Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be released by week's end

In a pair of filings, Abrego's lawyers seek his release by Friday and moved to dismiss his case for vindictive prosecution.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his child. (Photo via CASA)

All Rise News covered every wrinkle of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case on the ground in Maryland and Tennessee, untangling the twists and turns of a case of national importance.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s lawyers asked a federal judge on Tuesday to free their client immediately once a stay blocking his release expires before the end of the week.

Once released on bail, Abrego will not have total liberty, and a different form of federal detention could be awaiting him once he returns to Maryland, where his wife and children live.

Prosecutors indicated that immigration authorities intend to detain him as soon as possible, but a federal judge’s ruling has prevented the government from putting him in immigration detention before he arrives in Maryland. Until immigration authorities detain him, Abrego will be under strict home detention and monitoring pending trial on human smuggling charges.

Nevertheless, Abrego’s potentially imminent release represents a significant victory for a man whom the Trump administration repeatedly insisted would never set foot again on U.S. soil.

“The audacity to fight back”

Abrego’s attorneys also attacked the underpinnings of their client’s criminal prosecution on Tuesday, filing a motion to dismiss the case for selective and vindictive prosecution.

In a 26-page legal brief, Abrego’s lead attorney Sean Hecker called the indictment payback for his client having the “audacity” to resist being summarily dumped into a brutal prison in El Salvador this past March.

“Mr. Abrego responded to the government’s shocking, illegal conduct by filing a lawsuit,” Hecker wrote. “Rather than fix its mistake and return Mr. Abrego to the United States, the government fought back at every level of the federal court system. And at every level, Mr. Abrego won. This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”

Two separate bail hearings confirmed that the criminal investigation into Abrego took root weeks after the Supreme Court ordered the government to facilitate his return to the United States — and some three years after the traffic stop at the heart of Abrego’s case.

In 2022, Tennessee authorities pulled over Abrego in the Middle District of Tennessee, finding several other passengers inside his SUV. Abrego was ultimately allowed to leave without so much as a speeding ticket.

Some three years later, Donald Trump’s Justice Department alleged that the bodycam footage from that stop showed a criminal conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants. The case is largely based on cooperating witness testimony by two convicted felons, one of whom was deported from the United States five times and is said to be the leader of the smuggling conspiracy.

“The day the indictment was returned, the then-Chief of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office that charged Mr. Abrego abruptly resigned, reportedly over concerns that the case was being pursued for ‘political reasons,’” the motion notes, referring to Ben Schrader.

Schrader’s former deputy in the criminal division, Rascoe Dean, now works for Abrego’s defense team.

“Suspicious timing”

Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem all chimed in on Abrego’s indictment, in statements extensively quoted in the brief as evidence of “retribution.”

“The government’s naked ante-upping against Mr. Abrego—confirmed in the public statements of numerous high-ranking officials—underscores the unreasonableness of its conduct,” the motion notes.

The three-year delay from the traffic stop to the indictment is also a defining feature of the motion.

Defense attorneys say that they attempted to catalogue every similar prosecution under the smuggling statute charged against Abrego within the judicial circuit for a traffic stop supporting the case and an indictment in the past 15 years.

“We found none,” the motion states. “We suspect it is because there are none.”

Though vindictive prosecution motions can be difficult to win, Abrego’s attorneys note: “Courts have found such suspicious timing to be evidence of apparent vindictiveness.”

Abrego’s lawyers attached a chart as an exhibit with similar cases, where the gap between a stop and a charge was typically a month.

In an unusual turn, Abrego’s attorneys sought to extend their client’s stay in pre-trial detention — for his own protection — after winning his release on bail. Federal prosecutors all but promised that immigration authorities would detain and quickly move to deport Abrego, before he had the opportunity to defend himself at trial.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes issued a brief stay of Abrego’s release, which expires on Fri., Aug. 22.

Abrego’s attorneys want their client’s immediate release on that day, along with another order allowing him to prepare for trial in immigration lockup if he is detained again.

“Finally, Mr. Abrego requests that the Court include in the release order a requirement that, should Mr. Abrego be taken into ICE custody following his return to Maryland, ICE authorities ensure that his attorneys can access him, both physically and via telephone, to allow Mr. Abrego to prepare for trial,” his lawyers wrote.

Abrego is expected to have another pre-trial hearing in September and stand trial in January 2026.