Trump Touts Seemingly Doctored Photo of Abrego Garcia's Hand in Attempt To Prove Maryland Man Is Gang Member

[BumRushDaShow]

22. There have been reports about the cop who wrote it up

Disgraced Maryland police officer tied to 2019 Abrego Garcia gang report


Nick Penzenstadler Eduardo Cuevas Cybele Mayes-Osterman USA TODAY

April 17, 2025 4:14 p.m. ET


A now-fired Maryland police officer authored the 2019 gang report that the government referenced when it mistakenly sent a Maryland father to a notorious prison in El Salvador, documents obtained by USA TODAY show.

A copy of the pivotal gang report, released by Attorney General Pam Bondi on April 16 shields the name of the Prince George’s County, Maryland, police officer. But another, unredacted copy provided by attorneys for the imprisoned man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, show it was written by Ivan Mendez.

Just days after the March 2019 encounter at a Home Depot in Hyattsville where Abrego Garcia was flagged as a potential MS-13 gang member, Mendez was suspended from the force.

Court records show he was then indicted in June 2020 for misconduct in office. Court records allege he shared “sensitive and confidential information about an ongoing police investigation with a commercial sex worker.” “My Office has a zero-tolerance policy for corruption by public officials who unlawfully violate the public trust,” Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said in announcing the indictment.

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Government’s case against Abrego Garcia is based on PG County Cop who was on the SA’s do not call list

Based on his illegal use of information, Ivan Mendez was only an active duty officer for five days after alleging without evidence that Abrego Garcia was a gang member.

by Baynard Woods April 17, 2025


The Maryland cop who first linked Kilmar Abrego Garcia to alleged gang activity in 2019 was placed on a “do not call” list published by Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy in 2021 — meaning he was deemed unfit to testify in state court due to criminal charges filed against him for sharing confidential information about a police investigation.

This means that the Trump administration has detained Abrego Garcia in the CECOT prison in El Salvador, against the rulings of the Supreme Court and a Maryland District Court, based solely on the word of a cop deemed untrustworthy by the county’s state’s attorney’s office. The New Republic first reported that PGPD Corporal Ivan Mendez, who filled out Abrego Garcia’s “gang field interview sheet,” pleaded guilty to criminal misconduct in office charges based on giving information about a police investigation to a sex worker in December 2018, according to Maryland Case Search — just months before Abrego Garcia’s arrest in a Home Depot parking lot.

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On March 28, 2019, Abrego Garcia went to the Home Depot in Hyattsville, looking for work as a day laborer. While waiting around for a job, Abrego Garcia and three other men were stopped by police, according to court documents. “At the police station, the four young men were placed into different rooms and questioned. Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was asked if he was a gang member; when he told police he was not, they said that they did not believe him and repeatedly demanded that he provide information about other gang members. The police told Plaintiff Abrego Garcia that he would be released if he cooperated, but he repeatedly explained that he did not have any information to give because he did not know anything,” a 2019 court filing reads.

Mendez filled out the “Gang Field Interview Sheet” that deemed Abrego Garcia a member of MS-13, based on the fact that he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture” and a confidential informant who told them that Abrego Garcia was “an active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique,” even though the Western clique is located in Long Island — a place Abrego Garcia had never been. “Officers know MS-13 gang members are only allowed to hang around other members or prospects for the gang,” Mendez wrote.

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This country has a fucking problem with a subset of its cops and every time someone tries to address it, you have the "defenders" out in force.