The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday requested the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overturn the decision by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, to drop the federal government’s human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Crenshaw ruled the DOJ failed to sufficiently rebut the presumption of vindictive prosecution.
Submitted by U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek, the appeal argues, “The district court’s order dismissing the charges against Abrego is erroneous at every step.” The appeal claims Crenshaw applied an incorrect legal standard when weighing the possibility of vindictive prosecution, as no other judicial circuit allows the presumption of vindictiveness to be applied to an initial indictment.
Boucek also argues First Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire, who was the acting U.S. attorney when the charges against Abrego Garcia were filed, had no “personal stake” in the outcome.
Crenshaw notably acknowledged there was no evidence that vindictive prosecution actually occurred in the Abrego Garcia case, but nonetheless applied a presumption of vindictiveness and concluded the DOJ failed to sufficiently rebut it, prompting him to dismiss the case.
While federal prosecutors in Maryland first weighed the possibility of charging Abrego Garcia in 2022, the appeal reiterates the role in the 2025 investigation played by The Tennessee Star, which first reported in April 2025 that Abrego Garcia had been stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol in November 2022, and that a THP spokesman confirmed the “Biden-era FBI” ordered troopers to release Abrego Garcia.
According to the filing, the 2025 investigation was launched by former Special Agent Rana Saoud, who was then leading the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – Nashville office. The filing notes that Saoud on April 27, 2025, informed Robert McGuire, who was then the acting U.S. attorney for Middle Tennessee, “that she learned from a news source (The Tennessee Star) about Abrego’s traffic stop.”
By this point, the filing reveals that Saoud told McGuire that HSI “had already interviewed other potential witnesses,” including Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, the convicted human smuggler who claimed he was employing Abrego Garcia as a driver in his criminal enterprise.
A footnote in the appeal notes The Star “ran a series of articles on the defendant’s traffic stop beginning on April 16, 2025.”
Boucek confirmed the appeal in a late-Monday post on social media.
“The prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee was not vindictive and the evidence before the district court established that it was not,” wrote Boucek. “Instead, the evidence showed that charges were brought against Abrego Garcia because the evidence conclusively established that he had committed the serious crime of human smuggling.”
He wrote, “That’s not vindictive. That’s protecting the public and the order never considered the strength of the case.”
Boucek previously told The Star that his office was already weighing an appeal within hours of Crenshaw’s order being released.
“The undisputed evidence shows that the decision to charge Abrego was made by a career prosecutor based solely on the facts and the substantial evidence that a serious crime had been committed and deserved prosecution,” Boucek stated to The Star. “While we respectfully disagree with the decision to dismiss this case, we respect the judicial process, and we are currently evaluating an appeal.”
The Star was recognized for its reporting on Abrego Garcia with the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism in 2025.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kilmar Abrego Garcia” by WeAreCasa.
