Legal AF - 3/15/26

25:20Michael Popok:And shipping is always free. So you can get the best book at the best price. For a gift that's truly unforgettable, head to bookbyanyone.com. Order your book today and enjoy free shipping at bookbyanyone.com. One last time, that's bookbyanyone.com.

25:37Ben Meiselas:Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to our sponsors right there. So, Popak, give us some of the latest updates in the Epstein investigation. Obviously, we know that there have been more documents that have been coming out. The FBI has been hiding kind of critical docs regarding people who have made serious accusations as well against Donald Trump. We know that the Post and Courier of South Carolina in Charleston, where the survivor was from the South Carolina area. They've been able to corroborate a lot of elements of the story. They weren't able to corroborate the stuff. The stuff with Trump happened in New York is what the allegations were, that this survivor alleges that, you know, Trump sexually assaulted her in the New York area when Epstein brought her from South Carolina to New York.

26:28Ben Meiselas:So the Post and Courier couldn't confirm any of the stuff that was in New York. What they were able to confirm, though, was a lot of the very minute details as it relates to South Carolina. There's very specific stuff. And they said all of that stuff happened and was true in the South Carolina piece in the 80s in this report. So talk about that one. Then there was another one, Popak, involving a victim who was about 16 years old. And this came out in the FBI, you know, some of the new documents that have been released after Pam Bondi was subpoenaed, where when Epstein was going into his townhouse, he was getting what he called Donald Trump when he was getting a massage and sexually assaulting a survivor.

27:13Ben Meiselas:a survivor alleges that Trump was on the phone when Epstein was in his townhouse, right around the time she was sexually assaulted, and Epstein called Trump, and Trump was on speakerphone. And so that one came out, and then you had the money man, the accountant was deposed, who gave mixed messages. Try to walk her through it.

27:35Michael Popok:Yeah, yeah. And I'm not, I don't feel sorry for Pam Bondi, but I am rubbing my hands in glee that all of this new information, including a major bombshell about the New Mexico ranch of Epstein by James Comer, of all people, the MAGA head of the Oversight Committee. For a minute, I forgot what side he was on after he went on Jesse Waters and said that he's glad that the state officials in New Mexico are now going over with a fine-tooth comb this New Mexico ranch that Epstein operated. because he said that the Trump administration, first time around under its Department of Justice and Bill Barr told the New Mexico officials to stop doing their investigation in 2019 of the ranch.

28:25Michael Popok:Now, soon thereafter, they indicted Epstein. But even Comer on Jesse Waters was like, we got to get to the bottom. What's going on in that ranch? Are there dead girls buried there or not? Yeah, are there dead girls buried there or not? And that's something. Why did the Trump administration help out Epstein by having the New Mexico officials stand down from an investigation that the feds did not take over? And that's from James. When on your when on your best day, your MAGA leader is throwing you under the bus. That tells you all you need to know about Donald Trump's efforts to try to make the Epstein stain and scandal go away.

29:04Michael Popok:This is all before Pam Bondi. She must not be in this military base that she's now living on, apparently. because now they had to move her because of threats against her. Not that she was involved with any of the military operations in Venezuela or Iran, but they apparently have to move her into a military base. She's not getting much sleep in there as all of this new information comes out. So you got the New Mexico Ranch information, James Comber. You got Richard Kahn, a little known guy who is the bookkeeper, estate trustee, and accountant for Jeffrey Epstein. That's a nice way of saying he enabled Jeffrey Epstein's child sex trafficking ring for years by making sure the flow of money among all the properties and the jets and the people and the gifts and everything all flowed properly.

29:58Michael Popok:You know, kept the wheels spinning there. And of course, he tried to come off the wall. I only knew about his charge in 2006 in West Palm Beach. And Palm Beach, I had no idea that he was a pedophile. Really? I mean, nobody believed that. In fact, Democrats have come out and said he made contradictory and concerning statements about women who made allegations against both Epstein and Donald Trump. Look, at least one member of Congress who was in the room has said that, and again, this is behind closed doors, unfortunately, but we'll be getting the transcript one day. And Kahn said that out of the victim survivor fund that Epstein created or the estate created of$120 million, at least one person who made accusations against Donald Trump was paid off.

30:51Michael Popok:So we're going to have to wait to get our hands on that transcript. But at least one person who sat through the testimony took that down as a note and put it up on his social media platform. So you've got the accountant, the money man, who may or may not have lied to Congress about his true knowledge. You've got this Jane Doe number four that you referenced, who has accused the president of abuse. I think that ties back to somebody who's at the time 13 years old that claimed that Donald Trump tried to force her to commit oral sex on him. She bit him and then he assaulted her. Now, I've always said the following, and I think this is consistent with the Midas Touch and legal AF channels.

31:33Michael Popok:I don't know if that's true or not. But you all who also doesn't know if that's true or not? The FBI, the Department of Justice, because they refuse to conduct any investigations. How is it there are 1 ,200 victims, including one of my clients, Lisa Phillips? How is there 1 ,200 victims, acknowledged victims of a child sex trafficking crime ring that has brought down 40 to 50 people worldwide, including a member of the royal family? And there's not one known investigation or prosecution of anybody in the United States by the Department of Justice. Not one. What does that tell you about the corruption of the Department of Justice?

32:12Michael Popok:It's captured by Donald Trump. It's complete lack of independence. Why isn't there a special counsel that's been appointed to go over the 3 million or 8 million or whatever pages there are of the Epstein files to bring the predators to justice? Why? Because we have a predator in chief who's in the Oval Office and who runs and controls the Department of Justice. This is why Pam Bondi's being dragged back in, I'm sure kicking and screaming. There's no burn book that's going to get her out of this one about her cover-up of the Epstein files and why there's no prosecutions of anybody that has been implicated by it.

32:52Michael Popok:Yeah, we heard from the accountant, the five Rothschilds and the Lex Wessners of the world and the Leon Blacks that gave Epstein billions and billions and billions of dollars. And maybe the connections between Epstein and Russia, right? And then we had new reporting. Get this one. It says a lot about an administration when a cyber hacker has more morals than our own administration. Apparently in 2023, a cyber hacker, not knowing he was breaking into the FBI, broke into the FBI Epstein database, got to see things that you and I and the public haven't been able to see, including disgusting photos related to child pornography in the words of the cyber hacker.

33:37Michael Popok:The cyber hacker was going to go public thinking he had broken into a pedophile's database. The FBI, apparently in New York, had to get on with the cyber hacker, convince them by flashing their badges that they were the FBI and that he had broken into a criminal database of theirs. The fact that he was repulsed or she was repulsed, the cyber hacker, and yet no one in our government led by Donald Trump seems to be equally repulsed or feel that they have the duty to justice in the American people to go after those that created those pictures, that participated in those events, is just depraved. And this is what America, this is why America is rejecting the Trump administration and why we are winning or why the Democrats are winning in race after race after race.

34:37Michael Popok:It is the indelible stain of the Epstein scandal, which is not the only sex scandal going on in the Trump administration. You got one over at Labor. You had one with Kristi Noem over at Homeland Security. You got Donald Trump and everything he does. And then you've got the Epstein matter and what it means in terms of the lack of character and fitness for those that serve in this government. And that is the reason why that the other party, the party out of power, is winning 90 % out of 280 races that have happened since the beginning of the Trump administration. They've won 90 percent of them. OK, or they've overperformed in 90 percent of them.

35:13Michael Popok:They're 28 and 0 and flipping seats, including in weird places. It could be 29 and 0, including the northern Northwest District in Georgia that Marjorie Taylor Greene. But this is why, because America will tolerate a lot, but they won't tolerate a heartless president and they won't tolerate a corrupt, morally bankrupt president. And that's what we're watching as Pam. I don't even know. When does Pam Bondi come in for that hearing?

35:42Ben Meiselas:Whenever they let her out of the military bunker, you know, it's unclear. She's supposed to be deposed pretty soon. But, you know, I bet you that she'll do everything and anything in her power to delay that. That's that's for sure. Let's just turn to what's going on with Judge Boesberg. Everybody remember Judge Boesberg and the intersection, as you like to say, of law and politics. But the intersection of law and politics here is Judge Boesberg and the intersection of law and criminality and Donald Trump seeking retribution against the chair of the Federal Reserve. So, Popak, what went down here as Donald Trump was impaneled this grand jury basically to gin up criminal charges against the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell?

36:35Ben Meiselas:And this case was in front of Judge Boesberg. Tell us why, how Judge Boesberg got this case in Washington, D.C. And then what did Judge Boesberg rule? Yeah.

36:48Michael Popok:And the reason we're just talking about it now is you don't generally know about what's happening in grand juries because there's a level of secrecy that goes around them to protect the innocent, to protect people that have not yet been charged. You're not supposed to know, although the government often leaks, that somebody is a target of an investigation. Here they purposely leaked that Jerome Powell, particularly as the chairman of the Federal Reserve, was a target of a criminal investigation, presumably about him making a statement about the renovation of two buildings that are 100 years old that make up the Federal Reserve complex in Washington, D.C.

37:32Michael Popok:in a response to a question by Senator Tim Scott, in which he honestly said, there are no opulent golden ballrooms or dining rooms or private elevators. We've kind of re-engineered the project to save money, and this is the project. But the project to take 200-year-old buildings with asbestos and old elevators and old HVAC systems, you know, and something called COVID that impacted the global logistics related to a building material and something called Donald Trump's tariffs that did the exact same thing. There's no wonder it's a 50 % or more cost overrun in developing. It doesn't make it criminal any more than Donald Trump's ballroom going up 50%.

38:17Michael Popok:It makes him, well, maybe in his case it does. In any event, Trump has been very public, as has everybody in his administration, that he wants Jerome Powell to cut interest rates to save the Trump failed economic policies. Because who doesn't want cheap money firing out of a fire hose when your own economy is on the skids? And that is the problem, even recognized by economists that work for Donald Trump. You never want the guy in power, the person in power who already controls fiscal economic policy to also get his greedy little dirty hands on the monetary policy and turn on the spigot of U.S.

39:01Michael Popok:money and have cheap dollars prop up artificially the economy, which would lead to inflation going through. You think it's high now. You think 3.3 % year over year at the supermarket, and I think it's higher than that, is bad now. Wait till you see what happens when he starts lowering interest rates or is able to below 2 % and money starts flying out, cheap money starts flying out into the economy. And then he's out of office, right, midterm and beyond. And we're stuck with hyperinflation that the next presidency has to fix, much like Obama having to fix what happened with Bush, much like Biden having to fix what happened with Trump.

39:42Michael Popok:It's always a Democrat cleaning up behind the elephant, right? Literally having to fix the economy. Obama inherited such a terrible economy, we almost lost the auto industry and the banking industry at the same time. Biden comes in after COVID, has to restart the heart of the American economy with several trillion dollars of public money in order to save the economy. And Trump is the beneficiary of all of that. Now, he's got no job creation. He's got zero. He's got a GDP, a manufacturing sector in America that's slowing to a crawl. He's killed the family farms. Tens of thousands of them have closed.

40:27Michael Popok:Manufacturing is the one that has lost the most jobs, even under his tariffs, to bring home manufacturing, right? And so he wants cheap money. He keeps beating up Jerome Powell, who is one but a big vote on the Federal Open Markets Committee that sets interest rates on a monthly basis generally, based on they have two goals at the Fed, independent Fed, right? Try to create as much jobs as they can in the economy while keeping inflation low. And those sometimes are difficult to do at the same time. And they calibrate with the only tool they really have, which is interest rates. They calibrate how to keep job creation, job growth going, while also making sure we don't have hyperinflation.

41:12Michael Popok:Well, Trump doesn't like it. He doesn't like the seven votes. And he's always wanted to have cheap money. So he's been bashing the guy that he appointed to the Federal Reserve back in the first term, Jay Powell, who, by the way, his chairmanship is up in May. He stays on the board, but his chairmanship is up in May. But he wanted to. So he said, well, how can I get rid of him? Well, why don't we do? Why don't we try like what we're doing with Lisa Cook, who's on the Federal Reserve? We'll accuse her of a crime. Yeah, that's it. and will embarrass, he's a modest man, he'll be embarrassed. He'll resign, won't he?

41:45Michael Popok:No. So they went and tried to figure out whether the cost overrun on the Fed was a crime or not, which is ridiculous. So when Jay Powell doesn't budge and the interest rates aren't being cut by this seven at the speed at which Donald Trump wants, and Donald Trump's bashing constantly of Jay Powell, he's an idiot, he's a dummy, he's a moron, He's cost the American people billions of dollars. That's very self. That sounds like Donald Trump talking about himself. But over and over and over again, when that didn't work, he had Jeanine Pirro, his political ally and the U.S. attorney in D.C., open a criminal probe investigation against Jay Powell around the holidays.

42:34Michael Popok:and apparently it went to a grand jury and they got a couple of subpoenas from the grand jury to get all of the construction records related to the Federal Reserve's construction project. Now, as pointed out by Jeff Boesberg, the judge who as the chief judge in DC is responsible for all grand jury proceedings, okay? But it's very rare for a judge to be asked to quash subpoenas based on improper purpose, basically calling out the Department of Justice as being corrupt. So even Jeb Boesberg said there is an office of inspector general that is responsible for reviewing whether there is fraud or crimes related to the construction project, and yet there's no evidence.

43:21Michael Popok:So the Fed Reserve and J-PAL, unbeknownst to us because it was sealed, brought a motion to quash the subpoenas issued by Jeanine Piero's grand jury and to end this folly. And Jeb Boesberg, who is the chief judge and also no stranger to the Trump administration, they've already brought a judicial complaint against him that got rejected. He moved to find them in criminal contempt twice related to their taking human beings to El Salvador and the torture prisons there over court order without due process. But he's the chief judge. And so he had to make a ruling. He unsealed all the papers so the public would know.

44:04Michael Popok:And he issued this memorandum opinion. And as you said, the first paragraph is not the judge commentary or ruling. It's just line after line of Donald Trump through social media posts bashing Jay Powell in order to change policy, to change interest rates. There it is right there. And And we have a post on Legal AF Substack as well. And he says, and when social media posts fail to cut rates, Donald Trump went to plan B, which is what he's done, as the judge pointed out, to other political critics like James Comey, the FBI, former FBI director, Letitia James, Attorney General in New York, Adam Schiff, the senator from your home state of California.

44:49Michael Popok:And now he turned Janine Pirro on to go after and sick the dogs on Jay Powell. And the judge says, what I got to look at is whether this was predominantly for an improper purpose to bring these subpoenas to try to influence policy and get him to resign or lower interest rates. And I love that line. And Bozberg concludes that there is a mountain of evidence, his words, that indicate that this is about Donald Trump trying to get Jay Powell to resign and that there is no credible evidence of any crime in the cost overruns related to the renovation of those two buildings. In fact, he says in the second to last page of his order, he said, I gave the government the opportunity to show just me in camera.

45:40Michael Popok:It's called an in camera or in camera review. Show me the goods. You got more evidence that demonstrates that I'm not aware of, that demonstrates the criminality, the probable cause for criminality? Show it to me. And he says, and the Department of Justice in past cases has taken him up on that offer. He says in the hearing, they refused. And post-hearing, they never submitted anything to show that they had any evidence whatsoever to support a criminal case against Jay Powell. This should, subject to what we'll show a clip here from Janine Pirro's response, crazy response. But if this is the end of the subpoenas, this should be the end of the criminal case.

46:24Michael Popok:Subject to an appeal, they'll argue that the judge is interfering with the executive branch's investigative function as the prosecutor. We'll see a whole appeal up to the D.C. Court of Appeals again. But this should, for now, give Donald Trump an exit strategy because he can't get his Federal Reserve next pick, who he also wants to make the chairperson. He can't get it through the Senate confirmation process because Tom Tillis, the outgoing North Carolina senator, has said he is not going to vote for the new Fed chair or even the guy coming on to the board at all until the cloud over the Federal Reserve and Jay Powell is lifted.

47:08Michael Popok:Now, if Donald Trump's smart, he'll take this he'll go well i i wanted to but a judge won't let me and then get his guy confirmed and make him the fed chair in may but donald trump we know he's not what do you think he's

47:20Ben Meiselas:going to do next ben i don't think he has a plan i don't think there's i mean the the thing about all of this and let's connect it back to the war uh he has no plan for everything for anything and this has been his entire MO, his entire life. And so I think that Tillis is someone who, while I disagree with him a lot on things, when he says he's going to do something, he's going to put the hold on and he's not going to confirm Donald Trump's new pick. And then Donald Trump's what he's going to start attacking Tillis. He'll probably launch a criminal investigation into Tillis, right? Like he'll make the, like he'll make the worst possible decision.

48:00Ben Meiselas:he'll turn a bad decision into a devastating decision into a catastrophe into a bankruptcy this all follows the same exact pattern i mean look who he surrounds himself with do we have the but let's let's just play the clip of piro right now i mean this is his crew popak here let's play it oh cut it out do you know how many convictions we've got cut it out you're in one lane we have cleaned up this city oh yeah historic really i'll tell you what's historic What's historic is that I prosecute everything other than 10 % of the cases where the United States attorney before me didn't prosecute 67 % of the cases.

48:40Ben Meiselas:That's what's historic. I'm willing to take a not guilty. I'm willing to take a no true bill because I'll take all the crimes and put them in. Thank you.

48:51Michael Popok:Thank you. That's all the time we have.

48:53Ben Meiselas:I mean, think about that. That's who's on his team right there. That's Piro. That's who he surrounds himself with. And so, you know, the short of it is Donald Trump will continue to try to appeal. It'll go to the Supreme Court. Then he'll whine that his pick, you know, as the federal chair is not going to be there. The economy's already continue to crash because of the disastrous war. We're not going to have a pick for the Federal Reserve. That's what's going to happen, Popak. It seems pretty evident that that's where it's going to go. Let's talk more about it when we come back from our last quick break of the show.

49:26Ben Meiselas:a reminder, everybody, make sure you hit subscribe on Michael Popak's YouTube channel, the Legal AF YouTube channel. Let's get it. 2 million subscribers. Also subscribe to Popak's Legal AF Substack. Let's keep growing that Substack community there. If you want to subscribe to our YouTube channel here, you can. We'd love for you to do that, but make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF ones for sure. And then also make sure if you or someone you know have been injured in a car accident, trucking accident caused by the negligence of others. If you know someone who's been injured or seriously hurt, or if you know a family that may have lost a loved one due to the negligence of others, reach out to Popak.

50:06Ben Meiselas:Call or text 877-POPAK-AF or visit thepopakfirm.com. They've got lawyers across the country who are here to help you out. 877-POPAK-AF or visit thepopakfirm.com. They're available 24-7. The consultation is free. Let's take our last quick break of the show. We'll be right back. We've got a lot more to discuss.

50:26Michael Popok:Well, I was getting ready to talk about the news and politics today, and my cat Chanel decided she was the headline. She doesn't care about politics, but she has extremely strong opinions about her food. If this show ever runs late, it's because she refuses to let me talk about law and politics until her Smalls cat food is handled first. It's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926? This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Smalls is protein-packed cat food made with preservative-free ingredients you'd actually recognize. Deliver right to your door. And Cats.com names Smalls their best overall cat food.

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51:42Michael Popok:One last time, that's 60 % off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com slash Legal AF. Legal AF is brought to you by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The First Amendment isn't ambiguous and it isn't optional. It's clear. Government may not establish religion and it may not favor one belief system over another. But across the country, lawmakers and public officials are testing those limits, pushing prayer into public schools, carving out religious exemptions that undermine civil rights, and blurring the line between church and state in ways the Constitution expressly forbids.

52:22Michael Popok:That's where the Freedom From Religion Foundation comes in. FFRF is a national nonprofit that uses education, advocacy, and the law to hold government accountable when it crosses that line, protecting the rights of believers and non-believers alike. Because religious freedom doesn't mean government endorsed religion. It means freedom of conscience for everyone. If you care about the Constitution, the rule of law, and a government that works for all of us, not just the loudest or most powerful, now is the time to act. Visit ffrf.us slash new year or text the word legal AF to 511 511 to learn more and join.

53:07Michael Popok:Go to ffrf.us slash new year or text Legal AF to 511-511 and help protect our country that belongs to all of us. Go to ffrf.us slash new year or text Legal AF to 511-511 today. Message and data rates may apply.

53:26Ben Meiselas:Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all of our incredible sponsors. The discount codes for those sponsors are in the description below. Jordi and Popak spend a lot of time vetting and going through those sponsors, making sure that they are sponsors that we think that you'll like. So check them out if you can and support them. They support our show. Let's get into it, Popak, here. So you saw Judge Boesberg scathing ruling. And as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, as Donald Trump gets weaker abroad, weaker here, you know, you finally are starting to see a lot of judges, you know, really speak out in the most forceful of terms that you never would really think that they'd be talking about a United States president, even one as demented, as disgusting as Donald Trump.

54:13Ben Meiselas:They're basically using, finally, the language of legal AF, you know, whereas, you know, a few people may have accused us of being hyperbolic. Like I just said, we're described. We are painting the picture of what's actually happening. And if the and in fact, the words that I use and you use sometimes in the titles or in our intros, frankly, don't do it justice. There needs to be, you know, the words don't fit the moment sometime at all, because Trump is truly this this rogue, horrible, disgusting actors. So even as I do it right there, I'm like, how do I describe someone who so doesn't belong in this position and who frankly belongs behind bars, who's bringing our nation into this, you know, this horrific situation or who's brought us there?

55:01Ben Meiselas:So, Popak, talk to two topics before we go. One, current judges speaking out. What types of things are they saying? Number two, TikTok updates there. You know, I know maybe people's attention, you know, is not necessarily focused on that one, but I think it's an important one to discuss. Yeah.

55:19Michael Popok:Yeah. Thanks, Ben. I don't know what the opposite of hyperbolic is. Is it bollick? I think at best we've been bollick. And yeah, let me stay on that for a minute. It's been hard for independent media like us for commentary where the only thing that goes into our analysis is our own research and thought process. and sometimes you and I bouncing some ideas around with each other about what we're observing and then trying to communicate that the way you and I have in our past careers as successful trial lawyers and how to communicate that to an audience, an educated audience that's concerned of patriots, made up of patriots, and to do it in a way that transmits the import and the historic nature of the event without being accused of being clickbaity or hyperbolic.

56:21Michael Popok:I mean, when I said leading into the Bozberg discussion today that district court judges quashing subpoenas because of finding that there's a Department of Justice criminal investigation that is not in good faith is remarkable. and it is unheard of. And so when we talk about it, I don't want people to think because it's just another segment on Legal AF or another hot take that Popak or Ben made that it is par for the course, but that it's normal because we can't lose that, the understanding or try to put it into a context that what we are watching is an abnormal, aberrational presidency and relationship with the Department of Justice and the American people.

57:15Michael Popok:And we shouldn't allow Trump to gaslight us into convincing us that what we're watching is normal politics, politics as usual. It's not. It's criminality as usual, but it isn't. And we shouldn't accept it and allow him to patronize, patronize us, talk down to us and demean the American people. He already calls the American people fools, literally, if they don't agree with his Iranian policy or oil pricing or impact on their pocketbook. Sure, because he's in a trillion-dollar cocoon of his own making. Wait till you see the final tally of how much the Trump family and Donald Trump and those around him will have made by the time they leave office.

58:02Michael Popok:I mean, we were aghast when we learned that Jared Kushner and Ivanka made$700 million while they were in office the first time around. Those numbers are good. That's a rounding error. That's chump change to what the family is going to make now. We're talking hundreds of billions of dollars, dictator level dollars of kleptocracy and corruption. And how do we put that into words? So I will take it on the chin for those that think, all we're trying to do is calibrate and to use the appropriate vocabulary and adjectives to demonstrate what's going on here. So when I talk about this next segment about current federal judges, not even X, it's one thing for former judges like Judge Ludic, who I just interviewed.

58:57Michael Popok:I have a great interview up on Legal AF YouTube right now, this morning. It's one thing for Judge Ludig or, you know, Judge Wolf, who leaves the Massachusetts bench to become an opponent of the Trump administration. It's quite another for current, active, presiding federal judges, appellate and district court level, to not only write in their opinions such scathing rebukes against the Trump administration, citing to our founders, our framers, the Federalist Papers, the inaugural speech or the farewell address of George Washington, lyrics by Bob Dylan, you name it. They're like we are. They're struggling to try to communicate to the American people how aberrational, how unpatriotic, how illegal and unconstitutional what we're watching really is.

59:51Michael Popok:And so I've said it, and I said it in my interview with Judge Ludic. my 35 years of reading thousands of court decisions, I've never seen a judiciary, especially in the second year of this administration, use the vocabulary and the language and the citations the way they are doing it now against the Trump administration, but not just in their writings. Here's something else unheard of. The American Bar Association has which is the leading national bar association voluntary. I mean, you join it. I joined it from the day I left law school, and I've been a member ever since. But the American Bar Association has these conferences.

1:00:37Michael Popok:They're devoted to subspecialties within the law. Usually, there's one in San Francisco for the white-collar criminal defense bar. And just the other day, three judges, an appellate judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals federal, a Nevada trial court judge, and a California trial court judge federal, got together and talked about, effectively, the depravity of the Trump administration and the Department of Justice while they're still presiding judges. You know, we thought it was remarkable what Gitanji Brown Jackson during Law Day last year, or even now, has publicly said during meetings or conferences, or Sotomayor has done the same thing, attacking in their own polite way the fellow justices of the Supreme Court in real time, in real life about things that are happening in the court.

1:01:29Michael Popok:But to hear federal judges now kind of getting their groove back, having been flummoxed, having been dropped to the canvas and looking for their teeth after the first year of the Trump administration, they're getting their groove back. And as I joke with Judge Ludig, they're finally waking up to realize that they are federal judges and they have the power and they shouldn't be concerned about phony judicial complaints against them being brought by the Trump administration or, you know, other attacks on their character or their family's character. They've got to do what's right under their oath for the American people.

1:02:09Michael Popok:In fact, here's Judge Luding, who has become, who's gone from, think about his evolution. He's gone from rock rib Republican, not MAGA, conservative icon, like on the Mount Rushmore of conservative icons, who Mike Pence consulted with to save our democracy, to make Mike Pence certify that election on Jan 2020. It's because Judge Ludig told him he needs to certify the electoral win for Biden of the of the electoral cap that OK, former Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals judge. He should have been, right now, the Supreme Court Chief Justice over John Roberts. He was that close to getting the job. And now he's not only a constitutionalist, but he is going out on a regular basis, attacking the Trump administration, calling it out for being lawless and unconstitutional, attacking and criticizing the United States Supreme Court.

1:03:10Michael Popok:He has said in the past that everybody needs to vote Democrat. I mean, if you would have told me, Michael Ludwig would have told me that I got to vote Democrat to save democracy. And he said this is a turning point the way the Revolutionary War was a turning point about our re-securing our liberty. Here's a clip from my interview with Michael Ludwig. Every single lower federal court judge has honored his or her oath to the Constitution of the United States to the letter, honored their oath. And in almost every single instance, those judges collectively have struck down as unconstitutional.

1:03:56Ben Meiselas:essentially every single initiative of this president,

1:04:02Michael Popok:as the Constitution required them to do. So that today, the only, well, today, the only people who can save America

1:04:20Ben Meiselas:are the lower federal court judges of the United States of America and they are determined to do so simply by honoring their oath in every one of these cases now of which there are hundreds every single time Donald Trump opens his mouth or takes an action the American people are forced to go into court and litigate it that's the tragic place that America finds itself in today. But to complete the thought, at this point, it is only the Supreme Court of the United States that is standing in the way of the American people saving their country.

1:05:12Michael Popok:So when you put this all together, what are we watching? At least since February, at least in the last month, federal judges are rising up and grabbing torches and pitchforks and realizing that they have a job to do, and they've got to do it now. And they're speaking out in court cases and court rulings, speaking to us, the parties, the litigants, and history, and the future, and future generations. And they're doing it in conferences and meetings. And that is encouraging, because without the district court judges and the appellate court judges below the United States Supreme Court doing their job, which is basically the justice that most of us are entitled to, then all hope is lost for our democracy.

1:06:03Michael Popok:And just to final wrap on Ludig, Ludig has joined with 175 other judges, former judges, to file a brief with the United States Supreme Court attacking and criticizing their continued use of the shadow docket to benefit Donald Trump and his policies. Enough. And then use the shadow docket, which is effectively not your normal appellate process. It's not your three briefs, three legal memoranda, oral argument, full record developed below. No. It's two briefs, no oral argument, 48 hours worth of deliberation, and a ruling, allegedly not on the merits, only on procedure, but it really is on the merits.

1:06:51Michael Popok:And then use that literally one paragraph or less of a ruling, not the normal 50 or 100 pages of a Supreme Court decision, but use that paragraph as a Supreme Court to chastise lower court judges who didn't follow the precedent of that one paragraph and Judge Ludig, who I think wrote the brief, he wouldn't admit it during my interview, but he got awful close, is telling the Supreme Court, you can't do that to the district court level. You want to give them guidance and write a proper opinion, but you can't point to a one line or a one paragraph and say, why didn't you follow who are, because you didn't give us any rationale, because you didn't give us any logic.

1:07:32Michael Popok:You didn't give us any guidelines. And it's important now to finally take on the shadow docket. And now you see 175 former judges joining together to go and effectively attack the United States Supreme Court. All very, very, very important. So I wanted to, as Ben, as you might have guessed, had to depart to go handle something really important for the Midas Touch and the channel, not more important than the podcast, but certainly this evening, something that he had to attend. And I told him, just go and I will do the rap. Let me talk about TikTok, not from the who gives a crap about that platform standpoint, but from a money laundering extortion bribery scheme that may be part of what we're watching.

1:08:25Michael Popok:Let me explain. TikTok was banned from the United States by law of Congress supported by the United States Supreme Court because of its propensity controlled by the Chinese government to spy on Americans. I know everybody loves TikTok, right? I love all the little dances and ice bucket challenges or whatever else is going on these days. But at the end, it's also accumulating a lot of algorithmic and other data that lands in the hands of the Chinese. And that was all outlined and Biden signed the law. Congress passed the law. Trump had been in favor of the law until a buddy of his at a company called Susquehanna Investments said, I have a big investment in ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok.

1:09:14Michael Popok:And, you know, you should really reconsider. And then Trump started using TikTok to try to get elected. And suddenly Donald Trump became a big lover of TikTok. But here's what happened since. Trump decided he was going to use the TikTok sale to a non-Chinese set of entities as a way to extort money and maybe, follow my logic, maybe use it as a slush fund through a sovereign wealth fund that he's been dying to create since February of 2025, which would give him billions and billions of dollars to use without congressional oversight and funded by a$10 billion payment that apparently is being made or has been made by the buyers of TikTok.

1:10:07Michael Popok:Now, let's look at the buyers of TikTok for a minute because they're all in bed with Donald Trump and his companies. Oracle, Larry Ellison, big Trump supporter. His son owns Paramount Skydance, which owns CBS, which is about to acquire Warner Brothers, which owns CNN. So CNN and CBS are going to be MAGA right wing under the Ellison family. Ellison family's reward for that or payment to Donald Trump is a$10 billion contribution payment to the Trump administration for letting them buy TikTok. Why is that so obscene and really shows you there's a possible extortion or bribery pay-to-play going on here?

1:10:53Michael Popok:It's because the$10 billion represents 70 % of the value of TikTok. Yes, J.D. Vance, who is responsible for brokering the deal, declared that the deal's enterprise value is$14 billion. So let me get this straight. Larry Ellison, MGX, which is controlled by the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf States, and Susquehanna, which is controlled by a friend of Donald Trump's that's also in business with him in Truth Social. And MGX owns 49 % of Donald Trump's cryptocurrency company. they're going to pay a 70 % fee, $10 billion of a$14 billion deal into the government? For what reason? Because Donald Trump obviously told them, you want to be in business with me on the crypto thing?

1:11:53Michael Popok:You want to be in business with me? You want CNN? You want to be in business with me in Truth Social? You got to pay a$10 billion fee into the government. This, parallel to this, Jared Kushner, son-in-law in chief, who said in 2024 that he was not going to raise money in the second Trump administration because of the ethics conflicts, is now suddenly changed course. And while he's the Middle Eastern envoy screwing up the Iranian war and Intel is busy raising$5 billion for his private equity firm. He has no experience in private equity, by the way, from the same Middle Eastern Gulf state partners that are involved in TikTok and that are part of the Iranian war and the Iranian war solution.

1:12:43Michael Popok:The Trump family benefiting from foreign policy led by Donald Trump. Donald Trump extorting a$10 billion payment representing 70 % of the cost of the value of TikTok from his friends and buddies that he's in business with, including the United Arab Emirates, in order to do what with it? If anybody thinks that's just going to sit on the ledger of the general treasury as a deposit, you got another thing coming. Because one of the things the Democrats are going to have to do now, not wait for midterms, is figure out where the$10 billion is and where it's going. My working theory is that the sovereign wealth fund that Donald Trump has been itching to create, which would give him a fund of money that he as the president alone can control, much like his peace board and the money generated there, the billion dollar entry fee for the peace board, also under Donald Trump's control, sovereign fund funded by things like a$10 billion fee, exorbitant fee for TikTok, then goes into the slush fund without congressional oversight.

1:13:51Michael Popok:that Donald Trump can keep doling out to people in his life, businesses that he's related to, or others that he wants to curry favor with. A giant carrot he can use to encourage some conduct, some transaction that he's in favor of. That's what I believe we're watching in slow motion. I'll continue to follow it. Where? Here. Legal AF. I'm glad everybody has joined us. Great news about Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. Legal AF regularly in the top 50, sometimes in the top 30 of all YouTube podcasts. That puts a chill down my spine. It's such an honor. We're so blessed to have our audience supporting us in that way.

1:14:38Michael Popok:Legal AF, of course, also up on audio podcasts on Google, Spotify, Apple, and all the rest. We're regularly in the top 50 to 100 of news podcasts there as well. We're up for a Webby Award for Best Podcast. So many ways to support the Legal AF ecosystem of which Legal AF, the YouTube channel, is a major part. I'm the editor-in-chief there. I curate everything related to the YouTube channel. With your help, we're going to cross 1.1 million subscribers, hopefully this weekend, on our way to 2 million in 2026. the importance of it. So you don't think it's ego because it's not at all. It gives us the street credibility to bring on the Judge Ludig's.

1:15:26Michael Popok:This week alone, I had Representative Mary Gay Scanlon from Pennsylvania, who's on the House Judiciary Committee. We have authors, we have senators, we have judges, of course, our own amazing commentators and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, All Rise News, Sidney Blumenthal, and Sean Wilentz on Court of History, four podcasts that are all part of that Legal AF community or ecosystem. And your membership, which is, you can be unpaid, just hit the subscribe button, really helps go a long way to keep us on the air and is a vote for this type of content. And if you can swing a paid membership, we've got that available to you too.

1:16:09Michael Popok:The other, there we go. The other major part of our ecosystem that I manage is the Legal AF Substack. What an amazing, if you don't know about Substack, go check it out. Anything in your life that you have an interest in, a hobby, a side gig, an interest, you're going to find it on Substack. Somebody writing and doing amazing content related to that thing that you really enjoy. And if your thing is law and politics, Legal AF Substack, probably the best place under one pane of glass to learn about law and politics. You're going to find all the resource material that I use and others use to prepare the filings in courts.

1:16:51Michael Popok:You can read them for yourself. We've got two lives a day that I try to do about rapid developments in the cases and update you in the cases. We'll get a couple thousand people at lunchtime or in the evening together to talk about that issue with me. Literally talk to me and talk back in chat that I'm able to handle and all of that. And then finally, for our Legal AF community, I formed the Popak firm a couple of years ago. It's dedicated to helping people in the area of personal injury, catastrophic illness, medical malpractice, even employment law. We've got some great things going on in expansions in those relationships.

1:17:34Michael Popok:We're about to announce our deal with Survivor Strategies, a group out of California that's going to focus on sex abuse victims and getting them the help and legal help that they need in collaboration with Survivor Strategies. More to come on that. Hopefully we'll be able to announce the 1-800 number and the website related to all that. But that is also in the works. And we thank each and every one of you for being such a fervent supporter and part of our audience. Many of you have been here, some of you have been here from the very, very beginning, almost six years ago. Some of you are new today, but we have something in common.

1:18:12Michael Popok:We vibrate on the same frequency. We believe in justice, in a brand of patriotism that's missing in the White House. And we believe that in learning together, in speaking truth to each other, we will ultimately regain control, secure, re-secure our liberty and run the bastards out starting at the midterms. I'm Michael Popak. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.

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