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

28:35Michael Popok:I'm trying to guide my editors to get off some of the assets quicker. We're getting there. We're getting there. It's a, It takes a village to make a podcast. If you want to become a paid member, I kept it low. It's like$7 or$8 a month. I promise you the return on investment will be great. And there's things that you'll be getting as a paid member to support us and take your receipt with you that you won't be able to find anywhere else. And then we've got our – so Substack is a major way to support the intersection as well. And then we've got our sponsors who are along here just like they are for Legal AF.

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31:43Michael Popok:That's free premium meals for life by using code legal AF free or going to cookunity.com slash legal AF free. Terms and conditions apply. Go to cookunity.com for details. I am back. I'm glad I'm back. I got a couple of questions that came up. So let me see if I can answer some of them. When we're going to get to the Fourth Amendment issue, which is coming up a little bit later, actually, I'll be dealing with it in about a second. Blue Vase asked, why did Sotomayor send it to the whole court? I know what they mean by that. She can't be that naive that she didn't know what happened. Her dissent sings hollow.

32:26Michael Popok:So what we're talking about there is in the shadow docket, the first stop on the train is one of the associate justices or the chief justice when an emergency application comes up from one of the 13 circuits to decide whether they're going to decide it on their own or it's going to go over to the full en banc all nine of the Supreme Court. And I'll just tell you, I've asked this of people who are Supreme Court experts, you know, they've served on the Supreme Court as clerks and that kind of thing. And they're just not going to, and I've said the same thing, they're just not going to buck tradition that when it is a major issue, a major question, while they could decide it on their own, they're just not going to.

33:10Michael Popok:And they're going to now, although they used to, they're going to send it over to the full nine. And if they didn't, the parties could still request an en banc consideration of it to bypass Sotomayor. So while I agree with you, but there are just certain protocols that they're not willing to scrap at this point. And I encouraged her to do that and Kagan to do that and Sotomayor to do that and Katanji Brown-Jackson to do it in their districts. They're just not going to do it. And so it's sort of like the blue slips in the Senate for confirmation of U.S. attorneys and judges. Could the Republicans get rid of the blue slip rule and help Donald Trump right now?

33:51Michael Popok:Get all these people confirmed? They could, but they don't even want to do that right now. They're going to keep it in place because they're afraid that if Gavin Newsom or somebody of the Democrats becomes president, they just lost the blue slip tradition. So it sort of falls into that category. Let me turn to a little bit of the Wall Street Journal, then we'll talk about E. Gene Carroll. Wall Street Journal attacking viciously Donald Trump on the editorial page, owned by Rupert Murdoch. They just had, about the Trump economy, a tutorial for Donald Trump in which they said, and this is my exact quote, repeat after me, tariffs are taxes, and taxes are bad for economic growth.

34:37Michael Popok:Because Donald Trump's entire, he's a one-trick pony, his entire domestic and foreign policy is framed around tariffs. 158 of them against countries up to 20%, sometimes 50%, and other types of tariffs, including sectoral tariffs against copper and metal and gold and electronics and chips and that kind of thing. It's the entirety of his plan. There is nothing else. He uses it to abuse our allies. He threatens to use it against our enemies, but doesn't. He uses it to fill the giant hole in revenue collection because he cut taxes. But now that whole thing is up at the United States Supreme Court level.

35:27Michael Popok:Somebody asked in one of the questions tonight, what are the chances that the United States Supreme Court, taking up the case in November on full briefing, not on the shadow docket, are going to overturn the tariffs? I'll tell you they should overturn the tariffs. Wall Street wants them to overturn the tariffs. It's terrible for the American economy. It's job killing. There's no way out. Donald Trump is not going to grow a brain between now and the midterms and fix his failed economy. He's gone all in on the tariffs. So he should be praying, as the Wall Street Journal said, that they overturn them for him.

36:02Michael Popok:Now, the analysis should be relatively straightforward. Congress has not delegated to Donald Trump or a president the express power to impose reciprocal tariffs or trafficking tariffs for the drug trade to stop the fentanyl trade. And because they haven't expressly delegated it, and it doesn't appear in the statute, the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act, IEPA, because it doesn't appear there at all, he has no power. Presidents only have the power that the Constitution gives them or that is delegated from Congress. That's it. Now, the definition of their Article II powers, of course, is subject to interpretation by the United States Supreme Court.

36:55Michael Popok:But what their job is as the executive branch is to execute faithfully the laws of Congress. We know that's not happening. And so if I were the Supreme Court and you were being intellectually honest and their jurisprudence was being honest, I would say International Emergency Economics Powers Act does not contain the word tariffs. At no time has any president attempted to use it that way. Tariffs is the power of Congress. Congress has not clearly spoken nor given you the power. And since it's a major question, which is a man-made, Supreme Court-made, fictitious doctrine that they used against the Biden administration to strike down anything that Joe Biden tried to do to help the American people.

37:43Michael Popok:Oh, forgive student loans? That's a major question. That doesn't appear anywhere in the statutes. That would have to go to Congress, and Congress would have to clearly speak in a statute. The major questions doctrine. Well, why doesn't the major questions doctrine apply to the tariffs? it should go back if they're not being legislators which amy cody barrett just had you know she's on some sort of book shilling tour to earn her two million dollar advance you know we we uh we don't make the law we we don't we're not here to put our values down people's throats or up their body parts i'm paraphrasing now no no no no no i don't like to be unpopular i'm like i almost vomited during most of her interview.

38:29Michael Popok:She's a person who single-handedly on her own found a way to rip away a woman's right to choose after 50 years of being in the Constitution and being declared to be in the Constitution. So if they're not legislating and they're just calling it like they see it, then why isn't the major questions doctrine the death knell for the Trump tariffs? Should be. Now, the only thing we got going for us right now is this is not going to be on the shadow docket. meaning there's going to be not two briefs and no oral argument and no reasoned opinion that we could read but there's going to be full briefing three briefs it's going to be the trump brief the opposing brief and trump gets one more brief that's how it works there's going to be a ton of what we call amici or abacus briefs which are friends friends of the court you're going to see the republicans the chamber of commerce all sorts of crazies professors on both sides of the aisle submitting briefs.

39:28Michael Popok:And then the court can read them. And sometimes they don't just read them. They cite to them and their opinions. They find something that's very, very interesting. So there'll be a raft of abacus briefs, the briefs, and then there's going to be oral argument. We'll run it live on Legal AF. You can watch it. I'll do commentary during it. And we'll see. We'll know right away whether those tariffs are going to live or die. And that's going to be sometime in November, but they're not going to rule on it right there. It's not going to be like from the bench. They're going to have to write an opinion, circulate the opinions, get enough votes to get five votes or more, and then publish it.

40:05I think it's going to be a, I don't know, January event,

40:10Michael Popok:maybe December, maybe February, somewhere in there. In the meantime, they're letting them collect the money, which is, of course, Trump's using is saying, look at all the money. It's like a bank robber saying, you can't put me in jail. Look at the amount that I stole. If he didn't have the power to do it, if it's what we call void ab initio, then I don't understand how that justifies the fact that he did it without legal basis. I don't understand how by collecting the money, it justifies it. But that's what all of his people around him are doing. All his economic people, look at the money. You can't take it away now.

40:47Michael Popok:It's the basis of our foreign policy. And how, speaking of foreign policy, how is that going? Not well. Donald Trump's closer to being indicted as a war criminal than he is getting a Nobel Peace Prize. Let's take Russia as an example. Let's do my global AF segment here on the intersection. alaska remember that meeting in which he had the military bow down to putin as he applauded and took him into the beast to put his arm around him and gave him all the hugs and kisses that were available what did what did uh what did uh putin get out of that everything he wanted no ceasefire we're still no ceasefire bombing of kiev just in the last 48 hours biggest air attack of the war setting the government's buildings ablaze.

41:37Michael Popok:That is a major middle finger to Donald Trump because he's weak. You know how you know somebody's weak? Because they keep saying they're strong. When somebody tells you they're strong or it's not about the money or it's exactly about the money and you are not strong, you are weak. And the rest of the world allies and enemies know it and they're exploiting it. Look what Putin has accomplished since he left Alaska. No ceasefire. Him getting property and territory that he's never going to get in a war is on the table. And Donald Trump's still running around declaring, I'm getting mad. It's like watching the old mooders routine.

42:23Michael Popok:Alice, I'm getting mad. I'm going to do something. What are you going to do? You've threatened these economic sanctions now. I mean, this is a toothless threat. And Putin knows it. While Putin goes off and celebrates in China, because now we've turned Russia and China into best friends economically, along with India. India's prime minister was literally dancing on a stage in America to support Donald Trump's election. Coming out to raucous applause. And what did he get in return? A 50 % tariff because he's selling oil to Russia or whatever he's doing. So I agree that the tariff scheme is at the core of all that Donald Trump is trying to do around the world.

43:14Michael Popok:It's not working. And people are dying because of it, just like people are, hundreds of thousands of people are going to die because of Donald Trump's depraved public health policies being implemented by RFK Jr., the worst Kennedy in history. And that's saying a lot. Joe did a lot of bad things, by the way. So that answers, I think, in a long-winded way, the question about what's going to happen at the United States Supreme Court and what is the purpose of the tariffs if it's not going to ultimately be used against somebody like Putin to stop and solve the war that should have been solved, according to Donald Trump, eight months ago.

43:56Michael Popok:Then what? You're watching, if you didn't know before, not only the intersection, But if you're seeing what a failed presidency actually looks like up close, we unfortunately have the ringside seats for it. Let's turn to some positive news before I return to the United States Supreme Court. E. Jean Carroll, love everything about E. Jean Carroll personally. I've had the pleasure and the honor of interviewing her. E. Jean Carroll, for those that, I don't want to talk too much in shorthand. I'll do it briefly. she was a famous advice columnist for Elle magazine in the 1990s in New York. I worked in New York in the 1990s, blocks away from where a lot of these events happened.

44:39Michael Popok:And she knew Donald Trump the way a lot of people in New York at the time knew Donald Trump. She was married to a famous newscaster, John Johnson, for those that watched WABC in New York. I knew, We used to watch him a lot. And he was running around in between wives and being a bachelor or whatever. And they have a fateful meeting, for her fateful, in front of the revolving doors of Bergdorf Goodman Department Store, which is a stone's throw away across the street from Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. For those that visit recently or have visited recently, you know where the Apple Store is with a giant glass cube?

45:17Michael Popok:It's the store across the street. And so they bump into each other, starts with, according to her, playful banter, ends dark and ominously with her being pushed into a private dressing room and being sexually assaulted. And then years later, she's defamed on top of it when she writes a book about the assault twice, once when he was president and once when he was not president. So there's two lawsuits that went to trial. That's why there's two cases and two judgments. The first case that actually went to trial was about Donald Trump's sexual abuse of her in that dressing room and the defamation when he was not president.

46:06Michael Popok:When he called her a hoaxer, a fraudster, that she's trying to shake him down, not my type, disgusting person, and all the other things which are defamatory. The jury, this was led by Alina Habba, by the way. Donald Trump did not testify. Jury returns a verdict of$5.5 million. It's been affirmed on appeal at the Second Circuit, and she's going to get that money. Three months later, there's a second trial. Why was there a second trial? Because he defamed her twice.

46:42Michael Popok:The later defamation went first in trial in order of operation because Donald Trump took a bunch of appeals about certain types of immunity, and it took a while to get back to the trial judge. So now, after the jury found for E. Jean Carroll in the first trial that she had been sexually abused, they were very close to finding rape, but under New York law at the time, they had a fine based on her testimony that she was penetrated with a penis and not digitally, and she couldn't testify to that because she had her eyes closed during the assault. Today, that would be a rape in New York. So second trial starts, and Judge Kaplan decides, rightly so, affirmed on appeal, that the issue of sexual abuse can't be relitigated.

47:31Michael Popok:It's already law of the case. It's already what we call race judicata. The only issue for the jury is punitive damages and the amount of damage for the second jury. He testifies in that trial. How did that go? Not well. $83.5 million judgment,$65 million of which was for punitive damages. Donald Trump takes an appeal, multiple appeals. First appeal, he argues that he's got presidential immunity because of the criminal immunity case that came out two years ago by the Supreme Court. The big problem with that is Alina Haba did not raise immunity. And in the world of defenses, you have to raise defenses or you waive them.

48:13Michael Popok:So the Second Circuit in 2023 ruled that she had waived it or he had waived it because she never raised it. And they pointed out, you know how to raise a defense, but you raised the wrong one. You raised the Supremacy Clause defense, you didn't raise the presidential immunity defense. They argued, but we didn't know we were going to win at the Supreme Court two years later. They said, it doesn't matter. You need to raise it to use it. And nothing about the case of criminal immunity dealt with waiver. Donald Trump then appeals this case, and he lost two days ago on the$83.5 million in a decision written 3-0 by the three judges.

48:55Michael Popok:They said, first of all, Judge Kaplan did nothing wrong that constitutes reversible error in how he ran the case. They argued that, well, he didn't let Donald Trump testify about certain things. They said, what were the questions that Alina Habba was even going to ask? Oh, those were the questions? None of that would have helped him against the mountain of evidence against him. So no. Then the major argument was presidential immunity. And they said, no, our brethren two years ago ruled against you on that. You don't get to relitigate that. That's now law of the case. Third, they argued that the punitive damage award was ridiculous, and they went through methodically all of the vicious attacks for five years.

49:34Michael Popok:This is the appellate court that Donald Trump did against E. Jean Carroll during the trial of the first trial, during the second trial, on the way into the trial, during breaks of the trial, calling her every name in the book, every name in the book. And they said that level of vicious attack rises to the level of sufficiently to be outrageous conduct to support a$65 million judgment. Because they said rightly so. The judge instructed the jury, pick a number that makes him stop defaming her. And that's what E. Jean Carroll's lawyer, Robbie Kaplan, who I also interviewed a couple of weeks ago on the Legal AF YouTube channel, that's what she said was the turning point in the case, in the closing, when Robbie Kaplan looked the jury in the eye and said, make him stop.

50:27Michael Popok:He says he's a billionaire. I'll take him at his word. Make this check big enough that he stops defaming my client. and while she was doing that he got up and walked buttoned his jacket or whatever he tried to do with his jacket and walked out in front of the jury in front of a woman making a closing argument about sexual abuse how do you think that went over with the jury according to eugene carroll not great it was it was uh it was demeaning it was misogynistic and it only reinforced the entire thematic for the trial. And so she's now been affirmed to the Second Circuit to answer the questions that have come up.

51:10Michael Popok:Supreme Court, anybody? Sure. Could he ask for what's called an en banc of the 20 judges of the Second Circuit first? He could. He's going to lose that, by the way. But he could delay, although it's running with interest. She's up to$100 million in what she's owed. Then he's going to have to try to lob it into the United States Supreme Court. First stop on that train is Justice Sotomayor. Back again. There we go. Thank you very much. About whether it's going to be referred to the full appellate panel. That is for sure. And then of the Supreme Court. And then they're going to have to decide whether they're going to bail out a president who's been adjudged basically twice to be, according to the judge, a technical rapist, a sexual abuser, and a defamer.

51:58Michael Popok:out of a punitive damage award for stuff that he did while he was president, where he defamed her effectively from the Rose Garden. I don't even think this Supreme Court wants to touch that with a 10-foot pole, but we'll have to see. They certainly limited their immunity decision to criminal conduct, not civil liability, and they took pains to do that. So if they're at all ideologically consistent, which of course we know they're not, they will avoid this appeal and leave it where it lies with the Second Circuit. So if you're looking at this as a clock, she is one minute to midnight to getting her$100 million.

52:41Michael Popok:And I'll continue to report on it, on Legal AF and on Legal AF Substack and the rest. So that's E. Jean Carroll. Let's talk about the Supreme Court and what's going on there. So as it relates to Rebecca Slaughter on the Federal Trade Commission, it looks like the Supreme Court is going to finally overturn 95 years of precedent in a case called Humphreys Executor, where Humphreys, who was a Federal Trade Commission commissioner, sued FDR to get his job back because he was fired without cause. and the way the FTC was set up in 1914 by the Congress required that it be for cause. Meaning you can't just fire somebody because you don't like the look of them or you don't like their politics.

53:25Michael Popok:And that's been on the books. Sorry, folks. That's been on the books since 1935, that decision. Now they've chipped away at it. That's why we've seen Donald Trump firing the heads of different agencies and commissions. And every time they say, well, it depends on how much executive power the executive commission exercises. The more power they exercise of the executive branch, the more we're going to let Donald Trump fire them without cause, except for the Federal Reserve. They're always like, except the Federal Reserve, because we don't want to like, take our economy out in the back and shoot it.

54:02Michael Popok:So we're going to make sure you can't, they went out of their way in May in a decision about the National Labor Relations Board to say, not the Fed. You can't fire them without cause. That's why we're watching the fight with Lisa Cook about whether she's being fired for cause or not, because she took out a couple of mortgages that checked the box for primary mortgages, which is exactly apparently what everybody in Bill Pulte's family has done with the head of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Donald Trump's pitfall, and 20 % of Donald Trump's cabinet. it. But be that as it may, that's for another day, another intersection.

54:37Michael Popok:But that's why he's fighting for a cause over there, only because the Supreme Court said not the Federal Reserve. Everybody else you can apparently fire. Now we figured, well, not the FTC. That is Humphrey's exact case. In fact, last week when I reported on the decision on Friday, Friday off of Labor Day, which would have led to today's show, that's why I wasn't sure what the Supreme Court was going to to. The two-to-one panel on the D.C. Circuit Court said, we're not going to do your job for you, Supreme Court. We're going to apply Humphrey's executor. It's exactly on all fours, and we're going to reinstate Rebecca Slaughter into her job.

55:16Michael Popok:She's the only Democrat on the panel, on the commission, the Federal Trade Commission. And so what does the Supreme Court do? Two, they block the decision, effectively ruling for now that they're going to, and signaling they're going to throw away 95 years of precedent. They're finally going to get rid of Humphrey's executor, meaning they are going to create, not just for Trump, but for the next president, who hopefully will have a D next to his name. an ability to hire and fire anybody they want for any of these what was supposed to be nonpartisan commissions just to do the people's business and if that's what they want as even though we'd like it to end now donald trump's tenure is going to end it i guarantee it by natural causes or otherwise it's going to end and there will be a new president and if it's a democrat they are going to get the benefit of all of this case law, body of case law with Donald Trump's name on it.

56:19Michael Popok:So be careful what you wish for. And if the House is returned to the Democrats, which looks like it's likely, and if the Senate is too, then we're up and running with impeachment. We're up and running with conviction. We're up and running with investigations. And all of these people, I'm looking at you, Stephen Miller. I'm looking at you, Pam Bondi and Kash Patel and Taylor Budowich and the rest of you, and Alina Haba and Todd Blanche. Let's just say after Watergate, a number of people went to jail, including the attorney general for Nixon. I'm just saying. I always like to leave the intersection with some hopeful, I don't want to be the Grim Reaper all the time.

57:02Michael Popok:We got to talk about something hopeful. So let's talk about, that was slaughter. And then the new decision, finally, by the Supreme Court that just came out is against the Fourth Amendment. Fourth Amendment was originally enshrined in our Constitution by our framers and founders in order to protect us from unreasonable searches and seizures. So we don't have unfortunate interaction with law enforcement, if you know what I mean. And reasonable suspicion is the doctrine created by the Supreme Court, which is that a law enforcement officer, whether ICE or Border Patrol or your local state trooper or whatever, can't stop and frisk you, can't stop and start asking you questions in an interrogation moment or apprehend you or seize you without having reasonable suspicion, which is based on a totality of the circumstances in the mind of an objective, reasonable law enforcement officer.

58:02Michael Popok:That's the law. What they weren't allowed to do until like yesterday, is racially profiled. So this case came out of a ruling by Judge Frimpong in California, of course, federal judge, who said there's four things you can't use if you're doing a stop and frisk for citizenship and immigration. You can't use race. You can't use what they sound like, what language they're speaking. It's going to be more than four. You can't use where you see them, Home Depot parking lot, car wash, a field, a day laborer hangout spot, or what you think their ethnicity is. You have other things in there, fine. And what she was basing that on also was she got the trial record, because they had some hearings over this, where people testified about how they were ripped out of their places of work or out of Home Depot parking lots, thrown to the ground.

58:56Michael Popok:There were very few questions about their citizenship while they were having their Fourth Amendment rights deprived. Their civil liberties abused. And so that's how Frimpong made her temporary restraining order. She's now off on doing preliminary injunction and a trial related to that, which doesn't stop, by the way, it continues. What the court decided to do in one paragraph was to block her temporary restraining order, allowing ICE and Border Patrol to run amok and abuse civil liberties all through California and other places, which they are more than willing to do because they've announced they're going to do it.

59:35Michael Popok:And Brett Kavanaugh, because it was one paragraph in the decision, one paragraph, we're going to block it. We'll get back to you after there's more in the case. But for now, you do you, government. In Fourth Amendment, we're going to anesthetize you. so we got two written opinions off of that not the opinion because that was the opinion we got a concurrence and a dissent Kavanaugh who lives something there he is who lives somewhere not on planet earth and who's never I'm sure run into anybody that's had a mixed immigration status or had an accent or hung out at a Home Depot or shopped at a Home Depot He wrote an opinion that said, I concur.

1:00:24Michael Popok:I don't think that the law enforcement should be hamstrung in their abilities to deport 1.5 million illegal people in California because they're not allowed to make a reasoned opinion about somebody's ethnicity, their accent, or go shopping for them, in my words, in a Home Depot or car wash or in a field where day laborers hang out. And the reality is, Kavanaugh said, there are just so many people who don't speak English. This is, I'm barely paraphrasing. By the way, there's no requirement to be a citizen that you speak English. So now, if you're a Hispanic person who happens to be at my local Home Depot, and you're in the parking lot with your family talking to them in Spanish about something you want to buy inside, and your friendly neighborhood ICE or Border Patrol agent comes knocking on your door and you don't have what in his view is the required citizenship papers, give me your papers, you'll end up in an interrogation proceeding and maybe we won't see you again.

1:01:26Michael Popok:And that's okay with Brett Kavanaugh who says, who describes it this way, I don't think it's an inconvenience from a constitutional standpoint for a person to be asked a few simple questions about their citizenship before they're let to go on their way. This is how he describes it. Sotomayor says, we now live in a country where based on the color of your skin, the language you speak, or the job that you hold, you may now end up without any civil liberties. I respectfully dissent. And she went through from the record, because that's what you're supposed to be doing at the appellate court level.

1:02:07Michael Popok:You're supposed to be doing the record developed below on the facts, like what Judge Frimpong developed. She said in the record below, there are descriptions, not of people being, you know, the way he sounds, the way he does it, it's like this very polite interaction. Hello there, kind sir. Do you have your citizenship papers on you? Oh, you do. Great. You can go on your way. No. How about ripping people out of their employment or on the street or out of a van or, you know, in Home Depot parking lot, throwing them to the ground, hog tying them, ripping their arms behind them and saying, do you know what hospital you were born in?

1:02:46Michael Popok:Under that pressure, the one guy couldn't remember and he got taken to an interrogation center. But to Kavanaugh with his one sentence, it was just a little gentlemanly interaction. That's the fraud. That's the intellectual dishonesty of the MAGA on the United States Supreme Court. Whether it's Amy Coney Barrett, or it's Kavanaugh, or it's Roberts, or Alito or Thomas. I'm getting choked up. They are intellectually dishonest and lying to the American people every time they put pen to paper. So to answer the question, what can we do about it? okay, we can't do anything about the current makeup of the United States Supreme Court.

1:03:36Michael Popok:We just can't. We have to wait them out. We got to get control of the presidency. We got to hope there's some openings that we can fill to change the numbers from six to three to five to four or six to three in our direction. And we got to hope that Donald Trump doesn't fill Clarence Thomas' is an Alito seat if they decide to die or leave the bench. And he fills them with a 40-year-old, and then we're going to be stuck with a six to three MAGA majority for my natural born days. Now, I will tell you that in my 50 years plus, there has never been a Supreme Court dominated by liberals or moderates.

1:04:19Michael Popok:Never. It has been Republican dominated for 50 years, and yet they whine and complain about the United States Supreme Court. How about give it to us for a while? We've never had it. We've never had it. So maybe the solution is somebody with some brass ones comes in like Gavin Newsom or one of the other major candidates for the Democrats on our bench, and we expand the United States Supreme Court. Why don't we add a few seats? Gavin's good at this, by the way. He's about to add five seats to his congressional map to balance out Texas. Why don't we do a little court packing? That's what FDR had to threaten.

1:04:58Michael Popok:And then suddenly when he threatened court packing, all of a sudden a lot of aspects of his new deal were approved by the Supreme Court. So I think we're going to have to be transactional here. First step is getting back into office. Second step is thinking about how to restructure the United States Supreme Court. while Donald Trump tries to figure out if he's going to restructure the Federal Reserve, we should be doing the same thing at the United States Supreme Court. So let me see what's come up in questions as we come to the end here. I have a cheat sheet for that. Pardon me.

1:05:36Michael Popok:Somebody asked, Donald Donnie asked, what can the American people do legally to get this administration out of office now? Not much. There's no will of the people that can, We don't have a recall ability like they do in some states. We have impeachment. The will of the people is supposed to be expressed through our Congress. So give me back the House and the Senate in the midterms, and I will give you investigations, impeachments, and maybe convictions and removals. And that's the start to answer that question. Let me do, somebody asked, here's Hillary Clinton, but I doubt that's her real account, said Popak, see Hillary Clinton calls me Popak.

1:06:22Michael Popok:Can we have a Dem Congress write a new update to expand the court? Yeah, yes. Yes, that new Congress could do some court packing and start getting some bills passed on it. There's going to be a fight over it about the separation of powers. But the Supreme Court's already destroyed the separation of powers and the co-equal branches. We don't have co-equal branches now. We have a giant Leviathan called the executive branch, which levitates above the other two branches, or he's got them on their lap like lapdogs because of the Supreme Court immunity decision. So I don't want to hear an argument, although it'll be made, that, oh, this destroys the delicate balance of co-equal branches.

1:07:03Michael Popok:F that. This is for the constitutional republic is what we're trying to protect at this point. let me look at one more here hold on folks i got one more coming in janey smith asked is it possible to fill a jury with all maga or republicans i mean technically there's no there's nothing against that you just can't get rid of all the black people uh that's at least the supreme court has said that you can't use racial aspects you have to have come up with other reasons to bounce jurors. But if you're in Alabama and they're all MAGA, they all show up wearing their MAGA hats, there's nothing you can do about it, you know, in that case.

1:07:53Michael Popok:That's why Trump's worked so hard to file some of his cases in places where he thinks he'll have a better shot at getting some of his MAGA onto the jury, you know? Like in, you know, it's funny on that note, E.G. Carroll told a great story. She said that a snowstorm helped her case. A snowstorm helped her case. I said, how was that? She said, we were picking a jury in the, I think in the case that gave her the 83 and a half. And none of the people in Orange County, which is a more red, there's no pun. The Orange County in New York is more red, more conservative, more MAGA potential than the five boroughs of Manhattan that make up the Southern District of New York, which is where she tried her case federally.

1:08:43Michael Popok:And Orange County couldn't get in because of the snowstorm. And so it was all of Manhattan. It was a lot of Manhattan people, which trends more liberal. See how that happens? But I like this part. I'm going to do more. We love doing the lives. I'm going to do more questions here. Here's one from Kay Marie that I'll end with. If SCOTUS continues to bend to Trump and with the immunity granted to him, What hope is there that this regime can be brought down? I think we're back to the same approach. We have levers of power as we the people. Think of it as fists in the fight. One fist we have is at the front lines for the battle is in the court system.

1:09:29Michael Popok:And rest assured that the public interest groups and the attorney generals like from New York and California and the 23 other blue states and the other public interest groups like Democracy Forward that has an amazing playlist with me on Legal AF and the ACLU and NAACP, they filed over 400 cases against the Trump administration. They're winning 90 % of them. Democracy Forward has 80 cases alone. They're winning 93 % of them. And that is backing Donald Trump off the ball in certain important areas. So one fist is in the courts. The second one is in protest. It's joining together here and getting the information and talking truth to power here, talking truth to each other first, and then hitting the streets.

1:10:16Michael Popok:And whether that means joining in the No Kings Day protests or the 5501 protests, or it's just signing up for your local party affiliation, Democrat, whatever, to help with voting and voting rolls and voter registration. I'll do my part. I'll be a poll watcher where I live and inside the polls to make sure things don't go awry and people's real ballots end up provisional ballots and not counted. And you can do the exact same thing. You can be trained to be an election worker. You can be trained to be a poll watcher. You can work the phone banks. You can knock on doors to get mail-in voting, mail-in registration done properly, absentee balloting done properly.

1:11:01Michael Popok:You can get people to the polls on election day, solds to polls. that's that's your other fist right court and then over here you go to town halls write letters and all of that collectively and then we'll do our part from the main from the uh independent from the mainstream media that's why we're building this legal af community together and the intersection is part of it so that we can come together on legal af sub stack which I'll talk about in a minute. Legally, I have a sub stack. I get 2 ,000 or 3 ,000 people in an instantaneous huddle to talk about something that just happened. And then I post the video later on in there.

1:11:42Michael Popok:This is the way we overcome. This is the way we overcome the Trump administration. But don't lose faith. Don't lose heart. Don't lose energy. Lean forward, not back. We have to keep the edge, not lose it. We are a party, and not even party. We are, whether you're fair-minded, what other party you're in, independent, moderate, socialist, Democrat, whatever you are, now's the time not to be fatigued. And we need to redouble our efforts. And we do it here on podcast here on the Midas Dutch Network. So here's how you support what we're doing. We've got the Midas Dutch Network. Subscribe there. We've got Legal AF, the YouTube channel.

1:12:22Michael Popok:We're about to hit 800 ,000 subscribers before our one-year anniversary on the 17th of September. We've already crossed the 250 million view barrier over there. It's all because of you. And we're continuing to try to grow that to get to our 1 million, that landmark on Legal AF YouTube. 10 new videos every day, 12 contributors. Amazing, amazing things are going on on Legal AF YouTube. But then we have this companion audience that we built on Legal AF Substack. And think about being a paid member there as well. With original content you're not finding anywhere else in the Substack universe. And if you don't know what Substack is, check it out.

1:13:02Michael Popok:It's an amazing, amazing place for people, whether you're a hobbyist, somebody involved in law or politics, or just an interested, concerned citizen. Come over to the Substack on Legal AF. And then finally, I think people know because we talk about it on the podcast. Wait for the B-roll to roll. We talk about it on the podcast. I formed a law firm called The Popoc Firm. And what I do there is I've assembled this amazing group of plaintiffs' lawyers around the country who have billion-dollar verdicts in order to get into this club, meaning they're helping the American people and the Midas Money and the legal AFers with their most important legal matters and focused on catastrophic injury, illness, wrongful death cases, auto accident, medical malpractice, employment cases at the highest levels where you need to have somebody in your corner to fight against big insurance, you want to come to the Popak Firm.

1:14:02Michael Popok:We've got a 1-800 number. There we go. 1-877-POPAK-AF. Or you can go to the website, thepopakfirm.com. A live real person is on the other side of that phone call to help screen that case for you, tell you if you have a case that we're interested in. And if we decide to take that case, we're doing it on a contingency meeting. You don't pay unless we get paid. That's the justice that we will provide. And hundreds and hundreds of Legal AF and Midas Mighty have come to the Popak firm and are now clients. And we're in the courts all across America, from airplane disasters, to truck rollovers, to car accidents, to employment cases, medical malpractice, civil rights violations, you name it.

1:14:51Michael Popok:We'll screen it. And if we take the case, you have a vigilant law firm on your side that I lead at the Popak firm. So I'm glad you're here at the intersection. We'll see you next Tuesday for a live along with Michael Popak answering questions. Until then, I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network. Shout out to the Midas Mighty and the Legal AFers. I'm Michael Popak, and I got some big news for our audience. Most of you know me as the co-founder of Midas Touches Legal AF and the Legal AF YouTube channel, or as a 35-year national trial lawyer. Now building a what we started together on Legal AF, I've launched a new law firm, the Popok Firm, dedicated to obtaining justice through compassionate and zealous legal representation.

1:15:37Michael Popok:At the Popak Firm, we are focused on obtaining justice for those who have been injured or damaged by a life-altering event by securing the highest dollar recoveries. I've been tirelessly fighting for justice for the last 35 years, so my own law firm organically building on my legal AF work just feels right. And I've handpicked a team of top-tier trial fighters and settlement experts throughout all 50 states known as Big Auto Injury Attorneys who have the know-how to beat heartless insurance companies, corporations, government entities, and their attorneys. Big Auto's attorneys working with my firm are rock stars in their respective states and collectively responsible for billions of dollars in recoveries.

1:16:20Michael Popok:So if you or a loved one have been on the wrong side of a catastrophic auto, motor vehicle, rideshare, or truck accident, suffered a personal injury, or been the victim of medical malpractice, employment harassment, or discrimination, or suffered a violation of your civil and constitutional rights, then contact the Popoc Firm today at 1-877-POPOC-AF or by visiting my website at www.thepopocfirm.com and fill out a free case evaluation form. And if we determine that you have a case and you sign with us, we don't get paid unless you do. The Popak firm fighting for your justice every step of the way.

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1:18:32Michael Popok:If you love this episode, make sure you're subscribed to the Intersection Audio Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. It's my solo ride, and we release new episodes daily, all completely free.