As Attorney General Pam Bondi approaches her first anniversary on the job, the firings of career attorneys have defined her turbulent tenure. The terminations and a larger voluntary exodus of lawyers have erased centuries of combined experience. They have also left the department with fewer career employees to act as a bulwark defending the rule of law when President Donald Trump is testing the limits of executive power by demanding prosecutions of his political enemies. Interviews by The Associated Press of more than a half-dozen fired employees offer a snapshot of the toll throughout the department. The Justice Department has disputed the accounts of some of those who have been fired or quit.

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has come to encapsulate much of President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration agenda, say he wants to seek asylum in the United States. His lawyers told that to a federal judge Wednesday. The 30-year-old Salvadoran national was detained Monday in Baltimore by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after leaving a Tennessee jail on Friday. Administration officials have said he's part of the dangerous MS-13 gang, an allegation Abrego Garcia denies. His lawyers are fighting the deportation efforts in court, arguing he has the right to express fear of persecution and torture in Uganda.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been detained by immigration authorities in Baltimore. However, a blanket court order automatically pauses any effort to immediately deport Abrego Garcia and other immigrants challenging their detention. The Trump administration wants to deport him to Uganda. Abrego Garcia became the face of President Donald Trump's immigration policies in March when he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador. He was returned to the U.S. in June, then charged with human smuggling. He was released from jail on Friday to await trial, and detained by ICE Monday morning. A federal judge says court orders temporarily prohibit the government from deporting Abrego Garcia.

A federal judge in Maryland has prohibited the Trump administration from taking Kilmar Abrego Garcia into immediate immigration custody if he's released from jail in Tennessee while awaiting trial on human smuggling charges. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the U.S. government to provide notice of three business days if Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to deport him. The judge also ordered the government to restore the federal supervision that Abrego Garcia was under before he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. That supervision had allowed Abrego Garcia to live and work in Maryland.

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay releasing him from jail while he awaits trial on human smuggling charges. The request is an effort to prevent the Trump administration from deporting the Maryland construction worker for a second time. Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over President Donald Trump's immigration policies when he was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in March. The administration returned him to the U.S. last month to face the smuggling charges. U.S. officials say they'll try to deport him again if he's released from jail.

Federal prosecutors have told a judge in Maryland the government plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to a country that's not his native El Salvador upon his release from a Tennessee jail. But the prosecutors Thursday also said they'd comply with all court orders and their plans are not imminent. Attorneys for Abrego Garcia earlier asked the federal judge to order his return to Maryland when he's released from jail in Tennessee, an arrangement that would prevent likely attempts by immigration officials to quickly deport him. Abrego Garcia became a flashpoint over President Donald Trump's immigration policies after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges in federal court in Tennessee. Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who had been living in Maryland before he was wrongfully deported in March. Abrego Garcia's case has become a rallying point for opposition to President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. last week but immediately taken into custody on criminal charges. At Friday's hearing, a Department of Homeland Security agent said witnesses saw Abrego Garcia trafficking people, guns or drugs, but his lawyers raised questions about possible conflicts of interest.

A federal judge is telling the Trump administration that its explanation for state secrets privilege in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case is "inadequate." U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis made those remarks Friday afternoon in a Maryland courtroom. She had ordered Abrego Garcia's return from El Salvador in April after he was mistakenly deported. She has since directed the Trump administration to provide information about what it's done to bring him back. Government lawyers say those details are protected state secrets and shouldn't be released. The hearing on the matter is continuing.

A federal appeals court says it is "shocking" that The Trump administration claims it can't do anything to free Kilmar Abrego Garcia from an El Salvador prison and return him to the U.S. A three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday unanimously refused to suspend a judge's decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan, wrote that he and his two colleagues "cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos."