As a federal judge considers whether to throw out human smuggling charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, The Tennessee Star’s Lead Reporter and 2025 Dao Prize winner Tom Pappert said the absence of national media in the courtroom may signal the stakes of a hearing which could undercut the defendant’s claim of vindictive prosecution.
“It’s very interesting what’s happening today,” Pappert said during an appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, noting that while The Star had a reporter on the ground at the courthouse, “this may be the first time Kilmar Abrego Garcia has had a court appearance where the national media has not been covering it.”
He added, “It makes one wonder, perhaps if this is not going to go very well for Abrego Garcia.”
The hearing before U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw centers on Abrego Garcia’s request to dismiss the case, alleging he was targeted for prosecution after political controversy surrounding his deportation and return to the U.S.
Pappert pointed to comments by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche as a focal point of the vindictive prosecution claim.
He said the argument “goes back to that really obscure Fox News interview from last year with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche,” and claims that an Assistant U.S. Attorney may have been “instructed…to bring these charges against Abrego Garcia.”
Quoting Blanche, Pappert said, “When we started looking into it, and we have great law enforcement officers who started studying this man and investigating him, what we found is that we were right. We were right. He is a criminal who should be deported.”
Judge Crenshaw, Pappert noted, has suggested those remarks could be read as evidence of improper political influence.
“What that represents is, the Trump administration involving itself in the Middle District of Tennessee and making this potentially vindictive,” Pappert said.
The Department of Justice, however, maintains that coordination across agencies is expected in a complex international case, arguing that “the only way for a case like this where somebody who was in a foreign country … you’re going to have a lot of cooperation between different levels of the federal government.”
Pappert said prosecutors are expected to push back forcefully, possibly by introducing additional allegations into the court record.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Nashville Electric Service Headquarters” by Nashville Electric Service.
