Legal AF Full Epsiode - 8/6/2025

Summary

Legal AF by MeidasTouch – Episode Summary (Released August 7, 2025)

Hosts:

• Michael Popok – National Trial Lawyer Strategist
• Katie Fang – Former Chief Assistant District Attorney, Manhattan DA's Office

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Introduction and Guest Appearance

The episode kicks off with Michael Popok welcoming listeners to the Legal AF Midweek Edition and introducing his guest, Katie Fang, a respected journalist and former Chief Assistant DA. The chemistry between Popok and Fang is evident as they exchange light-hearted banter about big eyewear collections and their longstanding friendship.

Michael Popok [02:43]: "I got some great news for everybody. I got a special guest sitting in today for Karen Friedman Igniffalo. Dear friend of mine, somebody that I know you already love, Katie Fang."

Katie Fang [03:18]: "I will concede you. And listen, these really, I do need these. Like, these are not for show."

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Epstein Case Updates

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein case. Katie Fang elaborates on recent legal filings and the long-awaited testimonies from victims and survivors, highlighting the Department of Justice's failure to consult them as mandated by the Crime Victims Rights Act.

Katie Fang [07:34]: "The victims and the survivors of Epstein, Maxwell and others should have been the primary concern for the Department of Justice since the get-go... they have been ignored and disrespected."

Fang emphasizes the potential impact of unsealing grand jury transcripts, which could reveal damaging information about high-profile individuals, including former President Donald Trump. She warns of a "Perry Mason moment" where these records could expose hidden truths.

Katie Fang [10:50]: "It's not going to be Donald Trump's testimony. It's just going to be a summary of information."

Michael Popok critically analyzes the Department of Justice's close ties with the White House, suggesting that their coordinated efforts undermine the DOJ's independence.

Michael Popok [14:02]: "That's the corruption of the Department of Justice and Donald Trump."

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Legal Troubles of Corey Mills

The hosts shift focus to Corey Mills, a MAGA-aligned Republican from Florida facing serious allegations. Mills is accused of threatening to release sex tapes of an ex-girlfriend and is embroiled in financial disputes, including significant unpaid rent for properties in Florida and D.C. Mills reportedly engaged in multiple relationships simultaneously, leading to allegations of physical abuse and revenge porn.

Katie Fang [32:03]: "Her lawyer has put out some of the evidence in the form of tweet text messages... showing that this guy, Corey Mills, had threatened Ms. Langston to be able to release these videos."

Popok highlights the severity of these accusations, linking them to broader themes of hypocrisy within the Republican Party, especially concerning promises of law and order.

Michael Popok [35:29]: "But I think there's no good penny. You're in for a penny, you're in for a pound."

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Texas and California Redistricting Battles

The episode delves into the contentious redistricting efforts in Texas and California. Katie Fang explains how Texas Governor Greg Abbott is attempting to remove Democratic representatives who have broken quorum by leaving the state. This move is seen as a strategic effort to redraw electoral maps in favor of Republicans.

Katie Fang [50:09]: "The Texas map, How is that legal?"

Popok compares these actions to similar maneuvers in blue states, emphasizing the bipartisan nature of gerrymandering and its implications for fair representation.

Michael Popok [57:15]: "But why they're doing it because some people are like, isn't it a feudal exercise?"

Fang advocates for revisiting the Electoral College to address the injustices perpetuated by current redistricting practices.

Katie Fang [58:53]: "I just want the Electoral College issue, maybe you and I need to come back together and do this on a live here."

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Big Balls Incident and Trump's Response

The hosts discuss a peculiar incident involving a 19-year-old associated with the government, nicknamed "Big Balls." This individual, having had extensive access to sensitive government data, was assaulted in Washington D.C., prompting President Trump to comment on the situation. Popok criticizes Trump's reaction as distractive and indicative of his deteriorating focus and mental state.

Katie Fang [62:28]: "He was working at the Social Security Administration. Did you know that?"

Michael Popok [63:48]: "We could put this on a T-shirt, merch alert. First child sexual predator ever to be given better accommodations by the Bureau of Prisons in its history."

Fang raises concerns about the security implications of the incident, questioning what sensitive information might have been compromised.

Katie Fang [66:47]: "So it's all there. And my concern is what in the actual hell was on his phone?"

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Closing Remarks and Call to Action

The episode concludes with Michael and Katie encouraging listeners to support their work by subscribing to the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF channels. They briefly mention new contributors and upcoming discussions, including deeper dives into the Electoral College and further analysis of redistricting issues.

Michael Popok [70:10]: "Katie Fang Channel. News Channel."

Katie Fang [70:10]: "Subscribe. That's what he said. Support through Subscribe."

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Notable Quotes

• Katie Fang [07:34]: "The victims have been re-traumatized by this process and they are incredibly upset by the prospect of clemency being offered to Ghislaine Maxwell."

• Michael Popok [14:02]: "But we knew it was never going to be. So now you've got here that the deal points are falling into place..."

• Katie Fang [32:03]: "This is why the Republicans saying, reporting for duty here."

• Michael Popok [35:29]: "Everybody else, to hell with high water."

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Key Takeaways

1. Epstein Case Progress: New victim testimonies and potential revelations from unsealed grand jury transcripts could expose high-level corruption and complicity.

2. Corey Mills' Allegations: A prominent MAGA figure faces severe accusations of sexual misconduct and financial irresponsibility, highlighting issues within the Republican Party.

3. Redistricting Wars: Both Texas and California are embroiled in redistricting battles aimed at manipulating electoral outcomes, with significant legal and ethical implications.

4. Security Concerns: The assault of a government-connected 19-year-old raises alarms about data security and the effectiveness of current government safeguards.

5. Call to Action: The hosts urge listeners to support independent legal and political journalism by subscribing to their networks and engaging with their content.

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Stay Informed:
For ongoing updates and in-depth analysis, subscribe to Legal AF by MeidasTouch on YouTube, podcast platforms, and their Substack. Follow Katie Fang on her dedicated news channel for real-time reporting and commentary.

Transcript

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[Michael Popok]

Welcome to the Legal AF Midweek Edition. I'm Michael Popoff. We got a lot to talk about here. Gonna talk about Epstein and all the updates on that. We got some new reporting that a MAGA MAGA Republican named Corey Mills out of Florida has a big problem, may have violated federal law that he signed that he actually voted for in going after an ex girlfriend and threatening to release sex videos including apparently ones that he participated in in order to get back at her for breaking up. He's married, still has another girlfriend that claimed that he that she was abused by him which led the the new the second girlfriend to now make these new allegations. We'll break that all down and then we'll move out of the world of salacious sexual issues and MAGA and move into Texas and California about the redistricting there, about what 50 brave Texas legislators are doing about it and what Texas is doing in retaliation against them. And then I guess to square the circle we got to talk about big balls and the fact that a 19 year old that was given complete unfettered access to all of your and my data when he worked for DOGE and still works for the government apparently got beat up in the Streets of Washington D.C. leading our President of the United States to weigh in on the assault of BIG Balls as Donald Trump does another assault on the District of Columbia. And I got some great news for everybody. I got a special guest sitting in today for Karen Friedman Igniffalo. Dear friend of mine, somebody that I know you already love, Katie Fang. Katie, how you doing?

[Katie Fang]

I don't know. I'm being introduced after Big balls. So I'm just kind of, I'm grappling that right now.

[Michael Popok]

But I think that's a compliment because you've got bigger brass ones than anybody that I know. And that's why you and I have been friends from day one. The biggest question our audience has, besides, they'll get the. At some point we'll give them the origin story about you and me and that it has nothing to do with Midas and has nothing to do with media and it all predates all of that. But the other question I know is coming up in the chats tonight. We'll look down on it is who has more eyewear and bigger eyewear? Between you and me, that's the real question. We want to talk big. Who's got the biggest eyewear collection?

[Katie Fang]

I will concede you. And listen, these really, I do need these. Like, these are not for show. These are not performative glasses. Like, I need these to be able to see people and to read the chat and to be able to interact with folks. But all kidding aside, it's a privilege to be able to spend time with you, my good friend, and to also do this like quasi crossover moment with.

[Michael Popok]

Let's touch on that before we touch an Epstein because look, you're, you're a. Deservedly so. You're a well known journalist. But on the, what we call, what do they call these days? Linear. Linear TV streaming services, msnbc, for a long time with the Katie Fang show. But now you're, you're on a sister channel with me. You're on under the brothers, right? The Katie Fang News Channel. Tell, tell the audience a little bit about that, a little bit about you who may not know you. And then we're going to go right into them learning about who you are through the great legal commentary you're about to give.

[Katie Fang]

Well, I appreciate it. So, yeah, I do have a YouTube channel, Katie Fang News. It is with partnership and in partnership with the Midas Touch Network. And I'm trying to, what I say, create high information America. I just kind of abandoned the idea, Mike, of us creating a high information voter because I'm not quite sure if we don't have the critical thinking skills to be able to assess the information that's being put out there, then we're in a lot of trouble. And so I figured I would dig deep into my legal background and also my comms background. Now to be able to spend time with all of y' all here and in independent media, it has been incredibly liberating. I enjoyed the opportunity to be on linear TV at msnbc. But the reality is this. You have to meet the urgency of the moment with the urgency of the message. And you have to do it in an unfettered way where it's unadulterated truth and people may not like what you're saying, but you're telling them the reality and the truth. And that's exactly why I thought it was a no brainer to join up with the Midas network when I left msnbc.

[Michael Popok]

So, so great. And just so people know, you're not in your normal studio, you're on a holiday with your family. I'm traveling for Midas and for work. I'm in Chicago, you're in Florida, somewh undisclosed location. And, but, but what I, what I love about what you just said is of course it's so consistent with the DNA of the Midas Touch network and with what Ben and I found it with legal af, which is we don't blow smoke or sunshine. We have to tell truth to each other first before we can go out in the streets and execute on that truth. And so we're going to do that. And you're right, sometimes it's unsettling, sometimes it's uncomfortable, sometimes it's deflating. But we always leave. And that's what I love about your news channel also. And you as a person, you always leave the audience not only with new information and new data points that they can use as talking points in their life, but you leave them with a call to action and what they can do about it. I mean, I never want to tell some. It's not like you go to the doctors and well, you've been poisoned and then the doctor walks out of the room like, okay, what's the remedy? What's the antidote? Right. Okay. And so we're here to give the remedy and the antidote in our, in our representative democracy. And one of the ways I think will demonstrate that is when we walk in now to the Epstein case. And I want to make it clear to people because I, you know, sometimes the network gets accused or we get accused of being, you know, clickbait or salacious and we're just doing it for ratings reviews, trust me. We're not. If I didn't genuinely think, and I know you feel the same way, if I didn't genuinely think that the Epstein sexual predator President Trump cover up didn't matter. And was it important for us to press as an issue about this presidency. Sorry. About this presidency which is now swirling the drain. I would not cover it. But it is, pardon me, it is so important about how they're handling this, the relationship between the White House and the Department of Justice, how he's coked, how Trump, a judge sex abuser, is looking to a convicted child sex trafficker for absolution and what that says about this person, his moral authority, which is nothing. And this lack of independence of the Department of Justice. There's so many stories within a story within a story about Epstein. I loved, I've seen you reporting on it. Let me turn it over to you. Tell me what you've picked up lately, kind of advancing this story about the new reporting. Secret meeting, secret recordings and what. And how do you kind of frame it for our audience?

[Katie Fang]

Yeah. So I just dropped a video on my YouTube channel talking about the latest filings that have happened. And before we get into the secret meeting that's going to be happening at Vice President J.D. vance's residence this evening, by and between Blanche Kash Patel and others, including J.D. vance, as well as Pamela Jo, I like to call her Pamela Jo Bondi. The thing about the latest filings, Mike, that I wanted to make sure that everybody who's tuning in right now understands is we are now finally hearing from the victims, which in and of itself is a travesty. The victims and the survivors of Epstein, Maxwell and others should have been the primary concern for the Department of Justice since the get go. And yet we know that all the way back in the mid 2000s when that bullshit sweetheart plea deal was entered into by between Jeffrey Epstein and the U.S. attorney's office, as well as the Palm Beach County State Attorney's office. The victims were never consulted on that and that violated the Crime Victims Rights act, which is a federal statute that requires that the government consult with victims in very significant ways to obtain. They don't have to give their consent per se, but geez, they need to have some buy in into what the Department of Justice is doing or the federal government. So since the mid-2000s, the victims have been ignored. They have been ignored. They have been dis. Almost at this point, when you actually make Ghislaine Maxwell out to be some lionized hero, if you're Donald Trump, they're now being discredited and they're being disrespected. But we have now finally heard from some of the victims and the survivors. And you would not believe what they are telling us. They're telling us that the Department of Justice has never consulted them prior to moving to unseal the grand jury transcripts and that they continue to not have consultation buying between the victims and the Department of Justice. But Michael, what's interesting is that these victims and survivors who the attorneys have represented to the courts, that they want those grand jury transcripts unsealed, that they want the transparency that allegedly was promised by Donald Trump. They want Americans to be able to see the people that have their hands just as dirty as Epstein and Maxwell. And so a lot of people would think maybe conventional wisdom would be as a victim or survivor, that they don't want to have to relive it. But these letters make it clear they have been re traumatized by this process and they are incredibly upset by the prospect of clemency being offered to Ghislaine Maxwell. This idea that, as you said, Donald Trump looks to Ghislaine Maxwell, who herself is a convicted child sex predator, child sex trafficker, child sex abuser, that Trump is somehow saying that Ghislaine Maxwell holds the keys to the kingdom of truth when we know that she was also indicted for perjury and for lying. And so at this point, this is what we needed to hear, Michael. We needed to hear from the victims and the survivors. And you know, normally the law militates towards not disclosing grand jury records. But you know what, at this point, based upon what the victims have said so far, we may end up seeing those records. But I want to caution everybody, as you and I said at the beginning of this live, we may not always want to tell people what they want to hear, but this has been a head fake by the Trump administration since the beginning, this grand jury record disclosure. Oh, yeah, there's not going to be anything. I don't know. You've covered this extensively as well.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah, no, you're not going to be something.

[Katie Fang]

There's going to be some huge gotcha, you know, Perry Mason moment from these records. This was was hearsay presented through the lead investigative agents after they spoke to witnesses, victims, et cetera.

[Michael Popok]

Summary witnesses.

[Katie Fang]

Yeah, it's not going to be Donald Trump's testimony. It's not going to be even Epstein or Maxwell's testimony. Right. It's just going to be a summary of information. And that is why I emphasize this anywhere and anytime I can, Donald Trump, not Pamela, Joe Bondi. Donald Trump holds the keys to turning over these Epstein files. You do not need a federal judge to turn over the Epstein files. The only limited thing that is being addressed right now is just the grand jury transcripts by the judges.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. Which is not the tractor trailer truckload of 36 gigabytes of information that's still with the Department of Justice. But look, we see this. You and I can piece this puzzle together very, very quickly. This is not a Rubik's cube. This is like a four piece puzzle. Okay? And what is happening before our very eyes, as you and I both know as practicing lawyers, is that Donald Trump right now with this not so secret meeting at JD Vance's house tonight that you and I. I don't know. I didn't. I haven't been home to get the mail, but I didn't. I didn't get that invite. But there's apparently a secret meeting Tonight toasted by J.D. vance and Susie Wiles and Cash Patel and Pamela Joe Bondi. And so the White House and the Department of Justice is roasting marshmallows tonight together to talk about the Epstein scandal and what they should do about it. Let's stop right there. Not that anybody thought there was any independence by the Department of Justice from this White House, but the fact that they're meeting for a strategy meeting and a little spitballing about what they should do about the Epstein file and the White House is meeting and directing traffic on this tells you everything you know about the corruption of the Department of Justice and Donald Trump. So that's one. Secondly, the reporting that's coming out of CNN and some other places is one of the things they're considering is not only releasing the video and audio of the nine hours or 12 hours that Todd Blanche spent hanging out with a convicted child sex trafficker as the number two Department of Justice lawyer, they're not only releasing it, which we knew they were going to do, and I'll give my thoughts on it, and you can give yours as a practicing lawyer, but they're also now thinking about, well, how do we best publicize it? Should Todd Blanche give a press conference? Should Todd Blanche go on. Wait for it. Joe Rogan. I got news for everybody. Even if Top Blanche goes on Joe Rogan, they're not going to beat the Midas Touch network in terms of ratings. And now you got to suck one podcaster in. We'll have to see if there's reporting tonight. I'm dying to see if Dan Bongino, the other right wing podcaster number two in the FBI, shows up and hangs out with Pam Bondi, his new best friend, about Epstein. But this Kabuki theater, this performative puppet show that you and I have been watching closely, and the big pieces of it are as follows. No government prosecutor meets with a witness without getting a full proffer from the lawyer. So Blanche calls David Oscar Marcus, his buddy, preexisting relationship who's representing Ghislaine Maxwell through his relationship with Alan Dershowitz. And the conversation goes something like that. Actually, why don't you and I do the conversation? You're right. I'll be. I'll be Todd Blanche. Because. Because I want you to come back on the show, so I want you to have the better role.

[Katie Fang]

So who am I going to be? Am I.

[Michael Popok]

You're going to be David Oscar Marcus.

[Katie Fang]

Okay, well, so here's the thing. I have to start the conversation because apparently media reporting is that Ghislaine Maxwell's team is the one that approached Blanche, which is interesting in of itself. Right. That it's not that Todd Blanche said, oh, let's go to the person who we just saw, if we believe. So cozy. Cozy, right?

[Podcast Announcer]

If we believe this.

[Katie Fang]

But you know what, let me tell you just for a hot second why I believe it, though. Because Ghislaine Maxwell, being an opportunist on this, clearly saw a chance to be able to obtain the clemency that she wants. And so because she saw that Trump was foundering and continues to founder in the court of public opinion as well as in the land of Maga about the Epstein files disclosures. And so she saw a way to be able to inure something to her benefit by cozying up to Trump and Trump's legal team to say, I am here as your savior. You can save me. Let me scratch your back. Okay, so here we go.

[Michael Popok]

One last hot second before we do our Masterpiece Theater.

[Katie Fang]

Yes.

[Michael Popok]

And think about the timing. Because Michael Wolf, who's been on legal AF with our court of history historians, he has a working theory based on his reporting that the Maxwell family is the one that put the leather bound birthday card scrapbook to the Wall Street Journal as a signal that she can hurt Donald Trump or she can help Donald Trump. That story runs in the Wall Street Journal several days later. Here's the. Here's the artist rendering of the phone call. Okay. You're David Oscar Marcus, the lawyer for Ghislaine Maxwell. I'm Todd Blanche. Go ahead.

[Katie Fang]

I'm going to use A phone, because I'm not going to want to have it be in. Yeah, yeah, we're not going to want to have it in writing. We're not. We're not going to use single signal. All right, we all know how that works in this.

[Michael Popok]

All right, so you're David.

[Katie Fang]

It's David. David, how you doing? You know my client, Ghislaine Maxwell. She's got some good deets for you. Why don't you come hang out with her? But by the way, it's not going to happen in the federal prison which is currently held in Florida, which is not right now, because she's in a nice minimum security campus. And hey, by the way, you know what, Todd? We'd like to have some special dispensation provided to her as well, which is you got to give her limited immunity because she's not going to talk to you otherwise.

[Michael Popok]

Well, this is great, David, so great to hear from you. You know, having been on your podcast recently, you and I are buddies. But before I even consider going to the big boss about immunity, because that's what you're asking for, let me get an idea, a proffer of what she's going to say before I go bother hightailing it up to Tallahassee. What's she gonna say, David?

[Katie Fang]

She's gonna give you information that's going to absolve and exculpate Donald Trump and probably other significant high level Republicans as well as heads of state and other people that are incredible titans of industry within their respective spaces. In addition to that, it's going to be of such value that you will be inclined to be able to grant her some relief, whether it is changing where she's staying, perhaps also maybe the big guy, the big dumb orange turd guy. That's not what David would say. Because David the big guy is going to sit there and say, you know what? That was definitely worth my while. And are you. Did I give you enough?

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. Can I just. Here's just a few things I jotted down, David. Will she say that Donald Trump was never. She never saw Donald Trump doing anything with little girls?

[Katie Fang]

Yes. Why? Why else would she say. Why would she come and meet with you? Why would you come meet with her?

[Michael Popok]

Will she, Will she say he was never on the island?

[Katie Fang]

I'm going to backtrack for a second, I bet you. Because, because knowing David myself, I think this is what David probably said if that was the inquiry by Blanche.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah.

[Katie Fang]

She will not. She will. She will not implicate Donald Trump in anything. That was criminal or wrong because we know that the two of them chummed around and they were hanging out. They did all sorts of good things. Right. So I feel like she would, I don't think David would ever say that. She would flat out say that Trump, she didn't see Trump do something bad. I think she'll just say, I, you know, I don't ever recall or something. You know, how you don't think he'd.

[Michael Popok]

Do a full proffer, like, hypothetically, she would say the following and then lay it out.

[Katie Fang]

I just feel like David would still do. Dave would have to be really careful about that. Right. Because. And here's the other thing. David is only able to do as much as Ghislaine has David do. Right. I mean, David is limited by the scope and the breadth of what his client is telling him. So, you know, and candidly. And this is kind of the pickle, right. Where else is David supposed to litmus test the truth of what Ghislaine Maxwell is telling him? He can't. Unless you actually have access to the entirety of Epstein files, which we know David doesn't have either. Right. And so I feel like David probably took what Ghislaine had to say and gave it in a way that was not going to put Ghislaine Maxwell in a corner, per se. But I guess we'll find out if they release the transcript and the audio.

[Michael Popok]

So let's move forward before our break that happens, some version of what you and I just did happened. He goes to Tallahassee nine hours, doesn't bring any of the prosecutors with him who know anything about the case. So he's willfully blind. So he can't challenge anything that she says. Can't. He can't. As Todd Blanch, DEPARTMENT OF Justice.

[Katie Fang]

But he came with a list of names, Michael. He came with a list of.

[Michael Popok]

At least I got 100 names.

[Katie Fang]

Where do the. There's no client list. But where are those 100 names?

[Michael Popok]

Well, there, there's, there is. Now there's a Maxwell generated on the spot client list. Then we hear the Cheshire Cat response from Todd Blanche coming out of Tallahassee. Well, it'll be reason. We'll release it at the appropriate time. Now, if it was negative for Donald Trump, we'd never hear about it. We'd never hear from that again. But we knew it was never going to be. So now you've got here that. Now that. Now the, the, the deal points are falling into place in order in the return for that testimony to Exonerate Donald Trump by a convicted child sex trafficker. It was the immunity queen for the day she got it. It was moving her to a, a luxury prison camp in Texas with low walls you can hop over. By the way, there's no barbed wire.

[Katie Fang]

They live in work release off the camp. They're allowed to leave that camp and go do work release first.

[Michael Popok]

We could put this on a T shirt, merch alert. First child sexual predator ever to be given better accommodations by the Bureau of Prisons in its history. That's a fact. So that's two. And the third is obviously the pardon, whether it's been given already and somebody's holding it in their pocket in escrow.

[Podcast Announcer]

Or it's coming later.

[Michael Popok]

That's what the meeting tonight is all about. How do they use her in a way that, that benefits Donald Trump politically and his legacy? And how do they get themselves out of this tailspin that they, that the administration has placed themselves in? So for those that think they're not worried about anything in the Epstein files, having now spent three weeks trying to shove the genie back in the bottle and nothing working, actually getting worse, they are so worried that at the highest levels of the Trump administration, except for the big orange guy, they're all meeting tonight to discuss what to do next. What do you think the result of that meeting is going to be? Blanche on Rogan, Blanche on this, the release of the tapes.

[Katie Fang]

What do you think you're going to get? Excerpts of transcripts and excerpts of audio. I don't think Blanche ends up on. Excuse me. Yeah, I don't think Blanche ends up on Rogan. I think that's too much of a wild card because I would say that Rogan probably would push limits on this because Rogan is on record saying that he thinks that disgusting that the entirety of the Epstein files haven't been released.

[Michael Popok]

Right.

[Katie Fang]

But I think the excuse that DOJ gives on the excerpted transcript and audio is protection for innocent third parties. And that's one really quick thing I want to add before we take an ad break is this in the letters from the victims and survivors that have been submitted to the court regarding the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts. Michael, what it says in those letters is amazing. It says, and specifically Sigrid Cawley from Boy Schiller, who represents Annie Farmer, who's a very well known victim of Epstein and Maxwell and others. Sigrid includes in her letter that the court should not allow the Trump administration to guide the court in terms of the people who are now Going to be protected outside the scope of just the victims and the survivors, meaning, quote, innocent third parties to protect them from having people come to ill formed conclusions about their involvement with Epsilon Maxwell. Kali is saying, no, no, no, no, no, this should not be done by the Trump administration. This should not be, you know, you should not be guided by this, you know, idea that these people need to be protected in any way. Because you and I both know, Michael, that they have been relying upon the adjectives of, quote, credible information. Right. They've been trying to live in the Trump administration behind this idea that anything that gets released has to be, quote, credible. Right. In this instance, it should only be protection of the victims and the survivors. And that's it. Everybody else, to hell with high water. Democrats, Republicans, independents, whatever. You, if you're in the Epstein files, your name will be released. And you know what, let yourself explain what it is. But at this point, what's going to happen is the, the excerpts, the justification is going to be, well, we needed to protect all these people. And so it's not just going to be the victims and such that are going to be excerpted or redacted, excuse me, from these extra. It's just going to be a whole bunch of people, including Donald Trump.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. I'm glad you brought shine a light on the victims. They're, they're getting so lost here. Over a thousand women, then girls, pardon me, who were sexually abused by them and others. I'm not claiming that there, that there weren't others. And you already hear the support for what you just observed, Katie, because you see Alan Dershowitz on television who not only was Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, but was also accused by Virginia Jeffrey when she was alive. She committed suicide in April because of all this tragedy that he once was accused by her. There's a whole defamation case over it about participating in sex with her when she was a minor. She later recanted that later in life. But he said, well, I'm a perfect example. I was falsely accused and it has to be credible. You see this whole ecosystem around Donald Trump and the depravity around it, and I can't think of anybody better to talk about it with you, your former prosecutor and handled and handled cases like this, including including in Florida and know some of the players. So we're, when we come back, for those that are just tuning in late, carefree McNiffelo is away on assignment, we like to say, and sitting in is, I can't think of anybody better is Katie Fang, close personal friend of mine. When we come back from a break, we'll tell a little bit of the origin story. Just joined the Midas Touch Network with a great new, great new channel, the Katie Fang News Channel. Katie Fang News and what, where can.

[Katie Fang]

They find that Katie at Katie Fang News. K A T I E P H A N G News. It's very.

[Michael Popok]

So great. So people ask, how can you support what we do? You know that you're, you're watching mainstream media lose its, its touchstones, its icons being fired by corporate parents. Katie Fang being one of the first among them, unfortunately. And, and, and they're all, they're all jeopardized. Our counterparts on mainstream corporate owned media are under attack the way journalists all around the world are under attack. And the way to support what we do here because we don't put anything behind a paywall is through using your thumbs and your fingers to hit the subscribe button on the Midas Touch Network to hit the subscribe button on Legal AF and its YouTube channel, Legal AFMTN. There it is. If I joked recently that if we could just get our viewership and our subscribership to match one to one, we would be. We have 200 million views since September and we have a smaller number of subscribers. And I don't think it's because people don't like our work. I just think they don't think it's as important as it really is. So hit that subscribe button there as well. We've got a Legal AF sub stack where we post most of the filings and court orders and new content, new commentary. We just did a live Katie Feng and I just did a live, our first one together on Legal AF substack and that's free to hit the subscribe subscribe button there as well. And then we've got, you know, the legal A podcast itself always needs a little loving. We're doing great and because of you, top 20 in all YouTube podcasts. But we could, we could do better. The brothers are number one. We like to be up on the podium with them as well. So audio versions of the podcast, Download those legal AF, leave comments and 5 star reviews, all important video versions. If you're here watching, go over there and listen. Send it to your friends and family. Leave reviews. This is the way to support what we do. And the other way, we're fortunate enough as a media platform to have sponsors. They know what we're about. They don't know we're about to say. They know our content in general. I know it's like they read our script today. They know that our no, they do not.

[Katie Fang]

We are not beholden to anybody.

[Michael Popok]

Katie didn't even know Katie didn't even know the script until about 20 minutes ago. Okay, so they know our point of view. They know we're uncensored. They know what our audience is about and they want to reach that audience. So the way to support us is to support them. If you got the disposable income, if you got the coin, you know, we tested these products. We like these products. If it's something you find interesting, we recommend it. But you know, we're so glad they're here with us. So here's our first set of pro democracy sponsors in business. They say you can have better, cheaper or faster, but you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? That's exactly what Cohere, Thompson, Reuters and Specialized Bikes have since they upgraded to the next generation of the cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure OCI is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development, AI needs where you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high performance environment and spend less than you would with other clouds. How is it faster? OCI's block storage gives you more operations per second cheaper. OCI costs up to 50% less for compute, 70% less for storage and 80% less for networking better. In test after test, OCI customers report lower latency and and higher bandwidth versus other clouds.

[Podcast Announcer]

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[Michael Popok]

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[Podcast Announcer]

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[Michael Popok]

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[Katie Fang]

There's a lot to unpack, my friend. I mean, side piece thinks she's the only side piece. Turns out she's not the only side piece. And turns out this guy actually has side pieces that are out of the girls, too. Okay, this whole thing is so ridiculous. It involves also allegations of bags of cash that come rolling into Corey Mills home as well. But here's the thing. The reason why we're focusing on this tonight is. Yes, it is. And listen, the thing that y' all will learn about me, Michael knows this, is I. There's. There's a. There's this phrase in Spanish. No, I know. I bello mi lengua. There's no hair on my tongue. There's no hair on my tongue. People, when I see the downfall of maga, I'm gonna relish it. And when I see something like this happening, one, I feel very badly. I mean, for Miss. Ms. Langston. Two, I will remind people these are just allegations. So obviously, we need to wait and see. But look, her lawyer has put out some of the evidence in the form of tweet text messages that he's put out on social media showing that this guy, Corey Mills, a congressman, had threatened Ms. Langston to be able to release these videos and these photographs. And so not only do we have a federal law that is potentially having been violated by Representative Mills called the Take it Down act, which dealt with revenge porn. That's what we call it. In short, revenge porn. And interestingly, the sponsor for that one. Are you ready, Mike? Was Ted Cruz, which we also know had his own little kind of porn tab issue as well on the Internet, but whatever. And then there's a Florida law, which is a revenge porn law. And I'm going to cite to the exact statute because I like doing this with my viewers as well. It's section 784.089. It's entitled Sexual cyber harassment. And the first time you violate this law, it's a misdemeanor. The second time or more, it's a third degree felony, which is punishable by up to five years in Florida State Prison. But you cannot post graphic nature graphic images of sexual content without the consent of that person. And that is exactly what Mills has been alleged to have done in this case. But let's also talk about why the financial component of this Mike is so important as well. The woman in D.C. with whom that there was this allegation that he was physically violent with her, even though that didn't go anywhere. To be clear, apparently mills was paying $12,000 in rent for his beach house in New Smyrna beach that he was sharing with Ms. United States, Lindsay Langston, and $21,000 a month in rent for the D.C. penthouse that he was having with the Other side piece. And last month, the landlord filed an eviction notice in D.C. for his failure to pay $85,000 in rent from March to July. And according to Ms. United States, Ms. Langston, she would see people come to the shared house they had in New Smyrna beach with, quote, bags of cash. It all lives in a cesspool of filth because it just makes somebody like Mills susceptible to what, bribery, Susceptible to grift. I mean, these are the kinds of people that we don't want representing us in D.C. but we also don't want people that threaten to expose their girlfriends in their most intimate of poses and during intimate of moments. We don't want somebody like that that's such a cheap, little small blank man that wants to be able to accuse and allege that he's going to do this. I mean, it's really wild. And the fact that we talk about that just goes to show that people that are in positions of power, that control levels of power should not be involved in this type of stuff.

[Michael Popok]

Well, let's talk about, let's talk about MAGA and all this. This is the. Can you imagine if the Democrats or any other party in the course of just the last week, just the last week were publicly considering giving P. Diddy a pardon? What is it with Donald Trump and convicted sex? He didn't get the RICO charge, but he got other charges. P. Diddy is being considered for a pardon. Jorge Santos is being is being considered for a pardon. Lawrence Taylor, who is a twice convicted child sex abuser, was up on the stage with the president and other athletes and didn't even know why he was there. At one point he turned to the President. I don't know even why I'm here. I don't know why you're there either as a convict, but. And now you've got Corey Mills, who is maggot to the core you know, wrapped in an American flag while he's leaving behind a trail of creditor debt. A House Ethics Committee investigation, going after his girlfriend, having been accused by. She eventually recanted it. But you and I in another show can talk about why that happens sometimes. Being accused of abusing, physically abusing a girlfriend in. At the time in Washington. That's how this girlfriend found out about. She wasn't the only girlfriend, which led to the breakup, which led to the revenge porn. This is maga, folks. I know some people are like, yeah, but I like the fact that they're against transgender in sport.

[Podcast Announcer]

Okay, I'm great.

[Michael Popok]

You know, but that can't be the animating factor about every one of your voting decisions. If you're going to take maga, then you got to take maga. The good and the bad. I don't think there's any good penny. You're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. So I'm okay with people making a conscious decision to be in one party or the other. But if you're in that party, then you. Then you own it. You break it, you own it. You own that party and everything about it, including the reporting you and I are doing right now.

[Katie Fang]

So two things. One, you forgot one of my favorites, which is Matt Gaetz. How can you forget Matt Gaetz?

[Michael Popok]

I don't even know.

[Katie Fang]

And sex and Venmos and all that other stuff involving Matt Gates as well, in violation of the man act as well. So here's the thing. I really like what you just said because it makes sense. As of right now, we have a primary system of what, two parties, right? Democrats and Republicans. Last I checked, Mike, there's not a separate party called maga. So what's ridiculous is the people that say that they're Republicans and they vote for Trump and they support Trump, but they're very, very clear that. But they're not maga. Well, MAGA isn't a separate, standalone political party. And so in this instance, to your point, if you're a Republican, then you are all in for this. You are all in for the Corey Mills failure to pay his rent. But can we do this math for a hot sec, though? $34,000 a month in rent. This man is paying $34,000 a month in rent. I mean, that's high, right? But anyway, I digress. But you're in for this financial responsibility, the fiscal irresponsibility, which, ironically, fiscal responsibility is supposed to be the thing. Fiscal conservatism is the thing for Republicans. That do not want to be affiliated with maga. But they say I'm a socially liberal fiscal conservative that don't exist. But you are in for this. You were in for the Corey Mills with his multiple girlfriends and the allegations of assault and the allegations now of revenge porn, which is a crime, it is a federal crime and a state crime. And the level of casualness that, that these people have towards this cavalier. They're just like, oh, whatever. And here's the thing, it underscores the hypocrisy and it gets back to Epstein. Remember, part of the reason why we stay on the Epstein story is not only because of the victims, but we also want to show the hypocrisy of the campaign promises that continue to be broken by Trump. He, by all accounts, has kept many campaign promises that he promised to do a LA Project 25 to screw us over. But stuff like the Epstein files that he ran to say that he was going to release them the second he was in a position to be able to get them out. We want to highlight those lies. We want to highlight that hypocrisy. You got the same hypocrisy here with Corey Mills. The Republican Party, the party of values, the party of law and order, the party of, you know, let's get rid of, let's drain the swamp and get rid of those Democrats because they're so dirty and they're terrible and all this other stuff. And yet what are you seeing? You are seeing the Republicans saying, reporting for duty here, right? Reporting for my job of being alleged to have violated multiple federal and state statutes. Why? Because the guy is upset that his girlfriend that he was cheating with on his wife is breaking up with him because he, she saw him with another girlfriend. I mean, it really is so sordid. But it fundamentally goes down to values. And Democrats have values and Republicans do not.

[Michael Popok]

Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let's. We're going to take another quick break because you and I are going to round this off. You're traveling, I'm traveling. I'm actually making a play. Most people know I'm going to be in the same time zone, hopefully in the same house or restaurant with Ben tomorrow. Coming in, coming in later tonight. So we're doing all that. And that's the other thing about the Midas Touch network. The people I, I think have picked up. You know, we are, we are a collegial bunch. We are, we feel like we're family. I mean, I've been with the brothers since the first two months. I joke that I'M employee badge number four for the Midas Touch Network.

[Katie Fang]

I say they're my little brothers. I say Dallas boys are my little brothers.

[Michael Popok]

But then there's things like you and me where you weren't, you were not on television. You were thinking about running for judge at some point. Point. I met you at a fundraiser when I was a slightly older lawyer. Slightly older. And you were a younger lawyer in Miami Dade County. I remember where we were. I remember the fundraiser. And then from there we stayed fast friends and we bounced a lot of ideas around with each other and helped each other with our careers. And you had some issues. I had some issues. And we met regularly about that. And then we just stayed friends. And then from there you broke into legal reporting, legal commentary and different things, different and different channels in different networks and then eventually made your way to msnbc. And I followed you the whole way. And I remember I would see your, I was living in New York and I'd see a giant billboard advertising the Katie Fang show right on the Hudson. On the Hudson. And I was like on the west.

[Katie Fang]

Side highway or something, right?

[Michael Popok]

And I sent it to you.

[Katie Fang]

Oh, my God.

[Michael Popok]

And so we always had that kind of rapport. And so I, of course I was a, I was a huge supporter of bringing you and having you join here. And I always said once you were here, there, I just want to find ways to collaborate and do work with you. And I think our audience will be better for it and they'll and this, if we can bring our friendship into our, and the chemistry into what we do as an added benefit, I think it's, I think it's great. And here's. We did a live substack last night together. We're going to do that every week on one, one sub stack or the other. And we're going to, and we're going to do more work here together, of course, on Midas and on your channel. So that's how we got, that's how we got to this moment in time. And then we are going to, when we come back from our next ad break, we're going to talk about the Texas and California redistricting and the courage and bravery of those 50 members of the Texas House and what Texas is doing about it in terms of lawsuits and threats and fines and all of that. And then we'll, no pun intended, we'll round it out with big balls, talking about why Donald Trump is threatening the District of Columbia with his awesome power of being the President of the United states because his 19 year old sidekick 19 and doge guy got jacked while he was in DC. I mean, is that something we need to climb down from the lofty perch of being the President of the United States to, to challenge the sovereignty of the District of Columbia?

[Katie Fang]

It wasn't enough for him to climb off the roof.

[Michael Popok]

I was hoping he was going to do. I thought he was. I was hoping he was going to get off the roof a different way. Now on that note, I. We have our ways for our audience. They're always asking comments, how do you support the show? And it's easy. You're here already. Let your friends know about it. We're continuing to grow our audience really organically. We don't have billboards, we don't have, you know, we don't really advertise. It's just word of mouth from the Midas Touch network. And so we're over on audio podcast platforms. Of course. We end up regularly in the top 50 of all news podcasts in the in the world. And that's all because of you. So go over there, download us if maybe you've only. Oh my God, you have podcast audio. We thought you were all YouTube. Yeah, go over there and leave comments. We read them and five star reviews. Tell your friends about this. And then I do sort of clips of this that we put in different places like on the Legal AF substack in different places, send it off, invite people to join, leave comments here, of course. And then Legal F has a substack, has a YouTube channel and a substack legal AFMTN subscribe there. We're gonna cross 750000 subscribers I think in the next minute. No, actually we crossed it already. We're well on our way to the million where we want to bake. That's all with you. We know you love the channel. We just need you to help us and support the channel by hitting that subscribe button. It's all for free. And then we've got Legal AF the sub stack as well. And, and there we have that and that. We post everything under Filings AF and Morning AF and everything's AF on substack for you. And then I've got a new law firm I've talked to you about. Katie called the POPOC firm. I'm out in Chicago meeting with the major plaintiffs lawyers around the country that work with me. With the POPOC firm. We represent people in catastrophic injury, truck car rollover accidents, Uber Lyft rideshare accidents, medical malpractice, you know, civil rights cases. Of a very high level. Anything that's turned your life completely upside down or those in your family and you need justice, come to the Popoc Firm. There's a couple of ways for you to find your way there and talk to an actual person. No AI or only I, only intelligent people. On the other side of that phone call, you can go to a 1-800-number-1-877, Popak AF. Or you can go to the website, which is www.thepopoc firm.com for free case evaluation. And we don't get paid unless you do. So it's that kind of firm and we just always wanted to do an enterprise like that. I never could do it before, but now, certainly with my relationship with Legal AF and Midas Touch, we are doing it. And then we've got our Pro Democracy sp. All of these are curated by Jordi over on Midas Touch. We try them out ourselves and we like them. If you have some disposable income, I'm sure that they could use the support. We could use the support by having them be our sponsors. And here's another clip.

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[Michael Popok]

Welcome back. Thank you so much from the bottom of our heart for the support for the Midas Touch Network and of course Legal af. Look at Katie Fang there with me. I'm so pleased to have a close friend of mine. There's no. No bs. This is real friendship.

[Podcast Announcer]

Real.

[Katie Fang]

This is how we are when we're hanging out.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. We just saw each other in Miami.

[Katie Fang]

I know. And this is how we are.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. We were like, we gotta do this like for an audience. Let's do this for this. So here we are. So we're gonna do Katie has become an expert. I've been watching all your great work on the Katie Katie Fang Channel about Texas and its attempt to redistrict and the Brave 50. I don't know if they have a name yet, but the brave 50 that have decided to do a little bit of caucus busting and breaking and make sure that they can't vote on this map. And then, and then Texas's response to that. And then you do all of that and I'll touch on California for a minute and then. And then we'll round it out with pun intended with big balls.

[Katie Fang]

All right, so very quickly because I just did an in depth video about this on my YouTube channel. The Katie Fang News Channel, if you're interested in, to follow along. But just late yesterday, the Texas governor Greg Abbott filed a petition for a writ of, quote, rwanto, which is pretty much just a big Latin phrase, saying that they want the Texas Supreme Court to declare that State Representative Gene Wu, who is the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, that he, as a part of this 60 or so Texas House representatives that left the state of Texas on Sunday and went to Illinois, New York and other jurisdictions to break free quorum. Abbott wants the Texas Supreme Court to declare that he has, quote, abandoned his office pursuant to a Florida, excuse me, a Texas state statute. And as a result, his seat is vacant. So what can Abbott do? He can then try to do an appointment into that seat. I mean, it is the total gamesmanship here that is just so nakedly partisan that bothers me. But what's really fascinating is there's a little bit of a brouhaha going on behind the scenes. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton basically has written a letter to the Texas Supreme Court clerk saying, I see what Governor Abbott did, but let me remind you, it's actually me as the Texas attorney general who's actually the person who should be doing these quo petitions. And so you know what, we just need you as a Texas Supreme Court to just keep that on the back burner for now. And then after the expiration of a deadline on Friday, which the House speaker said, you guys need to come back to Texas, if you don't, then there's going to be problems. Paxton said, you know what? On Friday, if something comes and goes after that deadline, I'll take it into my own hands. So what's fascinating is you also have a little bit of some chest thumping that's going on between Paxton and Abbott. But this is what I think is really the issue here, Michael. I think that this petition for a writ of quoanto is a test balloon. And the reason why they're targeting Jean Woo is not only is he the chair of the Democratic House caucus, but Abbott is accusing him of being the, quote, ringleader behind this breaking of quorum. And the petition itself cites to social media postings and other kind of quotes within the media about why the Democrats were preparing to break quorum and the fact that they were taking money because Abbott says that bribery has happened. He is actually saying that criminal activity has occurred by these Texas Dems who have been taking donations to be able to live while they have broken quorum and they are out of the state of Texas. But I'm also going to say something very kind of, I think, which is true as well, Michael. He's targeting Jean Wu because he's a minority. He's targeting a person of color because he's hoping that that will also rile up his MAGA base behind this idea that Democrats are these crazy Texans that are running amok and that they're, quote, abandoning their jobs. But we've heard from Representative Wu and others and they've made it clear they're doing their jobs. Their jobs are to represent their constituents who are having their representation stolen by these Texas Republicans who are only doing the bidding of Donald Trump here. And so we're watching this very carefully because we want to see what the Texas Supreme Court does because it may establish a precedent, Michael, legally to allow Abbott and or Paxton to go after the remaining Texas Dems that have left the state.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah. When I, when you and I were preparing, I said, you know, I saw your quote, waronto research that you put into the chat. I looked at, I thought, well, there'll be 50 names there. Right. And I see, I see Representative Wu, of course, I joked with you. And you agree.

[Katie Fang]

So after the Asian.

[Michael Popok]

No, you go, that's what I just did in my hot take. They went after the Asian one. And as the test case. Because he's not Texan, because he's not.

[Katie Fang]

From around here and yet he's so Texan. Listen, he was born in China and his family immigrated and of course we're going after the immigrants too. Right. Because that's very on grand maga. But he immigrated with his family from Texas. And Michael, he is a Texan through and through. He's been raised in Texas and he's been educated in Texas and he's raising his own family in Texas. And that's the thing. You can only be Texas if you're what, white or you're only maga. That's the only way you could be Texas.

[Michael Popok]

You ever watch the comedian that has the show Mo?

[Katie Fang]

Yeah, of course.

[Michael Popok]

You know, and he's Palestinian, living in Texas, but he considers himself Texan through and through and talks about that a lot in the stand up and all. And but you know, these are the ways that they're trying to destabilize and we'll do it on another you and I'll do it maybe on a live, you know, they're trying to attack the leaders of and the brand of being a Democrat. That's why Pamela Jo Blondie, as Laura Loomer calls her, is going after Barack Obama and going after The Clintons, they're, they're not. Trump is not content with being a sore winner and winning a couple of times and winning this presidency and putting out and squelching his criminal investigations. No, he wants to do everything he can to destroy the brand and the party of being a Democrat. And that's what we've been watching along with his retaliation and retribution campaign. And so it's so important. And the short answer on the Texas thing is yes, quorum breaking, which is what the Texas Supreme Court has even acknowledged as a legitimate form of political expression where you're representing your, your constituents by denying the quorum necessary. You need a 2/3 quorum in Texas to vote. They're on a 30 day session now to try to get that map passed by walking out. That's what we've been watching it denied them. The, the, they've been sitting around twiddling, twiddling their thumbs because they don't have the quorum. If they get removed, the quorum number goes down and they can go back to the work of screwing the Democrats and removing five seats that are held currently by Democrats and then he can.

[Katie Fang]

Fill those vacancies with MAGA Republicans. What's the redistricting fight over? The racial gerrymandering of giving five additional new congressional districts to Republicans. It's just. Yeah, but now brazen on its face.

[Michael Popok]

But why they're doing it because some people are like, isn't it a feudal exercise? They're ultimately whatever. No, in many states there's been great examples. And the walkout has been going on in Texas since 1870. The first walkout went on 1870 was.

[Katie Fang]

Over the rump Senate.

[Michael Popok]

So it works. And sometimes you're able to bargain because if they can't get the map passed, then they'll come back to the table to the Democrats and say, all right, we'll eliminate three seats, not five. They'll be bargaining, which is still not great, but it's better than the alternative. Now you contrast that with this map thing is going on in blue states too. You know, it's like a little bit of a mutual assured destruction. I mean, the Republicans are definitely trying to change the electoral advantage for the midterms and have a win for Donald Trump before we even vote. And Democrats are doing the same thing. The problem with the Democrats, you look, because you know, Gavin Newsom is staking a lot of his political fortune on his ability to get through a very pro Democratic map there, you know, and you see J.D. vance reaches out and goes, how can that Even be legal. Like, well, go look at the Texas map. I mean, what do you think?

[Katie Fang]

The Texas map, How is that legal?

[Michael Popok]

How is that legal? So it's a little bit of symmetry going on here where the blue states are going to get bluer, the red states or purpley states are going to get redder, and we're going to sort of be, as Americans, we're going to kind of be stuck in the middle. The problem is in some of the states like New York, we have a problem because we got out foxed by the few Republicans there and they had us adopt a map and a recommendation on a map from a guy who was supposed to be independent that ended up making it a Republican advantage in an entirely blue state. So the state where we could have screwed them, we figured out a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a major electoral state like New York. And there is a person and you and I'll, we'll do separate hot takes on it. And I don't, I don't want to blow it here, but there is a person behind all of this map drawing for the Republicans, one person in particular that runs like the Republican redistricting map. Trust. It's some ridiculous name, but he's the person who's the alleged expert that is running around trying to get all these maps approved and who the Texans and the other MAGA are relying on. And I'm going to do a little, my own little expose on that guy at another time. But there is a, as, as always, there's a person, just like the attacks on all the higher education by the Trump administration. There is a guy, literally a guy behind that in the Trump administration. Just, just as there is a guy, a person behind all the redistricting.

[Katie Fang]

I just want to, very quickly, before we move on to big balls, I just want to say this. Maybe my hope from all of this, though, Michael, is that we get to the very necessary, long overdue conversation about the Electoral College. That's my hope, because I feel like we have to revisit the Electoral College issue. I feel like a lot of this, you know, gamesmanship that is happening on the redistricting and the gerrymandering, it lives in, in the land of legal, when it deals with violations of the Voting Rights act. Because I want to make it perfectly clear, redistricting in and of itself is not bad. It is supposed to happen every decade after a census is done. It's this mid decade, you know, BS that's happening right now in Texas. That Desantis is now threatening to do in Florida as well. Michael, I don't know if you know that, but DeSantis is threatening doing it as well in Florida. But it's this mid decade bullshit that we all know is being done. And what's wild is the United States Supreme Court in 2019 said that it actually was okay to be able to do it on police bases. But the Voting Rights act was supposed to be able to say, you cannot dilute people of color and their ability to be able to have their votes and having the representation that they deserve. Which is why we have to be able to protect the Voting Rights Act. We have to be able to protect the existing case law on this. We have to be able to protect our people of color. But the Electoral College issue, maybe you and I need to come back together and do this on a live here. It's really important for people to talk about the Electoral College because I feel like people need to go back to this idea of what, one vote per person and that's how it rolls out. But I digress a little bit here.

[Michael Popok]

Yeah, we'll probably do a live substack on that. That's a good one. Because I'm not as confident about changing over to some sort of popular vote. We just watched a populist ride into office and win the popular vote. And I'm, I'm not worried. I'm as worried about this Trump as I am the next Trump. And we'll, we'll, that, that'll be a, that'll be a great teaser for, for, for our, our live substack. And speaking of teaser, we've been teasing Big Balls all episode so let's get to it quickly. We've got a 19 year old. I'm not making this stuff up, people. We got a 19 year old musk acolyte devotee who came in with Musk and from Doge, they, they released him into all the agencies. He broke through all the computer barriers. You know, he, he, the goal is like this giant, one big government database. That's the goal of, of MAGA and DOGE and Project 2025 Heritage Foundation. They want this one giant, you know, even though it'll, it'll be hacked within 20 minutes by the North Koreans or the Russians or the Chinese. But they want the Chinese. Yeah, they want this one big thing. And so this guy went from door to door to Social Security to Treasury to all the places with our most confidential and private and sensitive of information. And they let 19 year old guy named Big Balls with his laptop Go in there. And there was even reporting at the time that, like at the Secretary of State, he started hitting the delete button on funding for, like, USAID when Marco Rubio didn't want that to happen. So at some point, I did a hot take on this, that I said, at this moment in time, write it down, put it in the time capsule. Our effective de facto Secretary of State is not Marco Rubio. It's a guy named Big Balls. And so that guy did not, unfortunately, crawl back under the rock he crawled out from when Elon Musk went back to continue to wreck his companies. He is still hanging around Washington and the government, working for the Trump administration. And something happened to him in the streets. Go ahead, Katie.

[Katie Fang]

He's working at the Social Security administration. Did you know that? Of all freaking places. But anyway, so he was with a young woman. It was 3:00am in the morning, according to the police report. And some people tried to carjack the car. Let me be clear. I hate crime. We all hate crime. I'm sorry it happened. But what did Elon Musk try to do? Elon Musk made it sound like he was attacked by 50,000 people and that he was some big hero. Maybe he is, maybe he's not. But the way that they're trying to make this into a much bigger deal just goes to show that they want to sit there and they want to denigrate the city of D.C. because what they want to do is Trump wants to federalize D.C. now, Trump is now using this carjacking, the attempted carjacking attempt here. And he wants to be able to basically say that D.C. can no longer have its autonomy and independence, that it has to basically be run and operated by the federal government, which we've heard, this is a common refrain from Trump. He did it in Trump 1.0 in his first term as well. But it's terrible. Nobody wants crime. But for them to basically say, and by the way, it is just dripping with racism, you can't live in D.C. because the only thing that happens in D.C. is crime. And of course, he's basically saying it's happening because of minorities, but that's not the case. And to use this as an excuse to try to advance your plan of federalizing cities is typical Trump and typically disgusting.

[Michael Popok]

And that social media posting, I mean, I love a bunch of 14 year olds jumped big balls and took him down. Now, this is not, and this is what MAGA wants to portray. This is not like the scene in Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln where he's on the battlefield and he goes up to a 17 year old soldier as the President of the United States and says, hello, soldier, tell me about, you know, what's happening here. And you're, you know, it's not this poignant moment, okay, we have the effing President of the United States who took time out of a day when he's supposed to be running a government protecting our economic and security and protecting our national security to comment about a carjacking involving a guy named Big Balls. I'm sorry if I'm not getting all misty eyed. This is not going to win an Oscar. If he would just, I would love to say if he would just do his job, but the problem is if he focuses on his job, it's worse. I, sometimes I think I like, I want him to be distracted because it's one less nefarious, disgusting thing that he's going to do with official policy that day. But you know, the fact that he is so I'll talk about Trump now. Is so mentally fatigued and gassed. I mean, you see him over and over again.

[Katie Fang]

He can barely wandering on the roof.

[Michael Popok]

Wandering off the roof. God, I wish, you know, a long walk off a short pier would have been good. But then you've got, he can't, you know, the mangled sentence structure, the allegations that he's illiterate and can't read, which have come up. He can't get himself up and down Air Force One. I mean, say what you want about Joe Biden and the Democrats getting pilloried because of it, but what are, what are we watching? And does anybody think his brain is going to heal over the next three and a half years? It's going to get better. You know, you and I both had and have now lost parents who had some version of dementia. My mother passed away two months ago. My father, yep, yeah, my mother has frontal, had frontal lobe dementia. And I made a nice donation and asked everybody to donate in her name related to it. So I watched this happen. My mother developed it at 78. She was happy and carefree and living her best life at 78. And the next day she was in a wheelchair and lived that way until she died at 89. So I've seen this. Okay. I'm not diagnosing the guy. I'm not paid to do that. But things presidencies age you and what we are already watching just seven months in is, is just the Donald Trump's brain going down and washing down the drain.

[Katie Fang]

He was, his brain was already addled or Trump 1.0 in 2016. That was not even a secret back then.

[Michael Popok]

Butler, Pennsylvania didn't help him.

[Katie Fang]

Well, I'm sorry that. That we need to have a whole other layout about that, because that dude's ear is way too intact for that to have happened. But I will just say quickly about the Big Balls thing. A very small little note in the police report was Big Balls had his cell phone stolen.

[Michael Popok]

Oh, yeah.

[Katie Fang]

Which people have stolen all the time or they lose them. But my concern is, it's Doge. It's Big Balls. I mean, what in the actual hell did this man actually have on his cell phone in terms of data and access? I just want to leave our viewers with that fearful thought because we already know what they have accessed as Doge, and this guy's now at the Social Security Administration. You mean to tell me he keeps multiple phones for work? Do you think he's thoughtful enough to say, here's my work phone, here's my personal phone? No. So it's all there. And my concern is what in the actual hell was on his phone? Yeah, maybe he has. Maybe he has pictures with Corey Mills. Maybe that's what he has.

[Michael Popok]

Whatever it is, we're gonna find out. I am so, so thrilled to have gotten through an entire show with you, not just a little subset.

[Katie Fang]

I didn't break anything.

[Michael Popok]

What do you mean? Whatever you broke, you're making good trouble. That's why you're on. That's why you're with us. Katie Fang. Katie Fang. Channel. News. Channel.

[Podcast Announcer]

Channel.

[Katie Fang]

Katie Fang News.

[Michael Popok]

Sorry. Katie Fang News. Midas Touch powered over on my sister channel, Legal AF YouTube, that I curate. And I'm the editor in chief of. And I got a big announcement here. Just that sort of. Towards the end, it seems like every week or two, I'm announcing a new contributor that's joined us, and our latest is Adam Klassfeld.

[Katie Fang]

Big fan.

[Michael Popok]

I told him we. We. Our first video's up right now. I did. It's kind of the intro video. He's gonna do at least one a day exclusively for us and has All Rise News and website and substack. And that is. That is the Journal. The legal journalist. Journalist. Like we use him as an input for our work.

[Katie Fang]

He and I were at the Trump trials together, and we were at covering Trump together. When I was still at msnbc, he.

[Michael Popok]

Was at Ghislaine Maxwell's trial every day.

[Katie Fang]

And he's just one of those just all around decent, good people. Which is why I would like to just say, as a Point of personal privilege for all of you tuning in right now. What you see with Mike and me, this is the energy we have, but we also have that with other people at Midas. And when we bring in these different contributors, these are legit people. These are people that are real. They are substantive. They actually know what they're talking about. And that's what I love. You don't have people, like, on linear cable tv, it's the same talking head saying the same damn shit over and over again. You're like, okay, great, thanks. I can literally turn the TV off and come back two hours later. It's the same stuff. Content.

[Michael Popok]

You know, I'm not going to name names, but some of the stuff I watch from our quote, unquote competitors, I'm like. My jaw drops open like that. That person just said that. It's so wrong. Either procedurally, legally.

[Katie Fang]

Yeah. Or substantively wrong.

[Podcast Announcer]

I would never.

[Michael Popok]

They think that's how that conversation went. That would never happen in real life. But this is what passes for competent legal and political analysis on mainstream media. So I get a guy like Adam Klassfeld, who we've been, you know, we always looked at All Rise News, like, because he's. The competitive advantage he has. He flies around the country and sits in these courtrooms and picks up things. He was there every day for Ghislaine Maxwell's trial. He can say, like, Todd Blanche, he can say, this was the evidence. This was the. This was the. The thousand witnesses that testified and all the people. This was the sex crimes against Ghislaine Maxwell that came into evidence. And he has a lot of, you know, it's just really great. Really.

[Katie Fang]

Congratulations. He's a great.

[Michael Popok]

Thank you very much. So Legal AF there as well. The other way to support us, hit the subscribe button for Midas Touch for Legal AF, the YouTube channel for Katie's new channel. Come over to the audio versions of Legal af, the podcast. We still need help there. This is how they rank us. This is how we stay on the air. It's not money. You see, I never. I never say send money. I never say send money. I say send thumbs and fingers to the subscribe button. That's what I said.

[Katie Fang]

Subscribe. That's what he said. Support through Subscribe.

[Michael Popok]

I like that. I'm gonna steal that support.

[Katie Fang]

You're welcome.

[Michael Popok]

All right. And catch Katie, Fang and I at the next sub stack. Either hers or Legal af, we're gonna be trying to be doing at least once a week. And I'm so pleased that you're able to join us now. So until our next on Saturday, I'll be with Ben. I won't be live because I'll actually be back, back home by then. But he and I. I won't be with him in the same room. I mean. But you'll tune into Legal Layoff on Saturday. Until then, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal A effers.

[Bluehost Representative]

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