For many years now, CBS News’ 60 Minutes has served as a clear-cut example of left-wing media propaganda. So, it wasn’t completely shocking when the program ran to a discredited ex-Justice Department official to trash the Trump administration amid its ongoing legal battles.
This past weekend’s episode included a sit-down interview with Erez Reuveni, who served as acting deputy director for the Office of Immigration Litigation until early April, when he was suspended and subsequently fired for failing to “zealously advocate on behalf of the United States” in court, according to Attorney General Pam Bondi. As The Federalist previously reported, his dismissal purportedly centered around his conduct in the DOJ’s efforts to deport Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a credibly accused wife-beater and MS-13 gang member.
Throughout the roughly 13-minute-long segment, CBS and 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley tried their very hardest to portray Reuveni as a courageous hero who was victimized by a corrupt, authoritarian administration that has no regard for the rule of law. And much to their satisfaction, Reuveni was more than willing to play the part.
“I think about why I went to the Department of Justice, to do justice. And I took an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution,” Reuveni said. “And my view of that oath is that I need to speak up and draw attention to what has happened to the department, what is happening to the rule of law. I would not be faithfully abiding by my oath if I stayed silent right now.”
Much of the segment focused on allegations Reuveni made earlier this year against the department and Emil Bove, a then-DOJ official who now serves as a judge on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. In his apparent effort to derail Bove’s nomination to the judgeship, Reuveni came forward with claims that Bove had instructed agency officials to defy potential court orders prohibiting the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport suspected Venezuelan gang members.
“Bove emphasized, those planes need to take off, no matter what. And then after a pause, he also told all in attendance, and if some court should issue an order preventing that, we may have to consider telling that court, ‘f-ck you,’” Reuveni said.
“And when you heard that, you thought what?” Pelley asked, to which Reuveni replied, “I felt like a bomb had gone off. Here is the number three official using expletives to tell career attorneys that we may just have to consider disregarding federal court orders.”
(Bove — who was confirmed by the Senate to the 3rd Circuit in July — has denied the allegations and told 60 Minutes, in part, “Mr. Reuveni’s claims are a mix of falsehoods and wild distortions of reality.”)
Naturally, there’s more to the story than what 60 Minutes is letting on. At no point in the segment did Pelley bother mentioning or asking Reuveni about an internal DOJ memo previously unearthed by The Federalist that contradicts Reuveni’s claims.
Issued months before Reuveni went public with his allegations, the April 8, 2025, letter by August Flentje (Reuveni’s former supervisor) discussed litigation involving the administration’s efforts to deport Garcia and the use of the AEA. Writing of AEA-related litigation, Flentje specifically noted that, under instruction from Bove, the DOJ was to “avoid” receiving a court order throughout such legal battles — not to “defy” or “ignore” court orders.
“On March 14, 2025, our Alien Enemies Act (AEA) litigation team — including Mr. Reuveni and myself — were called to a meeting with the Deputy Attorney General. We were preparing for an impending AEA proclamation and anticipated fast-moving litigation,” Flentje wrote. “The Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General [Emil Bove] advised our team that we must avoid a court order halting an upcoming operation to implement the Act at all costs. The impact of this meeting on our team cannot be overstated” [emphasis added].
But that’s not the only piece of relevant information Pelley and 60 Minutes omitted from their featurette on the disgruntled ex-DOJ official. They also declined to highlight or ask Reuveni about his prior efforts advising his then-colleagues on how to “sway” the DOJ’s litigation strategy in the aforementioned deportation of the alleged Venezuelan gang members.
Documents obtained and first reported by The Federalist in July show that Reuveni pledged to “withdraw from the case” if DOJ leadership did not handle the case in the way he thought they should. In doing so, he also seemingly encouraged his colleagues to do the same as a way of potentially changing the agency’s final handling of the case.
“If, however, folks upstairs decide to do something other than that, I will withdraw from this case and will decline to appear on any further briefings, whatever the consequences may be,” Reuveni wrote in the March 19, 2025, email. “You all have to make your own decisions, but that is what I would advise. And if it comes to it, our collective civil/career group taking that position might help sway the outcome.”
“Hope it doesn’t come to this, I expect most likely it won’t, but getting this down in writing now before things get crazy again,” he added.
If it wasn’t obvious already, the entire point of the segment was to deceive everyday Americans into becoming “concerned” about a supposedly lawless Trump-run Justice Department. But what they should really be concerned about is disgruntled bureaucrats undermining the duly-elected president’s agenda and so-called “news” outlets like CBS running cover for them.
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