As a former Justice Department (DOJ) ethics attorney, I was ousted for saying no to something questionable the government wanted to do, namely a harsh interrogation of an American captured in Afghanistan after 9/11 without his counsel present. So it is distressing to now read that the department has placed one of its top immigration lawyers on leave for failing to follow questionable orders.
The apparent infraction of the senior career attorney, Erez Reuveni, is that he truthfully conceded in court that the transfer of a Maryland man to an El Salvadoran gulag — despite a court order allowing the man to stay in the U.S. — was erroneous. Reuvani is among several recent high-level career officials who’ve suffered adverse personnel actions, including termination, for refusing to comply with a directive from Trump or his team to take an action the DOJ official determines to be illegal, unethical or both.
