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TPM / David Kurtz: Trump DOJ Launches New Secret Gambit In Abrego Garcia Case
TPM / David Kurtz - Trump DOJ Launches New Secret Gambit In Abrego Garcia Case
David Kurtz
Apr 23, 2025
Something Is Afoot But It’s Not Clear What
The big news of the day in the case of the mistakenly deported and wrongfully imprisoned Kilmar Abrego Garcia was U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis lambasting the Trump administration – and DOJ lawyers – for their ongoing and willful defiance of her orders in bad faith.
I covered Xinis’ scathing intervention in the discovery process extensively here, so I won’t rehash it in full except to reiterate one point: While we may have envisioned the constitutional clash between President Trump and the judicial branch as a dramatic sumo match played out on the steps of the Supreme Court, it’s actually been taking place day by day over the past month in Xinis’ court with repeated unprecedented defiance, non-responsiveness, and disrespectful stonewalling from the Trump DOJ.
It is against that backdrop that the Trump DOJ has in the past 24 hours submitted two new filings in the case under seal.
The first sealed filing was Tuesday’s daily status report in the case. Xinis had previously ordered the Justice Department to file daily reports in response to the Trump administration’s refusing to answer basic questions from her about what it had done and planned to do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release. Until yesterday, all of the daily status reports have been filed publicly. One recent status report, for example, conveyed that Abergo Garcia reported he was no longer being held at CECOT but had been transferred to the “Centro Industrial” detention facility in Santa Ana. Yesterday’s report wasn’t just filed under seal but ex parte, too, meaning Abrego Garcia’s attorneys didn’t get to see it either.
/snip
David Kurtz
Apr 23, 2025
Something Is Afoot But It’s Not Clear What
The big news of the day in the case of the mistakenly deported and wrongfully imprisoned Kilmar Abrego Garcia was U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis lambasting the Trump administration – and DOJ lawyers – for their ongoing and willful defiance of her orders in bad faith.
I covered Xinis’ scathing intervention in the discovery process extensively here, so I won’t rehash it in full except to reiterate one point: While we may have envisioned the constitutional clash between President Trump and the judicial branch as a dramatic sumo match played out on the steps of the Supreme Court, it’s actually been taking place day by day over the past month in Xinis’ court with repeated unprecedented defiance, non-responsiveness, and disrespectful stonewalling from the Trump DOJ.
It is against that backdrop that the Trump DOJ has in the past 24 hours submitted two new filings in the case under seal.
The first sealed filing was Tuesday’s daily status report in the case. Xinis had previously ordered the Justice Department to file daily reports in response to the Trump administration’s refusing to answer basic questions from her about what it had done and planned to do to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release. Until yesterday, all of the daily status reports have been filed publicly. One recent status report, for example, conveyed that Abergo Garcia reported he was no longer being held at CECOT but had been transferred to the “Centro Industrial” detention facility in Santa Ana. Yesterday’s report wasn’t just filed under seal but ex parte, too, meaning Abrego Garcia’s attorneys didn’t get to see it either.
/snip