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A newly unsealed court document Criminal case against Guilma Abrego Garcia Top Justice Department officials make case ‘top priority’ after President Donald Trump sues government Wrongfully deported him to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to human smuggling charges against him after several courts ordered the government to bring him back to the United States. in the brutal prisons of his native countrya legal battle is at the center of the president’s mass deportations.
he asked the judge Charges dropped Citing “retaliatory and selective prosecution,” he argued that the government’s unlawful punishment of him was part of an apparent smear campaign that “emboldened the government to fight back.”
Government prosecutors have turned over documents that Abrego Garcia’s team hopes will shed light on the decisions behind the case, which involves incidents three years ago.
Tennessee District Judge Waverly Crenshaw It comes after “some evidence” was found that the case was the product of a retaliatory prosecution.Pointing to Deputy Attorney General Todd Branch’s apparent admission that the case was brought to deport Abrego Garcia to the United States, the judge said it could be considered “direct evidence of retaliation.”
exist Orders dated December 3 were unsealed on TuesdayCrenshaw further found that the top federal prosecutor involved in the case may have made the decision “jointly with others who may or may not have had improper motives” to bring charges.
In early April, about two weeks after the Supreme Court hearing unanimous order In an effort to help the government return Abrego Garcia after his “unlawful” deportation, a senior official in Branch’s office contacted several officials to discuss the Abrego Garcia case, including then-acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire.
That same day, McGuire received documents from the Department of Homeland Security regarding Abrego Garcia.
On April 30, Justice Department official Aakash Singh called the case a “top priority,” according to emails shared with the court.
McGuire wrote that he had received no “specific instructions” from Branch’s office to bring the case, but emails show that he had “heard” that Branch and his deputies “wanted Garcia to prosecute sooner.”
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen Push to release Abrego Garciasaid he “very much” believed the case was political.
He told CNN on Tuesday that the recently unsealed emails looked like “hard evidence against the government.”
A grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia on May 21. Suddenly returned to the United States in June to face charges that he illegally transferred other immigrants across the country.
ICE quickly took him back into custody after a judge released him from pretrial detention in his criminal case. He has since been allowed to stay out of federal detention in immigration and criminal cases and is living with his wife and U.S. citizen children while those legal challenges continue.
Last week, Crenshaw canceled a trial planned for January and instead held an evidentiary hearing on Abrego Garcia’s contention that the case was illegally filed against him.
Maryland District Judge Paula Sinise also ordered government officials to submit a sworn statement outlining whether the government still plans to deport him and under what authority. Since Abrego Garcia returned to the United States, officials have attempted to deport him to at least six different countries, including the African countries of Swaziland, Ghana, Liberia and Uganda.
He has accepted an offer from the Costa Rican government to deport him to the country, but the Trump administration reportedly rejected the request after Abrego Garcia refused to plead guilty.