Trump Destruction of Evidence gets Called Out

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2:27Popok:If you have a corrupt Department of Justice on one side and you are an acknowledged political target on the other of an indictment, you've got to come out swinging. You can't rest. You can't sit on the sidelines. You can't wait around to see if the grand conspiracy prosecution will result in your indictment. No. former CIA director, the spymaster of America, John O. Brennan, has taken it to the Trump administration's Department of Justice, U.S. attorney for Miami, the special prosecutor, Joe DiGenova, with a new filing in court. Yes, it's a matter of dog bites, man. He's not waiting around for the indictment.

3:07Popok:He's going to sue first. He's going to accuse the Trump administration of having a nasty habit of destroying evidence, of destroying documents and communications, of using disappearing messaging apps. And he wants an order from a federal judge in the District of Columbia, not down in Florida, not Judge Aileen Cannon, that's going to protect and preserve all of those documents so that he can bring his future motion to dismiss for a vindictive prosecution. There's already a roadmap for successful motions to dismiss for a vindictive prosecution against this Department of Justice. Never in the Department of Justice's history has there been two motions for vindictive prosecution, let alone several.

3:49And there's

3:50Popok:already a successful result against one. Kilmer Abrego Garcia got his criminal indictment dismissed because of prosecutorial abuse led by Todd Blanche. And John Brennan wants a federal judge to make sure his documents don't suddenly disappear. At the same time, he reminds us in his filing, 46 pages, by the way, that Judge Cannon may be in on it, if you know what I mean. We're going to talk about the nasty little habit of destroying documents, why the case is even being presented in front of a grand jury presided over by Judge Cannon, why that isn't a conflict of interest, what they've done about it.

4:26Popok:And I love everything about the masterstroke of strategy and tactics being used by John O. Brennan. I think he's also helped by a United States Supreme Court case from a couple weeks ago, which would, for me, undermine the ability for them to use their handpicked prosecutor in Miami, their handpicked judge in Fort Pierce, and run the investigation out of Florida, because John O. Brennan doesn't live in Florida. And the criminal act that he allegedly committed happened in the District of Columbia when he gave testimony in 2023 to Congress about the the intelligence community's assessment about Donald Trump and Russia and Russia collusion.

5:06Popok:Oh yeah, you're on Midas Touch, you're on Legal AF. I'm fired up for the fireworks this weekend. We're going to do fireworks right now. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and hit that free subscribe button as well. All right, let's get to the new filing. Top line, you may already know, John O 'Brennan files complaint and lawsuit against Donald Trump. Forget all that. Let's get to what I know from my experience, from knowing these parties, these actors, these courts, these judges. First, who's been sued? Trump, Todd Blanche, Joe DiGenova. Who's that? You're going to know in a minute. Jason Redding, Ken Yotis.

5:41Popok:Who's that? Yeah. Why is he being sued? All right. What is the beef with John O. Brennan? The deep conspiracy state of MAGA has believed that Barack Obama Robert Mueller, the then special prosecutor, the FBI director James Comey, and the CIA director John O. Brennan conspired to try to undermine Donald Trump by alleging there was Russia collusion. Let me explain Russia collusion for a minute. Trump calls it the Russia hoax. Russia collusion means that foreign actors try to interfere with our elections. That has been going on for decades. They do it through social media, through trolls, through brainwashing, through video clips, through TikTok, through other platforms to try to convince people to vote one, one or against, or to put Americans at each other's throats because a seething cauldron of American hatred benefits Donald Trump and his messaging, his policies, and our adversaries.

6:38Popok:That has been known. Whether Donald Trump's campaign back in the first time around coordinated their efforts with Russia, that's up to a fact finder and an investigator to have determined. And they couldn't find that evidence doesn't mean Russia wasn't trying to collude. Now, John O 'Brennan has been the poster child for people like Joe DiGenova, a deep stater, a political hack, who's now a special prosecutor appointed by Todd Blanche to go after John O 'Brennan. He's been attacking John O 'Brennan and Mueller and Obama on Newsmax, on Fox forever. This should disqualify him for being some sort of independent, independent prosecutor, right?

7:21Popok:Oh, no. Blanche appoints him. Here's Joe DiGeneva out hacking away at people like John O 'Brennan. Play the clip. We know that there was a substantial effort to frame the current president of the United States with crimes by infiltrating his campaign and then his administration with spies that the FBI had set upon them. We have learned that the crimes were committed by the FBI, senior members of the Department of Justice, John Brennan, Mr. Clapper, Mr. Comey, and others associated with the Democratic Party, and that Donald Trump and his associates committed no crimes. That's quite a litany. So to the spying question, when the president tweeted that one morning, I'll never forget it, they spied on us from Trump Tower.

8:10And I don't think there's a single person read that who thought, well, that's kind of a heavy duty charge. Can you prove it? And of course, he was derided immediately as insane and as a tinfoil hat guy. That's in effect been proved. Oh, absolutely. Categorically and unequivocally, it has been proved that the FBI, in violation of all guidelines, all legislation, and I believe they committed crimes in doing so, purposely sent people into the Trump campaign to plant false information, then force that information to be forwarded back to CIA and then funneled to the FBI to be used as false information in FISA applications.

8:46Everybody involved in that process who knowingly participated committed a crime.

8:52Popok:Now, John O 'Brennan has fought back, too. He's not been shy. He's been out on given interviews. I'd love to get him on this show. He's been given interviews about what he knows about Russia and Donald Trump. Let's play a clip of John O 'Brennan so you know who we're talking about. I'm very proud of the work that the women and men of the CIA and of other elements, the intelligence community did eight and a half years ago when they put together this intelligence community assessment. We went to a great lens to protect the integrity of the process, the integrity and the sensitivity of the intelligence involved, as well as to protect the identities of individuals that may have been implicated in some of this intelligence, including from the Trump administration.

9:32And so we went to whatever lens we needed to do to go to in order to make sure that we're able to follow through with President Obama's request that a comprehensive and exhaustive review be done of Russian interference in 2016 election, because he and others realized that the Russians were going to continue to do this in subsequent elections. And he wanted to make sure that we were going to have that collection of information and intelligence that we then could hand over to our successors. And as you pointed out, There have been numerous reviews of this intelligence community assessment and the process we went through.

10:08The bipartisan Senate intelligence report, the Durham investigation, other types of things which validated it. And indeed, as you pointed out, the CIA note, this tradecraft review, and I will point out there was a serious violation in terms of what they did. They never interviewed me or Jim Clapper, two of the people involved in this, before putting this thing out. But it says in there that the rigor of the analysis in that intelligence community assessment exceeded that of most other intelligence community assessments. So, again, I think this is, unfortunately, a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence community, of the national security process.

10:46And quite frankly, I'm really shocked that, you know, individuals who are willing to sacrifice their reputations, their credibility, their decency to continue to do Donald Trump's bidding on something that clearly is just politically based.

11:01Popok:OK, so those are the people. Now, here's the reporting. when bondi was still attorney general there was a meeting maybe the day before she was fired where jason redding ken yonas this hand-picked prosecutor maga prosecutor u.s attorney's office in my backyard in miami goes up to washington bringing with him is the lead day-to-day prosecutor maria meditas long maria meditas long tells the assembled group that there's not a strong case against John O. Brennan for his testimony in 2023 about Russia and collusion and something particularly called the Steele dossier. Michael Steele made a dossier working for a company.

11:45Popok:That, it turns out, much of what was in there about Donald Trump, including his habits with prostitutes, was discredited. Doesn't mean the intelligence community's arrest of their investigation was discredited, and they never used the Steele dossier. They referenced it. They said they didn't use it, but they had it, but it doesn't discredit and pollute the entire investigation. So she says, I don't see a case here. That pisses off Jason Redding-Kinionis, who's been telling Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice and Todd Blanchett they've got a strong case. And he sits, she sits next to him and says they don't.

12:17Popok:She's eventually fired or transferred into oblivion, which is what happens when you tell the truth, when you're in the Department of Justice under Todd Blanchett and Donald Trump. So Blanche appoints Joe DiGenova, he's an 80-year-old former Reagan U.S. attorney in D.C. who's been a deep stater, who's been a grand conspiracy theorist, who's been Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer along with Rudy Giuliani, to go after all of like Obama and Comey and Brennan. and they're doing it out of where? Not D.C., where this crime allegedly happened of lying to Congress, but down in Florida. Oh, why Florida?

12:59Popok:Let me think. Right, Aileen Cannon, not just any part in Florida, the one courthouse with the one judge that Donald Trump prefers, who's been trying out, let's be frank, for the United States Supreme Court. She knows, everybody knows that Alito and Thomas are gonna retire in the next several months. So she's trying out, right? So they have a grand jury in Florida that's issued 200 subpoenas and bringing in the intelligence community to talk up in Florida. How do I know that? They can't stop talking about it. Here's the government talking about the secret grand jury investigation, which they shouldn't be talking about.

13:37Popok:Play the clip. So at what point does the decisions they made and the things that they do cross over from just being dirty, sore losers because Hillary didn't win to we have committed a federal crime, which requires me to be someone to get indicted and go to prison. And that's what we're looking at now to 2016 time period. But then as they're gone and then Mueller's appointed, but it's not just like Mueller, right? There's a whole group behind him. And it's not just FBI. There's still the intelligence community that is motivated to keep the narrative going. And so, you know, you identified some folks that were definitely part of it at its inception, but it would have died.

14:22Obama? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think that there's no scenario under which anybody believes that between the November election when President Trump won and January 20th, there was the White House putting aside Obama directly. We're talking about 2016 into 17. sorry 2016 to 2017 in between november and january that the white house wasn't actively trying to adjust the intelligence um because that assessment is is was very important what does it mean when a government can go after one person i think this is what dan bongino was referring to when he said yeah no republicans survive i don't disagree with him i don't either i don't either and you see Democrats get so enraged at this Department of Justice now because they know how effective it was.

15:13And that's what people need to realize. The American people need to realize that it worked. The president's agenda for almost three years was adjusted because of this. He had to spend time doing, working on this issue as opposed to running a country.

15:27Popok:OK, so smartly, about two months ago, when the grand jury and Joe DiGenova going down to Florida to run this thing gets public, the lawyers for John O 'Brennan, the same lawyers that have just filed the complaint, they file a letter, send a letter to the chief judge, my chief judge, Southern District of Florida, Chief Judge Altenaga, urging her to get the case away from Cannon that she's not independent, that she's been handpicked. Smart. Didn't happen. They continue to pump the grand jury through her for now, for now. And there's been promises, according to reporting, that the U.S. attorney has promised an indictment by the end of the year.

16:11Popok:Now, they have five years from when the testimony in 2023, the congressional testimony was done by John O 'Brennan that they're using as the hook for the criminal investigation before the statute of limitations expires. So they're on the clock. Let me read to you from this. Have I mentioned you're on Midas Touch and Legal AF? Take a minute, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and hit the free subscribe button. Yeah, do that. All right, let's get to the complaint. I love the complaint for many reasons. It's a masterstroke of filing. I've drafted complaints like this in my life. It is a speaking complaint.

16:43Popok:It goes on for 46 pages, dozens and dozens of paragraphs. It reads like a legal brief more than a complaint, which just has to have sort of the bare minimum under Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. But I love it in every other way. Here's what they say in their introduction, which goes on for several pages for this motion or this complaint. Being perceived, this is page one, being perceived as the president's adversary has become risky in recent years. This is from Judge Boesberg quashing the subpoenas against the Federal Reserve Chair Jay Powell. They say that he captured the reality that this administration has adopted a policy of using criminal process and prosecution to punish the president's perceived adversaries.

17:31Popok:Echoing the same theme in his recent opinion, a chief judge in Minnesota quashed subpoenas also against political targets, Governor Tim Walz and others. Against this backdrop, Director Brennan is being vindictively singled out for investigation and prosecution. The evidence of vindictiveness in this case is overwhelming. Here's a clip of Trump going after Brennan. James Comey and John Brennan now under criminal investigation related to the Trump-Russia probe. Do you want to see these two guys behind bars? Well, I know nothing about it other than what I read today. But I will tell you, I think they're very dishonest people.

18:11I think they're crooked as hell. And maybe they have to pay a price for that. I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So whatever happens, happens.

18:24Popok:Right. So that's been going on. And there's dozens and I could I could do an entire clip show of just dozens and dozens of comments by Kash Patel, by Pam Bondi, by Donald Trump, by Todd Blanche against against Brennan and the like. But they go on. They go on to say that this was a setup on paragraph 34. The false statement investigation originated with an October 21, 2025 letter from Jim Jordan to then Attorney General Pam Bondi. Jordan, a close ally of Trump, refers for an investigation about Director Brennan lying in 2023 testimony when he discussed the role of the Steele dossier in the production of the intelligence community assessment.

19:12Popok:Where, you know, let's be honest, he told the truth. But then they go on to say this case has been steered, steered to Judge Cannon and that that's been called out by them in a letter that they sent a letter to Judge Altenaga. This is on paragraph 36, calling into question why Judge Cannon is presiding over the grand jury. Paragraph 37.

20:01former criminal lawyer for Donald Trump, who's now going after people like Brennan, Director Brennan.

20:09Popok:As such, they say that Fort Pierce is 130 miles away from open grand juries that are operating in Miami. It's five states away from Washington, D.C., where the vast majority of the acts allegedly took place. The only rationale for Fort Pierce is to carry out the judge shopping plan. But they go on to talk about Joe DiGenova. Paragraph 44. DiGenova is a former U.S. attorney and vocal ally of President Trump. Despite being out of the employ of the Justice Department for many decades, he has several qualities that reportedly made him particularly appealing to the president. He's staunchly supported the president with his public commentary for years.

20:55Popok:He's provided legal services in support of the president's causes. He joined the president's team of lawyers dealing with the Mueller special counsel investigation. He advocates for the president's pet conspiracy theories. He's publicly pronounced Director Brennan guilty of participation in a grand conspiracy, calling Brennan evil, for sure branding him a traitor, and declaring that this conspiracy began with Brennan and ends with John Brennan. Okay, so you got all that going on. And then they go over and talk about how this government has a nasty little habit of destroying documents and that they use Signal App for disappearing messages, that they don't keep their internal emails, that they flush things down the toilet and make them into confetti.

21:41Popok:And so they're asking the court for an order under what we call a writ of mandamus, an order requiring defendants to preserve and cause everybody under their employ to preserve all materials and communications that exist or will exist relevant to the consideration of Director Brennan's legal and constitutional challenges to any future criminal charges. There's subcategories under it, but that's the gist. And that's to the U.S. attorney in Miami, Joe DiGenova, the Department of Justice, the FBI, Kash Patel, Todd Blanche, Tulsi Gabbard, you know, the current CIA director and the rest. brought by the lawyers at Mayor Brown, Ken Weinstein, who's a very good lawyer, and Dan Gelber, who I know, down in Miami.

22:28Popok:This is aggressive, but it is necessary to not sit idly by, especially after the Trump administration may be emboldened by getting an indictment and conviction of John Bolton, sort of a colleague, if you will, of John O. Brennan, in terms of being in the national security and intelligence community. He pled guilty because he took home documents that were top secret in order to write a memoir. You know, it's ironic that a president who was indicted for espionage and violation and obstruction of justice related to top secret documents actually got a conviction related to that for somebody else. But I can see where Bolton's lawyers are like, all right, I mean, Brennan's lawyers are like, okay, Bolton just took a, just pled guilty and is going to be sentenced.

23:11Popok:It's time. And I love the timing of this filed on July 1, just on the way into the long weekend. This is going to be a fast-moving story. You're going to want to follow it on Legal AF. There's going to be a judge assigned. There's going to be a hearing on this, and it's going to happen, I think, all later next week. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button, and help grow this pro-democracy channel and Legal AF YouTube channel. Until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Popak here. When life changes in an instant because of an injury or the bad acts of another, You need fighters in your corner.

23:43Popok:The Popak firm is dedicated to helping the injured and their families get justice and the money they deserve. And we don't back down. Contact us today and let's start your fight for justice together.