Three weeks into Donald Trump’s breakneck effort to remake the federal authorities, the speedy tempo of lawsuits pushing again in opposition to his orders — and numerous authorized setbacks for the Trump administration — have challenged the Division of Justice, seemingly overwhelming the federal government attorneys tasked with defending the president in court docket.
In a court docket submitting Monday evening, Justice Division attorneys acknowledged making two important errors final week throughout a court docket listening to concerning the dismantling of the overseas support company USAID. Whereas DOJ attorneys final week claimed that 500 staff at USAID had been placed on depart and that solely future contracts had been placed on pause, greater than 2,100 staff had truly been positioned on depart whereas each future and present contracts have been frozen, in response to the submitting.
“Defendants sincerely remorse these inadvertent misstatements based mostly on info offered to counsel instantly previous to the listening to and have made each effort to offer dependable info within the declaration supporting their opposition to a preliminary injunction,” DOJ attorneys wrote to the decide overseeing the case.
In the course of the USAID listening to final week, Decide Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, expressed frustration that the federal government had not offered him ample info.
“I must know what the federal government’s official place is true now. What is occurring?” Nichols mentioned. “Is the federal government paying individuals or not?”
The Trump administration has confronted a torrent of lawsuits over the past two weeks, with judges over the past two days blocking them from implementing a federal buyout program, chopping funding for well being analysis, and eradicating public well being knowledge from authorities web sites.
After a New York decide blocked Trump’s new Division of Authorities Effectivity from accessing Treasury Division data on Saturday, each DOGE head Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance started to publicly float the concept of defying the court docket orders.
President Donald Trump holds up an government order regarding the International Corrupt Practices Act within the Oval Workplace on the White Home, Feb. 10, 2025, in Washington.
Alex Brandon/AP
Justice Division representatives didn’t reply to a request for remark from ABC Information.
Throughout a listening to within the Treasury Division case, the DOJ claimed that Marko Elez — a SpaceX employee-turned-DOGE cost-cutter who briefly resigned final week after the Wall Avenue Journal reported on racist social media posts — was a “particular authorities worker” throughout the Division of the Treasury.
In a submitting Monday, the DOJ corrected themselves to notice that Elez was truly a full-fledged Treasury Division worker — a “Particular Advisor for Data Know-how and Modernization” in response to the submitting — who’s topic to further ethics necessities.
Throughout a listening to final week on whether or not the DOJ ought to be blocked from disseminating a listing of federal brokers and staff who labored on instances involving the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, a DOJ lawyer was unable to say with confidence whether or not the federal government may ultimately launch the listing, irritating the decide overseeing the case.
“You characterize the federal government,” U.S. District Decide Jia Cobb mentioned sternly. “The White Home desires this info. Does the federal government have current intent to publicly launch names of FBI brokers that labored on Jan. 6 instances?”
“Individuals who have the listing do not have current intent,” replied the lawyer, Jeremy Simon, who then needed to ask for a sequence of quick recesses as he was pressed to offer solutions on the federal government’s stance.
At one level Simon wanted to excuse himself into the hallway to talk by telephone together with his superiors.
The authorized challenges started instantly after Trump ignited his barrage of Day-1 government orders. Throughout a listening to on the administration’s short-lived federal funding freeze, a DOJ lawyer appeared unable to offer a transparent reply concerning the extent of the White Home’s new coverage.
“It looks as if the federal authorities presently does not truly know the total scope of the applications which are going to be topic to the pause. Is that right?” U.S. District Decide Loren L. AliKhan requested the lawyer.
“I can solely communicate for myself, which is simply based mostly on the restricted time-frame right here, that I shouldn’t have a complete listing,” replied DOJ lawyer Daniel Schwei. “It simply relies upon.”
And in the course of the first court docket listening to about Trump’s government order on birthright citizenship, the place of defending Trump’s order put Brett Shumate, the performing assistant lawyer normal for the DOJ’s civil division, in a federal decide’s firing line.
“In your opinion, is that this government order constitutional?” U.S. District Decide John Coughenour requested Shumate in the course of the listening to.
“Sure, we predict it’s,” Shumate mentioned, drawing the decide’s rebuke.
“I’ve problem understanding how a member of the bar can state unequivocally that it is a constitutional order. It boggles my thoughts,” Coughenour mentioned. “The place have been the attorneys when this determination was being made?”
A constitutional legislation skilled instructed ABC Information that DOJ attorneys have been rebuked by judges of all stripes.
“They’re doing this no matter geography and no matter who appointed them,” mentioned Loyola Marymount College legislation professor Justin Levitt. “So you have seen pushback from Reagan appointees, you have seen pushback from Bush appointees, you have seen pushback from Obama appointees and Trump appointees and Biden appointees, and that is going to proceed.”
Levitt mentioned the outcomes have typically not been within the Trump administration’s favor.
“So far as I can inform, they’re winless within the courts,” he mentioned.