Trump fabricating evidence to imprison Abrego Garcia is bone-chilling--and it's what he would do to you

This case is about our freedom

What Donald Trump did on Friday should make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. Trump literally fabricated evidence in an effort to keep Abrego Garcia in a prison in El Salvador. You must understand that Trump would do that very thing to imprison anyone he wants to “disappear” --including you or your family. I can say that with 100% confidence because Trump is following the fascist playbook and that is what they have long done to critics or anyone else they simply want to make vanish. This is where we are as a nation.

We have all seen Trump lie to support his claims. But the way his regime has defended the unconstitutional deportation of Garcia means we have entered a new and far more dangerous for all of us. And I’m not talking about a “constitutional crisis,” I mean far worse.

It began a few weeks ago with Trump and his regime claiming Garcia was a “convicted” member MS-13 despite Garcia never having been charged with any crimes since he came to the U.S. in 2011—let alone convicted. However, as we know, facts don’t matter to convicted felon Trump.

So when the courts including the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that the corrupt Trump regime should “facilitate” Garcia’s return to the U.S. because they failed to provide “due process,” they began to escalate their lies because it plays well with the MAGA base. Soon we had Attorney General Pam Bondi on Fox News claiming that Garcia was “one of the top MS-13 members" and "a terrorist." Yes, she called him a terrorist as did others in Trump world.

Then on Friday, Trump did something we never saw before from a US President. He posted a clearly fabricated photo of Garcia’s hand with a tattoo on it that reads, “MS-13.” Trump wrote on the social media post accompanying that photo, “This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such “a fine and innocent person.” Trump then added to make sure people looked closely at the photo, “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles…” You can see the post below.

That photo is a fake. It’s a phony. It’s made up. Garcia does not have a tattoo that literally reads MS-13 on his hand as Trump wrote and his fabricated photo depict. If he did, the very first piece of evidence the Trump regime would have cited in this several week episode would have been that. It would have been the defining image of this case. And every Republican and Trump official would have been citing that tattoo in the media.

Backing that up are photos of Garcia’s hand when he met Sen. Chris Van Hollen two days ago that show no such tattoo on his hand. (For example, see photos below from journalist Matt Novak who is a reporter at Gizmodo)

And Garcia’s own lawyer on CNN Friday night confirmed he has no such tattoo.

This should be bone-chilling. Trump has now fully embraced the dictator playbook be it people from the past like Hitler and Chile’s Pinochet to more contemporary figures like Saudi Arabia’s MBS and Trump’s close ally Vladimir Putin. They all have utilized trumped up charges and fabricated evidence in support of disappearing people they wanted gone. And it’s 100% what Trump is doing now.

We know Democrats are not the best at staying on message, but I’ve been heartened to see Democrats repeat one phrase over and over when it comes to Garcia: If Trump can do this to Garcia, he can do this to any of us.

Rep. Maxwell Frost made that point Tuesday on CNN this week warning that this case is “about every single American in this country.” Frost explained that the Trump regime wants to be able to “send anybody, whether a citizen or not, overseas” and then refuse to return them even if a court order. He noted, “Today it’s Mr. Garcia, tomorrow it can be any one of us.” (Rep. Frost below)

We heard that message Friday from Sen. Chris Van Hollen after returning from visiting Garcia in the prison in El Salvador when he declared, “people must understand this case is not just about one man. It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.” The Senator added, “If you deny the constitutional right of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America.”

And Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass) echoed that same point in speaking about Garcia and our civil liberties on MSNBC Friday, warning “what people need to remember is that this can happen to any of us. Every American needs to know, as you watch this on TV, that you could be next.” He then added a very alarming but correct line, “This administration has no red lines.”

Moulton is 100% correct: The Trump regime has “no red lines.” We are watching them confirm that in real time over the past week as they not only doubled and tripled down on lies concerning Garcia—but then escalated their lies to claim he was somehow a “terrorist.” And now Trump and his regime have openly fabricated evidence that Garcia has a tattoo on his hand that reads MS-13.

The goal of the Trump regime is exactly what a Ronald Reagan appointed federal judge wrote in a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion this week on the Garcia case. As the judge noted, Trump regime wants the “right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.” The ruling continued, “This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”

We are watching Trump accuse a person of a crime then peddle lies and even fabricate evidence to support imprisoning that person. That is the power Trump and his regime are openly fighting for to use against anyone. And that is why for the sake of our freedom—and our families’—we must fight back.

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