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- [00:00]
A
For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job and has trust issues with small town sheriffs. Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with Prime. This week saw Donald Trump losing big in court, like his attempt to block Anthropic and Claude from being used in the military. This week saw the the Trump officials running scared from subpoenas like Pam Bondi, Trump's head of the doj. This week saw top Trump DOJ officials making incriminating admissions like Todd Blanche at cpac where he basically admits that he wants to have ICE hover over our polling areas and basically admitting to unlawful terminations within the DOJ and FBI. And then going after the Bonnie Willis and Letitia James and Alvin Bragg. We'll talk about that. This week saw top Trump officials literally crying and being hospitalized for stress. Or at least we learned that that's what's going down. Apparently Todd Lyons, the acting director of ice, is so stressed out by Donald Trump and Stephen Miller yelling at him that he's been hospitalized allegedly at least twice and they follow him around with defibrillators because he has panic attacks and based on doing his job, which is basically torturing people and terrorizing people and throwing people with his ICE and Gestapo into detention centers and concentration camps here. It's why people are out today by the millions for this no Kings protest, among many other reasons. The America standing firm and saying we don't want Kings. And after no Kings won back over the summer, no Kings two in October and now no Kings three expected and by all accounts what we saw earlier today, it's already, it seemed to be bigger than the other two, although we'll wait for some of those official count numbers as well. It's why people were out there protesting today against this Trump regime. So Donald Trump may try to drape the DOJ building and billboards with his face on it, but we the people are saying no to Kings, yes to democracy and yes to the rule of law. Let's bring in Michael Popak. Popak, a lot to discuss. As noted, a big loss in the Northern District of California in the Anthropic lawsuit. Anthropic filed an injunction for injunctive relief against the Trump regime and the judge issued a powerful ruling again, another ruling of a judge calling out the Trump for behaving like a dictator apt for no Kings. We see developments in the Epstein files which we'll talk about as well. Both Pam Bondi trying to dodge that subpoena. But also you have Indyke and Khan, the lawyer and the accountant for Epstein testifying over the past two weeks before the House Oversight Committee and the House Oversight Committee least led by the Democrats, Garcia, pushing for these hard drives that Epstein private investigators took. And apparently the DOJ never like looked for these hard drives like, what the hell, what kind of chain of custody is that? So we got, we got a lot to discuss. Pop on today's episode.
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B
Yeah, I, I, I grew up in New York, New Jersey, as people know as and there used to be a phrase that referred to the subway system, which is stay away from the third rail. The third rail was the electrified rail or still is that subways run on and usually an administration has one third rail. I've never seen an administration that has two third rails and hold onto them as if it's going to help their sinking poll numbers or administration. One third rail is the continued cover up and the COVID up of the COVID up of the Epstein child sex trafficking ring and Donald Trump's involvement either with the ring or with the COVID up or with both. And the other one now of Donald Trump again of his own creation is the Iranian, the Iran war. And no, we no longer even Trump doesn't refer to it as the military incursion or operation. He calls it what it is, an illegal war being waged by Donald Trump in violation of the Constitution and without a resolution, but by Congress, Congress to remind people he still controls. You wouldn't know it by the recent things that you and I have talked about in our respective channels, MIDAS and legal AF about voter ID blocked today in the Senate. And no, there's not going to be funding for the TSA because MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson blocked it. You're like, who controls these two, these two aspects of the government? I thought it was Trump. So he holds on for dear life to these two third rails, refusing to acknowledge that he's made mistakes, which of course is his core, the core crack in his character that he can never recover from. That's why when you combine that with the courage and crowds in the streets to show that 10 million or more people today representing, you know, when you add it all together with all of the various iterations of marching in the streets since this administration started, you're Talking about maybe 20% of the electorate that goes well beyond what Abigail Jackson, who I think is AI. I don't think I've ever seen her. One of the spokespeople For Donald Trump said it's just another example of the Trump derangement syndrome therapy session. Nobody cares about this except for the media that's reporting it. No, no, Abigail, no. And this is why you're doing so poor in the polling numbers now crashing down below Nixonian levels. Lowest, lowest popularity Donald Trump has ever had or lack of popularity. It's because it isn't that it is 60 million when you total it up people and a few media Midas is covering it. Sure. Katie Fang, our friend is out there in Minnesota for the, the main one and, and others in our, in our universe are covering it. But, but, but we're not making up the, the 99.9% of the majority that's on the street. And this is their problem. Ben, as you know and you've been covering as they move towards the midterms. It's this complete magical thinking and lack of recognition about how hated and despised the Trump administration is right now. I mean I, I think you used it in a video. I certainly did. When the CPAC talk about Trump should have expected home cooking conservative political action committee where we'll talk about something top Blanche said there and all the MAGA go there and the chairman of the CPAC decides he's gonna lead a cheer. He violated the rule you and I learned when we were young lawyers which is never asked a question you don't know the answer to. And he said what do you guys think about impeachment? And they started cheering for Donald Trump's impeachment at cpac. That's how bad things are getting for the Trump administration along with all the court cases that you and judge decisions that you and I are going to talk about today on the show.
- [07:12]
A
I want to just start by reading from Judge Lynn, the federal judge in the Northern District of San Francisco's order because it really goes to me to this theme today of the very wildly successful no Kings protests out there. Just everybody remembers. I'll just read a little bit from the intro about the situation with Anthropic and Claude and then I want to read for you this portion of Judge Lynn's decision where she again refers to the behavior by this Trump regime as Orwellian. This case touches on an important public debate. Anthropic says its artificial intelligence product Claude is not ready for safe use in fully autonomous lethal weapons or the mass surveillance of Americans. If the US Government wants to use its technology, Anthropic insists that the government must agree not to use it for these purposes. On the other hand, Donald Trump's Department of War, which is the Department of Defense, says that it must be the one to decide what functions are safe for its AI tools to perform, not a private company. This public policy question is not for the court to answer in this litigation. It is the Department of War's prerogative to decide what AI product it uses, including Anthropic, agrees that the Department of War may permissibly stop using Claude and look for a new AI vendor who will allow all lawful uses of its technology. That is not what this case is about. The question here is whether the government violated the law. When it went further after Anthropic went public with its disagreement with the Department of War, defendants reacted with three significant measures that are subject of this lawsuit. First, Trump announced that every federal agency, not just the Department of War, would immediately ban Anthropic from ever having another government contract. That would include, for example, the National Endowment for the Arts using Claude to design its website. Second, Secretary Hex announced that anyone who wants to do business with the US Military must sever its commercial relationship with Anthropic. That would mean a company that used Claude to power its customer service chatbot could not serve as a defense contractor. Third, the Department of War designated Anthropic a supply chain risk, a label that applies to adversaries of the US Government who may sabotage its technology systems. That designation has never applied to a domestic company and is directed principally at foreign intelligence agencies, terrorists, and other hostile actors. It goes on to say that the record supports an inference that Anthropic is being punished for criticizing the government's contracting position in the press. Donald Trump and Hegseth have called Anthropic out of control, arrogant, describing its sanctimonious rhetoric as an attempt to strong arm the government. The record shows that it designated Anthropic a supply chain risk because of, quote, hostile manner through the press. Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government's contracting position is a classic illegal First Amendment or retaliation. And then it goes on to say, designating Anthropic as a supply chain risk is arbitrary and is likely arbitrary and capricious. There's no legitimate basis to infer this. And the court goes on to describe this as entirely Orwellian and by in any way criticizing the government, this is the retaliation you receive. And so the court issued the injunction. Anthropic prevailed thus far. But Popak, this brings into focus, I think, a lot of issues. Number one, not backing down to Trump. Right? You could use this case to also talk about. There were law firms that submitted. There were law firms that kissed the ring. There were law firms that stood up to the law when Trump tried to pressure law firms to basically work for him. Right? You had situations like that. There were companies that submitted, that gave up, that kissed the ring, that, that enabled this fascism. And there were other companies that have stood up. When you stand up to Donald Trump just like this, you win. But then also with the geopolitical situation taking place as the United States is removing and has removed sanctions against Russia and Iran for their oil during the war against Iran, allowing Russia and Russia and Iran to profit to the tune of billions and billions of dollars. As you have sanctioned Russian Duma members bas their Senate get Capitol Hill tours this past week by MAGA Republican Congress members and meet with State Department officials given VIP access. And then these Russian Duma members talked about how this was beyond their wildest dreams, how successful it is while Trump is out there attacking NATO. While all of this is going on. Popak, the US under the Trump regime has designated like Anthropic, an innovative company that by all accounts has one of the most sophisticated AI models out there, a supply chain risk, which doesn't just hurt Anthropic, it also hurts all of the companies that utilize it. And as you know, lots of people have been worried, are we in an AI bubble? But one of the only kind of growth areas in this case shaped economy, though that's increasingly looking like a, you know, all downhill, steep black diamond economy at this point going down like one of those ski mountains at this stage. There's like a constant attack on American industry, also supply chain risk. And you know, I read that intro and I wanted to capture the words of the judge because you go, wow, this is authoritarianism. This is fascism, and it's stupid fascism. Like, like, like it's fascism and stupid. You're going to label it as supply chain risk and then destroy the American company, then destroy all the American companies that if anything is making money right now. It's, it's this AI. There's lots of issues with AI. There's beyond lots of issues with data centers, which I think, you know, these data centers need to stop being built. And I'm very against it. But like, what's the game plan? What, what's the, what's the game plan here? Popo. So legally, politically, logically, whole thing is idiotic and it's stupid. It reminds me of a story that I actually heard, though. During World War II, there were, there were discussions about whether you kill Hitler, whether you take him out or what you do basically, you know, one way or another. And one of the allies were like, well, you know, he's so stupid and so dumb and doing such destructive stuff that no, no, no, just like allow, you know, allow the idiocracy to basically continue and to, and to go on. Because, you know, the thing with sometimes these fascists, the malignant narcissism is so amplified by the position that it becomes self destructive and implodes. And whether we're talking about the war in Iran, whether we're talking about all these things, the self destructiveness here, it just seems like breaking stuff. Popak. It just seems like breaking stuff for the sake of breaking stuff to soothe his malignant narcissism while he builds golden ballrooms and arches.
- [14:39]
B
You and I have been scratching our head from the very beginning as to why a supposed Republican is competing so hard with private equity, private investment, private business. We've never had a government that has been a competitor to the innovation of private industry. It started with the golden share that we now own. A piece, whether you like it or not, of taxpayer dollars being invested in US Steel competing against other US Steel companies not named US Steel. Now we own a rare earth mining company or parts of it. We own part of intel, the chip manufacturer. We own parts of nuclear, small, a remote nuclear power plant, manufacturing and the like. And, and this is not a situation like when Obama had a bailout big auto in 2008 for risk that we would lose the American auto industry and became a. It became like a shotgun marriage where we had. The government had to give them money. It all got paid back within five or 10 years to save an industry. That's not what Trump has been doing. Trump has been wheeling, dealing like he and Howard Lutnick, the head of, formerly head of Canter Fitzgerald, now of the Commerce Department, they've been wanting to use our dollars for the risky business of investing and competing with businesses from the moment they got in the art of the deal and Howard Lutnick's family office, Tanner Fitzgerald had always been involved with versions of this. They have this grandiose plan that for right now has been tabled to open up a sovereign wealth fund, which would have been a slush fund Donald Trump would have funded somehow, maybe through tariffs or maybe through these other fines or penalties or these, these tithes or tributes that he's forcing companies to pay in order to do business. Like TikTok's got to pay 70% of enterprise value in order to allow the TikTok transaction to go forward. Where is that money going? But he was going to do a sovereign wealth fund from day one and start buying up businesses and taking investment positions with our money. I'm not a family office. He wants to go back into private practice along with Scott Bessant and Howard Lutnick and go run their family offices. Go ahead. But not with taxpayer dollars while he's completely distracted from the job he was elected to do. So we've always, you and I are like, I thought Republicans were conservative when it came to fiscal things and wanted to get out of the way of big business and regulation. No, Donald Trump just wants to put his greasy fat thumb on the scale of transactions. Oh, I want to be the kingmaker. I want to decide who gets cnn, who gets cbs. Oh, I'm going to use my regulatory body as a puppet to go bash people so that I can have influence and my buddy can get the asset. That's all we've been watching. So the surprising thing about Anthropic is who its ownership is. Some people might think, where'd this company come from? Who owns it? So, yeah, there's a couple of founders, you know, young guys that were smart and put together this business. But its largest investors, not controlling, but largest investors are Amazon, Google, Fidelity. Stop me if you've heard of these companies. And many of them had supported Donald Trump and are continuing to support Donald Trump because they think it maximizes their shareholder value. Amazon, of course, owned by Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, Google, Google, YouTube and the rest. And so they're probably going, what is he? He is so it unreliable. What we're watching, and I've done a number of videos about this using my Wall street experience, is we're watching financial markets, counterparties in foreign policy negotiations like Iran, US Companies, all coming to the same conclusion that Donald Trump cannot be trusted, that his erratic behavior and his lies, which used to move the markets are no longer being responded to. And now the counterparties for things with the government don't believe they have an honest person on the other side in negotiating. So Google's like, well, we'll just give him a lot of money. Or Amazon, we'll just give him a lot of money for his library. Or we'll overpay for Melania's documentary. That'll help, right?
- [19:07]
A
Nope.
- [19:07]
B
Anthropic. Boom. We're going to kill our investment over there. I'll give an example to lead out here. They knew that the Iranian war, where every every day for the last five weeks, gas has gone up, or gas at the pump has gone up. And we've had five weeks in a row to match the war of a losing streak on the stock market, which is the longest streak in four years. And they figured going out of Friday and into the weekend, they would try to calm the markets again. Kind of jawbone, jawbone the market to kind of calm it down. So it wasn't this pattern of oil up and stock prices down. Oh, there's a, there's a, there's a self imposed, you know, we're gonna hold our, we're not gonna, we're not gonna fire on Iran for five days or 10 days or whatever it is. Oh, then it goes in the opposite direction. So they sent Marco Rubio out again on Friday, the Secretary of State to say, pump the brakes. This war is going to be over in weeks, not months, thinking, oh, that'll work. Right. The stock market went over the cliff, dropped 2%. Oil shot up. Nobody is believing or listening to the Trump administration any long, any longer because they're completely untrustworthy. And it scares the crap out of the American industry and the American innovation industry because he seems to be so concerned about trillions of dollars of phony investment by our allies, the Japanese and the South Koreans, and yet he undermines American innovation, creating American jobs. I'll leave it at this. He said he was going to return manufacturing jobs to the United States. That was the justification for the tariffs and upending global relationships around the world. He hasn't made one manufacturing job, only lost jobs while he's been President of the United States. He said he'd be great for agriculture and for farmers. More than 10,000 farms have shuttered under Donald Trump. So everything he said he was going to do to help the economy. A completely jobless Trump economy, and I mean jobless. You heard the Federal Reserve chair, Jay Powell say a couple of Wednesdays ago at his office meeting that in the last six months, the Trump administration's economy hasn't made one job in six months. Say what you want about Joe Biden, but he was a job creating engine 400,000 jobs every month. And this is all going to catch up to the Trump administration when the March numbers come out for lack of job creation, inflation and interest rates, because that's what the market is looking at. And do you remember, Ben, when Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, and Donald Trump said, just wait till the first quarter of 2026 or no later than the quarter of 2026? That's when the Trump economy comes roaring into existence and what are we watching? The exact retrograde of our economy as Americans suffer and now take to the streets all day today to protest.
- [22:21]
A
They behave as parodies of the Ponzi schemers. If you wrote this in a script, their behavior, the Lutnicks and the Trumps and the Besants, and you provided it to me, and I was a Hollywood studio, I would say you got to make it a little more realistic. I mean, the Bernie Madoffs, they're a more subtle with it than just outright saying, give me into the next quarter and I'll be able to give you your money. It's never going to be bigger. You're never going to be richer. We've never been hotter. I'd be like, just tone it down a little bit, because nobody's going to believe that. And that's precisely what happened. I thought you were going to say, popu, that Lutnick really said the fourth quarter of 2025 was going to be when they own the economy, but they keep moving them. Just you wait. 2026 is going to be the banquet. Besson said. Actually, it's going to be 2027, when things are going to be, you know, things are going to be great. But look, this follows a pattern of Donald Trump's life. And there's a reason that he's been involved in lots of cases that where he's been sued. And when you stand up to him, legally, when you stand up, whether he sues you and you stand up and you confront him and someone like, you know, you know, whoever it is, you will always win, whether he's suing you and you're the media. Trump doesn't even take those cases to trial. He's too scared to go to trial on those cases. I mean, think about it. When Eugene Carroll sued him, Trump was too scared to show up for the day when he was supposed to testify. So Eugene Carroll just used the deposition, testimony, video where Donald Trump looked horrible. E. Jean Carroll beat Donald Trump and Trump was in Ireland and Scotland. Look at pretending he was building things over there. And she beat Donald Trump. Look at Abrego Garcia. Donald Trump's thrown all of the resources to try to destroy Abrego Garcia and Abrego Garcia not just persist he's able to beat Donald Trump. And trust me, the Iranians see that. They know Donald Trump. They understand his pathology. That deep down, or actually not all that deep down, he is a very weak individual. He is a loser. There's a reason that he's bankrupted company after company. Right. There's a reason that he, when you stand up to him legally using your moral informal authority, the guy folds. He'll do everything. I mean, he's a maniac. He'll, he won't stop. And lots of people just get exhausted by it because it's like, enough, enough. What do you want? What do you want me to do? Because he's an exhausting, like, malignant, narcissistic, pathological creature. It's, it's wild. He, he won't, I mean, it's 2026. He still posts about the 2020 election over and over because he's a maniac. But if you just stand up and you punch back and, and we all collectively, morally, formally, informally, whatever, assert ourselves back, that's the most important lesson. I want to talk more about that as well when we come back from the break. And I want to talk about, you know, a good example is you put someone in place like Congressmember Robert Garcia of the House Oversight Committee and they get to work and they don't back down on the Epstein files. And people like Ro Khanna and Stansberry and other people on that committee just keep on pushing hard. You get results. You get results and you get breakthroughs. Let's talk about that and more. Let's take our first quick break of the show. A reminder. If you or anybody you know has been injured in a auto accident, a trucking accident, if you or anyone you know is the victim of sexual assault or harassment employment cases, if you know somebody who was killed in an accident and their family's looking for a lawyer, reach out to the Popoc Firm 877- Popak AF or visit the popoc firm.com. the consultation is free. They have lawyers across the country. Don't be shy. Popak is now representing a lot of people who listen to the Legal AF show and who go to the Legal F YouTube channel 877 Popocaf. Call or text or visit thepopocfirm.com also make sure you subscribe to Popox YouTube channel. Legal AF's YouTube channel is soaring. Let's get that 2 million subscribers. In addition, go to the Legal A of substack. Let's keep growing that substack community as well. I love your lives on Substack. When you just, you know, you're like, sometimes I just got to speak to the people. Let's go live right now. All right. Let's take our first quick break of the show. We will be right back after this
- [26:59]
B
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- [30:38]
A
Welcome back to Legal af. Thank you to all of our sponsors. The discount code for all of those sponsors is in the description below. You know what I want to talk about. We'll talk about Epstein in a moment. And the indict deposition, the Kahn deposition, the hard drives. I think it's important that we touch upon this, but I just want to start by talking about the story that Politico broke about how the acting ICE chief, Todd Lyons has reportedly been hospitalized twice for stress while carrying out these ICE Gestapo kidnappings and throwing people in concentration camps. Officials saying the intense pressure, especially getting yelled at by Stephen Miller, has affected his ability to think straight. He's described as always being sweaty and red faced and nervous and that he's like frozen in time and doesn't really know what to do because he's so worried about getting yelled at and he's so stressed out about his job. Part of the story is they say that they carry around a defibrillator around him because they're afraid that when he has these panic attacks, you know, he'll pass out and he won't be able to breathe. I'm not making that up. That's in the story as well. And so it's a story about the head of ICE who has constant panic attacks. They get so bad he gets hospitalized because the stress of his job is too much for him to bear. Okay, Popak, why? You know, look, let's be very clear. You know, you know, I treat the medical diagnoses part seriously and I don't want to mock people's medical conditions. However.
- [32:24]
B
However.
- [32:25]
A
But the famous. But when it comes to Todd Lyons, when it comes to ICE that have killed people, that have thrown people into concentration camps where it doesn't even get enough attention, how many people died last year? Dozens and dozens and dozens. Over 50, 50, 60 people or so died last year Over a dozen people murdered, murder, not died, murdered in concentration camps that we know of. I bet you the number is actually higher because we're always learning about more people this year. About a dozen people murdered in the. In the concentration camps. More murdered on the street. Whether it's Renee, Nicole Goode, Alex Pretty. One of the reasons why, also, I think there's no kings protest. You know, it's just like, enough of this. These killers, these. These fascist killers who are just killing our people, who are killing our people on the streets. What one of the things I said during the iHeart speech when we won that award, I was just saying, like, we gotta stand up and call out these killers and call them killers. We can't both sides, these issues or, you know, respect this historical moment. But, you know, we talk about all of these, you know, these cases, Pop. I mean, just this morning, there was a case. I'll try to pull it up. Where a federal judge in Texas, you know, issued an order where they ordered the DOJ that, like, unlawfully deported somebody to Mexico and then rerouted the person to Guatemala. When there was a stay away. There was a specific order that said you could deport the guy, but not to Guatemala. You know, it was kind of like a Brago Garcia. You could deport the guy, but not to El Salvador. So you bring him to El Salvador where he can die. You could deport the guy, but not to Guatemala. You deport the guy to Guatemala. You know, there was a story that Politico ran this week as well, and Kyle Cheney does a really good job on this, reporting on this, that talked about all of the cases where the Trump regime, right before this war in Iran, was working with the Ayatollah. Trump regime was partnering with the Ayatollah in order to deport Iranian democracy followers, asylum seekers, back to Iran where they were likely killed. We don't know the ending story of all of these Iranians who were sent back to Iran, who were seeking asylum here, but there were many, many, many Iranians came to America to flee the Ayatollah, who Trump worked with, the Ayatollah. I mean, it wasn't Trump directly. It was ICE and the Islamic Republic Revolutionary Guard Corps in there and sent it back to Iran. And one of the ways we learned about this, there were some hearings this week where individuals were still supposed to be deported to Iran. And the judge would ask, well, so what are you doing? And then the Trump DOJ said, there are airport closures. I mean, I kid you not. This was literally what they Said there are now airport closures, recent airspace closures, and airport closures in Iran, so we currently won't be able to effectuate the deportation. So you have this ICE torturer, Todd Lyons. I mean, can you make this up, Pop? If you wrote this in some dystopian Shakespearean thing, who goes out there, plays tough guy, and then privately they carry a defibrillator around because the guy suffers from frequent panic attacks because he gets yelled at by Stephen Miller. Makes him sense of it.
- [35:56]
B
Sure. It makes some sense of it all you want.
- [35:58]
A
We can just talk about Epstein.
- [35:59]
B
No, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, Todd Lyons has. And we don't. We don't feel sorry for the guy. I mean, I'm not begrudging him having a medical condition, but, you know, it also reminds me of the Scarlet Letter. I mean, is. He. Is the problem here is because he's carrying so much stress because of the illegal and unconstitutional and lawless rogue things that his department is doing. I mean, just to turn something on its head. Now that we've seen Greg Bevino's true stripes, who stepped down as the head of Border Patrol, now that he's out, it looks like a complete lunatic. Now that he's no longer in the office. He was crazy when he was in the office. He's even worse now that he's being interviewed, now that he's resigned or been pushed out. Same kind of thing. For Todd Lyons to see that these are the people and their true colors and their true problems that are running these major institutions, that at the end, the byproduct of which is Americans and others are being maimed, beaten, killed, murdered, assassinated in the streets. I think, you know, when. When Scott McFarland joined Midas to be its Washington bureau chief and anchor and daily reporter in Washington, Trump had Brendan Carr, the head of the fcc, say, you know, same. Same job, different duty station or whatever, you know, lateral move. Because he came over to Midas, I'm like, well, I could flip it on its head and say, now that we see these people for what they really are. And the. And the screen has been pulled off, the mask has been pulled off. The Greg Bevinos are the Todd Lyons of world. We see why these organizations are so depraved and corrupted and don't have any leadership at all. Todd Lyons, for just to remind everybody, is also the author or he signed at least the memo from May that. That tried to destroy the Fourth Amendment and its protections against you being illegally searched and seized in your homes and in your Papers, you know, by having somebody knock down the front door and violate your castle keep. He rewrote probably because Stephen Miller wrote it for him. He's now outed Stephen Miller. It's amazing how many people on their way out of the administration yell over their shoulder about the gremlin. Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, two weeks before she was fired. I didn't want to do it. I'm just answering to Donald Trump and Stephen Miller, Todd Lyons. Stephen Miller makes me make bad decisions. I'm not blaming it on Trump. But Stephen Miller, they all think that that's some sort of savior for them. Todd Lyons writes that memo. He's had a now defendant. Congress is all over him about it. Judges are all over him about it. We've had judges like Judge Schultz, the chief judge in Minnesota, the home of the kickoff, no Kings Day today, as it should be rightfully so, given it was ground zero for the unlawful rogue conduct, assassinated two Americans on the streets. Also where don Lemon in St Paul, where Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested and are being prosecuted by this lawless Department of Justice corrupted one. Judge Schilt said, I got an idea. Since you continue to violate hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of orders in the month of January and February and March alone in this district, you release the person that I've ordered released under habeas corpus rights. Or you can have Todd Lyons, the head of your department, show up in my courtroom on an order to show cause and testify. And every time the Trump administration has had one of their senior people ordered to appear for testimony, they've chickened out, tail between their legs and folded. That's a lesson to the federal judiciary as they're trying to come up with new and creative tools for their tool bag about how to handle the Trump administration to first year was like, what do we do? Can we use contempt? Should we. Second year is like, okay, now we're going to start ordering people like Alina Haba to appear in court unless the following things happen. And now every time the Trump administration has folded, they didn't want Todd Lyons testifying. They didn't want Alina Haba testifying, they didn't want Todd Blanche testifying in the Abrego Garcia case in Tennessee. This is the new magic trick that the federal judges have adopted. But the fact that I've been covering with you, I've been covering law and politics here on Midas for six years. I've been an avid follower of all things related to the presidency since it was in college and it was part of my major, pardon me, I've never heard of a leader of the, within the administration basically having a nervous breakdown in, in public and, and admit, and them having to admit to it that they're carrying around. You said they're carrying around defibrillators. I mean, when, when a presidential candidate in the 60s admitted to going to psychotherapy and crying, that tanked his entire career. Now we now have people admitting they're having nervous breakdowns because of the stress. Think about it. We've always as observers because we're outside the beehive, right? Even with Scott McFarlane hanging out in the halls of Congress and the Senate and everything. We're outside the beehive. The beehive being the Trump administration. But can you imagine what it's like to be inside this beehive with a cracked queen, queen bee and Donald Trump and the pressure between these out of control lawless boot jacks like Stephen Miller and Pete Hegseth and having to work under these people. And now we see the end result. It's just a byproduct of when you have a corrupt administration. Department of Justice, Homeland Security, Department of Defense. We're seeing the byproducts, we're talking about it on the show. The Iran war and the ineptitude in its execution. Right. And what the plan was about a 90 million person country. And that has backfired. It's how he's handling the economy. It's how he's handling the immigration, migration policy. And Americans are fully awake. You know, we're out. I don't know what slumber, what field of poppies that the Trump administration thought we fell into in the first year. But as we talk about and connect back always to the no Kings Day marches, American, look at the polling numbers that came out this week, Ben, you're talking about 30. This is Fox News, Fox News. His approval rating is 40%. And I think that's being kind. 60% of America on Fox has completely rejected him. And so, and if you go down the line of all the things that make up all the third rails that make up his administration, immigration policy, affordability, the economy, it's even worse. It's even worse. And there's no way out to you, to paraphrase a political phrase, there's no way out for Donald Trump between now and the midterms, if it is a fait accompli, if the American people vote and vote in their interest, consistent with what they're observing about this administration, it will be a wipeout election for Donald Trump. And maga, consistent with all the special elections and other elections that we've seen over the last year and a half. My prediction, based on all the modeling that I've seen, the economy, the wrong, wrong direction, right direction, consumer confidence, the gdp, the all the other things that go into having a heartless president as well, this could be a 240, 250 seat victory in the House and the Senate, which you and I sort of like. I wonder if we could ever get the Senate back at the start of the administration. Not only is the Senate in play, I'm not saying we're going to get 60 votes, but I think if, again, if we register, if we vote any way we're allowed to vote and not be intimidated by it, and the streets of America are telling Trump we're not intimidated to vote and stand in line, then the 55, 56, 57 votes in the House, in the Senate as well. Real possibilities.
- [44:31]
A
You know, using a legal analytical framework that we do here on legal AF and not a political commentary commentary framework has helped us seem like we're predicting the future, when in fact we're just providing the evidence of the present. Because political commentary often delves into presenting imagery and spin and creating, you know, these conflicting narratives where even if you like one of the narratives because it benefits, your point of view is not fully accurate and achievable, but you have these budding narratives. When you use a legal analytical framework, like we do with unlegal af, it's not about, oh, you're reporting what the Iranian foreign minister is saying, so you must hate the American troops. Quite the contrary. What I'm trying to find out is, is Iran broken? Does it no longer have military capabilities, as Trump says? Do they not control the Strait of Hormuz? Trump says everything's obliterated. Does that line up with the evidence? And when it doesn't line up with the evidence, I try to gather the data and make explanations why it doesn't line up with the evidence. That's what Popak does. That's what they do on the Legal AF YouTube channel, when it does align with the evidence, I will say that it lines up with the evidence. Now, to your point, Michael Popak, when we talk about a lot of these situations that we're dealing with now, surging inflation, a shrinking gdp, a jobs, recession, manufacturing jobs that are being lost, not gained. Remember, the Trump narrative that the media regurgitated was all of this money's coming in 18 trillion, $21 trillion. We are having all this money pour in From Donald Trump's trips abroad and using the legal analytical framework, we ask basic questions, where is this money? Does the Treasury Department have it? We don't see it. Why does our debt continue to increase at the rate it does? We just hit, what, 39 trillion in debt last week. Why does the deficit continue to increase and not shrink? Federal spending continues to rise when the whole purpose of this fake DOGE thing was supposed to decrease it. We were promised DOGE rebate checks, tariff checks, all these things that the American consumers weren't get. Those things didn't happen. We know From Basic Economics 101 that tariffs are inflationary. And we could easily predict that when you have these tariffs. Sure. A lot of American companies, I think, were doing their best to wait out the Supreme Court ruling on Trump's tariffs against the world, and the Supreme Court deemed them to be illegal. But then Donald Trump did another illegal move and said, okay, we'll do the Trade act of 1974. We won't use IPA, which is equally illegal as IIPA was, to which the companies basically were like, well, we can't hold the line anymore because we were just hoping we can lose money quarter one, quarter two, by not passing on so much to the consumer, even though it was being passed lot was being passed on to the consumer. We can't hold the ground anymore because or we're gonna go bankrupt. But that's why we saw the increase in bankruptcies taking place at a record rate. You could also look at the increased foreclosures. You could also look at credit card delinquencies. You can look at the fact that housing sales are down. You can look at the fact that construction is down right now, and there's all these indicators out there of what's happening without this war. And now, even if the war ended, even if the war said was done today, right now, an hour from now, everyone said the war is over. The supply shock that's already occurred is such that we'll have a massive ripple on the economy, not just for years to come, for decades to come. Right. I mean, if you look at the fact that Qatar Energy, the biggest producer, one of the biggest producers of liquefied natural gas, their facilities were 20% destroyed. They account for 20% of the world's LNG. That is a massive disruption that won't be fixed for three to five years. Right. The LNG has to come from somewhere. That's one of the areas it was coming from. And that will have a massive ripple effect. Like if you said that that occurred without a war. That in and of itself could be one of these contagions that spread and that lead to kind of a widespread.
- [49:22]
B
Throw one more in on that note. Yeah. If, if the price of a barrel of oil measured by in this what we call the Brent, the Brent Oil index is at 109 leaving Friday. If it goes to 138, not even the 200 that is likely by June if this war continues just to $138 this is analysts and stays there for a month. A US Recession is guaranteed. I think as you do, we're already in one. And when economists, which they often do, look back with 2020 hindsight as to this quarter in American history, it will be that that's when the recession started. All to blame because of Donald Trump. He was handed, as we've talked about before, he was handed a stable job creating low inflation, trending in the right direction, economy on a silver platter by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And he promptly threw it into the manure pile and decided to rebuild the economy and global relationships along with it in his own image and those of the plutocrats and billionaires and trillionaires around him in order as part of yet another example of his vindication retribution campaign. And then see if that would work. Like let's just totally unplug all the inputs into the American economy and all the outputs and change them in a year and see if that works. It was working before and I am so tired. I'll just leave it on this, Ben. I am so tired of American presidencies, the Democrats coming into the American presidency having to clean up after a failed Republican presidency and not getting the credit for it. So Obama has to come in and stop the closure of American car manufacturing and the banking system as we know it coming off of George Bush with trillions of dollars up to it would be a trillion dollars in today's money. Joe Biden has to come in after Donald Trump spend 3 to 5 trillion dollars to restart the heart of the American economy to create new jobs again after Covid and now the next American president that's going to have a D next to their name is going to have to pick up the pieces from this economy with a debt and deficit that will have lasting impacts, as you said, contagions into the future for your my daughter and future children. But again the Democrats always have to start cleaning up the stable from a erratic, not logical economic policy that crushes the American dream. And then we start from there, you
- [52:17]
A
know, but it's also Why? I think the framework of analysis is an important thing that I hope the Midas Touch network and legal AF and the family of channels that work with us are utilizing not the same old media style, because the same old media style. Some, you know, a Democrat comes in, and there's a whole set of different standards that apply to me. The standard that should apply to Democratic Republican administrations, regardless, is just the truth and the facts and actually following the details. I mean, you know, it's maybe a little bit boring to report on, you know, the fact that helium production is down or fertilizer production is down or fertilizer that's already been bought is not making its way into the United States. But when you actually learn that helium is a critical component in how you get your MRIs, and now we have to triage helium usage because we could be having a situation where MRIs may not be able to be done in the future. We're not at that pivotal level yet. But I think it's important that we make these connections. And I don't need to have a split screen of people yelling at each other and fighting each other over certain things to get to the heart of it. I did something interesting earlier this morning. I had a debate with a guy named Chris Voss. He's like a top FBI hostage negotiator who wrote this book, never split the difference. And I read his book in 2019, and it was a little disheartening to me as a Chris, as someone who liked his book in 2019 and his analytical approach, that he seemed to be making a lot of excuses for Trump. So I brought him on the network just to have a debate with him. And a lot of the things that he was saying is, well, Trump says, and Witkoff says, and this person said this and this verse that. I go, yeah, but they're. They're complete and total liars. Like, you realize that they. That everything they say is. Is untruthful. And one of the points that he made that I countered as he said, well, you know, the hostage taker is, you know, when you have to make a deal with the hostage taker, you know, sometimes, you know, you could come up with, like, a transactional approach to try to resolve the problem. And I said, well, the hostage negotiator and the hostage taker shouldn't be on the same team, right? Like, ultimately, the goal of a hostage situation is to get the hostage taker to stand down and to free the hostages, not to find a way to build an enterprise to work with the hostage Taker to make money off the hostages and compromise the value of the FBI. Like the FBI is not finding joint ventures with it. You know, you look at what the US Is doing, whether it's with Delsey Rodriguez, what Trump thought he can do with Iran, like Trump's, I guess, was that he and the Ayatollah would become partners, right? And they would like make money and billions of dollars with the, like he thought that he can do what he's doing with MbS, with the Ayatollah, and they're saying, no, we don't. That's not what we wanted. You completely misunderstand, you know, our country, the history of it and the dynamic that's playing out. And now from all accounts, Trump's frustrated and he's bored. So this morning he was posting, you know, Letitia James memes and attacking her and saying, we got her under investigation again. And, and 2020 election things and attacks on Zelensky and it's like, dude, what are you doing? Like, what, what, what, what, what is this, what is this behavior that you're exhibiting? So anyway, the short of it is, is that to me, when you use a legal analytical framework to see things and you look at the evidence and you're not debating politically, you're just sharing evidence and gathering data. And if you have better data than me, like, like, you know, with Chris Voss, if, if you have better and say the Strait of Hormuz is open and that Iran's not actually using Shahi drones and ballistic missiles around the neighbors and that America's interceptor stockpile is not fully reduced and destroyed. Like, if you, if that exists, you know, share with me, but I don't need to say he said or she said or they said. I want to know what the facts say. So with that said, what do the facts say about where we are in the Epstein investigation? Michael Popak has not let up. He's not allowed Trump's distractions to impact the constant and consistent reporting on Trump's cover up of a child sex trafficking ring with his Department of Justice. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about Todd Blanche's comments at that CPAC a little bit more. We'll take our last break of the show. A quick reminder. Make sure you subscribe here to our YouTube channel, but more importantly, subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Let's get Legal AF 2 million subscribers. In addition to getting Legal AF 2 million subscribers, subscribe to Legal AF on Substack as well. That Substack Legal AF is just absolutely crushing it right now. Subscribe there. Also, if you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident, a trucking accident, you've been injured by the negligence of others. If you know someone who tragically was killed by the negligence of a company or in a car accident or crash, and the family's looking for a lawyer, call or text 877 Popak AF or visit the popocfirm.com a free consultation Michael Popox firm represents so many people who listen to this program and who watch him on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Don't be shy. It's a free consultation. The worst they'll say is that you don't have a case and I'm sure you know somebody who's been looking for a lawyer or who's been, you know, gone through something difficult or you or someone you know in your family may be experiencing that. Reach out 877- POPAK or visit thepopocfirm.com Available 24, 7 and in all states throughout the United States, they have people ready to answer your questions for free. They'll answer your questions in the initial consultation. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. Popak. You'll break it down when we're back. See you soon after this quick break.
- [58:04]
B
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The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com LegalAF and enter code legalaf at checkout one more time joinedeleteme.com legal af code legalaf busy days, big goals, but no time to cook. I've been using Factor Fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the planning or cooking. One of my favorites lately is the Garlic Herb Salmon. It fits perfectly into my February routine with lean protein, colorful vegetables, whole food ingredients and healthy fats. Plus no refined sugars, no artificial sweeteners and no refined seed oils. Whether you're focused on healthier eating, calorie management or getting more protein, Factor makes it simple. They rotate over 100 meals every week, including high protein calories, smart Mediterranean diet, GLP1 support, ready to Eat salads and the new Muscle Pro Collection for strength and recovery. Everything is always fresh, never frozen. Ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress. I use this and you should too. Head to factor meals.com legal af50OFF and use code legalaf50OFF to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor New subscribers only. Varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. Legal AF is brought to you by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The First Amendment isn't ambiguous and it isn't optional. It's clear government may not establish religion, and it may not favor one belief system over another. But across the country, lawmakers and public officials are testing those limits, pushing prayer into public schools, carving out religious exemptions that undermine civil rights, and blurring the line between church and state in ways the Constitution expressly forbids. That's where the Freedom From Religion foundation comes in. FFRF is a national nonprofit that uses education, advocacy and the law to hold government accountable when it crosses that line, protecting the rights of believers and non believers alike. Because religious freedom doesn't mean government endorsed religion. It means freedom of conscience for everyone. If you care about the Constitution, the rule of law, and a government that works for all of us, not just the loudest or most powerful, now is the time to act. Visit FFRF US LegalAF or text the word Legal AF to 511511 to learn more and join. Go to FFRF US LegalAF or Text Legal AF to 511511 and help protect a country that belongs to all of us. Go to FFRF US LegalAF or text LEGAL AF to 511511 today. Message and data rates may apply. Welcome back to the Legal AF Podcast. I'm Michael Popak and I'm going to fill in here and get us to the finish line as my podcast partner and founder Ben Meisellis had a conflict. But let's get right down to all things Epstein no, to answer that question that's often posed is the 3 million pieces of documents that Donald Trump finally released from the executive branch the entirety of what is evidence of the predators child sex trafficking ring. And that would help the victims and survivors obtain justice. In civil cases seeking monetary relief and in criminal prosecutions by a not conflicted, not corrupted Department of Justice. The answer to that is and always has been a resounding no. And the more that the House Oversight Committee and led by the Democrats bring in witness after witness after witness, including the accountants and the bookkeepers and the, and the money men around Jeffrey Epstein, the more we're discovering just the extent of what is missing, the known unknowns, if you will. We've always suspected based on testimony, if you will, and interviews given by Michael Wolf, the journalist who was the last person that Epstein spoke to before whatever happened to him in that jail cell happened, was writing a book about him, had access to his papers, to his pictures, photos and the rest. We always wondered where, when the FBI seized everything, what happened to the photos that Michael Wolf said he was shown of Donald Trump with a young girl or woman on his lap and that, that Epstein showed, according to Michael Wolf. Michael Wolf, what happened to those photos? What happened to the hard drives that were seized and by the FBI and other things? And why did even after the seizures, why did the Epstein estate continue to have documents that they were spoon feeding to the Oversight Committee rather than producing them outright? Why weren't they with the FBI? And now Democrats are demanding more information about what happened to the, to the hard drives and other data and, and why they were removed and where is the list of them? Because we had Darren Indyke, who was the lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein, and he said that Epstein's hard drives had been obtained by private investigators. We also had the accountant, Mr. Kahn, testify about these things as well. Where are the hard drives that were removed from the Epstein residence? So we have that happening. Then you have just in the last 24 hours, bank of America joining JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche bank in making a major settlement, reaching a major settlement with the victims and survivors of the Epstein scandal because of their role in facilitating financially the transactions that kept the child sex trafficking ring alive. In other words, Epstein didn't keep his money under his mattress. There were plenty of enablers, willing or unwilling, who did not do proper onboarding, proper knowing of their customer as required by anti money laundering laws, bank secrecy laws, the Patriot Act. I worked in a financial institution. I work closely with the compliance department. I know what good governance and compliance looks like. And you need to know not only your customer, like his name. But you have to know what are the sources of these large deposits? Why is, why is leon black depositing $175 million into Jeffrey Epstein's account? Why is Les Wexner, who founded the Limited and Victoria Secrets, why is he putting a billion dollars into Jeffrey Epstein's account? And then after 2008 when the cat was out of the bag and Epstein had to confess at least to participating in child prostitution in a, in a New Jersey claim and in 2009 being indicted and all of that, why did the banks continue to look, turn a blind eye to what his, whether his legitimate, whether his business practices were legitimate or not or whether they were being used to fuel his depraved criminal enterprise and those participated in by other people. That's why JP Morgan Chase paid a lot more, paid 250 million dollars and Deutsche bank paid 75 million and now bank of America 72 and a half million dollars. And this goes into after a deductive about a third for attorneys fees. This goes into various funds administered by a fund administrator that will then go to those survivors that fit the class action definition. Class definition for instance in the one that just settled yesterday to be approved by a federal judge. The it's anybody who was a victim from a defined period of time, I think it's like 2008 to like 2019 and there's at least 6, 60, 60 probably more women who fit that bill and will be entitled to a part of the $52 million or so that's left after attorney's fees. There's another class action lawsuit independent of the three that I just talked about giving the victims up to $500 million less attorneys fees in, in, in some measure of justice. There's a new one that got filed in the Northern District of California in San Francisco against Google and the Trump administration because of the sloppy way the Trump administration released the 3,000,000 files pursuant to the Epstein Transparency act without taking pains to protect the identity and the personal identifying information of the victims. Re victimizing, re traumatizing them all over again. And when it came to Google it's worse because they're profiting off of this data from the, the, the, the women and girls at the time's names and personal identifying information. And they did a test and put it into the complaint. The lawyers, they said we went on AI mode for Google and we put in a person's name that we knew was a victim. And we asked Google is this person in the Epstein files? And they said yes they are. And then just casually said they're in 16 emails in an exchange between this that like are you kidding me? And so of course there's ads around that and all sorts of things. Google being also the parent for YouTube. And so they're being sued for profiting off of the depraved failure by the Department of Justice to protect the identities of these victims and re traumatizing them all over again. The Trump and being sued for negligent infliction of emotional distress Trump administration. And the fact that the Trump administration is being sued also indicates something else. They had the chance to settle this case before the lawsuit was filed because before you can sue the United States of America or any arm of it, it you have to go through the Federal Tort Claims act and make a claim and Give the government 180 days to consider your claim and decide whether they want to settle with it before you can go into court. So the fact that they just filed means that the government already rejected voluntarily settling with the Epstein victims re traumatizing them once again. They have got no problem settling with Michael Flynn, the convicted perjurer and give him a million dollars or Ashley Babbitt who tried to break into the speaker's hallway and and do harm to whoever was inside the chambers on January 6th and give her family $5 million. But God forbid they do anything and lift a finger to help the Epstein survivors. And that's what this, that lawsuit that I'm describing is all about. And this is a function of really high caliber plaintiffs lawyers who are drilling down on these concentric circles of financial and other institutions that enabled Jeffrey Epstein and following the money. This won't be the last class action I'm going to report on. There were accountants, there were lawyers, there were certified public accountants, there were other vendors that knew or should have known that they were in business and in bed with a child sex trafficker or at least questioned it. And that's why they're going to end up having to pay. Now Google should know better because they just lost in the last week in a jury trial in LA brought by a teenager who successfully convinced the jury that her mental health was harmed by the algorithm used by Meta, Facebook, Instagram and Google, YouTube and all that in what content they sent her away which led to her depression, suicidal thoughts and the like. And a jury including punitive damages awarded $9 million. Tick Tock, saw it coming, got out of the way and settled with with that family. That's just one person. The class action it will be all people like Epstein survivors. So if they think this is a joke, juries are in no laughing. It's not. No laughing matter to juries. And they're not in a good mood about, about companies like Google and entities like Trump's administration and, and them being seen to be completely callous when it comes to the survivors of child sex trafficking, especially one that it looks like very sincerely that Trump is covering up about. So we got that going on. And then lastly, Todd Blanche has a knack as the number two lawyer in the Department of Justice, who's often rumored to be the guy that Trump will replace Pam Bondi with as the Attorney General. But he has a knack for putting his foot in his mouth and confessing out loud and creating evidence that helps defense lawyers everywhere in cases against the government. I've never seen such a thing before. He doesn't have to attend political rallies. In fact, you'd think the Department of Justice wouldn't attend political rallies if they were truly independent, if they were truly not apolitical. Right? That's what you want your Department of Justice and FBI to be. But we know those days ended when Donald Trump returned to power. We have a political hack heading the FBI. And Cash Patel, former right wing podcaster, his right hand person was also a right wing podcaster. We've got Tulsi Gabbard. You know, we've got Pam Bondi, who is a political hack of the highest, highest degree. Whenever she goes to a conference, to a, an oversight committee hearing, she's always, she's always got these palm cards where she reads out loud about the success of the Trump administration instead of talking about the rule of law and corruption in her own Department of Justice. And so Todd Blanche goes to cpac, the conservative political action committee, and he says a remarkable thing which helps every plaintiff's lawyer that is handling cases against the Trump administration for what's called retaliatory firing, that they're being fired not because they did anything wrong, but because of their being assigned to a Trump case, a Trump investigation, which they had no control over. So Blanche gets up on stage and says, I want the audience to know that everybody in the Department of Justice and FBI that worked on the two criminal investigations that Jack Smith spearheaded against Trump are gone. I'm like, well, that's timely because there's a lawsuit, because I brought the lawyer on. There's a lawyer. And she. And I work, I don't work at a firm, but I'm of counsel to a firm called the, the Donna Perry firm, the Perry law firm in New York and one of their senior lawyers brought a case just in the last week on behalf of two FBI agents who had exemplary records, in fact, got commendations and merit bonuses and awards and all sorts of things. But they were assigned. They didn't volunteer. They were assigned to work on Jack Smith's team for a very short amount of time and got fired. And so if I'm the plaintiff's lawyer, that is in a deposition or at trial, better that is exhibit A. So Blanche killing his own. He didn't have to go do that interview. He didn't have to say that out loud, but he did. And it's not the only time Top Blanche has put his big fat foot in his mouth. You know, we're waiting any day now because the briefing is complete for Judge Crenshaw in the Eastern District of Tennessee who presides over the Kilber Abrego Garcia criminal case. He's this close to dismissing that indictment and making Abrego a free man completely by finding that the government vindictively prosecuted the case. And there's standards for determining whether vindictive prosecution has happened. But the judge already shifted the burden. Now it's on the government to prove to the judge that they did not vindictively prosecute it because enough evidence was presented by the Brago Garcia side to demonstrate that there was vindict, at least there was probable cause, if you would, to will to believe that vindictive prosecution occurred. So they met their burden. Now it's up to the government to defeat it. And the number one piece of evidence that the judge, Judge Crenshaw used to shift the burden back on the government was a clip from Todd Blanche on Laura Ingraham's show, basically confessing that they vindictively prosecuted Abrego Garcia after they got a ruling they didn't like from Judge Zinnis in federal court in Maryland about his civil rights and civil liberties and ordering him be returned to from El Salvador and the torture prison there where he was dumped off by the Trump administration without due process. He admitted the vindictive prosecution. So we're waiting any moment now and we'll report on it on illegal AF and on Midas touch about Judge Crenshaw's decision. If I was a betting person, I would say Crenshaw is going to dismiss the indictment, that the government did not meet its burden. They refuse to put Todd Blanche on the stand consistent with what Ben and I talked about earlier tonight. They just refuse to put any leader on the stand because they know that'll go terribly for them because they'll be sworn to tell the truth. You know, it's like, it's like the devil entering a church. I'm sure they'll say it burns, it burns. And they won't be able to do it. So they just avoid the whole thing. They put on, they tried to argue around supposed to some terrible emails that indicated that Washington was running the Tennessee prosecution against Abrego Garcia. And I think that's a dead bag loser. And again, Todd Blanche can't help himself by putting his silver foot in his mouth, you know, every time. And this is what we're watching because this is an out of gas, this is a gassed administration intellectually, morally, from a judgment standpoint, because 7,000 people left the Department of Justice and that's a lot, by the way, and not been replaced. The strain and stress on top leadership, the top five or six people, is extraordinary. That's why we talked about Todd Lyons, the head of ice, who's, who's, who's got crying jags going on and needs to having it. It's a good old fashioned, what my late mother would call a nervous breakdown in, in plain sight. The reason for that is that they are so stressed out and it's such an abusive environment inside the Trump administration. Now you understand why the policies are so warped and corrupted because they're being warped and corrupted inside by the human beings who are the leaders, the Stephen Millers, the Russ votes, Pam Bondi I don't really see as a leader. I think, I think it's Trump screams at Bondi, who then in an unhinged manner screams at the press or elected officials. I think that's sort of how that goes. But that is on full display with this administration, which is why we always bring it back to the politics. Part of the law part, which is America is noticing the unhinged, immoral, lawless quality of the Trump administration. And all of the things are just data points that Ben and I have laid out tonight, whether it's inside or outside, whether it's our adversary. I mean, Ben and I joked before we got on the air today that it's a sad state of affairs where I find that I'm trusting more the propaganda coming out of the Iranian regime than I can my own government and its spokespeople about what is really happening or not happening, about the war or the ceasefire or peace negotiations. That's a sad state of affairs. One that the Iranians are smartly using to their credit to wage what is effectively an asymmetrical war because they can't beat the American war machine. So they have to out think and out strategize, Use some cheap drones against the billion dollar bumper buck busters, hit strategic and tactical targets, you know, and look like the more reasonable and logical of the two parties to the rest of the world. I never thought I'd be saying this, and I'm not an apologist for the Iranian regime, but as between the two, who looks more logical and reasonable as a stakeholder in the negotiations? You can put it in chat, but the American people understand that the Iranian war has only weakened the American position around the world. That the world now knows that the emperor not only has no clothes, but is cracked. It has gone bonkers and that has weakened our national security. The war in Iran and, and setting the Middle east on fire and making our allies in the Middle east not trust us makes us as Americans less safe, not more safe. And the fact that we, that, you know, it's one thing to threaten war and maybe strategically hit a nuclear facility here and there, it's another thing to show that you have no appropriate war strategy and, and, and that the world and your enemies start laughing at you. And that makes us very insecure. If Trump doesn't think this is emboldening Putin and North Korea and China to continue to test America under Donald Trump, I mean, then I don't know what he's watching. Putin is rubbing his hands in glee watching an outmatched Donald Trump be out foxed by the Iranians. You know, any, any chimpanzee could drop the bomb. Yeah, that's not hard. You can train anybody to push the button, control a drone. What's your strategy? What's your tactics? What's your end game? What's the exit? These are all unanswered questions because we're watching an administration that's run by, by infants. You know, that's no disservice to infants, but that's what we're watching. And that's why to tie it and wrap it up here at the end of the show. No Kings Day so important today so honored that many of the no Kings protesters on the streets are people who watch and, and love and find community and fellowship on Midas, touch on legal af. We do all that we do every minute of the day. From the minute I get up in the morning and until the minute my head hits the pillow at night, all I do is think about how to connect with, educate, activate our audience and do it in an honest way, with honest, independent commentary without Censorship so that you have what you need on the street, in your social media, around your kitchen table, at work, if that's still allowed to debate what is right and what is wrong. Because there is a right and a wrong, what is factual and what is a lie. And in the, in the marketplace of ideas, in our participatory democracy, which is a contact sport, and I don't mean that in a violent way, this is what we're watching. The 50, 60 million people over five or six marches, the 10 million people or more today. What we're watching is people understanding that this is a contact sport, that there's. That this. You have to get off the sidelines and you have to get into the streets. The Attorney General of Arizona and that of California, Chris Mays and Rob Bonta refer to it as the three Cs. We cover all three Cs. Between the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, it's courts, crowds and courage, right? Talked a lot about all three Cs today. It takes a lot of courage of federal judges, of the person on the street to stand up for their. Our patriotism, our values as embodied in our governing documents of the Constitution and the. Including the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. These are our governing documents. Takes a lot of courage to defend those and our rule of law from the vantage point of being a judge. But it takes even more courage to be one of 10 million people today to go into the streets against all odds and maybe a National Guard and maybe an ICE or Border Patrol or whatever other obstacles have broken out. But this peaceful movement, which Midas has helped not create, but helped organize, I guess, the right way or to have a place, a consistent place, a consistent home that lives on beyond the three or four times a year that we're able to all get together on the street. That is the beauty of this audience, of its commitment to Midas and Midas commitment back to them. And by extension, of course, Legal af. We didn't get to mention at the top of the show, but this is the sixth year anniversary of Midas Touches podcast. This is the fifth year, almost to the same day, fifth year anniversary of the show we call Legal af, which you're on right now. If you back it up to when Ben and I started doing legal and political reporting together as a team, it's really also the sixth year. Some of you have been with us for the five and six years. Some of you are new tonight. And yet we welcome all of you to this audience, an amazing audience that gives us such pride and such a chill down our spine every time we do a video. We, you know, we do a live report or, or we do our podcast. And so, so pleased that you're here for us as we continue to grow this pro democracy channel and that of Legal af the way, of course, to support what we do, become a subscriber on the Midas Touch Network. Become a subscriber on Legal AF YouTube. I think this weekend we're going to go to 1.1 million subscribers, which is fantastic. I got some great content, goes up 12 videos a day. Little programming guide for the Legal AF YouTube channel. This coming week I'm going to have Representative Jamie Raskin, who is of course the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee. He'll be joining me. Representative Summer Lee will be joining me. She's on the Oversight Committee's about the Epstein matter as well. I think you're going to find what she has to say fascinating as we continue to grow that Scott McFarland, who just joined as the Washington bureau chief and anchor for the Midas Touch, is going to be doing some crossover episodes and programming with me over on Legal AF YouTube channel on the Intersection, my podcast on Tuesday nights exclusively on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF Substack, where I do two lives a day. Yes, I do one. You already had one today with me on substack. And Scott McFarland will be joining me regularly on Substack. I'm running a special no King's Day sale. And in Honor of our 5th or 6th anniversary, 35 off on legal AF substack paid membership will certainly give you a return on your investment for your support. Of course, we've got our great Pro Democracy sponsors, all hand picked and curated by Jordan Meisellis over on the brothers podcast. So appreciate you being here. Thanks for a lively set of chats tonight and for your participation if you're able to in no Kings Day. Until my next report. And for Ben Mysalas, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal afers. 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 Cachava's 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. 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