Legal AF by MeidasTouch - WTF!!! Top IG Gets PHYSICALLY ACCOSTED by Trump’s GOONS

Episode Date: February 1, 2025

The next phase of fascism has begun, with Trump dragging out of their offices Inspectors General who refused to recognize his illegal firings. Michael Popok discusses the brave and important resistance of Phyllis Fong, a 22-year apolitical watchdog, who took on Elon Musk’s companies, and has been retaliated against, as new lawsuits pile up against Trump tying his administration up in knots. For 20% off your order head to https://LaundrySauce.com/LEGALAF20 and use code LEGALAF20 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

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Of offices and dragging away inspectors general that oppose him or people in his administration And now we have philis fong a 22 year inspector general All her job has been for republicans and Democrats alike has been to root out corruption, to root out abuse of power at various departments. She's been at the US Department of Agriculture. She got sideways with Elon Musk because she and her office opened up an investigation in 2022 against Neuralink, one of his companies. And now they've attempted to literally drag her from her office because she's refused to recognize the illegal firings of inspectors general

with a note, a boilerplate note no less from the director of personnel for Donald Trump. She's a profile in courage, the resistance continues and is televised and at least on YouTube. And I'm gonna continue to follow it right here in the Midas Touch Network At Legal AF. I'm Michael Popak. Let's talk about the firings and what Phyllis Fong's resistance means The reason these inspectors general work were created was in 1976

after Watergate after the Nixonian crime spree and Congress at the time had the wisdom to install these watchdogs And Congress at the time had the wisdom to install these watchdogs, independent watchdogs, to root out abuse of power and corruption within the various departments and agencies of the government. Everyone has an inspector general or did until on Friday. They're independent. They're a political. They just look, you know, it's like an accountant. I mean, is your CPA or

your accountant political? Or are they just looking at the numbers and the facts and delivering an audit or a message? Same thing for inspector generals. Think of it as an ethics or abuse of power audit being run by an independent auditor in the form of an inspector general. That's one way to think about it. And Congress is always concerned about the independence of the inspectors general, and they were very concerned about it before Trump's potential arrival because in 2022, knowing that there was a chance that Donald Trump could come back and because project 2025 has as one of its tenants, one of its principles, get rid of the inspectors general. I'm going to show you a video clip about that in a minute, right from their handbook, right

from their playbook. But because of all of that, in 2022, even the MAGA Congress thought it's a great idea. We should increase the independence and protect the independence of the inspectors general. And they passed a law that said you can't fire, just because you came into office, you can't fire people you don't like who happen to be inspectors general. You have to give us sufficient notice, which they never gave here.

And you have to list the reasons by person why they are being removed effectively for cause. None of that happened here. There was a mass, a mass mailing, a mass email. Your services are no longer, no longer wanted. Does anyone truly believe that Elon Musk didn't have Phyllis Fong fired because they opened up an investigation against Neuralink? Leave it in the chat in the comment if you think my thought experiment is all wet.

So she properly, and she's the perfect person by the way, to be the profile and courage for this story. Why? Phyllis Phang was appointed by both Democrats and Republicans to do her job. Bush and Clinton confirmed by the Senate, working away tirelessly, patriotically, as a public servant, just to do her job to root out abuse of power and corruption. She's been given every award under the sun that you can think of.

If I were to do a list of her accolades and awards and commendations on both sides of the aisle, it would take up the entire hot take. That's all she's ever wanted to do. That's all she's ever done for her adult life. And she served Democratic presidents and Republican ones. That's what happens over a 22-year career. She was the first chairperson of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency.

She was the very first one, let alone the first woman one. And she has refused to acknowledge that there's been an illegal firing of her. In fact, if you go up on their website, she's still there, at least at the time of this recording. Let's put her up now. Now, why do I say that there's a one-to-one correlation between Project 2025's playbook and the firing of Phyllis Phang and the other inspectors general?

Because there's a training video made by Project 2025. I don't know if they never thought this would ever see the light of day, but they like kept receipts. It's like a terrorist organization. You know, when you finally bust it up, you know, like an undercover operation and you get all of their videos and audios

and social media posts and diaries, you know, they thought they were immune, that they were above reproach. So we have a training video where they say exactly that, fire the inspectors general, let's play the clip. She should be worried about an oversight investigations. There's this whole other community of permanent bureaucrats that are out to look after your conduct.

And what I'm talking about here are the inspectors general and the government accountability officer are two that come to mind. So Tom, why don't you just explain what inspectors general are IG and GAO? Yeah, so the Inspectors General are permanent staff within the agency that are responsible for rooting out fraud and abuse within the agency operation.

And these are guys you don't want to get cross ways with. These are guys that show up with badges and they can conduct investigations and they have the power to investigate in a way that really a lot of other These are guys that show up with badges and they can conduct investigations and they have the power to investigate in a way that really a lot of other investigative agencies and organs don't have. So they vary in the quality. Some agencies have outstanding inspectors general

who are impartial, who are looking at rooting out fraud. Some agencies have guys that are kind of meh, they're less than stellar. But at the end of the day, you don't wanna be in kind of meh, they're less than stellar. But at the end of the day, you don't want to be in kind of the crosshairs because they can get information from outside sources or within the building that says, hey, we think there's a problem going on within this department. We think this political appointee has misbehaved, done misappropriated funds, used things outside

the proper course, coordinated with political actors. Thank you ProPublica for finding that clip. So for Donald Trump to look the American people in the eye and lie, which he does regularly, running on a phony populist message, not caring about the population at all, not caring about the average American at all. For him to say that there's no link between his administration and Project 2025 is a bald-faced criminal lie. The father, the self-professed father,

to use that term mildly, loosely, of Project 2025, the architect of it is Russ Vought. What's Russ Vought? He's gonna be changing your life on a daily basis until we get lawsuits up and running against him because he's going to run the Congressional Management and Budget Office. Yeah, the Office of Management and Budget, the nation's checkbook, if you will. He's a Project 2025 founder. Yeah. This episode is sponsored by Laundry Sauce,

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I'm on record as saying that there's going to be at least three to four lawsuits a day being filed against this administration who is operating, who's careening from one illegal executive order to the next. This is a presidency by executive order, which is a gift to the Democrats and progressives and moderates, because that means every executive order has a matching, correlating lawsuit. 1,000 lawsuits or more were filed against Donald Trump the first time. Triple that number now. Maybe even quadruple it. He's already been, he has already had one lawsuit, a little over one lawsuit a day since he's been in office and he's only been

in office for about 12 days. Yeah, we have almost that many lawsuits in four different courts and two restraining orders already by federal judges. Triple that number, at least double that number as we move forward. As the attorneys general of the United States, 18 or 20 of them that are Democratic, move forward against Donald Trump and these executive orders. Judges start to rule. Public interest groups like the ACLU and the NAACP and others execute their plan in opposition

and resistance. We need Phyllis Fong. We need a Phyllis Fong in our life, right, to lead, to lead from the front. And that's what we're watching. This council of independent inspectors general is currently led by a guy named Hannibal, but he goes by Mike, Mike Ware. And Mike Ware went on, I think on MSNBC recently, and laid down the line in the sand as a precursor to the lawsuits that are coming. Let's play that clip. The reason was due to changing priorities of the administration.

And the reason that is alarming is because IGs are not a part of any administration. IGs oversee how the priorities of the administration is being conducted to make sure that there is transparency in government and to make sure that there's no fraud, waste and abuse in how taxpayer funds are being expended. So the decapitation of the inspectors General by Donald Trump will not stand. Democracy requires that we have, especially when you have an occupant like Donald Trump, that we have firewalls around all the departments to avoid abuse of power and corruption. As I've said before, on the day one of his administration, minute one of his administration, that we be careening from

one abuse of power to another, one violation of separation of powers to another, one constitutional crisis to another on almost an hourly basis, and that's exactly what we're seeing. But the counter to that, the antidote to that is the federal courts who are put him back in his place and groups led by Phyllis Fong who are gonna sue to get their jobs reinstated. The Department of Justice senior leadership that were fired by Donald Trump, not reassigned but fired illegally

against civil service protection laws, against merit service protection laws. They're gonna get their jobs back, they're gonna get their money. Look how much money Donald Trump is wasting with this retribution scheme. The money for lawsuits, the money to pay these people when they have to settle with these people or are awarded large tens of millions of dollar sums. The buyouts for federal employees over seven months. Yeah, where's that coming from? Not Donald Trump's pocket. He doesn't pay taxes.

You are his in my pocket. Wasteful, petulant, childish, not dignified, not adult, not professional, not in your best interest as the president of the United States. Now we've got to use these examples examples these two to three lawsuits a day the firings of the inspectors general the firings of the Department of Justice personnel the firing of anybody who would who would have the temerity to resist Donald Trump We have to use that in our campaign against the fascists in our campaign against Donald Trump at and the Republicans against the fascists and our campaign against Donald Trump and the Republicans. Sometimes we slip in the shorthand and we call it MAGA.

Call it the Republican Party. Hold them responsible and accountable in every race, local, local to federal, every race from now until the midterms and beyond. Every judge that runs with a red banner, every dog catcher, every school board member, every congressional candidate, the Democrats are going to do our part and the moderates are going to do our part in the lawsuits, and then running great candidates that you'll admire and that you're going to want to vote for. But you've got to make the Republicans pay.

They are the party of abuse of power. They are the party of constitutional crisis. They are the party that's in favor of releasing criminals that beat police and have them released and child pornographers and put them back on the streets to satisfy the worst instincts of Donald Trump. We have to call it out. We have to televise it.

We got to talk to each other before we speak truth to power. We'll do it all right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. As most people know, I've gone since 2025 in the election, I've gone full time with Midas Touch and Legal AF. It's that important. It's that important to the remainder of my life to devote it to you, to this audience,

to the Legal AFers, to the Midas Mighty, to the law and politics analysis like no other here and on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Join me in both places. Join me in both places. And then I got a great new announcement you'll be hearing more about starting next week about a new law firm that I started, the Popak Firm, which is going to be dedicated to justice in collaboration with a team of amazing lawyers all around the country.

The Popok firm announcement, look for it on Monday. Until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popok. 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.