Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Nearly Blows It in Sham Lawsuit

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Almost missing the deadline, the Trump Administration has gotten around to appealing Judge Howell’s permanent injunction to stop Trump’s abuse of law firms — this time Perkins Code — and to block Trump from declaring them a “national security threat” as payback for some of their lawyers being involved in the Mueller investigation. Michael Popok looks at the new notice of appeal and lays out what happens next. Subscribe:  @LegalAFMTN  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 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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agreement with iGaming Ontario. Well, the Trump administration almost missed their deadline. They got 60 days to file a notice of appeal in a case and they just filed a notice of appeal related to Judge Barrell Howell and her decision that the law firm of Perkins Coy was retaliated against in violation of its First Amendment rights, its Fifth Amendment rights when Donald Trump tried to blacklist them because he saw their involvement with the Robert Mueller investigation and the rest, declared them to be a national security risk, ordered all aspects of the federal government to stop doing business with them,

effectively tried to cut their yearly revenue in half or more by denying them the ability to represent clients before the federal government. Judge Barrel Howell wrote a scathing decision, ultimately a permanent injunction against the Trump administration, and also at the same time, while rewarding Perkins Coy, she also said the 14 other law firms that settled with Donald Trump

should have come to federal judges, should have obtained justice, and should not have bent the knee to Donald Trump. She said in there that the independent bar is one of the major guardrails against a tyrant, against an out of control tyranny that being developed by Donald Trump. And she said, those lawyers and those law firms

that settled with Donald Trump, how can clients ever trust them, Beryl Howell wrote in her opinion. How could you ever trust that Donald Trump is gonna do right by you? It isn't going to, or the law firms are gonna do right by you. It isn't gonna try to accede to Donald Trump

and the federal government in order to curry favor with them. That order has now been appealed just in the nick of time. We're just in the nick of time here on Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, let's dive into it. An appeal, how do you get an appeal started? Let's do a Ted Talk meets a law school class that you come to enjoy on Legal AF.

How do you do an appeal? You file a notice of appeal. Normally you have 30 days from a judgment to file your notice of appeal, unless you're the federal government or a government, you get 60 days. So May 2nd is when the order, the final order judgment against Donald Trump,

the Trump administration was entered by Judge Barrelhow in favor of Perkins-Coy blocking the executive order, making them radioactive from going into effect. So that gave them until July 2nd. So they've now filed their one page notice of appeal. It starts at the DC Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, if you will. It will then be assigned to one of, well, three,

a three judge panel will be assigned to it. They haven't moved for emergency relief. They haven't moved for an emergency stay as of yet. That could be coming, but it's a little hard to move for an emergency stay when you waited almost the full 60 days to file your notice of appeal. It's hard to say it's an emergency when you've waited around tapping your foot for 60 days.

So there'll be a three judge panel that's randomly assigned by the clerk that comes from the 20 or so judges of the DC Court of Appeals, the Circuit Court of Appeals. And then they'll set a briefing schedule. Briefing schedule, if it's on a normal track, will be over the next three to nine months with oral argument,

probably in the second quarter of 2026. Could happen in 2025. All bets are off if Donald Trump tries to make an emergency application. I just don't see that prevailing here. Arguments there will be that Donald Trump has the right that to call out law firms and to call them and brand them national security risks with little or no evidence. The fact that a former partner of Perkins Coie,

Mark Elias, who was no longer there, and another of their lawyers who's no longer there, this is now seven, you know, six, seven years ago, they, then Perkins-Coy has to suffer for that. And where is the evidence of a national security risk? That diversity, equity, and inclusion is being used in the hiring practices? I mean, this whole thing is a mess. Such a mess that Beryl Howell had to start her order with a recitation of the importance

of the independence of the bar and lawyers in America, citing to the Tocqueville who circulated America in the 1830s, pointing out the only thing that stops this country from sliding into tyranny is an independent set of lawyers. And then citing to founding fathers who were lawyers who took on popular positions, and of course, weren't punished because of it. and then citing to founding fathers who were lawyers who took unpopular positions and of course weren't punished because of it. And so Donald Trump tried this once before,

just to remind everybody. He brought a lawsuit against these same individuals, against Hillary Clinton, against the Democratic Party, against others down in Florida. You know what happened there? The judge, Judge Middlebrooks found it to be a wholly unworthy and meritless case and fined Donald Trump and Alina Abba,

who brought the case a million dollars in sanctions for bad faith filing. Hasn't changed, just because Donald Trump is now the President of the United States. So we'll get the briefing once the three judge panel is arranged. Once that panel's arranged, I'll be able to report on it on Midas Touch and on Legal AF about, you know,

was it a Trump-er, an Obama person, a Clinton person? It used to not matter, but unfortunately, we're able to interpret a lot of body language when we know who appointed these judges. Yeah, I want to say they're all moderate. I want to say they're all going to make the right decision. We're all for the rule of law. But let's be frank, you get a couple of Trumpers in there and all bets are off. So I want to see the three judge panel. Of course, the briefing will be outstanding on the Perkins-Coy side. It'll be less than outstanding on the

Department of Justice side. They will likely rule for Perkins-Coy, support the ruling of Judge Barrow-Howell, and then the last stop on the train is Donald Trump trying to take some sort of appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which will not be an emergency application, but will be the regular request for an appeal. We call it a writ of certiorari. It gets filed. There has to be four votes of the nine to be interested in the writ of certiorari, and of course five votes to overturn Judge Barrow Howell. That will be in the next term

of the United States Supreme Court. This last term just ended, yeah, with about six or eight opinions dropped on Friday, including some terrible ones about birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions. They'll be working over the summer on some emergency applications that have yet to be filed, but will be filed, including,

I think about birthright citizenship. And then they opened their new term the first Monday in October. There's many ways to follow what happens here. Midas Touch, Legal AF, I do about 15 or so videos at the intersection of law and politics right here on Midas Touch. We've got Legal AF, the podcast. That's Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time on YouTube. We are the number

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