Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Smacked Down by Judge Who Haunted Him in the Past

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

A senior federal judge in NY who knows Trump well from having ruled against him in the E Jean Carroll case, just told the DOJ in ruling against them on the attempted deportation and removal of undocumented to El Salvador, the he does accept their “flexible” approach to a detainee’s Due Process Rights and finds their approach to human suffering, the equivalent of the Inquisition during Medieval times. Michael Popok reports. Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/legalaf #squarepod 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

A senior federal judge in New York, Alvin Hellerstein, has just ruled during an afternoon hearing that Donald Trump and the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to try to remove and deport people to El Salvador, to the killer jails of Seekot, is the equivalent of the Inquisition and Medieval. And in response, the Department of Justice had the balls to say out loud that they see due process as a flexible standard. See, I thought Monday morning when Donald Trump posted on his social media, we can't give due process to everyone. I thought that showed a fundamental lack of understanding by the commander in chief,

the chief legal officer of the fundamentals of our constitutional bedrock. But now I see the lawyers are taking the tone from the top and they're telling federal judges that habeas corpus is a flexible standard. Well, Judge Hellerstein doesn't think so. In fact, even though the Supreme Court, and it's ruling back in early April in the JGG case in which they said six to three, well, you can use the Alien Enemies Act for

now, but there's got to be due process, there's got to be notice, and they didn't define it. Judge Hellerstein has defined it. He's told the parties, particularly the government, exactly what they need to do in terms of notice, exactly what they need to do in terms of due process in the habeas corpus world. And for those Venezuelans and others that are in his jurisdiction the Southern District of New York especially based on the Supreme Court's ruling on Saturday at 1 a.m. they're not going anywhere without due process until he's satisfied and he decided to get his pound of flesh today

with the lawyers there. Again, Drew Ensign. Drew Ensign is like the zealot. He shows up in every room. He's like a bad version of Forrest Gump. He's in every historical room making all the wrong decisions. You made the right decision. You're on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. Let me jump right into it. We had a hearing today in the afternoon. I'm going to do some reporting on that about what was people in the room and what they heard Judge Hellerstein say. But let me tell you how we got here.

Early April, Supreme Court says, nah, we don't want a class action in DC to handle this issue. We want individual or at least habeas corpus petitions filed wherever these people are located. Well, the ACLU and others were able to bring the case in Colorado, in New York, southern district of Texas, northern district of Texas, that's where all these Venezuelans were at that moment. And so they rushed to court and they got Judge Hellerstein

in the southern district of New York, that covers Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Bronx and different, it covers Manhattan and Orange County and different places there. So he issued his order. Now here's what his order said, which he issued on April the 11th, just a few days after the United States Supreme Court

made their ruling. The Supreme Court in its per curiam opinion of April 7th in Trump versus JGG ordered, enjo enjoying the removal of provisionally certified class of all non-citizens in US custody who are subject to the president's proclamation. Since in a habeas case, venue is proper only in the district of confinement, held that an individual subject to detention

and removal under the Alien Enemies Act is entitled to judicial review and ruled that detainees being held pursuant to the AEA are entitled to notice and an opportunity to be heard in such a manner as to allow them to seek habeas relief in the proper venue. He found that the petitioners are likely to succeed on the merits of their claims,

and this is where you can individually attack Donald Trump's attempt at using the AEA, the Alien Enemies Act. But this judge, Judge Tellerstein said, neither the AEA nor the presidential proclamation authorizes removal of detainees or other persons similarly situated without notice and a hearing, or they will suffer irreparable harm. Ordered, this was his order that we were there on

the hearing about today. Pending further orders of this court, the government has ordered not to remove petitioners subject to that invocation of the Alien Enemies Act from the United States, unless upon notice and hearing, and such notice shall be in English and Spanish, the language of those sought to be expelled, and if needed, Spanish to English interpreters shall be provided for hearings." And then he went through all the different ways

that has to happen. They had a status conference today. Hellersstein wasn't happy, and that's where he started to invoke medieval times. And I don't mean the restaurant where people are dressed like for medieval times. The Department of Justice, here's what Hellerstein said, absent these decisions by these various courts, people would be removed. Judge Sotomayor, and that's in her descent in the Supreme Court ruling, has shown the preparations the government made to remove people, that there

would be irreparable harm is obvious. The jails in El Salvador are not appetizing to say the least. He went on to say the following. From the bench, he said after detailing the horrific conditions in Seekot, which he said were reprehensible harm, he said, what way is that to treat a human being? It was a brutal hearing for the government. He compared all of the treatment and how they're being rushed out of the country

to avoid jurisdiction and being sent to El Salvador as being compared to the Inquisition like medieval times. He also said what is the rush? They're in custody. Obviously the rush is, of course, to take them out of the federal jurisdiction. Support for today's episode comes from Square, your all-in-one business partner making your day-to-day easier. From point of sale systems and payments to inventory and customer tools, Square brings everything together in one simple platform

so you can stay organized, sell anywhere and keep things moving. Whether you're running a cafe, salon, boutique or something entirely your own, Square gives you the flexibility to grow at your own pace and even set up an online store in just a few clicks. And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com slash go slash Legal AF. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E dot com slash go slash Legal AF. Visit

Square to get started because the right tools make all the difference. Listen, when I relocated, I was thrilled to see many of the local family-owned businesses in my area use Square, which automatically enhanced my payment and customer experience, including scheduling and reservations, like my local hair salon right on Miracle Mile. With Square's technology being so intuitive and simple to use, the staff can focus on me and great service. I love how flexible Square is. I've seen it work seamlessly for all kinds of businesses. Whether it's a small boutique, a pop-up art gallery, a weekend market stall, a food truck,

or even a yoga studio, Square adjusts to what you need. You can sell in person or online from one location or several. It's built to move with you and adapt as your business grows. Square's point of sales system is not only user-friendly, but also highly intuitive. Square gives you the tools to manage the behind-the-scenes work too. You can track sales, stay on top of inventory, and get a better understanding of your customers all in the same place. The reporting features are especially helpful when you're trying to make sense of what's working

and where to focus your time. And you're expanding online, Square makes it simple to set up a store in just a few minutes, perfect for those wanting to expand beyond a brick and mortar. Square supports all major credit cards and payment methods, including contactless options like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Checkout is fast and easy for your customers.

Square keeps up so you don't have to slow down. Get everything you need to run and grow your business without any long term commitments. And why wait? Right now you can get up to $200 off Square hardware at square.com slash go slash legal AF. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E.com slash G-O slash legal AF. Wow, run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. Let me read you a couple of other notes

from the courtroom, so to speak. The Department of Justice lawyers are trying to argue they gave proper notice and the judge is questioning the type of notice they were given and the type of hearing they were given. Judge Hellerstein, the ACLU's Mr. Gallant argued there has to be notice sufficient to contest the allegations. An English forum doesn't do it. The Supreme Court granted an administrative stay and we'll see going forward,

describing what happened at one o'clock in the morning on Saturday. Hellerstein said, I've seen the pictures of these people bent over. How is that any way to treat people? Is a tattoo actual hostilities? And then the Department of Justice lawyer said, there was just a Trende Aragwa indictment just the other day. Yeah, there was also a Trende Aragwa dismissal just the other day of an indictment.

So what's going to happen now? I mean, this is exactly what the Supreme Court wanted. This is exactly what Donald Trump didn't want, which is he didn't want hundreds or thousands of individual habeas corpus petitions flooding into the lawsuit, into the courthouses, but that's what has to happen. There's no other way to administer. Look, the Supreme Court could have thought of a number of different ways to handle this, but once they went down the road of habeas corpus petitions, which has really never been used to stop deportation and removal, then you were going to have individual judges, like Judge Hellerstein, the judge in Colorado, the judge in the Southern District of Texas, all making rulings. And what Trump missed in his being debriefed about the result of the April 7th

Supreme Court ruling, which he cheered as being in his favor, is that the Supreme Court said, these people can individually challenge whether the Alien Enemies Act was properly invoked by Donald Trump. Why are we at war with Venezuela? How are these people enemy combatants? These are things that judges like Hellerstein

are gonna get to the bottom of. Now you might remember Judge Hellerstein, and Donald Trump certainly does, because Hellerstein ruled against Donald Trump a number of times as Donald Trump tried to remove his case brought against him for sex abuse and defamation by E. Jean Carroll, one that he lost twice, was found to have sex abused. E. Jean Carroll under New, New York law, was awarded, she was awarded almost a hundred million dollars in damages. She was also defamed by him. He wanted to get that out of the federal courts and get it out of the state courts of New York and get it over to the federal courts. And the judge, having looked at the record and having heard testimony, said,

I don't think a private affair, literally, of this person while they were running for president or otherwise is an official conduct that gives him the right for federal officer removal. So Hellerstein is no stranger to Donald Trump, but he's doing his job here, you know, and we appreciate it. We're gonna continue to follow how individual judges and the American Civil Liberties Union

are trying to keep the Trump administration's feet to the fire, keep due process, and the Fifth Amendment privileges and Fifth Amendment rights alive against Donald Trump who wants to kill them all because they're flexible and it would be too hard to do. If you're trying to put somebody in, let me make this simple for you.

I see this has to be simplified and dumbed down for our President of the United States and his Department of Justice. If you're trying to put somebody in jail, no matter where those jails are located, in the United States or in some foreign country or some black ops torture center, before you do it, you have to give them proper notice

that effectuates due process, doesn't undermine due process, and bring them before a judge in a black robe for the due process they are required. And if you win at the end of that, then you can send them to wherever you want, subject to the Geneva Convention, the Convention against Torture, and the Eighth Amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. That's it. It's not that hard. You make it very hard in order to confuse your voters, but we try to simplify it here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. So while you're here, hit the subscribe button.

Have you heard? Midas Touch Brothers podcast got the Webby, the Oscar for podcast of the year. And that's a good thing. The network, number one on YouTube, we love that. And then Legal AF, which I founded with the brothers five years ago, not only has an amazing podcast of its own, it's in the top 10 or 12 right now on that same chart.

We want to get a Webby in a couple of years, next year maybe. We also have this great YouTube channel, Legal AF MTN. Come on over there, hit the subscribe button, help us continue to grow that pro-Democracy channel also. So until my next report, I'm Michael Pupack. 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.