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(WASHINGTON) — A day after a federal judge ordered the Justice Department to provide details about two deportation flights to El Salvador over the weekend, the Trump administration is escalating its legal battle against him.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens under the Alien Enemies Act and ordered that they turn around two flights the administration said were deporting migrant gang members to El Salvador.

After officials failed to turn the flights around, Judge Boasberg demanded that they provide more information about the flights, under seal, but DOJ attorneys refused, citing national security concerns.

According to a court filing Wednesday morning, DOJ attorneys say they are considering invoking the state secrets privilege to deny the judge that information.

Despite signaling a willingness, in a filing Tuesday, to provide the information if it’s shielded from public view, the administration said Wednesday they should not be forced to provide the information privately.

“The underlying premise of these orders, including the most recent one requiring the production of these facts ex parte today at noon, is that the Judicial Branch is superior to the Executive Branch, particularly on non-legal matters involving foreign affairs and national security,” they wrote. “The Government disagrees. The two branches are coequal, and the Court’s continued intrusions into the prerogatives of the Executive Branch, especially on a non-legal and factually irrelevant matter, should end.”

President Donald Trump lashed out again at Boasberg Wednesday morning in a post on his Truth Social platform.

“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Trump wrote.

The escalation comes after Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment.

“Many people have called for his impeachment, the impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is, but he’s radical left,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.

“He was Obama-appointed, and he actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders, that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”

In the wake of Trump’s call for impeachment, Chief Justice Roberts issued an unusual statement of rebuke.

“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in the statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Congress can impeach a judge if a simple majority is reached in the House. If the articles were taken up and ultimately clear the House, the Senate would need to hold a trial. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in the upper chamber to convict a judge.

It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for members of Congress to file articles of impeachment against a judge.

Trump, meanwhile, brushed off Roberts’ criticism, saying, “He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s attempt to ban transgender people from military service continues an unfortunate history of the armed services excluding marginalized people from the “privilege of serving,” a federal judge wrote Tuesday night.

In a 79-page decision, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes blocked the Trump administration from enacting the policy and offered a scathing rebuke of the Pentagon’s development of the policy.

“The Court’s opinion is long, but its premise is simple. In the self-evident truth that all people are created equal, all means all. Nothing more. And certainly nothing less,” Judge Reyes wrote.

A Defense Department memo last month said the Pentagon will be required to form a procedure to identify transgender troops by March 26 and separate them from the military by June 25, unless they receive an exemption. This includes service members receiving some form of treatment or hormones for that diagnosis of gender dysphoria, as well as those who have gone through a gender-affirming surgery.

According to Reyes, the Trump administration failed to justify the policy by articulating its impact on military readiness, harmed thousands of transgender servicemembers, and likely violated the United States Constitution.

“The President has the power—indeed the obligation—to ensure military readiness. At times, however, leaders have used concern for military readiness to deny marginalized persons the privilege of serving,” Reyes wrote.

“[Fill in the blank] is not fully capable and will hinder combat effectiveness; [fill in the blank] will disrupt unit cohesion and so diminish military effectiveness; allowing [fill in the blank] to serve will undermine training, make it impossible to recruit successfully, and disrupt military order,” she added. “First minorities, then women in combat, then gays filled in that blank. Today, however, our military is stronger and our Nation is safer for the millions of such blanks (and all other persons) who serve.”

While the judge acknowledged that the judiciary should generally defer to military leadership, she said that permitting the policy to be enforced would be her following the Pentagon “blindly” after it justified the policy with “pure conjecture” during multiple court hearings.

Anticipating the Trump administration’s appeal, Reyes delayed her decision from taking effect until Friday so the Department of Justice could ask a higher court to stay her order.

“The Court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes. We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect. For, as Elmer Davis observed, ‘[t]his nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.’ The Court extends its appreciation to every current servicemember and veteran. Thank you,” the judge concluded her opinion.

There are currently 4,240 active-duty, National Guard and Reserve service members who have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a defense official previously told ABC News.

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(WASHINGTON) — The National Archives on Tuesday released thousands of pages of declassified records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.

The records were posted to the National Archives’ website, joining recently released records posted in 2023, 2022, 2021 and 2017-2018.

Most of what the government released tonight is not new — in fact, much of what has attracted attention on social media and in news reports has long been in the public domain, except for minor redactions, such as the blacking out of personally-identifiable information of CIA sources or employees, including names and addresses, which have now been disclosed.

But the newly-declassified versions of these documents also shed light on granular details of mid-20th century espionage that the CIA had fiercely fought to keep secret. President Biden and President Trump had accepted those arguments, until now.

Tuesday’s initial release contained 1,123 records comprising 32,000 pages. A subsequent release on Tuesday night contained 1,059 records comprising 31,400 additional pages and key takeaways from the newly released tranche of previously classified records.

Surveillance

Several of the newly-released pages detail how the CIA went about tapping telephones in Mexico City between in December 1962 and January 1963 to monitor the communications of the Soviets and Cubans at their diplomatic facilities, which Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald visited in the months before the assassination.

The previously-redacted pages spell out specific instructions for CIA operatives on how to wiretap, including the use of certain chemicals to create markings on telephone devices that could only be seen by other spies under UV light.

For decades, the CIA has urged the continued secrecy of these details out of fear that they would reveal the methods of the agency’s spy craft.

Another newly-disclosed portion details CIA surveillance of Soviet embassies in Mexico City and efforts to recruit double agents from Soviet agency personnel — and reveal the names and positions of those who were recruited.

The CIA officials writing these memos tout the efficacy of their efforts, with one trumpeting, “I cannot help but feel that we are buying a great deal for our money in this project.”

The memo also details the CIA’s surveillance of an American man described as a Communist living in Mexico. The bulk of the memo is a listing of phone numbers that were tapped by the U.S. government. This file has long been sought by researchers due to Oswald’s visits to the Soviet and Cuban embassies in Mexico City, but the document includes no mention of Oswald by name.

Cuba and Castro

The material shed new light on U.S. covert activities in Cuba targeting revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.

Unredacted text of a June 1961 memo on the CIA — sent to Kennedy by aide Arthur Schlesinger Jr. — contained harsh criticism of the spy agency just months after its backing of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion.

Some of the other documents also detailed operations to potentially overthrow Castro. One 1964 document showed that two intelligence assets discussed potentially assassinating Castro under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson.

The document said the CIA was allegedly “formerly in favor of such a plan,” but it was “shelved” due to the opposition of Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.

Another previously released document detailed RFK being briefed on potential plans to kill Castro. “RFK asks to be told before the CIA works with the Mafia again,” a footnote of the document read.

CIA foreign footprint

Schlesinger had also argued to Kennedy that the CIA’s reliance on “controlled American sources” had been encroaching on the traditional functions of the State Department, and that the CIA may have been seeking to infiltrate the politics of America’s allies.

At the U.S. embassy in Paris, for example, Schlesinger wrote that the “CIA has even sought to monopolize contact with certain French political personalities, among them the President of the National Assembly,”

Newly declassified portions of Schlesinger’s notes also revealed the number of CIA sources in Austria and Chile.

RFK killing

The release included 77 documents regarding RFK, with most of the documents relating to his activities as attorney general and senator, totaling about 2,500 pages.

Of those, only two directly mentioned his assassination in 1968. An intelligence document from 1968 — previously released in 2018 — discusses how RFK’s assassination stoked interest in his brother’s assassination and New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison’s investigation into the matter.

“The forthcoming trial of Sirhan, accused of the murder of Senator Kennedy, can be expected to cause a new wave of criticism and suspicion against the United States, claiming once more the existence of a sinister ‘political murder conspiracy,'” the dispatch said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is lashing out again against the top federal judge of the Washington, D.C. circuit, who issued an order stopping deportation flights of alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act.

“If a President doesn’t have the right to throw murderers, and other criminals, out of our Country because a Radical Left Lunatic Judge wants to assume the role of President, then our Country is in very big trouble, and destined to fail!” Trump wrote early Wednesday morning in a post on Truth Social, reacting to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order on Saturday to stop deportation flights that were already in the air.

It also comes after Trump called for Boasberg’s impeachment.

“Many people have called for his impeachment, the impeachment of this judge. I don’t know who the judge is, but he’s radical left,” Trump told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham in a Fox News interview on Tuesday.

“He was Obama-appointed, and he actually said we shouldn’t be able to take criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the worst people, gang members, gang leaders, that we shouldn’t be allowed to take them out of our country,” Trump said. “That’s not for a local judge to be making that determination.”

In the wake of Trump’s call for impeachment, Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts issued an unusual statement rebuking the move.”For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in the statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”

Congress can impeach a judge if a simple majority is reached in the House. If the articles were taken up and ultimately clear the House, the Senate would need to hold a trial. It would require a two-thirds majority vote in the upper chamber to convict a judge.

It’s rare, but not unprecedented, for members of Congress to file articles of impeachment against a judge.

Trump, meanwhile, brushed off Roberts’ criticism, saying, “He didn’t mention my name in the statement. I just saw it quickly. He didn’t mention my name.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Federal watchdogs have raised concerns about the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control system for decades, an ABC News analysis of government reports found.

In the weeks since the fatal plane crash over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA is hoping to deploy a “brand-new air traffic control system” within the next four years.

“This should have happened four years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago,” Duffy said. “Right now, we’re at a point where we can actually do it, and we can do it really fast again.”

Red flags regarding the FAA’s handling of air traffic control matters have spanned Republican and Democratic administrations for more than 30 years.

In 1990, Government Accountability Office Transportation Issues Director Kenneth Mead told a congressional subcommittee that although the FAA had made progress, the agency had “inexperience in developing large-scale, highly automated systems” and was “still experiencing problems in modernizing the ATC system.”

“In light of the tremendous levels of F&E [facilities and equipment] funding projected for the next few years, it is crucial that FAA show[s] the Congress, the aviation community, and the flying public that ongoing and future activities will result in demonstrable improvements,” Mead added at the time.

The modifications may have been easier said than done.

“Planned improvements in safety and capacity have been delayed, and the costs, both of maintaining existing technologies and of replacing outdated ATC systems and infrastructure, have grown,” a 2005 GAO panel found, noting that cultural, technical and budgetary factors constrained or impeded ATC modernization.

“FAA no longer sees its modernization program as a multiyear initiative with a defined end; rather, it now sees the program as an ongoing investment in technological advances designed to improve aviation safety and capacity,” the panel explained.

The Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Transportation, which conducts investigations at DOT divisions such as the FAA, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Federal Transit Administration, took a deep dive into the FAA’s handling of ATC matters multiple times.

Inspector general reports in 2008 and 2012 found that the physical conditions of many ATC facilities were deteriorating, with issues ranging from “poor facility design” to water leaks and ventilation problems.

The 2008 IG report mentioned that the FAA was expected to finish implementing its Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen, by 2025. The GAO posted on its website earlier this month that there was “mixed progress” with NextGen’s implementation.

As the years went on, the investigations into the FAA continued.

In 2015, the IG included the tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on its list of “frequently least efficient” large hub airport towers.

Less than two years later, the IG recognized some improvements made by the FAA to its contingency plans, but found that their ATC facilities “are not yet fully prepared to respond effectively to major system disruptions, in part because of a lack of necessary controller training for these types of emergency events.”

By 2023, concerns over staffing at FAA ATC centers were making headlines.

“FAA has made limited efforts to ensure adequate controller staffing at critical air traffic control facilities,” the IG found at the time, pointing out that the FAA’s Washington Center was authorized to have 21 traffic management coordinators but instead had 13, while the facility was authorized to have 36 operational supervisors but instead had 25.

One of the final federal investigative reports prior to the fatal collision over the Potomac came in September 2024. The GAO made seven recommendations to the FAA, including calling on the agency to report to Congress on how it was handling risks involving “unsustainable and critical systems.”

The FAA “has been slow to modernize the most critical and at-risk systems,” the GAO said at the time. “About one third of FAA ATC systems are considered unsustainable.”

ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Sam Sweeney and Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

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