A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily halted her order requiring the Trump administration to provide information on its efforts so far to retrieve Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month — just one day after accusing the administration of demonstrating “bad faith” in the proceedings.
Earlier Wednesday, the Department of Justice asked Maryland-based U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to stay her directive to provide testimony and documents on Abrego Garcia for seven days, and Abrego Garcia’s lawyers filed a response. Hours later, Xinis granted a stay of the discovery process until April 30 at 5 p.m. with “the agreement of the parties.”
The reason for the stay is unclear since both parties’ filings are sealed. Xinis did not explain her reasoning.
Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told CBS News in a statement his team is “not at liberty to speak about the current status of the case at this time,” citing the seal on the court documents. “We remain focused on bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia home, and we will not rest until he is brought home,” he added.
The Justice Department declined to comment.
Xinis’ decision to stay discovery for a week came one day after Abrego Garcia’s legal team accused the Trump administration of failing to follow her order for expedited discovery in the case. In a scathing order Tuesday, Xinis said the administration had shown a “willful and bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations,” and ordered the government to respond to questions by Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011, was detained last month and flown to El Salvador, part of a wave of hundreds of migrants — including alleged gang members — sent by the Trump administration to the country’s notorious Terrorist Confinement Center (CECOT) supermax prison. A judge previously barred Abrego Garcia from being removed to El Salvador in 2019, citing the risk of persecution by the country’s gangs.
The Trump administration conceded in court Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error,” but has declined to return him to the U.S., accusing him of membership in the MS-13 gang — which his lawyers deny, noting he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
Abrego Garcia’s case has turned into a legal showdown. Xinis ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return to the U.S., which the Supreme Court affirmed, but the administration has argued it’s up to El Salvador to return him. Xinis has suggested the government hasn’t adequately complied with her orders.
The U.S. has claimed that much of the information is protected because it involves state secrets, government deliberations and attorney client privilege. But Xinis has rejected the argument and demanded that the Trump administration provide specific justifications for each claim of privileged information by Wednesday evening.
A three-judge panel on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scolded the administration last week, saying its claim that it can’t do anything to free Abrego Garcia “should be shocking.” That ruling came one day after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt in a different case for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.