Transcript

Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 15 min · 2,376 words · 21 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!", an episode of MeidasTouch published January 4, 2026 (15 min, about 2,376 words). It mentions 17 people, works and ideas, including DOJ (United States Department of Justice), Ben (host, likely Ben Meiselas), Bureau of Investigation, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

What this episode is about

A federal judge has sharply criticized the Department of Justice and the Trump administration for attempting to access attorney-client privileged documents related to James Comey's lawyer, Daniel Richmond, without proper legal justification. Judge Colleen Kolar Connelly's ruling underscores the DOJ's failure to adhere to previous court orders and highlights the unlawful nature of their efforts to handle privileged communications.

Key takeaways

  • DOJ's latest move: like asking Santa for gifts under the tree they already set on fire.
  • Judge to DOJ: read my orders or repeat kindergarten. Spoiler: the crayons won't help.
  • Federal Judge to DOJ: 'Delete' does not mean peek first—a lesson in digital manners.
  • DOJ's request akin to wishing for a warrant under the Constitution Tree they ignored.
  • DOJ’s tech troubles: made Santa's naughty list faster than a snowball in July.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Lindsay Halligan
  2. – 9:00: Kenny McBride, Lindsay Halligan

Notable quotes from "Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!"

  • Through an actual warrant. It was an unlawful search and seizure that took place. But Lindseay Halligan, Trump's stoogge, who we put there as the United States Attorney for the…
    about Lindsay Halligan · at
  • Deputy attorney general. Lindseay Halligan, your guess is as good as mine, but the something and Robert McBride, the first assistant there. They're trying to cover tracks, but…
    about Kenny McBride · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

Concepts & topics

Full transcript with timestamps

Never thought I'd see a federal court order that essentially refers to an administration and the DOJ as idiots, but this is about the closest you come to a federal judge saying, "Are you a bunch of idiots? Do you not know how to read my prior orders? Do you want me to restate what's in my prior orders?" Let me tell you what just went down as Judge Colleen Kolar Connelly issued an order saying, "Let me remind you one more time. you do not have a right to look at the records that you're claiming you need an extension of time to look at.

So, um, before Christmas and before New Year's, the Trump regime filed an emergency motion and they said, "Judge, we don't have the technical capabilities in the Washington DC and surrounding area at the DOJ to comply with your prior order that says we needed to turn over the attorney client privilege file of Daniel Richmond." Richmond was James Comey's lawyer. The DOJ tried to launder attorney client privilege communications between Richmond and James Comey through an FBI agent who should not have seen those records because it was not done through an actual warrant. It was an unlawful search and seizure that took place. But Lindseay Halligan, Trump's stoogge, who we put there as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia before she was disqualified, even though she still pretends to be a United States Attorney from the Eastern District of Virginia. To this day, they

tried to bring on this FBI agent to testify about attorney client privilege information. Now, the case against Comey got dismissed for other reasons because she was disqualified and there was nobody else in the room or who signed on to this uh completely corrupt indictment. But thereafter, Daniel Richmond filed the lawsuit against the government for unlawful searches and seizures, violation of his constitutional rights. This judge, Judge Colleen Kair Coddy, made a very clear order. DOJ, you can't read or look at these documents. You didn't have the right to them. Okay? You need a warrant to look at them. There's one document which you can delete. But you can't look at it. You can delete one classified record. Don't look at it. The rest delete from your files. Turn it over to Comey's lawyer, Daniel Richmond, and you can lodge another copy of it with the Eastern District of Virginia. And if you

want to go about getting a warrant, go get a warrant, and then you can ask the magistrate judge there to then give you the files. But you have to show probable cause about why you need this file. You can't just go through it. So the Trump regime right before the deadline, they go emergency motion. We don't have the technical capabilities to go through a judge. Pretty pretty please. Pretty please. Can we go January 4th or 5th, please? We need an ex. We can't look through these documents. And so the judge gave this order and the judge is like, look, here was the judge's order a day or two ago. The judge is like, "Okay, you want until the 5th? I'll give you until I'll give you until January 5th to to to produce these things, but what are you talking about? You realize the whole purpose of my order is that you can't look at these documents. You don't have the right. There's no warrant." So, the judge is like, "I

don't know what it is that you are reviewing because you're not allowed to review anything." The order was turn it over, press delete, and then you can lodge a copy in the Eastern District of Virginia if you want until you get a warrant. So the judge says, "Let me reiterate it again. You can't look through these documents, but I'll give you until the 5th." Again, it's just a humiliating order right here. So the court says, "The court's in receipt of the government's emergency motion for extension of time to certify the compliance." And the court says given the holidays, the court will grant the government's request to extend the deadline to certify compliance with the court's December 12th, 2025 order as modified and clarified by subsequent orders. However, the government's motion appears to request permission to search petitioner Richmond's materials for classified materials without first

obtaining a valid search warrant, which would be in direct contravention of the court's orders. Accordingly, because the court has already ordered that the government may not search petitioner Richmond's material to identify additional classified information without first obtaining a valid search warrant, the court shall deny the government's request to do so. To ensure the government understands its obligations under the court's prior orders regarding the deletion of classified information, the court shall take the remainder of this order to re-emphasize those obligations. Let me bring in Harry Litman from the Talking Feds YouTube channel, the Talking Feds podcast, and the Talking Feds subsack. This is like talking to a law student who is failing and not even trying. And it's the dean telling the failing law student, "Let me reiterate the standards of this law school because you're about to fail out

of it." And I'm trying to explain what your obligations are. It's even worse than that. I I I I only example I can give is whatever the hell this is. This is not normal that the judge has to lecture the DOJ about what its orders say. Harry, what's going on here?

Yeah. So, look, I mean, you It's nice to It's more like talking to a brick wall. Remember what what's happening here, Ben. These are the materials that we already know they shouldn't be using and yet they put in the grand jury an agent who had reviewed them uh improperly. And that's one of the reasons that the Comey uh indictment is so uh imperiled. By the way, uh who signs this actual motion? Pretty interesting. Todd Blanch, the deputy attorney general. Lindseay Halligan, your guess is as good as mine, but the something and Robert McBride, the first assistant there. They're trying to cover tracks, but also trying to sort of keep with Haligan. That's the theme, by the way, of this whole thing.

They just don't listen and try to do ends around every single order. But the whole problem, the reason they ordered it returned in the first place, they get a subpoena in 2007 and that it it has a certain purpose. You can't just under the fourth amendment, oh, we got something, you know, uh, 5 years ago for one purpose and now, oh, I think it's in the file somewhere. You need to have uh probable cause and justification when you're investigating a crime that the evidence you've seized will be fruits of the crime, etc., etc. So, it's completely improper. Any kind of and and Richmond says it was always improper, but it doesn't matter because they can't be using it now. that was made so clear and uh in fact that that when the um witness FBI agent went in and testified, that's going to be a whole another problem if it's not dismissed for selective prosecution. But they do it um anyway. And then the brazenness of the

actual motion. What they say in emergency emergency is they need to sift through everything to see what is uh possibly privileged and classified and the like. No, no, no. You don't have a right to this stuff. You have to just delete it. That's the order you've identified. One classified document. You're worried about returning to Richmond. Fine. look look on the bait stamp or the numbers and uh handle that separately. But I never gave you and the Constitution precludes your having some kind of general warrant to just sift through all this stuff. That's why and we talked about this last week, Ben.

That's why the the uh oh no, we don't have enough time. You know, you've got a chunk of stuff that Richmond turns over. You do this or maybe this this. how you um delete it. It's not like it's far-flung throughout the government files and the like. And why is it difficult? Because they're trying to push against the judge's order. They're trying to do more with it, use it, scrutinize it, precisely precisely what they're not allowed to do and what they also did to indict him uh in the first place. So, you know, uh this law student me might eventually after three times the message might not might stay in your head, but that's not who these guys are.

It's just like, did you not hear the words I just said a week ago? You are the Department of Justice. Normally, an order is something that you uh receive and and discharge. So again, we've talked in all these cases, there's some combination of sloppiness and purposeful obtuseness and you know, either of those is a reason for her to say, "Give me a break. What are you trying to do here?" But um the fact that you know it's it's sort of partakes of both, that's that's where we and that Todd Blanch is involved. That's where we are with this Department of Justice. You know, this is Richmond. That means it's Comey and no holds barred uh to try to get at him.

And even though they say this evidence is all off limits, they're they're uh not taking no for an answer. And that's of course uh what the Department of Justice does when judges say no. You take no for an answer. Not these guys. Harry, judges talk. Um, they

Oh, among themselves. Yeah. They they go to lunch with each other. They go to dinner with each other. They attend conventions. They have clubs. They hang out in different groups. There are clicks there. There are formal associations, informal associations. Judges talk. Who are the good lawyers? Who are the bad lawyers, the good firms, the bad firms. the DOJ reputation that's out there right now amongst the judges at the rank and file federal judge, trial court, and by and large court of appeals is that these are a bunch of clowns that the good people left. And there's still, here's how I hear it from certain people. There were still a limited amount of cases, small, where there are some talent at the DOJ who can handle a super high-profile case and they're just hanging on for dear life.

But that's a very rare thing that by and large this DOJ is viewed by judges across the board as just being the worst. Like like and and that when you show up as the DOJ, it's what are you hiding? What are you trying to pull? What are you lying about? And when we report on this, trust me, the judges, if Harry and I, if Harry and Ben are having these conversations, the judges are talking about this stuff right here, and they're saying, "Could you believe that they asked me that they didn't have the technical capabilities and they begged me for an extension? Oh, yeah. You know, I'm having the same issue here, too. You know, they came in front of my court and didn't produce discovery." Oh, yeah.

Could you believe this is happening every day? I'll give you the final word, Eric.

And nowhere more than the district court for the District of Columbia. Uh, Judge uh,Qatar Catelli is 82 years old, initially appointed by Reagan, then Clinton to the District Court. She's a dean wellrespected well-liked who's seen it all. But we've made this point again and again with Boseberg's refusing to let go of the original contempt because he is the chief judge and I think he sees himself as representing the whole bench and who are who is his bench? people who spent three years of their lives uh adjudicating absolutely righteous cases of marauders and insurrectionists, not a single one of which was acquitted. Uh and every everyone who either pleaded guilty or went to trial and was convicted only to have all that work just wiped out in a stroke of the pen in a couple hours after Trump takes office. that and many other cases which first get filed there.

They've really seen up close the it's not just the sloppiness and the and the good people having left. It's the absolute um uh corruption of the Department of Justice. And by the way, several of them uh Judge Booseberg, he was a prosecutor for many years. Judge Cooper, he was in the department of uh justice in Jamie Gerellic's office. I mean, these are people who know the DOJ, understand just how corrupt and defiled it is, uh, being, and there they are. They clearly talk among themselves. We we we knew this back when Trump was the a criminal defendant. And you could it was clear that the uh the the judges were collaborating. And I can just say without talking too much out of school that what you say is 100% true. They not only talk but are appalled by not just the level of practice but the politization and complete um capture and denigration of the department of justice that you know has always been the same

for color from Reagan to the present until now when we have just signal corruption and um evisceration of everything the department has stood for for a generation.

Everybody, make sure you subscribe to Harry Litman's YouTube channel. It's called Talking Feds. It's where I get my legal news from. He also runs the Talking Feds podcast on audio podcast platforms and the Talking Feds Substack. Subscribe across the board to Harry Litman's platforms. Talking Feds by Harry Litman. Thanks, Harry.

Thank you, Ben. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our Substack at midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Philipski, ad free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at midasplus.com.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!"?

Ben Meiselas (Host), Harry Litman (Guest), Unidentified MeidasTouch outro narrator (Guest).

What is "Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!" about?

A federal judge has sharply criticized the Department of Justice and the Trump administration for attempting to access attorney-client privileged documents related to James Comey's lawyer, Daniel Richmond, without proper legal justification. Judge Colleen Kolar Connelly's ruling underscores the DOJ's failure to adhere to previous court orders and highlights the unlawful nature of their efforts…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

17 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including DOJ (United States Department of Justice), Ben (host, likely Ben Meiselas), Bureau of Investigation, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Trump DOJ is RIPPED TO SHREDS by Judge for FAKE EMERGENCY!!"?

The episode runs 15 min; the transcript is about 2,376 words in 21 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 24, 2026.