Pissed Off GOP Judge goes Berserk on Trump in Open Court

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1:33Michael Popok:Federal judge in Philadelphia is dismantling Donald Trump's Ministry of Truth, his Orwellian attempt to rewrite history, to erase slavery and the stain of slavery from our public consciousness, to literally rip down with bare hands plaques on the president's house in Independence Hall Memorial in Philadelphia, commemorating the nine slaves owned by George Washington because Donald Trump finds it distasteful. And Judge Roof is showing what federal judges in year two of this administration, now robust, now with courage, now willing to take on the Trump administration in a way they were to a year ago, what they're doing about it.

2:21Michael Popok:They're quoting George Orwell. They're telling the world that Donald Trump is not able to erase facts and history that are meaningful to the American people or otherwise, as Donald Trump is busy trying to put back up Confederate generals as statues and put their names back on military bases. I mean, the fact that he, I'm going to show the clip in a minute. The fact that he sent a couple of National Park Service lackeys to go with their bare hands and rip down these plaques from the president's house, which commemorates the location where President Adams and President Washington resided. In the cradle of our democracy, Philadelphia, where I've been since I was a child.

3:06Michael Popok:which I've frequent, and I've been to Independence Hall, the reproduction of where the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were signed, to the Liberty Bell exhibit, which is next to this president's house, to the Betsy Ross memorial about the person who allegedly, mythically, created the flag. Donald Trump has no respect for anything that has to do with our history. He allowed the Capitol, another cradle of our democracy, to be attacked and burned for the first time since the War of 1812. And Judge Roof, senior status judge, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and people like Governor Josh Shapiro are putting a stop to it.

3:53Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popak. You're on Midas Touch and Legal AF. I'm fired up. I'm glad we have judges like Judge Roof, and I'm glad the senior status judges are leading the way once again, citing too frequently George Orwell. Now, this all comes down to a plaque, a set of plaques. I'm going to show you a video of it being torn down in a new memorial called President's House, which Philadelphia and Pennsylvania found through historical research, which is the place where Adams and Washington lived. And this was a memorial to the nine, I'm going to read their names in a minute, the nine enslaved people who worked, no, nine enslaved people who were enslaved to do jobs for George Washington.

4:35Michael Popok:That's the right way to put it. And Donald Trump wants to change that. So three weeks ago, he sent a couple of guys in to rip the signs down. Now, this is a joint collaboration of the federal government, the Interior Department, the Park Service, and Philadelphia and Pennsylvania to operate this site. But they can't deface it. They can't rewrite it. They can't put their Trumpian graffiti on it. Here's a clip of these guys ripping down the signs.

5:03Josh Shapiro:Developing right here and right now tonight on Independence Mall, a piece of Philadelphia history was removed this afternoon by the federal government. Cruz dismantled plaques telling the stories of the nine enslaved people who lived in the president's house and were owned by President George Washington. Last year, President Trump ordered National Park staff to flag any displays that might be seen as disparaging to America's past. Philadelphia Mayor Sherelle Parker says the city is conducting a legal review of this tonight, An attorney who advocated for those plaques in 2010 called the removal, quote, outrageous and blatantly racist.

5:39Michael Popok:Here's how the judge, Judge Roof, in granting a preliminary injunction against the Interior Department, forcing them to restore the site the way it was. Here's what she says to lead off on page one, her order today. All history was a palimpset, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible once the deed was done to prove that any falsification had taken place. George Orwell, 1984. The judge kicks off her order this way. As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's 1984 now existed with its motto, ignorance is strength, this court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts.

6:26Michael Popok:It does not. The President's House is a component of the Independence Historical Park that commemorates the site of the first official presidential residence and the people who live there. These are the first presidents, including people enslaved by President George Washington. On January 22nd of 2026, the National Park Service removed those panels, as you saw, and displays and video exhibits referencing slavery. The judge goes on, on page 31 of her order, to talk about these enslaved people and how Donald Trump can't whitewash history away, not on her watch. She says on page 31, quoting from a research book and an amicus brief, the people who President Washington held in slavery, which the commemoration of him on those panels, include Oney Judge, who was held in slavery as a maid, Austin, Odie's brother, Christopher Shields held in slavery as Washington's butler, body servant, Giles as a carriage driver, Hercules Posey held in slavery as a chef, Joe Richardson held in slavery as a coachman, Mal as a nanny, Paris as a stable worker, Richmond, the son of Hercules, held in slavery as a chimney sweep.

7:49Michael Popok:She then quotes George Orwell again about the attempted rewrite. And listen to what she calls Donald Trump in this section. She says, the largest section, quoting Big Brother's domain in 1984, the largest section of the government's records department consists simply of persons whose duty it was to track down to collect all copies of books, newspapers, and other documents which had been superseded and were due for destruction. In other words, recalling and rewriting again and again without admitting any alteration or admitting any forgery about what had just been rewritten. The government here, the judge says, asserts truth is no longer self-evident, but rather the property of the elected chief magistrate and the appointees and delegates.

8:40Michael Popok:That's you, Trump. as to his whim, to have it scraped clean, hidden, or overwritten. And why? Solely because he has the power. Listen to this quote she takes from oral argument. This is what the Department of Justice lawyer under Donald Trump, an officer of the court, sworn to uphold the Constitution, who went to a law school program like mine. This is what this person had the temeri to say out loud in court. At least he admitted it or she admitted it. Although many people feel strongly about this one way, Other people may disagree or feel strongly another way. We're both sidesing slavery? What's next?

9:15Michael Popok:We're both sidesing the Holocaust? There were good people on both sides, the Nazis and the Jews and the gypsies and the Russians? Ultimately, it is in this context that the government gets to choose the message it wants to convey. Yeah, only in George Orwell's 1984. The message that the government chooses to convey is for the government to choose. I don't get to choose, the lawyer says, what the message is, and it's our position that the city, or by implication, the judge, does it either. An agency, the judge continues, or any agency, cannot arbitrarily decide what is true based on its own whims, the whims of new leadership, regardless of the evidence before it.

9:56Michael Popok:Preliminary injunction granted. Arbitrary and capricious action. You cannot rewrite history. Conclusion, page 40. The defendants shall reinstall all panels, displays, and video exhibits that were in place. They shall prevent any additions, removals, or destruction, or further changes to the president's house, except in a mutual written agreement between the defendants and the city of Philadelphia. An order will be entered. I had Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, join me for an interview about how to oppose a lawless president doing lawless and rogue things. And he had this to say to me in the interview, play the clip.

10:36Josh Shapiro:Where you are eviscerating the trust between law enforcement and the community, as we're seeing in Minneapolis, where you're leaving families to be hungry, as you see, because of the way in which he ripped Snap away. And I think what we have to do is, yes, we got to win in the midterms. But before that, we need people standing up every single day, not being afraid to speak up, standing up and fighting for what's right. Sometimes it's in a court of law, as I do, and sometimes it needs to be people who are peacefully protesting and standing up to this administration. I think it is all critically important.

11:11Josh Shapiro:And I just want to celebrate the people who do stand up for the rule of law every day and do stand up for what's right.

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12:43Michael Popok:That's upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K dot com, Upwork dot com. What I'm watching and what I'm observing is that federal judges in the year two of this administration are getting their groove back. They are understanding what their inherent authority stretched to its outer boundaries is. They're understanding what contempt proceedings are about. And I predict, and I think I'm going to be right about this, or I wouldn't make the prediction, that more and more federal judges are going to be holding the Trump administration, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, Interior, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and anybody else in contempt.

13:32Michael Popok:But somebody, many people are at risk to going to jail in the Trump administration, not waiting around for the new Department of Justice in 2028 or 2029. But now, on the receiving end of a contempt order by a federal judge, that ceiling was broken by Judge Boesberg last year in D.C. in a case involving 137 men made to disappear in El Salvador and him starting criminal contempt proceedings against Christie Noem. But other judges are going to pick up the mantle. They have the courage. In fact, I asked Judge Ludic, former Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, who should be our chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, about what's the big change with federal judges.

14:19Michael Popok:He talks to them regularly. This is what he had to say to me.

14:22Josh Shapiro:Frankly, every American is against Donald Trump today, except his dye-in-the-wool MAGA, I believe, and of course, the Congress of the United States. Right. So but that, you know, tsunami that didn't begin until a month ago was the saving grace for the lower federal courts. you know whatever cliche you want to stiffen their spines but actually you know no more appropriately it gave them the courage the needed courage from above them or outside them to do what they knew they had to do and wanted to do all along and that's why you've seen floodgates, every single thing leading up to most recently.

15:31Josh Shapiro:And this had begun four months in the last four months of last year, where, well, six months of last year, actually, where it began the Department of Justice and every other government official that appeared before the courts, including the Solicitor General of the United States, It's another law clerk of mine.

15:54Michael Popok:I'm just going to say, don't leave out John Sauer or your other clerk.

15:57Josh Shapiro:Don't you worry.

15:58Michael Popok:Don't you worry.

15:59Josh Shapiro:And all of those officials begin addressing the federal courts of the United States in court with open contempt. Yeah. And actually lying to the federal judges to their faces.

16:23and that you know that began that the federal judges began to push back on that the last six

16:31Josh Shapiro:months of last year now when when it's clear to you know that they're going to do this for the next three years those same federal judges meaning all of the lower court federal judges they're not going to have it.

16:49Michael Popok:So we will continue to follow what happens next as Donald Trump tries to rewrite history and write out and whitewash slavery here on Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Take a minute, hit the free subscribe button here. Come over to Legal AF YouTube, do the exact same thing. 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 call, wait for it, Morning AF.

17:26Michael 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.

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