Judge not impressed with DOJ lawyers

Washington Post:
‘You don’t add a bit of value, do you?’: Texas judge berates government lawyers

A tongue lashing in a Houston courthouse has the Justice Department in high dudgeon.

...
The case that caused the judicial kerfuffle involves Omar Faraj Saeed al-Hardan, 24, a Palestinian born in Iraq, who was charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State.

The prosecution got off to a bad start almost immediately. At a detention hearing last month, a Department of Homeland Security agent testified that Hardan had wanted to blow up a pair of Houston malls.

Prosecutors subsequently had to correct that testimony and the FBI later issued an embarrassing news release saying that although Hardan had discussed future targets, “there was never any active or planned plot targeting a specific location in Houston or elsewhere.”

The detention hearing also didn’t pass without Hughes counting what he considered 11 nonessential government employees in his courtroom,according to an account of the proceeding.
...
There is more.

The whole story is worth a read.  You do have to wonder how it took so many lawyers to screw up a case.

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