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Lawyers for the Trump administration are seeking to shut down a revived contempt inquiry led by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, arguing in new filings that the court should cancel two scheduled witness examinations next week or allow the administration to block testimony on grounds of “executive privilege.”
In filings earlier this week, Justice Department lawyers argued the court is exceeding its authority. “At the outset, the Court’s inquiry exceeds its authority and is now intruding on the prerogatives of a co-equal branch,” they wrote, adding that criminal contempt falls within the executive branch’s power.
“Criminal contempt is a criminal offense, and the investigation and prosecution of crimes is [a] core executive power reserved to the Executive Branch,” they added.
The filings are part of a revived contempt inquiry that will bring to the fore longtime tensions between the Trump administration and the chief judge for the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., who sparked Trump’s ire earlier this year after he attempted to temporarily block the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March.
NOEM GREENLIT DEPORTATION FLIGHTS AFTER JUDGE’S EMERGENCY ORDER, DOJ REVEALS — FUELING CONTEMPT FIGHT
Judge James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., stands for a portrait at E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington, D.C. on March 16, 2023. (Carolyn Van Houten / Washington Post via Getty)
Boasberg this week requested testimony from two current and former Justice Department officials who played a key role in the Trump administration’s use of the 18th century wartime law to quickly deport the migrants to El Salvador in March, despite his temporary restraining order and subsequent oral order that attempted to block — for 14 days — the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to…
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