Trump’s Fake Prosecutor Gets Nightmare News as Fight Erupts in Court

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2:07No. 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 Agency, NAN and Moscheeze.

2:30Michael Popok:We got a new fight that's broken out between the Department of Justice, Pam Bondi, Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia over an interpretation of Judge Curry's order, which fired Lindsay Halligan as the U.S. Attorney, Prosecutor, for the Eastern District of Virginia. There's no other way to interpret the order that was rendered two weeks ago on the 24th of November by Judge Curry. I have a copy of it right here, but that Lindsey Halligan is out of a job and the vacancy needs to be filled by the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia.

3:07Michael Popok:But we're here two weeks later in the Eastern District. Judges haven't gotten together to appoint a new prosecutor. And that left a gaping hole, a gaping loophole that the Department of Justice is trying to drive a tractor trailer through and argue that Lindsay Halligan still has her job. But federal judges look at filings with her name on it and scratch their head and said she was fired in an order. How could she possibly still be participating in decision making and filing in court coming out of that office? and this against the backdrop of Alina Habba finally taking yes for an answer and resigning from her position as the District of New Jersey, the chief prosecutor for the state of New Jersey federally.

3:53Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and I'm Legal AF. Let's get down to what's going on. A couple of back-to-back decisions about a week apart. Lindsay Halligan fired by Judge Curry, who is presiding in there by designation, having been found in particular, she having found in particular that Lindsey Halligan was illegally appointed by Donald Trump under a vacancy reform act and under any interpretation of constitutional law to the position as U.S. attorney, which must have come as some slight relief for Lindsey Halligan, considering she's eight years out of law school with no federal court experience, let alone ever being a prosecutor.

4:32Michael Popok:Okay. And off went the James Comey and the Letitia James indictment with it. A week later, Alina Habba gets fired by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for similar but not exactly identical reasons. Now, it looks like the Department of Justice, particularly Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, and Todd Blanche, are still fighting to keep Lindsay Halligan in her spot while they're going around her to reindict Letitia James for mortgage fraud and baby James Comey for perjury or something else, using other people in the office, people that they're already using, including, for instance, her deputy, her first assistant, who's now joined that office.

5:16Michael Popok:And so there's a battle between the federal judges who say, Judge Curry ruled you're out of a job. And why is your name still on pleadings and court filings as being the U.S. attorney when you're not? The judges are challenging U.S. attorneys in their courtroom on unrelated cases, saying, why is Lindsay Alligin's name here? Including Judge Nachmanoff, who's the judge presiding over the Comey indictment. I'll go over that with you. And then you've got Bondi and Blanche running interference, attacking the Eastern District of Virginia judges who are ultimately going to pick her replacement, claiming that they're being biased and unfair against Lindsey Halligan.

5:56Michael Popok:While Alita Abba got kicked upstairs to take a job to be the special advisor to Pam Bondi. Talk about blind leading the blind and I apologies. Apologies to the blind to be a special advisor about U.S. attorneys. What is going on? The problem is, it is a slight problem. It has to do with Judge Curry's order. Her order is a little bit slightly vague at the moment when it needed to be precise. Let me explain it to you. When she concluded in her order, ordered and adjudged, number one, the appointment of Ms. Halligan as interim U.S. attorney violated Section 546 and the appointment clause of the U.S.

6:37Michael Popok:Constitution. Okay, that's a finding of fact. That's a conclusion of law. She then says all actions flowing from the defective appointment, including the indictment, are an unlawful exercise of executive power and are set aside. Okay, conclusion of law and remedy. The Attorney General's attempts to ratify her actions were an unaffected and set aside. conclusions of law and a remedy. I understand that. Then she says in paragraph seven, the power to appoint an interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia during the current vacancy, pretty clear, lies with the district court until a U.S.

7:22Michael Popok:attorney is nominated by the president confirmed by the Senate. Not much of a loophole. Seven could have been a little bit more precise. She could have said there is now officially a vacancy. Ms. Halligan, you're out of a job. I don't think there's any other way to read the preceding six paragraphs than exactly what I just said. But what the Department of Justice is arguing and the Office of Legal Counsel for Donald Trump is that was a little bit unclear, a little bit ambiguous. She says there's a vacancy. She says Halligan was illegally appointed and her appointment violated the statute and the Constitution and says the vacancy needs to be filled by the judges.

7:59Michael Popok:But even the judges didn't move forward to fill the vacancy. See, what if I had written it, or I would move for clarification if I were Comey's lawyers, if I cared, and Letitia James's lawyers, and I would say, here's a proposed amended order, which says there's now a vacancy created because of the unconstitutional appointment and illegal appointment of Lindsay Halligan. She shall not, She is barred from continuing to operate as the U.S. attorney. I preclude her. I block her. I enjoin her. There is now a vacancy. That vacancy can only be filled by the judges. Because she didn't put that get out of your chair, I'm blocking you from reporting to work part, the Trump administration is like, she can still sign pleadings, which is pissing off the judges.

8:42Michael Popok:For instance, there's reporting that Judge Nakamonoff during a hearing about an immigration case having nothing to do with Comey or Letitia James got into a back and forth with the lawyer, Nick Patterson, who's an assistant U.S. attorney, I think a legitimate one in the Eastern District, about why is Lindsey Halligan's name still on these court filings given Judge Curry's order? Why? He says, those were the instructions we were given. We were supposed to put Robert McBride, who's the number two in the office now. He's a semi-retired lawyer, brought in from Kentucky to babysit, I guess, the office.

9:17Michael Popok:And we're supposed to put Todd Blanche's name. Why? Why is Lindsey Halligan's name there as interim U.S. attorney? I don't really have any explanation for that, Your Honor. So Nakmanoff struck it from the pleading and instructed the office, don't file anything in his courtroom that still has Lindsey Halligan's name on it. Other magistrate judges are doing the same thing. And Nakmanoff got into it with the lawyer. Like, listen, this is not an order that only relates to Letitia James and Ms. James's and Mr. Comey's indictment. This has to do with the entire district. She's out of a job. Are you feeling sluggish?

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11:13Michael Popok:attorney, Mr. Patterson, looked at the judge and said, I don't have any reasoning. No reasoning was provided by the Department of Justice in Washington. So now you had to have Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche leap into action. And here's what they posted on X. I guess this is supposed to be a love letter to the judges of the Eastern District. A statement from Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche. Certain district court and magistrate judges in the Eastern District of Virginia are engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility against U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan. Stop right there. As of the date of this posting, which was like today, yesterday, Lindsey Halligan is not the U.S.

11:57Michael Popok:Attorney. That would be like me making a posting that says, from the desk of the President of the United States, Michael Popok. Just because I got some software to print the stationery doesn't mean that I am that, just like Pete Hegseth isn't the Secretary of War. Lindsay and our attorneys are simply doing their jobs. Well, she's out of a job. There's no job for her to do. The fact that you're admitting you're violating the order of Judge Curry. If I was Letitia James and James Comey, or if I was Judge Curry having seen this, I would call them in for contempt, plain and simple, and issue a revised, slightly revised order to be a little bit more precise.

12:39Michael Popok:at that moment of blocking Lindsay Allegan from showing up to work. They do not deserve to have their reputations questioned in court for ethically advocating on behalf of their client. It's legitimate for Judge Nachmanoff to say to the assistant U.S. attorney, what's the guidance that you were given? No guidance was presented. Okay. We will continue fighting for public safety in courtrooms across the country. Public safety? That's what Letitia James' mortgage fraud case is about? That's what James Comey's perjury case is about, public safety. And we will not be deterred by rogue judges who, all the judges are rogue, who fail to live up to their obligations of impartiality because of their own political views.

13:20Michael Popok:What are you effing talking about? Most of these judges on the Eastern District of Virginia, it's split, it's bipartisan. The American people deserve nothing less. Written by the most corrupt head of the Department of Justice in our history. so what's going to happen next i think they're going to stop writing lindsey halligan's name on things i don't see them appealing anytime soon to save lindsey halligan's job you know and i think one of the parties either james comey or letitia james are going to have to run to court or judge curry's going to have to issue on her own because she reads issue on her own an amended order, barring her from the office, and also pointing, somebody should point out this particular posting that I just read out loud, as grounds for contempt of court.

14:10Michael Popok:When you don't follow orders you don't like, writing a social media post to attack the judge and call them rogue is not acceptable as an officer of the court, which both of them are. They have sworn an allegiance to be true and faithful and candid officers of the court. And just because they're doing it in social media doesn't make it okay or all right or not in contempt or contumacious conduct. So here's what I think will happen and should happen. There is going to be an amendment by Judge Curry on her own or on a request to add another line or two to her order to make it clear that she blocks Lindsay Halligan.

14:53Michael Popok:Lindsay Halligan is not to put her name on pleadings. Lindsay Halligan is precluded from serving in any capacity or impersonating, let's call it for what it is, impersonating the U.S. attorney from now until there is a reversal of her order. They want to appeal, then go appeal. In the meantime, they got a federal order to abide by subject to contempt. I think that happens. I think that the judges of the Eastern District of Virginia, one of them has got to be a legal AF or Midas Touch fan, hold your meeting and appoint somebody new and have them show up for the keys. that would help. That would go a long way also and have them start running that office.

15:33Michael Popok:I think that's got to happen this week as well. We'll follow it right here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. Hit the subscribe button here. Hit the subscribe button over on Legal AF YouTube. Help us get to 1 million subscribers. But for the next couple of weeks, we're going to do it with your help. And the bigger we are, the more we are empowered and emboldened for 2026. And I appreciate everything that you guys do for us. Till 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 sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the sub stack.

16:09Michael Popok: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. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Wear legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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