Former DOJ lawyer alleges Trump admin defied courts, pressured attorneys: report
A former Department of Justice lawyer possesses documents allegedly showing that the Trump administration pushed to defy court rulings and pressured DOJ attorneys to choose between ethics and the president’s agenda, The New York Times reported. Erez Reuveni, a whistleblower, told The New York Times he is alarmed by the administration’s disregard for judges and due process for migrants residing in the country illegally, and said he is willing to testify.
Reuveni said he was fired in April after defending the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation case and allegedly defying a superior’s order.
Deportation flights and due process concerns
Reuveni told The Times that the Saturday, March 15 deportation flights illustrate how the Trump administration ignored legal standards and due process for migrants like Abrego Garcia. The migrants were rapidly deported and sent to CECOT, a maximum-security prison in El Salvador.
According to the Trump administration, law enforcement confirmed Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia has since been flown back to the United States from El Salvador to face human trafficking charges.
Allegations of DOJ defiance and internal pressure
“If they can do this sort of thing to Abrego Garcia, to 238 people that nobody knows, and send them to CECOT forever with no due process, they can do that to anyone,” Reuveni told The Times. “It should be deeply, deeply worrisome to anyone who cares about their safety and their liberty that the government can, without showing evidence to anyone of anything, spirit you away on a plane to wherever, forever.”
“The Department of Justice is thumbing its nose at the courts, and putting Justice Department attorneys in an impossible position where they have to choose between loyalty to the agenda of the president and their duty to the court,” Reuveni added.
Trump administration officials denied Reuveni’s accounts. Attorney General Pam Bondi responded on social media: “This disgruntled employee is not a whistle-blower — he’s a leaker asserting false claims seeking five minutes of fame, conveniently timed just before a confirmation hearing and a committee vote,” she wrote.
“And no one was ever asked to defy a court order,” Bondi added. “This is another instance of misinformation being spread to serve a narrative that does not align with the facts. This ‘whistleblower’ signed 3 briefs defending DOJ’s position in this matter and his subsequent revisionist account arose only after he was fired because he violated his ethical duties to the department.”
Accusations against DOJ official Emil Bove
In his whistleblower complaint, Reuveni accused Emil Bove, Trump’s nominee for the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, of attempting to mislead judges. Reuveni said Bove suggested in a March meeting that the DOJ might need to openly defy court orders, using an expletive (“f**k you”) when discussing how they would respond to the courts while continuing deportations of migrants to El Salvador.
During his Wednesday, June 25 confirmation hearing, Bove denied the accusations, telling lawmakers, “There is a wildly inaccurate caricature of me in the mainstream media. I am not anybody’s henchman, I am not an enforcer. I am a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this.”
Written communications allegedly corroborate whistleblower’s claims
The Times reviewed emails, texts and other written records allegedly given by Reuveni to Congress, and said those communications confirm Reuveni’s version of events, backing up his claims.
Reuveni also accused DOJ lawyer Drew Ensign of misleading a judge on March 15 by denying knowledge of imminent migrant removals to El Salvador.
Text messages reveal internal frustration
A colleague texted Reuveni an expletive after the hearing, according to The Times, writing, “That was just not true.”
That evening, Reuveni texted a colleague about how the courts would respond to the administration: “Guess it’s find out time.”
“Yup, it was good working with you,” the colleague replied.
Reuveni sent another text, referring to Bove’s expletive: “Guess we are going to say f-k you to the court,” he texted. “Super.”
His colleague responded, “Well, Pamela Jo Bondi is,” then added, “not you,” The Times reported.
A few days later, growing increasingly frustrated with the administration’s confrontational stance, Reuveni texted a colleague: “At this point, why don’t we just submit an emoji of a middle finger as our filing.”
Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
