Trump SCREAMS AT JUDGE inside COURTROOM Friday: "I AM ABOVE THE LAW!"
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00:00Thousands of people fired by Donald Trump are getting their jobs back today because
00:05of the first round of proverbial fireworks that went off in a California federal courthouse.
00:11And I just, just, just got the transcript of what happened there.
00:15Trying all day to get it.
00:16Finally got it.
00:17I really want to share this with you.
00:18All right.
00:19So let me set the scene.
00:21Trump administration has sent a lawyer to defend them in this case in federal court
00:26in Northern California.
00:28But they are refusing to send any officials from the Trump administration to testify in
00:34this case, to explain what they have done and to be questioned about it.
00:39The basis of this case is that the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management
00:43and the Trump White House told federal agencies last month, essentially, to fire tens of thousands
00:49of people who work for the government, potentially hundreds of thousands of people.
00:54And then after the Trump White House, the Office of Personnel Management told the agencies
00:58to fire all those people, then all those people got fired.
01:02And it really does not seem like that was legal.
01:05It has never seemed like that was legal, that the White House would have the authority to
01:09make those kinds of mass firings.
01:12But again, they won't send anybody to testify about what exactly they did.
01:17So this is from the transcript.
01:19So the lawyer who is suing the Trump administration says this, Your Honor, quote, what we have
01:25before the court is record evidence that conclusively establishes that OPM directed
01:30the terminations at issue.
01:31We have a very unusual circumstance where the government has not mounted, has not attempted
01:37to say that they factually dispute that.
01:40They have actually withdrawn the declaration by which they were attempting to dispute that.
01:44And there's no record evidence on the other side by which they have disputed this fact.
01:49The judge, I tend to agree with you on that.
01:53The government, I believe, has tried to frustrate the judge's ability to get at the truth of
01:58what happened here and then set forth sham declarations to a sham declaration.
02:04They withdrew it, then substituted another.
02:07That's not the way it works in the U.S. District Court, the judge says, quote, I'm going to
02:11talk to the government about that in a minute.
02:13I had expected to have an evidentiary hearing today in which these people would testify.
02:18And if they wanted to get your people on the stand, I was going to make that happen, too.
02:21It would be fair.
02:23But instead, we have been frustrated in that.
02:26The judge then says to the lawyer for the plaintiffs, quote, I'd like to hear your views
02:30on what relief should be issued today.
02:33T-O-D-A-Y.
02:34Today.
02:35The lawyer, thank you, Your Honor.
02:39We are aligned in wanting that to happen as well.
02:42He spelled out T-O-D-A-Y.
02:46And so then they have a conversation, the judge and the lawyer for the plaintiffs, the
02:52lawyer who's suing the Trump administration on behalf of the fired employees.
02:55And they talk about what the fired employees who are suing the Trump administration, what
03:00they're seeking from the judge today, the kind of relief they want.
03:04They say they want a list of everybody who's been fired that haven't been able to get that
03:07or even an enumeration from the government of how many people have been fired.
03:11They also want people to be reinstated if they have been fired illegally.
03:15So they go through all those details.
03:16Then it's time for the Trump administration lawyer to make his side of the case.
03:21And he starts explaining to the judge that all these fired workers, the only reason they
03:25were fired is because nobody wanted them.
03:29Nobody told anybody to fire anything.
03:32There was no instructions to fire people.
03:33These are just unwanted workers.
03:35If anybody wanted them back, they surely would have been rehired by now, right?
03:40At which point the judge interjects, the judge, quote, well, maybe that's why we need an injunction
03:46that tells them to rehire them.
03:49You will not bring the people in here to be cross-examined.
03:52You are afraid to do so because you know cross-examination would reveal the truth.
03:58Trump administration lawyer tries to interject respectfully.
04:01The judge continues.
04:02This is the U.S. District Court.
04:05Whenever you submit declarations, those people should be submitted to cross-examination just
04:09like the plaintiff side should be.
04:11And we then we we get at the truth of whether your story is actually true.
04:15I tend to doubt it.
04:16I tend to doubt that you are telling me the truth.
04:19After we hear all the evidence, eventually, why can't you bring your people in to be
04:23cross-examined or to be deposed at their convenience?
04:26I said two hours for Mr. Eazel, Mr. Eazel is the acting head of OPM.
04:31I said two hours for Mr. Eazel, a deposition at his convenience.
04:35And you withdrew his declaration rather than do that.
04:38Come on.
04:39That's a sham.
04:41The judge says, quote, go ahead, I'm I'm it upsets me.
04:44I want you to know that I have been practicing or serving in this court for over 50 years
04:49and I know how we get at the truth.
04:52And you're not helping me get at the truth.
04:54You're giving me press releases, sham documents.
04:58All right.
04:59He says, quote, I'm getting mad at you and I shouldn't.
05:06The judge then decided in this hearing today that he wasn't going to wait to give a written
05:11ruling.
05:12He decided, you know what?
05:13I've heard enough.
05:14He decided he was going to rule from the bench today, T-O-D-A-Y, today.
05:18He started with this.
05:19The judge, quote, on February 13th, 2025, a briefing paper from Human Resources Management
05:27at the Forest Service says this, quote, all that spelled A-L-L all federal agencies, including
05:35the Department of Agriculture, were notified on February 12th by the Office of Personnel
05:38Management to terminate all employees who have not completed their probationary or trial
05:43period.
05:44That then led to the termination of a lot of people, the judge says.
05:48But one in particular I will give as an example.
05:50Leandra Bailey was a physical science information specialist in Albuquerque.
05:55In September of last year, she'd received a performance review in which she was, quote,
05:59fully successful in every category, not just some, but every category.
06:05On February 13th, she was terminated using the OPM template letter.
06:10Because in addition to directing these terminations, OPM gave a proposed letter.
06:14And the letter said, I'm reading from it, Memorandum for Leandra Bailey, February 13th
06:20from the Director of Human Source Management at the U.S. Forest Service.
06:23This is just one sentence, quote, the agency finds, based on your performance, that you
06:27have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest,
06:32close quote.
06:33And then the judge says this, despite the fact that her most recent review was fully
06:38successful in every category.
06:40The judge says, now, how could it be, you might ask, that the agency could find that
06:44based on her, find that based on her performance when her performance had been stellar?
06:50The reason OPM wanted to put this based on performance was at least in part, in my judgment,
06:56a gimmick.
06:58Because the law always allows you to fire somebody for performance.
07:02And the judge says this, now, what I'm about to say is not the legal basis for what I'm
07:06going to order today, but I just want to say it.
07:09He says, quote, it is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and
07:15say it was based on performance when they know good and well that's a lie.
07:19Excellent in all, fully, what was the phrase, I don't want to misstate it, quote, fully
07:22successful in every category, yet they terminate her based on her performance.
07:27That should not have been done in our country.
07:31It was a sham in order to avoid statutory requirements.
07:35It also happens to be that whenever you fire somebody based on performance, then they can't
07:38get unemployment insurance.
07:39So that makes it even worse, doesn't it?
07:41And then it makes it even worse because the next employer is going to say, well, have
07:45you ever been terminated based on performance?
07:47They're going to have to say yes to thousands of people.
07:53It is illustrative of the manipulation that was going on by OPM to try to orchestrate
07:57this government-wide termination of probationary employees.
08:02Quote, the court finds that OPM did direct all the agencies to terminate probationary
08:07employees.
08:08The court rejects the government's attempt to use these press releases and to read between
08:12the lines to say that the agency heads made their own decision with no direction from
08:16OPM.
08:17The relief that's going to be granted is as follows.
08:20First, the temporary restraining order will be extended.
08:24The VA shall immediately offer reinstatement to any and all probationary employees terminated
08:29on or about February 13th or 14th.
08:32This order finds that all such terminations were directed by defendant OPM and were unlawful
08:37because OPM had no authority to do so.
08:40Further, the VA shall cease any and all use of the template termination notice provided
08:45by OPM and shall immediately advise all probationary employees terminated February 13th and 14th
08:51that the notice and termination have been found to be unlawful by the U.S. District
08:55Court for the Northern District of California.
08:57The VA shall cease any termination of probationary employees at the direction of OPM.
09:03To repeat, this order holds that OPM has no authority whatsoever to direct, order,
09:09or require in any way that any agency fire any employee.
09:14Now, given the arguments and the facts in this case, namely that defendants have attempted
09:19to recast these directives as mere guidance, my order today, quote, further prohibits defendants
09:26from giving guidance as to whether any employee should be terminated.
09:31Let's bring in Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
09:35He's a member of the Armed Services and Judiciary Committees and serves as a ranking member
09:40on the Committee on Veterans Affairs.
09:44But let's first talk, Senator, if we could, I mean, you also served as attorney general
09:48in the state of Connecticut for a number of years, about this executive order essentially
09:52stripping Perkins Coie of security clearances needed to represent clients and limits the
10:00firm's access to government buildings.
10:02I mean, what do you make of this and what can be done?
10:06Well, thank you, Mika, for having me on this very consequential day in the Congress.
10:12What I make of this action is it is the ultimate in autocratic attempts to show advocacy and
10:20speech and it's emblematic of what this administration is doing.
10:24The FCC is investigating NBC and CBS.
10:29It is taking action against free speech around the country.
10:32And this attack on a law firm because of its clients is fundamental to the destruction
10:42of our legal system that this administration seems bent on doing.
10:48It is a full frontal attack, as Mike just said, but it goes to the fairness of everyday
10:55legal proceedings in our country.
10:57If you want to be represented by a law firm and you're unpopular or if you've committed
11:02a crime that seems heinous, even though you are innocent, you're going to have trouble
11:09finding a law firm under this kind of autocratic approach to punishing law firms simply because
11:17of who their clients are.
11:19And you know, the bedrock of our legal system is that people aren't having the representation
11:25even if they're unpopular, even if the public believes they have committed a crime.
11:30And this kind of chilling, deadening effect is emblematic of what the administration is
11:34trying to do to our legal system, which is the wonder of the world.
11:39It is the reason why we are in large part an exceptional country.
11:44Everybody's equal under the law.
11:46Everybody gets to be represented by an attorney.
11:48And you know, Williams and Connolly has a reputation for being fearless and aggressive.
11:53What you're seeing is a threat.
11:55The threats are continuing.
11:57Trump is losing cases and then threatening judges and then threatening law firms because
12:02he doesn't like this.
12:04This goes all the way back to when he was in between his presidencies and there was
12:10the judges.
12:12They had to do this.
12:14In so many of his cases, juries were made anonymous.
12:18Legal orders had to be passed to protect the staff of the of the courts.
12:24Many cases, the judge is very bravely excluding themselves because they didn't want to infringe
12:30on Trump's First Amendment rights, but they clearly had to do something and gag him from
12:34criticizing like the employees of the court and criticizing the juries because fundamental
12:40or the staff, the understaff of the of the of the prosecutors, not the the head prosecutors,
12:46but the understaff because Trump and his cronies were making life unsafe.
12:51When one of his cases ended, I don't know if you remember, I believe it was one of his
12:55civil cases with Gene Carroll.
12:57The judge said you were anonymous during this trial.
13:00Ultimately, it is your choice now after the case whether to be anonymous or not.
13:06I can't control that for life is what I believe what he said.
13:11But I strongly recommend that you never reveal who you were and what you did in this courtroom
13:17because if you do, the implication was at least that Trump and his cronies will come
13:22after you.
13:23And that was before he was president again.
13:25That was just a guy with a really big social media following and a right wing cult, but
13:30no official state power anymore.
13:34And now he has it.
13:36Trump is going to keep losing cases, not all of them unfortunately, but he's going to lose
13:39most of them.
13:41And every time he does, he is going to threaten those that made that loss possible.