Kilmar Garcia was reportedly released by FBI after 2022 traffic stop despite police suspecting him of human trafficking

Another bombshell report bolsters the Trump administration's claims that Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia was not simply an innocent and peaceful "Maryland man" before he was flagged for deportation.

The report from the Tennessee Star claims that Garcia was detained in a traffic stop in Dec. 2022 and was suspected of human trafficking, but the Tennessee Highway Patrol followed a request by the FBI to release the man.

The report says the THP requested guidance from the FBI and the bureau responded two hours later to request that Garcia be released along with the other seven passengers.

The deportation of Garcia from Maryland to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador by the Trump administration has become a flash point in the debate over the president's mass deportation policies. While the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with a court ruling that the administration must try to release Garcia, President Donald Trump says it is out of his power.

Garcia's lawyers and some in the media have portrayed him as a peaceful migrant and claimed that he had no criminal past after he entered the U.S. The Tennessee Star report casts further doubt on that claim after police said he was found to be in a vehicle transporting seven other people.

The report says the THP requested guidance from the FBI and the bureau responded two hours later to request that Garcia be released along with the other seven passengers. The THP complied with that request. Garcia was reportedly transporting them from Texas to Maryland, according to the Star.

A separate report on Wednesday said that Garcia's wife obtained a restraining order against him and accused him of domestic violence in 2021.

Critics of the president have accused the administration of violating the balance of powers after he refused to follow the order to "facilitate" the release of Garcia from the infamous foreign terrorist prison.

Sitting beside Trump at the White House, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele scoffed at reporters who suggested he could order the release of Garcia and mocked them for asking him to smuggle a terrorist into the U.S.

“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. How could I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course, I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” he said.

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