The defense attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia in his federal human smuggling case on Monday seemed to say in a Monday court filing that Ben Schrader, the former U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Chief of the Criminal Division for the Middle District of Tennessee, resigned because he considered the federal indictment of Abrego Garcia to be “vindictive.”
In a filing which reiterated Abrego Garcia’s request for his case to be dropped due to alleged vindictive prosecution, the attorneys claimed that Acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire, “turns a blind eye to the motivations” behind Abrego Garcia’s case.
They further claimed, “the Chief of the Criminal Division resigned rather than bring this vindictive prosecution himself,” before asserting that McGuire attempted to “dodge” their accusations.
The Tennessee Star sent a press inquiry to Schrader, who is now listed as an adjunct professor at the Vanderbilt University Law School, to confirm his reason for resignation and to clarify whether he shared the reason with Abrego Garcia’s legal team, but did not receive a response prior to press time.
Schrader (pictured above) did not publicly state a reason for leaving when he announced his departure in a post to the social networking site, LinkedIn, earlier this year.
“It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons,” wrote Schrader on the platform. “I wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people.”
ABC News claimed at the time that Schrader’s decision, “was prompted by concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons,” citing anonymous sources.
While U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi did not unseal Abrego Garcia’s criminal indictment until June, when El Salvador agreed to return the alleged human smuggler for prosecution in Tennessee, it stems from the November 2022 stop of his vehicle by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), which The Star first reported in April.
Abrego Garcia was transporting nine individuals in a vehicle owned by a convicted human smuggler, and did not have a valid driver’s license during the stop. Despite the Trump administration releasing a document confirming the troopers suspected human trafficking, a THP spokesman told The Star that the “Biden-era FBI” instructed troopers to release Abrego Garcia and his passengers.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his case is scheduled to go to trial in January 2026. However, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys recently warned they may not be ready for trial due to constraints caused by their client’s detention at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Virginia.
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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 “Ben Schrader” by the University of Vanderbilt Law School. Background Photo “DOJ Building” by Baseball Watcher. CC BY-SA 3.0.
….or he resigned as he wasn’t up for the job. Vanderbilt faculty? What was his party affiliation? So, he thinks the case was being prosecuted for political reasons? No, he was prosecuted because the accused committed crimes and was being prosecuted for those crimes. Now, the attorney doesn’t want to prosecute criminals, isn’t that political? Not too much for insight by the prosecutor, it was very appropriate he quit.