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WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to
deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired
department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public
Tuesday.

The whistleblower’s claims about Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney
General Emil Bove come a day before Bove is set to face lawmakers
Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become a federal appeals court
judge.

In a letter seeking a congressional and Justice Department watchdog investigation, the former government lawyer, Erez Reuveni, alleges he
was pushed out and publicly disparaged after resisting efforts to defy
judges and make arguments in court that were false or had no legal
basis.

The most explosive allegation in the letter from Reuveni’s lawyers
centers around a Justice Department meeting in March concerning
President Donald Trump’s plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act over what
the president claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de
Aragua. Reuveni says Bove raised the possibility that a court might
block the deportations before they could happen. Reuveni claims Bove
used a profanity, saying the department would need to consider telling
the courts “f— you,” and “ignore any such order,” according to the filing.

“Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove’s statement because, to Mr. Reuveni’s knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership – in any Administration – had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with” an expletive, the filing says. In the weeks following
the meeting, Reuveni says he raised concerns in several cases about
efforts to violate court orders through “lack of candor, deliberate
delay and disinformation.”

Reuveni’s claims were first reported Tuesday by The New York Times.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the allegations “utterly false,” saying that he was at the March meeting and “at no time did
anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.”

“Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it
should be tolerated,” Blanche wrote in a post on X.

Reuveni had been promoted under the Trump administration to serve as
acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation after
working for the Justice Department for nearly 15 years under both
Republican and Democratic administrations.

Reuveni’s firing came after he conceded in an April court hearing that a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, should not have been deported to
an El Salvador prison, and expressed frustration over a lack of
information about the administration’s actions. After that hearing,
Reuveni says he refused to sign onto an appeal brief in Abrego Garcia’s
case that included arguments that were “contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue.”

“The consequences of DOJ’s actions Mr. Reuveni reports have grave
impacts not only for the safety of individuals removed from the country
in violation of court orders, but also for the constitutional rights and protections of all persons — citizen and noncitizen alike — who are potential victims of flagrant deliberate disregard of due process and
the rule of law by the agency charged with upholding it,” Reuveni’s
lawyers wrote.

U.S District Judge James E. Boasberg in April found probable cause to
hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating his
order not to deport anyone in its custody under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg had told the administration to turn around any planes that
already headed to El Salvador, but that did not happen.

The administration has argued it did not violate any orders, saying it
didn’t apply to planes that had already left U.S. airspace by the time
his command came down.

Trump nominated Bove last month to fill a vacancy on the 3rd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania. He was already expected to face tough questioning
before the Senate Judiciary Committee given his role in some of the department’s most scrutinized actions since Trump’s return to the White House in January.

The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, said Tuesday that
the allegations from Reuveni are part of a “broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department’s commitment to
the rule of law.”

“I want to thank Mr. Reuveni for exercising his right to speak up and
bring accountability to Mr. Bove,” Durbin said in a statement. “And I implore my Senate Republican colleagues: do not turn a blind eye to the
dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a
circuit court judge.”

Democrats have raised alarm about several other actions by Bove,
including his order to dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams’ corruption
case that led to the resignation of a top New York federal prosecutor
and other senior Justice Department officials. Bove also accused FBI
officials of “insubordination” for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the U.S. Capitol riot, and ordered the firings
of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.

https://ktla.com/news/ap-us-news/ap-justice-department-official-suggested -ignoring-court-orders-on-deportations-whistleblower-claims/

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