Frustrated federal judges keep lashing out at Trump’s 'embarrassing' MAGA lawyers

Many of the MS NOW legal analysts who were federal prosecutors for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in the past — including law professors Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance — are arguing that President Donald Trump's DOJ appointees have much lower standards than they were held to during their years as federal prosecutors. According to MS NOW columnist Hayes Brown, Trump's "MAGA lawyers" at DOJ are getting stern rebukes from federal judges — which, he stresses, is a big change from the past.

"The Justice Department's lawyers were once considered the gold standard for prosecutors, with an appointment as U.S. attorney considered a pinnacle of many careers," Brown argues in a late May MS NOW column. "But over the past year and a half, the bar has been dropping considerably. With an unprecedented spate of grand jury rejections and judicial admonishments, the DOJ's credibility has eroded to the point that courts should no longer trust the men and women who are meant to speak on behalf of the United States at trials."

Brown continues, "We're witnessing a downward spiral precipitated by the Trump Administration prioritizing loyalty to the MAGA agenda over hiring and retaining qualified legal candidates. Many of the lawyers who are now serving under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche have little to no courtroom experience under their belts. As a result, even what is normally considered the easiest part of a criminal case has become a minefield of uncertainty and hotbed of misconduct."

Trump, Brown writes, is pushing for "politicized prosecutions from the DOJ" — and federal judges are frustrated by how sloppy and "embarrassing" his prosecutors are.

"Last week," the MS NOW columnist observes, "a federal judge in Chicago, (April M. Perry) threw out charges against four Democratic activists, the last remaining members of the so-called Broadview Six arrested last year during a protest outside an immigration detention center. The feds had already dropped a felony charge of conspiracy to impede a federal agent, leaving only a misdemeanor charge of simple assault of a federal officer."

Brown continues, "Days before the trial was to begin, as The New York Times reported, the judge called in the prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Andrew Boutros, to call him to task…. The situation was even worse in Wyoming, where a panel of three federal judges tossed nine indictments from U.S. Attorney Darin Smith, who had never held a prosecutorial role before his appointment last August…. While there's some bit of hope — not to mention schadenfreude — that comes from seeing this Justice Department fall on its face, each failure on its part helps erode faith in the legal system. It will be a long, hard road to rebuilding the trust that the Trump Administration has squandered with its reckless, baseless persecutions."