Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump CRIMINAL STENCH Grows as ELECTION NEARS

Episode Date: October 13, 2024

Ben Meiselas and Michael Popok are back for the weekend edition of the top-rated Legal AF podcast. On tap? 1. An emboldened Trump backed by the Supreme Court threatens Americans with internment camps,... suspension of the Constitution and crushing dissent with the Insurrectionist Act, and that's just at one recent campaign stop; 2. Trump is conducting a government in exile breaking federal criminal law by undermining the President's foreign policies in discussions with our enemies; 3. Judge Chutkan lays a trap for Trump and calls his bluff about suing her or bringing yet another appeal, as the public patiently waits to obtain access to another 300+ pages of evidence against Trump before November 5, and so much more at the intersection of law and politics. Subscribe to the new Legal AF channel: @LegalAFMTN Subscribe to Meidas+ at https://meidasplus.com Thanks to our sponsors: Rocket Money: Cancel unwanted subscriptions – and manage your expenses the easy way – by going to https://RocketMoney.com/legalaf Miracle Made: 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. Beam: Get up to 40% off for a limited time when you go to https://shopbeam.com/LEGALAF and use code LEGALAF at checkout! Zbiotics: Head to https://zbiotics.com/LegalAF to get 15% off your first order when you use LEGALAF at checkout. Oracle: Take a free test drive of OCI at https://oracle.com/legalaf 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 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 Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 From the kitchen to the laundry room, your home deserves the best. Give it the upgrade it deserves at Best Buy's Ultimate Appliance Event. Save up to $1,000 on two or more major appliances. Shop now in-store or online at bestbuy.ca. Exclusions apply. We are in the final weeks leading up to the election and a lot of legal stuff that we need to be talking about at the intersection of law and politics. It seems with Donald Trump, his closing message is just creating new crimes each and every
Starting point is 00:00:36 day and also talking about the suspension of the constitution and upending all of the laws if he were to be elected. I mean one of the messages that he's now saying very specifically, if he's ever actually said anything specific at his speeches at all, is that he will reintroduce the Aliens Enemies Act, which is part of the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798, essentially suspending the constitution, rounding up people, not just people who may not have papers, but rounding up people on the basis of ancestry and shutting down the media.
Starting point is 00:01:16 We will go over what the Alien Enemies Act is, what the Alien and Sedition Act is of 1798, how it was used to prosecute the press, what Donald Trump's plans are when he says this. Also, we learned about additional communications between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin over the past few years, multiple communications, which would seem to be a clear violation of federal law, the Logan Act, and other federal laws as well. I wanna go and talk about with you, Michael Popok, the implications there.
Starting point is 00:01:52 One of Donald Trump's closing messages as well, if you even wanna call it a message, is just spewing hate on the trans community and the LGBTQ plus community. Also just any marginalized community, just making things up, spending $70 million from campaign funds to attack marginalized communities. I want to explain the legal implications there. Federal Judge Tanya Chutkin though made a big order releasing additional documents in
Starting point is 00:02:23 the Washington DC federal criminal case. Donald Trump threatened to sue her or to engage in litigation against her. So she said, look, I'm going to disclose additional documents from the appendix filed by special counsel Jack Smith, objecting to Donald Trump's claim of absolute immunity regarding these specific facts in the Washington DC case. But she said, I'll give you a few days so you can figure out if you want to sue me or what your litigation means.
Starting point is 00:02:54 But otherwise this is going to go into effect. I'm releasing these records, Popak, you'll break down what those records are. Could this be another big October surprise? We'll break it down. Let's bring in Michael Popok. Thank you to all of the legal AFers out there for also making Michael Popok your new YouTube channel that you launched. The legal AF YouTube channel just become this rocket ship, almost 200,000 subscribers as of Saturday. I mean, I've never really seen a YouTube channel grow as fast as this one. It just shows me that people are craving the law and also maybe that studio,
Starting point is 00:03:29 Michael Popa, great studio you got there. Thank you very much. And thank you for, you know, we, we had that brainstorm about that overflow of information at the intersection of law and politics and how we could capture it and service our audience, our growing audience. I kidded it around on a lot of different occasions, but I think it's a great opportunity to do that. You know, we had that brainstorm about that overflow of information at the intersection of law and politics and how we could capture it and service our audience, our growing audience. I kidded around on a, on a recent hot take over on Legal AF MTN with the
Starting point is 00:03:53 court accountability people that have also joined us there, that we are an overnight sensation, four and a half years in the making. I mean, we had the audience, we had the, the trust that you, you Ben and I and Karen put together for legal AF and then to ask them to come over with us to the new channel where we can we can really spread our wings even more and Really sit at that intersection and I got a great I sometimes I get and we all do we get some Personal contacts from our fans and some fan art and I want to thank the Wines, the Wines Hancker family from Georgia, who look at this Ben, they sent me this,
Starting point is 00:04:28 this is literally a picture of the intersection of law and politics. And the 2021 is the date we launched officially Legal AF. Love that. I'm getting that framed. It's going up and all. I'm gonna get it for everybody here on the team. But it's just so heartwarming
Starting point is 00:04:48 to put together if you build it, they will come moment and actually have people show up and enjoy what we're doing. And that's a testament to what you and your brothers originally founded and then what we did here on Legal AF. Let's figure out a way to make that available to our Patreon members as well at patreon.com slash Legal AF. I'd love to give that out to all of the legal AFers. We'll figure that out.
Starting point is 00:05:08 So let's just show the people what Donald Trump's been saying over the past several days as we get closer to election day. And then I want you to explain to our audience what the alien enemies act is. Also part of what's been referred to as the alien and sedition acts of 1798. The historical context, but what it is that Donald Trump is saying. So right here Donald Trump's giving this speech in Aurora Colorado where Trump lied and claimed that Venezuelan gangs have taken over all of Aurora and all of Denver and that he
Starting point is 00:05:46 needs to liberate it and the messaging that he has now is America is an occupied nation that requires liberation based on the invasion of immigrants. That's what he's closing with. Here's what he said though about one of the ways he's going to stop an invasion that is not taking place, but play this clip. To expedite the removals of these savage gangs and I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Think of that. 1798.
Starting point is 00:06:19 This was put there. 1798. That's a long time ago, right? To target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil. Who would have ever thought that a president or future president would ever have to stand here and say such things? Who would think that that's even possible to have to do? Yeah, who would even think that it is possible that someone would be saying,
Starting point is 00:06:47 we need to go back to some of the darkest days that we learned about in law school and history class, and bring back that based on Donald Trump's lies, that Colorado is now occupied and being taken over by gangs. That's not to say that there aren't issues that need to be addressed. Of course there are and frankly violent crime was higher under Donald Trump, but the framing that he creates is one also that he uses specifically these words invasion, occupy, because those are the language that's found in the Alien and Seditions Act.
Starting point is 00:07:25 And that's what he's being advised by people like Stephen Miller in order to suspend our constitution. Let me just show you one other thing that he said at that same speech, because part of the Alien Enemies Act and Alien Sedition Act is also involves shutting down the media if you criticize the commander in chief for the implementation of the These steps to basically remove people or lock people up round people up throw them in camps on the basis of ancestry You criticize them you go to jail as the press under the Alien Enemies Act. Here, play this clip. So they're asking, but think of this. So CBS gets a license, and the license is based on honesty.
Starting point is 00:08:11 I think they have to take their license away. I do. Donald Trump was too afraid to sit for an interview with 60 Minutes. He was too scared to sit down and be asked questions Outside of his Fox bubble where Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram will say to him. Oh, so you're the funniest guy oh, you're the strongest guy ever ha ha ha and Vice president Kamala Harris gave an interview and now Donald Trump saying I'm gonna shut down CBS He said he's gonna shut down NBC. He said he's going to shut down NBC. He said he's going to shut down Google because he doesn't like the searches that have mean stories about him.
Starting point is 00:08:50 Popak, what's the Alien Enemies Act? What's the Alien Seditions Act? How dangerous is it that he's invoking that right now? As Vice President Kamala Harris says, let's go forward. Trump saying, you know what? 1798 is where we really need to be, alien and sedition. Yeah, it is. Let me give the framework for this. And then I'm gonna dive right into the Alien Enemies Act and the Alien Sedition Act of 1798. But it's all part of a pattern that we're watching play out.
Starting point is 00:09:19 We're calling out here on Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. Recall that Donald Trump, and this is in the Jan 6 report and in special counsel Jack Smith's superseding indictment against Donald Trump. And we're gonna talk about more about that a little bit later. Recall that there was a now fateful meeting
Starting point is 00:09:36 in the White House in December after the election, but before Jan 6, in which Sidney Powell, Overstock.com guy, Patrick Byrne, Giuliani, and Donald Trump were actively considering suspending the Constitution, declaring martial law, and issuing an executive order that was drafted but not signed, but almost was to seize voting machines as part of martial law and lifting of due process in the streets. That is chapter one of the book.
Starting point is 00:10:10 Chapter two of the book is that when, and this is also in the Jan six committee report and also part of the evidence against Donald Trump that has now been more revealed in the filing by Jack Smith is the conversation with Jeff Clark, not Jeff Clark, D-O-J Jeff Clark, but Jeff Clark being questioned by one of the aides for Donald Trump. And they said, if you don't, if he doesn't do peaceful transfer, Donald Trump and turn
Starting point is 00:10:38 over the reins of power to Joe Biden as required on the 20th of January, there's going to be rioting in the streets to which Jeff Jeff Clark very glibly, and very callously, but very menacingly said, that's what the insurrection act is for. So they they understand Donald Trump may may have fell asleep during social studies, where he was taught or history about the US Constitution. But he's been spoon fed the worst parts of it to use against the American people. Let me make this clear.
Starting point is 00:11:07 So there's no, I don't want to mince words. He's talking about using the US Army and the US military against Americans on US soil in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. This is Donald Trump. He's talking about suppressing, crushing dissent in the streets of Americans exercising the First Amendment, right, under the use of the Insurrection Act. He's talking about suspending due process in habeas corpus, meaning that the ticket you have to get out of a secret prison and get brought before and arraigned
Starting point is 00:11:42 before a judge, that's the habeas corpus proceedings, he would suspend habeas corpus and he would declare martial law. So you got troops running through the streets, right? In order for him to have, if he's ever gets anywhere near the White House again. Now for me, standing on the shoulders of all of that terrible dictatorship, fascism, use of our Constitution and laws around it is his declaration about the operation Aurora, because he happened to be in Aurora, Colorado. And when you put up that clip, I mean, just look, it's not even subliminal, just look at the messaging behind him. End migrant crime, right? Deport illegals now. Hashtag Trump whatever.
Starting point is 00:12:28 End migrant crime, that's a lie. Crime is committed in less percentage, in less numbers by people who immigrate to this country, migrant or otherwise, than good old fashioned Americans. And not by a little, by a lot. Sure, there's an occasional case that's terrible and traumatic about some person not here on proper status without a driver's license that kills somebody, but multiply that by hundreds
Starting point is 00:12:53 and thousands that happens every day with people who aren't illegal immigrants or aren't here illegally. Deport illegals now. This is again trying to, they have no interest at all at a humane, dignified immigration policy, the Republicans, because they need it. They need to scare the crap out of people with the murderous migrant under your bed in order to get you to vote for them.
Starting point is 00:13:18 Because if they allow free and fair elections, if they allow, if they don't rip away or try to crush your right to vote with voter laws and hurdles and registration on voting, on counting and the rest, they'll lose. They'll lose every time if they just let the American people vote, but they don't want to do that. Now this Alien Enemies Act, which I had to go brush off from my, yes I learned about it in law school and so do you, but I had to go brush up on it. Brennan Center did a nice job on it. The prerequisite for exercising a president's power under the Alien Enemies Act, which is to evict from the country foreigners who
Starting point is 00:13:58 are in this country to be spies or there it is or to be traitorous to the country. Right? You have to have a declaration of war, which only Congress, not the president, can declare. But before there's a declaration of war, the president is allowed, if there's an ongoing incursion into the country, if there's an, let me just get the exact language, if there is a predatory incursion or an invasion, and those are terms of art that haven't been well-defined, the president can act before getting the actual war declaration from Congress.
Starting point is 00:14:35 So he gets in, day one, he says, there's an invasion going on and a predatory incursion. Now that's supposed to be where the enemy, the war enemy has snuck into the country, like Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor, and that gives this power to try to expel them temporarily while the war power is exercised by Congress. And that gives tremendous power to the president. They can put them in secret prisons, they can hold them there indefinitely without due process, they'll never see the light of day, and they can create internment camps. The Alien Enemies Act has been used three times in our nation's history, and they're all pretty
Starting point is 00:15:14 dark, starting with 1812, the War of 1812, and ending with World War II. That was the last time it was used by FDR of all people. And you and I learned about the Karamatsu case, which is where the Supreme Court ultimately ruled that it was just fine under the US Constitution and the Alien Enemies Act for a president to order the internment, meaning concentration camps, in America of other Americans. These were not Japanese here after Pearl Harbor, who were spies.
Starting point is 00:15:44 These were Americans, Japanese Americans, your neighbors, your friends, you in a concentration camp. And Donald Trump looks at that like the golden era. We should go back to that, you know? I found a new statute I can use. And you could see how he's not gonna comply with any of the norms or the guardrails around the use of that power So he's he knows what's in his bag of tricks
Starting point is 00:16:09 Should scare the crap out of everybody and get them to the polls to cut them off at the pass right away all he knows is the insurrection act can be used to crush dissent in the street of Americans of Americans he can use martial law to suspend the Constitution and and the writ of habeas corpus and put Americans in jail. And the New York Times, I just was on with Judge Ludwig who joined us again for another interview that'll go up I think over the weekend. And I said to him, well, you were quoted, Judge, in a magazine article, the New York Times last week, in which they have a giant bullseye which says if Trump gets back into
Starting point is 00:16:40 office this is his enemies list. He's going to use the Department of Justice and FBI to put people in jail. And everybody was listed there. I was looking for your name and my name then. It wasn't there, but just barely. And you know what Judge Ludwig told me? He said, yeah, that's going to happen. I have every belief and fear that if Donald Trump gets back into office, he will start jailing his political enemies. So you've got the Insurrection Act crushing Americans. Then you've got the Insurrection Act crushing Americans. Then you've got him believing that he can use US troops, not the National Guard, state by state,
Starting point is 00:17:11 which comes in for certain disasters or events. He's talking about using the US military turning around and facing their cannons and their weapons at American citizens on American soil. That hasn't been allowed since the Posse Comitatus Act. So he's gonna do that. He's gonna be seizing voting machines and everything else he can do.
Starting point is 00:17:34 Now, what is the solution for this? We're not just here to give a tutorial about some old timey time 1798 law. This is all about crushing Americans, taking away Americans' right to vote, taking away their due process rights, and setting up Trump internment camps. If you don't want that,
Starting point is 00:17:52 then not just vote on November 5th, or now, Judge Ludick just told me he voted already down blue, down the ticket. Get other people to vote. Go to red states and help register. Finish up on registering. There's so much we have to do so that we don't say on November 6th, we didn't do enough. Section two of the Alien and Seditions Act, which Donald Trump says that he will implement on day
Starting point is 00:18:16 one, says the following, and be it further enacted that if any person shall write, print, utter, or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered, or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering, or publishing any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, or either House of Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government or either House, or to bring them, or either of them, into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against
Starting point is 00:18:58 them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to stir up sedition within the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein for opposing or resisting any law of the United States." And it goes on to say that they shall be charged and sent to prison and punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000 and an imprisonment not exceeding two years for each individual count. So you can say, well then just don't say false things. Okay, but take a look first off who would be the arbiter of what a false and true fact is. Donald Trump uses alternative facts, in other words lies. He still claims the 2020 election is rigged.
Starting point is 00:19:47 So if you were to say the 2020 election was a free and fair election and it was not rigged, you go to jail. We go to jail. Midas Touch Network, Legal AF, we would go to jail. If you say anything scandalous, and he would be the one to determine what is scandalous and he would be the one to determine what is scandalous or malicious or something that would cause disrepute or excite against him reputational harm. Under this statute he can invoke it and he can say, you know, CBS, you embarrassed me and I'm trying to stop the invasion and you embarrassed me.
Starting point is 00:20:25 We're going to have to charge you. Our DOJ is going to charge you. And recently JD Vance has said, I'll try to pull this clip up in a little bit. The most important person in a Trump administration is not going to be the VP he goes, yeah, it's not me. It's going to be the AG because Donald Trump will use the AG and it'll be probably someone like Jeff Clark. And they will just go out and start prosecuting everybody.
Starting point is 00:20:52 So I will be prosecuted. POBAC will be prosecuted. CBS will be prosecuted. And all you will see is the Hannity's, the Ingram's, the Greg Gutfeld's, the Jesse Waters, and that type of people, your right-wing propaganda networks, that will exist and America will be turned into North Korea and Russia and everybody will be jailed. And so I'm not, it's a great point, Pabak. This is not trying to scare you.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Donald Trump said that he was going to invoke a specific law. This is a legal show. So I'm letting you know what that specific law actually says. You combine that with the fact that the Supreme court has said that anything that Donald Trump does while he's in office, essentially, if it's part of his core constitutional functions, or if it's deemed an official act, he has absolute immunity for. So as long as he says,
Starting point is 00:21:53 as long as he says it, doesn't have to be true, there's an invasion, I have to stop the invasion, total and absolute immunity. So can he order SEAL Team Six under the Aliens Enemies Act, under the Alien and Sedition Act, under the Insurrection Act to kill us, to kill you? Yes, is the short answer. Will he be absolutely immune from it?
Starting point is 00:22:15 Yes, he would be absolutely immune from it. That's from everybody, from Judge Luddig to us, will say that that is what our Supreme Court has done. So, again, what can you do right now? from Judge Ludwig to us, we'll say that that is what our Supreme Court has done. So again, what can you do right now? You call people in your family, you know, wherever they are and make sure that they are registered to vote. Make sure that they have, if there's early voting, that they've done the early voting,
Starting point is 00:22:38 make sure their names haven't been purged from the voter rolls. Now is the time where you need to take action. Because you just, we read you the law and we're going to read you more of this law and more of the plans we're talking in this first part of the show about domestic. We're going to talk about international Trump's plans with Vladimir Putin. Make sure you subscribe by the way to Michael Popak's YouTube channel, legal AF. It's our YouTube channel, but Popak's taking the lead there. Pope box, YouTube channel, legal AF. It's our YouTube channel, but Pope box taking the lead there. The legal AF YouTube channel.
Starting point is 00:23:09 Look, it is so critical right now that we build these channels and make them as strong as possible. Because right now in this final stretch, this is what's needed to combat the disinformation. And trust me, despite the fact that Donald Trump's telling the CBS folks that he's gonna lock them up, they're like, oh, okay, well, I'll be, but what about Vice President Kamala Harris?
Starting point is 00:23:33 Is she giving enough interviews? Anyway, we'll be right back. Can I interject for one second? I have to refer. I'm gonna make a prompt, then you'll do your break. I wanna make a promise to this audience, from me and you, the brothers and all of Legal AF. If we have to run around in a van with a low voltage radio transmitter and transmit our information and transmit our commentary and
Starting point is 00:23:57 analysis, if that's what we're left with in a Trump America, I assure you, Ben, me and the brothers and everybody else will be the first ones to buy that van. You'll see a van running around your neighborhood, transmitting everything that we're, if we can't ever do it on a podcast. I mean, I'm joking, but only halfway. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show. Traditional bed sheets,
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Starting point is 00:26:59 Drink responsibly and you'll feel your best tomorrow. Now look, I won't lie, I was a bit on the fence about pre-alcohol initially, but then while hanging out with my fantasy football draft crew over at our favorite Jersey Shore Sports Bar, I gave it a shot. And believe me, it's the real deal. I spent the entire next day doing all my favorite things with my family,
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Starting point is 00:27:58 they'll refund your money, no questions asked. Remember to head to zbiionics.com slash legal AF and use the code legal AF at checkout for 15% off. Welcome back. Great reads there, Michael Popock, and thank you to our pro democracy sponsors. The show must go on and the show goes on in large part because of the generosity of those pro-democracy sponsors.
Starting point is 00:28:26 And of course, there is no show without the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers, this community so strong. We are so grateful for you. You know, I think one of the most powerful forces in politics and the law. And what I love about our audience, in addition to feeling like y'all are basically family to us at this point, is you take the learnings and then you teach others about it in your family and in your circles, so we can get real, accurate, textual, statutory, detailed information and not the spin and lies
Starting point is 00:29:02 that you see elsewhere. Popak, we spent the first portion of the show talking about Donald Trump's kind of prospective dystopian vision using some of the most horrific kind of legal elements and unending, suspending, destroying constitutional protections on day one. And he's saying it. We read the text. We saw that. Let's talk about kind of the crimes that Donald Trump has not yet been charged with.
Starting point is 00:29:37 But if he is not elected, and we think that Vice President Kamala Harris should be the one who wins, but I don't want to get complacent here at all that Donald Trump could be charged with. And the act of crimes that we're just kind of learning about, like these communications with Vladimir Putin in violation of lots of federal laws. Um, in the new book by Bob Woodward, it's believed that Donald Trump has had at least seven communications with Vladimir Putin. We've covered before Donald Trump saying, I speak to Putin a lot, like he's out there saying it,
Starting point is 00:30:10 even though he's denying Bob Woodward's, but he's been quoted on Fox and his speeches. I speak to him, I speak to him all the time. I spoke to him about this. He told me this. We did whole videos where Donald Trump has said those things before. Um, this has never happened before in the history of the United States. Like you wouldn't have former president Barack Obama or George W.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Bush or Jimmy Carter or George H.W. Bush or whoever, undermining, undermining the safety and security of our country, of NATO, of the international order, the way Donald Trump did. So I want you to talk, Popak, about the laws that are being violated here. But there's an international law that's being violated here as well in working behind the scenes to prop up Putin's unlawful invasion of Ukraine and what Putin is trying to do. And look, we painted a grim but accurate picture of
Starting point is 00:31:11 what Trump wants domestically. What Trump and Putin want in terms of an international order is Putin to take over Europe. That's Putin's vision. Putin wants Poland next. Putin wants Eastern Europe, all of it next. Then he wants Europe next. That's his vision. That's what he wants. He wants the destruction of NATO. He wants us to suffer and die.
Starting point is 00:31:36 And that's what Donald Trump wants as well. He wants a Russia led global world. So Popak, break that. If you can, I should also mention too, that we also learned from Bob Woodward's book that Putin, that Donald Trump was giving Putin COVID tests while we didn't have COVID tests. And while Americans were dying, he made sure to rush those COVID tests over to Russia and to Putin and to back channel that. I mean, how pathetic, how treasonous and traitorous, but Popeye, break it down. Yeah, yeah, let me, let me
Starting point is 00:32:08 start from the international and I'll come back into the United States component of it. Donald Trump is propping up and supporting right-wing dictatorships around the country at the expense of democracy. He's supposed to be the leader, listen to these words, as a reminder, Trump, leader of the free world and instead through his actions, through the establishment of a shadow government, which is the New York Times talked about it like it was a normal thing today in the New York Times, a shadow government, a government in exile, he props up the Viktor Orbán's of Hungary of the world, the Putin's of the world, the North Korea
Starting point is 00:32:45 dictators of the world, because they look to him and they get reinforcement and they get just enough personal embrace by Donald Trump so they can use it to crush dissent within their own countries and stay in power. And that is Donald Trump's the dirty little secret or byproduct of Trumpism and Donald Trump is that he is actually propping up dictatorships around the world to crush dissent, to crush voting rights and women's rights just like he's doing here in the United States. And he uses Mar-a-Lago, this is all in today's New York Times, he's using Mar-a-Lago as his state department to meet with foreign powers who feel they have to go and genuflect to him and kiss his ring and
Starting point is 00:33:28 other anatomical parts of his in order to get what they want. The head of Finland, knowing that Donald Trump is crazy for co-cuckoo for coconuts or whatever it is, Cocoa Puffs, against NATO, against our alliances that are in place for such a good reason to support democracy. When he was up for the vote for NATO, he felt he had to go in order to get Donald Trump not to object to Finland coming into NATO. It just shows you how warped the rest of the world needs to operate because of Donald Trump.
Starting point is 00:34:02 And no other former president ever tried to wield this power. Even, well first of all, we don't normally have a former president who lost one time loser who decides he wants to be a two-time loser, so that's unique. And then of course I don't blame our allies or our frenemies going to meet with Donald Trump, the Viktor Orban's of the world, the Putin's of the world having phone conversations, because there's a chance that he could win. I mean it's only two people running. And so they're making a calculated bet what's good for their country. The revelations in the book about Putin
Starting point is 00:34:32 just shows me that it's not just Putin. It's the 10 phone calls or whatever it is to Putin when he hasn't been in power. It's all the other phone calls to Viktor Orban and holding court with him, literally in the courtyard of Mar-a-Lago and others. And what he's doing is he's conducting his own foreign policy. Well, we have a little thing called the Constitution that even this right-wing MAGA Supreme Court is all hot and bothered under the collar about core constitutional
Starting point is 00:35:01 functions of a president. Oh, there's ones that only the president, they're listed right there in Article 2. Well, you know what's in Article 2? We only have one president at one time. We only have one president who's empowered to conduct foreign policy and enter into treaties and have communications. And behind that, we've got the Logan Act. So as long as Donald Trump was pulling that 1700s book off his shelf, where Stephen Miller was for him, he should go look up that one. Because right next to that is the Logan Act, the Aliens Addition Act, which says that you can't conduct your own foreign policy. And we know that everything Donald Trump is telling Putin,
Starting point is 00:35:33 whatever it is, is at odds and against American foreign policy and the interests of the Biden administration, and therefore, against the American will. Because we voted in a guy and a person in administration to handle our foreign policy and set our course. And we don't need Donald Trump undercutting us like a double agent or a secret spy undermining us.
Starting point is 00:35:55 I'll give one example. Trump, this is to put it mildly, the Trump view of Ukraine and Putin in Russia and the American official position are 180 degrees away from each other. The official American position as it should be is that Ukraine is a sovereign country and we don't like aggressors like Putin rolling in there and taking 40% of the country and saying mine because and you said Poland I happened to run into because they were renting Airbnb next to me next to my office building in New York So I met these five really nice guys
Starting point is 00:36:28 Shout out to the five nice guys from Poland who were here visiting on vacation and we had a detailed conversation About stuff and one of it was they were they sided with the Democratic side The one guy said I got to buy my wife some Kamala stuff before we go I'll go back to Poland. And they are scared shitless about Putin rolling through Ukraine, the American reaction to that if Trump's in office and Poland next, who's a NATO ally, and of course, part of the European Union. They are legitimately worried, they should be. So now we've now we go to the revelations that were in the book. And let me just say this out loud so people don't know it. Ever since Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein broke the story of the last criminal
Starting point is 00:37:11 presidency in All the President's Men, go watch the movie also, for the Washington Post, every book, every expose, investigative reporting that he has done with or without Carl Bernstein is the is is accurate. He has he has never had to do a retraction. He every line in his book is corroborated three or four ways the Sunday or he doesn't run with it and at the end history has proven that that Bob Woodward whatever he says happened happened and very, even in Trump's case, they're not denying any of it. They're not saying the phone calls didn't happen. They're not saying, well, we had a phone call,
Starting point is 00:37:51 but it wasn't about what you thought, or we didn't send COVID strategic assets to our enemy. They're not saying that. You just get Stephen Chung with his, you know, he put it into chat GBT, you know, give me a nasty comment to make against Bob Woodward and out came, uh, it should be in the bargain basement bin of a, of a bookstore or it should be in the case you can't find toilet paper.
Starting point is 00:38:12 I mean, I mean, that's all they got because they can't deny it. This is similar to what, when Donald Trump doesn't have the ability to actually with facts or evidence or law to deny something, he just doesn't. And that's what we're going to see when we get to the Jack Smith section of this, about how Judge Chutkin has set a trap for Donald Trump, that he is going to step in and we'll talk about what new information we're going to get again before the election about the crimes that Donald Trump committed against the American people. I can't keep stressing this enough. I think that's the common theme for me today. These acts that we're talking about, about Donald Trump,
Starting point is 00:38:49 aren't against Democrats. These are against American people, your neighbor, you, your family, people that are in your life, people who you don't even know, but that you should have compassion for. This is who Donald Trump is out to get. And if you think, well, I went through the list of all the entities and groups that Donald Trump is attacking,
Starting point is 00:39:12 transgender, LGBTQ, no, I'm not that. Black and brown, no, I'm not that. Haitians, no, definitely not that. Oh, I seem to be fine. I got a got a wake-up call. And this is not for our audience This is for the broader audience that we're addressing. I got a wake-up call for you today. It's them tomorrow. It's you You know our Gen Z reporter Adam Mockler was at the Butler, Pennsylvania Trump event and was asking people there Who would you rather have lead the United States, Vladimir Putin or vice president Kamala Harris? And mostly all of the people he spoke to at the Trump event said Vladimir Putin, and they
Starting point is 00:39:55 were perfectly okay with Vladimir Putin running the United States of America. You know, and again, you think about the types of things that Donald Trump is saying in this campaign, he's going to suspend the constitution. He's saying it. It's not like I found some email that was hidden and the needle in the haystack. And whoa, no, he's saying it in most of his traveling fascist circus events that he calls rallies. traveling fascist circus events that he calls rallies. We heard him earlier talk about invoking a 1798 law to round up people, not just people without documentation, but also people who are here lawfully.
Starting point is 00:40:38 And also you, you think, you know, if you think that you're a white Christian and it's not going to happen to you, go back and look at history. First, it happened to this group, then it happened to this group, and then it happened to me. You don't even have to look that far back at history. Look at what J.D. Vance was saying. He was criticizing Italian and Irish immigrants in the past two years, in the past two years as well.
Starting point is 00:41:06 So all they have to do is have some hook regarding ancestry. And Donald Trump talks about genes and good genes and bad genes, AKA eugenics, which is what Hitler used. They're coming for you. You know, for anyone who goes, well, I'm a first generation immigrant. I'm a second generation immigrant. So that's not happening to me.
Starting point is 00:41:26 That's them. I'm here. Uh-uh. The first people he's going after, he's going to look at skin color. He sees no difference between people who are here with lawful status, and people who are here, not here with documentation. He sees no distinction in his own mind. He's coming for you.
Starting point is 00:41:48 It's out there in the open. And then he's saying he's supporting Vladimir Putin. And he's saying Putin is a great guy. And he's talked about destroying NATO. And to your point, Popak, then the New York Times just normalizes this. Like this is just some election between Bob Dole and Bill Clinton or Mitt Romney and Barack Obama who have nuances in discussions over what is the biggest threat, but recognize generally the threats that exist to democracy.
Starting point is 00:42:16 And I can tell you that having been at a hospital for a very long time to, you know, during the, the birth process and the post-birth process and everything like that, watching the TV here and seeing the types of coverage that exists over and over again, it both sides, you would have no clue about any of this. And so that's why for you, the Legal AFers, you all need to go out there and you need to let people know what's going on. You need to let people know what's going on. You need to let people know what's going on. I wanna let you know too,
Starting point is 00:42:50 everything's good and everything's okay. So for anyone who's wondering, everything's good, everything is going to be okay. Just wanna let you know that. We'll be right back after our first quick break. Hit subscribe, we're on our way to four million subscribers here and Michael Popok in just two short weeks of launching that Legal AF channel, rocket ship 200,000 subscribers
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Starting point is 00:47:47 Welcome back. Michael Popak. How are you, sir? Back. We're back. Can I say one thing before we jump into everything is I didn't get a chance to say it here. I really I want to do a hug of the people who have come over to legal AF MTN, that collaborative station channel that we're doing. I did a little posting on it, but we can't get to where we wanna get to have your voice heard without your help. And you guys and everybody out there, Legal AF and MTN and new people, who I can tell from the chats,
Starting point is 00:48:17 who have joined for the first time. So I just wanna, from the bottom of our pod and our hearts, all through Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, thank you for trusting us. It was easy for us to build it. It was harder for you to find us and stay there. And I'm, as Ben said, I'm the chief curator
Starting point is 00:48:34 for all things law and politics over there. Bringing on some great new groups, Ben. Court, accountability, action. You've had a lot of work. You've done a lot of work with Mike Sachs and Ellie Mistal. And we've got Alex Aronson the founder Lisa Walsh. There's no group that is more focused on investigative reporting and
Starting point is 00:48:52 Analysis related to corruption and fraud at the federal court system up to the United States Supreme Court than Court accountability and they're now over with its own legal legal AF MTN for exclusive content you can't find anywhere else. Michael Popock, let's talk about special counsel Jack Smith's request to make public more of the information and data from his 180 plus page filing, saying that Donald Trump should not have absolute immunity in the Washington, D.C. federal criminal case based on these specific facts that it's not core constitutional functions, it's not official acts. The presumption is rebutted based on the fact that Donald Trump was acting as citizen Donald Trump, candidate Donald Trump, not in any official capacity to try to overthrow a free and fair election as part of that filing, a lot of the
Starting point is 00:49:51 information from the actual filing itself has been made public, but then there was that second step, all of those exhibits, which are in the appendix and making that public and which can be public, which cannot be public. So, Judge Chutkin ruled that a lot of it can be made public. I want to hear from you, break it down with the specifics. But then Donald Trump's campaign said that they were going to take litigation actions, I think was a direct quote, against Judge Chutkin. So Judge Chutkin ruled, make it public.
Starting point is 00:50:24 And then she said, I'm not sure what you mean by litigation actions against me, but I will temporarily stay the order if you intend to file something else because I think she wants to, she knows she has a hostile right-wing extremist Supreme Court. So she's doing that to appease them. So her ruling doesn't get, I think, overturned on a technicality. Let me hear from you, Popak.
Starting point is 00:50:49 What's going on there? Because it was big news this week you covered. It was great. It was big news. And I think Chuck and set the trap for Donald Trump and he's going to step right into it. And on a week from today or so on the 17th or 18th of October, we are going to get the release, I believe, of another three to 400 pages plus exhibits of evidence against Donald Trump, not because Jack Smith wants to do it before the election. He had no control over the timing. We should have been doing a hot take and a legal
Starting point is 00:51:16 AF on this four months ago. We should have been talking about this in July, in June. But, you know, the Supreme Court decided to delay delay delay on purpose to help Donald Trump led by Chief Justice Roberts. They heard the oral argument on the last day of the term in April. They issued their opinion on the last day. They could issue opinions in July and that's why we lost four months if not longer in their deliberation over this issue. They thought they were gonna kick the can far enough down the road that we wouldn't have to deal with anything before the election, but they don't know Judge Chuckin.
Starting point is 00:51:51 Judge Chuckin got the case back five weeks ago, six weeks ago, and she has been chopping wood ever since. Donald Trump has been complaining in every filing that he doesn't like the process that Judge Chuckin has decided needs to be used in order to solve for the problem created by Chief Justice Roberts. We're just solving for his problem. His problem is, well, Judge Chutkin, you didn't do it right the first time. You didn't analyze the facts well enough. And to get the facts, you need to have the facts around the facts and the context around the facts around the indictment in order for you to tell us whether it survives the immunity
Starting point is 00:52:24 decision. All right, well then you need facts, and facts on facts, and facts on facts on context. And that means a huge filing by Jack Smith. He doesn't wanna do that. No prosecutor wants to lay out all of his evidence and sequence them in the narrative before having a trial. But if that's what you want, that's what you're gonna get.
Starting point is 00:52:43 So they delivered this 165 page report two weeks ago, a motion if you will, or papers in support of an immunity determination I think was the technical term, and Donald Trump like freaked out, oh no, 165 pages of evidence against me, I don't want that. That's terrible, we don't want that again. So he brings a motion to delay him having to respond to that. And the judge says, I don't know, you want to delay that? Okay, I'll delay. So you don't have to tell the American people why you're not guilty before the election, but I'm not going to stop anything else in this process. And the thing that Donald Trump either didn't figure out how devastating it was going to be for him or just this intellectually exhausted, I just can't think
Starting point is 00:53:30 anymore, was this appendix. As I joked, it was the appendix all along. It's this huge compendium of evidence. We've heard that it's 30 pages of footnotes backing up with witnesses, with evidence, documentary, electronic, audio, visual, to support every line of the 165 page brief that was already filed. We, you and I in the media can't wait to get our hands on it to provide our analysis to our public, to our audience. It's been filed, just so we're clear. Trump's got it. Judge has it.
Starting point is 00:54:06 Department of Justice has it. The whole fight we've been watching is, how much of it is gonna be put into the public domain? We have a judge who's ready to hit publish and publish it on the docket so we can get our hands on it. But she has to balance these competing interests in a public criminal justice system. The interest of the public,
Starting point is 00:54:25 the interest of Donald Trump to get a fair trial, the interest of the Department of Justice to make sure it's prosecution, its investigation is not interfered with and witnesses aren't tampered with. So she's balancing these three balls and she has the discretion, like any other judge, to come up with the right balance under the factor analysis she has to use. And she has. As to the 165 pages, other than some blackout tape on some names, not even completely consistent, and we could figure out who everybody was, 77 witnesses we now know are against Donald Trump one way or another, along with tons of other documentary evidence, enough to choke a horse and convict 10 men let alone Donald Trump and Then the issue was what do we do with this 300 page plus?
Starting point is 00:55:10 Appendix that she gave Donald Trump 10 extra days when you and I saw that in the order We're like, ooh, she gave him 10 more days It must be gigantic that he has to go through it They better get cracking on that, you know to go line by line through it and make their recommendation About what should or should not be disclosed to the public if I were them They better get cracking on that, you know, to go line by line through it and make their recommendation about what should or should not be disclosed to the public. If I were them, I'd be handing in like an entire Swiss cheese blackout pentagon paper thing and say use ours, but they never do that. They they they capitulate and they basically waive their right to participate in the process because they don't file anything. And the judge is like, okay, what do I have to compare this to?
Starting point is 00:55:46 Nothing from the Trump side and this very reasonable presentation by the Department of Justice. I'll go with them. I'll go with the Department of Justice, publish, put it on the docket. Now, what I said, the mistake they made last time, not because they listened to our show, but the mistake I said they made last time looks like they're not going to make this time, which is last time they did not anticipate Trump's lawyers that the judge would so quickly order the clerk to publish immediately the whole 165 pages. They thought, I think they thought they'd have a day or two
Starting point is 00:56:15 to go do something. And the phrase you were struggling for a bit only because I did a hot take on it is, is explore litigation options, ELO. It's not a thing, but they've threatened to do ELO in this most recent filing. So this time they also didn't do what the judge ordered them to do because they're basically going, every time they have a shot, they're basically telling
Starting point is 00:56:38 the judge to go legal AF herself. I mean, it's just like, we're not listening to you, we're not following your directions, we're not listening to you. We're not following your directions. We're not going to do what you're telling us to do. Sorry, we don't respect you or the process, right? And so we're not going to do that. So early, without missing their deadline, they filed a, I was kind in one of my hot takes. I set a page and a half. When you deduct the name of the case and the signature block at the end, it was a three quarters of a page that the lawyers for Donald Trump filed. The first part of it was, we stand on our prior objections.
Starting point is 00:57:10 All right, well, she already rejected all of those. We're not gonna give you a competing appendix to compare. All right, so you've waived your right to be heard on that issue. And then lastly, Judge, while we're at it, we need a reasonable amount of time to explore litigation options if you decide against us again, which she's going to do. So she decided against them in this new order. So it was denied, their
Starting point is 00:57:34 motion, granted the government's proposal and how they want to release the 300 pages to the public. And I think it's more than 300 pages, Ben. And she has her finger hovering over the publish button to put it on the public docket I was like waiting for it but she said I'm going to this is the part where you said she's making sure she doesn't have any error in reversible error in her process she said I'll give you another week I'll give you one more week two and here's what she's basically told them bring it or go at a legal AF yourself. I'll give you a week to quote explore litigation options whatever that means. Now we took that you and me both
Starting point is 00:58:11 as a veiled threat against the judge because this is a guy who has sued or threatened to sue every judge in a criminal or other process against him that he that has ruled against him in one way or the other. He's attacked Lewis Kaplan, the federal judge in the E. Jean Carroll sex assault case. He's attacked Judge Mershon and his family in the 34 count felony conviction against Trump himself and the 19-17 count felony conviction against his company a year earlier. He's gone after Judge Angoran and his family and his principal law clerk in the $500 million civil fraud case. He's got gag orders all around him. So threatening a judge, I don't want us to get fatigued by this or to normalize it, is par for the course for Donald Trump. So I don't know
Starting point is 00:59:00 if he's threatening to sue the judge or he's threatening to take an emergency appeal of the judge, but whatever he's going to do, here's my prediction, could be wrong, I've been wrong before, I'll be wrong again, but this is my best analysis. He's going to try for public optical purposes for the campaign, it's not legally going to work, to take an appeal to the DC Court of Appeals. He's going to say, that judge over there doesn't like us, and she's doing election interference again. And she's releasing documents that she shouldn't be releasing. In fact, the whole process is upside down. She should just be ruling on the four corners of the indictment.
Starting point is 00:59:38 That's all she really needs. And the rest of this is just election interference by the Biden administration. And you should tell her no. And you should put a stop at a pin and a stay in her use of discretion to decide what goes on the public docket or not. And that's going to lose at the DC Court of Appeals. Then he'll try, I guess. He's only got a week. The judge didn't say, oh, I'll give you a month. She said, I'll give you a week. And the week is, by the time we recorded this now, live here, we're four and a half days. They're only're four and a half days,
Starting point is 01:00:05 they're only got four and a half days left. So he's gotta take two appeals and try to get to the US Supreme Court. First stop, Chief Justice Roberts. I don't even think this alt-right wing is gonna say that Judge Chutkin in process in balancing the factors which Trump always ignores had done it wrong. One last comment about what Donald Trump filed
Starting point is 01:00:29 just as an insult to the American people. I mean, forget it. While we're watching Kamala Harris earn the vote of Americans every day, everywhere, pitch in a tent in every battleground state and everywhere else through social media, corporate media, podcasts, who's your daddy, you name it, she's earning your vote. By contrast, Donald Trump's like phoning it in. The three
Starting point is 01:00:53 quarters of a page is like I left out something. Not one citation to a case. I've never seen anything filed in federal court by a purportedly competent set of lawyers that didn't at least try to cite to a case to support the appeal or the stay or her actions. Nothing. In fact, they only cited to Ellie Honig, the great constitutional scholar on CNN and an article by the New York Times. That just says they're just doing this to the American people. We're not even going to pretend that we have any legal basis for anything that we're writing, but we got to hit a deadline.
Starting point is 01:01:28 So here it is. I mean, come on, chat GBT could do better than that. Popeye, I agree with you there. And I wanna share this with you because I think this sums up the choice that we have to make. And it's exactly what you said. Vice President Kamala Harris is going around swing states, earning people's votes, talking about policies,
Starting point is 01:01:55 talking about plans to move America forward. That's a vision that I think should appeal to all Americans. But we also know that our country, and not just our country, historically, the American experiment and democracy is the smallest blip in the historical experience. Since the earliest days of humankind, it's been an authoritarian's planet, right? That that's been the norm.
Starting point is 01:02:29 Strong men rule with an iron fist. They keep their families in power. They divide the population by causing anger. Rarely in the United States was, was this beacon of hope for the world, was this democracy that we the people have the power. We're all part of this together. We're in this together. This image right here from the two different conventions,
Starting point is 01:02:57 the Democratic convention and the Republican convention, to me sums up this entire election. The Democratic convention, what were the signs? USA. What were the chants? USA. People taking pride in our country, recognizing that our country is not perfect. There needs to be things that are changed and improved, and we need to move forward,
Starting point is 01:03:19 and we can do things together. But we love our country. We love our flag. We love the United States of America. On the other hand, in the Republican convention and what Donald Trump's campaign is about is about hate. Is about demonizing immigrants is about demonizing people who don't look the way he looks or people thinking that they're part of this click that's going to be in power
Starting point is 01:03:46 and that they're going to attack the other and demonizing the other. They've run $70 million on a campaign attacking the trans community over and over again. $70 million on a campaign like that. And then the rest of their money's on immigrants and attacking immigrants over and over again and using the words like invasion and occupation and that you need to elect Trump for a liberation. And we are now an occupied nation,
Starting point is 01:04:21 things that are not true. But when you spread that propaganda on right-wing media over and over again, and then corporate media tries to both sides these issues, Americans are left with uncertainty about what's really going on here. It doesn't seem like Colorado is being run by Venezuelan gangs, but they're telling
Starting point is 01:04:45 me that on something called the news. So what am I supposed to believe? And one political party in a two-party system is saying, what do I do? And I could under, you know, it's hard to sometimes have sympathy for people hard to sometimes have sympathy for people who are spewing such hate, but I do my best to try to at least understand that there are billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars, that are meant to overwhelm and override our basic systems of thinking to make it so you aren't thinking logically. So when people are taken down this path, I at least try to recognize how they got there, although it's hard, but we have to rebuild.
Starting point is 01:05:39 Even after this election, we have to build a new media. We have to build new structures in a generational project. And that's what we're doing here on Legal AF. That's why we're building at the Midas Touch Network, different branches of what we're doing to make sure that we're getting accurate information everywhere. And the key to all of this is you. Sure. You're going to have people like Jack Smith and Kamala Harris and Governor Walls and you're going to have people like the Gretchen Whitmer's and you're
Starting point is 01:06:13 going to have great leaders emerge in history, but you can't wait. There's no superhero, but yourself. You're the answer. You are the solution. I know that sounds cliche sometimes, but if you're the answer you are the solution I know that sounds cliche sometimes but if you just do one or two things every day right after this episode and this whole community is Doing that and we're playing the tug of war for democracy together And we're all in lockstep trying to get out the facts and we're pushing each, we will win
Starting point is 01:06:46 and pulling each day we will win. And by winning, I mean getting out accurate facts, leading with values and principles of truth, of love, of compassion, of tolerance, of democracy. We'll do that together. You are the solution. That's what I wanna leave you with in this episode. Michael Popak, thank you so much for joining me
Starting point is 01:07:07 and it was my favorite time. I love what you're doing. Make sure everybody subscribes to the new legal AF channel led by Michael Popok. I wanna make sure that it's 200,000 subscribers this evening. Can we get 200,000 subscribers? Wow, that's a lot of Popok on my screen right there that I see in that trailer right there.
Starting point is 01:07:26 Thank you everybody for watching. We appreciate you. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and shout out Legal AFers.

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