Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Brutally Outsmarts Trump in Major Case

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

In breaking news, Abrego Garcia has asked for and received an order that keeps him longer in federal detention to protect him from the Trump Administration deporting or removing him in the middle of the night away from Federal Court jurisdiction. The irony was not lost on Magistrate Judge Holmes who has ordered that Abrego Garcia remain in protective custody until his July 16th hearing before Judge Crenshaw and beyond. Michael Popok reports on this turn of affairs of a jailed person begging the court to stay in jail to be protected from the Trump Administration. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! 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

Hey, we know you probably hit play to escape your business banking, not think about it. But what if we told you there was a way to skip over the pressures of banking? By matching with a TD Small Business Account Manager, you can get the proactive business banking advice and support your business needs. Ready to press play? Get up to $2,700 when you open select small business banking products. Yep, that's $2,700 to turn up your business. Visit td.com slash smallbusinessmatch to learn more.

Conditions apply. Discover the magic of Bad MGM Casino, where the excitement is always on deck. Pull up a seat and check out a wide variety of table games with a live dealer. From roulette to blackjack, watch as a dealer hosts your table game and live chat with them throughout your experience to feel like you're actually at the casino. The

excitement doesn't stop there with over 3,000 games to choose from including fan favorites like Cash Eruption, UFC Gold Blitz and more. Make deposits instantly to jump in on the fun and make same-day withdrawals if you win. Download the BetMGM Ontario app today. You don't want to miss out. Visit betmgm.com for terms and conditions. 19 plus to wager Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario.

Now we got a federal judge who needs to put somebody in protective custody in federal detention with the marshals so that Donald Trump doesn't deport or remove them away from federal jurisdiction. What is the world we live in? But thank God that Judge Holmes has decided to put Mr. Abrego Garcia in federal detention in Tennessee and keep him there, stash him there if you will, until at least the 16th of July when

Judge Crenshaw, the district court judge, holds a hearing. Have you ever heard of such a thing? But this is what happens when federal judges don't believe a word that the Trump administration and its Department of Justice say, especially about immigration. When you have reporting out there that whistleblowers have said that the number three in the Department of Justice say, especially about immigration. When you have reporting out there that whistleblowers have said that the number three in the Department of Justice instructed their lawyers to lie to federal judges, not tell them the truth about people that are in immigration detention and the like. And since Judge Holmes, the magistrate judge in the Ibrego Garcia case, wants to protect him from being deported in the middle of the night before her boss,

her district court, Judge Crenshaw, has an opportunity in the 16th to hold a hearing, she's stashing him away. And frankly, the Trump administration, maybe to protect him from them, has decided they're not going to oppose keeping him in jail on the federal detention side and the criminal side until the 16th of February.

They probably think they can't even control their own immigration police. Michael Popak fired up on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. Let's talk about Armando Abrego-Garcia. And again, I want to make it clear. I'm not his defense lawyer. I'm not defending Armando Abrego-Garcia. I know the facts that have been alleged. I've seen the weakness of the evidence, but I'm not here to defend him. This isn't about Abrego Garcia per se. It's about the rule of law.

It's about due process. It's about notice. It's about constitutional rights. So when I say Abrego Garcia, that's just a proxy. It is a human being, but that's just a proxy for a concept that I am defending. And so is obviously Magistrate Judge Holmes. Judge Zinnis orders his return from El Salvador because he was illegally deported and removed there by Donald Trump and the

Department of Justice and Homeland Security. The Supreme Court supports her, votes 9-0 that he must be returned. Two months later, they manufacture up an indictment for human smuggling in Tennessee from a traffic stop three years ago, and then they finally return him. He's been in federal detention ever since, under the US Marshals. Judge Holmes makes her ruling last week. She has no grounds on the criminal side of the equation to keep him in federal detention through his trial on human smuggling because he's not a flight risk. There's no children involved and he is not going to tamper with witnesses. At least she didn't find them. And she orders his release, understanding that he

is subject to immigration removal procedures. And now you have the Trump administration talking out of both sides of their mouth, speaking with forked tongue as we like to say. On one side they say, we're gonna deport him and remove him immediately as soon as he's released from criminal detention. On the other side of their mouth they say, no, he's gonna stand trial in Tennessee first before we deport him. And the lawyers for Ibrigo Garcia run into the judge, Judge Holmes, the magistrate judge, and say, what are we supposed to do?

Is he gonna be deposed? Is he gonna be removed and sent away from federal jurisdiction or not? And Judge Crenshaw, your boss, the district court judge, the Article III judge, he says he wants him around. He wants Ibrigo around until the 16th of June and he has time to rule on whether or where he should go. And the magistrate judge said, I want briefing. She got briefing. And in the briefing for the

Trump administration, I don't think they, I don't think they trust themselves. They said, we're okay with him staying in detention through the 16th of July. Until Judge Crenshaw has a chance to rule. Are we starting to see the Trump administration roll back a little bit, walk it back a little bit, because of the revelations that Department of Justice senior leadership told lawyers to lie to federal judges while they have Emil Boves confirmation hanging in the balance? Who knows? But the magistrate judge took the bull by the horns and said, okay, I don't see opposition from the Trump side. Of course, Gregor Garcia wants him there.

And so we have this bizarro world where an inmate demands to be kept in prison, kept in detention to protect him from the government that's trying to deport him away from federal detention and federal jurisdiction. And that's the fear that Trump will do another, oopsie, it was a mistake, oh, I should have had a V8. He went to a detention center and now he's in, fill in the blank, he's in South Sudan. And Holmes doesn't want that to happen as a magistrate judge. She needs to protect and preserve jurisdictional power of the federal court.

But have you ever heard of a prisoner, it's not a movie, a prisoner begging to stay in federal detention and a judge accommodating it? And even the prosecutor's going, yeah, yeah, we probably can't keep track of them anyway. We've screwed up enough. So she signed that order about as quick as possible.

Let me read to you from the actual order. We had a motion to delay the issuance of an order of release. And in it, they outlined for the court that he should have a short delay until July 16th or beyond. Here's what the motion to delay says, the irony of this request is not lost on anyone. After illegally removing Mr. Abrego to El Salvador, the government retrieved him,

brought him to this district, Tennessee, and indicted him on baseless charges. Mr. Abrego has spent the last two weeks contesting this. In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further, and yet the government, a government that has at all levels told the American people that it is bringing Abrego back home to face American justice, apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.

Instead, it has chosen to bring Abrego back only to convict him in the court of public opinion. The government has done so while allowing a cooperator with two felony convictions and five prior deportations to be released. That's the cooperating witness against Abrego. And the judge took a look at everything and here's her order. As noted by the, she says this on page one, as noted by the district judge, the question of whether the government has made the proper showing to trigger the statutory authority

to detain Kilmer Abrego Garcia is axiomatic, is important because it is axiomatic that an individual has a strong interest in liberty. She then points out that based on purported conflicting statements by the government, specifically that it intends to deport him and it intends to try him in the United States before deportation, the court has considered on page three,

she says, the basis for the motion, which is that perceived conflict. And noting that, Abrego seeks to do process to which he is constitutionally and statutorily entitled, namely whether the government can make the necessary showing under the Bail Reform Act for the detention pending trial. And since she recognizes on page four that the relief sought keeps staying in jail, the

jail wanting to stay in jail is not being opposed by the government. She will grant it. She wants him separated from the general population in the prison. She wants him to have regular, she's ordering, these are conditions of him being sent and kept in detention, that he be give allowed free access and reasonable opportunity for private consultation

with his lawyers, and that the federal marshals make sure he appears for the July 16th hearing in front of Judge Crenshaw. Extraordinary, but we cover it right here on Minus Touch and on Legal AF. So until my next report, which will be a followup on the Obregail Garcia case, I am Michael Popak. You are on Legal AF and the Minus Touch Network.

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 call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We've 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.