Courtroom ‘testy and frosty’ exchanges highlight wave of confrontations between judges, prosecutors

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A federal judge clashed Tuesday with Minnesota’s top federal prosecutor in what he called a series of “testy and frosty” exchanges, in an unusual contempt hearing that highlights a growing wave of confrontations across the U.S. between increasingly frustrated judges and Department of Justice officials.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel N. Rosen at one point accused the judge of smearing him.

There has been a surge in recent weeks of judges issuing critical and sometimes scathing statements and rulings over fallout from the administration’s attempts at mass immigrant deportations, with the Department of Justice sometimes appearing unable to keep up with the flood of cases from the crackdown.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Bryan called Tuesday’s hearing to decide whether Rosen, one of his top deputies and a top local ICE official should be held in contempt for failing to return the personal property of dozens of immigrants who had been detained and then ordered freed, as they had been ordered. The property ranges from cash to identity documents to clothing.

“The court cannot ignore the respondents’ unlawful conduct,” Bryan said when he ordered the hearing, noting there had been “numerous unlawful violations of court orders”

Bryan started the hearing by calling it “an extraordinary measure,” and said it would be a “historic low point” for the U.S. attorneys office if he held anyone in contempt.

“Your honor has made a remark smearing myself,” Rosen shot back.

Later, as the judge called a break, he acknowledged the two had “been a little testy and frosty with each other.”

The hearing was set to resume Tuesday afternoon.

Among other cases across the country, a district judge in Minnesota took the rare step last month of finding an administration lawyer in contempt for failing to return identification documents to an immigrant, and a judge in West Virginia chastised U.S. and state officials for jailing noncitizens indefinitely, saying it violates their constitutional right to due process.

“Continued detention without individualized custody determinations, after this court’s repeated holdings that such detention violates the Fifth Amendment, will result in legal consequences,” U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin said in his order.

But the chief federal judge for Minnesota has repeatedly grabbed national attention with his warnings. Last week, Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz said Rosen and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials must comply with court orders or risk criminal contempt charges.

“The Court is not aware of another occasion in the history of the United States in which a federal court has had to threaten contempt — again and again and again — to force the United States government to comply with court orders,” wrote Schiltz, who was appointed to the bench by President George W. Bush and is seen as a conservative.

The administration has blamed judges for the crisis, accusing them of failing to follow the law and rushing cases.

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Sullivan contributed from Minneapolis.