Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Loses it as CNN Scheme is Suddenly Blocked

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Popok reports on two breaking events about Trump’s attempt to give control of CNN and Warner’s other assets to his cronies, the Ellison Family and to get money in return. First, a California Federal Judge has issued an Emergency Temporary Injunction to block the Ellison’s purchase of CNN and Warner assets. At the same time. a new Delaware suit alleges that the Ellisons are bribing Trump for regulatory approval and will ultimately give Trump in return de facto control over CNN and a big “settlement payment”! Select Quote: Get you FREE Quote today at https://SelectQuote.com today! Subscribe:  @LegalAFMTN  Pre-order the new book from MeidasTouch, WTF America?!: The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy, today: https://bit.ly/wtfamericayoutube 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 The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 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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Start your free trial on Shopify.com. We got two major developments. They involve Donald Trump's attempts to take over CNN using his friends, the Ellison family, to do it. It's not about Paramount Skydance trying to take over or merge with Warner Brothers. They're not merging. They're trying to grab all the leading assets of Warner Brothers and a $110 billion merger and all the money going to them. But the real question, that's the focus of a new lawsuit filed by Public Integrity Project, is whether it is, is a form of a bribe and fraud between Ellison family and Donald Trump.

At the same time, we've got a breaking news story as another lawsuit filed in California by 12 Democratic Attorney General led by Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California, has resulted in a temporary restraining order for the next 14 days being issued by a San Francisco federal judge, finding all four factors for an injunction present, especially as it relates to the movie industry. The suit brought by the attorney generals done focusing on affordability to make sure your streaming service charges, the price you pay for premium streaming, for cable, for movies and television, doesn't go up astronomically. At the same time, the lawsuit filed by the public integrity project all the way over in Delaware is about fraud.

and corruption, all coming out of the same merger. How could one merger and acquisition support so many illegal things? You'll follow it with my breakdown right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal A.F. I'm Michael Popak. All right, let's talk about first the breaking news story. I'll get that out of the way. I've got the five page, sorry, 10 page order of Judge Martinez Alguyen up in the Northern District of California. Where did this come from?

came from a lawsuit by 12 Democratic Attorneys General, led by Attorney General Rob Bonta. Let me read to you what the judge focused on. This is on page two of her order, which will put up on Legal Aaf Substack for our paid members. On February 27, 2026, Paramount and Warner Brothers agreed that Paramount would acquire. That's the Ellison family, Oracle, and his son, all of Warner Brothers for 117.

$10 billion. The combined entity would control two of the big five film studios, Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers, 50 basic cable channels, leading premium cable television channels from HBO and Showtime, the most watched broadcast network in CBS, three subscription streaming services, Paramount Plus, HBO Max, and Discovery Plus, three of the most prolific television production studios as well, Paramount, CBS, and Warner Brothers. What can go wrong? Well, the judge focused on the movie creation part and said this is going to be an anti-competitive concentration of movie-making power in one company.

And based on that alone, she decided that she was going to find a violation, that it was more likely than not, likely to have success on the merits that the attorneys general would prove that the Clayton Act, an antitrust, anti-competition law from 1913, Section 7. had been violated. Under that particular law, once there's a prima facie, once there's a basic case that's made out through the allegations and through the filings by the attorneys general, then the burden shifts to the Department of Justice, or in this case, sorry, the transaction participants, Warner Brothers and Paramount, it shifts to them to prove that they are not. anti-competitive and she found that they did not carry their burden on the shifting back.

Page five of her order, plaintiffs present compelling evidence that the combined firm resulting from the transaction will possess substantial market share in the wide-release theatrical distribution market. The movies anticipating 27% market share. So almost 30% of all movies in movie houses are going to be controlled by this combined entity. And she found that alone makes out a violation of the Clayton Act. Now, the Clayton Act is very interesting, because at the time it was created in about 1913, the Department of Justice was in its infancy. It was tiny, and they knew that it would never be able to handle all of the anti-competitive regulatory work that was out there. You know, this is a nation where we had the robber barons who ran through these trusts, things like

the Sugar Trust and the Railroad Trust and the Newspaper Trust and the Steel Trust, all jacking up prices, right, working with each other in a anti-competitive way, two members of the same industry, jacking up prices for the consumer. So the Clayton Act anticipated that there would be other regulators, including states who could sue under the federal law. That's exactly what's happened here. When it comes to a reprimable harm, they find that she found on page seven that because the plaintiff states make a strong showing that the transaction will. substantially less in competition in the movie distribution market, they have the irreparable harm. They've already proven likelihood of success on the merits, inadequate remedy of law, money's

not going to do it, irreparable harm. And then she found that the balance of equities and public interest tips in their favor. She's issued a 14-day injunction, TRO, and then she set a briefing schedule. She wants the preliminary injunction, which lasts longer until the end of a case than a temporary restraining order, starts with an administrative stay, then a temporary restraining order for a defined set of time, then a preliminary injunction. She wants full briefing to be completed by the 30th of July, and she scheduled a hearing on August 3rd in Oakland, California, at 3 p.m. and we will be there. That's what's happened there. Now, this should come is no surprise for people that follow legal AF. I just did an interview of Attorney General Rob Banta

about this very filing leading to this temporary restraining order. Here's a clip. Paramount Warner Brothers have been heard for. They say that your lawsuit is misguided. They say that here's a quote from them you can react to. The lawsuit filed by the state attorneys general in the most generous light, oh, here we go, reflects a fundamentally flawed application of the antitrust laws and is wrong about the facts and the law delaying this transaction will only harm entertainment workers who have already suffered over the years. What do you say to Paramount Warner Brothers unnamed spokesperson? I say it's exactly what you expect to hear from Paramount Warner Brothers. Their spin, their script is on overdrive right now. And it's up is down,

black is white. They're saying that the thing that's going to hurt workers is going to help workers, The thing that's going to harm competition is going to help competition. And they couldn't be more wrong. We've set forth our case, chapter and verse in a nearly 40-page complaint filed in the Northern District of California. It's clear, it's clean. We've identified three specific marketplaces where this proposed merger violates the century-old Clayton Act and substantially diminishes competition in those three markets is presumptively an illegal merger for those three markets. And so I think it's, you know, it's black letter law applied to the facts here.

And easy for, you know, their high-powered many attorneys that they've hired to understand. Yeah, you told me coming on there that there's something like six or seven major law firms that have been hired by this group to try to defend their right to merge, I guess. They are very lawyered up. I think seven of the biggest law firms across the country, I guess they needed a lot of firepower to try to defend this proposed merger. But, you know, we've shared our clear thinking about why it's unlawful. And we think we have a strong case. We also asked them to agree to not close the proposed merger until the court has a chance to opine

and decide on the case that we brought before the court. They declined. And so we filed a request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction yesterday. And as an update, Attorney General Rob Bonta is joining me again later today on Legal A.F for yet another interview to talk about this particular injunction and what it means. In business, I'm always trying to make smart informed decisions and get the best for less. But if I'm honest, I haven't looked at my life insurance policy in way too long. Is my coverage enough given today's economic uncertainty? Am I overpaying?

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At the same time, I just interviewed Brendan Ballou. Brendan Ballou runs public integrity project. He's one of the teams that's representing Katie Fagneter case against the Epstein's. He just filed on behalf of a shareholder of Paramount Skydance against the board of directors. He filed a stockholder derivative complaint in the Chancery Court of Delaware. That's where you go when you're suing Delaware corporations. And these companies are all Delaware corporations because they want the benefit.

of the law and the court system there. And listen to the allegations raised by Brendan Ballou. And this is the distinction between the attorney general suit, which is all about anti-competitive behavior, driving up prices. This one's about fraud and bribery and corruption. Here's what the complaint says on page three. The Ellison's, that's the cronies of Donald Trump, who are being rewarded in this kleptocracy, now seek to accomplish an approximately $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner. And the Ellison's have, once again, reportedly promised illegal private benefits to President Trump in order to remove federal regulatory barriers to the merger. In particular, the Ellisons have reportedly promised to make sweeping changes to CNN, including firing anchors the

president dislikes in exchange for regulatory approval of the merger. Once they acquire Warner Brothers, the Ellison's will also have the opportunity to improperly funnel cash to President Trump by settling litigation he brought against CNN in his personal capacity prior to his reelection. The Trump administration approved the Ellison's acquisition of Paramount, including CBS, but promising and delivering private benefits in exchange for public action. violates the law, particularly the criminal law. 18 United States Code 201, prohibiting bribery of public officials, 18 U.S.C. Section 208, prohibiting public officials from engaging in acts affecting their personal financial interest.

Crimes committed by Donald Trump, as alleged in this Delaware case. And the discovery in this case, the documents and the depositions are going to be fascinating as to what position Donald Trump and his Department of Justice. this ultimately take? You know they're going to try to intervene in this case because this is a suit primarily, ultimately against them. These suits matter. That's why we cover them. And the corruption that they are emblematic of matter. Corrie Booker turned on its head the witness that was supposed to be for Todd Blanche with new reporting, for instance, that Todd Blanche, went to a birthday party that was thrown by Paramount and the Ellison family for Donald Trump,

a private dinner, Todd Blanche attended at the same time his Department of Justice is supposed to be determining whether it should get regulatory approval or not. Accepting gifts. This is how Cory Booker went after John Ashcroft, formerly the Attorney General, about what he would do in a similar circumstance. Play the clip. And not the survivors. I'm at a time.

And it's honorable to see Mr. Ashcroft here, sir. I know you. I know your record. We may have disagreed on policies, but I also know you would never, when you were reviewing a merger, you would never go out to dinner with the parties of that merger. It would be unacceptable for a person that is supervising a matter

to attend a social event with those people before your lawyers. It's about ethics. It's about the appearance of impropriety. It's about following the law. This nominee has not followed the ethics laws, has not followed the urgency for avoiding the appearance of improprieties, has broken a bipartisan law passed by Congress, has demeaned and degraded survivors of sexual violence,

and has shielded the president by some kind of deal we know nothing about that allowed her now to be transferred. to some cushy camp that has never been done before with sex offenders. This man should not be in this office. I cannot believe we're going through this farce. When his record alone should make him disqualified, not for to be the attorney general, but for even being employed by the federal government.

Thank you. And of course we've got the new reporting that the Federal Communications Commission chair, Brendan Carr and his wife, also accepted gifts from Paramount. Oh, they just have licensing and regulatory issues before them. Have we ever seen a more corrupt presidency, Department of Justice, FCC, Commerce Department, Treasury Department, Pentagon in our lifetime? No, I'll answer the question. It wasn't rhetorical. But we'll continue to shine a bright light on it here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Until my next report, take a moment, come over to LegalAF and hit the subscribe button. Voting starts early. We're trying to get to 2 million subscribers before. for midterms. With your help and generosity, we will. Until my next report, this is Michael

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