3 articles · Updated · Washington Examiner · Aug 18
Summary
A 68-page DOJ brief asked the 6th U.S. Circuit to revive the two-count human smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia after Judge Waverly Crenshaw threw it out in May.
The department said Crenshaw wrongly presumed retaliation from the timing of the case after Abrego Garcia's court-ordered return from El Salvador, arguing judges cannot second-guess charging decisions absent actual vindictiveness.
Prosecutors said the case grew from a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop and was later strengthened with phone records, license-plate reader data and witness accounts before a grand jury indicted him in May 2025.
Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador in March 2025 despite a 2019 protection against deportation there; the Supreme Court left in place an order requiring his return, but DOJ says that did not bar later prosecution.
The appeal is separate from his Maryland immigration case, where the 4th Circuit last week kept an injunction blocking his removal to Liberia while that litigation continues.