Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers ask judge to sanction Trump administration

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a judge to put severe sanctions on the Trump administration, saying federal officials violated court orders to prove the steps they were taking to attempt to get the wrongfully deported man out of El Salvador for weeks, before he was returned to face criminal charges.

Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a judge to put severe sanctions on the Trump administration, saying federal officials violated court orders to prove the steps they were taking to attempt to get the wrongfully deported man out of El Salvador for weeks, before he was returned to face criminal charges. It’s the latest move in the court fight over Abrego Garcia and whether the Trump administration appropriately handled the political and legal maelstrom. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say the Trump administration’s violations of the court have been “egregious” because it repeatedly refused to provide any evidence around how it was complying with court orders. “The Government did virtually nothing,” they said in a court filing late Wednesday night. “Nearly sixty days, ten orders, three depositions, three discovery disputes, three motions for stay, two hearings, a week-long stay, and a failed appeal later, the Plaintiffs still have seen no evidence to suggest that the Defendants took any steps, much less ‘all available steps,’ to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States ‘as soon as possible’ so that his case could be handled as it would have been had he not been unlawfully deported,” Abrego Garcia’s attorneys wrote. Documents the administration turned over to Abrego Garcia’s team in recent weeks had largely been already in the public record, and assertions that the State Department was discussing his return with the Salvadoran government were vague, the lawyers added.