Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the top-tier progressive lawyers representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia are using the alleged human smuggler’s high-profile criminal case for political theater, not justice, in a way that may not work to Abrego Garcia’s advantage in the long run.
Last week, The Star was the first to report that the elite New York law firm Hecker and Fink, best known for representing E. Jean Carroll in her lawsuits against President Donald Trump, has since taken on the criminal defense of Abrego Garcia, who was federally indicted on human smuggling charges earlier this month.
Noting how Hecker and Fink received $7 million from a nonprofit funded by LinkedIn Founder and Democrat donor Reid Hoffman to support “public interest litigation,” which included the Carroll case, Pappert raised questions about the political motivations behind the firm’s involvement.
Pappert specifically cited Hecker and Fink’s record of progressive, anti-Trump litigation, including suing over the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida and targeting Unite the Right rally organizers.
“If we look at who this law firm is, they seem to exist as an anti-Trump, anti-MAGA law firm. Their first major lawsuit, I should say, was to sue the organizers of the Unite the Right Rally…and they brag about this on their website. Since then, they’ve sued Florida over the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill. They’ve worked to try to get transgenders in women’s sports, so this is up their alley,” Pappert explained on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
According to his sources, Pappert said the New York firm is representing Abrego Garcia pro bono, suggesting that taking on Abrego Garcia’s defense is intended to score points with progressive donors and to take a stand against the Trump administration and its immigration enforcement.
“They must have really thought that representing Kilmar would make them look good in the eyes of their supporters, their donors, and everybody else. Now, my source told me they did not receive money in exchange for taking this case, but that they had to or they wanted to,” Pappert said.
Pappert went on to question whether the politically driven legal strategy benefits Abrego Garcia, given the substantial evidence and testimony from co-conspirator witnesses against him.
He argued that the lawyers may be prioritizing political spectacle over a realistic legal outcome for their client.
“It really does look like political actors are getting involved in Abrego Garcia’s predicament, and these highfalutin lawyers should be questioning themselves if they are doing what is in the best interest of their client. The charges against him are massive. The U.S. Attorney General is holding press conferences to talk about him. They’re sending in experts from across the country…to conduct interviews with alleged co-conspirators. Is it in the best interest to hold a massive media spectacle trial, or is it in the best interest of your client to bring it to a rapid resolution that might bring him to a closer reunion with his family sometime in the 2030s or 2040s?” Pappert said.
“It’s going to be very difficult for Abrego Garcia to prove his innocence in this one,” he added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
