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- [00:01]
Ben
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- [00:30]
Michael Popak
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- [00:40]
Senator Welch
2.
- [00:40]
Michael Popak
Seriously, it's $15 a month. 3. No big contracts.
- [00:44]
Senator Welch
4.
- [00:45]
Michael Popak
I use it. 5. My mom uses it. Are you playing me off? That's what's happening, right? Okay, give it a try@mintmobile.com Switch upfront.
- [00:53]
Ben
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- [01:02]
Michael Popak
Discuss on this episode of Legal af. New York Attorney General Letitia James was indicted out of the Eastern District of Virginia by Donald Trump's former personal attorney turned federal prosecutor with zero prosecutorial experience, Lindsey Halligan. I think a major question that's gonna arise is what the hell is she telling the grand jury when she's in there alone with them with no other federal prosecutors by her side? No one wants to be around her, no one wants to sign their names to these indictments that she's signing her name to. And we saw this week with the first criminal appearance for James Comey who was also indicted by Lindsey Halligan. There's already massive issues with that case and I mean massive issues. The government hasn't even disclosed who person one and person three is in this very short two count indictment. These are purportedly the people who James Comey would have authorized to speak to the Wall street journal in 2016. So that when Comey said I never authorized anybody to speak to the Wall Street Journal during his congressional testimony when Ted Cruz senator was asking him questions, the claim is was that that was a lie and therefore a criminal act. But you know, we literally have spoken at Midas Touch network to Andy McCabe who could have been one of those people, he's like, not me, I was never authorized. I did it on my own. So. And then individual had previously made statements that he wasn't authorized. So there's that. The this case is on a rocket docket. The Comey case scheduled for trial early January 2026. And then we already have motion set up, vindictive prosecution, motion to dismiss, outrageous government conduct motion, selective prosecution, grand jury abuse. So we'll keep an eye out on that then. It also seems that Trump is getting ready to indict John Bolton, his former national Security advisor out of Maryland. Meanwhile, you had Pam Bondi, although it felt like a year ago she testified before the Senate this week, refused to answer any questions about Epstein just said, I'm not answering the questions. I'm not answering the questions. It's kind of how she said it. It was very strange to see someone behave like that at any hearing. Oversight here yet alone the attorney general. I'm not answering the questions is what she said. And then when she was asked about Tom Homan taking $50,000 in cash, she would have like these lines that she wrote on her folder attacking the Democrat. You're antifa. You're antifa. Just again, just bizarre and just, just gross, just gross to watch. Again, that felt like a year ago. That happened this week. We'll talk about the federal judges in Oregon and Illinois who both ruled that the Trump regime cannot send their National Guard troops from their states and from other states to invade their states. Both very powerful rulings, one from a Trump appointed judge, but we'll break that down. And then Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal to the Supreme Court was denied. Democrats now seeking her deposition in the House Oversight Committee. So a lot to discuss. Let's bring in Michael Popak. I think we start with New York Attorney General Letitia James is the most recent update. And then there's been, you know, updates within the updates, of course, with a lot of questions about what the hell Lindsey Halligan was doing. Apparently she didn't tell anybody else at the Justice Department. She just like showed up on her own speaking with Trump to secure this indictment. So, Popak, great to see you, but we've got a lot to discuss.
- [04:58]
Ben
Yeah, we do. Department of justice has been completely wrecked by Donald Trump. As we know, federal judges, just to put a high level point on it, federal judges, magistrate judges are all bracing themselves for this abuse of power. Whether it's in Illinois with two separate federal judges that we're going to talk about today who both issued back to back temporary restraining orders, murders one, citing the Founding Fathers and Alexander Hamilton, whether it's Judge Immergut in Portland, Oregon, whether it is magistrate judges in D.C. who are rejecting indictments that are being presented to them, claiming that the Department of Justice is doing end runs around The Department of Justice, you've got a completely madhouse happening at the Department of Justice. The tone from the top, which is set by the on paper Attorney General because we know the Attorney General is Donald Trump. But the on paper one, Pam Bondi, she, a blind ambition, makes all sorts of crazy statements and clutches at her pearls during a Senate Oversight Committee meeting and effectively lies to them about the state of affairs. With certain investigations involving Tom Homan, the border czar and $50,000 brib involving the Epstein files, involving James Comey, she just can't get her facts straight. And at the same time, you've got the mask is now slipping or has been slipping in the Trump administration. And its leaders like Stephen Miller are saying out loud crazy shit. That's a legal term like the president has plenary power, plenary authority, meaning he has unassailable, unjudicial, reviewable power over many of the things they're doing, whether it's blowing up ships in the Caribbean where JD Vance, the Vice President of the United States, writes, I don't give a shit. Literally cover your children's ears here, folks, about whether that violated international law. You've got Stephen Miller, who had a Westworld moment where he glitched on national television when he started talking about plenary power and talks about the fact that they are going to use the military and the power and hardball tactics like we've never seen before to, quote, unquote, crush dissent. And then the reality, Ben, is that things like the cosplay National Guard takeover, which is going to cost the American people well north of $1 billion already, $200 million for D.C. alone. And what are they doing? They're not crushing antifa. They're not crushing the radical left or dissent. They're picking up garbage. They're doing local police work, they're guarding federal buildings in which there's people in chicken suits and frog suits doing First Amendment protest, or they're pepper balling members of the clergy and journalists. And so this is all coming to a head and kind of filtering through the federal courts as the Department of Justice decides that the best use of their time in the face of bad news reports is to indict, indict, indict, using primarily people who are, who are unqualified and are risking their bar license. So we've got John Bolton, we've got Letitia James, and we got James Comey. So the Comey went arraignment, went terrible. I mean, it could not have James Comey and his, and his, and his Fighting defense lawyer Pat Fitzgerald could not have scripted a better outcome than what happened before. Judge Nakmanoff, a Biden appointee, at the arraignment. No perp walk. You had Lindsey Halligan, who people in the room reported was literally rocking back and forth in her chair, as I've joked, getting ready to go into the fetal position, not saying anything. She was mute. She just nodded her head a lot. As she sent up two North Carolina prosecutors this judge has never seen before and are not yet sworn in or hadn't been into the Eastern District of Virginia to make arguments about the case. Pat Fitzgerald saw that he outmatched them and took full advantage of it. Judge, we're moving on motion for selective prosecution. Cuz this kind of perjury, these kind of statements don't get prosecuted in this district. Vindictive prosecution. This is all about Donald Trump trying to get back at James Comey for not doing his bidding when he was an FBI director, for sending information to the papers about his dismissal, for writing books against Donald Trump, plain and simple. And we're also going to be moving against Lindsey Halligan because we think she's illegally appointed under the various ways you can make an acting interim or interim U.S. attorney to which the lawyers for the Department of Justice, to the extent they could get a word in edgewise, was arguing for. We can't go to trial in January, which is three months from now, because there's national security and top secret things and things we have to put through. And the judge was like, this looks like a relatively simple case. You've alleged there was one, from what I can see, you've alleged there was one leak maybe to the Washington Post. And we're going to trial January 5th, which puts the defense, it strengthens their hand, Ben, as you know, because the government has an obligation to turn over all exculpatory things that tend to prove somebody's innocence and all of the files to the defense. For instance, John Durham, the former special prosecutor who spent four years looking at things like James Comey, according to leaks, told the prosecutors, the career prosecutors in the office don't indict James Comey because there's no evidence that he committed any perjury. I looked at it. He's gonna be a witness for the defense if this case even gets that far. And I don't think it gets that far. I think this thing is on complete life support at this point. And again, I don't think this was the purpose of Donald Trump. He knows he's not gonna get a conviction of James Comey. He just wants the headline to be that he indicted James Comey, who for perjury. And I don't think Lindsey Halligan really believes she's ever going to be the full time U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. That's not her job. Her job right now is to get indictments, including ones apparently her boss didn't know about when it came to Letitia James. And the confirmation process for the permanent position be damned. So that's the Comey thing. I don't know if you want me to turn to Letitia James before Bolton.
- [11:55]
Michael Popak
Yeah, I'm. I mean, you know, with Comey, the prosecution was not ready to even go to trial. I mean, when. When you get that indictment, you got to be ready for a speedy trial and be ready immediately. So the fact that they were. They were the ones saying, we've got to push this back, that's unheard of. The fact that Fitzgerald, the lawyer for Comey said, we have no clue who the individuals are that the government, which, by the way, which means they've talked to them. You know, it means that Comey's lawyer probably has already spoken to the lawyers of who they believe person one and three could possibly even be, because these individuals, like Andy McCabe and others had already said during an inspector general's investigation, we were not authorized by Comey.
- [12:43]
Ben
Wait, wait, one thing before. Don't move. Don't move off that. The two witnesses that could be. McCabe has said there's only two people. There's only two people that authorize leaks, and that's me and Comey, and I authorized it to the Washington Post. So there goes the perjury charge. And Professor, Professor Richmond from Columbia, who was a special employee for the Department of Justice. Sorry, for the FBI and a good friend of Comey who worked with him in the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office. He said he was interviewed and he told them, I was not authorized to leak to the Washington Post and I did not leak to the Washington Post. So you have a perjury matchup problem here in the indictment because the two lead witnesses have said, either I did it or I didn't do it. And that leaves Comey off the hook. This is all going to be part of that motion practice.
- [13:34]
Michael Popak
Yeah. So now let's talk about New York Attorney General Letitia James being indicted. And in many ways, if you could imagine it being more frivolous than what we just said about the Comey indictment, I'm trying to even understand what they're saying. New York Attorney General Letitia James did wrong. I read the indictment. Now, one of the things when I read this two count indictment for mortgage fraud and then a related count was she purchased this property in Virginia for like what, like $150,000 or $176,000. They said when she was filling out the mortgage applications, she said it was her second home, not a primary home, a second home. And then they said in the second home mortgage there is a second home rider which basically says that you are not going to permanently rent the property and give up your own kind of ownership so that one can say this is actually not a second home, but is purely a rental to make money. It doesn't say in the, in this rider language, which nobody looks at, that you can't ever Airbnb it or that you can't ever rent is seems to suggest if anybody's even like looked at a second home mortgage rider before, especially in the context of 176,000 homes, you take action that makes it appear that you no longer ever want to use this as a, as a second home and that you have no intention to use it as a second home. It doesn't delineate. Does that mean you can't rent for more than one year or three years or five years? It doesn't provide that level of specificity. But what the case amounts to, if you say, let's accept all of the accusations as true, that over the course of a 30 year mortgage, new York Attorney General Letitia James would have gotten a benefit based on the mortgage rates of framing this as a second mortgage of about $600 per year. So the scheme to allege, because in criminal. You have to show criminal intent, right? You have to show a mental state a mens rea that New York Attorney General Letitia James hatched a criminal plan because she wanted to make $600 extra a year in savings by using the second home mortgage rider versus some other type of mortgage that you would put on them. I mean, Popak, that seems to be what they're alleging that this case is about. So even accept it. They're going to someone, Lindsey Halligan, who has to go to the jury. This was a criminal mastermind. $600 a year is what she was seeking to do here with this Virginia property.
- [16:46]
Ben
The. This is all horseshit. We knew about the Virginia property purchase for a long time. Abby Lowell, the lawyer for Letitia James, also the lawyer for John Bolton and others. His, his firm's going to be very busy, and rightly so, to defend the rule of law here. This is just a. There's two things I can say about the indictment. Scott Pulte's fingerprints, his dirty little fingerprints are all over the indictment. He's the Nepo baby heir to the Pulte family fortune who has been Donald Trump's pit bull from his perch and running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage liquidity entities on which he attacked all of. Right on. Right on. In a. In an orchestrated, choreographed thing with the White House, he started attacking all of the rivals because of their mortgage problems. Mortgage problems that ProPublica already revealed that 20% or more of the Cabinet for Donald Trump had the exact same quote, unquote, fraud problems, including Scott Besant, the Treasury secretary. Putting that aside for a minute. In the history of indictments, has anybody indicted, has anybody been indicted for saving 20 bucks a day on a mortgage where the lender who's no longer in business and sold off the loan, where a box was checked not by Letitia James, here's the crime problem. But by a niece with a power of attorney who checked a box saying that the property would be second home. All right, so not a first home already something that sometimes goes into default more than a first home. And it's not going to be rented out. I've seen reporting that says that rental homes go into default less because they've got a source of income that's a debt service or an income that supports the debt service. So their argument is a bank who's no longer around was defrauded because the niece checked a box that said they won't rent it out. And then that loan was sold to a second lender who took it, knowing it was a second home but not knowing that it would be rented. And somehow that has destabilized the bank over this $107,000 mortgage. And it all this is besides the dirty fingerprints of Scott. Scott Pulte is a mini version on purpose, a mini troll, in the form of an indictment that matches the arguments that Letitia James made about Donald Trump's mortgage fraud in New York that resulted in a receiver, a monitor being placed over the Trump organization, counts of persistent fraud being proved by Letitia James against Donald Trump and all of his family effectively. And a disgorgement which matches the restitution count of the indictment because she sought $468 million of her calculus. Now that's up on appeal, but not the findings of fraud. So this was just a three page mini version of Donald Trump effectively trolling Letitia James and Saying, oh, you thought I committed mortgage fraud for $468 million? Well, you committed mortgage fraud for $18,000. I'm like, are you kidding me? So on selective prosecution, Lindsey Halligan is going to have a number of problems. One of them is proving that anywhere in the Eastern District of Virginia they've ever prosecuted anybody for a second home used for Airbnb and got a conviction or at least brought the case. That's going to be zero. Her second problem is on vindictive prosecution. The record is, is lousy for the Trump administration about their attacks on Letitia James. I mean, you and I could just spend an entire week on the Midas Touch Network showing clips of Donald Trump attacking Letitia James both during the trial that I just talked about. After the trial, after the indictment, before the indictment, calling her disgusting, calling her racial slurs, calling her a criminal, calling her an animal, you name it. He was always going to, if he got back into office, go after people like Letitia James. But there's new reporting that's come out, Ben, that Lindsey Halligan, or at least Pam Bondi, has a Lindsey Halligan problem besides the case. So the case has, the defense has in its favor. Things like the lead prosecutor in Norfolk, Virginia for Major crimes leaked out 72 hours before the indictment that there was no case here and that she would not be bringing the case as of the, as of our live. I think she still has a job. Liz. Liz Urie. But I'm not sure. But she let that leak out early on purpose because she knew there was a grand jury that was indicting on Thursday and she wanted that out first. That will all be part. All those leaked memos about how shitty the case is and how everybody recommended that there be no indictment brought against Letitia James will be part of the evidence package that will be used by the defense at some point in motion practice or if there is ever a trial, which I don't see. But the timing of the indictment seems to have caught Pam Bondi by surprise. And she may have a Lindsey Allegan problem, which is this. The reporting from three different news organizations is that Pam Bondi did not know that Lindsey was going to be going in for Letitia James on Thursday and may not have supported the indictment. There's actually reporting that Pam Bondi was against bringing the indictment against Letitia James, as was Todd Blanche. They were against the firing of Eric Seibert, the conservative Republican who was the U.S. attorney there before Lindsey Allegan. And apparently they were against Letitia James, the person that was in fact favor of it and has been pushing it. This is new fingerprints. Here is Ed Martin, because Ed Martin, who is the director of weaponization for the Department of Justice, which is exactly what it sounds like, he's using the Department of Justice as a weaponized tool against Donald Trump's enemies. He Having not been able to get the U.S. attorney position in D.C. but they gave him this other chief of monkey wrenches. He posted the day before the indictment a picture of the we'll put it up the Brooklyn Bridge where Letitia James lives and an eagle flying over it. And with no other comment. So Ed Martin knew that the indictment against Letitia James was coming, although Pam Bondi did not. So if you've got this now, two blind blonde ambition problems, you've got Lindsey Allegan, who seems to be all puffed up now that she's the Eastern District Virginia U.S. attorney, and you got Pam Bondi, who's the one that gets dragged it's not going to be Lindsey Halligan that gets dragged in yet to a Senate Oversight Committee hearing, but Pam Bondi has to go there. So if that happened, we now have a rogue prosecutor that even Pam Bondi can't control that sees her only bosses to beat Donald Trump and Ed Martin. And that's a problem. Even before we turn after the break to what's going on with John Bolton.
- [24:10]
Michael Popak
We'Ll turn to that Michael Popak, a very comprehensive overview there. I want to remind everybody that Michael Popak has his own law firm, the POPOC Firm. So if you or anybody you know has been injured in a trucking accident, an auto accident, any type of injury where you're the victim of somebody else's negligence, call 877- POPAK-AF or go to the popoc firm.com that's 877- POPAK or go to the popoc firm dot com get a free case consult. Michael Popak has lawyers all across the country who are here and ready to help. Popak is representing a ton of Legal AF listeners and he's provided free consultations to, I think literally thousands at this point, to people who have called and determined whether they had a case or not. So make sure you call there. Also, while you're at it, sign up for the Legal AF YouTube channel. Let's get Legal AF YouTube, 1 million subscribers this year. That would be incredible indeed. And then finally, subscribe to the Legal AF sub stack, which is one of the most read substacks in the entire country. So proud of that Legal AF substack. You run Michael Popak all right, first quick break of the show. We'll be right back. We'll talk John Bolton. We'll talk about the Illinois and the Oregon orders by the federal judges there. Then we'll talk about Ghislaine Maxwell having her appeal denied and more. We'll be right back.
- [25:36]
Ben
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- [28:21]
Michael Popak
Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all of our great sponsors. They keep this show a running and so check them out. The discount codes are in the description below. Right? Popak Talk briefly about John Bolton, Donald Trump's former national security adviser, being targeted for likely an imminent indictment. We know that his home was raided. It allegedly involves access to classified information. This is, this is the playbook of the authoritarian right. Donald Trump engages in mortgage fraud and all these different frauds. He then accuses his enemy of the same thing. Donald Trump steals classified information. He goes after his own national security advisor. Now the information regarding John Bolton, it's old, isn't it? Popak? I mean, didn't Trump try to push for this during his first, like, during the first term as well? I mean, Bolton wrote the book about what he saw. And isn't this all the regurgitated stuff about Bolton's book back from like five years ago? And so they raid his home and it seems that there are more lawyers interested, at least from the reporting. But you never know. It's all bullshit coming out of this Trump regime that there seems to be at least someone slightly more competent than Halligan who wants to take on the Bolton prosecution. But you know, who knows, they say a bunch of lies. So let's talk that and then let's quickly pivot into Illinois and Oregon.
- [29:42]
Ben
John Bolton has been a harsh critic of Donald Trump from the inside. After he left, he was the national security advisor for Donald Trump. He was the ambassador to the UN For Bush. And ever since then he's been out on the trail criticizing Trump, particularly in the 2020 book. He wrote the Room Where It Happens, which Donald Trump hated. He said things like Donald Trump asked the Chinese to help him get elected in 2020. I mean, you know, right out in front, please buy more soybeans, he told xi during the G20 summit. And I like, I favor dictators and I like to give them gifts and, and all sorts of crazy shit. That is true. I'm sure that Donald Trump never liked to see in the public, like promoting internment camps, telling the Chinese, yeah, you should put your ethnic minorities in internment. Internment camps are good things like that that are completely consistent with what we're hearing now. Donald Trump wanted, wants to serve more than two terms. That's all in the book. And how do we know the indictment is all about the book? Because the search warrant affidavit, which I have up on legal AF substack, even though it's redacted in the front and center, the second page of the affidavit from the FBI agent is talking about the book and about the fact that, you know, he, he sent the book in for clearance and the National Security Council said, no, you're using classified information. And he said, I'm not. And they had a lawsuit about it. And even though there were some comments that were made by Royce Lamperth, who was the judge about it and about John Bolton, he didn't stop the publication. And it was published five years ago then. But the new reporting that I'm seeing is that the Trump administration, you can see he doesn't care about Americans or national security. Apparently, they've been spying on a foreign and a foreign country. And I'll tell you who I think it is. And in spying on the foreign country, they recently spotted John Bolton's hacked emails from his AOL account, which they claim have some classified information in it. They only saw it because they're doing what was then a secret surveillance operation over a third country. Now, what country has been in the news in the last six months multiple times, including with an indictment that's been hacking and spying on Americans and government officials, including the Trump administration. Right. China. China is the, whether you call it the Salt typhoon or 12 guys getting indicted in New York recently, or the hacking of the Verizon accounts or the hacking of aol, Chinese have been hacking away. And then we just effectively told China, because the holdup for the indictment apparently is we had to tell the foreign enemy that we've been spying on them. So they don't read it in the indictment about how we got the AOL account. So that's a major problem for Donald Trump, but he's willing to do anything, including sacrifice our national security and tell people like China that we're spying on them in order to get back at John Bolton for having some old top secret classified documents from his 40 years in the government. I mean, that's what his lawyer, Abby Lowell is saying. He's like, the guy's got stuff that you would normally have if you've been in government for 40 years, sort of like the Joe Biden boxes that were in his garage, you know, stuff that's stale, that's old. But again, as you said, Ben, it's him going, see, I got indicted in Mar A Lago. Now John Bolton's getting indicted. It wasn't so bad. You know, things like that. Wasting our time and tens of billions of dollars of our money to go after Donald Trump's enemy list. Or as one senator said recently, he's checking all the boxes. They're just all the wrong boxes. And this one is not a Halligan special, just to put it out there. It's a career prosecutor that they found in the Maryland U.S. attorney's office who actually, you know, has a decent resume. And she told her colleagues that she thinks she's got a way to, to indict Joe John Bolton. So that's coming. And we'll see the vindictive prosecution, selective prosecution aspects there. So we've covered, you know, so far, Adam Schiff hasn't yet been indicted, but I think he's got to expect to be indicted as they make their way down the list there. The question is, where is that mortgage fraud? Is that in Virginia or is that in California? If it's in California, good luck getting a prosecutor there to do their bidding, although that hasn't stopped them from before. And then you've got Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve, on the board of governors. Are they going to ramp it up here and are they going to bring some sort of phony frame charges of mortgage fraud against her? Nothing. I don't put anything past this Department of Justice, which is completely captured by one Donald J. Trump.
- [34:35]
Michael Popak
Let's talk about what's going on in federal courts across the country now as they have to respond to Donald Trump's invasion of blue states and blue cities, and not just using the National Guard within said state to invade said state, but now using the National Guards of other states to invade other states. So in Illinois, we know that Donald Trump activated the Texas National Guard to invade Chicago, Illinois. A red States army invading a blue state, blue city. Remember all of the don't tread on me crowd, the states rights people. I kind of think that there's a world word or a phrase when a certain part of the country invades another part of the country that's just trying to exist and live peaceful, thriving lives. Now, one of the things I want to just mention here before tossing it over to you, Popak, talking about Judge Emergut, the Trump appointed judge who didn't just issue one, but two injunctions, restraining orders against the Trump regime because Trump violated her first order. And she kept on saying to the Trump lawyer and the doj, you do realize that you're an officer of the court. You do realize you have a legal license. You do realize you are in a courtroom right now. I just want you to you are aware of that, I think setting the predicate for perhaps future actions being taken there. And I think a lot of these DOJ lawyers are making themselves very susceptible to issues regarding their license. So I'll just leave it at that. So immigrant then Judge Perry in federal court in Illinois. But before even kind of even getting there though, Popak, I just think it's important to reflect on the fact that, you know, you look at a state like a California or these blue states in general, overwhelmingly they are the states that give are the donor states. Give. For example, just take California would have the fourth largest GDP in the world if it was a country. Fourth largest GDP in the world if it was a country. It's literally subsidizing the existence of the red states. The red states by and large operate like Argentina's Javier Malay or Viktor Orban's Hungary. They're like bankrupted countries that are existing because of subsidies provided by blue states. I mean, that's one of the things that is not lost on me when we have these legal discussions. So California gives $85 billion to the federal government more than it takes, whereas a red state like Texas takes $75 billion more than it gives. Just want you to think about that when we have these conversations. And then still in Texas, the children who died in the flash floods, there have not been some children have not been found. They have all these issues with their electricate and they're spending their time Sen. Troops to invade blue states and blue cities as their governor is mocking the physical appearance of the governor of Illinois saying you should do more push ups. The governor of Texas is Michael Popak. Break it down for us.
- [37:58]
Ben
I will. By the way, they're rebuilding that, that Christian girls camp on the site of that something about depraved and more immoral. They're rebuilding a Christian girls camp back on the site where dozens died and they haven't found the bodies of some of them yet. But they're trying to reopen for the next summer season. It's really, you know, they, you know, you see the attacks on, on moderates and fair minded people but look what they actually do when nobody's looking. You have this all coming to a head and it's on a rapid track to the United States Supreme Court about Donald Trump commandeering and mobilizing the state militia, what we call the National Guard in three different places. And I think we're heading for a split between two different appellate courts, one in your neck of the woods and one in Illinois. It started off last Saturday and Sunday with rulings by Judge Immergut in the night in the Portland, Oregon, who took a look outside her window and said, I don't see a rebellion. I don't see domestic violence. I see 50 people, 20 people in chicken suits. I mean, this is my paraphrase and I'm not going to accept the facts as alleged by the Trump administration as justification under a statute that he has to comply with called 12406 about, about taking over the and commandeering the National Guard. Now let me just step back for a minute. Whether it's Chicago or it's Portland or it's D.C. this is not about Donald Trump. There's, there's, there's two worlds going on here. There's the political world of Stephen Miller and Donald Trump and Kristi Noem and all the cosplay going on there, which is we're, as his poll numbers sink like down to the 30s, we're tough. We're going to crush Democratic dissent, okay? We're gonna, which we're gonna define as disloyalty. We're going to crush antifa, meaning Democrats. We're going to call Democrats a terrorist organization and we're going to crush free speech because we've got all the power. And to paraphrase Stephen Miller, what do they have? Hopefully the Constitution and the law. As Judge Young set up in set in Massachusetts recently in his decision. All I've got is the majesty of the Constitution. The reality is none of that is happening. They're just spending and wasting a billion dollars or more of taxpayer dollars to do a cosplay show of force where they end up shoving the National Guard into vans overnight and having them sleep outside of ICE facilities when they have nothing to do because there's nothing to do. They go out and do these cosplay show of forces through parks and through neighborhoods or rappel down from helicopters in Section 8 housing areas just to show, you know, the, the black op helicopter helicopters are here or they pick up litter. What they're not doing, other than standing in front of federal buildings that don't need their help is doing anything that the Trump side is telling MAGA that they are doing and the federal judges know it. The federal judges are like, look, I'm not going to give you deference on facts because I don't trust, as Judge Perry just said in her most recent order in Chicago, I don't trust a word that is being filed under sworn testimony by the Trump administration. I find it to be not credible about the justification for sending in the troops or mobilizing the troops. So Judge Immer got cited to the Founding Fathers and the framers, Judge Perry cited to it in Illinois yesterday. And what they're saying is this our entire, the bedrock for our entire constitutional republic and our system of federalism presupposes that the federal president will never use a standing army against the states, violate their sovereignty and take away the people's rights. It's the reason we left England. It's in the Declaration of Independence. The roving bands of standing army of King George is one of the major impetuses for the colonials to fight back and win independence. So with whether you cite to Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers or you cite to the Constitution or different things, there's a delicate balance that keeps, as Judge Imbergut put it, an overgrown president from using a standing army, in this case the militia or the military against the American people, which is the road to tyranny. Actually, you've already arrived at tyranny at that point. So you've got the judge immergutts of the world, a Trump appointee, Judge Perry, who is a Biden appointee and two days before her, Judge Ellis in Illinois, all coming together and saying, you can't crush First Amendment expression. You can't use the mighty weight of the lethality of the military against law enforcement, against journalists and against religious figures, clergymen and other First Amendment protesters on the streets of Illinois or anywhere else effectively. And Judge Perry going one further and doing in her opinion about how this country was founded, citing back to Alexander Hamilton and saying state sovereignty and protecting against the tyrannical instincts of an out of control president is at the base of our constitutional system. And no, you can't, based on the facts that you've alleged that I don't even believe because I can see the counterfacts for myself. And as presented by the Chicago and Illinois, I'm not going to let you commandeer the National Guard or send in troops from other, from other states into Illinois or anywhere else. In the meantime, the Ninth Circuit, which is over California and Oregon, wasn't a great hearing. I mean, we don't blow smoke or Sunshine on legal AF2 Trumpers, because that 9th Circuit unfortunately is becoming more. One third of the judges on there are now Trump appointees from the first term. And when they get them together and in two or more bad things happen, and they were very fiery hot bench against the advocate for Oregon and basically saying we have to believe everything the president says, we have to believe him on the facts. 200 protesters sounds like a lot. And we, you know, and we need to. Just because some of this stuff happened a year ago or eight months ago doesn't mean that he's precluded from bringing in the National Guard. Now that's going to be a bad ruling coming out of the Ninth Circuit, consistent with a ruling that we didn't love about Gavin Newsom and the use of troops in California. So we got two bad rulings against our constitutional republic coming out of the 9th Circuit, of all places. Then the 6th Circuit is going to have an emergency appeal related to these two new orders by Judge Perry and Judge Ellis about the National Guard's use. And so if the 6th Circuit says, yeah, this is an out of control, overgrown president, that's violating the basic foundational precepts of our constitutional republic. And the Ninth Circuit says something different. We're going to be up to the United States Supreme Court Court on an emergency application very, very soon, likely I would think sometime in early November. And then what do you think happens from there, Ben?
- [45:58]
Michael Popak
I think you'll have a full briefing. I think it won't be decided until 2026. I mean, I think the, I think, you know, but ultimately, who knows what this right wing do they block the.
- [46:13]
Ben
Order and let the Illinois troops take, let Trump take over Illinois troops in the meantime.
- [46:17]
Michael Popak
Probably what they seem to have been doing on all of these cases is procedurally staying the district court's order pending, except in the rare exception of Lisa Cook from the Board of Governors. What they seem to have been doing is staying what the district court does, allowing the status quo, as Trump defines the status quo, to take place, and then ultimately hearing oral arguments, although I think they'll take it on an expedited basis. But that seems to be unfortunately what they do every single time ultimately when they hear the matter on the merits. You know, what'll be interesting is that there's been a different factual analysis. Right. And what the federal judges in Oregon and Illinois stressed that I think was a little bit different from the factual record before the California Court of Appeals, perhaps is the. What are you talking like those judges made a painstaking effort to describe what was actually happening on the ground in ways that I don't think was developed simply because California went first and this was uncharted legal territory. So I think California went in with this view of isn't this obvious that this statute can't possibly apply? This isn't like an insurrection or a rebellion or obviously the president's unable, not unable to otherwise effectuate the laws. But then it seems that it's like, all right, I guess we're going to have to give more, more information and more data about why this should be handled by law enforcement. And I think if California had the opportunity to do it again, I think they would have briefed it a little bit differently. But I think they've learned from that briefing. And California did a great job, I think, in the briefing with Oregon over the use of the California troops in Oregon. But again, just you pull back. We're talking about the president of the United States using national Guards from other states to invade, to invade areas. And, you know, you know, on the Midas Touch network almost every day, I do a video, I call it my All Hell Breaks Loose series where we talk about and I show the videos and the photos of what's going down on our streets with these ICE agents who are holding assault rifles and weapons, weapons of war out their windows and invading American cities. So Donald Trump wants to brag that he should get a Nobel Peace Prize, but dude is invading American cities. He's declared war within America to try to topple our democracy. So we'll talk about when we get back, though. I want to talk about, you know, Pam Bondi sits at the head of the DOJ while all of this is going on. She had a awful appearance before the Senate. And then let's talk briefly about Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal and what happens next there. I want to remind everybody that Michael Popox law firm, the POPOC firm, open, open for biz. If you or anybody you know has been injured in a auto accident, a trucking accident, a car accident, you've been the victim of somebody else's negligence. If you know someone who's been in a wrongful death case, call or has been in a wrongful death situation, call 877- POPAK AF877 POPOC AF or go to thepopoc firm.com consultations free popox representing a lot of legal AF listeners during the representation. He takes the case on a contingency basis. So he doesn't recover unless you recover is the only way he gets paid. And he's got lawyers across the country. Don't be shy. You trust Michael Popak? Give him a call. Also subscribe to the YouTube channel Legal AF on YouTube and subscribe to Michael Popox substack the Legal AF substack All right, let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. Home stretch.
- [50:10]
Ben
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- [53:07]
Michael Popak
Michael Popak welcome back everybody from watching listening to Legal af. Popak let's get into it right away. I want to talk about Pam Bondi. Felt like her appearance before the Senate was like a year ago. I was truly shocked that this was earlier this week. I was like, was this this past week? Why does it feel like it happened? And literally another lifetime of mine with all of the news that's happening. Nope, it happened this past week. We cover what happens this week. I think it's important that we talk about her posture, her behavior. One of the things that we know also from the Wall Street Journal reporting is that when Donald Trump sent that message, pam, I need you to indict Schiff, Letitia James and James Comey and my other enemies. This is hurting my reputation. Trump thought that he was sending that via direct, direct message to her on the Truth Social app. So that's how he communicates with her, apparently via Truth Social direct message. I think that could become a major issue of discovery in the vindictive and selective prosecutions and outrageous government abuse cases and in the future. And I think, you know, Pam Bondi does not have absolute immunity unlike Donald Trump. And by her carrying out these orders, by Donald Trump either expressly or impliedly leading this department and not taking, you know, corrective action, ratifying the behavior. I mean, I think she puts herself personally in very precarious situations in the future. And you know, normally you show up at a House oversight committee as the attorney general and you answer the questions and you behave like an adult. I mean her behavior here just speaks to a very low character individual. I mean just who behaves setting aside a lawyer, you know, and when, you know, lawyers are supposed to all humans. But like lawyers, we take moral character exams. We have to renew our moral character exams frequently. You know, you show up at a House oversight committee and you behave like, like a petulant child, just embarrassing. I want to get your take On a popoc. But let me just show you some highlights. Just to remind our viewers here we have Democratic Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin on the Epstein files. She goes, I'm not gonna answer anything about that here. Play this clip with you is to read somebody that you mentioned. I never heard of Reid Hoffman. So who gave the order to flag records related to President Trump?
- [55:35]
Senator Dick Durbin
To flag records for President Trump to.
- [55:37]
Michael Popak
Flag any records which included his name.
- [55:41]
Senator Dick Durbin
I'm not going to discuss anything about that with you.
- [55:44]
Michael Popak
Eventually you're going to have to answer for your conduct in this. You won't do it today, but eventually you will. I yield, Mr. Chairman. Exactly. I mean, I'm not. Well, I'm not going to do that. What you told him that his name was on the Epstein files. There's nothing privileged about, you know, you saying that it exists, just. You're not going to say anything about that? Oh, the most transparent administration ever. We're talking about covering up for a pedo sex trafficking ring, too. God. How about this? Senator Welch examining Pam bondi on the $50,000 to Tom Homan in cash in a restaurant bag from a restaurant called Cava. It's a good restaurant, by the way. I like it. Here, play this clip.
- [56:27]
Senator Welch
Do you realize that I do want to go back to Homan. You know there's a tape, right, with Mr. Homan. I mean, first of all, is there a tape that has audio and video of the transfer of the 50,000?
- [56:42]
Senator Dick Durbin
You would have to talk to Director Patel about that.
- [56:45]
Senator Welch
No, I'm, I, I'm talking to you.
- [56:47]
Senator Dick Durbin
I don't know the answer.
- [56:49]
Senator Welch
Senator, you do know the answer.
- [56:50]
Senator Dick Durbin
Don't call me a liar.
- [56:52]
Senator Welch
I didn't call you a liar.
- [56:53]
Senator Dick Durbin
You just said, I know the answer. I said, I don't know the answer.
- [56:55]
Senator Welch
You have to talk to Director Patel.
- [56:58]
Senator Dick Durbin
What I said is that investigation, if.
- [57:01]
Senator Welch
You don't know, why don't you know whether there was a tape and video?
- [57:07]
Senator Dick Durbin
Senator, I believe that was resolved prior to my confirmation as Attorney General.
- [57:13]
Senator Welch
Do you think that it is of public interest for the people to know what happened to the 50 grand that the FBI turned over to Homan?
- [57:20]
Senator Dick Durbin
Did you hear what I just said? That was resolved prior to my confirmation as Attorney General. That's why I said I would not go.
- [57:29]
Senator Welch
It's not resolved. There's $50,000. Homan has it or somebody has it. Do you have no interest in knowing where it is?
- [57:39]
Senator Dick Durbin
You're not going to sit here and slander Tom Homan. The FBI and Deputy Director Blanche said there Was nothing.
- [57:46]
Senator Welch
I'm not slamming Tom Homan. He got to 50.
- [57:49]
Senator Dick Durbin
Tom Holman is doing. How do you know that? Tom Homan is doing a great job as our borders are keeping your border state safe. You're a border state.
- [57:59]
Ben
Thank you.
- [58:00]
Michael Popak
Keeping your border with. From Canada.
- [58:04]
Ben
Okay. All right. You're right. All right, listen, listen. Bondi obviously is on thin ice with the Trump presidency. The. I'm not buying completely that the DM message went public by accident. First of all, that, that raises public records and presidential records issues about how they're communicating. I thought we're using signal and we're using DMS on Truth Social. Again, he's not allowed to do that. He's not supposed to that. We'll save that for another hot take. But she has been on thin ice since the beginning about how she's been handling the Epstein files. And while there might have been some high fiving and whooping it up in the Stephen Miller world about her. Yeah, you got antifa in there. They're playing bingo of some sort. Yeah. You got to call out Richard Blumenthal about some plagiarism charge. Yeah. You took umbrage having oversight over you the whole. And you could hear, you could even hear her in the audio scoffing. That's the best word for it. When even asked the question, like when Tom Holman is raised by the Oversight Committee, the Judiciary Committee, you hear her in the background go, it's just like she's so put upon. She, she's so smarmy in the approach to this. This is a woman, a person who sat in her confirmation hearing with many of these same people and said out loud and lied to their face, yes, you're a liar, Pam Bondi, I'll call you out. And lied to their face that you would be an independent attorney general, that you would not let your independence be compromised by Donald Trump. And all we have watched since your confirmation is you be the most corrupt attorney general in history. And that's saying a lot. Since Ehrlichman went to jail for 17 months under Richard Nixon, you've completely been captured and allowed yourself to be captured by Donald Trump, who frequently declares that he is not you, the chief, chief law enforcement officer of this country. You take your marching orders from Stephen Miller, you take your marching orders from Donald Trump, and then you take umbrage when you're called out on the carpet by people who have been put into power and under our Constitution, have the right to ask you questions about the job that you're doing or not doing on Homan. Let's just take home and for example, Tom Homan has never denied taking the bribe. Bribe. Tom Holman has never denied taking the bribe. There is a video we know exists because it's been leaked that it exists. Democracy Forward, who's with us on Legal AF has already filed the lawsuit to get the Tom Homan bribe video. Let's call it what it is. From the Department of Justice. They rejected a Freedom of Information act request. It's now gone into a lawsuit as the Senate, Senate and House Democrats also seek the Tom Holman video of the Kava. I agree with you. Great place. No, they're not. They didn't pay us to do the promotion. A paper bag. I mean this was not a lot of moving parts in this bribery scandal. This was like ab scam from the, from the 70s and 80s. You shove cash in a bag. You tell the official, hey, when you get back into office, can you help us get federal contracts? He says, I'll take the money and I'll see what I'll do. He even said he put it in escrow. He was going to hold it till the end of his administration after he got back into office. I don't care. And the American people, and certainly the Senate Democrats and the Judiciary Committee don't care that Todd Blanche has blessed the bribery or that of Cash Patel, who's himself corrupt, has exonerated Tom Homan. That will be left for a future prosecution of Tom Homan should he, whether state or federal, should he get a immunity or not. Pam Bondi and Lindsey Halligan better watch their law licenses. I've done a hot take about how Lindsey Halligan is, is, has not. It's gone beyond jeopardized her Florida bar license. She, she took a job the prosecutor position that she knew she was not qualified for. That already violates several bar rules about taking matters. Knowing that you're, you're knowing or should knowing that you're not competent to perform that position. She's compromised. And this all applies to Pam Bondi as well. She's compromised her independent judgment taking marching orders from her client, which is Donald Trump. Same can be said for Pam Bondi. The fact that the Florida bar has already indicated that they're not going to do anything until these people are out of office doesn't mean that one day when they're out of office they're not going to be subject to bar and Donald Trump can't bail them out of losing their bar licenses. So Pam Bondi, who said to these same People under oath. I will be your most independent and transparent member of the department, head of the Department of Justice. And she chagrined when she's called out for things that indicate the exact opposite. And I don't think she covered herself in any glory. I think it's gonna go downhill from here. Just as Cory Booker said to Kash Patel, I don't think I'm gonna be seeing you at many of these Oversight Committee meetings or hearings. I think you're not long for your position. I think the same thing about Pam Bondi and the fact that she's starting to lose control, like it's spinning out of control within the Department of Justice with Lindsey Halligan getting indictments that Pam Bondi didn't know about and, and leaked, not leaked social media posts to her that this is not looking good for Pam and I. And Donald Trump hates losers. Right? And he can't think that what just went on there in her performance, it was the sign of a winner that looks like somebody. I mean, you. And I thought she was an idiot. I mean, there's no other way to put it. When we saw her performance as an impeachment defense lawyer for Donald Trump where she couldn't even read out of her binder to make her case, they, they spent a lot of time going after Kamala Harris saying that nothing that comes out of her mouth is. Everything is word salad. Everything that comes out of Pam Bondi's mouth is a word salad that makes absolutely no sense. She never, I don't think it's because she doesn't want to answer the question. I think she can't form a sentence. And that does not bode well for her future in the office. And I'll just leave it on that. Besides the Pam Bondi thing, Pam Bondi had the bad, the brass ones to hold a wasteful. Yet another press conference about Benny Johnson, the podcaster having a death threat against him and a huge news conference about the weight of the federal government. Department of justice is going to go after it, get to the bottom till we prevent another Charlie Kirk moment. Where is the press conference about the South Carolina judges house who burnt down to the ground? Where is the press conference about Josh Stein, the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro and the governor of Pennsylvania and his house being set on fire? Where is any press conference about going against anyone that is not a right wing MAGA person? Where is the other side of America, the 60% side of America that rejects Trumpism and magism? Where are those press conferences I asked that rhetorically Absolutely.
- [65:22]
Michael Popak
My friend Don Winslow posted the following this past week, which resonated with me and I'm sure with our viewers and listeners. He says they want to go after, quote, antif Antifa because it has no leader, no organization, no bank accounts. This way they can say anyone is antifa. This way they can do anything they want. That's it. That's the whole tooth Fairy, Santa Claus antifa fantasy. It's to go after you. And you already see that the Bondies and the Christie gnomes and the main talking point coming out of the White House now I want to preview this as we conclude the show is that the no Kings protests taking place next week represents the pro antifa, pro Hamas wing of the party. So when we see tens of millions of people out there peacefully protesting in what I think will be one of the most powerful showings in the history of the United I think it'll be the biggest mass mobilization in the history of the United States. They're going to say, oh, this is pro Hamas, pro antifa, and be alert. They're going to start ratcheting up that language as well in the lead up because that's going to make Donald Trump feel absolutely small to see the numbers of which we're all going to be out there peacefully protesting. Don't let them discourage you by coming up with all of those fear tactics. We're in this together. I do think pop out, there's both. I think she does not want to talk about these things. Plus she is, is also not great at it also. So I think I, I'll say I think it's a combination of both things. And then I think though Trump liked her performance, though where I'd slightly disagree because she wrote, she got the clips that he wanted where she wrote the lines about the Democrats. Well, you are antifa. Just so they run those on Fox. You, sir, you lied about your military record. You know, she had the lines for each person and then Fox plays those and that's all Donald Trump watches. So I don't think he watched the hearings. He didn't see how bad she was. The American people did. But the clips are what they wanted over there. All right, before we go, though, just very, very, very briefly, Delaine Maxwell's appeal was denied by the United States Supreme Court, what's called the Searchy Arori petition, meaning that she's out of appeals, her case is done. She can try to file now writ of habeas corpus to the district court. In other words, anyone has the right to file a writ of habeas corpus. There's new information. I, I'm actually, I, I'm at Donald Trump saying it's a hoax. So there's new information out there.
- [68:06]
Ben
Speculation. You did one with Harry. Like, what's your speculation about the DOJ inviting it and wanting to help her?
- [68:13]
Michael Popak
Well, I mean, I think that she is going to argue the FBI and Trump said my case is a hoax. That they claim that James Comey, the father of the main prosecutor, Maureen Comey, was involved in tampering with my file. Trump and the FBI have made statements that there was manipulation by Biden in my file. And I would just say this, in any other normal time, that would be enough to usually give somebody a habeas help. The head of the FBI, the number one person, you know, and the President of the United States are talking about a specific case and calling it a hoax. Of course that in normal times you'd be like, that must be a pretty, you know, significant showing. I mean, president, you know. But now everyone's like, I think all the federal judges will be like, okay, Trump just says things. His words don't matter. Same with.
- [69:11]
Ben
Do you think this goes back to Judge Reitmeier, who took over for Judge Nathan? I mean, she's. Or does it go. Her writ of habeas corpus is now in. Oh, here we go. Her writ of habeas corpus is now coming out of Texas because she's in Texas.
- [69:27]
Michael Popak
It's actually an interesting point now. Will she have to file it in Texas? The jurisdiction question is one that even if I drill down on, I think it's a great point. She may try to file it in Texas now and say, I'm under the Texas jurisdiction, but I still think it's all. I think it's in the underlying case where it was brought, though. I think it's in the Southern District.
- [69:50]
Ben
I agree with you, but. But, Bo, it's an interesting. We'll do it on. Another hot take was one of the reasons that they sent her to Texas is because any. Because knowing she'd be filing future proceedings, they wanted a friendly Texas red judge.
- [70:05]
Michael Popak
Or just to even try to make the argument, even if it struck down and create some division between the federal judge judges. But in any event, she's out of appeals. Democrats in the House Oversight Committee are demanding that her deposition be taken now because she was using the appeal as grounds for saying that she didn't want to be deposed. Ultimately, I think she's going to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights anyway, even if she's deposed by the House Oversight Committee. And you're going to say, well, she didn't invoke her Fifth Amendment right when she was speaking to Todd Blanche, Donald Trump, former personal lawyer, turn term number two at the deal. That's true. Everything about this reeks. I mean, there's other clips where Pam Bondi was asked during that hearing, are there photographs that you've seen of Donald Trump with little girls that are in the folder? Because Michael Wolf, Donald Trump's biographer, the guy was going to be Epstein's biographer, said that he saw photos of girls of indeterminate age, unclear what their age was, if they were over the age of 18 or not naked with Donald Trump. But he had a stain on his pants that Epstein said he kept it, according to Wolf, that Epstein said captain is safe. And that was that something that you saw? And then she said, I'm not answering any questions. So again, just, that's not something that's subject to executive privilege. Like, that's not something that you can just say, I'm not answering. So we the people have to show up on no Kings, right? I mean, we the people have to take the power back peacefully. And we, we have to be the answers that we've been looking for. It's great to see governors like Newsom and Pritzker and Kotak and others across the country standing up. It's great to see, I think finally we're seeing Democrats in the House and Senate pushing back and exposing what the shutdown's all about. Trump ripping away people's health care. I liked, I'm like, damn, okay, that's the Jeffries I've been looking for. That's even Schumer recently. You know, I've been very critical, but I've been like, all right, let's go, let's go. You know, it's, it's, it's now or never, because our democracy's on the line. And that's the, that's how we conduct ourselves here on Legal A. So I want to remind everybody, Michael Popo's law firm is representing a lot of people who listen and watch Legal af. So if you have a case or you think you have a case because you've been injured in a car accident, an auto accident, as a result of the negligence of others, call 877-POPAK AF877 POPAK AF or go to thepopocfirm.com the consultation is free. And if you know people who have been injured, if you know someone who maybe died in an accident, those are the types of cases the POPOC firm handles across the country. The catastrophic injury cases that have surgeries, victims of sexual assault and harassment and, and, and, and serious injury cases that require surgery. So don't be shy. You can call popac. They'll get back to you right away. Away they have real live people who pick up the phone and answer your questions right away. All right, go to Popo Substack, the Legal AF substack, one of the top substacks in the country. Really proud of that for you, Michael Popak. And subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel, which is crushing it. It's on its way to 1 million subscribers, so check that out as well. All right, thank you everybody for watching this episode of Legal af. We, we appreciate you, Popak. Always love spending this time on this weekend with you. Everybody. Stay in the fight. Show up to the no Kings protest if you can. Get out the word about the no Kings protests if you can. We appreciate you. Shout out Legal A effers and shout out my Despite.