Venezuelan deportation judge "beating a dead horse," DOJ says in scathing reply

• Boasberg extended the filing deadline to Thursday from Tuesday's initial deadline for the DOJ to answer his questions regarding flight departure times and the passengers aboard the flights.
• When the DOJ resisted answering in its Tuesday filing citing concerns about "sensitive information bearing on foreign relations" being made public, Boasberg agreed they could do so under seal.

What they're saying: In its Wednesday filing, the DOJ accused Boasberg of "continuing to beat a dead horse solely for the sake of prying from the Government legally immaterial facts and wholly within a sphere of core functions of the Executive Branch is both purposeless and frustrating."

• "The Court has now spent more time trying to ferret out information about the Government's flight schedules and relation with foreign countries than it did in investigating the facts before certifying the class action in this case."
• "That observation reflects how upside-down this case has become, as digressive micromanagement has outweighed consideration of the case's legal issues," the filing reads.

State of play: The government maintains that the flights — which included about 250 Venezuelans, including alleged Tren de Aragua gang members —departed the U.S. before the judge ordered them not to.

• The Justice Department has not yet provided details to prove that the flights were over international waters by 7:25pm ET on Saturday, as it claimed.

Yes, but: A New York Times review of flight data showed that they didn't leave American soil until after Boasberg's written order was posted online.

Go deeper: DOJ remains defiant about Venezuela deportation flights