Reposted by DingleClaus
Republican Senators are voting to confirm Trump’s lawyer to be AG when it just came out that Capital One shut down Trump’s accounts under suspicion of money laundering and Trump wants exemption from being investigated for tax fraud.
THESE PEOPLE ARE CRIMINALS.
![HSI Investigates, Unlawfully Deports Mr. Abrego, Then Closes the Investigation On November 30, 2022, Tennessee Highway Patrol (“THP”) pulled Mr. Abrego over in Cookeville, Tennessee, ostensibly for speeding. [FN 1] (App. A at 1).
[FN 1] Familiarity with much of the factual and procedural history is presumed and is not recounted in full here. A comprehensive timeline of key events relevant to the motion is attached as Appendix A (“App. A”). “Tr.” refers to the transcript of the February 26, 2026 hearing (Dkt. 300); “GX” refers to the government’s hearing exhibits; “DX” refers to the defense’s hearing exhibits.
[Resume brief] This stop precipitated an investigation into Mr. Abrego by Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) in Baltimore for “suspected…labor/human trafficking.” (Id.). Though that investigation lasted over two and a half years, the agents involved, including Agent VanWie, learned of the facts underlying the charges here early on. By 2023, if not earlier, CC-1’s connection to the traffic stop was clear. (Id. at 1). In early 2024, HSI agents surveilled CC‑1’s home and obtained phone records connecting](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreiapmlxkbmqyhj57ttyq2edmkl3q7ta2trrkvx4blrl6eoe33akfwm)
![Mr. Abrego to CC-1. (Id. at 1-2). Yet through March 2025, HSI Baltimore agents made no attempt to interview CC-1, who was easily accessible. [FN 2]
[FN 2] From December 30, 2022—eight days after HSI Baltimore opened its investigation—until he was released to a halfway house in 2025 in exchange for his cooperation in this case, CC-1 was incarcerated.
[Resume brief] Rather than charge Mr. Abrego with a crime, HSI Baltimore arrested him on March 12, 2025, and unlawfully removed him to El Salvador. (Id. at 2). On March 24, Mr. Abrego challenged his illegal deportation in Maryland. (Id.). A week later, Agent VanWie approved a closing ROI stating that “[i]nvestigators have accomplished all goals for this case, and no further investigative efforts will be attributed” to it. (Id. at 2). On April 10, the Supreme Court upheld the district court’s order that the government “facilitate” Mr. Abrego’s return. See Noem v. Abrego Garcia, 145 S. Ct. 1017, 1018 (2025). The Executive Branch responded with a relentless public retribution campaign. By April 16, President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, then-Attorney General Pamela Bondi, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, to name a few, had all disparaged Mr. Abrego as (among other things) a “convicted MS-13 gang member” and “human trafficker.” (Dkt. 69 at 1, 4-5). II. HSI Baltimore Reopens the Investigation into Mr. Abrego On April 17, 2025, one week after the Supreme Court ordered the government to “facilitate” Mr. Abrego’s release, Agent VanWie reopened HSI Baltimore’s investigation into Mr. Abrego that he had just closed. Why the sudden about-face? According to Mr. McGuire, Agent VanWie told him that he reopened the investigation “in response to inquiries from headquarters.” (Tr. 116). And the day after Agent VanWie did so, DHS released a “bombshell investigative report” about the 2022 traffic stop, which it termed a “suspected human trafficking incident.” (App. A at 3).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreiesbedrpddrc5ibdqpxwniukzyjnhgumgbvck3gg2kw5pyoybkgwi)
![Having reopened the investigation because of demands from “headquarters,” agents began to revisit evidence they had already discovered in the preceding two and a half years. Most notably, on April 22, HSI Baltimore asked HSI Birmingham to “interview CC1…regarding the human smuggling activities of [Mr. Abrego],” a request Agent VanWie approved. (App. A at 3). HSI agents met with CC-1 that day and reinterviewed him two days later. (Id.; see DX 17, 19). At some point after Mr. Abrego’s removal—the exact timing, though known to the government, is not in the record—officials from the Office of the Deputy Attorney General (“ODAG”) became involved. Mr. Singh’s emails show that he was already formulating a case against Mr. Abrego and had independently learned about CC-1 by the time he contacted Mr. McGuire on April 27. (Id. at 4; Tr. 120).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2vtbmhmrwzbqcfv4we4uxzzt/bafkreieifwfyyb3im7zcf4p2admrmfnvcm5xvw27nmej67tsltcqimhhgi)
