Furious Judge Unleashes Hell on Trump in Final Order

27 Dec 2025 · 20 min · 7 chapters

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In short

Chief Judge Bozberg issues a final order criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of 250 Venezuelan men labeled “Tren de Aragua” and removed to El Salvador, ruling they are still entitled to due process and habeas corpus oversight in U.S. federal court.

Guest backgrounds

The episode centers on Judge Bozberg and whistleblower Erez Reveni (former DOJ immigration litigation head). It also references Emil Bove (DOJ official later on the Third Circuit) and cites ACLU involvement; host Michael Popok discusses the case.

Key claims

The government allegedly tried to evade judicial review by delaying/publicizing an Alien Enemies Act proclamation while flying detainees out during an emergency hearing. The judge finds the U.S. had constructive control over detainees in El Salvador and that habeas relief can’t be “neutered” by secret transfers.

Notable examples

UN reports on U.S. control; the “f*** you” alleged DOJ stance toward courts; flights leaving before the proclamation; emergency hearing timing; reliance on Abrego-Garcia and habeas corpus as the remedy.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

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Judge Bozberg's Order on Immigration Case

2:22 to 4:50

Hear about Judge Bozberg's ruling in favor of Venezuelan migrants and its implications.

“Chief Judge Bozberg in breaking news has just issued a new order lambasting the Trump administration.”

Details of the Case and Whistleblower Insights

4:50 to 7:12

Delve into the specifics of the case and the whistleblower's revelations regarding DOJ actions.

“You're on the Legal AF and Midas Touch Networks.”

Proclamation and Judicial Oversight

7:12 to 14:03

Learn about the legal challenges surrounding the Alien Enemies Act and judicial oversight.

“Then he brings up the whistleblower for the first time, Erez Ruveni.”

Exploring Court Orders and Defiance

14:03 to 14:48

Learn about the discussions surrounding court orders and defiance in the Trump administration.

“At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss.”

Judge Bozberg's Final Judgment Explained

14:48 to 15:47

Understand Judge Bozberg's final judgment and its implications for due process.

“Judge Zinnis, who's dealing with Abrego Garcia, and Judge Boesberg on this case.”

The Importance of Habeas Corpus Writ

15:47 to 16:42

Discover the significance of the habeas corpus writ in legal proceedings.

“In fact, he cites to the Abrego-Garcia case on page 41 and particularly Judge Justice Sotomayor.”

Potential Appeals and Future Court Battles

16:42 to 17:57

Examine the potential appeals by the Trump administration and upcoming court challenges.

“against their wishes and without due process.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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2:22Michael Popok:Never count a chief federal judge out. Chief Judge Bozberg in breaking news has just issued a new order lambasting the Trump administration. I got to come up with new vocabulary words for the scorn that's being heaped on the Department of Justice in federal courts on a regular basis. But this one's very important. This has to do with another major aspect of Donald Trump's disappearing mass migration, mass deportation and removal process. We just have the United States Supreme Court 6-3 say and take away from him the National Guard as a tool in his toolbox to use against migrants on the streets, at least in the current version of it.

3:04Michael Popok:But now we've got Chief Judge Bozberg, who relying on a whistleblower in the Department of Justice, has ruled in favor of 250 Venezuelans who were impossibly labeled Trend Aragua war combatants, disappeared off the streets of America while a hearing was going on about their due process rights and sent to the dark, dank torture prisons of El Salvador. Now the judge has ruled, and I'm going to get into the detail, the nitty gritty of it here on the Midas Touch Network. Judge Boesberg has ruled that they are entitled to due process. They're entitled to use the quote unquote great writ, which is the writ of habeas corpus.

3:45Michael Popok:Even though they're now in Venezuela, having been secreted there in a trade by Donald Trump and his Department of Justice, they have due process and habeas corpus rights in America. and by this new summary judgment, final judgment order by the judge, the Trump administration is going to have to find out a way to give them due process rights, get them in front of a federal judge for oversight. And hopefully this draws a line in the sand against Donald Trump and its Department of Justice and their depraved lawless activities. What I love about the fact that it's Judge Bozberg is that he's already been rejected a couple of times by the United States Supreme Court and even by the D.C.

4:22Michael Popok:Circuit Court of Appeals because if you remember about two weeks ago, he tried to bring criminal or start criminal contempt proceedings and continue criminal contempt proceedings related to this very same case. While that got shot down, he still has the heart of the case, the substance of the case in front of him. And now he's ruled for the American Civil Liberties Union, who's one of our partners on Legal AF, and for these 250 people and beyond the civil rights of all of us. And I cover it. I'm Michael Popok. You're on the Legal AF and Midas Touch Networks. Take a moment, hit the free subscribe button for Legal AF YouTube.

4:57Michael Popok:Help us get to our next million. We already got one million subscribers. Let's get to two million. And here on Midas Touch as well. Case is called JGG. I'm talking about it since March. Let me read you the highlights from this decision by the judge, particularly about evading judicial review by the Trump administration on purpose and how he relies on a whistleblower, Erez Reveni, to make his point. Here's what he says in his recitation of the background of the facts. He says on page three that unbeknownst to them, the government had deemed them, meaning the 250 men, all members of Trenda Aragua and sought to remove them immediately pursuant to a proclamation of the under the Alien Enemies Act.

5:46Michael Popok:These men were given no advance notice of their removal. The only reason that this court was made aware of their removal was because a few of the men moved to El Valle had been able to contact their lawyers the day before, who rightly surmised that such a proclamation either had secretly issued or was about to issue, and thus filed their action at 1.12 a.m. in the morning. Shout out to the American Civil Liberties Union for getting on this, because they hadn't, all of them would be in El Salvador away from federal oversight. Just an hour before the hearing, the proclamation was made public. Less than two hours after the proclamation was published, and while the emergency hearing was ongoing in front of Judge Bozberg, the government flew 252 Venezuelan men out of the United States.

6:33Michael Popok:Rather than heading to Venezuela, they were sent to El Salvador. But it gets better. The judge had to make a determination whether the United States still had constructive control over the prisoners in El Salvador. In other words, is El Salvador just a subsidiary of the Bureau of Prisons in America because America has continued control over them? And they rely on a U.N. report that El Salvador participated in, in which the U.N. top official told or the El Salvador top official told the U.N. that the U.S. controls their own detainees here in El Salvador, for which they're paying five to six million dollars.

7:16Michael Popok:And that was contained as relates to, on page 12 of the report, plaintiffs counter with a report by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was made available to this court after it started looking at constructive custody. In a statement to the U.N. office, El Salvador expressly disclaimed responsibility for the detainees, contending that the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these people exclusively laid with the competent foreign authorities, which is the United States. Then he brings up the whistleblower for the first time, Erez Ruveni. I'm going to show you a clip of Erez Ruveni to remind you who that whistleblower is.

7:58Michael Popok:And the judge says that the plaintiffs also submitted a copy of a June whistleblower complaint by Erez Reveni, who used to be in the Department of Justice for four different administrations, an immigration litigation head. He made statements about the fact that he was told by a chief official now on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals named Emil Bovee that he should go tell judges like Judge Bozberg to go fuck off. That phrase is actually in this order. I'm going to read it to you in a moment. Then the judge does a deep dive into whether the Trump administration tried to evade judicial review, which we know they've been doing, to try to secrete these people away from U.S.

8:42Michael Popok:jurisdiction of federal courts in the middle of the night and send them out of the country. And so in the section starting on page 18, the judge recites these facts. He's a fact finder. Plaintiffs' hasty and secretive removal from the United States was certainly intended to deprive them of an opportunity to secure prior judicial review. First, the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act, but waited to publicize the proclamation. Plaintiffs were put then on flights leaving the country before the proclamation was ever announced, and they were kept in the dark as to the reason for their removal. Over to page 19, as the government has conceded, plaintiff had no opportunity to contest their designation as Trenda Aragua members before removal.

9:27Michael Popok:90 % of them are not Trenda Aragua, by the way, despite having tattoos. Then they were flown out of the country literally as this court conducted an emergency hearing on the validity of their removal. This was also the grounds for the contempt, criminal contempt proceeding to try to put Kristi Noem in jail. But that was spiked by two Trumpers on the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia or the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. They were flown out of the country literally during the emergency hearing. For what reason, the court posits, plaintiffs were already detained as there was no threat that the announcement of the proclamation would lead to them evading capture.

10:11Michael Popok:Riveni's whistleblower statements corroborate the court's conclusion. Now we're on to the whistleblower. According to this disclosure, the principal assistant deputy attorney general, that would be Emil Bovee, now a Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge, stated in a meeting that if the courts attempted to stop the removals, DOJ would need to consider telling the courts, fuck you and ignore the court order. In fact, you don't have to believe the judge. We have Erez Ruveni's testimony in the way of a 60 Minutes report and Emil Bovee being cross-examined by Senator Adam Schiff about this very issue.

10:48Michael Popok:Let's play them. Let's play the clips back to back. At the beginning of the second Trump administration, you were promoted again. That's right. Very soon into the administration, I was selected to be the acting deputy director of the immigration section, overseeing about 100 attorneys and every case that arose in the federal district courts. But it was the very day of that promotion, Friday, March 14th, that he and others were called to a fateful meeting with Emil Bovey, President Trump's newly appointed number three at the Justice Department, who was once Trump's criminal defense attorney. And we were told at this meeting that over the weekend, the president of the United States would be signing a proclamation invoking something called the Alien Enemies Act.

11:35This is a wartime law from 1798, invoked three times in the nation's history during the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. The Alien Enemies Act allows rapid expulsion from the U.S. of the citizens of enemy nations during a war. But without a declared war, Trump used it against more than 100 Venezuelans that the government said were terrorists. They were to be denied their right to be heard by a judge. Ruvaney says Bovee expected a challenge. Bovee emphasized those planes need to take off no matter what. And then after a pause, he also told all in attendance, and if some court should issue an order preventing that, we may have to consider telling that court, f*** you.

12:31And when you heard that, you thought what? It felt like a bomb had gone off. Here is the number three official using expletives to tell career attorneys that we may just have to consider disregarding federal court orders. Let me ask you, since you are under oath, in the complaint it says, Beauvais stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts, f*** you and ignoring any such court order. Did you say anything of that kind in the meeting? Senator, I have no recollection of saying anything of that kind. To the extent I usually... Wouldn't you recall, Mr. Bove, if you said or suggested during a meeting with Justice Department lawyers that maybe they should consider telling the court f*** you?

13:15It seems to me that would be something you'd remember unless that's the kind of thing you say frequently. Well, I've certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take in defense of our clients. And have you frequently suggested that they say f*** you and ignore court orders? Is that also something you frequently do such you might not remember doing it on this occasion? No. And as I explained, I have never directed... So did you or did you not make those comments during that meeting? Which comments, Senator? You really need me to repeat it?

13:50did you suggest, as Mr. Ruvani wrote, that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts, f*** you, and ignore any such court order? I did not suggest that there would be any need to consider ignoring court orders. At the point of that meeting, there were no court orders to discuss. Well, did you suggest telling the courts, f*** you, in any manner? I don't recall. You just don't remember that.

14:16Michael Popok:Now, when we heard about the whistleblower, 30-page whistleblower complaint by Erez Reveni after he was fired, and he's now working, wait for it, everybody. He's now a lawyer for Democracy Forward with Sky Perryman. Go over to Legal AF YouTube channel. Democracy Forward works closely with Legal AF, and we have an exclusive playlist of my interviews of people at Democracy Forward like Sky Perryman. That's just a little PS side note. But when we heard about it, we saw the 60 Minutes interview, I said, two judges, we're going to find this very interesting. Judge Boesberg and Judge Zinnis. Judge Zinnis, who's dealing with Abrego Garcia, and Judge Boesberg on this case.

14:54Michael Popok:Because it explains why nobody was complying with his orders. Why the Trump administration was defying his orders. Because Emil Boeve told the Trump, basically judges, to go F off. There's one way to interpret this order. This is Judge Bozberg's response. F me? No, F you. And I'm wearing a black robe. And he continues analyzing the control that the Trump administration had over the CICOT prison. He eventually concludes, now it brings us full circle, to a Braygo Garcia's case in front of Judge Zinnis in the United States Supreme Court. He says the only remedy, now I'm granting final judgment, this is not temporary restraining order, this is final judgment.

15:39And the remedy is the government is now going to have to create a pathway, a process for these 250 people in a class I've now certified, or 132 of them anyway, in Venezuela to have access to the federal court system, due process,

15:55Michael Popok:and the habeas corpus writ. He says that is the only way. In fact, he cites to the Abrego-Garcia case on page 41 and particularly Judge Justice Sotomayor. He says on page 41, Judge Bozberg, the remedy must adapt to meet the injury. The court finds the only remedy that would give it effect to its granting of the motion for final judgment would be to order the government to undo the effects of their unlawful removal by facilitating a meaningful opportunity to contest their designation. and the proclamation under the Alien Enemies Act's validity. You got to have a court, you got to have a writ to do it.

16:33Michael Popok:And the writ of habeas corpus is the great writ. Otherwise, a finding of unlawful removal will be meaningless for plaintiffs who have already been sent back to Venezuela against their wishes and without due process. They were sent there in a prisoner exchange that Donald Trump just did with a country we were at quote-unquote war with. Expedited removal cannot be allowed to render this relief toothless If secretly spiriting individuals to another country were enough to neuter the great writ, that's a reference to the habeas corpus writ, then the government, quote, could snatch anyone off the street, turn them over to a foreign country, and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action, citing to J.G.

17:14Michael Popok:his case, which cites to Abrego Garcia's case in front of Judge Zinnis with the United States Supreme Court in a statement by Judge Justice Sotomayor. Now, I'm sure the Trump administration is going to appeal or has appealed to the first level of appeal, the D.C. Circuit Court. If they get a couple of Trumpers, you know, they get like Rayo and they get and they get a couple of other. There's like three Trumpers that happen to be on that particular circuit court. If they get any of those, Akatsis, Rayo, that group, it's going to be a bumpy ride for the judge here. But ultimately, this is going to land at the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court, where he is well respected.

17:56Michael Popok:He was the roommate of Brett Kavanaugh in law school, Judge Jett Bosberg. And he's very good friends with Chief Justice Roberts, who puts him on all sorts of panels like the FISA panel. So we're going to see what happens next. I wanted to cover it here on Midas Touch. Hit the free subscribe button. follow all things Legal AF YouTube. 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. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF.

18:34Michael Popok: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.

From the publisher

A Federal Chief Judge, finding that the Trump Administration intentionally attempted to disappear 250 Venezuelans to El Salvador’s torture prison without Due Process in the middle of the night, has issued Final Judgment requiring Trump’s DOJ to immediately provide the men with Habeas Corpus Due Process rights in the US, even though they have now been shipped to Venezuela in a phony prisoner exchange by Trump. Michael Popok takes a look at the opinion and the Judge getting his chance, virtually literally, to say “F@#$% me? No, F#@$% you!” to the Trump Administration and DOJ.

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