Judge Accuses Government of 'Willful and Bad Faith' Stonewalling in Deportation Case

Source: New York Times

The sharp rebuke by a federal judge in Maryland suggested that she had lost her patience with the Trump administration’s recalcitrance in the case.

A federal judge in Maryland blasted the Trump administration on Tuesday for flouting her instructions to answer questions about what steps it had taken, and planned to take, in seeking the release of a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last month.

The sharp rebuke by the judge, Paula Xinis, contained in an eight-page order, suggested she had lost her patience with the Justice Department’s pattern of stonewalling her in the case involving the deported man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

In her order, Judge Xinis accused the department of “a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.” She also dismissed as “specious” its attempts to evade providing information about how Mr. Abrego Garcia ended up in a Salvadoran prison by claiming that it amounted to privileged state secrets.

“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,” Judge Xinis wrote, giving vent to her frustrations. “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.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/us/politics/trump-justice-department-abrego-garcia-el-salvador.html?unlocked_article_code=1.B08.d0N4.obyGNRvNsoBN&smid=url-share