Judge Boasberg Says He’s Ready To Launch Contempt Proceedings Against Trump Administration For Defying Order Barring Deportations

Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg stated that he is ready to launch contempt proceedings against the Trump administration – but is giving it a final chance to comply.

Last month, Boasberg issued an order blocking deportation flights that President Donald Trump ordered, citing wartime authorities from the 18th century as the reason.

On March 15, Judge Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to stop the removal of alleged Venezuelan gang members, which the president argued is authorized by the law, which is historically used only in wartime.

He directed the return of planes holding hundreds of suspected gang members to El Salvador.

Despite this, the administration decided not to bring back two planes already en route and allowed a third plane to take off, leading to accusations that it ignored the court’s ruling, which Boasberg called a “possible defiance.”

The president deported over 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.

According to a new 46-page court ruling outlining his decision, Boasberg has chosen to launch contempt proceedings to determine if any Trump administration officials defied his order not to remove Venezuelan migrants from the U.S. based on the wartime Alien Enemies Act he implemented last month. He also wanted to determine if these officials should face criminal contempt charges.

“As this Opinion will detail, the Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” the Chief U.S. District Judge wrote in the order. “The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”

In this order, Judge Boasberg also declared that “the Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders – especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it.

“To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make ‘a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself.'”

He also said that “the Government’s conduct” last month has gone against “a desire to outrun the equitable reach of the Judiciary.”

The Trump administration denied violating the judge’s order, and White House communications director Steven Cheung says the government will appeal Boasberg’s ruling.

“The President is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country,” he wrote in a statement.

Judge Boasberg also described the next steps in the contempt proceeding.

He said he wants sworn statements first from people who can attest to the officials making the choice not to turn the planes around as they carried migrants to El Salvador.

He also noted that if he is unsatisfied with those statements, he will ask live witnesses to testify at hearings or depositions. Judge Boasberg said he could then ask the Justice Department to prosecute Trump administration officials who violated his order. If the department fails to do so, he will appoint an attorney as a special prosecutor.