DOJ Lawyer Asks to Be Arrested Over Trump’s Orders!

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2:42That was attorney Julie Lee working for the Department of Justice in a courtroom in the United States, in Minneapolis, in response to Judge Blackwell asking Julie Lee, why in the five habeas corpus petition cases that I'm handling for migrants who are unconstitutionally spending their time in jail instead of out and about, why have there been so many violations of my orders? And this was Julie Lee's response. Not some random person on the street, a person who volunteered for the job, A person who used to work for ICE and decided to go to Minneapolis and help the Department of Justice. And then in tears during this report, during this court appearance, basically threw herself on the mercy of the court and asked to be thrown in jail so she could get some sleep.

3:37I'm Michael Popak. You're on Midas Touch and Legal AF. Okay. A couple of days ago, I reported that the chief judge of all the federal courts in Minnesota, Judge Schiltz, in an order declared the following about the Trump administration. He said that in the month of January, that there have been 96 court orders in 74 different cases in Minnesota alone in the month of January 2026 alone. And he thinks that number is underreported. He said of those about 100 court orders violated, he believes that ICE has violated more court orders in January of 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.

4:27And he says it's going to stop now. ICE is not a law unto itself. Chief Judge Schultz wrote, ICE has every right to challenge its orders, but it has to follow its orders unless they're overturned or vacated. Which brings us forward a handful of days later to Julie Lee in court. Julie Lee is not an assistant U.S. attorney. I guess she's been deputized to be such for now. She apparently, according to reporting on the ground in Minneapolis, worked in ICE as an attorney in immigration court. She decides, I guess, either compelled or she decides on her own to go help out the U.S. attorney's office in Minnesota.

5:08Why? because there's only about five or six people left there. Most of the office and all of its leadership has walked out the door. Things are so bad in Minnesota's U.S. Attorney's Office where the U.S. Attorney, all senior leadership walked out the door that during a discussion with Greg Bovino, who's now of course departed from Minneapolis, Minnesota, but he was head of Border Patrol, He actually thought it was okay to make fun of the religion of the replacement U.S. attorney, who happens to be Orthodox Jewish, talking about him being the chosen people and complaining about him not being available on the Sabbath to talk to Greg Bovino.

5:53That's how morale's doing in that U.S. attorney's office that Julie Lee is working for. Now we fast forward to this beleaguered batch of lawyers trying to run around with putting their fingers in the dike if they can. And now you've got Julie Lee in court with Judge Blackwell. And Judge Blackwell has five cases out of the hundreds of what we call writ of habeas corpus. That's people who are languishing without due process in detention centers, ICE detention centers, trying to get before federal judges. And orders have been violated over and over and over again, which leads to this exchange as reported by local reporters.

6:36Julie Lee says, we have no guidance or direction on what we need to do. She says, this is to the federal judge. She says, the system sucks. This job sucks. I'm trying with every breath I have to get you what I need. She talks about the office being depleted. She talks about the fact that, of course, they're not getting any guidance. And, of course, the judge fires back with his own expression of frustration that this is of your own making because of noncompliance with my orders. I mean, she's basically in tears. She admitted in court that it's been like pulling teeth to get ICE to comply with the court orders and has required nonstop work in an already depleted office, which is why she wants to be sent to Federal Detention Center to sleep.

7:34Now, all jocularity aside, I feel for Julie Lee. I assume she didn't think that she was going to be doing immoral things and being an officer of the court, having to look a judge in the eye and say, we're violating orders because we don't have the manpower, we're running ragged, we don't have the people, and we don't have the institutional focus, and I can't get my client to abide by court orders. I doubt that's why she signed up for this gig. She worked in immigration court representing ICE. That's a thankless job to begin with. She decided to go from the frying pan into the fire and ends up before a not an immigration court judge.

8:14See, where she was working, everybody worked for the Trump administration. Get it? In immigration, immigration judges, despite their name, are really just agents of the Trump administration, the Department of Justice. They work for the Department of Justice on the executive side. They're not Article III judges under the Constitution. They're not impartial. They're not neutral. They work for the big man in the White House. She works for ICE. So she works for Trump. The judge works for Trump. Everybody works for Trump except for the lawyer and the poor migrant that's sitting in immigration court.

8:49That's the world she came out of. Now she's in the world of Article III judges, where she does not regularly practice. And I guess she's literally throwing herself on the mercy of the court.

9:25And at that time, Popak was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the Popak Firm, where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popak's firm is free. Give him a call. See if you have a case. It's thepopakfirm.com. thepopokfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPOKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popok a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popok. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.

10:13But this should come as no surprise. What we are watching is Minnesota under siege in the streets of Minnesota? Yes. That's Border Patrol and ICE wearing body cams now, apparently, and how they are, how do I put this nicely, interacting with First Amendment protesters, U.S. citizens, legally here people, and migrants. That's stressing the system as law enforcement and the National Guard try to figure out how to protect Minnesotans from their own federal government. In the courts, though, and this doesn't get covered enough, you've got federal judges who You have to handle dozens and dozens of habeas corpus petitions for the hundreds and thousands of people that have been picked up off the street by ICE.

10:55They have to get processed. They have lawyers, or hopefully they get lawyers. And those lawyers file petitions to get before federal judges. You think it's equivalent to, remember in Jan 6th, all the D.C. district court judges, federal, that each one of them had dozens and dozens of the couple of thousand Jan Sixers who attacked the Capitol. Those all ended up in a giant grind at the court system. Same thing's going on in Minnesota. And they're not ready to handle this. This is not a giant district of judges compared to other districts. So you have a beleaguered underwater U.S. attorney's office.

11:34I mean, I'm not asking for sympathy, although I am using Julie Lee as somebody who's a victim here, if you will. I've got federal judges who aren't prepared for this. and it's all coming to a head. This is why Chief Judge Schiltz wrote his order, just extraordinary order, just four days ago, in which he said, I'm going to start holding people in contempt. Here's what Judge Schiltz said. He's the chief judge of the whole darn thing. He said, the court warns ICE that future noncompliance with court orders may result in future show cause orders requiring the personal appearance of Todd Lyons, the head of ICE, or other government officials.

12:13That's exactly what the Trump administration doesn't want to do. And a weeping Julie Lee, although she's the canary in the coal mine, as far as I'm concerned, is not helping the Department of Justice get out from under the ire of Judge Schultz. You know? And credit to Judge Blackwell. I mean, look, he's not going to pull out a giant tissue box. He said what is obvious. This is a problem of the Department of Justice's own making. Nobody wants to work there. Everybody has quit. Maybe if they were properly investigating in collaboration with state officials, the execution, summary execution of Renee Good and Alex Preddy, they're not the only ones.

12:54There's dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people who have been killed related to their interaction with ICE, whether in detention or on the streets. Since Donald Trump has started, 38 less people, and they're not all illegal migrants, child rapists,

13:13or human smugglers or drug dealers or narco-terrorists, which is what they always want to tell you. And that's not the case at all. So we'll continue to follow the apparent meltdown of the Department of Justice, at least in Minnesota, because look at the guidance. Do I think it's any coincidence that Julie Lee's meltdown in court came just several hours after Pam Bondi decided to spend more time in Minnesota? I don't think so. But I'm sure my next report is she got canned, she got fired for telling the truth, and I hope she gets some sleep. And Julie, when you get fired and you want to come on, might as touch on Legal AF, give us a call.

13:54We'll certainly platform you. So until our next report, I'm Michael Popak. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, 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 got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack.

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