COMPROMISED DOJThe Continuing Saga of Chief Judge Boasberg’s Contempt of Court Inquiry Involving Todd Blanche and Emil Bove
Courts increasingly are expressing concern about the litigation conduct of the Trump administration’s Department of Justice attorneys. Courts have become reluctant to apply the “presumption of regularity” to Executive Branch actions, and many judges have often pointedly questioned the reliability and candor of DOJ’s written and oral representations. The result is that DOJ is in danger of seriously damaging its historic reputation for integrity, professionalism, and political independence in federal court litigation.
As Mattathias Schwartz recently wrote in the New York Times, federal courts increasingly are expressing concern about the litigation conduct of Department of Justice attorneys. For example, as Just Security’s comprehensive tracker demonstrates, courts have become reluctant to apply the “presumption of regularity” to Executive Branch actions, and many judges have often pointedly questioned the reliability and candor of DOJ’s written and oral representations. The result, as reflected in a remarkable letter from 111 former attorneys in the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, is that DOJ is in danger of seriously damaging its historic reputation for integrity, professionalism, and political independence in federal court litigation.
As alarming as many of the more recent examples of DOJ misconduct in federal courts are, the most disturbing such incident occurred quite early in the second Trump administration, in March 2025, when high-level Department officials plotted to disable the federal judiciary from reviewing and enjoining the Government’s unlawful transfer of Venezuelan nationals to the custody of El Salvador in the brutal el Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison. Most egregiously, two of the most senior officials in the Department—current Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche (who was then the Deputy AG, and is now the President’s nominee to be Attorney General) and Principal Associate Deputy AG Emil Bove (now a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit)—advised Homeland Security officials that DHS could lawfully transfer scores of detained persons to Salvadoran custody, in violation of a temporary restraining order Chief Judge James Boasberg issued on March 15, 2025.
Over the past year or so, Chief Judge Boasberg has been trying to assess who was responsible for the administration’s clear violation of his TRO, whether those violations were willful, and whether any such officials should be tried for criminal contempt of court. On April 14, 2026, however, a 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit granted the administration’s application for a writ of mandamus that would require the district court “to terminate its criminal contempt proceedings.” The plaintiffs in the underlying action have filed a petition asking the D.C. Circuit to rehear the mandamus question en banc.
