'Worst judicial neck-punching ever': Legal analysts stunned by explosive Trump DOJ hearing

Legal analysts at Slate are calling a federal court hearing in New Jersey this week one of the "harshest judicial rebukes" of the Trump Justice Department yet — and say the fallout goes beyond embarrassment.

Writing for Slate's Amicus podcast, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern broke down Friday an "explosive" transcript obtained by The New York Times in which U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi "laid bare the disturbing incompetence and contempt currently plaguing the entire agency."

Stern argued that DOJ's leadership chaos handed a man convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material a lighter sentence than he deserved. Prosecutors rushed his plea deal through before investigators finished searching his devices — and before discovering the full extent of the illegal images he possessed.

The chaos traced to Trump appointing personal lawyer Alina Habba as interim U.S. attorney. After courts removed her, Pam Bondi installed three DOJ lawyers to collectively run the office, which Quraishi called a "triumvirate," a separate judge has already ruled unconstitutional.

At the hearing, Quraishi ejected a senior prosecutor who ignored his direct order to stay silent, then told the remaining lawyer: "I don't believe you."

Stern noted Quraishi is a Bronze Star recipient, former ICE attorney and former New Jersey federal prosecutor, not a
"flaming liberal."

"This is not a guy who lightly reams out federal prosecutors," he said. "But I think he’s profoundly disturbed that the Trump administration would dig in and maintain this unconstitutional leadership structure at the U.S. Attorney’s Office rather than just appoint a qualified U.S. attorney. He’s disgusted that his own former office cannot be trusted to tell the truth in court. And he’s worried that the everyday work of this office is being harmed by the endless drama over who’s leading it."

"Generations of Assistant U.S. Attorneys had built the goodwill of [your] office for your generation to destroy it within a year. … That is what has happened to the credibility of your office," Quraishi told prosecutors.

The scathing criticism floored Lithwick.

"This was the worst judicial neck-punching I think I’ve ever seen," she quipped.