Trump DOJ makes rare apology after gaffe threatened judge’s job

President Donald Trump's Justice Department issued a rare apology to a Biden-appointed district judge after withholding key information about the charges leveled against an undocumented immigrant that she ordered to be released from detention, leading to calls for her impeachment, marking the latest flub in a growing trend of incidents from the agency.

U.S. District Court Judge Melissa Dubose was appointed to the bench in the District of Rhode Island during the final days of her term. Last week, she issued a ruling ordering that Brian Rafael Gomez be released from ICE custody, pending a bond hearing before an immigration judge, after he had been held for most of the past month after being arrested in Worcester, Massachusetts, per the Boston Herald.

The DOJ later revealed in a press release that Gomez was wanted for murder in the Dominican Republic, leading some to call for DuBose to be impeached and removed from her role. The issue with that outrage quickly came to light, as DuBose said that the DOJ had not shared this information with her, and demanded answers.

"Dubose ordered the release of Gomez, despite the murder charges he faces in his home country and an April 4 arrest in Worcester on assault and battery charges," the Herald's report explained. "When the murder charges came to light in a DHS press release later that day, Dubose scheduled a show-cause hearing for Monday for attorneys to explain why she was left in the dark, threatening to hold prosecutors in contempt of court."

"Before the response was filed, 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," Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan told DuBose. "I was not aware that ICE had previously disclosed that same information on April 16, 2026."

Bolan continued: “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."

DuBose further chastised the attorneys, explaining that "failing to provide this Court with relevant and material facts threatens public safety and erodes trust in the rule of law."

"People called for this judge's impeachment because she ordered someone to be released who had an arrest warrant for murder. Except it turns out the DOJ just didn't tell her that," immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote in a post about the situation on X.

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