The Trump administration’s actions have been called “lawless” by multiple federal judges. Three courts are probing whether officials engaged in criminal contempt.
Our system still has checks and balances: One is journalism that empowers the People.
In nearly two decades as a legal journalist, I struggle to remember any time before this year when a federal judge warned sitting U.S. government officials that they faced a risk of criminal contempt.
Now, sitting Trump administration officials have been warned about that outcome in the Alien Enemies Act case in Washington, D.C. and in a Massachusetts case challenging removals to third-party countries like South Sudan. In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Maryland, a judge is investigating possible contempt of court, though it is unclear whether it will be civil or criminal.
None of the U.S. District Court judges presiding over those cases — Paula Xinis, James Boasberg and Brian Murphy — have issued formal findings of criminal contempt, but all of them have opened inquiries that could result in that outcome. House Republicans appear to be so nervous about the prospect that they snuck a provision into the budget bill they narrowly passed in the dead of night to curtail judges’ power to control their courtroom.
The House bill passed by just one vote, and it heads to the Senate next.
Across the country, people have called their reps to oppose the GOP’s attempt to neutralize a key check on Trump’s power.
On Wednesday, former U.S. Attorney turned prominent legal commentator Harry Litman and I discussed the latest cloud of criminal contempt hanging over Trump officials.
Our Substack Live took place minutes after a federal judge issued the latest in a series of findings that the Trump administration violated court orders.
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