The Trump administration is hinging its argument that the mistakenly deported Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was an MS-13 gang member based on an anonymous tip and him wearing a Chicago Bulls hat — information contained in a 2019 police report.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi posted a series of documents on X on Wednesday, including a “gang field interview sheet” from the Prince George’s County Police Department, seeking to make the connection between Abrego Garcia and the international criminal gang.

The document describes a March 2019 encounter between county officers, Abrego Garcia and three other men who police said were “loitering” at a Home Depot in Hyattsville. Authorities “immediately recognized” one of them as a member of MS-13 while Abrego Garcia, police said, was wearing clothing “indicative of the Hispanic gang culture.”

According to the report, the Chicago Bulls hat “represents that they are a member in good standing with the MS-13.” But the only other factor corroborating that theory was a confidential source, who associated Abrego Garcia with an MS-13 clique in New York — a state he’s never been to, according to his family.

The integrity of that gang field sheet has faced public scrutiny since Bondi’s post on Wednesday. According to the Prince George’s County Police Department, the officer who authored it was suspended from the department less than a week after it was written and was eventually terminated.

Police officials confirmed Thursday that former Cpl. Ivan Mendez was one of the gang unit officers who encountered Abrego Garcia in 2019. They said the group of men “displayed traits associated” with MS-13 culture, including tattoos and clothing, but noted that no one was charged or arrested.

The department said Mendez was suspended in connection with “an unrelated matter.” But, according to a 2020 police statement, he was accused of providing confidential information to a sex worker he was paying.

Mendez was indicted and later pleaded guilty to misconduct in office, court records show, and was granted probation before judgment. The department recommended termination and Mendez was removed in December 2022.

The Prince George’s County Police Department declined to comment further on Mendez or Bondi’s social media post.

Abrego Garcia’s family referenced the 2019 incident in their federal complaint last month, explaining the men at the Home Depot were “soliciting employment” and arrested without knowing why.

The arrest launched a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement probe and, eventually, an immigration hearing. According to the complaint, a judge released Abrego Garcia from custody and allowed him to remain in the United States.

Abrego Garcia fled from El Salvador around 2011 after enduring years of gang violence and harassment, his attorneys said, and entered the United States “without inspection.” The immigration judge decided he could stay, however, because “it was more likely than not” that he would be persecuted again if returned to El Salvador, according to the complaint.

Abrego Garcia, a father and sheet metal worker, has no criminal record, and despite the Trump administration’s accusations, he has never been linked to MS-13 in a court ruling. Yet, the government deported him to a Salvadoran mega-prison in March, among the hundreds of other immigrants transferred there.

Since Abrego Garcia was taken from his home in Beltsville, a legal standoff over his return has sparked intense national debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

Though the federal government has been ordered to facilitate Garcia’s return, conceding his deportation was an “administrative error,” a judge has accused the Trump administration of doing “nothing” to facilitate his release.

The government, meanwhile, continues to accuse Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 member and posing a public threat.

Beyond policies, the nation’s debate has centered on the El Salvadoran’s character. Bondi’s post came less than two hours after the Department of Homeland Security published a protective order Abrego Garcia’s wife filed against him in 2021.

“This MS-13 gang member is not a sympathetic figure,” DHS said in the online post.

The documents posted by DHS are dated May 6, 2021, and include allegations that Abrego Garcia “punched and scratched,” as well as “ripped off shirt, grabbed and bruised” his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura.

Vasquez Sura, said she “acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar,” but decided not to follow through on the complaint because “things did not escalate.”

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to Central America on Wednesday in an attempt to bring Abrego Garcia back to Maryland.

At a news conference in San Salvador, the country’s capital, Van Hollen said El Salvador’s vice president would neither free Abrego Garcia nor allow him to visit the notorious maximum security prison where he is being held.

“Why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence that he’s committed any crime and they have not been provided any evidence from the United States that he has committed any crime?” Van Hollen said.

According to the family’s legal complaint, ICE officials said in 2019 that “all the evidence and intelligence they had” on Abrego Garcia being an MS-13 gang member came from the Prince George’s County Police report.

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