Justice Department Official Suggested Ignoring Court Orders on Deportations, Whistleblower Claims

Al Arabiya

16 hours ago

A top Justice Department official suggested the Trump administration might have to ignore court orders as it prepared to deport Venezuelan migrants it accused of being gang members, a fired department lawyer alleged in a whistleblower complaint made public Tuesday.
The whistleblower's claims about Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove come a day before Bove is set to face lawmakers Wednesday for his confirmation hearing to become a federal appeals court judge. In a letter seeking a congressional and Justice Department watchdog investigation, the former government lawyer, Erez Reuveni, alleges he was pushed out and publicly disparaged after resisting efforts to defy judges and make arguments in court that were false or had no legal basis.
The most explosive allegation in the letter from Reuveni's lawyers centers around a Justice Department meeting in March after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act over what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Reuveni says Bove raised the possibility that a court might block the deportations before they could be carried out. Reuveni claims Bove used a profanity, saying the department would need to consider telling the courts 'f— you' and ignore any such order, according to the filing. 'Mr. Reuveni was stunned by Bove's statement because, to Mr. Reuveni's knowledge, no one in DOJ leadership – in any Administration – had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with an expletive,' the filing says.
Reuveni's claims were first reported Tuesday by The New York Times. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche denied the allegations in a post on X Tuesday morning. Blanche said Reuveni's claims are 'utterly false,' adding that he was at the meeting and 'at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.' 'Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it should be tolerated,' Blanche wrote.
Reuveni had been promoted under the Trump administration to serve as acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation. He had worked for the Justice Department for nearly fifteen years under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
Reuveni's firing came after he conceded in an April court hearing that a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, should not have been deported to an El Salvador prison and expressed frustration over a lack of information about the administration's actions. After that hearing, Reuveni says he refused to sign onto an appeal brief in Abrego Garcia's case that included arguments that were 'contrary to law, frivolous, and untrue.'
'The consequences of DOJ's actions Mr. Reuveni reports have grave impacts not only for the safety of individuals removed from the country in violation of court orders, but also for the constitutional rights and protections of all persons – citizen and noncitizen alike – who are potential victims of flagrant, deliberate disregard of due process and the rule of law by the agency charged with upholding it,' Reuveni's lawyers wrote.
Trump nominated Bove last month to fill a vacancy on the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears cases from Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He was already expected to face tough questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee given his role in some of the department's most scrutinized actions since Trump's return to the White House in January.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the top Democrat on the committee, said Tuesday that the allegations from Reuveni are part of a 'broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department's commitment to the rule of law.' 'I want to thank Mr. Reuveni for exercising his right to speak up and bring accountability to Mr. Bove,' Durbin said in a statement. 'And I implore my Senate Republican colleagues: do not turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.'
Democrats have raised alarm about several other actions by Bove, including his order to dismiss New York Mayor Eric Adams' corruption case that led to the resignation of a top New York prosecutor and other senior Justice Department officials. Bove also accused FBI officials of insubordination for refusing to hand over the names of agents who investigated the US Capitol riot and ordered the firings of a group of prosecutors involved in the Jan. 6 criminal cases.