A federal judge slammed the Department of Homeland Security on Monday for making “erroneous and dangerous” statements after the department publicly attacked her for siding with a man it deemed “a violent criminal illegal alien.”
Trump administration officials had not told Judge Melissa R. DuBose that the man she was about to release on bond, Bryan Rafael Gomez, was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic. The judge, who was appointed by President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ordered the release of Mr. Gomez on April 28 after he filed a petition challenging the legality of his detention.
Two days later, the Department of Homeland Security posted a news release attacking her on the basis of the information that it had withheld.
In a hearing on Monday, Judge DuBose said the government’s decision to withhold information about the case amounted to “a serious breakdown in the ethical codes,” and that she would consider imposing sanctions on the Homeland Security Department for misconduct.
“There was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” she said.
The judge received profuse apologies from Kevin M. Bolan, who leads the civil division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Rhode Island. During the hearing, he said he was “very sorry and terribly embarrassed.”
In a filing that attempted to explain what happened, Mr. Bolan said he was told by Immigration and Customs Enforcement that he could not inform the court about the pending overseas charge, and that he believed that “a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure.” During Monday’s hearing, he said he still didn’t know whether the information could have been released under seal, even though claims about the arrest warrant had already been publicly disclosed by the government elsewhere.
He said that he regretted not having asked the court for more time.
“There certainly was a massive breach of this court’s trust in this case,” Judge DuBose said.
Mr. Gomez’s lawyer, Melanie Shapiro, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. During the hearing, she said Mr. Gomez was back at home in Massachusetts, and Judge DuBose scheduled a hearing for Tuesday to consider whether he should be detained again.
While the Justice Department’s filing made reference to Mr. Gomez’s “criminal history,” The Times was unable to independently verify D.H.S.’s claim that he faced an arrest warrant for homicide.
Homeland Security’s office of public affairs responded to a request for comment by resending the initial post with the attacks on Judge DuBose. “An activist judge appointed by Joe Biden released this wanted murderer back into American communities,” D.H.S. Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in the statement.
In a statement, Frank J. Perry, the chief deputy clerk of the Federal District Court for the District of Rhode Island, said that the news release about “alleged criminal charges in the Dominican Republic” was “inflammatory” and “risks inciting threats against members of the judiciary.”
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