One of President Donald Trump’s favorite judges issued a ruling last week that could make Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s contempt proceedings much more difficult to navigate, according to a legal expert.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has been conducting a contempt investigation into Noem concerning an instance from mid-March where DHS failed to turn around a plane carrying detained immigrants to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT prison. Boasberg had previously ordered DHS to turn the plan around, and Noem has not yet provided satisfactory answers to the department’s decisions that day, according to a CNN report on the case.
Emil Bove, a judge on the Third Circuit Court and former Trump defense attorney, issued a little-noticed, two-page declaration on Dec. 5 where he admitted he provided legal advice to officials who spoke with Noem about the event.
Mitchell Eppner, a former federal prosecutor, discussed the potential implications of Bove’s filing in a new episode of “Legal AF” with Adam Klasfeld, editor-in-chief of All Rise News.
“If this is to be taken at face value … [Bove] did not communicate directly with Secretary Noem that day, but he did communicate with people he understood to be communicating with her,” Eppner said. “It’s very clear that they were aware of the judge’s orders.”
“So, now Kristi Noem is going to be put in a bind,” Eppner said.
“Either she’s going to say she was just following the lawyer’s advice or she won’t. If she says she was following her lawyer’s orders, that waives privilege,” which would require Bove and other officials like Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche or DHS general counsel Joseph Mazzara to provide “more specific information,” he continued.
“That’s an unpalatable situation for DOJ in most cases,” Eppner added. “But the alternative here is that Kristi Noem is the one here who is just left holding the bag because she has no excuse that she didn’t hear about the order.
Trump DOJ Walks Right Into Judge’s Trap in Criminal Contempt Proceeding by Legal AF
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