Documents shared Thursday provide new details about Trump administration efforts to run around a court order to ground flights carrying migrants to a Salvadoran prison, as well as Department of Justice (DOJ) leader Emil Bove’s directive to be prepared to tell the courts “f— you” on the matter.
Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general whom President Trump has nominated for a lifetime appointment as an appeals court judge, told Congress he doesn’t recall using the expletive.
The trove of documents offers greater detail about the Trump administration’s response to an order to block the flights that has since sparked a contempt inquiry. And it also shows multiple instances of various Trump administration officials pushing to label Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a “leader of MS-13” despite issues finding evidence to back the assertion. At one point an official pledged to “keep looking” for evidence to back the claim.
Shared by a Justice Department whistleblower and released by Senate Judiciary Democrats, the documents show multiple references among DOJ employees to Bove’s expletive-laden directive as well as a series of emails directing agencies in real time to return or ground any flights headed to the Central American nation.
Justice Department attorney-turned-whistleblower Erez Reuveni was fired after he disclosed in a related case that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly deported to the same prison due to an administrative error.
But Reuveni was also present for meetings as the Trump administration prepared to ignite the rarely used Alien Enemies Act (AEA), including a March 14 meeting where Bove is alleged to have said that the “DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you’ and ignore any such court order,” according to Reuveni’s account.
The documents show Reuveni referencing the meeting to another colleague the next day after his alerts to multiple agencies to halt the flights went largely unanswered.
“Guess we are going to say f— you to the courts,” Reuveni texted.
The Justice Department did not respond to request for comment, the Justice Department did not respond to request for comment, but Attorney General Pam Bondi addressed the matter on X.
“This disgruntled employee is not a whistleblower — he’s a leaker asserting false claims seeking five minutes of fame, conveniently timed just before a confirmation hearing and a committee vote,” she wrote.
“This ‘whistleblower’ signed 3 briefs defending DOJ’s position in this matter and his subsequent revisionist account arose only after he was fired because he violated his ethical duties to the department.”
Alien Enemies Act flights and pushback on judge
The documents show frantic emails from Reuveni the night of March 15 as the American Civil Liberties Union sought a court order to block suspected flights under the Alien Enemies Act.
Appearing before U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, attorneys for the government were coy about whether there were any flights in the air, even as Reuveni, in listening mode on the telephonic hearing, relayed orders from the judge to halt the flights.
“The judge specifically ordered us not to remove anyone in the class, and to return anyone in the air,” he wrote.
The emails to various agencies pleaded for confirmation. Those appeals seem to have gone largely unanswered.
Just 30 minutes later, Boasberg sought assurances that no one on the flights had gotten off the planes or were turned over to Salvadoran authorities to be housed in their most notorious prison.
“We need to address this asap to avoid contempt,” Reuveni wrote. “In particular [for] the flight landing in three minutes.”
During a side text amid the hearing, Reuveni also relayed to a co-worker that he was baffled that colleague Drew Ensign would answer direct questions from Boasberg about plans for flights. Ensign had said he was not aware whether flights would be taking off in the next 24 to 48 hours.
“He knows they are being removed,” Reuveni said of Ensign, specifying that he knows “about the flights.”
The co-worker agreed, saying, “He knows there are plans for AEA removals within the next 24 hours.”
“It’s a question if Drew gets out without a sanction,” the co-worker added.
Boasberg would later determine there was probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt for willfully disobeying his order to immediately halt deportations, but the proceedings were later blocked by an appeals court.
The matter remains under scrutiny, however, as the Senate weighs a vote on Bove, and many Democrats have said they have no intention of confirming a would-be jurist who has advocated for defying court orders.
While Bove sidestepped questions over whether he used a F bomb, he stressed he has been a zealous advocate.
“I’ve certainly said things encouraging litigators at the department to fight hard for valid positions that we have to take,” Bove responded.
“I certainly conveyed the importance of the upcoming operation,” he added about the Alien Enemies Act flights.
But numerous messages between Reuveni and colleagues reference not only Bove’s expletive, but his direction to rebuff court orders.
As Boasberg weighed whether to block the flights, Reuveni texted they were reaching “a decision point on f— you.”
The Abrego Garcia case
The documents also include numerous revelations about the Abrego Garcia case, including numerous emails undermining administration claims that he was a gang leader.
Weeks after a Supreme Court directive to “facilitate” his return, the Justice Department announced Abrego Garcia would return to face human trafficking charges. Those charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop where he was pulled over while driving a van with several other individuals.
But emails provided by Reuveni show officials at the State Department were skeptical of claims he was an MS-13 gang member, while officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) were pushing to label Abrego Garcia as a “leader of MS-13” despite a lack of evidence.
A State Department official working to address the case at one point asked whether DHS had “any luck yet with finding more details about the basis for his MS-13 classification?”
DHS later provided information that has also been previously reviewed by The Hill that showed allegations Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member largely relied on a tip from one confidential informant.
The State Department officials thanked DHS for information about the traffic stop but said it provided “very little on why he’s believed to be a member of MS-13.”
Days later, James Percival, the acting general counsel at DHS, asked Reuveni if they could tell the court that Abrego-Garcia was a “leader of MS-13.”
But another DHS official responded that a sworn declaration wouldn’t match that assertion.
“So far I have found ‘verified member’ which is included. I have not found anything indicating ‘leader’ but I’ll keep looking,” the official said.
Documents previously reviewed by The Hill showed an immigration judge determined Abrego Garcia should not be released from custody in 2019, calling him a verified gang member based on the confidential informants assertion.
The details raised in the documents are likely to come into play as Abrego Garcia now faces criminal charges in Tennessee.
Rueveni spoke for the first time about the matter publicly in a Thursday interview with The New York Times, indicating he’d be willing to testify before Congress.
“If they can do this sort of thing to Abrego Garcia, to 238 people that nobody knows, and send them to CECOT forever with no due process, they can do that to anyone,” said Mr. Reuveni. “It should be deeply, deeply worrisome to anyone who cares about their safety and their liberty, that the government can, without showing evidence to anyone of anything, spirit you away on a plane to wherever, forever,” Reuveni told The Times.
“The Department of Justice is thumbing its nose at the courts, and putting Justice Department attorneys in an impossible position where they have to choose between loyalty to the agenda of the president and their duty to the court,” he added.
Updated at 2:16 p.m. EDT
