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- [00:00]
Michael Popak
For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small town sheriffs. Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime Podcasts ad free included with Prime From
- [00:20]
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- [01:03]
Michael Popak
There's a secret that explains Donald Trump's shouting match with members of Congress during his State of the Union over Somalia and over purported fraud. It's that he's upset, I'm sure, that a top Trump donor and a major leader in his Treasury Department, John Hurley, has left not because of disagreements with Scott Bessant. The new reporting is he's leaving because because he stumbled on and objects to a massive spying and surveillance program being operated by Donald Trump using the Treasury Department. He says it's only targeting Minnesota and the Somali community, but he's using the Treasury Department to spy on all financial transactions. And it sounds like John Hurley would just rather be the ambassador to Germany than to continue to spy on Americans. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and of course on Legal af. So about a week or so ago I reported that John Hurley maybe had gotten sideways with Scott Bessant. It's not the only one. There's many people that have left the Treasury Department that don't want to seem don't want to seem be seen working for Donald Trump through Scott Bessant. But there's more to the story and it looks like John Hurley is an accidental whistleblower. Now he's been the Undersecretary of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. It's a scary sounding entity within the Treasury Department and he's only been there about four months. So his departure was odd. But now it's explained and probably explains the shouting match that Donald Trump decided to have yesterday during the State of the Union address. Now it looks like the Treasury Department is trying to monitor and surveil international payments coming out of Minneapolis and out of Minnesota. This is data privacy. This is violation of the Fourth Amendment in its use by using something you've probably never heard of called a Geographic Target Order, a gto. A GTO is being used by the government to track the personal finances of people living in Minnesota. So Donald Trump can try to get, you know, something about Somalia in 2026 to deliver to his Maga base. Problem with that is it is most likely a violation of the Fourth Amendment and it will lead to new lawsuits, I'm sure, being filed about the use of the GTOs, and particularly how Donald Trump is using the an organization within the Treasury Department, which is known as FinCEN. I've been up against FinCEN, the financial crimes Enforcement Unit of the Treasury Department, and how they're using FinCEN and weaponized it to go after Americans, Americans, mainly Democrats. See, Donald Trump hasn't just weaponized the Department of Justice, he's weaponized the Treasury Department, you know, the one that's holding all of your personal financial data, including its Social Security, against you. Now, we knew that something like this was going to happen because Elon Musk often talked about during his doge days, creating a giant database, right? A giant database, unified database of all government information about you and have it in one place, what could go wrong, and then use it for the government's nefarious purposes. But now we see it and how it's operating. And John Hurley apparently has had enough now to get rid of Hurley and get him out of the hair of everybody. It looks like they're going to give him an ambassadorship and send him off to, I don't know, Greenland, Germany somewhere. Every time Donald Trump wants to get rid of somebody, he gives them an ambassadorship. You know, ex wife of Don Jr. Give her an ambassadorship. You know, it's kicking him upstairs. Get rid of the National Security Advisor because he screwed up and added a reporter from the Atlantic magazine onto a signal chat at the top of this administration when it first started, sent him off to Iceland. It's just, you know, it's just ridiculous. But the big picture here is Donald Trump is spying on America and he's using his Treasury Department to do it. I also thought it was odd that Donald Trump decided to waste his time, even though it rambled for two hours, the shambolic State of the Union address to go after, you know, the representative from Minnesota and to Talk about Somalia and then try to argue that, I don't know, people should stand up and celebrate him going after Somali fraudsters. Let's play the clip.
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Donald Trump
The Somali pirates who ransacked Minnesota remind us that there are large parts of the world where bribery, corruption and lawlessness are the norm, not the exception. Importing these cultures through unrestricted immigration and open borders brings those problems right here to the usa. And it is the American people who pay the price in higher medical bills, car insurance rates, rent, taxes, and perhaps most importantly, crime. We will take care of this problem. We're going to take care of this problem. We are not playing games.
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Michael Popak
Here's the reality. You got a criminal case against a group of people. You think Medicare fraud, Medicaid fraud, insurance fraud, Social Security fraud is going on? It's very simple. You use the FBI, the postal inspectors, Medicare, Medicaid inspector generals. You bring them all together under the auspices of an FBI that functions properly and a Department of justice, and you focus. And that's why they're called targets. You focus on the targets of the criminal investigation. What you don't do is cast this giant net, you know, of these geographic target orders and blanket an entire state and then capture in there and sweep up in there. You're in my personal data. And I think, John, I think it just was a bridge too far for even a mega maga donor like John Hurley is like, I'm out now. Of course, when they reached him for comment, he said, oh no, I fully support everything that Trump does about the Somali fraud. That's not the point, John. The point is you become an accidental whistleblower because outside media organizations have done some investigative reporting and come up with, lo and behold, you didn't just leave quietly, you left after making your concerns known that data privacy from fourth amendment issues were potentially being violated by the Treasury Department. Are you looking for a smarter way to unwind? SOL makes feeling good simple. They make delicious hemp derived CBD and THC products with precise dosing, clean ingredients and formulations designed for predictable feel good effects. SOL is the alcohol alternative that puts you in control of your mood without the downsides often associated with alcohol like health hangovers or poor sleep, extra calories or next day fatigue. Their best selling out of office gummies deliver a customizable calming buzz. From a 1.5mg microdose for a gentle lift to 15mg for a deeper, more elevated experience. Prefer to sip something. 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You know, Trump wants us to believe that he can redefine what that means. But at the end, we do have a Constitution, we do have case law around this, and we do have a Supreme Court that you may, we may not agree with a lot of what they do, but they are consistently protective of people's privacy rights and under the Fourth Amendment. That's why there's so many lawsuits over the use of GTOs, over the, over, over FinCEN's powers. And now that we've got this new reporting about John Hurley, I am sure we'll have a cascade of new lawsuits. This will eventually end up on the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court. Not today. May not even be a 2026 event, maybe event that ends up in 2027, but it will happen. And what we need to do now is expose it. Whistleblowers are so important. Whether they want, whether they want to be whistleblowers or not. For example, they, they have blown the whistle like we just saw in the last couple of days about ICE training, that ICE is being trained in their academy to violate the Constitution. We know that because of a whistleblower. We know about the ICE memo which says that the ICE should break down doors in violation of the Fourth Amendment without a proper federal judge order. We know that from a whistleblower. We know the whistleblowers at the Department of Justice that came forward and talked about the illicit, unconstitutional immigration policy and violation of federal court orders. So we have seen over the last year that there are whistleblowers inside the house. Some of them unintentional, some of them didn't mean to be whistleblowers when they woke up that morning. But by the time they resigned and people followed the story, they became whistleblowers. And it's that focus on insiders coming forward and surfacing memos that had been hidden and surfacing policies that were naked that we couldn't see with the naked eye that is going to help us reclaim our democracy and our justice system. We need more. We need more whistleblowers to come to come forward. So I want to continue to report on all of that here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal af. Thank you for all the support you do for Legal AF on YouTube. Now would be the great opportunity. If you like our videos, you like my content, it's easy. Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Hit the free subscribe button and come over to Legal AF substack and do the exact same thing. So until my next report, this is Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we form 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 in 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, 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 Lifelock. How can I help?
- [12:49]
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- [12:52]
Michael Popak
One in four taxpaying Americans has paid the price of identity fraud.
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What do I do?
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Michael Popak
My refund though.
- [12:57]
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- [12:58]
Michael Popak
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- [13:06]
Michael Popak
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Michael Popak
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Michael Popak
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