Two hearings in the criminal case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Beltsville man wrongly deported to El Salvador this year, have been delayed after his lawyers accused the Justice Department of “stonewalling” efforts to gather evidence and call witnesses, court records show.

The hearings, now set for early December, will examine whether the government’s decision to charge Abrego Garcia amounts to vindictive prosecution. In October, U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw in Tennessee found a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness,” citing public comments by senior Justice Department officials.

Ahead of the evidentiary hearing, which was originally scheduled for next week, the defense said prosecutors, including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, have prevented them from calling witnesses.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said they’ve received no information on the documents prosecutors would present at the hearing.

The defense said the case should be dismissed because prosecutors did not supply sufficient documents or witnesses ahead of the hearings.

“Cases do not magically appear on the desks of prosecutors,” Sean Hecker, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, said in a court filing. “The motivations of the people who place the file on the prosecutor’s desk are highly relevant when considering a motion to dismiss for vindictive prosecution.”

Crenshaw rescheduled the case for early December instead, according to the court docket.

Vindictive prosecution, which is when a person is brought to court in retaliation for exercising their legal rights, is difficult to prove. Because the judge has ruled there is reasonable likelihood of vindictive motivations, the burden is shifted to the government to disprove that presumption.

It’s the latest turn in an eight-month battle between the Trump administration and Abrego Garcia that started when he was erroneously deported to his home country of El Salvador. When the government brought him back to the United States in June, it charged Abrego Garcia with two counts of felony smuggling in Tennessee.

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Maryland has yet to rule whether Abrego Garcia can be released from immigration detention, where he has been held since August. The government said it would move to deport him to Liberia, a West African country with a history of human rights violations.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis reaffirmed that the government will keep Abrego Garcia in the country while she has an injunction in place pending her ruling.

Liberia is the latest of several African countries where the federal government has said it would send Abrego Garcia, including Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana.