If you are a lawyer, you don’t want a reputation for being unreliable before judges. Your career in court isn’t worth shit at that point.JUST IN: Judge Mary McElroy (Trump/RI) refers DOJ attorneys to the court discipline committee over handling of fight over trans medical care subpoenas to RI Hospital. Earlier she agreed that presumption of regularity for govt 'no longer holds.' https://t.co/bHzVvxQZdN pic.twitter.com/mzbND1w0eD
— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) June 5, 2026
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy of Rhode Island issued the referral under the court's Local Rule 210(b), citing both representations made by the respondents' attorneys and the findings of her May 14 order — a 24-page takedown of DOJ conduct in a case involving a subpoena seeking the medical records of minor patients who received gender-affirming care at Rhode Island Hospital.Don’t get me wrong. Government lawyers can hide a lot of shit behind the presumption that they are reliable. Power most certainly corrupts; but only if those holding it are already corruptible. Well, as corruptible as this. This, is a brightly flashing warning light.🚨
In that order, McElroy found that DOJ had "misrepresented and withheld information" from both her court and a federal court in Texas, where she said the department had engaged in blatant forum shopping to find a friendlier venue for its demands.
The judge saved some of her sharpest language for DOJ's courtroom behavior, writing that a senior attorney "sat silently by" during a hearing while a junior colleague — someone who had been practicing law for approximately six months — "was forced to answer questions about DOJ's blatant disregard for the proper course of negotiations."
A declaration filed by a senior DOJ official in the Texas proceeding, McElroy found, was "clearly misleading, if not utterly false." She called DOJ's "reckless disregard for the duty of candor owed" to a federal court "appalling," and a serious breach of professional ethics.
"DOJ has proven unworthy of this trust at every point in this case," McElroy wrote.
She also quashed the subpoena entirely and enjoined DOJ from seeking, receiving, or using any patient-identifying records from Rhode Island Hospital, finding the subpoena lacked a congressionally authorized purpose, was issued in bad faith, and violated children's constitutional right to informational privacy.
The court order doesn't appear (reading it on my phone so I could have missed them), but an earlier order in this case that led to this one included the name of a college classmate. She is a career attorney in the DOJ, and as my college roommate commented, he Linkin profile lists her pronouns. Why then, would someone like that torch their entire career for the Trump administration and this case? The grand jury misconduct cases raise some of the same questions. These weren't new attorneys, these were seasoned members of the DOJ acting without candor to the courts and in unethical manners. How did these attorneys fail to resist corruption from the top and compromise themselves and their entire careers? (Assuming they weren't already corrupt)
ReplyDeleteThen there’s the senior DOJ lawyer who let someone six months out of school play human heat shield so the senior wouldn’t get yelled at. If I was that newly minted lawyer, I’d be finding a new job. You’re not going to want “DOJ attorney during Trump” on your resume.
DeleteAnd my suspicion is, the ones left who are not complaining (some need the job. Been there, done that.) were corrupt to begin with. Blanche worked in SDNY, IIRC.
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