‘Who on God’s Green Earth Is She To Say That?’ Ex-Prosecutor Rips Karoline Leavitt for Thumbing Nose at Judge
Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann hammered Karoline Leavitt on Monday after the White House press secretary said a judge cannot order the Trump administration to return deported migrants to the U.S.
On Saturday, President Donald Trump deported more than 250 migrants to El Salvador. The White House alleges that most of the migrants were members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang and says the rest belonged to MS-13. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the deportations halted on Saturday, only to be told the planes carrying the migrants were in mid-flight. Boasberg ordered the government to call the aircraft back to the U.S., but the order wasn’t heeded.
In response, Leavitt said, “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrying foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
On Monday’s Deadline: White House on MSNBC, host Nicolle Wallace asked Weissmann, “Is a constitutional crisis upon us?”
“The answer is yes,” the MSNBC legal analyst replied. “I’m more concerned by the statements coming from the… press secretary saying no judge can do this. I’m sorry, who on God’s green Earth is she to say that? That’s what the courts are for. [Attorney General] Pam Bondi… [is] free to criticize the judge in terms of she thinks he’s wrong. She is saying that we’re appealing it. All of that is fair game. But she went further. And she said that he is, by his ruling, supporting terrorists. That is the first line of her statement. That is from the Attorney General of the United States. And so to me, it’s those comments that are leading to that constitutional crisis.”
Weissmann slammed the Trump administration over the lack of due process before the deportations, stating that as a former criminal defendant, the president should respect it.
“And of all people to be understanding of defendant’s rights and the right to a hearing and that you shouldn’t take executive action as being the end-all and be-all, it should be defendant Donald Trump,” he said. “He was a defendant in four criminal cases. If there’s anybody who should know and understand and respect due process of law, it should be him because he was himself protected by it.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
