Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Judge Lays the Smack Down on Trump over War Powers

Episode Date: March 18, 2025

The only thing standing between the Trump Administration’s open defiance and our constitutional Republic and rule of law is Chief Judge of the DC District Court, Jeb Boasberg, who dressed down Trump DOJ lawyers who tried to argue that they did not have to comply with his oral rulings and that the Chief Judge was not qualified to obtain classified information and had no jurisdiction to stop Trump’s use of his presidential powers to deport people without a hearing to a brutal supermax prison in El Salvador. Things went downhill from there for Trump’s DOJ. Michael Popok looks closely at last night’s bombshell hearing, and what the Judge and appellate courts up to the Supreme Court will do next. Dose: Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/LEGALAF or entering LEGALAF at checkout. 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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about whether the Trump administration had violated a temporary restraining order issued by the judge to stop the continued deportation of people subject to a last minute secret proclamation of Donald Trump, which he made public only on Saturday, trying to invoke war powers and a phony war to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport people as young as 14 years old and purported gang members and send them to a notorious barbaric supermax prison in El Salvador. It appeared to everyone who watched, including the judge that had violated the judge's orders,

which he issued late on Saturday evening in court with the lawyers present, that planes should not take off as of the time of his order, that everyone in the Trump administration, in the relevant departments and agencies need to know about his order, and if planes were in the air, they needed to turn immediately around.

That did not happen. And when you hear what the Trump administration's excuse was, you'll understand why the judge was so upset and started to push back hard against the Trump administration. Michael Popak, you're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. This is a fast moving story, all breaking since Saturday. This may well be the constitutional crisis that we were expecting to have Donald Trump drawing a line in the sand and deciding that this is the thing he's going to use to test the outer boundaries of his power and beyond. Jeb Boesberg called the hearing together

after a series of filings, one by the American Civil Liberties Union who filed the case in anticipation of Donald Trump trying to use the Alien Enemies Act to deport people to turbocharge his deportation plan. They filed a lawsuit. The judge entered a temporary restraining order that initially applied to six Venezuelans. Then the judge got word through the ACLU that Donald Trump had actually signed apparently on Friday the Alien Enemies Act proclamation declaring himself to be the commander-in-chief during a phony

war. The judge then expanded his temporary restraining order during a hearing to include all people affected by the proclamation. So he did what we call, he certified temporarily at least a class of people. He then entered it in junction on top of that class, and he expected, as any federal judge would, that the Trump administration would abide by it. Apparently, there was at least one, if not two, planes

that took off after the judge entered the oral order and then later followed it up with what we call a minute order, which is an entry on the docket. But let's be clear, I've been doing this for over 35 years. A judge looks you in the eye during a full two hour hearing and at the end of the hearing issues an injunction. That injunction is an injunction oral, you know verbal until it's memorialized, when it's memorialized, when you see the actual written order, which is only a minute order because we're moving quick here

so the judge just had time to do a slight entry. I'll put the entry up in the video here. From there, you will wait the judge's written order, but if there's no written order, then you are there. The transcript, which gets filed on the docket, which is the actual, what the court reporter takes down as everything that happened during the hearing, that informs you as the lawyers in the parties as to what the injunction is. as the lawyers and the parties as to what the injunction is. The Trump administration tried three ways not to, tried three ways to ignore and defy this federal judge. First, they ran to the court of appeals,

the DC court of appealsals for the DC Circuit and made a request by letter that the judge be removed from the case because the Trump administration doesn't like the fact that he's asking hard questions about when planes took off and where they landed and why they violated the judge's order. So Ensign for the Department of Justice filed a two-page letter with the clerk in

which they asked ultimately for the removal, claiming that Trump had some sort of core Article II authority not described that would remove the jurisdiction of the federal judge. In other words, they don't recognize the jurisdiction of the federal judge. Even though the federal judge, the job of a judge is to interpret the constitution and other laws and determine whether the executive branch has violated any of those aspects. That's what a federal judge does. So they ask on page two of the letter,

this court should also immediately reassign this case to another district court judge, given the highly unusual and improper procedures used that have been employed by the judge. The district court did not make a move on that. And just so you know, Jeb Boesberg is eminently qualified here as a judge. He was appointed to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance

Court, the FISA Court, by Chief Justice Roberts, served there valiantly for five years. He was even part of the court about enemy combatants and aliens being deported. So he has experience there. He has a top security clearance. He handles in D.C. and as the chief judge, classified documents and information all of the time. And so they attack him for his procedure, right? And as a person, that fails. They then send a letter, a response to the judge telling the judge, okay, we can't get rid of you. You have no jurisdiction because we have all the Article II power in this unitary president model and you don't have any power. you're just a single federal judge, this is their mantra now, single federal judge in a single city and you can't conduct a power,

a war power or executive power. That's not what the judge is doing. What the judge is doing is doing their job in the co-equal branches and checks and balance system of our constitutional republic. That's what's going on. And so they filed this motion to vacate the hearing. You can't even hear any of this, Judge. It's above your pay grade, effectively. And the Judge has said, denied. We'll see you in court, which led us to this hearing that I'm now reporting out.

During the hearing, the Judge put all of the lawyers for the Department of Justice at their feet to the fire, but particularly the lawyer they chose to argue this, his name is Abheshek Kambli. Abheshek Kambli used to work as a lawyer for the Air Force. I'm sure he knows a thing or two about flights and planes, and then worked his way up apparently and is now Deputy Attorney General in the Department of Justice having worked in Indianapolis. Let me just put, he took on some fire from the judge. Judge says, apparently, my oral rulings don't seem to carry much weight with you, because

they have this whole argument, which is ridiculous, that until it was memorialized in the minute order, which is a two line order, they didn't have to comply with the judge's order orally given and they could ignore it. And then they pointed to the fact, well judge, your written order doesn't talk about turning around planes, to which the judge said in the transcript apparently,

the transcript of what happened and you were, sir, demonstrates what my ruling was and the basis for it and the parameters and contours of it. So if you had any question, you pull the transcript and you read it. I can't tell you how many times in my career we've ordered the transcript from a hearing so that we fully understood the judge's rulings. You can't rely on a placeholder, minute order,

placed for two lines on the docket as your injunction if you're the party being enjoined, right? That is beyond a ridiculous and nonsensical position to be taken by the Trump administration, but that's what they do. Did you know the liver is the second largest organ in your body? It's responsible for over 500 functions.

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One dose for your liver shot is equivalent to 17 shots of turmeric juice. Dose is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and vegan. Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to Dosedaly.co. slash Legal AF or entering Legal AF at checkout. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y.CO. slash Legal AF for 30% off your first month subscription. So the judge says, no, you get the transcript, you read the transcript, I ordered you to inform all relevant departments, turn those planes around,

and apparently you didn't. Now tell me why you didn't and give me the timeline. They refused, right? The same guy, Deputy Attorney General Cambly, refused to respond to these questions. I'm not at liberty, your honor. I'm not at liberty to anything more than we wrote in our two-page paper and effectively telling the judge, you're not worthy of this information.

It's classified. The judge says, I have top-secret security clearance. We can't tell you. That's not the showing that you need to make in my courtroom under federal law about why you can't tell me. First of all, it's not about whether they can tell him. It's about whether it ultimately goes on the public docket for you and me to see.

The judge can look at it with a level of classification as a federal judge. And all the time, they do it what's called in camera, which means they look at documents secretly off the docket. They turn off the microphone so the press can't report on it. they look at documents secretly off the docket, they turn off the microphone so the press can't report on it. They look at the documents, they have discussions in chambers, which is where the judge hangs out

when he's not on the court, on the bench, and they have that discussion. And then he decides how much, if any of that ends up on the public docket after a round of briefing. That's all he's trying to do, but they refuse to answer even his questions. This is the open defiance of the federal judiciary and the rule of law that we've now seen, right? This is about the third example of the, at least, of federal judges calling out the Trump administration for refusing to testify in court, refusing

to provide an affidavit, deporting somebody when they were ordered not to be deported. That just happened up in Boston, Massachusetts, right? Not stopping Elon Musk from going through servers and financial information, medical information, and the rest, not rehiring people that have been ordered. This is where we are with this administration, and the Supreme Court is ultimately going to have to deal with it. Now what has the judge done? There's two parallel tracks on this case that we're going to be following closely here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF.

First on what is effectively a contempt hearing about whether the Trump administration willfully violated the court's oral order and what was discussed during the hearing as reflected in the transcript, yes or no. The judge is gonna have to get the timeline on that. So he's ordered the Trump administration noon today, Tuesday, to supply a declaration under oath, sworn statement under oath, providing two things. One, what are the logistics of the planes?

And demonstrate for me with my oral order, providing two things. One, what are the logistics of the planes and demonstrate for me with my oral order. Don't rely on my written two-line order. Explain to me how you didn't violate the oral order. Secondly, tell me how the planes logistically took off and if you're not going to tell me that because you're going to claim some sort of executive privilege, then you need to make a better showing, make a showing as required by the law in your briefing. I expect that by noon as well. Separately from that, because there was a couple of clocks running here at the same time, the Trump administration just filed

their motion to vacate the original temporary restraining order because that was due on Monday as well. So that just came in. I'll do a separate hot take about that. But their fundamental argument there is the court doesn't have jurisdiction, to hear this matter, the executive branch lured supreme over the Article 3 branch and that the judge was wrong, and this one you've heard before, the judge was wrong to enter a quote-unquote universal injunction because he doesn't have the power to do that. That's that single federal judge in a single district argument you keep hearing from the

influencers hired by the Trump administration, the MAGA senators and congresspeople, Carolyn LeVette, the press secretary and the rest. Right on cue, they push a button and this echo chamber starts. Now, one little side note before I get to my hot take on that a little bit later today, this isn't a universal injunction. This is a class action which was certified for now by a judge joining together everyone adversely affected

by the phony proclamation on the Alien Enemies Act and then an injunction related to that class. That's different than a universal injunction. I'll explain more a little bit later. Now look, let me just end the hot take this way. We're going to get a filing at noon. They're going to continue to try to bang away at the we're going to get a filing at noon. They're going to continue to try to bang away at the circuit court, the federal circuit court for appeal about getting the judge removed, about trying to stay this injunction while they move to dissolve it, that's the term, in the trial court level, while they try eventually the Hail Mary past the United States Supreme Court, which I think is all the Hail Mary past the United States Supreme Court,

which I think is all gonna happen. The United States Supreme Court involvement as early as the end of this week or beginning of next week, that's as early as that could happen. Keep that on your calendar, on your radar, and we'll follow it here. The Alien Enemies Act is not a war power. It is not something that a commander in chief necessarily

using his powers implements and there's no war been declared which is the fundamental basis of using the alien enemies act. Sure if there's an imminent threat of an invasion or an incursion until Congress can get its act together that the courts have seen and the Constitution says that the president has certain responsibilities and duties. But where's the war? This slow creeping 10-year thing where drug gangs have been invading America, that's the imminent threat? I mean, even the Supreme Court should see through that. So we're not at war, we're not at war with Venezuela, we're not at war with the Maduro regime in Venezuela, and sending people without due

process to horrible supermax prisons in El Salvador to satisfy the desires of the quote unquote philosopher king, President Bukele in El Salvador is beyond corrupt and beyond unconstitutional. And we have to ask ourselves, what is the country that we are living in, that we woke up in? Is this who it is to be an American? I'm sure many of the people who were deported, these 250 people that were put on the flights in violation of the court order, I'm sure many of the people who were deported, these 250 people that were put on the flights

in violation of the court order, I'm sure many of them may ultimately prove to be just as terrible and just as violent and just as criminal as the Trump administration makes out and if that's the case, then they should have no problem going through the proper constitutional method to try them, deport them and send them where they like I just don't think it's El Salvador and I don't certainly don't think it's doing it with some jokey Social media all apparently approved by lawyers, you know where they're doing Closing time videos, you know with them getting off the plane and border patrol taking them home Look it up, you know, you have that BS going on,

you got Boo Kelly going boohoo in his social media posts. Apparently, this is all approved by lawyers in the Trump administration who coordinated their messaging. And the brains of this operation, and I use that term lightly, is apparently Stephen Miller, as I predicted, who is the deputy White House chief of staff, used to be in the first Trump administration. He's the non-lawyer that came up with all the legal strategies about separating families and putting kids in cages. Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem, the puppy killer,

who's our head of Homeland Security. Apparently, they came up with this idea to use the Alien Enemies Act and these planes, violate the court order, you know, and then try to fix it on appeal. If you don't like the federal judge's trial judge order, then you appeal, you don't defy. You appeal, you don't defy. That's the society in the world, the Constitutional Republic, that we live in. And just to wrap it this way, every major constitutional issue that's ever been litigated up to the United States Supreme Court came out of a one single judge, single district ruling on a

constitutional matter about the president's powers or about the constitution that ultimately went up to a three-judge panel of a federal district court, a federal appellate court, and then up to the United States Supreme Court. That is our method. That is our logistics, period. And Donald Trump trying to break all these norms and argue that federal judges don't have the power they have, that only he possesses all of the unitary powers he tries to divide and conquer, needs to get shot down immediately by the United States Supreme Court. It certainly will at the intermediary appellate court level and we'll continue to follow it right here.

Until then, I'm Michael Popak reporting. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN.