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- [00:01]
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- [01:31]
Michael Popak
War between Donald Trump and its Department of Justice and a federal judge in Maryland continues with a hearing today. Did you look out your window? Did you see fireworks and flames? They were coming out of the ears of Judge Paula Zinnis, who is turbocharged and reinforced by a Supreme Court ruling late last night that affirmed and confirmed and reaffirmed her decision to order the Trump administration because they illegally violated the due process rights of Armando Abrego Garcia to post haste facilitate his return from an El Salvadoran jail where he has sat and rotted for the last 27 days. She followed the Supreme Court's order that came out at 7pm last night. She issued her own order at 8pm last night and the Trump administration violated that order. And there was a hearing over it today with a new ruling, and the judge isn't pleased. But the rule of law is, and so am I. On the Midas Touch Network, I'm Michael Popak. Let's get into this hill that the Trump administration apparently wants to die on. They have a knack for picking, losing battles. They have a knack for right, for picking. They don't pick their battles, they pick losing battles. Now look, the Supreme Court against, I'm sure the wishes of everybody in MAGA and Donald Trump's administration, ruled in favor of Judge Paula Zenis. You remember her? She's the one that MAGA and the Trump administration, Donald Trump, Pam Bondi and others called a leftist, a Marxist, an activist. You know what she is? She's an affirmed trial judge by the United States Supreme Court. She's got that badge of honor because they affirmed every little scrap of her order against the Trump administration, except for one particular word, effectuate. And she effectuated a change today with a new order. And then we got to the hearing at 1 o'clock on Friday and they trotted out the old reliable, Drew Ensign. Drew Ensign, you may remember, was the guy that was staring at his shoes and also lying to the judge, Judge Boasberg, about the Alien Enemies act. And when the planes were or were not landing in El Salvador. Well, after they got around to firing. I'm not making this stuff up. Firing or putting on permanent leave. A guy named Ruvini, who had been the lawyer in this case involving Armando Abrego Garcia, they fired him from the Department of Justice as the head of immigration litigation because he told the truth to Judge Zinnis a few days ago, confessed that there was an order preventing the removal of Armando Garcia to El Salvador, particularly to El Salvador, because his life was in danger if he was removed there. A federal immigration judge issued the order in 2019. The Trump administration didn't care about it. And knowing about the order, they put him on a plane and put him into the jail in El Salvador. That's a problem. We call that an illegal act. The United States Supreme Court said that the government effectively admitted that they had committed error and an illegal act to violate an order. That's a bad thing. Even with the United States Supreme Court as currently constituted. So that lawyer Ruvini has been put on administrative leave not because he did anything wrong, but because he told the truth as he has to do as an officer of the court. Enter Mr. Ensign, his boss, Drew Ensign, fresh off of the Alien Enemies act with Judge Boasberg, trotting down to Maryland with Judge Zinnis. Okay, what do you have to say for yourself? They had a fight over and you lose. When I say a fight that suggests that they're unequal ground, they're not on equal ground. Remember, if you haven't been to a federal judge, a court in a while, the judges up on high for a reason, and the lawyer is down below in the well of the courtroom. So they're not even for various other reasons, they're not either Judge Ensign, I mean, Judge Ensign, sorry, I just elevated him. Judge Zinnis called this hearing and she issued an order last night. And the order that she issued, having seen what the Supreme Court ruled was she wanted 9:30 this morning, a declaration from the government of all steps they had been taking, and had been taking, willing to take, going to take past, present and future to facilitate the expatriation or repatriation of Abrego Garcia from the jails of El Salvador. Should be easy. The president of El Salvador is on his way to Washington, D.C. to meet with Donald Trump. How about over a couple of finger sandwiches, they talk about getting Abrego Garcia out, pursuing to a federal court, Supreme Court order. How about that? But I digress. So the judge said, fine. The Supreme Court says I'm supposed to keep an eye on you guys. The Supreme Court says I'm supposed to make sure due process and constitutional rights are not violated. The Supreme Court says I'm supposed to get to the bottom of the facts in this case. So you provide me with a declaration of what you've done so far in the steps to facilitate. And they. That was after she entered an order, a new order late last night to clarify one area of ambiguity, slight ambiguity that the Supreme Court noted in its ruling. They loved everything about her decision to preliminarily enjoin the Trump administration and force them to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia post haste, quickly. However, she also used the word effectuate. We use that a lot in the law. You know, it means to execute, to put into action. They didn't like that one because they said, well, if you're suggesting, I mean, this is my interpretation. If you're suggesting that in order to effectuate, if after you facilitate, you're not able to pop the guy out of jail, that you have to send like Seal Team 6 in to take them out. No, we're not, we're not okay with that. But other than that, we're okay with every other aspect of your order. So now it emboldened Zinnis said, fine, let me clarify what I meant. And what she did was so smart, she just used the same kind of facilitating words that the Supreme Court already approved. So here was her order last night. Last night, an hour or two after the Supreme Court decision, she said The Supreme Court's April 10, 2025 decision, like two hours before affirmed this court's order and directed that on remand. That means an instruction back to the lower court, this Court clarify its use of the term effectuate according proper deference to the Executive Branch in its conduct of foreign affairs. To this end, the Court hereby amends its order to direct this is now consistent with the Supreme Court's ruling that Defendants take all available steps Take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible. Not reasonable steps. All available steps. Make the calls. Put things in writing. Cut off the payment for his storage down in the prison in El Salvador. Whatever you have to do 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. 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Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to try Miracle.com LegalAF and use the code LEGAL AF to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's try Miracle.com LegalAF to treat yourself. Thank you Miracle Made for sponsoring this episode. She also went on to say at her late night order, the Supreme Court made clear that the government should be prepared to share with me what it can concerning the steps it has taken, past tense and the prospect of further steps. So you're to do that by 9:30 in the morning. They filed a piece of paper in the morning and said we can't do that by 9:30 in the morning, we need to digest the Supreme Court ruling. It's going to take us till next week on the 15th while Mr. Abrego Garcia sits in a jail subject to being killed. And the judge said, no, I'll give you two more hours till 11:30 on Friday. That's it. And you can't tell me I'm paraphrasing now. You can't tell me that it's taking you that long to read. She said a four page order. She's being kind. It's a page and a half of the majority decision. The 90 decision. Nine out of nine Supreme Court justices said, get Abrego Garcia back to the United States and facilitate his return as quickly as possible. 9. They had a fight over what effectuate means. And then Sotomayor had a famous line at the end. You judge, you keep an eye on the government and make sure they comply with all of the rulings. That's your job. She said, fine, that's what I'm gonna do. And I'm not gonna wait around with a man rotting in prison based on an illegal act that's been acknowledged by the Supreme Court. I'm gonna get him back fast. So I don't wanna hear about next week. Maybe sometime. Judge, we're working. You know, we're working hard. We have pto. We're taking the weekend off. I got tickets to something. No. And 11:30 came and went and they did not file their response. It said they filed another response. So they had time to file responses but not give the judge the information she wants. And in that response, they said, it's impracticable, Judge. We just can't comply with your order. I have to tell you, I've been doing this for 35 years. I have never seen the Department of Justice in a case refuse thumb their nose at a federal judge's order when the Supreme Court is breathing down their neck. And this is the battle that they've picked and the losing battle that they have picked to die on. I assure you. Now, they may be trying to run in the meantime over to the United States Supreme Court for further clarification or reconsideration, to get further instructions to the, to the judge who's being mean to them. But I don't think that's going to work. Now, the fight that broke out in the hearing today, because there still was a hearing today, is they trotted out Drew Ensign. Drew Ensign, the same lawyer that Boseberg about two weeks ago reminded, don't be a liar. The only thing you have is your credibility. The only thing you have as an advocate is your, is your ability to be credible and tell the truth and be honest. Tell that to your colleagues. So this guy now standing there with his bosses, Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche, breathing down his neck, he says, we don't interpret the Supreme Court ruling the way you do, you, Honor. She says, what are you talking about? Well, we think you have to. You can't set another. There's no more deadlines. You can't set deadlines. And if you're setting deadlines, you're implicating the foreign affairs powers of the executive branch, and you can't do that. She says that's not what the Supreme Court said in the hearing. She said, the Supreme Court said that my original last Monday deadline had passed and therefore let's reset. I've now reset the date, and the date is it was today for you. And now I'm going to give you. She, she gave him another last minute reprieve. She said, I'm going to give you another day or so and that's it. And you're to give me daily updates on what you're doing. Because you're not recognizing, sir, that you have a new order against you that I just entered last night. The court didn't, Supreme Court didn't say that I can't enter a new order. In fact, quite the opposite. The Supreme Court empowered me and affirmed me to manage this case in the interest of justice. I'm going to do just that. Well, we don't interpret the Supreme Court ruling the way you do. She said, the only reference to foreign affairs, the powers of the executive branch is about the word effectuate. And I've changed my ruling based on that ruling, my order, and now I've just said, take, take all necessary steps to do what? To facilitate, which is the word they were fine with. This is the, this is the hang up that they're having is over the United States Supreme Court ruling. Now, where is this going to go from here? Because Ensign can clearly read. He knows this is a, an insulting interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling. Why is he doing it? Because he's ordered to do it. Because if he doesn't do it, he, you know, it's like one of those terrible movies, like hostage crisis movies. They already took his buddy Rouveni out and they shot him. It's like, it's like Die Hard. They shot him in the head and threw him out of a window. And then he said, okay, now you stand up there I mean, that's what happened. Rouveni is gone. And Ensign doesn't want to be gone. He wants to stay as the Department of. I don't know why he wants to stay for this Department of Justice, where he's just a puppet for Pam Bondi and ultimately Donald Trump, but apparently he does. But now you're up against an emboldened, properly emboldened federal judge who's now been affirmed. I have to tell you, you do not want to go to a federal judge who's just been affirmed by the United States Supreme Court and expect to get any type of solace or quarter from here. You're not going to get it. She reminded them in their order that the United States Supreme Court recognized the confession of guilt by the United States and it drove their decision. Here's what the Supreme Court said just last night. The United states acknowledges. This is 90 vote. The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order. That's the prior federal order from 2019 forbidding his removal to El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal. They chalk it off to an administrative error. Here's what the court said they're okay with. Effectuate. The rest of the district court's order remains in effect, but requires clarification on remand. So what was the order? The order was simple. The order granting the preliminary injunction said that. Let me read it to you here. Defendants are here by order to facilitate. It used to say effectuate, but now says facilitate and use and take all necessary steps to. To obtain the return of plaintiff Kilmer Armando Abrega. She didn't even set a deadline anymore. See, that's the deadline that they didn't like. She took the deadline out and she took out the word effectuate. Now she's on rock solid ground. She's impenetrable with the Supreme Court. Airtight water. Watertight. She. She then said in her order that they. The Supreme Court agreed with that. This preliminary relief she's entered, now amended by her new order, is. Is. Is the purpose of it is to restore the status quo and to preserve Abrego Garcia's access to due process in accordance with the Constitution and governing immigration laws. The majority said, you gotta give Abrego Garcia the same due process and notice that he would have gotten had you not illegally removed him to El Sal. So here's the answer. Stop. Now, I'm just going to get down to street level, stop jerking around, stop dicking around, and get Abrego Garcia home because that's the right thing to do. And that's the United States of America we all want to live in. Let a judge, once he's back in the United States, get to the bottom of whether MS.13 kidnapped him as a gang in El Salvador in order to leverage his parents because they ran a successful business at a bribery scheme, or he was a willing member of MS.13 and committed some sort of crime. So all I know is he's had a green card since he's been here, an order of protection, hasn't committed any crimes, is married to a US Citizen, has a five year old daughter that had her watches arrest by ice, had his rights violated by the federal government, never committed a crime here either and has a body of law already or a record already established by the immigration judge that he needs the protection to never go back to El Salvador. My money is on Abrego Garcia right now. But we'll let it. We'll let the government work it out in an adversarial proceeding presided over as some judge in a black robe. Maybe it's a writ of habeas corpus petition which the Supreme Court has fallen in love with, which puts him in front of a federal judge. All right, go rid of habeas corpus. Let's go bring the guy in. He can. He can make his argument whatever it is he is. As his lawyers, Quinn Emanuel said he is one of one and it's time for us to have the grace of God to bring him back. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Duch network and on Legal af, I follow it and this hearing and the next hearing and the next daily report and the next update and the next order here on the Midas Dutch Network on Legal AF, the YouTube channel on Legal AF, the podcast. Until then. 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 @legalafmtn. That's egalafmtn.