The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed in a Wednesday legal filing that it anticipates Kilmar Abrego Garcia to call Ben Schrader, who reportedly quit his job as a prosecutor over objections to the human smuggling case against the citizen of El Salvador, as a witness at an upcoming evidentiary hearing where Abrego Garcia will seek to find evidence proving the government is engaged in vindictive prosecution.
Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire announced that the DOJ anticipates Abrego Garcia to call Schrader as a witness in a filing opposing new requests for discovery by Abrego Garcia, who the prosecutor said has demanded additional information about Schrader’s departure after Obama-appointed U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw granted the defendant’s request for discovery.
“The government assumes that Defendant will call Mr. Schrader as a witness at the evidentiary hearing,” wrote McGuire, before adding that the DOJ would not object to a subpoena being issued to compel Schrader’s appearance in court.
The Tennessee Star attempted to reach Schrader using his Vanderbilt University contact information, seeking to confirm whether he was asked or subpoenaed to testify at the evidentiary hearing, but did not receive an immediate response.
McGuire’s filing also provided new details about Schrader’s involvement in the case against Abrego Garcia prior to his decision to leave the DOJ, and clarified that, despite Schrader serving as the former head of the Criminal Division for the Middle District of Tennessee, he was not assigned to the case.
Instead, the DOJ acknowledged, “there are emails between Mr. McGuire and Mr. Schrader regarding the substance of this case and the decision to charge, as well as memoranda on the decision not to charge.”
According to the filing, McGuire wrote a memo making the argument for prosecuting Abrego Garcia, while Schrader wrote a memo containing the opposite argument. The DOJ argued the emails and memos are not suitable contents to be included in discovery, which Crenshaw previously ordered should be “narrow” in focus.
The evidentiary hearing is scheduled for November 4, and follows the judge’s memorandum from earlier this month that claimed there is a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness” associated with the case against Abrego Garcia, in part due to the reported decision by Schrader to resign over concerns related to the case against Abrego Garcia.
It was originally reported that Schrader resigned due to his view the case was being prosecuted for “political reasons,” though Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys recently asserted in a court filing, “the Chief of the Criminal Division resigned rather than bring this vindictive prosecution himself.”
Crenshaw also cited as possible evidence of vindictive prosecution the June comments by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who said in a news interview that the DOJ began investigating Abrego Garcia after U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, another appointee of former President Barack Obama, joined the chorus of Democratic voices claiming the Trump administration wrongly deported Abrego Garcia.
Blanche is among five government officials who were subpoenaed by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys ahead of the evidentiary hearing in November.
Deported to El Salvador in March in accordance with a 2019 deportation order that only appeared to block his deportation to Guatemala, the U.S. Supreme Court later ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States, so that his immigration case could continue as though the removal never occurred.
Abrego Garcia was returned to Tennessee in June, less than two months after The Star reported the citizen of El Salvador was stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, when U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi unsealed the indictment accusing him of participating in a human smuggling conspiracy for nearly a decade.
Earlier this year, a spokesman for THP told The Star that the “Biden-era FBI” instructed troopers to release Abrego Garcia during the November 2022 traffic stop despite a document released by the Trump administration showing they suspected human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the human smuggling and conspiracy charges. His case is currently scheduled to reach trial in January 2026, and his attorneys recently submitted possible jury questions to the court.
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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 Ben Schrader and “Kilmar Abrego Garcia” by Tennessee Highway Patrol.
