Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia ― the man wrongfully deported to El Salvador earlier this year ― are seeking a gag order against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
In a motion filed Thursday, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argued that officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have leveled “baseless public attacks” targeting their client since his release from prison.
“This past Friday, Mr. Abrego’s release from pretrial detention reignited the efforts of officials across the Executive Branch — and particularly at DHS — to besmirch both Mr. Abrego and the courts in a campaign to try this case in the court of public opinion,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote in a 15-page filing to the federal judge overseeing his case.
Abrego Garcia, 30, was wrongfully deported in March to an El Salvador prison with a reputation for human rights abuses. He was returned to the U.S. in June and now faces charges of human smuggling, which his lawyers have argued is an absurd and vindictive prosecution.
Abrego Garcia turned himself in to immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday and faces renewed threats of being deported, this time to Uganda.
Trump officials, and the president himself, have attempted to paint Abrego Garcia as a violent criminal with connections to the notorious gang MS-13. Abrego Garcia has denied the allegation, and the evidence of his supposed involvement is flimsy at best: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie link him to the gang. And Trump shared a digitally edited photo of Abrego Garcia’s knuckle tattoos in an attempt to draw a connection to MS-13.
During a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office earlier this week, Bondi said Abrego Garcia “needs to be in prison.”
“We have got him under control,” Bondi said. “He will no longer terrorize our country. He’s currently charged with human smuggling, and including children. The guy needs to be in prison. He doesn’t need to be on the streets, like all these liberals want him to be.”
And on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security ― headed by Noem ― posted a video on X of Abrego Garcia in handcuffs being escorted by ICE officials.
“He doesn’t belong here,” the post said. “He won’t be staying here. America is a safer nation without this MS-13 Gangbanger in it. Good riddance.”
In the filing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers asked a federal judge to put an end to Bondi and Noem’s “extrajudicial comments.”
“To safeguard his right to a fair trial, Mr. Abrego respectfully renews his earlier requests that the Court order that all DOJ and DHS officials involved in this case, and all officials in their supervisory chain, including [Bondi and Noem], refrain from making extrajudicial comments that pose a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing this proceeding,” the attorneys said.
In a statement to The Hill on Friday, a DHS official responded to the gag order request by calling Abrego Garcia a “child predator.”
“Once again, the media is falling all over themselves to defend this criminal illegal MS-13 gang member who is an alleged human trafficker, domestic abuser, and child predator,” the DHS official said. “The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal alien has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story.”