Federal prosecutors missed court deadline because lawyers couldn't use computer system

One of the biggest challenges for President Donald Trump's Justice Department is that so much institutional knowledge was lost after the purge of top officials and career prosecutors. Even small things like using the computer systems appear to have flummoxed prosecutors.

Lawyer Daniel Suitor pointed out that he's been involved in a suit in which the federal government completely blew past a filing deadline for one of his Habeas Corpus petitions in an immigration case.

Suitor said that the court ordered the assistant U.S. attorney explain themselves.

"His response? It was 11:30 p.m. and 'I do not know how to file documents through CMECF,'" Suitor said of the lawyer talking about the electronic filing system used by the judiciary.

Suitor filed his own response, stating that the prosecutors never even gave him a courtesy call.

"Counsel for Respondents offer a host of limp excuses for filing late," he said. "First, AUSA [redacted] admits he was fine with violating the Court's scheduling order, instructing his staff that it was ok to 'file before midnight if possible or early Wednesday morning.' His excuse for the late filing of the response itself is risible: support staff was offline and, in [redacted]'s own words, 'I do not know how to file documents through CMECF.' This is no excuse. This is no excuse. The Court's order makes no exception for staff availability or the failure of an attorney to know the basic functions of their profession."

"Further, Counsel for Respondents admits he was not prepared to file all of the documents the Response relied upon, even at the late date. As he points out, he only requested a copy of the travel document after the Court's order to respond further," he continued.

On BlueSky Suitor commented, "Don't even get me started on how an AUSA, in a sworn declaration filed in federal court, complains about how many habeas cases they have and how hard it's making their life. Pathetic."

One legal analyst agreed that Justice Department attorneys should probably know how to file documents.