DOJ seeks to delay releasing deportation flight information, saying judge is "continuing to beat a dead horse"
The Justice Department is mounting a last-minute bid to avoid providing a federal judge with more information about deportations the Trump administration carried out last weekend under the Alien Enemies Act, saying the request could impact national security.
"The pending questions are grave encroachments on core aspects of absolute and unreviewable Executive Branch authority relating to national security, foreign relations, and foreign policy," the DOJ told Judge James Boasberg in a filing Wednesday morning.
The emergency filing from Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top DOJ officials to Boasberg comes just hours before a noon deadline for the government to provide the judge, under seal, with answers to a slew of questions about the deportations — including the exact timing of when two planes carrying migrants took off from US soil and left US airspace on Saturday, as well as the specific times individuals deported pursuant to President Donald Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act were transferred out of US custody that day.
"Continuing to beat a dead horse solely for the sake of prying from the Government legally immaterial facts and wholly within a sphere of core functions of the Executive Branch is both purposeless and frustrating to the consideration of the actual legal issues at stake in this case," the DOJ wrote in its emergency request.
The seven-page filing escalates an ongoing dispute between Trump's Justice Department and Boasberg, an appointee of former President Barack Obama and the current chief judge of the federal trial-level court in Washington, DC.
The officials told Boasberg he should pause the noon deadline in part to give them time to decide whether to "invoke the state secrets privilege" to evade compliance with his request.
www.foxnews.com
