Trump Administration Is Forcing Prosecutors to Ignore Law, Whistle-Blower Says

A former Justice Department lawyer accused the Trump administration of “thumbing its nose at the courts,” saying his former colleagues were being forced to choose between the president’s agenda and their ethical obligations as attorneys.

In an interview with The New York Times, the lawyer, Erez Reuveni, who filed a detailed whistle-blower claim to the Senate last month, shared his growing sense of alarm as he defended the administration’s aggressive deportation agenda. He said he was willing to testify to Congress or in court about what he described as an intentional effort by the administration to ignore judges and the due process rights of hundreds of migrants.

Mr. Reuveni, speaking publicly for the first time about his experiences, was fired in April after he appeared in court to defend the administration’s mistaken deportation of a man in Maryland, accused of refusing a superior’s directive.

He pointed to the planes of immigrants rapidly flown to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador on March 15, warning that it offered a distressing example of the administration’s disregard for facts and the law. The flights that took off that day also included the Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was initially detained at the prison, known as CECOT.

“If they can do this sort of thing to Abrego Garcia, to 238 people that nobody knows, and send them to CECOT forever with no due process, they can do that to anyone,” said Mr. Reuveni. “It should be deeply, deeply worrisome to anyone who cares about their safety and their liberty, that the government can, without showing evidence to anyone of anything, spirit you away on a plane to wherever, forever.”

He filed his complaint shortly before Emil Bove III, a senior department official, appeared before lawmakers over his nomination to become a federal appeals court judge. Although the administration’s approach has been broadly clear, Mr. Bove and his boss have denied the thrust of Mr. Reuveni’s account. But text messages, phone records and emails viewed by The Times appear to bolster the whistle-blower’s version of events, offering a behind-the-scenes recounting of private meetings and conversations that show Justice Department leaders pressing to take audacious legal risks.