Trump Runs Scared as Judge Obliterates His Games

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0:18Michael Popok:According to a new filing in federal court, the best evidence that the Trump administration has to prove that 137 men are part of Trend Aragua, the narco terrorist group in Venezuela. That was the entire impetus for Donald Trump's takeover of the oil fields of Venezuela, his use of the Alien Enemies Act. the entirety of the evidence against them is what the American Civil Liberties Union calls patently absurd use of tattoos and clothing, hand gestures, symbols, logos, and graffiti, including things that are quote-unquote close to laughable. I'm Michael Popok, bringing you up to date in a case pending before Chief Judge Bozberg, we call JGG.

1:06Michael Popok:You're on the Midas Touch Network and on Legal AF. Let's get to the new developments in this case. Chief Jeb Boesberg is trying to hold this administration accountable since at least March. He's the judge that started the criminal contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. That's been blocked a couple of times by the D.C. Court of Appeals, the Circuit Court Court of Appeals. However, there's going to be a new hearing in that matter, and it could end up back with Jeb Boesberg to allow him to continue to pursue contempt proceedings primarily against Kristi Noem, of all people, someone who's very, very close to being impeached, if not fired, and or thrown under the bus by Donald Trump.

1:47Michael Popok:In this particular case, these 137 men represent a class that were sent to El Salvador without due process in the middle of the night in violation of the court's order. Judge Boesberg ordered that these men, pursuant to Supreme Court precedent that was established just in the last year, order that they get, and they're entitled to, habeas corpus due process rights to get before a federal judge to argue the case that they are not members of Trenuragua and they should be allowed to stay in the United States. The United States, in order to bury their mistake of sending these men without due process over court order in contempt than had them transferred at a prisoner exchange facilitated by El Salvador to where?

2:33Michael Popok:Venezuela. Just before the quote-unquote war broke out, we're sending these people back to Venezuela, a country we're at war with, if you think that made sense, and along for the ride with the 137 people to try to get them away from federal court jurisdiction. But the American Civil Liberties Union, who collaborates with us here on Legal AF, they are keeping track of where their clients are. And they ran back into court, and the judge says, here's what I'm going to do. I am going to order that due process be given. I want to hear a plan from the United States. Submit a plan to me about how you plan on giving them due process.

3:10Michael Popok:Remote hearings, Zoom hearings, flying them back to the United States, having it done in consular offices. Whatever your proposal is, I'm all ears. And then about two weeks ago, or three weeks ago, they sent in a declaration, a sworn statement of testimony by Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, about a few days after the Venezuelan oil field takeover. And there was a whole bunch of, I know you told us you want us to provide you with a plan for due process, but there can be no plan. We have no plan. It's unstable there. Who destabilized it? you know, it's very delicate negotiations. I can't bring this up in diplomacy.

3:50Michael Popok:I can't guarantee, you know, that there'll be a proper notary publics to swear in witnesses. You know, what are we going to do? So we'll get back to your judgment. We're not doing a darn thing. By the way, I thought Marco Rubio was the viceroy of Venezuela. At least that's what Donald Trump referred to him as. And he can't figure out a way to get 137 people on a plane back to the United States or to a consular office for a hearing. He also said flights in and out are very delicate. You know, air traffic and air travel is very tumultuous right now. And yeah, but as the American Civil Liberties pointed out in their own filing, there's at least three flights a day now running.

4:31Michael Popok:Homeland Security Air is running regularly in and out of Venezuela. So they say, why can't they give them due process and put them on planes? Now, in their new filing, which I have a copy of, one of my favorite parts is when the American Civil Liberties Union says to the judge, we might not even need hearings. We are so confident in our evidence that these are not Trenda Aragua, or as they say in their papers, 75 % of the men that were sent in the middle of the night and disappeared to El Salvador have no criminal record whatsoever. However, and some of them, many of them were in the country legally under asylum or other processes.

5:14Michael Popok:So they're like, we can put together affidavits and submit summary judgment papers. We don't even need a hearing because we're so confident that the government doesn't have the evidence to prove that our clients are Trenda Aragua, that we'll do it on papers without a hearing. That's how confident the ACLU is. Here's what they said on page five and six about the patent absurdity of the case, including wearing a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey. Every 11 year old out there wearing a Chicago Bulls Jordan jersey, retro jersey. Look out because ICE might be coming to your door next. The government's own documents, the ACLU says, reveal the patent absurdity of using tattoos and attire as indicators of TDA.

6:03Michael Popok:That's Trend Aragua. membership, as they've done for many class members. That's the 137. For instance, the Chicago Homeland Security Investigations Office identified wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey, particularly one bearing Michael Jordan's name as a TDA marker. Experts characterize this theory, the ACLU tells the judge, as close to laughable. No, I think it's laughable. Given the Bulls status as Chicago's home team and Jordan's universal popularity. Here's a quote from one of the experts. The idea that a Jordan tattoo or jersey would be used to link someone with Trenda Aragua is close to laughable.

6:43Michael Popok:There you go. Even the government's own intelligence contradicts the practice. Gang unit collections determined that the Chicago Bulls attire, clocks, and rose tattoos are typically related to the Venezuelan culture and not a definite indicator of being a member of the gang. Nor has the government's reliance on hand gestures, symbols, logos, graffiti, or matter of dress fare any better. Experts agree that Trend Aragua lacks consistent iconography, unifying symbols, or a distinctive style of clothes. They just don't have that. They don't have gang colors, if you know what I mean. And there's no evidence whatsoever that TDA maintains a constitution or issues membership documentation, yet these two were treated as purported indicators of affiliation.

7:32Michael Popok:The ACLU says to the judge, moreover, approximately 75 % of individuals sent to El Salvador to the Cicod prison had no criminal record in the United States or abroad, and many entered the United States lawfully, including several who arrived as highly vetted refugees. Have you ever bought something for your house that looked amazing in the store, and then you got home and immediately regretted it. Yeah, same. That's why I'd much rather shop at home where I can actually see how things look. And that's exactly why I love 3-Day Blinds. They bring the showroom to you. There's a better way to buy blinds, shades, shutters, and drapery, and it's called 3-Day Blinds.

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9:39Michael Popok:But as to these men, the declaration conspicuously fails to explain why there is any reason to believe that the current head of Venezuela, the vice president, would not honor the specific agreement made by the Maduro regime to not impose obstacles to their travel to the United States. In other words, even Maduro is going to let them go to the U.S. They argue that they're unable to retrieve class members from Venezuela as civilian travel into and out of Venezuela has become heavily restricted. But the ACLU says, but the defendant, Department of Homeland Security, has expanded deportation flights to Venezuela since the ouster sending three flights in the past week.

10:19Michael Popok:So they're sending people to Venezuela. Planes got to come back to the United States. Why can't they be filled with 137 men looking for due process? So the ACLU asked the judge to force the government to submit a new proposal to allow for remote proceedings, to give them back their travel documents, to allow for written submissions, and to put them back on their heels and explain. Well, the judge bought it and said or agreed and has ordered that by February 2nd, the government respond to the proposal made by the ACLU to allow these people to go to consular offices, be flown back to the United States, be put on planes or submit written submissions as due process.

11:09Michael Popok:and by February 9th, the judge is going to hold a hearing in which he's going to decide on this very issue. Judge Bozberg's got his hands full, but he is not stopping in his pursuit of justice, just as you want a federal judge, impartial federal judge to do. He's been charged with, they made a bar complaint against him, a judge complaint against him. They try to get him removed from the case. They try to impeach him. And yet Chief Judge Boesberg, who was a Republican appointee, apparently, just keeps on going. Now, I had the honor of having Lee Glernt, the lead lawyer for the ACLU in this matter, who had these papers drafted and he signed them on for an interview about this very issue just the same day as they submitted that paper.

12:03Michael Popok:And here's a clip. Well, Lee, while I've got you, because our audience, I don't want to leave them on the edge of their seat. You and I first got together talking about a case in D.C. in front of Chief Judge Bozberg called JGP and 137 clients of yours in Venezuela. That was before the Trump administration decided to take over the oil fields of Venezuela with a military coup or putsch. And so and I know that Marco Rubio filed a piece of paper with Judge Bozberg and said, well, you wanted us to tell you how we're going to give due process to these 137. And the answer is too delicate, too diplomatic, can't do it.

12:40Michael Popok:Where are we in that case and your clients? Yeah, so you're absolutely right. The judge said, I have jurisdiction. These men were sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador without due process, then transferred to Venezuela. They are entitled to due process. I have jurisdiction to do it. I want the government to submit a plan of how they're going to do it, whether it's bring them back, remote hearings, whatever. As you said, Secretary Rubio filed a declaration saying things are too delicate to do anything. The judge has now said he wants a response to that from us on the night of January 26th, midnight January 26th.

13:21Coming up. Right. And then we'll see. And we've asked the judge to hold a hearing next week. We'll see if he does. But these men have been out there now for so long, removed without any due process. And so we hope that the judge will put his foot down and say to the government, you know, enough is enough. even taking into account the delicacy of what's going on in Venezuela. There are ways to deal with it. The other part of it, as you know, is that he is trying to hold, potentially hold them in criminal contempt for sending them to El Salvador in the first place, even though he had an order saying, don't transfer them over.

14:01He ruled that there, you know, I want people to take the stand to explain why they nonetheless turned people over to El Salvador, even though I had an order. They refused to take the stand. They went to the Court of Appeals. So we're waiting any day now from a ruling from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether he can go forward with his contempt proceedings. I suspect either side, who doesn't prevail, will go further in that. You know, there's en banc, there's the Supreme Court. I think there's a lot at stake there as well, because obviously it's the fate of these men, but it's also, is the Trump administration going to respect judicial orders?

14:39As you've said before, that transcends any particular issue. That goes to part of who we are as a country and the rule of law.

14:48Michael Popok:Absolutely. And then finally, the 137 I saw in the paper filed by Marco Rubio, I don't know what you're going to write in your briefing, but he did call himself, or he has been called the vice-froy of Venezuela, and yet he doesn't have the ability to provide due process to these men despite court order. Putting that aside for a minute, the, you know, they had some language in their filing about, well, we don't even know where these people are. You know, 60 Minutes interviewed, I think, a number of your clients when they did that report that was kiboshed and then finally aired. People were like, how did they get those people?

15:22Michael Popok:Because they got sent to Venezuela. That's how they got these people. Your clients want you to go forward with this issue and get them the due process that the Supreme Court has said that they're entitled to, right? Right. Right. And so whether the government knows where they are or not, we can know where they are. Right. That's right. I said that in a hot take. I said, well, the ACLU knows where their clients are. So we'll leave it at that. We look forward to your filing there. Glad you're here with us on Midas Touch. Come over to Legal AF. The American Civil Liberties Union is with us now regularly for reporting.

15:55Michael Popok:They have their own playlist under the American Civil Liberties Union. I have people like Legal Alert on on a regular basis. In fact, just later today, I'll be interviewing from the American Civil Liberties Union, Terry Nelson, who is one of the heads of the ACLU Minnesota office to talk about all things Minnesota and what the ACLU is doing about it in their lawsuits. I'm glad you're here. Hit the free subscribe button on Legal AF YouTube. Come over to our sub stack and do the exact same thing. 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 Substack.

16:32Michael Popok: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. 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. Wear legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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