In short
Legal AF midweek discussion at the intersection of law and politics, focusing on (1) Trump-related symbolism and alleged legal overreach (U.S. Mint gold coin with Trump’s image; federal removal of a Kennedy Center sculpture), (2) court fights involving DOJ conduct and document disclosure (Epstein Files/“redaction log” dispute; James Comey prosecution motions), (3) birthright citizenship litigation (new Trump executive order blocked as unconstitutional), and (4) mail-in ballot access (postal service rules challenged before Judge Talwani).
Guests
Adam Klassfeld (All Rise News; legal/political commentator; co-anchor on Legal AF spinoffs including Monday Night Live; described as reporting from courtrooms and doing Substack Lives with Michael Popok).
Key claims
The gold coin is portrayed as “fake gold” and an abuse of Treasury symbolism; Trump is “legacy building” and lawless. DOJ is alleged to delay and provide inadequate filings (no proper Epstein redaction log; “Christmas is forthcoming” timeline). Birthright citizenship executive order is “almost certainly unconstitutional” after Barbara v. Trump. Comey case should be dismissed as an improper “incitement vs true threat” prosecution and possibly vindictive.
Notable examples
Reflecting pool/overspray indictment dismissal (David Kern/David Hearn) and whether dismissal is with prejudice; Epstein Act document withholding of ~200,000 pages without required redaction log; Judge Boardman’s nationwide preliminary injunction/TRO; Comey’s “8647” argument; mail-in ballot USPS barcode/envelope rejection practices.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOU.S. Mint's New Gold Coin Controversy
0:25 to 0:55
Discuss the implications of a new gold coin featuring a living president.
“DraftKings is now live in all 50 states.”
U.S. Mint's New Gold Coin Controversy
1:55 to 2:23
Discuss the implications of a new gold coin featuring a living president.
U.S. Mint's New Gold Coin Controversy
2:49 to 4:10
Discuss the implications of a new gold coin featuring a living president.
“Also, we have another Legal AF spinoff called Monday Night Live over on the Legal AF YouTube channel.”
Irony of the Gold Coin and Trump's Legacy
4:10 to 6:41
Explore the symbolic death of liberty represented by the new coin.
“I guess is the right way to kick off our gold coin segment.”
Trump's Focus on Legacy Over Immediate Politics
6:41 to 8:13
Analyze Trump's legacy-building efforts amidst political struggles.
“It's the abuse of the Treasury Department.”
Cultural Heritage and Art under Trump
8:13 to 9:29
Investigate Trump's influence on American art and cultural heritage.
“They just haven't been able to vote on it yet.”
Satirical Take on Trump's Art Curation
9:29 to 10:29
Reflect on the absurdity of Trump's vision for American art curation.
“And we have folks who were former staffers at the Kennedy Center saying, what's going to happen with the cultural heritage?”
Trump's Foreign Policy and Global Perception
10:29 to 11:48
Discuss how Trump's administration affects perceptions of U.S. power globally.
“But again, the American people are champing at the bit to vote on this guy.”
Legal Challenges and Courtroom Updates
11:48 to 14:00
Update on legal proceedings involving Trump and prominent figures.
“Putin's busy testing with drones whether he can do bombing runs against NATO or not.”
Legal Order and Dismissals Explained
14:00 to 14:44
Understand the implications of legal dismissals and their nuances.
“and intelligence community for that 90-second video, don't give up the ship, don't follow an a legal order if you're in the military.”
Show all 30 chapters
Bar Complaints and Prosecutorial Misconduct
14:44 to 16:58
Explore the consequences of bar complaints and prosecutorial behavior.
“parse those words a little more, with prejudice, meaning the prosecutors cannot revive the case again later if the judge finds with prejudice.”
Challenges in Regulating Attorneys
16:58 to 19:12
Discuss the difficulties faced by bar regulators in holding lawyers accountable.
“and that there was prosecutorial misconduct and irregularities in the grand jury proceedings.”
Katie Fang's Legal Successes
19:12 to 21:12
Learn about Katie Fang's achievements and the challenges facing her cases.
“Because if a judge says this case was brought in bad faith, or there's all this evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, maybe one of these bar panels are going to discover their vertebra, right?”
DOJ's Handling of Epstein Files
21:12 to 24:26
Delve into the DOJ's alleged inadequacies in handling Epstein-related documents.
“Katie Fang, fellow journalist and commentator.”
Judge Sullivan's Rulings and Reactions
24:26 to 28:00
Examine Judge Sullivan's stance on the production of FBI notes and documents.
“Act assumed that there'd be redactions, blackouts, and required that there be a document by document, redaction by redaction spreadsheet.”
FBI Notes and Redaction Logs
28:00 to 30:10
Discussion on the legal complexities surrounding FBI notes and redaction logs in Trump-related cases.
“The defendant was directed to show cause why the FBI notes about Donald Trump should not be produced.”
Judge Sullivan's Courtroom Dynamics
30:10 to 35:10
Analysis of Judge Sullivan's courtroom behavior and the government's responses during hearings.
“It's going to take them weeks of round the clock effort.”
Podcast Promotion and Subscription Drive
35:10 to 36:41
Promotion of the Legal AF podcast, encouraging listeners to subscribe and support.
“They just don't care, and they are telling judges to go F themselves and pound sand in so many different ways.”
Podcast Promotion and Subscription Drive
37:42 to 38:51
Promotion of the Legal AF podcast, encouraging listeners to subscribe and support.
“Can we talk about the most underrated organ in your body?”
Trump's Birthright Citizenship Controversy
39:02 to 42:01
Discussion on the recent ruling regarding Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship.
“Michael Popak and sitting in for Karen Freeman, Ignifolo, Adam Klassfeld.”
Analyzing the 14th Amendment Ruling
42:01 to 45:04
Discussion on the implications of a recent ruling regarding the 14th Amendment and Trump's executive order attempts.
“Five thought it was as strong as the Constitution and the 14th Amendment citizenship clause.”
James Comey's Legal Battles
45:04 to 47:57
Detailed examination of James Comey's recent legal filings and their implications.
“and then we can turn to mail-in ballots.”
Contrasts in Prosecution Strategies
47:57 to 53:50
A comparison of prosecution approaches in different cases involving Donald Trump and James Comey.
“They said, who better to make those comparisons than the former director of the FBI and someone who was also a U.S.”
Contrasts in Prosecution Strategies
55:00 to 55:11
A comparison of prosecution approaches in different cases involving Donald Trump and James Comey.
Mail-in Ballots and Election Integrity
55:11 to 56:03
Discussion on the importance of mail-in ballots and the ongoing legal challenges surrounding them.
“States determine under the Constitution who gets the mail-in ballot.”
Concerns Over Mail-in Ballots
56:03 to 1:00:08
Learn about the risks associated with mail-in ballots and a whistleblower's report.
“that we just created just before lunch with all sorts of bugs and flaws in it.”
Judge Talwani's Upcoming Decision
1:00:08 to 1:07:49
Explore the implications of Judge Talwani's rulings on mail-in voting and USPS operations.
“And so tomorrow's hearing, and we're moving at warp speed here, Adam.”
Supporting Legal AF
1:07:49 to 1:10:00
Find out how to support the Legal AF podcast and its community initiatives.
“And thanks for being here and bringing, you know, your seeing things through your lens and how you follow things and your unique commentary.”
Discussion Continuation
1:10:00 to 1:10:15
The hosts continue their in-depth legal analysis.
Closing Remarks
1:10:16 to 1:10:53
The hosts wrap up the episode with final thoughts.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:01The perfect lunch combo. That first bite of your favorite sub followed by ice cold Pepsi. Add a couple of friends and now that's next level. Suddenly the laughs get louder, the stories keep flowing, and the food tastes better. Because Pepsi brings out more flavor, more fun, and more of the moment. Food deserves Pepsi. Grab a Pepsi Zero Sugar today.
0:24Popok:Dave Portnoy here. The wait is over. Football is here and so is DraftKings. DraftKings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport, nationwide. New DraftKings customers. Sign up with code SPOTIFY. Spend$5 to get$200 in rewards within 21 days. Includes all markets. That's code SPOTIFY. In partnership with DraftKings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. 1-800-MY-RESET. Connecticut, call 888-789-7777. Or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas. Bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over. Void in Canada. Bet with DraftKings Sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days.
1:05Or trade with DraftKings Predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Non-withdrawable rewards issued as$50. Click to claim every seven days for 21 days. Terms at dkng.co slash offer. Limited time offer. Nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability. Varies by state. I didn't think the pain from the shingles rash would affect simple everyday tasks like bathing, getting dressed, or even walking around.
1:32Popok:I was wrong. Though not everyone at risk will develop it, 99 % of people over the age of 50 already have the virus that causes shingles, and it could reactivate at any time. I developed it, and the blistering rash lasted for weeks. Don't learn the hard way, like I did. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist today. Sponsored by GSK.
2:23Popok:as people know, his big competitive advantage, I believe, is that he's in the courtrooms, not just like me covering the hearings. He's in the courtrooms and he's making and he's getting the color from whatever is going on in the room. And he and I do a lot of Substack Lives over for Legal AF YouTube channel. So I couldn't think of a better co-anchor to go over the things at the midweek at the intersection of law and politics. Welcome, Adam. Thanks for being here with us. My pleasure as always, Michael. How's it going? Doing great. And you've been doing work. Also, we have another Legal AF spinoff called Monday Night Live over on the Legal AF YouTube channel.
2:59Popok:And you've been doing some work there as well as a co-anchor, sometimes with Dina Dahl, sometimes I think with Lisa Graves over the summer. We really appreciate your professionalism and your hard work there. Oh, thank you. I always enjoy appearing on it. Yeah. So let's do what we do in the beginning of our shows. We do a little kibitzing, things that tie back to the intersection of law and politics. We got a new gold coin that's been issued by the U.S. Mint that has a live president's image on it. Oh, there it is. Second time in our history, they tried to say this was to commemorate the 250th birthday of America, but the law that was established in order to do that, said it has to be something that's consistent with our 250th birthday.
3:49Popok:I don't know how Donald Trump's mugshot is consistent with our 250th, any of the icons about our 250th birthday or our founding. And then there's a law that says you can't issue money that has a president's name on it. And that goes back to our founding fathers. So who's going to sue over this, I guess is the right way to kick off our gold coin segment. Well, you know, someone had filed a federal lawsuit over it. It was a coin collector, and he wasn't able to win because of standing. But one of the things that I find is just a kind of delicious irony about that gold coin. It just reads like the life cycle of liberty in the United States.
4:33You know, you can see in the coin liberty 1776 to 2026. It's kind of a morose kind of way of looking at the death date of liberty. And there's Donald Trump doing that thing that George Washington thought could never be done. He lobbied against it when Congress went to try to celebrate George Washington. He said, no, we don't have kings here. And Trump said, kings. Did someone mention kings? And raised to put himself on the coin.
5:05Popok:By the way, that was one of the funniest lines. I wasn't even, you know, you're funny and I know that, but I was not expecting you to compare the gold coin to a tombstone of our democracy and liberty, rest in peace, 1776, and then to have a felon whose liberty was at risk for many of his prosecutions. Right? This is a parody. It's a parody coin. Is it a parody? A parody meme coin? Well, it's a parody of gold. That isn't real gold. It's just colored gold because Trump loves his fake gold. He likes surrounding things with glitz. He likes honoring himself. He likes breaking laws if it means he gets to honor himself more.
5:49And this is just the Treasury has released fitting symbolism of the Trump presidency. You know, I mean, I've been reading a lot of the coverage of this. And apparently the last time and only time that a living president tried to do this and what Bessent kind of hangs his hat on. A hundred years ago. Yeah. And it was Calvin Coolidge, one of the most historically unpopular.
6:16Popok:It was Hoover. Right. And what did they have to do with those commemorative coins? They had to melt most of them down because it was unpopular. People hated that a living president did it. And Trump says, let's revive that tradition. Yeah, well, I think you hit the nail on the head. It is, in one event, everything that is corrupt and wrong about Donald Trump, right? It's the fake, right? You said it's like the fake gold. It's the lawlessness. It's the abuse of the Treasury Department. It is, it is. And again, pandering to whatever is left of his base. Are there a couple of million people that still apparently support Donald Trump that will buy this coin?
6:58Popok:Probably. Are there speculators that will buy this coin? Sure. Look at the trading card market right now. You can sell anything. This is P.T. Barnum time, everybody. Suckers born every minute and you can transact about this as a commodity. But why? Why are we talking about Donald Trump putting his name, his signature on the money? But what we've heard leaking out of a very leaky presidency is that Trump is on legacy building mode. He's not on midterm, I need to win the midterm mode, which is why people like Senator, the Senate Majority Leader Thune is saying, can you help us out in Texas? We really have to win that Senate race against James Tallarico.
7:44Popok:And we're not if you don't give us some of your money and some of your fundraising because he's not on that. His short term horizon is I got to build more things with my name on it. I've got to dip more things into gold. He's on legacy because he thinks the more things that he builds and puts up. We'll talk about the ballroom at a certain point in today's segment. The more things he puts up and erects, the harder it's going to be to erase his legacy. But he doesn't realize this. The American people hate this. They just haven't been able to vote on it yet. And when they install a new presidency, people are going to be fine with taking the wrecking ball to most of most of what Donald Trump has done and erasing him from existence.
8:26Popok:But, you know, he's like running out of time. He's like Alexander Hamilton. Right. I'm running out of time. I'm running out of time. I've got to hurry up and build all these things and hope that and hope that my living, breathing legacy stays, you know, stays up long after my departure. Right. And let's talk about chronology. You know, this is happening on the same day that Trump has ordered essentially the federal government to take down a sculpture that is part of the reach of the Kennedy Center, the reach being the kind of outer limits of that, and that it was created to showcase this art. And it kind of shows with the Iran war spiraling out of control, Trump is kind of putting on his curator in chief hat and that the federal government is taking down this permanent exhibition because he needs to steward the art collection of the United States of America.
9:22And he's putting his imprint on it. And that's happening in the context of the Kennedy Center litigation. And we have folks who were former staffers at the Kennedy Center saying, what's going to happen with the cultural heritage? What's going to happen with the art? A former curator at the Kennedy Center said that he got an order to essentially take all the art away. And so, you know, that these two happen on the same day that Trump is releasing this coin that is, you know, probably illegal and that he is, you know, putting it in this fake gold. He's choosing the same day take down this installation of a recently deceased American sculpture.
10:09Popok:Could you imagine Trump really being in charge of curating American art? It would just be an entire museum of bulldogs smoking cigars and playing poker painted on velvet with gold frames. Right. Wouldn't that be like the museum? He has no taste. People that have actually been inside of Trump Tower and in his offices say, besides the fact we've done the reporting on Midas Touch, besides the fact that the carpets like reek of mildew and other problems, you know, so antiquated, so 1980s, 1990s. But again, the American people are champing at the bit to vote on this guy. He keeps saying, I'm on the ballot in the midterms.
10:50Popok:We agree with that. He's playing out some sort of perverse Hunger Games among Marco Rubio, J.D. Vance, and Pete Hegseth to see who's going to take the mantle. Oh, I love the – he's more than two years – he's just about two years into a presidency that's only got two years left on the clock. And he tells the people trying out for the presidency, it's too early to decide. We've got to see what happens at the midterms. I can tell you now what's going to happen at the midterms. You're going to get shellacked. It's going to be a sea change election. And if Tallarico pulls off Texas, which there's a big chance, he could lose both chambers.
11:33Popok:And yet, watching all of this, he continues to wage wars, right? He's losing the war with Iran. There's no other way to put it. He's weakened his position in the eyes of his enemies like Putin. Putin's busy testing with drones whether he can do bombing runs against NATO or not. You know, we had to send the CIA director to Putin to tell him, don't you dare. I know we look weak and we're running out of ammunition, but don't you dare attack NATO or don't don't you take over any other parts of Ukraine? You know, because because John Ratcliffe went in the middle of the night and talked to Putin. Putin's got his own view of how diminished Donald Trump and our national security is.
12:15Popok:And he doesn't need John Ratcliffe to sit there and start, you know, you know, brandishing swords. Right. Right. And you have the federal government under Trump parroting Kremlin talking points at the price of oil. They're now blaming on Ukraine, not on not on the Iran war of choice, not the fact that everything going on in the Strait of Hormuz, that this is that this is essentially according to Trump world mythology, because Ukraine won't make a deal. So that, you know, Putin is thrilled with that sort of messaging. So yes, of course, this is the Trump administration. They're going to echo Russian talking points.
12:58And so when they try to actually use diplomacy because they can't control what Putin's doing, it doesn't work because this has been an administration that has always cozied up to Russia. Yeah, absolutely.
13:16Popok:Why don't we touch base on something that you're following, including, as I said at the top of the show, you know, one of your special superpowers as a legal and political commentator is that you go you go to the courts. You know, you don't you don't phone it in. I mean, you phone it in, but you phone it in from the courts and all in your and one of the things that Donald Trump has tried to put his greasy fingerprints on is the reflecting pool part of the Lincoln Memorial. and we've got finally the dismissal of the indictment by Janine Pirro, who's already got her own problems, now a second bar complaint filed against her in New York for prosecuting the six members of Congress, two senators and four House members who are members of the military and intelligence community for that 90-second video, don't give up the ship, don't follow an a legal order if you're in the military.
14:11Popok:But she dismissed it under great personal sacrifice, I guess. She got abused and beaten up by Donald Trump. And now there's a fight over, well, what's the continued fight over that you're covering with the Davey Hearn, former Olympian dismissal? He got his dismissal. So what's the big, well, what else does he want? So the big question now is, will that dismissal be with or without prejudice? And you mentioned the bar complaint against Jeanine Pierrot, one of the things that I'm going to be looking out for, there's an upcoming hearing on Friday to determine whether and to explain those, parse those words a little more, with prejudice, meaning the prosecutors cannot revive the case again later if the judge finds with prejudice.
14:57Without prejudice, which is what the government wants, would give prosecutors the opportunity to revive charges, even though they've admitted in writing that there's no legal basis to bring them, that the peeling of the reflecting pool wasn't his fault. And to the extent that there was any damage to the overspray that he allegedly touched in the reflecting pool, it wasn't valuable enough to warrant a felony charge. So they are hoping to give themselves the option to bring the case back. And Hearn's lawyers are saying, for goodness sake, why would that be an option when the government already gutted the entire basis of the case?
15:47And what I'm going to be listening for on Friday is whether the judge in finding a dismissal with prejudice brings up the topic of bad faith, because that's one of the reasons, that that's one of the bases for which he could dismiss the case with prejudice.
16:06Popok:If he doesn't find bad faith, I don't know how he's going to dismiss it with prejudice. He's going to have to find prosecutorial misconduct, right? Absolutely. And we know before the hearing that prosecutors have shared grand jury transcripts for the judge's private inspection. I'm going to be listening to whether we find out anything about the grand jury investigation that preceded this. And you introduced this segment exactly right, Michael, the fact that Jeanine Pierrot has this bar complaint against her because of the bogus prosecution or attempted prosecution of six Democratic lawmakers for stating accurately what the law is, that you have a right to flout illegal orders.
16:51You should refuse to obey illegal orders. that if a judge makes a finding that in addition to that, she brought another case in bad faith and that there was prosecutorial misconduct and irregularities in the grand jury proceedings. Well, I can't see any other outcome than some legal accountability nonprofit just sending that, forwarding that to ethics authorities that are reviewing the other complaints. So it's high stakes for David Kern because it determines whether he's going to have to endure this harassment, but it's also high stakes for Piero.
17:33Popok:The problem with these bar regulators is that, how do I put this diplomatically? Their sphincters have closed and they don't have any balls. And I mean, even the ones that I'm a member of, like in New York and Florida, they have just abdicated their responsibility to regulate lawyers with licenses saying that, they've crossed over into the federal government, and therefore we can't regulate them. New York is rejected. Well, New York is divided into appellate divisions. And I'm a member of one appellate division, which I got admitted to when I first got into practice. Janine is a member of another one, and they don't often follow the same lead.
18:19Popok:But the one that I'm a member of already rejected going after Todd Blanche. Oh, he's the federal government. He's the attorney general. We can't do anything about that. Florida rejected going after Lindsey Halligan and Pam Bondi. Oh, they're in the government. They're not in the government anymore. So it's pissing me off with my profession, my alleged profession is doing. I mean, you don't have to have a law license to be the attorney general of the United States. But if you're going to practice before a federal judge, especially if you're an assistant U.S. attorney and other things. And if you have a bar license, I think you are subject to its ethics code.
18:56Popok:And if you violate it, you should have punishment against you. Now, if you want to give up your law license, like Jeannie Biro, I don't think needs a law license. It's weird to say, but you don't need a law license to be a Supreme Court justice or an attorney general. If you get confirmed through the Senate and you're that, you with a plumber could be the u.s attorney no no no uh front the plumbers they would do a better job than most of the u.s attorneys that don't trump has appointed but if you're going to hold on to your law license because you think it's important and valuable it should be regulated so i'd like to see the only one that's been standing up is the dc bar right that's the one that todd blanche went after and attacked and i don't even know what's going on you know what's going on with that suit or that attack?
19:38I'm not sure. But one thing that I've seen just a kind of big picture of all of these battles over the bar complaints is that one of the things that bar that state bars are saying over and over again, we'll wait for the courts to adjudicate it, which is why I'm really listening to see what the judge says here. Because if a judge says this case was brought in bad faith, or there's all this evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, maybe one of these bar panels are going to discover their vertebra, right? You know, they can say, here is a court finding of unethical behavior, and maybe that will break through.
20:22And it's not only Todd Blanche attacking the DC bar, Todd Blanche is trying to attack the entire power of state bars and local municipality bars to regulate their members by saying that they shouldn't be able to scrutinize DOJ personnel more broadly. So it's a full thronged attack on all of these associations, and a lot of them aren't rising to the moment. But the The excuse that I hear over and over again from these state bars is, well, let a judge adjudicate it. And that's why the judge's findings are something I'm listening for.
21:07Popok:Yeah, very well, very well put. So let's touch, let's talk about lawyers who are doing the right thing with their bar licenses and otherwise. Katie Fang, fellow journalist and commentator. It's just an uninterrupted string of success for her in the lawsuit. I mean, it's like shooting fish in a barrel. I had Brendan Ballou on her lawyer a few times. And Brendan on camera told me he's never seen a more inept organization. They miss deadlines. They miss deadlines about deadlines. He just thinks they just don't really know what they're doing and nobody's paying attention to any of these things. And he's getting leverage in a way that he never, they never in their wildest dreams imagined.
21:55Popok:They know they're right on the law. And now you've got the new filing from today in which Katie Fangs and her lawyers took a look at the one and a half, think about this. They are staring down the barrel, like the business end of a contempt finding and having a judge rip the Epstein files away from the Department of Justice and turn it over to a special master to review the original three million documents in the process and the documents that are still in hiding. With that knowledge and having a hearing in front of the judge in which they were excoriated, or as I like to joke, Mr. Andrew Block was the pinata of the moment in the Department of Justice, or he's really a mushroom.
22:40Popok:And they do this to a lot of their lawyers. A mushroom was kept in the dark and fed bullshit and manure by the main justice so that he can't answer questions. They purposely calibrate these people and send them in with nothing under their arm, no file, nothing to say. And the judges are getting, as you can imagine, annoyed. So he goes in, knowing that the judge is about to do all of these things in her main case, and files a one and a half page response in which he says, we're not going to produce the handwritten FBI notes, which is probably 30, 40, 50 pages of handwritten notes about that accuser of Donald Trump who says she was sexually abused at 13 by Donald Trump.
23:24Popok:We're not going to release the handwritten notes because we've said we're not going to release the handwritten notes despite court order, and they're duplicative of the typed written notes. They're not duplicative because there's a judgment call when you take handwritten notes, I've done it, and you type up the official, and we're entitled under the Epstein Act to see both. There's no exception for, well, if there's a if there's a final memorialized copy and it's typewritten, then you don't have to turn over the duplicative handwritten notes. That's not in the Epstein files. But then the big revelation that came from Katie's filing today was not only have they have no answer for why they haven't produced Donald Trump's victims, alleged victims, FBI notes.
24:10Popok:and they still haven't, despite court order. Where is the redaction log? 200 ,000 pages of documents were withheld from the American people and the survivors. The Epstein File Transparency Act assumed that there'd be redactions, blackouts, and required that there be a document by document, redaction by redaction spreadsheet. We call it a log in the business, listing each redaction and the reason for it. Why? So that if it goes to a judge, a judge can figure out whether the redaction is in good faith or not. And if it's not, can have the document produced. But if you don't have the log, you can't do it.
24:54So they announced to the court last week, we published,
24:58Popok:We published it a lot. It's done. Nothing to see here, Judge. We published the log. They didn't publish the log. They published a cover letter that said, this is our process. This is how we did it. That's not what was required by the law nor Judge Sullivan's order. OK, take it from there. What did I miss and what's the judge going to do next? Well, I thought that was a really good overview. It captured everything. Look, one of the things that when you mentioned Brendan Ballou and his conversation with you about what the DOJ has been reduced to, I would point out, as you know, he has real authority to talk about that because he's a former Justice Department attorney.
25:42He was a January 6th prosecutor. And he's pointing out to the judge in the seven page filing that, as you said, this federal register, you know, publication that they did is wildly inadequate. It has the same refrain about duplicative documents. It has the same refrain about they're just trying to protect the privacy of the victims. But nothing, as you put it, like a log with specificity that would actually inform the American people in a kind of granular manner of what they're releasing and what they're not releasing and why. And, you know, right now the die is cast and you have Katie Fang and Brennan Ballou putting it to the judge that you should be able to review these FBI 302s, the interviews and the handwritten notes of those interviews between the FBI and the Trump accuser.
26:43And that is before Judge Sullivan. We both heard Judge Sullivan's hearing where he really laid down the law and made very clear that he's willing. And as a matter of fact, the only federal judge in that circuit who has ever found the federal government in civil contempt in the case of Senator Ted Stevens, the late senator of Alaska. And that this is this is live now. This is fully brief. They have the proposed order for him to release these interview notes. And and I think that this seven page legal brief really sets them up strong for that order.
Read the full transcript
27:29Popok:Yeah, let me just read from the reply on the proposed order because it's just so powerful. My favorite part is the recitation or the reproducing the transcript of the exchange between poor Mr. Block and Judge Sullivan. This is a mismatch of epic proportion, by the way. This is a phantom weight against Muhammad Ali. Okay, so here we go.
27:59Popok:Court, Judge Sullivan. The defendant was directed to show cause why the FBI notes about Donald Trump should not be produced. What's the answer? Mr. Block. The answer, Your Honor, is that they are duplicative. The court. Well, that's what the defendant says. The court doesn't know that. Mr. Block. Now they turn to the redaction log. Mr. Block. Again, Your Honor, the redaction log. Now here's where he lies to the court. The redaction log is forthcoming. I don't have anything to say to the court beyond I know it's in the process. Stop right there before I get to the comment by the judge. They weren't in the process of creating a redaction log of 200 ,000 pages.
28:40Popok:They just republished a cover letter that they had already waved around when the judge said it was insufficient the first time. So what is he talking about in terms of the process of creating a redaction log? But my favorite is when he says, I don't have anything to say beyond that. I know it's in the process. So the judge says, I mean, I mean, he says, Christmas is also forthcoming, but let's be realistic. Right.
29:36Popok:for which plaintiff now seeks the underlying notes total 25 pages. The handwritten notes are presumably not much longer. The attorney general commands perhaps the largest law firm in America and can find a way to reliably review 25 pages to ensure victim information is not revealed. What they want is the judge to take these documents in for in-camera review now and direct the defendant to do that thing, which they have refused to do, which is to generate a redaction log. And I got bad news for the government. If the judge orders that, if they think they were complaining in their last filing about, we got to work over the holidays, judge, mistakes could happen when you got to work on Christmas, wait till they have to create from scratch a redaction log for 200 ,000 pages that they haven't done before.
30:29Popok:It's going to take them weeks of round the clock effort. And if I'm the judge, I start fining them a daily fine until they produce that redaction log. And he's someone who has shown himself willing to impose civil contempt in the past, the only person in the circuit, as he put it. And that passage that you read, Michael, you know, the Christmas is forthcoming. I remember that hearing he kept, you know, Judge Sullivan gave the government every opportunity and Mr. Block every opportunity to come up with a timeline, said, I'm willing to work with you. He said that again and again and again. And it's what you said, he is put in place, that Justice Department attorney is put in place to say as little as possible, not commit to anything.
31:20Popok:He's been manufactured in a laboratory in order not to be forthright to a judge. I don't know the answer. You know, he's this week's version of Drew Ensign. Remember Drew Ensign? They used to trot him out for all the immigration, migration, removal cases. Don't know where the plane is, Judge. Don't know who's on it. I don't know if there's children on that plane without due process. I'll have to make some phone calls, Judge. Purposely kept, this is mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed manure so that they can't answer questions posed to them by federal judges. And yes, I remember now that you were in that courtroom.
32:02Popok:We talked about it as soon as you walked out of that courtroom. Did you agree? Brendan Ballou made an observation to our audience when I did the interview. He said there were just these moments when Andrew Block would just stare down at the podium for like interminable periods It's a very uncomfortable silence for everybody in the room. Did you observe that? So that particular hearing was accessible remotely. I was listening in on a phone line. But I will say this. Every now and then, there have been many hearings like this. If Trump cares about the case, they send one of these people who, as you point out, who their job is to not know anything.
32:49That's what happened in the Kilmar Brigo Garcia immigration case. They put people who are government experts to come on the witness stand and disclose nothing. That happened in the Kennedy Center case. Whenever the judge presiding over that case wanted to get a straight answer from the government on a particular issue, there would be dancing around it. There was just a case in point issue with the Kennedy Center litigation. It was a certain thing where they were – oh, man, I'm just sort of blanking on it. There were so many. There were so many. There were so many. But with the Kennedy Center, I – oh, yes.
33:37It was what is the reason that September 8th was the magic date, that they imposed a deadline? What happens on September 8th? And the government lawyer couldn't give a straight answer. Why do they have to move ahead with that? As it turns out, it turned out that it was totally bogus that September 8th was a magic date because when the judge threatened to impose a temporary restraining order, if they didn't move it, lo and behold, it didn't have to happen on September 8th anymore. And they moved the deadline, the self-imposed deadline to October 8th. So, you know, it's a case in point of what you were saying, Michael.
34:17in the cases specifically that Trump cares about. If it's the Kennedy Center, if it's the Epstein files, if it's Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the job of whatever DOJ attorney, usually someone young and from main justice, who's, you know, thrown in there to, is usually thrown in there to say as little as possible, to know as little as possible, and to, you know, slow things down. gum up the works. Yeah.
34:51Popok:It reminds me of that old show on television, Hogan's Heroes, about the prisoners of war during World War II with Sergeant Schultz. I see nothing. I hear nothing. It's like the Sergeant Schultzes are being let in by the Department of Justice, and they just don't care. And that has been the biggest problem with this Department of Justice. They just don't care, and they are telling judges to go F themselves and pound sand in so many different ways. But I'm so pleased to have you here with us, Adam Klaasfeld of All Rise News, for those that are joining late. You're here on the Legal AF YouTube, or sorry, I forgot where I was, the Legal AF podcast.
35:30So many different ways to support what we do at the intersection of law and politics.
35:35Popok:One of them is right here, the podcast. You've got a QR code up there to download audio. You may be a viewer on YouTube, but we have it on audio, and the audio downloads are still one of the big drivers of ratings and keeping us ranked at the top and keeping our content coming to you uninterrupted. So think about becoming a download subscriber of our YouTube channel. You're on the Legal AF and Midas Touch channel, so come over to Legal AF and hit the subscribe button. We're 1.2 million strong. We have a sale going on on Legal AF YouTube and on Legal AF Substack for paid members, 50 % off until the end of Labor Day in honor of Labor Day.
36:18Popok:So become a Substack member, become a Legal AF YouTube member as well. I'll plug Adam Glassfeld, All Rise News, become a subscriber, keep him on the road and in those courtrooms and courthouses. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors. Some of them have been with us from the very, very beginning. And we're going to take a break for our sponsors now. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers, scammers, and hackers, but you're not sure what? Here's what to do. Go to www.joindeliteme.com slash legal AF and enter code legal AF. You'll get 20 % off Delete Me.
37:02Popok:Delete Me removes your personal information that's being sold online. Look, I have an active online presence, so privacy is really important to me. Knowing Delete Me does the hard work of removing my information from hundreds of data broker websites gives me real peace of mind. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for our listeners get 20 % off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeliteme.com slash Legal AF and use promo code Legal AF at checkout. The only way to get 20 % off though is to go to www.joindeliteme.com slash Legal AF and enter code Legal AF at checkout.
37:45Popok:Can we talk about the most underrated organ in your body? Your liver. It's doing more than 500 functions every day, filtering unwanted elements, supporting digestion and helping with energy. So giving it daily support, it just makes sense. Dose for your liver is a clinically backed liver health supplement. This isn't just another capsule or powder. Dose is a liquid supplement taken in a daily two ounce shot and it tastes like fresh squeezed orange juice. Dose cleanses the liver of unwanted stressors that's slowing your liver down and promotes daily liver function so your liver can do its job. Zero sugar, zero junk, zero calories.
38:23Popok:Your liver is your body's filter, handling energy production, digestion, fat metabolism, and vitamin storage. When you drink Dose Daily, you're going to reduce sluggishness, get rid of those midday crashes, support your metabolism, and even aid your daily digestion. Plus, it's got real results with two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies showing its positive impact on liver enzyme levels. Ready to give your liver the support it deserves? Head to dosdaily.co.co.legalaf or enter Legal AF to get 35 % off your first subscription. Your body does so much for you. Let's do something for it. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y.co.legalaf for 35 % off your first month subscription.
39:12Popok:Welcome back. You're on Legal AF at the midweek. Michael Popak and sitting in for Karen Freeman, Ignifolo, Adam Klassfeld. We've got some breaking news hot off the presses. A federal judge in Maryland has blocked again as unconstitutional Donald Trump's latest executive order to try to revive his birthright citizenship original executive order that was thrown out by the United States Supreme Court saying that it is more likely than not. It is likely that the plaintiffs, which are the same plaintiffs that had brought the original case, Casa Incorporated, will prevail on proving that Donald Trump's 12 new categories of people who, even though their babies are born here, those babies are not going to be United States citizens, certainly does not comport with the ruling by the United States Supreme Court.
40:08Popok:Look, the United States Supreme Court made a very specific ruling. And it's said effectively, written by John Roberts, that there are small, narrow categories that were in place 100 years ago in the Wong Kim Ark case. And those are the narrow exceptions that we're going to be okay with and really no others. That's not what Donald Trump heard. What Donald Trump heard is I may be able to peel away a couple of votes because Kavanaugh did not agree that it was a constitutional right to birthright citizenship. He thought it was the citizenship statute and therefore Congress could change it. Oh, there's my opening.
40:55Popok:I'm going to make some changes. But that's not even him. And Kavanaugh was talking about Congress could create special exemptions to take away citizenship from a baby born in the United States, not the executive branch. So now why don't you talk about briefly what Judge Boardman, you know, we're getting it into our hands right now, but Judge Boardman apparently has ruled on preliminary injunction. Well, this is just breaking, as you said, Michael. But then so this is a paraphrase. But from what I just read of the ruling, Boardman said that it is almost certainly unconstitutional for the simple reason that the Supreme Court just decided the case in Barbara v.
41:34Trump. And so it doesn't get more clear than that. The Supreme Court just settled this, that this was a finding 5-4. It was way too close. It should not have been that close. It's 6-3 if you count Kavanaugh and the way that you just described, Michael, that Kavanaugh thought it was – that the constitutional right to birthright citizenship was only as strong as a law. Five thought it was as strong as the Constitution and the 14th Amendment citizenship clause. But either way, Kavanaugh was a partial dissent. And the ruling was that the 14th Amendment means what it says. And that's why Trump can't sneak around it with another executive order.
42:22And this is the same sort of tactic we saw with the tariffs ruling when Trump lost on tariffs. But it's even more egregious than that because with tariffs, the Supreme Court struck down the so-called Liberation Day tariffs under the IEPA, Emergency Economic Emergency Powers Act, and Trump tried other statutes. Here, it's even more egregious because the Constitution remains the Constitution. They didn't strike down the legal basis. So I think this was a very easy decision by the judge. Knowing this Trump Justice Department, they're almost certainly going to appeal it again. But because the composition of the court is exactly the same as it was, it's going to be shot down just as quickly.
43:16And it just this entire episode shows the real shamelessness of the Trump administration in trying to litigate dead issues.
43:28Popok:And Judge Boardman has done it before. There were half a dozen federal judges that universally ruled against him on birthright citizenship from coast to coast and everything in between. And now we're heading for another round tripper back to the United States Supreme Court. which part of the 14th Amendment is in the Constitution and you cannot by executive order change it. Did you not understand in our last decision? That's really where we're heading with the United States Supreme Court. And, you know, he's there are times when I think he's lost even John Roberts. Like, well, we can touch on the ballroom in a moment.
44:09Popok:And so I don't think they're going to be pleased with having to having to address this again. First, it's going to be the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals coming out of Maryland, which is a moderate to liberal appellate division. And I think John Roberts sits over that one. And then we're talking about, you know, when probably it took over a year to get the first birthright citizenship case up to the United States Supreme Court. So I don't think that this may be the next term. And we may be talking about at the end of next summer with all of these blocks in place in the meantime. But kudos to Judge Boardman from converting it to a TRO to a preliminary injunction and entering it as a class-wide, nationwide injunction, which he's entitled to do under these, I believe, under these circumstances.
44:59Popok:So that's some good news coming up from Judge Boardman. Why don't you give an update to our audience about what's going on with James Comey, and then we can turn to mail-in ballots. Well, James Comey just filed a stream of new reply briefs on all of his motions to dismiss the case. And the last time we spoke about this, Michael, we were talking about, well, which of these issues is going to kill this case first? Is it the fact that the government doesn't seem to know what a true threat is under First Amendment law? And I found that James Comey's latest legal filing was so on point with this. I'm going to read a passage from it where he says that even if 8647 could somehow mean kill President Trump, it still wouldn't constitute a threat.
45:51A call for others to commit violence can only be incitement, which the indictment does not charge. The government's attempt to prosecute an incitement case through a threats indictment violates settled law. So the government's theory of the case that Comey photographing seashells on a beach spelled out as 8647 means kill President Trump. And somehow people are going to look at that Instagram post and get so fired up. And that's incitement. One is absolutely ridiculous. But even if you accept that, they charge something different. They charge a true threat, meaning that James Comey himself was threatening Trump's life.
46:36So on First Amendment law, he thinks this is something that just can't stand up and shouldn't go to trial. There's another motion on vindictive prosecution and the vindictive prosecution motion, something that caught my eye. They point out that the Secret Service, when they investigated this after this happened, they said there's not really a case here. They filed it as non-referred. And they quote, and they say that the government doesn't dispute that this was legally a bad idea, that the Secret Service said that it was the post was a beachside venture and a political stand. But all of a sudden, Todd Blanche auditioning for the role of attorney general, this case gets revived, even though the Trump DOJ pushed it aside originally, even though the Secret Service said that this isn't something we're going to refer.
47:38It's a beachside venture. It's a political stand. So I think it's a bunch of very strong briefs to get to just nip it in the bud, get it before it goes anywhere near a jury, because this isn't a case that should see a jury.
47:56Popok:I like the comment in there in the briefing, too, about the difference between bottom up and top down prosecution. They said, who better to make those comparisons than the former director of the FBI and someone who was also a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan. And what the contrast was, hey, for Jan 6th, like Jack Smith, when they did it, they started at the bottom. I was starting to break out into a Drake song. We started at the bottom, now we're here. And here, there was a lot of pushback by the Department of Justice's head at the time, Merrick Garland, about going after Donald Trump.
48:37Popok:Because that's one of the delays. He kept having to be convinced. They were willing to go after the lower level people, you know, who were trying to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power. You know, the fake electors and all that. But like Merrick Garland was not convinced until he was finally convinced about the evidence against the ringleaders up to the apex up to Donald Trump. And so that was a bottom up and led by line prosecutors and having to convince their their authority, their their supervisors in at main justice about it. This is the other way around. This is main justice ordering that the FBI and the Department of Justice prosecutors go after James Comey.
49:27And I've said because of Donald Trump take – what's the word I'm looking for?
49:33Popok:Hijacking his own Department of Justice and effectively serving as his own attorney general, which he said out loud, I am the chief law enforcement officer of – by no more chilling comments has ever been made by a former felon declaring that he's now the chief law enforcement officer. But he did that next to Pam Bondi at a now infamous press conference. And for him, there's such a collapse of the hierarchy. It's such a flat organization where if Donald Trump sneezes, Todd Blanche indicts or Pam Bondi does. So everybody who is a political critic or somebody that Donald Trump sees as the enemy can have the argument that they're being vindictively prosecuted by headquarters.
50:16Right. And part of the reason that they quoted that, the bottom up passage, was that they were actually quoting from the ruling that rejected Donald Trump's claims of vindictive and selective prosecution, where a federal judge, Judge Shutkin, pointed out that there was no indication that Biden ever publicly commented on the case, let alone interfered. And they're contrasting that with everything that happened with James Comey, where Trump is in a apparently failed DM posting on his true social that he wants Matt Bondi to pursue a prosecution. And that was the genesis of the first case. The first case fails.
51:02And he keeps going after Comey. That the entire the entire contrasting of the bottom up prosecution going after the low level January 6 rioters up to the top who inspired the insurrection. That was that was what made that passage so compelling because they're pointing out that when Trump was prosecuted, this is how it was handled. A federal judge heard all of the evidence of Trump's claims that this was a witch hunt, that this was some sort of political plot, and there was no indication. And here, there's this mountain of public record of Trump calling for his enemies to be prosecuted and his former defense attorney, Todd Blanche, saying, yes, sir.
51:55Exactly.
51:56Popok:And Don Lemon effectively doing the same thing in a parallel series of motions about his indictment for being a journalist and a critic, in Donald Trump's mind, of Donald Trump. Very similar, if you put the filings next to each other, very, very similar arguments being raised in both of them. I wanted to take another short break. So many great ways to support what we do here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. You can become a member of our Legal AF YouTube community, 1.2 million strong, by becoming a subscriber. It's all for free, 12 videos a day. Amazing contributors, including Adam Klassfeld.
52:47Popok:We also have Legal AF Substack help push us in to the top 10 for U.S. news. And I'm running a sale this weekend, 50 % off for new members to become paid members of Legal AF Substack. You're really going to like the content there as well. So those are two major ways. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors. And here's a word from them now. Violent threats against executives are growing at an alarming rate. When a company experiences backlash, executives are the first people blamed. When their address and other personal details are sitting online, this backlash can lead right to their front door.
53:25Popok:The team at Ironwall knows this better than anyone. They've protected some of the most targeted executives and individuals on the planet for almost two decades. as a white glove enterprise security service. They protect your people with continuous personal data removal, proactive prevention tools, and human-led emergency support. So when someone goes looking for your executives, Ironwall ensures they hit a dead end. So here's what to do. Go to ironwall.com slash legal AF, fill in the quick form, and request your free risk assessment. Their team will show you just how exposed your executives are and how to lock it down before a threat reaches their front door.
54:05Popok:That's ironwall.com slash legal AF. Learn how to stop online threats before they become real world attacks. The links are in the show notes. Do you snore? Did somebody hand you a CPAP and did you quietly stop using it? The mask that never quite seals, the hose tugging at you every time you roll over and a machine sitting abandoned in a closet. Packing it for a trip and then deciding it's not worth it. Excite OSA works a different way. It treats a root cause instead of managing the noise, and you use it while you are awake. In clinical studies, 90 % of patients saw a reduction in snoring. Thanks to today's sponsor, Spring Sleep.
54:46Popok:Excite OSA is an FDA-cleared prescription-only device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Go to springsleep.com slash legal AF and unlock 20 % off with the code legal AF. Excite OSA is an FDA-cleared prescription-only device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Not for everyone. Individual results vary. Risks and benefits at springsleep.com. Wrap it up with mail-in ballots, because as you know from your own comments on your channel and your work, the number one thing that people are concerned about right now as we head into less than 60 days before the midterms, It's a sacred right to vote and making sure the people that want to vote by mail-in ballots are able to and not have the post office play God about or, you know, a Roman emperor who lives and who dies, who gets the mail-in ballot.
55:44Popok:States determine under the Constitution who gets the mail-in ballot. The mail, the post office is supposed to be a ministerial process of delivering the mail, not saying, well, we won't deliver that mail that you've designated to be delivered unless you use a citizenship database that we just created just before lunch with all sorts of bugs and flaws in it. and you need to use a special envelope and a barcode. And if the barcode gets stuck in the reader, we're just going to reject delivering all tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots. No, this is not okay. And this is in front of Judge Telwani.
56:25Popok:She has a couple of cases that have come together there, one brought by the states, the Democratic Attorneys General, and the other by public interest groups. And she has set herself up because there's another judge down in D.C., Judge Nichols has got a couple of cases that are similar, but she wants to go first. She's been blocking and blocking and temporary restraining and preliminary and next to hopefully tomorrow, preliminary injunction on the post office effing around with our mail in ballots, determining who gets a ballot or not. You know, if I'm waiting around, my state sends me a ballot.
56:56Popok:I don't want my post, my postal worker going, I don't know. I can't read. There's a typo in the name. Let's just throw that in the trash. Anybody out there ever had a typo or something in their ticket at the airport and try to get a boarding pass? Good luck. And this is even worse. So Judge Talwani's got a big hearing on Thursday. And now we got a whistleblower. Talk about the whistleblower and how that came forward through Senator Blumenthal and how it's now front and center in front of Judge Talwani. Well, it doesn't get more scorching than the language in this whistleblower report. I'm just going to read one passage from it that really highlights it.
57:35Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner or at all. Whistleblower's assessment and recitation of the facts around the risky and haphazard development of the project is a compelling warning of catastrophic failure, which could derail the midterm elections. And this is part of a much longer and even more excoriating whistleblower disclosure. I think the words, the phrase catastrophic failure appears at least three or more times during this report in terms of what this whistleblower is warning of. They're saying that if there's a mistake in one, you mentioned the typo problem, if there's a problem scanning one ballot in a batch of, say, 10 ,000, none of them go out.
58:32And so that's why they think millions of ballots might not reach their destination. And the whistleblower also says, and this is of great interest to Judge Tawani, or I expect it will be, the whistleblower says that this system, this IT system that they're creating on this rush timeline, was that there was work going on during the time that they were forbidden from doing any work. that while Taiwanese restraining orders and injunctions were in place. As a matter of fact, they quote the language of one of the restraining orders, and it couldn't be more clear that they are forbidden at USPS from taking, that they should, quote, take no further preparatory steps or implement in any way for elections occurring before or on November 3rd, 2026.
59:30This entire whistleblower disclosure is they were doing just that and they were violating the court's orders. And I can see why people who vote by mail would be very afraid after looking at this whistleblower report. I think that's going to be on Judge Talwani's mind when this comes to court on Thursday. And she's hearing that of the violations of her order and the fact that USPS is moving ahead with creating a system that risks, in the words of this whistleblower, catastrophic failure against the express terms of her order. Right.
1:00:13Popok:And so tomorrow's hearing, and we're moving at warp speed here, Adam. Right. I think she already has the bulk of her order already written. She's read the briefs. There have been such activity in the last two days on the docket for this case, 15 entries on the 31st, another 15 to 20 entries yesterday and a few more today. Everybody wants to get in on it. We have friends of the court who are trying to file briefs to guide the judge, most of them against the Postal Service order. She's let most of them in. I think she's got most of that order already written. Yes, she's going to hold an oral argument and get a couple of her questions answered.
1:00:54Popok:So I would not be shocked given how close we are to the midterms and her desire to get a final decision by the United States Supreme Court that could be helpful for the midterms. I think she's going to work overtime. We might see an order tomorrow night. I think Friday is realistic, Saturday at the latest. Then there's going to be the inevitable appeal. I mean, Trump already tried an appeal, but did it prematurely. They'll now appeal the preliminary injunction that she is 100 percent going to enter off of tomorrow. And that will go up to the First Circuit Court of Appeals sitting also in Boston.
1:01:35Popok:Then a emergency when he loses there and he will three zero or two one. Then an emergency Hail Mary into the United States Supreme Court. For those that are thinking, did the Supreme Court already rule on this? Sort of, but not really. Ten days ago, they ruled. I don't know why you, this is my artist rendering, I don't know why you're so excited, I don't know why you're in court right now. They haven't actually passed the rule yet. You may be injured, we don't know, time will tell. Come back when the rule passes, or the rule is finalized and published. Now, the rule had already been finalized 72 hours before, but they sort of ignored that, that stubborn little fact that the rule for the post office had already been published.
1:02:14Popok:And now quickly through Judge Talwani, these groups, the states and the public interest groups did a new complaint or a new amended complaint. And they said, Judge, the rule is out. It's unconstitutional what they're trying to do. And let's get on a fast track. This is about as fast as you're ever going to see a judge rule on something. So we could be at the Supreme Court with a filing by like Labor Day or the middle of next week, right? Absolutely. And I think you're right. I think that Judge Kalwani is going to act very, very quickly. It went to the First Circuit before, as you noted, and the First Circuit found against Trump.
1:02:57I don't think that this is a close call for anyone there. You know, we know that the Constitution is very explicit, that the President of the United States has no say in the administration of elections, that the Constitution vests the state legislatures, and in some instances, the Congress in the administration of elections. And so I think that her order is likely to look quite similar to all of her previous rulings to date. I think that the First Circuit is going to rule quickly, and I think that the Supreme Court is actually going to have to reach a decision on the merits this time. When the Supreme Court lifted one of the injunctions last time, they did so on ripeness grounds.
1:03:51They said it wasn't ready because the final rule wasn't published at the time. Well, now it's published. Now there isn't that fig leaf, and the Constitution is clear.
1:04:00Popok:I'd like to see the Supreme Court just start playing some hardball in the middle and on the left. Like Ketanji Brown Jackson is the justice for the First Circuit. The emergency application will go to her first. I don't want, here's what I don't want to see. I'm sorry to Justice Jackson. I don't want to see the emergency petition was submitted to Justice Jackson and referred to the entire court for a decision. No, she should deny the emergency application for stay, right, based on the First Circuit, And then let them let the let let the Trump administration try to lob in as they've had in the past to try to get somebody and try to get the four votes that they need to pull up the petition.
1:04:51Popok:But don't do it. I mean, the niceties of, well, you know, such a big issue. We should let the entire court decide F that go back to the old days. One justice makes the decision. And if you don't like it, tough, tough. you know what, and go write a letter and see if you can get four justices. We've got to stop with the niceties at the United States Supreme Court. This is why people like James Clyburn, the South Carolina senator, has come out and said, no, I'm not. Senator, House member, right, Clyburn? Yes. Yeah, Senator, House member. Yeah, he said, yeah, it's time for a baker's dozen. It's time to pack the court with more people on the Supreme Court.
1:05:37Popok:We got to stop with this. I mean, she should use her power to block this and let them deal with it afterwards. Right. You know, if there's any justice that would do that, I think that it's Justice Jackson. She was there with an excoriating dissent the first time. She's one of the ones who kind of forgoes the niceties when the occasion calls for it. And the, you know, entire constitutional order is at stake. Her dissent in the birthright citizenship case was as fiery as it gets. She was the one who wrote a separate dissent when it came to this particular mail-in ballots executive order. And because those are the stakes, this is Donald Trump, someone who has tried to subvert an election in 2020, doing something with elections just months before the midterms that has never been attempted by an American president to turn, as you put it, Michael, a ministerial service, the delivery of the mail into something that could be weaponized by the government for perceived political gains.
1:06:54Now, it might be a political miscalculation. There are lots of people who vote in rural areas that tend to vote Republican and vote by mail. And there's new reporting from the New York Times that some of those post offices can't handle the demands of what's happening. And all of those people might be disenfranchised. But either way, on the core constitutional issue, and you set politics aside, here's a U.S. president months before a midterm that by all accounts he is losing and losing badly trying to make sweeping changes that can disenfranchise millions. Tossing the usual niceties to address that threat within a Supreme Court justice's constitutional power does seem to be the order of the day.
1:07:49Popok:Yeah, I totally agree with you. And thanks for being here and bringing, you know, your seeing things through your lens and how you follow things and your unique commentary. So many different ways to support what we do here on Legal AF. One of them is to become a subscriber on Midas Touch and on Legal AF YouTube channel, 1.2 million strong. We, it's a free to subscribe, but it does help us immensely. The bigger we are, the more your voice is heard. Legal AF Substack, where we post the pleadings and filings and orders like birthright citizenship and everything else. I do a live report every day.
1:08:37Popok:Sometimes Adam Classfield joins me and other people join me. It's a second great way. You can download the audio of this podcast, become a subscriber there. that is very, very helpful as is five-star reviews. These are all the different ways. They're all for free on how to support what we do. If you want to go further and become a paid member of our Legal AF Substack, I am running a Labor Day sale, 50 % off for new members. Comes out to, I don't know, like cents a day. I think it's four cents a day or something like that. But it is very, very helpful over on Legal AF Substack. And then of course we got Adam Klassfeld joining us and you should follow everything that Adam Klassfeld does on All Rise News.
1:09:20Popok:He does his video work with us on Legal AF YouTube channel. Then he's got his sub stack, a very hot sub stack that you're going to want to follow as well. Adam, thanks for being with us here. And I look forward to all of your work and getting together on our sub stacks. Thank you, Michael. Always enjoy our discussions, and I'm looking forward to the next time. And to our listeners, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.
1:10:14We'll be right back. The crown is yours.
1:10:45Transcription by CastingWords
From the publisher
Popok joined by guest anchor Adam Klasfeld of All Rise News (in for KFA), provide real time breaking legal and political news commentary about a federal judge blocking Trump’s birthright citizenship attack again, a federal judge on the verge of holding Todd Blanche in Contempt related to the Epstein Files; a Trump insider deep inside his Administration providing new evidence directly to a federal judge about Trump’s mail in ballot plot; and so much more at the intersection of law and politics.
DOSE DAILY: Save 35% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/LEGALAF or entering LEGALAF at checkout.
SPRING SLEEP: Thanks to today’s sponsor, Spring Sleep: eXciteOSA is an FDA-cleared, prescription-only device for primary snoring and mild obstructive sleep apnea. Go to https://springsleep.com/legalaf and unlock 20% off with the code LEGALAF
IRONWALL: Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Visit https://ironwall.com/legalaf and request a free Risk Assessment to see exactly how exposed your executives are.
DELETE ME: Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to join https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF at checkout.
Become a member of Legal AF YouTube community: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJgZJZZbnLFPr5GJdCuIwpA/join
Learn more about the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com
Subscribe to Legal AF Substack: https://michaelpopok.substack.com/labordaysale
Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts:
MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast
Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af
Sidebar with Katie Phang: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sidebar-with-katie-phang/id1886801652
The Parnas Perspective: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-parnas-perspective/id1869165949
The Intersection with Michael Popok: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-intersection-with-michael-popok/id1818863274
MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial
The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast
The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show
The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show
Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats
Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54
On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman
Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered
Five Minute News: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/five-minute-news/id1471715443
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
