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- [00:01]
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- [00:30]
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- [01:00]
Michael Popak
Apply Judge Zinnis in Maryland. She's cracking her knuckles and she's issuing new orders in the Abrego Garcia matter and it spells bad news for the Trump administration and the Department of Justice. I'm going to put it in context of some recent rulings all in the in the immigration and deportation civil rights violation by Donald Trump. You're here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal A f I'm Michael Popak. Let me dive in. Judge Zinnis has been, in a masterful way, been presiding over the administration of justice in Maryland for the Armando Abrego Garcia case. She's been affirmed by the Supreme Court. 90 she's been affirmed by two different panels of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. 30 apiece. There is no more powerful federal judge than that and she's taking it seriously. The Supreme Court told her she was right to order the Trump administration to facilitate the release, not the return, the release from an El Salvador in prison of Abrego Garcia who was illegally sent there. That is an undisputed fact. The due process that he's entitled to can only be administered to him, of course, under the Constitution in the United States. And so we have this constant friction and two things burst out into the open just in the last 48 hours in her courtroom. One, you've got the media, which is sort of fed up with all of the attempts by the Trump administration primarily to seal, redaction, black out their filings. I mean, there are just, there's just about a dozen sealed filings on the docket and this is the way the public justice system works. You and I and everybody else, we have a seat at the table. It's the criminally accused who's innocent unless proven guilty. It's the prosecution team, it's the judge, but it's also the public. And that's why our court system is done in the open, in the sunshine. We don't have star chambers on purpose, you know, at least currently. And so as part of being, being a stakeholder in the public justice system where somebody is both accused and either cleared or convicted in the public domain, we have to be able to look at documents that are filed. That's how I can have a show like Legal AF with all these court doc can't be in every courtroom at all at the same time. And so there are certain ways and very limited, narrow exceptions to the rule that all documents are public. And we allow under certain limited circumstances for a party to assert some sort of privilege or secrecy around the filing, even for a short time, and allow it to be filed under seal. So then when I click the button, I can't get it. So there's just been a series of under sealed things. I'll tell you the one that kicked this off and I'm sure it got the media who have now filed a motion to intervene in the case for the purposes of getting the docket and those docket entries unsealed so they can do the reporting, so they can do their part in our democracy. I think what kicked it off was about two weeks ago, the judge had ordered very fast paced discovery in the case that the government would have to provide depositions, question and answers under oath in live testimony before a court reporter and answer questions and provide documents. And then there was, right on the eve of when that was supposed to start, the parties both filed sealed papers and the judge says, I'll give you a week. Now I thought it was related to, you know, trying to look under the wrap here. I thought it was related to a filing that was made by the Trump administration to the Abrego Garcia side in which they said they were engaged in diplomatic channels to try to get his return. And maybe the plaintiff side believe that and they asked for a break. So, you know, the prying eyes wouldn't help the process. So the judge, judge saw the, the sealed motions. The court always sees them. But we didn't. So we were, you know, we're speculating, but I think I got a pretty good guess why she postponed discovery for a week. Then they asked the Trump side, asked for more time, she said no. And now we've got another set of filings by the Trump administration in which they're exercising or trying to exercise state secrets privilege to prevent their answering any questions about what they're doing to facilitate. So the judges ordered them to facilitate. The Supreme Court has confirmed her order, affirmed her order, and their response is, we can't tell you. Originally it was we're never going to get them back. Let's go through the iterations of the Trump administration about their flip flopping on these positions. First it was we're never getting him back. Literally, ha ha. He's there forever and we don't have to give him due process. Then the order came out confirmed by the Supreme Court which said, you must facilitate his release from prison. Then they took the position for another week or two that they only had to facilitate it on the domestic side. Oh, we'll just open the gates. If he shows up at a port or at an airport, we'll let him in. And the 4th Circuit, led by Judge Wilkinson, took a look at that ridiculous position and said that's not a good faith interpretation of the Supreme Court's ruling. So that's wrong.
- [06:09]
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- [07:43]
Michael Popak
And then after that, the Trump administration then told effectively the world that they were working on the diplomacy around the return of Abrego Garcia now appears they're back to go pound sand. Judge, we're not telling you what we're doing because we're exercising or invoking the state secrets privilege. She wants full briefing on that by early, by next week. She's then going to make a ruling about it. I'm sure it's going to be against the Trump administration, but we'll see if she'll be affirmed or not. In the meantime, she's also set a briefing schedule for the media who wants basically the parties to stop filing everything under seal and let them be able to do their reporting. And she set a full briefing schedule on that. Let me just show you what it a version of what redaction or ceiling looks like. The plaintiffs also filed a motion for in the last 48 hours, a motion for additional depositions, more questions and answers under oath because the first round was insufficient and the judge had told her, if you need more time, if you need more depositions, come back to me. Why are they doing discovery at all? It is to support a pending motion for contempt that the Abrego Garcia lawyers have brought against the Trump administration. And the judge is probably on the five yard line of declaring contempt. She just wants to have the record complete with this discovery, which is now ongoing. So in this motion to take additional, you'll note, here's the, here's the page in the back. All that black is what I can't tell you what it says. It says, for instance, as. And this is the part I probably want to hear so I can and analyze it for you. On page four of their emotion, it says as to the steps taken in the past to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. I was like, yes, what are they? And blackout similarly. I was, I thought this is, this is my second favorite page. This is what the media is trying to lift the veil, if you will. This one's all it says on this entire page is as to the steps anticipated in the future to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. I was like, yes. And all right. So that's my world of ceiling and redaction. That's your lesson for today. And we're going to, we're going to see. Here's my prediction. I think the judge is going to let the media in for the sole purpose of her going through methodically the already sealed documents, putting the pressure back on the parties to justify the ceiling. And then she's going to lift the seal and we'll be able to do more reporting. That's what happens in a case. Sometimes a year into the case, they start kind of backfilling and releasing documents that were filed originally and then we can do reporting on it. It sounds like it's old reporting, I'll say something like four months ago and you know, in October or whatever, Pop, what kind of hot take is this? But it just got released and that's why we're doing it. So she's doing that. I think she'll rule that way. She'll start ripping the black tape off on a lot of these filings and on the state secrets privilege. I mean, I'll have to see the briefing, but I would be shocked. I mean, Jeb Boasberg, the chief judge In Maryland, in D.C. had a very, very similar issue and he pretty quickly rejected the assertion of the, of the state secrets privilege in that regard as well. So that's the backdrop of sort of where we are right now. I'll do another hot take. Four different judges have ruled against Donald Trump in the last four days on his invocation of the Alien Enemies act to begin with, all of them saying it was unconstitutional and improper. Texas, Colorado, New York, Maryland, you know, the whole, the whole gamut. So he's on a real loot. He's really on a losing streak. Trump and trying to bring the country down with him. And he's pressing his losing hand with his various appeals related to these issues. But we'll follow it the only way we know how without blowing smoke or sunshine right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Come on over to the Legal AF YouTube channel as well as we continue to grow that pro democracy channel. And all you gotta do is hit the subscribe button. Boom. You'll get all the reminders for our almost hourly updates at the intersection of law, politics and of course, Legal AF the podcast, which is on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm Eastern Time here on the Midas Touch Network. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument. Come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AOFF are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got AD free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.