Trump Finally Shut Down by Judge in Abrego Garcia Case

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2:31Michael Popok:The Department of Justice under Pam Bondi, they don't even understand basic first-year law school concepts. Like they went to a federal immigration judge and had them issue what's called a nunc pro-tunc order to try to fix a problem related to Kilmer Abrego Garcia as they continue to try to remove him in violation of his constitutional rights and send him to Africa. Judge Zinnis said, you don't even have a final order of removal from an immigration judge to base your removal on. They said, oh, no, we do, Judge. We're going to go back to the immigration judge, and we're going to get what should have been granted and provided in 2019.

3:12Michael Popok:We're going to make him go do it now and fix the clerical error. Except the immigration judge issued what we call in the business a nunc pro-tunc order, which means now as if then. In other words, it's a fix. It's a wallpaper. It's a little bit of a trick where if you go to a federal judge or any judge and you say, I need you to kind of run the way back machine, the time machine, and fix a problem in the past, but fix it now, right? And so under that concept, now for then, nunc pro-tunc, they got a day or so after Judge Zinnis threw up her hands in December and said, how can you remove him to another country and violate his civil rights and detain him and keep him in detention when you don't even have the final order of removal?

4:03Michael Popok:Oh, no, no, we got it. We got it. Nunc pro-tunc, Judge. And because they fundamentally don't understand what that phrase means. Judge Zinnis, in the last 24 hours, granted the temporary restraining order to prevent them from capturing Kilmer Abrego Garcia again, taking away his freedom and trying to remove him. In effect, the judge has said, you have waived your right. You have waived your right because you are five years late in removing him from this country under constitutional principles and Supreme Court precedent. And maybe you should go back to night school to figure out what orders mean.

4:43Michael Popok:I'm Michael Popak. I know what they mean. You're here on the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal AF. Let's get down to the new filing and the new order that's just come out with Judge Zinnis in District of Columbia. Now, we all know, or if not, let me tell you now, the story of Kilmer Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man married to an American citizen with two children, picked up and accused of being a Trend Aragua gang member, although there's no proof of that. In fact, every court that's looked at the issue, from federal judges in Tennessee to New York to immigration judges, have rejected the evidence that he's a member of Trend Aragua.

5:18Michael Popok:Notwithstanding that, he was put on a plane in the middle of the night in shackles, sent to El Salvador, where upon arrival, he was tortured. The DOJ, the Department of Justice, had to admit to a federal judge that he was illegally sent because he had in his back pocket an order to prevent his removal to El Salvador, okay, in particular. And yet he went to El Salvador. The lawyer that admitted that in open court was not commended and patted on the back by the Department of Justice. He was fired for telling the truth. But that fact that he was illegally sent to El Salvador remains with the case.

5:56Michael Popok:Even the United States Supreme Court, in reviewing Kilmer Obrego's case and granting his petition 9-0, supporting Judge Zinnis back over the summer, said, Zinnis is right. You need United States government to facilitate the return of Kilmer Obrego Garcia to the United States for due process purposes. They didn't like that. So to retaliate against the Department, against the Judge Zinnes, and they're losing, they manufactured a criminal case against Abrego Garcia, claiming that he was a human trafficker or actually a human smuggler of people because he got stopped four years ago during a traffic stop with seven people in the car.

6:37Michael Popok:The judges that have looked at that evidence said it was insufficient to keep him in jail and released him. Judge Crenshaw, the criminal court judge, federal judge in Tennessee, in about eight days is going to be holding a hearing to decide whether he's going to dismiss the criminal case because of vindictive prosecution by the Department of Justice. which brings us full circle to judge Zinnis in Maryland. She had a temporary restraining order in place before the holidays that he wasn't going to go anywhere until she had an opportunity to have this issue fully briefed and decide about whether there's ever been an order of removal and if, and what is the impact of the, uh, uh, the new piece of paper that the department of justice breathlessly comes into her courtroom with judge.

7:23Michael Popok:We got the order. See it's yes, it's dated January, but it relates back to 2019. And the judge says, exactly. And that's what a nunc pro-tunc order does. It means now for then. Fix it now for something that happened then. But the clock under the constitutional principles, including a case called Zed Vias, says that within six months or at least, actually, yeah, within six months after an order of removal is issued by an immigration judge, the person has to be removed from the country and can only be detained in a cell for that nine-month period. And if by the end of the, sorry, the end of the six-month period.

8:11Michael Popok:If by the end of the six-month period, they do not remove him, then the government has forfeited its right to continue to detain him. They can start another process to remove, but they can't detain in the meantime. And the judge says, nunk pro tunk means the thing happened back in 2019, which means you're six years late in trying to remove him to fill in the blank for some far away African country. Because to punish Abrego Garcia, who has no links to Africa, they're threatening and continuing to try to send him to Liberia and Cameroon, 3 ,000 miles away from his family in Maryland, instead of where he said he will go.

8:53Michael Popok:Let me make this clear. Kilmer Abrego Garcia has said he knows he's going to get removed one day from the United States under the Trump era. He's willing to go send him to Costa Rica. They said, the Department of Justice, this is where the vindictive prosecution came in, said, we'll do it, but you have to admit guilt that you committed those crimes in Tennessee. He said, I'm not. They said, we're sending you to Africa. That's what's happened here, that the judges know about. So Judge Zinnis said six years ago, and I don't see you taking any steps now to send him, even if you're right that it's January, I don't see you taking any steps at all to send him to Cameroon or to Liberia.

9:31Michael Popok:So I am going to continue to have him out of ICE detention, subject to the criminal case in Tennessee and their conditions on release. Tell everybody about it. This is how the judge ended it. This episode of Legal AF, it's brought to you by Graza, makers of crazy fresh olive oil and other delicious stuff made with crazy fresh olive oil. Graza makes my olive oil of choice. It's top-notch olive oil at an affordable everyday price. Graza's got everything you need to roast and toast, grill and garnish with flair and flavor. Upgrade your favorite recipes with their high quality, single origin, single varietal oil.

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10:50Michael Popok:My favorite part of Judge Zinnis' order, which I will post on Legal AF Substack for paid members, is when she gives them the lecture on what Nunk Pro Tunk means. The fact that she has to tell lawyers this basic fundamental principle is beyond me. She says on page five, by contrast, a Nunk Pro Tunk order is not one which rewrites the history of a case, nor is it one that alters the substantive rights of the litigants. It is instead the duty of the court to see that the party shall not suffer by the delay. A nunc pro tunc order cannot reset the statute of limitations. And she went through all of that.

11:35Michael Popok:So she concludes as follows. This is in her new order. From this, the court easily concludes that there is no good reason to believe removal is likely in the foreseeable future. Respondents have done nothing to show that Abrego Garcia's continued detention in ICE is consistent with due process, he will be released under these principles. And she's so ordered it. Now they'll take their inevitable appeal, but they're on a losing streak, the Trump administration, when it comes to Kilmer Abrego Garcia. Just show him some mercy and send him to Costa Rica and be done with it. I mean, they're continued, you know, the law of holes, they're continued digging.

12:13Michael Popok:They hit rock bottom already, but they continue to dig. Donald Trump would do a lot better with the American people. It wouldn't change the polling, which is terrible for him right now. It's heading towards 70 % rejection rate for Donald Trump for this failed administration. But he'd do better if he would stop abusing the poster child for this Kafkaesque fiasco, Kilmer Abrego Garcia. Send him to Costa Rica and be done with it. It's like this poor Miss Beosa, 18-year-old woman who came here as an eight-year-old from Honduras, straight-A student in Texas, goes to school at Babson College in Massachusetts, goes to visit her family back in Texas who were denied an asylum application at Thanksgiving.

13:00Michael Popok:And she ends up in shackles and sent back to Honduras. and it takes an order of a judge, a contempt order by a judge in Massachusetts against the Trump administration to try to compel them to do the right thing and give her the student visa and let her complete her studies. It doesn't surprise me. We see reporting now that ICE is not following the appropriate procedure with pregnant and sick people who are in detention. They're abusing pregnant and sick people. Does this shock you? The organization rots at the head. Who's the head? Kristi Noem. And firing the public relations disaster of a spokesperson in Trisha McLaughlin apparently just happened because I guess Kristi Noem called an American a domestic terrorist without evidence one too many times, and they blame the PR director.

13:52Michael Popok:That's not going to fix the underlying violations of due process here and our civil liberties. We'll continue to follow it. I'm glad you're here on Legal AF on Midas Touch. This is where we follow and drill down on this with your help and this community. Take a minute, hit the subscribe button on Legal AF YouTube. Come over to Legal AF Substack for paid members where you can read Judge Zinnes' order for yourself. Until my next report, this is 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.

14:29Michael 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.

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