White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday stepped up attacks on a federal judge that ordered flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members to be turned around, decrying him as a “Democrat activist” despite originally being nominated by a Republican president.
Leavitt told reporters at a press briefing that the administration does not have any additional flights to El Salvador carrying alleged gang members planned after U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg tried to intervene with a verbal order as flights were in the air on Saturday. The press secretary then teed off on Boasberg, who has drawn the ire of Republicans and President Trump in recent days.
“I would just like to point out that the judge in this case is essentially trying to say that the president doesn’t have the executive authority to deport foreign terrorists from our American soil,” Leavitt said. “That is an egregious abuse of the bench. The judge does not have that authority. It is the opinion of this White House and this administration, and that’s why we’re fighting this in court.
“And it’s very, very clear that this [is] an activist judge who is trying to usurp the president’s authority,” Leavitt continued. “Under the Alien Enemies Act, the president has this power, and that’s why this deportation campaign has continued. And this judge, Judge Boasberg, is a Democrat activist.”
Leavitt cited political donations from Boasberg’s wife, his nomination to the District Court by former President Obama, and his “disdain” for Trump’s policies.
But Boasberg was first appointed by former President George W. Bush, a Republican, to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Obama nominated him to the District Court in 2010.
Boasberg drew Trump’s ire when he issued a ruling Saturday blocking the president from invoking the Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport Venezuelan migrants the administration says are suspected gang members.
The judge is demanding information about several deportation flights that left U.S. soil Saturday and whether they violated his order. The Justice Department insists it complied because the flights had left U.S. territory by the time the judge’s written order was issued. It has since cited national security concerns as a reason to not be more forthcoming with details of what happened over the weekend.
Trump has called for Boasberg to be impeached over the ruling. While that is unlikely —impeaching a judge would require a majority in the House and 67 votes in the Senate — Trump’s attack still drew a rare rebuke from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
Read: Read More