Judge’s under-the-radar move is a shot at Trump nominee: legal expert
Judge James Boasberg indicated this week he may move forward with disciplinary proceedings for the Justice Department over a previous matter, a move flagged for its implications by a legal expert.
Boasberg was the judge who demanded that the Department of Homeland Security stop the deportation plans of Venezuelan migrants to CECOT prison. If they were in the air, the judge demanded they be turned around. If they landed, the judge said, the 140 men could not leave the plane and would have to be returned.
DHS ignored the ruling. At the time, Boasberg probed to determine who made the decisions in the matter and proceeded with his own questioning regarding who would be held in contempt for defying his ruling. In April, two judges above Boasberg, however, who were nominated by President Donald Trump, the other judge who voted in opposition was appointed by President Barack Obama.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said that it sought to give “sufficient opportunity” for the judge to consider the government’s appeal. They claimed any contempt proceeding “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion.”
“In the absence of an appealable order or any clear and indisputable right to relief that would support mandamus, there is no ground for an administrative stay,” wrote Judge Cornelia Pillard in her opposition.
In June, Boasberg ruled that Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport the men was illegal, and he gave the administration a week to return the individuals. Last week, Trump used 250 of the men from CECOT to bring 10 jailed Americans in Venezuela back to the United States. The group included one man who was convicted of killing three people with an ax.
That has remained on hold over the past several months; however, on Thursday, Boasberg said that he may initiate proceedings again.
In the months-long pause, Justice Department prosecutor Erez Reuveni, a 15-year veteran of the department, blew the whistle on conversations had at the time and instructions that came straight from the top to ignore the judge's orders.
According to Reuveni's affidavit, emails and text messages, Bove told staff in the DOJ that the Trump administration should consider telling the courts “f--- you” if they make any rulings on the deportations.
One set of text messages between Reuveni, his colleagues, and his supervisor, August Flentje, all referenced Bove's words.
The reason all the evidence has been sent to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is that Bove has been appointed by Trump to serve as an appellate court judge. The Senate left for the August Recess without voting on the nomination.
Just Security co-editor-in-chief Ryan Goodman pointed to Boasberg's renewed interest in contempt proceedings, noting, "If you don't see the connection to Emil Bove, you're missing the extra import of this."
Boasberg wants the details on the flights, including the timeline. He'll be able to compare that to the whistleblower documents to flesh out what transpired.
‘Lying scumbags!’ Bannon explodes at PBS reporter when pressed on Trump threats
Longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon exploded at PBS reporter Mike Wiser during a Frontline interview, first recorded in April and published this week, when confronted over Trump's constant threats and insults against federal judges and asked whether this was "the type of thing a president should say."
The interview was released just as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spoke out on the issue during a gathering of judges in California.
In addition to criticizing her right-wing colleagues for a flood of unsigned, unexplained emergency orders canceling lower-court judges' blocks on Trump's effort to dismantle the administrative state, Kagan said of Trump's attacks, "Judges are fair game for all kinds of criticism, strong criticism, pointed criticism, but vilifying judges in that way is a step beyond and ought to be understood as such."
Bannon, enraged over criticism, lobbed an obscene tirade at Wiser.
“By the way, was there any complaint from PBS, or was there any complaint by the Democrats, on the rhetoric used against the judges when the Roe v. Wade decision came out, and they had to have police protection at their houses? I don’t remember anything about the rhetoric being too high," said Bannon. “You guys are so f------ phony on the face of it. This is why we’re defeating the left. The American people, as they see this, they go, ‘These guys are a bunch of f------ lying scumbags,’ which you are a bunch of f------ lying scumbags. You terrorize — you tried to terrorize Supreme Court justices over a decision that didn’t go your way.”
"They’re all gutless cowards," Bannon continued. "They’ve all hid behind the system for decades and decades and decades. So the university administrations? They’re not that tough. The big law firms? They’re not that tough. The media? Look who’s cratered. How many times — look at the settlement with Trump. They’re not tough."
By contrast, he said, with Trump supporters, “You can put us in f------ prison, you can take Trump up there and put him on trial every day, the people around Trump are battle-hardened, okay? You’re not gonna scare us and we’re not gonna stop, and what we know is you guys are a bunch of p------. You will crater. PBS is gonna crater. You know why? You’re not tough.”
The GOP has waged a crusade against public media in recent months, passing a Trump-proposed bill to claw back billions of dollars from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. NPR and PBS are primarily funded by viewer donations and sponsorships, but grants from the CPB are vital to maintaining the budgets of newsrooms in lower-income and more remote areas.
Watch the full interview here:
- YouTube www.youtube.com
‘Disgusting!’ Abortion ban author slammed by conservatives for secretly paying for them
Texas conservatives are piling on a Republican state lawmaker who, despite carrying a bill that implemented a near-total abortion ban in the state, is now alleged to have “funded several abortions for his own personal gain.”
“These elected officials who proclaim faith & family values, but then break their most sacred covenants with God & their families are disgusting,” said former Texas state senator Konni Burton Friday in a social media post on X. “Their families deserve better and so does the (Republican) party.”
That Texas State House member is Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who on Friday was accused of having a long-time affair and having funded multiple abortions by Alex Grace, the woman making the allegation, as reported in the far-right publication Current Revolt.
Capriglione announced this week that he wouldn’t seek re-election ahead of the allegations being made public, but has since released a statement admitting to the affair, but denying that he had ever funded an abortion.
“Years ago, I selfishly had an affair,” Capriglione said. “I’m not proud of this. Thank God my wife and family forgave me, and we moved past it and have the strong marriage we do today.”
On the allegation that he had funded multiple abortions, however, he said the charge was “categorically false,” and threatened legal action against media outlets for "making false and defamatory claims."
Yet despite his denial of having personally funded abortions, conservatives continued the pile on Capriglione, including Bo French, chair of the Tarrant County GOP.
“The allegations made against Giovanni Capriglione are deeply disturbing and chronicle a pattern of behavior incompatible with the values of the Republican Party,” French wrote in a social media post on X. “If Capriglione has an ounce of sense or shame he will resign from the Texas House before he is thrown out.”
In 2021, Capriglione was the lead sponsor on Texas House Bill 1280, dubbed the Human Life Protection Act, which made it a felony punishable with up to life in prison for a medical provider to provide an abortion. The bill was signed into law that same year, but didn’t go into full effect until 2022 with the overturning of Roe v. Wade.