Federal judge dunks Trump lawyers for 'misstating the law' and 'misquotations'

President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice appears to be catching his habit of playing loose with the facts. But the problem for his federal attorneys is they’re delivering their bogus info to judges who appear to take issue with it.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel wiped DOJ attorneys in a Thursday decision and schooled them on the importance of honesty in research when submitting arguments.

As part of “Operation Metro Surge,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested thousands of noncitizens transported them to a holding facility, flew them across the country, and pressured them to sign self-deportation documents — all without the opportunity to speak with an attorney, said the judge.

But “due process is not a game of keep-away,” said the judge. “ICE recognizes detainees’ right to access counsel in theory and written policy, but not in practice. Instead, it has placed obstacle after obstacle in front of detainees and their attorneys, blocking communication between clients and counsel.”

The judge handed fledgling Homeland Security head Markwayne Mullins an exhaustive list of court-mandated requirements to follow over the next few months while working with detainees, including allowing phone and communication access.But what she also handed them was a callout on their fabrications, saying portions of the government’s brief “misstates the law and is riddled with misreadings and misquotations.”

“Perhaps most egregiously, Defendants twice quote Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota v. Rounds … for the propositions that: (a) mandatory injunctions are ‘particularly disfavored,’ and (b) Plaintiffs must show a likelihood of success on the merits by a ‘heavy and compelling weight of evidence’ rather than a fair chance of success,” Judge Brasel wrote. “Neither of these quotes appear in Planned Parenthood, nor in any Eighth Circuit case the Court has found that addresses injunctions.”

“Even under the most charitable of readings, Planned Parenthood cannot possibly stand for such a proposition; the case discusses the heightened burden that applies to enjoining state statutes and does not involve mandatory injunctions at all,” Brasel continued, adding that “this portion of Defendants’ brief included other mis-citations as well.”

“The Court questioned Defendants’ counsel at the hearing and received unsatisfactory responses,” the judge growled.

The Trump administration is desperate to replace fleeing prosecutors and defectors, to the point now of loosening hiring requirements for federal prosecutors. Those loosened requirements include the prerequisite of having real attorney work on their resume.