Trump DOJ admonished over 'belt and suspenders' excuse for hiding evidence

A federal magistrate judge tore into the Trump administration for mismanaging the discovery process in their criminal case against former CNN reporter Don Lemon and the protesters at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The protest erupted over the fact that a pastor working for the church had ties to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a period of mass deportations that included a bloody federal takeover of neighboring Minneapolis. Trump's Justice Department filed charges against them for disrupting a church service, using a federal statute, the FACE Act, normally used against disruptive abortion clinic protesters, and included Lemon in the charges, although he insists he was just there as a reporter to document the event.

On Thursday, however, U.S. Magistrate Judge Douglas Micko scorched how federal prosecutors have handled the discovery phase of the case, saying that because they improperly deleted the names of witnesses and law enforcement from the information, they have missed the deadline to turn over all information to the defense.

"The Court respectfully ... disagrees with the government that the [Crime Victims' Rights Act] empowers it to unilaterally and heavily redact its discovery in the manner that has apparently occurred, when there is a Protective Order in place that already provides confidentiality protection," wrote Micko.

In a footnote, Micko added, "the Court invited counsel for the government to provide a citation to any case adopting what it referred to as its 'belt and suspenders' approach, given the absence of any such citation in its written submission. It provided none."

All of this comes as legal experts have said the Lemon charges are defective in a number of other ways, including violating the First Amendment and potentially even violating the Commerce Clause.