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DOJ lawyers state that DHS Sec. Kristi Noem made decision not to return March 15 flights
https://www.lawdork.com/p/aclu-lawyers-name-emil-bove-now-aLawyers from the ACLU who have been challenging the Trump administration’s extreme immigration enforcement on Tuesday afternoon suggested that Emil Bove, now a federal appeals court judge, should potentially be called as a witness in Chief Judge James Boasberg’s contempt inquiry over the administration’s actions regarding deportation flights that left the U.S. on March 15.
Later Tuesday evening, Justice Department lawyers — while still maintaining that further contempt-related proceedings are not appropriate — responded by stating that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ultimately made the decision not to return the flights, after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Bove “provided DHS with legal advice” about the flights and DHS’s acting counsel conveyed that advice, “as well as his own legal advice,“ to her.
“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador,“ DOJ lawyers stated in the Tuesday night filing — more than eight months after the flights sent the people to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.
The filings came as Boasberg moves forward — after a seven-month delay — in his contempt inquiry regarding the two flights carrying individuals who were being deported under President Donald Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation, flights that went to El Salvador even after he ordered the administration to temporarily stop with AEA-based deportations on March 15.
Later Tuesday evening, Justice Department lawyers — while still maintaining that further contempt-related proceedings are not appropriate — responded by stating that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem ultimately made the decision not to return the flights, after Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Bove “provided DHS with legal advice” about the flights and DHS’s acting counsel conveyed that advice, “as well as his own legal advice,“ to her.
“After receiving that legal advice, Secretary Noem directed that the AEA detainees who had been removed from the United States before the Court’s order could be transferred to the custody of El Salvador,“ DOJ lawyers stated in the Tuesday night filing — more than eight months after the flights sent the people to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.
The filings came as Boasberg moves forward — after a seven-month delay — in his contempt inquiry regarding the two flights carrying individuals who were being deported under President Donald Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation, flights that went to El Salvador even after he ordered the administration to temporarily stop with AEA-based deportations on March 15.
NEW: ACLU lawyers name Emil Bove, now a federal judge, as possible witness in contempt inquiry.
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) 2025-11-25T22:36:55.306Z
The former DOJ official — who was Trump's criminal defense lawyer before that — is one of nine names submitted to Judge Boasberg.
This evening, at Law Dork: