US government lawyers defiantly defended President
US District Judge
The hearing came less than two hours after the Justice Department asked a federal appeals court to take Boasberg off the case, saying his questions were “flagrantly improper” and presented “grave risks.”
At the hearing, Boasberg pressed a government attorney, Abhishek Kambli, to explain how many flights left the US on Saturday for El Salvador. The planes left a few hours after Trump publicly invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang for deportation. Kambli wouldn’t disclose how many planes flew or any details about them.
QuickTake:
Kambli said the government didn’t violate Boasberg’s written order issued on Saturday at about 7:25 p.m. to halt any flights under the law. At an earlier hearing, the judge had verbally directed the government to order any flights in the air to turn around.
Bloomberg’s Sara Forden discusses the Trump Administration deporting hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador over the weekend even as a federal judge ordered a halt to the deportations, and whether or not the administration violated the court order. Sara speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.” Source: Bloomberg
Boasberg and Kambli diverged sharply over the powers of the president and the judiciary, and the need to comply with a judge’s orders. Kambli said the government didn’t have to honor the judge’s oral directive, arguing it didn’t have the same force of law as a written order.
“Your honor, we believe that there was no order given, because the written order is what controls,” Kambli said at Monday’s hearing.
Constitutional Crisis?
A lawyer for the
“There’s been a lot of talk over the last seven weeks about constitutional crisis,” ACLU attorney
Kambli said he couldn’t reveal key logistical details about the flights, which involved classified information. He also said Boasberg had no power to order the planes to turn around.
“Our argument would be the court lost jurisdiction the moment they were outside US airspace,” Kambli said.
The judge asked if the better option would have been to return the plane to the US “and figure out the answer, as opposed to going forward and saying we don’t care, we will do what we want.”
Kambli said the president can direct military operations, engage in diplomatic relations and “continue this operation once the planes have been removed from US territory” because those powers “are not traditionally subject to judicial review.”
What Happened When
Boasberg, the chief judge in Washington, said that because “apparently my oral orders don’t seem to carry much weight,” the Justice Department must answer a series of questions in writing. He later put out an order directing US lawyers to say whether anyone was deported based on the Alien Enemies Act after he issued his written order Saturday night, when Trump’s proclamation was signed, when it was made public and when it went into effect.
Boasberg also wants the government to estimate how many people in the US are subject to deportation based on Trump’s proclamation and how many of those are in custody.
US lawyers must provide answers about “the particulars of the flights,” which the judge said they could do in his chambers or in a classified setting. If the government concludes it can’t provide that information “under any circumstances,” Boasberg said it must provide a legal rationale.
The court fight began when five Venezuelans filed a lawsuit early Saturday morning in anticipation that Trump would invoke the Alien Enemies Act to target alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang. Trump had signed a presidential proclamation to put the act into effect on Friday, but didn’t release it until Saturday afternoon.
That day, Boasberg issued an order to temporarily stop the deportation of the five Venezuelans. In the afternoon, he halted use of the law to deport any alleged Tren de Aragua members. But by then planes had taken off.
In a filing late Monday, the Justice Department urged the judge to vacate his rulings to temporarily block use of the Alien Enemies Act. The US argued that the judge has no authority to question the president’s proclamation that an “enemy invasion” has occurred, saying that’s an inherently political question.
In the proclamation, Trump declared that Tren de Aragua is “undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela.”
‘This Is War’
The president defended his use of the wartime law in a discussion with reporters Sunday night aboard Air Force One.
“This is war,” Trump said. “In many respects, it’s more dangerous than war because, you know, in war, they have uniforms. You know who you’re shooting at.”
Justice Department lawyers had urged the judge to cancel Monday’s hearing, arguing in a court filing that he should “de-escalate the grave incursions on executive branch authority that have already arisen.” They said the government couldn’t reveal “national security or operational security details” about the flight. Boasberg rejected the request.
The case is J.G.G. v. Trump,
(Updates with details of hearing, ACLU comment and further context throughout, starting in fourth paragraph)
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To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Steve Stroth, Peter Jeffrey
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