Trump screws his own lawyers with mistake in court - Brian Tyler Cohen

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Legal Breakdown episode 510: ‪@GlennKirschner2‬ discusses Trump creating issues for his own attorneys.

Transcript:

you're watching the legal breakdown
glenn we have been watching this court
process play out between the Trump
administration and atgo Garcia where the
Trump administration was ordered to
return him trump himself may have just
committed a major strategic blunder
that's screwing over his own DOJ as they
try to litigate this issue in court can
you explain what just happened yeah
Brian a statement Donald Trump just made
has already shown up in a court pleading
in the Abrego Garcia case the wrongful
unconstitutional deportation of that
young man to El Salvador and boy uh
Abrego Garcia's attorneys jumped on it
they put it in a brand new court filing
and Donald Trump just in a sense tied
the hands of his own DOJ attorneys i
think I would say it qualifies as Donald
Trump putting his foot in his mouth but
you know frankly it seems like Donald
Trump only opens his mouth to change
feet these days but let me read you what
um the attorneys for Mr garcia just put
in a court filing they said 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 and they quote Donald Trump "If
the Supreme Court said bring somebody
back I would do that i respect the
Supreme Court." And then the attorneys
go on to note of course that is
precisely what the Supreme Court did
when it ruled that this court's
injunction properly requires the
government to facilitate 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 brian the
DOJ attorneys are going to be hardressed
to walk into court and say we're not
inclined to bring him back or we can't
bring him back because the president of
the United States say they can bring him
back and they will bring him back if the
Supreme Court tells them to but Brian
the Supreme Court has in substance
already told them to they said
facilitate his release and treat him the
way he should be treated if his due
process rights are honored so you know
Donald Trump really kind of stepped in
it and made the job of his DOJ lawyers
to resist for reasons unknown resist
returning uh Abrego Garcia to the United
States much much more difficult right so
Trump made it more difficult by virtue
of saying outright that he was willing
to accept the results of the Supreme
Court but why then are his attorneys
still hellbent on trying to resist this
not only because Trump himself said that
he would respect the Supreme Court's
wishes but also because those attorneys
themselves well maybe not that one
specifically because that one was let go
but the DOJ itself has already conceded
that this was an administrative error
and so why die on this hill i don't know
Brian other than the callousness the
cruelty the fear and intimidation the
signal that it sends to everyone else
and and I really do feel like the Trump
administration is is not wild about
being ordered by any federal court judge
whether it's a trial court judge or the
Supreme Court ordered to return
immigrants that they deported even if
they did it wrongfully and
unconstitutionally because it sets a bit
of an atmospheric precedent and now the
Supreme Court will be able to sort of
monitor loosely speaking any uh alleged
illegal unconstitutional deportations
and if they see fit to say you know what
we're going to again order you to bring
this person back it feels like it's an
atmospheric precedent that the Trump
administration is trying desperately to
avoid setting right that that that makes
sense another precedent that I think is
worth discussing here is Trump's claim
that he's going to respect what the
Supreme Court says because inherent
within that claim is this idea that
unless it's the Supreme Court then that
he feels no obligation to follow a
court's orders can you speak on that
what is your reaction to hearing that
Donald Trump feels like he only has to
follow the court orders of one court a
court that just so happens to be 63 in
Republicans favor yeah that's a great
point so actually um the executive
branch has to abide by all federal court
orders directing it to do or not do
something unless they appeal the order
the judge either the trial court judge
or the appellet court judges stay or
stop or pause the order from being
implemented you know that is the only
circumstance under which the federal
government can say "Yeah you know there
are court orders out there but we're not
inclined to to abide by them unless it's
a Supreme Court order only if a stay is
issued." So listen Donald Trump is wrong
donald Trump is flexing and why wouldn't
he flex he has been you know reaching
for more and more and more executive
branch power much of it lawless some of
it even unconstitutional and it seems
like he's not going to stop until
somebody stops him and you know
generally speaking in the criminal
justice system in the federal court
system the one that has sort of the the
paramount ability to stop him is the
Supreme Court but as long as he's
appealing the the um the ruling up the
chain and there are stays in place
during the appeals process well he does
have the opportunity to not comply with
those lower court orders unless and
until the Supreme Court finally and
definitively rules and obviously Glenn
you know all of this all of this would
kind of be moot if we don't know how
Garcia is doing right now is there
anything that would indicate whether
he's even alive at this point yeah great
question there was a declaration filed
in court today by a law enforcement
official from the Department of Justice
now before I tell you what it said Brian
I don't want to tease our audience but
we have to remember that the judge the
trial court judge in Maryland ordered
the Department of Justice ordered the
Trump administration to provide a
declaration on three things where Abra
uh where Abrego Garcia is what steps the
Trump administration has taken to quote
facilitate his return which is what the
Supreme Court ordered and three what
additional steps will be taken well the
Department of Justice completely failed
to abide by the court order to provide
that declaration with those three um
asks of the judge and for that here is
what the judge said in a brand new order
that was issued within the past 24 hours
this is Judge Shines from the Maryland
Federal Court defendants have failed to
comply with this court's order directing
that you provide information about his
current physical location and custodial
status two what steps if any have you
taken to facilitate his immediate return
to the United States and three what
additional steps will you take to
facilitate his return and basically the
Department of Justice blew it off so the
judge has now found that they violated
that order we'll talk about where that
may head in a minute and then they
belatedly filed a declaration today and
I think this is going to really set the
judge off as well it should they again
had the opportunity to answer those
three questions after violating the
order once and here is what the um DOJ
law enforcement officials said it's my
understanding based on official
reporting from our embassy in San
Salvador that 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 there's a lot to unpack in
those few sentences one to answer your
question somewhat belatedly they say
he's alive they say he's secure in the
facility but they neglect to answer all
of the other questions the judge ordered
them to answer now they're just
repeatedly thumbming their nose at the
authority of the federal district court
judge but then they tag on this kind of
ominous sentence at the end well you
know he's detained pursuant to the
sovereign domestic authority of El
Salvador that that's what I wanted to
dig into because doesn't them saying
that kind of suggests that oh this is
out of our hands this is the sovereign
territory this is the sovereign
jurisdiction of El Salvador and what
could we possibly do he's not ours
anymore he belongs to them that's
exactly the message they were trying to
send with that sentence that was not
responsive to the judge's questions it
was gratuitous and you know I'm going to
I'm going to call it provocative and I'm
also going to call it inconsistent with
what the president just said think about
it the president said if the Supreme
Court tells us to bring him back we will
bring him back in inferentially we can
bring him back and then you have this
law enforcement official declaration
saying "Well well well he is being held
by a sovereign country read between the
lines how could we possibly bring him
back?" Well here's the thing we sent him
there unlawfully and unconstitutionally
we are paying to keep him there and it
is laughable and frankly insulting that
they suggest we can't possibly get one
of these prisoners back um because you
know they're now in another country so
what does that conjure up i guess the
United States government Donald Trump's
Department of Justice can basically grab
up anybody they want off the street with
no legal authority to do so send them to
foreign countries and thereafter they
can simply say "Hey they're in foreign
countries nothing we can do about it."
That is effing absurd right and and and
that's the that's the part I think that
they want to establish is that that so
long as they can grab somebody up hell
they can grab me they can grab you and
then just send us off to El Salvador and
then once we're gone they they could
just lean on this excuse this precedent
that they're trying to establish right
now which is hey once he's over there we
what could we possibly do we would love
to bring him back but it's just it's
simply not our jurisdiction and so you
know no harm no foul but it's out of our
hands at this point yeah it is
unAmerican plain and simple not only you
know a a gross violation of the due
process clause found in the fifth
amendment to the constitution it is
inhumane i mean it it comports with no
sort of minimal respect for the rights
of our fellow human beings whether
you're an immigrant or not so I don't
think this position um will withstand
legal scrutiny particularly when and if
this thing makes its way back up to the
Supreme Court which Brian it may in in
the in the near term because there is
yet another hearing set on for this
coming Tuesday when the judge ordered a
couple of things she said "First of all
you will start answering th those
questions and you're going to answer
them on a daily basis and I want you
back in court in person on Tuesday and
Garcia's lawyers have already formally
asked the judge to set what's called a
show cause hearing to force the DOJ
officials to show cause why they
shouldn't be held in contempt for their
past violations of the court order."
Right right i mean at this point I don't
know what we're doing other than just
wasting time if the Supreme Court said
that they have to facilitate this guy's
return and now we're going back and
forth and arguing between a DOJ that is
not only arguing something antithetical
to what Trump himself said but arguing
something that the Supreme Court already
ruled that they have to do i don't get
what the argument is here and I don't
get what the delay is here when they
should just be complying with this court
order getting him back like we're not
trying to you know cure cancer here in
the next couple days we're just trying
to get somebody who we are paying this
El Salvador in prison to house and just
put him on a plane back it doesn't seem
like it's that difficult and yet when
the Trump administration doesn't want to
do something clearly it's that difficult
yeah it's a tyrannical power grab plain
and simple and the other thing is you
know they love their unitary executive
theory where the president of the United
States is all powerful i guess he's you
know omnisient as well um okay fine well
Donald Trump has already said we can
bring him back and we will bring him
back if the Supreme Court tells us to
and guess what the Supreme Court has in
substance told you to facilitate his
return so you know maybe live by the
unitary executive theory well die by the
unitary executive theory figuratively
speaking right well of course this is uh
clearly ongoing right now so we will
stay on top of this uh because it has
major implications in the rest of of
Trump and his administration's
immigration policy um major implications
in terms of an impending constitutional
crisis in terms of whether the Trump
administration is going to listen even
to the Supreme Court so a lot uh riding
on what happens in the next hours or
days here so we will of course continue
to stay on top of this for those who are
watching if you want to follow along
please make sure to subscribe we'll put
the links to both of our channels right
here on the screen i'm Brian Teller
Cohen and I'm Glenn Kersner you're
watching the legal breakdown