CBS News is once again defending its editing of a pre-recorded interview after the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, accused the beleaguered news division of “shamefully” editing her Sunday interview to “whitewash the truth” about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the now famous illegal immigrant from El Salvador who the Trump administration claims is an unsavory character who belongs to MS-13. 

The controversy centers on a pre-taped interview Ms. Noem did for CBS’s Sunday morning program “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” which was being guest hosted by CBS News’s “senior White House and political correspondent,” Ed O’Keefe.   

During the Sunday interview, Mr. O’Keefe questioned Ms. Noem about why the Trump administration was seeking to deport Mr. Abrego Garcia rather than prosecute him in the United States. Following the broadcast, Ms. Noem took to social media to criticize how her response was presented.

“I joined CBS to report the facts about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Instead, CBS shamefully edited the interview to whitewash the truth about this MS-13 gang member and the threat he poses to American public safety,” Ms. Noem wrote, posting video clips to support her claims.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said, “In total, CBS cut nearly four minutes of her 16 minute and 40 second interview during its broadcast. In doing so CBS removed more than 23% of Secretary Noem’s answers exposing the truth about criminal illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia” and other matters. 

CBS News said its editing met established network standards. “Secretary Noem’s ‘Face The Nation’ interview was edited for time and met all CBS News standards. The entire interview is publicly available on YouTube, and the full transcript was posted earlier this morning on CBSNews.com,” a spokesman told Fox News.

In the passage of her interview that was edited out, Ms. Noem said of Mr. Abrego Garcia: “This individual was a known human smuggler, an MS-13 gang member, and an individual who is a wife beater, and someone who is so perverted that he solicited nude photos from minors and even his fellow human traffickers told him to knock it off. He was so sick in what he was doing and how he was treating small children. So, he needs to never be in the United States of America, and our administration is making sure we’re doing all that we can.”

None of the allegations Ms. Noem detailed have been proven in court, though the Trump administration has gone to some lengths to substantiate them. In 2019, a “past proven and reliable confidential source” told Prince George’s County, Maryland, police that Mr. Abrego Garcia was an active member of MS-13, the notoriously violent gang with roots in the El Salvadoran migrant community in America. A judge denied Mr. Abrego Garcia bond, citing sufficient evidence of gang membership. 

However, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s supporters have consistently denied he belongs to the gang, and in July a federal judge said the U.S. government had made “poor attempts to tie Abrego to MS-13,” and that the court “would have to make so many inferences” that the “conclusion would border on fanciful.” The judge, Waverly Crenshaw, who ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release, was appointed by President Obama.

In May, a grand jury indictment charged Mr. Abrego Garcia with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens in the United States illegally, and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented people. He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which have never been adjudicated.

The “wife beater” claim is based on Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, an American citizen, filing protective orders against him in 2020 and 2021. In the orders, she said he slapped and punched her, leaving bruises.

A few days after filing the 2020 protective order, she filed an order rescinding it. After the 2021 filing, a court ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia not to contact, harass, or abuse his wife. 

In June, Attorney General Pam Bondi said of Mr. Abrego Garcia: “A co-conspirator alleged that the defendant solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor.”

The allegations don’t appear on the May indictment, but they were mentioned in the government’s filing to detain Mr. Abrego Garcia, which said he “solicited nude photographs and videos of a minor, beginning in approximately 2020.” 

That motion said “no charges against the defendant regarding child pornography have been filed, but it demonstrates the danger the defendant poses to the community not just with respect to alien smuggling.”

In her Sunday appearance, Ms. Noem said, “Prosecution decisions are always made by the Department of Justice and Pam Bondi’s department, so we will let them do that, although this individual does have criminal charges pending. He has charges pending against him civilly as well. And the one thing that we will continue to do is to make sure that he doesn’t walk free in the United States of America.”

The editing controversy comes amid ongoing legal proceedings involving Mr. Abrego Garcia, who’s in immigration detention in Virginia. The Americans say they intend to deport him to Uganda, to which he has no ties. His defense attorneys filed a motion on Thursday asking Judge Crenshaw to prevent Trump administration officials from making public statements that could prejudice potential jurors.

Mr. Abrego Garcia’s case has followed a complex trajectory. After mistakenly being deported to El Salvador in March, the government spent nearly two months claiming it could not return him despite a Supreme Court order. He became a liberal cause celebre, with a far-left Democratic U.S. senator, Chris Van Hollen, visiting him in El Salvador. The media repeatedly referred to Mr. Abrego Garcia as “a Maryland father.” 

The Department of Justice eventually brought him back to the United States in June, issuing an indictment on two counts of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants. Although released from jail last week pending trial, immigration authorities promptly re-detained him in Maryland.

The latest dispute represents the second major editing controversy for CBS News in recent months. The network previously faced accusations of deceptive editing practices involving a “60 Minutes” pre-recorded interview with Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election cycle. 

When editing the interview, CBS News producers removed the first part of Ms. Harris’s answer to a question about Israel, and sewed the question and second part of her answer together in a way that made her sound more coherent. 

That led to President Trump filing a $20 billion lawsuit against CBS, alleging “election interference” through deceitful editing of Ms. Harris’s responses. CBS responded that it was standard practice to edit a taped interview for clarity and concision. The lawsuit came as Skydance Media was seeking government approval for its acquisition of CBS’s parent company, Paramount Global. Approval had been delayed indefinitely.

Shortly after the Harris interview, in October 2024, “Face the National With Margaret Brennan” was denounced by the House speaker, Mike Johnson, for removing a chunk of an interview he’d prerecorded with Ms. Brennan. CBS News editors removed his comments criticizing the Biden administration’s response to Hurricane Helene. In this case, CBS News released the full transcript, unlike with the Harris interview.

Paramount and Mr. Trump settled his lawsuit in July, with Mr. Trump receiving $16 million upfront for legal fees and contributions to his future presidential library or charitable causes. Mr. Trump claims that an additional eight-figure allocation was set aside for advertisements and public service announcements supporting conservative causes. Skydance, which had yet to close the transaction, has declined to comment on whether it made such commitments.

As part of the settlement, Paramount agreed that going forward, the full transcripts of key, pre-recorded political interviews done by CBS News would be released. In the case of the Harris interview, CBS News and the Harris campaign had refused to release the transcript. CBS ultimately released it after the FCC demanded that it do so.

As a condition of getting approval for the merger, Skydance made a written commitment that CBS News — which has been dogged with allegations of liberal and anti-Israel bias for the last 40 years — would commit to objective journalism and that Paramount would appoint an ombudsman to monitor CBS News’s content.

Nevertheless, “Face the Nation” has continued to be a locus of controversy, with host Margaret Brennan coming under criticism for aggressively badgering Secretary Marco Rubio, and now with the program coming under attack for its selective editing of Ms. Noem’s interview.

“60 Minutes,” which aired a series of anti-Trump segments even as Paramount was in settlement talks over Mr. Trump’s his lawsuit, is on its usual summer vacation.