Andy McCarthy, National Review editor and Fox News contributor, unleashed a blistering attack on President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice for deliberately defying a judge’s order, calling the move a “terrible legal strategy.”
McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. Attorney, was reacting to the Trump administration’s decision to go ahead with deporting hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of ties to the foreign terrorist group Tren de Aragua. He argued it was “near certain” that the administration willfully ignored a clear order from Chief Judge James Boasberg, who had demanded that the government suspend the deportations. Boasberg even went so far as to instruct the DOJ to turn around any deportation flights that were already in the air and return the detainees to the U.S.
McCarthy hammered the administration for its “confrontational” and “gratuitously provocative” behavior toward the judge, pointing out that the DOJ refused to disclose any national security or operational details related to the deportations.
“It should go without saying that, at the Justice Department, the rule of the road is that, in the absence of a true emergency, the government complies with judicial orders, even if the orders are patently lawless, until it can get them reversed,” McCarthy wrote. “It’s all right to complain bitterly about court orders, but they are not to be ignored, much less knowingly flouted.”
McCarthy speculated that the Trump administration might have been looking for a confrontation with Boasberg, an Obama appointee, to turn the clash into a political weapon. By doing so, the Trump team could spin the issue as “Democrats and Democrat-appointed judges siding with alien lawbreakers over Americans.”
“Usually, the government tries to prevent fireworks in its dealings with the federal courts,” McCarthy noted. “Here, the government seems to be intentionally instigating fireworks. That seems like a terrible legal strategy, but it may be winning politics . . . at least for a little while.”
This isn’t the first time McCarthy has gone after Trump. After the January 6 Capitol riots, he accused Trump of committing an “impeachable offense” and inciting an “insurrectionist mob.” McCarthy also criticized Trump during his indictment over mishandling government documents, calling his claims of a “witch hunt” “hollow.”
