So is /dixie/ dead and buried?

Newly released communications show the lengths the Trump administration went to in order to label Kilmar Abrego Garcia an MS-13 leader.

Emails provided to Congress by a whistleblower and 15-year veteran of the Justice Department reveal that administration officials went to striking lengths to prop up the claim that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a “leader” of the MS-13 gang—even as President Trump was coming under intense pressure to return him from El Salvador after wrongfully deporting him.

The emails—which The New Republic obtained in advance of their scheduled release Thursday—deepen our understanding of the adminisration’s extraordinary mishandling of Abrego Garcia’s case. They show in fresh detail how officials sought to create the impression that Abrego Garcia was a dangerous criminal before having any evidence to back up the claim, which has since proven to be unsupported.

The emails were provided to Congress by Erez Reuveni, a 15-year veteran of the Justice Department who was fired this spring after expressing doubts in court about the rendition of Abrego Garcia to CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious megaprison. Abrego Garcia—who had been living in Maryland under a form of protected status granted by an immigration judge in 2019—was deported on March 15 due to an admitted “error.”

But Trump refused to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States for months—even defying a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” his return—and justified all this largely by citing his supposed MS-13 status. The administration finally brought him back in early June, only to bring new criminal charges against him for smuggling migrants.

https://newrepublic.com/article/197793/kilmar-abrego-garcia-whistleblower-emails-expose-trump-abuses