Legal AF 7/15/2026

19:28And so it is a horrible signal that's being sent out to survivors everywhere. And that's why these women who are so courageous, some of them who just came forward after their information was unjustly leaked, I stood with some of them in a press conference I had trying to get them justice and restitution for what they've gone through since their information has been leaked. And so, again, God bless the courage of these women. I'm so grateful for the testimony we're going to hear tomorrow. But this should enrage people that this is a president and an acting attorney general who are showing that, yeah, some people are above the law.

20:14Some people are out of reach. Some people, if you're wealthy and connected, get pardons. Some people get immunity from this Justice Department who are unworthy. If you're really, really rich, you can get your mergers approved. In so many ways, this Justice Department is showing it is on the side of the elected, the connected, and the wealthy, and against people who have been survivors or victims of crime.

20:35Popok:Before I turn it over to Karen, let me play Danny Bensky, because I asked her about the confirmation hearing and if she thought justice would ever be done by this Department of Justice and Todd Blanchett. Let's play the clip. the DOJ. And so when you have somebody like Todd Blanche at the helm of the DOJ, it's hugely

20:54KFA:problematic, right? Like he has the president's best interest. He does not have the American people's best interest at heart. And he's proven that he was in that situation room. He needs to be called in and questioned. He needs to be in front of the oversight committee now to answer, you know, how, like, we also know that he was responsible for so many botched redactions and how this rollout even happened. And botched is like an understatement, by the way. But he's responsible for a lot of this. I mean, Bondi, I'm not letting her off the hook. She definitely had something to do with this too. But we know that Todd Blanche had a lot to do with this.

21:28KFA:And he moved Ghislaine Maxwell. So like, there's so many things here that come back to Blanche. And now he is the nomination. And that's like, he's so unfit to be the acting attorney general of our country. I don't I can't even my words fail me. Yeah.

21:48Popok:Let me turn it over to Karen. Thank you.

21:50KFA:Yeah, I thought it was first of all, thank you so much for being on the show, Senator. And and I really enjoyed watching you question Todd Blanche today. I thought your questions were really incisive and clearly got under his skin, frankly. and I thought what you sort of the contrast in the Epstein case that you showed how you're not willing to meet with the victims but you personally met with Ghislaine Maxwell and right afterwards she gets transferred to this cushy prison you know to a much lower security to a camp basically than she was before. And, you know, I just thought that was a really powerful moment in the hearing that really pointed that out.

22:39KFA:But pivoting to the January 6th slush fund and that whole line of questioning, I thought it was really great that Todd was asked, that Mr. Blanche was asked about the Federal Tort Claims Act and whether or not, you know, kept saying the slush fund, the weaponization fund, whatever you want to call it, is dead. It's not going anywhere. But it was pointed out, right, that there's still this Federal Tort Claims Act. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that and explain that to our audience, because I thought that was such an important, really important thing that people really need to understand.

23:17Well, look, stepping back for a second to what this is all about so your viewers really understand, and really what the federal judge in this case said, is there is an inherent conflict of interest when you bring a case solely trying to create a case in controversy, not for sincere reasons, but you bring a case forward simply because you want to create the opportunity to create a settlement. So it wasn't a legitimate case. They knew that the judge was going to decide against them. They brought forward this case to create the opportunity to settle with themselves. There were no conflicting parties.

23:56They settled with themselves to create and present an opportunity for them to get to the conclusion they wanted, which was to create an unjust slush fund to pay out to people who are political partners of theirs and whatever nefarious means. and to get a liability shield from any tax law as possible. So I'm not sure exactly what point one of my colleagues made about the tort claims, but the fact that he was unwilling to commit to in any way the fact that he did not have a liability shield to me is one of the most disturbing takeaways.

24:37Popok:Yeah, that's one of the things, Senator Booker. Here's my theory. Donald Trump doesn't give a rat's ass about the anti-weaponization fund because they could always pay these people through the back door of the Federal Tort Claims Act. What he cared about was the next day amendment created by Todd Blanche unilaterally with a signature, which created what Jamie Raskin is referred to as the super pardon or Judge Williams is referred to as the release of Donald Trump, his family and affiliates and associates of tax and audit liability and criminal liability. That's all Donald Trump. And you see already, not here, but you see how much your colleagues only focused on the anti-weaponization fund creation and the settlement agreement and did not focus on the thing that Donald Trump, I believe, really covets, which is that release.

25:29In other words, it's the ultimate of the sort of a bait and switch. Right. Let's get everybody riled up about a fund. But the value for his children and for him to be able to escape liability for the things that they are doing. I am confident. I am confident that what we know about, the corruption we know about, is the tip of the iceberg. how many companies now are they consulting with or that they got on the board with that then turn around and get contracts? What are they doing with these ill-gotten gains that they're getting? Do they in any way, in fact, the New York Times already, I think they got a Pulitzer for the prize of tracing all the tax crimes of this family already.

26:21Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had expired. So I agree with you, if that's the point you're making about that they have other remedies in terms of the torturous claims that they can make. But the reality is the big kahuna here is to get that shield from tax liability.

26:43Popok:Absolutely. Let me play the clip for our audience of you taking on Blanche appropriately without Colleen Maxwell, a five-time convicted child sex trafficker. How low Donald Trump must have stumped that he needed a convicted child sex trafficker to vouch for him. Let's play the clip. Well, just one week after your meeting, Ms. Maxwell was transferred from a low-security federal institution to a minimum-security prison camp, were you involved with that transfer? When, as I've talked about before, in the time leading up to me going down to meet with her, we learned that she was receiving threats.

27:27It turned out... I'm going to interrupt you for a matter of time because... Okay, well, it's not a question I can answer, apparently, in the time you're giving me. I'm going to tell you this because I deal with the issues of criminal justice. When people are under threats in a Bureau of Prison facility, they're put into solitary confinement or protected. They're not moved to a camp. That's not always true. What is true is someone that is accused of child sex trafficking under the Bureau of Prison's own policies is not put in a facility like this that seems clearly like a reward.

28:03Popok:there's a there's a i don't know if this is true but there's a rumor out there she has a puppy okay but this is the thing that that really bothers me going back to where you all started which i'm so god bless you for for keeping this centered on the victims here's the absurdity he's telling me i am concerned about glennie maxwell's safety i'm concerned about her well-being god i put her in a place that the bureau of prisons policy say i should never put her in but i'm going this extra mile to protect a five-time convicted sex offender. But oh, oh, I am not going to do jack. I am not going to even meet with the victims to get them the justice they deserve.

28:44It is so profoundly offensive that you would bend over backwards and break DOJ and BOP policy for you're saying for the safety of a sex offender, but you care nothing about the women whose pictures and phone numbers and addresses and privacy you violated. It is so offensive and disqualifying for this man to have sat there today and said that to me. Yeah.

29:17Popok:I mean, your colleague Dick Durbin said, will you commit right now? Well, I have another person. I have a sex crimes person. He, she could, I couldn't, I couldn't meet because how could I meet? They might have lawyers. Like, are you effing, I know you took them on. Are you effing kidding me? You meet with lawyers and clients all the time as prosecutors. Karen's a former number two in the Manhattan DA's office. How many times do you meet with clients along with their lawyers, Karen?

29:41KFA:Yeah, no, of course. I mean, that, that happens all the time. And now as a defense attorney or as a private practice attorney, I also go in with people sometimes to meet with prosecutors. I mean, that is not at all, that's not a reason to not meet with him, but he just didn't want to meet with any of the survivors. And he didn't talk about any of the other investigations or victim, or sorry, perpetrators, right? He didn't talk about any open investigations or that they have this, that they're looking into other perpetrators. And they have those files. I mean, that's what I don't understand is no one has ever suggested that Jeffrey Epstein was the only person who violated these women, right?

30:30KFA:Or these girls. There are other perpetrators. Like, where are those investigations? 1 ,200 people. We know the numbers, the amount of people. And you're telling me you cannot build a case against anyone but these two people. It is stunning. to me. And it should be disqualifying for this individual.

30:51Popok:So Senator Booker, I know you're so generous. I just want to say something because the clip you played of the survivor where she was talking, I think I want your viewers to know when she said the situation room. Remember, just a reminder, it's really important that we now know that they had these strategy sessions where they pulled people in, including to put together a strategy to shield the president from any possible implications in these files. I mean, that tells us all that this was a panicked White House that was taking extraordinary steps to try to protect someone who is in the Epstein file hundreds, if not thousands of times.

31:37And so now we know what our Attorney General, Acting Attorney General, was really focused on. It is this ideal, this metaphor that that attorney general is not the highest law enforcement in the land for the 340 million Americans. He's there to provide a shield to the president and a sword for the president to go after people in unjust persecution and unjust prosecution.

32:01Popok:But for our audience, there's a very good reason that we're trying to get the Democrats to get control of the Senate, because there should be more than one day of a of the. Do you all know that they constantly were chipping away? I was told we have 13 minutes for questioning. Then they came down to 10. Now, 10 minute questioning for confirmation to the highest law enforcement in the land has never been done before. It is unprecedented. It is the shortest amount of questioning time that any nominee for that office has had in modern history because they were so afraid to give us a chance to ask him the full battery of tough questions.

32:42Popok:And to answer the question from our audience, you can't get another day? No, no, we wanted over two days and we obviously wanted a substantive amount of time, especially given the legitimate questioning that is being done by conservatives, Democrats, people across the political spectrum about his performance over his time as deputy attorney general and now as acting attorney down. Do you know who tomorrow's Republican witnesses are? Is it Ashcroft, guys? Is that right? No. I know it's not Ashcroft. I know one person they're having is a survivor of criminal violence by an undocumented immigrant.

33:25I know that's one of them. They're going to try to drive home. What's that? You guys say it. Hoyer? I didn't mean to stump you. I'm sorry. I have the list of witnesses somewhere. I didn't think it was announced yet, but okay. Well, I have the list. I have the list somewhere. Forgive me. I have a lot of reading to do tonight.

33:42Popok:I bet you do. I'm so proud of you. I'm a lifelong resident of New Jersey. Grew up next to Asbury Park, exit 105 in the Garden State. And I really appreciate you being our senior senator from New Jersey. and more importantly, the work that you do on the Senate Judiciary Committee. So important. And hopefully the Democrats get the gavel and we won't ever see this mockery, this sham type of confirmation hearing ever again. I know my audience is very concerned about future Supreme Court nominees and certainly want the Democrats to have the gavel then. Can I just give you a whistle? I hope you'll invite me back on to talk about this.

34:20If the Democratic Party gets control of the House, the Senate, the White House and does not reform the Supreme Court, You do not need a constitutional amendment to put term limits on Supreme Court members. We have jurisdictional, we have oversight. We have the right to curtail the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, dictate the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. So we need to put the highest court in the land should have the highest ethics law, it's not the lowest, and we should have term limits. I hope you and I can talk about that.

34:45Popok:Oh, I would love that. Thank you for that. Thank you for that. And thank you for allowing an outlet for nerds like me everywhere to have a great show that we can listen to. So to all your audience and listeners, thank you for your nerdiest, fastidious attention to the details of how our nation's legal systems work. Our Legal AF audience nerds out with you. Don't worry. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Good luck tomorrow. Thank you very much. Thank you, Senator.

35:13KFA:Thank you for being here. It's all my pleasure. Thank you.

35:17Popok:And thank you to our audience for being here. You're on Legal AF, the podcast. This is the midweek. So many different ways to help us. One of them is to download the audio of this show. That helps. It certainly does. So we gave you a little reminder on how to do that. Legal AF, the YouTube channel that I curate, we put about 10 or 12 videos up every day. We're trying to really build and strengthen our audience free membership over the summer as we turn into November and the midterm. So important to have the largest audience possible at the intersection of law and politics. Legal AF sub stack where I do a live report every day, sometimes with guests, sometimes on my own.

35:58Popok:And then another 10 or 12 pieces of content that I think you'll appreciate, including all of the filings, all of the orders. We talk about Judge Williams' order in Miami. It's there for your reading pleasure. So many different ways to support what we do. And we got sponsors, which have been with us, some of them, from the last six years. Some of them have just newly joined. Jordy puts them together, and Karen and I put our thumbs up. And here's a word from our sponsors. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers and scammers and hackers, but you're not sure what?

36:30Popok:Well, here's what you do. Go to www.joindeleteme.com slash legal AF and enter code legal AF. You'll get 20 % off Delete Me. Delete Me removes your personal information that's being sold online. I Googled myself and I was surprised to find just how much of my personal information was out there. Privacy is really important to me, especially with an active YouTube presence. So I like having a service that helps remove my personal information from hundreds of data broker websites instead of trying to do it myself. It's also reassuring that Delete.me was named the top pick for data removal services by Wirecutter.

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38:38Popok:That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash legal AF. There are so many things I love about being on the Midas Touch network and universe. And one of them is Aisin, who is our clip artist, has already posted not one, but two clips of Cory Booker in the world of social media. They're already going viral. And they just happened. Like, I just saw them like, wow, they're up already? I mean, so, so crazy. How, how delightful was it to have Corey on with us?

39:14KFA:So delightful. First of all, he was a great questioner today. I can't say the same for everybody. But asking questions in fairness is a hard thing to do. As trial lawyers and as people who cross-examine people all the time, it is a hard thing to do. And to only have 10 minutes, I didn't realize they only had 10 minutes per questioner. But he's really smart. He's really thoughtful. And he really asked really important questions that didn't feel like he was just making speeches and performing. He really was asking incisive questions. And then to have him on the show and that he is so delightful and lovely.

39:56KFA:I'm a big fan. You should run for president. I like Corey. I'm a big fan. Big fan.

40:00Popok:I mean, but he's not rescuing people from motor vehicle accidents or giving filibusters that go on for days like Mr. Smith goes to Washington. He's just an all, you know, when you watch him, he's, he's a guy, a person you want to share a beer with, went to Yale law school. He did a hunger strike in order to get, um, to bring attention to, um, urban development and other things in Newark, New Jersey ran for mayor, all that. And, and then of course, he's now the senior Senator after Bob Menendez stole all those gold bars in bribery. He's the senior senator from New Jersey at the age of 57. He really is a gift, a treasure for America.

40:38KFA:He really is. And we're so lucky that he's on our show. I don't know what's happening to the light.

40:44Popok:Make your arms right.

40:46KFA:Yeah, I'm going to have to turn some lights on over here. By the way, I'm only laughing.

40:52Popok:Karen moved into a brand new office and she was really, really psyched about it. But people that know, there we go. People that know me, they've i once had the sun go down i remember i was stuck in an alley of an old law firm that i was with it was the only place i could and i had an extension cord we started the show and the sun literally went down on me as the show continued so listen it's live tv everybody exactly in fact put in comments questions i'm gonna we're gonna answer a few of them in a moment um as we turn to this kind of all confirmation hearing episode, including the director of national intelligence, Jay Clayton, who got tripped up with a third graders question.

41:37Popok:Let me just go through some of the questions here, Karen, that you and I can answer. Brian Quarter says, how can a senator, even a Republican senator, justify voting to confirm a nominee for AG, someone who engaged in fraud on a court and participated in a sham collusive lawsuit referring to Trump versus the Internal Revenue Service and Judge Williams' 56-page order. One programming note, I had an interview today with Judge Michael Luttig, friend of Karen and mine's and of our show. Judge Michael Luttig, who led the 35 judges who supported Judge Williams and filed their motion to get her to render this 56-page decision ultimately.

42:21Popok:He's got some amazing things to say. I'm gonna leave it at that as a little bit of a teaser. He'll be up at 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time on Legal AFU-2. What do you think about that question, Karen?

42:32KFA:Yeah, I mean, you know, it's – you answer it, Popak. You answer it.

42:40Popok:I mean, I think it's a rhetorical question. No, I mean, under any other era. Todd Blanche has more than a dozen black marks against him. Epstein, Jan 6th Weaponization Fund. Vindictive prosecution dismissals, grand jury abuse, the dismissal of indictments by the Department of Justice because they've had to admit to fraud and forgery and false testimony being suborned. Everything about Epstein, Epstein files, the Epstein cover-up, the cover-up of the cover-up. Any one of these black marks, one, a whiff of one would be enough in any other era. But when you have the MAGA cult-like grip that Donald Trump continues to have on the Republicans, even the ones who shouldn't give a shit because they're going to be going to retirement homes next year when they leave, and yet the siren call of Donald Trump pulls them in.

43:40Popok:uh and and this is once again so no the answer is no that in the week leading up to just the week leading up to todd blanche's sitting in that seat you had one judge judge williams say he committed fraud on the court it was deceptive and sent him for a bar discipline which he didn't even which he wouldn't even admit by the way i know you yes you've been referred and use a bar complaint against him anyway by 101 judges that filed the bar complaint in fact i'm having the uh one of the leaders of that organization on with me tomorrow for an interview because it got cited by Judge Williams. It's all very circular here, very incestuous here.

44:18Popok:Judge Williams said, and you're already the subject of bar review, bar complaints in these different jurisdictions. So any one of these things would be a disqualifier. And this is, again, a reminder to our audience is why it's so important that this is a participatory democracy. It's a contact sport. You got to get off the sidelines. You can't just say, I hate both of them. Fuck it. I'm not going to vote because you see what happens. Even if you don't like the candidate, and I don't even know who the candidate's going to be for the Democrats yet, and it's the midterm, it's person by person, right?

44:51Popok:It's the entire House and half the Senate. you have to hold your nose and vote for the rule of law and vote for checks and balances and vote to control an out-of-control president. That's what you're voting for. And we can do it. The power, we, yes, we can, to paraphrase Barack Obama, yes, we can. If you give the Senate gavel over to the Democrats, if you give the House gavel over to the Democrats in the midterms, good things, better things will come out of it. Right, Karen?

45:23KFA:Yeah, including reforms to the Supreme Court, according to Senator Booker.

45:27Popok:I just, you know, it's funny. I texted his comms director person as we were doing it. I said, I'm taking Senator Booker up on that offer. She said, oh, he'd love that. And she already liked the fact that two clips are up in the world about him. Let me see if there's one more question here. Aside from Trump and Blanche, who has the power to send Maxwell back to hard prison? Well, the Bureau of Prisons is under the Department of Justice. Plain and simple.

45:52KFA:By the way, typically the Bureau of Prisons is who decides where a person is housed. It's not the judge. It's not the prosecutor. And I know this because we go through this all the time as a defense attorney or as a prosecutor. You have no control over where someone goes. That is completely up to the Bureau of Prisons. But so the fact that Todd Blanche put his thumb on the scale, because the Bureau of Prisons didn't think to put Ghislaine Maxwell into a camp, right? They didn't decide to do that. This is something Todd Blanche, as the head of the Department of Justice, decided to do.

46:27Popok:and I think she has a puppy. I read that she has a puppy or they bring puppies in. This is a convicted child sex trafficker. I mean, I have a new puppy. I wouldn't put my puppy anywhere near her, let alone the actual quid pro quo. The problem is, I'll just say it now that Senator Booker's gone, other than Senator Booker, Senator Blumenthal, and a couple of other ones like Senator Whitehouse, the questioning got really bogged down. But let me play you, for example, an extraordinary exchange with Senator Whitehouse, who's been on with me before, who was a former U.S. attorney in Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse, about Kash Patel.

47:17Popok:Kash Patel, when Lindsey Graham died, there were two reactions by Todd Blanch and Kash Patel. They were very different. Todd Blanche went, holy shit, I just lost the guy that was going to shepherd me through the process. And Kash Patel was like, because I was getting called into the White House that weekend to probably get fired. And yet there is Todd Blanche defending Kash Patel. Let's play the Sheldon White House, Senator White House clip. How long do you intend to put up with that Kash Patel character? Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he's not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends?

47:56Popok:Are you sure he knows what he's doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee? That's an extraordinarily obnoxious question, Senator, and I have full faith in Director Patel and the work that he's doing every day. Great. You get to own that.

48:14KFA:You get to own that.

48:15Popok:You don't even need the answers to these questions that that it's not an obnoxious question it's a setup for a i thought it was great and i i applaud senator whitehouse as people know i've joked but this is true before he i did an interview with him a week or so ago i said listen you gotta come out with hurting bombs against blanche are you guys ready like you forget about the effing niceties and i played him a clip from Rocky Balboa. Rocky's getting coached about how at 60 years old, how he can defeat this much younger boxer. And it all comes down to, you got to drop hurting bombs. You got to rock him until his ancestors shake.

48:55Popok:And Sheldon laughed. And then I thought it was powerful. But to answer the question that's come up in the chat, Popak and KFA, do you think Blanche gets confirmed? I'm back to where Karen started and where Senator Booker ended, which is I can't find the vote. If it's not Cornyn, it's not TELUS, and it's not, then it'll come out of committee. And if it comes out of committee, the Republicans have enough votes to get him confirmed.

49:27KFA:Yeah, it seems like that's where this is headed. And the scary thing is on paper, he's qualified, right? He's not like some of the other people that this administration has put up for nomination that are not qualified. On paper, he is, which makes him a little more dangerous, frankly, because he does know how to do things and he does know how the department runs and he knows what levers to pull. and the fact that he couldn't affirmatively or definitively say that he is going to not be Donald Trump's kind of attack dog and go after his personal enemies and work for the American people. That was the thing that was most disturbing to me.

50:14KFA:And there weren't a lot of hard questions about some of the prosecutions that have been brought, like the James Comey 8647 case. No one would ever bring that case. That's a ridiculous case for the Department of Justice. But his Department of Justice brought that case. Why was Maureen Comey fired? Could have been a question that was asked. She, by all accounts, is an excellent, extraordinary prosecutor. In fact, she's the one who convicted Ghislaine Maxwell at trial. And so there was just so many other questions that I think were left on the table. It makes me wonder, given that they, And let me start by saying it's hard to ask questions.

50:53KFA:It's hard to cross examine. So and it's easy for to sit here and say, well, you didn't ask this. You didn't ask this. And so I have a lot of respect for for the people who who asked the questions, especially ones like like Senator Booker. But I wonder why, given that they were only given 10 minutes each, why the Democrats didn't get together and divide and conquer and say, OK, I'm going to use my 10 minutes and I'm going to focus on this topic. And here are and that way I can get to the bottom of it, because imagine only having 10 minutes to do your whole cross-examination of a witness. You could never do it.

51:29KFA:So you'd pick like a topic or an area and and kind of divide it up like that. So you can really ask those extra questions and take it across the finish line. Like, why don't we do that? While you were talking, I wrote on my paper 140, which represents the 14 Democrats in 10 minutes apiece, 140 minutes.

51:50Popok:And I was going to say, why didn't they and their staff come up with 100 questions that they wanted to ask, assemble them and then divvy them out for each person's 10 minutes so that there was cohesion and coherence. And they didn't, I mean, sometimes you have to not, look, you and I have done cross, right? There's the cross you walk up there with at the podium. And then there's the cross you actually do because you have to follow.

52:16KFA:And then there's the third cross, the one you wish you had done.

52:19Popok:Sometimes they line up, sometimes they line up, but you can only go up with a rough outline because you have to go where the witness takes you. I mean, when you said it's hard to do cross, I'm sure you also love doing cross because that's the favorite part for a skilled trial lawyer is the crossing. Direct is interesting. Cross examination is where it's at, everybody. That's why we got into this business. So you and I, right, that's what they, but they don't. I think it's, I don't know why they don't. The next time we have Senator Booker on, we'll talk about that. So everybody kind of restarts and everybody wants to ask an Epstein question.

52:50Popok:Everybody wants to ask, as you said, a delay inquiry or an FBI question. And they should coordinate more. But let's be honest, they're all sort of, you know, big senators and they don't want to coordinate in that way. But they should. It would be better for the process and really, really extraordinary stuff. Let me...

53:08KFA:I wanted to say one other thing that surprised me about this hearing. I was surprised with how much time the Republicans spent on Mifepreston, the abortion drug. And because it just, the fact that they're talking about it in the context of a criminal, of criminal conduct, like having an abortion is criminal, was so surprising to me that that was not, for example, being spoken at the health confirmation, right, of like Robert F. Kennedy, that this was talked about multiple times at Blanche's confirmation, I thought was really surprising. They want to criminalize and punish people for mailing, for accessing mifeprestone in the mail.

53:54KFA:And they kept talking about, you know, one or two cases of someone being slipped this drug in, you know, in their, by somebody, you know, slipped it in their drink or something, and they didn't know it and how terrible that is. But that's not, that was the story that they used to kind of frame the issue.

54:12Popok:Yeah. And when it wasn't that, it was Joe Biden. as one of our commenters said, we're back to Joe Biden again. I'm like, this is how you're going to, because most of the Republicans did not want to use their time at all to try to do anything to undermine Todd Blanche. I mean, when John Kennedy from Louisiana asked the question, are you friends with him? He didn't expect the guy would slip up and say, I'm his personal lawyer. I'm his lawyer. That is not what he thought was going to happen. But the rest of them were like, how can we waste time? Oh, let's do Miffa Preston. Let's do Joe Biden. Oh, let's do Jack Smith.

54:50Popok:Let's go after Jack Smith. Why not?

54:52KFA:Anytime anyone asked about the slush fund and the weaponization, the anti-weaponization fund, the 1776 fund, they'd turn it around and say, well, Jack Smith started it. The Biden administration started it. Jack Smith invented the weaponization.

55:06Popok:I almost vomited listening to Josh Hawley, right? The guy that ran out of the back, you know, like got out the back and saved his skin during Jan 6 talking about, oh, my text messages. Oh, you don't even know. He didn't even understand that's a subpoena that was against him. You know, oh, my metadata, oh, my text messages. I'm like, will you shut the F up?

55:27KFA:Yeah, they were so – just for those who didn't watch it, the Republican senators were more upset that their telephone records were subpoenaed than they were about Epstein victims.

55:45Popok:1 ,000 percent. Right. And it wasn't even – I said text messages because I bought into their bullshit. It's not even text messages. It was like what you used to get on your own telephone bill.

55:57KFA:Yeah.

55:58Popok:Remember when you used to look at your telephone bill and it said this this call to this number for this many minutes and seconds? That's all you got. You didn't get who was on the other end, what the subject of the call was, why it was made. That's all there. And they only did that because if they found a some sort of 20 minute phone call, you know, between this person and this person, then they would go through the process, but only then of doing a full investigation. I thought Senator Blumenthal, who we've had on the show before, also did a very, very good job. And he at least brought up Judge Williams' 56-page decision that just came out.

56:34Popok:The other thing that came out just an hour or just on the eve of this hearing was Katie Fang, our colleague, and Public Integrity Project's motion for contempt against Todd Blanche because of his mishandling of the Epstein files and him effectively telling Judge Sullivan in D.C. to go pound sand. I just had Brendan Ballew. It's a video that's up on Legal AF YouTube today. The first video, I think, talking about those issues. So they had a lot. There was a lot of court rulings and observations to talk about. Let's play Senator Blumenthal. The judge in Florida referred your misconduct. She concluded that there was misconduct and misrepresentation, an improper purpose in that legal action, to the bar of New York for potential discipline, including losing your law license.

57:33I know you disagree with the result of the ruling. has that kind of referral ever happened by a federal judge for an attorney general of the united states can you i don't know but i'll tell you something um that judge never asked us to respond she never gave us an opportunity to respond to anything and she didn't refer me she just asked that a copy of the order be provided the new york bar because there are several activist groups that have filed complaints against me so so listen i as i said earlier i i I think anybody on this committee, especially the lawyers that have practiced, can read that opinion and reach their own conclusions.

58:08But I very much disagree with the judge's insinuations about me. And we're going to do what we can to make that right. One last.

58:18Popok:He lied. Let's just go over the lies. It's not activist groups. It's groups for good government and good lawyering that got together, including 101 former federal and state judges, had filed a bar complaint where you and I are licensed. the appellate division first department in New York against Todd Blanche, which was recited by the judge in her ruling. That's one. Two, knowing the case well, because I practice in Miami and I know Judge Williams, they were given every opportunity to file or to intervene in the case. She said that the only parties in the case were Donald Trump and Trump's private lawyers, even though the agreement they were using was also there on behalf of the Department of Justice in the IRS at any time in order to defeat her order to show cause about whether fraud had been committed on her court at any time.

59:07Popok:And we expected it. The Department of Justice should have filed an affidavit, along with Donald Trump's private lawyer, refuting those allegations or appearing to testify. But but Todd Blanche has a dirty little habit. He refuses to testify in federal court. He barely wants to testify in confirmation hearings, but he certainly hasn't been testifying in federal courts, even if it means that the Department of Justice is on the losing end of a court's decision. He didn't testify when he should have, and he was required to, in order to come close to defeating the motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution, the Kilmer Obrego-Garcia case in the Middle District of Tennessee.

59:46Popok:The judge effectively begged him to testify, and he refused to do it, and the Department of Justice lost. You and I could spend an entire show talking about all the times Todd Blanchett should have appeared and or filed an affidavit for him to say, we didn't have an opportunity. He's lying again. And the judge called. I hit the wrong. I hit my keyboard. Got so excited. The judge called him out and said, you are disingenuous to say that the court had no role in approving the settlement because I was standing by at any time for the Department of Justice to submit for my review, the settlement agreement, which you did not do.

1:00:22Popok:This is a nasty little trick and habit of Todd Blanche. And the problem is you got Senate Democrats who have 10 minutes to try to, you know, do what I just did in three minutes.

1:00:36KFA:Yeah, that's why we have to get them to divide and conquer.

1:00:40Popok:Yeah, if you and I can accomplish that, it'd be like the KFA Popak rule. Just take 140 minutes and divide up the 100 questions. Do that. Exactly, exactly. Right? Exactly. So when we come back from our next break, I want to talk about another confirmation hearing going on for the Director of National Intelligence, which is Jay Clayton. You and I know Jay Clayton reasonably well from his time in New York at various stints, Southern District of New York prosecutor and SEC commissioner or chairman and all of that. But first, if you like this kind of content, which we do on Legal AF on a branded podcast every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m.

1:01:23Popok:Eastern time here on the Midas Touch Network, you can help us by downloading the audio. Even if you're a YouTuber like we are, you can go to the audio. It helps. I won't go into the details, but the algorithms love the audio downloads. It's very analog. And so if you go there, use that. We made it easy for you. Scan the QR code in the top right and do that. Become a subscriber to Midas Dutch. Become a subscriber. It's for free to Legal AF, the YouTube channel. We're trying hard. We're huffing and puffing to try to get to 2 million subscribers by the midterm. I think we can do it with your help.

1:01:58Popok:Come over there. You might be thinking I'm subscribed. I assure you, you're not. If everybody was subscribed, you told me they were subscribed, we'd be at 2 million already. And it's important to the show. It gets us great guests like Cory Booker and Judge Ludig and Danny Bensky. You know, people don't turn us down because of the street cred we have and because of the ethics and integrity that my co-host, Karen Freeman-Diffolo, or my co-founder, Ben Misalas. I think people understand we don't blow smoke or sunshine and we tell the truth. And that's our commentary. You may not agree with it, but that is our best educated analysis.

1:02:39Popok:And we get to the root of the issue. We don't just do the top line of a story and then move on because it's, you know, because of the news cycle. We don't believe in news cycles. We create our own news cycles. And so Substack, another place for deep dives into law and politics. We're probably the number one law and politics Substack out there with your help. Become a member there as well. You can do all the reading that you want to do, but all the videos and new videos and new lives are there as well. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors in collaboration with Midas Touch. And let's take a break for them now.

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1:04:54Popok:After the first ingredient, well, good luck. You see, kibble is made using extreme high heat to keep its shelf stable and inexpensive. So brands have to add back synthetic vitamins and minerals in the form of strange chemicals whose names you don't understand and you definitely cannot pronounce. Is that really what you want your dog eating? Sundays for dogs is different. They start with more than 80 % all-natural meats and then finish with superfoods like kale and ginger and blueberries and gently air dries them instead of using high heat. Sundaes doesn't look or smell like dog food. It looks like high-quality, human-grade jerky.

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1:06:09Popok:Make the switch to Sundays. Go right now to Sundays for dogs dot com slash legal AF 50 and get 50 percent off your first order. Or you can use code legal AF 50 at checkout. That's 50 percent off your first order at Sundays for dogs dot com slash legal AF 50. Sundays for dogs dot com slash legal AF 50 or use code legal AF 50 at checkout. And we are back. Thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. One thing, Karen, we're not done with Judge Williams because Donald Trump's Department of Justice jumped up and down and said, oh, ha, the settlement release that Todd Blanche entered into, the one that had the tail that wags the dog that we talked about with Senator Booker, which gives a release, a pardon, if you will, to Trump and his family and his affiliates for tax and audit liability.

1:07:09Popok:criminal liability, right? They jumped up and down and said, aha, she didn't say that was invalid because they're misconstruing one paragraph out of 56 pages and one footnote out of 56 pages where she said, the issue of whether a Department of Justice can privately settle without the benefit of a lawsuit and spend taxpayer dollars and give this level of immunity to a president and his family was not before me. What was before me is whether you can use a federal court and the legitimacy of a federal court to put a phony imprimatur on it. That's what was before me. So, you know, this is like dumb and dumber.

1:07:52Popok:You're saying there's a chance. And I had a local, a really well-known Miami lawyer, Andres Rivero, on with me today with Judge Liddick to do the interview because he's local counsel in that case. And he said, ah, they're not reading all the footnotes. And one of the footnotes, the judge invited yet another motion to consider that issue as a continued fraud on the court. So they, again, this is the gang that can't shoot straight in the Department of Justice. They're just going to fall into the mouth of Judge Williams all over again. They want an announcement that that settlement agreement is also invalid.

1:08:29Popok:it, she's willing to do it and has invited the judges to file a new motion.

1:08:33KFA:Yeah, it's amazing how footnotes are where you often get the most interesting points in a decision, right?

1:08:42Popok:Absolutely. So today, confirmation day, Jay Clayton, let's switch gears here, go to Jay Clayton. Jay Clayton, you and I know well from in and around New York, golf buddy of Donald Trump and Howard Lutnick, I know that for a fact, head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, that was his dream job in Trump one, never wanted to be the attorney general, which he was rumored to be in the first Trump administration. And at various times when there were openings, never wanted that. He's a corporate transactional lawyer. He's not like a litigator. He's not a civil rights type. You know, at least Todd Blanche, as you said about his resume, at least he was a prosecutor.

1:09:19Popok:At least he was a head of a division, I think at one time. But Jake Clayton is just, you know, good old golf country club, Republican transactional guy. And he didn't want to be attorney general. So he gets that job and does the job, whatever Trump wanted him to do in the first administration. Then Trump's got so many problems, especially in New York, in the Southern District of New York, over the Mayor Adams dismissal of his indictment and the complete shredding of the entire leadership that walked out the door because of what Emil Bovey working under Todd Blanche did to destroy that office and the reputation of that office.

1:09:57Popok:They had to shove Jay Clayton in to be the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, which after the attorney general, what do you think, Karen, in terms of that before Trump, that position to be the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney, where did that fall in the hierarchy after being like the attorney general?

1:10:19KFA:Well, look, let's just say there's, I think around 90 United States attorneys around the country. And, and among those 90 United States attorneys, the Southern district of New York is in the top three or four most prestigious along with, right, along with the Eastern district of Virginia, Washington, DC, maybe the Eastern district of New York. And those, those are really, but the Southern district is, is, is, they often joke that they're actually called the sovereign district of New York because they're so kind of in a league of their own, partly because Manhattan is their jurisdiction and Manhattan is the financial capital of the United States and some would say even the world.

1:11:06KFA:And so their jurisdiction is all financial crimes that occur. And so that's partly why they've made this great responsibility.

1:11:15Popok:You've worked with them when you were at the Manhattan DA's office. Yes. Right?

1:11:19KFA:Yes, I've worked with them. They have an incredible reputation. And, you know, frankly, Jay Clayton had a really good reputation. He's a really well-respected lawyer in New York, like Todd Blanch was, is. But it's like something happens to people when they go into the Trump orbit. It's so strange. I mean, this confirmation hearing today, I hope we're going to play a clip. He couldn't, let's just play the clip. Let me know.

1:11:52Popok:Senator Ossoff asking a fourth grader social studies question to Jay Clayton. Yes. Who won the 2020 election? I'm not going to do this with you. This is a job interview We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee Yes, you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee. Yes Who won the 2020 election? Like I said, I'm not I'm not going to get into that with you But you do have an obligation to be honest and forthright with the committee Is anything that I just said not honest or forthright? Yes, you're not being honest or forthright.

1:12:32Who won the 2020 election? I think I've answered the question.

1:12:34Popok:We can keep doing this Well, we're going to keep doing it because you're not being honest and forthright. I'm not going to engage in the theater. It's a simple question, Mr. Clayton. And I've answered. Who won the 2020 presidential election? I've answered it. You're here asking for the support of senators to lead America's intelligence community. We've established that you have an obligation to be honest and forthright with this committee and with the American public, but you refuse to answer a simple matter of fact about the 2020 election. Is that right? No, that's not right. Then answer the question, who won the 2020 election?

1:13:13Popok:I have answered the question. Answer it. What is your answer? I've given you my answer. What is your answer?

1:13:23You refuse to answer a basic question about who won a presidential election, but you asked to lead America's intelligence community? Isn't it humiliating to be unable to answer this question, to have to indulge the president's delusions? We know, you know, everybody in this room knows the truthful answer to that question. Why can you not give it? I think I gave you the answer. are you aware that director gab that was masterful that was that was that was masterful

1:14:02Popok:i love that i love ossoff let's get him on the show he's fantastic we will we'll reach out if anybody on this show uh is any biz handlers or bookers no give us a ring what i love about it is um it stands also in not in contrast because the same thing was happening you know dick durbin in asking Todd Blanche the same question. He said, this is a question that every third grader, if not younger, knows the answer to. And yet there is just, you're in this orbit, as you put it, of Donald Trump and fealty to him, where you feel you can't answer the question. And why it relates to the director of national intelligence.

1:14:42Popok:It wouldn't normally. The director of national intelligence to which 14 or 15 different intelligence entities, military and civilian, including the CIA, ultimately report. It was created after 9-11 because of lapses in coordination of intelligence. And so they made a director who sits over it all. It's normally outward facing. The intelligence community shouldn't be spying on Americans, but it should be protecting the homeland through intelligence gathering. It doesn't normally have a role in U.S. elections, except the last DNI, Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, when she had nothing else to do after they took away her remit and turned it over to the CIA director, she started showing up cloak and dagger.

1:15:29Popok:Remember her with her Kristi Noem action figure costume, you know, with the black hat and the pulled Fulton County, Georgia, to make sure that voting equipment from 2020 was successfully seized.

1:15:44KFA:Isn't she the one that put the president on the phone with the agents who were seizing the machines right there? Yeah.

1:15:52Popok:So normally the DNI does not have a role in midterm elections, but we see, and our audience is very concerned about all the different ways that the Trump administration, its civil rights division, the Department of Justice, these are questions that didn't get asked today, of Todd Blanch are going after voters, election workers, election equipment, the midterms, trying to federalize everything, database creation, and the rest. And so there is not in a normal world, but in a Trump world, there is a role for Jay Clayton, you know, being misused by Trump and him having to follow what are unconstitutional illegal orders.

1:16:28Popok:and all Ossoff wants to know before he gets into the heart of the questioning is, can you at least show independence of thought and tell me who won the election? And rather than just say, just, you know, they had to be prepared. They were going to be asked this and just say, you know, President Biden was certified the winner of the election and move on.

1:16:54KFA:Oh no,

1:16:55Popok:So he had to come out looking like a total douchebag and demonstrate, Ossoff did it so masterfully, and demonstrate that this guy is as captured and a wholly owned subsidiary of Donald Trump as Todd Blanche is, as Scott Bessett, the Treasury Secretary, is, as Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, is, right?

1:17:14KFA:it was it was uh stunning to me absolutely stunning i i couldn't believe it i just like you said there's there's a there's a artful answer that he could give that that you know doesn't really answer it but kind of answers it but he instead he just looked just i don't know i don't know how he looked but it was not it was not a good look it's not a good look for a guy as

1:17:37Popok:you laid out you know every sort of everybody likes and you know and then oh jay clayton and And the reason they trotted him out and they took him out of the job at this U.S. attorney's office is they thought, well, he'll be a good face for Donald Trump for DNI after Tulsi Gabbard made a shambles of it.

1:17:53KFA:And Bill Pulte, right?

1:17:55Popok:And Bill Pulte, the temporary part-time, you know, political hack that's been running around trying to fire people. Now, the only person, I want to get your opinion about this. This is insider prosecutor stuff. So they nominate Jamie, Jamie McDonald from Sullivan and Cromwell. Do you know Jamie?

1:18:18KFA:No.

1:18:19Popok:To be the U.S. attorney. At least he's a real guy. I mean, he was a U.S. attorney. He was an assistant U.S. attorney. He's very well respected. You know, he served in an administration a long time ago. Like everybody likes Jamie. so it's so weird that trump picked him because you think he'd pick another you know loser like he did in the northern district of new york uh john sarconi or somebody else that has never been a prosecutor but it's interesting that for the southern district of new york which is donald trump's backyard he picked a another legitimate guy but as you said that guy could be converted like that into some crazy zombie that follows donald trump and does unethical things.

1:19:01KFA:It's surprising, yeah. I don't know anything about him, so I'm looking forward to seeing how he does.

1:19:09Popok:Well, in your private practice, you may.

1:19:11KFA:Exactly.

1:19:12Popok:With all of that. So listen, this is a great show. We made a decision that we curated it just to focus on the all-important confirmation hearing. Programming notes for tomorrow, day two of the confirmation hearing, including friend of the show, Danny Bensky. We're big supporters of her. She'll be testifying there. And Danny will be on with me next week on some version of Legal AF as well, along with Liz Oyer will be testifying. But Todd Blanche sitting in the hot seat is over, folks. But join us for the live stream tomorrow. 150 ,000 people joined us on Legal AF for today's day one coverage. Tomorrow, the first video up on Legal AF, the YouTube channel, will be my interview with Judge Michael Ludig and Andres Rivera about their big win in front of Judge Williams, the 56 pages teardown of Todd Blanche, which will live on beyond this confirmation hearing, I assure you, as well.

1:20:10and then some other things that are in the hopper,

1:20:14Popok:but so many different ways, Karen, for the audience to support what we do. Download, see that big thing up there, the QR code? Hit the download, that's audio downloads. Doesn't cost you a penny, but helps the show out immensely. Become a Legal AF YouTube subscriber. Help us build to 2 million by the midterms. We will, with your help, it is the gas in the tank. It is what moves us and moves our engine and gets us amazing guests like Senator Cory Booker, who came on the show today. And, of course, we've got Legal AF Substack as well, where you can see 10 or 12 great pieces of content, including a live feed that I do every day, sometimes with guests, sometimes without.

1:21:01Popok:All different ways to support what we do here on Legal AF. We have Karen Freeman Ignifolo looking spiffy in her new offices in Manhattan. If you want to know, do ethical and genius lawyers still exist in New York? They do in the embodiment of Karen Freeman Ignifolo. Give us your final thoughts here about what we observed.

1:21:22KFA:I just am so in awe that we got Senator Booker on the day that he had time after his confirmation hearing of the Attorney General of the United States of America. and that he came on Legal AF. I mean, it's just, it really is a testament to, and the fact that he listens to us. He said he kind of nerds out to us. And that just meant a lot, actually, that he listens to our show, that he thinks enough about our show to come on. And he's such a just wonderful public servant. And really what I wish I had said to him was thank you for your service, Senator. So if you are listening to this, thank you, Senator.

1:21:59KFA:It was a true pleasure having you on the show. and I'm just kind of giddy. I'm just so happy he was here.

1:22:07Popok:Yeah, that's so great. And glad that our audience is here. Not everybody has to love Corey Booker. Not everybody has to love all of our guests or Karen or me, but there is power in our union and our being together here on Legal AF and the Midas Touch Network. So Saturday, tune into Legal AF, the podcast with Ben Micellis and me. And then of course, back again, midweek with Karen Friedman and Ignifolo. Thank you for being here. Thank you for being so generous with your time and with your support and sometimes with your money. If you do paid subscriptions, we appreciate all of it. So for Karen Freeman, Igniflo and Michael Popok, thank you for being here on Legal AF, the podcast.

1:22:45Popok:Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.

1:22:54KFA:Hey, guys. Lady Luck here. Are you going on any road trips this summer? I know I'm going to be going on a bunch of road trips. And being that I'm going to be Passenger Princess, I love playing on SpinQuest.com. SpinQuest has all of my favorite slot games, live blackjack, live craps. Head on over to SpinQuest right now and get yourself a$30 coin pack for just$10. SpinQuest is a free-to-play social casino. Avoid where prohibited. Visit SpinQuest.com for more details. Summer is here, which means we all want to look and feel our best. A GLP-1 may be right for you. Visit orderlymeds.com to learn more about which GLP-1 you could be eligible for.

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