NBC's Laura Jarrett delivered a tidy little segment on Saturday Today about a federal judge in Tennessee dismissing all criminal charges against illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia — and somehow managed to leave out the one detail that explains everything about the ruling.

Oops! Must have slipped right off the teleprompter.

Here's what Jarrett told viewers: "A federal judge in Tennessee now dismissing all criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday." She added that "the judge finding that the Trump administration brought human smuggling charges against him only to justify the government's decision to deport him." Sounds like a straightforward legal story, right? Brave judge stands up to mean old Trump administration. Roll credits.

Except NewsBusters actually did the journalism NBC couldn't be bothered with. The judge in question is Waverly Crenshaw — an Obama-appointed federal judge who donated $43,000 to Democratic candidates and causes before his appointment. Forty-three thousand dollars. That's not "leaning left." That's buying a season pass.

And NBC just... didn't mention it. They had the donation records. They had FEC filings. They had every resource a multi-billion-dollar news network could throw at a story. They chose silence.

Let's do a quick recap for anyone who forgot the Garcia saga. Abrego Garcia arrived illegally in the United States as a teenager. In 2019, a court order was issued preventing his deportation. Then in April 2025, the Trump administration deported him to El Salvador anyway. The Supreme Court ruled the U.S. had to bring him back. The Justice Department then hit him with human smuggling charges — which Judge Crenshaw just tossed like yesterday's salad.

Now look, reasonable people can disagree about whether the charges were solid. That's what courts are for. But when we're evaluating a judge's ruling, don't you think it might be relevant that the judge had a $43,000 financial relationship with the political party that opposes everything the defendant's prosecution stood for?

Imagine if a Trump-appointed judge dismissed charges against a Republican operative and it turned out the judge had donated $43,000 to GOP campaigns. NBC would run a three-part investigative series. Rachel Maddow's ghost would haunt MSNBC for a week. "Democracy in peril" chyrons from now until the heat death of the universe.

But when it's their team? Crickets.

This is the game, folks. You don't have to lie when you can just leave things out. NBC didn't say anything false in their segment. They just didn't say anything complete. That's not an oversight — that's editorial. It's a deliberate decision made by producers, editors, and on-air talent who all knew the information existed and collectively decided you didn't need to see it.

The Justice Department has already announced plans to appeal the dismissal. Good. Let's see how this plays out in front of a judge who didn't write five-figure checks to one side of the case.

Meanwhile, NBC will keep wondering why nobody trusts them anymore. Here's a hint: we can read donation records too.