(NEW YORK) — A legal advocacy group has asked the New York bar to investigate Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche for potential violations stemming from his role in the prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The letter, from the Campaign for Accountability, was sent days after the federal judge overseeing the human smuggling case against Abrego Garcia dismissed the indictment, citing a “tainted investigation” by Blanche.
“The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in his ruling on Friday.
Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March of last year to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he denies.
He was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, after which U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis released him from ICE detention while he was awaiting trial.
Judge Crenshaw, in his decision Friday, wrote that the timing of a DHS agent’s decision to reopen a closed investigation of a November 2022 traffic stop, as well as “now unrebutted public statements tying the reopened investigation” to Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit “taints the investigation with a vindictive motive.”
The criminal charges in Tennessee stem from a 2022 traffic stop that was disclosed in an April 2025 press release issued by the Department of Homeland Security, which said it had a “bombshell investigative report” regarding the stop, alleging that Abrego Garcia was a suspected human trafficker. The release included a screengrab of body camera video from the traffic stop.
“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
In its letter filed on Wednesday, the Campaign for Accountability said that Blanche may have violated several rules within the New York Rules of Professional Conduct, including “prohibiting dishonesty, conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, and the use of criminal charges to gain an advantage in a civil matter.”
“A federal judge found that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche personally launched a criminal prosecution not to enforce the law, but to provide cover for the administration after Mr. Abrego Garcia fought against his illegal deportation to El Salvador where he was imprisoned in CECOT,” Campaign for Accountability Executive Director Michelle Kuppersmith said in a statement. “It is imperative that the New York Bar hold Mr. Blanche accountable for his reprehensible conduct.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Abrego Garcia was not charged or arrested during the traffic stop. Body camera footage showed Tennessee troopers — after questioning Abrego Garcia — discussing among themselves their suspicions of human trafficking because nine people were traveling in the vehicle without luggage.Â
A Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement following Crenshaw’s order, “Another activist judge has placed politics above public safety. The judge’s order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal.”
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