‘Very big deal’: ‘Astonished’ ex-judge sounds alarm at Trump’s latest act of defiance
Former federal Judge John E. Jones III made clear the significance of the Trump administration’s bold defiance of a court order to return deportation flights to the United States – a move he called “a very big deal.”
Jones on Monday ripped into President Donald Trump and his administration’s refusal to comply with a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg over the weekend as Trump used an 18th-century law to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members. The Trump administration’s legal arguments, he said, simply don’t’ “hold up,” and he predicted an explosive courtroom showdown at a hearing scheduled for Monday afternoon.
“I’m astonished by that,” Jones said as he chuckled during a CNN interview to reports that a former Trump administration official said earlier on the network that communication delays contributed to the administration disobeying the judge’s order.
“I mean, you could text me right now, right, and I and I’ll get that communication. I don’t know what he’s talking about, quite frankly,” Jones said. “These are government aircraft – or leased by the government – ICE is involved. They can be instantly in touch to turn those planes around if they need to be. We’re not talking about tin cans on strings. You know, at this point, I find that again, to be an argument that just doesn’t hold water.”
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He then went on to knock White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s legal conclusions that “a single judge in a single city” didn’t have jurisdiction because the government planes had already approached international waters.
“We’re not talking about lack of jurisdiction just because it’s out over international waters,” Jones, now president of Dickinson College, a private university in Pennsylvania, said. “Good luck with that argument.”
The former federal judge predicted that “potential sanctions” against government attorneys could emerge from the court hearing scheduled for Monday.
“Judge Boasberg can sanction the lawyers,” Jones said. “He can have a more extended hearing and call other actors in on behalf of the government to find out who knew what and when. But I can tell you that there are a few things that fire up federal judges more than somebody just blatantly disregarding their court order. That’s just not something that you want to do. And he’s going to reflect that in his demeanor today.”
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