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Ben
Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile.
- [00:02]
Michael Popak
Are you looking for a beach read this summer?
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Ben
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Michael Popak
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Ben
Thoughts I I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
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Michael Popak
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Ben
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Michael Popak
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Ben
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Michael Popak
Book direct@ChoiceHotels.com Ever wonder where Tropicana got its name?
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Ben
The Tropics.
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Michael Popak
And every time you enjoy a glass, you're not just drinking juice.
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Ben
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Michael Popak
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Ben
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Michael Popak
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Ben
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Michael Popak
An army hung on her every word. My champions, I have sold my chariot on Carvana.
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Ben
Twas a lovely suv, an inexplicably queenly offer.
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Michael Popak
They're even coming to the castle to collect it.
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Ben
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Michael Popak
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- [02:12]
Ben
We've got a lot to discuss on today's episode of Legal af. As I often see in the comments section of our podcast, Donald Trump using war crimes to cover up sex crimes. We can forget the Trump regime's cover up of the Epstein files. And there was a lot of developments this week regarding the Trump regime's cover up of the Epstein files. Midas Touch Network host Katie Fang continues to lead the charge in order to release some of the millions of Epstein files that are still being concealed. There have been a lot of developments as the block Todd Blanch from becoming the next Attorney General, he's the acting ag, but from being officially confirmed as the Attorney General to the Block Blanch movement picking up steam. And an individual who was linked to Epstein's recruitment and trafficking operations suddenly died in France. We'll talk about that. I have to mention at the outset as well that deranged Donald Trump speech at the White House Correspondents Dinner. It's also so odd to see reporters who were covering Donald Trump on stage with him. I mean, you saw the Wall Street Journal reporters, they got an award for covering Donald Trump's cover up of the Epstein files. Donald Trump, like docs, the reporters and then the Wall Street Journal reporters who got the award, like, shook his hand on stage. And then Donald Trump gave that speech, which as we would sometimes say in the law, I want to declare a doubt regarding his ability to even function and to, and to even, you know, do anything anymore. I mean, there's so many people who are call the 25th Amendment after that deranged, whatever you want to call it. Notably as well, you know, you had the Tate brothers arrest right after hanging out with Paulo Zompoli. I mean, the Epstein links continue here over and over again. Zompoli was the individual who helped bring Melania into the United States. And then he arranged for the meeting between Melania and Donald Trump at the Kit Kat Club. Zampoli had previously bragged, isn't it a badge of honor to be in the Epstein files and be linked to him? All the cool people were doing it is what Zompoli said. No, that's actually a sick and disgusting thing to say. We'll talk more about that. Special counsel Jack Smith, through his counsel blasting Jim Jordan and these MAGA Republicans in the House for predictably referring Jack Smith to criminal for criminal prosecution to Todd Blanche. And you have Democrats now in the House all saying, where's Baron? We need to subpoena Baron for his connection to the Tate brothers. Baron crypto deals. Democratic Congresswoman Ansari leading the Where's Barron charge. Get that guy under subpoena. He's not a little child like Trump and Melania. Try to act like he is. Get him under oath. Where is Barron? Where's Michael Popak? There he is. Michael Popo.
- [05:17]
Michael Popak
That was an awkward segue. Popo's not connected to the tape brothers.
- [05:22]
Ben
Not connected.
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Michael Popak
Not connected.
- [05:25]
Ben
Where are you? Meaning you're right here?
- [05:28]
Michael Popak
Yes. Okay, so we've got, boy, look at how all this tangled web is interconnected. I mean, we're going to touch on and Dive into so many things that link back to Epstein, child sex trafficking rings and Donald Trump and people in his inner circle which also ties back to Todd Blanch and his attempt to become the Attorney General and head up the most corrupt Department of Justice. You touched on. The two things that I'm watching that are sort of linked, that you touched on are I don't understand the White House cor. I literally don't understand the White House Correspondents Dinner any longer. Besides that, that weird host, reporters winning an award for, for the reporting on the links between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein being greeted by their captor. That's all I could, I could call it. And that sort of awkward moment, I guess they got to have this event. But I thought the entire justification for the ballroom was because of what happened three months ago at the White House Correspondents Dinner where when the would be assassin a floor below was apprehended. And I thought that that was the reason that we can't hold the White House Correspondence dinner anywhere but in a secure bunker and or at the White House in a ballroom to be built in the future. So how did they pull it off at the Waldorf Astoria, formerly the Trump Hotel in the old post office? How is that any more secure? That has drone protecting and other types of security features. And the reason I'm following it is any minute now, looking at the giant legal AF watch on my arm, any minute now the three judge panel of the appellate court in D.C. is going to issue its ruling about the ballroom. And you don't think that they watch TV or they don't know about the White House Correspondents Dinner. And the lawyers immediately follow to try to take advantage of that, that horrific event at the, at the White House Correspondents Dinner in the past said oh that's why we need a ballroom. Well, let's see what happens when Judge Millet and Judge Garcia In a 2 to 1 decision, I'm sure they'll, Judge Rao will be in dissent, rule against the ballroom and maybe even cite the fact that well, they seem to be able to operate White House correspondence dinner without a ballroom. If that was your justification. That and the other things we're following which we'll touch on which is in the Epstein world. There's new reporting coming out of Bloomberg about the air Epstein and how he used the combination of the Eurostar trains, American Express and his relationship manager with his black card and thousands of air ticket airline tickets to conduct his international child sex trafficking ring. So for those that thought that's interesting, right? How did he do it all and shuttle all of these. Of these, his prey, among the various properties he owned in France and in London and in New York and in. And in Arizona and in. How did he do all that? Yeah, well, this is how he did it. And he was helped by the enablers, not only in banks, but in places like American Express that helped get travel visas when they shouldn't have for his unsuspecting prey.
- [09:03]
Ben
War crimes to cover up sex crimes. And as Donald Trump this week has escalated the catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran, as the Trump regime continues to attack the international criminal courts, as Donald Trump will go back and forth between I'm going to destroy the bridges, I'm going to destroy the power plants. I'm having good negotiations with Oman. We're very, very close. I mean, we're in that loop again. The American people are suffering. The American people are unable to afford, like, anything right now. I've been showcasing some videos in some of the live streams that I do of people opening up their refrigerator and there's two or three items in it. I describe the feeling that a lot of people convey to me when they go to a grocery store and they're checking out and each beep on one of the items of food sounds like a heart monitor. Beep, beep, beep. And you look at the price and you go, I can't have that item. I can't have that item. People can't afford gas or anything. And this Trump regime, the people who were there on the dais on the stage yesterday at the White House Correspondents Dinner, are actively and very publicly covering up a child sex trafficking ring. And they're just doing it now openly because they've been exposed thanks to the great work of people like Rohana and Thomas Massie, like Katie Fang, like so many of the people we try to highlight here on the Midas Touch Network. But most significantly, because of the survivors, and these survivors have made sure their voices are heard. And I'm going to toss it back to you, Popak, as you give us a lot of the developments in Epstein this week, including the death of somebody by the name of Daniel Said, a modeling scout and recruiter for Epstein for several years, suddenly found dead in his home in Paris. There's a lot of international investigation taking place. A lot of the documents being withheld are international documents because the Trump regime has taken the position of that they're not going to translate international documents, that somehow they've construed that as being outside of the Epstein Transparency Act. It's one of the things Katie Fang has brought up in her filings and which the judge ordered the Trump regime turn over the foreign language documents. What are you doing? They're covering up at least 4 million documents, perhaps more. That may be in terms of pages, 25 to 30 million pages because documents can be multi page documents. But getting back to the survivors, they wrote a letter to Tom Tillis, senator from North Carolina, John Cornyn, the senator from Texas who are the swing votes on the Judiciary Committee in the Senate. And they wanted Todd Blanche to meet with the survivors. As we talked about last week, Blanche was incredibly hostile to the survivors when he did this meeting. He further traumatized them and caused them more ptsd. He was rude, abrasive attack. He attacked the survivors. He couldn't even pretend to be normal. So the survivors wrote a letter to these two Republican senators and basically said, hey, you said to him for him to meet with us, but now y' all traumatized us too by having him meet with us. And y' all are in it now because look how he treated us. Popak, I want to toss it over to you with one final quick reflection. That that lunatic that we saw on the stage who was not even close to being funny, who is rude, abrasive, misogynistic, a freaking weird creature, I don't even know what the hell that was. That's the person who is doing all of this stuff that's causing us pain. We saw it. It's not even that the emperor has no clothes. This, this is someone who is so out there, so addled, so unfit that it is words can fully even capture whatever the hell that is that we saw. Popak, give us the Epstein updates.
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Michael Popak
Yeah, absolutely. And American people, by the way, Ben, see this flailing, scandal ridden, scar ridden presidency and have fully rejected it. The polling numbers are horrendous and can't. That's why every time a polling, a poll comes out from hundreds of reputable polling agencies and Donald Trump is now floundering with the plus or minus margin of error in the low 30s, probably lower than that. And not just with Democrats, but his approval rating with liberals and I'm sorry, with independence is even worse than that. We're talking about in the lower 20s and he can't win midterm or beyond his party with numbers of independents in the 20s and even Republican, even Maga identifying Republicans are. The number of rejection of Donald Trump is upwards of 30%. I mean when you lose 30% of your base, all of your independents, you know, the bulk of Your women voters. You're under 30 voters. You, you know, you're, you're. He is below water. We've done polling videos, you and I. He's underwater by a favorable, unfair favorability by 15 points on average in every battleground state right now, including all the ones that he ran the table on against Kamala Harris. So in Trump world, if they are diluted, I'd like to know what edibles they are on. If they are diluted into thinking that they can overcome these numbers by continuing to harm America's ability to afford their lifestyles or have the dignity of a lifestyle, and roll out new tariffs which are as illegal as the original tariffs, which also harm the American voter, and get away with it. And just have some cheap jokes written for him by some hack comic and, and think. And take potshots at all of his political targets and have the press, not us, but have the mainline press sit there in mock horror having to be subjected to this. He's got another thing coming. And the thing that is the third rail for him, which he continues to grab and electrocute himself, is over child sex trafficking. Now, somebody in the White House, I don't know if it was James Blair, you know, based on prior reporting, where somebody said, you know what? We probably don't need to be associated with two international child sex trafficking rings. And that's where the Tate brothers miscalculated because there was nobody closer to the Trump family and to Baron Trump in particular and to Trump, and helped to get him elected than those two tape brothers now facing 59 criminal indictments, criminal counts of indictment in the United Kingdom being held down the street from me in the federal detention center in Miami and going to be extradited because Marco Rubio, who has the power to stop it, is not going to stop it, because somebody said, well, maybe one, we could have gotten away with one child sex trafficking ring involvement, but we can't have two, because that's some of the counts against the Tate brothers. Tate brothers are so connected to Donald Trump that they were partying at a dinner the night before they were captured in Miami with, with Paolo Zampoli, who, as you said, introduced Melania to Donald Trump in the 1980s at the Kit Kat Club and is Donald Trump's special envoy inside the White House when he's not busy having deported his, his common law wife back to Brazil. So Paolo Zampoli, who, as you said, didn't think, he thought it was a badge of honor to be listed in the Epstein files, was partying with the Tape brothers who frequently had conversations with Barron and comforted Barron when their father in Butler, Pennsylvania, whatever happened there. And so somebody said no, even though they intervened at the Munich security conference to get them back their passports. Richard Grinnell, who's the chairman of the Trump Kennedy center, was in there lobbying the foreign minister of Romania to give the Tate brothers their passports back and let them freely travel, which happened. The Border Patrol intervened to give them back their devices when they came to the United States. Another time. But I guess a bridge too far is that they have not gotten clear of the Epstein scandal and Donald Trump's involvement with it. And Blanche and the Block Blanche movement is gaining steam because it's being led by, in terms of all the scandals that have Donald Trump's name on it, the only one where you can put a really effective human face to it are the Epstein survivors. Because the Jan6Fund. Who's the face of the Jan6Fund? Trump. The Jan Sixers who attacked the Capitol. But the sex abuse survivors like Danny Bensky and Lisa Phillips and others who have and the farmers and the others who have come forward, they can really lead the charge to pin that scandal and the COVID up and the COVID up of the COVID up on Todd Blanche. And that's what we're watching. So in the Katie Fang case, I checked right before we recorded we got on the air today. Judge Sullivan hasn't ruled yet, but it's come at any moment now. It may be while I'm in flight, I start a working holiday on, on Sunday or. Yeah, tomorrow. It's any moment now. And there he's going to throw. I'd be shocked if he doesn't throw the book at the Department of Justice. Stan Woodward and Todd Blanch for what they just filed to in to try to stop contempt charges against them for the COVID up of the Epstein files. This is simple. Katie, our friend and lawyer, I've interviewed her. I've interviewed Brendan Ballou, her attorney. They kept it really simple. Five categories of documents that are obviously missing from the production required by the Epstein file. Transparency Act. Foreign language documents in an international child sex trafficking ring. Sounds important. Sounds like if you were a prosecutor and you had a defendant on the other side, you'd have to turn those over. You'd have to translate them first so you knew what you were turning over and you'd have to turn them over pursuant to law. And yet here they're like so complicated. So we didn't do it. The handwritten, four sets of handwritten FBI notes, we call them the 302 notes about a woman who claims that when she was 13 years old she was sexually abused by Donald Trump. The emails unredacted about a sex torture video. And the log, where is the effing redaction log of the 200,000 blackout? Effectively not produced documents. You gotta log it, man. You gotta list the serial number for the document. You gotta list what a kind of an overview of what it is without maybe revealing it. And then why are you redacting it so that it can be challenged in a court of law or somewhere else? It's missing. It's missing because Brendan Ballou, the lawyer for Katie Fang told me he believed they never did it in real time at all, even though they were required to do it by the Epstein File Transparency Act. And now they're stuck trying to figure out how to go through 3 million documents and properly catalog it. And so the Judge Sullivan gave the last word to the Department of Justice and gave them seven days Ben to file a response. And they filed a two page typo riddled response that did not address any of the arguments in Katie's filing, did not explain why adequately in good faith they could not translate or did not translate the documents which was not subject to an order to show cause. The judge ordered them to start the translation and give him an update and they refused to do that. That alone should lead the judge into contempt sanctions against the lawyers involved, including Todd Blanche and the fact that they spent. It was barely two pages. It took them seven days to do it and it was so error filled and just attacks on Katie Fang and attacks on the survivors and attacks on the judge. I think having seen what Emmett Sullivan did the first time around, especially when the, when they missed and insulted him by missing a deadline, I think he's going to throw the book at them. I'd be shocked if he doesn't. And kudos to Katie and her lawyers of Public Integrity Project for asking for contempt against Todd Blanch. And this is all part of the body of work, or what we now refer to as the rap sheet against Todd Blanche and his nomination. And while they may squeak by this coming week 12 to 10 to get out of committee, the fight is on the floor of the Senate. And even though some of these people like Tillis and Cornyn may come around to letting him get out of committee, their vote is still up for grabs again on the Senate floor. And you and I, Legal AF and Midas Dutch have been leading the block Blanche movement. I have up a live stream up on the live tab on Legal, a YouTube channel of what we just hosted along with not above the Law with Dick Durbin and Representative Lamonica MacGyver, Representative Ro Khanna and at large public interest groups about what we can do to block Todd Blanche. I just interviewed the NAACP's general counsel. I said, what's the number thing, number one thing our audience needs to do to block Todd Blanche? She said, it's easy. She said, you phone your senator or any senator and you make a pest of yourself. And, and so we commend that to our audience as well. So that's what's happening in sort of the Epstein world. And then I'll turn it over to you for the death of Said and why that's connected to all things Donald Trump as well. Yeah.
- [24:06]
Ben
It happens at the same time that Democratic Congressmember Jamie Raskin, who's the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, sent out a letter to Todd Blanche and to others at the DOJ talking about how he wants to see these foreign records immediately. And I think while Congressmember Raskin recognizes that with Democrats not controlling the House of Representatives, his power sadly is limited to a letter. For now, he's laying the groundwork, I think, to very quickly issue the formal subpoenas and then bring the formal actions in court when Todd Blanche or who's ever at the DOJ refuses to turn over these documents. And so Congressmember Askin right now, ensuring that by the time we all believe, based on the current trajectory of things, Democrats will take control of the House, he can say, I sent you 10 letters and now we're not starting from the beginning. I want those documents. We'll talk about that and more. I want to take our first quick break of the show. A reminder. If you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident, a trucking accident, if you or someone you know suffered a catastrophic injury because of the negligence of a third party, be it a company or person or something else, reach out to Popak's firm. Consultation is free. Call or text 877- POPOC-AF or visit thepopoc firm.com call or text 877- POPAKAF or visit thepopocfirm.com don't be shy. Popak is representing a lot of listeners and viewers of Legal AF currently right now in important cases across the country. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel and the Legal AF substack. Both are growing very rapidly thanks to this incredible community. And make sure you subscribe now and pre order WTF America While you're at it as well comes out in October. Let's take our first break of the show.
- [26:13]
Michael Popak
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- [28:54]
Ben
Welcome back to Legal af. Thank you to all of our sponsors. They help support the show. Support our sponsors Michael Popak and Jordi. Spend a long time with those sponsors to get those good discount codes. So check them out. A link to those sponsors with the discount codes are in the description below. We're going to talk now about these two important legal letters that were sent by Democratic Congress member Jamie Raskin, who's the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, meaning that he's the top Democrat on that committee, meaning if and when Democrats take control of the House, he'll become the chairman. Currently, the chairman is someone who doesn't have a license to practice law. I always think it's important to point that out. We'll talk about Jim Jordan in this section. That Jim Jordan, he went to law school but he never took the bar exam or passed the bar exam. And let me be very clear, just because I've taken, I studied that exam. It made me no smarter a person that I passed the bar exam. I'll just, I'll just say that, you know, it was a three day exam when I took it. It was 18 hours long. You study a long time for the thing. I don't feel that, that adequately determined if you were going to be a good. Can you really endure an 18 hour test like that? But I do want to say this. When we're talking about the chair of the Judiciary Committee, you kind of want them to probably be a licensed lawyer. To me that, but, but, but not in MAGA world. You know, and also when you think about, you know, a Todd Blanche, you know, he may say I did a meeting with the Epstein survivors to check a box. But didn't we aspire to more than check a box law and order or check a box justice? More alarmingly, with the Trump regime, it's check the box but then do the opposite. I met with the Epstein survivors. Yeah, but you re traumatized them. You went in there and you caused them harm and pain and suffering and you were a jerk and you were terrible in that room. So you don't get applauded. You know, and that's a lot of this Trump regime stuff. They will talk about the flag, they'll say the word troops. They'll say they're fiscal hawks, they'll Say they're deficit hawks, they'll say they're China hawks. They'll see. You know, they always love hawks. They say all of this stuff. But, you know, these are the people who run up more debt than anybody else. These are people who are so negligent and reckless and malicious with the deficit. These are people who watch Donald Trump give away classified information and or previously classified information to China, to uae, to Saudi Arabia as the US Security umbrella breaks in the Middle East. The great deal maker, and I put that in quotes, in air quotes, because he doesn't do deals at all. He has to deal with the quid pro quos, where they've given him and Kushner and his family a lot of stuff, but places like Saudi Arabia, places like uae. So all of a sudden, our classified and highly secretive semiconductor programs find their way in the uae, which find their way into China, who can do a very good job at recreating once they have the baseline technology and they don't need to then keep on buying the chips over and over again, they can make it their own once they get access to what used to be national security, used to mean something. National security information. Saudi Arabia. Donald Trump announces, we're going to be doing a nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia. But Trump says, not going to do enrichment, but we're going to do a nuclear deal. It's like, do you even understand the way nuclear material works in civil nuclear programs? Except for a really rare subset in Canada, but overwhelmingly, all these civil nuclear programs have enriched uranium. The issue is whether it's weapons grade or whether it is not weapons grade. And one of the issues when you have civilian nuclear programs is how quickly you can make it from non weapons grade to weapons grade, because there is always enrichment. And the central conversation that was happening back in February, which could have avoided this whole catastrophic and unlawful war and which Biden dealt with in the jcpoa many, many, many a year ago, was the idea of down blending and monitoring the uranium to ensure it does not get to weapons grade, that it is diluted, that it is down blended, and there's a whole apparatus to ensure that that takes place and surveillance and the whole restructure regiment. That's how you do it. And Donald, and even the Iranian negotiators of the Omani mediator was out there saying, you know, Trump has Kushner and Woodcock. They don't understand. They keep saying, you can't do enriched. You can't do enriched. Civil nuclear programs have enriched uranium. It's like, they don't know what they're talking about. And this is the an important point. When we cover on Legal AF all of these developments, I never want to lose sight of the fact that Donald Trump hates the law. He hates courts for a reason, because he loves to lie about everything. He's not a deal maker. He's a deal destroyer. And when you're in court, when you follow the rules of evidence, when you have to get out accurate information, probative, that outweighs the prejudicial value, non hearsay, he can't deal with it. He can't deal with it because he's a liar, a loser and a deal breacher and a deal breaker. That's who Donald Trump's been his whole damn life. And so it's important just at a macro level, we remember and we know these things. When we talk next segment about Donald Trump's case against the BBC, it actually resembles Donald Trump's pathological behavior and going to war. A splashy headline, epic fury. A splashly headline, $10 billion lawsuit. Donald Trump says, oh, we're so strong and powerful. Well, when the other side fights back, when the other side takes action, what does Donald Trump do? He runs away. He makes up lies. He refuses to participate. He blames the referees, blames this person, blames that person. And then you get into this loop of delay, delay, delay, delay, delay, delay, and you can study his litigation tactics and say, we're trapped in that right now. Anyway, sorry for that tangent, Pop. I'll go quickly on the, on the letters. And there's a reason why I brought that up to number one. One of the Raskin letters is to these law firms, the big law firms. Scadden Popak may have started his career there.
- [36:02]
Michael Popak
I knew I was going to get thrown under the bus eventually. Yeah, Scott again.
- [36:09]
Ben
But in all seriousness, though, these big firms, Jamie Raskin is out there putting out letters saying, I haven't forgot about you, all of these conflicts of interest. You all bent the knee. One of the first people I'm going to subpoena is you. You're going to come here when we get subpoena power. And y' all remember the steroid error in Major League Baseball where they had like Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, they were Sammy Sosa, whoever was, they were all lined up and they were asking questions. That's going to be all these big law firms. You're going to be there and you're going to be taking the Fifth and your whole legacy, everything you thought you were going to build your top clerkships Everything. You're going to be there one day. And so, Popak, I think those big law firms, just think about that. You're the managing partner. I'll toss it to you, Popak, before I go a little going a little bit in reverse order, but I want to go to this point, these chairmen and chairwomen of these big law firms, and it's sadly mostly chairmen of these, of these law firms who best law school, best clerkships, best this, best that. Jamie Raskin is doing more than just sending a letter to the head of Skadden and their managing partners. He is saying, I want to be on your mind every night when you go to sleep from now until the end of your life, basically, because there's going to be a day where you will be sitting here and you will have to take the oath. And everything you built, your family, your children, your grandchildren, the partners, everything that you thought mattered to you in your life, I am going to make sure that I expose you. And there are lots of us who are going to expose you for the deals that you've made with or whatever promises you've given to Donald Trump. And he gives an example with Scadden, the Intel deal, you were representing Intel, Scadden and Donald Trump took the intel, took the money that Biden was going to give them in the CHIPS act, converted it to the US Government. Owning intel diluted the shareholders, which has led to a derivative lawsuit being filed in Delaware, because the shareholders were like, this was CHIPS act money. So we, you know, we're grateful for the investment, but that was part of the semiconductor investment in this, in this area. And now you're seizing the methods of control and maybe for a little bit, you know, the market likes it, but not in the long term. What the hell are you even doing here? And Scadden, you were you representing Trump at that time, too, as part of the $100 million pro bono work? Popo, break it all down.
- [38:48]
Michael Popak
Yeah, My old law firm, where I started, has had had its share of problems. I mean, there was lobbying that they were to Ukraine, that wasn't disclosed. They paid a huge fine related to that. And so what we refer to as the Am Law, American Lawyer 20 ranking firms, top 10 law firms in the country, many of which bent the knee to Donald Trump at the beginning, led by Boris Epstein, Donald Trump's consulary, and Stephen Miller to go after early on lawyers and law firms to get them to provide Donald Trump with legitimacy. These are firms that rejected Donald Trump and found him to be radioactive primarily because he was adjudged to be a fraudster. He was adjudged to be a sex abuser. He had a failing real estate company that most people in New York knew about and they didn't like what he did on January 6 and his attempts to overthrow the will of the people. And so most firms were like pass and very few firms, almost none of them would represent Donald Trump. That's why that's where Todd Blanch came in. Todd Blanche left a cushy job at a major law firm that was very well known in New York to go out in a solo job by himself with his colleague Emil Bovey. It was a two man shop. I think they had a paralegal, a three person shop. And their sole client captured was Donald Trump. So captured that the original office for Todd Blanch, the law firm of Todd Blanche, was at 40 Wall street owned by Donald Trump. Donald Trump likes to not only capture people, but like make them rent space from him. Whether that's FIFA in New York or it's the Blanche law firm. And so the big law firms, one after another, fell into line, mainly because a lawyer at Sullivan and Cromwell, who's now Donald Trump's primary law firm, going after E. Jean Carroll and trying to claw back money from a sex abuse survivor and the rest. The head of that firm was the one that got the first law firm, the first domino to fall, and that was Paul Weiss in New York with a $40 million free pro bono services to the Trump administration. And then others followed one after another. And it's not only about them bending the knee and stroking the check or providing the legal services. It's that they put their pro bono departments out of business. And those pro bono departments like Wilkie Farr and Gallagher, having represented Ruby Friedman and Shay Moss, the two election workers doxxed and defamed by Rudy Giuliana, really Giuliani and Maga. I'm not saying another firm wouldn't have stepped in and represented them, but Wilkie Farr's pro bono department did. It's non existent. All those firms have gotten out of diversity, equity and inclusion and pro bono programs. And that is the dirty little secret of Donald Trump's success, I hate to use that term, in getting them big law out of defending civil rights and civil liberties for free and instead representing him. There's never been a proper audit of how that billion dollars of free legal services have been provided to the Trump administration. I want Jamie Raskin to get to the bottom of that by bringing in the heads of all these firms. So once all these firms sort of lined up, then Trump was able to get a number of them. Whether it's DLA Piper. I'm gonna name names. Whether it was DL, whether it's DLA Piper representing him in the Trump IRS case with Judge Williams, and having just made their appearance, representing the nra, representing the Trump media company, and now representing Donald Trump and Donald Trump's lawyers in front of Judge Williams, or it's Sullivan and Cromwell doing all of his appeals. Whether it's about the fraud judgment or about Eugene Carroll and everything in between, there has to be an investigation as to not only where were the lawyers during the Trump regime, but which are the ones that collaborated and cooperated with him. And that's when the Democrats get the gavel and they become the chair. When Jamie Raskin becomes the chair of the House Judiciary Committee instead of the ranking member, that's when things are going to change. And, you know, back to my giant legal AF watch. You know, this is already. We're coming into August. You know, Labor Day is around the corner, and what comes after Labor Day? Effectively, Thanksgiving in the midterms before that. So we're already at a midterm vote and a January installation, hopefully, of the Democrats in the House and the. And the Senate. So I want. And you want. And we've been demanding that the Democrats get ready and start doing the laboring work. Now, it's not just big law firms, although they've got a lot of explaining to do under oath. And I like your vision of the tableau, of having all of them there one after another. I mean, that's what the Republicans have been doing, trying to embarrass the historian at the Smithsonian. There's now a new sign that's going out in front of the Smithsonian that says the history that is reflected inside these walls is not consistent with Donald Trump' version of history. Are you effing kidding me? Another sign. Taxpayer dollars we're gonna have to rip down when Donald Trump loses. But he's so vainglorious, Donald Trump, that he thinks he has to tell the world what truth is and what history is. And it's not, as I said, it's not just the law firms. It's the financial institutions. It's the American expresses of the world. It's the banks who helped fund and money launder an international child sex trafficking ring. That was the. Back to Epstein for a minute. The Epstein child sex trafficking ring, of which Donald Trump was connected. I mean, he was. I mean, what I wasn't friends with the two leaders of an international child sex trafficking ring. He was.
- [45:12]
Ben
Right, right. And look, one of the perspectives I have as well, and you know, you offer your perspective being a top litigator and someone who, you know, in your prior life before Legal af, although you still run the POPOC firm, you know, have litigated some of the most high profile cases with these big firms. You know, I, having represented Colin Kaepernick, having worked very closely with know your rights camp, his non profits, and helping Colin build the media company before I started Midas Touch, I remember after the first Trump administration was over, which I still would call regime, all of these same players, these law firms, you know, the bankers, all of them would call up Colin, know your rights camp. What can we do? Can we help over here? Oh, you're running these initiatives, this initiative, that initiative, can we donate money? You know, and I would tell Colin at the time, I would say, you know, it's fascinating because, you know, these are so many of these law firms. And so, you know, back in the first Trump administration, they were very much kind of closer there. And then they seem to be doing their all right. You know, we now care about civil rights and all of these things. And then once Trump took over, you know, these people, you know, you couldn't even hear from him again. And it, there's a broader learning lesson that I think we all need to take, you know, from this, which is also, you know, that the system is broken and that this idea of, you know, you'll have a horrible, awful, authoritarian regime and then you'll have his hope and then you'll go authoritarian regime and then hope and then you'll blame me. Everybody will blame everybody. It's not an affair. It's not an effective functioning way of, of, of, of handling anything. And so one of the things I talk about, by the way, in WTF America, but I talk generally about is that we have to, we have to not look at this in four year cycles or two year cycles. We have to look at this generationally. And Fox was started in the 1970s and look at the damage it's done. We started in 2000, we're six years in, they're 60 years in or so. Okay, they got a head start. But what we're doing on Legal AF, what the Legal AF YouTube channel is doing every day, by bringing in the top legal talent, by the way, voices that in a past world may disagree with us. I mean, we'll have Judge Ludigon who was viewed as kind of the godfather of conservative Supreme Court justices and was the main feeder of all the clerks who went on to work for the Supreme Court. Ludwig was viewed as someone who would be a Supreme Court justice one day. And what he says about the legal AF channel consistently, because you see him on with all of his analysis there that he frequently gives, is that this is the place that is no nonsense and gives the facts and gives the law in the model of what he remembered the law to be. And while, you know, ultimately there may be judicial rulings that we and he disagreed with in the past, the idea and the process of getting to the truth and having evidence and admissible evidence and carrying yourself with integrity, integrity, it's something that we need to bear in mind and talk about a lot. And so I, I, I always want to say that, not to be repetitive, but I don't want to lose sight of what the project is here. So we all understand, yes, we're responding to Daily News, but there's a broader generational project at play as well. And when we see people like Katie Fang fighting for the Epstein Transparency act, when we see, you know, so many others, you know, I mean, the, the on the ground reporting by Aaron Parnas breaking all of these incred, you know, when I think of the reporting that we've done three or four days ahead of the New York Times, Washington Post and others, about the casualties that are taking place in this war, about the injuries, about Trump removing killed in action and wounded in action, about what's really going on with the US Bases in the region that are being destroyed. And we show you the satellite footage that comes from China's satellite footage because the US Is blocking Planet Labs and now they're blocking the European Union satellite footage to prevent us from saying what's going on. So we're looking at other satellite footage that no one in the US Media is talking about. Truth, transparency and the relentless pursuit of justice is what we're doing every day. All right, we're going to come back. I want to talk about the BBC lawsuit. It was a long tease for the Raskin letter on foreign intelligence and getting information like that from the Epstein files and the death of Daniel Syed, we'll talk about that. Let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder. If you or somebody knows been injured in a car accident, trucking accident, if you've been catastrophically injured sadly and tragically, or if you know somebody who was catastrophically injured or was killed in a bad accident or because of the conduct of a third party or if there's a sexual harassment or assault case, reach out to Michael Popox Firm. Call 877 Popak or text 877- POPAK or visit the POP. See if you have a case. The consultation is free. Don't be shy. Popak is representing a lot of viewers and listeners currently of this program. Also, make sure you subscribe to Legal AF on YouTube and Legal AF on Substack. Let's keep Legal AF on YouTube and Legal AF On Substack growing right now rapidly as it is. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.
- [50:57]
Michael Popak
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- [53:38]
Ben
Thank you to all of our sponsors. They support the show, support our sponsors. We're grateful for all of them. Let's talk quickly about Democratic Congressmember Raskin's letter Todd Blanche to the doj. Powerfully, you know, conveying, look, we need these. We know that there's a lot that Epstein has done with Saudi Arabia, with Qatar, inside the United Arab Emirates, in Dubai, in Abu Dhabi, all of these areas that Donald Trump is doing quid pro quo deals, the original quid pro quo, er, who would use the sex trafficking, blackmail in order to also further his own wealth. Z Epstein went to all these places. I mean there's photos with him with all these people who are Trump's crew. I mean I just want you to think about like the crew of people, the Jean Luc Brunels and the Jeffrey Epstein's and you know, and the Ken Paxtons like all, all these, you know, there's a reason that they're all friends with each other. You know, you go back to the time period, you know, of who Trump's closest friends were and it's like, you know, not that you should have any one bad apple in your friend group but Donald Trump's like entire crew and all of the friends were like either enablers of pedos or pedos. That was like the team like, you know, right? Like people going like, well where are you going, honey? I'm playing softball and where are you going? I'm playing, you know, playing golf with my crew. Oh, who you got there? I got Joe from accounting. So and so, so and so Trump's crew was either pedos or pedo enablers for most of his life. And then when he's in power, who those are his friends also. I mean, let's just take a step back and sometimes, you know, the evidence speaks for itself. It's staring us in the freaking face. But Jamie Raskin saying we need those records and it's because of the great work of Katie Fang focusing on those foreign records. You've got Raskin focusing on those records also. So you've got a Lot of effort, by the way. That just shows Katie Fang leading the way there. And lots of people said, oh, that lawsuit was not possible.
- [56:06]
Michael Popak
What are you doing?
- [56:07]
Ben
You're going to lose to. No, she does it, she's winning. She's inspiring lawmakers to follow as well. Great work there by Katie Feng. And then as I noted at the outset to Daniel Syed, modeling scout and recruiter for Epstein for several years, was found dead in his home in Paris. Syed was under investigation by French authorities for his role in allegedly facilitating Epstein's sex trafficking ring and for claims that he himself had committed sexual assault. Katie Fang talks about how, you know, part of the investigation was also into Jean Luc Brunel. Jean Luc, Jean Luc Brunel was also mysteriously was trafficked for Epstein. He mysteriously died. Jean Casablancas from Elite Modeling agency who like would brag about being with little girls. Like he would say like 15 year old girls. Like, he would talk about it openly. You know, it was like known about the guy that was Donald Trump's friend. And Trump had had Ivanka work for, work as a model when she was 15 years old for Jean Luc Brunel. And then by the way, there was like a New York Times article at that time that I often talk about which talks about like Ivanka at like the age of like 15 or 16, like, like being a vegan and wearing see through shirts and not eating food. I was like, what am I even read? So short of it is now you have another guy associated with Epstein mysteriously dying in France while the investigation was taking place there. The Epstein investigation, international in scope, basically brought down a UK Prime Minister and the entire, and that entire government. Although you mean, you still obviously have the same party, you still have labor, you know, over there, but, but, but you have a switch in leadership there. So we will continue to keep you posted on what's happening there. Just speaking of letters, and I'll toss it over to you, Popak, as we talk about this one letter and then we talk about the BBC updates where a judge ordered Donald Trump to turn over his financial records. And now Trump's like, can I change my complaint? I know I claimed my business was damaged billions of dollars, but now that you're making me turn over financial documents, I want to drop my business claims. Now can I amend the complaint? More delay, more delay, more delay. This is Trump's whole scheme of abusing the legal process. But speaking of abusing the legal process, Jim Jordan referring Special counsel Jack Smith for criminal prosecution to the Department of Justice. The Jim Jordan, Todd Blanch criminal pipeline. And I say criminal because that's how they behave. Blanche and Jordan. And so what Jordan referred Jack Smith for is actually not something Jack Smith said. They're saying that Jack Smith committed perjury during his seven hours or eight hours of testimony because Jack Smith did not add additional details to his answer that he should have. Jack Smith was asked, were your subpoenas of these lawmakers focused on the metadata in their text messages or their actual text communications? And Jack Smith said it's just the metadata. It's just the to and from. I see their numbers and the length of the call, but I don't get to actually see the text message exchanges from this subset of messages. Jim Jordan is saying, aha, but what you did not mention is that you also subpoenaed the National Archives and that the National Archives were able to get some messages from some of these lawmakers through some of the other Presidential Records act stuff that the National Archives got you. Jack Smith should have brought up. Even though the question wasn't about your subpoena to the National Archives, you should have said, however, the National Archives did subpoena some people and even though Jack Smith produced these records in the Trump litigation, there's no argument that there was anything wrong about that or anything incorrect that Jack Smith did. They're saying you deserve to be criminally prosecuted for lying to Congress because you answered the question directly, truthfully, but you didn't bring up a separate subpoena from the National Archive. So Popak touch upon that, then you could touch upon the BBC. So now criminal referrals for thought crimes and things that aren't even said. But what we wanted you to say,
- [60:52]
Michael Popak
well, you're back to Jim Jordan's not a lawyer really, and his staff doesn't know what they're doing either.
- [60:57]
Ben
Goes full circle. Popak, you see, I try to do that.
- [61:00]
Michael Popak
I try to do that. Nor do they know how to ask a question. So what happened is they and you and I prepare witnesses, you know, you in the past, me currently for testimony before congressional committees. I've done preparation for depositions and a trial of very well known people. And you always teach them, when you answer a question, answer the question that's being asked, not the one you think should be asked, not the one you know you like them to ask, and then answer that question to the best of your ability. If you don't know that you don't know, don't speculate. And I always teach my, my clients, my witnesses to treat answering questions like they're at a batting cage or a golf driving range, you hit the ball and then you forget that ball and you hit the next ball and you don't try to get inside the head of the examiner. Where are they going with this? Oh, they're getting into a dangerous area I'm nervous about because you don't know where they're going. And frankly, half the time the examiners don't know where they're going either. How many depositions or examinations in court have I sat through where they've left a tremendous amount of bone or meat on the bone? You're like, oh, oh, here we go. They're getting into that area. Oh, no, they went somewhere else. And so that is a very good technique to answer truthfully the questions that are posed to you. And Jack Smith knows those rules and abided by those rules. You don't answer the question that Jim Jordan or somebody else should have asked. You answer the question that's been asked. The only question that was asked is, did you subpoena the text messages, substantive text messages of members of Congress? Members of Congress, Yes. No, not that I recall. Okay. Now, if you wanted to know, did you obtain text messages from any other source? That's an easy question to ask. In follow up, you ask that question just like that. And then I assume that Jack Smith, who's an honorable, honest guy under oath, would have said, I don't know every facet of the investigation, but I believe that we did obtain text messages from the National Archive, both of Republicans and Democrats. It's part of our investigation. That's it. So what happened is Senator Grassley, this is where Jim Jordan is helping run interference for Todd Blanche's confirmation process and to try to, and try to create some sort of equivalency in people's minds. Oh, all the bad things that Jack, that top Blanche has been doing and all the scandals that lay at his feet. Jack Smith's no better checks, miss. No better everybody. It's a, it's a wash. And so vote for Todd Blanche. That's what we're watching. And so when Grassley releases documents that were conveniently given to him by right. Todd Blanche from the pile of Jack Smith investigative materials, they found an email of an exchange between FBI and Jack smith's team about 50 or so text messages obtained by the from the National Archive. See, ironically, Donald Trump didn't destroy all of the presidential records he stole with and took to Mar? A Lago. He left behind some as the people's papers in the national Archive. So when they saw that, they said, oh, so somebody, some genius on Jim Jordan's staff said, go back to the transcript. Didn't we ask him about that? You and I do it all the time. Like, like, wow, didn't. Can we get somebody, can we impeach somebody? Have they been impeached because their testimony doesn't match. The problem with impeachment or with lying to Congress is the Q and A has to be identical. So they went back and somebody reported to Jim Jordan. I'm sure this is my artist rendering. We've got a problem, boss. You didn't ask that. Nobody asked that question. What do you mean? Yeah, well, we asked the questions about the text message toll records from the carriers, like Verizon, but we didn't ask about the national archive. We didn't know about the national archive. Aha. He should have told us. He should have read our mind. He should have known. The premise of our question was about the text messages. And so the letter from Covington and Burling, which is the law firm that's, that's defending Jack Smith, hopefully for free, I hope for free. Roboto laid out in detail back to the committee within hours. This can't possibly be the grounds for your referral because every witness that's ever testified could be criminally prosecuted for not having answered questions not asked and not having volunteered information on topics that were not inquired into. So what they're doing now is setting up the future motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution. And it's so easy to bring those motions in this administration, pardon me, because there's been a total collapse of the hierarchy. It used to be, you'd have to say, you know, in the old days when Joe Biden and others like Obama were in charge, there was a wall up between the White House and the Department of Justice, making it completely independent. There weren't regular meetings at the White House or among its staff with the, with the heads of the Department of Justice about which prosecutions bring, which investigations to open, which IRS audits to start. Okay, that didn't happen. I just interviewed the. Kristen Clark, the new general counsel for the naacp, who had been the head of the Civil Rights division. The Harme Dillon for Joe Biden also worked in that division for, for, for Bush. And she said there were never meetings between the Department of Justice and the White House or those that there were. There were wall control walls up that were respected. Those walls are gone. So when Donald Trump, as the chief legal officer, which what he calls himself of the United States, says Jack Smith is an animal, is corrupt, is a criminal over and over and over again. And directs his Department of Justice, led by Todd Blanche, to go after Jack Smith. Smith, who was on the opposite side of the criminal prosecution case. Right. This letter from Jim Jordan is addressed to Todd Blanche. I haven't read that. Todd Blanche has recused himself from the investigation related to the person when he was a criminal defense lawyer once and forever of Donald Trump. And this was his prosecutor that he dealt with that he doesn't feel he should be going after that person or being involved with that investigation. No. In this Department of Justice, there is no ethics, there is no independence, there is no moral high ground. They've given that up a long time ago. So the Jack Smith letter smokescreen to help Todd Blanche, where Todd Blanche leaks information to Grassley's Senate committee, who leaks it for Jim Jordan to use to make a criminal. Are we following this to make a criminal referral about Jack Smith about something that is not a crime. Not a crime to answer truthfully a question that you were posed. It's not a crime to not answer a question that was not posed. And it's not a crime. This isn't Minority Report. We don't have thought police. You're supposed to interpret what the the question being asked of you was. I've seen the Q and A including with, with Jamie Raskin on this particular point about the misunderstanding about toll records. And, and to answer the broader point and all of this newfound umbrage that the MAGA Republicans take now, which of course they. They weren't taking the day after Jan.6 when they were crawling on their bellies to escape the mass insurrectionist crowd that was trying to kill them and blaming Donald Trump appropriately for it. But now. Oh ho, my text. Your text messages. People died on the Capitol on January 6, the day after law enforcement included a bloody battle that looked like it was at a game of thrones. Or as one police officer testified, she said, I was in Fallujah. It looked like Fallujah. Okay. And you're worried about your text messages. And by the way, the only reason the Republicans were the targets of. Of the investigation is because they're the ones that were cooperating with the failure to transfer power led by Donald Trump following their fearless leader. If the Democrats did it, I'd expect that they would be investigated. So to say that we're picking on the. The Republicans, not picking on the Republicans. They're the ones that were the who were involved or at least were being properly investigated to see what role they had to stop the peaceful transfer of power. That's why text. Now, just to contrast the subpoenas for a minute. The subpoenas for toll records was the start. And apparently using prosecutorial discretion, they never went further. Jack Smith's team to try to get the substance of the text messages, which would have been the next step, through a judge like Judge Beryl Howells or Jeb Boasberg at the time running the grand juries, they never went that next step because they either determined from looking at the toll records, the billing records, that they didn't need to go the next step, they had enough evidence or what they got from the national archive was sufficient. But it always chaps my backside, Ben, to watch the Josh Hawleys and the other, you know, who's out the back, like running away from the mob now, trying to rewrite, continuing to rewrite history and claim an act so put upon with Umbrid about the fact that they were the targets or subjects of investigations.
- [71:17]
Ben
You know, that's because they're losers. And that's not a Democrat or Republican or independent. I mean, these are, these are loser, low character, low quality, whiny human beings. And they act all tough, but the moment you corner them, the moment you go to their face, the moment you confront them with their lies, they immediately play victim or create just an alternative reality and argue like a sociopath. And people who have known sociopaths in their lives and try to argue with one, it's not worth your time even to have arguments because they create fake alternative realities. And then they want you to have discussions that, you know, don't exist in the actual real world. And you know, and sometimes, you know, the best way to deal with them is just to kind of call them out, but invest your time focusing on what's really happening and situating people and listening to what, where the people are and not getting dragged into all of this craziness that these right wing people want to trap. You know, just give you an example. I mean, Donald Trump, every what month now? Every few weeks while the President of the United States, he files a $10 billion lawsuit against someone or something. Sometimes it's the government, the Treasury Department and the irs, sometimes it's against the BBC, sometimes it's against the Wall Street Journal, sometimes it's whoever, but it's always a billion dollars or $10 billion and he lays out that he's emotionally distressed and his reputation's been harmed and all of this we know that he's made at least on that. We're aware of about four and a half to $5 billion already since he's been in office grifting quid pro quos and engaging in this horrific behavior. That's what we know about. My view is that's probably understating it. And there's probably ways to hide equity that vests and all of these things that I could see the number being closer to $20 billion that he's actually made since he's been in office, which we'll probably find out later. However, you take a look at what he's claiming, that he's lost all of this money, everybody's against him. A BBC documentary that nobody saw somehow destroyed his reputation. Yeah. Someone who's been found civilly liable for sexual assault, who's on tape bragging that he grabs women by their genitals because you're rich and get away with it. Someone who's bankrupted all of these companies. Yes. That's what hurt your reputation. A documentary from BBC that nobody's watched, which you say was edited inappropriately to convey a more of a sense that you were involved in the January 6th insurrection. So BBC said, okay, look, we edited it. You didn't like our editing it. Okay, but you were involved in the January 6th insurrection. So that's what you have to prove if you're saying you were defamed. Okay, so let's make this about the January 6th insurrection. We want to take discovery and depositions on that. We're happy to do that. You claim it's a $10 billion lawsuit. That's a lot of money. We take it very seriously. When you say $10 billion, let's fight. Also, we want to know where you got that $10 billion from. Show us your financials. We want your records. We want to see how you've lost $10 billion. Because all that's being claimed is that you made all of this money. So BBC propounds discovery, sends discovery. Trump sends discovery to BBC. BBC produces 87,000 documents. They don't whine, they turn it over. Why? Cuz that's a lawsuit. That's a litigation. That's what you do. They turned over all of their documents. Privilege log, redactions, whatever you need to do, it's listed transparently. Turned over everything you're supposed to do. They do Donald Trump turn over the records? Nope, not turning it over. Why? I don't have to. I'm not going to turn it over. That's not relevant. You can't have it. It's too burdensome. BBC goes to the judge, Donald Trump, refuses to turn it over. BBC wins the motion. The judge has turned it over. Donald Trump's like, okay, well, I want to make new allegations now I want to change it. I know I said I was injured by that amount, but now I don't want to say I'm injured. I just want to say my reputation was harmed, not my business. So it's just emotional distress. Now take a step back. He's saying he's emotionally distressed by a BBC documentary that said that you were involved in the January 6th insurrection. If you truly feel emotionally distressed by that, as the President of the United States, you shouldn't be the President of the United States if you're such a snowflake that, that, that, that documentary has you emotionally traumatized to say that you were involved in the January 6th insurrection. You came up with the January 6th insurrection jingle. You pardoned these people. You hang out with the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. What do you even. Emotionally distressed. What the hell are you talking about? And now he's saying now he and his lawyers, after losing, they're not going to turn over the documents. They want to change their complaint, which they've already changed before. And I'll toss it back to you, popa, because this is what he does is what he doesn't want to do is ever go to trial. He doesn't want to go in front of a jury. When you bring a lawsuit, you should want to go in front of the jury. That's the main thing you want to do as quick as possible, get me in front of the jury. I want my case to be heard, not Donald Trump. He wants the initial headline to be heard. Then he wants to destroy you financially and then just drag it on into two week loops of I'll get it soon, I'll get it soon, I'll get it soon, I'll turn it over.
- [76:44]
Michael Popak
Over.
- [76:44]
Ben
Sorry, I can't do this. I'll do it, I'll do it. You know, this sociopathic back and forth, which I'll go back to where we started. I don't think we need to cover this all that much. More pop up. But I'll give you the final word on it. It's how he's doing the war in Iran. It's how he does everything. You know, he wants the headline epic Fury, and then he's in it. And when the other side fights back, oh, can I change? Can I amend it now? Can I change it right now? I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to do this. What we've seen in litigation and what we're seeing in the war is when you stand up to him, he loses. He's a lifelong loser. He's a bluffer. He's a loser. He's a bankrupter. Okay, Think about if Eugene Carroll can stand up to him, if, if Abrego Garcia can stand up to him, if Letitia James and win. You don't think foreign leaders are looking at that and going, got it.
- [77:35]
Michael Popak
It.
- [77:36]
Ben
That's the pathological profile. This is his template. This is the behavior of a vexatious litigant, a vexatious person, a con man, a loser, a bankrupter. Popak, I'll give you the final word in this episode.
- [77:50]
Michael Popak
I think you kind of like summed it up. He's going to get effed in the BBC case. He's actually arguing that the motion to dismiss be considered before discovery. He's never going to win that. Not only have they gone after all of those financial documents and the magistrate judge has ruled on that because of the nature of his case. And you're right, it's like Charlie Manson can't ever bring a defamation case. Trump is almost incapable of being defamed because his reputation is so dishonorable between being an adjudged sex abuser and being an adjudged fraudster. I mean, it's very, very little left for him. And I don't know how you ever suss out the hundreds of billions of dollars that he's made while he's been in office and have any type of diminution in his value to support a damage model. And then, but separately, there's a fight I'm keeping a close eye on in this BBC case, again, opening up the can of worms and Baron Trump where he has subpoenaed, they have subpoenaed people like Don Jr. And Roger Stone and everybody that was in the Willard Hotel for the war room to plan January 6th. And Barron Trump's even been mentioned because they are like, okay, because what you and I have been focused on in the BBC case right at this segment is about the, the damages part. There's two parts to, there's two parts to a lawsuit. There's liability proving that somebody did something wrong without defense or, or that. And then the amount that you're owed in damages, if any, a dollar, nominal damages, or we're talking about actual damages and punitive damages and the like. On the liability side, the BBC, which Donald Trump is not only a loser, but a, a frequent miscalculator of the conduct of people on the other side. You know, you can sue who you want, but you can't dictate how they're going to defend the case. And I know because we know him, them that he miscalculated in thinking, well, the BBC apologized to me for editing my own words about the ellipse speech. They're pussies. I don't know, whatever. And so they're going to settle and I'm going to get a big check and I'm going to throw it into my Miami presidential library, hotel and casino that I'm building. And he miscalculated because once the BBC said, all right, he's not taking the apology, which is a very British thing to do, they were like, all right, start throwing bombs and haymakers in the lawsuit to defend us. And that law firm that they're using is doing a masterful job, including issuing 80 subpoenas to the January 6th Committee, you know, the remnants of the January 6th Committee and their records and all of these inner circle people to Donald Trump. And they're fighting it out right now in the district court in front of Jeb Boasberg about a new assertion of presidential immunity, temporary presidential immunity, led by Todd Blanche and his of justice, who's trying to intervene in the case once again showing that Donald Trump is the puppet master controlling all of the chessboard. And that's something that's been pointed out to the, by the BBC to, to the judge, Judge Altman, in my neck of the woods in Miami saying he's doing the same thing here that your colleague down the hall, Judge Williams, just called out that Donald Trump controls the irs, the Treasury Department, his private lawyers and himself. He's doing the same thing here, Judge. He's using his own DOJ to run interference to block our subpoenas. And that's now being litigated in two fronts in front of ultimately Judge Altman and in front of Judge Jeb Boasberg, who people will remember is still waiting patiently to start his criminal contempt proceedings against Donald Trump and Homeland Security related to a year and a half ago when they were shipping human beings without due process to El Salvador to have them tortured upon arrival. So this is again connecting the dots and time and square in the circle things you and I love to do on Legal af. Thanks for being my partner here. I really appreciate all that you do and the generosity of our audience to support what we do. Without them, you and I are just two guys on a park bench with a bag of peanuts, kibitzing about what we're watching.
- [82:16]
Ben
Sometimes we are just two guys on a park bench, though. You know, some days I'm just one guy over in Panera, refilling my coffee and walking back, thinking about, they are not a sponsor. They're definitely not.
- [82:30]
Michael Popak
They're not.
- [82:30]
Ben
They're definitely just a truthful. Go up there, refill the coffee. I come back, I'm like, what am I gonna. What. How am I gonna accurately, you know, cover all of these developments that are happening? And usually between that walk, which is about half a mile or so, Trump does something utterly deranged. And when he does, it's important that you don't just chase it and go, ah, he's deranged. I'll leave us with this. You know, it's. The coverage of all of this has evolved. I think that we're on the front line of independent media evolving that coverage with where the people are. We all know that he's psychotic and a lunatic and deranged and a crook and a criminal and a felon and a sex predator and all of these things. Like, we know that. What is also critical, though, is to remember who we're fighting for, right? Whether it's the survivors and grounding our stories and our reporting in the survivors. And that's what Katie Feng does. That's what we try to do here, because those are the people who were abused, assaulted by Epstein. Their voice needs to be heard. And if we create a platform. It's not a platform for me or Popak, it's a platform to have important stories told and important voices heard during these moments. Yes, we can report on Trump being awful and a lunatic at the White House Correspondent's Dinner speech, but we should talk about the tens of millions of American families who look in the refrigerator and see one or two items and wonder, am I going to have any items, or am I going to be able to afford a doctor's visit right now? Because Trump got rid of my health care and he's gutted Medicaid and there's no rural hospitals nearby me, and they want to build a data center nearby my house. And my kids or my grandkids are still living with me. They have no chance of even finding a place where they could afford rent yet alone buy a home. And it's important that we address those issues and that we make our reporting grounded in that. That's what we do on Legal af when we talk about the crime, corruption, and the malpractice and the malfeasance of all of these actors. It's they are doing this and inflicting pain, suffering, cruel and unusual punishment on the American people. That's what we never forget about in our reporting. And I think I want to end and make sure you all know that this, that's our North Star here at Legal IF and the Midas Touch Network. Thanks. We covered a lot. Check out WTF America pre order it right now. I think we'll put a link in the description below. But more importantly, subscribe to Michael POOCK substack legal af and subscribe to the legal af YouTube channel. Let's get that 2 million subscribers. And then if you or somebody know has been injured in a car accident, trucking accident, if you know somebody who's been involved in a catastrophic injury, a death case, sadly, if you've been injured in a catastrophic injury case, don't be shy. Reach out to the POPAC firm. They have people across the country who are taking these calls. The consultation is free. The worst that happens is they say you don't have a case, but you'll probably know if you think you have a case. If somebody caused you a catastrophic injury or someone you know, reach out to popo877popak af or visit thepopoc firm.com that's 877popak. Call or text X or visit thepopocfirm.com. thank you all so much for being a part of this incredible community. We'll see you next time on Legal, a app Shout out Midas Mighty Shout out Legal afers.