U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, a federal judge in Tennessee, dismissed criminal human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on May 22, 2026.

Her ruling was direct: the Justice Department prosecuted Abrego Garcia NOT because he committed a crime, but because he won a lawsuit.

"The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego's successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution," Crenshaw wrote, according to BBC News.

Abrego Garcia was found in a car with several people during a Tennessee traffic stop in November 2022. Law enforcement investigated. No charges were filed. The government closed the investigation, according to NPR.

Abrego Garcia was then wrongfully deported to El Salvador — a fact the Trump administration itself admitted. He was sent to a brutal Salvadoran megaprison.

A federal judge ordered his return. He sued. He won.

Only after that legal victory did the Justice Department suddenly reopen that same closed 2022 investigation and hit him with federal human smuggling charges.

Judge Crenshaw called out then-Deputy AG Todd Blanche by name. Blanche, she said, made public statements directly tying the reopened investigation to Abrego Garcia's lawsuit. "Blanche's now unrebutted public statements tying the reopened investigation to Abrego's successful lawsuit taints the investigation with a vindictive motive," Crenshaw wrote, per NPR.

"The evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power." That's a federal judge's words.

Government Response

The Department of Homeland Security is not accepting this quietly. The agency called Crenshaw's ruling "naked judicial activism," according to NPR. DHS also made clear that Abrego Garcia's final order of removal still stands, stating "this Salvadoran is not going to remain in our country."

So even with the criminal case dismissed, the deportation fight continues.

The DOJ had not commented as of the time of reporting, per BBC News.

Coverage Issues

Left-leaning outlets — AP News, BBC, and the New York Times — are framing this primarily as an embarrassment to Trump and a vindication of Abrego Garcia personally.

Abrego Garcia was found with multiple people in his car during that 2022 traffic stop. The original investigation existed for a reason. The judge dismissed the case on prosecutorial misconduct grounds — she did NOT issue a factual finding that no smuggling occurred.

There's a real difference between "the government abused its power in how it prosecuted this case" and "Abrego Garcia is definitely innocent of everything."

Fox News published an opinion piece calling Abrego Garcia "the Democrats' patron saint of human trafficking" — that's the actual headline from contributor Mike Davis.

A sitting federal judge reviewed the evidence and found the government engaged in vindictive prosecution. Dismissing that ruling with a culture-war nickname doesn't engage with what Crenshaw actually found.

Fox's coverage is also quiet about Todd Blanche's public statements, which Crenshaw specifically cited as going unrebutted by the government. If the DOJ had evidence to rebut the vindictiveness claim, they apparently couldn't produce it.

The Larger Problem

This case is a mess that multiple parties made worse.

The Trump administration wrongfully deported a man — they admitted it. Then, when courts forced his return, someone decided the right move was to immediately charge him with a crime from an investigation that had already been closed. The deputy AG apparently made public statements connecting those two things.

That sequence of events is either catastrophically incompetent or deliberately retaliatory. Neither option is acceptable.

At the same time, DHS is correct that Abrego Garcia's removal order still stands legally. This isn't over in terms of his immigration status.

Few outlets are asking why federal investigators originally looked at that 2022 traffic stop, what they actually found, and why prosecutors felt confident enough to bring charges even if the motivation was tainted.

What's at Stake

If a federal judge can find that the Justice Department of the United States reopened a closed criminal investigation specifically to punish someone for winning a lawsuit — and the government cannot rebut that finding — then it matters.

The power to prosecute is enormous. Using it as a weapon against someone who beat you in court is the kind of thing that's supposed to be unconstitutional.

The Trump administration lost this one in court. Calling it "judicial activism" doesn't change what Judge Crenshaw found in the actual record.