Reacting to comments made by Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday, where she defended a refusal to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S. despite a unanimous ruling from the conservative Supreme Court to "facilitate" his repatriation, three MSNBC reporters called her out.
During her address before reporters where she announced her plan to sue the state of Maine for "discriminating against women by failing to protect women in women's sports," Bondi was asked why she won't lift a finger to bring the Maryland father home.
As she told reporters, "He is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador. ICE testified an immigration judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. An appellate judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. He's from El Salvador, he's in El Salvador and that's where the president plans on keeping him."
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That brought a quick rebuttal from MSNBC host Ali Vitali, who told viewers, "We've got to do a quick fact check here. The administration has yet to provide any evidence Abrego Garcia has ties to MS-13. Furthermore, the 29-year-old has never been formally charged or convicted, either here in the U.S. or in El Salvador."
She added, "A federal district court judge on Tuesday laid into the Trump administration, saying they've done nothing to comply with her requests. The judge added she won't tolerate future gamesmanship or grandstanding. This case could very well end up back in the Supreme Court."
Asked to comment MSNBC legal analyst Ken Dilanian pointed out that Fox News reporter put Bondi on the spot immediately, with Dilanian adding they "...urged the attorney general to present any evidence that she has on this score, and both times, she essentially dodged the question," before she asserted, "We have the transcripts from the court hearings. I'll be glad to give you the court hearings from 2019, what we have. "
Dilainian then did his own fact-check.
"Let me just explain that that was an immigration court hearing," he told Vitali. "Immigration courts are not courts of law. The immigration judge in this case took at face-value what the police said and the evidence that we're aware of supporting the idea that this man was an MS-13 gang member consisted of essentially an allegation from a police informant and the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls ball cap in the Home Depot parking lot when he was picked up –– so that's not evidence by most people's lights."
NBC's Kelly O'Donnell added, "They [the Trump administration] have been pressed multiple times, in addition to the clip you played with the attorney general that has been raised at the White House briefing room and there will still be additional opportunities to raise this to the president."
"Part of why this is at issue is because evidence is essential in the American process, and due process is afforded to those who are not even American Citizens if they are in the United States and he was at that time," she explained. "So providing evidence would be perhaps the shortest, fastest way to affirm their position and to explain it."
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