Abrego Garcia lawyers seek Pam Bondi phone data in sanctions challenge – Washington Examiner
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have filed a motion in a Maryland federal court seeking severe sanctions against the Trump administration for what they describe as “flagrant” noncompliance with court-ordered finding. The motion targets Attorney General Pam bondi and other officials, requesting that they produce their personal devices and phone records for review.The claims arise from allegations that the government mishandled Garcia’s deportation too el Salvador, in violation of a previous order by U.S. District Judge Paula xinis.
The motion highlights a prolonged discovery process that lasted nearly two months, far exceeding the two-week period specified by the judge, and cites over 90 instances where government witnesses allegedly refused to answer straightforward questions by claiming vague privileges. The plaintiffs are not seeking sanctions for the actual delay in Garcia’s deportation return but focus on what they view as obstructive behavior in the discovery process.
Garcia, who is accused of involvement in a human smuggling operation and was returned to the U.S. just before the sanctions motion was filed, is currently awaiting a detention hearing. He argues that his charges typically do not warrant pretrial detention. The administration has yet to respond to the sanctions allegations in court.
Abrego Garcia lawyers seek Pam Bondi phone data in sanctions challenge
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia are asking a federal judge to impose severe sanctions against the Trump administration for “flagrant” defiance of court-ordered discovery, including an extraordinary request for Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officials to turn over their personal devices and phone data for review.
The sanctions motion, filed late Wednesday in Maryland federal court, accuses the administration of stonewalling efforts to probe how it handled Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered a two-week expedited discovery process beginning April 15 to determine if the government had defied her Supreme Court-backed order to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. But lawyers for the deported migrant say that discovery instead dragged on for nearly two months with little compliance.
“The government’s defiance has not been subtle,” the motion states. “It has been vocal and sustained and flagrant.”
Among the sanctions sought are requests for Xinis to find that the administration never attempted to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release prior to his May 21 indictment by a grand jury, that its claims of privilege are waived, and that officials such as Bondi must submit their personal devices for in-camera review by the judge, according to the partially-redacted filing.
The plaintiffs also request the appointment of a special master to identify officials who “willfully evaded” discovery orders and call for accumulating fines until the government complies.
The filing details what it describes as bad-faith conduct by federal officials, alleging more than 90 instances in depositions where witnesses refused to answer basic questions by asserting vague privileges. DHS’s acting general counsel, Joseph Mazzara, is singled out as possibly having provided false testimony.
Abrego Garcia’s team is notably not seeking sanctions tied to the administration’s delay in returning him, part of what could be a strategic decision that avoids testing the outer limits of judicial authority over foreign policy. Instead, their focus is on what they call an “egregious” pattern of obstruction in court-ordered discovery.
The Trump administration has not yet responded to the allegations in the sanctions motion in court.
Abrego Garcia, who was living illegally in Maryland earlier this year, has argued that an immigration judge’s limited order in 2019 barring his removal to El Salvador was violated when the administration sent him there in mid-March.
The administration previously urged Judge Xinis to dismiss the case altogether, just days before the government returned him to the United States last Friday to face charges that he was involved in a scheme to transport illegal immigrants across the U.S.
But lawyers for the Salvadoran man, who federal authorities accuse of being a member of MS-13, say the case before Xinis should proceed in order to determine whether and to what extent penalties are needed for the government’s alleged noncompliance with her previous orders.
Prosecutors claim Abrego Garcia spent at least nine years working as a driver for a human smuggling ring and was caught in 2022 transporting illegal immigrants when Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled him over on I-40 with “nine Hispanic males packed into” his vehicle. That traffic stop, recorded on body camera footage, represented just a small fraction of the thousands of migrants he allegedly helped move across the country, according to the government.
TRUMP DOJ SAYS ABREGO GARCIA SHOULD REMAIN DETAINED PENDING TRIAL
Abrego Garcia is scheduled to appear in federal court Friday in Tennessee for a detention hearing in his criminal case before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Holmes. The Trump administration has cited the defendant as a “flight risk” who should remain detained pending his trial.
Abrego Garcia is seeking release from detention pending his trial, arguing the crimes he is charged with don’t permit pretrial detention in most circumstances.
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