'Obviously phony' legal move brings Trump closer to 'coup we all worried about': expert

MSNBC legal analyst David Aronberg warned on Monday that President Donald Trump was edging closer to enacting a "coup" by openly defying court orders.

While analyzing the Trump administration's legal justifications for not complying with a judicial order that blocked deportations to El Salvador, Aronberg outlined the dangers to the rule of law posed by the Trump administration's latest moves.

"I was concerned that this would be the coup that we all worried about, that's when the administration says we are going to disregard court orders," he said. "The administration came out and said, 'No, no, no, we're not defying a court order here, the order just came too late and the plane was in international airspace so the judge didn't have the authority to get it back.' That's not true.

"This is the administration being a little too cute here... their excuse is obviously phony. You don't get to deny and defy a court order because you've taken suspects into an international airspace."

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Aronberg then added that "the White House did say that they will appeal to the Supreme Court, and that is the proper way to challenge a court order," and said that this was "another reason why I don't believe it's a coup yet."

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