Every day it becomes clearer that whether Kilmar Abrego García is guilty of human smuggling is irrelevant to the Department of Justice, which charged him with the crime. The case the DOJ set in motion has become just another obstacle for the feds to deport the Salvadoran man for the crime of embarrassing the Trump administration.

Whatever your politics, no person of good faith following this case would confuse it with justice.

Abrego García moved to the U.S. illegally in 2011 when he was a teen, reportedly to escape gangs. In 2019, he was apprehended at a Home Depot, where he was seeking day labor. A judge eventually ruled that he couldn’t be deported to his native El Salvador because of credible gang threats against his family.

Trump officials were aware of that order, but they nevertheless put Abrego García on a plane bound for El Salvador in March, along with dozens of other deportees shipped for incarceration in that country’s “terrorism confinement center.” The planes were flown to El Salvador in defiance of a judge’s order, but as to Abrego García, the feds admitted in court that he had been deported by mistake.

But instead of correcting that mistake, Trump officials dug in their heels. They argued that they were powerless to return Abrego García stateside, even though the Salvadoran president is an ally and agreed to hold deportees for pay.

Abrego García might still be in El Salvador’s notorious gang prison had he not become a symbol of the Trump administration’s overreach. As headlines about him persisted, federal officials brought the Salvadoran father back to the U.S. — after securing an indictment against him for smuggling.

As far as emblems go, Abrego García is a flawed one. He has consistently and adamantly denied gang affiliation, but he faced allegations of domestic violence from his wife, who later said the couple overcame their problems through counseling. According to news reports, a Tennessee state trooper pulled Abrego García over for speeding in 2022 and found he was driving eight passengers to Maryland, none of whom had luggage with them. This is the incident at the root of the federal human smuggling case against him.

If Abrego García really is a gang member or a smuggler, or both, let’s hear the evidence. Americans are better off prosecuting and punishing gang members here than they are deporting them to other countries where they might get away with their crimes. Abrego García turned down a guilty plea in exchange for being deported to Costa Rica, so now the Trump administration appears to want to strong-arm him by saying it will deport him to Uganda instead.

Abrego García, who had been released from federal custody while awaiting trial on the smuggling charges, was re-apprehended Monday during what was supposed to be a routine check-in with immigration authorities. A judge has temporarily blocked his deportation to Uganda.

It’s almost as if the Trump administration doesn’t want to go to court and do the hard work of proving its case. Its actions smack of vindictiveness, but justice and vengeance are not the same thing.

— The Dallas Morning News

 

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors say Luigi Mangione, accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare on a Manhattan sidewalk, has inspired others to embrace violence over reasoned debate.

As evidence of Mangione’s growing influence, prosecutors cited the last month’s deadly mass shooting at the National Football League headquarters.

The prosecution outlined the threat in a filing late Wednesday on a procedural matter in federal court in Manhattan, where they plan to try to convince a jury that Mangione deserves death. No federal trial date has been set.

FILE – Members of the New York police crime scene unit photograph bullets lying on the sidewalk as they investigate the scene outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was fatally shot, Dec. 4, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)

Mangione, who pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges, was arrested five days after the Dec. 4 killing of CEO Brian Thompson. He is being held without bail in a federal jail in Brooklyn.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in April that she was directing federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for “an act of political violence” and a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”

In their filing Wednesday, prosecutors wrote that Mangione poses a continuing danger in part because he seeks to influence others.

“Simply put, the defendant hoped to normalize the use of violence to achieve ideological or political objectives,” they said. “Since the murder, certain quarters of the public — who openly identify as acolytes of the defendant — have increasingly begun to view violence as an acceptable, or even necessary, substitute for reasoned political disagreement.”

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In a footnote, prosecutors referenced the gunman who went into an office building not far from where Thompson was shot in midtown Manhattan, then killed four people including an off-duty police officer, a financial services firm executive and a security guard, and wounded others, including an NFL employee.

Mangione is accused of leaving behind evidence showing disdain for the insurance industry. Similarly, the NFL headquarters gunman identified as Shane Tamura left behind a handwritten note blaming the league and football for causing chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known at CTE, prosecutors noted.

Tamura, who took his own life, accused the league of hiding the dangers of brain injuries linked to contact sports.

“Almost immediately, members of the public sympathetic to the defendant touted Tamura’s actions as a laudable continuation of the defendant’s philosophy,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Mangione has “openly cultivated supporters” by setting up a website and directly addressing them. They said Mangione also has catalogued all of the supportive letters he has received on his website.

Associated Press Writer Michael R. Sisak contributed to this report.

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer

Wall Street notched more milestones Thursday after gains in technology stocks helped push the market to another all-time high.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3%, lifting the benchmark index to its second record high in a row. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reversed an early slide and gained 0.2%, enough to move past its record high set last Friday.

The Nasdaq composite closed 0.5% higher, finishing just short of its all-time high set two weeks ago.

About 55% of the companies in the benchmark S&P 500 closed lower, but gains in the technology and communication services sectors offset losses elsewhere in the market. Broadcom rose 2.8%, Amazon added 1.1% and Google parent Alphabet finished 2% higher.

“We’re seeing a continuation of a theme that has been in place really all year long, and that is communication services, information technology, really the areas that are surrounding this incredible capital expenditure cycle, have been the primary beneficiaries,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Asset Management.

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Heading into the final day of trading in August, the S&P 500 and Dow were on pace for their fourth straight monthly gain, while the Nasdaq was closing in on its fifth.

The market’s latest gains came as traders pored over a mixed batch of earnings reports from big U.S. companies and new reports on the job market and U.S. economy.

Tech giant Nvidia fell 0.8% a day after reporting quarterly earnings and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts’ forecasts, though the company noted that sales of its artificial intelligence chipsets rose at a slower pace than analysts anticipated.

Investors consider Nvidia a barometer for the strength of the boom in artificial intelligence because the company makes most of the chips that power the technology. Its heavy weighting also gives Nvidia outsized influence as a bellwether for the broader market.

Shares in several retailers fell following their latest quarterly results.

Best Buy dropped 3.7% after the consumer electronics chain’s second-quarter snapshot was overshadowed by an outlook clouded due to the tariffs the U.S. is imposing on trading partners.

Despite also posting better-than-expected quarterly results, Urban Outfitters slid 10.7% after the retailer warned that it expects tariffs will increase pressure on its gross margins in the second half of the year.

Dick’s Sporting Goods fell 4.8% despite reporting second-quarter results that beat analysts’ expectations.

Victoria’s Secret & Co. gave up an early gain and closed 0.5% lower.

Burlington Stores bucked the trend. The retail chain climbed 5.3% after its latest earnings topped analysts’ estimates.

Elsewhere in the market, Spam maker Hormel sank 13.1% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 companies after its earnings fell short of Wall Street’s forecasts and the company cut its outlook for the year.

Traders also had their eye on new government reports on the job market and economy.

The Labor Department reported that applications for unemployment benefits fell last week, the latest sign that employers are holding onto their workers even as the economy has slowed.

The most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department reported that U.S. gross domestic product —- the nation’s output of goods and services — grew at a 3.3% annual pace in the April-June quarter after shrinking 0.5% in the first three months of this year due to the fallout from the Trump administration’s trade wars.

“The GDP print reinforces the fact that this continues to be an economy, domestically, that is continuing to show a great deal of resilience in terms of producing economic growth,” Northey said.

Still, the sluggishness in the job market is a key reason that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled last week that the central bank may cut its key interest rate at its meeting next month.

Lower rates can boost investment prices and the economy by making it cheaper for U.S. households and businesses to borrow, but they risk worsening inflation.

Traders are still betting the Fed will trim its benchmark interest rate at its next meeting in September. Traders see an 85.3% chance that the central bank will cut the rate by a quarter of a percentage point, according to data from CME Group.

Friday will bring another update on inflation: the U.S. personal consumption expenditures index. Economists expect it to show that inflation remained at about 2.6% in July, compared with a year ago. Businesses have been warning investors and consumers about higher costs and prices because of tariffs.

Treasury yields were mixed in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.21% from 4.24% late Wednesday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Federal Reserve action, rose to 3.63% from 3.62%.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.46 points to 6,501.86. The Dow added 71.67 points to 45,636.90, and the Nasdaq gained 115.02 points to close at 21,705.16.

European and Asian markets closed mixed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the Trump administration from removing Michael Abramowitz as director of Voice of America, the government-run news outlet that the White House has targeted for deep staffing cuts.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who was nominated to the bench by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled that Abramowitz cannot be removed from his position without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.

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In June, layoff notices were sent to more than 600 employees of Voice of America and the government agency that oversees it. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave along with almost the entire Voice of America staff. He was told he would be fired effective Aug. 31.

Lamberth concluded that firing Abramowitz would be “plainly contrary to law.”

“The defendants’ own representations, in and out of court, indicate that they have already effectively removed Abramowitz from his role as director,” the judge wrote.

Kari Lake, whom President Donald Trump named as a senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, told a congressional panel that the agency is “rotten to the core.” The agency also houses Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba.

The networks, which together reach an estimated 427 million people, date to the Cold War and are part of a network of government-funded organizations trying to extend U.S. influence and combat authoritarianism.