Trump DOJ Makes Shock Confession in Court

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1:54Michael Popok:Well, I guess 56 is better than 96. it's a sad day in the Department of Justice and its corrupt operation when admitting to a federal judge in a recent filing that they've violated 56 court orders in 547 cases that have been filed in New Jersey just since December that that's a good week for the Department of Justice because it's almost half of what they have violated in Minnesota when two weeks ago Chief Judge Schultz in Minnesota did his own survey and figured out that they had violated 96 orders related primarily to the great writ, the writ of habeas corpus, which is the individual right that people have if they've been made to disappear as part of Donald Trump's migration, migrant removal policies to get before a federal judge.

2:44Michael Popok:It's called the great writ for a reason. It's the embodiment of our due process right under the Fourth Amendment. And it's been violated by confession by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Justice in New Jersey alone 56 times. But there's something beneath that story, now that I've got your attention. There's a link between Jordan Fox, this person who just wrote a very conciliatory letter from the Department of Justice. I thought ChatGPT wrote it, telling a federal judge, We're so sorry. We're so contrite about the violations in the last two months in New Jersey. And it shouldn't happen.

3:24Michael Popok:The rule of law is so important. I'm like, who is this person? Who is this Jordan Fox? Aha, I figured it out. One, she's supremely connected to Emil Bovee, Donald Trump's former criminal defense lawyer. They worked together in a law firm in New Jersey. and Emil Bovee is now, after doing all that destruction the first three months, as effectively the acting attorney general for Donald Trump, he got promoted to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that sits over where? New Jersey. And now his associate, Jordan Fox, formerly known as Jordan Stavanacci, she is lobbying effectively. She needs 17 votes from the district court judges of New Jersey, of which one is the person she just wrote to.

4:09Michael Popok:to try to get the permanent job to replace Alina Habba as U.S. attorney. So all the smarmy brown nosing that I found in the letter, I was like, who is this person? And how much longer is she going to be in the department? Aha, she's campaigning. She's trying to get the 17 votes. She's got two competitors in her own office, but she's got the inside track. Donald Trump wants her and she's close to Emil Bovee. How convenient that whenever the Department of Justice comes into the Third Circuit Court of Appeals and makes an argument and Emil Bovee is on the panel from New Jersey, then he gets this look at his associate.

4:45Michael Popok:Who's the U.S. attorney advocating for the Department of Justice? Ah, the corruption. It stinks to high heaven. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. All right, let's get down to it. Three weeks ago, Chief Judge of Minnesota, Chief Judge Schultz did his own survey, determined that there were 96 violations. It's no laughing matter, but there's 96 violations of court orders, meaning contempt behavior. We call it contumacious behavior in the business. And just since January, among just ICE, he was so flabbergasted by it. He said, I'm going to hold people in contempt as a result, if it happens ever again.

5:23Michael Popok:And he said, this is more than any agency probably in history has ever experienced in terms of violating and defying court orders in their entire history, let alone in the month of January. And I thought that was bad. I thought maybe that's the high watermark. No. So apparently a federal judge ordered, because she didn't do it voluntarily, Jordan Fox, who's one of three people running the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey since Alina Haba got effectively fired and promoted to go work for Pam Bondi after she got rejected by several courts from holding the U.S. attorney's position beyond 120 days.

6:02Michael Popok:So Jordan Fox, along with two colleagues, they split up the role. This is a way for Donald Trump to do an end run around the confirmation process and the appointment clause of the Constitution. He just won't name another U.S. attorney. He'll just divide and conquer. He'll divide the office into three parts. He'll give Jordan Fox one part. Somebody's going to run the administrative unit. Somebody's going to run the criminal unit. She's going to run the civil unit. we're good, right? No, you're not good. That's still a violation of the Constitution and of the appointments clause. You can't just go, well, it's not going to have a U.S.

6:35Michael Popok:attorney if that's what you guys want. Just appoint somebody that can garner the votes and the support that's not so controversial, that's not a political hack. Now, I don't know much about Jordan Fox. Frankly, she hasn't been on planet Earth that long. She hasn't been a lawyer that long. I don't know if she's seven years out of law school, eight years out of law school. I'm sure she's a very nice person, but should she be the U.S. attorney for the top five Department of Justice agency in the country? Probably not. If she wasn't connected to Emil Bovee, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge, would they be considering her?

7:11Michael Popok:Probably not. So when I got the letter, I know the headline for most mass media was a U.S. Department of Justice official admits 56 violations of court orders to federal judge. Nah, not so fast. The reason for the conciliatory tone of the letter, which I thought was really written by Chachi B.T. at one point, and the solicitous nature of it, smarmy. Of course we honor the rule of law, Your Honor. Thank you for recognizing that since we took over, we're really trying to comply. I was like, is there a trash can in my hotel room I can throw up in? But now I understand why. because she's got to get 17 votes and she's working hard and she's working the hallways and she's brown nosing her way into trying to get the 17 votes why 17 votes because while there is a vacancy there's only one entity that can appoint an interim u.s attorney once donald trump got done with his first appointment which was alina haba for 120 days that's the district court judges of that district there's 17 of them that can vote and she's working the ref she's working the votes Let me read to you from the letter.

8:23Michael Popok:Let me just get myself together here. Here's the letter that she just wrote where she confesses. But now you have the context. Emil Bovey Buddy, right? Trying to get the votes. Dear Judge Farbias, I greatly appreciate the opportunity as a senior Department of Justice official. Listen, I'll try not to do this too smarmy, but it's hard to submit a declaration detailing the compliance of respondents, that's the government, with court orders in this district just from December 5 to present. I greatly appreciate your honor's recent recognition in another case that this office's effort to ensure respondents' compliance is thoughtful and reflects intensity of senior level focus.

9:08Michael Popok:We will continue to act with the utmost vigilance. Like what? Where are we? Talk about gaslighting. to prevent self-report and ensure compliance with court orders during this unprecedented period of immigration filings. Unprecedented period of immigration filings? You mean the wholesale violation of civil liberties and civil rights by your boss, Donald Trump, leading to individual human beings bringing over 547 writs of habeas corpus petitions in the month of December alone? I agree. Our office takes adherence to court orders very seriously, she writes. And we communicate, was this like tongue in cheek?

9:48Michael Popok:And we communicate this principle to our agency's clients and law enforcement partners on a regular basis. It's a bedrock feature of our justice system. Oh, get off it. Jordan, nobody buys this, okay? Aging doesn't hit you all at once. For me, it showed up in small ways. Slower recovery after workouts, more stiffness and energy that wasn't as consistent as it used to be. That's why I wanna share with you Qualia Senolytic, a first-of-its-kind formula at the frontier of what's currently possible in the science of human aging. Senolytics are a science field revolutionizing aging. One big culprit behind that middle-aged feeling can be senescent cells, also called zombie cells, that stick around after they're useful and drain your body's energy and resources, leading to lower energy, slower recovery, and joint discomfort.

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11:21Michael Popok:That's qualiallife.com slash legal AF for an extra 15 % off your purchase. Your older self will thank you. And thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. There is enough reporting that we've been doing on Legal AF and on Midas Dutch, that proves the opposite, that the Department of Justice purposely defies court orders, purposely does not inform its agency clients about court orders, sends people to court that are purposely not prepared to answer the questions of judges in order to have not plausible deniability, doesn't do the research, doesn't do the writing, doesn't know the facts, doesn't have the evidence over.

12:05Michael Popok:And this is a strategy. They don't care that the Department of Justice is being embarrassed. They don't care. You don't care that the Department of Justice's reputation is in the trash can of history and that federal judges don't believe you. They don't give you the presumption of normalcy, normality, because there is no presumption of normality in the Trump world. They don't give the benefit of the doubt. They just have doubt about the Department of Justice. Grand juries don't trust the Department of Justice or you, Jordan Fox. Juries don't trust you. Judges don't trust you. Magistrate judges don't trust you.

12:38Michael Popok:The American people don't trust you. And nothing that you write either yourself or through chat GPT to a judge you're trying to get a vote from is going to change that. And as I started the hot take, 96, I mean, 56 is better than 96. But what a sad commentary that the Department of Justice could take some sort of comfort that they only had to admit to 56 court violations, not the 96 that Judge Schultz in Minnesota found in his district since the same period, since effectively the same period, just a month of January. Yeah, we got it down to 56. Let me put it in context of a federal practitioner for 35 years.

13:16Michael Popok:It should be zero, maybe one. I'll give you one for human error. And listen to the list of what they violated. Six missed court order deadlines. Just didn't file something. Didn't appear in court. Six. Twelve missed deadlines about bond hearings. Now think about that. You're languishing in a detention center for weeks, days, months, longer than you should. You should be brought before a court for a bond hearing and you're not because the Department of Justice effed it up. Oops. 17 transfers. This number is mind-boggling. One would be too many. 17 transfers, removals, have happened in violation of court orders.

14:03Michael Popok:In other words, a judge said, do not transfer this person out of the jurisdiction or out of the country. And they violated it 17 times, including sending somebody outside the country where the court ordered, do not remove them outside the country. 10 times, they didn't provide evidence. Evidence. this is this is like the foundational basics of prosecution or the department of justice to come forward with evidence 10 times they didn't provide evidence despite court order to do so i just and jordan and there's jordan fox hey everybody i mean i don't know if you've seen the movie election that put reese witherspoon on the map i feel like this is tracy running for the class president.

14:50Michael Popok:Everybody vote for me. I want to be the U.S. attorney. The fact that you think that your career is going to be benefited by pinning your fortune to this donkey and that you don't have some personal responsibility as an officer of the court to comply with ethics, to uphold the Constitution, you think this smarmy letter that you wrote to a judge is going to solve that problem? We're going to continue to follow what happens next, because we'll see what the judge asked for this in detail, a chart to do the survey. And federal judges are now doing that. They're telling the Department of Justice, we don't trust you.

15:31Michael Popok:Go tell us how many of our court orders, not just in my court, but throughout the district you have violated. So then they can take the reason for it. It's not informational. It's not because it's not scratching the itch for the judge. Oh, this is interesting. I wonder how many court orders there are. It's not a drinking game. He's going to do something with it. He's going to remedy it. He is going to use, the federal judges are going to use their inherent authority to fix the problem. This is just information gathering. Glad you're here. You're on Midas Touch at the free subscribe button, but come over to Legal AF YouTube and do the exact same thing.

16:05Michael Popok:12 new videos every day. And just a little teaser, I'm in a hotel room because I just completed interviewing and and exclusively interviewing and getting briefing for our audience from 12 of the, 50%, 12 of the 24 Democratic attorneys general here at their conference in San Francisco met with me, two separate panels, amazing interviews. We focus a lot on voting and the protection of your vote. You're not going to want to miss this. It's going to be up on Legal AF YouTube. That's the kind of content I hopefully that you look forward to. So 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 sub stack every time we mention something in a hot take whether it's a court filing or a oral argument come over to the sub stack 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 add-free versions of the podcast and hot takes.

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