Judge Boasberg To Launch Contempt Proceedings For Trump Administration

prisoners — Photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office of prison guards during transfer of deportees. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)

By Marianne LeVine, Spencer S. Hsu and Salvador Rizzo

Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday said he would launch proceedings to determine whether Trump administration officials should face criminal contempt charges for defying his order not to remove Venezuelan migrants from the country based on the wartime Alien Enemies Act.

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” the judge said in a written ruling. Allowing political leaders to defy court judgments would make “a solemn mockery” of “the constitution itself,” he said.

Boasberg’s order is the latest development in a broader showdown between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary, which has blocked or slowed many of the White House’s far-reaching actions. The Supreme Court ruled this month that the plaintiffs in the Venezuelan migrants’ case filed their lawsuit in the wrong venue, taking the central legal issues of the case away from Boasberg.

Still, Boasberg moved forward with the contempt proceedings, saying the Trump administration’s actions on March 15 and 16, as the removal flights proceeded despite his order to the contrary, “demonstrate a willful disregard … sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.”

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