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The Rachel Maddow Show

'They can't hide the ball': Judge cracks the whip on Trump lawyers in deportation case

The Rachel Maddow Show

MSNBC

Madow, Washington, Rachel Maddow, Congress, Campaign, Policy, Election, President, Nbc, Public, News, Government, Maddow, Politics, Issues

4.534K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Trump administration lawyers are running out of excuses to avoid being accountable for the rights and whereabouts of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland immigrant father who was improperly deported and sentenced without due process to an indeterminate amount of time in a prison in El Salvador. Rina Gandhi, and attorney for Mr. Abrego Garcia, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the judge is pinning down the Trump lawyers for answers and accountability.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thanks to you at home for joining us here this hour.

0:01.7

Really happy to have you here.

0:03.0

So Harvard is standing up and fighting against Trump's threats and attacks against universities.

0:10.5

They are fighting instead of making concessions and giving in.

0:15.2

Today, yet another law firm that Trump targeted has won against him in court.

0:19.8

This time it was the firm Susman Godfrey. The judge called what Trump is doing in threatening this firm, quote,

0:25.8

a shocking abuse of power. The judge blocked Trump from essentially continuing to go after

0:32.1

the firm. Not to state the obvious or anything, but that firm won that ruling because they chose to fight him instead of making concessions to him and giving in.

0:41.6

In fact, every law firm that has fought Trump's attacks in court thus far has won.

0:48.5

And that makes it really embarrassing to be one of the law firms that chose not to fight him, right?

0:53.8

I mean, you didn't have to give in.

0:56.0

You would have won in court if you'd fought it, but you gave in anyway.

1:00.0

Bad call, right?

1:01.0

Why would anyone hire you to fight for them on anything ever?

1:06.0

Save yourself, save your firm, get out of your so-called deal with Trump, and fight back.

1:15.8

Because hey look, everybody who's fighting back is winning.

1:19.6

Whereas in the meantime, you've destroyed your law firm's reputation for eternity.

1:24.6

Again, until you change your mind. Today, also, the federal judge hearing the case

1:31.4

of Kilmar-Abrego-Garcia told the Trump administration that they do not have the option to

1:36.8

disobey the court's order to return Mr. Obrigo-Garcia to the United States. We will have more on that

1:42.7

in a moment. It was a very dramatic

1:44.9

confrontation in court today. Tonight, we've got tens of thousands of people turning out right now

...

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