A federal judge in Tennessee has dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a human trafficking-related case, ruling on Friday that the investigation into his alleged involvement was “tainted”.
US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said the probe was initiated only to justify the government’s decision to remove Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, reports NBC News.
“The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Federal prosecutors in the Middle District of Tennessee had been investigating Abrego Garcia with support from the US Department of Justice in Washington.
After Abrego was deported to El Salvador last year, the US Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to take steps to bring him back.
He was later returned to the United States, where authorities immediately charged him with human smuggling offences linked to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty.
Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm interaction after Abrego was stopped for speeding four years ago. Nine people were present in the vehicle, and officers were heard discussing suspicions of smuggling among themselves. However, they ultimately allowed him to continue driving with only a warning.
Judge Crenshaw noted that federal authorities had closed the investigation into the November 2022 traffic stop and only reopened it after Abrego succeeded in his deportation-related court case in Maryland.
“What the Government labels as ‘new evidence’ was not new as a matter of law,” the judge wrote.
He further said that although there was not enough evidence of “actual vindictiveness,” the government had failed to rebut the “presumption of vindictiveness”, which he said was sufficient grounds to dismiss the charges.
“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, [US Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote.
“He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
Sean Hecker, Abrego’s attorney, said that his client “is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department. We are so pleased that he is a free man. Justifiably so.”
The US Department of Justice rejected the ruling. A spokesperson said, “Another activist judge has placed politics above public safety. The judge’s order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal.”
Although Abrego is a Salvadoran citizen, a 2019 court order bars his deportation to El Salvador.
An immigration judge had previously ruled that he faced danger there from a gang that had threatened his family.
Abrego, 30, entered the United States illegally as a teenager and is married to a US citizen, with whom he has a child.
He has lived and worked in Maryland for years under regular supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Robert McGuire, who served as acting US attorney when Abrego Garcia was charged, said in February that he understood the indictment could have personal consequences for him and for the entire Middle District of Tennessee US Attorney’s Office.
“I was prepared for whatever was going to happen because I felt very confident that the defendant had committed a crime and I could prove it,” McGuire said.
US Senator Chris Van Hollen, who previously visited Abrego while he was detained in El Salvador, said in a statement that the dismissal showed what had long been suspected.
He said the decision “made clear what we have long known: the Department of Justice was engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Kilmar Abrego Garcia. As the judge stated, this was a blatant ‘abuse of prosecutorial power’ — one that should disturb all Americans.”
