Exclusive | Group demands ethics probe into Dem pol who flew to El Salvador to aid suspected MS-13 member

A conservative watchdog is demanding an ethics probe into Sen. Chris Van Hollen for allegedly “assisting a foreign terrorist organization” by going to El Salvador to try to help free an accused MS-13 gangbanger.

The American Accountability Foundation fired off a letter to Senate leaders Thursday underscoring the Trump administration’s accusations about Kilmar Abrego Garcia having ties to the barbaric transnational gang and demanding that the Senate refuse to pay for the trip by Van Hollen (D-Md.).

“Mr. Abrego-Garcia is essentially an enemy combatant in the ongoing invasion of the United States by transnational gangs,” AAF President Thomas Jones wrote to the heads of the Senate Ethics Committee and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) in a letter obtained by The Post.

“Despite the overwhelming evidence, Senator Van Hollen decided that he would use Senate funds to fly to El Salvador and advocate for an enemy of the United States,” the letter said.

It is not fully clear how much in Senate funds Van Hollen used on his trip Wednesday to El Salvador. The Dem flew to the Latin American country in a bid to push for the release of Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant had been living in Maryland before his deportation.

AFF is asking for Thune to instruct the secretary of the Senate not to foot the bill for Van Hollen’s trip and wants the Senate Ethics Committee to probe the senator for potential violations of the Logan Act, which makes it illegal for unauthorized citizens to negotiate with foreign governments.

“Van Hollen was in El Salvador meeting with leaders of the Salvadorian government to attempt to secure Mr. Garcia’s release,” Jones wrote in the letter. “It is hard to imagine a more hostile intrusion into U.S. foreign policy than attempting to smuggle a foreign enemy combatant into the United States.”

Abrego Garcia, 29, lived in Maryland before being deported to El Salvador last month alongside about 260 other alleged gangbangers under President Trump’s use of war powers in the 18th century Alien and Enemies Act. Similar Trump efforts have been put on pause, pending litigation.

Abrego Garcia entered the US illegally in 2011.

Van Hollen previously met with Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, who is an American citizen and who was revealed to have filed a temporary protective order against him in 2021, alleging he “punched and scratched” her, “grabbed and bruised” her, and “ripped off” her shirt.

The Maryland senator claims he made a promise to Vasquez that he would fight to bring back Abrego Garcia.

During his trip Wednesday, the senator was turned away from visiting the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) megaprison complex and wasn’t able to communicate directly with Abrego Garcia at all during the trip, though he met with El Salvador Vice President Félix Ulloa.

Abrego Garcia’s deportation last month came despite a 2019 court order restricting the US government from sending him to El Salvador due to fears that he could face persecution from groups including the Barrio 18 gang.

Initially, in a March 31 filing, the Trump administration stated that Abrego Garcia’s removal was due to an “administrative error” and a “clerical error.” Publicly, top Trump administration officials have since faulted lawyers for making that claim.

The Trump administration also claimed in court documents that the 29-year-old is “confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source.” On Wednesday, the Justice Department released a police report also suggesting Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.

The Trump administration alleges that Abrego Garcia was discovered having “rolls of cash and drugs” when he was detained and that he had been “arrested with two other members of MS-13.”

The Post has reached out to reps for Thune, Van Hollen and the Senate Ethics Committee for comment.

“I won’t stop trying,” Van Hollen declared during his trip to El Salvador. “This is an unsustainable and unjust moment. So it cannot continue this way.”

“I want to emphasize that President Trump and our attorney general Pam Bondi and the vice president of the United States are lying when they say that Abrego Garcia has been charged with a crime or is part of MS-13,” the senator continued. “That is a lie.”

White House press secretary Karolin Leavitt ripped Van Hollen’s actions as “appalling” during a press event Wednesday and introduced Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was savagely raped and murdered by an illegal migrant in 2023. Rachel Morin was a Maryland constituent.

“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother, to use my tax money to fly to El Salvador to bring back a person … I just don’t understand this,” Patty Morin lamented during her somber remarks.

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has called demands that the Latin American country return Abrego Garcia to the US “preposterous.”

More congressional Democrats have expressed interest in heading to El Salvador, such as Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

Last week, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to take steps “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent” there.