Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Makes Shock Admission in Secret Filing

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Trump along with his Sec of State and Attorney General and Homeland Security Advisor may have been lying to the American people all along about Armando Abrego Garcia, telling anyone that would listen in their base that they are leaving him to rot in El Salvador, while secretly telling the Court that they are working on bringing him home. Michael Popok reports on new filings that explain it all. Smalls: Head to https://Smalls.com/LEGALAF and use promo code: LEGALAF at checkout for 50% off your first order PLUS free shipping! 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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We got a new breaking development in the Abrego Garcia case with Judge Zinnis. And it's just the way we laid it out. In public, Donald Trump lies, along with his cabinet members, like the Secretary of State and the Department of Justice said, Pam Bondi, about never bringing back Abrego Garcia, who was illegally removed and deported to El Salvador. How do I know it was illegally done? Because the United States Supreme Court said it was. Nine-zero. Because Judge Zinnis said it was. Because two different panels of the Fourth Circuit, Court of Appeals said it was.

And now, we've been waiting now for over two and a half months for Donald Trump to do what the court, the Supreme Court ordered him to do, facilitate the release. Publicly, they say that'll never happen. They laugh in our face. They bring in the petty dictator of El Salvador. They sit him in the Oval Office with a script prepared by Stephen Miller. And they laugh at the American people. We will never bring him back.

Right? They laugh at Senator American people. We will never bring him back. They laugh at Senator Van Hollen. They put up a New York Times piece that they graffiti with, let me edit this for you. You'll never see him again. Ha ha ha. That's in public. That's for the mass consumption. But in private, in litigation, they want to do everything in the dark.

They want to do everything in sealed filings, in secret filings, because they don't want the world to know they're actually working on the return of Abrego Garcia. How do I know all of this, even though so many of the documents have been sealed, improperly so by the Department of Justice and by the Trump administration? Because of the unsealed documents, because we have two filings, bang bang, back to back, in Judge Zinnis' courtroom, which tell us all we need to know about what phony, phony comments

and phony position taking the Trump administration is taking along the way with Abrego Garcia, period. I'm Michael Popak, you're on the Midas Touch Network. How do we even get here? Let's look at public versus private secret, because Donald Trump doesn't want you to know that he has obeyed the United States Supreme Court, at least that's our thinking.

Publicly, you know, you've seen it all. I'll play it again. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, at the end of a cabinet meeting, actually looked the reporter in the eye and said, I'll never tell you and I'll never tell a judge what we're doing concerning Abrego Garcia at his return, if anything. Let's play that clip. Question.

You brought up El Salvador in your remarks. Have you been in touch with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia as a formal request from this administration to me? Well, I would never tell you that. And you know who else I'll never tell? A judge. Because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the President of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge.

And I'm not going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you that. I'm going to tell you that. I'm going never tell you that and you know who else I'll never tell a judge because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the President of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge. So we will conduct foreign policy appropriately if we need to, but I'll never discuss it and no one will ever make us discuss it because that's how foreign policy works. Okay, we've all seen the scrawl over the New York Times, graffiti, right?

We've seen that as well, in which the Trump administration basically puts a big middle finger up to the Supreme Court. You're never getting him back. Ha ha ha! We'll show that now. Then, of course, we've got the Bukele, the dictator of El Salvador in the White House, the Oval Office right around the time Judge Zinnis was trying to figure out what exactly was

going on with him. And Bukele said, I would never smuggle a terrorist back into this country. And Donald Trump like with a ridiculous pitch and catch, I would never ask you to. But now we got the new filings. Let me read them to you. Firstly, we've got the plaintiff, the Abrego Garcia lawyers, led by Donald Trump's former law firm, Quinn Emmanuel now. They just filed what was required by the judge,

a memorandum of law regarding privilege assertions. How did we get here? Because everything Donald Trump does in court, he tries to do in secret because he's a coward and he hides everything. Oh, I got a privilege. Oh, there's a state secret privilege. Oh, there's executive privilege.

Oh, there's the privilege. I don't want to tell you. And so in order to get that to be resolved by a federal judge, you enter, you file a privilege law, you give the law to the judge. The judge does what's called an in-camera review by herself of the documents. And the assertion of privilege has to be backed with facts in law by affidavit and declaration. They submitted the affidavit of one Marco Rubio, the same guy that was laughing and saying he'll never tell a federal judge anything about the diplomacy.

That's the guy they use for the affidavit. How's that going? Not well. And so here's what, and calling out the hypocrisy, the first page of this filing by Abrego Garcia's lawyers, it says as follows, a full month has passed since the United States Supreme Court found that Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia's removal to El Salvador was illegal. Yet Abrego Garcia remains in El Salvador and the government has produced no evidence showing that it has made the slightest efforts to facilitate his release. To the contrary, the president has insisted on national television that although he has the power to bring Abrego Garcia back he won't because his lawyers have advised him against it. That was the interview

with Kristen Welker. That was the interview with Terry Moran. Other cabinet members including the Secretary of Homeland Security has likewise likewise testified to Congress that there is no scenario where a brego Garcia will be in the United States again. Meanwhile, meanwhile in sealed filings, the government presumably has told this court the opposite as it has repeatedly sought to draft this litigation. When the world inevitably goes downhill,

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plus free shipping at Smalls.com. In fact, what their point that they're making is, is that if they're taking diplomatic steps to bring them home, the court has an obligation to find out what they are. The Supreme Court said that the trial court needs to find out what they are. Now on the right after that filing, just in the last hour or so, we got a new filing by the Trump administration.

And here's what they say again, we got to read between the lines. They say on page two of a two page brief that they want to continue to keep everything privileged and secret so they can publicly bash the lawyers at Abrango Garcia and continue their PR campaign against him to try to tear him down, label him a wife beater, a human trafficker, and the rest. While in court, they secretly, they talk in hushed tones. And here's what they said in their new filing.

Publicly, one line, publicly disclosing that sensitive information would likely harm ongoing diplomatic negotiations. Now that's the second time we've heard about ongoing diplomatic negotiations. I did a hot take about two weeks ago where in discovery responses that were provided to the other side by the Trump administration they reference ongoing diplomatic negotiations. They sort of have suggested it but they refused to tell the judge what they are or if they're even going on at all. And that's why the other side, the Abrego Garcia lawyers in their filing, in their 30

page filing, have said, look, no privilege. There should be no state secret privilege. They shouldn't be allowed to assert a privilege. They can't be trusted with a privilege. We don't believe them with a privilege. You judge, as ordered by the United States Supreme Court, need to get to the bottom of everything that's going on in the way of diplomacy. Or not. And if nothing's going on by the way of diplomacy, then you can find them in contempt. Remember, there's

a backdrop here. The judge is considering whether to find the Trump administration in contempt. You would be the second judge to do so. And part of this discovery process is around that. You know? Now, what do I think is going to happen? I don't know. I thought they'd pop Abrego Garcia out a month or so ago. But they're, they're, they continue the Trump administration to press this losing hand. And, you know, could they, the way we just got the last US Hamas

alive hostage out, could they try to pop them out soon? At an opportune time where they're cooking the books to do it when they're when they're pressed or their polling numbers look bad And so they need it to prop themselves up. I don't put anything past this administration It's certainly part of their playbook. But now the judge having the memorandum of law here, having the new confessions by the Trump administration that they are working allegedly on diplomatic channels but they're not gonna tell the judge what they are,

I think we're pretty well set up for the contempt hearing now and for the contempt finding by the judge. She's gonna have to make a decision. 14 different media entities, outlets, have all filed a motion to intervene to rip these seals off. We're a public justice system. Things on the public docket should be able

to be reviewed and analyzed so that I can do commentary on them, for instance. Now, for those that are really into this, or I hope you are, on Legal AF the Substack, Legal AF the Substack, Legal AF the Substack, we are posting under Filings AF, of course, filings like this so you can read them for yourself. So I want Legal AF Substack to be your home for all things law and politics.

And we're going to post the things that we talk about here. Sometimes we flash up on the screen here on Legal AF hot takes and on Midas Touch hot takes, but we're going to be posting the documents there. Come on over to Legal AF Substack, free subscribe there as well. You'll get all this amazing materials. And of course, we've got Legal AF, the YouTube channel as well. So going to keep an eye on this. Next filing is going to come from the Trump side.

Judge said, that's it. We're done. Simultaneous filing. She's going to hold a hearing. She's going to make a decision whether ultimately the privilege issue applies or not. I think she strips most of the privilege away from Donald Trump and forces this information to be provided to her. I think Donald Trump continues to fight it. I think this goes up to the D.C. Court of the, sorry, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals over Maryland on the way to the Supreme Court. In the meantime, Abrego Garcia sits and rots in a place that everyone on this side,

this side of the country, this here understands that he's illegally being held against his will. The MAGA likes to call the Jan Sixers hostages. He is a hostage, being held hostage by the Trump administration. We're going to continue to follow it right here in the Midas Touch Network. So until my next report, 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. Wear Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.