In short
The episode argues that Donald Trump’s mortgage-related “primary residence” claims are being used as a template for accusing political opponents of “mortgage fraud,” while the host claims similar conduct is commercially acceptable and not fraud. It also highlights Phil Weiser’s legal record in Colorado.
Guests/backgrounds
No podcast guests are interviewed in the transcript. The episode references Phil Weiser (Colorado AG, sued the Trump administration 65 times) and political/legal figures discussed include Lisa Cook (Federal Reserve nominee), Letitia James (NY AG), Adam Schiff, and Bill Pulte (Freddie Mac/Fannie Mae-related figure).
Key claims
ProPublica found Trump-era mortgage documents allegedly checked “primary residence” for properties he didn’t live in; the White House argues same-lender loans can’t involve defrauding the lender; the host says that defense should apply to Lisa Cook too.
Notable examples
Trump’s 1993–94 Palm Beach mortgages; Cook’s Michigan primary residence and Atlanta vacation home from the same lender/credit union; Supreme Court oral argument on whether Trump can fire Cook.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOLegal Challenges and Accusations Against Trump
0:30 to 1:27
Discussion on the legal challenges faced by Trump and the accusations of mortgage fraud against his administration.
“Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump?”
Double Standards in Mortgage Fraud Accusations
1:27 to 5:48
Exploration of accusations of mortgage fraud against various political figures, highlighting contradictions in their allegations.
“That's been blocked for now by the United States Supreme Court, but we'll see for how long, claiming that that's crooked and criminal and should be made.”
The Ethics of Mortgage Practices
5:48 to 11:01
Analysis of the ethics surrounding mortgage practices and how they relate to Trump and his political rivals.
“Now, the Michigan tax collector has gotten back the money for that quote unquote fraud by Bill Pulte's own parents.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.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. Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though?
0:37No. 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 Nan and Moschese.
1:26Michael Popok:those attacks to go after Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve to try to get her fired. That's been blocked for now by the United States Supreme Court, but we'll see for how long, claiming that that's crooked and criminal and should be made. There should be a criminal prosecution referral because she took out two loans from the same lender on two different properties and checked the box for primary residence. And lo and behold, she claims that he claims that Letitia James, the New York attorney general, another major political rival of his, who successfully obtained a$400 million fraud judgment against him for mortgage fraud, that she committed mortgage fraud by saving$50 a month.
2:04Michael Popok:$50 a month, everybody. She checked a box that said she wasn't going to rent the house out to anybody, and she let some of her family stay there. Oh, the crimes that are being committed. And then points to people like Adam Schiff, who says he has a couple of properties that he shouldn't own, both listed as his primary residence. And lo and behold, that got a lot of investigative reporters thinking, huh, wonder if Donald Trump or anybody in his administration have done the exact same thing. And ProPublica has been on the case from day one. About a month or so ago, I reported that ProPublica had found that at least 20 % of Donald Trump's cabinet, including his Treasury Secretary, his head of the Department of Labor, and the head of the Transportation Department, all had exactly the same types of double primary residence mortgage documents, meaning that banks let them check the box for primary to give them a slightly lower mortgage rate and they took advantage of it.
3:05Michael Popok:Because frankly, it's not a crime. It's not a crime if the banks aren't being defrauded, if they encourage you to check the box, if they want to give you the lower interest rate. That's between the mortgage lender, the banker, his underwriter at the bank, and his God. I mean, if there was any miscommunication on that issue. So that was the first reporting. But now we got brand new reporting that ties it directly to Donald Trump. See, back in 1993 and 1994, when Donald Trump was trying to figure out whether he could live at Mar-a-Lago year round as a residence and hadn't gotten that approved yet because it was a club and he was still living in New York, crushed under the weight of seven or $800 million worth of bankruptcy debt, oh yes, he decided to buy a couple of pieces of property in Palm Beach adjacent to or near Mar-a-Lago, one for about$500 ,000 mortgage and the other for about$1 million too.
4:11Michael Popok:And he claimed in those mortgage documents, according to ProPublica, who got a copy of them from the Merrill Lynch bank documents, he claimed that both were going to be his primary residences that he was going to relocate within the next six months. And he was going to live in both houses as his primary residence. You see the problem already? First of all, he never relocated to Florida except in 2007. He stayed in New York, or actually 2019 became his permanent residence. He always split time between New York, which was his residence, and Florida. But he checked the box for this primary residence for two pieces of property He never lived in either piece of property, according to a real estate agent who helped rent out the properties.
4:57Michael Popok:Instead, he always rented them out at$2 ,000 and$3 ,000 a day to people that wanted to stay in these investment properties. So Donald Trump, seeing these facts about somebody else, would say they are, quoting him, this is deceitful and criminal and crooked. Bill Pulte, who's the nepo baby that runs Freddie May and Fannie Mac, who went after, on behalf of Donald Trump, Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve, Letitia James, New York Attorney General, Adam Schiff, all for quote-unquote mortgage fraud. He said about, for instance, about this type of double primary residence box checking, the way that Donald Trump did it, that that should subject the person to, it's a crime and there should be a criminal prosecution referral.
5:47Michael Popok:And then he made a prosecution referral to the Department of Justice. Now, Bill Pulte's interesting because even his own parents have committed what he refers to as mortgage fraud because they claimed a property in Michigan as their primary residence when they really lived in Palm Beach County, Florida the whole time. Now, the Michigan tax collector has gotten back the money for that quote unquote fraud by Bill Pulte's own parents. Hey everybody, Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popak's new law firm. It's called the Popak Firm.
6:25Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal AF-ers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popak's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case.
7:06It's thepopokfirm.com, thepopokfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPOKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popok a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popok. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.
7:27Michael Popok:So I also found that the defense that the Trump administration White House is using actually helps Lisa Cook in her case against Donald Trump. So if you're listening, Lisa Cook's lawyers, Abby Lowell, listen to this one. Because the White House said the following. They said that since the same lender for Donald Trump, Merrill Lynch, was being used for both loans, there could be no defraudation. That's a big word. Defraudation. And it would be illogical for the same lender to have approved the loans and defrauded themselves. And so a fraud case would be illogical. And then, of course, they went off, oh, this is just another leftist attack on Donald Trump, you know, and all that.
8:17Okay.
8:18Michael Popok:Now, Lisa Cook on the Federal Reserve took out two mortgages, one for her primary residence in Michigan and one for a vacation home in Atlanta. Took it out from the same credit union. Checked the box, because I'm sure she was told to do it, by her loan officer to get her the better rate primary residences. residences. She never made Atlanta was always a second home for her. And it is and she lives in Michigan. But this is the exact same thing that the White House has just said is the defense for Donald Trump. Same lender couldn't defraud themselves. No crime here. Same for Lisa Cook. So if I'm Abby Lowell and Lisa Cook's lawyers, I file an updated set of material to the United States Supreme Court to supplement the record and do it below as well.
9:18Michael Popok:Because the Supreme Court said they're going to hold oral argument about whether Donald Trump can fire Lisa Cook, whether he has the cause to fire her based on these allegations of mortgage fraud unproven. That's going to be front and center in January and an oral argument with the United States Supreme Court, which, of course, we will follow on Legal AF YouTube channel. Come over there, become a subscriber there as well. I'm going to follow all of this double talk, all of this, all of this don't do as I say, do as I do, whatever the phrase is that Donald Trump and his minions are using to defend his own, apparently, his own mortgage fraud.
10:01Michael Popok:The reality is none of this is mortgage fraud. This is all commercially acceptable practices within banks to reward or benefit clients. Underwriting in the bank knows that this isn't the primary residence or knows there's more than one. It's very simple to do a title record search to find out if the person has a second home or not, has a first home or not, is renting out the home or not. There's plenty of ways and due diligence a bank to determine which they're obligated to do, whether there's fraud, because there's no fraud here. I don't think Scott Bessent committed mortgage fraud. I don't think the Labor Secretary did.
10:41Michael Popok:I don't even think Donald Trump did. Certainly, it was 40 years ago. But we'll continue to follow it, the complete lack of ethics as Donald Trump uses perfectly acceptable conduct that he himself did to go after his political enemies. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.
11:26Michael Popok:some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe. 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. Exactly. As Governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent Anna Neskazi.
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From the publisher
According to Trump, he committed “deceitful,” “criminal,” and “crooked” conduct that subjects him to criminal prosecution, because he took out 2 mortgages for 2 homes in Palm Beach County near Mar-a-Lago, three weeks apart, and listed both as his primary residences for favorable rate treatment. New reporting by ProPublica reveals that Trump did the exact same thing as Federal Reserve Board of Governor Lisa Cook, and that Trump’s “defense” of why what he did is not mortgage fraud, actually provides a defense to Governor Cook! Michael Popok reports.
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