The Department of Justice has put an attorney who worked on the case of a Salvadoran national mistakenly deported from the United States on paid leave.
Erez Reuveni, a DOJ attorney for nearly 15 years, was suspended with pay for “engaging in conduct prejudicial to your client” and failing to “follow a directive from your superiors,” according to a letter sent to him from the DOJ.
Reuveni represented the Trump administration on Friday at a hearing where a federal judge ruled that Trump officials violated immigration law by deporting Kilmar Abrego-Garcia to a mega-prison in El Salvador. Trump officials must now “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego-Garcia’s return by Monday night after they admitted in court filings that his deportation was an “administrative error.”
In the hearing, however, Reuveni was hesitant about the Trump administration’s own case, saying, “Our only arguments are jurisdictional. … He should not have been sent to El Salvador.”
When he was questioned why the United States couldn’t ask for Abrego-Garcia’s return, Reuveni said, “The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question.”
In a statement issued on Saturday, Attorney General Pam Bondi suggested Reuveni did not adequately represent the Trump administration.
“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences,” Bondi said.
Earlier Saturday, lawyers for the DOJ asked the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to immediately pause the judge’s order, arguing that it cannot force the U.S. or El Salvador to comply with the transfer.
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“A judicial order that forces the Executive to engage with a foreign power in a certain way, let alone compel a certain action by a foreign sovereign, is constitutionally intolerable,” the lawyers wrote.
The appeals court asked Abrego-Garcia’s lawyers to respond to the government’s filing by Sunday afternoon.
