Tom Pappert, 2025 Dao Prize winner and lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said testimony in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia hearing undercut claims of vindictive prosecution and instead confirmed that federal charges stemmed from reporting by The Star.
In November 2022, Abrego Garcia was stopped on I-40 by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for allegedly speeding and weaving between lanes.
Troopers determined he did not have a valid driver’s license and was operating a modified vehicle with an extra row of seats carrying nine passengers, none of whom had identification, luggage, or spoke English. One passenger was reportedly a minor, and the vehicle was later identified as belonging to a convicted human smuggler.
Despite those circumstances, troopers released Abrego Garcia at the scene after contacting the FBI.
The Star was the first outlet to publicly report the details of the stop in April 2025.
Those revelations became central to Thursday’s hearing, where U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw considered the defense’s claim that the resulting federal prosecution amounted to vindictive prosecution.
Appearing on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show the day after Thursday’s hearing, Pappert detailed how witnesses told the judge that the investigation began only after they read The Star’s April 2025 report about the 2022 Tennessee Highway Patrol traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia.
“It was a fascinating day in court. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was asking for his human smuggling case to be tossed for vindictive prosecution,” Pappert said.
But according to Pappert, testimony from a retired Homeland Security Investigations official contradicted that narrative.
“She specifically testified that she had no idea Kilmar Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022, suspected of human trafficking,” Pappert said. “She didn’t know about this until she read about it in the Tennessee Star. Somebody emailed her our article. She read the article and she decided, this seems like something that we could investigate.”
Pappert said the official notified Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire the same day she reviewed the article.
“In other words, it doesn’t look like vindictive prosecution,” Pappert added. “It looks like some very good reporting from The Tennessee Star started an investigation. If I do say so myself.”
Pappert also addressed defense efforts to characterize The Star as a partisan outlet.
“I appreciate their attempt to smear my work as that of a right wing propagandist,” Pappert said. “But the facts bear true.”
Judge Crenshaw has ordered post-hearing briefs after the transcript of Thursday’s hearing is completed. Pappert cautioned that delays have been typical in the case.
“Anybody who’s been following Abrego Garcia knows that nothing in this case, absolutely nothing happens quickly,” Pappert said. “Once that transcript is completed, both the defense and the prosecution will have 30 days to submit their post-hearing brief, at which point sometime probably pretty quickly, actually, with Crenshaw, the judge will release his decision.”
If the case is dismissed, Pappert predicted an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
