A federal appeals court on Friday temporarily halted contempt proceedings ordered by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, as the Trump administration seeks to block testimony from two Justice Department witnesses.
In a 2–1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an administrative stay in Boasberg’s inquiry into whether senior Trump officials willfully “violated” a March 15 emergency order tied to the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador.
Judges Neomi Rao and Justin Walker said the pause is intended to give the court time to consider the administration’s emergency mandamus petition and stay request, stressing the order “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits.”
The stay temporarily blocks scheduled testimony from a current and a former Justice Department official. In court filings, the Justice Department called the contempt inquiry an overreach and urged the appeals court to bar the testimony or end the proceedings altogether.
The administration also asked that the case be reassigned from Boasberg, accusing him of retaliatory conduct and warning the inquiry risks escalating into an unnecessary interbranch conflict.
