{"id":145779,"date":"2026-03-11T15:54:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:54:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/11\/doj-attorney-throws-himself-under-the-bus-rather-than-dragging-down-everyone-else\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T15:54:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:54:03","slug":"doj-attorney-throws-himself-under-the-bus-rather-than-dragging-down-everyone-else","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/03\/11\/doj-attorney-throws-himself-under-the-bus-rather-than-dragging-down-everyone-else\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Attorney Throws Himself Under The Bus Rather Than Dragging Down Everyone Else"},"content":{"rendered":"

Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer recently came under fire for a series of blunders. Not only did he manage to file a response that was replete with AI-generated quotes and faulty case holdings, a judge held that he made false or misleading statements about how they got in there. The shoddy work, followed by a shoddy attempt to cover up the shoddy work, was so egregious that Renfer was taxed with explaining not only why he shouldn\u2019t be sanctioned, but why his entire office<\/em> shouldn\u2019t be held jointly responsible<\/a>. To think the psychological torment of picking your own switch ended with childhood. Rather than prepare a defense for why he and his cohort shouldn\u2019t be punished for his mistakes, Renfer opted to resign instead. Bloomberg Law<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

An assistant US attorney in North Carolina said he\u2019s resigning over AI-created fabricated quotes and erroneous citations in an AI-produced court brief.<\/p>\n

Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer said he\u2019s made \u201ca personal decision to separate from the office\u201d of the US attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina during a Tuesday afternoon show-cause hearing. Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers chastised Renfer\u2019s \u201cdisappointing\u201d conduct, including for a lack of candor in accounting for the errors when it was discovered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The most refreshing thing about all of this is Judge Numbers\u2019s candor in pointing out how dumb it was to damage your career over fast and foolhearted AI use:<\/p>\n

\n

[N]umbers said that Renfer taking \u201cshortcuts\u201d on \u201cbasic work\u201d made it \u201call the more outrageous.\u201d He added that filings by Renfer he reviewed\u2014beyond the AI brief and his explanation\u2014added \u201cgrave concerns\u201d over what was, at best, \u201csloppiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful. It\u2019s hurtful to your cause,\u201d Numbers said. He also pushed back on Renfer\u2019s characterization that his error wasn\u2019t intentional, saying, \u201cit sounds like you intentionally used AI, and intentionally filed it to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the sort of telling it like it is we need to see more of! None of this fashionable shifting blame onto machine \u201challucinations.\u201d Refner does blame some of the incentive on using AI on things that may have been a little out of his control like putting to much work on himself at one time and accidentally overwriting a previous version of the filing, but that doesn\u2019t give you license to make stuff up along the way.<\/p>\n

A few take away reminders. Using AI does not replace good lawyering. If you cite to cases, make sure they say what you say they do. And while we\u2019re here, remember to brush your damned teeth \u2014 AI can\u2019t do that for you yet either. <\/p>\n

DOJ Lawyer Quits Before Judicial Scolding for AI Brief Error (1)<\/a> [Bloomberg Law]<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post DOJ Attorney Throws Himself Under The Bus Rather Than Dragging Down Everyone Else<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(Image from Getty)\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer recently came under fire for a series of blunders. Not only did he manage to file a response that was replete with AI-generated quotes and faulty case holdings, a judge held that he made false or misleading statements about how they got in there. The shoddy work, followed by a shoddy attempt to cover up the shoddy work, was so egregious that Renfer was taxed with explaining not only why he shouldn\u2019t be sanctioned, but why his entire office<\/em> shouldn\u2019t be held jointly responsible<\/a>. To think the psychological torment of picking your own switch ended with childhood. Rather than prepare a defense for why he and his cohort shouldn\u2019t be punished for his mistakes, Renfer opted to resign instead. Bloomberg Law<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n

An assistant US attorney in North Carolina said he\u2019s resigning over AI-created fabricated quotes and erroneous citations in an AI-produced court brief.<\/p>\n

Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer said he\u2019s made \u201ca personal decision to separate from the office\u201d of the US attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina during a Tuesday afternoon show-cause hearing. Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers chastised Renfer\u2019s \u201cdisappointing\u201d conduct, including for a lack of candor in accounting for the errors when it was discovered.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The most refreshing thing about all of this is Judge Numbers\u2019s candor in pointing out how dumb it was to damage your career over fast and foolhearted AI use:<\/p>\n

\n

[N]umbers said that Renfer taking \u201cshortcuts\u201d on \u201cbasic work\u201d made it \u201call the more outrageous.\u201d He added that filings by Renfer he reviewed\u2014beyond the AI brief and his explanation\u2014added \u201cgrave concerns\u201d over what was, at best, \u201csloppiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s helpful. It\u2019s hurtful to your cause,\u201d Numbers said. He also pushed back on Renfer\u2019s characterization that his error wasn\u2019t intentional, saying, \u201cit sounds like you intentionally used AI, and intentionally filed it to the court.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the sort of telling it like it is we need to see more of! None of this fashionable shifting blame onto machine \u201challucinations.\u201d Refner does blame some of the incentive on using AI on things that may have been a little out of his control like putting to much work on himself at one time and accidentally overwriting a previous version of the filing, but that doesn\u2019t give you license to make stuff up along the way.<\/p>\n

A few take away reminders. Using AI does not replace good lawyering. If you cite to cases, make sure they say what you say they do. And while we\u2019re here, remember to brush your damned teeth \u2014 AI can\u2019t do that for you yet either. <\/p>\n

DOJ Lawyer Quits Before Judicial Scolding for AI Brief Error (1)<\/a> [Bloomberg Law]<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn\u2019t hurt either. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected] <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Assistant US attorney Rudy Renfer recently came under fire for a series of blunders. Not only did he manage to file a response that was replete with AI-generated quotes and faulty case holdings, a judge held that he made false or misleading statements about how they got in there. The shoddy work, followed by a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":145780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Chris-Williams-2025-ZWjwMk.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}