of
Justice
From
all
accounts,
Bari
Weiss
—
the
newly
installed
head
of
CBS
News
—
won’t
rest
until
she
turns
the
storied
news
organization
into
a
sycophantic
Trump
administration
mouthpiece.
But,
while
that
day
is
coming,
it
is
not
today.
Or,
perhaps
more
accurately,
it
wasn’t
yesterday.
Yesterday,
the
venerable
news
program
60
Minutes
featured
the
first
interview
with
DOJ
whistleblower
Erez
Reuveni.
The
former
career
attorney
at
the
Department
of
Justice
spoke
out
about
the
behavior
of
then-senior
DOJ
official
Emil
Bove.
Bove
was
adamant
the
administration’s
plan
to
disappear
people
—
include
Kilmar
Abrego
Garcia
—
to
an
El
Salvadorian
prison
must
continue,
regardless
of
what
any
court
might
say
about
the
matter.
And
he
was
quite
explicit
about
that,
according
to
Reuveni:
Bove
emphasized,
those
planes
need
to
take
off,
no
matter
what.
And
then
after
a
pause,
he
also
told
all
in
attendance,
and
if
some
court
should
issue
an
order
preventing
that,
we
may
have
to
consider
telling
that
court,
‘f***
you.’
And
that
didn’t
sit
well
with
Reuveni,
saying,
“I
felt
like
a
bomb
had
gone
off.
Here
is
the
number
three
official
using
expletives
to
tell
career
attorneys
that
we
may
just
have
to
consider
disregarding
federal
court
orders.”
The
report
also
details
how
others
in
the
DOJ
were
much
more
comfortable
adhering
to
Bove’s
advice:
The
next
day,
Saturday,
lawyers
for
the
prisoners
sued.
Judge
James
Boasberg
called
a
hearing
and
asked
government
lawyer,
Drew
Ensign,
whether
the
planes
were
leaving
that
weekend.
Erez
Reuveni:
And
Ensign
says
to
Boasberg,
I
don’t
know.
Now
Ensign
was
at
the
same
meeting
that
I
was
at
the
day
before,
where
we
were
told
in
no
uncertain
terms
that
planes
were
taking
off
over
the
weekend,
that
those
planes
needed
to
take
off
no
matter
what.
And
he
says,
I
don’t
know.Reuveni
says
that
moment
in
court
was
“stunning.”Erez
Reuveni:
It
is
the
highest,
most
egregious
violation
of
a
lawyer’s
code
of
ethics
to
mislead
a
court
with
intent.We
don’t
know
Ensign’s
intent.
It
was
during
the
hearing
that
the
planes
took
off.
The judge
issued
an
order and
immediately,
Reuveni
emailed
the
agencies
involved.
“…the
judge
specifically
ordered
us
to
not
remove
anyone…
and
to
return
anyone
in
the
air.”
But
that
didn’t
happen.
Instead,
more
than
five
hours
after
Boasberg’s
order,
the
detainees,
and
other
prisoners
arrived
at
a
maximum-security prison
in
El
Salvador.
Reuveni
said
that
moment
was
a
“gut
punch,”
because
it
meant
the
DOJ
“really
did
tell
the
court,
screw
you.”
Bove
continues
to
downplay
the
allegations,
saying,
“Mr.
Reuveni’s
claims
are
a
mix
of
falsehoods
and
wild
distortions
of
reality.”
Reuveni
was
fired
from
his
job
at
the
DOJ
for
refusing
to
tell
a
judge
Garcia
was
an
MS-13
gang
member
and
terrorist.
He
says
he
told
a
supervisor,
“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.”
Ultimately
Reuveni’s
blowing
the
whistle
amounted
to
little
more
than
a
hill
of
beans
in
this
crazy
world,
because
Bove
was
rewarded
for
his
unflinching
loyalty
to
Donald
Trump’s
agenda
with
a
lifetime
appointment
to
the
Third
Circuit.
Reuveni
acknowledged
the
personal
risks
in
coming
forward
with
his
account
of
the
lawlessness
of
the
current
DOJ.
But
he
said,
“I
took
an
oath
to
uphold
and
defend
the
Constitution.
I
would
not
be
faithfully
abiding
by
my
oath
if
I
stayed
silent
right
now.”
Because
Bari
Weiss
hasn’t
truly
left
her
fingerprint
on
60
Minutes
(yet),
we
get
this
very
dark
look
at
what
it’s
like
at
the
DOJ
in
2025.
Kathryn
Rubino
is
a
Senior
Editor
at
Above
the
Law,
host
of
The
Jabot
podcast,
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
AtL
tipsters
are
the
best,
so
please
connect
with
her.
Feel
free
to
email
her
with
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments
and
follow
her
on
Twitter
@Kathryn1 or
Mastodon
@[email protected].