Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump RECONNECTS with CONVICTED FELON For Help

Episode Date: May 14, 2024

Do you like felons convicted of obstruction of justice and money laundering who do business with the Chinese and Russians back in the White House? Then you are going to love mini-Trump Paul Manafort, his convicted felon of a 2016 campaign director being brought back by Trump to develop foreign policy. Michael Popok explains the role that Manafort whom the senate declared a “counterintelligence” threat, will play for Trump, and link Manafort to Trump’s lead criminal lawyer Todd Blanche. Head to https://TryFum.com/legalaf and get a FREE GIFT with the JOURNEY PACK today when you use code LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/legalaf 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am a prisoner of this hotel. Based on the international bestseller. I can't take away who you are. Emmy award winner Ewan McGregor stars in A Gentleman in Moscow. New limited series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. This is Michael Popak with illegal AF hot take.

He's back. And I don't mean Donald Trump. I mean Paul Manafort. You may remember the disgraced lobbyist former campaign director for Donald Trump in 2016, who was sentenced to seven years in prison for obstruction of justice and other things like money laundering,

who served only two years before he was pardoned by Donald Trump in 2020, is back in Donald Trump's orbit. Now look, let me talk about the counterintelligence problem with having Paul Manafort back next to Donald Trump. Look, we know that Donald Trump has never met a counterintelligence problem that he hasn't embraced. He loves the Chinese, he loves the North Koreans. We know he kept everything from Mar-a-Lago,

likely in a transactional way, in order to trade some confidential, private, classified information of you and me for something to benefit Donald Trump. So we know Donald Trump's always been compromised. I mean, there's been a rumor out there for years that Donald Trump has been turned as an agent by the Russians.

I'm not saying that because I believe it to be true, but the fact that it's even out there as a possibility that an American president is a foreign asset and the counterintelligence community and the intelligence community's concern about that should be concerning to you. And it should be concerning to you that he's trying to put Paul Manafort fresh out of prison

back in the driver's seat related to his foreign policy and business dealings. Now the reason I'm talking about it now is there's been some drumbeats about Paul Manifort re-entering Donald Trump's orbit. Now let's remember that when Paul Manifort was sentenced, okay, having been convicted twice across two different criminal cases as part of the Mueller investigation. As everybody says, it was a witch hunt.

Well, it may have been a witch hunt, but it caught a witch. And that was Paul Manafort, who came a tremendous fall from grace about money laundering and obstruction of justice. And he came in because he had allegedly had gout and he was 70 years old and he literally wheeled himself in with a wheelchair into the sentencing and he asked the judge for leniency and said, I just want to be with my wife. And this is words of Paul Manafort now.

And I'm a new man and I will do those things again, money laundering, obstruction of justice, including by the way, him being an ally of a pro-Russian party and giving them consulting services, a pro-Russian party in Ukraine before the war even started. And when he's not advising them, he's currently advising since he's been let out and try to re resurrect his consulting firm, he's currently advising the Chinese government

on a new Chinese streaming service that's to compete with Netflix. Okay, but at the time he was sentenced, he told the judge, pretty please, I got gout, I'm 70 years old, I'm in a wheelchair. I'm a new man, I turned a new leaf, I just wanna spend time with my wife. All a lie.

Fortunately, the judge didn't buy any of it and said, eh, gone, seven years. He served two years of it. COVID happened in the middle of it. He got released a little bit early. And then boom, pardon, because Donald Trump likes to pardon his way out of all of his corruption scandals.

But he always, Donald Trump allegedly, he likes loyalty. We know that. Are you loyal to me? Are you loyal to me? He liked Paul Manafort's loyalty because apparently Paul Manafort never cooperated with the Mueller investigation against Donald Trump and was willing to go to jail for it.

Just like Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer for Donald Trump, is going to jail on a regular basis. They should just have, he should have his own room or suite at Rikers Island for all the times he takes the bullet for Donald Trump. Paul Manafort's in the same category. And now Donald Trump wants to reward him by letting this counterintelligence compromised consultant back into his inner circle. by letting this counterintelligence compromised consultant back into his inner circle.

Now, he was kind of floating it as a trial balloon. So he had Paul Manafort volunteer to run the nominating convention that's coming up in the summer in Milwaukee for the Republicans where the big crowning event for Donald Trump to be crowned the Republican, the Republican candidate for president. Paul Manafort was allegedly volunteering his time,

but then when it was outed by the New York Times and the Washington Post, suddenly he's quit the campaign and then issued some sort of public statement. I won't even bother reading it, I'll just give you the gist, which was, oh, we're not gonna let liberal media tear down President Trump's election,

and I care too much about the country, blah, blah, blah. And so the impact, though, I wanna focus on for this particular hot take of Paul, the specter of Paul Manafort getting back into the Trump orbit and leading policy, right? I mean, right now he's traveling around the country on the wrong side of all of these parties, of all of these issues.

He's in Guatemala advising the wrong parties. He's in China representing effectively the Chinese government in a streaming service as reported by the Washington Post. This is at the moment, now you know why Donald Trump was not supportive of the TikTok ban, because TikTok is ultimately controlled by the Chinese government,

enforcing its sale in America, unless they divest themselves, and the Chinese government has no more role in it. But you can see why. You got Paul Manafort as an earworm in Donald Trump's ear telling him about how great the Chinese communists are. I can't even believe sometimes some of the hot takes I am compelled to do on this network and say these.

The fact that even in like, you know, refrigerator magnet poetry, I have to say things like Donald Trump, potentially an asset of the Russians, lover of communists wherever they may be, an American president bringing back into his orbit convicted felons who committed money laundering and obstruction of justice. I mean, I'm glad I don't have a time machine. I wouldn't be able to report on any of these things in the past because they never happened in the past. There are no limitations. I'm glad I don't have a time machine. I wouldn't be able to report on any of these things

in the past, because they never happened in the past. There are no limitations to the kleptocracy that Donald Trump is intending to reinstall in the White House should he win the election. And I want that to be the takeaway from this hot take. You'll want Paul Manafort back running foreign policy for America, then vote for Donald Trump. It's the only time you'll ever hear me say that. Have you heard that the flavored air category

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to get a free gift with your order today. Fortunately, the media, including Midas Touch Network and LegalAF are focused on these things, bringing them to your attention. And leading to change already, because Paul Manafort had to go back into the dark recesses behind Donald Trump

because they trotted him out as a front person and everybody said, Paul Manafort is back? And what happened by the way, Mr. Manafort, to you the lies you told apparently to the federal judge in sentencing you, that you were a new man, turned a new leaf, wouldn't do these things again, and just wanted to go home and spend more time with your wife?

Where'd that go? Soon as you got pardoned, it was back to the old Paul Manafort with the $10,000 custom-made suits and the dyed hair and everything else. He's a 75-year-old phony helping to run aspects of Donald Trump's campaign, who's another phony. That's all this is. And then there's another connection I wanted to make out on this outtake between Paul Manafort and Donald Trump, and it has to do with the lawyer that

Donald Trump is currently using as his lead trial lawyer in the Stormy Daniels election interference criminal trial up in New York, Todd Blanch. Todd Blanch, right, is the baby born from the union of Paul Manafort and Donald Trump as ugly and disgusting as that imagery is. What do I mean by that? Todd Blanch got into on Donald Trump's radar

because he successfully represented Paul Manafort when there was a third trial against him and after the pardon happened and Todd Blanch successfully argued that that was, that was double jeopardy under our constitution and having been pardoned, he couldn't be tried for this new crime. Donald Trump liked that and Boris Epstein,

who's currently Donald Trump's consulieri, sort of like the 2024 Michael Cohen, and we know how that turned out, he introduced and brought Boris, he brought Todd Blanchett. In fact, when Boris Epstein was tasked by Trump, because he's like the only lawyer in the inner circle, to put together some sort of legal team for him,

for all of these cases all around the country, these four criminal cases and dozens of civil cases, he needed to put together sort of a virtual law firm, because no one law firm would ever represent Donald Trump, and no qualified law firm would ever do it. Boris Epstein consulted with Todd Blanch. Todd Blanch got on the radar because of the Manafort case and then at one point Boris Epstein turned Todd Blanch

and said, why don't you be the lead trial lawyer for some of these cases? And that's how it happened. Blanch represents Manafort, turns on Donald Trump, Boris Epstein then puts together this package of lawyers, this kind of virtual law firm, and Todd Blanche runs to the foreground. There was just a very good profile of Todd Blanche

in the New York Magazine, not to be confused, the New Yorker, in which he thinks this is his ticket to career paradise, representing Donald Trump. There's no other way to read the interview and the comments that he made. Like somebody said to him, well, why in the interview, well, why would you represent Donald Trump? And he said, why wouldn't I, the president of the United States, in the biggest trial in history on an unprecedented matter? You could see he's getting off on this.

Now he was sort of a low light in private practice after he left 13 years in the government. I mean, a lot of these, the revolving door between the US Attorney's office, for instance, and private practice is pretty high velocity. Lots of people come out having been division heads and even lesser, and then they go to major American lawyer top 200 law firms,

and that's a ranking system, and they end up being the head of their white collar group or part of their white collar group, happens all the time, every day. That's what you want to do. You want to put 10 years in or so, five years in or so, come out and get millions of dollars from law firms. And he did that.

I think Blanche joined a well-known firm called Cadwallader. But the reporting that I've read is he was no, he was a solid citizen. He wasn't bringing in a lot of business. He wasn't a rainmaker. He was a service partner. Nothing wrong with that, but that's what he was. But he didn't want to be a service partner. Wants to have the house in Palm Beach Gardens

next to Donald Trump. He wants all of that. So in order to do that, he's got to sell his soul and his professional ethics to the highest bidder, which is Donald Trump. Make three or $4 million from this year alone, leave his law firm, basically got fired from his law firm. They told him, it's either us or Donald Trump,

you can't have both, we don't wanna represent Trump. So they all, for my own firm, the Blanche law firm, whose offices are in 40 Wall Street, owned by Donald Trump in a free space given to him by his client. So it's like a captured captive law firm for Donald Trump, right? Because you're beholden to your only client. I mean, you know, Blanche has a couple of other clients, but the whole thing,

him and Emil Boves, his partner, that's all they're doing is like full time Donald Trump, and making whatever they're making, hoping they can win one of these cases and then parlay that into a successful, future career in bringing in money. I mean, just to show you, as we continue to talk about Todd Blanch for a minute, Todd Blanch used to be a Democrat,

became because he had to become a Republican to represent Donald Trump, willing to do it, willing to do it. But that's the connection between metaphor, Trump, Todd Blanch, that I also wanted to map out for you so you understood the, you know, this isn't just Donald Trump collecting trophy pieces to put around him and bringing you back Paul Manafort.

Mike Flynn is going to come back to the White House, the disgraced former, whatever he was, who was involved with the plot to overturn America. Steve Bannon is going to come back. Peter Navarro also went to prison, is going to come back. All the people that were involved with the plot against America, led by Donald Trump, are going to come back if you don't work hard to vote for Joe Biden to get him elected. And if you want the amount of Fords, the Flins, vote for Joe Biden to get him elected. And if you want the matter for it's the Flynn's, the John Eastman's, the Ken Chesperos,

the Sidney Powells and the like to come back to the White House, then you know who to vote for, Jeffrey Clark. But if you don't, then you have to work hard to make sure that doesn't happen. We'll continue to follow it all on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Follow me, Michael Popak. Go over follow it all on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Follow me, Michael Popok.

Go over to the YouTube channel for Midas Touch. It's free. Go to Playlist, look for Michael Popok. It's about 1,200 of my hot takes, just like this one here. And then I co-anchor and co-founded a podcast we call Legal AF. After hearing this story, you now know why. On Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time, only

here on this YouTube channel, and then on audio podcast platforms of your choice. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, Legal AF Law Breakdown is now in session. Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts you need to know and we discuss every day on Legal AF. Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Join us at patreon.com slash Legal AF. That's patreon.com slash Legal AF.