Courtroom chaos as judge ejects prosecutor and blasts DOJ — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hey everybody. A federal judge in New
2. 0:02Jersey absolutely torched the Department
3. 0:04of Justice in court this week. He
4. 0:06ejected a prosecutor from his courtroom,
5. 0:09said they can't be trusted, and even
6. 0:11accused them of committing crimes. I
7. 0:13have never seen anything like it in 22
8. 0:16years of practice. I'm Liz Oyer, the
9. 0:18former part-time attorney for the
10. 0:19Department of Justice. The issue that
11. 0:21arose in court this week related to the
12. 0:23management of the New Jersey US
13. 0:25Attorney's Office, which prosecutes all
14. 0:27federal crimes in that state. The office
15. 0:29has been in chaos since last year
16. 0:31because Donald Trump and Pam Bondi keep
17. 0:33installing unqualified people to lead
18. 0:36the office without following the process
19. 0:38that is clearly required by law.
20. 0:40Initially, Trump appointed Alina Habba,
21. 0:42a member of his golf club and one of his
22. 0:44personal lawyers. But a judge found that
23. 0:46her appointment was illegal and ousted
24. 0:49her. Then, Pam Bondi appointed a group
25. 0:51of three lawyers, including Todd
26. 0:53Blanche's 30-year-old chief of staff, to
27. 0:55run the office together. But the court
28. 0:57found that this was also illegal. Now,
29. 1:00it is unclear who is in charge of the
30. 1:02New Jersey US Attorney's Office. On top
31. 1:04of this chaos, the judges in New Jersey
32. 1:06have lost patience with the prosecutors
33. 1:08in the office because they keep failing
34. 1:10to comply with court orders. One senior
35. 1:12leader of the office was forced to admit
36. 1:14to more than 50 violations of court
37. 1:16orders in just 60 days, which is unheard
38. 1:20of. So, needless to say, tensions are
39. 1:22running high. This week, things really
40. 1:25hit the fan. In a hearing before Judge
41. 1:27Zahid Quraishi, a prosecutor was asked
42. 1:30some basic questions about who is
43. 1:32currently in charge of the office. The
44. 1:34prosecutor could not answer, which did
45. 1:36not make the judge happy.
46. 1:38Then, the prosecutor's supervisor
47. 1:40started interrupting. The judge told him
48. 1:42to stop talking, but he didn't. And then
49. 1:44the judge blew his top. He ejected the
50. 1:47supervising attorney from the courtroom,
51. 1:48and then he went on a tear. He said,
52. 1:51quote, "You have lost the confidence and
53. 1:53the trust of this court. You have lost
54. 1:55the confidence and the trust of the New
55. 1:57Jersey legal community and you are
56. 1:59losing the trust and confidence of the
57. 2:01public.
58. 2:03He also said that the government was
59. 2:04potentially violating the Constitution
60. 2:06because of quote this unlawful conduct
61. 2:09that you guys keep perpetrating in your
62. 2:11office.
63. 2:13This is a pretty stunning accusation
64. 2:15from a federal judge against federal
65. 2:17prosecutors. Judge Quraishi has now
66. 2:19ordered three senior DOJ officials to
67. 2:22appear in his courtroom to testify under
68. 2:24oath about what is actually going on.
69. 2:26Obviously this chaos and dysfunction is
70. 2:28terrible for the justice system, but the
71. 2:31good news is that the judges in New
72. 2:33Jersey are demanding accountability,
73. 2:35which is exactly what we need to get
74. 2:37back on track. I will keep you posted.