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Roughly 50 federal immigration judges have now been dismissed, despite the Biden-era backlog of more than three million cases clogging the system. President Donald Trump, now back in the White House, is making good on his promise to restore law and order, not just at the border but in the courtrooms too, El Pais reported.

As expected, the judges who obstructed deportations and granted privileges to illegal immigrants are protesting. No longer constrained by the dignity of their former positions, many are now going public with claims that their terminations were unfair, retaliatory, or even discriminatory.

Jennifer Peyton, an Obama-era appointee who’s been on the bench since 2016, says she was on vacation with her family when the email arrived. No disciplinary record. Glowing reviews. And yet, out she went. She is blaming everything from conservative watchdogs to the tour she gave to Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin. Durbin, who chairs the same Judiciary Committee that has consistently attempted to obstruct Trump, referred to her removal as an “abuse of power.” But from the outside, it looks like the opposite: the swamp draining, one bureaucrat at a time.

The immigration judges’ union, not exactly a bastion of Trump support, says about 50 judges have been let go and another 50 transferred or nudged into retirement. Its president, Matt Biggs, claims the rest feel “threatened.” That’s what happens when a bloated bureaucracy used to zero consequences finally faces a reckoning.

Carla Espinoza, a short-term judge in Chicago, claims her contract wasn’t renewed because of her gender and her Hispanic last name. However, the case she is primarily referencing? She released a Mexican national falsely accused of threatening the President, a man Homeland Security had flagged. Espinoza dismissed the case, calling it “fair.” Now she’s upset she lost her job.

In reality, these dismissals may be less about race or gender and more about decisions that directly contradicted the Trump administration’s immigration agenda. Does a judge who assists in removing someone Homeland Security deems as a threat suddenly appear taken aback by their dismissal? That’s not discrimination. That’s called consequences.

Erez Reuveni, a former DOJ lawyer who once defended Trump’s immigration policies, now says he was fired after refusing to label a deported Salvadoran a terrorist — even though, by his own admission, the case had been mishandled. He’s turned whistleblower, claiming DOJ leaders are fast-tracking deportations and overriding judges. But what he calls “manipulation,” millions of Americans would call long-overdue efficiency.

Reuveni claims senior officials are bypassing judges to get deportation flights moving. One of those officials, Emil Bove, was just confirmed to a federal appeals court by a Trump-aligned Senate. The same Democrats who spent years weaponizing the courts are now panicking because they’re losing control of them.

These firings, transfers, and confirmations are not chaos. They’re cleaning up. Trump didn’t just promise to secure the border. He promised to end the catch-and-release, rubber-stamp culture infecting the immigration system. That starts with holding judges accountable who have put their politics ahead of the law.

Some of these judges want to rally public sympathy, casting themselves as victims of a political purge. But the truth is, they’ve operated for too long without oversight. President Trump is restoring integrity to a system that has been abused for decades, and the ones making noise now are the same people who never imagined they’d be held responsible.

“One voice can be ignored. But a chorus… that can no longer be silenced,” Reuveni said

He’s right — except this time, the chorus isn’t from fired judges. It’s from the American people demanding a system that works. And finally, thanks to President Trump, they’re getting it.

The Senate GOP altered its regulations last month to let the majority of executive branch nominees to be approved collectively rather than individually, which led to the confirmations. Cabinet secretaries and judicial nominees are exempt from the change.

Since the rule change went into force, this move marks the biggest block of confirmations. Former Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker, who will represent the Bahamas, and former White House Presidential Personnel Office director Sergio Gor, who will represent India, were among those authorized.

Following months of Democratic resistance that had delayed the confirmation process to a standstill, Republicans invoked the so-called “nuclear option”—a party-line rules change—to expedite it.

For a brief period, some Republicans thought about permitting President Trump to nominate people during break, which would allow him to fill positions while the Senate was not in session. But in the end, GOP leaders turned down that notion, claiming it might backfire when their party is next in the minority.

As his administration continues to fill important positions throughout the federal government amid persistent partisan impasse, the mass confirmation represents a significant success for Trump.

Senate Republicans considered amending the chamber’s confirmation procedure in September because they were dealing with a backlog of judicial nominations brought on by minority Democrats’ stalling tactics.

Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has come under fire from President Donald Trump for upholding the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, which gave home-state senators a chance to comment on nominees and, if the slips were removed, virtually prevented their confirmation.

To expedite confirmations, GOP members debated a number of suggestions prior to a meeting on Wednesday. The top choice, according to The Hill, was similar to a Democratic proposal that was put forth two years prior and would have allowed for a single vote on up to ten nominations. Other suggestions included eliminating the need for procedural votes, drastically cutting down on debate time, and making certain nominations nondebatable.

Republicans could have taken action without Democratic support because rule changes only needed a simple majority. However, such a move—referred to as a “nuclear option”—would have shown how politicized the conflict is. According to the article, a GOP working group was assigned to figure out the specifics.

The group’s chairman, Alabama GOP Sen. Katie Britt, stated, “Everyone had been talking through various options.” “One of the things that that process did was empower the committee process.”

Britt stated that she had been working with Democrats to create a rule modification that would be appropriate. The group spent a portion of the August break figuring out how to proceed with the remaining nominees.

As Senate Democrats continued to impede the confirmation process, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) declared early last month that he would keep the chamber in session for a weekend in order to advance some of Trump’s outstanding nominations ahead of the planned summer recesses.

On the 4th, the Senate was supposed to start its customary August recess, but Democrats’ demands for roll call votes on even the most routine candidates cast doubt on that plan.

According to Just The News, Trump warned that his nominees shouldn’t be “forced to wait” any longer and pushed senators to postpone their break.

One of the more well-known candidates on the calendar, Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s choice to be the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., was confirmed by the Senate. Among the more than 150 awaiting confirmations was the former Fox News anchor, judge, and prosecutor from New York.

Negotiations to forward a larger slate of nominations broke down just hours before the Senate left town, and Pirro was approved.

Only seven of Trump’s selections were confirmed by lawmakers before they left for the rest of August.

After negotiations between Senate Republicans, the White House, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer broke down, a compromise that would have permitted hundreds more nominations fell down.

The Republican-led Senate voted 52-46 along party lines to make Joshua Dunlap, a conservative lawyer from Maine who often worked on conservative legal cases, a life-tenured judge on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
That court was the only one of the 13 appeals courts without any active judges appointed by Republican presidents. That has helped make district courts in New England a popular place for Democratic state attorneys general and advocacy groups to file cases against Trump’s agenda.

In his first term, Trump didn’t name any judges to the 1st Circuit. At the start of his second term, he almost lost the chance to choose one when his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, put forth a nomination to fill a seat that U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta had held.

But Biden couldn’t get Julia Lipez confirmed as his candidate before he departed office. Kayatta, who Democratic President Barack Obama appointed, formally became a senior in October 2024, just days before the presidential election that delivered Trump back to the White House.

In July, Trump chose Dunlap, a partner at the legal firm Pierce Atwood, to fill the open position. He said that if the Senate confirmed him, he would “fearlessly defend our Constitution.”

Dunlap got his bachelor’s degree from Pensacola Christian College and then went to Notre Dame Law School, where he graduated in 2008. During law school, he worked as an intern with what is now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal rights nonprofit.

As a lawyer, he has worked on cases that have challenged Maine’s paid family and medical leave program, the state’s campaign finance rules, and the use of ranked-choice voting to run the state’s elections.

This is the second judge approved this week.

The U.S. Senate also confirmed a former clerk for conservative Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and the late Antonin Scalia to be a judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Republican-controlled Senate voted 52 to 45 in favor of Eric Tung, a partner at Jones Day. This made him the first judge President Donald Trump selected for the San Francisco-based appeals court during his second administration.

His confirmation brings the total number of judges Trump appointed to the 9th Circuit from 2017 to 2020 during his first term to 10. This weakens the power of Democratic appointees, who have long held sway on a court that was previously thought to be the most liberal of all the federal appellate courts.

There are currently 16 Democratic appointees and 13 Republican appointees on the 9th Circuit, including Tung. In July, Trump nominated Tung to fill the seat that U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Segal Ikuta had held. She stated in March that she would step down when a successor was named.

When Trump announced Tung’s nomination, he called him a “Tough Patriot” on social media and said he would preserve the Rule of Law in the “most RADICAL, Leftist States” like California, Oregon, and Washington. These are three of the nine states that the 9th Circuit has jurisdiction over.

Tung is a partner at the law firm Jones Day in Los Angeles. Before that, he was a federal prosecutor and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice.

Tung worked as a clerk for Gorsuch twice: once when he was on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and again after Trump confirmed him to the Supreme Court in 2017. He had also worked for Scalia, who passed away in 2016.

On “The Ingraham Angle,” which airs on Fox News, Laura Ingraham, the anchor, broke the news on Tuesday night. She stated that the source confirmed that the United States Attorney’s Office in Maryland is conducting the investigation, which may result in charges linked to mortgage fraud.

Fox News reported that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) had submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, accusing Schiff of falsifying bank documents and property records on multiple occasions in order to secure more favorable loan terms. This new development follows reports that were presented a month earlier.
In an affidavit that he submitted in 2011, Adam Schiff, who was serving as a member of Congress at the time, established that a property situated in Montgomery County, Maryland, was his principal residence.

Additionally, Schiff is the owner of a condominium in Burbank, California, which he mentioned as his primary address as recently as 2023, when he was running for the Senate of the United States of America.

According to Fox News Digital, his office did not immediately react to a request for comment that was made by the site.

During the month of May, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) wrote a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in which she detailed the allegations of misbehavior that Schiff had committed.

Additionally, it was alleged by Fox News that Pulte later obtained a memo from the financial crimes investigations branch of Fannie Mae, which asserted that Senator Adam Schiff had engaged in “a sustained pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation” in relation to five Fannie Mae-backed loans.

A home in Potomac, Maryland, was purchased by Schiff and his wife in 2003 for the price of $870,000, as stated in the letter written by Schiff. With the assertion that the property would serve as both their primary and major residence, they were able to obtain a mortgage that was backed by Fannie Mae for the amount of $610,000, with a duration of thirty years and an interest rate of 5.625%.

The letter notes that Schiff and his wife regularly identified the Maryland property as their principal residence in mortgage refinancing forms submitted in 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2013. This was done even while Schiff was sitting as a United notes Representative for the state of California.

Fox News was able to acquire a copy of the affidavit that Schiff completed in 2011 for the purpose of verifying that the Maryland home is his primary residence.

According to Pulte, the pair did not identify the property in Maryland as a secondary house until the year 2020, as Fox pointed out further.

According to Pulte, who cited various accounts from the media, Schiff claimed a homeowner’s tax exemption on a condominium that he owns in Burbank, California, during the same time period. He asserted that the condominium was his primary residence, which resulted in a decrease of $7,000 on the 1-percent property tax.

According to the letter, a spokeswoman for the congressman who was serving at the time stated in 2023 that “Adam’s primary residence is Burbank, California, and will remain so when he wins the Senate seat.”

The federal housing official added that he is of the opinion that Schiff’s claimed conduct may represent violations of federal criminal statutes. These offenses include those that prohibit wire fraud, mail fraud, bank fraud, and making false statements to financial institutions.

Schiff “appears to have falsified records in order to receive favorable loan terms, and also appears to have been aware of the financial benefits of a primary residence mortgage when compared to a secondary residence mortgage,” Pulte wrote.

The ruling from Talwani, an Obama appointee, issued late Tuesday, temporarily halts implementation of the measure, which lawmakers said was intended to prevent taxpayer money from indirectly supporting abortion providers. In her decision, Talwani wrote that Congress may have exceeded its constitutional authority in the way the provision was crafted and applied.

The ruling immediately drew strong criticism from several Republican lawmakers, who argued that the judiciary had overstepped its role and interfered in an area they said falls squarely within the legislative branch’s authority, Newsmax reported.

Lee, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Salt Lake City with experience arguing cases before the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, took to X to criticize Talwani’s ruling and propose a possible congressional solution.

“It would take an act of Congress to defund Planned Parenthood,” the senator wrote Tuesday night. “So Congress did precisely that. To suggest Congress somehow lacks the authority to do that is insane — and potentially impeachable.”

Legal scholars note that while impeachment of a federal judge is uncommon, Congress does have the power to remove judges for misconduct or abuse of office. The bar for doing so is high, however, and any effort would depend heavily on political support.

Backers of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act say the legislation was intentionally structured to prevent what they describe as “bureaucratic gamesmanship” that has helped Planned Parenthood avoid funding restrictions imposed by conservative lawmakers.

Republican sponsors said bundling multiple appropriations instructions into a single, wide-ranging measure was meant to strengthen the law’s durability and help it withstand judicial scrutiny. Planned Parenthood praised the judge’s decision, saying in a statement obtained by Politico that the “district court again recognized the ‘defund’ law for what it is: unconstitutional and dangerous.”

Meanwhile, the head of a legal watchdog organization who clerked for one of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court appointments has accused Chief Justice John Roberts of malfeasance in allowing lower courts to commit “judicial sabotage” against Trump’s second-term agenda.

In an interview with actor and comedian Joe Piscopo for the latter’s podcast, Mike Davis, founder of the Article III Project, referenced a recently filed lawsuit against Roberts targeting him in his role as head of the U.S. Judicial Conference, as well as Robert J. Conrad, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The complaint alleges that both the Judicial Conference and the Administrative Office have engaged in regulatory actions that exceed their constitutional mandate, arguing such actions fall outside the judiciary’s core responsibilities of adjudicating cases and providing administrative support.

The lawsuit also contends that records maintained by the U.S. Judicial Conference, under Roberts’ leadership, should be subject to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests as a consequence of the alleged regulatory actions.

In his interview with Piscopo, Davis accused Roberts of refusing to do more to rein in lower federal courts that have imposed a record number of nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration despite several instances where he said the president’s Article II authorities were being trampled.

“I actually like the Chief Justice. I clerked for Justice [Neil] Gorsuch, and I like him personally, John Roberts, but I would say this to the Chief Justice: you have failed to do your job as the Chief Justice of the United States when you have allowed these radical activist judges to sabotage the president’s Article II powers,” Davis said.

“This is an assault on American voters. This is a repudiation of American voters by lifetime appointment, paycheck-protected federal judges who have no—who have no reason to be in this political lane. This is not judicial review. This is judicial sabotage,” he added.

According to a reliable DOJ insider, federal law enforcement agencies are currently coordinating with the U.S. Secret Service to work out the logistics of this unprecedented arrest. These aren’t just rumors from the fringes — this intel comes from inside sources with knowledge of high-level briefings.

If convicted, Obama could face life imprisonment in a federal penitentiary. This would mark the first treason conviction of an American figure of this stature since World War II.

So far, there’s no official public statement from the DOJ or Obama’s legal team. However, sources suggest the timeline for indictment could unfold within days, not weeks.

The allegations reportedly revolve around sensitive intelligence leaks, foreign collaborations during and after his presidency, and internal memos allegedly linked to covert anti-Trump operations.

This story is developing fast. If even part of it is true, we are about to witness one of the most dramatic legal and political moments in American history.

“You have been Minnesota’s Governor since 2019,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon wrote to Walz in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. “During that time, your careless lack of oversight and abuse of the welfare system has attracted fraudsters from around the world, especially from Somalia, to establish a beachhead of criminality in our country. As President Trump put it, you have turned Minnesota into a ‘fraudulent hub of money laundering activity.’”

McMahon ended her letter by imploring Walz to step down.

“Given your dereliction of the office entrusted to you by Minnesotans, I implore you to resign and make way for more capable leadership,” she wrote.

The letter focuses on Minnesota’s large-scale fraud scandal, which has drawn national scrutiny following allegations that nonprofits, including Feeding Our Future, misappropriated at least $1 billion in taxpayer funds during Walz’s tenure as governor. The education secretary also cited what the department described as widespread fraud within Minnesota’s higher education system.

Separately, the Department of Education announced last week that it had prevented more than $1 billion in fraudulent student aid during President Trump’s first year back in office, citing increased enforcement against suspected automated applications and so-called “ghost students” seeking federal loans.

One of the alleged schemes disproportionately affected Minnesota. According to Fox News Digital, Riverland Community College averaged more than 100 potentially fraudulent student aid applications per year.

McMahon said her department identified nearly 2,000 so-called “ghost students” linked to colleges and universities in Minnesota.

“We call these fraudsters ‘ghost students’ because they were not ID-verified and often did not live in the United States, or they simply did not exist,” McMahon wrote. “In Minnesota, 1,834 ghost students were found to have received $12.5 million in taxpayer-funded grants and loans. They collected checks from the federal government, shared a small portion of the money with the college, and pocketed the rest without attending the college at all.”

She said the department has since implemented stricter nationwide safeguards, including mandatory identity verification for certain first-time applicants, before turning her attention to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

McMahon wrote that Omar borrowed “tens of thousands” in student loans and “now does not think she should have to repay, despite her generous, taxpayer-funded salary.”

A conservative watchdog group last month called on House Speaker Mike Johnson to pursue garnishment of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s congressional wages over her student loan debt, citing her $174,000 annual salary, Alpha News reported. In her letter, McMahon accused Omar of having “taken advantage” of federal taxpayers.

The letter also criticized Gov. Walz beyond education policy, alleging that his administration oversaw what federal officials described as widespread welfare fraud affecting multiple assistance programs, including housing aid, food assistance, small-business relief, and services for seniors and children with autism.

According to the letter, the fraud allowed perpetrators to enrich themselves while the governor “did absolutely nothing” to prevent it.

“Shame on you, Governor Walz, for allowing this to happen and for benefiting from it,” McMahon wrote. “Stop defrauding American taxpayers. No politician is above the law, and my department, alongside every other agency under the leadership of President Trump, will continue to ensure that you will not be able to dodge accountability for your actions.”

Last week, Walz announced the launch of a new statewide fraud prevention program and the hiring of a private forensic auditing firm.

“I take full responsibility for it,” Walz said. “I think, and I will acknowledge certainly to Minnesotans and to the press here, I don’t think we’ve done a good enough job of communicating the hard work that’s being done.”

Holder said this while talking to Ben Meiselas, who co-founded MeidasTouch, which posted the footage last month.
In the Monday Truth Social post, Trump referred to Holder, who served under Democratic President Barack Obama, as an “Obama sycophant” and said that “Eric Holder (known as ‘FAST AND FURIOUS’) just gave a Speech where he emphatically stated, above all else, that Democrats will PACK the Supreme Court of the United States if they get the chance. The word is, he wants 21 Radical Left Activist Judges, not being satisfied with the heretofore 15 that they were seeking.”

Trump said that getting rid of the filibuster will help Republicans win the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

“It will be 21, they will destroy our Constitution, and there’s not a thing that the Republicans can do about it unless we TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, which will lead to an easy WIN of the Midterms, and an even easier WIN in the Presidential Election of 2028,” he asserted.

“Why would the Republicans even think about giving them this opportunity? The American People don’t want gridlock, they want their Leaders to GET THINGS DONE — TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, AND HAVE THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FOUR YEARS IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY, BY FAR, WITH NOT EVEN THE HINT OF A SHUTDOWN OF OUR GREAT NATION ON JANUARY 30TH!” Trump declared in the post.

This is the second time in recent weeks that Trump has gone after former President Barack Obama.

The new interim U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York, appointed to the post by Trump, once called out Joe Biden and Obama as well as twice-failed presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

John A. Sarcone III, a lawyer in private practice in Westchester County, accused Biden of being a “traitor” and committing “treason” in a 2022 social media post.

After Biden tweeted on New Year’s Eve that year he was “ready to get things done,” Sarcone responded, “Traitor should be tried for treason. Worst person to occupy the White House.”

Sarcone once tweeted that Obama should be “the first illegal alien deported” while calling for Clinton to be jailed for treason.

Sarcone was allowed to be placed in his interim position without needing Senate confirmation. And while he does not have any prosecutorial experience, he has a lengthy track record as an attorney who has also worked for Trump’s campaigns.

When Sarcone was sworn in on Monday in Albany, he defended his limited prosecutorial experience by asserting in his speech that what truly defines a good prosecutor is “judgment.”

“I believe the prosecutorial power, and discretion,” he said, “is best entrusted to those with the full breadth of professional and life experiences, from which common sense, wisdom, and informed judgment emerge.” Sarcone said his priorities will include securing the border with Canada; ending “lawlessness and willful disregard” for federal laws; and fighting against public corruption, scams and consumer fraud.

In addition, the interim U.S. attorney suggested he could target Upstate colleges and universities, saying federal prosecutors will support students’ rights “to be free from harassment or threats because of their religious beliefs.”

“Our reach will not stop at prosecuting those who choose to violate our laws, but also those who knowingly support any violations in any way, shape or form,” he said, as noted by the media outlet in its report.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who sits on the D.C. District Court, issued the surprise order on December 13, directing the FBI to permanently delete all data seized from Columbia Law Professor Daniel Richman—Comey’s longtime friend and former government contractor—by 4 p.m. Monday.

The emails include key exchanges between Richman and Comey that prosecutors allege show Comey authorized leaks and false testimony about his role in Operation Crossfire Hurricane.

The ruling follows the September indictment of Comey on two counts—making false statements to Congress and obstruction of a congressional proceeding—related to his 2020 testimony about the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation. Prosecutors allege Comey falsely denied using intermediaries to leak classified material to the press, and that he used Richman as an outside conduit for anti-Trump leaks while Richman held a government contract.

Six years ago, Judge James Boasberg—himself an Obama appointee—signed the warrant that allowed the FBI to seize Richman’s devices. But Kollar-Kotelly’s order, issued from a separate court and in a separate district, now directs the destruction of that same evidence.

“This ruling threatens the separation of powers essential to the Republic, and either the D.C. Circuit or Supreme Court must intervene immediately,” said Mike Davis, president of the Article III Project and a former Senate Judiciary Committee counsel.

Richman, who is not charged in the case, petitioned for the return of his emails under Rule 41(g) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, arguing that the government violated his Fourth Amendment rights by seizing and reviewing his communications. Rule 41(g) typically allows a defendant to recover property obtained in an unlawful search—but in this case, Richman is a third party, not a defendant, and the communications in question include evidence against a sitting defendant, James Comey.

Despite this, Judge Kollar-Kotelly granted Richman’s motion and ordered that a single copy of the emails be provided to Judge Michael Nachmanoff, who is presiding over the Comey case in Virginia, but barred prosecutors from reviewing or relying on the material in any future filings.

“The FBI and the prosecution will be unable to review them in their efforts to seek a new indictment if [Judge Cameron] Currie’s dismissal ruling survives on appeal,” Davis said. “Even if a higher court reverses Currie, the government’s inability to review the emails to use as evidence and prepare for trial would massively hamper its case.”

Judge Currie, another Clinton appointee in South Carolina, dismissed the Comey indictment last month, ruling that the appointment of interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan—who led the prosecution—was unconstitutional. The Justice Department has appealed Currie’s ruling to the Fourth Circuit.

Davis called the ruling “unprecedented judicial sabotage,” arguing that “Richman has run to a partisan Democrat judge not even involved in the criminal case — and not even in the same district — to procure the destruction of crucial evidence in that case in an obvious effort to assist his friend Comey.”

In a separate op-ed published by Fox News, Davis warned that the decision fits a larger pattern of “leftist judicial interference” aimed at shielding political allies while undermining accountability for the Trump-era lawfare architects.

“Now, a Clinton-appointed judge in the District of Columbia, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, has interfered even more egregiously with the government’s case,” Davis wrote. “Courts do not order the FBI to destroy evidence in pending investigations — except when the evidence is harmful to a lawfare perpetrator like Comey.”

The Justice Department is expected to seek an emergency stay from the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court before Monday’s deadline.

If the order stands, prosecutors may lose access to one of the few remaining troves of direct evidence linking Comey to alleged leaks and obstruction. And if higher courts fail to intervene, it could mark the first time in recent memory that a federal judge outside a criminal case has ordered the destruction of key evidence against a former FBI director.