Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets Cornered by Judge Who Demands Depositions

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

The days of Musk and Trump playing fast and lose with the facts of what DOGE is and what it is doing may be coming to an end, as a federal judge has had enough with the “opaque” structure of DOGE and has ordered that 4 DOGE employees sit for depositions under oath to explain to the Court what it does and who is in charge at each agency. Michael Popok explains that this order won’t just help the labor union who brought this case but will be used by lawyers and judges in the other more than a dozen DOGE related cases to lock the Trump Administration to stop the lies. Save your smile and your bank account with Remi! Get up to 50% off your custom-fit mouth guard at https://ShopRemi.com/LEGALAF today! 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

I've got this condition where I don't feel pain. You're a superhero. No, I'm not. This is how intense Nova Kane sounds. Oh, wow. Imagine how it looks. Is there more? Yeah, big time.

Nova Kane, only in theaters March 14th. The days of Elon Musk and the Trump administration playing fast and loose with the facts about what power Elon Musk does or doesn't have, what power Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency does or doesn't have, which documents, information, medical and financial and other personal private confidential information of Americans they are or are not looking at. Those days may be coming to an end because at least one federal judge, Judge Bates in the District of Columbia has had enough and he's granting the request of the AFL-CIO, one of the largest labor unions, who has sued

various aspects of the Trump administration, including Doge, about the invasion of privacy that is going on as we speak. And since Doge and Trump and Musk can't get their story straight and they're about as straight as a corkscrew when they tell the courts who's in charge, what are they doing, what's their method, what's their means. Judge Bates threw up his hands and says, this organization is so opaque,

only a deposition under oath, a question and answer under oath for eight hours in length will maybe get to the bottom of it. And he so ordered it. I'm Michael Popak, you're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Let's talk about this AFL-CIO case that started out against the Department of Labor but now involves about five different departments including Health and Human Services, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau and all of that and what happened. Now,

it's a little bit surprising because Judge Bates is actually one of the few judges that ruled against granting a temporary restraining order to stop Doge from accessing files and information that are personal to you and me in various places, in various servers and computers, finding that the AFL-CIO and the Congress of Industrial Organizations and other public interest group

didn't have standing, didn't have the fundamental ability to prosecute a temporary restraining order. He denied the temporary restraining order, not once, but twice. Now look, there's 45 or so other preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders, but this was one that Judge Bates ended. And I thought, well, that's 45 or so other preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders, but this was one that Judge Bates ended. And I thought, well, that's not a good sign,

but the AFL-CIO picked themselves up off the mat, filed an amended complaint, and then argued that in order for them to go for their preliminary injunction, the next step in the process, improve to the court that they had standing and that they've been irreparably harmed, they need limited discovery. They need discovery and depositions to finally have somebody

under oath tell the truth. I mean there's been filings after filings in 12 different lawsuits involving Doge in which they've taken frankly inconsistent positions because they really don't they don't know what they're doing. One hand doesn't know what they're doing one hand doesn't know what the other hand is doing and they intentionally don't want to know what the other hand is doing to give themselves plausible deniability that's what it looks like. So here's what the judge said in his order in a 16 page order here's what the judge said about the

opaqueness of Doge and that's putting it mildly. This on page eight, that brings the court to plaintiff's purpose for requesting expedited discovery. Discovery is the exchange of information and documents at the beginning of a case that helps one side or the other develop their claims or their defenses. And sometimes to get over threshold issues, you have to have an initial round of limited discovery even while the judge decides whether there are claims that can survive a motion And sometimes to get over threshold issues, you have to have an initial round of limited discovery, even while the judge decides whether there are claims

that can survive a motion to dismiss. And that's the phase that we're in right now with this particular case. The judge continues, Judge Bates continues, as stated, plaintiffs seek, that's the AFL-CIO, seek expedited discovery to support their impending preliminary injunction motion. In other words, we need more data

that only the other people have and under oath statements in order to support our motion judge and that's why we need limited discovery. But unlike in other cases in which the court has denied motions for expedited discovery, plaintiff's purpose, the judge continues, is to reveal information related

to the preliminary injunction as opposed to the case as a whole. In other words, it's narrow about a reparable harm, one of the four factors of preliminary injunction, and that makes the judge feel comfortable to grant the motion for expedited discovery. Plaintiffs focused their discovery request on the dispositive preliminary injunction issue of a reparable harm that we've been harmed so terribly that money damages can't compensate us and we have specific special injury gives us standing allows us to prosecute the case and the preliminary injunction. The court continues they explain meaning the

plaintiffs that as elucidated through the litigation on their two temporary restraining order motions, the facts that bear on irreparable harm remain opaque. That means I've been doing this for the last three weeks and me, judge, the person in a black robe where it matters, I can't figure out Doge and neither can the plaintiffs. So we're going to use discovery to get through that opaqueness and try to get to more transparency. That's what happens in a discovery process. The court continues. These include, this is what he wants to learn in these depositions. These include the structure of the USDES, that's the US DOJ services, whatever that means, and the scope of its authority, which the court has said are not

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And as a factor, as a basis, he points to Doge and the government's own inconsistent position taking in his courtroom. On page nine, the judge says another point is worth noting or mentioning. Plaintiffs seek discovery on these issues in part because defendants, Trump's side, already put into the record some facts relevant to the issue that need to be tested in the discovery process. The declarations, those are sworn statements under oath like affidavits. The declarations defendants filed with their opposition to plaintiffs TRO motions, all of which were prepared well after the challenged agency actions, introduced before unknown

information, some of which conflicted on how USDS Doge is operating at the defendant agencies, from the number of the employees working at the defendant agencies, to the training and agreements put in place for those employees, to the access those employees are given. And then they cite to a bunch of the declarations filed by the Trump administration. "'It would be strange to permit defendants,' Judge Bates continues, "'to submit evidence that addresses critical factual issues and proceed to rule in a preliminary injunction motion

without permitting plaintiffs to explore those factual issues through very limited discovery.' And therefore, to allow the issues to be plumbed about irreparable harm, the judge is ordering the following. Here's the breadth of the discovery request, or here's the order related to it at the back here. Let me get to the order, sorry about that. Plaintiff's motion for expedited discovery is granted.

They're gonna be able to take four different depositions for a total of eight hours. The judge specifies who within each organization have to give a deposition. For instance, I'll give you just a for instance here, other reporting has indicated that Health and Human Services has three Doge employees. The Consumer Financial Protection Board

has six members of Doge, Labor, et cetera, et cetera. So eight hours in total of four different Doge employees. That information then becomes part of the record that the judge considers on the preliminary injunction hearing, which he will consider in the next week or two. So that's the takeaway. First time ever, Doge is gonna have to get their story straight and are now going

to be locked in not just for this case, but sworn testimony that can be used by other plaintiffs and other courts, under oath testimony, penalty of perjury testimony. It's time to start locking Doge and Musk into their positions and not let them flip-flop and lie and claim plausible deniability because of different positions taken in different cases and in front of different judges. We need a clearinghouse for all of their lies and it starts now with Judge Bates,

not the judge I thought, not the case I thought, but sometimes you don't get what you want, you get what you need, and now we got what we need, which is our first set of depositions under oath of Doge to explain their existence and to clear up the opaqueness of their structure. And we'll continue to follow up on that right here on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF.

You've come to the right place for things at the intersection of law and politics. Legal AF, the Midas Touch YouTube channel. Come over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button there. I curate that channel for you. I do my hot takes here on the Midas Touch network. And then of course we've got our YouTube channel podcast,

Legal AF, on Wednesdays and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern time. And then on podcast platforms of your choice. We're top 10 in the world in all genres. It's all because of you. Wednesdays and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. Eastern time, and then on podcast platforms of your choice. We're top 10 in the world in all genres. It's all because of you, and we are humbled by it and appreciate you. So my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel.

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