Judge threatens Trump team with criminal contempt

What happened

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled Wednesday that "probable cause exists" to charge Trump administration officials with criminal contempt for their "willful disregard" of his March 15 order to halt the deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador's infamous CECOT prison without due process, under claimed wartime powers.

Who said what

“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders," especially by officials "who have sworn an oath to uphold it," Boasberg, the chief judge of the District of Columbia circuit, wrote in his 46-page ruling. Allowing such defiance would make a "solemn mockery" of "the Constitution itself."

The Trump administration is also "locked in a separate high-stakes confrontation" with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis over its refusal to "facilitate" the return of Kilmar Ábrego García, a man "illegally deported" on the same flights Boasberg ordered turned around, Politico said. The two cases represent a "remarkable attempt" by federal courts to "hold the White House accountable for its apparent willingness to flout court orders," The New York Times said. Boasberg's "detailed blueprint" for how he will hold the administration's "feet to the fire" if it doesn't rectify the situation suggested his "anger" had been "building for weeks."

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An "order of criminal contempt is a crime and can carry a fine or prison sentence" of up to six months, NPR said. In rare cases, "judges have been willing to hold officials" in contempt for "failing to abide by rulings," The Associated Press said, "but higher courts have almost always overturned them."

What next?

Boasberg gave the Trump administration until next Wednesday to decide if it will "purge" the contempt by "asserting custody" over the Venezuelans so they can challenge their detention, potentially from inside the Salvadoran prison, or identifying the individuals responsible for defying his judicial order. If it declines either path, he wrote, he would begin the "next steps" to identify those officials and refer them for prosecution — appointing an outside prosecutor if the Trump Justice Department declined to act.