Legal AF Full Epsiode - 8/6/2025

21:11They're allowed to leave that camp and go do work release.

21:14Michael Popok:First, we can put this on a T-shirt, merch alert. First child sexual predator ever to be given better accommodations by the Bureau of Prisons in its history. That's a fact. So that's two. And the third is obviously the pardon, whether it's been given already and somebody's holding it in their pocket and escrow or it's coming later. That's what the meeting tonight is all about. How do they use her in a way that benefits Donald Trump politically and his legacy? And how do they get themselves out of this tailspin that the administration has placed themselves in? So for those that think they're not worried about anything in the Epstein files, having now spent three weeks trying to shove the genie back in the bottle and nothing working, actually getting worse.

21:57Michael Popok:They are so worried that at the highest levels of the Trump administration, except for the big orange guy, they're all meeting tonight to discuss what to do next. What do you think the result of that meeting is going to be? Blanchard Rogan, Blanchard this, the release of the tapes. What do you think? you're going to get excerpts of transcripts and excerpts of audio. I don't think Blanche ends up on Rogan. I think that's too much of a wild card because I would say that Rogan probably would push limits on this because Rogan is on record saying that he thinks it's disgusting that the entirety of the Epstein files haven't been released.

22:31But I think the excuse that DOJ gives on the excerpted transcript and audio is protection for innocent third parties. And that's one really quick thing I want to add before we take an app break is this. In the letters from the victims and survivors that have been submitted to the court regarding the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts, Michael, what it says in those letters is amazing. It says, and specifically Sigrid Colley from Boyce Schiller, who represents Annie Farmer, who's a very well-known victim of Epstein and Maxwell and others. Sigrid includes in her letter that the court should not allow the Trump administration to guide the court in terms of the people who are now going to be protected outside the scope of just the victims and the survivors, meaning, quote, innocent third parties to protect them from having, you know, people come to ill-formed conclusions about their involvement in Epstein-O-Maxwell.

23:26Kali is saying, no, no, no, no, no. This should not be done by the Trump administration. This should not be, you know, you should not be guided by this, you know, idea that these people need to be protected in any way. Because you and I both know, Michael, that they have been relying upon the adjectives of, quote, credible information, right? They've been trying to live in the Trump administration behind this idea that anything that gets released has to be, quote, credible, right? In this instance, it should only be protection of the victims and the survivors. And that's it. It's everybody else to hell with high water, Democrats, Republicans, independents, whatever.

24:00You, if you're in the Epstein files, your name will be released. And you know what? Let yourself explain what it is. But at this point, what's going to happen is the excerpts, the justification is going to be, well, we needed to protect all these people. And so it's not just going to be the victims and such that are going to be excerpted or redacted, excuse me, from these excerpts. It's just going to be a whole bunch of people, including Donald Trump.

24:22Michael Popok:Yeah, I'm glad you brought a shine a light on the victims. They're getting so lost here. Over a thousand women, then girls, pardon me, who were sexually abused by them and others. I'm not claiming that there weren't others. And you already hear the support for what you just observed, Katie, because you see Alan Dershowitz on television, who not only was Jeffrey Epstein's lawyer, but was also accused by Virginia Jeffrey when she was alive. She committed suicide in April because of all this tragedy that she she was he once was accused by her. There's a whole defamation case over it about participating in sex with her when she was a minor.

24:59Michael Popok:She later recanted that later in life. But he said, well, you know, I'm a perfect example. I was falsely accused. And, you know, it has to be credible. You see the whole this whole ecosystem around Donald Trump and the depravity around it. And I can't think of anybody better to talk about it with you. your former prosecutor and handled and handle cases like this, including including in Florida and know some of the players. So we're when we come back, for those that are just tuning in late, Karen Freeman Kniffolo is away on assignment, we like to say. And sitting in is I can't think of anybody better as Katie Fang, close personal friend of mine.

25:35Michael Popok:When we come back from a break, we'll tell a little bit of the origin story. Just join the Midas Touch Network with a great new channel, the Katie Fang News channel, Katie Fang News. Where can they find that, Katie? At Katie Fang News. K-A-T-I-E-P-H-A-N-G News. It's very easy. So great. So people ask, how can you support what we do? You're watching mainstream media lose its touchstones, its icons being fired by corporate parents, Katie Fang being one of the first among them, unfortunately. And they're all jeopardized. Our counterparts on mainstream corporate-owned media are under attack the way journalists all around the world are under attack.

26:17Michael Popok:And the way to support what we do here, because we don't put anything behind a paywall, is through using your thumbs and your fingers to hit the subscribe button on the Midas Touch Network, to hit the subscribe button on Legal AF and its YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN. There it is. I joked recently that if we could just get our viewership and our subscribership to match one-to-one, we have 200 million views since September and we have a smaller number of subscribers. And I don't think it's because people don't like our work. I just think they don't think it's as important as it really is. So hit that subscribe button there as well.

26:52Michael Popok:We've got a Legal AF sub stack where we post most of the filings and court orders and new content, new commentary. We just did a live, Katie Fang and I just did a live, our first one together on Legal AF sub stack. And that's free too. hit the subscribe button there as well. And then we've got, you know, the Legal AF podcast itself always needs a little loving. We're doing great because of you, top 20 in all YouTube podcasts, but we could do better. The brothers are number one. We'd like to be up on the podium with them as well. So audio versions of the podcast, download those, Legal AF, leave comments and Five-star reviews, all important.

27:32Michael Popok:Video versions, if you're here watching, go over there and listen. Send it to your friends and family. Leave reviews. This is the way to support what we do. And the other way, we're fortunate enough as a media platform to have sponsors. They know what we're about. They don't know what we're about to say. They know our content in general. I know. It's like they read our script today. They know that we are. No, they do not. We are not beholden to anybody. Katie didn't even know the scripts until about 20 minutes ago. Okay. So they know our point of view. They know we're uncensored. They know what our audience is about and they want to reach that audience.

28:12Michael Popok:So the way to support us is to support them. If you've got the disposable income, if you got the coin, you know, we tested these products. We like these products. If it's something you find interesting, we recommend it, but you know, we're so glad they're here with us. So here's a, here's our first set of pro-democracy sponsors. In business, they say you can have better, cheaper, or faster, but you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? That's exactly what Cohere, Thomson Reuters, and Specialized Bikes have since they upgraded to the next generation of the cloud, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

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30:47Michael Popok:Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So if you aren't 100 % satisfied, you'll get a full refund. Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash legal AF and use the code legal AF to claim your free three-piece towel set and save over 40 % off. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash legal AF to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle Made, for sponsoring this episode. Welcome back to Legal AF Midweek. Don't adjust that dial. That's Katie Fang. And she's here as my co-anchor today, sitting in for Karen Freeman, Ignifolo. All right. So, Katie, that was fun.

31:27Michael Popok:I love the energy that we had together on all things Epstein and serious matters. And now let's move to other serious matters. But again, a MAGA House of Representatives member is in trouble again. And the same guy is in trouble again. Corey Mills, who had time in his life to go hang out with Donald Trump when he was being prosecuted for his various trials up in New York. MAGA MAGA, right, has even told people a couple of things before we get to his new sex, potential sex crime, it's been alleged. He says he was in the running or is in the running to be the head of the Department of Defense. If Hegseth ever goes, he's an arms dealer and former member of the armed services.

32:07Michael Popok:He also says he's in the running and he wants to run to replace Marco Rubio as the senator from Florida. But I think he's going to have to get through some financial and sexual abuse allegations that have now arisen because his ex-girlfriend, he's currently married and only separated from a wife. And yet he has two girlfriends that have made serious allegations against him. The most recent one, she's not. Two that we know of, Michael. Two that we know of. It could be like Tiger Woods, unfortunately. Right, exactly. So not only is this Lindsay Langston, not only is she the reigning Miss United States, I didn't realize that was a pageant, but Miss United States, she's also a Florida Republican state committee person.

32:53Michael Popok:and she was in a relationship with him. She thought she was the only girlfriend on the side of the marriage. Turned out that wasn't true. And she's made some allegations about threats that he's made in dozens and dozens of texts that she's turned over to Florida officials in which he's even threatened to release a sex tape against her because they broke up in February. And then we got the reporting about what happened to him with another girlfriend in a DC hotel room, which led this girlfriend to find out she wasn't the only girlfriend. Why don't you take it from there? there's a lot to unpack my friends i mean side piece thinks she's the only side piece turns out she's not the only side piece and turns out this guy actually has side pieces that are out of the girls too okay this whole thing is so ridiculous it evolves also allegations of bags of cash that come rolling into cory mills's home as well but here's the thing the reason why we're focusing on this tonight is yes it is and and listen the thing that y 'all will learn about me michael knows this is i there's there's this phrase in spanish no i no i uh there's no hair on my tongue there's no hair on my tongue people when i see the downfall of maga i'm gonna relish it and when i see something like this happening one i feel very badly i mean for miss miss uh langston two i will remind people these are just allegations so obviously we need to wait and see but look her lawyer has put out some of the evidence in the form of tweet of text messages that he's put out on social media showing that this guy, Corey Mills, a congressman, had threatened Ms.

34:21Langston to be able to release these videos and these photographs. And so not only do we have a federal law that is potentially having been violated by Representative Mills called the Take It Down Act, which dealt with a revenge porn. That's what we call it in short, revenge porn. And interestingly, a sponsor for that one, are you ready, Mike? Was Ted Cruz. Unbelievable. We also know had his own little kind of porn tab issue as well on the internet, but whatever. And then there's a Florida law, which is a revenge porn law. And I'm going to cite to the exact statute because I like doing this with my viewers as well.

34:56It's section 784.089. It's entitled sexual cyber harassment. And the first time you violate this law, it's in misdemeanor. The second time or more, it's a third degree felony, which is punishable by up to five years in Florida state prison. But you cannot post graphic nature, graphic images of sexual content without the consent of that person. And that is exactly what Mills has been alleged to have done in this case. But let's also talk about why the financial component of this, Mike, is so important as well. The woman in D.C. with whom there was this allegation that he was physically violent with her, even though that didn't go anywhere, to be clear.

35:35Apparently, Mills was paying$12 ,000 in rent for his beach house in New Smyrna Beach that he was sharing with Miss United States, Lindsay Langston, and$21 ,000 a month in rent for the D.C. penthouse that he was having with the other side piece. And last month, the landlord filed an eviction notice in D.C. for his failure to pay$85 ,000 in rent from March to July. And according to Miss United States, Miss Langston, she would see people come to the shared house they had in Newsom and Beach with, quote, bags of cash. It all lives in a cesspool of filth to this because it just makes somebody like Mills susceptible to what?

36:14Bribery, susceptible to grift. I mean, these are the kinds of people that we don't want representing us in D.C. But we also don't want people that threaten to expose their girlfriends in their most intimate of poses and during intimate of moments. We don't want somebody like that. That's such a cheap little small blank man that wants to be able to accuse and allege that he's going to do this. I mean, it's really wild. And the fact that we talk about that just goes to show that people that are in positions of power that control levels of power should not be involved in this type of stuff.

36:49Michael Popok:Well, let's talk about MAGA and all this. Can you imagine if the Democrats or any other party, in the course of just the last week, just the last week, were publicly considering giving P. Diddy a pardon? What is it with Donald Trump and convicted sex? He didn't get the RICO charge, but he got other charges. P. Diddy is being considered for a pardon. George Santos is being considered for a pardon. Lawrence Taylor, who is a twice convicted child sex abuser, was up on the stage with the president and other athletes and didn't even know why he was there. At one point, he turned to the president. I don't know even why I'm here.

37:33Michael Popok:I don't know why you're there either. And now you've got Corey Mills, who is maggot to the core, you know, wrapped in an American flag while he's leaving behind a trail of creditor debt, a House Ethics Committee investigation, going after his girlfriend, having been accused by – she eventually recanted it, but you and I at another show can talk about why that happened sometimes – being accused of abusing, physically abusing a girlfriend at the time in Washington. And that's how this girlfriend found out about she wasn't the only girlfriend, which led to the breakup, which led to the revenge porn.

38:06Michael Popok:This is MAGA, folks. I know some people are like, yeah, but I like the fact that they're against transgender in sport. Okay, I'm great. But that can't be the animating factor about every one of your voting decisions. If you're going to take MAGA, then you've got to take MAGA, the good and the bad. I don't think there's any good. Penny, you're in for a penny, you're in for a pound. So I'm okay with people making a conscious decision to be in one party or the other. But if you're in that party, then you own it. You break it. You own it. You own that party and everything about it, including the reporting you and I are doing right now.

38:44So two things. One, you forgot one of my favorites, which is Matt Gaetz. How can you forget Matt Gaetz? I don't even know. MAGA, MAGA, and sex and Venmos and all that other stuff involving Matt Gaetz as well. I'm in violation of the Mann Act as well. So here's the thing. I really like what you just said because it makes sense. As of right now, we have a primary system of what? Two parties, right? Democrats and Republicans. Last I checked, Mike, there's not a separate party called MAGA. So what's ridiculous is the people that say that they're Republicans and they vote for Trump and they support Trump.

39:18but they're very, very clear that, but they're not MAGA. Well, MAGA isn't a separate standalone political party. And so in this instance, to your point, if you're a Republican, then you are all in for this. You are all in for the Corey Mills's failure to pay his rent. Can we do this math for a hot sack though? $34 ,000 a month in rent this man is paying? $34 ,000 a month in rent? I mean, police. That's high, right? But anyway, I digress. But you're in for this financial responsibility, the fiscal irresponsibility, which ironically, fiscal responsibility is supposed to be the thing. Fiscal conservatism is the thing for Republicans that do not want to be affiliated with MAGA, but they say, I'm a socially liberal fiscal conservative.

40:01That shit don't exist. But you are in for this. You are in for the Corey Mills with his multiple girlfriends and the allegations of assault and the allegations now of revenge for, which is a crime. It is a federal crime and a state crime. And the level of casualness that these people have towards this.

40:21Michael Popok:Cavalier. They're just like, oh, whatever. And here's the thing. It underscores the hypocrisy and it gets back to Epstein. Remember, part of the reason why we stay on the Epstein story is not only because of the victims, but we also want to show the hypocrisy of the campaign promises that continue to be broken by Trump. He, by all accounts, has kept many campaign promises that he promised to do a la Project 25 to screw us over. But stuff like the Epstein files that he ran to say that he was going to release them the second he was in a position to be able to get them out, we want to highlight those lies.

40:54We want to highlight that hypocrisy. You got the same hypocrisy here with Corey Mills. The Republican Party, the party of values, the party of law and order, the party of, you know, let's get rid of, let's drain the swamp and get rid of those Democrats because they're so dirty and they're terrible and all this other stuff. And yet, what are you seeing? You are seeing the Republicans saying, reporting for duty here, right? Reporting for my job of being alleged to have violated multiple federal and state statutes. Why? Because the guy is upset that his girlfriend that he was cheating with on his wife is breaking up with him because she saw him with another girlfriend.

41:31I mean, it really is so sorted, but it fundamentally goes down to values. And Democrats have values and Republicans do not.

41:40Michael Popok:Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, we're going to take another quick break because you and I are going to round this off. You're traveling. I'm traveling. I'm actually making a plane. Most people know I'm going to be in the same time zone, hopefully in the same house or restaurant with Ben tomorrow, coming in later tonight. So we're doing all that. And that's the other thing about the Midas Touch Network that people I think have picked up. We are a collegial bunch. We feel like we're family. I mean, I've been with the brothers since the first two months. I joke that I'm employee badge number four for the Midas Touch Network.

42:22I say they're my little brothers. I say that my Dallas boys are my little brothers.

42:25Michael Popok:But then there's things like you and me where you were not on television. You were thinking about running for judge at some point. I met you at a fundraiser when I was a slightly older lawyer, and you were a younger lawyer in Miami-Dade County. I remember where we were. I remember the fundraiser. And then from there, we stayed fast friends. And, you know, we bounced a lot of ideas around with each other and helped each other with our careers. And you had some issues, I had some issues, and we met regularly about that. And then we just stayed friends. And then from there, you broke into legal reporting, legal commentary, and different things and different channels and different networks.

43:06Michael Popok:And then eventually made your way to MSNBC. And I followed you the whole way. And I remember I was living in New York, and I'd see a giant billboard advertising the Katie Fink show. On the Hudson. On the Hudson. And I was like, Katie. On the West Side Highway or something, right? And I sent it to you. Oh, my God. And so we always had that kind of rapport. And so, of course, I was a huge supporter of bringing you and having you join here. And I always said, once you are here, I just want to find ways to collaborate and do work with you. And I think our audience will be better for it. And if we can bring our friendship and the chemistry into what we do as an added benefit, I think it's great.

43:48Michael Popok:And we did a live sub-stack last night together. We're going to do that every week on one sub-stack or the other. and we're going to do more work here together, of course, on Midas and on your channel. So that's how we got to this moment in time. And then when we come back from our next ad break, we're going to talk about the Texas and California redistricting and the courage and bravery of those 50 members of the Texas House and what Texas is doing about it in terms of lawsuits and threats and fines and all of that. And then we'll, no pun intended, we'll round it out with big balls talking about why Donald Trump is threatening the District of Columbia with his awesome power of being the president of the United States because his 19-year-old sidekick, 19, and doge guy, you know, got jacked while he was in D.C.

44:41Michael Popok:I mean, is that something we need to climb down from the lofty perch of being the president of the United States to challenge the sovereignty of the District of Columbia? It wasn't enough for him to climb off the roof, by the way. I was hoping he was going to do – I thought he was – I was hoping he was going to get off the roof a different way. Now, on that note, I – we have our ways for our audience. They're always asking comments, how do you support the show? And it's easy. You're here already. Let your friends know about it. We're continuing to grow our audience really organically. We don't have billboards.

45:13Michael Popok:We don't have – we don't really advertise. It's just word of mouth from the Midas Touch Network. And so we're over on audio podcast platforms, of course. We end up regularly in the top 50 of all news podcasts in the world, and that's all because of you. So go over there, download us. Maybe you've only, oh, my God, you have podcast audio? We thought you were all YouTube. Yeah, go over there and leave comments. We read them and five-star reviews. Tell your friends about this, and then I do sort of clips of this that we put in different places, like on the Legal AF sub stack and different places.

45:46Michael Popok:Send it off, invite people to join, leave comments here, of course. And then Legal AF has a YouTube channel and a sub stack, Legal AF MTN. Subscribe there. We're going to cross 750 ,000 subscribers, I think, in the next minute. No, actually, we crossed it already. We're well on our way to the million where we want to be. That's all with you. We know you love the channel. We just need you to help us and support the channel by hitting that subscribe button. It's all for free. And then we've got Legal AF. The Substack as well, and there we have that. And that we post everything under Filings AF and Morning AF and Everything's AF on Substack for you.

46:25Michael Popok:And then I've got a new law firm I've talked to you about, Katie, called the Popock Firm. I'm out in Chicago meeting with the major plaintiff's lawyers around the country that work with me with the Popock Firm. We represent people in catastrophic injury, truck, car, rollover accidents, Uber, Lyft, rideshare accidents, medical malpractice, you know, civil rights cases of a very high level. Anything that's turned your life completely upside down or those in your family and you need justice, come to the Popak firm. There's a couple of ways for you to find your way there and talk to an actual person.

47:00Michael Popok:No AI, only I, only intelligent people on the other side of that phone call. You can go to a 1-800 number, 1-877-POPOC-AF, or you can go to the website, which is www.thepopocfirm.com for free case evaluation. And we don't get paid unless you do. So it's that kind of firm. And we just always wanted to do an enterprise like that. I never could do it before, but now certainly with my relationship with Legal AF and Midas Touch, we are doing it. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors. all of these are curated by Jordi over on Midas Touch. We try them out ourselves and we like them. If you have some disposable income, I'm sure that they could use the support.

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49:47Michael Popok:Plus, VIA ships discreetly across the U.S. No medical card needed. And they back it all with a worry-free guarantee. Not sure what's right for you? Take their quick product finder quiz. It's less than 60 seconds. So if you're 21 or older, head to VIAHEMP.com and use code LEGALAF for 15 % off. Free shipping on orders over$100 and a free gift with your first order. That's V-I-I-A-H-E-M-P.com. code legal af again if you're 21 or older check out via at via hemp.com and use code legal af to get 15 off free shipping over a hundred dollars plus your free gift when you're new please support our show and tell them that we sent you enhance your every day with via welcome back thank you so much from the bottom of our heart for the support for the midas touch network and of course legal af look at katie fang there with me i'm so pleased to have a close friend of mine this is no no BS.

50:46Michael Popok:This is real friendship, real. This is how we are when we're hanging out. Yeah. We just saw each other in Miami. I know. And this is how we are. Yeah. We were like, we got to do this like for an audience. Let's do this. This is fun. Let's do it for an audience. So here we are. So we're going to do, Katie has become an expert. I've been watching all your great work on the Katie, Katie Fang channel about Texas and its attempt to redistrict and the brave 50. I don't know if they have a name yet, but the brave 50 that have decided to do a little bit of caucus busting and breaking and make sure that they can't vote on this map.

51:17Michael Popok:And then, and then Texas's response to that. And then you do all of that and I'll touch on California for a minute. And then, and then we'll round it out with unintended with big balls. All right. So very quickly, because I just did an in-depth video about this on my YouTube channel, the Katie Fang News channel, if you're interested to follow along. But just late yesterday, the Texas Governor Greg Abbott filed a petition for a writ of, quote, Rwanto, which is pretty much just a big Latin phrase saying that they want the Texas Supreme Court to declare that state representative Gene Wu, who is the chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, that he, as a part of the 60 or so Texas House representatives that left the state of Texas on Sunday and went to Illinois, New York, and other jurisdictions to break quorum, Abbott wants the Texas Supreme Court to declare that he has, quote, abandoned his office pursuant to a Florida, excuse me, a Texas state statute.

52:16And as a result, his seat is vacant. So what can Abbott do? He can then try to do an appointment into that seat. I mean, it is the total gainsmanship here that is just so nakedly partisan that bothers me. But what's really fascinating is there's a little bit of a brouhaha going on behind the scenes. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton basically has written a letter to the Texas Supreme Court clerk saying, I see what Governor Abbott did, but let me remind you, it's actually me as the Texas Attorney General, who's actually the person who should be doing these Quo Ruanto petitions. And so, you know what, we just need you as the Texas Supreme Court to just keep that on the back burner for now.

52:54And then after the expiration of a deadline on Friday, which the House Speaker said, you guys need to come back to Texas. If you don't, then there's going to be problems. Paxton said, you know what, on Friday, if something comes and goes after that deadline, I'll take it into my own hands. So what's fascinating is you also have a little bit of some chest thumping that's going on between Paxton and Abbott. But this is what I think is really the issue here, Michael. I think that this petition for a writ of quo oronto is a test balloon. And the reason why they're targeting Gene Wu is not only is he the chair of the Democratic House caucus, but Abbott is accusing him of being the quote ringleader behind this breaking of quorum.

53:32And the petition itself cites to social media postings and other kind of quotes within the media about why the Democrats were preparing to break quorum and the fact that they were taking money because Abbott says that bribery has happened. He is actually saying that criminal activity has occurred by these Texas Dems who have been taking donations to be able to live while they have broken quorum and they are out of the state of Texas. But I'm also going to to say something very kind of, I think, which is true as well, Michael. He's targeting Gene Wu because he's a minority. He's targeting a person of color because he's hoping that that will also rile up his MAGA base behind this idea that Democrats are these crazy Texans that are running amok and that they're, quote, abandoning their jobs.

54:15But we've heard from Representative Wu and others, and they've made it clear. They're doing their jobs. Their jobs are to represent their constituents who are having their representation stolen by these Texas Republicans who are only doing the bidding of Donald Trump here. And so we're watching this very carefully because we want to see what the Texas Supreme Court does, because it may establish a precedent, Michael, legally to allow Abbott and or Paxton to go after the remaining Texas Dems that have left the state.

54:43Michael Popok:Yeah. When you and I were preparing, I said, you know, I saw your quote, waronto um research that you put into the chat i looked at i thought there'll be 50 names there right and i see i see representative woo of course i joked with you and you agree you go after the asian no you go that's what i just did in my hot take they went after the asian one and um as the test case because he's not texan because he's not from around here and yet he's so texan listen he was born in china and his family immigrated and of course we're going after the immigrants too, right? Because that's very on Grand MAGA.

55:17But he immigrated with his family from Texas. And Michael, he is a Texan through and through. He's been raised in Texas and he's been educated in Texas and he's raising his own family in Texas. And that's the thing. You can only be Texas if you're what? White or you're only MAGA? That's the only way you can be Texas?

55:33Michael Popok:You ever watch the comedian that has the show Mo? Yeah, of course. You know, and he's Palestinian and living in Texas, but he considers himself Texan through and through and talks about that a lot in the stand-up and all. But these are the ways that they're trying to destabilize. We'll do it on another. You and I will do it maybe on a live. They're trying to attack the leaders and the brand of being a Democrat. That's why Pamela Jo Blondie, as Laura Loomer calls her, is going after Barack Obama and going after the Clintons. Trump is not content with being a sore winner and winning a couple of times and winning this presidency and putting out and squelching his criminal investigations.

56:22Michael Popok:No, he wants to do everything he can to destroy the brand and the party of being a Democrat. And that's what we've been watching along with his retaliation and retribution campaign. And so it's so important. And the short answer on the Texas thing is, yes, quorum breaking, which is what the Texas Supreme Court has even acknowledges a legitimate form of political expression where you're representing your constituents by denying the quorum necessary. You need a two-thirds quorum in Texas to vote. They're on a 30-day session now to try to get that map passed. By walking out, that's what we've been watching.

57:00Michael Popok:It denied them. They've been sitting around twiddling their thumbs because they don't have the quorum. If they get removed, the quorum number goes down and they can go back to the work of screwing the Democrats and removing five seats that are held currently by Democrats. And then he can fill those vacancies with new Margaret Republicans. What's the redistricting fight over? The racial gerrymandering of giving five additional new congressional districts to Republicans. It's just so brazen on its face. But why they're doing it, because some people are like, isn't it a funeral exercise that ultimately whatever?

57:32Michael Popok:No. In many states, there's been great examples. And the walkout has been going on in Texas since 1870. The first walkout went on 1870. Yeah, I covered that too. So it works. And sometimes you're able to bargain because if they can't get the map passed, then they'll come back to the table to the Democrats and say, all right, we'll eliminate three seats, not five. You know, they'll be bargaining, which is still not great, but it's better than the alternative. Now, you contrast that with this map thing is going on in blue states, too. You know, it's like a little bit of a mutual assured destruction.

58:08Michael Popok:I mean, the Republicans are definitely trying to change the electoral advantage for the midterms and have a win for Donald Trump before we even vote. And Democrats are doing the same thing. The problem with the Democrats, you look, because, you know, Gavin Newsom is staking a lot of his political fortune on his ability to get through a very pro-democratic map there. You know, and you see J.D. Vance reaches out and goes, how can that even be legal? Like, well, go look at the Texas map. I mean, what do you think the Texas map is? How is that legal? How is that legal? So there's a little bit of symmetry going on here where the blue states are going to get bluer, the red states or purpley states are going to get redder, and we're going to sort of be, as Americans, we're going to kind of be stuck in the middle.

58:49Michael Popok:The problem is in some of the states like New York, we have a problem because we got outfoxed by the few Republicans there and they had us adopt a map and a recommendation on a map from a guy who was supposed to be independent that ended up making it a Republican advantage in an entirely blue state. So the state where we could have like screwed them, like we figured out a way to like snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a major electoral state like New York. And there is a person, and you and I will do separate hot takes on it, and I don't want to blow it here, but there is a person behind all of this map drawing for the Republicans.

59:34Michael Popok:one person in particular that runs like the Republican redistricting map trust. It's some ridiculous name, but he's the person who's the alleged expert that is running around trying to get all these maps approved and who the Texans and the other MAGA are relying on. And I'm going to do a little my own little expose on that guy at another time. But there is a, as always, there's a person, just like the attacks on all the higher education by the Trump administration, there is a guy, literally a guy behind that in the Trump administration, just as there is a guy, a person behind all the redistricting maps.

1:00:13I just want to very quickly before we move on to big balls. I just want to say this. Maybe my hope from all of this, though, Michael, is that we get to the very necessary long overdue conversation about the Electoral College. college. That's my hope, because I feel like we have to revisit the Electoral College issue. I feel like a lot of this, you know, gamesmanship that is happening on the redistricting and the gerrymandering, it lives in the land of legal when it deals with violations of the Voting Rights Act, because I want to make it perfectly clear. Redistricting in and of itself is not bad.

1:00:47It is supposed to happen every decade after a census is done. It's this mid-decade, you know, BS that's happening right now in Texas that DeSantis is now threatening to do in Florida as well. My God, I don't know if you know that, but DeSantis is threatening doing it as well in Florida. But it's this mid-decade bullshit that we all know is being done. And what's wild is the United States Supreme Court in 2019 said that it actually was okay to be able to do it on political bases. But the Voting Rights Act was supposed to be able to say you cannot dilute people of color and their ability to be able to have their votes and having the representation that they deserve, which is why we have to be able to protect the Voting Rights Act.

1:01:24We have to be able to protect the existing case law on this. We have to be able to protect our people of color. But the Electoral College issue, maybe you and I need to come back together and do this on a live here. It's really important for people to talk about the Electoral College because I feel like people need to go back to this idea of one vote per person. And that's how it rolls out. But I digress a little bit here.

1:01:45Michael Popok:Yeah, we'll probably do a live sub stack on that. That's a good one because I'm not as confident about changing over to some sort of popular vote. We just watched a populist ride into office and win the popular vote. And I'm not worried. I'm as worried about this Trump as I am the next Trump. And that'll be a great teaser for our live sub stack. And speaking of teaser, we've been teasing big balls all episode. so let's get to it quickly we've got a 19 year old i'm not making this stuff up people we got a 19 year old musk acolyte devotee who came in with musk and from doge they they released him into all the agencies he broke through all the computer barriers you know he he uh the goal is like this giant one big government database.

1:02:38Michael Popok:That's the goal of MAGA and Doge and Project 2025 Heritage Foundation. They want this one giant, you know, even though it'll be hacked within 20 minutes by the North Koreans or the Russians or the Chinese, but they want the Chinese. Yeah, they want this one big thing. And so this guy went from door to door, the Social Security to Treasury to all the places where they're most confidential and private and sensitive information. And they let 19-year-old guy named Big Balls with his laptop go in there. And there was even reporting at the time that like at Secretary of State, he started hitting the delete button on funding for like USAID when Marco Rubio didn't want that to happen.

1:03:15Michael Popok:So at some point, I did a hot take on this. I said at this moment in time, write it down, put it in the time capsule. Our effective de facto Secretary of State is not Marco Rubio. It's a guy named Big Balls. And so that guy did not, unfortunately, crawl back under the rock he crawled out from when Elon Musk went back to continue to wreck his companies. He is still hanging around Washington and the government working for the Trump administration. And something happened to him in the streets. Go ahead, Katie. He's working at the Social Security Administration. Did you know that of all frequent places?

1:03:52But anyway, so he was with a young woman. It was 3 a.m. in the morning, according to the police report, and some people tried to carjack the car. Let me be clear. I hate crime. We all hate crime. I'm sorry it happened. But what did Elon Musk try to do? Elon Musk made it sound like he was attacked by 50 ,000 people and that, you know, he was some big hero. Maybe he is. Maybe he's not. But the way that they're trying to make this into a much bigger deal just goes to show that they want to sit there and they want to denigrate the city of D.C. because what they want to do is Trump wants to federalize D.C.

1:04:25now. Trump is now using this carjacking, the attempted carjacking attempt here, and he wants to be able to basically say that D.C. can no longer have its autonomy and independence and that it has to basically be run and operated by the federal government, which we've heard, this is a common refrain from Trump, he did it in Trump 1.0 in his first term as well. But it's terrible. Nobody wants crime. But for them to basically say, and by the way, it is just dripping with racism, You can't live in D.C. because the only thing that happens in D.C. is crime. And, of course, he's basically saying it's happening because of minorities.

1:04:58But that's not the case. And to use this as an excuse to try to advance your plan of federalizing cities is typical Trump and typically disgusting.

1:05:07Michael Popok:And that social media posting, I mean, a bunch of 14-year-olds jumped big balls and took them down. Now, this is not, and this is what MAGA wants to portray. This is not like the scene in Daniel Day Lewis's Lincoln, where he's on the battlefield and he goes up to a 17-year-old soldier as the president of the United States and says, hello, soldier, tell me about what's happening here. It's not this poignant moment. OK, we have the president of the United States who took time out of a day when he's supposed to be running a government protecting our economic and security and protecting our national security to comment about a carjacking involving a guy named Big Balls.

1:05:52Michael Popok:I'm sorry if I'm not getting all misty eyed. This is not going to win an Oscar. You know, if he would just I would love to say if he would just do his job. But the problem is, if he focuses on his job, it's worse. Sometimes I think I like, I want him to be distracted because it's one less nefarious, disgusting thing that he's going to do with official policy that day. But, you know, the fact that he is so, I'm talking about Trump now, is so mentally fatigued and gassed. I mean, you see him over and over again. He can barely get down. Wandering on the roof. Wandering off the roof. God, I wish, you know, a long walk off a short pier would have been good.

1:06:28Michael Popok:But then you've got he can't, you know, the mangled sentence structure, the allegations that he's illiterate and can't read, which have come up. He can't get himself up and down Air Force One. I mean, say what you want about Joe Biden and the Democrats getting pilloried because of it. But what are what are we watching? And does anybody think his brain is going to heal over the next three and a half? It's going to get better. You know, you and I both had and have now lost parents who had some version of dementia. My mother passed away two months ago. My father, yep. Yeah, my mother had frontal lobe dementia, and I made a nice donation and asked everybody to donate her name related to it.

1:07:07Michael Popok:So I watched this happen. My mother developed it at 78. She was happy and carefree and living her best life at 78, and the next day she was in a wheelchair and lived that way until she died at 89. So I've seen this, okay? I'm not diagnosing the guy. I'm not paid to do that. But things, presidencies age you. And what we are already watching just seven months in is just the Donald Trump's brain going down and washing down the drain. His brain was already addled before Trump 1.0 in 2016. That was not even a secret back then. And Butler, Pennsylvania didn't help him. Well, I'm sorry. that that we need to have a whole other layoff about that because that dude's ear is way too intact for that to have happened but but i will just say quickly about the big balls thing a very small little note in the police report was big balls had his cell phone stolen oh yeah which people have stolen all the time or they lose them but my concern is it's doge it's big balls i mean what in the actual hell did this man actually have on his cell phone in terms of data and access.

1:08:19I just want to leave our viewers with that fearful thought because we already know what they have accessed as Doge. And this guy's now at the social security administration. You mean to tell me he keeps multiple phones for work? Do you think he's thoughtful enough to say, here's my work phone? Here's my personal phone? No. So it's all there. And my concern is what in the actual hell was on his phone? Maybe he has pictures with Corey Mills. Maybe that's what he has.

1:08:45Michael Popok:whatever it is, we're going to find out. I am so thrilled to have gotten through an entire show with you. Not just a little sub. I didn't break anything. What do you mean? Whatever you broke, you're making good trouble. That's why you're on. That's why you're with us. Katie Fang, Katie Fang channel, news channel, channel. Katie Fang news. Sorry. Katie Fang news. Midas touch powered over on my sister channel, Legal AF YouTube that I curate and I'm the editor-in-chief of. And I've got a big announcement here just sort of towards the end. It seems like every week or two I'm announcing a new contributor that's joined us.

1:09:22Michael Popok:And our latest is Adam Klassfeld of All Rise News. Big fan. I told him. Our first video is up right now. I did kind of the intro video. He's going to do at least one a day exclusively for us. And has All Rise News and our website and Substack. And that is the legal journalist journalist. Like we use him as an input for our work. He and I were at the Trump trials together, and we were covering Trump together when I was still at MSNBC. He was at the Galeen Maxwell's trial every day. And he's just one of those just all-around decent, good people, which is why I would like to just say as a point of personal privilege for all of you tuning in right now, what you see with Mike and me, this is the energy we have.

1:10:07But we also have that with other people at Midas. And when we bring in these different contributors, these are legit people. These are people that are real. They are substantive. They actually know what they're talking about. And that's what I love. You don't have people like on linear cable TV. It's the same talking head saying the same damn shit over and over again. You're like, okay, great. Thanks. I can literally turn the TV off and come back two hours later. It's the same stuff. At least it's original content.

1:10:33Michael Popok:I'm not going to name names, but some of the stuff I watch from our quote unquote competitors, I'm like, my jaw drops open. Like that, that person just said that it's so wrong, either procedurally, legally, I would never, they think that's how that conversation went. That would never happen in real life. I'm like, but, but this is what passes for competent legal and political analysis on mainstream media. So I get a guy like Adam Klausfeld, who we've been, you know, we always looked at all rise news, like, cause he's the competitive advantage he has. He flies around the country and sits in these courtrooms and picks up things.

1:11:10Michael Popok:He was there every day for Ghislaine Maxwell's trial. He can say, unlike Todd Blanche, he can say, this was the evidence. This was the thousand witnesses that testified and all the people. This was the sex crimes against Ghislaine Maxwell that came into evidence. And he has a lot of, you know, it's just really great, really great. Congratulations. Thank you very much. So Legal AF there as well. The other way to support us, hit the subscribe button. for Midas Touch, for Legal AF, the YouTube channel, for Katie's new channel. Come over to the audio versions of Legal AF, the podcast. We still need help there.

1:11:45This is how they rank us.

1:11:48Michael Popok:This is how we stay on the air. It's not money. You see, I never say send money. I never say send money. I say send thumbs and fingers to the subscribe button. That's what I said. Support through subscribe. That's what he said. Support through subscribe. I like that. I'm going to steal that. Support through subscribe. All right. and catch Katie Fang and I at the next sub stack, either hers or Legal AF. We're going to be trying to be doing it at least once a week. And I'm so pleased that you're able to join us now. So until our next on Saturday, I'll be with Ben. I won't be live because I'll actually be back home by then.

1:12:19Michael Popok:But he and I, I won't be with him in the same room, I mean. But you'll tune into Legal AF on Saturday. Until then, shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.

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