New documents have revealed disturbing details about the Trump administration’s agreement with El Salvador to detain Venezuelan migrants, including a ban on providing legal counsel to those imprisoned. The five-page agreement obtained through litigation shows the administration paid El Salvador $4.76 million to house migrants at the notorious CECOT megaprison, with plans to send up to 300 people to the facility.
The agreement, secured by Democracy Forward through a lawsuit, placed no conditions on how migrants would be treated while in custody at a prison known for torture. However, it specifically forbade using any U.S. funds for “legal counseling” to the detained migrants. The Trump administration sent roughly 200 Venezuelan men it accused of being gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center in March 2025.
According to The Hill, a Justice Department whistleblower has now provided evidence that Emil Bove, the department’s No. 3 official, allegedly told subordinates the department “would need to consider telling the courts ‘f*** you'” if judges tried to block the deportations. According to whistleblower Erez Reuveni, a 15-year career prosecutor, Bove made this statement during a March 14 meeting when he stressed that deportation planes “needed to take off no matter what.”
Court defiance leads to contempt proceedings
The situation escalated when U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around planes carrying migrants before they reached El Salvador. Despite this court order, the flights continued and landed in the Central American country. A Justice Department email later revealed that Bove advised the Department of Homeland Security that allowing the planes to land after departing U.S. airspace was “permissible under the law and the court’s order.”
Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton in 2019:
— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) August 27, 2025
‘Our sanctions on Venezuela have frozen $7 billion in PDVSA’s assets and will cost Venezuela$11 billion of lost revenue in the next year’
Socialism didn’t destroy Venezuela, US sanctions did. Now the US has… pic.twitter.com/WXvV14ewMl
Judge Boasberg has since found probable cause that administration officials engaged in criminal contempt by “willfully disobeying a binding judicial decree.” The contempt proceedings are currently on hold while the administration appeals. During court hearings, government lawyers appeared to mislead the judge about the status of the flights, with one attorney claiming he was unaware of their whereabouts even though he had attended meetings where deportation plans were discussed.
The financial arrangement between the U.S. and El Salvador remains unclear, with reports suggesting various amounts were paid. Initial reports put the figure at $6 million, while Senator Chris Van Hollen said during a trip to the country that he was told El Salvador would receive $15 million to house the migrants. The Trump administration also sent Salvadoran nationals accused of being MS-13 members to the facility, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was later determined to have been sent there by mistake.
The Venezuelan men spent roughly four months in CECOT before being returned to Venezuela in July through a prisoner swap agreement. Most of the deportees had no criminal records in the United States, according to government data obtained by investigative journalists. Despite this, the administration labeled them as “rapists,” “savages,” and “the worst of the worst.” The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has since ruled that Trump exceeded the bounds of the law by using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for these deportations, marking the first time an appellate court has rejected the administration’s use of the wartime statute. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court, where Trump’s judicial appointments could face their biggest test yet.
