In a scorching ruling, a U.S. federal judge found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump's administration in contempt for "deliberately and gleefully" violating his order last month halting flights of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under a wartime law.
Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg's April 16 order is the latest escalation in the Trump administration's standoff with the courts over its deportations of migrants to a prison in El Salvador. Some legal experts worry the courts and Trump administration are careening toward a Constitutional crisis over the case.
The president and his allies have suggested Boasberg be impeached, and cited national security concerns in refusing to provide details to the judge, who noted those same officials published detailed social media videos of the detainees arriving in El Salvador.