A Federal Judge Just Called Trump’s DOJ Vindictive — And He’s Right

A Federal Judge Just Called Trump’s DOJ Vindictive — And He’s Right

A federal judge didn’t just dismiss the charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia last Friday. He handed down a verdict on the Trump administration itself — and the word he used was vindictive.

Let that land. A sitting federal judge looked at the full record of what the Justice Department did to this man and called it an abuse of prosecutorial power. Not aggressive. Not overzealous. Vindictive.

Here is what actually happened. The Trump administration illegally deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious Salvadoran supermax prison in March 2025, in direct violation of a court order protecting him. He fought back in court and won. The Supreme Court ordered the administration to bring him home. So what did Trump’s DOJ do the moment he stepped back on American soil? They indicted him on human smuggling charges — stemming from a 2022 traffic stop where he was given a warning and sent on his way. An investigation that had been closed for years was suddenly reopened the moment he became an inconvenience to the White House.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw saw exactly what it was. The court found that without Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit challenging his deportation, the government would not have brought this prosecution. The case had nothing to do with justice. It was punishment for winning.

This is the Trump DOJ’s message to anyone who dares challenge this administration in court — win, and we come after you. That is not law enforcement. That is retaliation. That is the behavior of an authoritarian government using the criminal justice system as a weapon against its own critics.

The judge said vindictive. The rest of us can say something simpler. This is what fascism looks like with a briefcase.