Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump GETS RUDE AWAKENING from GOP Lawyer COURT FILING

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

In the battle of Michael Cohen, who was Trump’s political prisoner in solitary confinement for refusing to silence his criticism of Trump, and the United States Supreme Court that is deciding whether Michael can sue the government for his civil liberties violations, AN ELITE GROUP OF RIGHT WING LAWYERS AND LEADERS INCLUDING A FOUNDING TRUSTEE OF PROJECT 2025’s Heritage Foundation has SIDED WITH MICHAEL and filed a new brief on his behalf. Michael Popok explains why SCOTUS should allow Cohen to sue for damages to the prison officials and Trump jailing and abusing him as a political prisoner, and to regain his dignity. Head to https://zbiotics.com/LegalAF to get 15% off your first order when you use LEGALAF at checkout. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join the Legal AF Patreon: https://Patreon.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

Travel better with Air Canada. You can enjoy free beer, wine, and premium snacks in economy class, now extended to flights within Canada and the U.S. Cheers to taking off this summer! More details at aircanada.com. When you drive a Mazda, you'll find out why our SUVs won more 2024 IIHS Top Safety Picks than any other brand as of June 2024. Find out what makes Mazda different at Mazda.ca. Switch to Freedom Mobile and get 50 gigs to use in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico for just $35 a month for 18 months. That's all the savings, and Mexico for just $35 a month for 18 months. That's all the savings, none of the worries. Conditions apply. Details at freedommobile.ca.

With Uber Reserve, you can book your Uber ride in advance. 90 days in advance. Perfect for all you forward thinkers and planning gurus. Reserve your Uber ride up to 90 days in advance. Uber Reserve. See Uber app for details. Go back to school with Rogers and get Canada's fastest and most reliable internet. Perfect for streaming lectures all day or binging TV shows all night. Save up to $20 per month on Rogers internet.

Visit Rogers.com for details. We got you, Rogers. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. It is high time for the United States Supreme Court to stand up for Michael Cohen, a patriot who was jailed as a political enemy of Donald Trump in a new case that's pending before him seeking damages for him being thrown back into jail

for 16 days of solitary confinement after he refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement that was put in front of him by prison officials at Donald Trump's behest and instructions by William Barr that he would not criticize Donald Trump. No, I'm not talking about Navalny and Putin. I'm talking about Michael Cohen and Donald Trump and two other federal judges that have looked at the issue while they released Michael Cohen from solitary confinement through a writ of habeas corpus refused to find that Michael Cohen had a case for damages for the

constitutional violations of these federal officers for the Bureau of Prisons led by Donald Trump against him. And now it's time, it was such an egregious example of abuse of power against somebody who is your political enemy and trying to undermine their First Amendment rights that even one of the founding trustees of the Heritage Society has joined forces with Michael Cohen,

a former representative Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma, Heritage Society founding trustee. Also the chairman of the American Conservative Union and PAC has joined together with about a dozen other Republicans and conservatives to file a friend of the court brief, an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court in favor of Michael Cohen. That's how bad and how obvious and how transparent the abuse of power was in putting Michael

into 16 days of solitary confinement because he refused, he refused to give up his First Amendment right to podcast, to blog, to do hot takes, to write books about and criticize Donald Trump. I've been doing this a long time. I've dealt with the Bureau of Prisons a long time on behalf of clients. I've never heard of them putting an NDA, a non-disclosure agreement, which happens in private world, but generally not in the Bureau of Prison world, not something imposed by a federal judge, not a requirement to be released, but they wanted him to sign an NDA. For Donald Trump, I've never heard of this in my entire life.

There is a concept in the law when you can't figure out what crime has been committed. In other words, there's no literal crime on the books. It's just a good old-fashioned constitutional violation led by a federal officer against an individual and that person needs to be able to sue in order to get redress, in order to stop that federal officer and make them think twice about ever doing that again and to give them compensation for the damage already committed, that falls under a rubric we call a Bivens action,

B-I-V-E-N-S, comes from a long line of, a Supreme Court case named Bivens and a long line of cases under it. And Bivens stands on the foundation of a case from the 1800s that all lawyers like me see as our touchstone for constitutional analysis, Marbury versus Madison. You have to give redress for an obvious abuse of constitutional violations of civil liberty in our constitutional republic. Or what are we? Then we're not a country of law. We're a country of men, men who can abuse other people

and take away their civil liberties without repercussion. So it's a Bivens action. The problem with a Bivens action is that the Supreme Court has narrowed considerably who can actually sue as a plaintiff under a Bivens action. So at the United States Supreme Court, then one of the main issues is, can Michael Cohen qualify as a Bivens plaintiff

to bring a case for constitutional violations against federal officers at the Bureau of Prisons that forced him back into solitary confinement when he refused not to be a vocal critic to Donald Trump? Yes or no? What country are we living in? It's so obvious that all of these right-wing conservative Republicans, those that worked in the Nixon administration as a special prosecutor in Watergate, worked for George Bush, worked for Reagan. Even as I said, Mickey Edwards,

founding trustee of the Heritage Foundation, the same entity that's generated the architects for the Project 2025 blueprint for the first 180 days of a new Trump administration. Even he thinks Michael Cohen was a political prisoner that was abused. Donald Trump likes to talk about Jan's sixth insurrectionist trying to burn down the Capitol and lynch elected officials and their staff as being political prisoners. You know who was a political prisoner? Michael Cohen. As we age, balancing our social life with next day responsibilities becomes trickier. That's why I'm thrilled to have discovered

Z-Biotics Pre-Alcohol, a game-changing product for responsible adults who enjoy a drink but have plans the next day. Z-Biotics Pre-Alcohol is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. Invented by PhD scientists, it's designed to address rough mornings after drinking. Here's the science.

When you drink, alcohol creates a toxic byproduct in your gut. This byproduct, not dehydration, is what makes you feel rough the next day. Pre-alcohol Z-biotic produces an enzyme that breaks down this byproduct. Just make Z-Biotics your first drink of the night. Enjoy responsibly, and you're set for a better tomorrow. Since I started using pre-alcohol before social events, I've noticed a significant improvement. After a night out with friends, I wake up feeling refreshed and ready for my day.

Whether I have an important business meeting or a family outing, I can approach my day with confidence. Vacations, weddings, birthdays, and reunions, there's so much going on. Get the most out of your summer plans by stocking up on Zbiotic Pre-Alcohol Now. Go to zbiotics.com slash LegalAF

to get 15% off your first order when you use LegalAF at checkout. Pre-Alcohol Zbiotics is backed with a 100% money back guarantee. So if you're not satisfied for any reason, they'll refund your money. No questions asked. Remember to head to zbiotics.com slash legal AF

and use the code legalAF at checkout for 15% off. Thank you Zbiotics for sponsoring this episode and our good times. Michael Cohen, even though two federal judges struggled with trying to find that a Bivens action was appropriate for Michael Cohen, Michael Cohen was made for a Bivens action in what happened to him. He gets convicted for election law crimes because he's the fall guy for Donald Trump

and the Stormy Daniels-Hushmanity cover-up affair. Sure, there were some other crimes involved. Once they went under the hood for Michael, they found some other things they didn't like that he did, and he got convicted of those as well. But the main reason he was in the crosshairs with the Department of Justice, a Donald Trump, Bill Barr Department of Justice, you see where this is going? As his former lawyer, now political enemy of Donald Trump, the main reason is because he took the fall for the payments that were made to help the Trump campaign, the very heart of the 34 count state conviction of Donald Trump in New York for Stormy Daniels. It just took that long to bring Trump to justice because the feds wouldn't go after Donald Trump because he was in control of

the Department of Justice and they did his bidding. And so he gets convicted in 2018, he serves jail time, but then COVID hits. And because of health conditions, including Michael's, they released Michael Cohen and a lot of other prisoners to do home confinement. In order to get out though, there appeared, there was another key and another lock

that only Michael Cohen had to use. When the Bureau of Prisons coerced him, compelled him, extorted him, signed here on a, effectively, a private non-disclosure agreement not to go after Donald Trump, write books and podcasts and everything like that, or we won't let you out. And Michael Cohen and his lawyers were like, where's that in the release conditions? Where is that in a federal judge, an Article III federal judge's orders or conditions of release? Where is that? It's nowhere. Well, they ask too many questions. And like any good dictator, Donald Trump ordered that Michael Cohen be jailed again. He went back to jail and they put him in solitary confinement

for trying to exercise his First Amendment rights and object to the constitutional civil rights violations against him. That's the heart of the case. And that's why all of these conservatives and Republicans have joined and banded together to file a friend of the court brief to support Michael at the United States Supreme Court. It's up there already.

The October term for the Supreme Court starts the first Monday in October. There will be oral argument on this. And if Michael Cohen wins, and he should, it'll establish new case law that a Bivens action is not just some concept, esoteric concept sitting on the law books. It's something that a person who's actually been abused by a federal official and had their civil liberties taken away and has no other crime that they can point to can actually sue for constitutional violations as a Bivens plaintiff.

That will be one of the many, many things that Michael Cohen will go down in history as a patriot concerning, besides helping to convict Donald Trump for almost the same set of crimes that Michael Cohen already served prison for, which is the topic here on this hot take. We'll continue to follow this odyssey of Michael Cohen

to reclaim his good name and to be compensated and to have standing to go after his tormentors, his political tormentors in the form of Donald Trump and the Bureau of Prisons and Bill Barr and get recovery and relief because if Michael Cohen isn't able to do it, that means you and I aren't. It's that old saying, they came for my neighbor, but it wasn't me, so I didn't say anything. And then they came for the guy on the other side, they came for the other person, and then they came for me. You have

to stand up. That's why I went into the law. That's why I went into legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. You have to stand up and defend your neighbor, your fellow patriot, because it could be you. There's another old saying, the government is my enemy until I need a friend. Well, the government was Michael Cohen's enemy. And now they have to be, especially when it was in the hands of Donald Trump. And now I expect that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and their Department of Justice will take the right position to help Michael Cohen.

That's the way to make this right. They don't stay neutral. They don't stay on the sidelines. They take an affirmative position and look the Supreme Court in the eye through their Solicitor General. They look the Supreme Court in the eye through their Solicitor General. They look the Supreme Court in the eye and say, Michael Cohen is a Bivens plaintiff and should be compensated for what happened to him and have his suit reinstated.

That's what the Department of Justice and the Solicitor General under Joe Biden should do. And we'll watch it to make sure these things happen on Legal AF and on the Minus Touch Network every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. Legal AF, the leading podcast at the intersection of law and politics, we curate the top three or four stories there. And as lawyers who practice in these courtrooms, we bring it to you unfiltered, unhinged, unplugged right here in defense of democracy on this network. Help them get to three million, I think it's gonna be Labor Day,

three million free subscribers. Can you imagine that? If you're not already a free subscriber or you can't remember, go out and look. Push the free subscribe button. That's it. You're building this network with us with our bare hands, by word of mouth, organically.

No outside investors, no marketing plan. We are the marketing plan. And then you can follow Legal AF Wednesday, Saturdays, 8 p.m. Eastern time. Like to watch your podcast, join us for the live recording and on the video. Like to hear them, listen to them, plug in Legal AF to all audio podcast platforms.

So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know, and we discuss every day on Legal AF. Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee.

Join us at patreon.com slash Legal AF. That's patreon.com slash Legal AF.