Documents suggest Kilmar Ábrego García was retaliated against after wrongful deportation | Kilmar Ábrego García
The newly released order in the criminal case against Kilmar Ábrego García reveals that senior justice department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a “top priority” only after he was mistakenly deported and subsequently ordered back to the United States
Ábrego García, originally from El Salvador, pleaded not guilty to human trafficking charges in federal court in Tennessee. He wants the case dismissed on the grounds that the investigation is vindictive; This is a way for the Trump administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.
To support this claim, he asked the government to hand over documents showing how the decision to prosecute him in 2025 was made for an incident that occurred in 2022. On December 3, U.S. district judge Waverly Crenshaw filed a sealed order compelling the government to provide certain documents to Ábrego García and his lawyers. That order was announced Tuesday and sheds new light on the case.
Previously, Crenshaw found that there was “some evidence” that the prosecution of Ábrego García may have been motivated by revenge. He specifically cited a statement made by deputy attorney general Todd Blanche on a Fox News show suggesting that the Justice Department had wrongfully blamed Ábrego García for winning his deportation case.
Rob McGuire, who served as the acting U.S. attorney for the central district of Tennessee until late December, argued that those statements were irrelevant because he alone made the decision to file the lawsuit and had no animosity toward Ábrego García.
In the newly unsealed order, Crenshaw writes: “Some of the documentation indicates that McGuire was not a lone decision-maker but actually reported to others. [the justice department] “The decision to sue Abrego may have also been a joint decision.”
The U.S. attorney’s office for the middle district of Tennessee issued a statement that read: “The emails cited in Judge Crenshaw’s order, specifically Mr. McGuire’s email dated May 15, 2025, confirm that the final decision on whether to prosecute is made by career prosecutors based on the facts, evidence, and established evidence.” [justice department] practical. Communication with the Deputy Attorney General regarding a high-profile case is both necessary and routine.”
The email referenced was one McGuire sent to his team, according to Crenshaw’s order, stating that Blanche “wants Garcia to be charged sooner rather than later.”
The human trafficking charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee in which Ábrego García was pulled over for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and state troopers discussed among themselves the possibility of human smuggling. But ultimately he was allowed to leave with only a warning. The case was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations, but there is no record of any attempt to charge him until April 2025, according to court records.
The order doesn’t give much detail about what was in the documents turned over to Ábrego García, but it does show that Aakash Singh, who worked under Blanche in the deputy attorney general’s office, contacted McGuire about Ábrego García’s case on April 27, the same day McGuire received a file on the case from Homeland Security Investigations. This was just days after the US supreme court ruled in favor of Ábrego Garcia on April 10.
Singh said in an April 30 email to McGuire that prosecution under the order was the “number one priority” for the deputy attorney general’s office. Singh and McGuire continued to communicate about the prosecution. On May 18, Singh wrote a letter to McGuire and others urging them to withhold the draft indictment until he received “permission” to file the indictment. “This means the ‘permission’ will come from the Deputy Attorney General,” Crenshaw writes.
A hearing on the motion to dismiss the case on the basis of vindictive prosecution is scheduled for January 28.
