US justice dept seeks to block contempt probe in mass deportation case

The Justice Department asked an appeals court on Friday to block a contempt investigation of the Trump administration for failing to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March.

The department also is seeking Chief Judge James Boasberg's removal from the case, accusing him of a "radical, retaliatory, unconstitutional campaign" against the Trump administration.

It marks a dramatic escalation in the Justice Department's lengthy feud with the judge appointed to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, setting the stage for a showdown over the judiciary's power to serve as a check on an administration that has pushed the boundaries of court orders.

The department wants the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule on its requests before Monday, when Boasberg is scheduled to hear testimony from a former government attorney who filed a whistleblower complaint.

Department officials claim Boasberg is biased and creating "a circus that threatens the separation of powers and the attorney-client privilege alike."  "The forthcoming hearing has every appearance of an endless fishing expedition aimed at an ever-widening list of witnesses and prolonged testimony. That spectacle is not a genuine effort to uncover any relevant facts," they wrote.

Boasberg has said that a recent ruling by the appeals court gave him the authority to proceed with the contempt inquiry. The judge is trying determine if there is sufficient evidence to refer the matter for prosecution.

Boasberg, who has been chief judge of the district court in Washington, DC, since March 2023, has said the Trump administration may have "acted in bad faith" by trying to rush Venezuelan migrants out of the country in defiance of his order blocking their deportations to El Salvador.

In an April 16 order, the judge said he gave the administration "ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions" but concluded that "none of their responses has been satisfactory."  The Trump administration has denied any violation, saying the judge's March 15 directive to return the planes was made verbally in court but not included in his written order.

Trump called for impeaching Boasberg in March. In July, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint accusing Boasberg of making improper public comments about Trump and his administration.

Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Monday for testimony by former Justice Department attorney Erez Reuveni, whose whistleblower complaint claims a top department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants.

The judge also scheduled a hearing Tuesday for testimony by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign. The Justice Department has said Ensign conveyed Boasberg's March 15 oral order and a subsequent written order to the Department of Homeland Security.

"This long-running saga never should have begun; should not have continued at all after this court's last intervention; and certainly should not be allowed to escalate into the unseemly and unnecessary interbranch conflict that it now imminently portends," department officials said in Friday's court filing.

In a written declaration to the court, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she made the decision not to return the planes to the US after receiving "privileged legal advice" from the Homeland Security Department's acting general counsel and 'through him from the senior leadership of the Department of Justice."  Boasberg called Noem's declaration "cursory" and said it does not provide him with enough information to determine whether she willfully violated his March 15 order.

Boasberg on Friday refused to cancel or delay next week's hearings.

"To begin, this inquiry is not some academic exercise," he wrote. "Approximately 137 men were spirited out of this country without a hearing and placed in a high-security prison in El Salvador, where many suffered abuse and possible torture, despite this court's order that they should not be disembarked.