A Department of Justice lawyer was forced to eat his own words after boasting about getting New Jersey’s voter rolls then failing the next day.
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On Wednesday, a federal judge dismissed a DOJ case seeking New Jersey’s unredacted voter rolls. The decision gave the Trump DOJ its 18th straight defeat in court when it comes to its nationwide effort to grab state voter rolls.
However, Democracy Docket noted in its coverage of the decision that the DOJ’s loss was made more ironic by one of its attorneys boasting the day before that it would secure New Jersey’s voter rolls.
The boast came after a software glitch led to thousands of noncitizens being mistakenly added to the rolls. The DOJ argued that New Jersey had to hand over its voter rolls because of the error.
However, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) refused the DOJ and wrote in a post on X that “New Jersey will not provide the personal information of thousands of New Jersey residents,” along with a copy of a letter to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon saying as much.
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“The request had no legal basis,” Sherrill added. “I will always protect New Jerseyans’ personally identifiable information.”
DOJ Attorney Jesus Osete, who describes himself on his profile as Dhillon’s number two, responded to Sherrill with a post of his own.
“Challenge accepted,” Osete’s post read.
The next day, U.S. District Judge Zahid Quraishi, a Biden appointee, answered that challenge by throwing out the DOJ’s case, Democracy Docket noted.
Quraishi even noted that the software glitch had “no bearing” on whether the DOJ had a right to voter rolls.
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