A federal judge already has enough evidence to order a criminal contempt trial of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — and needs no further investigation to do it.

That's the conclusion of Marty Lederman, a Georgetown Law professor and former senior Justice Department official, writing Monday for Just Security.

Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has all he needs to act — if a federal appeals court lets him.

"The evidence the judge has already elicited is more than sufficient…" Lederman wrote.

The case goes back to March 2025. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order — a court order blocking further action while a case is heard — prohibiting the deportation of Venezuelan detainees to El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison. Two deportation flights took off anyway, mid-hearing.

Senior Department of Justice officials, including Blanche and then-Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, had separately advised then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem she could proceed — telling her the written court order didn't mean what the judge's oral ruling had said minutes earlier. The Civil Division lawyers actually arguing the case were kept in the dark.

Boasberg launched a contempt investigation. A divided appeals court panel shut it down in April, issuing a writ of mandamus — a legal order forcing a lower court to act — that halted the probe. That ruling is now before the full appeals court on a petition for rehearing.

Lederman argued the panel got it wrong, and that Blanche and Bove's legal advice to Noem amounted to an "egregious" violation of the rule of law.

"The evidence demonstrating those facts would also be sufficient to support a notice of criminal contempt to Blanche and Bove," he wrote — a formal charge that would initiate a trial.

The stakes extend beyond the courtroom. President Donald Trump nominated Blanche to permanently lead the Justice Department, setting up what is expected to be a heated confirmation battle. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said it is "hard to say" whether Blanche can win confirmation.

The Senate has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing.

Five Democratic U.S. Representatives from Michigan sent a letter on Thursday to Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin to oppose the development of a planned ICE detention facility in Romulus.

Rep. Haley Stevens of Birmingham led the letter and was joined by Reps. Debbie Dingell of Ann Arbor, Hillary Scholten of Grand Rapids, Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, and Shri Thanedar of Detroit — almost the entire Democratic delegation to the U.S. House from Michigan, except for Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who has also been actively fighting against the detention center’s opening. The detention center is in Thanedar’s district.

The letter lays out a number of arguments that have been well-worn against the detention center — including local opposition and zoning concerns and environmental regulations for the area’s floodplain and wetlands.

“In response to initial press inquiries, an ICE spokesperson stated that new detention ‘sites will undergo community impact studies and rigorous due diligence process to make sure there is no hardship on local utilities or infrastructure prior to purchase’,” the representatives wrote. “No local officials were consulted about any such study or due diligence, raising questions about whether the analysis was completed before the purchase of the facility and, if it did occur, the accuracy of the work.”

“Given these dynamics, it is clear DHS must not move forward with the planned Romulus detention facility,” the letter continues, noting that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and the City of Romulus have already sued in federal court to stop or slow the detention center’s development.

Stevens and Scholten have also been vocally opposed to the major ICE detention facility in Michigan that is currently operating, the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin, a facility privately owned by GEO Group and contracted as an ICE detention center, especially in the wake of the December 2025 death of Nenko Gantchev at the Baldwin facility.

A hunger strike at that facility and concerns about the conditions for detainees were further cited as reasons not to open a second major detention facility, this time owned by ICE, in Michigan.

Both U.S. Senators from Michigan, Elissa Slotkin and Gary Peters, sent a similar letter to then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in February with a series of questions on planned capacity, staffing levels, and environmental or economic impact analysis.

Thursday’s letter noted that Slotkin and Peters received no response to that letter and re-emphasized their questions, but also added new questions about the scope and timeline for reviewing DHS contracts and the property acquisition process for the purchase of the Romulus property.

The letter also comes as a group of local advocates and organizers has been heavily criticizing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her relative silence on the development of the detention center, with Nessel and federal elected officials taking a much more vocal and active stance against it.

The increasingly barbecue-centered Texas Senate race has taken an oddly specific turn as each candidate tries to prove their regional food bonafides.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton challenged his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, to prove he likes barbecued meat as much as he claims, reported Chron.

"Let's meet at a barbecue restaurant and let's see how much you love barbecue," Paxton says in a video posted by conservative influencer Benny Johnson. "Let's have a real barbecue lunch."

Paxton and other conservatives have questioned Talarico's masculinity and Texas credentials by criticizing his eating habits and suggesting he's gay, and the Democratic legislator has insisted that he's not a vegan by posting photos of himself eating meat – but even that has prompted criticism that he's not sloppy enough.

"Who eats ribs with a napkin by the way? Is that normal in the State of Texas?" Johnson asks Paxton in the video, showing a photo of Talarico eating a beef rib while holding a napkin.

"We eat with our hands," Paxton said, "and we don't eat with a napkin until after it's all over."

The campaign to replace ousted Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who President Donald Trump declined to endorse, has focused on increasingly personal attacks Talarico and Paxton.

"I'm an 8th-generation Texan — I've been eating BBQ since before Ken Paxton's first indictment," Talarico wrote on the X post mocked by Paxton and Johnson.

Talarico also accused the scandal-plagued but Trump-endorsed attorney general of giving "Epstein-style sweetheart deals" to child sex offenders, referring to renewed scrutiny surrounding a plea agreement for a politically connected sex offender.

It's not clear whether the proposed barbecue summit will actually happen or where it would be hosted, and Chron said Talarico's campaign has not yet responded to a request for comment.