STONEWALLING: Justice Department lawyers yesterday stonewalled a judge asking questions about the deportation of suspected Salvadoran gang members over the weekend in defiance of his order to stop and turn around any planes that were in the air. DOJ lawyer Abhishek Kambli repeatedly cited “national security” refusing to answer Judge James Boasberg’s questions 

  The case puts the courts and the White House on a collision course over the power of the presidency. President Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan declared on Fox News “We’re not stopping,” and, “I don’t care what the judges think — I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”

  The administration did not turn around planes that were in the air after Boasberg delivered his verbal order and one plane took off after his order was rendered in writing.

  The Trump administration deported more than 200 suspected South American gang members under the power of the little-used Alien Enemies Act of 1798, written to empower the deportation of people from a country with which the US is at war. The US is not in a declared war, but Trump has called the influx of illegal immigrants “an invasion” and treats it as an act of war.

  The administration claims it’s a matter of foreign policy, immune to judicial review. White House Deputy Stephen Miller said, “The district court has no ability in any way to restrain the president’s authorities under the Alien Enemies Act or simply conduct the foreign affairs of the United States.” 

THE WAR ROOM: President Trump said he plans to speak on the telephone today with Russia’s Vladimir Putin about Ukrainian land and power plants under Russian occupation, suggesting that power plants and “dividing up” Ukrainian assets were on the agenda.

  “We want to see if we can bring that war to an end,” Trump said. “Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.” That doesn’t meet Trump oft-repeated claim that he could end the war in a day.

  Putin has not agreed to the 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would accept.

  In the meantime, Ukraine has retreated from and lost nearly all of the territory it took in Russia’s Kursk region, depriving them of a bargaining chip. Reports from the front say the withdrawal from Kursk has been “catastrophic” and “like a horror movie.”

  The BBC reports according to interviews with soldiers that the Ukrainians have been under ‘round the clock attack by drones. One soldier identified as  “Dmytro” wrote ion social media that, “The roads are littered with hundreds of destroyed cars, armoured vehicles and ATVs There are a lot of wounded and dead.” 

 BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— In a threat to his perceived enemies, President Trump posted that, “The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”

  Trump claims that Biden didn’t review the pre-emptive pardons or know anything about them. Trump wrote that; “Therefore, those on the Unselect Committee, who destroyed and deleted ALL evidence obtained during their two year Witch Hunt of me, and many other innocent people, should fully understand that they are subject to investigation at the highest level. The fact is, they were probably responsible for the Documents that were signed on their behalf without the knowledge or consent of the Worst President in the History of our Country, Crooked Joe Biden!”

DEPORTED:  Prosecutors say that a Brown University medical professor and transplant doctor was deported back to Paris last week because she had attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, thelongtime leader of Hezbollah militants killed in an Israeli airstrike. They say she also had photos on her phone of Hezbollah “fighters and martyrs.”

  Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, was deported despite a court order to Customs and Immigration not to remove her from the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice. Alawieh was returning from a visit to her native Lebanon when she was stopped at Boston’s Logan Airport and questioned. In documents filed in US District Court in Massachusetts, prosecutors wrote, “Dr. Alawieh stated that Nasrallah is the leader of Hezbollah and as a Shia Muslim, he is highly regarded in the Shia community as a religious figure.”

— President Trump is moving to stack the boards of the service academies with allies after declaring that they had been “infiltrated by Woke Leftist Ideologues.” Trump appointed two die-hard loyalists. They are retired Gen. Michael Flynn, who was twice indicted for lying to the FBI and pardoned by Trump during his first term, appointed to the board at West Point. Former Trump aide Walt Nauta … also indicted … was appointed to the board at the Naval Academy. 

— Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat, cancelled his book tour amid growing Democratic anger over his decision to vote with the Republicans on their stopgap spending bill. Protesters have been outside Schumer’s Brooklyn home and have organized online to be at every one of his multi-city tour stops.

THE SPIN RACK: Israel resumed bombing along the length of the Gaza strip following a breakdown in negotiations to release hostages. Hundreds of people are reported dead. — Two cats living in separate households in New York City died of bird flu. Authorities haven’t pinned it down but attribute the infections to either unpasteurized milk, infected food, or exposure to infected birds.

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS: Big mistake. We prematurely reported that two NASA astronauts trapped at the space station for nine months had returned to Earth. They are on the way back today.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump announced that he won the championship at his Trump International Golf Club in Palm Beach. Funny how he’s always the best golfer at the courses he owns.

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