Trump AG Nominee Accused of Forgery in Lawsuit

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2:33Michael Popok:In a little covered but important lawsuit, Todd Blanche is accused of committing forgery on correspondence, an engagement letter with a client when he was in private practice before becoming Donald Trump's lawyer. He worked at a big firm called Cadwallader in New York, and Cadwallader and Todd Blanche have been sued by two people convicted of mail and wire fraud, the Kaplan brothers, who were twins. That suit is pending in Long Island in a trial court, and despite Cadwallader and Blanche calling it scandalous and scurrilous, it has not been dismissed. And within the complaint, which I now have a copy of, which was actually filed a few years ago, but ignored by mainstream media and should be now front and center in any confirmation hearing for Attorney General Blanche.

3:23Michael Popok:Blanche is not only accused of forgery, but they hired a handwriting expert who confirmed that the signatures on the engagement letter being used by the law firm to try to collect$1.2 million from the convicted clients is not theirs. I'm Michael Popok. Let's get to the lawsuit of Adam Kaplan and Daniel Kaplan versus Todd Blanche et al. And what it is about. The two brothers say in their complaint, which we have up on Legal AF Substack, that Todd Blanche met with them in Long Island in a city called Great Neck, had a meeting with their mother and their father. And at the end, they decided to hire Blanche as long as his attorney's fees were lower than market.

4:08Michael Popok:and he didn't require a retainer, which was all true. They also had insurance through a director's and officer's policy, and they expected Todd Blanche to go trigger the policy to make sure that at least the first million dollars of attorney's fees were covered. But according to the complaint, not only that Todd Blanche overbilled the file with his legal team by a few million dollars. But he also screwed up the case by canceling a deposition or an interview between the clients and the Securities and Exchange Commission that may have led to an off-ramp, some sort of civil settlement. Instead, the depositions were at the last minute canceled by Todd Blanche when he didn't even, according to the complaint, represent the Kaplans any longer, pissing off the SEC.

4:58Michael Popok:They went forward with the prosecution and they were convicted of 16 counts. According to the complaint, they paid Todd Blanche and his law firm, Catwallader, over$1.65 million, but it wasn't enough. But the real bombshell allegations, which Todd Blanche has denied, but he will and should have to answer for it, his confirmation hearing, are about the forged document. Let me read this to you from the complaint itself. It arises on paragraph 83 of the complaint. On information and belief, Cadwallader forges a retainer agreement. What they mean is Blanche did. And let me just give you the teachable moment here on Midas Touch and Legal AF.

5:46Michael Popok:Did I mention you're on Legal AF and Midas Touch? Hit the subscribe buttons on both. the rules of professional responsibility and ethics for a lawyer says that you must have a written engagement letter with your client laying out the billable hours, the rate, the scope of the engagement, any other material terms, all have to be in writing. You can't have an oral agreement to be somebody's lawyer. And when the Kaplins complained about the bill, cadwalleters sent them an engagement letter, a retainer letter. They looked at the signatures. They said, that wasn't our signatures. When did we sign that?

6:25Michael Popok:And Blanche responded, according to the complaint, you signed it when I met with you in Great Neck, which is very odd, by the way. My first meeting with a client, I don't normally have the engagement letter with me. I talk about the terms. I then follow up with an engagement letter. And so according to According to the complaint, which has not been dismissed by the judge, paragraph 84, the Kaplan's never signed a written agreement with Cadwallader. Cadwallader never presented the Kaplan's with a written agreement. When confronted with the allegations that the document did not reflect the Kaplans' actual signature, Blanche falsely claimed, paragraph 89, that the Kaplans had signed the retainer agreement at their live meeting in Great Neck, Long Island.

7:12Michael Popok:But according to this complaint, paragraph 90, upon seeing the forged document in December of 2022, the Kaplins hired Jeffrey Luber, a preeminent handwriting expert, to determine whether it was valid or not. This is what we call a questioned documents expert. And then in paragraph 92, here's the bombshell. In February of 2023, the Kaplan's expert concluded that the document, which Cadwallader claims is a retainer agreement, contains signatures of Adam and Daniel were simulated forgeries. In a written report dated February 2023, Luber opined with the highest degree of confidence that the signatures appearing on the engagement letter were not those of the two Kaplan brothers.

8:03Michael Popok:And then they attach that memo. Somebody forged the signature, and they believe Todd Blanche did. Plus, they say Todd Blanche overbilled. If you go to the beginning of the complaint, they even go so far in the lawyers for the complaint to suggest that the reason that Todd Blanche left the law firm in April of 2023 is because he was forced out concerning allegations of forgery and overbilling raised in the lawsuit or by these former clients. They say on the top of page three of their complaint, Blanche was a partner at Cadwallader until on or about April 3. On information and belief, Blanche was forced to resign from Cadwallader due at least in part to the misconduct alleged herein, which the Kaplans brought to the attention of the law firm in December of 2022 and January of 2023.

8:58Michael Popok:Now, we all know what happened after in April of 2023, then private lawyer Todd Blanche leaves Cadwallader for whatever reason and takes on one client to open up his own law firm. I think it's called Blanche and Associates, with Donald Trump being his sole client. He brings Emil Bovee with him, who used to be his colleague in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan. Emil Bovee now has been rewarded along the long line of Trump lawyers who have been rewarded with judgeships or U.S. attorney positions. He was awarded a third district, a third circuit court of appeals based in Philadelphia judgeship for a lifetime, an Article III appointment.

9:43Michael Popok:That was Emil Bovey. Todd Blanch got attorney general. Another lawyer for Donald Trump just got nominated to be the U.S. attorney in Manhattan. several of lawyers who worked with these lawyers at a law firm called Sullivan and Cromwell have been appointed or confirmed to be federal judges. Donald Trump is filling out the federal judgeships, filling out the U.S. attorney's offices with his former criminal defense lawyers. That's what we're watching in real time. Feeling sluggish? Bloated. Not like yourself. Life bombards us with silent threats. Processed foods, artificial light, and modern stressors disrupt your gut and drain your energy and weaken your immune health.

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11:12Michael Popok:That's A-R-M-R-A dot com slash legal AF. Now, Todd Blanche got a lot of explaining to do when he gets to the hot seat of the Senate Judiciary Committee and oversight committees for his confirmation hearing. And if those committees, and I'm talking to you, ranking member Jamie Raskin Judiciary Committee, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Whitehouse, and the rest, you need to include in your dossier to cross-examine Todd Blanche, the case of Kaplan and Kaplan versus Cadwallader and Todd Blanche. The judge has not dismissed the case, and there's going to be discovery involved in that case as Cadwallader sues for unpaid fees.

12:00And these two brothers who went first sue for fraud and forgery and malpractice.

12:06Michael Popok:They also allege that Todd Blanch committed malpractice by not submitting the original criminal case to the insurance company, Lloyd's of London, in order to trigger coverage and to give the Kaplans a million dollars in coverage. That's a rookie mistake. I'm not that surprised, though, because Todd Blanche did not spend much time in private practice, especially as a senior partner. He was in the U.S. attorney's office. And then he comes out, as many of them do, with a revolving door to go get a cushy seven-figure job working for a law firm. Comes out after being in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, gets the job at Cat Waller.

12:45Michael Popok:He's not used to having clients. He's not used to getting engagement letters signed. He's not used to submitting things to insurance companies. You don't do that skill set at the U.S. attorney's office. So I'm not shocked that he made a mistake, especially if he wasn't given a mentor at Cadwallader to babysit him as he learned private practice. By contrast, I was in private practice for 30 years before I went in-house with a financial services firm. I know how to get a client. I know how to ethically advise the client and sign the client up. And I know how to apply for insurance if the client has it.

13:19Michael Popok:And that's another allegation besides the mismanagement of the case that they say contributed to the SEC coming down hard on them, that they could have been a civil settlement exit ramp. The forgery is what is like just as this neon red glaring for me. and he should answer to it, among other things. Why are you unwilling, Mr. Blanche, to give sworn testimony, even if it means the dismissal of indictments in your cases? Todd Blanche could have saved, if there was something to say positive, the dismissal of the indictment against Kilmer Abrego Garcia if he had taken the judge's order and actually submitted testimony.

14:01Michael Popok:He refused. Judge Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia just ruled that if Todd Blanche wants to try to save the case and maybe the slush fund that he created with Donald Trump, he'll need to provide written testimony under oath, under penalty of perjury. I don't think he's going to do that either because Todd Blanche doesn't want to testify under oath more than he has to. We'll continue to follow it all right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. And while you're here, while I got you, an easy way, people say, how can I support what you do, Popak? It's really easy. We have a podcast.

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