President Donald Trump's administration announced Friday it was bringing Kilmar Ábrego García to the U.S. after being deported to a brutal El Salvador prison without a trial.
Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke in a press conference where she was asked why Ábrego García was being charged now after a 2021 traffic stop and what had changed between now and 2021.
"Donald Trump is president," Bondi said.
She went on to make allegations against Ábrego García, saying that he trafficked weapons, drugs, and people, including women and children.She also claimed that one individual alleged Ábrego García solicited explicit photos of a minor, and that he was involved in the deaths of multiple people.
But a reporter with the Wall Street Journal noted that, despite a number of horrific allegations that Bondi made, most of them had not resulted in charges. Ábrego García hs only been indicted with human smuggling.
"Maybe I misunderstood you. You were mentioning, you know, that he had some involvement in a murder, you know, or was connected to groups that had, you know, been involved with this other smuggling ring," the reporter said.
"But to be clear, the only charges he's facing right now are the human smuggling charges," the reporter said. "Just — that's the one offense, but the other things that you have talked about are not actually in the indictment."
Bondi dodged the question, and instead talked about the dangers of human trafficking.
"No, co-conspirators alleged that and we were clear to say that he is charged with very serious charges of alien smuggling, and again, there were children involved in that," said Bondi. "You know, human trafficking, not only in our country but in our world is very, very real. It's very dangerous.
"And as you saw recently in Virginia, the arrest we made of the MS-13 member, unrelated to this, we learned at that press conference that's where they bring young children into our country, and they start grooming them at middle school age to become MS-13, full fledged members, commit violent crimes throughout our country. It is highly organized. It is very dangerous and they are living throughout our country, but no more because they are being arrested, they are being prosecuted and being convicted and deported when appropriate.
"That's all for today. Thank you."
See the clip below or at the link here.