Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s continued withholding of materials requested by The Star of the 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County of Kilmar Abrego Garcia by Tennessee Highway Patrol officers raises concerns that the state agency is avoiding releasing potentially embarrassing records related to its involvement and cooperation with Biden-era policy failures.
Earlier this month, The Star was the first to report that Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador deported by the Trump administration, was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking during the 2022 traffic stop on I-40 in Tennessee; however, was let go at the time after the FBI requested that the state officers release him and the eight other passengers in the vehicle.
The Star has since filed two Open Records Requests with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s Safety and Open Records Office seeking all materials – incident reports, computerized dispatch reports, photographs, dashboard and body camera footage, and any other records – related to the stop of Abrego Garcia in late 2022.
On Monday, two attorneys with the Department of Safety and Homeland Security informed The Star that Abrego Garcia is subject to an active investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and, as a result, said The Star’s Open Records Requests were not denied, but that the state agency would need nearly two additional weeks to complete them.
Pappert questioned whether the Department of Safety’s citing of the federal investigation into Abrego Garcia is being used as a pretext to avoid releasing potentially embarrassing records related to the state’s cooperation with the failures of the Biden-era FBI.
“We’ve seen how the excuse of an ongoing investigation has been used by other Tennessee law enforcement to keep records sealed for years after many people believe they should go public. I wonder though…if they’re trying to keep this because they want to perhaps keep their agency’s participation in this Biden-era program to release illegal immigrants out of the media,” Pappert explained on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Pappert went on to express skepticism about the legality of the Department of Safety’s records delay, noting how Tennessee law – whether a federal investigation is ongoing or not – requires a response to the requesting party within seven business days.
“I cannot find anything in the Tennessee Public Records Act that suggests an ongoing investigation at the federal level should keep the Tennessee Highway Patrol or Department of Safety and Homeland Security from sharing open records requests,” Pappert said.
“I think that they want to conceal perhaps their role in the Biden administration’s immigration disaster, but I don’t think that they’ve got a legal leg to stand on,” Pappert added.
Watch the exchange:
Tune in now to The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk w @GinoBulso in-studio!
– Watch LIVE here on X
– Listen on Spotify
– Listen on WENO AM760 in Nashville
– Read more at @TheTNStar https://t.co/1wGRJmRpYP— MichaelPatrick Leahy (@michaelpleahy) April 30, 2025
– – –
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Tennessee Highway Patrol Service Cap” by Tennessee Dept of Public Safety.
lets just forget about this guy. he is af his permanent home,