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- [00:01]
William Goudge
Your data is like gold to hackers. They'll sell it to the highest bidder. Are you protected? McAfee helps shield you blocking suspicious texts, malicious emails and fraudulent websites. McAfee Secure VPN lets you browse safely and its AI powered tech scam detector spots threats instantly. You'll also get up to $2 million of award winning antivirus and identity theft protection, all for just $39.99 for your first year. Visit mcafee.com/incancel anytime terms apply. This episode is brought to you by Enterprise Mobility. From fleet management to flexible truck rentals to technology solutions, Enterprise Mobility helps businesses find the right mobility solutions so they can find new opportunities. Because if your business is on the road, they want to make sure it's on the road to success. Enterprise Mobility Moving you moves the world. Find your road@enterprise mobility.com I'm William Goudge, a viewer, collaborator and professional ultrarunner from the uk.
- [01:02]
Michael Popak
I love to tackle endurance runs around.
- [01:05]
William Goudge
The world, including a 55 day 3064.
- [01:09]
Michael Popak
Mile run across the US.
- [01:11]
William Goudge
So I know a thing or two about performance wear. When it comes to relaxing, I look for something ultra versatile and comfy. The Ponto Performance Jogger from Vuri is perfect for all of those things. It's the comfiest jogger I've ever worn.
- [01:25]
Michael Popak
And the Dream Knit fabric is why I'll always reach for them over other joggers.
- [01:30]
William Goudge
Check them out in the Dreamlit collection.
- [01:32]
Michael Popak
By going to Vuori.com William that's V.
- [01:36]
William Goudge
U-O-R-I.com William where new customers can receive 20% off their first order plus enjoy free shipping in the US on orders over $75 and free returns. Exclusions apply.
- [01:48]
Michael Popak
Visit the website for full terms and conditions. The new KFC Dunk It Bucket with Juicy Original Recipe Tenders, new mashed potato.
- [01:57]
William Goudge
Poppers, crispy fries, plus three sauces that fit right on top of the lid so you can dunk anywhere. You can dunk at the game.
- [02:04]
Michael Popak
Dunk while security points to the no.
- [02:06]
William Goudge
Outside food sign and dunk as 20,000 people watch you and your Dunkit bucket.
- [02:10]
Michael Popak
Get removed from the stadium. Dunk almost anywhere with the new $7kfc.
- [02:14]
William Goudge
Dunk it bucket or get the double dunkin'bucket for 25. Prices and participation vary while supplies last, taxes, tips and fees extra. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going cha Ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to sell wherever your customers are. Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling today.
- [02:44]
Michael Popak
Perhaps the biggest legal story of this past week has been Donald Trump's invocation of the Alien enemies Act of 1798, and then the fallout thereafter, where a federal judge issued a injunction for 14 days, saying that at least under the Alien Enemies act, until we understand what it is that you're invoking, what you actually signed, what type of process you're going to be affording to people to make sure that they're actually terrorist, enemy combatant, gang members, hybrid warfare, people versus just innocent people. Until that pause on 14 days, it seems like the Trump regime violated that order. And then there was a fight throughout the week where Donald Trump started attacking the federal judge, Judge Boasberg, one of the most experienced federal judges in this specific area as well. When it comes to counterterrorism issues, foreign intelligence. He's the chief Judge of Washington, D.C. there was a showdown hearing that took place on Friday. All of this evidence started to come out from the ACLU lawyers were the initial group to bring this case. We're learning that women were sent to concentration camps in El Salvador, which was only used for men, and they had to be sent back to, like, Venezuela, where a lot of them are already political exiles from the Maduro regime. So what's going to actually happen to them? We've heard stories, for example, of like professional football, soccer players, football international players who had Real Madrid tattoos, political exiles from Venezuela fleeing the Maduro regime here lawfully as asylum seekers. People like that were apparently sent to the concentration camps in El Salvador. And we're at this kind of showdown in federal court. We're going to talk about that. One of the strangest things, though, that happened at the end of the week was Donald Trump saying that he did not sign the Alien Enemies act invocation that led to all of this. He said other people signed it and he's not even sure really what it is. Just you can hear him in your own word, in his own words, let's play. Doesn't sound like this judge who the.
- [05:06]
William Goudge
DOJ is arguing with today about the deportation place.
- [05:09]
Michael Popak
He wants to know why the proclamation was signed in the dark, his wor and why people were rushed on to plane.
- [05:17]
William Goudge
Because we want to get criminals out of our country, number one. And I don't know when it was signed because I didn't sign it.
- [05:23]
Michael Popak
Other people handled it.
- [05:24]
William Goudge
But Marco Rubio has done a Great job. And he wanted him out. And we go along with that.
- [05:29]
Michael Popak
We want to get. So then the White House responded and said, this is an exact verbatim quote from the White House that Donald Trump was clearly referring to the fact that he did not sign the original Alien enemies Act of 1798, that he did not use a time machine to go back into 1798, and he was not talking about the Alien Enemies act invocation from this past week. You know, Popak, one of the interesting things from this court hearing before Judge Boasberg was that the Department of Justice lawyer admitted that he understood the judge's lawyer to prohibit the flight that was about to take off when they were rushing it from going to El Salvador in the first place, essentially admitting that they violated the order. That may be why Trump's trying to throw, I don't know, Secretary of State Marco Rubio or other people under the bus. Another notable thing from that court hearing is when Judge Jeb Boasberg, the federal judge, was questioning the DOJ attorney. What do you know? Tell me about this. And then the DOJ attorney responded that he didn't personally know a lot of the information. And Boseberg said, I often tell my clerks before they go out in the world to practice law, the most treasured, valued item is reputation and credibility. That's one of the things that Boseberg told the attorney. And then Boasberg asked the Justice Department attorney, you understood that my temporary restraining order against summarily deporting people doesn't mean that those people get released into the public. It just means they go through the normal process that has always existed. And then, Popak, one of the things we're learning, of course, is this ACLU attorney said there were people who returned from El Salvador after their flights because they were either not Venezuelan or were women. And the El Salvadoran government declined to take them. Boasberg vowed to get to the bottom of this again. Judge Jeb Boasberg is the chief judge in Washington, D.C. he was someone who was the chief judge of the FISA courts. And here's someone who was first appointed by George W. Bush to the, to the D.C. district and then became a federal judge thereafter by Obama. He went to Yale. He was in Justice Kavanaugh's class. He was Kavanaugh's roommate, a widely respected, you know, you know, judge. So, Popak, I think we start there. And the Chief Justice, John Roberts, had something to say.
- [08:02]
William Goudge
Yeah, it's why they've picked this hill to die on the Trump administration and drawing their line in the sand about exercising this phony war power and trying to. To rush this, no pun intended, rush this judge, call him out and say things out loud outside the courtroom that they would never try to get away with inside the courtroom. In fact, the judge even didn't like the things they've been saying inside the courtroom, telling Drew Ensign, the meat puppet, that they wheeled out on purpose without any real preparation so he couldn't answer questions. You know, it's implausible deniability. The types of lawyers that they. This is what I'm noticing, Ben. They're sending in these very young, very inexperienced, purposefully not prepared lawyers. Whether it's the. The lawyer for the Department of Justice they sent in to Judge Reyes on the transgender block case, who, who. Who did a lot of stammering and I don't know. And I don't know. Or Drew Ensen, the judge even said during the hearing. And there's a lot of different pieces going on. I'll break it down here quickly. In this Alien enemies act, phony war powers, Venezuelan deportation to an El Salvadorian prison issue that we have here. And these. These plates are all spinning on this case at different. At different paces and different times procedurally. But my fundamental question I started this off with is why they're picking this judge, this moment, and this particular policy to die on. Because I do believe that they will not succeed, and they will have completely exhausted whatever credibility they ever had as a Department of justice before Judges in the D.C. circuit Court, D.C. district Court, sorry, which Jeb Boasberg presides over as the chief judge. They had very little of it to begin with. Starting with the positions they were taking, positions that are so impertinent and so unprofessional and borderline abusive that the judge even said to Ensign, I am seeing a language being used in filings by the government that I am not familiar with and is impertinent and impolite and inappropriate. And when you have a judge say that, and the bookend for that comment was to tell him when he wasn't prepared, Drew Ensign and the rest you know, you have only your reputation and your credibility and your ethics. That's all that you have as a lawyer, and you're in danger of losing that, you need to talk to your fellow colleagues at the government. Will you do that for me? And Ensign was like, yes, your honor. See, outside the courtroom, Trump and the press secretary and Musk and whoever in Maga Congress that they push the button on or their paid social media influencers through their rapid response team in the White House. They all start, or Pam Bondi, they all start going after the judge in a way you would never think to do it or think it would be effective either. He's a lunatic. This is the playbook from Donald Trump when he was criminal defendant, criminal convict. Trump, he's a lunatic. He is a criminal, he's corrupt, he's a lefty in all of this. He was appointed by Barack Hussein Obama. Somehow George Soros, I'm sure, is thrown in there as well. And while that did, and the calls and the clamor for impeachment. Impeachment, impeachment in which in our entire 250 year plus history, we've only impeached 15 judges. You got to have two thirds of the Senate in order to do it. And it was always when there was bribery, like payoffs of a judge. And finally I've never seen it in my lifetime. And I went back and looked, never really happened where the Supreme Court's leader, the chief justice came out earlier in the week, which was the top story then, and said knock it off. Trump as the head of the second Article 2 branch, the executive branch, you know, in 200 years of our, of our history, our precedent, you don't like a judge's decisions, you appeal, you don't impeach. That was a, knock it off, pump the brakes and you chose the wrong judge to go after. Boasberg is widely considered on both sides of the aisle to be a middle of the road moderate Democrat. That's why he was bipartisanly appointed by two different presidents, Republican and Democrat, into the various points of his career. Roberts put him on the FISA court, Obama put him on the federal court, w put him on the state court as a feeder program. And he's been well considered ever since that he was a natural to become the chief judge of that district. He was also Kavanaugh's not just classmate, roommate in law school at Yale. He's friendly with Roberts. Roberts felt it was necessary to waste whatever political capital he has to come to the protection because he had to. He was being challenged by Trump and Trump, rather than seeing that he's in danger of potentially risking votes at the United States Supreme Court, the way he's acting now to federal judges about his presidential power, because he learned the wrong lessons when he was a criminal defendant in state and federal criminal courts. He's lost sight of and the people around him in this hermetically sealed world of his former criminal defense lawyers, now Department of Justice lawyers and other shining lights like Alina Haba and Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, who, according to reports, are the are the ones who came up with the great idea to use the Alien Enemies act and deport through Venezuela in the middle of the night before a federal judge could get their jurisdiction around it. So he's got terrible advice givers around him. And now the rubber is going to meet the meet the road with the Supreme Court. Those the three different things going on that you and I and others are keeping an eye on here on Midas Touch and Legal AF are the temporary restraining order that was entered and expanded last Saturday at about 6:50 at night with Ensign, this lawyer in the room, where the judge made it clear in the room what the scope and contours of the injunction were. And that was to turn planes around that hadn't been launched yet, if they hadn't landed, get them back and stop deporting pursuant to the Alien Enemies act until I figure out whether the war power has been improperly invoked or improperly invoked or not, and whether there's been due process process violations or not for the people that have been deport so deported. And so they then went off. Not Drew Ensign, but others started writing things in court filings and taking positions with the judge in other hearings about. Well, Judge, you didn't put it in writing yet. It was an hour later. And you only told this orally. And the judge says that's pretty much of a stretch. You're telling me my oral injunction, my oral orders don't carry any weight with you, which is absolutely wrong from a jurisprudential standpoint, when you and I and I still go into court for injunctions, you know, you got to take down notes and you got to get the transcript. And almost immediately to understand what the contours of the injunction are, you can't wait around for the here's the injunction on the reasons stated in the hearing. You got to know what they are. And he said to this guy in the hearing that with the Friday hearing that we've been covering was the hearing to vacate or dissolve the temporary restraining order. That's different than the hearing and the fact finding about whether the TRO was violated or not, that was all of that that was going on. So what the Friday hearing was about. Okay, I don't like the language you're using. This is Boseberg. Okay, I don't like where's the other lawyer that was here? Okay? And he said, well, he's not here. Okay? I don't like the fact that somebody that argued in front of me these major issues is not here in front of me. And you are. That's, that's the second thing. Third thing is, did you understand you were in the court for the injunction. Did you understand that what I was enjoining? And did you tell your colleagues in government what my order was? Yes, your honor. Right. And from there on, that completely. And he's going to write this up in an order that's going to be pretty blistering against the Trump administration because this lawyer, as he had to do, you know, look a judge in the eye and lie, that is a ticket to have your bar license pulled. And you don't want to do that. So that kid knew better, that lawyer knew better than to lie to the judge. And so he's going to be writing an entire. He didn't rule yet, but he's going to be writing an entire order to keep the temporary restraining order in place while he works on his contempt papers. He's waiting for two final pieces of paper on Tuesday, which you and I will cover. One is you're going to, you're going to exercise the state secrets privilege from 1953. I don't see how that's even applicable. The state secrets privilege, which the Trump administration is trying to use to cloak their bullshit of having in the middle of the night sign the presidential proclamation and then put people on planes to get them out from under a judge's jurisdiction. That's not when that's used. That's when a part. Generally, when a party brings a suit against the government, in order to prove their case against the government, they need to refer to things that the government then intervenes and says, yeah, you can't use those. Those are state secrets. And the judge goes, well, they are. All right, I'll defer to the, the, the administration on that one. You can't use those. Case dismissed. This is not when a judge is trying to get to the bottom, in fact, finding about whether his injunction's been violated or not and wants the logistics, the who, what, where and when of the deportation. So they're going to have to now file on, on Tuesday whether they're invoking it and the grounds for it. And the judge will then assess it. And they also have to file. Finally, on Tuesday, there's another, I forget the other piece of paper they had to file on Tuesday, but after that, the judge is going to decide on contempt. We're going to get the ruling on the temporary restraining order, but if they thought that this pressure campaign outside the courtroom extrajudicial was going to have an impact on Boasberg. It has backfired. And I think it sets up for a lot potential loss of votes at the Supreme Court level for Donald Trump and his policies based on how he's behaving and the DOJ is behaving.
- [18:50]
Michael Popak
Look, this is where Donald Trump is most comfortable. Attacking the judges, playing the victim. This is so unfair. Activist judges, Obama appointed judges. He goes into his MAGA cocoon and he starts to whine and whine. We saw this when he was citizen Donald Trump. It goes right into his playbook right there. And with a judge like Jeb Boberg, not that it's right to do this to any judge, but he picked on paper a judge who is the most qualified and bipartisan on these specific issues. As you look at, again, Judge Boasberg's background, he first was appointed to become a judge in 2002 to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. It's a district, so it'd be like, that'd be the equivalent of like a state court judge. But George W. Bush appointed him there. He served nine years there. And then bipartisan. Former President Barack Obama then appoints him. In 2011, Chief Justice John Roberts appoints him to the United States Foreign Intelligence surveillance court. In 2014, he becomes the presiding judge of the the top job, the top dog, the top judge of the Foreign Intelligence surveillance court in 2020 and 2021. And then also in 2020, he was appointed to the United States Alien Terrorist Removal Court and designated as the chief judge dealing with the issue of alien terrorists. So you couldn't find someone who knows more about the Alien Enemies act and how it is applied. And yes, Judge Boasberg recognizes that under the executive branch, under Article 2, there are a lot broad powers if you're going to assert war powers, but there are still standards and we still have a system of judicial review. Why don't I share this with you? Back from 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts at his confirmation hearing said the following. Let's play it. No. No man is above the law. Not the president and not the Congress. And that's why the courts have the obligation and have had since Marbury versus Madison to say what? Since Marbury versus Madison, a case that established the idea of judicial review being entrenched in our Constitution, which was a response to not just an oligarchy, but a monarchy. And our Constitution was saying no kings. And there is a place judges to review the legality of things. If Trump's saying that there's a war, a judge can say, hey, what's the war? If there is a war and you're invoking war powers and calling individuals enemy combatants of that war, okay, well what criteria are you using? What's the process to make sure that you're not labeling a Venezuelan woman who's not anything to do with a gang and sending this individual to El Salvador to an all male concentration camp? Or the story we heard from the ACLU lawyers and other lawyers at the Friday hearing. A soccer coach, professional soccer player back in Venezuela, political exile, had the Real Madrid tattoo on his shoulder, did a peace sign, a love sign. That was interpreted by, not interpreted. It should have been interpreted as peace and love. That, that the Trump regime then said was a train day Aragua sign. And then this individual is labeled an enemy combatant in a war and then he was thrown onto a plane. Thought if anything, maybe go back to Venezuela where by the way, he'd probably get killed or locked up from the Maduro regime because it's. He's an exile from the Maduro regime. But at least he was thinking, oh shit, I'm going back to Venezuela. But then goes to El Salvador and then gets put in an ISIS style torture video produced by the American government where you see the people's faces and they're being shaved and kicked on the floor. You can see their faces. So when they're saying, oh, state secret, state secrets, they made a video where they showed these people. So, okay, well who are these people? What did they do? And then what does Caroline Levitt out there saying and here when she says Donald Trump clearly signed it. This is the rhetoric though that they use. This is the pink dress lady from North Korea. This is the bag, the Baghdad Bob that is here now in a CACA stock racy Trump regime. Here, play this clip of Caroline Levitt. Any of them.
- [23:39]
William Goudge
President Trump signed a proclamation invoking the.
- [23:42]
Michael Popak
Alien Enemies act regarding the invasion of the United States by the foreign terrorist organization Trend. At the President's direction, the Department of Homeland Security carried out a counterterrorism operation deporting nearly 200 violent trend terrorists which will save countless Americans. Now we know that to be false. Popak, I want to talk to you about that video. Before we do that, I want to take our first break of the show. I want to remind everybody about the Legal AF YouTube channel. It recently passed half a million subscribers. It's absolutely soaring and I know you are building more collaborations there. David Aronberg, you all know him from court authority on the Midas Touch Network. He's going to be bringing his team over to the Legal AF Channel. So Aaron Berg and his crew will now have. Will now be on the Legal AF Channel. You have your court accountability crew that's on there as well. And you're leading something incredible there also. Michael Popak, I'm so proud that you started your own law firm. Now, it's about a month old. We've, you know, I've seen you sign up a lot of major cases there. Wrongful death cases, catastrophic injury cases, sexual harassment cases. If you have a case that fits that type of criteria, big car accidents, trucking accidents. Michael Popox representing the family who tragically lost a loved one in the plane crash over Washington, D.C. michael Popox representing somebody who's lost a loved one and a trucking accident that tragically killed the person. Popox handling those cases. Popak, where do they call and go if they want to bring in the Popak law firm?
- [25:28]
William Goudge
Yeah, thanks, Ben. It's. I made it as simple as for me also as possible, the website is www.thepopoc firm.com P O, P O K, of course. And the 1-800-number. What else? 1-877-popak- AF.
- [25:46]
Michael Popak
Make sure you all call. Make sure you all check it out. If you have a loved one or you have a friend, you could pass that on. We know that a lot of people have been asking about that in the past. So Popak created his own practice. Big risk. Proud of you. I know it's. It's already off to a successful launch. All right, everybody, we'll take our first quick break of the show. We'll be right back.
- [26:07]
William Goudge
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- [30:40]
Michael Popak
Thank you to our pro democracy sponsors right there. Welcome back to Legal af. You know, Jordi spends a long time betting those pro democracy sponsors. The discount codes for all of those pro democracy sponsors are in the description below. Michael Popak. Before we took the break, I showed Caroline Levitt, you know, Tokyo Rose. Exactly. And then she, then she goes on state regime media known as Fox, which platforms this also. And the message that goes out to people, the bad guys got taken away. The terrorists are gone. Look, Trump saved the day. That's how propaganda works. And Fox calls itself news, so the people believe that. And then if you have lawyers or people saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, you got to give process, why are you sending these people there? What, what do you frequently hear? Oh, you support the terrorists. Are you with the bad guys? You support the terrorists. Now you trying to help them out? He goes, no, we're a nation of laws though, and I don't want the innocent woman or the innocent person because it starts with the Venezuelans and then they say you are the Venezuelans. Then they say you're trend day Aragua. Then they come for you and they come from Europe. That's why we have a constitution here. Here's Caroline Levitt.
- [32:02]
William Goudge
Yeah, then I'll do a commentary on it. Sure.
- [32:05]
Michael Popak
Morning, Maria. The president signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies act against trend Aragua. Members who have invaded our country. These are the violent, heinous criminal monsters.
- [32:17]
William Goudge
You could ever imagine.
- [32:18]
Michael Popak
They have taken the lives of innocent American women like Jocelyn Nungray and Lake and Riley. And the president invoked this authority to.
- [32:25]
William Goudge
Deport nearly 300 of them who are now in El Salvador where they will.
- [32:29]
Michael Popak
Be behind bars where they belong, rather than roaming freely in American. Michael Popak.
- [32:35]
William Goudge
Yeah, a couple of things. First of all, what's at stake, and I think Jeb Boasberg, back to the judge that we started this segment with framed it right. Can a president, by simply declaring somebody to be an enemy combatant and ex and, and claim that he's exercising war powers, then have an unreviewable meaning, no role for a federal judge or a federal court to determine whether that is consistent with our Constitution? You can see the scary alternative world that Donald Trump wants us to reside in, which is he can just use a phony branding of political enemies or something that's on the top of his policy list and then make the argument that it's unreviewable. None of the things that any prior commander in chief has ever done dating back to George Washington, well, at least 1880, at least Barbary versus Madison has. Has there ever been a declaration that ultimately it is unreal, unreviewable by a federal judge, A single federal judge. They keep repeating this mantra of a single federal judge in a single district can't. Yes, that's how this works. It's a single federal judge in a single district who makes a ruling on the constitutionality or whether something complies with the law, then goes to a three judge panel of a circuit court of one of our circuit courts federally and then may or may not go up to the United States Supreme Court. That's it. That's been going on for over 200 years. And every, whether it was every time the war power has been invoked, the Alien Enemies act has been invoked. The War of 1812, World War I and World War II. That's it. What do they have in common? Wars. What are we not at right now?
- [34:31]
Michael Popak
War.
- [34:32]
William Goudge
And that's where a federal judge steps in and says, are you properly exercising it? Sure there are. There are bumpers again under separation of powers and checks and balance that our Supreme Court in precedent has, has imposed. Is it a political question that's a doctrine that's been developed under the law? No. The exercise of war power is not generally a political question that keeps federal courts out of doing review. But you'll hear the Trump side make that, make that allegation, is it something that is a war power that a federal judge ultimately can make a ruling on? Yes. Is the war power and the commander in chief power broadly interpreted? Sure. But that doesn't mean a federal judge is sidelined from their constitutional obligation to provide a check and a balance to a potentially out of control, actually out of control and Roe presidency. That's one. So Boasberg said that. The other, what we're watching, as you just as so artfully outlined, is this ecosystem that Donald Trump has created. That's an echo chamber that he then uses to justify the bad thing that he's just done. And parts of it that we've outlined for the last five years, four years on legal Afghanistan on the Midas Touch network are for Trump anyway, are a rapid response team within the communications department of the White House, of which Carolyn Levitt is a part, but not the only part, the messaging of the day, which is developed by Stephen Chung and Stephen Miller and other people like that within the White House in consultation with people outside the White House like Steve Bannon and people at Fox. Then there's paid influencers, social media influencers and others in that orbit that echo whatever the message of the day is and use that vocabulary. Then there's a group of MAGA Congress people and senators that are then told to run with it. So if we're talking, let's use impeachment as an example, we're talking impeachment of federal judges. Musk will say it, Levitt will say it, Fox will say it. Somebody will file an articles of impeachment against the judge. And then Trump will say, well, it's not me. It's, you see, it's this other thing. And then Fox is actually a huge amplifier and trampoline for all of that. That is the, the, the method, the MO for Donald Trump. And he, and then he squeezes and extorts, you know, MAGA in Congress and, and others to. We're going to talk a lot about Trump extortion as we get into some other stories today in order to, because they, they have determined and they're not wrong so far that this ecosystem, a biofeedback loop that they create, they've, they've figured out that they think that's effective for them and helps them in courts or at least in the court of public opinion. And so we've got all of that going on. This, this, the problem is that Trump for some reason sometimes doesn't get the memo. And when he's caught off guard, like when he's coming off a, you know, Marine One or a plane or something, and somebody asks a pointed question that he wasn't prepared to answer without his teleprompter. The judge said he wants to know why proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies act was signed on Friday but wasn't released till Saturday. Why was it in the dark when the planes were already flying? Well, now, that should have been the softball for him to say, yeah, I signed it. We signed it on Friday. We had some logistics to do. We weren't ready to publish it. You know, ICE wasn't ready. And the deport. Until we published it. We published it. That's not what he said. What he said is, well, I don't know. I didn't, I didn't really sign that. Other people did that and nobody in their right mind believes that. He was talking about 1798. Every. Everybody in their right mind believes, at best. I thought they were going to argue, Ben, he didn't sign the papers that were filed in court. I was like, all right, I can see that, but no. And so for a guy that spent a considerable amount of political capital bashing Joe Biden and the use of the auto pen for his pardons, and there's 30 different times when Joe, when Donald Trump used the auto pen, by the way, for him to say, I did not sign the only exercise of a war power in, in peacetime we've ever had is an extraordinary admission that he's either not listening, not present, is, you know, is totally deranged. Who is running the show over there? Carolyn Levitt.
- [39:29]
Michael Popak
It was a declaration that a war right exists. Big. It's a pretty big document. And on that basis, you've authorized the kidnapping of individuals to be sent to concentration camps in countries where they never ever resided for, from the outset. And you don't remember it. You remember it. You didn't sign it. That's the level of gaslighting or lying that's there. But here's the thing, Popak. You look at Russia. What did they say was the pretext for their unlawful invasion of Ukraine? Denazification. They said the Ukrainians are Nazis. It's the craziest allegation in the world.
- [40:14]
William Goudge
Led by a Jewish president.
- [40:16]
Michael Popak
Ukraine's led by someone who. Zelensky is a Jew. And you have Russia basically say, you know, that's no, we're going. We're going with that. That's it. And they say it over and over again. And the Russian people, you know, at least are going along with that. That's human psychology, which is a strange thing. You can have a whole other talk and bring on, you know, people who study the way the brain works. But this, this structure gets people to, in America to vote against their own interests and it launders in the fascism and the oligarchy and it gives a nice little snackable, easy talking point for these magas. Right? It's, it's, oh, you, you, you, you must support the terrorists. Trump was trying to get rid of the terrorists.
- [41:04]
William Goudge
You just reminded me of something I wanted Boasberg said just to make clear to the American people. He was talking to Drew Ensign, the lawyer, but he was talking to the American people. He said to Ensign, you realize my injunction was not to stop the deportations, that you could still do the deportations through due process and through an immigration. You understood that, right? Yes. And you understand that I wasn't ordering for those bad people that you allege are bad people to be released into the general population, into America. Right? You understood that, right? Yes, I understood that right also. So he's not talking to Ensign, he's talking to the American people. This is all about, not about getting criminals off the street. This is about due process and us not using Star Chambers or no process at all. Right. As you said, to kidnap people and put. Now, look, I am all for if it turns out that these people are actual murderers, rapists and drug dealers and they've got the goods, they've got the evidence, then show it in court, give them representation and get them out of the country and deport them. I'm all in favor of that. And so are you, of course.
- [42:15]
Michael Popak
Of course. So to that point, you pivot to the next related topic is now the Trump regime is attacking this federal judge in Maryland, another very well respected senior status judge, Judge Ellen Hollander, and she issued an injunction that blocked Elon Musk and Doge from getting access to the private information within the Social Security Administration, namely our medical records, other personal identifying information. Real kind of sensitive stuff about us that we did not consent to give Elon Musk and his team of 19 to 25 year old guys who refer to themselves as big balls. You know, there's something called privacy here. We all like, I think, some level of privacy here. And the idea that they're going through personal files of us, Elon Musk is, and his team, and to what end, you know, is, is problematic. And so the judge issued an injunction that said, look, Social Security Administration should exist like it always has. They can have access to all of these things. Just for now, until we understand who's running Doge. What is this? Elon Musk can't get your private medical records and your private Social Security information. It's as simple as that. So what did the Trump regime use it to say? The judge is forcing us to shut down Social Security. We're going to have to shut it all down. We can't keep it open anymore because this prevents us from even allowing the Social Security office to function. Leland Dudik, who's the acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, is, you know, put out all these statements. The judge is forcing us, we have to shut down Social Security. Now. We know they want to shut down Social Security. How do we know that? Well, they're already gutting it. They're firing thousands of employees who work there. They're shutting down at least 47 Social Security field offices in both blue, red and purplish districts. It doesn't really matter. They're shutting it down.
- [44:27]
William Goudge
Why?
- [44:28]
Michael Popak
Because by making it more difficult to access, they can break it down from within. The same thing they're doing with the Department of Education. Fire everybody, basically. And then, and then it gets destroyed and you can't use it anymore. So that's what we see them doing, you know, doing there. And they've come out with statements. I mean, here's Elon Musk on the Joe Rogan show saying that Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme he's ever seen. Here, play this clip.
- [44:57]
William Goudge
Well, I mean, the government's one big permanent scheme, if you ask me. Yeah, well, you can tell any better than anything. Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. Right.
- [45:05]
Michael Popak
Explain that.
- [45:06]
William Goudge
Oh, so. Well, people pay into Social Security and the money goes out of Social Security immediately. But the obligation for Social Security is your entire retirement career. So you're paying. You're paying. If you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds the tax revenue. Far. Have you ever looked at the debt clock? Yeah.
- [45:39]
Michael Popak
Here is Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, saying that if you don't receive your Social Security check for a month or so and you are complaining about it, you probably are committing fraud. You, you are a fraudster. Here, play this clip. Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother in law, who's 94, she.
- [46:08]
William Goudge
Wouldn'T call and complain. She just wouldn't. She thinks something got messed up and she'll get it next month. Yeah, a fraudster always makes the loudest.
- [46:19]
Michael Popak
Noise, screaming, yelling, and complaining. These are like cartoonishly villainous people from like the bad guy cartoons. I grew, I grew up. I grew up watching and, you know, Howard Lutnick's a billionaire. Elon Musk is the richest person in the world, although we'll see how long that lasts.
- [46:41]
William Goudge
By the way. He couldn't describe what a Ponzi scheme is. He showed he doesn't understand how Social Security works.
- [46:48]
Michael Popak
And clearly social. I mean, I have to fact check thing. It's not an entitlement. It's not a Ponzi scheme. We the people have paid into a system and have a certain set of expectations. It's our money. So the fact that the billionaires are not satisfied with their yachts and their mansions and whatever the weird stuff they do, and they want to go and grab this. But then for the purposes of our legal analysis, they use an injunction that says Elon Musk's team cannot get access to your personal data. And then they use that protextually. That's something that is the height of nefariousness. And then what do they go? Oh, well, I. They put. They run it through their propaganda machine that we just talked about. And then they go, look, the judge did it, not us. I want to talk about this. I want to take our last quick break of the show. I want to remind everybody about Michael Popo's YouTube channel, Legal AF, which is soaring on the charts. Over 500,000 subscribers already. Make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. And joining the Legal AF channel soon will be David Aronberg and his team at Court Authorities are joining what you've built at Legal af. And also Michael Popak. We talked about this before you started your own law firm handling catastrophic injuries, big trucking accidents, car accidents, tragic wrongful death cases, serious personal injury cases. The consultation with you is free. If someone has a case, medical malpractice cases, where do they go to contact you?
- [48:26]
William Goudge
Yeah, yeah. And, and it'll be just one, one line on that. The reason for these types of cases is, is because this is what really, this is the intersection of law and life are these types of cases, especially the catastrophic ones and the ones where somebody has been terribly, terribly injured or, or, or has died as a result, or family members. And I wanted to step in for that. So it's the, the popoc firm.com for the website and 1877 Popac AF, a free consultation. I got a great group of people along with me who are renowned trial lawyers in all the local districts that we need and we're looking forward to your call.
- [49:08]
Michael Popak
We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show.
- [49:10]
William Goudge
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- [53:11]
Michael Popak
Welcome back to Legal af. Thank you to those pro democracy sponsors that keep the engines running here. We're grateful for them. The discount codes are in the description below. Jordy spends a lot of time vetting them and he negotiates good discounts as well. So check them out and helping in and helping them helps us. So Michael Popak, where we left off, we talked about this judge in Maryland. She issued the order just simply saying injunction for a temporary period. Stop getting access to people's private Social Security data. Elon Musk the Trump regime turned that around to say, well, we need to shut down Social Security now because of this order, which is what they always wanted to do. The judge sent not one, but two letters on the public docket, which is unheard of, like just sending letters to combat the lies and disinformation. And she says, to be clear, I never said shut it down. It's a very narrow ruling. You're lying about my order. If you have any issues, come see me in chambers. But you are lying. And I'm filing this order publicly to stop lying. Like we had that we had Justice Roberts issue a public statement. You have federal judges now having to issue public PR statements to deal with the attack on the judiciary. What do you make all.
- [54:26]
William Goudge
Yeah, we all. We also saw Judge Alsop used a device I'd never seen before in federal court, a request for information, an rfi. He's on his third RFI about whether the government is properly implementing his injunction to rehire probationary employees for doge. I, I talk to people that do what I do for a living in federal court. Like, you ever got an RFI from a judge? They're like, no, I got an order to show cause. You know, like, why should I not find you in contempt? Which is where Bozberg is in the other cases that we talked about. But no, this is extraordinary. First of all, I love that, the fact that Judge Hollander in the Social Security case that we're talking about and she sits in Maryland, that she hoisted the Trump administration up on their own petard. You did a whole great hot take about the, the phony JFK files on the heels of the phony Epstein files. Every time Donald Trump wants to capture a news cycle and distract from his failing administration, his policies that are killing America and the American economy, and the fact that the Republicans are cowards and won't attend their own town halls, what does he do? Hey everybody. I feel like he's just, he's just pulled into, it's like a circus, like on, like a circus car that just pulled into town. Hey everybody, you want to see the JFK files? Who wanted to see the JFK files unredacted RFK Jr. That was about it. Okay, I've seen the Zapruder film. I've seen all the documentaries in the 80s about it. But the judge said, all right, you know, you know what was in the release by the Trump administration because don't ever Trump, trust the Trump administration with your private sensitive data because they released the Social Security numbers for staffers and congresspeople in the data dump in order to grab the news cycle. And the judge cited to it in her briefing, she said people are upset that 60 year old Social Security numbers for people long dead were released. And so now you understand why I don't want you rummaging around and I want you to destroy until I get my hands around the fact that you've and Doge and Musk have gotten their hands on people's personal financial and health data. Right? And you, you have not been able to tell me why this isn't a fishing expedition and why it. You don't, you can't just use anonymous, anonymized anonymous, like why. I could see why you could. Maybe you'd want the data from, quote, unquote, government efficiency. That's the, that's the, that's the slogan. That's the mantra every time they get caught doing something. We're just doing government efficiency. We're just changing the architecture of how the servers work. Really? Then why do you need Mrs. Applebaum Social Security number and what pills she's getting under Social Security? And no one gives an answer. Again, lawyers are trotted out who are purposely kept in the dark by the administration, young lawyers who are being sent into the, you know, into the lions, the lion den of a federal judge. And, and it's one thing when you and I used to comment on the evil genius of Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyers slowing things down so that he could possibly get elected, but this is not working. None of what you and I have been commenting on or our hot takes, none of it is working. 115 lawsuits, 70 injunctions, at least six or seven of them having been upheld by various appellate courts. The Supreme Court not stepping in, appellate courts, not even step help. You know how many times they've run, Ben, to talk about letter writing, how many letters they've written from the Trump administration, Department of justice begging federal courts, Supreme Court, appellate courts to step in and do something? And how they've just gotten crickets. They don't even respond. By not responding, they're responding. Replace Boasberg. He's a terrible judge. Look at the process he set up. He must be replaced. You know, Federal Circuit or D.C. circuit Court of Appeals. No response. Supreme Court bail us out. You look, look what's happening with these lefty judges. Somebody. And all you get is Robert saying, you stop talking about impeachment. Pump the brakes on impeachment. Enough. Enough already. So this is, if it was working, you and I would be going, well, this is an interesting strategy. Let's see if this works. I mean, I won some just to show my own real life comparison. I was in a arbitration once in a financial services case where a well known plaintiff's lawyer I won't name, who sues a lot of financial services companies on behalf of former employees, decided that the arbitrator, who's the judge in this story, in this context, was going to be against him, that he came out of a major Wall street firm, law firm. We'll talk about a similar law firm. I'm trying to think if he was a partner at that law firm, he wasn't, but a similar law firm. And always he looked at his awards and he always sided with, he thought he always sided with the financial services firms against the employees. So in the opening statement he just blasted effectively, the judge didn't call him corrupt, but everything else. You've never sided with this and that. And yeah, and he's just, I mean, he's just going after in his opening statement. And I like, I like, put my hand over my mouth and I said to my colleague next to me, this is interesting. I wonder, is this going to work? And I was almost like, for a moment I had an out of body experience, like, I wonder if this will work, by the way. It did not work. Okay. He lost the case and lost it badly and he lost that arbitrator from the moment he opened his mouth. So this is not working. If it were working, I would say, well, it's not the way I would practice, but it is seemed to have having an effect. They, they took some solace from when they were criminal defendants, Trump, when they bashed judges like Marshawn. And at the end, Bershon was like, well, I don't really feel like sentencing you to jail. And they probably interpreted that as. We see it worked. We bashed his wife and his daughter and him. And at the end he lost confidence and he lost his, you know, brass ones to sentence him. Oh, yeah, that was a win. That ain't gonna work in civil presidential power exercise with federal judges. It hasn't. It's not going to work now. It's going to be laid on the doorstep of the Supreme Court. You and I are going to be talking a lot about the United States Supreme Court in a way we never did over a summer and a spring when they usually are, they usually go dark. They ain't going dark because these are coming up on emergency applications through John Roberts. And we're, you and I are going to be doing a lot of talking between now and the end of the summer about these, these attempts by Donald Trump to reshape our constitutional republic and our democracy.
- [61:35]
Michael Popak
Another reason why people should subscribe right now to the Legal AF YouTube channel, because there's going to be an overflow of information and you're going to cover every nook and cranny of that. It seems like, though, if there is a strategy, it's put these DOJ lawyers who Trump hates anyway, put them in the meat grinder, basically. Let them sacrifice and lose their bar licenses. And these DOJ lawyers have to decide, is that what they want to do? As we started this episode with Judge Jeb Boseberg telling the DOJ lawyer, I tell my clerks your reputation will follow you for the rest of your career. And that was a message not just to the lawyer in front of him, but to all of the DOJ lawyers. And again, coming from, again, Judge Boasberg, Yale Law Justice Kavanaugh's roommate, top judge out there, basically saying this to a. A DOJ lawyer who is ruining his reputation right before Boasberg, like, Boseberg, like, you think I'm scared of you. Like, like, do you know who I am? It was one of those. But then it allows the Trump regime to kind of play the victim and then go out there and blame the judges, the judge, this judge, you know, and. And Trump feels very comfortable in that space when he doesn't have to talk about things because he's an idiot. And he's. And he's a dangerous idiot. And, you know, the tariffs up, tariffs down, tariffs in, tariffs out. You know, let me conquer Canada. He wants to take over Canada. Annex Canada. They should be the 51st state. Trump has no, you know, in addition to being Greenland, Panama, this, that, certainly no peace in Ukraine in 24 hours. In fact, Trump's made things worse. Trump's an idiot, a dangerous idiot, but he knows how to put himself in that MAGA cocoon, play the victim and how to manipulate victimhood for power. And so this plays into that kind of narrative. If he judged this judge, that. Unfair judge, unfair judge, and then avoid talking about, hey, by the way, prices are going up and the economy's crashing and we're looking in stagflation anyway, we'll.
- [63:43]
William Goudge
Say before you leave that I want to just say one last thing. There is. There is something that Trump is trying to stick his. There's a wound that he's trying to stick his finger in, and he thinks it's successful from a populist standpoint with his. With his base and those who voted for him. There is a belief, and you can see it in the polling and you can see it in the interviews that media does among MAGA voters and people who are disaffected that. That. That went and gravitated to Trump. They don't trust the federal government. They don't like what they think the federal government is. They don't understand the federal government. They think state and local is better, except they all want the things that only a federal government, the size of America, with the economy and the tax base to support it, can provide. So they. They. 70 million people in America rely on Social Security and Medicare, on Social Security, particularly as their only paycheck, as their only source of income. 70 million people. That there is no state equivalent, nor would there ever be, of that social safety net. There's no local municipal equivalent of that, nor will there ever be. There's no private sector stepping forward to provide you for what you've paid in, in your life, health care and Social Security payments at all. There are just things that only, whether it's national defense, FEMA helping to create a social safety net, public education and protection of people who are disabled, disadvantaged in public education, the protection of the disadvantaged in society. That can only be done and our framers and founders knew this by the federal government and, and the Democrats. And this is the messaging that we need to do as a, as, as a media and also at the political side is that, is that we are so closely associated with the federal government and the federal government has such a bad rap is that we have to teach people why the federal government, when it's properly operated by the right people can actually be a tremendous benefit to people's lives and be life changing and life altering in the right way.
- [66:08]
Michael Popak
I want to talk, I want to talk about the capitulation of some big law firms. And the biggest capitulation we've seen was from the Paul Weiss Rifkin law firm to give people the scale of these law firms. They have thousands of lawyers, big staffs across not just the United States but across numerous countries. They have litigation teams and then different litigation practices. There could just be whole teams devoted to entertainment, political real estate, bankruptcy, corporate litigation, just all the, with, with hundreds of lawyers who work in different areas and then international law, then transactional. They do the deals and they, they do mergers and acquisition deals and they advise the banks and do all of these things. And so there are you probably sometimes when you're driving in a city, you see on the buildings the name of law firms like Paul Weiss and other two name law firms, Covington and Burling, you know, is another one who Trump did this executive order about. But one of the things that Trump and Trump hates these big firms, cuz these big firms used to never give Donald Trump the time of day. They always viewed him as kind of phony. And Trump always viewed these law firms as kind of representing the gilded kind of corporate club that Trump was never a part of. And also they hire a lot of the lawyers who used to work at the Department of Justice who Donald Trump hates because they were law and order prosecutors. And so Trump is now kind of using his retribution tour to go after the law firms themselves. And by the way, these law firms are Often like stepping stones from going in and out of working in the public sector to private sector. A lot of judges get their starts, federal judges, Supreme Court judges get their starts working at these big law firms. They recruit heavily at the top law schools. If you're in a big law school, there's a whole process where you go around, you meet the law firms and they're, you know, they're, they represent a lot of corporate interests. They say they do pro bono work, I think, to try to soften some of the other stuff that they do in their defense of kind of corporations and their litigation in favor of corporations. But Trump's going after them by name. He's name checking them in executive orders. And so he's done this with a firm called Covington, which by and large has just like ignored it was there approached more than anything, the Perkins Coie. And they're fighting it. They filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump. They're standing up. And then you have Paul Weiss. And Paul Weiss capitulated. Boom, quickly. And their chairman, this guy Brad Carpenter, rush to be with Donald Trump and Donald Trump's advisors. Please, Donald, what can we do? We're sorry, we're going to do anything we want to do. You tell us so. Oh, my God. Donald Trump put this. Paul Weiss firm. Brad Karp. Do we have the photo of Brad Karp? Salty. You know, there he is right there. I took away his identifying information from the Paul Weiss website, but that's what the guy looks like right there. He's the chairman of this sprawling law firm. And he rushed to, you know, Donald, please take this executive order. We'll throw any of our lawyers under the bus. You just tell me, Donald, what can we do to get on your good side? So Donald Trump put them through a total walk of shame. He issued this statement that just shamed them. And they had to agree to the statement. They agreed to provide $40 million worth of what they call pro bono legal services to Donald Trump's agenda. Whatever, you know, whatever that's going to be. They attacked their, their former partner, who the Trump, who Donald Trump absolutely hates. And they said he engaged in wrongdoing, which in my opinion is basically defaming him. He was the. Worked as a special counsel to, to the district attorney's office, Mark Pomerantz. And they bragged about it to their associates after they got this deal. We are pleased to. Dear members of the Paul Weiss community, we're pleased to announce Trump's executive order relating to our firm was withdrawn a short while ago. We want to share with you the final agreement. The commitments reaffirmed today are consistent with Judge Simon Rifkin's 1963 statement of firm Principles, which states, among other things, that we believe in maintaining by affirmative efforts a membership of partners associates, reflecting a wide variety of religious, political, ethnic and social back. What the hell are you even talking about? Brad Karp And I guess you know, if you're in trying to appease the Trump regime, I don't know if you're a client of Rifkin, Paul Weiss Rifkin. If you see how easily they fold, how is these people supposed to represent you? They're the biggest cowards ever. So my biggest wag the finger. Shame on you, Brad Karp. You've disgraced yourself, you've disgraced your family, you've disgraced the carp name, you've disgraced the legal profession. You are an embarrassment to anybody who has a law degree. And frankly, all of the associates who work there, I think have some reflecting to do to work for a brutal coward like you who not only bends the knee, but does it with glee. Shame on you, you disgusting person. You brought shame to our legal practice. Michael Popa, thanks for that.
- [71:54]
William Goudge
Lead in I'm one of the people that worked at a major white New York law firm like Paul Weiss and I know people that work at Paul Weiss. I know people that had departments at Paul Weiss. I worked at another one called Scaddin Arps. When I started my career, I was shocked that Paul Weiss decided not to fight this out. And what's coming out in the report reporting is that there was a battle internal, as you would expect, between the corporate transactional lawyers, the ones that you described as being the deal makers, and the litigators who tried cases. The litigators wanted to go to the mattresses and war against the Trump administration because Paul Weiss is, if it, if it was known as anything before today, before you're, before you're, you're castigating them appropriately, if they were known as anything. It was like the first law firm where gentiles and Jews work next to each other. Paul and Weiss, you know, in New York, that was something, it was a place that hired people not only from the, the Ivy League schools, which at the time around its founding, you know, were anti Semitic and weren't hiring certain types of people. They were hiring from other law firms, other law schools that took Jews and took other people. And Scadden did the same thing. And it was always a, a very, very highly sought after, after law firm. It's top 20 in the world. It had, it has or had a revenue of about $3 billion just to put, put the scale on this. And so that fight between the litigators and the transactional people broke into kind of public. Apparently Carp went to another major firm that's well known for its pugilism. It's fighting it went to another major firm in New York and tried to enlist them to file a lawsuit. And a lawyer at that other major firm who happens to be close to Trump and has represented Trump in various matters was actually willing to take the case against the Trump administration with that's, that's a profile in courage. He was willing to take the case and sign the pleadings, but at the last minute, he also has a relationship with Robert Kraft, who owns the New England Patriots, who's buddies with Trump. And they brokered a deal through this firm to bring in Carp on bended knee into the White House and broker a deal. The other egg on the face that Karp has is that the deal that Trump trumpeted and touted is not the deal that he told his partners had been signed. And there's language differences that don't line up where Karp told his partners in order to get them to endorse it, because there was a vast majority that said, yes, take the deal because we want to stay in business. He said, well, we're just going to have to give him $40 million, by the way. That's just, just at a thousand dollars an hour for an average young associate. You do the math. That's, that's a lot of lawyers. That's 20 lawyers doing work, you know, over the next couple of years full time. And it was supposed to be on things that like, they, they could get behind, like fighting anti Semitism on campus and. But by the time Trump announced that it was. My entire policy agenda will be supported with free legal service by Paul Weiss and the rest of the major law firms. Thinking that Paul Weiss would have a backbone because you missed, you didn't miss it. You didn't mention the timeline. A judge Beryl Howell, who used to be the chief judge of the same court that Jeb Boasberg is now the chief judge of the District Court in D.C. she had already ruled in favor of the Perkins firm in, in Washington and enjoined that a very same proclamation, almost identical against them to remove their security clearance to, to not let clients of the firm do business with the government. She said, this is, you're not the, the judge Barrel Howell told the Trump administration. You're not the Queen of Hearts and Alice of Wonderland. You can't look at somebody that you, you are displeased by and say off with your head. There's due process considerations, there's constitutional considerations, there's First Amendment considerations. You're enjoined. So everybody thought, all right, that'll be the signal to firms like Covington and Paul Weiss that the courts will be able to protect you. Don't cut the deal because if you show that you're going to bend over, you see what's happening. I just did a hot take comparing Paul Weiss within 24 hours of Columbia bending the knee and agreeing in return for the having the 400 million dollar grant given back to them, they're willing to put their Middle east and African studies department under a vice provost who's obviously going to censure them and, and make sure that it's in keeping with Donald Trump's anti DEI background. So Carp may not survive. He shouldn't survive after, after you just excoriated him. But I don't think he survives potentially his own partners, now that there's this mismatch, intentional mismatch, told the partners and what Donald Trump is crowing about. But it, but it's even worse than that because it sends the signal to this. Trump allegedly has 14 law firms. These are only the three that we know about. There's supposedly a secret list of at least 14 that he's going to issue proclamations against. And now you're going to have to decide are you going to be Perkins and you're going to law law firm and go get a judgment, a judge in your, in your camp and protect you, or are you going to like, like give out money like Facebook and Amazon to Donald Trump to make him not hurt you anymore, don't let daddy hurt you anymore. And you're gonna have to make that decision. And if you're a client of the firm, I would pull my, if I had major business with Paul Wiser, I'd pull it tomorrow. Today. In response that I'm not sure Carp survives. It was a people like George Conway posted like, you know, like, because he knows the firms like I do in New York. He was like, I had to rub my eyes. Paul, Paul Weiss just cut that deal. Are you, are you Judge Rifkin's law firm? Are you kidding me? And so now this is exactly what you're seeing. Columbia capitulates right now. He's turning Pam Bondi on and authorizing all of his other departments to go look at major law firms and their hiring practices to make sure they're not helping black and brown people get a leg up in their hiring practice. I mean, this, I know for our audience, this administration can't end soon enough, get back to where we were as in America. But it's not just law firm capitulates, it's the fact that Donald Trump now has a taste for this. This blood is in the water and he has a taste for it. And now it's going to be reinforced. He's going to be going after these other 14 and now they're going to have to make that choice though, that forks in the road. You either go sue or you're going to, you're just going to stroke big checks and that's it. And we've never had a president that made good on retribution promises the way Donald Trump has. This is all we're watching. It's not helping America. It's not helping your kitchen table politics or your economy or helping an American. It's just, I got back into office and now I made a naughty list and I'm going to execute on it.
- [79:15]
Michael Popak
The idea that a litigation firm that supposed to fight for its clients tapped out over the most bogus and phony crap is some of the most. It's some of the most pathetic things. You know, I think about our foundation of this show. I think about the arc of our careers and how the purpose of, you know, to me, to be a lawyer means to fight for our democracy and to fight for our rule of law, not to be an agent of the destruction of it. And now I've said this before and I'll say it again. You know, there are going to be so many people and companies along this journey that are going to let us down, that are going to let you down. But there are also going to be people who step up who maybe you didn't expect. Right the same way there are people who are betraying you who you didn't expect to. You're seeing people step up who you didn't expect to as well. And I think in moments like this, there are going to be those who meet the moment. There are going to be those who are silent, which to me is complicity. And then there are going to be people who utterly aid and abet fascism. And I think we'll always remember who those people were in this time. The arc of history is long and we're going to make sure we fight for it, to make sure it continues to go in the right direction, even if we're currently living through a hostile government takeover that is pulling it back with agents of fascism who are causing a lot of problems here. We'll keep fighting for you every day here on the Midas Touch Network. A reminder to subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. They're on their way now to a million subscribers. Oh, I would so love for Legal AF to hit a million subscribers by this summer as we get to all of those court cases that are going to be working their way up to the Supreme Court. It's essential viewing, so please go to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Of course, subscribe here. We're on our way to 5 million subscribers on the Midas Touch YouTube channel and we're so grateful for our subscriber base. Subscribe to our audio podcast legal af not just our YouTube audio listeners. YouTube subscribe YouTube subscribers go to audio and subscribe there and reminder if you or someone that you know has been in a kind of catastrophic injury, if you know someone involved in a wrongful death case, a sexual harassment, a discrimination type case, a medical malpractice situation, those are the types of cases that Michael Popox New Law Firm is handling. Popo say that number and website one more time. I saw literally we've gotten 500 inquiries since we've been doing this show of people who have potential. So make sure you reach out now because Popo's team has to to go through all the pop.
- [82:16]
William Goudge
I made it easy on everybody www the popoc firm.com and then 1-800-number 1877 Popoc. That's P.
- [82:28]
Michael Popak
Check it out. Thanks everybody for watching this weekend's Legal af. Stay strong. We'll be fighting for you every step of the way as well. Hit subscribe and we'll see you next time on Legal af. Like your favorite travel guide, T Mobile's network knows all the spots because T Mobile helps keep you connected from big cities to your hometown on America's largest 5G network. Switch now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com KeepAndSwitch up to 4 lines of the virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualified unlock device, credit service report in 90 days device ineligible carrier and timely redemption required. Card is no cash access and expires in six months.