On Sunday, Justice Department whistleblower Erez Reuveni told 60 Minutes what the public has suspected for months now: The Trump administration told him to lie to a judge about Kilmar Ábrego García being a gang member after it mistakenly deported him.
“And I respond up the chain of command: No way. That is not correct. That is not factually correct, it’s not legally correct. That is a lie. And I cannot sign my name to that briefing,” Reuveni, who has since been fired from the DOJ, said.
“You’re not saying Ábrego García is a choirboy, you’re just saying no one had managed to prove that he was a terrorist,” 60 Minutes host Scott Pelley replied.
“Here’s the really important thing. Whether Mr. Ábrego García is or isn’t a member of MS-13 or a terrorist or anything else, is beside the point,” Reuveni continued. “What matters here is that they did everything they did to him in violation of his due process rights. What’s to stop them if they decide they don’t like you anymore? To say you’re a criminal, you’re a member of MS-13? You’re a terrorist? What’s to stop them from sending in some DOJ attorney at the direction of DOJ leadership to delay, to filibuster, and if necessary, to lie?”
Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ lawyer, says a superior ordered him to argue against Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return by telling a judge he was an MS-13 gang member and terrorist. “That is not factually correct. It is not legally correct. That is– that is a lie, and I cannot sign my… pic.twitter.com/bdnzo0w9xx
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) October 19, 2025
The Trump administration has been peddling lies about Ábrego García for months, even comparing him to Osama bin Laden.
“The administration maintains the position that this individual who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, back in April. “That is fact number one. Fact number two: We also have credible intelligence proving that this individual was involved in human trafficking. And fact number three: This individual was a member, actually a leader, of the brutal MS-13 gang, which this president has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.”
These were all lies. Ábrego García remains in ICE detention in Pennsylvania after the administration failed to deport him to Africa, despite his having no ties to the continent.
The post Former DOJ Lawyer Says He Was Ordered to Lie About Ábrego García appeared first on New Republic.
