The Intersection with Michael Popok - 12/30/2025

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0:14Michael Popok:For everyone who solves crime from their couch, knows more about forensics than their own job, and has trust issues with small-town sheriffs, Amazon Music's millions of podcast episodes are calling. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad-free. Included with Prime. Welcome to a special holiday edition of The Intersection. New Year's Eve, Eve, everybody. Thanks for being here. We got, I mean, you couldn't be any more live than this. I just came off of a Legal AF Substack live with a couple thousand people. I told them, look, I'm going to act like I'm double parked.

0:52Michael Popok:I'm sorry. I got about 20 minutes. then I got to head over to the intersection for, you know, the regular show. And I'm glad, there we go. And I'm glad you're all here for it. Here's what we're going to hit in a particular order. I want to talk about the really fascinating and perfectly appropriate yet aggressive posture that certain defense lawyers are taking when their clients who are targets of Donald Trump's retribution campaign, what they're doing to fight back against that, including writing a 16-page letter to the chief judge of the Southern District of Florida sitting in Miami, a judge I know, Judge Cecilia Altanaga, saying that the Department of Justice is corrupt and they are corruptly trying to funnel and traffic a case over to a particular judge because they think it'll be beneficial to them.

1:48Michael Popok:And that judge's name is, you can put it in comments, Aileen Cannon. And that the Department of Justice and Donald Trump is using Aileen Cannon through the U.S. attorney, Jason Reining Quinones in Miami, to go after Donald Trump's perceived political enemies or critics like John Brennan, the former CIA director. His lawyers at Mayor Brown, I've never in 35 years seen a letter written to a chief judge asking the chief judge to exert influence, use their administrative powers to keep a case away from another judge because there's a corrupt judge shopping going on, which we all see. And I had an interview along with one of my colleagues on Legal AF, Professor Ray Brescia, with Mark Zaid.

2:38Michael Popok:Mark Zaid, you'll see the interview tomorrow, the leading national security lawyer representing whistleblowers, people inside the Department of Justice, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the intelligence community, whistleblowers and the like, who just successfully fought to get his national security clearance back so he can represent these people. He's also part of this Brennan group, along with others that are fighting this fight. There's 37 people in the intelligence community that the Trump administration is going after. Pam Bondi's already admitted it. She said just the other day to a right-wing podcaster, there's a vast conspiracy and we're going after it.

3:22Michael Popok:And it includes members of the intelligence community. They're talking about things in the Obama-Biten era, like including Hillary Clinton. These are so old you can't even prosecute them any longer. You know, the Russia hoax. We did this already with lawsuits. It failed. But that Donald Trump does. And Mark Zaid confirmed this for me because he's he's on. He's a target. He's on. He's on. He's on. Donald Trump said he should be sued, quote unquote, sued for treason. he agreed with me Donald Trump doesn't care about indictments or convictions he just wants to put these people through a process extract his several pounds of flesh and on top of that a name and shame that's all he cares about that's what we've been watching so that's very interesting and then what did Pam Bondi do Pam Bondi goes after Brennan violates the Department of Justice manual and ethics codes every which way to Sunday.

4:30Michael Popok:And in return says that he's a bad actor and so is his lawyers. Doesn't file a letter with the judge responding point by point to their allegations. Just goes on a right-wing podcaster who's associated with the Charlie Kirk show, of course, and says they're all bad actors trying to name and shame John Brennan. I got an update in Abrego Garcia that you're going to have to sit down for this one. New emails have come out, shows the Department of Justice has been lying to a federal judge. That's my interpretation. We've got a new filing about Judge Bozberg's decision to, among other things, to conduct a criminal contempt fact-finding mission to find out if the Trump administration has been in contempt of his orders or not.

5:27Michael Popok:That got blocked. It's up at the D.C. Court of Appeals or the Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. We got a Trump panel, Trump-led panel, but some arguments now made in front of that panel. as Judge Boesberg moves forward to grant summary judgment in favor of due process and habeas corpus rights. I'll tie it all together. Speaking of lying, new reporting, another secret thing that just came out besides the emails in the Abrego Garcia case, Tom Homan back in the news, you know, he's that, the guy that's the border czar, or as Saturday Night Live, I'm sure would say, if you ever saw a picture of Tom Homan smiling or laughing, That's Tom Homan watching an orphanage burn down.

6:12He's the guy that separates families, makes people disappear, if you know what I mean.

6:17Michael Popok:He also made$50 ,000 of taxpayer dollars disappear. And there's a new internal memo that just got leaked that isn't, it is not good news for the administration, nor for Emil Bovee. Emil Bovee is at the heart of two of my stories tonight. He's a current federal judge, appellate no less. But I have a prediction. You can put it in the time capsule. Emil Bovee should be at the top of the list to be impeached and removed for the actions he took for the three or four months that he was in the Department of Justice as Donald Trump's former and current criminal defense lawyer. We'll walk through that all during the intersection tonight.

6:58Michael Popok:And then I want to talk about the latest efforts by the Trump administration to destroy a congressionally created bureau or agency. And this one being the one that protects people from predatory lending practices and creditor practices, protects consumers. You know, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created by Barack Obama in 2016, once headed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, has saved people billions and billions of dollars. Donald Trump's trying to kill it, along with the Department of Education. And when he couldn't kill it, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued an injunction in March, he figured out a new way.

7:36Michael Popok:tell the judge that the Federal Reserve is broke. Right. In order to win this case, Donald Trump told the world that the Federal Reserve can't pay its bills. That and so much more on the intersection. Glad you're here. Before I jump into each of these items, we have a couple of questions from today. Desia78 asked, are state's attorneys general actively working on state charges for Trump's gang that will make presidential pardons meaningless. I mean, not as of yet, but there's plenty of time. The statute of limitations will not have run. It's just hard for the states to bring criminal cases unless those officials did something in their states that hook into their criminal law.

8:26Michael Popok:And there's enough federal officer type case law that would probably require that case to be brought in federal court. In any event, I just don't, at the moment, I don't see that hook, but you're right about something else. The immunity for Donald Trump does not extend to protect everybody else under him, right? It's one, it's superpower only he holds. And we got plenty of time on the clock under statute of limitations to bring criminal charges against, we can make the, why don't we make the list tonight? I'll kick it off. Stephen Miller, Russ Vogt, Christy Noem, Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Emil Bovey, let's go to the press secretary, whatever her name is, that one, and others.

9:22Michael Popok:There were six people in the Nixon administration, at least, that were indicted and convicted, including the attorney general. So these people that walk around thinking they have impunity are likely targets for the next Department of Justice. And that's sweet music to most of our audience's ears when we start talking about the next Department of Justice, which we hope will be and should be a Democratic president and a Democratic attorney general. So there's that. Let me answer one more question before we keep going.

10:04Michael Popok:Peter Finn asked, if a president pardoned someone, can they still be charged later if there's new information? Well, not for those crimes. And it depends on the scope of the pardon. You know, some of them were like, get out of free jail cards for like, he could even figure out what most of these people did wrong that Donald Trump pardoned. So he had very broad pardon. So did Biden about his family, by the way. But like, it's not a unlimited diplomatic immunity. You can't kill somebody. So future crimes could be charged that are not the subject matter of the actual pardon, if we can figure out what the subject matter is.

10:41Michael Popok:but I'm glad you're all here tonight and taking time out of, you know, at this point you're taking time out of time with loved ones. And we've got 5 ,000 people that said, Oh, Polpock's doing the intersection. Let me jump on. Let me say one thing before we get into it all. Thank you. That's the best I can do at the moment. I'd hug each of you if I could. We've crossed our 1 million subscriber threshold milestone on Legal AF YouTube channel in about a year, Rocket Time, one of the fastest growing YouTube channels. We just got ranked, blew away a lot of our quote unquote competition. And that's all because of you.

11:21Michael Popok:We're building it brick by brick with you. That's free, no paywall. And we're now, we're 10 ,000 or 20 ,000 into our next million, which we hope to hit in 2026. And now we're focused on Legal AF Substack. There it is. Thank you, Ben. Not that Ben. Thank you, Mr. Perry, for helping us. Legal AF Substack. We've added about 30 ,000 subscribers in the last month. We've added 1 ,000 subscribers paid because I'm running a sale until tomorrow night. 30 % off on Legal AF paid Substack membership brings it down to about$6 and I don't know, 20 cents a month,$6.50 a month. And that's what pays the bills.

12:04Michael Popok:That's what keeps, you know, 18 hours of content on a legal AF. That's what keeps me on the air, pays for the editors, keeps the lights on, business model, all that. No outside investors, no paywall. This is the way we do it. All right, let's dive in. Abrego Garcia. Look what I got in my hot little hands. I've got emails or at least summaries of emails we never saw before tonight. Yes, hot off the presses. Now this order for Judge Crenshaw, the criminal judge, federal court, Tennessee, middle district, it's been on the docket. There he is. It's been on the docket since the 3rd of December, but all of what I'm showing you here, and maybe Ben can put up page five or page six or page seven.

12:47Michael Popok:There it is. That was all black. I couldn't see it. Judge Crenshaw saw it. And that's why we wondered a couple of days ago, when Judge Crenshaw issued an order canceling for now the criminal trial against Abrego Garcia for that human trafficking and instead saying, why don't we have a hearing in a couple of weeks about whether the government can carry its burden as to whether it vindictively is prosecuting him as a payback because he's winning his cases in front of Judge Zinnis in Maryland on due process. Why don't we do that first? Yeah. Do we all agree? And he got pissed off, you can tell, now that we've seen the emails.

13:27Michael Popok:I'm going to read them to you in a minute, or the summaries of them that he put in there. He got pissed off because the government said, oh, we could have an inventory hearing, but you don't need to hear from anybody in Washington. Department of Justice in Washington did not make the decision to indict. That came out of the fevered imagination of the prosecutors in Tennessee. Sure. Yeah. Mr. McGuire, acting interim U.S. attorney, just on his own, decided to go back to a four-year-old traffic stop. Stop me if you've heard this before. And indict Abrego Garcia. And Department of Justice had no role in it.

14:03Michael Popok:See, the connectivity between the Department of Justice, what we call Maine, M-I-N, M-I-N, Maine Justice in Washington, and the prosecutor's office in Tennessee. If there's no link, it's hard to prove a vindictive prosecution because who's being vindictive? Maguire? But if you link it together, it's Trump telling Todd Blanche to tell Akash Singh, to tell Emil Bovee, to tell Maguire to indict Abrego Garcia, just as we saw from a interview that Todd Blanche gave on Laura Ingraham, there's Todd Blanch, in which he basically confessed. She asked them, you know, well, we had a judge in Maryland who ruled against us, so we indicted the guy.

14:51Michael Popok:I'm like, well, that sounds like vindictive prosecution to me. So let me start reading to you now

15:01Michael Popok:from our emails. Get ready for this one. You're going to love this one. and it's a timeline starting on page five remember department of justice told crenshaw to his face we are not directing traffic on the indictment from washington it's just mcguire okay april 27th 2025 mcguire in tennessee receives a file on a brago akash singh that's the number five the Department of Justice that's responsible for administering or administrating the 93 U.S. attorneys. He's a 32-year-old guy, recently convicted of a DUI. I'm not making it up. That there's an email requesting time to discuss a cooperating witness against Abrego being led by Maine Justice in Washington.

15:53Michael Popok:April 28th, Akash Singh, sitting in D.C., receives the Tennessee Highway Patrol report on Abrego. April 30th, two days later, this is the one that puts the nail in the coffin and proves for me that the Department of Justice is lying to Judge Crenshaw. Remember, he saw these on December 3rd. We just see them tonight. Emails between Akash Singh, McGuire, and Jacob Warren, who works for McGuire in Tennessee, regarding criminal charges arising from the November 2022 Abrego traffic stop. They're talking about indicting Abrego for the traffic stop and the conversations being led by McGuire's boss in D.C., Mr.

16:34Michael Popok:Singh. There's no other way to read this. Singh writes, it's a top priority. Of who? Of Trump. Of his boss, Todd Blanche. McGuire writes, we want the high command looped in. Aye, aye, Captain. Follow in orders. Let's go to May 15th. We can take down the screen, Ben. May 15th, Robert McGuire writes regarding a possible Abrego indictment. Ultimately, this is the Tennessee guy writing to DC. I would hope to have ODAC, oh damn, they should be writing, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, ODAC, eyes on it, the indictment, as we move towards a decision. While ultimately the office's decision to charge will land on me, I think it makes sense to get the benefit of all your brains and talent.

17:25Michael Popok:I've not received specific direction from ODAC, other than I've heard anecdotally that the Deputy Attorney General and the Principal Deputy Attorney General, Emil Bovey, would like Garcia charged sooner rather than later. You just told Crenshaw that there is no link between main justice and the indictment. May 18th, Akash Singh receives an email and an update about the indictment. we're working on the weekend to finalize it. We'll get you a copy tomorrow or first thing Monday. All right. Two days later, May 20th, Akash Singh requests a memo from McGuire about the case. And May 21st, he's, Brango Garcia is indicted.

18:08Michael Popok:You don't think the judge is about to dismiss this case for a vindictive prosecution and not allow it to ever be brought again. I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. We are close to the first vindictive prosecution ruling by a federal judge against this corrupt Department of Justice. And I am here for it. And I know you are too, for example. But that just happened. And that's not the only thing in the case that's happened. We've got Boesburg. Boesburg, I joked recently in a hot take, he's like, he must go to Les Mis and think he's like Javert chasing after Jean Valjean. Because he's trying to bring to heel a lawless Department of Justice and President Trump about issues like Braygo Garcia and others going to El Salvador and being tortured at a prison.

19:07Michael Popok:And he keeps getting stymied by a couple of Trumpers on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. But he moved forward. He said, you want to hold up my criminal contempt proceedings? All right, we'll keep litigating that. In the meantime, I'm still the judge in the case, and I'm going to find on summary judgment that other people, 137 of them, not named Abrego Garcia, who also got sent to El Salvador, but now got prisoner exchanged with Venezuela. I thought we were at war with Venezuela. By Trump, still have due process rights, still have habeas corpus rights. Now they're represented by the American Civil Liberties Union.

19:44Michael Popok:And you guys all know, or you should know, starting in January, ACLU is joining LAF, legal AF, for regular reporting and commentary about their cases. I'm so honored for you. I'm taking the honor from our audience that they're joining us. And it's because of what we now represent in the community, in the marketplace of ideas, a safe space for law and politics to be discussed among adults without blowing truth or sunshine. So, Boesburg is up at the D.C. There's an appellate brief by the American Civil Liberties Union about trying to get the contempt proceedings back up and running while he issues summary judgment and wants, in the next couple of days, wants a description from the government, a proposal about how to give those rights of due process to people sitting in Venezuela.

20:39He's all ears, and so am I.

20:42Michael Popok:So that brings you up to speed in Abrego Garcia and Bozberg. And then I've got to talk about Tom Homan and the new internal memo that leaked today, along with Trump claiming that the Federal Reserve is broke. He already said there's a fool running it in front of Netanyahu during a press conference, referring to Jay Powell. It's still trying to fire the guy. It's not helping the economy. It's not cutting rates faster. It's just this abusive, bullying nature of Donald Trump. And Jay Powell is a bigger person. And Jay Powell, the person that Donald Trump appointed to be the Federal Reserve Chairman.

21:22Michael Popok:You may not remember that as much as Donald Trump. This is like a bad divorce, right? Except Jay Powell is the loving husband. And Donald Trump is the cheating wife or the cheating whatever. And abusive, no less. So we're going to follow all of that. Two ways to help what we do on The Intersection. Well, a number of ways. One is the podcast. The podcast is booming. I'm so glad I decided to tell the brothers I need my own show. I was like, I love doing it with Ben and Karen, but can I have my own show? In any event, all adjusting aside, The Intersection is doing great. Top 50 in new YouTube rankings.

22:04Michael Popok:I think we're 56th or so. That's all because of you. I'm doing my part, but you guys are here for it. And I do appreciate it. And bring more people on. That's one of the things I've learned about this YouTube community and Substack community. How many of you bring on other people and are influencers in your own lives to expose people? Because, you know, there's so much content out there. You know, it's like when it's back in the old days when somebody would say, are you watching Game of Thrones? Did you see Breaking Bad? Oh my God, The Sopranos. you know right you know and you'd be like oh must watch tv i must binge this what should i binge today you know but that those days are over and there's just so much content that's with somebody that you trust says to you hey intersection with popock legal af youtube sub stack it's amazing how many people will will um thank you for giving them direction and and helping them cut through the jungle of content that's out there and find like-minded people, fellow travelers, as we like to say.

23:10Michael Popok:So I appreciate you doing that for us very, very much. Find us on podcasts, like audio podcasts, just put in the intersection, go to YouTube. You can find us on the Midas Touch Network. You can just plug in Legal AF MTN. Get us over to the YouTube channel, help us on our next 1 million build. Maybe you missed the first million. It's okay. You were asleep for a year. It's all right. You're here now. The best time to do it was yesterday or right now. So let's do it. Let's do it right now. And then we've got our, besides our sub stack, which I talked about with our 30 % off sale going on until the end of this, until the end of tomorrow.

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25:04Michael Popok:Right now, you can get 45 % off your first subscription order of 30 servings of coffee plus. You'll also receive a starter kit with over$100 in free gifts by going to everydaydose.com slash legal AF or entering legal AF at checkout. That's everydaydose.com slash legal AF for 45 % off your first order. Let's talk about our last two topics today. Let's do the internal memo, which puts a lie to everything Carolyn Levitt, there's her name, has ever said about Tom Homan and bribery. For those joining late to the story, Tom Homan, yes, your border czar, took a$50 ,000 bribe of U.S. taxpayer dollars by the Biden administration's FBI.

25:53What happened is they were targeting somebody else in a public corruption scandal

26:00Michael Popok:investigation. That person who was close to Tom Homan said, you think I'm taking bribery? You know, he'll take a bribe, Tom Homan, offer him a million and he'll offer to channel contracts, federal contracts. You know, like much of our immigration and detention apparatus is privately owned, meaning contracts and need private security forces. Private detention centers. Yes. For ICE. There's one in New York. It's called Delaney Hall, among others. Private prisons. Private fill in the blanks. You need charter. You need planes. There's one company in Miami that basically is ice air. And all these contracts need to be procured.

26:46Michael Popok:So they went in September of 2024, two months before the end of the Biden administration, to a Cava restaurant in CAVA in Texas. And at some point, they pushed across a bag, a big orange or yellow bag in Cava, stuffed with$50 ,000 and gave it to Tom Oman, who took it. Now, I'd like to know how he reported that on his tax returns. Because he claims he didn't take a bribe. So what happened to the bribe sting money? Where'd that go? And now with the new reporting that just came out today with MS Now. I feel like I have to shout their new name. MS Now. The reporting is that there was an internal memo, one page, that was prepared by the Department of Justice who ran into the room in the middle of January before the inauguration and pushed it in an envelope across to Emil Bovee.