Last weekend, he traveled between a federal judge and the Trump administration over the timing of two flights, deporting a group of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the extraordinary force of wartime statutes.
Judge James E. Boasberg, in the case, gave the Department of Justice until noon Thursday and to meet his request for information he had hoped for by noon Wednesday.
But two hours before that deadline, Justice Department lawyers made an urgent request to push it back. Judge Boasberg gave the lawyers another 24 hours, but he wrote that the basis they offered due to the delay was “not convincing at first.”
Judge Boasberg asked the government if necessary, under seal, where the plane took off from the US soil, leaving the airspace, and what time it landed. Much of this information appears to be available in public flight databases already, but apparently the judges want official records from the administration.
The judge is trying to determine whether the Trump administration violated an order not to expel immigrants on flights denied by the administration.
(The third plane also flew to El Salvador on Saturday, but is not considered in a dispute between the judge and the regime as officials say immigrants were removed on board under traditional immigration practices, not under wartime laws known as alien enemy laws.)
The Justice Department's request for stay was not the only step to prevent officials from handing over information about their flights recently.
Earlier this week, department lawyers tried to cancel a hearing that was supposed to talk about flights in public courts, and then, in a very unusual move, tried to remove Judge Boasberg from the case altogether.
When they filed an emergency request to stay on Wednesday morning, court documents used bold language to attack Justice Boasberg, who is already facing a call for a bluffing each by President Trump and his Congressional allies. The department's lawyers described the judge's request for flight data as a “Picayune dispute over micromanagement of immaterial fact-finding.”
In addition to asking for a stay, the Justice Department also said it is considering calling what is known as the privilege of state secrets to provide flight information to Judge Boasberg. The doctrine can allow governments to protect information from being used in court when they put national security at risk.
Judge Boasberg pointed out that in an order granting an additional date, if a Justice Department lawyer intends to invoke that privilege, he must explain to him why it is necessary.
“This court is obligated to determine whether the situation is suitable for claims of privilege,” he wrote.
