Abrego Garcia Lawyers Question Evidence From Key Witness in Criminal Case
The efforts by the lawyers were largely focused on chipping away at the accounts of a group of witnesses who have come forward in recent weeks to accuse Mr. Abrego Garcia of having taken part in a nearly decadelong conspiracy to smuggle illegal immigrants as a member of the violent street gang MS-13.
Appearing in court Wednesday, the lawyers also questioned the federal agent who led the inquiry into Mr. Abrego Garcia, getting him to acknowledge on the stand that while he had personally spoken with the government's star witness in the case, he had never looked at three previous — and less incriminating — interviews conducted by other investigators.
All of this took place at a hearing in Federal District Court in Nashville intended to determine whether Mr. Abrego Garcia should be freed from criminal custody as he awaits trial. While a federal magistrate judge has already determined that he should go free, finding that he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community, the district judge overseeing the case, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., was asked by the government to revisit that decision.
Judge Crenshaw said he planned to make his own decision next week; how he rules will greatly affect Mr. Abrego Garcia's future.
In a remarkable admission, the Justice Department said last week that it intends to push forward with prosecuting Mr. Abrego Garcia only if the judge keeps him locked up as he awaits trial. If Mr. Abrego Garcia is released, department lawyers have suggested that the charges will likely be dropped and he will be turned over to immigration officials for immediate deportation.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Fresh wave of asylum hotel protests expected after Epping ruling
A wave of protests outside hotels used as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers is expected in the coming days. It comes as the latest figures showed there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers in hotels, marking a rise of 8% during Labour's first year in office. Stand Up To Racism is preparing to hold counter-protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers on Friday, including in Bournemouth, Cardiff and Leeds, with further demonstrations expected on Saturday. Meanwhile, councils across the country controlled by Labour, the Conservatives and Reform UK are investigating whether they could pursue legal challenges against asylum hotels. This follows a judge granting Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction on Tuesday that blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Essex. The council had argued the injunction was needed amid 'unprecedented levels of protest and disruption' in connection with asylum seeker accommodation. Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the people of Epping who protested and its council have 'led the way', writing in The Telegraph that 'our country's patience has snapped'. His Conservative colleague Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said on Thursday that people have 'every right' to protest over asylum hotels in their areas. Labour has pledged to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers by the end of this parliament in 2029. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper insisted Labour had taken 'crucial steps' in the past year towards this by cutting the asylum backlog and money spent on the asylum system, increasing returns of failed asylum seekers and overhauling appeals. While the number of asylum seekers housed in hotels has risen, Government spending on asylum in the UK is down 12%, data published on Thursday showed. The number waiting on an initial decision on an asylum application in the UK at the end of June dropped below 100,000 for the first time in four years. Asylum seekers and their families can be housed in temporary accommodation, known as contingency accommodation, if they are awaiting assessment of their claim or have had a claim approved and there is not enough longer-term accommodation available. When there is not enough housing, the Home Office – which has a legal obligation to provide accommodation to asylum seekers who would otherwise be destitute – can move people to alternatives such as hotels and large sites, like former military bases. Amid hotel protests, campaigners including Rape Crisis and Refuge have warned conversations about violence against women and girls are being 'hijacked by an anti-migrant agenda' which they argued fuels divisions and harms survivors.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump delivers burgers and pizza to D.C. National Guard. The latest on his federal takeover, 10 days in.
Reports suggest that federal authorities have focused more on detaining immigrants and clearing homeless encampments than on fighting violent crime. Ten days after President Donald Trump ordered 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to crack down on what he described as 'crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor' in the nation's capital, Trump paid them and other federal agents a personal visit Thursday evening to praise their efforts — and deliver burgers and pizza. 'We're going to have the best capital ever,' Trump said. 'It's going to look better than it ever did.' Earlier in the day, the president implied that he would be patrolling the city's streets with law enforcement, but he returned to the White House immediately after the brief event. 'I'm going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military, of course,' the president had told conservative talk show host Todd Starnes. Either way, Thursday's presidential dinner delivery will draw attention to the events of the past week and a half — and raise questions about whether Trump's push to impose federal control over the city is working to reduce crime. To catch up, here are the latest beats in this developing story. Taking over the D.C. police — sort of By invoking Section 740 of the Home Rule Act — and unilaterally declaring an emergency in D.C. — Trump was able to take control of the District's Metropolitan Police Department last week. 'Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,' he claimed. 'And we're not going to let it happen anymore.' But when Attorney General Pam Bondi tried to replace current D.C. police chief Pamela Smith with an 'emergency police commissioner" in the form of Drug Enforcement Administrator Terry Cole, D.C.'s attorney general sued to block the move. 'If effectuated, the Bondi Order would upend the command structure of MPD, endangering the safety of the public and law enforcement officers alike," Smith wrote in a declaration filed in the suit. "In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive." On Friday, a federal judge effectively sided with D.C., saying that while Bowser must follow White House directives, the Home Rule Act does not grant the administration full control of the police force. As a result, Cole has been reduced to serving as an intermediary between the administration and the MPD — and Smith is still in charge of D.C.'s police. Boots on the ground No one is debating who commands the D.C. National Guard: the president, according to the Code of the District of Columbia. So there's been no legal pushback to Trump mobilizing an estimated 800 D.C. Guard members, some armed, to patrol the city. The same goes for the 500 federal law enforcement agents he's deployed from agencies such as the FBI. Over the last week, 'armoured vehicles have lined up near monuments and other tourist sites, and drivers have been stopped on a popular nightlife corridor,' according to the BBC. 'Helicopters from the police force for the national park system have swept through the sky.' And reinforcements are on the way. Responding to a Trump administration request, six Republican-led states — West Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Ohio and Tennessee — have pledged to send more than 1,100 National Guard troops to join their D.C. counterparts. A focus on immigration In addition to trying to install an emergency police commissioner, Bondi has also sought to end D.C. policies that prohibit local police from collaborating with federal immigration authorities and arresting residents solely for being in the country illegally. That issue is still being contested in court — but the same federal judge who blocked the Trump administration's total MPD takeover last week is allowing the White House to use city police for immigration enforcement (for now). The upshot is that so far, reports suggest that federal authorities have focused more on detaining immigrants and clearing homeless encampless than on fighting violent crime. Checkpoints are becoming increasingly common. Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, 630 people have been arrested, according to the White House — 251 of whom were in the country illegally. That's a rate of 40%. Only about 5% of D.C. residents are undocumented immigrants, according to a recent Pew estimate. 'We're finding these criminally illegal aliens, and at the first opportunity we're picking them up, and we're sending them out of the country,' Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller told Fox News on Saturday. Trump has also suggested that if his approach 'works' in D.C., he could export it elsewhere in the future. 'We're going to take back our capital," the president said last week. "And then we'll look at other cities also.' Questions about crime stats Increasingly, Bowser has been questioning Trump's motives, noting that while D.C.'s violent crime rate rose to historic levels in 2023 and remains a concern for many residents, it has fallen substantially over the past two years, as is true in most major U.S. cities, according to police data cited by the Justice Department. 'Our police department has been consistently precipitously driving down crime,' she said at a news conference Thursday, calling the department's work 'effective.' Bowser then added that Bondi's orders 'almost exclusively focused on immigration enforcement and homeless encampment enforcement,' rather than crime. 'I'll let you draw your own conclusions,' Bowser said. In response, the White House has questioned D.C.'s crime stats. On Monday, Trump accused the District of releasing 'Fake Crime numbers in order to create a false illusion of safety'; the following day, Fox News and other outlets reported that the Department of Justice is actively investigating claims that the MPD 'manipulated crime data to publish more favorable stats.' This isn't the first time such accusations have been leveled. In May, the city placed a police commander on leave to investigate whether he was manipulating crime data, and the head of D.C.'s police union has cast doubt on official numbers. But so far, there's no evidence of systemic or widespread tampering, and D.C.'s data aligns with national trends. According to the Associated Press, the average number of people arrested each day in Washington has increased by about 20% during the first 10 days of Trump's federal takeover. Play Farm Merge Valley
Washington Post
31 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Kilmar Abrego Garcia could be released from jail Friday. Here's what to know
A U.S. magistrate judge is expected to order the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from a Tennessee jail Friday while he awaits trial on federal human smuggling charges. The release will provide the closest thing to freedom Abrego Garcia has felt since he was wrongfully deported to a notorious El Salvador prison in March, making him a face — if not the face — of President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies.
