Trump-Appointed Judge Refers DOJ Lawyers For Discipline Over Their Anti-Trans Lawfare

from the bad-faith-everywhere dept

There’s hardly anyone left in the Justice Department that has any deeper desire than just giving Trump what he wants. The few lawyers Trump didn’t purge resigned soon after it became clear the DOJ would be little more than personification of Trump’s vengeful whims.

Lawyers with decades of experience were replaced with Trump loyalists, former Trump lawyers, and prosecutors so devoid of real-world experience they may as well still be interns. Not that this has slowed the administration’s attempts to strip the US of anything that actually makes it great. The efforts continue, but the DOJ’s flag is flying at half-staff (at best), to mix a metaphor.

Meanwhile, even Trump-appointed judges are getting tired of the Trump DOJ’s bullshit. It has sustained thousands of losses in immigration cases, seen most of its high-profile vindictive prosecutions dead-ended by grand juries and judges, and engaged in mostly-futile deck-chair rearranging/goal-post relocations that haven’t delivered it the streak of wins it clearly feels it’s owed.

In this case, the DOJ did a little of everything. Deck chairs were rearranged to sub in rookie lawyers, goal posts shifted between Texas and Rhode Island (despite the central subpoena targeting Rhode Island medical entities), and DOJ lawyers spent most of their time refusing to engage honestly with the targets of the subpoena (Rhode Island Hospital), much less the federal courts handling the cases.

While the Texas court was ultimately more amenable to the DOJ’s demand for sensitive medical information about Rhode Island minors (in furtherance of the administration’s war on trans people), the proper venue — overseen by Trump appointee Judge Mary McElroy — expressed her frustration and anger in a recent order blocking the subpoena and suggesting sanctions might be just over the horizon.

DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case. It has misrepresented and withheld information to both this Court and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas (the “Texas court”). It did so in an obvious effort to shield it’s recent investigative tactics—previously rejected by every other court to review them—from this Court’s review, in favor of a distant forum that DOJ deems friendly to its political positions. Its representatives have, under oath, misrepresented salient facts. It has misled the parties with whom it was negotiating in Rhode Island, who have now been placed in an untenable and unprecedented procedural position. And when its attorneys came to this Court to explain their conduct, the senior attorney—who was present at many of the events that took place in this case—sat silently by as his counterpart, a junior attorney who has been practicing law for approximately six months and had no relevant information, was forced to answer questions about DOJ’s blatant disregard for the proper course of negotiations.

The government has long relied on the “presumption of regularity” in cases handled by federal courts. That presumption assumes the government is acting in good faith, even when it’s on the wrong side of the law. In less than two years, the Trump administration has destroyed this presumption — something the DOJ has had in its back pocket for most of the last two centuries.

Everything said above (just a small part of McElroy’s extremely scathing May 14 ruling) factors into this much shorter docket item. (h/t Josh Gerstein)

TEXT ORDER. Because of the representations made to this Court by the respondents’ attorneys, as well as the findings of the Court in its order of May 14, 2026, this matter is referred for further proceedings under R.I. Dist. Ct. Local Rule 210(b). So Ordered by District Judge Mary S. McElroy on 6/5/2026. (Potter, Carrie)

Sorry, I know that’s all super-dry and doesn’t contain anything pithy enough for bold text, etc., but here’s what that means: some DOJ lawyers — including ones hand-picked by Trump to do his evil bidding — are potentially headed for discipline.

Rule 210(b) gives the court permission to refer government lawyers for discipline. The more interesting part of the rules directly precedes this, where it says the end result could be government lawyers being disbarred.

The evidence against the DOJ lawyers was covered comprehensively by Judge McElroy in her earlier ruling. To sum up: the DOJ lied. More formally, it “misrepresented” and “withheld information.” Those are both forms of lying, with the severity shifting depending on the context. And when the DOJ knew it had been caught doing it, the most senior prosecutor dumped the case into the lap of the most junior prosecutor in the jurisdiction and forced them to personally absorb the righteous anger of the judge, as well as handle all the uncomfortable questions DOJ officials decided they simply weren’t going to answer.

And, of course, having been called out and threatened with meaningful consequences, the Trump DOJ has decided to pretend it has always been forthright and honest.

“The Civil Division has thoroughly reviewed the District Court’s allegations and concluded that they are without merit. Our attorneys did not misrepresent facts, withhold relevant information, or otherwise mislead the Court. The Department stands behind its attorneys without reservation and has appealed the District Court’s erroneous order.”

I assume that any day now the DOJ will move past its (literally unbelievable) defense of efforts to directly (and personally) attacking Trump’s own appointee as an “activist judge” or (as it often does) claim this is somehow the fault of Joe Biden, who not only didn’t appoint this judge but wasn’t in office when the judge pointed out the DOJ (under this administration) no longer has a reliable reputation.

Sure, this isn’t nearly as satisfying as a coup or the immediate jailing of lying DOJ lawyers. But it is a step further than many judges are willing to go, no matter how often the DOJ lies, cheats, and flat out refuses to play by the rules.

Filed Under: bigotry, doj, intimidation, lgbtq, mary mcelroy, rhode island, texas, trump administration