“Fuck You:” Todd Blanche Continues to Flopsweat over Emil Bove’s Contempt
Among the flood of new developments (two sets of communications from Erez Reuveni corroborating his whistleblower complaint: one, two) and developments (DOJ’s continued obfuscation regarding the fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia) detailing DOJ’s abuse of detentions, there are several details that put Todd Blanche in the thick of unlawful efforts to deport men with tattoos.
Fuck You Fuck You Fuck You
The communications Reuveni shared with the Senate Judiciary Committee that were released yesterday confirm that Reuveni has at least two witnesses with whom he discussed the “fuck you” comment Reuveni has attributed to Bove, which Bove, at his confirmation hearing, claimed he couldn’t recall but which he did not deny
For example, Reuveni produced texts between him and an unnamed colleague discussing Drew Ensign’s claimed ignorance of deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act at an emergency hearing before James Boasberg. Reuveni describes that they were “About to enter the find out phase following fuck around.”
Another set of texts reportedly shows August Flentje texting Reuveni an hour before the planes to El Salvador would land, quipping, “guess its time to find out on the “fuck you,” which Reuveni claims is proof that Flentje heard the “fuck you” comment.
Later that day, Reuveni texted his colleague saying, “Guess we are going to say fuck you to the court,” to which the colleague responds, “Well, Pamela Jo Bondi is.”
Another text exhange, from three days later, again with Flentje, shows one of them suggesting they just submit “an emoji of a middle finger as our filing” asking for a stay of his order. “a picayune middle finger.”
So Reuveni has brought the goods showing that he and his colleagues not just heard the “fuck you” comment, but continued to discuss it for several days.
Emil Bove in the thick of things
Reuveni also substantiated his claims about Emil Bove’s role in all this, notably in a substantive text exchange from the day when Todd Blanche first put Reuveni on paid leave. Days earlier, Flentje had texted Reuveni about “a nastygram from Emil Bove.”
On April 5, a few hours after Todd Blanche put Reuveni on paid leave, Flentje confirmed that at the meeting on March 15, he “told our host we would not violate a court order.”
Reuveni glossed that text this way:
The exchange demonstrates that Flentje was at the March 14 meeting during which Bove said the government might have to say “fuck you” to courts and that Flentje sees a connection between that meeting and Mr. Reuveni’s placement on administrative leave.
But the smoking gun putting aspiring Circuit Court Judge Emil Bove at the center of a decision to blow off Judge James Boasberg’s order is this email in which a top Civil Division political appointee, Yaakov Roth (the same guy who would pass on nastygrams from Bove weeks later), confirmed that he had “been told by ODAG that the principal associate deputy attorney general” — PDAAG, meaning Bove — “advised DHS last night that the deplaning of the flights that had departed US airspace prior to the court’s minute order was permissible under the law.”
Reuveni described this email in his complaint, but here he has produced it.
Emil Bove gave the order to defy Boasberg’s order.
Notably, this email is unlike all others in the communications he turned over. It appears to be a paper copy. There are definitely questions about when and how Reuveni obtained all the other communications (remember that Flentje was put on leave for a while but not fired). Of some interest, Reuveni’s texts with Flentje are in a different format — perhaps a different app — than the ones he sent to other colleagues. But this communication, in which a very senior DOJ official names Bove as the guy who ordered DHS to unload the planes, was captured in paper, not digital, form.
So Reuveni appears to have substantially corroborated his claims, even if he had to resort, in one case, to a paper copy of an email to do so.
Todd Blanche’s flopsweat
That matters not just for Emil Bove’s bid to be a Circuit Court Judge (which sadly will likely still win the support of the GOP anyway), but also for Todd Blanche’s credibility.
Todd Blanche doesn’t tweet all that much, but each time Reuveni has made his case, Blanche has taken to Xitter to squeal loudly.
The day NYT first published Reuveni’s whistleblower complaint, Blanche labeled the formal whistleblower complaint as a leak to the press violating ethical guidelines. Then he claimed that “not a single individual” except Reuveni “agrees with the statements cavalierly printed” by the NYT, which I noted at the time suggested that Blanche had already tested these cover stories.
Well, that’s interesting, because Reuveni has now presented proof that Flentje and one other colleague at least used to believe it.
Yesterday, in the wake of the release of these communications, Blanche (and Pam Bondi) took to wailing on Xitter again, accusing Reuveni — even after he produced that paper email proof that Emil Bove ordered DHS to unload the planes — of falsehoods, even while accusing Reuveni of being fired not for refusing an illegal order, but for “breaching his ethical duties.”
Blanche keeps claiming there was no order to defy, even after Reuveni presented corroboration — even in the face of efforts to avoid putting anything in writing — that everyone at DOJ knew there was.
Which is why I find two other details of interest. As noted above, Blanche tried to deny that Bove suggested they would tell courts “fuck you” by claiming he had been at the March 14 meeting where, Reuveni alleges, Bove envisioned telling courts “fuck you.”
I was at the meeting described in the article and at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.
In his complaint, Reuveni did not include Blanche in the list of people who were at the meeting.
On Friday March 14 , 2025, Mr. Reuveni received notice ofhis promotion toActing Deputy Director ofthe Office of Immigration Litigation. That same day, following news reports that the President intended to sign a presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), Mr. Reuveni was summoned to a meeting by Deputy Assistant Attorney General (DAAG) of OIL, Drew Ensign. At the meeting were Principal Assistant Deputy Attorney General (PADAG) Emil Bove, Counselor to the Deputy Attorney General James McHenry, Associate Deputy Attorney General (ADAG) Paul Perkins, DAAG Ensign, Acting Director for OIL and Mr. Reuveni’s direct supervisor, August Flentje, and other OIL attorneys.
Now, Reuveni’s original whistleblower complaint is almost entirely unredacted. The three exceptions — redacted because they might disclose materials that remain covered by a duty of confidentiality — are in a paragraph describing that March 14 meeting.
At the meeting Bove indicated to those in attendance that the AEA proclamation would soon be signed and that one or more planes containing individuals subject to the AEA would be taking off over the weekend – meaning Saturday, March 15 and Sunday, March 16. Bove did not provide further details and [half line redacted]19 Bove indicated [half line redacted]20 and stressed to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what.
Bove then made a remark concerning the possibility that a court order would enjoin those removals before they could be effectuated. Bove stated that DOJ would need to consider telling the courts “fuck you” and ignore any such court order. Mr. Reuveni perceived that others in the room looked stunned, and he observed awkward, nervous glances among people in the room. Silence overtook the room. Mr. Reuveni and others were quickly ushered out of the room. Notwithstanding Bove’s directive, Mr. Reuveni left the meeting understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders.21
19 This clause is redacted because it is not clear that an exception to the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality applies here.
20 This clause is redacted because it is not clear that an exception to the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality applies here.
21 Mr.Reuveni left the meeting with this impression because [redacted]. This clause is redacted because it is not clear that an exception to the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality applies here. [my emphasis]
Reuveni and his attorneys view a lot of material that might qualify as attorney-client or deliberative privileged as exempted for some reason. But not these two passages and one footnote, the former of which seemingly relate to the reason why Bove said the planes had to take off. Bove insisted that the planes had to take off and said something that remains privileged, and then he said they might have to tell the courts, “fuck you.”
Perhaps any privilege covering those would fall under a different privilege?
Which is interesting because, in an interview with Devlin Barrett published yesterday, Reuveni clarified something about Blanche’s claim to have been at the meeting: According to Reuveni, Blanche came into the meeting, whispered something to Bove, then left, only after which did Bove start threatening to tell judges to fuck off.
The No. 2 official at the Justice Department, Todd Blanche, has denied Mr. Reuveni’s account, asserting he was at the same meeting and never heard Mr. Bove suggest the department disregard court orders.
“The claims about Department of Justice leadership are utterly false,” Mr. Blanche has said.
Mr. Reuveni disputed Mr. Blanche’s account. The deputy attorney general, he said, briefly entered the conference room during the March 14 meeting, but only to speak privately with Mr. Bove. Mr. Blanche then left and did not participate in the meeting, Mr. Reuveni said.
Only after the one-on-one discussion between Mr. Bove and Mr. Blanche did Mr. Bove use an expletive to suggest the Justice Department might choose to ignore court orders, Mr. Reuveni said.
Blanche’s brief entry into that meeting seems to exactly coincide with those two still-privileged redactions.
Blanche doesn’t tweet much.
What he does spend a great deal of his time doing — which is appropriate, I guess, for Trump’s lead defense attorney — is try to cover up this entire corrupt scheme. First he launched a witch hunt into the sources debunking Trump’s false claims behind the Alien Enemies Act invocation, then Pam Bondi reversed the media guidelines in an effort to assist that fight.
One of the very first public things Todd Blanche did as DAG was to launch a witch hunt into NYT’s source debunking Trump’s claims in the Alien Enemies Act. Then, when Pam Bondi reversed the media protections put into place by Merrick Garland, she cited that story as well. The seniormost officials at DOJ are using the Department to hunt down evidence of their own complicity in human rights violations. And Blanche’s intemperate response to Reuveni’s allegations looks to be more of the same.
This whole scheme — in which DOJ cooperated with Nayib Bukele so Bukele could make damning witnesses unavailable to prosecutors in the US, so DOJ could plop a bunch of mostly-innocent Venezuelans in a concentration camp as bait that Trump could attempt to use to free prisoners in Venezuela (which raises questions about those detainees in Venezuela), which Stephen Miller could use to spin false claims that migrants are terrorists — is bullshit.
All of it.
All of it is wildly corrupt on its face, but there is something about the scheme that is even more dangerous for Trump and the various men who have served as his defense attorneys.
And Trump’s defense attorney turned DAG keeps piping up to discredit himself, emphasize his flopsweat, and invite further revelations from the guy he fired in hopes all this would go away.
Update, July 13: Corrected the number of redactions in Reuveni’s complaint.
I look forward to the ritual dance of extreme concern from Senators Collins and Murkowski, before falling into line and confirming another abysmal Trump nominee.
One or both of them might vote against — if they are sure that the nomination will still pass. I think it’s Murkowski’s turn to get to take a principled stand against.
Gaetz and Ed Martin failed because they were generally hated by the MAGA insiders, and Trump wasn’t expending reputation to save them. Bove is his defender and supplicant, his nomination is secure. Any Murkowski or Collins no vote will have been carefully calibrated against attendance to ensure the optics for their reelection battles, both coincidentally in ranked-choice voting states where hardline MAGA aren’t as dominant at the ballot box
Right. No “whaling captains” involved here.
btw, those were excursion boat captains running whale watch trips as add-ons hooked into the cruise ship industry, not hi-tech Ahabs.
Then why the $50k harpoon (gun) deduction?
to Brad Cole, July 11, 2025 at 5:40 pm
fwiw: The number of whaling captains widely quoted, 150-160, seems to be from a hearing on arctic noise and bowhead hunting held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in 1997; I can’t find a more current number. The Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission represents 11 northern native villages with a combined population a little less than 7,000. Spring hunting is done with 2- or 3-man crews in sealskin covered umiaqs, using a hand-held harpoon and darting gun; fall hunting in 18 foot aluminum outboards. So $50K for a gun? I guess so, maybe. They seem to go for around $500 on line, though.
The business of whale-watch captains hooked up with the cruise ship industry comes from salmon fishers working the waters of Icy Strait in the southeastern part of the state.
Whatever shakes out for Alaska may depend on whether or not “whaling captains” is defined in a way that satisfies AEWC guidelines per the equipment allowance provision added to the state code in 2004.
I wonder if Blanche told Bove of something the Big Guy or Stephen Miller had said or done?
That would both explain the surprising strength of Bove’s alleged comment and very much explain the redactions.
It certainly is my assumption that he told him the stakes. Could be nothing more than “Trump ordered this,” which would explain the redactions (bc it would implicate Executive Privilege), even if Stephen Miller really ordered it, which seems to be the reality.
But I look at the larger scheme — Venezuelans to Bukele in exchange for MS-13 who would implicate him to trade for Americans in Venezuela — and it does seem like there’s more there.
DOJ has not yet killed the case against Macdonald Goudreau, whom DOJ charged for exporting arms to Colombia for a maybe-coup in Venezuela, which I feel like will eventually happen.
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68999587/united-states-v-macdonald-goudreau/
Very odd things going on concerning persons imprisoned abroad, if Reuters can be believed. It makes a trilateral scheme involving Venezuela, El Salvador and the US more plausible.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-us-mission-push-trump-deal-congo-unravelled-2025-07-11/
Someone I knew claimed knowledge of mafia methods: never admit; always deny even if caught red-handed.
The similarities with this administration are staggering
Blanche’s claim to have been at the meeting would make for an interesting avenue for followup questions. An examination of notes from other known participants would be very interesting. Does Blanche show up in any of those notes? Does anyone record him as weighing in on anything discussed?
Likewise, an examination of his personal calendar for the day would be quite illuminating. Was he participating in an other meeting, Zoom call, Xitter chats, sending out emails, or doing some other activity at the same time he was allegedly participating in the entirety of this meeting?
There are too many ways to nail down his participation or lack thereof, if one is in a position to compel documents and testimony.
That’s the thing about being the DAG – folks need to know where you every minute of the day, especially during the day – and lying about where you are is NOT looked upon kindly.
I think you may have the sender and recipient reversed in the Reuveni, Flentje 3/15-16 text exchange. I think it’s Reuveni who makes the quip about finding out about the “fuck you” comment. The way I read it, all the screenshotted text exchanges feature Reuveni’s texts in the right-most column.
Reuveni does not indicate that there were any conference call attendees to the March 14 meeting. As it appears that he and the others were quickly dismissed after Bove’s F. Y., then I’m guessing that redactions 19 – 21 refer to a person at the meeting who Reuveni did not list as an attendee in the room, although his attendee list is not redacted. Another guess, assuming that lawyer’s duty of confidentiality could be because of a subordinate to senior relationship, is that Yaakov Roth ( the PDAG) was in the room (or on the phone), and he reassured (lied) the room that DOJ would comply with a court ruling — avoiding a possible conspiracy to obstruct charge. The “other OIL attorneys” in his attendee list could be lawyer-speak for keeping the door open to name someone later.
(Blanche, Bove, Bondi) These people will no problem pissing on your leg, and look you right in the eye, and tell you that it’s raining.
‘Egregious.’ ‘Brazen.’ ‘Lawless.’ How 48 Judges Describe Trump’s Actions, In Their Own Words
NYT Editorial Board July 12, 2025
GIFT link here:
https://bsky.app/profile/jilldlawrence.bsky.social/post/3lttqcoj22c2o
July 13, 2025 at 7:08 AM
“Lawless,” as in the opposite of “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”
*smdh*