A federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to zip it when it comes to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying top officials are threatening his right to a fair trial by publicly calling him an MS-13 gang member, child predator or domestic abuser.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., an Obama appointee who is overseeing the criminal case against Mr. Abrego Garcia in Tennessee, singled out Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem in particular.
The judge said the two women’s attacks on Mr. Abrego Garcia were “troubling,” and may have at times been “simply inaccurate.”
He said their comments violate court rules and if he hears of any future breaches he could sanction the violators.
But he stopped short of issuing a gag order on them, saying to silence members of the Executive Branch “would be an extraordinary step.”
He said the rules forbid comments that delve into Mr. Abrego Garcia’s prior criminal record or challenge his character or reputation. They also forbid opinions about a defendant’s guilt or innocence
“The court finds that past statements by government officials about Abrego may violate Local Criminal Rule 2.01(a) because they are statements that the government lawyers in this case are precluded from making,” the judge ruled.
Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers had asked for a ruling, saying top Trump officials were poisoning the potential juror pool for the defendant, who has been charged with migrant smuggling.
Ms. Bondi has said Mr. Abrego Garcia’s criminal conduct goes beyond that. She said he “was a smuggler of humans and children and women” and that smuggling was his “full-time job.”
Ms. Noem, for her part, has said Mr. Abrego Garcia is an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator.”
Judge Crenshaw also dinged Mr. Abrego Garcia’s own lawyers, saying they may have violated the court’s rules by talking about work on a plea agreement.
Mr. Abrego Garcia has become perhaps the most prominent illegal immigrant in the U.S., having been deported to his native El Salvador, despite a court order to the contrary, then brought back by Trump officials under pressure from a federal judge.
He was brought back to face a new indictment, but after Judge Crenshaw ordered him released pending trial, the Trump administration then rushed to start new deportation proceedings.
Those are being argued in another federal court in Maryland.
Judge Crenshaw has ruled that the criminal case against Mr. Abrego Garcia has signs of being an illegal vindictive prosecution.
In a separate ruling Monday he ordered the government to show him documents that might shed more light on the decision-making behind the prosecution. He will then decide whether any of the documents should be turned over to Mr. Abrego Garcia to bolster his defense.
“This is not an ordinary case,” the judge wrote. “Abrego has established a reasonable likelihood that his prosecution was motivated, at least in part, in retaliation for him exercising his constitutional rights in his Maryland immigration case.”
Meanwhile, in the Maryland court, Judge Paula Xinis delivered a verbal spanking to the government on Monday after she learned that a critical hearing in Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation case before an immigration court was scheduled to take place at the same time she had called a hearing for her own case.
“This is completely unacceptable,” she said. “That’s not fair play and it’s not going to happen in my court.”
She also questioned the two-track approach of the Trump administration in pursuing Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation, even as it still has the criminal case opened.
The Trump administration revealed last week that Liberia is willing to accept Mr. Abrego Garcia as a deportee, and Homeland Security said it could have him ready to be deported as soon as this Friday.
Judge Xinis, another Obama appointee, still has a blockade on any deportation, and she tried to sort out all the different angles at play.
“I don’t believe a criminal case can go forward if there is no defendant,” she said.
