Chicago Tribune reports:

The deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino nearly ground to a halt last week as government lawyers repeatedly objected to questions by plaintiffs’ attorneys, including some about communications between Bovino and White House adviser Stephen Miller, court records obtained by the Tribune show.

The impasse prompted attorneys for both sides to go before U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in the middle of Bovino’s sworn testimony on Thursday, where lawyers for the Justice Department complained that Bovino was being asked questions that were overbroad, poorly constructed and were not directly tied to the claims in the underlying lawsuit about the use of force by immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz.”

During the hearing, Justice Department attorney Sarmad Khojasteh piqued the frustration of the judge by repeatedly interrupting her and fumbling over the facts of the case. Kosjasteh, who filed his first appearance in the case the day before Bovino’s deposition, repeatedly referred to the Chicago immigration push as “Operation Midway Drift” and had to apologize for being new to the table.

“This is the problem when people come in, right, and we’ve got a revolving door of attorneys and they haven’t been here for the entire thing,” Ellis told Khojasteh, according to a transcript of the proceedings. “They haven’t sat through people’s testimony, they haven’t sat through these hearings, and so now I’m having to explain myself multiple times. And I find it at this point extremely frustrating and a waste of time.”

As Ellis tried to explain that she agreed questions about how Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement targets certain people for immigration enforcement were “not relevant,” Khojasteh cut her off again, saying, “They have asked those questions today. I’m just letting you know,” according to the transcript.

“And if you interrupt me one more time,” Ellis responded. “It’s enough. It’s enough.”

Khojasteh also complained that he’d spent an entire day prepping Bovino on a particular set of issues, only to have plaintiffs’ attorneys confront him with a “grab bag of anything.”

“I mean, they asked today about communications with Stephen Miller,” Khojasteh told the judge. “They asked today about body cam from the Los Angeles (immigration operation). … I feel sand bagged right now.”

Miller is one of the most influential figures in President Donald Trump’s administration and the chief architect of its hard-line immigration policies.

Ellis explained that certain questions about those topics were clearly relevant if given the proper context.

“For example, questions about communications with Mr. Miller may be perfectly within bounds if they talked about, ‘This is how I want this operation to go,’” Ellis said. “If Mr. Miller said that to Mr. Bovino and that was in Mr. Bovino’s mind as to justify the force being used, they can ask about that.”

Ellis noted Bovino was identified in other court testimony as the overall leader of Operation Midway Blitz, making it fair game to ask him not only about his own actions, but ‘”what he is telling agents and officers is the appropriate use of force out in the field.” [Continue reading…]