Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the release of records relating to the 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member and citizen of El Salvador who was deported last month under President Donald Trump, by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) is in the public interest.
On Wednesday, The Star reported that Abrego Garcia was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by a THP officer who detained him during a 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County; however, was let go at the time after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested that THP release him and the seven passengers in the vehicle.
During the nearly two-hour traffic stop, the THP officer was allegedly instructed by the FBI, which was led at the time by former Director Christopher Wray, to capture photographs of all eight people in the vehicle and document its contents.
Following The Star’s report on the Tennessee traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia, Just the News released a report with further details about the incident, including how Abrego Garcia told the THP officer that the vehicle he was operating was owned by a Maryland construction company.
On Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert said The Star’s filing of a Tennessee Public Records Act request for the 2022 traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia is in the public interest, explaining how the incident raises serious concerns about federal interference in local law enforcement.
“We’re going to be filing an open records request here shortly…We should be able to learn exactly if that vehicle is owned by a construction company and if they know what Abrego Garcia was doing. That will be very interesting to find out,” Pappert said.
Pappert further argued that the public deserves to see the images, videos, and documents collected by THP during the traffic stop, especially since there is no indication of an ongoing investigation that would justify withholding such materials under state law.
“We’re going to get this. It’s going to be in the public interest and we’re going to learn something,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to point out that the FBI’s involvement in Abrego Garcia’s release during the 2022 traffic stop would mark the second time within a matter of months that the federal agency interfered in Tennessee law enforcement affairs, noting how the FBI overhauled the Covenant School shooting investigation which unfolded just months later in March 2023.
“If the FBI has proven to be part of this, and if they’re willing to give us that information, this would be the second time around this period that the FBI could have been influencing local Tennessee legal actions, which we know now that three days after the Covenant School shooting that saw a transgender school shooter kill six, the FBI was there and not long after that, they sent out a memo saying, ‘Never ever release the manifesto, whatever you do. In fact, you could destroy it if you really want to.’ So it seems as though the FBI has an active role in Tennessee law enforcement,” Pappert explained.
Watch the exchange:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
