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Fox News host Trey Gowdy criticized Republicans on Monday for railing against a federal judge who issued a court order blocking the Trump administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members under an 18th-century law, noting that conservatives had previously praised this same judge.
“So you can’t pick and choose what day you like a judge and what day you don’t!” Gowdy declared during a Fox News appearance.
Over the weekend, President Donald Trump kicked off a “constitutional showdown with the judicial branch of government” when his administration defied a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg on deportation flights set for El Salvador. Despite the judge’s order that the planes of Venezuelan detainees turn around and return to the United States, the aircraft continued to El Salvador, where a video of the prisoners being shaved and herded into a mega-prison complex was shared by the country’s right-wing president.
“Oopsie … too late,” Nayib Bukele boasted on X (formerly Twitter). The White House reshared his post, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally thanked the El Salvadoran leader.
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“I think there’s clearly irreparable harm here given these folks will be deported,” Boasberg said in his order. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm.”
He added: “Particularly given the plaintiffs’ information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing and planning to depart, I do not believe that I’m able to wait any longer. Any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”
According to an executive order quietly signed by Trump on Friday night, the deportations are being carried out under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure maritime law that had only been invoked three times before — and only during times of war. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, meanwhile, acknowledged that the administration ignored the court order. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil,” she said.
During an appearance on America’s Newsroom, Gowdy — a former federal prosecutor and GOP congressman — pointed out that while he agrees that gang members should “be deported period,” the issue revolves around the lack of due process and relying on that applies to rival nations in wartime.
“I get people’s frustration,” he stated. “But judges don’t make the law. They follow the law. If we have a law from 1798 that deals with foreign countries, how does that apply to a non-nation state that happens to be a criminal gang?”
Gowdy was then asked to react to statements put out by Leavitt and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who groused that Boasberg was just “another judge deciding policy to benefit foreign gang members” and that judges are “acting as activists and not arbiters of the law.” The Fox News personality, however, felt his former GOP colleagues were being more than a tad hypocritical.
“Look, this is the same judge — I think Bill and Dana, if I’m right — that ordered the release of 14,000 Hillary Clinton emails,” Gowdy told Fox News anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino. “This the same judge, if I’m right, that said no you cannot access Donald Trump’s tax returns. So you can’t pick and choose what day you like a judge and what day you don’t!”
Indeed, in September 2016, Boasberg ordered the State Department to release a specific number of emails from Clinton’s time as Secretary of State before Election Day that year. He also issued a 2017 opinion that said the court lacks the authority to order the IRS to release Trump’s tax returns.
“Really, if you are mad at the judge, you might want to look at Chuck Grassley’s tweet and say maybe Congress ought to update a law from 1798,” Gowdy concluded. “Really? That’s the best we can do?”
