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- [00:01]
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- [01:15]
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- [01:30]
Michael Popak
Fiverr.com we got some breaking and startling news. Not only do we have the first ruling by a judge finding the Trump administration in criminal contempt, in criminal contempt of court by Chief Judge Boasberg, District court judge in D.C. about the Trump administration violating his temporary restraining order by continuing to fly planes over his injunction to to ground those planes to El Salvador under the exercise of the Alien Enemies Act. We have the criminal contempt order and even a threat by the judge that if the Trump administration does not immediately intend to return those prisoners on those two planes that were sent to El Salvador and bring them back to the United States to purge their contempt, that the judge wants to know from the Trump administration the names of all the people that violated his order because he's going to send them, he's going to make a referral for criminal prosecution. Now, some might be thinking, well, there's a limit there because the criminal prosecution parts in the executive branch not so Fast. I think there's a way for the judge to appoint his own prosecutor to go after the Trump administration if they don't do it themselves. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network. We're breathless for a reason on this one. There's been a lot of threats. There's been a lot of people in the Midas mighty and legal a efforts that have been demanding a contempt finding by a judge for the willful, defiant disobedience of the Trump administration. This is now probably the fourth or fifth version. We're watching it play out where they're not obeying the Obrego Garcia, the Obrego Garcia ruling by the United States Supreme Court. But this has to do with two planeloads of people who were deported and removed to El Salvador in that same prison, but over the injunction of the federal judge. And the federal judge says, I'm going to read to you from his orders today. He says, you might be thinking, how can I continue to exercise jurisdiction since the United States Supreme Court vacated my order on a technicality or found that it had an error in it? In other words, the Supreme Court said, well, we get your point, and they do need due process, but they really need due process in the form of a habeas corpus petition. That should be done before they're loaded onto the planes in due process wherever they are. In the United States, the Supreme court basically letting 250 other people rot in an El Salvador in prison, but saying, well, going forward in the future, if you're, you know, as long as you're still here, you get due process. You get it by way of writ of habeas corpus, not in a class action with Judge Boasberg, not in the District of Columbia, but in Texas. But the judge says, yeah, that may be true, but until my order was reversed, it was effective and you violated it. And no man, no matter high, high or exalted, his station, can, can make his own judgment about whether he's going to obey a judge's order or not and say, well, I think it's going to be overturned one day, so I'm not gonna do it. You can't crap over the Constitution. I'm translating it for you. Let's get to the order. Now, the judge had a choice. Most judges in the kind of a progressive discipline for somebody that's in contempt will find them in civil contempt. But the facts here are so bad and egregious against the Trump administration. This judge skipped the civil contempt, went right to Criminal contempt and the threat of putting people in jail if by next week these people don't come from it. Back from El Salvador. And you know the Trump administration's not gonna bring people back from El Salvad. They're laughing and mocking federal courts and the Supreme Court right now over Abrego Garcia. So we know where this goes, and so the judge does, too. Because if they don't bring people back by next Wednesday, then the judge wants the names. He's taking names and he's kicking butt. Who are the people that violated my order? I want the names on my desk by 5:00 next Wednesday. And then from there, he's going to make that referral for prosecution. And I'll dive into that as well. Speaking of diving, let's get into the judge's order. And it really starts at the very beginning. I'm gonna read you a little from the beginning, a little from the middle, and a lot from the end. Here's what the judge says. On the Evening of Saturday, March 15, 2025, this court issued a written temporary restraining order barring the government from transferring certain individuals into foreign custody pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act. At the time the order issued, those individuals were on planes being flown overseas, having been spirited out of the United States by the government before they can vindicate their rights by contesting their removability in federal court. Rather than comply with the court's order, the government continued the hurried removal operation. Early on Sunday morning, hours after the order issued, it transferred two plane loads of passengers protected by the TRO Temporary restraining order into a Salvadoran mega prison. The court ultimately determines that the government's actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its order sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt. That's extraordinary. Extraordinary. I don't think any other presidency administration has ever been found in criminal contempt of violating a court order. Maybe during the civil rights era. The court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily. Indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses have been satisfactory. Then the judge addresses. Well, my order was vacated. Does that take away my jurisdiction to find people in contempt for violating the order before it was vacated? He answers the answer. He answers the question. No.
- [07:02]
Legal AF Host
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- [08:05]
Michael Popak
Less stinky litter box.
- [08:07]
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- [08:39]
Michael Popak
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- [08:41]
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- [09:01]
Michael Popak
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- [09:21]
Michael Popak
+ + free shipping@smalls.com this that court's Later Determination the Supreme Court's Later Determination the judge says on page two that the temporary restraining order suffered from a legal defect does not excuse the government's violation. Instead, it is a foundational legal precept that every judicial order must be obeyed, no matter how erroneous it may be, until a court reverses it. If a party chooses to disobey an order rather than wait for it to be reversed through the judicial process, such disobedience is punishable as contempt, notwithstanding any later revealed deficiencies in the order. That rule of law answers not just how this compliance inquiry can proceed, but why it must. The rule, the judge continues, reflects a belief that in the fair administration of justice, no man can be the judge in his own case, no matter how exalted his station or righteous his motives. The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders, especially by officials of a coordinate branch co equal branch who have a sworn an oath to uphold it. Otherwise it would be a solemn mockery of the Constitution itself. Citing United States versus Peters from the first Chief Justice, Chief Justice Marshall in 1809, he then goes off on page 14 and says the following. Defendants prove provide. Sorry. Defendants provide no convincing reason. To avoid the conclusion that appears obvious from the above factual recitation, they deliberately flouted this court's written order. And separately it's oral command because he did it at a hearing as well that explicitly delineated what compliance entailed. They do. They do not dispute that it was hours after the written order issued that they disembark the class members aboard two planes and transferred them out of U.S. custody. Rather than offer a mea culpa, the judge continues on page 15 and attempt to explain this grave error and detail plans to rectify it. Defendants offer various imaginative arguments for why they technically complied. None of their positions withstand scrutiny. So here's his order. Let me unpack it for you here. This is on the last page. On page 46, the court finds probable cause. The defendant's actions constitute contempt. We know that's criminal contempt. It has the opportunity to purge that contempt if they opt to do so. If they opt not to do so, the court will proceed to identify the contem noise the people who actually did the contempt and refer the matter for prosecution. Now, here's what the minute order along with this says. Given the finding of probable cause for contempt, the court orders that defendants if they opt to purge, they do so by April 23rd with a declaration explaining the steps they have taken and will will take to do so. To bring those people back. If defendants opt not to purge, then they need to identify those people with knowledge of the court's class wide temporary restraining order who made the decision not to halt the transfer. Of the class members out of US custody on March 15th and 16th. Now, what can the judge do after a referral to the prosecutors? Because, you know, Pam Bondi's not going to continue this case, not going to take this case, not going to prosecute people in the, in her own executive branch, then the judge has a choice. He does have the power, based on my analysis of case law, to appoint his own special prosecutor. If the government found in contempt will not follow through with it. He can appoint a special prosecutor from the state side or from somebody who'll take the case. I could think of a few attorneys general, maybe like Letitia James, make them a deputized special prosecutor to prosecute those people in contempt. And that's what I would encourage the judge to do. This judge has people in high places. I know that Donald Trump's gonna run off to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh was his roommate in law school. Justice Roberts likes him a lot. He's considered to be one of the most esteemed federal judges on the bench. Despite what Donald Trump is saying today about him being a liberal, wacko, activist, criminal, corrupt, and all the rest of it, he's none of those things. And the Supreme Court knows it. And now they're gonna have to decide whether they're gonna back a federal judge enforcing his powers, having found on the record probable cause that criminal contempt was, was committed by this administration. And that's gonna be for a follow up here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. I'm Michael Popak. Follow me on all things Legal AF, the Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit the subscribe button there here on the Midas Touch Network. Hit the subscribe button here and join us for our podcast, Top 10 in the World, Legal AF Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm Eastern Time right here on the Midas Touch Network. Until my next reporting. 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, optics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AFMTN. That's @legal AFMTN.