Todd Blanche Humiliated Yet Again as Judge Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

In yet another bracing humiliation for the Department of Justice and kinda-sorta Attorney General Todd Blanche, a federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, noting the obvious: That the case was brought against Abrego Garcia by a vindictive DOJ and Trump administration that had been embarrassed by the attention around the man’s case ever since it mistakenly and wrongfully deported him (and was then forced to return him) to El Salvador in 2025. Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee criticized Blanche and the DOJ directly in his ruling, saying that the criminal charges against Abrego Garcia had been brought with “vindictive taint” that rendered them unlawful. Quoting former Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, Crenshaw wrote the following:

“Then-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson warned his fellow prosecutors long ago of the danger of picking the person first and the crime second. ‘Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.’ That is the situation here.”

Abrego Garcia should apply for compensation from the weaponization fund

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— jamelle (@jamellebouie.net) 3:22 PM · May 22, 2026

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was originally swept up in the second Trump administration’s deportation machine in early 2025, when he was arrested and shipped off to the notoriously brutal CECOT prison in El Salvador despite the fact that he had a valid order issued by a judge in 2019 that he was not to be deported. When this was pointed out by his family and friends and the story blew up into a media sensation, the Trump administration doubled down and initially refused to return Garcia despite another court order to do so, claiming baselessly that he was among other things a gang member and a rapist. They eventually agreed to return Abrego Garcia to the United States, only to then levy criminal charges of human trafficking against him, stemming from a 2022 incident in which he was stopped while driving a car containing other undocumented immigrants and let go. There was no indication whatsoever that said prior incident would result in criminal charges … until the moment that the government being forced to return Abrego Garia caused it to suffer embarrassment. Then the administration clearly needed to find a way to punish him. Those charges have now been tossed out entirely, although the government is still intent on attempting to deport him, potentially to a “third country” locale in Africa, where the federal government has recently sent critically sick immigrants despite the countries there stating they cannot care for them.

As is so often the case in the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia became a symbol primarily because administration officials like Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche simply refused to back down and blew the case exceedingly far out of proportion, rather than being able to simply behave like normal human beings. An effective, efficient government would simply recognize that errors had been made and correct them, and everyone would go about their business. A government run by a raging narcissist who can never, ever admit they are wrong about anything, on the other hand, must continue to find new ways to antagonize a person like Abrego Garcia because the alternative would be admitting both culpability and powerlessness, and there’s nothing more unacceptable in the world of Trump than looking weak. Ironically, this rigidity often in fact causes Trump officials to look weaker than they would have otherwise, as they’re forced to absurdly project strength even while they’re getting their asses handed to them by judges or grand juries. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We are at least somewhat fortunate, as Americans, that the competence of this administration in meting out arbitrary punishments and vindictive assaults on freedom is never quite as pronounced as their desire or zeal for doing so. Heaven help us if their ability ever matches their willingness to trample over liberty.

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