Hecker & Fink, the New York law firm representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) case against him in Middle Tennessee, was paid $7 million by a nonprofit created by LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic Party megadonor Reid Hoffman in 2020. The money was earmarked to fund the lawsuits by former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll against President Donald Trump.
As The Tennessee Star reported, Abgrego Garcia on Tuesday submitted a legal filing which informed the court of his new attorneys, including Rascoe Dean of the Nashville law firm, Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, as well as Sean Hecker, Jenna Dabbs, and David Patton, of the the New York-based law firm, Hecker & Fink.
Previously known as Kaplan Hecker & Fink until attorney Roberta Kaplan departed amid reported acrimony last July, Hecker & Fink in 2020 received $7 million from American Future Republic, the nonprofit organization established by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman in 2019.
The money from Hoffman’s group was labeled as “public interest litigation funding” in its Form 990 tax filing for 2020, and was used to fund the lawsuits by Carroll against Trump.
List of grant recipients from American Future Republic Form 990 for 2020Â
Carroll, who wrote a nationally distributed advice column for decades, was awarded an $83.3 million judgment in 2024, after she accused Trump of defaming her when the president responded to Carroll’s previous legal victory. She earlier successfully claimed in a civil lawsuit that she was sexually abused and defamed by the president following an incident inside a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room during the 1990s.
Sources familiar with the case against Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador deported in March by the Trump administration, confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Thursday that Hecker & Fink is representing Abrego Garcia on a pro-bono basis, but said that the law firm did not receive financial support prior to taking the case.
As The Star previously noted, the Hecker & Fink website states that the firm has “a profound and substantial commitment in lawyering in the public interest,” and reveals its first lawsuit was against the organizers of the controversial Unite the Right rally that occurred in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
“We have prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court in high-stakes election, redistricting, and public health cases—and our amicus briefs have been cited by Justices Sotomayor, Jackson, and Ginsburg,” the website states. “Our work paved the way for lasting change in women’s sports, and we negotiated a historic settlement to substantially limit Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.”
The Star additionally understands that Hecker & Fink was asked to represent Abrego Garcia in the federal criminal case in Tennessee by other attorneys representing the Salvadoran citizen, and that their entry to the case was dependent on locating an attorney in Nashville who is familiar with the local prosecutors and judges.
The Nashville attorney ultimately located for Abrego Garcia is Dean, the son of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean, who was hired by Sherrard Roe on April 1 after leaving the U.S. Attorneys Office, where he previously worked as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division.
The Star first reported that Abrego Garcia was pulled over by a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper on November 30, 2022, and that the “Biden-era FBI” ordered the troopers to release Abrego Garcia despite their suspicion he was engaged in human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia was returned to Tennessee on June 6, when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed the indictment alleging he was part of a human smuggling ring for nearly nine years. He allegedly made more than 100 trips during his purported smuggling career. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
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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].
Photo “E. Jean Carroll” by julieannesmo. CC BY-SA 2.5
Enough of the money laundering ” NON- Profits “. 7 million for this POS is insulting to the American public. Put the money up if you want but no tax free donations.
I smell a bunch of rats. This filthy animal knows to much and they don’t want him talking. The same people made sure he was not arrested along with his illegal alien cargo when he went through Tennessee last time.