Name and Shame
If you lend your professional credibility to this exercise, you will have covered yourself in Trump stink for all eternity.
The Trump administration is waging war on the legal profession on every front.
He’s issued a raft of executive orders aim to punish private lawyers for doing their jobs. Trump has targeted big law firms for crossing him personally and politically, and he’s treated the representation of disfavored clients — be they immigrants, voting right advocates, or LGBTQ+ service members — as working against the national interest.
Inside the government, he’s fired attorneys who worked on the special counsel investigations and investigated lawyers who prosecuted January 6 defendants. He’s shredded the Justice Department’s prosecutorial independence, demanding politically-motivated prosecutions and firing attorneys who won’t betray their ethics and go along.
And so it’s incumbent upon us to name and shame the lawyers enabling this wholesale assault.
Obviously high-level Trump officials like Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris, and soon-to-be Solicitor General John Sauer will live forever in the pantheon of disgrace. And Ed Martin, the acting US Attorney for DC, will surely be remembered for his ignominious conduct.
But the legal foot soldiers who made this era of lawlessness possible should not escape infamy. The Trump administration could not wage this battle without midlevel and line attorneys willing to do the research, draft the pleadings, and sign their names. Put simply, these people had a choice. They chose to participate in these disgraceful actions, rather than resigning, as so many of their colleagues did. They should be shamed and called out, and we will attempt to update and maintain this list during this administration to make sure that they are.
Vinita Andrapalliyal is Senior Counsel and the lead line attorney on the briefs in PFLAG v. Trump, a challenge to Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for people 19 and under. The DOJ argued that discriminating against trans people is not discrimination on the basis of sex, and the government’s briefs grossly mischaracterize the science on gender affirming care.
Michelle Bennett is Assistant Director of the Federal Programs Branch. She has supervisory authority in PFLAG v. Trump, the challenge to Trump’s executive order banning gender-affirming care for people 19 and under.
Marcia Berman is the Assistant Branch Director of the Civil Division. She has line supervisory authority in AFL v. Dep’t of Labor, which seeks to protect government employees’ data from Elon Musk’s DOGE minions.
Christian Daniel is a Trial Attorney and is on the briefs in PFLAG v. Trump.
Drew Ensign is a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and lead counsel on J.G.G. v. Trump, where he defended kidnapping Venezuelan nationals and sending them to a Salvadoran gulag prison pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act. The government defied Chief Judge James Boasberg’s direct order to “turn those planes around.” Ensign argued that the court’s order did not count until it was memorialized in a writing and that court had no jurisdiction after the planes left US airspace.
In an effort to hide its non-compliance, the government filed a Notice Invoking State Secrets Privilege, signed by Ensign, in which it refused to answer further questions about the removal of the suspected gang members without due process.
Ensign also has supervisory authority in US v. Illinois, the administration’s challenge to Illinois’s sanctuary jurisdiction laws. Courts have consistently upheld such laws under the Tenth Amendment and the anti-commandeering doctrine, but Ensign argues that the statutes are invalid because they “effectively obstruct” the Trump administration’s draconian immigration policies.
August Flentje is a career DOJ official, currently serving as Acting Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division. He assisted in writing the briefs in J.G.G. v. Trump, described above under the entry for Drew Ensign and US v. Illinois, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Michael Gerardi is Senior Trial Counsel and principal author of the briefs submitted in AFL v. Dep’t of Labor, described above in more detail under the entry for Marcia Berman.
Patrick Glen is Senior Litigation Counsel, and assisted with the briefs in JGG v. Trump, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Alexander Haas is Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division. He has supervisory authority in AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State, the lawsuit challenging the shutdown of USAID. In that case, the government deliberately refused to comply with Judge Amir H. Ali’s order to resume paying contractors and grantees, later claiming that it was unable to comply in the time frame set out by the court.
Christoper Hall is a career Justice Department lawyer, currently serving as Assistant Branch Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division. He has supervisory authority in AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State, described above in more detail under the entry for Alexander K. Haas.
Eric Hamilton is a Deputy Assistant Attorney General. He is the lead supervising attorney in NTEU v. Vought, the challenge to President Trump’s efforts to shut down and eliminate the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Judge Amy Berman Jackson described the government’s conduct in this case as “so disingenuous that the Court is left with little confidence that the defense can be trusted to tell the truth about anything.”
Hamilton is also a supervising attorney in AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State and U.S. v. Illinois.
Liam Holland is a Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice and the principal author of the pleadings filed in NTEU v. Vought.
Benjamin Kurland is a Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice and one of the drafters of briefs submitted in AFL v. Dep’t of Labor.
Kirk Manhardt, the Director of the Corporate/Financial Litigation Section, has supervisory authority in Climate United Fund v. Citibank. In that suit, “greenbank” fund grantees are fighting the Environmental Protection Agency’s effort to claw back $20 billion allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act based on a deceptively edited Project Veritas video.
The DOJ failed to persuade the court that that the EPA’s terminations arose from a careful, case-by-case analysis, rather than a rightwing smear campaign.
Elisabeth Neylan is a Trial Attorney with the Federal Programs Branch. She appears on the briefs in U.S. v. Illinois, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Erez Reuveni, an Assistant Director of the Federal Programs Branch, assisted in writing the briefs in J.G.G. v. Trump and U.S. v. Illinois.
Brad P. Rosenberg is Special Counsel assigned to NTEU v. Vought, described above in more detail under the entry for Eric J. Hamilton.
Yaakov Roth is the Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and is supervisory counsel on a number of the administration’s cases, including: AFL v. Dep’t of Labor, described above in more detail under the entry for Marcia Berman; AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State, described above in more detail under the entry for Alexander K. Haas; J.G.G. v. Trump, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign; Climate United Fund v. Citibank, described above in more detail under the entry for Kirk T. Manhardt; PFLAG v. Trump, described above in more detail under the entry for Vinita B. Andrapalliyal; U.S. v. Illinois, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Marc Sacks is the Deputy Director of the Corporate/Financial Litigation Section at the Department of Justice. He is the lead line attorney on the briefs in Climate United Fund v. Citibank, described above in more detail under the entry for Kirk T. Manhardt.
Brett Shumate is the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division at the Department of Justice. He has supervisory authority in State of Washington v. Trump, the lawsuit challenging Trump's executive order purporting to undo birthright citizenship. He's also the lead attorney of record in two cases brought by the United States against states seeking to force those states to disregard their sanctuary jurisdiction laws, including U.S. v. Illinois and US v. State of New York (challenging New York's so-called "greenlight law"), and several others, including the now-dismissed lawsuit brought by former Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger challenging his illegal termination.
Jacqueline Coleman Snead is an Assistant Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division, and appears on the briefs in U.S. v. Illinois, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Indraneel Sur is the lead line attorney on the briefs and at oral argument in AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State, described above in more detail under the entry for Alexander K. Haas.
Kevin VanLandingham is an Assistant Director of the Corporate/Financial Litigation Section. He appears on the briefs in Climate United Fund v. Citibank, described above in more detail under the entry for Kirk T. Manhardt.
Brian C. Ward is an Acting Assistant Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division and assisted in writing the briefs in J.G.G. v. Trump, described above in more detail under the entry for Drew Ensign.
Lauren Wetzler is Deputy Director of the Federal Programs Branch, Civil Division. She has supervisory authority in AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition v. Dep’t of State, described above in more detail under the entry for Alexander K. Haas.
Thank you for calling out the lawyers responsible for destroying law and democracy in the US.
I'd add every lawyer affiliated with Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society.
If Paul Weiss and Skadden Arps get entered in this particular hall of shame, the people at DOJ are equally, if not more, deserving. Remember these names, folks, if any of them is bold enough to think about teaching. (And who would have thought there were so many "assistant directors"?)