Attorneys for \u00c1brego, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador, say the DoJ\u2019s appeal was \u2018flat wrong\u2019<\/p>\n
The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda that were dismissed in May by a judge who said the prosecution of the man who unwittingly became a symbol of the White House\u2019s mass deportation campaign was \u201cvindictive in nature\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a filing to the US sixth circuit court of appeals, the justice department insisted that human smuggling allegations against \u00c1brego are genuine \u2013 and not retaliation for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March 2025.<\/p>\n
\u00c1brego\u2019s deportation sent him to the notorious anti-terrorism mega-prison in El Salvador known as Cecot. He was ultimately returned to the US three months later by a federal supreme court order.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decision to seek an indictment against \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda for human smuggling was made by career prosecutors based on the evidence, the law, and their firm belief that there is proof beyond a reasonable doubt that \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda had committed the offenses charged,\u201d the justice department said in a statement describing its brief and posted online on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u00c1brego was charged with human smuggling based on a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. But the criminal indictment was dismissed in May by the Nashville-based federal district court judge Waverly David Crenshaw Jr, who said the justice department had acted with \u201cpresumptive vindictiveness\u201d.<\/p>\n
Crenshaw said the indictment\u2019s timing, statements made by the recently confirmed attorney general, Todd Blanche, and sustained oversight by other top US justice department officials, had \u201cthoroughly tainted\u201d the case.<\/p>\n
In its appeal against Crenshaw\u2019s order to the sixth circuit, which handles federal rulings out of Nashville, the justice department accused the judge of \u201can unwarranted intrusion\u201d into the government\u2019s power \u2013 and demanded the appellate court reverse it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence in the district court proved that charges were brought against \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda because, in the view of career prosecutors, the evidence conclusively established that he had committed a serious crime, and not for any vindictive motive,\u201d the justice department statement said.<\/p>\n
Crenshaw\u2019s order, it said, \u201cmarks a dramatic expansion of the power of courts to dismiss serious criminal charges based on subjective assessments of a prosecutor\u2019s motivations and is an unwarranted intrusion into the executive [branch]\u2019s powers and responsibility to protect the public\u201d.<\/p>\n
Attorneys for \u00c1brego told CBS News that the justice department\u2019s appeal was \u201cflat wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a statement, they said: \u201cThe indictment and prosecution of \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda was, in fact, vindictive; the evidence before the district court established just that; and the proof was clear notwithstanding the DoJ\u2019s refusal to call the actual decision makers, including AG Blanche, to testify under oath.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case was initiated vindictively and on instructions from the White House after our client successfully won his supreme court case\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ama Frimpong, chief of services at We Are Casa, an immigration advocacy group representing \u00c1brego, said in May that the case was \u201cnothing more than a political vendetta\u201d. Frimpong also said that the Trump administration had \u201cbrazenly attempted to weaponize the criminal legal system\u201d against \u00c1brego to \u201cpunish him for exposing their unlawful actions\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u00c1brego, 30, fled to the US aged 16 to escape gang extortion in El Salvador, according to court records. He moved to Maryland, where his brother lives as a US citizen. But \u00c1brego was not authorized to stay there.<\/p>\n