DOJ Whistleblower Details Being Ordered to Lie in Court About Kilmar Abrego García

A former US Department of Justice lawyer on Sunday described how an appointee of President Donald Trump told him to lie about Kilmar Abrego García’s supposed ties to the gang MS-13 after he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year.

During an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes," whistleblower Erez Reuveni said that he was told by a superior at DOJ to argue in court against bringing Abrego García back to the US on the grounds that he was an MS-13 member and a "terrorist."

Reuveni said that he refused to sign onto this strategy because the claims being made about Abrego García were flatly untrue.

"That is not correct," he said of the claims. "That is not factually correct. It is not legally correct. That is, that is a lie. And I cannot sign my name to that brief."

Reuveni went on to say that, even if Abrego García had been a gang member, his right to due process was still being violated by the Trump DOJ.

"What matters here is that they did everything they did to him in violation of his due process rights," he said. "What's to stop them if they decide they don't like you anymore, to say you're a criminal, you're a member of MS-13, you're a terrorist, what's to stop them from sending in some DOJ attorney at the direction of DOJ leadership to delay, to filibuster, and if necessary, to lie?"

Reuveni also discussed how the Trump DOJ had defied court orders by rushing to send a plane full of purportedly undocumented immigrants to be detained in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a facility that for years has drawn criticism for alleged systematic human rights abuses.

Specifically, he said that former Trump DOJ official Emil Bove—who was confirmed to a lifetime seat as a federal judge earlier this year, even after Reuveni first spoke out against him—said during a meeting in February that the department was to not let anything interfere with the planes that were transporting the immigrants to El Salvador, even if it meant defying direct court orders.

The very next day, government lawyer Drew Ensign, who had been at that meeting, told Judge James Boasberg in court that he had no idea whether the government was planning imminently to fly the planes out of the country. Reuveni said this shocked him because it was impossible to believe that Ensign sincerely had no idea that the government was planning to fly the planes out that very day.

"It is the highest, most egregious violation of a lawyer's code of ethics to mislead a court with intent," Reuveni emphasized. "We really did tell the court, screw you. We really did just tell the courts, we don't care about your order. You can't tell us what to do. That was just a real gut punch."

"60 Minutes" correspondent Scott Pelley noted during the interview that while Reuveni previously spoke out about Bove's directive to disregard court orders, the interview on Sunday marked the first time since then that the former DOJ lawyer had broadcast his allegations in a TV appearance.

Reuveni acknowledged that the interview brought up safety concerns for him and his family.

"At the same time, I think about what we're losing in this moment, I think about why I went to the Department of Justice—to do justice. I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution," he said. "I would not be faithfully abiding by my oath if I stayed silent right now.”