Legal AF by MeidasTouch - The Intersection with Michael Popok - 8/5/2025

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Tonight on the Intersection podcast, Popok brings you the up to the minute reporting and commentary on: 1) major developments in the Epstein sex trafficking scandal and coverup and Trump's role in it, including the release of new audio and video tapes; 2) Trump  making gurgling sounds as he considers dismissing  the phony defamation case against the Wall Street Journal and Rupert Murdoch; 3) the fact that Trump can't "fire" every leading economic indicator all pointing down and in the wrong direction about his failed Trump-economics; 4) Trump getting caught trying to implement his plan to steal the midterm election and beyond, and so much more at The Intersection. Support Our Sponsors: Superpower: Go to https://Superpower.com and use code LEGALAF to get $50 Off your annual Superpower subscription. Live up to your 100-Year potential. #superpowerpod Tushy: Over 2 million butts love TUSHY. Get 10% off Tushy with the code LEGALAF at https://hellotushy.com/LEGALAF! #tushypod Check out The Popok Firm at: https://thepopokfirm.com Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Legal AF Substack: https://substack.com/@legalaf 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

Searchlight Pictures presents The Roses, only in theaters August 29th. From the director of Meet the Parents and the writer of Poor Things comes The Roses, starring Academy Award winner Olivia Coleman, Academy Award nominee Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Samburg, Kate McKinnon, and Allison Janney, a hilarious new comedy, filled with drama, excitement, and a little bit of hatred, proving that marriage isn't always a bed of roses. See The Roses, only in theaters, August 29th. Get tickets now. Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking?

By matching with the TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you open select Small Business Banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit TD.com slash Small Business Match to learn more. Conditions apply. Grab a coffee and discover Vegas-level excitement with Bed-MGM Casino. Now introducing our hottest exclusive, Friends, The One with Multi-Drop. Your favorite television show is being reimagined in your new favorite casino game, featuring iconic images from the show.

Spin our new exclusive, because we are not on a break. Play Friends, The One with Multidrop exclusively at BetMGM Casino. Want even more options? Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games from Blackjack, to poker or head over to the arcade for nostalgic casino thrills. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. 19 plus to wager.

Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2-600-0 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Welcome to the intersection. I'm Michael Popak, and I sit at that intersection to defend democracy, but I do it with you and for you. I'm so glad you're here on the Midas Touch Network. As many people know, I'm traveling. I'm in Chicago today as part of the Popak firm. I'm meeting with all of the lawyers who work with me on these plaintiff's cases around the country. It was time for us to come together in one place, and we chose Chicago. But I couldn't miss the intersection. Let's get to it. If so much to talk. about. Galane Maxwell, brand new reporting, new receipts. Trump folds against the Wall Street Journal. The economy is in free fall and is stalling out. And then I want to talk about voting

and why it matters and what courts are doing about election integrity and voter protection. Let's start right away, get into it with Galane Maxwell. We've got some number of things that are data points. But I'm going to tie them all together right here. I think that's why you join me. We're watching the slow motion pardon of Galane Maxwell. We're watching somebody, Donald Trump, who is so depraved and is so immoral that he needs to get an absolution, and he needs to get character vouching and a character reference from a convicted child sex offender.

Let that sink in for a minute. How low have you sunk when you need a sex offender? who's serving 20 years in prison for not just watching, but arranging sex abuse, participating in sexual abuse and assaults of girls and women. How low have you sunk that you need her to vouch for you? Because that's what we're watching. Here's the new data point. A couple of them.

One, remember that? Nine-hour interview, the Todd Blanche, Donald Trump's favorite criminal defense lawyer, who sometimes is our Department of Justice number two, nine hours he spent with a convicted child sex offender. Never in the history of the Department of Justice. And I say that a lot about this Department of Justice. Never have we ever had leadership go to a prison in order to interview a convicted sex offender. Apparently that was recorded, audio and video, as I expected.

And now, because they like the results, which is going to be some version of her saying, let me, spoiler alert, Donald Trump wasn't on the plane to the island, Donald Trump didn't go to the island. Donald Trump didn't like little girls. Donald Trump didn't have sex or rape girls. You know, he wasn't that close of a friend and the rest. And then the rest of it, her exonerating herself and dumping on 100 other people not named Donald Trump. That's what's on the tape. I suspect that it was on the tape because before Todd Blanche even goes to Tallahassee, Florida, where she was at the time, but is no longer, and meets with David Oscar Marcus, his buddy, his friend, her lawyer brought in by Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law Professor accused himself in the sex

trafficking at one time, and represented Epstein. So you can't trust him or anything he says on television. He obviously brings in David Oscar Marcus, who he knew from Harvard, their close friends. David Oscar Marcus is friends with Todd Blanche. There's a phone call. I've made them before. You make a proffer as the lawyer. This is what my client's going to say if you agree to meet with her and you give her immunity and you give the proffer as the lawyer no fifth amendment she's going to say todd that your guy was innocent your guy wasn't involved or your guy didn't like this and you and whatever Todd said that sounds good to me I will give your client immunity the big client the big boss told me I could give immunity stop right

there Donald Trump and a judge sex offender just gave immunity queen for the day immunity that's what called to a convicted child sex trafficker. Okay. Now, fast forward. So there was a long call, I'm sure, between David. I'd like the tape of that. Forget the audio of the interview. I'd like the audio of the David Oscar Marcus, Todd Blanche call.

That's what we want to get our hands on. And then he goes up there nine hours and he says like Cheshire Cat Smile, like the Mona Lisa. I don't know. They'll be released in due time, the notes or the results. And now I see they're considering releasing the video and the audio. If they're, if they're considering doing that, let me fast forward. Cut to the chase, as they say.

It's because she did a character vouch for Donald Trump. Otherwise, they wouldn't possibly. Because you know what would happen if she said, well, you know, there were times when there were closed doors and I don't know what was going on back there. There were a lot of girls floating around, you know. She said something like that. It would be like, well, to protect the victims, to protect the innocent. You know, she's got a case up on appeal.

We can't release it. But in fact that they're even considering releasing it, let's call it for what it is. Slow motion pardoned of Galane Maxwell, who's not a victim. So we got that announced. As the GOP MAGA are lobbying Donald Trump to not pardon Galane Maxwell.

Think about that. As decrepit and depraved and valueless as the MAGA Republicans are under Donald Trump. They are lobbying him not to do it because they don't, not because they care about him or the victims, thousands of them. They're worried about their own political hides. It would be terrible because every Democratic candidate in every district for Congress is going to pin that on the Republicans. What kind of party are you? How low have you sunk that your sex abuser president needs a child sex trafficker?

to admonish, to, uh, to absolve him. It'll never work. Donald Trump likes to surround himself with sexual, with sex traffickers and convicted, uh, child sex felons and people who are indicted for that. Why is Lawrence Taylor for the New York Giants up on the stage last week with Donald Trump about fitness for youth? You want Lawrence Taylor convicted, I think twice, not once, of sexually assaulting a girl? You want him up on a stage with, uh, with, with, uh, with, with,

children talking about children or talking to children he even said it one bud i don't even know why i'm here but i'll serve you don't know i was also considering pardoning did he why another buddy i know there's photos another buddy of this you know he's got a thing for child sex traffickers that just it just is so while that's going on right on cue and it's a setup Congress and the Oversight Committee, James Comer, he's now subpoenaing the Epstein files. Not the grand jury records, which will go over in a minute, because that's the third piece of data that came out today. Not that.

He wants the entirety of the Epstein files, which we know is about 35 to 40 gigabytes. Picture a couple of tractor trailers filled with information that the FBI poured over at Pam Bondi's behest. That contains the name of Donald Trump, and many of it was redacted. That's what they've requested or demanded by subpoena. But at the same time, because they've got to keep the distraction pressure up, they also want Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton and James Comey and Robert Mueller and this federal prosecutor and the Attorney General Merrick Garland.

It's ridiculous. Hoping, all they're doing is trying to invite a negotiation and a bargain and a compromise with the Democrats over, well, if you don't want Bill and Hillary, you know, then give up on. the Epstein files. That's what they're trying to set up, this false equivalency. You know, it's like they're holding it hostage. We're going to shoot Bill and Hillary, unless you give us the Epstein files, you give up on the Epstein files. That's all that's going on here. And of course, they gave Galane Maxwell a break right on cue within days of her being relocated to posh new luxury

prison accommodations. The James Comber suddenly backed off and said, well, we don't need to take her deposition before Congress right now. We can wait until the Supreme Court rules on her case. Rules on her case about what? Her case is not about the victims, evidence, that she was wrongly convicted. Her case at the Supreme Court, her appeal is about whether she gets to benefit of an immunity agreement that was signed by Jeffrey Epstein negotiated by Alan Dershowitz 15 years ago, which she's not named in. She wasn't a party to, and she didn't sign. That's the case. It's not that she's not a convict. She doesn't think that she's innocent. and she just thinks she has immunity.

So why do we have to hold back on all of this testimony stuff? But that was at the behest of the White House. The White House is trying to figure out a way to take oxygen out of this story, although they keep blowing oxygen through bellows into the fire and it blows up on them.

Then you have this reporting in Donald Trump, nor he talks, of course, the deeper holy digs, about right after, within days of her giving the testimony that's now going to be released to the public. Get it? Galeigh Maxwell receives part of her payment.

I mean, the big payment is the pardon. But she got a partial down payment on her pardon. She got moved from a minimum security prison to a low security camp. She gets to go to camp for the summer in Texas, along with a bunch of other C and D and E and G and Z-rated and Z-listed minor celebrities who were over there like some.

you know the shaws of salt lake city real wives and so is in there for fraud and Elizabeth Holmes is in there for fraud and now they're moving her in it's a camp there's like no cells you live in a dormitory you live in a bunk you know there's like a low wall you can easily hop over and leave that was a reward they asked Donald Trump today did you know she was transferred of course he approved the transfer And he said, no, but it's not unusual. It is, that's a lie. It's very, it's not only unusual. It's against Bureau of Prisons policies.

I defy anyone from the Bureau of Prisons, come on my show, and tell me another circumstance where a convicted sex offender was given a reward and upgraded to posh new prison assignment. New prison relocation. And that will take long for you to come on the show because the answer is zero. the answer is that's never happened that's how uncommon it is why would you be rewarded and let's again stamp out once and for all in your conversation with people in your live and social media that galane maxwell is a predator uh we just got a new filing from david oscar marcus the appeal lawyer because judge engelmeyer in new york one of two judges handling the

remaining are we going to release the the grand jury transcripts are not issue and i don't think they are. He wanted to hear from the victims, and he wanted to hear from Galane Maxwell. Victims were like, release the files. You know, I know some lawyers that represent some of the victims. Release the files, but he wanted to hear what Galane Maxwell had to say. Galea Maxwell said, oh, no, don't release the files. Oh, no. The first line in the brief filed by David Oscar Marcus was my favorite line. Jeffrey Epstein's dead. Galeen Maxwell isn't. and she's a scapegoat and she's the fall guy because she's the only living participant in the conspiracy that's why she's a fall guy no she got convicted david sorry because she committed crimes

crimes against humanity crimes against girls that's why she was convicted so i don't want to hear any other attempt if the next thing out of anybody's mouth on the magas side that comes out of their pie hole out of their face, if I hear them try to make her to be some sort of victim to soften up the public for the pardon, I'm going to vomit. Maybe not on air. Maybe on the live on substack. Come over to legal a. Fubstack. Who knows? Maybe I will do that. So his new filing is don't release it. Of course they, Epstein's, sorry, Galane Maxwell's lawyers and Galane don't want that released. she's trying to curry favor with the with the with the public she's trying her case in the public she wants people to think oh galane maxwell poor little rich girl fell in with epstein for 15 years

while he abused girls that she participated in that she hunted for him oh yeah she doesn't want anything as david moscis is so delicately crafty a counter story in the public's mind that she's the victim and that she should be released, which is what he said exactly in, and she's been the scapegoat and the fall guy, the fall woman. He doesn't want real evidence to come out that would puncture a hole in that. He needs that mythology to survive long enough for Donald Trump to grace them with a pardon. If the evidence came out of the only, it was only, by the way, there was only two witnesses in the, in the Galane Maxwell, well, a grand jury, two.

An FBI agent and a New York City detective member of the Sex Crimes Tax Force. That they did a summary, it's called a summary witness. They did a summary of the evidence and, you know, put on a lot of bad evidence about a thousand victims. She doesn't want that out right now, right? She's trying to tiptoe through, you know, what's the phrase? She's trying to run through the raindrops and not get wet. She's trying to run through a minefield, not blow off her legs.

And the victims are livid. that she's being given this type of accommodation, this type of celebrity is being she's being bashed in the glow of celebrity, courtesy of Donald Trump, who won't reject giving her a pardon. Because he's going to give her a pardon. Have I said that before? And that's why the GOP MAGA are like, don't give her the pardon. That's radioactive.

That makes you politically radioactive in us too. So that's where we are. with all things, Epstein, right? I want to talk about for just a second, a few things that are important in my life and on the intersection and things around Legal AF. Hopefully, you know, I hope there's new audience members that don't know me from the Legal AF world,

but of course I'm the co-founder of Legal AF, the podcast that I do with Ben Mysela and Karen Freeman McNifalo, top 20 on all YouTube podcasts. That's all because of you. We appreciate that. audio downloads do that too we need that help as well legally after substack we need more more support there i'm only asking for it because it's it's just necessary to kind of keep us on the line in the air on the air put a ring fence around us protect us uh i won't go over the attacks that we get but

it would be helpful if we could get some more subscribers there i have a new firm it's a year old now eight months old that i formed called the popock firm sort of standing on the shoulders of legal a and Midas Touch and the work that we've done there to support our audience, Legal AF and Midas Touch and Intersection audience. So if you have somebody in your life that has been the victim of a catastrophe, a truck accident case, a car accident case, a serious ride share, Uber, Lyft accident case, something that's been catastrophic with the major personal injury where God forbid death, medical malpractice cases, civil rights cases, of course, as well.

If you have something like that, I've put together an amazing team around the country. I just met with them today in Chicago. And they're called Big Auto, but don't be fooled by Big Auto. They're not just a personal injury firm. They are the top plaintiff's lawyers in America. To get into the club, they've got to have collected at least $1 billion with a B on behalf of their clients. and service them right, and turn their cases around and try their cases, and they have to be fully vetted and tested. And that's why I joined with them, because you need the top lawyer who's in every

jurisdiction, who knows the judges, who knows those juries, who drinks that water, and more importantly, has the firepower and the expertise and the track record to beat big insurance companies that are trying to victimize the victims all over again. So go to the POPAC firm. It's easy to find, it's at www. The Popakfirm.com. Free case consultation form pops right up. You can read about our different practice areas.

Or call our 1-800 number, 1-877, Popak A-F. And now, in addition to that, let's have a word from our sponsors that keep us on the air. Here we go. If you've ever experienced discomfort from heat and sweat, especially during the summer months,

it's time to rethink how you care for your personal hygiene. I recently installed a Tushy Biday, and the difference has been remarkable. Installation was simple and took about 10 minutes. The Biday fits seamlessly into my bathroom, adding a modern touch. Using warm water to cleanse instead of toilet paper feels cleaner and gentler on the skin, much better for maintaining natural skin health. Tushy offers a variety of options, including models with heated seats,

UV sterilization, and even air dryers for hands-free cleaning. It reduces irritation and prevents. micro-tares that traditional toilet paper can cause while also cutting down on paper usage by up to 80%. Keep your swampiest body parts fresh and cool for a limited time our listeners get 10% off their first bidet order when you use code legal AF at checkout. That's 10% off your first bidet order at hello-tushy.com

with promo code legal A.F. You ever leave a doctor's office with nothing but a shrug and you're fine? That's been me more times than I care to admit, no data. No plan. Just maybe drink more water. But deep down, I knew something was missing. That's why I'm genuinely excited about superpower. They're flipping the entire healthcare model. No more guessing about your health. They send a licensed professional right to your home, or you can go to a local lab and run a massive panel. Over 100 biomarkers. I'm talking heart, liver, thyroid hormones, metabolism, vitamins, minerals, even environmental toxins. Superpower gives your real personal. personalize insights like which supplements you actually need, how much sleep is ideal for you, what your diet should prioritize. You even get your true biological age and track how it changes over time. This is the first time I felt like there's an actual roadmap to live longer and

better, not just treat problems once they show up. For a limited time, our listeners are getting $50 off an annual superpower membership by using code legal AF at checkout. Just head to superpower.com and use code legal a.F to get our exclusive discount. Your biology decoded, your blueprint, activated with superpower. Listen, after you purchase, they'll ask you where you're heard about them. Please support our show and tell them our show sent you. Welcome back to the intersection, the podcast with Michael Popock, finally convinced the brothers to give me my own show. And it's here Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. We have over 300,000. thousand people. I'm so glad you're here. The way to support us, of course, is audio downloads,

YouTube, review us, five-star rate me. Come on over to LegalAF, the substack, and LegalAF, the YouTube channel. I have 10 new videos a day up on LegalAF YouTube channel with about a dozen contributors adding new ones every day. I got a great announcement. Adam Classfield of all rise news is coming to legal A.F. starting this week. Adam Classfeld, All-Rise News, can't find a finer mind when it comes to legal reporting. He was on Morning Joe at one point, but now we got him. Looking for daily videos with a new playlist called All-Rise News. All right, let's get back to it.

Speaking of All-Rise, something that happened in the court today for Donald Trump, and it was another example of him folding under pressure. It's Taco Tuesday for Donald Trump in the Wall Street Journal Rupert Murdoch case. What happened? Well, let me do a little wind-up and then I'll do the pitch. The wind-up is Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago runs that front-page story. They got it dumped in their lap. I'm sure from some collaborator, some cooperating, some leaker gave them a copy of the leather-bound scrapbook

containing a birthday card pasted in it for Jeffrey Epstein by one Donald Trump. Who is the person that put together the scrapbooky thing? Galane Maxwell. Of course, Donald Trump's BFF. One of his BFFs, lots of, I mean, I'd have to do a show that went on for hours to show all the photos and videos of Galane Maxwell, Donald Trump, Malania, Epstein, Donald Trump, fill in the blank. So I'm not saying that Donald Trump sat down in an arts and crafts. table and actually made it with like glitter, glitter and a glue gun. I'm not saying that.

He's got plenty of people in his office that can draw dirty pictures. And all he has to do after he gives the outline is come in and put that little sharpie, you know, in the, you know, naughty parts of the woman that he drew. That's how that got made. And then I got glued into a book, a birthday present, along with lots of other people's birthday wishes for Jeffrey Epstein. The problem for Donald Trump is it was a terrible, lousy look for Donald Trump to have said, on one hand, in an interview a year before the card making, that, oh, Jeffrey Epstein likes those women young. And then when you have a convict, when you have a sex trafficker and a pedophile to be caught in your birthday card talking about him being an enigma and having secrets, that's a bad look, don't you think?

Not for Donald Trump. I said in the first segment, he's got a convicted child sex trafficker who he needs to vouch for him. That shows you how low where he is. So you've got the book, you got the Wall Street Journal article, Donald Trump's livid about it, calls up Rupert Murdoch before the publication because he gets wind of it from the reporter. And he says, Rupert, I didn't draw it and he'll write it, I don't doodle.

And Rupert said, I'll look into it or and or I'll take care of it. Well, he took care of it. He went and talked to the reporters, I'm sure. talked to his First Amendment lawyers. They vetted the article three ways to Sunday, knowing I'm sure there were other newspapers that were ready to report on it. And they ran the story once they were comfortable

that they were immune and insulated from defamation because they got the story right. And Donald Trump, he painted himself into a corner with the American public and MAGA. I've got to sue now. I've got to file that lawsuit. So he files a lawsuit in Miami. Federal District Court.

Why wasn't it West Palm Beach for two reasons? Because when you file in the Southern District of Florida where I practice, you can check the box for West Palm near Marlago, where he lives. Or you can check the box for Fort Lauderdale or Miami or something else. They picked Miami, I think, for two reasons. One, they wanted to avoid Eileen Cannon because they didn't want the case assigned to her in case they got to elevate her to an appellate court judge or Supreme Court justice. I know we all just threw up on our mouth, but let's be honest with each other, right? That's why we're here at the intersection. To be honest, then we'll go over what to do next.

And I think they wanted to avoid Judge Middlebrooks, the senior status judge, a Clinton appointee, that already threw the book at Donald Trump and Alina Haba for over a million dollar fine when he found that their meritless lawsuit against Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party, John Podesta, and the rest, you know, was in bad faith. So they didn't want to get him. There's only three judges up there, Rosenberg, Middlebrooks, and Cannon. They didn't want to do that one. So they went to Miami. But they happened to pull on the random wheel of 20 judges, Darren Gales. I love Darren Gales.

He was a great state court judge. I supported his campaign. He got elevated by Obama to the federal bench, as many of the Miami judges do. And he's great. He was also the judge that presided over Michael Cohen's defamation case where Donald Trump sued him for $500 million. And that case did not go well for Donald Trump. Gales runs a tight chip, he's unflappable, he's got a great judicial demeanor. He reminds me, if you remember Judge Mershon in New York, his temperament.

In fact, I've compared his temperament to the two of them together, and I've had people that have been before both agree with me. I've been before Gales, I haven't been before Mershon. So he pulled the judge that's not going to allow any nonsense to happen in his courtroom. So Donald Trump taking the lesson out of, oh, let me finish with Michael Cohen. So Michael Cohen, right away, demands a deposition of Donald Trump in the very beginning. Donald Trump folds, dismisses the case. Donald Trump probably thought, well, it was good for Michael Cohen.

I'll try it. So right away, within the first week of filing the lawsuit, before discovery, the exchange of documents, the meeting, the report you have to file with the judge, the order from the judge about discovery, before any of that is done in the first month or two, he decides, oh, we'll catch him flatfooted. I'll demand a deposition, an emergency deposition. of Rupert Murdoch because he's old. I'm not kidding. It's a Bene essay motion, it's a Latin term, to preserve the evidence

because you fear that the witness is going to die or be out of the jurisdiction. And you want to preserve it. So they wrote all sorts of terrible things about the, you know, the Murdoch being 94 years old and having COVID and broke his back

and passed out and whatever. I'm not sure 80, whatever he is, Donald Trump, and his corpulent self is in better shape than Rupert Murdoch. But be that as it may, that was pending. And now I said early on, if I were the lawyers for Murdoch, and he's got great lawyers, he's got a firm up in New York that represents all media outlets in First Amendment cases, they're phenomenal.

And a local council who I knew as well for my practice down here. I said, if they were smart, they would say, you want his depot? We want your depot. Like the next day. or, you know, and then horse trade. That's exactly what happened. They, I'm sure the meet and confer, which is the required phone call

between the two councils, when something like this. Hey, Alejandro, that's the lawyer for Donald Trump. I see you have this motion that you want to have a deposition of Rupert Murdoch under oath in 14 days. That's fine, but on the 15th day, have your client ready.

Well, what do you mean? Well, we're taking your client. Well, don't you want discovery? well you don't seem to want it so why don't we do it now i said when that motion was filed that don't trump revealed himself that his case did not have merit because he said in the second page of his motion that all the knowledge about the case was in the mind of rupertzsche well how do you sue then if you don't have the proper grounds to sue okay i think that was one part of the conversation we want your you want our deposition in two weeks we want your deposition in two weeks in one day

and everybody knows, unless you lived under a rock, that Donald Trump does terribly in depositions. Terribly. When he's not taking the Fifth Amendment, making himself out to be a criminal, have you seen him get beat mercilessly by Robbie Kaplan in the E. Jean Carroll case? He got so confused, he didn't know what photos were.

He didn't recognize E. Jean Carroll. He thought it was his first wife or his second wife, Marla Maples. He just had crazy things. Then he started attacking Robbie Kaplan the lawyer and her looks. I mean, it went nuts, all on videotape, which was played in front of the jury. And that's one of the reasons they awarded her, E.G. and Carol, $83.5 million in one case. So he doesn't want to be deposed. And if anybody worth their salt, which there aren't any, with integrity, were around him, they would say to Donald Trump, with all due respect, boss,

you suck in a deposition. I've prepared top apex corporate executives for depositions. I have. And I've been candid with them. If they suck, you suck, we need to settle this case. That is, some version of that has come out of my mouth sometimes. But Donald Trump doesn't have anybody around him. That'll do that. So they said, I'm sure, you want our guy, you want Murdoch? We want Trump.

And then Trump said, that's okay. That's all right. Why don't we wait until you file your motion to dismiss Washington Post? And we'll see what happens after that. So they filed a motion, which, but I'm talking. telling you that horse trading happened behind the scenes with judge gales that said yeah we're good here we're going to vacate the motion for the early depot nobody's going to take any early depositions right right like really nervous and instead we're going to let the washington post file their motion to

dismiss they think so little of their own case the trump side that they're going to let the washington post go first with the motion to dismiss and only if that survives only if they survive will they then go into discovery mode yeah that's a fold that's the full that's the first step towards this case being dismissed. I talked about the first steps in the first segments as we move and march and lurch towards a pardon for Galane Maxwell. Now I want to talk about something I've been doing every morning first video on legal AF is the Trumponomics analysis based on whatever data came in in that last 24 hours. I use my Wall Street powers on that. It's something that I see the audience based on the viewership. The audience is very in.

too, and I'm very into it. So let's let's dive into it. Every major economic barometer right now is down and trending down for Donald Trump's economy. Don't take your eye off the ball with the stock market. The stock market is going to go up and down and up and down and down and down from now through the September. That momentary thing yesterday where the market went up like one and a half points, one and a half percent, that was what we call dip buying because the tech stocks and other stocks had done a momentary dip for a dollar, $2, $3. So traders and professionals and computer-driven trading bought to buy these stocks, which led to this unnatural rise.

But every other major analyst, Morgan Stanley, Chase, Evercore, I've all said the same thing in the last day. They don't like the numbers. They don't like the job numbers. They don't like how little we're making on the service side of our economy. how little we're making on the good side of our economy. Prices going up and tariffs haven't even hit yet. Jobs have bottoms dropped out.

And so don't be surprised. I mean, this is not a stock show, but don't be surprised if the stock market drops 2 to 5% between now and September. That's why don't use the stock market as your barometer for the health of an economy or whether the economic policies of a president are working or not. We know they're not working. We know they're not working because if you go with your basket of goods at the supermarket, you're already 3% short if you bring the same dollars from last year.

I had somebody writing one of my chats to bring it home with a finer point that the same exact items that she purchases at the supermarket are now $17 higher than they were last year and she doesn't have the $17. That's where we are in this economy. So the numbers are down. There's an index that measures, for instance, the service economy. That means things that are sold by companies, by firms that aren't a hard, tangible good, you know, like something you can hold in your hand. So service is like law firms and accounting firms and health care firms and, you know, health care insurance companies, you know, and consultancies.

that's what the technology services, not the hardware, not the thing you can hold, the consulting, the advisory, the management, that service economy. We have a huge service economy so big that America can't absorb it at all. Our consultants are firms in this country, which are innovative in technology and law and accounting and health care and the rest. They want to go into open markets, so Donald Trump has shut the door to them. so the service economy index forget the bureau of labor statistics which was the gold standard until Donald Trump dropped his pants took a crap on it and fired the commissioner because he didn't like

the numbers I don't like to know I have an eraser what we'd expect this is the guy who didn't like his own financial statement and he thought the numbers were too low so he instructed Michael Cohen as he testified and Alan Weisselberg as we know in his organization to change the numbers and cook the books. Why wouldn't we think he'd want to cook the books on the job numbers? So he filed, 258,000 less jobs in the last two months. You're fired. How about fire yourself?

The problem is not the numbers in the reporting. The problem is the failed economic policy. So, but we don't only get numbers from government-run statisticians. We also get numbers from industry, independent bodies, like a group that's, dedicated to the service economy. And that index is in retrograde. It's fallen to the lowest ebb that it's been in about five years and shows that the service economy is rolling back. At the same time, the GDP is stagnant. Those are two bad things. Job numbers down, service economy down, consumer price up. Consumer confidence down.

Discretionary spending by people. That's stuff where you, once you get past your hard nut of your expenses that you got to pay to live, to eat, to pay the phone bill, to keep the lights on. Once you get paid, maybe your healthcare, once you get past that, discretionary spending is everything else. Amazon spending, street spending, restaurants, movies, travel, gym membership, streaming services, all of that.

And that's down. And that's one of the drivers of the economy. So once you destabilize all that and you take away the government spending that was going on before Donald Trump got here, to the tune of trillions of dollars to states, to programs and the rest, once you cut that, cut that, cut that, and raise, pardon me, got so excited, it was knocked my lamp over, and raised tariffs. What did you think the economy was going to do? stall out. And that's what we're watching. And let me be clear about this. I'm not the grim reaper. I am not wishing on a star that the economy, that the bottom drop out in order to punish Donald Trump because it'll punish the rest of us. I'm in the economy. But I got to call it the way

I see it, right? I got to be the umpire here, especially at the intersection at this hot corner. So don't be surprised when the stock market, which Donald Trump is The only measure that's, there's only two things he runs around celebrating, taking victory laps on. Oh, hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs came in. Talk about that in a minute. And the stock market, stock market, and it's magical thinking, take it off the board, it's going to drop two to five percent before September is over. Put that over here.

Tariffs. I was not a math major. however I do know how less than greater than sign works and I have a I have a reasonable belief that 150 or 160 billion is less than a one trillion with a T Donald Trump cut the tax rate for corporate America and the richest in America by over a trillion dollars he's brought in 158 billion in tariffs. I don't understand how 158 plugs a $1 trillion hole. Even if you take a trillion dollars out of spending, which Donald Trump has done, by getting rid of Medicare, you know, cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, disability, the math still

doesn't work. You're still short. So these are the aspects and the elements of the economy that we need to focus on and have these as our, make. talking points when we're trying to convince people to vote against Donald Trump, not against their interests, but against Donald Trump and MAGA at the midterms. Lastly, I want to talk on the intersection about voting and election integrity. I just did an amazing interview. Come on over to Legal AF YouTube, and you'll find it. Yes, today, actually.

Earlier this day's been so long earlier this morning with Paul. Blumenthal. Paul Blumenthal. Name might sound familiar. Cindy Blumenthal, who is in the Clinton White House, intrepid reporter and journalist, writes for a Huffbo, has wrote the definitive biography of Abraham Lincoln. He's with me on legal AF with Court of History, where he and Sean Willens, who are both scholars and historians, put what we're watching with the Trump administration in historical perspective, and it's called Court of History, because it's the highest court in the land, right? History will judge harshly Trump and the Trump administration, and the federal courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court. Paul is Sidney's son, who's a senior

writer, investigative reporter for Huffpo. And he just wrote a great piece. about the Brennan Center, having come out with a new investigative article about how Donald Trump and people around him are trying to, and have successfully so far torn down the guardrails that surround voter integrity and election integrity and how they're getting away with it in plain sight to try to steal the midterm election and beyond. And it started almost from day one, if not before. He brought in with him and he's surrounded by, not the, reasonably competent technocrats that were in his first administration that I may have disagreed

with on policy, but at least they were adults. He got rid of all of them. Now, membership in the club of Trump only requires that you be, I guess, a right-wing podcaster, a Fox, a Fox celebrity, a election denier, a birther denier, that gets you in to the highest levels around. Donald Trump because he doesn't want anybody pushing back. He doesn't want anybody telling him, no, that happened in 2016. He wants all gas, no brakes, green lights, no red. And he put people in charge that shouldn't be allowed to take a White House tour, let alone run our government and pull the levers of power.

So that's why you get the right-wing podcasters, like Cash Patel and Dan Bongino. And you get the Fox celebrities. minor celebrities, like Pete Higsef to run the Department of Defense and other Fox commentators like Tulsi Gabbard and Tom Holman. That's why you get the political hacks that are all that have converted the Department of Justice into the political campaign arm of the Trump administration, like Pam Bondi, like Harbeat Dylan, head of the Civil Rights Division. Look her up. Like Ed Martin. So once you put that group in, There's nothing to stop Donald Trump.

That's why the Department of Justice has lost any shred of integrity or dignity and can't and will not be seriously taken by anybody in America as the good faith law enforcement unit. They're just not. They say they represent the United States of America when they go to court. But the federal judges don't trust them. Appellate court judges don't trust them. And we hear on the Midas Touch Network and at the intersection don't trust them.

So Donald Trump first brings that group in. Then he starts pardoning the Jan 6th, the Jan 6th, the Jan 6th interruptionists, because he needs to rewrite history and change history. Now he's going after all the law firms that would have, with their pro bono programs, would have tried to stop him in the courts about his attacks on voters and voter registration and voter data and election interference. He got rid of the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency, CISA. which had said that the last election was the most secure election they've ever covered. He mothballed and shuddered them, hollowed out all money for elections and voting, and then started to issue in March, executive orders directed at states who are the sole, sole arbiter of how to run elections, even federal elections.

That's by constitution. It is the states that determine the time, place, a matter of elections. it's the states that even federal it's the states that determine what the ballots are going to look like what the voting machines are going to be used how they're going to be counted when they're going to be counted and what are the dates they're going to be used for counting early voting late voting all of that mail-in voting that's all at the state level don't Trump doesn't like that so he started issuing executive orders and certain states you know which ones you know which color they are started to fold well okay can I see all of your voter data including the things I'm not allowed to see under the federal statute yes. Other ones like blue states, secretaries of state, and clerks of court, sorry, clerks of and supervisors of election all set some version of go jump in the lake. One, it's illegal for me to turn out of this data. And two, we run our own elections. No, I'm not going to let you go rummaging around my voting equipment. See, supervisors of election get very upset when there's a suggestion that somebody, even in the federal government or in their White House,

has the ability or the, or has made a request to go rooting around in voting machines over my dead body. So this is the fight that we're watching because they're starting to use operatives like Stephen Miller and other people you've never heard of to go after these clerks, these election workers, these supervisors of election, to get them to quote unquote cooperate with the White House and turn over the treasure trove of data, the voter data. And this is where these new law suits that are being filed by Democracy Forward, by ACLU, by attorneys general, come into play to stop Donald Trump dead in his tracks from doing this. And they're getting positive results in the courts trying to protect voter integrity and voting rights. But when you hear the Trumpers

in the MAGA talking about, you know, this false narrative of they're the defenders of the vote, they're the defenders of election, just turn that upside down because they're lying to you. They're not doing that at all. The only defenders of democracy I care about are the ones that are right here on the intersection, on Midas Touch. Help us continue to grow this podcast. If you like this content, leave a comment. Come over and download it on audio. Leave me a five-star review and comment.

I read all the comments. I really do. And it does help with the show and helps with the ratings. So watch us on YouTube, listen to us on the legal AF, sorry, on the podcast platform, whatever, Spotify, Google, Apple, and leave that. review that signals that you want i want to get back into the top 100 of all youtube podcast by the way we were regularly in the top 100 legal a f for instance top 20 minus touch number one we got to lift these boats with your help and i'm glad you're here for it remember our pro democracy sponsors i talk to you about the popock farm which is here for you to obtain justice for you and people that you love who have

been injured anywhere in america in a cat in a catastrophe turn your life upside down we'll put it right side up you the best justice that we can at the Popak firm. LegalAF, the YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button there as well. We're trying to get our audience that's watched 200 million times our videos to come close to our subscriber base, which is at 750. Let's get that up to a million and beyond. So again, I'm glad you're here on the Midas Touch Network for this podcast. Until my next report on all things, LegalAF, I'm Michael Popock and you're at the intersection. I'm Michael Popak, and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me as the co-founder of Midas Touch's LegalAF and the LegalAF YouTube channel,

or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now, building a what we started together on Legal A.F, I've launched a new law firm, the Popak firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation. At the Popak 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, and their attorneys. Big Auto's attorneys, working with my firm, are rock-class. stars in their respective states and collectively responsible for billions of dollars in recoveries so if you were a loved one but on the wrong side of a catastrophic auto motor vehicle ride share or truck accident suffered a personal injury or been the victim of medical malpractice employment harassment or discrimination or suffered a violation of your civil and constitutional rights

then contact the popaac firm today at one 877 popaq a or by visiting my website at w the Popok Firm.com and fill out a free case evaluation form. And if we determine that you have a case and you sign with us, we don't get paid unless you do. The Popak Firm, fighting for your justice every step of the way.