The Intersection with Michael Popok - 1/6/2026

26:15That's what this is all about. And then try to convince Cannon, who's not a very good judge, that Michael Wolff can't bring suit first and that it's not a strategic case to chill his First Amendment rights.

26:30Michael Popok:But then they're going to have to litigate all of the, you know, Michael has said in his filing that the things that he's written are true, like comments about what happened on the Lolita Express between Trump and Melania. I wasn't there, but he did his reporting off of Jeffrey Epstein, who he was doing a biography of. So be careful what you ask for, but I wanted to call out now that this is what she's trying for. She's trying for a one-two step, it's like a dance, to get to Florida and get the case in front of Judge Cannon. That is for sure. So when we come back, I want to talk about the case involving Wyoming and abortion rights.

27:15I want to touch on Judge Boesberg rejecting the

27:20Michael Popok:Trump administration's attempt to use Venezuela as an excuse not to give due process to 137 people. and a bunch of other things that'll pop into my brain. But there's certain ways to support, and we got a great crowd tonight, pushing 10 ,000, that to support the intersection, Midas Touch, and Legal AF. First of all, we've got the Legal AF YouTube channel, which has just crossed a million people. With your help, we'll get to 2 million this year. I got some great announcements. We've got the American Civil Liberties Union joining us for regular reporting on their cases, regular, you know, starting, I think, on Monday.

28:04Michael Popok:I talked to them today. And when you combine the American Civil Liberties Union, Democracy Forward, and all the interviews we have of the Democratic Attorneys General, we will have three quarters of the public interest and other groups that are suing Donald Trump under one roof on Legal AF. We worked hard for that. And that's a testament as much to our audience as it is to the work behind the scenes. Because if we didn't get to a certain size, like a million subscribers, and we didn't start being known where Legal AF became a brand and had street credibility, we're not getting Adam Kinzinger join us.

28:45We're not getting Jamie Raskin. We're not getting James Carville.

28:48Michael Popok:We're not getting former federal judges. We're not getting senators. We're not getting the American Civil Liberties Union or Democracy Forward to join us. But thank you because you gave us that power and we're using it on your behalf on Legal AF. So become a subscriber on Legal AF. Then we set up Legal AF Substack. What an amazing community over at Legal AF Substack. We were just, in the last two days, number one in rising in all U.S. politics sub-stacks. We're in the top 50 in general. And there I do two live reports every day. I do one at 12 p.m. Eastern time and one at 7.45 p.m. Eastern time.

29:31Michael Popok:And I bring in interviews. We just had Adam Klassfeld, who literally, I'll just wait for the ad to run, who literally stepped out of the Maduro indictment, sorry, arraignment in New York, walked out onto the street, and within a minute was briefing our audience on Legal AF Substack with a live report with me, which we then made into a YouTube video and sent it back. But that's the place to be. And people are always like, how do we keep Legal AF on the air and everything the Popak's doing? This is the way to do it. This is where independent media and journalism is living and being protected in its Sovereign sub stack.

30:10So become a member. And I'm running a sale, everybody, in honor of January 6th and the Democrats' hard work there. 20 % off annual membership, legal AF sub stack. And that's a great way to support us. And then, of course, we've got our sponsors. They're just people that know our audience, want to be with our audience and our sponsors. And we have some tonight. So here's a word from our sponsors.

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32:52Michael Popok:The new year gives us all a chance to reset, maximize your brain and body's potential with IQ bars, protein bars, hydration mixes, and mushroom coffees. Their ultimate sampler pack includes all three. And right now, IQ Bar is offering our special podcast listeners 20 % off all IQ Bar products, including the ultimate sampler pack, plus free shipping. To get your 20 % off, text LEGALAF to 64000. Text LEGALAF to 64000. That's LEGALAF to 64000. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. and welcome back to the intersection with michael popock i'm going to take some questions now from the audience so speak from our chat tonight we've got about 10 almost i think we were over 10 000 at one point here's some things that i'm going to try to answer here uh wrong wrong one right day asked will anyone in the cabinet ever be held to account or will he just give blanket pardons and are they scot-free?

33:59Well, it depends on how you define scot-free. Yes, I think Donald Trump is going to try to pardon everybody in his cabinet, including himself on the way out the door, I think, and beyond the cabinet. You know, anybody in and around his administration, it's going to be another one of those 1 ,800 blanket pardon things that he's going to use an auto pen for, I'm sure, on the way out. But that doesn't, you know, that's, he's going to do that on day one. That doesn't mean that at midterms, the Congress, now in control of the Democrats, can't do impeachment and removal proceedings. Emil Bovee, Third Circuit Court of Appeals, come on down.

34:40You've been impeached and removed for everything that you did prior to getting on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to obstruct justice. Todd Blanche, same thing. you know, Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, Stephen Miller, you know, there's ways to get rid of people. And that is through an impeachment and removal process, you know, showing high crimes and misdemeanors and other things like that. So have I stressed enough the importance of this midterm election? So for the criminal prosecution, you're right. If by the time the Department of Justice gets there, the new Department of Justice. Doesn't that sound sweet, the new Department of Justice in 2028?

35:20If they already have in their back pocket pardons, you know, they could start the prosecution, but they're going to pull out the pardon as a defense in history. So I think that answered your question. And certainly, as you know, state charges can't be, and bar investigations can't be stopped by a federal pardon, despite the fact that Donald Trump is trying to use a pardon to help Tina Peters in Colorado. We're still waiting for the Colorado appellate court to reject the argument raised by Donald Trump's high school roommate that he can pardon state offenses as well, citing to George Washington.

36:00ButterflyLife68 asked, Popak, how do we get the immunity decision reversed? That's going to take a bit. That's going to be packing the United States Supreme Court with three to five additional people and having that group now 12 or 15 in terms of size and people appointed by Democrats revisit the issue and overturn that precedent. I mean, we have a precedent for that. The Supreme Court has been reevaluating its own precedent frequently, including cases they just decided five to 10 years ago. But that's how it's going to have to happen. There's no other way. Even if Congress tried to pass an act that took away the immunity of the president, that would be found automatically to have violated the separation of powers and the Article II powers of the presidency.

36:54So that's not going to happen. It's going to have to be a new Supreme Court or one that's bigger and bolder and Democrat-led. So that's the way that's going to have to happen um gabriel cloutier or cloutier depending upon where he lives 3686 asked popock how soon can we expect a scotus ruling on tariffs i think this friday they've announced today that the supreme court is going to uh make a ruling a serious they're going to drop some decisions on friday we've been waiting for that one it could be the voting rights Act, which is on life support and probably going to be put out of our misery or their misery on Friday.

37:34It could be both. So the Voting Rights Act is the case that's coming out of New Orleans involving maps and whether racial gerrymandering to ensure racial balance in a state is a violation of the 14th Amendment or not, turning the Voting Rights Act on its head. So we're waiting for that case and we're waiting for tariffs. One, two, or both, I think, get dropped on Friday. And you You know where to go for that?

38:10Michael Popok:Unprecedented, a podcast I do with Dina Dahl that's now up on audio as of today. You want to be the first one to put a five-star review down? Now would be a good time on Apple Pod, and it's also on a playlist that we have on Legal AF YouTube channel. So I hope that answers your question. Let me turn to Wyoming because it was a little bit of a shock, but this is what's happening. It's hand-to-hand combat in states over a woman's right to choose. And I think women and those that support women and to restore them to first-class citizenship in America and not second-class citizenship in red states that have taken away their reproductive rights along with the United States Supreme Court, I think we were heartened today by the four-to-one decision by the Wyoming, you know, ruby red Wyoming Supreme Court.

39:04Michael Popok:striking down two statutes that were passed in 2023 in the wave of, you know, excitement by MAGA after the Dobbs decision ripped away for the first time in history, a constitutional right that was given, ripped it away from a woman and a right to choose. And states like Wyoming quickly put on the books, in this case, that abortion was banned except in in terms of a woman's health or life and rape and incest. And medicated abortion or abortion pills were banned. But the problem is Wyoming has a constitution. And in Article 1, Section 38 of their constitution, it said everybody has the right to make health care decisions for themselves.

39:59Michael Popok:Now, how the state wiggled their way around it is they stuck in language in the bans that said that the decision to terminate a unborn child, they love using the wrong vocabulary, is not a health care decision. It's just a decision to terminate an unborn child. And the four justices of the Supreme Court in Wyoming said, no, this is the most fundamental and personal right of a woman. And it goes to her health and health care. I mean, even the ban, even the exception to the ban demonstrates that, as they pointed out in their 70-page order. It says it's a total ban on abortion except to protect the life of the mother.

40:44Michael Popok:Life, health kind of goes together, don't you think? Here's what the Wyoming Supreme Court said in their ruling, and then I'll read you what some of the opponents, usually white guys who can't carry children, had a say about that. Let me read it to you here. A woman, this is from the 4-1 decision written by Chief Judge Boogarden. A woman has a fundamental right to make her own health care decisions, including the decision to have an abortion. The state did not meet its burden of demonstrating the abortion laws further the compelling interest of protecting unborn life without unduly infringing upon the woman's fundamental right to make her own health care decisions.

41:33As such, the abortion laws do not constitute reasonable and necessary restrictions on a pregnant woman's right to make her own health care decisions.

41:44Michael Popok:Now, of course, right on cue, You had the American Civil Liberties Union, the only abortion provider in the entire state, you know, celebrate, along with obstetricians and other women who were plaintiffs in the case. And right on cue to, you know, pee in their cornflakes was a guy, a Speaker of the House. And remember his name because you need to defeat him in Wyoming. Chip Nyman, who is a Republican from, and you can help me in the chat tonight if you live in Wyoming, is it Hullet or Hewlett County, told the Wyoming Public Radio, isn't that adorable, public radio still exists in Wyoming, that he's in disbelief.

42:26Michael Popok:But listen to his disgusting Orwellian vocabulary. Quote, those little unborn human beings, those little men and women. Is that, did he fall asleep during health class? That's what he thinks inside, that was inside his mommy, little men and women? Those girls and boys in the wombs have rights. Who's listening to their voices? Now they have voices? Okay. Okay. Now, I don't think it's that far of a stretch to think that Chip Nyman would also support counting them in the census for the state and maybe giving them a mail-in ballot. Why not? These little men and women with voices inside of the woman's womb.

43:11Michael Popok:This is the false equivalency to put an embryo, because a lot of these states, it's 6 to 12 weeks, not even a fetus, on the same par as a born, living, adult human being who happens to be a woman. Is this not our problem here? The Freedom Caucus, I don't know how they stole that name, marked it as a dark day in Wyoming history. After decades of liberal leadership in the governor's office, they said the state Supreme Court has been filled with jurists who reject biology and human dignity. No, I think they have jurists who are human beings who are apolitical and impartial and are not trying to shove other people's morality or religious beliefs down our throat or up a woman's, we'll leave it at that.

44:08Michael Popok:Maybe that's what's going on in Wyoming. But for me, it's another data point that Trump and MAGA are in serious trouble. Like the last special election a week or so ago, a Democrat won. election night in America six weeks ago, blue wave. Every election since Donald Trump's been in has either been a Democratic win and flipping a seat or overperformance by a Democrat substantially over what Kamala Harris did against Donald Trump. Like Donald Trump had won a district, let's say, by 22 points. But now the Democrat only lost by four or six. There's a pent up demand to vote in this country. Polling is great.

44:58Michael Popok:Marching in the street can't beat it. We are ready to vote. And if we were a country like a parliamentarian country, and we had votes of no confidence, Trump would already be gone. Trump would already be gone. We don't have to wait around to see him try a military takeover of Greenland and a destruction of NATO and a takeover of Venezuela to suck its oil money into his coffers. We don't have to wait around for that. There has been enough other things to destroy and try to crush the hopes and dreams of America and destroy our patriotism and our values to have him lose a vote of no confidence. The polling says he's lost a vote of no confidence.

45:43Michael Popok:When 65 % of Americans, and we'll see the new polling off of Venezuela, but I'm not sure that helps him. When 65 % of Americans reject Donald Trump and hate Donald Trump and his policies, including the things that he holds dear, like immigration policy and foreign policy, and it's worse with the independents who 75 % reject Donald Trump and want their vote back. And people under 30, 30 and under, it's like 82 % have said no. That's why Momdami won in New York City and Spanberger in Virginia and Cheryl in New Jersey and the rest. So a big win. And it means a lot. And I think it's not an outlier.

46:30I think it's right on point. And it is a data point to show you that we will be successful at midterms and I think it's going to be a wipeout for the party, but we have to get up and vote and do the mail-in and all of that in order for that to work. Let me turn now to Epstein files.

46:52Michael Popok:Well, this isn't going well for the Trump administration. This is what's tearing MAGA apart. It's like two demons that have just come out of Haiti and are now ripping MAGA apart. One is Donald Trump violating America first principles and getting us into wars in other countries, which MAGA hates. That's one. And the lack of transparency around it and the obvious oil, big oil dominating foreign policy. And then you've got the continued Epstein cover up. Donald Trump has so painted himself into a corner he can't get out. And now we've got a new missing 3 ,000, sorry, 3.2 million documents. What am I talking about?

47:42Michael Popok:All right. Well, they've only posted, get this number, about 13 ,000 documents representing about 130 ,000 pages have been posted by the Department of Justice. And we're now almost three weeks past the deadline under the Epstein Transparency Act. That, if you just take their denominator of 5.2 million from last week, that represents 0.06 % of the total of the Epstein files. But now they don't like that number. So now they first said, after Midas called them out, based on one of those pages of the 12 ,000, and said, what about this email that says there's a million Maxwell documents that are sitting in the Southern District of New York?

48:28Michael Popok:What about those? Then they came out, hey, there's a million documents. Sitting in New York, we got to get to. We're like, all right, well, we'll put you down. It's like we're doing a ledger. We'll put you down for a million. Okay. Then a week later during the holidays, Todd Blanche drops a bombshell as the number two in the Department of Justice. He says there's 5.2 million. What a specific number. 5.2 million, not five, 5.2. All right. Well, we're working around the clock with 400 people. and we'll get there eventually. You know, we're redacting. We're like, wow, 5.2 million? And we didn't even think it was that.

49:05Michael Popok:And if it's 5.2 million, that means it's 50 million pages because it looks like the average document is about 10 pages long based on the prior numbers. So we're like, okay, we'll put you down for 5.2. So we travel forward. And now they have to file a letter with Judge Engelmeyer in New York, who's supervising their production because he's also responsible for the Epstein case. And I'm reading the letter about, there it is. I'm reading the letter. It's up on Legal AF Substack. And all of a sudden I see under overview of work in progress, they just blithely mentioned a new number, 2 million. No footnote.

49:50Michael Popok:I'm looking at the footnote like, okay, what happened to the other 3.2 million? Nope, nope. Just insulting everybody's intelligence. just saying, did I say 5.2? I meant 2 million. Now, does anybody believe that they figured out that 3.2 million of the 5 million were not relevant and didn't need to be reviewed or were duplicative in a week? How is that even possible? It's not. They don't explain where the 3.2 million went from. Again, reinforcing what we've been saying on Midas Touch and Legal AF and Intersection from the beginning. We are never going to see the entirety of whatever you define as the Epstein files, ever.

50:30Now, lawsuits should be coming out of this. I'm going to ask, actually, Sky Perryman, who's going to be with me tomorrow from Democracy Forward, who has a pending Freedom of Information Act case

50:41Michael Popok:before Judge Chutkin, of all people. Speaking of Jan 6th, she was the Jan 6th insurrectionist criminal judge about the communications between Epstein and Trump. That's another thing you never hear about. When they're doing their search, have they searched Donald Trump's personal accounts, his personal phone and laptop and documents and horde of things that he kept at Mar-a-Lago? Remember, he kept all that stuff. He never returned it. That's the thing people don't remember. They're like, oh, the Mar-a-Lago report. Oh, is Eileen Cannon going to release it or not? Oh, Jack Smith just gave testimony.

51:18Michael Popok:He kept all the stuff. He still has it. I guess falling out of the ballroom and out of the bathroom, he has all of our top secret and classified documents. He never turned it back. You know, the FBI went in and grabbed what they could, but there's still stuff there, you know, that left behind. You know, they did a raid, but there's only so much they could grab on that. So you have the shape-shifting going on at the Department of Justice. You have them basically saying, believe me, believe us, which we don't. And now public interest groups are going to have to get to the bottom of what happened to the other 3.2 million.

52:06Michael Popok:And this all matters to the survivors, of course, because we're getting even more and more information to help the survivors bring civil lawsuits around the country against people who they may not even have known was their predator at all. So, look, I think when you put all this together and you see what onto Venezuela here for a minute, when you're failing at home, when your economic record is dismal, when you're about to lose on the tariffs, I believe, which is the linchpin of your entire administration, when you're about, when all of those things are about to happen or are happening, your poll numbers are in the trash.

52:54Michael Popok:It's scandal after scandal, and you can't get out from under the Epstein scandal. What do you do? What do you do? Wag the dog. You start a phony war. It's not a war. What, Delta team took out 30 Cuban mercenaries that were guarding Maduro who were getting paid in oil? That's taking over Venezuela? We didn't take over Venezuela. We kicked the dictatorship in the nuts and then said, do you like that? Because we're about to do another one in a second wave unless you give us all your oil. That's what happened. Freedom is not on the march. And then right off of what we saw with the Jan 6th committee and the Jan 6th oversight hearing, Ed Martin, who is a senior, who was a Jan 6th denier, an election denier, who represented Jan 6th insurrectionist, who's now the head of your and my committee on weaponization of the Department of Justice, answering to Pam Bondi.

53:58Michael Popok:he basically in social media posts in the last 48 hours suggested that the department of justice and donald trump may do a sweetheart deal with maduro if he confesses to having a hand in election interference in 2020 this is the wet dream and the fevered imagination of sydney powell and rudy Giuliani, that a Venezuelan business person using software endorsed by Hugo Chavez, the predecessor to Maduro, was used by Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic to change Trump votes into Biden. All right. 90 lawsuits in federal court says that's bullshit. You know, election forensic auditors hired by Republicans say that's bullshit.

54:50Michael Popok:And the cybersecurity unit, which Donald Trump has put out of business, of the federal government says that didn't happen. And there's no proof of that happening. But Maduro has every incentive to lie about it, to get a sweetheart deal, much like Ghislaine Maxwell, and to be given asylum somewhere and let him keep his money. Trump gets the oil. Maduro gets out of looking at 50 years or 100 years in prison. And Trump gets to rewrite history and say, see, Venezuela did flip votes. But the fact that I even have to report on Ed Martin promoting this conspiracy theory tells you everything you need to know about the corruption of this Department of Justice.

55:38There is an antidote for this corruption,

55:42Michael Popok:and you found it. It's being with the Midas Touch Network. It's being on the intersection with me once a week. It's being a supporter, a fervent supporter, and helping us build the community where we're all vibrating on the same frequency on Legal AF YouTube, you know, and becoming a subscriber there, and coming to, you don't have to roll the next one, and coming to Legal AF and its substack where we're doing live reporting twice a day. We have to speak truth to each other before we can speak truth to power. Now, some people have said, and I understand the point of view, Polkak, you're platforming Donald Trump and you're giving him a, we're not.

56:22We have to criticize and critique and call out the abuse of power, the corruption, the lawlessness, the rogue conduct, because that's what he wants.

56:34Michael Popok:He wants us to get fatigued. He wants us to have our speech and free speech chilled. He wants corporate parents to crush their newsrooms. But we'll never let that happen here. We don't have a corporate parent. We don't have outside investors. We, this is all people-powered. This is member-powered. That's it. And so for people that say, how do you do 12 hours of content a day on Legal AF YouTube, your videos over on Midas Touch, the podcast that you do, the sub stack, the lives, how do you do it? I do it because of you, but I do it with you. And the way you keep the lights on are the ways that we've talked about tonight.

57:17Michael Popok:Membership, paid membership, the products that are promoted here that we check out. you know, Jordy and I do our own screening of the products. That's the way you keep this community together. And then you get what I think we've all been looking for, which is to say we're not alone. The loneliness in the, which is the art of the devil, the art of Trump is to separate us from our government and from our fellow Americans and make us feel alone. We're not alone. we're not alone we're together and together as citizens we will overcome the trump administration and we'll do it together i'm glad you're here on the intersection every tuesday night pick us up on the audio podcast platform of your choice leave a five-star review let let friends come and join us here one thing i've learned in running the sub stack and running the youtube channel in doing the podcasting, is that there is no greater influencer in your life than you.

58:22Michael Popok:People will follow you. And if you say, come to the intersection, come to the YouTube channel for Legal AF, come to the sub stack, I see the numbers, the stats. You as a group individually are the most influential people in your lives to cut through the clutter of all the content that's out there and get people here. So you are our marketing department, I guess is what I'm trying to say. And I appreciate each and every one of you. Thanks for being here. I'll see you on SubStack, Legal AF SubStack live tomorrow at 12 p.m. again at 745. I really appreciate you being here. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers.

59:04Michael Popok:Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF SubStack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. you