The Justice Department’s decision to invoke the rarely used state secrets privilege in a bid to avoid giving a federal judge’s details on questions on two deportation flights has opened a complicated new front in the government’s ongoing resistance to turning over the information.

US District Court Judge James Boasberg, already at the crosshairs of the Trump administration in a legal battle over deportation policies, has now been assigned to the “Signalgate” lawsuit involving top officials accused of mishandling sensitive national security communications.