The Intersection with Michael Popok Full Episode - 9/2/2025

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1:07Michael Popok:Has it only been a week since our last intersection? I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Touch Network. So much has happened. I'm exhausted from the Labor Day weekend and judges working overtime to rein in Donald Trump. Emergency duty judges like Sparkle Sukhnanen. You're going to hear more about her today. And then other judges like Judge Breyer, who seems to have worked all weekend to finish his 52 page decision, finding that Donald Trump, the Department of Defense violated one of our most sacrosanct protections against a rogue president, the Posse Comitatus Act, after a trial. And we've got a press conference tomorrow of the Epstein victims, at least 10 of them, being hosted bipartisan fashion.

1:52Michael Popok:We have a Republican congressperson. We've got a Democratic congressperson joining together with 10 victims who are there to declare once and for all two things. We are not a hoax. And secondly, release the damn files. So there's an update in the Epstein matter. Donald Trump's health crisis. See, Midas created a Midas health. Boy, that was fortuitive. That was like, when they originally formed that general, I was like, that's sort of interesting. Interesting when you've got an aging president who denies that he's falling apart when to all reasonable observers he is, both mentally and physically.

2:31Michael Popok:I mean, the fact that Pete Doocy, I always want to mispronounce his name, the fact that Pete Doocy on Fox had to start a press conference question the following way. Where were you when you found out you were dead, Mr. President? Between that and J.D. Vance, who was, I think, trying to solve for the problem of Donald Trump's failing health, but only made matters worse when he made the following statement. God forbid anything happens to him. I'm ready to take over. I mean, that would be the equivalent of Lyndon Johnson before Kennedy left for Texas saying, I don't know what's going to happen at the Texas Book Depository, but I'm ready to take over if anything does happen.

3:17Michael Popok:Yeah, we're going to cover the health scandal, which is on top of the Epstein scandal, which is on top of the tariff scandal, which is on top of the everything else scandal all related to Donald Trump. And the polls show it. We're going to be crashing below the 30 % approval rating soon. You wouldn't know it to watch Donald Trump. Well, it's very hard to watch Donald Trump because there's allegations of phony photos, AI-generated photos of him at a golf course. Where was he for four and a half days? Why was the big press announcement about moving the Space Force from Colorado to Alabama? Are we watching a wag the dog moment where he blows up a Venezuelan drug ship and kills 11 people to reinforce this phony war we have with Venezuela and to distract attention from his failing administration?

4:12Michael Popok:I've said it before. I'll say it again here on The Intersection. Donald Trump politically times events like starting wars, bombing Iran, bombing Venezuela, releasing the Maxwell transcripts in order to step on horrible news stories and news cycles. And this weekend was a horrible set of news cycles, which I'm going to talk about. We had Judge Sukhnanen ordering 76 children who were put on a plane at one o 'clock in the morning without due process, let alone an adult, to be shipped back to Guatemala in violation of their refugee status. So he had that order. He had today in the morning when we all woke up.

5:00Michael Popok:I was shopping in a supermarket this morning for my family. covering part of the domestic tasks here as my wife takes care this morning at kind of a pre preschool for our daughter. I was picking out melons when I get an urgent alert on my phone. My phone blows up about Judge Breyer up in San Francisco coming out with the first time in U.S. history, a pronouncement, a jury verdict, I'm sorry, a trial verdict that Trump and the Department of Justice violated the Posse Comitatus Act. Then you had earlier or later in the week, as we led into Labor Day, we had the seven to four decision by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that totally destroyed two thirds of Donald Trump's tariff scheme, which he's based the entirety, apparently, of his economics and economic model on.

5:52Michael Popok:And so now we're at war with Venezuela. You see where this is going? I want to talk about the health scandal, the Epstein press conference for tomorrow, and what's going on in Congress now that they finally got back from their summer vacation. What did you do on your summer vacation, MAGA? I hid from the press and the people that elected me. I hid from my responsibility to do oversight over this administration. I hid for my responsibility to release the Epstein files and to make sure that children have been protected and haven't been trafficked. I mean, we just had a ruling by Judge Suknan, effectively, that the Trump administration has more likely than not violated statutes against torturing children and trafficking children.

6:39Michael Popok:I got an update about the Abrego-Garcia matter, a new gag order that's being considered by a judge as they pulverize him in public. You've got Kristi Noem complaining that her 60 Minutes interview or her her Meet the Press interview was edited to because she didn't get to continue to bash and malign this person who is a criminal defendant who's entitled to be presumed innocent, Abrego Garcia. They cut me off. I didn't get to talk about his child predator conduct. And so we're going to talk about all of these things, including Donald Trump's fundamental attempts to create a standing army of his creation against our Constitution, heck, against our Declaration of Independence to support him, all on the intersection with Michael Popak.

7:38Michael Popok:I'm glad you're here. For those that are here, we usually get a couple hundred thousand people watching this new podcast. Help stand it up. Help support it. Hit the free subscribe button here. Listen to us on audio podcast platforms as well. And then, of course, my main work is on Legal AF, all things Legal AF. The YouTube channel, subscribe there. The sub stack, subscribe there. and the like. All right, let's get into it. Let's start with the health scandal swirling around. When was the last time a president had a deny that he was dead? I mean, that is the question that was asked. You even have right-wing extremists like Nick Fuentes saying something's going on with Trump's health.

8:26Michael Popok:This is a guy who met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, who's a white nationalist, who supports the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. He's now questioning whether there's another scandal. Because let's be frank, MAGA loves a conspiracy theory. And we've got one now with the health crisis. He is falling apart before our very eyes. The Trump administration keeps trying to cover for Donald Trump's failing health. Well, he's got a vein issue. The blood doesn't flow back properly from his legs to his heart. That doesn't explain the mottled hands they try to cover with makeup. That doesn't explain the muddy thinking that they can't cover up with his incoherent, grammatically incorrect postings in the middle of the night or all hours of the day.

9:12Michael Popok:That can't explain his inability to walk in a straight line like he's failed a DUI test. That doesn't explain the grainy photos that they try to show us, as we joke on the Midas Dutch Network. the proof of life photos, he's still alive. It looked like the Loch Ness monster. It was this pixelated, blurry photo. Pardon me. They have a presidential photographer who can take a decent shot. How about a staffer with an iPhone if they weren't trying to cover up? I mean, look, the princess of England, Princess Kate, took a lot of flack when she tried to cover up her cancer crisis with these phony photos that were AI generated that showed she only had four fingers or, you know, like weird disjointed ankles.

9:59Michael Popok:Same thing's going on now with Donald Trump. The fact that Nick Fuentes is saying something's up, the fact that Pete Doocy at Fox had asked, when did you learn you were dead? The fact that people like Lev Parnas, who was close to Donald Trump, is learning that if he's not dead, he's dying. How else would you explain J.D. Vance? But he's the gift that keeps on giving, isn't he? Every time he goes on television, he makes the matter worse. He's the reverse Midas touch. Since they're trying to steal Midas touch from Midas touch, he's the reverse Midas touch. Everything he says turns to crap. They send him on to try to tamp down the Epstein story.

10:39Michael Popok:And he goes on to try to blame Joe Biden, which leads everybody to say, including Elon Musk, release the damn files. Can't blame Joe Biden for it. You're still sitting on them, just as all the federal judges have said. Then they trot him out to address the health crisis, which is a crisis. We don't get any Surgeon General report about his health. No personal doctor. Nobody at Reed Memorial Hospital, the Naval Hospital, giving us a report on the president. We get spoon-fed. Well, he's got a vein problem. well how do you explain the rest look you either believe that he was the subject of an assassination attempt in butler pennsylvania and something hit his ear or you don't but if you believe that a piece of shrapnel or a bullet hit his ear are we seeing the effects of that now 11 12 months later i mean that was if you believe it happened that was a concussive event that rattled his brain in his brain cage.

11:46Michael Popok:Are we seeing the effects of it now? Since he tried to deny it and use it in order to get elected, tough guy Trump. But are we seeing the effects of it now? And no amount of makeup and J.D. Vance saying, well, God forbid anything happens. I'm ready to take over. Oh, really? It's all right. It's okay. But that's not helping. And the reason we focus on the health is because Donald Trump is lying to the American people about the condition of his health. And we can see it with the phony photos. And as I said at the top, the conspiracy theories, MAGA loves a good conspiracy theory. They're probably getting fatigued with Epstein.

12:29So they're moving on to, is Donald Trump dead or alive?

12:33Michael Popok:Wanted, dead or alive, President Trump. I mean that in a health condition. So let me move on on the intersection now that we've fully talked about the health crisis and Donald Trump's attempts to minimize and take away the story of the health crisis by starting a war with Venezuela, claiming that there was a drug cartel boat and therefore he had to bomb it and kill 11 people. Well, again, the exquisite timing of Donald Trump to take something off his shelf to distract from a failing economy and a failing administration. So now we turn to Epstein. Where are we? Let's take stock. Let's take inventory on September the 2nd.

13:24Michael Popok:Where are we? OK, we were promised the Epstein files in their entirety. I mean, in their entirety by Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, proxies for Donald Trump in February. This is now September. They thought they could feed us the grand jury transcripts and that load of lies. That didn't work. They thought they could dribble and drabble out files. That didn't work. And now even Republicans are upset. Besides the fact that it completely undermined the FBI and the Department of Justice and led to tremendous firings and turnover there and people's careers are on thin ice. I'm looking at you, Dan Bongino, Deputy FBI Director.

14:08Michael Popok:Now you have Representative Massey and Representative Kana, Representative Massey, a Republican who are holding a press conference tomorrow, which we're going to have live on Legal AF, a press conference tomorrow with at least 10 victims who are going to be there to declare, we are not a hoax. We are not boring details. We were the victims of child sex trafficking by a best friend of Donald Trump named Jeffrey Epstein and by Ghislaine Maxwell. And they're there, I'm sure, to refute and to stop these attempts to rehabilitate Ghislaine Maxwell in order for Donald Trump to get a pardon. I mean, the information that we're getting is that Trump is working his acquaintances and his accomplices to try to make the Epstein story go away and to give him a runway to give Ghislaine Maxwell a pardon.

15:08Michael Popok:It's important to hear from the victims who have been victimized all over again in all of these proceedings. They've been forgotten and they shouldn't be. They're now strong women. They were girls when these events happened, but they have a vested interest in justice, as we should all. So the Epstein press conference tomorrow, but side by side with that press conference, again, we'll have it up live at 10 o 'clock a.m. Eastern time on Legal AF. But in addition, we've got a motion that has been proposed, has been, it's already, they're already looking for what's called a discharge vote in Congress led by Representative Massey and Representative Kanna.

15:51Michael Popok:They need 218 votes to get the Epstein files issue out of committee and to the House floor for a vote to discharge it from committee. You need 218 votes. They're going to get awful close. 212 Democrats are going to vote for it, right? Massey's going to vote for it. That's 213. So therefore, they need five more votes. And Massey is sure, he's pretty confident he's going to get those five votes, I think, tomorrow where we'll be announcing that the discharge vote has happened, a procedural technique to get something out of committee, which is the issue of the release of the Epstein files and other orders related to Epstein out of committee and to the House floor.

16:36Michael Popok:That's where it belongs for the American people to see how the Republican MAGA are operating before the midterm election. There's a lot of things at the intersection of law and politics that are all sort of coming together. You can see it now for the midterms in Donald Trump's political suicide mission that he's on and taking the rest of the MAGA Republicans with him. Health will be a major issue, not just his, but the health of America. You got RFK Jr., an incompetent, a conspiracy theory advocate, an admitted drug addict, anti-science, anti-medicine, who is running all the things like the Center for Disease Control and making public health guidelines and announcements.

17:22Michael Popok:Who gets COVID vaccine? Who doesn't get COVID vaccine? Who lives? Who dies? Who made him God? Donald Trump, who cares about as little for public health as he does for public safety. He's the most anti-public safety, meaning crime in America, anti-law enforcement, and anti-public health president we've ever had, which is shocking considering he presided over COVID. He tries to take credit for the warp speed at which vaccines were created, vaccines that have now been effectively killed and killed off by RFK Jr. and he had COVID infamously himself. And only because he got a cocktail of drugs that the average person wasn't entitled to or couldn't obtain did he survive.

18:12Michael Popok:So he almost died once. That took a lot out of him, I'm sure. You have an unhealthy, morbidly obese person who thinks eating fast food and swing at a golf club while the Secret Service kicks his ball into a hole and carries his balls and takes a little car from hole to hole. That's not exercise. That's not exercise. He's not carrying his own bag. He's not doing a full 18. The Secret Service are being exercised. They're working out, not him. And so his health, the health of America, are all going to be on the agenda. on the minds of Americans as they vote at the midterms. National security, how Donald Trump has mishandled the world conflicts.

19:08Michael Popok:He's not entitled to the Nobel Peace Prize. He's closer to being indicted as a war criminal. The way he's handled Iran and Israel, Israel and Gaza, Ukraine and Russia, even India and Pakistan. I'm telling you, he's one step closer. That's why he wanted to get rid of the International Criminal Court. And he wanted to criminalize people from America that were working on the International Criminal Court because he knows he'd be public enemy number one. He'd be on the most wanted list. So the health of America, the national security of America, the attacks on our civil liberties led by Donald Trump standing up an army that he has made in his own image to serve as a standing army against the American people.

19:54Michael Popok:This is what's on the docket for the midterm election and how he's handled scandals like child sex trafficking around him with Epstein. I think it's ironic that Kristi Noem, our crash test dummy of a Homeland Security director, takes to the airwaves to talk about Abrego Garcia being some sort of child predator. She works for somebody who is best friends with a child predator, who is a judge sexual abuser. look over your shoulder, who's been accused in court of torturing children, violating statutes about torturing children and trafficking children just over the weekend.

20:37And for them to talk about and to malign the victims of the Epstein scandal,

20:45Michael Popok:wrongs are going to be righted as we turn into the remainder of the Trump administration, I assure you. I'm glad you're here on the intersection. We got a lot more to go. Ways to support us, it's easy. You're here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button. Slide over. That's my slide over sound to the Legal AF YouTube channel that I do in collaboration with Midas Touch that I curate. 10, 12 videos every day, every day. 365, including over this long weekend. Hit the free subscribe button there. You're going to love the work that we do. I do about four videos a day there. Got another dozen contributors that do another seven to eight on all different fascinating topics.

21:28Michael Popok:It's like a TED Talk meets a law school class, but even more entertaining on Legal AF Substack, on Legal AF YouTube. Then we have Legal AF Substack, brand new community, about three months old. We've already got close to 80 ,000 subscribers. We're doing 10, 12 postings a day. I do two lives a day, two lives where I pull together in a huddle. Everybody in the community, we do 2 ,000 to 3 ,000 people. We talk about all the issues. It's really a fascinating community. It's been my joy and my honor to help build. Come over, hit the subscribe button there as well. And then we've got our pro-democracy sponsors.

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24:47Michael Popok: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 The Intersection with Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Touch Network. And let's get to what we always do, which is the intersection of law and politics. Thank you for being with us. We've got over 200 ,000 people that join us regularly on our Tuesday night edition. Then pick us up on podcast platforms.

25:25Michael Popok:It is a podcast. Look for The Intersection. If you watch us, watch us on YouTube. Come over to the podcast platforms like Apple and Spotify. Listen to us. If you're a listener, watch us. It helps keep this show up in the top rankings, which is important to keep the content coming to you. All right. And thank you to our pro-democracy sponsors. Let's move on with our checklist for today. Posse Comitatus ruling. I just interviewed Rob Bonda, the attorney general, the general who led the charge that won today. A big, fat ruling, first time in history that a president has been declared to have violated the Posse Comitatus Act.

26:06Michael Popok:For people that want to know what that is, I'll give you the elevator pitch for the Posse Comitatus Act. It means that the might of the U.S. military forces cannot be used on domestic soil for civilian law enforcement purposes. You can't turn them into a cop to use against Americans. That's at the heart of our constitutional republic. That is part of our bedrock principles, starting with the Declaration of Independence. We have not and will not allow a president to have a standing army or, in the words of Judge Breyer today, a national federal police force with the president as its chief. I mean, that's what we're watching, right?

26:51Michael Popok:We're watching Trump, before our very eyes, try to build a national law enforcement militia that he can use on domestic soil. That is anathema to everything that we're about as Americans. Our military is only supposed to be used for national security, for outward attacks, or to protect Americans, but not to use as civil law enforcement. That's what local law enforcement is for. That's what sheriffs are for and police officers and other groups and the use of the National Guard by states when necessary, not the feds. That's a bridge too far. And what Judge Breyer said today after a three-day trial, that which he took in a lot of evidence, is that the Trump administration has clearly violated the Posse Comitatus Act by using Marines combined with Federalized National Guard to conduct civilian law enforcement, searches and seizures and arrests and perimeters and traffic stops and the rest.

28:04Michael Popok:And that is a direct violation, not only of their training, but of the Posse Combatatus Act, which we've had since 1787, which stems from our breaking away from the King of England, King George, and founding America. because he had standing armies, because he used the military against American colonists, because he allowed the military without civilian control to terrorize the future Americans. And we said never again. Donald Trump is building a federal police force. He's spending$200 billion to hire tens of thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents. He's hiring them out of high school without proper training, giving them a badge and a gun when they're 18 years old, cutting their training in half, not doing proper due diligence, using white supremacist, Nazi propaganda -like recruiting posters and digital media, which are all filled with Rockwell paintings of white people talking about their heritage, talking about you want to chase illegals with your absolute boys and all sorts of other things that smack of white supremacy.

29:27Michael Popok:There is no, I have no confidence at all. In fact, I'm confident the other way, that Donald Trump's going to hire as part of this national police force, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Jan Six insurrectionists, White Klansmen, Ku Klux Klansmen, and the rest. I don't think those are disqualifying credentials. I think that gets you the job in the Trump administration. He's recruiting like that's what he wants. He's using their propaganda and their tropes to get people. He got 100 ,000 applicants in two weeks. They're not screening any of them. And if you think that's not a problem, in the past, when we lowered our standards, hired people that were ill fit and borderline criminals or criminals for these positions, what did we get?