{"id":136460,"date":"2025-11-06T15:25:02","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/06\/judge-calls-trumps-border-commander-a-lying-liar\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T15:25:02","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T23:25:02","slug":"judge-calls-trumps-border-commander-a-lying-liar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/11\/06\/judge-calls-trumps-border-commander-a-lying-liar\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Calls Trump\u2019s Border Commander A Lying Liar"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, head of the Trump administration\u2019s military presence in Chicago, \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d is in the hot seat. That\u2019s been true for a minute, since there are some pretty serious allegations (and video!) that federal agents \u2014 and Bovino, specifically \u2014 violated a temporary restraining order<\/a> issued by U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis. A group of journalists, protesters, and clergy sued the Trump administration\u00a0over the military occupation of Chicago, and Ellis issued a TRO limiting the tactics federal agents can use. Amongst the banned methods of riot control include the use of tear gas unless there is an immediate safety threat. But then Bovino was caught on camera throwing canisters of tear gas into a crowd without any warnings or verbal orders to disperse.<\/p>\n

So, Judge Ellis hauled Bovino into her courtroom<\/a> to figure out what in the hell is going on in the streets of Chicago. And from all indications, Ellis was deeply concerned with the brutal tactics being used by federal forces.<\/p>\n

Today, Judge Ellis upgraded <\/a>the TRO to a preliminary injunction and eviscerated Bovino\u2019s actions. In deposition testimony, Bovino had justified his use of tear gas, saying he was hit in the head with a rock before deploying the noxious gas. \u201cVideo evidence ultimately disproved this,\u201d said Ellis.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant Bovino admitted that he lied,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find the defendant\u2019s evidence simply not credible,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI watched the defendants\u2019 videos,\u201d she continued. \u201cThis, and hours and hours and hours of bodycam video and video from helicopters was the best they could provide. \u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis went further, saying the government\u2019s depiction of what is going on in Chicago \u201cis untrue,\u201d and protesters are being \u201cthreatened and harmed for exercising their constitutional rights.\u201d The tactics and behavior of the occupying forces \u201cshocks the conscience\u201d and\u00a0Judge Ellis said<\/a>\u00a0she was \u201cordering complete relief to the plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Calls Trump\u2019s Border Commander A Lying Liar<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUS Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI\/ AFP via Getty Images)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, head of the Trump administration\u2019s military presence in Chicago, \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d is in the hot seat. That\u2019s been true for a minute, since there are some pretty serious allegations (and video!) that federal agents \u2014 and Bovino, specifically \u2014 violated a temporary restraining order<\/a> issued by U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis. A group of journalists, protesters, and clergy sued the Trump administration\u00a0over the military occupation of Chicago, and Ellis issued a TRO limiting the tactics federal agents can use. Amongst the banned methods of riot control include the use of tear gas unless there is an immediate safety threat. But then Bovino was caught on camera throwing canisters of tear gas into a crowd without any warnings or verbal orders to disperse.<\/p>\n

So, Judge Ellis hauled Bovino into her courtroom<\/a> to figure out what in the hell is going on in the streets of Chicago. And from all indications, Ellis was deeply concerned with the brutal tactics being used by federal forces.<\/p>\n

Today, Judge Ellis upgraded <\/a>the TRO to a preliminary injunction and eviscerated Bovino\u2019s actions. In deposition testimony, Bovino had justified his use of tear gas, saying he was hit in the head with a rock before deploying the noxious gas. \u201cVideo evidence ultimately disproved this,\u201d said Ellis.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant Bovino admitted that he lied,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find the defendant\u2019s evidence simply not credible,\u201d Ellis said. \u201cI watched the defendants\u2019 videos,\u201d she continued. \u201cThis, and hours and hours and hours of bodycam video and video from helicopters was the best they could provide. \u201d<\/p>\n

Ellis went further, saying the government\u2019s depiction of what is going on in Chicago \u201cis untrue,\u201d and protesters are being \u201cthreatened and harmed for exercising their constitutional rights.\u201d The tactics and behavior of the occupying forces \u201cshocks the conscience\u201d and\u00a0Judge Ellis said<\/a>\u00a0she was \u201cordering complete relief to the plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U.S. Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, head of the Trump administration\u2019s military presence in Chicago, \u201cOperation Midway Blitz,\u201d is in the hot seat. That\u2019s been true for a minute, since there are some pretty serious allegations (and video!) that federal agents \u2014 and Bovino, specifically \u2014 violated a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-136460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-GL0nnk.jpg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}