Judge Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia as "Vindictive"

A federal judge dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration showed presumptive vindictiveness and charged him in retaliation for a lawsuit challenging his deportation to El Salvador. The judge said the Department of Justice reopened a closed, four-year-old investigation as an abuse of prosecuting power. The judge stated that without Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit, the government would not have brought the prosecution. Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father living in the U.S. for more than a decade, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 with 260 others during early mass deportations. His lawyers said he was severely beaten, deprived of sleep, and psychologically tortured while held at CECOT prison. Human rights investigations have reported systematic abuses against deportees, including beatings, humiliation, psychological torture, and sexual violence.

"A federal judge dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration had shown " presumptive vindictiveness " and had charged him in retaliation for his lawsuit challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador. Judge Waverly Crenshaw said in her ruling that the Department of Justice reopened a closed, four-year-old investigation into Abrego Garcia in an "abuse of prosecuting power." She said that without Abrego Garcia's "successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.""

"Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who had been living in the U.S. for more than a decade, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 along with 260 other people during the Trump administration's early mass deportations. The group was transported to the CECOT prison in an agreement with El Salvador's right-wing government under Nayib Bukele. According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia was severely beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to psychological torture while held in the notorious prison."

"Human rights investigations have detailed systematic abuses used against the deportees, including physical and psychological torture, daily beatings and abuse meant to humiliate the detainees, and cases of sexual violence. During Abrego Garcia's detention in CECOT, Bukele met with Trump in a friendly White House visit where each president boasted about thei"

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