A federal appeals court has granted an emergency motion sought by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to halt contempt hearings scheduled to start this week over the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg had scheduled contempt hearings for Dec. 15 and 16, over the Trump administration’s deportation of Venezuelan gang member under the Alien Enemies act in March of this year.
Boasberg had issued restraining orders on the deportation of two planeloads of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members, after the planes were already airborne.
When the Trump administration followed the written orders but not the judge’s oral instructions, which DOJ attorneys said were defective, and allowed the deportation flights to complete their mission to transport the detainees to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.
The Supreme Court had ruled that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction and vacated the orders but the judge still scheduled contempt hearings, which were temporarily blocked by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in a 2-1 ruling on Friday.
In its emergency motion, filed last week, the DOJ condemned Boasberg’s escalation of the matter and said, “This long-running saga never should have begun; should not have continued at all after this Court’s last intervention; and certainly should not be allowed to escalate into the unseemly and unnecessary interbranch conflict that it now imminently portends.”
The filing continued, “This Court should therefore again grant mandamus relief, this time foreclosing any further inquiry. The Court should also order the case to be reassigned given the strong appearance that the district judge is engaged in a pattern of retaliation and harassment, and has developed too strong a bias to preside over this matter impartially.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi called Boasberg’s actions “lawless judicial activism” and warned that the judge’s latest order threatened the separation of powers as well as attorney-client privilege.
Noon today: DOJ files petition to stop Boasberg’s retaliatory vanity hearings
6 PM today: D.C. circuit responds by stopping the hearings@AGPamBondi’s attorneys are not tired of winning pic.twitter.com/JBhp3uiziS
— Gates McGavick (@GatesMcgavick) December 12, 2025
In their emergency order, Judges Neomi Rao and Justin Walker emphasized that their stay is temporary and does not constitute a ruling on the merits of the case, saying, “The purpose of this administrative stay is to allow the court time to render a decision on the mandamus petition and the stay motion.”
DOJ lawyers also asked the court to bar testimony from two current and former senior Justice Department officials who had been ordered to appear for questioning this week.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem has been identified as the official who authorized the transfer of the Venezuelan detainees after being briefed about Boasberg’s order by DOJ lawyers and acting general counsel for DHS.
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