Trump DOJ Leaks His own Crimes

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0:45Michael Popok:Well, the curse of Judge Aileen Cannon and the Mar-a-Lago Volume 2 report has struck again because the Department of Justice had to admit and confess in court in a brand new filing in the last hour or so that they mishandled the Mar-a -Lago report and they let it out to third parties. This is the Mar-a-Lago report that Jack Smith prepared. The public has never seen that Judge Cannon on behalf of her patron, Donald Trump, sealed in a tomb forevermore and even bound the hands of the Department of Justice in the future from releasing it. And they just cavalierly sent it over to the defense team representing a defendant who tried to take that report home.

1:26Michael Popok:And they had to admit in the filing, oops, we sent it back to the same defense team who's defending a case about misappropriating the report. I'm Michael Popak. Let's get to the bottom of this new joint notice of inadvertent discovery disclosure. Let's take a time out for a minute. I've been doing this for 35 years. I've had a report on more errors, intentional or otherwise, misrepresentations, fraudulent testimony, fraudulent documents being submitted by the Department of Justice, incomplete filings, error-filled filings, failure to supply any case law, failure to respond, missed deadlines than at any time in my life.

2:11Michael Popok:This Department of Justice has done 250 years worth of errors and mistakes and fraud and corruption all wrapped into one package. Now let's get down to this one. You may recall that at the request of Donald Trump, literally, and some of the co-defendants, Walt Nauta and Carlos de Oliveira, about the Mar-a-Lago case, Walt Nauta, having previously been represented by the number two in the Department of Justice, Stan Woodward, Donald Trump's lawyers, not Todd Blanche, but it might as well be, filed a motion with Judge Cannon to seal forevermore in a tomb, throw in the trash bin of history, the entirety of volume two of Jack Smith's report.

2:59Michael Popok:Now we got volume one about the DC election interference because Merrick Garland, who was then the attorney general for the United States, released it as he is supposed to do before the term ended for Joe Biden. Now he dragged his feet about Mar-a-Lago and he left it behind for Pamela Joe Bondi to make the decision. And we know what her decision was, to never release it. Different parties have tried to get it. And there's actually an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals case that's still pending, although they recently canceled the oral argument that they were going to hear about whether they were going to reverse Judge Cannon on her order.

3:38Michael Popok:So that order stands. Now, that takes us to the criminal case of an assistant U.S. attorney, actually the managing assistant U.S. attorney. In Fort Pierce, which is where Judge Cannon resides, in the Department of Justice, a person by the name of Carmen Mercedes Lineberger. Carmen Mercedes Lineberger, according to the indictment that was rendered in the Southern District of Florida by a grand jury, sent the Mar-a-Lago Volume 2 home to her personal computer and tried to cover her tracks by calling it a chocolate cake recipe or a bunt cake recipe. Yes, we've got the bunt cake indictment against Carmen Mercedes Leinberger.

4:22Michael Popok:Now, I'm not here to defend her. I don't know what she did or why she did it. I'm just reading to you from what I know about the indictment. And she's represented by counsel that sit in West Palm Beach. Okay. That case is being prosecuted in the Southern District of Florida, but not by Southern District of Florida U.S. attorneys because she worked in that office for like 20 years and she knew everybody. So the Department of Justice appointed a special prosecutor who sits up in Tallahassee, Florida, a person by the name of Christine Oote to bring the case supported by another member of the Department of Justice team in the Northern District of Florida District.

5:05Michael Popok:So they've taken it away from the local prosecutors in Judge Cannon's backyard because of where Carmen Mercedes Leinberger, the former prosecutor, used to live. Okay. So far, we sort of know this is all a little bit of connect the dots. Now we've got the joint notice, which I'll post on Legal AF Substack today for our paid members. Okay. Here's what they just disclosed. Paragraph one. This is to Judge Cannon because her order about burying the Mar-a-Lago report and it never seeing the light of day, let alone being sent to a third party, governs in this issue. On May 19, 2026, the grand jury returned an indictment against Ms.

5:50Michael Popok:Leinberger. Okay. Carmen Mercedes Leinberger. Access to the report. That's the Mar-a-Lago report by Jack Smith. As part of criminal discovery in the separate matter remains a contested issue that may be addressed at a future date. The defense team wants to see the report. They don't want to turn over the report. On May 29th, the government filed its unopposed motion for protective order to preemptively limit the further dissemination by defense counsel of other sensitive materials disclosed and furnished when the government, pursuant to Rule 16 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, provided their initial discovery.

6:28Michael Popok:The government prosecutors have an obligation, we call it Brady material, to turn over anything that may be exculpatory, get somebody off the hook, prove they're not guilty, or inculpatory, prove their guilt. All of that has to be produced right up front under Rule 16 and case law. On June 3rd, 2026, the government fulfilled its Rule 16 discovery obligation, says paragraph 3, giving flash drives, you know, little portable hard drives, to Defense Council. On June 9th, Defense Council notified the government that upon reviewing the electronic discovery that same day, they identified three documents embedded within the materials and contacted the government to determine if those were intended to be produced.

7:15Michael Popok:In other words, even the defense counsel was like, why is this in the pile? Upon review, the government confirmed the documented questions were copies of volume two of the report that were embedded within emails that were required. So they produced the emails. They were supposed to strip off the report, but they didn't. Look, magnesium, it's something most of us lack. And if you're taking that drugstore variant, you're still not getting the full picture. Industrial farming, chronic stress, and everyday aging all make it worse. Most supplements only use one form of magnesium, but magnesium comes in many forms that support your body in different ways.

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9:30Michael Popok:Upon confirmation, the Government Defense Council voluntarily ceased review of the discovery material. That had not already been examined, deleted it from their downloads and cooperated with the government to recover the flash drives. This is a month ago. The government acknowledges the professionalism and candor of the Defense Council in remedying this inadvertent inclusion in discovery materials published by the government. Filed by Christy Ut and John Heakin for the Department of Justice on July 2nd, 2026. Now, under normal circumstances, a judge like Judge Kennan would chastise a party, whether it's the government or otherwise, for telling her a month late about the disclosure.

10:18Michael Popok:You know she's not going to do that here. She only chastises Jack Smith, the Department of Justice under Joe Biden, and anything she can do to bend over backwards about Donald Trump and his Department of Justice, she will do. So I haven't seen her response to this yet, to this joint notice of inadvertent discovery disclosure. I'm sure later today she will issue an order. I will be shocked, but I will report on it. I will be shocked if she wraps the knuckles of the Department of Justice under Donald Trump and Todd Blanche for letting her know so late. This shows how sloppy the Department of Justice is.

10:58Michael Popok:They're corrupt and they're sloppy. I just did a video that's up on Legal AF YouTube channel about John O. Brennan, the CIA director, who's filed before he can even be indicted in Judge Cannon's courtroom by a grand jury that she was handpicked by Trump to preside over for him giving testimony to Congress about his term as director of the CIA and their investigation of Trump, Russia, and election interference. Right. They filed a motion to make sure Donald Trump doesn't destroy all the evidence, doesn't make messages, poof, disappear on a signal app or otherwise. And to try to get the case away from Judge Cannon, now you see why.

11:37Michael Popok:Now you see why. I'm going to continue to follow the next developments here. And we had a long weekend coming up of great programming on the Legal AF YouTube channel. Take a minute, hit that free subscribe button there. And if you want to read the joint notice, I posted a Legal AF sub stack for our paid members. So until my next report, this is 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. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF.

12:16Michael Popok:What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.