Senior Justice Department official Emile Bove told lawyers under him that he was willing to ignore court orders to ensure President Donald Trump got what he wanted, a whistleblower letter to the Senate said.
Bove, Trump's former personal lawyer, has been nominated to a federal judgeship, requiring Senate confirmation. Among those in opposition is a former DOJ prosecutor on the case for Kilmar Ábrego García, an asylum seeker living in Maryland who was captured and sent to an El Salvador prison without due process.
In March, prosecutor Erez Reuveni appeared in court to argue the DOJ's case against Ábrego García — but he revealed to the judge that the deportation was due to a clerical error.
“Our only arguments are jurisdictional. … He should not have been sent to El Salvador," Reuveni told the judge.
He was asked why the U.S. couldn’t simply ask El Salvador to return the man.
Reuveni responded, “The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question." He noted he never got an answer.
A few days later, he was placed on administrative leave and, by April, he was fired.
In a Bluesky post, Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick shared excerpts of the letter from Reuveni, where he walks through "lawlessness at the DOJ around the CECOT deportations."
"Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'f--k you' and ignore any such court order," the whistleblower letter said. "Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room. Mr. Reuveni and others were quickly ushered out of the room. Notwithstanding Bove's directive, Mr. Reuveni left the meeting understanding that the DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders."
Reuveni said that to his knowledge, "no one in DOJ leadership — in any administration — had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders."
"Reuveni accuses Drew Ensign, the DOJ lawyer appearing for the Trump admin in the CECOT cases and other immigration cases, of lying to Judge [James] Boasberg on March 15 when he said he didn't know planes were taking off. He says Ensign was at a meeting the day before when the flights were planned!" Reichlin-Melnick summarized.
"Ensign had been present in the previous day's meeting when Emil Bove stated clearly that one or more planes containing individuals subject to the AEA would be taking off over the weekend no matter what," the letter continued.
Reuveni goes on to write that on March 15, he emailed the Department of Homeland Security to inform them that the judge was thinking of issuing a court order to block the flights. He said he was concerned Ensign wouldn't act.
Reuveni "supervisor, August Flentje, noted Bove's 'f--k you' line and joked Reuveni might be fired for raising alarm. He was," Reichlin-Melnick noted. "Ensign agreed Judge Boasberg's order required them to turn the planes around."
It was Bove who stepped in, telling DHS to ignore the judge. Senior DOJ leadership also went so far as to directly order DHS to ignore the judge's demand to give information on the deportation flights.
It has a bearing on the Supreme Court ruling issued on Monday that allows DHS to continue deporting migrants to war-torn countries where they have no ties or connections.
After the ruling, NBC News Supreme Court reporter said that the Trump admin is now asking the court to clarify the "third country" immigration order because the lower court noted that the ruling didn't apply to the case involving six individuals DHS wants to send to South Sudan.
The DOJ called it "unprecedented defiance" of the Supreme Court, however, as one legal analyst explained, there were no specifics on the Supreme Court's ruling other than a blanket approval in another case.
