Legal AF 10/1/2026

15:16KFA:Yeah. And I think he was like something. Yeah, exactly. I think he realized what what a major blunder. What a an embarrassment. Whoever whatever staff member came up with that and gave that to the senator. I know.

15:31Popok:Oh, wait, wait. Midas says that he can't even get the cover story. Right. Because there were a lot of seven thirty games with tip offs. But but but I guess he's right that there was only one in Atlanta. So you have to start with Atlanta, which is wrong to begin with, and then you're off on the wrong foot. Oh, my God. So anyway, Jack Smith completely pulverized the MAGA Republicans. He didn't even need the – this is an amazing thing. He didn't need the Democrats to throw him softballs. He did it in counterpunching off of questions from Republicans, which makes him so much more authentic and credible when you're able to do it off the adverse questions, off the hostile questions, which is what he did.

16:11Popok:Now, look, I am quite convinced, having watched this theater, that what they wanted Jack Smith to do, knowing that he was under criminal investigation and throwing around the P word perjury, they wanted him to take the Fifth Amendment so that they could abuse him and abuse his reputation the way they did a month ago with with Anthony Fauci. And he would not give him that. In the very beginning, he said, I'm not going to be silenced. I know about the criminal cases. They must have been like another gulp. Nope. Because that's all they wanted. Because they didn't care what his answers were as long as he got to take the Fifth Amendment.

16:52Popok:I'm sure there was some sort of pool going on to see who could get him to take the Fifth Amendment. And maybe Schmidt was part of it. What do you think?

17:00KFA:Yeah, I mean, look, that just means they have no idea who Jack Smith is. Jack Smith would never take the myth and he has because he has nothing to hide you know the Jack Smith that you see there is the Jack Smith in real life he's always been a man of extreme integrity he's not overly exuberant or emotional he's just measured and unflappable that's what made him a great trial lawyer that's what made him a great colleague and he's just a great investigator he just like like I said before I have no idea what political party affiliation he had or what his politics were what he believed because that wasn't Jack Smith Jack Smith was just a straight shooting prosecutor and he just followed the facts and the evidence called balls and strikes and so he has nothing to hide in fact I wouldn't be surprised if he would welcome a forum in a courtroom to defend himself because he has been unfairly maligned and criticized and raked through the mud for being a public servant just doing his job.

18:09KFA:And any opportunity to explain what he did and defend what he did, he will come out 10 ,000 % better than anybody asking him those questions.

18:21Popok:Yeah, that's what we saw. So that was politically a devastating week. We already have new hot mic testimony that a lot of things that Donald Trump has tried to do politically have backfired, like that midterm convention. What losing team holds a midterm party for themselves in pop champagne court while America suffers? And Ken Paxton, and it was in his backyard, who's running in a very, very tight race and probably James Tallarico up by a few points in that race right now for the Senate seat, has caught on a hot mic saying, it didn't help me. It's hurting me. Trump is hurting me. And this is after the Senate leader like John Thune, they're going to spend, get this number, Karen, a couple of hundred million dollars to try to drag Paxton over the finish line.

19:13Crazy.

19:14Popok:Yeah.

19:14KFA:Crazy. I mean, look, James Tallarico, he's, I love watching him. I love watching him speak. Another really sort of by the book kind of guy. He is just very, you can tell he truly genuinely believes what he believes. He cares about what he cares about. You can tell he's a man of integrity. And I look forward to his wiping the floor with Ken Paxton and his victory in Texas. I think that would be phenomenal.

19:44Popok:Absolutely. A little programming note. I just interviewed today the leading candidate to be the Attorney General of Florida, jose javier rodriguez who i can't believe i'm saying this i'm so happy the polling right now is showing florida going overwhelmingly blue like a blue tidal wave making its way down florida dave jolly is up on byron donald's despite tens of millions of dollars disadvantaged because people don't like byron donald's and they don't like donald trump in the state any longer he's up for governor, attorney general, Jose is up by five points against Utmeier. The chief financial officer Democrat is up, up and down the ticket because of two major anchors.

20:29Popok:They don't like Byron Donalds. They don't like Ron DeSantis any longer, even though he's not technically on the ballot and they hate Donald Trump. And so could you imagine a new battleground state of Florida back where it was when Obama won that state twice?

20:42KFA:I think the whole country is disillusioned with MAGA and Trump. And even people who wouldn't want to call themselves Democrats are disillusioned by this. And I think they're going to lose in a big way.

20:57Popok:Agreed. So when we come back, we're going to talk about the other bad parts of the week for the Trump administration in courtrooms, including at the D.C. Federal Court of Appeals, and not just any old court of appeals, the en banc version, meaning 10 out of the 11 judges sat in judgment of Donald Trump and get ready for a new criminal case against the Trump administration. And I'm looking at you, Todd Blanche and Kristi Noem, and maybe even Emil Bovee of the, now of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, but formerly of the Department of Justice. We'll also talk about the Won't You Love Me campaign.

21:33Popok:We're using millions of our tax dollars at a time when Americans are suffering. It's now led to two new lawsuits being filed, of course, to get to the bottom of that. And, you know, right on time, when you have a terrible week politically, a terrible week in your litigation, you take something off the shelf, some shiny object to give Trump or Blanche the opportunity to bash the press or bash judges or whatever it is at the moment, because they're trying every which way to motivate their base to come out and vote for them and keep these bastards in office. It's not working, But, you know, if his base is down to 25 percent, he still needs that 25 percent to come out, I guess.

22:16Popok:So he's trying to throw red meat. The problem is the meat is so scattered and the base is so skinny that it's very hard for him to accomplish anything. and doing flyover sporting events, which is his new way of campaigning, ain't going to cut it. I know the Republicans are waiting, for instance, for some Trump oomph to come out, but he's not 72-year-old Donald Trump any longer. He's not going to go to like 30 battleground states and 30 battleground districts. I'm laughing just thinking about it. And if he does, it'll be a disaster. Can you imagine, Karen, a tired, winded, out of gas Trump on his third campaign stop?

22:57Popok:What that's going to sound like?

22:59KFA:I mean, it's just he sleeps in every meeting on camera. I mean, it's just unbelievable to me. And I don't know why he gets away with it, but he calls sleepy Joe Biden, sleepy Joe Biden. I mean, it's unbelievable. He's I've never seen a clip of him on camera sitting down and not asleep. Even at 9-11 Memorial, the 9-11 Memorial, he fell asleep. Yeah, he always does.

23:24Popok:Yeah. So we're going to cover the rest of the issues, including them taking off the shelf. Let's go after Minnesota federal judges. Why not? Nothing else going on today. That's interesting. I know we keep flashing this one picture of Tom Holman. He should be in jail, by the way, for bribery. We'll talk about that when we return. We've got so many different ways to support what we do on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. We got a giant QR code that's hovering over Karen's head. Look out. It says, help out the show and download our audio. Yes, the audio in 2026 is still very, very important.

23:58Popok:I know it sounds very analog, like Polpok, we're watching you on YouTube. Yeah, but go download the audio because it helps with our ratings and our algorithms and leave reviews and all of that. And we're going to be applying for the Webbys again. So get ready for that campaign in October. We'll be talking about, let's sweep the Webbys all over again. There's different ways to help us. So download the audio. You're here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button here as they move to 7 million. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel, where we just, because of you over the weekend, hit 1 ,250 ,000 subscribers.

24:32Popok:We're on our way to 900 million views in just over two years. Help us out. Hit the free, free, I said free, subscribe button. Come over to Legal AF Substack, where we do about 10 different pieces of content every day. I do a live report on Legal AF Substack. It's a great community. It runs parallel to our YouTube audience. Help us over on Legal AF Substack. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors, some of which have been here from the very beginning, some of them brand new tonight, All curated by Karen and me and Jordy and all of that. And let's take our first break for them. Before I found Noble, I never really thought about how easy it could be for someone to get into a regular zippered suitcase.

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27:43Popok:That's up to 40 % off at boxycat.com slash Legal AF. Welcome back. Thank you for your support of Legal AF, the podcast. I'm Michael Popok with Karen Friedman-Nignifolo. And thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. Continuing the theme of a terrible week for Donald Trump and a great week for justice. This is all the same day. In the same day, Karen, Jack Smith blew up the Senate hearing room and destroyed Donald Trump in real time before the midterms. And MAGA, a court, federal court, an en banc panel of 10 judges, and we'll talk about it next, looked poised to allow a criminal case to continue against the Trump administration.

28:37Popok:And the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in my neck of the woods, or at least in Atlanta, Georgia, issued an order supporting Judge Williams' findings that Donald Trump and Donald Trump's lawyers committed bad faith litigation practice when they filed their case against the IRS and then tried to, quote unquote, settle it by creating a$1.8 billion fund and a free pass for Donald Trump and his family. for tax evasion. That's all in the same 24-hour period. So let's start with the en banc hearing, right? Chad Bosberg, chief judge, back in March a year ago, orders that planes fueling with 200 men inside who have been shaved and shackled and being sent to El Salvador's torture prison without due process, that those planes be grounded.

29:36Popok:He issues an oral order. It's violated. He issues a written order. It's violated. The men are sent to El Salvador. He starts criminal contempt proceedings. He gets up to a finding of probable cause for criminal contempt the following month. Goes up to the Court of Appeals for the federal district court. And the Trump administration lucks out. They get two Trump judges on there, Walker and Rayo. And over the dissent of Judge Childs, they say, no, you can't sanction them, even though they violated, you know, executive privilege, national security, dog ate my homework and all the other bullshit that MAGA and Trump judges spout.

30:23Popok:and the ACLU, who represents those men, and legal alert, their lead lawyer, said, we're going to file a petition for a complete en banc review of that decision. Throwing away that, if it's granted, tossing that decision and having the full panel, en banc, 10 in this case, for the hearing, reconsider it and come up with a new decision. and the petition is granted. You need a majority of the 10 in order, or the 11 in this case, in order to grant it. Now that district court appellate panel actually leans to the left or moderate. It has three Trump appointed judges. What do they seem to pop up like a bad penny?

31:10Popok:Katzis, Rao and Walker, one appointed by G.W. Bush and the rest of the seven are Democrat appointees. And so we get into the hearing room. And let me turn it over to you, Karen, for what you observed.

31:25KFA:Yeah, well, I don't think it was going very well for the administration during this hearing with 10 judges. Essentially, the issues here are the Department of Justice is saying that Judge Boesberg went from being a judge to being a prosecutor, right, conducting a criminal investigation. And he said judges are supposed to adjudicate and prosecutors are supposed to do the investigation and, if necessary, prosecution. And the DOJ says because we identified then DHS Secretary Kristi Noem as the official who is responsible for the transfer decision, if Judge Boesberg wants, can refer Noem for prosecution if he believes that's warranted, but can't continue taking testimony and investigating who else might have been involved.

32:16KFA:They're basically saying, well, if someone did something wrong, it's her, and so deal with her. And of course, they threw her under the bus and got rid of her because she was such a problem. But the judges seemed very skeptical of that argument because essentially, aren't judges supposed to be permitted to basically make a determination whether someone violates their orders? That's what one of the judges was pressing the DOJ saying. look, you know, they have to be able to fact find and they have to be able to know what happened, to know if there was a violation and who did the violation in order to make that referral.

32:52KFA:And so it's essentially, what does it mean to be a judge if you can't, if the federal courts are treated as optional and are disregarded? And so that's kind of what the judge's questioning seem to be talking about and really focusing on. And, you know, it seems like, I think it's just not going to go well for the administration, but, you know, it's all about separation of powers and what's the job of the executive branch, what's the job of the judiciary branch. And, you know, DOJ basically says that Bozberg crossed the line from judicial fact-finding into an executive investigation. And they're basically saying, no, a judge has to be able to control their own courtroom and their own orders.

33:40KFA:And if someone violated a court order, they have a responsibility to determine what the facts are, who did it, and then if appropriate, make a referral, which, you know, here would be, if you make a referral, obviously the DOJ is not going to prosecute themselves. And so luckily there's a rule, federal rule 42, which there's a mechanism for that problem, which if the DOJ declines to prosecute for contempt, the court can appoint another attorney to prosecute it. So it's not completely futile, to say the least, and it'll be interesting to see what they rule and if Judge Boesberg can continue on with his contempt proceedings and goes to hold someone in contempt and makes a referral for criminal prosecution, Judge Boesberg can refer that to a special prosecutor can appoint an attorney to do that if the DOJ declines to.

34:35KFA:So I think that's where it's going to go. What about you?

34:39Popok:Well, I'll give you my impression in a moment, but let's play some clips from the, we had it up on Legal AF YouTube channel. We had two, first time ever, we had two lives up on Legal AF YouTube. One, the Jack Smith, seven hours of testimony. We had about half a million people that watched it on Legal AF. But we also had the, simultaneously, we had the audio, that's all we had, of that full 10 bench. And this is judges Pallard, Judge Childs, and another judge that'll come to be -

35:11KFA:Millett.

35:11Popok:Millett. Really just ripping -

35:15KFA:Exactly.

35:15Popok:Brett Shoemate, who's the lawyer for the Department of Justice. By the way, he's on an unenviable losing streak. He was the lawyer that originally argued birthright citizenship, loss. He argued tariffs lost, and he's going to lose here. Let's play the compilation clip. Thanks for the question, Your Honor. What's different is that the government identified the decision maker. That was what was at issue in the prior mandamus proceeding. A number of judges on this court said it was acceptable for the district court to ask for that information. The government then provided that information, identified Secretary Nome as the decision maker.

35:48Popok:But do we have to just accept what you say, that you just say that there's a particular decision decision maker who put forward that they were responsible for an activity and the district court judge is supposed to just accept that at face value?

36:02KFA:The district court said there's been a lot of new information in the meantime.

36:05Popok:The only information that he's identified is the additional whistleblower report, which the district court has described as cementing his belief that there was a willful violation of the TRO. If that's the case...

36:15KFA:District court then gets to say... The government doesn't get to come back and say, here's the person we think is the only one you could possibly consider to be in contempt of the court. And of course, we don't believe she was in contempt of the court for the reasons you've explained. But the district court, inherent authority to determine whether a contempt of its orders has occurred doesn't have to take, as Judge Child said, you pushing one person forward at face value. The district court gets to say who else was involved, since you all have said this was a chain of information passed up.

36:57Popok:The Constitution does not change the standard for a referral under Rule 42. However, given the fact that the district court is going beyond its proper role in investigating a crime that did not occur...

37:09KFA:Is there a separation of powers problem if the executive branch has a unique authority to undertake actions that either are condemnation or potentially condemnation of court orders that no one else in the country is allowed to do? Is that a separation of powers question too, prevents courts from performing their functions?

37:32Popok:I don't think they're, if I'm understanding the question, the government can't violate court orders and neither can any other party, I think. So there's no difference here.

37:41KFA:If there's no difference, then there's not a separation of powers problem because the separation of powers is going to run two ways here. It's not a one-way street in favor of the executive branch. I think the Supreme Court's been crystal clear that the contempt power is an inherent power of the courts necessary for them to function. I think the point that the judge is making there is an interesting one, which is other parties, no, everyone has to follow a court order. And if this was not the government, let's say this was a witness or a defendant or somebody not the Department of Justice, the judge could, the court could absolutely do what is suggested here, conduct an investigation and see who's in contempt.

38:23KFA:And so what the judge was just saying there was, how is the government any different, right? That they are also subject to the same thing. If the court, in other words, can do it with other litigants and other parties, they should be able to do it with the government too.

38:40Popok:Yeah, I agree with you. I am reasonably confident that it is going to be a seven to three, if not, it'll be no worse than seven to three, which is more than enough to give Judge Jeb Boesberg what he needs to continue with the criminal investigation. Doesn't stop with Kristi Noem. The fact that they were even discussing, forget about Kristi Noem. What about Emil Bovee, who's now on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, one of their fellow appellate court judges. What about what he said when he, according to a whistleblower, told the lawyers, the DOJ, they're there to tell federal judges to go fuck off?

39:17Popok:How about that? And shouldn't he be for these actions? And he doesn't deny that.

39:22KFA:He says, I don't recall.

39:24Popok:Right. So shouldn't he be also subject to a criminal contempt proceeding? And the little interesting twist here is that the underlying order that was violated was ultimately reversed and vacated by the U.S. Supreme Court, not because Bozberg did anything wrong, but because the Supreme Court wanted to announce a new ruling that for these types of cases, they need to be brought in the last location where these guys were located. And because the DOJ was, and the Trump administration was busy moving these people around to avoid federal court oversight, and if they had to land someplace, they'd stick them in Louisiana or Texas where there would be a favorable judge.

40:06Popok:Most of the cases needed to be filed in Texas, Louisiana, divesting Judge Boesberg of jurisdiction. But it doesn't matter because at the time the order was violated, the order was still a good order that had not been blocked or stayed nor reversed by a higher court. And that's the point. You know, that's why at one point there was laughter in the room. You know, we had it up on, and I kept peeking in on YouTube. At one point, he actually shoemate the lawyer for DOJ, I think had a brain spasm, and he said a version of, well, there's no dispute that the oral order is not binding, and it was only the written order, and there was laughter.

40:47Popok:They said, what are you talking about? That is in dispute. You take the position that when the judge issued the order from the bench that it wasn't binding. that's not our understanding so i think they're going to get a they're going to get aflamed by this new opinion now what happens to the united states supreme court i don't know but at least for a time being bozberg will be able to move forward and i agree with you what the doj should do because of their conflict is to appoint a wait for it special counsel who's independent from the department of justice to investigate bovy blanche and the rest and gnome and others They're not going to do that.

41:25Popok:They're not going to lift a finger, which means Bozberg, I think, is going to have to use his powers to appoint an independent counsel or special counsel, you know. And and so that's a case we need to closely follow. Yeah.

41:39KFA:Sorry, I was on mute. Yes. OK, and we will.

41:43Popok:And when we come back from our next quick break, we're going to talk about what's going on. We just laid out all of the failures of the Trump administration this week. And now we'll talk about the thing they decided was going to save them. Besides attacking Jack Smith, not through Donald Trump. He's been silent about Jack Smith, which speaks volumes. But they're going to announce an attack, a new attack or a new attack on federal judges in Minnesota. We'll do all that when we come back. But we talked about it before. Download the audio for this show, the Legal AF podcast. come over to the Legal AF YouTube channel and join us there.

42:20Popok:We got to get bigger. We got to get more robust and muscular. Join our 1 ,250 ,000 person audience today with a free subscription. Come over to Legal AF Substack and become a free member there as well. And I do a live report every day. We've got about eight or 10 different pieces of content on Legal AF Substack. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors. And let's take a quick break for them now. One thing I'm really looking forward to this season is getting outside, making plans on the fly, and enjoying those spontaneous fall days. And whether I'm working, heading out at night, or on a fall adventure, I want clothes that feel comfortable anywhere.

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43:43Popok:Well, go to www.joindeleteme.com slash legal AF, enter code legal AF, and get 20 % off DeleteMe. DeleteMe removes your personal information that's being sold online. Get an individual plan for just over$8 per month. I have an active online presence, so privacy is really important to me. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me, now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20 % off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeliteme.com slash legal AF and use promo code legal AF at checkout. But the only way to get 20 % off is to go to www.joindeliteme.com slash legal AF and enter code legal AF at checkout.

44:32Popok:One more time, that's joindeliteme.com slash legal AF, code legal AF. Welcome back to Legal AF, the podcast. Donald Trump thinks that the panacea to solve all of his problems is make people love him. It reminds me of the old joke. The beatings will continue until morale improves. He's in the tank. He's circling the drain of history with a failed domestic policy, failed foreign policy, people suffering in the gas stations, at the polls, I mean, at the grocery stores, at health care centers, you name it can't make ends meet all because everything that he's tried turned to shit and his solution for that karen is to run an ad campaign to promote his presidency at before the midterms which is just another version of the failed midterm convention of a losing team celebrating in the locker room uh and we were like what and then everybody caught at the end, the one line underneath that said, paid for by the U.S.

45:41Popok:government. Let's play a little bit of it so we know what we're talking about. There's a shot of the thermostat. And here, oh, here's the president. Good. Coming down the hallway. I don't know, is the auto pen in the photo? What hallway is this? This is the first lady hallway? I don't even know what hallway This is some bizarre conference room here at the end as he walks off. And now, of course, inevitably, we're going to skip the part because we don't want to give him any promo time of the love me, love me, love me music in the background, literally. What do you make of it? And let's talk about the two new lawsuits that have been filed, Karen.

46:19KFA:Yeah, look, there's laws about what you can spend government money on and what you can't spend government money on. and whether you're allowed to use, whether employees are subject to something called the Hatch Act, which is civil, which basically says they can't participate in political activity on taxpayer dime. And so the president is not subject to the Hatch Act, but anyone who helped with this is subject to it. So it looks like this was paid for with DHS money. and the problem they have with that is that money was appropriated by Congress for a specific purpose and it does not appear that it is appropriate that this fits within that what it was appropriated for so he's got they've got some serious issues there and and I think he released three ads and the one you just showed though is the one that's most problematic because again, it was DHS, Department of Homeland Security.

47:20KFA:It was supposed to be, the appropriation was about border security, about creating ads or creating films and PSAs on border security. And that's what it was supposed to be used for. The most problematic one is the one we just showed because really what that is, is the identical, identical. It is the ad that ran in 2024 when he ran for president. The only difference is it didn't say paid for by the U.S. government. It said paid for by whatever, Donald Trump's campaign. Now, if he wanted to use his own money to do this, he can certainly do that. But taxpayer dollars to be used for political purposes is a no-no.

48:07KFA:And so there are lawsuits that are going to be challenging that. And look, he's going to say, oh, you know, this isn't political. I'm not even running for office. And so it can't be viewed as political. But A, it run afouls of what the money was supposed to be used for the appropriation. But Congress has to enforce that. And we know at least this Congress is not going to because they will do anything Trump wants, it seems. but it's clear that this was election related because it's a month before the midterms and so he's trying to get himself on the ballot and he said so in not so many words right hasn't he said didn't he say in a rally pretend I'm on the ballot and he is making himself part of the midterm elections and trying to help get people elected and so that's what this was about and I I think he's going to run into some issues here.

49:02KFA:Again, whether it's enforced, let's see. But clearly, if nothing else, it has the appearance of impropriety, even if it's not improper, although I would argue it is improper. But if nothing else, it crosses the line of the appearance of impropriety, which is something that you're not supposed to do.

49:21Popok:Yeah, we have got two public interest groups that have filed suits, one under the Freedom of Information Act, arguing we need more information in order to bring our suit. But another public interest group brought a suit and said it's a violation of the Hatch Act. You can't be campaigning and using U.S. taxpayer dollars to do your campaigning. This is a campaign ad masquerading as a public service announcement, masquerading as a narcissistic vanity piece. I don't know what you would call it. But, you know, people in his cabinet have been fired for less. But it shows me how desperate this administration and Donald Trump is.

50:05Popok:so desperate that even in the face of failing historically abysmal poll numbers, we're starting to hit like depression era poll numbers. Like this is like Hoover type poll numbers. Forget Jimmy Carter, which has been his biggest fear is that he'll be a Carter. Forget he's worse than Carter in terms of poll numbers coming into his midterm of his second and final term. But just the stench and the air of desperation around this presidency can't be ignored. And the American people are not ignoring it. The fact that I can run a video tomorrow about Florida turning blue and ways to get the Attorney General to be a Democrat in that state tells you, you know, I'm not quixotic.

50:57Popok:I'm not tilting at windmills. I'm looking at the poll numbers. I'm looking at, what, two years of bashing over the head of the American people, destroying their purse, their pocketbook, their kitchen table, and not allowing them to have a dignified life. And showing that the Republican Party and MAGA Trump is completely out of touch and out of lockstep with American values and ideals. Polling numbers, I can take any one demographic. Women. uh voters under 30 uh white under under educated males uh hispanic catholic hispanic independence black vote you name it whatever his little coalition was where he you know he stole he just did slightly better with the black vote than before the hispanic vote before and the women vote and the and the white guy vote the bro vote and all that he had it all together and he wiped out Kamala Harris.

51:56Popok:He didn't wipe her out, but he won the seven battleground states for sure. All that has abandoned him. So now what is he left with? What sporting event can we go to now? I mean, they must have a giant calendar up, you know, like what's going on around the country where I can show up and do as little as possible for the maximum, I don't know what, Boeing, maybe the Tennessee-Texas game. He got, people were cheering, but barely. But this is what we're left with this, this shell of a, of this husk of a human being masquerading as a president of the United States. And then he's got all these enablers and syncophanced around him.

52:36Popok:Like Natalie Harp. I could just see her in a meeting. Guys, guys, we got to pump him up. We got to, we got to stroke his, his, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? His ego. Uh, we got, we got to do an ad, you know, he can walk down a hallway, he can pass a thermostat and we can, we can say, I love you in it. Let's do it. This is like a Saturday Night Live skit. It's outrageous. And he's blowing my money doing it. It's not going to help. If it was a 30-seat advantage for the Democrats in the House before that ad, add another five seats. If it was a 60-40 chance for the Democrats to take the Senate, which is where it was with the Cook Report, add another the five points.

53:21Popok:That's how bad I think it is right now. That's what it looks like. It looks like state-run television in dictatorships and failed countries. And like in Hitler's Germany, when they ran, you know, what's the sign that the government has fallen? They play like a Swan Lake over and over and over and over again on state-run radio. They're like, oh shit, they're playing Swan Lake over again. We got to get out of here. The government's fallen. Same fucking thing here. So I'm going to have the Democracy Forward leader, Skye Perryman, at the end of the week to talk about her new filing there. But what's your – putting aside the lawsuits, which will be interesting, what do you think this – what phase – what stage of the Trump administration are we now in where they have to let grandpa put on an advertisement like that?

54:16KFA:I mean, first of all, clearly, A, they're desperate. B, they realize they see the writing on the wall for the midterms and they're doing the only thing they know how to do, which is recycle old garbage and try to dress it up like it's some kind of glossy message. But, you know, somebody has to run a political ad against Trump that basically just does a tally. How much he was spent on the reflecting pool that, you know, that can't fill with water. How much is he spending on the triumphal arch? How much is he spending on the ballroom? How much is he spending on how much does it cost every single time he goes to a sporting event?

54:57KFA:How much does it cost with the Secret Service and the motorcade and all the other things for him to go to do those things? How much does it cost for him to play golf? Just all the things he spends money on. How much did he spend on this political ad for himself, essentially? And if you were to add all of that up, of taxpayer dollars that are being spent on vanity projects, how much was spent on the Trump Kennedy Center, you know, redesign that he's trying to make that, just add it all up, all of those things. and you add it up, I think you would see the number would be over a billion dollars, if not multiples of that.

55:33KFA:And ask the American people, just do you want your taxpayer dollars spent on these 10 things? Or would you rather have healthcare, food that's affordable, housing that's affordable, you know, whatever it is, gas that's affordable, not a war in Iran, like just, just make it about taxpayer dollars and just show kind of where his priorities are and where your priorities are. And I think you do that in simple terms like that, it's game over. That's why Doge had a glimmer of kind of, oh, this is not such a bad thing, right? We're cutting, in the beginning, you know, it had some appeal because we're cutting fraud and waste and government, you know, fat, something that does exist.

56:25KFA:But it turned out that was, they didn't actually do that, right? They just got rid of the things, they got rid of things that they said are political. They didn't actually do things like make government more efficient, right? That's what the E in Doge stood for. And instead, they just turned it into a political kind of nothing burger that did some real damage and no benefit to the American people. And this is sort of the opposite of Doge, right? This is actual government waste, fraud, and abuse. And I just think if people really think about it in those terms and where our taxpayer dollars are going, I think it's actually atrocious.

57:09Popok:Totally agreed. We'll follow those lawsuits closely. And then let's end the show sort of with the thing that the Trump administration is trying to use, shows you how pathetic they are, how out of gas and out of any type of just morally and intellectually bankrupt. They got nothing better to do than to go after a federal former chief judge of Minnesota, Judge Schultz, about a New York Times article from, I don't know, a couple of months ago or something, Where he just told the truth. We know from our reporting that in Minnesota, there were hundreds of court orders that were violated by the Trump administration and its Department of Justice during their immigration surge and their ICE surge in Minnesota.

57:56Popok:You know, the one that led to Renee Good and Alex Preddy's death. That's what the Department of Justice should be concerned about. is getting to the bottom of how they died and criminally prosecuting those responsible or their civil rights division doing that. But no, they had rather go after, just as they went after the prosecutor instead of the defendants in the Jan 6th issues related to Jack Smith, they're going after the judges instead of the people that shot and killed Americans on the streets of America. And so Schultz was very public. In fact, he told the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, here, I got an idea.

58:35Popok:I'm going to order you to do this. Create a chart of all the orders of mine or anybody else in this district that you have violated, and then we'll talk about it. It was hundreds of them. At one point, Judge Schultz, in his own orders, said, because we reported on it, that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE has violated more orders in the District of Minnesota in a month than he thought any other agency of the government had ever violated in their lifetime. This is all public record. Judge Schultz wasn't holding back. He threatened to put the acting director of ICE, Todd Lyons, in jail unless he finally released the guy that should have been released earlier by court order and threatened to put him in an order to show cause.

59:29Popok:He had a choice, either testify or release the guy. They chose to release the guy. This is all public. And so when the judge, following the advice, an advisory opinion by the judicial board, said, I'm allowed to talk about and protect the rule of law and justice, not just sit here idly by while the Todd Blanches and the Pam Bondys and the Donald Trumps of the world bash us and put a crosshairs on our back. So he gave an interview to the New York Times. Everything he said in the New York Times is in the public record and in his docket. But that's not what we had with Todd Blanche, right, Karen?

1:00:05Popok:Here is an unnecessarily upset and angry. This is his tell. When he's doing something he doesn't like and he's doing something he knows is wrong. It's a lot of heavy, heavy, heavy breathing and a lot of snarky bullshit. Like he's the president back to the press. Let's play the clip. Today, we're also announcing that just a few minutes ago, the Department of Justice filed a judicial misconduct complaint with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals against all but one district court judge in the District of Minnesota for violating various judicial canons. These judges talk to the media, or at least to the New York Times, about cases, some of which are ongoing, in a matter that the department views as a clear violation of their ethical duties.

1:01:00Popok:Specifically, the former chief judge spoke on the record to the New York Times about the immigration surge late last year and early this year in Minneapolis. His comments, along with a picture he appeared to pose for, were included in a September 17, 2026 article in the New York Times. And according to that article, the judge sat for a 90-minute interview with the New York Times. According to the article, six other members of Minnesota's federal bench also agreed to speak to the New York Times about last winter's efforts in Minneapolis. It, again, according to the article, included six of the seven judges who held active status in Minnesota, at least as of last winter.

1:01:49Popok:During this 90-minute interview, the judge apparently told the reporter that the Trump administration has a, quote, disregard for court orders, end quote, and continued to give his view that this disregard clogged his courthouse to a near standstill, contributing to rising tensions in the protest-filled city of Minneapolis. This judge also told the New York Times that his impression was that most, if not all, of the noncompliance was due to incompetence, not due to conscious defiance of orders, and that the lack of resources led to a result that should have been anticipated and that threatened the foundations of the legal system.

1:02:31Popok:He complained about other things that the Trump administration had supposedly done in this article, all of which was on the record. And obviously, in our view, this is a violation of not only the judicial canons, but of his ethical duties as a judge. Right. He's all hot and bothered, hot under the collars, all huffing and puffing. And then, you know, one of the one of the reporters has the temerity to ask him a good question. How come you get to go to a campaign rally and attack judges and say that they're bad people? And then you're just standing up in front of us talking about Judge Schiltz.

1:03:09Popok:And he got all hot. And he was almost like hyperventilated. Well, the main reason is, I don't know if you know this, but I'm not a judge. And I'm not subject to judicial canons. But you are a lawyer. You are. You know, this whole, even his comment that I heard him say about, no, I'm allowed in my personal capacity to go to rallies. I don't think, I think that's actually a mischaracterization of the Hatch Act and the separation of politics from his job as the chief law enforcement officer. What do you think, Karen?

1:03:39KFA:Yeah, I mean, look, obviously judges aren't supposed to talk about cases publicly. They're not supposed to do things like that. but there's a judicial conference ethics advisory opinion that emphasizes that federal judges can speak publicly about core institutional matters, including judicial independence and the rule of law. And that's what Judge Schiltz pointed to was this February of 2026 judicial conference ethics advisory opinion. And he's saying, look, that's what I was talking about. I wasn't talking about any individual case. I was talking about the fact that this Department of Justice has violated countless court orders.

1:04:22KFA:They said 96 court orders in 74 cases that ICE had violated court orders. And he said, that's okay, because this immigration operation is a serious threat to the rule of law. And that that is that's appropriate fodder because it's not talking about individual cases, etc. And that is independence. And that is squarely within what he's allowed to talk about. So I think I think he I think that was totally appropriate. Also, you can't expect a judge to be personally attacked and not be able to respond. I think that's, you know, that that's just highly unusual that that that that would occur. And I think it's, it would be, it would be, it's naive, I think, of Todd Blanch to say, oh, I can do it, but he can't.

1:05:18KFA:And so, and, you know, we know that Donald Trump goes out and criticizes judges all the time. And judges, by and large, show tremendous restraint and don't respond and don't say anything, despite all of these criticisms that Trump, who personally attacks judges constantly. And he does it to his own appointees. He does it to the Supreme Court. And they all show restraint. But when the Department of Justice crosses the line and starts violating court orders, and here, in one jurisdiction, this is just in Minnesota, right? that in just one jurisdiction that this judge pointed out, 96 court orders in 74 cases were violated.

1:05:59KFA:That's astounding. I can't think of prior to the Trump administration, I bet if you were to ask judges how often the Department of Justice or a federal agency directly violated a court order, I think they'd be hard pressed to find any. It's not common. This is a very, very unusual time we're in. And I think the judges have a right to kind of call into question really what's going on and the threat to the rule of law.

1:06:28Popok:Yeah, I've had federal judges, sitting federal judges on like Judge Bloom and Judge Salas do exactly that, defend the rule of law and defend judges being attacked. They feel they can do that under the advisory opinions of the judicial canons. They don't have to just wait until their former or retired federal judges to do it. But then you got Todd Blanche today. Today, we have a clip where he suggested a press conference that the DOJ could just violate court orders when they when they in their mind believe that it violates Supreme Court precedent. Let's play the clip. I'm allowed to get really fired up when, for example, judges in Minnesota complain about us violating court orders.

1:07:07Popok:But the reason why that we are, quote, violating court orders is because these judges are violating Supreme Court law, okay, and allowing these cases to be filed. Okay, so - No, that's not right either. But you could see the battle, the battle for the soul of our legal system that Todd Blanche and Donald Trump are waging and how they're pitting us against our own judicial system. It's not right. It has to end. And if If you're looking for yet another single issue to vote on, this would be one of them. Restore normalcy, restore sensibility and restore our rule of law by getting the bastards out.

1:07:51Popok:We got to get I can't express this strongly enough. The most important election in my 42 years of voting happens in 30 days. That's it. Period. If we don't get back democratic control of the House and the Senate and restore checks and balance and oversight and root out corruption and start impeachment hearings, our country will be lost. We can't wait until 2028 to see what's on the ticket and what's on the menu for the presidency. It starts now. Right, Karen?

1:08:26KFA:Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, I went to an event last night, Popak, and it was on the USS Intrepid. which is basically an aircraft carrier turned museum here in New York. And it was on the 25th anniversary of September 11th. And it was incredibly moving and inspiring. And they talked about how unifying the country, in some ways how 9-11 was unifying for the country and how everyone came together. And it really made me long for the days of when we were unified and not completely divided. and we realized we all want the same thing. We all love this country so much. And I'm hoping that this period, this nightmare period will be over soon and we can go back to that and back to helping each other and loving each other, even for our differences.

1:09:22KFA:And I'm gonna leave with one final thought. The most inspiring speaker spoke at this event last night, a woman named Heather Penny, whose call sign is Lucky Penny. And she was, she is a National Guard fighter pilot, an Air National Guard fighter pilot. And 25 years ago on 9-11, she joined the military to be a fighter pilot. And she joined the Air National Guard, hoping that because it was the National Guard and not the Air Force, she could rise to the ranks and actually be a fighter pilot, not what women were relegated to, which is like transport planes and cargo planes. She wanted to fight. And she had just started.

1:10:07KFA:She had just finished training. And it was her first day back from training. And that's when 9-11 happened. And they were in Washington, D.C. And they did not have their planes locked and loaded because they aren't first responding. You know, they aren't instant responders, the Air National Guard. and it usually takes 72 hours to load their planes with munitions. And she was telling the story about how Flight 93 was the fourth plane, right? They'd hit the two World Trade Towers, they'd hit the Pentagon, and there was this one plane that was unaccounted for, and they thought it was headed towards D.C., towards the White House or Congress.

1:10:50KFA:and their mission was to, they had to get, they could get there, they could get there quickly and so they get in their planes to go and they couldn't shoot down the plane because they didn't have munitions and it would take too long to load. So she was one of two planes whose mission was like a kamikaze mission and the first plane was going to take out, literally ram and crash into the front and the other ram into the back. She was going to ram into the back to bring down the plane. Now, luckily, the heroes happened to be the passengers who brought down the plane and she didn't have to do that and she lived to tell the story.

1:11:28KFA:But she was such an inspiration, especially as a woman. I just was like, God, I'm just reminded of the heroes of this country and how beautiful this country is and how many people are there to help each other and to defend this country. And it just made me really long for our country to come back as a unified country where we all support each other and where we can all proudly fly the flag and go back to being a democracy that follows rules, even ones we disagree on and loves each other, even if we disagree with each other and takes care of each other. So anyway, I wanted to share that story because I'm still still basking in sort of the feeling of this incredible event last night.

1:12:15Popok:Well, thanks for sharing that with us and motivating us to vote at the midterms and beyond. You're on Legal AF, the podcast at the midweek, Karen Freeman at Nifilo and Michael Popok. Thanks for being here. Saturday, you'll be back with Ben Mycelis. Of course, support us on Legal AF, the YouTube channel. and seriously follow us but but join us and become a subscriber for free on legal af youtube do the same thing on legal af sub stack which runs parallel to legal af youtube channel um and download the audio here and leave a five-star review on anywhere you get your audio podcast from until my next report along with care of freedom ignifilo i'm michael popock shout out to the mightest mighty and the legal afers Thank you.