Yes indeedy, Judge Boasberg is looking at evidence going all the way back to his original order and CECOT. That place is terrifying. You may remember Noem’s stunt of doing a video in front of a cage with literally any possible space being full of prisoners to threaten immigrants in America. We are paying to have prisoners there. Judge Boasberg has been gathering evidence for that and other actions since then. Todd Blanche needs to worry. With gratitude for Raw Story:
A federal judge already has enough evidence to order a criminal contempt trial of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — and needs no further investigation to do it. That’s the conclusion of Marty Lederman, a Georgetown Law professor and former senior Justice Department official, writing Monday for Just Security. Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has all he needs to act — if a federal appeals court lets him. “The evidence the judge has already elicited is more than sufficient…” Lederman wrote.
Please let him be able to act because Blanche deserves it. Judge Boasberg is not stupid, and he *earned* his way to his seat. He knows what he is talking about. And if Blanche thinks he can pull one over on the judge, he’d best think again. We remember the start of this. It was all about the planes. It was all about playing fast and loose with the judge’s orders.
The case goes back to March 2025. Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order — a court order blocking further action while a case is heard — prohibiting the deportation of Venezuelan detainees to El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison. Two deportation flights took off anyway, mid-hearing. Senior Department of Justice officials, including Blanche and then-Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, had separately advised then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem she could proceed — telling her the written court order didn’t mean what the judge’s oral ruling had said minutes earlier. The Civil Division lawyers actually arguing the case were kept in the dark.
That’s a bit of a problem now, isn’t it? The oral and written didn’t match? Yea no. The judge did not make that mistake. It’s all … baloney. Now, since we weren’t there, we can’t confirm this. It’s a pity. We can only go by hearsay. Still. And then the actual participants, attorneys, kept out of the loop? That’s not right. The DoJ was in decent shape then, not fantastic, but decent. Now, there’s a lot of garbage to take out. The “good guys” either left on their own (not surprising) or were forced out by various methods, including being flat-out fired. But that’s old news.
Boasberg launched a contempt investigation. A divided appeals court panel shut it down in April, issuing a writ of mandamus — a legal order forcing a lower court to act — that halted the probe. That ruling is now before the full appeals court on a petition for rehearing. Lederman argued the panel got it wrong, and that Blanche and Bove’s legal advice to Noem amounted to an “egregious” violation of the rule of law. “The evidence demonstrating those facts would also be sufficient to support a notice of criminal contempt to Blanche and Bove,” he wrote — a formal charge that would initiate a trial.
Hmmmm. Now that’s interesting. Facts would be sufficient. Blanche is up for confirmation as the actual AG. Emil Bove is now a judge, and shouldn’t be, but that’s for another time. We are looking at the two of them at that time telling Noem she could send those planes when she couldn’t. She’s already gone from Trump’s ‘cabinet’. But the B and B boys are still around. The advice was wrong. They deliberately twisted Judge Boasberg’s oral and written orders. Let’s hope the appeals court lets him do it. That would be news for days. Good times.
See you soon!
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