“60 Minutes” made news Sunday for a segment that didn’t air.
Correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi reportedly accused her new CBS boss, Bari Weiss, of spiking a story for political purposes. The segment centered on claims of abuse at a prison in El Salvador to which the Trump administration sent hundreds of migrants in March.
Weiss said in a statement to news outlets that her job “is to make sure that all stories we publish are the best they can be” and that she looks “forward to airing this important piece when it’s ready.”
In the meantime, it’s worth recalling that federal judges in recent high-profile cases have highlighted the brutal conditions at the prison known as CECOT.
One of those cases is the ongoing legal saga of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration illegally sent to El Salvador and then resisted his court-ordered return until it finally relented in June. Another is a judge’s ongoing effort to pursue a contempt inquiry into the administration’s violation of his order to halt flights that led to the notorious prison.
In Abrego’s case, in which the administration is still trying to deport him, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered his release from immigration custody earlier this month. Recounting the history of his case, the Obama-appointed judge in Maryland wrote that Abrego was “forcibly expelled” to El Salvador along with others who were detained at CECOT and “systematically beaten and tortured.”
In the second case, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote that his contempt inquiry “is not some academic exercise.” The Obama-appointed judge in Washington, D.C., observed that more than 100 men were “spirited out of this country without a hearing and placed in a high-security prison in El Salvador, where many suffered abuse and possible torture, despite this Court’s order that they should not be disembarked.”
Both judicial writings cited a Human Rights Watch report titled “‘You Have Arrived in Hell’: Torture and Other Abuses Against Venezuelans in El Salvador’s Mega Prison.” The report’s title is a quote attributed to the prison’s director by a detainee. The report detailed alleged abuses and inhumane conditions for people held in CECOT without legal basis.
In Boasberg’s contempt inquiry, an appeals court panel with two Trump-appointed judges in the majority intervened this month to halt it. Before the panel intervened, Boasberg was poised to take testimony from a Department of Justice whistleblower and a current DOJ lawyer to shed light on the matter.
Somewhat like Weiss’ statement about pulling the CECOT segment, the D.C. appellate panel said not to read too much into the temporary postponement — that the panel just needed more time to consider the administration’s appeal. Whatever final decisions are reached by Weiss and the panel in their respective situations, both moves have the effect of keeping potentially damning information about the administration’s policies from the public — while emphasizing the importance of the information being kept hidden.
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