Watchdog group accuses Blanche of misconduct in Tennessee prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia

A national watchdog group alleges Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche breached ethical rules in the Tennessee prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was cleared last week of criminal charges after a judge concluded the prosecution had been vindictive.

In a complaint filed with the New York Bar, the Campaign for Government Accountability requested an investigation into Blanche’s conduct during the investigation and prosecution of Abrego, as he is named in legal filings. 

Citing a federal judge’s findings in dismissing the case, the complaint noted Blanche was directly involved in the decision to investigate and prosecute Abrego in Tennessee after the Maryland resident’s fight against wrongful deportation to an El Salvador prison last year put the Trump administration’s mass deportation tactics in the national spotlight. Blanche was then serving as Deputy Attorney General.

Blanche engaged in a “breach of his ethical obligations,” “serious abuse of public office,” and “potentially violated numerous rules of professional conduct” for political ends, the 11-page complaint read. 

“There are few authorities remaining who stand between Mr. Blanche and the weaponization of the justice system to serve the president’s political will,” the complaint said. 

“Failing to discipline Mr. Blanche under these egregious circumstances will embolden others who would use our system of justice for their own political ends,” it said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint Wednesday.

In Nashville, a federal judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Abrego was indicted in Tennessee on human smuggling charges in May, after the Supreme Court had ordered the government to facilitate his return in a public defeat for Trump officials, who then made multiple unsubstantiated public comments linking Abrego to gang crimes.

The Tennessee smuggling charges ultimately filed against Abrego stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding by state troopers in rural Tennessee. Troopers turned over information about the traffic stop, involving Abrego as driver with multiple passengers, to federal authorities, who declined to pursue any action at the time. 

The watchdog group also questioned the role of then-Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire and others in the Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office in the decision to revive an investigation into Abrego only after the U.S. Supreme Court found he was removed from the United States without due process.

The complaint has been shared with the Tennessee Supreme Court Board of Professional Responsibility, an oversight board that disciplines attorneys. 

Trump administration pushes to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia

“The sequence of events raises the question of whether Mr. McGuire and others in the Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office pursued the case under a personal conflict — their professional judgement that the case lacked merit, on the one hand, and their financial interest in keeping their jobs against the backdrop of the (former Attorney General Pam) Bondi memorandum and the contemporaneous removal of the U.S. Attorneys for their perceived loyalty on the other,” the complaint said.

The Bondi memo, issued to U.S. Attorneys in April 2025, warned “every Department of Justice attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States…Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences.”

A spokesperson for the Tennessee U.S. Attorney did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment.

Abrego, a married father and apprentice sheet metal worker with no criminal history, remains free while his immigration case continues in a Maryland court. Abrego arrived in the U.S. illegally as a teen then applied for asylum based on threats of gang violence in his native El Salvador.

The complaint was filed with the Chief Counsel Attorney Grievance Committee and Chief District Judge in New York, who hold the power to investigate and discipline New York attorneys.