On Friday, a federal judge put Department of Justice lawyers on blast for their “untenable” explanations as to why they won’t provide information about President Donald Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS. “You have failed on both ends of the discovery process,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Ivan Davis told Justice Department senior counsel Andrew Block. “That cannot continue.”
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According to Bloomberg, “At a hearing on Friday, a federal magistrate judge in Alexandria, Virginia, accused the U.S. of failing to comply with court rules by refusing to fully respond to questions about the origins of the arrangement with Trump. The judge gave both sides another chance to reach an agreement before he takes a heavier hand in dictating what the government must produce. However, he did order the release of certain preliminary disclosures in the next week. The lawsuit in Virginia by a group of Trump critics challenges a now-defunct plan to create a $1.8 billion fund for victims of alleged government ‘weaponization’ as well as a still-active order from Attorney General Todd Blanche immunizing Trump, several of his family members and his company from audits into past tax filings. As part of that arrangement, Trump dropped his lawsuit in Florida against the IRS.”
A key sticking point in the case, explains Bloomberg, “involves requests by the challengers for the names of individuals involved not only in creating or executing the fund plan and the broader settlement agreement, but also in the ‘conception’ of the terms. Blanche announced he would abandon the fund plan in response to Republican opposition, but Trump has continued to express support for the idea and the settlement agreement hasn’t been formally changed.”
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On Friday, Judge Davis said the Justice Department had to produce names or explain why such information would be protected under attorney-client privilege or other rationale, but noted that it had done neither. According to Bloomberg, the judge declared that, “The government’s stance on what’s known as discovery — the exchange of evidence and information in litigation — was ‘untenable.'” Toward the end of the hearing, the judge told Block that although he understood “you’re not running the show,” the rules apply to all parties involved.
The judge’s assertions come as Trump has received a string of blows in court. Earlier today, for example, a federal judge denied his request to have the appeal against his felony convictions transferred to a higher court, which would have fast-tracked his case to the Supreme Court. In that case, the judge said the arguments presented by Trump’s attorneys were “neither new nor legally sufficient.”
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