Trump FBI Director in Shock as Meidas Video Exposes Him in Hearing

Summary

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Legal AF by MeidasTouch

Episode Title: Trump FBI Director in Shock as Meidas Video Exposes Him in Hearing
Release Date: September 19, 2025
Hosts: Michael Popok, (with references to Ben Meiselas and Karen Friedman Agnifilo)

Episode Overview

In this hard-hitting episode, Legal AF dives deep into the latest Congressional grilling of FBI Director Cash Patel, appointed under Donald Trump. The episode centers on a bombshell Judiciary Committee hearing where Rep. Ted Lieu, leveraging video clips from Legal AF, presses Patel about his handling of evidence from Jeffrey Epstein’s infamous safe. The hosts explore the rampant dysfunction and alleged cover-ups in Patel’s FBI, the political implications, and celebrate Legal AF’s reporting being featured live in a Congressional hearing—a significant validation on the podcast’s one-year anniversary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cash Patel Grilled in Congress on Epstein Evidence

• Rep. Ted Lieu’s powerful questioning: Lieu confronts Patel on FBI actions regarding the 2019 search of Jeffrey Epstein’s New York residence, specifically the discovery of a safe containing lewd photographs.
  • Quote (Ted Lieu, 02:47): “And in that safe, the FBI found topless and lewd photographs of girls.”
• Patel’s hesitant and evasive responses: Patel repeatedly defers, avoiding direct answers, saying he’ll “accept your representation” and admitting he does not recall specifics.

Use of Legal AF Video as Evidence

• Rep. Lieu plays a Legal AF excerpt featuring journalist Michael Wolff, describing having seen Polaroids of Donald Trump with young girls at Epstein’s home.
  • Quote (Michael Wolff, 03:34): “There were Polaroids… And it was Trump. I mean, I think there were a dozen of them. Trump with girls of an uncertain age at Epstein's Palm Beach house. … Two in which topless girls are sitting on Trump’s lap and a third where he has a stain on the front of his pants.”
• The hosts underscore the validation and impact of Legal AF’s journalism being used as official hearing evidence.

2. Institutional Decline of the FBI Under Patel

• Popok’s Critique: Michael Popok launches into a detailed critique of FBI morale and institutional knowledge under Patel’s tenure.
  • Quote (Popok, 05:22): “When you take 1500 people out of main FBI headquarters and you scatter them… and you let people leave or you fire them, which leaves the FBI vulnerable because it doesn't have the institutional knowledge… I wouldn't let Cash Patel run a bath for me, let alone run the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
• The discussion links recent FBI failures—such as a botched manhunt for a high-profile shooting suspect—to Patel's lack of law enforcement experience and ongoing turnover in leadership.

3. The Epstein File Scandal & Alleged Cover-Up

• Patel has not reviewed the Epstein files: Despite promises of transparency, Patel admits before Congress he hasn’t reviewed the materials himself.
  • Quote (Cash Patel, 09:08): “I have not reviewed the entirety of it myself.”
  • Popok calls this “professional malpractice.”
• Adverse inference: Popok performs legal analysis, arguing the lack of transparency allows the public to infer (legally and logically) that Trump’s name appears in damning ways in the Epstein documents.

Denial of Evidence Implicating Others

• Patel claims, absent reviewing the files, there’s no credible information implicating anyone other than Epstein.
  • Quote (Cash Patel, 10:42): “There is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.”
• Popok points out this contradicts MAGA talking points accusing Democrats—describing the statement as a “total non sequitur.”

4. Legal AF in the National Spotlight

• Legal AF marks its one-year anniversary with their reporting at the center of Congressional oversight.
  • Quote (Popok, 12:04): “It is cosmic justice that we now have a moment where Midas Dutch and Legal AF have entered the hearing room. Because we're doing the reporting and providing the information to the congress people to do their jobs… this is the one-year anniversary today—the day that they played the Legal Afghanistan clip in Congress to grill Cash Patel…”
• Attribution to audience and Legal AF community for the show's success and reach.

5. Call to Action for Listeners

• The hosts invite listeners to follow Legal AF’s daily output on platforms like Substack and YouTube, promising in-depth reporting at the intersection of law and politics.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [02:47] Rep. Ted Lieu, to Cash Patel: “And in that safe, the FBI found topless and lewd photographs of girls.”
• [03:34] Michael Wolff (journalist): “They were Polaroids… And it was Trump. I mean, I think there were a dozen of them...”
• [05:22] Michael Popok: “I wouldn't let Cash Patel run a bath for me, let alone run the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
• [09:08] Cash Patel: “I have not reviewed the entirety of it myself.”
• [10:42] Cash Patel: “There is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals.”
• [12:04] Michael Popok: “It is cosmic justice that we now have a moment where Midas Dutch and Legal AF have entered the hearing room.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [00:56] – Episode begins, Michael Popok introduces the gravity of the Judiciary Committee’s grilling of Cash Patel.
• [02:24 – 03:30] – Rep. Ted Lieu confronts Patel; plays Legal AF/Michael Wolff video in Congress.
• [05:22] – Popok dissects the crumbling state of the FBI under Patel’s leadership.
• [09:01] – Clip: Patel, under questioning, admits he hasn’t reviewed the Epstein files.
• [10:32] – Clip: Patel claims no credible evidence anyone besides Epstein was involved.
• [12:04] – Popok reflects on Legal AF’s impact and one-year anniversary, underscoring their role in the news cycle.

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Conclusion

This episode showcases Legal AF’s rise as a critical voice at the crossroads of legal analysis and political drama, with their investigative work directly shaping the national conversation—even from the floor of Congress. The hosts combine sharp legal critique, political context, and personal pride in their reporting’s significance, while exposing the ongoing tumult inside the post-Trump FBI. For those tracking the legal odyssey of Trumpworld and its allies, this episode is a defining moment.

Transcript

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[Michael Popak]

Things have gone from bad to worse for Cash Patel, the embattled beleaguered FBI director. He of all those self inflicted wounds you thought yesterday when he was grilled to within an inch of his life by the Senators, the Democratic senators like Klobuchar, Schiff, Booker and Blumenthal. Wait till you see what happened during the House Committee hearing for the Judiciary Committee about providing oversight to the FBI and the questions he had to answer to Representative Ted Lieu about the Epstein matter. And wouldn't you know it, Legal AF Midas touches Legal AF showed up on the giant screen because Ted Lieu used our interview, Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz, our court of history, their interview of Michael Wolf, the journalist, about things that he had found and things that he had observed in Jeffrey Epstein's home when he was thinking about doing a biography of Jeffrey Epstein and spoke to him for hundreds of hours, including photos of girls, naked girls in that were laid out like playing cards. According to Michael Wolf, in Jeffrey Epstein's apartment, wasn't there a search warrant? What happened to the safe? What happened to the documents? What happened to the pictures? Those are things that Representative Liu wanted to know and he used legal AF to get him there. Here's the clip Dr. Patel for being here today.

[Representative Ted Lieu]

The FBI searched Jeffrey Epstley's Manhattan residence, correct?

[Cash Patel]

I believe that happened in 2018. I think there was two locations.

[Representative Ted Lieu]

Sir, it was 2019. And in that residence the FBI found a safe. Correct?

[Cash Patel]

I don't have the catalog of evidence in front of me, sir.

[Representative Ted Lieu]

In that residence, the FBI found a safe. Correct.

[Cash Patel]

I'll accept your representation.

[Representative Ted Lieu]

And in that safe, the FBI found topless and lewd photographs of girls.

[Cash Patel]

Correct again, sir, I'll accept your representation. I don't know.

[Representative Ted Lieu]

Thank you. It was all over the media at the time. There's a New York Times article that says Jeffrey Epstein is indicted on sex charges as discovery of nude photos is disclosed. Dated July 8, 2019. And the Times reports a trove of lewd photographs of girls was discovered and safe inside financier Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan mansion. Author Michael Wolf has conducted numerous interviews of Jeffrey Epstein. I'm going to play for you a video clip of what Michael Wolf said Epstein told him was in the safe. And what he showed the author was in this safe. So let's please play that clip now.

[Michael Wolf]

Elected. And I was sitting talking to Epstein and he said, wait a minute, I got to show you something. And then he went into his safe and he came out with. With photographs. They were Polaroids, I think. And he kind of. They were kind of spread them out like playing cards. And it was Trump. I mean, I think there were a dozen of them. And it was Trump with girls of an uncertain age at Epstein's Palm beach house where all of the things that he would ultimately be accused of took place. And I remember very vividly three of them. There are two in which Trump is the girls, topless girls are sitting on Trump's lap. And then a third in which he has a stain on the front of his pants. And the girls are kind of, kind of pointing at it, sort of bent over laughing.

[Michael Popak]

See, sometimes we report on the news and. And sometimes we help make the news. Obviously, somebody that knew our work, our body of work and what we do on Midas, Dutch and Legal af and decided along with his staff that that would be a good way to get Patel into questioning about Epstein. Now, let's talk about Cash Patel for a minute while we. While we have your attention. Cash Patel is likely not gonna survive these hearings. As I said, he's just the master of self inflicted wounds. When you take the. What had been the proud history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and you throw it into the morning trash the way they've done over the last 10 months, you find yourself here when you get rid of all of your leadership and you fire the varsity and you fire the JV and you're left with no leaders, no one with institutional knowledge. When you take 1500 people out of Maine FBI headquarters and you scatter them throughout America, including in Huntsville, Alabama, and you let people leave or you fire them, which leaves the FBI vulnerable because it doesn't have the institutional knowledge. It doesn't have the leadership, doesn't have the rank, doesn't have the file. Of course, when a disaster or some sort of event happens, like the shooting of one of their own, you're not prepared for it. You can't handle the manhunt. You don't want to drop the fork on your lemon chicken at Rao's restaurant in New York. You don't want to go back to the FBI headquarters and properly quarterback because you've never been an FBI director, you've never been an FBI agent, you've never directed anything. I wouldn't let, I wouldn't let Cash Patel run a bath for me, let alone run the Federal Bureau of Investigation. And that's just about what happened a week ago with Charlie Kirk shooting that he, that he couldn't solve. If it wasn't for the mother of the suspect, he wouldn't be in custody today. Does anybody really believe that a Cash Patel led FBI would have captured after a manhunt somebody that didn't want to be caught? No way. Then you've got the Epstein scandal, which we just saw a clip from, which doesn't have to be an Epstein scandal. It could just be us talking about all of the documents, the complete Epstein file released by Donald Trump. But Epstein Epstein scandal has taken on epic proportions because of the failure of people like Pam Bondi and Todd Blanch and Cash Patel to be able to talk any sense into Donald Trump and release the files. When I bought my first home a long time ago, I'll be honest, I was excited, but I was also a little overwhelmed. Signing those papers, I realized just how much was on the line. If something happened to me, would my family be able to keep the house? Would they be able to cover the mortgage and bills without me? That's what pushed me to think seriously at the time about life insurance. That's why life insurance through Ethos, makes so much sense. Ethos helps protect your family's future and they make the whole process easy. The traditional way of getting life insurance can be frustrating and complicated, But Ethos is 100% online. You just have to answer a few health questions and you can get a quote in as little as 10 minutes. In fact, you can even get same day coverage without ever leaving your house. It's more affordable than most people think. Some policies start as low as $2 a day billed monthly. Plus, you can customize your coverage with options up to $3 million. Protect your family with life insurance from Ethos. Get your free [e-mail] legalaf that's ethos.com legal a f the reason Donald Trump doesn't want the files released is obvious. His name is all over them. We can make that adverse inference, as we say in court, that's the inference that you're allowed to make. If somebody's not producing the documents they're required to produce in court, the court will tell the jury, make an adverse inference that every one of those documents is bad for the person that's hiding them. Same thing here. That's the adverse inference that we're making. And they're not doing anything to, to avoid the adverse inference because they're not giving us the documents. Cash Patel actually said during yesterday's hearing that he has not reviewed the entirety or really reviewed the Epstein files at all. Let's take a look at that clip.

[Interviewer (possibly a Congress member or legal analyst)]

I want to ask you about the Epstein files. Have you, have you seen the Epstein files?

[Cash Patel]

I have not reviewed the entirety of it myself.

[Michael Popak]

It is professional malpractice from you to stand in front of Congress, the Senate or the House and tell them at this late date in September, when you promised the American people in February that you were going to leave no rock left unturned, that you were going to release every one of the documents. You're now in September, and you haven't done that. And we know why. We know from other reporting and from admissions by Pam Bondi that she had the FBI and Cash Patel's people in, in March do a total review of every page and every document. They're even redacting Donald Trump's name. Then by May, she's briefing Donald Trump about what's in the Epstein files. And, and, and Cash Patel has the balls to come before Congress and say that he's not reviewed the Epstein files or hasn't been properly briefed on them, that alone, that alone should lead to his firing. But that's not the only things he said. He also said yesterday during the Senate that as far as he's concerned for the files that he's not reviewed, which makes no sense, total non sequitur. I haven't reviewed the files. But for the files I haven't reviewed, there's no one, there's no indication or no evidence that anyone other than Jeffrey Epstein raped girls. I mean, A how to, how can he conclude that if he says he hasn't reviewed the Epstein files?

[Interviewer (possibly a Congress member or legal analyst)]

You've seen most of the files. Who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?

[Cash Patel]

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.

[Interviewer (possibly a Congress member or legal analyst)]

So the answer is no.

[Cash Patel]

1 for the information that we have in the files, in the case file.

[Interviewer (possibly a Congress member or legal analyst)]

Okay.

[Michael Popak]

And, and that's completely against everything that Donald Trump and Mag are saying about Democrats being inside the files and being inside the files for having participated in the child sex trafficking ring. So which is it, everybody? But I just, I think it's, it is cosmic justice that we now have a moment where Midas Dutch and Legal AF have entered the hearing room. Because we're doing the reporting and providing the information to the congress people to do their jobs and we appreciate them and they obviously appreciate us and by extension our audience. This is the one year anniversary today, the day that they played the legal Afghanistan clip in Congress to grill Cash Patel is our one year anniversary talk about cosmic justice and the cosmos speaking. We started it one year ago today and now look what's happened. But without the audience, none of this happens. I was talking to Sidney Blumenthal who along with Sean Wallentz did that interview that Ted Lieu used just today and, and about it. And he said if it wasn't for Legal AF he would not have been able to bring on Michael Wolf or have Michael Wolf's video be seen in order for him to testify, if you will, about what he saw in the safe and in the Epstein apartment. And so, and if it wasn't for our audience, we wouldn't have a Legal AF or a Midas touch. So it all goes back to you. We really appreciate you being here. I'm going to continue to do the reporting that's necessary. Come on over to Legal AF substack and Legal AF YouTube channel where you will see videos like the one that got used today in Congress. We do 10 videos a day, all at the intersection of law and politics. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

[Legal AF Host/Contributor]

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[Michael Popak]

Me neither.

[Legal AF Host/Contributor]

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 on over to the substack.

[Michael Popak]

You'll find the court filing in the.

[Legal AF Host/Contributor]

Oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AO are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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