WATCH: Mother of woman killed by Salvadoran fugitive speaks at White House news briefing

Warning: This video contains graphic descriptions of violence.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing Wednesday with Patty Morin, whose daughter, Rachel, was killed in 2023 while exercising on a popular hiking trail northeast of Baltimore.

Watch Leavitt and Morin’s remarks in the player above.

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a fugitive from El Salvador accused of entering the United States illegally after allegedly killing another woman in his home country, was convicted by a jury Monday of raping and killing Rachel Morin and concealing her body in a drainage culvert.

Leavitt previously announced the unscheduled briefing with a “special guest.”

Patty Morin, Rachel Morin’s mother, speaks as White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stands by her side, during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., April 16, 2025. Photo by Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Leavitt has highlighted the Morin case for days. She has expressed anger, saying it received less attention than that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.

READ MORE: Maryland senator meets with El Salvador’s vice president in push for Abrego Garcia’s release

Democrats have criticized the Trump administration for failing to heed a Supreme Court order that it must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release.

The briefing came hours after a federal judge said he had found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if the administration does not “purge” its contempt. Boasberg said the administration could do so by returning to U.S. custody those who were sent to the El Salvador prison in violation of his order so that they “might avail themselves of their right to challenge their removability.”

“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” the judge wrote.

The move by Judge Boasberg marks an escalation in a battle between the judicial and executives branches of government over a president’s powers to carry out key White House priorities. The Republican president has called for Boasberg’s impeachment while the Justice Department has accused the judge of overstepping his authority.