President Donald Trump's Justice Department is crying foul over the way a federal judge treated Attorney General Todd Blanche, complaining she trashed him in a court order without ever giving him a chance to respond.
In a time-sensitive filing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday, the DOJ demanded the court freeze the order, toss it, and reassign the case largely over how U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams went after Blanche.
The grievance centers on a scathing 56-page order Williams issued in July, tearing into Trump's settlement of his lawsuit against the IRS over leaked tax records. In it, the judge repeatedly criticized Blanche and the department, and directed the clerk to send a copy to the New York bar, where he is licensed to practice.
What galled the DOJ was that Blanche never got a heads-up. The department noted the judge's earlier order had directed only plaintiffs to respond to her questions, leaving the government no opening to defend itself before she unloaded.
"That is significant because these criticisms were issued without any notice to Mr. Blanche or the Department. Quite the opposite. The District Court's order of May 29 indicated that only 'Plaintiffs' needed to respond to the District Court's questions."
The filing complained it was a violation of the judge's own rule that anyone facing sanctions deserves "fair notice."
The filing continued: "Given that the District Court was expressly aware of its obligation to give notice, yet chose not to do so right before a high-profile hearing involving that same attorney, it beggars belief that this was the product of mere oversight."
The department also griped about the "suspicious" timing, noting the order landed two days before Blanche's confirmation hearing — and quoted former Senate Judiciary Committee chief counsel Michael Fragoso at length:
"[The District Court] also took numerous swipes at Blanche without the Department of Justice ever having appeared in the case. Indeed, her prior order was expressly addressed only to plaintiffs, so she seems to have gone out of her way to attack Blanche here. More tellingly still, the opinion includes the kinds of errors that would be caught with apparently neglected proofreading. … In other words, it was a rush job, and the rush job got out just in time for the hearing. What a coincidence."
The DOJ insisted a "reasonable" observer would see Williams as acting "in an improper political manner," and wants her booted from the case.
Legal observers have cast the ruling as Blanche's overdue comeuppance and noted he rushed to rescue the settlement the moment he was sworn in.
