Federal Judge James Boasberg finds probable cause to hold Trump in contempt over deportation flights

A federal judge said Wednesday that he has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in contempt for failing to return two planes deporting migrants to El Salvador last month, a major update that comes as tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary have reached a fever pitch.

In a 48-page order, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said that the court had determined that the Trump administration had demonstrated a “willful disregard” for his March 15 emergency order, which temporarily halted all deportation flights to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, to allow the court to better consider the merits of the case. 

Boasberg had also ordered all planes bound for El Salvador to be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil — which did not happen. Hundreds of migrants arrived in El Salvador later that evening, where the individuals were detained in a sprawling, maximum-security Salvadorian prison.

“The Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg said Wednesday.

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Boasberg instructed the government to file additional declarations by April 23 demonstrating why the court should “purge” any contempt proceedings against it. Should they fail to do so, he said, the court will refer the matter for potential prosecution. 

That would involve identifying the individuals responsible for what the judge described as “contumacious conduct,” and “determining whose ‘specific act or omission’ caused the noncompliance,” Boasberg said in his order.

The Justice Department could then request that the contempt be prosecuted by an attorney for the government and, should they decline to prosecute the matter, could “appoint another attorney to prosecute the contempt.”

“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions,” Boasberg continued, noting that “none of their responses” have been satisfactory to the court.

The Trump administration wasted little time responding to the new court order.

“We plan to seek immediate appellate relief,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a social media post Wednesday.

“The president is 100% committed to ensuring that terrorists and criminal illegal migrants are no longer a threat to Americans and their communities across the country,” he added.

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The order is the latest development in the ongoing feud between Trump officials and Boasberg, who drew the administration’s ire last month after temporarily blocking the deportation of certain migrants to El Salvador.

Last month, Boasberg granted a temporary restraining order for 14 days to allow the court to review Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to immediately deport certain individuals. 

Boasberg also issued a bench ruling ordering that all migrant flights be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil. The administration did not comply, and hours later, the planes arrived in El Salvador.

At least 261 migrants were deported that day, including more than 100 Venezuelan nationals who were subject to removal “solely on the basis” of the law temporarily blocked by the court.

In the weeks since, Boasberg has scolded Justice Department officials for withholding information about deportation flights and demanded an explanation for why they appeared to ignore his emergency injunction halting the removals.

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Boasberg had scolded the Trump administration, including Justice Department lawyer Drew Ensign, for failing to comply with repeated requests for information from the court about the individuals deported on the flights and who in the administration knew about the restraining order handed down and when. 

He also demanded to know who in the administration ultimately made the decision not to comply with his order to return the planes, telling Ensign in court earlier this month that the information could be relevant in potential future contempt proceedings.

“If you really believed everything you did that day was legal and would survive a court challenge, you would not have operated the way that you did,” Boasberg told Ensign at a hearing earlier this month.

The judge also contested their suggestion that the administration may not have violated his emergency restraining order, noting in response that the government appeared to have “acted in bad faith throughout the day.”

The Trump administration, for its part, had argued in an emergency appeal that Boasberg’s actions amounted to a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens,” whom they alleged “pose threats to the American people.”