Justice Department Invokes State Secrets Privilege Over Deportation Flights
Claiming vast executive powers and “the mandate of the electorate,” the Justice Department on Monday night informed a federal judge that it was invoking the state secrets privilege and refusing to answer a judge’s orders for more information on several deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and other high-ranking Justice Department officials filed a “Notice Invoking State Secrets Privilege” claiming that it “would pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs” to comply with U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s fact-finding inquiries to determine if the U.S. government violated his order to turn those deportation flights around.
The notice is an escalation of the Trump administration’s battle with Boasberg, who has been the target of calls for impeachment from President Donald Trump and his allies, and also the White House’s attempts to claim an unchallengeable and unreviewable amount of power over the federal government.
The Justice Department filing began by chiding Boasberg for failing to give Trump the “high respect” he was owed as the chief executive before asserting that it was engaging in a military campaign that Boasberg had neither the authority nor experience to question.
“This is a case about the President’s plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States,” the filing stated. “The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it. Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholl
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