{"id":5716,"date":"2026-07-14T09:04:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716"},"modified":"2026-07-14T09:04:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T09:04:42","slug":"judges-are-getting-more-comfortable-calling-out-trumps-and-the-dojs-cynical-ploys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716","title":{"rendered":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            President Donald Trump\u2019s ill-fated $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund suffered yet another major blow on Monday, with a federal judge delivering a brutal review of the process that led to it.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5714\">Todd Blanche has to win over skeptical Republicans. Democrats are laying lots of traps<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            It\u2019s part of a growing trend of judges saying rather bluntly that Trump and his Justice Department aren\u2019t operating in good faith \u2014 and even that they\u2019re misusing the legal process for Trump\u2019s personal and political benefit.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The most recent is US District Judge Kathleen Williams, a Barack Obama nominee whose 56-page opinion is routinely brutal toward Trump and his DOJ\u2019s conduct in the case that produced the now-defunct settlement.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Williams said the settlement \u2014 which included the fund that could have given money to violent January 6 defendants and also purported to give Trump amnesty from past tax issues \u2014 resulted from a lawsuit that was essentially a pretext.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            She said Trump\u2019s lawsuit against the IRS over the illegal leaking of his tax returns was merely meant to \u201cprovide some legitimacy\u201d to what the administration already wanted to do with the settlement.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cThis lawsuit was not brought to vindicate rights; it was brought to manipulate the judicial process to pursue benefits unavailable in litigation because the Parties were not adverse,\u201d Williams said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            (Indeed, the main problem with Trump\u2019s lawsuit was that the two sides of it \u2014 the personal lawyers working for Trump and the Justice Department he runs \u2014 weren\u2019t sufficiently adversarial, and thus nobody really seemed to be fighting against what Trump wanted.)\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The judge then went even further. She referred one of the private attorneys working for Trump to the Florida Bar for possible disciplinary action. She blocked another from court appearances in the Southern District of Florida for a year. And she even ordered that her opinion be included in the reviews of preexisting professional ethics complaints against acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Blanche is currently facing confirmation hearings after Trump officially nominated him for AG.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            A judge had similarly harsh rhetoric for the administration last week.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            US District Judge William M. Ray II, a Trump nominee, invalidated a grand jury subpoena that sought personal information about scores of election workers in Fulton County, Georgia. The subpoena was part of an effort to scrutinize the 2020 election results that Trump has spent years claiming, without evidence, were rigged.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Ray, like Williams, suggested the proceedings were something of a ruse. He said the statutes of limitations had passed for charging any election workers even if crimes were found, thus rendering the subpoena an \u201carbitrary fishing expedition.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5698\">Iran plays by Trump\u2019s rules to deepen his war dilemma<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            He said the relative ease with which prosecutors can obtain subpoenas from grand juries \u201cdoes not give DOJ the right to use the grand jury to do whatever the DOJ wants.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cEveryone, whether you support the president or you do not, or whether you believe the 2020 election was fair or believe that it was not, should be concerned about the DOJ\u2019s ability to utilize the power of the grand jury to appropriate your private information without a legitimate purpose,\u201d Ray wrote.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            In late June, another Republican-appointed judge blocked subpoenas against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and other Democrats.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Chief Judge Patrick Schiltz, like the other judges, suggested the true motives were political \u2014 that the Justice Department was using the subpoenas to apply pressure, in this case related to the recent effort to crack down on undocumented immigrants in Minnesota.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Schiltz wrote that \u201cthe dominant purpose\u201d of the subpoenas was to \u201ccoerce Minnesota officials into assisting the federal government with enforcing civil immigration law and to harass and retaliate against them for failing to do so.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            And another federal judge said back in March, while rejecting subpoenas during an investigation into then-Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, that the subpoenas had been intended to \u201charass and pressure\u201d Powell into doing as Trump wanted and lowering interest rates.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            These aren\u2019t the first legal setbacks the Trump administration has faced \u2014 not by a long shot. Nor are they the first times that Trump and his side have faced harsh language.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But it\u2019s notable that there\u2019s a growing number of judges suggesting Trump\u2019s administration is attempting to use the courts improperly \u2014 and how directly they say it.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Trump\u2019s second term has featured a veritable assault of legally questionable actions that, at times, seem intended to challenge the courts to stop them.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            On the surface, that throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy might not seem like a bad idea. But it risks the courts as a whole coming to believe that the administration simply isn\u2019t a good-faith operator and isn\u2019t even trying be a good steward of the law.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5692\">Trump says Reflecting Pool has been drained and will be \u2018put back into service soon\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Judges seem to be getting more comfortable with reaching such conclusions.\n    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Donald Trump\u2019s ill-fated $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund suffered yet another major blow on Monday, with a federal judge delivering a brutal review of the process that led to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump\u2019s ill-fated $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund suffered yet another major blow on Monday, with a federal judge delivering a brutal review of the process that led to it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Relocation Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"headline\":\"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716\"},\"wordCount\":845,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716\",\"name\":\"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":450},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?p=5716#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Relocation Times\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/relocationtimess.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times","og_description":"President Donald Trump\u2019s ill-fated $1.8 billion \u201canti-weaponization\u201d fund suffered yet another major blow on Monday, with a federal judge delivering a brutal review of the process that led to it.","og_url":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716","og_site_name":"Relocation Times","article_published_time":"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be"},"headline":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys","datePublished":"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716"},"wordCount":845,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg","articleSection":["Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716","url":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716","name":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys - Relocation Times","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-14T09:04:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/d0fb7f63ee0abab68dcb9be97566f040.jpg","width":800,"height":450},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=5716#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Judges are getting more comfortable calling out Trump\u2019s and the DOJ\u2019s cynical ploys"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/","name":"Relocation Times","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3d25fb966f660ab012820a9e0acc09be","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/relocationtimess.com"],"url":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}