Judge presses administration on El Salvador’s claim that CECOT detainees are under US authority
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(Maryland) — A federal judge in Maryland is asking the Trump administration to explain its position that diplomatic discussions with the government of El Salvador are required to facilitate the return of a Venezuelan man whose removal to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison violated a previous court settlement.
The request from U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher comes after the government of El Salvador, in a report by the United Nations submitted in a separate lawsuit, said that the migrants sent by the U.S. to CECOT are under the authority of the United States.
The man, a 20-year-old Venezuelan identified in court records by the pseudonym “Cristian,” challenged his removal after he was sent to CECOT in mid-March following President Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. In April, Judge Gallagher ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Cristian’s return, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the order in May.
In a filing on Tuesday, Judge Gallagher said the administration has failed to heed her order.
“Defendants have repeatedly skirted this Court’s directive to provide information regarding the steps they have taken and will take to facilitate the return of Cristian to the United States,” the judge wrote. “Instead, Defendants have repeatedly made oblique references to their request of ‘assistance’ from the U.S. Department of State (DOS), which has ‘entered into negotiations to facilitate Cristian’s return’ and ‘assumed responsibility on behalf of the U.S. Government for … diplomatic discussions with El Salvador.'”
In a report submitted as part of a court filing on Monday, El Salvador officials said that migrants who were sent to CECOT under an arrangement between the U.S. and El Salvador were the responsibility of the United States — appearing to contradict the Trump administration’s assertion that it is unable to bring back any of the migrants because they’re under El Salvador’s authority.
“Assuming the Government of El Salvador provided truthful information to the UN, no ‘diplomatic discussions’ should be required here because El Salvador has no sovereign interest in Cristian’s continued confinement in that country,” Judge Gallagher said in her filing Tuesday.
Judge Gallagher, in her original order in April, referenced the case of wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, and said that “like Judge [Paula] Xinis in the Abrego Garcia matter, this court will order Defendants to facilitate Cristian’s return to the United States so that he can receive the process he was entitled to under the parties’ binding Settlement Agreement.”
The Trump administration subsequently brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. to face federal human smuggling charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Melissa and Mark Hortman attend at Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer Labor Party’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner at the Minneapolis Hilton on Friday, June 13, 2025.(Minnesota House DFL Caucus)
(BROOKLYN PARK, MN) — State Rep. Melissa Hortman and State Sen. John Hoffman, who were targeted by a shooter on Saturday, were longtime members of Minnesota’s state legislature who spent years working to improve their communities, according to leaders who knew them.
Hortman and her husband, Mark, were shot and killed at their home in Brooklyn Park early Saturday by a suspect who posed as a police officer, investigators said. They left behind two children.
Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were shot earlier in the morning by the same suspect inside their home at Champlin. The couple, who have a daughter, were rushed to a hospital and underwent surgery, Gov. Tim Walz said.
Authorities said they’ve identified 57-year-old Vance Boelter as a suspect as they search for the gunman.
Both state leaders were members of Minnesota’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), a state party affiliated with the Democrats.
Hortman, 55, nee Haluptzok, had the most experience in the state legislature. She earned a BA in political science and philosophy at Boston University and worked as an intern for then-Sen. Al Gore and later Sen. John Kerry, according to her campaign biography.
Hortman went on to earn a law degree at the University of Minnesota Law School in 1995 and clerked with Judge John Sommerville. She later earned an MPA from Harvard in 2018.
Outside politics, Hortman worked as a private attorney and volunteered her time in the local school board and Sunday school at Saint Timothy Catholic Church in Blaine. She first ran for office in 1998, for the State House of Representatives seat, but lost.
After another defeat for the same seat four years later, Hortman was elected to the state’s District 47B in 2004.
Hortman quickly rose through the ranks of the House, serving as assistant majority leader from 2007 to 2010 and as minority whip from 2011 to 2012. She championed many causes, including reproductive rights and environmental issues.
She also pushed for stricter gun control and attended events with gun control advocates, including Everytown for Gun Safety.
In 2017, she was named minority leader and became speaker in 2019 after the DFL gained a majority in the House. Hortman spearheaded efforts to pass police reform in 2020 following the George Floyd protests.
During this year’s session, the state House Republicans and the DFL engaged in a tense standoff over leadership after Republicans gained seats. A DFL boycott ended in February with a power-sharing agreement where Hortman retained the title of minority leader until a March special election created a tie in the House.
Hortman and her husband were married for 31 years. Mark Hortman worked as a program manager for nVent Electric, a company that specialized in electronics, particularly green electronics, according to his Facebook and LinkedIn pages.
Mark Hortman frequently posted photos and updates about his family on his Facebook page.
“A couple of weeks ago, I posted a video showing off how we taught our dog how to ring the doorbell when he wants to come inside. Well, now that dog has figured out that if he wants to play he rings the doorbell and then ding dong ditches us just to get us to come outside and play!,” he posted in 2023.
The couple attended the DFL’s annual Humphrey-Mondale Dinner at the Minneapolis Hilton on Friday, according to the Minnesota House DFL Caucus.
They were killed on the same day as the birthday of Melissa Hortman’s father, her sister, Lieza Jean Haluptzok, told ABC News.
“We loved them dearly; they will be missed. It’s a horrible thing. I hope they catch him. And they get justice for what happened. It’s devastating,” she said Saturday afternoon.
Hoffman, 60, was elected to the State Senate in 2012.
A Wyoming native, Hoffman earned a bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s University and spent several decades working for various Minnesota businesses and non-profits, according to his campaign bio page.
He was the co-founder of Consumer Credit of Minnesota, a non-profit consumer assistance organization, and served on the Anoka Hennepin School Board starting in 2005, his bio said.
In 2012, he won the state senate seat for District 34 and would win reelection three more times.
He served as the minority whip from 2017 to 2020 and is on the Senate’s Human Services committee.
“Throughout my career, I have been afforded many opportunities to assume progressive management roles, which have allowed me to gain and implement a unique set of expertise,” he wrote on his campaign page.
ABC News’ Mark Guarino contributed to this report.
Ghislaine Maxwell attends day 1 of the 4th Annual WIE Symposium at Center 548 on September 20, 2013 in New York City. (Photo by Laura Cavanaugh/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has denied the Trump administration’s motion to unseal grand jury testimony from the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Trump administration has been seeking to release materials related to the investigation into Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in jail in 2019, following the blowback it received from MAGA supporters after it announced last month that no additional files would be released.
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking and other offenses in connection with Epstein.
In his 31-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer of the Southern District of New York criticized the Department of Justice for using “demonstrably false” reasoning to justify the release of grand jury testimony.
The transcripts would “not reveal new information of any consequence” about Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, according to Judge Engelmayer, who suggested that the Trump administration’s push to release documents might be an intentional “diversion.”
“Its entire premise — that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, or the Government’s investigation into them — is demonstrably false,” he wrote.
Engelmayer wrote that the transcripts contain material already in the public record and lack any firsthand information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes. The records do not identify anyone other than Epstein or Maxwell who had sexual contact with a minor, mention any clients, shed light on their methods, or provide new information about Epstein’s death, Engelmayer wrote.
“Insofar as the motion to unseal implies that the grand jury materials are an untapped mine lode of undisclosed information about Epstein or Maxwell or confederates, they definitively are not that. A ‘public official,’ ‘lawmaker,’ ‘pundit,’ or ‘ordinary citizen’ ‘deeply interested and concerned about the Epstein matter,’ and who reviewed these materials expecting, based on the Government’s representations, to learn new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes and the investigation into them, would come away feeling disappointed and misled. There is no ‘there’ there,” the judge wrote.
Engelmayer also suggested that the only reason that might justify the release of the records would be to “expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal.”
“A member of the public, appreciating that the Maxwell grand jury materials do not contribute anything to public knowledge, might conclude that the Government’s motion for their unsealing was aimed not at ‘transparency’ but at diversion — aimed not at full disclosure but at the illusion of such,” he wrote.
Engelmayer is the second judge to deny the administration’s motions to unseal secret grand jury testimony related to Epstein and Maxwell. Last month, U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg dismissed the DOJ’s motion to unseal testimony from the first federal investigation of Epstein in Florida that began in the mid-2000s.
A third federal judge in New York is still considering the administration’s request to unseal testimony in the second Epstein investigation in 2019.
The government’s move to unseal grand jury testimony came after the Trump administration faced backlash for its decision last month not to release any further materials from investigations against Epstein and Maxwell, after repeated statements that it planned to do so.
According to a three-page evidence list released by the Justice Department in February, the government is in possession of more than 300 gigabytes of data obtained during those investigations. The remaining materials include 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices, according to the evidence index.
The evidence also includes approximately 60 pieces of physical evidence, including photographs, travel logs, employee lists, more than $17,000 in cash, five massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home, four busts of female body parts, a pair of women’s cowboy boots and one stuffed dog, according to the list.
The unreleased evidence notably includes multiple documents related to two islands Epstein owned in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Little Saint James — where his compound was located — and Greater Saint James. According to the index, the files include a folder containing Island blueprints, photographs and other documents.
Some of the documents could shed light on who visited the island. According to the index, the files also include a Little Saint James logbook as well as multiple logs of boat trips to and from the island.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while facing federal child sex trafficking charges. The well-connected financier has long been rumored to have kept a “client list” of celebrities and politicians, which right-wing influencers have baselessly accused authorities of hiding.
The Justice Department and FBI announced last month that they had found no evidence that Epstein kept such a list, after several top officials, before joining the administration, had themselves accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
In its joint memo, the FBI and DOJ argued that a “large portion” of the records included photographs of victims and child pornography. According to the DOJ, the evidence includes “images and videos” of victims who appear to be minors, “over ten thousand downloaded videos and images of illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography,” and a “large volume” of images of Epstein.
“While we have labored to provide the public with maximum information regarding Epstein and ensured examination of any evidence in the government’s possession, it is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,” the memo said.
(DANVILLE, Va.) — A Virginia councilman was set on fire in an apparent personal attack at his office on Wednesday, authorities said.
The suspect, Shotsie Michael Buck Hayes, allegedly confronted Danville City Councilman Lee Vogler, 38, at his office and doused him with a flammable liquid, the Danville Police Department said. Both went outside where Hayes allegedly set Vogler on fire, police said.
Hayes, 29, of Danville, is in custody, police said.
Vogler has been taken to a hospital in unknown condition, police said.
It appears Vogler and Hayes know each other “and the attack stems from a personal matter not related to the victim’s position on Danville City Council or any other political affiliation,” police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
