To characterize the Trump administration as “having complied” with a federal judge’s order to facilitate the return of mistakenly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia is “pure farce,” his attorneys said in a court filing.
The filing, on Sunday, came two days after Abrego Garcia was brought back to the U.S. from his native El Salvador to face criminal charges in Tennessee, following a series of court battles in which the Trump administration repeatedly said it was unable to bring him back.
In April, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States after he was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — based on the Trump administration’s claimed that he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his wife and attorneys deny.
MORE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia brought back to US, appears in court on charges of smuggling migrants
The Maryland ruling was subsequently affirmed by the U.S Supreme Court.
Following Abrego Garcia’s return Friday, the Trump administration filed a notice of compliance with Judge Xinis saying it had “successfully facilitated Abrego Garcia’s return” and asking that the complaint be dismissed.
In Sunday’s filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said Maryland case it not over until the government is “held accountable” for “its blatant, willful, and persistent violations of court orders at excruciating cost to Abrego Garcia and his family.” They argued that, despite his return, the case is “not moot” because the court continues to have a role “to ensure that [Abrego Garcia’s] case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
The lawyers said the Trump administration “has acted not just in contempt of multiple court orders but with open defiance towards its coequal branch of government, the judiciary.”
“Instead of facilitating Abrego Garcia’s return, for the past two months Defendants have engaged in an elaborate, all-of-government effort to defy court orders, deny due process, and disparage Abrego Garcia,” they said.
A two-count indictment unsealed Friday alleges that Abrego Garcia participated in a yearslong conspiracy to haul undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country, involving the domestic transport of thousands of noncitizens from Mexico and Central America, including some children, in exchange for thousands of dollars.
The criminal investigation that led to the charges was launched in April as federal authorities began scrutinizing the circumstances of a 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, according to sources. Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding in a vehicle with eight passengers and told police they had been working construction in Missouri.
In Sunday’s court filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the government’s return of Abrego Garcia to face criminal charges “its latest act of contempt.”
The government “arranged for Abrego Garcia’s return, not to Maryland in compliance with the Supreme Court’s directive to ‘ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,’ but rather to Tennessee so that he could be charged with a crime in a case that the Government only developed while it was under threat of sanctions,” they said.
In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said the Trump administration “continued to insist” they did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. even after the Tennessee indictment was filed under seal in May. The Trump administration “has always had the ability to return Abrego Garcia,” the attorneys contended.
MORE: Timeline: Wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador
“The Government’s convenient ability to return Abrego Garcia in time for a press conference unveiling his indictment puts the lie to its previously feigned powerlessness to comply with this Court’s injunction,” they said in reference to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s announcement Friday afternoon that Abrego Garcia was back in the United States.
A Justice Department official, when contacted for comment, referred ABC News to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s statement at Friday’s press conference that he believed the Maryland case was now moot.
“There’s a big difference between what the state of play was before the indictment and after the indictment,” Blanche said. “And so the reason why he is back and was returned was because an arrest warrant which was presented to the government and in El Salvador. So there’s a big difference there as far as whether it makes the ongoing litigation in Maryland moot — I would think so.”
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said they are entitled to examine in discovery whether government officials acted in good faith, and said the case “remains live” given the Trump administration’s “continuing threat of removal.” Judge Xinis in April ordered government officials to testify under oath through expedited discovery in order to resolve Abrego Garcia’s wrongful deportation.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin, Katherine Faulders and James Hill contributed to this report.
