The Department of Justice (DOJ) has taken decisive action by filing a motion to quash subpoenas issued by Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s attorneys. They argue that the Salvadoran citizen, who was wrongly deported and now faces criminal charges in Tennessee, lacks any substantial evidence to support his claims of vindictive prosecution. The DOJ contends that his accusations amount to mere “speculation,” insufficient to justify breaching the confidentiality of the executive branch.

The DOJ maintains that the live testimony scheduled for November 4, involving acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire and Homeland Security Investigations agents John VanWie and Rana Saoud, should adequately demonstrate to the court that there is no basis for claims of vindictive prosecution against Abrego Garcia.

Emphasizing McGuire’s role as the primary decision-maker in the human smuggling prosecution, the government cautions U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw against setting a precedent. They argue that compelling high-ranking officials like Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche—who previously served as President Donald Trump’s criminal defense attorney—and two other senior figures to testify based on unsubstantiated claims could discourage open discussions in prosecutorial contexts, potentially undermining public safety and justice.

The motion to quash further asserts that Abrego Garcia’s legal team can offer nothing beyond conjecture, which falls short of the threshold needed to compel testimony from Blanche, Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, and Blanche’s counselor James McHenry. The DOJ describes the rationale for breaching the executive branch’s protected discussions as “extraordinarily weak” and calls for it to be dismissed swiftly.

The DOJ insists that there were legitimate, non-vindictive reasons for charging Abrego Garcia upon his return from El Salvador, despite Judge Crenshaw, appointed by Barack Obama, referencing remarks by Blanche on Fox News as potential “direct evidence of vindictiveness” in the case.

That is especially true, the DOJ continued, because there were plainly “non-vindictive reasons” to charge Abrego Garcia when his return to the U.S. from El Salvador became the likely scenario — even though Crenshaw, a Barack Obama appointee, cited Blanche’s Fox News remarks about the case as potential “direct evidence of vindictiveness.”

“At the time that the investigative and prosecutorial decisions were made here, there was a possibility and increasing likelihood that Defendant would return to the United States as a result of civil litigation, giving the government strong, non-vindictive reasons for investigating and prosecuting Defendant in order to ensure that he would not pose a threat to the public in the event of his return to this country,” the DOJ added.

Abrego Garcia was deported in March from Maryland and imprisoned in El Salvador at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The Trump administration, eventually admitting the deportation was due to “administrative error,” was ordered to “facilitate” his return — and it carried out that return in June, weeks after securing a federal indictment in Tennessee on charges of “smuggling illegal aliens,” allegedly stemming from a 2022 traffic stop.

After the defendant asserted that the human smuggling case was a retaliatory and vindictive action, traceable to the “embarrassment” his habeas corpus lawsuit caused the government, Crenshaw in early October ordered up an evidentiary hearing, calling Blanche’s Fox News appearance from June “remarkable” potential proof backing Abrego Garcia’s claim.

In vehement defense of Blanche and the executive branch’s privilege claims, the DOJ asked Crenshaw to reject, once and for all, Abrego Garcia’s subpoenas of high-ranking officials as “unreasonable, oppressive, and contrary to established federal law.”

As Law&Crime reported last week, the DOJ bashed Abrego Garcia’s demands as an “open-ended fishing expedition” and said the “overbroad, legally improper, and highly damaging” discovery bid could not access “predecisional” and “deliberative” internal DOJ documents “that are plainly privileged.”

As the clock ticks down to the early November hearing, it’s unclear if Abrego Garcia will even be in the United States, as he could be deported to Liberia by Halloween.