Judge Pauses Abrego Garcia Case After Parties Reach Secret Agreement
INSIDE: Beryl Howell ... Ed Martin ... Pete Hegseth
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Constitutional Clash Is On Hold
Apparently the Trump administration is finally doing enough to facilitate the release of the mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to satisfy his lawyers – at least for now. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland on Wednesday night ordered the case paused for a week at the agreement of the parties. Her order came after dueling filings earlier in the day, with the government asking for the pause and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers initially opposing it. Both filings were under seal so it’s not clear precisely what was initially in dispute, what has been agreed to, or what the government revealed that convinced the judge the delay was not just more gamesmanship from the Trump DOJ.
As Morning Memo described in some detail yesterday, the Trump administration’s request for a pause would be a plausible move in a normal world where it was acting in good faith to secure Abrego Garcia’s release and didn’t want the details of its efforts to become public yet in court filings. But the Trump administration has consistently acted in bad faith throughout these proceedings, and a request for delay was consistent with its numerous other efforts to stonewall in the case.
We’re left to speculate about what exactly is happening, but it’s fair to say that neither the trial judge nor Abrego Garcia’s attorneys would have been likely to accede to a delay without concrete and verifiable representations and assurances from the Trump administration.
To this point, the administration has played fast and loose in the case. Despite court orders to the contrary, it has gone so far as to take the position in court that if Abrego Garcia somehow got himself released from detention in El Salvador and showed up at the U.S. border or at a U.S. embassy, he would be taken into custody and either removed to a third country or returned to El Salvador.
In parallel with defying court orders, including from the Supreme Court, the administration has launched a full-scale propaganda campaign against Abrego Garcia that has included the participation of the President, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and top White House officials. In one episode, the Department of Homeland Security – apparently seeking to impugn Abrego Garcia – posted on social media an application for a domestic violence restraining order that his wife had once sought. The court filing included their home address, forcing his wife to move to safe house.
For the time being, the constitutional clash that was playing out in this case is in abeyance. But the administration is still playing fast and loose elsewhere, as the next item shows …
Trump Administration Does The Ol’ Switcheroo!
In a case out of Massachusetts that has flown mostly below the radar, the Trump administration revealed last night that it sidestepped a court order barring removals of migrants to third countries without notice and an opportunity for review – by purporting to transfer custody of detainees from DHS to DOD and letting the Pentagon transport them to El Salvador. The government is taking the extremely dubious legal position that because DOD wasn’t party to the case it was not subject to the court order. Ryan Goodman has the details on this latest defiance of court orders.
In Related News …
Citing the Abrego Garcia case, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher of Maryland has ordered the return of a Venezuelan man deported to El Salvador on one of the notorious March 15 flights in violation of a 2024 settlement agreement.
Marisa Kabas: Rwanda, which agreed to receive U.S. deportations of third-country nationals, has apparently received its first detainee, an Iraqi national.
Judd Legum: U.S. citizen wrongly detained by Border Patrol says government account is false
Federal Judges Poised To Rule On Trump’s Law Firm EOs
The Trump administration was forced to defend two of President Trump’s executive orders targeting major law firms in back-to-back hearings Wednesday in front of federal judges in D.C. It did not go well for the White House.
The Perkins Coie case was a particular “bloodbath” for the White House. In batting around a hapless DOJ attorney, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell seemed convinced that the executive order targeting the firm was unconstitutional, though she hasn’t ruled yet.
In the WilmerHale case, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon said he would rule in the coming weeks.
Trump’s Attack On Higher Ed: College Accreditors
President Trump signed a new executive order targeting university accreditors.
As part of an apparent Trump-driven investigation under the guise of fighting anti-semitism, the EEOC sent a text to Barnard College employees asking if they are Jewish.
Ed Martin Watch
Stat News: The New England Journal of Medicine is the second scientific journal known to have received one of acting D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin’s threatening missives.
TPM’s Khaya Himmelman: Trump’s DOJ Is Taking Cues From MAGA Influencers And Conspiracy Theorists
ProPublica: The Untold Story of How Ed Martin Ghostwrote Online Attacks Against a Judge — and Still Became a Top Trump Prosecutor
‘Bloodbath’ In DOJ’s Civil Rights Division
New reporting from Reuters, NBC News, and others in recent days show how far off the rails the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division has already gone under Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights.
Will SCOTUS Spare The Fed From The Ravages Of Trump?
Todd Phillips: “There is simply no principled way for the Supreme Court to retain the Fed’s removal protections while overturning Humphrey’s Executor.“
Drip, Drip, Drip
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the installation of Signal on a desktop computer in his Pentagon office, the WaPo reports.
The Corruption: $TRUMP Edition
President Trump is offering top buyers of his memecoin a private dinner with him at his Virginia club and a tour of the White House.
The Courage To Be Decent
Radley Balko: “The Trump administration wants to make us too afraid to look out for one another. Don’t let them.”
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A really good TPM today. I continue to imagine the regime is bugging down in ineptitude, backlash and internal infighting, but the EOs continue to issue forth and the insane directives, like the one to Barnard, continue to fly out in all directions.
I’m inclined to think that maybe our beloved Fuhrer’s people are maybe willing to get Kilmer returned in order to avoid down the line a ruling from SCOTUS that these deportations require at least an appearance of minimal due process which would complicate a lot of this. I’m certain til disproven that there are at least five votes on the Roberts court for maintaining that appearance. Taking citizens off the street without and without any possibility of due process is maybe a bridge too far.
One freedom for one in order to keep the series of abuses in other institutions free to continue.