The DOJ has been using the “throw spaghetti until something sticks” method against Kilmar Abrego Garcia for ages now. With too much egg on their face to just leave him alone after it came to light that he was wrongly deported to an El Salvadoran slave camp and forced back here by SCOTUS, the administration is desperate for anything it can find to charge him with something. They’ve recently landed on human smuggling charges, but his legal team is trying to get the charges thrown out as harassment. NBC News has coverage:
[Abrego Garcia] was eventually returned to the U.S. only to face criminal charges of human smuggling based on a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty.Body camera footage from a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer shows a calm exchange with Abrego after he was pulled over for speeding. There were nine passengers in the car, and the officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. However, Abrego was eventually allowed to continue driving with only a warning.
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U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw previously found some evidence that the prosecution against Abrego “may be vindictive.” The judge said many statements by Trump administration officials “raise cause for concern.” He cited a statement by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that seemed to suggest the Department of Justice charged Abrego because he won his wrongful-deportation case.
Rob McGuire, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, admits that the timing of the charge is strange, but holds that he wasn’t aware of the police footage back in 2022. McGuire pointed to the number of people Garcia was driving, that they didn’t have bags, and the owner of the car as reasons for suspicion — but those aren’t enough to calm everyone else’s suspicions that this has more to do with politics than justice. If this wasn’t about vengeance, he’d have been in Costa Rica months ago:
Earlier: Trump Administration Learns To Its Dismay It ‘Cannot Alter Substantive Rights’
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
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