Federal judge alleges 'willful and bad faith refusal' to comply in Abrego Garcia deportation case
A federal judge in Maryland accused the Trump administration of "willful and bad faith refusal" to comply with court orders in the case of illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis – who was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama – accused the Trump administration of obstructing the legal process and refusing to provide information about the steps they have taken, if any, to free Abrego Garcia from Salvadorian custody and return him to the United States.
"For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court’s orders," Xinis wrote in an eight-page order Tuesday. "Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this Court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now."
4 MORE DEMS TRAVEL TO EL SALVADOR TO PUSH FOR ABREGO GARCIA'S RETURN TO US
"If Defendants want to preserve their privilege claims, they must support them with the required detail. Otherwise, they will lose the protections they failed to properly invoke," the judge added.
She gave the administration until 6 p.m. Wednesday to provide those details.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday posted a photo to TRUTH Social of himself in the Oval Office holding up a photo of the gang-affiliated tattoos etched on Abrego Garcia's knuckles.
"This is the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, that the Courts are trying to save from being deported?" Trump wrote. "He was supposed to be, according to the Judge and the Democrats, a wonderful father from Maryland, but then they noticed he had "MS-13" tattooed onto his knuckles (and lots of really bad stories about his past!). This is the gang that is, perhaps, the worst of them all. What is wrong with our Country?"
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia, 29, to El Salvador in what it described in court filings as an "administrative error," and has since said that it is up to El Salvador whether Abrego Garcia returns to the U.S.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration nearly two weeks ago to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S., so that court proceedings could continue, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him.
Trump administration officials have pushed back, arguing that it is up to El Salvador — though the president of El Salvador has also said he lacks the power to return Abrego Garcia. The administration has also argued that information about any steps it has taken or could take to return Abrego Garcia is protected by attorney-client privilege laws, state secret laws, general "government privilege" or other secrecy rules.
But Xinis said those claims, without any facts to back them up, reflected a "willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations."
A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scolded the administration last week, saying its claim that it can't do anything to free Abrego Garcia "should be shocking."
The Justice Department unveiled documents last week detailing domestic violence allegations that Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, included in a court filing in 2021. Vasquez alleged in the filing that Abrego Garcia beat her and that she had documentation of the bruises he left on her. Additionally, a 2022 Homeland Security Investigations report obtained by Fox News claims that Abrego Garcia was suspected of partaking in labor and human trafficking. The report said a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper pulled Abrego Garcia over in 2022 after swerving. The patrol officer found eight other individuals in the car with Abrego Garcia, who had just begun driving three days prior.
The officer originally believed the incident qualified as a human trafficking case because no luggage was found in the car, but the officer ultimately only wrote up Abrego Garcia for driving with an expired license.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser, Diana Stancy, David Spunt, Rachel Wolf, Greg Norman and the Associated Press contributed to this report.