From WASHINGTON EXAMINER: A federal judge in Tennessee ruled Friday that the foreign national from El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has shown a sufficient evidentiary basis to proceed with claims that his criminal prosecution was brought for “vindictive” and politically retaliatory reasons by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama based in Nashville, granted Abrego Garcia’s request for discovery and an evidentiary hearing, writing that the totality of events, including public comments by senior administration officials, raised a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness.” The court stopped short of dismissing the charges but said more evidence must be considered before deciding whether to throw out the case entirely.
The ruling applies only to Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee, where he is charged with conspiracy and unlawful transportation of undocumented immigrants. It does not affect his separate immigration proceedings, where a Baltimore immigration judge this week rejected his final asylum bid, allowing his order of removal to remain in place pending appeal.
“The Government had a significant stake in retaliating against Abrego’s success” suing the Trump administration after his wrongful removal to El Salvador in March, Crenshaw wrote on Friday. “The Court finds Abrego has sufficiently presented some evidence that the Government had a stake in retaliating against him for exercising his rights in the Maryland suit and deterring him from continuing to exercise those rights.”
With the ruling, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers will seek to have two criminal charges he faces dismissed and evidence that the Trump administration’s approach has been improper in another round of court proceedings.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States illegally in 2012. After settling in Maryland, he was arrested in 2019 by immigration agents. He requested asylum but was not eligible because he had been in the U.S. for more than a year. But the judge ruled he could not be deported to El Salvador, where he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.
Then, during a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, he was accused of human smuggling, although he was not charged at the time.
He then violated a prior immigration court order before he was deported to El Salvador in March, despite the judge’s previous order preventing his return there.
He returned to the United States the next month when the Supreme Court sided with a judge who ruled the government should “facilitate” his return. The government returned Abrego Garcia to the United States and also filed criminal charges against him in connection to the traffic stop. The government alleges that he was part of a human smuggling operation, transporting undocumented people within the United States and that he is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Judge Crenshaw noted on Friday that the time between the traffic stop and the indictment was 903 days. He said Abrego Garcia’s case is the only federal case involving a traffic stop in Tennessee and surrounding states where the Justice Department brought charges significantly after the date of the stop.
“This supports his contention that there may be an improper motive for his prosecution,” Crenshaw wrote.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has released a series of facts about Abrego Garcia and its case. It states:
- When Garcia was arrested, he was found with rolls of cash and drugs.
- He was arrested with two other members of MS-13.
- When arrested, he was wearing a sweatshirt with roles of money covering the ears, mouth, and eyes of presidents on various currency denominations. This is a known MS-13 gang symbol of see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil.
- Two judges found that he was a member of MS-13. That finding has not been disturbed.
- Intelligence reports found that he was involved in human trafficking.
- He is an illegal alien from El Salvador.
- He claimed fear of being returned to El Salvador because he would be persecuted by MS-13’s rival gang, Barrio-18.
- Jennifer Vasquez, Garcia’s wife, petitioned for an order of protection against him. She claimed he punched her, scratched her, and ripped off her shirt, and bruised her.
Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
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