The Justice Department is struggling to answer questions from a federal judge about why the White House appeared to defy a court order to temporarily halt the deportation of accused Venezuelan gang members on Saturday, heightening concerns of a clash between the Trump administration and the judiciary.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had issued a verbal order from the bench on Saturday for the administration to pause deportations under the Alien Enemies Act and to turn around deportation flights that had already taken off. But the White House did not order two flights to return to U.S. soil.
On Monday, Justice Department attorney Abhishek Kambli argued that the administration did comply with Boasberg’s written order, which was issued hours after his oral ruling, saying that the written ruling took precedence over the one Boasberg issued from the bench.
“We believe that we’ve complied with the order,” Kambli said.
Boasberg did not buy the argument. “Wouldn’t it have been a better course to return the planes around the United States as opposed to going forward and saying, ‘We don’t care, we’ll do what we want’?” the judge asked.
The White House also denied that it had defied Boasberg’s order. Prior to the Monday hearing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed that there was “no lawful basis” for Boasberg’s ruling and that federal courts “do not have jurisdiction over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs.” At a press briefing later that day, she suggested that a verbal order carries less weight than a written one — the same argument that Kambli put forward hours later in court. (An oral order is as legally binding as a written order.)
Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, also told Fox News on Monday that the deportees were already over international waters when the judge’s order came through. “We are not stopping,” Homan said. “I don’t care what the judges think.” The Justice Department stonewalled the judge on his request for details about its deportation operations under the Alien Enemies Act, citing “sensitive questions of national security, foreign relations, and coordination with foreign nations.” Boasberg denied the DOJ’s request to cancel Monday’s hearing, and the Trump administration subsequently called for him to be removed from the case. The judge set a deadline of noon on Wednesday for the DOJ to provide additional information under seal about the timing of the flights and the passengers removed under the proclamation, which weren’t provided on Tuesday. Trump himself escalated the dispute on Tuesday, calling for Boasberg’s impeachment in a Truth Social post — prompting a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts himself.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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