Legal AF by MeidasTouch - The Intersection with Michael Popok Full Episode - 7/22/2025

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

What's at the Intersection? Major developments in the Epstein pedophile coverup by Trump, including Trump perhaps pressuring Epstein's co conspirator to say Trump was never involved in order to get a pardon, exploiting a little covered relationship with Trump's DOJ; the DOJ taking steps to get Habba back her job as NJ US Attorney; Trump chickening out about firing the Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell as Trump's minions claim that he committed "fraud" to pressure him to go; Trump's own Commerce Secretary's "former" company betting against the legality of Trump's tariffs; and Tulsi Gabbard discovering phony evidence that she won't reveal that there was a "seditious conspiracy" of intelligence community officials to claim Russia colluded with Trump to win the election. Join Popok @ The Intersection, the newest podcast on the MeidasTouch Network. Support Our Sponsors: Moink: Keep American farming going by signing up at https://MoinkBox.com/LEGALAF RIGHT NOW and listeners of this show get FREE WINGS for LIFE! Allermi: For 60% off your order, head to https://Allermi.com and use code LEGALAF. 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

You are at the intersection with Michael Popok. What a lineup I have. Look at this. It's burning my hands. I need asbestos gloves just to hold the lineup for tonight here on the Midas Touch Network. Let me just give you the highlights. So it'll be like a word association game. I'll say the word and you tell me the first thing that pops into your mind. Epstein, exactly. Habba. Yep. Trump and Powell. Yep. Tariffs. Howard Lutnick and his old company, Canterfitch Gerald. And then last but not least, and a chef's kiss to Tulsi Gabbard. Tulsi Gabbard found something that five different Congressional, Senate, lawyers, special prosecutors couldn't find, including Marco Rubio. She found that there was a seditious conspiracy at the highest levels that

tried to overturn the will of the people in the 2016 election. I'm going to cover it all at the intersection. I'm glad you're here. This is, what do we call it? Listener supported. Now more than ever, we need your help. I'm doing it early, early on in the podcast. Look, mainstream media, you see people that are at my level on mainstream media and they're being tossed out with the morning trash. The way to support us is hit the subscribe button

on Minus Touch over on Legal AF. Circle the wagons, give us a firewall, keep us on the air, this is the way to do it. And let's get to it. Let's start with Epstein. I could end with Epstein. To moderates, free thinking people and independents, Epstein and what it stands for,

the lack of character, lack of morality, inhumanity, depravity of it all. And the coverup by Donald Trump matters. Now the polling says, it doesn't matter to most of MAGA, but it matters to everybody else. And it's a huge story, and we're gonna continue to cover it. Now here's the update on Epstein. Congress has itself wrapped around its own axle.

Mike Johnson is being attacked. They're picking up rocks. They're going after him with torches and with pitchforks. So he's getting out of town early. They ended the congressional session about three or four days early, not doing the work of Americans, not helping any American listening to this podcast

because they're going home early on recess because they don't want to have to deal with votes related to the Epstein scandal that's rocked the Trump administration. At the same time, I'll talk about recess. And what, see, recess used to be a good connotation for me. Like when I was in school, who didn't look forward to recess? I loved recess.

I loved the snack around recess. I loved the playground period around recess. I loved recess. But now when I hear the words recess, I think recess appointments by a president over the next 30 to 60 days or so. And that troubles me. We'll talk about the recesses.

But let me focus, continue to drill down on Epstein. There's been reporting that Todd Blanch, the number two in the Department of Justice, Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer is having a meeting, apparently to the mainstream media, out of the blue with Jelaine Maxwell. Jelaine Maxwell, the co-conspirator in the sex trafficking ring of girls

leading to their rape at the hands and body parts of Jeffrey Epstein, who's sitting and rotting appropriately in a federal prison because she was convicted with evidence in a courtroom, in an adversarial process, beyond a reasonable doubt, in front of nine different jurors, nine zero in New York, and sentenced by Judge Nathan.

And that's where she belongs. But she has a good and crafty lawyer. His name is David Oscar Marcus, down in Miami. Now, if you're putting together a giant homeland conspiracy board with red ribbon and pushpins, here's a new data point for you. David Oscar Marcus, who represents Jelaine Maxwell, who is campaigning for a pardon, is not only very good friends with Todd Blanch, the lawyer that's being sent to go quote unquote interview and meet with Jelaine Maxwell in prison,

but he's also very good friends with Alan Dershowitz. How do I know? Because I know, I know, I know of, and I know David Oscar Marcus in general in the Miami law community. And if you go on his website, there's photos of a young David Marcus with Dershowitz who he says self-proclaimed, that was my mentor.

Why is that important to Epstein? Because Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor was also accused in a series of statements and testimony and documentaries by Virginia Jufray, the first victim, the first known victim of Jeffrey Epstein, who was groomed and recruited by Jelaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, another data point, another red ribbon, another red string on the conspiracy board, right?

Boom. And Alan Dershowitz was accused by Virginia Joffrey of sexual abuse. He denies it, he sued her for defamation, and she committed suicide in April. And her best friend, one of his mentees is Jelaine Maxwell's lawyer. And David Marcus, Jelaine Maxwell's lawyer

is also a good friend of Todd Blanch. How do I know that? Because Marcus has a little watch podcast that I happen to watch in which he interviewed Blanch a year ago. And they were guffawing and fawning over each other. And you're my first time to ever have a guest come back twice here on my podcast.

Oh, I'm honored. Hoo ha ha. So you know what's happened. That's been missed by mainstream media. Blanche is not going in to go meet with Maxwell blindly. He's already spoken to his buddy Marcus, right? And in that conversation, I'm sure he's been told that Jelaine Maxwell, follow me here,

is gonna exonerate Donald Trump. That's my working theory. Because if it was gonna be a crappy interview where she was gonna crap all over Donald Trump, do you think that Todd Blanch on behalf of Trump will be going in to meet with her? No. Marcus, I am sure, has already done what's called a proffer

and has proffered to his buddy Blanch what she's gonna say because she's campaigning for a pardon because she's gonna lose this appeal. That's up before the United States Supreme Court. Her sole basis for her appeal is that she should get the benefit of a non-prosecution agreement that Epstein signed with the US attorney in Miami 10, 15 years ago that she did not sign,

in which they agreed to let him plead guilty to a state court claim of soliciting a prostitution from a minor, and he signed that non-prosecution agreement. She's arguing she's entitled to the benefit of it, and she should have been prosecuted in New York because of the Florida non-prosecution agreement. Another go back to your bulletin board, another pin to put up, Alex Acosta, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida that entered into the Epstein deal,

was elevated to Donald Trump's Labor Secretary during the first term. Of all the people that Donald Trump could have picked, he picked the prosecutor that let Epstein off. So David Marcus is very smart with his relationship with Dershowitz, his relationship with Blanche. He's also admitted that he's in discussions with the Trump administration at the time

that Blanche is going to brief or get a proffer from Maxwell. And it's not gonna be alone. Marcus is gonna be sitting next to her, pulling the strings. So here's my prediction. This is a no-l lose for the Trump administration. If she plays by the script that Marcus has outlined

for Blanche, I'm sure. Blanche will come back and announce, I've met with her. We've taken a statement. She's exonerated the president and we're considering what she's done in a pardon application. If she craps on Trump, you'll never hear about it. Because he has no obligation to release notes,

he probably won't take notes, only if it's good for Trump. So it's not just, I know there's some people that are out there reporting like, well, he's trying to bury the whole Epstein thing, and one of the ways he's doing it is by meeting with her and giving her a pardon. No, it's more nefarious than that.

Is that she's going, she's under tremendous pressure, right? She's got a tremendous incentive to lie. She doesn't want to spend 17 more years in federal penitentiaries. This is a woman whose feet never touched the ground. She went from daddy Robert Maxwell, who was a fraudster who committed suicide in London. She went from his, not his bed,

but his house, house of luxury, lap of luxury, to being a Euro trash jet setter, and eventually becoming the girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein, and eventually getting young girls and grooming them for him to sexually exploit and rape. So she doesn't want to spend the rest of her natural born, you know, she's 63, she doesn't want to go to 83 in prison.

She'll say anything and Trump will take it. So you got to keep on a close eye on the relationship between David Oscar Marcus, Alan Dershowitz, his client, Jelaine Maxwell, and Todd Blanch for Donald Trump, because they are cooking the books right now in front of us. You watch. If I'm wrong, I'll come back on the intersection, I'll tell you I was wrong.

But my batting average is pretty good. So you got that going on. And then the House decides that they're going to both try to help Donald Trump and put themselves out of business for a month or so with a recess, a recess early because they don't want to face their members and they're feeling that Donald Trump is covering up Epstein.

And so to end it all, they're going to end their legislative session, meaning they're not passing any more laws to help you and me. Not that they were even doing that in the very beginning. And so the question I have for the recess is how much is Trump going to abuse the recess to make recess appointments, which under the Constitution, he the recess to make recess appointments which under the constitution he's allowed to make. Now there's never been a recess appointment of a judge because it only it lasts for about till the next session

of Congress, which is a year and a half away, like the midterms. So who wants to be a federal judge for a year and a half? But watch, email, someone said airmail, Amel Bovi, who's up for a lifetime appointment to be an appellate judge on the third circuit, who's Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer

and is also the number three in the Department of Justice, is getting stuck because he's got so many unsavory facts coming out against him in his confirmation process. Could he appoint on a recess appointment, Emil Boving? Yes. Could he appoint all of these US attorneys that haven't yet been filled? I mean, Donald Trump hasn't filled one US attorney's

position at all in six months, not one federal judge position in six months. You don't think he recognizes that you don't think Stephen Miller knows that in the White House. Watch for a series of cabinet positions, Senate confirmation required officer positions being filled by Donald Trump over this next 30 days or so. And they will stay in office until about a year and a half from now. We'll cover it all.

We'll focus on it, on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Let me switch gears and go to Alina Habba because it's delightful and I want to. And our audience wants me to. Alina Habba, perversely unqualified to be anything. I mean, let's audience wants me to. Alina Haba perversely unqualified to be anything. I mean let's be frank to be anything. She's the office wife of Donald Trump. She's a bootlicker and synchophan of the First Order. She was a low-light, low-level, never heard of her attorney before she wandered in on purpose into Bedminster to rub elbows with Donald Trump.

And he rewarded her. We can all, you can fill in the blanks and leave comments as to why. Habba fails up so many times, I almost lose track. She loses the criminal law, the criminal cases for Donald Trump. She contributes to the loss of the $500 million fraud case against Trump. She loses the E. Jean Carroll cases for $100 million.

And her reward is she becomes the spokesperson and the head of one of his PACs. Then she gets sucked into the White House in some White House counselor position like Kellyanne Conway used to hold. And then she gets put in New Jersey to be the acting interim US attorney for the entire state of New Jersey on the federal level.

She's not qualified. Have I said that before? She's not qualified as a lawyer, let alone to be a prosecutor. Never been a prosecutor. She never even been a municipal prosecutor. She never prosecuted traffic tickets. She's never been a federal litigator.

Right, she was a state court at best lawyer. She's never been a federal litigator, right? She was a state court at best lawyer. She's never been a federal law clerk. She's never clerked. She's never done anything to qualify her to be a federal prosecutor. And she admits it, because she self-proclaimed when she got the job. My job is to turn New Jersey from blue to red.

That sounds like a political hack, which Hakeem Jeffries just called her appropriately, where he called for the judges of New Jersey Federal Bench, 17 of them, to oppose extending her 120 days, because she got appointed as an acting interim 120 days ago at midnight tonight. But under the statute for that kind of appointment, she either has to get extended by the federal judges of that district, there's 17 of them, and they were

all Democratic President appointed. Or she's got to get confirmed by the Senate. She's never going to get confirmed by the Senate. because in order to get past the two senators that are blue standard senators in New Jersey, Senators Kim and Booker, they have to give her what's called the blue slip. It's a Senate privilege of a state and they are gonna, they have, and they will continue to block her. Donald

Trump won't be even though he blows through all protocols and traditions he won't be able to blow through a blue slip because Republicans are afraid if they give that up and in two years the House the Senate and the presidency goes to the Democrats they'll lose their ability to block federal judges they don't like and they're not gonna give that up for Donald Trump and Alina Abba. So he's got a brick wall at the end of the road. There was a vote today. 17 active judges in New Jersey all voted against Alina Abba

giving her more time. And they gave it instead to a hardworking Republican full-time career prosecutor. And I give that person a lot of credit because why would you even take that job? Right, you're gonna have it for a relatively short amount of time. But Desiree Grace, a Republican, federal law clerk,

New Jersey Supreme Court law clerk, worked in this office for about 10, 12 years, is Alina Haba's first assistant. She took the job. Now what could Donald Trump do about it? Because the headline is, judges block Alina Haba and she'll never get confirmed. But unfortunately, until it's challenged in court, and don't worry you don't have to put things in comments, well don't tell them, they've already done it. In the last two weeks, there is a guy named John Sarkony, John Sarkony, who is in the Northern District

of New York Federal Court, who got blocked by the judges there, and Donald Trump's attorney general and his instructions appointed him, get this from the constitution, a special attorney. And as a special attorney, sort of like a special counsel, she gave him the powers equivalent to being a US attorney in a district.

It doesn't need Senate confirmation and she tried to do it indefinitely. Now that's gotta get challenged in the courts by public interest groups. I'm looking at you ACLU, I'm looking at you democracy forward. You gotta challenge this as a violation of the statute about appointment and the constitution

that they are unconstitutionally appointed. He's going to do it again with Habba. If anybody thinks he's going, this is why I don't blow smoke or sunshine at the intersection. If anybody thinks that Donald Trump is way, you know, I don't blow smoke or sunshine at the intersection if anybody thinks that donald trump is going to take lying down pun intended Alina haba not getting the job that she wants that he wants for her get ready for bondy to appoint her as a special attorney now the irony and the hypocrisy of it

is that is the same provision of the Constitution that Donald Trump argued to Judge Cannon in Florida about Mar-a-Lago, he said that special attorneys or special prosecutors can't be appointed unless they're Senate confirmed and that the special attorney language there didn't apply to special prosecutors. Yet he's using that same provision to appoint Sokroni

and likely Habba as well. So for now, for now, we have Alina Habba who is out of a job. But don't be surprised in the next 24 to 48 hours if she's not back in the job. While Republicans are calling, they love the word fraud and interference. They're calling for a criminal referral of Hakeem Jeffries.

Not the only criminal referral I'm gonna talk about tonight. Criminal referral of Hakeem Jeffries because he posted on social media that Alina Haba was unqualified for the job and that the New Jersey judges should not extend her term. That's not, I don't know what they think a criminal case is. Basically, they should just look

at whatever Donald Trump does. That's effectively the criminal case you should be looking at. But again, profile encouraged. Desiree Grace doesn't need this. She's gonna have the job for a very short amount of time. I'm sure Donald Trump can fire her now, tomorrow, try to refill it or restart the clock

like he did with Jeanine Pirro as the acting US attorney in DC, but Ed Martin didn't have the votes. But we have to, in resistance, do extraordinary things and run into burning buildings. And so Desiree Grace gets my running into a burning building award.

I'm gonna come back and talk about, you saw my list. Everybody saw my list? I'm gonna come back and talk about Trump versus Powell and another taco moment for Donald Trump and the Federal Reserve. I'm gonna talk about the tariffs, the main tariff ambassador, Howard Lutnick, and how the company he's so closely aligned

and affiliated with is undermining the Trump tariffs and betting against them. What does that tell you? Everything you need to know about the Trump administration believing in these tariffs. And then Tulsi Gabbard, now I understand why they kept her around as a crash test dummy. She'll say anything and do anything.

And she's decided that notwithstanding, a 2019 Mueller report, a 2019 Inspector General report, a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence report, an intelligence community assessment signed off by senators, including Marco Rubio, and a 2023 John Durham special counsel report that she, she has seen the evidence and has found something in the 2,500 pages

to suggest to her that there is a seditious conspiracy at the highest levels of the intelligence community about the 2016 election. Now you know why Tulsi Gabbard is Donald Trump's head of national intelligence and wasn't fired after the Iran bombing. We'll cover it all when I come back. Now is the opportunity to help support

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and use code LegalAF for 60% off your order. Once again, that's alermy.com and use my promo code LegalAF for 60% off. Make sure you use my promo code LegalAFAF, for 60% off. Make sure you use my promo code, LegalAF, so they know I sent you. Welcome back to the intersection you're at with me, the intersection of law and politics, more importantly, the defense of our democracy. We vibrate on the same frequency.

And I'm glad you're here with me on this new podcast. Take a minute, hit the subscribe button for LegalAF, the YouTube channel for MidasTouch, and help this podcast continue to grow. Download the audio wherever you get your audio podcast from, hit the intersection and I'll be there. All right, let's get up with our get to Trump versus Powell. Well, let me cut to the chase. Spoiler alert. Jay Powell,

the central banker, the Federal Reserve is not getting fired by Donald Trump. I've said this before. You can go back and watch old reels of me. See how old I am. Old reels, pull up the reel to reel of Popak. The only thing that keeps the American economy tethered to the global economy and to America is the confidence that Wall Street

and financial service companies have for Jay Powell. I don't care that Howard Lutnick, formerly of Canterville Fitzgerald, who we'll talk about next, has bashed Jay Powell and Scott Bissette right on cue, the treasury secretary has bashed Jay Powell. Wall Street loves Jay Powell. In fact, they're trying to figure out how to hedge

in case Donald Trump went through with his threats to fire Jay Powell. What is his crime? Jay Powell's crime is that he's properly managing the monetary policy of America to keep the country from going into stagflation. Now there's already statistics that show we are in or about to go into a recession.

Disposable income, discretionary spending is down. And when that drops 60 years in a row, it means we're on the cusp of or in a recession. It may take a while for us to look back and see when the recession started. Jay Powell knows that. He sees more data than you and I forget in a day. And that group that sets rates

is keeping rates right where they are. They may cut them at their meeting, but they're not gonna do it in order to give free and cheap money to Donald Trump's failed economic policies and wallpaper over the fundamentals of the Trumponomics that are just terribly, terribly misguided. There's a reason that nobody in the Trump administration calls it Trumponomics.

Reaganomics, he embraced everything that made the economy roar. But since Donald Trump's economy is roaring in reverse, it's like the MGM lion, how they used to make the MGM lion. They took a roar and did it in reverse. That's Donald Trump. That's why he doesn't call it Trumponomics, because it's not helping the average American.

It's not helping any Americans. When year over year, the consumer price index is up almost 3%, year over year, that means if you were struggling before, you're gonna have to go find 3% more money now for your basics. And then he sends out people on his morning talk shows,

like the commerce secretary, the laughing, giggling hyena of Howard Lutnick, who just sits there with his perma-smile as a billionaire and says, you're enjoying the lowest inflation, aren't you? No, no one's enjoying inflation. That's an oxymoron, you know? Yet he brags about it. It's gonna be the greatest two weeks in the history of trade.

He's a guy that doesn't even understand trade. His companies weren't involved in trade, in setting tariffs. So when Donald Trump threatened to go after Jay Powell and now put up one of his MAGA synchophants representative Luna, Looney Luna out of Florida to offer a criminal referral of Jay Powell, because she doesn't like the cost overruns for the, you know, 100 year old federal reserve building that ran into some structural problems and some issues related to construction costs, mainly after COVID,

and has gone, as most construction projects, has gone in the red, it must be fraud. It must be a crime, criminal referral of J-PAL. It's because Donald Trump realizes that the United States Supreme Court, even the court that's in his back pocket, the MAGA right wing, is not gonna allow him to fire

the Federal Reserve Chairman without cause. How do I know that? Because they issued an opinion in May in a case involving Gwen Wilcox, the head of the National Labor Relations Board that was fired by Donald Trump. And they said, you cannot fire the Federal Reserve Chairman without cause.

Supreme Court warned Donald Trump. Credit rating agencies have warned Donald Trump. When Barons lowered the credit rating for the United States, in other words, gave it a bad credit score, When Barons lowered the credit rating for the United States, in other words, gave it a bad credit score, increasing the cost for us to borrow, they said, if you get rid of the Fed chairman,

we're gonna re-evaluate lowering the credit rating again. First time in 150 years we didn't enjoy a AAA rating. So Donald Trump knows he can't get rid of Jerry, of J-Powell, Jerome Powell, despite all the campaigning, you know? Despite him walking around saying he's got a letter of termination in his back pocket, he's ready to send to J-Powell,

and everybody's like, oh, I'm in the Luna, the same Luna that she was in the meeting with Donald Trump last week. I'm in the meeting, J-Powell's gonna get fired. No, he's not. And now Donald Trump has blinked and announced effectively that he's not firing Jay Paul, unless they find fraud. So there's two major buildings

that make up the Federal Reserve in Washington. They were built in the 1930s. They sit on a swamp. So the infrastructure and the foundation is sinking and has cracks and has problems. Plus the building has asbestos that has to be removed and all different things to make the building work. They really should have just tore it down.

It would have been cheaper to tear it down and start all over again, then get up to the $2 billion. I think it started at a billion dollar budget, and now it's two and a half. They should have just tore it down and built a new building. Miami had the same exact,

I know it from, because I lived here, Miami had the exact same problem with a historic courthouse in Miami-Dade on Flagler, 70 West Flagler. Gorgeous building, built in the 1910s and filled with asbestos and sinking. And it just sat there rotting away, its innards rotting away.

And they talked a lot about tearing it down and building a new building, although it's historic and all this stuff. This is even worse, two buildings that are conjoined that have to be redesigned, shored up. And then every time Jay Powell wanted to put glass to show transparency of the Federal Reserve, Republicans on the committee about the building

wanted marble, which is more expensive. COVID, logistics, supply chain, more expensive. But to the crazies on the Republican side, it must be fraud by the Federal Reserve, why? Because that'll give them grounds to try to fire Jay Powell. I don't see them firing Jay Powell. They're pressuring him to within an inch of his life, but they're not gonna take him out before May, 2026,

when his Federal Reserve chairmanship ends. He's got two more years after that to be on the Board of Governors. But we're experiencing now another taco moment. Now the rates might come down a tick, not because he's being pressured, but because the economic data suggests that that's probably the right thing to do at this moment.

To Donald Trump and to his people around him, again, they want the Federal Reserve to bail them out of their failed economic policies. And the polling says it. Not that Donald Trump appears to be swayed by polling, but the polls tell him 70% hate his immigration policies and chasing other human beings through the streets and deporting them to parts unknown without due process.

Hate it. The same percentage or even higher, 70%, believe in the independence of the Federal Reserve and that they should be free of interference from Donald Trump. So every major poll, 65% of people in the most recent poll believe that Donald Trump's economic policy is not working for them, is making it harder for them, is making them poorer, including rural and red

state America, people who have voted against their interests for quite a long time. So Trump versus Powell, Trump blinks. Powell stays. Economy stays tethered to planet Earth. It's a good thing. We don't have to worry about Wall Street traders and brokers trying to hedge their bets about, you know, a hedge a J Powell firing. That would be tied up in the courts by the way unless he threw in the towel and said I don't want to fight it. There are some people out there that are suggesting that to save the independence of the federal reserve Jay Powell should go. I disagree. Jay Powell should stay right where he is, where we can keep an eye on him and where he can do a great job and be the only adult in the room

apparently that doesn't have a political bent and only has what's right for America in his mind. Now, speaking of people who aren't in their right mind and aren't doing things that are right for America but only for themselves, no I'm not just describing Donald Trump. Let's turn to the Commerce Secretary. There is nothing, nothing says I don't believe in the policies that I'm selling on television every day and every week, like his former company betting against the Trump administration and their tariffs. Howard Lutnick, who ran, didn't found it, but ran for 30 plus years a company called

Canter Fitzgerald, I worked there, not recently, I worked there, not recently. I worked there as a lawyer. He turned over allegedly the reins of power to his two sons. One was a 28 year old former DJ. The other one was I think two years younger than that, just graduated college. So there, but what's the word I'm looking for? Running the company. And they announce that they opened up a new business at Canter Fitzgerald, or Canter Fitzgerald & Co, their investment bank. They're gonna start buying from people

their overpayment for tariffs, betting that the tariffs are gonna get reversed as being unconstitutional by courts. Did you hear what I just said? The Commerce Secretary's company, the one he just left where he made billions of dollars, that's made over 50% increase in revenue just since he's been affiliated with Donald Trump

year over year, that company, Cantor Fitzgerald & Co., is going to gladly buy hundreds of millions of dollars of tariff claims for people who paid their tariffs, but believe they're gonna be entitled to a refund or will get a refund when the tariffs are destroyed in the courts. And betting against Donald Trump

is Howard Lutnick's old firm. Here's how it works. You pay $10 million in tariffs that eventually get declared unconstitutional by a court. I'll come back to that. You take your $10 million payment and your claim, and you sell it to Cantor Fitzgerald for $2 million. You see where the profit comes in.

Cantor gives you a check for $2 million, you go on your way. Cantor holds the paper for $10 million. When and if the tariffs get reversed, you go in and you get the refund and you pocket $8 million on a $2 million investment. And they're gonna do this according to their own internal confirmation. They're gonna do this according to their own internal confirmation.

They're gonna do this hundreds of millions of times. But in order for this to be successful, the tariffs have to fail. Now who's the number one shiller and promoter of tariffs? Daddy Warbucks, sorry, Daddy Lutnik, whose sons run his company that set up this bet against the tariff scheme to profit. It's not just the optics are terrible.

It is unethical and terrible, but it also tells you that they don't even believe in their own tariff system. Now, why would the tariffs be ripped down and declared unconstitutional? One court already found it, the Court of International Trade. Because under the Constitution, it is Congress that has the sole power to impose tariffs.

It is Congress alone. Congress gave certain limited powers to the person occupying the presidency under International Economic Powers Act, AIPA. But what emergency are we in? What's the emergency? That's like you use it in COVID, you use it with the oil embargo in the 1970s,

you use it during a war. What is it? He doesn't like the Biden tariff policies, so that's the emergency? No. And the Court of International Trade said, you do not have the right to use that provision to undermine the separated powers of Congress

that are exclusive in this area, Trump, to impose tariffs on 170 people. Remember that Rose Garden April event attended by Howard Lutnick and Donald Trump? They announced all the tariffs and Howard Lutnick and and Donald Trump they announced all the tariffs and Howard Lutnick ran up there with the big the big sign with all the the tariffs and then we used our binoculars and figured out they were all FACACTA and the math didn't work on any of them. 170 tariffs or so were threatened that day. We're six months out. They keep talking about the same deal with Vietnam

for the last 90 days. They talked about a deal with China, I haven't seen it. They don't have a deal with the European Union in 27 countries. They don't have a deal with Canada, Mexico, Brazil or China. So what are they bringing? Oh, the next two weeks, always two weeks.

Howard Leibniz actually said on Sunday morning talk shows, two more weeks would be the best two weeks in the history. Oh my God, America is gonna be so happy with the deals that we're making. Like Vietnam. Stop, will you stop beating the horse of Vietnam over this? These are terrible. And when these tariffs get refunded,

it comes out of the federal treasury. Let me explain that. They made a big, a big, a big to-do about nothing in July when $56 billion worth of tariff revenue came in. Woo, we got 56 billion. Of course, they cut over one trillion with a T revenue collection from internal revenue from corporations and high net worth individuals.

So 56 billion doesn't fix one trillion missing. But even the 56 billion is a mirage. Because when the tariffs get struck down and they're in the courts now and they'll make it to the United States Supreme Court next term, coming off a win for anti-tariff people at the Court of International Trade and another win at DC with another federal judge, when those get reversed, where do you think it comes out of? The 56 billion plus that's been collected. And the hole gets bigger and the national debt gets bigger by trillions of dollars. comes out of the 56 billion plus that's been collected. And the hole gets bigger. And the national debt gets bigger by trillions of dollars. And the deficit gets bigger by trillions of dollars. And the cost of borrowing to fix the problem

is heaped on to your shoulders and my shoulders and my one-year-old daughter's shoulders into the future. As social security is wrecked, Medicare is wrecked, Medicaid is wrecked, there are political consequences for these things, there should be. And that is coming up at the midterms. So when I read that Brandon Lutnick and his brother, the other one,

are buying people's tariff claims, cents on the dollar, betting against the Trump administration. Remember that the next time you see a smiling jackal-faced Howard Lutnick laughing and giggling about high inflation for the American consumer. All right, so let me wrap up the intersection with Tulsi Gabbard, because I have to. So Tulsi Gabbard, I was wondering why they were keeping her around. They left her out of the intelligence briefing related to the Iran bombing.

She hasn't been heard from in the last month or two. And I'm like, maybe she's going to get canned. She was never qualified to be the director of national intelligence for which 17 different intelligence agencies report. I mean, we have a CIA director, John Ratcliffe, who's really the chief spy master, but Tulsi's there. And Tulsi though, I see why they've been keeping her around

like a crash test dummy or weekend at Bernie's. Because she gets to announce things that are ridiculous. Like telling a podcaster that she's seen the evidence, including quote unquote new evidence that suggests that there is a seditious conspiracy at the highest levels of the intelligence community for the 2016 conclusions by the intelligence community that Russia tried to interfere with the election. Let me just say this straight,

for anybody with a brain cell in their head, I'm not looking at you Tulsi Gabbard, anybody that's carbon based, the Russians, the North Koreans, the Iranians back in the day have been trying to interfere with the elections in America forever. They do it through social media. They do it through trolls. They do it through Facebook. They do it now through AI and AI generated things. and they've been trying to put their big fat thumb on the scale in favor of Donald Trump because they want Donald Trump.

They want his erratic behavior, his conduct. They want his destabilizing nature. They want to make us weaker. They want us at each other's throats and seething. And so does Donald Trump, who is their witting or unwitting accomplice or at least beneficiary of that interference. Now Tulsi Gabbard could not have possibly, she couldn't rub two sticks together to make a fire, she couldn't possibly have found new evidence

which she's failed to identify. Let me remind everybody, or tell you upfront firsthand now, the whether Russia colluded with Donald Trump or acted in a way to get him elected that he willingly accepted, which is really the way to think about it, that has been evaluated by the 2019 Mueller Report, the 2019 Inspector General's Report about the Mueller Report. The 2020 Bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee Report.

The Intelligence Community Assessment, which was adopted by Senator Marco Rubio and five other senators on the Intelligence Committee. And I'm not done. The 2023 John Durham Special Counsel appointed by Donald Trump report, there's over 2,500 pages of information. And Tulsi Gabbard announces today,

while Donald Trump is embroiled in the pedophilia rape conspiracy coverup, today she decides she found something she won't identify that suggests seditious conspiracy, the highest level of conspiracy, that was missed by all of these reports and investigators and prosecutors. That's pretty thin gruel as one local media outlet called it. But it's just, it's just the distraction machine, right? Whenever Donald Trump needs to distract

from a bad news story that's terrible for him politically, he hits a button and they start activating, you know, other shiny objects and squirrels to chase. Epstein files, Epstein files, released 60,000 pages of Martin Luther King Jr. assassination files. Who called for that? The family didn't even call for that. Epstein files, Epstein files, seditious conspiracy. I found at the highest level, I just discovered it, I'm not going to tell you what it is though. Probably, they'll probably be criminal referrals. Donald Trump quickly posts a meme of Obama in prison garb. What do Obama

have to do with anything? 2016 election. Yeah. And the 2016 election, Trump won, last I looked. So I really don't get all this except that right on cue, whether it's representative Anna Luna from Florida or Tulsi Gabbard, used to be Marjorie Taylor Greene or Alina Habba or Laura Looney Loomer, got the Luna and the Loomers. Right-wing media, Charlie Kirk, Jack Posobiak, they all go into the rapid response for 47 mode,

just churning out propaganda that I then have to catch, discuss, break apart, and do an explainer on, which I'm happy to do it, on shows like The Intersection. I'm gonna start next Tuesday taking questions in advance and during the show and using my producer to have a section, a segment of the show where I answer your questions.

I don't even wanna call it Stump the Popok, but I'm gonna do it. If you're interested in that and you'd like to see that on this show, I'm gonna crowdsource vote this, put it in comments. In fact, we'll put up a poll tonight. Should Popok take questions from the audience in advance and during the show and answer them on the fly,

thumbs up or thumbs down. While I gotcha, come on over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel that I curate. We do 12 new videos a day at the intersection of law and politics and a fed democracy. Hit the subscribe button there. Legal AF, the substack. Yes, we got about almost 70,000 people there.

We post in the substack all of the filings that we talk about in court and opinions of Supreme courts and that type of thing, along with commentary and videos and all that great stuff. Legal AF substack. We've got a brand new Instagram. Yes, a Legal AF Instagram. You can find it Legal AF Substack. We've got a brand new Instagram. Yes, a Legal AF Instagram. You can find it Legal AF MTN, Legal AF Instagram.

Same address as our YouTube. And then here, of course, besides Legal AF, the podcast that I do with Ben Misalas and Karen Freeman-Iknifilow, I've got this brand new show. You're on it. You're the inaugural group. We're vibing together, right? You're picking up what I'm laying down. If you like what I'm doing,

come on over, hit the subscribe button, hit the like button, leave comments, come over to the podcast, audio podcast platforms like Apple, put in the intersection, find the show, download it, send it to your friends, leave a comment, five star review, I in the intersection, find the show, download it, send it to your friends, leave a comment, five star review, I read the comments. And then more audio downloads. I feel like Chick-fil-A or something. We need more audio downloads in order to signal to the algorithmic gods you like the show

and put us top of the ratings. And then of course we've got our pro-democracy sponsors. I'll be back next Tuesday. Let me know in the polling whether you want me to answer questions at a speed round here on PO-POK, or sorry, it used to be PO-POK Live, the intersection with Michael Popok.

Till my next report on all things Legal AF, this is Michael Popok signing off. I'm Michael Popok, and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me as the co-founder of Midas Touch's Legal AF and the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now, building on what we started together on Legal AF,

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