Legal AF Full Episode - 8/20/2025

29:15And that's the thing, like I said, that I get the most frustrated with. It's like, okay, we can disagree, but let's disagree on facts. Let's not lie and pick and choose and mischaracterize. And that's the thing, like I said, that just makes me so crazy. And so on that note, I am going to ask everybody, if you're not a subscriber to Midas Touch, please hit the subscribe button. If you're not a subscriber to the Legal AF YouTube channel, subscribe to that too. we depend on our listeners and our and the people who watch and listen and and really participate in this community this is what helps us keep the lights on and we really appreciate that people support our sponsors who choose us right they know what we're about and they choose us they choose to advertise on, on this network.

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33:34Thank you, Miracle Made, for sponsoring this episode. We're back, and thanks for staying with us. We have so much more to talk about. just, you know, we were just talking about Jeffrey Epstein and how I still hold out hope that this issue is bipartisan. I still hold out hope that both parties care about sexual exploitation of children in particular. And that is something that we should all be in agreement is terrible. And I'm hoping that the Republicans on the congressional committee, ultimately, at least some of them, at least one of them will come forward and help finally shine some light on this issue.

34:20Because I do think this is an issue that so many people care about, and that really does cut across party lines. So I'm going to keep my optimistic hat on here and hope that they'll do the right thing. But there are some issues that the Republicans that have this weird, in my opinion, obsession with. And I know this is not a topic that we're going to cover, but I just want to mention it because I cannot believe what I read today, which is that the Department of Justice has issued subpoenas demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients.

35:06And I bring that up because this is the issue that they seem to be obsessed with. This is, I don't know what it is. I don't know why they are so against trans people. Why it is that your sexual orientation or your gender identity are two things that it's like an obsession with the Republicans. It's something that they care so much about. They're going to, they've already, you know, that and abortion, right? They're already chipping away at abortion. They're going to chip away at marriage equality. But the fact that they are now sending subpoenas to, one of them was to a children's hospital of Philadelphia.

35:52They issued over 20 subpoenas and they were seeking to quote, hold medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of warped ideology accountable. That's what they wrote on their on their subpoenas. Like, that's how they look at this issue. And they're asking for emails, Zoom recordings, every writing or record whatsoever that a doctor may have voicemails, text messages, etc. etc. about hormone therapy, puberty blockers, gender transition surgery, etc. And, you know, back, it used to be, you know, in 2020, about half the states passed laws that now don't allow this anymore.

36:37And now they're trying to, this is the Department of Justice issuing subpoenas. That means they are building criminal cases against medical providers, saying that they may have violated criminal statutes. This isn't like they're issuing subpoenas to look at healthcare fraud or health insurance fraud, something that they should be looking at, right? They are looking at doctors and looking to punish them for medical decisions made between a patient and a doctor about because of their own ideology. And if this isn't going to have a chilling effect going forward, I mean, I can't imagine the parents of these children who are already struggling.

37:16I mean, And I can't imagine what it's like to be in a body and have a gender that isn't who you are, that your body is just different and that there's a solution. There's medicine that can help you. And that there are doctors who can help you and that you can then live in the body that you are meant to live in. You can live the identity that you are. and the fact that they are trying to criminalize this is so shocking to me and so appalling to me. I can't, I just can't believe it. I just had to mention it. No, I mean, for sure that's going to get, they want a lawsuit on this. They want to go back to the Supreme Court.

38:00The Supreme Court just handed them a huge win this last term on transgender rights, basically allowing all those states to ban transgender medical care, right? They already allow that. This is this lawsuit waiting to happen. They want to go back to the Supreme Court. They want the Supreme Court to allow this to become criminal for these doctors. And it's because it's a winning political issue for them. I do not believe in any way that they actually care. It's because back 20 years ago, it was a winning issue for them to make it a culture thing of fear mongering around same sex marriage. And now it's become more acceptable.

38:39So they shift. And now it's become about transgender because frankly, most people in life have never met somebody who has transitioned. And so it's easy to turn them into an object of fear. And it is what has helped them with this last election. And so they are leaning into it. And Democrats cannot be afraid to talk about this issue. I feel like we are not a party if we're going to throw our transgender children to the wolves. I know a few people here in Los Angeles who have had to go through this. And it is excruciating as a family. Most children who transition are suicidal. And doctors will talk about this, too.

39:20It is an excruciating medical decision that should be about the parents and the children and their doctor. And it's sickening that Trump gets involved because he thinks he can win a few votes if you make them the outcast, if you make them the problem. And this lawsuit is for sure trying to just, you know, they're going to run on it, right? The midterms, oh, this is what the DOJ did and look how great we are. And it's another political point on their side. And it's a way to get back to the Supreme Court to get even more of a win. And I'm not okay with them doing that to transgender children. And Democrats can't be afraid to talk about it.

40:01Yeah, I agree. I agree. So let's now pivot to Abrego Garcia, okay, because this is their other big issue, right? The deportation, what we were talking about earlier when we started this, and what's going on with Abrego Garcia. So Abrego Garcia's lawyer are basically bringing, they brought a 35-page filing saying that, alleging vindictive prosecution, which is very interesting. Selective prosecution, vindictive prosecution, they're similar. And saying that the criminal charges against him that were brought in Nashville are only because they're pissed off that he complained that they mistakenly deported him in the first place.

40:46and this filing. And they're basically saying, and it's a really hard standard to make out because prosecutors have enormous discretion, right? A prosecutor has tremendous discretion. It's a thing, right? To bring cases, to not bring cases, to show leniency on certain people, to go hard on others. And it's something that every prosecutor's office in this country has, this discretion and something that they exercise regularly. When I was a prosecutor in the Manhattan DA's office, we used our discretion, for example, to stop prosecuting things like prostitution or not paying your subway fare. Because believe it or not, when you didn't pay your subway fare in New York City, if you jumped the turnstile, that was considered a class A misdemeanor.

41:37The exact same level of misdemeanor as if you endanger the welfare of a child. That is how the criminal, the books in New York treated that crime. And so we used our discretion to say, look, no, that's not something that we're going to waste our prosecutorial resources on. Or we would say, oh, look, violent crime is up in a certain area. So we're going to turn our focus to that area. And we're going to use our discretion to put a lot of resources in that area because violent crime is up. And so prosecutorial discretion is nothing new. It's something that is done all the time. But what's happening and what they're claiming is that this was a vindictive prosecution because don't forget, so Abrego Garcia was married.

42:21He was here legal, lawfully. He wasn't a citizen, but he was here lawfully. And he has children here. He works here. And he was mistakenly deported and sent to El Salvador, a country that he didn't, that the immigration court said he didn't have to go. He was allowed to stay here because he was being persecuted down there and his life was in danger there. And so they mistakenly deported him and it turned into a huge giant political issue for the Trump administration, right? That went all the way up to the Supreme Court who actually agreed and said, you have to facilitate his return. It's one of the few times that the Trump, that the Supreme Court did not vote in favor of the Trump administrations.

43:07And you have to facilitate his return. And they thumbed their nose at it. They basically said, yeah, right. They had a press conference with the president of El Salvador. And they all like yucking it up, laughing, basically saying, oh, we don't have the authority. Or I didn't even ask. And then there was that newspaper article that said the Trump administration must facilitate the return. And someone in the administration took red marker and crossed out certain words and basically made a joke out of the headline and then posted it online as if to kind of say, yeah, right, we're really going to do this.

43:49I mean, they were so egregious about how they're not going to listen. They're not going to facilitate it. But then they had to, and then they got him back. And they were so pissed off about that, that they had to do it, that they basically did a colonoscopy on Abrego Garcia's life. They found that he had a traffic ticket, essentially, from back in 2022, where he was stopped in a car. He had other migrants or other people in the car. The law enforcement took down the information and then decided not to do anything about it and let him go. Right. And they then decided to conduct a criminal investigation into that and now brought human smuggling charges, which is not trafficking, by the way.

44:34So if the administration or anyone tries to say, oh, this is human trafficking, there's a big difference between human trafficking and smuggling. Smuggling, smuggling, human smuggling is a crime, but it's not a serious of a crime. It just basically means transporting people who are here illegally, but they want to be transported. It's giving them a ride. It's helping them enter the country. It's moving them around the country. It's it's basically you're an Uber driver, essentially. That's very different than human trafficking, which require which is which is against someone's will by force, fraud or coercion that you're moving them around.

45:11and bringing them into this country. And so don't let them sort of call it what it's not. It's smuggling if it's anything, and that's what the charges are. But what they said was that basically that they brought this case and manufactured this case just because they were mad that he won essentially in the Supreme Court. And so this is now a case that they're bringing in Maryland which is where he's from Maryland. The criminal case is in Tennessee because that's where he was stopped. But in Maryland, there's a civil case going on and this is where they filed it and said, this is a vindictive prosecution.

45:57Dina, did you get a chance to look at this filing? Yeah. I mean, and I think they have a very strong argument, like to your point that this is a very rare thing to do, but I can't think of a case that is more, you know, perfectly suited for it because Trump can't lose, right? Like he lied about losing in 2020. He's like a narcissist. And he couldn't do the right thing. He lost at the Supreme Court. He couldn't bring back Arbrego Garcia without charging him because it would have been a loss to him. And this poor man, this poor man having the weight of the government against him again and again, he deserves to have this dismissed.

46:39You know, in the filing, they were there's so much evidence about this case being, you know, about a vindictiveness. I mean, the fact that, you know, there's a gag order against the DOJ because of all of the awful things that they've been saying about him already trying to taint the jury. They point out in the filing that Trump himself, of course, was happy about the fact that the DOJ charged him saying, quote, you know, it is now a way to show everybody how horrible this guy is. Right. That's not about whether or not he actually did the crime. But he wants he had to win. He had to say, see, this person was so horrible.

47:15I should have deported him. And the filing saying, quote, the unprecedented public pronouncements attacking Mr. Abrego for his successful exercise of constitutional rights by senior cabinet members, leaders of the DOJ and even the president of the United States. Make this the rare case where actual vindictiveness is clear from the record. Seriously, this poor man having the president of the United States lie about him repeatedly, you know, obviously calling for this criminal prosecution because he lost, because he had to bring him back. And to the point of this person that I know who fled this country, it's because of this kind of thing.

48:02If the law cannot protect Abrego Garcia in this moment, this just gives amplifies that people are not safe here, even if they're hardworking, even if they pay their taxes, even if they're just trying to go about living their lives. If the president of the United States can personally not like you because he lost to the Supreme Court and you are dragged into another criminal trial, this is why people are fleeing. And so this is so important. I thought they did a really good job with that filing. And I think they have a really good shot at winning. And I think it is essential that they win in order for there to be some sort of giving people some sort of hope.

48:47You know, people here undocumented, some sort of hope that the law can be on their side. Because right now, it doesn't seem like it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, interestingly, so he's held in on his criminal case and he wanted to stay in because he's afraid if he gets out. And held in meaning like he's in custody criminally. And he wanted to stay in initially because he's afraid if he gets out that they'll deport him again. And so it's it's so one of the reasons that you hold someone in custody when they're pretrial, right, which is you can either be given bail or you can be held in and denied bail and or you could just be released without any conditions.

49:31But one of the reasons you hold someone in is because they're either a danger to your future dangerousness or they are at risk of fleeing. This is the opposite. it. Okay. He, he is, he wants to stay. He doesn't want to flee. Right. And so he's not at a risk and there's no danger. Right. And so they're going to release him and he's supposed to be released, I think on Friday, because he doesn't meet the standard of, of being held in custody. And I think he's afraid of being deported and not prosecuted. And, um, you know, he, he asked the court to allow him to return to Maryland from Tennessee as a free man and be protected against being deported.

50:17And, you know, he has to be given, according to Judge Zinnes, at least three business days to be able to, if they seek to remove him to a country other than El Salvador, which of course they haven't said which country that's going to be. But that's all he's asking for. He's just asking for and what people are asking for is due process, right? But just not to be whisked away in the middle of the night and which is what's been happening to so many individuals, right? They're being sent to countries that they have no connection with, a language that they don't speak. They don't know anyone there.

50:53Some of these countries are extremely dangerous and without any notice, without any due process. And that's all everyone is asking for. No one, you know, I don't know if Abrego Garcia is a good person, a bad person, if he did this crime or didn't do this crime or, or what, right? I have no idea. I don't think anyone knows because there's been no trials, right? But what has happened and what they are doing is they're not giving him process and not giving him due process, which is what's required by law and in the constitution of the United States. And that's what I think so many people, myself included, are, are upset about because they deported him mistakenly to begin with.

51:34And if you gave him due process, that would have never happened in the first place. And just to add to that, even people who are on our soil, but in these detention centers, one, some of them aren't getting due process because they're being denied access to their lawyers. But the reports coming out of that alligator Alcatraz, this cootsie name they gave to this detention center, the suffering in there, because the reality is the bill that was passed and all the money they're going to build these detention centers, they don't need detention centers. You can deport somebody to their own country.

52:10You just need enough judges. And they're not putting the money to hire judges in order to facilitate the deportation faster. Instead, they're putting money to detention centers to hold people on this soil while they wait for the due process so they can be abused and suffer. And this, again, is why there are people now who are American refugees who are leaving because they don't want to even go through that process because who knows how long they're going to be in these detention centers. This isn't even, even if they're trying to quote, give somebody due process, it's not due process. If you're sitting in a detention center waiting for your hearing, when you are putting money to build more detention centers, instead of paying for more judges, If you want people deported, go ahead and deport them.

52:59But that's not what they're doing. They are creating suffering for people in this country who have been working hard here. And that is like the evil out of this administration. Yeah, it's really sad. These are human beings and these are human beings' lives. And in this day and age that they're being treated this way, it's just shocking to me. I can't believe it. And when we come back from our next short break, so come back, stay with us. We have more to talk about. We are going to talk about a related case because the Trump administration, when when Judge Zinnis, you know, basically called him out and and and the chief of the Maryland bench issued an order saying you can't just deport people in Maryland.

53:45You got to give them due process. What did the Trump administration do? that's decided to sue all of Maryland's federal court judges, all of them, which is crazy. I've never seen anything like it in my life. So we're going to take another quick break. We're going to talk about that, talk about what's happening in that. And we have so much more to talk about. You know, as much time as I spend prepping, reading and recording for Legal AF, I didn't realize how much sitting all day was dragging me down physically and mentally. By the end of the day, I felt stiff, foggy and worn out. That's why I started using this episode's sponsor, Uplift Desk, total game changer.

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56:22The only way to get 20 % off is to go to joindeliteme.com slash Legal AF and enter code Legal AF at checkout. That's joindeleteme.com slash legal AF and code legal AF. Okay, we're back. And Dina likes to talk about what's going on in Maryland with these federal judges. So I think there's about 14 judges in the Maryland federal district court. That's the trial level of the federal courts. And it is turning out to be this ground zero of this immigration clash between the judges and the Trump administration. And I think it's because of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He challenged how the administration was removing detainees with no due process, no notice.

57:12And so Judge Thomas Cullen is hearing a lawsuit. He's not from Maryland because all of those judges were basically taken off, conflicted off the case. Because if you sue, I think if you sue all 14 or 15 judges in Maryland, however many there are, if you're suing them all, how could you, they can't listen to the case. So they had to bring him in. He's from Virginia. He's a Trump appointee, which is really interesting. And he's hearing a essentially this this lawsuit because there's this temporary bar that was issued by the chief judge in Maryland that basically said the administration cannot carry out fast moving deportations of immigrants.

58:03Right. That's all he's saying is slow it down. And so there's this temporary bar. And Judge Collin, who is hearing this case, had a two-hour hearing, and he criticized the administration's decision to file this lawsuit and is questioning whether this is going to lead to other litigation against federal judges. It's sort of unprecedented. And what I loved about it is they're saying there's judicial immunity. The judges are represented by this very well-known, he's sort of a legend, he's a conservative lawyer, Paul Clement. He was George W. Bush's solicitor general. He's argued, I think, over 100 cases before the Supreme Court.

58:43I mean, really a top notch, very highly respected Supreme Court litigator, which is a whole other type of litigator, right? It's the top of the top, right, are the solicitors general and the Supreme Court litigators. And the judges hired Paul Clement and essentially said, you know, that he argued, Paul Clement argued that the judges have judicial immunity from lawsuits like this one and that there's no cause of action here. This is kind of unprecedented. And the judge here seems skeptical. So he's going to rule, I think, by Labor Day. But this is sort of interesting, right? Former judges have come forward and filed amicus briefs on this.

59:28And, you know, you can't just sue a whole court, right? If you want to, if you don't, if you don't like this, do it on a case by case basis. Argue that the, you know, the file an appeal file, you know, if you don't like that, we said you can't deport someone in the middle of the night that you have to give them due process, then appeal it. But to just go ahead and try to conflict out an entire sitting bench of judges. I don't think that's going to fly. What do you think? Not at all. And even the Trump appointed judge, he said, quote, you probably picked up that I don't have a very good poker face and, quote, completely skeptical of it.

1:00:05The fact is the order that Trump didn't like happened way back in May 21st. He could have appealed. The Supreme Court probably already was spoken on it if it ended up going that far up there because the Supreme Court has been acting relatively fast to appeals such as this. This is all about like a facade. This is a facade. It will take so much longer for Trump. Let's say let's say that lawsuit even works, even though to your point, the judicial immunity, it's going to not even work. But let's say it did. It would take him so much longer than if he had just appealed that order. And that's how you know this isn't actually about him not liking the order.

1:00:47We have a mechanism in place, relatively easy to do it. He wants, you know, his fascist approach is to tear down our justice system, our judiciary. And he does it, you know, by talking about the nationwide injunctions. Right. And he talks about it, about these biased judges. And he talks about it with this lawsuit disparaging. Really, that's what it is. He's disparaging an entire court system in the state of Maryland. the president of the United States doing this. This is attack on our co-equal branches of government. That's all it is. It's a talking point for him and for his allies when they go out on Fox News.

1:01:32This isn't about anything actually related to the law because he's doing it in like the worst possible way if it were truly just about the order.

1:01:45I agree with you completely. It's just unbelievable to me that they're doing this. And, you know, you can't just go after the judges because you don't like them. I mean, I've just never seen anything like this before. So I don't think that's going to go anywhere. Obviously, Trump will appeal it. I don't think that'll go anywhere. But we'll see what the Supreme Court does. But the separation of powers means something and it's important. And Congress, you know, they make the laws and the judges interpret the laws and the president is supposed to enforce the laws. Right. That's what they're supposed to do.

1:02:21And they're not supposed to break the law. And they're not supposed to sue the judges because they don't like that they aren't ruling in your favor. you can appeal their rulings. That's why we have appellate courts, right? That's why we have intermediate appellate courts and the Supreme Court. And the Supreme Court has no problem letting Donald Trump run there on an emergency basis and have him almost be his personal legal advisor, right? I mean, that's what they're doing. And that's how you do it. But you don't just, this is just another intimidation tactic to try to intimidate judges and intimidate everyone, frankly.

1:02:55That's what's going on and I'm nothing shy of that. So I very much look forward to watching that and to see what that decision is. But this is a really important one because it has to do with judicial independence and the separation of powers. And the separation of powers, look, this country was founded on there are no kings. We don't want a king. And we want three separate but equal branches of government. And we have a massive power play here of authoritarianism that's happening. People much smarter than me who are historians and who follow these things can talk about how this is happening in other countries as we speak.

1:03:35And this has happened in the past. My father, who is a Holocaust survivor, and my grandparents were, will say that this reminds him of what the playbook for Nazi Germany, right? This intimidation. And it's just, it's really scary what's happening in the world. And it's happening, like I said, in some other countries, and he's taking their playbook. And this brute force intimidation has to be countered and people have to stay strong. And so to the extent that we can shine a bright light on it, to the extent that we can all stick together, hopefully we can save our democracy and our system of checks and balances.

1:04:18And that's all we're trying to do here. Yeah. And the Supreme Court will side with the justices here. I mean, we should, I think that's a pretty obvious given because if this lawsuit proceeds, the judges will be deposed, their court records, internal communications could be open to discovery. And we have our Supreme Court justices unwilling to even show up to Congress to speak about their yacht trips because they feel as if there is the separation of powers and they shouldn't be exposed to, you know, the Congress to talk the truth and have ethics rules. So, you know, they have a vested interest, let's say, in keeping some separation there.

1:05:02So I would be surprised if Trump actually got a win on this with the Supreme Court. Yeah, I'd be surprised as well, but we'll see to be determined. So I want to pivot now to our final issue, which is Alina Habba, who is the acting United States attorney in the District of New Jersey, which is in complete chaos right now. the entire district of New Jersey, because Alina Habba, who has no prosecution experience, who has never been in law enforcement or a prosecutor, and everybody agrees, is unqualified to be the United States attorney in that office, you know, in exchange for being Donald Trump's personal lawyer, who she lost so many cases, right?

1:05:52She was the lawyer on the civil fraud case and so many of his other cases, but she was a spokesperson. In exchange, he put her in as the United States attorney. And there's an expiration date on that, right? You can hold that type of job as an interim. You can be appointed for 120 days. But within that time period, you have to nominate them and they then go before the Senate and you get, you know, you have hearings and you get confirmed. And the two New Jersey senators who are Democrats did not nominate her. And that's how it works is they have to be the ones to nominate or to put, I'm sorry, Trump nominated her, but they have to be the ones to kind of put her before the Senate and they didn't.

1:06:48And so her term expired. There's another way that you can become United States Attorney, which is the judges, the district court judges can vote, essentially, and confirm someone and put them in the place. And Alina Habba's number two, her chief assistant, was somebody who actually had prosecution experience, was a highly respected prosecutor. Her name was Desiree Grace. She's a Republican, but she is competent and she's good. And so Alina Haba, I think knowing that she doesn't know anything about prosecution, had to have a really smart, good number two to actually do the work and run the office.

1:07:27The judges, the district court judges in New Jersey didn't vote Alina Haba in. They voted Desiree Grace as the United States attorney because she's actually qualified. They weren't trying to be partisan, right? They didn't try to put in a Democrat. They didn't try to put in a political appointee because the prosecutor, right? All prosecutors and anyone who's taking away people's liberties, which is what a prosecutor does, you prosecute crimes, can't be partisan. It can't be political. You can have a certain political opinion, but that has to go out the door when you go and go to work and you're looking at whether to prosecute someone, you have to prosecute them, as we always say, without fear or favor.

1:08:13And politics has no place in the criminal justice system ever. It's supposed to be, justice is supposed to be blind. And so, but the judges thought, she's qualified, she's great. We're not going to use this as a political position. We're going to give you someone that you liked, that you appointed, that you put in the position, but who's actually qualified because Alina Habba is not. And what did Trump do? He fired her. He fired her. She's no longer a federal prosecutor, which is such a shame for her, for her career, but also ridiculous. And then he made Alina Habba an acting United States attorney as opposed to the interim United States attorney.

1:09:00I might've gotten those terms mixed up. I can't, I'm so confused, but, but, but he basically is trying to shoehorn her in as, as the acting United States attorney. But the problem is there's a little pesky law that says you can't do that. If you've already nominated the person for officially nominated, then you can't do it. And the fact of the matter is he nominated her. So as, as, you know, he put forth her name, even though she didn't get it. So what's happening in New Jersey is all the criminal cases are being put on hold. There are criminal, there are defendants who are seeking dismissal of their indictments because they believe that what Trump is doing here by trying to put her as United States attorney, that he's just trying to bypass the constitutional checks and balances, and that this nomination has made her ineligible to serve as acting under this, it's called the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which is a law that says essentially there are well-established mechanisms that can give her temporary power, but unfortunately not if she's been nominated, and she was nominated.

1:10:20And so there's over 1 ,500 active federal cases in New Jersey that have been postponed or canceled. So it's bananas. Justice has basically screeched to a halt in New Jersey. Yeah, I mean, Trump has made us less safe across the board with his appointment of an incompetent person to the FAA, to taking people off of actual crime with the FBI and targeting free speech instead. I mean, again and again, Alina, I think you said it. The reason why she's there is because of the spokesperson part. She did her little spokesperson job. That's all he cares about. And unfortunately, that, you know, the people of New Jersey suffer as a result of it.

1:11:03Judge Matthew Brand, he's an Obama appointee, is going to be the one to make this decision, which we're going to get like any day now. He said midweek. We thought hopefully by the midweek at Legal AF we would get it, but not yet. So, you know, wait and see. But, you know, I think Trump validly, we can all argue fact after fact after fact is making us less dangerous. And perhaps the people there in New Jersey will become more vocal because, as you said, she doesn't have the qualifications to do this job. His only qualification he cares about is, are you willing to prosecute my enemies? are you willing to go out on Fox News and lie?

1:11:41And if so, you know, you get the job, but that the people that are going to suffer because obviously there's some real crimes that need to be prosecuted there. Look, and Alina Habba has made no kind of, she's not hiding what her true motives are. She says she's there to turn New Jersey from blue to red. She's already started going after Democratic politicians. and you know she's she's it's not like she's hiding what she's doing and and that's just again that's just there's no place in in prosecution for that and so many as I said to get to to get a job at the Department of Justice and to be an AUSA an assistant United States attorney which is what they're called prior to now I don't know what the standards are now was really kind of the cream of the crop.

1:12:34It's the federal prosecutor. There's always this rivalry because I was never a federal prosecutor. I was always a state court prosecutor. And I used to get really upset that people somehow would think lesser of a state court prosecutor, that federal prosecutor is sort of the elite, you know, the best of the best, et cetera. I never tried to be a federal prosecutor and never wanted to. I liked, I liked being in state court, but the, but there was always this kind of rivalry, right? Because they were, they were, they are that good and they are excellent and they're really smart and great lawyers and he's firing some of the best ones and, or, or they're leaving.

1:13:09And it's such a shame. I mean, in addition to losing, it's like a big brain drain, you know, of, of knowledge and, and, and experience and information. And, and it's just judgment, you know, these are, these are great lawyers who, who are leaving in droves or being fired. And I think Desiree Grace is one of them by all accounts. I don't know her, but by all accounts, she she was excellent. Recently, Jim Comey's daughter, Maureen Comey, who was a career prosecutor in the Southern District, was is widely respected as an extraordinary, excellent prosecutor in her own right. And I've actually seen her in court.

1:13:45She's she's exceptional. She was fired for no reason, but probably other than being Jim Comey's daughter. and it's just a shame. It's a shame for us because it makes us less safe and it makes us, we're the losers, right? We're the losers of this. And this just is not, it's not a good thing that's happening. You know, he thinks he cares about law and order, but he doesn't. He cares about politics and vindictiveness. And himself. I don't know if he cares about anything other than himself. Let's be honest. Immigration and trans. You know, it affects him. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, it's such a shame. And, and the Department of Justice to see what's happening to the Department of Justice, I hope some people can stay strong, put their head down and stick it out.

1:14:37And I don't know how the Department of Justice builds back from this, but it used to be one of the most respected entities. So I don't know. So I think if they you know, I my hats off to the DOJ lawyers, especially the civil rights divisions who are who are stepping down rather than being willing to go to court and prosecute somebody, you know, try to denaturalize somebody for their speech. You know, despite Pam Bondi's DOJ letter or commit some sort of fraud to the court, you know, because, you know, we need ethical lawyers who are not willing to do Trump's bidding. but to your point, I mean, there's some real crimes that will not get prosecuted if they don't have the manpower or if they don't have competent people.

1:15:26So it's, you know, it's going to, this is going to be a tough few years. It is going to be a tough few years. So anyway, Dina, we have reached the end of another midweek episode of Legal AF. I'm always so thrilled to have you. I miss Popok, but life gets in the way sometimes, but for both of us. So the fact that you're always so willing and able to step in, it's just wonderful. I love hanging out with you on a Wednesday and seeing you and, and really thank you to all the people who spend Wednesdays with us and every day with us on the Midas Touch Network, on the Legal AF YouTube channel, and the Legal AF sub stack and all the places that you can get information wherever you want to get your news and information.

1:16:15The fact that you also choose Legal AF and the Midas Touch network is just something we cannot emphasize how much we appreciate it and how honored we are to be a part of this amazing growing, just growing at lightning speed community, especially the Legal AF YouTube channel is just more and more just names that you've heard of people that you know, really impressive people are signing up to be on, on the Legal AF YouTube channel. That's hopefully going to become the go-to place for legal information and the intersection of law on politics, and in addition to the Midas Touch Network. So thank you to all the people who come here every week and every day.

1:17:04We love you, and we cherish, cherish to be a part of your community. Dina, so great to see you, and we'll see you again soon. Yeah, great to see you too. And yes, I mean, times are tough, and I'm glad that this community makes us hopefully all feel a little bit less alone and like a glimmer of hope that all is not lost because it's going to be a tough fight forward. But we need the numbers. So I'm glad that I'm glad to see we're growing and getting the message out and getting the truth out, as you say. And, you know, I still have a lot of hope. I have I have a ton of hope. I don't think democracy might be fragile ish the way they say.

1:17:44But in the end, I think people are going to have enough. And this country is a strong country. It's an amazing country with wonderful, amazing people. And in the end, I have hope and optimism that there's going to be a massive course correction, that this is just something we're going through. It's a difficult time, but we'll be back and we'll be back stronger than ever. And I can already see it happening. I can already feel the change and the difference. And I think part of it is because people are starting to really get informed and start to get information themselves and make decisions themselves and people will see what's going on for what it is.

1:18:23And, and so I know, I know we're going to be okay and we'll be back and stronger and better than ever. So with that, I will bid you adieu and we'll see you next week.

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