Trump says judge in migrant deportations case is 'Grandstander'
President Donald Trump has accused a federal judge of attempting to usurp White House authority after he dismissed a government court filing on migrant deportation flights as "woefully insufficient".
Judge James Boasberg, the top federal judge in Washington DC, said the government had "evaded its obligations" to answer his questions about how alleged Venezuelan gang members were flown to an El Salvador mega-prison last weekend.
Trump earlier this week called for Judge Boasberg to be impeached, labelling him a "troublemaker and agitator", although he did not name him in that social media post.
Those remarks had led to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr issuing a rare rebuke, saying impeachment is "not an appropriate response to disagreement" with a judge.
Judge Boasberg had asked the government last Saturday to halt the deportation flights, but the White House said it was too late.
On Thursday, government attorneys provided a six-paragraph declaration from an immigration official, but the judge said they did not supply the flight information he had requested.
In response, Judge Boasberg gave justice department lawyers a new deadline to submit the requested information. He also accused the Trump administration of continuing to withhold information from the court.
Trump hit back at the judge in a Truth Social post later on Thursday.
"Judge James Boasberg is doing everything in his power to usurp the Power of the Presidency," he wrote.
"He is a local, unknown Judge, a Grandstander, looking for publicity, and it cannot be for any other reason, because his "Rulings" are so ridiculous, and inept. SAVE AMERICA!"
In another Truth Social post, Trump called for a stop to "nationwide injunctions" against his administration's policies, calling such court rulings "unlawful".
He also said "our country is in very serious trouble", urging Chief Justice Roberts and others on the Supreme Court to "fix this toxic and unprecedented situation immediately".
In the Venezuelan migrants deportation case, government lawyers submitted a six-paragraph declaration from an immigration official.
They also told the court they needed another day to consider whether to invoke a state secrets clause that allows federal authorities to withhold sensitive national security information in lawsuits.
But Judge Boasberg was not satisfied.
"To begin, the Government cannot proffer a regional ICE official to attest to Cabinet-level discussions of the state-secrets privilege," he wrote.
The judge initially gave a deadline of Wednesday, before extending it to Thursday. Now he has given the Trump administration until Friday morning to provide a sworn declaration from a cabinet-level official.
Judge Boasberg will also hold a previously scheduled hearing on Friday about Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act.
The president last weekend cited the 18th Century measure to deport more than 200 Venezuelans, alleging almost all were members of the gang Tren de Aragua.
But an immigration attorney working on behalf of one of the deported men told a court on Thursday that her client was a professional soccer player in Venezuela without a criminal record, CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, reported.
The man, Jerce Reyes Barrios, had applied for asylum to escape political persecution, his attorney argued, saying that he was falsely accused of being connected to Tren de Aragua because of a tattoo on his arm.
The attorney said the tattoo honoured the football team Real Madrid.
The flights - which Mr Barrios and others were aboard - were halted by Judge Boasberg verbally over the weekend. Any flights currently in the air were to be turned back.
But the White House said the planes were already in international airspace, arguing that the judge's order was therefore invalid.