Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Suffers Massive Loss as Biggest Case Dismissed

Episode Date: May 22, 2026

🚨In breaking news and for the first time in the Administration, the Trump DOJ has been found liable for Vindictively Prosecutiion requiring the immediate dismissal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s criminal indictment.  Popok reports on Federal Judge Crenshaw finding that the Trump DOJ and Acting AG Todd Blanche did not carry their  burden of overcoming the presumption of vindictiveness, nor properly explained why the Government went from trying to remove Garcia but not indict him, to indict him and not remove him, all after Garcia and his attorneys won a series of cases up to the US Supreme Court protecting his due process and civil liberties.   Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show The Ken Harbaugh Show: https://meidasnews.com/tag/the-ken-harbaugh-show Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We got breaking news. It looks like the Kafkaesque nightmare being visited upon Kilmer-Abrigo Garcia by the Trump administration. May it long last be coming to an end. Judge Crenshaw, in the Middle District of Tennessee. has just issued a 30-plus-page decision dismissing the criminal indictment against Abrago-Garcia, finding that the government, the Department of Justice, Todd Blanche, have not rebutted the presumption of vindictive prosecution. And having failed to challenge or meet the evidence that was presented

by Abrago Garcia's lawyers, Judge Crenshaw believes he has no choice but to dismiss the indictment for human trafficking or human smuggling in that district. Having then been released from detention, having now been released from ICE detention by a judge in Maryland,

as of right now, Kilmer Abrago-Garcia is a free man. Don't put it past the Department of Justice or Donald Trump or immigration to do something else. else to try to capture him. But for right now, the first vindictive prosecution finding by a judge against the Trump administration has been made by Judge Crenshaw.

Let's get to the bottom of it. I'm Michael Popak. You're here on Midas Touch on Legal A.F. We've been waiting patiently for this decision. In fact, I was just on about two hours ago on a substack live on Legal A.F with Adam Klassfeld of All Rise News. who's also following the story. We said, any moment now, you know, judges have exquisite timing.

I don't know, Memorial Day, a federal holiday, we're going to get this order soon. And bang, as soon as I got back to my desk, order is out. Let me start at the conclusion and work our way backwards. Kilmer Abrago-Garcia, by the way, just to reframe this issue, is an immigrant who came to this country from Venezuela and who Donald Trump and his administration. illegally deported in the middle of the night without due process to El Salvador in the torture prison of Seacot, where he got immediately tortured upon arrival. He's married to an American woman. He has two American children. He's never been charged with a crime in any country, Venezuela, El Salvador or here. The government had to admit that he was illegally deported and removed to El Salvador.

door. It made its way to the United States Supreme Court. It took two decisions that he won, Braygo Garcia's lawyers won at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a decision 9-0 by the United States Supreme Court, multiple decisions by Judge Zinnis in Maryland, all in his favor. He's on a winning streak to have him brought back to the United States. After all of that happened, a retaliatory, vindictive government decided it was time to reopen a closed criminal case and then tried to indict him. So they went from removing him and not indicting him to indicting him and not removing him. And it is that flip-flop that Judge Crenshaw said, especially with the two meager witnesses that were presented in the courtroom, a special agent Saoud who got the file like days before the indictment.

it was effectively instructed to reopen the case about a traffic stop in 2022 in which Brango Garcia had a bunch of people in the car, okay? He didn't even get a broken taillight citation for that one. He was basically, the agent was told to reopen it. And then the former U.S. attorney, acting U.S. attorney for that district, middle district, Mr. Robert McGuire, you know, who didn't testify and this was a problem for the judge, Todd Blanche. Then the deputy attorney general didn't.

testify. You know who else didn't testify? His assistant, Akash Singh, who is referenced throughout the emails as putting pressure on the middle district to indict. And yet, he didn't show up either. Neither did any of the other evidence. So the judge's not buying it. Let's get to the judge's decision. Page 31, the conclusion, what the government has chosen not to address is as telling as what it has. The government's post-hearing brief, right? He held a trial. After the trial, after the trial, you submit a brief, mentions Todd Blanche once in a parenthetical to McGuire's testimony. It mentions the Supreme Court's ruling once, the one that 9-0 ordered to Brayor Garcia to return to the United States.

And then in a footnote, it mentions Singh, Akash Singh, the assistant to the DAG, Deputy Attorney General, 11 times, framing him as the recipient of McGuire's updates, but ignoring his close, continuous, substantive oversight. pressure campaign from Maine Justice in Washington led by Akash Singh on behalf of Todd Blanche, including a reference to a series of emails. The government does not mention Schrader's recommendation. That was the guy that was inside the U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Tennessee, who resigned, and on the way out, he said, we should not be indicting Obrigo Garcia. government doesn't engage with that evidence at all,

doesn't mention Schrader's recommendation against charging Abrago at all. The reopening of the closed Homeland Security investigation is the source of the vindictiveness, says the judge. Blanche's public statements about the investigation and Singh's involvement tied main justice in Washington to the reopened investigation and the indictment. In fact, here's a clip that the judge used as presumptive, evidence of the presumption of vindictiveness. Here's Laura Ingramham interviewing Todd Blanche, play the clip. And a judge in Maryland and many members of Congress, we had a senator fly down

to meet with him, questioned that decision and said, oh, no, he's just a family man. And so we said, okay, we'll look into it. And when we started looking into it, and we have great law enforcement officers and prosecutors who started studying this man and investigating him, And what we found is that we were right. We were right. He is a criminal who should be deported. And at the end of the day, we have a responsibility to protect the American people and to keep our country safe.

And so he was indicted. Judge continues. After the indictment became reality, the government ignores McGuire's testimony. That's the guy that took over as U.S. attorney. That main justice caused Abrago's return to the United States as the District of Maryland had long required. The government's rebuttal to the presumption of vindictiveness does not engage with that evidence.

As a matter of logic, the government cannot rebut a presumption that it does not even address in evidence supporting the presumption. The court does not reach its conclusion lightly. The objective evidence here shows that absent Abregos' successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution. He then goes on to, quote, then Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, who wrote famously once, and this is how the judge started his opinion as well, that he cautioned that when, quote,

the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass or select some group of unpopular persons and then looks for defense, that is the greatest danger of a person. abuse of prosecuting power. This is a treatise written, a chapter written by Robert H. Jackson called the Federal Prosecutor from 1940. Judge concludes the evidence before this court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power. I'm going to post this on legal AF substack for you to read. The judge also goes through a very telling timeline. You know, I've done this for a long time, 35 years, sometimes the power of just a timeline and the momentum of a timeline demonstrates, even without having any argumentative words around it, any persuasive words around it,

just the timeline could make your point. And the judge does that in a series of timelines from the beginning to the end. And when I think anybody that just reads the timeline comes away with, oh yeah, this was vindictive prosecution to get back to Brago Garcia because he was winning. on the civil and civil liberties side of his case. And that's what the judge concluded. Now, what's going to happen next? What else?

Donald Trump, who has put the entire weight of Homeland Security, the borders are, Department of Justice, first Pam Bondi, then Todd Blanche, and everything on the slender shoulders of Abrago Garcia is not going to give up. That's why we called it Kafkaesque. He's going to continue. And so I'm sure there's going to be an appeal

to the, I think it's the Sixth Circuit in Tennessee, that sits over Tennessee, then it's going to come up back to the United States Supreme Court. But with one caveat, you know, the judges, the justices of the Supreme Court already ruled in Obrango Garcia on a similar matter, 9-0, and ordered and supported Judge Zinnis' decision

that the government facilitate his return. Now, for several months, The government said we can't. It's in the sovereign hands of El Salvador. We have no control over that. Who knows what's going to happen next? And then it turned out a lot of that was a lie. That the El Salvadorans were telling other people, including the U.N.,

the Americans control the jail and control everything that happens with people that they detained there, that they were effectively, they were just U.S. detainees that happened to be in El Salvador for which the United States paid six or seven million dollars. So I'm not sure there's votes to support Donald Trump continuing to abuse one poor man to make some sort of point long gone. Things have also changed for Donald Trump since he last went after and abused Ibrahim Garcia, namely the polling numbers.

In the beginning, Trump could be like, well, I wonder of my migration and immigration policies of rounding up and deporting two or three million people and having 10,000 lawsuits about violations of due process. I wonder if that's working with the American people. And it isn't. Look at the new polling numbers that came out today. And all in the last week, 60, 65% of Americans at least disapprove of the president

and his administration. 70% disapprove of his migration policy. You want to go with Hispanics and how they view in the United States, Hispanic Americans and how they view the president. it's up to 75%. So things have changed politically. The wins have changed. The question is, is Donald Trump going to get that message and decide this is not worth a battle any longer? We'll see. I'm sure they'll file the notice of appeal. We'll report on it right here on Legal AF and on Midas Dutch Network. Take a minute, support what we do. Come over to Legal AF YouTube channel

and hit the free subscribe button. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popak. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our substack at Midasplus.com. You'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, add free episodes of our podcast, and more exclusive content only available at Midasplus.com.