Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to a brutal El Salvador prison, asked Tuesday that the courts dismiss the Justice Department’s criminal case against him, accusing President Donald Trump’s administration of trying to punish him because he had “the audacity to fight back.”
Abrego Garcia’s new motion, filed in a federal U.S. District Court in Nashville, argues that the human smuggling charges that the DOJ brought against him are retaliation for a lawsuit he filed over his highly publicized deportation and constitute “vindictive prosecution.”
“It is obvious why” the charges were brought against him, the motion argues. “And it is not because of the seriousness of his alleged conduct. Nor is it because he poses some unique threat to this country. Instead, Mr. Abrego was charged because he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights.”
The case, the request continued, “results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”
Despite a court order barring his deportation to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was arrested in March and sent to CECOT, El Salvador’s notorious prison for terrorists and gang members. Trump’s administration refused to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court order that he be returned immediately, repeatedly claiming without evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang.
