Latest news with #Reuveni
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Complaint alleges DOJ official Emil Bove said he was willing to violate court orders
A top Justice Department official nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a federal appeals court vacancy allegedly suggested the Trump administration should defy judicial orders that sought to restrict their aggressive efforts to deport undocumented immigrants earlier this year, according to a whistleblower complaint from a fired DOJ career official. The 27-page complaint, provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department's top watchdog and obtained by ABC News, alleges that Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and other top DOJ officials strategized how they could mislead courts regarding the administration's immigration enforcement efforts and potentially ignore judges' rulings outright. The allegations from Erez Reuveni -- who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and admitted to a judge that the government had mistakenly deported accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador -- were delivered to the Senate on the eve of a confirmation hearing for Bove to serve on the powerful 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. MORE: Trump taps controversial top DOJ official for federal circuit court vacancy "Mr. Reuveni's disclosures detail violations of law, rules or regulations, and the abuse of authority by DOJ and White House personnel, as well as the creation of substantial and specific health and safety threats to noncitizens," Reuveni's attorneys said in the letter. "These high-level governmental personnel knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts, and engaged in a scheme to withhold relevant information from the court to advance the Administration's priority of deporting noncitizens," the letter said. Reuveni's whistleblower complaint details several internal meetings where he alleges Bove and other officials debated over how they could evade legal scrutiny in implementing President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process. At a meeting on March 14, the complaint alleges that Bove said the department should consider saying "f--- you" to the courts and "ignore any such court order." "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," the letter says, repeating the expletive. "Mr. Reuveni was in disbelief, because, on the contrary, the Department of Justice consistently advises its clients of their obligation to follow court orders, not to ignore them." In a statement to The New York Times responding to the letter -- which was first reported by the paper -- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described Reuveni as a "disgruntled former employee" and said that his accusations about Bove and other DOJ leadership "are utterly false." "I was at the meeting described in the [New York Times] article and at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed," Blanche said. The allegations by Reuveni fall at the center of an effort by D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg to potentially hold top administration officials in contempt for violating a March 15 order to turn a plane of undocumented immigrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act around before it arrived in El Salvador. That inquiry was put on a temporary hold by an appeals court panel in the D.C. Circuit in April. Bove, according to Reuveni's account, made clear to officials the day before Boasberg's order that the planes carrying the deported individuals "needed to take off no matter what," and that is when he made the comment about potentially defying court orders. Officials in the room "looked stunned" following Bove's alleged remarks, and those in the room left the meeting still "understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders," according to Reuveni. In Reuveni's telling, the meeting was just one in a series of instances that demonstrated efforts by White House and DOJ leadership to defy court orders "through lack of candor, deliberate delay, and disinformation." MORE: DOJ places senior lawyer on leave in case of mistakenly deported man "Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer," the letter states. "Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court." Senate Democrats are expected to highlight Reuveni's account at Bove's judicial confirmation hearing Wednesday to bolster their claims that Bove, who previously served as President Trump's personal defense attorney, has abused his position at DOJ to advance Trump's political agenda. "These serious allegations, from a career Justice Department lawyer who defended the first Trump Administration's immigration policies, not only speak to Mr. Bove's failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, but demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department's commitment to the rule of law," Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin said in a statement reacting to Reuveni's letter. "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," Durbin said.
Politico
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Politico
A Trump lawyer's uphill climb to the federal bench
BOVE AND THE WHISTLEBLOWER — The prospects for Emil Bove's nomination to serve as a federal judge were already uncertain. But today, one day before the confirmation hearing for Trump's former criminal defense lawyer-turned-senior Justice Department official, things may have gotten worse. Attorneys for Erez Reuveni, a former Justice Department lawyer who was fired from the department after acknowledging in court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia had been sent to El Salvador in error, released a scathing whistleblower disclosure alleging that Bove and other senior Trump DOJ officials sought to defy court orders in three separate cases 'through lack of candor, deliberate delay, and disinformation.' The disclosure heightens the tensions around an already controversial nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The Trump DOJ has already pushed back vigorously. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche —who worked with Bove on behalf of Trump last year in the president's criminal trial in Manhattan — described Reuveni's claims in a social media post as 'utterly false.' Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York who overlapped with Bove, initially held out hope that Bove would take on the DOJ job while adhering to the standards of bipartisanship and professionalism that prevailed in the office. But given developments in recent months, and particularly in the wake of Reuveni's disclosure today, Goldman's assessment of his former colleague is now sharply negative. 'In just a few short months,' Goldman said today, Bove 'has single-handedly done tremendous damage to the Department of Justice' and 'repeatedly demonstrated that his oath of office and the rule of law are subservient to his personal and political desires. That record disqualifies him from serving as a lifetime judge responsible for objectively interpreting the law.' Among other things, Reuveni alleges that Bove told a group of lawyers in mid-March, shortly before Trump publicly invoked the Alien Enemies Act as part of his mass deportation effort, that they would need to be prepared for a court order that might quickly put a stop to the removals. 'Bove then made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated,' Reuveni's lawyers wrote. 'Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such court order.' 'Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned,' the account continues, 'and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room.' Reuveni also alleges that Bove told officials in the Department of Homeland Security that they could violate an oral court order — one that directed the return of flights to El Salvador as part of the AEA deportations — because the order had not yet been issued in writing. The presiding judge has since concluded that there is probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt as a result of that decision. Reuveni's submission provides a remarkable account from within Trump's second-term Justice Department — one that, in an earlier era, might have prompted bipartisan calls for an independent investigation. The account sharply criticizes not just Bove but several other senior administration lawyers who have been handling the litigation over Trump's deportation effort. Bove had already come under sharp criticism from many legal observers over his dismissal of the criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. The presiding judge described the DOJ's arguments as 'unsupported by any objective evidence,' 'pretextual' and 'unsubstantiated.' In white-collar legal circles, however, a second — and subtler — criticism of Bove's handling of the case has also been making the rounds in recent months. In particular, some experienced lawyers believe that Bove probably could have achieved his and Trump's objective of dismissing the case without creating a weeks-long public spectacle. The argument, essentially, is that Bove made a bad situation much worse by bungling both the internal and external communications around the decision, and that the episode reflected poor political and managerial instincts on top of bad legal judgment. Senate Democrats oppose Bove's nomination, but it has also opened up a fissure within the conservative legal movement. On one side are establishment Federalist Society types, who oppose Bove's nomination to serve as a judge because they believe he is being picked largely — if not entirely — because Trump views him as a diehard loyalist. On the other side are Republicans who are stridently backing Bove. They include Andrew Ferguson, the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, who recently co-authored an op-ed in support of Bove. Bove's appearance before the Judiciary Committee tomorrow was already one worth keeping an eye on. Republicans have a narrow margin to get Bove through, and he will now also have to respond to a blistering account that threatens to derail his nomination. Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@ Or contact tonight's author at akhardori@ What'd I Miss? — Trump agrees to in-person Wednesday meeting with Zelenskyy: President Donald Trump plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday alongside the NATO summit, according to a White House official granted anonymity to discuss the meeting. The meeting comes as focus on Russia's war with Ukraine has taken a backseat to the Israel-Iran conflict. Leading up to the summit, it was not clear whether Zelenskyy would attend amid fears that a visit wouldn't be worth his time without a guarantee of significant facetime with Trump. Earlier this month, Zelenskyy flew to Canada for the meeting of G7 world leaders in hopes of a meeting with the U.S. president, but Trump left the summit early. — Trump backtracks on 'regime change' talk in Iran: President Donald Trump said today he doesn't want to see regime change in Iran, two days after he floated the idea on social media. 'I don't want it. I'd like to see everything calm down as quickly as possible,' Trump said to reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to the NATO summit. 'Regime change takes chaos, and ideally, we don't want to see so much chaos, so we'll see how it does.' Some of Trump's long-time supporters, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Steve Bannon, criticized the earlier suggestion of regime change, worried the effort would bog down Americans in another costly Middle East expedition. Right-wing influencers today were quick to cheer the president's apparent pivot. — Senate parliamentarian approves tweaked SNAP cost-share plan: Senate Republicans have saved their plan to push some costs of the nation's anti-hunger program onto states, maintaining a crucial $41 billion spending cut that will help pay for their policy megabill. The Senate parliamentarian today approved Republicans' tweak to give states more time between finding out how much of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program they'll need to pay for, and when they actually need to start paying. That avoids one of GOP leaders' top issues as they work to address several other adverse rulings from the parliamentarian in accordance with the chamber's strict reconciliation rules — all ahead of a July 4 deadline. — Another man who was deported in violation of court order must be returned to U.S., court rules: The Trump administration must try to bring back to the U.S. another man who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order, a federal appeals court ruled today. It's the fourth time since March that federal courts have ordered the administration to return immigrants who were deemed illegally or improperly deported. Officials must begin seeking the return of Jordin Melgar-Salmeron, who was sent to his native country on May 7, 'as soon as possible,' a three-judge panel of the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. — New York City hits high temps as mayoral candidates make their final push on Primary Day: As voters headed to the polls in New York City in triple-digit temps to cast a vote in the contentious mayoral primary today, the once-clear frontrunner Andrew Cuomo appeared to be on his back foot — and begging. 'We can do it, but it's going to take all of us,' Cuomo said Monday night in a leaked private call with health care worker union members entrusted with getting out the vote for him. 'Please, please, please make the special effort.' Real-feel temps in New York City exceeded 105 degrees today, and older voters — who make up Cuomo's base — faced dangerous conditions across the city. By 12 p.m., the city's board of elections said 605,543 voters — including 384,338 who opted for early voting — checked into polling locations to cast their ballot. What started as a race defined by a decisive frontrunner and a distant, crowded field of candidates has winnowed down to a two-person race, with recent polls showing Zohran Mamdani has closed the gap between him and Cuomo. AROUND THE WORLD ANOTHER RUSSIAN ATTACK — Russia hit Ukraine's key industrial city of Dnipro with ballistic missiles today, causing massive destruction that killed 17 people and injured more than 270, local authorities reported. 'This is an unprecedented amount of destruction that the city has not seen in the entire time of [Russia's] full-scale war,' Dnipro Mayor Borys Filatov said in a statement while announcing a day of mourning. Russia has increased the frequency of its attacks on Ukraine since May when it launched a summer offensive in the conflict, now in its fourth year. It has also ramped up its production of drones: In June alone Moscow launched 2,736 Shahed kamikaze drones at Ukraine, the country's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address to the parliament of the Netherlands today. In addition, the Kremlin continues to launch dozens of missiles at Ukraine. Meanwhile, the recent conflict between Israel and Iran has complicated Ukraine's position, with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump moving to the Middle East some of the unmanned aerial defense systems it had given Ukraine to counter Russia's air assaults. NATO'S NEW PARIAH — Canada used to be NATO's biggest headache for its chronic defense underspending. Now, at this year's summit, everybody agrees: Spain's the problem, with Slovakia coming a close second in stoking anger among alliance members. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's 11th-hour insistence that his country doesn't need to hit NATO's new 5 percent of GDP defense spending target, and managing to get a carve-out in an agreement on the spending goal, has turned Madrid into the alliance's new pariah. 'I have no words to express my disgust,' one European defense official, who like others was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said on the sidelines of the summit. Sanchez was followed by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Monday, who posted on X that his country 'has other priorities in the coming years than armament,' and can get by without increasing spending. At last year's summit in Washington, frustration with Canadian defense spending was high, with Ottawa simply refusing to increase its defense budget to anywhere near NATO's 2 percent of GDP guideline. The new government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged an extra $9 billion in defense expenditures, finally bringing the country to 2 percent and getting it out of the alliance's doghouse. Nightly Number RADAR SWEEP ROUGH RIDING — Taking a taxi to work is the new normal for commuters in Johannesburg. After the city's passenger-rail system shut down in 2020, an overwhelming majority of public transport riders turned to 14 or 15-seater taxis to commute from the sprawling city outskirts. Despite high fares and frequent violence, taxi riders have few other options as government public transport projects fail or remain unaffordable for most. Zinhle Xaba explains the challenges of expanding public transport in South Africa for Bloomberg. Parting Image Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here.
6 hours ago
- Politics
Whistleblower complaint alleges top DOJ official Emil Bove said he was willing to violate court orders
A top Justice Department official nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a federal appeals court vacancy allegedly suggested the Trump administration should defy judicial orders that sought to restrict their aggressive efforts to deport undocumented immigrants earlier this year, according to a whistleblower complaint from a fired DOJ career official. The 27-page complaint, provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department's top watchdog and obtained by ABC News, alleges that Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and other top DOJ officials strategized how they could mislead courts regarding the administration's immigration enforcement efforts and potentially ignore judges' rulings outright. The allegations from Erez Reuveni -- who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and admitted to a judge that the government had mistakenly deported accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador -- were delivered to the Senate on the eve of a confirmation hearing for Bove to serve on the powerful 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "Mr. Reuveni's disclosures detail violations of law, rules or regulations, and the abuse of authority by DOJ and White House personnel, as well as the creation of substantial and specific health and safety threats to noncitizens," Reuveni's attorneys said in the letter. "These high-level governmental personnel knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed their subordinate attorneys to make misrepresentations to courts, and engaged in a scheme to withhold relevant information from the court to advance the Administration's priority of deporting noncitizens," the letter said. Reuveni's whistleblower complaint details several internal meetings where he alleges Bove and other officials debated over how they could evade legal scrutiny in implementing President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process. At a meeting on March 14, the complaint alleges that Bove said the department should consider saying "f--- you" to the courts and "ignore any such court order." "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," the letter says, repeating the expletive. "Mr. Reuveni was in disbelief, because, on the contrary, the Department of Justice consistently advises its clients of their obligation to follow court orders, not to ignore them." In a statement to The New York Times responding to the letter -- which was first reported by the paper -- Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche described Reuveni as a "disgruntled former employee" and said that his accusations about Bove and other DOJ leadership "are utterly false." "I was at the meeting described in the [New York Times] article and at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed," Blanche said. The allegations by Reuveni fall at the center of an effort by D.C. District Chief Judge James Boasberg to potentially hold top administration officials in contempt for violating a March 15 order to turn a plane of undocumented immigrants deported under the Alien Enemies Act around before it arrived in El Salvador. That inquiry was put on a temporary hold by an appeals court panel in the D.C. Circuit in April. Bove, according to Reuveni's account, made clear to officials the day before Boasberg's order that the planes carrying the deported individuals "needed to take off no matter what," and that is when he made the comment about potentially defying court orders. Officials in the room "looked stunned" following Bove's alleged remarks, and those in the room left the meeting still "understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders," according to Reuveni. In Reuveni's telling, the meeting was just one in a series of instances that demonstrated efforts by White House and DOJ leadership to defy court orders "through lack of candor, deliberate delay, and disinformation." "Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer," the letter states. "Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court." Senate Democrats are expected to highlight Reuveni's account at Bove's judicial confirmation hearing Wednesday to bolster their claims that Bove, who previously served as President Trump's personal defense attorney, has abused his position at DOJ to advance Trump's political agenda. "These serious allegations, from a career Justice Department lawyer who defended the first Trump Administration's immigration policies, not only speak to Mr. Bove's failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, but demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department's commitment to the rule of law," Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin said in a statement reacting to Reuveni's letter. "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," Durbin said.
Axios
7 hours ago
- Politics
- Axios
Whistleblower: Trump judge nominee told DOJ lawyers to ignore court orders
A top Department of Justice official told department attorneys to ignore court orders barring President Trump from deporting immigrants, a whistleblower said on Tuesday. Why it matters: The official in question, Emil Bove, is Trump's former personal attorney and a current Trump nominee for federal appeals court judge. Driving the news: DOJ attorney Erez Reuveni and the whistleblower, identified as a fired DOJ lawyer, told the DOJ's internal watchdog and members of Congress in a letter that Bove told attorneys to consider telling judges "f––k you" in order "to implement the administration's removal priorities." Those removal priorities include the Trump admin's efforts to deport immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act, which the Supreme Court blocked in March. Bove, during a March 14 meeting with the whistleblower, Reuveni, and others in the department, "stressed to all in attendance that the planes [carrying the immigrants] needed to take off no matter what," per the letter. "Mr. Reuveni, almost immediately after receiving notice of his promotion to serve as Acting Deputy Director of OIL, became aware of the plans of DOJ leadership to resist court orders that would impede potentially illegal efforts to deport noncitizens, and further became aware of the details to execute those plans," the letter states. The letter comes as multiple federal judges have said that the DOJ has failed to comply with court orders and as the DOJ antagonizes judges who run afoul of the Trump admin. Reuveni claims that following the meeting with Bove, he was involved in three separate cases involving immigration removal operations. He said he witnessed "DOJ officials undermining the rule of law by ignoring court orders," the presentation of "'legal' arguments with no basis in law," and high-ranking DOJ and Homeland Security officials "misrepresenting facts presented before courts." DOJ officials instructed him to "misrepresent facts in one of these cases in violation of Mr. Reuveni's legal and ethical duties," the letter said. Reuveni said he was put on administrative leave by the DOJ then fired. What they're saying: Sen. Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said in a statement Tuesday, "As a senior Justice Department official, Mr. Bove has abused his position in numerous ways, including firing January 6 prosecutors and agents and ordering career prosecutors to dismiss charges against Eric Adams for blatantly corrupt reasons, among other troubling actions." The allegations "demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department's commitment to the rule of law," Durbin said. "Mr. Reuveni's disclosures reveal a disturbing willingness by senior officials to undermine the rule of law for political ends," Dana Gold, the senior counsel and director of the Government Accountability Project's Democracy Protection Initiative, said in a statement. The other side: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on X called Reuveni's claims "falsehoods" by "a disgruntled former employee and then leaked to the press in violation of ethical obligations." "I was at the meeting described in the article and at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed. This is disgusting journalism," Blanche said, referring to The New York Times' initial coverage of the letter. "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." Catch up quick: The DOJ's allegations against Reuveni include failure to "follow a directive" from superiors and failure to "zealously advocate" on behalf of the United States when he argued against Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia 's erroneous deportation.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Top Justice Department leaders and judicial nominee tried to mislead judges, whistleblower says
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.
