An assistant U.S. attorney in the Trump administration made an admission to a Minnesota federal judge in open court on Tuesday that left legal experts open-mouthed.
According to FOX9's Paul Blume, when U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell pressed DOJ lawyer Julie Le why the Trump administration, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, are ignoring so many court orders, Le replied that "the system sucks, this job sucks" — and went on to ask Blackwell to hold her in contempt of court, just so she could get 24 hours of sleep after having to argue dozens upon dozens of habeas cases in recent weeks.
This type of confession from a federal prosecutor gobsmacked attorneys on social media, who remarked this sort of thing never happens.
"I hear these types of expressed sentiments from DOJ attorneys all the time," wrote national security attorney Mark S. Zaid on X. "Not in open court of course but in private conversations, which is still unbelievable."
It was the same story on X competitor Bluesky, where attorneys had a lot to say about this admission.
"This is unreal," wrote Minnesota-based lawyer Daniel Suitor. "An AUSA talking like that in open court is about as close as you can come to a total breakdown. Never heard of anything like it."
"Headed for some real Al Pacino And Justice For All energy here," wrote Michigan-based law professor and former state Supreme Court candidate Sam Bagenstos. "But in all seriousness, Trump and Bondi have done a pretty good job of ransacking the Justice Department. It will take enormous work to build a new DOJ that reflects our best traditions once we drive this regime out at the polls."
