- - Trump officials spared contempt ruling over Venezuelan deportations

Dan Morrison, USA TODAY August 8, 2025 at 9:50 PM

WASHINGTON − A federal appeals court overturned a judge's ruling finding probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court over their handling of the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants under a centuries-old wartime law.

But a dissenting appeals judge warned that litigants − the Trump administration in this case − shouldn't be encouraged to "defy court orders."

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found in April that officials could face criminal contempt charges for willfully disregarding his March 15 order barring the deportations to El Salvador of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act without the chance to challenge their removals.

The Trump administration appealed. On August 8, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals sided with the government by a 2-1 vote.

More: Judge weighs disciplinary action for DOJ lawyers in Venezuelan deportations

"The District Court's order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses," Circuit Judge Gregory Katsas wrote in an opinion.

"And it implicates an unsettled issue whether the judiciary may impose criminal contempt for violating injunctions entered without jurisdiction," Katsas wrote.

The Venezuelans, whom the government alleged were members of the Tren de Aragua gang, were deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador built to hold terrorists.

Boasberg, a prominent Washington, D.C., judge who has drawn President Donald Trump's ire, said during a court hearing that a recent whistleblower complaint had strengthened the argument that Trump administration officials engaged in criminal contempt of court by failing to bring deportation flights back to the United States.

Circuit Judge Cornelia P.L. Pillard, in her dissent, wrote that the Trump administration should have gone to court to overturn Boasberg's orders, rather than ignore them.

"Our system of courts cannot long endure if disappointed litigants defy court orders with impunity rather than legally challenge them," Pillard wrote. "That is why willful disobedience of a court order is punishable as criminal contempt."

Contributing: Reuters; Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump officials dodge contempt ruling over Venezuelan deportations

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