Trump Gets Death Blow to Case by Pissed Off Judge

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1:45Keep things fresh with organic red cherries, strawberries, and peaches at their peak. And stock up on bug sprays and sun care must-haves. Make your summer sizzle at Whole Foods Market. Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado.

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2:26Michael Popok:In breaking news, we've got a federal court order over the weekend that will blow a hole into the James Comey continued prosecution by the Department of Justice. And there's links even to the pipe bomber. I'll talk about that here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. This all results from a order by Judge Kolar Catelli in favor of a lawyer for James Comey, Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia, who wants his stuff back. And he wants his Fourth Amendment rights to illegal, to not have a legal search and seizure. He wants it protected because he turned over documents back in 2017 and 2020 to the first administration to go after James Comey, the first Trump administration, having failed to do that Apparently, they just kept all of his documents up on a shelf and then had a new FBI agent under Lindsey Halligan's direction without a warrant take the box down, start rummaging through it without regard to Fourth Amendment rights, without regard to whether there was attorney-client privilege communication between James Comey and his lawyer, Daniel Richman.

3:37Michael Popok:They just ran roughshod over the box and lo and behold, got an indictment based on what was in the box. The problem with that is it's a Fourth Amendment illegal search and seizure violation. It was already noted by one judge, Magistrate Judge Fitzpatrick. It led to Daniel Richmond filing a motion for not only the return of his property from when they did an imaging and a scanning of his iPad and his email accounts, but to prevent the government from using anything that was obtained from Daniel Richmond in 2017 and 2020 for the 2025 indictment or attempted indictments at James Comey. And they have now been successful, at least based on this new emergency temporary restraining order, until this Friday at around the stroke of midnight.

4:25Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popok. You're here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. And yes, there is a pipe bomber connection here. And there's a lot of connection between the lawyers involved that I want to discuss with you, because this was a coordinated effort by James Comey and Daniel Richmond's lawyers, I am sure. And then there's that connection we'll talk about related to other cases that the Department of Justice is currently investigating. All right, let's get down to it. Who's Daniel Richman? He is a Columbia law professor, but more importantly, very good friend of James Comey, worked together in the U.S.

4:59Michael Popok:Attorney's Office in New York when they were together. And when James Comey was in a little bit of a pickle because he had the first iteration of a criminal president in Donald Trump in the first term, he turned regularly to Daniel Richman for both advice and counsel and to, frankly, as it has been admitted, to leak some documents to The New York Times that were memos of James Comey in order to try to get a special prosecutor appointed against Donald Trump in the first administration. So that's Daniel Richman. Daniel Richman's been very public about his role, his involvement. He's testified. He's given testimony to the FBI and all of that.

5:37Michael Popok:But the problem is, back in 2017 to 2020, they were doing an entirely different investigation. It was called Arctic Haze. It had to do with Hillary Clinton's emails. And he allowed his computers and iPad email account at Columbia University to be looked at, imaged, and I guess retained by the Department of Justice. Although I guess he expected to get it back. No charges were brought pursuant to his providing these documents against Richmond or anybody else. We know that Comey famously never got indicted for anything. And there they sat apparently on the shelf. Now we know that Lindsey Halligan illegally appointed and fired recently as the U.S.

6:19Michael Popok:attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia just to let the FBI agent in her case against James Comey for perjury in September of 2020, just let him go back and take a look at the box of documents that were marked Richmond without a warrant. And of course, the FBI agent, not aware of any segregation issues or what we call taint issues, just started going through the boxes and started testifying about what he saw. The problem is that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment for Daniel Richmond, and by extension, the attorney-client privilege relationship he had with James Comey. And they get the indictment, except the indictment got tossed along with Lindsey Halligan.

6:59Michael Popok:Now, the government has the right to try to re-indict. We saw what just happened with Letitia James, that they tried and failed already in Norfolk, Virginia, at least one more time with the grand jury and fearing that they were going to try to reindict James Comey again using the Richmond files, which were illegally retained and illegally searched. Richmond's lawyers, who are close to James Comey and James Comey's lawyers, filed a motion to get his stuff back and to claim a Fourth Amendment violation. And so the first level of connection, and that case gets assigned to Senior Judge Colar Catelli.

7:36Michael Popok:There, the motion that's filed is filed by Nick Lewin. Nick Lewin is a well-known white-collar defense lawyer. He also worked with James Comey in the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York and also worked for James Comey and Robert Mueller at different times during the Mueller investigation. Close relationship with Lewin, Lewin's lawyers and James Comey's lawyers. Now, let me get to the Kolar-Catelli order, and then I'll work backwards to tell you how we got here with the motion practice. The order, which just got issued in the last 24 hours or so, basically says, I can't get a hold of the government.

8:17Michael Popok:This is the judge. No one's picking up my phone. I know they know about this case, but nobody's appeared. So I'm going to issue a temporary restraining order, at least until Friday, to stop the use of the Richmond files for any new attempted indictment until I can have full briefing and a hearing about the Richmond files and the Fourth Amendment. Because that makes sense. It's called preserving the status quo. If she allows the government to do the very thing that Richmond's trying to stop, it's already done. You know, if he's trying to stop the use of his materials for next indictment, if she doesn't do the TRO and hold the ring, they're going to use his documents for the indictment.

8:59Michael Popok:So it kind of undermines the entire purpose of having filed the motion. Holiday headlines, family debates and group texts that won't quit. You deserve a ceasefire. IndiCloud is your online cannabis dispensary for quieting the noise. Gummies, curated flowers, pre-rolls, and now zero sugar, zero calorie THC sodas. All federally legal THC, DEA certified, lab tested, shipped to street. You may not be able to mute the world, but you can mute your stress. One gummy or soda at a time. Policy debates, family debates, internal debates. All handled by one bipartisan solution. Indicloud. Gummies, sodas, and pre-roll for the moments democracy wears you out.

9:44Michael Popok:And$70 ounces, that's what we call economic relief. This is how adults log off, mindfully. It may be with a little fizz. If you're 21 or older, visit Indicloud.co and use code LEGALAF for 25 % off plus free shipping. That's Indicloud.co, code LEGALAF for 25 % off free shipping and one less headline in your head. Enjoy responsibly. And thanks to Indicloud for sponsoring today's much needed quiet. She starts with, these are the factors that weigh in favor of her temporary order. First, although the court has been in communication with attorneys from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, and they haven't entered an appearance.

10:32Michael Popok:So her office called them. They have not entered an appearance and they haven't entered an appearance at the time I'm doing this recording. The government has not indicated who has custody of the material at issue, the Richmond files. And given the custody and control of the material is the central issue, I'm going to do a temporary restraining order. And she knows that the government got actual notice from Daniel Richmond's lawyers through an email exchange. and that's where the pipe bomber comes in. I'll talk about that in a minute. So here's what her ruling is. Page three. The court concludes that Petitioner Richmond is likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that the government has violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures by retaining a complete copy of all files on his personal computer and searching that image without a warrant, a warrantless search.

11:22Michael Popok:Petitioner has also shown that absent an injunction, He will be irreparably harmed by the ongoing violation of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures arising from the government's retention of his computer. Therefore, she's going to enter the injunction. Grant, here's how it's been granted. The United States and the Attorney General of the U.S., Pam Bondi, are ordered to identify, segregate, and secure the image of his personal computer and his email accounts, his iCloud accounts, and any copies and hold them. Don't look at them. Don't use them. Just segregate them. Let's call that the Richmond files.

12:01Michael Popok:Then they are not to access the Richmond files. then they are ordered that by later today that they certify that they are in compliance with the order. So sometime on Monday, they're going to certify that they're in compliance with the order by noon. It is further ordered that Petitioner Richmond's counsel shall serve an order of this on the Attorney General. She's going to keep her temporary restraining order in place until the stroke of midnight on Friday, the 12th. Although she may dissolve it earlier, she's allowing time for the government to come in and move to dissolve the temporary restraining order.

12:38Michael Popok:And then she wants by Tuesday the 9th, she wants the response by the government to all of the pending motions on the merits of the Fourth Amendment violation. And then later on the same day on Tuesday, so we'll have full briefing on Tuesday, she wants Richmond's response. Right now, Comey is sidelined. He hasn't moved to intervene. He's letting Richmond and his lawyers do the heavy lift. Now, here's the connection to the pipe bomber. I know you're waiting on that one. There's an email exchange, which I'll read to you in a minute, in which Richmond's lawyers write to the government and say, look, we don't need to make a motion for temporary restraining order.

13:19Michael Popok:We see you're trying to reindict. Just agree with us that you're not going to use the Richmond files to reindict. and we will not have to file our motion for restraining order. So they send that to Jocelyn Ballantyne on December 3rd. Jocelyn Ballantyne is also the assistant U.S. attorney who's prosecuting the pipe bomb case, which you'll see why that's relevant in a minute. So she writes back later on the 3rd. This is all in an exhibit we'll put up on the screen. She says, thank you so much. I met with leadership today, and they have engaged the Department of Justice leadership, and I've also shared your pleadings and requests with the prosecutors who handled the Comey prosecution out of the Eastern District.

14:07Michael Popok:That's very interesting. Prosecutors. We know from Judge Curry, having reviewed the grand jury transcript, that there was only one prosecutor. It was Lindsay Halligan that prosecuted the original case. I don't know if she's confused. I don't know if If we have now something that has to be followed up by James Comey's lawyers, what prosecutors were there? And in particular, because they need to know from a document search standpoint as a defense lawyers. And then if they're talking about new prosecutors, well, the new prosecutors are therefore working on the indictment. I mean, that it's either she's admitted that they're working on a new indictment or she's got her numbers wrong or she just told the truth, which is there was more than one prosecutor working with Lindsay Halligan.

14:49Michael Popok:So that's the answer. They then write back in an email exchange on Friday the 5th. Nick Lewin writes back, hi, Jocelyn, because they know each other from prior cases. Thank you for getting back to us. I am sympathetic to all you have going on. She's the pipe bomber prosecutor. And I'm sorry to add to that. But under the circumstances, I can't wait another week. We're going to make our motion for temporary restraining order because new violations of our clients' rights may be imminent if you're trying to indict James Comey again. We got a lot to follow here on Legal AF. Come over to Legal AF Substack.

15:30Michael Popok:Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button. Come over to Legal AF YouTube and help us grow to 1 million before 2026. We're really close. 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. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting.

16:04Michael Popok: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. Seriously, why aren't Democrats in Washington doing more to stop Trump? I know. Have you heard about Phil Weiser in Colorado, though? No. Is he different? Yeah. A.G. Weiser sued the Trump administration 65 times. He's beating Trump in court again and again. Things like protecting Obamacare against Trump's illegal tariffs. And he even won against Ticketmaster. So he actually gets results. Exactly. As governor, Phil will fight for Colorado. Paid for by Phil Weiser for Colorado Registered Agent and Nuskazi.

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