Prosecutors Say Kilmar Abrego Garcia Received Orders from Deported Smuggling Ring Leader, Trafficked Guns and Drugs

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Federal prosecutors last Wednesday asked U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw to reverse Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Holmes’ earlier decision to deny the Department of Justice (DOJ) request for a detention hearing for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the previously deported citizen of El Salvador who pleaded not guilty to federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire wrote that Holmes “erred factually and legally” by rejecting prosecutors’ application of the Bail Reform Act, but also when the magistrate “failed to assign proper weight to sworn testimony” by a federal agent who provided testimony during her June 13 hearing, which revealed new details about the allegations against Abrego Garcia.

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Kilmar Abrego Garcia Filing Claims DOJ Flipped Convicted Human Smuggler to Build Case

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the federal case against him in the Middle District of Tennessee claimed in a Friday legal filing that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) offered a reduced sentence to an alleged co-conspirator in exchange for incriminating information about the citizen of El Salvador.

Submitted to U.S. District Magistrate Barbara Holmes, the request by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys request their client be kept in DOJ custody until at least July 16, which would give District Court Judge Paula Xinis time to consider the Thursday request by his immigration lawyers to force the U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain him in Maryland.

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New Revelations in Kilmar Abrego Garcia Case Should Serve as Cautionary Tale for Democrats, Reporter Says

Tom Pappert and MPL

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador who was deported by the Trump administration earlier this year, should serve as a cautionary tale for the Democratic Party moving forward, given the new developments surrounding Abrego Garcia.

Last month, The Star was the first to report that Abrego Garcia was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officers who detained him during a 2022 traffic stop on I-40 in Putnam County; however, was let go at the time after the Biden-era Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested that the state officers release him and the nine other passengers in the vehicle.

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Mississippi Traffic Stop of Human Smuggler Who Owned Car Driven by Kilmar Abrego Garcia Differed Wildly from 2022 Tennessee Incident

HSI Traffic Stop Arrest

Court records documenting the charges levied against human smuggler and illegal immigrant Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, obtained by The Tennessee Star on Wednesday, illustrate a stark contrast between the traffic December 4, 2019 stop of the vehicle containing Hernandez Reyes, and the December 1, 2022 stop by Tennessee Highway Patrol of a vehicle owned by Hernandez Reyes but operated by the citizen of El Salvador who was deported last month under the Trump administration, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The Star was first to report last week that Abrego Garcia was stopped by highway patrol in 2022, when he was transporting eight passengers from Texas to Maryland, with a claimed journey through Missouri, before reaching Tennessee.

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Convicted Human Smuggler, Illegal Immigrant Who Owned Van Driven by Kilmar Abrego Garcia Claimed to Once Live in Maryland

Passengers in a van

It was reported on Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador who was deported by the Trump administration last month but previously lived in Maryland as an illegal immigrant, was driving a vehicle owned by Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes when he was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in December 2022, and subsequently released at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI,” despite officers at the scene suspecting he was engaged in human trafficking.

Hernandez Reyes is another citizen of El Salvador who was illegally residing in the United States prior to his 2020 conviction for human smuggling, and the preceding criminal complaint filed by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reveals Hernandez Reyes told law enforcement “he previously lived in Maryland, but now lives in Houston Texas.”

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Tennessee Department of Safety’s Continued Slow Walk of Materials Related to 2022 Traffic Stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia Suggests Cover Up of Biden-Era FBI Failure, Reporter Says

Tennessee Department of Safety Administrator Jell Long

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said that the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s continued slow walk of releasing information requested by The Star of the 2022 traffic stop in Putnam County of Kilmar Abrego Garcia by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officers suggests that the state agency is participating in a cover up of Biden-era Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) failures.

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