Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Furious Judge Checkmates Trump with Perfect Remedy
Episode Date: April 18, 2025Chief Judge Boesberg is not only strongly considering appointing a “private attorney” like Jack Smith to prosecute the Trump Administration’s “willful” criminal contempt of court, but is now... considering whether to retain jurisdiction over the case to make sure the undocumented are given the due process “notice” our Constitution demands, as Trump files an appeal of the court’s contempt finding. Michael Popok explains it all in his latest hot take. Thanks to HIMS! Start your free online visit today at https://hims.com/legalaf for your personalized ED treatment options. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Department of Justice and the Trump administration thought they were going to be able to rid themselves
of Judge Boesberg, the chief judge of the D.C. court, who just found probable cause
that the Trump administration has committed criminal contempt and is about to refer it
over to the prosecutors in the executive branch, or a special prosecutor, maybe Jack Smith,
that the judge appoints.
And there's more things going on in that court since that historic finding
by the judge of possible criminal contempt against the Trump administration. I'm going to update you
right here in this fast moving story only on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. So the argument
that the Trump administration is making, and they have filed an appeal as we would have expected
on the finding yesterday by the judge that he is starting criminal contempt processes against the Trump
administration, unless by next Wednesday, a week from yesterday, they bring back two
plane loads of people that were deported and removed to El Salvador and brings them back
because they violated the court's order while it was in place to ground
those planes and found willful disregard of his order. Now we know the Trump administration,
let's just cut to the chase, is not going to do that. They're not going to bring back
Abrego Garcia back to his family or back to the states. They're not going to do it for the two
plane loads either. It would be inconsistent with the inconsistent and unconstitutional position that they are taking.
So what is a judge to do?
Well, firstly, he has the power to appoint a special prosecutor, a private attorney, to
prosecute the executive branch if the executive branch won't prosecute itself.
And we know, let's cut to the chase again, Pam Bondi and the chief law enforcement officer
of the United States, God help us, Donald
Trump, is not going to prosecute himself.
But there is case law under a Supreme Court precedent, which is called Young-X-Rel Louis
Vuitton, about the Louis Vuitton Company, in which it was quite clear, as written back
in 1987, including Justice Brennan, that if
the executive branch won't prosecute and investigate itself for contempt of court, then the judge
has the power, limited power, but a power to appoint a private attorney.
I can't think of a better private attorney to appoint than Jack Smith.
So that's where when people say, well, who is he going to, you know, the prosecutors
are never going to prosecute this case right.
So the judge will appoint his own.
That's one.
Secondly, the ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union has smartly filed a new piece of paper
just yesterday in which they're telling the judge, look, you may have had your ultimate ruling vacated by the United States Supreme Court
about the Alien Enemies Act and where due process needs to be done.
Supreme Court having ruled you got to do it with notice and habeas corpus petitions individually.
The same habeas corpus petitions that Donald Trump is now complaining about saying, well,
we have 500,000 cases.
There will be 500,000 habeas corpus petitions individually in Texas and New York and all
these other places.
Well, that's not justice's problem.
That is a natural result of the position that the Trump administration has taken, which
is that Judge Boasberg didn't have class action ability to handle all of these cases in one jurisdiction.
Well, of course, if you've got to do habeas,
then you have to try to do it in these individual cases,
maybe grouped together in other jurisdictions.
That's a natural result of the Department of Justice's
harebrained idea.
That's one.
But the ACLU just filed this new motion for temporary restraining order with Judge Boesberg
saying look, when it comes to notice, the constitutional due process required notice
to each person before they are subjected to a process and then removed from this country.
You should continue to keep the class in place and as it relates
to notice in order to effectuate the habeas corpus rights, habeas corpus petition due
process rights of each individual for notice, keep everybody together.
And you should order that the Trump administration give proper notice to the class through this
court in order for them to have their habeas
petition rights.
Because if you have the right, but you don't know about it,
you don't know when it should be invoked,
what right do you really have?
That is their argument.
And the judge finds that interesting
based on the filing.
And he is giving the Trump administration
until tomorrow at 9 o'clock, actually, Friday at nine o'clock,
or Saturday at nine o'clock, sorry,
to file their opposition paper,
a reply paper over the weekend,
and then the judge is gonna hear oral argument on this
in the first week in May.
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In the meantime, while that's going on, the Trump administration, of course, took an appeal
to the DC Court of Appeals because they're trying to get to the United States Supreme
Court.
Here is the statement by the Department of Justice based on the Boasberg finding them that it
was a probable cause to find them in criminal contempt with a referral over to the prosecutors
unless they purge the contempt by next Wednesday.
Quote, and I'm sure this is coming out of Pam Bondi, the Supreme Court ruled that Judge
Boasberg has no right to seize control of the president's authority to conduct foreign policy. He should have never issued his order. His underhanded attempt to maintain power
over this case is a judicial power grab that the Department of Justice will fight by all means
necessary." It's not a judicial power grab. First of all, let me reframe this issue because you hear
so much BS coming out of Fox News and other MAGA talking points and MAGA platforms. That's not
what the Supreme Court ruled. What the Supreme Court ruled is that the due process and notice
that is due each of these individuals is due in the United States before their departure. They
have a constitutional Fifth Amendment right to that. They agreed with Judge Boesberg. They
just disagreed on remedy. They said the remedy for that is individual habeas corpus petitions filed in each state where they are for the last
moment before they're about to be removed. And many times it's Texas or New York, and they have
to get before a federal judge there. But in order for that to be effective, the Supreme Court said
there also has to be notice.
And that's the fight now with Judge Boesberg.
Isn't Judge Boesberg and his court and his class that he put together of all people that
would be injured by the Alien Enemies Act proclamation by Donald Trump, isn't it better
to have notice go through?
Because without notice, you have no due process is their argument, and it should go through, because without notice you have no due process, is their argument, and it should go through Boasberg, which is consistent with what Donald Trump has just said
in a social media post when he said, oh, we've got to do 500,000 of these cases
because sleepy Joe Biden let everybody in? All right, well, that's because you asked for it.
We'll continue to follow it. I think the takeaway on this hot take is,
when, not if, when does Judge Boasberg appoint
a private attorney?
Could that private attorney be somebody like a former prosecutor, a former federal judge,
a current attorney general like Letitia James, somebody like Jack Smith?
I mean, that's where we're going because the case law for the Supreme Court is solid.
Now, there's a race here to the courthouse, and that courthouse being the United States
Supreme Court, to see what they do with Judge Boesberg's contempt order.
I think for now, frankly, they will stay away from it and put their hands up.
This is just a judge enforcing, through his inherent authority, violations of orders in
his courtroom.
The fact that that order eventually got vacated or changed on a procedural basis
by the Supreme Court doesn't matter because you have to comply with orders while they
exist, not be your own judge and say, well, I think I'm going to reverse it on appeal.
Well, you may or you may not.
But in the meantime, you need to comply under the compulsion that if you don't, you'll be
found in contempt.
And that's where we're at.
And because it's criminal contempt, the judge can find probable cause and
then make the referral over to the prosecutors and if they don't take it he
can assign his own prosecutor and that's where we're going as the ACLU has filed
about five or six different cases in Texas and New York to challenge the
underlying exercise of war powers by Donald Trump and has filed these
various habeas corpus petitions, they're right.
This was very smart for them to file this new motion in front of Boasberg about you
are the judge to provide the notice that's required by the Supreme Court decision in
order to make the habeas corpus right under due process a real thing for these individual
prisoners.
The reality is the 250 that already got spirited off in the middle of the night and sent to
El Salvador, not named Abrego Garcia, they're never coming home because the Supreme Court
never addressed them.
But anybody else now has to be given notice in due process.
I'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Touch Network.
Look, let me take a moment and ask for some help.
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my next report, I'm Michael Popak.
In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Eastern time. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popock.