from the party-of-law-and-order dept
Quite obviously, the Trump Administration was never going to respect the law when it came to its mass deportation plans. That much became immediately clear as ICE engaged in raid after raid of neighborhoods and businesses, searching for literally any migrant, rather than just those suspected of or convicted for violent crimes.
As soon as the planes loaded with detainees began landing in countries most of those on board weren’t from, the efficient cruelty of Trump’s anti-migrant actions was exposed. Multiple legal challenges were filed, most of them seeking little more than forcing the government to respect due process rights. As the phrase says, they’re rights, not privileges that can be unilaterally revoked just because the current administration has a hate-on for non-whites.
The administration that has always pretended to be ultra-concerned about “law and order” went rogue. Planes were put in the air after courts ordered them to remain on the ground. People exiled to foreign prisons remained caged while the Trump DOJ dodged court orders and refused to honestly answer questions about why it continued to refuse to right some of its wrongs.
Not that we needed more evidence of this administration’s hatred for the laws that stand in the way of its cruelest urges, but here’s more anyway. Erez Ruveni, a former DOJ lawyer, has filed a whistleblower complaint about the DOJ’s actions since Trump’s return to office. Via the New York Times, here’s why Ruveni is no longer employed by the DOJ:
Mr. Reuveni was a career lawyer at the department for nearly 15 years until April, when he expressed concern in federal court that the administration had mistakenly deported a migrant to a megaprison in El Salvador. Mr. Reuveni was put on administrative leave a day later and ultimately fired.
That public embarrassment of the DOJ, via an open admission that an error was made, was enough to provoke Trump’s DOJ to fire one of its few remaining honest lawyers. Those still working for the DOJ have sold their soul for a handful of future paychecks. Either that or they never had a soul to sell, like senior DOJ official Emil Bove, whose anti-law and order statements are included in Ruveni’s whistleblower report.
Bove told attendees of the March 14 meeting that President Donald Trump would soon be invoking the Alien Enemies Act and that deportations would be carried out that weekend.
[…]
“Bove then made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated. Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f— you’ and ignore any such court order,” according to the letter.
Incredibly, Ruveni’s letter notes that he thought Bove’s heated comments would be blown off and things would return to their normal, lawful way — something that’s sort of expected at the Department of Justice. Instead, that was apparently the tipping point, not only in terms of his job, but for the DOJ as a whole.
Here’s how things went for Ruveni during the last few weeks of his DOJ career, as recounted in the complaint [PDF] released by his legal reps at the Government Accountability Project:
White House officials have publicly disparaged Mr. Reuveni to justify their refusal to comply with the Constitution and with court orders. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller falsely stated “The only mistake that was made is a lawyer put an incorrect line in a legal filing,” and labeled Mr. Reuveni a “saboteur, a Democrat.” Referring to Mr. Reuveni, President Trump stated, “Well, the lawyer that said it was a mistake was here a long time, was not appointed by us—should not have said that should not have said that.”
What has not been reported to date are Mr. Reuveni’s attempts over the course of three weeks and affecting three separate cases to secure the government’s compliance with court orders and his resistance to the internal efforts of DOJ and White House leadership to defy them through lack of candor, deliberate delay, and disinformation. Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer. Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired, and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court.
Of course, the DOJ and the administration have no real response to these accusations. Instead, the White House has chosen to ignore everything said in the letter and act like it works for Emil Bove, rather than the other way around:
“Emil Bove is an incredibly talented legal mind and a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution who will make an excellent circuit court judge,” the statement by White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said.
Well, at best, only part of this statement is true. I can only speculate about the Bove’s “talented mind,” but it’s inherently clear he doesn’t give a fuck about the Constitution. That much can easily be seen by his support of Trump’s Alien Enemies Act abuses and the migrant flights he ensured wouldn’t be interrupted by issued court orders. He’s not serving the public. He’s nothing more than another opportunist who has sworn his fealty to a man who sincerely believes the Oval Office is a throne room.
Filed Under: alien enemies act, dhs, doj, emil bove, erez reuveni, mass deportation, trump administration
Companies: government accountability project
