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MS-13 Super fan Van Hollen’s El Salvador junket could violate the Logan Act, but he made all major Sunday morning shows

April 21, 2025 | | Print Article

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D) defense of his trip to “paradise” could prove damning as a Sunday show circuit coincided with severe allegations from a watchdog group.

Upholding their open borders priority from under the Biden administration, leftists have been bending over backwards to show support for the deported illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged human trafficker, the Trump administration maintains was a member of the MS-13 gang.

Leading that front was Van Hollen whose recent jaunt to El Salvador prompted the American Accountability Foundation (AAF) to fire off a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee demanding an investigation as to whether or not the Maryland lawmaker violated the Logan Act for “assisting a foreign terrorist organization.”

The American Accountability Foundation (AAF) submitted a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and the leaders of the Senate Ethics Committee demanding an ethics probe into Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) as the 1799 law made it a crime for an unauthorized American citizen to negotiate with a foreign government.

“Mr. Abrego-Garcia is essentially an enemy combatant in the ongoing invasion of the United States by transnational gangs,” wrote AAF President Thomas Jones in the letter obtained by the New York Post. “Despite the overwhelming evidence, Senator Van Hollen decided that he would use Senate funds to fly to El Salvador and advocate for an enemy of the United States.”

“Van Hollen was in El Salvador meeting with leaders of the Salvadorian government to attempt to secure Mr. Garcia’s release. It is hard to imagine a more hostile intrusion into U.S. foreign policy than attempting to smuggle a foreign enemy combatant into the United States,” noted Jones, as, in addition to meeting with Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen met with El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa.

The punishment for a conviction under the Logan Act includes up to three years’ imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the Maryland lawmaker was a fixture on corporate media Sunday as he attempted damage control mixed with a narrative massage to propel “due process” to the forefront of his argument over the seeming defense of an illegal alien whose own wife had a protection order against him over abuse allegations.

“My goal was to meet with him and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was okay. That was my goal. And I achieved that goal,” Van Hollen. told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” having argued the sunny get-together with margaritas on the table “wasn’t a trap.”

“The Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise. They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool originally,” contended the senator. “We had to negotiate that. They wanted to put me right overlooking the pool. In fact, if you had a different angle on the camera shot, you would see the pool.”

During his appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” host Shannon brought up the criticism from Patty Morin, the grieving mother of the late Rachel Morin, herself a mother of five who had been raped and murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador, who had not heard from Van Hollen or any Democrats.

“What happened to the Morin family was awful and unacceptable. I cannot imagine losing a child like they lost Rachel, and I said at the time that my heart goes out to the Morin family,” he said when Bream prompted him on the “frustration” over the amount of “time and energy” Van Hollen was devoting to Abrego Garcia. “I’m glad that the killer of Rachel Morin has been convicted in a court of law. That’s how we hold guilty people accountable — in a court of law. Courts of law are also where people get their due process rights respected.”

“My heart goes out to every Maryland family that is the victim of violence, regardless of the perpetrator, and that is why I am very glad … that a court of law has convicted the killer. That is where we litigate these issues,” he added.

Notably, the administration’s Rapid Response social media account drew attention to a detail that the senator had neglected to get an answer on, as CNN host Dana Bash wondered on “State of the Union” whether the lawmaker had sought clarity on any purported gang affiliations Abrego Garcia may have.

“Can you say with absolute certainty that he is not, nor has he ever been, a member of the MS-13 gang, and did you ask him point blank?” she asked.

Rather than answer the question, Van Hollen accused the Trump administration of trying to change the subject. When the host reiterated her question, the senator responded, “I didn’t ask him that because I know what his answer is.”

Kevin Haggerty
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