A federal judge said Thursday he will decide whether to find the Trump administration in contempt of court, indicating the U.S. government may have “acted in bad faith” in a high-profile legal challenge over a presidential proclamation to remove migrants based on the Alien Enemies Act.
Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, at a hearing, pressed Trump administration attorneys about the timing of flights last month that carried migrants to a notorious El Salvador prison and his temporary restraining order to stop those removals.
“It seems to me there is a fair likelihood … that the government acted in bad faith throughout that day,” Boasberg said. “If you really believed everything you did that day was legal and could survive a court challenge, I can’t believe you ever would have operated in the way you did.”
