Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Blows Up Trump DOJ After Shock Behavior in Court

Episode Date: December 26, 2025

A federal judge has scolded the Trump DOJ, again, for lying to her and in filings in the court, ordering them to correct the record, and tell her who was responsible for the false representations in the first place, along with a new order to stop the DOJ from RECORDING HER in the courtroom without permission! Michael Popok takes a close look at Judge Xinis new order as Armando Abrego Garcia appeared before her for the first time as a free man! Check out the Popok Firm: https://thepopokfirm.com 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 Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: ⁠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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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19 plus to wager. Ontario only, please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact ConX Ontario at 1866-531-260 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Federal judge is growing impatient with the bumbling and stumbling of the Trump administration and its Department of Justice, more particularly, lies and miscalating. characterizations that she's being told by the Department of Justice.

And it all spilled out into the open yesterday during a hearing in front of Judge Zinnis involving Armando Abrago-Garcia. I got great news. Armando Abrago-Garcia was actually in the courtroom because he was released by order of this judge about a week ago. He was there. He's the poster child for all that's depraved and inhumane about Donald Trump's immigration and removal policy.

He got to sit at the council table, you know, in front of the judge, along with such a large group of lawyers representing him that the judge actually joked before she then tore a new one into the one Department of Justice representative who showed up, Mr. Molina, before she turned to Mr. Molina where there was no jocularity. She turned to Mr. Obrango Garcia and his lawyers and said, you look like you're represented by a baseball team. Ha, ha, ha, not you, Mr. Molina, sit down. The judge then just said, look, I got a problem with documents. that are being filed in the case. The reason they were all together in the hearing was whether to extend the time to keep Abrago Garcia free through the holidays and beyond while the judge

considers motion practice and to make sure he doesn't get picked up in the middle of the night and thrown into the dark, dank cells of ice against her orders. So she doesn't want that to happen. So she held the hearing. And she issued a couple of orders over those hearings. The reporting is that Brego Garcia was in a good mood and good spirits, a light, gray flannel shirt and dark slacks. Ernesto Molina faced the brunt of Zinnis' criticism, according to Politico. There were some other people listening in on the phone, he said, but he was left alone to walk the plank. First, she turned to an order that they turned in, that said his release was conditional because he was subject to a final order of removal,

giving her jurisdiction. They tried to flip the script and argue that the order was not conditional and isn't final, and therefore he should go before an immigration judge to be released on bond. But that's completely different than the several thousand people that Donald Trump has tried to deport and remove. He's argued that none of them are entitled under the alien enemies actor otherwise to a bond hearing in immigration court. But for Abrago Garcia, now they flip the script and they're trying to argue to Judge Zinnis, who's too smart for them, that he's entitled to a bond hearing. She said to Molina, look, you elected this form that said it was a conditional release and there has been no final order. I'm taking you at your word. Mr. Molina, I imagine it is possible

that order was improvident and could cause the court confusion. That's an understatement. It may have been done in a matter that was not far-sighted, Mr. Molina said, did not have the information it needed. See, this is the history of how the Trump administration Department of Justice acts towards federal judges. They purposely send in people who are not prepared, lawyers, witnesses, because judges are supposed to be fact finders, and how are they supposed to find the facts if the people brought before them are purposely kept in the dark and bury their head in the sand. And Judge Zinnis and other judges are fed up. Molina said it really should be a bond hearing. she said to him, Judge Zinnis said back, I can't accept you these representations. That's a hard pill to swallow. Now you're saying, no, trust us. This one, this order is going to be correct. Why should I give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case? In other words, the presumption of regularity, which is generally given to the Department of Justice that its procedures and the implementation of those procedures are regular is out the window with the Trump administration. You don't get the presumption of regularity. She also was very upset and it showed up in an order, I'm going to read to you, that was issued just after it and gave a very, very harsh lashing against Mr. Molina about a recent court filing.

On December 12th, she issued an order barring him from being redetained. He's been out of, Obrigo Garcia has been out since December the 12th. They listed it in their filings as ex parte. In our world, ex parte means the other side's not present. that only O'Obrego-Garcia's lawyers were there and the judge and they issued an ex parte. There are circumstances where you are permitted. I've probably done it half, five times in my life,

been able to get an ex parte injunction or restraining order for a very short amount of time. Then the other side is given notice, and then the judge holds a hearing to decide whether to dissolve that restraining order. It's done in circumstances like when you're worried about the asset, the boat, the plane, the money disappearing, you're worried about the person disappearing,

You're worried about, you know, things about liberty or just things that'll be very hard to fix. If the judge doesn't stop it, stuttered there for a minute, if the judge doesn't stop it in its tracks, subject to a future hearing to dissolve. That's not what happened here. It wasn't ex parte here December 12th order. It was done on notice to the other side and they litigated against it. So she said to them, everybody signed it, Judge Zinnis, and it said, and it's flat wrong. I'm growing beyond impatient with this happening. I want to know who wrote that.

And I want to know why all the four lawyers who were signatories to that thought it was a good idea. See, when you sign things in federal court, as an officer of the court, you're swearing and attesting that they are true and that you're being honest and truthful to the tribunal. That didn't happen. And look at what cowards they are in the Department of Justice. They send this Molina cat, this Molina character, and by himself, with other people whispering and listening. He said, you had all night to tell me why the petitioner was wrong. This was an emergency of your making.

In other words, she said it was an emergency, an emergency petition, but not an ex parte petition. Do you know the difference? He conceded, the lawyer conceded that the claim was inaccurate and that he comply with the judge's request, not a request, demand, for a written explanation of the error. As the hearing concluded, according to reports, the judge gave the government until Friday to submit the precise legal basis if they're going to try to retain him and she's keeping him out of the holidays.

Abrago Garcia, I'm going to show you a clip, emerged from the courthouse to dozens of supporters applauding him and chanting C. Se Puey. Yes, we can. Let's play the clip. So as of right now, Mr. Obrego-Garcia is going to return to his home with his wife and his children

and his family members in Maryland. and he will be at home through Christmas and New Year. They can't keep going with this notion that, well, we might do this, we might do this, we might do this, and you should let us do it, whatever we want, whenever we want. They have to actually come up with a very specific plan and then justify that plan. Hey, everybody, Ben Mycellus here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popock's new law. firm. It's called the Popok firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm,

really based on the popular demand by all the Midas, Mighty, and Legal A-Fers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popok firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know, have a case like this, the consultation with Popok's firm is free. Give them a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopokfirm.com. The Popokfirm.com. Or you can call 877 Popak AF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-8-6. So 1-8-6. 7-7-P-O-P-O-K-A-F.

Give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. And we know from the lawyers, as you heard, the lawyers have a strong position about him. And let's be clear, he'll go to Costa Rica. This fight right now is because the Trump administration wants to punish Abrago-Garcia, send him to Liberia 3,000 miles away from his Latina, U.S. wife and children

because he wouldn't take a, he wouldn't plead guilty to a trumped-up manufactured charge, a criminal charge in Tennessee that he still stands accused of. And they said, oh, you don't want to plead guilty? Then we're not going to send you to Costa Rica. And they lied to Judge Zinnis during the hearing before the December 12th order in which they said that Costa Rica doesn't want to take him any longer. Costa Rica security minister came forward and said, we will take him. She doesn't like to be lied to.

The order, let me read to you from the actual order. She says that by no later than December 26th, the respondent shall supplement the record. That means the government with a sworn declaration from a person with knowledge, which they've never done before, who binds the government, which addresses whether they intend to redetain him, what's the grounds for redetaining him, and whether he gets a bond hearing or not,

because that was quite remarkable. Now they're claiming he's entitled to a bond hearing when hundreds of other people they've said out loud, they're not entitled to bond hearings. Then she set up a briefing schedule. She wants a January 14th joint status report, but then she, here's the, here's the, here's the, paragraph four, page two.

The government, the court also strikes, the court strikes from respondents' reference to this court's December 12th temporary restraining order listing it as as ex parte. You shall refile a corrected copy of that for replacement. Now, she doesn't actually have in here that she wants a written declaration from somebody about who made that decision to put ex parte in there,

but I think that still holds because she made the decision in the courtroom. And then she'll set up further briefing. She wants it clear that her injunction blocking his removal from the United States stands, including the 72-hour countdown and warning, and an order that Mr. Molina send this order to everybody in the Department of Justice that Matters and Homeland Security, so there's no screw-ups.

There's another order that's quite amazing the judge issued the same day. She thinks she's being recorded in violation of her orders. I mean, recorded. Here's what she wrote. During further proceedings in this matter, no person may possess or transport into the courtroom. Any electronic device, cellular phone, camera, recording device, smart watch, smart pen, smart glasses, and or computers and laptops or tablets without the express permission of the presiding judge. It doesn't apply to the Marshal Service, doesn't apply to federal

employees. It applies to the Department of Justice. All persons subject to this order are advised not to bring these devices to the courthouse. Something happened in that. courtroom. I've been in, as a member of the federal bars around the country, I often with my federal bar card, am able to bring in electronic devices, as long as I keep them on silent and mute and moot, including laptops. However, there are judges that have standing orders against that, and then I got to file a motion to bring in electronic devices. Here's something happened. She's worried about how things are being recorded, and if they're being recorded in her courtroom. That's a bad sign for the Department of Justice. Mr. Molina, look around as a reason those four other colleagues are no longer hanging out in court with you and they're on the

phone, you're being asked to do things that are in violation of your rules of professional responsibility. The oath you took to uphold the Constitution and to be an officer of the court, you should rethink your position because this administration is coming to an end, but you don't want your career to. Now, do you? I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Midas Touch Network. Thank you. The bottom of our heart chills down my spine for having crossed the one million subscriber milestone on Legal AF, your YouTube with your help. That's how we grow.

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