NEW YORK–A legal watchdog group accused three Justice Department lawyers of professional misconduct related to statements they made that were “allegedly false” related to the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the CFPB.
The accusations were made by the Legal Accountability Center and have been formally filed with the grievance committees of bar associations in Washington and other cities where the lawyers lived or practiced, according to the New York Times.
“The rule of law is under direct assault right now, and its greatest threat comes when those within the legal system fail to do their duties and stand up against the attack,” Michael Teter, executive director of the group, told the New York Times. “The message that needs to be heard by all attorneys representing the government is that even though the Trump administration isn’t interested in following the rules, we are watching.”
Subject of Complaints
The bar complaints against the three lawyers — Eric J. Hamilton, Brad P. Rosenberg and Liam C. Holland —involve a lawsuit brought in February by the National Treasury Employees Union, which accused the Trump administration of illegally seeking to destroy the CFPB, the Times reported.
According to the complaints, Hamilton and his two colleagues misled Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was handling the case, by telling her in a written filing that the administration had never sought to shut down the agency, but had merely closed its headquarters building and “tightened staff supervision,” the Times reported.
“That assertion was ultimately shown to have flown in the face of internal emails written by Russell T. Vought, the acting director of the CFPB, who had ordered its staff to stop doing any work at all,” the Times reported.
‘Stinging Decision’
According to the Times, after another misrepresentation about the stop-work order, Judge Jackson issued a stinging decision preventing the agency from being dissolved and castigating the Justice Department for lying to her in her own courtroom.
“The court is left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything,” she wrote, the Times stated.
In response, a government spokespersons said, “Every day, the Justice Department’s attorneys are going into court and vigorously defending the executive branch with integrity. Any assertion that our attorneys have engaged in professional misconduct is baseless and unfounded.”
