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  "description": "Prosecutor Rob McGuire defended the federal government against allegations it was vindictively prosecuting a man whose high-profile fight against wrongful deportation had embarrassed the Trump administration.",
  "path": "/kilmar-abrego-garcia-prosecutor-testifies-criminal-charges-were-not-vindictive/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-01T14:40:22.000Z",
  "site": "https://ielaw.news",
  "tags": [
    "NASHVILLE",
    "_Tennessee Lookout_"
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  "textContent": "NASHVILLE — The lead federal prosecutor in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia took on an unusual role Thursday: seated on the witness stand, Rob McGuire defended the federal government against allegations it was vindictively prosecuting a man whose high-profile fight against wrongful deportation had embarrassed the Trump administration.\n\nFor more than two hours, McGuire was questioned about the substance of emails, phone calls and meetings with a senior Justice Department official, who told McGuire that Abrego’s prosecution on human smuggling charges was a “top priority for us.” The official asked to review a draft of the indictment, and at one point told McGuire to temporarily hold off on bringing an indictment until they received “clearance” to do so.\n\nMcGuire testified repeatedly that it was he, alone, who made the decision to prosecute the case, based on the evidence before him.\n\nNobody directed him on how to handle the indictment, McGuire said. McGuire said he did not fully understand, then or now, what “clearance” meant.\n\nLawyers for Abrego, as he is referred to in court documents, are seeking to dismiss human smuggling charges brought against him in June. The lawyers allege the charges were brought in retaliation for Abrego’s successful fight against deportation. The charges stem from a two-year-old Tennessee traffic stop that federal prosecutors say was linked to a wider conspiracy to transport immigrants here illegally to destinations around the country, with Abrego acting as chauffeur.\n\nAbrego has pleaded not guilty.\n\nAbrego, an apprentice sheet metal worker, was deported to El Salvador in March. In April, the Supreme Court ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return from an El Salvador prison, where Abrego had been sent despite a 2019 immigration judge’s order barring his deportation to the country he fled as a teen, based on his fear of gang violence.\n\nOn Thursday, Abrego sat during the hearing between his attorney and an interpreter. His wife also attended the hearing. Neither spoke publicly.\n\nThe hearing, held in a downtown Nashville federal courtroom, featured just one other witness.\n\nRana Saoud, the now-retired special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Nashville, testified she learned of Abrego’s traffic stop from an April 21 article in the Tennessee Star, a conservative online media outlet.\n\nHer office began to investigate. Saoud said no one at the Department of Homeland Security of the Department of Justice directed her investigation.\n\nAware of the publicity surrounding Abrego’s case at the time, she reached out to McGuire the following Sunday, she said.\n\nJust hours after he spoke to Saoud, McGuire received an email about the case from Aakash Singh, associate deputy attorney general. Singh acts as a liaison with federal prosecutors around the country. His email was about a Texas prisoner who had come forward with smuggling allegations against Abrego. His email was to coordinate a meeting between McGuire and federal prosecutors in other districts who had legal jurisdiction over the Texas prisoner.\n\nThe message from Singh on the same day McGuire first heard about the local Homeland Security investigator’s investigation into Abrego’s 2022 Tennessee traffic stop from Saoud was a sign — McGuire conceded — that federal officials were taking an active interest in the nascent investigation.\n\nIn the coming weeks, Singh and McGuire continued to communicate about the case. It was not unusual in high profile cases for him to be in touch with the Attorney General’s office, McGuire said.\n\nWithin his own office, however, McGuire met with resistance.\n\nBen Schrader, then-criminal division chief, opposed the indictment, McGuire testified.\n\nSchrader emailed McGuire a memo recommending against prosecution. Schrader asked McGuire to “please pass it along to relevant parties in D.C. as well.”\n\nMcGuire testified he did not know whether he ultimately forwarded Schrader’s memo, but did inform Singh that Schrader opposed bringing the charges.\n\nSchrader ultimately resigned May 21, the same day a grand jury issued a sealed indictment against Abrego. He has declined to speak publicly about the Abrego case or his resignation.\n\nMcGuire called his communications with officials in D.C. a “one-way street,” noting he communicated with Singh to keep him apprised of developments in the high-profile case but did not take direction from him\n\n“I can tell you they never came back to say, ‘Put that in there,’ or ‘Say this,’ or ’Don’t say that’,” he testified.\n\nAt the end of the nearly four-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said he would issue a ruling in the case after attorneys submitted additional post-hearing briefs.\n\n_Tennessee Lookout_ _is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions:__info@tennesseelookout.com_ _._",
  "title": "Kilmar Abrego Garcia prosecutor testifies criminal charges were not ‘vindictive’",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-01T14:40:22.821Z"
}