A fired Justice Department employee has given Congress a cache of internal communications supporting his claim that a top Trump appointee suggested prosecutors defy a judge’s order and that other officials directed attorneys to not be forthcoming in court.
The messages provided by attorney Erez Reuveni show him repeatedly seeking assurances from Justice Department and Homeland Security officials that they would abide by a judge’s March 15 order to halt the in-progress deportation of roughly 130 Venezuelans to El Salvador under an obscure wartime law. According to the documentation disclosed to the Senate Judiciary Committee following a whistleblower complaint Reuveni filed last month, officials rebuffed his requests with either vague or no responses.
The emails released Thursday reveal concern from some Justice Department officials that they may have violated a court order and that some people could be sanctioned for their actions.
Reuveni is a longtime Justice Department attorney who was suspended - and later fired - after he admitted in court that a man sent to a prison in El Salvador was deported in violation of a court order and said he did not know the legal basis for the expulsion.
In his whistleblower complaint, Reuveni described an incident in which a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove, used an expletive when he implied to a room full of department attorneys in March that they may need to ignore a judge’s order blocking the deportation flights to El...
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