The Intersection with Michael Popok Full Episode - 12/2/2025

0:00Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent Anna Noskezi. The grill is shot. The chairs are held together by optimism. And what happened to the rug?

0:35Sounds like your outdoor setup is not ready for patio season. Fix it all with Wayfair. Shop Wayfair for grills, rugs, furniture, and more. With 20 million five-star reviews, room of choice delivery, and experts set up on qualifying orders, it's never been easier to do more for less. Get 10 % off your first eligible purchase. Hurry to Wayfair.com or download the app now. Spotify, it's Jay Shetty. Are you one of those media strategy people? Scrolling through spreadsheets, searching for an audience that pays twice as much attention to your ads than they do on social? Let me introduce you to fans.

1:13And they're here with me on Spotify. Trust me, I know fans. They don't skip, they stay for hours. They don't move on, they manifest. They're not a demographic group, they're fans. Spotify Advertising. You're among fans. Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results.

1:53Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent Nanna Nuskazi.

2:26Michael Popok:Sunshine about what's going on with this administration, what's going on in the court system, and curating for you things that you need to know at the intersection. So let's dive in. Well, with one footnote, as a special treat, forget Black Friday, forget Cyber Monday, let's do Popoc Birthday Tuesday, 30 % off paid annual membership for Legal AF Substack going on right now until noon Eastern time tomorrow. Come up, step up and get it. Membership you've been waiting for to help support all things Legal AF and the intersection. So I got that going on for you. All right, let's start it off. Let's kick it off already.

3:09Michael Popok:So Donald Trump. How do I put this kindly. He's losing his shit. There's no other way to put it. Between his three, thrice a day rantings and meltdowns on social media, two latest examples, going after the Somalis and people from Somalia. He's already called that country or that region a shithole in the past. And now he's going after the people of Somalia that are living in places like Minnesota. He's going after all people who hail from Afghanistan because of the tragedy that happened in the District of Columbia. And then, putting that aside for a minute, and I got news for Donald Trump. There is fraud in federal programs and funding up and down, mostly perpetrated by everyday Americans.

4:05Michael Popok:So you can pick on the Somalis and say, oh, they just committed food stamp fraud or whatever you want to call it. Again, this is just Donald Trump's racist dog whistle to go after a downtrodden black or brown community to try to make himself the better, to try to activate his base. It's really disgusting. Second example of his dementia or his cognitive disability. He's already admitted he just took a cognitive test. For what reason? At 79, you don't just take random cognitive tests. Who told you to take it? Who ordered that you take it? What type of test did you take? Was it for dementia? And what were the results of that test?

4:49Michael Popok:And who administered it? That's the real question. The other indicia of cognitive decline, just in the last 24 or 48 hours, is Donald Trump coming out during a cabinet meeting in the last 12 hours and saying that affordability is a hoax. This is his answer to the Democrats winning strategy of focusing on kitchen table politics, the economics around the heart, the hearth and home. Right. Checkbook politics. It's the economy, stupid. It's been the economy stupid in America for like for all modern presidencies. But he says in a cabinet meeting surrounded by billionaires that affordability is a hoax, that it's just a word that the Democrats use and he doesn't believe in it.

5:37Michael Popok:It's a con job. This is the way he's trying to wallpaper over the failure of his economic policies by saying that there's no such thing as affordability in America. Thank you for admitting the obvious that in the Trump America and the Trump economy, there is no such thing as affordability unless you're a billionaire like him. Look, there's new reporting that's out that actually says it's worse than I suspected. That Trump and his family are well on their way. They've already made billions of dollars and they're well on their way to making between 50 and 100 billion dollars before Donald Trump leaves office in one term.

6:18Michael Popok:You know, they didn't make that money in the first term because of their warped AI policies, their warped national security policies. There are warped cryptocurrency policies, all benefiting, all tailor-made to benefit Trump, Trump family and his cronies. And but let's just call it for the way we see it. This is a president who is in the throes of some cognitive decline that he doesn't want to admit. When the New York Times ran a story a couple of days ago that said the obvious, he's working from 12 to 5 every day, if that. Factor in the hundreds of hours of golf every month and the guy's barely functioning.

7:08Michael Popok:It's incredible how much damage he does in such a short amount of work week. But that's the reality. So what does he do? He attacks in a misogynistic racist way, a misogynistic sexist way, sorry, the female reporter for the New York Times that wrote the piece, goes after her, calls her ugly inside and out. Just like a week before he called a reporter, a female reporter, Piggy, Miss Piggy, you know. And I feel, in a way, I feel sorry for the female reporters. but they're also made the devil's bargain because they know that if they speak up and demand as they should that they are treated with respect and dignity that they'll be barred from having any access to to trump but but and i also bemoan and criticize the male counterparts where are they they should be when that happens the female reporter should say mr president that's inappropriate.

8:08Michael Popok:That's inappropriate. That is disrespectful. That is demeaning. It's beneath your office and certainly beneath my profession. So we collectively demand that you stop the personal attacks, especially on female reporters. That may be hard to articulate. I'd like to see the men stand up for the female reporters and say, Mr. President, that's inappropriate to be attacking my colleague based on her gender or to use comments about her physical appearance or other things. Let's get down to the questions that matter to the American people, shall we? And stop insulting my colleagues. That's one way. Another way would be for the press corps to not show up.

8:55Michael Popok:You know, let's do a sick out at the White House press room. So when Caroline Levesque goes out there, you know, propagandist in chief, she looks around, nobody's there. Or it's only the right wing media. That's what they're afraid of, that it won't be an empty room. It'll just be there. But so what? At a certain point, you have to take a stand. History will tell us which side you were on. If the mainstream, Donald Trump, to Donald Trump press, the media is like oxygen. He needs it. And if you stay out of the room and it's only Fox reporting, that's not going to be good enough for Donald Trump.

9:35Michael Popok:So, or stand up and turn your back on Caroline LeVette. I mean, I am getting so tired of the lack of courage, the lack of political convictions. Maybe it's because on Legal AF and on Midas Dutch, every day we are demonstrating what it takes to oppose the Trump administration. Trump just ran a comment about Eric Holder, who we're going to have on Legal AF soon, who's running an organization with Barack Obama related to redistricting, making sure congressional maps are not tilted in favor of only the white upper class. And he took a Midas touch video of Eric Holder and re-truthed it, or whatever it's called.

10:28Michael Popok:So we are certainly piercing the inner sanctum, the hermetically sealed world of Donald Trump. All right, let's put aside the dementia of Donald Trump and the decline of Donald Trump for a minute. Let me move on to the war crime and murder charges that should be brought against Pete Hegseth. And if it's not now, it'll certainly be when tribunals are formed at the end, the cessation of the Trump administration. See, his lackeys and sycophants and bootlickers and enablers don't seem to have gotten the message that the Supreme Court only provided the superpower of immunity, criminal immunity, to the president, not to those under him.

11:18Michael Popok:I'm looking at you, Pam Bondi, Attorney General, Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, Pete Hegseth, Department of Defense. I'm not going to call it Department of War, even though you changed the stationary and Photoshopped it because Congress didn't approve that. And the FBI Director, Kash Patel, and the rest. There's going to be tribunals. Now, Now, I have no doubt in the reporting that on September 2nd, Pete Hegsef gave the command to fire a fourth or fifth missile from a drone and to hit two men clinging to the side of a fishing boat in one of the first strikes. There's been 20 strikes so far.

12:09Michael Popok:More than 80 people disappeared by the Trump administration without due process in the Caribbean. And the reporting that just came out in the last couple of days is that Pete Hegseth, this is Wall Street Journal, sorry, Washington Post, Pete Hegseth ordered the double tap. He ordered the code red, seeing the people clinging there. Now, we've seen the video that has been heavily edited just to show the initial hit.

12:37Michael Popok:Now, people are going to testify against Hegseth. It is obvious from within the Pentagon that he gave the order once they saw that they were like in shock, that people were still alive, to hit it again and leave no survivors. Donald Trump doesn't even like that look, the optics of that. And he said, no, I only saw the video of the initial hit. I didn't see anybody clinging onto the side. And Pete Hexton thought, yeah, me too. Me too, boss. I only saw the original video. That's a lie. That's a lie. and that people are going to be compelled to testify against Pete Hegseff as he's busy trying to drum up a court-martial for Senator Mark Kelly because he reminded the troops, and now you see why, right?

13:24Michael Popok:He reminded the troops from brass down to rank and file that it is illegal and unconstitutional for you to follow an illegal unconstitutional order of the commander-in-chief along with a series of other elected officials. They're trying to recall him back to the Navy to court-martial him. Pete, you got bigger problems. The Joint Chiefs of Staff are now looking into whether a war crime and a murder was committed by you, for which you have a very flimsy Office of Legal Counsel memo that tells you it was okay to do what you did. it's not okay, even if you had a memo that said it's okay because we're in a non-land war with Venezuela or whatever it is, it's not okay to, while people are clinging to the side of a boat, fire on it again when there's no threat to the United States.

14:20Michael Popok:And now members of Congress, including those that served in the military and in the intelligence community, on both sides of the aisle are weighing in. This may finally be the end of Pete Hegseth. I think it's certainly the end for other reasons of Kash Patel, which I'll talk about next. I would not be surprised if over the next six months, we don't see a changeover. Pam Bondi may lose her job. I think that goes to Todd Blanche. Kash Patel loses his job. I think that goes to the former Missouri Attorney General, who's now the Deputy FBI Director, who's friends with Pam Bondi. I think that Pete Hegseth loses his job and somebody in the military or maybe somebody like Joni Ernst, who's retiring from the Senate, gets that position.

15:15Michael Popok:You're going to see changeover as Trump throws these people under the bus. Christine Noem also. Gone. Now, let me switch gears and talk about somebody else who's on a very short shelf life. and that's Kash Patel. I saw all I needed to see when Miranda Devine, the podcaster of choice for Donald Trump, who's sort of the captured podcaster who runs her stuff under the New York Post Rupert Murdoch banner, but all the administration goes on Miranda Devine. Suddenly she, under her headline two days ago, said there's been a leak of a 115-page FBI memo critiquing and basically calling for the firing of Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, the other right-wing podcaster, who's his number two.

16:09Michael Popok:And it's effectively a call to fire him. And Miranda Devine reports on it. Oh, I've got a copy of it. I have a copy of it too, by the way. It's up on Legal AF Substack. You can read it. It has 10 major findings, mostly against Kash Patel. But the fact that it went to Miranda Devine, this is an, I'm telling you, this is an insider job by the Trump administration. Donald Trump is notorious for having used the New York Post and its gossip columnists and the Miranda Devines to leak information to make them look better. All through his real estate career, he would constantly call Cindy Adams, who I think now is like 95 years old, gossip columnist on page six of the New York Post.

16:50Michael Popok:And he'd call as himself, as his own publicist. He'd be like, yeah, this is Bill over at Trump Organization. And then he'd leak something about some woman he was dating or some real estate deal he was doing or some award that he got. And then they'd run it. He did that throughout the 80s and 90s and 2000s for the New York Post. This is another conjured up, not the report, the report has been done by 29 people, both inside the FBI, writing anonymously, and outside to tear down Kash Patel. But the fact that it went to Miranda Devine, I'm telling you, Kash, I don't know which is going to happen first.

17:34Michael Popok:Some documents that we're going to get on December 19th in the Epstein matter related to the law that was signed by Trump that has to be released? Is it going to be the December 19th that we're going to get some documents or Kash Patel is going to get fired? There's no way. I'll come back and I'll admit if I'm wrong. There's no way they're putting Kash Patel up in front of the House and Senate Judiciary Committee again to be reamed and have a live autopsy performed by Jamie Raskin and or Cory Booker or others after this report's come out. This report was done to give Donald Trump cover to fire Kash Patel, right?

18:16Michael Popok:Patel's already got his own. You know, he's got to be on his PJ. It's not even his private jet. It's our private jet. He's on a Gulfstream romancing his 20-something-year-old girlfriend. I thought I was like, when I first read the report, I thought I was reading a new update on Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. I'm like, he's got a 20-year-old girlfriend. He's running around on our taxpayer dollar, whining and dining her. He needs a SWAT team because she's singing the national anthem. but there's a joke in there somewhere. I'm just not going to make it. So he's already had all of that reporting going on.

18:48Michael Popok:And then Miranda Devine, of all the reporters and all the people in America, she's the one that happens to get the leaked report that completely calls for his firing. He's not going to make it. Let me turn now, as long as we're at the intersection, or let me do it when I come back from a quick commercial break. We're going to talk about developments, big developments in the James Comey, Letitia James prosecution, including a new motion under the Fourth Amendment that was filed just today. Alina Habba, of course, got bounced, and that had a cascading effect with the Third Circuit firing her as the U.S.

19:26Michael Popok:Attorney for New Jersey has had a cascading effect on the Department of Justice's decision making in Letitia James and James Comey's case. We'll wrap all that together. There's a new filing in the Mar-a-Lago case, of all things, where Donald Trump apparently needs to remind Judge Aileen Cannon, has a reminder that he's still involved with the case and he still doesn't want volume two of Jack Smith's report about Mar-a-Lago released. I want to talk through all of that. And I knew, as we await the decision by the United States Supreme Court about whether Trump's tariffs are legal or not or unconstitutional or not.

20:05Michael Popok:Costco, of all things, perhaps sensing that Donald Trump is losing his grip on reality and on his faculties and on power, has decided to file a lawsuit with the Court of International Trade to get their tariff money back. Costco, of all things. We'll wrap all that together at the intersection. A couple of things I want to mention before we take our first commercial break or our commercial break for today. I'm running a sale. It's the Popak birthday sale from now until 12 o 'clock p.m. Eastern time tomorrow. We've had a few hundred people take advantage of this already, which is amazing. On the Legal AF Substack, which is the way we sort of pay our bills, keeps us on the air, pays for the editors and all sorts of other things.

20:47Michael Popok:Come over to Legal AF Substack. And for, I think now it's going to be about$5.50 a month, you can support all of our reporting, commentary, live reporting over on Legal AF Substack with a 30 % off Popak birthday special going on right now. Okay. So there's other ways to support what we do in my world at the intersection. Legal AF, the podcast, we're doing great. Top 20 in YouTube podcast on a weekly basis, top 50 or 60 on Spotify and Apple. But we need your help and support to continue to watch and listen to us there. Legal AF, the YouTube channel is where I do most of my work during the week.

21:27Michael Popok:I mean, I do about 40 videos a week. I do about 15 or so on Midas. I do all the rest over on Legal AF YouTube channel, along with a dozen other contributors. Now is the time. Find out if you are a member. If you're not a member, now would be a great time to do it. We're trying to get to 1 million as we roll into 2026. The bigger we are, the more your voice is heard. Come over to Legal AF, the sub stack and Legal AF, sorry, the YouTube channel. And it's all, that's free. Legal AF YouTube, free. No paywall, no outside investors, but we need your help. So now we're going to hear from a word from our sponsors.

22:07Michael Popok:You know that nostalgic feeling of sitting at the breakfast table as a kid and pouring a giant bowl of cereal that just tasted amazing? Well, Magic Spoon has reinvented that feeling with cereal and treats that bring back the flavors you love, but in a way that actually fuels your day. Every serving of Magic Spoon's high-protein cereal packs 13 grams of protein, zero sugar, and four grams of net carbs. And the flavors, straight out of your childhood, fruity, cocoa, and frosted. And then there are the Magic Spoon treats. Crispy, crunchy, airy, and ridiculously satisfying with 12 grams of protein in every bar.

22:42Michael Popok:They come in mouth-watering flavors like marshmallow, chocolate peanut butter, and dark chocolate. Perfect on the go, pre or post workout, or even as late night snack. Here's how you try them. Get$5 off your next order at magicspoon.com slash legal AF, or look for Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. That's magicspoon.com slash legal AF for$5 off. I don't usually gush about skincare, care, but One Skin genuinely impressed me. I assumed it would be like most moisturizers, you know, decent, but overhyped. Then I tried OS1, and yeah, I get it now. My skin just feels smoother, firmer, and hydrated, without that heavy or greasy vibe.

23:25Michael Popok:And the biggest surprise, zero irritation. I've got sensitive skin, and this one just works. At the core of One Skin is their patented OS1 peptide, the first ingredient proven to target senescent cells, a major driver behind wrinkles, crepey texture, and loss of elasticity. And the wild part, this science has been validated in five clinical studies. Their cult favorites include OS1 Face, Body, and Eye, all designed to layer seamlessly and replace multiple steps in your routine. One Skin just launched their limited edition holiday sets, including the nightly Rewind gift set. It comes with their best-selling face moisturizer, the brand new peptide lip mask, and a sculpting goo-a-shot tool.

24:13Michael Popok:It's luxury, but backed by serious longevity science. Now listen up, this part matters. For a limited time, try OneSkin for 15 % off using code LEGALAF at oneskin.co slash LEGALAF. After you purchase, they'll ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them that we sent you. Welcome back to The Intersection, and thank you for being here and being such a fervent supporter of what we do. Let's dive into the James Comey, Letitia James matter. There's some newsworthy and breaking news stories around their indictments. You'll remember in the last several days, Judge Curry dismissed without prejudice, meaning the indictments could be brought back under certain circumstances, dismissed the indictments against James Comey and Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, because she found, as other courts have found, that Lindsey Halligan is illegally appointed under Section 546 as the interim U.S.

25:16Michael Popok:attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. She'd never been a prosecutor before. She'd only been a prosecutor several hours when she went after James Comey, etc., etc. More importantly, she could not have been appointed as a U.S. attorney because Donald Trump had one opportunity to appoint somebody in that role. He spent it on another person, and then it goes to the district court judges to pick that replacement. That's the argument. But the underlying indictments could be brought back under certain circumstances. So the new reporting is that there's grand juries that are working in Norfolk, Virginia, and Alexandria, Virginia, to bring new indictments against James Comey and Letitia James.

26:04Michael Popok:So don't be surprised when I come back with updated reporting about it. Now, on Letitia James, I'm hoping that a grand jury will see through this charade, will see the weaponization of the Department of Justice and the vindictive prosecution and not indict. I mean, there's enough publicity out there right now, including on Legal AF. Don't indict if you don't believe the evidence supports it. That's one. But I think she'll probably get re-indicted. That doesn't change the fact that the prosecution is vindictive and her judge, Judge Walker, is going to have to decide whether the whole criminal case needs to be dismissed regardless of who the prosecutor is.

26:43Michael Popok:James Comey is a trickier, there's a trickier side to that story. Because if they're going to re-indict him under the perjury count, the lying to Congress under 1001 of the code, the statute of limitations has run. Judge Curry ruled that the indictment that Halligan obtained was never an indictment because everything she did was illegal and void. If that's a legal envoyant, it did not stop the clock on the two-year statute of limitations, which ran on September 5th. Now, purportedly, there's some argument that they're going to bring another charge against him, not related to his testimony on February 5th, 2020 to Congress.

27:25Michael Popok:All right, listen, I'll have to see what the charge is going to be. Certainly, it's not going to be Lindsay Halligan getting the indictment. It's going to be a new grand jury. It'll likely be the new number two, she has a new first assistant, a guy coming out of semi-retirement from Kentucky to work with her that'll probably try to get this indictment. And I think the reason they're trying to get the indictments is because their world, the Department of Justice's world was rocked when four days after Lindsey Halligan was fired by Judge Curry, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in a unanimous decision 3-0 fired Alina Habba for similar but not identical reasons to be the U.S.

28:03Michael Popok:Attorney for New Jersey. There's another case involving John Sarkoni up in the Northern District of New York that's being heard, just to be confusing, by a judge in the Southern District of New York in Manhattan about whether an investigation started by John Sarkoni against Letitia James's New York Attorney General office for violating Donald Trump's civil rights. There's a hearing that's coming up actually on Thursday this week in front of the judge there, Judge Friedrich, about whether John Sarkoni was illegally appointed as well, much like Alina Haba. Stay tuned on that one. But it's been a bad run for Donald Trump on these U.S.

28:49Michael Popok:attorney appointments because he's not picking anybody that can get through the confirmation process with the Senate. he's picking all these partisan political hacks who he knows will never get confirmed or it will be blocked by the senators in blue states and therefore he doesn't care you know he got his pound of flesh he really he doesn't he really doesn't care about Letitia James and James Comey he already got their pound of he's got his pound of flesh because it was announced there was a criminal investigation and then there was an indictment and then and then and then and He's already moved on in his micro news cycle.