Transcript
Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER
From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube
· 11 min · 1,893 words · 13 timestamped sections
This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER", an episode of MeidasTouch published January 28, 2026 (11 min, about 1,893 words). It mentions 9 people, works and ideas, including Blaine & Robert Trump, Michael Wolff, New York, New York, Minus Touch Network, Judge Vocasil.
What this episode is about
Melania Trump is facing scrutiny over her $1 billion demand for a retraction from journalist Michael Wolff regarding his reporting on her connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, especially as she omits this demand in her recent federal court filings. While Wolff initially sought a declaratory judgment in state court to affirm his reporting was not defamatory, Melania is now attempting to maneuver the case to federal court, potentially aiming for a more favorable venue in Florida.
Key takeaways
- Melania's billion-dollar demand is now missing from court filings—like her enjoyment of New York's bustling scene.
- Dodging service may work in life, but federal court is no playground; here, judges have little patience.
- Melania claims 'no jurisdiction' but might be forced to showcase her shopping habits at Trump Tower during discovery.
- Judge Vocasil isn't sugarcoating, reminding all involved that law doesn't cozy up to subjective interpretations.
- Waiving a jurisdiction claim while seeking dismissal? That's legal acrobatics that might land Melania flat on her face.
Who speaks in this episode?
- Ben Meiselas (Host) · 8 min speaking
- Michael Popac (Host) · 3 min speaking
What is discussed, and when
Notable quotes from "Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER"
Nowhere in the new federal filing that she just made in the case in which Michael Wolf ran to court first to have a state court judge declare that he did not commit defamation…
about Michael Wolff · atOkay, so all that happened a lot of flurry of activity back in January. Now we got some new stuff. We've got Judge Vocasil who is a Trump appointed. Yes, there are so few…
about Judge Vocasil · atFight over this diversity jurisdiction issue and discovery related to it. But because Melania wants to get the upper hand now, she's filed already her motion to dismiss the…
about Blaine & Robert Trump · atAccident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popox…
about Popac Firm · atThat it could get assigned a judge cannon and then all hell will break loose. I'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Come over to Legal…
about Minus Touch Network · at
Who and what is mentioned in this episode?
People
- Blaine & Robert Trump — Person · Primary referenced subject (defamation/jurisdiction dispute defendant) · 5 mentions · first at
Central figure in the discussed litigation strategy: removal to federal court, jurisdiction arguments, and an alleged $1B demand letter tied to reporting about Epstein/Trump. - Michael Wolff — Person · Referenced journalist / plaintiff seeking declaratory judgment · 1 mention · first at
Described as the journalist targeted by Melania Trump’s demand letter; he filed first in NY state court seeking a declaration of non-defamation and is opposing removal/jurisdiction tactics. - Judge Vocasil — Person · Referenced presiding federal judge · 2 mentions · first at
Identified as the (Trump-appointed) judge handling procedural/jurisdiction issues in the federal removal posture; described as 'prickly' and focused on subject-matter jurisdiction. - Donald Trump — Person · Referenced related public figure (context for reporting and counsel ties) · 4 mentions · first at
Appears as part of the underlying reporting context (Epstein-related allegations) and as the figure whose usual corporate counsel is said to represent Melania in this matter.Don't like that, and federal court judges like it even less. Now, she did find a way to hire a lawyer that generally represents Donald Trump, a firm called DA Piper, and to…
- Michael Popach — Person · Referenced co-host / promoted professional service owner · 2 mentions · first at
Mentioned in an ad-style segment promoting his new law firm (the Popok/Popac firm) and as the podcast partner of Ben Meiselas within the Midas Touch/Legal AF ecosystem.Meelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popac's new law firm. It's called the Popac firm.
Companies & orgs
- Minus Touch Network — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
Midas Touch Network is the platform hosting the podcast, making it central to the episode's distribution and context. - Popac Firm — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
Popac Firm is a new law firm started by Michael Popac, mentioned in the podcast as handling catastrophic injury cases, indicating its relevance to the legal discussion.
Places & events
- New York, New York — Place · Setting · 5 mentions · first at
The legal case discussed in the podcast was originally filed in New York State Supreme Court, making it a key location in the narrative.Get into the molecular and the nitty-gritty here, shall we? On the new filings. Now, this case was originally started by Michael Wolf with a filing in October in New York State…
- Trump Tower — Place · Setting · 1 mention · first at
Trump Tower is mentioned as a location where Melania Trump spends time, adding context to her living arrangements and jurisdiction claims.Mara Lago. Well, we'll get to the bottom of that in discovery where she lives, where she sleeps, how much time she spends in New York at Trump Tower shopping, and with…
Full transcript with timestamps
What is it? Is Melania now embarrassed that she made a $1 billion demand on journalist and Epstein chronicler Michael Wolf back in October asking him, demanding that he retract and apologize related to his reporting about the relationship between Melania and Epstein and Donald Trump and all of that because nowhere in the new federal filing that she just made in the case in which Michael Wolf ran to court first to have a state court judge declare that he did not commit defamation or liable. She moved it or trying to move it to federal court. And in those federal court filings, including in the last 24 hours, she leaves out conveniently the part about the billiondoll demand on Michael Pop. Let's get into the molecular and the nitty-gritty here, shall we? On the new filings. Now, this this case was originally started by Michael Wolf with a filing in October in New York State Supreme Court. I practice in New York. I
know all about New York State Supreme Court. That's the right place to file when you're seeking a declaratory judgment to have a judge declare that what you did was good journalism and not liable or defamation. Of course, Melania Trump didn't like it. She's been dodging service ever since. I mean, literally for the last four months, she's been dodging service. And state court judges don't like that, and federal court judges like it even less. Now, she did find a way to hire a lawyer that generally represents Donald Trump, a firm called DA Piper, and to file a removal notice to take the case out of state court to federal court. Does she want the case in New York federal court for a reason? No. What she really wants, to be honest, is to have the judge in New York, the federal judge, transfer the case ultimately to Florida, where she has a one in two chance of having Judge Cannon assigned to the case. See,
this is a Canon one one two uh twostep uh choreography that we're watching. Okay, so all that happened a lot of flurry of activity back in January. Now we got some new stuff. We've got Judge Vocasil who is a Trump appointed. Yes, there are so few Trumpappointed judges in New York, but they pulled one in Judge Vocasil and she's already showing that she's a little bit prickly about things. I mean, I don't know why she had to uh uh in answer to the lawyers for Michael Wolf, why she had to say, "I don't need to be reminded about my my obligation to determine whether this court has subject matter jurisdiction, whether this is a proper proper diversity jurisdiction case before I rule on the merits." I was like, "All right, take it easy, judge." I mean, they're just doing their job. You're doing apparently your job in some way.
And so the the the fight here is over different types of jurisdiction. We call uh a matter that comes into federal court not about a federal statute or the constitution but comes in about a conflict between two people who happen to live in different states completely different states. We call that diversity jurisdiction. Federal courts take two types of cases in crim uh beside in the civil arena. We'll say civil arena. Either it's constitutional or federal statutory, makes sense, or it's a state court issue, a state law issue, but it's between two parties from different states and the amount in controversy is in excess of 75,000. That is diversity.
That's the first level of jurisdiction. The second level of jurisdiction is whether the court has, if it does, have subject matter jurisdiction over it. the case is properly in federal court having been removed from state court where the judge now sits as a state court judge. Does the the court have personal jurisdiction over the person in front of them? Now she's claiming Melania is is claiming in addition to dodging service, she's claiming no jurisdiction over me. Judge, I don't really live in New York. Uh the bad thing that uh is said that I did didn't happen in New York and I live in Mara Lago. Well, we'll get to the bottom of that in discovery where she lives, where she sleeps, how much time she spends in New York at Trump Tower shopping, uh, and with girlfriends and spa days, and how much time she spends down in Florida. That is now fair game in the discovery process. Have a seat,
Melania. You're about to be deposed. In addition to that, there now has to be a fight over this diversity jurisdiction issue and discovery related to it. But because Melania wants to get the upper hand now, she's filed already her motion to dismiss the the case. She's not accepted service. She claims there's no jurisdiction over her. She She claims that the court doesn't have personal jurisdiction over her, but they want the court to dismiss it, not just on service, but on the merits. See, I think she's waved her ability to continue to argue that she's in the wrong court. You can't use it as a sword and a shield. I don't want to be here. I'm in the wrong court. Oh, well, as long as I'm here, judge, give me affirmative relief. We call that waiver. And I think they have waved an argument that they and I think that's the next step for for the wolf side that they've waved an she's waved an argument that she's in the wrong
court. That's one. Hey everybody, Ben Meelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popac's new law firm. It's called the Popac firm. Michael Popac's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm really based on the popular demand by all the mightest mighty and legal Afers who were approaching Michael Popac with their cases and saying can you help us and at that time Popac was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the pop firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popox Firm is free. Give them a call, see if you have a case. It's the popfirm.com.
the popfirm.com or you can call 877 pop af. So 1877 pop af. Give Michael Popac a call and I'm really proud of you pop. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. Secondly, they're lying to the court. They're not telling the truth. They made a big deal out of how much Michael Wolf has raided with raised with crowd funding to for his uh his litigation fees. $800,000 judge. They say it twice. $800,000 judge. But they conveniently leave out the $1 billion part of their demand. So, for instance, when you go to their motion to dismiss and you read from the um actual uh filing by these lawyers at DA Piper, who represent generally Donald Trump in his corporate affairs, but now representing Melania, they say on page one, "This lawsuit arises from a single October 15th to 2025 pursuit demand email sent by Mrs. Trump's Florida council to plaintiff requesting the plaintiff retract and apologize for his
numerous false, malicious, and defamatory statements concerning Mrs. Trump. Except when you read that email, there's a demand for a billion dollars in it. I think that's the reason Michael Wolf ran to court, don't you? to talk about that lawsuit and um and to have a judge declare that the that the um threatened lawsuit is inappropriate, but they they don't want to talk about the billion dollar demand. So, every time they mention something in their motion to dismiss, they leave out conveniently the billion dollar demand. And again, even though they make a big argument about wrong court judge, this should be in southern dis southern district of Florida or it shouldn't it should be in federal court and it should be automatically dismissed. You can't have it both ways. You can't ask the judge to exert jurisdiction over you while you're claiming there's no jurisdiction over you. You can't ask for relief when you
claim you weren't served properly with the suit. If you weren't properly served with the suit, well, then how are you moving to dismiss it? What's the grounds? What standing do you have if you haven't accepted service? Oh, it's such a mess. And you can see Judge Vocal, who's a Trump appointee, is getting annoyed with the process. There's a simple solution. Vocal or the magistrate judge, pull everybody together, set up a briefing schedule, set up the discovery and the deposition schedule because Melania has now subjected herself to depositions.
And now you've got the lawyers for Melania, uh, sorry, for Michael Wolf saying, "We're going to file a motion for remand." Now, you don't have to file a motion for remand. You can, but you can just also fight the removal petition and move and move to have it quashed as improper under discovery. It's up to you procedurally what you want to do. Even though the judge seems to be annoyed, I'm just learning now about the removal petition that you're filing. Oh my god, everything's high dungeon with this judge about Melania Trump. I get it.
Maybe Melania Trump shouldn't try to crush the First Amendment rights and chill the expression of Michael Wolf and demand a billion dollars. How about that? I'll continue to follow what happens next. It'll be around what I just told you in terms of I would argue waiver if I'm Michael Wolf's lawyers. I would argue that she's waved any jurisdictional argument. She's waved any service argument that the case needs to be sent back after jurisdictional discovery and diversity discovery back to a state court judge where it belongs. And if it if it isn't going to be sent to a state court judge, it needs to stay in New York, you know, because I'm worried that if it gets sent down to Florida, there's a one in there's a one in two chance that it could get assigned a judge cannon and then all hell all hell will break loose. I'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Come over to Legal AF
YouTube channel. Hit that free subscribe button. Till my next report, this is Michael. 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 A 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 "Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER"?
Ben Meiselas (Host), Michael Popac (Host).
What is "Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER" about?
Melania Trump is facing scrutiny over her $1 billion demand for a retraction from journalist Michael Wolff regarding his reporting on her connections to Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, especially as she omits this demand in her recent federal court filings. While Wolff initially sought a declaratory judgment in state court to affirm his reporting was not defamatory, Melania is now attempting…
What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?
9 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Blaine & Robert Trump, Michael Wolff, New York, New York, Minus Touch Network, Judge Vocasil, Donald Trump. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.
How long is "Melania BLOWS IT as EPSTEIN Demand HAUNTS HER"?
The episode runs 11 min; the transcript is about 1,893 words in 13 timestamped sections.
More from MeidasTouch
About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 28, 2026.