U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to the media as U.S. President Donald Trump listens, in the Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington D.C., June 27, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
The Justice Department is begging a judge to forgive them after they messed up on a whole host of issues.
Democracy Docket, the law firm led by elections lawyer Marc Elias, posted on its website that in the government's ongoing crusade for voter rolls, the DOJ's case in Washington state hit some snags.
First, it appears the secretary of state was never served with the lawsuit.
Eric Neff, the acting chief of the DOJ’s Voting Section, submitted a filing Monday saying that local U.S. attorneys on the ground sent it to the wrong address. Then, when a judge issued an order asking why Washington’s secretary of state still hadn’t been officially served, Neff misunderstood that order and assumed the judge had quietly given him extra time to fix the mistake.
Neff said that it was clearly his mistake and he begged the court for forgiveness.
“The United States acknowledges that it should have filed a motion for extension of time from this Court and requested additional time to serve Defendant,” Neff wrote. “Counsel apologizes to the Court for not having sought a timely extension.”
"Following the Court’s March 10, 2026 Order to Show Cause, out-of-state counsel asked for assistance from attorneys in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington to effectuate service. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication, this resulted in a total of three attempts at service; two via the Attorney General’s email service box and one by personal service at the Office of the Attorney General, two of which were unnecessary," the filing continued.
The filing then begs for forgiveness again.
"The United States apologizes to the Court for failing to acknowledge that service was not effectuated within the 90-day timeframe in response to the Court’s Order to Show Cause. Counsel mistakenly interpreted the Court’s March 10, 2026 Order to Show Cause as allowing the United States until March 17, 2026, to effectuate service. See Declaration of Eric Neff. Counsel apologizes to the Court and did not mean to mislead the Court or imply that service was completed within the 90-day timeframe. The service on March 13, 2026, was admittedly untimely and without good cause."
A plaintiff has 90 days to serve the defendant under the federal rules of civil procedure, Democracy Docket explained. They'd reported the improper service back in December, but Neff evidently didn't see the report.
Typically, when this happens, a judge can dismiss the lawsuit altogether and tell them they can refile it and start over.
The local U.S. attorneys' offices have been having frequent troubles. In one instance, a prosecutor begged the judge to hold her in contempt so she could finally get some sleep.