WASHINGTON >> A senior Justice Department official, Emil Bove, told subordinates he was willing to ignore court orders to fulfill the president’s aggressive deportation campaign, according to a whistleblower complaint by a department lawyer who has since been fired.

The account by the dismissed lawyer, Erez Reuveni, paints a disturbing portrait of his final three weeks on the front lines of the Trump administration’s legal efforts to ship immigrants overseas, often with little notice or recourse. In Reuveni’s telling, Bove discussed disregarding court orders, adding an expletive for emphasis, and other top law enforcement officials showed themselves ready to stonewall judges or lie to them to get their way.

Reuveni’s account, which was obtained by the New York Times, was filed to lawmakers and the Justice Department inspector general Tuesday, just one day before Bove is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a nomination to a federal appeals court.

Reuveni was a career lawyer at the department for nearly 15 years until April, when he expressed concern in federal court that the administration had mistakenly deported a migrant to a megaprison in El Salvador. Reuveni was put on administrative leave a day later and ultimately fired.

In a statement, Harrison Fields, a White House spokesperson, praised Bove as “an incredibly talented legal mind and a staunch defender of the U.S. Constitution who will make an excellent circuit court judge.”

Bove’s boss, Todd Blanche, called Reuveni’s description of events “falsehoods purportedly made by a disgruntled former employee and then leaked to the press in violation of ethical obligations.” Blanche denounced this article as “a false hit piece a day before a confirmation hearing,” criticizing the Times for publishing it.

“The claims about Department of Justice leadership are utterly false,” he said in a statement.Whistleblower’s account

The filing, however, suggests a copious trail of emails, texts and phone records that would support Reuveni’s version of events. It notes that he was recently promoted, and had diligently defended controversial immigration policies of the first Trump administration.

Until now, Reuveni had stayed silent about the circumstances of his departure. A 27-page account, filed by his lawyers at the Government Accountability Project, Dana L. Gold and Andrea Meza, offers a host of new details and allegations about the inner workings of the Justice Department under Trump.

It adds that Reuveni “will continue to tell the truth in defense of the rule of law.”

In March and early April, the filing states, Reuveni “became aware of the plans of DOJ leadership to resist court orders that would impede potentially illegal efforts to deport noncitizens, and further became aware of the details to execute those plans.”

Top officials at the Justice Department and the White House sought to defy federal court orders “through lack of candor, deliberate delay and disinformation,” his account states.

“Discouraging clients from engaging in illegal conduct is an important part of the role of a lawyer,” the account says. “Mr. Reuveni tried to do so and was thwarted, threatened, fired and publicly disparaged for both doing his job and telling the truth to the court.”

March meeting

A pivotal meeting occurred on March 14, when Bove, a senior official in the deputy attorney general’s office, spoke bluntly about the administration’s plans. He informed his subordinates that Trump would soon invoke the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly fly a group of immigrants out of the country that weekend. Two other officials in that office, James McHenry and Paul Perkins, were in attendance, as well as Reuveni’s supervisors, Drew Ensign and August Flentje, according to the whistleblower document.

Bove “stressed to all in attendance that the planes needed to take off no matter what,” according to Reuveni’s account. Bove then broached “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 ‘f--- you’ and ignore any such order,” according to the account. “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.”

Reuveni and others were “quickly ushered out of the room,” the account says. It continues: “Notwithstanding Bove’s directive, Mr. Reuveni left the meeting understanding that DOJ would tell DHS to follow all court orders.”

As far as Reuveni knew, “no one in DOJ leadership — in any administration — had ever suggested the Department of Justice could blatantly ignore court orders, especially with” an expletive, his account states. “Mr. Reuveni was in disbelief.”

Reuveni’s account does not list Blanche as one of the people present at the meeting, but the deputy attorney general said in a written statement that he was there, and “at no time did anyone suggest a court order should not be followed.”

Reuveni’s account highlights the tensions that have been roiling the Justice Department for months, where many current and former career lawyers have come to fear that the department’s political leaders, chosen by Trump, are systematically trying to undermine the integrity of their work.

Those appointees, including Bove, maintain that their goal is to end “weaponization” of the Justice Department, citing as examples the criminal cases filed against Trump, Jan. 6 rioters and other conservatives who claim to have been unfairly targeted.

To many who work in the Justice Department, those claims ring as a hollow rationalization for its leadership’s willingness to use the criminal justice system to pursue a vengeful right-wing agenda. Already, hundreds have quit rather than follow the course being set by the Trump administration. Scores of others have been demoted or fired.

Reuveni’s experience has elicited major concern within the rank and file of the department, as many current and former department lawyers believe he was placed in an impossible position — ordered to ignore or mislead the courts, a potentially career-ending violation of legal ethics.

Hearing today

The revelations will only add to the pressure of Bove’s confirmation hearing Wednesday to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said in a statement that Reuveni’s allegations “not only speak to Mr. Bove’s failure to fulfill his ethical obligations as a lawyer, but demonstrate that his activities are part of a broader pattern by President Trump and his allies to undermine the Justice Department’s commitment to the rule of law.”

He urged Senate Republicans “not to turn a blind eye to the dire consequences of confirming Mr. Bove to a lifetime position as a circuit court judge.”

Reuveni’s account describes three instances in which senior Justice Department officials engaged in wrongdoing by ignoring court orders, presenting legal arguments with no basis in law, misrepresenting facts to the courts and, in one instance, directing him to misstate facts in violation of his “legal and ethical duties as an officer of the court.”