Trump administration officials will be spared criminal contempt proceedings after they ignored the D.C. chief federal judge’s orders to turn around planes full of migrants headed for a terrorist prison in El Salvador.
On Friday, the federal appellate circuit in the nation’s capital halted Judge James Boasberg’s attempt to figure out whether top Trump officials lied to him when they put more than 200 migrants aboard Immigration and Customs Enforcement planes on March 15.
During a court hearing that Saturday evening, Department of Justice lawyers who’d already been briefed at agency headquarters about the deportations, according to a whistleblower’s letter to senators, feigned ignorance about the ongoing operation, even as Boasberg commanded them to halt the flights.