A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Sua Sponte and Nunc Pro Tunc
In a dramatic series of overnight developments, the Trump administration took extraordinary steps to try to re-detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia within hours of his court-ordered release, but a federal judge stepped in and blocked the move.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland issued a temporary restraining order at 7 a.m. ET today barring the Trump administration from taking Abrego Garcia back into custody after she ordered his release yesterday. Her emergency order came after ICE directed Abrego Garcia to report to its Baltimore field office at 8 a.m. ET today. Fearing that Abrego Garcia would be re-detained when he showed up at ICE offices, his lawyers filed an emergency motion overnight imploring Xinis to intervene.
All of this unfolded only hours after Abrego Garcia was released from ICE custody on order from Xinis.
The highly unusual series of late-breaking events was punctuated by a remarkably cynical move by a Baltimore immigration judge, an executive branch official.
But first some context: The basis of Xinis’ order to release Abrego Garcia was that ICE had never issued an order of removal against him — itself an extraordinary development because his wrongful deportation in March to El Salvador and his subsequent detention since he was returned to the United States were entirely predicated on the supposed issuance of an order of removal in 2019.
After Xinis ruled Thursday morning that no such order of removal existed, Philip P. Taylor, the acting regional deputy chief immigration judge in Baltimore, rushed out a new order around 7 p.m. ET that purported to fix the “scrivener’s error” in ICE’s records on Abrego Garcia and retroactively create an order of removal. Taylor’s order was comically subtitled: “Immigration Court’s Sua Sponte Order Correcting Scrivener’s Error.”
Taylor’s sudden intervention is procedurally flawed in myriad ways, but that didn’t stop him from purporting to make a number of “corrections” to the record in Abrego Garcia’s 2019 case, waving it all away with a breezy: “These corrections are hereby issued nunc pro tunc to the Immigration Court’s written decision and order of October 10, 2019.”
In her emergency order this morning, Judge Xinis gave all of this such an aggressively arched eyebrow that she might have pulled a muscle:
The ICE Order of Supervision also states that Abrego Garcia was “ordered removed” on October 10, 2019, despite no such order having issued on that date. Instead, the ICE Order of Supervision seems to rely on an “order” issued last night from Immigration Judge Phillip Taylor. The Court does not opine on this newest “order” here. But the Court does note that this “order” was issued nunc pro tunc, effective October 10, 2019.
It was clear months ago that Abrego Garcia is being punished by the Trump administration for having the temerity to challenge his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in violation of a separate immigration judge’s order. Abrego Garcia’s unlawful incarceration in El Salvador, his return to the United States under a ginned-up criminal indictment, and his subsequent ICE detention have been among the most egregious rule-of-law violations of the Trump II presidency.
On top of that, the Trump administration has repeatedly defied Xinis’ orders in the Abrego Garcia cases, a fact not lost on Xinis herself, who writes in her emergency order:
[T]he public retains keen interest in ensuring that government agencies comply with court orders, especially those necessary to protect individual liberties. … For the public to have any faith in the orderly administration of justice, the Court’s narrowly crafted remedy cannot be so quickly and easily upended without further briefing and consideration.
The matrix of orders that Xinis now has in place should in theory protect Abrego Garcia from immediate detention and deportation — but so far the Trump administration has exhibited a sadistic willingness to do anything to torment him, including violating Xinis’ orders.
The Retribution: Letitia James Edition
Last Thursday, the Trump DOJ failed to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on bogus mortgage fraud charges when a federal grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia returned a no-true bill. So yesterday, they brought the case to a new grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia — and got the same result. With each effort, the vindictive prosecution claim James has grows stronger.
Fake Pardon Alert
President Trump purported to pardon former Mesa County (Colorado) clerk Tina Peters, who is currently jailed for her state conviction for tampering with voting machines to try to prove the 2020 Big Lie. Peters has never been charged federally, and her state conviction is beyond the reach of a presidential pardon. I could pardon Peters on the state charges and have the same effect.
2026 Ephemera
MyPillow Founder Mike Lindell — a Big Lie devotee — launches a 2026 bid for governor of Minnesota.
Indiana Rebuffs Trump Redistricting Scheme
Enough GOP state senators in Indiana resisted White House entreaties to block the GOP-friendly mid-decade redistricting plan that would have added a couple of more House seats to the Republican column.
Great Read
The WSJ has a riveting account of opposition leader María Corina Machado’s escape from Venezuela this week to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. At one point, she was lost and adrift at night in the Gulf of Venezuela before being found by an extraction team in a mission dubbed Operation Golden Dynamite. If you know, you know.
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My Xmas wishlist, for all looking to get me something nice. Freedom Seeds.
Sorry to tell you, Miss Toffee is not impressed.
Reminder: Choice is simple. Choose to live life without certain products or you are choosing instead to live life with fewer and fewer rights. Oligarchy is predisposed to fascism and will invariably tighten the noose to maintain their wealth, power and control.
Give yourself a holiday gift.
Motivator:
She is, however, very beautiful.
I think I would avoid any interaction with ICE, were I Mr. Abrego Garcia. What an absolute travesty. Also, too, how long before these idiots try to indict Ms. James again? As the article noted, most judges would have an issue with “grand jury shopping.”