Legal AF by MeidasTouch - The Intersection with Michael Popok Full Episode - 6/10/2025

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

On the latest edition of The Intersection with Michael Popok a new podcast on the Meidas Touch Network, Popok doesn't hold back as he takes on: 1) the latest developments in Trump's attempted fascist ...take over of California, including a new emergency order being issued; 2) The Defense Secretary failing basic understanding of what his job is, what Trump's legal justification for commandeering State troops is, and how much all this costs; 3) what the return of Abrego Garcia means for the pending contempt proceedings in Maryland against the Trump Administration; 4) Trump's complete loss of leverage to negotiate any successful trade deals, as President Sheinbaum of Mexico teaches him the true meaning of TACO by eating his lunch on steel tariffs, and so much more at the Intersection of law and politics. Support Our Sponsors: Naked Wine: Join the Naked Wines community and head to https://NakedWines.com/legalaf for 6 bottles of wine for JUST $39.99 with shipping included Qualia: Head to https://qualialife.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 15% off your purchase! 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

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Starting point is 00:00:51 Bet MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Strap in, hold on tight. You're on the intersection with Michael Popok, only on the Midas Touch Network. We're gonna talk about all those things at the intersection of law and politics that have happened in the last 48 hours
Starting point is 00:01:08 that really matter, including coming on the air today, a new emergency order issued by a judge up in San Francisco, Judge Breyer. No, not that one, his brother that seems to be on its surface against California, but it's really not. It's gonna lead to a hearing on Thursday. I'm going to break down and update you
Starting point is 00:01:27 on everything going on with Donald Trump's attempted fascist takeover of California, hostile takeover of California, why it matters that California win against Donald Trump. And then I'll give you my analysis of the Supreme Court cases and other statutory analyses that put California on solid footing. Donald Trump, knowing at least for now that he can't use the Insurrection Act, is trying every other trick up his sleeve in order to try to bring
Starting point is 00:01:57 California to its knees. It's just an existential fight for our Constitutional Republic, our way of life. That's all it is here on the intersection. And then let's talk about the, put it all in perspective, you've got the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, who demonstrates he doesn't know a thing about his job. He doesn't understand the statutes, the laws, the ways that Donald Trump is exercising and invoking certain military and warlike powers. He won't be there to justify it because he himself admits he doesn't understand it.
Starting point is 00:02:30 They didn't bother briefing Pete Hegseth or he's unbriefable. Is he so stupid he can't be briefed and therefore Donald Trump's handlers have just given up or is not briefing him, is that their strategy? So when he goes before Congress and they say, show me in the statute where Donald Trump gets off not involving the California governor
Starting point is 00:02:53 in the decision of federalized national troops, show me where that is, he said, well, you and I both know that the president has the power. No, we don't know that. That's why there's court cases, Supreme Court precedent, and you obviously can't answer the question without asking another question. He then had to, he didn't know how much it was gonna cost,
Starting point is 00:03:12 but others have determined it's gonna be $140 million or more for Donald Trump's muscle flex, his manufacturing of a crisis in order to use his brutal war powers against Americans. You can say that they're migrants, they're undocumented, they're carrying flags of First Amendment expression, but most of what you're watching on television in California are everyday average Americans fighting back
Starting point is 00:03:42 against the attack on California. Donald Trump is trying to rip asunder our constitutional United States and he's doing it by trying to take down California. His playbook for it was taken down Harvard. We'll talk about all of that and update you and of course the context we've got the US Army playing in the Donald Trump's hands, and they're going to be doing a giant show of force in Washington on Donald Trump's birthday, of all things. And then I wake up in a fascist totalitarian regime. What is happening there? And then we've got the tariff issue. Once again, Claudia Scheinbaum of Mexico demonstrating that she knows how to eat
Starting point is 00:04:26 Donald Trump's lunch right in front of him because she just won the tariff war, the steel tariff war, just like she did before because she figured out taco, no pun intended, in Mexico before Donald Trump, other adversaries did. The Financial Times might have written about taco, but I think Scheinbaum invented it with Trump always chickens out, knowing that she knows how to play Donald Trump like a fiddle, and now there's no more steel tariffs in Mexico because they pointed out a simple little fact
Starting point is 00:05:02 to the Commerce Secretary for Donald Trump, the perma-smile Howard Lutnick, always smiling, always, hi, I'm doing great, aren't I? No, you're not. There was supposed to be 90 trade deals because countries were gonna be brought to their knees and kissing Donald Trump's backside, his tuchus, that's a legal term,
Starting point is 00:05:22 because he was threatening them and saber rattling over tariffs. And how many now in the 150th day? Not one, maybe one coming in China, maybe one coming with Mexico, maybe we'll talk about it and break it down. And the markets are reacting because they're looking for any good news,
Starting point is 00:05:40 any silver lining they can find to trade on. Scott Peset may not, may be pushed into the Federal Reserve Chairman position from the Treasury Secretary. That's good. He's the, but that's not good. First of all, Jay Powell's doing a great job. He's the only thing that connects the United States to its economy, the economy to the world economy. The only thing that keeps us connected to planet Earth is Jay Powell. We don't want him to leave any sooner than possible. And if he's gonna leave in May of 2026, who's gonna take over at treasury?
Starting point is 00:06:12 Don't tell me the commerce secretary. He's doing such a terrible job in that role. We're gonna kick him upstairs and have him fail up in the treasury to put his money on the, to put his John Hancock on the money. Heaven help us. So I wanna put all of this together
Starting point is 00:06:28 on this issue of The Intersection. Thanks for being here. We started this as PopePak Live. It was sort of a irregular show every other Tuesday I would do. And then we just said, you know what? Let's make it a full-blown podcast. Let's call it The Intersection.
Starting point is 00:06:44 I've been living at The Intersection of Law and politics my whole life, let alone the last five years as a co-founder of Legal AF. And there's an audience here that I adore that's been with me from the very beginning over the last six months since we've been growing. We get three, four, five, hundred thousand people to watch the video. We get tens of thousands to participate in the actual recording and the live of the video of the podcast. So we said, now it's time. It's time. We got legal layoff of the YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:07:12 We got legal layoff of the Substack. And now it's time for Popak Intersection. So I can just be no holds barred. I can throw everything, including the kitchen sink, at every topic I cover. Let's get into California. How did this all start? January, sorry, January.
Starting point is 00:07:26 See how far back it seems. June the 6th, only a handful of days ago, Donald Trump on purpose, without coordinating with the state of California, brought ICE in to go after Home Depot and a clothing manufacturer to try to scare the crap out of people in a deportation raid.
Starting point is 00:07:44 Not coordinated with local law enforcement, not told to this California governor, they just send the federal bootjack troops in. And then invariably, when Californians got uncomfortable with that and decided to protest in the streets, Donald Trump used that as a manufactured excuse to try to crush dissent and resistance.
Starting point is 00:08:04 Now, the last time I looked at the Constitution, I have the right to both petition the government for a redress of grievances, to peaceably assemble, and to voice my First Amendment expression. Do I have the right to riot? No. Do I have the right to burn down the city? No. Do I have the right to murder and kill? No. Is that going on in California? No. Whatever's going on in California, had it been properly coordinated by the Trump administration in advance, which of course they never were going to do, then it would have gone fine, right? But there is a long body of case law that I've outlined on Legal AF that does not allow the feds to force the state into participating in federal programs to allow them to commandeer there's actually anti
Starting point is 00:08:50 commandeering law to stop the feds from commandeering and take over the National Guard. The National Guard is a state guard under the control of the governor it can only be federalized under certain limited circumstances. There's a statute that Congress created and there's the Insurrection Act. Take Insurrection Act off the board. Donald Trump did not invoke it and I don't think he will. Even though he's getting close, he's using the words of insurrection but he's not invoked it. He said, if they spit, we're gonna shoot. No, he said if they spit, we're gonna shoot. No, he said, if they spit, we're gonna hit. If they loot, we're gonna shoot. It's not a perverse Dr. Seuss book.
Starting point is 00:09:32 It's the president of the United States talking about using excessive force and the military against his own citizenry. If we had a Congress with half a brain cell and a pair of brass ones, he'd already be impeached. There'd be articles of impeachment already for what's happening in California to try to tear us under our United States.
Starting point is 00:09:58 What else can you call the full weight of the federal government being used against one state? Sure, it's a huge state. It's also important to our economy and the world economy. It represents the fifth largest economy in the United States. Gavin Newsom, the governor, is a chief political rival of Donald Trump. He's likely top three, top two, top one for president of the United States come 2028. And they went after Gavin Newsom on purpose to try to take him down. They said, we're going to arrest him. I mean, literally, Tom Homan, the czar of the border, said that he'll arrest any federal official, even the governor.
Starting point is 00:10:35 And then Donald Trump on the lawn three days ago, it's hard to believe, three days ago on the White House lawn, getting in or out of the helicopter, said, yes, he should. He wants to be arrested, we should arrest him. This administration has already as a show of force to try to chill dissent and rebellion or resistance has already indicted a state court judge, a elected official from New Jersey. So what's to stop them? Next up, a governor. from New Jersey. So what's to stop them? Next up, a governor. And that matters because once you cross that line, all out civil war could result. Yeah. The thing that brought this country together with Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction is
Starting point is 00:11:19 under a pressure right now that I've never seen in my lifetime. Internal pressure. Sure, I read about the civil Rights Movement and I'm a student of it. And I understand that also had the chance of pulling it together. But you had a president in the White House, whether you started with JFK and then whether you went with RFK, his attorney general, and then Lyndon Johnson that held the country together, that used the National Guard in the right way to support the Civil Rights Movement, to support Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Not to pour kerosene on the flames, have it tip over, and then send in the federal troops and violate
Starting point is 00:12:01 the Posse Comitatus Act, which prevents a president, but only if enforced properly by the United States Supreme Court, from using the weight of the power of the US military internally against its own people. Have we reached that stage yet? Part of that story is being told right now in the courtroom of Charles Breyer. Charles Breyer, you may remember the name,
Starting point is 00:12:27 his brother, Stephen Breyer, on the United States Supreme Court, not only on the United States Supreme Court, but came out in the last several months against Donald Trump in his own polite diplomatic way, but clearly against Donald Trump's assault on the federal judiciary and on the rule of law, and to support the rule of law. And to support the rule, the statements
Starting point is 00:12:48 of Chief Justice Roberts against Donald Trump, telling him to stop calling for impeachment of federal judges, but ask for their appeal at best. So that family is now in the spotlight. 83 year old Charles Breyer, 22 page complaint filed, elegant in its pithiness. It's just straight to the point. Many attorneys general, not named Rob Bonta,
Starting point is 00:13:13 Bonta would bring a hundred pages of fluff, but no, 22 pages and used all of Donald Trump's own words against him, his own social media posts, those of Pete Hegseth, bring it all into the case and seek an emergency temporary restraining order on an ex parte basis, meaning they only get to speak, they only get to file, and the other side will have to answer for it later. Now, that's the breaking news coming onto the air tonight on the intersection. Judge
Starting point is 00:13:43 Breyer has listened to both sides. The California side who wants an immediate temporary restraining order, I really would call it an administrative stay temporary. And the Trump administration saying, give us one more day to file our brief overnight. And so with those horns of a dilemma, Breyer made a ruling, an emergency ruling just now.
Starting point is 00:14:06 And he said, one, I hear the two competing sides. Two, I am not gonna rule now on the ex parte motion for temporary restraining order, so do not. However, you're not all out of the woods yet, and I'm looking at you, Donald Trump. The order continued by saying, I'll give you till 11 a.m. Pacific time tomorrow, Trump, to file your brief.
Starting point is 00:14:31 I'll then give Thursday morning, this is going very quick, everybody, this is high velocity rocket docket, giving California till Thursday morning at 9 a.m. to file their brief, and everybody I'll see in court, 1.30 Thursday afternoon in San Francisco in my courtroom. If you can't make it, you can do it by Zoom,
Starting point is 00:14:51 which means we're gonna be zooming in if we can to be able to do real-time reporting. And that hearing is gonna be on whether the judge is gonna grant the temporary restraining order on the two pieces of paper already filed. Or an administrative stay to allow for more briefing or further briefing. And this is a big issue.
Starting point is 00:15:07 I can't think of a better judge for it. Been on the bench a long, long time. Moderate, appointed by Bill Clinton, has the right DNA, if you know what I mean, with the family business. And he's gonna have to decide whether Donald Trump violated a federal statute that Congress gave the power to the president, not under the commander in chief
Starting point is 00:15:28 power, but under a statute. The statute in particular, I've talked about it at length, it's in what we call Article 10 or Chapter 10 of the federal statutes and that particular which is 12406 and that allows for only three triggering events and there's none that seem to be applicable either he needs to suppress a rebellion against the government that's not happening he needs to do it in order to faithfully execute the law and regular the regular forces aren't sufficient. Why couldn't ICE in collaboration with local law enforcement put out the flames? And those are the really only the only two that apply. And even if they
Starting point is 00:16:13 apply, and we had a rebellion or inability to faithfully execute, he'd still have to go through the governor and he purposely skipped the governor. So right there, that's a violation of the statute for a federal judge like Breyer to declare for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California, also in San Francisco, I've argued before it, for it to declare on the way to the United States Supreme Court,
Starting point is 00:16:36 all probably within the next week, starting with briefing tomorrow, briefing Thursday, a hearing on Thursday, an appeal I'm sure after that, a decision over the weekend, and then we're off and running. And Donald Trump knows at least for now that the Insurrection Act won't work, that he doesn't have the grounds to do that, so he's held his power to drive for that. He hasn't actually invoked the Insurrection Act, although he uses the language of the Insurrection Act. And then you have Pete Hegseth, who's so over his skis in the role of the Secretary of Defense, it's not funny.
Starting point is 00:17:10 He's testifying before Congress. And two fundamental things he doesn't know, how much it's costing to send the Marines in, to send in and to federalize the National Guard. The number turned out to be about $140 million. If you don't like that number, you're gonna hate the number that Trump is spending for his birthday party,
Starting point is 00:17:33 where he's gonna have military tanks, 20 tons a piece, rolling down the streets of Washington for his birthday because he envies the fascist leaders of North Korea and of China. Sure, he saw it on Bastille Day in France, but that's not where he really got the idea. This show of might at this particular moment in time, he doesn't think this is a powder keg that could tip over. I do.
Starting point is 00:17:58 We're watching a version of it in California. So we've got all of that going on. And then again, the two questions that Hegseth couldn't answer. How much are you spending? Don't know. What's the point for me, the law that justifies Donald Trump trying to federalize
Starting point is 00:18:18 the National Guard in California? You and I both know he's got that power. That was the response. Because he's not prepared. Because he's purposely not prepared. They send him in there without any cover because A, they don't think he can hold that molecule of a thought in his head.
Starting point is 00:18:32 And secondly, they don't want him to know the answer. The answer is there is no justification that he is violating the statute and he's violating ultimately the 10th amendment of the Constitution, which reserves for the states and also the people, all power that's not reposited in the federal government by our system of federalism. State sovereignty, the feds only get to do
Starting point is 00:18:57 what Congress says they can do or what the constitution expressly core functional wise says they can do. Absent that, it's the state power. It's the people's power. It says it in the constitution. And that's why the lawsuit is centered around the 10th Amendment violation.
Starting point is 00:19:15 I don't think Pete Hegseth knows the 10th Amendment. I don't think he could recite it. Nor his oath of office. So that happened. And then to round out this fascist takeover of America, you've got the US Army, unfortunately, playing into the hands of Donald Trump. They were planning a relatively small affair to celebrate their 250th anniversary. Donald Trump found out that was coming up and it became, it's also my birthday for my birthday party. I can have all the toys,
Starting point is 00:19:43 all the military toys. That's gonna be a hundred million dollar event. And after they have to repair the streets of Washington, because they'll be crushed under the weight of the military, military gear. And what is the purpose? Imagine if you just wandered into Washington one day, a tourist or you're from another state,
Starting point is 00:20:00 and all of a sudden you didn't get the memo and you see these, the military is occupying DC. It's a bad look. It's a bad look at this time when the president is calling himself a king and we see him as a fascist. Can you imagine if a Democrat did this? Imagine if a Democrat like cracked their knuckles
Starting point is 00:20:19 and said, you know what I think would be really great? A coronation for me. And a giant birthday party celebration where I'm gonna spend taxpayer dollars showing off all the shiny objects in our military. How about that? I mean, even the Democrats would run them out of town. Even the Democrats would eat their own.
Starting point is 00:20:39 That's one thing about the Republicans though. They're so power hungry. They're so worried about their own wallets and not yours and mine, that they'll never oppose Donald Trump. That's why the midterms are so important. We've got to have the return of the House and the Senate to the Democrats in order to regain checks and balance,
Starting point is 00:20:58 to check an abuse of power. I'm gonna talk about all that. I'm gonna talk about the taco factor in Mexico, the tariff war that wasn't and other developments in the intersection of law and politics here on the intersection, you're on the intersection with PO-POK here, brand new podcast, picking up I'm standing on the shoulders of PO-POK live for this new podcast. Come on over. It's really important to show support if you like this kind of
Starting point is 00:21:24 content. Come over to our podcast feed wherever you get your audio podcasts from. Just plug in the intersection and there I'll be. And download that, tell your friends about it. Leave a five star review. I sound like an Uber driver. I don't mean to. I'm sorry. But it is the way to signal to the algorithmic gods that you like this kind of programming. Leave a review, tell your friends about it, send the clips, ask them to download. The audio really matters, as does the YouTube version of this as well.
Starting point is 00:21:54 And then we've got LegalAF, the substack that I curate, where we put up all these lawsuits and postings and orders. We post them up on LegalAF substacks. you can get your hands on them along with commentary. And then we've got LegalAF, the YouTube channel, LegalAF MTN. See, LegalAF comes in all shapes and sizes. You can get your fill of LegalAF. And if you can't, Substack, LegalAF YouTube, where I've got 12 different contributors,
Starting point is 00:22:18 all pulling together, pulling the wagon in support of the defense of our democracy. Come on, that's chef's kiss time, don't you think? And because of you, Legal AF is the number one law and politics podcast on the YouTube rankings, bar none. Let's try to get the intersection up there as well. And now we got some amazing pro-democracy sponsors here on the intersection.
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Starting point is 00:27:04 at nakedwines.com slash legal AF and use the code and password, bottles of wine for just $39.99 with shipping included. That's $100 off your first six bottles at nakedwines.com slash legal AF and use the code and password, legal AF for six bottles of wine for $39.99. Welcome back. You're on The Intersection, only on the Midas Touch Network with Michael Popak. Trade wars, tariff wars are not going well for Donald Trump
Starting point is 00:27:24 and his mucking around with the economy isn't either. In particular, Donald Trump's tariff war is an utter and complete failure. Remember in April during the Rose Garden, that now infamous Rose Garden scene where he said, mission accomplished, and they brought out the big board like it was Dr. Strangelove.
Starting point is 00:27:43 And they said, look at all the numbers on the big board. We're going after all these retaliatory tariffs. And then we used our binoculars and other ways to take screenshots of the big board. And we realized that it was all fecacda. It was all upside down and backwards. And the formula was wrong. This was not tariffs that was gonna balance
Starting point is 00:28:02 trade deficits at all. And we called them out on that. And then Donald Trump, after he announced that, and the markets tumbled, I mean, shaved $3 trillion worth of value, then he panicked. He watched the treasury market crumble. He then started getting phone calls from private equity, hedge phone owners, private equity owners,
Starting point is 00:28:23 Ken Griffith from Citadel, Pershing Square, Bill Ackman called him, JP Morgan chases Jamie Dimon called him. He starts watching cable news because that's how this president operates domestic policy through cable news. And he starts getting audience, people come and knock it on the door,
Starting point is 00:28:41 literally at the White House, takes meetings with Home Depot, Walmart and Target. And their chair people say, "'You want empty shelves for Christmas? "'This is the ghost of Christmas future. "'This is a failed economy.'" And then he hit the brakes on the economy.
Starting point is 00:28:57 We all went lurching. Oh, 90 day pause. Okay. And then he said, "'We're gonna have 90 deals in 90 days.'" That was 60 days ago. We don't have one deal, one deal that they announced. 90 days in 90 days, 90 deals in 90 days
Starting point is 00:29:11 with 90 different countries, never happened. And now at the last minute, because they're desperate to announce any deal possible, they are so desperate and prone and lost their leverage that the rest of the world and smart leaders like Claudia Scheinbaum of Mexico are eating as lunch. So the 50% tariff that got announced just last week in order to be a shiny object diversion
Starting point is 00:29:35 from the Musk Trump fight, which I'll cover as well, that and the Trump Federalist Society fight from the week before, Donald Trump needed a good news cycle. So suddenly he told auto workers and steel workers in America, 50% tariffs. And you know what percentage tariffs Mexico is going to be hit with now?
Starting point is 00:29:59 With the new deal signed with Claudia Scheinbaum, zero. Absolutely zero, for what? To tighten up the border a little bit? That's all she had to do. She figured out taco before it was avant-garde, before it was in vogue, so to speak. She figured out, wait out Donald Trump, use her particular powers of persuasion,
Starting point is 00:30:20 and get him to fold. I mean, a stubborn little fact, like Mexico sends in more, sorry, Mexico imports more steel than it exports, yeah, which is the upside down trade war that seems to have convinced them with a big smiley faced Howard Lutnick on behalf of the administration.
Starting point is 00:30:42 And then the markets are trying to figure out what's what because there's no deals in place. They're looking for any shiny object to trade on. Oh, we might have a deal with China, market goes up a little bit. Oh, we might have a deal with Mexico, market goes up a little bit. Oh, Scott Bessette who we like for treasury,
Starting point is 00:30:55 he might be moved into the Federal Reserve. Yeah, so if that happens and Jay Powell's out, who's gonna be in the Treasury Department seat? You know, he was the only adult in the cabinet and now you're going to kick him upstairs to the Fed next year? That does not, that does not sit well with me, nor should it with you. And all of these distractors, going after Harvard when Donald Trump's getting beat regularly in the courts. Going after California, same thing, when he's got a failed public spat with Elon Musk and, and Donald Trump, just to distract from that. It's
Starting point is 00:31:33 obvious. That's why we call it out here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF and on the intersection. I thought going into the show today on Tuesday, that I would be talking a lot about Musk and Donald Trump and on the heels of Trump taking on the Federalist Society and amputating the hand that fed him. But forget it. You see how the news cycle works, how Trump fatigue works,
Starting point is 00:31:57 but we got to focus on Trump and Musk to round out the intersection, don't we? And how it impacts the more than dozen cases that are out there. Now, the Supreme Court, you might've already heard, gave Donald Trump a couple of victories in the Doge arena. They said, nah, Social Security, all your private, confidential, most personal data
Starting point is 00:32:17 about your medical, about your finances that are in the hands of the Treasury Department, the Social Security Service, yeah, we're gonna turn that over to Doge. That's okay. For now, we might change our mind two years from now, but in the meantime, they can have access. And we were like, oh, we all bemoan the Supreme Court's
Starting point is 00:32:33 ruling on that one, giving Donald Trump a win. But there are another dozen cases out there, including one in particular I'm keeping my eye on, which is the Judge Chuckutkin case presiding, brought by 14 attorneys general, in which they alleged that Elon Musk was improperly appointed or was never appointed under the appointment clause of the Constitution,
Starting point is 00:32:55 was never confirmed by the Senate, and everything he did was ultra various and illegal and can be undone and unwound. That case is still alive. Nothing that the Supreme Court says has undermined it. Although at the rate the Supreme Court is making its rulings, you know, it doesn't bode well for those that want to hold Donald Trump accountable. Sure, there's occasional victories, especially in the area of immigration,
Starting point is 00:33:22 especially in the area of lack of due in the area of of lack of due process, everything else, they seem to be siding with Donald Trump in his exercise of power. Let's use it. I'll end the hot island. I was called it a hot take. Sorry, I've been doing them all day. Let's end the podcast this way. Let's use a brego Garcia as the final example. That could have let off this this podcast, but we've got so much going on in California, it seems like a distant memory.
Starting point is 00:33:47 And yet it was only on Friday that they finally brought back Abrego Garcia on some phony trumped up charges, no pun intended, an indictment that was rendered on two count indictment in the middle district of Tennessee that was so poor and so in bad faith that a 15-year prosecutor resigned his job in the middle district of Tennessee rather than continue to prosecute that case. Suddenly he's a drug smuggler, a gun smuggler, a human being smuggler. Yeah, bring him into court, give him his day in court, give him the evidence and his adversarial process and due process, and let's see what a judge says.
Starting point is 00:34:26 I'm not sure that indictment makes its way past the motions in a smith's. Why was it done? It was done because Judge Zinnis in Maryland was this close and is still considering bringing an order of contempt against the Trump administration for their failure since April to return to Brego Garcia. They just brought him back on Friday, despite a nine zero vote by the United States Supreme Court against the Trump administration for their failure since April to return Abrego Garcia.
Starting point is 00:34:45 They just brought him back on Friday, despite a nine zero vote by the United States Supreme Court telling them they needed to do it on April the 10th. And Judge Zin is telling them every week since that they're in violation of her order. And now she's invited, on Thursday, she invited the contempt motion by the other side, the Abrego Garcia.
Starting point is 00:35:03 And on Friday, he suddenly reappeared. After Pam Bondi told the world, I can't bring him back, I won't bring him back. You'll never see him again. Yeah, we just saw on Friday being arraigned in Tennessee. They used the phony cover of wallpapering over this whole issue by claiming that it was an extradition, right?
Starting point is 00:35:21 Well, see, we had a crime and we just asked El Salvador to send them back, pursue it to extradition. And so we got them back, but it wasn't through diplomacy. And we really have no control over the jail there. That's a lie. Judge Boasberg, who's the chief judge of DC, also last Thursday declared that he found that the Trump administration does have control or at least co-control over that jail in El Salvador. He certified a class of 250 people who were sent to El Salvador
Starting point is 00:35:51 in violation of their due process rights, their notice rights, and they were litigating again in front of another judge who found the Trump administration to be in contempt. So does anybody buying that on a slow news day when Donald Trump was getting his butt kicked in court on a 96% losing streak? Is anybody surprised that they manufactured a win
Starting point is 00:36:14 for themselves and that they manufactured a phony return of Abrego Garcia? He's still being kept pretrial detention in Tennessee, but soon, soon, Judge Zinnis is gonna be heard from. Now the feds, the Department of Justice, has filed a paper with Judge Zinnis and said, hey, nothing to see here, judge. Dismiss the case.
Starting point is 00:36:35 I know you were dealing with Abrego Garcia, but he's back. He's back. But that's not the only aspect of the case, you nimrods. The Supreme Court said that Judge Zinnis had to ensure the Fifth Amendment rights, due process rights and notice about him being sent to El Salvador, were they or were they not violated?
Starting point is 00:36:55 She's still getting to the bottom of that. He was in a jail cell for several months. It's not game over. And the argument would go, the Trump administration has been violating Judge Zinnis' order for several months now, meaning they can be found in contempt, even though they brought him back.
Starting point is 00:37:16 So it's hard to believe, Abrego Garcia and his return is at the bottom of my pile, given this week, but the things in California are so important that we focus on together that I had to bring it up. Again, honored that you've joined this new podcast, The Intersection with Michael Popock here on the Midas Touch Network. I'll keep bringing it to you every Tuesday
Starting point is 00:37:38 at 8 p.m. Eastern time on this YouTube channel. And then of course, we need audio download support. Can I put it any clearer? We really do. It's what keeps this kind of content all locked in together for you, talking truth to each other. The intersection with Michael Popok.
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Starting point is 00:38:39 I'm Michael Popak, and I'm reporting. 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 Legal AF and the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now building on what we started together on Legal AF, I've launched a new law firm, the Popock Firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation. At the Popock Firm, we are focused on 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
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