(NewsNation) — The Trump administration’s deportation flights to El Salvador remain at the center of a federal government showdown.
District Judge James E. Boasberg has given the Justice Department until noon on Thursday to share details on the flights he tried to block, which transported more than 250 alleged Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members over the weekend.
The judge wants to know, down to the minute, when the planes took off, when they hit international airspace, when they landed, when deportees were transferred out of U.S. custody, and just how many of them were actually deported using the Alien Enemies Act.
Boasberg originally asked for information by noon on Wednesday, but decided to give the government “an additional 24 hours to consider whether to invoke the state-secrets privilege.”
By asking for answers, Boasberg is looking to pinpoint if the Trump administration knowingly ignored his orders to halt the flights, which the American Civil Liberties Union argues occurred.
Overnight, President Donald Trump on social media defended the flights: “If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!”
DOJ responds to Boasberg’s Wednesday deadline
Prior to Wednesday’s scrapped deadline, the Justice Department pushed back against the request, arguing that the court has no authority to even ask questions about the flights.
“The Court has now spent more time trying to ferret out information about the Government’s flight schedules and relations with foreign countries than it did in investigating the facts before certifying the class action in this case,” the DOJ said in part.
“That observation reflects how upside-down this case has become, as digressive micromanagement has outweighed consideration of the case’s legal issues.”
Deportation flight judge’s first information request
Trump’s DOJ pushed back on Boasberg’s information order Tuesday, maintaining “there is no justification to order the provision of additional information” regarding the flights “and that doing so would be inappropriate.”
The DOJ said sharing that information would reveal sensitive national security and foreign relations information.
Some details did emerge from Tuesday’s request, however. A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official revealed a third flight took off after Boasberg’s written order.
The official said that flight only had deportees with Title 8 final removal orders, not alleged gang members. For that reason, the agency argues the plane didn’t have to turn around.
ICE also said there are at least another 250 people in the Venezuelan gang who could end up in their custody — and if they do, they too could be deported.
Chief justice rebukes Trump’s call to impeach Judge Boasberg
The back-and-forth prompted Trump to call for Boasberg’s impeachment. The DOJ has also asked the D.C. Federal Appeals Court to remove Boasberg from the case.
U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare public statement Tuesday in response to Trump’s directive.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose,” Roberts said.
It would take a two-thirds vote from the Senate to remove a judge — which the Republican Party does not have.
Boasberg, confirmed in 2011 with a 96-0 vote, has resolved secret grand jury disputes that arose during the special counsel investigations into Trump, overseen improvements after the Trump-Russia investigation into how the DOJ conducts national security surveillance and handled his share of sentencings for rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.