On a day marked by legal twists, the Department of Justice appeared to reverse its earlier decision to prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia before deporting him to Liberia or another location. In a separate courtroom, the federal judge overseeing his human smuggling case warned U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of potential sanctions if their public remarks continue to jeopardize the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

The unfolding events in Abrego Garcia’s case are nothing short of a legal rollercoaster. On Monday, a DOJ attorney informed Maryland U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis that, barring a court intervention, the Trump administration intends to deport the wrongfully repatriated Salvadoran citizen to Liberia by Halloween.

Judge Xinis expressed skepticism regarding the government’s assertion that it was unclear how this would affect the Tennessee criminal proceedings. She highlighted the impracticality of conducting a trial for alleged “illegal alien smuggling” without the presence of Abrego Garcia.

As reported by Law&Crime, and noted by Judge Xinis, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw has scheduled an evidentiary hearing for early November. This hearing aims to scrutinize Abrego Garcia’s claims that the DOJ’s human smuggling charges were retaliatory, sparked by the “embarrassment” his habeas corpus lawsuit caused the government.

It remains uncertain whether Abrego Garcia will be deported before the November 4 hearing. Meanwhile, Judge Crenshaw issued firm warnings to high-ranking officials in the executive branch, cautioning them against making “troubling” comments outside the courtroom that could prejudice the case.

An opinion and order from Crenshaw, also an Obama appointee, made clear that he would enforce a local rule moving forward that “prohibits DOJ and DHS employees from making extrajudicial statements that will ‘have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing’ Abrego’s right to a ‘fair trial,’” assuming there can or will be a trial.

The judge pointed directly to remarks made by Bondi and Noem, calling those “extrajudicial statements […] troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate.”

In early June, for instance, Bondi said the defendant played “a significant role in an alien smuggling ring … [that] this was his full-time job, not a contractor … [that] [h]e was a smuggler of humans and children and women … [and that] [h]e made over 100 trips,” comments in potential violation of the local rule because they “offer[ed] an opinion ‘as to the evidence in the case,’” the judge said.

Then in August, Noem branded the defendant an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator,” a statement that was again “contrary” to the local rule, Crenshaw continued.

In his Monday order, the judge was clear that acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire, within two days, “shall provide a copy of this Order and Memorandum Opinion to all” DOJ and DHS employees, including Bondi and Noem.

“Employees of DOJ and DHS are hereby on notice that they are prohibited from making any ‘extrajudicial statement (other than a quotation from or reference to public records) that the [individual] knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by public communication that will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter, including especially that will interfere with a fair trial,’” the judge said, threatening sanctions for violations of the order.