Kilmar Abrego Garcia, now in Tennessee awaiting trial for his alleged participation in an illegal immigrant smuggling conspiracy after pleading not guilty, requested the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on Tuesday allow him to dismiss his public defenders in favor of new, private representation from four attorneys, including Rascoe Dean of the Nashville law firm, Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison.
Rascoe Dean, the son of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and attorney Anne Davis, is a former federal prosecutor who entered private practice in April, and came to represent Abrego Garcia after the New York-based law firm, Hecker & Fink, sought a local attorney when it was asked to take the El Salvadoran man’s case.
The entrance into the case by Rascoe Dean, which, though criminal in nature, revolves around allegations of smuggling illegal immigrants, comes almost 11 years after Karl Dean signed Executive Order 45 on September 22, 2014, authorizing the creation of the Mayor’s Office of New Americans in Nashville.
Under Karl Dean’s leadership, the Mayor’s Office of New Americans was tasked with coordinating with community organizations that support immigrants, developing programs to benefit the community, and advising the mayor on related policies.
His executive order specifically noted, “The Office serves at the pleasure of the Mayor. The Mayor can change any provision of this Executive Order, including but not limited to the existence of the Office, at any time.”
That executive order has been changed multiple times, including by former Mayor Megan Barry and current Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who made changes that require Metro Nashville employees to report interactions with federal immigration officials to the mayor and the Office of New Americans.
It was this requirement which drew accusations of doxxing, or illegally sharing private information with the public, after a Office of New Americans data portal published the names and positions of federal immigration agents who interacted with Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) during the federal enforcement activity that saw nearly 200 illegal immigrants detained last month.
U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), whose district includes much of Nashville, referenced the alleged doxxing when he announced the start of a congressional probe investigating the mayor’s actions in response to the detained illegal immigrants.
“Instead of defending our state, Mayor Freddie O’Connell is sabotaging it. He’s weaponized his office to dox and surveil federal agents who are trying to stop violent criminals — and worse, he’s embraced those criminals by creating a taxpayer-funded program to aid illegal aliens,” wrote Ogles, also referring to the millions in Biden-era stimulus money received by the nonprofits which seeded the mayor’s “Belonging Fund” announced to support those impacted by federal immigration enforcement.
Ogles previously wrote in a post to X, “Nashville’s woketivist mayor is DOXXING federal enforcement. By publicly posting the names of DHS and ICE agents, he’s handing intel to gangs like MS-13, who can now track down and potentially target these officers.”
The data was quickly removed after it was discovered by Ogles, and O’Connell has maintained it was posted, inadvertently, in the interest of transparency. He more recently claimed the information was already public prior to its publication by his administration.
Ogles confirmed this week that Congress is now reviewing the documents and internal communications submitted by Ogles.
The Tennessee Star first reported that Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022. Troopers suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking, but The Star reported that the “Biden-era FBI” nonetheless instructed THP to release the El Salvadoran.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Prior to Karl Dean becoming Mayor of Nashville, carpetbagger Phil Bredesen was recruited by Leftist publisher of the Nashville Tennessean, John Seiganthaler Sr, to run for Mayor of Nashville. Bredesen got lots of free publicity from the Nashville Tennessean.
A stranger to Nashville, it’s history & culture, Bredesen sought to “transform” Nashville into his Social Mecca.
First he ( with the help of the Tennessean) convinced Nashville voters to add forced term limits on Metro Council Members. This drastically shifted the power of the People to the power of the Mayor.
Bredesen then issued an EO allowing all 15K Metro employees to live outside Davidson County. This greatly impacted the tax base, so the next step is increasing property taxes, making it so difficult to be homeowners.
Then followed Bill Purcell, yet another northern import, not Nashville Native; & in 2007, Karl Dean, another northern import; following him Megan Barry, another import.
When people elect non-natives to be their mayor, they are not going to give a crap about the history & culture of your city.
After her disastrous shame of theft & adultery, people did elect locals, but they were so far Left that they didn’t look like Native Nashvillians. And today we have the worst of the worst Freddie O’Connell, a self acclaimed Democrat Socialist of America aka Communist.
The last native born right leaning Mayor we had in Nashville was Bill Boner. He did a great job, but like many who don’t adhere to the the Left agendae, he was mercilessly attacked daily, by none other than John Seiganthaler, Sr.
I don’t know if Nashville can be salvaged.
Maybe if someone like John Rich, who has name recognition, would run for Mayor, but he would need to surround himself by LOYAL STAFF, bc like the Federal Govt, there is a DEEP STATE of Bureaucrats, who will sabotage & destroy a Conservative Mayor.
Just asked Sheriff Darren Hall, who used to be independent of the Mayor. Now his wife works in the O’Connell admin, so he is no longer independent. Ask him how many illegals are in his jail.
Criminal conspiracy trying to get people killed jail this group NOW
Someone please DOX all of Freddie O’Connell’s family. Every single one. Cousins, brother-in-laws, ALL of them. Just go ahead and DOX every Demokrat politician’s family member as well. Demokrats sure don’t show any restraint, so return the favor.
Trouble started with Karl Dean.
This Karl Dean accelerated the decline of Nashville into a progressive dump. It had been going that way for sometime but this guy basically was the one who drove this city off the cliff. Now we have had three mayors since him and they have proceeded to get worse. The metro council is also gone over to marxists,, leftist radicals and trans gendered circus freaks. It sucks to be from Nashville, what an embarrassment this place has become.