Loading summary
Transcript3 lines
- [00:00]
DraftKings Representative
The NBA 82 game grind is done and now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and DraftKings sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings sportsbook app and use code Fieldgoal. That's code Fieldgoal for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets. When you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800- gambler in New York, 877-8-HOPENY or text hopeny467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and resort in Kansas, 21 and over. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario, new customers only. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG Co Audio.
- [01:00]
Shopify Representative
Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing, to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into Sign up for your $1 per month trial@shopify.com specialoffer are.
- [01:28]
Michael Popak
You sitting down for this one? The Trump administration by proxy has effectively sued the Chief justice of the United States, John Roberts. Yes, you heard me right. Stephen Miller, who is the head of all domestic policy apparently for Donald Trump, as the deputy White House chief of staff, founded and runs another organization called America First Legal foundation and AF Legal, of all things. And they have filed a lawsuit against Chief Justice Roberts in his capacity as the presiding officer over the Judicial Conference of the United States, which is the policy making body used by the courts to set policy for all courts, administer the budget for all courts, set codes of conduct for all courts. But for Stephen Miller and ultimately for Donald Trump, they want to get Chief Justice Roberts under their thumb. They want to have that entity declared to be not part of the judiciary but part of the executive branch. Because what else? They want to be able to hire and fire off that executive branch agency. Now they're doing it through a Freedom of Information act request, a FOIA request. But don't be fooled by the title. They're not Trying to get documents necessarily about the, the interaction between this conference and the Democratic senators like Sheldon Whitehouse. They want a court, in this case, a Trump appointed judge in D.C. trevor McFadden, to ultimately declare this as an executive agency, not a judicial agency, despite its name and its role created by Congress. And therefore Donald Trump can take it over like it was the Kennedy center or any other agency that Donald Trump has tried to destroy. I'm Michael Popak. We're not going to let him destroy us. Here on Midas Touch Network and Legal af, this didn't get a lot of headlines. This was filed about three or four days ago by American First Legal American first, even though we probably should have sued him over Legal af. AF Legal was founded by Stephen Miller while he was running the shadow government in exile before Donald Trump returned to power. In those three or four years, he created this organization, staffed it full with a bunch of MAGA lawyers and that they spent the next four years trying to drive the Biden administration crazy with foia, Freedom of Information act request, suing over white discrimination, suing over immigration policy. Because as we know now, Stephen Miller is the architect of the Alien Enemies act, deportation and removal of people to gulags in El Salvador. He was the architect of separating families and putting kids in cages the first time around. And so when he had nothing better to do, he's not a lawyer, by the way, but he formed this law firm effectively to do the bidding of the Heritage foundation, maga, Donald Trump, while they were out of power. And now what they're planning to do while they're in power is you think they'd fold up the shop, right? Well, we won. We're in power. What do we need? America First Legal foundation, because it's being used obviously as a proxy by Donald Trump to, to send a message back to John Roberts, who he's in a battle with. Now, this seems to be pressing, a losing hand because Donald Trump needs as many votes as the Supreme Court as he can get. He at least needs five every time he wants one of his policies to be affirmed and to keep kind of roasting John Roberts and squeezing John Roberts and suing the Chief justice to try to send a message that you're under my greasy thumb, Chief Justice Roberts. I think it's a, it's a bad look, especially while they're still trying to figure out at the Supreme Court as they fight for the existentially, for our democracy and trying to figure out their own role. They're trying to figure out, you know, get their footing against the lawless president. Now would not be my time to press my luck by literally suing John Roberts. Now he's going to have to go off and get counsel to represent him in this. Normally he would go to the executive branch for counsel, but I don't think he's going to be using the Department of Justice for this one. He's going to have to go retain his own counsel through the, through the judicial branch. Now why does this matter? What is he trying to do? The Judicial conference of the US was founded in 1922 as the Conference of Senior Circuit Court Judges. It's comprised of the Chief Judge of each of the 13 appellate courts federal, one judge from each one district court judge, a trial judge from each of the 13 appellate courts, and a judge from the US Court of Trade. They all sit together, presided over by the the Chief Judge, the Chief Justice Roberts. And they set policy, they administer the courts, they handle personnel matters, they handle policies, recommendations, budgeting, recommendations to Congress, code of conduct for everybody below the United States Supreme Court. And what Donald Trump and Stephen Miller don't like and the rest of MAGA is that the Democrats use that conference as a conduit to lobby, if you will. Roberts that's all disclosed, even if you think it's a bit overhyped. AI is suddenly everywhere from self driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiency. If it's not in your industry yet, it's coming fast. But AI needs a lot of speed and computing power. So how do you compete without cost? Spiraling out of control? Time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or oci. OCI is a blazing, fast and secure platform for your infrastructure, database application development platform, plus all your AI and machine learning workloads. OCI costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking, so you're saving a pile of money. Thousands of businesses have already upgraded to oci, including Vodafone, Thomson Reuters and Suno AI. Right now, Oracle is offering to cut your current cloud bill in half if you move to OCI for new US customers with a minimum financial commitment. Offer ends March 31st. See if your company qualifies for this special offer@oracle.com legalaf that's oracle.com legalaf so when they wanted to know America first, what what information are what's the communication level between the Senate and this conference? They said it's not subject to foia and we're not an agency. You can't get Freedom of Information act information, public records. Well, they didn't like that. So they filed this case, which has now been set before Trevor McFadden. What they're saying is on page two, paragraph three of their complaint. Ensuing Roberts again. Let me repeat it one more time. Donald Trump, through his proxy Stephen Miller and America first, has sued the Chief justice of the United States. Did we get that? Okay, here we go. Not stopping there. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Hank Johnson zealously accused Justice Thomas of acting willfully to violate the Ethics and Government Act. Well, didn't he. Didn't he by taking all the gifts, the millions of dollars of free travel with, with people, including the heir to Trammell Crow's real estate fortune? Didn't he. By having his nephew's tuition paid for. Didn't he by having undisclosed gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Didn't he. In selling his house to somebody who has business before the court. Didn't he? I could continue. It says Senator Whitehouse filed an ethics complaint against Justice Alito accusing him of violating several counts of judicial ethics. I can think of a few. How about flying a flag of insurrection? While January six cases were pending before the United States Supreme Court, numerous reviews by the conference's committee, they continue on page four on financial disclosure have all led to the same result. They've all issued determinations about Justice Thomas. So this is basically an action against Chief Justice Roberts in order to have them to be declared an executive branch so they can take, so that Trump can do a takeover and then put it out of its misery. And it won't have any oversight over any of the Supreme Court justices that, that the Democrats have, have concerns about and all of that. So here's what they want in their last page of their complaint. They want it declared that the records sought by the request, the communications with Sheldon Whitehouse and others, it must be disclosed under FOIA that it's an independent agency of the executive branch. And the rest, once a judge like McFadden declares that that entity is an executive branch, you know, then we're going to have to, then Donald Trump is just going to fire Chief Justice Roberts and whatever boards involved in personnel and stick his own doge people in there to try to get control of the federal courts from the inside. That's, that's the way it's going to go. So McFadden, listen up. That's the goal here. So you stand in the way of that. Then would go to the D.C. circuit Court Court of Appeals, where I don't think it would be successful. And then it goes to the United States Supreme Court. The question is, is Chief Justice Roberts going to recuse himself since he's a name defendant, probably leading us to an 8 to 8 result. And if the Supreme Court doesn't see this as an attack on the judiciary and all the way up to the United States Supreme Court, I don't know what would. Now, Alito and Thomas, of course, love it because this is a way to get back at all of their enemies. But for the rest of the Supreme Court, even Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, I would think this was, this is a bridge too far even for them. But we'll continue to follow it. I'll update you about what happens on these turn of events with Judge McFadden and if Donald Trump is successful in getting his greedy little Mitts on a judicial conference, a proud judicial conference that's responsible for ensuring the integrity of our court system. I'm Michael Popak. We're here to ensure the integrity of the law and politics analysis like no other here on the Midas Touch Network. Many ways to support what I do and what we do here on Legal AF1 here to Legal, the YouTube channel, Legal F mtn to reflect our collaboration with the brothers on the Midas Touch Network. Come on over there. We're going to roll the 700,000 in about a week or two of free subscribers. We want you to be a part of that conversation. Get the reminders about our hourly hot takes at the intersection of law and politics. Brand new Legal AF substack. Legal AF substack. All these things like the lawsuits and the filings are all gonna be there with my commentary and a morning update by me. I call of what else Morning af. So till my next report. I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy chann where I'll be curating the top stories. The intersection of law and Politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AFMTN. That's @legal AFMTN.