Alt National Park Service
"Good news! Judge James E. Boasberg just issued a serious warning to the Justice Department, signaling that he may open a formal contempt investigation into whether the Trump administration violated his order to stop deportation flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador back in March.
This shift comes months after a major whistle-blower disclosure and we’re now finally seeing why the judge is acting.
A former DOJ attorney, Erez Reuveni, filed a protected whistle-blower complaint in late June. In it, he alleged that senior officials under Trump pressured government lawyers to ignore Judge Boasberg’s restraining order and let the flights continue anyway. According to the complaint, officials were even told in an internal meeting to effectively “tell the courts F-you” if the judge’s order interfered with the administration’s plans. Reuveni also claimed that at least two flights went forward after the court said they needed to be turned around, and that he was discouraged from documenting internal discussions that could prove what happened. He was later fired after refusing to sign what he believed was a misleading government filing.
So why did the judge wait until now to act?
Courts don’t launch contempt proceedings based on a news article or a whistle-blower allegation alone. Judge Boasberg had to wait for the Justice Department to file its official responses, provide documentation, and explain whether they followed his March order. The government delayed, gave incomplete answers, and offered shifting justifications, which slowed everything down. Over the last few weeks, however, DOJ filings began contradicting earlier statements lining up with what the whistle-blower had originally alleged.
Only once the record became clear that flights may have proceeded despite his order, and that DOJ may not have been fully truthful about it did Judge Boasberg have the legal grounds to take the next step.
That’s why everything is coming together now: the whistle-blower complaint provided the early warning, but the judge couldn’t act until the evidence, filings, and contradictions were solid enough to justify a contempt inquiry. Now they are."