Kilmar Abrego Garcia charges dismissed, judge says Trump DOJ case is vindictive
Kilmar Abrego Garcia leaves the entrance of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Baltimore Field Office a day after a federal judge ordered his release from custody in Pennsylvania, December 12, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday dismissed human trafficking charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant wrongly deported by the Trump administration in a landmark move in President Donald Trump’s broader crackdown on immigration.
US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that the Justice Department’s prosecution of Abrego Garcia was “vindictive,” finding that the government would not have brought the case if it had not challenged his dismissal.
“Then-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson warned his longtime prosecutors about the danger of appointing the person first and the crime second,” Crenshaw wrote in the headline of the 32-page decision. “That’s the situation here.”
The DOJ plans to appeal, saying in a statement that “an activist judge put politics above public safety. The judge’s order is unfair and dangerous, and we will appeal.”
Crenshaw said the record shows the government closed its investigation into the Tennessee traffic stop in November 2022 after Abrego Garcia was removed from the US, and reopened it after he sued the Trump administration over his removal from El Salvador.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its attorneys at what used to be an independent Justice Department,” Abrego Garcia’s legal team told MS NOW. “As this administration continues to undermine our democracy, we remain grateful for an independent judge who will apply a binding foundation to the facts with contempt.”
This decision marks a major legal success for Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 despite a court order preventing the US government from sending him there because he could face prosecution.
The Trump administration later extradited Abrego Garcia to the US in June 2025 after the Supreme Court ordered officials to facilitate his return. But the prosecutors initially found a criminal case accusing him of human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty and said the charges were in retaliation for his fight to return to the US Crenshaw pleaded guilty, putting the Justice Department back in the hotly contested Trump immigration case.
In his ruling, Crenshaw said the record “did not explain the change in the State’s move from removing Abrego and not prosecuting him to prosecuting him and not removing him,” adding that “retaliation” triggered the renewed investigation.
The judge also considered the role of senior Justice Department officials, writing that statements by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, now acting attorney general, and the actions of Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh raised questions about the decision to reopen the investigation and seek impeachment.
“The circumstantial evidence shows that Main Justice was involved in the investigation before McGuire,” Crenshaw wrote, referring to Robert McGuire, the U.S. attorney who led the prosecution.
Crenshaw added that Singh’s involvement “affects everything from the timing of the charges to the potential charges.”
Without naming Abrego Garcia, Trump continued to defend the brutal immigration policies that made the case a landmark at a campaign appearance in Suffern, NY, where he spoke shortly after the charges were dropped.
“Illegal aliens are everywhere, people are being shot left and right,” Trump said on stage.
The White House retracted the DOJ statement.
