Trump SCREWS Himself with WORST Legal Defense Ever
by Michael Popock
MeidasTouch
Jun 17, 2023
Michael Popok of Legal AF breakdowns all 4 of Trump’s main defenses to the Mar a Lago criminal indictment and explains why they are all doomed to fail and will never be presented to any future jury.
Transcript
this is Michael popock legal AF every
day Donald Trump and his lawyers and his
lackeys try to float new defenses to the
criminal prosecution of Donald Trump
down in Miami on Mar-A-Lago there's four
major ones I've heard them all I've
looked at them all and I'm here to tell
you that they're all dead bang losers
let's go over them one at a time plus
new information I picked up concerning
Donald Trump's likely Witnesses against
him Evan Corcoran his former lawyer
let's start with Defense number one
you'll hear a lot about it it works in
rallies it works in Cuban cafes in Miami
it doesn't work in a court of law and
that is the presidential records act
allows Donald Trump to magically
designate what is personal records and
what is presidential records and he's a
very busy man he just didn't get around
to doing it and therefore the whole
search warrant uh subpoena process was
flawed and all of that should be in his
favor that's all a lie I mean let me
just call it out I know that on other
mainstream media channels they like to
pussyfoot around about calling something
what it is but not on the Midas touch
Network the presidential records Act is
not there's no good faith interpretation
of it or uh construction of it that fits
with Donald Trump's defense not one bit
of it the ACT says that everything that
goes to the operation of being the
president of the United States anything
that goes to being
the job function responsibilities
constitutional duties those are by their
very nature presidential records
therefore the people's documents and
need to be returned upon the end of the
office to have them properly archived by
the national and presidential archivist
as the presidential archive that's it
plain and simple any other argument that
you've heard about he's saved somehow or
the presidential record act will be a
defense and the jury will be so
instructed is a lie
presidential records act does not give
him a defense to the Espionage Act
violations the acts of obstruction the
acts of interference the acts of hiding
documents the acts of lying to his
lawyers the Department of Justice and
the FBI and ultimately to federal judges
that led to the ultimate execution of
the search warrant and even since the
execution of the search warrant
let's let's be clear Donald Trump has
had almost a year since the execution of
the search warrant to either work out a
deal with the Department of Justice go
back through his documents return the
presidential papers and beg for
forgiveness he hasn't done it he's never
done it that's why there was an
execution of a search warrant in August
of last year that's why he was indicted
last week for his own misconduct he
likes to say in his rallies this is a
sad day for democracy a sad day for
justice it isn't it shows the justice
system works and that if you commit
crimes you're not going to be given a
pass just because you were the former
president that's not how that works so
let's take off the board the
presidential records act defense because
everything that we're talking about
those hundreds and hundreds of National
Defense information documents some
marked top secret and classified go to
his constitutional and other duties as
president and needed to be returned full
stop period end of story
so now let's move on to the Espionage
Act the second defense you're going to
hear or have heard from Donald Trump at
rallies and after he left the
arraignment is that the Espionage Act
isn't being properly applied to him
because he's not a spy or
um you know he wasn't spying for another
country that is a complete
misrepresentation of the substance of
that statute yes it has a very sexy name
Espionage Act sounds like double agents
and triple agents and people wearing you
know uh uh all sorts of raincoats and
hats and okay but that's not what it
applies to it applies to anyone who with
with withholds willfully withholds
National Defense information material
that's it
it's not yours it is ndi National
Defense information you don't return it
you've just committed a violation of the
Espionage Act and whether you were going
to do it for transactional purposes
because you were going to trade it for
something with one of our allies or
enemies or you were just going to use it
for the future transactional use doesn't
matter that's not the Criminal Intent
that's required for the violation of the
Espionage Act it's only that you've
willfully meaning it wasn't accidental
that's what willful generally means in
the law intentional acts and everything
that's listed in the indictment and so
much more we haven't even heard about
yet when this case goes to trial in
terms of the evidence mountain of
evidence the Department of Justice Jack
Smith have indicates willfulness and
intent not accidental it wasn't The
Accidental Espionage violator Donald
Trump was the intentional and willful
Espionage Act Violator
if you take one thing away from the
indictment it's how involved personally
Donald Trump was in hiding and secreting
documents from the National Archive than
the FBI then the Department of Justice
then his own lawyers then federal judges
period
he selected what boxes would go back to
the National Archive personally after
reviewing them
he gave instructions to his lawyers
to not be truthful to the National
Archive to not be truthful to the FBI he
when when he wasn't sure if they would
do the right thing
Donald Trump made the decision which
boxes to put in the storage room in
Mar-A-Lago for his lawyer to look at a
week later and which ones to leave out
and then move boxes in and out of that
room after the lawyer had left under his
own video cameras before the Department
of Justice arrived
that was Donald Trump's decision making
it wasn't he had lackeys and buffers
reviewing the boxes he would have dozens
and dozens of boxes delivered through
Walt nowra and other people up to his
personal Residence at Mar-A-Lago where
he personally re viewed them period
that's your takeaway from the indictment
and everything I just talked about
instructing his lawyers to lie to the
National Archive instructing his lawyers
to lie about documents that existed but
he didn't want turned over making them
lie on forms that they had done their
due diligence to look for documents
hiding the documents moving the
documents moving them from Mar-A-Lago
within Mar-A-Lago moving them away from
his lawyer so he wouldn't see them
moving them to Bedminster those are all
badges of intent those are all
willfulness that is what the criminal
statute requires and nothing more
he is Reading in and telling his
gullible followers and those that want
to push back
and go after the Biden crime family talk
about projection that
um of the
um he didn't commit Espionage because
he's not a double agent he's not a spy
this isn't Boris and Natasha this isn't
Rocky and Bullwinkle
that's not what the statute says all you
have to do is you have to have them in
your possession and even if you don't
use them for any purpose the fact that
you have them in a box one box 15 boxes
20 boxes whether they're mixed in with
your personal dirty t-shirts and shoes
or whatever you're claiming or not
you've committed an act of uh to violate
the Espionage Act no different than you
know to Shara the national Guardsmen
intelligence officer who did the same
thing and is now in subject to 16 count
felony indictment for violations of the
Espionage Act
let's go to this take that off the board
that defense never gonna work
that'll that'll never get past motion
practice let alone be presented to a
jury because it's not a defense
you can't create new elements of a crime
and then say that they're not present
those are not the elements of the crime
and therefore that's not a defense to
the crime the third is selective
prosecution oh he whines at length about
selective prosecution and all of his his
surrogates do too whether they're a Lena
Haba or or Stephen Chung whoever that is
who tweets out things or sends things to
social media selective prosecution what
about ISM this is the what about ISM
defense what about Hillary's server
what about Joe Biden's Garage in the
Corvette what about Pence everybody's
doing it everybody's committing
violations of the Espionage Act it's my
artist rendering of the whiny defense
which we'll never see the light of day
in a courtroom and will never be
presented to a jury but I guess it makes
good good media makes good sound bites
for the day and allows him to collect
tens of millions of dollars from his
gullible followers but that's not a
defense first of all it's not a defense
even if the federal government only
prosecuted him because of his own bad
acts and never prosecuted anybody else
that doesn't give you selective
prosecution under the law that's one
secondly
there was a selective prosecution the
fact this is like comparing comparing
him to Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden is
like comparing apples to bowling balls
and chainsaws this isn't even this isn't
even Apple to other fruit this is Apple
does something else entirely different
Hillary Clinton didn't hide her server
they did she didn't say Well they're
coming to Chappaqua to take the server
from the basement let me go Send It On A
Plane down to Little Rock and put it in
my mother-in-law's trailer I mean that's
not what happened okay
as soon as it came it came I became
known that she was using her personal
email account and had a personal server
maintained by an I.T guy in her basement
while she was Secretary of State she
turned it over
right sure a couple of emails got Lost
in Translation but she didn't hide it
she didn't obfuscate she had an obstruct
she didn't lie to the federal government
the federal agents the FBI the
Department of Justice her own lawyers
people on her staff federal judges
she didn't do that so how is that
comparable
that's like comparing somebody that's
guilty of vehicular manslaughter to
somebody else that's guilty at best at
attempted jaywalking
yes it involves streets and cars but
that's all they have in common
and so take that off the board Joe Biden
having old documents that he didn't even
know he had that were locked in closets
that were with the the University of
Delaware for a Future Foundation of his
or in a or in a garage who cares
you have to have willfulness to commit a
crime this is not a regulatory
administrative violation Mr Trump and
your lawyers
this isn't a slap on the wrist this is a
crime and in this country under our
judicial system and our LA and our
system of jurisprudence there has to be
Criminal Intent we call it men's rare
willful mind
where is the willful mine for Joe Biden
where's the willfulness the willful in
Criminal Intent for Hillary Clinton but
it's all over the indictment and the
facts that have been developed by the
Department of Justice against Joe Biden
I mean see you now you got me doing it
against Donald Trump sorry sorry
followers and listeners but you knew
where that was going
so missing willfulness you don't have a
crime
plain and simple first day law school
criminal law 101. must show men's Raya
and that's the difference between civil
law and criminal law is the lack of mens
rea willfulness Criminal Intent all over
Trump missing from Pence Biden Clinton
period full stop we're done no further
comparison take it off the board now
let's go to their attempts to suppress
evidence of course they don't like the
thousands of documents dozens of boxes
and top secret and classified
information that was obtained in the
search warrant so they're going to try
with judge Cannon whoever the judge is
going to be to suppress the evidence
claiming that it was somehow an improper
search warrant
now they can attack the foundation of
the search warrant and try to argue that
the affidavits and support of it were
invalid
and therefore the Magistrate Judge never
should have issued the search warrant
search warrant should never have been
executed documents should never have
been taken out of Mar-A-Lago suppress
suppress suppress
in the law we call that the fruit from
The Poisoned tree the fruit from the
poisonous tree you can't eat the fruit
of a poisonous tree so if the process
was tainted you can't use the results of
that process that's the general
the general approach
but that doesn't apply here
that Magistrate Judge Reinhardt in
listening to the evidence that was
presented had probable cause to issue
that search warrant and they were right
he was moving the documents in and out
of Mar-A-Lago within Mar-A-Lago and
hiding them and getting dozens of people
to help him do that
and that ladies and gentlemen is
probable cause that the documents are
not going to be properly maintained or
retained in order to use just a regular
old-fashioned subpoena process that we
got to go in and knock down the door and
go grab the boxes
so he's not going to win suppression on
the Mar-A-Lago the Mar-A-Lago execution
of the search warrant which was based
primarily on witness testimony that was
obtained by the Department of Justice
they're also going to try to attack Evan
Corcoran who they they oh my God if I
could think of a witness that they fear
more than Evan Corcoran I can't think of
it Evan Corcoran is not just the former
lawyer but put a pin on that I want to
talk about something on this attic I'm
not sure he's still the he's the former
lawyer for Donald Trump anymore but it
was announced that he resigned that he
at one point was a target of the
criminal investigation because he ended
up lying to the Department of Justice
and the FBI about having done a search
which the video timer shows his entire
search of dozens of boxes behind a
locked door
lasted less than an hour it was like 47
minutes and came out with you know his
his um his 34 pages of documents that he
said were classified needed to be
returned ignoring the hundreds more next
door in the office desk drawer
Donald Trump's own personal living
quarters and all that
a federal judge chief judge of the
Circuit Court in District of Columbia
that oversees all things grand jury
already found based on the evidence that
there was more likely than not that
Donald Trump with Evan corcoran's help
committed a crime or fraud about those
documents
and use the crime fraud exception to the
general attorney-client privilege to
strip the attorney-client privilege away
from Donald Trump because the client
holds the privilege and forced the
lawyer to testify not just testify turn
over 50 pages of single space notes that
he took about Donald Trump and the
instructions he gave Donald Trump and
the information Donald Trump
communicated back to him and an audio
tape that the lawyer Evan Corcoran
recorded as his own private musings
about the case all went to the
prosecutor of course they hate that it's
not just used as evidence to get the
indictment it's Evan Corcoran coming
through the courthouse steps to up the
courthouse steps and through the back
wooden door to take the stand
when the government says our first
witness your honor we call M Evan
Corcoran
that's my artist rendering of the
reaction
it's gonna be like that because he's
going to have to testify about all of
those attorney clients deep dark secret
relationship and Communications with
Donald Trump
to commit crimes about the Mar-A-Lago
documents
so they're really worried about that on
the Trump side so they're going to file
a motion with judge Cannon or whoever
it's going to be
and try to suppress
Evan Corcoran from ever testifying any
of his evidence
and I have a high degree of confidence
based on knowing judge Beryl Howell the
chief judge of the District of Columbia
who heard all the evidence that she got
it right
she got it right related to that ruling
that there was a crime fraud exception
that applied stripping it from Donald
Trump now the judges in the southern
district of Florida don't have to listen
it's not dispositive when judges in
another place even Chief Judges in
another place in this case the District
of Columbia make a ruling about an issue
it's persuasive
the Appellate Court the 11th circuit and
the Supreme Court will certainly find it
persuasive but at the end of the day the
trial judge sitting in southern district
of Florida
her boss is not Barrel Howell sitting in
the District of Columbia her boss is the
11th circuit and ultimately the U.S
Supreme Court so she could say well uh
you know Barrel Barrel House screwed up
here and that should never have been
allowed and I don't find that it was a
proper
um uh attorney-client uh privilege
stripping uh by them and therefore I'm
going to suppress I'm going to exclude
all things Evan Corcoran look first it's
got that motion is going to come we're
going to follow it here only on the
Midas touch Network where I do my hot
takes at the intersection of Law and
politics
I predict that's going to lose if it
doesn't lose in front of uh Canon it'll
lose at the 11th circuit and ultimately
the U.S Supreme Court could delay things
in the trial some of these things are
going to lead to potential delay in the
trial pushing it into early 2024 or
mid-2024 but that's his last hope that
he's Trump is able to suppress the
Mar-A-Lago search warrant results
I think that's a dead-on arrival loser
based on the evidence that I know about
and try to suppress Evan Corcoran and
knowing judge Beryl Howell and how
careful she is I believe she got that
role that law right she's applying it
right to the facts and again if Canon
screws it up the 11th circuit won't
which is her boss is sitting in Atlanta
and then we go on to the U.S Supreme
Court that's the big four defenses
you're going to hear over and over ad
nauseum from Donald Trump I'm almost
fatigued talking about them and it's
only been a week but that's what you're
going to hear everybody Trot out and
when you're debating or discussing these
things with friends and family some of
which who may sit on a different
political side of the spectrum than you
those these are going to be their
talking points selective prosecution uh
suppression Mar-A-Lago search war was
not properly done Evan Corcoran should
never testified against Donald Trump uh
he wasn't a spy so no Espionage Act uh
he gets to magically create things into
personal papers that were National
Defense information so no Espionage Act
no obstruction no that I mean I I mean
he's just going to die the death of a
thousand paper cuts how many of these
things can he explain away in front of a
jury most of these defenses if not all
of them will never see the inside of a
courtroom
to get to a jury because they'll be
destroyed before that by the Department
of Justice and proper appellate rulings
we'll follow him here on the Midas touch
Network as that's where I do my work at
the intersection of Law and politics I'm
a practicing lawyer for more than 30
years including in the southern district
of Florida where I practice for over 20
years I've been before the judges were
talking about I know how these cases are
going to turn out based on my own
personal experience and my own judgment
and that's what I bring to you in these
kind of hot ticks if you like what I'm
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Michael popock you can follow me on all
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Michael popock legal AF reporting
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