Justice Department lawyer fired over deportation case joins group opposing Trump policies
By Mike Scarcella
WASHINGTON, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A former top U.S. Justice Department immigration lawyer who was fired in April after telling a judge the Trump administration mistakenly deported a man to El Salvador has joined a liberal advocacy group leading lawsuits against key White House policies.
Erez Reuveni, former acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, is joining Democracy Forward as senior counsel after 15 years at the Justice Department, the group said Tuesday.
After he was fired, Reuveni filed whistleblower disclosures asserting that a top Justice Department official who is now serving on a U.S. appeals court had pressured department attorneys to defy court orders to carry out mass deportations of people living in the U.S. illegally. The former official, Emil Bove, has denied advising the Trump administration to defy court orders.
Reuveni was among a wave of career DOJ lawyers who quit or were sidelined as litigation mounted over immigration and parts of U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda. Some opponents of the administration have accused it of pushing legal boundaries in its claims of executive power.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Reuveni's move on Tuesday, and the White House had no immediate comment.
Reuveni, in a statement, said he was joining Democracy Forward “as the Department of Justice turns its back on the Constitution and the rule of law” and that he wanted to “be on the side fighting for the people.”
Democracy Forward’s president and chief executive, Skye Perryman, in a statement said Reuveni showed "integrity in refusing to allow political pressure to override his ethical obligation as an attorney to be candid with and not lie to a federal court.”
Reuveni previously worked at large U.S. law firm Morrison & Foerster and served as a law clerk for Judge Jon Newman on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Mark Wolf of the District of Massachusetts.
Wolf resigned from the Massachusetts federal court earlier this month, writing in The Atlantic that he wanted to be free to speak out against what he called abuses by the Trump administration.
Read more:
Trump judicial nominee pressured DOJ to defy court on deportations, whistleblower says
Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit
Top Washington lawyer creates new firm to defend officials targeted by Trump
US sidelines DOJ lawyer involved in deportation case, which judge calls 'wholly lawless'
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