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Federal Judge Cracks Down on Officials Over “Troubling” Statements in High-Profile Case
A federal judge in Tennessee has issued a stern warning to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, ordering them to cease making prejudicial statements about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is currently facing criminal charges.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw emphasized that any DOJ or DHS employee failing to comply with the directive to refrain from statements “will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing” the ongoing criminal prosecution could face sanctions.
In a memorandum opinion released on Monday, Judge Crenshaw specifically called out “extrajudicial statements” made by government officials, including DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, as “troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate.” He particularly cited statements alleging Abrego Garcia’s affiliation with the MS-13 gang.
The judge clarified that prejudicial statements encompass comments regarding Abrego Garcia’s character, reputation, and criminal record. He further noted that Trump administration officials had violated a local court rule limiting comments from government employees on active criminal cases.
As a result, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee has been directed to inform all relevant DOJ and DHS employees of this rule.
In a separate order, Judge Crenshaw mandated that the government produce sealed documents to the court outlining its shift in strategy from “deport but not prosecute” to “prosecute and then deport.” While acknowledging that such internal documents are typically not discoverable in ordinary cases, the judge stressed, “this is not an ordinary case.”
“Abrego has established a reasonable likelihood that his prosecution was motivated, at least in part, in retaliation for him exercising his constitutional rights in his Maryland immigration case,” Judge Crenshaw wrote.
The judge also expressed dissatisfaction with a supplemental affidavit submitted by Robert McGuire, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, citing unanswered questions about Abrego Garcia’s prosecution.
“How did Abrego’s case arrive on his desk and why did it show up on April 27, 2025, when the case had previously been closed by DHS on April 1, 2025?” Crenshaw wrote.
“Cases do not magically appear on the desks of prosecutors.” He added that the motivations of those who “place the file” on a prosecutor’s desk are “highly relevant” when considering a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution.
The Tennessee judge also ordered the production of any emails exchanged between the Deputy Attorney General’s Office and McGuire’s office from earlier this year concerning Abrego Garcia’s prosecution.
Two days of hearings are scheduled in the case for next week.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been residing in Maryland with his family, was deported to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison in March, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his deportation to that country due to fears of persecution. The Trump administration had claimed he was an MS-13 gang member, an assertion his family and attorneys deny.
He was subsequently returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty. After his release into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was once again detained by immigration authorities and is currently held in a Pennsylvania detention facility.
Judge Xinis, overseeing Abrego Garcia’s immigration case in Maryland, had previously barred the government from removing him from the United States.
In a recent court notice, the Department of Homeland Security stated that Liberia, a West African nation, has agreed to accept Abrego Garcia, a change from earlier indications that he might be deported to Eswatini or Uganda.