Trump Plays with Fire as Judge Nears Contempt
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Judge Zinus, Maryland federal judge. She's had it. She

She's now giving the other side, finally, in the Abrego Garcia case, the right to file a motion for contempt sanctions against the Trump administration because they're playing fast and loose with the rules and they still keep Abrego Garcia, a man never charged with a crime, either in Venezuela, in El Salvador, or in the United States. They keep him in a El Salvadoran gulag.

where he sits today, despite the Supreme Court 9-0 ruling that he needs to be returned and facilitate his return by the Trump administration. They refuse to do it. They refuse to tell the judge why they're not doing it. And now the judge has had it. She's ordered them to produce all their documents. She's produced them. Ultimately, they're going to be sitting for more depositions.

And now she's finally given the green light to Abrego Garcia's lawyers to file that motion for contempt. I'm going to break it down for you right here on the Midas Touch Network. I'm Michael Popak and Legal AF.

All right, let's go back in time. Donald Trump tried to use the Alien Enemies Act to get rid of over 250 people and send them to El Salvador to a gulag high security penitentiary operated by El Salvadorians President Bukele several months ago back in April.

The 250 that were sent, one of them was named Armando Abrego Garcia, a man who lived in Maryland. He's married to a U.S. citizen. Donald Trump and everybody around him claims that he's a member of MS-13, a gang, and therefore he had the right to send him to El Salvador. The problem with that is there was no due process and there was no...

ability to exercise a writ of habeas corpus to get him into a courtroom before he was sent there. His wife caught him on a video of men being unloaded into this jail.

Donald Trump has taken the position that he's allowed to do it because he's a criminal, although there have been no criminal charges. And more importantly, there was an order of protection, an order of non-removal entered by a U.S. federal judge, an immigration judge, that said Armando Obrego Garcia could not be sent to El Salvador because he could be killed there.

And knowing that, ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, put him on a plane and sent him there. He's been sitting there for several months ever since. Now, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in several rulings, but one in particular about Armando Abrego Garcia, 9-0.

That the Trump administration must facilitate his return, his release from that prison. Facilitation can take many formats. Make a phone call, diplomatic channels. I don't know, break in and go get him out. Do a prison break. I don't know what it is, but the Supreme Court also empowered Judge Zinnes,

who they said is doing everything right in her case about administrating justice and making sure that constitutional due process protections are enforced and are protected. I said, you judge, find out from the other side on a regular basis with updates what is happening with the facilitation. Nothing.

Trump administration said they're not going to tell her. Marco Rubio said he'll never tell a federal judge, despite order, what they're doing or not doing diplomatically. First, they say it's diplomatic. Then they say they're never going to bring him back. Then they taunt the judge with newspaper articles that they mock up, literally mock up, to read, he's never coming home. He's never coming back. They mock sitting U.S. senators from, in this particular one, from Maryland, saying you're never going to see Obrego Garcia back in the United States.

And then they bring in for this scripted cosplay kabuki theater thing in the White House, they bring in President Bukele from El Salvador, this tiny little country that Donald Trump says, "It's with him, I can't bring him back." And Bukele says, "I would never smuggle a person back into the country like that." And Donald Trump said, "I would never ask you." All before the watchful eyes of the federal judge, Zinnes.

And she gave the other side the right to build their case for sanctions, in this case, sanctions for contempt for violating that order. That order, a firm 9-0 by the United States Supreme Court, who has subsequently issued two other orders, 7-2 and 6-3, also in this very area that stand for the proposition that somebody in the shoes of a Branco Garcia needs to have habeas corpus rights, due process rights, adjudicated by a federal judge in the United States.

And you already have the Trump administration in a case involving a mass, pending in Massachusetts, already trying to get another Abrego Garcia back from Mexico and saying they're going to do it. But they're digging in on Abrego Garcia. More importantly, they're filing sealed motions.

which keeps the public's prying eyes away from them. I don't even know what they say. The press doesn't know what they say. And the press has intervened. There's 14 different news organizations that intervened and said, we need to look under the hood here, Judge. Everything's being filed, sealed and redacted, big black pages. We can't do our reporting. We have a First Amendment right and so does the public to know what's happening. She's finally ruled in their favor.

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That's one. That's a good thing. You know, sunshine is the greatest disinfectant. We need it. It's a public, we have a public criminal justice system with a public docket for a reason. Because not just the prosecution and the defendant have rights and a right to sit at the table of public justice, but the public does too. We don't do things in secret. We don't have star chambers.

And that's a good ruling by the judge. But the best ruling is her paperless order that came out today. Paperless order means it's just a docket entry without more, granting permission. We'll put it up on the screen, granting permission to the movements, the Embrego Garcia side, to file their motion for sanctions and giving them a date and deadline in order to do that. So let's take a close look at that one. It says simply but powerfully,

Plaintiff's request for leave to file a motion for sanctions pursuant to federal rule of civil procedure 37 is granted. Plaintiff shall file their motion no later than June 11th, one week from today. Defendant shall file their response seven days later. That's it. Look, she's going to end up, I've said this before, I'll say it again. She is going, Judge Zinnis is going to use her inherent authority and that under rule 37 to sanction the Trump administration.

for failing to comply with her order as supported by the 9-0 ruling of the United States Supreme Court. You can't get the United States Supreme Court to agree on an order from Sweet Greens, let alone 9-0 on a major immigration and deportation order, and that happened. And she's now empowered. And as I've joked, there is no more powerful judge than a federal judge. There is no more powerful federal judge than one that's been confirmed and affirmed 9-0 by the Supreme Court. She's in the right.

And the movements, the Ebrego Garcia side, are doing the right thing to bring this motion. She will be the second judge to find them in contempt. Remember, or I'll tell you straight, tell you first, that Judge Jeb Boasberg, the chief judge of the D.C. federal court, found probable cause to find the Trump administration in criminal contempt, meaning somebody's going to jail.

That is on hold because he found they've similarly violated orders to ground those very same planes that Abrego Garcia was on to take them to El Salvador when he ordered them to be grounded and wheels down.

Wheels down, you know, and snack table up and chairs in an upright position. And they went anyway over his ruling. Now, that's up on appeal with the D.C. Court of Appeals. She will be the second judge to find contempt, I assure you. And I would bet on it.

She's going to find him in contempt because it's right. I'll continue to follow it all right here on Legal AF and on the Midas Touch Network. While you're here, come over to the Legal AF YouTube channel. We're continuing to grow that pro-democracy channel. I curate the channel. I got about 12 different amazing contributors at the intersection of law and politics. We want to be your one-stop shop for all that hot corner.

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Just have the overflow of information. And I'm just chomping at the bit. Tuesday nights, Midas Touch, 8 p.m. Eastern time. A show we call now The Intersection with Michael Popak. Join me every Tuesday night on the Midas Touch Network for that. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popak.

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