Justice Department Calls to Drop Ballroom Suit After Gala Attack

[LetMyPeopleVote]

40. MaddowBlog-Trump's Justice Department joins ballroom lobbying campaign in an unusual way

It’s really not the DOJ’s job to tell private litigants “enough is enough” because the president doesn’t want to be inconvenienced by the legal process.

Link to tweet

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-justice-department-joins-ballroom-lobbying-campaign

But as part of his campaign, Trump specifically condemned the ongoing lawsuit challenging the legality of his construction project, writing online, “The ridiculous Ballroom lawsuit, brought by a woman walking her dog, who has absolutely No Standing to bring such a suit, must be dropped, immediately. Nothing should be allowed to interfere with … its construction.”

Trump’s Justice Department evidently noticed. From the MS NOW report:

The Justice Department demanded the National Trust for Historic Preservation drop its lawsuit against the construction of the ballroom.

‘When the White House ballroom is complete, President Trump and his successors will no longer need to venture beyond the safety of the White House perimeter to attend large gatherings at the Washington Hilton ballroom,’ [the DOJ] asserted in a letter Sunday.

In the same one-page letter, Brett Shumate, the DOJ Civil Division’s assistant attorney general, added, “Put simply, your lawsuit puts the lives of the President, his family, and his staff at grave risk. … Enough is enough.”

He demanded the National Trust for Historic Preservation “voluntarily dismiss this frivolous lawsuit today in light of last night’s assassination attempt on President Trump. If your client does not dismiss the lawsuit by 9:00 AM on Monday, the government will move to dissolve the injunction and dismiss the case in light of last night’s extraordinary events.”....

We didn’t necessarily need fresh evidence of Main Justice acting like an extension of the Oval Office and the president’s wishes, but Shumate and Blanche offered up a new example on Sunday anyway.