The judge finds a cause to keep Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating the deportation order

Washington (AP) – A federal judge said Wednesday that he has found a probable cause to keep the Trump administration in the court’s criminal contempt and warned that he could seek the prosecution of the officials for violating their orders last month to change the planes that transport those deported to a prison in El Salvador.

The ruling of the American district judge James E. Boasberg, whom President Donald Trump said he should be accused, marks a dramatic battle between the judicial and executive branches of the government over the president’s powers to carry out key priorities of the White House.

Boasberg accused officials of the administration of the hurried deportees outside the country under the law of enemies alien month before they could challenge their removal in court, and then deliberately ignoring their order that the planes that are already in the air return to the United States.

The judge said he could hold hearings and potentially refer the issue for prosecution if the administration does not act to remedy the violation. If the leadership of the Trump Department of Justice refuses to process the matter, Boasberg said he will designate another lawyer to do so.

“The Constitution does not tolerate the intentional disobedience of judicial orders, especially by the officials of a coordinated branch that has sworn an oath to defend it,” Boasberg wrote, the main judge of the Federal Court of Washington.

The administration said it would appeal.

“The president is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and illegal criminal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities throughout the country,” wrote the director of Communications of the White House, Steven Cheung, in a publication about X.

The case has become one of the most controversial in the midst of a series of legal battles that are fought against the Republican Administration that has put the White House in a collision course with federal courts.

Administration officials have repeatedly criticized judges to reign in the president’s actions, accusing the courts of incorrectly promoting their executive powers. Trump and his allies have asked to dismiss Boasberg, which caused a rare statement of the President of the Supreme Court John Roberts, who said that “the political trial is not an appropriate response to the disagreement of a judicial decision.”

Boasberg wrote that the “government’s conduct betrayed the desire to overcome the equitable scope of the Judiciary.”

Boasberg said the government could avoid contempt procedures if it takes the custody of the deportees, who were sent to the prison of El Salvador in violation of their order, so they have the opportunity to challenge their elimination. It was not clear how that would work because the judge said that the government “would not need to free any of those people, nor would it have to transport them back to the homeland.”

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The judge did not say which official or officials could be despised. He is giving the government until April 23 to explain the steps he has taken to remedy the violation, or instead identify the individual or the people who made the decision not to change the planes.

In a separate case, the Administration has recognized by error to Kilmar Abrego García to the prison of El Salvador, but does not intend to return it to the United States despite a ruling of the Supreme Court that the Administration must “facilitate” its release. The judge in that case has said that he is determining whether to carry out contempt procedures, saying that officials “seem to have done anything to help in the release of Abrego García de la Custody and return to the United States.”

Boasberg, who was nominated for the Federal Bank by Democratic President Barack Obama, had ordered the administration last month not to deport anyone under his custody under the alien enemies law after Trump invoked the law of 1798 in times of war on what he affirmed that it was an invasion of the Venezuelan Train of Aragua gang.

When they told Boasberg, there were already airplanes in the air that were heading to El Salvador, which agreed to the house deported to migrants in a notorious prison, the judge said the plane should be returned to the United States. But hours later, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, announced that the deportees had arrived in their country. In a publication on social networks, he said: “Oopsie … too late” above an article that refers to the Basberg order.

The Administration has argued that it did not violate any order, said that the judge did not include the response directive in his written order and said that the planes had already abandoned the US. UU. For the time that order fell.

The Supreme Court at the beginning of this month annulled the temporary order of Boasberg that blocks deportations under the Alien enemies law, but said immigrants must have the opportunity to fight their mute before they are deported. The conservative majority said that legal challenges must take place in Texas, instead of a Washington court room.

Boasberg wrote that despite the fact that the Supreme Court considered that its order “suffered from a legal defect,” that “government violation does not excuse.” The judge added that the government seemed to have “challenged the order of the court deliberately and happily”, noting that Secretary of State Frame Rubio retweeted Bukele’s post after the planes landed in El Salvador despite the judge’s order.

“The court does not reach such a conclusion lightly or hurriedly; in fact, it has given the defendants a wide opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their answers has been satisfactory,” Boasberg wrote.

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News Mark Sherman’s writer contributed to this report.