U.S. District Judge James Boasberg will move forward with contempt proceedings over allegations that Trump administration officials violated his order to return alleged Venezuelan gang members who were on deportation flights to El Salvador earlier this year.
Boasberg, who has become an antagonist of the administration with his various rulings against it, ordered in March that the Trump administration return any person deported using the Alien Enemies Act, but the Justice Department acknowledged that two planes full of suspected Tren de Aragua members, which had already taken off, continued to a Salvadoran prison despite the verbal order from the judge. The DOJ argued that the planes had left U.S. airspace and were therefore beyond the court’s jurisdiction by the time the order came down, but Boasberg claimed the administration had willfully violated his order and began contempt proceedings.
A federal appeals court vacated Boasberg’s April finding of “probable cause” to move forward with contempt hearings, but did not block the lower judge from exploring contempt proceedings for the Trump administration officials. Boasberg opened Wednesday’s hearing, emboldened by a ruling last week by the full D.C. Circuit appeals court that failed to block his ability to resume his contempt proceedings, by saying he would do just that.
“I’m authorized to proceed, just as I intended to do in April, seven months ago,” Boasberg said.
Boasberg ordered both the lawyers for the deported Venezuelans and the DOJ to detail how they believe he should proceed with the contempt inquiry, including by providing the names of possible witnesses for hearings. The judge named former DOJ official Erez Reuveni, who claimed officials discussed defying the order, and Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, as people he would like to hear from in his bid to find out “who gave the orders to defy my ruling.”
DOJ lawyer Tiberius Davis objected to Boasberg’s decision to move ahead with the contempt proceedings, an objection the judge shut down immediately.
“My question is not whether I should be going forward, but again, what steps do you think I should take?” Boasberg said to Davis, insisting he will go forward with the inquiry.
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Boasberg has been the most publicly criticized federal judge by the Trump administration and Republicans since the president returned to the White House earlier this year, spurred by his multiple rulings against the administration and his attempted contempt proceeding in this case.
Several Republican senators have called for Boasberg’s impeachment and removal from the bench, even asking that the D.C. Circuit suspend the judge pending an impeachment vote in the House of Representatives.