Justice Department seeks to revive smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
The Justice Department asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a Tennessee judge’s dismissal of charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, arguing the prosecution was not retaliatory.
The Justice Department filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on Monday requesting that a federal judge’s May dismissal of a criminal indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia be reversed. The indictment, which charged Garcia with two counts of human smuggling after a November 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, had been thrown out after the district judge concluded the prosecution was motivated by retaliation for Garcia’s challenge to his deportation.
In its filing, the Justice Department denied that the case was vindictive, stating that career prosecutors pursued the indictment based on evidence, the law, and a belief that the charges could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The department also warned that the lower-court ruling could broaden judicial authority to dismiss serious criminal cases on subjective assessments of prosecutors’ motives.
Garcia’s defense team disputed the department’s position, maintaining that the prosecution was indeed retaliatory and that the evidence supported that view. They also criticized the Justice Department for not calling senior officials, including Attorney General Todd Blanche, to testify.
Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was deported under the previous administration, has pleaded not guilty to the smuggling charges.