Brett Shumate

Um, and the two left were Srinivasan, the chief judge, and Henderson, as, as Molly mentioned, w- who wasn't present.

Um, and Srinivasan did ask some very pointed questions of the, uh, of Brett Shumate, the, uh, um, uh, arguing for the government, uh, the, the head of the civil division, trying to say, "Look, if, if there had been only the Judge Boasberg's oral order in the courtroom, um, uh, the alleged ambiguity comes from a written order afterwards and whether it, uh, was, uh, uh, uh, where he, which he prefaces with, as we discussed earlier," and then, uh, uh, and the question is, is there ambigu- s- uh, uh, uh, objective ambiguity in that little squib? But, uh, uh, Srinivasan was saying, "Suppose it had just been the oral order.

Uh, uh, could they have done what they-- uh, if they'd done, if they did what they did," which was send them to Sakat, the 137 Venezuelans, "would that have been contempt?" And Shumate, uh, bobbed and weaved, and bobbed and weaved, and twice said basically it likely would have been contempt.

Which was to me sort of in-incredible.

Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard three hours of arguments in the latest chapter of a case that's been a recurring flashpoint in Trump's escalating conflict with federal courts.

Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate argued District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg has no basis or authority to continue his inquiry because a prosecutor, not a judge, is responsible for investigating crimes." Basically, he's arguing that the court can't investigate contempt.

[laughs]

The government likely committed a crime-

Now, Judge Patricia Millett questioned why Boasberg shouldn't be allowed to continue with his inquiry so he can determine if other government officials ... merit additional scrutiny for possible criminal contempt.

Quote, "Are district courts allowed to decide if people have engaged in contempt in front of them?" That's what Millett asked, who was nominated by Obama, by the way.

Quote, "The district court loses the authority to investigate." That's Brett Shumate from the DOJ.

Full disclosure, he's also the DOJ lawyer on several of my [laughs] Freedom of Information Act cases.

I cannot begin to tell you who some of the other judges who are, who are jumping in, but we identify where we can.

Anyway, um, the reason I want to start with this one is because w- what, what Judge Srinivasan does is get Brett Shumate, noted villain here on Law and Chaos, and the person arguing this turd for the DOJ, to concede that Judge Boasberg's instructions at that oral hearing, at least, what they call the oral TRO, that those at minimum were clear.

So I thought there was an argument that was being made, and I think the, the, I thought the brief had suggested it, that there was even some ambiguity about what was said in the oral hearing.

Putting aside, I know you have the argument that all of that goes away because what matters is what was put in the written order.

...

Brett Shumate, who's the lawyer for the Department of Justice.

By the way, he's on an unenviable losing streak.

He was the lawyer that originally argued birthright citizenship.

Programming note, I'm going to have Lee on with me this week to talk about what happened.

On the other side, for the Department of Justice, Brett Shumate, who joined this administration in its beginning days and has been arguing losing cases ever since.

He's argued the birthright citizenship case and lost.

He argued the tariffs cases and lost.

And the, and I have to say, Judge Millett, I think it was Judge Millett, but Molly, you were there, correct me if I've got the wrong female voice here.

Um, I, I, I think she was, you know, she really cornered Brett Shumate, uh, the, the counsel for the government, into saying, "Okay, wait.

You turn over a single name as the decision-maker," which in this case is Christine Noem, who's conveniently not in office anymore, right? And, um, and but-- and then all of a sudden the judge has to stop inquiring about who else contributed to the, uh, to, to the contempt.

And by the way, I mean, she all but said but didn't quite say, "I don't believe Christine Noem made this decision by herself.