Top Trump aide Miller says DOJ 'saboteur' said El Salvadoran migrant was deported accidentally

Top White House aide Stephen Miller on Monday blamed a Justice Department "saboteur" for saying the Trump administration mistakenly deported a Maryland resident who is also a Salvadoran national.

“He was not mistakenly sent to El Salvador," Miller said during an interview with Fox News. "He is an illegal alien from El Salvador. 

In 2019, he was ordered deported. He [has] a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador."

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was arrested and detained by ICE agents last month, for allegedly being an MS-13 gang member. He had legal status known as "withholding of removal" after a judge determined in 2019 that he would be persecuted by gangs if he went to El Salvador. 

Garcia also had a history of failing to appear in court for traffic citations.

Miller said that it wasn't true that Garcia was deported by accident and blamed an attorney from the DOJ for that piece of misinformation.

“A DOJ lawyer who has since been relieved of duty, a saboteur ... a Democrat put into a [court] filing incorrectly that this was a mistaken removal," Miller said. "It was not. This was the right person sent to the right place."

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the career Justice Department attorney was suspended because he failed to “vigorously” defend the Trump administration. But Miller said Monday that attorney, Erez Reuveni, was suspended for an “incorrect” line, according to The Hill newspaper.