"A federal judge has concluded that the Department of Justice's prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human-smuggling charges may be an illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador. The case of Abrego, a Salvadorian national who was a construction worker in Maryland, has become a proxy for the partisan struggle over Donald Trump's sweeping immigration policy and mass deportation agenda."
"US district court judge Waverly Crenshaw granted a request late on Friday by lawyers for Abrego and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing in Abrego's effort to show that the federal human-smuggling case against him in Tennessee is illegally retaliatory. Crenshaw said Abrego had shown that there is some evidence that the prosecution against him may be vindictive. That evidence included statements by various Trump administration officials and the timeline of the charges being filed."
"Blanche's remarkable statements could directly establish that the motivations for Abrego's criminal charges stem from his exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights to sue over his deportation rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct, Crenshaw wrote. Likewise, Crenshaw noted that the Department of Homeland Security reopened an investigation into Abrego days after the US supreme court said in April that the Trump administration must work to bring him back. Abrego was indicted on 21 May and charged on 6 June."
A federal judge concluded that the Department of Justice's prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia on human-smuggling charges may constitute illegal retaliation after he successfully sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador. US district court judge Waverly Crenshaw granted a request from Abrego's lawyers and ordered discovery and an evidentiary hearing to examine claims that the Tennessee prosecution is retaliatory. Crenshaw found some evidence of vindictiveness, citing statements by Trump administration officials and the timing of the charges. Crenshaw highlighted deputy attorney general Todd Blanche's Fox News remarks and noted DHS reopened an investigation days after the US supreme court ordered steps to return Abrego. Abrego was indicted on 21 May and charged on 6 June.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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