I have to admit I didn’t see this coming. Like I suspect most people I was sure Abrego Garcia would die an awful death in prison in El Salvador. Once the heat died down over his being sent there in the first place even though ICE/DHS knew there was a court order specifically barring his deportation. Especially it said to El Salvador. Our courts ordered Garcia returned, and you saw the appalling spectacle of Trump and his gang yukking it up over Garcia’s plight with El Salvador’s dictator. In the Oval Office. However Trump has developed bigger problems than looking weak, going ‘TACO’ on Garcia. He needed an off-ramp and damn if he didn’t find one. Garcia has been accused of human trafficking and returned to the U.S. to stand trial.
Multiple news outlets including Reuters have reported on this development this afternoon. I just read a detailed accounting of what’s happened and what’s to come by Reuters. Team Trump’s ‘solution’ on defusing their self-created mess is I have to admit creative as hell. It’s appalling to be sure but frankly I’m impressed. Trump had, with the help of his criminal gang painted himself into a corner. He couldn’t back down even before TACO became a thing. It seems he’s also not prepared, or has the stomach for a full-blown Constitutional crisis as he can’t be sure SCOTUS itself would order him to get Garcia back.
Trumping (pun intended) up Human Trafficking charges allows both Trumpty and his counterpart in El Salvador a way to save face. I find it interesting that the indictment was filed in a federal court in Tennessee of all places. WTF? Tennessee? I assume Trump and Bondi figure they’ll get a jury of MAGAs who would vote to convict even if there was video of every minute of Garcia’s life in Maryland proving he wasn’t doing what Bondi’s DOJ claims he’s been doing. DC would be the appropriate place I would think, or a border state like Texas. But Tennessee?
Well, let’s take a look at what the government is alleging. They claim that rather than the work it can be proven Garcia was doing every day in Maryland he was instead conspiring to ‘transport illegal immigrants into the United States.’ That, along with also transporting them, weapons and narcotics too was his real job all these years:
The indictment also charges Abrego Garcia and two unidentified co-conspirators with transporting firearms illegally purchased in Texas for resale in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia also transported illegal narcotics purchased in Texas for resale in Maryland and was on some occasions accompanied on those trips by members and associates of MS-13, according to the indictment.
Pay attention to that part about ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ because I suspect they are the only evidence against Garcia. Of course, it was a confidential informant who claimed (with no proof presented in court) that Garcia had somehow while living and working in a Maryland suburb of DC “active” in MS-13 operations up in New York City! Well, we’ll see. The point is Trump needed a way out with Garcia, AND he needed to give his counterpart in El Salvador a way to save face too! A bevy of serious felony charges turns out to be the solution.
So Garcia is back, in detention of course. We don’t know where yet. However it illustrates a point made by his defense attorneys:
In a statement, Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Andrew Rossman, said it would now be up to the U.S. judicial system to ensure he received due process.
“Today’s action proves what we’ve known all along — that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,” said Rossman, a partner at law firm Quinn Emanuel.
At least Garcia is out of that hellhole of a gulag in El Salvador. However he’s not free as he should be. We are a long, long ways from a happy ending on all this. Garcia’s lawyers will want to see the evidence the government claims it has. Not being a lawyer, much less one who’s taken part in federal criminal cases I’m not up to speed on the timeline for when discovery has to be handed over. I do know there is a solid federal statute Garcia can use to get a speedy trial. If as I suspect the government doesn’t actually have a case they will try to drag things out.
Usually it’s defendants who want to drag things out, especially in federal cases. Federal prosecutors seldom bring charges unless they’ve got an ironclad case. Hell, they are notorious for letting people off the hook because they don’t have a slam-dunk! This is a different DOJ though, and like the rest of Trump’s administration it’s all about image. A reality TV show.
Here’s what I’m sure of. Fox and other RWNJ will have Garcia tried and convicted in the minds of every MAGA in this country before this weekend is over. In the longer term Garcia will remain in jail. Also, the DOJ will fight like hell both to keep him there (as in no bail) and from even having visits with family. Maybe even suddenly move him without warning to keep him from having access to his lawyers for a while. Garcia’s ordeal is far from over.
Still, the time will come when his case goes to court. If as he should be he’s acquitted I hope the following arrangements have been made. First, a helicopter will be on standby and land just before Garcia and his lawyers exit the courthouse. They will press their way through the press scrum and Garcia will get on it and be flown to some local airfield where his family will be standing by. From there, with arrangements having been made for asylum there that plane will fly the Garcia family over the northern border into Canada. Only then will he be safe.
For now, he’s at least safer than he was yesterday. He’s back in U.S. Custody. It’s a small step but at least it’s in the right direction.
***From Ursula*** Zoomers, if you’re able to contribute in any way, we could use help. I’ve been ill and recuperating from a brief hospitalization. Times are tough for political commentary to begin with, and that’s been the case since November 5. Half the country is in a major depression. But we need to keep on keeping on. This too shall pass and there will be a brighter, post-Trump day if we work for it. Please join us and help if you can. Thank you. Ursula
As usual, we ask ourselves, “What’s the worst thing they can do?” And then they do worse – because they have no shame in lying.
For them, there is no truth, only narrative to be controlled.
All this, because they can’t admit they were wrong and made a mistake. SMH
Why, Oh why is jaywalking not on the indictment list. Like any of us, he’s sure to be guily on that one. Damn, not a federal crime.
I have to think Bondi and her underlings kept him in El Salvador long enough for them to cook up the charges, conspiracies, etc., then find people dumb enough to claim to have known what was happening. Similar to the earlier “informant” who placed Kilmar Abrego Garcia in New York gangland while he worked in New Jersey and never was in New York. Then she had to find a MAGA grand jury (in Tennessee, of course) to convict him.
I trust that everyone here has read that Bondi was referred to the Florida Bar Assn. for sanctions for the third time; the Bar refused the first two referrals.