A federal judge in Maryland will hear arguments Friday over whether the Trump administration can invoke the state secrets privilege to withhold information about bringing Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador in April and has since directed the administration to provide documents and testimony showing what it has done, if anything, to comply.
Trump administration lawyers claim many of those details are protected, including sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Revealing the specifics would harm national security because foreign governments “would be less likely to work cooperatively with the United States,” they argued in a brief to the court.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers contend the administration hasn’t shown “the slightest effort” toward retrieving him after his mistaken deportation. And they point to President Donald Trump’s interview last month with ABC News, in which he said he could bring Abrego Garcia back but won’t.
“Even as the Government speaks freely about Abrego Garcia in public, in this litigation it insists on secrecy,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers wrote to the court.