A Judge blasts Trump’s DOJ — again

U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who last week harshly rejected President Trump’s claim of absolute immunity to prevent testimony of former White House counsel Donald McGahn, struck another blow for legal integrity in a devastating opinion denying McGahn a stay to appeal the ruling.

The judge held:

DOJ’s stay motion fails to demonstrate that any portion of this Court’s legal analysis is erroneous, or even that the legal issues raised in this case “represent fair ground for litigation[.]” . . . . Moreover, neither the Supreme Court nor the D.C. Circuit has ever previously held that the significance of the issues presented in a case, standing alone, is enough to warrant a stay pending appeal. To the contrary, it is well established that “[s]imply calling an issue important— primarily because it involves the relationship of the political branches—does not transform the Executive’s weak arguments into a likelihood of success or a substantial appellate issue.”

The court dismissed DOJ’s cheeky claim that the House would not really suffer harm from loss of McGahn’s testimony. “DOJ’s argument that the Judiciary Committee will not be meaningfully harmed by a stay of this Court’s Order pending appeal seems disingenuous, and therefore, is unpersuasive,” Jackson wrote. She continued, “Thus, DOJ’s argument here that any further delay will not be harmful to the Judiciary Committee because, in essence, DOJ has already harmed the Committee’s interests by successfully delaying its access to other materials strikes this Court as an unacceptable mischaracterization of the injury at issue. And, indeed, DOJ cites no authority for its suggestion that, if a stay movant has already successfully forestalled an opponent’s vindication of its rights, any additional delay that a stay in the instant matter would cause should not count as harm.”

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