An eye-popping detail buried in a new Bloomberg report may explain why the Justice Department keeps getting caught making errors in federal court: Pam Bondi told her lawyers to treat the president as their client — and now they're afraid to push back on anything.
A February 2025 memo from Bondi directed DOJ attorneys to "vigorously" defend Trump's policies and referred to them as "his" counsel, according to a former Justice Department attorney who spoke anonymously to Bloomberg. The result, sources say, is a culture where lawyers are wary of pressing federal agencies about the accuracy of information they receive, because challenging it feels like challenging the boss.
The consequences are now playing out in courtrooms across the country.
In March, DOJ lawyers admitted to using incorrect information to defend migrant arrests in Manhattan, made inaccurate statements in a Rhode Island hearing about voter records, and missed a key deadline in Washington state due to unfamiliarity with local procedures.
A federal judge in Manhattan has already ordered the government to preserve all internal communications, an ominous signal of a potential sanctions fight. Migrant aid groups are now seeking to gather evidence about what happened.
The “presumption of regularity” has been replaced with “profound skepticism," said Stacey Young, a former senior DOJ attorney.
“It’s just extraordinarily unusual to see these kinds of corrections and misrepresentations coming from DOJ, and I think it’s because lawyers are really stretched thin right now,” Young said.
The department lost roughly a quarter of its attorneys last year. The ones who remain, sources say, are stretched thin and too reluctant to speak up.
Philip Pro, a Reagan-appointed retired federal judge, put it bluntly, saying the errors "damage the fabric of the entire justice system."
