A U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney, fired earlier this year after claiming in a legal filing that Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was an “administrative error,” filed a whistleblower complaint Tuesday, alleging the agency planned to conceal information from judges and deliberately defy court orders.
Erez Reuveni on Tuesday filed a complaint claiming he attempted to advise his former client, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), that it was planning to engage in illegal activity in three separate immigration court cases, but was “thwarted, fired, and publicly disparaged” for his efforts by the Trump administration.
According to The New York Times, which first reported the existence of Reuveni’s complaint, the former DOJ lawyer specifically claimed that Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove III told DOJ employees that he was “willing to ignore court orders” in order to achieve President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda.
Reuveni claimed the plan for defiance was first announced by Bove while attorneys considered their response to lawsuits filed over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants identified as members of Central American gangs recently designated terrorist organizations, which was later paused by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts ‘f*** you’ and ignore any such court order,” according to the complaint. “Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room.”
The complaint states that, despite Bove’s purported suggestion, Reuveni left the meeting convinced the DOJ would instruct DHS to follow court orders. It also revealed Reuveni discussed the meeting with his supervisor, August Flentje, who was suspended from his DOJ position around the time Reuveni was fired.
In addition to the Abrego Garcia lawsuit and the use of the Alien Enemies Act, the former DOJ attorney also claimed to have witnessed similar intent to disobey court orders in the lawsuit, which sought to prohibit the Trump administration from deporting illegal immigrants to third countries. The Trump administration won that case at the Supreme Court on Monday.
Reuveni is the same attorney who cautioned the Trump administration on its plan to keep Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, according to internal DOJ communications published last month by The Times.
“I do not think the court will receive the suggestion it’s fine to keep him there while we sort this out with any sympathy,” Reuveni reportedly wrote, chiding the DHS, “the longer he stays there, the more difficult it becomes for us to hold the line on this is not our custody just paid through El Salvador.”
In his legal filings on the Abrego Garcia case, Reuveni notably did not reference the questionable inclusion of “Guatemala” within Abrego Garcia’s 2019 final order of deportation. Although Abrego Garcia has since obtained rulings claiming the order applies to El Salvador, it specifically stated that his family moved to Guatemala and that he sought protection from being deported to that country.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi stated on June 6 that President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the United States after the DOJ produced a sealed indictment accusing the El Salvadoran of smuggling illegal immigrants over nearly a decade, including women, children, and gang members.
The Tennessee Star was first to report that Abrego Garcia was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) trooper in November 2022, and despite the THP suspecting Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking, the “Biden-era FBI” ordered the troopers to release Abrego Garcia.
Once returned to Tennessee, Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the criminal indictment.
However, his ability to face trial may be inhibited by a magistrate judge’s Sunday decision to deny the DOJ a detention hearing, signaling his likely transfer to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), under whose custody the DOJ said in a legal filing, Abrego Garcia will likely be deported.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kilmar Abrego-Garcia” by Murray Osorio PLLC.
