After giving the Trump administration a blistering rebuke in court just one day ago, District Judge Paula Xinis has granted a motion to stay discovery in the case involving the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia for a week.
The stay grants some small relief to the Trump administration, which filed a sealed motion to stay discovery with the court. While we don’t know what was in the motion, it is possible that the administration detailed how discovery would interfere with ongoing negotiations with El Salvador to return Garcia back to America.
🚨BREAKING: After reading Trump Administration’s sealed motion to stay discovery in the Garcia case, Court grants stay, postponing discovery 1 week. My guess… pic.twitter.com/JiCKE57TT1
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 24, 2025
2/ Trump Administrations said it is working closely with El Salvador to arrange for Garcia’s release & that it cannot disclose more details & in fact such disclosure could scuttle efforts to get Garcia released. Simultaneously, Trump is arranging for hop flight return to U.S.
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 24, 2025
3/3 that then takes Garcia to Guatemala, Rwanda, or Gitmo.
— Margot Cleveland (@ProfMJCleveland) April 24, 2025
In a blistering rebuke of the Trump administration on Tuesday, Xinis wrote “For weeks, Defendants have sought refuge behind vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege, using them as a shield to obstruct discovery and evade compliance with this Court’s orders.”
In response to the order that the Trump administration testify in the case, they filed the sealed motion, which the judge appears to have allowed. The ruling means that the Trump team has a week to work on its solution to the Garcia matter before returning to court.
