DHS withheld murder warrant — then lied that judge knowingly freed suspect: expert
The Trump administration withheld information from a Biden judge and let a lie spread that she knowingly freed a murder suspect, according to a legal expert.
Harry Litman, former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, called out the Department of Homeland Security in a piece on Thursday. DHS, the parent agency of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, posted a press release headlined, "Activist Biden judge releases violent criminal illegal alien wanted for murder."
DHS was complaining about the case of an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who was detained by ICE and prosecuted by the Department of Justice. The DHS press release named the judge, Melissa DuBose, and accused her of "trying to thwart President Trump's mandate from the American people to remove criminal illegal aliens."
"There was one problem," Litman wrote. "The judge had no idea about the murder case. That's because the DOJ lawyer had failed to include that detail in arguing against release. And that in turn was because Immigration and Customs Enforcement had instructed the lawyer to withhold it."
Litman sympathized with "the untenable position of DOJ attorneys pressed into service to represent ICE," he wrote. "It is hard enough to work as a DOJ lawyer under the new regime, which has shredded the principles of federal prosecution and replaced them with an all-encompassing command to serve at Donald Trump's quixotic pleasure."
Still, he called for DHS to remove "the dishonest, incendiary press release," which is still up, he noted.