Trump administration trying to dismiss MS-13 leader’s charges to deport him

Exclusive: Critics and defendant's legal team accuse US president of trying to do favor for Salvadorian leader

Donald Trump's administration is attempting to dismiss criminal charges against a top MS-13 leader in order to deport him to El Salvador, according to newly unsealed court records - igniting accusations from critics and the defendant's legal team that the US president is trying to do a favor for his Salvadorian counterpart, who struck a deal with the gang in 2019.

According to justice department records, the MS-13 figure in question, Vladimir Antonio Arevalo-Chavez, has intimate knowledge of that secretive pact, which - before eventually falling apart - involved Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele's government ceding money and territory to the gang, who in return promised to reduce violence from its side and provide Bukele's party with electoral support.