The purpose of these “bombshell” reports, uncovered years after the fact, is not to shore up a case made in the court of law. As DHS Assistant Secretary McLaughlin said, on release of the traffic stop “report” on April 18, “The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart.” Their aim is to shame the media, as Leavitt put it, or to at least make the media second-guess their reporting.

But by the time the administration turned to the outrageous trafficking allegation, momentum was solidly on the side of their opponents. Maryland Senator Van Hollen’s meeting in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia came just a few hours after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a “blistering” order against Trump and Abrego Garcia’s removal. All of that was backed up by public protests across the country, by Abrego Garcia’s union siblings and leadership standing up for him, by people challenging the Republican lawmakers who represent them. “Are you gonna bring that guy back from El Salvador?” a man in an American flag ball cap asked Senator Chuck Grassley in Iowa last week, to applause from others in the audience. “The Supreme Court said to bring him back.” It had, days earlier, and when Trump defied its order, he probably just pushed more people into the streets.

The Trump administration, when faced with this consistent pushback, from lawmakers, the courts, the public—and from Abrego Garcia’s community—has merely doubled down on its lies—further fueling the backlash. It’s not a surprise; these are the same people who ran on lies about immigrants from Haiti preying on pets and eating them, and won.