Legal AF by MeidasTouch - The Intersection with Michael Popok - 1/13/2026
Episode Date: January 14, 2026Tonight on The Intersection, Popok unpacks the DOJ dumpster fire in just the last 48 hours with senior DOJ officials resigning en masse rather than take part in a Trump cover-up tied to the ICE murder... of Renee Good; Trump threatens to fire AG Pam Bondi as faith in the Justice Department collapses; Senator Mark Kelly sues Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after being threatened with “hanging” for opposing the administration; Minnesota’s Attorney General moves in the name of Renee Good to halt a dangerous ICE surge; and Trump’s attack on Fed Chair Jerome Powell backfires as Senate Republicans vow to block all Fed nominees unless the criminal probe ends. Plus, California AG Rob Bonta joins to break down fresh victories pushing back against DOJ overreach and to defend democracy. Smalls: For a limited time, get 60% off your first order, plus free shipping, when you head to https://smalls.com/LEGALAF Delete Me: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/20off Check out The Popok Firm at: https://thepopokfirm.com Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF by MeidasTouch podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595 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 Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Welcome to the intersection. I'm Michael Popak. The dumpster fire that is the Department of Justice
has gotten a lot worse in the last 24 hours, if that is at all possible. I count 10 senior
Department of Justice leaders and prosecutors resigning or being fired related to the Trump
administration's attempts to either prosecute political rivals or critics or,
to cover up the stench of yet another scandal this time involving the murder of a U.S. citizen
by an ICE agent. That has led to the wholesale resignation of the Minneapolis U.S. attorney and his two
lieutenants. That has led to half a dozen separately, half a dozen senior prosecutors in the
Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, once proud, once investigated things,
things like the assassination of Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers and the civil rights
workers down in Mississippi.
How do I know that?
It's still up on the Civil Rights Division website, even though it's now led by a political
hack in Harbeat Dillon, who already has declared that she will not allow her office in its
criminal section to investigate and potentially prosecute Jonathan Ross.
This is the same proud office that at one time had successfully prosecuted Derek Chauvin for crushing the life out of George Floyd in Minneapolis as well.
I'm going to talk about all the things related to the Department of Justice, this dumpster fire, the new intel that Donald Trump has grown weary of Pam Bondi and will toss her aside likely for Todd Blanche.
The number two in the department is former criminal defense lawyer.
we'll talk about the reason that Joe Thompson, the trusted and respected U.S. attorney in Minnesota, resigned,
even though he was also the federal prosecutor for the fraud investigation involving welfare and other programs in Minnesota,
involving or maybe not involving the Somali community that led to Donald Trump doing the ICE,
that led to the death of Renee good.
But Joe Thompson has had it this administration.
And then we've got Robert K. McBride.
We hardly knew you.
Came from Tennessee to go babysit Lindsay Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia
and was around long enough to effectively become the de facto U.S. attorney.
He just got through meeting with all of the judges in the Eastern District of Virginia,
which is the job that a U.S. attorney is supposed to do.
But when your U.S. attorney is Lindsay Halligan,
who's already been declared to be illegally appointed,
then you've got to bring in a Bob McBride.
And I said, why would he want to do this at the end of his career
to end his career?
And now he's been fired because of his refusal
to continue to prosecute or go after James Comey.
And then, Attorney General from Minnesota,
Keith Ellison, fresh off of an interview
that I had with him a day before.
before filed a federal lawsuit and what I would call in the name and in the memory of Renee Good
to stop ICE from continuing to attack brandish firearms in the face of use weapons, tackle,
gang tackle, lay their hands on U.S. citizens doing First Amendment protest in Minnesota.
It's modeled after a similar suit that was filed in Chicago.
Chicago, and we'll talk about that case as well. Then special guest in my second segment will be
Attorney General for California, Rob Bonta, who is, I think, going to announce that the 54th case
for the Democratic attorneys general have been filed against the Trump administration. He's got a number
of wins under his belt. Yes, he's got a legal hot streak against Trump. Can he keep it up? I believe he can.
he's leading the charge with the other 22 Democratic Attorneys General.
He just got an amazing temporary restraining order in New York about child welfare payments
being cut off in the middle of the night by the Trump administration.
Maybe he should worry less about Chevron and Citgo and the oil companies,
and he should worry more about the suffering of Americans,
especially children whose parents vote.
Let's try that.
And we'll talk about that and other things with A.G. Banta.
When I think about what I'm going to do on the intersection, I start thinking about it like on the Sunday before.
But if I waited, if I did my roster on Sunday, it would be stale already.
Because now I've got to talk about not only the Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell having a criminal investigation opened against him, but Jay Powell, who is a very modest fellow.
I mean, and I mean that in the best sense, he's the thing that keeps the American economy tethered,
to planet Earth. He's the one that's been steering the economy through the turbulent and choppy
waters and the prop propeller of the Trump economy successfully. And he didn't just take it
lying down when there was an announcement in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,
that a criminal investigation has been opened and subpoenas have been issued by some grand jury
in the District of Columbia. This modest chap took to the airwaves and spoke,
to the American people and more importantly to the financial markets and leave it to Jay Powell to
not only defend himself the independence of the Federal Reserve but also to calm the waters of the
financial market. They were like, Jay Powell, what's going to happen? And he was like, relax, everybody.
I got it in almost in this kind of tone. I got this. I didn't do anything wrong. We know what this is all
about. This is about the attack of the independence of the Federal Reserve. And all it did, that video,
what we like to call now dark j, dark j Powell with light with laser beam eyes as fired back at
Donald trump and everybody has run to his rescue including senate republicans on the banking committee
who have said they're going to block Donald trump's federal reserve pick including his chairperson
if he doesn't back off of jay Powell mark kelly has told pete higsettset senator mark kelly
he better back off and the claims or the postings in social media by Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth
that Mark Kelly, 25-year veteran of the military, naval aviator, dozens and dozens of missions,
the last commander of the Endeavor Space Shuttle, his wife Gabby Gifford took a bullet for
this country as she was campaigning, that Mark Kelly should be hanged.
Trump's words. He should be tried for war crimes. Pete Heggseth's words. And now he's filed a lawsuit
first against Heg Seth. I want to touch on a couple of other things that have happened as I was preparing
to come on tonight, including the transgender high school athlete case before the United States Supreme
Court today and a new development in the Epstein Files Matter in New York. And I'm here at the
intersection and so are you. First, I want to do a shout out to the audience, without which,
I don't have a show, without which whose fervent support is so appreciated. We have hit,
and the YouTube rankings, which matter in our world for best or the highest ranked
YouTube podcasts for the week in the last week ending, we hit number 51. Sometimes we've been
as high as number 20. The fact that we're even in the top 100 at all, of all.
all podcasts, not just law and politics.
I think by that contrast,
where the number two law and politics,
the number one being legal AF at number 23,
I thank each and every one of you.
And if I could thank each and every one of you personally,
you know that I would.
We're live tonight, as usual.
Leave questions for me in the comments.
I've got a team standing by.
Remember the old time life operators
when you were going to subscribe?
This is where I show my age.
Time Life.
Operators standing by, Sports Illustrated operators, put a question. Somebody on my team will catch it.
They'll send it to me. I'll try to answer it at various places, but I'm glad that you're all here.
We have a large crowd of people who want to get into good trouble, and I'm here for it.
And I'm really so ecstatic that you are all, too. Let's get to the first topic, the Department of Justice and the dumpster fire.
So let's do the headcount.
Let's start with Joe Thompson in the federal district court, a federal district,
U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota sitting in Minneapolis.
Joe Thompson, very well-respected, lifelong prosecutor.
He and his two lieutenants resign.
And the reason that we've been told, even though he's been relatively silent about his resignation,
Get this.
The Department of Justice in Washington, what we call Maine Justice,
apparently gave Joe Thompson an order that he should investigate criminally
the grieving widow of Renee Good, Becca Good,
criminally investigate her as what, a left-wing agitator,
is that under the J.D. Vance theory, and he and his two,
lieutenants who are also involved with the fraud investigation said we are out of here.
There is just some things that a prosecutor who has taken an oath not just to the Constitution,
but an oath to uphold the principles of federal prosecution, the Department of Justice
Manual will not do. And every person has to make that decision for themselves.
I sit watching who's ever left in the Department of Justice wondering how they can continue to operate
within and complicit with the Trump administration.
Now, part of me wants them to stay in
because part of me wants the good ones
to try to rein in Donald Trump from the inside.
But that's getting increasingly more difficult
when you're given orders like this.
Now, we know that the Trump administration
as part of the stench of this scandal,
yet another day, another Trump administration scandal and cover-up.
This one, to try to try to,
change the narrative to try to make us believe we to make us believe we shouldn't believe our lying
eyes in the videos of what happened in the cold-blooded murder shot in the face three times by the
ICE agent we shouldn't believe that we should believe that somehow becca good is a bad person
and brought her wife down and she's a bad person and she's been and they've been radicalized
radicalized to do what to blow whistles to to dance in their car
honking the horn to call attention to ICE's out of control rogue conduct against
Minnesotans. This is a death sentence. This is a, this is where you get to be judged
jury and executioner on the streets. In fact, we've got a clip of J.D. Vans as this administration
had moved so rapidly within moments of Renee Good's death to
start making a self-defense argument for Jonathan Ross, a proper use of force argument for
Jonathan Ross, a blaming the dead victim argument. And here's J.D. Vance doing exactly that,
talking about the radicalization of this woman who pulled out in an old car with a dog in the back,
just a protest against ICE as an American citizen. Let's play the clip. There's a part of me that
feels very, very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a
victim of left-wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides they're going to throw their
car in front of ICE officers who are enforcing legitimate law. You've got to be a little brainwash
to get to that point to where you're willing, not just a protest, that's fine, not peacefully protest,
but throw your vehicle in front of legitimate law enforcement officers and drive your car into them. To get
to that point, you have to be, I think, radicalized in a very, very sad way. I certainly wish that
she hadn't got there. I know there's an ICE officer right now who very much wishes he was not put
in the position where he had to fire a gun to defend his own life. Well, we've all seen the video,
and we all know that that's a bald face lie to the American people. And a disqualifier for me,
and I'm sure many of you, all of you, for J.D. Vance to hold high office and to be the president of the
United States one day. We know that she didn't drive her car into ice. We know that she didn't move her car
into a position to block ICE officers. We've all seen the video. She was there first. She wasn't doing
a blockade. If she was doing a blockade, she was doing it poorly because cars were passing behind her
and cars were passing in front of her. She was sitting in the car to make a point, to make a protest
point as a U.S. citizen. The problem is ICE isn't used to working with First Amendment protesters
and U.S. citizens. They're used to throwing migrants to the ground and in the back of U-Hauls
and doing border control operations. So they're not trained for this. This was, of course,
what Donald Trump doesn't care about when he sends 2000. These are all American versus American.
This is American versus American crime. You wouldn't know it by watching the video. You think you're
watching, oh, this happened in fill in the blank, right? No, this happened in America.
So her sitting in a car, JD, and bouncing up and down and honking a horn and telling her
her soon-to-be murderer, bro, I'm not angry at you, right? Little did she know that 90 seconds later
she'd be shot in the face by people related to that. So this right left-wing agitator thing
is what they had Joe Thompson
ordered him to go after
Becca Good
in order to
hold up this narrative, to support this narrative
of the Trump administration. Here's what
Becca Good had to say about,
let me see if I can find it quickly, how to say about
her late wife.
If I can grab it, I will. If I can't, I won't. I'm sorry
about that. You know we are alive.
I can't find it. She hasn't given a public statement other than in writing, basically talking
about how there's now one of their three children. You know, this was the mother, or all three
children. And now they don't have a mom. They're being raised, of course, by Becca and who will
teach them, those children, that there are good people in the world that are trying to make the world
better and their mother was one of them. Now, in addition to that, we've got the fallout at the
Civil Rights Division criminal section of the Department of Justice. If you read the website,
and I implore you to go do it because they haven't taken it down yet, it says that there are a proud
division created in 1957 to enforce laws on the book since the post-Civil War era about
discrimination to make sure that people's civil rights are not violated. And they have
a criminal section since 1957 as well. And then they bragged about, because it's been up there before
Harvey Dillon, they bragged about all of the civil rights leaders who were slain that they investigated.
And Derek Chauvin was one of the people successfully prosecuted under the Biden administration
for the suffocating death of George Floyd, also in Minneapolis. And now Harmeet Dillon, who got
the position as civil rights leader, civil rights division leader after, as a consolation
prize, as after she was passed over for attorney general and she was passed over for RNC,
Republican National Committee chairperson, she got civil rights. And she was given the same mission
by Donald Trump that he gave Linda McMahon for the Department of Education.
Chloriform it, put it out of business, stop using it. If anything, weaponize it to go after
people who are like Becca good, who are exercising their civil liberties and need protection.
So when career prosecutors that are left there and half already left right when Hartmeet
Dylan was appointed, whatever's left there, went to her and said, we want to be involved in the
investigation of Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent.
And she said, no, we're standing down.
We're not going to be involved with that.
She's already made her decision.
The investigation hasn't even been begun yet.
And the FBI has already concluded that this is not a civil rights violation of deprivation
of rights against Renee Good.
How do they know?
They can't even watch the video that we've all watched and get that right.
So the career prosecutors, six major leaders in the office were like, that was the final straw.
So with the name of Renee Good, they walked out today.
And then yesterday, Robert K. McBride, who was this gray hair type, and I can say that because I got gray hair, probably a little older than me, who was a U.S. Assistant U.S. Attorney in Tennessee, got moved over, volunteered apparently, or got a short straw to go babysit Lindsay Halligan and effectively be the day-to-day U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia.
He just got done meeting with all the judges in the Eastern District, which is the job the U.S. attorney does.
and he got fired.
He was only there like two and a half months.
What was his crime?
He told, apparently he told them,
I'm not going to do the prosecution of James Comey
and run the office at the same time, pick one.
And they said, no, you're going to do both.
And I think he fought back on the Comey part.
And he is gone.
And they don't seem to care about what this chaos
and what this amateur hour,
as Senator Tillis called it.
is doing to the American confidence, if there ever has been this year, in the Department of Justice.
They don't care.
And Donald Trump has cut effectively Pam Bondi.
Have you noticed we haven't seen much of Pam Bondi lately?
I mean, we haven't seen much of Pam Bondi lately.
She's certainly not holding press conferences on things that are allegedly law enforcement.
Venezuela, the specialized law enforcement action to enforce an arrest warrant on the Maduro
the Maduro husband and wife.
Who's up on the stage during the press conference?
Not Pambondi.
Not the FBI.
Not Todd Blanche.
I see CIA.
I see Department of Defense.
I see Secretary of State.
I see Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
I see President.
I don't even see J.D. Vance.
I certainly don't see anybody from law enforcement.
So, okay, let's move forward.
What's the next major thing around?
Epstein and the Epstein scandal and the cover-up
and the cover-up of the cover-up as the Department of Justice is used to cover up an international
child sex trafficking ring because their felon in chief has a connection to it.
So let's leave it at that.
So that's going on.
And who's the front person for that?
It's not, it's not Pam Bondi.
Not since she said she had all the files on her desk, it hasn't been.
It's been Todd Blanche.
Number two, Donald Trump really trusts, right?
Todd Blanche got him out of all those, all the.
sticky wickets during the criminal prosecutions.
You know, it was Todd Blanche that got him out of Mara Lago.
Todd Blanche that effectively got him out of the New York criminal prosecution.
Todd Blanche that got him out of the D.C. election interference case.
Todd Blanche that worked on the immunity decision along with John Sauer at the United States Supreme Court.
What's the connection with Pam Bondi?
She made her way through a three-ring binder during the impeachment where she could barely read off the page.
she's not going to be around much longer.
So because, all right, let's do my third hypothesis,
my third fact to support my hypothesis.
Where is Pam Bondi about Renee Good?
Where is she?
I see J.D. Vance, who purportedly has a JD from law school,
yet he doesn't know the difference between absolute immunity and qualified immunity
when it comes to the immunity that a federal officer has.
He doesn't have absolute immune.
You must have, you know, cotton in your ears because your boss has absolute immunity for certain things by way of the Supreme Court.
Everybody else has qualified immunity, right? Even you, J.D. So J.D. Vance is out in front.
A little bit of Todd Blanche, a lot of J.D. Vance and none of Pam Bondi as her Department of Justice dumpster fire continues.
And we had a filing today by, we've been a couple of filings today, some of which I can't even, you know,
I've got to keep the show to like an hour.
Marco Rubio files a crazy thing with Judge Bozberg basically tells him to go, F himself,
that he's not going to help get 137 people back from Venezuela.
And then you've got, for due process purposes, because he's not really in control of Venezuela.
at the same time, Bondi, Halligan, and Blanche go after Judge Novak and Trump appointee
and tell him that he needs to back up and back off because he's gone after Lindsay Halligan
impersonating a U.S. attorney.
While all that's going on, there are adults like attorneys general who are out there doing
the people's business.
For instance, Keith Ellison in Minnesota, has filed in the last 24 hours a new
lawsuit to stop the ICE surge, stop the abuse of U.S. citizens and other First Amendment protesters
on the streets of Minnesota. And here's Keith Ellison at a press conference announcing the lawsuit.
We've come together and we're here to announce a lawsuit. We're filing against the United States
Department of Homeland Security to end the unlawful, unprecedented surge of the federal
law enforcement agents into Minnesota. Because this has to stop.
It just has to stop. We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota for our diversity, for our democracy, and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the Constitution and of federal law.
We allege that the surge reckless impact on our schools, on our local law enforcement is a violation of the 10th Amendment and the sovereign laws and powers of the Constitution.
grants two states. We allege that DHS's use of excessive and lethal force, they're warrantless,
racist arrests, they're targeting of our courts, our churches, houses of worship, and schools
are a violation of the administrative procedures act on arbitrary and capricious federal
actions. And we ask that the courts will end the surge of thousands of
HHS agents into Minnesota.
And that was Keith Ellison, who I'll have back on to brief our legal A.F. audience as well.
My producer was able to find the statement made by Becca Good, who again, as we said at the top of this intersection,
Joe Thompson quit as the Minnesota U.S. attorney rather than investigate and or prosecute
this poor grieving widow. Here's what she had to say about her, the law.
loss of her wife, Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children. The youngest is just six years old
and already lost his father. I'm now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him as Renee
believed that there are people building a better world for him. But the people who did this had
fear and anger in their hearts and we need to show them a better way. Does that sound like a left-wing
agitator who's been weaponized and for somebody that J.D. Vance should feel sorry for?
Or should the sorrow run the other way?
And I'm going to, we come back from a quick break here,
we're going to have another leading Attorney General, State Attorney General.
We're going to have Rob Bonta come on and brief us about everything that's happening
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and now imploding Department of Justice and winning in the courtrooms on behalf of the
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And thank you to our sponsors. But now I am so honored to have the California Attorney General Rob Banta join us. Attorney General Banta. How are you this evening?
Hey, Michael, doing great and better now that I'm with you. Yeah, I feel the same way. Although you broke my heart in those of many who watch because I think there's been a public announcement about your immediate futures. Am I right that you've decided that you're not going to run for the California.
governor's correct i am running for re-election is california attorney general in this uh in these
difficult challenging times with so much on the line so much at stake i think my place is here uh on the
front lines uh in this moment battle tested and ready for whatever comes next to protect our people
and build a legal fortress around them to protect their rights and freedoms and um this administration
as we have seen we're about to talk about has showed not only no signs of slowing down but
signs of escalation of raising the stakes.
Absolutely.
Glad that you, either decision would have been great for the American people and for the people
of the state of California.
But so pleased and honor to have you here on the front lines leading along with the 22
other Democratic attorneys general.
I don't know if you got to see.
I'm sure you've been following your colleague, Keith Ellison in Minnesota.
We were all together in Phoenix recently for interviews.
I had Keith on a couple of days.
ago, I'll have them back. You've pitched your own battles about the National Guard and other
federalized troops of Donald Trump on the streets of California and successfully won that all the way
up to the Supreme Court. Let's kick it off with that since it's so fresh. What's your observations
about the new lawsuit that Keith has filed, sort of patterned over one that was filed in Illinois,
about ICE on the streets and the importance of the attorneys general in filing such a lawsuits
against the federal government.
Yeah, I'm really proud of A.G. Ellison, A.G. Raul, my colleagues, my friends, proud to call them
both in Illinois and in Minnesota, standing up and pushing back against the unlawful actions
of President Trump. We have shown time and time again for California. It's been 54 times in less
in a year that when we fight, we win.
When we stand against an injustice and we speak up and speak out and take action and go to
court and hold this administration accountable to the law and to the facts, we win.
And our people deserve that.
And the people of Illinois and Minnesota should be very proud of their two AGs,
just like I am, for fighting.
And this is what we've done over the last.
It hasn't even been a full year yet coming up on a year.
Time and time again in case after case, watching,
monitoring, observing, tracking every action that this administration takes.
And, of course, permitting and allowing as we must, the administration to do things that are lawful,
that are within his actual authority.
But never, ever letting him do things outside of his authority, never allowing him to act unlawfully
and hurt the people of our states.
We've been a bulwark, a check.
We are battle tested on the front lines in the trenches, meeting him every time he tries to cross the boundary and cross the line into unlawful action,
and pushing him back in to his actual.
actual given authority. And we're going to continue to do that. And, you know, he has a very
difficult relationship with both the facts and the law, especially having heard his statements about
sanctuary cities today. So we know we're going to be busy in the years ahead. But we're grateful
for what we've accomplished. We wish we wouldn't, he didn't have to do it. But if sue the president,
because he's unlawful, we must, then sue him. We will. And I heard coming on the air that last time
we were together, which was just a couple of weeks ago, we were
talking about crossing the 50th case threshold. I've been told that I think today you filed your 54th.
54th today. And what is that case about? That's about the Trump administration's in position of an
improper condition on funding to states that requires those states to certify essentially the erasure
of the existence of transgender, gender non-conforming, non-binary, non-binary,
Americans and to adopt a view of the law that is not the actual law. It's just this administration's
improper, unlawful, frankly, inhumane, cruel and wrong interpretation of what the law should be
when it's not. And they're trying to impose conditions on us to shove a hateful agenda down
our throat and we won't stand for it. We won't allow it. So we sued in the District of Rhode Island
today multiple states based on that condition of funding saying that it's unlawful.
It violates the separation of powers because the Trump administration cannot rewrite Title IX
and also the Administrative Procedures Act as well. And it poses a condition that's arbitrary
and capricious and provides no rationale for why it's a different condition than the prior
interpretation of Title IX. So multiple causes of action, but essentially,
We are going after the Trump administration for unlawfully trying to attack transgender Americans.
And the timing is so perfect, given today's oral argument at the United States Supreme Court,
about Becky Pepper's attempt as a 15-year-old, started as an 11-year-old.
She's the only openly transgender high school student in West Virginia.
The entirety of the West Virginia legislative apparatus in governor and MAGA have all come after this poor girl.
And today,
argued by the American Civil Liberties Union,
who's now collaborating with us on Legal A-F,
you know,
they hit the headwinds of the right,
the ultra-right wing of the Supreme Court
who, you know, as soon as you hear Kavanaugh
crying again about coaching his daughter's
middle school basketball game,
like he did during the confirmation hearing,
you know, with those crocodile tears,
you know you're in trouble, you know?
And, you know, the facts,
they were trying to make it just about her,
And the facts are she took puberty blockers
and she never went through
adult, she never went through boy puberty ever.
She is a transgender girl.
All she wants to do is like throw the shot put.
I mean, and the other person that,
the other case, the Hickox case,
which as far as I'm concerned, mute
because she's no longer in college
and doesn't want to pursue the case any longer.
She didn't even make her NCAA team.
She made her club team.
I mean, the numbers here,
A.G. Bonta, for people to see what a wedge
issue and political pawn the Trump administration of MAGA have made of this this this
fragile group this disadvantaged group that has no political power has no protection I
mean other than what you do you know they don't have like large groups of voters or
people in Congress we have one openly transgender person in Congress and this and that
you know out of 500,000 NCCAA student athletes 10 are openly transgendered and yet you see
what, you know, it started with gays in the military and then gay marriage and then abortion.
And then when they, you know, they either vanquished all of those or couldn't, or the American
people said, no, we're gay marriage. No, we're okay with that. They were like, what can,
who can we pick on? Who can we exploit the political gain? Oh, the transgender population.
It's hard to see. And, you know, this, but what is inspiring to see is this young woman's courage
in the face of so much cruelty from adults who are playing politics and targeting her and going after
her.
And she just wants to be a member of the team and do the thing that she loves and be an athlete.
And the lack of humanity and the cruelty in it.
And, you know, as you mentioned, the numbers, I think it's 1% of all student athletes
across the country are transgender or less.
But they try to use it as a wedge issue to attack and turn it into a political.
weapon. But I think these people need to check their humanity. And
check it or find it? They have to find it. They checked it at the door. They need to do
some difficult searching to find it and bring it back. Kavanaugh kept talking about what, oh,
the poor girl at birth who won't be able to be on the team because she's going to get kicked
I'm like, what about the transgender middle school student that wants to participate in sport?
There's not enough transgender people to have it like a transgender league.
Right.
I mean, so they're just denied all of the benefits, sociological and psychological benefits, emotional benefits of being in a team sport or on a sport.
Because Kavanaugh creates a hypothetical about somebody who's been bounced from a team because, you know, some.
You know, they always have the imagery, you know, the Iranian boxer or the, you know, some
ridiculous picture that goes up on the internet.
And they never focus on the 11-year-old who just wants to like run cross-country.
Be part of the team.
Part of the team.
Learn how to win, learn how to lose, learn how to, you know, reach a goal and work towards
it with friends and teammates.
I mean, I do team sports my whole life.
My daughter is a professional athlete.
She played professional soccer.
My daughter-in-law is a professional soccer player.
And what you learn in sports and, you know, most people will never be professionals.
And most of the lessons that you learn are just through participation.
You know, working with your fellow students, your classmates, your teammates,
and learning how to support them and help them when they're down and boost them when they're up
and overcome adversity.
And, you know, they're just really going out of their way with their cruelty to target children.
It's disgusting and gross to see adults do that and try to rationalize it.
you know, from the bench or from, you know, the governor's office or the legislature,
whatever it is. It's hard to see. So it just makes me stronger and makes me more committed,
more resolute, more immovable in my commitment to protect the law and protect those who are
victims of abuse. Sure, we can't get you to be governor.
You have this cycle. We'll see what the future holds. I would be honored to serve as four more
years as AG and do my best for the people here and across the country.
Many of the cases I've learned from you and the other attorneys general are where you've been successful in making sure that funding, a lot of dollars at stake in a lot of your cases, funding that would have been, the fuel supply of funding that would have been cut off between the federal government through Donald Trump and the states and state programs that matter.
And many of it, even though you're arguing on behalf of the blue states and you have no red state colleagues next to you shoulder to shoulder, ultimately.
benefit them as well. You just got a temporary restraining order in New York about a child welfare.
Why don't you talk to our audience a little bit about that case?
Yeah, a great case in terms of the success, terrible case, in terms of what the Trump administration was trying to do.
You know, starting the new year the way they ended it with lawlessness and cruelty going after our most vulnerable
Californians trying to withhold $10 billion of funding from five states.
guess who they are. They're all blue states in New York, Illinois, California, Minnesota, and
Colorado, all of whom Trump has a beef and is disappointed that they didn't vote for him. And so
he tried to withhold critical safety net funding, funding for child care, funding for social
services, funding for job training and employment, housing, food, emergency relief from children,
from families, from seniors, from the disabled who need it based on an unsubstantiated,
empty, baseless allegation of fraud.
And at the same time, asking for documents from each of these states to see if there,
I presumably see if there is any fraud.
So they have the conclusion first that there's fraud, and they've taken the action
to block all the funding $10 billion worth and to hurt.
vulnerable Americans in the process.
And then they're going to start looking into whether or not there's any fraud,
which there is no sub allegation, proof, evidence, shred of evidence of any fraud.
They didn't even bother to suggest any.
They just put out the phrase, just like they use waste, fraud, and abuse,
and use that as their justification to do anything they want without any facts to back it.
So we moved for a temporary restraining order.
and the next day we got one.
And the court gave us complete temporary relief for two weeks
while the preliminary injunction is being considered
where the funding must flow
and the request, a very unreasonable request for documents
and interviews, all which realistically really couldn't be completed
within the time frame, nor should we have to go through it.
That was blocked as well.
So complete early victory in the case, as you know,
A temporary restraining order requires the determination of likelihood of success on the merits
and irreparable harm.
And so we feel we're in a good place as this case begins with this early win and hopefully with more to come.
And that one just inside baseball thing, you got kind of an emergency duty judge to enter that
temporary restraining order.
That's how strong the papers were.
But it then gets transferred over, I think, to Judge Broderick or another full-time
judge to handle the case. Is that right? I think that's right. Yeah. And and and um there's even been cases where for the,
to give our audience hope, where the Trump administration has folded, where they just, you know,
where they've just withdrawn appeals, um, and walked away from the fight over the money. You want to,
why don't you give an example of that that happened recently with one of your suits? Yeah. You know, we,
we will take a win in any form. Uh, it could be, uh, it could be, uh,
a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction,
more and more permanent injunctions after trials
or after summary judgment motions
that consider all the facts.
And then sometimes we get the confirmation
or the affirmation at the appellate level
and then even the Supreme Court.
And sometimes the Trump administration just backs down.
They raise the white flag, they throw in the towel
and they say, you got us, you win, we lose, we give up.
And that happened today on an appeal on funding
that the Trump administration tried to withhold,
Department of Transportation funding
that keeps planes in the air and cars on the road.
We had one in the trial court below
based on this being an improper attempt to coerce
California's policy when it comes to
what the Trump administration calls sanctuary jurisdictions.
And we call them pro-public safety
and pro-community trust jurisdictions.
And we got a court order below.
They appealed, and then they indicated today that they're going to dismiss their appeal.
They're given up.
They're not going to continue to push here.
They lost.
So we'll get that funding, just as we got Department of Homeland Security funding,
that was also being leveraged by the Trump administration based on what they call our sanctuary status.
And just as we got Victims of Crime Act, VOCA funding, twice that the Trump administration tried to withdraw
hold. They gave up on that as well. That was another example that victims of crime act funding where
they raised the white flag and threw in the towel and gave up. So we'll take the W anyway. We get it,
not because it's a W, but because it means we get the funding and the people, the victims of crime,
the passengers on the road or in the air, the folks that could be victims of cybersecurity or terrorism
are benefiting and that's what we want and that's what we want to deliver. That's what we got here.
And most of your cases, I mean, you're only a year in because we're only a year in,
because we're only a year into the administration, which is not a long period of time for a
life cycle of a case.
But you've got permanent wins in like, I don't even know what the 25 out of the 54, something
like that.
You already have in the bank permanently not to be challenged ever again as you continue along
in, let's say, the other 20 or 30 cases who need to be progressed further, some of which
has been filed in the last month or two.
So an extraordinary winning a track record on behalf of the people of California.
and throughout the country.
And for those that are joining sort of in progress,
I think it's important for them to know how closely the Democratic
Attorneys General work together.
It's not just you alone.
That's why there's so many attorneys general joining together
and states joining together in these cases.
Talk just briefly about, without giving away the trade secrets,
briefly about how the coordination among all of you happen, both because of personal relationships
that have been developed and your stabs about opposing the Trump administration where it's
necessary.
Yeah.
The 23 Democratic Attorney General are working every day together on half of the people of our
prospective states, collectively the people of our nation, to hold the Trump administration
accountable.
So we're always sharing information, sharing intel, sharing legal insight, strategy, thoughts on suits to bring.
One example is California was the first state where the National Guard was unlawfully deployed.
And we met the Trump administration in court.
And then the same thing happened in D.C., then in Illinois, then in Oregon.
And we shared our information with all those states.
We talked about, you know, we shared our briefs and we shared our thoughts.
and we shared our strategy and we shared what the federal government would argue.
And I think that helped those other states.
And we have been communicating and working together and planning and preparing and strategizing
since before the election of President Trump.
And then after his election and before his inauguration,
and then every day since his inauguration at the staff level and at the Attorney General level,
being in close contact, we feel that we are able to deliver more
as a whole than we then then then a sum of our parts and that we have created something special we like
each other Michael we like your fellow AGs it's you know we enjoy each other's company and you know sometimes
when the stakes are really high you got to have got to have some humor and some humanity as well and we
we have all that we have rapport with one another with deep respect for one another and we feel that we're
all part of a team fighting on behalf of the people of our state protecting democracy
the rule of law, rights and freedoms in some really important battles with a lot on the line.
And that makes our audience feel a lot better knowing that there's that union, that collegiality,
that you're all vibrating on the same frequency to protect their rights.
You're running collectively the largest law firm, you know, dedicated to public interest
in the country.
And you're up against a depleted, woefully understaffed,
Department of Justice, which is getting smaller and shrinking by the hour.
Not complaining about that.
Right.
We'll take it.
You'll take it.
And we're so pleased to have you here.
Attorney General Rob Banta for the state of California running for re-election at the midterms.
And I'm glad he's not going anywhere.
I'm sure our audience is thrilled to have you here.
And thank you for being here.
And please come back and update us on the 55th case forward.
against the Trump. We'll do. Hope to come back soon. Appreciate you so much, Michael.
You too. I do.
All your audience. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Attorney General Banta.
And we are back. And thank you all for being here.
Let me segue into the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell,
lawsuit. No. Prosecution. That's the wrong word. And how it's already backfired in less
and 24 hours against Donald Trump.
He had this in his hand.
This shows you the mental collapse of Donald Trump that continues, you know,
where he's busy, you know, somebody hands him a secret memo or note like Marco
Rubio in a meeting with the oil executives.
Oh, hold on, Marco just sent me something.
Hold on.
They want to talk about Chevron.
I have no idea what that means.
You know, this is what we're watching.
And when you're watching that in action, Donald Trump had this in his hand.
Jay Powell was going to step down in May of this year,
because that was what his term as chairperson was over.
He may have even stepped down to leave the Board of Governors.
His term for the entire Board of Governors runs until 2028,
and he had a process, Trump, to pick somebody else.
I don't like the process,
including going to private equity and hedge funds in New York,
trying to find people who are woefully unqualified to be macroeconomists to run the Federal Reserve
and have never been a central banker before or anywhere on the Central Bank.
Why don't you take one of the presidents of one of the regional federal reserves?
Why are you reaching into some small shop in New York to run, pardon me, everybody, to run the Federal Reserve?
But he had a process and he was going to appoint somebody and nominate them in the next week or two.
No, he had to do a final trolling of Jay Powell to get him back, obviously,
for him being embarrassed in public at the construction site.
When he went down there with Tim Scott, we've all seen the video,
I don't need to play it again.
Donald Trump has Tim Scott hand him another piece of paper.
Donald Trump loves being handed pieces of paper and showing them off.
New York Times interview.
It's like, a Colombian president's on the phone.
You can stay.
You know, he's so fucking nuts.
Belongs in a home.
not the White House.
So, you know, Tim Scott hands it to us as well, you know, Jay, you're over, you're over by
$2 billion.
Sorry?
Yeah, these are your own, just from the Federal Reserve.
I'm sorry, Mr. President, I'm not aware of that.
That number doesn't seem right.
Yeah, well, it's right here.
It's one of your own pieces of paper.
And Jay Powell takes it and puts on his readers and his cheaters and he's got his hard hat on.
Neither of these two guys should be wearing hard hats, if you know what I mean.
And he looks out and he goes, this this involves an entirely different project from five years ago.
You've added on an entirely different project because they're renovating a hundred-year-old building, 200-year-old buildings.
I'm talking about that have not been renovated since the 1930s, a little bit less than 100 years.
That means heating, air conditioning, electrical, lead contamination, as best as contamination.
You know, this is a sick building that people are working in.
and he is taking it on post-COVID when construction prices have gone through the roof through logistics
and after and during the trump tariff era so of course it's gone over budget seven hundred million dollars
Donald trump's ballroom doubled in price on the on the wreckage of the east wing
is it criminal and because but he didn't like the fact that he added in the other building
next door that was done five years ago for the total the total budget
budget. So he announces, they let it leak that the DC office of the prosecutor, you know,
Janine Piro, has a grand jury issuing subpoenas to the Federal Reserve about the construction,
the construction cost overruns, and whether Jay Powell lied under oath, and now we're back
to the same thing. They went after James Comey for what we call a 1002 charge for lying under oath to
Congress in response to questions from like Tim Scott again and other people about the cost of the
development of the renovation. So Donald Trump's like, well, let's just, you know, and then he's got
his resident scent hound pit bull, Bill Pulte, the Nepo baby from the Pulte construction fortune in
the South, who runs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who goes after all Donald Trump's political
enemies with mortgage fraud allegations to claim that there's some sort of fraud here.
part of that conspiracy.
So they do it.
But what they didn't expect,
and they thought that, well,
Jay's a very modest person, true.
He's a very soft-spoken person, true.
But you don't want to get his dander
or his Irish up, as people like to say.
And this very modest person did a very
un-J Powell thing the night when this all leaked two days ago.
And they, in the Trump administration,
miscalculated about the steely resolve of the Federal Reserve chairman,
picked by Donald Trump,
who has been keeping our economy and navigating our economy
through troubled waters created by Donald Trump for this year and, you know,
since 2017.
And they didn't think he would fire back and call out Donald Trump
and speak to the financial markets and calm them at the same time
and bring to his side with a rallying.
cry, not only the central bankers around the world, more than 20 of them, joining together in a way
they've never done before to support the integrity of the Federal Reserve, not only because they
like J. Powell, but because they need the United States as the standard bearer for the world's
economies to not be undermined by Donald Trump. They don't want the U.S. dollar undermine.
They don't want the treasuries and the price of treasury bills and notes to be undermined as the U.S. debt is the largest in the world.
And so they need to keep him in his seat.
And shout out to the Maple Midas.
Shout out to Canada.
As Canada, oft maligned, disrespected, degraded by Donald Trump's attacks, you know, disrespecting their investments in America.
their investments in tourism, in capital, in real estate, in the trade that keeps our economy
humming in rare earth minerals and natural resources and electricity and the rest.
Leave it to Canada and the Canada's central bank to step forward and support J-Powell.
That's not all that supported J-Pow.
The Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, including outgoing but not outgoing fast enough,
Senator Tillis is supporting Jay Powell.
And I'll tell you what that means in terms of any opening like the chairmanship on the Federal Reserve.
But I want you to see Jay Powell in action.
Let me just play the part of his video where he says what this is really about.
Let's play the clip.
The renovation project.
Those are pretexts.
The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on
our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the
President. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on
evidence and economic conditions, or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political
pressure or intimidation. I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations,
Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political
fear or favor focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment.
Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats.
I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do with integrity and a commitment
to serving the American people. Thank you.
And let me look at the guy. He's wearing like a top suit, a tan suit and a maroon tie.
It's a guy that you should pass them on the street.
you wouldn't look twice. He runs as the central banker, the world's largest and most important
economy. He does it well. It doesn't need this shit, but takes public service seriously.
And he's going to stay in his job. And he's not going to leave early. As you can tell,
not with this shade having been put on him. And now the Senate Republicans that matter here
are fighting back. And it's not just Murkowski and Collins.
And, but it's others. It's Crapo in Idaho. It's, uh, TILUS on the banking committee. Now,
the banking committee in the Senate oversees the Federal Reserve. It's the committee that confirm,
that, uh, with the advice and consent, that confirms or has to confirm a nominee. Okay. It's made up of
13 Republicans now and 11 Democrats. If you get one to switch and Tillis has already said, he will
not vote to confirm anyone that Donald Trump puts up for the Federal Reserve, including the
chairmanship position, until they end the investigation of J. Powell, plain and simple.
And if he moves from 13 to 12 each, we've got an impasse. Somebody asked in the chat tonight,
what happens then? What happens is Jay Powell stays in his chairperson? Because Donald Trump
can't get another one confirmed. He'll just extend his time. And it'll be the de facto chairperson.
Now, so all Donald Trump had to do was shut his you know what mouth, which he's incapable of doing
and just let his hand play out.
And he would have gotten exactly what he wanted.
And ultimately, he may have even gotten that fourth seat of the seven on the Federal Reserve
Board of Governors in order to take control ultimately of the Open Markets Committee and the
interest rate setting mechanism of the Federal Reserve.
Because the Federal Reserve only has one blunt force instrument at its disposal.
Really, that's it.
Interest rate setting.
That's it.
And through that one dial, that one switch, it tries to create maximum job jobs,
you know, low unemployment and low inflation and tries to balance those two things with interest rates.
So what Donald Trump miscalculated is how many of Senate Republicans and House Republicans
would peel away from him over and choose Jay Powell's side.
And they have because Donald Trump's time is running out here and it's running short.
And if the Epstein scandal taught us anything, it's that some MAGA have realized that
their political fortunes in time horizon is longer than Donald Trump's. And they better start
making some changes. I want to move on lastly and talk about the Mark Kelly lawsuit. So Mark
Kelly is been a senator for the last four or five years. I'd served this country honorably
25 years in the military rise into the level of captain.
39 missions, I think, in battle.
As a naval aviator, he has every cluster and ribbon and metal that you can think of for that position.
He was a shuttle commander, I think, four times and the last flying of the endeavor.
His wife, Gabby Gifford, who many people think should be in the Senate herself,
running for that position or for re-election
was shot in the head during a campaign 20 or more years ago
and left brain damage.
Still a lot, still vibrant, still fighting for gun control.
But this is the family.
His brother is also an astronaut, naval aviator,
and the whole thing.
Pete Higg-Seth, after the video went out,
in which about 20 different members of Congress
who were also in the military, veterans,
and or in the intelligence community,
they made a video reminding members, service people,
that they have a constitutional oath to defend the Constitution
and not to follow illegal orders and not to give up the ship.
Why?
Because we have an erratic, crazy president who's given out all sorts of crazy orders
through Pete Higseth, you know, who used to be before he became the Secretary of Defense,
was on the junior varsity of,
Fox and Friends. He wasn't even on the, he wasn't even on the week, the weekday edition. He was on
the weekend edition and did the ball drop during the New Year's. And now he's your secretary of war.
And they didn't like the fact that Senator Kelly participated in that statement about
you, under the Nuremberg principles, you can't just follow orders that are illegal.
We saw that with the Nazis, right?
And so Pete Higsef and Trump almost simultaneously,
like in a call and response on social media,
Trump went so far as to say that Mark Kelly should be hanged,
hanged.
George Washington would hang him.
And that Pete Hegseth suggested in a, no,
said it in a censure letter to Mark Kelly,
that he has potentially committed war crimes
by making this video or participating in this video.
Mark Kelly is fired back with his own federal lawsuit
to stop the censure,
to stop any criminal charges,
and to explain to the American people
that his legislative authority
and powers First Amendment rights
and rights under the speech and debate privilege
are being compromised
on purpose by Donald Trump,
because Mark Kelly helps provide oversight to Donald Trump and his rogue and lawless administration,
to the various committees that he's on, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee.
These are all committees that are looking at the National Guard being illegally deployed,
the takeover of the Venezuelan oil fields by Donald Trump, the threats and saber rattling on places like Cuba and Greenland.
This is all part of the oversight of our checks and balance.
It is, in 250 years, we've never had a president go after a member of Congress, a senator,
and try to chill his First Amendment speech, his legislative privilege and powers of oversight.
And he wants a federal judge to declare that.
And I think he's right.
And here's a clip from Senator Kelly talking about his lawsuit.
you have now turned Pete Hegseth into a defendant where through this process, he's going to have to defend what he has done so far.
And in my reading of the law, as your lawyer stated in this complaint, he has violated the law that he claims his action is based on.
Well, Lawrence, thank you for having me on.
I want to commend you for the great summary of the lawsuit.
And I also want to say, hey, I told these guys, I told Donald Trump and I told Pete Heggseth that I'm not back and down.
I'm not going away. This is much bigger than me. I flew dozens of combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait, got shot at, nearly shot down multiple times.
I flew in space on the space shuttle four times. I've served this country for 25 years.
I did not expect that after all of that service and then continuing my service in the United States Senate,
that I would one day have to sue the Secretary of Defense for violating my constitutional rights,
my rights of freedom of speech, but also due process and separation of powers rights.
But, you know, this is much bigger than me.
What I really worry about are the other veterans out there.
you know, that don't have a platform like I do, don't have the right to speak on the Senate floor.
Where are they going to be with this administration if they decide to speak out?
So, you know, that's really the reason for my action today.
I had to file this lawsuit because I need to be standing up for all Americans, not just myself.
And we're glad that he's doing that.
Any one of these cases that I've talked about tonight would have been enough for an entire,
episode. But I just give an example, like today in doing my programming for the legal AF YouTube
channel and for Midas, I did a collective nine videos about independent stories that have happened
in the last 24 hours. In addition to that, I worked in the last 24 hours an interview of
Senator Warner about what he's doing from the Senate side and on the intelligence community as
part of the gang of eight that's supposed to be consulted by the Trump administration about all
things foreign and global. And an interview today with Richie Torres, the representative from
New York, about some new legislation that he's proposing. Now, my point is there's a lot of
information that is out there. You see how the Trump administration left to their own devices,
their natural instinct, is to lie to the American people, even about video facts that you and I
and the rest of our audience can see with our own eyes.
And they tell us that what we see is not true.
And here is the new narrative we want you to adopt
in order to hold on and to understand what's going on
and to be able to debate with your friends and your family
and your loved ones and steal yourself for the election.
You have to be, I think, on channels like Midas Touch,
on legal AF YouTube channel,
watching our content here on the legal AF substack and becoming members there.
Because there's just, even for me, and I'm a professional, not only my professional lawyer
for 35 years, but I'm a professional political and legal commentator.
I've been, you know, doing this for a long time before your very eyes with Midas and Legal
AF.
And it's hard for me to catch up, which is why we have, of course, other commentators and other
and other people in playlists that help us capture it all.
But in any given day, today alone,
I'm just talking today.
There were no less than seven different court filings
that I thought mattered.
Some didn't make the cut because, you know, I got to,
otherwise the show would be two or three hours long.
If you want the show to be two or three hours long,
put it in comments and I'll talk to my producers.
But seven filings and then all the other things that aren't filing.
you know, like the developments in cases or Department of Justice senior leadership standing up finally to the Trump administration
about under the banner of honoring the memory of Renee Good, who got up in the morning on January 7th and never came home
because she was a First Amendment protester about and a patriot and was shot and killed by federal 14th.
that are allied with Donald Trump.
And they're Americans too, by the way.
I'm not saying everybody in ICE and Border Patrol
and law enforcement is bad, quite the opposite.
But you've got to start thinking about the administration
that you're working for, the boss you're working for
like Christy Nome and Pam Bondi and Donald Trump
and the others.
And you have to look yourself in the mirror every day.
Now, I know it's tough because you have your own families
and you have your own career goals
and you have your own pensions to think about.
But sometimes, you know,
I've taken enough career leaps in my own life
where I wasn't sure there was, you know, a lily pad
after I took the leap because I wanted to accomplish something,
such as this when I made the decision about a year ago
to leave the full-time practice of law.
I still do a practice.
We've got the Popak firm.
We do a lot of work.
for people around the country and personal injury and the like,
but kind of the day-to-day running my cases the way I had in the past
to devote myself full-time to this.
And you see why.
It just, I mean, it would be professional malpractice for me
not to be prepared for the show,
not to do the videos that we do.
Because I feel this is the moment
where only working together,
only working together as citizens, as people around the world
and in the United States, can we together bend the arc of history towards justice?
And we've got to do that working together.
And I'm glad you're here on the intersection.
Thank you for being such fervent supporters of us.
We'll see you next Tuesday.
In the meantime, also remember Wednesdays and Saturdays are the Legal AF podcast.
And then, of course, we've got all of our great work over on the LegalAF YouTube channel.
So until my next report, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.
Can't get your fill of legal a.F. Me neither. That's why we formed the legal A.F. Substack. Every time we
mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the
substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do
call, wait for it, morning A.F. What else? All the other contributors from legal A.F are there as well.
We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes
where legal a. F on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
