The Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia Collapsed in Court. Next Should Come Consequences

Newsweek

2 days ago

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People interested in law and order in the United States are looking the wrong way. It's not the Supreme Court ending nationwide injunctions last week that should disturb us. It's the implosion of the Department of Justice's case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The loss of nationwide injunctions will be followed by a tidal wave of class actions that will ultimately take the place of the individual suits, yet have the same national impact that the Court has just outlawed. Don't worry. The Supreme Court hasn't set the sky to falling.
A protester holds a photo of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia as demonstrators gather to protest against the deportation of immigrants to El Salvador outside the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations...
A protester holds a photo of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia as demonstrators gather to protest against the deportation of immigrants to El Salvador outside the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations on April 24, 2025, in New York City. More
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
But the Abrego Garcia struggle is over the soul of American justice. Under pressure, the Justice Department obeyed a court order to return him from El Salvador. But then the DOJ leadership doubled down on dumbness. It filed an indictment against Abrego Garcia with Attorney General Pam Bondi promising to prove he was a key figure in an alien smuggling ring. Justice Department lawyers asserted that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member who transported guns, and sexually abused migrant women.
Last week the case fell apart. The Justice Department used all the evidence it had to try to keep Abrego Garcia in prison pending a trial. A federal magistrate judge in Tennessee listened and then wrote a detailed and damning decision—ordering him released pending trial.
It turns out that the only support for the government claim that Abrego Garcia was a key figure in a gang-related adult and child smuggling ring comes from three people who are close relatives of one another and are facing deportation.
Two of them are expecting to stop their deportations in exchange for testifying, and their ringleader—a five-times deported and twice-convicted felon who admits smuggling aliens—has already been sprung from jail by the Justice Department and had his deportation stopped.
Despite their incentives to help Bondi, these three contradicted each other about Abrego Garcia's supposed membership in the MS-13 gang. One just said Abrego Garcia was "familial" with gang members. Another said, without taking an oath, that she "believed" Abrego Garcia was a gang member. The final witness suggested the opposite, noting that "there were no signs or markings, including tattoos, indicating that Abrego is an MS-13 member."
These cooperating but clumsy cons also preposterously reported that Abrego Garcia's smuggling involved driving 2,900 miles three or four times per week—over 120 hours at the wheel weekly—a figure almost physically impossible.
The government didn't even have the courage to bring its sole supporters to court where Abrego Garcia's lawyers might have cross-examined them. An ICE agent read their statements instead. No wonder the Tennessee magistrate judge, backed up by her supervising judge, ordered Abrego Garcia released.
Foolishly, the DOJ leadership then proved that it wasn't done ruining its reputation. After a ruling finding no credible evidence that Abrego Garcia smuggled anyone and which noted he had been charged with "smuggling" not "trafficking" a DOJ spokesperson declared that Abrego Garcia "has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again."
DOJ now insists that, if released, Abrego Garcia won't be arrested and deported immediately. Wisely, Abrego Garcia decided to stay in jail.
The DOJ exit strategy? Ultimately, it will drop the frivolous charges. They will then try to deport Abrego Garcia to somewhere like Somalia.
But that shouldn't be the end of the story. The DOJ lawyers who want to follow the law must win out against those willing to violate it. They know the department once enjoyed the highest reputation. It stood up to Richard Nixon, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden alike, but now its struggling. To rescue it, the courts must punish Pam Bondi and those who have maliciously prosecuted Abrego Garcia.
Bondi ordered the prosecution. Two lawyers signed the indictment papers filed in court. After the charges are dismissed, the Tennessee judge should summon all three of them to court to show cause why they shouldn't be disciplined under ethical rules forbidding frivolous filings.
Commenting on the charges against Abrego Garcia when she announced them, Bondi trumpeted about this train wreck, "This is what American justice looks like." Here's hoping she's wrong and that judges prove it to her.
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former co-chair of the American Bar Association Committee on Employee Benefits. He is the author of the book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.