Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Revenge Plot against CIA Director hits Brick Wall

Episode Date: April 26, 2026

The attempted indictment of Trump political foe and former CIA Director John Brennan has hit a major roadblock in the form of Chief Judge Boasberg, who presides over all the grand juries in DC, including the one the DOJ is using to go after Brennan. Popok examines the curious new data point that the MAGA team assigned to the case, including Judge Aileen Cannon’s former law clerk, have rescinded the newly issued grand jury subpoenas to witnesses to appear in DC, as they grapple with having to go through Boesberg to obtain the indictment, a judge who just recently quashed a criminal probe of another Trump foe, in a jurisdiction that just recently refused to indict 6 of Trump’s political critics! DeleteMe: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout. 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 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

There's more to life than finding the perfect car. But finding the perfect car can help you get the most out of life. Like the SUV that handles everything from drop off to off road, and the car that hulls groceries and hockey teams, or the van that's gone from just practical to practically family. Whatever you want, wherever you're going, start your search at autotrater.ca. Canada's car marketplace.

Laura versus fruit flies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen, these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. The ride that steals the spotlight every time it hits the road,

that's the Volkswagen Tiguan. Its sleek exterior makes a first impression you can't ignore. Step inside to find available full leather seats and wood accents. Under the hood, the available 201 turbocharged horsepower power engine gives it a fun to drive edge. The refined Tiguan, you deserve more style. Visit vw.ca to learn more. SuvW, German engineered for all.

It's something else here now, something new. From exclusively on Paramount Plus, it's the series Stephen King calls Scary as Hell. Everything here is impossible, but it's also real. Sci-fi Vision calls it the best show streaming right now. We're running out of time and we still don't know the rules. Don't miss what the movie blog calls something you need to watch. Saving those children is how we all go home.

From binge all episodes exclusively on Paramount Plus. It's the family and friends event at Shoppers Drug Mart. Get 20% off almost all regular priced merchandise. Two days only. Tuesday, April 28th and Wednesday, April 29th. Open your PC optimum app to get your coupon. Looks like it's a bad day for Donald Trump and his Department of Justice as they are scrambling to try to figure out a way to get John Brennan,

former CIA director under Barack Obama indicted. We thought they were trying to do that as part of a grand, targeted investigation in Florida to try to use Judge Aline Cannon and her grand jury there to do it. But now based on new reporting, it looks like they're trying to do it and they're going to have to do it in the District of Columbia. Because that is where if any purported crime was committed, it would have been committed when John Brennan testified before Congress that the CIA and the intelligence community believed that the Iranians and Russians were working behind the scenes to try to get Donald Trump elected. By the way, Donald Trump got elected. But if it's in the District of Columbia, grand jury,

then Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have two problems. One, the grand jury, which has not been keen on indicting Donald Trump's political enemies recently or at all and have rejected indictments. And if that doesn't do it, there's a guy by the name of Chief Judge Jeb Bosberg, who's responsible for all things grand jury in the District of Columbia. He just killed and quashed a criminal investigation against Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell, finding that the predominant reason for the prosecution was not a legitimate law enforcement goal, but rather to harass and to vindictively go after a political enemy of Donald Trump.

So if it's true based on the new reporting that at the last minute in the last few hours, the Department of Justice in Washington has decided to withdraw, subpoenas that had been issued over the weekend to drag witnesses before a DC grand jury. It looks like the Department of Justice, the gang that can't shoot straight, is scrambling here to try to figure it all out. They just brought in Joe DeGeneva, an 81-year-old former Reagan U.S. attorney who was on Donald Trump's interference with the peaceful transfer of power team back in 2020 for about a minute and a half. They brought him in to be a special attorney to help run things along with Jason Redding Cignonas, the U.S. attorney in Southern District of Florida based

in Miami, and they added to the team, wait for it. Yes, Aileen Cannon's former law clerk from 2024, come on down, Christopher James de Lorenz. In fact, we have a photo that Todd Plants just posted. Yes, I spotted you, Mr. D. Lorenz, from your photo on LinkedIn. You're standing there all smiling and giddy with Mr. DeGeneva. I'm going to catch you up on everything, Brennan. But look, the takeaway here for this hot take is Jeb Bosberg is going to be opposed to the Trump administration. Once again, they already say he's a leftist, Marxist, radicalist, non-elected federal judge. All I know is he's a federal judge that has the brass ones, the courage.

and the independence to take on the Trump administration. And I think he'll do it again when it comes to the John Brennan attempted indictment. While John Brennan's lawyers, who are already in place, are waiting to see, it's like dodgeball, waiting to see which grand jury is attempted to indict him. If he gets indicted, I think he goes into court with a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution right away. And having DeGeneva on the team is only going to support their vindictive prosecution motion. I'll tell you why right here on the Midas Touch Network and on LegalAF. I'm Michael Popock.

Thank you first for your support. We swept the awards at the Webby's LegalAF, the podcast won two Webby Awards. My podcast, the Intersection, won the People's Voice Award for Best New News Podcast, and it's all because of our fervent support by our community, which we appreciate. Let's get down to the top story. The top headline that I read in the last couple hours coming out of the news, New York Times and other places was the subpoenas rescinded, grand jury subpoenas rescind against John Brennan.

But there's a story beneath the story. And I think that's why you come here to Midas Touch and Legal AF. Let me give it to you from my legal experience, having handled federal cases, including against the Department of Justice for a lot of my career. Okay. The original reporting is that Maria Meditius Long, who was the U.S. Assistant U.S. attorney head of the National Security Division in Miami, was running this case until she told her bosses in Washington

and Jason Redding Cognos in Miami that she was not going to bring an indictment against Sean Brennan. Now, remember, she's the expert. She's the career prosecutor. And she, like many career prosecutors, said no. Now, she's been reassigned. You know what that means in Trump world? She's not long for her career.

No pun intended. So she gets moved out. She was in discussions, apparently, as she should have been, with witnesses to testify for or against John Brett, and it's hard to tell. You have to do your homework. You have to do your due diligence as a prosecutor working with the FBI. You bring in witnesses long before you consider bringing them into the grand jury. You have to know what they're going to say. You don't want it to backfire on you.

You don't want it to blow up in your face. There's an old line about lawyering, never ask a question you don't know the answer to. You don't want to find out for the first time their testimony is favorable to John Brennan because then you wouldn't use those witnesses. Plus, these intelligence community representatives

have top secret and classified information and clearances. They can't just talk about things out loud about the Russia collusion or Iranian interference without violating the espionage act. So you get all that sorted out

before you go into a grand jury. And she apparently was in those negotiations and some of those people from the intelligence community, presumably that work with John Brennan, were willing to come in. She gets fired, interviews get canceled, okay? Now, John Brennan, the crime that he purportedly did is that in 2023,

talking about a 2017 intelligence community assessment, he told Congress, in the House Judiciary Committee or Oversight Committee, he told them that they had credible evidence to believe that the Russians, the Iranians, and the Chinese were trying to influence our elections to get on behalf of Donald Trump. Now, there was also this thing called the Steele dossier. Michael Steele now completely discredited, a British journalist, I don't know what he was. Somehow the Steele dossier got created, said some pretty salacious things about Donald Trump, his bathroom habits and his sex appetite, which has been discredited. But the intelligence community didn't need the steel dossier.

They already had all of the other background information, intelligence information that they needed to make their assessment. That same assessment was backed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was headed at the time by Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State. So what is the crime? He testified knowingly about the intelligence assessment. Delete me makes it easy, quick, and safe to remove your personal data online,

at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. It's honestly kind of scary how easy it is today to find someone's personal information online. Your address, phone number, even names of family members. That kind of exposure can have real-world consequences, and more and more bad actors are using that data to target people just for speaking out or being visible online. As someone with an active online presence, privacy is really important to me.

I've seen how quickly personal information can spread. And once it's out there, it's hard to control. Even if you haven't personally dealt with something like that, chances are you know someone who has. And that's exactly why tools like Delete Me matter. With Delete Me, you can protect your personal privacy or the privacy of your business from doxing attacks before sensitive information can be exploited.

The New York Times wirecutter is named Delete Me, their top pick for data removal services. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now, at a special discount for our listeners, get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeletMe.com slash LegalAF and use promo code LegalAF at checkout.

The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeletme.com slash LegalAF and enter code LegalAF at checkout. That's JoinDeletme.com slash legal AF code legal AF. That's the basis. They got five years to bring some sort of criminal case against him. It started in Miami, in Florida, with the Southern District of Florida, headed by Jason Redding Cignonas.

They added to the team, this guy, Christopher James D. Lorenz, we've showed you the photo, who used to be Cannon, Judge Cannon's law clerk during the Moralago espionage case. Oh, I wonder why he was added to the team. So he's added to the team. Then they bring in Joe DeGeneva. Now, Joe DeGeneva is maga to his core. He was added to the elite fighter squadron in 2020 by Donald Trump to what has been referred to as Team Crazy,

which was headed by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. He didn't last long. My gut, he didn't get along with Rudy Giuliani. And he didn't really get out of the starting blocks. But he went on news shows, and he in fact attacked John Brennan, the guy he's the special attorney prosecutor for now as being a traitor in 2018. Here's the clip of him saying exactly that on Hannity. Play it.

Now I look at a guy like Brennan, happened on his watch. I think he probably knew all about the dossier. His involvement of this is going to be very interesting. Do we really want to live in a country where the Senate leader on the Democratic side says you better not ever say anything bad about the intel community? because they'll get you. Sean, I want to talk about two people. We only have so much time.

John Brennan and Leon Panetta. John Brennan is a traitor, and I'll tell you why. He's the real traitor. What he did and what he has said recently about the President of the United States is despicable. He is personally responsible for the leaking of unmasked information.

He was responsible for the sharing of false information to U.S. intelligence sources to get FISA warrants. He is personally responsible for the sharing of false information with American intelligence agencies. And he, I challenge him to a debate at the National Press Club for one hour, two hour, three hours about his role in the entire pre-election. So do you think this guy's independent, an independent special counsel going after John Brennan? Or is he got an axe to grind as a political hack? That's where we are there.

Take him, take Cannon's law clerk, put him all together in a barrel of monkey. and you've got the prosecution of John Brennan. Now, if I'm John Brennan's lawyers, I'm waiting patiently for them to try to get this indictment in the District of Columbia because it looks like it's now shifted there. Why is it shifted there? Because if there's a crime that's been committed, it got committed in the D.C.

And that's the situs or the locus of the crime. That's where you have to bring the case. So you can use grand juries in other places like in Miami if there's witnesses there to develop documents and other things. But the indictment has got to come out. of the place where the person committed the purported crime. That's a big problem for Donald Trump, because that grand jury is presided over by Chief Judge Jeb Bosberg.

That's the judge three weeks ago that tossed the criminal investigation against J. Powell on the Federal Reserve, finding that this was nothing more than Donald Trump trying to bash Jay Powell to resign, to lower interest rates, had nothing to do with the legitimate crime that was committed in the federal.

district. And they have not appealed that as of now. I'm surprised they haven't, but they haven't. That's if the chief judge steps in and intercedes as the gatekeeper and kills a criminal case, which is very unusual, but it did just happen. Before that, about a month before that, Janine Piro, who is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, she failed, and she's failed about a dozen times already, to get a grand jury in the District of Columbia to indict Donald Trump's political enemies in the most recent past. When she tried to indict six members of Congress, including two senators, because they made a 90-second instructional video to tell the troops not to comply with illegal unconstitutional orders. Donald Trump didn't like that, tried to bring

indictments against them, and the grand jury said, you know, raspberries. No. No. Okay, that's a legal term. So the grand jury, which is about 22 or 23 people, and you've got to get a majority to indict, is coming out of the community pool, if you will, of D.C., a city that has hated the Trump administration since before he tried to make it a militarized zone and send in the National Guard to do a wholesale takeover of the District of Columbia.

These are the same voters, you know, academics, liberals, moderates, locals, public workers, home health care workers, nurses, doctors, students, and they don't like the Trump administration. Good luck getting a majority of a grand jury in the District of Columbia to indict John Brennan. Now, I know people get indicted all the time. You know, we just had yesterday an indictment in Alabama of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a moderate to left-wing organization that goes after hate and hate crimes. So that in particular, you know, going undercover to try to break up extremist groups, that now just got them indicted in the Trump world.

But good luck in the District of Columbia. You're going to have to get through a grand jury. You're going to have to get through Jeb Bosberg. And I'm sure at some point, Trump's going to try to take out Jeff Bozberg, argue that he should be recused, that he's always against the Trump administration, try to find them in the contempt once. they already tried to impeach him. They tried to file a judicial complaint against him, which failed. So this is coming to a head, and it's going to come to a head over John Brennan, the CIA director. So we're going to continue to follow what's going on.

We know there's 150 subpoenas that are out there for members of the intelligence community. We know that former FBI director, James Comey, is part of that, but hasn't gone in yet. And if I'm the lawyers for Brennan, I'm just waiting. to see if the, I might even move now to quash subpoenas through Jebosburg and try it one more time. Or wait for the indictment, move to dismiss it for vindictive prosecution. I mean, that's not unusual. Lettisha James raised vindictive prosecution about her attorney, as Attorney General of New York, in her mortgage fraud indictments that were brought against her.

So did former FBI director James Comey. and we're waiting for Judge Crenshaw to rule on Armando Obrigo-Garcia's vindictive prosecution motion to dismiss his indictment. That was the guy that was whisked off in the middle of the night to the torture prisons of El Salvador without due process. And he's got a very good case, you know, because when you think of the Department of Justice, you think vindictive prosecution almost automatically. I'll continue to follow it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal A.F. Come over to LegalAF, the YouTube channel. We have 12 new videos every day. Legal AF, the substack, where I do a live every day at 1230, along with other content.

You can't find anywhere else. And then, of course, I do my videos here on Midas Touch. So until my next report, this is Michael. Can't get your fill of LegalAF. Me neither. That's why we form the LegalAF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or an 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 LegalAF 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.