Federal Judge Just Did It Again…

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2:29Michael Popok:Donald Trump's case against the Internal Revenue Service that was found to be bad faith conduct and a misuse of the judicial system by federal judge Kathleen Williams in Miami is back in the news. Because in breaking news, just late last night, Judge Williams entered a 18-page order in which she has refused and rejected the Trump side's request to stay her sanctions order issued back in July against Donald Trump and his lawyers while they take an appeal, finding they don't have merit to their appeal, nor does she find her order appealable as of right. She reminds everybody that she had found back on July 13th of 2026 that after making findings that the plaintiffs, including Donald Trump, committed bad faith conduct and the misuse of the judicial system.

3:22Michael Popok:And as a result, she sanctioned the lawyers. The attorney Alejandro Brito was referred to the Florida Bar for Discipline. Attorney Daniel Epstein, his colleague, was barred for a year from applying to practice law in the Southern District of Florida, him being an out-of-state attorney. And she also put a gag order and a restriction on everybody in the of Justice, including Todd Blanche, from referring to whatever that resolution or that phony settlement was between Donald Trump and his own internal revenue service that he manipulated to refer to that as a settlement agreement or the evidence of a settlement, finding it could not have been a settlement because the parties were not adversarial.

4:04Michael Popok:They were in cahoots. It was collusive. And the reason I believe she particularly barred them from referring to it as a settlement is that under the judgment statute, the Department of Justice can't settle a case unless there is a merit-based claim underneath it. Her having found no merit-based claim, she's also barred them from referring to it as a settlement. Well, Donald Trump hired a new lawyer. What else? He came in and asked to have Judge Williams sanctions order against those parties for bad faith conduct and misuse of the judicial system stayed. And now she's come back and said she is not granting the stay.

4:44Michael Popok:I have the entire order up on Legal AF Substack for our paid members to review. Let me read to you from certain sections on page 13 against the argument that the First Amendment rights of the Department of Justice are somehow abridged and violated because they can't call the non-settlement a settlement. she says the following, speech intended to mislead the judiciary and other official tribunals is not protected by the First Amendment. She then refers to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which govern the conduct of lawyers in the courtroom. You can't lie to the tribunal. You have to be candid to the tribunal.

5:29Michael Popok:And although she quotes from a case of Gentile versus the State Bar of Nevada, and although litigants do not surrender their First Amendment rights at the courthouse door, those rights may be subordinated to other interests that arise in this setting. It is unquestionable that whatever right to free speech an attorney has is extremely circumscribed in a judicial setting. She continues, Judge Williams, although the parties to rely on the settlement agreement, or allowing the parties to rely on the settlement agreement as evidence of a settlement in this matter would perpetuate the false narrative that the agreement resolved a controversy between adversarial litigants in this court.

6:11Michael Popok:Such a narrative deceives the public, impedes official proceedings, and undermines confidence in the courts. Accordingly, the court's significant interest outweighs the party's desire to make the inaccurate assertions under the cloak of the First Amendment. Don't lie about your settlement. Don't say that the reason you're giving Donald Trump, for instance, a free pass on prior tax evasion, along with his family, Todd Blanche, the attorney general, is because you entered into a settlement agreement. She's not allowing the Trump side of this case and its lawyers to use and really use and abuse the imprimatur of the court to give what they've done some sort of court-approved legitimacy.

6:52Michael Popok:She is ripping that veneer off. She ripped it off in her sanction order back in July. She is reinforcing it here in her order, detailed order. She didn't have to do such a long order. She could have done it in a paragraph, but she felt it was important for the record to write her 18 pages here. She then continues talking about what the sanctions are and why they are particularly important. She also acknowledged again that 35 former federal judges, including Judge Ludig, who's been on the show with me a number of times. He's coming on in the next two days on the 17th of September, which is Constitution Day.

7:36Michael Popok:Judge Ludick, who led the charge along with Nancy Gertner, former Judge Nancy Gertner, among these 35 federal judges. They filed a friend of the court brief. They were strangers to the lawsuit. But they brought a case. They asked the court to reopen after the underlying case was dismissed with prejudice by the Department of Justice. They asked the court to look at whether she had been defrauded, look at whether there had been a fraud on the court. This is how the judge framed it on page three of her order. She said, on May 29th, rather than reopen the case, the court ordered, pursuant to its authority under federal rule of Civil Procedure 11 that plaintiffs detail their position, that's the Trump side, on the charges of collusion and whether the parties are truly adverse, the assertion that the dismissal in this case was premised on deception by the parties, that's the Trump side, and the question of whether the case should be reopened because the court was the victim of fraud.

8:39Michael Popok:So that's how we got here. Here's what the judge has ordered here at the end of her. Conclusion. For the reasons set forth above, it is ordered in a judge that plaintiffs and their attorneys expedited motion to stay the sanctions order and related proceedings pending appeal is denied. Here's something most people aren't told about their credit score. It's not just like whether you pay your credit cards. It's when you pay them. Yeah, most people don't realize that like me. But smart credit data experts understand how credit bureaus operate. So they They created something called the best paid down date built around how credit reporting actually works.

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10:01Michael Popok:That's smartcredit.com slash legal AF. Results vary. Cancel anytime. time. So they got an appeal that they're taking up at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that sits in Atlanta. They're going to have to argue that somehow the judge abused her discretion. That's the standard, sort of a low threshold, or it's a high burden on the movement to prove that the judge abused their discretion. Judges are given liberal discretion to run their own courtrooms. And especially if there's been fraud on them, bad faith on them, or some sort of other contempt conduct, contumacious conduct, federal judges have the power to sanction and regulate the activity and the behavior of officers of the court, judges, sorry, lawyers before them, period.

10:52Michael Popok:And that doesn't get overturned very often. They may not like it, but she was very judicious about how she's meted out her punishment. You know, she barred the Department of Justice from calling it a settlement agreement or referring to it as a settlement. She referred one of the lawyers for discipline because she felt like his responses subjected him to discipline by the Florida Bar, but she'll let the Florida Bar do its own thing. By the way, she also, she didn't mention it here, but she also referred Todd Blanche to the New York Bar for potential disciplinary proceedings. Now, we understand the New York Bar is not moving on that and has rejected it.

11:35Michael Popok:I think that's why she didn't mention it. But she did make the referral of Todd Blanche. There's no harm to Todd Blanche that he can sue on because his bar referral got rejected. And then this guy, Daniel Epstein, you know, Jeffrey, believe me, it's strange. His name is Daniel Z. Epstein, not that one. He doesn't regularly practice in Florida. And if you abuse the court system, your privilege of being admitted specially or what we call pro-ac-vici to practice can be can be pulled by a federal judge it happens it happens not that irregularly so she also said i don't see the irreparable harm you're only out for a year i only referred you to the department of justice and i only ordered that you can't lie when it comes to the settlement agreement what's your harm in other words i'm not going to block it or do a stay because she went through the factors you're not going to win.

12:30Michael Popok:I don't think my order is appealable. You're not allowed to lie to courts, which is what you ultimately did in bad faith. Florida Bar has not moved on the referral, so you don't have any damage. And I'm not going to stop the process. And no. So they'll have to now take this to the 11th Circuit, see what panel they get. Now, warning, the 11th Circuit leans to the right. Many of the judges up there came from the state court system and they were appointed by Ron DeSantis. If they came that way and then Trump put them on the 11th Circuit, I assure you they are leaning far to the right. Chief Judge Pryor, however, does not lean to the right.

13:12Michael Popok:He's a Republican conservative, but he's not MAGA and he often rules against Donald Trump. Let's see where this case lands, what three-judge panel is assigned, and then I can tell you more here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Great news on the 17th of this month, coming up, actually tomorrow. Tomorrow? No, on the 17th. Try it again. On the 17th of this month is Constitution Day. We'll be doing a full day of programming, including with former and current federal judges and others to talk about Constitution Day on the Legal AF YouTube channel. And we're just several days away. This is ironic.

13:54Michael Popok:Constitution Day is also our birthday. I just figured that out. Our birthday for Legal AF YouTube channel is Constitution Day. Boy, that was perfect. I'd love to tell you that I planned it that way, but I did not. But now that I think about it, that's amazing. Help us continue to grow our pro-democracy channel on Legal AF YouTube channel in collaboration with Midas Touch. Come over there if you're not already a member and hit that free subscribe button. Until my 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.

14:34Michael Popok: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. Come over now to free subscribe.