WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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SOURCE: NBC NEWS- AUTHOR.M.J. GDNUS
The Trump administration has been accused of ignoring or flat-out defying recent federal court orders, with two judges now weighing contempt findings against officials.
Washington-based District Judge James Boasberg ratcheted up the pressure Wednesday when he announced there is probable cause to find the government in contempt.
Officials had shown "willful disregard" for his order that planes carrying Venezuelan alleged gang members be returned to the United States before they could be deported to El Salvador, Boasberg wrote.
Separately, the federal judge presiding over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the government wrongly deported to El Salvador, chastised the administration Tuesday for its inaction amid signs she would also consider whether to hold officials in contempt.
Her warning follows a Supreme Court decision that said the government must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's return to the United States.
“I’ve gotten nothing,” said Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court for Maryland. “I’ve gotten no real response and no real legal justification for not answering.”
Although the two cases are on different tracks, there will be further court proceedings in both.
First, as Boasberg wrote in his order, the government has the opportunity to "purge" the contempt finding simply by complying with the original order. In the Venezuelan case, that would mean giving the men sent to El Salvador the chance to argue that they should not have been deported.
In the Abrego Garcia case, Xinis has ordered that officials show what efforts they have made to facilitate his return before she decides what to do next. If Abrego Garcia is returned to the United States during that time frame that would presumably resolve the issue.
If the government still does not come into compliance, then both judges can seek to take further action.
Criminal contempt, which is what Boasberg is considering, usually requires charges by the Justice Department, which the president oversees. A president can void criminal contempt by issuing a pardon.
But Boasberg said that if the government refuses to prosecute, he would appoint an attorney himself who could carry out that function, as has happened in other cases.
In one recent example, a judge in New York appointed lawyers to prosecute Steven Donziger, an environmental lawyer who was convicted of contempt in 2021 for defying orders related to a lawsuit he spearheaded over oil pollution in Ecuador.
One complication for Boasberg is that in the Donziger case, the private lawyers were still subject to supervision by the U.S. attorney general.
Another option is a process known as civil contempt. That involves a judge issuing an order holding either the government writ large or an officer of the government in contempt. The judge could impose daily fines or even order someone jailed until the contempt is purged. Civil contempt is not pardonable.
