Left: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche listens during a news conference about Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the Justice Department, Friday June 6, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson). Right: Kilmar Abrego Garcia attends a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025 (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough).
In court documents opposing Kilmar Abrego Garcia's "extraordinary and intrusive" discovery demand ahead of an evidentiary hearing on his vindictive prosecution claims, the DOJ warned a federal judge that it would be "highly damaging" to sign off on the wrongly deported man's "open-ended fishing expedition" — let alone forcing Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to testify.
The Wednesday filing submitted by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert McGuire revealed in a footnote that Abrego Garcia has subpoenaed Blanche, President Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney and the No. 2 official at the DOJ, after U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, a Barack Obama appointee, found weeks ago that there was a "realistic likelihood of vindictiveness" behind federal charges against the defendant.
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.
"To remove any doubt, Deputy Attorney General Blanche said that the criminal case was brought to return Abrego to the United States, 'not [because of] a Judge,' but instead, because of 'an arrest warrant issued by a grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee,'" the judge wrote. "This could be direct evidence of vindictiveness."
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A DOJ footnote has now revealed that Abrego Garcia's lawyers, in addition to seeking discovery of "internal governmental documents and communications," subpoenaed Blanche, along with two other top officials, to testify in court under oath:
Indeed, it is clear that Defendant is not content to stop with this discovery. On October 20, defense counsel subpoenaed the Deputy Attorney General, Associate Deputy Attorney General, and Counselor to the Deputy Attorney General, as well as two HSI agents, to testify at the evidentiary hearing.
The Trump administration, the footnote added, will vigorously and swiftly move to "quash the subpoenas" for the reason that "top executive department officials should not, absent extraordinary circumstances, be called to testify regarding their reasons for taking official actions."
McGuire, citing his own "sworn affidavit" that he was the "sole decision maker" behind the charges and wasn't directed by anyone else to bring them, expressed concern about the implications of Crenshaw permitting "overbroad, legally improper, and highly damaging" discovery that aims to pry into "predecisional" and "deliberative" internal DOJ documents "that are plainly privileged."
The acting U.S. attorney essentially stated Abrego Garcia's vindictive prosecution claim is "meritless on its face" because the top prosecutor said so.
"[T]he relevant prosecutorial decision-maker, the Acting U.S. Attorney, has explained on the record that this prosecution was not brought for vindictive or discriminatory reasons, and even if the motives of other Executive Branch officials were relevant, their public statements about Defendant reflect punitive and public-safety concerns that are plainly consistent with a legitimate motivation to prosecute him," the filing said. "The motion to compel should be denied."
A separate footnote said McGuire is prepared to testify under oath.
The judge recently rescheduled the evidentiary hearing for Nov. 4 and 5, when Abrego Garcia's legal team and the DOJ will square off for argument on "all" pending pretrial motions.
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