Senator is denied a meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia; judge finds cause to hold Trump officials in contempt

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who's married to the Kilmar Abrego Garcia, man the government says was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, addressed a filing she made four years ago seeking a temporary civil protective order against him.

“After surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated," Sura said in a statement tonight. "Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process."

In a social media post today, the Department of Homeland Security wrote that Sura had sought a temporary protective order against him in 2021. The case was ultimately dismissed. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also cited the protective order today, calling Abrego Garcia "an apparent woman beater."

Sura said in her statement that she and her husband were able to resolve their marital issues "privately" and with the help of counseling. She also said the protective order did not justify the Trump administration's "abducting and deporting" her husband, a legal resident with protection against deportation to El Salvador by a 2019 court order.

Trump said on Truth Social that tariff negotiations with Japanese officials today resulted in "big progress."

"A Great Honor to have just met with the Japanese Delegation on Trade. Big Progress!" Trump wrote.

He later posted a photo of the meeting with Ryosei Akazawa, Japan's minister in charge of economic revitalization.

Earlier today, Trump said Japanese officials were coming to the White House to negotiate tariffs, the cost of military support and trade fairness. He attended the meeting alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg defended his effort to back primary challengers against congressional Democrats and state legislators in deep-blue seats today in an interview on MSNBC. 

"I think right now, we need a diversity of approaches of how we address this crisis in our party," Hogg said.

Hogg took aim at what he described as a "culture of complacency" among Democrats who have used a "litmus test of whether or not you should be somewhere, isn't based off how good you are or how effective you are, but how long you've been there."

"See, that's unacceptable," Hogg said, arguing that there should be more members of Congress between ages 25 to 30.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told NBC News earlier today that Democrats were "united" in their efforts to take back the House majority, but she would not directly respond to a question related to concerns that primary challenges could shift resources away from the committee's targets.

After a man tried to assassinate Trump in July at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, quickly issued a statement condemning the attempt on the Republican presidential candidate’s life.

“Violence targeted at any political party or political leader is absolutely unacceptable,” Shapiro posted on X that day. “It has no place in Pennsylvania or the United States. I have been briefed on the situation. @PAStatePolice are on the scene in Butler County and working with our federal and local partners.”

In the 24 hours after the attack, Shapiro worked closely with law enforcement, including calling Republican members of Congress present at the rally, then-President Joe Biden and the Trump campaign (although he did not speak directly to Trump). He also called and spoke with the family of Corey Comperatore, the Trump supporter who was shot and killed.

Yet three days after an arson attack on Shapiro’s residence in Harrisburg on Sunday, Trump still has not called Shapiro or weighed in significantly to condemn the violence.

Read the full story here.

George Clooney pitched Maryland Gov. Wes Moore as the future leader of the Democratic Party, characterizing him as "levitating above" other prominent leaders within the party, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

"He’s handled this tragedy in Baltimore beautifully. He has two tours of duty in Afghanistan, active duty. He speaks sort of beautifully. He’s smart. He ran a hedge fund. He ran the Robin Hood Foundation. He’s a proper leader," Clooney said in an interview on CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper."

“I think he could be someone we could all join in behind. We have to find somebody rather soon, you know, because we need to redo,” he added.

Clooney also reflected on his role in the 2024 presidential election, standing by his decision to write an op-ed calling on President Joe Biden to end his re-election bid over concerns about his mental acuity.

“You know, that’s the deal. You have to take a stand. If you believe in it, take a stand, stand for it, and then deal with the consequences," he said.

Chris Krebs, the former senior cybersecurity official whom Trump fired for affirming the 2020 presidential election was secure, is leaving his private sector cybersecurity job after Trump targeted him and the company last week.

Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during Trump’s first term, is a popular figure at his former agency and in the cybersecurity industry and the target of ire for proponents of Trump’s false claims that fraud cost him the 2020 election.

On April 9, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate Krebs and strip his security clearance and the clearances held by any other SentinelOne employees.

In his resignation email, which SentinelOne has published on its blog, Krebs said: “I don’t shy away from tough fights. But I also know this is one I need to take on fully — outside of SentinelOne. This will require my complete focus and energy. It’s a fight for democracy, for freedom of speech, and for the rule of law.”

Read the full story here.

Trump said on social media today that he will appoint former Securities and Exchange Commission chair Jay Clayton to be the interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, whose jurisdiction includes Wall Street.

"The Southern District needs strong leadership NOW, and I thank Jay for taking on this role while we continue to pursue his Senate confirmation," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Democrats vehemently oppose Clayton, who chaired the SEC during Trump's first term and has no prosecutorial experience. Clayton is an attorney at the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he plans to block Trump's U.S. attorney nominations, criticizing what he called Trump's "blatant and depraved political motivations," which he said are "deeply corrosive to the rule of law."

The Trump administration has not complied with a federal court order directing it to continue funding legal representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, attorneys in the case allege.

Several groups sued the Department of Homeland Security on March 28 after the federal government refused to renew a contract that funds attorneys who help young migrant children who came to the United States alone or were separated from their parents go through the immigration process.

The funding cutoff forced many of the immigrant legal groups to lay off workers, withdraw from cases and scramble to find other legal help for children in immigration court proceedings.

According to a court document filed by the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, “the sudden and abrupt termination of services, without any warning or advance notice to children, their attorneys, Child Advocates, and immigration judges and court personnel, created chaos and confusion in immigration courts.”

Read the full story here.

Trump commented on what he described as the "genetics" of Latino people in an interview clip that aired today.

“Hispanic people have been supportive of me like no other candidate,” Trump said in part of a Fox Noticias interview that aired this afternoon.

“They’re great people. They work so hard. They are very, very entrepreneurial, always have been, always will be. See, that’s genetics, too. You know, we talked about genetics before. That’s genetics, too," he added.

Trump has remarked about genes before, saying, "We got a lot of bad genes in our country right now," referring to people who had crossed the southern border who he believed were murderers. At a campaign rally in 2023, Trump also said immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country."

The administration has filed official notice that it's appealing Judge Xinis' order directing it to "take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible."

In court yesterday, the government maintained it had already done so by saying it would facilitate allowing him into the country if he made it to a port of entry. Xinis said that the Justice Department's definition of "facilitate" is far too narrow "and runs contrary to law and logic" and that it needs to try to get him returned from the prison in El Salvador that he was wrongly sent to.

She has also directed daily status reports from the administration on its efforts to that effect. An attorney for the Department of Homeland Security said in a filing today that DHS had nothing to update since it believes it has already complied with the order.

"Given the government’s prior clear and unequivocal notice to the court regarding how the government will facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return within the counters of existing law and regulation, there are no further updates,” wrote the agency's general counsel, Joseph Mazzara.

Trump jabbed at former President Joe Biden in an interview that aired this afternoon, calling his predecessor "horrible" and "embarrassing."

"We had a man that — it was just horrible, what he was saying, the way he was," Trump said of Biden in a Fox Noticias interview. "He couldn't walk upstairs. I don't want to be insulting like — but it was a little embarrassing, OK, to put it mildly."

Trump also said that the president "is a reflection on the country" and that Biden "was the worst."

Yesterday, Biden delivered his first major public remarks at a conference centered on protecting Social Security. While he did not name Trump directly, he said the new administration had created "so much destruction" in its first 100 days.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt opened today's briefing with tough words about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man who was living in Maryland before the Trump administration deported to a prison in El Salvador, it says by mistake.

“Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father. He will never live in the United States of America again,” Leavitt said.

The Trump administration has refused to return Abrego Garcia to the United States from the Salvadoran jail despite court orders for officials to "facilitate" his return.

Patty Morin, the mother of a Maryland woman who was killed by an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador in 2023, gave a detailed and at times emotional account of the violence her daughter endured during the attack at a White House briefing this afternoon.

Morin was asked to join the briefing as a "special guest" as the Trump administration delivered a rebuttal to Sen. Chris Van Hollen's trip to El Salvador in support of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the administration says was mistakenly deported to a prison in the Central American country last month.

“Can you imagine standing there alive, you’re alive, and someone comes and puts their hands into and rips out your heart? That’s what it feels like,” Morin said from the podium in the White House press room. “You can’t even describe the pain.”

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, responded in a phone interview today to Democratic National Committee Vice Chair David Hogg’s new effort to support primary challengers against Democratic members of Congress and state legislators in deep-blue seats. 

“Democrats are united on taking back the majority in the House of Representatives, and that’s the top focus of the DCCC,” DelBene said. “And what I would tell anyone who wants to be helpful, to donate, is to focus on the races where we can take back the majority.”

DelBene noted that the DCCC recently released its list of targets for the 2026 midterms, adding, “This is how we take back the majority and make sure that there is a check on this administration and this president.”

In a blistering ruling, a federal judge blocked a new executive order from Trump punishing a prominent law firm that successfully sued Fox News for promoting false claims of election fraud.

U.S. District Judge Loren L. AliKhan, speaking from the bench in her Washington, D.C., courtroom yesterday, said Trump’s order targeting the law firm Susman Godfrey was part of a “personal vendetta.”

“The framers of our Constitution would see this as a shocking abuse of power,” AliKhan said.

The legal battle over Susman Godfrey is part of an intensifying effort by Trump to target his critics and other perceived enemies with presidential memorandums and executive orders that leverage the power of the Justice Department and other federal agencies to punish his opponents, legal experts and former Justice Department officials said.

Read the full story here.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a new statement today that he plans to use an archaic senatorial tradition to block Trump’s nominees for U.S. Attorney Office in New York.

“Donald Trump has made clear he has no fidelity to the law and intends to use the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney offices and law enforcement as weapons to go after his perceived enemies,” the statement says.

“Such blatant and depraved political motivations are deeply corrosive to the rule of law and leaves me deeply skeptical of [...] Donald Trump’s intentions for these important positions,” Schumer said. “For that reason, I will not return the blue slip for the U.S. Attorney nominees for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.”

The first campaign finance reports of the year provided an early look under the hood at how burgeoning campaigns are preparing for a fierce battle for control of Washington in the 2026 midterm elections — and the next presidential contest.

There were clear signs of Democratic enthusiasm, with cash flowing to Senate candidates in top battleground races and to the outspoken progressives who have styled themselves as opponents of Trump.

Read the full story.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills called the Justice Department lawsuit alleging her state violated Title IX prohibitions against sex discrimination in federally funded education programs “the latest, expected salvo” in an “unprecedented campaign to pressure the State of Maine to ignore the Constitution and abandon the rule of law."

The remarks were the Democratic governor's first public statement since Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the suit this morning. The lawsuit is the latest back-and-forth in a fight over the state’s refusal to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls sports. 

Trump in February signed an executive order that granted federal agencies broad authority to ensure programs that rely on federal funding do not allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports. Mills argued the order overstepped the administration’s constitutional authority and sued the administration last month. A federal judge then ordered the administration to unfreeze funds in a temporary restraining order.

Mills said her fight against the Trump administration is about more than transgender women and women’s sports. 

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that despite heightened uncertainty and increased downside risks from Trump's trade and economic policies, the U.S. economy, for now, remains "solid."

In prepared remarks at an event in Chicago, Powell said uncertainty regarding trade, immigration, government spending and regulation policy present a challenge to coming up with economic forecasts. Powell noted the tariff levels Trump ended up announcing were "significantly larger than anticipated."

As a result, the Fed anticipates keeping interest rates steady for now — a move that would come into tension with Trump's desire to see them lowered.

Stocks fell after Powell's remarks were released.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., tossed out the question casually as he huddled with two dozen Yale Law students here this week: Who are your favorite Democrats?

“Present company excluded,” clarified Khanna, who was on campus to excoriate Vice President JD Vance and has been sending signals that he might like to run for president in 2028.

Read the full story.

The Trump administration said Wednesday it is suing Maine’s education department for not complying with the government’s push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports, escalating a dispute over whether the state is abiding by a federal law that bars discrimination in education based on sex.

The lawsuit follows weeks of feuding between the Republican administration and Democratic Gov. Janet Mills that has led to threats to cut off crucial federal funding and a clash at the White House when she told the president: “We’ll see you in court.”

Read the full story.

The Department of Government Efficiency visited the National Labor Relations Board today, an official from the board said. The visit came a day after a whistleblower report about allegations related to DOGE activities became public.

NBC News witnessed three young men in business attire being greeted at NLRB headquarters by Chairman Marvin Kaplan and NLRB acting General Counsel William Cowen shortly before 11 a.m. NBC News has not verified their identities or DOGE affiliation. The three men departed a little over an hour after they arrived and did not engage with questions or confirm whether they were with DOGE.

NBC News has reached out to an NLRB spokesperson for further information.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said today that he hasn't heard from Trump since the arson attack on his home on Sunday.

"I haven't, no," Shapiro said when asked at a news conference in Hershey if he had heard from the president.

Asked for comment, the White House pointed to Trump's previous remarks about the attack.

When asked about the attack, Trump told reporters Monday in the Oval Office: "The attacker was not a fan of Trump. I understand, just from what I read and from what I’ve been told, the attacker basically wasn’t a fan of anybody. He’s probably just a whack job. And certainly a thing like that cannot be allowed to happen."

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., is expressing concern about the impact Trump's tariffs are having on military readiness, saying in a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth today that projected higher prices could hurt the military's "purchasing power and small contractors."

Shaheen is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and serves on the Appropriations and Foreign Relations panels. She said that the Defense Department is already facing budgetary pressures and higher costs, and tariffs will only worsen the situation.

A federal judge said in an order Wednesday that he has found probable cause to hold the Trump administration in criminal contempt over the deportation flights that it sent to El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found “the Government’s actions on that day demonstrate a willful disregard for its Order, sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.”

Read the full story.

Wire services including Reuters and Bloomberg News will no longer hold a permanent slot in the small pool of reporters who cover Trump, the White House said today, as it moves to exert greater control over who gets to ask him questions and report on his statements in real time.

The decision comes after the Trump administration last week lost a court challenge brought by another wire service, The Associated Press, over its earlier exclusion from the press pool.

Read the full story.

A group of Democratic lawmakers are urging Attorney General Pam Bondi to reinstate a Justice Department prosecutor placed on leave after he said in federal court that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador due to an administrative error.

Erez Reuveni, who was the acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation, made the admission in federal court last week in the case of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who was sent to a prison in El Salvador last month.

Though Erez argued against Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S., he was placed on leave by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said he failed to "vigorously" advocate on behalf of the United States.

"We write with grave concern about your removal and firing of Acting Deputy Chief Erez Reuveni of the Office of Immigration Litigation on unethical and improper grounds," Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., wrote in the letter to Bondi. The letter was also signed by Reps. Hillary Scholten, D-Mich.; Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J.; Glenn Ivey, D-Md.; Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H.; and Shomari Figures, D-Ala.

The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee is requesting that Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, review allegations detailed in a whistleblower complaint about potential DOGE activity at the National Labor Relations Board, according to a letter first shared with NBC News.

The letter, dated yesterday, was sent by Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.

Scott wrote that in light of the allegations included in the whistleblower's document, "I write with urgency to request that you include the NLRB in the ongoing review and assessment that you initiated in response to my letter submitted on February 6, 2025, as well as other relevant letters submitted by other congressional requestors."

Scott had previously written to the GAO, urging it to review the security of IT systems at various agencies and DOGE's "interventions in those systems."

Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., faced pushback from constituents over Trump’s tariffs and the Department of Government Efficiency's efforts to slash the size of government during town halls he held in his congressional district yesterday.

One attendee at Mast’s town hall in Jupiter, Florida, said, “He’s like an inoperable, malignant tumor to this country,” apparently referring to Trump, according to NBC affiliate WPTV. 

Mast represents Florida's 21st Congressional District, located in the southeastern part of the state, north of West Palm Beach. Constituents at his meetings yesterday also expressed concerns that Social Security and Medicare could receive cuts.

"No. 1, let’s say this about Social Security and Medicare: No ifs, ands or buts, it is not on the chopping block," Mast said.

A meeting between U.S. and Japanese officials on tariff negotiations is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. ET, according to a senior administration official. It is unclear if the meeting began on time.

Trump referred to the meeting earlier today in a post on Truth Social, saying he and some members of his Cabinet would attend.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta said Wednesday they are suing the Trump administration in federal court over President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, argues that Trump doesn’t have the presidential authority to unilaterally impose tariffs using the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, according to Newsom’s office.

Read the full story.

A group of 12 House Republicans, including several who represent swing districts, wrote a letter to GOP leadership drawing a red line against “any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations,” as the party considers significant Medicaid cuts to pay for a massive bill to pass Trump’s agenda.

The signatories are: Reps. David Valadao, R-Calif.; Don Bacon, R-Neb.; Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J.; Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa.; Young Kim, R-Calif.; Robert Wittman, R-Va.; Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y.; Nick LaLota, R-N.Y.; Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y.; and Jeff Hurd, R-Colo.

“We acknowledge that we must reform Medicaid so that it is a strong and long-lasting program for years to come,” they wrote. “We support targeted reforms to improve program integrity, reduce improper payments, and modernize delivery systems to fix flaws in the program that divert resources away from children, seniors, individuals with disabilities, and pregnant women — those who the program was intended to help. However, we cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”

Democrats have their first candidate in the race to unseat Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in what will be an uphill battle in an increasingly red state. 

Nathan Sage hopes his background as a Marine and Army veteran, mechanic and local sports play-by-play announcer — as he touts in his launch video — will connect with working-class voters.

Read the full story.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen is flying to El Salvador today to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the mistakenly deported man was not returned by midweek, one of the senator’s conditions for embarking on the trip.

Van Hollen said in a video post from the airport that he was about to board a flight to the country’s capital, adding that his goal was show the Trump administration and El Salvador’s government “that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family.”

Read the full story.

The AFL-CIO will launch nearly 400 events nationwide over the next two weeks in an effort to push back on the administration’s changes to the federal government.

The events are organized under the AFL-CIO’s Department of People Who Work for a Living campaign — a shot at Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Some of the events, beginning during this two-week congressional recess and going until April 28, will be rallies outside federal agencies and protests outside lawmakers' offices.

But the centerpiece will be 19 "field hearings," according to Eddie Vale, who is consulting with the AFL-CIO. Workers from across different unions and sectors will be able to share their stories and solutions to the Trump administration's cuts.

Republicans are discussing an idea that has long been anathema within the party: a tax hike on the wealthy.

In a twist, members of the GOP are debating whether to allow tax rates to go up on top earners when major parts of the 2017 tax law expire at the end of this year as part of a massive bill to pass Trump’s agenda.

Read the full story.

The Trump administration has been accused of ignoring or flat-out defying recent federal court orders, including a Supreme Court decision that it must “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man who was sent in error to a Salvadoran prison.  

The federal judge presiding over Kilmar Abrego Garcia's case yesterday chastised the administration for its inaction.

“I’ve gotten nothing,” said Judge Paula Xinis of the U.S. District Court for Maryland. “I’ve gotten no real response and no real legal justification for not answering.”

If Xinis or another federal judge decides that Trump and federal officials have failed to comply with their orders, what action can they take to enforce them?

Read the full story.

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he is concerned about political violence in the wake of the arson attack on the governor’s residence, where Gov. Josh Shapiro resides.

Rendell said he felt safe when he lived in the residence, between 2003 and 2011, adding that even though there were demonstrations outside the home sometimes, it was “part of the business,” and there were troopers on-site around the clock.

“People are now taking violence into their hands as a way of resolving political divisions," Rendell told NBC's news station in Philadelphia. "It’s terrible. It’s going to tear the country apart unless we do something about it.”

Cody Balmer, who was charged in the arson attack at the historic governor’s residence, said he had hatred toward Shapiro and would have attacked him directly had they come face to face.

Trump announced this morning that he would meet today with Japanese officials to discuss trade and military cost issues, marking the latest public overture from another country in response to steep U.S. tariffs, which the president has temporarily reduced.

"Japan is coming in today to negotiate Tariffs, the cost of military support, and 'TRADE FAIRNESS,'" Trump said in a post to Truth Social "I will attend the meeting, along with Treasury & Commerce Secretaries. Hopefully something can be worked out which is good (GREAT!) for Japan and the USA!"

The White House previously hit Japanese imports to the U.S. with a 24% blanket tariff.

The U.S. and Japan had previously reached a trade agreement in 2019, during Trump's first term. Japan is one of the top five buyers of U.S. goods in 2022, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Japan also hosts tens of thousands of U.S. troops.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced that he will travel to El Salvador today to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man the Justice Department said it mistakenly deported.

“My hope is to visit Kilmar and check on his wellbeing and to hold constructive conversations with government officials around his release. We must urgently continue working to return Kilmar safely home to Maryland,” Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a statement last night, calling Abrego Garcia’s deportation “unlawful” and an “abduction.”

Read the full story.