"Deliberately flouted a court order": Boasberg gets ball rolling on holding Trump admin in contempt

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg began the process of finding President Donald Trump's administration in criminal contempt on Wednesday over its rushed deportation flights to El Salvador.

Boasberg had ordered Trump admin officials to halt deportation flights of Venezuelan nationals to El Salvador's CECOT prison. The Trump administration ignored his order, openly mocking the judge on social media with footage of deportees at the prison. In his ruling, Boasberg found "probable cause" to begin proceedings on criminal contempt charges.

"They deliberately flouted this Court's...order," Boasberg wrote, noting that Trump admin representatives offered "no convincing reason" for their conduct in weeks of hearings. 

The Supreme Court overturned Boasberg's temporary restraining order earlier this month, saying that would-be deportees brought the case against the current administration in the wrong venue — that is, D.C. federal court — and should instead file habeas corpus claims in the jurisdiction in which they are detained. The Court did so even though the plaintiffs were not questioning their detention — the animating force behind habeas petitions — and were instead objecting to their looming deportation. 

Boasberg wrote that failure to comply with his order at the time was still unconstitutional.

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” he wrote. "Even a legally defective order must be complied with."

Boasberg gave the administration time to either prove it complied with his orders or offer names of specific officials responsible for their non-compliance. Those officials could be subject to fines or imprisonment.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that the administration plans to appeal Boasberg's ruling.

"We plan to seek immediate appellate relief," he shared on social media. "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."