Some notes now that I’ve seen the transcript of the hearing, thanks to @lizdye.bsky.social . First: the government dismissed the felony count in an effort to convince the judge not to make them produce full transcripts, knowing they showed serious misconduct.
/2 Second: federal judges don’t talk like this unless it’s REALLY bad, and it is.
/3 Here’s the judge’s initial summary for the benefit of the defense, which hadn’t seen the transcripts yet. It’s very bad.
/4 “Vouching” is when a prosecutor asks a grand jury or jury to just trust them rather than rely on evidence: “I am a federal prosecutor, I have had this job for twenty years, and you can rely on me when I say there is additional strong evidence that shows they are guilty,” that sort of thing. /5 Every single prosecutor knows that’s wrong. Second, you CAN’T COMMUNICATE WITH GRAND JURORS OFF THE RECORD. Every prosecutor knows that. Third, getting rid of grand jurors who don’t vote for you? What the fucking fuck? /6 Next: the judge calls them out for hiding the ball and redacting this obviously illegal stuff and lying about it.
/7 This encapsulates how Trumpism and Trumpist prosecutors have destroyed, probably for a generation at least, the reputation of DoJ and federal prosecutors.
/8 Next, the judge tells them that (1) she wasn’t inclined to find vindictive prosecution before but now she’s revisiting, and (2) there are sanctions and findings of ethical violations coming.
/9 Defense lawyer: Can this plz go RIGHT TO THE TOP Judge: Oh fuck yeah
/10 Trumpist prosecutor: well, firstly, this was only my second grand jury hearing ever, I am but a smol bean, and secondly, I just found out that vouching is bad? Holy fucking shit this is humiliating for DoJ.
/11. AUSA suggests that when grand jurors voted no bill the first time, they asked grand jurors who had “made up their mind” not to participate in the next ones.
/12 The US Attorney himself cannot read a room for SHIT
/14 Mr. Boutros, the US Attorney, admits he KNEW about the vouching and it led them to decide to dismiss the felony — but NOT to disclose it to the court. Also: he learned of the “excusing” of grand jurors, and told the supervising judge, but NOT this judge.
/15 Yes I missed /13. Because you touch yourself at night. /16 “We didn’t go to a fresh grand jury after we vouched and wrongly excluded people because that would be grand jury shopping” is a truly Trump DoJ excuse.
/17 Boutrous admits he knew about the vouching and dealt with it by dismissing the felony - but not by disclosing to the judge.
/18 Boutrous, still not reading the room, about how terrible the defendants are.
/19 The defense points out that the AUSAs stood mute when the court speculated it was only a few lines redacted and probably just IT issues, even though they knew pages had been left out and the stuff redacted and left out was catastrophic. /20 Boutrous attempts to argue that because they previously once offered to provide unredacted transcripts they must not have been trying to hide the ball. Which would be convincing if these people were competent or understood from the start they’d done wrong. They’re not and they didn’t. /21 Boutros announces the government is dismissing the charges with prejudice — meaning they cannot be re-filed. The judge is not particularly impressed.
/22 Heads should roll. Careers should end. If DoJ won’t do it, the legal community should do it for them. This is appalling and unacceptable behavior throughout, at all levels of this office. The lower attorneys committed misconduct. Boutros was complicit in hiding it from the court. /23 Responsibility is not a zero-sum game. It can be held by several people without diminishing anyone’s share. The administration set the tone here and gave the marching orders. It also started sending inexperienced dipshits to do grown-up jobs in politically motivated cases. /24 The line AUSAs committed misconduct. At least one was too stupid to grasp it. His excuse reminded me of the deputy DA who said to the judge in a case “I am going to look into this Fifth Amendment more carefully” after telling grand jury witnesses they could not take the Fifth. /25 [I found that to be regrettably ignorant for a DA who practices before the grand jury. But they made him a judge, so that fixes it, I guess?] /26 But I digress. This gets worse and worse. And even when we get a different administration, DoJ will be permanently crippled by this. You can’t get that trust back. There need to be severe consequences. Personally I think a lot of this is less truth-and-reconciliation and more pock-marked wall. /27 Anyway, once again, decent humans who are AUSAs now: get out. Get out now. /28 Postscript: In evaluating the judge’s reaction, bear in mind she was an AUSA for 12 years, including in supervisory positions.