(CN) - A federal judge on Friday dismissed the Justice Department's criminal case against Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, finding the government's case was vindictive and purely in retaliation for his challenging his wrongful deportation.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr., who has presided over the case in the Middle District of Tennessee, granted Abrego Garcia's motion to dismiss an indictment charging him with conspiring to transport immigrants between 2016 and 2025 and with transporting immigrants during a Nov. 30, 2022, traffic stop.
"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 Barack Obama appointee wrote. "The 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."
The 32-page decision marks the latest legal win for Abrego Garcia, who also challenged his March 15, 2025, summary deportation to the CECOT mega prison in El Salvador as the government sought both to prosecute him and remove him to several African countries.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys filed the case on March 24 in Maryland, arguing the government wrongfully ignored an immigration judge's withholding of removal order preventing his deportation to El Salvador because of a credible fear of persecution.
Throughout most of the case, Abrego Garcia has maintained that the government could remove him to Costa Rica, which agreed not to send him onward to another country. But instead of pursuing that option, the government has sought to remove him to Uganda, Ghana, Eswatini and Liberia.
On April 4, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland ordered the government to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return, which the Supreme Court soon after affirmed. The Justice Department stated that Abrego Garcia was in El Salvador's custody and thus had no authority to return him.
On April 17, the Department of Homeland Security reopened its investigation into the Maryland case based on a 2022 traffic stop in which Abrego Garcia was pulled over with several immigrants in the car, but was not charged.
A grand jury in Tennessee indicted him on May 21, and Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States on June 6.
In its opposition brief, the Justice Department defended its conduct, arguing the decision to indict was made solely by former acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert McGuire. The government said the only politically motivated decision would have been not to investigate or pursue charges based on the evidence.
"That decision was not animated by animus toward defendant," the Justice Department said. "It was not made under political pressure or expectation. Rather, the decision was guided only be the evidence. And the evidence was so strong that it would have been a derogation of duty to not pursue charges."
In his timeline of events, Crenshaw noted that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche revealed in a Fox News interview that the government began investigating Abrego Garcia only after Xinis ruled the government had to facilitate his return.
"Blanche's words directly confirm that the Executive branch reopened the criminal investigation because the Judicial branch required the Executive branch to facilitate Abrego's return from El Salvador," Crenshaw wrote.
He pointed to internal Justice Department communications suggesting that Associate Deputy Attorney General Akash Singh, who reported to Blanche at the time, was the main driver behind Homeland Security's investigation.
"How close do we think we are to charging?" Singh sent to a frontline prosecutor, calling the case a "top priority for us."
"Blanche's public statements about the investigation and Singh's involvement tie Main Justice to the reopened investigation and the indictment," Crenshaw said.
The decision to reopen the investigation and Blanche's public comments "taints the investigation with a vindictive motive," Crenshaw wrote, which continued through the prosecution's work leading to indictment.
"While the court finds insufficient evidence of actual vindictiveness, the court concludes that the government has failed to rebut the presumption of vindictiveness," Crenshaw wrote. "The evidence it labels as newly discovered was available to be obtained with due diligence long before April 2025. Even more, it does not explain the government's change in position to remove Abrego and not prosecute him, to then prosecute and not remove him."
A Justice Department spokesperson slammed the ruling in a statement.
"Another activist judge has placed politics about public safety," they said. "The judge's order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal."
Source: Courthouse News Service
