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- [00:02]
Marine Speaker
The wrongs we must right, the fights we must win, the future we must secure together for our nation. This is what's in front of us. This determines what's next for all of us. We are Marines. We were made for this.
- [00:22]
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- [01:49]
Michael Popak
Of Armando Abrego Garcia being returned from El Salvador are suddenly dwindling to very sl because of Donald Trump's continued defiance of the United States Supreme Court and the unlikely and the likely event that the Supreme Court wants to cause an international crisis by making an order against an El Salvadorian dictator. President who's already in a scripted moment with the Trump administration said he is not bringing Abrego Garcia back. This has to do with our democracy and not just Donald Trump trying to offload U.S. citizens and others to be housed and stored in an El Salvador in jail. This has to do with whether we're gonna allow the petty dictator of El Salvador dictate how our constitutional republic, how our due process works in this country. We're supposed to be the leaders of the free world, not the petty dictator of El Salvador, the murder capital of the world with a poverty rate exceeding 25%. When did that happen? I'm Michael Popak. You're on Midas Touch Network. Let's talk about this scripted call and response pitch and catch Oval Office ceremony crammed full of cabinet members, including Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the United States, all there to basically, along with Bukele, the dictator wearing some sort of black T shirt under his suit, all there in a scripted moment, like an oil painting, to tell the Supreme Court and Judge Zinnisin, MD to go F herself. That is what that was. And then use that moment of the, of the pitch and catch between Donald Trump and Bukele where Bukele says out loud, I'm not gonna be smuggling a terrorist back into the United States, even though I have the power, setting up the very confrontation that the Supreme Court, I believe, was trying to avoid in their decision. But they left in a little stray little line, a little, a little clanking part inside of there that Donald Trump grasped onto like it was his last meal, which was a comment about the limits of the district court to be able to order the Trump administration to effectuate the return of Abrego Garcia instead of facilitate, suggesting that there were limits because of the foreign powers exclusivity of the presidential core function. So be careful, they told the court, be careful of what you order and don't verge into this area of foreign affairs, which is the exclusive province of the president. Also. They latched onto that, I'm telling you, like a dog with a bone. Stephen Miller. Oh, we've been, we've been vindicated by the Supreme Court. You can't order us to do anything. It's a sovereign state. And then they started to flip, they started to flip their script and flip their narrative. On Monday or so Donald Trump said out loud to reporters, well, if the Supreme Court ordered me to return somebody, well, I respect the Supreme Court, well, will or will will bring him back? Well, no. Now their position is El Salvador is sovereign. We can't order them to do anything. You can't order me as the president to conduct any type of foreign policy. This is all foreign policy. This is not foreign policy. The only, the only, it's only foreign because Donald Trump decided to delegate and offload and store human beings in El Salvador pursuant to a contract and pay El Salvador $6 million to fill an empty jail. Now, Donald Trump loves that idea so much that he declared out loud at the Oval Office that he's considering sending US Citizen criminals to El Salvador. Sure, why not? There's a little something called cruel and unusual punishment. We're supposed to take care of our prisoners, not other people, based on our morals, our values, our patriotism. We don't abuse, we don't have an inhumane prison system. That's not America. That's the reason you don't want to be in other countries because you end up in their criminal justice system, such as it is and end up in these jails. Now let's go back to this filing that just got made by the Trump administration telling the judge to go f herself every day pursuant to a court order. And there's going to be a hearing today on it about contempt. The judge, Judge Zinnis ordered pursuant to her empowering the empowerment of a Supreme Court decision. That said you are responsible for administrating justice in that courtroom. You're doing the right thing. The nine zero Supreme Court said just Judge Zinnis, you are doing the right thing to preserve the due process rights, the constitutional fifth Amendment rights of Abrego Garcia. We like everything about your order, continue to monitor and keep the government's feet to the fire. But there's limits. We know this Supreme Court, they're going to back down against Donald Trump on this foreign affairs and foreign policy issues. And Trump has created it and turned it into and morphed it into a foreign policy issue. Sub sovereign El Salvador, sovereign US we can't tell him what to do. Sure you can. You have a contractor. You're paying him $6 million. Use diplomacy to get it back. Oh, you can't order me to use diplomacy. And you can see the flip script in a comment made by Pam Bondi who is in the packed into this room for this photo op. She's the head of the Department of Justice. Here's her message to Judge Zinnis. With the hearing coming up today, let's play Pam Bondi.
- [07:31]
Pam Bondi
The Supreme Court ruled president that if as El Salvador wants to return and.
- [07:36]
Michael Popak
This is international matters foreign affairs, if they wanted to return him, we would.
- [07:41]
Pam Bondi
Facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.
- [07:45]
Michael Popak
Now that's right on the heels of this call and response. Good boy, give him a biscuit. Comment by the petty dictator of El Salvador, Bukele. Now, just a side note, when Zelensky, President Zelinsky of Ukraine, who is a wartime president, literally his country is at war, showed up with like a fatigue shirt, Trump, all the Trumpers and J.D.
- [08:10]
Stephen Miller
Vance said, oh, it's so insulting he.
- [08:12]
Michael Popak
Didn'T wear a shirt and tie. You'll see this next clip. But Kelly shows up wearing a black T shirt over a suit jacket. That's how he goes to the Oval Office. And this is the new thing for Donald Trump and we're going to keep a close eye on it. He uses the Oval Office as a backdrop, you know, as part of his bully pulpit, you know, the pomp and circumstance of the Oval Office. I've never seen a president and I've been covering this for a long time and I've been a student of presidential politics since I was in college. I've never seen a president shove so many people. You know, it's like 50 pounds of potatoes in a five pound sack shoved into the Oval Office. You know, Secretary of State's there, JD Vance is there, Pam Bondi's there.
- [08:53]
Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller. Let's take a timeout for Stephen Miller for a minute.
- [08:56]
Michael Popak
Stephen Miller, who's the deputy White House Chief of staff and also like a lawyer or a spokesperson for the Homeland Security, he is running all of Donald Trump's domestic policy. You don't like a domestic policy of Donald Trump. You don't like him. The immigration policies. You don't know what. You don't like what he's doing with tariffs. You don't. That is Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller is the one that came up with the idea with Kristi Noemi to use the Alien Enemies act to send 250 terrorists that were allegedly at war with at Venezuela to El Salvador in the first place. So of course he's in the room misstating the Supreme Court decision. But Pam Bondi knows better. But she doesn't because this is the position they're taking a little bit inconsistently in the courtroom. Let's play a clip of a pitch and catch comment, call and response scripted to within an inch of its life between Trump and this comment by President Bukele that ends up in a filing later that night required by Judge Zenis. Let's play the clip of President Bukele.
- [10:06]
Pam Bondi
How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States. You can release him inside of. Yeah, but I'm not releasing. I mean we're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.
- [10:18]
Stephen Miller
Hey, look at me. Michael Popak here.
- [10:20]
Michael Popak
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- [10:23]
Stephen Miller
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- [10:25]
Michael Popak
And now you know, one of my.
- [10:27]
Stephen Miller
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- [10:31]
Michael Popak
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- [10:33]
Stephen Miller
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- [12:26]
Michael Popak
You don't have to fight it alone. Thanks to Irestore. Now hold that thought. Let me read to you from what's been filed now. Every day for the last three days, the Trump administration has had to file what we call in court, a declaration, which is a sworn statement under oath. It's like an affidavit. And every day they picked a new person. You know, I don't know whether it's a short straw going on over there, but every day it's somebody new. The first day they picked a guy that had no factual knowledge whatsoever, despite the fact that he needed to have factual knowledge. He even filed it in the wrong court or mentioned the wrong court in the filing. Then they picked another person and now they picked a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security. Which makes sense because all they're doing is argument. This is just argumentative declarations. Declarations are supposed to be on facts of fact, witnesses who know something because of their five senses, not an argument, not written by a lawyer for a lawyer. In order to try to expand the record at the trial court level in order to try to have another argument at the United States Supreme Court and relitigate the Supreme Court ruling. Now, the judge entered an order that every day at 5:00 that she wants to know where Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador and what steps have been taken to get him out and what steps will be taken. Now in their filings, they're not telling her any of the steps. They're basically telling her to go F herself. We're not telling you. We're not telling you. And we're not telling you in a separate filing. Before I get to this new filing, in a separate filing on Sunday against the motion for contempt, which is going to be heard today, they actually went as far as to say, well, we know, you know, Judge, that President Bukele is meeting on Monday with President Trump. It's very sensitive situation, situation. And you should just let us run this. And you can't tell us how to run foreign affairs anyway. See the United States Supreme Court decision. So we thought, oh, they like dangling the hope that they're negotiating a resolution. They were. You just saw the clip of Boo Kelly saying, I'm not going to smuggle a terrorist back into the United States. I would never do that. Well, and Trump's like, well, what am I supposed to do? You saw. And he saw Pam Bondi say, well, we'd send a plane if he got out, right? If he smuggled himself out, if there was a jailbreak like on television, and he got out sudden of the supermax prison in El Salvador, and he just.
- [14:50]
Stephen Miller
Wandered to an airport and then, I.
- [14:53]
Michael Popak
Don'T know, stowed away in the landing gear and ended up back in the United States. We'd let him back in.
- [15:00]
Stephen Miller
Great.
- [15:01]
Michael Popak
Is this not MacGyver?
- [15:03]
Stephen Miller
Right.
- [15:03]
Michael Popak
This is not a hostage movie. You know, one of these action movies. So here's what they just filed. This is from Joe Mazzaro. We'll put his picture up. Look at this guy. He's. He's the acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. He said, now this is supposed to be where Abrego Garcia is. What steps have been taken? What steps will be taken to have him facilitate his return? You listen to this. It won't take long. It's only four paragraphs. Substantively, um, on March 15, 2023, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador. Uh, yeah, we know that. That's paragraph four. That's how we got here. Paragraph five. Now, he's trying to relitigate the history of the case with stuff that is.
- [15:48]
Stephen Miller
Not before the judge and has not.
- [15:49]
Michael Popak
Been brought into evidence during bond proceedings. In 2019, an immigration judge upheld the Department of Homeland Security decision to not to grant bond, finding that its determination that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS.13, a gang was trustworthy and supported by the evidence, and noted that Abrego Garcia failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion. Let's stop right there. What facts does he have to support that? He says during a bond proceeding. Were you at the bond proceeding? Did you participate in the bond proceeding? Were you even in the Department of homeland security in 2019? Where did you get that information from?
- [16:25]
Stephen Miller
Who told you?
- [16:26]
Michael Popak
What did you refer to again? A deficient declaration. The Board of Immigration Appeals. Now, he's continuing with the history of the case. The procedural history upheld the finding, and Abrego Garcia appealed.
- [16:41]
Stephen Miller
But.
- [16:42]
Michael Popak
Okay, next. Paragraph six. Abrego Garcia was ordered removed by an immigration judge. He was also granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge. Now we're in. See Dick run. See Jane Reed. This is caveman writing. Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding. Stop right there. A immigration judge in 2019 issued an order which the Trump administration violated, which 13 different judges acknowledged, including all nine judges of the United States Supreme Court, that he was illegally brought to El Salvador against an order of a federal immigration judge. When the Trump administration knew that there was an order preventing his removal to El Salvador. That's it. That is the driver that led the Supreme Court to rule in Abrego Garcia's favor to uphold our flag and our constitution and our values. Then they go into the procedures. Because their new argument is we're only going to facilitate on the domestic side. We can't tell the sovereign what to do. You dumped them off with the sovereign. You contracted with the sovereign.
- [17:48]
Stephen Miller
Pull the contract, pull the funding, and.
- [17:50]
Michael Popak
Pull Abrego Garcia out of the Supramax prison. Um. DHS has established process for taking steps to remove domestic obstacles. But we can't do anything about somebody in. In foreign custody. Paragraph 8. I am aware that the president of El Salvador, Naive Kelly, was in Washington today on Monday to meet with President Donald Trump. President Bukele and President Trump held a bilateral summit at the White House Is that what that was, a bilateral summit? It looked like a phony press conference. But, you know, I digress. I understand that in response to a question, President Bukele said. And you saw the clip. I'm not, I hope you're not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States. How can I do that? It's preposterous. A video of the meeting is here at this clip. Judge so you saw it? A scripted call in response. I'm surprised they didn't give Bukele a dog bone. He was so obedient. Here you go, boy. Good boy.
- [18:49]
Marine Speaker
Good.
- [18:49]
Michael Popak
We're going to use that today in our filing. Great. You are right on the mark. I'm sure Stephen Miller wrote it and I'm sure Pam Bondi couldn't read it. And then Bukele said it and now it showed up in this filing. Judge is not going to be happy. But the real fundamental question is what is she going to do about it and what is the US Supreme Court going to do about it? She's got a contempt hearing. Does she find members of the Trump administration and the lawyers for the Department of Justice in contempt and start sending people to jail? I'm not sure there's any other way to get Bukele to get Abrego Garcia out. And then if it ultimately, and when it ultimately gets to the United States Supreme Court, what are they going to do, including the alt right wing of the Supreme Court? I'll tell you what they're not likely to do. They're not likely to cause an international, global crisis of their own making and do some sort of requiring that Trump violate El Salvador's sovereignty. You'll watch. They're going to uphold the sovereignty of El salvador in a U.S. constitutional decision and we're going to report on it. And you're going to hold everybody responsible and vote the bastards out at midterms. That's the only thing we can do at this point as we watch the Supreme Court try in vain try, you know, kind of in a very useless fashion to control an out of control rogue president. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Come on over to the Legal AF YouTube channel. Hit the free subscribe button and I'll be there for you. 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 at Legal afmtn. That's at Legal afmtn.