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- [00:00]
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T-Mobile Representative
Oh, hey. Welcome to gift wrapping. Whoa. So we saw Donna.
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T-Mobile Customer
Hey, can you wrap these please?
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T-Mobile Representative
Wow. IPhone 17s.
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T-Mobile Customer
You splurged at T Mobile. You can get four iPhone 17s on them. The new center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies. It's the perfect gift for everyone.
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T-Mobile Representative
I'm the worst. I only got my mom a robe.
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T-Mobile Customer
Well, it's better than socks.
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T-Mobile Representative
So I have to trade in my old phone, right?
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T-Mobile Customer
No @t mobile. There's no trade ins needed when you switch. Keep your old phone or give it as a gift.
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T-Mobile Representative
Incredible.
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T-Mobile Customer
In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my aunt Rosa. Forget that. Aunt Liz will be jealous.
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T-Mobile Representative
Sounds like my family drama.
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T-Mobile Customer
Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela. I'll take reindeer paper with. Hey, where are you going?
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T-Mobile Representative
To T Mobile. The holidays are better. At T Mobile get four iPhone 17s on us. No traded needed when you switch plus four lines for just 25 bucks a line. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits and four eligible board inside essentials for well qualified customers. Auto pay + taxes, fees and $35 device connection charge credits and imbalance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel contact US Finance Agreement tutor for 56 gigabytes. $830 required.
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T-Mobile Customer
Visit T mobile.com Fall is all about cozy comforts. And with herobread you can enjoy all your favorites and still hit your health goals. From breakfast bagels and meal prepped enchiladas to mouth watering burgers and cheesy noodles, you won't believe Herobread's options have 0 to 5 grams net carbs and are high fiber from the taste and texture and right now Herobred is offering 10% off your order. Go to Hero Co and use code fall25 at checkout. That's fall25hero co. All figures are per serving of HeroBread contains 2 to 18 grams of fat per serving. See the product nutrition pan on Hero Co for more information. Ever notice how ads always pop up at the worst moments when the killer's identity is about to be revealed during that perfect meditation flow on Amazon Music we believe in keeping you in the moment. That's why we've got millions of ad free podcast episodes so you can stay completely immersed in every story, every reveal, every breath. Download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite podcast ad free.
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T-Mobile Representative
Included with Prime Sometimes when you're traveling, you got to hit the breaking news. We've got it now folks. Alina Haba has been effectively fired or disqualified by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision by a three judge panel. She's now been bounced as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey and now it's going to end up at the doorstep of the Supreme Court of the United States. First stop on that train will be Sam Alito. I'm going to cover it all right here, including my theory that though we were just moments away from getting this decision after about four or five days ago the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals down in Atlanta sanctioned her or affirmed Alina Haba's sanction of over a million dollars when she was a private attorney representing Donald Trump down in Florida with a bad faith filing against Hillary Clinton and others. When that order came out, I said that's the signal to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Any day now we're going to get a ruling. And we knew from the Octo late October oral argument that this three judge panel, two Republican appointees and one Democrat appointee we had were not buying anything that Alina Haba's lawyers were selling in terms of trying to validate her as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey. They found that she violated, or they violated in putting her in a Vacancy Reform Act. They also found that they violated the Appointments Clause and have now disqualified her. Similar to but not exactly the same as what happened four or five days ago to Lindsey Halligan, Donald Trump's other novice prosecutor who got appointed in Eastern District of Virginia. She got bounced by a trial court judge, District Court Judge Curry, for similar but not identical reasons. But that's now over two for Donald Trump to get his teacher's pets in to go after his political enemies. Remember when Alina Haba got in? For the last six months or so, she's been going after the political rivals of Donald Trump. She went after the Attorney General, Matt Plotkin, for New Jersey. She went after the governor of New Jersey, Murphy. She said she was gonna turn the red state, she would turn the blue state of New Jersey red. A political hack. First 30, 40 days of her tenure, she arrested Lamonica MacGyver, a sitting member of Congress, for doing oversight work at a federal detention center in Newark. She arrested and then dismissed the charges against Mayor Baraka, the mayor of the largest city of New Jersey, Newark. And that was just in the first six months, folks. But now we've got the Third Circuit ruling that we've been waiting for. I'm gonna, I'm gonna tell you how these three judges got together on this. It was a 3, 0 decision. And it basically came down to a very simple fact. Alina Haba was not the first assistant U.S. attorney at the time. The vacancy was created by Pam Bondi firing John Giordano, who was the previous U.S. attorney. It devolves. It goes down to the first assistant. They later tried to make Alina Haba the first assistant, but she wasn't at the time of the vacancy. And that violates the statute, the federal voting, Federal Vacancy Reform act, and the three judge panel here. Very, very interesting. You had Judge Restrepo, who was appointed by Joe Biden. You had Judge Brooks Smith, who is powerhouse in Pennsylvania, had been in the House, in the Senate, in Pennsylvania, ran for governor. He was also the chief judge of the Third Circuit at one point, now senior status. He was appointed by Ronald Reagan. And then you had Michael Fisher, who wrote the opinion for the three judge panel, who was appointed by George Bush. And they start in the order. It's 32 pages. They start in the order talking about the solemnity of the U.S. attorney Office. It's a powerful office. It's an important office. The people of the state of New Jersey and the workers that work in the Department of justice and the U.S. attorney's office, the fourth or fifth largest in the country, deserve better. And then they end it with you violated the Vacancy Reform act and how that they were appointed. And it's very, very simple. I'm going to read to you from the opinion. I'm going to post the opinion on legal AF substack for you as well. When Donald Trump got into office, God, it seems so long ago, but it was only 10 months ago. Look at the amount of damage one person could do as the President of the United States in such a short amount of time when he's got sycophants and enablers surrounding him. There was a U.S. attorney in New Jersey. His name was Mr. Sellinger. Mr. Sellinger resigned on the before the election, before the inauguration, the beginning of January 2025. That made under the Vacancy Reform act that the first assemb assistant, Vikas Khanna, became the acting interim U.S. attorney. That lasted until the beginning of March when Pam Bondi fired Khanna and tried to appoint somebody under section 546 named John Giordano to be for another 120 day period the U.S. attorney. I think that was already illegal. But the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals panel didn't have to deal with Giordano's appointment. They only had to deal with Haba. But I don't think that was legal under section 546 either. Giordano makes it three weeks. Three weeks later, Donald Trump puts Alina Haba in at the same time that he nominates her for U.S. attorney. She gets blocked almost immediately through the blue slip process by the two New Jersey senators. Senators Book Cory Booker and Senator Kim. Blue slips mean you got to get both blue slips to accompany your nomination or you're not getting out of, you're not getting even brought to the Senate floor, which has burned Donald Trump up and made him go crazy. Then they decided they needed to withdraw her nomination to try to make her her own first assistant because under the Vacancy Reform act, the first assistant becomes the U.S. attorney. But it's not just any old off the street first assistant or a novice first assistant. It has to be somebody that's been in the job for over a year and has to have been in that first assistant chair for at least 90 days. So a year in the office and 90 days in that position before they can get elevated. Alina Haba met none of that criteria. She'd just been nominated. Look, I'm not sure, to be Frank. I'm a 35 year federal practitioner. I don't think Alina Haba has ever really stepped foot in a federal court that often before she became friends with Donald Trump and the one time that she publicly took over a case, she got sanctioned in a bad faith filing for filing a case against Hillary Clinton and the Democrats for Donald Trump down in Florida that just got affirmed four days ago by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. As soon as I saw that, I said that's greasing the skids for the third circuits come at any day now, folks. I mean, that's a reminder that they've been sitting on that case. Everyone acts like they fully understand AI and meanwhile I'm over here arguing with my smart fridge. If you feel that way too, that's where Udacity comes in. This podcast is sponsored by Udacity Want to learn skills that Command High salaries? Udacity is an online learning platform with courses in AI and tech, including Generative AI, Agentic AI, Python Data Science, and much more. 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The tech field is always evolving and you should be too. You can try Udacity risk free for seven days. Head to udacity.com legal af and use code legalaf for 40% off your order. Once again, that's udacity.com, for 40% off. And make sure you use my promo code legal af so they know I sent you. So that happened. Now this is a different analysis than what just happened to Lindsey Halligan. It's similar, but it's different. Here's that teachable moment you come to Legal AF for and the Midas Touch Network. The argument for Lindsey halligan as interim US attorney is that she was appointed under section 546, but she was the second interim attorney appointed under section 546 by Bondi and that statute only allows one one US attorney. Interim US attorney under that statute. Then it goes in a split of separation of powers to the district court judges of that court system, which is the Eastern District of Virginia. Donald Trump didn't like that. And so he put her in anyway. So that was the issue there. This is slightly different cuz this is under the whether an act this is about an Acting U.S. attorney, not an Interim U.S. attorney and whether an Acting U.S. attorney under the Vacancy Reform act has to come from the existing first assistance in that office or it can come from an outsider who gets launched in to take over as their own first assistant. And the answer to that was no. Now the result's the same. Halligan out by a district court judge in Virginia. The indictment goes along with her cuz that's all she did here. It's interesting because this case was brought by indicted drug and gun smugglers. So they wanted to get rid of Haba. But Haba is not the one that signed their indictment. So their indictment stays. Haba goes. That's that's another distinction between the Lindsey Halligan case and the Alina Habba case. Now let me read to you from the pertinent pages. It's 32 pages, but there's really just two pages that you need to to hear about. I'll post the rest in Legalif substack for you to read. This is on page five. This is written by Judge Fisher, the Bush appointee for the court. Page five. The United States Attorney's offices are some of the most critical agencies in the federal government. They play an important role in the criminal and civil justice systems and vital in keeping our community safe. The U.S. attorney leading each office is an officer. His appointment requires Senate confirmation where a vacancy exists. Congress has shown a strong preference that an acting officer be someone with a breadth of experience to properly lead the office. It is apparent that the current administration has been frustrated by some of the legal and political barriers to getting its appointees in place. That's putting it mildly, folks. Its efforts to elevate its preferred candidate for U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey, Alina Haba, to the role of Acting U.S. attorney demonstrate the difficulties it has faced. Yet the citizens of New Jersey and the local employees in the U.S. attorney's office deserve some clarity and stability. Then they go about analyzing why the defense is right and the prosecution is wrong. And here's how they ended on page 32. Very exquisitely simple. Sometimes the law is exquisitely simple. Haba is not the Acting U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey by virtue of her appointment as first assistant U.S. attorney. Because only the first assistant in place at the time the vacancy arises automatically assumes the functions and duties of the office under the Federal Vacancy Reform Act. Additionally Because Haba was nominated for the acting for the vacant U.S. attorney position. The nomination. There's a provision of the Vacancy Reform act called the nomination bar, meaning if you're nominated, you can't also serve in the acting position. It prevents her from assuming the role of Acting U.S. attorney. Finally, the Attorney General's delegation of all the powers of a U.S. attorney to Haba is prohibited by the exclusivity provision. Therefore, we affirm the district court's disqualification order. Let me just. Let me just translate all of that for you for a moment. Frustrated that they couldn't get Alina Haba in because she wasn't the proper first assistant at the time of the vacancy. Then they try to say, well, let's withdraw her nomination. All right, well, she's screwed because she was nominated for the position, that there's a nomination bar. And then Habas Bondi said, I'll make her a special attorney with all of the powers. Now, that is very similar to what she tried to do with Alina with. With Lindsey Halligan. Same result. You can't do by special attorney delegation what you can't do by statute. You can't do it and run around a statute. That would totally mean the statute was completely, basically null and void if you could ignore it. So they're saying, no, you can't make her a special attorney with all the powers of the U.S. attorney because there is an exclusivity provision. No, the court said if that. If all you. All you had to do was to nominate somebody or put them in as a special attorney with all of the same superpowers, as an appropriate acting U.S. attorney, that violates the exclusivity provision, meaning the statute was created as the exclusive mechanism to put that person into office. So you can't create a whole nother mechanism outside of that statute and then say, see? All better now. Okay, what's gonna happen? It's very simple. Let's just go through what we know is gonna happen. Donald Trump's gonna lose his mind. I'm sure he has already. By the time I'm done recording this, he'll start screeching and screaming in truth social media. Pam Bondi will do the same, attacking these three middle of the road two of which are conservative judges from Reagan and Bush times as being some sort of radical socialist Marxist judges. Then they're gonna have to take their appeal. They don't go further to talk about remedy because they didn't have to do remedy. They just disqualified her. There's an argument that now, having been Disqualified. They're gonna leave it to each individual criminal case in New Jersey. Cuz I don't know what she's been signing in the meantime to make. Those defendants are gonna be making an argument now before judges that she's out, everything she touched is void. Now, they tried to cover up for Alina Haba recently. They had other people signing pleadings and documents in that court for that court. So some of it may be resolved, goes up to the United States Supreme Court. First stop on the train is Sam Alito. He's the one, he used to be a New Jersey judge. He gets to decide first. He can block this on his own administratively. He can send it on a shadow docket to the other eight people on the Supreme Court. And we're going to find out right away here if there's five votes to allow Donald Trump to do an end run around the Vacancy Reform Act. I'm sure there's going to be a separation of powers debate on the Supreme Court court. If they block it and keep her in office until they make some decisions down the road like they did recently for the Library of Congress, they may postpone it until they get around in January and December to make some other decisions about some other officers who have been fired and hired or they're going to, they're going to say, no, Donald Trump's gone too far and we're going to not do anything about the order and Alina Haba is out while the appeal continues. We'll know relatively soon. I think. This is a December event for the United States Supreme Court. Follow it here on the Midas Touch Network. Come on over to Legal AF YouTube. We could use your help now. Hummingbird theory. We need everybody to come over, hit the subscribe button, find out if you're a subscriber or not on legal AF YouTube as we as we make our way towards 1 million subscribers. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal A for there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal aforementioned on substack. Come over now to Free Subscribe High interest debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face unless you power up with a SOFI personal loan. 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