Legal AF by MeidasTouch - WHOA! Judge Cannon BETRAYS Trump with FINAL ACT

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

In the end, even Trump’s most reliable “bff” in the criminal justice system, Judge Cannon turned on him and rejected his late-night filing to stop the release of the Jack Smith Special Counsel DC Election Interference final report, in classic “paperless order” style. Michael Popok takes it further and suggests that Trump has waived the dismissal of his indictment in the Mar a Lago case by moving to intervene to come back into the case and that the prosecution should continue against him. Lumen: Go to https://lumen.me/LEGALAF to get 20% off your Lumen. 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

In the end, in the very end, even Judge Cannon turned on Donald Trump. What does a nine-hour late filing and a paperless order have in common? They all work together to kill Donald Trump's efforts, his last gasp effort, in the wee hours of the morning to try to stop the release of volume one of special counsel Jack Smith's special report closeout memo about the DC election interference case. And at the end, Donald Trump couldn't even find a friend and Judge Cannon. I'm going to talk about the nine hours late.

I'm going to talk about the paperless order. All you know where on Midas Touch and Unlegal AF on Michael Popak. Let's dive into it. We're doing separate hot takes and analysis of the volume one itself, all 170 pages of it, the nitty gritty of what Jack Smith concluded, including fundamentally, that he had more than enough evidence to carry his burden

of beyond a reasonable doubt to convict Donald Trump of election interference and conspiracies around that if he had the ability to do it if Donald Trump had election interference and conspiracies around that if he had the ability to do it if Donald Trump had not won election. Let's leave that for another moment. Let's get down to how did we get here and how did Judge Cannon, one of the best buddies for Donald Trump, can't think of somebody who Donald Trump counted on more in the justice system than Eileen Cannon down in the Southern District of Florida.

In fact, it was leaked, I'm sure on purpose, by Donald Trump's transition team that she was on the shortlist to be the Attorney General of the United States. I'm sure she's still on the shortlist to be on the Supreme Court if there's an opening for Donald Trump. Although the cheat just screw up her chances by ruling appropriately under the law that Donald Trump could not intervene in the case at the last minute, a criminal case not involving him, and asked for relief as well. I'm going to tell you about federal practice and about Donald Trump being late and the

filing by the Department of Justice that led to the paperless order. Here's how we got here. Lots of moving parts. I'll summarize them. It started with two different motions or pieces of paper being filed by Donald Trump, sorry, by his proxies, the two co-conspirators in the Mar-a-Lago case, the valet butler guy and the maintenance worker guy, up at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to

try to stop the release of all the volumes, volume one and volume two, even though they're not involved with volume one. It has to do with DC, not Mar-a-Lago. They're just proxies. They were just puppets for Donald Trump. They were doing the blocking and tackling for Donald Trump. Donald Trump's paying the freight through his political action committees for their law firms.

They're just doing his bidding. So they filed all sorts of objections. They're at the 11th Circuit and one with Judge Cannon. Judge Cannon issued a temporary stay. That got appealed to the 11th Circuit by Jack Smith or by his proxies, in this case, the US attorneys in Miami and the Department of Justice. And they opposed it at the 11th Circuit.

They opposed it before Judge Cannon. Judge Cannon kept her stay in place until Sunday night, or actually, well, it would be Sunday night, Monday. She then, the 11th Circuit didn't do anything about the order, although they rejected the emergency motion filed at their level and said, yeah, volume one can be released. After Cannon had the government affirm that volume one

about the DC election interference case had nothing substantively to do with the Mar-a-Lago espionage classified documents case, once she got satisfied and got right with that, she then lifted her stay to allow volume one to be released. But that wasn't good enough. Donald Trump filed late another piece of paper, this time Donald Trump did, to intervene in the case.

Now let me tell you from a practicing lawyer standpoint how extraordinary intervention is. We were writing in a chat in the Legal AF world, at Midas Touch World, about Trump's involvement. He kept filing like these what we call friends of the court brief or attempts to send in briefs as a spectator because he was dismissed from the Mar-a-Lago case, as we all know. He was dismissed from the DC election interference case because he won election. That's the reason that under Department of Justice guidelines and the Office of Legal Counsel guidelines. So he's now a stranger. He's got about as much

involvement in those criminal cases as you or I do. And so he tried to file this amicus brief, this friend of the court brief, like, let me do some commentary on a case I'm not involved with. And I wrote internally in our group chat, I said, why isn't he intervening? This is a week ago. Now he finally woke up after the judge yesterday at 1201 p.m. decided that she was going to release the hounds or at least allow volume one to be released. Donald Trump not at 12, not an hour later, not two hours later, nine hours later, which is a long time in the law world, he finally files a motion to intervene, which is now nine hours late.

And now we're in the wee hours of the evening, just an hour or two before the whole report's going to be released. And on top of that, when you intervene in a case, which means you're coming into a case you're not currently in, it happens in civil matters, not criminal, more than in criminal. It's very, very rare in criminal. Because you can think of it.

It's the defendant, the criminal defendant, who's intervening in his case. Like, who has grounds to intervene? Like somebody, I can only imagine somebody saying, well, he didn't do the crime, I did the crime, who has grounds to intervene? Like, somebody, I can only imagine somebody saying, well, he didn't do the crime, I did the crime, I'd like to come into the case. Who's going to do that? There's no one else that can really intervene in a criminal case. It's very, very rare. Maybe, you know, half of a 1% or less. Civil cases, intervention happens a little more often. Somebody, their contract rights are being jeopardized by the lawsuit. Their property rights are being jeopardized by the lawsuit.

Their property rights are being jeopardized by the lawsuit. They're being damaged in some way by the two parties already in the lawsuit. So they say to the court, hey, I have the right to be heard in this courtroom. I have standing. I need to be before the court for justice to be done. That's grounds for intervention. But when you come in, even on a civil side, you come in, you take the case as you find it.

You know, you can't restart the discovery process. You can't, oh, the trial's next week? Oh, I'm not ready for next week. Well, you're an intervener. Interveners have very limited rights. And you certainly can't ask for extraordinary emergency relief on the way in. That was the second problem with Donald Trump's motion.

I'd like to come into this criminal case that I'm not currently in, I was already dismissed from. And while I'm here, I'd like to also ask for an emergency stay about a report that has nothing to do with this judge and this court, which is the DC election interference case. You can see where this was going, right? And the Department of Justice filed their own last-minute paper, like within an hour of the late filing by Donald Trump to finally intervene, and they filed the United States opposition to non-party President-elect Trump's supplement and motion to reconsider the denial of the emergency motion.

So not only does he want to intervene at the last minute, the last 10 seconds, he wants the judge to reconsider what she's already decided on her last paperless order, not happening. And I have another posit, another thought experiment. If he's intervening in the criminal case, maybe he's back in the criminal case. He's waived the actual dismissal that the Department of Justice did under the guidelines. He's voluntarily re-entered the case.

Let's keep the case alive. Let's prosecute the case in Mar-a-Lago against the intervener Donald Trump. Let's do that. I'm sure he doesn't want that, but I don't know. I mean, it's an odd situation where he's intervening. He's coming back into a criminal case dismissed against him. I would argue that's waiver. Waiver of what... And Istate the reinstate. What do the I'm asking this to the Department

of Justice, what does the Office of Legal Counsel's guidance say about a president elect who is dismissed from a case but voluntarily tries to intervene his way back in? I think that he's jackpot. I think we're back to prosecuting. I'll do another hot take on that. But did you know 80% of resolutions fail by February? But you can beat the odds with Lumen and improve your health. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored guidance to improve your nutrition,

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alone to deny this requested relief. His request to intervene has been pending for a week, right? The president's request to intervene has been pending for a week, but he never expedited it. He never asked for an emergency hearing on it. That's the point. Moreover, the court issued the order, this is on page two, denying the relief as to volume one at 12 16 p.m. yesterday. Nine hours later, nine o'clock at night, Trump filed an emergency supplement to his intervention motion manufacturing an emergency that would not exist had he acted when the court issued its order like he should have issued it he should have had his thing ready at 12 17 the request comes too late although it's meritless and until the 11th hour he doesn't explain why this filing comes after 9 p.m

on tardiness alone he should be denied trump is tard. Then they say, even if you allow him in, he lacks standing concerning this injunction. He's not a party to this criminal case, and therefore he cannot, even if he was an intervener, ask for that relief. They also say that no intervention is warranted. There's very rare and limited circumstances for a criminal case for someone to intervene. Typically, intervention for a criminal case for someone to intervene. Typically, intervention in a criminal case is permitted only where the granting of a motion in a criminal case would infringe on a third party's constitutional rights. Well, what are the third party's constitutional rights? Again, I suggest that if he's intervening, maybe the Department of Justice should take him up on it and put him back into the case.

And then they say it has no merit in any regard because, as they say on page four, the president-elect cannot show that release of the final report, volume one, would be contrary to the act, even if it were enforceable, the Presidential Transition Act. The motion to intervene in tonight's supplement asserts that, quote, issuance and public release of the report would have the effect of disrupting and interfering with President Trump's transition efforts and harming the institution of the presidency, but he doesn't specify what the disruption and

interference might be. The letter from counsel for Trump to the Attorney General asserts that releasing the special counsel's report to the public would give rise to a media storm of false and unfair criticism. Such speculation falls far short of establishing that any provision of the Presidential Transition Act could not be carried out or would be rendered more difficult by publication of the final report. Now here's what the judge finally had to say. I started off with nine hours late in a paperless order. Here's one of Judge Cannon's famous paperless orders. I've already joked that on her tombstone one day. It'll say here lies Eileen Cannon, paperless order

to follow. Paperless order denying President-elect's motion to intervene as the Volume 1, the court has reviewed the motion and the emergency supplement, consistent with this court's order denying in part the emergency motion, which is the 1216 p.m. order, and in light of the United States' clarification, affirming the severability of Volume 1 and Volume 2. In other words, there is no overlap substantively between Mar-a-Lago and the Volume 1 release now to the public, which is the D.C. election interference case, for which she has maybe jurisdiction, but I'm not even sure about that. The motion to intervene is denied as the volume one and reserved on the balance of the motion. In other words, she's having a hearing this week on Thursday about whether volume two is going to

be able to go to Congress and congressional leadership, not to the public. But that's later in the week. The order granting defendantants motion to dismiss the superseding indictment is confined to the proceedings here as is the court's authority to enforce its own orders. There's been a lot of argument that she doesn't have jurisdiction to be issuing these orders. The court is therefore constrained to deny the present request for emergency relief expressing – in other words, Trump, you're not in this case, expressing no opinion on the merits of the arguments in the motion to intervene as to volume one or on the United States asserted urgency in releasing volume one. Yeah, the asserted urgency is that we're six days away from the inauguration and the killing of

volume one from the public's eyes. Yeah, I get the urgency kind of, but even at the end, even at the end, even though she chastised the Department of Justice in her order, claimed that they were going to be not forthright with her or be candid with her, she eventually sided with the Department of Justice, understanding that she's got the 11th Circuit, her boss is breathing down her neck and staring at everything that she's doing for future review, because that review can still continue. I mean, let's be frank. If the 11th Circuit, I'm going to end the hot take this way, if the 11th Circuit doesn't

rule on the substantive appeal that's up there about whether she was right, Canada was right or wrong to dismiss the indictment by finding that the special counsel was unconstitutionally appointed and funded. If she doesn't do that, if the 11th Circuit, sorry, doesn't do that in the next five days, because the case is fully briefed there, it's game over because Trump is going to pardon those two co-conspirators. That case is going to end and have to be dismissed for lack of any parties without getting a ruling.

And that may be the 11th Circuit's goal here. They're, oh, let's just wait, wait it out. We don't want to make a ruling if we don't have to. That leaves on the books, Cannon's Ridiculous Order, which for right now is the only decision in the country about the special counsel and its validity that's there until a higher court or another court disagrees. This is special counsel report week, by the way. Not only do we have volume one from Jack Smith, we've got the only report issued by David Weiss, Hunter Biden's special

counsel. So if Jack Smith's invalid or unconstitutional, why isn't David Weiss? We barely saw, it was on page 48 of the New York Times, that Hunter Biden's report came out, of which most of it was spent attacking President Biden by saying that the prosecutor wasn't biased or partisan while he's bias-ly and partisan-ly attacking Joe Biden. Okay, my point is, reports come out. This is mandated by the law that Congress has approved about how the special counsels work.

Just a cannon never got the memo and doesn't understand the law. We'll continue to follow it all. Come back to me. We'll be doing lots of breaking news, including PO-POK Live Tuesday night, 8 p.m. I'll be covering a lot of this right here on the Midas Touch Network, 8 p.m. Eastern Time. I'll be taking questions, giving answers, taking no prisoners, PO-POK Live, 8 p.m. Eastern Time.

And then catch me on Legal AF, the YouTube channel, take a no prisoners, PO-POK Live, 8 p.m. Eastern time. And then catch me on Legal AF, the YouTube channel on all things Legal AF. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael PO-POK. 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 LegalAFMTN. That's at LegalAFMTN.