Legal AF - 2/21/2026

24:45Ben Meiselas:because when he was asked about the deposition of Wexner and about everything, he says Les Wexner had already been investigated by the DOJ and he had already been questioned by the DOJ. Well, we know because we just heard from Les Wexner that that is false. Play this clip of James Comer. Let's play it.

25:10Michael Popok:The Department of Justice looking at the unredacted version of the documents. Who all has the Department of Justice questioned before? And obviously we deposed someone this week, Lex Wexner, who was one of the co-conspirators, but he's already been investigated by the Department of Justice. We're trying to focus now on the investigation on who has never been questioned by the Department of Justice and how did, number one, Epstein accumulate so much wealth? And number two, how was he able to surround himself with so many rich, famous, and powerful people? And hopefully we'll be able to get some answers on that.

25:47Ben Meiselas:I mean, maybe showing up to the deposition of Les Wexner and learning that Wexner was never questioned by the DOJ and that Wexner gave Epstein a billion dollars. I don't know. It doesn't seem to be that. It seems like if you actually follow the money and do your work, you find that out. But look, you got to hand it to them. I mean, it's a skill to lie like that. But that's Epstein class. They lie about everything. The words are meaningless. Words are a mere tool of how you trick people. And that's all they do. It's a web of lies. And that's why Trump's the leader of that cabal. The guy lies about everything.

26:28Ben Meiselas:Take our first quick break of the show. A reminder, if you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident, a trucking accident, if you're the victim of negligence, if you know someone who got killed in an accident, reach out to Michael Popak's law firm, 877-POPAK-AF, or visit thepopakfirm .com. They're available 24-7. Consultation is free. A link is in the description below. Make sure you subscribe to Michael Popak's Substack and YouTube channel. That's the Legal AF Substack and the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help Legal AF get 2 million subscribers. On that note, let's take our first quick break of the show.

27:05Ben Meiselas:We will be right back after a quick break from our sponsors.

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30:18Ben Meiselas:Welcome back to LEGALAF. Thank you to all of our sponsors. Discount codes are in the description below. And again, want to thank Michael Popak for hosting a great attorney general panel or panels plural with Legal AF. You could catch that on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe there to the Legal AF YouTube channel. It's just so great that Legal AF is now one of the main places, if not the main place where attorney generals, attorneys general across the country are able to get out their messages and communicate about law and order with the American people. And we need that right now because corporate news is certainly not doing a good job or a job with that at all.

31:05Ben Meiselas:Going back quickly, I want to kind of close the loop here on the latest update on the Trump regime's cover-up of the Epstein files. I was showing clips of James Comer on state regime media where he lies and says that Wexner previously was contacted and investigated by the DOJ in question, which we know was false because I played you the video deposition of Les Wexner. Anyway, here's James Comer saying that from the documents that have been released, it's very, very clear that one thing is true. Here, play this clip.

31:38Michael Popok:Well, the Democrats didn't care about Epstein until someone had the notion that Donald Trump may have been involved. And what we've seen from the millions of documents that have been released is that Donald Trump is completely exonerated in the whole Epstein saga. But what we've seen is a lot of honestly unfinished business with respect to Epstein and the crimes that he and Maxwell committed, any potential co-conspirators and holding people accountable.

32:08Ben Meiselas:And again, the thing that the Epstein class does, they just lie all the time. Of course, Donald Trump was not vindicated or exonerated in the Epstein files. There are 38 ,000 references to him and not just like passing references, like very serious allegations that have gone uninvestigated, need to be investigated. And by the way, there's Donald Trump's own words about him sexually assaulting women. He talked about it. He said that he does it and he's rich, you get away with it. How in beauty pageants, he inspects girls naked because he's the leader of the pageant. And he says, that's what you do when you're the leader of the pageant.

32:45Ben Meiselas:Here's a guy who was found civilly liable for sexual assault by a federal jury. A jury heard a case against him and said that New York found that he was liable for sexual assault. You have somebody whose home, Mar-a-Lago, where he lives was a site where sex trafficking took place by Epstein. We know Virginia Giuffre when she was a child with sex traffic. And she was at Mar-a-Lago. And then Trump previously said, ah, he took her, he took my property or he referred to her or something like that. I mean, let's listen to what he's actually even said as well. And then you add that with the allegations in the, in the files.

33:23Ben Meiselas:And we know that there was, you know, one accuser of Trump who was interviewed four times by the FBI and a number of those interviews are missing. Um, where are those? Um, and there's a lot, there's a lot of there, there that needs to be investigated. And, you know, as I've said too, it's undisputed that the guy's been found liable. A jury has found that he's liable for sexual assault. Well, I mean, why can't we all just with moral clarity say that? And here's what Donald Trump says. He goes, he was on Air Force One. He says that he's been exonerated. He declares that he's the expert on Epstein.

34:01Ben Meiselas:And he says that he feels very bad for Andrew, former Prince Andrew, Mountbatten. And he feels very bad just for the whole royal family. That's who he feels bad for because he's a protector of the Epstein class. That's what someone who protects the Epstein class would say. He doesn't express sympathy for the survivors. He hasn't done so once. Pam Bondi didn't even look at the survivors during her testimony. Tony. And here's Donald Trump saying he feels bad for Andrew and the Royal family. Play this clip.

34:33Michael Popok:That was not a good one, Peter. What do you think? I got a question about something big overseas today, the former Prince Andrew arrested by the police there, related to something with Jeffrey Epstein. Do you think people in this country, at some point, associates of Jeffrey Epstein will wind up in handcuffs too? Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. That's very nice. I can actually speak about it very nicely. I think it's a shame. I think it's very sad. I think it's so bad for the royal family. It's a very, very sad to me. It's a very sad thing. When I see that, it's a very sad thing to see it and to see what's going on with his brother, who's obviously coming to our country very soon.

35:14Michael Popok:And he's a fantastic man, the king. So I think it's a very sad thing. It's really interesting because nobody used to speak about Epstein when he was alive, but now they speak. But I'm the one that can talk about it because I've been totally exonerated. I did nothing. In fact, the opposite. He was against me. He was fighting me in the election, which I just found out through the last three million pages of documents. Yeah, please. Yeah.

35:39Ben Meiselas:And of course, we know he was not exonerated. The documents make things far worse for him. He's been calling this all a hoax. Just think about that. He called all of this a hoax when we're seeing accountability, at least in other countries. Although the Trump regime, they think that they're above the law, they behave above the law. The cabal is in the Oval Office. It is. That's 16 undisputed. We know that. That was like the center of it. It is the center of it. And the people know that. The people know that right now. Just two other quick updates. It's the Truth Commission established in New Mexico.

36:19Ben Meiselas:Their legislature unanimously approved this Truth Commission to investigate what happened at the Zorro Ranch. Epstein purchased it from a former governor of New Mexico in 1993. We know from the files sex trafficking took place there. Potentially there was an incinerator there. Potentially murders took place there. A lot of horrible and horrific things took place there. It was purchased by a guy named Don Huffines, a former Texas state senator. big MAGA guy. His whole thing is he's ultra MAGA. His whole identity was going to Trump events. Don Huffines purchased the property for approximately$13 million.

36:54Ben Meiselas:The Huffine family is generationally wealthy. Their great-grandfather founded an automobile dealership in the 1920s. They've got a lot of money and they put that money into real estate. Trust fund kids, They make a lot of money. Russell Huffine, Don's child, son, works in the White House in a senior position. The position that Russell held before being in the White House was called like Big Boom Fireworks. That was his job. So Russell worked at Big Boom Fireworks. I may be butchering the name a little bit, but it was something like Boom Big. But Big Boom Fireworks was the one job he held. And then he turned that into a senior position at the White House.

37:39The Huffines purchased the Epstein Ranch through an LLC holding company, San Rafael.

37:47Ben Meiselas:And now Don Huffines says, well, with the investigation taking place, he said, look, you know, I'm hoping if you want to investigate it, you can investigate it. but there's construction underway in the ranch right now. We are turning it into a Christian retreat for kids because I wanted to buy this ranch, he said, to turn the darkness into light. And so because of the horrible things that happened to kids, I want to be the person who brings the kids there and gives them joy. So that's why I bought it is what he says under a holding company, under Shell Company, San Rafael LLC. And that's what he's going with.

38:26Ben Meiselas:And he told that to Matt Gaetz on OAN. And of course, Matt Gaetz was found by the House Ethics Committee to have had sex, rapes, actually assaulting. When it's an underage girl, I don't really call it sex. In my view, it's a sexual assault. I'm not thinking everybody's view. That's what it should be viewed as. With an underage girl, more probably than not was the finding by the House Ethics Committee. They reached that conclusion in their report, but it was Gaetz interviewing Don Huffines. And then, of course, the update on Andrew that we just discussed right there. All right, let's get into the Supreme Court ruling striking down tariffs against the world.

39:09Ben Meiselas:Friday morning, first off, a lot of bad economic data was coming in Friday morning, right? GDP grew at a sluggish 1.4 % for quarter four when the Trump regime was saying, it's going to be 5 % or 3 % or 10%, Donald Trump said. Okay, very slow. They want to blame it on the government shutdown, which is not accurate. They've slowed down this economy significantly over the past year with their disastrous decisions. PCE, a measure of inflation that deals a lot with consumer prices and the rise in consumer prices came in hotter than expected with core PCE up around 3%. So we got a bad inflation readout, a bad GDP readout.

39:54Ben Meiselas:When you have a situation where the economy is contracting and inflation is rising and unemployment is rising, that's a recipe for something called stagflation, which is really, really bad. So that's how we started Friday morning. And then we got the Supreme Court ruling where the Supreme Court ruled that Donald Trump does not have authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEPA, to impose tariffs, delivering a major blow to Trump's sweeping emergency tariff regime. So when you hear me say IEPA or people say IEPA, you're like, what are you saying? IEPA? What word is that?

40:29Ben Meiselas:That just stands for International Emergency Economic Powers Act. That was something that was passed in 1977. I'll go talk about that law in a moment. We'll read the statute together, because that's what we do here on Legal AF on the Midas Touch Network. We read statutes. By the way, make sure you subscribe. Help us reach 6 million subscribers here on this YouTube channel. Look how close we are to 6 million subscribers. We could potentially hit it by tomorrow. So just double check that you're subscribed to this channel. And by the way, when this program ends, send this episode to 10 people that you know on text message.

41:03Ben Meiselas:That would be hugely helpful for us to our growth, and that's the best way you can help. So when this show ends later, just text message it and say, hey, I think you'd like this fact-based, evidence-based show. They go through the statutes. They show me the evidence. They talk through the law. They're not just ranting and raving and giving opinions. They go through this methodically. That's what I hope we're doing here first and foremost on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. So this Supreme Court ruling was a six to three decisions striking down Trump's tariffs under IEPA. Chief Justice John Roberts, who was appointed by George W.

41:38Ben Meiselas:Bush, wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Sotomayor and Kagan. They were appointed by Obama. Gorsuch, Barrett, they were appointed by Trump. And Jackson was appointed by Biden. Justice Kavanaugh, appointed by Trump. He's the guy, I love drinking beer. I love drinking beer. Right. And there were all those accusations against him in high school as well. He dissented, joined by justices, Thomas and Alito, Thomas, George H.W. Bush, Alito, George W. Bush, just so you know who appointed who. That's the dynamic of the court. So two Trump justices went against Donald Trump and then went with John Roberts, who was a George W.

42:23Ben Meiselas:Bush appointee, and they sided with the three liberal justices in order to strike down these tariffs under IEPA. Let's just take a look at what IEPA is. You go through the opinion, and it says, enacted in 1977, IEPA gives the president economic tools to address significant foreign threats. When acting under IEPA, the president first must identify an unusual and extraordinary threat to American national security, foreign policy, or the economy, originating primarily outside of the United States, he must declare a national emergency under the National Emergency Act. He may then, after declaring such a national emergency by means of instruction, licenses, or otherwise, take the following actions to deal with the threat investigate block during the pendency of an investigation regulate direct and compel nullify void prevent or prohibit any acquisition holding withholding use transfer withdrawal transportation importation or exportation of or dealing in exercising any right power or privilege with respect to or transactions involving any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest.

43:49Ben Meiselas:So a natural question that you may be asking is, hey, I don't see in there any word tariff or tax that Donald Trump has the right to tariff or to impose unilateral taxes. Well, that was a major part of the Supreme Court's ruling. The Trump regime argued that it could unilaterally declare a national emergency and that it couldn't be challenged by the court. They could just say a national emergency exists because they claim Canada is flooding the United States with fentanyl when we know that's false. They say that Mexico is flooding the United States with fentanyl, which is more accurate certainly than can.

44:32Ben Meiselas:Let's be clear about that. Is that the type of national emergency, though, that would then allow tariffs becomes the next question. Well, the statute doesn't even say tariffs. So the Trump regime claimed the word regulate is so expansive that it means tariffs. And the Supreme Court said, well, if that was the case, And if Congress intended to give up its power, where Article I of the Constitution, Section 8, deals with Congress having the exclusive power of taxation, a tariff is a tax. If Congress in 1977 intended to give up its tariff power, one of its main powers, its taxation power, right? Article one, separation of powers.

45:25Ben Meiselas:Why would it not say in the law in IEPA, we intend to give up our powers? Because it's a pretty big deal if they're just going to withdraw one of their main powers, the power over taxation. Why would Congress, is what the Supreme Court said, basically do it as a riddle and hide the word tariff by using the word regulate? Why wouldn't they just say you could tariff or you can tax? And here's the amount that you can tax or tariff. So that was very persuasive to the Supreme Court that IEPA doesn't cover tariffs against the world. And also the Supreme Court was skeptical and did not think that Trump could just unilaterally say, national emergency, therefore tariffs against the world without any accountability or without any check by the court at all.

46:23Ben Meiselas:And you even had people like Justice Gorsuch, again, who was appointed by Donald Trump, in his what's called a concurrence. That's where you also kind of write on and agree with the majority opinion. Remember, the majority opinion, 6-3, was written by Justice Roberts. He wrote for the court. But then other justices who agree but may want to express other opinions, that's called a concurrence. And so here's what Gorsuch says in his concurrence worries that granting a president sweeping new powers based on vague delegations from Congress would risk permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man.

47:02Ben Meiselas:In other words, seizing all the power and giving it to one person, a king. And without doctrines like major questions, our system of separated powers and checks and balances threatens to give way to the continual and permanent accretion of power in the hands of one man. That is no recipe for a republic. In other words, he's accusing a Trump appointee who is confirmed by the Senate is accusing Donald Trump of destroying the republic. That's what Gorsuch says. And when you hear this term major questions doctrine, that basically is a framework used by the Supreme Court to try to glean congressional intent where people dispute language in a statute, right?

47:47Ben Meiselas:So here the dispute was with the word regulate, which I don't think was a dispute at all. The Trump regime used the word regulate in a 1977 statute called AIPA to say that gave unlimited power to a president to tariff at any amount without limitations, without any scope of time, without any limitations at all to do whatever they want. That's a pretty big issue. That's a major question, right? The major questions doctrine is a doctrine of this is a big deal. So the thought is, well, if Congress wanted to do what you said, Donald, why wouldn't they just say that? Why would they hide it in the word regulate?

48:35Ben Meiselas:And also, why would Congress over many years, both before IEPA and after, when they did delegate some power to the executive branch over tariffs. Why did they circumscribe in those cases limits? Because if IEPA has no limits at all, then wouldn't everything else that Congress did be void ab initia, right? It wouldn't exist because there's this statute that says the president can do whatever. So if Congress forfeited everything, why in future and past statutes regarding tariffs, is Congress very specific? 150 days, 10 days, 10 % limits, 5 % limits. It wouldn't make sense for them to basically give you this right in IEPA.

49:23Ben Meiselas:That makes no sense at all. So that was basically the holding by the majority right there. When you read the language, it makes sense. And remember, when I talk about Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, Article 1 of the Constitution is Congress. Article 2 is the executive branch. Article three is the judiciary. And when I talk about article one, section eight, I'm referring to the congressional powers like taxation and tariffs are taxation. So that belongs to that branch of government. And if that branch of government was going to give away some of its power, that's a major issue, a major question.

50:00Ben Meiselas:They need to do it publicly and very clearly and not try to hide it. And that's why they said Congress never intended to give away such a power ever. So what did Donald Trump then do after that ruling by the Supreme Court? He goes, it's my great honor to have just signed from the Oval Office a global 10 % tariff on all countries, which will be effective almost immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter. So after losing before the Supreme Court under IEPA, right, we now know what IEPA stands for, with his tariffs against the world from Liberation Day, where he targeted Canada and Mexico based on drugs, the rest of the world, he declared the emergency was trade deficits.

50:44Ben Meiselas:He said trade deficits were a national emergency. That's why we need these tariffs against the world. The Supreme Court said, no, you can't do that. Right. You don't have that power. So what Donald Trump does, because he's a wannabe dictator and he breaks the law all the time, is he found another version of IEPA. It's not called IEPA. It's called a Trade Act of 1974. and the Trade Act of 1974 has language that does not apply to a specific situation. But Trump in bad faith latches on to that and says, well, we didn't have the 1977 IEPA, so I'm going to go 1974 Trade Act, which does not do again what Trump said.

51:28Ben Meiselas:But Trump's lesson from unlawfully invoking IEPA is that this took 16 months before it was adjudicated by the Supreme Court or more. So I'm just going to invoke unlawfully another statute that doesn't apply. And then I'll drag this out another 16 months and I'm going to impose 10 % tariffs on the entire world. But then on Saturday morning, this morning, Donald Trump posted, you know what? I changed my mind. 15%. I've raised it in 12 hours. I'm going to go from 10 % to 15 % tariffs based on a thorough, detailed and complete review of the ridiculous Supreme Court decision. He goes, I am now raising this tariffs against the world to 15%.

52:13Ben Meiselas:Well, when we come back from our next quick break, I want to go through with you the trade act of 1974. Section 122 is what the Trump regime purports to invoke. And I'm going to show you again why this is unlawful by the Trump regime and how they're doing what they did unlawfully with IEPA again here as it relates to the Trade Act of 1974. And then I want to pull back for a second and just say the following. I don't care what political party you're from. That's what I hope you understand that what I'm arguing here, what I'm saying here, what I'm doing here is actually not a political exercise at all.

52:54Ben Meiselas:I'm going through the language with you so you can read it, so you can see it, so you can see that he is violating the law quite frequently over and over again. And this is ultimately hurting you. This is not helping you. That should not be a partisan issue. I'm just trying to describe this truthfully through this objective legal lens so you understand what's happening here. And to the extent other people want to use talking point, you know, I want to use evidence, not talking points. That's what this show is about. So let's take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, if you or someone you know has been injured in an auto accident or a trucking accident, if you know someone who's been killed because of the negligence of others or seriously harmed, medical malpractice cases, sex assault cases, call or text 877-POPOC-AF or visit thepopocfirm.com, 877-POPOC-AF or thepopocfirm.com.

53:51Ben Meiselas:They're available 24-7. Michael Popok has lawyers across this country who are here to help. And we represent, Michael Popok represents a lot of people who listen and watch the show. Don't be shy. The worst they're going to say is you don't have a case, but tell your friends, tell people, reach out to the Popok firm. You've got one. Let's see. Let them evaluate it. Also, let's want to remind you, go to Legal AF YouTube channel and Legal AF Substack. Both are growing fast. Help Legal AF YouTube get 2 million subscribers and help keep that Legal AF Substack as one of the top Substacks out there. All right, let's take our last quick break of the show.

54:29Ben Meiselas:We'll be right back in the home stretch. See you after the break.

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57:50Ben Meiselas:All right, we're getting into the weeds here on Legal AF. We're doing statutory readings over here, and I'm showing you why Donald Trump's invocation of all of these statutes and laws on the book are all bad faith, unlawful, in my opinion, they're frankly criminal. And just for a second, talking about IEPA for a moment and the Supreme Court's ruling striking down Donald Trump's tariffs against the world. It's very clear from the Supreme Court decision that because the invocation by Trump of IEPA around Liberation Day or whatever he called it, which was really one of the biggest destructive days in the history of our country's economy.

58:36Ben Meiselas:As a result of that, there's going to have to be all of these refunds that are going to be taking place to the tune of about$175 billion. And now the Trump regime officials are saying that, oh, they're going to try to hold up the refunds in litigation and that they're going to fight it every step of the way. But you've got like Treasury Secretary Scott Besson saying, oh, I doubt that we're ever going going to actually pay these refunds. I mean, look, as you all know, tariffs are taxes. They were paid by the importing company. They were paid by companies here in the United States and passed on to consumers.

59:13Ben Meiselas:So when the levy, when the tax was issued, you know, at the port of entry or wherever the point of the, where the import came into the United States, that's where it's paid. It's a tax that's paid, you know, to our government. And so the companies that paid that tax have the right immediately to a refund. They would file their lawsuits in, there's a specific federal courts that deal with trade. And so it would be filed in that type of court and they would ask for their refunds. It'll be interesting to see what argument the Trump regime is going to try to make to block that. But then one of the questions is, is will it get passed on to the consumer.

59:54Ben Meiselas:And one of the problems is, is that in terms of being passed on, will consumers now get the benefit because consumers have had to pay more. And I think unfortunately, the consumers will not get the benefit. It's possible the companies will get some money refunded, but the Trump regime says they're going to fight it. But in any event, as I've described before the break, the Trump regime is now invoking another law from the 1970s unlawfully to continue to impose these tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down IEPA. So just to remind you, IEPA was a law passed in 1977, but separately, there was a law passed in 1974.

1:00:35Ben Meiselas:And this 1974 law is called the Trade Act of 1974. It has Section 122 in it. Let me just read for you what Section 122 says. Balance of payment authority, whenever fundamental international payment problems require special import measures to restrict imports, one, to deal with large and serious United States balance of payment deficits, two, to prevent an imminent and significant depreciation of the dollar in foreign exchange markets, or three, to cooperate with other countries in correcting an international balance of payment disequilibrium, the president shall proclaim for a period not exceeding 150 days, unless such period is extended by active Congress, a temporary import surcharge not to exceed 15%.

1:01:29Ben Meiselas:So Donald Trump initially did it for 10 % on Friday. Then Saturday morning, he raised it in a 12 hour period to 15%. As you see, it only can last 150 days. And so this statute, by the way, was brought up at the hearing regarding IEPA. Remember what I said before the break. One of the things the Supreme Court said is there are other statutes out there which have different types of circumscribed limitations, but they're limited in days. They have very specific requirements. And so this statute was brought up because it was like, well, why didn't you invoke that statute? Why are you invoking IEPA and not invoking the Trade Act of 1974?

1:02:16Ben Meiselas:So Trump's lawyers were asked that because the Supreme Court justices said, well, Congress did do this law and it says 150 days. So do you think this law applies? Guess what Trump's lawyers said in oral argument on IEPA? They said on the record. There's a transcription of this. They said, no, we can't invoke the Trade Act of 1974. It does not apply to Donald Trump's tariffs against the world. So we had to do it under IEPA. That's why we didn't do it under the Trade Act of 1974. The true answer is that both the Trade Act of 1974 and IEPA do not apply and Trump can't invoke both. But in any event, Trump's own lawyers, the Solicitor General John Sauer, conceded that the Trade Act of 1974 does not apply during oral argument.

1:03:12Ben Meiselas:So now Trump is doing something that his own lawyer said was unlawful. But why is it unlawful? Well, when you read the statute, it also has a predicate act. And the predicate is that there must be a fundamental international payment problem that requires special import measures to restrict imports. What is the fundamental international payment problem that exists? Look, the dollar's weak right now as a result of Trump's policies, but that's not a fundamental international payment problem. Payments to and from country A, B, C, and D are able to flow pretty freely, right? Currencies can be exchanged.

1:03:56Ben Meiselas:There isn't a payment problem right now where, say, the American currency is being shut out of another country and thus a retaliatory measure is needed because of payment problems where a country is not accepting dollars, for example, right? That's not what's happening. So because the predicate isn't met, all these other things that follow can't be invoked. But then it says to deal with large and serious United States balance of payment deficits. Balance of payment deficits is not trade deficits. Balance of payment deficits is along the lines of what I said before. Payment deficits does not equal trade deficits.

1:04:40Ben Meiselas:Then section three says to cooperate with other countries correcting an international balance of payment disequilibrium. Again, you don't see anything here that references trade deficits or any other form of national emergency. Therefore, it is unlawful. Now, Neil Katyal, who argued the IEPA case before the Supreme Court and won, here's what he said. seems hard for the president to rely on the 15 % statute, Section 122, when his DOJ in our case told the court the opposite. Nor does Section 122 have any obvious application here where the concerns the president identified in declaring an emergency arise from trade deficits, which are conceptually distinct from balance of payment deficits.

1:05:36Ben Meiselas:And as Katayel points out, if he wants, if Trump wants sweeping tariffs, he can do it. There's a mechanism to do this. He should do the American thing and go to Congress. If his tariffs are such a good idea, he should have no problem persuading Congress. That's what our constitution requires. And guess what? Republicans control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. They control all of government right now. So if they thought that this was a good plan, go and pass a law about it. Even Republicans, though, in the House and Republicans in the Senate are against this. Not all of them, but some of them are enough to block this because tariffs are taxes and they increase inflation and they harm American consumers and they harm American business.

1:06:29Ben Meiselas:We know that. That's why our economy is struggling right now. That's why goods are higher. That's why when inflation was declining at the end of former President Biden's term, when he had to get Trump's out-of-control spending and record high debt and record increases in deficit under control and finally did towards the end of his term and it was going to hit 2 % had Trump done nothing. Trump's Liberation Day or Liquidation Day caused tariffs to go, caused prices to go incredibly, you know, to surge again and inflation to surge again. All right. So I just wanted to explain to you in a very detailed statutory analysis what went down there.

1:07:10Ben Meiselas:So that's the status of everything right there. Trump has put these 15 % tariffs against every country. They're unlawful. Lawsuits will be immediately filed. Trump will lose. He'll try to drag it out for 16 months. The American people suffer. Trump doesn't want to issue tariff rebates or doesn't want to issue tariff refunds. He promised tariff rebates, to be clear. Trump promised that everybody would get a$2 ,000 tariff rebate because everyone's so rich, that tariffs have made us so wealthy, he said, that everybody would get$2 ,000. The same way He promised everybody would get$2 ,000 as his health care plan.

1:07:48Ben Meiselas:So instead of actually dealing with health care or Affordable Care Act subsidies or dealing with the fact that health care is expensive, Trump's like, I'll give everybody$2 ,000. He didn't do that. He promised a$5 ,000 Doge dividend check. That was a lie. He promised a$2 ,000 tariff rebate check. That's a lie. What's the commonality here? And I say this in a nonpolitical way. The guy lies about everything, covers up for the Epstein class. These are liars. Howard Lutnick, I never went to the island. He did. He went to the island. He brought his children to the Petto Island. These people lie about every damn thing.

1:08:20Ben Meiselas:Trump, the Epstein files are a hoax. They're not a hoax. It's a very serious thing. So how are federal judges talking about the Trump regime right now? Well, as Kyle Cheney points out, the federal judges in West Virginia, where ICE has been pulling over and detaining people on the freeway, are literally screaming about ICE's tactics. It's an assault on constitutional order. Just read this order right here from a federal judge. Antiseptic judicial rhetoric cannot do justice to what is happening. Across the interior of the United States, the judge writes, agents of the federal government, masked, anonymous, armed with military weapons, operating from unmarked vehicles, acting without warrants of any kind, are seizing persons for civil immigration violations and imprisoning them without any semblance of due process.

1:09:11Ben Meiselas:The systemic character of this practice and its deliberate elimination of every structural feature that distinguishes constitutional authority from raw force place it beyond the reach of ordinary legal description. It is an assault on the constitutional order. It is what the Fourth Amendment was written to prevent. It is what the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment forbids. And then the conclusion was, an anonymous government is no government at all and cannot be held accountable. A masked agent freely uses force without justifying his actions and the public cannot name him to challenge his conduct.

1:09:50Ben Meiselas:A regime of secret policing has no place in our society. Here, the government's power is derived by the people and the people must be able to identify the government when it acts to infringe on their liberty. Masks obscure government action and deprive the public of its Fourth Amendment protection. Or how about Judge O 'Hearn in New Jersey, livid about apparent violations of her order, barring the transfer of an ICE detainee, and she notes that the presumption of good faith towards the Department of Justice has undeniably been eroded all over the country. Whereas the presumption of regularity and integrity previously and routinely afforded to the executive branch and the United States Attorney's Office has been undeniably eroded in this jurisdiction and across the country, and this court will no longer blindly accept statements of fact from respondents unless they are made under oath by an individual with personal knowledge.

1:10:53Ben Meiselas:Indeed, recent proceedings in this district included an instance of a district court judge ordering the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey to file an affidavit enumerating each instance in which the respondents or people acting on their behalf violated an order issued by a judge of this district between December 5th, 2025 and the present, and they list like hundreds, hundreds of violations. Or how about this? A U.S. District Court judge in El Paso, Texas, Laura Provenzino, found a government attorney in civil contempt of court for violations of her orders in a habeas case. The attorney cited is a guy named Matthew Ishiara, who was a JAG attorney.

1:11:40Ben Meiselas:This is a military attorney who now works as a federal prosecutor within the DOJ because over 8 ,000 lawyers and staff members at the DOJ have either quit or have been forced out or have been fired by the Trump regime. They've lost all their top talent, no longer working at the DOJ. And right now you have JAG lawyers serving as assistant United States attorneys. Being an assistant United States attorney was one of the most sought after jobs by lawyers. It was a job that was viewed as like the Navy SEALs of prosecutorial work. And now they don't have any people to even do the job because no one wants to do it or they've been fired.

1:12:24Ben Meiselas:Judge Provenzino ordered a detained immigrant held in ICE in El Paso to be released in Minnesota with all of his ID papers. ICE released the man in Texas with none of his papers, forcing his attorney to find him shelter for the night before flying him back to Minnesota. So Trump's border patrol and ICE Gestapo kidnapped people in Minnesota or elsewhere. They then immediately fly him to detention centers, concentration camps in Texas without due process, without bond hearings, without anything. Then when they're ordered to release the individuals because they've been unlawfully kidnapped, they then just throw them out in the middle of the night without paperwork or IDs in a different state, without a cell phone, without anything for them to basically die and starved to death.

1:13:08Ben Meiselas:And this practice is known. So the lawyers representing the migrants or even citizens who have been kidnapped by Trump's Gestapo have demanded that in these orders, the judges order their IDs, their paperwork, phones, all of that be given to them. That was violated here. And the lawyer who was this JAG lawyer, who when I read the facts here, He just says that he was overburdened and he made a mistake and they're overworked and he didn't mean to do it. He apologized to the court, but it's people's lives on the line. The judge, Matthew Ishiara, said that he was deeply sorry. He was apologetic. And it was because of staffing issues at the DOJ's office and that he can't handle the paperwork.

1:13:54Ben Meiselas:And we've seen this over and over again. him. Finally, I want to go to what's happening in the Don Lemon case as well, because as you know, there, my friend Don Lemon is at my wedding. I mean, Don's a super close friend of mine, but frankly, everybody in that case, Georgia Fort, you know, everyone has been treated so horrifically there. There was the protest at the church in St. Paul. First, the protesters were arrested, and then the journalists who covered the protesters were arrested. Donald Trump ordered the DOJ, Pam Bondi and others to go after Don Lemon. Don Lemon was arrested in California when he was covering the Grammys and he was charged with reporting on what went down in the church.

1:14:39Ben Meiselas:I believe that the grand jury was misled and given false information about Don Lemon. Lemon's requested a grand jury transcript given all the irregularities taking place. But setting that aside, it's easy to get indictments against people because you just have an FBI agent testify. Defense lawyers are in prison and judges in prison. You just take an FBI agent and the FBI agent, you know, can hypothetically could lie and give the jury a grand jury, incorrect facts about what happened. And the jury bases it on the FBI agent who's doing the testimony. So the FBI agent could say, oh, here's what I observed.

1:15:13Ben Meiselas:Here's what I saw. Here's what's in the video. And it could actually not be what's in the video. You don't have to show the grand jury, the actual a video of what happened in an ethical DOJ. You show them everything or you don't indict people like this, but this is an unethical DOJ. And by the way, I'm not sure if you saw, but Donald Trump's been putting massive billboards of his face all over the DOJ building. That's something we see in Nazi Germany, what we see in Stalin's Russia, Soviet Union. That's what we see in North Korea. Trump's face all over the DOJ building right now. I mean, how despicable is that?

1:15:45Ben Meiselas:But in any event, they arrest Don Lemon, they charge him, and Don Lemon's like, okay, I want to go to trial now. I'm ready for trial. You very quickly went after me. You threw all of the resources of the government to attack. I want a trial. Let's put this before a jury immediately is what Don Lemon said, right? Now, if you're the prosecutors, wouldn't you want that? If you brought the case and you think you're going to win the case, wouldn't you want to bring that case to trial? Well, if you go back and look at Trump's litigation tactics before he was in office, his litigation tactics are exactly what the DOJs are.

1:16:27Ben Meiselas:They want he always wanted to get the headline$10 billion lawsuit$5 billion$100 billion lawsuit that gets a catchy headline. He fundraises off of it. He does media appearances off of it. People go, oh, you filed a lawsuit. Wow. New York Times must have done something bad or Wall Street Journal must have done something bad or Pulitzer Prize board must have done something but whoever he sues everybody, right? I mean, he's probably he's probably have filed literally thousands of lawsuits, maybe even 10 ,000 lawsuits. He's filed thousands and thousands of these types of lawsuits, and he's rarely, if ever, won them ever.

1:17:06Ben Meiselas:And what he does is he files it, then the other side files a motion to dismiss, and then he requests that he get to file an amended complaint the day before the hearing is set to take place. By law, a litigant gets to have an amended complaint. So then he files an amended complaint. And then he asks for a delay. I need 60 days because I'm doing this or I'm doing that. And usually the courts grant initial scheduling issues. So then the court will often grant kind of a scheduling delay. And then or Donald Trump won't serve the party. He won't even serve them with the lawsuit for a significant period of time because the more time that drags on for Trump, the better, because the goal is actually just to now drag it on, delay, delay, delay.

1:17:56Ben Meiselas:And ultimately, when these cases get resolved, they could take years based on all the delay tricks that people with money can do in litigation. And so he tries to delay, delay, delay. And then when the case gets, either he drains somebody of resources because lots of defendants don't have this money, he gets them to try to settle because it'll take a long time to litigate. And sometimes he'll be, eh, you know, whatever, I'll just make this guy go away. It's the worst thing you can do to somebody like that. Or when Trump loses, the loss doesn't get the headline like the filing of the lawsuit. The New York Times wins summary judgment motion.

1:18:34Ben Meiselas:Okay. It doesn't, we cover it here, but lots of times the media, it doesn't get coverage when he loses or it just falls into the news cycle because it doesn't have that 10 billion headline or whatever. So that's how he litigated. He's doing the same thing with Don Let me just read for you from Don Lemon's motion because here on Legal AF, we read from the motions. Again, this criminal case is in the district court for Minnesota. And here's what Don Lemon writes. The hallmark of the short life of this case has been the government, Trump regime, unprecedented and unabated rush to charge. The reason for this rush is no secret.

1:19:11Ben Meiselas:The highest authorities in the administration demanded to see Miss Fort, Georgia Fort, and Mr. Lemon in handcuffs. The government was then undeterred by not one, by two judges explaining that no probable cause existed to charge these journalists. The government twisted itself into procedural novel knots in seeking a complaint. When this effort failed, the government sought and obtained an indictment from the grand jury. The government then rejected offers by the defendants to self-surrender. At every turn, the government sought to condemn Ms. Fort and Mr. Lemon in the court of public opinion. The government never once paused in its extraordinary efforts to arrest Ms.

1:19:53Ben Meiselas:Fort and Mr. Lemon on federal charges. It then goes on to say, having achieved this goal, however, the government now asks this court to slow things down. The same government that tried to charge two professional journalists in two days now seeks four months to review, organize, and produce the evidence upon which those charges were supposedly based. This is unwarranted and unfair. Ms. Fort and Mr. Lemon are eager to clear their names. As all participants in the system know, the weight of a pending federal indictment is heavy, especially here where the indictment has been politicized at the highest levels.

1:20:30Ben Meiselas:There are collateral consequences, including stress on the defendants and their family. These consequences are compounded by the government's ongoing efforts to criticize Ms. Fort and Mr. Lemon publicly and to try their cases on social media. Here, the pending federal charges also chill First Amendment speech that of Ms. Ford and Mr. Lemon, as well as other broader journalistic communities. Perhaps this is a feature and not a problem for those who demanded the charges be levied. In any event, these charges are uniquely weighty. Ms. Ford and Mr. Lemon seek to move this case forward expeditiously because they believe the case law will support the dismissal of the charges, as has occurred in other cases that have been rushed, politicized, and brought by this administration.

1:21:14Ben Meiselas:The government seeks to designate this case as complex. This case is not complex within any precedential meaning of the law or the norms of the district in Minnesota. The volume of discovery previewed by the government, 2 ,000 pages, video footage that is largely public, and phone downloads is typical for the run-of-the-mill cases in this district. That said, the designation itself is less important to Ms. Ford and Mr. Lemon than the resulting delay. So you see what's happening in this case? It's why it's important that we understand the dynamic. And look, Don Lemon's a friend of mine. What's happening to Georgia Ford, another great journalist, I mean, is absolutely horrific.

1:21:56Ben Meiselas:But this is a broader pattern of abuse taking place. And the abuse mirrors Trump before coming into office, right? Why I talk so much about Trump being a sexual abuser, being a felon, being a fraud, being a bankruptor, being a loathsome human being, a con artist, someone who destroys, not builds business, is that when you step into the White House, the character traits are amplified. And so all of those things you see here in the way, it's not surprising and shocking that a felon, that a bankrupt or that a sexual abuser engages in this conduct. And it is important that our system of law hold people like that accountable.

1:22:52Ben Meiselas:And for too long, our laws have been abused by the Epstein class who are abusing the American people. And as we see in the Epstein files, are sex trafficking underage children or covering up sex trafficking of underage children or engaged in other horrendous conduct that the Epstein class engages in. You know, in general, you see a broader pattern here beyond the child sex trafficking. You also see a pattern of trying to just destroy the world as well and sex trafficking being used as a currency, destroying those lives of little girls. So that's where we'll leave the episode today on a nonpartisan, nonpolitical message, which is what does law and order mean to you?

1:23:45Ben Meiselas:Because law and order means to me justice and accountability. That's what it means to me. That's why I went to Georgetown Law. That's why I was a litigator. That's why I co-founded Legal AF with Michael Popak. Okay. On that note, make sure you hit subscribe, help us get to 6 million subscribers. We're so grateful for all of you. More importantly, subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help them get 2 million subscribers. Subscribe to Michael Popak's sub-stack as well, the Legal AF sub-stack. And also, if you or someone you know has been injured in a car accident, auto accident, trucking accident, somebody who has been killed by the negligence of others, horrible things happen, Popak represents people in catastrophic injury cases.

1:24:29Ben Meiselas:That's what he does when he's not doing Legal AF. So go to 877 or call 877-POPAK-AF. or visit thepopockfirm.com. See if you have a case. Consultation is free. He has lawyers across the country and people across the country answering your calls to vet these cases to see what you got. We represent a lot of people. He represents a lot of people who call from Legal AF. So don't be shy. Call. The worst they can say is you don't have a case. But if you have a family member or you know somebody who's in a situation, have them reach out to Michael Popock. The worst Popock is going to say is that it's not a case.

1:25:02Ben Meiselas:On that note, thank you everybody so much. We're grateful for you. Hit subscribe here. Let's get to 6 million before Monday. Remember, Midas Touch is doing our own State of the Union event. We're calling it the People State of the Union. We've got a number of over 20 senators and members of Congress who are boycotting the State of the Union who will be joining the Midas Touch State of the Union. Pretty historic what we're doing there. And that's what I got for you. Thanks so much for watching. Shout out Midas Mighty. We appreciate you. We're grateful for you. See you next time. Legal AF.

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