Legal AF - 6/27/2026

24:25Michael Popok:And the thing that Todd Blanch has that's a problem among many is that the judge also ruled that Blanch effectively conceded, conceded all of the substantive legal points that Katie made about his violation of the Epstein Transparency Act. because he failed to respond, not adequately respond. He failed to respond to her legal arguments. He kept saying, she's the wrong, she doesn't have standing, judge. She shouldn't be here. Why are we here? At the same time, you have to also say, but if we're here, I didn't do it. You can't just like ignore that part of your brief. And the judge said, you literally, Blanche has conceded, he violated the Epstein Transparency Act by failing to produce a video.

25:16Michael Popok:Apparently there's some, I hate to say it, but this is from the record, some sort of torture video, sex torture video that now has to be revealed because it was withheld. The FBI interview notes of the woman who said she was 13 when she was sexually abused by Donald Trump. They got to now translate all of the foreign language documents that should have been translated from the beginning. And they got to do a log and there's some other by serial number, by Bates number that they have to do, that they have to do by date certain. And they don't get to use the 250th anniversary weekend to do their work.

25:54Michael Popok:Oh, no. The judge gave them until July 2nd. I think that was purposely chosen. July 2nd, they have two choices. They either produce the documents that he's now ordered, pursuant to Katie's injunction to be produced, or they have to show cause why they can't do it. So there's one more step, sort of an order to show cause step. So they either have to answer it, order to show cause, meaning the burden is on them to show why this should still be redacted, untranslated, not provided at this very late date. Understanding the judge already made factual and legal findings against Todd Blanche. This now folds, right, Ben, right into all these things we're going to be talking about today, fold into the cross-examination of Todd Blanche on July 15th.

26:46Michael Popok:I think it's going to take more than one day, by the way, for his confirmation hearing. And one last thing on that. I just interviewed Judge Ludig, who's leading these 300 judges, state and federal, in making these fantastic filings that are having real results in the courtroom. And I said to him point blank, let me just ask you something, Judge. Is Todd Blanche fit to be the Attorney General of the United States? And he just looked at me and said, Michael, he's the most corrupt candidate we've ever had in 250 years. So the answer to that is no. He shouldn't be anywhere near the Attorney General's office.

27:27Michael Popok:Let me just remind people, Judge Ludig, by all rights, should be the Chief Justice of the United States right now, instead of John Roberts. It was that close. It was down to two people. He's a federalist. He's a constitutionalist. He was a Republican and a conservative one at that. But you see where you see where he stands now. He stands to protect the democracy and the rule of law.

27:48Ben Meiselas:Everybody, make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel, the Legal AF Substack and the Legal AF podcast. Make sure you subscribe across all of those platforms. And please, if you can, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Also, if you or somebody you know has been injured in an auto accident, trucking accident, any type of accident at all, reach out to the Popak firm. See if you have a case. You or somebody you know, 877-POPAK-AF or visit thepopakfirm.com. They do catastrophic injury types of cases. And so if you have a case, the consultation's free, reach out. Also, shout out to the Popak YouTube channel and the Popak Substack.

28:28Ben Meiselas:That Popak YouTube channel did 5.2 million views in 48 hours. That's a record for that channel up to 1.15 million subscribers. Keep it growing. Keep it growing. All right, let's take our first quick break of the show.

28:41Michael Popok:Well, it's time for some life talk. Life insurance talk, that is. You probably have it, but do you know how much you're paying for it? And for how much are you being covered? Odds are you pay too much for too little. And did you know if you receive life insurance through your job and you're unexpectedly laid off, you could suddenly be covered for nothing. Scary to think about, but simple to get right thanks to SelectQuote, where I'm headed to sort out my life insurance policy today. Unlike other one-size-fits-all life insurance companies, SelectQuotes licensed agents work for you. In as little as 15 minutes, they'll compare policies from top-rated carriers to find you the best fit for your health and your budget.

29:24Michael Popok:and they work for you for free. Get the right life insurance for you for less and save more than 50 % at selectquote.com slash legal AF. Save more than 50 % on term life insurance at selectquote.com slash legal AF today to get started. That's selectquote.com slash legal AF. Our next sponsor had a story that really resonated with me, especially with everything around metabolism and trying to approach it the right way. This podcast is sponsored by Veracity. Allie Egan, Veracity's founder, CEO, and certified hormonal health coach, experienced compromised metabolic health firsthand, including years of undiagnosed Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease that impacts the thyroid.

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31:14Ben Meiselas:Welcome back to LEGALAF and thank you to all of our sponsors. They help make this show possible. Support our sponsors. The discount codes for those sponsors are in the description below. $10 billion lawsuits, Popak. Have you ever heard of 10? I mean, I've heard of$10 billion lawsuits where there may be$10 billion in damages. It's like massive company versus massive company, but a$10 billion lawsuit where a billionaire or like Donald Trump claims that his feelings are hurt and he repeatedly says, I'm$10 billion emotionally distressed. Could we all stipulate that if someone claims that somebody doing a documentary about them causes them$10 billion in emotionally distress, that perhaps they don't have the emotional fortitude to be the leader of a country or the leader of anything.

32:11Ben Meiselas:But Donald Trump files$10 billion lawsuits. You made me upset. You made me upset. $10 billion lawsuit. I don't care what political party you're from. It's the biggest abuse of our legal process. It's whiny. It's pathetic. There have been multiple federal judges who have called Trump out for being a vexatious litigant in essence because he files all of these lawsuits for the headlines. And then here's my thing too. You want to file your$10 billion lawsuit. You want a tough guy. Okay, file it, then litigate the case. You know, as I noted at the outset, I was a litigator. I dealt with cases where there were terabytes of documents and you'd have to go through all of the stuff with teams of lawyers.

32:51Ben Meiselas:And as Popak, I'm sure we'll share with you, when he was an associate, he may not have had, not to date him or anything, but he may not have had all the electronic discovery tools I had. And he was probably in rooms of people with millions of documents. that that's that's what we that's what lawyers do man that's what these are cases you know so trump files a 10 billion dollar case he wants his headline but then he doesn't want to do the case and it's really pathetic and it's frivolous and it's dangerous and it's actually symbolic of everything he does you can make the exact same parallels you know he goes on this catastrophic war with netanyahu you know i'm going to invade iran epic fury midnight hammer this and that OK, well, guess what?

33:31Ben Meiselas:Iran's fighting back. Can I do social media posts? Can I just say we're winning and their navy's in the bottom? No, no. You're in war now, buddy. You're in a war. OK, you're in a freaking war right now. And those bombs, those explosions, those deaths are real. Buddy, you're in a litigation right now. You got to do it. You know, people, litigation's tough. You're going to miss deadlines. You're going to attack the judge. You're going to knock the turnover documents. Okay, you're doing a$10 billion case, treat it with the severity and serious. This is what he does in all of his cases that he brings, especially in his individual capacity.

34:14Ben Meiselas:And so we'll talk about two$10 billion cases. Think about that. We're talking about the president of the United States, so emotionally out of touch with basic reality, apparently, that he needs to file a$10 billion lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Company for some documentary that, no offense to the BBC, that maybe 1 ,000 people watched. It was some obscure documentary on J6 that the BBC, because documentaries aren't necessarily hundreds of hours long, they did an edit where they put the beginning of his speech with the end portion of the speech to make it seem like it was one sentence of him encouraging January 6th insurrectionists to attack the Capitol when it was divided by other words, basically.

35:08Ben Meiselas:and Trump's like, we caught you. That was unfair. And it was like, well, didn't you still tell the January 6th insurrectionists to like, you know, go there. And was it the whole thing that you undermined the 2020 election? And aren't there lawsuits about this? You know, anyway, so you're saying you didn't do these things. And so anyway, Trump tried to also like get around the fact that a defamation case like this would be hard to bring. So he files in federal court. This is like his trick because he thinks he's so tricky and smart. He like brings it under and Popak will know more about this because he's a florida lawyer like under like florida consumer statutes about like you know so this way practices yeah so this right so this way the bbc unfair trade practices this way bbc couldn't immediately file what's called an anti-slap motion which would then potentially bring sanctions and attorney's fees against trump for filing the thing to begin with and florida's got pretty robust anti-slap uh statutes which prevent you from filing uh these or bring you serious repercussions for filing like frivolous lawsuits that are meant to chill like public speech.

36:10Ben Meiselas:And so anyway, Trump files this$10 billion lawsuit. BBC, we've been reporting about a little bit, but now things are really heating up. BBC files a motion to dismiss. They also propound lots of discovery, meaning they send requests. Okay, you're claiming$10 billion. Show us the money that you've lost. We want to know because it seems like you've made billions of dollars, you know, grifting in the White House. Where have you lost all of this money? Show us. And also, we want all of your communications regarding J6. You know, that was never turned over to the J6 committee or anybody else. So you sued us in your personal capacity.

36:42Ben Meiselas:We want your cell phone records. We want your text messages. We want your financial records. Those would be the three categories of documents that you need in a case like this. So Trump says, you know what, BBC, here's what I'm going to do to you. We want your documents. Here's 450 discovery requests about BBC. And what BBC says, okay, we expect that. That's litigation. Here you go. Here's 55 ,000 documents that are responsive. Here's our privilege log where we log everything that we don't turn over if we assert a privilege. You've got our records. This is what you do in litigation. Now can we see yours?

37:17Ben Meiselas:Uh, no, no. And then BBC files a motion to dismiss. You know what Trump does? Doesn't file an opposition. And so the judge is like, uh, you're going to file an opposition there, buddy? you're in court. Should I just dismiss your case or should I sanction you? Or are you going to file an opposition to the motion to dismiss? Then Trump's lawyers go, sorry, he's just so busy being the president. He's got this war in Iran and things are so difficult. Can we just continue this while we fight over discovery? And the judge is now like having to decide like, what do I do? They didn't even respond and file an opposition to like the motion to dismiss.

37:53Ben Meiselas:And then the BBC he's like motion to compel, turn over your records and documents to which Trump's like, why would we do that? It's overbroad. And then Trump does the ultimate Trump thing. And I'll throw it over to you, Popak, because isn't this just every one of his damn cases attacks the judge and says, judge, you need to disqualify yourself. And we shouldn't be able to even deal with any of these issues until you disqualify yourself because you're unfair to me. And the judge is like denied. Okay. Now what are we going to do with all of this stuff, Donald Popak? Let Let me bring in. And again, this is not this is where I go.

38:27Ben Meiselas:Ain't a Democrat thing. Ain't a Republican thing. This is a grown up thing. OK. And I shouldn't even say that because kids behave better than this. They do their homework on time or else they get an F. You do your thing or you don't bring the thing. No one forced him to file this lawsuit. And it's stuff like this that just makes me so damn embarrassed right now that the country is being led by someone who's such an idiot and is so incompetent and can't make basic deadlines and just behaves this way. Sorry, Popak, all you. Oh, no, don't be sorry.

38:59Michael Popok:I said in my I did my reporting on this on Legal F YouTube channel. I said you can pick your courthouse. You can try to pick your judge. You can pick your lawsuit that you're going to file and the amount that you're going to demand. You can pick your defendant, but you can't pick your defendant's defenses. And you can't tell them what they can and cannot litigate over in a case for defamation. See, Donald Trump's lawyers want to make the case, a very narrow one, about a little two-minute clip or a 10-minute clip where they, the BBC, edited the ellipse speech. An ellipse speech that was live-streamed in its entirety by dozens and dozens of channels.

39:45Michael Popok:Not ours, but, you know, C-SPAN to Fox showed the ellipse speech. BBC was doing a documentary, and in the documentary, about a relatively infamous speech, did some editing of it, and Donald Trump didn't like the impression it led people. Put him in a false light. It was defamatory, trying to make money by making it look like I led an insurrection. And I didn't. Well, there's a couple of ways to defend yourself if you've been accused of defamation. One of them is to show that it's not defamatory because the gist, the thrust of what you've said, which here is not even what they've said. It's about what Donald Trump said.

40:30Michael Popok:And it's about their editing about it. The gist and the thrust is still truthful and accurate. And the other way to defend it is just directly, right between the eyes, truth. And they're going that route as well. And they've told Donald Trump in discovery and the court that we, our defense in part, is going to be the Donald Trump's insurrectionist and that he led the insurrection. And that is a – because he wants me to only focus on the clip doesn't mean I get to abandon my defenses or he gets to dictate my defenses. And we need to prove the Gen 6 case literally in a courtroom. Donald Trump doesn't like it because he opened up Pandora's box and the toothpaste is all out of the tube and the train has left the station and all the milk is spilled.

41:20Michael Popok:And now he doesn't know what to do because their lawyers are not that bright because they it's easy. Any monkey in a keyboard can type up a lawsuit and file it and put a giant number, all caps and bolded to get the shiny object for the mainstream media. 10 billion, 50 billion, 40 billion. Let me just, a teachable moment, you don't have to put any dollar amount, and 99 % of the time you don't put any dollar amount in your pleading. You only do it for the sensationalism of the press. You just have to put the jurisdictional amount in controversy, which in a federal court is 75 ,000. They put the big numbers so that the press will run with it and distract from the lack of merit of the case.

42:08Michael Popok:Okay. So they, now we're in that period that I think people around the country and around the world enjoy from our politics, which is discovery. It's unlike a lot of different states, a lot of different countries, civil code countries in particular, the judge does a lot of investigating. The judge does a lot of prosecuting, but we don't do that here. The judge is a neutral who allows the parties through the adversary process of being at each other's throats and in the document and informational exchange to have the judge, or if there's a jury involved, the jury as a fact finder, find out what happened in the case and make a ruling and apply the law to those facts.

42:52Michael Popok:That's different than in other countries. And here, the BBC is saying, all right, We tried the apology route, and that didn't work. We apologized for the clip. He didn't like the clip. We apologized about it. No, you want to sue us for$50 billion? Okay, here we go. Now, in there, here's the complaining. This is Donald Trump. He's whining like a stuck president. Here's what he says about the 126 requests for production, 126 categories of documents that the BBC is seeking, Along, in addition to the 47 subpoenas to third parties, including trying to get the Jan 6 committee's documents and Jack Smith's documents and financial documents from banks and from Donald Trump's organizations.

43:39Michael Popok:And then a little something that doesn't get enough coverage, and I used it successfully in my career. 152 requests for admission, which are not technically discovery, but they also flip attorney's fees on their head. If you deny a request for admission that you should have admitted, the other side gets attorney's fees for having to prove that you lied and you didn't tell the truth in your request for admission. And here's how Donald Trump describes the document request and the attack that he's under of his own making. Page three, plaintiff states that defendants are attempting to distort the allegations in the complaint in order to unnecessarily expand the scope of discovery into a sweeping inquiry into Jan 6th.

44:22Michael Popok:Yeah. Post-election challenges, government investigations, congressional productions, call logs, calendars, and unrelated litigation, thereby needlessly increasing the cost of the litigation. No, this is their defense. Then they go through the categories to try to prove to the court and us that they're being they're being harassed. Listen to these documents, Ben. All documents and communications about your claim that you did not call for violent action on Jan 6th. All documents and communication you provided to the House Jan 6 Committee. All documents you provided to Homeland Security about Jan 6th.

45:01Michael Popok:To Special Counsel Jack Smith about Jack Smith. To any federal, state, or local agency about Jan 6th. While you're at it, why don't you give us your call logs for the President of the United States from November 3rd to January 20th, 2021, along with your calendar schedules and daily diaries. And then as to the speech, give us everything you got about the speech, including drafts and your communications with any of the following people. Here we go. We could all do this together. Steve Bannon, Christina Bob, a lawyer. Jeffrey Clark, used to be a lawyer. John Eastman, used to be a lawyer. Boris Epstein, a lawyer.

45:41Michael Popok:Michael Flynn, pardoned. Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer, was a lawyer. Others, Stephen Miller, Kelly Ward, Roger Stone. And they don't like that. and the other 47 subpoenas. And they don't like the other, their objection to interrogatories. You got requests to produce, which is documents and information, digital or otherwise. Interrogatories are questions and answers under oath. It's a question I get, you can do it in deposition, but you often take advantage of being able to ask questions under oath in interrogatories to get the answers. And here's the two they don't like from the Trump side. Identify all persons with whom you've communicated regarding any aspect of your Jan 6 Stop the Steal rally, including planning the event and discussions about the event after the fact.

46:35Michael Popok:Identify all persons with whom you've communicated regarding your efforts to challenge or your disagreements with or the validity of the 2020 presidential election, including the certification on Jan 6th. They don't like all this stuff besides missing deadlines and asking for extensions because, judge, we're just a little shop in Coral Gables, Florida, and we've got a trial up in Palm Beach County unrelated. We need more time. What did they think when they filed the lawsuit? They're just going to dust off one of their templates. states donald trump called up the lawyer in florida and said hey just off another 50 10 billion dollar the one model mike use the michael cohen model no use the use the washington post model no use the they're all losing they're all losers you know and he thought he was going to file the southern district of florida he'd get a judge that was on his side but judge altman has already chastised that those lawyers a number of times for missing deadlines and failing to respond to things like motions to dismiss.

47:37Michael Popok:And so, you know, this is the law of unintended consequences or just stupidity. I mean, you every time, one of the, if you want people go back six years to when you and I started this, we would often say that Donald Trump, by filing as a plaintiff in a lawsuit, has entered a world of hurt. May not be at the moment he files it, but at some point, because he's going to have to sit for a deposition. If you're going to be a plaintiff, you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. You can't turn down a demand for a deposition under oath. In fact, you and I have often said, let's do those first. I'm not even sure I need documents.

48:19Michael Popok:I mean, they don't need documents either, by the way. I would just be like, let's have a deposition of Donald Trump right now. There's enough in the public domain between the Jan 6th committee and Jack Smith's report. I'm not sure, other than they want to drive him crazy, I'm not sure they need it other than about his finances. Sit down, Mr. Trump. Swear yourself in with the court reporter. What's your address? Where do you live? What's your title? What do you do? Let's turn to Jan 6th. Let's play the ellipse speech in its entirety. Who'd you talk? Every question they ask in interrogatory, you do it in depo.

48:53Michael Popok:Boom, boom, boom, right? You do it. And he can't go anywhere. And that is what we've said will be his undoing, because we've seen him in depositions. They're terrible for him. This shambolic, dissembling, mumbling, attacking the lawyer. If it's a woman, it becomes a misogynist attack on the woman. Hell, he used the C word against Robbie Kaplan in a deposition about E. Jean Carroll in a sex abuse case where he literally spelled out C-U-N-T on the way out of a deposition term. So he does not do well in his own depositions or in his own defense. E. Jean Carroll case for sex abuse, case one, he doesn't testify,$5.5 million.

49:45Michael Popok:Case two, he testifies$183 million. I mean,$83 million. So that is the secret strategy that defendants should use more against him. Get him in the chair fast. And you don't have to wait till the end of the case.

50:04Ben Meiselas:You know, and the broader point to make when we cover something like this is this is how he runs everything into the ground. It's not just his litigation, it's his businesses. It's why so many of them went bankrupt. And it's what he's doing with the United States. The parallels here are so on point with rushing into a war, no plan, getting the headline, not actually following through, attacking this, attacking that, without any plan or objective. And when someone fights back, he then backs down. Inevitably, I can easily predict what happens in this lawsuit next. What happens in this lawsuit next is a judge will make an order.

50:53Ben Meiselas:You've got to produce the records. Then BBC will do a deposition notice and notice his deposition as well. He won't produce the documents. He'll ask for extensions. He won't show up to the deposition. Eventually, the judge will do an order to show cause why the case should not be dismissed. He'll ask for an extension. He'll ask for an extension. He'll try to drag this into what, by the way, parallel to this, we'll be going through 60-day periods of time in the memorandum of understanding where he'll violate the MOU, he'll violate the MOU. These all take the same types of paths. It's his psychotic nature.

51:35Ben Meiselas:They all go in this path. It's just obvious. And then eventually, finally, the judge will say, all right, man, that's it. What are you going to do? Because I'm going to dismiss it on such and such a date. Trump and his lawyers will dismiss the case without prejudice. So they'll go, oh, it wasn't really dismissed. And they'll attack the judge and say it was unfair. And then maybe they try to bring the case again in a different court or a different, you know, or we reserve the right to bring it again somewhere else. And it was very unfair. And this was a democratic judge who hates it. It is very obvious where these things go.

52:11Ben Meiselas:And, you know, as I've said before, I mean, you know, if you have a vexatious litigant, horrible person, they need to be dealt with by the legal system. The big problem here is that this is this guy is running the country and we have to be. And I know you are for watching and listening to this. we have to respect ourselves and our families and our future generations and our time and meaning and existence and that of others as well. We have to appreciate that more by not having actual, and I'm not being hyperbolic, actual psychopathic losers running the country. J.D. Vance would be significant.

52:56Ben Meiselas:Don't get me wrong. I despise J.D. He would be better than this guy. You know, anybody would be better. I mean, George W. Bush looks like a godsend compared to this guy. And I despise George W. Bush. You know, I mean, I'm talking about threshold doing things. And Trump is the worst person in the worst moment because exactly how he behaves in this case is how he behaves in everything in life. And it is a path towards bankruptcy and losing. And I don't want to be a loser. I know you don't want to be a loser. You know, and I'm sick and tired of people out there who have such hate in their heart that they're willing to be such a loser because the guy goes up there and says the most racist and vile thing, just shut up, man.

53:45Ben Meiselas:Care about yourself. Care about your family. Care about future generations. And this lawsuit to me is so emblematic of not a Democrat, Republican, of a loser thing, of loser behavior, of psychopathic behavior, of vexatious behavior, of bad faith behavior. Anyway, we'll take our last quick break of the show. A reminder, make sure you subscribe to Popoc's YouTube channel Legal AF. Just search Legal AF on YouTube. The channel just hit 5.2 million views every 48 hours. That big milestone there, 1.15 million subscribers. It's critical that we get that Legal AF YouTube channel to 2 million subscribers heading into 2027.

54:28Ben Meiselas:So please make sure you subscribe to Substack as well. Make sure you subscribe to Legal AF on the Substack. And if you or somebody who has been injured in an auto accident, trucking accident, if you've been the victim, sadly, of a catastrophic incident or somebody else was catastrophically injured. That's the type of case that Popak handles wrongful death, sexual assault, injuries that result in kind of long-term permanent injuries. You know, we've had a lot of legal efforts who have trusted Popak with their case. So call 877-POPAK-AF or visit thepopakfirm.com. They're available 24 seven to take your call 877-POPAK-AF or visit thepopakfirm.com.

55:09Ben Meiselas:When we come back, we're going to talk about some of these Supreme court rulings and we'll talk about the other$10 billion case that's backfiring in Donald Trump's face, the petulant baby in the Oval Office or whatever you want to call that grotesque structure right now that he's destroyed in D.C. It's horrible. We'll be right back after our last quick break.

55:31Michael Popok:We have an important message to share from our friends at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The Trump administration's excessive Christian nationalist rhetoric is only building as we move toward the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. AU is highlighting a case involving federal workers caught in the crossfire. A multi-faith group of federal employees filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violating the separation of church and state and the religious freedom promised in our Constitution. Americans United received emails from multiple USDA employees saying the proselytizing Easter email sent by Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins to more than 100 ,000 USDA employees is an abuse of power that violates the separation of church and state promised in the First Amendment.

56:24Michael Popok:They are absolutely right. Government employees signed up to work for the USDA, not attend Brooke Rollins' Sunday service. The Constitution draws a bright line between personal faith and government power, and this lawsuit says she trampled right over it. Well, the hits keep on coming from this administration, and Americans United is doing their best to keep up the fight against Christian nationalism. If you want to help, head to au.org slash legal AF to learn more about their work and how you can get involved. Americans united, supporting everyone's right to live as they choose, so long as they don't harm others.

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58:42Ben Meiselas:Welcome back to Legal AF. Thank you to all of our sponsors for making this show possible. Support our sponsors. Discount codes are in the description below. Popak and Jordy spend a lot of time with those sponsors, working on those discount codes. And so we appreciate their support. Again, check them out. It's great stuff and helps the show. Let's get into it, Popak. Why don't you jump in and talk about Judge Brinkema, the proceedings taking place in Virginia regarding this slush fund,$1.8 billion for the J6 insurrectionists, but also let's not fall for the distraction aspect that's important and disgusting, but also it's the super pardon of Donald Trump having his own DOJ and Treasury Department and IRS give him full immunity from any audits or investigations into criminal tax evasion or whatever that dates back from the signing of the agreement basically forever back in time, which could not just be hundreds of millions, but potentially billions of dollars based on all the quid pro quos he's entered into, you know, with all of these foreign countries and crypto and all the stuff he's done since he's been in office, which has just been absolutely violent, disgusting.

59:53Ben Meiselas:And then you have on a kind of parallel track, if you will, proceedings in Florida, which is where Trump originally filed the collusive lawsuit against his own government to try to get$10 billion of our taxpayer money and then dismiss the case, lied to Judge Williams, who's the federal judge in that case, and didn't disclose that there was a settlement, but then use the case and the judge's initials in the settlement agreement that was actually just a declaration of settlement that was signed only by Todd Blanche, with a day later the addendum, which was the super pardon, waiving all of Donald Trump's tax liability and tax immunity and giving him essentially tax immunity.

1:00:37Ben Meiselas:And now the proceedings there, despite Trump dismissing it, are reinstituted after, you mentioned some of those federal judges filed a brief to the federal judge here, retired federal judges to the current federal judge, informing her of the fraud on the court taking place, to which, surprise, surprise, Donald Trump's lawyer's response has been to attack the judge, citing separation of powers. Judge, you can't question us. How dare you even think about asking if we entered into a collusive settlement? Stay in your lane, federal judge. Great work, United States Supreme Court right wing fascists for totally undermining our rule of law.

1:01:17Ben Meiselas:And it pains me as a law professor who teaches this to see how these rulings by the Supreme Court, which we'll talk about in a little bit, their most recent ones, they trickle down, obviously, and they create a situation that, you know, the rules are for thee. There are other litigants, but not for me when it comes to Donald Trump, who goes in there with his absolute immunity. and it reminds me when I was a kid and you had Game Genie, that's an old school reference, the people who have the Nintendo, and you have Invincibility Cloak, and you just go around the boards like you don't even have to follow any of the rules.

1:01:50Ben Meiselas:But in this case, you're not winning Super Mario, you're destroying the United States of America on its 250th. Pol Pot, let's get into it, man.

1:01:57Michael Popok:Many of the cases that you and I talked about today also have another context. They're going to be used against Todd Blanche because they indicate the corruption of the Department of Justice and the corruption of the nominee, not just being the former, I can think of many former private lawyers who then become honest civil and public servants, especially when they move into the Department of Justice. We've never had a case where the president has not only brought along his entire criminal defense team and given them all cushy top jobs in his administration and particularly the Department of Justice, and if not there, in the judiciary, because he's been placing all of his criminal defense lawyers in these lifetime appointed federal judge positions.

1:02:47Michael Popok:You know, one law firm alone in New York, Sullivan and Cromwell, which is where a number of these U.S. attorneys and the future director of national intelligence all come from. there's like three or four lawyers that work. It's like the only, it's the only big law firm in New York that was willing to take on Donald Trump's matters and look how they're reaping the benefits of it now. But Todd Blanchett is going to have to answer for many of these cases that you and I have talked about today and the position taking. But Emmett Sullivan says, Judge Emmett Sullivan says in Katie Fang's case, that the Department of Justice's attorney general has conceded violations of the Epstein Act in this case and enters a preliminary injunction.

1:03:29Michael Popok:When Judge Williams in Miami, another judge in Miami, who is seriously considering opening an evidentiary hearing, a trial, if you will, about whether Donald Trump and his lawyers and Todd Blanche and others in the cabinet conspired to commit a fraud on the court about this IRS Jan 6 fund. That's in Miami. And, you know, she just, just to touch on that for a minute, and I know that judge really well, she just told 23 Democratic attorneys general who wanted to also file an Amici brief, a friend of the court brief, about how unlawful what they observed was happening in that case is, the judge said, greatly appreciate the filing.

1:04:16Michael Popok:I've got what I need. and when she says I got, I can translate that for you. I got what I need in terms of legal briefing from the 35 former federal judges is I've got the briefing. What I need is the facts and I haven't gotten them from the Blanche side about whether a conspiracy to defraud my court occurred. The only way a judge can do fact finding is to hold an evidentiary hearing or trial and get Todd Blanche to testify. And if he doesn't do it, which is unlikely that he will, you'd rather lose than testify. We've seen that time and time again. That'll be fair game for the Sheldon White Houses and the Cory Bookers and the Senator Blumenthal's and the others on the Senate Judiciary Committee who have to cross-examine Todd Blanche.

1:05:04Case in point, Judge Brinkema,

1:05:07Michael Popok:because the JAD6 fund and Donald Trump and Blanche have been whipsawed between two federal judges. And when they say one thing in one court, it gets used against them in the other, usually because they're inconsistent in their position taking. But Judge Brinkema, who's an Eastern District of Virginia judge, senior status judge, she made it quite simple. She said, all right, you want to get rid of the Jan 6 fund. You want to say that the settlement agreement that created it is over basic contract principles. See, a settlement agreement is a contract. It's analyzed under basic contract principles that Ben and I learned, even with the lack of technology apparently that I had.

1:05:47Michael Popok:Apparently I learned it according to Ben by candlelight. But in any event, I did have a computer, Ben, in law school. But the contract principles say, all right, if parties do a contract want to amend, rescind, do what's called a novation of a contract, all the parties have to sign. Instead, we had Todd Blanche not only not put it in writing, in the courtroom under oath, but not even put it in writing anywhere. They just want the judge, because one party to the agreement, he wasn't even really a party to the agreement, declared the agreement over the settlement agreement and the fund is dead on arrival.

1:06:31Michael Popok:That doesn't do it in a court of law, as Judge Brinkham has reminded them. You want to prove it to me, we're in a courtroom, look around. See the wood paneling and the leather chairs, see my robe, we're in a courtroom. Don't point to me to social media posts or video clips or even congressional testimony. Put your money where your mouth is. And I want all the contracting parties, not just one that says unilaterally, I'm walking away from the contract. I want them all. If you want to do that, you'll never see me again. You'll never see me again in this case. I'll relinquish jurisdiction. I won't provide oversight.

1:07:05Michael Popok:I won't continue to block the formation of the fund. Just give me an affidavit. That's all she said. Give it to me by the state certain. You'll never see me again. Or if you're not going to do that, that's okay too. File your response in writing in this courtroom in July, and we'll put this case in a trial docket. And the injunction stays in place in the meantime. In fact, Sky Perryman for Democracy Forward, it's her group that brought the Brinkhamit case. And I got Sky for an interview on Monday. of Ron Legal AF YouTube channel to update our audience about this. So instead of doing one or the other, leave it to the Trump administration to come up with their own way that's infinitely worse than if they just shut the F up, to paraphrase Robert De Niro, and didn't say anything.

1:07:54Michael Popok:So instead they created a third way, a third piece of paper, a notice, okay? Let's read it. Judge, you can't tell us what to do. separation of powers. It was all word salad, you know, without any citations. You can't command and compel three cabinet level people to give testimony in a courtroom. No, you just need to trust us and the statement that was made by Todd Blanche and officers of the court. The reality is federal judges don't trust the Department of Justice, no longer give them the benefit of the doubt or the benefit of the presumption of regularity, and believe that it's the old joke.

1:08:41Michael Popok:How do you know when the Department of Justice is not telling the truth when they're in court? Their lips move when they speak. That's how you know. And so judges are not trusting them. So every judge you and I have reported on that is trying to fact find about the Trump administration requires filings and testimony, but they don't want to. So they usually blink and flinch and dismiss, but they don't have a choice here. So the judge said, all right, I see what you filed. I didn't tell you to file that, but you've chosen to. So let me hear. So here's my response. And she issued her order. In her order, she said, the more you tell me that you do not want to put this in writing under oath in my courtroom, the more I believe that you are reluctant, and therefore you're just trying to get away from my jurisdiction by saying that you are reluctantly dismissing the Jan 6th fund or not going forward with it.

1:09:41Michael Popok:And there's a doctrine in the law, the reluctant party doctrine or the voluntary cessation doctrine, which is sort of what it sounds like. You get caught doing something bad. You're in a lawsuit now, right? Bright lights are on you. Can't go anywhere. And you go, oh, I'll stop doing it. I'll stop doing that thing. But you're not really interested in stop doing it. You just want to get the judge to dismiss your case. And so even if you voluntarily stop the bad thing, it doesn't mean the lawsuit is over. And that is that voluntary cessation doctrine or the reluctant party. And she points to clips of, to turn it back on him, Todd Blanche and clips of Donald Trump, where Todd Blanche in his other testimony said, I think it's a great fund and it serves a good purpose, but we're not going forward with it.

1:10:33Michael Popok:And Donald Trump saying out loud, I think it's a beautiful, everything's beautiful about an insurrection. I think it's a beautiful fund. I think we should go forward with it. And the judge says, right, you're only stopping the bad thing to get out from my jurisdiction, which only reinforces my decision that I'm retaining jurisdiction. See you next month, gentlemen, with your filing. I'm not sure there's much they can do about it on appeal at the moment. You know, all these ventral, these roads lead to the United States Supreme Court. But what I love about the Brinkema-Williams sort of call and response between the two federal judges is it's putting so much pressure.

1:11:08Michael Popok:And when you pressurize Trump and his beleaguered, gassed Department of Justice, they say and do crazy shit that gets used against them. It's just so the more you and that that's what I love about our platform and our network and our channels is that we channeling the millions, you know, approaching 10 million if you combine the two channels of our audience. And we train it with a heavy artillery pressure, pressurizing the Trump administration who knows full well who Midas is, who knows full well who Legal AF is. It's not just judges that are watching us and concerned patriots. It's the administration.

1:11:53Michael Popok:And we are pressurizing them and they are making mistakes under pressure.

1:12:00Ben Meiselas:You know, also what Legal AF, I mean, I've talked about the growth of it. Everybody, make sure you subscribe to the Legal AF YouTube channel and Substack, but also, I mean, being the kind of voice and the main network now for the Judge Ludig's promoting Katie Fang and the work that she's doing, the ACLU, all of these groups, Popak. Why don't you give a shout out just so people know what we'll talk about to all these groups that are actually the ones litigating in court, their main place of getting out information is legal AF. I mean, talk to us about some of the other people who constantly appear on legal AF.

1:12:35Michael Popok:That's the real fun part of the job that you and I do in the build of legal AF. I mean, we could have just made it, well, Popak will do commentary all day long. But that was not our vision. Our vision was to be a trusted brand for the, and so here are the groups that are regularly with us and even official collaborators with us. The 24 Democratic Attorneys General regularly appear with us. Rob Bonta's interview is up right now with me from California. It's up on Legal AF YouTube channel today. And I often go to their conferences and whole panel discussions with them. Democracy Forward and Skye Perryman, who has over 100 cases against the Trump administration and is regularly winning.

1:13:14Michael Popok:They're at almost a 90 % winning percentage. Skye comes on and do exclusive briefing about cases like the Brinkham case that we just discussed. The American Civil Liberties Union is a branded collaborator with us with their own playlist. And if it's not me or one of our others on the channel, like Adam Klassfeld of All Rise News, it's them doing their own reporting about their cases that are so, so important. So we've got the American Civil Liberties Union. I regularly interview people and lawyers for the NAACP. We're sort of working with them as well. We've got Court Accountability Action, along with True North, which is about rooting out corruption in the federal courts up to the United States Supreme Court.

1:13:57Michael Popok:That's all they focus on. We've got Court of History, our resident historians, Sidney Blumenthal, who was in the Clinton White House, and Sean Wilentz of Princeton University. I mean, their guest list alone of journalists and politicians is unmatched on YouTube right now. Seriously, just their playlist is so enjoyable. I joke with them that they're like murders in the building, but history, politics and law. And so you have that. You got Dina Dahl is with me doing shows. You've got Adam Klassfeld of All Rise News. I mean, that is our regular contributor list. That's every day. That's how we can crank out 12 fresh videos every day.

1:14:46Ben Meiselas:Because this is a generational project, right? This is, we're talking about what's happening on a day to day, but really what we have to look and do is what pro-democracy law and order people were outflanked by this kind of right-wing fascist movement that then found its final, you know, dagger in the heart of democracy in Project 2025. But it was a decades-long generational project. We have to do that. We have to address short-term, but then long-term because let's face it, we still have a right-wing fascist Supreme Court right now that hates America, that hates this country and watches The Handmaid's Tale and says, not extreme enough.

1:15:27Ben Meiselas:We got to go push further. How could we harm people even more than what we see. Oh, let's give immunity to glyphosate. Let's, I mean, you take a look, I'll play us out with just these rulings that were just made this past week by the United States Supreme Court with mostly six to three or seven to two, but all right wing, you know, pretty much right wing Supreme Court rulings. So you've got, you know, the Monsanto versus Durnell case, The court ruled that Monsanto, that's Roundup, Bayer, is shielded from cancer victims suing over Roundup. Federal pesticide law blocks states from requiring cancer warnings on labels.

1:16:17Ben Meiselas:RFK kind of made his whole career over working with plaintiff's lawyers in states to sue Monsanto and Roundup. That's what that's how RFK, you know, one made a lot of money. But to his whole Maha thing was going after Monsanto. Well, the Trump regime, RFK, they did the amicus brief on the side of Monsanto, on the side of the corporations to allow for there to be immunity of glyphosate. And so now you can't sue them for causing cancer and from causing all of these things. And so federal law preempts state law right there. Wolford versus Lopez, six to three decision. The court struck down Hawaii's law requiring permission to bring guns into private property that is open to the public like stores, restaurants and hotels.

1:17:07Ben Meiselas:Hawaii said, you know what? We have an issue with guns and gun violence. You know, we're for Second Amendment, but we kind of keep it away or have a permission structure for bringing these on to stores, restaurants, hotels. Can we do that? The Supreme Court said, no, people need to have their war weapons, not just, you know, concealed carry. I mean, they are they're allowed to bring it into your rest. You can't say they can't bring it into restaurant stores and hotels. Well, that's kind of a problem for our tourism in Hawaii. You know, we're trying to, you know, pass laws for we don't care. Have you read the Second Amendment?

1:17:47Ben Meiselas:Yeah, I did. I mean, it says a well-regulated militia. Stop saying it says regulated. Yeah, it says regulated in it. There's commas. The commas mean it doesn't apply. Why, what commas mean, the words well-regulated militia don't mean things. And yes, trust us. Why? Because these right-wing Supreme Court justices are sociopaths. And they come up and make framework like we're strict textualists, except when the text contradicts them. We're states' rights until they want a fascist authoritarian. We're originalists until the original interpretations. They make up their framework to come up with these fascist rulings.

1:18:22Ben Meiselas:Mullen versus El Otrolado. asylum seekers stopped at the border or turned back in Mexico. The court says you haven't arrived in America yet when you arrive in America. So there's no right to apply for asylum. You turn around. And even if you're about to be politically persecuted and killed, let it happen, folks, because you're not really in America and you can seek asylum. And then Mullen versus Doe, another right wing Supreme Court six to three decision. The right wing Supreme Court rules that the Trump administration can end temporary protected status for migrants fleeing violence and natural disasters in Haiti and Syria, and that courts cannot review the federal government's decisions regarding TPS.

1:19:06And then I've heard some people say, well, what if there's a Democratic

1:19:10Ben Meiselas:administration who wants to install TPS? Well, then won't this right-wing Supreme Court, didn't they just screw themselves by saying that they can't even review what the administration does regarding TPS? And my answer to you is no, this is a right-wing, they'll find where they're sociopaths, they're crazy people. They come up with a framework that will contradict the framework now. So trust me, if there's a democratic president who then tries to say, okay, well, we're going to be compassionate, use your precedent in order to now assert these rules. Then all of a sudden, all of these cases that the Supreme Court is now like, you know, saying, well, we'll agree to Donald Trump's interpretation of irreparable harm, and we'll let the Trump policy stay in place.

1:19:56Ben Meiselas:The Supreme Court will then accept those cases. Here's my prediction. And it's a grim one, but it's the reality on a fast track if you have a Democratic president. And then the Supreme Court will be like, OK, OK, we've seen what's taken place now. And now there's too much executive power. So now we're going to place limitations on the executive when the Democratic president is doing it. The same way, as I've said before in videos, isn't it interesting that right now, I'm, I guess, happy, although we shouldn't have been in this catastrophic war in the first place, that the price of Brent crude is like 72 bucks, despite the fact that for all purposes, you know, the ceasefires BS, the MOUs BS, there's more, you know, military actions taking place.

1:20:39Ben Meiselas:I looked under the Biden administration, you know, like a random date in 2023 when Brent crude was at like$92. And I'm like, that's fascinating to me that the so-called markets found there to be far much more uncertainty in 2023, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine in like mid to late 20, than right now when the literal Strait of Hormuz is basically has been shut down for months and months and months and we hit tank bottom. That's a fascinating thing right there because the markets think that it's going to, that this will, that the Strait of Hormuz situation is going to be perfectly fine. And I go, look, all I know is things have escalated in the war between Ukraine, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, what's going on there.

1:21:23Ben Meiselas:I see more oil depots being blown up there every day. The Strait of Hormuz is closed. The Babel Mondib Strait may soon be shut down if things escalate as well. I mean, that's been threatened. But yet, you know, it just seems to me obvious that to the extent that I'll end it on this, Popak, and if you, you know, I think it's a natural point to end this episode on in general, though, is that to the extent there's been any positive things coming out of this Trump regime, it's that Trump is so blatantly corrupt that I think it's allowed us to kind of see the playbook and the roadmap. You know, it's like if the football coach or the opposing team showed you their play cards or whatever it is, here are the plays.

1:22:06Ben Meiselas:Like, I get to see them in a clearer way. And I think that a lot of us go, oh, that's how you were doing it. That's how you were doing it. That's how you were doing it. That's how you were doing it. You know, and how did we not see that before? We knew it was going on. But it is fascinating to me that the guy who said, you know, we're going to be the ones to stop the cabal and the deep state and all of this. As always, it's always projection and they reveal themselves. This is what's going on. This is what the Epstein class has done to us behind the scenes. And to me, you know, it's not even conspiratorial saying that.

1:22:38Ben Meiselas:I think that's where we're at. Popak, any final words before we go other than to say great work with Legal AF YouTube channel, Substack. Everybody subscribe there. Let's keep on fighting, man. What else do you want to say, Popak? Obviously, subscribe to his YouTube channel. Subscribe to the Legal AF Substack. If you or someone who has been injured in a car accident, trucking accident, catastrophic injury, reach out to the Popak Firm, 877-POPAK-AF. Consultation's free, thepopakfirm.com. Go there as well if you prefer to send an email. Popak, where do you want to go before we end the show?

1:23:10Michael Popok:Yeah, I'm going to do it consistent with what you just said. Two things that I want people to take away from this episode. One is to manage some expectations. We're going to get some rulings probably this week. Could be into the Fourth of July weekend, but I think it'll be this week for the United States Supreme Court. We're waiting on 14 more decisions, but particularly we're waiting on birthright citizenship. I believe that's going to be something that's going to be favorable. In other words, they're not going to allow Donald Trump to take away the right for somebody born in the United States to be an American citizen.

1:23:41Michael Popok:Mail-in ballots, though, we're waiting on about what they're going to do there. We're waiting on Donald Trump's ability to fire at will agency heads within the executive branch and undermine the integrity or the independence of the Federal Reserve, all left for the last week before the six MAGA cowards leave for their summer vacation. But I want people to think and use this next week in particular, because we'll be doing a show right in that next weekend, but plan now to do some sort of personal counter-programming to celebrate America, to celebrate the America that you love and the values and the patriotic values that you admire that are missing from this current government.

1:24:28Michael Popok:There's going to be plenty of ways to do appropriate counter-programming to all of the propaganda that Donald Trump is spewing out as he's captured America and its birthday celebration for its Declaration of Independence. Midas will be doing counter-programming. Legal AF will be doing counter-programming. And now is a good time as we gather ourselves. It's hard to believe we're here in July already. July 4th weekend, as we get ready for the November elections. It used to be back in the day before you and I started doing what we're doing, Ben, that people would say, nobody pays attention to politics during the summer.

1:25:12Michael Popok:It's after Labor Day. Those days are over. Now we have to use this time to renew our faith in our democracy and our rule of law, stay together as a community and a fellowship, and use next weekend as a personal protest and counter-programming, not to America, but to the Trump regime and its attempt to hijack our values while they're in office.

1:25:58Ben Meiselas:and watchers. All right. Have a great weekend, everybody. Let's keep on fighting. Stay strong. Stay positive. I know it's hard, but we're in this together. We're fighting back. We have not given up. We have only gone stronger as a community, and we'll keep on getting stronger as a community. Shout out Midas Mighty. Shout out Legal Affairs.