<\/p>\n
Almost a year<\/span> after Kilmar Abrego Garcia was first targeted by the U.S. government as part of its violent mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration is still not done punishing him.<\/p>\n The 30-year-old father of three became an emblem of Trump\u2019s cruelty and lawlessness after being abducted and sent to CECOT, the notorious Salvadoran torture prison where hundreds of people were incarcerated last year at the behest of the White House<\/a>. After conceding that Abrego had been expelled in \u201cerror\u201d \u2014 violating a court order barring Abrego\u2019s deportation to his country of origin \u2014 the Trump administration nonetheless refused to bring Abrego back to the U.S., smearing him as a terrorist and leaving him to endure months of violence, deprivation, and psychological torture.<\/p>\n Abrego was finally returned last June. But his arrival only marked a surreal new chapter in his ordeal. Rather than bring him back to Maryland, where he lived with his wife and young children, he was jailed in Tennessee, as federal prosecutors devised a dubious new case against him. Before he\u2019d even landed on U.S. soil, Abrego was indicted<\/a> on sweeping criminal charges for allegedly smuggling gang members across state lines over the course of a decade.<\/p>\n Abrego, who has pleaded not guilty, was supposed to go to trial in January at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. But late last year, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw canceled<\/a> the trial date, instead scheduling an evidentiary hearing on a pending question before the court: whether Abrego is the target of a \u201cselective and vindictive prosecution\u201d by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n The hearing, set for Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Nashville, will ultimately determine whether the criminal case against Abrego moves forward. If Crenshaw concludes that Abrego was indeed the target of a revenge campaign, he could dismiss the case altogether.<\/p>\n As a legal and historical matter, this would be a big deal \u2014 and a major defeat for federal prosecutors. But it would also fall far short of accountability for those who have dedicated themselves to ruining Abrego\u2019s life. Nor does it stand to impact the countless others whose lives have been destroyed<\/a> by Trump\u2019s lawless mass deportations<\/a>. Abrego\u2019s case, which so shocked the American public in the early days of the president\u2019s term, was a harbinger of things to come. \u201cWe really thought this was going to be one of a kind,\u201d one of his immigration lawyers recently told<\/a> NPR. \u201cIf anything, it was just the tip of the spear.\u201d<\/p>\n Abrego was released from jail last year and spent the holidays with his family. While not currently incarcerated, he remains under federal supervision and still faces deportation. He entered the country illegally as a teenager to escape gang violence in El Salvador, was given \u201cwithholding from removal\u201d status by an immigration judge in 2019, which allowed him to live and work in the U.S. while checking in once a year with ICE. But the Trump administration dismantled such protections, arresting Abrego in March 2025. While his criminal case has placed his removal on hold, the federal government has gone to extreme lengths to make his eventual deportation a punishment<\/a> unto itself, scheming to send him to a third country in Africa<\/a> rather than Latin America.<\/p>\n Abrego\u2019s prosecution is also a potent example of Trump\u2019s eagerness to weaponize the Justice Department against those who cross him. In the year since Abrego was sent to CECOT, the DOJ \u2014 whose headquarters now feature a large banner of Trump\u2019s face<\/a> \u2014 has dropped any pretense of independence. One associate deputy attorney general who was apparently instrumental to Abrego\u2019s prosecution reportedly told<\/a> U.S. attorneys last month that Trump is their \u201cchief client.\u201d<\/p>\n This makes Abrego\u2019s upcoming hearing a new test of the courts. Crenshaw, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2015, has already put himself in the crosshairs by considering Abrego\u2019s rare vindictive prosecution challenge. The hearing comes at a moment when federal judges are increasingly vocal<\/a> about the threat posed by the Trump regime, while the president and his backers increasingly villainize the judges who stand in their way.<\/p>\n On the surface,<\/span> the question of whether Abrego is the target of a \u201cvindictive prosecution\u201d is no mystery. The government\u2019s brazen retribution campaign has been publicized at every turn.<\/p>\n To recap: After Trump invoked<\/a> the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to declare an \u201cinvasion\u201d of gang members in mid-March 2025, exiling hundreds of mostly Venezuelan men to CECOT, Abrego appeared in a photo taken at the prison, released by the Salvadoran government. The overhead image showed two rows of men kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their shaved heads. His wife recognized Abrego from his tattoos.<\/p>\n On March 24, 2025, Abrego sued<\/a> for his release. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland ordered<\/a> the government to \u201cfacilitate\u201d Abrego\u2019s return \u2014 and the Supreme Court upheld<\/a> her order. Rather than complying, Trump held a backslapping Oval Office meeting with El Salvador\u2019s president, Nayib Bukele, where U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that it was up to Bukele, not Trump, to bring Abrego back to the U.S.<\/p>\n For the next several weeks, the Trump administration demonized Abrego, repeatedly labeling him a gang member and releasing records showing that his wife took out an order of protection against him years earlier. The Department of Homeland Security posted<\/a> on X that Abrego was \u201cnot the upstanding \u2018Maryland Man\u2019 the media has portrayed him as\u201d \u2014 a line loudly amplified by Trump\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n Abrego was finally flown back to the U.S. in June 2025 \u2014 but only after the DOJ laid the groundwork for a new criminal case against him, which allowed Trump to put a new spin on the government\u2019s narrative. At a press conference<\/a> on June 6, Bondi announced that Abrego had been indicted for playing a \u201csignificant role in an alien smuggling ring\u201d \u2014 crimes she described as his \u201cfull-time job \u2014 and that he had been returned to the U.S. to face justice.<\/p>\n The same line was parroted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on Fox News<\/a>. As Abrego\u2019s lawyers lay out in their vindictive prosecution motion, Blanche \u2014 who was previously Trump\u2019s defense attorney \u2014 declared that the DOJ began investigating Abrego only after \u201ca judge in Maryland\u201d interfered with Trump\u2019s decision to deport him. <\/p>\n Abrego\u2019s motion also points to comments<\/a> made by Trump aboard Air Force One, in which he said the DOJ made its decision in response to \u201cthese judges [who] want to try and run the country.\u201d Asked by a reporter how the criminal case came to pass, Trump said, \u201cI could see a decision being made \u2014 bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is. And frankly we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide.\u201d<\/p>\n Finally, Abrego\u2019s lawyers highlight the resignation of Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Schrader, who quit his position <\/a>as chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee the same day Abrego was indicted, \u201creportedly over concerns that the case was being pursued for \u2018political reasons.\u2019\u201d\u00a0(In an email to The Intercept, Schrader, who is now in private practice, declined to comment on the case.)<\/p>\n These arguments have already proven persuasive to Crenshaw. The federal district judge concluded last year that there was at least some evidence to show that Abrego\u2019s prosecution was retaliatory in nature. \u201cThe totality of events\u201d point to a \u201crealistic likelihood of vindictiveness,\u201d he wrote<\/a> last fall. He was struck by the timing of the government\u2019s investigation of Abrego, which came \u201ca mere seven days after he prevailed\u201d at the Supreme Court, as well as by Blanche\u2019s \u201cremarkable statements,\u201d which appeared to confirm that the prosecution was born of revenge for Abrego\u2019s successful lawsuit \u201crather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another STRONG SIGN<\/span> that Abrego is the target of a vindictive prosecution is the weakness of the government\u2019s criminal case itself. While the DOJ has insisted that it has damning evidence to show that Abrego is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the allegations look increasingly like a house of cards.<\/p>\n In September, prosecutors submitted a sworn affidavit<\/a> laying out how the case against Abrego unfolded. The document, which was signed by Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire<\/a>, traces the case back to November 30, 2022, when Abrego was pulled over on the highway in Putnam County, Tennessee, while driving a Chevy Suburban carrying eight passengers, all of whom were Latino. State troopers questioned Abrego but ultimately sent him on his way without a ticket.<\/p>\n The affidavit acknowledges that the traffic stop did not lead to a prosecution until 2025. As McGuire tells it, he got a call the night of April 27, 2025, from the local Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations about \u201cpotential human smuggling committed by Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia,\u201d who by then was already famous for being sent to CECOT. According to the affidavit, McGuire, who had experience with smuggling cases, \u201cdecided to handle the matter himself.\u201d After examining body camera footage from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, he \u201cimmediately noted the similarities\u201d between the footage and cases he had handled.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the next several weeks, law enforcement conducted multiple interviews of individuals with information about Abrego Garcia\u2019s activities in Tennessee and elsewhere,\u201d the affidavit goes on. McGuire ultimately concluded that Abrego \u201chad been involved in a human smuggling conspiracy for years.\u201d The evidence was in fact \u201coverwhelming.\u201d<\/p>\n But at a lengthy detention hearing<\/a> last year, the government\u2019s case against Abrego looked flimsy<\/a> at best, cobbled together from dubious statements made by highly incentivized federal informants, none of whom actually took the stand. Prosecutors\u2019 sole witness was an HSI special agent whose testimony was based on interviews he neither conducted nor attended \u2014 evidence the presiding judge skeptically described as \u201cmultiple levels of hearsay.\u201d<\/p>\n McGuire, who represented the government at the hearing, also sought to link Abrego to \u201ca mass casualty event\u201d involving some of the \u201csame actors\u201d involved in his alleged smuggling scheme. But when the judge asked whether any testimony would show that Abrego himself was involved in this mass casualty event, McGuire said no. <\/p>\n \u201cThe cooperators the government is relying on here have very serious credibility issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Lawyers with the Federal Public Defender for\u00a0the Middle District of Tennessee, which represented Abrego at the time, pointed out myriad holes in the government\u2019s case. \u201cThe cooperators the government is relying on here have very serious credibility issues,\u201d one attorney argued. The informants provided their statements as part of deals that would allow them to avoid deportation, giving them an obvious incentive to lie. What\u2019s more, \u201ctheir stories are facially implausible.\u201d The informants claimed that Abrego often brought his own children with him as he zig-zagged across the U.S. for his smuggling operation. \u201cThe idea that he is taking them on these cross-country trips multiple times per week is just ridiculous on its face.\u201d<\/p>\n A few weeks later, the judge ruled in Abrego\u2019s favor, finding that there was no evidence<\/a> that justified keeping him in jail while awaiting trial. But she noted that he would almost certainly be kept behind bars either way, given the \u201canticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court.\u201d While this might make her decision appear to be \u201clittle more than an academic exercise,\u201d she wrote, \u201cthe foundation of the administration of our criminal law depends on the bedrock of due process. \u2026 The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n