Ex-Pentagon official flags 'most important' pieces of judge's admonishment of Trump DOJ
The federal judge presiding over the effort to return wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an infamous Salvadoran megaprison laid down the law for the Trump administration in a highly revealing way, former Pentagon special counsel and federal prosecutor Ryan Goodman explained to CNN's Kate Bolduan on Tuesday.
The judge, Paula Xinis, was thoroughly unsatisfied with Trump's boasts earlier this week in a White House meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that he had no power to return Garcia, who has never been convicted of any crime, is married to a U.S. citizen, and had a special protective order that barred his deportation to El Salvador — all after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the majority of Xinis' order.
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"Could this case, or does this case necessarily, need to end up back at the Supreme Court?" asked Bolduan. "If it does, does the Supreme Court need to be, I guess I keep describing it as like a little less vague in its wording next time, do you think?"
"So I think it will end up at the Supreme Court regardless, because the Trump administration is going to try to bring it there," said Goodman. "They maybe try to bring it there very early, in fact, saying that some of this issue of discovery and the questions being asked shouldn't be asked. So maybe they try to do that. But the Supreme Court already basically said these are the things that they need to answer to. So they could try that. But I think it'll be — it'll die fast."
"And then the last one will be if she does, in fact, the district court judge hold them in contempt," Goodman continued. "I think one of the most important parts of the order that she gave this evening is she actually points to one of the ways in which the United States government seems to have control over the matter. She says it's inexplicable that Abrego Garcia is still being held in secret. And then she drops a footnote and cites the text that we do have from the written agreement with El Salvador that's been released by The Associated Press, because they obtained part of the agreement, which says that they'll be held in, held in CECOT, quote, 'pending the United States decision on their long-term disposition,' end quote."
"That's what the judge says, which is basically saying, you have much more authority, the United States government, to do something here, to do anything, take certain steps to facilitate his release, then," he added.
Watch the video below or at the link here.
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