Loading summary
Transcript24 lines
- [00:02]
Michael Popak
Are you stuck staring at your W2? Are tax refund worries holding you back? You probably have FOMO the fear of messing up the fix using TurboTax on Intuit credit Karma. They find every credit and deduction to help you get every refund dollar you deserve or your money back. It's time to overcome your fear of messing up and get your taxes done right. Start filing today in the Credit Karma app. Jackson Hewitt has a great tax prep deal. $149 or less. Missing out is like ignoring the check engine light in your car. You'll regret it. Seriously, the price is only $149 or less no matter how complicated. So don't wait. Like when you get a password expires
- [00:44]
Various Guests and Contributors
today alert or you're shopping online and
- [00:46]
Michael Popak
there's only one item left. It's like your taxes are in the cart. Just complete the purchase. Hurry. This deal for 149 or less is like your phone at 1%. It's about to power down. Limited time offer for new clients on federal returns. Participating locations only turns@jacksonhuit.com 149 As a contractor, I don't pay for materials I don't use, so why would I pay for stuff I don't need in my mobile plan? That's why my biz plan from Verizon Business is so perfect. Now I can choose exactly what I want and I only pay for what I need right now with my biz plan. Get our best price as low as $25 a line. Visit verizon.combusiness to get started today. New lines only. Price per month with five plus lines Includes auto pay and paper free billing and promotional discounts, taxes, fees, economic adjustment charge applicable Add ons prices and terms apply. Guarantee applies to base monthly rate and stated discounts only. Add on prices Additional offers in March
- [01:29]
Various Guests and Contributors
31, 2026 Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments when the killer's identity is about to be revealed during that perfect meditation flow on Amazon Music we believe in keeping you in the moment. That's why we've got millions of ad free podcast episodes so you can stay completely immersed in every story, every reveal, every breath. Download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcasts ad free included with with Prime. My name is Mackenzie and I started a GoFundMe for the adoptive mother of a non verbal autistic child. The mother had lost her job because she wasn't able to find adequate care for this autistic child so she really needed some help with living expenses, paying some back bills. So I launched a GoFundMe to help support them during this crisis. And we raised about $10,000 within just a couple of months. I think that the surprising thing was by telling a clear story and just
- [02:42]
Michael Popak
like really being very clear about what we needed, we had some really generous
- [02:46]
Various Guests and Contributors
donations from people who were really moved by the situation that this family was struggling with. GoFundMe is the world's number one fundraising platform, trusted by over 200 million people. Start, start your GoFundMe today at gofundme.com that's gofundme.com gofundme.com this podcast is supported by GoFundMe.
- [03:05]
Michael Popak
Welcome to the Legal AF podcast. Don't adjust that dial. I am Michael Popak. I'm sitting in the, I guess the driver's seat because my longtime podcast partner, founder and Midas touch collaborator Ben Meiselas is right with his family and he covered for me when I was on a Disney cruise recently with my family. So of course I, I wouldn't hesitate. So Poock's riding solo today. We've got a lot to talk about tonight at the intersection of law and politics. Robert Mueller iii, his death and what it means and Donald Trump's depraved reaction to it. I'm going to talk about what's happening in Iran, particularly that it's not Donald Trump's war to end, it's Iran's war to end. And the war will be over when Iran says it's over. And they've already figured out that very, very cheaply using, you know, $2,000, $500 drones, they're able to go toe to toe with America and its allies. And they have their own list of demands. So both sides can't be winning the war. I'll talk about Iran, what it means for the Trump presidency and of course, for our economy. Pam Bondi went down to the halls of Congress and had an unhinged press briefing to try to distract attention and to try to get support from Republicans to withdraw their subpoena, forcing her to testify under oath behind a closed door, but under oath about the Epstein scandal and the COVID up of the Epstein scandal. Her press conference or briefing devolved into name calling and misogynistic and racist comments by the Kentucky white guy that runs the House Oversight Committee, James Comer, in which he took a shot at Representative Summer Lee. And the Democrats walked out demanding that Comer and the Republicans and Pam Mondi reinforced that she is going to appear and answer questions under oath. To the Senate, to the House Oversight Committee, got a new ruling against the Trump administration and its attempt to replace the credentials of American media, take away the credentials of American media that cover the Pentagon and all things Department of Defense, criminalize journalists asking questions and replace them with right wing MAGA influencers like Laurel Loomer and Mike Lindell, the pillow guy, and Matt Gaetz, who's been accused of sexual abuse. Yes, there's been a parade of legitimate journalists that have turned in their credentials. And the question based on this lawsuit brought by the New York Times is, is the, is the Trump administration going to be able to just block journalists from covering the Pentagon, both in the briefing room and in the halls of the Pentagon and knocking on doors and doing all the things the Fourth Estate do to hold the government accountable? And Judge Friedman, senior status judge in D.C. appointed by Bill Clinton of all people, had something to say about it. With a final judgment today, we've got a new lawsuit brought by the at least two FBI agents who were part of operation or investigation Arctic frost into the 2020 election interference who worked under Jack Smith, the special counsel. They were summarily fired by the FBI director, Cash Patel, and ultimately by Pam Bondi. And they want their job back because it violates their First Amendment rights, their Fifth Amendment rights. It violates the FBI procedure. And I was fortunate enough to have Liz Tulis, the lawyer that is representing these FBI agents, on with me. And you'll hear from Liz later today and then I'll do a quick briefing about a tremendously important oral argument that's going to be up tomorrow, sorry, Monday with the United States Supreme Court. It has to do with what is the definition of election day and whether mail in ballots or absentee ballots that are postmarked as of election day, meaning the person voted on election day but are received after election day are going to be counted or not. It's important, it's important to having open and fair elections. Donald Trump wants to shut the ballot box on the election day. In the Constitution, however, states who regulate federal elections have always allowed as long as you're, you're postmarked day of election that you've, you have effectively voted. It's just a matter of getting it in to the respective ballot box. And that's going to be up at the Supreme Court on Monday. We'll have it as a live stream on Legal AF YouTube channel. Thanks for being here. Thanks for being such tremendous supporters. We're sick. We're going on six years with Legal af the podcast Ben and I founded it six years ago. It started out as a Legal roundup. It was really just Ben and me screaming at our laptops with no proper equipment. I was in a closet of my. My apartment in New York. I had pandemic hair, no beard. I have no beard. Again, Ben. Ben knows I joke about this. Ben looked so young that it looked like I had taken my son to work that day. And we got a few views. We had some friends and family that bailed us out. A couple hundred views here and there. And suddenly, once we changed over to Legal af, we were the just doing a little bit of origin story. We were the Wednesday night edition of the Midas Touch podcast, where Ben and I would just come on and do our thing in lieu of the brothers. And then we became Legal af. And then some people have been here from like the very, very beginning and they know this story that begat a lot of other things. The Wednesday night edition turned into Midweek with Karen Freeman, Igniflo and me that Begat the Legal AF YouTube channel, which has been up and running now for a year and a half, which we have over a million subscribers, which begat the Legal AF sub stack. Sounds very biblical, which also has a tremendous amount of support. And. And we're here for it because you're here for it. Right. It's this. What we've learned over the last six years, especially over the last three years, is that we need to grow as a community, as a media entity to meet the moment. Yeah. We're up against billionaires and trillionaires who control the viewpoint of the people that are. That are. That you're watching. 16. You know, CBS has completely destroyed its news legacy. You can't trust 60 minutes in the hands of the Ellison family, who own Oracle or Barry Weiss, its new MAGA executive editor. They just shuttered 100-year-old CBS News Radio, putting, you know, 700 stations out of commission. A lot of millions of people get their news or had gotten their news from CBS News Radio, gone overnight. Hundreds and hundreds of journalists fired. You know, and so when we have that, you have to. You have to contrast that with independent media like Legal af, like Midas Touch, and growing to meet the moment and getting the resources to do that will never change our viewpoint. No one will ever tell me the brothers or anybody else will what I'm. What I'm going to say. I've been on this for six years. A several thousand videos, billions of views. Not one of my videos has ever been edited against my will or cancelled or, or you know, kind of on the cutting room floor. I've never gotten a phone call from the brothers or anybody about my editorial viewpoint. And if that ever happened, frankly, I wouldn't be on the network or probably on the channel. And that is a commitment we make every day, every hour to you here on Midas, whether it's a Ben video or a Popoc video or one of our other amazing contributors, or over on Legal af, where we do a dozen videos a day. But size matters. And I'm trying to continue to grow and bring in new voices and new channels to affiliate with Legal af. Ben and his brothers are doing the same thing on Midas, but it starts with you. You are the building block. And just. It gives us. We well up with so much pride and so much gratitude about our audience and being here with us. So listen, as we're watching the axe fall and every major corporate media institution, you know, be put through the wood chipper, I think it's important to recognize what, what we're doing here, which is why I laughed out loud when Donald Trump put up earlier in the week this social media post about how he's changed the media landscape. You know, what's missing from that, and it's a compliment to what we're doing here. Midas, touch, Legal af, they're not on there. That's where people are getting their news from. That it's not. It's not. He. He's destroying the thing. Nobody's even watching anymore, you know? Yeah, I feel bad for the journalists that are having to look for new outlets, hopefully many of them coming over to Midas and Legal AF, but that's not where it's at. That's very 2016, if you know what I mean. You know, when I'm doing reporting and commentary, and I'll tell you what makes my day, besides meeting audience members, and I've met dozens and dozens, probably hundreds of audience members on the streets of wherever I've been. But when one of the people that we're. That we're talking about, like a judge or a congressperson, reveals that they are. I don't call them fans, but they are avid followers of what we do. I mean, I just, I just, it. I get giddy. You know, I. We just put up on Legal AF, YouTube, an amazing series, Speak up for justice, where in the most recent episode, that's up on our live tab, we had six current federal judges talk about violence and violent rhetoric against them and how they're speaking out. Not where they're just wearing the robe and writing opinions or saying things out loud in hearings or oral arguments, but they're in interviews. This is the weird thing, this is the new thing, the courageous thing that they are speaking up and speaking out on legal AF and in other places. And somebody that I admire among hundreds of federal district court judges and appellate court judges that are our constitutional soldiers, the foot soldiers of our Constitution, protecting our constitutional republic and our way of life is Anna Reyes, a judge in the District of Columbia, a federal judge. And we've reported on many, many of her rulings rebuking the Trump administration's violations of the Constitution, many of them that we have, that we've just found so brilliant and so necessary and important to uphold the rule of law. So we're her so, you know, I fanboy out over Judge Reyes. It was nice, it was nice to hear through the grapevine that she, she's a watcher of legal AF and had some very kind things to say about the work that we do over there during her recent appearance on our channel. Same thing for Representative Summer Lee. We're going to talk about her when I get to the Pam Bondi story. And yeah, it's not appropriate for anybody, let alone a Kentucky white guy MAGA leader to even use the B word about a proud black woman who's also the first black representative from Pennsylvania in the House, Summer Lee. And to use the term bitching against her. And I did a hot take about what went down that day and lo and behold, and Midas caught it. Summer Lee, Representative Lee saw the video, liked the video and made a comment about it. We'll talk about it when we get there. But those are those little moments, you know, meeting people that are in our audience, knowing that these people who I consider to be titans are also respectful of what we do here. It just makes it, of course, all worthwhile. Let me turn to Robert Mueller first. As we came on the air, we all learned of his passing, succumbing to Parkinson's disease at the age of 81. You know, my mom, as people know, in May died of frontal lobe dementia. So kind of a special, special place there. But Robert Mulligan Mueller, for people that don't know who he is, or as his FBI colleagues affectionately called him, Bobby Three Sticks because he was Robert Mueller III was a titan. And he completely reformed and rehabilitated the FBI in the wake of the 911 attacks, spent 12 years revamping it from top to bottom. He was no nonsense drill sergeant. He's a former Marine. His word was law within the halls of the Hoover Building. But he gives me confidence, the fact that he was able to accomplish what he accomplished at the FBI. He gave me confidence that when Cash Patel and Pam Bondi's era is mercifully over, that a titan, a respected leader appointed by a Democratic president, will be able to revamp and reconstitute the legacy of the FBI. All we have to do is look at Robert Mueller. Two things that Donald Trump has said, bookend everything you need to know about Robert Mueller. When Robert Mueller was appointed by Donald Trump's own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, just days after Donald Trump fired James Comey, the then FBI director, and the question was, did Donald Trump just obstruct justice by firing his FBI director who was investigating those around Donald Trump to determine whether Donald Trump benefited from Russian interference in the 2016 election, whether he colluded with them, coordinated with them, or just benefited from them or what? And when the FBI director was fired, I think Jeff Sessions realized he had no choice but to appoint an independent special counsel. When Donald Trump heard it was Robert Mueller or Mueller, he declared, and this is according to people in the room, he gasped and said that was a terrible development and that it would mean the end of his presidency. Obviously, Donald Trump knew more about, you know, what skeletons were hidden in the closet than anybody else at that moment. That's what he said when Robert Mueller was appointed in that period. And what did he say today when Mueller died and the report of him dying as everybody celebrated his legacy, Donald Trump said, I'm glad he's dead. Good. There it is. He can no longer hurt innocent people. President Donald J. Trump. What a disgusting, immoral and depraved thing for our felon in chief to declare against the memory of his special counsel, who Donald Trump was quick to say that Mueller had cleared him of crimes after he issued his 300 page report. What they ultimately found is that while Donald Trump and his campaign benefited from the Russians and actually wanted the Russians to help take down Hillary Clinton, that they didn't find the nexus or the link between people in Donald Trump's orbit directly and the Russians to show direct collaboration or collusion to support that particular crime. But that's not the same thing as saying that Trump didn't want the Russians to help him. And that's what Mueller said. Just to remind everybody, here's Donald Trump in 2016 begging the Russians to help him take down Hillary Clinton. Let's play the clip. Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let's see if that happens. That'll be next. Yes, sir. So that was our president. And right after that, the hackers, as the special counsel's report noted, the hackers went after Hillary Clinton's email. Robert Mueller, who later, when he testified and was brought back to Congress to between, between our audience and me, I think he had the beginnings of Parkinson's. Then he had some difficulty answering some questions. His memory and recall didn't seem to be greatest. But early on, when he gave his report and answered questions about whether he had cleared Donald Trump, as Donald Trump had declared, this is what he had to say. And what about total exoneration? Did you actually totally exonerate the president? No. Now, in fact, your reports expressly states that it does not exonerate the president.
- [21:09]
Various Guests and Contributors
It does.
- [21:10]
Michael Popak
And your investigation actually found, quote, multiple acts by the president that were capable of exerting undue influence over law enforcement investigations, including the Russian interference and obstruction investigations, is that that correct? Correct. Right. Robert Mueller was a Republican, grew up on the Eastern seaboard from a wealthy family, you know, sort of a Kennedy family type background, went to Princeton and then the Marines serving his nation, FBI, FBI director for 12 years. He was the perfect person for the job. He made some mistakes, I think, at the end in turning it back over to what was that became, I think, Donald Trump's third or fourth attorney general, General Bill Barr, and said, listen, as he said in that clip, there are places you can go with this in terms of investigation and you should, but my job is done. Of course, Barr couldn't wait to head for the exits and wasn't certainly going to continue to go after Donald Trump or those in his orbit. Now, Mueller was able to successfully convict Paul Manafort, one of Donald Trump's campaign managers, the first time around. Lieutenant General Michael Flynn and and others in, you know, that got that also were convicted. Of course, Donald Trump immediately, immediately, as soon as he got back into office, pardoned all of these people as a sort of a payback to Mueller. But the reason I'm spending so much time about somebody who's passed is that I wanted to demonstrate to Americans and to those that watch us around the world that we do have. Politicians and prosecutors and special counsel and people who are just titans and are respected patriots and constitutional scholars that still exist in America and will rise again and will be in charge of the very institutions that Donald Trump has tried to hollow out and destroy and leave in ribbons at Our feet, they will come back. It'll take time. It may take two terms and the right person, but we will be able to recover from the destruction that Donald Trump has wreaked on America's institutions in just his first 15 months, let alone the full four years. The midterms will be important towards that because that will hem in Donald Trump and make him the lamest of lame duck presidents and oversight hearings and impeachment hearings can begin in earnest when the Democrats get the gavel into 2028 and 2029 as well. So that is where learning about this information, joining us here on Legal if is step one. Step two is putting this knowledge to, to action in helping register people for voting, making sure you're registered to vote properly first, campaigning for people up and down the ticket that are not maga, that are blue and Democrats. That's another thing to do between now and the midterms. You know, continue to harass and harangue in a good way, you know, good trouble your local officials, even at the local state level and federal level. These are all the important ways, not just passively. This is, this is a contact sport, participatory democracy. Right? We don't have the luxury any longer of being on the sidelines. We got to get into the game and these are the ways to do it. Let me talk about Iran, because as a backdrop to all things law and politics, it's so important. Donald Trump tells the American people that he's going to declare when or if America wins the war. It could be weeks, it could be months, it'll be on his terms. That's a lie. The Iranians believe, based on intel, that they are winning the war. Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter. It certainly animates them and motivates them to continue to go toe to toe with America as a superpower and 20 or 30 of its allies, including Arab allies. And they can do it very cheaply and economically. For every multi billion dollar million bomb missile system ammo that America, Israel or its other allies are using, Iran is striking fear into the hearts of oil traders and others with, you know, $500 and $5,000 drones. So you do the math. You know, $1 billion bunker buster gets dropped in the Strait of Hormuz. And the retaliation is a relatively cheap series of drones hitting sites within the Arab world that are allies of the United States. From the United Arab Emirates to the Saudi Arabia to, to Dubai to Kuwait to Qatar, they're all getting nailed with drones and oil and gas infrastructure being nailed. Here's a prime example. Iran didn't like the fact that Israel bombed their oil infrastructure, so they bombed Kuwait's natural gas infrastructure, eliminating 17% of world capacity overnight. And it won't be brought up back online in three to five years. They are controlling the Straits of Hormuz. And I don't care if Donald Trump sends the entirety of the US Navy along with 20 of its allies. They are not easily going to be able to unblockade the Strait of Hormuz. And the goal for Iran is different than Donald Trump's goals, which are ever shifting. Oh, destroy their navy. Oh, get rid of their missiles. He's fumbling around in the dark looking for the exit. Whereas the Iranians, as insane as they are, are also hard nosed and they're willing to suffer tremendous loss to their people, to their infrastructure, to their society in order to ultimately prevail. For them, It's a generational 100 year war. They want to control the Strait of Hormuz forever. They want to set up a toll booth and they decide what comes and goes out of it. They want to control Middle Eastern oil and energy for generations. They want reparations. Think about that. We're spending hundreds of billions. It'll be up to a trillion dollars to try to defeat Iran, whatever that means. And they're going to want it back in war. Reparations to pay for the rebuilding of Iran. I mean, they've already hit them 20,000 times. Think of the cost, literally think of the destruction on Iran. They want that paid back as well. So it's not Donald Trump saying, okay, I'm done, this war is over when Iran says the war is over. And that is the problem. That's why people like Tulsi Gabbard, who currently heads our National Intelligence Directorate, never wanted to go to war with Iran. In fact, when she was campaigning to be president, she would constantly say and wanted everybody to declare on the stage during a debate, going to war with Iran is a fool's errand and will suck the world into World War Three. I don't agree with Tulsi Gabbard on really anything, but she was right about that. And what we're watching is oil prices, which are stubbornly now well above 100 $910 a barrel for what they call Brent crude oil, which is one measure of, of, of oil capacity in the world. But in some parts, including in Asia, it's hitting $200 a barrel. Economists say that if oil stays at $138 a barrel or more, For a month. We got a US recession and the Arab world is predicting 190 to $200 a barrel of oil. So you do the math. The impact on the economy. An economy that has not yet recovered from Donald Trump's own devastating fiscal policy from the tariffs and the trade war. All right. This is a jobless economy. We just heard Jay Powell, the. Yes. The Federal Reserve chairperson. We'll talk about him in a moment. Declare that in the six months of the Trump administration not one job got made. 000 Joe Biden 400,000 to 500,000 jobs a month every month while he was in office to zero. Consumer wholesale. Consumer prices way up. No jobs. Inflation 3.3 or percent or higher. Higher on groceries. Now add in gas prices $4, $5, $6, $7 a gallon before it's all said and done. You think you've suffered. You know, Donald Trump's like, you'll have to. Everybody will have to suck it up. You know, you're just idiots. You're losers if you don't want to pay more in gas to defeat Iran. Gas has gone up every day. Every day in the three weeks since Donald Trump started Iran. The Iran war. Every day. And it's not even where it's going to end up. So think about that as Donald Trump effectively cut the fuel line between Middle Eastern oil and oil and gas all around the world and the US Economy. What the impact of that is going to be as we come in to the final months leading into the midterm election. So we always have to talk about the Iran war. Venezuelan war. You got a hearing coming up with Maduro in New York coming up this week because of its impact on American policy and politics as Donald Trump tries to bomb his way to popularity much like Richard Nixon. Footnote. It didn't work for Nixon either. People realized he was a terrible, criminal, corrupt president and he had to resign. And he would have lost if he hadn't resigned. Sound familiar? I mean, James Carville, the great Democratic strategist. Some people who don't really know who he is and he's got that folksy way about him. They're like, who is this guy? That's one of the major reasons that Bill Clinton became president of the United States twice. And he said he thinks if there's this wipeout of the Republicans making it no fun anymore to be president. If the House and the Senate turn to the Democrats, then Donald Trump will resign. You know, whether that's true or not, the fact that we're even talking about that Even talking about Donald Trump's resignation or the 25th Amendment, taking him out because he's incapacitated shows you where he's at with the electorate. The fact that that even has mileage and resonance. And we're going to cover that and so much more. We come back in the second half of the show. We're going to talk about this new Pentagon ruling which puts back in legitimate media to cover and to expose the Department of Defense and Donald Trump during time of war. A new ruling involving Judge Boasberg and Jay Powell at a kind of an alignment of stars and planets that I've never seen before, where the chief judge of the Supreme Court, the chief judge of the federal court in D.C. and the federal Reserve chairperson chairman all came out swinging against Donald Trump in the same 48 hour block. This but this is where we are as a society. Also FBI agents fighting back against their firing for doing nothing more than doing their job. And you're if you just kind of wandered in, you're on the Legal AF podcast. I'm Michael Popak. No Ben by Salas. Today I'm doing I'm riding solo so Ben can enjoy his family and family time, which of course he deserves, as we all do many ways to support what we do on the in the Legal AF universe. You're here on the podcast so we have audio versions. So I think by now people know we're on YouTube and on audio, but some people only think we exist on one. If you watch us, great. Come over and listen to us on Apple and Spotify. Leave 5 star reviews and comments. It helps the rankings and the algorithms and keeps us in the top of the charts in both places. And if you listen to us, come over to YouTube and watch us. If you always wonder what Ben look like, here's your opportunity. Then we've got the Legal AF YouTube channel, which I've built, I curate, I'm the executive editor for we have 12 new videos every day, usually four of mine to start the day. And then we bring in people like Adam Klassfeldt of All Rise News, Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wallentz, our resident historians. On Court of History. We've got Court Accountability Action. Dina Doll is over there with me on a podcast we call Unprecedented. We've got It's Complicated, another podcast. Just an amazing group of people and all they want to do when they get up in the morning, from the time they brush their teeth to the time they go to bed at night, is to make some sort of content that you'll find interesting and informative at the intersection of law and politics. We also become a member. You can become a paid member. That's what keeps editors like I have tonight getting paid and keeps us on the air. This is how we fight back. And then we've got Legal AF Substack, Whole Nother Community which which I also curate. We have about nine or ten pieces of content there, including the actual court filings that we use for our hot takes. I do two lives a day over there. There's just a velocity at legalaf substack that can't be matched even on our YouTube channel so that these are the ways to become card carrying members of the Legal AF community. And then we've got our sponsors here for the podcast, some of which have been with us since the very beginning, some of which are new. All have been curated and located by Jordy Meisellis, one of the brothers that you guys all know and love and me here. So and let's take a break for a word from our sponsors. This is something I wish more people talked about sooner and it runs in my family. High blood pressure. It doesn't always feel urgent, but it affects half of all adults and it's the number one risk factor for mortality. It doesn't hurt, it doesn't warn you. It just quietly builds over time. By March New Year, momentum fades, Life gets busy. But blood pressure doesn't take a season off. That's why I've been learning about 120 life, a once a day functional drink made with ingredients that helps support healthy blood pressure. It's not a pill to not a stimulant and not some trendy wellness gimmick. It tastes great, it's refreshing, and it's made from a blend of super fruit juices with a powdered version that has just one gram of sugar. This isn't guesswork. Grab a home blood pressure monitor, drink 120 life daily and check your numbers. Many people see improvement in as little as two weeks. Go to 120life.com that's 120-life.com and use my code legalif for 20% off. Try it risk free for two weeks. If your blood pressure doesn't come down to you, get a full refund. Go to 120life.com and use the code legal. I have to save 20%. Don't wait until next month. Nothing to lose except high blood pressure numbers. Go to 120life.com and use my code legalif for 20% off. These statements have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Oh, I can't contain myself. I'm excited to tell you about the world's number one expanding garden hose and their brand new product, the pocket hose Ballistic. I used to have to buy a new hose like every year due to kinks and tangles, but the pocket hose ballistic is the upgrade I've been looking for my entire life. It's the toughest pocket hose ever built. Reinforced with a liquid crystal polymer used in bulletproof vests, Pocket hose is the number one expandable hose in the world. It's super lightweight, easy to manage, easy to store. Turn the water on and it grows. Turn the water off and it shrinks back to pocket size. And the pocket hose ballistic is reinforced with that liquid crystal polymer that is used in bulletproof vest, making the anti burst sleeve practically bulletproof. And that liquid crystal polymer fiber is actually five times stronger than steel. And now for a limited time, when you purchase a new pocket hose ballistic, you'll get a free 360 degree rear rotating pocket pivot and a free thumb drive nozzle. Just text legal L E g a l to 64,000. That's legal to 64,000 for your two free gifts with purchase. Text legal to 64,000 where message and data rates may apply. Welcome back and thank you to our pro democracy sponsors and all that support us. Pam Bondi once again, the Epstein scandal, the COVID up of the COVID up of the Epstein scandal. Donald Trump's relationship to it, those in his inner circles relationship to it. Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein scandal and documents is back on the front pages again mainly because of her. You know, she's inept. I've, I've called her the kindest thing I could think to call her is just a crash test dummy that's running the Attorney General's office. She's a political hack. She's an admitted political hack who has no interest in being an independent chief law enforcement officer in America that can be trusted. She's just an arm of the Trump campaign. You see it whenever she appears before the House or the Senate. You'll see it again now that James Comer, who is the Oversight committee chair has issued a subpoena probably because of a failure by Pam Bondi to negotiate to give her testimony. He's brought her in. He's going to bring her in. In April. We related to the Epstein scandal and what is the federal government's role in it, including under her watch. Can't Keep pointing to, well, why didn't Biden do it and why didn't Obama do it? You know, like, okay, well, why didn't you do it when, when the law says you had to, including revealing the documents that implicate thousands of people. I mean, you have 1200 victims and survivors. One of them, as we know, full disclosure, is a client of mine, Lisa Phillips. How do you, they didn't victimize themselves. You know, where are the perpetrators? Where are the predators? Europe and the rest of the world is woken up. 40 or 50 people have lost their jobs or their royal titles over it. Where are the predators in the United States? And why aren't they, why is the FBI going after them? You know, why is there a press conference announcing that they're opening up investigations? And if it ties back to Donald Trump, then just appoint a special counsel, Pam Bondi, and just get out of it. Because that is what the Department of Justice and the statute says, the Department of Justice manual and the statute says about a special counsel. When you have a conflict of interest, where there's an appearance to the public of impropriety or of a conflict, you appoint a special counsel. And that's what they should do. If Donald Trump really wants to be exonerated and cleared by a special counsel now related to Epstein, now would be the time. So she didn't like the subpoena. So she and I guess Todd Blanche, her number two and probably Donald Trump said, why don't you go down and do some and give a voluntary briefing about the Epstein files and maybe you won't have to go in under, under oath and do it behind closed doors, no less. So she, you know, Mr. And Mrs. Smith, you know this, you know, Bondi and Blanche head down to Capitol Hill and the House Democrats weren't having any of it, calling it a farce, calling it not an appropriate substitute for her sworn testimony under oath and cross examination, trying to get her to commit to testifying and that she wasn't down there trying to get out from under it. Let me show you a clip of her and Blanche basically admitting that mistakes were made in the Epstein rollout, but again, trying to diffuse any kind of any kind of attack on her or again, she wants to get out of having to come down and give her testimony in April. Let's play the clip.
- [42:21]
Various Guests and Contributors
I think it was less than 1% error. Todd, do you want to add to that?
- [42:25]
Michael Popak
Yeah, no, that's right. We said beginning that that any mistakes that were made and there should be no mistakes. And so when you Say lawyers have said something. That's a, that's not a fair question, and you know it. Because we took pains to make, to protect victims when we were ident. When someone identified that there was a victim, we immediately pulled that document down, fixed it, and put it back up immediately. Immediately. And so, so of course, we don't ever want to do anything to, to revict, victimize anybody that was victimized by the horrible crimes of Mr. Epstein. But, but, and we didn't. And we didn't to the extent that mistakes were made. And there were mistakes made because of the reasons the Attorney Attorney General just said, but when they were identified to us, we fixed them immediately. I am so tired of watching people in the Trump administration attack the media for doing their job and asking questions. Putting aside Don Lemon at Georgia Ford in Minnesota, who are still subject to these manufacturer criminal charges for reporting about a peaceful protest or trying to. We'll get to the story in a moment. In the Pentagon, trying to criminalize journalists asking questions, which is what they're supposed to be doing. I'm so tired of watching senior leadership in the Trump administration, including Donald Trump, go after the media with, cut it out. And that's not a fair question. And I mean, you are not there, check the name on the door. You are not there to debate with the media or try to, just to distract or divert attention from their question by making it personal about them, okay? You're there on the taxpayer's dime to give honest service as a public servant and stand there and answer the questions. And if you can't deliver that, if you can't do that as part of your job, then leave, then resign in disgrace, like people are starting to do around the Trump administration. So the Democrats showed up at this thing and looked around and said, what is this supposed to be? This is a briefing in some sort of marble hallway here, you know? And then James Comer, who obviously has a 10 year, among other problems, he decides that he's going to attack Representative Summer Lee, who's from a district that covers Pittsburgh and is the first black representative out of Pennsylvania, and say to her, first of all, first, talk about a misogynist. He starts trying to lecture her about, well, what do you want? You want us to put chairs around in a circle? Will that, will that satisfy you? I'm like, is this really happening? Make it stop. And then he used the B word against her, which is, there's so. On so many different levels, is completely inappropriate. You know, stop your bitching. And some people, I, I I did a video about the Democrats walking out on this after Pam Bondi refused to commit recommit to complying with the subpoena. And now there's talk that some Republicans are, Are in favor of withdrawing the subpoena. Subpoena, like, because they don't like the way Pam Bondi was treated. What about the way Summer Lee was treated? So I did a video about it and I said, look, I know some people are like, well, when did bitching become the same thing as calling somebody a bitch? I'm like, okay, maybe if you're on the receiving end of it and the person that's saying it is some guy from white guy from Kentucky and you're a black representative and you receive it that way, maybe we should defer to the person who's got the comment hurled at them rather than what you. In the, in the comfort of your, your living room or wherever you're, wherever you're watching the show. Whatever. Whatever you think. I, I took it that way. But more importantly, Representative Summer Lee took it that way. Here's a clip of her walking away from this briefing and how she reported what happened to her.
- [46:25]
Various Guests and Contributors
So I just walked out of a fake deposition, fake hearing with Pam Bondi where Chairman Comer called me a. So here's what actually happened. We had already subpoenaed her because she has not been in compliance with our subpoena and the Epstein Transparency act to release the full, complete, unredacted Epstein files. She has been withholding them. She has been obstructing justice since last July. And couple weeks ago, we finally got bipartisan support to subpoena her, to bring her into our casino committee to ask questions. Now, today's attempt, sham of a hearing was your attempt to bypass that. Multiple times we asked her if she would come in and she would talk to our committee on the record, under oath, in the public. She refused to do so. So instead of directing any more questions to her where she's not under oath, where she can continue to lie to us, I directed my questions to our chairman to see if he would compel her to comply with the subpoena that he signed and that he issued. He could not respond. I asked him, if she did not come, if he would hold her in contempt, move with contempt proceedings like he did with other people who he said did not comply with our subpoenas. And instead of answering this simple question with a yes, of course, he said that I was bitching and that I was wasting his time and that we didn't have to talk about the anymore. So that's where we are. That's why we are trying to move to impeach her. That's why we introduced those articles of impeachment because it is clear that she has no intention on cooperating with Congress. She has no intention on cooperating with the American people. She is not seeking justice for survivors or anyone else. She is there to run cover for Donald Trump, for his allies and for herself. And it's time that we get her out of there.
- [48:15]
Michael Popak
I mean, you can't watch that and not come away balled over and impressed by Representative Summerlee by the way she did that. I sit in a chair and do my commentary. She did that on the run in the halls of Congress from what looks to be an iPhone. And then I had a special delight because, you know, again, I've done a couple of thousand videos but to have one of the people that's the subject of the video not only indicate that they've watched it but and support it, but then comment on it back to Comber. It's just a, just a special delight. I think we have the actual posting that we'll put up. There's Summerlee commenting about it and me responding. We got your back because you have our back. She said in her posting on my video that next time you use the B word against me, it better be under oath and in a hearing room with a, with a court reporter. And I totally agree with that. And so Bondi is trying to continue to gather Republican support to avoid being removed and impeached. Of course she's troubled. You can tell by Kristi Noem being removed and fired. Donald Trump has a number, a replacement for her waiting in the wings. It's actually the guy that she keeps leaning on, Todd Blanch, the number two in the office who if Pam Bondi ever gets fired or resigned or gets a social media post by Donald Trump thanking her for her service, don't be shocked if it's Todd Blanche that steps into the role as attorney general. But these are important matters about the COVID up and, and what the Department of Justice is not doing to pursue justice in the names of the victims and their survivors because they're being directed by the president not to follow leads because I'm sure, just as I said at the top of the show about Robert Miller's passing, I'm sure he believes it could be the end of his presidency because there's just going to be, there's so much interaction between him and a convict at a indicted child sex Trafficker and a convicted child sex trafficker in Ghislaine Maxwell that even he's sitting in his 80, 80 year old dotage. He can't remember all of it and he certainly doesn't want anybody looking into it. So we'll continue to follow that story closely here on Legal af, the podcast and all in our ecosystem. Let me switch gears and talk about the Pentagon. Back in the start of the administration, Donald Trump, in making the press the enemy of the people, trying to capture mainstream media, when he couldn't do that, he would try to take away their credentials to report from the White House press briefing room or the Pentagon briefing room. And when it came to the Pentagon, they passed a whole series of new regulations about credentials that let the Pentagon decide whether a reporter posed a national security risk, banned and barred them from having any communication outside the chain of command or outside the press briefing room with anybody in the military. So no knocks on the door, no cups of coffee, no going to their house or meeting at Denny's or Starbucks. That's where the press does its best work. To be frank, The Pentagon Papers, Watergate, the coverage of the Vietnam War and all the wars. It's when some junior officer bumps into a reporter or a reporter, makes sure that they're on the playground or the park at the right moment and conversations happen. That's all been effectively criminalized and banned by the Pentagon. And Judge Friedman, who is a senior status judge we haven't talked too much about on Legal af, although we admire him, a Clinton appointee, he got the case brought by the New York Times about the First Amendment. And what Donald Trump did, if you're not already repulsed by Donald Trump, is that he took out corporate media, mainstream media, in the New York Times, the Washington Post and all of them, and he replaced them. Get ready with Laura Loomer. Yes, yes. That right wing social media crackpot who lives like in a trailer park in the Panhandle. No, no. Nothing against people in trailer parks or the Panhandle. I'm just, I'm just illustrating where she's at. Mike Lindell, the pillow guy. Okay. Tim Pool, podcaster. James o', Keefe, head of Project Veritas and who got indicted for trespassing. These are now your Pentagon press corps. Okay, so, and then, and I, and I give a lot of, I give a credit because I've always thought the press should just stand up and walk out on Carolyn Levitt, the press secretary. And even Donald Trump had turned their back on him when he, when they bash female reporters or are abusive, I just like stand up and walk out. Now, I get this is their job and they feel like they got to be in the room to hear it. But, you know, how are you going to discipline the Trump administration and make them stop abusing you if you, if you continue to show up every day for work? And the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, they walked, they, they were like, we're not signing this new credentials thing. We're not, we're not agreeing that it's criminal for a journalist to ask a question. And they walked out. And so on a final judgment, this is not this, this case is over except for the appeals. Judge Friedman ruled that the press corps, particularly the New York Times, First Amendment right, fifth Amendment rights have all been violated. That the purpose of the, of free press is at the very heart of our constitutional republic. I mean, many of the framers and founders were authors and even publishers. Benjamin Franklin, a publisher, you know, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, you know, the writers of the Federalist Papers, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote all the drafts of history and of our governing documents, you know, the power of the pen or the quill over an out of control executive branch is what our founders and framers envisioned when they put it in the first of the amendments. And so for Donald Trump to come in and say, I'm going to alter the landscape of how the press is able to cover my administration, while at the same time declaring that I'm the most openly accessible, transparent president of all time, Just because he wanders around on Air Force One and he can never stop himself, he never turns down in interaction with the press, doesn't mean that the press isn't being denied their ability to do their job and to root out corruption. This is what, this is what Judge Friedman said in his ruling about a 250 year old principle about the government not suppressing political speech. Those who drafted the First Amendment believe that the nation's security requires a free press and an informed people and that such security is endangered by governmental suppression of political speech. As the Supreme Court said 50 years ago, we have learned and continue to learn from what we view as the unhappy experiences of other nations where government has been allowed to meddle in the internal editorial affairs of newspapers. Regardless of how beneficent sounding the purpose of controlling the press might be, we remain skeptical, intensely skeptical about those measures that would allow government to insinuate itself in, into the editorial rooms of this nation's press. Especially, and certainly at time of war, it's necessary to bring sunshine as the best disinfectant as Judge Brandeis once said, especially when the country is at war and people have to either the public either has to believe in that and support it or reject it and know who they're going to vote for in the next election. And this has all been violated by Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense, and ultimately, ultimately by Donald Trump. This will go up on appeal getting Laura Loomer and. No, they can leave Laura Loomer. Oh, the other one was Matt Gaetz. So Laura Loomer, Matt Gaetz, Tim Pool and the pillow guy, they can leave them there. But of course, they have to rescind all of these regulations that criminalize journalists doing their job. So we'll follow that Pentagon ruling as it inevitably makes its way to a couple of levels of appeals. Let's talk about Jeb Boasberg, the chief judge in the Federal Court in D.C. as chief judge, he's also responsible for all things grand jury. Now, you'll know Jeb Boasberg or you'll let me remind you that Trump's had it out for Boasberg since he presided over the grand juries that ultimately indicted Donald Trump. Yeah, same guy. And he was also the guy who, the judge who got the case. You know, a couple of months into the administration, when Donald Trump tried to use the Alien Enemies act in an unconstitutional way to send 200 men to El Salvador's torture prison without due process. And he put us, he tried to put a stop to it with a series of orders that were violated. The case is called jgg, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in the JGG case after Trump violated it by continuing to ship these men there. And then later, by the way, they're not even in El Salvador. They've now been horse traded prisoners swapped with Venezuela before we went to war with Venezuela. Yeah, thanks. And after those orders were violated, this is the, this is the judge that brought two separate criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. So they have had it out for Boasberg. They tried to defund him. A representative from Texas tried to take away funding from one federal judge. That didn't work. They tried to impeach him. That didn't work. They tried to get him removed from their cases by judicial. They filed a complaint against him with the Judicial ethics Board. That didn't work. Donald Trump bashes him, including in the last day or so, saying that he's erratic, irrational. Trump Derangement Syndrome. The only person for me that's, that is suffering from Trump Derangement syndrome is Trump. But yet, you know, it's very. A lot of projection going on. Donald, oh, he's got to be removed from all of our cases. He's got a political agenda. Yeah, he doesn't. So he's the one that threw out last week Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairs. Effectively, it's criminal prosecution because he found that it was a bad faith prosecution because there was no evidence that Jerome Powell is benefiting personally from the cost overruns to remodel, you know, two buildings as part of the Federal Reserve compound in Washington. Like, where's the proof that he's putting money in his pocket? Sure, there's cost overruns. I'm sure when you start digging into a 100-year-old building where you barely have the blueprints, you're going to run into things you didn't expect. Where'd that come from? I mean, I've done construction cases before. But to claim that he's personally liable, criminally liable. Judge said, there's no evidence. And I asked the federal government to show me their evidence, and they're not even showing it to me because it doesn't exist. Now the government has come back and asked Judge Boasberg to stay his decision, arguing that he made he applied the wrong standard. In the interim, he also went out of his way to reinforce the grand juries in case after case after case. We're now talking dozens of cases. Grand juries around the nation, especially in D.C. have rejected Donald Trump's U.S. attorney's offices and their attempt to indict his political critics or his political targets over and over again in D.C. and the last straw for Boas Burke, apparently as the chief judge over all things in D.C. that are grand jury is when Trump and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney and political hack, stalwart of Donald Trump in the District of Columbia, tried to indict six members of Congress, senators and congresspeople, all in the military, formally in the military or the intelligence community, because they told the military, you cannot follow illegal, illicit, unconstitutional orders, which is consistent with the code of military justice. Trump didn't like it. Hegseth started calling them the seditious six. And then Pirro comes around and tries to prosecute them. Grand jury said, no way. And they're not going to indict sitting members of Congress for exercising their First Amendment rights of criticism. And so. And the reporting was Pirro dropped the case or isn't going to pursue the case. So now the new rule that Chief Judge Boasberg issued is that whenever a original grand jury Investigation, which is means the criminal case starts with the grand jury, not with a criminal complaint prepared by a prosecutor. Then in that case, if the grand jury doesn't return an indictment, in other words, they don't indict the person that has to be reported to the magistrate judge on duty that day. So that there's knowledge by the court system of how unsuccessful the indictments are going, which in a way reinforces the grand jury. I mean, grand juries are acting out now, much like judges against the Trump administration. It's one of the firewalls that's protecting our rule of law right now. Now, Jeanine Pirro doesn't like the fact that Boasberg has blocked her ability to investigate criminally. The Federal Reserve chair, even though, frankly, that helps Donald Trump get his new pick to be the Federal Reserve chair when the current term expires on May 15th. Get him confirmed. Guy named Kevin Warsh. That's not going to happen while the criminal case is going on against Jay Powell. Jay Powell says he's not going anywhere while the criminal case is going on. His term runs till 2028. And Tim and Thom Tillis, North Carolina senator, said he was on the banking Committee. Said, I'm not going to confirm Kevin Warsh as Donald Trump's pick unless the, unless the criminal cases is kicked. So Donald Trump has created this catch 22 where he refuses to give up on the case, and yet that means his pick won't become Federal Reserve chair. And it's all been falling on the shoulders of Jeanine Pirro, who got pissed off at the media. This is back to my point about totally inappropriate attacking the media when they asked her about, hey, how come grand juries don't like your cases? Let's play the clip. Why are grand jurors so skeptical for cases that your office has been brought.
- [63:58]
Various Guests and Contributors
Oh, cut it out. Do you know how many convictions we've got? Cut it out. You're in one lane. We have cleaned up this city. Historic, really. I'll tell you what's historic. What's historic is that I prosecute everything other than 10% of the cases where the United States Attorney before me didn't prosecute 67% of the cases. That's what's historic. I'm willing to take a not guilty. I'm willing to take a no true
- [64:24]
Michael Popak
bill because I'll take all the crimes
- [64:26]
Various Guests and Contributors
and put of men. Thank you.
- [64:30]
Michael Popak
First of all, that was such a a word salad of a response. They used to jump all over Kamala Harris for whatever her syntax I. I barely understood what she was trying to say. Sometimes when I watch Janine Pirro, I don't know if I'm watching Cecily Strong from Saturday Night Live doing her Jeanine Pirro or it's Janine Pirro. It's that uncanny of an impersonation. Except for the red wine bottle, I guess, but I have no idea what she's talking about. She. I guess she's. I prosecute 90%. The other guy did 67%. You're in a lane. And. And historic. Yeah, it is historic. The. The Department of Justice is. Is not supposed to be losing at the grand jury level. Right. Or on the judge level. And now judges are rising up. It's not just all the orders that I talk about, and I talk about a lot of them, where judges talk about what the framers wanted and the founders wanted, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington and all of that, and reminding us what the Constitution Sundays or the Declaration of Independence. They're doing it. They're doing it in the courtroom during oral arguments and hearings, where they're chastising excoriating the Department of Justice before them for violations of orders, decorum, their defiant tone or attitude. But when they're not on the bench, they are joining together in a way I've never seen in my 35 years of my legal career of sitting federal judges, meaning they're currently federal judges. They're not retired. I know retirees that are like, all right, well, I don't have to worry about it any longer. Let me speak out. But you're on the bench and you're speaking out. It's so courageous and so proud of it. We just had A group of six federal judges from California, Minnesota, Florida, and D.C. joined together in a panel discussion. It's up on Legal AF YouTube today. And here is a judge that I know well, Judge Beth Bloom, Southern District of Florida. I knew her when she was on the Miami Dade County Circuit Court. I think I had the last case in front of her before she was elevated to become a federal judge. But here's her and her comments about attacks on the federal judiciary and what sitting judges are doing about it.
- [66:48]
Various Guests and Contributors
I can't speak for all of the judges, but I know that the judges that I've had the pleasure of working with that have spoken out is there. There are two constants here. One is there's been an escalating rise in attacks on judges. Social media has certainly served as an amplifier of messages that are being made against judges. And the other is there's been a Rise in threats. And it's the time now, and thankfully it was clarified through the ethics opinion that judges are permitted to speak about illegitimate threats and attacks on the judiciary, not only those that, that occur to the individual judge, but throughout the judiciary. And I think the larger reason is the threat to our rule of law and judicial independence. And judicial independence doesn't protect the judges, it protects the public. So if the, the judges cannot ensure that their decisions are followed by that they're able to do their job without fear or favor. And judges are doing their jobs, they're courageously doing their jobs in light of these escalating attacks and threats. But if they can't do that, then the rule of law and our democracy is at risk.
- [68:16]
Michael Popak
If you ever wondered what a federal judge's chambers looks like or her office looks like now, you know, from federal Judge Beth Bloom, so important now at this moment, against great public sacrifice and risk for federal judges, even though they have lifetime appointment, you know, to be abused and doxed and attacked by Donald Trump and those around him, which have led to death threats against federal judges and their families, which are on the rise. A political rhetoric in this country, as we know, that led to, and there's, there's Judge Reyes that led to, you know, assassinations and murders across both sides of the aisle. Happens all the time. It's not right. I grew up, I missed, you know, because of my age. I missed the, the tumultuous 60s of the civil rights movement and the death of RFK, JFK, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr. And the rest. But, you know, I was a high school student and college student when Reagan was. There was an attempted assassination on Ronald Reagan, the Pope, just before that, you know, his press secretary unfortunately suffered a tremendous injury from a bullet. I'm talking about Ronald Reagan's press secretary, James Brady. You know, this, this happens. It's not just what happened with Charlie Kirk, you know, a year ago or the attempted assassinations or whatever that was with Donald Trump. And it, and it starts with unhinged minds and, and violent rhetoric which is promoted by the Republicans. It's not the demo. I mean, what are the Democrats doing? The Democrats are in the streets blowing whistles against ice and ICE is responding with guns murdering and executing American citizens on the streets because of Donald Trump's policies. Yeah, it's not the left wing rhetoric that is the, that is endangering federal judges. It's the right wing rhetoric. But the Trump administration doesn't want to acknowledge it. They've eliminated all offices in the FBI, the Department of justice that focused on tracking right wing violence in this country. They've cut all ties with organizations like the Southern Poverty, the Southern Poverty center that track an 8 and anti defamation League, which track the rise of these kind of groups because it wants to bury its head in the sand and not acknowledge that they exist. But we know they exist. And of course federal judges do too. We're on Legal af, the podcast. No, I'm not an odd and extended rant and I'm blocking out Ben Mysalas. Ben is not here with me today. I'm riding solo like he did for me when I was a family trip. Ben is on a family trip. Well deserved rest and respite for him and shout out to Ben Mysellis and his lovely family. So many ways to support what we do here. And we need your support. It's not ego. I don't want people like, oh, you know, we need the comments because it makes me feel good. Yeah, it does make you feel good. But the reason we need it is so we can be robust and muscular and so that we have the street cred as independent commentators and journalists to oppose the billionaires and almost trillionaires that control corporate media and, and, and are used as a vehicle for Donald Trump. I mean, even though I critiqued and made fun of corporate media and the fact that Donald Trump ignored Midas, Dutch and Legal AF when he talked about changing the landscape of media, you know, there's no getting around it. The original crown jewels of corporate media, you know, CBS and soon to be CNN are in the hands of supporters of Donald Trump and the Ellison family. You know, Facebook, Apple are bootlickers for Donald Trump and donators to all of his respective, you know, ballrooms and libraries and the rest. So it, you know, it's starting and then you've got abc. That's because of its affiliates and its TV station owners want to play nice with the Trump administration. So they're willing to take the Jimmy Kimmel's off the air and they're willing to settle over something that was not actionable that George Stephanopoulos said about Donald Trump for $16 million and, and so on and so on and so on. So when you take ABC and CBS and CNN and then ms, what used to be NBC, but I don't know, they got embarrassed by their own heritage. So now they're Ms. Now I don't quite know how they're going to survive in terms of being owned by a large corporate parent. But supporting us, you're Going to get a return on your investment. You know, we call it an roi, right? In the business world you're going to get a tremendous, and you have hopefully gotten a tremendous roi. So what we do with a dollar is like what mainstream media would do like with a million dollars. But we still need your support. So that takes the form of podcast support on our Apple and Spotify platform where you just plug in legal AF 5 star reviews and comments. YouTube keeping us at the top. You know, we're regularly, this show is in the top 20 or 30 of all podcasts in the world rated by YouTube. And the reason for that is the work that I do on my videos, but of course the podcast itself and that's, that's with your support. Right? So that's, that's, that's the podcast world and we've got the YouTube channel which is, you know, 1.1 million people strong. 11 or 12 videos every day. Fair amount from me. I appear on Midas Dutch as well. But then, you know, all of our contributors like Court Accountability Action and, and our podcast with Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wallentz, our resident historians and Adam Klassfeldt of All Rise News and the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward is on there with us with a playlist we run. We try to make it one stop shopping, right? So all things law and politics, Supreme Court, oral argument, live report, we're there with the live stream. I usually do a pregame show related to that so, so you can become a member. And then we have a new since January paid membership. It's like five bucks a month. But it does go into the till goes into the kitty. Helps keep us growing. I gotta grow. I gotta bring in new contributors, new channels. We gotta compete as best we can, as economically as we can with, with the, with the other people. Otherwise we'll be drowned out and that we cannot let happen. And then we've got the legal AF sub stack as well, which I do. Two lives a day. We've got our postings there for all of our filings and it's an amazing community. If you don't know about Substack. Come on over. We're regularly in the top 10 of all news US news, rising news on Substack. And then we've got our sponsors and we really appreciate them because they appreciate our point of view. They don't tell us what to say. They don't censor us. I guess the only way to censor us by having sponsorship is if the sponsors decide not to sponsor us. But we have so many sponsors that want to be here talking to our audience that they're not missed, I guess is the way to put it. So here's a word from our sponsors. Can we talk about the most underrated organ in your body? Your liver. It's doing more than 500 functions every day, filtering unwanted elements, supporting digestion and helping with energy. So giving it daily support. It just makes sense. Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement taken in a daily 2 ounce shot and it tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice. Dose cleanses the liver of unwanted stressors that's slowing your liver down and promotes daily liver function so your liver can do its job. Zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories. Your liver is your body's filter, handling energy production, digestion, fat metabolism and vitamin storage. When you drink Dose daily, you're going to reduce sluggishness, get rid of those midday crashes, support your metabolism and even aid your daily digestion. Plus, it's got real results with two double blind placebo controlled studies showing its positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to dosedaily.co legal AF or enter legal AF to get 35% off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you. Let's do something for it that's do a I l y.co legal af for 35% off your first month subscription. Your credit score. It may have taken a big hit over the holidays and you may not even know it. Sure, a late payment hurts, but so does opening a store credit card just to get a discount, and transferring a balance from one card to another. That can drop your score fast. So if you're thinking about refinancing, buying a new car, renting an apartment, anything that requires credit, you need your best possible score. You need it fast. You need Smart Credit. The new science in credit scoring. Smart Credit's data experts understand how the credit bureaus operate. They build a personalized strategy designed to take action and maximize your score. Not by a few points in a few months, but potentially see a real upward change. To secure better rates on everything you finance. Better scores could mean faster approvals, lower payments and more money in your pocket. Don't let holiday spending traps derail your entire year. Get ahead of it now with Smart credit. Go to smartcredit.com legalaf and start your seven day trial for just $1. Your results will depend on your unique credit profile, but I think you'll be excited to see how many points Smart Credit estimates you can gain. Results not guaranteed. Cancel anytime. That's smartcredit.com legalaf smartcredit.com welcome back and thank you to our pro democracy sponsors. You're on Legal AF podcast. FBI agents who have been fired by Cash Patel, fired by Pam Bondi for doing nothing more than their job, such as working on Arctic Frost, which was the code name for the investigation into the election interference of 2020 and Donald Trump and others people's role in it, which special counsel Jack Smith at the top as the prosecutor. These were FBI agents who had long and illustrious careers who got frequent awards and promotions. And if they're doing something bad, there's a way to get rid of FBI agents. There's a whole manual that outlines discipline and reprimands and termination. Well, two FBI agents in particular whose names are now anonymized have brought their case against the FBI for wrongful termination and to be reinstated, have their careers that were dashed by Cash Patel because Pam Bondi and Cash Patel have been trying to root out all of the, you know, the Mary banned partisan hacks, they called them at one time. There are partisan hacks. These are just FBI agents who like were assigned, designed to work on it. These two people in particular, they barely worked on the investigation and yet why do they have to have their careers ended, especially after Cash Patel lies to the American people under oath during his confirmation process, that he's not going to he doesn't have an enemy's list and he's not going to be firing people who worked against Donald Trump or on his investigations. And they did. He did exactly that. I'm fortunate enough to have and I it's up on Midas now and on Legal AF as well to have interviewed for you Liz Tulis, who's at the end, full disclosure. She's a partner at the Perry law firm, Dona Perry's law firm. I'm of counsel at that law firm, but I did not work on this case and I have no insider knowledge. So I had to bring in Liz to talk about the filing and why it's so important. And it's very important for Liz, too, because as you'll hear, she was a longtime member of the Department of Justice. She was like the assistant director of Federal Program Investigations, in which she represented the government in claims related to harassment, discrimination, terminations and that type of thing. And also worked in the Southern District of New York, the once proud Southern District of New York prosecutor's office, and now is in Private practice. Here's a clip of my interview with Liz Tullis about this brand new lawsuit that was just filed in the last 24 hours. Let's play it.
- [81:53]
Various Guests and Contributors
What that represents is really a disregard for not only just the constitutional rights of our clients, but all the norms and procedures and principles that have defined what the Department of Justice is and what the FBI has been for basically their entire existence. So, you know, if people don't bring these suits to challenge these actions, it's unclear that there'll be a chance not only to vindicate their rights, but to get courts to say to the government, you can't do this. This is unconstitutional, this is not right. And let's make things right.
- [82:34]
Michael Popak
And this is personal to you, I would imagine, because you have a background at the Department of Justice U.S. attorney's Office and all of that, including you were the Assistant Director. Right. Of the Division, Federal Programs Branch. You dealt with anti discrimination and employment matters on, on that side of the case. Right. And now you're out in private practice. Does it. When you, when you got, when you considered taking this case? I think our audience likes to hear about how lawyers make decisions to take cases. Right. You get a phone call. I'm sure you and I, I take cases all the time. I've. I decide not to take cases all the time. Why did this case matter to you?
- [83:16]
Various Guests and Contributors
Sure. So when I first started with DoJ as an AUSA in the civil Division in the Southern District of New York, U.S. attorney's office, many, many years ago, we were told, you do the right thing for the right reasons without fear or favor. And that was how we went about our jobs. And to me, to see the principles that defined my work as a DOJ lawyer seeming to be disregarded and not honored in the way that really are crucial to what being the Department of Justice means was really, really difficult for me. And to have these clients come who really are the perfect example of what's gone wrong.
- [83:57]
Michael Popak
Yeah. So Liz Tulis, phenomenal lawyer, took this case, you see, for a very good principle and a very good reason and took the stand there. Interesting side note, the judge that's going to decide whether it stays John DOE, John Doe 1 and John Doe 2 versus Cash Patel and Pam Bondi, and they stay anonymous, is none other than Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg as the Chief Judge in D.C. so we're back again. We batted around. We're at the top of the order. And we're back with Jeb Boasberg, who's going to make the decision Once he makes the decision about whether the, and they had to file a motion for that, which of course outlined as we're talking about political violence, that, that FBI agents in the past have been roundly doxed and with, with violent rhetoric attacked and swatted. You know, when somebody calls us, you know, calls in a phony crime that's happening at a house to send a SWAT team there hoping that somebody gets shot, all these things happen. And, and so those are that and the political rhetoric and the way that Donald Trump turns up the heat against people like these poor FBI agents are grounds to keep them anonymous. He generally in criminal cases and in civil cases, we bend over backwards under our rule of law to have everything in the open and in the public. You get indicted in the public, not by some star chamber, some secret chamber. You get indicted in the public, you get to clear your name in the public. And things that are filed in the case or happen in the case are generally available to the public. It's one of the great ways I'm able to do my job because I'm able to access, I mean, I think it's also because I have a fair amount of, of legal background and training and experience, but I'm also able to get access to the things that are filed on the court docket. Sometimes they're redacted for various different reasons and sometimes those reasons change and the black tape comes off and we get to see, oh, that's what got filed back four months ago. Sometimes I start my reporting with we didn't know it but three months ago the following motion was filed. It's because it was redacted, it was hidden, it was sealed from public view. But generally things are not. My gut is he's going to keep it as John Doe 1 and John Doe too, for the very good and meritorious reasons that are outlined in Liz's motion. Then it gets assigned to a judge once the anonymous part is resolved. You know, and these cases are important just to show you how corrupt the Trump administration is. You know, they use Chuck Grassley, the 92 year old senator, to try to out many of these FBI agents. There was a list that early on we reported on that Donald Trump's FBI had or Donald Trump's DOJ through email. Bovey, now a 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals judge, had the FBI that was then headed by somebody not named Cash Patel, it was then by a senior administrator who was not aligned with the Trump administration, ordered him to prepare a list of all the people that worked on the Trump case. Well, we knew what they were going to do with that list. Right? That's the enemy's list. When, when all of that happened, that list and documents about Arctic Frost got brought over to Chuck Grassley. Chuck Grassley dumped it into the public domain and buried in there are the names of these two people. I mean, I know that from the reporting. I'm not here to out them or connect the dots and certainly I didn't ask Liz that during our video because I would never do that. But the, this is where the Trump administration working hand in glove with MAGA senators and congresspeople. This is where they are. And this is why we call it out, we platform these kind of stories so that you, so you understand it. One last programming note here as we end the show On Monday at 10:00am the Supreme Court is holding oral argument concerning election day and its definition concerning your mail in ballot, your absentee ballot. Because if they rule in favor of maga, that election day is election day and there goes mail in ballots. Right? There goes mail in ballots. Certainly ones that come in after election day that are postmarked on the day of. Now, the Democrats argue this isn't about fraud. As long as the person's intention to vote is demonstrated before or on the day of the election, that's what matters. When the post office or somebody delivers it, it shouldn't be left to the vagaries of the United States Postal Service. As to whether my constitutional right to vote is being undermined or not, that sounds like a very good and logical argument. The Republicans are like, no, make everybody wait in line. They'd love to get rid of mail in balloting outright. And this would be the first step. Make everybody wait in line on one day. Get rid of computers, get rid of optical readers. Have everybody fill out pieces of paper. Why don't we use a carrier pigeon? Why don't we use smoke signals? Why don't we make it harder with more barriers to vote? Because the Republicans want to take away your vote. They call it vote fraud. Vote vote fraud at voter integrity. It's not. It's voter suppression. It's taking away your vote. Democrats don't want fraud. And we've never had fraud of any outcome, determinative nature in our country. Fraud in Our electorate is 0.0004%. No 1%. 0.0001%. It happens. In the entire state of Georgia, 8, 8 out of tens of millions of ballots were found to be fraudulent. You know, there's, there's entities that look into these things after everybody Signs a penalty of perjury that they're not committing voter fraud, then it's investigated afterwards. Eight in the entire state. So what are we talking about? Even if you multiply that across 50 states, you're talking about 3 or 400 ballots and out of 100 million cast. This is not outcome determinative. Democrats are in favor of lowering the bar barriers to entry, making voting easier, not fraudulent easier. You know, ATM machine. Okay. Longer hours, longer early voting days or more early voting days, Drop boxes and, you know, other things. Every time we raise one of those issues, the Republicans say fraud. This is, there's, it's not fraud. There's no fraud. State of Washington. All they do is drop in ballots. There's no voting in person, and it works just fine. So that's just a Republican red herring to use the F word of fraud to try to steal your vote. Democrats are onto it. Legal AF and Midas touch are onto it and Democratic leaders are onto it. Now let's see if the Supreme Court is onto it or not. So we'll know relatively early. I'll do a briefing that around 9:30 9:45 Eastern Time on Monday to start the live feed. But then we'll have the live feed with the nine justices. Yeah, solicitor. It's got to be the state of, I think the state of Louisiana or Texas, and then opposing groups and then the Trump administration wants to be heard from. So it's going to be a couple hour hearing, but we'll know right away on voting and balloting, where the justices stand. And I'll be able to report back to you here on Legal AF, the podcast, Legal AF the YouTube channel, Legal AF the substack. Have I left anything out? Legal, Legal. Wednesday night. Legal af. All kidding aside, again, it is heartwarming and rewarding that our audience has been such fervent supporters of everything we've done from day one and has grown with us to make us the top rated law and politics podcast in the world. In America, certainly. And regularly, as we said, top ranked. But that's not because, I mean, it would just be Karen, me in bed talking regularly, you know, or kibitzing. But the fact that you're here with us and that you matter to us and we matter to you, that's what's important. That is what's going to be the driving force into the midterms and beyond. We just need to keep it together. We need to keep our, we need to, we need to stay together and we need to, you know, as we are resonate on that same frequency. Learn the information. You know, we curate it for you so you could get it firsthand. And then that gives you what you need. Knowledge wise to make your own decisions and then to debate this around the kitchen table, around your social media, in the public square of ideas. That's what matters. That's, you know, an educated voter is what. Is what we're looking for. Educated and voter going hand in glove. Glad you're here with us. Ben Mysalis will be back next Saturday with me and of course all of his hot takes over on the here on the Midas Touch network. I'm Michael Popak. Catch me on Legal AF YouTube channel. Catch me here on the Midas Touch network and on our Legal AF substack. And I thank each and every one of you. Shout out to the Midas mighty and the Legal a efforts. To realize the future America needs. We understand what's needed from us to face each threat head on. We've earned our place in the fight for our nation's future. We are marines. We were made for this. Okay, Caller one wins courtside seats to tonight's game. What? I won floor seats. You did? I've been calling for 13 months. Wait, Chris. Yes, I finally. What are you gonna wear? Men's Wearhouse. They've got today's looks for any occasion. And I need to look like a celebrity. Don't want to stick out. Exactly. They've got Chill Flex by Kenneth Cole, Joseph Abboud and a tailor at every store for the perfect fit. Congrats. You can stop calling now. Not a chance. Hit any look for every occasion at Men's Wearhouse. Love the way you look.
- [94:28]
Various Guests and Contributors
Craving the coffee flavor you love, but without the caffeine. Cachava's got you covered with their newest coffee flavor. This all in one nutrition shake delivers bold, authentic flavor crafted from premium decaffeinated Brazilian beans. Quality nutrition shouldn't be complicated. Just two scoops of Cachavas all in one nutrition shake and you've got 25 grams of protein, 6 grams of fiber, greens, and so much more. Whether you're craving that coffee taste to kickstart your morning ritual or as a nutrient packed reward to round out your afternoon, Cachava keeps you fueled and satisfied wherever your day takes you. Plus, it actually tastes delicious. No fillers, no nonsense, just the good stuff your body craves. And for the times you feel like switching it up, you've got seven flavors to choose from, all with the highest quality ingredients. Treat yourself to the flavor and nutrition your body craves. Go to cachava.com and use code news new customers get 15% off their first order. That's K A C-H-A-V-A.com code news tired of your car insurance rate going up? Even with a clean driving record, you're not alone. That's why there's Jerry, your proactive insurance assistant. Jerry compares rates side by side from over 50 top insurers and helps you switch with ease. Jerry even tracks market rates and alerts you when it's best to shop. No spam calls, no hidden fees. Drivers who save with Jerry could save over $1,300 a year. Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit Jerry AI Libsyn today. That's J E R R Y AI Libsyn from Lashes for days with the viral Liquid Lash Extensions Mascara to lift and color from their brilliant eye brightener. Thrive Cosmetics is the go to for amplifying everyday looks. Plus, every product is 100% vegan, cruelty free and made with clean, skin loving ingredients that work with your skin. Amplify your everyday. Go to thrivecosmetics.com shine26 for an exclusive offer of 20% off your first order. That's Thrive Cosmetics. C A U S E M E T I c s com shine 26.