A federal judge is considering holding Trump administration officials in contempt of court after the Department of Homeland Security posted a press release accusing her of knowingly releasing a murder suspect — a claim the Justice Department’s own attorney admitted in open court was false.
U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, a Biden appointee based in Rhode Island, said Monday the “patently false” April 30 DHS press release headlined “Activist Biden Judge Releases Violent Criminal Illegal Alien Wanted for Murder” put her personal safety at risk and was still on the government’s website as of Monday’s hearing. DHS has yet to acknowledge the error.
“The April 30th, completely erroneous and dangerous press release is still on their website,” the judge complained, according to Politico. “It puts people at risk. It’s a threat to judicial security.”
“I’m not trying to make this political,” DuBose, a Biden appointee, added. “It’s also very important that the public has the facts. As long as this particular post is out there, it’s setting up a false narrative.”
DOJ attorney Kevin Bolan apologized, acknowledging the release “simply was not true” and admitting he had withheld knowledge of a Dominican Republic murder warrant from the judge on instructions from ICE, even though DHS had already publicly disclosed the warrant’s existence in an earlier press release.
The judge noted Bolan could have simply filed the information under seal if confidentiality was a genuine concern.
“There was a serious breakdown in the ethical codes here,” she said, calling the fiasco “a massive breach of this court’s trust.”
“a massive breach of this court’s trust.”
“It’s going to take a while to rebuild that trust. I believe that we can,” the judge said.
DuBose said she believes ICE bears primary responsibility for the misconduct and is weighing contempt proceedings against officials from both DHS and DOJ.
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