A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to produce documents related to its decision to investigate and bring criminal charges against Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he was detained at a maximum-security prison in El Salvador earlier this year – signaling what is sure to be an action-packed evidentiary hearing in Nashville next month.
The order, filed by U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw earlier this month and released to the public Tuesday afternoon, requires the Justice Department to produce all relevant documents to defense lawyers pertaining to its decision earlier this year to open an investigation and seek criminal charges against Abrego Garcia for conduct stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.
The Justice Department opened the criminal investigation and presented the case to a grand jury earlier this year, when Abrego Garcia was detained at CECOT, and at the same time as lawyers for the Trump administration officials were telling a separate federal judge in Maryland that they were powerless to bring him back from Salvadoran custody.
The new order stops short of compelling any government witnesses to testify for next month’s hearing, including testimony from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, whose remarks – for months – have been at the center of the vindictive prosecution effort pursued by Abrego Garcia’s defense team in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have argued Blanche played ‘a leading role’ in the decision to prosecute him, a notion Blanche’s office has vehemently dismissed.
They had also honed in on the involvement of Blanche’s associate, Aakash Singh.
‘The cornerstone of Abrego’s motion to dismiss is that the decision to prosecute him was in retaliation for his success in the Maryland District Court,’ Crenshaw said in the newly unsealed ruling.
‘Indeed, at the time of Abrego’s arrest, Blanche linked Abrego’s criminal charges to his successful civil lawsuit in Maryland. Specifically, some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker, but he, in fact, reported to others in DOJ and the decision to prosecute Abrego may have been a joint decision, with others who may or may not have acted with improper motivation.’
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw had ruled in October that Abrego Garcia had established a ‘reasonable likelihood’ that the criminal case against him was the result of vindictive prosecution by the Justice Department, a determination that shifted the burden to the government to rebut ahead of the criminal trial, and ordered the Trump administration to produce for the court internal documents and government witnesses to testify about its decision to bring the case.
Lawyers for the Justice Department fiercely resisted efforts to produce government witnesses or documents, arguing that the documents should be protected by attorney-client privilege and work-product privilege, among other things.
The evidentiary hearing is slated to take place on Jan. 28.
Crenshaw separately canceled the criminal trial date for Abrego Garcia, though the update is likely more a procedural one than a reflection of the status of the case.
Abrego Garcia’s status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom for nearly 11 months, after he was arrested and deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 withholding of removal order.
This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.