's mind that maybe she was.
the victim too and the judge says all right let me this is my paraphrase let's set the record straight
she's not a saint she's a convicted sinner and these are her sins he didn't have to do that
but he did that i think in honor of the thousand or more victims of hers including those that had
the courage to testify against her and there were about six of them that was the first section
second section was what i referred to as release the damn files the judge saying okay i know you
You've tried to divert attention and sent it over to federal judges because you're trying to redefine what the Epstein files are, but we don't have the Epstein files.
What we have, and we're not sitting on them, are a very scant one-day transcript, nothing of which, and he said, I looked at it.
I'm not going to tell you what's in it, but I will tell you in general, all of it has been reported.
None of it is new.
And then he went off to say, the mine load, what I call the mother load of documents that comprise the Epstein files, are sitting with the Trump administration.
And he says point blank by quoting Pam Bondi's February memo, Pam Bondi's February announcement, the press conference, the letter to the Department of Justice to the FBI have all the files on my desk, the revelation by the Department of Justice, that there were 300 gigabytes of information.
which comprise the Epstein files.
And he laid that all out to say to the public
and to the Trump administration,
your attempt to blame federal judges
for not releasing the Epstein files is a charade.
You're sitting on the Epstein files.
We aren't.
He says, I looked in the files
and anybody, if I could allow you to look at them
and I can't because of the rule of secrecy
around grand jury materials,
you and all the people that you say justify
releasing the files, the pundits,
the press, the media, the public,
would all be bitterly disappointed because there's no there, his words.
And it called out the Trump administration and reset, I think, reset the battlefield to remind
everybody, Gleine Maxwell is a convicted sex predator.
One, two, I don't have the docs and none of the federal judges do.
The Trump administration does.
So go to them and solve your own problem, Trump administration, and don't try to use the federal
courts to do it. And three, he then had a short section, much like Judge Rosenberg in Florida,
about, yeah, 60, none of these things that you're telling us are the justifications work.
And also found it interesting, Karen, that this is where we always have to disconnect on purpose
between what Trump says for political fodder on the campaign trail or on the presidential
trail about what his arguments are and what they can actually argue at a court of law.
how many times have we heard over the last six weeks or more?
Why are we still talking about the Epstein files?
It's boring.
There's nothing there there.
It's not very interesting.
Why don't you ask me questions, dumb reporter, about the tariffs
or about my peace deals that I'm doing
or about something else I want you to focus on?
Why do you keep focusing on the Epstein files?
That's what he says publicly.
Of course, we know it's rocked the administration
because they're holding non-secret secret meetings
in the middle of the night in the White House
to try to figure out, I love this one.
It's a communications, they're having a communications problem.
It's like the old cool hand, a cool hand loop movie.
We're having a failure to communicate about Epstein.
No, you're not.
You're not releasing the files.
And everybody sees that as a cover-up of epic proportion of depraved sexual criminal conduct.
And we want to know if you're involved.
You may say to us there's other people involved,
but why is your name all over the Epstein files?
And that's the problem he's having right now
and convincing even his magazine.
base about it. So while you got all that going on and all the distractions going on, in the
filings, Pam Bondi, the Department of Justice tells Judge Engelmeyer and others, this is a case of
great public importance. Everybody, history needs to know how the FBI and all, and I'm like,
which is it? Is it it's boring, nothing to see here, or this is a case of great public importance?
That's the only time I ever agree with Pam Bondi. It is a case of great public importance
and what it says about this administration. I'll leave it on this character. The fact that Donald
Trump is so low, has sunk so low, that he needs a convicted child sex offender to
vouch for his character, says everything you need to know about this administration and how
morally hollow it is.
Yeah, I agree.
But I also agree with you that this is really a, you know, if there's nothing in there that
Donald Trump did and there's really nobody else, then release them, you know, that's what
I don't understand.
Like, it makes it almost worse than it actually is.
And that's why I think he's having such a problem.
Because there's stuff in there.
Yeah, exactly.
That you and all get our hair.
Yeah.
It may be, it may be, he may be blowing up in his mind.
I mean, is there evidence that he was on the island and raped girls?
I mean, at this point, who knows?
It's hard to tell.
But whatever's in there needs to come out because the public is demanding it.
And the more they hide it, the more we want to see it, the more they try to blame the
Biden administration, the more everyone's like, just release the damn files. So we'll continue
to follow this case. I think more survivors are coming forward too. There's there are some
survivors that have never spoken publicly before that are that are going to speak on September 3rd
in Congress. And I think more people are coming forward. And so maybe the evidence will will get out
one way or another. Yeah. And that's what I think I think that's what the judge hope for too.
Why don't we touch, when we come back from our last ad break.
We'll talk about this attack on same-sex marriage and then a win for justice and Eugen Carroll on legal A.F.
As I said, many ways to support us.
Legal A.F, the YouTube channel, come over there, hit that subscribe button.
We're going to hit 800,000 well before the summer is over at the rate we're going.
We just passed 230 million views of our content over there.
and I'm adding contributors about once a month,
but really high-end, crown jewel type contributors.
I think you'll really enjoy.
Legal AF Substack, we're continuing to build that,
and we're doing more lives on LegalAF Substack.
I did two today, one with Katie Fang,
one with Adam Classfeld,
and I think Adam Parkmento is going to be coming over with me.
We're going to try to do, I don't know, about one a day,
but we're going to do a lot of lives on LegalAF Substack.
If you want to join,
and pay we appreciate it if you can't or you don't want to start out as a free member both places
legal a f and the youtube channel as well and then of course we've got our patreon and we still do a lot of
original content on patreon another way to support us and keep the lights on and then we've got our
sponsors and here's our uh our next break for our sponsors you know we live in an environment our biology
was never designed for emf's artificial light see
oils, microplastics, endocrine disrupts, chronic stress. These modern assaults disrupts cellular
signaling, negatively impacting gut health and accelerating aging. That's why I've been using
Armara colostrum. Armra colostrum revives cellular signaling, bolstering our health from within
to defend against everyday threats. Colostrum is nature's first whole food with over 400
bioactive nutrients that work at the cellular level to reactivate your body's innate capacity
to regenerate and thrive.
And since I started taking Armora,
I've noticed a real difference.
My gut feels stronger and less bloated.
My energy and metabolism are better than ever.
And even my skin looks more radiant.
Plus, Armora helps strengthen immune health
without just boosting it.
It balances and strengthens your immune barriers
across your mouth, sinuses, lungs, gut, and more.
Ready to reclaim your health,
we've worked out a special offer for my audience.
Receive 15% off your first order,
go to tryarmor.com slash legal a.f or enter legal a.f to get 15% off your first order.
That's T-R-Y-A-R-M-R-A-R-A-R-A-R-A-F,
Arbara-Colostrum.
It's pure, potent, natural, and clean, not a supplement, but a bioactive whole food.
I highly recommend giving it a try.
This message is brought to you by our sponsor, Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
You don't destroy 250 years of secular democracy without gutting the rule of law,
shattering norms and dropping a few billion dollars.
The same people in groups that back Project 2025
are part of a larger shadow network
that's relentlessly pushing to impose
a Christian nationalist agenda on our laws and lives.
The wall between church and state
is the last safeguard blocking their agenda.
We at Legal A.F support their goal
of forming a thriving democracy
that functions and advances towards its promises
along with the ability to hold personal faith-based beliefs
and practices without government interference.
If you're a regular here at Legal AF, you know we're all about empowering ourselves
and finding ways to create hope in these wild and terrifying times.
One of the places I've found hope in is the organizations like Americans United for Separation
of Church and State.
AU is a quiet force fighting daily to preserve freedom without favor and equality without
exception for every single American.
They advocate for every individual's right to believe and live as you.
you choose so long as you don't harm others. Something we strive to uplift and do at Legal
AF every day as we lift up voices and fight for everyone's rights at the intersection of law and
politics. Whether you're passionate about gender affirming health care, reproductive rights,
LGBTQ plus rights, or supporting our public schools, church-state separation touches almost every
constitutional freedom. If you're looking for a way to take action and support our fundamental
freedoms join Americans United for separation of church and state and their growing movement
because church-state separation protects us all. Learn more and join the fight at
AU.org slash legal a.F. That's a.u.org slash legal a.F. Welcome back to legal A.F.
Karen Freeman, Igniflo and Michael Popok sitting at the intersection for breaking legal news
about Trump presidency and so much more.
And now we've got a MAGA attack on same-sex marriage.
What is it about MAGA and people that lead alternate lifestyles?
Why does it bother them so much?
What does it matter?
The Republicans used to be not in my bedroom.
And now it's like all up in my bedroom and all up in my, you know, if you're, if you want
to be nothing from a gender perspective, if you want to be transgender, if you want to be transgender,
gender, if you want to be whatever makes you comfortable as a human being and you want to marry
somebody that you love and they happen to be of the same sex, why does it matter so much to MAGA?
Why do they have to tear down and make people uncomfortable and force everybody to back alleys
and consider suicide because they can't live the life that they were meant to lead?
Let's start with that.
Why do you think that this, you know, we're not in the 50s anymore, the 30s.
This is 2025.
Why does this bother them so much?
Honestly, this one is a head scratcher for me.
I have no idea why anyone could be anti-gay or anti-same-sex marriage.
I mean, as you said, just love who you want to love, be with who you want to be with.
I mean, finding true love in this world is not, not.
everyone finds it, right? And if you find it and you have it, it shouldn't matter whether you're
same-sex or not. And this attack on same-sex marriage is really, really upsetting and really
concerning. Because just to remind everyone where we are, 10 years ago now, it's been
legal in the United States, Oberfell versus Hodges. And I love that you're having
Robbie Kaplan on who is responsible in some ways, right? She's the one who took this case all
the way to the Supreme Court and won. And right after that, right after the Supreme Court
declared that same-sex marriage needs to be nationwide. In Kentucky, there was a clerk who
refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple citing her, it was against her religion.
So I guess to answer your question, why is that? I guess that's why, right? I think it's a
religious belief. And she has now asked the Supreme Court, she's back, the same clerk.
She is back and asking the Supreme Court to overturn the overfell is really where we're
we are. And normally you would think, well, that's not going to happen and why would it happen?
And, you know, will they take the case? And, you know, they, they, she filed a writ and the two individuals
who she denied the license for did not file a response, just kind of left it, hoping that the Supreme
court would just deny certiorari.
And you can, just one justice can call for a response from the other party.
So it's briefed prior to them knowing whether they want to grant cert or not.
And of course, somebody, one justice asked for a response because they don't typically grant
reviews without hearing from both sides.
And again, any justice can.
And so they asked for it and we'll see.
You know, we'll see if they do.
You need four votes, as you know, Popok, to grant cert or to hear a case officially.
And you need five to overturn a case.
And so I don't know that they would grant cert if they didn't feel confident that they had the five to overturn it.
There were dissenters in Overfell, and so, you know, it was Roberts and Thomas and Alito dissented.
So do they have a fourth and then a fifth?
Let's see.
Let's see what they have.
But this one scares me a little bit.
It's going to be awkward.
Gorsuch presided over a gay marriage at some point in his career.
That seems to be the one area that he is more progressive is in the gay marriage world.
I mean, I mean, you know, do they have the numbers to do it in the MAGA right of the Supreme Court? Sure. Have they been working overtime to rip a super precedent off the shelves, you know, as part of their MAGA checklist like Roe versus Wade and cases related to Administrative Procedures Act and the Chevron decision and all, and I could name about a dozen different.
doctrines that have fallen by the wayside under the Roberts Court? Yes. Do they have the balls
to go after same-sex marriage? It's a probably terrible phrase. To go after same-sex marriage and
have that be on their obituaries? I'm not sure about that. But we will know soon enough. I could
definitely make an argument where they would never take that case, and I can certainly make
an argument where they'll definitely take that case. That's the problem with the U.S. Supreme
Court when it comes to things about religion.
or sexual autonomy, or your ability to control things about your body or reproductive rights.
They're just, they're not consistent on everything.
And we're going to have to see.
It's going to come down to Amy Coney Barrett and maybe Gorsuch on this issue or maybe Roberts.
I want to hear from Robbie Kaplan tomorrow about what she thinks.
She had a case that led into Obergefell on a related matter sort of set the framework
for same-sex marriage and I want to hear from her as well so it's just something we
wanted to put on everybody's radar it's not an emergency appeal that's going to happen in
August September this is going to be a first new term in in the United States
Supreme Court in October but we will follow it closely but again that's why I started
with why why must they deny people the right to feel comfortable in their bodies
and with whom they love. I just don't understand it. It doesn't bother me one bit. As long as it's
not illegal, what goes on in my next door neighbor's house or how their children are being raised
or who they love. I mean, listen, I have, you have children. I have a daughter. Everybody knows I
adore Francesca. I could love any person other than my wife, more than my daughter. But if my daughter
came home one day and was adult and told me that she loved somebody of the same sex, I would focus on
the love part and not on the same
sex part in accepting
her. But that's me
and our audience, I think, by and large,
but that's not the adversary.
So remember that at the time of the voting
because, you know, you're in
for a penny, you're in for a
somebody once said, you're in for a
Deutsche Mark. I mean, you're in, you know, this party
is so depraved that people say,
I'm a one, I'm a single issue Republican.
You can't be. That's
a cop out and that's a
lie. What, like, what was
your single issue. Transgender sports, or a single issue is this, that, and the other thing.
That's your party. If you're an independent, you voted for the party, that's your party.
And if you don't like what's going on, then that shouldn't be your party. And you should be voting
for the Democrats. Now, I know Democrats are getting, you know, the low polling numbers, but frankly,
they're a party out of power. You know, we can do letters, we can do shadow hearings.
We can drive people crazy during confirmation hearings. We can do filibusters now and again.
But there's a limit to what a party out of power can do.
If you want to see real change, if you want to see checks and balance,
if you want to see abuse of power being limited and impeachment hearings being opened up
and things being done that help the American people,
then vote for the Democrats and get them back into power and have to run the House and the Senate.
It's really that simple.
There's a lot of hand-wringing we can do.
Lord knows Democrats are known for hand-wringing.
But at the end of the day, you have to,
there's there's there's there's there's this call to action that you can do um care you want to talk
about eugene carroll yeah just yeah just um uh before we leave same-sex marriage um i just
this is just an issue that i i really haunts me that this is that this could happen um
you know i really i want to live in a world where people don't
have to come out as gay. They don't have to say I'm gay. You don't go to your parents and say,
you know what? I have something I need to tell you. I'm straight. You know what I mean? I want this,
like we need to move so far in the other direction that this isn't even a question, that you just
love who you love, right? Your lifestyle is your lifestyle and you are who you are and who you're
meant to be and you're with who you meant to be with. And this is just an issue that we all have to
make sure this we have we've finally i mean i can't believe it took until 2015 for same-sex marriage to be
legal but we've already lost abortion we cannot lose this and this is something just what you were
saying popoc about what we have to do and what is at stake and what is important this is this is just
next level and we have to we have to get it back because this is just outrageous you and i all have
friends one degree separation of people who are same-sex same-sex marriages successful so I'm not
successful I think their divorce rate is actually a little bit lower than heterosexual but but um
they have the right to be in that marriage and I know plenty of couples um same-sex couples that have
adopted children or have had children and um also loving uh look there's there's a there's a
There's a love and abuse in the full spectrum.
So it's not like, you know, oh, well, let them do it because they do it better.
No, I mean, everybody should have their shot at whatever love in life that they want to have.
And that's the choice.
That's why it just infuriates me, too, about same sex or single issue Republicans or single issue independence.
How can you possibly do that?
What a cop out.
What a cheat, you know?
Well, somebody that's not a cheater, not a cop out, has got.
justice for herself is eugene carroll and we've got some people might be thinking do we already
do this yeah because there were two judgments one for the a nine a nine person jury civil jury
that found that she was sexually abused by Donald Trump that's why we get to call him a sexual
abuser because nine zero a jury found on a preponderance of evidence that he sexually abused
or, as the judge called it, technically raped,
E. Jean Carroll in a dressing room at the Bergdorf-Goodman department store
diagonal from across the street from Trump Tower back in the 90s.
And that jury awarded her $5.5 million in total.
He then defamed.
Then there was a second trial when he defamed her again.
And that trial went second.
And that trial had to do when he was president.
and he testified, and the jury hated him, second jury,
and they awarded her $83.5 million.
Good job, Alina Haba, and the rest.
And he had spent up on appeal ever since.
It's been kicking around with different appeals.
Donald Trump's tried to argue that he's entitled to what's called Westfall immunity
because he was an employee of the federal government
when he made the statements that the famed her.
She's ugly.
I would never sleep with her.
Look at her.
She's not my type.
She's trying to shake me down.
She's a liar.
All that stuff.
Jerry hated him.
And mistook her for Marla Maples, right?
During a deposition?
Yeah, that's why.
He's not my type.
But he thought she was Marla Maples.
And I asked E. Jean Carroll, I interviewed E.N. Carol, about three weeks ago.
And I asked her, I said, I said, Gene, is that, what was that moment like when Robbie
Kaplan, your lawyer, ran the video of the deposition in which with a,
Lena Hobbes is like his nurse sitting next to him.
She handed him, your lawyer handed him the photo when he denied having ever met you.
And it was you, John Johnson, who was an ABC news reporter, who was her husband at the time.
And Ivana and Donald Trump all like laughing in a photo with fur coats in a very 1980s, New York.
And they handed it, you know, and the pulpit.
point of that cross
was to disprove that Donald Trump had never met her.
Robbie didn't know what was going to happen next.
Neither did the jury, which was, let me see that photo.
Well, okay, so that's a photo of me and Marlon Maples.
And so Donald Trump's so demented that he thought
his two wives were in the photo
at different times because Ivano was in the photo.
Me and Marlon Maples, and Robbie says, stop, I'm sorry.
Are you, you're pointing to this person here as being Marla Maples, the person you married?
Yes, that's me and Marla.
And then you hear Haba in the video recording say, that's Carol.
That's E. Jean Carroll.
And he looks at it.
Oh, it's a fuzzy picture.
We've all seen the photo.
It's a very clear photo.
Point being, he had just said, not my type.
And yet he confused her for the woman he married.
I asked E. Jean, how'd that go over in the trial?
He says that.
There were two moments that won the trial for me.
that and when Donald Trump walked out during Robbie Kaplan's closing remarks closing argument
literally got up in front of the jury turned and walked out the door she said that's when
we knew that we had got that the jury was with us uh when he when he was both misogynist and
insulting about Robbie and dismissive of E. Jean Carroll it only reinforced the narrative
they have been making in the courtroom the whole time so um first
First, 5.5, and then an 83 and a half, both go up on appeal.
They end up at the same panel about immunity, about whether he had immunity.
And they were all like, you waived it.
If you had it, you waived it.
You never raised it, which is Alina Haba problem, by the way.
That's malpractice for having not raised it.
And so now the same panel affirmed both now her judgments.
Last stop is the Supreme Court.
So let me ask you, do you think the Supreme Court gets involved with these civil
cases about rape or sexual abuse, technical rape in New York, and about putative damages,
or do they, nah, we're not touching that one. What do you think happens? If it was, if the parties were
anyone else other than Donald Trump on one side of the V and E. Jean Carroll, they wouldn't touch
this with the 20-foot pole. But your guess is as good as mine when it comes to them with Donald
Trump. I mean, they're like his personal, his personal, his own small claims court or whatever
you want to call it. Like, they just, every case he has, he goes to them. It doesn't matter what
it is. And they seem to take it. They're like, you know, they just, they're his advisors.
They shouldn't take it. They shouldn't take it. Of course they shouldn't take it. It's beneath them
to take the case. When will she get the money, though? When will she physically get paid?
When, when all appeals are exhausted, which would be he tries and
appeal at the United States Supreme Court.
And it either happens or it doesn't.
Do you have to post a bond, though, with the money?
He's got two bonds.
He's got a cash bond for five and a half that's been sitting running with interest.
It's now over $100 million.
It's over $100 million.
Eugen Carroll told us during the interview, she is donating almost all of it out.
I'm like, don't do that, EG.
Enjoy some of it.
But she wants to set up foundations.
The ones she said the ones that'll drive Donald Trump crazy are the foundations that she's
going to set up with his cash, which we loved.
you know, so many things I love about her.
But the five and a half is cash bond, the 83 and a half.
Remember, he had a problem getting a surety company to post the bond.
He finally found a surety company.
It was a combination of sureties that are involved to post it.
And once, if he tries the appeal and they reject it, within 30 days he has to pay it
or she goes to the bonding company or the court clerk and gets paid.
If they accept the appeal, she's got to wait and she's then got to win.
So we'll keep a close eye on it
But if they don't bother taking it
Like with a one line order
You know what you could see here
Then 30 days after that one line order
But we gotta get the appeal first
So he's got 30 days from now
So it'll be a September event
When he files the appeal
Sometime two or three or four
Six months later we'll know what they do
In the meantime it runs with interest
And if
And if he fails at the Supreme Court
One way or the other
Then she will get
our money sometime in 2026.
Speaking of bonds and money owed, what's going on with the New York State civil fraud case
and that bond that he had to put up?
Only bad things.
I mean, Donald Trump, I won't say he's done anything to slow it down.
The First Department Appellate Division has been sitting on a $450 million civil fraud
judgment against Donald Trump for going on 10 months now.
I do practice in the first department.
That's an incredibly exceedingly long time.
I don't know if they're scared, if they're worried, what their timing issue is.
This is not a big deal.
But what that is allowed is mischief.
Because of the huge gap, Donald Trump has been able now to open up criminal investigations
against Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, for having gone after him in the civil fraud case,
which is ridiculous.
And, of course, they put a sock puppet crash dummy MAGA Northern District of New York fake U.S. attorney to go after her,
along with Ed Martin in a mortgage fraud, no less.
So just this time gap has allowed Donald Trump to change the narrative
and try to go after people like Letitia James.
And I blame the First Department.
You know, they're going to cut, let me, as you and I talk about it,
they're going to cut that judgment probably in half
because the First Department cuts every judgment in half.
You just have to get through the meat grinder of the First Department.
When you get a judgment in New York in Manhattan,
You don't celebrate that amount of money, trust me, if you're a plaintiff's lawyer, because you've got to go through an appeal.
And they're going to whack you.
So it's going to come down.
Is it going to come down to zero?
I doubt it.
Is it going to come down a couple hundred million?
It may.
And that money goes to New York State.
But look at this time gap that's allowed Donald Trump not only to get elected, but also to sick the Department of Justice on his political enemy who prosecute successfully brought that case in Letitia James of the New York Attorney General's office.
yeah interesting right so we'll continue to talk about those things but we got a happy birthday
celebration for kFA she's meeting her husband for some dinner in an undisclosed location right after
the show we're going to end it right now i really appreciate her being here and stretching it out
for this amount of time you know how to support us all hit the subscribe buttons mightest touch legal
a f and all of that come right back here saturday for our show with with ben mysellis and i got some
great interviews about newsmakers, including Robbie Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, and others
on the Legal A-F YouTube channel. So until our next podcast, come over and listen to us on audio.
We need some audio, love. This is Legal A-F, and shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal A-Fers.