By Evan Perez

(CNN) — The Justice Department has fired an immigration lawyer who the Trump administration has accused of sabotaging its legal case over the mistaken deportation of a Salvadoran man, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Erez Reuveni argued the government’s case in the deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration has said was sent to his native El Salvador last month due to a clerical error, despite a court order that he not be deported.

Reuveni was initially placed on administrative leave days after he expressed frustration with the government’s inability to provide answers to questions from a judge in the case. In court, he said of the government’s position: “Our only arguments are jurisdictional. … He should not have been sent to El Salvador.”

Asked why the US couldn’t simply ask for Abrego Garcia’s return, Reuveni said, “The first thing I did when I got this case on my desk is ask my clients the same question,” adding that he did not get a direct answer.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Reuveni’s firing.

During an Oval Office meeting Monday that included President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Stephen Miller, a top aide to Trump, disputed the Justice Department’s admission of an error in the deportation. “The only mistake that was made is a lawyer put an incorrect line in a legal filing that since has been relieved of duty,” Miller said.

The Justice Department hasn’t changed its characterization of the error that sent Abrego Garcia back to El Salvador.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, in putting Reuveni on leave, took issue with how he handled the case in court.

“At my direction, every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences,” she said in a statement to CNN.

Bondi issued a memo on her first day as attorney general requiring lawyers to “zealously” advocate for administration positions or face disciplinary action and potential firing.

The-CNN-Wire
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