The Trump Admin’s Lawyers Keep Giving The Same Troubling Answer | EUROtoday

As authorized claims towards the Trump administration stack up, a number of federal attorneys defending the U.S. authorities — and its repeated failures to comply with court docket orders — have usually fallen again on the identical argument: They merely do not know what’s occurring.

In the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran nationwide and Maryland resident mistakenly deported final yr, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis turned so annoyed by authorities attorneys’ failure to reply primary questions that she thought of holding them in contempt.

“We have said what we can say. I do not have that information,” the federal government’s lawyer, Drew Ensign, advised Xinis at a protracted listening to on Abrego Garcia’s standing final spring. Ensign’s lack of understanding about Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and what the administration had carried out to facilitate his launch, Xinis stated, prompt the federal government was “playing a game with their own lawyers.” In a later order, she slammed DOJ attorneys for his or her “willful bad faith refusal to comply with discovery obligations” and “specious” techniques to evade her questions. One yr later, Abrego Garcia’s case continues to be not closed, and simply final week, the federal government stated it nonetheless intends to deport him.

In a January case alleging ICE was routinely denying individuals detained on the Whipple Federal Building in Minnesota entry to telephones or attorneys, a U.S. district choose and a lawyer representing the federal government couldn’t agree on the essential reality of whether or not telephones had been out there inside.

DOJ lawyer Christina Parascandola had bother figuring out the names of the individuals the federal government had detained, she advised a choose, which means there was no solution to examine if all detainees had been in a position to make a cellphone name, as they have been alleged to. In reality, she advised the choose, she couldn’t “say with a hundred percent certainty” if the federal government, her consumer, even saved such information. As to the telephones, Parascandola stated she hadn’t been there herself to see, and will solely depend on what ICE brokers had advised her.

In a West Virginia case over the legality of a warrantless ICE-initiated site visitors cease of a driver, who was then held in jail for 9 days, authorities lawyer Christopher Arthur advised U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin he was “not prepared to answer” questions on who accredited stopping the person, nor their title or the company they labored for.

When the choose begged him to “just answer me” and clarify “why this stop was lawful,” Arthur replied: “OK. The answer is, I don’t know what initiated the initial stop.”

Goodwin appeared flabbergasted.

“Can you imagine ever coming to court to try to convince somebody that a person is being lawfully held with absolutely no information? You don’t have anything,” he stated.

“I don’t know” as a solution in court docket isn’t unparalleled, and it’s not essentially a completely unacceptable response to judges. But a HuffPost assessment of distinguished federal immigration circumstances discovered U.S. attorneys falling again on “I don’t know” or some model of it as a solution to judges’ questions typically — together with after that they had already been requested repeatedly for info at earlier hearings or given time to discern solutions for the court docket. Some attorneys have maintained that response regardless of threats {of professional} and even authorized penalties from the judges presiding over their circumstances. This hints at two potentialities: both a loyalty to a method of obfuscation, or a systemic incompetence that runs by means of the Department of Justice below President Donald Trump.

Legal consultants advised HuffPost both one is deeply regarding. Whether attorneys are incompetent on goal or if they’re merely at nighttime, the very fact stays that lives are at stake and the credibility of the Justice Department hangs precariously within the stability.

As Amy Powell, a senior trial counsel for the Justice Department for 20 years, advised HuffPost, the “brain drain from the department has been dramatic” over the previous two years, and the implications have been instant. Powell resigned final yr and now serves because the litigation director for Lawyers for Good Government.

“The DOJ is never going to be the same. Even if we elect a competent administration and they appoint competent people, career people don’t suddenly get hired back,” she stated. “The institutional loss is generational, and it’s going to be decades to rebuild what has been lost.”

Attorneys for the federal government are supposed to maintain a particular place within the justice system. They are the “nation’s principal litigators,” and should stability federal, state and native pursuits. They should prosecute and defend. And they take an oath to execute the legal guidelines “faithfully” for all, no matter their particular person interpretation of the Constitution or federal legal guidelines.

The requirements for attorneys contained in the division look like at all-time low proper now, stated one former DOJ official who agreed to talk anonymously out of concern {of professional} repercussions.

“If you’ve got a pulse, you can get into the Justice Department,” they advised HuffPost.

The Justice Department didn’t reply to particular questions on its technique or attorneys not answering direct questions from judges. None of the prosecutors named on this story responded to requests for remark.

Scrupulous attorneys nonetheless stay on the Justice Department. But it has been arduous for the establishment to maintain checks and balances on itself.

Since his second stint in workplace started, Trump has handpicked sycophants to regulate the Justice Department. The company has been gutted as politicization has proliferated. Firings and resignations have ripped by means of the division. The variety of attorneys employed by the DOJ has dropped to lower than one-third of what it was earlier than Trump took workplace — from 12,955 in December 2024 to simply over 3,400 in January 2026, in keeping with analysis revealed this month by a bunch of former DOJ officers often known as Justice Connection. On Trump’s order, the DOJ has hollowed itself out over the past yr by shuttering varied civil and felony divisions, and has seen its funding drastically lowered.

The consequence has been DOJ attorneys unfold skinny because the administration has sued — and been sued by — varied organizations and people at breakneck velocity. And after they get in entrance of a choose, they might declare cluelessness.

“I don’t know” is at instances a mandatory reply, Powell stated: Sometimes attorneys simply don’t know issues. But they can’t use it as a dodge.

“If you do know and you’re lying and you say you don’t know, it’s still a lie and the lie you told was that you don’t know,” she stated.

Judges and attorneys within the U.S. function below a shared authorized doctrine often known as the “presumption of regularity,” or the idea that the federal authorities should be presumed to be performing in good religion except proof proves in any other case. It is foundational to American regulation. So, if attorneys say they “don’t know” or don’t have solutions, it’s assumed they’re truthful.

The former DOJ official agreed that there are occasions the place a lawyer may very well be caught unaware and never have a solution to a query. “But there is also a duty of diligence,” they stated. “They have to dig in and learn what the facts are.”

The failure by some attorneys on the DOJ to dig into these info, particularly after judges have requested them repeatedly and even made lodging for them, damages the Justice Department’s credibility, and it raises the query of whether or not authorities attorneys are abdicating their duties.

When Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act final yr to quickly deport over 100 males accused of being Venezuelan gang members to the CECOT jail in El Salvador, the Justice Department defied Chief District Judge James Boasberg’s orders to show round planes holding these deportees. Boasberg, who had already issued a brief restraining order barring the deportations, held a listening to with authorities attorneys to debate Trump’s proclamation and be taught whether or not the federal government had plans to deport anybody else inside 24 to 48 hours.

When questioned, Ensign — the identical lawyer who would additionally signify the federal government within the Abrego Garcia case — repeatedly stated, “I don’t know the status of the planes” and “I don’t know the answer to that question.” The “I don’t knows” have been coupled with assertions that info couldn’t be shared as a result of it was a menace to nationwide safety.

Lawyers representing the boys in detention stated the planes have been leaving imminently. That evening, two planes carrying deportees left the U.S. for CECOT.

When Boasberg reconvened the listening to later that evening, he was clear along with his directions: “Inform your clients of this immediately and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.”

They weren’t. Instead, over the subsequent two days, the planes arrived in El Salvador. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele shared a New York Post article on X mentioning Boasberg’s order and a laughing/crying emoji with the phrases “Oopsie… Too late” subsequent to it. The White House shared Bukele’s publish a bit over an hour later.

The males who the federal government despatched to CECOT, as HuffPost beforehand reported, would later converse of putting up with horrific experiences on the jail, together with allegations of beatings, psychological abuse and sexual assault.

Boasberg finally sought to maintain the federal government accountable, trying to open felony contempt proceedings for the Trump administration officers who would have signed off on the orders Ensign appeared unable or unwilling to debate in court docket. In form, the Justice Department accused Boasberg — finally unsuccessfully — of judicial misconduct. But the federal government succeeded in defeating the contempt proceedings, with an appellate court docket ruling 2-1 towards the probe simply this week.

In the opinion, Trump-appointed Judge Neomi Rao declared: “These proceedings are a clear abuse of discretion.”

The high quality line between whether or not a lawyer or the system round them is in charge for incompetence was placed on show throughout an explosive listening to in February.

Julie Le, a former ICE legal professional who volunteered to help the federal government because it turned inundated with immigration circumstances courtesy of Trump’s Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis, unraveled in entrance of U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell in an change that ended up going viral.

The court docket was demanding solutions from Le about why individuals had been unlawfully detained for weeks past court-ordered launch dates or below situations the choose didn’t approve. Again and once more, Le stated she didn’t know why, and didn’t know specifics. Her requests to higher-ups for detainee info have been being slow-walked so badly, she stated, that she threatened to resign hoping that will pressure the division to select up the tempo.

But the “broken system,” she claimed, left her at a loss and totally exhausted.

“What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need,” Le stated.

“Our email just never stops. And as you can see, I ― I would ― I would love to undo all of this stuff because no one wants to be in jail. And actually, honestly, you know, being in jail a day to get ― catch up with sleep is not bad right now with all the hours I have to put into this job,” she stated.

Le was fired from the U.S. legal professional’s workplace lower than per week later.

The means the Justice Department is dealing with itself as we speak doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It can even undermine the division’s future. Mentors for younger attorneys say those that are up-and-coming fear that hitching their wagon to Trump’s DOJ will jeopardize their long-term careers, for which they need to preserve a regular {of professional} ethics. Defending the Trump administration’s lawlessness could also be viable as we speak given the shortage of oversight on the division, however that might not be the case years from now.

“They don’t want to get disbarred later,” stated one other former DOJ official, who additionally spoke to HuffPost on the situation of anonymity as a result of they feared retaliation.

Without an inflow of keen, younger and, furthermore, moral attorneys to the company, the long run may imply a division more and more devoid of expert practitioners who put public service above private achieve or political loyalty.

Both by means of incompetence and performing in unhealthy religion, the principles of engagement of justice have modified: Americans have witnessed authorities attorneys defend the arrest and detention of 1000’s of individuals with little to no justification, together with a whole lot of U.S. residents who reported being overwhelmed, dragged and kicked by ICE brokers. They have watched as the federal government has flatly refused to cooperate with probes into the slaying of U.S. residents by ICE. Lawyers for the federal government have defended — finally, unsuccessfully — the invasion of American cities by federal forces in violation of constitutional bedrock rules.

“Many of my friends and former colleagues who are still at DOJ are trying to continue be good lawyers, to zealously represent the U.S. as represented by its elected officials while staying true to their oaths, giving candid legal advice, trying to comply with court orders and trying to get clients to comply with court orders,” Powell stated. “And the government has made it really difficult to do all of those things.”

The system might very effectively be as “broken,” as Le prompt — however just for particular person attorneys and defendants. When it involves immigration points particularly, the administration, in spite of everything, appears to be getting what it needs: Trump’s large deportation agenda carried out and sometimes, federal, state or native legal guidelines be damned.

In 165 circumstances the place judges had dominated towards the administration, the federal government defied 1 in each 3 court docket orders, The Washington Post discovered final yr. Many of these circumstances concerned flat-out noncompliance. But others concerned attorneys offering false info or withholding proof. Other circumstances demonstrated attorneys making a pretext to evade orders, just like the claims made within the CECOT case that disclosures would pose a menace to nationwide safety.

In a whistleblower criticism filed by Erez Reuveni, a former senior DOJ lawyer fired after he admitted the federal government deported Abrego Garcia in error, Reuveni stated Emil Bove, on the time Trump’s former felony protection attorney-turned-deputy legal professional normal, made clear in a personal assembly that the DOJ wouldn’t abide orders in the event that they didn’t really feel prefer it and should “consider telling the courts ’fuck you.’”

Reuveni alleged Ensign lied in court docket when he advised the choose the federal government didn’t have “many details to share” across the CECOT deportations. He additionally alleged Ensign used the pretext of nationwide safety to deflect and that even when the choose agreed to tug attorneys apart privately in court docket to debate the delicate particulars, Ensign stated he didn’t “personally” have the data requested.

That got here, in keeping with Reuveni, proper after Bove’s directions that the DOJ might select to disregard court docket orders.

Reuveni was finally fired in April 2025. Ensign stays the deputy assistant legal professional normal for the Office of Immigration and continues to deal with a big quantity of immigration circumstances.

“Those decisions went off like a bomb in the civil division of the DOJ,” Powell stated. “I was still there at the time, and that was the last and final straw for me.”

A DOJ spokesperson stated the allegations towards Ensign have been “laughably false” and “nothing more than a half-hearted, bad-faith ploy for publicity.”

“The DOJ as an institution has lost credibility,” Powell stated. “The politicization of the department, its decisions, public statements, what appear to be outright lies and defiance of court orders in multiple cases, means that those presumptions the government has long relied upon are falling by the wayside. Judges who believed what a career attorney or a political official told them without pause a few years ago have developed an intense skepticism.”

“It’s terrible for public service, it’s terrible for the department, it’s terrible for the American people. … It’s all heartbreaking for those of us who are refugees from the department, watching its dissolution,” she stated.