DOJ Lawyer ASKS TO BE ARRESTED over Trump’s ORDERS!!!

What this episode is about

Attorney Julie Lee of the Department of Justice expressed her extreme frustration and fatigue during a court proceeding in Minneapolis, declaring her willingness to be jailed for 24 hours to get some sleep. Her outburst came in the context of a case concerning violations of court orders by ICE, highlighting systemic issues within the immigration enforcement framework and the significant number of court order violations attributed to the agency.

Key takeaways

• When compliance looks like chaos, it's not just a system failing—it's the people trapped within it.
• Sleep-deprived lawyers plead for mercy, illustrating a justice system more strained than a New York City subway during rush hour.
• ICE's order violations outnumber some federal agencies' entire existence—reminding us that laws can be optional for some.
• In an era of moral fatigue, some argue that even jail could offer more restorative sleep than working in legal limbo.
• With talent fleeing the DOJ like lifeboats on the Titanic, who will protect justice when the ship is sinking?

Who speaks in this episode?

• Michael Popak (Host) · 8 min speaking
• Julie Lee (Guest) · 2 min speaking
• Ben Meiselas (Host) · 1 min speaking

What is discussed, and when

1. 0:00 – 3:00: Julie Lee, Michael Popock, Andrew Schultz, Department of Justice
2. 3:00 – 6:00: Julie Lee, ICE, Department of Justice, Brandon Blackwell
3. 6:00 – 9:00: Minnesota, Popac Firm, Michael Popock, Midas Touch Network
4. 9:00 – 12:00: Julie Lee, Andrew Schultz, Department of Justice, Brandon Blackwell

Notable quotes from "DOJ Lawyer ASKS TO BE ARRESTED over Trump’s ORDERS!!!"

• So I can get some sleep. No, not the rantings and ravings of Michael Popock on the Midas Touch Network. That was attorney Julie Lee working for the Department of Justice in a…

  about Julie Lee · at 0:05

• Reportported. He said of those about of those about 100 court orders violated, he believes that ICE has violated more court orders in January of 2026 than some federal agencies…

  about ICE · at 1:42

• Departed from Minneapolis Minnesota as but he was head of border patrol he actually thought it was okay to make fun of the religion of the replacement US attorney who happens…

  about Greg Bevino · at 3:00

• She says, The system sucks. This job sucks. I'm trying with every breath I have to get you what I need. she talks about the office being depleted. She talks about the fact that she they're of.

  about Department of Justice · at 4:18

• Of the court. Hey everybody, Ben Meelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popac's new law firm.

  about Michael Popock · at 6:28

• Sixers who attacked the capital. Those all ended up in a giant grind at the court system. Same thing's going on in Minnesota and they're not ready to handle this. This is not a…

  about Minnesota · at 8:44

• ICE that future non-compliance with court orders may result in future show cause orders requiring the personal appearance of Todd Lions, the head of ICE, or other government…

  about Todd Lions · at 9:32

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

• Michael Popock — Person · Host / main speaker · 3 mentions · first at 0:08
  Narrates and analyzes the Minneapolis federal court/ICE non-compliance story and frames it as a DOJ/ICE systemic breakdown; also promoted as founder of a new law firm in an ad segment.
• Julie Lee — Person · Referenced government attorney (DOJ; formerly ICE) · 9 mentions · first at 0:12
  Central figure in the courtroom anecdote: described as a DOJ lawyer (deputized AUSA) who breaks down in court while explaining lack of guidance and ICE non-compliance with federal court orders in habeas cases.
• Andrew Schultz — Person · Referenced authority figure (chief federal judge in Minnesota, per episode) · 4 mentions · first at 1:18
  Cited as issuing an extraordinary order documenting widespread violations of federal court orders and warning of contempt/show-cause proceedings, including potential personal appearance of ICE leadership.
  Their entire existence. And he says it's going to stop now. ICE is not a law unto itself. Chief Judge Schultz wrote, ICE has every right to challenge its orders, but has to…
• Brandon Blackwell — Person · Referenced federal judge presiding over habeas cases · 3 mentions · first at 0:22
  The judge who questions Julie Lee about repeated violations of his orders in multiple migrant habeas corpus matters; portrayed as frustrated and attributing the problem to DOJ/ICE non-compliance.
  About the fact that she they're of course they're not getting any guidance and of course the judge fires back with his own expression of frustration that this is of your own…
• Todd Lions — Person · Referenced government official (ICE leadership, per episode) · 1 mention · first at 9:36
  Named by Judge Schultz (per the quoted order) as someone who may be compelled to personally appear via show-cause orders if ICE continues non-compliance—symbolizing escalation to top leadership accountability.
• Greg Bevino — Person · Referenced government official (Border Patrol leadership, per episode) · 1 mention · first at 2:53
  Used as an example of dysfunction/morale issues: described as then head of Border Patrol in Minneapolis who mocked the religion of a replacement U.S. Attorney, illustrating turmoil in the local federal law-enforcement/legal apparatus.

Companies & orgs

• ICE — Company · Case study · 2 mentions · first at 1:47
  ICE is central to the discussion about legal violations and court order non-compliance in Minnesota.
• Department of Justice — Company · Case study · 5 mentions · first at 0:15
  The Department of Justice is criticized for its handling of cases and non-compliance with court orders in Minnesota.
• Midas Touch Network — Company · Host · 3 mentions · first at 0:10
  Midas Touch Network is the platform hosting the podcast where these issues are discussed.
  This job sucks. The system sucks. And I want to be thrown in jail for 24 hours so I can get some sleep. No, not the rantings and ravings of Michael Popock on the Midas Touch…

Places & events

• Minnesota — Place · Setting · 6 mentions · first at 1:18
  Minnesota is the primary location where the discussed legal violations and court cases are taking place.

Sponsors

• Popac Firm — Product · Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at 6:34
  Popac Firm is promoted as a new law firm handling catastrophic injury cases, mentioned in the podcast's promotional segment.
  It's called the Popac firm. Michael Popox's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm really based on the popular demand by all the mightest mighty and legal Aferers who were.

Full transcript with timestamps

0:00 This job sucks. The system sucks. And I want to be thrown in jail for 24 hours so I can get some sleep. No, not the rantings and ravings of Michael Popock on the Midas Touch Network. That was attorney Julie Lee working for the Department of Justice in a courtroom in the United States in Minneapolis in response to Judge Blackwell asking Julie Lee why in the five habius corpus petition cases that I'm handling for migrants who are unconstitutionally spending their time in jail instead of out and about. Why have there been so many violations of my orders? And this was Julie Lee's response. Not some random person on the street. A person who volunteered for the job. A person who used to work for ICE and decided to go to Minneapolis and help the Department of Justice and then in tears during this report during this court appearance. uh basically threw herself on the mercy of the court and has to be

1:05 thrown in jail so she could get some sleep. I'm Michael Popak. You're on Might as Touch and legal af. Okay. Couple of days ago I reported that the chief judge of all the federal courts in Minnesota, Judge Schultz, in an order declared the following about the Trump administration. He said that in the month of January that uh there have been 96 court orders in 74 different cases in Minnesota alone in the month of January 2026 alone. And he thinks that number is under reportported. He said of those about of those about 100 court orders violated, he believes that ICE has violated more court orders in January of 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence. And he says it's going to stop now. ICE is not a law unto itself. Chief Judge Schultz wrote, "ICE has every right to challenge its orders, but has to follow its orders unless they're overturned or vacated." Which

2:10 brings us forward a handful of days later to Julie Lee in court. Now, Julie Lee is not a assistant US attorney. I guess she's been deputized to be such for now. She apparently, according to reporting on the ground in Minneapolis, worked in ICE as an attorney in immigration court. Okay. She decides, I guess either compelled or she decides on her own to go help out the US attorney's office in Minnesota. Why? because there's only about five or six people left there. Most of the office and all of its leadership has walked out the door. Things are so bad in Minnesota's US attorney's office where the US attorney all senior leadership walked out the door that during a discussion with Greg Bevino who's now of course departed uh from Minneapolis Minnesota as but he was head of border patrol he actually thought it was okay to make fun of the religion of the replacement US attorney who happens to be Orthodox

3:13 Jewish talking about him being the chosen people and complaining about him not being available on the Sabbath to talk to Greg Beavino. That's how moral is doing in that US attorney's office that Julie Lee is working for. Now, we fast forward to um this bleaguered batch of lawyers trying to run around with putting their fingers in the dyke if they can. And now you've got Julie Lee in court with Judge Blackwell. And Judge Blackwell has five cases out of the hundreds of what we call writ of habius corpus. That's people who are languishing without due process in detention centers, ICE detention centers, trying to get before federal judges and orders have been violated over and over and over again, which leads to this exchange as reported by local reporters. Um, Julie Lee says, "We have no guidance or direction on what we need to do." She says, "Um, this is to the this is to the federal judge."

4:18 She says, um, "The system sucks. This job sucks. I'm trying with every breath I have to get you what I need." Uh, she talks about the office being depleted. She talks about the fact that she uh they're of course they're not getting any guidance and of course the judge fires back with his own expression of frustration that this is of your own making because of non-compliance with my orders. I mean she's basically in tears. She admitted in court that it's been like pulling teeth to get ICE to comply with her court order with the court orders and has required non-stop work in in an already depleted office which is why she wants to be sent to federal detention center to sleep. Now all jcularity aside, I feel for Julie Lee. I assume she didn't think that she was uh that she was going to be doing immoral things and being an officer of the court having to look a judge in the eye and say, "Uh, we're violating orders because we don't

5:20 have the manpower. We're we're running ragged. We don't have the people and we don't have the institutional focus and I can't get my client to abide by um court orders." I doubt that's why she signed up for this gig. She worked in immigration court representing ICE. That's a thankless job to begin with. She decided to go from the frying pan into the fire and ends up before a not an immigration court judge. See where she was working. Everybody worked for the Trump administration. Get it? In immigration, immigration judges, despite their name, are really just agents of the Trump administration. The Department of Justice, they work for the Department of Justice on the executive side.

6:00 They're not article 3 judges under the Constitution. They're not impartial. They're not neutral. They work for the big man in the White House. She works for ICE. So, she works for Trump. The judge works for Trump. Everybody works for Trump except for the lawyer and the poor migrant that's sitting in immigration court. That's the world she came out of. Now, she's in the world of article 3 judges where she does not regularly practice. And I guess she's literally throwing herself on the mercy of the court. Hey everybody, Ben Meelis here from the Midas Touch Network. I wanted to let you know about my podcast partner, Michael Popac's new law firm.

6:38 It's called the Popac firm. Michael Popox's pursuing his dream of starting his own law firm really based on the popular demand by all the mightest mighty and legal Aferers who were approaching Michael Popac with their cases and saying, "Can you help us?" And at that time, Popac was not able to. So he went out on his own. He started the pop firm where he is now handling catastrophic injury cases like car accident cases, trucking cases, malpractice cases, big negligence cases, wrongful death cases. So if you or someone you know have a case like this, the consultation with Popox Firm is free. Give them a call. See if you have a case. It's the popfirm.com.

7:24 the popfirm.com or you can call 877 pop af. So 1877 pop af. Give Michael Popac a call and I'm really proud of you pop. Thanks for all the hard work you're putting in. But this should come as no surprise. What we are watching is Minnesota under siege in the streets of Minnesota. Yes, that's border patrol and ICE wearing body cams now apparently and how they are, how do I put this nicely, interacting with first amendment protesters, US citizens legally hear people and migrants that's stressing the system as law enforcement and the national guard try to figure out how to protect motans from their own federal government. In the courts though, and this doesn't get covered enough, you've got federal judges who have to handle dozens and dozens of habius corpus petitions for the hundreds and thousands of people that have been picked up off the street by ICE. They have to get processed. They have lawyers or

8:27 hopefully they get lawyers and those lawyers file petitions to get before federal judges. You think it's equivalent to remember in Jan 6th all the uh DC district court judges federal that each one of them had dozens and dozens of the couple of thousand Jan Sixers who attacked the capital. Those all ended up in a giant grind at the court system. Same thing's going on in Minnesota and they're not ready to handle this. This is not a giant district of judges compared to other districts. So, you have a bleaguered underwater US attorney's office. I mean, I'm not asking for sympathy, although I am using Julie Lee as somebody who's who's a victim here, if you will. Uh, I've got federal judges who aren't prepared for this and it's all coming to a head. This is why Chief Judge Schultz wrote his order, just extraordinary order, just four days ago in which he said, "I'm going to start holding people

9:24 in contempt." Here's what Judge Schultz said. He's the chief judge of the whole darn thing. He said, um, the court warns ICE that future non-compliance with court orders may result in future show cause orders requiring the personal appearance of Todd Lions, the head of ICE, or other government officials. It's exactly what the Trump administration doesn't want to do. and a weeping Julie Lee, although she's the canary in the coal mine, as far as I'm concerned, is not helping the Department of Justice get out from under the the eyeire of Judge Schultz, you know, and uh and credit to Judge Blackwell. I mean, he's look, he's not going to pull out a giant tissue box. He said this he said what is obvious. This is a problem of the Department of Justice's own making.

10:11 Nobody wants to work there. Everybody has quit. Maybe if they were properly investigating in collaboration with state officials the execution summary execution of Renee Good and Alex Prey. They're not the only ones. There's dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of people who have been killed related to their interaction with ICE, whether in detention or on the streets since Donald Trump has started. 38 less people. And they're not all illegal migrants, child rapists, uh, you know, or, uh, or, um, human smugglers or drug dealers or narot terrorists, which is what they always want to tell you. And that that's not the case at all. So, we'll continue to follow the apparent meltdown of the Department of Justice, at least in Minnesota. Um, because look look at the guidance. Do I think it's any coincidence that Julie Lee's meltdown in court came just several hours after Pam Bondi decided to spend

11:08 more time in Minnesota? I don't think so. But I'm sure my next report is she got canned. She got fired for telling the truth. And I hope she gets some sleep. And Julie, when you get fired and you want to come on Mightest Touch and Legal AF, give us a call. We'll certainly platform you. So until our next report, I'm Michael Popac.

11:28 Can't get your fill of legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hottake, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad free versions of the podcast and hot takes where legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "DOJ Lawyer ASKS TO BE ARRESTED over Trump’s ORDERS!!!"?

Michael Popak (Host), Julie Lee (Guest), Ben Meiselas (Host).

What is "DOJ Lawyer ASKS TO BE ARRESTED over Trump’s ORDERS!!!" about?

Attorney Julie Lee of the Department of Justice expressed her extreme frustration and fatigue during a court proceeding in Minneapolis, declaring her willingness to be jailed for 24 hours to get some sleep. Her outburst came in the context of a case concerning violations of court orders by ICE, highlighting systemic issues within the immigration enforcement framework and the significant number…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

11 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Michael Popock, Julie Lee, ICE, Department of Justice, Andrew Schultz, Minnesota. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "DOJ Lawyer ASKS TO BE ARRESTED over Trump’s ORDERS!!!"?

The episode runs 12 min; the transcript is about 1,975 words in 14 timestamped sections.

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