Judge Blows Up Trump DOJ After Shock Behavior in Court

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1:00I'm Jake Stouck, co-founder and CEO of Serval. We built Serval to automate the IT work that slows companies down. Onboarding, password resets, access to applications, my laptop stopped working. While employees wait for help, their real work is put on hold. IT desperately wants to automate this work, and that's why they need Serval. You just tell Serval what you want to automate in plain English, and it's built. No drag-and-drop workflows, no expensive consultants. Employees get unblocked, and IT teams go from drowning in tickets to building what actually matters. With Serval, IT becomes the AI engine powering the entire company.

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2:21Michael Popok:I got great news. Armando Abrego Garcia was actually in the courtroom because he was released by order of this judge about a week ago. He was there. He's the poster child for all that's depraved and inhumane about Donald Trump's immigration and removal policy. He got to sit at the council table, you know, in front of the judge, along with such a large group of lawyers representing him that the judge actually joked before she then tore a new one into the one Department of Justice representative who showed up, Mr. Molina. Before she turned to Mr. Molina, where there was no jocularity, she turned to Mr.

2:58Michael Popok:Obrego Garcia and his lawyers and said, you look like you're represented by a baseball team. Ha ha ha. Not you, Mr. Molina. Sit down. The judge then just said, look, I got a problem with documents that are being filed in the case. The reason they were all together in the hearing was whether to extend the time to keep Abrego Garcia free through the holidays and beyond while the judge considers motion practice and to make sure he doesn't get picked up in the middle of the night and thrown into the dark, dank cells of ice against her orders. So she doesn't want that to happen. So she held the hearing and she issued a couple of orders over those hearings.

3:35Michael Popok:The reporting is that Brigo Garcia was in a good mood and good spirits, a light gray flannel shirt and dark slacks. Ernesto Molina faced the brunt of Zinnes' criticism, according to Politico. There were some other people listening in on the phone, he said, but he was left alone to walk the plank. First, she turned to an order that they turned in that said his release was conditional because he was subject to a final order of removal, giving her jurisdiction. They try to flip the script and argue that the order was not conditional and isn't final, and therefore he should go before an immigration judge to be released on bond.

4:13Michael Popok:But that's completely different than the several thousand people that Donald Trump has tried to deport and remove. He's argued that none of them are entitled under the Alien Enemies Act or otherwise to a bond hearing in immigration court. But for Abrego Garcia, now they flipped the script and they're trying to argue to Judge Zinnis, who's too smart for them, that he's entitled to a bond hearing. She said to Molina, look, you elected this form that said it was a conditional release and there has been no final order. I'm taking you at your word, Mr. Molina. I imagine it is possible that order was improvident and could cause the court confusion.

4:53Michael Popok:That's an understatement. It may have been done in a matter that was not farsighted, Mr. Molina said, did not have the information it needed. See, this is the history of how the Trump administration Department of Justice acts towards federal judges. They purposely send in people who are not prepared, lawyers, witnesses, because judges are supposed to be fact finders. And how are they supposed to find the facts if the people brought before them are purposely kept in the dark and bury their head in the sand and judge and other judges are fed up. Melina said, it really should be a bond hearing. She said to him, Judge Zinnis said back, I can't accept you, these representations.

5:34Michael Popok:That's a hard pill to swallow. Now you're saying, no, trust us. This one, this order is going to be correct. Why should I give the government the benefit of the doubt in this case? In other words, the presumption of regularity, which is generally given to the Department of Justice, that its procedures and the implementation of those procedures are regular is out the window with the Trump administration. You don't get the presumption of regularity. She also was very upset that showed up in an order I'm going to read to you that was issued just after it and gave a very, very harsh lashing against Mr.

6:10Michael Popok:Molina about a recent court filing. On December 12th, she issued an order barring him from being re-detained. He's been out of Abrego Garcia has been out since December the 12th. They listed it in their filings as ex parte. In our world, ex parte means the other side's not present, that only Abrego Garcia's lawyers were there and the judge and they issued an ex parte. There are circumstances where you are permitted. I've probably done it half, five times in my life, been able to get an ex parte injunction or restraining order for a very short amount of time. Then the other side is given notice, and then the judge holds a hearing to decide whether to dissolve that restraining order.

6:49Michael Popok:It's not in circumstances like when you're worried about the asset, the boat, the plane, the money disappearing. You're worried about the person disappearing. You're worried about things about liberty or just things that'll be very hard to fix if the judge doesn't stop it. I stuttered there for a minute. If the judge doesn't stop it in its tracks, subject to a future hearing to dissolve. That's not what happened here. It wasn't ex parte her December 12th order. It was done on notice to the other side and they litigated against it. So she said to them, everybody signed it, Judge Zinnis, and it said, and it's flat wrong.

7:27Michael Popok:I'm growing beyond impatient with this happening. I want to know who wrote that. And I want to know why all the four lawyers who were signatories to that thought it was a good idea. See, when you sign things in federal court, as an officer of the court, you're swearing and attesting that they are true and that you're being honest and truthful to the tribunal. That didn't happen. And look at what cowards they are, the Department of Justice. They send this Molina cat, this Molina character, in by himself with other people whispering and listening. He said, you had all night to tell me why the petitioner was wrong.

8:02Michael Popok:This was an emergency of your making. In other words, he said it was an emergency, an emergency petition. but not an ex parte petition. Do you know the difference? He conceded, the lawyer conceded that the claim was inaccurate and that he complied with the judge's request, not a request, demand, for a written explanation of the error. As the hearing concluded, according to reports, the judge gave the government until Friday to submit the precise legal basis if they're going to try to retain him and she's keeping him out of the holidays. Abrego Garcia, I'm going to show you a clip, emerged from the courthouse to dozens of supporters applauding him and chanting, si, se, puede.

8:40Michael Popok:Yes, we can. Let's play the clip. So as of right now, Mr. Obrego Garcia is going to return to his home with his wife and his children and his family members in Maryland. And he will be at home through Christmas and New Year. They can't keep going with this notion that, well, we might do this, we might do this, we might do this, and you should let us do it whatever we want, whenever we want. They have to actually come up with a very specific plan and then justify that plan. Hey, everybody, Ben Mycelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popak's new law firm.

9:21It's called the Popak Firm. Michael Popak's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm, really based on the popular demand by all the Midas mighty and legal AF-ers who were approaching Michael Popak with their cases and saying, can you help us? And 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.

10:03See if you have a case. It's thepopakfirm.com, thepopakfirm.com, or you can call 877-POPAKAF, P-O-P-O-K-A-F. So 1-877-P-O-P-O-K-A-F. Give Michael Popak a call. And I'm really proud of you, Popak. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in.

10:26Michael Popok:And we know from the lawyers as you heard, the lawyers have a strong position about him. And let's be clear, he'll go to Costa Rica. This fight right now is because the Trump administration wants to punish Abrego Garcia, send him to Liberia, 3 ,000 miles away from his Latina U.S. wife and children, because he wouldn't plead guilty to a trumped-up manufactured charge, a criminal charge in Tennessee that he still stands accused of. They said, oh, you don't want to plead guilty? Then we're not going to send you to Costa Rica. And they lied to Judge Zinnes during the hearing before the December 12th order in which they said that Costa Rica doesn't want to take him any longer.

11:09Michael Popok:Costa Rica's security minister came forward and said, we will take him. She doesn't like to be lied to. The order, let me read to you from the actual order. She says that by no later than December 26th, the respondents shall supplement the record. That means the government with a sworn declaration from a person with knowledge, which they've never done before, who binds the government, which addresses whether they intend to re-detain him, what's the grounds for re-detaining him, and whether he gets a bond hearing or not, because that was quite remarkable. Now they're claiming he's entitled to a bond hearing when hundreds of other people they've said out loud, they're not entitled to bond hearings.

11:55Michael Popok:Then she set up a briefing schedule. She wants a January 14th joint status report. But then here's the shiv, paragraph four, page two. The court also strikes, the court strikes from respondent's reference to this court's December 12th temporary restraining order, listing it as ex parte. You shall refile a corrected copy of that for replacement. Now, she doesn't actually have in here that she wants a written declaration from somebody about who made that decision to put ex parte in there. But I think that still holds because she made the decision in the courtroom. And then she'll set up further briefing.

12:37Michael Popok:She wants it clear that her injunction blocking his removal from the United States stands, including the 72-hour countdown and warning, and an order that Mr. Molina send this order to everybody in the Department of Justice that matters and Homeland Security so there's no screw-ups. There's another order that's quite amazing that Judge issued the same day. She thinks she's being recorded in violation of her orders. I mean, recorded. Here's what she wrote. During further proceedings in this matter, no person may possess or transport into the courtroom any electronic device, cellular phone, camera, recording device, smartwatch, smart pen, smart glasses, and or computers and laptops or tablets without the express permission of the presiding judge.

13:29Michael Popok:It doesn't apply to the Marshals Service. It doesn't apply to federal employees. it applies to the Department of Justice. All persons subject to this order are advised not to bring these devices to the courthouse. Something happened in that courtroom. I've been, as a member of the federal bars around the country, I often, with my federal bar card, am able to bring in electronic devices as long as I keep them on silent and mute and moot, including laptops. However, there are judges that have standing orders against that, and then I got to file a motion to bring in electronic devices. Here's something happened.

14:03Michael Popok:She's worried about how things are being recorded and if they're being recorded in her courtroom. That's a bad sign for the Department of Justice. Mr. Molina, look around. There's a reason those four other colleagues are no longer hanging out in court with you and they're on the phone. You're being asked to do things that are in violation of your rules of professional responsibility. The oath you took to uphold the Constitution and to be an officer of the court. You should rethink your position because this administration is coming to an end. but you don't want your career to now, do you? I'm Michael Popak.

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