Faced with defending a "blitz' of executive orders from President Donald Trump that were immediately challenged in the courts, longtime Department of Justice lawyers as well as new hires are struggling mightily to defend the moves before 'frustrated" and skeptical judges.
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, it has become common for lawyers representing the current administration to make the case for the extreme changes the new president is demanding due to either lack of preparation or, in some cases, entering into courtrooms with no valid argument to make because their position is unsupportable or poorly researched.
As the Journal is reporting, "uncomfortable" exchanges have become de rigueur in defense of Trump's changes, with one administration attorney confessing to a judge last week, "Your honor, I don’t have the answer to that precise question off the top of my head." The judge replied, "OK, but that strikes me as a pretty important question.”
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According to the Journal's Josh Dawsey, C. Ryan Barber and Jacob Gershman, "During fast-moving proceedings, DOJ lawyers at times have struggled on questions of law and fact about what Trump and his lieutenants are actually doing, drawing frustration and rebukes from judges across the country. In some cases, lawyers later submitted corrections to what they have told the courts."
In one case a DOJ attorney told a judge "that 500 employees at USAID had been put on leave and that a Trump-ordered pause on foreign-aid spending froze only future contract obligations. In fact, more than 2,100 employees had been placed on administrative leave, and both existing and future contracts were frozen."
Errors such as that have been making it less likely a favorable ruling will be on tap for the Trump administration.
According to the report, the legal difficulties stem from too many executive orders to defend at one time which has made it difficult to assemble an ironclad case to bring before the court.
"Recent rebukes from judges have upset DOJ lawyers who privately say they have been given incorrect information by agencies and asked to defend executive orders they wouldn’t have crafted, according to people familiar with the matter," the Journal is reporting before adding, "Within the civil division, lawyers have grown frustrated with being forced into difficult litigating positions, the people said, and some expressed discomfort about joining the defense of Trump’s executive order aimed at limiting birthright citizenship."
