U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt after they violated his orders by continuing deportation flights, according to CNN. The ruling follows the Supreme Court determining that Boasberg's court was in an improper venue for the case altogether.
Boasberg halted the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans that were allegedly gang members.
“The Court ultimately determines that the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt,” Boasberg wrote in his decision.
“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions,” the decision reads. “None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
The Trump administration has been conducting deportation flights of alleged gang members of Tren de Aragua to prisons in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg ordered the administration to stop the flights in an oral decree from the bench, but the administration refused on the grounds that it wasn't in his written order.
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