Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Rushes for Emergency Hearing at SCOTUS

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

To combat another terrible news cycle for Trump, he had his DOJ finally get around to filing their “emergency” appeal through the dreaded Shadow Docket to the Supreme Court to try for the 3rd time... to remove Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook from her 14-year tenured position so that Trump can gain control of the Fed’s rate-setting mechanism. Michael Popok takes a hard look at the new filing, including its reliance on Trump’s criminal immunity decision and its ignoring the Supreme Court’s decision in May that protects Lisa Cook from just such a firing. Checkout the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com 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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Starting point is 00:01:28 Please play responsibly. Well, Donald Trump hates the publicity and the news reporting he's getting out of his UK visit. He hates what Cash Patel has done to him by his failed performance before the House and Senate Judiciary Committee. So right on time, we have a new filing. The emergency application filed by the Solicitor General John Sauer to try to get Lisa Cook of the Board of Governors, who just voted for a rate cut to get her off of the Federal Reserve so Donald Trump can get complete control. that he can go from having three votes about interest rates to having seven votes about interest
Starting point is 00:02:05 rates or eight votes about interest rates because he's got to get rid of Lisa Cook first. And they've been trying to frame her for mortgage fraud, which is untrue and false. And the exact same thing that they claim she did, four different members of Donald Trump's cabinet has done, including the Treasury Secretary. And the person that's accusing her of having committed mortgage fraud, his own parents committed mortgage fraud, if that is mortgage fraud, and property tax fraud. to boot. And now you've got the emergency application.
Starting point is 00:02:34 Wait till you hear what they're arguing to the United States Supreme Court on the emergency application. I mean, of course, if I had an 84% winning streak on emergency applications on shadow dockets, I'd take a shot too. But this is a ludicrous, ridiculous legal analysis. I'm giving it too much credit, just calling it a legal analysis. I'm Michael Popak. You're here for the legal analysis. on the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal A.F. Let's talk about the application.
Starting point is 00:03:03 This is a shadow docket, meaning the first stop on the shadow docket is John Roberts. Lisa Cook is still on the Federal Reserve. She just voted in the Federal Open Markets Committee meeting yesterday, along with 12 other people, 11 other people, 11 to 1, they voted to cut rates a quarter of a point. Now they're trying to get her off before the next meeting. All this has to do with whether she took out two primary mortgages,
Starting point is 00:03:30 primary home mortgages on two different properties. You can only have one primary mortgage, only one primary residence, everything else is your secondary home, your second home, your vacation home, your rental property. Why does it matter? Because sometimes banks give, sometimes banks give you a rate cut if it's your primary residence. The theory being you won't default on the place that you live. That's not what she did. That's not what the evidence shows. But they keep arguing it even though it's wrong, hoping to make it so. Their first argument in their brief, which I'm going to post on legal AF substack, is that you, you as a court, can't even review a Supreme Court,
Starting point is 00:04:09 you can't even review the actions of the president. Because when there is a four-cause requirement to fire somebody that Congress has given to the president, but they haven't told the president what the four-cause can be, the president has free hand to declare the four-cause reason, the bad conduct reason, anything that that president, it declares it to be, and it's not reviewable by the federal courts. How convenient. So, in other words, the four cause is whatever Donald Trump says it is, and it can't be reviewable. And for that point, John Sauer couldn't help himself. He had to mention the immunity
Starting point is 00:04:44 decision, the one where the Trump administration, where Donald Trump won and got immunity from criminal prosecution in which they also made comments about the robust powers of the presidency, and Article 2. He loves talking about that case that he won. He also spends a considerable amount of time talking about Black's Law Dictionary, but spends zero amount of time talking about a May of this summer decision
Starting point is 00:05:11 just several months ago by the United States Supreme Court about four cause and the Federal Reserve. In the Wilcox case, which is not discussed anywhere, tellingly, in this new submission, the Supreme Court in handling another matter involving the National Labor Relations Board said out loud that the Federal Reserve and the chairman or others can't be removed from the Federal Reserve without four cause that Congress put that protection in and the Supreme Court was going to allow that protection to stand because of the unique history and quality of the Federal Reserve as an independent central bank, even though they're letting the Supreme Court is letting Donald Trump fire everybody, all the commissions, all the agency heads,
Starting point is 00:06:00 everybody he doesn't like, but not the Federal Reserve, they said. The hands off, you have to have a, you have to have a four cause. Now, four cause has been defined in case law to mean generally inefficiency, neglect of duty, and malfeasance. And that's what was applied by the judge, Judge Cobb, which he handled the case at the lower level. Judge Cobb found that Lisa Cook's due process rights were violated because she has a property interest in the continuation of her 14-year tenure as on the federal reserve until 2038. That gave her Fifth Amendment due process rights. That issue was upheld two to one by Judge Garcia and Judge Childs by the appellate court just above them, finding that, yes, she has a due process right. The due process right was violated.
Starting point is 00:06:54 and therefore her firing is blocked. Due process means you're given an opportunity to defend yourself in some sort of hearing setting. There's a determination, there's a hearing, and you get due process. She got no due process. You know what the due process is that John Sauer tells the Supreme Court she got? There was a mean tweet, a social media posting by Bill Pulte.
Starting point is 00:07:15 He's the Nepo Baby, you know, billionaire son of Mark Pulte Holmes construction, who bought his way on to Freddie May and Fannie Mac, the mortgage liquidity provider, in order to be Donald Trump's henchman. And he goes after Democrats only, Democrats only for purported mortgage fraud. And he posts, you know, these half-ass, incomplete documents. Oh, I got two pages with Lisa Cook's signature on it.
Starting point is 00:07:44 She took out a mortgage in Michigan and a Michigan and an Atlanta mortgage in Georgia at the same time. Primary residences, yeah? Reuters broke the news. If you had done your research, Palti, that the credit union that Lisa Cook got her mortgage from had known that it was her second home. She declared the Georgia property to be her vacation home. She did not take the mortgage, the property in Georgia as her primary residence for property tax abatement or cut.
Starting point is 00:08:15 She took that in Michigan. Hey, everybody, Ben Mysellis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popock, new law firm. It's called the Popock firm. Michael Popock's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty, and Legal A-Fers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popok firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases.
Starting point is 00:09:00 So if you or someone you know, have a case like this, the consultation with Popok's firm is free. Give them a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopokfirm.com. The Popok firm.com. or you can call 877 Popok A-F, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877 P-O-P-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call, and I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. But you know who violated this, if this is the definition of mortgage fraud? You know who committed mortgage fraud?
Starting point is 00:09:37 Bill Pulte's parents, because his parents, Mark Pulte, and his wife, have a house in Florida, primary residence declared homestead and a property in Michigan, same thing. In fact, they got a tax cut on property taxes, and now the tax assessor has clawed back $200,000 from the Pultes because they can't live in two places at one time as primary residences. You know who else has the exact same issue? As reported by Bloomberg and ProPublica, at least four members of Donald Trump's 15-member cabinet,
Starting point is 00:10:07 including the Treasury Secretary Scott Bassett, who went on air to attack Lisa, cook when he has the exact same issue from two properties he purchased in Massachusetts, both listed his primary residences in 2007. But they keep pressing this hand. Now they've called it the apparent, unexplained mortgage fraud. If you go to page three of the brief, and he repeats it. He says, on the bottom of page three, that the district court alternatively held that the president's
Starting point is 00:10:38 reason for a moving cook, apparent, unexplained. mortgage fraud is not permissible for a cause. There's nothing apparent about it. She has an explanation. If she was given due process, she would have fixed that. She would have fixed that explanation. They instead rely heavily on Judge Katsis in the two to one, in the dissent of the two to one decision from a few days ago in which Judge Katsas, a trumper said she doesn't
Starting point is 00:11:04 have a property right in her continued employment as a federal officer, and therefore she has no due process rights. you can't review what the president does whatever he says is cause is cause and that's what congress has delegated to them then what's the difference between four cause and at will what's a difference between four cause or fire at will you know the the supreme court went out of its way in may which of course sour never addresses went out of its way in may to say you can't fire anybody in the federal reserve at least the chairperson without four cause if there's no difference if all you have to say is i don't like the way you look and there's no due process
Starting point is 00:11:41 and you can't challenge it, that's the exact same thing as firing the person without cause. So why was the Supreme Court all hot and bothered about writing an entire piece in a case not about the Federal Reserve to say don't fire the Federal Reserve except for cause? Never explained in the brief. Lots of references the Black's Law Dictionary, which is ridiculous, but nothing explained there. Then on page six, they talk about this Bill Pulte, BS, charge against her, if you want to call it a charge. Bottom of page six, on August 15th, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, William Pulte, sent a criminal referral letter
Starting point is 00:12:23 to the Department of Justice. Director Pulte identified two mortgage agreements that Cook entered into within two weeks of each other in June and July 2021. One for a house in Michigan and one for a condo in Atlanta. In each agreement, she stipulated that it would be her primary residence. And then on August 20th, Trump and Cook publicly released the reference on social media, that he was going to fire her. And then she never gave an explanation. So that's how she got fired. That's due process, everybody. Judge Cobb during her hearing was like, you're not suggesting that the social media posting. And then a gap of five days in which she didn't quote unquote defend herself is due process, are you? And they said yes. And then, of course, the Court of Appeals said that
Starting point is 00:13:09 can't possibly be due process and sustained her ruling on that ground. Then when you get down to page 24 of the brief, this is where whatever Trump says goes. It says, bottom of 24, finally, the district court worried that the government's argument would mean that in practice, the president could remove members of the Federal Reserve at will. That's incorrect. If the president provides no reason at all for removing a member, a court could properly review that decision. But once the president identifies a cause, judicial review must cease. That's all he's got to do? It's got to come up with a bullshit reason and that's enough to fire her? Okay, here's what should happen. The United States Supreme Court properly applying their own
Starting point is 00:13:59 precedent from May in a case with Trump's name in it called Trump and Wilcox should deny this emergency stay. Judge Roberts should not issue an administrative stay. She's still in her job. The status quo means she's still in her job and it shouldn't be disturbed. And if the issue is a stay and takes her out of her job, he's disturbing the status quo. Is there enough votes four or five to grant this petition on emergency relief and to take Lisa Cook out of her job to destroy the independence of the Federal Reserve? That's a good question. And we'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal A.F. I don't think this should be an emergency application. I think the stay request should be denied. I don't think an administrative stay should
Starting point is 00:14:45 be issued either. But we're going to get full briefing on this, whether it's shadow docket or otherwise. I'm sure we're going to get an oral argument, and you can follow it all on Legal AF YouTube, and you can read the new filings on LegalAF Substack. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popock. Can't get your fill of LegalAF. Me neither. That's why we for the legal a.F substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing in the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, morning a. F. What else? All the other contributors from legal a.f are there as well. We got some new reporting.
Starting point is 00:15:26 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.

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