Trump & Blanche's Desperate Attempt to Cheat Nomination

0:00Michael Popok:We've got some breaking news here on Midas Touch and Legal AF around the nomination of the acting Attorney General Todd Blanche to be Attorney General. He's now announced that he's obtained the votes of Senators Cornyn of Texas and Tillis of North Carolina because he has, quote unquote, rescinded the Jan 6 fund. But the focus should not be on the May 18th Jan 6 fund. It should be on the May 19th release that he gave unilaterally pursuant to a phony settlement agreement, giving a pardon or immunity to the Trump family retroactively for all tax liability dating back decades. meaning he gave his boss, in return for getting the nomination, over a billion dollars worth of tax relief.

0:54Michael Popok:And he's not rescinding that. He's rescinding the Jan 6 fund of May 18th, but not the unilateral half-page settlement that he signed to give his boss that relief, the pardon that even the Supreme Court didn't give Donald Trump. He's issued on his social media account two pieces of paper, one, formally renouncing the fund, and two, telling everybody else to go pound sand he's not going to be renouncing the amended settlement agreement. But that doesn't change what's going on down in Judge Williams' courtroom in Miami, because she already said that the settlement agreement was the byproduct of an illicit, bad faith settlement of an illegitimate lawsuit.

1:42Michael Popok:So then the question is begged. How can you settle a case and have a super pardon for Donald Trump when the underlying case was illegitimate? legitimate. I'm Michael Popak. Let's get down to the brand new reporting we all woke up to this morning. Todd Blanche making the following announcement, and we'll put it up on the screen. Here's what he has said in his ex account. Two paces of paper, he says, before he posts it, my team and I have met with committee members and senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions. One was about the Epstein scandal, Todd Blanchard's treatment of it and the victims.

2:22Michael Popok:And the second was about the Jan 6 fund and the settlement amendment, which allowed for the super pardon or release to Trump and his family, which remains standing. We have enjoyed good faith discussions. And as a result, the following order and update with regard to the May IRS settlement. Again, a settlement declared invalid by Judge Williams in Miami. The department, and here's what it says in the first piece of paper, which we'll post up on the screen. August 2nd, 2026. A, the Attorney General's May 18th, 2026 order establishing the anti-weaponization fund is rescinded and shall have no force or effect.

3:05Michael Popok:Notice how he focuses only on the May 18th order, not his May 19th amendment to that order establishing the super immunity for Donald Trump, Trump's family, all the Trump affiliates, which total more than 400 about tax and potentially criminal liability. And B, for the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this order is intended to contradict or otherwise be contrary to prior representations by the Department of Justice that the fund is not operative. No members were appointed. No funds were transferred. No process for receiving claims was established, no claims were paid. And then he talks about what he considers to be frivolous lawsuits, including the one before Judge Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia and the one in front of Judge Williams.

3:51Michael Popok:I don't think either judge will appreciate those cases being called frivolous. They certainly haven't found that. Now, the litigation over this, in that proclamation, does not answer the fundamental question. How could you have settled a case at all if the underlying lawsuit was in bad faith and illegitimate as declared by Judge Williams in Miami. You notice he completely ignores that and completely ignores in this posting any reference to his May 19th, one paragraph unilateral amendment giving that super pardon. On that, there's another piece of paper, which is this sort of a press release. Department of Justice rescinds the anti-weaponization order and addresses the May 19th release.

4:36Michael Popok:So he's not rescinding the May 19th release. He's just explaining it. But the explanation doesn't do any better. This here alone is another impeachable offense, both for Donald Trump and for Todd Blanche. The fact that he would, in order to get the job, offer to give a billion dollars or more of tax relief and criminal immunity to Donald Trump and his family in return to get the nomination, that's impeachable on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the equation, Trump and Blanche. Right. And the fact that he's now doubling down on it and has the apparently the vote support from Cornyn or Tillis.

5:16Michael Popok:Now is the time to flood the zone with phone calls to your senator to tell him this isn't good enough. They were always hiding the ball. And that's why they did it in two parts. May 18th, they do the settlement Jan 6 fund. Oh, let's give$1.776 billion to people who attack the Capitol and Capitol Police. Trump never cared about that. He always cared about the thing that happened the next day. That's the thing that tore his administration apart. As soon as that next day, May 19th event happened, the first thing that happened is the General Counsel for the Treasury Department resigned. He didn't want to be involved with this.

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7:21Michael Popok:That's Q-U-A-L-I-A life.com slash legal AF and use code legal AF. Thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. Here's what Blanche writes. It is about the May 19th release or what we call the super pardon. Further, the May 19th, 2026 order regarding a mutual release of claims applies by its terms only retroactively, meaning, oh, well, it's not so bad because it's only from the date I entered into the amendment to the settlement agreement that's invalid backwards. But there are right now, just as an example, there is a hundred million dispute between Donald Trump, his family, and the IRS over past tax liabilities that he didn't pay when he tried to take a$75 million deduction to wipe out all of his tax payments for a three years, four-year period when he was on The Celebrity Apprentice.

8:21Michael Popok:Until this year, that was his most lucrative year. He's now made hundreds of billions of dollars while he's in the White House. But so retroactive doesn't help us giving them. What if they committed criminal tax fraud? Oh, no, that's gone. What if they owe, because of audits that have been ongoing for the last 14 years, hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars in tax exposure for 400 entities under the Donald Trump revocable trust or his family? Oh, no, that's gone, too. Oh, really? So let's continue. The May 19th order applies retroactively. Additionally, the terms lawfare and or weaponization were already defined in the settlement agreement as the use of government power to target individuals, groups and entities for improper and unlawful political, personal or other ideological reasons.

9:12Michael Popok:They'll characterize everything the future administration does against Donald Trump and his family to fall into that category. It's so broad. The acting attorney general stands by all of his July 15th Senate Judiciary Committee testimony, including answers to questions by Senator Cornyn related to the scope and the applicability of the May 19th order. Let me play you a clip of that particular testimony so that you know what we're talking about. Play the clip. I want to ask you about the release. And I know I'm guilty of what a lot of lawyers are guilty of and having a chart you can't read. But I know you're familiar with this document, which is the release that you signed on May the 19th, 2026.

9:58First of all, does this purport to release parties or people who were not parties to the lawsuit? No, Senator. Well, it says here that claims asserted by defendants or any of the plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals, including without limitation, family or others filing jointly or parties, including trust, parent, sister or related companies, affiliates or subsidiaries. They weren't a party to the lawsuit, were they? I didn't hear everything you just said, Senator, but the only parties that had any release as respect to any potential audits, even if they existed, were the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

10:45Michael Popok:We're going to have a live stream on Legal AF YouTube of tomorrow's Blanche confirmation vote. But you see the fix is in. Cornyn and Tillis have to be lobbied by the public and by the other senators. And there's going to have to be statements made on the floor of that Judiciary Committee vote about this switcheroo, this bait and switch with the American public. They always set it up as a bait and switch. Keep your eye on the shiny object of May 18th. Put all your direction on the May 18th Jan 6th fund and the size of it. Who's it going to? And Donald Trump won't take any money from it. And disregard the May 19th creation of a super pardon release for the that's worth hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars to Trump and the Trump organization.

11:33Michael Popok:And it's 400 related parts. That's that has been the attempted magic trick. But we see the wires. We see that we see that how the girl is being cut in half and the American people are being abused. We'll continue to follow it all right here. Don't miss any trick. We're following it all here on Legal AF YouTube. Take a minute. Hit the free subscribe button there. And on our Legal AF Substack, we'll be doing live reports and reporting on this throughout the day and the week. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack.

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