U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a presentation of the Commander-in-Chief trophy to the U.S. Navy Midshipmen football team of the United States Naval Academy, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 15, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A federal judge found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for ignoring his order barring the deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a notorious El Salvador prison.
“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,” Judge James Boasberg wrote in a court opinion Wednesday.
“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions,” Boasberg wrote. “None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
Boasberg gave the administration one week to submit a declaration explaining its plan to “purge” the contempt finding.
But if the government decides not to take that step, Boasberg said, it must instead file a declaration identifying the person or people who “made the decision not to halt the transfer” of the Venezuelans on March 15 and 16, in spite of the judge’s orders.
The Wednesday filing is the latest legal development in response to the Trump administration’s efforts to implement widespread deportations as part of his second term.
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