Kilmar Abrego (I refer to him using this name as his lawyers earlier this year said it is what he prefers) is a free man.

That alone is monumental news during this administration.

The government is still trying to deport him and still pursuing criminal charges but under a judge’s order, he was released on December 11th. The government is currently barred from taking him back into custody or deporting him.

Kilmar Abrego was one of hundreds of men sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador by the United States government in March. The government had no authority to take this action, leading to an emergency hearing where Judge James Boasberg ordered the government to turn the flights carrying these men to return to the United States.

The government ignored the judge’s order and landed the planes in El Salvador. After nine months, the contempt hearing over that disobedience is finally proceeding.

CECOT has a reputation for torture and sexual abuse. No one before 2025 had ever been released from the prison.

A plethora of legal issues surrounding what happened in March are still unresolved. But the bottom line is that the Trump administration sent hundreds of men to be tortured and sexually abused in a brutal foreign prison with no ability to contest their removal or detention in defiance of a judge telling them explicitly they could not do this. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem even went to CECOT to film a propaganda video of herself standing in front of overcrowded cells, gleeful about the men she sent to be tortured.

These men were so dangerous that every single one of them has been released - as most of them have not even been accused of a crime. The majority of the men had no criminal history. Contrary to the lies told by the Trump administration, fewer than ten have been convicted of violent crimes.

In a year full of moral atrocities, the men sent to CECOT stand as a symbol of this administration’s cruelty and lawlessness in the name of hating immigrants.

60 Minutes prepared a roughly 14 minute segment about the CECOT atrocity set to air on Sunday, December 21st. But that segment did not air in the United States.

Earlier this year, David Ellison’s Skydance Media merged with Paramount, giving Ellison control of CBS. He placed The Free Press founder Bari Weiss in charge of the news division. Weiss is woefully unqualified for the job. John Oliver did a long form analysis of Weiss and The Free Press if you want to dive into just how unqualified she is.

Just hours before airing on Sunday, 60 Minutes announced the CECOT piece would not be airing. Weiss had killed the story.

Here is the memo Weiss eventually sent regarding the killed story:

I’m writing with specific guidance on what I’d like for us to do to advance the CECOT story. I know you’d all like to see this run as soon as possible; I feel the same way. But if we run the piece as is, we’d be doing our viewers a disservice.

• Last month many outlets, most notably The New York Times, exposed the horrific conditions at CECOT. Our story presents more of these powerful testimonies—and putting those accounts into the public record is valuable in and of itself. But if we’re going to run another story about a topic that has by now been much-covered we need to advance it. Among the ways to do so: does anyone in the administration or anyone prominent who defended the use of the Alien Enemies Act now regret it in light of what these Venezuelans endured at CECOT? That’s a question I’d like to see asked and answered.

• At present, we do not present the administration’s argument for why it sent 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. What we have is Karoline Leavitt’s soundbite claiming they are evildoers in America (rapists, murderers, etc.). But isn’t there much more to ask in light of the torture that we are revealing? Tom Homan and Stephen Miller don’t tend to be shy. I realize we’ve emailed the DHS spox, but we need to push much harder to get these principals on the record.

• The data we present paints an incongruent picture. Of the 252 Venezuelans sent to CECOT, we say nearly half have no criminal histories. In other words, more than half do have criminal histories. We should spend a beat explaining this. We then say that only 8 of the 252 have been sentenced in America for violent offenses. But what about charged? My point is that we should include as much as we can possibly know and understand about these individuals.

• Secretary Noem’s trip to CECOT. We report that she took pictures and video there with MS-13 gang members, not TdA members, with no comment from her or her staff about what her goal on that trip was, or what she saw there, or if she had or has concerns about the treatment of detainees like the ones in our piece. I also think that the ensuing analysis from the Berkeley students is strange. The pictures are alarming; we should include them. But what does the analysis add?

• We need to do a better job of explaining the legal rationale by which the administration detained and deported these 252 Venezuelans to CECOT. It’s not as simple as Trump invoking the Alien Enemies Act and being able to deport them immediately. And that isn’t the administration’s argument. The admin has argued in court that detainees are due “judicial review”—and we should explain this, with a voice arguing that Trump is exceeding his authority under the relevant statute, and another arguing that he’s operating within the bounds of his authority. There’s a genuine debate here. If we cut down Kristi Noem analysis we’d have the time.

My general view here is that we do our viewers the best service by presenting them with the full context they need to assess the story. In other words, I believe we need to do more reporting here.

I am eager and available to help. I tracked down cell numbers for Homan and Miller and sent those along. Please let me know how I can support you.

Weiss wanted the story to be more balanced, detailing why the Trump administration had sent the men there and what legal rationale they used. She wanted comments from the administration to be included.

She’s absolutely right that the administration should have been given a chance to respond.

They were.

60 Minutes reached out to the White House and every relevant agency for comment. They chose not to respond. For credible journalists, that means you run the piece and note that the administration declined to comment.

Weiss killing the story because Donald Trump’s inner circle refused to comment about their crimes gives them a veto over the content of the piece. Major media institutions in the United States, several exemplars of holding truth to power for the rest of the world are in a crisis - their billionaire owners are taking direct control over what is published and are using that ability to present a narrative friendly to Donald Trump.

Weiss’s other justifications are not any better. The reason you don’t need to explore the legal rationale behind kidnapping these men is that it was illegal. We don’t need to ask them if they regret it. We do not need to ask them what they felt about doing it. Donald Trump, Kristi Noem, Karoline Leavitt, and Stephen Miller have been very public in their motivations - they label immigrants as criminals and rejoice in their cruelty towards immigrants.

Those of us plugged into this incident did not learn much new from the 60 Minutes piece. But those who are not news junkies likely didn’t know many of the details.

These men were tortured.

These men were sexually abused.

These men had done nothing at all to warrant their illegal rendition to this prison.

And the Trump administration did this all, not ignorant of what they would endure, but because of it.

But decisions like these do not constitute the breadth of Weiss’s incompetence. She also doesn’t know how the news she oversees is actually distributed.

The episode had already been completed with the CECOT statement intact and distributed to platforms that carry 60 Minutes. The censored version was sent out and aired in the United States, but in Canada, a news network put the original version of the piece online for streaming.

That streaming version was filmed and ripped and is currently making the rounds on archive sites, social media, and media piracy sites.

A lackey installed by a billionaire killed a story which was critical of Donald Trump. But that piece has been smuggled into the United States so her people can view what has been done in their names.

Kidnappings

Torture

Rapes

All done in the name of the US government because of the hatred Donald Trump and Stephen Miller have of immigrants.

Miller is furious over the “leak,” demanding everyone involved be fired. It doesn't matter that no one consciously did anything and the leak only came from a technical mistake.

Stephen Miller does not want you to see the CECOT report.

Donald Trump does not want you to see the CECOT report.

You can watch it here.

Or here.

Or here.

If these links do not survive to the time you’re reading this, reach out and I will find a copy for you.

Part of the reason I began doing this 9 years ago was the huge amount of ignorance I saw regarding politics and government. This administration thrives in lies and misinformation. They want to control the narrative. They want to control what you watch.

And we are not going to let that happen.