'Not doing this right': Analyst says Trump admin legal move will 'come back to haunt them'
NBC News reporter Ken Dilanian and legal analyst Danny Cevallos think that an appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals backfired against President Donald Trump.
Speaking to MSNBC on Friday, Dilanian addressed the case involving Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland man brought to the U.S. as a teenager 15 years ago. García was detained by the government and shipped to an El Salvador prison despite a judge saying that he could not be sent to El Salvador. The Justice Department's lawyers called the deportation a "clerical error," and admitted in court that he was wrongfully deported to the prison.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the government must "facilitate" the return of García, but the word "facilitate" has become part of the argument between the Justice Department, the judge and lawyers for García's family.
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Dilanian cited conservative Appeals Court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, who took the lead on the Thursday ruling: "He went on to sort of use this case as an argument against Trump administration's approach to judges in general, and to calls for impeachment of judges whose rulings they don't like, and to raise the specter that this is really undermining the rule of law."
Cevallos explained the procedural steps, noting that the Trump administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which then sent the case back to the district court. However, the DOJ sought another appeal of the lower court's decisions.
"And the Trump administration is saying to the circuit court of appeals, hey, help us out. We don't like this district court directive to provide this information. And I've got to tell you, in reading this seven-page opinion, it's as if the appeals court is saying, you're coming to us for help? We don't like anything you're doing. You came to the wrong place."
Cevallos explained that this could ultimately harm the Trump administration.
"As Ken can tell you, within that decision, they also added some other interpretation of words like 'facilitate,'" Cevallos said, recalling the words from the Supreme Court's ruling. "Remember, the government has to facilitate García's return. And almost gratuitously, the Fourth Circuit said, hey, here's what we think facilitate means. Not for nothing, as they say in New Jersey, this is what we think that word means, and what we think you should be doing. I don't think they really needed to do that. They could have just said, hey, a request for emergency help from us: denied. Go back down there to the district court and let this play out."
The appeals court took a different route, he noted.
"But instead they went on for about seven pages, describing all the reasons why they think the administration — they meaning the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals — why the court believes that the Trump administration is not doing this right. And I think this emergency appeal may come back to haunt them because it further fleshes out these words like 'facilitate,' 'return,' that I can see the district court using in its own final decision."
Cevallos went on to explain that they must follow a court order until the court decides otherwise.
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