Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Legal AF Full Episode - 8/16/2025
Episode Date: August 17, 2025The weak and failing Trump Administration—at home and abroad-was on full display this week, and Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok break it down for our audience on the top rated Legal AF podcast. The a...nchors brief the audience on 1) Trump’s surrender in Alaska to Putin; 2) Trump caving in less than 24 hours in the DC takeover case; 3) Trump on the verge of losing the Posse Comitatus trial in Cali; 4) Trump federal court losses about federal funding and his immigrant capture program; as 5) MAGA Trump judges bail him out and hurt Americans by eliminating all semblance of consumer protection while consumer confidence is at a record low. Support Our Sponsors: Delete Me: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join https://deleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. Uplift: Elevate your workspace and energize your year with Uplift Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/legalaf for a special offer exclusive to our audience. Sundays for Dogs: Get 40% off your first order of Sundays. Go to https://sundaysfordogs.com/LEGALAF or use code LEGALAF at checkout. Miracle Made: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. 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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All right, Michael Popock. We've got a lot to discuss on legal A.F. We've got Donald Trump caving in federal court after Donald Trump federalized the Metropolitan Police Department. He was then immediately sued by the mayor of Washington, D.C. and the D.C. Attorney General after Donald Trump tried to not only just take over the Metropolitan Police Department, but essentially kind of fire the police chief and then have the head of the DEA run the Metropolitan Police Department. That triggered.
an immediate lawsuit. Judge Reyes, the federal judge overseeing the case, looked like he was
about to rule against the Trump regime and was very, very, very critical of the way the Trump
regime was behaving after Mayor Bowser stood up to Donald Trump. Donald Trump Cabe, we'll talk
about that. There was a trial taking place regarding Donald Trump, federalizing the National
Guard in California, and specifically in the Los Angeles area, the trial took place in the
Northern District of California, which is actually in San Francisco, before a federal judge named
Breyer, multi-day trial under one of the central issues was the Pasi Kamitatis Act. Basically,
can you use the military as a roving police force in states and what's the emergency powers
that are being invoked here? So you had a lot of Trump regime witnesses being called,
people who, once they were put under oath, you'll talk about it, Popak.
Let's just say there's an important reason why we have trials because the Trump regime was
utterly exposed when these people testified.
Then you had a lot of losses for the Trump regime in federal court, and I do want to touch
upon, if you want to call it the win that they had, which is a loss for all of us,
is basically dismanting the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau in the D.C.
of appeals, but other than that, win for the Trump regime, which is a loss for everybody,
including Trump voters.
I mean, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, I mean, was very important to stopping, you
know, a lot of the fraud committed on us on a day-to-day basis on consumers.
We'll talk about that in more legal AF.
Good to see you, Michael Bopach.
Oh, it's always great to see you, Ben.
And let me, let me, in the canons of our legal AF, this episode will go down, I think,
as the weak loser episode.
That is a common theme.
What amazing reporting might as touch in UPenn were doing
about that thing that just happened up at Anchorage, Alaska,
where Donald Trump was given the distinct honor
of being given the loser's speech at the press conference
after a failed summit, didn't even result in a ceasefire,
didn't result in anything.
Putin gave the eight-minute victory speech
while Donald Trump gave a three-minute loser speech
and then how to go run to NATO and go run to the European Union and to Zelensky in order to try to bail him out.
And I have to just put this in perspective.
In the history of presidential diplomacy, this was one of the, if not, the worst and weakest thing that's ever happened to a president.
You don't use your power as a president to meet in a bilateral meeting unless your diplomats, of which we have none anymore, have laid the groundwork for,
a successful meeting or you don't meet, but you don't go there and roll out the red carpet
and try to walk down it and then kiss effectively Putin's ass and his cheek, Putin grinning
the whole time because he knows he can only win, he can't lose. And he did. Nothing came out of
that at all. And now I made a joke on one of my hot takes. It wasn't pursuing peace. That shouldn't
have been the banner over Donald Trump's weak foreign policy results. It should have been
missing peace because the missing piece was Zelensky. And without him being,
there. Now they got him running in on wait till mitus and legal have cover of this,
running it on Monday morning into the White House, Oval Office. I hope that goes better than
the last time. He was in the Oval Office, and they cut off his balls in front of the public.
But that is an example of a weak failing presidency at the foreign policy level,
then a week for a weak domestic policy. Wait until we start touching on his poll numbers,
which are now down below 38% approval ratings, lowest in modern history, including losing all
of his MAGA under 35-year-old voters, and then the economic numbers. He can't fight. How many times
can he fire the Bureau of Labor Statistics? How many times can he fire the numbers, new numbers
coming out, showing pricing, tariff pricing, now hitting the economy in the bottom line? So he has
to do all these distractive things, and he's losing in the courts. Sure, there was a win,
and you and I are going to explain why there was a win for him and a loss for the American people
about the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau,
established by Barack Obama,
and now wrecked by two Trump appointees.
Get it?
You see the theme here?
Two Trump appointees on the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Oh, the comedy team, well, it's a crying.
It's a tragedy team of Rayos,
Rayo and Katsis is back.
And every time they're together,
you can guarantee a Trump win and a loss for America.
But just the last thing I'll say about this, a number of amazing wins against the Trump administration and for democracy this week.
Answering the question that I'm often asked in substack live chat and in chats on hot takes, why does it matter, Popak, if we're going to lose the Supreme Court?
It's because 99% of the cases don't get the Supreme Court and Donald Trump is folding left and right, either losing and or folding, and hundreds of millions.
and billions of dollars are flowing back to their proper recipients because of the wins that are
being obtained by the attorneys general, by the states, by the democracy forwards, by the ACLUs
of the world, and other plaintiffs, other courageous plaintiffs. They're winning, and then quietly
the money is flowing back to these entities, and that's what you and I need to cover on a show like
this. As an American citizen, it is sad and bizarre to watch the country operate like a Trump
organization, which is fraud, it is weak, it is capricious, and then other than the Midas Touch
network and a handful of other independent media, maybe an anchor here or there like a Rachel
Matt out, Lawrence O'Donnell, Nicole Wallace, you know, but by and large, the way the trip was
reported, it was still Donald Trump says, Donald Trump says, versus what did we all objectively
observe in Alaska? Because I observed Putin laughing in Donald Trump's face and in the United
States. I observed Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, show up in a USSR shirt mocking the
United States and Europe and making a statement about an imperial Russia essentially saying we're
going to take over all of Europe. I mean, that's what the statement was there. I saw our troops
being ordered by Trump, not making this up to go on their knees, on their knees to roll out
the red carpet for Vladimir Putin. There's a photo of our troops literally on the ground. And I'm looking
at this and this is as catastrophic as you get and you know you saw at first even fox they
were struggling to put the words in it other than to say man this did not look good or like it seemed
that like trump and everybody looked defeated and we're not really sure what's going on then they
do what they always do which they bring on their kelly and conways and their propaganda mouthpieces
who are like, and that guy caught former Congress member, Shea Fitz and random guests who are willing to just say whatever.
And they go, this was an incredible day.
We are stronger than ever.
This is absolutely amazing.
This couldn't have been better.
Putin was really sent a strong message.
Nah, just stop.
Just stop the crap.
Just stop it.
Here's literally the photo just so people can see it of what it looked like.
This is a photo that will go down in infamy of the decline in American power right here.
Again, Donald Trump does.
on any given day, a hundred things that are impeachable offenses,
25th Amendment stuff as well, criminal, you know,
if you add them all up together, we cover it here on the Midas Touch Network.
It's why this network continues to grow.
All right, let's get into, though, this Donald Trump federalizing
of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C.,
without calling the mayor of D.C. to even say that was the plan.
It was just announced.
and then Donald Trump bringing in the National Guard into Washington, D.C., saying that other troops could come into Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, you started to see the tanks roll into Washington, D.C.
They start setting up illegal checkpoints in areas where people are just like going out to bars.
You have all of these MAGA Republican Congress members out there saying the most ridiculous things.
Like, you know, I can't, I don't even have a home in Washington, D.C.
I sleep in my office because it's so dangerous.
I saw Congress member Burchett say that.
I saw Maga Republican Senator Mark Wayne Mullen say, you know, when I drive, I don't
wear a seatbelt because I have to run if I get, if I see how dangerous it is.
I went to, let me be clear, everybody.
I went to school in Washington, D.C.
I visited Washington, D.C.
Recently, crime is at an all-time low in Washington, D.C.
It's a 30-year low.
Like any city, there are pockets of areas that,
That could be bad, but nowhere near as bad as any of these red cities, red states.
D.C. is a very nice place.
And in America, we don't want military on our streets.
We can enhance and support law enforcement efforts, but we don't want the military roving our streets.
So, you know, the mayor at first, because Donald Trump invoked a special, you know,
act that deals with Trump in D.C., at first the mayor was like, you know, the reality is, is
that there's not much we can do given the relationship between the federal government in
D.C. Donald Trump claims a fake emergency, but then it was clear Popak, and I'll pass it over to you
that Donald Trump was seeking more than that, right? He wanted full control over the Metropolitan
Police Department to the point where he wanted to appoint a new police chief. He wanted to take
the head of his DEA, who was someone who ran Virginia's police, you know, a police off, a public
safety officer in Virginia, under Yonkin, this DEA guy, who was also known for being a very
corrupt, corrupt guy in Virginia, move that person to basically run Washington, to run the D.C.
police force. So then Mayor Bowser of D.C. sued, and I'll let you take it from there, Popuk.
Yeah. So, and I think we have a real attorney general in D.C. And that person's name is Brian
Schwalbert, and he is the District of Columbia Attorney General, and he showed a lot of strength,
along with Mayor Bowser and Captain and the Chief of Police Smith, when all of a sudden,
on Thursday night, Pam Bondi issued her version of an executive order about the takeover of the
police department, decapitating the leadership, to capitating, I mean, I mean, functionally,
decapitating the police chief and putting a temporary commissioner in Terry Cole, the head of
the acting head of the DEA in charge of being the commissioner of D.C.
It's like this was a Gotham episode from Batman.
He's going to be the new commissioner.
Everybody's got to respond to.
D.C. responded almost immediately.
They said, okay, first of all, they were blindsided by this Thursday night executive order
because while Donald Trump had said, I'm going to do certain things.
They didn't think he was going to violate Section 740 of the Home Rule Act,
established in 1973 by Congress, which gave sovereignty and home rule status to the District of
Columbia. They wanted statehood. They got home rule. And under home rule, there was one sliver of
power reserved for the president, whoever that would be, by Congress at the time, which was,
if you need assistance of the police department for a short period of time on an emergency,
like a riot or some parade that's gone awry,
then for 48 hours up to 30 days,
the president can make a request slash demand
on the mayor, the mayor to the police chief,
the police chief executes.
That's the way it's supposed to be.
Donald Trump skipped all that
because, you know, in his view,
there's an emergency.
I can do whatever I want.
I have emergency powers.
Well, you don't have emergency powers in that way.
The Congress has a lot of power
over the District of Colonial.
under the Article 1 of the Constitution.
It's an Article 1 power again, not an Article 2 power with the presidency.
He's got limited powers.
So instead of doing that, make a demand, an instruction to the mayor, the mayor, to the police chief,
it became, we'll skip all that.
We'll just create our own commissioner.
Okay.
So Schwalber puts together an emergency petition.
He files it Friday morning.
By Friday afternoon, we were doing hot takes.
I had to keep doing hot takes because I said, I think this is going to go into court really
quick. It went into court within hours, and I got assigned to Judge Reyes. I did a whole
profile on Judge Reyes on the legal AF YouTube. I love Judge Reyes for so many reasons.
First of all, you know, she's a person who came from another country. She naturalized
American, went to Harvard Law School, federal law clerk, gets appointed by Obama, comes from
Urugu—I think she came from Uruguay. And she is also openly LGBTQ.
Plus, first Hispanic, to be on the, which is hard to believe, to be on the D.C. federal bench.
And she already took on the Trump administration once before.
People will remember her from our coverage.
She's the one that excoriated the Trump administration during the attempt to drum out of
military transgender Americans who just were patriots doing what we want them to do, which
is to serve our country and protect our country.
And she took them to test.
She drilled down on the Department of Justice.
this lawyer is so hard and so right.
And I loved one of her examples in that case where she said,
you're relying on rolling out and drumming out the transgender soldiers
because Secretary Hegseth 20 days into the job thinks that they're untrustworthy,
liars and dishonest.
Don't you think that's dripping with animus?
Let me use an example.
Where'd you go to law school?
The guy said University of Virginia.
Okay.
I just made a new rule.
anybody who went to the University of Virginia law school
I find to be dishonest
I find to be untrustworthy
and I find to be disloyal
and they shouldn't be representing
the Department of Justice in my courtroom
so sit down
how do you feel about that
Trump filed a
judicial complaint against her
because she went through that Socratic method
and they didn't like it now it's still pending
nobody cares but it certainly didn't hold her back
on this case so she called everybody together
And right away, she made it pretty clear within the first 30 minutes
that it was going to be a tough day for the Trump administration.
She said, I don't understand.
The Home Rule 740 says you could only be there for 30 days.
Do you agree with me on that?
Mr. Roth?
Yes, I have no reason to disagree with you.
That's how they always answer questions to federal judges now.
Okay.
So we're talking about a 30-day issue at best without a joint resolution of Congress.
I don't understand your argument about emergencies being able to let Donald Trump, your president, or the president, replace the police chief with a commissioner.
A, it doesn't say he can do that.
That's not what he's allowed to do.
But wouldn't that suggest that an emergency just totally, that exception somehow eats the rule?
It just totally turns it on its head.
Why would you have the rule then?
No great answer.
She made it clear, I am going to rule against the Trump administration.
And I know a lot of our, I want to call him competitors, other legal pundits that I watch
occasionally are going to be shocked by this.
I watch one guy who will remain nameless on CNN, who, I have a new name for him.
I know Trump calls, Trump calls the Federal Reserve chairman, too late, too late.
This guy's always wrong.
I don't know.
He's like, oh, I think it's going to be a very tough day for D.C.
I think Trump, no federal judge is going to be able to declare whether he's right or wrong in an
emergency or not. I'm like, oh, my God, that's totally wrong. And fortunately, the judge agreed with
me. And the judge says, yeah, I'm going to rule against you. I'm going to give you one opportunity,
go in the hallway. And I've been there, and so have you been in courts where the judge kind of
brokers a settlement. Go figure this out in the hallway. But I'm ruling against you. So bargaining in
the shadow of that, and I've been there. They went in the hallway. Now, who flies in from Department
of Justice, Maine Justice in Washington? Stan Woodward, one of your and my favorites, an oldie but a goodie,
from Mar-a-Lago, there he is, Stan Woodward.
Now the new number three in the Department of Justice,
now that another MAGA-Maga got elevated
to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Emil Bovey,
we now got Stan Woodward, Jan 6th lawyer,
Maga-Maga through and through,
represented one of the co-defendants of Donald Trump
in the Mar-a-Lago case,
and also accused the special counsel
of trying to extort him or shake him down at one point.
He's now been given a promotion.
He runs over, because Bondi and Blanche don't want to do it,
he runs over into the hallway in the breakout rooms to try to negotiate a settlement.
Now, what was announced by the mayor and by the Attorney General that I respect in D.C.
Was that they capitulated, effectively they're going to enter into an agreed injunction
to restore what 740 of the Home Rule Act says,
which is Trump or his designee, in this case, it's going to be Terry Colby,
EA head to mayor, mayor, to chief, chief to the police, and that she would rescind,
Bondi would rescind her order.
But, but Ben, I got the rescinded order here.
We'll post it on legal AF substack.
I don't think this is going to make Judge Reyes happy.
I'm just going to read from two sections of it.
And if I'm, and I know, you know, we've been following them a lot, they have to enter into
an order and get the judge to sign.
It hasn't been filed yet.
I assume that's what they're going to do next.
They can't do this on a handshake.
and just, oh, I withdrew my original order.
Here's the new order by Pam Bondi.
Of course, it's got to start with a lie
and attacking Democrats and others for fake news.
She can't write anything unless it has that in there.
That's a given.
She said that notwithstanding false, this is in her order,
notwithstanding false media narratives
in apparent efforts by some district employees
to manipulate crime statistics,
there is no evidence that there's been any manipulation
of the fact that crime is down almost 30% in 2020, 24, 2025 in the District of Columbia.
Okay?
But she'll just throw that in there.
The danger posed by violent crime is playing for all to see.
It's playing for big balls.
The staffer, the teacher's pet, 19-year-old who got jumped by a bunch of 14-year-olds, sure.
But like crime where I've been in D.C. recently with my pregnant wife walking the streets,
I didn't feel crime.
I didn't feel unsafe.
but she then goes on to say that this is the change, I guess,
that pursuant to her executive order of the executive order of Trump,
Terence Cole, as the Drug Enforcement Administrator,
will be the Attorney General's designee for the duration of the emergency.
And here's what is now the necessary and appropriate services.
They are requesting, demanding of the police through the mayor and the police chief.
And it looks like it's about immigration and homeless.
One, assist with the enforcement of federal immigration law as deemed necessary by the administrator.
Okay, so now we're doing immigration chasing in the streets of D.C.
Two, assistance with locating, apprehending, and detaining aliens unlawfully present.
See, they're making this link of aliens or committing the crime.
That's not who jumped big balls.
It was a bunch of 14-year-olds who live in D.C.
So I don't know how one and two help the crimes spurge that's going on in D.C.
Three database inquiries about federal law enforcement.
Okay, that's pretty vague.
And the last one is enforcement of the D.C. code, so local code on the ground pertaining to the unlawful occupancy of public spaces.
Now we're taking homeless people out of encampments with using federal forces and police force.
I mean, I did, I'll leave it on this, Ben.
I looked at the statistics that were generated by DC and divided it by the amount of days and the arrests.
They were doing over, over a hundred arrests a day without the takeover.
And then it dropped to 30 a day to 40 a day or 103 days with the new Bondi troops.
So again, total facade, total charade being perpetrated on the American people seen through by Judge Reyes.
And now we've got a folding, capitulating taco moment for Donald Trump.
This is all making us far less safe.
This performative manifestation of Donald Trump's dictatorial fantasies doesn't make us safer.
Donald Trump is defunding police.
Donald Trump is creating the conditions.
for there to be more crime across the country.
Donald Trump is pulling the FBI away from terrorism, sex trafficking,
major crimes, gangs, in order to go after people in Home Depot parking lots,
in order to, you know, attack hardworking immigrants who are supporting their families.
He's having FBI agents and federal and federal lawyers go through the Epstein files,
not to release them, but to delete Donald Trump's name from them,
to redact his name from him, and then not release them and cover them up.
He's removing them from key things that we need for our safety.
And then Donald Trump goes and helps sex traffickers like Elaine Maxwell moves her to minimum
security facilities, which is creating massive issues within the prison systems as well because
you've now brought her to a minimum security facility near a college campus where the people
walk back and forth from the college campus to the prison. There's a lot of Texas A&M and
Camp Ryan in Texas, what I'm referring to. There's a lot of children who go to that prison
to be with their moms in the females prison and now they're terrified about having a convicted
sex trafficker there. All of what Trump's doing is making us less safe, more.
crime and and just for the theater, the reality TV of fascism, intimidation, and threats
to make America look like a military state and to have the impact of it, but with an outcome
being everyone is being harmed. I want to talk more about that when we get back. I want to talk
more about the trial on that point that took place in San Francisco in the Northern District of
California. Before we take a break, I want to remind everybody about Michael Popak's law firm.
So if you or anybody you know, it's been injured in an auto accident, trucking accident,
catastrophic injury, wrongful death case. Call 877 Popok AF for a free case review today or go
to the Popok firm.com. That's 877 Popokafirm.com for that free case review today. Also,
subscribe to Michael Popak's YouTube channel, which is the LegalAF YouTube channel and Michael Popok's
substack, the LegalAF substack. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. We've got a lot more
to discuss and make sure you give them, don't be shy. If you have a case or you have someone,
you know who has a case, look in the description, give Popak a call. It's a free, it's a free case.
On that note, on that note, a little odometer, we're averaging now about two cases a day
representing legal AFMITUS touch people.
Quite outstanding.
Two cases every day that are coming in through.
The worst feel here is that, you know, we can't take the case.
That's the worst you'll hear from put back.
All right.
Quick break.
We'll be right back.
See you soon.
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All right, let's get back into it.
So we talked about what happened in Washington, D.C.
Let's go west to California, my state, where Donald Trump federalized, the National Guard,
sent the Marines into Los Angeles as well.
Again, he would send him into like the McCarthy Park where there was like summer camps
of like Latino kids playing soccer.
you know he would he would send them into home depot parking lots still to this day
thing called operation trojan horse they'd be in the back of penske trucks people would
be like working and vendors would be selling hot dogs and selling fruit and things like that
you know it's the south park version of what went down is not really parody i mean it it's
a cartoon version of what really happens i mean maybe at the end when she goes in and she's
shoots 30 puppies.
She shot, she shot killed as far as we know one puppy, not 30 puppies at the end.
But what happens is these ICE agents, you know, and these militarized police forces,
they show up, open up the Penske truck, run, and start grabbing people like they're out hunting.
And there are bounties on people.
So that's what ICE does.
The National Guard and the Marines, they were just treated so horribly by the Trump regime.
You know, like they didn't have beds at first and they weren't getting paid at first.
and then they had to, like, sleep on the floor.
Then they ended up, like, there was no bathroom,
so they were defecating inside their humvees.
By the way, same exact thing as Jan 6th,
when he finally sent the National Guard.
It was almost the exact same thing.
No beds, no hygiene, no toilets for the National Guard.
Yeah, so that, you know, and that was well, very late.
And when it came from, that was very late, you know.
And so, and then what the National Guard and the Marines
did was they would stand in front of, like, the immigration court building in downtown L.A.
They would just stand there. I was like, what do you, what are you doing? And people were like,
we didn't sign up to be in the Marines or the National Guard to be deployed in the United States
against Americans. So there was a trial on the Posse Comitatis Act. It was before Judge Breyer,
who happens to be the brother of the old Supreme Court Justice Breyer. I've appeared before this
Judge Breyer before when I used to practice law.
He's a no-nonsense guy.
Popak, take it away.
This was a multi-day trial.
Lots of witnesses being called.
They were under oath.
So they were being asked questions.
Do you think it's an emergency?
Do you believe that there was an emergency?
Uh, uh, uh, uh, yes or no.
Do you think it was an emergency?
Uh, uh, uh, uh.
Answer the question.
Do you think it was an emergency?
Okay, no.
No, it wasn't an emergency.
I mean, you would call him a Perry Mason moment, but it would not be...
It would not be...
Perry Mason at least had to, you know, ask a few questions to really get there.
Not on the first.
And the two stories that we did, one before the break of one now, are linked together
because the reason that Donald Trump announced the takeover of the police department
and the D.C. was not because Big Balls got his ass kicked,
although that was interesting
it was because that was day
one of the trial that was starting in front
of Judge Breyer on the Posse Comitatis Act
and he wanted to be that
performative art strong man
puppet theater thing
about oh I can
do whatever I want emergency powers
I'm gonna take over DC
but that was the step on the new
story of a trial that probably caught
him a little bit unaware because back
in June the judge
after because this is the same
judge, Judge Breyer, who ruled originally, although it was not upheld by the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals three judge panel, he actually enjoined and stopped and blocked the Trump
administration from the takeover, the federalization, or the commandeering, we call it, of the California
National Guard, finding it violated the Constitution, it violated the 10th Amendment, and all sorts
of other things. But he carved out the Posse Comitatis Act very smartly. He said, I'm not going to,
I don't need that for my injunction. I need.
need more evidence about the posse comitatis act and get down to it so i'm going to rule on the
injunction on that posse comitatis act stays with me this goes up on appeal so on appeal you can only
rule i mean generally you can only rule on what's in front of you not what hasn't been decided yet
by the trial judge the ninth circuit said we don't think you're right about the injunction part
about the commandeering part and went out of their way that's some twist and turns about that
then that left the Pasi Cometatis Act back with the judge.
And the judge was like, I want to hear from both sides.
Do I still have jurisdiction?
They briefed it.
He said, okay, I do.
So we're going to have a trial in August.
And all of a sudden, August rolled up on us.
And there was a three-day trial against the Trump administration.
Now, the only thing that the Trumpers had that they were trying to argue was that the judge didn't have the power, the jurisdiction.
if you will, to stop Trump or to limit Trump, because the Posse Comitatis Act, which came out of
our reconstruction period, reconstruction period post-Civil War, talked about fines and crimes.
So it certainly wasn't going to be a criminal case after the immunity decision.
So it's talked about fines.
It didn't talk about declaratory judgments that judges could enter with their inherent authority
or an injunction into the future to stop the future violation.
violations of the Posse Convitatis Act, then what happened in D.C., in real time,
ended up wafting into the courtroom in San Francisco as an example of, smartly raised by
California Attorney General's office led by Rob Banta, which was, we have future harm.
Look what they're doing in D.C.
You know, it's another example where if you're litigating against the Trump administration,
you must carry with you a Wi-Fi printer to have in the courtroom to print out new evidence
as it occurs.
We saw this in the criminal case.
We saw the defamation case.
We saw you just have to pray.
There we go.
This just came in from just moments ago, judge, you know, on the different time zones in New York and California.
And so that's their major argument.
It's a procedural argument.
You can't do the crime and you can't do the fines.
So you can't really.
And the judge says, no, I don't know.
No.
There was a whole legal argument day on the third day about what are the limits?
How can I limit?
How can any federal judge limit?
And he didn't like the response from the Trump administration is, you can't.
So that did not go over well.
The testimony was relatively straightforward.
They had a military guy, like a lieutenant general, I think his name was either Grant.
It's a great name about what he was ordered to do and not ordered to do, because this is all about whether the military might of the United States was used on domestic soil for law enforcement purposes or not to do arrests.
had enough examples, photos and pictures of people being arrested by the Marines and detained by
the Marines, which would show that he had violated the Posse Comitatis Act.
Based on the testimony that was put up, and Adam Classfelds, who just joined Legal
AF as a regular video commentator and contributor, he and I did every morning or every afternoon,
day one, day two, day three, because he was in the courtroom, virtually.
There was a Zoom of the hearing.
And you know Adam, Adam's competitive advantage.
as a legal commentator and contributor is that he's in the courtrooms.
You know, he sat through the Galane Maxwell trial, literally, in the courtroom.
And if he can't get in the courtroom, he zooms into the courtroom.
So he had some very good observations about some breathtaking evidence that
obviously resonated with the judge.
Day one was the California case with their evidence.
Day two was basically kind of legal argument and some cross-examination by Donald Trump's side
didn't go well.
And day three was the kind of reserve for more.
legal argument about the posse comitatis act i will give you the bottom line here i would be shocked
and i will be shocked if it happens if judge briar rules uh in favor of the trump administration
and doesn't find a posse comitatis act i think he's going to find a posse commentatus act violation
he's going to find the proper role of federal courts to uh rein in uh and limit an out of control
president in this or in this arena that he has the power to declare and to enjoin
And then what's going to happen is there's going to be another emergency application on this ruling back, I think, to the same three-judge panel.
I asked Rob Bonta, who interviewed, had an interview with me last week that's up now on Legal A.F about, do you think you're getting the same panel?
He goes, I think so.
He's not sure, but pretty sure he's going to get the same panel, which is not a great panel for him.
It was a very strong trumper, a right-wings, right-of-center, moderate sort of guy.
And then we hate to say it because we hate to criticize our own,
but a sort of weak, at least apparently weak Biden appointee,
who didn't say a darn thing during the oral argument
and didn't really say anything in writing and sided with the other two.
It seemed like she got steamrolled a bit.
Let's see if that, if it changes on the posse comitatus,
ultimately something that's going to go to the United States Supreme Court on a fundamental
issue, whether it's on an emergency application or it's going to be on the regular dollar.
We're getting so close now to the opening of the new term for the Supreme Court.
We'll be talking about a case or two there that opens the first week in October as they set their schedule now.
But that's what just happened.
And that's why Trump tried as a distractor to step on the story to go after what he thought was low-hanging fruit in D.C.,
which again, it was another example of the weakness of his administration.
And I'll just leave it on this, then.
If he thinks this is working with the American people,
about nine different polls in the last three days says it, hey,
from Gallup to Pew to Ipso to Reuters,
I mean, every poll has said that this is the historically worst performance
by a president in history.
Now, Donald Trump likes to say, well, I'm always underpolled.
Yeah, not about your performance, and we're not talking about you up for election.
We're just talking about a snapshot.
How do the people think about you and your temperament?
Terrible?
Do they think you're trustworthy?
No, by a lot.
Do they think you're honest?
No, by a lot.
Do they think you're a proper role model?
No, by a lot.
And where has he lost the votes?
Under 35-year-old MAGA guys that were wearing red caps before are now abandoning his party
in large numbers, and that's why the approval rating is now at 38%.
The only thing he seems to be winning on is immigration at the Mexican border.
But other than that, everything else, and the tariffs and the tariff pricing to get to
4% inflation hasn't even hit yet.
Although, I don't know if you saw this number, fruit and vegetables are up 38% at the supermarket
under the Trump administration.
I thought we voted for him to have lower egg prices.
I didn't realize we were going to pay 40% more for fruits and vegetables
because Donald Trump doesn't care about the average American voter.
All he cares about are the oligarchs and the top half of 1% in tax cuts.
Michael Popak, too.
I mean, this was the party of small government, don't tread on me.
And then you have California Governor Gavin Newsom holding a press conference about how,
if Texas engages in unlawful gerrymandering,
California will respond, respond, not initiate,
only respond to the unprecedented nature of a redistricting
before the midterms, which Texas wants to do.
California Governor Gavin Newsom holds a press conference
at the Japanese Museum, which was the site, infamous site,
where people were taken to internment camps in World War II where Japanese Americans were put in
internment camps. And what does Donald Trump do there? He sends the military to harass people
outside of Gavin Newsom speech. Like just in the United States of America, he sends these
militarized ice agents and border patrol who wear the outfits of military while the government
of the biggest state with the fourth highest GDP in the country is giving a speech.
Here's how Fox reported it. Let's play it.
Border Patrol agents are making arrests, illegal immigrants that I don't know if they were
at this press conference, if they were in the area, but this is a very, as John put it,
when we first saw this video, a very in-your-face way to let, you know, Democrats know
that you are going to do your job, that you're going to carry out these Trump policies.
Can you just respond to this video that we're watching right now?
Yeah, every single one of our ICE and Border Patrol operations is built on information, on investigative work.
It's a case and an operation that has been planned because of who they think could be in that area.
So in the United States of America.
That's in the United States of America.
And then you have Maga Republican Congress member James Comer from Kentucky.
I'm James Comer.
You know, James Comber is, you know, supposed to be Mr. Small Government himself, Mr.
States rights.
Okay.
Okay.
What does James Comer have to say?
Let's play it.
Carjacking.
We have people mugging people at all hours of the day.
And it's out of control.
So the president had to send in the National Guard.
And I think that you've seen just in the last 24 hours a huge decline in crime.
And we're going to support this.
We're going to support doing this.
in other cities if it works out in Washington, D.C.
And again, it's unfortunate, but we spend a lot on our military.
Our military has been in many countries around the world for the past two decades,
walking the streets, trying to reduce crime in other countries.
We need to focus on the big cities in America now, and that's what the president's doing.
Yeah. What are he saying?
He's saying that we need to focus on the big cities for the United States military to be in
American cities. And by the way, they're targeting blue cities with black mayors where crime is
down, where the highest crime is in the red states and the red cities objectively. And it's
the blue states and the blue cities that quite literally fund the existence of the red states.
America doesn't exist without California. California.
California gives $80 billion more to the federal government than it takes.
Texas takes more than $20 billion than it gives.
That is a trend that takes place.
Blue states, fiscally responsible, sacrificing for the greater good of this country,
only to get the middle finger from the red states who then don't play by the rules,
try to literally destroy the blue states, treat the blue states,
As you heard James Comer basically said, and on that Fox segment, letting the Democrats
know, you could just replace the word Democrats with Taliban, Democrats and Al-Qaeda.
That's how Republicans use the words basically interchangeably.
Los Angeles, Fallujah, right?
I mean, that's what they're doing right now.
And that's why we're in moments where we need to fight back.
and fight back, we will.
And it's why I was grateful that California governor Gavin Newsom said,
look, I think I want to be dealing with gerrymandering right now.
You think that's what I want to.
No, there's so much other stuff I want to be focused on in California.
But we have to save our country.
And California is going to stand up to Donald Trump.
As the governor, I'm not just going to talk the talk.
I'm going to walk the walk.
Here's specifically what I'm going to do.
If Texas goes about an unlawfully gerrymanders, we're going to get rid of these Republican districts.
We're going to do it in a transparent way.
We're going to put a ballot initiative to allow voters in California to vote on new gerrymandered maps before the midterms,
and we'll cancel out what they're doing in Texas.
And so then you hear the Republicans cry and whine, and they're all like,
Gavin Newsom's doing unlawful gerrymander.
and Gab, why would Gavin Newsom do this?
This is so unfair.
Gavin Newsom is trying to take our rights.
That's part of the fascist mindset for these MAGA people.
They play that.
They're sociopaths.
So they bully, bully, bully, bully.
You punch them back.
And then what do they do?
They play the victim.
And they say, we are the ones being attacked.
They're coming after us.
Why are they coming after us?
Wham, wow, wow, wow.
It's why you have to constantly go on the offense with
them. It's what we do here on the Midas Touch Network. It's what we do here on legal AF. And we have to
empower people with knowledge and tell them what to do. All right. We'll be right back after our last
quick break. I want to remind everybody about Michael Popock's law firm. If you or somebody know who's
been injured in any accident, catastrophic injuries in particular, call 877 Popok A.F for a free case
review today or visit the Popokfirm.com. 877 Popak AF or visit thepopfirm.com.
consultation is free don't be shy give a call um and michael popox team will answer that call you'll
get a real human being evaluate your case wrongful death cases of people that you know
catastrophic truck and car accidents sexual assault sexual harassment cases um reach out to him also
subscribe to the legal a f youtube channel and subscribe to uh the legal a f sub stack all of those
are growing quite well we'll be right back take our last quick break of the show
home stretch Michael Popock and Legal A. Fers.
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Lightning round, Michael Popock, talk about the losses, and there was quite a few that Donald Trump was hit with this week.
We talked about, you know, some of the, we think he's going to lose in the, in the,
Northern District of California,
Pasekhambatata's case.
He caved in D.C., but there are other cases.
And then he does, though, have that two-to-one panel of Trump judges
in that D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals,
which hands him wins there, which are, you know,
I don't know, maybe personal wins for him,
but when you eliminate the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau,
I hate to break it to you, Maga.
you're your consumers you you're probably not Jeff Bezos stop my protection
rip me off hidden fees give them to me all those hidden fees
bounce check fees I love him bring it airlines you know if you cancel the flight charge
me for him charge me all right a little thunder before the lightning round because you
won't do it, so I'm going to do it. Everybody go look up National Public Radio's interview with
Ben Mycelis, an amazing interview, and just reaching a whole other audience, but also demonstrates
how mainstream media, linear media, has finally figured out that there is a thing called the Midas Touch
Network and that there's an audience behind it, a fervent audience behind it. And some of us caught it
in real time, some of us caught it later, but an amazing go look up NPR, Ben Mycelesilus interview.
You know, this legal AF because of our audience just broke the top 20 in all YouTube podcast, regardless of the type of podcast that it is.
We just hit number 16.
That's not me and Ben and Karen.
That's you.
So we wanted that.
We were doing it before when we had 300 people.
So you can tell that we're nuts that way.
But the fact that we are doing something that resonates.
And as I like to say now to sign off of my hot takes, we're now joined at the hip.
And together, we will overcome this Trump administration, I assure you.
Let me turn to the lightning ground on about the wins.
And they're really important.
A.G. General Banta had a very good observation.
I pointed this question and posed this question to him.
I said, General Banta, there are people in our audience that are beleaguered and sort of ground down about the losses at the Supreme Court.
Why do these cases matter?
or the 50 cases that the attorneys general have filed,
the 80 cases that one organization, Democracy Ford,
which now is a playlist on LegalAF YouTube,
has filed against the Trump administration.
The hundreds of others that have been filed,
we're up to over almost 500 cases filed
against the Trump administration
in the first seven or eight months.
The dozens and dozens and dozens of injunctions
and new injunctions issue.
Why does that matter if there's a couple of cases
that we don't like, of course,
that are going to lose the Supreme Court?
And he reminded our audience of how they are winning substantially that most justice in the 95 or 98% of justice is done at the district court trial court level.
Cases don't even get to appeal.
And even on the funnel, when the cases get to appeal, the 10 or 15% of those cases in Trump style cases, in normal cases, less than that get to an appellate level, and then only 0.01% end up at the United States Supreme Court.
even if you add together the emergency applications and the regular docket of the Supreme Court,
you're talking about 100 cases out of like tens of thousands between state and federal court
that are filed every year.
Now, I'm not saying they're not important.
They are important to our democracy.
But the reason we, as an audience and as the newsmakers, the people that are in the trenches
doing the actual filing and litigating and arguing, why it matters,
Why we run into the burning building to save democracy and not the other way is because of the things I'm going to talk about right now.
And I think a great blueprint for what just happened is the National Endowment for Democracy case that was an order of preliminary injunction issued by Daphne Friedrich, who is a Trump appointee in the District of Columbia.
Now, and she also took a not so subtle, not so subtle criticism she included in her new order.
this was about the National Endowment of Democracy,
which sounds like an amazing organization
and one Donald Trump would hate.
It's about promoting democracy,
the U.S. style democracy around the world.
And it's not, it's not,
just because it says Democrat democracy,
it's not just the Democrats.
There's three major court institutes
that Congress funds
that Donald Trump has been holding up the funding related to.
There's the national
Democratic Institute. Okay, that's the Democrats. But there's also the International Republican Institute,
the Center for International Private Enterprise and Solidarity Center. And what happened is Congress
allocated $300 million in a first tranche of almost $100 million. And Trump got in the way and said,
we're not going to allow that drawdown, putting, of trying to put them out of business.
So that right on within 90 days of the payments not being made to them,
nonpartisan group. They filed their lawsuit in March. We're now in August. Look how far it's
been. Here's the pot shot. Here's the shot across the bow that the judge took at Trump appointee
about what this group does. It says that this group, this is on page two of their of the order,
is to promote the long-term U.S. interest by fostering stability. Now compare this to Trump,
countering authoritarian influence and reducing the drivers of extremism and migration.
Okay.
If this organization wasn't U.S. based, it would be focused on the Trump administration.
Because the Trump administration is all about instability, authoritarian influence, and extremism.
And I don't think she pulled that out of her hat and didn't put it in the first two pages of her order.
I think it was for a reason.
And what happened is she ordered by preliminary injunction that the $95 million and the funding
start flowing back to this entity ASAP, ASAP.
We know what Donald Trump hates it.
You know, it's DEI.
He hates it, but we see the ramifications of it.
He hates diplomacy.
He hates humanitarian aid.
He's hollowed out the State Department.
He's fired its employees.
He's defunded the State Department.
He's closed consulate offices all around the world.
He's turned people who normally would go towards democracy
and our version of capitalism away from us
and towards the Russians, the North Koreans, and the Chinese.
Because he's eliminated this.
This institute is about promoting American ideals worldwide.
We are the leader of the free world or we used to be.
But that's where Donald Trump says,
how much money can I save?
Billions of dollars, I can put somewhere else.
I can give it to my friends.
I can create a sovereign wealth fund and start investing in Intel with your money,
start investing in rare earth mining companies with your money, start investing in Chinese chips
with your money.
Let's do it.
And that's a problem because there's more to running a country than running a business,
even though you did a great job at the start of this podcast about he's running it like
a regular Trump business, meaning we'll be going bankrupt anytime soon.
We're like Trump stakes.
That's what we're at at this point.
as a nation. That's why everyone was like, we need a businessman running America, not everybody.
And I was like, no, because the country, the United States and its levers and its requirements
and the policies that it needs to enforce for the American people is not running a business.
You can't make everything reduced to a dollar amount. You want to sell chips that will undermine
our national security in Navidia? Just give me 15%. And you can.
do it. No, there are just things that go beyond that. And that's where we now have an example
of folding. Because even though the front page news was injunction entered, and people were like,
well, just appeal it, he didn't appeal it. And now the Department of Justice has just announced
that they're releasing the $100 million to the National Endowment for Democracy. And that's not
the only example. General Bonta, when he was with us, he said, and so did Democracy Forward,
billions for education have now been released because of lawsuits.
So there's certain ones that Donald Trump fights on and defies federal judges about.
But there's a lot where he just folds and the money starts to flow.
So we have that win.
Then you've got judges like Judge Kaplan, who knows Donald Trump well, because he's the judge
that presided over both E. Jean Carroll cases and where she's got $100 million of judgments.
By the way, on that, just as long as we're doing a speed round,
I just had Robbie Kaplan on Legal A.F with an interview that's going up now.
EG. Carol just had a huge win.
Her $83.5 million judgment was just affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
There's one more appeal, which is coming later this week, the order.
Once that happens, the only thing standing between EG and Carol,
justice and $100 million, which she said she's going to donate to causes
that it's going to drive Donald Trump crazy is the United States Supreme Court.
So we're going to have to see what happens.
There. So that's another win for justice. But Judge Kaplan had a case in front of them about the
poor living conditions, as you said for the National Guard, but this is for immigrants picked up
in this removal hunt of the Trump administration in Manhattan. And they're reporting, you know,
unsanitary conditions, unclean jail cells, no mattress whatsoever, sleep on a hard concrete floor.
And Judge Kaplan said, no. Three times a day cleaning, get a
a mat on the floor for these people, get proper hygiene and sanitation in there, and report back to
me on a weekly basis as to what's happening. This is what's going on with the wins, and it's over.
Get this number, Ben. The winning streak right now for those opposed and defiant the Trump administration
is over 90 percent, even in the 80 percentile, for the appeals. Now, there's one thing we've got to
keep an eye up, and I hate to say it, but when there's a trumper in the woodpile,
We're going to lose.
And if there's two Trumpers in the woodpile,
I mean, if there's two Trumpers on a three-judge panel,
we're going to lose and Trump's going to win,
no matter how devastating it is to the American people.
And we knew on this random panel of Catsis and Rayo and Pallard,
because they don't just get pulled in for one case.
They get pulled in for several cases.
And two cases got aside to that panel with Catsis and Rayo,
the Trumpers, and Pallard not.
One of them was the Jeb Bosberg case,
in which Jeb Bosberg found there was probable cause to find the Trump administration
in criminal contempt for being lied to about the planes going to El Salvador with 200 people
on board without due process, and his order to ground the planes, which was violated.
And the judge also said, I'm going to start making referrals over to bar associations
for bar licenses maybe being pulled because I was lied to.
Well, now the Katzis Rayo team have gotten together.
on on on bozberg have said no you were you were completely out of line you can't continue to hold
the trump administration accountable even though we know for whistleblowers that you were lied to effectively
we know we know that there is defiance going on in your courtroom violating all all rules of order
and inherent authority of judges but you were wrong jebosberg that's how far the trump judges now go
that they're now they're now wrapping the knuckles of chief judges of federal circuits or
districts in telling them you were wrong because you should have allowed yourself to be lied to
and now they've just come out with their new ruling again with Pilar in the in the descent
Rayo and Katzis that team again destroying allowing the destruction of the consumer the consumer
protection board financed protection board created by Barack Obama one of the first leaders of it was
Elizabeth Warren, to protect Americans from predatory lending practices, credit card practices,
airline practices, anything that was consumer-facing.
We had regulators already for the industry, the Securities and Exchange Commission,
banking regulators, the Office of Currency, you know, we had OFAC, all sorts of regulators
that were against or regulating the industry.
But nobody was protecting the consumer.
really nobody i mean states had some consumer boards you know a better business bureau but nothing at the
federal level and after examples of consumers and that's you maga along with us getting screwed by
predatory lending practices usurious interest rates payday loans uh like you said airlines screwing you
on the tarmac with i just had that happen to me with things with no bill of rights but this
This is not to protect big business.
This is to protect the consumer.
But here's, this is how, wait, I'm just going to do it this way.
This is the first line of the, of Catsis's order destroying the consumer finance protection board.
Here's the, this is all you need to know.
This is line one of his order.
To promote the president's deregulation agenda, the consumer finance, financial protection
Bureau undertook a number of steps to downsize.
Okay, that's how Katzis starts off his order, as if one day the consumer, the consumer board
got up and said, hey, you know what we're going to do?
We're going to downsize and stop protecting Americans.
We'd like to, the money you want to send us through Congress, no, we don't want it.
We reject it.
The people that are employed here, no, we don't need them either.
That's how they, like, all passive voice.
Instead of Donald Trump just screwed his own electorate and others along with it by getting rid of consumer protection that we should all have as a matter of right and dignity.
And he got his two Trumpers.
Thank God there's not more Trumpers on the D.C. Court of Appeals when it comes to that to allow for this downsizing.
So it's going to be basically downsized out of existence.
And the way they did it was always so underhanded.
It's always like, well, we'd love to get to this issue, but you really don't have standing because you're the employee.
that, and you have your own very limited rights as employees, now federal employees,
to argue about your dismissal.
And you should go do that in some administrative civil service capacity,
even though civil service protection has been eliminated under the Trump administration.
But you should go do that, even though there's no real relief there.
And it's not really a final order under the Administrative Procedures Act,
so we really don't have any jurisdiction.
And they spent 50 pages telling us why.
Pallard wrote a dissent that said,
are you effing getting me? This is my artist rendering, as she often does. Now, this is going to get to the Supreme Court. The question is, really for you, Ben, I've seen Roberts, it seemed like a distant Roberts, who saved Obamacare and then got pilloried and attacked by the pre-Maga Tea Party and Republicans at the time. Do you think he will save the consumer, a fire,
Financial Protection Board, when it gets the Supreme Court?
No, definitely not.
Well, goodnight, everybody.
No, I mean, he's an awful human being.
I mean, no.
I mean, I think the one thing he did was, you know,
help was the Obamacare thing, but that was about it.
Right now, the Supreme Court is,
and they're going to do what I think they've done before
in all of these things, Popak, you know,
which is just try to even, to your point,
any procedural way the Supreme Court can get out of making a ruling that exposes that they gave Trump
absolute immunity to commit all these kind of criminal acts they are going to do.
So they're going to let him do most of the stuff.
There's about a 5% stuff that they won't let him do like we saw with the Brago Garcia,
you know, sending someone to a concentration camp in El Salvador when there was an order saying
you can't do that. The Supreme Court will not allow the Trump regime to do that.
If the birthright citizenship question on the merits is birthright citizenship constitutional
while Trump tries to argue it's not, that gets to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court will say
birthright citizenship is in the Constitution. Yes, it is in the Constitution. It's protected.
Trump, you can't do that. But they will try to do any procedural victory around the
injunctive parts and all these other things to hand Trump, you know, to try to get through these
next four years, which is a very myopic way of viewing it because Trump views this as a
dictatorial takeover for more than four years. And now it's incumbent upon we, the people,
who are going to be the ones that need to put pressure on this regime to leave. We're going to
have to make sure we come out in droves for the midterms, but then be the pressure.
to get this regime out of there in massive numbers like we've never seen in the United States in
2028 when Trump and Vance and these fascists refuse to leave. That's coming. That will be there.
One final point I want to make, though, and it's about E. Jean Carroll, you mentioned her briefly.
When I interviewed her, she also said that she would be donating the money to, you know, various causes.
And this may make our viewers angry or upset, but I think she should keep the money because she was a victim of something so horrific and horrendous.
And I appreciate the kind of selflessness there that she says she wants to donate it.
But, you know, she went through so much in her life.
and she was so harmed and sexually assaulted and defamed over and over again her injury is a
real injury and you know my she could do whatever she wants with it but i just feel that she
she deserves it she deserves it for what she's been through and it's and it always seems like
when a when a democrat or when um or a non-republican gets it whoever just someone who
who's not Trump and Republican Magda, when they prevail or when they're injured and there's
a war to restore them, it's always like, well, where are you going to donate it? What are you going to do
or how are you going to do it or whatever? But on the other hand, when it's a Republican who's doing
something bad, it's like, oh, of course they're going to take it. Of course. What do you think
they're going to do? I don't know. And to me, it just creates an asymmetry. It creates an asymmetry.
I don't think she should feel bad, you know, that she has to give this money.
You know what I mean?
And I'm not sure that's how she feels.
Yeah, I had her on after, after you.
I had her on a couple of weeks ago.
And I mentioned your back and forth with her.
I'll tell you where it's hard to speak for her because she's so courageous and so honorable.
I think it stems from why she brought the suit and how she doesn't want to live her remaining life.
She's in her 80s.
She doesn't want to live her life as a victim.
And she has accomplished, she says she's accomplished everything she's ever wanted to accomplish in life.
She brought Donald Trump to justice.
There's nobody you and I will be talking about that has a hundred million dollars worth of judgments against Donald Trump that's going to likely collect, like E. Gene Carroll.
But she never wants somebody else to write her narrative or write her book for her.
And so this is what she wants to do with the money.
And Robbie Kaplan just told me in an interview that's up right now on legal AF, that at least as it relates to the first judgment,
her firm's not even taking any money it's not even it's completely pro bono now i think she's going to make a
little on the on the larger on the larger judgment and then there's a huge net amount that'll be to eugene
carroll look i'm with you i if i she definitely deserves it as a victim of sexual abuse and horrendous
defamation but this is each this is who you just have to spend a few minutes with her to see that this
is the way she wants to lead her authentic life and not be a victim no no no doubt about it and she's such a
courageous and honorable person and it's such an incredible thing for her to for her to do that and
it does set an incredible example but I just think about what she what she went through and what
she's been through horrible stuff but fighting and taking and showing that anybody can can fight
back against this regime if she can do it as she says you know she goes you know I'm just
one lady if I can do it think about what you can I want to thank everybody for
watching this episode of Legal AF, Michael Popock, always a great pleasure to do this with you
and to be here with our audience on LegalAF. A reminder, if you or someone you know has a case,
if you've been injured in a catastrophic car accident or a trucking accident or sexual assault
victim or if you know someone who's been the victim of it in a wrongful death case,
see if you have a case. Don't be shy. Reach out to Michael Popock. Check out the Michael Popock's
law firm. Popak, where do they reach out to? What's the, uh, that's, that's, uh, that's easy.
Yeah, it is right there. One eight seven seven Popok A.F and the Popok firm.com. I just was talking to the
people that are involved with me in this, like the back office and the administrators at all.
And, you know, the three big areas where our legal AF and Midas Touch network are coming to us.
I'm saying two, three cases a day are auto accident, medical malpractice and what we call civil rights
and other type of sexual assault, sexual discrimination cases.
I mean, we're getting a lot of other cases, too,
we're representing, as you know,
we have the honor of representing a family of a flight attendant
who was downed and killed in the collision
between a Black Hawk helicopter and the American Airlines jet
eight days into the Trump administration over the Potomac.
So we have that as well.
But those are the three core areas that seem to be,
and for all over the country, I have a map that tells me
where the legal a effort is a might as mighty,
just geographically where they're coming from.
It literally is in all 50 states.
Pull that up one more time, salty,
just so everybody can get the phone number one more time.
877 Popok AF, 1-877 Popak AF or thepopfirm.com.
Thepopfirm.com or 1-877 Popak AF.
Thanks everybody for watching.
Thank you to our sponsors.
We'll see you next time on Legal AF.
Shout out.
Legal AF for a shout-out, Midas Mighty.
Thank you.