Trump Blindsides SCOTUS with Constitution Crisis

0:00Michael Popok:Donald Trump doesn't have the proof, but that hasn't stopped his full frontal assault on the American financial system. He has taken a shot at destabilizing America's economy by attacking Lisa Cook, one of the seven members of the Board of Governors of the independent central bank we call the Federal Reserve. The only way he can remove her, there's been a lot of reporting that she was fired. At best, he took steps to fire her. He's alleged that she has done something, mortgage fraud, which allows him to remove her. Well, there's a couple of problems with that. I'm going to cover here for the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF and talk about the next steps.

0:40Michael Popok:But let it be known and make no mistake about it. Donald Trump is trying to destabilize our American financial system. It is a dark day for our economy. And Donald Trump is to blame, not Lisa Cook. Now, Lisa Cook is one of seven members of the Board of Governors. That seven-member group, along with five additional members, form the Federal Open Markets Committee. That group sets interest rates. That's what Donald Trump wants to get his hands on. And right now he can't because there's a majority of a Democratic president appointed on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. See, we want to insulate our Board of Governors from political winds.

1:24Michael Popok:That's why they have these long and extended terms which overlap presidencies. We don't just flip out and switch out like we're changing the bedsheets, the Federal Reserve, when a new president comes in. So four, including Chairman Jay Powell, came from Democratic presidents and two came from Donald Trump. There's a third that's going to be appointed by Donald Trump because a Biden appointee kind of threw in the towel, Ms. Kugler. And now he's going to have three board of governors against four Democratic presidents. You see the math? He wants to get rid of Cook. So he'll be in the lead four to three.

2:02Michael Popok:Now, this is the only way that a president is supposed to influence monetary policy by picking governors. After that, they are they are supposed to be independent in making their decisions. But, you know, Donald Trump doesn't think that way. Now, in order to get rid of Lisa Cook, because that's the next step, and she's already represented by very fine and competent counsel, Abby Lowell. You may remember Abby Lowell is also representing Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, who's also being investigated by this Trump administration for mortgage fraud. And I'll talk about this mortgage fraud ruse and the involvement of Bill Pulte, that Nepo baby for Pulte Homes Construction and his involvement in all this.

2:44Michael Popok:But let me go back to Lisa Cook and For Cause. The Supreme Court, as recently as May, has defended the Federal Reserve from attacks by Donald Trump by saying that the only way that particular independent agency can have its members removed by a president is for cause. Now, for those that are involved in employment law like I am, that's a common term. You have to have good reason, justifiable reason. It's usually interpreted as neglect, malfeasance, wrongdoing of some sort, a criminal act. That's your for cause. termination from a normal job. If you have a contract for your employment, it may say you're either going to be let go for cause or not for cause.

3:34Michael Popok:And there's different ramifications related to that. In the Supreme Court constitutional world, when it comes to this type of agency, for cause has been limited to neglect of duty, meaning you're not doing your job that you've been appointed to serve. Malfeasance in office. You've done something wrong in the job. You've screwed up something royally in the job. And that's generally in the job, not outside the job. So you have inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office. That all comes from a 1935 case called Humphrey's Executor. Serious misconduct. And that could verge and cross all the way over to crimes and convictions of crimes and things like that.

4:16Michael Popok:But the case law also says that he's going to have to prove against Lisa Cook, not just an allegation by Bill Pulte that was then reinforced by Ed Martin, that was then reinforced by Donald Trump in the echo chamber of MAGA. No, more than that. Substantiated proof, substantiated findings. Doesn't mean it has to go all the way through a court and a judge or jury making a determination, but there has to be more than a tweet. There has to be more than a mean letter, which he now has sent to Lisa Cook from Donald Trump. She's entitled to more than that with this heightened standard of, you can only fire me from my job that runs till 2038 for cause.

4:59Michael Popok:That means when we get to the United States Supreme Court, and that's where we're heading, folks, it'll start in the D.C. federal court, district court level with a filing, I'm sure, by Lisa Cook for a declaration from a federal judge that she cannot be fired and that the firing is ineffective and invalid and unconstitutional and against the Federal Reserve Act. That will be her next step that we will follow here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. From there, there'll be a ruling. Let's just assume she wins because based on this evidence, there's a lot of smoke here. She committed, what is the basis of the allegations you may be asking?

5:37Michael Popok:She bought two properties apparently in the same year, one in Michigan and one in Georgia. And she may have listed both as her primary residence. Listen, I'm not involved with her life. I don't know if one was supposed to be her primary residence and she switched it to Georgia during the year. I don't know. It's up to her through Abby Lowell to prove her case. But that is the allegations of, quote unquote, mortgage fraud. And that because she listed both as primary, she got, I don't know, a half a point reduction in her mortgage. Because if you're a primary resident, you pay less on mortgage rate than if it's your second home.

6:13Michael Popok:no i defy bill pulte whose claim that that's that's subject to a criminal prosecution and conviction up to 30 years to give me one example where some jury has convicted somebody of that particular crime and sent sentenced them to 30 years but of course donald trump right on cubes is all scripted and choreographed jumped on bill pulte and who is bill pulte was he elected to anything? No. Donald Trump put him in because he's a major Trumper and donor into running the federal Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which is the mortgage. They're not the regulator, but they're the backer of all mortgages in America.

6:53Michael Popok:They secure it. They take mortgages off the books of banks and they put them into securitized packages and sell them. It's called mortgage-backed securities. It's the way that the economy in mortgages runs. It generates new money and new income for banks to make new mortgages, all backed by this Freddie May and Fannie Mac. That's what he heads. And from that pulpit and his social media platform and him running for office one day, obviously, you know, they just tell Bill, Bill, accuse somebody of mortgage fraud and then we'll take it from there. Absolutely. So he accused Senator Schiff of California of mortgage fraud, Letitia James of mortgage fraud, and now Lisa Cook of mortgage fraud.

7:35Michael Popok:All these Democrats are committing mortgage fraud. Where's the one announcement that they're investigating a Republican for mortgage fraud on these same facts? Tell me. Okay, I think we've waited long enough. You ever have one of those mornings where coffee just like waves the white flag? Yeah, that was me today. I'm dragging. I got to work out later. And honestly, I need something more than caffeine to get me through. This podcast is sponsored by Peak Pure Natural and their product Peak Beats has been my not-so-secret weapon. It's a tasty, easy-to-take powder made from organic fermented beets which boost their natural nitric oxide power.

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9:24Michael Popok:So this is what Abbey Lowell will do. We'll hear about a filing, maybe even this week, I'll try to get Abby on the show, for a declaration and an injunction against Trump, obviously, in its official capacity, about firing Cook. In the meantime, she's going to do her job. She has said out loud, I'm going to do my job. I'm going to fight for my job. I'm not going anywhere. Now, of course, they try to put pressure on, last week they tried to put pressure on the chairman, Jay Powell, among other things, and said, you should fire her. Ed Martin, the special attorney for Pam Bondi said, you know, you should fire her.

10:08Michael Popok:I mean, check the rules. The Federal Reserve Board, the chairman of the board can't fire the board of governors, anybody on the board of governors. That's only the president and then only for cause. And this is what we're going to be fighting with. So we'll get the ruling at the district court level. It'll go up to the D.C. Court of Appeals. I mean, she could file somewhere else. I just assume they're going to file in D.C. That's my professional prediction. Then they'll go to the appellate court for the D.C. courts federal. The three-judge panel will rule there. They rule in her favor, which I think is also likely, unless there's Trumpers on that panel.

10:47Michael Popok:We've seen this happen before. There's two Trumpers that are lurking, one named Rao and one named Katsis. And if they get on a panel, it's all bets are off about what's going to happen. It's usually pro-Trump, whatever's going to happen. The loser takes an appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which is going to have to weigh in. They've ruled in a number of cases recently, starting in 2020, about what for-cause means. In fact, in May, in a case dealing with an entirely different board, the National Labor Relations Board, in a case brought by the chairman of that board who was fired, she said, you can't fire me, a similar argument to what Cook is going to raise.

11:31Michael Popok:However, in that case, they said, no, you're different than the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve was actually mentioned. And the Supreme Court threw up a ring fence to protect the Federal Reserve back in May and said, no, Federal Reserve is more like our first bank or our second bank in our nation's history, and they can't be removed except for cause. It was just this gratuitous protection for the Federal Reserve in a case not dealing with the Federal Reserve. So that is the precedent. Otherwise, you start in 1935 with a case called Humphreys Executor, in which they defined for cause as being inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance in office.

12:08Michael Popok:Now, Donald Trump's tried to conflate that and allied over that standard. And he said, I've lost trust and confidence in you. You should resign. trust and confidence loss that's a that's a um a ruse right that's a uh another way of saying you're not of my party you're not doing what i want you to do on rates and therefore i'm firing you and that the courts are very consistent you cannot do it can't be a political disagreement or a policy disagreement which is all this is to get rid of lisa cook look we know what trump wants he wants to get the four to three advantage on the board of governors the board of governors then appoint, well, then serve with the other seven members of the Federal Reserve, like the presidents of the individual Federal Reserves around the country, and create this open markets committee that meets every month.

12:57Now, five months in a row, they've given the middle finger, not on

13:01Michael Popok:purpose, just reality, to Donald Trump and not cut rates. Rates are now, interest rates for bank to bank, meaning kind of insider rates, are like 4.25 to 4.5 percent. That means our rates are 2, 3, 4 percent higher than that, or even higher than that for credit cards, loans, mortgages, and that type of thing. It starts with the monetary policy set by the Fed. Donald Trump wants to get control of the Board of Governors, wants to get control of who's going to be the individual presidents of the banks. He wants to get control of the Open Markets Committee. And then we've got exactly what would be a disaster.

13:37Michael Popok:Donald Trump controlling fiscal policy, his failed economic policy that he tries to bail out with all of these showy. We're going to own a chip company together, America. Who wanted that? We're going to own a mining company together. With my money? I mean, you know, if you want to be in business, leave the office and go and make investments with your other multi-billionaires around you. That's what they should do. The Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, and Donald Trump should go form a private equity or hedge fund together. They can call it Trump, Lutnick, and Bessent.

14:14Michael Popok:And they can go raise money from outside investors, and they can go buy stakes in as many companies as they'd like. And they can go belly up, or they can be successful on their own dime, but not on the American taxpayer's dime. That's another problem. so this is where the Supreme Court is going to have to weigh in about four cause when it comes to the Federal Reserve it's the open question since they ruled in May in the case involving Gwen Wilcox we'll cover it all right here on the Midas Touch Network this is going to go fast come over to Legal AF YouTube channel we're going to be covering it extensively over there as well and then I Legal AF Substack it's an amazing community I'm on there live twice a day at the minute at the market bringing you information like this.

14:57Michael Popok:Like when she files, I'll grab the complaint. I'll get online with you and we'll put a huddle together of two or three thousand people and we'll talk about the filing and what it means. Things like that. I've been doing real-time reporting about a Braco Garcia's case over on Legal AF Substack. Come over there and help us continue to grow that community as well. So 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. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack.

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