Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Squeezed as Attacks on Minnesota Elected Officials & AG to Get Control of the Vote Fails

Episode Date: October 13, 2026

On a special Legal AF, Popok interviews the one thing standing between Trump and stealing Minnesotans sacred vote — Attorney General Keith Ellison, who is running against a candidate hand picked by Trump to give the Election to MAGA. Find out why Popok says “Don’t Schutz”! Keith Ellison: https://www.keithellison.org/ Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@LegalAFMTN?sub_confirmation=1 Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgZJZZbnLFPr5GJdCuIwpA/join Become a member of the Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/20off Follow Legal AF on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/legalafmtn.bsky.social Follow Michael Popok on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mspopok.bsky.social Subscribe to the Legal AF podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/legal-af-by-meidastouch/id1580828595 Subscribe to the Intersection with Michael Popok podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection-with-michael-popok/id1818863274 Subscribe to Unprecedented with Michael Popok and Dina Doll podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/unprecedented-by-legal-af/id1867023089 Subscribe to Court of History with Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz podcast feed here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-court-of-history/id1867022920 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover coffee plus on espresso.com. Welcome to a special edition of Legal AF. If our audience has learned anything over the last two years, it's the importance of the Democratic Attorneys General, what they are doing against Donald Trump. The amount of times we're talking now into the hundreds that they have sued the Trump administration in order to protect the rights of their citizens in their states and to make sure that billions, that's with a B of dollars of. of funding and social safety net funding and other programs are not allowed to be cut off. If you are impressed by the amount of times that judges have been able to block or enjoin the

Trump administration, then you have to be impressed with the work of the Democratic Attorney's General. And there's one in particular, who I consider to be one of the leaders among the leaders of the Democratic Attorney General. And that's Keith Ellison of Minnesota. I've had Keith on before. Minnesota is a battleground state. I mean, literally as we were coming,

as we were coming on the air today, the representative from one of the districts, congressional districts in Minnesota, Representative Ilhan Omar, had her house rated at 4.30 in the morning. I have a video up right now. Who signed off on that in public integrity section in the Department of Justice?

Who allowed that 21 days before an election for them to go figure out whether she married her brother or not or some other foolishness. This has been a wholesale attack on the state of Minnesota from its current governor, Tim Walls, to its Attorney General Keith Ellison, to its elected representatives by the Trump administration. And so it all comes to a head in 21 or so days at the midterms. When Keith Ellison on the ballot right under Amy Klobuchar, Senator Klobuchar running for governor of that state, The attorney general is as important, if not for me, more important in terms of protecting the rights of the people in Minnesota. Is Keith Ellison on the ballot against a 70-year-old lawyer who came out of, I don't know, he came out of retirement, but he's doing something to run against Keith.

And Keith should be so far past the field, clear of the field in polling that we need to send a message that he's not going to win by a little. He's going to win by a lot. Let's bring in Keith Allison. Hi, Keith. Hey, what's up, Mike? Good to see you, man. How are you? I'm doing great. I'm looking at polling. Listen, I know Minnesota from a non-Minnesota. I know Minnesota has a Maverick streak. I know they have an independent streak. I know you've had some interesting governors in the past. I know that sometimes they like to split the ballot, but this is an era, this Trump moment, when splitting the ticket and dividing the ballot and all that, that's out the window. You know, and the importance of your position now to have a MAGA Republican come out of whatever he's coming out of with his law firm, a copyright and intellectual property lawyer,

I think he's going to take over the the most important public law firm in Minnesota. Right. I don't think so. Tell me, tell me what is going on with this candidate Ron Schutz and why you should defeat him. Well, the reason we're going to beat Ron shoots is because Ron is for the big money and I am for the many, the many who need somebody to stand on their side and fight for their rights and their place in this economy. On the one hand, Ron, a recent story from a magazine, the paper called The Reformer, showed Ron had 174 conflicts of interest. What do they mean? Well, he has, you have to report your financial holdings. in this report. And Ron was shown to have 174 different stocks that were valued at

at least $10,000 apiece. So I'm actually suing those companies. I'm suing META. I'm suing Philip Morris. I'm suing Exxon Mobil. I'm suing Amazon. All these companies. Ron, I don't begrudge him, you know, doing well in life. Fine. But you cannot be the Attorney General in the state of Minnesota when you can't sue anybody unless you're going to hurt your own stock portfolio. So whereas I'm holding these big companies accountable because of harms they're causing Minnesotans, Ron's profiting from them. And that to me, that boils it all down. I mean, he's trying to be Attorney General in my view so that he can protect him and his country club friends, but I'm running so I can protect the people, very simple. I know Ron's former law firm.

I know the firm. I know Rob. I know Rob. Kaplan, you know, I was in private practice as well. You know, and I know the type of practice that he did for 36 years, which is intellectual property, trademark and copyright. How does that prepare you to be the chief legal officer in terms of criminal issues, civil issues, constitutional issues, going up against the Trump administration? And what I was struck by, Keith, is that when I saw video clips, I'm going to play one next, when I saw video clips of him being asked pointed questions that he should now be prepared to answer. Right.

22 days before an election about would he sue the Trump administration the way that you have dozens and dozens of times? His response was to turn it back to like a schoolboy who wasn't prepared to answer questions in his law school class, turns it back on the reporter. Well, what is it? Name one thing about the Trump administration that they did wrong and then I'll tell you what I would have done. Let's play the clip.

Are there some of the lawsuits that you have problem with? particularly. I'm one guy running for Attorney General. He's got an office of 200 lawyers and apparently 28 working on these cases if I believe the press reports I've read. I haven't had a chance to look at all these cases, Brian. I just simply don't have the resources to dig into those cases. Is that somebody that's demonstrating they're prepared for this job? Well, he's not prepared for the job, but I would say there's even something uglier at foot, afoot than ignorance. I think he knows very well which lawsuits he would dismiss. I think he knows very well what lawsuits he would either withdraw from because he doesn't want to tell

Minnesotans because he knows that his answer would invariably be unpopular. So, for example, you remember the longest shutdown that we went through last year during that period of time with the longest shutdown. Trump was trying to bully Democrats into voting for his bill in the Senate and they didn't want to, So he says, well, I'm going to withhold food stamps from people across the country in Minnesota. That's 440,000 people, nearly half a million people. And I sued Trump over that. Of course I did.

Ron Shoots wouldn't have done that. Ron Shoots would have said, my boy is doing what he has to do, and I'm not going to help the other side in any way, shape, or form. Or what about the tariffs? We now know that these tariffs were on track. to cost Minnesotans around $2,500 a piece. That's gonna be less because AG sued over these tariffs and got the Supreme Court to say no. But when these tariffs were enacted by Trump

through this executive order, they did projections. They said, this is gonna hit everybody $2,500 a hit. Because we sued and because we beat Trump, that number is higher than it would have been, but it's less than the projection. So we're saving Americans money by suing Trump. Donald Trump knows that. And Ron Schultz knows that Ron Schultz is not,

would not join in any lawsuit. And I think he's being disingenuous and dishonest when he denies it. He knows what he's been running for over a year. You're going to tell me that this guy doesn't know a can't name a single lawsuit he would withdraw from. Well, I don't believe it. And to prove your point, there's 23 state attorneys general that are Democratic. There are 27 Republican ones.

I would say over 90% of the cases may be higher that you and the other Democrats have sued to help your own constituency and by extension the American people. You have not been joined by the Republican attorneys general. I mean, I sometimes joke when I meet with you guys in your conference, I would like to report on the Republicans joining you in birthright citizenship or snap payments or something about immigration or Donald Trump being out of control on separation of powers. I can't cite to it because it doesn't exist. And there is no evidence. In fact, it would be to the contrary for Ron Schutz to suddenly become the war. one red Republican Attorney General who's going to be independent-minded and all of a sudden joined to help Minnesotans. It's just not go, I'll say it out loud. It's not going to happen.

Absolutely. And you know, here's the thing. I would say to this to you, Michael, and everybody who listens to your show, on the issue of the, the Dem, Sue, and Trump, we have had zero participation from any Republican at all, period. Zero. Zero. That's a lot higher than 95%. And let me just tell you this. I've had Republican AG say to me, man, I hope you guys went on that, on this lawsuit or that one. I'm like, you know, at what point do you think you guys, I'm not going to burn the guy who told me this, but I'll say, at what point do you think one of you guys could join us? He said, man, if any one of us joined us, we'd be our last term in office, man. You know, this is what the guy was telling me.

Yeah. And I walked away thinking, man, why you even want the job if you can't do what's right? And look, Attorney General, if our audience has learned anything, is not a place for somebody's final hurrah. Right. The age of 70 who wants to ride it out until they're 80 or two terms and then, you know, go off and play more golf. I mean, this, this, you need the vim, the vigor, the high motor, the velocity. I mean, just the cases that your office handles. We talk a lot on Legal AF about the 70 or 100 or so that you're joined together in against the Trump administration.

You have hundreds of other cases, regulatory, civil, criminal that you're involved with. We see you at the podium when you're going after a rogue ice agent who shoots and kills people. You're investigating Renee Goods killer. You're investigating Alex Preti's killer. You know, and then you've got all the other things you've got to do for the day-to-day lives to improve the day-to-day lives of your constituency. You know, that's different than running an intellectual property practice and being part of a leadership team for a law firm. Better believe it. So look, here's the other thing.

In private sector lawsuits where we have had some bipartisanship, Trump's Justice Department has consistently sold us out. And because of it, many AGs have simply not participated. So, you know, only the bravest Republicans joined us on, say, Live Nation Ticketmaster, right? None joined us when we did Skydance Paramount. They didn't want no part of that. I mean, the bottom line is we're in a situation where the Republicans have just MIA when it comes to protecting their own state, certainly when it comes to Trump,

But mostly even when it comes to private sector actors who are hurting their own constituents. There's no way. Ron has never shown one ounce of courage or bucking the trend. He wants the job to sort of help out some of his friends and protect his own portfolio. I am certain he will dismiss our lawsuit against ExxonMobil for climate deception. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if that's one of his main cases he wants to dismiss. And let me give my inside baseball perspective because I'm a lawyer of a certain vintage. Yeah.

And I know lawyers in big firms that hit 60 and 70, and I know what happens to them. What happens to them, whether Robbins Kaplan has a forced retirement program or not, they sort of do because of how they end up paying their partners. What they end up doing is they take away business from their partners. They stop paying the partners on the business that they've already brought in. So this guy's financial fortunes at his law firm, my guess has sort of been on the decline the last couple of years. And therefore, he's like, you know what, it's time for me to go look for something else, a cushy public service job where I can go run for office. He never would have done this if he was in his 40s or 50s in the prime of his career because he's not a committed public servant the way you are. No.

And the economics of his law firm are making him say, I'm just, going to be an independent-minded attorney general what happens in the debates well in the debates you know we we've we matched up very very well i mean there's a lot of clips out there uh one of the one in one of the debates i mean uh you know the question was asked which lawsuits would you file and he didn't have anything to say in another one of the debates uh he said it wasn't he said that it was preposterous for me to be a fighter for consumer justice and be a person who's going to help Minnesotans afford their lives. The debates have gone well for us, but I just keep telling people, you know, we, the election is on now. In Minnesota, you can vote right now, and we need

an overwhelming turnout. We need a turnout too big to rig. Because, you know, honestly, the danger of letting Ron get anywhere near the Attorney General's office is just too much. much. So we're really kind of, we're urging people to get to the polls now. We're asking people to get out there and make sure they get their, get their loved ones, their friends, their family members to the polls right away. Don't wait till election day. No, and look, I know there's going to be a lot of enthusiasm in Minnesota. You guys have been mercilessly attacked, including physically, by the Trump administration. There's no state in the union. Maybe California has a close second. maybe Illinois as a close third.

But there's no state in the union that it has been more viciously attacked by the presidency and its administration than yours. And you've got Amy Klobuchar, a very popular senator, running for governor. She's going to bring people to the polls. The anti-Trump vote, which is, I've seen polling that says 70% of Democrats are motivated by an anti-Trump vote to go to the polls. You know, whereas there's this republic, what they call the red undertone, which is lack of enthusiasm by the red people who aren't going to go to the polls, and then you've got the blue people who are going in large numbers.

So she's going to bring a lot of people in, but we can't count on that. The one thing I want our audience to understand is that while I appreciate the role that governors play in our country and future presidential candidates as well, for me, for this show, the number one position is the Attorney General. of that state. That's the one that impacts your life more than any other. And we need to make sure that Keith Ellison gets reelected. This will be what term for you? Third term? We need you, especially in the last few years of the Trump era and into hopefully a brand new era. We need your leadership. We need you there. What can our audience do, Keith? And it doesn't have to be registered

Minnesota voters. Oh, yeah. What can our audience do to help you in your campaign? Well, what folks can do is everybody in Minnesota knows somebody in Minnesota, call them, text them, write them. Also, if there's anybody out there who wants to volunteer to do like a phone bank from California, from, I don't know, Nebraska, Colorado, you want to help us out, but you're not in Minnesota.

we could use the callers calling into Minnesota to get people out to vote. Also, people, we're still trying to raise the money we need to finish our ad buy. You know, we're doing well on it, but we still need help. We're still not quite at our budget number. We're almost there, but we need your help to do that. You can go to Keith Ellison for AG, and we can get there that way. And, you know, honestly, just send us your great ideas. Send us good information.

Somebody sent me an article today pointing out that when Trump first enacted his tariffs, it was projected that about $2,500 was going to be the amount that it was going to hit your average family. Because attorneys general broke that down and stopped that, we were able to save families' money. I mentioned this already, but my point is it's important to keep in mind that we are the ones who fight to enforce the law. uphold the law. I'll just end with this point. Remind everybody that you can, your legislator can write a great law. Your congressman and senator can write a great statute. But if nobody's going to enforce it, it's not going to happen. And so that's where the AGs come in. And that's why we need your help. And we know what's going to happen when Trump, if he inevitably loses and is made the

lamest of lame ducks, he's going to be, it's going to be like a wounded, a wounded, a woman. The wounded king, and he's just going to start issuing crazy executive orders and directions to his various agencies like Department of Homeland Security and others to go after the blue states who don't, quote unquote, love him. And it's going to get even worse, which means you're going to be fighting it out in the court system. Plus, your group's going to be helping to fight it out in the court system, depending upon what happens on Election Day. A lot of this action takes place in state courts, not in federal courts.

It's true. Right? About early voting. I mean, about election hours and attempts at intimidation. And as we've told our audience, it's not just the midterm election. It's election. It's counting. It's certification.

And it's getting sworn in and seated. That is absolutely right, Michael. Thank you for pointing that out. Because all of us, Attorney General, we represent the Secretaries of State. I mean, the great Steve Simon, good friend of mine, I think you met Steve. He's our Secretary of State. I'm his lawyer. And so when Steve, who is the chief election officer, has a legal problem, he gives me a call and we work together.

So keep that in mind, the AGs have an important role to play in terms of protecting these elections. I'll give you an example. One is that Trump tried to interfere with people's right to vote by mail, something he does all the time. But you all heard that controversy. We said, wait a minute, time, place, a manner of voting is a state function, not a federal one. The president has no role. We went to court and we beat Trump there too. But if he had his way, if you voted by mail, he'd try to intercept your ballot and not deliver it if he didn't want to.

Honestly, I know we talked about the financial conflict of interest of Ron Schutz. Yeah. But I am quite confident that what interests the Trump administration and MAGA Republicans is making sure that the attorney general and the Secretary of State that influence voting are in friendly hands. That's right. And that's not you for them. For them, absolutely not. And I'll just say this, Ron was part of a group of Republican lawyers who were engaged in election denial, right? He was part of a group of Republican lawyers who came together who were trying to say that, you know, that Biden didn't really win the election and that they were going to interfere.

And then he tries to lie and say, oh, I just want to make sure the count was fair. Bologna, you were trying to stand with Trump in that in his election. to now. That's what you were doing. Don't try to deny it now. Honestly, Ron is trying to act like he's some sort of generic guy and doesn't have any strong opinions about anything. So I'm glad that you were able to sort of highlight some of the things that he would do because he's trying to act like, oh, who me? I will just enforce the law as written. I won't be partisan like Keith Ellison. What are you talking about? Not standing on the sideline when Pete when people need their rights fought for, is picking a side.

You know what I mean? There's no neutrality here. If you're neutral on Trump, then you're on Trump side. So what would he, what would he do when the National Guard in ICE attacked Minnesota if he was the attorney general? He would just sit idly by and go bring them coffee? Well, probably, I tell you this, and I said this in one of our debates, it would have been nice if a movement Republican like Ron. John shoots would be willing to take a position against what happened in Minnesota during Operation Metro Search.

I mean, where was he? Where, where was it? So, so he's running for office, okay? But all of these things, these national things are happening in Minnesota. Where, where was he? M. I.A. Right. He was not to be found.

But look, you know, there are principal Republicans who stood up and said something. And Bron was simply not one of them, which is how you know what Ron's going to do, which is how you know that Ron is going to simply be an ally of Trump, not an advocate for the people of the Minnesota. So I'll leave you on this, Keith, and this, I can say this. So a million years ago when I lived in Florida, and Jeb Bush was running for governor, he ran against the guy for the Democrats named Buddy McCain. but in McCabe.

Yep. And Jeb ran a very successful ad campaign that was simply, he's not my buddy. And they did that over and over and over again. And of course, Jeff Bush won, not my buddy. I got one for you guys. Yeah, give it to it. Now that I know how to pronounce your opponent's name. Yeah.

Okay. At the midterms, don't shoots. I knew you'd like that one. Hey, man. You're coming up with him, brother. You're coming up with him. You know it. You know it.

Keith Allison, the two-time, and we hope, and we pray, and we'll move hard and work hard to make the three-time elected. Attorney General for the state of Minnesota, we need Keith in action today, the midterms, at the 2028 election, and beyond. That's how important it is. Even if you don't live in Minnesota, I assure you this is going to be important. And we're going to put down in our notes. the way to contact Keith's campaign to help him with phone banking. You can do that. You don't have to be

a registered voter from Minnesota to do it. You can help him out. He could use the people. He needs the enthusiasm. He needs the people for the money. There's places for that as well. We're coming down to the home stretch here. Keith, thank you so much for joining us again on Legal A.F. And we're going to work hard to get you reelected. You're the best, Michael. Thank you. And thanks to all your listeners and viewers. Thank you. And you guys are on LegalAF. Take a minute and hit the subscribe button for our pro-democracy channel. Can't get your fill of Legal A-F. Me neither. That's why we formed 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 and 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 layoff 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