+ As federal prosecutions face mounting setbacks

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The Daily Docket

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

 

By Caitlin Tremblay

Good morning. “Unprecedented” errors are eroding the credibility of the DOJ. Plus, the Trump administration will ask a Boston federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit claiming current COVID-19 vaccine policies threaten public health. And, 16 U.S. states and D.C. sued the federal government over the Trump administration's suspension of EV charging programs. Here's a story about a DJ priest mixing faith and electronic beats — just the midweek groove you didn't know you needed. Let’s dive in!

 

'Unprecedented' errors are eroding the credibility of Trump's Justice Department

 

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

As President Trump's crime crackdown got underway in Washington, D.C., in August, federal agents and police spotted a man tugging at his backpack inside a Trader Joe's, searched it and recovered two firearms. But federal prosecutors were forced to dismiss the charges after video surveillance revealed the search lacked probable cause and was unlawful.

In a subsequent legal opinion, a federal magistrate judge said the errors were part of a broader pattern of "unprecedented" prosecutorial missteps, resulting in a 21% dismissal rate of the government's criminal complaints over eight weeks, compared to a mere 0.5% dismissal rate over the prior 10 years.

Sarah N. Lynch has more on the errors here.

 

Coming up today

  • The Trump administration will urge U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several leading medical organizations that argues U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the Department of Health and Human Services current policies on COVID-19 vaccines pose an imminent threat to public health.
  • U.S. District Judge Patti Saris in Boston will consider whether to rule it is unlawful for the Trump administration to subject thousands of migrants detained by immigration authorities in New England to mandatory detention without the possibility of being released on bond.
  • Former Special Counsel Jack Smith is set to face closed-door questioning from the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee about his now-dismissed cases against President Trump over Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his retention of classified documents.
  • The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on several of President Trump's new judicial nominees.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

 

More top news

  • U.S. judge open to again striking down Trump policy on third-country deportations
  • Trump-appointed judge argues U.S. Constitution's rights do not extend to non-citizens
  • Senior federal prosecutor who presided over D.C.'s crime crackdown demoted, sources say
 
 

Industry insight

  • Eric Herschmann, a former adviser to President Trump and a senior partner at New York law firm Kasowitz, sued the firm and its founder, alleging he was misled about the firm's finances and never paid millions of dollars he is owed. Read more here.
  • Moves: Sullivan & Cromwell added Aprajita Dhundia to its private equity and M&A practices and Ian Ferreira to its tax practice, both from Kirkland … Willkie added Sebastian Häfele to its M&A practice from Kirkland … Chad Davis joined Morgan Lewis’ life sciences IP practice from Dechert … Moses Singer hired corporate trust and loan agency partner Michael Fruchter from Holland & Knight.
  • New partners: Susman Godfrey elected six new partners.
 

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In the courts

  • A group of 16 states and D.C. sued the Trump administration for suspending two bipartisan grant programs for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Read the lawsuit.
  • Prosecutors said they planned to file murder charges against Nick Reiner, the younger son of Hollywood filmmaker and political activist Rob Reiner, accusing him of using a knife to kill his parents in their Los Angeles home over the weekend. Read more here. 
  • The DOJ sued the Virgin Islands Police Department for what it described as "unconstitutional practices" that resulted in denials of gun permits, in what marked its first major case since creating a new specialized gun rights unit. Read more here.
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute agreed to pay $15 million to resolve claims that the Harvard Medical School affiliate wrongly used National Institutes of Health grant funding to support the publication of studies in medical journals that contained manipulated or duplicated images. Read the settlement.
  • The Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, sued Xcel Energy's unit Southwestern Public Service Company for causing the Smokehouse Creek fire in 2024. Read more here.
  • Elon Musk's X Corp sued the startup Operation Bluebird after it sought to cancel X's Twitter trademarks so it can "bring Twitter back" as a new social media platform. Read the complaint.
  • A second California doctor was sentenced to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying "Friends" star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor's fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023. Read more here.
  • A former Harvard Medical School morgue manager was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing and selling organs and other parts of cadavers that were donated to the school for medical research and education. Read more here.
 

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