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- [00:01]
Michael Popak
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two factor authentication, strong passwords and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it and they might not be as careful. That's why Lifelock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for 40% off terms apply. Martha listens to her favorite band all the time. In the car, gym, even sleeping. So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live. She saved so much she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them. Sort of. You were made to scream from the front row. We were made to quietly save you. More Expedia made to travel Savings vary and subject to availability. Flight inclusive packages are atoll protected Starting.
- [01:01]
Karen Freeman
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- [01:31]
Michael Popak
Is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible financial geniuses, Monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations.
- [01:57]
Karen Freeman
Introducing Family Freedom from T Mobile, we'll.
- [02:00]
Michael Popak
Pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128Gigabyte829 99 eligible trade in eg iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel. Contact T Mobile. Welcome to Legal AF the podcast here on the Midas Touch Network with your faithful co anchors Karen Freeman, Nicknifolo and Michael Popak. And welcome to our audience. We got so much to talk about Karen. The worlds of Donald Trump are all colliding and clashing and crashing into each other. He tries to go, for instance, to the UK just to be presidential, just to participate in a royal visit. That's all. But the Brits and our friends across the bond had other plans, including mass protests in the streets, which I'm sure will be the blueprint of what we're there. There we are, a blueprint of what we'll be doing in October. But then a group called led by donkeys decided that it was time to project a mini documentary on the side of Windsor Castle, which we'll show in a bit later. Welcoming Donald Trump and Melania to remind everybody of the close personal relationship between Donald trial and a pedophile, or as they say in British slang, pedo, including clips of videos and audios and documents and Donald Trump's own words. And then led by donkeys got led away for arrest, for leaders of that group have been arrested, which is a definitely an Orwellian approach to freedom of expression. But we'll talk about all of that. Kash Patel, Speaking of videos, Kash Patel got grilled and cross examined within an inch of his life by Ted Lieu and others on the House Judiciary Committee following his terrible performance on the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, including getting cross examined using a legal AF video in which Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz were interviewing Michael Wolf, who had the honor the dishonor of considering whether he was gonna do a book about Epstein, and interviewed Epstein at length in person at his home in New York and saw things. And though that particular video popped up on the big screen in the hearing room and Kash Patel crapped the bed, we'll just leave it at that for now as we move on to Pam Bondi. Pam Bondi must have fell asleep in law school when they taught about the Constitution and the First Amendment because she's decided in the wake of Charlie Kirk's murder, you know, they lost one of their own last week that she would go after people who are expressing themselves First Amendment expression, which she now calls hate speech. And she had to be reminded by people even on Fox that that's just good old fashioned First Amendment expression and you're not going to be able to use the Department of Justice to go and crush that. It was such a faux pas by Pam Bundy that she had to walk. Pandi clarifies hate speech won't be prosecuted, which is exactly the opposite of what she said, but not before we'll hear from Justice Sotomayor because the justices are still on their summer vacation, even though we are all off of ours and they are on book tours and interviews and different things. And Justice Sotomayor, knowing what Bondi said, had a few choice words for her in response while she was being hosted at New York Law School. Lisa Cook, Everybody's wondering when's Popak and Karen gonna update us about the Lisa Cook United States Supreme Court emerg filing by Donald Trump to get her out as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve? Well, there's nothing to update because they haven't done it. And she sat today with the Federal Open Markets Committee and they made their decision, as I said they would, in which they decided to cut the rates. And Lisa Wolf still holds onto her job, having won 2 to 1 at the D.C. federal Court of Appeals. But this framing of her for this false allegation, this blood libel of her being a mortgage fraudster, we want to spend more time on it because there's lots and lots of new information out, including Ed Scott Besant, the Treasury Secretary and Donald Trump's dining partner, apparently in London, to the long and growing list of cabinet members that have two homes where they check the box that they were both primary residences. And this is the guy that accused Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud and for cause reason to take her off the Federal Reserve. He did the exact same thing. And being represented by somebody we know well, Alex. Spiro. Spiro. Spiro. And we'll talk more about that. And then we're all gonna die. This is the all. I mean, I don't mean to be hyperbolic, but if you listen to Dr. Mataraz who testified today about her three weeks tenure as the head of the CDC before she was canned by RFK Jr. Wait till you hear what she had to say about what RFK Jr. Wanted her to do and what she refused to do and why she was fired. And in effect telling us we are not safe, we are not ready for the next pandemic or epidemic. We are not ready to create the next vaccine. And we can lay the blame firmly at the feet of the Trump administration and RFK Jr. And then we'll touch on there she is. And then we'll touch on the New York Times getting sued but not caring. I mean, nobody really cared. This was another one of those we're having a terrible news week on a terrible day with Epstein and the tariffs and the economy and the health and the military and everything else. What could we file a suit? Let's file a suit against this time The New York Times. I've been threatening it for years. And so they did. Nobody cares because it's all a lie and it's filed in bad faith. And they're gonna get their ass sanctioned and the lawyers are gonna get their ass sanctioned for Rule 11 and other things. The New York Times doesn't care. They already ran a new expose against Donald Trump reminding everybody that he's basically selling out his office and our taxpayer dollars to help, in this case, the United Arab Emirates in exchange for them making a $2 billion investment in Donald Trump's companies, private companies, and benefiting him. The Suns and Steve Witkoff, the special envoy and golfing buddy of Donald Trump. Guess what the UAE gets. They get AI computer chips. They're all the rage. Everybody wants one now they get them. The problem with that is it's a quid pro quo where he just sold out America to give chips to somebody that has a close relationship with China. And the related story, that TikTok, of course, is about to be sold to buddies of Donald Trump. All that and so much more, if you can believe it on Legal AF. Hi, Karen.
- [09:12]
Karen Freeman
Hi, Popak. Happy birthday to Legal AF, the YouTube channel.
- [09:17]
Michael Popak
It's hard to believe one year ago today, see how this kind of fell right on that day, we launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. And I think subscriber number one, until I'm told otherwise, was Brett Marcellus. Because when I turned on the channel to see was up and running, it already had somebody there. I was about to subscribe and I think Brett had jump now, 809, 810,000 subscribers later, 265 million views. And showing up today of all days inside the hearing room where our video of legal AF on the YouTube channel gets used to cross examine Kash Patel. I mean, best gift ever.
- [10:00]
Karen Freeman
The best birthday gift ever. I remember where I was. Great. I remember where I was when the day that we launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. I was on the set of Law and Order. And remember, I used to be, or I still am, the legal advisor to Law and Order. I just don't go on set anymore. I, I, I do less of that. But I'm still with, I'm still with Law and Order. Love them.
- [10:23]
Michael Popak
Why? They know how to practice law now. They don't need you anymore.
- [10:26]
Karen Freeman
Well, you know, it is, it's, it's things, things change. I'm a little bit, I'm a little busier these days than I used to be and things like that. But, but I remember I was, I was out in The. I was there and we were talking about it and I'll just never forget it. And I can't believe that was a year ago. It's so exciting. It's such an exciting, amazing thing.
- [10:47]
Michael Popak
I was, I was at my old law firm, was leaving in September, I remember. You know, we were, we put it together relatively quickly, including the landing page. I mean, really, like that day, Adam was still scrambling with what it was going to look like. I'm like, are we launching today? What's going on? And then suddenly. And then, you know, to think, 20th, we have 2900 videos.
- [11:07]
Karen Freeman
Wow.
- [11:07]
Michael Popak
In that year. I mean, it's just. And then, of course, we've got other things to talk about later, but let's jump into what people have joined us for, which is let's kick it off with Epstein. The stench of Epstein scandal rocking Donald Trump's and ruining Donald Trump's royal visit. I mean, it's the old line about your troubles, right? You land on one plane and then right behind it is your troubles landing on the plane right behind you. So he shows up, Donald Trump, he. All he wants is pomp, circum. Circumstances. All he wants is to put on a tux, ride around in a golden carriage, you know, have a lot of people saluting him and horses flying around. It's all he wants. But that's not what the people of the world want and certainly not led by the United Kingdom. And you had sort of this interesting split screen because you had the protesters in the street of London and Which we'll show in a minute. And then you've got at the same time at Windsor Castle, where I'm sure the King and Queen decided. Have you been to Windsor Castle?
- [12:09]
Karen Freeman
I have pretty incredible, quaint little town.
- [12:13]
Michael Popak
But I'm sure they picked it for security reasons because they just wanted to, like, not have the protest out in those little narrow streets around Windsor Castle, but led by donkeys. A resistance organization had other ideas. And I'm going to show you the clip now of what greeted Melania and Donald as they arrived, so to speak, at Windsor. Windsor Castle. A little mini documentary. Let's play it.
- [12:35]
Narrator
This is Windsor Castle, home of the British royal family, where Donald Trump is staying during his state visit. And this is a film about Trump's relationship with the world's most famous pedophile, Jeffrey Epstein. Their friendship goes back to at least 1992, when the two of them are filmed laughing together. Trump can be seen making friendly conversation with Epstein in between clips of Trump smiling and dancing with a group of young women at his Mar a Lago resort in Florida. The following year, they attend a cafe opening together. And a month after that, Trump invites Epstein to his wedding. In 1995, a young woman called Maria Farmer is working for Epstein in Manhattan. Late one night, she says Epstein unexpectedly calls her to his offices and she arrives in running shorts. Donald Trump then turns up wearing a business suit and starts to hover over her. Ms. Farmer feels scared as Trump stares at her bare legs. Then Epstein enters the room and she recalls him saying to Trump, no, no, she's not here for you. The two men then leave the room and Ms. Farmer says she heard Trump commenting that he thought Ms. Farmer was 16 years old. She says she later reported the incident to the authorities. Trump denies he was ever in Epstein's office. 1993 to 1997, Trump takes at least eight flights on Epstein's private jet, according to flight logs released by the US Department of Justice. The plane is later dubbed the Lolita Express, a reference to the character in the Nabokov novel by the Same name, a 12 year old child who is sexually abused by an older man. 1997. Trump and Epstein are seen together at two Victoria's Secret parties and are photographed together at Mar a Lago. The same year, Trump gifts a book to Epstein with the dedication to Jeff, you are the greatest Donald 2000. A 16 year old girl, Virginia Giuffre, is working in the spa at Trump's Mar a Lago resort. There she is recruited by Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, to work as a personal masseuse for Epstein. The teenager will soon become, in her words, 18, sex slave and will endure years of sexual abuse.
- [14:45]
Karen Freeman
I was recruited at a very young age from Mar a Lago and entrapped.
- [14:50]
Narrator
In a world that I didn't understand. 25 years later, Trump will acknowledge he was aware that young women were being recruited from Mar a Lago by Epstein.
- [14:59]
Michael Popak
Some of them young women. Well, I don't want to say, but everyone knows the people that would take it and it was. The concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story's been pretty well out there. And the answer is yes, they were all right. We could play the whole documentary, but what an amazing free expression there in the way that the British have created Donald Trump. Karen, you have a background in being a sex prosecutor. What was Donald Trump trying to accomplish by going to the UK for a formal dinner while the Epstein scandal still swirled behind him? The split screen of Cash Patel being grilled within an inch of his life in Congress while he goes off and then tomorrow meeting with Prime Minister Starmer, who has his own Epstein problem because of an ambassador that was best friends with Epstein as well. What did you make of all this?
- [15:55]
Karen Freeman
Look, I can't pretend to understand why Donald Trump does what he does and really spends our taxpayer dollars while at the same time creating doge and firing public servants who are experts in certain areas under the guise of we have save money, meanwhile we pay millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to fund his security and his trips and his obsession with the royal family that he's kind of always had and wants to be king, frankly. And so I think part of me thinks he was doing market research of what it's like to be a king and what are the trappings that he wants to have. But I'm sure you will tell us, Popak, that there is some kind of deflection that he is doing by going there because I can't think of any diplomatic reason that for him to go at this time and to be there instead of all the things that are going on here in this country or trying to stop the wars that he keeps promising he's going to stop, like the war in Ukraine or Gaza, what's going on there. You know, he famously said he's going to take care of all this, but instead of doing that, he's off gallivanting and meeting with the royals. So I don't, I don't have a theory, to be honest with you. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
- [17:07]
Michael Popak
Yeah, I think it's, I don't know when this was exactly planned. This is the second time going to the UK by the way. At the same time, I just read that the Scottish golf course Turnberry that Trump owns is being cited for dumping raw sewage into the water supply of Scotland. I mean, he's been dumping raw sewage on the American voter for a long, long time. But, you know, I think they try to time by working popoc theory about all this is that they always try to time their events to try to step on bad, what they consider to be bad news cycles or bad news stories for them. There was no reason, for instance, to file the New York Times lawsuit has no merit. But it was a slow news day and they were trying to kind of, you know, Cash Patel had been having a bad go of it off the Charlie Kirk investigation. Pam Bondi was, was saying stupid crap out loud. The economy is in the crapper. He was losing at Lisa Cook and then the Lisa Cook issue and Then suddenly, boom, New York Times gets sued. Same thing here. They're, they're always lining up their calendar, their political, social calendar, to try to do damage or step on a bad news story. So I assume when they had planned this, because it wasn't planned overnight, that they thought, well, six, seven months into my administration, I'll be going over there for my coronation, will I not? But the wreckage of the Trump administration. He's standing on the wreckage of the Trump administration. And he hoped by now that the Epstein scandal would peter out. It hasn't, of course. How could it possibly, given the way he's mishandled it? And every time he tries to, quote, unquote, handle something, it just blows up in his face. I mean, Charlie Kirk, the death of Charlie Kirk in the aftermath of the attack on 60% of the American people, calling them basically the killers of Charlie Kirk and then throwing the keys to JD Vance to let him host a political. A political rally masquerading as a podcast from the White House with their first guest, you know, the Ed McMahon of the. Of the podcast, Stephen Miller. I mean, this. This is a. This is amateur hour. This is a shit show that we're watching. You know, as I said before, to the, to our friends in Canada, to our friends in the UK and the European Union, you got to hold the torch of freedom right now. You got to hold the torch of democracy. Because we're on hiatus in America, we can't consider ourselves the leaders of the free world any longer, not while Donald Trump is in office. We hope to help. We hope to join you in progress in 2028. But we're not. We're we people don't look to look at. Look what we just showed. People are not looking to America to. About the ideal of democracy, right, Karen?
- [20:00]
Karen Freeman
Not right now. I think we are questioning things ourselves, too. It's not just other people. I think we're all scratching our heads and wondering what does all this mean for us and for democracy? It's a little bit unsettling where we are right now.
- [20:17]
Michael Popak
Yeah. But we gotta just keep doing what we're doing, which is holding as best we can, the Trump administration accountable. And if we can't do it in an impeachment hearing, then we have to do it in an oversight committee hearing. The judiciary or, you know, the oversight committees over public health or things like that. That's our best shot right now because, you know, the Democrats are the party out of power. So we can write nasty letters, we can issue subpoenas that go nowhere. But we can do cross examinations with the best of them during hearings like this to remind people that there is leadership within the House and the Senate in the form of the Democrats. And then, you know, the lawsuits and then what we do, you know, to kind of call out these events. There's a report card that's going to be rendered about Donald Trump come the midterms. And we have to contribute to people's understanding about whether he's a pass or a failure. We see him as a fail. I mean, we'll just simply use the phrase that's always used during political season. Are you better off now than you were 11 months ago? Can anybody really say that economically? Global security, national security, homeland security, your belief system, you know, what you believe about how other human beings should be treated through an immigration process or through a criminal justice system. I think very few people in America would compliment how Donald Trump has handled Charlie Kirk. You know, they lost one of theirs and now the martyrdom has begun. And we've got to do our best job of reining that in and calling that out for what it is. And then the people are going to have to vote. This is going to have to be solved at the ballot box the way it always is. And we're here to. And we're here to educate and have a conversation with our audience about that. Karen, did you catch that Legal AF made the headlines today? We usually report on the headlines. Today we made the headlines. Did you hear about that?
- [22:22]
Karen Freeman
No.
- [22:24]
Michael Popak
That was very good. That was very good. No, tell me, Popak. So I'm on something else. I'm on substack live for legal aforementioned. And I was doing this, and all of a sudden I see a note from somebody that was in the substack with us that said, did you know legal AF in a video is being used right now by the House Judiciary Committee against Kash Patel? I was like, what? So Cash Patel, who we all know did terribly during his cross examination in front of the senators yesterday, whether it was Klobuchar or, or Blumenthal from Connecticut or Booker or Adam, Adam Schiff, just terrible. I mean, he. He obviously decided he was just going to yell and scream and argue and be triggered about every question. And then, and then he. Even when he's throwing the softball, Karen, by like Senator Kennedy, maga. Maga. He. He swings and misses. He says, well, I assume that you've seen all the Epstein files. No, no, no, I haven't. Sorry, you. You haven't seen all the Epstein files? What do you think you're here to talk about along with Charlie Kirk. And did you catch any of that? Any of that? Of the Senate. Did you catch any of that?
- [23:34]
Karen Freeman
Yeah. Yeah. Well, finish telling your story about the making legally of making the news and then we'll go into cash to tell.
- [23:41]
Michael Popak
That's a very good point. So then it go. That was day one, the Senate, day two, the House Judiciary Committee, the ranking member Jamie Raskin, along with Ted Lieu. And they pull up, they're in the midst of their Epstein module of their questioning. And the staff and Ted Liu and the rest decided it was time to Show a legal af. YouTube, from our YouTube channel. So let's show the clip. In that residence, the FBI found a safe. Correct. I'll accept your representation. And in that safe, the FBI found topless and lewd photographs of girls. Correct again, sir, I'll accept your representation. I don't know. Thank you. It was all over the media at the time. There's a New York Times article that says Jeffrey Epstein is indicted on sex charges as discovery of nude photos is disclosed, dated July 8, 2019. And the Times reports a trove of lewd photographs of girls was discovered in a safe inside financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion. Author Michael Wolf has conducted numerous interviews of Jeffrey Epstein. I'm going to play for you a video clip of what Michael Wolf said Epstein told him was in the safe. And what he showed the author was in this safe. So let's please play that clip now. Elected. And I was sitting talking to Epstein and he said, wait a minute, I got to show you something. And then he went into his safe and he came out with, with photographs. They were, they were Polaroids, I think. And he kind of, kind of, they were kind of spread them out like playing cards. And it was Trump. I mean, I think there were a dozen of them. And it was Trump with girls of an uncertain age at Epstein's Palm beach house where all of the things that he would ultimately be accused of took place. And I remember very vividly three of them. There are two in which Trump is the girls topless girls are sitting on Trump's lap. And then a third in which he has a stain on the front of his pants. And the girls are kind of, kind of pointing at it, sort of bent over laughing. Well, there you have the legal AF entering the room. And, you know, Michael Wolff has said that story a number of times that he saw the photos of Donald Trump with young women, including pictures of him with some sort of stain on his pants. And now it's entered the cross examination of Cash Patel, who you saw gave it up very quickly to Mr. Liu. I'll take your word for it, sir. I'll assume that for the purposes of your question, because he's not prepared. He's not prepared to be the FBI director. He's certainly not prepared to handle vigorous cross examination and he's certainly not prepared to have legal AF the video being played for him to have to respond to what you make of all of Cash Patel's performance.
- [26:46]
Karen Freeman
I mean, well, first of all, that video, like ew, disgusting. You know, I'm very upset by, by what he described. But, but yeah, Cash Patel, I mean, first of all, when he testified, he was really combative when he did answer questions or things like you just said, where he's very deferential when he didn't. But he really. It was kind of an embarrassing hearing. If you were somebody looking in and wanted to see, oh gee, what is the Senate? What is my Senate doing right now with my FBI director? This is the Senate Judiciary Oversight Committee of the FBI and they are trying to ask him questions and some very valid questions. For example, why were three FBI agents who were high level FBI agents who are, who were respected by so many in the bureau who were not political at all, why were they fired? Why was one of them fired while his wife was dying of cancer, which was just inhumane more than anything else. Why does the 14,000 member of the FBI association. Why do they condemn you, Kash Patel, head of the FBI, why do they all condemn you and say that you're making America less safe and that you're eroding morale and unity in the FBI, which is making us less safe? How is it that you come knowing you're gonna testify about the biggest case that is facing this administration, the Epstein matter, and you haven't read the file and you don't know what's in there. I mean, it was kind of a train wreck of a hearing. I couldn't it. And when somebody was asking him questions rather than sitting and answering, he starts calling, you know, Adam Schiff a political buffoon and accusing him of all you care about as a sex predator. I mean, I don't know Cory Booker. I thought, I thought what he said was the best, which basically said, sir, I think this is going to be your last hearing because I don't think you're long for this job. You're loyal to Trump, not this country, and I pray for you. But, you know, it was just, it was kind of embarrassing. I thought the House, you know, speaking, asking questions, like with, with Representative Liu. I thought that was a little more, a little more civil, if you will. But again, he just seemed, like, totally unprepared and, and, you know, with this whole Charlie Kirk thing, like, he's fake. He's tweeting out false information while dining out at Rao's, which is one of the. It's a very hard restaurant to get a table at. In fact, you can't get a table. You have to be invited by someone who already has these tables. It's a very coveted thing in New York. He's at Rao's while they're hunting down the suspect of the person who, who killed Charlie Kirk. I mean, an FBI director when that happened, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, first thing he should have done is gotten on a plane and gone to Utah and been there and been there for the investigation. Instead, he's at a restaurant and getting information that's wrong and tweeting it out saying, oh, we caught the guy. And it turns it wasn't the guy. I mean, he just really doesn't seem like he's doing very well as an FBI director, especially if your own rank and file. This is one of the most respected organizations and law enforcement organizations in the world. They're incredible that they don't have faith in the Director of the FBI. I don't know. I don't. I was. It was terrible, actually. He did terribly, in my, in my estimation, in this, in these hearings.
- [30:29]
Michael Popak
How can you respect the guy? He's a former right wing podcaster. He's never run anything in his life. He was never in the FBI. He was never anything. He was never in anything like the FBI. He was never in law enforcement. And he's supposed to run the preeminent investigatory body, arguably in the world, at least in the top two from. With what help? The other guy next to him is Dan Bongino. He's another right wing podcaster that was a Secret Service agent for a time. He doesn't know anything about the FBI either. How about, how about this, Trump? If you're going to put somebody who's wholly unqualified to run one of these departments like the Department of Defense or the Intelligence community or the FBI or the Department of Justice. How about having somebody right next to them, like a bench coach, that is qualified so at least we can say, well, Cash Patel is a clown, but he does have the former director of the FBI and Trump's first administration, whatever it was, sitting next to him. Or Pete Hegseth. Is a drunken womanizer as as most of the hearings proved, proved him to be. But we do have a former five, five star full bird general whatever sitting next to him that ran the Pentagon at one point or operations.
- [31:47]
Karen Freeman
I'd be like at least Hexas was in the military. Like at least that. I'm not saying he's qualified, but I'm saying no, I'm not saying he is, but I'm saying at least they can say he was in the military. Therefore how can they possibly he's a.
- [31:59]
Michael Popak
Major in the military.
- [32:01]
Karen Freeman
But how so but what can they say about Cash Patel? That's what I don't understand. Yeah, exactly.
- [32:05]
Michael Popak
Don't care. Just like they don't care about the people they're killing with public health by having a anti vax, anti science, anti medicine, non doctor environmental lawyer at best run the Department of Health and Human Services and by extension the cdc, the NIH and everything else. I mean, we're going to talk about Dr. Monarz and what she testified to in our hearing. We're going to talk about Pam Bondi going after forgetting what the First Amendment stands for and say we're going to crush the set in this country and I'm going to lead the charge at the head of the Department of Justice. Oh, wait, I can't say that. Let me walk that back. No, too late. Justice Sotomayor's response to that. And then Lisa Cook, big winner, big winner in keeping her job for now for on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. As more information investigative reporting reveals there's lots of people in the Trump administration that have done exactly what she's done because that's not mortgage fraud. Or if it is, five or four or five members of the Trump administration of all cabinet have all committed it, including the Treasury Secretary. In fact, the only people that seem to have committed real fraud is Bill Pulte's parents. Bill Pulte is the guy that Donald Trump uses to go after Lisa Cook with bean social media posts and referrals to the Department of Justice from his perch running Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Turns out his parents actually did commit property tax fraud by claiming two properties as their primary residence, one in Michigan and one in Florida, and had to pay back a couple hundred thousand dollars recently because of it. Well, when you live in a glass house, don't accuse somebody else of mortgage fraud. That's the new, that's the new half.
- [33:45]
Karen Freeman
Of Washington D.C. elected officials. They all have two residences. I mean, that's just common, right?
- [33:52]
Michael Popak
Well, you're allowed to have two residences. You're not allowed to claim both as your primary.
- [33:56]
Karen Freeman
Right, I understand. But my point is, I think you're going to see it happen much more.
- [33:59]
Michael Popak
Than more than the Federal Reserve Philadelphia branch issued a report in 2023 that says this is commonplace. It's pushed by the lenders. The lenders want you to check the box for primary primary on both properties because they want to give you the interest rate break. And so they get it underwriting. Unless you think the banks are defrauding themselves and you're complicit in that. That's this is not mortgage fraud and it's not what so my point is it's not mortgage fraud for, for we'll get there for percent but it's not mortgage fraud for Lisa Cook. But that's but that's not what MAGA is doing against her. But we haven't seen that Supreme Court filing yet. And we'll talk about that when we return from our from our first break. And then addition, we've got we're going to die. We're not safe with RFK Jr in command of our public health. And we learned that today during some hearings. And we'll touch on the New York Times suit as well. But first, we've got to take a break for our sponsors. Our sponsors are very important to us because they help keep Legal AF and all things related to it sort of moving and grooving and on the air. And in addition to that kind of ecosystem around Legal aforementioned, we've got, as we noted at the top of the show, our first birthday, our first anniversary, Legal AF, the YouTube channel, which we formed. There it is. We formed before the election because we thought things were going to go sideways in the election and it was time to get that channel up and running. And boy, have you guys taken that channel to heart. And we really do appreciate it. Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Our goal now is to get to a million before the new year, which I'm sure we'll be able to do, but only because of the fervent support of this audience. So if you don't know anything about it, take a moment, when you're done here, slide over to Legal AAF, the YouTube channel, and hit the subscribe button there as well. And then we've got a substack that's only about four months old. We already we're already up to 84,000 subscribers and I'm doing two live reports a day there along with some guests. In addition, lots of amazing written work from our contributors. All of the filings that we talk about on Legal AF end up posted there under Filings af. So come over to Legal AF Substack and if you want to become a paid member, there's some additional benefits of doing that as well. I'm watching all my haircuts over the years and the graying of Michael Popach in these videos. And then we've got and we've got our Pro Democracy sponsors who have been handpicked by the Midas brothers, and we try out all these products. We think they're great, we're glad they're here. And here's our break. 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It's made me feel more youthful and energized as I have the energy level to nurture my baby daughter the right way. Experience the Science of Feeling younger go to qualialife.com legal af for up to 50% off your purchase and use code legal af for an additional 15%. That's qualiolife.com legalaf for an extra 15% off your purchase. Your older self will thank you and thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. Welcome back to Legal af, the podcast with Karen Freeman, Nickniffalo and Michael Popak. Pam Bondi maybe we'll just do the topic that way. Pam Bondi all right, moving on. Crash test dummy that is occupying the Attorney General's office every day. In every way she demonstrates that she is incompetent over her skis in committing professional malpractice before our very eyes and doesn't know the frigging Constitution. She decides that. Well, everybody else is. Well, let me get in on the Charlie Kirk raising the pitchforks and torches and going after the liberals and the Democrats. I want to say something. All right, what do you have to say? She's like, they're getting Stephen Miller and J.D. vance and Laura Loomer and Luna and you name it, they're having all the fun. I want to say something stupid. All right, go ahead. I think I'm going to go after and try to crush dissent and call it hate speech and prosecute it. People were like, what? Even the mag, even the maga, even Fox News propaganda outlet was like, all right, you can't do that. Even we know that. That's called the Constitution's First Amendment and you can't prosecute it. And then Karen, as she so often does, Justice Sotomayor, at the right moment, at the right time, in a, in a seminar, in a. Not a speech. But she was on the dais, if you will, for New York Law School, knowing what Pam Bondi said, had a great quip in return. Let's play it.
- [41:24]
Karen Freeman
And the thing that gets to me is every time I listen to a lawyer trained representative saying we should criminalize free speech in some way, I think to myself that law school failed. All right? If any student who becomes a lawyer hasn't been taught civics, then the law school has failed. It should be as critical, critically a part of the curricula as your first year courses.
- [42:02]
Michael Popak
Don't care. I literally, and I'd seen that clip before, I literally just now spit my iced tea when she says that law school failed. Talk about Pam Bondi. And of course Sotomayor with her exquisite timing with these statements that we were able to catch and put on here for legal af.
- [42:24]
Karen Freeman
Yeah, look, I mean the First Amendment isn't completely unlimited, right? It doesn't mean you can say whatever you want. And the famous thing they teach you in law school is you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. Right? That's. There are certain things you can't do and there are, but that doesn't. But hate speech is completely protected, right? Like that's why the KKK could march down, you know, the street in a highly Jewish area. The Supreme Court famously said that that's their right. That's what you're allowed to do. And so I can see I could even give someone a pass if you're not a lawyer to kind to say something like, okay, hate speech meaning like the fire in a crowded the. Or things that cross the line. I could see someone colloquially referring to something like that. She's the friggin lawyer in chief of this country. She's the Attorney General of the United States of America. It's irresponsible for her to say things like we're going to prosecute hate speech because hate speech is completely protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. That is exactly what Charlie Kirk was proselytizing, frankly, when he was shot. He had a right to go out and say the things that he was saying and that is what is protected in this country. And Charlie Kirk was saying freedom of speech. And I'm not trying to defend Charlie Kirk, but I do think she needs to see and I think that's why Fox News and everybody came after her it's like, what are you talking about? This is what we believe in is free speech. This is what everyone should believe in. Of course, she's now walking it back and, and, you know, but we're supposed to be able to debate issues. We're supposed to be able to speak freely, and that's what makes this country. And that's why it's the First Amendment. So she's now walked it back and said, well, no, it's just hate speech that leads to violence. Okay. That's called violence. Right, that. We all know what that is. But I think, I really think she didn't know what she was saying. And I'm going to look up where she went to law school.
- [44:27]
Michael Popak
Yeah, do that while we're, while we're here.
- [44:29]
Karen Freeman
Yes, exactly.
- [44:30]
Michael Popak
Someplace in Florida. Although I'm not doing an indictment of law school in Florida. And okay, so on, on her. Let's, let's take her at her word that she thinks First Amendment speech is prosecutable because it, it, it offends her or annoys her and she wants to convert it into some sort of hate speech, which also, there's no federal hate crime like that in terms of speech. Then why are, then why isn't she opening. Then she should be opening a file against Brian Kilmeade. Brian Kilmeade on FOX three or four days ago, during a discussion about unhoused people and a certain person who killed a young woman said, and I'm not paraphrasing, that we should give lethal injections to homeless people on the air on Fox News. First of all, I'd like to see your old office look into that because I'm not sure, isn't that solicitation for murder? There's a lot of things that could be, but you can't. Can you say out loud on broadcast television or any kind of medium, can you say, hey, you know, it's a good idea, boys and girls. Go out and get yourself some sort of poison drug and go to your local unhoused person and inject them with it in order to kill them.
- [45:45]
Karen Freeman
So you cross the, yeah, you cross the line when you, when you incite someone to do something. If he was just saying, I believe that all homeless people should die of.
- [45:54]
Michael Popak
Lethal injection, should die by lethal injection protection. Yeah, let's, that's close.
- [46:00]
Karen Freeman
I mean, yeah, I, I think it's, it's, I think it's probably still protected. You know, it's, again, I still think it's probably protected. Speech is as abhorrent as it is. But you know, you have to incite people to do things to make it criminal.
- [46:17]
Michael Popak
Yeah, I'm not gonna, I, I know the law school she went to because you posted it in the chat. I'm not going to say anything.
- [46:22]
Karen Freeman
Yeah, let's just say it was not like an Ivy League. Yeah, it was not an Ivy League school. I'm not going to say it either.
- [46:28]
Michael Popak
But I know people that went to that law school and I don't want to make it an indictment of that.
- [46:32]
Karen Freeman
I'm sure, I'm sure it's a good law school. I'm sure it's a really good law school.
- [46:35]
Michael Popak
So we got Pam Bondi trying to jump on board the bandwagon of me too. I want to have a torch and a pitchfork. I want to go after Americans. What can I do or say? And then by the way, by the.
- [46:46]
Karen Freeman
Way, when you type into Google, you know how it starts to like finish your sentence based on what the top searches are. All I put in was just now, where did Pam Bondi and it said go to law school? Apparently lots of people are googling it right now to find question Bondi go.
- [47:03]
Michael Popak
To law school would also be. But I love, I love Sotomayor for so many reasons. Let's turn now to turn now to Lisa Cook and what's going on there with the board of Governors. So Lisa Cook, right. Karen, one of seven on the board of governors appointed by Joe Biden. Term is up 2038. I love these terms. 14 year terms on the Board of Governors. She's a double PhD in economics, deserves to be on the Federal Reserve. I'm sure behind her back MAGA says that she's a DEI hire because she's the first black woman to be on the Federal Reserve. Which is more of an indictment of America that she had that in 2024 she had to be the first black woman to be on the Federal Reserve. I'm not talking about like, you know, you know, this is be different if I was reporting this in like 1944, but you know, the fact that in 2025, I've got to say that is ridiculous. But in any event, she gets, they're looking for a weak link in order to get somebody off on the Federal Reserve so that Donald Trump can get control of the majority votes on the seven member Federal Reserve. He's got three votes against four that were not Trumpers. He wants to get the fourth vote because it will also allow him through that control of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to appoint, fire and Appoint new members of new presidents of each, each regional Federal Reserve branch. And that group is where the rest of the votes for the Federal Open Markets Committee come from. So it's seven of the board of governors plus five coming out of the rotation of the 12 regional bank presidents. So they all rotate on and when they, and so that five join the seven and they form a committee and that sets the interest rates which as we came on the air, as I have been saying for the last month, month, because of the dire straits of the Trump economy, they were going to have to cut rates for the first time in five months. And they did. They cut rates exactly what Jay Powell said that they should be. It was a quarter of a point. So it's somewhere now between four and a quarter and four as the interest rate charge between banks, which is then used to set interest rates for everything else in our lives at percentages above that, you know, 2, 5, 8, 30. It depends on your credit. Depends on what, what we're talking about if it's, if it's secured or not. Mortgage loans, personal loans, you know, any kind of credit card debt is all based on that original opening number. And, and just as an example of him working, working the ref so hard to try to get Lisa Cook out, he loses in front of Judge Kopp because she finds. A week and a half ago. Right. No due process was given to Lisa Cobb. That Bill Pulte's mean tweet in the middle of the night and a letter he wrote to the Department of Justice, a pitch and catch that was prearranged and orchestrated. Did not. And her and that was it. And then her being fired is not due process. And so her Fifth Amendment rights were violated, but also found that even if she committed mortgage fraud, which she hasn't, unless she's criminally convicted of it, it has to be for cause. Has to be something related to her performance of her duties, statutory duties on the board of governors. This happened, if it happened at all, a couple of years earlier. That goes up to the appellate court. And Trump loses again 2 to 1 the day before this big meeting. So why don't you talk about it from what you picked up from the two to one decision by Judge Judges Childs and Pan. No, Judges Garcia and Childs. And then the dissent by Katzis, the Supreme Court, which as of the time that we're on the air, has not yet had an emergency application filed for it. And then I can pick up with what happened at the Federal Reserve today.
- [51:09]
Karen Freeman
Yes, this is going at lightning speed. Right. Because it's this emergency. She's going to be fired. So they run to federal District court. The federal district court said she's likely to win on the merits, and so they entered a preliminary injunction. It then got fast tracked to the D.C. circuit, who didn't touch the whether or not this is whether or not this mortgage fraud allegation is fireable. They just said she didn't get any process. And so since she's likely to win on the merits in not getting due process, that they didn't stay the preliminary injunction. And so she sat for the meeting today. So that's good. I mean, we'll see what happens when, you know, and of course, Katz, who's a Trump appointee, dissented, and they're going back and forth about all kinds of, you know, what does this case mean? And is this a primary employee versus just a regular employee? I mean, you know, it's really the, the most important part of this is that she was there for the meeting. And then we'll see what happens in the Supreme Court and let's see if they even go to the Supreme Court with her. So I think I have a suspicion that this has opened up a can of worms of what you were talking about, about how half the Trump administration has two mortgages and two primary residences. I wouldn't be surprised if they kind of walk away from this because I think this is going to, they're going to have an egg on their face with this one. But, but what do I know?
- [52:40]
Michael Popak
Yeah, we'll have to see. I mean, like, since, since they made the allegation where Bill Pulte picked and chose for some public filing. See, she signed two documents that both said that these are her primary residences. And then Reuters read a story that I did a hot take on. Pardon me, I'm fixing my chair here. That, that's not the whole story. The whole story which they got from documents from the credit union she borrowed from for two loans, one from Michigan house, one from Atlanta, Georgia. House, House. She, she made it clear in written documents to her loan originator there that the second home in Atlanta was her second home, a vacation home. And she only declared her primary residence for property tax purposes to be in Michigan. She didn't try to take a tax credit or tax break in, in Georgia, which is what you would do. And this is the little shell game that's played within internal to banks all the time in order to give a certain rate rate to a borrower. And they're not complicit in A fraud, because it's not fraud unless the bank's committing fraud on itself. And so, but typical Bill Pulte is pulling documents out of his ass, posting them in the middle of the night on social media, and then he won't even apologize when it turns out that had she been given a proper. This is where due process comes in. Had she been given proper due process, she would not have. She would be able to prove her case that she was not guilty of anything. Still doesn't answer the fundamental question which ultimately Supreme Court will have to answer if it ever goes up to them, which what is. What is for cause. You think it would be defined over the years, like, just look it up in the rule book. Popak, there's no rule book. It's based on, you know, dozens of cases and then reasoning by analogy. The best I can come up with is the one that Judge Cobb came up with, with which is that in order to be removed for cause from the Federal Reserve as a board of governor, you have to have committed while you were in the office something related to the office, which we call inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance. And they all sound the same, but they're slightly different. The easiest way that I can give as an example is inefficiency is the Fed gave her 20 reports to prepare, and she. And she. And she prepared four. Okay, that sucks. Neglect of duty is they gave you 20 reports to prepare and you, you prepared none. That's like, because you went off and did something else on your, on your, on your company time. And then, and then malfeasance is they gave you 20 reports to do. You did the 20 reports, but they all suck. And so those are three different reasons that you would be removed. There's another one that got developed, which is moral turpitude. You know, you did something terrible, like, you know what Jeffrey Epstein and what Donald Trump has been accused of, and Jeffrey Epstein likely would have been convicted of pedophilia, something like that, or, or this other case law that says if you're convicted of a crime, it probably makes you ineligible to hold the position, unlike the presidency. And that's it. And she's right. But the Supreme Court's gonna have to eventually rule on it. I don't know why he hasn't filed yet. I think he tried hard to get the stay. He didn't get it. Lost 2 to 1. She sat in on the meeting. The rate cut, by the way, the rate cut. There's 12 votes of the Federal Open Markets Committee, it was 12,0 for a rate cut, meaning everybody voted for the rate cut because the economy sucks and they could see it in the data that they're privy to. And, and the only dissenter was Mirren, who just got sworn in on Tuesday. I'm not saying that metaphorically. He got sworn in on Tuesday afternoon, had no time to review the reams of data that go into being prepared for the rate meeting and voted for a deeper cut. But even the Trump Trumpers that are trying out for the job, like Waller, he only voted for a quarter a point. Lisa Cook voted for a quarter of a point. Jay Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, quarter of a point. The only one that wanted a half a point was Mirren, who just got there, who's still working for Donald Trump as the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. So biased, conflicted, anyone. So this whole thing now that I think that they were like, oh, we got the rate cut so they can say, oh, high five. Lisa Cook voted with us. Everybody voted. Cuz you're a Connie. He sucks. Has nothing to do with your attack on Lisa Cook and she's not going anywhere. But we'll see. You know, they're always timing things, you know, so be ready if they do, if they file tonight or tomorrow or the next couple of days, you know, I'll jump on Legal AF, YouTube or Legal AF substack live and pull everybody together. We'll talk through it. But that's where we are. That's where we are right now. Well, all right, so we're gonna take our next break. When we come back, we're going to talk about vaccines. We're going to talk about why we're all going to die because Dr. Monterez, who was fired after three weeks as the head of the center for Disease control, fired by RFK Jr. Testified today in the House and had some choice words for RFK Jr and new revelations that we hadn't heard before that won't make you feel better but will also lead, I think ultimately to RFK Jr being, being fired. But we'll, we'll do that when we come back. Karen, what do you think about all that?
- [58:07]
Karen Freeman
I think it's great. I wish I could be here for that segment with you, Popak, but I, we are running a little over time and I have to go get my flu and shingles vaccine, ironically, because I still believe in vaccines and I'm not going to skip it. So I think it's great. And happy birthday to Legal AF and I'll see you next week.
- [58:29]
Michael Popak
Thank you, Karen. All right, so as Karen leaves to get vaccinated because she does believe in science, we will take our, our last break here. Thank you for being so supportive of everything related to Legal AF and the podcast. Got some great news today all around the Legal AF world. Legal AF, the YouTube channel, sorry, Legal AF, the. Okay, that's good. Legal AF, the podcast of the YouTube weekly rankings ended up in the top 50 of all podcasts, which is fantastic. My podcast called the Intersection, which I do on Tuesday nights on Midas Dutch network, ended up in the top 75 of all podcasts. And then we do similar numbers on our audio side and then of course legally off the YouTube channel, one year old today. Happy birthday to us and you, you and thank you for helping us get to over a hundred, over 800,000 subscribers. But we're still continuing our build. Our goal now is to get to a million, which I think is going to be, I don't know, somebody will correct me from Midas. I think it's faster than Midas. If we get there by January, it might have been faster than Midas's first million. I don't know. I'm going to look into that. I'm going to stick with that story until I'm corrected. Okay, so we have that and then we've got the legal af sub stack. I was on legal af substack 2 days with a live when somebody on in the chat from the audience broke the news to me that our Legal AF video is being used in the House committee cross examining cash Patel. I love this substack for so many reasons. That's, that's one of them. Join us there and you can become a paid subscriber. It's an amazing experience. It's in collaboration with, you know, what we're doing over on the YouTube channel. And then finally, before we get to our sponsors, people have asked me about the Popoc firm.
- [60:19]
Karen Freeman
Firm.
- [60:20]
Michael Popak
I formed the Popoc firm. It's almost the same period of time a year ago. It is dedicated in a way that I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't able to in my prior firms. But here I formed my own firm in collaboration with some amazing plaintiffs lawyers around the country focused on catastrophic injury, auto accident, motor vehicle accident, rideshare, Uber Lyft accident, medical malpractice, civil rights violations, sexual harassment. Things that frankly, unfortunately turn your life topsy turvy and upside down. It may even lead to a unfortunate accidental death. Those are the kind of cases that the Popoc firm is going to work with you on and is committed to obtaining justice for you. It's easy to find the Popoc firm. You can go on the website where you'll find us at the I kept it simple and our 800 number 1-877-popocaf and there both places you'll get a free case of a review. And if we decide to take your case, there is no fee. We don't get paid unless you do. So we will now take another word from our sponsors. You know that nostalgic feeling of sitting at the breakfast table as a kid and pouring a giant bowl of stuff cereal that just tasted amazing? Well, Magic Spoon has reinvented that feeling with cereal and treats that bring back the flavors you love, but in a way that actually fuels your day. Every serving of Magic Spoons high protein cereal packs 13 grams of protein, 0 sugar and 4 grams of net carbs. And the flavors straight out of your childhood fruity cocoa and frosted. And then there are the Magic Spoon treats. Crispy, crunchy, airy and ridiculous satisfying with 12 grams of protein in every bar. They come in mouth watering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate, peanut butter and dark chocolate. Perfect on the go pre or post workout or even as late night snack. Here's how you try them. Get $5 off your next order at magicspoon.com legalaf or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com legal af4 for $5 off. You know, sometimes when I'm listening to the news cycle spin out of control, I look over at my cat and I think, yep, the news and my cat have a lot in common. Both are unpredictable, loud at inconvenient times, and demand my attention when I least expect it. But here's the thing. I can't fix the chaos in the world, but I can make sure my cat is eating better food. That's where our next partner comes in. Smalls. This podcast is sponsored by Smalls and if you're a listener of this show, you know that my cat cannot live without it. It Smalls cat food is protein packed, made with preservative free ingredients you'd actually find in your fridge and it's delivered right to your door. No wonder cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. I fed my cat Smalls just this morning the fresh smooth fish flavor and let me tell you, they've never gone back to their old food since switching fewer hair balls, shinier fur and even a cleaner litter box. Honestly, Smalls is possibly my favorite sponsor ever because it just works. Still skeptical? Forbes ranked Smalls the best overall cat food and buzzfeed said, my cats went completely ballistic for this stuff. What are you waiting for? Give your cat the food they deserve for a limited time only. Because you're a legal AF listener, you get 60% off your first Smalls order plus free shipping by using my code legal AF. That's 60% off when you head to smalls.com and use promo code legal AF. Again, that's promo code legal AF for 60% off your first order plus free shipping@smalls.com welcome back to a Karen Less final round of Legal af. As you know, she had an appointment. She had to go get vaccinated. So that leads us right into our Dr. Monarz, who is a hero. She was the CDC director for three weeks until she was, as she testified today, she was ordered by RFK Jr to rubber stamp whatever the vaccine board came up with in terms of their recommendations, which is, was filled with anti vaxxers and, and not, and not look at the science behind any of the recommendations and, and to fire anyone who was pro vaccine that worked at the cdc. And she said, I will not do either of those two things. And he fired her or she quit. But then there you are. But then she testified, as we knew she would, and she's effectively told the American people that RFK Jr. Should be, if not impeached, he should be indicted, that hundreds of thousands of people are going to ultimately die in America because of a perverse health care policy that doesn't keep Americans safe and undermines public, public health just the way the Republicans and MAGA undermine public safety. Same thing in public health, she said, for instance, I'll give you a great example, she said, we are not ready as a nation for the next pandemic and the next epidemic and the next virus that kills people or the next flu season. She's, you know, and only if you trade in magical thinking, do you think that another Covid out of a lab or out of a jungle or a wet market isn't on its way here. Because it is and it will come faster than others. I mean, whether you called it SARS or Ebola or Legionnaires disease or MERS or fill in the blank, you know, we are ravaged as an amer, as a, as a, as a human people on planet earth with things that can kill us, that are communicable. And she said point blank in the hearing today, we are not ready for the next pandemic and we won't be. And we are far behind because of this group of jokers that RFK Jr. Has brought in. I mean, the new head of the CDC acting. He's a, he's a venture capitalist, doesn't have any science background. He's Peter thiel's buddy. He's J.D. vance's buddy. What is he doing heading the CDC? He's not running a McDonald's franchise or whatever it is. So she said we're not ready, and we're not ready to make the next vaccine to stop the next pandemic or to stop Americans from being killed. Not when almost a billion dollars worth of grants was killed by RFK Jr doing his part for Doge. And he killed all of the vaccine production capabilities that were used in the warp drive operation that Donald Trump continues to brag about. The only thing I think he did well during COVID we're not going to be able to have another operation warp drive because he killed all the funding related to it. And she said as an example of that, we have our biggest measles outbreak in 30 years. Measles? What's next? Smallpox? Rubella? How about polio? We're bringing all the old timey diseases back. Everybody. Did you miss them? Because they're coming back. You know, I never worried until RFK Jr got in about my young daughter and her and her contracting one of these rare diseases that had all been all but been eliminated because of vaccines and an adherence to science. I never saw the day that Donald Trump would actually, I thought it was a joke that he would actually let RFK Jr. Run wild over public health. And I think Dr. Monterey has finally, once and for all, everybody can go rip those bumper stickers that I see in my neighborhood of Maha, make America healthy again. This is magical thinking of the first order. Then I'll just sell you some magic beans in exchange for the cow, you know, because you think you're gonna be Jack of the Beanstalk. Come on. And I'm hoping that the doctors and the scientists that are inside of Congress and there are a number of them that provide oversight over this committee, are going to use Dr. Monteraz's testimony as the final straw that broke the camel's back to get rid of RFK Jr and put in a doctor, an immunologist, a virologist. I'll take a dermatologist at this point to replace that. It's hard to believe we once had Dr. Fauci, you know, keeping America safe. And I, and I, I had the pleasure Speaking of Dr. Fauci. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Fauci in college, when I was in college, when I was a resident advisor and we had a big conference about AIDS because I went to college in the 80s in the, in that late. I went to college from 84 to 88 in Manhattan. And so we brought in this guy who nobody knew because, you know, no Internet. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was the leading expert at the time on aids. And I got to talk, I just was, I followed his career. I was like a fanboy geek for Fauci after the time I met him. The speech was amazing. I still think about it, meeting him, little tiny guy with nice handshake in the hall afterwards. We don't have Dr. Fauci's, we don't have Dr. Monaras's. And she's not the only one. Four other, four other leaders of the CDC walked out with her. And now they're telling us what we suspected, which is we are unsafe and unwell as a nation because of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Who was a failed European, sorry, a failed environmental. Where I get the European from? A failed environmental lawyer living off the Kennedy fortune. He's the shittiest of the Kennedys. I mean, really, of all the Kennedys that Trump could have put in office, this is the one that he put in, you know, and every one of his family members, every one of his family members is against him and has said he's going to get Americans killed. I said hundreds of thousands of Americans are going to die over the four year period, more than they would have because of these failed policies. And we're going to have to continue to follow it. This isn't the last we've heard of Dr. Monaraz. This is not the last we've heard about RFK Jr and to step on all of this bad news cycle because RFK Jr. S debacle started when he was cross examined during his hearings a week or two ago. Epstein, FBI, Department of Justice. I mean, there's very few competent people, if any, working in the Trump administration. Even when you think there's one like Scott Bessant, the Treasury secretary, it looks like he came out of central casting. You know, he's a gay man, treasury secretary, married to his husband. I'm like, all right. You know, worked at, worked for George Soros, ran a hedge fund. I'm like, all right, he could be an adult in the room. How many stories do I have to tell about Scott Bessant having a fist fight with somebody who's Ever heard of a Treasury Secretary having a fist fight? Apparently, according to reporting a week or so ago at a MAGA business luncheon, he almost got into a fist fight or a shoving match with Scott Pulte, the guy on the Federal Reserve, on the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who's accusing Lisa Cook of fraud. There was earlier reporting that he almost got into a shoving match and a punching match, a fist fight with Elon Musk. This is our Treasury Secretary. I lost a lot of credibility. He lost a lot of credibility in my mind as he goes after Lisa Cook about the Federal Reserve. And then. So you got all that going on, you know, and are you better off than you were 11 months ago when the President was named Joe Biden? And if you, if you can't say yes, then you got to vote against MAGA and ours at the midterms. And that's, that's just the reality. Because what we're missing here, people are like, aren't these things impeachable? Yes. Aren't they unconstitutional? Yes. Isn't this a violation of the separation of powers? Yes. So what are you going to do about it? You know, I feel like Sean Connery's character in the Untouchables, you know, when he's lying there in a pool of his own blood telling Kevin Costner, what are you prepared to do? You know, everybody knows where the bad guys are. We just have to go get them. What are we prepared to do? We better be prepared to vote in large numbers and get off the couch and not set out the next democracy like a lot of people did during the Kamala Harris, Joe Biden race against Trump. I know why people sat out. I understand the ration. I know why. But that doesn't mean it was right. And that doesn't mean that we're not in a pickle because of it today. And so when all these bad news stories are going on, you know, Donald Trump's gonna come up with a new distractor. But this one was like, ridiculous. And I did a whole hot take on it on LegalAF YouTube about the new York Times getting sued in a, in a 70 page suit filed in Tampa, Florida, where it'll get no press, by the way. That's like the backwater of Florida in terms of media. Tampa, Florida, in front of a federal judge, arguing that the New York Times and Penguin Books, that published a book by the New York Times writers that called Donald Trump a failure and that he's failed up every time he's been given the opportunity, triggered Donald Trump, what do you mean? I wasn't a big star when I went on the Apprentice and Mark Burnett had to discover me, by the way. That's true. By the time. But that triggered Donald Trump. There's an entire, like, one third of the lawsuit is about the Apprentice. Another third is just this vanity, vanity, narcissistic allegations about. Donald Trump's the greatest, the best, the most. He's been on world. He's been on WrestleMania. This is his list. WrestleMania. He's been on Home Alone 2. He's been on. I mean, I couldn't even look at his long list. And then photos of his buildings. Of course, ignoring all of his bankruptcies, all of his people that he screwed in terms of contracts. The fact that his current company, Trump Organization, was convicted of 19 counts of felony fraud in New York, that he was convicted of 34 counts of business record fraud and election interference. That his current company, Trump Organization, is under a monitorship to this day led by Barbara Jones, A former federal judge leaves all that out and says, the New York Times has had it out for me. They won't. They won't. You know, then he goes through, you're supposed to go through on a defamation case and say, this is what they said about me. Me, and this is why it's wrong. And all he says is, this is what they said about me. And I'm amazing and I'm great and I'm, and I'm world renowned and I have charisma. She writes this in his, in his complaint. I knew I was in trouble or they were in trouble. In the first paragraph of the opening paragraph of the complaint, I'm like, okay, well, this will be good. This is the relevant facts. This is the sister. This kicks off the defamation. Right? Here we go, first paragraph. Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris by 313 to 247. It was a landslide. He won all seven. I'm like, what does this have to do with the defamation case? Nothing. Then he spends pages upon pages bragging about his other defamation wins. I sued abc, I sued, I sued cbs, I sued this. And then, then he actually takes time and ink and wastes our time with an entire paragraph in the middle of one of the complaints. One of the pages in which it's just Donald Trump in a tweet, in a social media post bragging about his wins against other companies. This can't. Let me remind people, this is about, supposed to be about the New York Times and its defamation. What does ABC and Stephanopoulos have to do with anything or CBS in 60 minutes zero nothing. It violates the rules of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure because of the way it's written. It includes what we call impertinent, immaterial and scandalous material that has no place in a well pled federal filing. It. And when you get to the, the meat, after you go through all these, this bun, you peel away this onion. I must be hungry. Where like, okay, where are the allegations that support a defamation case, which for a public figure have to be an untrue statement that causes you damage that was made or uttered or written with actual malice, which is a defined term, a term of art in the law, defined by a case involving the New York Times called New York Times versus Sullivan from 1973 or 1974, in which the court, the Supreme Court established that in order for a public figure to win a defamation case, they have conditionally show that the other side said something, wrote something, did something like that with either knowing it was false. So knowledge, actual subjective knowledge, or reckless disregard for whether the thing was true or not. Like, I see counterfacts, but I'm going to bury my head in the sand. Like, that's not going to work either. But you have to prove that and you have to allege it. And you can't just allege it without operative facts to support it. It. You can't just say they had actual malice, not in federal court. So I looked at, I looked at the actual malice part and that's the sound of me making, looking in the complaint. And when I get there, it says effectively, they don't like me and their hatred is manifest and they're mean to me and they have Trump derangement syndrome and they're mean to me. And I'm like, okay, keep going. No, that was it. That was it. No facts, which is a problem in federal court when you don't have them. No facts that are alleged that like there's an email, there's a phone conversation, there's a photo. I secretly recorded them. Nothing. And then on the, on the willful blindness or on the reckless disregard, nothing. It's just, it, it's obvious that there are. And they hate me because they hate me because it's obvious. I'm like, no, that's a tautology that doesn't work. So here's what's going to happen to this case. In short order, the New York Times is going to serve Alejandro Brito, this lawyer in Coral Gables, Florida, with a letter and a demand and an attached motion for sanctions against him and Donald Trump demanding millions of dollars in sanctions if they don't withdraw this bad faith filing of a defamation case. And when they don't do it, they're going to file A Rule 11 under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure motion for sanctions against both Trump and against Brito. And Brito should go. Look what happened to Alina Haba when she filed something just like this in the Southern District of Florida in front of Judge Middlebrooks. Because Judge Middlebrooks found that suing Hillary Clinton by Donald Trump, the Democratic National Committee, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and a whole bunch of other people was nothing more than, in his words, a political screed masquerading as a lawsuit. Dismissed it as a false filing, sanctioned Alina Haba and Donald Trump $1 million, which was affirmed on appeal. He's a lot closer to that happening than the New York Times stroking him a check. What he hopes is because the New York times is worth $9 billion, apparently mainly owned. It's a public company, but it's mainly owned by the, the Ock Schulzberger family that he's going to try to, you know, make it so difficult for them and rain down MAGA on them that they're going to rather stroke a check so he can claim victory than fight. I just don't see the New York Times doing that. I just, I mean, I know Harvard's about to capitulate, but I don't see the Times doing it, especially when they have a winning case like this one. So it's because it's just bad for journalism. It's bad for the First Amendment. It's bad for their reputation as the paper, paper of record since the beginning. I mean, there, I mean, you could, you could say what you like about a lot of newspapers, but the New York Times is the New York Times. I just don't see them doing it and, and at all. So I think this ends up in a sanction. I think I'll dismiss the case eventually. When he gets. It's like a child with a toy, but he gets tired of it. It, when it served its purposes, that now there's a headline that he's suing them for, for six times their enterprise value, $55 billion. And then if he gets a giant check, he can say, see, I got a giant check. I just don't think he's getting the giant check for this one. If I'm wrong, I'll come back and talk to the audience and tell them I was wrong. I just, knowing the paper I mean, there's very few people from outside the New York Times that know as much about the Times as I do. I've read every biography of the New York Times. As my late mother would quip, I've been reading the New York Times since I was 8 years old. I, I just kind of got into like learning about the family and, and all of that. I just don't see them doing it. I'd be, I'd be shocked if they did, especially since the other case that invented defamation law for public figures has their name on it. I think there's a legacy here that's important that they're not going to abuse. But we'll continue to follow it as we always do right here on Legal Layoff. Thank you for joining us. Karen was here. For those who are wondering, she went to go get vaccinated. She heard we were doing the RFK Jr. Story. She was like, I better go get vaccine. And she has, she has. Which of course she'll be back next Wednesday, Saturday. Ben Meisellis and me, my co founder Ben will be here for Legal AF on Tuesday nights. If you're looking for something to do, I've got a podcast called the Intersection here on the Midas touch network at 8pm Eastern time. We had an amazing show last night. We had I don't know, 10, 15,000 in the, in the chat while we were recording. We have 350,000 that have viewed it. It's, it has, it is also moving up the charts. It's just got, it broke into the top 70, I think of or 75 of YouTube weekly rankings. So join the Intersection. I think you'll enjoy it. And then of course we've got the legal AF YouTube channel which just is experiencing today. It's one year birthday. There we go. And, and I thank each and every one of the 810,000 subscribers that joined us in that one year period and have viewed our work. Legal AF substack, another great way to continue with what we do here on Wednesday and Saturday nights. Join Legal AF Substack. I do live reporting. I bring in guests. We've got written materials. All all the lawsuits and orders we talk about we post on Legal AF Substack, another great place for you to contribute, become a member, consider becoming a paid member which also helps what we do here for Legal af. So until our next Legal AF or anything related to it. I'm Michael Popak. Thank you for joining us. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal A. Did you see the game last night. Of course you did, because you used Instacart to do your grocery restock. Plus you got snacks for the game, all without missing a single play. And that's on multitasking. So we're not saying that Instacart is a hack for game day, but it might be the ultimate play this football season. Enjoy. $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees apply for three orders in 14 days. Excludes restaurants.