The deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino nearly ground to a halt last week as government lawyers repeatedly objected to questions by plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys, including some about communications between Bovino and White House advisor Stephen Miller, court records obtained by the Tribune show.<\/p>\n
The impasse prompted attorneys for both sides to go before U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in the middle of Bovino\u2019s sworn testimony on Thursday, where lawyers for the Justice Department complained that Bovino was being asked questions that were overbroad, poorly constructed and were not directly tied to the claims in the underlying lawsuit about the use of force by immigration agents during \u201cOperation Midway Blitz.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the hearing, Justice Department attorney Sarmad Khojasteh piqued the frustration of the judge by repeatedly interrupting her and fumbling over the facts of the case. Kosjasteh, who joined the proceedings only recently, repeatedly referred to the Chicago immigration push as \u201cOperation Midway Drift\u201d and had to apologize for being new to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the problem when people come in, right, and we\u2019ve got a revolving door of attorneys and they haven\u2019t been here for the entire thing,\u201d Ellis told Khojasteh, according to a transcript of the proceedings. \u201c\u2026They haven\u2019t sat through people\u2019s testimony, they haven\u2019t sat through these hearings, and so now I\u2019m having to explain myself multiple times. And I find it at this point extremely frustrating and a waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Ellis tried to explain that she agreed questions about how Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets certain people for immigration enforcement were \u201cnot relevant,\u201d Khojasteh cut her off again, saying, \u201cThey have asked those questions today. I\u2019m just letting you know,\u201d according to the transcript.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if you interrupt me one more time,\u201d Ellis responded. \u201cIt\u2019s enough. It\u2019s enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Khojasteh also complained that he\u2019d spent an entire day prepping Bovino on a particular set of issues, only to have plaintiffs\u2019 attorneys confront him with a \u201cgrab bag of anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, they asked today about communications with Stephen Miller,\u201d Khojasteh told the judge. \u201cThey asked today about body cam from the Los Angeles (immigration operation)\u2026I feel sand bagged right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller is one of the most influential figures in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and is the chief architect of its hard-line immigration policies.<\/p>\n
Ellis explained that certain questions about those topics were clearly relevant if given the proper context.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, questions about communications with Mr. Miller may be perfectly within bounds if they talked about, \u2018This is how I want this operation to go,’\u201d Ellis said. \u201c\u2026If Mr. Miller said that to Mr. Bovino and that was in Mr. Bovino\u2019s mind as to justify the force being used, they can ask about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ellis noted Bovino was identified in other court testimony as the overall leader of \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d making it fair game to ask him not only about his own actions, but \u2018\u201dwhat he is telling agents and officers is the appropriate use of force out in the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd if some of those officers have come from Los Angeles and the operation in Los Angeles, which he says they have, it is also appropriate and relevant for plaintiffs to be able to ask what he told those officers in Los Angeles,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cIs it consistent with what he has been telling them in Chicago?\u201d<\/p>\n
The arguments over Bovino\u2019s deposition, which took place behind closed doors at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, came about halfway through the five-hour limit that Ellis had put on his questioning, according to the transcript. Lawyers were unable to finish before the courthouse closed for the day Thursday, and it was not immediately clear if the testimony was wrapped up over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Bovino\u2019s deposition came as allegations mounted that agents under his command<\/a> are indiscriminately throwing tear gas in Chicago neighborhoods and using inappropriate force against residents and reporters during protests over the Trump administration\u2019s ongoing immigration enforcement push.<\/p>\n Ellis issued a temporary restraining order last month restricting the use of tear gas and other \u201cnon-lethal\u201d munitions, and requiring agents to wear body cameras and \u201cconspicuous\u201d identification on their uniforms when interacting with the public.<\/p>\n During a remarkable hourlong session with Bovino on the witness stand last week, Ellis also instructed the 30-year Border Patrol veteran to get his own body camera and send her every use-of-force report \u2014 and accompanying bodycam footage \u2014 filed since the operation began nearly two months ago.<\/p>\n She had also ordered Bovino to come to court each weekday<\/a> for a daily use-of-force report directly to her. But the\u00a07th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with attorneys<\/a> for the government last week that Ellis\u2019 would set her up \u201cas a supervisor of Chief Bovino\u2019s activities, intruding into personnel management decisions of the Executive Branch,\u201d which infringes on the separation of powers.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Bovino\u2019s deposition, which was videotaped, is under protective order. But portions of his sworn testimony will likely be made public at an injunction hearing on Wednesday, where Ellis is set to decide on more permanent restrictions on the use of force.<\/p>\n jmeisner@chicagotribune.com<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino nearly ground to a halt last week as government lawyers…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":352982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[20174,69509,140728,960,69,5410,106786,5386,1818,409,19409,12084,7090,112100,121074,7093],"class_list":{"0":"post-352981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-brandon-johnson","9":"tag-broadview","10":"tag-broadview-ice","11":"tag-chicago","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-ice","14":"tag-ice-in-chicago","15":"tag-il","16":"tag-illinois","17":"tag-immigration","18":"tag-immigration-raids","19":"tag-jb-pritzker","20":"tag-national-guard","21":"tag-national-guard-in-chicago","22":"tag-operation-midway-blitz","23":"tag-raids"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115486729461475299","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}