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Lawyers for Abrego Garcia Seek Gag Order Against Trump Officials

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The request came after President Trump and several of his top aides had attacked Mr. Abrego Garcia as a threat, even though federal judges have ruled that he is not a danger to the public.

A man in a blue shirt walks in a crowd of people. Someone’s hand is on his left shoulder.

Aug. 28, 2025, 10:06 p.m. ET

Lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was brought back from a wrongful expulsion to El Salvador only to face a second deportation, asked a federal judge on Thursday to impose a gag order on members of the Trump administration. The order would bar the officials from making “inflammatory” public statements about Mr. Abrego Garcia.

In a 15-page motion filed in Federal District Court in Nashville, the lawyers said that officials in President Trump’s Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security had been assailing Mr. Abrego Garcia in ways that could taint a potential pool of jurors and abridge his right to a fair trial. The motion specifically mentioned Attorney General Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary.

“For months, numerous representatives of the same federal government that is responsible for prosecuting this case have publicly disparaged Mr. Abrego’s character and reputation,” the lawyers wrote. The officials, they added, had “distorted the events and evidence underpinning his case to the public; misrepresented his criminal record; disseminated false, irrelevant, and inflammatory claims; and expressed the opinion that he is guilty of the crimes charged.”

Mr. Abrego Garcia is facing charges in Nashville of having taken part in a criminal conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants across the United States beginning in 2016. That case is separate from civil cases he has brought in Maryland challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March and his more recent possible expulsion to Uganda.

The gag order request on Thursday came after Mr. Trump and several of his aides had attacked Mr. Abrego Garcia in a variety of ways, tarring him as a wife beater, a pedophile, a member of the street gang MS-13 and a terrorist. Federal judges who have seen have the evidence against him in his criminal case have questioned the allegations of his gang ties as “fanciful” and have formally ruled that he is not a danger to the public.

By asking to limit the public assaults against their client, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers were effectively asking Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., who is overseeing the case, to keep the matter focused on the facts and law.