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- [00:01]
Michael Popak
This episode is brought to you by Lifelock. It's tax season and we're all a.
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Ben Meiselas
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Michael Popak
That's how much the IRS flagged for possible identity fraud last year. Now here's a good number. 100 million. That's how many data points Lifelock monitors every second.
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Ben Meiselas
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- [00:25]
Michael Popak
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- [00:30]
Ben Meiselas
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- [01:31]
Michael Popak
Race the Rudders. Raise the sails. Race the sails.
- [01:35]
Ben Meiselas
Captain, an unidentified ship is approaching. Over.
- [01:38]
Michael Popak
Roger, wait. Is that an enterprise sales solution?
- [01:43]
Ben Meiselas
Reach sales professionals, not professional sailors. With LinkedIn ads, you can target the right people by industry, job title and more. We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign. Get started today at LinkedIn.com results terms and conditions apply. A supreme smackdown by the Supreme Court against Donald Trump. A 9 to 0 ruling in the Abrego Garcia case ordering Donald Trump to to use the language of the Supreme Court facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from El Salvador back to the United States after he was kidnapped from Maryland disappeared to that concentration camp in El Salvador. It also comes on the same week where naive Bukele, the authoritarian leader of El Salvador, will be visiting the United States. So it's hard for the Trump regime to make excuses, though they will try that they're unable to coordinate this right now. They tried to do that after the Supreme Court made that ruling before the District Court Judge Judge Zenis in Maryland who made the initial order to return Abrego Garcia that was eventually appealed to the Supreme Court. The Department of Justice lawyer showed up with no facts, no knowledge and a bad attitude attitude which did not play well with Judge Zenis, who excoriated the Trump DOJ lawyer in the court. We'll talk about what went down. What's the status of the Supreme Court's order, its directive? How is the Trump regime responding to it? They're kind of pretending that the order is not what the order is. But we'll go through the order so you can see it for yourself. Insider trading alert.
- [03:23]
Michael Popak
Ding, ding, ding.
- [03:24]
Ben Meiselas
The question becomes who knew what when, when? Donald Trump earlier this week announced that he would be pausing a of the tariffs against most of the world other than China. Although when you dig a little bit deeper into the announcement, the effective world tariff rate still remains at around 25%. But Trump makes this announcement. Now is a good time to buy at 9:07am on his social media platform. A few hours later, he makes an announcement of the so called tariff pause right before he makes that other announcement. You start to see these exchange traded funds like SPY and QQQ and others that are tied to the S and P and Nasdaq start to shoot up pretty quickly as though somebody knew. And then you start to see other unusual trading patterns. Also, Donald Trump signed off djt. That also happens to be his stock symbol and his stock went up a little bit that day and then it went back down. But the volatility of the markets right now, not the way a stable market is supposed to look. It's kind of how a Trump meme coin or some of these quote unquote shitcoin crypt stuff looks like. And that's the United States economy now. It's why we're seeing people not purchasing American bonds. It's why we're seeing the treasury yields go up to where they are the 10 and 30 years. We're seeing mortgage rates at 7%. We're seeing the dollar crash. We'll talk about that and more here. And also Trump's attack on the American Bar association as more law firms kiss the ring but other law firms stand up. There's this interesting dynamic taking place there and we should give everybody an update as well about what's going on in Carolina Supreme Court race. The North Carolina Supreme Court made a ruling related to the North Carolina Supreme Court race. Many people call it like a mixed ruling, but it's still, you know, in my view, problematic. Justice Riggs is going to be appealing it. It's not as bad as many expected the ruling was going to be. But we'll break it down in the details that you expect on Legal af. Michael Popo, sir, how are you doing?
- [05:27]
Michael Popak
Oh, I'm doing great. You know what, the one good thing about the Trump administration, it proves the importance of federal courts and lawyers and law firms who are courageous. But we're watching if you distill it to his essence, are federal courts doing what they are supposed to do to be the firewall of our democracy? Sometimes it's affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, sometimes 9, 0 affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. And sometimes the Supreme Court tries to find a way through a technicality to reward or to not have a confrontation directly with the executive branch. But the federal courts have to do their job, and they are law firms because every one of these cases that you and I talk about has a, I'll just say it out loud as a courageous law firm behind it, whether it's an attorney's general office or it is a private law firm that's doing pro bono, God's work, free work, like Quinn Emanuel representing the Abrego Garcia family. And that stands in stark contrast. I mean, it really is showing the fissure that's in your and my profession. We've got about, I don't know, it's probably up to a billion dollars worth of tribute that's going to be paid by about a dozen law firms who are just bending over for Donald Trump, giving him, first of all, an amazing talking point that supports his weaponization of the judicial system by having these law firms effectively admit guilt when they were not guilty, admit that their pro bono programs, which are done for the public good and are done for free, were somehow weaponized against him and MAGA and conservative causes. It's a terrible talking point to have handed Donald Trump. But these major law firms, many of them based in New York, many of them that you and I know well, one of which I worked at, but in contrast, you've got a smaller subset of law firms that are taking it to the courts. And so as the Trump administration attacks, and we'll talk about it today, the American Bar association and attacks law firms, others are standing up to replace them on the line. It's almost like the Revolutionary War when they wiped out the first line with the muskets. There's another line right behind it, firing away. And that's what we have to do here in America. We can't, we can't allow The a fear that we will be the next one bashed to stop us from doing our job. That's judges, that's lawyers and law firms and that's independent media and commentating like we do here on Legal AF on Midas Touch.
- [08:06]
Ben Meiselas
Let's take a look what the Trump regime is saying after that 9 to 0 ruling by the Supreme Court. You had Jon Favreau from crooked media. He goes Supreme Court and a unanimous decision. He has a legal right to be here, Abrego Garcia. And you have to bring him back because that's basically what the Supreme Court said facilitate his return. To which Stephen Miller, one of Donald Trump's top advisors, says false SCOTUS rejected the lower court and made clear that a district court judge cannot exercise Article 2 Foreign affairs powers. The illegal alien terrorist is in the custody and control of of a sovereign foreign nation. I mean, that's quite literally the opposite of what the Supreme Court actually ruled. And Popak, as I always say, regardless of what political party that you are from, this is a 9 to 0 decision by the Supreme Court. Six of those justices are viewed as, quote, unquote, conservative. Three of those justices on the Supreme Court are, quote, unquote, the liberal appointed justices. Right? You have three Trump appointed justices on that court. You have two George W. Bush appointed judges and one George H.W. bush appointed judge on that court. You've got two Obamas and one Biden appointed justice on that court. And so that's the Supreme Court. And I don't agree with a lot of the Supreme Court rulings, but when I don't agree with the rulings or when I outright think the rulings are horrific, I still read you the rulings. Right? I tell you what they are. I don't pretend the ruling didn't say what the ruling said it did. And to me, that's one of the biggest problems with the Trump regime. I mean, let's just take a look at what the ruling actually says. And it says about the dish. This is what the Supreme Court said in a 9 to 0 ruling regarding the district court order saying, send Abrego Garcia back the order. I'm reading from the Supreme Court word for word so people know. I'm not paraphrasing, I'm not giving you commentary. I'm reading it. The order by the district court properly requires the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. Michael Popak, you don't get much clearer than that. Then there was a concurring opinion by the three liberal justices.
- [10:28]
Michael Popak
A statement was really a statement.
- [10:30]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah, really a statement. And they just said the Supreme Court should never have even heard this and stayed the return of Abrego Garcia in the first place. Abrego should have been returned immediately because this is such a ridiculous. He got kidnapped is what they said. They said he got kidnapped and he got disappeared to a concentration camp in a foreign country without due process. It wasn't a close call. Yes, we agree with the rest of the court. That's why this is 9 0. But we shouldn't even been having to rule on this. It's never even got to this level. Popak, breakdown the ruling by the Supreme Court, but also then what the Trump regime did before Judge Zenis, who's the district court judge who the case was originally assigned to, who made the first order saying Abrego goes back, that was appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court. Then, so our viewers and listeners know it, then gets what's called remanded sent back to that judge because the judge was right. And then the judge says, see, I was right. Now do it. Do it. What happened?
- [11:29]
Michael Popak
I'll take it from there. And there's a lot of new activity even as we went on the air today. In the particular case, the judge didn't waste any time, as I only half joked, on a hot take about it. Hell hath no fury like a federal district court judge who's recently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court. She's emboldened, as she should be. This is a judge, Judge Zinnis in Maryland, who was attacked by that same Stephen Miller that you mentioned and Donald Trump himself as being a leftist, a Marxist, an activist, you know, all the ists. She's not, you know what she is. She's an affirmed trial district court judge by the United States Supreme Court. 90 all agreed that the government had confessed, confessed, conceded that he had been illegally removed and sent to El Salvador in violation of an immigration court order from 2019 giving him protection. That was the driver for Judge Zinnis. That's the driver for the United States Supreme Court. It's in the first three lines of the order that you read that then led. So what we have is this is like the Count of Monte Cristo. We've got an innocent man who is sitting rotting in a jail on day 28, now maybe even 29, who should never have been there and violated an order that the, that the government admitted to. Got another problem we're talking about. When I get a little bit further into this. The guy that admitted that it was an illegal act. This guy, this lawyer, is no longer with the Department of Justice. Been put on leave. Mr. Roveni. It looks like his boss may have the same problem in a hearing that he held on Friday based on a new order that just came out. But I digress for a moment. The order comes out. You and I read it, we report on it. It is what it is. It is that everything about what Judge Zinnis wrote, including that she needed to issue the preliminary injunction in order to protect the due process rights of Brego Garcia and to ensure that the Constitution and immigration law were being complied with, which is one of her major jobs as a federal judge, is to administer justice in her courtroom. They agreed with that finding. They agreed with everything about her order, about having the government be ordered to immediately facilitate his return. She just used another word that she used, effectuate. And they suggested the Supreme Court. We're not quite sure what you meant by effectuate. You know, facilitate means you do everything in your power to encourage a third party or a counterpart party or the event to happen. Effectuate means you put it into action. And they were, I think, a little afraid. At least some of the majority was a little bit afraid that that may meant that if the government wasn't able, through facilitation, letter writing, emails, diplomacy, you know, Trump leaning over to Bukele while he's in the White House and telling him to get the guy out, you know, things like that. If that didn't work, they were not okay with the judge ordering SEAL Team six to knock down a wall and take the guy out of an El Salvador in prison. Okay? So the judge fixed it an hour after the ruling came out on Thursday night. Came out at 7pm By 8pm, Judge Zinish issued a new order. She said, because the judge, the. The instructions to her from her bosses at the Supreme Court was, can you fix that word effectuate? And just kind of figure it out. And she says, yeah, I'm gonna make it easy. I'm gonna get rid of it, and I'm gonna get rid of a deadline. Because that seemed to drive everybody crazy too. So she issued an order on Thursday night and said the following. Take out the word effectuate. I'm amending my order as follows. You are to use all necessary steps to facilitate his return, and you are to tell me what those are. You are to report to me Tomorrow morning at 9:30am about what you've done already because you've been sitting on this for two weeks while the guy rots in jail. Tell me already what you've done, which is the Supreme Court has said you have the right to know, Judge, and you need to know what steps have been taken, what steps will be taken and to administer justice. Tell me by 9:30 in the morning what steps you've taken. Instead. At 9:30 in the morning there's a filing and it says we're not going to tell you. We're still figuring things out. The deadline is. You can't set a deadline because didn't you see that part in the order, Judge, where it said that if there's foreign affairs you have to defer to for the executive branch, which is what Stephen Miller crowed about, which is not the heart of the matter. It was just a throwaway line about one word and about deadlines. She said that's not what the order says. So the order doesn't say that I can't set a deadline, I can't administer this case and justice. It just said that the deadline had already passed that I set last week, two weeks ago for his return because of the, the legal process and the stay with that was entered. And I'm not going to deal with touch on their problems with foreign affairs because I'm removing the word so. And it was, she was kind to them in the beginning. She said it was a four page Supreme Court decision. How long is it taking you to evaluate? It wasn't, it was a page and a half. The rest was the statement by Sotomayor and the others. The main heart of it is, is less than, I think it's three and a half paragraphs. So she said, I'll give you, no, I'll give you till 11:30. There is a man rotting in a jail who the government has admitted is illegal, has illegally been deported and removed over violation of another federal court order. So that is not something you don't get to come into court then and say, oh, I got personal time off, your honor, you know, it's the weekend. I got tickets for a wine festival or whatever it is. No. So she said you got till 11:30 and I'll see you at 1:00 in my hearing. 11:30 came and went yesterday and they also, they had time to file the paper saying they weren't going to comply, but they didn't comply. Oh Judge, you're, you're totally unreasonable. You can't set deadlines. That's what the Supreme Court ruling says that's not what the Supreme Court ruling says at all. So she got him into court on, on 1 o'clock and now we got a change in jockeys. Same horse, same dying dead horse for Trump, but a new jockey exit Mr. Roveni, who's been fired for telling the truth. Enter Drew Ensign. Drew Ensign, you may remember, was just busy last week getting excoriated by Judge Boasberg about him lying or the Trump administration not telling the truth about the Alien Enemies Act. He's now he was the boss for a Vetti. He comes in and he starts off because he's been instructed to do it by the Department of Justice effectively not to tell the truth. He comes in not prepared, not being able to answer any questions. She asked a very simple question. Where is Abrego Garcia now in my court. Where? Where is he? What have you done? I don't know. I can't answer it. She didn't like those answers as you would imagine. She said to him and then in, in a just what I'll get to a new order that she just issued late yesterday. She said it appears that the lawyer, this is this Drew Ensign guy, that the administration purposely did not provide him with information so that he couldn't answer my questions in the courtroom. That's a problem. And she's invited the law firm representing Abrego Garcia today to file a motion for contempt. I'll read to you from the order in a minute. And said if you have any other remedies you'd like from me, gentlemen, looking at the plaintiff's lawyers, file them by 5 o'clock or whatever it is later. And then gave the Trump administration till Sunday to respond. She's fired up. She basically told them you are now going based on these non answer answers. And it looks like the Trump administration is sending the Department of Justice lawyer here, who's voluntarily doing it, to lie to me in the courtroom. You are going to give me daily updates at 5 o'clock each day about where he is and what you've done to get him out every day until I tell you to stop. And on Tuesday we're going to have another hearing about and to collect it all. And I'm now I'm looking at the plaintiff's lawyers file whatever you want for a new remedy. That is a judicial signal which I've received before, I'm sure you have to be to file a motion for contempt. And she is going to find them in contempt. Now I looked before we got on the air recording about whether the Trump administration was going to run to the United States Supreme Court and try to get a reconsideration, you know, further instruction, clarifying instructions. So the judge. But they're not going to be able to do that because all the things that they're lying to the American voters about as talking points. We won. You didn't win. Everybody knows you didn't win, including the judge that matters, Judge Sinis. So. And if you read her order, which is what's. Which is now what's. Listen, listen to these observations, Ben, and tell me, and then I want to hear your opinion about how much trouble NIT is in. Defendants made no meaningful effort to comply with my order. Instead, they complained that the order is unreasonable. I asked very straightforward questions. Where is Abrego Garcia right now? What steps had defendant taken to facilitate his return while the court's initial order on injunctive relief was in effect? Defendant's counsel responded that he could not answer these questions. Listen to this, Ben. And at times suggested that defendants, the Trump administration, had withheld such information from him. That's a bad place to be for the government. So she's now ordered the following. Beginning April 12th and continuing each day until I tell you to stop until further order, defendants shall file daily at 5pm A declaration by an individual with personal knowledge regarding the current physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia, what steps they've taken to facilitate his immediate return and what additional steps defendants will take and when to facilitate his return with a follow up in person hearing scheduled for Tuesday. And then she ends it with this. To the extent the plaintiffs seek additional relief. Attention Quinn Emanuel Law Firm. Law firm. Their motion shall be filed on Saturday with a response on Sunday. What do you think happens next, Ben?
- [21:30]
Ben Meiselas
You know, what I would like to see happen is actually a contempt order that has teeth in it. And I think what needs to be figured out, though, is when the Department of Justice is the bad guy and they don't enforce the rules. And as we'll talk about later in the show, they're even attacking the nonpartisan American Bar association, which puts forward the model rules of civility, of procedure, of ethics. They're attacking the American Bar association as a leftist radical regime when we all know that the ABA has right wing people, left wing people, just, you know, it's the aba. It's just an association that puts forward ethics rules. The question becomes what happens after the contempt order with teeth? And can you start to hold some of these lawyers accountable who show up there and lie to the court who, what are the levers of accountability? Where, look, in a normal case, monetary sanctions for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars could be a deterrent. The problem is it's our taxpayer dollars. And guess what, the dollar's crashing, the bond market's crashing. Okay, you pay the money into the federal courts and then it just goes right back into the federal government. So monetary sanctions, which is a normal remedy for something like this, that won't necessarily suffice if you throw somebody in, in jail or you start saying, okay, the contempt procedure is jail. What's preventing the Department of Justice from saying, well, no, or pardoning the person right away? You know, is the federal court going to literally have to use its like bailiffs to house somebody, like in a jail, you know, in the courthouse, which doesn't seem realistic.
- [23:20]
Michael Popak
Or what about a bar license referral?
- [23:22]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah, but that's exactly where I'm going. So the question is, is, you know, bar license referrals, but then also does that basically mean anyone who's remaining at the DOJ who could potentially be somewhat competent, does that just force everybody to leave? Because you're going to, I'm just going to lose my bar license. So it's, it's a tricky remedy. But what I want to talk about Popak, when we get back from our first break though, also as we talk about another announcement by the Trump regime by Pam Bondi that they're dismissing criminal charges against the MS, against the person they alleged to be an Ms. 13 leader from Virginia. The biggest Ms. 13 leader, they said he was just living there, you know, just living his life. And everybody, it was a very suspicious and fishy tale to begin with. The way they framed it and they rolled it out with this propaganda, you know, press event stunt. Now they're dismissing these charges against this so called MS.13 leader who, you know, maybe they don't want to give him due process because maybe he isn't who they say he is. But ultimately, Popak, what's interesting about this case, this Abrego Garcia case and why it's so important is it ties everything together in the fundamental principle of due process. And someone like Abrego Garcia, who was never charged with any type of crimes before not giving him process, disappearing him to El Salvador, everybody would be, they start with Abrego and then they would move on to everybody. We see Donald Trump's executive orders this past week, where he went after Chris Krebs in the Oval Office and Miles Taylor who worked in his first administration. Krebs and cyber security and intelligence. Miles Taylor, who worked with the VP and in Homeland Security, and he ordered and instructed the DOJ to go after them. That's step one. Then they go after everybody and everybody. So this is the fundamental case. Abrego Garcia is undue process. Can anybody be disappeared to foreign concentration camps? And then you just say, oopsies, we don't have jurisdiction. That's why this is such an important case to talk about. We'll talk about this. I want to talk about the MS.13 case. I want to talk about a lot more. We got to take our first quick break of the show. I want to remind everybody, Michael Popak, man, your legal AF YouTube channel is just absolutely crushing right now. It's really doing incredible. It's on its way to 1 million subscribers. Everybody, make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel as soon as you can. Also, Michael Popak, the Popoc law firm that you started after our last episode got so many phone calls and emails and inquiries. So just so everybody knows, if someone that you know was involved in a catastrophic injury, it's horrible situations. But this is where Michael Popox firm and Michael Popox been on the front line. So if someone's been in a catastrophic injury, like a trucking accident, a wrongful death case, an injury, a serious injury where, you know, there's surgeries that are needed, medical malpractice, negligence, sexual assault, sexual harassment types type cases, you reach out to Popox Law firm. They have people who are on the phones right now. The consultation is free. And we got so many requests that people said, hey, I've got this issue, or I got that issue. Well, Popak has the law firm now. He's only handing those real catastrophic injury cases. So, you know, if it's that type of case, go reach out to Popak's firm. Where can they. Where could they reach out? Popac.
- [26:59]
Michael Popak
Yeah. Thanks, Ben. Appreciate you standing on the shoulders of legal AF and the work we do. 1-877-POPAK AF and the website's easy, too. Www the popoc firm.com let's take our.
- [27:14]
Ben Meiselas
First quick break of the I. You can see almost right away. Popak, as soon as you make the announcements, you can almost see in real time. You know, when you monitor the website, people, people showing you see where they're popping up. Cool. All right. We'll be right back after our. It's quick. We'll be right back after our first quick break of the show. We got a lot More to discuss.
- [27:38]
Michael Popak
Four companies control over 80% of the US meat industry and China now controls the largest portion of US pork. And wait till you hear this. Over 80% of the antibiotics in the US are fed to animals. So what can we do about this? Let me tell you about a company that's coming up swinging on behalf of American Family Farms and your family's food security. Moink. The business is simple. Moink's meat comes from animals raised outdoors, where a pig is free to be a pig. Their farmers are given an honest day's pay for an honest day's work and they deliver meat straight to your doorstep at prices you can actually afford. Support American Family Farms and join the Moink movement today@moinkbox.com legalaf right now and get Free Wings for Life. They're the best wings you'll ever taste for free, but for a limited time. Spelled M O I n k box.com legalif that's moinking box.com legalaf as a kid I loved eating cereal, but as an adult I don't want all that sugar and most cereals don't give me the protein I need. Then I found Magic Spoon, a nostalgically delicious cereal that tastes just like my childhood favorites, but without the sugar and with a ton of protein. And if you're already a Magic Spoon fan, I've got big news. Magic Spoon has turned their super popular cereal into high protein treats that are light, crispy and taste just like those classic crunchy cereal bars. Magic Spoon's brand new treats are so delicious and have already become my favorite before or after gym snack. Magic Spoon has literally changed the way we view our pantry in my family. Now when my wife and I are looking for a quick high protein snack that makes us instantly nostalgic with that warm and fuzzy comfort food feeling, we reach for Magic Spoon's new cereal bars. Every serving of Magic spoon cereal has 13 grams of protein, 0 grams of sugar and 4 grams of net carbs so you can feel good about what you're eating. The most popular flavors are fruity and cocoa, and there's so many more. Magic Spoon's brand new treats are crispy, crunchy, airy and an easy way to get 12 grams of protein on the go. And for the first time ever, Magic Spoon treats are available in grocery stores with delicious flavors like marshmallow and chocolatey peanut butter. Magic Spoon treats have replaced all my other bars. Just the right balance of delicious flavor, great mouthfeel and texture. And the best part? They are high in protein and low in carbs. Don't tell my wife. But after a long day of Legal AF video recording and research, Magic Spoon has become my occasional midnight snack treat. Honey, we're out of Magic Spoon again. Common refrain in my household. Get $5 off your next order at magicspoon.com legal af or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com legalif for $5 off Magic Spoon. Hold on to the dream.
- [30:49]
Ben Meiselas
Welcome back to Legal af. Thank you to those pro democracy sponsors right there. This show is not possible without all of those pro democracy sponsors. Jordy spends a long time negotiating the discounts for those pro democracy sponsors. So the discount codes are in the description below. Two clips I want to share with you. Actually three clips. Popak and then I'll, I'll set the stage right here for a few things. First, Caroline Levitt earlier this week being asked by a reporter about whether these deportees who are being kidnapped and disappeared to El Salvador should be entitled to due process. Trump's chief propagandist, his press secretary, Caroline Levitt, says that's not what the Supreme Court actually said. They never said that they were entitled to due process. She goes, but they were entitled to a habeas, which is a form of the due, which is due process, that they have the right to have a habeas petition here. Or play this clip.
- [31:49]
Michael Popak
With regards to the Supreme Court ruling.
- [31:51]
Ben Meiselas
On the Alien Enemies act, you're right.
- [31:53]
Michael Popak
It was a win for the administration.
- [31:55]
Ben Meiselas
But the justices also said that deportees.
- [31:58]
Michael Popak
Are entitled to due process.
- [31:59]
Ben Meiselas
Does the administration agree with that?
- [32:01]
C
That's not quite true. Game. They said they are entitled to a petition, habeas petition. And we are going to continue to comply with the law. And we are wholly confident that every single person that has been deported under the Alien Enemies act, every person that will continue to be deported under the Alien Enemies act qualifies for that deportation.
- [32:21]
Ben Meiselas
Well, federal courts have been asserting their jurisdiction and been requiring due process after the Judge Boasberg ruling in the district court, what the Supreme Court ruled in the Boasberg case and the Trump administration tried to frame. This is where I think Legal AF so important popoc is. They try to act like not just not in the most recent Supreme Court 9 to 0 ruling, but in the case involving Boasberg, they tried to act like that was a big win. The judge said we could use these war powers. But as you and I were analyzing it, yeah, it did say that they weren't going to really get to saying that you couldn't invoke the war powers, even if there was no real war, the Supreme Court didn't say we have real jurisdiction over that, but they did require these habeas petitions to be filed. And now even Trump appointed judges, like in Texas, when you take together the Abrego Garcia ruling, the Supreme Court's other ruling, even Trump appointed judges are like, you're not going to disappear people in my jurisdiction without at least giving them a hearing. There's going to be a hearing.
- [33:19]
Michael Popak
And to respond to Professor Levitt, our press secretary on due process, Habeas corpus is a level of due process. It's just an individual right of a person who's been incarcerated or removed or whatever. And the Supreme Court did say that at the habeas corpus level, you can raise challenges to the exercise of the Alien Enemies act by the president. It just needs to be decided by thousands of federal judges until it reaches levels of appellate court and then the Supreme Court. So one day. That's why there's been a lot of analysis that what the Supreme Court has been doing is trying to avoid the direct confrontation with the executive branch by making rulings like, well, due process. But hey, bs, we'll see you in two years. Well, interesting case, but you don't seem to have standing. I'm sure we'll get a party with standing to bring the case, but for right now, dismissed. You know, just finding ways, technicalities which don't go to the heart of the matter or the substance of the matter in order to give Donald Trump a cheap win. The problem with that is the Trump administration, as you see, then distorts reality through their rapid response team or Stephen Miller or Alina Habbo or this one, the press secretary, and says, it's a win, we gotta win. It's not a win and it won't ultimately maybe be a win. We'll have to see next term in the Supreme Court when these things come back around after properly being now in the habeas corpus arena. Litigated. But that's where you can challenge the fake use of the Alien Enemies Act. But it's got to be prisoner by prisoner, one by one, not this class action thing or national injunction thing. And they're not even consistent with due process. I mean, you did a great interview of my home state Governor Murphy. I happen to live right across the. When I lived in Jersey, I lived right across the water from him. I used to see his helicopters when he had a party at his house in Monmouth County. I used to see the helicopters come across the water to his house. And Alina Habo, you know, of course went on television and attacked him and her eyes lit up when she got to the words in her script, whatever, whoever wrote it for, about due process. Like they're standing in the way as a sanctuary state and we're going to prosecute potentially Governor Murphy, because we gave these people due process. I'm like, here we go now. They finally figured out what due process is, so now they're going to be claiming they used it all the time. Was it due process when Pam Bondi stood before a bank of cameras and microphones and went after this poor guy and said he was Ms. 13 in order to make a cheap political point and then two weeks later had to dismiss the case against him? Was that due process? There's many, many ways to violate due process. You and I are eventually going to touch on the raids of the LA schools that happened and where they sent in ICE and Department of Homeland Security gun toting, badge wearing people to go and do a quote unquote fake welfare check on a couple of fifth and sixth graders without their parents present in order to find out if they were illegal or not. And so this is the world that we live in now. I don't know if you caught it, Ben. On some reporting, there's a lawyer representing a document and other people in immigration matters and the Department of Homeland Security tried to pick up his cell phone, a lawyer pick up his device to take a look at it. There's no respect for the rule of law. That's why these federal courts are so important.
- [36:45]
Ben Meiselas
So here's what I want to show you. I want to show you shot chaser right now. The shot I want to show you is Pam Bondi's press conference from a few weeks back where she said, we got a mission accomplished. The biggest MS.13 leader, Henry Santos from Virginia. This guy was just residing there.
- [37:06]
Michael Popak
I didn't miss them.
- [37:09]
Ben Meiselas
We got him and he was just, you know, living in his home and going to work, but he's actually Ms. 13. Here, play this clip. We have federal officials, state officials and local officials all sent to bring us the latest details.
- [37:19]
C
Let's listen here. We have been out since about 4:30 this morning. The great men and women of law enforcement have been working on this operation for days and days and probably weeks. This morning, early this morning, one of the top leaders of Ms. 13 was apprehended. He was the leader for the east coast, one of the top three in the entire country, right here in Virginia, living half an hour Outside of Washington D.C. he is an illegal alien from El Salvador and he will not be living in our country much longer. He's in custody this morning. One of the top leaders right here near our nation's capital. I just cannot thank Governor Youngkin enough for his leadership in this effort. This has been a joint effort with state and local agencies.
- [38:23]
Ben Meiselas
Well if this individual was who they say he is also, and he was in Virginia and he was right there, one of the things you have to ask yourself is Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia. There would be normally joint task force all the time between state and federal officials working very closely together because local law enforcement would be involved. So, so it's a bit of a self own on Glenn Youngkin. If he's new about that, then just let that take place. And so just if you accept that premise as true, Glenn Youngkin then would have known that the top leader of MS.13 was there. He would have asked Biden, hey can we go get this guy and Biden, if you believe their fictional their story then no, we're not going to go after this Ms. 13. And then Glenn Youngkin was part of a massive cover up the MAGA Republican governor to hide the MS.13 person in his state.
- [39:18]
Michael Popak
So even the or Glenn Youngkin is running as a governor of sanctuary state.
- [39:23]
Ben Meiselas
So even if you accept the premise of it. But then here's the New York Post headline from this end of last week. DOJ moves to drop the charges against the top MS.13 leader who was busted in major Virginia operation. They don't even go purported they go that he is the leader. And then as Matthew Torres writes, despite being called one of the top three Ms. 13 leaders by top Trump administration officials, federal prosecutors dismissed the charges against this individual. And Fox played a major part in promoting the arrest and the press conference. So then on Fox they asked Trump's propagandist Caroline Levitt, here's the chaser to the shot chaser. So why, why are you doing that? Like if he's the top ms.13 leader, why would you dismiss it? Don't you want to go through our law enforcement and find out like who else this individual's been talking to and, and go through the investigative process here.
- [40:25]
C
Play this clip, try to get some clarity on it. Caroline, because you know, if indeed he is what we were told he is, the east coast leader of Ms. 13, wouldn't it make sense to prosecute him for crimes related to that? I know he was held on a gun charge, but to make sure that any victims of Ms. 13, through his leadership, get their day in court here in the United States and then send him to an El Salvador in prison if he is deported and found guilty on those crimes. Well, again, this administration is doing things differently, Martha. And this president has made a directive to his agencies, particularly the department of homeland Security, to remove foreign terrorists from America's homeland to protect American citizens. And we have an incredible diplomatic relationship with the president of El Salvador and his government who have been detaining these Ms. 13 ringleaders and violent gang members in their prisons. And American taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for that cost. And so, again, the bottom line here said that the alien act could be used to remove people, but they had to due process first. I'm only pressing on this because it was a huge story and we covered it. Obviously, it would feel like that person could lead to a lot of other evidence. The DOJ would be pressing to see this in court so that other people could be exposed. And suddenly none of that's happening.
- [41:45]
Ben Meiselas
So now, here's the thing, Popak. I don't know if this guy is or isn't Ms. 13 is or isn't a leader. I don't know. What I do know is they've lied about Abrego Garcia, who's not that individual. They've lied about 75% of the people who are in that El Salvador concentration camp. We saw the 60 Minutes report, people who don't have criminal backgrounds. And what I do know, though, is that if he was the MS.13 gang leader, I'd want to see him brought to justice in the full force of the law. We need evidence, though, right? We need. Do we need process? That's the way we need our. Our system deals with these issues through something called due process. Popak.
- [42:30]
Michael Popak
Yeah, that. That is what. Just to be clear to everybody that we're not here advocating for the guilt or innocence of any one particular person. We're here advocating for the protection of our rule of law and our due process. Because we here on Midas touch and on Legal af want to live in an America one we can't recognize as it's being run by Donald Trump and his bootlickers. We want to live in an America where we can be proud of the American flag because of the things that it stands for. And we have always. Except when Trump was in the driver's seat, we have always made sure that first amendment rights are protected, even if we don't like what's coming out and being spewed by the person speaking it and that due process rights are protected, that you get your day in court. You get, we have an adversarial system with a person in a black robe. Evidence is presented. And if the person is guilty and the government is held to their proof, then that person can be deported or jailed or receive some other sanction. And I sleep better at night. I add knowing at least that First Amendment and rule of law were being protected by all presidents, regardless of their political stripe until we reached our first felon in chief. And when you watch that clip, and I love your the back and forth between the two of them, I mean, look, let's be frank. This is when you put up Carolyn Levette, our press secretary, next to the Fox News host. I don't even know who's who. I had to double check the names underneath to see who was the Fox News host and who was the press secretary. And I mean that not just visually. I just mean in terms when you have Fox interrogating the press secretary who's not getting, she doesn't, she's got her talking point. So she doesn't want to respond. So it's not a softball that she's missing. She doesn't want to see the softball. So she's just, well, we got to go back to the Alien Enemies Act. We got. Yes, yes. But Fox News has to be the one to say, what about due process? I thought we needed due process in order to do that. If you had the proof, wouldn't it be better for the Department of Justice to do that in a public way than to do what you've done? And you and I only have joke coming out of the air today, like, where's the press conference? Repam Bondi apologized to this guy or apologized to America for having her phony political rally two weeks ago. We did it. Like you said, mission accomplished. We got him living right, right in the shadow of Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe. We got him. The MS.13 leader right here in Virginia. We were all like, really? Guy was just living there in Virginia? That seems odd, seems staged. You know, it turns out that it was completely. But it goes to a deeper point that you and I have been making for the last five years, which is that we're not here bashing the Trump administration. The end of one and the beginning of another, which has overlapped our five years because we are supporting criminality in our society or are defunding the police or defunding the courts or that's not where legal AF lives. Where we live is where our AUDIENCE lives which is that we're for justice and we're for due process. And if you prove to me and to a jury or a judge that this person is as bad as you say, I'll be there at the airport to send them off or at the jail. But give me process or give me death. And that's what we're worried about, about the rule of law. As you mentioned about our legal AF YouTube channel, we just had the great fortune to have Jamie Raskin come on with Alex Aronson from Court Accountability and me, Court Accountability Action and me. And we did a great interview. It's up there right now. And that's all Jamie talks about. I mean, I half joke that, you know, he's the superman for the Democratic Party. They call him to the rescue because he alone among a lot of different lawyers that serve in Congress, he alone has this intellectual gravitas and half about the Constitution and about the rule of law. And plus he helps us with the appropriate pugilistic vocabulary. And we do that here as well. You call it elbows up for the Gordie Howe line from Canada, different things with your Midas maple and all that. But that's what we need to do. We need to change the vocabulary, he says. I'll leave my comment on this. Jamie Raskin says it's not a constitutional crisis, it's a maga full frontal assault on the Constitution institution. Let's call it what it is. Then we know what the enemy is so that we can fight back.
- [47:07]
Ben Meiselas
You all remember on that or you can go back and hit rewind on that. First Caroline Levitt press conference, you will see that the market was rising at that time on a day where based on a lot of the factors, you would not think that the market would be rising. A few hours after that press conference, then there was the announcement that hit, I believe that Trump was pausing the tariffs on the rest of the world and then the markets exploded that day, only to decrease the next day. So one of the main questions that we're asking and Popak, who's been a Wall street lawyer before becoming a legal afer and a lawyer in different fields, and he's got background on looking at these issues. I mean, the behavior here seems to at least have the indicia of market manipulation and inside trading. I want to talk about that. And even today, as we're recording right now, and it was announced today that there was going to be exemptions on iPhones and other electronics and semiconductors from the 145% tariffs against China, which Trump said at the end of last week was not the case. And all of the Trump propaganda said, nope, the tariffs apply to all of those things. And then over the weekend after the markets closed, we now are getting different, if you want to call it guidance. What you're also seeing is all of these options that were purchased on Friday for these semiconductor companies and Apple and others that seem to again, have all of the indicia that there's an inside group of oligarchs and people who know when these moves are happening and when the markets are tanking and it's impacting regular folk, people with 529 accounts, pensions, 401ks, people whose life savings is tied in some ways to the market. People don't have the luxury, not day traders. They're not going, you know, they're not dealing with this stuff and they're getting screwed over by the and traumatized. And it seems that, yes, there's incompetence by Trump. Yes, he's an idiot, yes, there's all of this. But there also seems to be an aspect of this that's focused on market manipulation. It appears, you know, it's my opinion it's an appearance. And we'll go through the data. When we come back from our next break, we'll talk about the attack on the aba and quickly, we'll talk about the update in the North Carolina Supreme Court. But let's take our last quick break of the show. Before doing that, let me just remind everybody About Michael Popox YouTube channel, the legal AF YouTube channel. It's doing incredible right now. It's on its way to 1 million subscribers. I'd love to see it hit 1 million soon. Over 100 million views in a very short period of time. Subscribe to The League Life YouTube channel. Tell your friends, family, co workers, everybody about that is more important now than ever. Also, as I mentioned before, and already you've gotten a lot of inquiries today. If you or someone you know have been in a catastrophic injury and you want a free consultation, whether you have a lawsuit, a case against an entity or someone based on your situation, it could be a medical malpractice case, a negligence case, car accident case, trucking case. Case like that requires surgeries, wrongful death cases. Reach out to Popak's law firm, Popoc. Where do they go?
- [50:39]
Michael Popak
Yeah, and by the way, on that, you know, I had a national practice before I formed this new firm to focus on catastrophic injuries where I could be of help. But we're already getting clients and contacts from 40 out of the 50 states. It's very, it's been very rewarding for me to be involved with this and people can reach out to me and my firm for that type of injury type case at two places. It's the 800 number 1877 Popoc AF what else? And then and then the website is the POPOC firm P like the P O P O K firm f I r m.com and both. They'll all lead you to the right place for the free consultation.
- [51:25]
Ben Meiselas
We'll be right back after our last quick break of the show.
- [51:28]
Michael Popak
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- [54:35]
Ben Meiselas
Welcome back to Legal af. Michael Popak who knew what, when, where, why? Let's break down what that insider trading case or market manipulation case could look like. We know that at 9:07am in the morning where Donald Trump said that he was pausing those tariffs against some of the world, Donald Trump posted now is a good first. He posted be cool and then he said now is a good time to buy. It's a very just strange thing for a President to say at all like this. The President should not put his finger on the thumb of the markets at like just as a general principle, regardless of the scenario at all ups and downs the market should be the market, it should be left alone and it should be focused on what the in theory a rational market views, not what an irrational psychopath is doing on the market. While then about what, three hours later Donald Trump announces that he is pausing tariffs that causes the markets to shoot up rather quickly. One of the things that we saw right before this announcement was made at about 1pm is a lot of strange activity took place in the markets on these exchange traded funds that are tied to different indexes, the Dow and the S and P and the nasdaq. They start seeing unusual activity and you can almost even see on the graph of the of the market going up like an odd blip right before the announcement is made, like a surge that would not be tied to any kind of rational market data. So the question is, you know, who knew what when there and then you had Jameson Greer, the United States Trade Representative who was literally in a in a back to back hearings in the Senate and the House and He was being asked, he was being grilled and being asked questions by like Steve Horsford and other and other Democrats. And the Republicans weren't anywhere in the room. They were just basically saying to him, you know, this was the plan. So are you saying that this is what the plan? The plan was to crash the markets only to then tell people that, you know, that was part of the plan and now this was our trade strategy. When you said that tariffs are great and tariffs are going to make us rich, then you paused it. That was what your plan was. So popak you, you, you know this area of law, you've seen it, investigated it, it has. Look, I want to be clear that it's in an investigative stage. We're not saying that. It definitely is just saying that as people with experience in this area, it has the indicia of it because all.
- [57:25]
Michael Popak
The badges of fraud, insider insider trading. You've got the President, it was 9:37am he posts a weird thing only to his truth social paid subscriber base using for the first time. Really if you go back and look, first time he's ever signed off with his stock trading symbol djt, he doesn't write that. So it was already like a wink nodded, you know, sting, the sting was on and we were like, oh, here we go now. Three days before that, either because it leaked out that he was going to do this, I don't think that's the case. Or because Donald Trump watched fake news and decided to make it real news. Three days earlier, the day after Liberation Day, on the Thursday, there was a fake rumor that went around that Donald Trump was going to do exactly this. The 90 day pause. Where did the 90 day pause come from? Came from the fevered mind of Bill Ackman, who runs a company called Pershing Square, who had supported, who jumped off the Democratic train and jumped over to Trump after the, I don't know, Butler, Pennsylvania bullet whizzed by and he decided there's 33 reasons he's not voting for Kamala Harris. And then the market crashed with the Liberation Day and Bill Ackman at Pershing Square controlling billions and billions of dollars, you know, said this is going to be nuclear winter. And then he and Jamie Dimon got on a phone call, apparently with Donald Trump in the middle. Thank God this guy watched. I'm talking about Trump watches television because that's how he forms policy off the backside of his pants, off the seat of his pants. Apparently after Liberation Day went terribly awry and $7 trillion worth of stock Value was shed and the economy, what's the word I'm grasping for? Shit the bed. He was watching Maria Bartiromo and she happened to have Jamie Dimond on, who had already told his investors and clients, get ready for the recession caused by Donald Trump, who took a bull market and converted it to a bear market at a White House press conference. Well, he didn't like that Trump and that and a phone call. He decides to do it now. Three days earlier, he watched as the market ran up on a fake rumor that his rapid response team killed, by the way, and said fake news, no 90 day tariff pause. Oh really? By the closing bell it went back down. But he saw he could manipulate the market with an announcement about tariffs and a pause. So five days later, 9:37 by 1:00, while Jameson Greer is giving testimony to an oversight committee on Congress, they announce, and it's a phony announcement. You put up this whole, I read most of it, this whole social media posting because of China and China and had nothing to do with China. The post, it had had to do with him getting his ass kicked by the market and the, and the economy which has not recovered, note, has not recovered any way, shape or form because of the momentary one day surge that everybody made money on around the Trump administration apparently did not recover, nor has trade recovered globally at all. But he got his ass kicked, took a phone call or two from Jamie Dimon and Bill Ackman and then announced his new policy. That's how erratic our president is, who's basically criminally insane when it comes to financial markets. And now it's exposed to the entire world that Donald Trump's just as we knew before, just completely erratic, has no economic foundational principles supporting his economic policies at all. It's all done on a whim. It's all done on whoever talks to him last. And so now people having seen that the emperor has no clothes, have to account for that. So they're not thinking, oh, we're out of the woods, 90 day delay. They're thinking we got 90 days to kind of get out from under the United States. And they are adjusting worldwide global trade to avoid the United States and to suppress global trade overall. And that is the little sticky little thing called a fact that the Trump administration never wants to acknowledge, which is we're going to get $4 trillion over 10 years, Peter Navarro says, because we're just see the current amount of trade come and then times it by this and then divide it by 10 and that'll match our tax Cuts. No, because you've left out that trade will diminish to avoid the tariff lowering the recovery because of people planning around it. That's 1, 2. The numbers they're using are all fakacta because they bake in the tariff that's in it. So they're like, we have this X amount of trade. Yeah, but that includes the tariffs that are already there. So you have to back them out. And when you're done, you don't get anywhere near, even on a, you hit a three, you know, grand slam home runs in a row, which they're not going to do. You're not going to get anywhere near the revenue collection that they claim in order to offset this tax cut for the wealthy while we have trillions of dollars of debt. The only silver lining here is, is for the Democrats, is that Trump's policies will hasten his demise at the polls at midterms. Because regardless of what the Trump administration tells itself, that he got elected because of transgender athletes, or he got, or what bathroom they use, or he got elected because of immigration at the border, that's not why he got elected. While he got elected is the same reason people get elected for the last hundred years and even before that. It's the economy, stupid. And he's wrecked. The only thing he had going for him is that people thought he would take the platform of a growing Biden economy and make it better and make inflation lower. And he's killed both of those principles. We just have to make sure that the voters don't have amnesia a year and three quarters from now, and they vote with their purses and pocketbooks to punish Donald Trump for what he's done.
- [63:50]
Ben Meiselas
You know, under former President Biden, the GDP was growing faster than anywhere in the world. Just an objective fact. We were energy independent, producing the most oil in the world. That was an objective fact. While caring about climate change. That's an objective fact. 16.2 million jobs were created. That's an objective fact. Record low unemployment, 40,000 infrastructure projects, and the markets were growing somewhere between 40 to 55% over the course of the Biden term. All objective facts. And you would have thought that he ushered in what we're seeing now based on the headlines, and everybody was saying there's still 100% chance of recession when Biden was doing his thing and actually fixing things and doing things right. I'll just, I'll say this. And it's so obvious. If Biden did any of this that was happening right now, he would not only be impeached he would be imprisoned right now. He would no longer be the president. The fact that we baby Donald Trump and act like, oh, but then he did this, then he did this, then.
- [64:51]
Michael Popak
He goes back to golf. Oh, did he make poopy in his diaper today?
- [64:56]
Ben Meiselas
You know, this is an adult. What are we talking. This is supposed to be the leader of a country. Like, what the hell are we talking about? You've got Prime Minister Carney, a brilliant freaking banker, playing four dimensional chess of the bond markets with Europe and Asia. And you've got Donald Trump going on Air Force One yesterday going, oh, God, I took a cognitive test. Cognitive test, everybody. And then we're like, what are we talking about? This guy is an idiot. He's dangerous. And the things that he's done already with his Liberation Day are impeachable. They're dumb. He's an idiot. It's dangerous. And then he goes in the Oval Office with these billionaires, you know, and then he's like, I made you rich today and you got the $2.5 billion today on, you know, on the day where Trump said bye, bye, bye. All of this is ridiculous stuff. You know, I spoke with a journalist who's writing a story about the Midas Touch network, a very prominent international journalist. He's like, you call it the regime, you know. You know, no other media refers to it as a regime. You might the network. I might as Touch.
- [66:02]
Michael Popak
I go, what? What else?
- [66:03]
Ben Meiselas
That goes. If it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's a duck. This is a North Korea style, stupider than North Korea style authoritarian regime here that has the corruption and the kleptocracy all combined. I'll just say this quickly. Shame on. I think we have a shameless the coward firms. Let me just do a quick shame on these firms. Kirkland, Ellis, Ellis, Latham Watkins, Scadden, Arp, Simpson, Thatcher, Paul Weiss, Milbank, Wilkie Farr, Sherman Caldwald, or these are big law firms that submitted to Donald Trump agreeing to do pro bono legal services for him. The tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, close to a billion dollars in the aggregate. These are law firms. I don't know how you go to law school and then make this how you practice law. Shame on these firms. Shame on the associates who work for them. Shame on the partners who work for them. They will have a real shitty place in history in the opposite of a pantheon of legal. I truly hope when we get past this error, we don't forget about these freaking cowards there's not. It roils my blood, if that's even a term riles my blood. These, you know, these, these law firm, you know, you know, this, this, this crew right here, the hero law firms, Wilmer, Hale, Perkins, Coy, Sussman, Godfrey, Jenner and Block, Shout out, you know, who have filed the lawsuits against.
- [67:28]
Michael Popak
The big difference there, just leave that up for a minute. The big and the numbers next to it are the American Lawyer ranking. American law does the 200 top 200 rankings there. I worked at number five, it was number one when I was there. Number five SCAD NORPs. The difference is the transactional law firms that have a heavy corporate practice and rely on hedge fund representation, private equity representation and other transactional and regulatory type practice and make a shitload of money, a shedload of money doing that. They bent the knee and cut the deal. Art of the deal. The ones that are litigate or led by litigators. I mean I was a litigator at Scadden, but frankly the litigators were not that respected as the transactional lawyers because you know, it's, it's whoever brings in the most money type of firm and the transactional lawyers, you know, some of those transactional lawyers have books of business of 30, 40, $50 million alone for one lawyer. So they held sway and they were like, cut the deal, we can't go out of business. And frankly, transactional people aren't going to care. The deal people are not going to care whether Scatton cut the deal or not. If you're looking for a law firm to litigate, I would not go to one of those firms. Right, because you know, look how they handled their own matters. But the big dividing line is the same dividing line you and I had coming out of law school. You're either a transactional lawyer or you're a litigator. And you and I are litigators. And the firms that are fighting are litigators. And by the way, they're winning. They're getting their injunctions and First Amendment protections from federal courts. It's not that the Paul Weiss's of the world didn't think they were going to win. It's just that they wanted to move on with their business, not wreck their profits per partner and sign the deal. That's it. And look, look Ben, how the numbers, Paul Weiss looks like a genius in the coward category because they got away with only 40 million as the first one in. They got the benefit. Now the going rate is $125 million worth of free legal service. But as you joked before we came on. Tell, tell, tell your observation about how Trump's going to use these lawyers for his policy because he's lacking lawyers because.
- [69:41]
Ben Meiselas
The Justice Department is now gutted and Trump hired all these people or people have left. He doesn't even have the resources or the wherewithal of lawyers with an intellectual capacity to who can actually do the law. So he now needs to use these law firms. And it's part of his plan because the brain drain of people away from his regime. Now he's trying to capture law firms that hire people from the top law schools and pay him a lot of money to do free legal work. Because we all saw that Pam Bondi press conference right there, right? Like, you know, he didn't go to.
- [70:19]
Michael Popak
The top law school.
- [70:21]
Ben Meiselas
We all watch that, right? I mean, you know that she's like, she's a Fox host more than anything, you know, and, and, and it's a regime of Fox hosts. And, you know, and that's why I call the Fox state regime media. It's an art. It's all inextricably intertwined. It's very authoritarian, you know, and just look at this. I mean, Justice Department expands retribution campaign to the American Bar association. And they're saying that no Department of Justice lawyer shall ever talk at the aba. They're never going to support ABA events. They view the ABA as activists and leftists. And they're going at the American Bar Association. You're saying it's a uniquely Trumpian period where the American Bar association is being viewed as a radical leftist organization. How about the association Practical Rules, the Model Bar Rules.
- [71:15]
Michael Popak
But the Associated Press is a weaponized style book because they won't call it the Gulf of America Gold.
- [71:22]
Ben Meiselas
They, they won't. Gulf of America, ABA this, Liberation Day. You know, it's my rant before when I was saying, come on, come on.
- [71:32]
Michael Popak
Yes.
- [71:32]
Ben Meiselas
What I was telling the, the foreign reporter who I spoke to, I said, guy, I said, look at this, look at, look at this regime. Like they're, they are North Korea style corruption. It's biz. It's weirder, I guess, Honestly, it's. We, it's weirder than Kim Jong Un and it's the United States and it's why the dollar's crashing, by the way, you know. Sure. Popa. Will Donald Trump say, well, I'm doing exemptions here? Well, the markets go up. Yeah, well, the markets go down. Yeah, up, down, up, down. Overall, the damage has been done. It's done. So what, what, what it is now is there's already been a tsunami that's prematurely hit. Like a premature tsunami that people weren't expecting. Because normally when the tsunami hits, the shore rolls out, pulls out. Yeah, it recedes.
- [72:27]
Michael Popak
It pulls out.
- [72:28]
Ben Meiselas
And then you're like, okay, it's well one already hit and it's pulling out. And you see that in the 10 year and 30 year yield to who's buying an American treasury bond right now. In this craziness, when you don't know what Trump's going to do, how do.
- [72:45]
Michael Popak
I ask you a question? I have a question for you as a network owner, an independent network owner. Everything we're talking about now on April 12th is well in advance of the midterms. It's not going to get any better for Donald Trump because he's not going to grow a brain nor is he gonna surround himself with the best and the brightest. This is it, man. This, you know, this. You gotta dance with the girl you bring to the dance. This is the girl you bring to the dance if you're somebody who voted for him. So it'll go about this way from now until. But how do we sear into the collective consciousness and get voters who stayed home for Kamala Harris, millions of them that were not motivated enough and what I say sat out democracy. How do we, how do the Democrats, how do those fair minded people use what's happening now in order to ensure a certain defeat for Trump and the Republicans in less than two years?
- [73:49]
Ben Meiselas
You know, look, my view of it is the guy who was brought to the dance, Trump, it's a big problem and Americans are seeing it now. But I think you can't get complacent. I was asked by the reporter to a similar question, what do you think if you had a predict? I said, I'm not in the prediction game. I said I'm in the bold action currently game of every day the resistance and opposition has to grow. It's why when people tuned off, that's when we turn turned on more at the Midas Touch network. We worked harder during those days because we knew that the movement wasn't going to, it has to start somewhere and you can't just look over and hope it's going to be somebody else, you know. And so my bigger thought in building this network as a network owner, you know, is I got to make sure that we're uniting the pro democracy community internationally here and we've got to educate people. Popo 60% of Americans have below a sixth grade education that's really part of the problem too, is that it's susceptible to manipulation and propaganda that you see from Fox and then other corporate news either over intellectualizes the issues or they both sides the issues and normalize the behavior. And then you have a straight up propaganda network. So the information that's being consumed by Americans and 60% of who have below a sixth grade education is bad data. They're not getting data, they're not getting info, they're not getting the truth. And even through the chaos that we see now for them, because they went four years in a Biden cycle where everything was a controversy that really wasn't right because that's what the media was doing. And even now the media wants to talk about Biden. You look at a lot of these things. Well, Biden was old. They covered up his cognitive decline. I interviewed the guy, he was an older guy, but things were working okay. It's not a shocker that he was in his 80s. He's in his 80s, okay? We expected someone in their 80s to be like in their 50s. And I'm gonna be in. These are gonna be like someone who's in their 80s. News flash.
- [76:07]
Michael Popak
But wait till I'm doing the show in my.
- [76:09]
Ben Meiselas
Wait till I'm doing the show in my 80s, okay?
- [76:12]
Michael Popak
But.
- [76:12]
Ben Meiselas
But we didn't have Liberation Day and we didn't have any of it. Our alliances were stronger and things were better and things were normal and we had real experts around him and he did everything the way you expect him to do. So, Pop, that's, to me, the challenge, and that's the challenge that we're going to meet. We got to give people accurate data and accurate info every single day. I want to just close with this because we got to give people a quick update on North Carolina and the North Carolina Supreme Court race. A Supreme Court decision in the Supreme Court race. So you all know the situation there. There's a. We've been talking about it. I interviewed Justice Alison Riggs before. There's a race from November where Justice Allison Riggs beat Jefferson Griffin, the MAGA candidate. Riggs, the Democratic candidate, she won. There was a recount. She won another recount. She won by 734 votes even after winning two recounts. Then Jefferson Griffin said, nope, the way they're being counted was. Was incorrect. And he targeted Democratic areas too. He goes, there's 61,000 voters who filled out faulty voter registrations. And then there's 5,500 overseas and military absentee voters from. And he picked four Democratic leaning counties who didn't provide photo identification with their ballots. So we need to get rid of all of those votes. Even though the recounts showed that Alison Riggs, the current Supreme Court justice who was running for the seat, won. So the court of appeals in North Carolina cited in all with just with Jefferson Griffin. Jefferson Griffin is a court of appeals judge. So the court of appeals sided with their guy, Jefferson Griffin. And then it went up to the Supreme Court in North Carolina. The Supreme Court gave kind of a mixed ruling where they said the 61,000 voters who filled out the faulty voter registration as that's how it was framed by Jefferson Griffin. I don't want to buy his framing. They said those votes count. The 5,500 overseas military absentee voters from the four Democratic leaning counties who didn't provide photo ID as alleged. They need to confirm their identities right now. So those 5,500 votes are thrown out until they confirm and cure their ballots, basically. So that's where we are. She's up by 734. There's 5,500 overseas votes that are now going to be canceled in four Democratic leaning counties, which would tip the election in favor of Jefferson Griffin, most likely, unless all those 5,500 people are enough that keeps the 735 lead switch their vote. I mean, confirm that they voted. You know, so now in a short period of time, they're going to have to cure their ballots and be reached out to in those specific counties. Allison Riggs, she's going to appeal to this to a federal court right now. And she's seeking relief in federal courts over. Over the elections because it's a violation of federal law. So that's where we're headed. I had around.
- [79:11]
Michael Popak
Let me do one comment on that. What I found fascinating was that's an entirely Republican Supreme Court. The two that were in dissent, I thought. Oh, two dissented. They wanted to. They wanted to throw out the ballots. No, the two that were in dissent wanted all the ballots, including the military's ballots, to be included. And this is from. This is a quote from a dissent of a Republican in North Carolina. It's no small. This is Justice Earl's. It's no small thing to overturn the results of an election in a democracy by throwing out ballots that were legally cast consistent with all election laws in effect the day of the election. Some would call it stealing the election. Others might call it a bloodless coup. But by whatever name, no amount of smoke and mirrors makes it legitimate. And so look, let's hope that that Riggs, who's the daughter of a 30 year military veteran, is able to succeed at the federal court, maybe at the Supreme Court level, if necessary, to get those that, that are willing to give the ultimate sacrifice, give them their vote. This is about a photo ID being attached to a vote. We're supposed to, we are supposed to make sure that if we understand the voter's intention, we're not supposed to disenfranchise them and throw their vote into the trash and reward a. I mean, that justice should be ashamed of himself that he's trying to steal. In order to win, he's got to steal the votes of veterans. In a state like North Carolina, which has a fair percentage of veterans and military bases, that is a recipe for future disaster. I believe that Riggs735 may still hold and at the very least she's doing the right thing to fight for military's right to vote.
- [80:58]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah, absolutely. And he targeted just the Democratic counties and only this race. So they're saying all the votes counted in the Trump race and other congressional races, but just in this one specific race in Democratic counties only, not Republican counties. They're not ordering, you know, look, if you were to say, well, okay then do the recount of all military people everywhere, you know, in Republican. No, no, no, they targeted the three or four Democratic counties, you know, which to me is ridiculous.
- [81:33]
Michael Popak
It wasn't even the voter's fault. It was the Board of Elections for how they enforced the new rule on photo id. I mean, you should never disenfranchise. That's what the majority say. You should never disenfranchise. If it's not user error. It wasn't user error. It was, it was Board of Election error. But let's listen. As we watched the MAGA try to steal an election and failed in Wisconsin through, through maga, through Doge Musk money, it is encouraging that now two times in a row, assuming she's able to prevail with that 734 lead and gets the military, she's doing the right thing there, both politically and morally. As the governor of the state has also said to Josh Stein, get those military votes in. She's already won the day of the election, two recounts. I'm hoping we're going to be talking about Justice Riggs on the, on the North Carolina Supreme Court for a long, long time.
- [82:22]
Ben Meiselas
Yeah, I'm going to bring her back and we're going to have her on the show again next week. It was great to have her on before. You should all check out that interview. Did about 25 minute interview with her. Michael Popak Always great being with you. Remind people right now if they or someone they know were in a catastrophic injury, wrongful death case, serious injury case, required surgeries, car accident cases, trucking accident cases, sexual harassment, medical malpractice cases like that. Where do they call?
- [82:51]
Michael Popak
Yeah, Pope. It's a 1-800number but it's 1-877-1877, Popoc AF. Or if you want to just go on the website you can go to www the popoc firmal1word.com and make sure.
- [83:06]
Ben Meiselas
You all check out the Legal AF YouTube channel. It's crushing it. Subscribe help the Legal AF YouTube channel get 1 million subscribers. Subscribe to the Midas Touch YouTube channel. We're on our way to 5 million subscribers as well. Check out the Midas touch substack@midasplus.com we'd love for you to see that as well. Thank you to our Pro Democracy sponsors. Can't do it without them. The discount codes are in the description below. They support the show. Support them. Great products, great stuff. Thank you everybody again. We'll see you soon on Legal AF. Keep checking in the Midas Touch YouTube channel and the Legal AF YouTube channel for updates throughout the day. As always, shout out Midas Mighty. Shout out Legal A eff.
- [83:56]
Michael Popak
There are research firms, there are consulting.
- [83:59]
Ben Meiselas
Firms, and then there's Forrester. Forrester combines research based insights with hands on guidance that's focused on your needs and goals. Whether you're looking to align your organization.
- [84:11]
Michael Popak
Or transform your business through generative AI.
- [84:14]
Ben Meiselas
Forrester is on your side and by your side. Meet Today's forester@forrester.com.