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- [00:01]
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- [00:30]
Michael Popak
We got some breaking news on day 30 of Armando Abrego Garcia's illegal detention in El Salvador. And we've got the filings now by the Trump administration late Sunday night in which they completely ignore and openly defy a 9 0, Supreme Court ruling and a federal judge's directives concerning their facilitating the return of Abrego Garcia and to report the steps that they are taking. They are hiding behind, behind purported, quote, unquote sensitive foreign policy negotiations with President Bukele, who arrives today from El Salvador to meet with President Trump. But in doing so, they have violated the court's order and that of the Supreme Court. I'm going to break it down for you right here, the only way I know how. Telling the truth on the Midas Touch Network. Let's go to what was required to be filed. There were two pieces of paper required to be filed, and both of them fall woefully short of what is commanded by the United States Supreme Court. The first is an update report, 5:00 every day of where is Abrego Garcia and what steps are being taken and will be taken to secure and facilitate his release from El Salvador's jail. How did he get there? Through an illegal act overriding a judge's order of protection to prevent him from being deported to El Salvador or removed to El Salvador. That's just what the United States did, completely flouting that order. All courts that have looked at this, Judge Zinnis, three judges of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, nine judges of the United States Supreme Court have said and have credited the government with confessing that they violated the law in violating that order and Mr. Abrego Garcia's constitutional rights. That is a fact. That is third. That is 13 judges having looked at the issue and come away with the same conclusion, including at the highest level. That happened now. He was, he was removed along with those, those enemy combatants purported by Donald Trump pursuant to the Alien enemies Act. But Mr. Abrego Garcia was not removed pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act. He's being housed in a storage unit, a maximum security prison in El Salvador, under an agreement, a contract between the government of El Salvador and the United States in which el Salvador gets $6 million to fill an empty jail. Of course, the United States has the ability through its contractual and diplomatic relationships to get Mr. Abrego Garcia back not on day 30, but on day two, day five, day 10. But they won't and they're doubling down on it. Now they have filed. Let's talk about the two pieces of paper they filed. One I told you about a declaration from somebody who's allegedly in the know about Mr. Abrego Garcia's whereabouts, but again, woefully deficient, does not provide the court or therefore the public with any information about what's being worked on. If they, if they thought it was that sensitive, they could ask to have it sealed. They're not even doing that. In their response to a motion filed on Saturday by Abrego Garcia's lawyers, as invited by the judge, a motion for contempt and other remedies, they basically tell the judge in a misread, a complete and whole misreading of the Supreme Court decision, that she does not have the power to order them to do anything in their connectivity or communications with El Salvador. She has no power to tell them what diplomacy to use, what foreign policy to use, what back channels to use if they're using any. And they're not going to tell her what they are either, even though, again, that's the order of the United States Supreme Court. They are in contempt of court. I'm waiting to see, probably later today, early tomorrow, come right back here on the Midas Touch network and report on it. The order that the judge imposes, she may wait until Tuesday's hearing. She has a hearing already on the book scheduled for Tuesday with the parties. But let me read to you from the things that matter so far, these two new filings by the Trump administration and I have in my hot little hand something which they ignore, which is the United States Supreme Court decision. And I'm going to tell you where they're wrong. First of all, they filed a new declaration by a new guy. This guy is the second person allegedly with knowledge who's giving the judge information. She ordered that every day at 5:00 she wants an update as to the current physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia. Where is he? Who's got him to what steps, if any defendants have taken to facilitate his immediate return and what additional steps they plan to take Every day. Now again, if any of this is really confidential, insensitive, they could file a motion to have it filed under seal. The judge would take it under seal, it wouldn't be on the public docket and she would, she would review it in what we call an in camera review only for the judge. They didn't do that because we, nobody believes them when they say they're really working on something. Here's what Evan Katz, the assistant director for the removal division, Homeland Security and ICE, had to say for himself. First of all, you can tell this was written by a lawyer for him. It does a lot of argument about the case, trying to relitigate the case. Now look, Donald Trump made the decision to put this on a fast track with an emergency application at the United States Supreme Court before a full record was prepared or oral argument. And now he's trying to supplement, doesn't like the result, cuz he lost that one. So now he's trying to supplement the record with new argument. I don't think he should be putting argument in the mouth of this particular fact witness. But this is their call and it's, and it's just very obvious when you read it. He says on page two, I am aware that after this court's preliminary injunction, the government sought a stay. The Chief Justice Roberts issued an administrative stay and that on March 10, the Supreme Court held that the deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective and that aspects of this court's injunction needed to be clarified before they, they could become effective. That's, that's a misreading of the Supreme Court decision. I'll tell you why in a moment. He then tries to relitigate what happened in 2019 in which Abrego Garcia obtained a order of protection and to prevent him from being removed to El Salvador that was violated by the Trump administration. They say on page seven. I understand that he should not have been removed to El Salvador because the immigration judge had also granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal to El Salvador. However, I also understand that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because of his membership at Ms. 13, which is a designated foreign terrorist organization. Well, that's, that's evidence that you need to put on, sir, in front of a judge, not just throw it, you know, into a declaration. And they're not providing any more updates.
- [07:53]
Co-host or Guest
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- [08:01]
Michael Popak
After a night's Sleep, there's a high.
- [08:03]
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- [09:23]
Michael Popak
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- [09:28]
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- [10:23]
Michael Popak
So they are violating the second status report. They're not telling the court what they've done to try to get them out, if anything. And they're not telling her what they're going to do. That violates the Supreme Court ruling and and her ruling. Here's what the Supreme Court had to say to Be clear, the application is granted in part and denied in part to the extent the government's emergency application is effectively granted in part because the deadline in the challenged order is no longer effective. Three weeks ago, she said by close of business on Monday, three weeks ago Monday, Abrego Garcia needed to be returned. Then they went into the world of the appellate. The appellate world. They got to stay. Monday came and went. So effectively they got the relief they wanted because they didn't have to comply by Monday. But that doesn't talk about any future deadlines. It doesn't mean she can't enter other deadlines to manage the case. It doesn't mean she can't enter other orders to manage the case, which is how they're interpreting it. They go on to say that the rest of the district court's order, the preliminary injunction requiring the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia with all necessary steps and to all of that, in the interest of due process and constitutional justice, is all appropriate. In fact, here's what they say. They say the rest of the district court's order remains in effect, but requires one clarification on remand by the judge. The order properly requires the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from custody and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been handled had it not, had he not improperly been sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term effectuate. She had used the word effectuate in her order. They say that's a little unclear and may exceed the district court's authority. The district court should clarify its directive with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch. Okay. She clarified her directive. She took out the word effectuate. She said, you are to facilitate with all necessary steps and you are to report back to me by every day at 5 o'clock as to what steps you've taken and what steps you're going to take, which is completely appropriate because the Supreme Court said to her that for its part, this is the Supreme Court 9 0. The government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps. They're not answering that question. That's the problem with this declaration, this affidavit by Katz. And then in their motion for additional relief, they distort the Supreme Court ruling even more. They say that on page two, the court instructed that any indirective must give due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch. That's not what it says. It says that Particular directive about effectuate needed to be clarified so that it may not run afoul of the powers of the executive branch. She clarified it. It doesn't say all directives need to be. Need to comport. And it certainly didn't say what they say on the top of page three. That any directive should. Should only concern Abrego Garcia's release from custody. Later on on page three, they then redefined facilitate to mean only domestic obstacles, meaning we can only tell you what we're doing on our end. We can't breach the sovereign status of El Salvador and tell you what we're doing with them. That's foreign affairs. And you have no jurisdiction over them for them to tell you. So we're only gonna tell you domestic. But even under their own paper, they filed an opposition to the motion of contempt. They're not even complying with with the Supreme Court order because their own declaration doesn't say what domestic steps they're taken. So how do you reconcile that? Drew Ensign, the lawyer that filed this for the Department of Justice, you know your own affidavit doesn't comply with what you said. She's entitled to know. So they're not. But they're only going to tell her domestic obstacles, although they're not even telling her that. And then they kind of dangle this. Trump is meeting with Bukele on Monday because now it's public, of course, but that's foreign sovereign power stuff, and that's only for the president. And you can't order him because that would violate the separation of powers. You can't compel any diplomacy. You can't compel any incursion upon the sovereignty of another nation. They say on page four. Now listen to this very interesting language. It's almost like they're suggesting that they're in talks with Bukele, but. But they can't tell us about it. But if that were true, you'd have to do it in the form of a sealed filing and let the judge know about it. In camera. Okay, but they're not even doing that. They say on page five, it is now public information that the president of El Salvador, Naheed Bukele, is currently in the United States and will be meeting with Trump on Monday. Defendants will continue to share updates as appropriate. Any further intrusion into this sensitive process. What sensitive process? And any directive from the court to take action against the nation of El Salvador would be inconsistent with the care counseled by the Supreme Court. What sensitive process? You're in talks with Bukele to return him. Well, then you should be able to tell the judge that, or at least tell her that in private. And if you're not in talks with him, what sensitive process are you talking about? And she's not ordering, to be clear.
- [15:52]
Co-host or Guest
At the end of this hot take.
- [15:53]
Michael Popak
The judge in the Supreme Court is not ordering that, that the judge has the power to direct foreign affairs or diplomatic diplomacy, you know, or, or how they interact. It's that they are to facilitate. They are to do whatever is necessary, make whatever phone calls are necessary in order to get him back into this country to bring him home. I don't know if we're going to get a ruling from the judge today. We're certainly gonna have a hearing on Tuesday about the, about all things related to contempt in these filings. I'm sure she'll wait another day and see what happens, perhaps with the Monday meeting and see what's reported to her on Tuesday before she makes her ultimate call. And the watchful eyes of the United States Supreme Court 90 you know, they're keeping an eye, I assume, on what's happening and don't necessarily like the record that's being created by the Trump administration. Till my next Reporting on Legal AF, the YouTube channel Legal AFMTN, where you can free subscribe or here on the Midas Touch Network or Legal af, the podcast. 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.