War Crimes Prosecutor Makes His Move Against Trump
13:56 Share

The NBA 82 game grind is done and now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and DraftKings Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Make it a playoff run to remember with DraftKings. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code FIELDGOAL, that's code FIELDGOAL, for new customers to get $200 in bonus bets when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings. The

The crown is yours.

This podcast is brought to you by Carvana.

Customizable. Fast. Easy. All words Carvana customers have used to describe buying and financing their car with Carvana. We want to make your car financing journey hassle-free. Carvana has thousands of affordable cars, transparent pricing, and customizable terms. We do everything in our power to give you the power to find, finance, and buy the perfect car. Go to Carvana.com to finance your car today. Terms may apply.

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Not everyone is careful with your personal information, which might explain why there's a victim of identity theft every five seconds in the U.S. Fortunately, there's LifeLock. LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity. If your identity is stolen, a U.S.-based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed, or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year by visiting LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply.

All lawyer Eric Iverson, an Army veteran, wants to do is prosecute war crimes at the International Criminal Court, particularly in Darfur.

And now he's had to file a federal lawsuit against Trump and the Trump administration because Donald Trump doesn't like the International Criminal Court. We're already not a part of it as Americans. He doesn't like it because they're going after Israel and some other places. But he's taken it one step further once again and put the International Criminal Court and everybody that works for it on a watch list, a block list, a blacklist,

and authorizing the Treasury Department to go after these people. Well, Eric Iverson's a lawyer. He's an American, but he's a lawyer in The Hague, in the Netherlands, prosecuting war crimes. Every administration's been about prosecuting war crimes, but not the Trump administration. And it's certainly not...

of Donald Trump. So they issued in February something I covered then, a declaration against the International Criminal Court. And now Eric Iverson has said, I can't do my job and it violates my First Amendment right. I just want to be a war prosecutor in the Hague. Yeah, I'm an American, but now you're going to put me on a treasury block list. You're going to go after my assets. You're going to fine me because I'm doing my job at the International Criminal Court.

Side note, ICC is also where Jack Smith, the special prosecutor, came from for Donald Trump. Now, he was assigned to the Kosovo unit, but it's the same thing, same difference.

So this lawsuit now filed is going to get to the bottom of it once and for all. It's one thing to say America is not going to be a signatory and be a participant in the International Criminal Court because we don't want foreign tribunals to be used against Americans. It's another thing to stop Americans from working at the International Criminal Court. And it's not just Eric Iverson. There are dozens and dozens and dozens of Americans or people affiliated with Americans that work for the International Criminal Court.

I mean, George Clooney's married to one of them. OK, so I think we've got to draw the line in the sand and start saying that as Americans, Americans exercising their First Amendment right can go work at places like the International Criminal Court, even though, you know, we are not direct participants in it, nor do we fund it.

I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Hey, you want to know how to help us here as we talk about this hot take? You can hit the subscribe button for Midas Touch. You can come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, and hit the subscribe button there as well.

and help us continue to grow this pro-democracy channel. And we got a legal AF sub stack. We'll put up some info about it now at the intersection of law and politics. So let's get down to this particular lawsuit. Eric Iverson, Army veteran. He's assigned to a very narrow niche. He's a niche specialist, Darfur war crimes, but he got sucked up by the imposing sanctions on the International Criminal Court, February 5th executive orders. No other way around it. And what he wants the federal judge to declare

is that his First Amendment rights have been violated. He can't do his job. Let me read to you from page 23. It says the executive order on paragraph 65 prohibits Mr. Iverson and others like him from engaging in speech and advocacy that defendants determine constitutes the provisions of services to Kareem Khan, who's the chief prosecutor.

and the head of that office. Mr. Iverson wishes to continue pursuing his investigational and prosecutorial mandates in Darfur at the direction of the criminal court, but has been chilled from doing so because of the substantial risk that he will be penalized for providing services for the benefit of Prosecutor Kahn. Because Kahn is listed by name in the executive order appendix as being blacklisted, including having his property blocked.

But this guy works for Khan effectively. It's his boss, right? So there we have that. Now, the organization, I think it's very interesting. The organization that's brought this case is the Human Rights First. See, out of the forest fire of Donald Trump has now popped up a number of different organizations.

you know, new public interest groups and law firms. Abbie Lowell, who represented Hunter Biden, just left his law firm, created a new law firm, and their sole focus is on helping people who have been vindictively prosecuted or investigated or blacklisted by the Trump administration.

and business will be booming, I assure you. That's one. The weather, it's heating up, and your nighttime bedroom temperature has a huge impact on your sleep quality. If you wake up too hot or too cold, I highly recommend you check out Miracle Maid's bedsheets.

Miracle-Made Sheets are inspired by NASA and use silver-infused fabrics that are temperature-regulating so you can sleep at the perfect temperature all night long. Using silver-infused fabrics inspired by NASA, Miracle-Made Sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature all night long, no matter the weather, so you get better sleep every night.

Miracle sheets are luxuriously comfortable without the high price tag of other luxury brands and feel as nice, if not nicer, than sheets used by some five-star hotels. Stop sleeping on bacteria. Bacteria can clog your pores, causing breakouts and acne. Sleep clean with Miracle. Upgrade your sleep as the weather heats up. Go to trymiracle.com slash legalaf to try Miracle-made sheets today.

And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one, if you order today, you can save over 40%. And if you use our promo Legal AF at checkout, you'll get a free three-piece towel set and save an extra 20%. Miracle is so confident in their product, it's backed with a 30-day money-back guarantee. So if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund.

upgrade your sleep with Miracle-Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash Legal AF and use the code Legal AF to claim your free three-piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash Legal AF to treat yourself. Thank you, Miracle-Made, for sponsoring this episode. Secondly, you've got the other groups like Democracy First, Democracy Forward, here Human Rights First and all of that.

You've got a lot of groups there that are bringing these kind of lawsuits and they have to do it. This is, again, Donald Trump using his bully pulpit to go after organizations that he doesn't like or that he sees as enemies of his allies. But we have to draw a line somewhere as Americans. You know, we may not want the International Criminal Court to be used against us, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't support its principles against

against people who violate the rule of law internationally. In fact, on paragraph 27 of the filing, this new lawsuit, Eric Iverson's lawyers say that every administration from George W. Bush to the present has supported the prosecution of those culpable for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity in Darfur. He just wants to do the Darfur thing.

You know, he's not going after, he's not even involved with Israel and any prosecutions there. But why would you want to pull the rug out from under these kind of prosecutions? Because nobody can understand how broad the executive order is. And that's why the suit has been brought against Trump and Bondi and Marco Rubio and Scott Bassett. Because all this guy's trying to do is avoid prosecution.

being sanctioned, having his paycheck confiscated, and being put on a blacklist, a travel list, blocking him from travel, a ban, because he's doing God's work, so to speak, working for the International Criminal Court based in the Hague. Trust me, this guy could make tons more money if he was in the private sector. He doesn't have to do this. It's not about the money. And we're going to continue to follow it all. Look, the reason these things are all important

Whether it's federal judges fighting back against Donald Trump, law firms fighting back against Donald Trump, lawyers at the International Criminal Court fighting back against Donald Trump. Because if we don't, you see what the bully in chief will do. He will defund. He will destroy. He will dismantle. And we'll have to just in four years or three and a half years, we're gonna have to put all this back together again.

And the more that we can do now and the more the federal courts can protect us and protect ultimately and put a ring fence around the rule of law, the better. And, you know, we're not what we're watching is the battle between the Trump administration and the federal courts. And so far, federal courts are winning that battle. You know, Donald Trump is losing 90 percent of the cases that have been filed against him.

and 90% or more of the injunctions that have been filed against them. And he even has a losing record at the United States Supreme Court. So I'll continue to follow this particular case. I think it's very important about our place as leaders of the free world.

I'm not here advocating that we directly sign the International Criminal Court governing documents. But I am saying we should allow Eric Iverson to go after bad guys in Darfur for war crimes and genocide. And I think all free thinking and moderate people and freedom loving people and rule of law people would feel the exact same way. So until my next reporting, you know where to go. Legal AF, the YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN.

Legal AF, the podcast here on the Midas Touch Network. And of course, Legal AF, the sub stack for all the information like this particular filing that you'll only find here on all things Legal AF. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak.

In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.