Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Co-Defendant HITS A BRICK WALL with Stunt

Episode Date: February 3, 2024

Mike Roman, a brass knuckle political operative for the Koch Brothers and now a Georgia election interference co-conspirator, just filed another brief to try to grab the news cycle against Fulton County DA Fani Willis, which is more salacious and meritless than his first motion to disqualify her and dismiss the indictment. Michael Popok of Legal AF breaks down how right in the first paragraph of the filing, Roman and his lawyer accidentally reveal that they have no case and no evidence to support their motion. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://TryMiracle.com/LEGALAF and use the code LEGALAF to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! 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 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 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Michael Popak, legal AF of Mike Roman and his lawyers new filing in front of Judge McAfee in Fulton County, Georgia, in an effort to get Fawnie Willis and Nathan Wade off their case, literally, and to get the indictment dismissed. If this new filing is any indication of the merit and the basis by which they're going to try to make that argument, they are dead on arrival. I've just read a brief that was just filed by Ashley Merchant, the lawyer for Mike Roman, who was the election decorinator, but more on him in a minute, and a co-conspirator with Donald Trump about the fake elector scheme. They decided they wanted to catch the news cycle, which is typical for Mike Roman. I'll describe that more in a minute. And they wouldn't let Fawdy Willis get the last word today

on the news day in which she filed her 25 pages, including affidavits and additional material to completely refute any allegation that there's an ethical violation of any type because she happens to be in a relationship and dating somebody that works on the case with her. And so Ashley Merchant and really Mike Roman, it looks like Mike Roman ghost wrote this, frankly,

from what I know about Mike Roman in his background, this brass knuckled, bare knuckled fighter for Donald Trump who since 2008 is banana crusade against election security and voter fraud and everything else. If he can't find it, he makes it up. He used to be, his claim to fame is he was an operative for the Koch brothers working for their political foundations and that he ran a research and a investigative team

which was jokingly, but only half jokingly, referred to as the Koch Intelligence Agency, the KIA. He literally, Mike Roman brought in CIA operatives and analysts to train his people on how to do dark op background research and other things in order to try to throw elections in favor of the candidates of his choice, whether it was Rudy Giuliani or eventually Donald Trump, they brought him into the White House. It's the last place you bring a guy like this in,

this brass knuckle fighter. And now he's the one that's leading the charge of all people to try to get the indictment dismissed. Scott McAfee, the judge, is going to have to sort all this out and make sure it doesn't devolve into some world wrestling federation match or something that belongs more likely on lifetime or Bravo, rather than in a court of law. So Mike Roman decided to give himself a brief that the judge did not allow him to have.

Let's talk procedurally. There's a motion to disqualify. There is an opposition to the motion to disqualify. There is an opposition to the motion to disqualify. And then there is a reply to the motion to disqualify under procedural law. But not to Mike Roman and his lawyer, Ashley Merchant. They just created a new piece of paper. They said, well, we have to immediately respond. And it's not our substantive and complete response, but we need to respond because they're trying to get out from under

the evidentiary hearing. And so let's, I get five more pages today that I'm not supposed to have in another type of reply. If I were Scott McAfee, I would either, and if I were Fondie Willis, I would either move to strike this piece of paper that's just been filed as being an improper brief or make them have just that brief, but nothing else. They say in a footnote, well, we're going to argue more substantively, but we needed to address the issue of whether there should be an evidentiary hearing. Who asked you to do that? The judge didn't order that. The judge didn't ask for more briefing. You just gave it to yourself, which is another example of just the media attack that you're launching here, the tactical attack that has no legal basis. Mr. Roman, Ms. Merchant.

I mean, the emperor has no clothes I can tell by reading and I'm gonna read it out loud to you, the parts that almost made me laugh out loud. This effort to give yourself a new brief that you're not entitled to. And Scott McAfee, who's a very good judge and we've complimented him here on the Legal AF podcast and on Midas Touch, it's shut it all down. Let me read to you from this,

I don't even know what to call it, this scurrilous piece of legal writing. You know you've lost all credibility with your audience, which in this case is the judge when you started this way. This is what they wrote. Defendant Michael Roman's initial reply, initial reply, he didn't, again, he was not given leave to file an initial reply followed by another reply. But the initial reply to the state's response that just came in today. Here's the paper that I'm sure

Mike Roman wrote. Let us be clear, if Mr. Roman had not uncovered the now admitted personal relationship between Willis and Wade, no one may have ever known about it. Okay, that raises the obvious and important question. If they had nothing to hide in the first place because they had done nothing wrong, why did they intentionally not tell anybody about it until they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar? This highlights the very reason why this court cannot just take their word for it. First of all, the judge has already said he's holding an evidentiary hearing, right? Meaning he's going to take evidence. He's going to take sworn testimony

and for witnesses and the like, but listen to the phraseology here, right? And how scurrilous and scandalous it is and so lacking of any intellectual heft as to be, should just be laughed out of court. Mr. Roman, if Mr. Roman had now uncovered the now admitted personal relationship, I'm going to say this for one more time on this hot tick. There is nothing in the Georgia ethics code or the special prosecutor's ethics code that stops a prosecutor from having a personal relationship with somebody else on her team that's also prosecuting the same case, just as there's nothing wrong with people having relationships who represent

other witnesses or other co-conspirators in the case who may be in odds, but then at night have pillow talk together or be married. You can be married. A prosecutor can be a prosecutor on one side, defense lawyer or the other being married in opposite sides of the case. And that's okay. The law expects people to have intimate personal relationships, but it doesn't assume that people are going to violate their professional ethics just because they're also having a relationship with somebody.

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piece towel set and save over 40%. Again that's trymiracle.com slash legalaf to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. Here again is another example of the ludicracy of Mike Roman's position. Let me remind people, Mike Roman is a co-conspirator charged with a handful of felony counts for intentionally interfering with the Georgia election and those in other states. As the Election Day supervisor for Donald Trump. Have you ever, the history of criminal justice heard of a defendant, a criminal defendant, complaining that the prosecutor on the other side is not

qualified to prosecute him? That the prosecutor doesn't have enough experience, that he demands a more qualified prosecutor. Who is this person? He seems to be an immature, amateurent bring me a more a more powerful Prosecutor has that ever been said anywhere anytime by a criminal defendant, but when you read Mike Roman or his lawyer Ashley Merchant They actually take another pot shot on page three and they say the state's response also states that mr. Wade

That's the special prosecutor who was hired by Fondie Willis, and their relationship started after the indictment was started not before, a point that's not even addressed here in this paper. They say that if Mr. Wade had significant trial experience, if his experience was so significant that he should welcome the opportunity to testify as to the specifics of the cases he's tried and enjoy the candid transparency that would bring to the process instead of hiding behind an unsubstantiated claim that he's tried complex matters like murder, rape,

armed robbery, aggravated assault, drug trafficking. Put it plainly, he has given this court and the public no reason to take his word for it. Again, I challenge Ashley Merchant. I believe that was written by Mike Roman. I've seen his writing before. This looks like it was ghost written by him. And here again, you have on its face a criminal defendant

demanding that a more qualified and more experienced prosecutor prosecute him. Oh my God. This is like out of Warner Brothers. You know, it reminds me of that episode between Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny when they were arguing over whether Elmer Fudd should shoot them there,

or they should shoot them when he gets home. I mean, it's just mind boggling, but it just shows you the depths of the gravity to which they will sink in order to attack Fawney Willis. And then they have to say, well, then they misuse the word cohabitate in order to try to embarrass the special prosecutor and the prosecutor, Fawney Willis. They say, if we had the opportunity, we would ask the following questions in

cross examination. Isn't it true that you had more than a friendship in 2019 at the municipal court training conference? I don't even know where they're going with that. She's already declared under penalty of perjury that the relationship between the two of them became a romantic one or a more than a friendship one after the indictment was rendered by the grand jury, not before. And then they talk about, and this is really disgusting, and Ashley Merchant should be ashamed of herself.

They actually say, but we would ask her, this is on page two, we would ask Ms. Willis, you say you've never cohabitated with Nathan Wade, but did you share a king-size bed, a king-size bed and a rubuck for two days in 2022? All right, Ashley Merchant, that is not the definition of cohabitation. Cohabitation is living with somebody,

not going on a holiday for two or three days and sharing a hotel room. That is a perverse misinterpretation legally as a term of art of what cohabitation is and who FN cares at the end of the day. And then of course, they, Faudi Willis brought the receipts and burned Ashley Merchant by showing that she felt

that Nathan Wade was competent in 2016 when he ran for judge, called him ethical, called him competent, cited all the awards he's received. But now when she's representing a client and getting paid, suddenly he's he's incompetent and only got the job because he's sleeping with his boss, which again, to be clear, Faudi Willis already in under oath in filing today, earlier today said that she, and I believe her for no reason, not to believe it. There's no evidence that suggests that she's not telling the truth,

that the decision to have a relationship with Nathan Wade happened after the indictment, not before. So in other words, he was already on the case, right? And so in footnote three on page three, Ashley, Ashley Merchant, the lawyer or Mike Roman, the client, whoever wrote this said that, oh, included in the district attorney's response or pictures from Mr. Romans counsel's Facebook page,

showing that she supported Wade in his 2016 judicial race. And then she's, they go on to say, it's no secret that Mr. Romans counsel worked tirelessly to defeat the incumbent judge against whom Wade ran She worked tirelessly to defeat the incumbent judge against whom Wade ran. It's not even a proper sentence With only two candidates in the race one of whom had been accused of judicial misconduct Wade was most definitely the most qualified of the candidates on the ballot. Talk about revisiting history and we've shown the photos and the pictures of her doing whatever she was doing at some Greek festival in order to support Nathan Wade wearing a shirt that read, Wade.

Maybe you shouldn't take positions against Nathan Wade when you were one of his biggest supporters, Miss Merchant. And this was whipped up so quickly that they even have typos in here and things that don't even make sense, which they left in, I guess they wanted to, again, beat the news cycle. So they said here, for instance, I'll read this one to you.

See if this makes any sense to you about storm clouds. They are hoping this court, listen to this sentence. They are hoping this court simply sees all growing smoke cloud and says no fire, nothing else to see here. It is not that simple. I mean, was this written by a toddler, by a three-year-old? They are hoping this court simply sees all growing smoke cloud and says no fire, nothing else to see here.

Is this She-Hulk attorney-at-law? Is this Tarzan caveman lawyer? I don't even understand the sentence, but then they go on. It's not that simple. Yeah, I mean, if you could make heads or tails of that sentence, sure. This is not a summary judgment motion. People's freedom and lives are at stake.

All right, look, Mike Roman is a well-known political operative, brass knuckle fighter, working and trained under the Koch organization and the infamous Koch shadowy network. He worked for the, in Rand, the Koch Intelligence Agency, the KIA, he brought in CIA agents. He's been running scams about voter fraud for a long, long time. And I'll be doing another hot take about whether

he purposely has avoided marrying the woman in his life, if we're gonna talk about salacious allegations, who he has seven or nine children with, in order to avoid bankruptcy fraud. That'll be on another hot take. I'm gonna leave it on that. I like to have cliffhangers, so we'll have a cliffhanger.

So we're gonna follow this closely, you guys, in our audience on Legal AF AF on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time only on the Midas Touch Network. And then on audio podcast platforms, wherever you can get them from. On that show, we like to call Legal AF. The title means exactly what you think. If you like what I'm doing here, give me a thumbs up,

leave a comment. It really does help keep us on the air. And until my next hot take, till my next League of LAF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Love this video? Make sure you stay up to date on the latest breaking news and all things Midas

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