Top Justice Department leaders and judicial nominee tried to mislead judges, whistleblower says

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13 hours ago

Top Justice Department leaders — including President Donald Trump's former personal defense lawyer nominated for a prestigious judgeship — intended to ignore court orders and tried to mislead federal judges in the administration's aggressive deportation effort this spring, a Justice Department lawyer who was fired recently said in a whistleblower letter obtained by CNN.
The letter, which was sent to members of Congress and independent investigators within the executive branch Tuesday, is likely to prompt greater scrutiny of Emil Bove, who has been serving as the principal associate deputy attorney general. Bove faces a Senate committee hearing Wednesday on his nomination to the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals.
The whistleblower, Erez Reuveni, who worked on the case of the mistakenly deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, says Bove in a March meeting 'stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'f**k you'' and ignore any orders to stop the hasty deportation of migrants to a prison in El Salvador.
Reuveni was an immigration litigator at the Justice Department who lost his job after he says he complained internally about the department's lack of candor with the court.
Reuveni told a federal judge in Maryland that the administration had made a mistake when the US deported Abrego Garcia to a Salvadoran prison in March. Reuveni was placed on administrative leave shortly after.
He says he also refused orders from leadership to file a legal argument in court that he believed would be 'contrary to law, frivolous and untrue,' according to the whistleblower letter.
Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general and a longtime colleague of Bove, responded on Tuesday, saying, 'the complaint describes falsehoods purportedly made by a disgruntled former employee and then leaked to the press in violation of ethical obligations.'
Blanche called the claims about Bove 'false' and attacked media reporting on the complaint.
The New York Times first reported on the letter.
Many of the clashes between Reuveni and his Trump administration-installed superiors at the Justice Department took place between mid-March, when the administration decided to send detainees to a prison in El Salvador without giving them due process in immigration proceedings first, and early April, when Reuveni was placed on leave before losing his job.
Reuveni's run-ins with Bove began on March 14, when Bove told attorneys at a meeting that Trump would sign a proclamation to deport migrants on planes that weekend using the Alien Enemies Act — a deeply controversial legal and political choice, used in the past only during major wars.
Reuveni says Bove contemplated that courts could try to stop the flights, but the Justice Department may need to 'ignore any such order.'
'Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room,' the complaint states. 'Notwithstanding Bove's directive, Mr. Reuveni left the meeting understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders.'
His attorneys then described other moments Reuveni believed he was being directed to thwart the integrity of a federal court proceeding. In an example, he says he was told to stop asking for information from federal agencies that could support claims he was to make, such in the case of Abrego Garcia and accusations that the Salvadoran immigrant was part of a gang.
Reuveni also expressed concern in the letter that other Justice Department attorneys were knowingly making misrepresentations to judges in immigration proceedings.
'What has not been reported to date are Mr. Reuveni's attempts over the course of three weeks and affecting three separate cases to secure the government's compliance with court orders, and his resistance to the internal efforts of DOJ and White House leadership,' his attorneys wrote in the letter Tuesday.
Reuveni tried to warn his clients in other agencies not to engage in illegal conduct, he says, 'and was thwarted, threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court.'
Multiple judges, including Chief Judge James Boasberg of the DC District Court, have pushed back on the Justice Department's approach to detainees and are looking into the possibility of holding attorneys or other administration officials in contempt over how they responded to the immigration-related proceedings. But the contempt proceedings generally are being held at bay, with ongoing appeals and other slow-moving proceedings in the cases.
The letter lands as Democrats on Capitol Hill have condemned the Justice Department's approach in the immigration court fights and raised questions about Bove's fitness for the appellate judgeship, which would preside over federal courts in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the US Virgin Islands.
Shortly after the whistleblower complaint became public Tuesday, a group representing former Justice Department employees called for Bove's confirmation to the federal bench to be derailed.
'It's unconscionable to even consider elevating someone to the judiciary who told DOJ lawyers that saying 'F-you' to courts was on the table,' said Stacey Young, executive director and founder of Justice Connection. 'Emil Bove is a principal architect of this administration's project to bulldoze over the separation of powers and the rule of law. It should go without saying that anyone who believes court orders can be defied belongs nowhere near the federal bench.'
Still, it would be difficult at this time for Bove's opposition to gain enough political support among Republicans to block his nomination.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN's Paula Reid and Evan Perez contributed to this report.