this Ministry of Justice It is considering invoking state secret privileges in its ongoing court battle for deportation by the Trump administration to El Salvador, a tool that allows them to withhold certain information for national security purposes, said Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg in a statement filed Friday morning that he knew cabinet-level discussions invoked state secret privileges.
Blanche said citing privileges “is a serious matter that requires careful consideration of national security and diplomatic relations and cannot be properly adopted within 24 hours.”
The statement comes ahead of the deadline for Boasberg on Thursday, when the court submits information on deportation to Venezuelan nationals El Salvador On the weekend, around the same time, he issued an emergency court order that temporarily prevented the Trump administration from doing so.
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Attorneys Todd Blanche, Emil Bove and John Lauro, at the time-generation President Donald Trump, left federal court in Washington, D.C. on September 5, 2024 (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Boasberg said in a bubble order Thursday night that neither the Trump administration has been able to comply with the noon message deadline—even if he gave the administration the option of sealed information, noting that the court issued only six paragraphs of declarations to a district ice official in Texas, saying the Trump administration is considering “litigation” cases “free case litigation.”
Boasberg condemned the declaration as a “serious deficit”, noting that on Thursday, regional ice officials could not be spoken to the court’s senior cabinet to inform the discussions and suggested that middle and senior federal government should do so.
Blanche’s application was just hours before the government lawyer In court Friday Testified in the afternoon before Boasberg’s hearing on the motion to evacuate the case.
Boasberg said in a bubble order on Thursday that the government “agained its obligations again” and that he did not submit materials for his request for flights even as he extended the deadline and said the materials could be placed under a seal.
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President Donald Trump spoke with Pam Bondi at the Justice Department in Washington, D.C. on Friday, March 14, 2025. (via AP pool)
It is controversial whether the government failed to comply with Saturday’s emergency restraining order, which prevented the Trump administration from using 1798 wartime laws Venezuelan nationalityincluding alleged members of Aragua Gang Tren De Aragua. Boasberg also ordered any flights in the air to return to the United States immediately.
However, a few hours later, the plane carrying hundreds of American immigrants, including Venezuelan nationals, arrived in El Salvador under relevant laws.
In the days since then, government lawyers refused Share information in court Regarding the deportation flight, and whether the immigrant’s plane (or aircraft) intentionally leaves U.S. soil after a judge ordered them not to do so, citing national security protection.
Boasberg had previously asked government lawyers to submit information on how many planes left the U.S. on Saturday, deporting people, “based on the basis of” announcing how many people were on each plane, what planes landed on the plane, when each plane took off from the U.S. and where it took off.
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He had previously warned the Trump administration of consequences this week if it was to violate his orders. The Trump administration challenged it in the Court of Appeal Monday.
Still, at least one plane of deported immigrant landed in El Salvador later that night. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X: “Oops, it’s too late.”
