U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose slammed Trump’s Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security over a “massive breach” of trust involving a “dangerous” false statement that a DOJ lawyer begged forgiveness for in a bid to avoid contempt charges.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security attacked Judge Dubose — a Biden appointee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island — in a statement on the DHS website. The post accused Dubose of being an “activist judge” who “released a violent criminal illegal alien who is wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic.”

But it turned out that the reason the judge granted Bryan Rafael Gomez’s release was because the Trump administration deliberately failed to disclose the relevant information to the court.

Justice Department attorney Kevin Bolan admitted as much in a filing apologizing and placing blame on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a bid to avoid contempt charges:

I had been informed by ICE about the Petitioner’s pending arrest warrant issued on January 24, 2023, from a court in the Dominican Republic and that I could not disclose that information. I was not aware that ICE had previously disclosed that same information on April 16, 2026.1 In failing to disclose the information regarding Petitioner’s criminal history, I relied on ICE’s representation that I was not permitted to disclose that information and understood that a legitimate law enforcement reason prevented disclosure. Judge DuBose, therefore, lacked that information about the Petitioner’s criminal background when she granted the petition.

I sincerely apologize to Judge DuBose, personally, and to the entire Court for the consequences of this lack of disclosure.

At that hearing on Monday, the judge slammed the Trump administration over the attack.

“The April 30th, completely erroneous and dangerous press release is still on their website. It puts people at risk. It’s a threat to judicial security,” the judge said. “I’m not trying to make this political. It’s also very important that the public has the facts. As long as this particular post is out there, it’s setting up a false narrative.”

Judge Dubose also said “there was a decision made not to be truthful to the court,” and that “there certainly was a massive breach of this court’s trust in this case.”

Gomez attorney Melanie Shapiro said she was blindsided by the murder charge as well. She wrote in a statement: “I was completely shocked by the information about the warrant and deeply disturbed by the extremely inflammatory rhetoric against Judge DeBose. If I knew about an outstanding warrant from the Dominican Republic for murder, I would never have filed the petition.”

The judge will decide on the contempt charges at a hearing on Tuesday afternoon.

Watch above via WJAR.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!