Look out for my appearance on CNN’s Laura Coates Live tonight at 11 p.m.
Since being whisked out of the United States in March, Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been ordered out of detention three times.
After five court orders, Abrego won his release from an El Salvador prison, and then Abrego prevailed repeatedly in arguments for release from pre-trial criminal detention. On Thursday, a federal judge ordered the government to let Abrego out of immigration custody.
Around the time of the government’s 5 p.m. Eastern Time compliance deadline, reports emerged confirming that Abrego has been released, even as the Justice Department vowed to appeal. His attorney confirmed those reports to All Rise News, adding that Abrego is heading back to Maryland.
On the occasion of a federal judge’s order demanding Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release, former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner recalled the centuries-old origins of today’s order.
“The writ of habeas corpus is the great writ: It protects us all,” Kirschner said during my conversation with him this afternoon.
“Loosely translated, it’s the body of the prisoner,” he continued. “And when there is an allegation that the United States government is unlawfully detaining a human being, that person can file for a writ of habeas corpus, and if the judge preliminarily grants it, then the body of the prisoner is literally brought before the court to litigate whether the detention is lawful or it’s unlawful.”
This Substack Live ran at around 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, roughly two and a half hours before the government’s deadline to reveal their compliance with the judge’s order to release Abrego “immediately.”
Abrego will now await his January trial on smuggling charges under pretrial conditions of home confinement. He has a pending motion to dismiss that case for vindictive prosecution.
