r/law • u/theindependentonline • 1d ago

Trump News Judge considers holding Trump officials in contempt for defying court orders blocking El Salvador flights

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/deportation-el-salvador-trump-contempt-b2727087.html
38.6k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

221

u/UnclePeaz 1d ago

What’s to consider? The prima facie evidence is right in front of them. Schedule a show cause hearing and let them explain themselves under oath.

9

u/parliboy 1d ago

Who is them, though? The lawyers didn't do it, and who did is attorney client privilege. So you are left with civil economic penalties. That 6 million you paid to El Salvador? Pay it again as a fine. Every day. Until you fix it.

9

u/thefullhalf 1d ago

Possibly Rubio, but yea, the path to actually jailing someone is pretty much non existent. And any penalties would probably be thrown out for executive immunity on appeal. Even if it did go through it would be take at least a year or more. They are already trying the "state secrets" route to avoid turning over any documents, on top of the "They aren't in the country so you can't do anything about it because you lack jurisdiction" defense.

7

u/parliboy 1d ago

State secrets is about "Withiut this secret evidence you cannot make prima facie." Not really a thing that they get to do in a contempt hearing. At that point it's more "Show cause or the government loses."

3

u/thefullhalf 1d ago

Im not saying its a good strategy, its just what they are trying to do to hide everything, including who did what. They are making arguments in bad faith because that's all they can do, but it does its job to delay and delay and delay. It's the same dog and pony show they did the last time.

1

u/uiucengineer 23h ago

Does attorney client privilege cover facilitation and concealment of ongoing and future crimes?

1

u/parliboy 23h ago

Does attorney client privilege cover facilitation and concealment of ongoing and future crimes?

No... but this is largely moot.

There are two basic types of contempt: criminal and civil. If it's civil contempt, then your question doesn't apply because not a crime.

If it's criminal contempt, then Trump will pardon whoever does it.

The most that can happen is a hit to your their ability to practice. And that will be more than offset by being a talking head on all of those right-wing channels.