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Michael Popak
Or visit lls.org a new filing in court by the Trump administration has been declared woefully deficient by a federal judge. Not just any federal judge. Chief Judge Jeb Boasberg of the D.C. district Court in the case about the Venezuelan deportation and the unconstitutional exercise of war powers by Donald Trump. And now the judge is showing the metal that he's made of. He's not intimidated by Donald Trump or his minions calling for his head, calling him corrupt, calling him a lunatic or any of that. He's in the right. He's got friends in high places, including his former right roommate in law school, Brett Kavanaugh of the United States Supreme Court and his other friend and defender, the Chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, who recently came to his defense. And now he's looked the administration in the eye and he's not blinking. Instead, he's told the administration in no uncertain terms that by the 25th of March they are to explain to him how the planes that got sent to Venezuela after he had already issued his injunction orally in court, how they need to explain by, in order to show cause, how that did not violate his orders. It's the beginning steps of a contempt proceeding against the Trump administration, and I can't think of a better judge to lead it than Jeb Boasberg. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF and I'm Michael Popak. Let's get into it. The woefully deficient submission is that late after the judge's deadline, a deadline that had already been extended once at the last minute, the Trump administration claimed they could not provide Jeb Boasberg with any further information about the flights. The last minute surreptitious middle of the night flights from America to one of the worst prisons in the world in El Salvador containing plane loads of Venezuelans subject to the court's injunction. They couldn't explain it better to the judge because they were trying to invoke what is now referred to as the state secrets privilege. A state secrets privilege coming out of a 1953 United States Supreme Court case, U.S. vs. Reynolds, in which the court this is judge made privilege. This isn't on the books anywhere where if the information that is necessary in the case in this case to respond to the judge, I presume, is somehow jeopardizes national security. Judges will defer to the commander in chief or to the executive branch and not require it to be disclosed. And that's state secret privilege. It's not generally used in this context. It's used when there's a plaintiff who's suing about something who needs the state secret secrets or what's been claimed to be state secrets in order to prosecute their case, as opposed to a federal judge who needs information to determine whether his his orders have been flouted and have been violated. In fact, Jeb Boasberg told the lawyers, I don't see how the state secrets privilege applies at all. And they asked for another 24 hours. He said, I'll give you another 24 hours. And then they were late. And then they filed a last minute declaration, a sworn statement under oath. We also call it an affidavit from a regional ICE officer for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement who said he's aware of deliberations of other people in the Cabinet about whether to assert the state secret privilege and therefore they need more time. And then he just repeated what they had earlier filed, which was insufficient, which is about flights that took off after 7:25. The judge said, I don't care care about the flights that took off after 7:25 or before 7:25. I care about the flights that took off after I ordered them to be turned back around at 6:35. And so the judge took a look at this submission late by the wrong person, without real knowledge on what we call hearsay. Right. Somebody told him about somebody else's deliberations at the cabinet level position. The judge said, this is woefully deficient. It's the wrong affiant, the wrong declarant, the wrong person with knowledge because this person doesn't have percipient knowledge. And the judge ordered them by tomorrow to give him a declaration from somebody in the Cabinet themselves, a cabinet officer, I presume that means Pam Bondi of the Department of Justice, who by the way, has been on a crusade to attack Jeb Boasberg by name and by position, along with the press secretary, Elon Musk, Donald Trump and everybody else. It got so bad and took on such a fevered pitch that the Chief justice of the Supreme Court, a friend of Boasberg, stepped in and issued a rare. An historic statement about 200 years of precedent. Means you don't move to impeach a judge, that you don't like his opinions or his orders. You appeal Roberts had to step in to protect somebody that works for him and he knows well and he respects in Jeb Boasberg, somebody was originally appointed to that position by a Republican, not by a Democrat. He was elevated by a Democratic President, but he was originally appointed to the federal bench by a Republican. He is known as a moderate, middle of the road Democrat, not an extreme left wing nut as they're portraying him to be, and certainly not corrupt. Can you imagine what would happen to me representing a client or the client of mine calling a federal judge corrupt without any evidence in a defamatory way? First of all, for a lawyer, and that's Pam Bondi, it would be unethical and in violation of her rules of professional responsibility and they should look into that with a bar complaint. Others that have been put up to that task, like the press secretary, question is, who put her up to it? And that's for another day, but Jeb Boasberg took a look at that deficient, woefully deficient filing. And now we've got the next steps towards a contempt proceeding. This is progressive discipline by a judge. Let me get to the bottom of the facts. You answer my questions. If I need to do follow up, I may do follow up questions. Order to show cause as to you need to produce this by a date certain on my desk. And if I don't like the answers, I'm going to move to civil contempt. And if I don't really like the answers, I may move to criminal contempt and start putting people in jail. Now let me read to you from the actual order. It's a relatively short order, but I think an important one. And here's. And here's what the order had to say. As most of you know, my wife.
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Michael Popak
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Michael Popak
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Michael Popak
Judge on page one, kind of giving the outline on March 18th. This is how fast the story is moving. The court ordered the defendants, that's the Trump administration, to provide by noon the following day that that's yesterday specific information regarding flights carrying individuals subject to the court's temporary restraining order issued three days before. Defendants instead filed the pleading shortly before the deadline, seeking to stay the order in large part on the grounds that they were considering to invoke the State Secrets privilege. Although skeptical of the applicability of such privilege, the court granted defendants another 24 hours that's today either to release the information ordered or to invoke the privilege in an ex parte pleading delivered shortly after today's deadline. Ex parte means they didn't have permission to file this pleading. They filed it kind of out of order. The government again evaded its obligations. That's the second time the judge has found that the Trump administration has evaded its obligation. It submitted a six paragraph declaration from the Acting Field Office Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations at ICE in Harlingen, Texas. Field office I mean, that's pretty not a Cabinet member. The contents of which the government has informed the court may be disclosed. After four paragraphs of identifying information, he repeated the same general information about the flights that the Trump administration had already submitted and the judge had found woefully deficient. The first time, quote On March 15, 2025, two flights carrying aliens being removed under the Alien enemies Act departed US airspace before the court's minute order of 7:25pm See, there is this fight of Trump's own making and imagination that a judge's order orally, which was about an hour and a half earlier, is not binding until it's reduced to writing and that's a bold faced lie. And the judges told him that. He then stated and this is the part the judge finds woefully deficient, I understand meaning based on hearsay told to me that I don't have knowledge of. I'll translate that for you. Cabinet secretaries unnamed are currently actively considering whether to invoke the State Secrets privilege over the other facts requested by the court's order. Doing so is a serious matter that requires careful consideration, can't be undertaken in 24 hours. This, the judge ruled, is woefully insufficient. To begin with, the government cannot proffer a regional ace official to attest the Cabinet level discussions of the State Secret privilege. Indeed, his declaration on that point is based solely on his unsubstantiated understanding, although its skepticism concerning the suitability of such privilege expressed in yesterday's order remains. The court at a minimum, requires an official with direct involvement to swear that deliberations of the privileges invocation are ongoing as that ICE official attested, it further expects this is the court speaking now that the deliberations are over and concluded by 25 March. In addition, the judge ruled, in order to avoid further delay, the court will require defendants to show cause on the facts that they've already disclosed as to why the failure to return the class members aboard the two earliest planes did not violate the court's restraining orders, plural. Further supplementation may be required once particulars are disclosed and he set the following deadline tomorrow 21st by 10am Defendant shall submit a sworn declaration by a person with direct knowledge in the Cabinet level discussions. He better get one by Pam Bondi or somebody close to it is what he's trying to say there about the possible invocation of the state secrets privilege. Four days later on 25 March, he's expecting and has ordered another affidavit or declaration indicating whether or not the government is invoking that privilege. Then on that same day, he wants a brief from the Trump administration answering why, showing cause why they did not violate the court's temporary restraining order by failing to return class members removed from the US on the two earliest planes. In other words, why aren't you in contempt now separate and apart from that order because there's a number of things going on parallel. The judge has already set a prior briefing schedule about the merits of his temporary restraining order that the Trump administration has moved to vacate or dissolve about whether the Trump administration or Trump had the war powers and the ability to exercise the Alien Enemies act to turbocharge his deportation and send these men and boys shackled to El Salvador, or was that unconstitutional? That briefing concluded and there will be a hearing tomorrow on Friday on that very matter. These things are all moving separately as of right now. The appellate court, the D.C. court of Appeals three judge panel has not saw fit to stay or block any of these proceedings, which is a win for Jeff Boasberg. And then of course, we've got what's going on outside the courtroom and the courthouse, which is Boasberg being bashed and doxxed by the press secretary, called out by name as being dishonest and being a leftist and being somebody who's breached his oath of office as a judge. Same thing. Elon Musk wants him impeached and Donald Trump wants him impeached. And even after John Roberts told Donald Trump to knock it off, stop talking about impeachment when you don't like the rulings of a judge, Donald Trump doubled down and sent like a mafioso style message, almost like a fish wrapped in newspaper back to John Roberts by going on Fox News and saying, well, is he even talking to me? And he's corrupt. Back on the judge, he's dishonest, he's rogue, he's all, he's terrible, just doubling down, telling John Roberts, you're not gonna control me and firing back at him. And then Pam Bondi does the same thing from the Department of Justice. All this pressure campaign and of course the threats on the life of Jeb Boasberg and his family have escalated considerably in the last 48 to 72 hours. But he is a federal judge that swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and to do his job and to do it impartially without showing fear or favor. And he's doing that. And that's what we expect and we require of our federal judges, no matter who appointed them in Jeff Boseberg case, a Republican. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal af. Keep following everything at the developments at the intersection of law and politics right here. Slide on over to the YouTube channel for Legal AF that I curate at Legal a FMTN for the Midas Touch Network. So until my next report, I'm Michael.
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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 @legalafmtn. That's egalafmtn.