Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Judge's Role in Bribery Scandal Comes Back to Haunt Him

Episode Date: January 1, 2026

Should a sitting federal judge affiliated with Trump be impeached and removed for his role in allowing a corrupt Trump official to join the Administration? Those are some of the questions being asked today based on new reporting from MS-NOW that then senior DOJ Official Emil Bove (now Judge Bove) was handed an internal FBI and DOJ memo that disclosed that Border Czar Tom Homan was caught in a $50,000 bribe undercover sting operation, and then did nothing about it, allowing Trump to grant Homan security clearance. Michael Popok takes a hard look at Bove’s actions and what should happen next, as the Trump Administration embarks on yet another scandal cover up. Check out The Popok Firm at: https://thepopokfirm.com 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 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 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

From Searchlight Pictures comes, Is This Thing On? Directed by Bradley Cooper and starring Canada's own Will Arnett. Is This Thing On is the story of a man's unconventional journey to find himself, seeking new purpose in the New York stand-up comedy scene while navigating his impending divorce. Is This Thing On is a raw, authentic, and hilarious story about discovery, reinvention, and second chances in life. See Is This Thing On, now playing in select theaters everywhere January 9th. Hey Ontario, come down to BetMGM Casino and see what our newest exclusive the Price is Right Fortune Pick has to offer.

Don't miss out. Play exciting casino games based on the iconic game show, only at BetMGM. Check out how we've reimagined three of the show's iconic games like Plinko, Clifhanger, and the Big Wheel into fun casino game features. Don't forget to download the BetMGM Casino app for exclusive access and excitement on the Price's Right Fortune Pick. Pull up a seat and experience the price is right fortune pick, only available at BetMGM Casino. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager. Ontario only, please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,

please contact ConX Ontario at 1866-531-260 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Even though Emil Bovi is on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, he can be impeached. He can be removed and based on some new reporting involving Tom Holman and his bribery scandal. It just broke on MS now. I think Emil Bowie better watch himself. I think he should be the subject and a target of a impeachment and removal process because of his role in trying to cover up a bribery scandal at the highest levels of the Department of Justice when he was there.

I'm Michael Popok. You're on Midas Dutch Network and on Legal AF. Let's get down to the new story. We've been reporting for quite some time about a bribery scandal that hit about three months ago. Turns out in September of 2024, Tom Holman was the target of an undercover FBI sting operation conducted in Texas to try to get him to take a bribe in return for steering federal contracts to who he thought were federal contractors, but were FBI agents. That was at the very end of the Biden administration, just a couple of months before the election.

and it was arranged, we know more details, through a colleague and an former ICE official that worked with Tom Holman, who basically said Tom Homan was on the take, and the FBI decided to test it. It took him about a year to get it off the ground, and they went and pushed a $50,000 cash-filled bag of Kava, a restaurant, bright yellow bag takeout, pushed it across the table in return for this quid pro quo. The Trump administration has been reeling trying to deny it ever since. And now we've got the new report involving Emil Bowie, that there was an internal memo, one page, that the Department of Justice senior officials prepared for Emil Bovi during the transition sometime in early January of last year before the inauguration.

And that people in the room said Amel Bovi grimaced and rolled his eyes. Now, by the way, I'll put up a photo of him here. It's hard to tell when he's grimacing and not grimacing. Don't you agree? He looks like grimace from McDonald's. but he grimaced, mm, rolled his eyes

because in the one-page internal memo it said that Tom Holman, who Donald Trump wanted to be a border czar, was caught in a sting operation on a $50,000 bribe. And even Emil Bovi,

former criminal defense lawyer for Donald Trump, former U.S. attorney, assistant U.S. attorney, knew that that's not a good look. But now we have the explanation as to why Donald Trump's incoming administration and presidential transition team headed by Susie Wilde, incoming chief of staff, and Howard Lutnik, incoming Congress Secretary, didn't want the FBI doing

background checks for anyone, despite presidential transition law that required them to enter into agreements to subject their incoming administration officials to an FBI background check. when they finally stopped jerking around on purpose and argued that they were going to do it with private background investigators. This was a scheme of Boris Epstein, a criminal defense lawyer of Donald Trump that was adopted by the presidential transition team.

They didn't sign the FBI agreement until the 3rd of December, gave them four weeks, five weeks to complete background checks on hundreds and hundreds of people coming into the administration. Now I think I know why. They knew there were going to be flies in the ointment,

briberies in the candidates, if you know what I mean, including for Tom Holman. But the Emil Bovi thing is more than troubling. Amel Bovys already at the heart of another corrupt practice of the Department of Justice and Trump administration to use the Alien Enemies Act to disappear people in March and get them away from federal oversight by federal court jurisdiction in a case involving Chief Judge Boseberg in D.C. He's likely a prime witness. He's likely a prime witness. if and when that contempt proceeding ever gets off the ground. And I just got, I have news for people that are defenders of Donald Trump and Emil Boevey.

The fact that Donald Trump tried to insulate him and stash him by kicking him upstairs with lifetime appointment as an Article III judge does not save him. He's had to testify already and file affidavits in the Boseberg case. And if it turns out that he obstructed justice and he allowed a bribed official to enter the administration through the front door, he should be impeached and removed as a federal judge. And just because it happened before he was a federal judge, but found out later doesn't mean that it can't be used against him.

Now, let me get into the details that we now know, but before I do, of the bribe, let's remember that the Trump administration and its propagandists like Carolyn Leavitt have been denying effectively the existence of the United States, internal memo since the beginning. Here's Carolyn Levitt, grimacing her way through a press conference and saying it's all a hoax. Yeah? The internal memo is a hoax. Let's play the clip. Thanks, Caroline. So, too, on the woman investigation, I mean, can you just speak to,

did the president ask the Justice Department to close the case? And does Homer have to return the $50,000? Well, Mr. Homan never took the $50,000 that you're referring to. So you should get your fact straight, number one. Number two, this was another example of the weaponization of the Biden Department of Justice against one of President Trump's strongest and most vocal supporters in the midst of a presidential campaign. You had FBI agents going undercover to try and trap one of the president's top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position months later. Mr. Homan did absolutely nothing wrong. And even the president's Department of Justice, even Cash Patel's FBI looked into this, just to make sure they had a number of different prosecutors and FBI agents who looked into this.

They found zero evidence of illegal activity or criminal wrongdoing. In the White House and the president's standby Tom Homan 100% because he did absolutely nothing wrong. And he is a brave public servant who has done a phenomenal job in helping the president shut down the border. Now, Tom Homan, some people might be scratching their heads. Which guy is that? oh, you know, that's the guy that if Saturday Night Live was doing a skit, and they had a picture of a smiling Tom Homan, they would say, here's a picture of Tom Homan watching an orphanage burned down. He's that nice guy that always is talking about separating families, making people disappear, you know, leaking information to the public to make them feel badly about somebody that the Trump administration is going after. You know, that guy.

So, in fact, here's a clip of Tom Homan rolling his eyes about the 50,000. Now, let me tell you something. He never gave the $50,000 back. He never gave the $50,000 of taxpayer dollars back. How did he report it on his tax return? A gift? A donation? Because when the FBI's public integrity section, and we don't have a public integrity section anymore at the Department of Justice,

that was mothballed and chloroformed by the Trump administration. But when we did, and people like Jack Smith used to work there, they ran this. they ran this bribery, a sting operation, against Tom Homan. But the target wasn't originally Tom Homan. They were targeting somebody else. So they were talking to Julian Calderas. Julian Calderas worked with Homan in ICE, was a colleague of his,

and told the FBI that if he gave Tom Homan a million dollars, he would direct contracts towards somebody he thought was a federal contractor. Took him a year, the FBI, they decided, let's try. So they went with Calderas to a Kava restaurant in Texas and pushed in a yellow kava bag, $50,000 across the table of taxpayer dollars. Tom Homan took it, took it home, still hasn't. And in return, they talked about getting federal contracts, you know, border patrol contracts, private security contracts, private prison contracts to run detention centers that are private,

you know, things like that, that are within his wheelhouse. Now, let me show you a clip of Tom Homan. and sort of denying that he took the $50,000, but not really. Let's play the clip. I know George Stephanopoulos is one of your best friends. He convicted you on television of a $50,000 bribe. I didn't take $50,000 from anybody. How did that get into the mainstream, do you think?

I have no idea. Look, there's been hit pieces on me since I came back to this administration. There's got to be 30, 40 hit pieces on me about how I'm involved with the contract or government contracts when in fact day one I came back I recused myself from any discussions on any contract or any monetary decisions like that because I used to have a company that did consulting so I I cleared myself day one what people don't talk about is I took a significant huge pay cut to come back and serve my nation and I'm not enriching myself doing this job does this make you angry that they're coming as to this way I don't I don't care what people

think about me and never have no because I know who I am I work for the greatest present history of this nation in my opinion and we're doing the right thing every day okay hey everybody ben mysellis here from the midas touch network i wanted to let you know about my podcast partner michael popock's new law firm it's called the popock firm michael poppock's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm really based on the popular demand by all the mightest mighty and legal a effers who are approaching michael popock with their cases and saying can you you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popok firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases,

trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know, have a case like this, the consultation with Popok's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopfirm.com. the Popok firm.com, or you can call 877 Popok A-A-F, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877 P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call, and I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. Now, there has been oversight over this.

The Democrats providing it. Pam Bondi, remember her? Speaking of grimace. Thinking of the grimace from McDonald's, that's, that's Pam Bondi's adopted resting face. That's, that's attorney general resting face for her is like the grimace. You know, it's always this squinty, smarmy, sarcastic. You know, if she was a child in school, you'd send her to the principal from making that face, trying to get her way through her Senate oversight committee hearings.

And they asked her, sent her a shift in particular. asked her about the bribe scandal and the $50,000. That didn't go well for her, even though she tried to attack Schiff. Let's play the clip. Two weeks ago, four major media outlets reported that Tom Holman, the president's top deportation official working in the White House, took $50,000 in cash in a bag from undercover FBI agents in September 2024, just over a year ago. According to these reports, Homan indicated he would facilitate.

securing contracts in exchange for money once he was in office in the future Trump administration. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt denied Holman took the $50,000, telling a reporter, quote, Mr. Holman never took the $50,000 that you're referring to, so you should get your facts straight. So today I hope you can help us get our facts straight. Was that true what the White House Press Secretary said when she denied home and took the money? did he take the money Senator Schiff as I stated earlier

I was not in office I was not confirmed when that was handled so does that mean Deputy Attorney General Blanche and Director Patel said that there was no evidence that Tom Homan

committed a crime yet now you're putting his picture up to slander him as much as you can you know showing an interview he gave with, I think, Fox, in which he was asked explicitly about these allegations that he took a $50,000 bribe, and he refused to answer. You were asked by my colleague from Vermont, whether you will support providing a video or audio tape if it exists of Mr. Holman taking $50,000 in bribe money from the FBI, will you support requests by this committee

to provide that tape or tapes to the committee? Yes or no? Senator Schiff, you can talk to Director Patel about that. Well, I'm talking to you about it. You're the Attorney General. This will be your decision. Will you support? You don't have to tell me what is my decision, what is not my decision. I said you can talk to Director Patel.

You don't have to try to. You don't have to. You don't have to. Excuse me. Who's been out there fighting for our country since Donald Trump took office. I'm trying to ask you a question. Regular order, please. And you don't have to defer to the FBI director to pass the buck.

So I'm asking you, will you support requests so that the committee, or indeed, I believe the American people should be able to see that video or audio tape? Will you support that request? Will you apologize to Donald Trump? I guess the answer is you won't support the request. The bottom line is, besides Emil Beauvais, who knew about the internal memo in the Trump administration? And how did this guy get security clearance? How did he get security clearance. The reason we want FBI background checks to done properly is we want to make sure people

aren't Russian assets, Chinese assets, terrorists, or corrupt people that take bribes that come into government. But when you have the felon in chief, this is the dark side people. If you voted for Donald Trump, this is what you get. He's never saw a crime that he didn't look past or he didn't pardon. You know, when you have a criminally insane occupant of the White House in the Oval Office, This is what you get. Let them in. Forget the national security checks. Why do we need national security clearances?

I'll give it to him. See, the president has the ability to grant clearances, even without an FBI check. And that's obviously what happened. But the people demand information. And we demand to know why Tom Holman is still in the government. Why do I have to hear him opening his pie hole about cases like Abrago Garcia and making families disappear when he shouldn't be in the government at all?

So we're going to continue to follow it all right here on My Destach. I've got great news for the coming new year. We're doing a build on Legal AF Substack, 30% off on Substack membership, annual membership. 30% off drops it to about $6.50 a year. A thousand people have taken advantage of my sale in the last 10 days. I appreciate each and every one of them. We just did LegalAF. YouTube. Got it to a million subscribers in about a year.

We're on our way to 2 million. These are the ways to get us ready for 2020. hit the subscribe button for LegalAF YouTube, become a paid member of Legal AF Substack, or just check out its content. First, try it out as a free member for a while. If you like, I'm sure you will, and then you'll see the advantage

to becoming a paid member and helping us stay on the air and defend us against an out-of-control Trump administration that's trying to crush independent media. 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-five, or a oral argument. Come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it,

morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from legal layoff are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes

where legal A-F on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.