Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump, and Pam Bondi during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In her order, Xinis agreed with the contention of the news outlets – referred to jointly as the "Press Movants" – that the public "enjoys a presumptive right to access court records, overcome only when outweighed by competing interests."
As such, Xinis ordered the Trump administration to unseal a handful of documents that have so far been filed under seal, as part of a protracted legal battle over the status of Abrego Garcia.
Xinis also ordered them to unseal a transcript from an April 30 hearing in his case.
"The right to public access of court records remains critical to promoting ‘trustworthiness of the judicial process, to curb judicial abuses, and to provide the public with a more complete understanding of the judicial system, including a better perception of fairness,’" she said Wednesday.
The order comes amid a months-long court fight over the status of Abrego Garcia, who remains in El Salvador.
Xinis in April ordered the Trump administration to comply with an expedited discovery schedule to determine whether they were complying with the directive to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., which was upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year.
Since then, she has struggled to ascertain the status of Abrego Garcia, or efforts made to return him to the U.S.
TRUMP'S REMARKS COULD COME BACK TO BITE HIM IN ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION BATTLE
Demonstrators gather outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland, in March to protest the continued detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (Breanne Deppisch for Fox News Digital)
To date, the Trump administration has not knowingly complied with any court orders to return migrants who were removed and sent to El Salvador in the early wave of deportation flights, despite earlier court orders from Xinis, Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and others.
It is unclear whether Xinis plans to begin contempt proceedings against the administration, though the federal judge in D.C. said earlier this year that he had found probable cause to do so.
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-judge-grants-motion-unseal-records-abrego-garcia-case