A US judge on Tuesday demanded US officials provide documents and answer questions under oath about what it had done to secure the return of a man wrongly deported to El Salvador, ramping up an inquiry into whether the Trump administration defied a court order.
US District Judge Paula Xinis said at a hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland that she would not immediately hold the government in contempt of court, but said the documents and closed-door testimony would help her weigh the Trump administration’s compliance with her earlier order to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return.
The judge last week ordered Republican President Donald Trump’s administration to provide her with daily updates about the steps it was taking to get him back. On Tuesday, she said the administration had not given her any information of value about what it had done.
“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” Xinis said, who was an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama. “To date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done. Nothing.”
At the same time, the judge said she was not ordering the administration to ask El Salvador’s government to return Abrego Garcia – even though she called its refusal to ask for his release “stunning”.
“I’m not ordering you to do that,” Xinis said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be there.”
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