Ben Schrader (Credit: LinkedIn)
A high-ranking federal prosecutor resigned in protest after a grand jury indicted MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia on charges of trafficking aliens.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national who was illegally residing in Maryland. In 2019, an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the dangerous MS-13 gang, removed from the US.
After a months long court battle over his deportation, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was transported back to the United States from El Salvador to face criminal charges.
(…) A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Kilmar Abrego Garcia for “transporting undocumented migrants within the United States.”
He was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.
According to the indictment, Kilmar Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and the US were trafficking illegal aliens from 2016 through 2025.
Read the indictment here.
(…) Ben Schrader, the Chief of the Criminal Division at the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee, quit in protest after a federal grand jury indicted Abrego Garcia.
Schrader believed the federal case against Abrego Garcia was pursued for political reasons.
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned as Chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee. It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. I wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people,” Ben Schrader said on LinkedIn.
🚨 #BREAKING: Pam Bondi officially announces Kilmar Abrego Garcia will be returned to the US after the DOJ uncovered he made OVER 100 SMUGGLING TRIPS of illegals
A grand jury found human trafficking was Garcia’s FULL TIME JOB, and he frequently ABUSED women.
THIS IS THE… pic.twitter.com/MHbmJ4PpnX
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 6, 2025