JD Vance Makes Shock Admission on Air as he Panics

0:00Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent Anna Noskezi. This is a Monday.com ad. TheSameMonday.com helping people worldwide getting work done faster and better.

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3:32I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As Governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent Anna Noskezi.

3:58Michael Popok:Is Donald Trump too scared of what New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan and Swan are sitting on in terms of a thousand interviews and possibly recordings of situation room conversations among those in his administration at the highest levels as they sit and talk about not the dignity and justice for Epstein survivors, but how to cover it up for political and PR purposes, including J.D. Vance, including Susie Wiles, including Todd Blanche, including Stephen Chung, Carolyn Leavitt, Pam Bondi, and Kash Patel. And now J.D. Vance has said out loud in an interview with Megyn Kelly on Sirius Radio that he really is worried, and he should be, that those recordings happened about what transpired.

4:57Michael Popok:I mean, frankly, there's been speculation that he is at the heart of the leak because every time there's a leak, it's in a way that tries to make J.D. Vance look better, right? Everybody in the room running around like a chicken with their head cut off about the Epstein scandal and him saying, we should get all the documents out. You know, the person who looks the best in a leak, and of course, we're talking about the one-eyed man in the land of the blind is often sometimes the leaker. I'm Michael Popok. You're here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. And people are scratching their head at two things.

5:33Michael Popok:One, how did Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan obtain what appears to be recordings from conversations in what we thought was a secure situation room? I'll give you an idea in a moment. The names are Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and maybe Dan Bongino. Let me hold a pin in that for just one moment. But the second head scratcher is, we're several days after that bombshell. And yes, Donald Trump already looks like something the cat drag did after his G7 visit. But why hasn't there been any fist shaking or saber rattling or threats of investigation or prosecution against Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for recordings.

6:18Michael Popok:Maybe it's because she's sitting on 1 ,000 interviews. I don't think it was coincidence that she and her fellow author wrote a footnote at the bottom of that article and said out loud, I've interviewed 1 ,000 people, including many inside the house, inside the government, right? The call is coming from inside the house. This is like two horror movies put together back to back because it happened in July of 2025. It's what we know what you did last summer and it's coming from within the house. She said, I have a thousand witnesses, including many inside the government and current administration, and I have recordings.

7:01Michael Popok:I mean, she's not a kidnapper, but she did demonstrate proof of life, if you know what I mean. I had Don Lemon on, the intrepid reporter and journalist and fellow independent commentator for an interview the last couple of days. And we talked specifically about why does he think that Trump is going to go after Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan? And he had a very interesting take that I agree with. Play the clip. Before I go into this, can I say this, Michael? There is a part of me as well, where he said that they're going to probably try to do something, look out, Jonathan Swan, look out, Maggie Haberman.

7:38And there's another part of me that says, maybe not, because can you imagine if this is litigated in court, the, what do you call it, the discovery that will come from this. The people whose devices would have to, you know, that the defense would have to get their information from their devices. A thousand people. those things. A thousand people and all of this information will be made known to Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan's attorneys. And then eventually some of it will come to light publicly. I don't think the administration wants it. So there will be a lot of bluster about this and that, but they will never get to the point where there is discovery because they stand to lose too much.

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9:54Michael Popok:God love him. That's all he ever does is write books. He has no other body of work except writing books. You know, Hillbilly Elegy. And now it's, what's this one called? Catechism, conversion, Catholicism, something. but he is writing about his Catholic spirit because he's trying to try out for the 2028 primaries as president. And he goes on all shows, going on The View, you know, and they all, for some reason, they all cozied up to J.D. Vance. Oh, you're adorable. You should run for president or something like that. He then goes, it's not a hard, but by the way, I don't look to The View for sort of hard hitting, you know, interrogations of presidential candidates.

10:35Michael Popok:You know, I'm sorry. I just don't. He then goes on with Megyn Kelly on television, but on her podcast on Sirius satellite. And he says, I really worry that this thing was recorded. Play the clip. You're all over. The New York Times is reportedly predicting this would be a disaster. It's going to cause regional chaos. It's going to break apart Trump's coalition. Don't believe everything you read in the New York Times. Oh, that's OK. There may be tapes now given to Maggie Haberman. Which is crazy, by the way. That was a very weird story. Very weird. you're talking about the ups so just for your audience's sake there was this story about epstein that came out in the new york times and like half of it or so was bs and about half of it you know it's the way it always goes that's how these stories are there's always an element of truth there's always an element of non-truth but there were certain things in there that legitimately made me worried that people were like taping yeah in the situation room which by the way is like a felony yeah it's a super dangerous precedent that was weird that story was very bizarre It was sort of a nothing burger of a story in the sense that everybody sort of knew all those details anyway.

11:37Michael Popok:But the fact that somebody had taped. You should be really worried that things were recorded because you had 11 people, at least, who seemed to have agreed in tacit agreement to participate in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. We have a word for that in the law, term of art in the law. It's called obstruction. It's called violation of the Hatch Act, where you're worried about your political hides while you're in office doing allegedly honest public service. That's not what you're talking about during the Epstein cover-up led by Todd Blanchett and others. And so those tapes, if they were to fall into the wrong hands, like a future Department of Justice or a future House committee, everybody that's involved there is on thin ice.

12:32Michael Popok:Now, here's the Easter egg that was buried inside of Maggie Haberman's reporting that I caught on first read. nine. I feel like I'm playing an elaborate game of Clue. I do a lot of pop culture references. I thought I was like nine in the situation room and two with the candlestick in the library. Pam Bondi and Kash Patel phoned it in, literally, like how they conducted their job. They phoned it in. They weren't in the situation room where electronic devices are blocked, listening devices you're patted down, got armed guards at the front door. No, they're not there. They phone in. How do you know who was in the room with them?

13:15Michael Popok:When I do video depositions, I make the person turn the camera around, show me what's in the room or what they're working with there because I'm not in the room with them. You think anybody there thought to have Pam Bondi and Kash Patel swear that nobody else was in the room or show that nobody else was in the room? And who doesn't think that Dan Bongino, the deputy FBI director with an axe to grind about the Epstein files, wasn't in on the side with Patel? And who would put it past Kash Patel or even Pam Bondi, who got unceremoniously dumped by Donald Trump later to hit the record button on some listening device?

13:53Michael Popok:Because Maggie Haberman has a transcript. There is a mole inside the White House, probably more than one, in order for Maggie to write and with Jonathan Swan what she did. Now, that reporting was vetted to within an inch of its life by inside First Amendment lawyers at the New York Times, some of which I know, and outside First Amendment lawyers at law firms that are well known to defend publications and media outlets in defamation cases before they published. and Trump knows it, which is why we have the speculation, as you heard by Don Lemon, they're not going to go after her because she's sitting, it's like mutual assured destruction.

14:38Michael Popok:She's not worried about going to jail. I assure you that after watching the Trump administration go after the Washington Post reporter, she does not have anything at home that if it was confiscated would put her out of the business of being a reporter. I assure you her hard drive is not there. It may be in the cloud. It may be at the New York Times. It may be on a thumb drive or two locked away in somebody else's office or in a safety deposit box somewhere or in a locker at Port Authority or at an airport, but it is not in her home. And Trump knows the best way to pour gasoline on this story and make it continue to percolate and continue to flame up while Todd Blanche is trying to get confirmed is to go after Maggie Haberman.

15:28Michael Popok:Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing, 15th of July. Plenty of time for things that have gone terrible for the Trump administration to get even worse. I'm watching, for instance, for Legal AF and Midas Touch Network. Take a moment, hit the free subscribe button in both. I'm watching Judge Williams to get her final brief on Friday from the 35 former federal judges to decide whether there was fraud on the court and deceit perpetrated by Donald Trump and his lawyers about the anti-weaponization fund and settlement. And I'm looking at you, Todd Blanche, you're implicated in that. So that could time out in time for the July 15th hearings.

16:09Michael Popok:I'm looking at the continued testimony about the Epstein scandal in front of the House Oversight Committee and Alan Dershowitz, Epstein's lawyer and friend of Donald Trump being called before the committee to testify. And now you've got Chicken Little, you know, J.D. Vance worried about tapes. He should be. This is Watergate times a thousand. This is Iran-Contra scandal times a thousand. And I postulate that this is going to bring the Trump administration down, as I always said it would, and bring Todd Blanche down. He's fighting to be the last captain on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg, which I don't understand.

16:59You know, Todd, follow me here.

17:03Michael Popok:you really want in your obituary to read that you presided over the final two years of the trump administration and its assault on the rule of law and democracy and scandal and then list the after that the dozens and dozens of scandals that you presided over and that you led you want that to be the legacy you know we'll continue to follow it all right here i'm glad you're here on legal af and on my touch network in the meantime it's a traveling Michael Popok reporting. 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.

17:44Michael Popok:You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF 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.