Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Popok LIVE Full Episode 3/18/2025

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Legal AF's Michael Popok provides urgent real-time live briefing on late-breaking law and politics events from today. Tonight, in the Trump Openly Defying Federal Judges Edition, Popok (a) examines the unprecedented and historic ostracism of Trump by the Chief Justice of the US, John Roberts, in direct real time response to Trump attacking a federal judge earlier in the day as corrupt and calling for his impeachment; (b) examines the underlying injunction and contempt proceedings presided over by Chief Judge Boasberg to question Trump's phony assertion of War Powers and the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to turbo charge his deportation of undocumented to evil supermax prisions in El Salvador and worse; (c) a new order today by a San Francisco federal judge finding that Trump has violated his injunction by not properly rehiring tens of thousands of probationary workers; (d) a new order today from a Maryland federal judge that found that the Trump Administration violated the constitution in its putting USAID out of business, ordering that its payment system be turned back on and and declaring Musk the head of DOGE whether Trump likes it or not; (e) Trump's blatant violation of law and precedent by firing the 2 democratic members of the Federal Trade Commission in the face of recent rulings that told him that this was illegal; (f) a federal judge ruling that Trump violated the constitution by attacking a law firm and firing them from government contracts for representing clients against Trump, and so much more. Support our Sponsors: Graza: Go to https://graza.com and use code: LEGALAF to get 10% off your Graza Starter Kit and get to cookin' your next chef quality meal! Moink: Keep American farming going by signing up at https://MoinkBox.com/LEGALAF RIGHT NOW and listeners of this show get FREE WINGS for LIFE! Smalls: Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 50% off your first order PLUS free shipping! Trust & Will: Get 10% off plus free shipping of your estate plan documents by visiting https://trustandwill.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 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I hope you're sitting down. This is going to be a lively pop-up live. Everything I'm going to talk about today happened today at the intersection of law and politics, starting with an unprecedented rebuke by the head of the Article Three branch of the government, the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court against the Article Two branch head, the president. This is the chief justice. Is this the president? Please hold for the president. Yes. Stop going after my judges. Stop arguing that they should be impeached. Stop attacking them. If you

got something to say, say it in an appeal. That's my version of what Justice Roberts said today in an extraordinary statement. A public rebuke of the President of the United States. We'll talk about the ramifications of that. And as long as we're staying on just today, we've got a federal judge in Maryland, Judge Chang, who just ruled as I was coming on the air tonight for the live in a preliminary injunction that he has granted that it is more likely than not that Elon Musk is the leader of Doge,

that the termination of the US aid was unconstitutional and he ordered certain remedies to happen like yesterday. the termination of the US aid was unconstitutional and he ordered certain remedies to happen like yesterday. At the same time, a federal judge today, Judge Alsop in San Francisco, who sits under the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ruled that Donald Trump violated his order by not reinstating probationary workers, tens of thousands of them,

but instead hiring them back, but putting them on paid leave. And the judge says, that's not the status quo that's required here. And Donald Trump already lost the ninth circuit on this very issue just a day or two ago. So we've got open defiance. That's going to be a theme on PO-POK Live today.

Open defiance by the Trump administration against the rule of law and federal judges. So we got Judge Alsop, we got Justice Roberts, we got Judge Chang. What else we got, PO-POK? Well, I'm not done yet. Let's talk about Chief Judge Boesberg

and how we even got to that amazing historical bomb shell of a communique between the Chief Justice and the President of the United States, a one-way communique that we've never seen before. All started because Donald Trump earlier this week, actually the end of last week, exercised his quote unquote war power to declare that there were enemy combatants among us

to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to start deporting people to a black hole hell supermax prison in El Salvador. Is this the America that you and I all woke up in? Is this the America that we want? Sure, get criminals out, but there's a little thing called due process and the constitution and civil rights.

And if you can prove your case that they're members of narco terrorist gangs and they are marauding the American countryside and they're raping and killing and murdering and drug dealing by all means, prove it in court, get them out of here. But to shackle them and send them off to a dictator in El Salvador for them to go into the deepest, darkest hole possible and violate court orders

along the way is not my America. So Justice Judge Boasberg in a fast moving story, he issues a temporary restraining order. He issues a second temporary restraining order and the Trump administration violates each one of them. And then they basically send an FU to the judge just before I got on the air, telling the judge, we're not even gonna acknowledge

that you told us anything during the hearing because when you tell us things orally, we're not listening. We only look for your written minute order. That is BS. Every time you're in a hearing, we'll talk about it more from my legal practice. Every time you're in a hearing, you listen carefully. And if you missed it, then you're note taking,

you go order a transcript. Cause whatever the judge said, that is the contours of the injunction or the ruling that you must abide by. They basically conceded that they flouted the rules of the judge. Open disobedience, the common theme here. But I'm not done.

As I was coming on the air, Donald Trump fired again, and this is ironic, the two Democratic appointed members of the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC. One was appointed when Donald Trump was first president and got rid of them both for no good reason. That violates the constitution. It violates the statute that Congress used to create the FTC.

It violates Supreme Court precedent going back to the 1920s in a case called Humphrey's Executor about what else? The Federal Trade Commission. So there is not only case law on the books that stops Donald Trump from firing people who are members of a bipartisan commission established by Congress, but the name of this very commission

is in the name of the case, involves the case, the Federal Trade Commission. And they're upset. We'll talk about Rebecca Slaughter, who was fired and said, "'It is corrupt, it is illegal, it is unconstitutional, and they're trying to silence my voice

to the American people. So we've got the FTC firings, which are gonna end up, I'll just give a spoiler alert, exactly where the firings of the head of the, or the chair of the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board, Gwen Wilcox. She was reinstated by a federal judge. So are these two are gonna be reinstated by a federal judge.

And we're moving towards another constitutional crisis. We are lurching, ladies and gentlemen, from one constitutional crisis and abuse of power to another minute by minute with this administration. They are openly defying federal judges except on a rare occasion where they think it doesn't matter they will abide by federal judges rules. What am I talking about? We have our first injunction against Donald Trump going after that other aspect of the justice system, lawyers. Donald Trump going after law firms by name in an executive order,

and Barrel Howell, the former chief judge of the circuit court, or sorry, the district court in DC, putting a stop to it. So we've got that. So we've got Judge Alsop to talk about in San Francisco, finding that Donald Trump is inching in his administration, inching towards contempt. And then we've got, I haven't even touched on Judge Chang. I've talked a little bit about it. Judge Chang on his preliminary injunction against Elon Musk and Donald Trump and the administration. So we got Chang, we got Alsop, we've got Beryl Howell, right?

We've got Boasberg, we got Chief Justice Roberts. And the thematics today are Donald Trump's calculated attacks on the rule of law, on our conventions, on our traditions, open to finance of the federal courts, calling for their impeachment and removal, in a way only a dictator would love. And where is it all coming from? Coming from the fevered mind of those around Donald Trump,

including Stephen Miller, the non-lawyer that ran a law firm called America First. We should have sued him. Who's now the deputy White House chief of staff. In the first incarnation of the Trump administration, he devised that little nasty special policy of separating families and putting children in cages. Joined by Kristi Noem, the puppy killer,

who's the head of Homeland Security. And now these two got together and said, let's do the Alien Enemies Act from 1798. Yeah, let's not do that. That alone would have been big news. That alone would have been big news. So let's start this off, this Bopac Live Off in the right way with the how we got

to Chief Justice Roberts about two hours after Donald Trump posted his rantings of the morning, the rantings of a madman and a lunatic, where he went after the former, the current chief judge, sorry, of the DC District Court, and said he's a lunatic, he's depraved, he's corrupt. He, why? Because he issued a temporary restraining order

to stop Donald Trump from using a phony war and phony war powers and to exercise his absolute Article II powers, which we only give in time of war under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, last given to President Adams of all people. But you get it, you only get to use it if we're under attack or invasion or an imminent threat of invasion.

Not because you wanna turbocharge your deportation program. You can say a lot of things about the narco gangs and terrorists that Donald Trump just deported, okay? But the fact that they're waging a current in real time war against America, that they are the equivalent of a country or an enemy state, they've been here for, I hate to tell you, but they've been here for over 10 years.

It's the slowest moving war or invasion I've ever seen. You'd have to use, you know, a time lapse photo to catch it. You know, and so Donald time lapse photo to catch it. And so Donald Trump though wants to use it because his legal scholars told him it's okay. So on Friday, he signed it, a proclamation, not a declaration of war, which is necessary, only can come out of Congress, but a proclamation of designating these certain groups

out of Venezuela, these narco terrorist groups as state actors, as enemies within, as enemy combatants that need to be removed immediately, exercising his rights under this 1798 law. And then takes the position as the balls in the gall in civil disobedience, or just disobedience, to tell federal judges like Judge Boasberg, where after the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union filed their suit, to tell Boasberg, where after the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union filed their suit, to tell Boasberg, this is above your pay grade, son.

My paraphrase. You know, you don't get to know this knowledge. You know, this is classified. This is the highest level of Article II Commander-in-Chief powers, except he's not operating as the commander in chief, except these 250 people were sent to the arkin prison of El Salvador were not put on military planes,

they were put on civilian planes. And so the judge, after hearing the initial lawsuit by the ACLU when they heard Donald Trump had signed something on Friday, although it was published on Saturday, this exact, this proclamation, they ran into court representing the six or seven Venezuelans who were gonna be deported

pursuant to this proclamation, and to have it reviewed by a federal judge to determine whether it's constitutional. Now let me answer a question that's coming up a lot, because the echo chamber created by Donald Trump with his paid social media influencers combined with his MAGA legislators, combined with people in his administration

and his press secretary. This, and in Elon Musk, this is the echo chamber that goes into overdrive to protect Donald Trump. And to promote these false ideas, they have come up with this mantra, one single federal judge in one single federal district can't beat a president like it's rock, paper and scissor. Every, let me disabuse them of that thought,

every major constitutional case that's ever come up the chain in our history, whether it's civil rights, women's rights, reproductive rights, constitutional rights, voting rights, you name it, desegregation, Brown versus the Board of Education, Roe versus Wade, even the Dobbs decision all came up through a single judge making a ruling about presidential power, constitutional power, separation of powers and the like. And then went like night follows day or day follows night

to a three judge panel of a circuit court for appeal. Maybe it went to the full circuit court, what we call an en banc appeal. And then it went, if it went at all, to the United States Supreme Court. That is the road. Judges are empowered to fashion remedies if they find constitutional violations

that match the violation. That's why we're seeing universal or nationwide injunctions. And it's driving MAGA crazy. It's driving MAGA crazy when it's used against the Trump administration. When they used it against the Biden administration, it was okay.

When it came out of Texas or Louisiana, oh, they love nationwide injunctions, right? Now this particular injunction or temporary restraining order by Boasberg wasn't even a nationwide injunction. He certified a class of everyone impacted negatively by the proclamation about the use of the Alien Enemies Act and then entered a temporary restraining order

in favor of the class, which is exactly, if you go back and look at research, exactly what the Heritage Foundation, Donald Trump's wet nurse for all of his ideas, that's exactly what they promote. No nationwide injunctions, there should be class certification. Okay, we did class certification and an injunction.

No, that's not good enough. It's really a universal injunction. You see the catch-22? You see how they chase their tail, they make us chase it with them? So, Boasberg enters the temporary restraining order. Donald Trump tries to defy it. First, the Department of Justice files a letter request

to the appellate court above Boasberg. Have him removed. He should be disqualified, the case should be reassigned. Rejected. They file a motion for emergency stay to stop all the proceedings in front of Boasburg. Rejected or not moved on, which is another way for the appellate court to say,

you know, the trial judge has got this. See, appellate courts like records to be developed below. They like facts to be developed below before it comes up on appeal and up to the Supreme Court. And Boesberg already set a fast briefing schedule. All this week, we're watching it. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday. I sound like Godfather.

Okay? Monday, Wednesday, Friday, briefings. And then on Friday, he's gonna hold a hearing. He was gonna do it by Zoom, but now he just announced he's gonna have it be live. Public is welcome. We're gonna try to get people in the room for that one. I assure you.

So that's the substance of the TRO. Donald Trump filed a motion to vacate the TRO or dissolve it. The temporary restraining order, the ACLU will file their paper tomorrow. They'll be hearing on Friday, normal course. In the meantime, Donald Trump lost his mind. And the judge figured out he'd been had, because when he held his hearing, pardon me, when he held his hearing on Saturday night,

this past Saturday night, yes, courts are open on Saturday in the Trump administration. It's like night court, except without bull, except for the bull coming out of Donald Trump. Sorry folks, I digress. Saturday night hearing ends at about 6.30 or so. Now I've been to plenty of federal hearings. I've been to them at night.

I've been to them and going to 10 o'clock at night on a Zoom or otherwise. And the judge, when you're there for an injunction hearing, you gotta listen carefully because the judge is gonna say a lot of things that constitute their order about the parameters and the contours for an injunction hearing, you gotta listen carefully. Because the judge is gonna say a lot of things that constitute their order about the parameters and the contours of the injunction. And this judge did, including saying,

if the planes have not yet left turn the planes around, they're now enjoined as of right now. That was at about 6.30, 6.35 Eastern time. About an hour later, he put up a minute order, which is an entry about two lines long, three lines long on the docket, subject to a future writing to make it clear that he had granted the injunction. And it's usually for the reasons set forth in the hearing. Yeah, but you are enjoined at the time the judge rules from the bench. There's no law that says oral statements or oral rulings by the judge

don't have any weight or merit in injunction world. That's a lie. That's the position of the Trump administration. The Trump administration's position is, well, no planes left at 730 after the order hit the books. But we didn't really understand the oral injunction to be binding, so we let planes take off at 630.

And they just filed a paper before I went on the air where they basically told the judge, after 730, judge, we got it all cleaned up. We only deported people, pursue it to something else other than the Alien Enemies Act. And the judge is like, I'm sure he's gonna say, cleaned up, you know, we only deported people pursue it to something else other than the alien, the alien enemies act. And the judge is like, I'm sure he's gonna say, well, what happened to 630 to 730? What happened to the planes that you

were moving to defy me? You know, we already had Tom Holman go on Fox News the very same day to say he doesn't care what federal judges say. He only cares what the greatest president in his lifetime has to say about deporting criminals. So you've got a contempt problem and the judge fact-finding around it as the judge allows the briefing schedule on the merits of the temporary restraining order to continue.

Not good enough for Donald Trump. Taking a page from Elon Musk, you know, the guy he uses for all of his, as a henchman, Donald Trump wakes up this morning and starts a lunatic rant, I mean, this sounds like a broken record, about, oh, it's the same thing. You know, let me give you the theme

before I give you the rant. This is one single judge in one single district. He wasn't elected to anything. He's not the president of the single district. He wasn't elected to anything. He's not the president of the United States. He doesn't have my mandate. He's crazy, he's a lunatic and he's a criminal, he's corrupt, all right. Those are the, you know, that's for the kitchen magnets.

It's like kitchen poetry. He just moves those around or whoever writes his, we know he doesn't write all social media posts. Whoever writes them uses that, that's the toolbox they use. So that's what came out. Jeb Boesberg is a lunatic. He's corrupt. He needs to be impeached. He wasn't elected to anything. I have the power. I won the mandate. I won the counties. I won the seven swing states. He didn't. Who's he? Who's he? He's the guy that represent, the person that represents the Article 3 power of

the federal courts and the judiciary in their attempts to do the checks and balance required by our constitution. That's who he is. It is the friction as Justice Louis Brandeis back in the 1920s once said, it is that friction between the plates, between the moving plates

of the three co-equal branches of government, the judiciary, the executive branch and the legislative branch. It is that friction that is the checked imbalance. We don't want free spinning wheels of autocracy. Yeah. And so Donald Trump went too far and you could tell they miscalculated in Trump world,

in Trumplandia where they're just not that bright. You've got a series, let's look at the lawyers around them. Then I'll tell you what happened next with Chief Justice Roberts. The lawyers around him are lawyers who got fired from their law firms, had to go solo to represent Donald Trump, won his criminal matters because he got re-elected or got elected and then got rewarded with top jobs in the Department

of Justice that they don't deserve. Pam Bondi, former impeachment lawyer for Donald Trump. Top two other lawyers, Todd Blanch and Amal Bovay, whatever his name is, criminal defense lawyers for Donald Trump. And Alina Habba is a White House counselor and Stephen Miller is not a lawyer. So they all get together, this great law firm. This is the dream team, this is not. And they tell him he can do whatever he wants because of the way they misread or read.

They get filter from the Heritage Foundation, I'm sure, and from Project 2025 architects, tell them what to do. And then he starts, but they miscalculated about John Roberts. Now you may remember two weeks ago, Donald Trump, and I think he's going to rue the day that he did this. He couldn't help himself because he's a gladhander. He's a celebrity showman. He's PT Barnum. He's right. He's Lyndon Johnson, but corrupt. And he starts to, you know, give it like a fist bump or a little belly pat to Chief Justice Roberts at the joint session speech. Later that, see Robert's face?

It looked like he ate a bad oyster. And Amy Cote Barrett looked like she smelled a full diaper when he came into the room. And later that day, they issued a ruling against Donald Trump forcing him and his administration to pay $2 billion on USA debt. So Roberts, after this lunatic rant comes out in the morning,

three hours later, he issues a statement. You can count on almost no fingers how many times a Supreme Court justice outside the course of a decision that they're making, stepped out of their hermetically sealed ivory tower to rebuke the leader of another branch. Like never. Like Roberts is so squeamish about all the political stuff that he refused to preside over the impeachment hearing of Donald Trump, even though the constitution says he needs to when he was impeached for Jan six

because he was no longer president. This is a guy that like he does not need or want this, although he created it with his immunity decision. And so Chief Justice Roberts came out with his rebuke of Donald Trump and told him out loud that for two centuries, if you don't like the rulings of a federal judge, then you appeal. But you don't ask and call for the impeachment of someone.

Period, two lines, boom, that's it. But what does it mean? What's the greater meaning of it? Did Donald Trump miscalculate? Has he pushed Roberts away from him and into a corner? What about the fact that he needs Roberts to support him on a number of policy decisions that are already in the pipeline,

including this case involving Jeb Boesberg, right? And what will Roberts do? Disqualify himself and recuse himself? What happens if there's only four four on the United States Supreme Court? I'll tell you when we come back from our first word from our sponsors, now look, we are fortunate to have sponsors on the Midas Touch Network

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and thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. The miscalculation of Donald Trump here may be of epic proportion with John Roberts. The fact that he felt in 90 minutes that he had a, or an hour or two hours or so, that he had a publicly chastised the president of the United States in the form of Donald Trump is seismic. Because there's cases that he's gonna be deciding.

Now what is Donald Trump gonna do? Move to disqualify or recuse Chief Justice Roberts? Okay, let's play that out. Okay, I'm game. I'll do the thought experiment that I proposed. Okay. He recuses himself. That leaves eight.

You know what happens when there's four four? Nothing. Supreme Court can't rule or act without a majority. So if Amy Coney Barrett, who we say, who I've been saying forever, is the swing vote, she slides, she slides over to vote with the democratically appointed wing of the Supreme Court. It's a deadlock. It's a deadlock.

So that doesn't help at all Trump. And why would Roberts do it? Let's get into his mind. Because I think he realizes he's created a monster of his own making. He's trying to shove the golem, you know, back into the, I'm gonna mix metaphors here, back into the lantern.

See, I get the genie back into the lantern, the mean, angry, crazy genie. And so he's telling him, stop going after, because look how weak, think about it, if he hadn't done it, look how weak he would have looked. Federal judges are being attacked by Elon Musk, Donald Trump and the administration, Stephen Miller and others, Carolyn LeVette,

and he just sits there on his hands and bites his tongue. So he was goaded into doing it. Now what happens next with the cases in the pipeline? I don't see him accusing himself. I don't see him disqualifying I don't see him disqualifying himself or them moving to disqualify. But you could see the worm may have turned in his mind about an out of control president

and not give him the benefit of the doubt. The tie goes to the runner on his exercise of Article II power. That's what I'm hoping. We'll have to follow it. Not the only judge we're gonna talk about here today. I wanna talk about things that just happened before we got on the air.

Let's go to Judge Alsap, Alsap in the Northern District of California, San Francisco, we've been following his case. He called the Department of Justice liars, effectively, and said, you're saying that you fired all the probationary workers under Elon Musk because of performance issues? That's a lie.

It's not because of performance issues. You didn't make a performance calculation. You fired them because you wanted to save money and you ruined the lifeblood of federal civil servants and their connection to the American people in terms of service provision. And you're gonna reinstate them. So he ordered them to reinstate them by today at one o'clock.

The Trump administration ran to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California. And at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, he asked for a stay until he could argue on appeal that Judge Alsop was wrong. And in a two to one decision with a Trump appointed judge in dissent, they said no on the stay.

Going back to Judge Houseup, meaning they had to comply with Judge Houseup because there was no stay in place. But they didn't. They didn't rehire people to go back to the status quo before the firings. They rehired them and put them on administrative leave. Sure, it was paid leave, but that's not the point.

The judge is upset and issued an order as I was going on the air. Who said, I'm upset? This is not consistent with my order. This is in violation of my order. It's not just paying them, it's making sure that service is being provided to the American people. Because Donald Trump is just trying to break

the umbilical cord between the American people and its government, right? Break the accountability chain. And so now the judge is gonna have to find out what to do next with open defiance. We have a series of open defiance matters. In the last week, there's been at least three or four different times where the Department of Justice

has either lied or not told the truth to a federal judge have been caught, required to do and submit affidavits and other sworn testimony of Elon Musk, and or are in open contempt and violation and disobedience of court orders. Not every court order, because in some they're still playing by the rules.

But in a lot, more than I've ever seen in my lifetime. More than's probably ever happened in our history. They were only 60 plus days into the Trump administration. So I'll stop California. Let's keep an eye on that case and any finding about contempt. Then you had, this was like back to back to back to back, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, all Tuesday,

Tuesday live with PO-POK. Thank you for providing me the content that I needed. Then you got Judge Chang in Maryland, who's handling another Doge case concerning US aid. Yeah, and it's that US aid case where the, and this isn't even the USID case that Judge Ali in DC ordered the $2 billion paid that were owed for services rendered and goods provided by USAID.

And that's when, you know, Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett jumped off sides in Mago World and joined the liberals and ordered Donald Trump to pay it. Not that case. This is another case involving Elon Musk, Doge and USAID. And that judge has just ruled that Elon Musk effectively runs Doge. Boy, we've known that before.

Rejecting the administration argument that he can just put somebody in a special advisor counselor position and avoid all these constitutional mandates. The judge said, that's not happening. And then he basically is trying in real time to reassemble USAID, having employees get their emails back,

getting payment systems turned back on by court order. Yeah. And finding that they disobeyed him in the past, another act of disobedience. That's Judge Chung in Maryland today, Judge Alsop, San Francisco today, and Judge Boesberg and the rebuke of Chief Justice Roberts of President Trump today.

Now let's move on to the Federal Trade Commission filings or firings. The Federal Trade Commission is a quasi-judicial body that is in charge of antitrust law application and things related to trade and trade regulation. It was created by Congress in the 1920s, a few months after the Supreme Court ruled in a case called Humphrey's Executor.

Well, actually the FTC case was about Humphrey's Executor. A few months later, they formed other quasi-judicial legislative bipartisan groups and boards, like the NLRB, National Labor Relations Board. And all this came out of the 1920s. So for the last almost 100 years, no president has ever tried to remove a bipartisan member of a board or commission has ever tried to remove a bipartisan member of a border commission that doesn't exercise independent executive power that way. Ever. They've never tried it. They've never tried to do it. But Trump, he tried to get rid of the National Labor Relations Board chair, and she's been reinstated to her job by Amy Berman Jackson. He tried to get rid of and was successful because he kind of gave up on his

appeal to get rid of the Office of Special Counsel head, Hampton Dellinger. He kind of threw in the towel. I don't know why. And so he figured, all right, let's try it again. So he went after the Federal Trade Commission and the two democratically appointed people who were in the middle of their terms. Rebecca Slaughter, who was appointed by Donald Trump in 2018 and got re-upped at another term by Biden, so pretty bipartisan, she said it was illegal to fire her in her social media post, it was corrupt, and that she has a voice that the American people need to hear, and that's why she was fired.

And I'm sure we're going to hear from her, along with Alvaro Bedoya, the other person who was fired. Now that is a violation of that Humphreys executor case from the Supreme Court in the 1920s. In fact, that case involved the Federal Trade Commission. Why is Donald Trump doing it knowing it's likely that he's gonna lose? Because he's using the portfolio method

and he's using the shot on goal method to continue hockey and sports metaphors. He's just gonna continue to fire the puck at the goalie, goalie being the federal judges of the US Supreme Court, hoping that some of those pucks get in. So if you, or you can use, if you like soccer or football, as it's known around the world, use that. Shots on goal, 100, 1000, shots on goal.

If 30 get in, it was 30 more than he had before. Maybe somebody will give up on their appeal like Hampton Dellinger. Maybe a Trump-appointed judge will rule in his favor. Maybe the Supreme Court will bail him out. Maybe not John Roberts at this point. That's what we're watching. The shots on goal theory of legal challenges that threaten our constitutional democracy, our republic, that threaten our constitutional democracy, our republic, and the rule of law. But who else would implement this? But the devious felon in chief.

We've never had a felon as president before. And now you know why. Because you see his natural instincts are felonious, his natural instincts are criminal, his natural instincts and judgment are depraved. And now the federal court, him having been created out of the lab of John Roberts, the chief justice in his immunity decision,

now the federal courts, the day-to-day federal courts have to try to handle it as a last firewall to protect our constitution. And that's why we're seeing, and we're seeing, and we're also seeing this calculation of, we're not gonna defy all the orders and all the judges, but we're gonna defy a lot of them,

especially if it even smacks of foreign policy or war powers, even though there's a phony war. It's a total wag the dog moment with the Alienated Enemies Act, right? We're gonna do all of that and see what happens. And that's what we're watching. This is not working for Donald Trump. This is not working for him domestically.

This is not working for him from a foreign policy standpoint. In real time, just to switch gears to global AF for a minute, Putin is eating Donald Trump's lunch and he's killing and slaughtering Ukrainians as a result. Donald Trump says, oh, I got a phone call with him. You had that phone call go. Not well. He got Ukraine to make all sorts of concessions, none of which Putin is going to agree to.

He wants as a condition for any ceasefire, Putin, they told this to Trump on the phone, that we stop giving military aid, dollars, weaponry and military intelligence to Ukraine. In other words, strip them bare and leave them defenseless to Putin. And Donald Trump celebrated it. Great phone call, we're moving towards

the contract for peace. Everything's a contract. Everything's a deal. Everything's the art of the deal. He sends his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, a little known real estate developer. Nobody's ever heard of him. And I worked in New York, okay?

Until he testified for Donald Trump at the fraud hearing. I was like, I had to look him up. Who's Steve Witkoff? Oh yeah, he's the guy that got Donald Trump into crypto. He's our embassy negotiating against Putin. Putin, who headed their KGB, okay? Who is toying, we're watching a giant cat and a little mouse who thinks it's a cat being toyed with. And who's suffering? Democracy. Ukrainians. A

president who's really at war. Zelensky. Who told the Trump administration, you're getting played. You're getting outplayed. You're getting, you can't trust the Russians in negotiations. Donald Trump gave us that old version of what George Bush once said, I looked into the soul of Putin and I could see he's a good man. Really? Yeah. Right after last time Donald Trump got involved, they bombed a hotel in the in the birth home of Zelensky as a payment for it. And they refused to do any type of ceasefire. Donald Trump tried to get some sort of,

some sort of a brass ring he could brag about. Will you stop bombing at least the power grid? Maybe, maybe I will. Even that wasn't definite. So this isn't working. For those of my friends, and I do have some friends who are Republicans, who thinks Donald Trump,

who are getting like special delight over, oh, we sent 200 members of a narco gang to El Salvador, and we use funny emojis, and we use rap music and closing time, as a funny meme. This is not a foreign policy. This is not a coherent domestic policy. And Americans are suffering. The economy is in the tank. And Donald Trump celebrates his poll ratings because they're the highest of the lowest poll ratings he's ever gotten.

60% of America thinks he's doing a terrible job. 60% of America thinks his economic plan is for the dogs. 60% think he's not spending enough time helping everyday Americans. And they celebrate it on Fox News. He hit 40, 40%. Wow, it's the highest he's ever been after 60 days. This is how pathetic they are. The high of his low is lower than any self-respecting

president would ever wanna be. And 10 points lower than Joe Biden. I'm gonna cover the next round of this attack and assault on rule of law, the attack and the assault on lawyers, when we come back from our next break with our sponsors. I do wanna mention one thing. As people now know, it's been two months now. I did form a new law firm, it's called the Popak Firm,

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frizzle and drizzle and get to cooking your next chef quality meal. All right, welcome back. Let's finish up Popak live with the perfect judge for the perfect moment at the perfect intersection of law and politics, Judge Beryl Howell. Formerly the chief judge took over where she was the predecessor to Judge Jeff Boesberg, the lawyer we were sorry, the judge we were talking about during the Alien Enemies Act. She is the judge that's been assigned the case

that was brought by the law firm that was attacked viciously in a defamatory way to try to destroy them, a 2,500-person law firm out in Washington State called Perkins-Coy. Perkins-Coy used to have a couple of partners in it. One of them was prosecuted by Donald Trump's special counsel and he was acquitted, and another one is Mark Elias.

They left that firm. But Donald Trump has been grinding his ax to take out Perkins Coy if he ever got back into office. This is the enemy's list. That's all we're watching. This is where you naughty or nice. This is bad Santa. And to Donald Trump, Perkins Coy was naughty

because they represented Hillary Clinton. They represented the Democratic National Committee back in 2016. They tried to get some dirt on Trump and his collusion with the Russians. They were one of the people that helped bring forward the Steele dossier, which has roundly been discredited against Donald Trump.

And first he sued them in civil court in Miami a couple of years ago with Alina Haba, and he lost. The case was dismissed. He was sanctioned a million dollars and the judge found that the case against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee, and the law firm was all a political screed masquerading as a lawsuit. That wasn't good enough for Donald Trump. So he had Bill Barr appoint John Durham special counsel like Jack Smith, but for Trump, and they went after the law firm and the jury acquitted them,

acquitted the main lawyers there. Now Donald Trump is president. So a law firm like that has a lot of government contracts where they represent government agencies and provide them as governmental lawyers, outside governmental lawyers, advice and counsel and get paid big dollars for it, I agree. I concede.

And then they also represent people before the government and they need security clearance in order to look at some of these top secret documents. So what did Donald Trump do? He issued an executive order going after Perkins-Coy by name and declaring them an enemy of the people effectively and that they're dishonest and that they are violating the law

and that they're unconstitutional and they can't be trusted with our secrets and they're using diversity, equity, and inclusion in their hiring practices, whatever else you can think of. And he tried to fire them from the government and make them persona non gratis. It got to a point where emergency lawsuit was filed by the law firm and it ended up with Judge Barrow Howell.

Now Judge Barrow Howell, you may remember when she was the chief judge, presided over most of the grand juries that eventually indicted Donald Trump. She issued the subpoena that became the search warrant and moral log up. She stripped Donald Trump's lawyers of attorney client privilege along with Donald Trump because she found it was more likely than not that he committed a crime.

She presided over the Rudy Giuliani defamation case and hit him with default sanctions and he got a $158 million judgment against him in the Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss election workers defamation case. She presided over dozens and dozens and dozens of Gen 6 insurrectionist defendant cases, convicted them, sentenced them, and the like. And she was around when Donald Trump pardoned them, pardoned those people. And she's not shy about writing about Donald Trump and his fascist tendencies. And she's speaking, and she has spoken about them at speeches as well. So she got the case and she determined that it is a violation of the constitution

of the first amendment with animus for Trump to go after this law firm. And she by temporary restraining order after citing to Alice in Wonderland, telling Donald Trump and his administration, you don't get to be the queen of hearts. You don't get to just because you don't like the person or they displease you say off with their head, ha ha ha.

She wrote that, she said, actually said that in court. And she instead, in her injunction, she ruled that you are to reinstate Perkins-Coy. You are not to fire their contracts. You are not to tear up their contracts. And if you wanna do their security clearance, then you gotta do a legitimate security clearance evaluation. So she left that part alone, but put them back in the game.

Look, this is a 2,500 paycheck law firm. Going after them, that's a lot of people that are going to be put out on the street because something that happened with two partners that are no longer there 10 years ago. And it's a violation of, it's a viewpoint discrimination under the first amendment,

because you don't like what they're saying, or you don't like the clients they're representing. Look, I took an oath as an officer of the court, right? My professional ethics to zealously advocate for my client's interest, even those that are unpopular, even those that are notorious if I'm in the criminal world. So they have a lawyer on the other side of that asymmetrical power that the prosecutors have

in our system of adversarial justice. It's the adversarial system that we believe in conjunction with juries and judges that creates justice, justice being blind. But that doesn't mean you go in blind, you're entitled to a lawyer. And a lawyer who takes an oath to defend the Constitution as an officer of the court at the highest ethical standards

should not be penalized for taking clients or advocating on behalf of those clients. Just like Williams and Connolly, another law for the Donald Trump went after by name. Their crime, they represented Jack Smith when he needed representation. This is not the world that you and I want to wake up in. This does not reflect our values.

This does not reflect American values, American patriotism, or anything that used to be a part of our DNA. It's been hijacked by Donald Trump and by Mecca. And this open defiance of federal courts is not only makes my skin crawl, it's embarrassing. It's the language and the vocabulary of dictators. In fact, you've got the dictator of El Salvador, Bukele,

who's egging on Donald Trump in social media posts telling him to attack the federal judiciary, just like he did when El Salvador is telling an American president how to run a democracy, you know we're in trouble. Yeah, do it. I did it, you know, that's what Bukele did. He got rid of his enemies on the Supreme Court. I mean, I don't know about literally,

he did take them out. He moves for impeachment. All the things that Justice Roberts told Donald Trump, back off, pump the brakes. That's not our country. As Elon Musk calls for impeachment too. Now let me end this PO-POK Live with two concepts that come up a lot in the questions that are asked.

Firstly, what does it take to impeach a federal judge? And secondly, what if the U.S. Marshals Service and law enforcement don't listen to a judge who finds somebody in contempt like the Trump administration and they don't arrest because Pam Bondi told them to step down because all of the security personnel, if you will, like the marshals are under the executive branch. What happens then? Okay, let's start with the first thought experiment. What happens on impeachment? Same as a president,

you need two thirds of the house to impeach. Well, actually you need, let me rephrase it. You need a majority to impeach. You need two thirds of the Senate to convict. So that's why it's not happening. Because no matter how many extra four or five votes they have in the Senate,

they don't have the 60 plus they need to convict. So no judge is gonna get impeached and removed. In the entire history of our Republic, in 250 years plus, 15 judges total have been impeached, really for corruption and bribery. Like, you know, they were taking a little handoff, a little presidential handshake, if you know what I mean. And not happening here.

But it's not done because they really think they're gonna be able to do it. You know, Elon Musk and Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and all the right-wing influencers on cue and paid off, they all do it because they think it's destabilizing. They think they'll get a better call from the ref next time because they're playing the ref as Donald Trump likes to say.

And so that's the process. What if federal judges order contempt and or jail for members of the Trump administration and they don't have the muscle to enforce it because the Marshals are under because let's play this out Marshals are under the executive branch federal judiciary does not at present have its own sergeant at arms or deputized security force so they have to rely on the executive branch but you know what's gonna happen

Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, FBI, everybody's gonna order the marshals not to listen to the federal judge. Open defiance again. And the federal judges are gonna look around the room and go, what do we do? Well, here's what they can do. Federal judges can deputize, create their own security force. They can take it from, if they're in democratic states where a lot of these are, they can take it from the governors giving them National Guards people and deputizing them as officers of the court and marshals, right? They can make marshals. They can do it from local law

enforcement like if they're in DC, Metro Police, Capitol Police. The mayors who are Democrat, the governors who are Democratic are going to pitch in and give security personnel to judges to enforce their rules. And then where do you put them? Well, if you can't put them in federal, a Bureau of prison centers or federal detention centers, because Pam Bondi won't let you, you put them in local jails.

Jails are jails. Locks work in both places. So that's what could happen. So I know a lot of people are like, it's toothless. They can't do anything. What are they going to do? Pam Bonney is going to tell the marshals not to do it. That may be.

And that we might get more statements flying out of John Roberts at that point. I'm glad you're here with me on PO-POK Live. I love sharing this time with you. I love preparing for the show. I couldn't do it without you. We've got our pro-democracy sponsors. We've got Midas Touch.

Hit the subscribe button, but come on over to Legal AFMTN for Midas Touch Network. I do that channel in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network. We just rolled the odometer to 500,000 in our first six months. Hit the subscribe button there. We're really making a push.

We want to hit a million before our one-year birthday. And I think we're going to be able to do it, certainly with your help. And then of course, I've got my new law firm, www.thepopakfirm.com, 1877-POPOC-AF. And again, we're really focused on those things at the intersection of your life and law,

which are all, which are unfortunately personal injury, catastrophic injury, death and destruction, things that turn your life upside down. So until my next PO-POK Live, my next Legal AF, the podcast here on the Midas Touch Network, or Legal AF contribution on the Legal AF YouTube channel, I'm Michael Popok. I'm Michael Popok, and I got some big news

for our audience. Most of you know me as the co-founder of Midas Touch's Legal AF, and the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now building on what we started together on Legal AF, I've or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now, building on what we started together on Legal AF, I've launched a new law firm, the PO-POK firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation. At the PO-POK firm,

we are focused on obtaining justice for those who have been injured or damaged by a life-altering event, by securing the highest dollar recoveries. I've been tirelessly fighting for justice for the last 35 years. So my own law firm organically building on my legal AF work just feels right. And I've handpicked a team of top tier trial fighters and settlement experts throughout all 50 states known as big auto injury attorneys who have the know-how to beat heartless insurance companies, corporations, government entities,

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or been the victim of medical malpractice, employment harassment, or discrimination, or suffered a violation of your civil and constitutional rights, then contact the Popak Firm today at 1-877-POPAK-AF, or by visiting my website at www.thepopakfirm.com, and fill out a free case evaluation form. And if we determine that you have a case and you signed with us, we don't get paid unless you do. The PO-POK Firm, fighting for your justice every step of the way.