Whistleblower Details How Trump's DOJ Tried to Fraudulently Frame Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a Gang Member
Department of Justice whistleblower Erez Reuveni has already revealed how Trump official Emil Bove gave instructions to ignore the courts. New emails provided by Reuveni reveal other attempts to abuse prosecutorial power and evade complying with a court order to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The New Republic got early access to the documents and provides an overview:
On June 24, Reuveni filed a whistleblower complaint to the Justice Department’s inspector general and to the Senate and House judiciary committees, alleging extensive misconduct inside DOJ. The complaint’s most explosive, widely covered charge was that a top DOJ leader, Emil Bove, told officials that in deporting migrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, they may have to ignore court orders stopping the removals and tell the courts “f--- you.”
But the whistleblower complaint also detailed internal deliberations over Abrego Garcia’s case, and this part is also damning. …
“Can we say the following?” Percival asked, then listed several things he’d like the administration to say about Abrego Garcia, one being: “This guy is a leader of MS-13.”
“If we can get a declaration to that effect, yes,” Reuveni answered. This meant the assertion could not be made without a facts-and-evidence-based declaration from ICE on Abrego Garcia’s status.
In other words, top DHS officials apparently were pushing to characterize Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 “leader” before any evidence of this had appeared. And Reuveni expressly warned against doing this absent such evidence. …
After all this, Reuveni refused to sign a legal brief that again charged Abrego Garcia with membership in MS-13, a brief Reuveni believed lacked evidentiary support, according to the complaint. Soon after, he was placed on administrative leave for “failing to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States.” His real offense was demanding that the administration stick to the facts on Abrego Garcia. …
After the whistleblower complaint broke, DOJ dismissed Reuveni’s claims as “utterly false.” But as [Senator] Durbin noted in a statement, these new emails “clearly substantiate” the complaint.
Remember that this is only the prosecutorial misconduct that we know about, thanks to one whistleblower in one case. Given the scope of Trump’s mass deportations, and the hundreds of people still in torture prisons in El Salvador, we can assume this is just a fraction of the DOJ’s abuse of power.
The Executive Watch is a project of the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism, and its flagship publication The UnPopulist, to track in an ongoing way the abuses of the power of the American presidency. It sorts these abuses into five categories: Personal Grift, Political Corruption, Presidential Retribution, Power Consolidation, and Policy Illegality. Click the category of interest to get an overview of all the abuses under it.
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