Trump administration lawyers file brief with mostly hallucinated, fake or non-existent citations

Last week, Above the Law published an interesting story about a case in which the lawyers for the Department of Health and Human Services were called out for filing a brief with fake cites.  The decision stated that "in addition to the errors discussed above, nine more citations that the Agency provides are entirely fictitious, eleven do not support the propositions for which they are cited, and ten have partially incorrect citations and do not support the propositions for which they are cited. Overall, twenty-two of the exceptions brief’s twenty-nine footnotes — and thirty-five of the forty-two legal or record citations — are fictitious, erroneous, or irrelevant."  Are the lawyers incompetent, sloppy or just reliant on "super intelligence"?

White House Press Secretary loses job, and now faces possible misdemeanor charge for falsely claiming to be a lawyer

Here is a basic tip in our continuing series on "how not to practice law:"  Do not call yourself a lawyer unless you are one! 

By now I am sure you have heard the news that the new White House press secretary has been fired after just a few days on the job, possibly in part because of the consequences of holding herself out to be a lawyer even though she is not admitted to practice law anywhere.  

According to the news, although she graduated from law school, she failed the bar exam in California and there is no evidence that she has been admitted anywhere else.  In fact, she referred to herself as a lawyer many times on national TV and claims to have held the title of "General Counsel" for a company at one point.  Confronted with the truth, she doubled down with the idiotic notion that there is a difference between calling oneself a lawyer as opposed to an attorney, which is, of course, nonsense.  

But it gets worse, because now not only is she out of a job, she is a joke within the legal community, and an embarrassment to the administration, AND there is a chance she might face a criminal investigation for the misdemeanor of pretending to be a lawyer. 

Ironically, because she was never a lawyer to begin with, she is not subject to the disciplinary system, but the state bar can refer her to the state's prosecutors for an investigation on whether her conduct violated  a California statute that says, in part, that “[a]ny person advertising or holding himself or herself out as practicing or entitled to practice law . . . who is not an active licensee of the State Bar, or otherwise authorized pursuant to statute or court rule to practice law in this state at the time of doing so, is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in a county jail or by a fine of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment."

The state bar has been asked to make such a referral, but I will be surprised if they do.  She will just go down as holding the record for the shortest tenure as a WH press secretary and as another sad entry in the long list of unqualified people hired or appointed by the Trump administration.

For a short video explaining the issue, you can check out this comment in YouTube.

Remember the disciplinary complaint filed against Pam Bondi?... Some wonder if Florida does...

 Back in June a coalition of legal groups, judges and attorneys filed (and later refiled) a formal ethics complaint against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of “serious professional misconduct” in her leadership of the Justice Department. After the original filing, the Florida Bar declined to address it, explaining that it does not investigate government officers while they hold office.  Once Bondi left her position at the DoJ, the claimants re-filed the complaint, but it is not clear the the Bar has done anything about it.  JuristNews noticed, and published a comment here.

Florida Bar Hides From Ethical Responsibilities

 Over at Above the Law, Joe Patrice has published a short post worth reading called Florida Bar Hides From Ethical Responsibilities, Shrugs As DHS Lawyer Compares Federal Judges To Murderers And Rapists.  You can find it here.  In it, he reminds us that 

When the Florida Bar didn’t want to perform the most basic of its duties as the state’s designated professional licensing authority, it invented a new rule out of whole cloth to justify punting a detailed ethics complaint about then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. The entity charged with maintaining the integrity of the Florida legal profession couldn’t even consider the complaint against Bondi because it cannot investigate a sitting officer appointed under the U.S. Constitution while in office.

More importantly, that even though over 120 scholars, practitioners, and former judges wrote to remind the Florida Bar that since Bondi left office their reasoning does not bar taking on the complaint, the Florida Bar has ignored it.  And now, the Florida Bar has used the same reasoning to refuse to investigate DHS General Counsel James Percival.

Patrice argues, and I agree, that 

If the profession is to survive this administration, licensing authorities need to get serious about sanctioning and disbarring these people. These are not close ethical calls. This is the exact behavior that we created professional discipline to punish, and every time a licensing authority looks the other way it undermines the rule of law and its own credibility.

 The ABA has more here.

Two recent posts on the incompetence and/or misconduct of "Trump lawyers"

 In Politico:  Trump’s inexperienced federal prosecutors are running into trouble in court

In Above the Law: Trump Lawyers Keep Missing Easy Filing Deadlines… How Is This Hard For Them?

Legal groups file new ethics complaint against Pam Bondi

About a week and a half ago, it was reported that a coalition of legal groups, judges and attorneys on Wednesday refiled a formal ethics complaint against former Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of “serious professional misconduct” in her leadership of the Justice Department and handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.  Courthouse News Service has the story here.  Above the Law has more here.

The story says "refiled" because a complaint was filed last year (around June), while she was still in office. (See here). That complaint was rejected by the state of Florida on the basis that the state would not prosecute her while she held her office as Attorney General.  Well, now that she is no longer serving in that capacity, it is time for Florida to decide whether to take on the complaint.  I doubt they will, but I hope I am wrong.  

John Eastman disbarred in California for role in Trump's attempt to subvert the 2020 election

 Last week, after a three-year disciplinary process, the California Supreme Court finally officially disbarred John Eastman for his role in the attempt to help Donald Trump subvert the 2020 election.  

Eastman was also suspended in Washington, D.C. pending the decision of the case, so it is likely that he will be disbarred reciprocally there soon.

Politico has more on the story here and Above the Law has a good comment here.

UPDATE 4-18-26:  The ABA Journal reports "California Supreme Court disbars attorney John Eastman for 'egregious and deceitful conduct'"

Three more federal prosecutors disqualified because they were appointed illegally by Trump administration

 Federal judges keep telling the Justice Department that President Trump's hand-picked U.S. attorneys are serving illegally.  NPR has the story here.

Ed Martin is facing disciplinary action

 U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin is facing disciplinary action after he sent a letter to Georgetown University threatening legal action.  Above the Law has the story here.  The Hill has more here.

Pam Bondi wants to have the right to prevent states from conducting investigations into unethical conduct of DOJ lawyers

 In what highly respected legal ethics scholar Stephen Gillers has called “a DOJ powergrab,” last week the Department of Justice proposed a new federal regulation to grant Attorney General Pam Bondi the right to unilaterally interfere with state bar ethics investigations into current and former government lawyers. The rule is contrary to established law and should not survive scrutiny, but, as Joe Patrice has eloquently stated, “like a lot of this Justice Department’s shenanigans, the rule wasn’t really intended to hold up under scrutiny, it just needed to assert a big, splashy threat that might silence anyone who doesn’t want to have a protracted fight with the Department of Justice.”  Go here for Patrice’s thoughtful analysis. 

Aside from the fact that the Justice Department has zero credibility when it says it would conduct a serious investigation regarding the conduct of any of its own lawyers, the proposed rule goes against the so-called “McDade Amendment” (28 U.S.C. § 530B), which states that government attorneys “shall be subject to State laws and rules… governing attorneys in each State where such attorney engages in that attorney’s duties, to the same extent and in the same manner as other attorneys in that State.” Congress passed this provision specifically because DOJ tried to exempt its lawyers from state ethics rules years ago. 

For more on this story, check out the ABA Journal and The Hill. For a video comment, check out the YouTube channel "Legal Eagle" here.

What to do about Trump lawyers

Joe Patrice has an idea.  Read:  "Disbar Them All: The Only Accountability Left For Trump’s Lawyers" in Above the Law.

Judge orders Lindsey Halligan to stop 'masquerading' as US attorney

 A few days ago I posted that a judge issued an order to show cause why Lindsey Halligan's conduct in continuing to refer to herself as "US Attorney" did not constitute a violation of rule 8.4 regarding dishonesty, among others.  See here and here.

A few days later, after a hearing, the judge has issued an order.  In it, the judge ordered the removal of the words “United States Attorney” from government filings in a case Halligan was involved in and prevented her from representing herself as the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia unless appointed or confirmed by the Senate.  The judge also stated: “This charade of Ms. Halligan masquerading as the United States Attorney for this District in direct defiance of binding court orders must come to an end,”  Courthouse News Service has the story and a link to the order, here.

See also, 

Brutal, Humiliating Benchslap Puts An End To Lindsey Halligan Experiment.  Above the Law.

Judge posts job listing for prosecutor role Halligan claims to hold.  The Hill

Lindsey Halligan, Trump's former personal attorney, exits federal prosecutor post. NPR

Updates on the stories regarding Trump's illegally appointed prosecutors

Here are some follow-up stories related to the stories I posted a few days ago on judges disqualifying Trump appointed prosecutors:

Trump’s Loyalist Prosecutors Continue To Get Kicked Off Cases Because They’re Not Legally Appointed (Techdirt)

Halligan doubles down on US attorney title (The Hill)

Lindsey Halligan Says Her ‘I’m An Illegal Appointment’ T-Shirt Has People Asking A Lot Of Questions Already Answered By Her Shirt (Above the Law)

Pressure mounts as Trump digs in heels on US attorneys (The Hill)

Two Trump appointed attorneys disqualified (one for claiming to hold office she does not; another after the court found he did not have a right to hold the office)

Back in November of 2025, a federal District Judge found that Lindsey Halligan's appointment as interim US Attorney was unlawful, and that, therefore, she had no authority to hold the office she claimed to hold at the time.  As you probably remember, this is the insurance lawyer with no prosecutorial experience that the Trump administration appointed, among other things, to bring charges against James Comey.  

Although the government appealed the judge's opinion and order, no court has issued a stay which means the order remains in place.  

For that reason, earlier this week, another federal judge was surprised to see that Ms. Halligan has continued to appear before his court still claiming to be a US Attorney, and promptly ordered her to explain herself and to explain why her conduct does not constitute a false or misleading statement in violation of professional conduct rules.  

The Hill and Above the Law have the full story (and the judge's order).

Meanwhile, in New York, another federal judge has disqualified the top federal prosecutor in upstate New York and blocked subpoenas his office issued to state Attorney General Letitia James finding that the lawyer's service as acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of New York “was and is unlawful” because the Justice Department maneuvered to keep him in the role after judges declined to extend his tenure, in violation of statutory procedure.

Again, The Hill and Above the Law have the story.

More lawyers quit from Department of Justice

“Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. Justice Department’s unit responsible for defending key Trump administration policies in court, have left their positions since President Donald Trump’s November election or announced plans to leave, according to a new list.  Read the full story here.

h/t Renee Knake Jefferson's Legal Ethics Roundup.

DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi

 DOJ's Ex-Ethics Lawyer Speaks Out After Being Fired by Pam Bondi.  Read the story here.

h/t Renee Knake Jefferson's Legal Ethics Roundup.

More on Pam Bondi

Two new items on Pam Bondi:

First, a new article by Nick Akerman, a former assistant special Watergate prosecutor and a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York:  "Judge Boasberg should appoint a special counsel to investigate Bondi and her DOJ"

Second, here is a copy of an ethics complaint filed in Florida against Bondi.  It is signed by about 70 lawyers, law professors and former judges.  The Florida bar refused to act on it saying the disciplinary agency "does not investigate or prosecute sitting officers appointed under the U.S. Constitution while they are in office."  The Miami Herald has a story on this here.

Attorney General Pam Bondi fires top Justice Department ethics official

Given her track record, it should not surprise anyone that Attorney General Pam Bondi just fired one of the top career officials tasked with advising her and other senior Justice Department officials of their ethical obligations.  Go here for more on the story.

How not to practice law, Trump lawyers edition - UPDATED

 It has been a long time since I posted an entry into the long running series of "how not to practice law" featuring stories illustrating dumb things lawyers do that they should know better not to do...  So here we are today with a Trump edition, courtesy of the team of lawyers representing [sic] Trump in a case in Iowa against a pollster.  

In a nutshell, aside from the fact that the case is almost certainly frivolous, the story of the litigation reads like a script for a law related blooper reel.  You can read the details of the story in Above the Law here.

UPDATE, July 6: TechDirt has an update on the lastest details on this developing story here.

Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro disbarred in NY while John Eastman recommended for disbarment in California

 It has been a while since we have had news about Trump lawyers getting in trouble, but here we are again.  

This week the ABA Journal reported that a panel in California has recommended disbarment for John Eastman: "Ex-Trump lawyer John Eastman has moved another step closer to disbarment, as a unanimous three-judge panel of the State Bar Court of California’s review department affirmed earlier findings that he was culpable of 10 counts of misconduct relating to his representation of President Donald Trump during and after the 2020 election."  For the full story go here.  

Meanwhile, today the Legal Profession Blog and The Hill are reporting that the New York Appellate Division for the Third Judicial Department has disbarred Kenneth Chesebro.  As The Hill reports:

Ex-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who helped devise President Trump’s alternate electors strategy in 2020, has been disbarred in New York.

A panel of judges on the Appellate Division — New York’s midlevel appeals court — ruled Thursday that Chesebro’s guilty plea in Georgia’s probe of efforts to subvert the state’s 2020 election results qualifies as a “serious crime,” a finding that begets disciplinary action. 

The panel wrote that Chesebro’s guilty plea on one felony count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents is “unquestionably serious.” 

“On that basis alone, respondent’s conduct brings into question his integrity and fitness to continue engaging in the practice of law in New York,” the decision reads.