Shocking moment Attorney General abruptly leaves interview after being questioned over El Salvador prisoners with 'no criminal record'
Joe Yates
Featured Image Credit: C-Span
Amid the controversy surrounding Trump's deportation of Venezuelans without criminal records to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, the Attorney General has stormed out of an interview when she was quizzed on the matter by a journalist.
As many as three in four Venezuelan prisoners deported from the US to one of the world's toughest prisons had no criminal records, a CBS report has found.
Since the Trump administration flew hundreds of migrants to El Salvador's notoriously violent 'mega-prison' CECOT on March 15, officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi have been quizzed on why the government allegedly defied court orders in doing so.
CBS's 60 Minutes carried out an investigation into the 238 Venezuelans who have been branded criminals by the US government - with 179 of those holding no public criminal record.
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Now, while speaking to reporters outside the White House, Bondi was asked about the progam's evidence.
One journalist asked: "Attorney General, 60 Minutes found that 75 percent of the immigrants who were sent to El Salvador do not have public criminal records. Is that true?"
The 59-year-old attorney asked the reporter to clarify what they meant, to which they explained they were talking about the Venezuelan migrants.
Bondi replied: "Okay, so they're not Venezuelan migrants, they're illegal aliens from Venezuela who should not have been in our country, who are committing the most violent crimes.
"So if you committed a murder in our country, we're going to keep you here, and we're going to seek the death penalty, and we're going to keep you in prison, because our victims' families deserve that, but we don't have to charge them with outreach crime.
"We can deport them and get them out of our country and save room in our prisons, because they should have never been in our country to begin with."
Having seemingly dodged the question, the reporter then asked for her to confirm whether those she ordered be deported had committed a crime.
Bondi responded, 'thank you', before abruptly storming off.
Among the 'criminals' that have been deported is hairdresser Andry José Hernández Romero who was seeking asylum in the US legally after facing fierce discrimination in his home country for being gay, when he was stopped by border control for having a tattoo of a crown on both his wrists next to the writing 'Mum' and 'Dad'.
The crown has been deemed a way in which gang members of the notorious Venezuelan gang 'Tren de Aragua' are to be identified, and despite the 31-year-old insisting he wasn't affiliated to the gang, he was incarcerated.
He has not been given a trial to prove his innocence, and after being flown to CECOT he will not be provided that, and instead must rub shoulders with some of the most hardened criminals in the world.