Abrego Garcia may have been vindictively prosecuted by Trump administration, US judge finds

Listen to this article

A federal judge ruled on Friday there was a realistic likelihood that the criminal charges the U.S. Department of Justice brought against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged gang member who was wrongly deported by President Donald Trump’s administration to El Salvador, amounted to a vindictive prosecution.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville, Tennessee, cited statements administration officials made celebrating the charges brought against Abrego Garcia as evidence the indictment may have been pursued in retaliation for a lawsuit he brought in Maryland challenging his wrongful deportation.

Crenshaw pointed to “remarkable statements” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made on Fox News that prosecutors started investigating Abrego Garcia after a judge in Maryland questioned his removal and found the government “had no right to deport him.”

Blanche during the June 6 interview said Abrego Garcia was not returned to the United States “for any other reason than to face justice.”

Crenshaw said those statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego Garcia’s charges stem from the exercise of his rights to bring suit against the administration over his deportation, “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct.”

Federal law allows for the dismissal of criminal charges if a judge determines they were brought to punish someone for exercising their due process rights. Such requests rarely succeed.

But Crenshaw, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, said Abrego Garcia had carried his burden of showing he was likely vindictively prosecuted. He said Abrego Garcia was entitled to obtain further evidence from the government and have a hearing to decide whether the case should be dismissed.

Representatives for Abrego Garcia and the Justice Department declined to comment.

Abrego Garcia, a native of El Salvador who had been living in Maryland, was deported and imprisoned in El Salvador in March despite a 2019 judicial ruling that he could not be sent there because of a risk of gang persecution.

Abrego Garcia challenged that deportation in a civil lawsuit before a federal judge in Maryland. The U.S. Supreme Court in April upheld an order from the Maryland judge that the Trump administration facilitate his return.

In June, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. after prosecutors secured an indictment in Tennessee accusing him of transporting migrants in the U.S. illegally as part of a smuggling ring. He has pleaded not guilty and has disputed that he was a gang member.

Nate Raymond reports for Reuters.