Trump judge nominee told DOJ lawyers to ignore court orders on deportations: whistleblower

A fired Department of Justice lawyer says that a top DOJ official Emil Bove — whom President Donald Trump has nominated to become a federal appeals court judge — told department attorneys to consider telling judges "f---k you" and ignoring any court order that barred the Trump administration from deporting immigrants under the Alien Enemies Act.

Bove, during a March 14 meeting with the whistleblower, Erez Reuveni and other DOJ attorneys, "stressed to all in attendance that the planes [carrying the immigrants] needed to take off no matter what," according to a letter Tuesday from Reuveni's lawyers at the Government Accountability Project.

The letter was sent to the DOJ's internal watchdog and top members of Congress a day before Bove — who previously acted as Trump's criminal defense lawyer — is due to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing on his nomination to become a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

It comes as several federal judges have raised concerns that the DOJ has misled them, failed to comply with court orders, and deliberately delayed responding to requests for information relating to Trump administration efforts to summarily deport undocumented immigrants without due process.

The letter was first reported by The New York Times.

The letter says that Reuveni, who told a judge that the administration made a mistake in deporting Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite a court order barring his removal to that country, was "thwarted, threatened, fired and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court."

Reuveni, who was acting deputy director for the DOJ's Office of Immigration Litigation, after the meeting with Bove was involved in three separate cases involving the legality of immigration removal operations, the letter said.

During that time, he witnessed and reported "DOJ officials underming rthe rule of law by ignoring court orders" ; "presenting 'legal' arguments with no basis in law"; saw high-ranking DOJ and Homeland Security officials "misrepresenting facts presented before courts" ; and had DOJ officials direct him to "misrepresent facts in one of these cases in violation of Mr. Reuveni's legal and ethical duties," the letter said.

Reuveni was placed on administrative leave on April 5 and fired six days later, according to his lawyers, who said he was terminated for refusing to file legal briefs that contained misrepresentations and for telling the truth to a federal judge about Abrego's deportation being carried out in error.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, in a statement Tuesday said, "As a senior Justice Department official, Mr. Bove has abused his position in numerous ways, including firing January 6 prosecutors and agents and ordering career prosecutors to dismiss charges against Eric Adams for blatantly corrupt reasons, among other troubling actions."

"And now, we have Mr. Reuveni, a 14-year career attorney at DOJ, coming forward under the Whistleblower Act to shine a further light on Mr. Bove's alleged misconduct," Durbin said.

"These serious allegations, from a career Justice Department lawyer who defended the first Trump Administration's immigration policies, not only speak to Mr. Bove's failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, but demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department's commitment to the rule of law," Durbin said.

The senator also urged his Republican colleagues in the Senate not to "turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming" Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in a statement on Reuveni's claims, called them "falsehoods" by "a disgruntled former employee and then leaked to the press in violation of ethical obligations."

"The claims about Department of Justice leadership and the Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General [Bove] are utterly false which is likely why the [Times] author gave the Department of Justice 15 minutes this morning to respond ... before releasing this garbage," Blanche said.

"I was at the meeting described in the article and at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed. This is disgusting journalism," Blanche said. "Planting a false hit piece the day before a confirmation hearing is something we have come to expect from the media, but it does not mean it should be tolerated."

But Dana Gold, the senior counsel and director of the Government Accountability Project's Democracy Protection Initiative, said in a statement, "Mr. Reuveni's disclosures reveal a disturbing willingness by senior officials to undermine the rule of law for political ends."

"Mr. Reuveni acted with integrity, fulfilling his duty to the Constitution and the courts. He should be commended, not punished," Gold said.