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The Trump administration reportedly removed and transferred at least three high-ranking officials in the Justice Department’s National Security Division—the heads of the office of intelligence and the law and policy section within the division, and the executive officer of the division. DOJ also removed four other senior officials from their positions on Friday afternoon—including the heads of the Office of the Pardon Attorney and the Office of Professional Responsibility—and placed two Manhattan prosecutors who worked on the Eric Adams case on administrative leave. (WAPO, Main Justice.) (NYT, Manhattan prosecutors.)
Paul Clement on Friday advised Judge Dale Ho (S.D.N.Y.) to dismiss the federal government’s corruption case against Eric Adams with prejudice. Clement, a court-appointed amicus curiae, wrote that the court lacks authority to compel the executive branch to continue with the prosecution. But he argued that the “same basic separation-of-powers principles that counsel against a court maintaining a prosecution over the executive's objection support dismissal with prejudice here.” (See a prior Roundup for background on the Adams case.) (Clement brief.) (DOJ brief arguing for dismissal without prejudice.) (Commentary from Josh Gerstein on Clement’s brief (X), Marcy Wheeler on the government’s brief (emptywheel).)
The Trump administration reportedly “has a team of appointees focusing on the [clemency] process early in … Trump’s term, with a particular focus on clemency grants that underscore the president’s own grievances about what he sees as the political weaponization of the justice system.” Those petitioning for clemency, according to The Times, “are mostly circumventing” the traditional Justice Department clemency process—continuing the practice of the Trump 1.0 administration. (NYT.)
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (D.D.C.) on Friday denied a motion for a preliminary injunction blocking DOGE officials from accessing Treasury Department data. She determined that plaintiffs, three membership organizations, had not shown that the government “imminently planned to make their private information public or to share that information with individuals outside the federal government with no obligation to maintain its confidentiality.” (Opinion.) (Order.)
David Post analyzed this first sentence from Justice Alito’s recent dissent from the Court’s emergency order decision in the foreign assistance case: “Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” (The Volokh Conspiracy.)
Erwin Chemerinsky contended that President Trump “could get away with defying court orders should he, ultimately, choose to do so.” (NYT.)