A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the government’s investigation into his alleged role in human trafficking had been improperly motivated.

In his decision, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said the evidence showed the investigation was revived only after Abrego successfully challenged his deportation to El Salvador.

“The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution,” Crenshaw wrote.

Federal prosecutors in Tennessee, working with the Department of Justice in Washington, had accused Abrego of involvement in human smuggling tied to a 2022 traffic stop.

After Abrego was deported to El Salvador last year, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the Trump administration must work to return him to the United States. Once back in the country, Abrego was immediately charged with human smuggling offenses, to which he pleaded not guilty.

Body camera footage from the 2022 traffic stop by the Tennessee Highway Patrol showed officers questioning Abrego after stopping him for speeding. Nine passengers were inside the vehicle, and officers discussed suspicions of smuggling among themselves, but ultimately allowed Abrego to leave with only a warning.

Crenshaw noted that federal authorities initially closed the investigation into the traffic stop and only reopened it after Abrego prevailed in his deportation challenge in federal court in Maryland.

“What the Government labels as ‘new evidence’ was not new as a matter of law,” the judge wrote.

While Crenshaw said there was not enough proof to establish “actual vindictiveness,” he concluded the Trump administration failed to overcome what he described as a legal “presumption of vindictiveness,” which he said justified dismissing the case.

The judge also criticized the role of Todd Blanche in reopening the investigation.

“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”