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- [00:01]
Lifelock/Progressive Insurance Advertiser
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- [00:59]
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- [01:27]
Michael Popak
Welcome to the Intersection. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network. So much has changed since last Tuesday when I did my last episode. I don't know if it's a turning Point moment or a Hinge moment, but we have a before the murder of Charlie Kirk moment in America and an after as the Trump administration and its leadership, including Donald Trump, including Pam Bondi, the Attorney General, including Cash Patel of the FBI, all of which I'll talk about on tonight's show. Said the quiet part out loud, that they are going to be targeting and going after people because they don't like what they're saying about their administration. They don't like what they're saying and they're trying to constitute that and recast it as hate speech. And therefore they're going to use the power of the Department of Justice, the State Department, the military to go after, quote, unquote, people who don't speak the way MAGA wants you to speak week go after constitutionally protected First Amendment speech. So I want to talk about all that. I'll be tying a lot of different strands together. If you Give me long enough on this podcast, I promise you I will tie it all together. Let's start with what we just watched with Donald Trump, which I referred to as the Seal Team Six moment. Are we at that moment that was anticipated by Justice Sotomayor in which and justice and Judge Pan, that now Donald Trump believes, having gotten criminal immunity for his. His const. His constitutional presidential functions from the Supreme Court two years ago, that he can use the might of the military to take out his political enemies, his rivals, anybody that he designates an enemy of the state, including apparently 60% of America that doesn't agree with him. Is that the dress rehearsal that we just watched in the Caribbean as not one, but two ships have been fired upon and destroyed, killing a dozen or more people without due process because Donald Trump pushed the button? Is this the Seal Team Six moment that we were dreading? Is it now upon us where Donald Trump believes that he has the power to, quote, unquote, use Seal Team 6 to take out his political rivals? That was the question that was posed to his Advocates at the D.C. circuit Federal Circuit Court of Appeals at the United States Supreme Court. Same person, John Sauer, now the Solicitor General of the United States and never could answer the question. And now you've got people who are about to be confirmed to be on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, them saying, well, it's a. It's a. It hasn't been determined yet. It's a case of first impression whether Donald Trump can use the power of the presidency and the military to kill somebody on domestic soil that he politically disagrees with. That's in question. Uh, no, no. And then you have Pam Bondi, who says out loud that the. She's definitely going to use the power of the Department of Justice to go after a hate speech to which even Fox News anchors had to remind her and do a double take and say, that's First Amendment protected speech, even if it makes you uncomfortable. That's the point. Charlie Kirk said almost everything that came out of his mouth made me, repulsed me, made me angry, disgusted me, violated my morals and my principles, and made me, putting it mildly, uncomfortable. But as I said, and I've said before, I will defend with my breath, my last breath, the right for him to have said that out loud and make me uncomfortable. We win these battles in the soapbox of the soapbox, right in the marketplace of ideas, in the public square, in the electronic public square, in social media, for the hearts and minds that we're battling, for the hearts and minds of the American People, at bottom, we are all Americans and patriots. That should never be denied or prosecuted or lead to your arrest just because you're on a different political aisle than somebody else. So in so in response to Pam Bondi saying she's going to use the powers of the Department of Justice to target people, here's what Justice Sotomayor had to say. See if you can figure out who she's talking about. Let's play the clip.
- [05:56]
Senator or Political Commentator
And the thing that gets to me is every time I listen to, 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 curriculum as your first year courses.
- [06:33]
Michael Popak
We've got we what do we just watch? In the last 24 hours, the vice President of the United States. The Vice President of the United States used the White House and the West Wing to conduct a political rally masquerading as a podcast to sit in the chair of the late Charlie Kirk from the White House on my taxpayer dime in order to rail against liberals and Democrats who he says is the root cause of this, this murder while he's the Vice President of the United States. May I remind J.D. vance just for a moment that a guy who looked an awful lot like you before he was running for office, I think he was even beardless, said that Donald Trump was America's Hitler and that he would never vote for Donald Trump if his life depended on it. And then of course, he had to defend those. Here's a clip of just so you can remember JD Vance calling Donald Trump America's Hitler, which is sort of a little bit of, a little bit of irony considering Donald Trump from the White House said that the one of the reasons Charlie Kirk is dead is because the left compares him and others to Hitler. Here's JD Vance's clip from our way back machine.
- [08:02]
JD Vance
This is an evolution. And I know you've been asked about this before, about past comments that you've made about Donald Trump. You've said, I've never, I'm a never Trump guy, never liked him, terrible candidate, idiot. If you voted for him, might be America's Hitler, might be a cynical, a hole cultural heroine, noxious and reprehensible. Those are things.
- [08:23]
Michael Popak
And then he has the brass ones to sit in violation of the Hatch act, by the way, against politicking and electioneering while you're on the the public dole and so you have the Bondi JD Vance. And who's JD Vance? One of his first guests. Right. Direct from the crypt is the Grim Reaper, Stephen Miller, who comes on because he's, he's a perfect presentation of all that's wrong with maga. Right. He checks, he checks all the boxes. They're just all the wrong boxes. And then he goes after America from the bully Is one thing to call it the bully pulpit. There's another thing to, to, to transmit a podcast and conduct a podcast from the, from the West Wing, from the, from the White House. And he comes on and starts attacking me and you and anybody that's interested in the Midas Dutch network or legal AF or anything like that. And then I want to fast forward a little bit to Cash Patel. I said I thought that was going to be an S show of epic proportion before he went on. But I could not anticipate how badly it would go for Cash Patel. And there's no hiding it. He, if he's not fired in the next 30 days, I would be shocked. I, I'll come back and tell you I was shocked because of what led into this performance and the performance itself today. And it's all performative at the U.S. senate Senate Judiciary Committee and their oversight over the FBI and the questions and the sharp questioning and grilling of Cash Patel by Senators Blumenthal, Senator Schiff and Senator Cory Booker and the approach that Kash Patel took to responding to these questions that he should have known were coming. What about Epstein and the Epstein scandal, the COVID up and things that Cash Patel himself said about the botched manhunt for the Charlie Kirk murderer or suspect. That wasn't a manhunt, that was a mom hunt. The mom saw the photo which any law enforcement officer could have posted up on television. And between that the father and administer the suspects in custody, it had as much to do with Cash Patel as it did with me in the capture of that guy. But he's, he comes on there and even he, even when he gets a softball, a softball question from Senator Kennedy, it blows up on his face. I joked recently I never saw a man drown before until I saw Cash Patel during the Senate Oversight Committee or the Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing. In fact, let's start with. I'll show you a couple of clips. You should know what I'm talking about. Here's Senator Blumenthal reminding Cash Patel that he effectively lied to the American people during the confirmation process about not having a retribution list or a hit list that he was Going to execute on when he got into office. If he got into office. Here. Watch this exchange.
- [11:59]
Senator Blumenthal
I'm not going to mince words. You lied to us. In the short time that you've been FBI director, you've presided over a rash of retaliatory firings. Three FBI agents have recently sued you. They are FBI agents with 60 years between them of distinguished service, rescuing hostages, saving kids from predators, dismantling drug cartels. And their allegations, their civil allegations, are a searing indictment of your tenure as FBI Director. But it's not just those three. The FBI Agents association has said that your actions, quote, distract agents from their work, foster fear that their assignments could cost them their careers either now or under the next administration, and increase the risk of criminal and national security threats by undermining unity and morale within the Bureau. End quote. This association, as you know, is voluntary. It represents 14,000 members, 90% of all the active agents. These are your employees saying that your performance has been unqualified and unfit. And there is mounting evidence that these retaliatory firings were the result of direction from the White House. There have been instances in the past, here, history of the Bureau, of political interference and political direction from the Director's office, but not the kind of institutional interference that we're seeing from the White House right now.
- [14:01]
Michael Popak
And it went downhill from there for Cash Patel, if that's even possible. And everything was a triggering event for him. Epstein, he was triggered. You know, Charlie Kirk, he was triggered. And then he said some really stupid stuff out loud to. To Senator Kennedy from Louisiana about Epstein. First of all, he admitted that he doesn't know what's in the files. He told the American people, Cash Patel in February that he would. No stone would be left unturned, that he would release everything, every shred of paper, full transparency to the American people from the Epstein files. That was February. We are now in mid September. None of that has happened except for more cover up and more conspiracy, of which he is a complicit part. Privately, he's been trying to leave the FBI. It was either, you know, and there's a rumor out there that both Todd Blanch and Pam Bondi want Cash Patel gone. Fox News, by the way, itself threw him an anchor instead of a life preserver. By the way, they're reporting Cash Patel. Knives are out for Cash Patel is one headline. Uh, Cash Patel grilled by Senate is another headline. That's not a paper that's trying to help you out, if you know what I mean. So he's thrown this what was supposed to be a softball question where he effectively admits he doesn't know what's in the Epstein files. So he's buried his head in his hand. But that what he does know about what's in the Epstein files. Here's the non sequitur. Here's the internal inconsistency. What he does know about what's in the Epstein files has led him to the conclusion that nobody else was involved or benefited from the sex trafficking ring of children except for Jeffrey Epstein. That's not the talking point he was supposed to come up with. He was supposed to come up with a talking point that Bill Clinton was involved. Right. Isn't that what's supposed to happen? So we have the. Let me show you the clip now of the exchange, which, again, was supposed to be a softball but ended up being a live hand grenade. Let's play the clip. You've seen most of the files. Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?
- [16:19]
Senator or Political Commentator
Himself? There is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals. And the information we have, again, is limited.
- [16:30]
Michael Popak
So the answer is no one.
- [16:32]
Senator or Political Commentator
For the information that we have in the files. In the case file.
- [16:37]
Michael Popak
Okay, then we go into the hard slide of the two most. I would say bombastic or just completely inappropriate. You know you would. You know, Kash Patel thought for a minute there that he was Robert Duvall in Godfather. He was demanding an apology from the Senate. I demand an apology, Senators. He starts fighting with Adam Schiff about a simple question about the Epstein files. Completely triggered. Somebody taught him, maybe Stephen Miller, that if he fights back, like Kavanaugh did during his confirmation hearing, maybe it'll come out fine. You be the judge who won this exchange. Let's. Let's play Adam Schiff. The American people to believe that. Do you think they're stupid?
- [17:27]
Senator or Political Commentator
No, I think the American people believe the truth. That I'm not in the weeds on the everyday movements of inmates. What I am doing is protecting this country, providing historic reform and combating the weaponization of intelligence by the likes of you. And we have countlessly proven you that to be a liar in Russia gate in January 6. You are the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate. You are a disgrace to this institution and an utter coward.
- [17:56]
Michael Popak
I'm not surprised.
- [17:58]
Senator or Political Commentator
I'm not surprised that you continue to lie from your perch and put on a show so you can go raise money for your charade. You are a political buffoon at best. Well, you can take and in a troll take it to the bank that the FBI is protecting this country and the state and citizens of California. But all you care about is a child sex predator that was prosecuted by a prior administration. And the Obama Justice Department and the Biden Justice Department did squat. And what did President Trump do? Bring new charges courageously and what have we done? Transparent FBI director in history, 33,000 patients pages of information to you. I challenge you to say anything credibly to the truth. Go ahead and run to the cameras where you want to go.
- [18:50]
Michael Popak
Now be quiet. And then if that's not enough, you know you're a buffoon. You're a fool. The American people will be the judge here. I think Schiff was smart not to have Grassley gaveled down cash Patel and reserve his time. Then we move on to Cory Booker. And Cory Booker I love for many reasons. One of them is he says out loud, I'm not afraid of you. And but more to the point, more poignantly, he says that you are not long for your job. I don't believe you'll be here at the next hearing. This will likely be the last time you and I will be together at a hearing like this. And the rest, let's play Cory Booker ripping out Kash Patel's heart and showing it to him on live television. Here we go.
- [19:39]
JD Vance
And it really makes me wonder who you're looking out for. It makes me think we can't trust you as a nation. You swear to release the Epstein files, but now you're withholding the Epstein files. You claim that you have a suspect in a serious assassination.
- [19:55]
Michael Popak
Whoops.
- [19:55]
JD Vance
Then you don't have a suspect. You know nothing about plans to remove FBI agents, yet you're directly involved in those plans. In the words of an ex FBI official, you are overseeing, and I quote, generational destruction of the nation's premier Law Enforcement Agency. Mr. Patel, in just eight months, you have assaulted the institutional integrity of the FBI. But I know FBI field agents. I've worked with them in Newark. No matter how truly bad you are, you can't undermine the legacy of agents who fight every day to keep us safe. But you can tarnish and the integrity of the agency and undermine the agency's capacity. I believe you're failing as a leader and that your failure does have serious implications for the safety and security of Americans and our families. We're more vulnerable to domestic and foreign attack because of your failures of leadership. I don't think you're fitted in the Bureau. But here's the thing. Mr. Patel, I think you're not going to be around long. I think this might be your last oversight hearing. Because as much as you supplicate yourself to the will of Donald Trump and not the Constitution of the United States of America, Donald Trump has shown us in his first term and in this term he is not loyal to people like you. He will cut you loose. This may be the last time I have a hearing with you because I don't think you're long for your job. But I'm going to tell you this. I pray for you. I pray for you that you can step up and defend your oath, defend the Constitution, and do a much better job of defending this country. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
- [21:32]
Michael Popak
Do you. So let's go through the all the ways that Cash Patel should not survive as FBI director. Right? He goes down his retribution list and fires people. He takes away the leadership and the brains of the operation of the FBI and LeT, and sends them packing. We now have the lawsuits to prove it. He sends 1500 FBI agents out of the federal headquarters in, in D.C. and sends them out to places like Huntsville, Alabama. They're ill prepared to handle any investigations to protect the homeland or to participate as an appropriate investigative agency. And this is all on his watch. He says he's reforming the FBI. He's hollowing it out, leaving us vulnerable. And it's all on full display for his first appearance, first major appearance anyway, in the last, you know, since the Epstein debacle, since the Charlie Kirk debacle. The timing couldn't have been better. Terrible for Donald Trump as he's parading around the UK trying to get some good photo ops with the royal family. He just wants to look presidential. But things like the Epstein scandal and its stench flash follow him around. Let's talk about now. The bat will leave the country for a minute. We'll go to the UK This Epstein scandal could bring down two governments, including Starmer's government in the UK about how he handled and how he hired his ambassador to the United States, Lord Mandelson, or Peter Mandelson, who was also known as the Lord of Darkness, Prince of Darkness because of his role as a media spin doctor. He was like one of Epstein's best friends. He's all over the birthday book. But the birthday book didn't get Lord Mendelssohn canned. The photos of a half naked guy, you know, hanging out with Epstein. It was the emails. It's always the emails. The emails that came out in the last week that Bloomberg got their hands on with 18,000 emails that nobody knew existed inside of Epstein's inbox and in the inbox or correspondence between Mandelson and Epstein in which Mandelson is telling him, you're like my best friend and I think the world of you and fight hard against the prosecutors. This is after he was already in negotiations with prosecutors about taking a, taking a charge for soliciting sex or soliciting prostitution from a minority, which completely turns the equation upside down. He wasn't solicit like a voluntary transaction. He was raping girls. That's the pedophile, that's the child sex trafficker for which Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted because he took the coward's way out or whatever way out and died before the trial. It's the emails that brought down Lord Mendelssohn. And then it questions whether Starmer, whether he and his government properly vetted Lord Mandelson. I mean the guy lost his job under Tony Blair twice in the prior administration, prior Cabinet, but they wanted to curry favor with Donald Trump and they knew that Donald Trump and Epstein and Trump and Mandelson were friends. So there we go. So Mandel, Mandelson either lied to the, to, to the government of UK during the vetting process, hoping the emails would never be found or the, or the right questions weren't asked. Now you kind of collided all together because Donald Trump tomorrow is going to be meeting with the UK Prime Minister at 10 Downing street and other places. And now you've got two guys who are drowning in the Epstein scandal coming together. While Cash Patel is not done, by the way, Senate is only the first stop. He's now got to go to the House. Cash Patel is off to the House Oversight Committee where he's going to have to face the inquisition of Jamie Raskin. Isn't that going to be fun? So whatever Donald Trump thought he was accomplishing by leaving the country on a short trip and trying to look presidential in a tuxedo and walk around and meet the King and Queen. Yeah, it ain't working. It's not working, you know, but we're going to see what comes out. We'll continue to follow what's happening in the Trump UK visit and the impact of the Epstein scandal. At least, at least the Prime Minister had the courage to fire the ambassador after he turned up in the birthday book. Donald Trump's excuse for being on page 157 of the 237 page leather bound birthday book to Epstein is, was it me? Everybody else has admitted that that is their submission and Some of them were as bad as Donald Trump's or worse. Basically confessing that they knew that Epstein was chasing after young girls and women, including hand drawn cartoons. Nobody else said, that's a forgery. I didn't do that. I. That's not my submission. Nobody except Donald Trump. Somebody forged my signature and made that, stuck it in the book. Who? Epstein. Who? In the middle of the book? Yeah. I'll do a handwriting analysis. All right, do a handwriting analysis. We've done our own analysis, as has the Washington Post, the New York Times, and it's pretty clear that it is your signature on there and words that you have used in the past, so good luck. And then they never explain, I love the White House. There was a. There's a forgery. That means there's a forger. Who's the forger? Why did they forge. Why would they just forge Donald Trump's name? Why would they shove it in the middle of the book and then have it sit around for 30 years, including in the hands of Epstein? And then with the Epstein estate to be surfaced now to embarrass Trump in 2025. This is gibberish. This doesn't even pass what we call the straight face test, because you can't keep a straight face telling that story. Speaking of stories and a straight face test, let me turn to the New York Times. I love the New York Times for many, many reasons. I don't agree with everything that's written in there, but I've been reading the Gray lady since I was. As my mother, my late mother would have told you since I was 8 years old. And I've been following the Schulzberger, the Ox. Schulzberger family. I've read every book there is about the New York Times and its founding family or the family that took over later and who currently owns it. You know, they're privately owned. They're privately controlled anyway by the Shulsburg Ox family. And now Donald Trump, this has been his arch enemy for a long time. And so because he's had a bad news cycle, and as I've said, this is my doctrine. Every time Donald Trump has a bad news cycle about Epstein or the economy or both, it's time to blow up human beings in the Caribbean. And in the name of some sort of war power, without due process or let's file another lawsuit against the political enemy of Donald Trump, in this case, the New York Times gets sued for, for, Let me get the number right. $55 billion, which is like five times the amount of Money that the company is worth in Tampa, Florida. Because again, he's avoiding Eileen Cannon, he's avoiding the judges. He doesn't like in Miami, but he wants to keep it in Florida. And one of the most conservative areas of Florida, although I would argue Jacksonville is more, is Tampa. So hoping for the Tampa judge to help him out. But then I read it. Defamation, which in order to sue a newspaper, media outlet for defamation or libel, meaning it's in print. So therefore libel, you have to prove not only that the thing is false, the statement made about you is false, and that you've been damaged as a result. Although there's certain types of defamation, we call them defamation per se, that you don't have to prove damages. You can. A dollar worth of damage is enough. Like about your reputation or loathsome disease, something else, you know, like somebody accuses you of having AIDS or that you're a terrible business person. That's enough to be defamation per se. But you still have to get over the hurdle. Even if you prove that the New York Times knew it was false to criticize your business dealings or your father's business dealings or your role on the Apprentice, this is all in the lawsuit or how you operate your projects kind of thing. Even if all of that were false, Donald Trump still has to allege in the complaint and prove at trial that the New York Times knew or should have known that what, what they wrote or allowed to be printed in their paper or in their books was false or they recklessly disregarded whether it's true or false. That's not what the complaint Sundays. The first 18 pages of the complaint is just a publicity poster for Donald Trump. It starts literally. We'll put it up on the screen. It starts literally with a picture of Donald Trump's electoral victory over Kamala Harris. And every other paragraph is just some sort of narcissistic. I'm the greatest person in the world. I'm the greatest business person in the world. I have the most charisma. These are his words in the world. I made Apprentice what it is. I've written books. I've been on WrestleMania. I've been on Home Alone, too. Yes, he wrote that in the complaint. But the problem is, when you get done with all of those allegations, and I go, all right, where's the meat? I see the bun. Where's the beef? And I get to the part where he's supposed to tell me not only where everything is defamatory, but how the New York Times has recklessly disregarded the truth or falsity of these things or knew that they were false. I get there. There's nothing there. I mean, literally, there's nothing there. Sure. He lists about 50 things the new York Times has said about him or his business dealings or his father or the apprentice over the last 10 years. Many of these things, I think are outside the statute of limitations. And then he says, but they're false. But they're false. But they're false. How are they false? Well, I am a great businessman. Well, who says that? I do. At one point, they actually reprint a just Donald Trump bragging about the other defamation lawsuits that he's brought against the Washington Post and the or against ABC and CBS and Paramount and the Washington Post. And I'm like, what does that have to do with the case against the New York Times? See, this lawsuit violates many aspects of the pleading requirements under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly that you have to have a concise statement of facts. You can't include impertinent, immaterial allegations. You can't drone on and prattle along in a prolix faction in a shotgun fashion, throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the pleading, bragging about your ego, bragging about how big your electoral victory was, bragging about other cases that you want and your own self, self congratulatory text mess. I mean, social media post about it. That is no place in a federal pleading that's filed. I don't care who the judge is going to be. And when you get down to it, there is a Supreme Court case. Now, some of the right wing MAGA may not like it, but it's been on the book since the early 1970s. It's called Times versus Sullivan. It's the New York Times case. They know their own First Amendment law and that established that for public figures like Donald Trump, you have to go one extra level in order to sustain a defamation case and win a defamation case. You have to show it. And so when I read this to show reckless disregard or what we call actual malice. So when I went to the actual malice paragraphs, I'm like, where are they? So I go to the section of the complaint where it's supposed to list actual malice. And all it says is they've got effectively Trump derangement syndrome and they hate me. Like, that's not. You have to show facts. You can't even just allege it in a legal conclusion. You have to show how you know that they have actual malice. Right? That there was an email, a telephone exchange, a comment, something that establishes it, nothing. So this suit, followed by Alejandro Brito is doomed for failure. But that's not what, that's not the reason they filed it. They filed it to have a talking point and to be able to attack the Trump, the Times and hope that they'll get them into a settlement posture. And the Times has fought back. I mean, the publisher of the New York, the editor and the owner of the New York Times came out and said right at the time the suit was filed that we're not going to back down, that we're going to protect our journalism, we're going to defend our reporters, we're going to defend our rights under the First Amendment. And everybody should also. I don't see them backing down. Now. They don't have as much money as Paramount or CBS and the rest of them or abc, but I don't see them backing down on this. And they, of course they shouldn't. They should win in the court of law a motion to dismiss and more importantly, a motion for sanctions. Because remember, Donald Trump got hit with a million dollar sanction when he and Alina ABA decided to do a very similar thing. What one judge called Judge Middlebrooks called a political screed masquerading as a lawsuit. Same thing. And they're doing it all over again. So they should bring what's called a Rule 11 motion to demand that this be retracted and withdrawn or they're going to seek attorneys fees and costs and other sanctions. And that's how Alina Haba and Donald Trump got hit, because they sued the Democratic Party, they sued Hillary Clinton and middle Brooks ripped them a new one and they paid the million dollars. Same thing should happen here at the New York Times. And the New York Times not backing down. I just did a hot take on this. They just reported a new expose, a brand, brand new scandal in which Donald Trump has effectively used the White House to line his pockets on his cryptocurrency company, World Liberty Financial, to have the United Arab Emirates pay money into the his company by way of buying $2 billion worth of stablecoin, which is a cryptocurrency that's tied to the US dollar. In return, it looks like he brokered a deal using the same people on both sides of the transaction to send the UAE high end AI artificial intelligence computer chips. So in other words, pay my company to benefit my family and me and Steve Witkoff, my special envoy and my golfing buddy, and in return we'll get you the AI chips that you want. Quid pro quo should be illegal. I'm sure there's going to be a lawsuit over it now that the expose came out. But the New York Times is fighting back, just like the Wall Street Journal fought back. You know, the Wall Street Journal got sued for its $50 billion or whatever. The number is down in, in the Southern District of Florida in Miami. And they fought back the next day writing a worse article against Donald Trump about Epstein. So you never pick a fight with somebody who buys ink by the barrel full. And the reason that Donald give you the legal litigation reason, the reason that Donald Trump sent the case to Tampa and away from Miami is he didn't want to get another judge in Miami to handle the case. And he's afraid of having Eileen Cannon get the case because I'm sure he's considering elevating her to some appellate court position or maybe the United States Supreme Court. And he doesn't want her to have the Trump case in front of her to foul that up. That's my working theory. I'm going to stay with that until the very end. Speaking of working theory, no segue. There's so many ways that from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank each and every, every one of you for helping us with the build over on legal AF substack. We just crossed 800,000 people. We're at 805,000 subscribers. And our one year anniversary for Legal A substack is tomorrow on Wednesday. One year ago Wednesday, we had one subscriber. It was me. No, actually I think Brett Meisellus was my first subscriber, to be fair. And now look what we've done. 265 million views over 12 contributors. We've got our own resident historians, we've got our, our group looking at federal corruption up to the, through the federal court system to the U.S. supreme Court. We got some amazing people there. Come over Legal AF YouTube and then help us here with this podcast Tuesday nights, 8pm, make it, make it a date. Meet me here, Legal af, sorry, Intersection here on the Midas Touch network. And then you can help. And I got great news about, about this show. You can help on the audio which is on, you know, like Spotify, Apple, that kind of thing. Download it, listen to it, leave a comment, five star review and then watch it. Watch us here on YouTube and send it off to other people. YouTube does a ranking of the top 100 YouTube podcasts of any genre. Could be anything. And we cracked the top hundred again last week. And that's because of you. Really it is. I do my part, but without this fervent support of the audience, we don't have anything. And then of course we've got the new legal AF sub stack where I'm doing two lives a day, 10 other pieces of content, amazing reporting and analysis. Come to Legal A F substack and join us there and consider becoming a paid member. And then we've got our Pro Democracy sponsors who also support what we do. Main ways to support us subscribe Paid subscription Legal AF Substack legalif YouTube channel and to keep Legal af the podcast and intersection at the top of the charts. That's what keeps us on the air. Okay, and now a word from our Pro Democracy sponsors. The Weather it's heating up and your nighttime bedroom temperature has a huge impact on your sleep quality. If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maids bed sheets. 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Uplift Desk builds premium ergonomic furniture designed to keep you moving, feeling good and doing your best work. You can customize your setup with over 200,000 desk combinations to fit your style and workflow. My personal favorite? Their wire management system. No more tangled cords, just clean, focused space. Your workday doesn't have to leave you feeling worn out. Go to uplift desk.com legal af and use our code legal af to get 4 free accessories free same day shipping free returns in an industry leading 15 year warranty that covers your entire desk plus an extra discount off your entire order. That's uplifT-E-S-K.com legal AF for this exclusive offer only available through our link. Welcome back. Let's pick up where we left off. About Lisa Cook on the Board of Governors Two people barely got into the room to consider rates and interest rates at the Federal Reserve Open Markets Committee meeting that's scheduled for tomorrow. The rates are announced at about 2:30pm Eastern time. One of them is Lisa Cook. It took a ruling by Judge Cobb which found on a preliminary injunction that Lisa Cook's firing for purported mortgage fraud More about that in a minute. Was both a violation of her Fifth Amendment due process rights and was improper for cause to remove her from her 14 year seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. That particular decision went up to eventually got affirmed just late last night two to one by the D.C. or the United States District Court Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit 2 to 1. With Judge Chiles and Judge Garcia siding with the Lisa Cook position there because it was an emergency appeal, they didn't really get to the substance, what we call the merits of the appeal. So instead they made a relatively straightforward ruling and said we don't have to get to weather but the mortgage fraud allegations are true or not, or whether they're sufficient to remove a Federal Reserve Board of Governor no, we'll just focus on due process. See, I've been saying since I heard the hearing, the evidentiary hearing conducted by Judge Cobb. I've been saying that the due process, the lack of a hearing and an ability to to defend against the allegations of mortgage fraud was the most glaring and most striking aspect of the entire case because I didn't know. I didn't know as much as I do. Now, about the quote, unquote mortgage fraud, I said she's going to win on due process. Cobb went further and said, I don't see how under the case law, even if it was mortgage fraud, that's not the type of misconduct in office that's required for removal. The three judge panel, two to one, Katzis, the Trump appointee, in dissent, of course, said the following. We have jurisdiction over this case because we have the right to do oversight as federal judges over Donald Trump's decision making process about who's on the Federal Reserve. Secondly, the for cause protection that the United States Supreme Court has placed over the firing, you can't fire except for good cause or for cause that creates a property right under the Fifth Amendment, which says that you can't remove a person's property interest without life, liberty or property without due process. Now, the due process is not often defined. It's usually a version of the ability to file a written response and some sort of hearing. But none of that happened here. As Judge Cobb, as her findings determined, the most that Lisa Cook got was a mean tweet from Bill Pulte, who's the Nepo baby donor to Donald Trump that runs Freddie Mae and Fannie Mac effectively bought his job there. Who started doing mean postings against Adam Schiff and against, and against Letitia James and against Lisa Cook accusing them all of mortgage fraud. Now, it turns out it wasn't fraud at all, at least as it relates to Lisa Cook, because she told her lender that the second home she was buying was a second home, was a vacation home. What they did after that is not her fault whether they gave her a lower rate, but she certainly didn't claim it on her taxes or her property taxes as her primary residence. And that's the whole case, that's the whole framing of Lisa Cook. So she wins two to one. Now, we're still waiting as we went on the air today, for this live, for the filing at the United States Supreme Court for Donald Trump on an emergency motion. I mean, he's winning 84% of his emergency motion applications at the U.S. supreme Court. 84%. If you're batting 840, you're going to take a shot at this, right? And John Roberts is going to have to make the first decision. Now, it may happen while we're up on the air and if it does, I'll report it to you. But the, and then I'll do a substack live to bring everybody back together. But the I expected they're going to appeal. But already Wednesday's upon us. And that's when the other person that barely got in the room, Steven Mirren, got sworn in fast. Yes, today on Tuesday, he's not been briefed at all to be on the board of governors to make the major decision and vote on interest rates. He's one of 12 that gets to vote. He's not prepared. His day job that he's apparently keeping is to be on the White House to be the head, the chairperson of the Council of Economic Advisors. He's not even giving up that job. He's staying in the White House while he's on the Federal Reserve, an independent central bank. Cuz he doesn't want to lose the job because if he gives it up and it gets filled by somebody else, he won't get it back. And this position is only for six months because he's replacing somebody whose term would have been up in about six months. So Lisa Cook is going to be there tomorrow unless John Roberts at a midnight tonight takes her off and he could. They're going to meet in the morning at 10, they're going to announce their decision at 2 to the world, to 2:30. Stranger things have happened. If I'm wrong or if it happens, I'll of course update you. But Mirren is going to be there. Again, not prepared. Awkward, awkward moment with Mirren whose boss is bashing Lisa Cook left and right. Maybe sitting next to Lisa Cook, I don't know. Now they make their decisions before they even enter the room. And it's done by majority. So you need seven votes for the rate cut and no surprise, rates are going to get cut tomorrow, probably a quarter point. That's what the Fed has been signaling for three for the last three weeks. It's just that Mirin and Waller and Bowman on the Trump side want deeper cuts. They want like a half a point or a point. Not gonna happen because it's bad for the economy. Because putting too much money into the economy leads to hyperinflation. And hyperinflation means you're paying 20, 30% more, you know, at the supermarket, at the gas pump for your health care, for your rent, for your everything else than you were before. And if you have hyperinflation and a stagnant economy, you have stagflation. And the Fed is trying to avoid that with the blunt instrument of rate setting. Lisa Cook was going to vote for that rate cut anyway and not because Donald Trump has been bashing her. She's going to keep her job, I believe. I don't think the Supreme Court, even with the precedent that they've established, is going to remove Lisa Cook, especially since due process has been violated. They may send it back and make the Trump administration give her due process and have her, let her the ability to defend herself. And all this evidence I just told you about, which Reuters broke. Reuters News service broke about she properly told her lender, the credit union, that this was going to be a vacation home or a second home. All that'll come out. She'll be able to defend herself, but it's not enough. But, but now that she's been completely undermined reputationally by many, many people, you know, just let her do her job. Right? She's the first black woman on the Federal Reserve. Just let her do her job. That's, that's, that's where I come down. So you've got the, this, the financial segment of the Intersection. I'm glad you're all here and joining us. And then I want to talk about Brian Kilmeade and why he still exists as a broadcaster. Because he was on Fox News and Fox and Friends when they were talking about a homeless man or an unhoused person who killed a young woman. And while they were debating what to do about the unhoused or homeless problem in America, including many veterans that are on the streets, unfortunately, when they were batting around, well, we got to take them, you know, take them into custody, we got to put them into treatment. And if they won't have treatment or whatever. And then Brian Kilmeade on FOX said out loud, just give him a lethal injection. Just kill the homeless people. That is not only a violation of the decency provisions of the Federal Communications Commission, led by a Trumper, led by a Project 2025 named Brendan Carr, that should lose Fox's license and put Brian Kilmeade out of business. But it's a crime. It's a crime in New York and in most places to solicit murder. It's also a terrorist act. Why? Or a hate crime. And he should be investigated by the Manhattan district attorney's office and prosecuted for it, no doubt. You can't say that out loud. You shouldn't even think it, that a group of disadvantaged, fragile population, they're already without homes. They're on the streets, they're vulnerable. And you just told your mass audience in the wake of what just happened with Charlie Kirk and how unhinged people are on that side to go out and kill the homeless, kill the unhoused, and that's okay. Pam Bondi is talking about I'm going after hate speech. I did it at the top of the show. I'm going to go after hate speech. You got hate speech right in front of you. It's in the form of Brian Kilmeade calling for the extermination of homeless people. I said, I said on a recent video hot take. Why don't we just do what Nazi Germany did? Is that what you want, Brian? We'll just tell them we're taking them to the showers and then they never return. Is that what we're going to do? We're going to gas them? Because you don't want to look you as you come out of your fat cat limo. You don't want to step over the homeless that are in front of Fox Plaza or whatever it is on 6th Avenue. Is that it? Brian Kill Me is a disgrace. He's everything that's wrong with MAGA and the Trump administration and he should be removed from my eyesight and taken off the air permanently and prosecuted. And I know the feds aren't going to do it, so I'm looking to the Manhattan District Attorney's office to do it for us, which is what they should exactly do. But, but they're not going to. Not when you've got J.D. vance, who called Donald Trump America's Hitler, now hosting the Charlie Kirk show from the comfy confines of the West Wing along with his sidekick, his Ed McMahon, Ed Stephen Miller, while Cash Patel goes on and starts attacking US Senators and saying that they're buffoons and fools while he flounders and drowns before the American people and is likely to be the scapegoat that gets fired by the Trump administration and for good reason, because we are now unsafe because he is in charge of the FBI. And we just saw a living, breathing example of it with the manhunt and the investigation and, and him going on Fox News Cash Patel and talking about DNA and evidence and undermining this suspect's ability to get a fair trial in America. He just handed a gift to the defense. What FBI director talks about the evidence before the investigation is even concluded? This one. This one. What attorney general goes after people who don't agree with the MAGA proposition in America and says they're going to be prosecuted for hate crimes? The Trump administration. Pam Bondi. What State Department says they're going to go after visa holders or people that wanted visas who were exercising their First Amendment rights about Charlie Kirk and have their visas pulled? MARCO Rubio, Trump Administration what MAGA Congress holds a religious vigil, holding candles and continuing with the consecration and the exaltation of Charlie Kirk as a martyr in the halls of Congress. MAGA Congress and the way that we can fight back is not with bullets, but with ballots, to paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, to compete in the marketplace of ideas, to reach the American young people that felt disconnected until they found the siren call of Charlie Kirk. We got to get them back. We got to get the youth back. We got to, we have to educate them and value, inculcate them and train them right and, and connect with them. May not be me. I'm not sure if 50 something white guy is going to be the one to break through with what used to be the, the Young Republican Club or the disaffected American youth that are on college campuses. But we have to find a way. We've got to get those voters. I may not agree with most of what the leading candidate for the mayoralty in New York stands for, but if we don't get his voters over to the Democratic Party and find a way to connect with them, it'll be very difficult for us to succeed as a national party. Now I'm waiting for the governors and mayors to stand up and senators who are fair minded, mainly Democrats, to stand up at this moment of crisis and fight back and find their footing and find their voice. We all struggled with it. You know, minutes after Charlie Kirk's murder, you know, I was struggling with tonality, what I would say, what I could say, what I, what I thought would be helpful to say. Not because I was worried about being taken off the air, because that's one of the reasons I'm committed to the Midas Touch Network, to the intersection, to legal AF into this community. Because nobody censors us, right? We know the law, we know it's. We know what we can say that's appropriate. But I was struggling personally with how to communicate to the audience at that, at that moment, because while there was a whole group of people that were grieving over the death of Charlie Kirk, there was another group of people, a much larger group of people grieving over the destruction of American values and crying about not having a president that knew how to unite or had any interest in uniting the American people in the light of this murder. And so there was two sobbing groups in America around the same event. And that's where leadership has to step forward. We'll do our part here on the Midas Touch Network. I promise you that. As most people know, this is what I do for a living full time, 35 year legal career. I have the POPOC firm. I'll talk about that in a minute. But my, my, my 99% focus every day, morning till I get up, you know, morning and in the morning when I get up, until the evening when I go to bed is bringing to you the commentary and the solidarity that you're looking for without blowing smoke or sunshine on this platform on Legal AF YouTube channel on Midas Touch on Legal AF substack. All these different places, right, to bring this group together. Because once we are in, once we are empowered with the truth and knowledge and strength in numbers, we will overcome the Trump administration. We have to. We're watching them flail around. This is one of the most corrupt, this is the most corrupt and divisive presidencies we've ever experienced. And that, that is everybody in his cabinet is at fault for that. And we'll be held accountable one day at the polls and maybe beyond. Yeah, and maybe beyond. So I'm glad you're here. On Intersection. Thank you for making the intersection A top 100 podcast among all podcasts on YouTube. Thanks for supporting Legal AF and getting us over the 800,000 threshold before our one year birthday tomorrow. And thanks for all of the legal A effers and Midas mighty and supporters of me who have come together and also working with me through the POPAC firm, the popoc firm I formed. It'll be a year in January, but we're already representing hundreds of Legal AF and Midas mighty around the country in your most personal and important of matters. Catastrophic injury, illness, medical malpractice, car accident, truck accident, rideshare, Uber Lyft accident. Things that have turned your world or those of your loved ones are close to you or upside down, God forbid, wrongful death. And then also sexual abuse, sexual harassment, civil rights violations. We're handling the big cases for you. We do it easy. Call 1-877- POPAK AF or you could reach somebody also live by texting or by going to our website, the POPOC firm. And we have people available to screen. If we take the case, then we will not get paid unless you do. It's a contingency fee arrangement, no hourly rate charged. And of course, if we screen the case and don't take the case, then that's another story. But if we take the case, we will be by your side every step of the way for justice at the POPOC firm. Thanks again for being here. We'll see you next Tuesday on the Intersection. We'll see you Wednesdays and Saturdays for Legal AF the podcast. Until then, I'm Michael Popak and I'm reporting. I'm Michael Popak and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me as the co founder of Midas touches Legal AF and the Legal AF YouTube channel or as a 35 year national trial lawyer. Now building a what we started together on Legal af. I've launched a new law firm, the Popoc Firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation. At the POPOC Firm, we are focused on obtaining justice for those who have been injured or damaged by a life altering event by securing the highest dollar recoveries. I've been tirelessly fighting for justice for the last 35 years, so my own law firm organically building on my Legal AF work just feels right. And I've handpicked a team of top tier trial fighters and settlement Experts throughout all 50 states known as Big Auto Injury Attorneys who who have the know how to beat heartless insurance companies, corporations, government entities and their attorneys. Big Auto's attorneys working with my firm are rock stars in their respective states and collectively responsible for billions of dollars in recoveries. So if you or a loved one have been on the wrong side of a catastrophic auto motor vehicle rideshare or truck accident, suffered a personal injury, or been the victim of medical malpractice, employment, harassment or discrimination, or suffered a violation of your civil and constitutional rights, then contact the POPOC Firm today at 1-877- POPOCAF or by visiting my website at www.thepopocfirm.com and fill out a free case evaluation form. And if we determine that you have a case and you sign with us, we don't get paid unless you do. The POPOC Firm Fighting for your Justice Every step of the way Martha listens.
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