White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt delivered a tirade Thursday against a federal judge who ruled against Donald Trump’s illegal deportations to South Sudan.
During a press briefing, Leavitt railed against U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts, who ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration had provided “plainly insufficient” notice to several third-country nationals before deporting them to South Sudan, which is in the midst of violence and political unrest. As a result, the migrants are being held at a U.S. naval base in Djibouti.
“Judge Murphy is forcing federal officials to remain in Djibouti for over two weeks, threatening our U.S. diplomatic relationships with countries around the world, and putting these agents’ lives in danger by having to be with these illegal murderers, criminals, and rapists. This is completely absurd,” Leavitt said.
“Judge Brian Murphy is not the secretary of state, he is not the secretary of defense, or the commander in chief. He is a district court judge in Massachusetts. He cannot control foreign policy or national security of the United States of America, and to suggest otherwise is being completely absurd,” Leavitt continued, wrongly arguing that the judicial branch had no power to challenge illegal orders from the executive one.
The Trump administration has continually argued that its illegal deportations are a matter of foreign policy, and therefore exempt from judicial review. Some military officials were surprised when the controversial deportation flight that left Tuesday was described at a Department of Homeland Security press conference the following day as a “diplomatic and military security operation,” according to CNN.
If anything, Murphy’s status as a “district court judge in Massachusetts” might suggest he has a better grip on the law than the two former television stars that run the White House and Pentagon, respectively. As for Marco Rubio, a former attorney, there is literally no excuse.
Murphy had previously ruled to stop a similar spate of deportations to Libya.
Leavitt wasn’t the only one to blow a gasket over Murphy’s ruling. Trump had his own temper tantrum on Truth Social Thursday. “A Federal Judge in Boston, who knew absolutely nothing about the situation, or anything else, has ordered that EIGHT of the most violent criminals on Earth curtail their journey to South Sudan, and instead remain in Djibouti,” Trump wrote.
The president whined that a “a large number of ICE Officers, who would otherwise be in the United States, protecting our citizens,” had to remain in Djibouti to watch the detainees. He asked that the Supreme Court end the “quagmire that has been caused by the Radical Left.”
The post Karoline Leavitt Melts Down Over Blocked South Sudan Deportations appeared first on New Republic.
