Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets RUDE AWAKENING in Court with UNCLEAN HANDS

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Trump has UNCLEAN HANDS and that alone should lead the NY appellate court to swiftly DENY HIS REQUEST TO POST NO BOND to avoid the NYAG from selling his assets to collect on the $464 million JUDGMENT. Michael Popok breaks down this powerful LEGAL DOCTRINE and why Trump’s prior bad acts leading to him being GAGGED should also deny him the extraordinary appellate relief he seeks. Head to https://Aeropress.com/legalaf to save 20% at checkout! Visit https://meidastouch.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 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Michael Popak from Legal AF. Donald Trump has unclean hands. Not only, I mean, literally, I mean from a legal standpoint. He comes to the court with unclean hands. Because he comes to the court with unclean hands, the court should not do equity, use its equitable inherent authority to let him off the hook and not have to post the bond and the full amount of the New York attorney general judgment of $465 million plus? Unclean hands.

That's going to be the lesson on this particular hot take. What is it? Why does it matter? What kind of jurisdiction and power am I talking about? And why does that mean Donald Trump's inequitable conduct up until this moment in the New York attorney general case, why that means the appellate division first department in Manhattan, the first stop on the appellate train

should deny his demand. Donald Trump's demand to be relieved from an obligation to post a sufficient bond, to stop the execution of the judgment. And if they decline that and Donald Trump is right and truthful for the first time in his life, that he is effectively financially destitute when it comes to being able to post sufficient assets to obtain a bond, then the New York attorney general later this week, early next week, starts to execute on that judgment, and she, using the sheriff's office, starts levying on his assets, garnishing his wages, levying on his bank accounts, and selling his real property. Let's talk about on clean hands.

It's an important concept in the law, and I want you to understand it on this particular hot take. Courts today are combined, civil courts are. They sit, the judges sit in both equity and they sit in law. They're both judges who can do equity and they're judges who can do law. There used to be years ago and in certain court systems, there used to be judges who sat in either equity or law. Delaware has a version of that now, but almost every other state, a judge, your local superior court judge, or in New York, your Supreme Court judge, or your appellate court judge is wearing two hats, has both equitable powers and powers at law. Powers at law mean that he or she or whoever's sitting on the bench can use their powers to award damages, usually money.

If it's dealing with money and claims about money, whether that be a tort, a breach of contract, a negligence count, defamation, intentional, some sort of intentional act, whatever it is that causes somebody injury, physical, emotional, economic, then the judge sitting as a judge of law along with the jury who also sits as a law jurisdictional element can award money damages. As soon as the party is seeking something else, something else like an injunction,

something here like to be relieved, or you're asking the court to use its inherent authority, you're almost invariably in the world of equity. You're asking the judge to use equitable powers in your favor, but there is a requirement that exists only in the land of equity, only in the land of a judge's equitable powers. That doesn't exist when the judge is wearing his law, his or her law powers hat. In the world of equity, people that come before the court have to come before the court with clean hands. It's a doctrine. It's known as the clean hands doctrine. You literally say about another side, they come to this court with unclean hands. And that doctrine basically stands for the proposition

that if you're gonna ask for extraordinary relief from a court in this case, in the form of asking the court to relieve you of your obligation to post a bond equivalent to the amount of a judgment, you gotta come to the court with clean hands. If you've done underhanded things and you've committed misconduct, then your hands are dirty and you are not allowed to ask for equity or for the court to grant it to you. In fact, that is the number one thing the court has to evaluate in

that scenario is whether you have unclean hands. What is Donald Trump's unclean hands? Why are his hands bloody? Because of his own actions. Look what he did time and time again in the New York attorney general case, among other cases, consistently and constantly and relentlessly bashed, doxed, violent rhetoric against the judge, Judge Angoron,

his principal law clerk, whose name I will not mention here, over and over again, other members of the court system, jurors, grand jurors, and the like. So bad that Judge Angoran, in order to stop attacks on the New York Attorney General, on him, on his administration, on his staff, on others, had to issue not one, but two gag orders against Donald Trump and find him in contempt. That alone, the fact that Donald Trump had to be gagged for outrageous conduct, for comments made both inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom,

and by his lawyers as well, is the very definition of unclean hands. You all know I'm a coffee fanatic and I'm super excited to tell you about AeroPress. AeroPress coffee uses a patented brew method that gets the purest flavors from the beans and speeds things up so coffee doesn't get over extracted. You get a smooth, rich, bitter-free cup of coffee

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we've got an incredible offer for our audience. Visit aeropress.com slash legalaf. That's a-e-r-o-p-r-e-s-s dot com slash legalaf and use the promo code legalaf to save 20% off You can't come to the court abusing the law. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer.

You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. You can't be a lawyer. ships to the USA and over 60 countries around the world. And we thank AeroPress for sponsoring our show. You can't come to the court, abuse it, abuse the system, and then ask the system for a favor. Hey, can you spare a no bond requirement for my $465 million judgment? Does not work that way.

And that is the first thing that a court, whether it was Judge Angoron or here, the Appellate Division First Department sitting in Manhattan has to evaluate. No, you come to this court with unclean hands. He's also already been found to have lied and been untruthful in his testimony in that same case. I'm just focused on, I'm not even focused on

Donald Trump's conduct and behavior outside of this case. Because I think the only relevant analysis is all of his conduct and behavior within the case. Yes, there's a long line of him having unclean hands, but really it rises and falls in what he does in a particular case. But look at the particular case. Going after Angoron, going after his principal law clerk,

going after the New York attorney general and his staff, constantly, frequently, inside the courtroom, outside the courtroom, in social media, and everything else. Got gagged, the gag orders were affirmed by this same court, the first department appellate division. So it's not like this first department appellate division doesn't know what's going on in the case. Parties have, Donald Trump has run to that court

at least half a dozen times already and lost every time. Effectively lost every time. Tried to get the gag order removed, lost. Tried to get the financial monitor replaced and removed from his financial affairs lost. Appealed some of the rulings by the judge, primarily lost at the Appellate Division. So the Appellate Division knows Donald Trump well,

and has affirmed the gag order twice installed by Judge Angoron and the contempt order against him affirmed by the same court. Different round of judges, different panel of judges, but this court knows and is following closely, trust me, those judges are human, they are following everything going on in Judge Angoran's courtroom.

So they know already, and it will be argued, I am sure, by the New York Attorney General when she gets around to filing her paper, to oppose his request and it will be argued in court that he has unclean hands and has to be that request, the extraordinary relief that she would have an unsecured judgment against him, that he effectively can't afford the judgment and And that becomes the prejudice that he's trying to argue, a prejudice of his own making. If you don't have the bond amount, then you appeal while

the amount of your assets are being transferred over and transitioned over to the judgment creditor. That's what the people of the state of New York are now. They're a judgment creditor against a judgment debtor called Donald Trump. Eugene Carroll is a judgment creditor against a judgment debtor also named Donald Trump. And they have creditor's rights. That's what I practice in New York. One of my focuses in my New York practice

is on creditor's rights, the rights of people holding judgments to go after assets and how you execute on them. And so the point of this hot take is to explain unclean hands and the fact that unclean hands alone and the fact that Donald Trump comes to the court with dirty hands is a fundamental reason why the Appellate Division First Department should deny the request. I'm sure there'll be oral argument. I'm sure the unclean hands thing is gonna come up. And I wanted you to have this information as a lens

to analyze it all through as you hear that oral argument. I kicked this idea around with a colleague of mine who I started my career with, who, you know, in a text chain with me said, you know, unclean hands here might be an angle to address. And I said, I think that's a brilliant idea. And so the two of us kind of cooked it up and here we are on a hot take.

And so shout out to that friend of mine, he'll know who he is. Anyway, as you can see, we get ideas from our audience sometimes in how to analyze them. But I bring my own perspective to it. I bring my own 32 plus years of trial experience in New York courts, in Florida courts, and national trial practice to you right here on the Midas Touch Network on Legal AF, that podcast at the intersection of law, politics and justice that I do on Saturdays with Ben Mycelis, the co-founder of the Midas Touch Network,

and on Wednesdays with Karen Friedman-Eknifilo, formerly of the Manhattan DA's office. And then on hot takes like this, and if you like this kind of hot take, this kind of breakout kind of legal AF law school class, then leave me a comment, give me a thumbs up. It really does help. Interacting with our content like that

is actually rewarding for both of us. I might comment back and we'll open a dialogue and it keeps this type of content coming to you straight on the Midas Touch Network. Help the Midas Touch Network. Get them the three million free, yes I said free subscribers. You're already here.

Use your thumbs and fingers. Free subscribe and help them get to three million before election day. They're so close. They're going to get there. It's it. But you, you need to help them get them there. Me saying it is not enough. So until my next hot take, till my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting.