Trump II Hits A New All-Time Low In Oval Office Debacle
INSIDE: Paula Xinis ... Stephen Miller ... Pam Bondi
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Defiance And Mendacity
I want to begin today by setting the stage for the hearing scheduled this afternoon at 4 p.m. ET in federal court in Maryland in the case of mistakenly deported and wrongfully imprisoned Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
We’re five days and counting into the executive branch engaging in ongoing contemptuous behavior toward the judicial branch by refusing to abide by a district court order backed by the Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s conduct has been on brand: egregious, contemptible, and brazen. It has refused to comply with deadlines; rebuffed the judge’s repeated demands for information; shifted its arguments and positions in an attempt to re-litigate already-decided matters; and sent DOJ lawyers into court to absorb judicial fire unarmed with facts or legitimate legal arguments.
And that’s just touching on how the Trump administration has conducted itself in court.
On the underlying case itself, the Trump administration mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia in contravention of an existing order from an immigration judge; it sent the El Salvadoran to a brutal prison in his home country, where he’s been for a month as of today; and there is no evidence of any kind that the Trump administration has lifted a finger to correct its error and to try to retrieve him.
This was all true even before yesterday’s historically grim Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in which the two heads of state and top Trump officials chortled, bragged, and postured in front of cameras about never releasing Abrego Garcia. To justify defying the courts, human rights, and basic decency, the mendacious cabal in the Oval Office invented, distorted, and disregarded facts about Abrego Garcia, the legal background of his case, and the court orders the administration is currently defying.
But I go back to the Trump administration’s conduct in U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ court. At a hearing in the case on Friday, April 4, a Justice Department lawyer admitted the administration’s error in deporting Abrego Garcia and expressed frustration to Xinis about his client’s conduct since then. By the next day, that lawyer and his supervisor had been taken off the case and placed on administrative leave for what Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was insufficient advocacy on the administration’s behalf.
The following Friday, after the Supreme Court intervened to uphold Xinis’ order save for one word – “effectuate,” which she subsequently dropped when issuing a new order – a replacement DOJ lawyer was in court refusing and unable to provide even the most basic information about Abrego Garcia’s current status, what the administration had already done and what it planned to do to try to facilitate his release. That lawyer told the court the administration needed until today to provide full answers to those question, and suggested it might be able to provide them by the close of business yesterday. Unsatisfied with that response, the judge ordered daily status updates.
The daily status updates – two of which were filed after deadline – have failed to answer the judge’s questions, except to confirm that Abrego Garcia is alive and in the CECOT prison. Yesterday’s Oval Office set piece now renders suspect almost anything the Justice Department says in court about the case because the president himself has made the administration’s position clear.
Where does this leave for Judge Xinis to do? The short answer: It’s not clear. The combination of defiance and mendacity in pursuit and defense of extra-constitutional ends may be unprecedented in our history. Xinis may summon Trump officials to testify, she may find the administration in contempt, she may try to impose fines or take other punitive actions against specific officials. But I wouldn’t be under any illusion that there’s a magic bullet here for her.
But let’s also be clear that this is about far more than Abrego Garcia.
The Supreme Court weighed in once already, but in a way that tried to sidestep a direct confrontation with the President. At an institutional level, it tried to create some space for the President to right the wrong done to Abrego Garcia and to the rule of law without inviting additional attacks on the constitutional structure. That failed.
President Trump – apparently at the urging of non-lawyer Stephen Miller – has twisted the Supreme Court decision that was unanimous against him into an unrecognizable ruling that was unanimous for him. But he is fundamentally defying the Supreme Court now. Only additional intervention from the Supreme Court can potentially resolve this matter, but whether the Roberts Court will clip Trump’s wings, I hardly need to tell you, is not a sure thing.
‘Homegrowns Are Next’
Trump’s broader scheme to use El Salvador as a extra-legal dumping ground – beyond the reach of U.S. law – for people Trump deems undesirable isn’t going to be limited to El Salvadoran migrants or alleged-but-unproven Venezuelan gang members:
Reaction To The Latest Oval Office Debacle
Adam Serwer: “This rhetorical game the administration is playing, where it pretends it lacks the power to ask for Abrego Garcia to be returned while Bukele pretends he doesn’t have the power to return him, is an expression of obvious contempt for the Supreme Court—and for the rule of law.”
Jonathan V. Last: “The real question is: Does the chief justice understand this state of affairs? Or is he blind to reality?”
Timothy Snyder: “On the White House’s theory, if they abduct you, get you on a helicopter, get to international waters, shoot you in the head, and drop your corpse into the ocean, that is legal, because it is the conduct of foreign affairs.”
Chris Geidner: “[I]t appears that the administration — likely led by Stephen Miller, based on who is and how he performed in the Oval Office on Monday, with a pliant Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem helping him — has centered in on an approach to get out from under these pesky federal courts by shoehorning all manner of illegal and even unconstitutional actions into “foreign relations” and beyond the reach of the courts.”
Joyce Vance: “If there were a map that showed democracy slipping into dictatorship, we would be at the spot marked “You are here.” We shouldn’t sugarcoat the danger. Due process matters to immigrants and Americans alike. When the presidency refuses to honor it, we are all in danger. Donald Trump could snap his fingers and secure Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. We all know that’s true, no matter what pretense this administration assumes.”
CODA: Another Form Of Court Defiance
The Trump White House denied the Associated Press access to the President’s Oval Office meeting with Bukele despite a court order forbidding the Trump administration from punishing the AP for refusing to rename the Gulf of Mexico.
Another Pro-Palestinian Student Stripped Of Legal Status
The Trump administration has unilaterally revoked the green card of another pro-Palestinian Columbia student and detained him for deportation. Mohsen Mahdawi was detained when he showed up at a Vermont immigration center for what he was told was an interview related to his naturalization. A federal judge in Vermont quickly ordered the Trump administration not to deport Mahdawi while his case is pending.
Harvard Holds Firm Against Trump Attack
Three things you need to know about Harvard University’s decision to refuse to comply with the demands from the Trump administration to essentially give up its independence in order to continue to receive federal funding:
How arbitrary and off-the-cuff President Trump was in targeting Harvard.
How extreme the demand letter from the administration to Harvard was.
How the anti-DEI administration demanded Harvard institute DEI for conservatives.
Following Harvard’s refusal to comply, the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in federal funding to the university.
Doge Watch
NPR: A whistleblower’s disclosure details how DOGE may have taken sensitive labor data
Don’t Sleep On North Carolina Supreme Court Race
Rich Hasen: We’re Getting Dangerously Close to a Losing North Carolina Candidate Being Declared the Winner
What It Feels Like, Right Now
Chuck Wendig: “It’s hard to focus. It’s hard to focus on the things in front of me, that I need to do. It’s hard to focus on the news, because it’s not just one thing, it’s a hundred things, news like fire ants, like you stepped on their mound and here they are, swarming, and each ant feels meaningless in the context of all these angry fucking ants.”
Not yet a TPM member?
The best way to support Morning Memo is by joining TPM. Read our mission.
I can confidently predict that the "new all-time low" is a temporary situation.
Another excellent piece - concise, substantive, informative. Thank you