Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Day 1 Legal Move is MOST HEINOUS Yet

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

On his first day back in office, Trump has raised a middle finger to our justice system he swore to uphold, and opened the prison cells to release all of the Jan6 insurrectionists, including those charged with the attempted Violent Overthrow of the Government, and those who used weapons and brute force to maim and kill law enforcement. Michael Popok makes the historical comparison between Biden’s pardons and Trump’s and offers how the Democrats need to use Trump’s choice of violent criminal supporters of his over democracy and law and order, against him at the midterms, as his voters wake up to find he did exactly what they did not want him to do and release the Jan6 criminals. Go to http://mackweldon.com/?utm_source=streaming&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=podcastlaunch&utm_content=LEGALAFutm_term=LEGALAF and get 20% off your first order with promo code LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. to you live. Hundreds of wildfires are burning. Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canada. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. Download the free CBC News app or visit cbcnews.ca. It's time to make Donald Trump pay for what he just did. He just upended democracy and justice, granting unconditional pardons to 1600 Jan's sixth

insurrectionist and criminal defendants, including the most violent of the group that attacked, beat and tried to brain and or kill the police and elected officials. That is already Donald Trump's legacy and he's only a day into his new term. We must as an American people make him pay now and at the midterms for what he has done. He's tried to rewrite history. They say that history is written by the victors. Who are the victors of American democracy? I suggest, I posit, that it's the Midas Touch legal community. It's the community that surrounds us. It is we, the people, that write the history. And we know what happened on Jan 6. I'm going to talk more about the 1600 unconditional pardons, an entire set of clemency and

commutation of sentences, wiping away a hundred years of sentence for the most heinous in leadership around Jan 6, meaning the Proud Boys and the Oathkeepers, who have had their sentences commuted. And Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison as a member of the Proud Boys, he didn't just have his sentence commuted, he got a full pardon and is already out of jail on the way to Miami to celebrate with his family. I'm hot on this hot take. I'm hot for democracy. Right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network, I'm Michael Popak. Let's dive in. We just saw a tremendous juxtaposition of how the world can be. Joe Biden uses his protective shield of pardons

to protect all of the Jan six committee that did their civil and patriotic duty to bring to justice Donald Trump and all those around him who tried to usurp power and to overthrow our democracy. They got protection. 1600 or so other that I said a couple of days ago, Joe Biden issued in order to try to ameliorate the sentencing disparity between black, brown, and white people when it came to drug cases. That's on Joe Biden's legacy. And I said that'll pale in comparison, and it has,

to the new pardons that have now been issued by Donald Trump. It's hard to believe. I thought there'd be like a spreadsheet with all their names. No, no. It's just, it's just, let me, let me actually read it to you so that you know. And let me not bury the lead. The leadership of the Oath Keepers and of the Proud Boys, from Stuart Rhodes, the guy with the, with the eyepatch, to Enrique Tarrio, right? They've all been granted some version of clemency, right? If they're in jail, like Stuart Rhodes serving up to 18, 20 years, they're out. If they're not out now, they'll be out by this week. All of the leadership, I'm going to read you the names in a minute. And particularly galling is the fact that Enrique Tarrio, who got 22 years after a trial, after a trial in front of Judge Mehta, in a jury trial, convicted of attempting to violently

overthrow the government, seditious conspiracy, the highest charge against these people. He's out already on his way to Miami. That is a stain on Donald Trump on day one of his administration. We have to hold the flame of democracy and hold him accountable for it. Let's go through it. Here's the, we'll put it up on the screen, here's the actual grant, granting pardons and commutation of sentences for certain offenses relating to the events at or near the United States Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, by a proclamation. This proclamation ends a grave

national injustice. Think about this historical rewrite that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation. Look like this is the end of the Civil War. Acting pursuant to the grant of authority in Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution, I do hereby a commute the sentences of the following individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6th. Stuart Rhodes, up to 20 years, seditious conspiracy. Kelly Meggs, the same. These are the oath keepers.

Kenneth Harrelson, Thomas Caldwell, Jessica Watkins, everyone here is an oath keeper or a proud boy who led the military operation to try to overthrow democracy. Roberto Menuta, Edward Vallejo, David Morchell, Joe Hackett, Ethan Nordine, Joe Biggs, Zachary Rell, Dominic Pizzola, and Jeremy Bertuno. Then, for everybody else, there's going to be a grant, a full and complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that happened on October 6th. The Attorney General shall administer and effectuate the immediate issuance of certificates of pardons to the individuals above. That's going to be the future Attorney General, and that

the Bureau of Prisons shall immediately implement all instructions for the Department of Justice regarding this directive. I further direct the Attorney General to pursue dismissal with prejudice to the government of all pending indictments against individuals. There's another 400 people that have been indicted. There's another 200 that were just indicted two weeks ago because that took that long to find them and to bring them to justice. And the borough of prisons shall immediately implement all instructions. It's already been done.

Tario is out. It's already celebrating with his family in Miami. The narrative is a split narrative. They talk about reconciliation. There is a split narrative here. There's a dichotomy, a binary operation going on for our very eyes. Because they think they won, sort of like in the Civil War,

when they sort of buried the slavery issue as years went on and they put up statues erected to talk about the war of northern aggression. That's how the South referred to the Civil War. Try to put them on moral equality and moral equal footing. Same thing here with Donald Trump. That's why they use the vocabulary of this was a love fest. These are political prisoners and hostages, not prisoners. Let me tell you a little bit, and I've did over the last two years, I've done dozens and dozens of hot takes and videos. You can find them under the PO-PAC playlist about each of these most violent defendants and how they were convicted in a court of law with due process before a jury of their

peers or if they waived the right to a jury trial before a judge in federal court in the District of Columbia. Let's talk about what happened on that day. We know what happened on that day. We know what happened on that day. Over 250 police officers were injured, some mortally, some fatally. Five deaths occurred that day, that love fest, that capital tour gone awry according to Donald Trump. Two police officers saw such brutality that day and such carnage that they took their own lives.

Others immediately retired. It had been described by the police and other observers, especially at the Western Terrace, as being a pitched medieval battle. One police officer who went to Fallujah in the armed services, in the armed forces, said that the blood on the steps that she stepped on and slipped on reminded her of Fallujah. They broke into the Capitol, they desecrated the cradle of our democracy, literally defecated in its hallways. They tried to get down the Speaker's Bureau to try to hang and assassinate members of Congress

and their staff. That wasn't for the quick thinking of an outmatch, an outnumbered Capitol and Metro police. We would have had elected officials and staff die under the hands of the Jan 6th. I mean, just think how they were treating the police and beating the police. Come closer.

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over a hundred years of sentences wiped away. That was for the attempted violent overthrow of our government. Now they're about to be free people again. One of the defendants now freed by Donald Trump, he used his hands, his feet, a flagpole, pepper spray, and other weapons against the police and was given 18 years. Julian Cater used pepper spray against Brian Sicknick, a Metro or Capitol police officer who died the following day.

Patrick McGay, sorry, he crushed a Capitol police officer in a doorway. This is just two or three of the 1600. JD Vance, remember him? He's now your vice president or our vice president, apparently. He said out loud about a week or so ago, I did a hot take on it, that no person that attacked law enforcement should be given a pardon. Well, that would eliminate half of the 1600. They started

to attack JD Vance and he walked it back because he's an empty suit, right? He's all hat, no cattle. So we say, well, we love the Jan 6 insurrectionists, hostages, sorry. Look at the comparison in the waning days of the Biden administration, sad to say that's now over, and who he commuted the sentences of, and who he pardoned. And look in the sharp contrast of what Donald Trump just did to rewrite history,

which we cannot let him do. We must stand up to the injustice. We must call it out. We must join together and we must make Donald Trump suffer. As I said, there's a reason that Joe Biden took steps in the final days to enter executive orders, to try to Trump-proof democracy. This is one aspect of it. Goading Donald Trump into doing the unthinkable, the unimaginable, the unpatriotic, the undignified, the gross,

federal judges who all presided over these cases, who saw thousands of hours of video footage, who saw the social media posts, who saw the GoPro videos, who heard the audio, who read the transcripts, who saw the testimony are aghast and appalled at what has just happened. Totally, again, crapping all over our criminal justice system. And I wonder, let's play a thought experiment, I wonder what the United States Supreme Court and its MAGA right wing and Chief Justice Roberts in particular, I wonder what they're thinking right now about how they've unleashed the monster, Frankenstein, who's now rampaging the countryside, right? rampaging, who's now rampaging the countryside, right? And what they're thinking right now about their colleagues in the federal court system who presided over this case and what it means for our

democracy as the flag lies now at our feet in tatters, along with our Constitution, along with our Bill of Rights, along with our Declaration of Independence? What is the Supreme Court? What could they possibly be thinking now as the jails and the prisons are opened and those that attacked our democracy are let out? When I heard about it, I was driving between the podcast studio and my home and I literally had to pull over because I thought I was going to be sick to my home, and I literally had to pull over because I thought I was going to be sick to my stomach, but I'm back. This is why we're on the Midas Touch Network.

This is why we helped build this channel. This is why we built the Legal AF channel, to lean forward, not back at this critical moment. Yeah? And to hold Donald Trump accountable, to make him look the American people in the eye and say, I'm going to open the jail cells and all those people that you saw burn flags, burn the Capitol, Capitol set ablaze, break windows, use flagpoles and pepper spray and two by fours and their bare hands and anything and police batons and police shields To try to kill brain maim injure law enforcement in a crazed Fomented state by Donald Trump to try to get inside the Capitol. I'm not making this up I'm just reporting the videos that I've seen and

The descriptions by the Department of Justice of the criminal acts of these people. There's a reason these people went away for 10, 15, 18, 22 years in Enrique Tarrio's view example. There's a reason. Not because they were jaywalking or caught publicly urinating. Right? They were injuring law enforcement. Law enforcement should be ashamed of themselves too. To the extent that none of them, or there was a group of them that didn't support the

Democrats the last time around, this is what you just elected. Remember that the next time. Fraternal order of police and the rest. To think about which side of law and order you want to be on. Now, I'm going to continue to follow it, but just to answer the questions that often come to think about which side of law and order you want to be on. I'm gonna continue to follow it, but just to answer the questions that often come up in the chat while we're doing PO-PAC Live, Tuesday night, tomorrow night, talking about this as well,

there's nothing we can do about this. Probably the most robust power a president holds under our constitution reinforced by this group under our Constitution, reinforced by this group on the United States Supreme Court, is the Power Department. Nothing you can do about it. They're going to whoop it up, they're going to celebrate, I'm sure they're going to commit crimes again. And what was the lesson that Donald Trump just taught the schoolchildren of America? What is it? You can be an arsonist, you can be a criminal, you can be a violent person who attacks the law enforcement, and if you happen to vote for the right guy,

he'll let you out of jail. That's the lesson that we've just taught the American youth. We're better than that, we can do better than that. Continue to follow everything we do here on the Midas Touch Network, it's so important now, more than ever before, that you have an independent people-powered network at the intersection of law and politics. That's why we also formed the Legal AF channel. For this moment, there's going to be a lawsuit filed like every day for the next six months, a year, two years. We're going to cover it all on the intersection of law and politics, that hot corner.

Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel as well, and help us grow that pro-democracy channel. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.