Trump Screws his Own Lawyers Right Before Appeal

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0:30Michael Popok:We got major and breaking developments in Oregon about the National Guard and Donald Trump's attempt to federalize and militarize his attacks on blue states. We've got a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The majority of the entire 29 judges of the Court of Appeals have decided that they're going to grant a new hearing. They're going to throw out a ruling by a three-judge Trump-dominated panel from the 20th of October that said that Donald Trump could use the National Guard on the streets of Portland, Oregon. They're tossing that. They're holding an entire new hearing in front of 11 judges to get to the bottom of it.

1:11Michael Popok:But that's not all. Judge Immergut, the trial judge in Portland, Oregon, just started her trial today to determine whether she's going to convert her temporary restraining order into a permanent injunction. And wait till you hear the new evidence that the states of California and Oregon and the city of Portland are going to put on during the trial, including federal officers shooting pepper balls and gas at Portland police. Federal officers, okay, firing at Portland police. Can you believe it? I'm going to read it all to you. I'm going to commentate on it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF.

1:55Michael Popok:Let's get to the breaking news of this fast-moving story. On October the 20th, a three-judge panel, was no surprise to those that listened to the oral argument, ruled against Judge Immergut, who had issued two orders based on the evidence presented to her. And she's a Trump appointee. First order was to stop Donald Trump from mobilizing the National Guard in Oregon, meaning commandeering it, taking control of it. The second order, she stopped him from deploying any National Guard, regardless of the state they come from, the regiment in Oregon. One of those two orders, the first one on mobilization, on takeover, went up to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

2:43Michael Popok:It sits in San Francisco. Three judge random panel, two Trumpers, one Clinton appointee. You know, it's the old joke. How many Trump judges does it take to screw up the rule of law? Two. And they ruled against Judge Immergut on the issue of the mobilization and indirectly on the deployment. and stopped her order. However, once it became clear that the parties for the states, Oregon and California, were going to take an appeal and ask for the full panel, that's a right that you get as a person that's in an appeal. If you don't like your three-judge panel, which is generally how appellate decisions are made randomly, then you ask, it's a request, you can't compel it, you ask the entirety of the judges of that circuit, Ninth Circuit, there's 29 of them, and you ask for a full en banc, meaning in the case of Ninth Circuit, 11 judges to hear your case, not just three.

3:48Michael Popok:But the majority of the 29 have to agree, and they have. We just got the new order that got issued by the chief judge of the Ninth Circuit. I'll post it in Legal AF Substack for you. And the judge there, Judge Mergua, she vacated, meaning she threw out the earlier decision on the 20th of October by the three-judge panel vacating it, and is now going to be setting a briefing schedule, an oral argument schedule. And in the meantime, she has, by throwing it out, we revert back to Judge Immergut, the trial judge's original order, meaning no deployment, stay in your barracks, still no National Guard on the streets of Oregon.

4:37Michael Popok:Because of the fact that the October 23rd judge order was thrown out, we revert back to Judge Immergut. Judge Immergut stays, her temporary restraining orders stay in place. And that's what's happening at the Ninth Circuit. It's a good sign that at least of the 29, a majority decided, let's say 15 decided, no, we want to hear this case. Now we'll have to see who the 10 that are picked, it's actually 11, it's 10 random from the pool of 29, could be some of the judges that already heard the case, and the chief judge, and then they make their decision. Now let's fast forward. Did I mention you're on the Midas Touch Network?

5:21Michael Popok:You're on Legal AF. Take a moment, hit the free subscribe button here. Come over to Legal AF on the YouTube channel and sub stack, do the exact same thing. We're about to hit the 1 million subscriber threshold on Legal AF's YouTube. And that's all because of you. All right. Now, this week, we have the trial starting in front of the trial judge. Now that we've cleared away all the debris from the appeals level and the National Guard are safely stashed away in their barracks, let's get to the trial. Now, listen to this. I'm going to post this up on Legal AF Substack. I'm going to read it to you now.

5:57Michael Popok:This is the trial brief that got filed on Monday in the case by Portland, the state of Oregon, and California. And I had not known that this was going to be the evidence in the case. It says that witnesses will, this is on page three, Witnesses will testify at trial that in the period following the president's September 27th decision to send in the troops, federal federal law enforcement caused the situation to deteriorate on the ground by employing indiscriminate, excessive force against small crowds. Even Portland's officers, local law enforcement, were caught up in this overreaction. They have been gassed by federal law enforcement.

6:43Michael Popok:On at least one occasion, an officer was hit by a federal law enforcement officer's projectile. I mean, think about this. This is now, this is anarchy. The feds are attacking local law enforcement. The fundamental basis for a president to be able to exercise his right to commandeer a National Guard and deploy it under 10 U.S.C. 12406 is that local law enforcement can't do its job requiring the president to try to use this heightened force in order to execute federal law. Well, if you're attacking local law enforcement and you're taking them out of the game, you can't create the conditions for your own chaos and then call it a rebellion or say, see, I can't execute the laws.

7:34Michael Popok:This is chaos, chaos that you created. the federal government this they continue on page three of the trial brief the federal government's needless use of munitions at the facility the the ice facility also created the appearance of smoke flashes of fire and explosions all of which were broadcast on national television it's no wonder then that after his september 27 decision the president sought to bolster his initial assessment with more hyperbolic descriptions of explosions and fire all over the place. Yeah, caused by the feds. Here's what they say at the beginning of their trial brief. Now, the trial brief is something you provide.

8:13Michael Popok:It's a bench brief you provide to the trial judge in advance of the trial. There's no jury here. This is going to be decided by the bench. This informs her about the evidence, sort of a little bit of your opening statement. It addresses your presentation. And the judge asked for them. So both sides get a trial memoranda, goes to the judge. She reads it in advance to sort of orient her about the case, although she certainly already knows about it. Here's what it says on the first two pages. The ordinary challenges of governing cannot justify the extraordinary measures defendants employed here, the Trump administration.

8:50Michael Popok:First Amendment protected assemblies, even when combined with limited sporadic episodes of unlawful conduct, do not constitute a rebellion or an inability to execute the laws of the United States under 12406. Put another way, unlawful conduct, while inexcusable, is properly managed by regular law enforcement. if you weren't shooting them in the head with pepper balls and pepper spray. It's those core principles which guard against both the presidential overreach and domestic militarization that our nation's founders rightly feared are dispositive in this case. Based on little more than a hyperbolic characterization of Portland as a war-ravaged community under siege by domestic terrorists, the president infringed on Oregon's sovereign power.

9:39Michael Popok:and then they go into the evidence and the testimony that's going to happen here. Judge is going to have a three-day trial. Let me tell you about this judge in case you didn't remember from early reporting. Judge Imragut, it's not to be trifled with. She's been an assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles. She's been the U.S. attorney for Portland, Oregon. She's been a federal judge. She's been a magistrate. She's practiced in Rhode Island. She's a Trump appointee. She's very popular, but she's no nonsense. She's steely-eyed. And she's going to take on now. And I think this has given her wind at her sail as she goes into this trial.

10:17Michael Popok:And I'm sure the Ninth Circuit was signaling it. Knowing that Judge Immergut was about to start a trial, they issued their order yesterday telling her, effectively, we got you. That three-judge panel that overturned you, we vacated that. We've thrown that out the door. We're going to take a new look at it. That, I will tell you from having been in front of federal judges for 35 years, that will embolden her, that will comfort her in her, that she's right about her analysis and decision-making and shouldn't have doubts about it. We're gonna cover it all right here on the Midas Touch Network. And as things develop during the course of the trial, come over to Legal AF Substack and Legal AF YouTube, where we will give you up-to-the-minute reporting.

10:57Michael Popok:Till 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. 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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