Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s STEPS INTO IT as Latest STUNT BLOWS UP

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

The Musk/X interview of Trump was illegal and a violation of federal campaign finance law, so says a new suit filed against Trump, his campaign, and X. Michael Popok explains how there were actually 2 laws broken by Trump and Musk: one for illegal PAC coordination with a campaign and the other for an illegal corporate contribution to Trump’s election efforts. Thanks to Trust & Will! Get 10% off plus free shipping of your estate plan documents by visiting https://trustandwill.com/LEGALAF Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join the Legal AF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/LegalAF 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 Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson 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

Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. It's an Uber account that allows your teen to request a ride under your supervision with live trip tracking and highly rated drivers. Add your teen to your Uber account today. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF. That interview between Elon Musk and Donald Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. It's an annuity paying dividends that neither of them expected. Now we've got federal election law violations, federal campaign law violations, at least two of them arising

out of that interview. And now at least one is now subject of a new complaint filed with a federal election commission by an organization known as N Citizens United who tries to police violations by corporations of the laws that say they can't contribute, corporations can't contribute directly to campaigns. They can have political action committees and other ways, but they can't do it through campaigns. There's two major problems and that's why everybody's nose on Legal AF and Midas Touch scrunched up when we saw the interview. One is a potential PAC political action committee violation and the other is a contribution

violation by a corporation. Let's start with the PAC. Elon Musk has publicly announced and it's been reported that he is contributing $45 million a month to a PAC related to trying to get Donald Trump elected president. What the PAC can't do is coordinate with the campaign directly. That's why they're given almost unlimited dollars at the super PAC level but they can't coordinate with the PAC with the campaign of a president directly, not even indirectly. They have to do their own thing.

They want to buy ads, they buy ads. They want to hold rallies, they hold rallies. They want to send out mailers an email blast, they can do that. They just can't call the campaign and go, hey, we're doing this. What are you doing? Or do you want us to do this so you can do something else? They have to spend their money independently without coordination. Well, what did we just watch? We

just watched the Trump campaign representative in the form of Donald Trump coordinating with Elon Musk and Musk providing his contribution in the form of this airtime on his network staffed by him and other people on this multi-billion dollar platform. I don't know quite how many people watched it, but whatever it was, it was one too many. And that is an obvious transparent coordination, the argument goes, between the campaign and the PAC. The PAC controlled by Elon Musk as he makes $45 million a month payments to it. But the one that's gotten the most attention is this new filing by End Citizens United, Citizens United being the Supreme Court case that allowed dark

money and other kind of corporate money to flood in to elections, usually through PACs, not directly. And so the new suit says, and let's follow the logic here as it's right, the logic here is it's right. This quote unquote interview, diatribe, whatever it was, was just the political campaign speech masquerading as an interview. It doesn't, it shouldn't get the protection of being a legitimate news story or a legitimate news outlet in the form of X because that's not what they generally do. And Elon Musk isn't generally a newscaster or interviewer. So there is an exception when this is newsworthy, but this is what Donald Trump's been doing the last couple of times.

Mar-a-Lago recently was not a news event, was not a press conference, even though it was billed as it. It was just a campaign, a campaign ad, a campaign rally that Donald Trump tricked corporate media into covering and get a free contribution from media. Now, as far as the campaign laws are concerned, each one of those stations, CNN, ABC, NBC, that aired any part of what Donald Trump was doing at Mar-a-Lago need to give equal time to Kamala Harris for free.

So that's one way to balance the equation. Now you've got the non-newscaster interviewer, not legitimate news platform X, hosting Donald Trump with an interview with its owner, in which throughout the interview, Elon Musk says he's going to vote for Donald Trump and other people should too. He's pushing for the president, for the presidency to be awarded, if you will, to Donald Trump. And we have some clips right here that are at the focus of the complaint. Let's roll those clips. And so that's a big, you know, part of the reason why I was excited to endorse you as the president of the United States. I think it's a massive, I think we're in massive trouble,

frankly, with the Kamala administration, and that's my honest opinion. And I think we're in massive trouble, frankly, with the Kamala administration. And that's my honest opinion. And I think really it's essential that you win for the good of the country for this election. And I mean, that's just stating my opinion. Those are my values. And I think, you know, and so I mean, that's why I'm supporting you for president. All right, I mean, I don't know any other way you can, any other way you can interpret Elon Musk endorsing Donald Trump and advocating for the defeat

of Kamala Harris throughout that livestream event. As many of you know, I have a growing family with our daughter arriving just this month, know, I have a growing family with our daughter arriving just this month. Making sure I have a plan in place to reduce stress for my family has been increasingly on my mind. The things we build our future around are the things worth protecting. Making an estate plan now means gaining security of your assets and peace of mind for you and your loved ones. With Trust and Will, you can create and manage a custom estate plan starting at just $199. Go to TrustandWill.com slash LegalAF for 10% off plus free document shipping. Trust and Will lets you keep your family prepared and protected by managing your will or trust

online. Each will or trust is state specific and customized to your needs. Think care wishes, nomination guardians, final arrangements, and power of attorney. You deserve to be in control of your life, not the state. Trust and will has made a state planning accessible and affordable.

Their simple step-by-step process guides you from start to finish with ease. Save loved ones time and stress by having all your documents in one place. With bank level encryption, their live customer support is available through phone, chat, and email. And they proudly earned an overall rating of excellent

and thousands of five-star reviews on TrustPilot. Secure your assets and protect your loved ones with trust and will. Get 10% off plus free shipping of your estate plan documents by visiting trustandwill.com slash legal AF. That's 10% off and free shipping at trustandwill.com slash legal AF. He says, so that's a big part of the reason why I was excited to endorse you as the president of the United States. He says the E word right there out loud. I think we're in massive trouble with a Kamala administration, and that's my honest

opinion. I think it's essential that you win for the good of the country. I'm just stating my opinion. No, you're making an illegal corporate contribution on your platform to Donald Trump, for which he, it's at least an in-kind contribution that needed to be reported on his, Donald Trump's returns or Donald Trump's FEC filings and, and X should be warned not to do that ever again and be admonished from doing that ever again. That's where we're at. So we got the new complaint. Here's what Tiffany Mueller, who's the head of N Citizens United, had to say about this

particular filing, and then I'll read to you from some of the filing. Here's what she said. The Donald Trump Elon Musk campaign rally, she's got it right, hosted on X wasn't just an incoherent diatribe of lies marred by technical difficulties. It was a blatantly illegal corporate contribution to Donald Trump's campaign. This brazen corporate contribution undermines campaign finance laws and would set a dangerous precedent for unfettered direct corporate engagements in campaigns. The FEC must investigate this corporate funded campaign event

and hold Trump, his campaign, and X-Corp accountable." And they filed this suit with the FEC. And I think they did a very good job in describing why this is not news commentary, news story, or editorial, and why X is not performing a legitimate press function and therefore doesn't get the exemption for corporate contribution under the federal election laws. Instead, what she said Instead, what she said is the live stream was hosted by Musk and ex-employees who were assigned to facilitate, monitor, and in real time fix the technical issues with the live stream event. And then throughout, Musk endorsed Donald Trump. And that's the problem.

We're all watching it like, oh, it's just two egomaniacs wasting air time. But it was instead a federal election law violation. Now, what's going to happen next with the PAC coordination violation and the federal election law violation? Well, truth be told, the Federal Election Commission has been a little bit toothless. While I'm sure they will look at this and open an investigation, the end result of it is often not what we want on Legal AF. It doesn't often result in any kind of admonishment or punishment or penalty that will dissuade the Donald Trumps of the world or the Elon Musk of the world from stop doing it. They'd have to go into court and sue on an injunction to make it stop.

I've yet to see the will of the Federal Election Commission do that when it comes to Donald Trump, even though the Federal Election Commission is headed by a commission led by people Biden put on, President Biden put on, and by somebody that Biden selected. I think that's one of the changes in a Kamala Harris administration I'd like to see. I'd like to see a stronger, more robust, vigorous, aggressive federal election commission who enforces the laws on the books, just like the DOJ does when it comes to civil violations of aspects of their code. That has to change. People ask, what do we do about the flood of corporate money into the election system and it warping the outcome.

One way is to fund more the Federal Election Commission and get new rules and laws on the books in order to police it. We got some limits because the United States Supreme Court under Citizens United sort of opened the floodgates, finding that corporate contributions to PACs are the equivalent of First Amendment expression by a corporation. That's why this entity that's going after Donald Trump now is called End Citizens United. But we'll continue to follow it all and call for these kinds of reforms right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. If you're interested in this kind of show, we do a podcast, long format, fully curated on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time. We call it

Legal AF for a reason. If you didn't know why, now you know why. You can join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If you like watching your podcast being recorded, come join us there. And if you like listening to a podcast, just plug in Legal AF, upside down, Legal AF into any podcast platform and you will find us right there. And you can leave me a thumbs up and a comment here. It helps with the algorithms, helps keeps the network on the air and me on the air, all that good stuff.

So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popak reporting Heary, Heary Legal AF law breakdown is now in session Go beyond the headlines and get a deep dive into the important legal concepts You need to know and we discuss every day on Legal AF Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee Join us at patreon.com slash legal AF. That's patreon.com slash legal AF.