Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets Death Blow to Case by Pissed Off Judge

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

In breaking news, a Senior Federal Judge has blocked the Trump DOJ from using any potentially tainted files obtained from a warrantless search of Fmr. FBI Dir. James Comey’s lawyer's files to re-indict Comey, at least until Friday. Michael Popok is on the scene to review the new order and explain its ramifications as the DOJ struggles to get “clean” indictments against Trump’s political enemies. If you’re 21 or older, get 25% OFF your first order + free shipping @IndaCloud with code LEGALAF at https://inda.shop/LEGALAF! #indacloudpod Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast⁠ Legal AF: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af⁠ MissTrial: ⁠https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial⁠ The PoliticsGirl Podcast: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast⁠ Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan⁠ Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen⁠ The Weekend Show: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show⁠ Burn the Boats: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats⁠ Majority 54: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54⁠ Political Beatdown: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown⁠ On Democracy with FP Wellman: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman⁠ Uncovered: ⁠https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindness community, celebrating acts of kindness nationwide with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. In breaking news, we've got a federal court order over the weekend that will blow a hole into the James Comey continued prosecution by the Department of Justice, and there's links even to the pipe bomber. I'll talk about that here on Legal A.F. and on the Midas Touch Network. This all results from a order by Judge Kolar Katelli in favor of a lawyer for James Comey, Daniel Richmond, a professor at Columbia, who wants his stuff. back and he wants his Fourth Amendment rights to illegal, to not have illegal search and seizure,

he wants it protected because he turned over documents back in 2017 and 2020 to the first administration to go after James Comey, the first Trump administration, having failed to do that, apparently they just kept all of his documents up on a shelf and then had a new FBI agent under Lindsey Halligan's direction without a warrant, take the box down, start rumming. through it without regard to a Fourth Amendment rights, without regard to whether there was attorney-client privilege communication between James Comey and his lawyer, Daniel Richmond. They just ran rough shot over the box.

And lo and behold, got an indictment based on what was in the box. The problem with that is it's a Fourth Amendment illegal search and seizure violation. It was already noted by one judge, magistrate judge Fitzpatrick. It led to Daniel Richmond filing a motion for not only the return of his property from when they did an imaging and a scanning of his iPad and his email accounts, but to prevent the government from using anything that was obtained from Daniel Richmond in 2017 and 2020 for the 2025 indictment or attempted indictments at James Comey.

And they have now been successful at least based on this new emergency temporary restraining order until this Friday at around the stroke of midnight. I'm Michael Popock. the Midas Touch Network in Legal AF. And yes, there is a pipe bomber connection here. And there's a lot of connection between the lawyers involved that I want to discuss with you, because this was a coordinated effort by James Comey and Daniel Richmond's lawyers, I am sure. And then there's that connection. We'll talk about related to other cases that the Department of Justice is currently investigating. All right, let's get down to it. Who's Daniel Richmond? He is a Columbia

a law professor, but more importantly, very good friend of James Comey, worked together in the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York when they were together. And when James Comey was in a little bit of a pickle because he had the first iteration of a criminal president in Donald Trump in the first term, he turned regularly to Daniel Richmond for both advice and counsel and to, frankly, as it has been admitted, to leak some documents to the New York Times that were memos of James Comey in order to try to get a special prosecutor appointed against Donald Trump in the first administration. So that's Daniel Richmond. Daniel Richmond's been very public about his role, his involvement, he's testified, he's given

testimony of the FBI, and all of that. The problem is, back in 2017 to 2020, they were doing an entirely different investigation. It was called Arctic Hays. It had to do with Hillary Clinton's emails. And he allowed his computers and iPad email account of Columbia. University to be looked at, imaged, and I guess retained by the Department of Justice, although I guess he expected to get it back. No charges were brought pursuant to his providing these documents against Richmond or

anybody else. We know that Comey famously never got indicted for anything, and there they sat apparently on the shelf. Now we know that Lindsay Halligan illegally appointed and fired recently as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, just the last. the FBI agent in her case against James Comey for perjury in September of 2020, just let him go back and take a look at the box of documents that were marked Richmond without a warrant. And of course, the FBI agent not aware of any segregation issues

or what we call taint issues just started going through the boxes and started testifying about what he saw. The problem is that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment for Daniel Richmond and by extension, the attorney-client privilege relationship he has. with James Comey. And they get the indictment, except the indictment got tossed along with Lindsay Halligan. Now, the government has the right to try to re-indate. We saw what just happened with Letitia James that they tried and failed already in Norfolk, Virginia, at least one more time with the grand jury, and fearing that they were going to try to re-indict James Comey again using the Richmond files, which were illegally retained and illegally searched, Richmond's lawyers who are close to James Comey and James.

Comey's lawyers filed a motion to get his stuff back and to claim a Fourth Amendment violation. And so the first level of connection, and that case gets assigned to Senior Judge Colar Cadelli. There, the motion that's filed is filed by Nick Lewin. Nick Lewin is a well-known white-collar defense lawyer. He also worked with James Comey in the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York and also worked for James Comey and Robert Mueller at different times during the Mueller investigation. Close relationship with Lewin, Lewin's lawyers and James Comey's lawyers. Now, let me get to the Colar Catelli order, and then I'll work backwards to tell you how we got here with the motion practice.

The order, which just got issued in the last 24 hours or so, basically says, I can't get a hold of the government. This is the judge. No one's picking up my phone. I know they know about this case, but nobody's appeared, so I'm going to issue a temporary restraining order, at least until Friday, to stop the use of the Richmond files for than any new attempted indictment until I can have full briefing and a hearing about the Richmond files and the Fourth Amendment, because that makes sense. It's called preserving the status quo. If she allows the government to do the very thing that Richmond's trying to stop, it's already done. You know, if they, if he's trying to stop the use of his materials for next indictment. If she doesn't do the TRO and hold the ring, they're going to use his documents for the indictment. So it kind of undermines the entire purpose of having filed the motion. Holiday headlines, family debates, and group texts that won't quit. You deserve a ceasefire. IntoCloud is your online cannabis dispensary for quieting the

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If you're 21 or older, visit indecloud.co and use code legal a.f for 25% off plus free shipping. That's indecloud.com code legal AF for 25% off free shipping and one less headline in your head. Enjoy responsibly. And thanks to Indicloud for sponsoring today's much needed quiet. She starts with these are the factors. that weigh in favor of her temporary order first, although the court has been in communication with attorneys from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, they haven't entered an appearance.

So her office called them they have not entered an appearance, and they haven't entered an appearance at the time I'm doing this recording. The government has not indicated who has custody of the material at issue, the Richmond files, and given the custody and control of the material is a central issue. I'm going to do a temporary restraining order, and she knows that the government got actual notice from Daniel Richmond's lawyers through an email exchange, and that's where the pipe bomber comes in. I'll talk about that in a minute. So here's what her ruling is.

Page three, the court concludes that Petitioner Richmond is likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that the government has violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures by retaining a complete copy of all files on his personal computer and searching that image without a warrant, a warrantless search. Petitioner has also shown that absent an injunction, he will be irreparably harmed by the ongoing violation of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures arising from the government's retention of his computer.

Therefore, she's going to enter the injunction. Grant, here's how it's been granted. The United States and the Attorney General of the U.S., Pam Bondi, are ordered to identify, segregate, and secure the image of his personal computer and his email accounts, his iCloud accounts, and any copies, and hold them, don't look at them, don't use them, just segregate them. Let's call that the Richmond files. Then they are not to access the Richmond files. Then they are ordered that by later today that they certify that they are in compliance with the order.

So sometime on Monday, they're going to certify that they're in compliance with the order by noon. It is further ordered that Petitioner Richmond's Council shall serve an order of this on the Attorney General. She's going to keep her temporary restraining order in place until the stroke of midnight on Friday, the 12th. Although she may dissolve it earlier,

she's allowing time for the government to come in and move to dissolve the temporary restraining order. And then she wants by Tuesday the 9th, she wants the response by the government to all of the pending motions on the merits of the Fourth Amendment violation. And then later on the same day on Tuesday, so we'll have full briefing on Tuesday, she wants Richmond's response. Right now, Comey a sideline. He hasn't moved to intervene. He's letting Richmond and his lawyers do the heavy lift. Now, here's the connection to the pipe bomber.

I know you're waiting on that one. there's an email exchange which I'll read to you in a minute in which the Richmond's lawyers write to the government and say look we don't want to make we don't need to make a motion for temporary restraining order we see you're trying to reindite just agree with us that you're not going to use the Richmond files to reindite and we will not have to file our motion for restraining order

so they send that to Jocelyn Ballantyne on December 3rd Jocelyn Ballantyne is also the assistant U.S. attorney who's prosecuting the pipe bomb case, which you'll see why that's relevant in a minute. So she writes back later on the third, this is all in an exhibit we'll put up on the screen, she says, thank you so much. I met with leadership today, and they have engaged the Department of Justice leadership, and I've also shared your pleadings and requests with the prosecutors who handled the

Comey prosecution out of the Eastern District. That's very interesting. Prosecutors. We know from Judge Curry, having reviewed the grand jury transcript, that there was only one prosecutor. It was Lindsay Halligan that prosecuted the original case. I don't know if she's confused. I don't know if we have now something that has to be followed up by James Comey's lawyers. What prosecutors were there? And in particular, because they need to know from a document search standpoint as a defense lawyers. And then if they're talking about new prosecutors, while the new prosecutors are therefore working on the indictment. I mean, that it's either she's admitted that they're working on a new indictment or she's got her numbers wrong or she just told the truth, which is there was more

than one prosecutor working with Lindsay Halligan. So that's the answer. She, they then write back in an email exchange on Friday the 5th, Nick Lewin writes back, hi Jocelyn, because they know each other from prior cases. Thank you for getting back to us. I am sympathetic to all you have going on. She's the pipe bomber prosecutor. And I'm sorry to add to that. But under the circumstances, I can't wait another week. We're going to make our motion for temporary restraining order because new violations of our client's rights may be imminent if you're trying to indict James Comey again. We got a lot to follow here on Legal AF. Come over to Legal AF substack. Take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button.

come over to LegalAF YouTube and help us grow to $1 million before 2026. We're really close. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of LegalAF. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take,

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