The public could soon know who in the Trump administration knew about an alleged effort to ignore court orders barring the deportation of 137 men to a Salvadoran prison.
“The bottom line is that the court has permitted me to go forward with my inquiry,” U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said Wednesday at the start of contempt proceedings that resumed inside a federal court in Washington, D.C..
Only a week ago, an appellate court ruled that Boasberg could properly resume a contempt inquiry into what the court called “shocking Executive Branch conduct” that began seven months ago after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act.
The invocation of the wartime authority, according to Trump, allowed him to lawfully deport migrants he deemed to be part of a criminal invasion of the U.S., namely those the administration claims are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
After invoking the 18th-century law, the administration filled up two planes with people it alleged were gang members and whisked them off to CECOT, a notorious prison in El Salvador.
