A federal judge slammed President Donald Trump's Department of Justice during a recent court order after the agency admitted to making a rookie mistake in the probe of protesters who attended a church service in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a new report.
In January, protesters attended a service at City Church in St. Paul, where the pastor, Dave Easterwood, also serves as a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in the state. Following the protest, the Department of Justice charged 39 people, including former CNN anchor Don Lemon, with conspiring to violate religious freedoms and interfering with the exercise of religious freedoms.
On Saturday, the New York Times reported that Trump's DOJ dropped charges against one of the protesters "in an apparent case of mistaken identity," a move that Judge Douglas L. Micko in the District of Minnesota argued could have been avoided if the DOJ adhered to some rudimentary steps.
“Here we are, months into a case that the government had an intense appetite to initiate, but cannot seem to keep up the pace when it comes to discovery obligations,” Micko wrote. “This is unacceptable.”
The defendant's lawyer, Brock Hunter, told the NYT that the government believed his client was one of the protesters because they cross-referenced her cell phone location data with video footage and his client's driver's license.
"Mr. Hunter said the government could have avoided the blunder if it had sent Ms. Lewis a letter informing her that she was under criminal investigation," the report reads. "That routine step in federal cases can clear up misconceptions before charges are filed or pave the way for plea deals early on."