MONDAY: Judge grasps meaning of "alleged!"

MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2025

Also, what Charlie Hurt said:  All last week, we said this about the "deportation" of the "alleged gang members" to the Contral American gulag:

The key word there was "alleged."

Were the alleged gang members actual gang members? That seems like an obvious question—but then again, so what?

According to Karoline Leavitt, the people in question were murderers, rapists, foreign terrorists and they were also monsters. But did they all fit some sch description? Could some mistakes have been made?

The Trump administration still hasn't even released the names of the people in question! Instead, we've been told to play by this ancient rule:

Trust us, the Voices said.

Today, Judge Boasberg has apparently come to a different conclusion. He isn't willing to trust the Voices. He says that people being frogmarched away should have a right to due process:

Judge Maintains Block on Deportations of Venezuelans Under Wartime Law

A federal judge on Monday kept in place his ruling barring the Trump administration from using a powerful wartime statute to summarily deport a group of Venezuelan immigrants whom officials have accused of being members of a violent street gang.

In a 37-page order, the judge, James E. Boasberg, said the order should remain in place so that the Venezuelan immigrants could have the opportunity to challenge accusations that they belong to the gang, Tren de Aragua, before the Trump administration can fly them out of the country under the wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Act.

The Alien Enemies Act, Judge Boasberg wrote, “arguably envisions that those caught up in its web must be given the opportunity to seek such review.”

Judge Boasberg, who serves as the chief judge of the Federal District Court in Washington, issued an initial order on March 15 temporarily barring the administration from using the act to deport scores of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador with little or no due process.

Principal headline included, that's how the report begins. According to the federal judge, just because the emperor says it, that doesn't make it so!

Saying it doesn't make it so! According to Judge Boasberg, the people who were frog-marched to a brutal gulag should have had the right to make their case. They should have been afforded some version of due process.

People facing a brutal punishment deserve a right to due process? On Sunday, this had been the pre-reaction of our official "border czar:"

Homan Skirts Question on ‘Due Process’ for Deported Migrants in Tense Exchange

[...]

[Jonathan Karl] explained that lawyers for some of those deported had spoken with ABC News and argued that their clients deny being members of a gang. [Karl] questioned whether those labeled members of the MS-13 or Tren de Aragua (TdA) gangs had been given any chance to challenge their designation.

“Do they get a chance to prove that before you take them out of the country and put them into a notorious prison in a country that they’re not even from? I mean, do they have any due process at all?” Karl asked.

In reply, Homan didn’t offer any clarity on whether deportees had “due process” but countered Karl with his own question: “Due process? Where was Laken Riley’s due process?”

Can you spot the logic there? Laken Rily was viciously murdered. For that reason, hundreds of people who had nothing to do with that heinous crime should be frog-marched away without any chance to challenge the claims being made against them.

(Remember: These people weren't being "deported" in any conventional sense. They were being shipped directly into a sprawling gulag, quite possibly never to return.)

Homan is plainly full of feeling about the evils of violent crime. He's full of feeling to the point where his moral judgment, and his power of logic, may perhaps be severely impaired.

Meanwhile, we were stuck by something we saw on yesterday morning's Fox & Friends Weekend. Apparently reading from prompter, co-host Charlie Hurt teased an upcoming segment. 

Below, we highlight another key word. To our substantial surprise, this is what he said:

HURT (3/23/25): Nearly four hundred suspected illegal gang members arrested in just one hundred days! A former ICE director tells us what this means for national security. 

That's next.

The key word there is "suspected." Does that include the several hundred "monsters" who have been shipped off to El Salvador without a hint of due process—without their names even being released?

After a commercial break, the former ICE director discussed the use of the Alien Enemies Act. It was a great tool for law enforcement, he said. It was a great way to get rid of "all these foreign terrorists."

He didn't say the word "suspected." He didn't say "alleged."

Oops! Some producer had inserted an unwanted word into Charlie Hurt's text. Charlie went right ahead and read it, going off message as he did.

Charlie just went ahead and read it! As the morning proceeded, the word "suspected" was disappeared. It was never heard from again.