Legal AF - 8/01/2026

Summary

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Legal AF – August 1, 2026: Legal and Political Scandal at the Reflecting Pool, DOJ Corruption, and the Epstein Files

Hosts: Ben Meiselas & Michael Popok

Guest Appearance: Senator Cory Booker (quote)

Release: August 2, 2026

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Overview

This episode of Legal AF delivers a comprehensive, no-holds-barred breakdown of the explosive collapse of the Trump DOJ’s prosecution of Olympic canoeist David Hearn in the “Reflecting Pool Vandalism” case. The hosts discuss broader issues of government corruption, DOJ weaponization, Trump’s ongoing legal maneuvers for personal gain, continued cover-up of the Epstein files, and a slew of high-profile defamation lawsuits. The episode is rich with legal insight and blistering commentary, punctuated by guest input from Senator Cory Booker.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Reflecting Pool Vandalism Case Dismissed

• [03:20] Ben details the DOJ’s dramatic dismissal of the Trump administration’s prosecution of former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, whom Trump, Jeanine Pirro (then US Attorney for DC), and Fox News falsely accused of vandalizing the National Mall’s Reflecting Pool.
• The case was built on fabricated evidence; Pirro indicted Hearn on a felony based on false or incomplete Department of Interior reports.
• Civil defamation suits are predicted against Fox News and administration officials due to the false narrative (“state regime media Fox was pushing the Trump vandal story over and over again”).
• Quote:

  “Jeanine Pirro is the United States attorney for DC…She went on Fox, on Jesse Watters…to spew these venomous lies.” — Ben ([06:14])

2. Breakdown of DOJ's Motion to Dismiss

• [21:45] Ben walks through Pirro’s detailed 20-page motion to dismiss.
  • Pirro blames the Department of Interior and the contractor; new evidence shows construction failures were to blame, not vandalism.
  • She admits “the whole vandal narrative is false.”
• Quote:

  “It is difficult to attribute the widespread damage…to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt.” — Reading Pirro’s motion ([21:48])

3. Implications: Corruption, Defamation, and Responsibility

• Trump’s insistence—despite his own DOJ’s withdrawal—on the “vandalism” narrative is excoriated.
• [28:55] Ben underscores Trump’s pattern of falsely accusing others (Central Park Five, Jan 6, etc.) and weaponizing the DOJ for personal and political vendettas.
• Potential for defamation lawsuits against Fox News and individuals for reckless, malicious statements.
• Quotes:

  • “He’s a defamer, he is a blamer, he is a destroyer. He brings frivolous cases.” — Ben ([41:40])

  • “Pirro needs to be disbarred. State regime media should be sued. This is an impeachable offense for Donald Trump.” — Ben ([41:55])

4. Trump’s Self-Dealing and the “Anti-Weaponization” Fund Scandal

• [08:00], [44:10] Discussion of Trump’s collusive $10B “settlement” for his own alleged IRS data leak—crafted during his term—meant to:
  • Grant himself and family retroactive blanket immunity from tax audits and investigation.
  • Funnel $1.776B to Jan 6 defendants (“anti-weaponization fund”) as political theater and quid pro quo.
• Republican senators Cornyn and Tillis refuse to advance AG nominee Todd Blanche without this language being clearly rescinded in writing.
• Trump refuses, signaling intention to keep all legal doors open for himself.
• Quotes:

  “Trump could potentially owe a billion, a billion five in taxes and he could use this agreement as a way not to pay his taxes.” — Ben ([10:25])
  “He wants you to focus on J6…The thing he really wants is the get-out-of-jail-free card, the tax immunity.” — Ben ([45:47])

5. Fox News, Pirro, & the Media’s Role

• [35:00]–[40:34] Montage and analysis of Fox personalities, including Jeanine Pirro, Jesse Watters, and others pushing the vandalism narrative despite clear evidence to the contrary.
• Actual malice standard in defamation law is explained, with Ben arguing that Hearn has a strong case even if he’s considered a public figure.

6. Senate Drama Over AG Confirmation

• [44:10]–[56:10] Battle over Todd Blanche’s AG nomination (Trump’s personal attorney, with history of DOJ corruption and cover-ups).
• Senators demand the revocation of the anti-weaponization fund/tax immunity clause in writing; Trump refuses, stalling the process.
• Popok adds political analysis: Blanche was passed over for AG multiple times, appointed only after agreeing to protect Trump’s personal and legal interests.

7. Epstein Files Cover-Up and Katie Fang Lawsuit

• [57:10]–[63:30] Update on legal efforts (led by Midas Touch’s Katie Fang) to force DOJ’s release of crucial Epstein files. DOJ’s continued resistance and technical non-compliance is detailed.
• Judge Sullivan set to rule on contempt for noncompliance—possibly affecting Todd Blanche’s confirmation.

8. E. Jean Carroll Civil Case Developments

• [64:00]–[68:30] E. Jean Carroll awarded $91M in combined damages after two juries found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation.
• Trump’s Supreme Court petitions arguing for presidential (Westfall) immunity—doubtful to succeed, but could delay Carroll’s recovery.

9. Cash Patel Defamation Lawsuits

• [70:50]–[78:40] Ex-FBI Director Cash Patel’s failed defamation suit against activist Jim Stewardson (dismissed for lack of jurisdiction).
• Patel’s ongoing suit against The Atlantic for reporting on his alleged substance abuse; Atlantic vows not to be intimidated.
• Popok highlights the chilling effect of weaponized defamation suits and their frequent use by Trump allies as an intimidation tactic.
• Quote:

  "You are free to refer to FBI Director Cash as a googly eyed Kremlin bitch and a traitor without fear of legal repercussions." — Quoting Jim Stewardson’s satirical victory post ([79:01])

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Ben Meiselas [11:40]:

  “These are serious times, man. Y'all are a bunch of con artists—MAGA grifters. You destroyed our economy. You lied about everything…and we're in neverending wars. We don't—we’re not doing this MAGA weird shit…things are real right now, and people are really suffering.”

• Ben [29:10]:

  “Would we want felons…running your organization…I believe in second chances, maybe not third chances. And so I believe that someone could be a felon and come back and show remorse…but certainly not Trump…he’s a sexual predator.”

• Michael Popok [62:19]:

  “He’s got Donald Trump out there saying, 'I want the Jan6 fund,' and he’s got Donald Trump’s lawyers, obviously, with Todd Blanche’s approval, filing notices of appeal to keep the Jan6 fund alive…Either Todd Blanche knew about it and has lied to Cornyn and Tillis or he didn’t know, and I don’t know which is worse.”

• Senator Cory Booker [69:13]:

  “You have to fight every battle. You're going to lose a lot, but you're going to win some…the power of your voice…makes a difference. We cannot let somebody as dangerous as Todd Blanche get there.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:20 – Intro to Reflecting Pool Case / David Hearn prosecution collapse
• 06:14 – Media’s role: Fox and Pirro’s “malice”
• 21:45 – Pirro’s motion to dismiss analyzed
• 28:55 – Trump’s pattern of false accusations; scathing personal commentary
• 35:00–41:40 – Fox News/Fox personalities propagate false narrative
• 44:10 – Blanche nomination saga; anti-weaponization fund/tax immunity explained
• 57:10 – Epstein files cover-up and Judge Sullivan’s in-camera review
• 64:00 – E. Jean Carroll case update; Trump’s futile Supreme Court appeal
• 70:50–78:40 – Cash Patel lawsuits: free speech and weaponized litigation
• 69:13 – Cory Booker’s call to action

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Style & Tone

• Fiercely anti-corruption, unsparing in condemnation of Trump administration and DOJ
• Blunt, conversational, sometimes caustic (e.g., “criminal cartel” for DOJ, “scum” for Trump allies)
• Lawyerly but direct explanations of legal mechanisms and standards
• Strong advocacy for citizen engagement and accountability

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Conclusion

This episode exposes the rot in the post-Trump DOJ and its enabling of presidential self-dealing, the links between media disinformation and official misconduct, and the ongoing impunity of Trump and his allies—while offering hope that legal and civic action can hold them to account. Both hosts make clear that the struggle for decency and democracy is ongoing, and voice matters.

For continued updates, listeners are encouraged to subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel, Legal AF Substack, and their X (Twitter) account, as upcoming votes and rulings could be pivotal.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

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But we've got a lot to discuss because while we've been able to get away for a little bit, although my vacation's coming to an end right after this show, there's been a lot of critical legal news, big legal news and updates that are. We've been talking about here on Legal A for quite some time. I mean, the biggest, obviously this week, the criminal prosecution of two time Olympic canoeist David Hearn was dismissed by the Department of Justice. This is Donald Trump, Jeanine Pirro, Doug Burgums. Complete, fraudulent, fabricated, frivolous, doesn't even do it justice. Prosecution of David Hearn saying that he was a vandal, he was the reflecting pool vandal. And he and these vandals took a box cutter and they went right to the middle of the reflecting pool and they cut a 350 yard cut and they started ripping it apart. And there's communist vandals, right? I mean, it's absurd. Donald Trump did a no bid contract to one of the Mar A Lago buddies of his. They did a horrible job with the reflecting pool. They then as they were doing the reflective pool, Trump drove a fricking motorcade over the reflecting pole. That's not exactly going to make things better when you're dealing with cracks and issues of cracks and the algae when you drive your whole motorcade over it. Um, and Trump's solution was just, I'm going to paint the reflecting blue, blue reflecting pool painted blue. Everything's going to be amazing. And when it turned out that there was massive amounts of algae and it was an embarrassment. Donald Trump does what he always does, which is just lie about everything. And so they did this criminal prosecution of David Hearn. They went to a grand jury with fabricated information. Jeanine Pirro is the United States attorney for Washington D.C. she should never have had that job. I mean, Trump should not have his job. All these people should not have their job criminally prosecuting Hearn for a felony. Felony A felony of just destruction of property. The case was in D.C. superior Court, and the Justice Department dismiss it. I want to go through the filing of the dismissal. I want to do it in a very meticulous way. But I also want to discuss on this episode, though, that not only does David Hearn now have a massive lawsuit against the Trump regime, against the Department of Justice, against the federal government, I think he's got a massive defamation lawsuit against Fox because state regime, media, Fox, they were pushing the Trump vandal story over and over again. Jeanine Pirro used. I mean, you want to talk about actual malice, which would be. Or recklessness, which would be the standard. You know, not even sure David Hearn would even have to. It could just be kind of basic negligence. I'm not sure David Hearn is a limited public figure or a public figure at all. So the standard might actually just be, you know, even less than having to show actual malice because, you know, I mean, David Hearn's not an Olympic canoeist anymore. But in any event, I think that David Hearn would be able to meet what we call the actual malice standard, which is like intentional malice or kind of a gross recklessness, because Pirro, a former Fox host, laundered the lies that he was this vandal who was ripping up the reflecting pool, that he was a felon. And she went on Fox. She went on, you know, the various Fox shows, Jesse Waters and others to spew these venomous lies. We'll talk about that. And I think it's also worth reflecting also when we talk about. No pun intended or pun intended, this reflecting pool fabrication. I mean, this Trump regime that was fabricating a reflecting pool case, a reflecting pool fabrication case. I mean, these are the people out there who are saying we've turned over all of the Epstein files. Right? All of the Epstein files are out there. Trust us. Trust us. We're out there doing full transparency. Really? You're the reflecting pool people. You want us to trust you on the way you've handled the Epstein files? I mean, these are the people who are running America into the ground with this catastrophic and unlawful war in Iran. Trust us. Negotiations are happening. Negotiations here. Oh, we're gonna bomb the hell out of to. What would Trump say this week? We're going to bomb the effing s out of them. Anyone who says we're going to bomb the effing s in them does not have the temperament okay, for that office. But that's the probably biggest understatement. Temperament with Donald Trump. I mean, the guy's a fricking fascist psychotic individual. And you know, this is, you know, this entire doj. By the way, the rot is at the top. Previously Bondi, now Todd Blanche. So we're going to talk in this episode also though about Todd Blanche's confirma. Uh, it's being held up because Donald Trump refuses to allow there to be any writing that eliminates the so called anti weaponization fund, which is the $1.776 billion to the January 6th insurrectionist. But the reality is, is that Trump doesn't really care about them. He's pretending he cares about them as a way to kind of gin up extremist support for himself. It's always about Donald Trump, you know, to ca extremists to maybe commit violence in the future. Look, I'll get, I'll get you this money. I'll get you this money. It'll be right around the corner. But Trump doesn't really care if they actually get money or not. What Trump cares about is the other part of the settlement that Trump made with himself in the frivolous $10 billion lawsuit that Trump in his individual capacity filed against the federal government, alleging that his IRS documents were leaked when he was in office, during his first term, when he was in office, when he was in charge of the irs, that a contractor, not even an employee, leaked hundreds of thousands of people's of tax returns. Trump's was one of the people in those tax returns. So Trump says that I deserve $10 billion. The other hundred thousand people whose returns like they don't, they shouldn't get any money. By the way, the statute of limitations, time barred Donald Trump's case. He had no case to begin with even. Let's just assume he had a case for the IRS and improperly leaking, there was a data hack and that the information was leaked. The max damages you can get, it's capped at $1,000. That would be the max. That would be your best day in court. But it was time barred. It's a BS case, It's a bogus case. But the thing that Trump built into the settlement was that the government could never audit his taxes ever from the date of the settlement going back. And he can never be subject to criminal investigations or civil investigations or any inspection of him not paying taxes from the date of the settlement agreement going back. Now there were some people who said, well, Trump's under audit for a hundred million dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes he didn't pay, that he's been fighting the IRS for Decades. And I've said, no, no, it's actually way worse than them. Because we know Trump's made, what, 4 billion, $5 billion in these quid pro quo scams, that he's been doing the 21,000 stock trades, right? Since he's been in office one year, he's made 4 to 5 billion dollars. Grossly abusing. He's an abuser. Grossly abusing his position in the Oval Office, where he's supposed to take care that the laws are faithfully executed. No, he's destroyed our laws. And only thing he's taking care of is taking care that himself is taken care of in the form of these quid pro quo, these quid pro quos for himself. You know, it's been utterly despicable. But think about the amount of taxes you'd have to pay on 4 billion, $5 billion. Let's say capital gains. What 25% tax on that? Let's just say it's ordinary income. You think Trump really makes the distinction between capital games? Ordinary guys. That dude's not paying taxes, in my opinion, period. But 40, you know, 37% being the highest tax bracket. Right. And so Trump could potentially owe a billion, a billion five in taxes, and he could use this agreement as a way not to pay his taxes. And so you have Senator Tillis and Senator Cornyn say, look, will approve Blanche as the Attorney General. He's Trump's pick to be the ag. You know, he sits at the top of all of this. You know, Todd, Blanche. But we need a written document that says the settlement agreement between Trump and Trump, Trump and the government that creates the weapon anti Weaponization fund and gives Trump this tax immunity forever. Put it in writing that that's gone. Just put it in writing. Just one sentence. Say it's hereby eliminated. You've made the oral represent. Put it in writing. And Trump refuses to do that. And according to Cornyn, maga, Republican senator from Texas, or Republican senator, he wasn't MAPA Enough until us, the Republican senator from North Carolina, both of whom Donald Trump destroyed their careers because Trump supported, they weren't MAGA enough. So Trump picked Ken Paxton in Texas, and then Trump selected or Trump pushed out Tillis in North Carolina. Now you have the former RNC chair Whatley, who's running for that seat in North Carolina against former Democratic Governor Cooper. And Cooper's crushing Whatley in North Carolina. Now likely get a Democrat in that North Carolina seat. And don't sleep on Texas, because despite MAGA doing Talafrico, he's a vegan. He's six genders. That stuff's not working right now in Texas. Not working anywhere. People like, dude, these are serious times, man. Y' all are a bunch of con artists, MAGA grifters. You destroyed our economy. You've lied about everything. You said everything would be cheaper on day one. You made all of these promises. You lied about all this stuff. And we're suffering right now and we're in never ending wars. We don't, we don't, we're not doing this Talafrico 6 gender, bathroom, penis, vagina stuff. Like we're not doing that stuff right now, okay? Like we're not doing this MAGA weird shit. Excuse my language. Like, stuff is real. Things are real right right now and people are really suffering. So stop with it. And so Talarico is up in Paxton 3 in the latest Fox poll, state regime media poll. But anyway, you have Cornyn and Tillis saying put it in writing. Cornyn and Tillis say that Blanche wants to put it in writing. But basically first they said somebody in Trump's orbit isn't letting it happen. And then they basically said, okay, Trump's the one who's not letting it happen. So I want to talk about that. I want to talk about the ruling in the Reflecting Pool case. I really want to go through the order. It's the motion to dismiss from Trump's DOJ itself and I'm going to pass it over the Pope to Popak where I want to talk about upstate updates regarding Trump's continued cover up of the child sex trafficking ring, the Epstein files, and how we have Katie Fang here at the Midas Touch Network. She's been fighting for the release of the Epstein files. What took place in Judge Sullivan's courtro where the DOJ was forced to turn over files for Judge Sullivan's in camera review. I want to talk about this Keshe Patel defamation lawsuit and what happened to it. It didn't go good for maga. Hint, hint. Never. You know, these people file the most ridiculous lawsuits and they abuse the process. So Popak will talk about that and Popac will hit some other topics. So let's just get into the the motion to dismiss filed by Jeanine Pirro. Reminder. Jeanine Pirro is the top federal Prosecutor in Washington D.C. okay, first she charged David Hearn with misdemeanor destruction of property. Then she went to a grand jury and presented evidence to get a felony indictment against David Hearn. A felony put him to prison for a very long period of Time the case went before the D.C. superior Court, not federal court, because just D.C. district, federal. The property in D.C. technically is a D.C. superior Court. I won't bore you with the technicalities. You know that Jeanine Pirro and all of these Trump regime officials went on Fox and all these networks and they said, look, here's what happened. The vandals, the vandals, the vandals. The vandals did it. And I'll go pull out some receipts in a moment right there. And, you know, anybody who's just exercising common sense saw what was happening. We saw Trump put the motorcade over the reflecting pool. We know that painting it blue is not going to make a difference. We saw the shoddy construction work taking place before our eyes. We saw in real time as the paint started to peel off. We saw the algae coming back. We saw them pour in the hydrogen peroxide. Like, we saw what was happening as Trump was rushing before America, 250 to make this thing, you know, I don't know, look, American flag blue. He was obsessed with it. All he did was talk about reflecting pool. Reflecting pool. And we saw the alge. We knew what was happening. I mean, we didn't have to wait to see the Department of Interior documents and the National Park Service documents about what they were observing, because we observed it like this was happening before our eyes. We were all witnesses to it. Right? I mean, look, we had Aaron Parness and Scott McFarlane and Luke Riddell and others from Martin and Pablo Manriquez and others go there. Like, we were showing you original images and there were lots of other people doing great work, getting original footage, but, like, we were all witnesses to what was happening as well. However, Pierrot plowed ahead with this prosecution of David Hearn, and now she filed a motion to dismiss it. Now, sometimes when we see these motions to dismiss, you know, we're used to seeing, you know, just a one sentence, you know, motion to dismiss in the interest of justice. Now, in D.C. superior Court, you got to put a little more meat on the bones, if you will, in terms of what the motion to dismiss says. You can't just do one line, right? If you bring an indictment, you have to explain to the court why you're dismissing your own criminal case. Because the court wants to know. But you didn't need 20 pages. Like, this was a 20 page where Pirro basically laid out the Department of Interior blame them and said they, the National Park Service, Burgum, they screwed us. But in doing that, she also kind of laid out Donald Trump. Because this was Donald Trump telling Doug Burgum to do this. At the end of the day, this was coming from Trump. And also she laid herself out here because when you're the prosecutor or you're the lawyer and you're bringing a case special, any lawyer, you're supposed to conduct the diligence, you know, so what Jeanine Pirro says in this motion, which I'll, I'll go over with you, is she says, look, I was deceived by the Department of Interior and Doug Burgum. We asked for documents. They gave us an initial witness report. So we rushed to the grand jury to get this indictment. And then after we got the indictment, the Department of Interior said, oh, well, we got these other documents. We've been asking them for weeks to bring it to, you know, to, to, to get it to us, to get it to us. Then finally this past week, the Department of Interior gave us the documents. We reviewed it and it wasn't vandals, it was the bad construction work. It was the, the company that got the no bid contract didn't know how to do a good job and they screwed it all up. And all the internal documents reflect that they were the ones who screwed it up. So that's what actually happened. But here's the thing. You are enforced to bring this case immediately or urgently. You could have. The statute of limitation on this case is over a year, two years. I'm, you know, probably longer. Um, so you, as the prosecutor could have said, you know what, pause. Not going to prosecute this guy David her in this two time Olympic canoeist right away. We're going to conduct an investigation. We don't need to get the. We, we don't need to prosecute yet. Let's wait. Hey, Department of Interior. You know what, I'm going to send some agents. I'm the top United states attorney in D.C. one of the most powerful entities in the frigging world in law. You know, other than maybe the Southern District of New York, which the Trump regime is harmed. I mean the being the United states attorney from D.C. is right up there. I've got FBI agents, I've got limitless resources. You should. Although Trump's gutted the doj, I'm going to send my people to go to the Department of Interior and let's get the documents. Oh, you know, let quick check your databases, let's do meetings, let's make sure we have everything before we bring an indictment and go public with all of this and say vandals, vandals, Vandals, because any common sense would tell you that it wasn't vandals that did it. And so now all of you have Jeanine Pirro saying, aha, now we got these documents and the Department of Interior deceived us. Let's take a look at this motion. Take a look at the final page, page 19, if you will, of this motion to dismiss. This was Jeanine Pirro's motion to dismiss her own indictment against David Hearn, accusing him of felony destruction of property for being the vandalism that Donald Trump and she and everybody were talking about. Let me just read it to you. Almost immediately after work was initially completed, peeling was observed along the pool perimeter. The NPS engineers June 11, 2026 email, that's National Park Service engineers June 11, 2026 email stated that the cause of the damage was contractor error via overspray, that the peel lining would not float and that the peeling would not impact the strength of the liner. The engineer's suggested that removing the liner at the perimeter would have had no negative impact on the economic value of the liner. Moreover, the July 20, 2026 inspection by contractors confirmed that the overspray and delamination had occurred, again pointing to contractor error. Finally, a recent visual inspection showed damage throughout the reflecting pool, even in the middle of the pool, where a vandal would not likely attempt to. To peel the lining. Pause. Isn't that what Donald Trump said? The vandal went right in the middle and did it right there. Peeled the lining right in the middle. Given all of this newly discovered information, it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt. For all of these reasons, the government, in the exercise of its prosecutorial discretion, respectfully request that the indictment be dismissed without prejudice. And when you go through this motion as well, what Jeanine Pirro also says is that in general this cannot be caused by vandals. Not just David Hearn, but in general that the whole vandal narrative is false. So she specifically says in this filing. And who was pushing the vandal narrative?

[B]

Her.

[A]

Doug Burgum, Donald Trump. So a few things need to happen and let's talk about it when we come back from the break. But ultimately this all comes from the top. Todd, Blanche. And when I talk about Cordon and Tillis, they're not like great actors in all of this. They're doing the bare minimum. They still act like Blanche is qualified. Really? You think Blanche is. Blanche oversaw this, right? The way the DOJ works The attorney general oversees all of the different offices. The D.C. federal Office of Jeanine Pirro reports up to Blanche the same way the Southern District of New York, which is covering up the Epstein files, reports up to Blanche. Right. And so Blanche is responsible for this, too. As responsible as Pirro, as responsible for the fact that there have been 15 to 16,000 cases that have been thrown out, that judges have found that the DoJ has engaged in misconduct, has not provided evidence in cases that just relate to like habeas petitions in immigration throughout the country. Right now you have the grand jury proceedings tainted by misconduct. All throughout Chicago, for example, after the grand jury was, after there was grand jury misconduct found there regarding the protesters at the detentions, the terrorism center with the federal judges are finding that the grand jury process in general has been tainted in almost all of the cases. We're seeing case after case after case, grand juries being tainted. Right. And, and, and, and, and this Trump regime continues to bring these ultra frivolous case, you know, ultra frivolous cases. Don't even get me started. I mean, on the first Comey case with the grand jury, you know, they didn't even have the right. Lindsay Halligan, who wasn't even allowed to be in the grand jury room, she was pretending to be a U.S. attorney of Virginia when she was not even the U.S. attorney. And then the new case involving Comey, you know, see all the evidence that Comey was providing there, how Donald Trump's hands on and all of this, Donald Trump's out there telling the FBI to do surveillance on Comey. Donald Trump's out there leading all this stuff it all. And all of this goes up to Trump. All of this goes up to Trump as well. All right, let's 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, any accident caused by the negligence, reach out to Popak's firm. Give a call to Popak's firm. We'll put it right there as well so you can see it. We'll have a link in the description below of where you could contact Popoc, but reach out to the Popoc firm. Also, make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel and the Legal AF substack. We'll be right back. When we come back, I want to talk more about repercussions and I want to talk about Blanche. Then I'm going to pass it over to Popak. Let's take our first break in business.

[B]

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[A]

Welcome back to Legal af. Thank you to all of our sponsors. We are so grateful for them. They make this show possible. Support our sponsors so look, I'm sure you may have seen this morning, if not Donald Trump out there attacking Jeanine Pirro right now. Donald Trump posting. I disagree 100% with Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, on the reflecting pool. I don't know what she was thinking. To me, it was a pure case of vandalism that included the grass, which had a big 8647 emblazoned in giant letters on it, and other elements of the surrounding area. There may have been some contractor difficulty, but the major damage was caused by vandals. D, J, T. No, it's not. And now you're further defaming David Earn. And then Donald Trump starts posting more photos and videos of the reflecting pole. I mean, we have to understand, folks, he's a criminal. Okay? I mean, let's just pull back for a second. He's a bad human being. Okay? Would we want felons to be, you know, who are serious felons to be running your organization? I know. I believe in rehabilitation. Let me be clear. Trump's clearly not subject to rehabilitation. I believe in rehabilitation. I believe in second chances, maybe not third chance. I believe in second chances. And so I believe that someone could be a felon and come back and show remorse for what they did. Right. I believe in that, but certainly not Trump. And I don't still don't think that that. Then you should be the President of the United States or maybe a leader of an organization, especially if your felony was for, like, financial stuff and documents and things that are of. Of. Of import. And then also, look, he's a sexual predator. He's a sexual predator, right? I mean, he was found civilly liable for sexual assault, not just allegations. He was found liable by a federal jury who heard the case where Trump presented evidence. Eugene Carroll presented evidence. And by the way, we've heard Trump on tape. He talks about that he grabs women. He is sexually assaults them. He grabs them by the genitals because he's rich and you get away with it. He talks about going in and looking at girls naked in beauty pageants because he says, you're the host. You get to do that. You get to inspect him naked. I mean, this is a bad guy. So with a sexual predator, does it shock you that the sexual predator who's friends with Epstein is gonna cover up the Epstein files? No, that's what they do. That's what they do with their bad people. What do you think they're gonna do? It's a horrible human. Horrible human. Scum human. The worst of the worst type of human. I mean, a felon. He's a felon. The Felon gonna do great work. He's gonna be on. No, I mean, what do you think you happen if you put a criminal in charge of things and behave like a criminal? And as former President Obama said, the presidency brings out your qualities. If you're empathetic, it'll be more empathetic. If you do this, it brings it out more. So if you're a criminal, a crook, and a sexual predator, the presidency brings that. It makes all of the qualities more pronounced. And that's also what we're seeing, and it's not good. It's why I focus so much on moral character and all of these things that I know corporate news wants to gloss over and be like, oh, well, that's just Donald being Donald. No, let's be honest. These are bad humans. This is a bad you. This is one of the most vile, scumbag humans in world history. And so you're seeing, even after his own doj, Jeanine Piro's his lady. You picked her. You could be. She's saying she said those things, that there's no case at all, that it's not vandals. And so then Trump goes to. I'm showing photos of the grass and the this or the that. And, you know, I think Popac will talk in a little bit as well. It's like, even after the Supreme Court says you lose, you're a sexual abuser, basically, because they didn't take up his appeal, he's been found liable for sexual abuse in the Eugene Carroll case. He appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court said, we don't even want to hear it. We don't want to even hear it. It's not a case that we hear. What do you do? Then? Trump asks for a petition for rehearing. Petition for rehearing on it. And then says, oh, Eugene Carroll should not be allowed to. To take the money that was awarded to her, and she should not be allowed to put it in the S&P 500 because the S&P 500 could crash. Yeah, well, we know it could crash because of you, but who are you to tell your sexual assault victim where she can put the money that she was awarded by a Dre? He wrote a motion. He wrote a motion to the appeals court saying that it's unfair that she invested her $5 million in the S&P 500. I mean, that's a. This guy psycho. And then he has a bunch of lawyers who go and. And. And fight for this stuff, who fight to destroy the law. So that was Donald Trump's post. And when you talk about his lawyers at the top, right there, you've got Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche is responsible for this entire criminal cartel that's become the doj. Don't just call him the doj, call him the criminal cartel that they are. Are. So this is a super cut that we. There. They are a racketeering enterprise. For real. They're a criminal enterprise carrying out Donald Trump's criminal orders, his quid pro quos. Right? The bribes that lead to pardons, they're covering up the Epstein files. They are a criminal racketeering cartel. Here's the super cut we made that's gone viral at the Midas Touch Network about all these different Trump regime officials. And here's what they've been saying about the reflecting pool and the vandals from Caroline. All these scum. Caroline Levitt and all these fricking scum here is right. This is the worst. Just the worst. You just got to call these people out. Scum, right? What, what, what, what's, you know, just freaking awful people. Not even. Not in a political way, man. These are horrible people here. Play this clip. The vandalism is very real. Despite what Tim Walls wants to say. It's an imaginary problem. No, it is not. It's a very real problem.

[B]

Reflecting pool is so beautiful. They tried to destroy it. They cut it up with a buck's knife and tried to destroy it.

[A]

The contractors who did the initial work with a reflecting pool, are they to blame for the current condition or is it.

[B]

No, we had vandalism. Vandals. But it peeled off.

[A]

Why? Why did that happen? It didn't peel off.

[B]

There was. There was. There was vandalism. There was box. Box cutters.

[A]

There have been seven arrests.

[B]

There was people literally trying to destroy

[A]

part of the monument.

[B]

The Reflecting pool is not just a pool on the Mall. It is part of the Lincoln Memorial. And if anybody says that they're going

[A]

to go and vandalize that, it's no,

[B]

it's no different than if someone was throwing.

[A]

And you're 100% sure that what happened with the liner was vandalism?

[B]

You can prove it?

[A]

Yeah, absolutely you can.

[B]

And as we drain it and we've

[A]

got all the photographs we can see, I mean, there's.

[B]

There's no possible way.

[A]

Photographs of a person or people cutting a 300 or 350 foot gash in the bottom of the reflecting pool.

[B]

Dana, I'm not sure why you and others in the media think that you want to keep trying to question Whether or not they.

[A]

And then let me show you why I think state regime media Fox is going to get sued by David Hearn. This is just one of them. Jesse Waters is probably going to get sued. Remember Janine, in a defamation case against. If a public figure is bringing a defamation case, you have to show that there's a case called New York Times v. Sullivan. It's called the New York Times v. Sullivan standard. You have to show that the party that defamed you acted with actual malice. Either they intended to do it or they acted in like a reckless disregard. That's the standard because we want people to do coverage on public figures, right? David Hearn, I'm not sure if he's a public figure. There's something called a limited public figure, like a public figure for a specific thing. So like during the Olympics, maybe he's a limited public figure because there's attention to him during that period of time as a canoeist. But like being a two time Olympic canoeist, I don't think anybody, no offense, David Hearn knew David Hearn. Hearn before this remembered him. I mean, maybe you did. I don't think you did. It was great that he represented our country in two Olympics, but I don't think he was a public figure that people like would talk about him like that. So I think David Hearn would say, I'm not a public figure so I don't have to prove actual malice. If I'm suing Fox, I could just show negligence. Because if you're not a public figure, you could just show negligence and proceed on a defamation case case that someone acted unreasonably in defaming you. Right? And I believe that regardless though, whether David Hearn has a negligence standard or the actual malice standard in suing Fox and Jesse Waters, I think you check the box. Let's just use the actual malice standard. Because if you can meet that threshold, you can meet the negligence threshold, right? So you have Janine Pirro from formerly of state regime media who is very close with Jesse Waters. She shows up, she picks the Water show because of her relationship. She used to be on the panel with him, the Five. You know, she's, she's there as close as can be. She was picked because she was a Fox host. She goes on and they're all chummy with each other, right? And she's like, great to see you, I miss you all, all of that. Check the box, check the box. Actual malice. Actual malice. Because this thing's contrived, it's set up, you See the conspiracy taking place before, before your eyes, using Fox for this purpose. And then she goes in and just does the lie. Let me show you what happens here. Play this clip. I miss you more. You got to keep Jessica in line. Yeah. Come back for a day. Listen, your show's still great.

[B]

I love it.

[A]

Thank you so much. A lot of people when this first happened with the pool didn't believe the President that there was vandalism. Vandalism? That's not the case. Yeah, it's not the case at all. In fact, I was at the Reflecting Pool yesterday there. Not only is it vandalism that is reflected in today's indictment, but there is a cutting of the liner of the pool at the base of the pool for several yards across the pool. And someone was intent on doing incredible damage to the pool. But what we've seen after are other people who want to do continuing damage. And one of the biggest problems and one of the ugliest things that I think is out there are people trying to destroy monuments and statues, you know, part of our history. And for some reason they think they have the right to destroy things when the truth is these are national monuments or sacred monuments. And so we're going to make sure that the law is followed and the people recognize that D.C. is not the place to come and commit your crime. President has repaired 50 parks and, you know, 48. I think it's 22 fountains and 48 monuments. The fountains look beautiful by the train station. They are gorgeous. That used to be dilapidated, terrible. DC Is safe and beautiful and that's what the President's doing. And when these anarchists come and we have witnesses, they're like, oh, he didn't do anything. Not only that, there are people working in the National Park Service who come here. They volunteer to work in D.C. and to get berated by these people as though they have the right to destroy a monument.

[B]

No, you don't.

[A]

We saw a lot of this start around the BLM riots. Now here's a montage of Donald Trump constantly lying about this. Here's the CNN montage of Trump saying it's vandals, vandals, vandals. Here, play this clip.

[B]

We had vandalism.

[A]

No vandals.

[B]

You know, we have a hundred, and we have a, I think 290, 300 foot slit right through it. Probably a box cutter or a knife of some kind. Somebody went in with a knife and cut it. They cut it up good. And then they cut a 200, 350 foot slip in the form of lots of little slips. A real horrible stuff. They took razor and they started cutting this, you know, very expensive stuff. We caught some people vandalizing our beautiful reflecting pool. They tried to destroy it. They cut it up with a box knife and tried to destroy it.

[A]

And then again, all these social media posts of Donald Trump saying, it's vandals, it's vandals, it's vandals. But let's remember, as our editor in chief, Ron Philipkowski says, Trump has been falsely accusing people of crimes for decades. Remember the Central Park Five? This is what Trump does. He accuses people of crime. He's a defamer. He is a blamer. He is a destroyer. He brings frivolous cases. And now he's used the DOJ to bring these frivolous cases. And because of his own incompetence in this reflecting pool, painting it blue thing he wanted to do. And he kept on talking about it. David Hearn, an innocent man was criminally prosecuted. Fabricated evidence was brought before a grand jury. And it was all false. It was all false. Pirro needs to be disbarred. State regime media should be sued. This is an impeachable offense for Donald Trump. He's behind it. He's showing. He's. He's posting and saying that he's behind it. But then it goes to Todd Blanche. So let's talk about Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing has been moved to Tuesday. Now, Todd Blanche should not be confirmed, period. He's not qualified for this position at all. He is Donald Trump. His qualification is he's Trump's criminal defense lawyer who lost the criminal case. And Trump was convicted of multiple felonies. Let's remember that Blanche wasn't a good lawyer. I mean, you know, his cross examination was horrible. Really bad. He's not a good lawyer. He wasn't good on his feet. He's a very bad lawyer. But in any event, he's corrupt as hell. He was a former federal prosecutor, so lots of feds were like, man, this guy is like just destroying the DOJ from within because he's so craven and cares so much about power. Sick. What a sicko. And then Blanche has been responsible for covering up the Epstein files. He re traumatized the victims. Notice that Tillis of North Carolina and Cornyn of Texas, like, they're as long. This is why. They're horrible people, too. Like horrible people. As long as Blanche met with the survivors, regardless of what happened, that checked that box for Blanche and Tillis, did he meet with the survivors yeah. Okay, well, what happened at the meeting when he met with the survivors, he re traumatized them. He crossed his arm. I'm gonna make this short. Don't expect anything from me. Who wants he re traumatized sex assault victims who were raped as children. He re traumatized women who were raped when they were little girls. He re traumatized. He was abhorrent the way he treated them. That interaction should be disqualifying and of course covering up the side the child sex trafficking. But just like they claim with the reflecting pool, trust me, just trust me. I alone literally Trump, who's bankrupted everything, who's bankrupting our country right now, who lies about literally at every word out of every sound syllable. All lie, lie, lie, lie. I'm the only one who tells. I'm the only one who tells the truth. Really. So trust me on this one. Just trust me. So you had Donald Trump post this morning. This was his latest post. If Senators Corden and Tillis both upset because I wouldn't endorse them, they lost and quit respectively aren't going to approve Todd Blanche, one of the most respected professionals, according to everybody in the country, to be the United States Attorney General. Then I will keep Todd as the acting Attorney General and push hard to get the anti weaponization takes care of those who have been so badly treated by the crooked Joe Biden and Obama administration. I get nothing. Although I was treated horribly fast, Todd Blanche was a voice of reason. I will immediately be back on the table and I will get it done. Thank you for your attention to this matter. It's not on the table. No one wants to pass an anti weaponization bill, even the Republicans in the Senate. That gives money to the January 6th insurrectionist and which waives any liability that you have for not paying your taxes. That gives you a get out of jail free for you don't have to pay taxes card. Okay, Republicans don't want to pass that bill right now. That, that bill's not going to pass at all. Not going to pass the Senate, not going to pass that, you know, probably not going to pass the House. Okay, so what are you talking about? And the only thing, I mean this is why I'm not like saying yay Tillis. Yay Cornyn. They said Blanche will confirm. You just put in writing that the anti weaponization fund, which isn't that at all. And giving Trump immunity from not paying taxes. Okay, just say that that's gone. You've, you've made an oral representation of the. But just sit, just put it in Writing. Put it in writing. Because there's also a red flag that on Friday, you know what else happened as well? Donald Trump filed an appeal in the Southern District of Florida in the case where the anti weaponization fund and the deal that he doesn't have to pay his taxes or he can. He won't be investigated or audited for not paying his taxes. That federal Judge Kathleen Williams voided the settlement, said it was collusive and issued sanctions against Trump and Trump's lawyer and everybody. Right. So what did Trump do? Filed an appeal. They filed a notice of appeal. Donald Trump, regarding the ruling of Kathleen Williams. And let me just read it for you. What they say here. This is. They say the ruling by Judge Williams voiding the settlement agreement rests on the grievous legal error that because Trump supervises the executive branch, he and the United States necessarily possess the same legal interest and cannot be adverse to each other. That is wrong. Trump asserted a personal claim arising from the theft of his own tax information. The IRS and U.S. department of treasury represented the sovereign interest in public funds and federal law. Donald Trump, Eric Trump and the Trump Organization asserted their own independent claims. Presidential supervision did not erase those rights or merge those interests. The sanctions order nevertheless erroneously treated its novel theory of adversity as the starting point and then refracted the facts through the mistaken lens. Refracted, you know, when that lawyer was writing, refracted the fracts. Do I like that play of words? No, we don't like that play of words. You're an idiot. We don't like that play of words because we know that Donald Trump did a collusive settlement. We know he settled with himself so that he and Eric and Don Jr. And the Trump Organization could avoid paying taxes and could avoid the ramifications of their horrible behavior. What are you talking about? The sanctions order, a note erroneously refracting facts. Settlement became proof of the collusion, even though there was none. Potential weak defenses became proof that the claims were fictitious, which they were not. And ordinary professional relationships became proof of coordinate. Oh, this was just ordinary professional relationships. The United States President, in his personal capacity, suing the United States government for a frivolous case that was six years past the statute of limitation, where Donald Trump was the president when the underlying conduct took place many, many, many years ago, and where the Justice Department does not issue the most basic motion to dismiss, but instead enters into a settlement waiving the taxes for the current president. This is ordinary professional relationship. So I just want to read that to you because that's what they're filing in court because they're appealing it the same way with like, Eugene Carroll. They lose, they lose, they lose. And they try to appeal forever, frankly, the same way that Donald Trump's been audited for 20 years. Because he just never stops, you know, the kind of constant barrage and flooding the zone with lies and litigation and lawsuits for the past taxes that he hasn't paid. This is what he's going to do here while not paying his taxes. In my opinion, that's the game plan behind all of this. And so Donald Trump, in the post that I just read, his position is the following. His position is, well, now that Corn and Tillis don't want to approve Blanche. Well, that makes me want the anti Weaponization fund even more. I was even thinking about maybe not wanting it, but now because of Corn and Antilis, now I want it. And he's like, I get nothing. No, you get everything. What are you talking about? You get everything. You get a waiver of all of your tax liability. That is a significant, significant thing. Let me be very. Let me be very. I mean, that could be billions of dollars, as I said before, you know, and there are some people who are like, well, would David Hearn qualify for the anti weaponization? But let me be clear. There's a process. If you believe that you are unfairly treated by the federal government and you have a claim, you don't go to weaponization funds, you know what you do? You file a lawsuit. First you have to file what's called a federal government tort claim where you have to assert, give notice, and then you can file a lawsuit against the government where there's a judge, a jury, there's rules of evidence. There are witnesses, there's rules like you can't have hearsay or you can't just. Or Trump can't pick the board that awards the money. Right? It's a jury. There's a reason why Donald Trump has lost almost all of his cases that go before a jury. Trump hates going before juries. Trump loves filing lawsuits and then threatening and intimidating people and then hoping he can just, just flood the zone with paperwork. And all of these and all, and all of this distraction and delay to tie you up and make you spend a lot of money. That's what Trump did. That's his M.O. he hates when he goes before the juries. He loses. When you have real rules of evidence and good, accurate information and jurors assessing the behavior without the propaganda he owe, in my opinion, he's almost always lost law and has the biggest losses there. And he does. That's why he's afraid of deposition. He doesn't want to do that. He want to do any of that. That's why he wants to have his board. So what David Hearn can do is what the January 6th insurrectionist could do, except David Hearn has a case. And they don't. You know why they don't? Because they were convicted. They were. They either pled guilty. They pled guilty or jurors convicted them. Every jury convicted every one of those J6 insurrections and for very serious crimes. A lot of them. Them as well. They had their day in court the way Trump had his day in court for E. Jean Carroll. And Trump lost. A jury found him liable for sexual assault and defamation. That's the way our systems work. You can no longer say, oh, well, those are just allegations. No, no, she went in court. A jury found him liable, civilly liable. The end. That's the way our system works. Okay? And so, you know, you know, that's Cornyn and Tillis's view that he needs to sign this. You know, if there's a written document. Trump doesn't want a written document. I pointed out why before as well. The agreement between Trump and the federal government says that the only way to void the agreement is with a written document. So Trump's whole scam is like, well, we'll make an oral representation that it'll be overturned, but I don't want to put it in writing, because if I put it in writing, then it actually gets overturned. And Trump wants to keep the argument that since there's no writing voiding the agreement, he doesn't have to pay his. You know, he could have. He could potentially avoid paying his taxes. And one of the biggest fake outs that the smoke screen are the January 6th insurrectionist, just like on J6. They were his pawns when he said, I'm gonna go march with you. No, he didn't. There is pawns here also get people outraged about that, which we should be. But focus less on the pardon that Donald Trump is giving himself. The tax of the super pardon, as being called, where he doesn't have to pay tax, immune. Where you have to pay taxes and he gets all of audits waived. That's what he wants you not to talk about. But that is what he really cares about the most. That could be, again, not just hundreds of millions, but billions of dollars in value that he's trying to extract from himself after he's made billions of dollars on these quid pro quo deals right here. And so you've got responses from Tillis saying despite comments as late as yesterday that the fund is dead, Trump clearly intends to resurrect the pay for punks either by inappropriately establishing another bogus fund or pushing Congress to vote for a bill that the majority of Republicans would be against. It's unfortunate that Blanche, who I consider qualified for the job, would not be confirmed because this reversal, hopefully we could resolve this by Tuesday. What do you mean he's qualified for the job? What are you talking about? This is the guy. I mean, how could you post that on the very same day? That's why you can't give Tillis or Cornyn really that much credit. You give him a scintilla credit. But on the same day the Reflecting Pool kicks case, which Blanche oversees. Pirro. Right. The Reflecting Pool case gets dismissed. Egregious. This guy's qualified. Just, you know, put this in writing. Look, this should be in writing, but the guy's not qualified. Okay. Anyway, I'm going to pass it over to Michael Popak right now to finish up the show. Hit subscribe here. Oh, did you get your copy of WTF America? Have you got your copy of WTF America? The book I wrote with my brothers? I think there's a link in the description below. Order it, pre order it now. The book comes out in October, but what our publisher says these pre orders are really important to like determine what kind of promotion is needed. It's really helpful that you do the pre order, put in the comments if you've done the pre order. Again, we're grateful for you. We're grateful for you. If you or someone you know has been injured in an auto accident, car accident, trucking accident. If you've been injured by the negligence of a third party, reach out to the POPOC firm. We'll put the POPOC firm number, call or text or visit the POPOC firm's website and we'll also put a link in the description. Don't be shy. Reach out to POPA. Consultation is free. Okay. Also, subscribe to Legal AF YouTube and subscribe to Legal AF substack. All right, we'll come right back. I'm going to pass this over to Michael Popak this episode.

[B]

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And right now IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20% off all IQ Bar products including the ultimate sampler pack plus free shipping to get your 20% off text legal AF to 64,000 text L E G A L A F to 64,000 one more time. That's legal AF to 64,000 message and data rates may apply. See Terms for details. I love our cat Chanel, but I definitely don't love everything that comes with having a cat, especially the litter box. Since switching her to Smalls though, I've noticed a real difference. Smalls Fresh Cat Food is protein packed, made with preservative free, 100% human grade ingredients you'd find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. My cat goes absolutely feral for these recipes and I've noticed more energy, a softer coat and a whole lot less stink. It makes sense because Smalls is fresh, gently cooked food is made without preservatives so cats get more of the nutrition they actually need. In fact, after switching to smalls, 88% of cat owners reported overall health improvements. And if you're worried your cat might be picky, you can try Smalls Risk Free. They'll refund you if your cat won't eat their food, so stop serving your little carnivore a bowl of processed shortcuts for a limited time because you are a legal AF listener listener. Get 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com legalaf that's 60% off your first order plus free shipping and free treats for life when you head to smalls.com legalaf thanks Ben and welcome back to Legal AF. Well, this is exactly what it looks like like when you have the two founders of Legal af, Ben and Michael, taking some needed time off with their families nine hours apart, but both being dedicated to bringing you the content that you deserve. The rule of law and the intersection of law and politics doesn't take a holiday, so we can't either. Glad you're back. Let me pick up a little bit where Ben left off, and I'll cover a couple of other topics. I want to talk about about the Katie Fang versus Todd Blanche impact with new documents being finally provided to Judge Sullivan and what it means for his confirmation process. I also want to talk about E. Jean Carroll and that case now taking a different turn as it relates to the $91 million she's owed for being the first and only person in America who's ever had a jury find that Donald Trump is a sex abuser. Then I want to talk about Cash Patel and defamation a couple of ways. Let me tie it most of this together with Todd Blanche, because Todd Blanche is ultimately Cash Patel's boss. And Todd Blanche also is connected, of course, to the and the defendant in the Katie Fang lawsuit in which he obtained a preliminary injunction in order to get Judge Sullivan to order the five categories of information and documents to be finally provided to the American people and that Todd Blanche be found in contempt. This is not about trying to, you know, throw a monkey wrench into his confirmation process. I think he's doing a pretty good job of doing that all by himself. I mean, as Ben touched on. And I'll follow up here, I don't think he's got the votes. We'll find out more as the week progresses whether Cornyn and Tellis will come around and give him the votes. But it is a spectacularly amazing thing and a defeat so far for Donald Trump that on a Senate Judiciary Committee that he controls the votes on, he can't rustle up 11 out of 12 votes to get this guy confirmed already. And it's talking about Todd Blanche like he's some football coach that's about to get axed in media posts. I mean, I mean, the damning faint praise of Todd Blanche by Donald Trump. Well, we'll just try it again in six, eight, six or eight months. You know, it's like a. It's like a football owner, team owner, saying out loud, well, I don't think we're going to get rid of coach in the middle of the season. He's doing a pretty good job. And the next day, the guy has a press conference and says he wants to spend more time with his family. I think that's where Todd Blanche is right now now. And he's getting undermined, his legs cut out from under him by Donald Trump, who's busy telling the world that he does not want to get rid of the Jan6 fund, but more particularly does not want to get rid of the one paragraph amendment to the Jan6 Fund settlement entered into by Todd Blanche. I mean, that obviously was the quid pro quo for Todd Blanche to get the job. I mean, he got passed over four, four times. This is what it took for him to get the nomination in Donald Trump's eyes. Because I think he's also thought he's a little bit of a loser. He got passed over the first time when Aileen Cannon was. Was touted to be the Attorney general. Yeah, the Mar a Lago judge. He got passed over again when Matt Gaetz was the nominee. Didn't even make it to the committee. That one. It's pretty. It's pretty tough sledding when you're getting passed over for somebody who's been accused of child sex trafficking. And then. All right, well, you know, top lunch, like. Okay, now my turn. Nope. Nope. Pam Bondi. Pam Bondi, come on down. You're the next Attorney General. And then even when she gets canned, he doesn't immediately turn to his number to number two in the office, Todd Blanche. He starts holding a Hunger Games style tryout. Maybe Janine Pirro, maybe Harmeet Dylan, maybe Lee Zeldin, the EPA director. Let's see how low Todd Blanche will go for me. Oh, he'll give me the immunity and the release for my family and me of hundreds of billions of dollars of tax liability and criminal liability. Todd, where have you been all my life? That's what we just watched. And now whenever Trump gets that whiff of somebody's a loser, whether it's Alina Haba or Lindsay Halligan or Tulsi Gabbard or Kristi Noem, you know, their. Their shelf life is not that long. I think Blanche is starting to fall into that category. And he. And it's not helping him that as he's telling the people that he needs the votes from Senator Tillis and Cornyn that he's killing the Jan6 fund. He's got Donald Trump out there saying, I want the Jan6 fund. And he's got Donald Trump's lawyers, obviously, with Todd Blanche's approval, filing notices of appeal to keep the Jan6 fund alive in Judge Williams Miami case. Like, either Todd Blanche knew about it and has effectively lied to Cornyn and tellis about the filing, keeping the Jan6 fund alive when he's telling them it's dead or he didn't know about it, and I don't know which is worse. And he's, of course, connected back to Katie Fang, the intrepid reporter friend of mine. Here on the Midas Touch network, who has a successful case. She's won several times in front of Judge Sullivan, including a preliminary injunction that requires the Department of Justice to comply with an act of Congress, a law, the Epstein File Transparency Act. And in order to do that, he had to produce just five categories of documents. Documents in and around a sex torture video, documents around an international child sex trafficking ring that were in a foreign language, like, translate them, will ya. Documents about handwritten 302 FBI interview notes about a woman who says that when she was a teenager, barely 13, she was sexually abused by Donald Trump. And. And the PRIP. And the redaction law that's supposed to list why. 200,000 pages. 200,000 pages of the Epstein files, representing a little bit less than 10%, have not been produced at all. Why have they been blacked out? And they didn't do any of those things. They didn't translate the documents which the judge told them to. They. They refused to produce the documents. They refused to produce the privilege log because I don't think they ever did it, the redaction log. And they're still fighting over which diet. And then they hide behind the victims. Well, we don't want to produce these because the victims, you know, were complicit in some of the activities. I'm like, what are you even talking about? So finally, Todd Blanch or his number two, Stan Woodward, submitted with about 32 minutes to spare on a deadline set by Judge Sullivan. Categories of documents for in camera, meaning only the judge looks at reviews do. I've looked at the emails they have to do with. Some of them are about the sex torture video. Some of them involved Epstein and victims. When he. When he had those victims under psychological, monetary, financial, emotional pressure and his thumb. And so some of those young girls were doing things that, in retrospect, were him manipulating them to help bring new girls into the child sex trafficking ring. But they can't be blamed. They were psychologically tortured by Epstein, who had their passports in one hand and their visas in another and their finances in a third and squeezed. And so if you see an email out of context, like, oh, look, she was participating in it. No, she wasn't participating in it. She was being coerced into doing it by a master manipulator and predator. In fact, one of the survivors out of the 1400 came forward and filed a motion to intervene to convince Judge Sullivan to keep her name out of it, to keep her name redacted because she was manipulated by him and she would be embarrassed and re traumatized if they were released. But the fact that they even submitted more documents, documents to talk to the judge. But I don't think this digs them out of their hole because the judge didn't ask for more information about their failure to comply with his order to translate documents. They got the last word. It was a one and a half pages of, of gobbledygook of ridiculousness. And that's one and two. He didn't ask for more documents about, about, you know, why, why they didn't prepare the redaction log. So it's obvious what he's going to do. He's going to make a ruling early this week. We'll follow it on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network about the documents that were submitted. He'll make some hard calls about this document and that document and then he's going to lower the boom. So they shouldn't be surprised he gave them the last word but that he's going to lower the boom on them. And I think in contempt for Todd Blanche just in time for his confirmation vote. I think that confirmation vote they're announcing it might be Tuesday, could be Wednesday. Stay close to me. Stay close to our sub stack on Legal AF because I will keep you posted. And we will put up live on the Legal AF YouTube channel a a live stream which I'll host of the vote, of the confirmation vote. I mean, I just had, you know, Cory Booker on about the upcoming vote and the importance of it. And here's what Senator Booker had to say. Yeah, this is really one of those

[A]

times where you have to fight every battle. You're going to lose a lot, but you're going to win some. And the strength that any individual senator

[B]

has is magnified and multiplied when people

[A]

express the same outrage at extraordinary numbers. And I've seen a backlash of people

[B]

change, his tariff policy change when he

[A]

was making cuts to Medicaid. He has been stopped or at least delayed in a lot of the awful

[B]

things he wants to do by extraordinary

[A]

people in his first term. Remember, he wanted to get rid of

[B]

the Affordable Care Act.

[A]

And I've never seen this place even now, 13 years here, I have never seen as many people descend on Washington, D.C. little kids in wheelchairs, they called themselves, the little lobbyists rolling up to senators and pleading with them not to take away their health care.

[B]

And it worked.

[A]

It changed the mind of three of my colleagues. And that was stopped. And so that's why I want everybody

[B]

who's listening, the thing they want you

[A]

to do is to underestimate your power, the power of your voice. When you stand up, when you speak up, it makes a difference. And on this issue, issue with the

[B]

highest office law enforcement office in the land, a person that is incredibly responsible

[A]

for our public safety, our national security,

[B]

we cannot let somebody as dangerous as

[A]

Todd Blanche get there.

[B]

So this is all going to time out in and around the and I think a contempt order in and around the vote. The vote. And he's going to have to answer ultimately for as Ben pointed out earlier, why is why are they appealing the the ruling by Judge Williams which called the Gen 6 settlement process tainted with with fraud and at least bad faith and announced that it couldn't be used as a justification for the settlement at all. Like why is he continuing to defend that while he's telling Cornyn and Tiller us that he's going to kill it makes absolutely no sense. But that's the world that we are in. Let me now move to Eugene Carroll, who was that Elle magazine editor who bumped into Donald Trump in 1996 at the revolving door of the Bergdorf Goodman department store. Catty cornered Trump Tower and had the misfortune of having that interaction turn terribly dark and violent. Violent. She was sexually abused in a dressing room by Donald Trump. And a jury of nine, nine zero after several weeks of testimony, not just Eugene Carroll. So it wasn't just he said, she said it was several witnesses who she confided in at the time as outcry witnesses that she was sexually abused really, as the judge pointed out, technically rape by Donald Trump. And that accumulation of evidence and other evidence about Donald Trump's past bad acts and past sexual misconduct convinced a jury she's the only person to ever have Donald Trump branded a sex abuser and predator. And she had two judgments that she obtained from two separate juries. She went 18 and 0 in federal court in two separate federal juries a couple of months apart. Part she got her $5.8 million, which was about the $5 million which ran with interest about a week or so ago. And that has to do with Donald Trump sexually abusing her, the punitive damages he owes her and defaming her after he was president. He then continued to defame her. And there was a second trial, including about when he was president the first time. And the jury he testified in that case and the jury hated him and ultimately and believed fully E. Jean Carroll and awarded her 83 and a half million dollars, which is now about $91 million running with interest. So he lost at the United States Supreme Court level on the first case arguing that evidence shouldn't have been brought in about him being a previous predator. That's really, that was really the argument. And even the Maga 6 on the Supreme Court release, like pass, none of them helped him, none of them wrote a dissent. No, they just said denied. We're not granting that petition. Now the second, he just filed a new petition for writ of certiorari, which is the way you take an appeal or requested appeal at the Supreme Court. And there he's arguing immunity. Surprise. That he had immunity when he was President. He could defame anybody effectively. And so this is now going to tie into the criminal immunity, even though this is a civil case case. And also another form of immunity that all federal workers, no matter if you're badge number one, the President of the United States, all the way down to, you know, the, the other person. It's called Westfall immunity. It has to do with the name of a case years ago. And Westfall immunity is enjoyed by all federal workers and you can't sue them. The federal government can intervene on their behalf and therefore, and toss them and therefore, or they, they enjoy immunity if, if it is within the course and scope of their duties. So the question is, is defaming E. Jean Carroll about her appearance, her being too ugly to have been sexually abused? I mean that's effectively what he's saying, is that going to be within the scope of his authority or duties to give him Westfall immunity. And he also waived it. He raised these things 15 months basically after the judgment, I mean after the verdict, the judgment, everything, they're like, oh yeah, I was President, it's a little late. We have a concept of the law called latches or immunity and waiver. So there's a waiver argument. So I'm not sure he's got five votes to get the petition for writ of certiorari granted on that particular one. But if it's going to happen, it's going to happen in about two weeks. There's a conference on August 17th. We'll see if they take it up then. If they do, pardon the lighting out here, if they do, it'll be heard in the fall, early winter with a decision in spring or summer of next year, which means this 83 year old victim is going to have to continue to wait for her money. And they could always kick the can down the road. I mean, in the first case they kicked the can in 13 separate conferences between February and June before they voted against it. They could do it here, too. They could just, just not hear it and then deny it at the end. That may happen here as well. But we want Eg and Carol to get the money. Justice demands that. We certainly call for it here on Illegal af, the podcast. Let me end with Cash Patel. Remember him? FBI director? Yeah. So he's in the news for a couple of defamation cases. First, in probably one of the funniest, funniest laugh out loud cases I've heard of, he went after Jim Stewardson. Jim Stewardson, if you don't know him, is a disinformation researcher who believes in defending democracy through sarcasm and parody. You know, his, his profile picture is south park somebody or him as South Park. And he wrote a couple of things about Cash Patel that got him sued for defamation, calling him a googly eyed Kremlin asset. In fact, he's now switched it to googly eyed Kremlin. Sorry, pardon me, it's late at night, bitch. Googly eyed Kremlin bitch. Suggesting that Cash Patel, in his opinion based on his performance, takes his talking points from Vladimir Putin. Look, for years people thought, including in the FBI, Donald Trump was a Russian asset. So commenting on it is not really defamatory territory. He also made some other comments about him, but mainly the googly eyed Kremlin bitch is the one that Cash Patel didn't like. So he sued him. Now, Patel, which I had forgotten, I guess lives in Nevada. Las Vegas should have been suspicious already a Las Vegas gambler as our FBI director. So he sues him in his home state in Nevada, and he actually gets a default judgment against Jim Stewardson. But finally Jim gets a lawyer and the lawyer files a motion to dismiss and vacate the default judgment because the default judgment, meaning Jim didn't answer the lawsuit and he said there's no personal jurisdiction over Mr. Stewardson. He has no connectivity to Nevada. This isn't a Nevada issue. Nevadans don't care. This is about Cash Patel and there's no Nevada, you know, stake in this. And finally, the judge in the case, Judge Gordon, vacated the default judgment and dismissed the defamation case. It can be refiled. They can start over again somewhere where Jim Stewardson lives, but they can't sue in Nevada. Now, one of the funniest things I saw was Jim's response to this, which is not actually legally right, but did make me laugh out loud, so I wanted to share it with you. It's not legally right because he didn't get a ruling in his favor on the substance of what he wrote that that's not defamatory. It's like that it's, it's protected opinion or sarcasm or parody although I think that's where that would have went. But he, he did post on his. We'll put it up on the screen. He did post on his, on his screen. Now that my case is is settled, I think he means dismiss.

[A]

Missed.

[B]

You are free to refer to at FBI Director Cash as a googly eyed Kremlin bitch and a traitor without fear of legal repercussions. That's not exactly true Jim, although it is hilarious and and very very funny. In fact Jim has put up his own, has put up his own version of the analysis around. If you go to his X account you he also just posted I wrote about the reaction to Cash Patel getting his frivolous lawsuit thrown out after I called him a. This is like a drinking game. A googly eyed Kremlin bitch. When people try to take away your freedom, mockery is a powerful tool. You really cannot do it enough. Please subscribe Tribe. You know I give give the guy a lot of credit on that. Now Cash Patel has his own case also against the Atlantic magazine and Sarah Fitzpatrick for having done a whole article about his drinking problem because she says she had sourced at least 20 different people inside and outside of the FBI that said he has an excessive drinking problem. He drinks to excess. He, he can't get. He thought he was fired when he, when he forgot his password into the FBI account count and freaked and had a freak out. A lot of freakouts going out going on in the White House. He in addition to that he had according to her reporting he had to be woken up. They almost batted a battered down the door with a battering ram because he was going to miss meetings. He's been known to be publicly intoxicated in, in Nevada Las Vegas nightclubs and lounges and he didn't like that. He didn't like the his, the questions about him him squiring his girlfriend around town and on the on the people's jet with taxpayer dollars. So he sued the Atlantic. Now the Atlantic filed their motion to dismiss. It's a good thing, it's appropriate thing because she has good reporting and she shouldn't be sued. He tried to dox her by posting her address when he made his filings and that got caught by the judge and by the Atlantic in Seal and this is what they said. This is the quote from the editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine. If Director Patel did not want to face this process. He should not have filed this suit. These legal filings are consistent with the promise I made to our staff and to our readers in May. We will defend the Atlantic and its staff vigorously. We will not be intimidated by acts of politically motivated retaliation. We will continue to cover the FBI professionally, fairly and thoroughly, and we will continue to practice journalism in the public interest. They're also seeking a stay of discovery until their motion to dismiss is granted or denied, which I think is appropriate in this case as well. That case is, is just a way for Cash Patel to try to run interference, to do a cover up up for what could be the public intoxication problem he has. I mean, he's been challenged by Sheldon Whitehouse and others to take a, and, and, and Jamie Raskin to take a lie detector test, take an intoxication test to find out if he has a substance abuse problem. And he denies all of it. He refuses to do it, and yet he's got people in the White House to continue to protect the him. Cash Patel's FBI director makes us less secure as a nation and he needs to go. And his attempts to use Donald Trump's own defamation playbook to intimidate the press or people who parody him must be ground to a halt and come to an end. And so we wanted to cover these things today. Ben had some opportunity to do his part, turned it over to me with a toss over to take advantage of us both trying to spend a little time with our family, but more importantly, keeping Legal AF alive. And that is so important right now and I'm glad that you're here. So many different ways to support what we do. As we touched on earlier, hit the subscribe button for legal AF. We're at 1,180,000 subscribers. We're going to hit about 1.5 million before the midterms, maybe even 2 million with your help. It's all free. It really costs you nothing, but means the world to us. It is very important to us to continue to grow our pro democracy channel. I also curate the legal AF sub stack and we're in the top 30 of all US news and politics sub stacks. Eight or ten new pieces of content every day, including a live report that I do every day to catch you up on the news, sometimes with guests, sometimes I ride solo. And then of course, we've got a new relaunch of our old X account, this time rebranded as Legal AF Clips, which is the best of all interview and other video clips that you can watch on X. Just go to at Legal A FMTN Legal afmtn and we're trying to grow that audience as well for Legal AF clips. And so I'm so glad you're going to be seeing me in this, either in this location or another one for the next couple of weeks. But I wouldn't let you down by not doing my work and not doing what I need to do to keep you uplifted and get you the information you need without smoke or sunshine. So until my next report, this is Michael Popak and for Ben Meiselas for Legal af the podcast Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal A.