Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Runs Scared as Judge Obliterates His Games

Episode Date: January 30, 2026

In a new federal court filing, the Trump Administration is using “patently absurd” and “almost laughable” so-called “evidence” to prove that 137 Venezuelans sent in the middle of the night in violation of a court order, are members of a notorious narco-terrorist gang, such as they wear Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls Jerseys!. Popok reports on new filings and Chief Judge Boesberg demanding that the Trump Administration explain why they continue to deny these 137 men Due Process despite court orders to the contrary. 3 Day Blinds: For their buy 1 get 1 50% off deal, head to https://3DayBlinds.com/LEGALAF. 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 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 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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and dedicated support. from Staples experts who guide you on everything from product selection and ordering to payment. Join today at staplesprofessional.ca and get expert solutions tailored to your business. That was easy. According to a new filing in federal court, the best evidence that the Trump administration has to prove that 137 men are part of Trend Aragua, the narco-terrorist group in Venezuela, that was the entire impetus for Donald Trump's takeover of the oil fields of Venezuela. His use of the Alien Enemies Act, the entirety of the evidence against them, is what the American Civil Liberties Union calls patently absurd use of tattoos and clothing,

hand gestures, symbols, logos, and graffiti, including things that are, quote, unquote, close to laughable. I'm Michael Popock, bringing you up to date in a case pending before Chief Judge Boseberg. we call J.G. You're on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal A.F. Let's get to the new developments in this case. Chief Jeb Bosberg is trying to hold this administration accountable since at least March. He's the judge that started the criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. That's been blocked a couple of times by the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Circuit Court of Appeals. However, there's going to be a new hearing in that matter, and it could end up. back with Jeb Bosberg to allow him to continue to pursue content proceedings,

primarily against Christy Noem of all people, someone who's very, very close to being impeached if not fired and or thrown under the bus by Donald Trump. In this particular case, these 137 men represent a class that were sent to El Salvador without due process in the middle of the night in violation of the court's order. Judge Bozberg ordered that these men pursuant to Supreme Court precedent that was established just in the last year,

order that they get, and they're entitled to habeas corpus due process rights, to get before a federal judge to argue the case that they are not members of Trent Aragua, and they should be allowed to stay in the United States. The United States, in order to bury their mistake of sending these men without due process over court order in contempt, then had them transferred at a prisoner exchange,

facilitated by El Salvador to where Venezuela, just before the quote-unquote war broke out, we're sending these people back to Venezuela, a country who were at war with, if you think that made sense, and along for the ride with the 137 people to try to get them away from federal court jurisdiction. But the American Civil Liberties Union, who collaborates with us here on Legal A.F, they are keeping track of where their clients are. And they ran back into court, and the judge says, here's what I'm going to do. going to order that due process be given. I want to hear a plan from the United States.

Submit a plan to me about how you plan on giving them due process. Remote hearings, Zoom hearings, flying them back to the United States, having it done in consular offices. Whatever your proposal is, I'm all ears. And then about two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, they sent in a declaration, a sworn statement of testimony by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, about a few days after the Venezuelan oil field takeover. And there was a whole bunch of, I know you told us you want us to provide you with a plan for due process, but there can't be no plan.

We have no plan. It's unstable there. Who destabilized it? You know, it's very delicate negotiations. I can't bring this up in diplomacy. I can't guarantee, you know, that there'll be a proper notary publics to swear in witnesses. You know, what are we going to do?

So we'll get back to you, Judge, but we're not doing a darn thing. By the way, I thought Marco Rubio was the viceroy of Venezuela. At least that's what Donald Trump referred to him as. And he can't figure out a way to get 137 people on a plane back to the United States or to a consular office for a hearing. He also said, flights in and out are very delicate. You know, air traffic and air travel is very tumultuous right now. And yeah, but as the American Civil Liberties pointed out in their own filing,

There's at least three flights a day now running. Homeland Security Air is running regularly in and out of Venezuela. So they say, why can't they give them due process and put them on planes? Now, in their new filing, which I have a copy of, one of my favorite parts is when the American Civil Liberties Union says to the judge, we might not even need hearings. We are so confident in our evidence that these are not trend to Aragua, or as they say in their papers, 75% of the men that were sent in the middle of the night and disappeared to El Salvador, have no criminal record whatsoever, and some of them, many of them, were in the country

legally under asylum or other processes. So they're like, we can put together affidavits and submit summary judgment papers. We don't even need a hearing because we're so confident that the government doesn't have the evidence to prove that our clients are trend to Aragua that we'll do it on papers without a hearing. That's how confident the ACLU is. Here's what they said on page 5 and 6 about the patent absurdity of the case, including wearing a Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls jersey. Every 11-year-old out there wearing a Chicago Bulls Jordan jersey, retro jersey, look out,

because ICE might be coming to your door next. The government's own documents, the ACLU says, reveal the patent absurdity of using tattoos and attire as indicators of TDA. That's Trend to Aragua membership, as they've done for many class members. That's the 137. For instance, the Chicago Homeland Security Investigation's Office identified wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey, particularly one bearing Michael Jordan's name as a TDA marker. experts characterize this theory, the ACLU tells the judge, as close to laughable. No, I think it's laughable. Given the bold status as Chicago's home team in Jordan's universal popularity, here's a quote from one of the experts.

The idea that a Jordan tattoo or Jersey would be used to link someone with Trenda Aragua is close to laughable. There you go. Even the government's own intelligence contradicts the practice. gang unit collections determined that the Chicago Bulls attire, clocks, and rose tattoos are typically related to the Venezuelan culture and not a definite indicator of being a member of the gang. Nor as the government's reliance on hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti, or matter of dress fare any better. Experts agree that trend Aragua lacks consistent econography, unifying symbols, or a distinctive style of. clothes. They just don't have that. They don't have gang colors, if you know what I mean. And there's no evidence whatsoever that TDA maintains a constitution or issues membership documentation.

Yet these two were treated as purported indicators of affiliation. The ACLU says to the judge, moreover, approximately 75% of individuals sent to El Salvador to the Seacod prison had no criminal record in the United States or abroad and many entered the United States lawfully, including several who arrived as highly vetted refugees. Have you ever bought something for your house that looked amazing in the store? And then you got home and immediately regretted it. Yeah, same. That's why I'd much rather shop at home where I can actually see how things look.

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Marco Rubio says at this time to facilitate the return of the class members to the United States. But as to these men, the declaration conspicuously fails to explain why there is no, why there is any reason to believe that the current head of Venezuela, the vice president, would not honor the specific agreement made by the Maduro regime to not impose obstacles to their travel to the United States. In other words, even Maduro is going to let them go to the U.S. They argue that they're unable to retrieve class members from Venezuela as civilian travel into and out of Venezuela has become heavily restricted. but the ACLU says, but the defendant Department of Homeland Security has expanded deportation flights to Venezuela since the ouster sending three flights in the past week. So they're sending people to Venezuela. Planes got to come back to the United States.

Why can't they be filled with 137 men looking for due process? So the ACLU asked the judge to force the government to submit a new proposal to allow for remote proceedings. to give them back their travel documents, to allow for written submissions, and to put them back on their heels and explain. Well, the judge bought it and said or agreed and has ordered that by February 2nd,

the government respond to the proposal made by the ACLU to allow these people to go to consular offices, be flown back to the United States, be put on planes or submit written submissions. as due process. And by February 9th, the judge is going to hold a hearing in which he's going to decide on this very issue. Judge Boasberg's got his hands full, but he is not stopping in his pursuit of justice, just as you want a federal judge, impartial federal judge to do.

He's been charged with, they made a bar complaint against him, a judge complaint against him, They try to get him removed from the case. They try to impeach him. And yet, Chief Judge Bosberg, who was a Republican appointee, apparently, just keeps on going. Now, I had the honor of having Lee Glent, the lead lawyer for the ACLU in this matter, who had these papers drafted and he signed them on for an interview about this very issue just the same day as they submitted that paper. And here's a clip. Well, Lee, while I've got you because our audience, I don't want to leave him on the edge of their scene.

you and I first got together talking about a case in D.C. in front of Chief Judge Boseberg called JGP and 137 clients of yours in Venezuela. That was before the Trump administration decided to take over the oil fields of Venezuela with a military coup or putch. And so, and I know that Marco Rubio filed a piece of paper with Judge Bozberg and said, well, you wanted us to tell you how we're going to give due process to these 137. And the answer is, too delicate, too diplomatic, can't do it. Where are we in that case in your clients? Yeah, so you're absolutely right.

The judge said, I have jurisdiction. These men were sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process, then transfer to Venezuela. They are entitled to due process. I have jurisdiction to do it. I want the government to submit a plan of how they're going to do it, whether it's bring them back, remote hearings, whatever. As you said, Secretary Rubio filed a declaration saying,

things are too delicate to do anything. The judge has now said he wants a response to that from us on the night of January 26th, midnight January 26th. Coming up. Right. And then we'll see, and we've asked the judge to hold a hearing next week, we'll see if he does. But these men have been out there now for so long, removed without any due process. And so we hope that the judge will put his foot down and say to the government, you know, enough is enough.

Even taking into account the delicacy of what's going on in Venezuela, there are ways to deal with it. The other part of it, as you know, is that he is trying to hold, potentially hold them in criminal contempt for sending them to El Salvador in the first place, even though he had an order saying don't transfer them over. He ruled that there, you know, I want people to take the stand to explain. why they nonetheless turn people over to El Salvador, even though I had an order. They refused to take the stand. They went to the Court of Appeals. So we're waiting any day now from a ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether he can go forward with his contempt proceedings, I suspect, either side.

Who doesn't prevail will go further in that. You know, there's en banc, there's the Supreme Court. I think there's a lot at stake there as well because obviously it's the fate of these men, but it's also, is the Trump administration going to respect judicial orders? As you've said before, that transcends any particular issue. That goes to part of who we are as a country in the rule of law. Absolutely. And then finally, the 137 I saw in the paper filed by Marco Rubio,

I don't know what you're going to write in your briefing, but he did call himself or he has been called the viceroy of Venezuela, and yet he doesn't have the ability to provide due process to these men despite court order. putting that aside for a minute. They had some language in their filing about, well, we don't even know where these people are. Right. You know, look, 60 minutes interviewed, I think, a number of your clients when they did that report that was that was kiboshed and then finally Eric,

people were like, how do they get those people? Because they got sent to Venezuela. That's how they got these people. Your clients want you to go forward with this issue and get them the due process that the Supreme Court has said that they're entitled to. right right right and so whether the government knows where they are or not we can know where they are right that's right i said that in a hot take i said well the ACLU knows where their clients are so we'll leave it at that we look forward to your filing there glad you're here with us on uh might as touch come over to legal aF the american civil liberties union is with us now regularly for reporting they have their

own playlist under the american civil liberties union i have people like legal learned on on a regular basis. In fact, just later today, I'll be interviewing from the American Civil Liberties Union, Terry Nelson, who's one of the heads in the ACLU Minnesota office to talk about all things Minnesota and what the ACLU is doing about it in their lawsuits. I'm glad you're here. Hit the free subscribe button on Legal AF YouTube. Come over to our substack and do the exact same thing. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF. Me neither. That's why we formed the A.F. Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or an oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there,

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