Trump DOJ makes Accidental Admission as Judge Loses Patience

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2:39Michael Popok:Included with Prime. How many emergency motions can the Department of Justice fit on the head of a pen? Or how many can they file in a case involving former FBI Director James Comey? But see, now I know why they're not able to get another indictment of the former FBI director, because they don't understand basic English. They can't follow court direction. They can't do a search that's not warrantless and in violation of the Fourth Amendment. They refuse because the Eastern District of Virginia is being headed by an impersonator in Lindsay Halligan. They can't figure out how to go get a search warrant to go through materials belonging to James Comey's lawyer.

3:20Michael Popok:That's already a red flag. How are they going to use the communications between lawyer and client, which is sacrosanct and privileged and shielded from view, except for limited exceptions? How are they going to do that if they can't even figure out how to get a search warrant? And now we've got three emergency motions in like the last 72 hours, each one requiring chief judge or senior status judge Colar Catelli in the District of Columbia to wrap the Department of Justice on the knuckles that hit them with both ends of the stick. And we just got the recent order that came out in the last 48 hours in which the judge is about to pull her hair out.

4:00Michael Popok:Like what part of go get a search warrant in the Eastern District of Virginia, which part of that can you not understand? That's effectively what she's saying in the new order. I'm going to read it to you here in a minute. So what's going on here? They can't get the indictment. The first indictment was tossed because Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed a U.S. attorney. There's also a statute of limitations problem. You know, the conduct that James Comey is being accused of happened more than five years ago. And some statutes that allow for an extension of the statute of limitations, frankly, don't apply.

4:39Michael Popok:So how are they even indicting him at all? And the only way they can indict him, think about this. This is how weak their case is. The only way they can indict the former FBI director is if they use his lawyer's communication with him that are privileged and can't be seen by them unless they're committing a crime or a fraud. And that has not been argued. And if it's going to be argued, it's got to be argued to a federal judge. So Richman, after the magistrate judge in the indictment case against Comey, noted that you went through a warrantless search of Daniel Richman's material. that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

5:17Michael Popok:See, Richmond had turned over documents pursuant to two search warrants back in 2017 and 2020 when Donald Trump was going after his political enemies then. And that sat on a shelf with the FBI, unsegregated apparently. Like there was no, like, here's the 2017 response. Here's the 2020 response. It was just all smushed together. That's a legal term. Just all smushed together. So they couldn't say, you know, as any first year associate, This is the documents that came in pursuant to this subpoena and this search warrant. So they collected up all this electronic material from Richmond and apparently put it on some giant discs and Blu-ray disc and never returned him the computer, the laptop, the iPad or any of it or any of the material.

6:01Michael Popok:Fast forward, Lindsey Halligan has the new FBI agent in 2025, 18 days before the expiration of the statute of limitations. So they're under the gun. Go back through the box, the electronic box, looking for communications between Richmond and Comey, which are privileged. Now he's tainted. He goes before the grand jury. The magistrate judge who reads the transcript realizes it and the whole indictment gets tossed. So now Richmond's lawyers see that in Judge Fitzgerald's order and says, they can't use my material to go after Comey. So he files a suit that lands in the lap of Judge Caldard Catelli.

6:45Michael Popok:She makes a very clear ruling. Make it easy on you, government. Create one complete copy segregated by 2017 and 2020. Put it on a one copy of everything you got from Daniel Richmond. Everything. Deposit it with the court, with the clerk in the Eastern District of Virginia, this other court over here. and go get a warrant if you can, a new search warrant for this investigation, tied to this investigation through a federal magistrate judge who'll be the gatekeeper. Did you make out probable cause? What does your affidavit look like in support? Who are your witnesses? Why do you have probable cause to believe?

7:25Michael Popok:Anything's in that folder. And don't tell me it's because you already looked at it because that's a violation also of the Fourth Amendment. That's all she wanted. And then return everything to Daniel Richmond, she said, except for one thing, There's one classified memo, apparently, that's on the hard drive, deleted from the hard drive. Give them everything else back. But the government starts filing all these emergency motions, including the last one where they said, judge, it's the holidays. Nobody wants to work for the Department of Justice, apparently, over the holidays. They don't have enough skilled workers to do the review.

7:55Michael Popok:And the judge looks at it and says, we've got a couple of problems here. This is her second to last order. So first of all, you just admitted you haven't segregated the documents. You don't know what came from 2017. You don't know what came from 2020. It's all mashed together. And this is during the first Trump administration. So they're to blame. It's not the Biden administration. And the judge says, that's a problem. So I'm not going to take you up on your offer that you be the custodian of the documents because you're doing a terrible job at it now. And she says, but make it clear. One deposit copy of all the Richmond files.

8:29Michael Popok:Return everything else except for one classified document back to Richmond and get it all done. I'll give you an extension of time. And then she reads their motion. And in their motion, they start talking about needing more time to review the hard drives and the files of his, again, apparently another warrantless search, and look for classified documents. In fact, they say on page three of their motion that because of significant operational constraints caused by the imminent Christmas and New Year's holidays, lack of sufficient technically qualified government personnel in Washington, D.C. area for the remainder of the week.

9:16Michael Popok:That's code word for nobody wants to work for this Department of Justice, which make the current deadline difficult to meet. And the government anticipates that it will not be able to review all electronic storage devices containing classified information, delete that information, and return those devices by December 29. And they ask till Jan 5. The judge says in her new order, you screwed up again. You're not deleting anything except for one document. Here's what the judge says. On page three, while the court has clearly ordered that the government may delete the single classified memorandum from Mr.

9:55Michael Popok:Comey from Mr. Comey from the material seized from Richmond's personal hard drive before returning it to him. The court has been equally clear in ordering that the government may not conduct any additional review of petitioner Richmond's materials for classified material without first obtaining a valid search warrant. What's she trying to communicate to these knuckleheads, these dead above the neck Department of Justice? It's very simple. I'm not your judge for this criminal investigation of Comey. I'm in D.C. This is being done Eastern District of Virginia. But but Richmond is in D.C. Stop searching without a warrant.

10:39Michael Popok:That's called a Fourth Amendment violation against illegal, unconstitutional search and seizure, unreasonable search and seizure. Don't do it again. Don't compound the problem by going back and looking at the same material I just told you you warrantlessly searched. Make a copy. Segregate. Try to. Deposit it with the court. Subject to you getting a search warrant to go back through that material. If you got to go through any of the material again for any other purpose, whether investigatory or whatever, go get a search warrant with a proper affidavit and support with a witness with knowledge showing probable cause.

11:21Michael Popok:Now, let me just tell you something. I went to law school a long time ago. This is law school 101. This is first year lawyer stuff. This is first year law student stuff. So they're either incredibly stupid and dense at the Department of Justice, which I don't completely believe, considering Todd Blanche is the number two lawyer there. And he kind of knows what he's doing and he's signing things. Or they're doing it on purpose in order to cause a delay. And the judge is on to him. Stop talking about deletion. Stop talking about classified documents. Start complying with my order. I just want to show you a clip of Daniel Richmond.

11:59Michael Popok:We talk a lot about Daniel Richmond here because he's been out in the press. He was the person, this is all admitted, that James Comey used to leak some memos to the New York Times to cover Comey's ass when he met with Donald Trump as president, when he was FBI director, and Trump told him to drop the Michael Flynn, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn's investigation. and he got fired over it and he wanted to get a special counsel to be appointed. So he leaked it through Comey, through Richmond to the New York Times. That's all admitted. And that's not the subject of this criminal investigation. Here's Daniel Richmond talking about aspects of Comey, just so you know, put the name with the face.

12:42Michael Popok:Let's play the clip. When you hear President Obama basically saying FBI Director Comey operated on an innuendo and complete information, leaks here, what do you make of that? I actually didn't hear it exactly the way you did. less as an allegation with regards to the director, more as a general statement that I got to say makes perfect sense. You know, you generally do complete investigations and speak only after them. The only complication here is that the director did announce the completion and it turned out that the investigation had to be continued because of the new trove of emails. I also have to say that the president was right about being careful about innuendo.

13:22You know, the fact that some new emails have been uncovered, which the Bureau has not, at least according to reporting, looked at, means that there are some new emails to look at. Nothing more. I mean, I keep reading this swirl of claims about what might be in them and what might not. The director didn't know when he made the statement. It doesn't appear that he's in a position to be clear about it now. But but to jump the conclusions that these say anything different from what's already been seen seems kind of strange. So so I think the president's right to sort of dial this back. And the only difference being the president's wish that that announcing a completion meant completion just didn't happen to be true in this case.

14:05For you, how much is what Comey did about protecting the independence of the FBI and protecting it for whoever comes into the office in a couple of weeks? I think that is his main focus here. What people seem to forget is there is nothing he could have done once he heard about the emails that would not have political ramifications. To stay silent is to let people assume that the investigation was closed because he had said it was completed, where it turns out there's reason to go forward. All right.

14:37Michael Popok:What's going to happen next? Probably another emergency motion where they dig a deeper hole for themselves by the Department of Justice. But I'll cover it here on Midas Touch. Slide over to Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit the free subscribe button there as we continue our march now to 2 million subscribers, having crossed the 1 million threshold with your help, all for free. No outside investors. Now's the time to make sure that our First Amendment rights are not crushed by this administration. This is the way to help. Come over to Legal AF Substack. We are on fire on Substack all because of you.

15:08Michael Popok:We're number two in rising in American politics. Number one is Midas. We're number two. I'm running a sale 30 % off paid memberships, annual memberships, 30 % off, drops it to about$6.50 a month. I do two lives a day. We've got amazing new content. Orders like this go up in the paid Substack and all of that. Now's the time to join Legal AF Substack and help us grow our community. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

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