LIVE: Popok Gives URGENT UPDATE on Breaking Legal news | 1/13/2026

What this episode is about

The update highlights a significant crisis within the Department of Justice, marked by the resignation or firing of ten senior leaders and prosecutors due to controversies surrounding the Trump administration, including efforts to suppress political dissent and a murder case involving an ICE agent. The situation has compromised the integrity of key divisions within the DOJ, with concerns about political influence overshadowing their historic role in civil rights enforcement.

Key takeaways

• When DOJ leadership resembles a game of musical chairs, integrity takes a backseat—and the music’s gone silent.
• Resignations signal more than unrest; they highlight a DOJ retrofitting itself to political whims, once a beacon of justice.
• ICE wielding firearms at protests? America’s civil rights movement now looks like a dystopian rerun from the '60s.
• J. Powell’s defiance amidst a federal investigation shows that even the Fed’s captains won't sink quietly into the night.
• California AG Bont's surge against Trump’s policies reminds us: legal battles are the new frontlines for democracy.

Who speaks in this episode?

• Michael Popoc (Host) · 60 min speaking
• Rob Bont (Guest) · 11 min speaking
• Keith Ellison (Guest) · 4 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 10:00: Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Renee Mlin Good, Joseph H. Thompson
2. 10:00 – 20:00: Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Becca Good, J.D. Vance
3. 20:00 – 30:00: J.D. Vance, Department of Justice, Minnesota, Renee Mlin Good
4. 30:00 – 40:00: Minnesota, Donald Trump, Rob Bont, Transgender Rights
5. 40:00 – 50:00: Donald Trump, Minnesota, Child Welfare
6. 50:00 – 1:00:00: Donald Trump, Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, Department of Justice
7. 1:00:00 – 1:10:00: Donald Trump, Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, First Amendment
8. 1:10:00 – 1:14:42: Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Michael Popac, Renee Mlin Good

Notable quotes from "LIVE: Popok Gives URGENT UPDATE on Breaking Legal news | 1/13/2026"

• Welcome to the intersection. I'm Michael Popac. The dumpster fire that is the Department of Justice has gotten a lot worse in the last 24 hours, if that is at all possible. I count 10 senior Department of Justice leaders and.

  about Department of Justice · at 0:01

• Lawyer. We'll talk about the reason that Joe Thompson, the trusted and respected US attorney in Minnesota, resigned, even though he was also the federal prosecutor for the…

  about Minnesota · at 1:56

• Roster on Sunday, it would be stale already because now I got to talk about not only the Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell having a criminal investigation opened against him.…

  about Jay Powell · at 4:58

• This is about the attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve and all it did that video what we like to call now Dark J Pal with laser beam eyes has fired back at Donald Trump.

  about Donald Trump · at 6:12

• The problem is ICE isn't used to working with First Amendment protesters and US citizens. They're used to throwing migrants to the ground and in the back of U-Hauls and doing border control.

  about ICE · at 14:03

• Here's what she had to say about her the loss of her wife. Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children. The youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I'm now left to raise our son and to continue teaching.

  about Renee Mlin Good · at 25:02

• AF and thank you to our sponsors. But now I am so honored to have the California Attorney General Rob Bont join us.

  about Rob Bont · at 30:52

• This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

  about Federal Reserve · at 59:12

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Donald Trump — Person · Core topic · 30 mentions · first at 1:47
  Framed as driving politicized law enforcement actions (DOJ/ICE), attacking Jay Powell and Mark Kelly, and connected to the Epstein cover-up narrative.
• Michael Popac — Person · Host · 2 mentions · first at 0:01
  Narrates the episode, frames DOJ/ICE controversies, interviews California AG Rob Bont, and promotes Legal AF/Midas ecosystem.
  Welcome to the intersection. I'm Michael Popac. The dumpster fire that is the Department of Justice has gotten a lot worse in the last 24 hours, if that is at all possible. I count 10 senior.
• Renee Mlin Good — Person · Core topic · 9 mentions · first at 0:36
  Her killing by an ICE agent is the episode’s central factual catalyst for DOJ resignations, civil-rights controversy, and Minnesota’s lawsuit against DHS.
• Rob Bont — Person · Main guest · 5 mentions · first at 4:01
  California AG discusses coordinated Democratic AG litigation against Trump, including the '54th case' involving transgender-related funding conditions and other funding injunctions.
• Jay Powell — Person · Core topic · 10 mentions · first at 5:05
  Discussed as facing an alleged politicized criminal investigation tied to Fed independence; portrayed as publicly rebutting intimidation and stabilizing markets.
• J.D. Vance — Person · Referenced political actor · 7 mentions · first at 10:03
  Featured via clip blaming Renee Good as 'radicalized'; criticized by host for alleged dishonesty and legal misunderstandings about immunity.
  And here's JD. Vance doing exactly that, talking about the radicalization of this woman who pulled out in an old car with her dog in the back just to protest against ICE as an American.
• Joseph H. Thompson — Person · Referenced official · 6 mentions · first at 1:59
  Resigning Minnesota U.S. Attorney; described as refusing DOJ orders to investigate Becca Good and objecting to politicized prosecution demands.
  Department, his former criminal defense lawyer. We'll talk about the reason that Joe Thompson, the trusted and respected US attorney in Minnesota, resigned, even though he was…
• Becca Good — Person · Referenced victim/target · 5 mentions · first at 9:51
  Renee Good’s widow; described as being targeted for investigation by DOJ leadership, prompting Joe Thompson’s resignation.
  Here's what she had to say about her the loss of her wife. Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children. The youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I'm now left to raise our son and to continue teaching.
• Harit Dylan — Person · Referenced official · 1 mention · first at 1:16
  Described as political appointee leading DOJ Civil Rights Division and refusing to investigate/prosecute ICE agent Jonathan Ross, triggering resignations.
  Know that? It's still up on the civil rights division website even though it's now led by a political hack in Harit Dylan who already has declared that she will not allow her…
• Derek Chauvin — Person · Referenced case figure · 2 mentions · first at 1:31
  Used as an example of the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s prior successful prosecutions, contrasted with current alleged politicization.
  [clears throat] of the people successfully prosecuted under the Biden administration for the suffocating death of George Floyd also in Minneapolis. And now Har Dylan who got the position as civil rights leader, civil rights.

Companies & orgs

• Department of Justice — Company · Core topic · 13 mentions · first at 0:03
  Presented as an 'imploding' DOJ marked by resignations/firings and alleged politicization under Trump, including pressure to target critics and manage scandals.
• ICE — Company · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 3:32
  Portrayed as conducting an aggressive 'surge' and using lethal force; central to Renee Good’s death and subsequent civil-rights/legal responses.
• Federal Reserve — Company · Core topic · 14 mentions · first at 5:02
  Its independence is framed as under attack via DOJ-style criminal probes; central to the episode’s economic/governance thread.
• Midas Touch — Company · Referenced platform · 2 mentions · first at 26:31
  Cited as the network ecosystem where Popac publishes content and where Legal AF operates.
  Course we've got all of our great work over on the Legal AF YouTube channel. So until my next report, shout out to the mightest mighty and the legal afers.
• American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) — Company · Referenced contributor · 2 mentions · first at 26:43
  Mentioned as arguing the transgender athlete case and as a regular contributor collaborating with Legal AF.
  Legislative apparatus and governor and MAGA have all come after this poor girl and today argued by the American Civil Liberties Union who's now collab you know collaborating…

Concepts & topics

• First Amendment — Concept · Core topic · 7 mentions · first at 3:46
  Invoked regarding protests against ICE and alleged retaliation/chilling of speech (including Mark Kelly’s claims).
  The problem is ICE isn't used to working with First Amendment protesters and US citizens. They're used to throwing migrants to the ground and in the back of U-Hauls and doing border control.
• Transgender Rights — Concept · Core topic · 1 mention · first at 36:16
  Discussed through Supreme Court athlete case and Bont’s lawsuit challenging federal funding conditions targeting transgender/non-binary people.
  We are going after the Trump administration for unlawfully trying to attack transgender Americans.
• Child Welfare — Concept · Referenced policy area · 2 mentions · first at 4:31
  Discussed via a TRO blocking alleged Trump administration cuts to child welfare/social services funding.
  He just got an amazing temporary restraining order in New York about child welfare payments being cut off in the middle of the night by the Trump administration. Maybe he…

Places & events

• Minnesota — Place · Key jurisdiction · 11 mentions · first at 2:04
  Setting for Renee/Becca Good events, DOJ resignations, and Keith Ellison’s lawsuit challenging DHS/ICE surge.

Media & podcasts

• Endeavor Space Shuttle — Media · Referenced achievement · 2 mentions · first at 7:02
  Cited to underscore Mark Kelly’s credentials and stature amid alleged threats and litigation.
  Over Iraq and Kuwait. Got shot at, nearly shot down multiple times. I th flew in space on the space shuttle four times. I've served this country for 25 years. I did not expect…
• Time Life — Media · Cultural reference · 1 mention · first at 8:35
  Used as an analogy for having a team standing by to collect audience questions.
  Remember the old Time Life operators when you were going to subscribe. This is where I show my age. Timeife operators standing by. Sports Illustrated operators. Put a question.
• Sports Illustrated — Media · Cultural reference · 1 mention · first at 8:41
  Paired with Time Life as a nostalgic reference to 'operators standing by'.
  When you were going to subscribe. This is where I show my age. Timeife operators standing by. Sports Illustrated operators. Put a question.

Sponsors

• Legal AF Substack — Product · Promoted product · 2 mentions · first at 27:20
  Promoted as a subscription hub for filings/oral arguments and daily roundup 'Morning AF'.
  Of all US politics or political Substacks. We're doing two I'm doing two lives two live reports a day on Substack just to keep up and to curate what you need to know. So think…

Full transcript with timestamps

0:01 Welcome to the intersection. I'm Michael Popac. The dumpster fire that is the Department of Justice has gotten a lot worse in the last 24 hours, if that is at all possible. I count 10 senior Department of Justice leaders and prosecutors resigning or being fired related to the Trump administration's attempts to either prosecute political rivals or critics or to cover up the stench of yet another scandal. this time involving the murder of a US citizen by an ICE agent. That has led to the wholesale resignation of the Minneapolis US attorney and his two lieutenants.

0:49 That has led to half a dozen uh separately half a dozen senior prosecutors in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice. once proud, once investigated things like the assassination of Martin Luther King and Megar Evers and the civil rights uh uh workers down in Mississippi. How do I know that? It's still up on the civil rights division website even though it's now led by a political hack in Harit Dylan who already has declared that she will not allow her office and its criminal section to investigate and potentially prosecute Jonathan Ross.

1:29 This is the same proud office that at one time had successfully prosecuted Derek Schovin for crushing the life out of George Floyd in Minneapolis as well. I'm going to talk about all the things related to the Department of Justice, this dumpster fire, the new intel that Donald Trump has grown weary of Pam Bondi, and we'll toss her aside likely for Todd Blanch, the number two in the department, his former criminal defense lawyer. We'll talk about the reason that Joe Thompson, the trusted and respected US attorney in Minnesota, resigned, even though he was also the federal prosecutor for the crime uh for the fraud investigation involving uh uh welfare and other uh uh programs in M Minnesota involving or maybe not involving the Somali community that led to Donald Trump doing the ice surge.

2:27 that led to the death of Renee Good. But Joe Thompson has had it this administration. And then we've got Robert K. McBride. We hardly knew you. Came from Tennessee to go babysit Lindseay Halligan in the Eastern District of Virginia and um was around long enough to effectively become the de facto US attorney. He just got through meeting with all of the judges in the Eastern District of Virginia, which is the job that a US attorney is supposed to do. But when your US attorney is Lindseay Halligan, who's already been declared to be illegally appointed, then you got to bring in a Bob McBride. And I said, why would he want to do this at the end of his career to end his career and now he's been fired because of his refusal to continue to prosecute or go after James Comey. Then attorney general from Minnesota, Keith Ellison, fresh off of an interview that I had with him a day before, filed a federal lawsuit in in

3:30 what I what I would call in the name and in the memory of of Renee Good to stop ICE from continuing to attack, brandish firearms in the face of, use weapons tackle gang tackle uh lay their hands on US citizens doing first amendment protest in Minnesota. It's modeled after a similar suit that was filed in Chicago and we'll talk about that case as well. Then special guest in my second segment will be attorney general for California Rob Bont who is I think going to announce that the 54th case for the Democratic attorneys general have been filed against the Trump administration. He's got a number of wins under his belt.

4:16 Yes, he's got a legal hot streak against Trump. Can he keep it up? I believe he can. He's leading the charge with the other 22 Democratic attorneys general. He just got an amazing temporary restraining order in New York about child welfare payments being cut off in the middle of the night by the Trump administration. Maybe he should worry less about Chevron and Sitco and the oil companies and he should worry more about the suffering of Americans, especially children whose parents vote. Let's try that. And we'll talk about that and other things with AG Bont. Um, when I think about what I'm going to do on the intersection, you know, I I start thinking about it like on the Sunday before. But if I waited, if I did my roster on Sunday, it would be stale already because now I got to talk about not only the Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell having a criminal investigation opened against him. But

5:09 Jay Powell, who is a very modest uh a modest fellow, I mean, and I mean that in the best sense. He's the thing that keeps the American economy tethered to planet Earth. He's the one that's been steering the economy through the turbulent and choppy waters and and uh and the propeller of the Trump economy successfully. And he didn't just take it lying down when there was an announcement in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times that a criminal investigation has been opened and subpoenas have been issued by some grand jury in the District of Columbia. This modest chap took to the airwaves and spoke to the American people and more importantly to the financial markets and leave it to J. Pal to not only defend himself the independence of the Federal Reserve but also to calm the waters of the financial market. THEY WERE LIKE JAY POWELL WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WAS LIKE relax everybody I got in almost in this this kind of

6:08 tone I got this I didn't do anything wrong. We know what this is all about. This is about the attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve and all it did that video what we like to call now Dark J dark J Pal with laser beam eyes has fired back at Donald Trump and everybody has run to his rescue including Senate Republicans on the banking committee who have said they're going to block Donald Trump's Federal Reserve pick including his chairperson if he doesn't back off of Jay Powell Mark Kelly has told Pete Hegsth, Senator Mark Kelly, he better back off. Uh and and the U and the um claims or the postings in social media by Donald Trump and Pete Eggs that Mark Kelly, 25year veteran of the military, naval aviator, hundred uh dozens and dozens of missions, the last commander of the Endeavor space shuttle. wife Gabby Gford took a bullet for this country as she was campaigning that Mark Kelly should

7:13 be hanged. Donald Trump's words he should be tried for war crimes. Pete Hexath's words. And now he's filed a lawsuit first against Hexath. I want to touch on a couple of other things that have happened as I was preparing to come on tonight, including the transgender high school athlete case before the United States Supreme Court today and a new development in the Epstein files matter in New York and I'm here at the intersection and so are you. First, I want to do a shout out to the audience without which I don't have a show without which whose fervent support is so appreciated. We have hit in the YouTube rankings which matter in our world for best or the highest ranked YouTube uh podcasts for the week in the last week ending. We hit number 51.

8:07 Sometimes we've been as high as number 20. The fact that we're even in the top 100 at all of all podcasts, not just law and politics. I think by that contrast, we're the we're the number two law and politics. The number one being legal af at number 23. I thank each and every one of you. And if I could thank each and every one of you personally, you know that I would. I'm We're live tonight as usual. Leave questions for me in the comments. I've got a team standing by. Remember the old Time Life operators when you were going to subscribe. This is where I show my age. Timeife operators standing by. Sports Illustrated operators. Put a question.

8:46 Somebody on my team will catch it. They'll send it to me. I'll try to answer it at at various places, but I'm glad that you're all here. We have a a large crowd of people who want to get into good trouble, and I'm here for it, and I'm I'm really um so ecstatic that you are all, too. Let's get to the first topic, the Department of Justice and the dumpster fire. Um so, let's do the headcount. Let's start with Joe Thompson in the district in the federal district court a federal district uh uh US attorney's office in Min Minnesota sitting in Minneapolis.

9:25 Joe Thompson, very wellrespected, lifelong prosecutor. He and his two lieutenants re resigned. And the reason that we've been told, even though he's been relatively silent about his resignation, get this, the Department of Justice in Washington, what we call Maine justice, apparently gave Joe Thompson an order that he should investigate criminally the grieving widow of Renee Good, Becca Good. Criminally investigate her as what? a left-wing agitator is that under the JD Vance theory and he and his two lieutenants who are also involved with the fraud investigation said we are out of here. There is just some things that a a prosecutor who has taken an oath not just to the constitution but an oath to uphold the principles of federal prosecution, the department of justice manual will not do. And every person has to make that decision for themselves. I sit watching who's ever left the Department of

10:34 Justice wondering how they can continue to operate within and and complicit with the Trump administration. Now, part of me wants them to stay in because part of me wants the good ones to try to rein in Donald Trump from the inside. But that's getting increasing increasingly more difficult when you're given orders like this. Now, we know that the Trump administration as part of the stench of this scandal yet another day, another Trump administration scandal and coverup. this one to try to change the narrative, to try to make us believe we to make us believe we shouldn't believe our lying eyes in the videos of what happened in the cold-blooded murder shot in the face three times by the ICE agent. We shouldn't believe that. We should believe that somehow Becca Good is a bad person and brought her wife down and she's a bad person and she's been and they've been radicalized. Radicalized to do what? to blow whistles to to dance in

11:36 their car honking the horn to call attention to ISIS's outofcontrol rogue conduct against motans. This is a death sentence. This is a this is where you get to be judge, jury, and executioner on the streets. In fact, we've got a clip of J. D. Vans as this administration uh mo had moved so rapidly within moments of Renee Good's death to start making a self-defense argument for Jonathan Ross, a a um proper use of force argument for Jonathan Ross, a blaming the dead victim argument. And here's JD. Vance doing exactly that, talking about the radicalization of this woman who pulled out in an old car with her dog in the back just to protest against ICE as an American citizen. Let's play the clip. There there's a part of me that feels very very sad for this woman, not just because she lost her life, but because I think she is a victim of left-wing ideology. What young mother shows up and decides they're going to throw their car

12:48 in front of ICE officers who are enforcing legitimate law? You've got to be a little brainwashed to get to that point to where you're willing not not just to protest. That's fine. Not peacefully protest, but throw your vehicle in front of legitimate law enforcement officers and drive your car into them. To get to that point, you have to be, I think, radicalized in a very, very sad way. I certainly wish that she hadn't got there. I know there's an ICE officer right now who very much wishes he was not put in the position where he had to fire a gun to defend his own life. Well, we've all seen the video and we all know that that's a baldface lie to the American people and a disqualifier for me and I'm sure many of you, all of you, for JD Vance to hold high office and to be the president of the United States one day.

13:36 [clears throat] We know that she didn't drive her car into ICE. We know that she didn't move her car into a position to block ICE officers. We've all seen the video. She was there first. She wasn't doing a blockade. If she was doing a blockade, she was doing it poorly because cars were passing behind her and cars were passing in front of her. She was sitting in the car to make a point to make a protest point as a US citizen. The problem is ICE isn't used to working with First Amendment protesters and and US citizens. They're used to throwing migrants to the ground and in the back of U-Hauls and and doing border control operations. So they're not trained for this. This was of course what Donald Trump doesn't care about when he sends 2,000. These are all American versus American. This is American versus American crime. You would know it by watching the video. You think you were watching, oh, this happened in fill in

14:33 the blank, right? No, this happened in America. So, her sitting in a car JD and bouncing up and down and honking a horn and telling her her soon tobe murderer, "Bro, I I'm not angry at you." Right? Little did she know that 90 seconds later she'd be shot in the face by people related to that. So, this right left-wing agitator thing is what they had. Joe Thompson um ordered him to go after Becca Good in order to uh hold up this narrative to support this narrative of the Trump administration. Here's what Becca Good had to say about Let me see if I can find it quickly. Had to say about her late wife. Um if I can grab it, I will.

15:26 If I can't, I won't. I'm sorry about that. you know, we are live. Uh, I can't find it, but she hasn't given a public statement other than in writing, basically talking about how there's now one of their three children, you know, this was the mother or all three children and and now they they don't have a mom. They're being raised, of course, by by uh by Becca. And who will teach them, those children, that there are good people in the world that are trying to make the world better, and their mother was one of them. Now, in addition to that, we've got the fallout at the Civil Rights Division, criminal section of the Department of Justice. If you read the website, and I implore you to go do it because they haven't taken it down yet, it says that they're a proud division created in 1957 to enforce laws on the books since the post civil war era about discrimination to make sure that people's civil rights

16:23 are not violated. And they have a criminal section since 1957 as well. And they bragged about because it's been up there before Har Dylan. They bragged about all of the civil rights leaders who were slain that they investigated. And Derek Schovin was one [clears throat] of the people successfully prosecuted under under the Biden administration for the suffocating death of George Floyd also in Minneapolis. And now Har Dylan who got the position as civil rights leader, civil rights division leader after as a consolation prize after she was passed over for attorney general and she was passed over for RNC, Republican National Committee chairperson. She got civil rights that she was given the same mission by Donald Trump that he gave Linda McMahon for the Department of Education. Chloroform it.

17:15 Put it out of business. Stop using it. if anything weaponize it to go after people who are like Becca Good who are exercising their civil liberties and need protection. So when career prosecutors that are left there and half already left right when Har Dylan was appointed whatever's left there went to her and said we want to be involved in the investigation of um Jonathan Ross the ICE agent and she said no we're standing down we're not going to be involved with that. She's already made her decision. The investigation hasn't even been begun yet. And the FBI has already concluded that this is not a civil rights violation of uh deprivation of rights against uh uh Renee Good. How do they know? Uh they can't even they can't even watch the video that we've all watched and get that right. So the major so the career prosecutors, six major leaders in the office were like that was the final straw. So, in the

18:12 name of Renee Good, they walked out today. And then yesterday, Robert K. McBride, who was this gray-haired type, and I can say that because I got gray hair, probably a little older than me, who was a US assistant US attorney in Tennessee, got moved over, volunteered apparently, or got a short straw to go babysit Lindseay Hagan and effectively be the day-to-day US attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia. He just got done meeting with all the judges in the Eastern District, which is a job the US attorney does. And he got fired. He was only there like two and a half months. What was what was his crime? He told apparently he told them, "I'm not going to do the prosecution of of uh James Comey and run the office at the same time. Pick one." And they said, "No, you're going to do both." And I think he fought back on the Comey part and he is gone.

19:05 Uh, and they don't seem to care about what this chaos and what this amateur hour, as Senator Tillis called it, is doing to the American confidence, if there ever has been this year in the Department of Justice. They don't care. And Donald Trump has cut effectively Pam Bondi. Have you noticed we haven't seen much of Pam Bondi lately? I mean, have we haven't seen much of Pam Bondi lately? She's certainly not holding press conferences on things that are allegedly law enforcement. Venezuela, the specialized law enforcement action to enforce an arrest warrant on the Maduro, the Maduro husband and wife. Who's up on the stage during the press conference?

19:48 Not Pam Bondi, not the FBI, not Todd Blanch, I see CIA, I see Department of Defense, I see Secretary of State, I see chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I see President. I don't even see JD Vance. I certainly don't see anybody from law enforcement. So, okay, let's move forward. What's the next major thing around Epstein and the Epstein scandal and the cover up and the cover up of the cover up as the Department of Justice has used to cover up an international child sex trafficking ring because their felon chief has a connection to it. Let's just leave it at that. So, [clears throat] that's going on. And who's the front person for that? It's not it's not uh Pam Bondi. Not not since she said she had all the files on her desk. It hasn't been. It's been Todd Blanch. Number two, Donald Trump really trusts, right? Todd Blanch got him out of all those all those sticky wickets during the criminal prosecutions. You

20:46 know, it was Todd Blanch that got him out of Mara Lago. Todd Blanch that effectively got him out of the New York criminal prosecution. Todd Blanch that got him out of the DC election interference case. Todd Blanch that worked on the immunity decision along with John Sauer at the United States Supreme Court. What did What's the connection with Pam Bondi? She she made her way through a three- ring binder during the impeachment where she could barely read off the page. She's not going to be around much longer. So, because All right, let's do the let's do my third hypothesis. My third fact to support my hypothesis.

21:20 Where is Pam Bondi about Renee? Good. Where is she? I see JD Vance who purportedly has a JD from law school yet he doesn't know the difference between absolute immunity and qualified immunity when it comes to the immunity that a federal officer has. He doesn't have absolute immunity. You must you must have you know cotton in your ears because your your uh boss has absolute immunity for certain things by way of the Supreme Court. Everybody else has qualified immunity, right? Even you JD. So JD Vance is out in front.

21:57 A little bit of Todd Blanch, a lot of JD Vance, and none of Pam Bondi as her Department of Justice dumpster fire continues. And um we had a filing today by a couple of filings today, some of which I can't even, you know, I got to keep the show to like an hour. Marco Rubio files a crazy thing with Judge Boseberg. basically tells him to go f himself that he's not going to help get 137 people back from Venezuela. And then you've got um for due process purposes because he's not really in control of Venezuela at the same time Bondi Hall and Blanch go after Judge Novak, a Trump appointee, and tell him that he needs to back up and back off because he's gone after Lindseay Halligan impersonating a U a uh a US attorney.

22:50 And while all that's going on, there are adults like attorneys general who are out there doing the people's business. For instance, Keith Ellison in Minnesota has filed in the last 24 hours a new lawsuit to stop the ICE surge, stop the abuse of US citizens and other First Amendment protesters on the streets of Minnesota. And here's Keith Ellison at a press conference announcing the lawsuit. We've come together and we're here to announce a lawsuit we're filing against the United States Department of Homeland Security uh to end the unlawful, unprecedented surge of the federal law enforcement agents into Minnesota because this has to stop.

23:36 It just has to stop. We allege that the obvious targeting of Minnesota, for our diversity, for our democracy and our differences of opinion with the federal government is a violation of the constitution and of federal law. We allege that the surge reckless impact on our schools, on our local law enforcement is a violation of the 10th amendment and the sovereign laws and powers of the Constitution grants to states. We allege that DHS's use of excessive and lethal force, their warrantless racist arrests, their targeting of our courts, [cough and clears throat] our churches, houses of worship and schools, our violation of the administrative procedures act on arbitrary and capriccious federal actions. And we ask that the courts will end the surge of thousands of DHS agents into min.

24:38 And that was Keith Ellison who I'll have back on to brief our legal AF audience as well. My producer was able to find the the uh statement made by Becca Good, who again, as we said at the top of this intersection, uh Joe Thompson quit as the Minnesota US attorney rather than investigate and/or prosecute this poor grieving widow. Here's what she had to say about her the loss of her wife. Renee leaves behind three extraordinary children. The youngest is just six years old and already lost his father. I'm now left to raise our son and to continue teaching him as Renee believed that there are people building a better world for him.

25:19 That the people who did this had fear and anger in their hearts and we need to show them a better way. Does that sound like a left-wing agitator who's been weaponized and for somebody that JD Vance should feel sorry for or should the sorrow run the other way? Um, and I'm I'm going to we come back from a a quick break here. We're going to have another leading attorney general, state attorney general. We're going to have Rob Bont come on and brief us about everything that's happening in the world of attorney generals having to step in against a corrupt and now imploding Department of Justice and winning in the courtrooms on behalf of the American people. And the case of of Agib Bont, the people of the state of California.

26:05 There's a lot of ways to support what we're doing here. Um, we've already got the audience. We're getting a half a million people or so to watch the show every week. We're now in the top 50 or so of all YouTube podcast because of you. People know me. I sit at the intersection of law and politics every day. 40 40 videos a week if you can believe it. and and I'm not able to catch up with everything we need to do um on Legal AF YouTube channel and on the Midas Touch network. And if you want to support what we do, give us the resources to continue to grow for 2026 and bring on contributors like the American Civil Liberties Union that's now joined Legal AF as a regular contributor about their cases. uh new podcasts that we've now launched under the legal AF brand like unprecedented about the United States Supreme Court that I do with Dena Dah once a week the court of history with Sydney Blumenthal

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29:34 Chanel doesn't care about politics, but she has extremely strong opinions about her food. If this show ever runs late, it's because she refuses to let me talk about global affairs until her Smalls cat food is handled first. It's 2026. Do you still feed your cat like it's 1926? This podcast is sponsored by Smalls. Smalls is proteinpacked cat food made with preservative free ingredients you'd actually recognize, delivered right to your door. And cats.com named Smalls their best overall cat food. Last time I fed my cat small, she destroyed the bowl and followed me around like I changed her life. I even did a legit taste test. No, not that kind. Two bowls side by side and she immediately chose Smalls. Her fur is softer, her breath is better, and she honestly handles the news better than I do. And Smalls is so confident your cat will love it. You can try it risk-free. They'll refund you if your cat won't eat it. Make 2026 your

30:35 cat's healthiest year ever. for a limited time because you are a legal AF listener. Get 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com/legal AF. One last time, 60% off your first order plus free shipping when you head to smalls.com/legal AF and thank you to our sponsors. But now I am so honored to have the California Attorney General Rob Bont join us. Attorney General Bont, how are you this evening? Hey, Michael. Doing great and better now that I'm with you. Good.

31:09 Yeah, I feel the same way. Although you broke you broke my heart and those of many who watch because I think there's been a public announcement about your your immediate future. Am I right that you've decided that you're not going to run for the California governorship?

31:24 That's correct. I am running for re-election as California Attorney General in this uh in these difficult challenging times with so much on the line, so much at stake. I think my place is here. uh on the front lines uh in this moment uh battle tested and ready for whatever comes next to protect our people and build a legal fortress around them to protect their rights and freedoms. And um this administration as we have seen and we're about to talk about has showed not only no signs of slowing down but signs of escalation of

31:54 of raising the stakes. So absolutely glad glad that you either decision would have been great for the American people and for the people of the state of California. But um so pleased and honored to have you here on the front lines leading along with the 22 other Democratic Attorneys General. I don't know if you got to see I'm sure you've been following your colleague Keith Ellison in Minnesota. We were all together in Phoenix recently for interviews. I had Keith on a couple of days ago. I'll have him back. um what you've you've pitched your own battles about the National Guard and and other federalized troops of Donald Trump on the streets of California and successfully won that all the way up to the Supreme Court. What just let's kick it off with that since it's so fresh.

32:39 Well, what what's your observations about the new lawsuit that Keith has filed, sort of patterned over one that was filed in Illinois about ICE on the streets? Um, and the importance of the attorneys general in filing such a lawsuits against the federal government.

32:57 Yeah, I'm really proud of A.G. Ellison H. Raul, my my colleagues, my friends, proud to call them both uh in Illinois and in Minnesota, standing up and pushing back against the unlawful actions of President Trump. We have shown time and time again for California. It's been uh 54 times in less than a year that when we fight, we win. When we stand against an injustice and we speak up and speak out and take action and go to court and hold this administration accountable uh to the law and to the facts, we win. And our people deserve that. And uh the people of Illinois and Minnesota should be very proud of their two AGs just like I am uh for fighting. And this is what we've done uh over the last it hasn't even been a full year yet. Coming up on a year uh uh time and time again in case after case watching, monitoring, observing, uh tracking every action that this administration takes and of course

33:49 permitting and allowing as as we must the administration to do things that are lawful that are within his actual authority. but never ever letting him do things outside of his authority, never allowing him to act unlawfully and hurt the people of our states. We've been a bull work, a check. Uh we are battle tested on the front lines in the trenches, meeting him every time he tries to cross the boundary and cross the line into unlawful action and pushing him back in uh to his actual uh given authority. And we're going to continue to do that. And uh you know, he has a very difficult relationship with both the facts and the law. um uh especially having heard his statements about sanctuary cities today. Um so we know we're going to be busy in the years ahead, but we're grateful for what we've accomplished. We wish we wouldn't he didn't have to do it, but if Sue the president because he's unlawful, we must

34:36 then sue him. We will. And I and I heard coming on the air that that you last time we were together, which was just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about crossing the 50th case threshold. I've been told that I think today you filed your 54th

34:51 54th today. And what is that and what is that case about? That's about the Trump administration's imposition of an improper condition on funding uh to states that requires uh those states to certify essentially the eraser of the existence of transgender um gender non-conforming non-binary Americans and uh to adopt a view of the law that is not the actual law. It's just this administration's improper, unlawful, frankly inhumane, cruel, and wrong uh interpretation of what the law should be when it's not. And they're trying to impose conditions on us to um shove a a a hateful agenda down our throat and we won't stand for it. We won't allow it. So, we sued uh in the District of Rhode Island today multiple states based on that condition of funding saying that it's unlawful. Um it violates the separation of powers because um the Trump administration cannot rewrite title nine um and uh also the administrative procedures act um as

35:58 well and it imposes a condition that's arbitrary and capricious and and provides no rationale for why it's a different condition than uh the prior uh interpretation of title 9. So multiple uh causes of action, but essentially um we are going after the Trump administration for unlawfully trying to attack transgender Americans.

36:17 And and what the timing is so perfect given today's oral argument at the United States Supreme Court about about uh Becky Pepper's attempt as a 15-year-old started as an 11year-old. She's the only openly transgender high school student in West Virginia. the entirety of the West Virginia legislative apparatus and governor and MAGA have all come after this poor girl and today today argued by the American Civil Liberties Union who's now collab you know collaborating with us on legal a you know they they hit the headwinds of the right the the ultrarightwing of the Supreme Court who you know as soon as you hear Kavanaaugh crying again about coaching his daughter's middle school basketball game like he did during the confirmation hearing, you know, with those crocodile tears, you know, you're in trouble. Uh, you know, and you know, and the facts, they're trying to make it just about her. And the facts are she took puberty blockers

37:14 and she never went through adult she never went through boy puberty ever. She is a transgender girl. All she wants to do is like throw the shot put. I mean, and the other person that the other case, the Heox case,

37:27 um, which is, as far as I'm concerned, mute because she's no longer in college and doesn't want to pursue the case any longer. She didn't even make her NCAA team. She um made her club team. I I mean the numbers here, Ag Bont, for people to see what a wedge issue and political pawn

37:44 the Trump administration and MAGA have made of this this this fragile group, this disadvantaged group that has no political power, has no protection. I mean, other than what you do. Uh you know, they don't have like large groups of voters or people in Congress. We have one openly transgender person in Congress and this and that. You know, out of 500,000 NAA uh student athletes, 10 are openly transgender.

38:10 And yet you see what you know, it started with gays in the military and then gay marriage and then abortion and then uh and then and then when they they you know, they either vanquished all of those or or or couldn't or the American people said, "No, we're in gay marriage. No, we're okay with that." They were like, "What who can we pick on? Who can we exploit for political gain?" Oh, the transgender population.

38:34 It's hard to see. And you know this uh but what what what is inspiring to see is this young woman's courage

38:41 in the face of so much cruelty from adults who are playing politics and targeting her and going after her. And she just wants to be uh a member of the team and do the thing that she loves and be an athlete. and the the lack of humanity and the cruelty in it. Um, and you know, to, as you mentioned, the numbers, I think it's 1% of all student athletes across the country are are transgender or less. Uh, but they try to use it as a as a wedge issue to attack uh and and turn it into a political weapon. Um, but I I think these people need to check their their humanity and um um

39:18 check it or find it. They have to find it. They checked it at the door. They need to do some deep deep difficult searching to find it. Bring it back.

39:27 Kavanagh kept talking about what oh the poor uh girl at birth who won't be able to be on the team because she's going to get kicked out. I'm like, what about the transgender middle school student that wants to participate in sport? There's not enough transgender people to have like a transgender league,

39:49 right? I mean, so, so, so they're just denied all of the benefits, so sociological and psychological benefits, emotional benefits of being in a team sport or on a sport because Kavanaaugh creates a hypothetical about somebody who's been bounced from a team because, you know, some, you know, they always have the imagery, you know, the Iranian boxer or the, you know, some ridiculous picture that goes up on the internet and they they never focus on the 11-year-old who just wants to like run cross country,

40:21 be part of the team. Part of the team, learn how to win, learn how to lose, learn how to uh, you know, reach a goal and work towards it with with with friends and teammates. I mean, I do team sports my whole life. My daughter is a professional athlete. She played professional soccer. My daughter-in-law is a professional soccer player. And that what you learn in sports and, you know, most people will never be professionals. And and most of the lessons that you learn are just through participation. um you know, working with your your fellow students, your your classmates, your teammates, and uh learning how to support them and help them when they're down and boost them when they're up and uh um overcome adversity. And, you know, they they're just really going out of their way with their cruelty to target children. It's disgusting and gross to see adults do that and try to rationalize it uh you

41:08 know, from from the bench or from, you know, the governor's office or the legislature, whatever it is. It's it's hard to see it. So, and it it just makes me stronger and makes me more committed, more resolute, um more removable in my commitment to uh protect the law and and protect those who are victims of abuse.

41:25 Sure. We can't get you to be governor. Not this cycle. We'll see what the future holds, but I am I would be honored to serve as four more years as AG and and do my best for the people here and across the country. Many of the cases I've learned from you and the other attorneys general um are where you've been successful in making sure that funding a lot of dollars at stake in a lot of your cases. funding that would have been that the fuel supply of funding that would have been cut off between the federal government through Donald Trump and the states and state programs that matter and and many of it even though you're arguing on behalf of the blue states and you have no red state colleagues next to you shoulder-to-shoulder ultimately b can benefit them as well. You just got a temporary restraining order in New York about uh child welfare. Why don't you talk to our audience a little bit about

42:15 that case? Yeah, great case that in terms of the success, terrible case in terms of what the Trump administration was trying to do, you know, starting the new year the way they ended it uh with lawlessness and cruelty going after our most vulnerable Californians trying to withhold uh 10 billion dollars of funding AC uh from five states. Uh guess who they are? They're all blue states. New York, Illinois, California, um Minnesota, and Colorado. uh all of with whom uh Trump has a beef and is disappointed that they didn't vote for him. Um and so he tried to withhold critical safety net funding uh funding for child care, funding for social services, funding uh for um job training and and employment, housing, food, uh emergency relief from children, from families, from uh seniors, from the disabled who need it. based on an unsubstantiated uh empty baseless allegation of fraud.

43:12 Um and uh do you know at the same time asking for documents from each of these states uh to see if there um I I presumably see if there is any fraud. So they have the conclusion first that there's fraud and they've taken the action uh to block all the funding 10 billion dollars worth and and to hurt uh vulnerable Americans in the process and then they're going to start uh looking into uh whether or not there's any fraud which there uh will there is no sub uh uh allegation proof evidence shred of evidence of any fraud. They didn't even bother to suggest any. they just put out the phrase just like they use waste, fraud, and abuse and use that as their justification to do anything they want without any facts to back it. So, uh we moved for a uh temporary restraining order. Uh and the next day we got one and and the court gave us complete uh temporary relief for two weeks while the preliminary injunction is being

44:08 considered where the funding must flow and the request uh a very unreasonable request for for documents and and interviews. um all which realistically really couldn't be completed within the the the time frame nor nor should we have to go through it that was blocked as well. So complete early victory in the case um uh as you know a temporary restraining order uh requires the determination of likelihood of success on the merits and irreparable harm. And so we feel we're in a good place as this case begins with this early win and hopefully with more to come.

44:42 And um that one's that one just an inside baseball thing. you got kind of a a a emergency duty judge to enter that temporary restraining order. That's how strong the papers were. But it then gets transferred over I think to Judge Brderick um or another full-time judge to handle the case. Is that right?

45:00 I think that's right. Um yeah. and and um there's even been cases where for the to give our audience hope where the Trump administration has folded where they just you know they've just withdrawn appeals um and walked away from the fight over the money. You want to why don't you give an example of that that happened recently with one of your suits?

45:23 Yeah, you know, we we will take a win in any form. Uh it it could be a a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, more and more permanent injunctions after trials or after summary judgement motions that consider all the facts. Um and then you know and sometimes we get the the the confirmation or the um uh affirmation at the appellet level and and then even the Supreme Court. And sometimes the Trump administration just backs down. They they they raise the white flag. They throw in the towel and they say, "You got us. uh you win, we lose, we give up.

45:57 Uh and that happened um today uh on an appeal on uh funding that the Trump administration tried to withhold uh Department of Transportation funding that keeps uh planes in the air and cars on the road. Um, we had one in the trial court below uh based on this being an improper attempt to coersse uh California's policy when it comes to what the uh Trump administration calls sanctuary jurisdictions. We call them uh pro public safety and pro community trust jurisdictions. Um and we we got a court order below. They they appealed and then they um indicated today that they're going to dismiss their appeal.

46:35 They're giving up. They're not going to continue to push here. They lost. Uh so we'll get that funding uh just as we got Department of Homeland Security funding that was also um uh being leveraged by the Trump administration based on our uh what they call our sanctuary status and just as we got victims of crime act VOCA funding twice that the Trump administration tried to withhold. Uh they gave up on that as well. That was another example uh that victims of crime act funding where they they raised the white flag and threw in the towel and gave up. So we'll we'll take the W anyway. Uh we get it. not because it's a W, but because it means we get the funding and the people, the victims of crime. Uh the the the the passengers on the road or or in the air, the folks that could be victims of cyber security or terrorism are benefiting and and that's what we want and that's what we want to deliver. That's what we got

47:23 here. Yeah. in most of your cases. I mean, you're only a year in because we're only a year into the administration, which is not a long period of time for a life cycle of a case, but you've got permanent wins in like I don't even know what the 25 out of the 54, something like that, you already have in the bank permanently, not to be challenged ever again as you continue along in let's say the other 20 or 30 cases who who need to be progressed further, some of which has been filed in the last month or two. So an extraordinary uh winning track record on behalf of the people of California and um throughout the country and for those that are joining sort of in progress um I think it's important for them to know how closely the Democratic attorneys general work together. Um it's not just you alone and that's why there's so many attorneys general joining together and states joining together in these cases. Um talk just a

48:20 briefly about without giving away the trade secrets briefly about how how the coordination among all of you happened both because of personal relationships that have been developed and your stavs about opposing the Trump administration where it's necessary.

48:39 Yeah. the the 23 Democratic attorneys general are working uh every day uh together um on behalf of the the people of our our respective states collectively the people of our nation to hold the Trump administration accountable. So we're we're always uh sharing information, sharing intel, sharing uh uh legal insight, strategy, thoughts um on on suits to bring. Uh one example is California was the first state where the National Guard was unlawfully deployed and we met the Trump administration in court and then the same thing happened in DC then in Illinois then in in Oregon and we shared our information with all those uh states. We talked about uh you know we shared our briefs and we shared our thoughts and we shared our strategy and we shared what the federal government would argue and u you know I think that helped those other states. uh and we have been communicating and working together and planning and preparing and

49:33 strategizing since before the election of President Trump and then after his election and before his inauguration and then every day since his inauguration at the staff level and at the attorney general level being in close contact we feel that we are u able to deliver more uh as a whole than we than than a sum of our parts and that uh We have created something special. We like each other, Michael.

50:01 We like our fellow AGs. You know, we enjoy each other's uh company and you know, sometimes when the stakes are really high, you got to have got to have some humor and some humanity uh as well. And we we have all that. We have rapport with one another with deep respect for one another. And we feel that we're all part of a team fighting on behalf of the people of our state, protecting democracy, the rule of law, rights, and freedoms um in some really important uh battles with a lot on the line. And that makes our audience feel a lot better knowing that there's that union, that collegiality, that you're all vibrating on the same frequency to protect [clears throat] their rights. You're running collectively the largest law firm, you know, dedicated to public interest in the country, and you're up against a depleted uh woefully understaffed uh Department of Justice, which is getting smaller and shrinking by the

50:55 hour. Not complaining about that. I'll take it. Right. You'll take it. You'll you'll take it. and uh and we're so pleased to have you here. Uh Attorney General Rob Bont for the state of California running for reelection at at the midterms and I'm glad he's not going anywhere. I'm sure our audience is thrilled to have you here and thank you for being here and please come back and update us on the the 55th case forward against Trump.

51:21 We'll do hope to come back soon. Appreciate you so much, Michael. You too audience.

51:26 Thank you. Thank you, Attorney General Bont. And we are back and thank you all for being here. [clears throat] Let me um let me segue into the Federal Reserve Jay Powell um lawsuit. No, uh prosecution. That's [clears throat] the wrong word. And how it's already backfired in less than 24 hours against Donald Trump. He had this in his hand. This shows you the mental collapse of Donald Trump that continues. you know, where he's busy, you know, somebody hands him a secret memo or note like Marco Rubio in a meeting with the oil executives. Oh, hold on. Marco just sent me something. Hold on. They want to talk about Chevron. I have no idea what that means. You know, this is what we're watching. And when you're watching that in action, Donald Trump had this in his hand.

52:19 Jay Powell was going to step down in in May of this year because that was when his term as chairperson was over. He may have even stepped down uh to leave the the board of governors. His term for the entire board of governors runs until 2028. And he had a process Trump to pick somebody else. I don't like the process, including going to private equity and hedge funds in New York, trying to find people who are woefully unqualified to be macroeconomists to [clears throat] run the Federal Reserve and have never been a central banker before or anywhere on the central bank.

53:00 Like, why don't you take one of the presidents of one of the regional Federal Reserves, you know? Why are you reaching into some small shop in New York to run, pardon me, [clears throat] everybody, to run the Federal Reserve? But but he had a process and he was going to appoint somebody and nominate them in the next week or two. No, he had to do a final trolling of Jay Powell to get him back obviously for him being embarrassed in public at the construction site when he went down there with Tim Scott. We've all seen the video. I don't need to play it again.

53:32 Donald Trump has Tim Scott hand him another piece of paper. Donald Trump loves being handed pieces of paper and showing them off. New York Times interview. It's like a Colombia's president's on the phone. You can stay. You know, he's like so [ __ ] nuts, belongs in a home. Uh not the White House. So, you know, Tim Scott hands it to him, says, "Well, you know, uh Jay, uh you're you're over you're you're over by $2 billion." Sorry. Yeah. These are your own uh this is from the Federal Reserve. I'm sorry, Mr. President. I'm not aware of that. That that that number doesn't seem right. Yeah. Well, it's right here. It's one of your own pieces of paper. And JP Pal takes it and puts on his readers and his cheaters and he's got his hard hat on. And neither of these two guys should be wearing hard hats, if you know what I mean. And he looks at he goes, "This this involves an entirely different project from 5 years

54:20 ago. You've added on an entirely different project because they're renovating a hundred-y old building, 200-y old buildings." I'm talking about that have not been renovated since the 1930s, a little bit less than 100 years. That means heating, air conditioning, electrical, lead contamination, asbestous contamination. You know, this is a sick building that people are working in and he is taking it on postcoid when construction prices have gone through the roof through logistics and after and during the Trump tariff era. So, of course, it's gone over budget $700 million. Donald Trump's ballroom doubled in price on the on the wreckage of the East Wing.

55:03 Is it criminal? And because but he didn't like the fact that he added in the other building next door that was done five years ago for the total the total budget. So he announces, they let it leak that the DC office of the prosecutor, you know, Janine Piro has a grand jury issuing subpoenas to the Federal Reserve about the construction, the construction um cost overruns and whether Jay Powell lied under oath. Now we're back to the same thing. They went after James Comey for what what we call a 1002 charge for lying under oath to Congress in response to questions from like Tim Scott again and other people about the the cost of the development of the of the renovation.

55:51 So Donald Trump's like, "Well, I let's just, you know," and then he's got his resident scenth hound pitbull, Bill Py, the nepo baby from the PY construction fortune in in the South, who runs Fann Fanny May and Freddy Mack, who goes after all of Donald Trump's political enemies with mortgage fraud allegations to claim that there's some sort of fraud here, part of that conspiracy. So they do it. But what they didn't expect and they thought that well Jay's a very modest person. True. He's a very soft spoken person. True. But you don't want to get his dander or his Irish up as people like to say. And this very modest person did a very unJ Powell thing the night when this all leaked two days ago. And they in the Trump administration miscalculated about the steely resolve of the Federal Reserve chairman picked by Donald Trump who has been keeping our economy and navigating our economy through troubled waters

56:53 created by Donald Trump for this year and you know since 2017 and they didn't think he would fire back and call out Donald Trump and speak to the financial markets and calm them at the same time and bring to his side with a rallying cry. Not only the central bankers around the world, more than 20 of them joining together in a way they've never done before to support the integrity of the Federal Reserve. Not only because they like J. Pal because they need the United States as the standard bearer for the world's economies to not be uh undermined by Donald Trump.

57:35 They don't want the US dollar undermined. They don't want the treasuries and the price of treasury u bills and notes to be undermined as the US debt is the largest in the world and so they need to keep him in in his seat. And shout out to the Maple Midas. Shout out to Canada as Canada off maligned, disrespected, degraded by Donald Trump's attacks. you know, disrespecting their investments in America, their investments in tourism, in capital, in real estate, in the in the trade that keeps our economy humming in rare earth minerals and natural resources and electricity and the rest. Leave it to Canada and the Canada's central bank to step forward and support JPAL. But that's not all that supported JPAL.

58:30 The Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee, including outgoing, but not outgoing fast enough. Senator Tillis is supporting J. Pal. And I'll tell you what that means in terms of any opening like the chairmanship of the Federal Reserve. But I want you to see Jay Powell in action. Let me just play the part of his video where he says what this is really about. Let's play the clip.

58:55 The renovation project. Those are pretexts. The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public rather than following the preferences of the president. This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation. I have served at the Federal Reserve under four administrations, Republicans and Democrats alike. In every case, I have carried out my duties without political fear or favor, focused solely on our mandate of price stability and maximum employment.

59:41 Public service sometimes requires standing firm in the face of threats. I will continue to do the job the Senate confirmed me to do with integrity and a commitment to serving the American people. Thank you.

59:56 And look at the guy. He's wearing like a taupe suit, a tan suit and a maroon tie. It's a guy that you pass him on the street. You wouldn't look twice. He runs as the central banker the world's largest and most important economy. does it well, doesn't need this [ __ ] but takes public service seriously, and he's going to stay in his job, and he's not going to leave early as you, as you can tell, not with this this shade having been put on him. And now the Senate Republicans that matter here are fighting back. And it's not just Mowski and Collins and but it's others. It's Crapo in Idaho. It's uh Tillis on the banking committee. Now the banking committee in the Senate oversees the Federal Reserve and it's the committee that confirm that that uh with the advice and consent that confirms or has to confirm a nominee. Okay? It's made up of 13 Republicans now and 11 Democrats.

1:00:59 If you get one to switch, Tillis has already said he will not vote to confirm anyone that Donald Trump puts up for the Federal Reserve, including the chairmanship position, until they end the investigation of Jay Powell, plain and simple. And if he moves from 13 to 12 each, we've got an impass. Somebody asked in the chat tonight, what happens then? What happens is J Pal stays in his chairperson because Donald Trump can't get another one confirmed. He'll just he'll just extend his time and he'll be the deacto chairperson. Now, so all Donald Trump had to do was shut his you know what mouth, which he's incapable of doing and just let the his his hand play out and he would have gotten exactly what he wanted. He and ultimately he may have even gotten the that fourth seat of the seven on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in order to take control ultimately of the open markets committee and the interest rate setting mechanism,

1:02:03 the Federal Reserve because the Federal Reserve only has one blunt force instrument at its disposal really. That's it. Interest rate setting. That's it. and and and through that one dial, that one switch, it tries to create maximum job uh jobs, you know, low low unemployment uh and and low inflation and tries to balance those two things with interest rates. So what Donald Trump miscalculated is how many of Senate Republicans and House Republicans would peel away from him over and choose Jay Powell's side. And they have because Donald Trump's time is running out here and it's running short. And if the Epstein scandal taught us anything, it's that some MAGA have realized that their political fortunes and time horizon is longer than Donald Trump's and they better start making some changes. I want to move on lastly and talk about the uh Mark Kelly lawsuit. So Mark Kelly is um been a a senator for the last four

1:03:19 or five years. Had served this country honorably 25 years in the military rising to the level of captain. 39 missions I think um in battle as a naval a aviator is every he has every cluster and ribbon and metal that you can think of uh for that position. He was uh shuttle commander I think four times and the last flying of the Endeavor. His wife Gabby Gford who many people think should be in the Senate herself running for that position or for reelection was shot in the head during a campaign 20 or more years ago and left brain damage. Still alive, still vibrant, still fighting for gun control.

1:04:07 But this is the family. His brother is also an astronaut, naval aviator and the whole thing. Pete Hegsth after the video went out in which about 20 different members of Congress who were also in the military, veterans andor in the intelligence community, they made a video reminding uh members, service people that they have a constitutional oath to defend the Constitution and not to follow illegal orders and not to give up the ship because he But why? because we have an erratic crazy president who's given out all sorts of crazy orders through Pete Hexth, you know, who used to be before he became the secretary of defense was on the junior varsity of Fox and Friends. He wasn't even on the he wasn't even on the week the weekday edition. He was on the weekend edition and did the ball drop during the New Year's and now he's your secretary of war.

1:05:08 and they didn't like the fact that uh Senator Kelly uh participated in that statement about you under the Nuremberg principles, you can't just follow orders that are illegal. You know, we saw that with the Nazis, right? And so Pete Haggath and Trump almost simultaneously like in a call in response on social media, uh Trump went so far as to say that Mark Kelly should be hanged. hanged. George Washington would hang him. Um, and that uh Pete Hex suggested in a no said it in a censure letter to Mark Kelly that he has potentially committed war crimes by making this video or participating in this video. Mark Kelly has fired back with his own federal lawsuit uh to stop the censure, to stop any criminal charges, and to explain to the American people that his legislative authority and powers, first amendment rights, and rights under the speech and debate privilege are being compromised on purpose by Donald Trump because Mark

1:06:21 Kelly helps provide oversight to Donald Trump and his rogue and lawless administration through the various committees that he's on, the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee. These are all committees that are looking at the National Guard being illegally deployed, the takeover of the Venezuelan oil fields by Donald Trump, the threats and saber rattling on places like Cuba and Greenland. This is all part of the oversight of our checks and balance. It is in 250 years, we've never had a president go after a member of Congress, a senator, and try to and try to chill his first amendment speech, his legislative privilege and powers of oversight. And he wants a federal judge to declare that. And I think he's right. Here's a clip from um Senator Kelly talking about his lawsuit.

1:07:18 You have now turned Pete Hegs into a defendant. where through this process he's going to have to defend what he has done so far. And in my reading of the law, as your lawyer stated in this complaint, uh he has violated the law that he claims his action is based on. Well, Lawrence, thank you for having me on. I want to commend you for the great uh summary of the lawsuit. And I also want to say, hey, I told these guys, I told Donald Trump and I told Pete Hegathth that I'm not backing down. I'm not going away. This is much bigger than me. I I flew dozens of combat missions over Iraq and Kuwait. Got shot at, nearly shot down multiple times. I th flew in space on the space shuttle four times. I've served this country for 25 years. I did not expect that after all of that service and then continuing my service in the United States Senate that I would one day have to sue the Secretary of Defense for violating my

1:08:29 constitutional rights, my rights of freedom of speech, but also due process and separation of powers rights. But, you know, this is this is much bigger than me. What I really worry about are the other veterans out there, you know, that don't have a platform like I do, don't have the right to speak on the Senate floor. Where are they going to be with this administration if they decide to speak out? So, you know, that's really the reason for my action today. I had to file this lawsuit because I I need to be standing up for all Americans, not just myself.

1:09:06 And we're glad that he's doing that. Any one of these cases that I've talked about tonight would have been enough for an entire episode. But I like I'll just give you an example. Like today in doing my programming for the Legal AF YouTube channel and for Midas, I did a collective nine videos about independent stories that have happened in the last 24 hours. In addition to that, I worked in in the last 24 hours an interview with Senator Warner about what he's doing from the Senate side and on the intelligence community and as part of the gang of eight that that's supposed to be consulted by the Trump administration about all things foreign and global and an interview today with Richie Torres, the representative from New York about some new legislation that he's proposing. Now, my point is there's a lot of information that is out there.

1:09:58 You see how the Trump administration left to their own devices. Their natural instinct is to lie to the American people even about video facts that you and I and the rest of our audience can see with our with our own eyes. And they tell us that that you know what we see is not true. And here is and here is the new narrative we want you to adopt in order to hold on and to understand what's going on and to be able to debate with your friends and your family and your loved ones and and and steal yourself for the election.

1:10:30 uh you have to be I think um on channels like minus touch on legal af YouTube channel watching our content here on the legal afstack and becoming members there because there's just even for me and I'm a professional not only am I a professional lawyer for 35 years but I'm a a professional political and legal commentator having you know uh doing this for a doing this for a long time before your very eyes with Midas and legal AF and it's hard for me to catch up. Uh uh which is why we have of course other commentators and other and other people and playlists that help us capture it all. But in any given day, today alone, there were I'm just talking today, there were no less than seven different court filings that I thought mattered. Some didn't make the cut because, you know, I gota otherwise the show would be two or three hours long. If you want the show to be two or three hours long, put it put it

1:11:28 in comments and I'll talk to my producers. but seven filings and then all the other things that aren't filings, you know, like the developments in cases or Department of Justice senior leadership standing up finally to the Trump administration about u under the banner of honoring the memory of Renee Good who got up in the morning on January 7th and never came home because she was a first amendment protester um about anapatriot and was shot and killed by federal forces that uh are allied with Donald Trump. And they're Americans, too. By the way, I'm not saying everybody in ICE and Border Patrol and law enforcement is bad. Quite the opposite. But you got to start thinking about the administration that you're working for, the boss you're working for, like Christine Gnome and Pam Bondi and and Donald Trump and the others. and you have to look yourself in the mirror every day. Now, I know it's

1:12:31 tough because you have your own families and you have your own career goals and you have your own pensions to think about, but sometimes, you know, I've taken enough career leaps in my own life where I wasn't sure there was, you know, a lily pad after I took the leap because I wanted to accomplish something um such as this when I made the decision um about a year ago to leave the full-time practice of law. I still do. I still do a practice. We've got the POPAC firm. We do a lot of work for people around the country and personal injury and the like. But kind of the day-to-day running my cases the way I had in the past to devote myself full-time to this. And you see why it just I mean it would be professional malpractice for me not to be prepared for the show, not to do the videos that we do because I feel this is the moment where only working together, only working together as citizens, as

1:13:30 people around the world and in the United States can we together bend the arc of history towards justice. And we've got to do that working together. and I'm glad you're here on the intersection. Thank you for being such fervent supporters of us. We'll see you next Tuesday. In the meantime, also remember Wednesdays and Saturdays are the are the Legal AF podcast and then of course we've got all of our great work over on the Legal AF YouTube channel. So until my next report, shout out to the mightest mighty and the legal afers.

1:14:02 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 called, 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 where Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "LIVE: Popok Gives URGENT UPDATE on Breaking Legal news | 1/13/2026"?

Michael Popoc (Host), Rob Bont (Guest), Keith Ellison (Guest).

What is "LIVE: Popok Gives URGENT UPDATE on Breaking Legal news | 1/13/2026" about?

The update highlights a significant crisis within the Department of Justice, marked by the resignation or firing of ten senior leaders and prosecutors due to controversies surrounding the Trump administration, including efforts to suppress political dissent and a murder case involving an ICE agent. The situation has compromised the integrity of key divisions within the DOJ, with concerns about…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

23 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Donald Trump, Department of Justice, Michael Popac, Renee Mlin Good, Rob Bont, ICE. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "LIVE: Popok Gives URGENT UPDATE on Breaking Legal news | 1/13/2026"?

The episode runs 1 h 15 min; the transcript is about 12,541 words in 101 timestamped sections.

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