https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/unprecedented-errors-are-eroding-credibility-trumps-justice-department-2025-12-17/WASHINGTON, Dec 17 - As President Donald Trump's crime crackdown got underway in Washington, D.C., in August, federal agents and police spotted a man named Torez Riley tugging at his backpack inside a Trader Joe's store, searched it and recovered two firearms.But federal prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges after video surveillance revealed the search lacked probable cause and was unlawful.In a subsequent legal opinion, a federal magistrate judge said the errors were part of a broader pattern of unprecedented prosecutorial missteps, resulting in a 21% dismissal rate of the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office's criminal complaints over eight weeks, compared to a mere 0.5% dismissal rate over the prior 10 years."It appears prosecutors charged and detained Riley before properly investigating the circumstances of his arrest," wrote the magistrate judge, Zia Faruqui.In years past, it was relatively rare for a federal court to question the Justice Department's competency or good faith. But such questions are becoming more common, thanks to a growing pattern of legal missteps that have dogged the department since January, according to a Reuters review and legal experts.The Justice Department declined to comment on any pending cases but a department spokesperson said:"This Department of Justice is winning in court on behalf of the Trump Administration and the American People with 24 successful rulings at the Supreme Court emergency docket so far and multiple prominent indictments of transnational terrorists, violent criminals, and even politicians who have allegedly engaged in corruption."A spokesman for the D.C. U.S. Attorney's office, Tim Lauer, said: “This office enforces the law as written and brings cases where the facts warrant action. While judges and juries decide outcomes, this office’s role is to hold offenders accountable.”
The errors have sometimes undermined the department on civil and criminal matters it cares about, from the prosecutions of Trump's political foes, to cases about immigration, violent crime, gender-affirming care and voting rights. At times, they came about after senior officials made public statements about pending cases on social media or television that strayed from the allegations made in sworn court filings, violating department rules designed to ensure a fair trial.These mistakes are causing department attorneys to lose credibility with federal courts, with some judges quashing subpoenas, threatening criminal contempt and issuing opinions that raise questions about their conduct. Grand juries have also in some cases started rejecting indictments, a highly unusual event since prosecutors control what evidence gets presented."As a government lawyer, you rely on your credibility and the Department of Justice relies on the presumption of regularity," said former federal prosecutor Alexis Loeb, referring to long-standing legal doctrine in which courts presume that government officials can be trusted."If those things are undermined, if you lose a court’s trust, it also makes it much harder to do your job."
>>1466545Credibility and Trump’s Justice Department are 2 words that don’t belong in the same sentence together…
Perhaps the most high-profile case to garner headlines for its missteps is the Justice Department's prosecution of Trump critic James Comey, the former FBI director whom Trump fired in 2017, on charges of making false statements and obstructing Congress.A federal judge in November dismissed the charges against Comey, finding the indictment was secured by an unlawfully appointed U.S. Attorney who was hand-picked by Trump after her predecessor expressed concerns about the strength of the evidence against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.Even before that ruling, the case was troubled: A magistrate judge said he uncovered a plethora of errors by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, from misstatements of law to the grand jury, to possible misconduct that included presenting evidence to grand jurors that was not filtered to remove privileged materials between Comey and his attorney.After a different judge disqualified Halligan from serving as U.S. Attorney, the Justice Department circulated an email to prosecutors instructing them to still keep Halligan's name on the signature block for all pleadings and list her as holding the role -- with the word "Attorney" misspelled.At least some of the legal blunders are being caused by a loss of institutional knowledge, legal experts said.From January through November, public records show the department has lost more than 2,900 attorneys - triple the number of those who left in each of the previous four years.
Other mistakes have occurred in moments where department officials were trying to garner attention on social media or curry political support from Trump and his allies.FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X about the arrest of Wisconsin Judge Hannah Dugan over charges she obstructed immigration enforcement while the case was sealed. Months later, he erroneously posted that the FBI had a suspect in custody for the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a claim he was forced to walk back.The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made extrajudicial statements about the department's motivations for pursuing criminal charges against Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia that a judge has since found could bolster Abrego Garcia's efforts to dismiss the indictment on the grounds it is a vindictive prosecution.In his remarks, Blanche told Fox News that prosecutors started investigating Abrego Garcia after a judge in Maryland questioned his removal from the United States and found the government had no right to deport him.And a memo drafted by Attorney General Pam Bondi that equated gender-affirming care for youth with genital mutilation has come back to bite, with several federal courts quashing the department's subpoenas to obtain medical records from providers, saying the department is acting in bad faith."They shoot first, they aim later, and even then, they miss," said former prosecutor Gene Rossi. "Because there is no wall between the White House and the Justice Department in terms of interaction and political process, this is what happens."
Don't forget all the lawfare committed by the trump regime and being waged against innocent Americans.Like Sandwich Man
>>1466545>Unprecedented errors are eroding the credibility of Trumpftfy
>>1466553>Many precedented errors have eroding the credibility of TrumpFTFY
>>1466553>>1466561>Trump>having credibility to erodeStop talking nonsense
>>1466552Its only been a year and there's already been so many hilarious fuck ups>Sandwich man>Getting both the Comey and James cases dismissed because they flat out committed fraud with Comey's case and both of the US attorneys didn't legally have their positions >Law enforcement fucked up so bad apprehending Luigi they're rapidly losing all evidence>Alligator Alcatraz running afoul of a EP law they should've known about and literally only surviving because they said it was a pure state funded, only to admit it was actually federally funded meaning it has to shut down again
>>1466552It's going to be hilarious listening to the whataboutism come November when the Blue Tsunami annihilates this facade and the shoe is on the other foot.
>>1466564>Getting both the Comey and James cases dismissed because they flat out committed fraud with Comey's case and both of the US attorneys didn't legally have their positionsThe same attorney was on both the Comey and James cases. The other attorney that wasn't legally appointed was on a fuckton of other cases that got nuked though.
>>1466573They really tried to bypass the confirmation process with the "permanent interim" bullshit, not realizing the system is set up so you can't do that and literally every defendant they try to prosecute can immediately pull the "You have no legal authority to file charges against my client" card and the judge by law has to abide by it. Not even the most corrupt Supreme Court can get them out of that but they still tried it and immediately found out.
>>1466574I think this has more to do with the fact that Trump is incredibly lazy and has no interest in actually being presidentSo he doesn't even make the effort to ask someone if he can do something before he does it. Not out of a cartoonishly evil desire to be a dictator, but because doing things by the book is just too much effort for a spoiled rich kid who has been handed literally everything he has in life on a golden platter
>>1466575And nobody around him tells him that shit won't work because they don't give a shit if a bunch of criminals beat their charges cause Trump is a fuckwit.
>>1466564>>Alligator AlcatrazYou absolutely know that nazi Stephen Miller wanted it to be Alligator Auschwitz.>>1466575He wants to be a dictator, it's why he's always sucking putin's dick and cozies up to other dictators.
>>1466580>He wants to be a dictator, it's why he's always sucking putin's dick and cozies up to other dictators.He wants to be a dictator because he wants to just be able to shout orders at people and no one ever question him, and to throw people who hurt his feelings in prisonBut he's too lazy to actually put in the effort it takes to overthrow a system and become a dictatorSo he makes dictatorial demands, but when they immediately get challenged and smacked down he just gives up and moves on to the next thing because fighting is hard
>>1466545this is not news.Everyone already knows this, its just that they're saying the quiet parts out loud now.
>>1466581The problem there is the republicans aka conservatives are inherently authoritarian so they're still going to try to push through his fantasies. it's why even though the lower courts try to hold trump in check, the republican supreme court just declares he's a king.
>>1466581a real american then
1466786>a fail american thenftfy
