Washington — Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared in federal court Thursday as they seek to have human smuggling charges brought against him dismissed on grounds that his prosecution is vindictive.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was mistakenly deported to a supermax prison in his home country last year, has argued that he has been unfairly singled out by the U.S. government as a result of a civil lawsuit he filed against the Trump administration successfully challenging that removal.
“Rather than fix its mistake and return Mr. Abrego to the United States, the government fought back at every level of the federal court system. And at every level, Mr. Abrego won,” his lawyers wrote in their request to have the charges dismissed. “This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who is presiding over Abrego Garcia’s criminal case, has already ruled that the Salvadoran man demonstrated that his prosecution may be vindictive, leaving it up to the government to rebut that presumption. He allowed Abrego Garcia’s lawyers to collect material from the government, but they and federal prosecutors have been at odds over potential testimony from high-ranking officials and what documents the Trump administration must turn over.
The Justice Department said they expected to call three witnesses to testify at Thursday’s hearing, including two Homeland Security Investigations agents who worked on the federal investigation into Abrego Garcia’s alleged human smuggling activities, and Robert McGuire, the first assistant U.S. Attorney in the Tennessee judicial district where Abrego Garcia was charged. McGuire was expected to testify about how he came to seek the indictment against Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia had been granted legal protection in 2019 that prevented immigration authorities from deporting him to his home country because of likely persecution from local gangs, and after he was deported to El Salvador, a federal immigration official acknowledged his removal was an “error.”
A federal judge in Maryland presiding over his civil case had ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from a Salvadoran mega-prison known as CECOT, and the decision was upheld by the Supreme Court. But the Trump administration resisted doing so for weeks and eventually brought Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. last June to face human smuggling charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when Abrego Garcia was pulled over by state Highway Patrol for speeding. Abrego Garcia told police he and the nine passengers in the car had been working at a construction site in St. Louis, Missouri. A report from the Department of Homeland Security about the incident said Abrego Garcia was suspected of human trafficking, but he was not arrested or charged with any crime.
Abrego Garcia is now seeking to have the criminal case against him dropped, which his lawyers say is part of a “retribution campaign” waged by the government. They accused senior administration officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Attorney General Pam Bondi, of attacking Abrego Garcia publicly in an effort to discredit and punish him.
Abrego Garcia’s legal team also argued that the indictment returned by a federal grand jury last May was “riddled with inflammatory, irrelevant — and, it has turned out, thinly supported — allegations.”
“The unprecedented public pronouncements attacking Mr. Abrego for his successful exercise of constitutional rights by senior cabinet members, leaders of the DOJ, and even the President of the United States, make this the rare case where actual vindictiveness is clear from the record,” they wrote.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argued that his indictment was sought as “revenge”against him for suing the government over his removal to El Salvador last year.
“As a matter of timing, it is clear that it was that lawsuit — and its effects on the government — that prompted the government to reevaluate the 2022 traffic stop and bring this case,” they wrote.
Defendants face a high bar for successfully proving a prosecution is vindictive.
In response to Abrego Garcia’s effort, federal prosecutors said they decided to move to indict Abrego Garcia because they believe he “committed a serious federal crime” and could “prove that case beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury.”
“The allegation that a criminal indictment in Tennessee was sought to punish the defendant for his assertions in a civil case in Maryland is not true and cannot be established. The defendant’s argument, while high on rhetoric, lacks the basic facts to succeed,” prosecutors argued.
