Obama judge uses ‘vindictive’ ruling to release alleged MS-13 human trafficker
Federal District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. (not surprisingly an Obama appointee) has dismissed the criminal indictment of the Democrats’ favorite father-of-the-year, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. So, an illegal alien accused by a federal grand jury in Tennessee of being involved for almost a decade in organized human trafficking and weapons and narcotics smuggling, including transporting MS-13 gang members into the heart of America, has received a get-out-of-jail-free card from this federal judge.
Crenshaw claims that the Justice Department and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche have not rebutted claims that they engaged in a "vindictive" prosecution of Garcia as revenge for the federal courts ordering Garcia, an illegal alien, to be returned to the U.S. after he was deported to El Salvador.
But in a 32-page order in which Crenshaw goes into excruciating detail over the procedural process that occurred inside DOJ and Homeland Security over the investigation and prosecution, he has only two sentences about the criminal indictment of Garcia and the hideous, dangerous crimes Garcia is accused of committing.
Before pointing out the logical fallacies in Crenshaw’s opinion, the public – and Garcia’s supporters like Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen – should be reminded of the details of what the grand jury concluded a year ago.
MIKE DAVIS: KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA, THE DEMOCRATS' PATRON SAINT OF HUMAN TRAFFICK
Garcia was, according to the indictment, a member of MS-13, one of the most dangerous and brutal criminal gangs in the world. He was accused of conspiring with six others to "transport and move aliens" illegally into and throughout the country starting in 2016, including "MS-13 members and associates."
Garcia’s job, allegedly, was to pick up illegal aliens and gang members in Houston and move them to Maryland, and that is apparently what he was doing when he was stopped by the Tennessee State Patrol in 2022 driving a Chevy Suburban full of illegal aliens and owned by a convicted human trafficker.
It was that stop that eventually led to uncovering how Garcia was making a living.
The indictment accused him of making at least 100 trips over a decade, transporting six to 10 aliens per trip. Oh, and by the way, he also "occasionally and simultaneously transported firearms illegally purchased in Texas" as well as narcotics "for distribution and resale in Maryland."
In order to maximize profits, the indictment says, the conspirators reconfigured the vehicles they were driving with aftermarket, unattached seating rows, and forced the children they were smuggling to sit or lie on the floorboards, obviously risking all of their lives in potential traffic accidents. One of the witnesses against Garcia told the grand jury he had to warn Garcia against abusing some of the female aliens because it was "bad for business."
Crenshaw claims that the government’s "vindictiveness" is demonstrated by two facts:
DOJ SIGNALS IT WOULD RATHER DEPORT ABREGO GARCIA THAN PROSECUTE HIM
It is hard to understand Crenshaw’s logic, or I should say illogic. The legal standard the judge cites based on other precedents is whether the prosecution "would not have been initiated but for vindictiveness." The judge then claims that there is no explanation for "the Government’s change in position to remove Abrego and not prosecute him to then prosecute and not remove him." That is the judge’s basis for accusing the government of failing to "rebut the presumption of vindictiveness" in the prosecution.
But it seems rather obvious that there was no reason to continue with a criminal investigation and prosecution when the target had been successfully removed from the country and was, therefore, no longer a danger to the public and, obviously, if the grand jury accusations are correct, no longer in a position to smuggle humans, weapons and drugs in the country.
But once he was back in the U.S., Garcia again became a potential danger and, given the judicial objections to his removal on immigration-related charges, his alleged criminal activities and participation in trafficking made prosecuting him in the best interests of the public.
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The fact that, according to the judge, Blanche said the government reopened its criminal investigation after a Maryland judge "questioned" the deportation seems irrelevant to the legitimacy of the criminal charges against Garcia. Crenshaw claims otherwise, saying that Blanche’s "remarkable statements" establish that the "criminal charges stem from [Garcia’s] exercise of his constitutional and statutory rights."
No, they don’t. The criminal charges stem from multiple witnesses before a federal grand jury testifying that Garcia was a member of MS-13 who conspired to bring "undocumented aliens to the United States from countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, and elsewhere," in addition to smuggling guns and drugs.
What would have been an unforgivable dereliction of their sworn duty to protect the public would have been if, once the courts said Garcia had to be repatriated, federal prosecutors failed to reopen their investigation and proceed to prosecute him for what he was doing.
The government has said it intends to appeal the dismissal of the criminal indictment. Given the reprehensible misconduct outlined by the grand jury, that is exactly what should happen.