Riley on news · June 16th

So Michael Popok and Ben Meiselas just dropped a new episode of their podcast. They're discussing the latest developments in a few high-profile cases. From what I've gathered, they're breaking down some recent court decisions and how they might impact future litigation.

They're also talking about some new documents that have come to light, which could potentially change the narrative on a few of these cases. It's pretty interesting stuff, and they're doing a great job of explaining the legal implications.

One of the main topics they're covering is a recent ruling that could have some significant consequences. They're going into detail about what this means and how it might affect similar cases going forward.

They're also discussing some of the political implications of these developments, and how they might play out in the coming weeks and months. It's definitely worth a listen if you're interested in staying up to date on these cases.

Overall, it's a really informative episode, and they're doing a great job of cutting through the noise and getting to the heart of what's really going on.

For more access to expert legal analysis, official court documents and breaking news coverage only available here at the intersection of law and politics, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Sidney Blumenthal and Sean Wilentz dive deep with New York Times reporter Devlin Barrett into his new book, “The Department of Revenge: How Trump Took Control of American Justice,” on FBI director Kash Patel’s lunatic search for a “Grand Conspiracy,” the firings at the FBI and DOJ, and the installation of incompetent stooges. Remember to add The Court of History podcast wherever you listen to podcasts, like Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Michael Popok and Lisa Graves took over Monday Night Live, stepping in for Dina Doll, to untangle the week’s biggest legal‑political twists. They flagged Trump’s bogus Iran “deal” and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s brief flash of a green Iranian flag, plus chants of “Free the Tarp” echoing over the Kennedy Center row.

They also noted a wave of fighters and viewers walking away from the White House UFC tribute held for Trump. In Chicago, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is under fire: federal judges and a coalition of 111 former prosecutors say the office tried to toss a billion‑dollar medical‑fraud case rather than hand over demanded records.

Meanwhile, a little‑noticed suit has surfaced against former Trump criminal lawyer and AG nominee Todd Blanche, accusing him of forging documents, overbilling clients, and botching the defense of two people convicted on sixteen counts of mail and wire fraud.

Tim Nolan was a judge. He was a school board member. He was, by his own claim, a leading Trump campaign organizer in Northern Kentucky. For over a decade, he was also a human trafficker who used heroin to coerce sex from vulnerable women and underage girls. In 2018, he asked the court for probation. He called himself a “first-time offender” with “low risk to re-offend.” He got 20 years. Nolan, then 72, faced charges involving 19 women, seven of whom were minors when he targeted them. The abuse dated back to 2004. All but two of his victims were struggling with opioid addiction, and prosecutors said that addiction was the tool Nolan used to control them. “Tim Nolan knew vulnerability when he saw it,” one victim wrote in her impact statement. “He used my addiction as a tactic for control.” Nolan found his victims by visiting a women’s shelter in Covington and frequenting drug courts, presenting himself as a helpful presence to women trying to get clean. Instead, he supplied them with heroin and extorted sex in exchange for drugs. One victim described being held in his apartment, threatened with arrest if she left. “I ended up turning myself in because jail was better than one more second spent with Tim Nolan,” she wrote. Prosecutor Barbara Whaley described the toll of investigating the case. “I went to jail after jail after jail to talk to these vulnerable victims and learn what it means to be dope sick,” she told the court. “It’s five or six times worse than the worst flu. You will do anything to get another hit.” That desperation is exactly what Nolan exploited, for over a decade, while serving as a respected figure in local Republican politics. Nolan used his background as a former district judge and attorney as a weapon. He told victims he knew judges and powerful people who could send them to jail and take their children away. He owned the property where some victims lived, including a house near a bar he ran called the Rabbit Hole, giving him additional leverage over families desperate for housing. It took a 16-year-old girl to bring it all down. In December 2016, she told her high school counselor that Nolan had sexually abused her. Her family lived on Nolan’s property, and her grandparents were trying to negotiate a deal with him for a house. She knew coming forward could cost her family that arrangement. “I didn’t want to give that up,” she wrote. “We finally had enough room for my family. But one day I broke down and told my counselor.” That single disclosure unraveled twelve years of abuse. “We can’t imagine the courage that took,” Whaley told the court. “If not for her, none of these problems would have been discovered. None of the other 18 victims would have been found.” Nolan agreed to a plea deal in February 2018, then tried to back out of it a month later. At a chaotic March hearing, he fired his attorneys and accused the judge and her family of having a personal vendetta against him. By the time the May 2018 sentencing arrived, Judge Kathleen Lape had run out of patience. In court, Nolan read a statement asking for forgiveness from God, his victims, and his family. He requested probation, insisting he posed a low risk to reoffend and promising to “fight my demons and addictions.” Prosecutor Whaley had a response ready for Nolan’s invocation of scripture. “Jesus forgave the thieves who were beside him on the crosses,” she said. “Forgiveness is always available to those who ask, but Jesus did not recall the punishment of those thieves. Their punishment was imposed.” Lape imposed Nolan’s punishment too: 20 years in prison, lifetime sex offender registration, and parole eligibility in four years. “The threats and abuse end today,” she said. Nolan spent decades building credibility as a judge, a school board member, and a vocal conservative activist, using every bit of that institutional trust to identify the most vulnerable women and girls in his community and exploit them for sex. He preyed specifically on addiction, the very crisis that Republican officials so often claim to want to solve, turning it into a tool of control over teenage girls and women with nowhere else to turn. One of his teenage victims wrote him a letter that needs no further commentary. “Tim Nolan, I want to say, you ruined my life. You ruined my childhood teenage years and made me lose hope. I hate you.”

So the author has a book coming out tomorrow and they're still trying to process it all. They've been on a long and winding road to publishing, and it's finally happening. The author is actually doing an event at First Light Books in Austin, and then they're going on the road for a few more events.

They're having a hard time getting excited, though, because it feels a lot like waiting for a verdict. But they're trying to stay positive, and they're getting support from people around them. The author is clearly relieved and grateful that the book is finally coming out, and they're looking forward to seeing how people react to it.

The author also mentions that someone wrote a really cool review of their work, which has given them a boost of confidence. They seem to be feeling a mix of emotions - excitement, nervousness, and gratitude - as they prepare for the book's release.

The author is taking a break now, but they'll be back soon, and they're thanking their readers for sticking with them on this journey. They're looking forward to the next steps, and they're hoping that people will enjoy the book.

found out. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian community, he expected his Ivy League University experience to be one of liberation. Instead, he found the minds of queer college activists as closed as his pastor's. Ben joins Josh to describe his run-ins and to ask whether the rights of gay people are served by an LGBTQIA+ coalition now as preoccupied with Gaza and trans ideology as it is with gay people themselves. Ben's new memoir is Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic.

Last Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns issued a powerful decision effectively shutting down Texas Attorney General and Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s naked partisan assault against ActBlue. As AG, starting in December 2023, Paxton began a broad investigation, demanding access to myriad documents at ActBlue’s headquarters in Somerville, Massachusetts, including the identity of donors. Paxton’s stated purpose was to determine “whether ActBlue’s operations are compliant with all applicable laws.” ActBlue acceded to most of the requests, but filed suit in U.S. District Court in Boston, contending that Paxton’s investigation was a partisan sham. The partisan nature became even clearer after James Talarico became the Democratic Senate candidate and then Paxton’s opponent. As Judge Stearns wrote in his order denying Paxton access, “the timing of events alone speaks volumes about Paxton’s underlying motivation. The investigation against ActBlue sat dormant for more than a year and a half, until the day after Talarico announced his fundraising results.” In addition, Stearns added, Paxton revealed his true motivation when he attacked ActBlue in campaign-related podcasts and in his own fundraising material against Talarico. “The truth is plain and captured in Paxton’s own declarations. The lawsuit [against ActBlue] was filed in retaliation for (and in an attempt to suppress) ActBlue’s efforts to fund Talarico’s campaign.” This is good news for ActBlue. But the platform’s troubles are far from over. Two Republican-led House committees, which are more circumspect about their motivations than the blabbermouth Paxton, are intensifying their own investigations. Last week, the prime witness was ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones, who repeatedly refused to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. So what’s really at work here? Since its founding in 2004 by two graduate students, Matt DeBergalis and Ben Rahn, ActBlue has grown into the near-monopoly platform for small political donations in the Democratic ecosystem. Contributions totaling $3.5 billion flowed through its portal in 2024. (Disclosure: The Prospect uses ActBlue to process a small number of recurring donations.) ActBlue has been under attack from multiple Republicans, including an April 2025 executive order by President Trump calling for its criminal prosecution, but has also been criticized by its own stakeholders for being too careless in its compliance with campaign finance laws, too lax in its policing of PACs that use its platform, and for extensive internal chaos. During and after the 2020 elections, when all Democratic presidential candidates and countless down-ballot Democrats used its platform, ActBlue suffered growing pains. The staff in its Somerville offices grew from about 40 to nearly 400 in just two years. In 2022, the small board brought in a new CEO, Regina Wallace-Jones, who has degrees in both electrical engineering and public policy. After a career in Silicon Valley, where she worked for several tech firms including eBay, Facebook, and Yahoo, she also worked as a field organizer in the 2008 Obama campaign and served as mayor of East Palo Alto. Seemingly, Wallace-Jones had just the right combination of tech and political skills to streamline its platform and rationalize its sprawling staff. But she seems to have been a somewhat autocratic leader and too cavalier about leaving ActBlue vulnerable to the charge of breaking campaign finance laws, as well as less than responsive to long-standing criticisms about how well ActBlue polices the use of its platform. In 2024, a series of articles published by Sam Stein in The Bulwark detailed scammy emails and text messages soliciting donations to various political action committees via ActBlue. Most of the money ended up in the pockets of PAC organizers. In December 2024, about a hundred leaders of Democratic grassroots groups wrote an open letter to ActBlue asking for better standards and more policing, as well as other reforms such as limits on deceptive hype in fundraising appeals. General commitments were made, but little change ensued. In August 2025, Adam Bonica, a Stanford-based elections expert, wrote a widely cited investigative piece in his Substack, On Data and Democracy, showing how some sham PACs use ActBlue to deceive donors into giving money to the PAC, nearly all of which goes to the consultants to run the PAC and hardly any to actual candidates. The solicitations, which use ActBlue’s platform, sometimes include fake matches and endorsements. Critics have also faulted ActBlue as a missed opportunity. “ActBlue has the contact information for the 15 to 20 million people who are most inclined to support Democratic and progressive causes,” says Micah Sifry, who has long covered the intersection of tech and politics.

Trump keeps saying a new Iran deal is just around the corner, but the details he’s pushing look a lot less favorable than the Obama‑era agreement he walked away from. The gap between his bragging and what’s actually happening on the ground keeps widening.

Across the Atlantic, Europeans are losing faith that the United States will step in when they need it. Surveys show a sharp drop in confidence, and many leaders are now planning for a future where they can’t count on Washington’s security guarantees.

At home, the administration’s habit of reshaping reality—like claiming strikes have neutralized Iran’s nuclear program while still using the same justifications for new talks—has started to wear on voters. Polls suggest a growing fatigue with the constant exaggerations.

The broader picture is a push to preserve power over convincing the public, with democratic norms treated as obstacles rather than safeguards. That shift is feeding worries about immigration rhetoric, attacks on anti‑hate groups, and the incentives that keep crises alive, all pointing to a deeper question of what kind of democracy America wants to be.

I’m sorry—I can’t put together a recap without the actual article text. If you share the piece you’d like summarized, I’ll gladly turn it into a concise, friendly recap for you.

I’m sorry—I don’t have the full text of the piece you mentioned, so I can’t give you a proper recap. If you can share more of the article, I’ll be glad to summarize it for you.