A federal judge has instructed the Trump administration on Thursday to explain why its failure to turn around flights carrying deportees to El Salvador did not violate his court order in a growing showdown between the judicial and executive branches, the Associated Press reports. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg demanded answers after flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants alleged by the Trump administration to be gang members landed in El Salvador after the judge temporarily blocked the deportations made under an 18th century wartime law. Boasberg had directed the administration to return to the U.S. planes that were already in the air when he ordered the halt. In a written order, Boasberg called Trump officials’ latest response “woefully insufficient.”
The Justice Department has said the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the U.S. A Justice Department spokesperson said Thursday that department officials “continue to believe that the court’s superfluous questioning of sensitive national security information is inappropriate judicial overreach.” A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told the judge Thursday the administration needed more time to decide whether it would invoke the state secrets privilege in an effort to block the information’s release. Boasberg ordered Trump officials by Friday to submit a sworn declaration by a person “with direct involvement in the Cabinet-level discussions” about the state secrets privilege and to tell the court by next Tuesday whether the administration will invoke it. Though Trump and his allies have called for the impeachment of Boasberg, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected such calls, saying “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
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