Anti-Anti-Nazi Barbarian Hordes are Knocking Down the Gates

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Trump’s CHILLING New Exec. Orders Are Meant To Scare His Own Admin (w/ Andrew Weissmann)
The Bulwark
Apr 10 2025

Trump ordered the DOJ to investigate two former officials he regards as enemies—this comes on the heels of his efforts to intimidate law firms from taking on clients who oppose him. Andrew Weissmann joins Tim Miller.







Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Addresses Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship
The White House
April 9, 2025
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/ ... ensorship/

RESTORING TRUST IN GOVERNMENT: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum revoking any active security clearance held by Chris Krebs and his associates.

The Order directs the head of every federal agency to immediately revoke any active security clearance held by Krebs.
The Order also suspends any active security clearance held by individuals at entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.
Furthermore, the Order calls for a review of Krebs’ activities as a government employee, including his leadership of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The review will include a comprehensive evaluation of all of CISA’s activities over the last 6 years and will identify any instances where Krebs’ or CISA’s conduct appears to be contrary to the administration’s commitment to free speech and ending federal censorship, including whether Krebs’ conduct was contrary to suitability standards for federal employees or involved the unauthorized dissemination of classified information.
ENDING GOVERNMENT CENSORSHIP: President Trump is committed to ending government censorship of Americans and believes that those who engage in such conduct should not have access to our nation’s secrets.

Krebs, the former head of CISA, is a significant bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government authority.
Krebs, through CISA:
Suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting purported misinformation, and recruited and coerced major social media platforms to further its partisan mission.
Covertly worked to blind the American public to the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Promoted the censorship of election information, including known risks associated with certain voting practices, and falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines.
Skewed the bona fide debate about COVID-19 by attempting to discredit widely shared views that ran contrary to CISA’s favored perspective.
ENSURING LOYALTY AND ACCOUNTABILITY: President Trump has made clear that loyalty to the United States must come before personal or partisan agendas, taking decisive action against those who misuse their undeserved influence to deceive the American public.

President Trump already revoked the security clearances held by intelligence officials who falsely claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation during the 2020 election.
On Day One, President Trump signed an Executive Order to restore freedom of speech, dismantling federal programs that censored dissenting voices under the guise of combating misinformation, ensuring government serves the people—not partisan narratives.
That same day, President Trump signed an Executive Order ending the weaponization of the federal government.
These decisive actions underscore President Trump’s pledge to ensure a transparent government that is loyal and accountable to the people.

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/ ... eat-again/

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Makes America’s Showers Great Again
The White House
April 9, 2025

UNDOING THE LEFT’S WAR ON WATER PRESSURE: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to end the Obama-Biden war on water pressure and make America’s showers great again.

• The Order directs the Secretary of Energy to immediately rescind the overly complicated federal rule that redefined “showerhead” under Obama and Biden.
• Twice in the last 12 years, those administrations put out massive regulations defining the word “showerhead.” The Biden definition was a staggering 13,000 words. The Oxford English Dictionary, by contrast, defines “showerhead” in one short sentence.
• President Trump is restoring sanity to at least one small part of the federal regulations, returning to the straightforward meaning of “showerhead” from the 1992 energy law, which sets a simple 2.5-gallons-per-minute standard for showers.
• The Order frees Americans from excessive regulations that turned a basic household item into a bureaucratic nightmare. No longer will showerheads be weak and worthless.

ROLLING BACK OVERREGULATION: Overregulation chokes the American economy, entrenches bureaucrats, and stifles personal freedom.

• Under Obama and Biden, the government issued lengthy rules—thousands of words long—redefining “showerhead” as a “nozzle” and making multi-nozzle showers illegal if they collectively discharged over 2.5 gallons of water per minute.
o These changes served a radical green agenda that made life worse for everyday Americans.
o President Trump sought to undo this definition in his first term by publishing extensive analysis and a formal rule—however, Biden undid this progress and the shower wars continued.
o The government should not waste taxpayer time and money writing another elaborate definition for a term that has a simple definition.
o No market failure justifies this intrusion: Americans pay for their own water and should be free to choose their showerheads without federal meddling.
• It’s not just showers—the Biden Administration aggressively targeted everyday appliances like gas stoves, water heaters, washing machines, furnaces, dishwashers, and more, waging war on the reliable tools Americans depend on daily.
o These appliances worked perfectly fine before Biden’s meddling piled on convoluted regulations that made those appliances worse.
o President Trump is slashing red tape and ending Biden’s dumb war on things that work.

DELIVERING ON PROMISES: By restoring shower freedom, President Trump is following through on his commitment to dismantle unnecessary regulations and put Americans first.

• President Trump: “We’re going to get rid of those restrictions. You have many places where they have water, they have so much water they don’t know what to do with it. But people buy a house, they turn on the sink, and water barely comes out. They take a shower, water barely comes out. And it’s an unnecessary restriction.”
• This Executive Order builds on actions President Trump has already taken to roll back overregulation and empower Americans, including:
o Cutting red tape across federal agencies to unleash economic growth.
o Repealing burdensome Biden-era executive actions that stifled freedom.
o Fighting against radical green agendas that prioritize ideology over people.

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Trump gets MAJOR LOSS from SCOTUS and CAN’T HANDLE IT
by Michael Popok
MeidasTouch
Apr 11, 2025 Legal AF Podcast

There are 5 shocking parts of the new Supreme Court decision affirming that a “leftist” “radical” trial judge was right on the money, and affirming her order that the Trump Administration “facilitate” the return of an illegally deported and removed Armando Abrego Garcia. Michael Popok takes a close look at the 9-0 decision, explains why it doesn’t “order” his return, and how the Trump Administration is bragging that they won a case they clearly lost in a big Constitutional Due Process way.



Transcript

so many different things are going on in
a threearter page opinion by the United
States Supreme Court that looks on its
surface to be about Kilmer Armando
Abrego Garcia and whether he's going to
continue to rot in El Salvador or if the
Trump administration is going to be
required by some judge somewhere to
facilitate his return or not but when
you go into the nittygritty molecular
level DNA of these three quarters of a
page and you distill it all there's some
shockers in there and I'm going to
describe them to you right here only way
I know how telling the truth I'm might
as touch all right let's get into it
first of all let's do the let's do it by
the numbers this looks to be a 90
decision in favor of Armando Arbrego
Garcia who was illegally as admitted by
the Trump administration as admitted by
the Trump administration as confessed by
them illegally deported over an order of
an immigration judge of protection that
required that he stay in the country and
not be sent back to certain death or pun
or or or violent attack in El Salvador
everybody admits that one shocker of the
decision is that there is as recited by
the majority by the 90 a confession by
the Trump administration that they knew
about Armando Abrago's order of
protection and they deported him anyway
and as we said before and I said it in
my prior analysis a couple of weeks ago
that could end up being the death nail
for the Trump administration i think it
is it's in the first three lines of the
decision I'm going to read to you in a
minute that's one another shocker they
they affirm and empower a lower court
judge who's been mercilessly attacked by
the Trump administration and say that on
balance she was right judge Paula Zenis
who who has been attacked by the Trump
administration for issuing her original
order back on April 4th that the Trump
administration committed an illegal act
and must facilitate and effectuate the
return of Abrago Garcia by last Monday
at midnight now that didn't happen
because of an administrative state but
in this shocker of an order all nine and
that means the Magarite have reaffirmed
the power and the jurisdiction of this
judge a judge who was called a leftist a
Marxist an outof control rogue you know
left-wing judge that should be ignored
with the Trump administration thumbming
their nose at her no the Supreme Court
says she was right there was one odd
choice of words they didn't they didn't
like they like they love the word
facilitate his return that they wrote
they didn't like the word effectuate the
return facilitate effectuate i'm going
to I'm going to go over the differences
in a moment here's another shocker not
one judge not one justice and certainly
not the nine not the majority not who
wrote the opinion is ordering the return
of Armando Garcia into the United States
they're not ordering the return they're
empowering the federal federal judge who
ordered that the US facilitate and
effectuate or in this case facilitate
his return so I I want to make sure we
get the headlines straight because
sometimes they're they're typed out very
quickly no order of immediate return but
an order requiring the Trump
administration to use all of its powers
to facilitate his return now here's
another shocker at the end when I got to
the part where Sotayor Jackson and Kagan
issued a statement not a descent another
shocker there's no disscent here that's
how I know it's
90 what's What's the shocker when I read
it I was like "Oh here we go they're
going to do we should have done an order
i disagree with the majority we should
have done an order for his return."
Doesn't say that all all it is is a
recitation of the bad facts against the
government which of course I appreciate
that she put it in there but then saying
and kind of empowering Judge Zinnus
again in Maryland saying "You better
hold the government to its proof and
hold their feet to the fire." And that's
it it was more of a finger wagging than
it was any real kind of substance but I
appreciate anything Sat Sautor writes
and I want to cover that as well what
does it mean and then I'll read to you
from it it means that the case has been
returned to the trial judge where it
sits her jurisdiction has not been taken
away she gets to conduct further
proceedings with the instructions given
by the United States Supreme Court
they're okay with facilitate and they
have told the the Trump administration
you better be ready to stand and deliver
in a court of law before Judge Zennis
and tell her what you've done to
facilitate and other steps that could be
taken and if you haven't taken steps to
facilitate you better tell her why and
how to the extent that you can because
you know they're going to argue oh you
know foreign affairs and executive
privilege and state secrets and whatever
else the only thing that's foreign about
this just to touch on that for a minute
there's no foreign affairs angle to this
except Donald Trump decided to offload
and delegate and um and off and off and
ship off um prisoners and people that
were in our immigration process and send
them to El Salvador that was his choice
they make it sound like oh he's busy
negotiating a major war peace treaty
with the El Salvadorans and you like
Jefferson with the French like what are
you talking about it's just the location
of the prison that you're using
temporarily you're renting space in El
Salvador that doesn't make it major
foreign relations but there is a line in
there that got the Trump administration
all excited and they tried to argue that
they won these two concepts both can't
be true the lawyers for Abrao Garcia
rightly read the threequarters of a
paragraph threequarters of a page I'm
going to read you and they said the rule
of law prevailed bring him back now I
agree with all that the Trump
administration read it saw the one line
about "Oh you judge Zenus when you get
it back you may not be able to go as far
as you thought on the word effectuate."
Careful there you might cross over into
foreign relations that are the province
of the executive branch oh yes the
Supreme Court has affirmed that we have
foreign relation powers that a federal
judge can't interfere with and a rogue
they didn't say any of that that that's
twisting completely out of all
recognizable shape one line in this in
this uh majority opinion i've already
given you the shockers let me read to
you from it
now this is the Supreme Court of the
United States decision issued LA
actually issued on uh Thursday night on
March 15 2025 the United States removed
Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia uh from the
United States to El Salvador and then
here's the three lines that drive the
whole decision the United States
acknowledged that Abrao Garcia was
subject to a withholding order that's
from an immigration judge forbidding his
removal to El Salvador and that the
removal to El Salvador was therefore
illegal the United States represents
that the removal to El Salvador was the
result of an administrative error done
dead stick a fork in it it's what we
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apply mr ruveni who worked for the
Department of Justice past tense
admitted as he had to to tell the truth
in its filings before Judge Zenis that
they that the government knew about the
uh the order preventing his removal and
put him on that plane Del Salvador
anyway or as the lawyers for Abrago
Garcia declared in their brief this is a
case of one of one there's nobody with
these Kafka-esque facts like Abrego
Garcia and that you can see first three
lines four lines of the Supreme Court
decision that's driving it but they
continue
uh they talk about Judge Zitis's order
on April the 4th directing the
government to facilitate and effectuate
the return of Abrago Garcia to the
United States by last April what's the
difference popac let me tell you the
difference let me use an example
effectuate and facilitate okay
facilitate means using all of your
efforts all your lawful means to try to
uh encourage an event to happen somebody
to do something some some something to
happen on the other end that you don't
control but you can promote and
facilitate grease the skids so that the
other counterparty does the thing you
want them to do or doesn't do the thing
you want them to do let's use a library
as an example
if somebody needed to facilitate
um taking out a book from the library
okay you would fac you would facilitate
it you'd show up with your library card
you'd call on the librarian you'd show
up at the right time and place you'd ask
for the right book you'd show them the
card of where it's located if you owed
any money or fines that suspended your
library privileges you'd pay them and
now you facilitated take checking out a
book what you didn't do is if all of
that failed while the library was closed
he didn't break into the library and
take the book off the shelf that's
affffectuating the uh the checking out
of the library book that's the
difference so the judge was right and
the Supreme Court supported her that the
Trump administration needs to tell the
judge and to do it all those things
necessary to facilitate his return make
the phone calls fill out the paperwork
pull push the buttons cut off the
funding whatever you need to do to
facilitate and get from the other party
the conduct that you're looking for make
the phone call Trump call Blly and if
you're not going to do it or you can't
do it they're going to need to catalog
it to Judge Zenis but what they don't
have to do is effectuate his return they
don't have to go break into the jail and
go get him that's the difference that
would cross over into the world of
foreign affairs so here's what they say
on the top of page two to the extent
that the government's emergency
application okay the rest of the
district court's order remains in effect
right here's what she wrote in her order
so you know what they are
affirming that she says when she granted
that relief that's been affirmed now by
the Supreme Court this preliminary
relief is issued to restore the status
quo and to preserve Abrego Garcia's
access to due process in accordance with
the constitution and governing
immigration law that is what the Supreme
Court has adopted that he has
constitutional rights that need to be
complied with and honored and they are
embracing that um the rest of the
district courts remains in effect order
remains in effect but requires
clarification on remand we're sending it
back to you on remand with instructions
the order properly requires the
government to facilitate his release and
to ensure that his case is handled as it
would have been had it not been
improperly sent to El Salvador that's
the in accordance with the constitution
part of her order the intended scope of
the term effectuate in the order is
unclear and may exceed the district
court's authority the district court
should clarify its directive with regard
with due regard for the difference owed
to the executive branch in the conduct
of foreign affairs for its part the
government should be prepared to share
meaning with the trial judge what it can
a little weasel word there concerning
the steps it has taken and the prospects
of further steps what have you done to
get him back to facilitate and what are
you planning to do if you're not doing
it why aren't you doing it and that's
going to be for the judge at the
factfinder to go and figure out i don't
think it's going to work for Donald
Trump to say state secrets privilege or
executive privilege or we're not telling
you we don't because she's now been
supercharged by this United States
Supreme Court ruling in the way that
they've written it now let me just end
it this way with
Satayor satayor i was like "Oh here we
go with the other two they're going to
go descent no descent." just a statement
and here's the statement the the most
powerful part of it is her comment that
the the that the Trump administration
could have been getting him back but
instead have been arguing ridiculous
points of law in the courtroom here's
what she says on page three instead of
hastening to correct its egregious error
the government dismissed it as an
oversight the government's argument
implies that it could de this is the
scary part could deport and incarcerate
any person including US citizens without
legal consequences so long as it does so
before a court can intervene in the
middle of the night citing back to the
JG case that they just decided on the
Alien Enemies Act but then she sort of
punts she says "Nevertheless I agree
with the court's order that the proper
remedy is to provide Obgo Garcia with
all the process to which he would have
been entitled to had he not been
unlawfully removed to El Salvador
including due process of law." And at
the end she wags her finger in the
proceeding on remand the district court
Judge Zenis should continue to ensure
that the government lives up to its
obligations to follow the law wow good
luck good luck come back here and follow
how Judge Zinnus takes this on remand
what type of hearing she holds what are
the requirements that the Trump
administration now has based on this
ruling and you'll now know why I said at
the top of that take there's no way this
is a win for the Trump administration
only by contorting that one sentence
about foreign relations we're going to
have a lot of explaining to do in front
of Judge Zennus and we're going to do it
right here on the Midas Touch Network so
until my next legal AF podcast my next
legal AF the YouTube channel my next hot
take i'm Michael Popock and I'm
reporting in collaboration with the
Midas Touch Network we just launched the
Legal AF YouTube channel help us build
this pro-democracy channel where I'll be
curating the top stories the
intersection of law and politics go to
YouTube now and free subscribe at legal
AFMt
that's @ legal AFMt
[Music]

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PISSED OFF Judge UNLEASHES FURY at Trump for VIOLATION
by Michael Popok
MeidasTouch
Apr 11, 2025 Legal AF Podcast

Hell hath no fury, like a Federal Judge just affirmed by the United States Supreme Court, and the Trump Administration and its hapless DOJ representative, Drew Ensign, found that out a new hearing about what steps the Trump Administration is taking to get Armando Abrego Garcia, illegally deported and removed, back from El Salvador. Michael Popok reports on the hearing today, the Judge’s fury, the DOJ’s gibberish and willful misinterpretation of the Supreme’s order, and why it all matters to our rule of law.



Transcript

The escalating war between Donald Trump
and its Department of Justice and a
federal judge in Maryland continues with
a hearing today did you look out your
window did you see fireworks and flames
they were coming out of the ears of
Judge Paula Zinnus who is turbocharged
and reinforced by a Supreme Court ruling
late last night that affirmed and
confirmed and reaffirmed her decision to
order the Trump administration because
they illegally uh violated the due
process rights of Armando Abrego Garcia
to post haste facilitate his return from
an El Salvadoran jail where he is sat
and rotted for the last 27 days she
followed the Supreme Court's order that
came out at 7:00 p.m last night she
issued her own order at 8:00 p.m last
night and the Trump administration
violated that order and there was a
hearing over it today with a new ruling
and the judge isn't pleased but the rule
of law is and so am I on the Midas Touch
Network I'm Michael Popach let's get
into this hill that the Trump
administration apparently wants to die
on they have a knack for picking losing
battles they have a knack for right for
picking they don't pick their battles
they pick losing battles now look the
Supreme Court against I'm sure the
wishes of everybody in MAGA and Donald
Trump's administration ruled in favor of
Judge Paula Zenis you remember her she's
the one that MAGA and the Trump
administration Donald Trump Pam Bondi
and others called a leftist a Marxist an
activist you know what she is she's an
affirmed trial judge by the United
States Supreme Court she's got that
badge of honor because they affirmed
every little scrap of her order against
the Trump administration except for one
particular word affffectuate and she
effectuated a change today with a new
order and then we c got to the hearing
at 1:00 on Friday and they tried it out
the old reliable Drew Enen drew Enson
you may remember was the guy that was uh
staring at his shoes and also lying to
the judge Judge Boseberg about the Alien
Enemies Act when the planes were or were
not landing in El Salvador well after
they got around to firing I'm not making
this stuff up firing or putting on
permanent leave a guy named Ruveni who
had been the lawyer in this case
involving Armando Abrego Garcia they
fired him from the Department of Justice
as the head of immigration litigation
because he told the truth to Judge Zenis
a few days ago confessed that there was
an order preventing the removal of a of
Armando Garcia to El Salvador
particularly to El Salvador because his
life was in danger if he was removed
there a federal immigration judge issued
the order in 2019 the Trump
administration didn't care about it and
knowing about the order they put him on
a plane and put him into the jail in El
Salvador that's a problem we call that
an illegal act the United States Supreme
Court said that the government
effectively admitted that they had
committed error and an illegal act to
violate an order that's a bad thing even
with the United States Supreme Court as
currently constituted so that lawyer
Ruini has been put on administrative
leave not because he did anything wrong
but because he told the truth as he's as
he has to do as an officer of the court
enter Mr enen his boss Drew Enen fresh
off of the Alien Enemies Act with Judge
Boseberg trottting down to Maryland with
Judge Zenis okay what do you have to say
for yourself they had a fight over and
and you lose when I say a fight that
suggests that they're on equal ground
they're not on equal ground remember if
you haven't been to a federal judge a
court in a while the judge is up on high
for a reason and the lawyer is down
below in the well of the courtroom so
they're not even for various other
reasons they're not either judge Enson
said I mean Judge Enson sorry I just
elevated him judge Zenis called this
hearing and she issued an order last
night and the order that she issued
having seen what the Supreme Court ruled
was she wanted 9:30 this morning a
declaration from the government of all
steps they had been taking and had been
taking willing to take going to take
past present and future to facilitate
the expatriation or repatriation of ago
Garcia from the jails of El Salvador
should be easy the president of El
Salvador is on his way to Washington DC
to meet with Donald Trump how about over
a couple of finger finger sandwiches
they talk about getting a Bgo Garcia out
pursuant to a federal court Supreme
Court order how about that but I digress
so the judge said "Fine the Supreme
Court says I'm supposed to keep an eye
on you guys the Supreme Court says I'm
supposed to make sure due process and
constitutional rights are not violated
the the Supreme Court says I'm supposed
to get to the bottom of the facts in
this case." So you provide me with a
declaration of what you've done so far
in the steps to facilitate and they res
uh and that was after she entered an
order a new order late last night to
clarify one area of ambiguity slight
ambiguity that the Supreme Court noted
in its ruling they loved everything
about her decision to preliminarily
enjoin the Trump administration and
force them to facilitate the return of
ago Garcia post haste quickly however
she also used the word effectuate we use
that a lot in the law you know it means
to execute to put into action they
didn't like that one because they said
"Well if you're suggesting I mean this
is my interpretation if you're
suggesting that in order to effectuate
if after you facilitate you're not able
to pop the guy out of jail that you have
to send like Seal Team Six in to take
him out we're not we're not okay with
that but other than that we're okay with
every other aspect of your order." So
now an emboldened Zinnus said "Fine let
me clarify what I meant." And what she
did was so smart she just used the same
kind of facilitating words that the
Supreme Court already approved so here
was her order last night last night an
hour or two after the Supreme Court
decision she said the Supreme Court's
April 10th 2025 decision like two hours
before affirmed this court's order and
directed that on remand that means an
instruction back to the lower court this
court clarify its use of the term
effectuate according proper deference to
the executive branch in its conduct of
foreign affairs to this end the court
hereby amends its order to direct this
is now consistent with the Supreme
Court's ruling that defendants take all
available steps take all available steps
to facilitate the return of Abrago
Garcia to the United States as soon as
possible not reasonable steps all
available steps make the calls put
things in writing cut off the payment
for his storage down in the prison in El
Salvador whatever you have to do.

She also went on to say at
her late night order "The Supreme Court
made clear that the government should be
prepared to share with me what it can
concerning the steps it has taken past
tense and the prospect of further
steps." So you're to do that by 9:30 in
the morning n they filed a piece of
paper in the morning and said "We can't
do that by 9:30 in the morning we need
to digest the Supreme Court ruling it's
going to take us till next week on the
15th while Mr abrago Garcia sits in a
jail subject to being killed and the
judge said "No I'll give you two more
hours till 11:30 on Friday that's it."
And you can't tell me I'm paraphrasing
now you can't tell me that it's taking
you that long to read she said a
four-page order she's being kind it's a
page and a half of the majority decision
the 90 decision nine out of nine Supreme
Court justices said "Get Abrao Garcia
back to the United States and facilitate
his return as quickly as possible." Nine
they had a fight over what effectuate
means and then Soayor had a famous line
at the end you judge you keep an eye on
the government and make sure they comply
with all of the rulings that's your job
she said "Fine that's what I'm going to
do and I'm not going to wait around with
a man rotting in prison based on an
illegal act that's been acknowledged by
the Supreme Court i'm gonna get him back
fast so I don't want to hear about next
week maybe sometime judge we're working
you know we're working hard we have PTO
we're taking the weekend off i got
tickets to something no and 11:30 came
and went and they did not file their
response instead they filed another
response see they had time to file
responses but not give the judge the
information she wants and in that
response they said "It's impracticable
judge we just can't comply with your
order i I have to tell you I've been
doing this for 35 years i would I have
never seen the Department of Justice in
a case refuse thumb their nose at a
federal judge's order when the Supreme
Court is breathing down their neck and
this is the battle that they've picked
and the losing battle that they have
picked to die on i assure you now they
may be trying to run in the meantime
over to the United States Supreme Court
for further clarification or
reconsideration to get further
instructions to the to the judge who's
being mean to them but I don't think
it's going to work now the fight that
broke out in the hearing today because
there still was a hearing today is they
trotted out Drew Enson drew Enen the
same lawyer that Boseberg about two
weeks ago reminded don't be a liar the
only thing you have is your credibility
the only thing you have as an advocate
is your is your ability to be credible
and tell the truth and be honest tell
that to your colleagues so this guy now
standing there with his bosses Pam Bondi
and Todd Blanch breathing down his neck
he says "We don't interpret the Supreme
Court ruling the way you do your honor."
She says "What are you talking about?"
Well we we think you have to you can't
set another uh there's no more deadlines
you can't set deadlines and if you're
setting deadlines you're implicating the
foreign affairs uh powers of the
executive branch and you can't do that
she says that's not what the Supreme
Court said in the hearing she said the
Supreme Court said that my original last
Monday deadline had passed and therefore
let's reset i've now reset the date and
the date is it was today for you and now
I'm going to give you She gave him
another last minute reprief she said
"I'm going to give you another day or so
and that's it and you're to give me
daily updates on what you're doing
because you're not recognizing sir that
you have a new order against you that I
just entered last night." The court
didn't Supreme Court didn't say that I
can't enter a new order in fact quite
the opposite the Supreme Court empowered
me and affirmed me to manage this case
in the interest of justice i'm going to
do just that well we don't interpret the
Supreme Court ruling the way you do she
said 'The only reference to foreign
affairs and the powers of the executive
branch is about the word effectuate and
I've changed my ruling based on that
ruling my order and now I've just said
take take all necessary steps to do what
to facilitate which is the word they
were fine with this is the this is the
hangup that they're having is over the
United States Supreme Court ruling
now where is this going to go from here
because Enson can clearly read he knows
this is a um an insulting um
interpretation of the Supreme Court
ruling why is he doing it because he's
ordered to do it because if he doesn't
do it he you know it's like one of those
terrible movies like hostage crisis
movies they already took his buddy
Ruveni out and they shot him it's like
it's like Die Hard they shot him in the
head and threw him out of a window and
then they said "Okay now you stand up
there." I mean that's what happened
ruveni is gone and Enson doesn't want to
be gone he wants to stay as the
Department of I don't know why he wants
to stay for this Department of Justice
where he's just a puppet for Pam Bondi
and ultimately Donald Trump but
apparently he does but now you're up
against an emboldened properly
emboldened federal judge who's now been
affirmed i have to tell you you do not
want to go to a federal judge who's just
been affirmed by the United States
Supreme Court and expect to get any type
of of solace or quarter from her you're
not going to get it she reminded them in
their order that the United States
Supreme Court recognized the confession
of guilt by the United States and it
drove their decision here's what the
Supreme Court said just last night the
United States acknowledges this is 90
vote the United States acknowledges that
Obago Garcia was subject to a
withholding order that's the prior
federal order from 2019 forbidding his
removal to El Salvador and that the
removal to Al Salvador was therefore
illegal they chalk it off to an
administrative error here's what the
court said they're okay with the
effectuate the rest of the district
court's order remains in effect but
requires clarification on remand so what
was the order the order was simple the
order granting the preliminary
injunction said that um let me read it
to you here defendants are hereby order
to facilitate it used to say effectuate
but now says facilitate and use and take
all necessary steps to to uh obtain the
return of plainif Kilmer Armando Abra um
she didn't even set a deadline anymore
see that's the deadline that they didn't
like she took the deadline out and she
took out the word effectuate now she's
on rock solid ground she's impenetrable
with the Supreme Court a airtight
watertight
she she then said in her order that they
the Supreme Court agreed with that this
preliminary relief she's entered now
amended by her new order is is is the
purpose of it is to restore the status
quo and to preserve Abrago Garcia's
access to due process in accordance with
the constitution and governing
immigration laws the majority said you
got to give ago Garcia the same due
process and notice that he would have
gotten had you not illegally removed him
to El Salvador so here's the answer stop
now I'm just going to get down to street
level stop jerking around stop
around and get Abrago Garcia home cuz
that's the right thing to do and that's
the United States of America we all want
to live in let a judge once he's back in
the United States get to the bottom of
whether MS-13 kidnapped him as a gang in
El Salvador in order to leverage his
parents because they ran a successful
business in a bribery scheme or he was a
willing member of MS-13 and committed
some sort of crimes all I know is he's
had a green card since he's been here in
order of protection hasn't committed any
crimes is married to a US citizen has a
5-year-old daughter that had to watch
his arrest by ICE had his rights
violated by the federal government never
committed a crime here either and has a
body of law already or a record already
established by the immigration judge
that he is he needs the protection to
never go back to El Salvador my money is
on a brago Garcia right now but we'll
let it we'll let the government work it
out in an adversarial proceeding
presided over as some judge in a black
robe
maybe it's a rid of habius corpus
petition which they the Supreme Court
has fallen in love with which puts him
in front of a federal judge all right go
rid of habius corpus let's go bring the
guy in he can he can make his argument
whatever it is he is as his lawyers quit
Emanuel said he is one of one and it's
time for us to have the grace of God to
bring him back i'm Michael Popach you're
on the Mightest Dutch Network and on
Legal AF follow it and this hearing and
the next hearing and the next daily
report and the next update and the next
order here on the Midas touch network on
legal AF the YouTube channel on legal
afill then I'm Michael Popuk in
collaboration with the Midas touch
network we just launched the legal AF
YouTube channel help us build this
pro-democracy channel where I'll be
curating the top stories the
intersection of law and politics go to
YouTube now and free subscribe legal AFM
MTN that's legal AFMTN
[Music]

************************

BREAKING: Trump Defies SCOTUS Order; Judge Furious
by Sam Stein and Andrew Egger
The Bulwark
Apr 11, 2025 Bulwark Takes

Sam Stein and Andrew Egger discuss the breaking news on Trump's legal team defying the SCOTUS ruling to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, back to the United States.



Transcript

hey guys it's me sam stein managing
editor at the bull work here in the
midst of a constitutional crisis with
andrew edgar uh it's friday so i guess
every friday we have some freakout
session but this one is legit uh we are
coming to you reacting to a court
hearing in maryland over this
high-profile case kilmar rego garcia the
maryland man who was wrongfully sent to
el salvador basic gist last night
supreme court said you need to
facilitate his return to the united
states or at least update the courts
about the steps you are taking to do so
and there was some haggling over what
the definition of what was it facilitate
versus i forget the other word you know
there was effectuate effectuate yes
lawyers uh but you know that's
where they everyone read it the same way
they had to figure out they had to at
least detail what they're going to do to
get this guy back and then the trump
lawyer ers came in today and they said
no we're not going to talk about it and
we don't have enough time to do it and
they basically are defying the court
order i mean that that i don't think
there's they'll legally say probably ah
we got you know there's some wiggle room
here but it's it's defiance and we're at
the place where we all thought uh would
we'd end up eventually but we were all
very scared about ending up here so yeah
not good we're going to get into it
subscribe to the feed first as always
andrew am i reading it wrong i know
you're a little even hot more hot about
this than i am so i think i know what
you're gonna say it seems crazy to me
there's absolutely no question that
what's going on right now is crazy i i
guess i might quibble with the the the
idea that they are actively defying the
order right now it's like what they are
saying is and it's you know it seems
totally full of but what they're
saying is we do not have time as the
government to pull together all of the
weighty national security considerations
that go into this case in order to be
able to give the judge next steps on the
very accelerated timetable she has
demanded uh to be able to to like
basically hatch a plan um that that was
going into this hearing that was i get
that but let me just pause so let me
just pause you right there because yes
but they wouldn't even the government
lawyers wouldn't even say what a
bracia's location and status is okay yes
and that was a point made in the hearing
she she essentially was saying "look i
know you guys are saying your clients
haven't yet advised you on what the next
steps are your clients meeting the trump
administration but i'm not asking you
right now for for the next steps i'm
asking you for some extremely basic
factual questions about the guy who the
supreme court has pretty unilaterally
said needs to have due process in our
courts and yes and yes you're right like
that they their response to that was "we
cannot give you any information that has
not been provided to us." to which the
judge essentially said "well why isn't
your client telling you the stuff that
you need to come before my court?" so i
think the distinction here is the
distinction here is they're saying "well
this is not enough time like the supreme
court decision happened last night
you're giving us a few hours this is an
incredibly delicate uh process like we
have to consider national security
implications i'm not quite sure what
those are um we can get into that later
and then uh the judge says "well okay
but at least detail the steps you've
taken to this point to locate the man
and to facilitate or expedite or
whatever word you want to say his return
which has been demanded by the supreme
court decision so there's a difference
between taking the actions at least
detailing the steps you will take and
they wouldn't do the latter and the fact
that they refuse to do the latter raises
some serious questions about both
compliance with judicial decrees and
whether they ever will in fact bring
this man back which frankly i think is
very much up in the air at this point it
definitely seems like they're laying the
groundwork uh to to make a real stand
here which is just i mean it's just
mindboggling i mean and yes you're right
i mean this is this is another thing
that the the judge really drilled down
on she said "i had a valid order to you
guys to start figuring out how to get
this guy back days ago you know like
like the supreme court eventually stayed
that order but it was in effect for days
you had days during which you were
supposed to be doing that can you name a
single step that you guys took you being
the administration uh during that period
in order to to at least get the ball
rolling on this stuff and they they just
utterly stonewalled her on on on every
single question one um exchange that
kyle cheney good buddy who's been on top
of this more than any reporter uh one
exchange he highlights is the judge says
"all right give me an update on garcia's
uh current physical location and
custod." government lawyer says "uh
we're still internally reviewing the
supreme court's decision and vetting
what we can say to the court." judge
says "what do you mean it's just a
direct question what is his status?" and
you know they went back and forth they
did this and the judge obviously grew
frustrated the government lawyers
basically are of the of the place where
they're saying we can't share
information yet because we believe that
this is of such national security uh
implications and considerations that it
falls outside the purview of the court
and they're hanging it all on one line
in the supreme court decision that says
you know foreign affairs are the perview
of the executive and so on and so forth
i will say the judge has given them more
time judges said "okay i want daily
updates." the the the government has
asked until tuesday which is four days
from now uh to get them some sort of
information and even then they said they
might have to evoke state secrets so
we're at a real we're at a real moment
here where uh it's hard to see how this
resolves frankly yeah yeah and and uh
for for what it's worth the judge
basically denied the the government the
opportunity to push till tuesday she
says she wants daily updates on all this
stuff um but but what what seems
significant about the tuesday deadline
in particular is that the government was
trying to push the date of next check-in
past monday when president belle is
coming to the white house to meet with
donald trump to meet with president
trump right and and that's that's the
the truly insane part of all this like
we're talking about how there are these
national security implications that are
that are coming into play here and that
is i guess in some strict technical
sense true because you know it it
involves uh multi-nation diplomacy at
this point but but this is the whole
thing here is the way that like the
lawlessness follows on the lawlessness
right because this is a situation that
donald trump has deliberately set up
right where he's treating el salvador
and beckll in particular as sort of his
client jailers for these people that he
has held obviously everybody knows
nobody would dispute that sorry you said
a key word there which is client we're
paying there's not a single person on
earth who would dispute that that belle
would hand this guy back if donald trump
my point is that we are paying we are
paying for the incarceration of this man
which makes us a contract which is
functionally different than national
security right like we are actually
entering into contract for the
incarceration of this man which means
that we i think legally and technically
surely do have uh or the right to have a
status update on this person uh so the
idea that they wouldn't know where he is
or don't have any responsibility over it
seems totally uh false to me uh and then
you mentioned the other thing which is
that is coming on monday like if they
really wanted this to happen if they
knew where this man was and i don't know
if they know where this man is that
could be something we need to consider
maybe they've lost him think about that
can i if they wanted him back they would
get him on the plane they could and they
bring him back but they don't want him
back well that and that's the point like
to to just to drill down there's a
reason why the the seeming ridiculous
legal ease of facilitate versus
effectuate matters here because
facilitate essentially what they're
saying is you know you a court can't
actually command the trump white house
to go out and make another country
implement some policy you couldn't put
in a court order to say the government's
going to make china drop all its tariffs
on the us to take an extreme example but
but because of the specifics of this
situation everybody knows everybody
knows that that beck kelly would give
this guy back if asked the weird thing
is that the what the court is now
ordering the trump administration to do
is to strain every nerve to get him back
but kelly knows that trump doesn't want
him back and so that's why i mean he's
he he has been out there publicly
mocking this judge kelly has publicly
mocking this judge's orders um you know
a as they've actively been going into
effect with by the way various
constellation people in the maga
movement publicly telling don't listen
to the judge you know defy the order
because because trump has been commanded
to try but he doesn't want so like so
where does that leave you i mean like is
trump going to gonna get up on monday
and say hey you know this judge says we
really want this guy back yeah give him
back and gonna say ah you like what's
actually gonna happen nobody knows it's
a crisis the way yeah and but to what
end right it's like i think we all sort
of predicted that they would at some
point defy a court order but what is on
on this one why this one right like is
it is it so important to them that they
have the right to you deport anyone in
the middle of the night and say "well
they're overseas matter national
security we can't do anything about it."
is that the one where they're going to
you know show defiance i guess once you
show defiance you can show defiance on
all of them and the other thing that i
would say is um
it it's interesting that they did this
uh right after the supreme court i i
think there's going to be a lot of stuff
in front of the supreme court obviously
there's already a lot of stuff in front
of the supreme court in a normal world
if you're a justice on the supreme court
and you see the president defying your
your order you get pissed and that might
factor into your the considerations that
you make when you issue future opinions
i have no faith that you know clarence
thomas or is going to like change his
his colors over this stuff but i do
think there's some politics that needs
to be considered here about how they're
handling this and maybe they don't give
a honestly they probably don't they
probably don't but i i think some people
i think some people in the
administration or in the justice
department are wondering is it worth
burning our capital with the court on
this yeah i i i think it's a combination
of a couple things because one in
general this fight over the alien
enemies act and the the deportiz to the
el salvador prison all that stuff that
was in general a fight the
administration really wanted to have
that i think they saw that as very
fertile ground for for fighting the
courts the problem is that they rolled
it out so kind of hamfistedly and and
swept up people who shouldn't have been
swept up in it and all of this stuff i
mean they had to acknowledge in court
that they mistakenly sent this guy i
mean so and then fired the lawyer who
who made those admissions in court i
mean like like it's it's very clear that
that they're in like this was their plan
going in but they don't just have a plan
they also have you know this this
complete unwillingness to to pull back
on anything this complete unwillingness
to you know admit guilt or retreat or be
as soon as you start doing that on one
thing the whole the whole kind of like
the momentum of of the trump assault on
on the courts and and the rule of law
and all of this stuff becomes blunted a
little bit because you've drawn blood
the the law has drawn blood against the
administration so i you could make the
argument that it is it is as though even
though this guy is certainly not the
most uh advantageous fight for the uh
administration to be having obviously on
the merits since he's innocent and a
judge ordered that he couldn't be
deported to el salvador they're stuck
having to having to provoke the crisis
based on this insanely tenuous ground
just because of of their own kind of
blunders in getting here but that
doesn't mean they're not serious about
fighting on this ground today it's
really worrisome it's very serious it's
extremely worrisome it's it's a
nightmare scenario for a lot of people
out there and certainly the lawyers
who've been warning that there will be a
defiance of the court it looks like we
have it we'll keep tabs of it um scary
stuff andrew thanks for breaking this
down with us thank you guys for watching
as always subscribe to the feed really
appreciate it we'll talk to you later

[admin]

Trump Pulls MOST DANGEROUS Stunt Yet in Oval Office
MeidasTouch
Apr 12, 2025

Chilling attacks on our constitutional rights! The Trump regime is going all in with authoritarian attacks on First Amendment freedoms. Trump is now issuing executive orders calling for criminal investigations against former employees who merely spoke the truth about him. And the Republican warpath extends to American citizens just returning from vacations abroad. MeidasTouch contributor Suri Crowe has the chilling details of just how far this regime is willing to reach.



Transcript

What we have for you relates to Miles Taylor
you may recall that Miles Taylor served
in the Department of Homeland Security
during your previous administration uh
in his capacity with the Department of
Homeland Security he leaked classified
information he wrote a a book under the
the uh pseudonym anonymous making
outrageous claims both about your
administration and about others in it uh
what this presidential memorandum is
going to do one it's going to strip any
active clearance that he has in light of
his past activities involving classified
information it's also going to order the
Department of Justice uh to investigate
his activities to see uh what else might
come up in that context given his
egregious behavior during your previous
administration and I had no idea who
this guy was i had no idea of lies bad
things and I think it's uh I think it's
like a traitor like uh it's like spying
he walks into the office he's supposed
to be sitting here a lot of people you
know I'll be here and there'll be
there'll be 20 people standing in the
room there'll be often times young
people in the office i assume he was one
of them at least but I didn't know
anything about him and
uh he wrote a book anonymous and I
always thought it was terrible and now
we have a chance to find out whether or
not it was terrible but it was a it was
a work of fiction got a lot of publicity
got himself a nice job with CNN or one
of them and I think we have to do
something about it you can't have that
happen if that happens to other
presidents it wouldn't it wouldn't be
sustainable and if it was a Democrat
president I'd say that's a terrible
thing a thing like that can happen
that's a terrible thing and uh it's time
to find out whether or not somebody can
do that can they write a book but uh
we're going to find out whether or not
somebody's allowed to do that but I
think it's a very important case and I
think he's guilty of treason if you want
to know the truth but we'll find out and
I assume we're recommending this to the
Department of Justice yes sir
and that my friends is how you turn the
White House and the Oval Office into an
authoritarian state regime hi my name is
Siri Crow and you're watching the
Mightest Touch Network so now we have
the president of the United States
ordering legal hits on people he just
doesn't like for doing what using their
first amendment rights miles Taylor is a
Trump 1.0 Homeland Security staffer who
initially wrote a piece he bylined
anonymous in the first Trump term he
wrote about how reckless the Trump White
House was at the time taylor later came
out as a vocal critic of Trump writing a
book and even endorsing President Biden
in the 2020 election i served as the
chief of staff of the Department of
Homeland Security under the Donald Trump
administration i would go into the
office i would read my intelligence
brief and then it was my job to help the
Department of Homeland Security to keep
our country safe what we saw week in and
week out and for me after 2 and a half
years in that administration was
terrifying we would go in to try to talk
to him about a pressing national
security issue cyber attack terrorism
threat he wasn't interested in those
things to him they weren't priorities
but the president wanted to exploit the
Department of Homeland Security for his
own political purposes and to fuel his
own agenda at the border he wanted to
restart zero tolerance and separate
families he said he wanted to go further
and have a deliberate policy of ripping
children away from their parents to show
those parents that they shouldn't come
to the border in the first place a lot
of the time the things he wanted to do
not only were impossible but in many
cases illegal he didn't want us to tell
them it was illegal anymore because he
knew that there were and these were his
words he knew that he had magical
authorities i came away completely
convinced based on firsthand experience
that the president was illquipped and
wouldn't become equipped to do his job
effectively and what's worse was
actively doing damage to our security
people who are still serving in this
administration have said to me "Just
wait until the second term it'll be no
holds barred it'll be shock and awe
we'll do what we want." Given what I've
experienced in the administration I have
to support Joe Biden for president and
even though I'm not a Democrat even
though I disagree on key issues I'm
confident that Joe Biden will protect
the country now Trump has not only
ordered Taylor to be criminally
investigated by his weaponized DOJ for
writing the book he also took aim at a
former DHS attorney named Chris Krebs
whose cardinal sin was merely stating
that the 2020 election was not stolen
and in fact was the most secure election
in history in conjunction with
Smartmatic and Dominion voting data the
two groups that filed successful
lawsuits against Fox News for defaming
them about the 2020 election results
remember Dominion won a
$787 million settlement from Fox and
guess what trump is now going after the
law firm that repped Dominion in that
suit Susman Godfrey i mean Chris Krebs
all he did was rebuke the president's
false claim that the election wasn't
stolen as somebody in his administration
and here's what Trump is trying to do
look I don't know how much of it you
never know with Donald Trump is he
trying to distract you like a like a guy
with a laser pointer and the media is a
bunch of cats is he trying to get people
to chase things so they stopped talking
about his the fact that he caved and did
a total about face uh on the tariffs
after telling us for days uh that he
wasn't going to do a pause and now he's
suddenly pausing because the world
economy is collapsing is he doing this
as a distraction i don't know but on its
face it is incredibly pernitious for him
to sign executive orders and launch
investigations into people simply for
speaking out against what they saw from
his administration and also what he was
saying there is though it's like highly
unusual look lots of books get written
by people who are insiders in
administrations who talk about the
things that happened in the rooms that's
actually very common that's what
reporters do um and what he's trying to
do here though is to make people afraid
of speaking out against him not just
people from before but people who are
there now listen to the brilliant Mark
Elias of Democracy Docket explain what
is really going on here you basically
saw Donald Trump target two individuals
who you just discussed with Mary for uh
for criminal investigation i mean no if
ends or buts i mean it was just
straightforward like I'm signing this
document instructing the Department of
Justice to investigate these two
individuals and if you listen to what he
said it was essentially like for
whatever you know like it's not even
it's not even a pretense of predication
against them well they then moved to law
firms and targeted um uh Susman Godfrey
a law firm who it's interesting he
described it as you said for uh
interfere for being involved in uh uh
the 2020 election what Susman Godfrey
did was represent a private party in a
private piece of litigation involving
defamation against Fox News in which Fox
News settled the case and that is what
Donald Trump now believes renders an
entire law firm unreliable and uh worthy
of punishment by the full force of the
Department of Justice he then went on to
detail how there are uh several more law
firms who are set to capitulate have
already capitulated some paying as much
apparently as $125 million in legal
services and he ended uh with saying
that um perhaps he was going to put
these law firms all to work on working
for the administration on trade because
he now has uh he thinks a billion
dollars owed to him by these law firms
so Nicole I run through this because in
if you take these individually what you
are left with is thinking "Oh that's
terrible and that's terrible." When you
watch it as a whole what you realize is
that Donald Trump is trying to bring the
legal establishment to its knees he is
weaponizing the Department of Justice
against his political enemies and he is
about to turn these capitulating law
firms into his foot soldiers so all of
these these cowards at all these big law
firms that think "Oh didn't we pull one
over on Donald Trump we agreed to do
proono and it won't really change
anything." Guess what based on what he
said yesterday you're going to be
representing the coal companies based on
what he said today you're going to be
helping him implement crippling tariffs
against the American people so that's
what the cowards are doing and I hope to
see Susman Godfrey stand tall he's
exactly right if the regime could knock
out all of the First Amendment and
immigration lawyers and force the big
law firms the white shoe firms that
often do this kind of work for free pro
bono into now representing Trump's
interests well then where will we the
peasants go for legal representation
which is why it is imperative that
lawyers and firms do stand up for the
rule of law and don't fold the way
Scatteren Arps Paul Weiss Milbank and
Wilky and others have apparently done
because it will never be enough for
Trump his team of Steven Millers Elon
Musk's and their insatiable appetite for
power revenge and harm here's another
chilling example of this regime
targeting First Amendment rights
they're going to keep pushing and
pushing until something stops them and
then yesterday we saw an absolutely
chilling story out of Michigan where
immigration agents detained and demanded
to search the phone of an American
citizen at the Detroit airport after he
returned from a vacation with his wife
and two daughters his name is Amir Makl
and he broke no laws he's a lawyer
himself and his only infraction at least
as far as we can tell in the eyes of the
Trump administration appears to be that
he represents a pro Palestinian
demonstrator who was arrested at the
University of Michigan last year and
that attorney Amir Ml joins me now mr ml
um it's great to have you on the program
just take me through I think you were on
a vacation the Dominican Republic you
land in Detroit you got to go through
customs what happens next
well thanks for having me Chris well
what happens next is when I get to the
immigration uh checkpoint and I speak to
a passport officer they ran my passport
which happens routinely whenever you're
coming in through through the border but
the strange part is the agent looked up
and looked to another um government
officer and asked if the TTRT team was
available and I hadn't recognized an
acronym so I did a quick Google search
while I was just standing at the desk
there and it turns out that term meant
the tactical terrorism response team
which you know dropped my heart into my
stomach i almost nearly hit the floor
thinking about what the heck that could
be about and so I looked over at my wife
and I said "Honey they're going to
they're going to take me in for
questioning i'm pretty confident that
they're going to ask me to uh step into
an interview room." I was sitting in an
interview room a plain clothed uh agent
who wouldn't identify himself to me um
asked me if you know I was carrying my
cell phone and I said yes and he says
"Well first off let me just say this we
know who you are we know that you're an
attorney and we know that you represent
um some high-profile clients and the
only high-profile case that I'm involved
in right now is the representation of a
young lady named Samantha Lewis and
she's involved at the University of
Michigan and and uh was engaged in in
political speech and protesting against
the war in Gaza um and in our defense
we're going after the criminalization of
free speech in the University of
Michigan case and so we've made a lot of
you know public remarks about that topic
and we stood tall with our clients on
that issue um so as this conversation
with this agent was going he said
"Listen he hands me a pamphlet which had
a federal statute on it and said "Listen
we're allowed to take your phone even if
you're an American citizen and we can
hold it for several days or weeks even
and then give it back to you once we're
done going through it or you can comply
with us right now give us the password
and let us go through it." And I said to
him "Well guys you already know there's
two agents in the room you already know
that I'm an attorney and you know that a
substantial amount of my work is going
to be on my phone and in these days
everything's electronic anyways." I said
"I'm not giving you the access when I
have privileged communications on my on
my cell phone." Well that charge you
know put him in a position where he had
to go speak to his supervisor he comes
back several minutes later and says "Why
don't you write down," he gave me a
legal pad why don't you write down what
it is that you feel is privileged and we
won't go through that stuff we'll go
through everything else i said "What
kind of a futile exercise would that be
i've got to go through what on nearly 15
years of communications and emails and
and files to say this is privileged and
this isn't." I said "It's ridiculous
it's an impossibility to go through all
that stuff." So we came after I mean
this is going on for nearly an hour and
a half we came to the final pass he said
"Listen again if you want to leave here
with your phone you're going to have to
give us access i agree to let them see
my contacts only." So it wasn't random
this is not something where I was just
randomly selected they knew who I was
they knew my history they knew I had
represented high-profile cases they told
me we looked you up were and they were
ready to ask me pointed questions about
certain things and because he brought up
the high-profile case it led me to
believe that they're targeting me
specifically because I've taken up the
defense for this young lady Miss
Samantha Lewis and to me I was really
appalled by that by that um you know
apparent overreach of the government at
this point and they were Customs and
Border uh protection agents just wearing
plain clothes he showed me a badge but
he wouldn't tell me his name you ever
had an interaction like this before
where you had a were questioned but ever
had anyone in law enforcement like
mention your clients as like the
possible motive i've never been
interviewed at the border recent is
December on Christmas break we took
another family trip to Mexico i came
back and nobody stopped us but that was
not during the Trump administration this
is the distinction in this situation we
now have a new administration who's made
it very clear that they're going to
attack attorneys who are taking on um
you know cases that are against the the
interests of of what the this current
administration uh believes in h plain
closed agents who won't identify
themselves this is becoming a very
familiar story with this regime resa
Ozurk anyone and it sounds an awful lot
like Hitler's brown shirt thugs you guys
this is all about intimidation and all
of these companies and law firms and
media empires and universities don't
seem to realize that by bending the knee
to Trump like Rumple Stillilskin he will
always want more that's what terrorists
do and you don't ever negotiate with
terrorists ever remember chapter 1 of
Timothy Snider's book do not obey in
advance we are fighting off an
authoritarian takeover of our country
and history will remember the heroes and
the cowards as well listen I get afraid
for the first time in my life I have
been afraid to be a citizen in the
United States of America afraid to use
like in the broader sense my
journalistic voice it happened when I
was working in corporate media because
they would try to intimidate me if you
guys know the story of when I was
working for Sinclair uh during Trump's
first um run for office but clearly it's
much worse now i was afraid to even do
the story at one point during the day
today but I forced my fear and said "No
no no no no as an American citizen I
have the right to use my first amendment
speech as a journalist to speak and the
minute that I become afraid to speak
under my constitutional rights and that
you do too well that's the minute that
they have won and we cannot let that
happen that's how these thugs rule
that's what authoritarian regimes do
they rule by intimidation if they can
knock down all these other players then
they they figure that they will fear you
into compliance and that's why um my
little handbook written by Timothy
Snider is so critically important we
cannot obey in advance we know what our
rights are as American citizens and my
god that's why every lawyer and law firm
who's standing up to this thug
presidency God bless them okay thanks
for watching you guys i hope to see you
back here soon my socials are down below
please follow me along i've started a
Substack as well i will see you back
here soon remember fear is contagious
but so is courage peace love this video
continue the conversation by following
us on Instagram @ Midasouch and help us
blow past 1 million followers

****************************

Trump goes FULL AUTOCRAT with shocking executive order
Brian Tyler Cohen
Apr 12, 2025 Democracy Watch with Marc Elias

Democracy Watch episode 287: Marc Elias discusses Trump targeting 2 political opponent by name.



Transcript

this is Democracy Watch Mark we've just
seen kind of an an a jaw-dropping move
by Trump on the executive order front He
just signed executive orders targeting
two people in particular That was Chris
Krebs who was a cyber security official
from his first term and Miles Taylor who
was a Department of Homeland Security
official from from Trump's first term
basically directing his own law
enforcement agencies to investigate
these people How is this not first of
all the biggest national scandal that we
that we're facing right now amid the
other national scandals but also how how
in the world is this legal uh for him to
be directing his Department of Justice
to investigate people who he views um as
political enemies yeah I mean we have
crossed so far beyond any red line that
we can't even see the lines anymore I
mean like lines are like off in the
distance someplace in the in the past
And you raised the right point which is
this should be a front page national
scandal every single day I mean the fact
is that when uh Bill Clinton who by the
way at the time was not even the
president paid a visit on an airplane
with Loretta Lynch who was the attorney
general that consumed right-wing media
and a lot of the legacy media for days
When Barack Obama visited Eric Holder
for his going away party at the
Department of Justice that was viewed as
a scandal And here it is The president
of the United States singled out two
individuals by name like literally put
each of their name in an executive
memorandum and ordered that his
government investigate these individuals
It is absolutely inappropriate It is way
beyond uh the the the line And yet there
is largely just like a shrugging the
shoulders like well you know Trump will
be Trump in terms of the legality of
what he's doing knowing full well
eventually we'll find out that there
that there are no actual crimes that
were committed by these people And so is
there a case that Miles Taylor and Chris
Krebs can wage against this
administration for some political
retribution
yeah Well it's definitely political
retribution By the way just to be clear
among the reasons why Chris Krebs was
targeted is that he said that the 2020
election was not rigged
He dained to acknowledge objective
reality How dare he yeah I mean like
literally that is why Donald Trump says
that he is targeting Chris Krab But
Brian I want to address though your
central point which is that isn't it
illegal like isn't it the case that
Donald Trump can't do this and is are
these folks going to go to court so I
think they have a choice here Um
obviously if there ultimately was an
effort by the US government to impose
some sort of sanction on them you know
whether it be a criminal prosecution or
some other something less than that then
they'd be able to go to court and say
this is you know this is inappropriate
In the same way by the way the law firms
went to court and were able to block uh
block those The complicating thing here
is that the Trump administration would
say "Well we haven't done anything right
like the president said this but it's
not like we have done anything yet that
has actually caused these two folks
harm." Now I would argue well of course
they've been caused harm because they
you know they have they have the federal
government now investigating them But
that's the that's the that's the game
though that you're seeing the DOJ
lawyers play in court in a lot of these
executive orders is the is that people
run in and say these executive orders
these are illegal and the department of
justice is like oh that was just like
something he wrote you know it's just
like a you know it hasn't it hasn't
actually it hasn't become anything so
it's not yet ripe there's not yet
standing to challenge it I think that
these two individuals have a really good
good case that just the mere fact that
these executive orders were or executive
memoranda I think they were were were
issued is enough but but but I think
that that will be the question of
whether they go to court now or wait to
see if something happens So I get I get
this idea that they might not have
standing until something is actually
done But then there's also the
atmospheric impacts of being at the
receiving end of an executive memorandum
basically just targeting two people by
name specifically from the mouth of
somebody who has the biggest bully
pulpit in America and somebody who
commands the attention of people who are
going to direct their eye on Trump's
behalf to those people And so what
happens in the event for for example
that that there are bomb threats called
into these people's houses that there
are bricks thrown through their windows
that they become uh the targets of
targeted harassment by these people that
they can't go certain places Um this
isn't something that Trump himself
specifically did at the hands of the DOJ
But the fact that that he noted them by
name that's going to have atmospheric
impacts um on a base that's already
proven themselves perfectly willing to
do Trump's bidding in in the in the you
know the public sphere Yeah that's
exactly right The fact is that this will
have second and third order effects So
you mentioned one of the third order
effects could be private harassment that
they get from people who are Trump
supporters even before you get there I
mean we you know if you're Chris Krebs
or you're Miles Taylor and you are
trying to you know earn a living working
for a company and if that company has
any interaction with the government I
mean this is you know not going to be
not not going to make that any easier If
you need to yourself interact with the
federal government you know maybe you
need to get a social security payment
for your for your parent or you need uh
to get a passport like you know there
the Donald Trump It is not just that
what he has done here um is uh
unconstitutional It's not just that that
as you say people in his administration
will pay attention because he's the
president This is an administration of
sick offense This is an administration
of people who pride themselves on saying
they are not independent of Donald Trump
and that they take every utterance
Donald Trump makes to be you know
somehow up down from up high And so the
immediate second order effects could
actually be quite consequential And
again I hate to keep tying it back to
the law firms but the law firms that
have fought are fighting precisely
because they're saying those second
order effects could put them out of
business Well now you're not some
multi-billion dollar law firm Now you're
just an individual whose only offense is
telling the truth about 2020 You've gone
on with your life You know it's now five
years past 2020 you've gone on with your
life and you've got this hanging over
your head and before you get to the
right-wing trolls you've got to interact
every day and fear that at any time the
Trump the full force of the federal
government could come down on you could
come down on your loved ones your
businesses your associates It is
absolutely what dictators do Yeah Is to
try to use these kinds of powers to
intimidate their political opponents and
to target their political opponents And
my question is you and I are talking
about this but where the hell is is is
the legacy media on this where where is
the outrage why do we not see a
concerted focus on this because I
promise you this if this was aimed at a
reporter it'd be on the front page of
the newspaper every single day They'd
have like a little box you know uh
covering it Knowing full well that there
are those second and third third order
effects is there a way that that he
would have some that any of these guys
would have any standing to bring forward
some type of of of case even if there
isn't direct harm at the hands of the
DOJ but like understanding the media
environment that we live in
understanding for example that when you
have somebody like Donald Trump who who
tweets be there will be wild on January
6th and suddenly uh tens of thousands
thousand of people come down to to the
capital you know in Washington DC and
ultimately storm the building Like we we
know because we have precedent from
Donald Trump issuing his edicts and
saying things in the public square what
can happen Even if he tries to preserve
some degree of plausible deniability and
say "Well I didn't I didn't tell them
you know to to storm the capital I just
said come here." Like we we we already
know And so so you can lean on this idea
that he didn't directly come out and say
break the windows and enter the building
in the same way that you can that he can
say well I didn't tell anybody to harass
um you know Krebs and Taylor but we know
what happens and so they can kind of
play these games but but here on Earth
one we know the practical consequences
of his actions and so do they have any
standing in that respect to be able to
push back against Trump look as I said I
think that they have standing to move
forward Now I was my point is they may
choose not to because they may want to
just wait to see what plays out
Everyone's got to make their own
decision here but I I think that that
the harms of this are are immediate in
across a range of of a range of of of of
consequences And you're exactly right I
mean you know you and I talked about
this uh you know at the time when when
Donald Trump stood before the Department
of Justice and said that I am a bad
person and that I am a communist trying
to undermine uh America You know like it
was neither lost upon me that sitting in
the front row was the attorney general
and the head of the criminal division
and the head of the FBI And it was also
wasn't lost on me that you know he's got
his legions of followers and fans right
uh and adherence around the country They
they they they read that as well and and
you do see an uptick in that when he
mentions you I mean I can tell you that
from firsthand uh experience When Donald
Trump targets me by name you see an in I
see an increase in that kind of hate
that is targeted Um and as you point out
and I think this is one of the main
messages that I hope people walk away
with is he knows that that's the effect
right like like it's not like "Oh my
gosh I didn't mean to do that." No no no
He's doing it because that he knows that
that's one of the impacts that it will
have and for precisely that reason And
by the way he's not the only one You
know there's a certain billionaire uh
who uh you know may have even purchased
a media a a a social media platform who
knows it as well right and who
dismantled a lot of the protections that
were in place at least at least there Um
so I I think these two individuals you
know I feel for them I think that they
have been wronged I think that they have
a case in court and I support them if
they decided to bring it I also
understand the reasons why they may
decide to wait Uh but all of us need to
be outraged by this like you know like
today he's targeting those two people
Next he'll target some other group and
and he feeds off of he feeds off of the
negative hate that these folks then
experience Right and and also feeds off
of the fact that when he sees one person
one group one entity uh one company
capitulate uh that emboldens him to know
that he can do it even more which is why
it's so damaging that we do have these
law firms that are opting to capitulate
as opposed to standing up and fight And
I mean to have to have these law firms
kind of sometimes even before they're
targeted cowtow Trump uh in the face of
you know as opposed to to what you're
doing which is you are called out by
name in front of the department of
justice in front of the attorney general
and yet rather than capitulate you've
opted to fight back So to that exact
point look we we we need fighters and
nobody exemplifies that uh more than
Mark and his team So for those who are
watching right now if you'd like to
support the work that Mark and his team
are doing the best way to do that is to
sign up for Democracy Docket It's the
news outlet Mark founded to focus on
everything voting in elections It's an
invaluable resource that I use on a
daily basis I'll put the link right here
on the screen and also in the post
description of this video I'm Brian
Taylor Cohen I'm Mark Elias This is
Democracy Watch
[Music]

[admin]

Trump Undercuts His DOJ Lawyers In Abrego Garcia Deportation Case
Glenn Kirschner
Apr 12, 2025

After the Trump administration unlawfully deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" Garcia's release and return to the United States, and that order was affirmed by th Supreme Court. However, Trump's DOJ has been dragging its feet, claiming it can't bring Garcia back from El Salvado, and even defying a federal court order to provide the judge with information about the steps it has taken and will be taking to facilitate Garcia's return.

Then Donald Trump undercut his DOJ attorneys be saying he would bring Garcia back if ordered to do so by the Supreme Court. So much for DOJ telling the judge it's "not possible" to bring Garcia back.



Transcript

So friends donald trump just put his
foot in his mouth and damaged the
position of his own doj lawyers in the
case involving the unconstitutional
deportation of abrego
garcia let's talk about that because
justice matters
[Music]
hey all len kersner here well friends
donald trump is gone and put his foot in
his mouth again you know frankly it
feels like there are some days that the
only reason he opens his mouth is to
change feet
the trump administration was ordered by
the supreme court to quote facilitate
abrego garcia's return to the united
states but donald trump's doj lawyers
have been reluctant to do that they've
been dragging their feet they even
violated a court order that's not my
take i will read you what the judge said
in that regard in a few minutes
but now donald trump has gone and just
cut the legs out from under his own doj
attorneys in the garcia case
saying quote "if the supreme court said
bring somebody back i would do that i
respect the supreme court." and boy did
our garcia's lawyers jump on that
statement by donald trump and it has
already made an appearance in a court
pleading so let's start with the new
reporting and then let's turn to some of
the court filings and some of the court
orders that have been coming fast and
furious in this case including during
the weekend but let's start with a new
reporting from npr headline: maryland
judge again asks government donald
trump's administration to return man
wrongly deported to el
salvador and that article begins "a
federal judge ordered the trump
administration on friday to provide her
with daily updates on its efforts to
return a maryland man who was wrongly
deported to el salvador back to the
united states."
the mood was tense in the courtroom as
the judge paula shinis chastised justice
department lawyers and expressed
frustration with the government's
efforts to comply the hearing followed
thursday's supreme court ruling largely
upholding judge shinnes's order to bring
kilmar armando abrego garcia back to the
us within hours of the high court's
decision judge shinnis issued a new
order directing the federal government
to take all available steps to
facilitate the return of abrego garcia
to the united states as soon as possible
and she ordered the justice department
to provide an immediate update on his
location and status and what steps the
government has taken so far to bring him
back and what additional steps it
trump's administration is considering
but friends after the judge ordered the
trump administration the doj lawyers to
provide that information about garcia
and the steps they are taking to secure
his return the doj lawyers blew right by
that deadline and failed to comply
prompting this order from judge shinnis
order for the reasons discussed during
today's status conference the court
finds that the defendants that is the
trump administration have failed to
comply with this court's order the court
had directed defendants to file a
supplemental declaration from an
individual with personal knowledge
addressing the following one the current
physical location and custodial status
of abrego garcia two what steps if any
defendants have taken to facilitate
abrego garcia's immediate return to the
united states and three what additional
steps defendants will take and when to
facilitate his return defendants made no
meaningful effort to comply
but rather than moving right to contempt
judge shin has decided she would again
order the department of justice the
trump administration to answer those
questions file a declaration answering
those questions this is the judge giving
them a little bit more rope and in the
meantime mr garcia's lawyers filed
something today in court picking up on
donald trump's
statement plaintiff's motion for
additional relief yesterday president
trump confirmed that the united states
has the power to facilitate abrego
garcia's release from prison and return
him to the united states quote "if the
supreme court said bring somebody back i
would do that i respect the supreme
court." those are the words of donald
trump of course that is precisely what
the supreme court did when it ruled that
this court's injunction properly
requires the government the trump
administration to facilitate abrego
garcia's release from custody in el
salvador and to ensure that his case is
handled as it would have been had he not
been improperly sent to el salvador but
garcia's lawyers didn't stop
there in accordance with the court's
order authorizing plaintiffs garcia to
seek additional relief beyond what this
court previously ordered plaintiffs
request that the court order three
additional types of relief first order
the government to take by end of the day
monday april 14 the specific steps set
forth below to comply with the
injunction in this case second order
expedited discovery on the government's
actions or failure to act to facilitate
abrego garcia's return to the united
states third order the government to
show cause by 10:00 a.m monday april 14
as to why it should not be held in
contempt due to its failure to comply
with the court's prior orders including
any failure to comply with the court's
order of april 11 and friends here is i
hesitate to say the most disturbing part
because this is all disturbing our
government just disappearing people
unconstitutionally and once they ship
them off to prisons and foreign lands
they try to tell the courts that well
they can't possibly bring them back
after blowing through the court deadline
set by judge shinnis demanding
information about what steps they have
taken and what steps they will take to
promptly return abrego garcia to the
united states after
unconstitutionally deporting him they
filed a declaration the department of
justice belatedly filed a
declaration and wait until you hear what
they
said declaration of michael kak i am
senior bureau official in the bureau of
western hemisphere affairs united states
department of state and he goes on to
lay out his credentials i am aware that
the instant lawsuit has been filed
seeking the return of garcia to the
united states from el salvador i provide
this declaration based on my personal
knowledge reasonable inquiry and
information obtained from other state
department employees so as i'm reading
this i'm thinking okay finally here it
comes we're going to learn about the
steps the department of justice the
trump administration are taking for the
safe and prompt return of somebody they
unconstitutionally disappeared and put
in prison in el salvador here it comes
finally the answers to the judge's
questions to comply with the judge's
order it is my understanding based on
official reporting from our embassy in
san salvador that abrego garcia is
currently being held in the terrorism
confinement center in el
salvador he is alive and secure in that
facility
he is detained pursuant to the sovereign
domestic authority of el salvador
i thought there must be a page missing
because in this declaration that they
finally filed they again defied the
court
order directing them to provide
information about the steps they had
taken the steps they are taking the
steps they will take to comply with the
supreme court order the supreme court
directive to facilitate garcia's release
and ultimately his return to the united
states
so they are gleefully in contempt of
court at this point and i have to
believe that judge shinness will be on
fire when she sees that they have again
defied her court order even after donald
trump that you know unitary executive
the all powerful head of the executive
branch even he said "oh oh oh yes yes
yes we can and will bring him back."
well the supreme court said "facilitate
his
return." boy when they are back in court
i believe on the 15th that is the next
live hearing that will be held in this
case
i look forward to what the judge has to
say about this declaration and i suspect
she will be setting a show cause hearing
for them to show cause as to why they
are not in
repeated contempt of her court orders
that's what we should see happen in this
case
next because
justice
matters friends as always please stay
safe please stay tuned and i look
forward to talking with you all again
tomorrow
[Music]

[admin]

MAGA under INVESTIGATION for BLATANT MARKET SCAM
by Dina Doll
MeidasTouch
4.7M subscribers
Apr 13, 2025

Dem politicians are calling for investigations into a blatant market scam where Donald Trump, his billionaire colleagues, and GOP politicians ran off with billions during Trump's tariff madness. Dina Doll reacts. Produced by Francis Maxwell.



Transcript

[Trump] This is Charles Schwab it's not just a
company it's actually an individual he
made he made 22 million today and he
made 900
million he's a financial...

[Mike Johnson] I do hope and
believe that the vote today is a very
strong signal to the markets to
investors job creators entrepreneurs the
people that make the economy run that um
that the Congress is going to get us on
st sound footing and you can count on
that and you can bet on it and you ought
to uh I think today be a great day to
buy stocks

[Mr. Horsford] Is this market manipulation

[Amb. Greer] No.

[Mr. Horsford] Why not?
if it was a plan if it was always the
plan how is this not market
manipulation?

[Dina Doll] Who knew about Trump's
tariff plans when do they know them and
what do they do with that information
the American people deserve to know well
Sludge is reporting some interesting
transactions by Marjorie Taylor Green
evidently in mid to late March she
bought
$750,000 worth of bonds bonds tend to do
well when there is market volatility her
last purchase of
$250,000 bonds was actually on March
25th the day that Trump said that his
tariff plans were quote set but he
hadn't yet announced them yet the fact
is we don't know perhaps we will if
there are investigations into exactly
what happened but the fact that we don't
know and she made such suspicious
investments is in itself a problem the
American people shouldn't be worried
that the people that they are electing
are making money off their backs and
that's why AOC and others has called for
there to be an abolishment of any
Congress person to trade in stocks
because Congress people by nature of
their job often get inside information
now the Stock Act of 2012 was meant to
protect the American people and said
that Congress people are not allowed to
basically inside trade on information
based on their position the fact is
nobody has ever been prosecuted under
this law despite very real evidence
otherwise that could have opened up a
congressperson to liability and all the
information we know is because Congress
people basically report their trades but
the violation for not reporting your
trade is merely $200.

[Rep. ____] And what I want to
know and we want to know is what did
Marjorie Taylor Green know
before that announcement happened and
what stocks did she and her family trade
leading up to that announcement we need
to get to the bottom of the possible
stock manipulation that is unfolding
before the American people including
what if any advanced knowledge did
members of the House Republican
Conference have of Trump's decision
to pause the reckless tariffs that he
put into
place there are several members of
Congress who will be aggressively
demanding answers and
transparency particularly as it relates
to stock purchase decisions that may
have occurred over the last few days.

[Dina Doll] If
you wonder whether or not Democrats or
Republicans have the American worker
back take a look at the difference
between how Marjorie Taylor Green and
AOC has spoken to the American people
regarding Trump's chaotic tariffs
marjorie Taylor Green says people are
panicking over the tariffs or quote
losers and failures but yet she
disclosed over a dozen stock purchases
purchasing hundreds of thousands of
numerous stocks she bought when the
market was deeply red. and then you have
instead AOC and what she says about
what's happening and she posts any
member of Congress who purchased stocks
in the last 48 hours should probably
disclose that now i've been hearing some
interesting chatter on the floor
disclosure deadline is May 15th we're
about to learn a few things it's time to
ban insider trading in Congress and
that's in response to a post saying
NASDAQ call volume spiked minutes before
the 90-day tariff pause was announced
not a good look at all because of course
if nobody knew or was willing to trade
on that inside information there would
be no spike aoc tried to look after the
American worker or any Americans who
have saved in the stock market and
aren't privy to that kind of inside
information where you see Marjorie
Taylor Green saying one thing and doing
another.

[Bernie Sanders] I noticed that and that's just
one of another outrageous things imagine
do do I have I don't know for a fact but
would I be surprised if there are what
people who hours before knew exactly
what Trump was going to do in rescending
his tariff proposals understanding the
stock market would saw and you make huge
amounts of would I be shocked if we
learned about that in the days to come
no I would not does that announcement
that he give gave cover to anybody who
did buy stocks well what it does do look
if you know two hours earlier that the
stock market's going to go what are you
going to do you're going to buy a hell
of a lot of stock you're going to invest
in the stock market uh but it's not only
that i mean you got a president of the
United States who is now working to give
government cover to crypto uh and who
now whose family is involved in crypto
uh makes money by selling coins uh
crypto coins uh anybody can contribute
which is a direct line to the president
so you know I have serious problems
about all that.

[Dina Doll] Democratic senators Adam
Schiff Elizabeth Warren and others plan
on investigation and calling out what
seems to be corruption and possibly
insider trading based on what Trump did
regarding his pause of the tariffs. one
interesting thing about his truth social
post is how he words it he says "It's a
good time to buy."!! Then he puts
DJT well DJT is also the sticker name
for his Trump Media company and it seems
that his followers took that message
literally the stock price for Trump
Media went up beyond what the rest of
the stock market went up. And the reason
why that's a problem is because that can
be considered insider trading because he
is still a
53% owner of the company and so all the
securities act apply to him it is in
trust by his son but it that company
rose by
22.67% twice as much as the broader
market.
This company [Truth Social] lost $400 million last year
and really shouldn't have been affected,
whether or not the tariffs were imposed,
or paused, because it's not as if they
are selling actual goods.
So after he
posts that truth social about buying, and
then including those initials, his, that
company rose by $415 million that day. As
a securities corporate attorney that I
used to be in, back in the day at the big
law firm, that kind of evidence, of seeing
a stock rise and fall based on something
somebody says, an insider at the company,
somebody telling you to buy that stock,
that would be considered insider trading.
And certainly, like we said, there's so
many avenues that Democrats can
investigate. The avenue of how much he
told his friends, how much he told
Congress people, and then specifically,
how much he was doing it to enrich his
own pocket?

[Sen. Elizabeth Warren] Donald Trump is trashing our
economy first Donald Trump imposed
across the board tariffs then just a few
hours ago he dropped those tariffs to
10% on everyone and moved the tariffs up
to 125% on China up from 105% yesterday
now there's confusion there's chaos no
one knows what the tariffs will be
tomorrow or the next day or next week or
next month but here's what we do know
are prices still going up yes are
businesses still weary about investing
yes are millions of working people still
worried about their jobs and millions of
small businesses still worried about
closing shop yes and right before Donald
Trump declared that some of his tariffs
were off again he sent out a message to
his billionaire buddies he posted "This
is a great time to buy." In all caps was
that market manipulation was it
corruption in plain sight
We need an
independent investigation into market
manipulation because Americans need to
know whether President Trump or anyone
in his administration manipulated the
market to benefit their donors all while
they are working for the American people
and while small businesses and those
working families are paying a price it's
a disaster but here's the thing
republicans in Congress have a chance to
stop him right now if they do nothing
they along with Trump are responsible
for the fallout congress could end this
dangerous trade war right now by passing
my bipartisan resolution with Senator
Ron Weiden to turn off the fake
emergency authority that Donald Trump is
using to impose his worldwide and
chaotic tariffs so I have a simple
question for the Senate why aren't we
passing this resolution this instant?

[Dina Doll] The
American consumer and American small
businesses are not out of the woods yet
yes Trump decided to pause the tariffs
for 90 days who knows what's going to
happen with those but he hasn't with
China and China of course as we know is
a big trade partner and that if these
tariffs continue there is going to be a
big problem for the American consumer
and a lot of small businesses now
Senator Elizabeth Warren who's always
standing up for the American Consumer
the Consumer Protection Bureau was her
brainchild decides to give a very basic
economic lesson to Fox News to explain
to them how corporations and companies
take advantage of tariffs even if their
product doesn't have a tariff American
consumers will see prices across the
board increase take a look.

[____________] This is
almost like part two uh remember our
last conversation about about price
gouging so now you've really now you got
another way to say that corporations are
doing that but egg prices egg prices
came down inflation came down it seems
like the the corporations only gouge
when you say they're gouging and then
they're unable to at at other times.

[Sen. Elizabeth Warren] So I
know you don't want to listen to me on
this, but listen to Jerome Powell on this
the example he gave on Friday was from
the last time that Trump's tariffs went
into effect and he said there was a
tariff on washing machines no surprise
the price of washing machines went up.
Bt the shocking part is the price of
dryers went up as well even though there
was no imposition of tariffs on those
you tell me what that is except for
price gouging?

[_______________] I'm trying to trying to figure
that out unless you have a clothes line
unless you have a clothes line out back
you need the dryer though Senator that's

[Sen. Warren] Well you need the dryer but the price
doesn't go up on dryers the cost of
dryers didn't go up

[__________] Ha ha ha! Growing up did you ...

[Sen. Warren] Yeah good times totally i love this i
love the way you're I love the way
you're changing the subject.

[___________] "Changing the subject". Ha ha ha.

[Sen. Warren] That is
an example price gouging ...

[__________] they told me we
had time for ...

[Sen. Warren] You're going to eat that ...

[__________] They said
we had less than a minute left they say
we can keep it going

[Sen. Warren] Oh, now we can keep it
going! Now we can keep ...

[__________] I don't want to
keep it no Senator.

[Sen. Warren] I bet you don't.

[admin]

Trump’s ‘Liz Truss moment’: when economic bravado meets market reality: The president’s U-turn after his maverick plan threatened meltdown has echoes of the 2022 UK crisis
by Daniel Boffey, Chief reporter
TheGuardian.com
Thu 10 Apr 2025 11.15 EDT
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... et-reality

A maverick economic policy announcement from a self-styled disruptor plunges the country’s currency into freefall and puts rocket boosters behind the cost of government debt, prompting warnings of an economic nuclear winter and forcing a pretty undignified U-turn.

If, on top of general concern, there has been a nagging sense of deja vu in Britain over the past 24 hours, then the ill-fated 49-day reign of Liz Truss as the UK prime minister may well be to blame.

“This is Donald Trump’s Liz Truss moment,” tweeted Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader (alternatively known to followers of Elon Musk on X as that “snivelling cretin”).

When Truss’s chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced his “mini-budget” in the autumn of 2022, it was initially met by some with hearty cheers and backslapping. The Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were among those made giddy by a “real Tory budget” that slashed taxes, just as in recent days some have celebrated the audacity of the US president’s decision to wage a trade war with the rest of the world.

Truss’s move was not, however, balanced with spending cuts or indeed a reassuring official forecast that gave the markets some sense that the government knew what it was doing.

A meltdown in the bond markets saw state borrowing costs rise by one percentage point in four days and an almost immediate rise in mortgage rates. The chancellor was sacked, a new one was ushered in to reverse most of the damaging policies, and Truss was out on her ear soon after.

The steadfast determination of Keir Starmer’s chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to stick to her fiscal rules despite huge spending pressures is in large part down to the Truss crisis.

For some, Trump’s gameshow host performance in the White House Rose Garden, as he unveiled the bumper tariffs on “liberation day”, had all the hallmarks of a Truss-style disaster in the making – and one on a rather grand scale.

Trump’s theatrics were, inevitably, celebrated by his most dedicated supporters as a genius move right out of his Art of the Deal book. But the bond markets gave, as they always do, the most clear-eyed view possible from people with skin in the game: they absolutely hated it.

Confidence in the US economy plummeted as investors dumped government debt, normally a safe haven. Things only got worse as China’s announcement of retaliation pushed Trump to further up the ante with tariffs of 104% on Chinese goods.

Like Truss, Trump tried to hold the line for a bit, playing chicken with the markets. The size of the US economy offered him rather more protection than that enjoyed by the then British prime minister. But there was no hiding place from the political and economic reality facing the White House.

Figures such as the former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers warned of a financial crisis. Capitol Hill Republicans who had backed Trump to the hilt in the past were suddenly critical.

Trump ordered a 90-day pause on the highest tariffs on every country bar China, noting with uncharacteristic understatement that people were “getting … a little bit afraid”.

“I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line,” he said. “They were getting yippy … The bond market is very tricky, I was watching it … people were getting a little queasy.”

What happens next? In Britain, Truss was doomed. The parliamentary system offered MPs an emergency lever to pull. The American system offers no such fallback option but, again, the outsized role of the US in the global economy possibly allows the Trump administration a little more leeway. A standard 10% tariff remains on imports and the White House is acting as if all is going to plan.

“This will go down in American history as the greatest trade negotiating day we have ever had,” said Trump’s senior trade adviser Peter Navarro, widely spoken of as the brains behind the tariff plan. “We’re in a beautiful position for the next 90 days”.

As ever, all the bluster will mean nothing to the markets. As Truss discovered, they will make their judgment in due course.

[admin]

The Weekend Essay

The downfall of King Dollar: In the era of Trump’s tariff war, the sources of American economic hegemony will also contain its undoing.
by Bruno Maçães
newstatesman.com
12 April 2025
https://www.newstatesman.com/business/e ... ing-dollar

As long as a global trade and financial system exists, it is likely to operate through the medium of one leading currency. For the country that prints it this is a source of enormous power and wealth. The United States only has to print dollars and exchange them for food, oil, smartphones or automobiles. It is as if all these goods materialise out of thin air the moment new dollars are added to the central money ledger – with no more than a click of a mouse – because everyone in the world wants and needs dollars and so is happy to exchange them for their hard-produced goods. Try to play the same trick with Argentinian pesos. Impossible, of course. People will demand dollars.

Not everyone is happy with this state of affairs. A white paper published by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2023 noted that “it costs only about 17 cents to produce a $100 bill, but other countries had to pony up $100 of actual goods in order to obtain one. It was pointed out more than half a century ago, that the United States enjoyed exorbitant privilege and deficit without tears created by its dollar, and used the worthless paper note to plunder the resources and factories of other nations.” Since most money exists in electronic form, the Chinese ministry actually overestimated the cost of obtaining $100 of goods. You can do it for free.

Over the last few centuries, the cycle of great powers has corresponded almost exactly to the cycle of reserve currencies, with at most a lag of two or three decades. If America ever stops being the world’s leading power, then the dollar would also cease being the global reserve currency. Such a momentous reversal might take place after a world war or a catastrophic financial crisis. One might think, however, that a hegemonic power should be able to prevent those outcomes, if only to preserve the privilege of holding, in its printing presses, the key to something far better than the gold of the alchemists. But this is where things get both more interesting and more complicated.

The truth is that for a country to hold the global reserve currency is both a privilege and a curse. Remember the internet-meme aphorism: good times breed weak men. The dialectic was well explored by classical thinkers such as Polybius or Ibn Khaldun. It applies to money no less than people.

If a country can become prosperous just by printing money it will likely lose interest in producing actual goods. There could be a psychological dynamic at play here, but even in its absence there would always be a monetary mechanism. If the whole world wants to hold assets in the global reserve currency, in order to save or invest or speculate, then that currency will be grossly overvalued. It will no longer reflect demand and supply in global trade markets and will no longer allow for trade deficits to balance. The country with the global reserve currency will find it very hard to sell its artificially inflated goods in global markets and, as a result, manufacturing and agriculture and even many services will move elsewhere. It might end up specialising in financial services, the management of money, at the expense of almost everything else.

When Donald Trump complains about the large trade deficits persistently sustained by the United States, he fails to understand that the root cause of these deficits is not the tariffs or other obstacles placed by other countries in the way of American exports, but the large flows of money heading towards the US and the class making trillions from them. If he wants to eliminate the deficits, he should try to reduce or limit these flows – against the interests of Wall Street. That might prove difficult.

Let us admire the dialectic, the dance of history, which is the exact opposite of the “end of history”: by holding a global reserve currency role, a country sets off the mechanisms by which it may later become impossible to continue playing that role. If deindustrialisation is an inevitable consequence of being the keeper of the reserve currency, and if manufacturing is necessary for war, it may even find itself in a position where it can no longer defend its hegemony on the battlefield.

Stephen Miran, who heads Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, explained in a much-discussed paper from last year that the dialectic tends to get worse with time, until the moment when the status quo becomes radically unsustainable. As the US shrinks relative to the global economy, it must export a larger share of financial assets to sustain global trade and investment, thereby necessitating larger deficits and imbalances. In the process, the consequences for its own real economy, manufacturing and exports also become more difficult to bear. Reading his paper one image came to mind: if Russia is a gas station with nukes, America risks becoming Wall Street with nukes.

We know that Trump and his advisers are consumed by the fear of losing “steel”, both physical and metaphorical. The desperate plan to tariff the whole world was an attempt to reverse these trends, but then something happened. The dilemma reappeared. It turned out to be impossible to reverse the consequences of the global reserve currency role without chipping away at that role. As soon as the goal was enunciated that America would no longer have trade deficits with the rest of the world, the market for dollar assets started sending alarms. The rout in US Treasury securities deepened every time Trump opened his mouth, until he finally reversed course, but with no visible impact in the spooked bond market.

Trust in the dollar has started wavering, with many investors looking for alternatives. On 10 April, after Trump’s announcement of a tariff pause, we witnessed some of the most violent moves in currency markets in a decade, with the dollar devaluing by large margins against the euro and the Swiss franc, and US Treasury yields rising a lot faster than German government bond yields. None of this was supposed to happen. In times of turmoil, everyone should be flocking to safe dollar assets. What is going on?

A number of things – but they are all connected with the dialectic of privilege and burden. Yes, some esoteric trades in bond markets leveraged and then accelerated the rout, but they were not the fundamental reasons behind it. There were concerns about a recession and inflation in the US as a result of the tariffs. That was one factor. At the same time, investors were grappling with the possibility that the American economy is about to de-link from the world, or at least to become less central to global exchanges. In that case the dollar will be less central as well, undermining the very reason it is so appealing to hold dollars. After all, in a world without deficits, other countries would not be accumulating dollars from their surplus of exports over imports. And if other countries will not be accumulating dollars, why should you? Conceivably, if Trump got his way and America came to enjoy trade surpluses, Americans would be buying foreign bonds instead.

Last but not least, what happens if Donald Trump decides to limit the flow of capital to America or, worse, decides to tax dollar assets and US debt? Not long ago, these risks were dismissed. Not any more. The president has even made a number of strange comments that some of that debt may be fraudulent – such remarks are a possible prelude to a default, perhaps imposed selectively against unfriendly countries. Trust in the dollar is being eroded at a vertiginous pace.

For a long time we have discussed whether China would be able to develop a real alternative to the dollar. That is not how changes to the global monetary order take place. Reserve currencies collapse from within, victims of their own contradictions and the political struggles feeding on those contradictions.

While China may have capital controls, America now has widespread financial sanctions regularly applied against unfriendly countries, but also against friends who violate the primary sanctions. Can the US truly boast that it does not discriminate between assets held by residents and assets held by foreigners, the kind of openness often presented as a condition for a currency to become an international reserve currency? Chinese companies would disagree – and many around the world now wonder if they might be the next target of America’s economic warfare. It is not possible to both create the rules of the game and act like one of the players.

Every time the rule of law is replaced by a system of political favour, investors take note. Their assets might be safer outside of the US, and good alternatives seem to be emerging in Europe and Japan, particularly as new debt will be necessary to fund their announced rearmament.

Finally, as the painful costs of issuing a global reserve currency continue to grow, Donald Trump will find it impossible to resist the need to address these costs. His voters demand action and now dream of a new industrial golden age. Trump may well believe that he can bring it about without sacrificing dollar dominance, but the last few days prove that every action has a reaction. After the recent fracas, he will surely try other ways to implement his agenda, and perhaps with renewed ferocity. King dollar will struggle to survive.

Bruno Maçães is a New Statesman foreign correspondent and was the Portuguese Europe minister from 2013 to 2015. He is also the author of “Geopolitics for the End Time: From the Pandemic to the Climate Crisis”.

[admin]

https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-04- ... trump.html