{"id":199,"date":"2026-05-22T23:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=199"},"modified":"2026-05-22T23:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:04:17","slug":"in-nashville-a-federal-judge-dismisses-indictment-against-kilmar-abrego-garcia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=199","title":{"rendered":"In Nashville, a federal judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

NASHVILLE \u2014 A federal judge on Friday dismissed a criminal indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old man living in Maryland who was wrongly deported to El Salvador last year, calling the prosecution \u201cvindictive and selective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cThen-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson warned his fellow prosecutors long ago of the danger of picking the person first and the crime second \u2026 That is the situation here,\u201d U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who was appointed by President Barack Obama to the federal bench, wrote in an opinion filed Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Abrego, as he is identified in court documents, entered the United States illegally as a teen. He was deported to an El Salvador prison in March, despite a 2019 order issued by an immigration judge that barred his deportation to the country he said he fled under fear of gang violence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abrego fought the deportation, and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the federal government to \u201cfacilitate\u201d his return to the United States in April. The government then reopened an investigation stemming from a two-year-old Tennessee traffic stop, and a grand jury returned a two-count human smuggling indictment against Abrego in June.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Abrego pleaded not guilty to the charges and sought to dismiss them, alleging they were brought in retaliation for his high-profile, successful fight against his deportation.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, Crenshaw agreed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego\u2019s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,\u201d Crenshaw wrote. \u201cThe Executive Branch closed its investigation on the November 2022 traffic stop. Only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights did the Executive Branch reopen that investigation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Crenshaw previously ruled in October that there was <\/span>\u201crealistic likelihood\u201d<\/span> that the government behaved vindictively when it brought Abrego to Tennessee to face criminal charges. That ruling allowed Abrego\u2019s attorneys to seek documents and testimony from Trump administration officials involved with the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Federal prosecutor Rob McGuire <\/span>testified in February<\/span> that the criminal charges were not vindictive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you to God, my attorneys, We are CASA, and everyone who has continued to support the fight for justice,\u201d said Abrego via a statement issued by We are CASA, a Maryland-based Latino and immigration advocacy-and-assistance organization. \u201cJustice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill; and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crenshaw\u2019s opinion honed in on the feds\u2019 reopening of the case against Abrego and on the scrutiny applied to McGuire\u2019s prosecution of the case by Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, who was working in the office of then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche has served as acting-U.S. Attorney General following the March firing of Pam Bondi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who has advocated for the full release of Abrego, traveling to El Salvador to visit the latter during his detainment, said Friday\u2019s decision was a \u201cstrong repudiation of Trump\u2019s lawless DOJ.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cToday, a federal judge made clear what we have long known: the Department of Justice was engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Kilmar Abrego Garcia,\u201d Van Hollen said in a statement. \u201cAs the judge stated, this was a blatant \u2018abuse of prosecutorial power\u2019 \u2013 one that should disturb all Americans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Anita Wadhwani\u00a0contributed to this story.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

This story was originally produced by Tennessee Lookout, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes NC Newsline, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/p>\n

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A federal judge Friday dismissed an indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was wrongly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Nashville, a federal judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia - North Carolina Moving Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/northcarolinamovingjournal.com\/?p=199\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Nashville, a federal judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia - 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