The MeidasTouch Podcast - Trump LOSES another Attempt to OUST NY Judge

Episode Date: May 19, 2024

Another Trump trick to punish his arch enemy Judge Merchan presiding over the Trump criminal trial in New York has failed. The Judge just revealed that he was cleared of any ethics violations and received no reprimand because he made $35 worth of political contributions to Democratic causes. Michael Popok compares the ruling by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct with the prior rulings in the Judge’s favor by the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics which also gave him a clean bill of health. Thanks to Field of Greens! Get 15% off your first order + free rush shipping at https://FieldOfGreens.com and use promo code MEIDAS! Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on 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 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are very few things that you can be certain of in life. But you can always be sure the sun will rise each morning. You can bet your bottom dollar that you'll always need air to breathe and water to drink. And, of course, you can rest assured that with Public Mobile's 5G subscription phone plans, you'll pay the same thing every month. With all of the mysteries that life has to offer, a few certainties can really go a long way. Subscribe today for the peace of mind you've been searching for. Public Mobile. Different is calling. Where's your playlist taking you?

Down the highway? To the mountains? Or just into daydream mode while you're stuck in traffic? With over 4,000 hotels worldwide, Best Western is there to help you make the most of your getaway. Wherever that is. Because the only thing better than a great playlist is a great trip. Life's a trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Book, direct, and save at BestWestern.com

The Hot Honey McCrispy is so back at McDonald's. With juicy 100% Canadian-raised seasoned chicken, shredded lettuce, crispy jalapenos, and that completely craveable hot honey sauce, it's a sweet heat repeat you don't want to miss. Get your Hot Honey McCrispy today. Available for a limited time only at McDonald's.

You've got unlimited access to music, but time? Now that's limited. The PC Insider's World's Elite MasterCard gets you unlimited PC Optima points, free grocery delivery, and time back for what matters. Save time and earn $1,100 in average value each year. The PC Insider's World's Elite MasterCard. The card for living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. Value is for illustrative purposes only.

Breaking news coming in from Bet365. Where every nail-biting overtime win, breakaway, pick six, three-point shot, underdog win, buzzer beater, shootout, walk-off, and absolutely every play in between is amazing. From football to basketball and hockey to baseball, whatever the moment, it's never ordinary at Bet365. Must be 19 or older, Ontario only.

Please play responsibly. If you or someone you know has concerns about gambling, visit connectsontario.ca. This is Michael Popak, Legal AF Hot Take, and a Trump on trial update. Yet another attempt to sanction, remove, fine, reassign Judge Mershon, the criminal court judge presiding over the Trump trial, has failed. Now, we talked about in previous episodes of Legal AF and in hot takes that I've

done that there was an attempt to remove by Donald Trump, Judge Mershon, because of an appearance of impropriety allegation that he was biased because his daughter worked for a political fundraising entity out in Chicago, for which there was no other affiliation with the judge. And the judge had donated $35 in total during the last election cycle to ActBlue and to the Biden campaign. Well, there's two separate organizations in New York that are relevant to my hot take. The first one is the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. The Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics does exactly what their name sounds like they do.

Judges and others can go to them and get some guidance about the judge's conduct. I have a place to go as a member of the New York Bar. I can call an ethics hotline, give them my information, and get from them a safe harbor letter or some sort of guidance as to my conduct as a bar member. Judges have the same opportunity in New York. They do it through the advisory committee on judicial ethics. Judge Mershon, when he was being accused and his daughter was being accused of doing unethical, underhanded things.

I mean, Matt Gaetz just the other day called Judge Mershon, as did others like Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, called him corrupt. He went where any self-respecting ethical judge would go in New York to the advisory committee and asked them to, having explained all the facts about his donations, about his daughter's involvement in politics and political fundraising, asked for a clean bill of health. And he got one.

They said that nothing about the daughter's role for the company that she works for and the money raising that they do for democratic causes backs up on this judge. It doesn't create an appearance of impropriety, right? He's not held accountable for what his wife or daughter or children do, unless there's a direct link of actual fraud or actual bias. Same thing with the political donation. But Judge Mershon was not out of the woods yet, because any citizen can make an anonymous complaint to another body, regulatory body in New York, which is the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, not to be confused with the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics. The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct that was established by the New York House in 1978 regulates all things judges. It's

not where you go for an advisory opinion. It's where you go to try to get a judge removed, bounced, censured, sanctioned, disbenched. I don't think it's called disbarred. That's for when a lawyer loses his bar license, taken off the bench, reassigned and the like. You got to complain about that. You go to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Somebody did. Somebody dropped a dime on Judge Mershon and argued that his $35 worth of donations that were already disclosed by Judge Mershon, already the subject of a clean bill of health and an advisory opinion from the advisory committee still constituted reprimandable conduct that should be punished by the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct. Now, let me just give you, before I tell you the good news, which is there was no censure

of Judge Mershon, although he did get a cautionary warning. I'll tell you about that in a minute to put it in context. In the last year alone, in 2024 annual report alone that just came out, there were 3,000 complaints made to the New York State Commission about judges. 3,000. That was up 22% from the year before. How did they handle those 3,000 complaints and investigations related to it? Okay. Four judges got removed. Nine judges got reassigned. Two judges got censured. That's a public reprimand, usually by a court. And two got admonished, which is slightly less than a censure,

but more than a cautionary warning. 65 judges got cautionary letters, one of which was Judge Marchand, about this $35 issue. Why? Because in the previous year, 2022, 2023, the same New York State Commission gave their opinion, which is binding, that judges should not make political donations, even though they are creatures of politics. We have elected judges in New York. They wanted a little bit of a, they didn't want to put all the judges in glass houses. And so they wanted them to refrain from making donations. And so they basically told the judges, don't make donations. Have you heard of cancer fighting foods? Well, the American Cancer Society discovered that diets rich in fruits and veggies

may actually lower, lower your risk of cancer. Hopefully you hear this and run to the store for five servings of fruits and vegetables every single day. If not, you should consider adding field of greens to your daily health regimen. Each fruit and veggie in field of greens was doctor selected for studied health benefits. There's a heart health group, lungs, kidneys, and metabolism groups, even healthy weight. What your

body needs in each scoop is a scoop of delicious field of greens. Will field of greens prevent, treat, or cure cancer? Nope, but it's powerful. It promises that your next checkup, your doctor will notice your improved health or your money back. I got you. I got you this. 15% off and free rush shipping. So visit fieldofgreens.com

and use our promo code MIDAS for your discount. Try it. That's promo code MIDAS, M-E-I-D-A-S at fieldofgreens.com. That's fieldofgreens.com. Use that promo code MIDAS. Get that 15% off and tell me what you think. But when they did the investigation, they found that there were thousands of judges who had made donations. But there was then their small subset of judges like Judge Mershon, who made what we call a de minimis amount, a very small amount of donations. I mean, literally, it was $35 to ActBlue, $15 of which went to Biden, $10 and $10 went to other Democratic causes.

By the way, I'm sure his daughter asked him to make the donation. Just supporting a daughter. That's what fathers do. But, you know, some citizen, MAGA Red, I'm sure, dropped a dime at Judge Marchand. So he got caught up in the 3,000 total complaints that were made, but he wasn't one of the four judges reassigned, nine, four judges removed from office, nine reassigned, two censured, two admonished. I'm starting to sound like the 12 days of Christmas. He was part of the 65 who got cautionary letters, which just means he was warned. And apparently

this now came out in July, but we're just hearing about it now. And that's just the way these things happen because cautionary letters are not public. Everything else that I mentioned, the reassignment, the removal, the censure, and the admonition is all public. It's part of the public record and file of the judge, and it's done publicly, but not the warning letters. Those are private. Those are confidential, unless they're made public by the person who got them. In this case, Judge Rashawn on his own, even though he didn't have to, revealed that there was an investigation about his $35, and on the $35, they told the judge basically, don't do it again. The reason the cautionary becomes important is because if there's another charge against Mershon about something else, they could use the fact that he's got a little bit of a disciplinary history about the $35.

They could use it as part of his sanction history or his cautionary letter history. So it's not nothing. I don't want to blow smoke or sunshine. I don't want to say, well, it's nothing. I wouldn't even call it a rap on the knuckles. I mean, it's just a, you know, let me make this comparison. You're driving down the highway. You're obviously going over the speed limit. It happens. A police officer, state trooper, pulls you over. And rather than giving you a ticket for the, maybe you were two miles over the speed limit, the judge checks out your driving record, sees you got your insurance card, you haven't been a menace to society, and the judge gives you a warning. It's not really part of your record or your driving record. It could be part of your driving record, but that's

it. And you drive away and you're relatively happy about it because you didn't get the ticket with the points. Same kind of thing here with Judge Marchand. I mean, that's the best way for me to explain it. And what I also think this hot take points out is the ethics and the integrity of, and the gravitas of Judge Mershon. It's what we've seen on display in the trial that he's presiding over, a very difficult trial he's presiding over, not because it's complex, but because he's got Donald Trump acting out without self-restraint inside and outside the courtroom. He's got the First Amendment social media issues. He's got the circus outside his courtroom and sometimes inside his courtroom.

He's got witnesses like Michael Cohen who testify. He's got a lot going on and he's doing a very good job. He's got his firm hand on the till, right on the tiller. He's piloting this ship well through choppy waters. And this shows his integrity. He could have hidden from the public view about this, but he didn't. He came out and said, there was a complaint about my $35 contribution, and I got a cautionary letter from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. End of story. This is the same person, Judge Breshawn, who showed the integrity and the gravitas and

the cojones to go and file his own request for advice from the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics and get a clean bill of health about his relationship with his daughter, his daughter's relationship with her business, and the $35, back to the $35. That's what we call a judge who can be respected. The opposite of a corrupt judge as he's being attacked mercilessly along with his daughter by MAGA right. So we talk about it right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Follow me, Michael Popock, all things social media at MS Popock, and then go over to the Midas Touch YouTube channel, free subscribe and help them get the 3 million free subscribers. Seriously, we're building this network together with our bare hands.

Just you, me, and all the content providers and the brothers. That's what we're doing. Help them get the 3 million free, yep, free subscribers before the November election. And then you can go over to playlists or contributors on the Midas Touch YouTube channel and find me, Michael Popak, and my entire body of work when I'm in my home office, my office office, or on the road like today. So until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, this is Michael Popock reporting. Hearie hearie, 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.