Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Furious Judge Checkmates Trump with Perfect Remedy

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

Chief 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

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 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
Starting point is 00:00:38 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
Starting point is 00:01:18 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
Starting point is 00:01:56 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.
Starting point is 00:02:30 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
Starting point is 00:03:11 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
Starting point is 00:03:37 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.
Starting point is 00:04:18 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
Starting point is 00:04:37 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.
Starting point is 00:04:57 Feeling a little stalled out in the bedroom? Through HIMS, you can get some gas back in the tank with personalized ED treatment options that are accessible without ever stepping foot into a doctor's office. HIMSS is changing men's healthcare by providing you with access to affordable sexual health treatments from the comfort of your couch. HIMSS provides access to a range of doctor-trusted ED treatments like chewable tablets, Viagra and Cialis and their generics
Starting point is 00:05:26 for up to 95% less. The process is 100% online, so there's no need for uncomfortable doctor's visits. Just fill out an intake form on their site and a medical provider will determine the right treatment option. If prescribed, your medication ships directly to you for free. No insurance is needed and one low price covers everything from treatments to ongoing care. With hundreds of thousands of trusted subscribers,
Starting point is 00:05:52 HIMS can help you find the ED option that works for you. Start your free online visit today at hims.com slash LegalAF. That's H-I-M-S dot com slash LegalAF for your personalized ED treatment options. Hims.com slash legal AF. 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.
Starting point is 00:06:20 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
Starting point is 00:07:07 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.
Starting point is 00:07:47 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
Starting point is 00:08:25 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
Starting point is 00:08:59 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.
Starting point is 00:09:24 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
Starting point is 00:10:00 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.
Starting point is 00:10:26 We're trying to continue to build our legal AF channel. We're at 550,000 or so subscribers in about seven months. That's all because of you. We're trying to continue to move up the rankings. It's important to keep us on the air to bring this kind of content to you. So I think we're top 10 in podcast, Midas Touch number one. Let's get us closer. I like to be in the top five along with the brothers. Let's do that with your
Starting point is 00:10:50 help. So take a moment and hit the free subscribe button over on Legal AF, the YouTube channel and our podcast Legal AF every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time. So until 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.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.