Trump Stunned as Judges Declare "Fraud on the Court"

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0:59Michael Popok:you can't get 35x judges to agree on an order with sweet greens and so when they band together to file a brief to implore a federal judge down in miami who i know judge williams to reopen a case and find that there was fraud on the court that she had been deceived in the case involving donald trump his private lawyers the internal revenue service and the Department of Justice, well, you stand up and listen. And when one of those judges that signed off on it is J. Michael Luttig, who I've interviewed, I don't know, a dozen times here, and as a conservative icon, a member of the Federalist Society and constitutional scholar extraordinaire, should have been our Supreme Court Chief Justice instead of John Roberts.

1:47Michael Popok:Well, you think, well, let's hear more, Popak. And when I tell you that another of the 35 judges is one of the former colleagues of Judge Williams, Judge Ungaro, and I'm sure they're kind of close, then I hope I have your attention. Let's talk about the new filing. I'll give you the top line. I'll give you the inside baseball from my perspective as somebody that practices in this particular courthouse with these judges. In almost every single instance, those judges collectively have struck down as unconstitutional. Essentially, every single initiative of this president, as the Constitution required them to do.

2:38so that today, the only, well, today, the only people who can save America are the lower federal court judges of the United States of America, and they are determined to do so simply by honoring their oath in every one of these cases.

3:09Michael Popok:let's get down to it. How can, first question, I'm taking questions. First question, how can people who were not parties to the case, they're strangers to the case involving Donald Trump suing his own internal revenue service with the complicity of the Department of Justice that he controls in order to come up with a phony settlement, how can they bring this motion to have the court use her fact-finding powers to declare a fraud on the court at all? because it's obvious when parties are both sides are committing the fraud or the alleged fraud, they're not going to raise it with the judge. And as the judge has already ruled or was close to ruling, she doubts whether there was an adversarial process going on at all.

3:56This

3:57Michael Popok:looked like Trump v. Trump. You know, he controlled every piece on the board. And so she was about to dismissed the case for lack of adversarial process, lack of jurisdiction, and now under Rule 60 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, yeah, I brought the receipts, you as a stranger to the case can implore the judge to use her powers, especially when you're 35 former federal judges. And here's how they frame it in their motion. This is all about the Fody settlement. Let me do a quick timeout. I said at the beginning in one of my hot takes that Judge Williams, who I know well, I appeared in front of, she should have not closed that case and allowed the dismissal without having seen the settlement papers, especially after a day later, the Department of Justice demonstrated that they had used the federal court system.

4:55Michael Popok:They had used Judge Williams. She'd been used. She'd been had. Because they mentioned the lawsuit. Because the lawsuit, if it's in good faith having been brought, which it wasn't, can be the basis for a settlement by the Department of Justice using the Judgment Fund, the Statutory Judgment Fund, which is used to compensate victims. But if you don't have a good faith case, then you don't have an ability to settle, then there's no fair consideration. and the Department of Justice can't use the judgment fund, which is this weaponization fund that we've been talking about. So this is the very heart of the matter.

5:33And in their settlement, which they refuse to give to the judge,

5:37Michael Popok:they talk about the lawsuit. There was a lawsuit, a whole bunch of recitals. There was a settlement. And here's the case number just to show it was legit. And they even go so far, the lawyers for the plaintiff, which is Donald Trump's personal lawyers, They even go so far as to say, well, we were going to even amend the lawsuit. We were going to make it into a class action involving many other victims. In a case that the judge, Judge Williams, was about to dismiss. She already questioned its legitimacy. You were going to amend a suit? She was about to throw out a window? Okay. So when I saw that settlement agreement and the amendment to the settlement agreement on May 19th, where Todd Blanche said, oh, by the way, we're going to let the Trump family off the hook for 16 years of tax audit exposure.

6:25Michael Popok:I was like, wait till Judge Williams sees this. Nope, nothing happened. Enter 35 federal judges. Here's what they say. Page one. Move-ins are 35 former federal judges. A full list is attached. And it runs the gabbin. District court judges, appellate court judges, federal circuit judges, and Judge Ungaro, who was part of the Southern District of Florida, where we're talking about. The purported settlement that the parties never placed before this court raises profound questions about the parties' candor towards the court. See, that's one of the top ethical rules that we have to abide by as court officers that were sworn to abide by, candor to the tribunal.

7:08Michael Popok:And the manipulation of the judicial system that goes on, which threatens to undermine the confidence of the administration of justice. So they file under Rule 60, which allows strangers to the case to raise to the court's attention and issue a fraud on the court. By the way, the judge has her own inherent authority, sui sponte, on her own, without any party, to raise the same issues. They go further. The court, on page two, the court, you were deceived. despite plaintiffs not having mentioned any settlement in their notice of dismissal. The Department of Justice publicly announced a settlement of this action shortly after plaintiffs filed their dismissal.

7:48Michael Popok:The settlement, in quotes, commandeers the contrived sum of$1.776 billion from the United States Treasury to be handed out to recipients chosen by a commission effectively controlled by the president. They're being nice. It's handing out money to those that beat up cops. they then go on to say on page four, move-ins, 35 federal, ex-federal judges submit that this settlement is a product of collusion and is itself a fraud on the court, but the court need not decide the ultimate issue now. Under Rule 60, they want her to hold fact-finding. Get everybody into the room at the same time. I still love coffee.

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10:00Michael Popok:Trump's private lawyers in Coral Gables, Trump's IRS lawyers, Trump's Department of Justice lawyers. Bring them all in, Trump. Let's get to the bottom of whether the court had been had. They say on page 8, even if the court declines to entertain this motion under Rule 60, It has the authority to issue suespante relief. That means a suespante is what a court can do inherently without being requested to do so by parties on her own initiative of her own accord. And they want her to do that. They say that the fraud on the court has been established by clear and convincing evidence. They go through the evidence.

10:38Michael Popok:And what they really want to do is reopen the case. I know the top line for some of the media was parties moved to reopen case involving Trump versus IRS. Yeah, not to improve it, but to have a declaration that there's been a fraud to the court. Because if Trump, you know, some people have asked me, Popak, the Senate killed it, right? They're not going to fund it. Why are we still in court? Because you have to have a court pronouncement, a declaration that this is unconstitutional. This is illegal. This is in bad faith. This violates the judgment statute because we have to teach the Department of Justice now under the new corrupt management of Todd Blanche a lesson or they'll do it again.

11:19Michael Popok:You know, as much as we like to talk about the midterms and making Donald Trump the lamest of lame ducks, which it will and powerless if the Democrats get the House and the Senate. We still got, you know, two years after that. So it's only the midterms, only halftime, folks. He can do a lot of damage between now and then. I want to do a quick shout out. Andres Rivero, Rivero Mestre, is the local counsel. I know Andres well. I've had him on the show to talk about his lawsuit that stopped for a minute anyway, the transfer of land for free from a college in Miami by way of Ron DeSantis, the governor, directly to Donald Trump's foundation to build his library.

12:06Michael Popok:a$300 million plot of land that would have been good if that money had gone to the university, the Miami-Dade College, because their entire endowment is only less than$300 million. I'm going to try to get Andres Rivera back on the show to talk about this filing as well on Legal AF and on MIDAS. Now, the other thing that I spotted in going through the appendix, which listed all the federal judges, is Judge Ursula Ungaro is the only Southern District of Florida judge listed. Now, if I were them, and I'm going to have Judge Ludig back on the show, if I were them, I would love to ask if they tried other Florida judges and they were refuse or they didn't think to do it.

12:52Michael Popok:My understanding is that Judge Ungaro and Judge Williams know each other and are close. In particular, Judge Williams, before she became a federal judge, had been a federal public, no, not a federal public defender, the federal public defender. Like the U.S. attorney is the top person in a district on the prosecutor's side. The top person on the defense side is the federal public defender. And she was the federal public defender for Miami, I think also for Orlando in Orange County, for the middle district of Florida. Very well respected. The judges knew her well, respected her. And she was one of those people that just needs to be on the bench.

13:36Michael Popok:She's done great work. She stopped Alligator Alley from being developed for a period of time. She's got no problems. She's got a lot of courage. She's gone after Governor DeSantis' attorney general, Mr. Utmeier, a couple of times for violating her orders and violating the law. So she's no shrinking violet. I'm hoping that this motion, which will be opposed by the Department of Justice, I'm sure by the time this hot take goes up, we'll be reporting on the opposition paper. But it's going to be up to her. I think she should hold an oral argument. I think she should have a hearing. And I think she needs to make a ruling.

14:08Michael Popok:And it should be to reopen. I was sort of hoping, as I said, that when she saw the settlement agreement that she realized she had been had. We'll continue to follow it the way we always do at the intersection of law and politics here on the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal AF. So until my next report, come over to Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit the free subscribe button while we continue to grow our pro-democracy channel. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our sub stack at MidasPlus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, ad-free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at MidasPlus.com.