2026-04-11T10:00:55.795Z / 美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）
作者：德文·科尔
2026年4月11日美国东部时间上午6:00发布
基尔马尔·阿布雷戈·加西亚（左）与美国代理司法部长托德·布兰奇。
盖蒂图片社/路透社
随着托德·布兰奇执掌司法部，一名联邦法官即将裁定，这位现任代理司法部长去年发表的争议性言论是否会导致特朗普政府时期最引人注目的刑事案件之一被撤销。
布兰奇针对基尔马尔·阿布雷戈·加西亚提出的人口走私指控发表的公开言论，数月来一直妨碍检方将案件送上法庭。阿布雷戈·加西亚声称自己遭到了报复性起诉。
一名法官随时可能做出裁决，决定是否利用这些言论驳回指控。但如果法官不驳回指控，他可能会传唤布兰奇前往他位于田纳西州纳什维尔的法庭，就司法部对阿布雷戈·加西亚提起刑事诉讼的动机接受宣誓质询。
这一情况凸显了司法部高层的公开失言可能会对这个受唐纳德·特朗普总统格外关注的机构造成重大现实影响。
前司法部长帕姆·邦迪曾因有关爱泼斯坦的不实言论多次陷入困境——最引人注目的一次是她在福克斯新闻节目中称自己持有一份杰弗里·爱泼斯坦客户名单。
“鉴于布兰奇如今已是代理司法部长，且有可能成为该职位的正式候选人，法官对布兰奇言论真实性的判断就显得格外重要，”CNN高级法律分析师、前联邦检察官伊利·霍尼格说道。
“如果法官认定布兰奇的言论支持报复性起诉的结论，那将是布兰奇和司法部的污点，也会损害他的公信力，”霍尼格补充道。
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司法部未回应置评请求。
阿布雷戈·加西亚案自去年3月被错误遣返回萨尔瓦多以来，一直是特朗普政府的棘手问题。联邦各级法院均认定这一错误必须纠正，但官员们数月来一直拒绝将这位三个孩子的父亲从萨尔瓦多接回马里兰州——美国政府称他是萨尔瓦多帮派MS-13的危险成员。
今年6月，田纳西州联邦检方以多年前该州一次交通拦截事件为依据，对阿布雷戈·加西亚提出两项人口走私指控后，他终于被遣返回美国。
官员们宣布阿布雷戈·加西亚回国的当天，布兰奇在福克斯新闻上表示，司法部启动对阿布雷戈·加西亚的调查，是因为马里兰州一名法官既认定政府“无权驱逐他”，又指责官员在处理他的问题上“行为不当”。
阿布雷戈·加西亚的律师抓住这番言论，敦促负责审理此案的韦弗利·克伦肖法官驳回两项指控，称检方此举是报复性起诉。法官去年的两份裁决显示，他倾向于采纳这一主张。
这位前总统巴拉克·奥巴马任命的法官去年10月指出，政府有责任反驳一种推定：即官员重启对阿布雷戈·加西亚的多年旧案调查，并随后要求大陪审团批准指控，只是为了惩罚他就错误遣返问题在马里兰州提起诉讼。
“副司法部长布兰奇直接将马里兰州的诉讼与对阿布雷戈犯罪行为的调查联系起来。这至少表明（特朗普政府）对阿布雷戈心存不满，他的案件并非普通的公诉，”克伦肖当时写道。
克伦肖曾给予检方机会，让他们通过传唤证人作证来反驳报复性起诉的推定，以证明案件中的关键决策是由当地做出的，而非华盛顿的高层官员（如布兰奇及其副手）下令，也未受他们的间接压力。
但阿布雷戈·加西亚的律师本周告诉法官，这番证词对检方岌岌可危的案件几乎没有帮助。他们辩称，两位宣誓作证的证人“无法或不愿”提供能最终让案件继续审理下去的关键细节。
尤为重要的是，他们指出布兰奇本人并未出庭解释他去年6月发表的、危及案件的言论。
“布兰奇先生并未出庭反驳由他自己的言论引发的推定，”他们在法庭文件中写道。“政府竭尽全力不让任何解释提交法庭。”
“这种抗拒的最合理解释是，任何试图解释的行为都将徒劳无功，反而会暴露本次起诉核心的报复意图，”阿布雷戈·加西亚的律师辩称。
而司法部方面则坚持认为，本案的首席检察官罗伯特·麦圭尔是对阿布雷戈·加西亚提起公诉的唯一决策者。
“这一决定并非出于对（阿布雷戈·加西亚）的敌意，”检方周一在克伦肖面前表示。“它并非在政治压力或预期下做出的。同样毋庸置疑的是，提起公诉的决定并非由司法部领导层下令。相反，该决定仅以证据为依据。”
如果克伦肖认定检方成功反驳了报复性起诉的推定，那么这一裁决将启动另一轮法庭程序，包括他必须决定布兰奇本人是否必须就案件的起源出庭作证。
霍尼格表示，尽管布兰奇在司法部的临时（且可能更长久的）职位如果案件进入这一阶段可能对他有利，但他的职位绝非所谓的“免死金牌”。
“从法律技术层面来说，无论是副司法部长、代理司法部长还是正式任命的司法部长，都没有区别，”他说。“但从实际角度来看，你在司法部的职位越高，法官就越会尽量避免将某人传唤到庭——除非实在迫不得已。”
政府仍计划将阿布雷戈·加西亚驱逐至非洲
与此同时，政府想要将阿布雷戈·加西亚送上法庭的意愿，让去年最初下令官员将他接回美国的马里兰州法官感到困惑。
美国地区法官宝拉·辛尼斯此前曾多次发布裁决，阻止政府迅速重新拘留并驱逐阿布雷戈·加西亚。她周二尖锐地质问司法部律师，为何他们要努力解除这些限制，以便国土安全部能够将他驱逐至利比里亚，而与此同时司法部的其他律师却在努力推进对他的刑事诉讼。
国土安全部数月来一直试图将阿布雷戈·加西亚驱逐至多个非洲国家，同时拒绝了他希望被送往哥斯达黎加的请求——哥斯达黎加曾表示，如果阿布雷戈·加西亚抵达，将为其提供某种形式的法律地位。由于田纳西州案件中对他施加的审前释放条件，他无法自行前往中美洲国家。
“司法部和代理司法部长托德·布兰奇正在田纳西州中区对他提起公诉，”辛尼斯在听证会上说道，随后补充道：“你不能两头都占。”
“司法部似乎没有撤销这项起诉的意向，”这位法官表示。“归根结底，要么你希望他留在美国接受刑事审判，要么不希望。”
“但如果你既希望快速驱逐他，又希望刑事诉讼继续进行，这就引发了一些严重的担忧，关于在利比里亚发生的事情，”她补充道，似乎对阿布雷戈·加西亚的论点表示同情——他认为美国推动将他“流放”至这个西非国家，不过是对他去年就错误遣返提起诉讼的“惩罚”。
关于辛尼斯禁止政府重新驱逐阿布雷戈·加西亚的裁决的更多争论，预计将在本月晚些时候的另一场听证会上展开。
A key criminal case could soon get tossed because of acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s comments
2026-04-11T10:00:55.795Z / CNN
By Devan Cole
PUBLISHED Apr 11, 2026, 6:00 AM ET
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, left, and acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche.
Getty Images/Reuters
As Todd Blanche takes the reins at the Justice Department, a federal judge is set to decide whether controversial remarks made last year by the now-acting attorney general should lead to the unravelling of one of the Trump administration’s marquee criminal cases.
Blanche’s public statements about human smuggling charges brought against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the US wrongly deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador, have for months frustrated prosecutors’ ability to bring the case to trial as Abrego Garcia has asserted that he’s being vindictively targeted.
A judge is poised to decide at any time whether to use those comments to dismiss the charges. But if doesn’t toss out the charges, he could decide to summon Blanche to his courtroom in Nashville, Tennessee, to answer questions under oath about the department’s motivation for criminally pursuing Abrego Garcia.
The situation underscores how public missteps by the Justice Department’s top brass have the potential to lead to major real-world consequences for an agency that is of particular interest to President Donald Trump.
When Pam Bondi was attorney general, her inaccurate comments on Epstein landed her in hot water more than once – most notably when she suggested on Fox News she had a list of names of men who were clients of Jeffrey Epstein.
“The judge’s determination as to the truthfulness of Blanche’s statements takes on extra importance now that Blanche is the acting attorney general and, potentially, a candidate for the permanent job,” said Elie Honig, a CNN senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor.
“If the judge finds that Blanche’s statements support a finding of vindictive prosecution, that’ll be a black eye for Blanche, and for DOJ, and will impact his credibility,” Honig added.
Related article Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a press conference at the Justice Department in Washington, DC, on April 7, 2026. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Acting AG says ‘Nobody has any idea why’ Pam Bondi was fired except for Trump 3 min read
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
The Abrego Garcia case has been a sore spot for the Trump administration since he was deported in error last March to his home country of El Salvador. Courts at every level of the federal judiciary said the mistake needed to be corrected, yet officials spent months resisting demands that they bring back to Maryland the father of three whom the US government claims is a dangerous member of the MS-13 gang.
He was finally flown back to the US in June after federal prosecutors in Tennessee secured a pair of human smuggling charges against him that stemmed from a traffic stop in the state years earlier.
The day officials announced Abrego Garcia’s return, Blanche told Fox News that the Justice Department started probing Abrego Garcia after a judge in Maryland both concluded that the administration “had no right to deport him” and accused officials “of doing something wrong” in its approach to him.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers seized on those words as they pressed the judge overseeing his case, Waverly Crenshaw, to dismiss the two charges based on their contention that the charges were brought as a vindictive prosecution. A pair of rulings from the judge last year showed that he was leaning toward doing just that.
The appointee of former President Barack Obama said in October that the burden was on the government to fend off a presumption that officials only reopened a years-old probe into Abrego Garcia, and subsequently asked a grand jury to approve charges, to punish him for filing the case in Maryland over his wrongful deportation.
“Deputy Attorney (General) Blanche directly linked the Maryland lawsuit to the investigation of criminal behavior by Abrego. At minimum, this suggests the (Trump administration’s) frustration with Abrego, and that his case was not a run-of-the-mill prosecution,” Crenshaw wrote at the time.
Crenshaw gave prosecutors the chance to fend off the presumption that they were wrongly prosecuting Abrego Garcia by putting witnesses on the stand earlier this year to buttress their claim that key decisions in the matter were made locally and not by top officials in Washington, like Blanche and his deputies, or through indirect pressure from them.
That testimony, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys told the judge this week, does little to aid prosecutors’ crumbling case. They argued that the two witnesses who answered questions under oath about the matter “were unable or unwilling” to fill in critical details that could ultimately keep the case alive.
And, importantly, they pointed to the fact that Blanche himself was not there to explain his comments from last June that have imperiled the case.
“Mr. Blanche did not come to court to rebut the presumption resulting from his own statements,” they wrote in court papers. “The government has fought tooth and nail to put any explanations beyond the court’s reach.”
“The most likely explanation for that resistance is that any attempted explanation would be futile and expose the vindictiveness at the core of this prosecution,” Abrego Garcia’s lawyers argued.
For its part, DOJ maintains that the lead prosecutor in the case, Robert McGuire, was the sole decision-maker when it came time to seeking an indictment against Abrego Garcia.
“That decision was not animated by animus toward (Abrego Garcia),” prosecutors told Crenshaw on Monday. “It was not made under political pressure or expectation. Equally as undisputed, the decision to indict was not ordered by leadership at the Department of Justice. Rather, the decision was guided only by the evidence.”
If Crenshaw concludes that prosecutors successfully rebutted the presumption of vindictiveness, the decision will kick off another round of court proceedings that will include him having to decide whether Blanche himself must testify about the origins of the case.
Honig said that while Blanche’s temporary – and potentially more lasting – perch atop the department could cut in his favor if the case moves to that phase, his position is no proverbial get-out-of-jail-free card.
“As a technical legal matter, it makes no difference whether the person is the deputy AG or the acting attorney general or the confirmed attorney general,” he said. “As a practical matter, though, the higher up you get in the Justice Department, the more judges are going to try to avoid dragging someone into the courtroom – unless it’s simply unavoidable.”
Administration still wants to deport Abrego Garcia to Africa
Meanwhile, the government’s desire to bring Abrego Garcia to trial is confounding the Maryland judge who initially ordered officials to work to bring him back stateside last year.
US District Judge Paula Xinis, who has issued a series of rulings preventing the government from quickly re-detaining and re-deporting Abrego Garcia, sharply questioned Justice Department lawyers on Tuesday about their efforts to remove those barriers so the Department of Homeland Security can move ahead with deporting him to Liberia while other lawyers at DOJ are working at the same time to keep his criminal case on track.
DHS has for months been trying to deport Abrego Garcia to several different African countries, while simultaneously rejecting his desire to be sent to Costa Rica, which has said it would grant him some form of legal status should he arrive there. He’s unable to self-deport to the Central American country because of the pre-trial release conditions imposed on him in the Tennessee case.
“The Department of Justice and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche are prosecuting him in the Middle District of Tennessee,” Xinis said during a hearing, adding later: “You can’t have it all ways.”
“There seems to be no inclination that the Department of Justice is dismissing this indictment,” the judge said. “The bottom line is either you want him here for the criminal case or you don’t.”
“But if you want expeditious removal and you want the criminal case to proceed, that raises some serious concern about what’s happening in” Liberia, she added, appearing sympathetic to Abrego Garcia’s argument that the US’ push to “exile” him to the West African country is little more than “punishment” for his decision to sue over his initial deportation last year.
More wrangling over Xinis’ orders barring the government from re-deporting him is expected to play out at another hearing later this month.