'If you interrupt me': Judge snaps at DHS lawyer over Stephen Miller's secret orders
A judge humiliated a Department of Homeland Security lawyer, saying "If you interrupt me one more time..." after he tried to shut down the judge's questions about Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller's involvement in ICE operations and secret commands he may have handed Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino, according to reports Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis got testy with Justice Department attorney Sarmad Khojasteh last week in the case examining use of force by immigration agents in ICE's "Operation Midway Blitz," according to court records obtained by The Chicago Tribune.
"If you interrupt me one more time… It’s enough. It’s enough," said Ellis, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama.
She ruled that specific questions about Miller's communications with Bovino were fair if it was connected to the field directives for agents and the use of force.
Ellis also called out Khojasteh, who apologized for being new at the trial, and expressed her annoyance.
“This is the problem when... we’ve got a revolving door of attorneys and they haven’t been here for the entire thing,” Ellis said to Khojasteh. “They haven’t sat through people’s testimony, they haven’t sat through these hearings, and so now I’m having to explain myself multiple times. And I find it at this point extremely frustrating and a waste of time.”
Miller, President Donald Trump's right hand and policy Chief of Staff, "is widely seen as the architect of the administration’s hard-line deportation tactics, and was behind its reported target of 3,000 daily immigration arrests," The Daily Beast reports.
In Bovino's deposition, Ellis questioned Miller's influence on aggressive immigration policies as Khojasteh reportedly cut her off multiple times during the questioning.
“For example, questions about communications with Mr. Miller may be perfectly within bounds if they talked about, ‘This is how I want this operation to go,’” Ellis said.
“If Mr. Miller said that to Mr. Bovino and that was in Mr. Bovino’s mind as to justify the force being used, they can ask about that,” she said.
Ellis said that as Bovino led the charge to push immigration arrests — his actions and the ones who ordered them were also subject to questioning — referring to “what he is telling agents and officers is the appropriate use of force out in the field.”
An injunction hearing slated for Wednesday is expected to determine more permanent limits on force from ICE agents.
