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- [00:00]
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Michael Popak
And breathe.
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Michael Popak
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- [02:15]
Michael Popak
See terms well, Todd Blanche's worst nightmare just got a lot worse with the Unexpected death of Lindsey Graham, the powerful lion of the Senate. I don't agree with anything the late Lindsey Graham said. I'm not here to throw dirt on his grave just yet. But there was no bigger defender, supporter, vocal advocate and shepherd for anything that Donald Trump wanted on the Judiciary Committee than Lindsey Graham. Who can forget his fiery response that effectively gave the Supreme Court seat to Brett Kavanaugh when it was imperiled by sex abuse allegations? It's not just about, well, who's going to replace Lindsey Graham and what's the process in South Carolina and how long will there be a temporary senator? And who is the Senate caucus going to pick to replace Lindsey Graham on a Senate Judiciary Committee where they only have a one vote lead? That means Todd Blanche can't afford to lose more than one. Actually can't afford to lose any votes. If he loses just one vote, he's done. It's not about that. It's about senators, including the late Senator Lindsey Graham, now missing, and his powerful defense of Todd Blanche that would have come from his. His being there, gone. And now you've got Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, both of whom are political enemies or rivals of Donald Trump, both of whom are no longer going to be in the Senate. But that's not till January 2028. And since Trump has beaten them up and called them rhinos and in Cornyn's case run a candidate, Ken Paxton in Texas, against him, those two hold the key and the missing Lindsey Graham hold the key to Todd Blanche. Look, I don't know what's going to happen this week. We've got a Senate confirmation hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday. May go, may go forward, may not go forward. I'll report on it either way. You might see the Republicans try to regroup and say, oh, let's wait another week because the Senate Republican Caucus is going to have to pick a new person to replace Lindsey Graham. Nobody, nobody was more of an apologist than a vocal defender of all things Donald Trump and Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham, who defended Donald Trump on Jan.6, defended him in testimony he gave to the Jan.6 committee, was Donald Trump's seat mate on Air Force One just three days ago to Ukraine and at NATO. You can't. You might be able to put another warm body in there. You might be able to pick another MAGA senator, although you're running out of them. But nobody can fill the shoes for Donald Trump like Lindsey Graham, especially on the Senate Judiciary Committee. And it's not going to Be a walk in the park for Todd Blanche and he knows it. By the way, I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Dutch network and Legal af. Let's keep going here. Now, look, the mechanics of how Lindsey Graham will get replaced are relatively simple. There's going to be a special election for the people of South Carolina to pick a new senator, a new Republican, sorry, Republican candidate to go up against the Democrat Annie Andrews on August 11th. That's when the special election happens. From now until then, 28, 29 days more Henry McMaster, the governor will pick somebody, whoever it is will report on it here on Legal AF and Midas Dutch and that will be in a reliably red state. Who's going to go up against Annie Andrews? But you can't replace a Lindsey Graham. If it would be like for Donald Trump to replace Melania or. Well, that could happen. Or replace any one of his staunch supporters. I mean, I don't think I'm, I'm overstating this by saying there was no senator among the hundred more protective over, more of an advocate for, more of a salesman for Donald Trump to accomplish whatever Donald Trump wanted to accomplish than Lindsey Graham. Lindsey Graham even came out before, of course, before he died. I don't know where I was going with that. Lindsey Graham even came out and said he was going to try to get reimbursed from the Jan.6 committee or from the Senate somehow for the U.S. government because he had to testify during Jan.6.
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Here's Lindsey Graham on that Trump and Nov. 15, 2022. Two years after the 2020 election descend, he would run for president. He announced he's going to run for president in 2022 for the 24 election. Within eight months, 91 indictments were levied against him coming from New York, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Florida. 91 felony charges against Donald Trump. Here's what I believe. If he had never announced he was going, none of this would have happened. They were trying to destroy his comeback. This was all orchestrated by Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Fanny Willis, Letitia James to destroy this man so he could not win in 2024. I've seen this movie before. I am going to look at what happened to me and my fellow senators. My lawyer John Kennedy will be on next. And if they did this without good reason and without cause, I'm sue the crap out of these people. Are you talking about suing Smith directly? Whoever I can sue on behalf of the future of people who will come after me. We cannot allow the abuse of power to go unannounced. I mean, unchecked.
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Now, let's talk about what happens on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The Senate Judiciary Committee is 25 members. It's one of the narrowest margins for the Republicans out there. 13 Republicans, 12 Democrats. Among the 13 Republicans were Lindsey Graham and are Thom Tillis and John Corden. You can't lose one vote because the way our system works is there's got to be a majority vote, even by one, to get a nominee out of committee and into a Senate, entire Senate floor vote. It doesn't come out of committee. It dies in committee. Many judicial nominees and DOJ nominees have died in committee. So Lindsey Graham would have strong armed and twisted and glad handed and buttonholed and yelled and screamed when all else failed to get Todd Blanche through, just as he did for Brett Kavanaugh and that famous, infamous attack on on his Senate colleagues to get Kavanaugh through after his nomination was imperiled by sex abuse charges. I guess that's the only thing you can say about Todd Blanche is he doesn't currently have sex abuse charges directly against him. Play the clip of Lindsey Graham defending Kavanaugh and getting him through and getting that seat delivered to Donald Trump. Play the clip.
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Are you aware that at 9:23 on the night of July 9, the day you were nominated to the Supreme Court by President Trump, Senator Schumer said, 23 minutes after your nomination, I will oppose Judge Kavanaugh's nomination with everything I have. I have a bipartisan. I hope a bipartisan majority will do the same. The stakes are simply too high for anything less. Well, if you weren't aware of it, you are now. Did you meet with Senator Dianne Feinstein on August 20? I did meet with Senator Feinstein. Did you know that her staff had already recommended a lawyer to Dr. Ford? I did not know that. Did you know that her and her staff had this allegations for over 20 days? I did not know that at the time. If you wanted an FBI investigation, you could have come to us. What you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and hope you win in 2020. You've said that, not me. You've got nothing to apologize for. When you see Sotomayor and Kagan, tell them that Lindsey said, oh, because I voted for them, I would never do to them what you've done to this guy. This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy.
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He defended even Pam Bondi said she was qualified and he supported her. And that was the signal to the rest of the Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to follow Lindsey Graham. Play the clip of him defending Pam Bondi meetings.
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It was great. I've known her for a long time, well qualified. I don't think President Trump could have done better. The confirmation hearings will be challenging, as they should be, but I have every confidence that she will acquit herself well. And there you go.
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- [14:28]
now a growing number of Republicans like North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis who calls the fund quote, a payout pot for punks. Under what circumstances would it ever make sense to provide restitution for people who are either pled guilty or, or were found guilty on a court of law? Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tried to make the case to Republican senators in what sources described as a tense meeting.
- [14:52]
Thom Tillis is a sharp critic to the Department of Justice. He didn't like Pam Bondi. He didn't like the handling of the Epstein files. He didn't like the handling of the Jan6Anti weaponization fund. He doesn't like what Jeanine Pirro is doing to go after political enemies. This is all going to be laid at the feet of Todd Blanche maybe on Wednesday or maybe it's postponed. Either way, think of the categories of things. We could list them together on Midas touch and legal AF against Todd Blanche that now with Tillis and Gornon likely not in his corner and he can't afford to lose either one. He loses one, it's over even with a Lindsey Graham replacement. Let's go through the, let's go through the catalog. Prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of grand juries all over the country including in Chicago. Right. Prosecutorial misconduct and abuse in, in, in Tennessee and malicious prosecution, vindictive prosecution findings, criminal contempt proceedings brought against the Department of Justice by judges. The anti weaponization fund being blocked. Him having to answer for why he's giving a pardon in a pass to the Trump side and Trump family as part of his being the head of the Department of Justice. Why is he allowing pardons to criminals? Why is he terminating criminal cases against fraudsters that are friends of Donald Trump? The Epstein file cover up and the COVID up of the COVID up. Need I go on? And without Lindsey Graham out there defending, defending, defending Todd Blanche, it just got a lot more perilous. This is the nightmare for scenario for Todd Blanch. Everybody was looking at Donald Trump's health, right? And the black box that his handlers have put his mental and Physical health in, you know, or looking at Mitch McConnell. Right. Who's not on the Judiciary Committee. But, you know, we don't know. As my. As my late mother would say, as looks. Appears to have one foot on a banana peel and one foot in the grave. So while we were all looking over here, you know, and, And. And Republican Congress, people that disappear for months on end because they're in some sort of depression rehab.
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Who. Who.
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Who dies moments after he comes home from Ukraine? Lindsey Graham. Even the Republicans are freaking out over it, you know, saying dumb, dumb stuff out loud. You gotta have Cash Patel try to step in and steal some valor for himself. The FBI is. Is on the case and cooperating with local officials. About what? About the aortic dissection, the hole in the aorta that led to the heart attack that killed Lindsey Graham, whose father died from something similar at a similar age. I'm glad to know that Cash Patel's FBI is on the scene. Nice way to wedge your way into a story, then, to try to save your own career, because this was the same weekend, of course, the Cash Patel was called on the carpet back to the White House. He's probably thankful Lindsey Graham died to take the heat off of him. And then you got people like Katie Miller. God, I thought Stephen Miller was the worst of the Millers. Katie Miller, his wife, who has some sort of podcast nobody watches. She jumps on Joe Biden. Joe Biden issues a heartfelt eulogy to a friend of his in, In. In Lindsey Graham. He says, jill and I are shocked by the sudden passing of Lindsey Graham. They served together in Congress for over a decade, worked closely on many issues through the years. Lindsey and I, and I did agree on the profound importance of public service. Like me, he loved the Senate as an institution to his family, his staff, his constituents in South Carolina, and. And everybody who loved him. Jill and I are keeping you in our prayers. And Katie Miller jumps on with, did your staff write this? I mean, Adam Kinzinger, the Republican congressperson from Illinois, had to say, what the fuck is wrong with you? Just to Katie Miller. So they're all trying to figure out, how do I get attention for myself with the death of one of the lions of the Senate, Lindsey Graham. It's disgusting, but there we are. There we are. But I wanted to focus on what happens. I'm going to update you on Legal AF, YouTube, and on Substack Live, including. Does the hearing go forward? It may. It may not. I'll keep you posted for Todd Blanche, who's going to be the last minute replacement. Are they going to be there in time? Are they going to delay the confirmation hearing to get that replacement into the Republican caucus? And whoever it is, it's never going to be Lindsey Graham. It's going to be Lindsey Graham Light Lindsey, Lindsey Graham Jr. Lindsey Graham the Younger. It's not going to do what Lindsey Graham would have done for Todd Blanche. Rope in and try to twist the arm of Thom Tillis and John Cornyn as Republicans, even outgoing as non trumper Republicans to vote for Todd Blanche. No more Lindsey Graham. Very torturous. Treacherous terrain. Now for Todd Blanche. I'll cover it all. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit that free subscribe button there. Help us grow. Over the course of the summer, we're trying to get to about 1.3 1.4 million subscribers. With your help, we will. Until my next report, this is Michael. 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 call. Wait for it. Morning af.
- [20:39]
What else?
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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.