Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s Law Firm Deal Blows Up Instantly

Episode Date: May 3, 2025

Trump’s new Executive Order to “unleash” cops on Americans, defend them with the free legal work he extorted from major law firms, and then use the military against the American People, is not only a violation of the Constitution and the Posse Comitatus Act, but is one step closer to Trump declaring Martial Law. Michael Popok explains how Big Law, which gave Trump a billion dollars worth of free legal service, is complicit in Trump’s lawlessness and will end up being on the wrong side of the next case to challenge this Executive Order. Elevate your workspace and energize your year with Uplift Desk. Go to https://upliftdesk.com/legalaf for a special offer exclusive to our audience. 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

Donald Trump and his administration are getting closer to declaring martial law and suspending the Constitution. I just read through one of the presidential proclamations in which in his new executive order entitled Strengthening and Unleashing America's Law Enforcement to Pursue Criminals and Protect Innocent Citizens, he says that the federal government is now going to bail out, effectively, bad cops that in their police practices abuse people, false arrest and beating and otherwise, providing them with indemnification and legal services. In other words, paying for any judgments against them and paying for their attorneys.

And guess who he's reporting, who he's declaring that he's going to use for this. Remember those dozen law firms that settled with Donald Trump and gave him a billion dollars worth of free legal service? All those major Washington and New York based firms, all those corporate transactional firms, including one that I worked at, Scad and Arps. Now their lawyers, their young lawyers, their junior lawyers, their pro bono programs are going to be devoted to bailing out bad cops. First of all, cops don't need bailing out between the strong amount of union protection, indemnification from their own agencies, from their own counties, municipalities,

and states, and the rest, they don't need bailing out. They already have, I mean, there's no cop that goes to trial without having a lawyer that's paid for by his municipality, state, local, or otherwise. They all have and enjoy what we call qualified immunity. So it's very hard to successfully sue law enforcement. And now Donald Trump is going to unleash law enforcement. I'll talk more about it right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Take a minute, hit the Legal AF subscribe button over on Legal AF MTN and help us grow that Pro Democracy channel. And let me dive into this particular hot take. For the last two months,

we've been watching a parade, a line of big law firms, mainly transactional corporate-based, worried about their profits per partner, settling with Donald Trump. They said, well, we're just going to give them free legal services up to $1 billion worth for having done nothing wrong because Donald Trump decided to attack them because they had pro bono programs that helped things that he didn't like or were against him or hired special prosecutors that were against him or hired Kamala Harris's husband or whatever. And so he went to each of them and threatened to make them radioactive and put them on a blacklist if they didn't pay tribute to him in the form of free legal work. And now he's declared in this unleashing law enforcement executive order that, and I'm

reading from the top of page two, section two, he says, the mechanism to provide indemnification, paying for their judgments and legal resources to protect cops, good and bad and otherwise, will come from private sector pro bono assistance for such law enforcement officers. Get ready, Kirkland and Ellis, Skadden, Arps, Sherman and Sterling, Paul Weiss, Latham and Watkins, Cadwallader,

and your young associates because you're now going to be defending potentially bad cops who don't need protection. Think of the world we live in. In the Biden administration, the Civil Justice Division of the Department of Justice went after bad cops and bad law enforcement and bad police forces around the country is violation of civil rights. Pam Bondi and her head of civil rights division, Harmeet Dhillon, have gotten rid of those resources and now instead we're going to strengthen the blue. Now look, I'm not anti-blue okay, but I am anti-bad cop. I am anti-police beatings and I am making sure, I am for making sure that people of whatever color and especially black and brown people are not abused by law enforcement.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, wants to do this whole thing, which is a precursor to him going further and violating what we call the Posse Comitatus Act, which is to use US troops on domestic soil to implement Donald Trump's law enforcement and domestic policy and immigration goals, that's next. Isn't it a slippery slope? We're one step away. We're one step away with this new strengthening and unleashing. That's a scary word.

When you talk about unleashing law enforcement, that's scary. Does anybody out there perceive law enforcement as being leashed? I mean, I think they're constrained by constitutional principles. I think they're constrained, and I think it keeps them honest knowing that they could be sued in a courtroom for criminal or civil violations, I think that makes them better at their jobs. I think that helps weed out bad cops. Now look, at one point in my career, I represented municipalities. I've represented, in a way, police officers, okay, or my law firm did, in civil rights cases. So I get it. And I've met some very fine members of law enforcement at rank and file.

I've also met some terrible ones that I worked to try to get out of their positions and get rid of the bad cops. So I kind of understand this world. They are all, police already have a tremendous levels of protection for their job. They have strong unions. In fact, this declaration, this executive order is really a result of Donald Trump pandering

to the police unions. They have strong unions. They have lots of money from union dues. They have lawyers that are dedicated to defending them. They have indemnification from their municipalities, their states, and where they apply their trade. Already, they don't need this additional level of protection. They have all of that. We have given them what's called qualified immunity, meaning for most of what they do,

they can't be sued. For most of what they do, they can't be sued. So we don't need to unleash the law enforcement. We need to make sure through proper training and standard operating procedures, SOPs, that they comply with our constitutional rights, that they don't violate them, that they don't beat people, that they don't treat black and brown people differently in a traffic stop or otherwise. That's what we need to be putting our resources in. Physio, chiropractic, and massage therapy are all great resources for when you need them.

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Stand move thrive with Uplift Desk. Black Lives Matter, you can have your own opinion about it, but I know why it existed. And I have plenty of friends and I have plenty of friends I have plenty of friends that I went to college with law school with and practice with who are lawyers Who won't travel in certain parts of this country without wearing around their neck like a dog tag their driver's license I once said to a friend of mine What do you mean? You have to wear it on a lanyard around your neck? You know, you're an Ivy League graduate, law school graduate, you worked in some amazing

firms, you worked for the federal government as a public defender, yet you have to wear a dog tag with your driver's license? Why is that? He said, because I don't want to make a wrong, false move in my car as I'm reaching for my driver's license and have my head blown off. See, I don't think like that, but you have to walk in other people's shoes. So let me read to you from this executive order and then we'll get back to the law firms and the major mistake that they made.

Section one, safe communities rely on the backbone and heroism of a tough and well equipped police force. Now we're going to talk about toughness in policing. Last time I looked, they're generally wearing the, well, body cam, yes, but I was thinking body armor and the sidearm, right? When local leaders demonize law enforcement and impose legal and political handcuffs, great language he's using here, that make aggressively enforcing the law impossible. We want aggressive enforcement of the law. This again is written by a felon.

This can only be written and declared and proclaimed by a felon. The problem in America is not lack of aggressive law enforcement, okay? That's not how people are dying during traffic stops. But let me continue. My administration will therefore establish best practices at the state and local level for cities to unleash.

So now we're doing unleashing aggressive policing. Even law enforcement doesn't want that. Even law enforcement doesn't want more bad cops, I suggest. And defend law enforcement officers wrongly accused and abused by state or local officials and surge resources to officers in need. I'm not even sure what that means. So here's the instruction to the attorney general. The attorney general shall take all appropriate action to create a mechanism to provide legal

resources and indemnification to law enforcement officers. They already have that. Who unjustly incur expenses and liabilities for actions taken during the performance of their official duties to enforce the law. Well, how do you know that until you go through the trial? How do you know it's unjust until he goes through the trial? I mean, sure, you can indemnify the person, make sure they have counsel. But if at the end it's turned out that he or she did the bad thing, shot the person on purpose, beat them, turned off their camera, how does that square with unleashing law enforcement? And then he talks about the private sector pro bono assistance, which comes from these law firms we just talked about. Empowering state and local enforcement. Again, in section three, he wants new best practices to state and local enforcement to aggressively police communities. Again, I don't think anybody

wants more aggressive police. I just want the normal amount of police. I just want the normal amount of policing. I don't need the extra crispy amount. Nothing good comes out of unleashing law enforcement on a private civilian base. I don't think much comes out of that. Then listen to this. This is where the martial law comes in. Section four, using national security assets for law and order. That sounds like a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act where you're not allowed to use the military on domestic soil and turn the military on its own people. Within 90 days of the date of this order, the attorney general and the secretary of defense in consultation with the secretary of Homeland Security, so two

dimwits, Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth, are going to consult to increase the provision of excess military and national security assets in local jurisdictions to assist. That's a direct violation. Using military and national security assets is a direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. There is going to be, this just got published two days ago, there's going to be a new lawsuit on this. And get ready, the new lawsuit is coming.

This is unconstitutional. And the law firms that gave him the billion dollars should be ashamed of themselves in free time. And now they're gonna have to have their lawyers. And if I worked in one of those law firms and I worked in one of those law firms, I would quit. I mean, like, I am not defending bad cops for the Trump administration. That's not what I went to law school for.

That's not what I'm doing here. And so a lot of these people are gonna have to reconsider why they joined these major firms, you know, the corporate transactional people, you know, they'll be like, ah, we're still doing our deals. We're okay. But the litigators, the ones like me, the trial lawyers, I would head for the hills. I would get, I think that is a, that is a attack, internal attack in a law firm against this litigation department. I really do. And I think the litigation departments of these places should leave and go to other firms

that value what they do for a living and are bending over for Donald Trump. They could go join all the firms that are successfully beating Donald Trump in the courtroom. I mean, the Jenner and Blocks, the Wilmer-Hales, the Perkins-Coy, they're all doing great in court. They're all gonna get amazing preliminary injunctions in their favor. Go there. But I didn't want to leave this hot take until I tell you this is the beginning. This is the first shot in a war against American

people by Donald Trump and the threat of martial law and the violation of the Posse Comitatus Act right here in plain sight in this executive order. I'll continue to follow it all here on the Midas Touch Network. Come on over to Legal AF, hit the subscribe button there. Got a brand new Legal AF sub stack. Go to Legal AF on sub stack,

four, five, six different unique pieces of information, content, videos, articles, all there on the sub stack. And that's another way you can help keep this independent channel and network going is to go over there and subscribe. Till my next report, I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.