DOJ Backs Down After Judge Catches Them Skipping Basic Law 101 Against NYT
Nothing says executive competence quite like federal prosecutors scrambling to pull court orders because a judge threatened to sanction them for completely ignoring basic legal procedure.
Donald Trump got upset over news reports detailing safety flaws with his new Qatari-gifted jet. So, Kash Patel and the Department of Justice went straight for the heavy artillery, serving subpoenas to three New York Times reporters to demand their call logs and expose their anonymous government sources.
Except there is a tiny legal catch: subpoenas for journalists are legally required to be an absolute last resort, after investigators have exhausted every other avenue. The DOJ simply skipped every required preliminary step and jumped straight to demanding reporter phone records.
When Judge Arun Subramanian called out government prosecutors and asked if they were turning regulations on their head, the federal lawyer literally had to admit in court that skipping basic protocol was an error they owned.
The DOJ unilaterally withdrew the subpoenas before the judge could officially throw them out or slap sanctions on their legal team. They then released a statement complaining that they only backed down because the judge threatened their lawyers with sanctions.
Apparently, knowing how basic legal procedure works is now optional at the highest level of federal law enforcement.
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