Judge Boasberg to resume criminal contempt inquiry into Trump officials involved in Alien Enemies Act deportation flights
By Devan Cole, CNN
(CNN) — A federal judge said Wednesday that he plans to “promptly” move ahead with an effort to find out which Trump administration officials were responsible for flouting his orders in a high-stakes immigration case – and whether they will face punishment for their actions.
The comments from US District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the federal trial-level court in Washington, DC, come nearly a week after a appeals court cleared the way for him to continue with a criminal contempt inquiry that was put on ice months ago.
”I am authorized to proceed just as I intended to do in April – seven months ago,” Boasberg said during a hearing Wednesday in the immigration case concerning President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations of alleged members of a Venezuelan gang.
“This has been sitting for a long time and I believe that justice requires me to move promptly on this,” he added.
Boasberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, had ordered the administration in mid-March to turn around planes carrying migrants being deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador under the sweeping 18th Century wartime authority.
Yet the flights continued, and the migrants were held at the prison for several months before being released this summer as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela.
“I certainly intend to find out what happened on that day,” Boasberg said on Wednesday.
What Boasberg wants to find out
In a blockbuster decision issued in April, Boasberg said “probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.” But before he could move forward with finding out who was responsible for defying his orders, the proceedings were put on hold by the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals. That court on Friday paved the way for him to restart his inquiry.
The judge suggested that part of his inquiry could involve declarations from administration officials, or hauling officials into his courtroom to provide testimony under oath. Those hearings, he said, could begin as soon as December 1.
Among those he’s interested in hearing from is an ex-Justice Department lawyer who alleged in a whistleblower complaint earlier this year that a then-top DOJ official told his colleagues in March that the administration intended to ignore court orders as part of the government’s aggressive deportation effort.
That complaint, Boasberg said, was just one part of the “significant developments” that have occurred while his contempt proceedings were on hold for much of this year.
Boasberg’s decisions this year in the case drew the ire of Trump, who earlier this year called for the judge’s impeachment, prompting a rare rebuke from Chief Justice John Roberts. The chief said the proper ways to respond to a disagreeable court ruling is to appeal it.
Meanwhile, South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and several other Republican senators are calling for Boasberg to be suspended and impeached after learning that the judge refused to allow the phone carrier Verizon to notify them that their phone records had been subpoenaed in the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot investigation.
Boasberg has asked the Justice Department and attorneys behind the Alien Enemies Act legal challenge to provide their view on how he should proceed with the contempt inquiry by Monday.
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.
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