Main: Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche and White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Director Peter Navarro speak about antitrust investigations and meatpackers during a press conference in Washington, United States, on May 4, 2026. (Photo by Lenin Nolly/NurPhoto via AP). Left inset: U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose (U.S. District Court). Right inset: Bryan Rafael Gomez (DHS).
It”s been months since the Department of Homeland Security issued a press release accusing a Rhode Island federal judge of knowingly ordering the release of an international homicide suspect in a habeas corpus case. The falsehood is still online in its original form to this day, “despite the government’s knowledge that it is false,” and the suspect remains at large, according to the court. And now, a DOJ lawyer has been called on the carpet for making the equivalent of an “affirmative false statement” to protect his client.
On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island provided Law&Crime with a statement and the outcome of an investigation into Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Bolan. Law&Crime previously reported that U.S. District Judge Melissa DuBose, in late April, granted the release of Bryan Rafael Gomez. In response, DHS posted a press release calling the ruling “yet another example of an activist judge trying to thwart President Trump’s mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens from our communities.”
The problem then and the problem now is that the government claimed DuBose knew Gomez had a homicide warrant out for his arrest in the Dominican Republic, but that the Joe Biden-appointed judge ordered his release anyway to endanger the American public. Once the judge forced Bolan to testify in court, however, it became clear that DuBose had no such knowledge about the warrant.
Bolan said that he “sincerely” apologized for the “consequences” of his “lack of disclosure,” claiming he was following ICE’s guidance that he was not allowed to “disclose that information,” not knowing that ICE “had previously disclosed that same information on April 16, 2026,” and publicly, though not directly to DuBose. In case that representation wasn’t clear enough, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s name appeared on a filing that clarified DuBose “did not have knowledge at the time of her ruling that Gomez was wanted by authorities in the Dominican Republic.”
When DuBose questioned Bolan during a show-cause hearing, he said he reached out to anyone capable of getting the DHS post taken down, but those efforts were in vain. The judge heard the apology and explanation but nonetheless referred the matter for potential disciplinary action, considering the government’s withholding of “highly relevant information and their lack of candor to this Court[.]”
Chief U.S. District Judge John McConnell quickly agreed that a special counsel probe of “possible misconduct” was warranted.
Roger Williams University School of Law Professor Niki Kuckes, a legal ethics expert and former clerk to conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, was appointed to investigate. Now that the investigation is complete, McConnell slammed Bolan in a “cautionary” letter for his “grave” failure, without levying a “formal charge of misconduct.”
“The Special Counsel’s report found sufficient evidence to conclude that your conduct in the Gómez case violated the duty of candor you owe the Court under Rhode Island Rule of Professional Conduct 3.3(a)(1),” the chief judge wrote. “You have acknowledged that while you did not intend to deceive the Court, your conduct failed to live up to the duty of candor this Court expects of all lawyers who practice in this Court, and that this resulted in harm to Judge DuBose, to the Court and to the public trust in the judiciary. This letter, which will be placed in the public docket in this case, will serve as a caution to you, a statement of this Court’s expectations for government counsel in immigration cases and otherwise, and a public reminder of the critical importance the Court places on the duty of candor for all lawyers who appear before us. “
“You acknowledged that you could and should have sought extra time to respond, gone up the chain to get authorization, or otherwise found a way to disclose this information to the Court before Judge DuBose ruled,” he added. “Without the full record, Judge DuBose ordered the Petitioner’s immediate release pending a bond hearing, as was appropriate on the incomplete evidence she was given. Unfortunately, the consequences that followed were grave for this Court and for the federal justice system.”
Notably, McConnell said the “false public statement by ICE” put DuBose “in personal danger and undermined public faith in the federal courts.”
“To add to the harm, the habeas Petitioner thereafter failed to report as ordered. While you had no involvement in the ICE news release, the role you played in the chain of events was a critical link in a sequence that led to a serious failure of justice,” the chief judge continued, warning Bolan that any future violations of the “duty of candor owed to the Court” or otherwise “will be severely sanctioned.”
Mitigating circumstances in Bolan’s favor included a finding that “there is no reason to conclude that you were part of a scheme to deceive the Court, or that you acted in bad faith or for personal gain.” Rather, the court said the evidence pointed to Bolan’s “failure to prioritize your duty to the Court over the instructions of your client[.]”
Overall, however, the chief judge saw Bolan’s decision not to disclose the warrant as the “equivalent of making an affirmative false statement to the Court[.]”
In a separate statement, the court called the whole ordeal “deeply troubling.”
