A top Justice Department official nominated by President Donald Trump to fill a federal appeals court vacancy allegedly suggested the Trump administration should defy judicial orders that sought to restrict their aggressive efforts to deport undocumented immigrants earlier this year, according to a whistleblower complaint from a fired DOJ career official.
The 27-page complaint, provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Justice Department's top watchdog and obtained by ABC News, alleges that Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and other top DOJ officials strategized how they could mislead courts regarding the administration's immigration enforcement efforts and potentially ignore judges' rulings outright.
The allegations from Erez Reuveni -- who was fired from the department in April after he appeared in federal court in Maryland and admitted to a judge that the government had mistakenly deported accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador -- were delivered to the Senate on the eve of a confirmation hearing for Bove to serve on the powerful 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"Mr. Reuveni's disclosures detail violations of law, rules or regulations, and the abuse of authority by DOJ and White House personnel, as well as the creation of substantial and specific health and safety threats to noncitizens," Reuveni's attorneys said in the letter.
"These high-level governmental personnel knowingly and willfully defied court orders, directed...
World Moscow is accused of dodging sanctions via shadow fleets to ship oil to China, India and Turkey, with CREA saying 113 Russian vessels flew false flags in 2025, moving 13% of crude worth 4.7 b...