Trump’s ‘state secrets’ claim over deportation flight details breaks with past practice

The Justice Department’s decision to invoke the rarely used state secrets privilege in a bid to avoid giving a federal judge’s details on questions on two deportation flights has opened a complicated new front in the government’s ongoing resistance to turning over the information.

The Justice Department’s decision to invoke the rarely used state secrets privilege in a bid to avoid giving a federal judge details on two deportation flights has opened a complicated new front in the government’s ongoing resistance to turning over the information. The department’s invocation of the privilege earlier this week is the latest dramatic turn in the legal saga over President’s Donald Trump’s contested use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to quickly deport migrants the US has accused of being affiliated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. It comes as US District Judge James Boasberg, who is overseeing a challenge to the legality of Trump’s use of the sweeping wartime authority, moves closer to deciding whether the government violated his command to immediately halt deportation flights carrying some of the alleged gang members when it allowed two such planes to continue earlier this month. But the administration has repeatedly stymied the judge’s fact-finding efforts, with the state secrets invocation representing its most audacious move yet to avoid giving Boasberg any more information. “This is a bolder assertion than what the Executive Branch normally takes,” said Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who has litigated state secrets privilege cases and whose security clearance was recently pulled by Trump. “I see this as an effort to use the privilege as a shield instead of a sword, because they have run out of options.” Here’s what to know about the state secrets privilege: