Breaking: DOJ's leaders just filed what amounts to a Truth social post as a legal filing in the ballroom case
Acting A.G. Todd Blanche, Associate A.G. Stanley Woodward, and Trent McCotter beclowned themselves in yet another dark, embarrassing moment for DOJ.
Just before the end of the day on Monday, Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward personally filed a deranged motion in federal court asking U.S. District Judge Richard Leon to issue a ruling in the National Trust’s case challenging President Donald Trump’s ballroom plan stating that Leon would dissolve the preliminary injunction he previously issued in the case (twice) if he had jurisdiction to do so.
“The injunction must be dissolved,” the DOJ filing declares in its conclusion — after seven pages of bombast.
It was clear to anyone who looked at the filing that it — particularly the opening and conclusion — more closely resembled a Truth social post from Trump than a legal filing from the Department of Justice.
It was yet another dark, embarrassing moment for DOJ — one that summed up the destruction that Trump and his sycophants have unleashed on the institution.
The opening paragraph of the Monday night filing went on for two pages and clocked in at more than 500 words.
Among other objectionable statements, the opening refers to the National Trust derisively multiple times, including asserting that “they suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome, commonly referred to as TDS,“ in the first of two mentions of Democratic Sen. John Fetterman’s post on X expressing support for Trump’s White House ballroom plan.
Leon, who previously entered a preliminary injunction in the case (the second), does not have jurisdiction to dismiss the injunction even if he were inclined to do so because the Justice Department appealed that ruling, so jurisdiction over it is currently with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
As such, DOJ — in the midst of everything else going on in Monday night’s filing — is seeking what it called an “indicative ruling” that he would dissolve the injunction if he could.
The filing came a day after Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, the head of DOJ’s Civil Division, sent a letter to the lawyer for the National Trust, asking them to dismiss their case in the aftermath of this weekend’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The National Trust’s lead lawyer, Foley Hoag partner Greg Craig, rejected the request early Monday.
The Monday night filing was not submitted by any of the 11 lawyers who filed the notice of appeal in the case on April 16. Instead, shortly before the filing, Woodward entered an appearance in the case.
It is very rare for the associate attorney general — No. 3 at DOJ — to enter an appearance in a case, let alone personally file a brief.
But, on Monday night, that is what happened.
Woodward signed the filing, which was submitted for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter, and Woodward.
In what passes for the legal section of the filing — three numbered sections — the trio from the upper leadership of DOJ argued that Leon can and should issue an indicative ruling; detailed the weekend’s shooting in terms that will undoubtedly be used by the suspect’s defense lawyers in the coming weeks and months; asserted that Trump’s White House ballroom “is required for National Security”; and argued that “the injunction is intolerable and unsustainable as a matter of equity and Law” and “must be dissolved.“
After making those attempts at arguments, Blanche, McCotter, and Woodward beclown themselves once more before closing the short filing.
“If any other President had the ability, foresight, or talents necessary, to build this ballroom, which will be one of the greatest, safest, and most secure structures of its kind anywhere in the World, there would never have been a lawsuit,” they wrote. “But, because it is DONALD J. TRUMP, a highly successful real estate developer, who has abilities that others don’t, especially those who assume the Office of President, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it’s called TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”
Here was how they concluded the filing:
As of 1:00 a.m. Tuesday, DOJ had filed nothing relating to the weekend’s developments on Monday’s district court filing with the D.C. Circuit.
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Can a judge just write “No” and send it back to DOJ?
Hmm, an extension of Trump’s legal filings in the documents case—political manifesto interspersed with mangled legal jargon.