A federal judge in Nashville has dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that he was the victim of vindictive prosecution by the Trump Justice Department.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr. found that the Trump DOJ failed to overcome the presumption of vindictiveness despite a day-long evidentiary hearing in Feburary during which federal prosecutor Robert McGuire took the stand.
In ruling in favor of Abrego Garcia, Crenshaw points the finger squarely at acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was the deputy attorney general when the criminal investigation was opened: “Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego. He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
The dismissal of the criminal case is another dramatic turn in a central saga of the Trump II presidency: The unlawful removal of Abrego Garcia to prison in El Salvador despite an immigration judge’s order barring his deportation there and the refusal of the Trump administration to abide by court orders, including the Supreme Court, to facilitate his return.
Ultimately, the Trump administration did bring Abrego Garcia back, but only after obtaining an indictment against him on human smuggling charges that arose from an investigation that was conspicuously re-opened after he had prevailed in his civil case.
