The Justice Department denied acting vindictively and said the decision to prosecute was ‘based on the facts, evidence, and established DOJ practice.’
A newly unsealed order from Tennessee offered additional details surrounding the Department of Justice’s decision to prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national alleging that the Trump administration vindictively pursued a case following its high-profile deportation battle with him.
The Justice Department has denied the allegation and rejected it as a basis for dismissing the department’s criminal indictment against Abrego Garcia, which accuses him of human smuggling.
In a court order unsealed on Dec. 30, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said Abrego Garcia’s case may be bolstered by evidence that department leadership influenced the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Among other things, Crenshaw pointed to documents showing that Aakash Singh, who serves in the deputy attorney general’s office, told the U.S. Attorney’s office to “close hold” the draft indictment until it “got clearance” to file it.
Another email from April 30 showed Singh stating that the prosecution was a “top priority” for the deputy attorney general’s office.
One of the attorneys, Jacob Warren, also emailed Singh and said that if Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “does not want to move forward with the indictment on Wednesday, we think it would be prudent to loop in the press office ASAP.”
In a statement provided to The Epoch Times, the U.S. attorney’s office said the emails didn’t show any impropriety in the prosecution.
“The emails cited in Judge Crenshaw’s order, specifically Mr. McGuire’s email on May 15, 2025, confirm that the ultimate decision on whether to prosecute was made by career prosecutors based on the facts, evidence, and established DOJ practice,” the statement read.
“Communications with the deputy attorney general’s office about a high-profile case are both required and routine.”
The dispute centers on the timing of Abrego Garcia’s indictment and why acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire brought the indictment in May.
Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally as a teenager, appeared before an immigration judge in 2019. The judge issued a withholding of removal after Abrego Garcia said he feared persecution in returning to El Salvador.
In 2022, he was involved in a traffic stop that later became the basis of the indictment. According to the indictment, Abrego Garcia was in a Chevrolet Suburban with at least nine Hispanic males. It alleges that Abrego Garcia gave false statements to a Tennessee state trooper about himself and other passengers coming from St. Louis and that the passengers had been engaged in construction work there for two weeks.
Crenshaw said that no action was taken on the traffic stop until March 12, 2025, just before he was deported to El Salvador that month. The administration has defended the deportation, accusing Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13. His attorneys have denied that he belonged to the criminal gang.
The Justice Department acknowledged in a filing from March that Abrego Garcia was deported due to an error. “On March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error,” it stated.
A federal judge in Maryland required the administration to facilitate his return. After the Supreme Court affirmed that decision in April, McGuire brought the indictment on May 21, 2025.
McGuire submitted an affidavit in October stating that he acted independently when bringing the indictment.
By Sam Dorman
