Citing a “willful disregard,” Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg has found probable cause that the Trump administration could be held in criminal contempt of court after officials defied his order to not remove Venezuelan migrants from the country based on a centuries-old wartime law.

Boasberg, first appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, on Wednesday “said he would launch proceedings to determine whether to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt,” The Washington Post reported.

Pointing to the “broader showdown between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary,” the Post reported that Boasberg “[said] the Trump administration’s actions on March 15, as the removal flights proceeded despite his order to the contrary, ‘demonstrate a willful disregard … sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.'”

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The judge wrote: “The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory.”

But Boasberg also offered the administration some options: essentially, file “a declaration explaining the steps they have taken and will take to do so,” or, file “declaration(s) identifying the individual(s) who, with knowledge of the Court’s classwide Temporary Restraining Order, made the decision not to halt the transfer of class members out of U.S. custody on March 15 and 16, 2025.”

Attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick explains that Boasberg ordered “them either to fix their mistake, or identify who made those decisions (presumably for further sanctions).”

“The Constitution,” Boasberg also wrote, citing previous rulings, “does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it. To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make ‘a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself.’

Watch CNN’s report below or at this link.

Breaking news on @InsidePolitics: US District Judge James Boasberg ruled that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for violating his orders in mid-March halting the use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang… pic.twitter.com/vpupuxjH5h

— Dana Bash (@DanaBashCNN) April 16, 2025

READ MORE: ‘This Is a Big Deal’: Top Hegseth Advisor ‘Escorted’ Out of the Pentagon Amid Leak Probe

Image via Reuters

Two longtime associates of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, appointed to senior roles at the Department of Defense at the outset of President Donald Trump’s second term, were escorted from the Pentagon on Wednesday amid an escalating investigation into leaked intelligence that reportedly included classified information.

Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick and Dan Caldwell, a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, both previously worked at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), where Hegseth served as CEO from 2012 to 2016.

“The leaks under investigation include military operational plans for the Panama canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Elon Musk’s controversial visit to the Pentagon and pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine,” Politico reported.

But Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reported that the leaked intel investigation was launched “on March 21 after a March 20 New York Times story detailed plans to allow Elon Musk to attend a briefing in the ‘Tank’ with members of the Joint Chiefs to hear about future China war plans.”

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According to Axios, news of the planned secret Musk-China briefing angered President Trump.

“Musk or Hegseth didn’t just decide to call off that briefing after the leak. President Trump himself ordered staffers to kill it,” the news outlet reported.

“What the f— is Elon doing there? Make sure he doesn’t go,” Trump said, Axios reported, citing a top official.

Caldwell was “being investigated for ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of classified information,” according to Griffin’s reporting.

Selnick, who was installed at the Pentagon on January 20, was recently promoted after serving as the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. He worked at CVA from 2013 to 2017, and again from 2019 to 2024, according to his LinkedIn page and his Pentagon biography. He also served in the first Trump administration and the George W. Bush administration.

Caldwell had served at CVA, first as policy director starting in 2013, and later as executive director, according to the Associated Press.

Caldwell “was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal messaging chat that top Trump administration national security officials, including Hegseth, used to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen,” the AP added. “The chat, set up by national security adviser Michael Waltz, included a number of top Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, was added to the group.”

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ABC News’ Martha Raddatz described (video below) Caldwell as “so close to Hegseth [that] the Secretary made him the point of contact with the White House for strikes on the Houthis in Yemen during that Signal chat last month.”

Critics weighed in.

Former Republican and former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski, the editor-in-chief of the MeidasTouch Network, alleged that Caldwell is “going to be fired because he outed the fact that Musk arranged with Hegseth to get a top secret briefing at the Pentagon. Trump and his Chief of Staff didn’t even know about it.”

Veteran and veterans’ activist Paul Rieckhoff observed, “This CVA network, where they were/are in place, and what’s happened to them today should be a much bigger story.”

He pointed to a previous post where he had written: “Maybe overdue accountability is finally starting after SignalGate. Dan Caldwell is well-known in Washington as the former head of Hegseth’s former partisan political group, Concerned Veterans of America.”

“They are not just radical,” he added. “They are sloppy and incompetent. That puts our national security at risk. And has our enemies celebrating.”

Watch video from ABC News below or at this link:

Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, have both been placed on administrative leave as part of a leak investigation. @martharaddatz reports. pic.twitter.com/qVu3QEkzET

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 16, 2025

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A top advisor to U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly was escorted out of the Pentagon after being identified in a leak investigation into an “unauthorized disclosure.”

Reuters, which exclusively reported the development, named the advisor as Dan Caldwell and stated that he has been placed on administrative leave.

Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin added that Caldwell is being “investigated for ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of classified information.”

Reuters noted that a “March 21 memo signed by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested an investigation into ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications.'”

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“Kasper’s memo left open the possibility of a polygraph, although it was unclear if Caldwell was subjected to one.”

Meanwhile, Military.com’s Pentagon reporter Konstantin Toropin provides more context.

“Caldwell was a low key but vital official,” he wrote, noting that Secretary Hegseth “said he was the best point of contact for the National Security Council in the Signalgate chat regarding the strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.”

Experts are weighing in.

“Maybe overdue accountability is finally starting after SignalGate. Dan Caldwell is well-known in Washington as the former head of Hegseth’s former partisan political group, Concerned Veterans of America,” wrote Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran and veterans’ activist. “He also has loved to troll me on this platform over the years. A lapse of discipline or judgement would not be surprising. They are not just radical. They are sloppy and incompetent. That puts our national security at risk. And has our enemies celebrating.”

“This is a big deal,” adds Eric Bianco, Reuters National security correspondent focusing on intelligence. “Caldwell was integral to the Pentagon/admin’s Ukraine policy, especially when it came to discussions around continued military support for Kyiv.”

Developing…

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