Legal AF by MeidasTouch - The Intersection with Michael Popok Full Episode - 8/19/2025

Episode Date: August 20, 2025

Trump’s losing battle to topple the democracy is on full display, as President Zelensky shows how you negotiate from strength; 21 State Attorneys General file a new suit to make sure billions of dollars earmarked for crime victims is not blocked to make cheap political points by Trump; Big Law Firms who “settled” with Trump refuse to provide him with any services; Trump’s DOJ admits out loud that its conducting “vindictive prosecutions” and AG Bondi is accused of another corruption scandal. Michael Popok is at The Intersection to rip the mask off of Trump’s corrupt tactics and policies. Delete Me: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join https://deleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. 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

Td Bank knows that running a small business is a journey, from startup to growing and managing your business. That's why they have a dedicated small business advice hub on their website to provide tips and insights on business banking to entrepreneurs. No matter the stage of business you're in, visit td.com slash small business advice to find out more or to match with a TD small business banking account manager. What a week, and it only just started. You're on the intersection with Michael Popock exclusively on the Midas Touch Network. All right, let's dive in. I don't even need an intro. I just want to get to it.

Let's start with the stupid. And we'll probably because we talk a lot about the Trump administration and back with the stupid before this whole thing is over. And I just have to call it out for what it is. So Pam Bondi, and when she issued it, her new proclamation taking over the D.C. Police Department without taking over the police department in D.C. She issued a proclamation that started with a whole bunch of gibberish, a whole bunch of lies about the crime rate in D.C. And she had this one line in there about despite

the fact that certain people in the D.C. Police Department are fudging the numbers, this is my paraphrase, and are cooking the books when it comes to the statistics of violent crime, we can see it with our own eyes. And I was like, what is she even talking about? Violent crime is down 25% in D.C. It has been for quite some time, at least in 2024. But now, as I go on the air, she announces a yet another investigation. They're opening an investigation to determine if anybody's been fudging the numbers in D.C. Look, you lost. How do I put this succinctly? You lost in court, okay? Brian Schwalber, who is the only Attorney General, I respect in D.C., who's the D.C. Attorney General, kicked your butt in court.

Judge Reyes looked the Department of Justice in the eye after a hearing last Friday and said, I am going to enter an injunction. You can't take over the D.C. Police Department because you feel like it. Under the Home Rule Act. Now, go in the hallway and negotiate a settlement. That's what Judge Reyes did. And they came back with, we've got a settlement. Bondi's going to re-rechurch.

tracked her executive order, her Bondi order, about the takeover of the police department. And she's going to go through the mayor and the police chief like she has to. But she had to put in that political screed at the top of the order. And now to back it up, she says, we're opening an investigation into whether the crime rate has been, the crime rate numbers have been manipulated by people in power in D.C. I got bad news for you. Look over your shoulder. There's a guy named Ed Martin sitting there.

You appointed him to be the head of your weaponization committee. And what he was still the acting interim U.S. attorney for D.C. before Janine Piro got the job because he couldn't get confirmed, he issued his own, his own press release and memo in April, in which he said, wait for it, crime rate is down 25% in D.C. And he credited Donald Trump. So did Ed Martin manipulate the numbers? It's the same numbers. When you're using the Ed Martin Department of Justice approved statistics, you shouldn't be opening up an investigation around it, right? But speaking of Ed Martin, as long as we're on the Ed Martin topic, there's a reason that I call sometimes now the Department of Justice the headline grabbing department, because they have no intention nor ability to obtain any convictions or indictments for the things that.

they mention that are political in nature, like, let's open up an investigation about Barack Obama. Let's open an investigation about Adam Schiff, the senator from California. Let's do it for Letitia James, the New York Attorney General. And then you don't hear anything else. Why? Because they know that they'll never be able to get indictments for these people because they didn't commit crimes. And if they did, their indictments would be dismissed at the outset under a little principle we call vindictive prosecution, which is exactly what it sounds like.

You're not allowed to go after people vindictively if you don't really truly believe they committed any crimes. You can't start rummaging around in their lives and in their trash cans, their garbage cans, their bedroom, their drawers, just because they're a political enemy. We have a doctrine that prevents that in our system of due process and civil liberties. It's called vindictive prosecution.

And Ed Martin, I just did a hot take on this on Midas Touch. Ed Martin goes on Maria Barteromo, propagandist in chief for the Trump administration, and says out loud that he's conducting vindictive prosecution and investigations. I mean, no other way to interpret what Ed Martin just said out loud. He said, well, we're going to look at Letitia James. We're going to look at Adam Schiff.

And not just at what they're being accused of by the reform. referral, where's the referral come from? The Nepo baby, Bill Pulte, anybody live in a Pulte home? I don't. Anybody live in a Pulte home? It came from his parents, his grandparents. He's now Donald Trump's, you know, attack dog in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, you know. And so he files this phony allegations of mortgage fraud against Schiff and Letitia James.

And that, so that's part of the conspiracy. Then it goes to Pam Bondi, who then sends it over to Ed Martin and sends it over to John Sarkony, Northern District of New York acting interim MAGA prosecutor. And Ed Martin goes, well, I got the referral right here, but we're not going to stop there. Oh, no, Ed? You're not going to stop at the referral about the mortgage fraud issue? No, told Maria Bartramo.

He said, when somebody commits crimes that are ethical, they're committing crimes that are unethical about a lot of different things. We're going to do a full review of their life. No, that's not how our criminal justice system works, Ed. I know you were a MAGA defense lawyer for a long time. You were never a prosecutor. But that's not how that works. He admitted out loud.

That will be Exhibit A in the motion to dismiss the indictment for vindictive prosecution. Well, we got them now. We're going to do a full-blown proctologist-style examination of everything in their life. No, you're not. No, you're not. And federal judges are going to have to monitor it. Now, normally federal judges stay out of it. until there's an indictment.

But when statements like that, you might have the opportunity for somebody to step forward. Lord knows, Eileen Cannon in Florida, stepped in the middle and tried to interfere with criminal investigations being conducted by Jack Smith before there was an indictment. You know, it's good for the goose is good for the gander, Ed.

Thanks for talking out loud. It's always a gift with this administration. I'm so glad you're here, by the way, on the intersection. So many amazing things to talk about. an audience we are building. What a group and a community we were building here just around the intersection on Tuesday nights on the Midas Touch network. Some people know me, I guess only from the intersection. I finally got my own show. Five years with the brothers. They said, all right, throw Popok the keys. Let's see what happens. And what's happening is amazing. Continuing what we started with the Midas Touch community building, that for legal AF community building, we've got the intersection. And the podcast, the way to help us long as we're taking a break here come over to the audio versions of legal a f of sorry the intersection and download it leave comments and five-star reviews blow a little like it's like bellows with a flame or the embers just blow a little love that way send this clip to people in your life

right watch it download it listen to it all that good stuff five-star reviews and then of course i'm on i'm sort of the master of ceremonies on all things legal a f over on the legal a f youtube channel legal AFMTN. You can hit the subscribe button there as well. And I'm really excited about our legal AF substack. I'm just very proud of it, but excited by the community that we're building there. Come over there. We got over 70,000 people on legal AF substack. It's the number 10 with a bullet rising on news and politics on the substack as it's rated. And I'm doing lives there every day, twice a day, one of the morning, one of the afternoon. Sometimes we guess, sometimes just me. but I instantly can bring that community together and talk to them and brief them and debrief them on things that are at the intersection of law and politics.

So come meet me there on legal AF substack. And while you're there, take a moment, hit the paid membership. We're looking for some more paid membership to really get some more juice flowing in this ecosystem around legal AF and support us. And that's the way to do it. It's about the price of a cup of coffee a month to support legal AF substack. All right, let's get back to, we started with Pam Bondi opening up yet another phony investigation so she can get the headlines. I said it's the headline Department of Justice, you know. Department of Justice opens probe against Schiff and Letitia James.

Yeah, okay. Where's that going to go? We'll follow it, though. We'll follow it close. We follow all these stories closely. I'll give you another example. Seven months ago, Donald Trump with great fanfare announced that he had settled with nine or ten different major mega law firms who had been. violating diversity, equity, and inclusion, and racial discrimination because they've been hiring

too many black and women partners in the law firms? I don't even understand that attack. But that was a phony attack anyway. And we settled with them for $1 billion, big number for pro bodeo services, free legal services for all things Trump. And we're like, oh, crap, really? Why did that happen? And then, you know, some firms fought back and won in federal court, but these other firms, including one that I worked at, full disclosure, named Scaden, ARPS settled. And then I wondered, what happened in the last seven months? Are they doing anything? Are they helping the Trump administration? And it's a mixed bag. Some law firms have basically put up the middle finger and they haven't allowed Trump to cash in any of his free legal service.

Now, the reason Trump went after these law firms is obvious, just like he's going after the banks now that wouldn't bank with him. You know, he's a fraudster. He's a judge sex abuser. He's a indicted interferer with elections. He's a convicted felon. And law firms didn't want to touch him with a 10-foot pole. He was radioactive. Major law firms were like pass.

So that's why Donald Trump was left with like this hodgepodge collection of loser lawyers, Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. You know, last gasp. You know, they should have been put out to pasture a long time ago, mentally unstable. Captains of Team Crazy. you know and Ken Chesboro you never heard of all these lawyers nobody in my field ever heard of

and even the lawyers that work for major law firms they had to leave their major law firm because the major law firms didn't want to represent Donald Trump that's how we got Todd Blanche that's how we got Emil Bovey that's how we got Chris Kice and Donald Trump always stuck in his craw but the major New York firms a lot of them based in New York turned their back on him and so he went after them as soon as he could and what he went for it was the the soft underbelly of the firms. Not their money making, but the two places he knew they were vulnerable. One, they had a DEI program. Oh, Lord. Yes, they did. They did and they do, and they should, to help promote black and brown communities and women, women, into the upper echelon of the law

profession. I'm ashamed to say that big law of which I was apart did a terrible and horrendous job, even with DEI programs in promoting women, women, period, and people of color into the partnership, not just associates, but the way law firms are structured, right? You've got associates, you've got mid-level associates, you've got senior associates, you've got of counsel or special counsel, then you've got partner, and then you've got equity partner and management committee and women and people of color just got stuck at the special council maybe partner but not equity partner meaning no power no ownership status and that's with the programs functioning you know the the number of black partners at major american lawyer 20 law firms you can count on

i think two hands women maybe four hands it's not enough we're talking about about tens of thousands of lawyers at these top firms and coming out of these top law schools. And they're in the law schools. I went to law school 35 years ago. I had with me amazing, talented, brighter than me, women and black and brown colleagues, you know, minority colleagues in my class at a top 10 law school that were my equal or greater. So the talent is there. And they did the federal clerkships, and they went and summered in law firms like I did, and they had the, and then what happened? And then nothing. That's because of the problem within major law firms. And so Donald Trump didn't like this. Your DEI programs, we don't, there's not

enough white lawyers. Is that the problem? There's not, I mean, there's not enough white Jewish lawyers in New York. Is that the problem? And then he went after their pro bono programs. Why pro bono programs. That's where we give back as a profession for free, for the downtrodden, for the underprivileged, to those who can't afford $1,500 to $2,000 an hour of legal time, but deserve the same legal talent in their cases. Ruby Freeman and Shea Moss, I'll use that as an example, the Fulton County election workers' mother and daughter who were attacked mercilessly by MAGA and by Rudy Giuliani until Wilkie Farr and Gallagher with their pro bono program represented them and got a $158 million judgment against Rudy Giuliani and then they stopped.

But today, Wilkie Far and Gallagher wouldn't take that case. Today, Wilkie Far and Gallagher paid $100 million in free pro bono time to Donald Trump. I just had on the show, Robbie Kaplan, E. Gene Carroll's lawyer. But she's so much more than just E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, even though they're about to take $100 million. dollars off of Donald Trump. Second Circuit just ruled again for E.J. and Carol on an $83 million judgment of hers in her favor. One more ruling left, and then it's the Supreme Court. So she is at the 11 p.m. on the clock, and midnight she gets her $100 million.

This is E. Jean Carroll. But Robbie Kaplan, when she was a partner in a law firm, Major Paul Weiss, she worked on a pro bono case representing Ms. Windsor, in a case that led ultimately to same-sex marriage being approved by the United States Supreme Court as a constitutional right, she did that as a young partner in Paul Weiss in the pro bono program for free, taking Edie Windsor's case about her marriage in Canada to her wife, and that led ultimately to the precedent that led to same-sex marriage. That wouldn't happen today with Donald Trump's attack on pro bono programs. So that's the way you went after those two things.

So I looked at the pro bono programs. I think Bloomberg Law did it, Wall Street Journal did it, and here's what I found. Two of the firms, Kirkland and Ellis and Skad and ARPs, I worked at Skadden, remember, are doing work for the Commerce Department and Howard Lucknick on their tariffs. Okay. So that's one. Okay. And that's about it.

And that's about it. There are some other law firms that have actually decided they're going to sue the Trump administration. Milbank Tweed is suing the Trump administration and representing a couple of cities in some sanctuary city litigation, suing the proud boys, so that's happening, and some other firms, and even Paul Weiss. I'm sorry, Paul Weiss is suing the proud boys. So Donald Trump's not able to cash in on this $100 billion, this $1 billion so far. And then the reporting that came out of the New York Times is that Boris Epstein, who put together Donald Trump's legal team, such as such as it was, which is now all in the Department of Justice.

John Sauer, Solicitor General, Todd Blanche, Emil Bovey, all these guys were put together by Boris Epstein. He's the one that negotiated with all the law firms, and he's the one that hired Scadnorp's and Kirkland and Ellis to work for the Commerce Department for Donald Trump. But other than that, even though it was to much fanfare, they're not caving to Donald Trump, even though they signed a deal to do so. You've got 14,000 Harvard alum, alumna and alumni, who are telling Harvard not to settle. Even though we're getting closer, get ready. I want to manage expectations. We're getting closer to a $500 million or so announced settlement with Harvard University with Donald Trump. I mean, he's going after my alma mater, Duke.

He's going after, he went after Columbia and got a settlement and Brown and got a settlement. And all he's doing is making America less technologically advanced, less scientifically advanced, less medically advanced. Because most of medical technology and just technology in general and health care technology and health care advances come out of these universities and Donald Trump is attacking them, taking their money from them, which they weren't wasting, they were using for medical breakthroughs and technology breakthroughs. It's another way that Donald Trump. is undermining our national security and our ability to be healthy and happy. But that's not the only way he does that. I mean, look what he just did in the White House with Zelensky. I followed this very closely on the legal AF substack.

Whatever happened on Monday was a complete and utter disgrace and debacle for American diplomacy, the American presidency, and the American reputation around the world. There's no other way. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Donald Trump crapped the bed. Am I allowed to say that on this show? Shit the bed in Alaska.

Yeah, under a banner of pursuing peace where he got his ass kicked and his lunch eaten in front of him by the bully in Putin. And Donald Trump walked into that, walked into it leading with his chin and got knocked out. And therefore, America is lesser for it

and Zelensky was undermined by it. As we watch the optics of American soldiers not only bending the knee, but bending over to iron and fix a red carpet that Donald Trump couldn't even walk down properly in front of Putin, bowing in front of Putin. That's what it looked like. That's the optics as Donald Trump applauded it. I mean, you can't make this up.

Can you imagine if Joe Biden or a Democrat, did any of this? Then Donald Trump puts him in a warm embrace, puts him in the back of his SUV, drives off to get to the meeting. And then from there on end, it was Putin, Putin, Putin. And Donald Trump got his lunch eating. And then knowing that he had failed in Alaska, no ceasefire, no repercussions for no ceasefire, no trade sanctions for Putin. Putin got a 50-50 shot of obtaining more land and more territory in Ukraine that he's been able to obtain in three years of war. he would never obtain in three more years of war

but Donald Trump was going to give it to him like it was Sunday pot roast here you go here's the rest of the Donboss you know with Ukrainian lives hanging in the balance so that was the Alaska visit where they left behind papers

in a copier that we all picked up and learned more about it then it was so bad that they had a scramble to choreograph a meeting on Monday and bring in Zelensky to save Donald Donald Trump's bacon and not the other way around. And so the European Union and Zelensky, smarter than Donald Trump, said, we're canceling

our summer vacation. We're going to get to the White House in less than a day altogether because we have to ensure that Zelensky comes out stronger going into the White House than he did last time. I mean, in terms of his negotiation posture with Putin. And so you had seven major EU leaders along with NATO flying at the last minute to go to Washington. When have you ever in history seen that? Diplomatic visits take months, if not a year, to plan. They did this in hours because of how that's how bad Alaska was. That's how bad Alaska was. In World War II, you know, the United States helped out and bailed out Europe under attack by the

Axis powers led by Hitler. Europe just bailed us out. I mean, there's no other way to put it. Europe just bailed our ass out. And Zelensky, there was only one strong leader in that room in negotiations. And his name was Zelensky, not Donald Trump. And still, not only is there no ceasefire, not only is there no plan for the next meeting, it's just a bunch of empty promises. It's the best Zelensky could obtain, you know, given the hand that he was dealt. He was very smart in how he manipulated Donald Trump. I said in a hot take recently. I'm not a big MMA fighter person, but I do understand the sport. And it's like Zelensky got Donald Trump

within the first two minutes into a submission hold. And that was it. And Donald Trump had to submit, you know. First he wore the military suit, right? He didn't capitulate to the White House Protocol Office about, you better dress up, wear a suit and tie. And he handed a letter to Trump about, from his wife to Melania.

Like, that was genius. Just genius. And then what happens during it? The other participant that the mainstream media hasn't reported on that was actually in the room was Putin. Yes, Putin was at the meeting too. He was inside of Donald Trump's head renting space. And he actually made a phone call. Donald Trump took a phone call, made a phone call to Putin during the meeting.

And then comes back with a hot mic moment telling McRod, yeah, I think, I know it sounds crazy, but he really wants to make a deal. No, he doesn't. He wants to exploit your lust for the. Nobel Prize and try to get a deal that benefits only Russia and does nothing on European national security or the security of Ukraine. And then he makes a phone call after taking the call from Putin, Donald Trump makes a phone call to the Hungary to Hungary's president, Orban, to try to get Orban to drop his opposition to Ukraine joining the EU. So we're not going to put NATO, we're not going to

put Ukraine into NATO, but we're going to put it into the European Union. Okay. I guess that's one way to make lemonade at a lemons. And then what is, and how else does Putin enter the room? He bombs Kiev and other cities before the meeting, killing 11 people, including children. Because that's who we're dealing with. And Donald Trump, you know, forget about the checkers and chess analogy. This, this is a violent dictator madman on one side and a mad president of, on the other. And our national security is undermined as a result. When we come back to the

intersection, I want to talk about national security, the Posse Convitatis Act, and the D.C. case about the new Attorney General suit brought by 21 attorneys general, including Rob Bonta from California and Matt Placken from New Jersey, who I just interviewed, and it will be up on legal AF YouTube tomorrow, or it will be this week at least, about the new lawsuit that was just in Rhode Island. I want to talk about, like I said, Possecomitatis Act and national security. And Donald Trump's use of the, of the, of national security as a way to gain more power and what federal judges are doing in resistance. And for that, I have, uh, Hina, Hamsu, sorry, Hina Shamsi, sorry about that, Hina Shumsey, who is the director of the national security project for the American

Civil Liberties Unit, Union. She joined me for an interview to talk. talk about these very things, it will be up on LegalAF Substack tomorrow, for sure. And then the Department of Justice and its corruption is burst out into the open again with new allegations from the number two in the Department of Justice's antitrust division about corruption led by Pam Bondi and her number three, Stan Woodward, related to pay to play in the mergers and acquisitions world. We're going to talk about all that and some new developments in the Epstein Files case when we come back from the intersection. So how do you support the intersection?

It's a podcast. So you're watching. That's great. We get two or 300,000 people watching. We get, and I'll be answering some questions as well. We get audio downloads, and you want to rate us there, five-star rating on Apple and Spotify and all of that. But as a YouTube podcast, YouTube ranks the top 100.

We've been in the top 100 before, but with more views and more stuff going on there at the intersection, we can continue to ratchet up. those ratings. And it's important that people say, it's not ego. It's algorithm. It keeps us on the air. We don't have outside investors. We don't have a corporate parent. This is it. And the other way to support my work is on the legal AF substack. Come over to legal AF substack. I'm doing live reports there every day, new editorials, new writings. And if you join as a paid member, there's a whole host of other features that are exclusive to you. Legal AF paid membership, I think it's $8.

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Really do appreciate that. Let's get down to business to round out the intersection for this week. Let me start with a new lawsuit that was just filed by the Attorney General's. The gang of 21 is back, led by New Jersey and California, Rhode Island, and other states. They just filed a new lawsuit. I have it right here. It's up on LegalAF Substack as well. against the Trump administration trying to victimize the victims of crime again.

There is the Victims of Crime Act, which was passed in a bipartisan way. In 1982, as one of our attorney generals just choked to me, by that avowed liberal, Ronald Reagan. I don't really get why we have 40 years of no problem at making sure that victims of crime are given the medical treatment, the economic, remediation, the support, the mental counseling, the burial expenses paid for, you know, we live in a country where that should be a given that we protect the victims and help them. And so there's billions of dollars that have been allocated by Congress until Donald Trump got in office and decided that anything that's administered by the Department of Justice and his crash test dummy of Attorney General Pam Bondi,

the sock puppet that she is, anything there is going to be held back unless the blue states agree to drop their sanctuary state policies on immigration and comply with his depraved and deranged and inhumane immigration policy. Well, nowhere in the 40 years or almost 50 years of this program

Is there any conditions that are allowed to be placed on it by the executive branch? This is funding under the spending power of Congress. It's an Article I power. And the only reason that Donald Trump gets away with it in the short term is that we got to file the lawsuit. Then we've got to get a federal judge to agree. Then we've got to get an appellate judge to agree. Then maybe the Supreme Court has to get involved. In the meantime, he's defunded, he's defunded, he's defunded, and victimized the victims.

Of course, he's victimizing the victims. Many of the people that are in the victim program that are being compensated and helped are women. We have an abuser in chief. We have a person who's in the Oval Office who is a judge to be a sex abuser. Technically, as one judge put it, technically a rapist. We had dozens of women who have come forward and said they were sexually assaulted and abused by Donald Trump. Many of them under oath into court of law. He's a felon.

He has a string of victims left behind him in the 13th. count felony conviction in New York, right? All of that. So, of course, his administration is using the Department of Justice as a weapon to abuse the blue states. That's his, has anybody noticed that's his goal? His goal is to make blue states look bad, although it's having a boomerang effect. It's making him look weaker. He's, he's the incredible shrinking president. I call him the, what was the thing on Game of Thrones, the Mad King? He's the mad president. And he's going to burn it all down before it's over if we let him. That's why he's so upset and we're so delighted by democratic leaders,

especially the governors and the attorneys general that I'm talking about here. We're fighting back against Donald Trump, fire with fire. We don't have time to fight fire with water. We can't put out the flames. New cycle doesn't allow us. We've got to fight fire with fire. That's why I love the governor Newsom's office is mimicking Donald Trump and driving him crazy. you know you had you had dana perino come out and say oh you look so unpresidential why are you writing

in all caps really they're just doing a satire of donald trump here's the latest one that just went up which i love went up this morning in california dana ding dong perino was all in caps never heard of her until today is melting down because of me gavin c newsome you see where we're going with us Fox hates that I'm America's most favorite governor. Rating's king, saving America. Well, Trump can't even conquer the big stairs on Air Force One anymore. Oh, you're so unpresidential. What about the guy in the Oval Office?

We're just lampooning something that's very difficult to lampoon. This is why Veep on HBO went out of business, because they couldn't parody the Trump administration anymore. They couldn't parody what was really. really going on and in that first term of his, they were like, yeah, we're done. That's the problem. And so 23 Democratic attorneys general get together on a regular basis and file lawsuits where they have to, when they need to, against the Trump administration. So this new one about the violent victims of crime act and the billions of dollars being withheld has been filed

in Rhode Island, Chief Judge of Rhode Island McConnell, who was appointed by Obama, has been been randomly assigned. And they're seeking to have, under separation of powers violation, under abuse of the arbitrary and capricious abuse of the Administrative Procedures Act, they're trying to get the judge to declare and to vacate these order of Pam Bondi, which is embargoing funds until the blue states capitulate. It's just victimizing the victim. And the attorney generals are winning over 90% of the time when they file these lawsuits.

That's why it's important. I just saw a stat that out of the couple of a hundred of executive orders that Donald Trump has entered, only 27% are actually operative. Because they've been blocked because they've been overturned. 27% is pretty good. Attorney generals are running at 90% in their 50 cases. Yeah. Democracy Forward, which has got a great playlist on. on Legal AAP with us.

Democracy Forward has over 80 cases filed against the Trump administration. The American Civil Liberties Union, which we're working on bringing on legal A.F on a regular basis, they've got probably double that against the Trump administration. In fact, in fact, besides interviewing A.G. Banta and A.G. Plattkin, California, New Jersey, respectively, concerning this new filing in Rhode Island, I also interviewed the director of the National Security Project for the American Civil Liberties Union, Hina Shumsey.

And Hina Shumsey is fascinating and we're so blessed and honored to have her on our side fighting against Donald Trump as a first responder running into the burning building of democracy to save it. She's focused on domestic national security. She used to be focused on foreign national security, but now she has to focus on a president who's going after the civil liberties of Americans on a daily basis. So she's drilled down on the whole use of the U.S. military on domestic soil and the fact that it puts both parties in harm's way. It puts the National Guard that isn't trained to be domestic law enforcement

in harm's way. And it puts the person on the other side of the rifle in harm's way. Because this is just rife with civil rights violations by a ill-trained, not properly trained military. Marines are not trained to make arrests. I mean, the MPs are. But Marines are not trained to make arrests or de-escalate problems or situations. They're trained to do something else, right? Take down the enemy, blow up that building, capture X, Y, and Z, right?

fight a fight and win a firefight not take a peaceful protest first amendment protest and know what to do about it and that's what national security experts like hinnushab see is worried about and she briefs our audience on it so catch that interview on legal a f YouTube channel that's coming up actually tomorrow and we also talk about of course the posse commentatus act and the DC case and fundamentally that Trump is using not just emergency powers, not just war powers, but he's using national security as an excuse for every one of his illegal unconstitutional actions

to try to give him more power. That's what they're doing. They search every day on how to give Donald Trump more power, how to forget about, forget about go beyond the envelope. There's no envelope. You know, we're outside the envelope. So his marching orders to his team is, find me more power. Find me more power.

I feel like it's like James Kirk on the Enterprise, you know, talking to Scotty. I need more power. That's what he's trying to do. And so they look up in every strange, contorted, tortured interpretation of a statute, of a law of the Constitution. And they latched on to, if we make everything an emergency, if we make everything a predatory incursion, if we make everything a war, if we make everything a national security crisis and foreign policy crisis, we'll shove back federal judges who will have to rush back in in order to give oversight and to check the out-of-control Donald Trump. He's hoping, and he's trying to force the issue every time he's in court. every time he's in court he tells judges you don't have any power to make a ruling in this area because national security foreign policy you know core constitutional functions of the president there's there's no judicial oversight at all if i say it's a rebellion it's a rebellion if i say it's a riot it's a riot if i say it's an enemy incursion it's an enemy incursion if i say we're at war with a country we're not at war with we're at war with and you can't do anything about it and federal judges are like what are you even talking about it

We understand deference, you know, as a doctrine, but you want us to do factual deference, your version of the facts we're going to adopt without challenge. And that federal judges, by and large, are not doing. That's what we're watching on full display with Judge Breyer in San Francisco, who just held a three-day trial. We're waiting for the ruling. But it didn't go well for the Trump administration. At one point, Breyer trying to figure out whether the Posse Capitatis Act had been

violated what he can do about it, said to the lawyers of the Department of Justice, I don't like your position. Your position is there's no limits to what the president can do once he declares that there's some sort of rebellion, you know, and I'm not buying that it was a rebellion or that he can violate the Posse Combatatus Act as a result. This limitless power thing is troubling to federal judges. And we're going to watch how he works his way out of this knot in the way he writes his opinion, knowing that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is watching him, including the same three-judge panel that didn't agree with him the first time on whether the federalization of the National Guard was appropriate in California. So he's got that he's worried about and working

on. That's the posse comitatis. But you see Donald Trump will fold if he's pushed to the mat and his feet held to the fire by a federal judge. Judge Reyes in D.C. I'm going to rule against you about your takeover of the D.C. Police Department in violation of the Home Rule Act for the district. Now, go settled. And they went and settled. They went and settled. We just saw another example of Donald Trump folding in his, an alligator alcatraz. There's a couple of suits floating around in Miami about the alligator alcatraz. One is Judge Williams, who stopped the continued development of alligator alcatraz. No more buildings until she gets to the bottom of the environmental impact, environmental concerns, the middle of the Everglades, effectively affecting

the Florida's water supply. Now, in a couple of days, her injunction is going to run out. She'll have to decide whether to extend it. There's another case in front of Judge Ruiz, who sits in the same courthouse, but took a very different view. I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that he was Trump appointed. Judge Williams was like, I have jurisdiction, and I'm going to make a ruling to stop the construction, even though the construction is not in Miami-Dade County. It's in County, in Florida, this thing sits at the intersection, speaking of the intersection of Miami-Dade County and Collier County. The runway for the airplanes for Alligator, Alcatraz, Miami-Dade County. The buildings or the structures, whatever you want to call them, the lean-toes, that's Collier County.

But the judge didn't say, well, I don't think I have jurisdiction. She said, I've got enough jurisdiction. There's enough facts here in support in Miami, and let me make my ruling. Judge Ruiz got all wrapped around his own axle about the venue. Oh, venue. Are we in the right courthouse? I don't know, are we? You're a federal judge. He had to turn a blind eye to the fact that there was actually success in the lawsuit as he dismissed part of it and sent it to Orlando.

What was the success? Donald Trump folded. His Department of Justice folded. The biggest argument, the ACLU, there they are again, the ACLU made, is that their clients inside of that, Algate or Alcatraz aren't meeting regularly or properly with their lawyers. there's a First Amendment problem, there's a due process problem, right? There's a Sixth Amendment process, Sixth Amendment problem.

And suddenly, before the injunction hearing on Monday, yesterday, Trump folds and says, oh, no, we're going to be processing all these people and give them immigration court hearings. Yes, yes, yes, yes, at Chrome, KROME North facility in Miami. In Miami, Judge Ruiz. So the solution for the thing that you said doesn't belong in Miami, and it has to go to Orlando and spend so many pages, bemoaning, why are we in Miami? The solution the Trump administration came up with is in Miami.

And your own colleague down the hall from you at the federal courthouse in the downtown Miami did not have this problem within you. I wonder what the difference is. But it's a win. Because sometimes you win, if you're an attorney general or you're an interest group or you're the ACLU, sometimes you win by filing the case and obtaining the injunction from the judge, where the judge says it's more likely than not that you're going to win. Sometimes you win because the Trump administration folds.

Sometimes you win because you get the injunction and the Trump administration doesn't appeal and releases the funds, the millions and billions of dollars, then doesn't take the appeal. And those are the cases I want to focus in on also, because we are winning those. That's why we're up to 90% win rate in front of federal judges. Sure, it's down to 30% at the Supreme Court, but not. Not every case makes it to the Supreme Court. In fact, very few do. I did the math for everybody.

5,000, 8,000 cases get filed every year in federal court, give or take, civil and criminal. Right? From that group, a very, it's a funnel. Very small amount. I think it's 10 or 12 percent end up out on an appeal to the next level of appeal. And then 0.001 or something like that percent end up with the United States Supreme Court. Of all the cases that are filed in a given year, And the thousands in federal court and state court, tens of thousands.

Even if you add all the emergency docket together along with the regular docket, the regular list of cases for the Supreme Court, it's 100 cases. Out of several, out of multiple thousands of cases filed. So we got to continue to use the fire hose to flood the zone and do a full court press in the courts in here. together on the intersection as well. Let me end the intersection today talking about a new corruption scandal coming out of the Department of Justice.

What else? And Donald Trump's not just abusing the financial system to benefit himself and those around him alone. He's using the Department of Justice as well. Of course he is. So Roger Alford, very well-respected antitrust lawyer, number two in the antitrust division

until a month ago. It started being a whistle. Blower, about an approval for a merger, a $14 billion merger, pretty sizable merger, just to give you, just, you know, pretty sizable merger, $14 billion between Eulet Packard and a company called Juniper. And if you, and the problem is it would dominate the wireless network equipment, manufacturing, and software technology, business, making consumers have to pay more. And so the Trump administration filed a complaint to stop it, stop the merger. that sounded okay and then it was all about how much money can they put in their pockets so the act the allegation by roger alfred who did it live at a conference and in written notes is that the merger is a scandal it was only approved after maga lobbyists maga lobby as close to Donald Trump and

others lobbied for changes to allow for the merger and that's exactly what's not supposed to happen. And that's Stan Woodward, the nominee for the number three position of the Department of Justice, who's maggot to the core, who represented Jan 6th insurrectionist, who represented one of the co-defendants with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, who was so respected among the Heritage Foundation that he got the number three job, that he opened the door. It was like a Trojan horse. He opened the door and let all the MAGA lobbyists in. So with the Trump administration, you always have to follow the money. You always have to follow the money. Who's going to be benefited by the approval? So now that the merger has been approved, subject to a federal judge, taking a look at it now that Woodward, sorry, now that

Alfred has made his whistleblower allegations of corruption led by Chad Myzel, chief of staff by Pam Bondi and Stan Woodward in benefiting all of the people around Donald Trump, that's to follow the money. Who's going to make money off of HP? Who in the Trump family? Who in the Trump family? and MAGA and Congress people and those around them who hold who holds stakes in HP I'll be frank I don't I don't hold stakes in Juniper I don't hold stakes equity stakes in HP but I'm sure people around Donald Trump are and will and have and will benefit from this let's do the math before the Trump administration is over Trump and his family and his friends will put in their pocket somewhere between five and ten billion dollars put this in a time capsule that's what pop

's prediction is five and ten billion dollars will end up in the pockets of trump his family and those around him including in the cabinet and family offices of people in the cabinet before this administration is over i mean we're going to continue to call it out we're going to continue to follow it and uh and rip the cover off the ball and talk more about it like we do here on the intersection, but that's the reality. And this corruption scandal, so this Department of Justice official has gone to the judge and said, you should look at whether there's been smoke-filled backroom deals in order to approve this, because it is a scandal. And if you knew what I knew, he told the judge, you would be very concerned. So look for this judge to step in, bring in this

former Department of Justice official and get to the bottom of it before he approves that merger and I'll continue to follow that now. I'm so glad you're here with me. Take a minute and send some love over to the intersection as a podcast on audio, on audio platforms, five-star reviews and leave reviews. I read them. And also, of course, watch this and set it to your friends. We have commercial free versions that are up on the legal AF substack, which I'd like you to come over and join. You're going to get some of me. Tomorrow I'm doing, I think Adam Klausfeld and I are going to be breaking some, breaking some new news on a live report on Legal AF substack. And if you can spare $7 or $8 a month, become a paid member of Legal

AF as well. But I'm so honored to have you here with me. Until my next intersection, next Tuesday, this is Michael Popock for all things, LegalAF. I'm Michael Popak, and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me is 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 a what we started together on legal AF, 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

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