Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump DOJ Put in Their Place as Arraignment Goes Horribly

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Former FBI Director James Comey court arraignment on perjury charges was such a disaster for Trump and his Insta-Prosecutor US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan, that the proceeding left her, according to witnesses, “rocking back and forth in her chair and nodding”; as 2 North Carolina prosecutors had to be imported in at the last minute to handle the arraignment when NO career prosecutor in Halligan’s own office would help her! Michael Popok puts on his court clothes to dissect what just happened, including Trump chickening out on “perp walking” Comey, and how the judge setting a trial less than 3 MONTHS from now works to Comey’s advantage. Mack Weldon: Go to https://MackWeldon.com and get 20% off your first order of $125 or more with promo code LEGALAF Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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yet I found shocking what just happened to Lindsay Halligan at the arraignment of former FBI director James Comey. She was completely outmatched. Not only that, she was dumbfounded and mute. She didn't say a word during the arraignment. In fact, people that were in the room, court observers said that she spent the entirety of the arraignment rocking back and forth in her seat.

And nodding. It looks like she's practicing to get into the fetal position. I mean, if I was up against six-foot-eight James Comey, former FBI director, former the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and his lawyer, Pat Fitzgerald, former U.S. attorney in Chicago for the Northern District of Illinois, I'd be rocking myself for comfort back and forth as well. And she brought with her a couple of security blankets to prosecutors that got the short straw. She couldn't get anyone to prosecute the case from her own office,

the Eastern District of Virginia. They had to bring in two people, Mr. Lemons and his companion from North Carolina to litigate in front of Judge Nakmanoff, a Biden appointee, who set a you want to hear about Rocket Docket in Eastern District of Virginia? We're going to trial in less than three months in the Comey case. And that's all to James Comey's advantage. I'm glad you're here with me, Michael Popock, on Midas Touch and on Legal A.F. Let's crack our knuckles and get into what happened. I'm all dressed up for this particular hot take. That and I had a court appearance earlier this morning. So let's get into it. James Comey's are rained. And if you're looking for footage of the perp walk that was threatened, you can stop looking. They didn't do the perp walk.

First of all, they didn't really have an arrest warrant for him. He had a summons to appear. And a case like this, white collar, one count of perjury, lied about something eight, nine, ten years ago. Nobody can figure it out from the indictment. That's a problem I'll cover. That's a self-surrender. You arrange with your lawyers and the FBI to like go in, surrender.

We'll see you at the courthouse, released on your own recognizance, and we're done. So when you, I heard the threats of the perpwalk and Cash Patel whining, what is it with this administration in whining, whining about, oh, you simps over at MSNBC now, whatever it's called, complaining about, you know, a perp walk, we have every right to do it. No, you don't. The Department of Justice Manual says that you can't use publicity like that to abuse the rights of somebody who's presumed innocent. You don't. You don't. do perp walks unless you have to unless it serves a legitimate law enforcement purpose and not to embarrass somebody who's innocent until proven guilty but it didn't happen because i have a theory and one day if i bump into pat fitzgerald the lawyer for uh james combe i'm going to ask him i think they called their bluff i think they said you want to do a perp walk just tell us where and when we're going to have a video camera crew out in front of james combs

House starting today 24 hours until the arraignment because we want to get our own video and all the camera angles and we'll have our guy miced for the perp walk you want to do with quote unquote big beefy FBI agents and with try to embarrass our client because we're going to be using it for our motion practice you know our motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution so bring it and then that then we had taco Tuesday right Trump always chicken out, chickens out, no perpwalk. And I'm sure Trump was told that there wasn't going to be one. He's so big, right now, Donald Trump's so consumed with trying to win the Nobel Priest Prize as if it's something you can campaign for. I mean, they've got, I don't know, another day.

It's announced on the 10th. So they're campaigning left and right about Israel and Gaza and this and that. So he can't be bothered with what's going on anymore with James Comey. He's already lost interest with that play thing. Now fast forward, we get the judge assignment. Judge Nachmanoff, Eastern District of Virginia. Great judge. Biden appointee used to be a federal public defender, knows the U.S. Attorney's Office as well, was probably already had an arched eyebrow when no one from the Eastern District of Virginia prosecutor's office came into his courtroom. you know this is where they ply their trade instead a couple of carpet baggers from north carolina show up hello your honor mr lemons uh i'm going to have to be sworn in here because i'm not

already a member of the bar great start okay half an hour arraignment mac nanoff push this pedal to the metal unless the defendant waives his right to speedy trial which they were never going to do this case goes to trial when the judge says it's it's going to trial it's going to trial, January 5, 20, kids you're wondering, 26, three months, that's advantage Comey and Fitzgerald, because the government has an obligation, and they have very little time now, maybe less than a month, to get together weeks, all of the exculpatory information and evidence, including those leaky memos that can help the defense. And so all that's got to be turned over, usually called something like Brady Material,

named after a famous case. So all the memos we've been hearing about that have leaked out, oh, the memo, John Durham was interviewed, okay, John Durham was interviewed, the former special counsel for four years. He spent tens of millions of dollars going after everybody. He said, no, I didn't go after coming because there's no perjury there. The perjury, again, to remind people that are joining this story late is allegedly, that in 2020, September 5, 2020, while James Comey was testifying before the Senate,

we think the indictment relates to a Q&A between Cruz, Senator Cruz, and Comey, about a statement that he made, Comey made five years earlier in 2017, about a leak in 2016. You see the problem here at the Washington Post, which he swears he did not authorize. And that his number two, Andy McCabe, the FBI director, says he did it.

So let me play a clip, though, of what we think is the Cruz Comey Exchange at the heart of the indictment. Play it. Let's shift to another topic. On May 3rd, 2017, in this committee, Chairman Grassley asked you point blank, quote, have you ever been an anonymous source in news reports about mass? relating to the Trump investigation or the Clinton investigation. You responded under oath, quote, never. He then asked you, quote, have you ever authorized someone else at the FBI to be an anonymous source in news reports about the Trump investigation or the Clinton administration? You responded again under oath, no. Now, as you know, Mr. McCabe, who works for you, has publicly and repeatedly stated that he leaked information to the Wall Street Journal and that you,

were directly aware of it and that you directly authorized it. Now, what Mr. McCabe is saying and what you testified to this committee cannot both be true, one or the other is false. Who's telling the truth? I can only speak to my testimony. I stand by what the testimony you summarized that I gave in May of 2017. So your testimony is you've never authorized anyone to leak. And Mr. McCabe, if he says contrary, is not telling the truth.

Is that correct? Again, I'm not going to characterize Andy's testimony, but mine is the same today. All right, I'm going to make a final point because my time has expired. This investigation of the president was corrupt. The FBI and the Department of Justice were politicized and weaponized. And in my opinion, there are only two possibilities. That you were deliberately corrupt or woefully incompetent. And I don't believe you were incompetent.

This has done severe damage. severe damage to the professionals and the honorable men and women at the FBI because law enforcement should not be used as a political weapon. And that is the legacy you've left. Now, Fitzgerald comes into court and says, we can't make heads or tails of the indictment. As I said, it is woefully deficient on its face. We don't know who person one is. We don't know who person two is. We don't know who person three is. We're not even sure if that's the right clip of Cruz. What is it about fall that just opens up life. The weather is perfect for getting outside. The leaves are changing and suddenly there are more moments to enjoy, festive gatherings, upcoming holidays, and just more time

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Go to macwellden.com and get 20% off your first order of $125 or more with promo code Legal AF. That's M-A-C-W-E-L-D-O-N.com promo code legal A-F. And now we've got the new leak and all this information, John Durham saying he's not going to prosecute. The U.S. attorneys in the D.C. prosecutors saying they looked at Comey for two whole months of investigation. There's nothing there on perjury. That, the memo that was written by the career prosecutors in the Eastern District saying, we're not going to prosecute that we shouldn't prosecute that it was handed to Lindsay Halligan, all that gets turned over to the defense.

It's all going to form the basis of the motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution, plain and simple. And the government's got to get all that stuff together in a short amount of time. Now we've got new reporting, which will be to the benefit and strengthen the hands of James Comey, that the key witness that was evaluated, Daniel Richmond, a law professor at Columbia,

who worked under James Comey at the Southern District of New York as a prosecutor, but now a law professor at Columbia and a special advisor, policy advisor to Comey, that the prosecutors evaluated him and thought that his testimony would prevent insurmountable hurdles to getting a perjury charge sustained against Comey. Just to remind you of who, or for the first time, here's Professor Richmond several years ago on Fox. Let's play the clip. Professor Daniel Richmond, he's also a policy advisor to FBI director James Comey.

Great to see it, Professor. Thank you for being here. Thank you. It's good to be here. So you know, Comey, you've known him for a long time, he used to practice law together. Yes. Okay. And you say he's a straight shooter, and you're a friend of his, and an advisor of sorts. What do you make of the piling on now, Nancy Pelosi in particular? Like, maybe he can't do the job.

You know, maybe it's time for change. What people seem to forget is that whatever he did would have political ramifications. Either you stay silent and don't correct what people seem to think, which was that an investigation was complete, and you let that thought go to people as they, let's say, vote, or maybe, let's say, as they move into running the government next year, or you speak, and you speak as little as possible. I don't think he's unaware of the fact that there's an election going on. I don't think he's trying to influence election, but either silence or speaking is. going to implicate the election and he's aware of that and did what he felt he had to do

do you is this hard on him do you think i mean he's a human being he seems like a real sort of joe friday kind of you know law enforcement official but is this hard on him to have this much pile on including today from the president we don't deal in innuendo we don't deal in leeks i think jimms used to being piled on um that comes with the territory i also i i don't read what what the president said is as part of the piling on from I think what the president said is people felt the investigation was complete. It turns out the president was wrong on that. There is an investigation that was said to have been complete, but is going on.

And that's all that the director said a few. Okay. And Andy McCabe has already taken the blame for it. He's already said, I'm the one. Nobody's talked to me, but I'm the one that talked to the Washington Post, not him. So how are they ever going to get this indictment to stick? There may be a superseding indictment where they try to fix some of these problems off this hearing, but they're not going to be able to grow a brain or ethics in the meantime.

We're watching prosecutorial abuse writ large on national television. And we'll follow it all for you with all the updates. The next thing that's out of the box and follow me on LegalAF YouTube channel or LegalAF substack and you'll get the reporting. The next thing out of the box is going to be the motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution. It's coming. It could be any minute now. In the coming days, they're not going to wait around on this.

They're going to clear Comey's name. They're going to draw a line in the sand. They're going to file that motion to dismiss for a vindictive prosecution. And sometime in later October or beginning of November, we're going to have a hearing on that. This case may never get to trial in January. I'm sure that's what Judge Nakmanoff knew when he set a very fast trial. I'm continuing to follow it all here on Midas Dutch and Legal AF. Take a moment.

Hit the subscribe button here. Come over to Legal AF. YouTube channel do the exact same thing there and join us on LegalAF Substack, where when I get the motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution, I will post it there for you to read it. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there,

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