The judge at the center of the El Salvador deportation crisis may hold the Trump administration in contempt of court, a former federal prosecutor has said.
Newsweek sought email comment from the offices of Judge James Boasberg and Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday.
Why It Matters
The standoff between the Trump administration and Washington D.C. federal judge James Boasberg has become extremely tense after Trump called for his impeachment.
The case raises issues about whether federal judges may oversee the actions of the presidency.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
What To Know
Boasberg warned Department of Justice officials on March 15 that a group of Venezuelan men should not be deported to El Salvador until he had considered the full facts of the case.
The men were deported that same day and Boasberg has spent all week trying to find out if the Trump administration had violated his court order.
As the sharp words continued in court, President Donald Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, that Boasberg was part of the lunatic left and should be impeached.
That led Supreme Court justice, John Roberts, to release a rare public statement, in which he said that federal judges should not be impeached for unfavorable decisions.
On Friday, Boasberg held another hearing in which he said that Trump’s use of 18th century wartime legislation to deport the men was “incredibly troublesome.”
He also said that, in its court filings, the Department of Justice was using “the kind of intemperate and disrespectful language I’m not used to hearing from the United States.”
What People Are Saying
Writing in her Civil Discourse legal blog on March 22, former prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote that Boasberg could find the Trump administration in criminal or civil contempt of court.
Criminal Contempt
The Justice Department website, quoting from a previous case, explains that criminal contempt is “a crime in the ordinary sense” and comes about after a party has breached a court order.
Vance explains that Trump could pardon anyone in his administration that is charged with criminal contempt.
“He could even issue a pardon early on, to prevent a full inquiry,” she wrote.
However, she also notes that constitutional lawyer and Democratic Congressman, Jamie Raskin, recently wrote to Trump to inform him that he may be unable to pardon a federal employee who is in criminal contempt because the crime may not qualify as an ‘offense against the United States’ under federal law.
“That means that there would at least be litigation over the extent of the pardon power in this unusual situation,” Vance wrote.
Civil Contempt
The Justice Department website explains that civil contempt sanctions are “designed to compel future compliance with a court order—are coercive and avoidable through obedience.”
Vance states that presidential pardons “do not apply to civil sanctions, which could also be imposed.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration has stated in court it may have to invoke national security law to avoid telling Boasberg about the deportation flight to El Salvador.
Boasberg has set a hearing date for March 25, when the Trump administration must state definitively whether it or not it will invoke national security law.
