{"id":2739,"date":"2026-07-04T08:37:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T08:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2739"},"modified":"2026-07-04T08:37:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T08:37:47","slug":"john-roberts-has-created-a-monster-and-he-knows-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=2739","title":{"rendered":"John Roberts has created a monster \u2014 and he knows it"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Five or six years ago, I was in federal court on an evidence motion. I don\u2019t remember the issue, the claim, or whether I was for or against the motion. What I do remember like it happened today is the exchange I had with the judge.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump accidentally sabotaged his own party<\/a><\/p>\n

An attorney for the opposing side made an accusation about my client\u2019s conduct in discovery, prompting Judge Ruben Castillo to ask me if what they just told him was true. But the way they worded it, whether it was true or not true depended on several variables- if this, then that, if that, then yes but still possibly no because blah blah blah. I wasn\u2019t sure about all those moving parts, but I didn\u2019t map them out in my answer, because Castillo had already communicated his impatience. Maybe he was irritated with my client, maybe it was our theory of the case, or maybe it was just me. I\u2019ll never know. So I skipped the exposition, and responded as sparely as I could, being truthful while avoiding any statement of fact that might turn out to be false or at least ambiguous.<\/p>\n

It was the wrong decision. At the end of my answer, Castillo glared at me, then turned his face away to study the paneling. After a pause that lasted a week, he dramatically sucked air through clenched teeth and emphasized every word. \u201cThat. Was. A. Very. Very. Careful. Answer. Ms. Haake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feeling naked, I thought, of course<\/em> it\u2019s a careful answer. You\u2019re a federal judge, and I need to keep my law license. I\u2019d think you\u2019d always prefer careful answers to bombast. But I didn\u2019t say any of that. Chastised, reading his mood, I thought it was best if I just took the hit.<\/p>\n

The exchange wasn\u2019t outcome determinative; in thirty years, I\u2019ve never lost a jury trial or even a summary judgment. The point of the story is that members of the federal trial bar do not toy with federal judges without real fear. They do not get smart, evasive, or argumentative. Any question the judge deems relevant, you answer, whether you agree it\u2019s relevant or not. To prepare for hearings- all hearings, any hearing you need to win- you try to anticipate questions the judge might ask, and if you don\u2019t know the answer, you find out. If he asks an unexpected question you can\u2019t answer, you respond with what you know, and you make very, very clear why you don\u2019t know what you don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

Trump lawyers are a different breed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not so Trump\u2019s DOJ lawyers. At a hearing last week about Trump\u2019s deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to an El Salvador prison, Trump lawyer Abhishek Kambli refused to answer Judge James Boasberg\u2019s entirely expected questions, and claimed that the president didn\u2019t have to follow the judge\u2019s order in any event. The DOJ argued in a that, \u201cthere is no justification (for the court) to order the provision of additional information,\u201d and that \u201cthe Government should not be required to disclose sensitive information bearing on national security and foreign relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was nothing classified about where the deportation flights went, who was on them, or why; Trump had made it a flashy PR stunt meant for mass consumption. Fox News repeatedly published footage of the flights, along with footage of prisoners\u2019 heads being shaved, showing them degraded, cowered, chained, and bent over, and depicting the El Salvador slave-labor prison itself, including armed guards and prison staff. There is no alternative universe where what time<\/em> the planes departed and who was on them could be deemed a \u201cnational security\u201d secret after they landed.<\/p>\n

In 30 years of federal litigation, I have never heard an attorney tell a federal judge that he didn\u2019t have to answer his questions. On rare occasions when legitimate confidentiality issues arise, attorneys may answer the judge\u2019s questions under seal, but they never tell the judge he can\u2019t ask. Most members of the federal trial bar would likely agree that Kambli and every Trump lawyer who openly flouts judicial rules should be sanctioned under Rule 11; we don\u2019t need scofflaws brandishing law licenses to mock the very foundation of law.<\/p>\n

Lawlessness, served with a side of snark<\/strong><\/p>\n

By now it is obvious that the Trump administration disobeyed a direct order from a federal judge. History books will regard March 15 as the day American democracy retreated, not with a bang but with a whimper and a side order of snark.<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, with characteristic cluelessness about her own vapidity,wrote on X that a \u201csingle judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leavitt, who was a communications intern in Trump 1.0, is not a lawyer. That didn\u2019t diminish her absurdly strident legal opinion that, \u201cas the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear \u2014 federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President\u2019s conduct of foreign affairs\u2026 and his core Article II powers to repel a declared invasion.\u201d Wrong again. Laughably wrong. The Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear, since Marbury v. Madison, that it is up to the Courts- not Trump or his spokes child- to determine what the law is.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court created this monster<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump capped off the whole affair by demanding Judge Boasberg\u2019s impeachment, posting on Truth Social that, \u201cThis Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President\u2026 This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges\u2019 I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump threw a party for himself \u2014 and nobody came<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump isn\u2019t just defying Judge Boasberg\u2019s orders, which itself represents a Constitutional crisis. He is also trying to weaken the legal profession, by trying to put law firms who challenge his unlawful actions .<\/p>\n

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, checking the monster he created when he of criminal immunity,intervened in the matter issuing a rare statement stating,\u201cFor more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump seems to think otherwise. A senior White House official responded, “This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we’re going to win.” Query the reason for the confidence.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court should try to correct its mistake<\/strong><\/p>\n

When a president manufactures a fake \u201cinvasion\u201d under the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law from 1798, to justify his unconstitutional actions, he is declaring that the Constitution does not apply to him. It’s a continuation of Trump\u2019s lowest common denominator recklessness that will, sooner or later, lead to bloodshed as he expands his definition of \u2018invasion\u2019 to any conduct or speech he doesn\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s some free legal advice to Venezuelans caught up in Trump\u2019s nightmare: Amend your complaint. File in state court. Get a state prosecutor to allege specific grounds supporting criminal liability against Trump, to give the Roberts court an opportunity to delimit its immunity ruling. Identify specific acts Trump has taken to harm you that cannot be construed as core executive functions. This will give Roberts the chance to list some conduct that is\u2014and conversely that can never be\u2014a core executive function, to diffuse Trump\u2019s notion that he can get away with murder. Hint: trying to impeach a federal judge is not, and can never be, a core executive function. Lying to American citizens about a foreign invasion is not, and can never be, a core executive function.<\/p>\n

Trump, who is clearly planning to stay in office past his expiration date, will likely disregard that opinion as well, but at least the nation will understand Trump\u2019s lawlessness in plainer terms.<\/p>\n

Anyone who is still naive enough to support what Trump is doing should put down the pipe. Democracy can’t exist without the rule of law. If there’s no rule of law, flawed, corrupt men with the most money and power will seize control of all resources and they will stay in power by force.<\/p>\n

We are dangerously close to that tipping point, and every single American needs to be on alert.<\/p>\n

NOW READ: <\/strong>Now is not the time to appeal to Trump voters \u2014 you need to demoralize them<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sabrina Haake is a 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st<\/sup> and 14th<\/sup> A defense. Her columns are published in Alternet, Chicago Tribune, MSN, Out South Florida, Raw Story, Salon, Smart News and Windy City Times. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s favorite song sanitizes decades of foreign policy failures<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Five or six years ago, I was in federal court on an evidence motion. I don\u2019t remember the issue, the claim, or whether I was for or against the motion. 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