Trump & Melania Embarrassed in Court as Judge Blasts Lawsuit

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3:30Michael Popok:In breaking news, Laura Loomer has been loomered by a federal judge in Ocala, Florida. A federal judge who's now not only dismissed, finally on final judgment, Laura Loomer's defamation case against comedian Bill Maher because he cracked wise a year and a half ago during his real time with Bill Maher show, speculating that perhaps Laura Loomer was sleeping with Donald Trump. Ha ha, hearty har har. It's a joke, not defamation. But Laura Loomer made things worse by bringing the defamation case, forcing a federal judge to have to go through all of the little nasty reporting about the bad habits of Laura Loomer, her relationship with Donald Trump, including I love you, I love you, I love you, and handholding that was caught by the media, and also do a fair amount of speculating about Melania Trump's relationship with Donald Trump.

4:29Michael Popok:Good job, Laura Loomer. It only took 18 pages for the judge to not only decide that your defamation case would get tossed because no reasonable person would believe that the joke was stating a matter of fact. But then the judge, for good measure, based on Laura Loomer's own deposition testimony, here's an alert for Kash Patel. Get ready. You sue for defamation. Get ready to sit in a chair and give sworn testimony under oath that could be used against you by a federal judge. Let's cover it all right here. Take a moment while you're here, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and hit the free subscribe button.

5:06Michael Popok:Okay, how do we get here? And this is the third in the last 30 days of losses for Donald Trump and or his FBI director and or his, I don't know what you want to call Laura Loomer. Laura Loomer, by the way, is still sort of an adjunct to the administration. You know, in the last couple of weeks, she was just in India, India of all places. This is a person who said she doesn't effectively is a white nationalist. She went to India reading, bearing a letter from the president and having to apologize for herself for being a bigot. Okay, so if you want to think she's kind of spun out of the orbit, she hasn't.

5:45Michael Popok:Now, the backdrop, so you got the Laura Loomer brings her case, right? Back in 2024, apparently. Kash Patel brought two cases for defamation. And in the last week, he just had one dismissed in Texas federal court against Frank Fuglitzi, who worked in the FBI, who made a joke on Morning Joe when they asked him, how do you think Patel's doing? And he said a version of, well, he's partying in nightclubs more than he's spending time on the seventh floor of the Hoover building. That's the executive floor for the FBI. And Kash Patel sued him for that. In fact, But Kash Patel pointed to that lawsuit when he brought the new lawsuit about the Atlantic and their allegations of public drunkenness and him having been impaired on the job as FBI director.

6:38Michael Popok:I've sued before. Well, you lost. Because in the last 48 hours, that federal judge found the statement that was made was not a statement of fact that can be defamatory. that it was at best a rhetorical, hyperbolic comment of opinion, and therefore could not support the requirement for defamation, nor was there actual malice established in the suit, which is what Kash Patel has to do to show that the person made that comment, either knowing it was false or with reckless disregard to whether it was true or false. Now we're on Laura Loomer. Let me first remind you, because the judge does it for us, of all the times that Laura Loomer has had some sort of weird interaction with Donald Trump.

7:29Michael Popok:Blowing kisses. I love you. I love you. I love you. Handholding. And you know who put it together the best? The best that I've seen? Right. Jordi Micellis and Midas Touch. Play the role. We have the receipts. So Trump has very recently started to try and distance himself from the right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer after he found out just how devastating she's been for his campaign. So we put together a two-minute montage of Donald Trump fawning over Laura Loomer and showing how much he truly loves her. Check this out. Really taking the country by storm. Very powerful person. Very strong person.

8:06Very courageous person. A warrior. Laura Loomer. Laura, where are you? Thank you, Laura. Great job you do. We have a lot of great friends and a lot of great people. Laura, how are you? You look so beautiful as always. That's a woman with courage. You don't want to be you don't want to be lumbered. If you're lumbered, you're in deep trouble. That's the end of your career in a sense. Thanks, Laura. She's actually that's my husband. That's his Trump 2024. Thank you. We love you. I love you. I love you, President Trump. Amazing speech, Kai. I loved it. I would never give up on you. Amazing. You're amazing.

9:04I love you. Best president ever. Somebody who's extremely shy, but really talented. And she's going places. Laura Loomer. Where's Laura? Laura. Where is Laura? She doesn't like the sanctimonious. She doesn't like the sanctus. Hey, everybody. We're here at Bedminster. I'm with the greatest president ever, President Donald Trump, who is killing it right now. There's a new poll out, right? You're crushing it. You're up over 50 points. and it's a beautiful day here beautiful club it's my first time here at bedminster well it's great to have you and you've been really very special you work hard and you are you are a very opinionated lady i have to tell you that and in my opinion i like that well i appreciate all of your support and everybody appreciates you yes thank you thank you thank you so much for inviting me to sit with you today pleasure you're the best i love you and many of those things you just saw was referred to

10:03Michael Popok:by the judge, not the Midas clip, but the actual events in the order itself. Let me read to you from the order about the purported defamatory statements. Let's start with what Bill Maher said. And get ready to cover your ears. The judge has written this out. I'm going to read it verbatim. This was on September 13th of 2024 on the Real Time Show. This is against the backdrop of all the things you just saw in the Midas clip, this is what Bill Maher said. I think maybe Laura Loomer is in an arranged relationship to affect the election because she's very close to Trump. She's 31, looks his type. We did an editorial here a few years ago.

10:46Michael Popok:It was basically, who's Trump fucking? Because I said, you know, it's not nobody. He's been a dog for too long, and it's not Melania. I think we may have our answer this week. I think it might be Laura Loomer. she sues Mars claiming that he falsely and maliciously accused Loomer of having committed adultery with Donald Trump now the judge goes through all the bad things that Laura Loomer has said uh and I'm not sure why he did this but there was no uh you know no stopping him at this point and again I want to I want to mention that this judge appointed by Clinton he's a senior status judge, Judge James Moody, his daughter is the Republican senator from Florida, the junior senator from Florida appointed by Ron DeSantis, for whom she used to be the attorney general.

11:39Michael Popok:Okay, here we go. Just so you put this in order. Long before the episode, Loomer admitted that she had developed a reputation as one of the most controversial figures in American politics. She is pro-white nationalism. She's a believer in biological hierarchy between men and women. she was designated as a dangerous individual on Facebook and on rideshare platforms, Lyft and Uber. PayPal, she received donations from hate groups, according to those records, and many prominent conservative figures disavowed plaintiff because of her behavior. That's on page four. On page five, he catalogs in excruciating detail the following.

12:24Michael Popok:The record is undisputed that plaintiff believes she had a close relationship with President Trump. She visited Mar-a-Lago at least 20 to 30 times. At the golf club, plaintiff publicly posted recordings showing President Trump with the plaintiff, telling his secretary, I love this girl, inviting her into his private, very, very private suite. Plaintiff gave him a hug and Trump said, it's fine. It's fine. After the meeting with the plaintiff shared on social media, a video of her and President Trump in which she tells him, I love you, and then captioned the post, best president. I love him so much.

13:01Michael Popok:I love him with all of my heart. I sat next to him all day. Page six. After the last of the Republican convention, plaintiff tweeted a video of President Trump in which he sees her in the crowd, points to her and says, I love you. I love you and blows her a kiss. She goes on to yell, you're amazing. I love you. I love you. And then the judge says news outlets, before the joke was told, news outlets also reported on the rumors swirling around plaintiff's relationship with an influence over President Trump. The Miami Times published an article, Laura Loomer and Trump sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, which noted the speculation that the two were a romantic item.

13:50OK Magazine has an article on the same day.

13:54Michael Popok:Donald Trump accused of having an affair with MAGA conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer as wife Melania remains MIA. Several images have been circulating on X showing Trump, 78, getting handsy with the 31-year-old MAGA supporter. Magic Spoon is basically the grown-up version of your favorite childhood cereal. Same fun, nostalgic taste, just made for real life now. Each serving packs 12 to 14 grams of protein, 0 to 2 grams of sugar, 4 to 5 grams of net carbs, certified gluten-free, so it actually keeps you fueled any time of the day. Breakfast, late night snack, post-workout, whatever. Magic Spoon is the cereal that tastes like the classics you grew up with, but without the sugar crash.

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15:15Michael Popok:That's magicspoon.com slash legal AF for$5 off. Bill Maher was interviewed or deposed during the case. And he said, can't you take a joke effectively? Here's what Bill Maher said. I made a joke. I made a joke based on their sudden closeness in the news that week. I could have shown a video of them together and all the places they were together and all the things that were going on, the I love you, I love you, blowing kisses, all that stuff, and just said, hey, get a room. It's just, this is comedy. These are jokes. He could have just played the Midas clip. That would have been funny. And then the judge says at the end that given the full context of page 13 of the joke and the series, a reasonable real-time viewer would have understood that Marr was making a joke and not a statement of fact about plaintiff and President Trump.

16:11Michael Popok:He continues, in sum, the court concludes that the episode was not, the episode's the joke, was not a statement of fact. The delivery of the episode by a well-known comedian in the context of a late night comedy television series centered around jokes signaled to the viewer that this was not a factual statement about Loomer or concerning Loomer. He also said she doesn't come close to making out actual malice. And as to her damages on page 17, the judge says that Loomer has not identified a single individual who believed that she was sleeping with President Trump because of the episode. She has not offered any expert testimony about her quantifying her reputational harm.

16:50Michael Popok:She's not introduced income tax statements or tax returns. The record reflects to the contrary, that her income went up in 2024 compared to in prior years, and that she still has a close relationship with President Trump. Desubbery judgment is granted. Case is closed. Final judgment for defendants. Done. The only time this has ever worked is when Trump sued CBS and ABC, and they didn't even bother to go through the case. They just settled because ABC, owned by Disney, didn't want to continue to battle with Donald Trump. So they stroked the check for$15 million when George Stephanopoulos, interviewing E.

17:42Michael Popok:Jean Carroll, who was sexually abused by Donald Trump, used the term rapist instead of sexual abuser. By the way, I defy you to have a jury come back and show that there's any difference between a sex abuser and a rapist. But that's why they paid, because they were part of corporate transactional. Disney didn't want this problem. Disney also owns ABC, and you've got the whole broadcast issue. The Federal Communications Commission was coming down on them. And CBS did the same thing with 60 Minutes and the Kamala Harris interview. And the reason that CBS settled related to the Kamala Harris interview on 60 Minutes is because CBS wanted something too.

18:27Michael Popok:Skydance, Paramount, was about to buy CBS. And that deal was going to be blocked unless CBS made nice with Donald Trump to allow the FCC under Donald Trump to approve the deal. Skydance gobbled up CBS. They now own it. As of today, they now own CNN as well because the deal, Skydance then bought Warner Brothers assets, including CNN. So it takes CNN and CBS off the board as legitimate news organizations because they're now owned and controlled by the Ellison family who own Oracle and are best friends with Donald Trump, period. So they're the only ones that have ever settled. Donald Trump's never won in a court of law through summary judgment or judgment at trial or jury verdict has ever won a defamation case.

19:15And yet his minions continue to try to use them, even though they backfire, as I just outlined

19:21Michael Popok:for you. It's a terrible recitation of facts that are now out there in the public domain because of this new order. I'm glad you're here. Hit the free subscribe button. Help us continue to grow this pro-democracy channel and Legal AF. Until my next report, I'm Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF.

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