A government lawyer who told a judge that her job “sucks” during a court hearing stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota has been removed from her Justice Department post, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Julie Le had been working for the Justice Department on a detail, but the U.S. attorney in Minnesota ended her assignment after her comments in court on Tuesday, the person said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. She had been working for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before the temporary assignment.
At a hearing Tuesday in St. Paul, Minnesota, for several immigration cases, Le told U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell that she wishes he could hold her in contempt of court “so that I can have a full 24 hours of sleep.”
“What do you want me to do? The system sucks. This job sucks. And I am trying every breath that I have so that I can get you what you need,” Le said, according to a transcript.
Le’s extraordinary remarks reflect the intense strain that has been placed on the federal court system since President Donald Trump returned to the White House a year ago with a promise to carry out mass deportations. ICE officials have said the surge in Minnesota has become its largest-ever immigration operation since ramping up in early January.
Several prosecutors have left the U.S. Attorney’s office in Minnesota amid frustration with the immigration enforcement surge and the Justice Department’s response to fatal shootings of two civilians by federal agents. Le was assigned at least 88 cases in less than a month, according to online court records.
Blackwell told Le that the volume of cases isn’t an excuse for disregarding court orders. He expressed concern that people arrested in immigration enforcement operations are routinely jailed for days after judges have ordered their release from custody.
“And I hear the concerns about all the energy that this is causing the DOJ to expend, but, with respect, some of it is of your own making by not complying with orders,” the judge told Le.
Le said she was working for the Department of Homeland Security as an ICE attorney in immigration court before she “stupidly” volunteered to work the detail in Minnesota. Le told the judge that she wasn’t properly trained for the assignment. She said she wanted to resign from the job but couldn’t get a replacement.
“Fixing a system, a broken system, I don’t have a magic button to do it. I don’t have the power or the voice to do it,” she said.
Posted by John3262005
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Apparently, the lawyer wished to be “held in contempt” because she would be able to get full 24 hours of sleep.
Now she was removed and, I believe, sent back to ICE
According to NBC News’s “Government attorney who told judge in ICE case, ‘This job sucks,’ removed from detail”
*Le told Blackwell during the court hearing on Tuesday that “it takes 10 emails from me for a release condition to be corrected. It takes me threatening to walk out for something else to be corrected,” KARE reported.*
*Le also said she did not feel properly trained for the role she is trying to fill, KARE reported. Le had been assigned 88 cases in less than a month, according to an NBC News review of federal court records.*
This comes with another wave of departures from Minnesota U.S. Attorney’s Office. A total of 14 attorneys have left this year.
Finally, Bloomberg Law reports “DOJ Orders Emergency Surge Prosecutors From All US Attorneys”
*The Justice Department is requiring all US attorneys to rapidly assign prosecutors for “emergency jump teams” supporting districts handling alleged assaults or obstruction of law enforcement, according to an internal memo obtained by Bloomberg Law.*
*A senior official instructed leaders of the nation’s 93 US attorney’s offices Feb. 2 that they have until Feb. 6 to designate one or two assistant US attorneys who’d be available for short-term surges in unspecified areas needing “urgent assistance due to emergent or critical situations.” The memo coincides with media reports this week of a new round of mass resignations of federal prosecutors in Minneapolis.*
At least she got her wish I guess.
But man, what a mess. Trump is really running the entire US government into the ground.
It’s going to take a long time just to repair the bureaucracy to what it was during Biden’s time after this…
I’d recommend reading the entire transcript, because it’s astonishing: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2z7eb5efGlHrb2AYBtfqMVDJSUfIu/view](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FnY2z7eb5efGlHrb2AYBtfqMVDJSUfIu/view)
So one less government attorney to process the flood from being understaffed.