CNN special correspondent Jamie Gangel called "furious" U.S. District Judge James Boasberg's take down of Department of Justice officials a "message" to the entire administration that their continued challenges to the U.S. judicial system "is not acceptable."
DOJ attorneys appeared before Boasberg on Friday, where they continued to defend the administration’s failure to comply with a court order to return flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
According to The Washington Post, the judge "dramatically scolded" deputy assistant attorney general Drew Ensign "over the government’s conduct in the case."
"Boasberg accused Ensign of using 'intemperate and disrespectful language that I can’t remember seeing from the United States' in court filings and questioned whether the attorney failed to show for a hearing Monday because he knew he had knowingly violated Boasberg’s order about getting the flights back," the Post reported.
"So, first of all, I'm not surprised that he said this today," Gangel said of the judge. "Those words translate into something that you can't even say on cable television. He is furious."
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Gangel continued, "I think we have to keep in mind that the judge was not just speaking about this case today. This is a message to the Trump administration, to the Trump DOJ that this is not acceptable."
Elliot Williams, former deputy assistant attorney general, said the judge was asking the necessary questions of "Who are the people that were on that plane?" and "What are the means by which you sought to get them out of the country?"
"And the language the Justice Department used, accusing the judge of beating a dead horse, and so on — which sounds like we would joke with each other and use that language — in common parlance, you don't use that language when speaking to a judge."
Trump himself has argued to the media that the judge was trying to usurp his presidential authority. On Friday morning, Trump posted on social media, "No District Court Judge, or any Judge, can assume the duties of the President of the United States. Only Crime and Chaos would result."
And at an Oval Office news conference later Friday, Trump snapped at a reporter that "the law says" he has the authority to deport "criminals" without having to explain himself to a "radical left lunatic" judge.