Prosecutors: no ‘ill will’ in Tennessee criminal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, pictured at center, accompanied by his attorney, released from jail in Putnam County, Tennessee on August 22, 2025. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)

NASHVILLE — Federal prosecutors are pushing back against allegations they are pursuing human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee as part of a Trump administration retribution campaign.

In court filings Monday, the U.S. attorney’s office in Nashville sought to distance itself from public statements made by administration officials about Abrego, whose deportation to a Salvadoran prison in March as a result of an “administrative error” brought widespread scrutiny to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown tactics. 

“Even if others in the Executive Branch have alleged ill will towards the defendant, there is nothing before the court to establish that such alleged ill will actually motivated the prosecution team to bring the charges and not a desire to hold human smugglers accountable for their serious criminal conduct,” prosecutors wrote.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia attorneys seek to dismiss Tennessee case as ‘vindictive prosecution’

“Rather, the defendant was charged because the prosecutor determined that, in his judgement, the defendant had committed a serious crime that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt,” they wrote.

Abrego, as he is referred to in Tennessee court filings, is being held in a Virginia detention facility after being picked up by federal immigration officials shortly after his pretrial release in the Tennessee case on Aug. 22. 

Trump administration officials earlier this month signaled they planned to deport Abrego to the African kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland.

After Abrego applied for asylum in the United States, government officials said they would instead seek to deport him to El Salvador, the New York Times reported.

Abrego, 30, illegally migrated from El Salvador as a teen but was granted a deportation stay by an immigration judge in 2019 due to threats of violence in his home country.

Selective and vindictive prosecution

Abrego’s attorneys last month sought to dismiss the Tennessee criminal case against him, arguing it was a clear example of “selective and vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration.

Abrego is accused of acting as the driver in a national human smuggling ring that took money from migrants illegally in the United States to transport them to points around the country — a case prosecutors say is tied to a 2022 traffic stop in rural Tennessee. At that traffic stop, Abrego was pulled over for speeding with nine men in the back of his vehicle. Abrego was neither arrested nor ticketed in the traffic stop. He has since entered not guilty pleas to two human smuggling charges.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, wrongly deported to El Salvador prison, to face federal charges in Nashville

Citing a series of public statements by members of the Trump administration – calling Abrego a “gangbanger,” “monster,” “illegal predator,” “illegal alien terrorist,” “wife beater,” and “human trafficker,” Abrego’s attorneys argued he was the victim of a public smear campaign intended to distract from the administration’s error in deporting him and retaliate against his efforts to assert due process rights. Abrego has denied gang affiliation. 

“The government is attempting to use this case — and this Court — to punish Mr. Abrego for successfully fighting his unlawful removal. That is a constitutional violation of the most basic sort,” they wrote. 

In response, federal prosecutors in the Tennessee case said Abrego’s effort to fight his initial deportation to El Salvador “has nothing to do with his criminal prosecution for alien smuggling, an offense where illegal aliens and natural-born citizens alike can be prosecuted,” they wrote.

“Rather,” they wrote, “the defendant was charged because the prosecutor determined that, in his judgment, the defendant had committed a serious crime that could be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Prosecutors also sought to dispel arguments that a three-year delay in bringing charges against Abrego after the 2022 Tennessee traffic stop were part of a broader vindictive scheme by the government.

Judge keeps Abrego Garcia in US at least through October hearing

“The facts of the traffic stop were never presented to any prosecutor until late April 2025,” they wrote. 

Prosecutors accused attorneys for Abrego of including false and misleading statements in court filings about how negotiations for a plea deal unfolded — and then collapsed — in the weeks before he was granted pre-trial release.

Attorneys for Abrego have accused prosecutors of coercing their client to accept a last-minute guilty plea and deportation to Costa Rica just before he was released from pretrial custody in Tennessee to then face detention by immigration officials. 

Both sides were actively engaged in negotiating a plea deal for more than a month that would have required Abrego to plead guilty to one human smuggling charge when defense attorneys filed surprise claims of vindictive prosecution and a coercement, prosecutors wrote. Costa Rica, they said, was the country of Abrego’s choosing.