Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump WH Erupts in Panic over Situation Room Leaks

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

The Trump White House is in a frenzy as they try to track down the Administration Official or Officials who may have secretly recorded Situation Room meetings about the Epstein Cover Up AND the Iranian War plans, and leaked them to the NYT. Popok points out the “Easter Eggs” in the New York Times article that suggest who may be responsible for the leaks and that the reporters have actual “recordings” and discusses what Trump’s next moves against the reporters may be. Qualia: Go to https://QualiaLife.com/legalaf for up to 50% OFF! Subscribe: @LegalAFMTN Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser and Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah, A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs, and he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results.

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Save now, give Ancestry DNA from only $69. Offer ends June 21st. Visit Ancestry.ca for details. Terms apply. Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again.

Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs, and he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado registered agent in New Skazie. Were there surreptitiously recorded conversations among the top levels of Donald Trump's administration and cabinet, including in the Situation Room about not only the Epstein files, but the Iranian War?

I think the answer to that is found right in the footnote that was prepared by New York Times' intrepent reporters, Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for their new book regime change, because they just published in the last. last couple of days freak out in the White House. And now the White House is freaking out that Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan actually have recordings from that room. Why would it shock you that this administration that kicked it off at the very top of their administration by including by accident and editor and chief of the Atlantic Magazine into a secret signal chat about war plans

against Yemen and other places, why would you, Jonathan Goldstein, why would you be shocked that there is somebody who's recording, who isn't. And I think there is evidence, an Easter egg, if you will, within the reporting of Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, that kind of leads me down a couple of paths. I'm looking at you, Cash Patel, and Dan Bongino. And the fact that this, you know, I've said about this administration, it's the leakyest administration.

So one of the things we got going for us is how many people are willing to cooperate with the media and work on exposés and be whistleblowers, you know, that's a good thing. But when I first read that Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan article and their footnote disclaimer or not disclaimer, their reference point, I said they got a tape. They got a recording. There's a mole in the White House. There is a listening device or a recording that was used.

Somebody hit record because they have direct quotes. It's not paraphrases. In fact, if you go and you go and you're, You're here on Legal AF. You're here on Midas Touch. Go right now to Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit that free subscribe button. If you go right inside of the document itself, the reporting in the New York Times article from their new book that's about to come out, regime change, they tell you what you need to know.

Here's what the authors say about how they got the direct quotes. And I said, they're so precise. They're in quotations. They're not paraphrases. They are direct. And here's why. It says many of our, this is from within the article itself, that they conducted more than 1,000 interviews with a wide range of people close to President Trump, including campaign officials, meaning now, not former, White House staff members, current, departments and agencies, former aides, donors, and lawmakers, friends and business associates. But look at how many people are still in the inner circle and in the orbit of Donald Trump and still being employed, the co-operative.

operated. Many of our interviews were conducted on the journalistic ground rule of deep background, agreed to in advance, which meant we could use the information but not identify who gave it to us. Throughout the reporting process, we made extensive efforts to contact the individuals named and give ample time or opportunity to offer their perspective. When we use direct quotes, and I'm going to go through a dozen of them with you, those quotes came either from the person speaking, from someone who heard that person directly or from, wait for it, contemporaneous notes, recordings, or transcripts.

See, that's the only way you can do it. I've been doing my job for a long time, 35 years as a practicing lawyer. I can take copious notes. I know people that take shorthand. AI is now being used to take notes, as we all know. You can also have a listening device,

or a recording piece of equipment. you're supposed to let the other people know under law that you're recording them now i think buried within the article she tells us effectively who recorded this is my working theory and i think it's a good one here's the working theory because when she outlines and jonathan swan and heyberman outlined who was in the room listened to how she reports it from the article okay about who was a raid around the table. It says J.D. Vance took a seat at the head of the table. A raid around him were the White House Chief of Staff. This is in the situation room. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles. White House Counsel David Warrington. Press Secretary Levitt, press chief, Deputy Chief of Staff

Taylor Buttowicz, Communications Director Stephen Chung, Deputy Attorney General, Todd Blanche, Associate Attorney General, Stan Woodward, and the Deputy Chief of Staff James Blair. Period. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Cash Patel joined on speakerphone. Who, what idiots allow the sanctity, the inviolate nature of the situation room to be violated by having two people phoned in? And now you've got people phoning it in, which means there's nobody from counterintelligence keeping an eye on them. There's nobody knowing who's in the room with them. And Cash Patel's been on thin ice almost from the start of this administration. And Dan Bongino hated Pam Bondi and hated what was happening with the Epstein files.

You don't think Cash Patel had Dan Bonino, who's frequently directly quoted in the article. You don't think he's got Dan Bonino. And Dan Bonino is not either taking direct notes using an AI agent to do it or is hitting the record button. Does anyone, I'll take a moment in this comment, does anyone put it past Cash Patel and or Bongino to have recorded? And of that group, Bondi, Patel, and Bongino, two of them are now former members of the administration and Cabinet in Bondi and Bongino. And Bonino has been living and has been thrilled to return to being a podcaster. So you have the Easter egg inside of the article telling you that two people were not in the room. For me, it's glowing radioactive red.

And of course, her note about the recording. You put two and two together, and now you've got the new freak out that came out on Monday. Now the Trump administration believes there are recordings about the situation room in conversations, about Iran as well, including Marco Rubio's quote, that attacking Israel and saying they effed it up, and they don't effing have a plan. Those leaks, they believe, are on the same loop, if you will, of digital recording.

Let me go back to the article, and then let's see if you agree with my working theory that Dan Bongino is cooperating with Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan and or took AI notes. or a recording. Listen to these quotes, quotes about Bongino, right, or involving Bonino, I should say. Okay, here we go. The day the memo was released, the two-page memo from the FBI and the Department of Justice saying there is no client list and Epstein wasn't murdered. Bonino showed up to a daily Justice Department meeting with the FBI staff and the Attorney General. So it's Bondi, FBI staff, and Bonino.

Quote to Bondi from Bongino, you fuck this thing up from the start. The way you've been talking about this, that dumb effing charade with the Epstein files, they're on my desk nonsense, all the promises to the folks out there. He went on to a colleague and said to a confident, this is quotes now, again, quotes. Blondie, using a term of derision that Laura Lumer coined, F this whole thing up. She was the one on TV saying over and over, they had all this stuff. There was never anything. We were always clear about that.

But now everyone thinks we did something wrong. And I gave up everything, meaning it's podcast. And now it's all disappeared because people think. we screwed something up with Epstein. This is going to be President Trump's Iran-Contra, referring to one scandal that brought down the Reagan administration involving arming the contra in Nicaragua through a funding mechanism involving Iran, of all things.

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legal a.F. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. Okay. That's a direct quote. And that's not the only direct. When I saw these direct quotes from my experience as legal commentator and a lawyer, I was like, she's got a, she's got a tape, a transcript, digital recording, or amazing notes that were taken by somebody in the room, multiple people. Then you have the back and forth again between Bongino, and Susie Wiles, the chief of staff, when he was accused of being a leaker, I'll tell you what, I'll give you 100,000 cash right now. Not kidding.

Walk out to the West Wing, put that reporter on speaker and get him to admit I leaked it. $100,000. Wiles snapped back, quote, well, we all got ourselves into this. Bungino cut her off. No, no, no, no. We didn't get ourselves into anything. I warned you guys about this the whole time and you ignored me. And now you're pretending I was in on this.

I was never in on this. Okay? Wiles put Bungino on the spot going forward, she said, quote, we're all in. We're all going to agree to move forward. Are you in or not? No, I'm not. That's not my plan. Forget it.

I'm out of here. He stormed out. Remember Susie Wiles also was a big head scratcher. About six months ago, she gave a most. gave a multiple-day interview with Vanity Fair and started throwing people under the bus in a very uns Susie Wiles-like way, including Pam Bondi and others, including Marco Rubio and J.D. Vance. So, you know, this is, as one of our colleagues and collaborators on Legal A.F., Sky Perryman likes to say, you put all the liars in the room. Susie Wiles has cooperated with the press and has, if you will,

leaked information of derision about and critique about people in the cabinet before. So looking at you, Susie Wiles, did you corroborate some of this information? Then you've got the quotes about the vice president and allegations that Donald Trump attacked a woman sexually, including her breasts, and that information was about to come out. This is a quote. I think we should put it out, these nipple-related documents, as the reporters refer to it. It would cause people to say, we're going further than we need to. Wiles quickly responded about that particular issue.

That's a direct quote. More direct quotes, which also indicated to me, of course, that there was a recording. James Blair in the room, in the situation room, about Galane Maxwell. We can't offer Maxwell. anything. A, I don't know why we would. This is about giving her a pardon or immunity. And B, if we give Galane Maxwell any sort of break and then she turns around and says nice things about us or says nice things about us and we give her a break, it will undermine the entire point of her saying good things that will feed the conspiracy theory. We shouldn't have to offer her anything.

A long quotation. Then we have Stephen Chung, the head of communications, pardoning Maxwell, A trafficker of young girls will create a huge PR problem. Not a paraphrase, a direct quote. JD Vance about Elaine Maxwell. What if we got her to talk to Congress? James Blair about holding a press conference to continue the cover up. Blair, quote, with all due respect, the communication strategy of this group got us here. I don't know that it's going to get us out.

If you're going to go in front of the press, you've got to love. lot of work to do. Quote, quote, quote, quote, quote, quote. Okay. So you got these working hypotheses here. Susie Wiles, who's leaked things before at a far-raging interviewer Vanity Fair. Dan Bongino, who's no longer in the government, may have been in on the phone call, phoned in by Cash Patel, Cash Patel, who's always trying to create a CYA file to keep his job. So is it come as any surprise now that the Trump administration now thinks that there was recordings even about the Iran planning? They added the editor of Atlantic Magazine to a signal chat at the top of the administration. And now, of course, Cash Patel, who once famously put members of his own security detail and in the FBI in a lie detector test to see who was legal.

about his public drinking and about his girlfriend and went after reporters reporting about him using the awesome power of the FBI. Does anybody think it's not possible that Dan Bongino was sitting with Cash Patel and or both of them or one of them used an AI agent to take notes and or hit the record button? You know, fortunately for the American people, for whatever their reasons, there are people that are still willing to cooperate with the press, against great personal sacrifice. It's courageous on the reporter side. You got a Trump administration that sues, right? And or indicts to get information about leaks. Don't put it past this administration

indicting and or suing Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan to try to get their source material of their thousands of interviews to try to find the leak under some sort of claim of espionage. Don't be shocked when I do that reporting for Legal A.F. and Midas touch. That's why we have to stand together on independent journalism. We're doing it here.

Thanks for being here. Hit the free subscribe button. Until my next video, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal A.F. Me neither. That's why we form the Legal A.F. Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take,

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