Author: Opening Arguments Media LLC

OA1237 - The U.S. Department of Justice is not sending their best these days. From the problematic indictments of journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort for their coverage of the protest of a church in Minnesota whose pastor runs the local ICE field office to the unexpected dismissal of Mohsen Mohdawi’s deportation proceedings to a bizarre argument (and more good news) in Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s custody proceedings, we are continuing to see what happens when authoritarian lawyering meets actual federal judges applying actual federal law to the facts and parties before them. 

Finally, in today’s footnote: can you sue your ex for telling millions of people about your enormous penis? We debate whether a former football player’s claims are giving BDE or legal shrinkage.

1. Federal indictment of Nakima Levy Armstrong, Don Lemon, Georgia Fort, et al in connection with January 18, 2026 protest at Cities Church

2. DOJ Office of Civil Rights memo re: FACE Act charging policy (Jan 24, 2025)

3. The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (“FACE”) Act, 18 USC 248

4. Petitioner’s 28(j) letter in Mahdawi v. Trump with copy of the Immigration Judge’s order terminating Mohsen Mahdawi’s removal proceedings attached (Feb. 17, 2026)

5. Judge Xinis’s order preventing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s re-detention by ICE (Feb. 17, 2026)

6. Complaint in Kalil v. Kalil, filed Jan. 6, 2026

7. Excerpts from Rev. Jesse Jackson’s “Keep Hope Alive” speech at the 1988 Democratic National Convention

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E23 - For today's amuse douche: a savory sample of our favorite Harvard Law professor’s extremely normal 2015 explanation of his appearances in Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs. We then take on an almost painfully normal 1997 Dersh LA Times oped in which the lawyer who would go on to secure one of the best plea deals a pedophile has ever received complains about all of those pesky age of consent laws. Finally: some of the worst reactions from men exposed in the Epstein files. 

You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

1. “Gelernter tells dean he stands by praising student's looks to Epstein,” Yale News, Feb 5, 2026

2. “Statutory Rape is an Outdated Concept, Alan Dershowitz, LA Times (1997)(retrieved from Newspapers.com.) 

3. Steven Pinker's linguistic analysis for Epstein's defense team, eventually resulting in Epstein's "sweetheart deal" (attachment in linked email, June 28, 2007).

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OA1236 - Elections grab bag! Election news has been accumulating, so Jenessa helps us get caught up on what’s going on. Who’s winning elections? What’s going on with redistricting? Heard something confusing about the mail? Trump back on his bullshit again? Good news, mixed news, debunking alleged bad news, bad news with plans for how to turn things around; we’ve got it all.

Updates since we recorded: The SAVE America Act passed the House. Also the affidavit for the warrant in Georgia was unsealed. We’ll talk about it soon, but the short version is these people really still believe in election conspiracy theories. It’s gross. We’ll survive.

• John Hanna & Julie Carr Smyth (Feb. 1, 2026). Texas stunner: Democrat Taylor Rehmet flips Republican state Senate district Trump won by 17 points, Associated Press.

• Amy Howe (Feb. 4, 2026). Supreme Court allows California to use congressional map benefitting Democrats, SCOTUSBlog.

• Tangipa v. Newsom (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

• Abbott v. League of United Latin American Citizens (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

• H.R.7296 - SAVE America Act, Congress.gov.

• H.R.7300 - Make Elections Great Again Act. Congress.gov.

• Domestic Mail Manual 608.11

• Domestic Mail Manual amendment explanation (Nov. 24, 2025). Postmarks and Postal Possession, Federal Register.

• 39 CFR Part 111

• Dan Mooney, What Is RTO? Why Do We Have It?, National Association of Postal Supervisors (Aug. 19, 2025) 

• Regional Transportation Optimization (RTO) initiative. (Feb. 2, 2025). Service Standards for Market-Dominant Mail Products, Federal Register.

• 39 CFR Part 121

• Track Your Ballot or Ballot Application, Vote.org.

• 2 U.S.C. § 7 - Time of election

• (Dec. 24, 2025). Table 11: Receipt and Postmark Deadlines for Absentee/Mail Ballots, National Conference of State Legislatures.

• Evan Lee (Jan. 15, 2026) Court holds that all candidates can challenge rules governing vote counting in elections, SCOTUSBlog.

• Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections, 607 U.S. __ (2026).

• Bost v. Illinois State Board of Elections (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

• Amy Howe (Nov. 10, 2025). Justices agree to decide major election law case, SCOTUSBlog.

• Watson v. Republican National Committee (Election Law) (docket and SCOTUSBlog coverage), SCOTUSBlog.

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OA1235 - Today on Rapid Response Friday: Matt’s still on island time, so it’s a good-news-only kind of day as we review (1) the historic termination of deportation proceedings against Tufts grad student Rumeysa Ozturk, (2) new judicial restraints on ICE, (3) a DC federal judge’s outstanding rebuke to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s attempt to deport 350,000 Haitians, and (4) a Republican revolt on Trump’s emergency tariffs. (Also: just how stupid is the super-secret memo which ICE has apparently been using to justify breaking into some immigrants’ homes without a judicial warrant?)

Finally in today’s footnote: Matt shares how his attempt to mail some pants from the U.S. Virgin Islands revealed a weird loophole in Trump’s emergency tariff orders which is now forcing some U.S. citizens to pay international duties on domestic shipments.

1. In re: Ruiz-Massieu, Int. Dec. #3400, Board of Immigration Appeals (June 11, 1999)

2. Whistleblower Aid letter detailing secret ICE memo allowing arrests without warrants (memo attached at Ex. 1)(Jan. 6, 2026)

3. Sample I-205 ICE administrative warrant

4. D.C. District Court judge Ana Reyes’s decision in Moit v. Trump  preserving Temporary Protected Status for Haitians in the U.S. (2/2/2026)

5. “Suspending Duty-Free De Minimis Treatment for All Countries,” The White House (July 30, 2025)

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VR22 - Matt reports in just a few miles from--and this is true--Epstein Island to provide a recap of his recent visit to Minnesota days after Alex Pretti’s murder for the first major gathering of state legislators joining forces to stop federal overreach since 1814. How are the people of Minneapolis and their elected leaders holding up on the front lines of the Department of Homeland Security’s war on America, and what can we learn from their example? 

Finally, in today’s Vapid Response: professional centrist (and amateur constitutional scholar) Lionel Shriver explains how nearly three hours of research has convinced her that sanctuary jurisdictions, the people of Minneapolis, and Antonin Scalia have gotten it all wrong.

1. State Futures website

2. Video of the Minnesota Senate Rules and Administration Select Subcommittee on Federal Impacts to Minnesotans and Economic Stability hearing held Jan. 29, 2026

3. “There Should Be No Sanctuary From ICE,” Lionel Shriver, The Spectator (Jan 2025)

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Take a break from the downfall of democracy and instead get outraged at the deep injustice of a year-long feud over a bronze medal in women’s gymnastics. This story’s got everything: bravery, racism, the best and the worst of sportsmanship, bad blood that’s been brewing since the Cold War, and, somehow, the Swedish Federal Court. Come for the weird gymnastics scoring rules, stay for the legal analysis of international arbitration rules.

• Rory Carroll (August 5, 2024). Gymnastics - Biles bows to Andrade in floor final at Paris games. Reuters.

• International Gymnastics Federation, Code of Points

  • 2022-2024: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_2022-2024%20WAG%20COP.pdf

  • 2025-2028: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20WAG%20COP%202025-2028.pdf

• International Gymnastics Federation, Technical Regulations

  • 2024: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20Technical%20Regulations%202024.pdf

  • 2025: https://www.gymnastics.sport/publicdir/rules/files/en_1.1%20-%20Technical%20Regulations%202025.pdf

• English press release from Swiss Federal Court.

Further reading:

• Richard McLaren, The CAS Ad Hoc Division at the Athens Olympic Games, 15 Marq. Sports L. Rev. 175 (2004).

• Video of the relevant floor routines, plus a time stamp for when they all attempt the infamous Gogean leap:

  • Rebeca Andrade: 0:55; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXKM8ThtYOE

  • Simone Biles: 0:53; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2m2UL5bljw

  • Jordan Chiles: 1:29; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU0769SvbWE

  • Ana Bărbosu: 1:06; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ik01tvmwV9c

  • Sabrina Maneca-Voinea: 1:49; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuF-smKa4Vo

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OA1233 - We are not conspiracy theorist type people. But... yeah man I don't know. But also, so much more in these files to talk about. If you know anything about the federal government’s 2007 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein you know that it was bad. But newly-released documents from the Epstein files show that it was actually much worse than that! Thanks to a newly-released legal memo, a draft indictment, and internal emails between prosecutors we now have a much better understanding of the disagreements within US Attorney for the District of Southern Florida Alex Acosta’s office as they finalized the terms of a much-too-friendly agreement between the US government and a billionaire pedophile which a federal appeals court would later call “a national disgrace.” Matt has the receipts for this special emergency episode.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube!

1. Steve Bannon’s Interview with Jeffrey Epstein (directly downloaded from the DOJ)

2. Investigation into the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida’s Resolution of Its 2006–2008 Federal Criminal Investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Its Interactions with Victims during the Investigation (Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility, 2020)

3. Incident Report (Palm Beach Police Department, 2006) 

4. Epstein indictment draft (United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of Florida, 2007)

5. Appendix in The People of the State of New York v. Jeffrey E. Epstein (2013)

6. Opinion - Alex Acosta acted with professionalism and integrity in handling the Jeffrey Epstein case (Miami Herald, 2/16/2019) 

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E21 - CONTENT WARNING / TRIGGER WARNING: references to child sex abuse, child  sex abuse  materials, survivor accounts

Watch this episode on YouTube!

The Epstein Files have been released--or have they? Days after the Department of Justice’s delayed and poorly-redacted release of millions of new documents connected with the world’s most infamous sex trafficker, we sit down for a first look at what is (and isn’t) in here. We begin with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s attempt to fight for the right to party with Jeffrey Epstein before evaluating the DOJ’s efforts to comply with its Congressional mandate to release the files more than a month after they were supposed to. We also look at a heartbreaking journal from an anonymous survivor to  try to understand before Matt pulls out some selections from keyword searches which implicate Elon Musk, mega-financier Leon Black, magician David Copperfield,  sitting Secretary of the Treasury Howard Lutnick, former Obama administration lawyer Kathy Ruemmler, and many more.  Also: what to make about the wilder allegations you may have heard involving Donald Trump, and what it means to “be in the Epstein files” at all.

NEXT TIME: the most disgusting plea deal in American history somehow gets… worse? 

1. Epstein Files Transparency Act, PL 119-38 (11/19/2025)

2. Epstein Library search page, DOJ.gov

3. (CW/TW) Anonymous survivor’s  journal, removed from DOJ Epstein Library but backed up to Archive.org on 2/1/26 (CW/TW)

OA1232 - Hey OA-ers, this episode was a Gavel Gavel bonus, but we wanted to be sure everyone was updated on what's going on with the Luigi Mangione trials. New York public defender Liz Skeen is here to break it all down! And since the judge made some rulings on 1/30, I've got an update for ya!

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OA1231 -

The DHS funding battle is important, but really can't accomplish what you might hope it can. When it comes to the Fed, ALL OF A SUDDEN the court cares about the real world effects of their decisions. And a figure skating related footnote!