The federal judge overseeing Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit against the Trump administration abruptly decided Wednesday to impose a seven-day delay on discovery for reasons that aren’t immediately clear.
Following a sealed petition from Justice Department lawyers seeking a delay, presiding US District Judge Paula Xinis revealed in court filings that the two sides reached an agreement to postpone discovery. She did not elaborate on the decision.
Wednesday’s order marks a reversal from a day earlier, when Xinis had called for an expedited discovery and demanded that Trump administration officials testify about Abrego Garcia’s deportation
While the rationale for a potential delay is unclear, the petition comes after presiding US District Judge Paula Xinis ordered an expedited discovery and demanded that Trump administration officials testify about Abrego Garcia’s deportation.
“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,” Xinis wrote in a scathing order Tuesday.
“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.”
She further chided them for exhibiting “a willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations.”
DOJ attorneys had argued Tuesday that furnishing specific information about the legal justifications for Abrego Garcia’s detention would be “wholly inappropriate and an invasion of diplomatic discussions,” court filings show.
They argued that it is “no longer a matter of the United States’ confinement” but rather an issue for the government of El Salvador to consider.
Earlier this month, Xinis had ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the US and has repeatedly rebuked DOJ lawyers for not providing enough details about efforts to comply with that order.
The Supreme Court largely upheld her order to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia to the US, but caveated that she must show “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
Top brass of the Trump administration, such as White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller, have argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling doesn’t require the administration to pressure El Salvador for Abrego Garcia’s return.
Instead, they contend that the high court merely wants the administration to “facilitate” the 29-year-old’s return if El Salvador releases him.
“Defendants—and their counsel—well know that the falsehood lies not in any supposed ‘premise,’ but in their continued mischaracterization of the Supreme Court’s Order,” Xinis chided Tuesday about the Trump administration’s characterizations of the high court’s ruling.
“That Order made clear that this Court ‘properly required the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.’”
Abrego Garcia had been among the 260 alleged gangbangers the Trump administration flew to El Salvador’s notoriously brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) under war powers from the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
He has since been transferred to a lower security prison center in Santa Ana, El Salvador, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who visited him last week.
In a March 31 filing, the Trump administration said that Abrego Garcia’s removal was due to an “administrative error” and a “clerical error” because the October 2019 order was still in effect. However, officials such as Miller have since claimed that the attorneys made a mistake in saying that.
A citizen of El Salvador, Abrego Garcia had illegally entered the US in 2011, but a 2019 court order restricted him from being sent there due to concerns he could be targeted by the Barrio 18 criminal gang.
The Trump administration has accused him of affiliation with the ruthless MS-13 transnational gang, claiming he was confirmed as one by a “proven and reliable source.”
Officials have claimed that he was discovered having “rolls of cash and drugs” when he was detained and that he had been “arrested with two other members of MS-13.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and family deny that he was a member of MS-13.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has publicly poured cold water on the notion of sending Abrego Garcia back to the US, calling such questions “preposterous.”
