Bulwark Takes - “Abject Humiliation” Judge Shreds Trump’s DOJ; Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Release Ordered

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

Sam Stein and Adam Klasfeld break down the judge’s decision to order Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release after he was wrongfully detained and sent to prison in El Salvador, delivering a strong and scathing rebuke to Trump’s DOJ.  Read More from Adam in All Rise News, "Kilmar Abrego must be freed, judge rules — but ICE might grab him anyway" Bring on the good vibes and treat yourself to Soul today! Go to GetSoul.com and use the code BULWARKTAKES for 30% off your order.

Hey guys, I'm Sam Stein, managing editor at the board. Come here for that. I'm Klessfeld of all rise news.com. Uh, he is an expert on all things legal and he happens to be religiously following the Kilmar, a bag of Garcia trial that's happening now in Tennessee. There's a big ruling yesterday, although I'm not sure what the actual ramifications of the ruling are, but real embarrass into the justice department. I am going to get into all that before we do subscribe to the feed.

You were in Tennessee. Uh, you've been following this, this case. Give us a little background before we get into the rule that was issued yesterday. So the background is Kilmar Arbrego Garcia had been in a foreign prison in El Salvador for about three months until sometime in the, after the Supreme Court's ruling to facilitate his return, there was a secret investigation that started over a 2020 stop at a, it was a traffic stop over speeding. Nothing came of it for many years until the Trump administration got embarrassed on the global stage. Then within a matter of weeks, Kilmar Abrego is indicted on allegations

of human smuggling, smuggling undocumented immigrants allegedly from Texas to Maryland. Now those allegations, as you mentioned, there was this major ruling yesterday, whereas the, as you noted as well, the ramifications are a little bit unclear, but the judge found that the continued detention on these charges is unjustifiable. So she has set up a hearing this week to order his release with certain conditions of bail. Now, the background that you mentioned earlier about the actual ramifications of this, this might be a little situation of heads I win, tails you lose, because during the hearing that preceded this ruling, and it's a very blistering ruling, we'll go into it a little bit later,

it came out that the U.S. attorney, the acting U.S. attorney for the district, revealed that if he were released, ICE would detain him and try to deport him out of the country. As a matter of fact, they tried to fashion that possibility into a reason why Kilmar Abrego may be a risk of flight. The risk of flight being the government might whisk him out. They're creating the very risk that requires him to be held in detention, even if the judge finds

that it's on pretty shaky pretenses. Let's back up for a second just so you know the viewer might be able to get caught up a little bit. Kilmer Bray Garcia was wrongfully deported to El Salvador. He was there for several months. The administration said there's just no way we can facilitate his return even though the Supreme Court said you have to facilitate his return. During that time we suppose, although I think there's good reason to suppose, but the government's never said it, that they were creating a pretext for bringing him back, which is what you alluded to this human trafficking. There's another charge in there from writer from from wrong to me. I'm wrong, but that he endangered miners as part of this operation, correct? And so I'm glad you brought that up. It's not actually charged It's something that was breezily alleged by attorney general in the company. Yeah without there being a charge

Um, it was something that came up in the detention hearing and was witheringly Rejected in this ruling. We'll get into this in a second. So they, but they, they cook up, not cook up. They produce this complaint. Right. Suddenly he's, you know, sent back from El Salvador to face these charges and they, Trump administration declares that this is, you know, a great victory for justice. He's sent to Nashville.

He's detained in Nashville. His legal team says he should not be detained. These charges are wrong. They plead not guilty, which leads us to this hearing. I want to just read a portion of the judge's ruling that really underscores how, well, I guess embarrassing is the right word here. Because you can tell me after I read it just

how unusual this denunciation is and how much egg on face the DOJ gets for this. This was highlighted by the New York Times Glenn Brush. It's from the ruling says the court gives little weight to the hearsay testimony, double hearsay through special agent Joseph's testimony of the first male cooperator, a two-time previously deported felon and acknowledged ringleader of human smuggling operation who is now detained for himself and early release from federal prison and A delay of a six deportation by providing information to the government Essentially, they're saying you flip some guy who was just trying to get out of prison

In order to hear say test statements of the second male Cooperator of the issue fair any better as his request released from jail and delay of another deportation depends on providing information the government finds useful. Again, one of the witnesses in this case against Kilmar or Bray Garcia is clearly conflicted. Even without discounting the weight of the testimony of the first and second male cooperators from multiple layers of hearsay, their testimony and statements defy common sense. And here's where it gets really good. Both male cooperators stated that other than three or four trips total without his children, Abrego typically took his children with him during the alleged smuggling trips from Maryland to Houston and back some 2,900 miles round trip, as often as three or four times per week.

The sheer number of hours that would be required to maintain the schedule, which would consistently be more than 120 hours per week of driving time, approach physical impossibility. For that additional reason, the court finds that the statements of the first and second milk cooperators are not reliable to establish that this case quote involves a minor victim. Hey guys, it's summertime and we're all getting out and enjoying ourselves a little bit more. But if you're like me, you don't want to be drinking your calories or waking up with a hangover. And that is especially true because I've got to get up the next day and deal with my kids.

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promo code bulwark takes for 30% off you'll love it. All right, Adam, I think it speaks for itself, but I've never read anything that thoroughly of a debunking in a file like this. It's absolutely remarkable. It's an abject humiliation of Trump's DOJ. That particular passage, I'll give folks a little bit of an insight to the hearing where that came out. There was a cross-examination of the FBI agent that the judge alluded to in that passage.

And during the cross-examination, Mr. Abrego's defense attorney asked him, do you have children? And he said, yes. So, well, what happens during long car rides? They get a little antsy and they started recreating what this trip would look like. It goes all the way from Maryland to Texas, then goes back on Tuesday, then on Thursday, they go all the way back to Texas,

and on Friday go back to Maryland. And keep in mind, Mr. Abrego has three special needs kids. The testimony of these cooperating witnesses is that the kids and his wife were almost always with them except for a handful of times. And as she said, this defies common sense, it approaches a physical impossibility. And about these cooperators, it's it's all in the ruling, but there are some very colorful details that I hope folks don't miss. Go into it. It came. Yeah, it came out during the hearing that the first

cooperator is a man by the name of Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes. And he is a person who has been convicted twice of felonies, has been deported five times, was granted deferred action on deportation. So this is a Trump administration saying, you're going to help us with this case against Kilmar Abrego. We'll help you avoid deportation number six, at least for now. And he is now in a halfway house and is likely to get a work release. So that is the first and main witness.

And by the way, this cooperating witness in his first meeting with the government said that he didn't see anything that suggested that Kilmar Abrego was a member of MS 13. So this is a government star witness, a two-time felon, a five-time deportee who's been granted these favors by an anti-immigrant administration. Who's getting help with his, uh, preventing deportation number six. So Adam, what happens next? I just started curious because obviously the judge rules this way, help with his preventing deportation number six. So Adam, what happens next?

I just sort of curious because obviously the judge rules this way, but the government can say, look, if he's released, we'll just detain him on a separate matter. It could potentially result in deportation. So where does the case go from here? And is it even clear at the structure that regular Garcia's team wants him released? I would assume yes, but certainly there's got to be some complicated factors going into this. I think that'll make for a very interesting hearing on Wednesday. I'll be going back to

Nashville to cover it. So we'll see what happens. What is very clear is that the acting US attorney said without any sort of ambiguity that they are going to try to put him into ice custody for deportation. That was one of their arguments to avoid this humiliating ruling that they just received. Now, what happens next? Abrego's now former attorneys as federal defenders at the last hearing indicated he has some defenses against deportation if he is released. Now, the government has said he's deportable to everywhere but El Salvador. Remember, he was wrongly... That was the issue to begin with, yes.

Exactly. And that the issue was that he was facing persecution in El Salvador. But there's a concept known as chain deportation, which means let's say the government deports him to Mexico and Mexico says, well, he is from El Salvador, we're going to send him to El Salvador. That is indirectly sending him to the same persecution that he would have faced with the original whisking out of the country against the terms of a court order. So this isn't to say that if the government follows through and they're showing every intention to, that there won't be defenses.

But let's take a step back here. every intention to that there won't be defenses. But let's take a step back here at the whole gamification of all this. Throughout her ruling, the Judge Holmes speaks quite eloquently about due process and defending due process. And that the entire backstory about this was that this began with the giant end run of due process. That was the original, I don't use the word deportation because this was

outside that process, the whisking out of the country to El Salvador. Now that he's back and the Trump administration brings their best evidence forward and it's a couple of cooperating witnesses with criminal records and who have, who are seeking and apparently receiving help with immigration consequences and who are even under the government's own account higher up the chain if one even accepts that Kilmar or Briebo-Gar Garcia is on this chain at all. That once they lose, once they marshal that evidence and they cannot even get him continuing detention on serious allegations, ranging from the charged crimes,

which are the smuggling conspiracy, to the uncharged, we're gonna say that, you know, the loose allegations that he is a sex pest or anything like that, all of that, that crumbles. After they lose on that, to go around and say, well, we'll just avert this prosecution on these allegations entirely by deporting him It just shows the ongoing

Gamification and the oh, yeah going in well no doubt and I'm not trying to downplay that because obviously that's the big story here Which is that right? It's kind of a JV up kind of it seems like a JV operation and they're skirting the intent of the law where they can and Clearly they mess this up in 18 different ways That's very evident and they have very little respect for due process on top of that but I also can't avoid the very likely spectacle that he might get you know

awarded, uh to not be detained while this trial is pending. And the moment he steps out of the courthouse, ICE agents swoop on him and deport him. And that seems very real. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, I'm not, I can't say for certain that's going to happen, but that's actually why this Wednesday, the hearing is scheduled for the judge to decree. Let me ask you quickly about that. Yeah.

What is the courthouse like? Uh, you've been there, you've seen it. Um, are there, is there any evidence of agents, uh, around the courthouse demonstrations that what is it like on the scene there? There was a quite sizable demonstration outside this courthouse. It's a very modern looking courthouse. Um, it's, uh,. It's, I believe, the Fred D. Thompson courthouse named after the senator who helped come up with the

question during the Watergate era, what did the president know and when did he know it? There, I didn't personally observe ice hanging around in the hallways as we've seen happen around the country in so many cases. I will certainly be on the lookout for that on Wednesday when I go to court to see if what you describe, Sam, is exactly what happens. The conflict has been set up very clearly, and it's in the opening lines of the judge's ruling. As a matter of fact, she asks, is this entire exercise that it has been suggested, she said, that the entire exercise is academic because either he will be released from his criminal prosecution detention into ICE detention. But to her, she said, it's not academic because it is her role to uphold due process.

But I think to your point, the possibility for that spectacle is high. I can't guarantee that that's what is in store for this Wednesday. But as I read this ruling, that is the conflict being set up right now Well, it's both fascinating frightening as a constitutional matter, I guess Dynamic is willing to put it but I appreciate you coming here and sharing your observations your analysis of it And let's get you back on after the Wednesday ruling to talk about that as well I'm class filled from all rise news calm Adam, thank you so much for joining us. Really appreciate

it. Thank you guys for watching. Subscribe to the feed and we'll talk to you later.