Abrego Garcia Asks For Sanctions As Gov’t Officials Continue To Publicly Attack Him Ahead Of His Trial

from the admin-motormouths dept

Whether the Trump administration likes it or not, the right to a fair trial still exists. And even the person the government is now subjecting to what looks a whole lot like a vindictive prosecution is still a beneficiary of this right.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador’s infamous CECOT earlier this year along with another hundred-plus deportees the country’s dictator agreed to take off the United States’ hands in exchange for a few million dollars.

Garcia kept fighting this deportation, arguing that it had violated his due process rights. The administration kept fighting to keep Garcia silent and locked in a foreign hellhole. The administration lost. A court ordered his return to the US. Nothing got much better once Abrego Garcia returned. The government whipped up an extremely questionable criminal case against him in order to keep him jailed. Then it offered him the unpalatable option of pleading guilty to a bunch of criminal charges or being deported to other countries with similarly miserable histories of human rights violations.

The judge handling the case finally released Abrego Garcia over the recent holiday season and demanded the government try to convince it that it isn’t engaged in purely vindictive prosecution of someone who has angered it by successfully evoking his constitutional rights.

The government won’t have to provide that answer for another couple of weeks yet. In the meantime, though, it no longer has a trial date to look forward to. That’s been set aside as the court awaits the govenrment’s explanation for its actions. The government has also been hit with a gag order that is supposed to prevent government officials from further disparaging Abrego Garcia with public comments and social media posts.

It violated that gag order almost immediately, with DHS sub-boss Tricia McLaughlin reposting a far-right podcaster’s declaration that Abrego Garcia was a “MS-13 terrorist.” This is the sort of thing the administration has been doing ever since it was forced to respect Abrego Garcia’s rights.

The government definitely shouldn’t be doing this, especially those involved with his arrest, deportation, detainment, or otherwise expected to possibly testify against Abrego Garcia in court. Now, as Politico’s Josh Gerstein points out at Bluesky, Abrego Garcia is seeking sanctions because another government official with a penchant for blatantly ignoring court orders — Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino — is doing the sort of thing this court order [PDF] explicitly forbids.

Once again, the government has responded to a Court order with which it disagrees by pretending it doesn’t exist. Mr. Abrego moved for sanctions based on senior DHS official Gregory Bovino’s flagrant violation of this Court’s October 27 Order (Dkt. 183, the “Order”) governing extrajudicial statements relating to this case. (Dkt. 271). The government’s brief opposing that motion largely ignores the Order.

[…]

Nor, in any event, can Mr. Bovino’s statements seriously be characterized as ones “that a reasonable lawyer would believe [are] required to protect a client from the substantial undue prejudicial effect of recent publicity” or “limited to such information as is necessary to mitigate the recent adverse publicity.” Far from being “meek,” as the government ludicrously characterizes them (Dkt. 282 at 7), Mr. Bovino’s statements include descriptions of Mr. Abrego as “an MS-13 gang member…ready to prey on Americans yet again,” “a wife-beater,” “an alien smuggler,” and someone who “wants to…leech off the United States.” Mr. Bovino went on to describe the judges presiding over Mr. Abrego’s civil and criminal cases as “activist” and “extremist.”

Abrego Garcia’s continue to press the case for sanctions against the administration, adding to the mix the comments DHS Undersecretary made late last week in apparent violation of the still-standing gag order:

On December 27, 2025, DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin shared a post on X stating: “MS-13 terrorist Kilmar Abrego Garcia was released by a rogue judge and is now making TikToks.” Ms. McLaughlin added: “So we, at @DHSgov, are under gag order by an activist judge and Kilmar Abrego Garcia is making TikToks. American justice ceases to function when its arbiters silence law enforcement and give megaphones to those who oppose our legal system.” Neither Mr. Bovino’s nor Ms. McLaughlin’s statements “protect” the government—they defame Mr. Abrego, this Court, and the Federal District Court for the District of Maryland.

On top of asking for sanctions this court has yet to deliver, Abrego Garcia wants to know who’s handling what in the upper echelons of the administration, since it’s become apparent that not even high-ranking officials appear to be concerned that they’re violating court orders.

The Court should grant Mr. Abrego’s requests that the government be ordered to disclose (1) whether and how the prosecution provided relevant DHS employees with a copy of the Order, (2) who authorized Mr. Bovino and Ms. McLaughlin to speak about Mr. Abrego’s case, and (3) what guidance that person or persons gave Mr. Bovino and Ms. McLaughlin about what they could and could not say on national television or social media, as well as all communications between counsel for the government and Mr. Bovino, Ms. McLaughlin, or DHS regarding Mr. Bovino’s and Ms. McLaughlin’s statements, including any attempts to obtain a retraction or apology, so that the Court may determine the appropriate course of action.

It’s a long shot and the government is sure to insist that pretty much everything listed here is a privileged communication between lawyers and government officials. But there’s a chance some of this might actually make its way into open court, which will allow the American public to see how this administration operates when it clearly feels it doesn’t have to answer to anything but its basest urges.

Filed Under: abrego garcia, border patrol, cecot, dhs, doj, gregory bovino, ice, mass deportation, tricia mclaughlin, trump administration, vindictive prosecution