President Donald Trump is pointing fingers again.
This time, he’s claiming he didn’t actually sign an order on Friday invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua without questioning.
“I don’t know when it was signed because I didn’t sign it,” Trump told reporters Friday, according to The Hill. “Other people handled it.”
The proclamation in the Federal Register clearly shows Trump’s signature at the bottom with the invocation “by the President of the United States of America.”
Hours after Trump made his remarks, the White House released a statement saying that the president “was obviously referring to the original Alien Enemies Act that was signed back in 1798.”
But they said the “recent Executive Order was personally signed by President Trump” to deport “these heinous criminals.”
A week ago, U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg issued a 14-day halt on deportations under the act, which was last used during World War II. Boasberg called the invocation of the act “incredibly troublesome” and said the administration “signed in the dark” in order to “get [detainees] out of the country before a suit is filed.”
Despite the judge’s order, planes carrying the detainees landed in El Salvador on Sunday, leading the judge to suspect the Trump administration ignored his ruling. Boasberg and lawyers for the Department of Justice have been involved in a sparring match all week. The judge vowed to “get to the bottom” of whether the DOJ violated his order on Friday.
Boasberg’s rebuke triggered Trump, who called Boasberg a “Radical Left Lunatic” who should be “IMPEACHED!!!” Trump’s outburst prompted a rare public statement from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who slapped down Trump’s demands and said that impeachment is “not an appropriate response.”
Trump further evaded responsibility for the deportations while speaking with reporters by shifting blame to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“He wanted [the Venezuelan migrants] out, and we go along with that,” Trump told reporters that evening. “We want to get criminals out of our country.”
When asked if he’d permit more flights, he said, “I’d have the secretary of state handle it because I’m not really involved in that.”
Still, he stood in support of getting “bad people” like “murderers, rapists, drug dealers” out of the country.
“I ran on that. I won on that,” Trump said.
Trump’s deflection comes less than a week after he baselessly claimed that former President Joe Biden used an autopen when he signed pardons, rendering them “void.” Trump has previously admitted to using an autopen himself. Nevertheless, he stressed that his predecessor “knew nothing” about the orders he issued and the people who did “may have committed a crime.”
