Trump’s DOJ personally targets judge demanding answers on possible contempt: court filing

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has spent much of the year clashing with President Donald Trump’s administration to identify who defied his court orders.

In March, Boasberg ordered that planes taking immigrants to the brutal prison in El Salvador turn around and bring individuals back to the U.S. The administration ignored the order, with El Salvador's president openly mocking the court claiming, "too late!"

On Friday, the DOJ rushed to a Washington, D.C., appeals court to request that Boasberg be removed from the case entirely, Politico explained.

The DOJ alleged in its emergency petition that Boasberg “is engaged in a pattern of retaliation and harassment, and has developed too strong a bias to preside over this matter impartially.”

They argued his push to uncover who should face contempt charges threatens separation of powers and attorney-client privilege.

“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,” DOJ lawyers claimed.

The DOJ also attacked the judge for “doggedly pursuing" what they believe is "an idiosyncratic and misguided inquiry.”

Boasberg pressed prosecutors and the DOJ for answers almost immediately and began the process in April to uncover the official or officials who should be charged with contempt.

The Monday hearing aimed to call two witnesses: Erez Reuveni, who previously worked as an immigration attorney for the Justice Department and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, who was managing the process at the start.

Reuveni filed an official whistleblower disclosure outing former DOJ official Emil Bove in June for telling DOJ staff that the Trump administration should consider telling the courts "f—— you" if judges try to stop the deportations.

Text messages between Reuveni and his direct supervisor, August Flentje, show the two men referencing Bove’s comments.

Bove has since been confirmed as a judge to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Justice Department claimed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to proceed with the flights followed consultations with Bove, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and DHS counsel Joseph Mazzara — discussions it deems “privileged,” per Politico.

The DOJ tried to stop or delay last week’s hearing, but Boasberg wasn’t buying it.

“This inquiry is not some academic exercise. 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,” the judge wrote. “The question the Court must now answer is whether this occurred via contumacious conduct by Government officials.”