Overview
- The Justice Department filed an opening brief with the Sixth Circuit on Monday asking the court to overturn U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s May dismissal of two human‑smuggling counts against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
- The government says career prosecutors reopened a probe tied to a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop and relied on phone records, license‑plate reader data and witness accounts to obtain the indictment.
- Judge Crenshaw dismissed the indictment after finding a presumption of vindictive prosecution because charges followed Abrego Garcia’s successful legal challenge to his March 2025 deportation to El Salvador.
- Abrego Garcia’s lawyers call the appeal ‘flat wrong’ and say the record shows the prosecution was retaliatory, while the DOJ warns the district court’s approach would let judges second‑guess prosecutors’ motives.
- The Sixth Circuit’s decision will determine whether the criminal case can proceed and could narrow or expand how courts apply the presumption of vindictiveness in prosecutions tied to parallel immigration litigation.