Trump lawyers risk fraud claim with 'wildly suspect' admission: expert
Prosecutors on the Justice Department's voter roll seizure team told a journalist's lawyers they won't put anything in writing because their own words might be used against them in court.
The admission came in a federal case against independent journalist Georgia Fort, who was arrested at her Minneapolis home in January while covering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement protest at a St. Paul church, according to the Press Freedom Tracker.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon and then-Attorney General Pam Bondi personally flew to Minnesota to present the case to a grand jury after career prosecutors in the state refused to bring it, national security reporter Marcy Wheeler reported on her site emptywheel.
Wheeler added on Bluesky that prosecutors refusing to communicate in writing was "wildly suspect." Under Minnesota Rule 8.4, it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to "engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation."
A July 2 letter filed in federal court by Fort's attorney Matthew Ebert memorialized a call with prosecutor Ned Hedley, who works for Dhillon, the day before.
"The government does not intend to respond to our correspondence in writing, out of the concern expressed on the call that what it represents to us could be put before the Court and/or otherwise used against it," Ebert wrote, capturing Hedley's position.
Prosecutors said they would not address what the superseding indictment called "significant misstatements" about Fort's conduct. They would not identify what evidence supports the allegations against her. They also would not notify the judges to whom they had submitted admittedly false testimony — in at least 15 search warrant affidavits, the filing said.
The government also could not explain why Homeland Security Investigations Agent Timothy Gerber used administrative customs summonses — legal tools designed for import and export investigations, not criminal cases — to obtain Fort's phone records from January through May 2026, emptywheel reported. Records obtained in discovery show T-Mobile responded to one summons with Fort's subscriber information and call logs. Neither document has been produced to Fort's defense team.
Wheeler had previously reported that the government admitted a false claim that Fort had been "chanting" with protesters appeared in eight separate affidavits before at least three judges. A key witness testified that Fort conducted herself as a journalist and posed no threat. Wheeler titled that report "More Evidence that Harmeet Dhillon's Team Fabricated Their Entire Case against Georgia Fort."
"This is all stemming from the fact that I filmed a protest as a member of the media," Fort said during her arrest livestream.
Dhillon's Civil Rights Division is the same team that has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C. in an attempt to seize unredacted voter rolls — including Social Security numbers — and has lost 16 straight court rulings in the effort, Democracy Docket reported.
"I guess I should have put a bet on my prediction that Harmeet's own misconduct would become an issue in this case," Wheeler wrote.
Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko is scheduled to hold a hearing Friday on Fort's bid for grand jury transcripts.