U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, ruling from Nashville, granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for “selective or vindictive prosecution.”
A federal judge in Tennessee dismissed the human-smuggling case against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant, after concluding the government had brought the case as retaliation for his legal fight against being deported.
Illegal alien faced federal charges of human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling
A federal district judge granted Kilmar Abrego Garcia's motion to dismiss two criminal charges on the grounds his prosecution was vindictive and selective.
A senator dismissed a Department of Justice prosecutor who led a botched case against six protesters and is now being accused of misconduct, according to new reports. Sheri Mecklenburg is a 20-year veteran DOJ prosecutor, according to Talking Points Memo reporter Josh Marshall. She led the case against the "Broadview Six," a group of protesters who were federally charged after demonstrating in front of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Illinois last year. In February, Mecklenburg suddenly withdrew from the case and took on a temporary assignment with the criminal justice team for Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats, according to reporting by NOTUS. "She made no mention that she'd be leaving in a court hearing earlier in Feb. There was really no explanation for the suddenness of the move. Or at least the lack of heads up," Marshall explained in a post on Bluesky. "At the time I figured since the case seemed like such a loser maybe she just wanted out." Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) announced on Friday that Mecklenburg was dismissed from that role, according to NOTUS and Talking Points Memo. The decision comes on the heels of courtroom drama related to the Broadview Six case. On Thursday, Judge April Perry ordered DOJ prosecutors to appear in court to explain what she believed was misconduct in how they sought an indictment from a grand jury, and the case came to a swift and sudden end shortly after when a U.S. Attorney dropped all charges days before a trial was set to begin.Perry said she had "never seen the types of prosecutorial behavior" that were on display by DOJ prosecutors, including Mecklenburg, before a grand jury in 2025. According to Marshall's Thursday post on Bluesky, "if you look at the hearing transcript today most or all the alleged misconduct was hers."
A federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, siding with the mistakenly deported man in finding that he was the subject of a likely vindictive prosecution. U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s ruling marks an enormous victory for Abrego Garcia, whose case became a flash point in the administration’s heightened efforts to…
A federal judge says the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported last year is being prosecuted for political reasons.
Judge said Trump administration would not have prosecuted Ábrego García had he not challenged his high-profile deportationSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailA US judge dismissed a criminal indictment against Kilmar Ábrego García on Friday, finding that the Trump administration would not have prosecuted him had he not challenged his high-profile deportation.Ábrego García, who had entered the United States without authorization in the past, became a symbol of the Trump administration’s drive for mass deportations when he was sent to the notorious anti-terrorism mega-prison in El Salvador known as Cecot last March. This was despite a prior court order barring him from being returned there because of a risk of persecution. Continue reading...
The move deals an embarrassing blow to the Trump administration, which made the Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the face of its deportation campaign.