Judge castigates Trump administration for ‘bad faith’ in Abrego Garcia’s deportation case
A federal judge said Tuesday that the Trump administration is ignoring court orders, obstructing the legal process and acting in 鈥渂ad faith鈥 by refusing to provide information about the steps they have taken, if any, to free a mistakenly deported man from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S.
A federal judge said Tuesday that the Trump administration is ignoring court orders, obstructing the legal process and acting in 鈥渂ad faith鈥 by refusing to provide information about the steps they have taken, if any, to free a mistakenly deported man from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S.
鈥淔or 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鈥檚 orders,鈥 U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis wrote an the order Tuesday. 鈥淒efendants 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.鈥
She gave the administration until 6 p.m. Wednesday to provide those details.
The U.S. Supreme Court nearly two weeks ago to facilitate return to the U.S. from a notorious Salvadoran prison, rejecting the White House鈥檚 claim that it couldn鈥檛 retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him.
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Trump administration officials have , arguing that it is up to El Salvador 鈥 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 鈥済overnment privilege鈥 or other secrecy rules.
But Xinis said those claims, without any facts to back them up, reflected a 鈥渨illful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.鈥
It’s not the first time the Trump administration has faced a scathing order from a federal judge over its approach to deportation cases.
A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, saying its claim that it can’t do anything to free Abrego Garcia 鈥渟hould be shocking.鈥 That ruling came one day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found probable cause to hold the of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador in a different legal case.
Democrats and legal scholars say President Donald Trump is provoking a in part by , while the it’s the judges who are the problem.
