Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Throws Tantrum After SCOTUS Ruling… Swirls Down the Drain!

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

The Supreme Court gave Trump a one-line “out” about his foreign affairs powers, and Trump is now flipping the script and making the illegal removal and deportation of Armando Abrego Garcia all about Trump’s foreign affairs powers as he now declares that the US is powerless to tell El Salvador what to do with Mr. Garcia, as Trump and the dictator of El Salvador taunt the American people and the US Supreme Court from the Oval Office. Michael Popok explains how Trump used the scripted Oval Office event to reinforce his new court filings, and discusses how Judge Xinis at her contempt hearing and the Supreme Court will respond, as the chances of Mr. Garcia’s return dwindle to slim. Reverse hair loss with @iRestorelaser and get $625 off with the code LEGALAF at https://irestorelaser.com/LEGALAF! #irestorepod 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

The chances of Armando Abrego Garcia being returned from El Salvador are suddenly dwindling to very slim because of Donald Trump's continued defiance of the United States Supreme Court and the unlikely and the unlikely event that the Supreme Court wants to cause an international crisis by making an order against an El Salvadorian dictator president who is already in a scripted moment with the Trump administration said he is not bringing Abrego Garcia back. against an El Salvadorian dictator president who's already in a scripted moment with the Trump administration said he is not bringing Abrego Garcia back. This has to do with our democracy

and not just Donald Trump trying to offload US citizens and others to be housed and stored in an El Salvadoran jail. This has to do as to whether we're gonna allow the petty dictator of El Salvador dictate how our constitutional republic, how our due process works in this country. We're supposed to be the leaders of the free world, not the petty dictator of El Salvador, the murder capital of the world with a poverty rate exceeding 25%.

When did that happen? I'm Michael Popak, you Your On Midas Touch Network. Let's talk about this scripted call and response, pitch and catch, oval office ceremony, crammed full of cabinet members, including Pam Bondi, the Attorney General of the United States, all there to basically, along with Bukele, the dictator, wearing some sort of black t-shirt under his suit, all there in a scripted moment, like an oil painting, to tell the Supreme Court and Judge Zinus in Maryland to go eff herself. That is what that was.

And then use that moment of the pitch and catch between Donald Trump and Booth Kelly, where Booth Kelly says out loud, I'm not going to be smuggling a terrorist back into the United States, even though I have the power, setting up the very confrontation that the Supreme Court, I believe, was trying to avoid in their decision. But they left in a little stray little line, a little clanking part inside of there that Donald Trump grasped onto like it was his last meal, which was a comment about the limits of the district court to be able to order the Trump administration to effectuate the return of Abrego Garcia instead of facilitate suggesting that there

were limits because of the foreign powers exclusivity of the presidential core function. So be careful, they told the court, be careful on what you order and don't verge into this area of foreign affairs, which is the exclusive province of the president. Oh, so they latched onto that. I'm telling you like a dog with a bone. Stephen Miller, oh, we've been we've been Vindicated by the Supreme Court. You can't order us to do anything It's a sovereign state and then they started to flip They started to flip their script and flip their narrative on Monday or so Donald Trump said out loud to reporters

Well at the Supreme Court ordered me to return somebody. Well, I respect the Supreme Court Well, will or will will bring him back. Well, no. Now their position is El Salvador is sovereign. We can't order them to do anything. You can't order me as the president to conduct any type of foreign policy. This is all foreign policy. This is not foreign policy. It's only foreign because Donald Trump decided to delegate an offload and store human beings in El Salvador pursuant to a contract and pay El Salvador $6 million to fill an empty jail. Now Donald Trump loves that idea so much that he declared out loud at the Oval Office that

he's considering sending US citizen criminals to El Salvador. Sure, why not? There's a little something called cruel and unusual punishment. We're supposed to take care of our prisoners, not other people, based on our morals, our values, our patriotism. We don't abuse, we don't have an inhumane prison system. That's not America. That's the reason you don't wanna be in other countries because you end up in their criminal justice system

such as it is and end up in these jails. Now let's go back to this filing that just got made by the Trump administration telling the judge to go F herself. Every day pursuant to a court order, and there's gonna be a hearing today on it about contempt, the judge, Judge Zinnis, ordered pursuant to her empowering,

the empowerment of a Supreme Court decision that said you are responsible for administrating justice in that courtroom. You're doing the right thing, the nine zero Supreme Court said, just Judge Zinnis, you are doing the right thing to preserve the due process rights, the constitutional Fifth Amendment rights of Abrego Garcia.

We like everything about your order. Continue to monitor and keep the government's feet to the fire. But there's limits. We know this Supreme Court. They're going to back down against Donald Trump on this foreign affairs and foreign policy issues. And Trump has created it and turned it into and morphed it into a foreign policy issue. Sovereign El Salvador, sovereign US, we can't tell him what to do. Sure you can. You have a contract. You're paying him $6 million. Use diplomacy to get him back. Oh, you can't order

me to use diplomacy. And you can see the flip script in a comment made by Pam Bondi, who is packed into this room for this photo op. She's the head of the Department of Justice. Here's her message to Judge Zinnis with the hearing coming up today. Let's play Pam Bondi. The Supreme Court ruled president that if, as El Salvador wants to return him, this is international matters, foreign affairs, if they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane. Now that's right on the heels of this call and response, good boy, give him a biscuit

comment by the petty dictator of El Salvador, Bukele. Now just a side note, when Zelensky, President Zelensky of Ukraine, who is a wartime president, literally his country is at war, showed up with like a fatigue shirt, all the Trumpers and JD Vance said, oh, it's so insulting. You didn't wear a shirt and tie. You'll see this next clip. But Kelly shows up wearing a black t-shirt over a suit jacket. That's how he goes to the Oval Office. And this is the new thing for Donald Trump, and we're going to keep a close eye on it.

He uses the Oval Office as a backdrop, you know, as part of his bully pulpit. You know, the pomp and circumstance of the Oval Office. I've never seen a president, and I've been covering this for a long time and I've been a student of presidential politics since I was in college. I've never seen a president shove so many people, you know, it's like 50 pounds of potatoes in a five pound sack shoved into the Oval Office, you know, Secretary of State's there, JD Vance's there, Pam Bondi's there Stephen Miller Let's take a timeout for Stephen Miller for a minute Stephen Miller

Who's the deputy White House chief of staff and also like a lawyer or a spokesperson for the Homeland Security? He is running all of Donald Trump's domestic Policy, you don't like a domestic policy of Donald Trump. You don't like the immigration policies. You don't like what he's doing with tariffs. That is Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller is the one that came up with the idea with Kristi Noem to use the Alien Enemies Act to send 250 terrorists that were allegedly at war with at Venezuela to El Salvador in the first place. So of course he's in the room

misstating the Supreme Court decision, but Pam Bondi knows better, but she doesn't because this is the position they're taking a little bit inconsistently in the courtroom. Let's play a clip of a pitch and catch comment, call and response scripted to within an inch of its life between Trump and this comment by President Bukele that ends up in a filing later that night required by Judge Zinnis. Let's play the clip of President Bukele. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States.

But you can release him inside of his mother. Yeah, but I'm not releasing, I mean we're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. Hey, look at me, Michael Popock here and yes, I'm actually using Iris Store's amazing Elite Hair Growth Device. And now you know one of my many personal grooming secrets to having great looking hair at 59. It's time to shake off the winter blues and get ready for a fresh start. This season, tackle thinning hair and hair loss with the iRestore Elite.

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You don't have to fight it alone, thanks to iRestore. Now hold that thought. Let me read to you for what's been filed. Every day for the last three days, the Trump administration has had to file what we call in court a declaration, which is a sworn statement under oath. It's like an affidavit. And every day they picked a new person. You know, I don't know whether it's a short straw going on over there, but every day it's somebody new. The first day they picked a guy that had no factual knowledge whatsoever despite the fact that he needed to have factual knowledge.

He even filed it in the wrong court or mentioned the wrong court in the filing. Then they picked another person and now they picked a lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security, which makes sense because all they're doing is argument. This is just argumentative declarations. Declarations are supposed to be on facts of fact witnesses who know something because of their five senses. Not an argument, not written by a lawyer for a lawyer in order to try to expand the record at the trial court level in order to try to have another argument at the United

States Supreme Court and relitigate the Supreme Court ruling. Now the judge entered an order that every day at five o'clock she wants to know where Abrego Garcia is in El Salvador and what steps have been taken to get him out and what steps will be taken. Now in their filings they're not telling her any of the steps. They're basically telling her to go F herself. We're not telling you, we're not telling you, and we're not telling you in a separate filing before I get to this new filing in a separate filing on Sunday

against the motion for contempt, which is going to be heard today. They actually went as far as to say, well, we know, you know, judge that President Bukele is meeting on Monday with President Trump. It's very sensitive situation. And you should just let us run this. And you can't tell us how to run foreign affairs anyway. See the United States Supreme Court decision. So we thought, oh, they like dangling the hope that they're negotiating a resolution. They were dangling.

You just saw the clip of Boo Kelly saying, I'm not gonna smuggle a terrorist back into the United States. I would never do that. Well, and Trump's like, well, what am I supposed to smuggle a terrorist back into the United States. I would never do that. Well, and Trump's like, well, what am I supposed to do? You saw, and you saw Pan Bondi say, well, we'd send a plane if he got out. Right, if he smuggled himself out, if there was a jailbreak, like on television, and he got out son of the super max prison in El Salvador, and he just wandered to an airport

and then, I don't know, stowed away in the landing gear and ended up back in the United States. We'd let him back in. Great. But this is not MacGyver, right? This is not a hostage movie. You know, one of these action movies. So here's what they just filed.

This is from Joe Mazzaro. We'll put his picture up. Look at this guy. He's the acting general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security. He said, now this is supposed to be where Abrego Garcia is, what steps have been taken, what steps will be taken to have him facilitate his return. You listen to this, it will take long. It's only four paragraphs substantively. On March 15, 2023, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador. Yeah, we know that. That's paragraph four. That's how we got here. Paragraph five. Now he's trying to re-litigate the history of the case with stuff that is not

before the judge and has not been brought into evidence. During bond proceedings in 2019, an immigration judge upheld the Department of Homeland Security's decision not to grant bond, finding that its determination that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, a gang, was trustworthy and supported by the evidence and noted that Abrego Garcia failed to present evidence to rebut that assertion. Let's stop right there. What facts does he have to support that? He says during a bond proceeding, were you at the bond proceeding?

Did you participate in the bond proceeding? Were you even in the Department of Homeland Security in 2019? Where did you get that information from? Who told you? What did you refer to? Again, a deficient declaration. The Board of Immigration Appeals,

now he's continuing with the history of the case, the procedural history, upheld the finding and Abrego Garcia appealed. Okay, next paragraph, six. Abrego Garcia was ordered removed by an immigration judge. He was also granted withholding of removal by an immigration judge. Now we're in C. Dick Run, C. Jane Reed. This is caveman writing. Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding. Stop right there. A immigration judge in 2019 issued an order which the Trump administration violated which 13 different judges acknowledged, including all nine judges of the United States Supreme Court, that he was illegally brought to El Salvador against an order of a federal immigration judge when the Trump administration knew that there was an order preventing his removal

to El Salvador. That's it. That is the driver that led the Supreme Court to rule in Abrego Garcia's favor, to uphold our flag and our constitution and our values. Then they go into the procedures because their new argument is we're only going to facilitate on the domestic side. We can't tell the sovereign what to do. You jumped them off with the sovereign. You contracted with the sovereign. Pull the contract, pull the funding, and pull Abrego Garcia out of the supermax prison. DHS has established process for taking steps to remove domestic obstacles, but we can't do anything about somebody in in foreign custody. Paragraph eight, I am aware that the president

of El Salvador, Naeep Buckeli, was in Washington today on Monday to meet with President Donald Trump. President Buckeli and President Trump held a bilateral summit at the White House. Is that what that was? A bilateral summit? It looked like a phony press conference. But you know, I digress. I understand that in response to a question, President Buckeli said, and you saw the clip, I'm not, I hope you're not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States.

How can I do that? It's preposterous. A video of the meeting is here at this clip, Judge. So you saw it, a scripted call and response. I'm surprised they didn't give Bukele a dog bone. He was so obedient. Here you go, boy. Good boy.

Good, we're gonna use that today in our filing. Great, you were right on the mark. I'm sure Stephen Miller wrote it, and I'm sure Pam Bondi couldn't read it, and then Bukele said it, and now it showed up in this filing. Judge's not gonna be happy, but the real fundamental question is,

what is she gonna do about it, and what is the US Supreme Court gonna do about it? She's got a contempt hearing. Does she find members of the Trump administration and the lawyers for the Department of Justice in contempt and start sending people to jail? I'm not sure there's any other way to get Bukele to get Abrego Garcia out. And then if it ultimately and when it ultimately gets to the United States Supreme Court, what

are they going to do, including the alt-right wing of the Supreme Court? I'll tell you what they're not likely to do. They're not likely to cause an international global crisis of their own making and do some sort of requiring that Trump violate El Salvador's sovereignty. You'll watch, they're going to uphold the sovereignty of El Salvador in a U.S. constitutional decision. And we're going to report on it, and you're going to hold everybody responsible and vote

the bastards out at midterms. That's the only thing we can do at this point. As we watch the Supreme Court try in vain, try kind of in a very useless fashion to control an out of control rogue president. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popock. You're on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Come on over to the Legal AF YouTube channel, hit the free subscribe button and I'll be there for you. 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