The Trump administration on Friday asked a federal appeals court to immediately block Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s planned contempt hearings and remove him from overseeing the case, escalating a monthslong clash over deportations carried out under the Alien Enemies Act.
In a petition filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Justice Department urged judges to halt testimony scheduled to begin next week, arguing Boasberg has crossed constitutional lines and can no longer preside over the dispute impartially.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the filing was necessary to stop what she described as “lawless judicial activism,” accusing Boasberg of threatening attorney-client privilege and violating separation-of-powers principles in retaliation for the administration’s immigration enforcement. Bondi said the dispute stems from the administration’s decision to remove Venezuelan nationals alleged to be members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
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“This radical, retaliatory, unconstitutional campaign against the Trump Administration will not stand,” Bondi said.
In Friday’s filing, the DOJ accused Boasberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, of retaliatory conduct, saying his pursuit of testimony from government lawyers creates “a strong appearance that the district judge is engaged in a pattern of retaliation and harassment.”
“This long-running saga never should have begun; should not have continued at all after this Court’s last intervention; and certainly should not be allowed to escalate into the unseemly and unnecessary interbranch conflict that it now imminently portends,” the department wrote.
The filing marks a sharp escalation in the administration’s fight with Boasberg, who has been pursuing a fact-finding inquiry into whether Trump officials defied his emergency March order directing deportation flights to turn around while en route to El Salvador.
The contempt dispute traces back to March 15, when Trump invoked the rarely used Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport nearly 140 Venezuelan men identified by DHS as gang members. Boasberg ordered the planes turned around, but the men were transferred to Salvadoran custody and later imprisoned at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center.
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Boasberg has scheduled testimony from former DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni on Monday and current DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign on Tuesday as he weighs whether to refer administration officials for criminal contempt. In a separate order by Boasberg issued just after the administration’s appeal, he denied the government’s motion that requested him to halt his Monday hearing, adding that he sees no reason to “delay the entire hearing while waiting for further, unspecified appellate guidance, as the Government also demands.”
Reuveni, the former DOJ employee whose “whistleblower” status has been disputed by Bondi, alleges senior officials decided in advance to ignore whatever the court ordered. According to his account of the events, former senior DOJ official Emil Bove suggested during a March 14 meeting that the department might have to tell the courts “f*** you” and proceed with removals regardless. Bove has denied the allegation, calling it false and distorted.
Reuveni’s materials include emails sent the night of March 15 as the American Civil Liberties Union sought emergency relief to block the flights. He has also claimed Ensign knew deportation planes were already in the air when representations were made to the court.
“He knows they are being removed,” Reuveni said of Ensign, specifying that he knew “about the flights.”
Ensign, the DOJ’s key witness, wrote in a sworn declaration that he relayed Boasberg’s order to relevant parties, including the Department of Homeland Security, but did not address whether he was aware flights were pending. The DOJ has said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ultimately directed the flights to continue.
In April, Boasberg’s finding that the government showed “probable cause” for contempt was vacated by a three-judge appeals panel on jurisdictional grounds, a decision the full D.C. Circuit declined to revisit in November. However, the appeals court emphasized that its decision should not be read as excusing defiance of court orders.
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“We fully appreciate the seriousness of the governmental conduct the district court observed,” the appeals court wrote, stressing that respect for judicial orders and the judiciary’s contempt power “are essential to the rule of law,” and that the district court remains free to continue its fact-finding hearings.
Boasberg has said any final contempt referral remains possible and that defiance of a court order may be punishable even if the underlying order is later invalidated. His actions have made him a target of Republicans, with Trump calling for his impeachment and GOP lawmakers introducing impeachment articles and calling for his temporary suspension.
