A federal judge found Friday that there was a "realistic likelihood of vindictiveness" behind federal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, entitling the wrongly deported man to an evidentiary hearing on claims that the Trump administration is punishing him for causing "embarrassment" to the government — a legal strategy that ex-FBI Director James Comey might be watching closely.

Abrego Garcia was deported in March from Maryland and imprisoned in El Salvador at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The Trump administration, eventually admitting the deportation was due to "administrative error," was ordered to "facilitate" his return — and it carried out that return in June weeks after securing a federal indictment in Tennessee on charges of human smuggling, allegedly stemming from a 2

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