Trump 'complicated things' for his own team in bid to thwart migrant's return: expert

President Donald Trump "absolutely" complicated his administration's efforts to defy a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" the return of a Maryland father who was wrongly deported to El Salvador, a CNN legal analyst said Wednesday.

Elie Honig joined Anderson Cooper on Cooper's eponymous show and was asked whether Trump's comments in an exclusive ABC News interview "complicate[d] things for the administration."

"Absolutely. Because the position that the administration has taken in court is squarely contradicted by what the president said," Honig replied.

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The administration's position so far, noted Honig, has been to dubiously insist they can't return Kilmar Abrego Garcia because El Salvador is unwilling to give him up.

"And so, when it comes time for us to 'facilitate,' as the U.S. Supreme Court has said, all we can do is sort of be in this passive posture of making sure there's no obstacles," Honig said, paraphrasing the administration's stance.

But that argument got way-laid by Trump on Tuesday night.

"But then the president says, 'Of course, I could pick up that phone and get him back.' And so I expect the judge to press the DOJ attorneys on that," said Honig. "'Well, the president says you can get him back. We told you to facilitate. So put two and two together and do what we and the Supreme Court have told you to do.'"

Abrego Garcia remains detained in El Salvador, now in a lower-security facility after initially being held in the country's notorious CECOT mega-prison. Federal courts are pushing for more transparency and accountability from the Trump administration, with new deadlines for government testimony and discovery set for early May.

Watch the clip below or at this link.