Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Mistake Lands Him Devastating New Lawsuit

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Harvard, the nation’s oldest university, is not waiting around to see if Trump made another “ooops” and mistake in threatening to cut off another billion dollars in research grants, and has had enough, filing a new lawsuit today, and hiring 2 attorneys to stop the assault on academic freedom: Bill Burck who is currently the Trump Organization’s chief ethics counsel, who brought in Robert Hur of all things, who Trump appointed as a US Attorney and who was Biden’s Special Counsel about his handling of documents. Michael Popok explains why Harvard had no choice but to file, and what message they are sending to the Harvard Law Graduates on the US Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Roberts, in hiring Robert Hur. Remi: Save your smile and your bank account with Remi! Get up to 50% off your custom-fit mouth guard at https://ShopRemi.com/LEGALAF today! 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 Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Book it. Um, how did we get to Thailand from Prague? Oh right, Prague. Oh boy. Choose from a world of destinations. If you can. Air Canada. Nice travels. Harvard University is not waiting around to find out if Donald Trump made another mistake and is about to cut off billions of dollars of more funding after he used that excuse, oh, a letter cutting off your funding was set in mistake, my error, forget that. Harvard University hiring two, not one, but two Trump affiliated lawyers, including one

that currently represents the Trump administration. And sit down for this one, everybody. Robert Herr, Harvard Law 95, but more importantly, he was the special counsel against Joe Biden appointed by Merrick Garland in the document handling case, you know, the one that wrote the 300 pages that probably cost Joe Biden the election. He is suing Harvard, he's suing for Harvard against the Trump and Trump administration. Robert Herr, Bill Burke joined together, two Trump lawyers, if you will,

to go against the Trump administration. Cats and dogs sleeping together. I cover it right here on the Midas Touch Network. Take a moment, hit the subscribe button here, and on the Legal AF YouTube channel. I did a hot take four days ago about the Harvard faculty getting together and filing their lawsuit in federal court over the threat over the $9 billion sent to Harvard University for medical and

technology research and the like. And now we had the back and forth from two letters that Trump and his administrators and his cabinet members and lawyers sent to the Harvard University on April 3 and April 11, threatening to take away first $2 billion, then $9 billion, then $60 million, then a new letter that came today that said another billion dollars. And then the Trump administration said, we're going to go after your tax exempt status,

and we're going to go after how you admit foreign students if you don't bend the knee to Trump and give up your academic freedom. And Harvard said, what the actual legal AF, this is my interpretation, is going on? You send us another letter that says the first letter was a mistake, that it was our, they actually attacked the Harvard lawyers, including the Trump affiliated lawyers.

You should have known that letter was an error because we were in negotiations with you. What kind of negotiations end up with a letter on triple letterhead signed by three people in the Trump administration, which says, if you don't make these changes the next four months, the hiring, faculty, academia, curriculum, we're going to take away your money and then say, oops, the dog ate my Harvard. Yeah, that's not how that works. Not when you're represented by a law firm like Quinn Emmanuel, who is the lawyer's law firm, trial lawyer's extraordinaire, headed by Bill Burke, who is currently, not in the

past, currently, the Trump administration, the Trump Organization's ethics council. I mean, that's an oxymoron right there, Trump Organization and Ethics Council to help guide them through the thicket of how to do business with the Trump Administration. That Bill Burke, he's now representing Harvard and he brought in for no reason. He had no reason other than to stick it to Donald Trump

to bring in Robert Herr. Robert Herr was a US attorney who was appointed by Trump in his first administration, who I'm sure Trump was rubbing his hands in glee about Robert Herr being appointed by Merrick Garland to go after Joe Biden and the whole garage full of documents issue. And now, Bill Burke decides, who can I get to run this case with me? Right, class of 95 Harvard, and that's gonna be Robert Herr. So two Trump, not to say Trumpers,

but two Trump lawyers, if you will, are up against him in Harvard. Now I'm gonna read to you from some of the complaint that was just filed, and some of the reporting from the Harvard Crimson, shout out to the Harvard Crimson. You want to know what's going on in a university? Support student journalism. So I'm going to tell you what happened there.

I got some pages from the complaint. I could talk about some statements by Alan Garber, who's the president of Harvard. But let me just put this in context for one minute, in case you were wondering why they would go after Harvard, of all things. One of the top five institutions in the world, top two in America, but Yale and Harvard neck and neck. When it comes to research, cancer research, diabetes, medical scientific, AI, technology, it's Harvard.

It's Harvard, MIT, and other places. But why would you go after Harvard? You want to know how many people have on the United States Supreme Court right now, not even in the past, are not Ivy League graduates, Harvard graduates. Four of the current nine went to Harvard Law School. If you add in Harvard undergrad, I think it's up to six out of nine. Here's the current lineup, just so you know, I'm not making this up.

The Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, John Roberts, is a double crimson. Harvard undergrad, Harvard Law, class of 79. Elena Kagan, on the other end of the aisle, on the moderate end, she went to Harvard Law in 1986. She was the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 till 2009. Gorsuch, he went to Harvard Law in 1986. She was the Dean of Harvard Law School from 2003 till 2009. Gorsuch, he went to Harvard Law School, class of 91. Shout out to the class of 91. Duke Law,

class of 91. Kataji Brown Jackson, double crimson, Harvard undergrad, Harvard Law, class of 96. I mean, why would you pick on Harvard? They have their own law school. They have their own alumni. Why would you go after them? A lot of federal judges at every level, including the Supreme Court, came out of Harvard. Bad move. Why would you—wrong tree to bark up, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Now here's what, just so we can keep everything straight, here's how the—and I want to do a quick shout out for this—here's how the Harvard Crimson, again, supports student journalism. I went

after a university of some reputation in DePaul and I got a lot of my information from the DePaulia and here I'm reading it from the reporting of Dhruv Patel and Grace Yoon on the Crimson staff that it's just updated. Harvard sued the Trump administration, they report, in federal court on Monday over its multi-billion dollar cuts to the university's research funding, accusing the White House of undertaking an unconstitutional campaign to punish Harvard for protecting its constitutional rights. This is over the vanishing, reappearing money. You got nine billion.

No, you lost it. You got two billion. No, you lost it. You got 60 million. No, you lost it. You're gonna lose a billion. You're gonna lose your tax status. F that.

Let's get the court. So after some major dental work to improve my smile, my dentist, who's a friend of mine said, don't you wanna protect the hard work we just put into your mouth? I mean, you wouldn't drive a car without a seatbelt or an airbag, would you? And he had a point.

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It's a 51-page complaint and asks for injunctive relief and to declare the $2.2 billion freeze unconstitutional as reported in the April 3rd and April 11th letter. So the oops, you shouldn't have believed my letter, thing where Donald Trump attacked once again lawyers, did not work at all. I just find it's also interesting that they decided to just roast Donald Trump and pick Trumpers for this.

Here's what the introduction to the complaint says. decided to just roast Donald Trump and pick Trumpers for this. Here's what the introduction to the complaint says, just to frame the issues. Scientific advancement and the pursuit of knowledge fuel America's innovation, economic success and global leadership. The commitment to expanding human understanding is foundational at American universities, including Harvard, the nation's oldest institution of higher learning, right? Oldest university and first one to file against the Trump administration. Those things will be

written on its tombstone. Since its founding nearly four centuries ago, Harvard students, faculty, and researchers have helped identify and solve some of society's most pressing problems, including life-saving advancements. In recent weeks, the federal government has launched a broad attack on the critical funding partnerships that make this invaluable research possible. And then they name other universities that have also been attacked. On April 11th, this is the letter, citing concerns of anti-Semitism and ideological capture.

The government identified 10 conditions Harvard must satisfy to receive federal funding already committed to by the government and relied on by Harvard, its researchers, and its affiliates. Like how are they ever gonna do that? We have statements already that are in from We have statements already that are in from Alan Garber, who's basically said, we've been left with no choice. Before taking a punitive action, the law requires, Alan Garber wrote, that

the federal government engage with us about the ways we are fighting and will continue to fight anti-Semitism. Instead, the government's April 11 demands seek to control whom we hire and what we teach. Today we stand for the values that have made higher education a beacon for the world. We stand for the truth that colleges and universities across the country can embrace and honor their legal obligations and best fulfill their essential role in society without improper government intrusion. That is how we achieve academic excellence, safeguard open inquiry and freedom of speech and conduct pioneering research and how we advance the boundless exploration that propels our nation and its people into a better future says

Alan Garber who's also a Harvard graduate. So what's gonna happen? We're gonna have to see. We've got two cases, one by the Harvard faculty and one by Harvard, the college and its fellows as they like to call themselves, filed against the Trump organization. There'll probably be a motion to consolidate but one of the judges, whether it's Judge Burroughs or others, are gonna have to consider the injunction. Then we're going to go up to the First Circuit Court of Appeals up in Massachusetts, which will likely side with Harvard, no surprise, it's home cooking, and on the way to the United

States Supreme Court up through a liberal or moderate justice first. And then it's going to go all to all the Harvard law and Harvard undergraduates on the Supreme Court. And let me answer the question that's going to be asked. No, they're not going to recuse themselves. Unless they're on the board, which none of them are, or they're on some sort of advisory task force, they're not going to recuse themselves. Because if they recuse themselves every time a university was involved, then we'd never

have judges. Although, with one caveat, they screwed, or they put the screws to Katanji Brown Jackson when Harvard was a defendant in a case involving affirmative action, which went against Harvard and against affirmative action. And then her confirmation process, people like Ted Cruz made her commit that she would step off the bench

for the case against Harvard because she came out of Harvard. But none of the judges are. I don't expect Katanji Brown Jackson to be fooled again. And all of them are going to hear these cases. And then I think within two weeks we'll be up to the United States Supreme Court. Good on Harvard. This is good trouble to get in.

And kudos to Quinn Emanuel, Bill Burke, and Robert Herr for taking this case. Side note, I think what happened with Quinn Emanuel, because some people have asked me, how are they taking cases against the Trump administration when they're representing the Trump organization? Trump goes after everybody.

How come they haven't been blacklisted, Pofok? How come there's been no motions to disqualify them? Why? By the Department of Justice. How come? Because I think there was a deal that was cut that Quinn Emanuel, who does not need the business, one of the most successful trial lawyers and law firms in the country, especially in litigation, said, Trump said, we need you.

Please, we need a Quinn Emanuel to do the ethics counseling. And they said, we'll only do it on the Trump organization side. But if there's any case during your administration that we want to get involved with, you can't move to disqualify us or punish us. And he said yes. And you see he's abiding by it right now because they're representing with the ACLU, the Abrego Garcia case, the Abrego Garcia family. And now they're representing Harvard against Trump. Continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network. Take a minute. Here's the plea part, my own plea deal. Support Midas Touch and its independent journalism and hit the subscribe button. Come on over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN, help us continue to grow. We're adding 70,000 subscribers

a month, all because of you. Be our 70,000th and first hit the subscribe button and follow our Legal AF podcast wherever you get podcasts from including the audio and video version, Wednesdays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. Eastern time on the Midas Touch Network. Until my next Legal AF contribution, I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN.

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