Transcript

TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING

From MeidasTouch · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 14 min · 2,143 words · 18 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING", an episode of MeidasTouch published February 5, 2026 (14 min, about 2,143 words). It mentions 10 people, works and ideas, including Julie Lee, ICE, Department of Justice, Brandon Blackwell, Andrew Schultz.

What this episode is about

In a shocking courtroom confession, DOJ lawyer Julie Lee expressed concerns about racial profiling by ICE and the overwhelming workload she faces, declaring, "This job sucks" while adressing an African-American judge. Her statements reveal escalating tensions between the Department of Justice and ICE, as she highlighted her struggles to enforce court orders amid a chaotic legal environment in Minnesota.

Key takeaways

  • When ICE's own lawyer spills the beans in court, it’s like a soap opera with serious consequences.
  • Julie Lee’s courtroom confession reveals the alarming breakdown of communication and ethics in the DOJ under stress.
  • Who knew that being an immigration lawyer could double as an accidental whistleblower role? Talk about a plot twist!
  • The silent treatment from ICE makes courtroom orders feel more like suggestions—96 violations in January? Yikes!
  • In a Kafkaesque twist, instead of firing her for honesty, the DOJ sends Lee back to the same chaotic client!

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 3:00: Department of Justice, Julie Lee, Brandon Blackwell, Legal AF
  2. – 6:00: Andrew Schultz, ICE, Department of Justice, Senator Mark Kelly
  3. – 9:00: Judge Michael Ludig, Julie Lee, Department of Justice
  4. – 12:00: Julie Lee, Department of Justice
  5. – 13:50: Legal AF, ICE, Department of Justice, Midas Touch

Notable quotes from "TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING"

  • Ended up confessing in a courtroom to an African-American judge. she being of Asian-American descent that she's worried that her own client ICE is committing racial profiling…
    about ICE · at
  • The judge, As you can see, judge, I'm not white. The judge is African-American, by the way. Judge Blackwell, well, I'm, she's Asian-American and born in Vietnam appar…
    about Brandon Blackwell · at
  • Things that, are unethical or illegal. Right? You cannot follow those directions. I feel like Senator Mark Kelly telling members of the military not to follow illegal orders.…
    about Senator Mark Kelly · at
  • Security just declared, Oh, we have the problem Minnesota with activist leftist judges. Who? Judge Schultz. Judge Schultz just did a survey that he published in an order…
    about Andrew Schultz · at
  • This shouldn't be a oneoff. This should be happening dozens of times a day across America. I just had Judge Michael Ludig, also a faright conservative, no longer, now supports…
    about Judge Michael Ludig · at
  • Are strategically fighting day in and out to preserve our constitutional freedoms. One of the organizations fighting the good fight is Americans United for Separation of Church…
    about Americans United for Separation of Church and State · at
  • So, Julie Lee, the accidental whistleblower, still got her job apparently, but this issue is something that has burst out into the open. This open.
    about Julie Lee · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Julie Lee — Person · Central referenced DOJ lawyer / 'accidental whistleblower' · 5 mentions · first at
    Her courtroom statements (workload, lack of training, ICE noncompliance, and racial profiling concerns) are used as the key example of DOJ–ICE dysfunction and alleged defiance of federal court orders in Minnesota.
  • Brandon Blackwell — Person · Referenced federal judge overseeing habeas matters · 2 mentions · first at
    He is described as the judge who convened a conference to address repeated defiance of his federal court orders in multiple habeas corpus proceedings, prompting Julie Lee’s statements.
  • Andrew Schultz — Person · Referenced chief judge / institutional enforcer · 2 mentions · first at
    He is cited as having surveyed and documented alleged ICE violations of federal court orders in Minnesota and threatening escalation (order to show cause; potential contempt/sanctions).
  • Judge Michael Ludig — Person · Referenced expert commentator (judge) featured via clip · 2 mentions · first at
    He is presented as a conservative jurist turned critic of Trump-era conduct, offering commentary on why lower federal courts have recently shown more courage and pushed back against contemptuous government behavior.
  • Senator Mark Kelly — Person · Referenced analogy / rhetorical support · 1 mention · first at
    He is invoked as an analogy for advising professionals not to follow illegal orders; the host parallels that message to lawyers dealing with unethical/illegal client directives.

Companies & orgs

  • ICE — Company · Case study · 2 mentions · first at
    ICE is the client in a legal controversy involving racial profiling and defiance of court orders, central to the episode's discussion.
  • Department of Justice — Company · Case study · 8 mentions · first at
    The Department of Justice is embroiled in a conflict with ICE and federal judges over compliance with court orders, highlighting systemic issues.
    There is a new battle that's broken out between the Department of Justice, the lawyers, and ICE, the client, and it's spilled out into the open in federal court in Minnesota. And I'm going to.
  • Legal AF — Company · Business focus · 3 mentions · first at
    Legal AF is a platform where the host discusses legal issues and updates, including the ICE controversy.
    Lawyers, and ICE, the client, and it's spilled out into the open in federal court in Minnesota. And I'm going to cover it here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. While we got you…
  • Midas Touch — Company · Business focus · 2 mentions · first at
    Midas Touch is another platform used by the host to discuss legal and political issues, including the ICE case.
    Cover it here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. While we got you, take a moment, hit the free subscribe button on Mightest Touch. Slide over to Legal AF and help us there as well…

Sponsors

Full transcript with timestamps

We got an update of the story of the accidental whistleblower against the Department of Justice in which Julie Lee, a lawyer who volunteered to go to Minnesota and work on behalf of ICE, ended up confessing in a courtroom to an African-American judge. she being of Asian-American descent that she's worried that her own client ICE is committing racial profiling that could even ensnare her own family. That's what she said out loud during a hearing in which she also said now infamously, "This job sucks. My workload is too high and I can't get ICE to communicate with me or comply with your court orders."

There is a new battle that's broken out between the Department of Justice, the lawyers, and ICE, the client, and it's spilled out into the open in federal court in Minnesota. And I'm going to cover it here on Midas Touch and on Legal AF. While we while we got you, take a moment, hit the free subscribe button on Mightest Touch. Slide over to Legal AF and help us there as well on our YouTube channel. Let's talk about the accidental whistleblower. Couple of days ago, I reported that Julie Lee based on a transcript of a hearing in which Judge Blackwell called a conference in order to figure out why in his five habius corpus proceedings in which he's trying to decide whether somebody should stay or not stay in detention and what the due process should be around that person, why his orders are being defied. He actually said in court, "These orders are not advisory. These are federal court orders." And and Julie Lee is one of

half a dozen people in the Department of Justice's office in Minnesota that have had to try to throw themselves on the mercy of the court try to beg not to be held in contempt because their clients aren't listening to them. Julie Lee said the quiet part out loud when she said during the hearing, "Not only does the job suck and the system sucks, but she admitted that she has 8080 cases that were dumped on her for habius corpus. that she stupidly, this is her words, volunteered for the position, having worked for ICE, but in a role at immigration court and not in federal court related to habius corpus petitions. She admitted that she's not properly trained. And then she said this part out loud, which is not getting enough attention, where she said out loud that she is worried that her own client, ICE, is racially profiling. And that concerns her because she said to the judge, "As you can see, judge, I'm

not white." The judge is African-American, by the way. Judge Blackwell, well, I'm, you know, she's Asian-American and born in Vietnam appar apparently, or from Vietnam. And she's worried about her own family. I mean, the fact that you say that about your own client, you know, as the Department of Justice said, well, it's very unprofessional and up and cominging what she said in court. You got bigger problems. You got bigger problems than that. They are so strapped for talent in the Department of Justice that apparently this what this woman said to self- emilate and whistleblow in court against her own client was not enough to get her fired. Nope, you heard that right. They're sending her back to ICE and immigration court uh to represent ICE there. That's her reward. That's her punishment. She never gets to leave the job. She's like Seisphus pushing the rock up the hill back down all over

again. that that is, you know, while birds peck at her. That that that is her plight. But it shows that there is this war that's broken out. Let's talk let me talk lawyer to the lawyers for a moment. You take an oath to uphold the constitution to to uphold the professional conduct and ethics rules to be an officer of the court to uphold the constitution of the state in which you have obtained your bar license. Those are your obligations. Okay? As an officer of the court, if you find you are compromised, that you cannot you can no longer execute on your advice, your independent judgment has been compromised, you're being ordered to do things that, you know, are unethical or illegal. Right? You cannot follow those directions. I I feel like Senator Mark Kelly telling members of the military not to follow illegal orders. I'm telling lawyers the same thing. You cannot follow illegal instructions. If

you have a client who's not communicating with you like ICE has failed to communicate with these lawyers on purpose in order to keep human beings in detention for longer periods of time, you got to quit. You got to you you can't go to court, frankly, throw your client under the bus and say, "They suck. ICE won't communicate with me. I have to, she actually said in court, I have to I have to threaten to resign and multiple phone calls before anything happens, before that rock moves. She needs to she need not quit at being a lawyer, just quit her job. Now, this is not the only situation. There are half a dozen situations in which US attorneys in the Department of Justice in Minnesota have told judges and it's reflected in orders that they can't do their job, that ICE is not returning their phone calls. Nobody ring ring ring, nobody's home, and therefore they can't comply with the court orders.

Right? Another little sneaky trick of the Trump administration. Just don't have the client communicate with the lawyers and everything will be better, right? No, we just had the chief judge of Minnesota, Judge Schultz, who is a rock ribbed Republican conservative. He clerked for Anthony Scalia, the rightest of right-wing Supreme Court justices. Okay? He's not a activist leftist judge the way Trisha Mccclaclin of Homeland Security just declared, "Oh, we have the problem Minnesota with activist leftist judges." Who? Judge Schultz. Judge Schultz just did a survey that he published in an order against ICE in which he said at least and he thinks he's underounting 96 orders have been violated in the month of January by ICE in just Minnesota federal courts. He says if it happens again and Julie Lee exhibit A if it happens again he's going to call on an order to show cause hearing Todd Lions the head of ICE

before him on the carpet in his courtroom for sanctions including contempt. And that's what I want to encourage federal judges to do. that federal judges have to have the courage to stand up to the Department of Justice, stand up to the US Attorney's Office knowing that they have our backing, that we have their back, and start holding contempt proceedings, not just the extraordinary one that Judge Boseberg did a year ago, you know, back in in the spring of last year against the Trump administration for violating his orders about sending 200 people to El Salvador when he ordered them not to. This shouldn't be, pardon me, this shouldn't be a This shouldn't be a um oneoff. This should be happening dozens of times a day across America. I just had Judge Michael Ludig, also a faright conservative, no longer, now supports Democratic causes. He had been a lawyer for Mike Pence to convince him to

certify the election for Joe Biden. At that moment where our democracy hung by a thread, fourth circuit court of appeals judge. Many people on the United States Supreme Court and our own solicitor general were once clerks for Michael Ludig. He should have been the chief justice of the Supreme Court. John Roberts was chosen over him. We'd be a better nation for it. I just had a judge Ludig with us and here's what he had to say about the courage of federal judges just in the last few months and and certainly this year 2026 and the changes that he's seen. Play the clip.

Every American is against Donald Trump today except his die in the wool maga you believe and of course the Congress of the United States. Right. So, uh, but that, you know tsunami that didn't begin until a month ago, uh, was the saving grace for the lower federal courts. You know, whatever cliche you want to stiffen their fi spines, but actually, you know, no, more appropriately, it gave them the courage, the needed courage from above them or outside them to do what they knew they had to do and wanted to do all along.

And that's why you've seen floodgates, every single thing leading up to most recently. And this had begun four months in in uh the last four months of last year where well six months of last year actually where it began uh the department of justice and every other government official that appeared before the courts including the celestial general of the United States another law clerk of mine.

I was just going to say don't leave out John Sour your other clerk. Don't worry. Don't you worry. and uh and uh

all of those officials begin uh addressing the federal courts of the United States in court with open contempt.

Yeah. And actually lying to the federal judges to their faces. And that, you know, that began that the federal judges began to push back on that the last 6 months of last year. Now, when when it's clear to, you know, that they're going to do this for the next three years, those same federal judges, meaning all of the lower court federal judges, they're not going to have it. We're a year into the new administration and it's getting harder to read the news and see continued attacks on our First Amendment freedoms daily. Now is the time to look for the helpers. Those who are strategically fighting day in and out to preserve our constitutional freedoms. One of the organizations fighting the good fight is Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Their mission is to protect everyone's right to live as they are and believe as they choose so long as they don't harm others. AU is fighting back

against the wave of Christian nationalist threats happening across the country. They filed 11 lawsuits last year alone, multiple against the Trump administration to protect your individual freedom of and from religion. Whether you support public education, are passionate about LGBTQ plus and reproductive rights, or some combination of all, AU relies on the help of its supporters to do this important work. If you're looking for an organization to support and learn from, head to au.org/legalaf to see how you can get involved in their work and support the fight against Christian nationalism. That's au.org/legalaf.

When America's divided, we are Americans united. Learn more at au.org/legala. So, Julie Lee, the accidental whistleblower, still got her job apparently, but this issue is is something that has burst out into the open. This open warfare between the Department of Justice and ICE burst completely out into the open. And now judges got to do something about it. And that means start holding contempt hearings, getting Department of Justice, ICE, Border Patrol, uh, and other personnel, Homeland Security in front of them with hearings and start holding them in contempt. Enough is enough. I've never seen in 35 years federal judges tolerate more impertinence, tolerate more uh vitriol, attacks on them, more inappropriate, unethical conduct in defiance of their orders than I see right now. And it must come to an end.

Uh, it's our, you know, the the federal courts are the things that are that are keeping our constitutional republic from spinning off and burning up in the atmosphere. But they got to do more. I'll continue to follow it on the Midas Touch Network. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel and help us continue to develop our our audience there as well and on Legal AF Substack. So, until my next report, I'm Michael Popach. Can't get your fill of legal a me. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal A 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 "TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING"?

Michael Popach (Host), Julie Lee (Guest), Judge Blackwell (Guest), Judge Schultz (Guest), Judge Michael Ludig (Guest).

What is "TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING" about?

In a shocking courtroom confession, DOJ lawyer Julie Lee expressed concerns about racial profiling by ICE and the overwhelming workload she faces, declaring, "This job sucks" while adressing an African-American judge. Her statements reveal escalating tensions between the Department of Justice and ICE, as she highlighted her struggles to enforce court orders amid a chaotic legal environment in…

What is mentioned in this MeidasTouch episode?

10 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Julie Lee, ICE, Department of Justice, Brandon Blackwell, Andrew Schultz, Legal AF. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "TOP DOJ Lawyer CONFESSES ALL ON TRUMP at SHOCK HEARING"?

The episode runs 14 min; the transcript is about 2,143 words in 18 timestamped sections.

More from MeidasTouch

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated February 6, 2026.