'Extraordinary': Trump admin sidelines its own lawyers over possible 'sabotage'

The Trump administration sidelined its own lawyers Thursday over suspicions of "sabotage," according to a new report.

Justice Department lawyers admitted they accidentally uploaded a private memo detailing their legal strategy in a case against New York City's transportation agencies. On Thursday, those lawyers were sidelined over suspicions of "sabotage," according to The New York Times, which called the move "extraordinary."

The U.S. Department of Transportation said it is replacing the lawyers on the case, which concerns President Donald Trump's rescission of federal approval for New York City's congestion pricing program, as reported by Reuters in February. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority then sued the administration and DOT.

The idea was to implement a toll to reduce traffic in lower Manhattan and encourage citizens to use public transportation more frequently. Former President Joe Biden's Federal Highway Administration approved the program last year, and it began in January.

The confidential strategy memo was uploaded to the federal court on Wednesday, which attacked the DOT legal strategy and tried to convince them of a better option.

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"In response, however, the department raised the possibility that the disclosure attempted to sabotage its efforts to halt congestion pricing," the Times reported.

The 11-page document was dated April 11 and signed by three assistant U.S. attorneys, saying Duffy "was using shaky rationale to end the tolling plan." They said that they expected it was "exceedingly likely" to fail.

DOT intends to transfer the case to the civil division at the DOJ in Washington, the report said.

The Department of Transportation released a statement on Thursday, calling the accidental filing “legal malpractice.”

“Are S.D.N.Y. lawyers on this case incompetent or was this their attempt to RESIST?” a spokeswoman for the department wrote.

U.S. attorney's office spokesperson Nicholas Biase said in a statement that the accidental filing “was a completely honest error and was not intentional in any way.”

The documents are no longer on the docket, but some legal analysts keeping an eye on the case have taken screen captures of the strategy document.

Read the full report here.