The Trump administration formally invoked the state secrets privilege in the legal battle over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the “Maryland man” deported to El Salvador.
A new order issued by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Wednesday reveals that Justice Department officials invoked the privilege in a sealed filing in the case involving the illegal migrant with suspected ties to the MS-13 gang.
“The Court requires formal briefing of the Defendants’ invocations of privilege, principally the state secrets and deliberative process privileges,” Xinis, an Obama appointee, wrote.
The Trump administration invoked the State Secrets Privilege Wednesday to avoid handing over documents in the legal battle over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
A order issued by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis indicates the gov’t formally invoked the privilege in a sealed filing today.
— Anarie Whit (@anarie_whit) May 8, 2025
“Accordingly, by Monday May 12, 2025, the parties shall submit simultaneous briefs, not to exceed 25 pages exclusive of exhibits, addressing the legal and factual bases for the invocation of those privileges, including Plaintiff’s request for the Court to conduct in camera review of the withheld documents,” the judge added.
The two sides have until Monday to submit the filings, and the judge set a hearing for May 16 at the courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland.
According to CBS News:
The Justice Department had indicated last month that it would invoke certain privileges to protect information regarding Abrego Garcia’s removal from the U.S., citing in a filing the attorney-client privilege, state secrets privilege and certain executive privileges.
Administration lawyers had said that a request for documents from Abrego Garcia’s legal team about the terms of any arrangement regarding the government’s use of El Salvador’s notorious prison to house deportees from the U.S. “calls for the immediate production of classified documents, as well as documents that defendants may elect to assert are subject to the protections of attorney-client privilege and the state secrets privilege.”
The DOJ previously invoked the state secrets privilege back in March in response to demands from Judge James Boasberg, who challenged the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act in deportations.
“The Executive Branch hereby notifies the Court that no further information will be provided in response to the Court’s March 18, 2025 Minute Order based on the state secrets privilege and the concurrently filed declarations of the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security,” the DOJ wrote at the time.
“This is a case about the President’s plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States,” the filing continued. “The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it. Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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